บท 5: 4

One Week Later

A week after my encounter with Zatanna, I started practicing more with my powers since I got a better understanding of it.

With that understanding, I figured out how to turn the energy into lightning blots. It kinda made me feel like Emperor Palpatine from Star Wars.

*Flashback*

"Alright, since Zatanna said that Quintessence was mostly associated with lightning, maybe I could create it," I said to myself in an abandoned warehouse.

I focused on that same feeling I always feel when I draw forth my turquoise energy. That electrifying feeling was almost intoxicating, but I focused on the task at hand. I let that electrical feeling travel through my body and pictured lightning coming out of my hands.

I looked down at my hands to see a few sparks come forth before they fizzled out. I tried again and got the same results, so I practiced as much as I could until I was able to release one lightning strike.

*End Flashback*

All the practicing and the fights with criminals made me get a little more creative with my powers. I learned to make constructs with it like the lantern corps, and I have been attempting to create some kinda armor with it.

***************

"Hey, Jericho," a certain redhead greeted me as I entered the library in Gotham.

"Hey, Barbara," I said to Barbara Gordon, aka Batgirl.

We've met here a couple of times when I was trying to do research on my powers and sorta just started talking with each other whenever either one of us wasn't busy or there was barely anyone in the library.

"How have you been?" She asked.

"Same old, same old," I said.

"So, what do you need help with today?" She asked.

"Nothing, I'm just gonna browse around and see if anything catches my interest," I told her.

"Ok, well, if you need any help, I'm always here," Barbara said with a smile.

I smiled at her and walked over to the shelves of books. As I was walking past some books in the fantasy section, a book fell down in front of me.

'What's this?,' I thought to myself.

I bent down and picked up the book to read its cover.

"The Legend Of The Four Dragons and the Nymph Xin Jing," I read out loud.

Why does this sound familiar to me.

I went over to an empty table, sat down, and started reading the book. As I read through the book, I knew why it sounded familiar to me. It was basically the legend of the four rivers in China that were once dragons.

As the story goes, the Red, Black, Yellow, and Pearl dragons, that represented the Great, Black, Yellow, and Pearl Rivers, wanted to save the humans from a drought, so they sought help from The Mighty Jade Emperor, who said he would consider it.

After ten days had passed and no response from the Emperor, the dragons decided to solve the problem by themselves. They gathered water from the ocean and scattered it in the sky.

This caused the people to cheer in joy, but it angered the Jade Emperor, and he locked the four dragons into four separate mountains.

Xin Jing, the nymph and the daughter of the Emperor, could not tolerate his cruelty and decided to free the dragons by giving up her nymph powers and taking in the essence of each dragon.

This transformed her into the fifth dragon and the physical manifestation of the power Quintessence, while the other dragons were the representation of the elements Water, Earth, Fire, and Air.

'So I get my powers from a dragon?' I questioned in my mind as I stopped in the middle of the story and put the book down.

"Reading something good?" Barbara asked as she took a seat beside me, which caused me to jump slightly since I didn't hear her approaching me.

"Geez!! I know this is a library and everything, but you didn't have to sneak up on me," I told her, causing her to giggle.

"So, what were you reading?" Barbara asked.

"Uh, just this fantasy book," I said about to show her the book, but it was gone.

'What the fuck!?' I thought.

"I swear there was a book here," I said as she looked at me skeptically.

"Sure, there was Jericho," she said.

"I'm not crazy, Barb," I sighed as I could only guess this was the work of magic or that being that sent me here to this world.

"I'm not saying you are. Besides, I've seen crazy and you're not it," she said, most likely thinking about the Joker or Harley Quinn.

"Well, thanks, I think. So, do you have any plans for Saturday?" I asked her.

"I'm actually meeting some friends in Metropolis, and we're going to go out," she said before thinking. "You could come if you want, I don't think Kara or Lena would mind."

"Sure," I said, a little surprised that she's also friends with Lena Luthor.

I really got to find out which Earth in the multiverse I'm on one of these days.