Jamie Brooks, a teenager who activated his X-Gene only recently

Jamie was just an average teen. He got good enough grades, didn't bother anyone and mostly stuck to himself. In a world of super powers, advanced science and magic, he was just a background character. The guy the heroes saved as broken debris was about to fall on him.

One day, while getting another annoying lecture from his mom about how he needs to take better care of his room and not let it get so messy, he just wished she would shut up. He muttered quietly to himself, "Sometimes I wish she would just freeze or something."

His mother continued droning on and on until her words began to slow slightly. Her body movements became more and more stiff. Until finally, she completely froze up just as her son had half-jokingly wished under his breath. She stood perfectly still, almost mirroring a statue.

As his mother stopped moving completely, Jamie got a confused look on his face. Thinking she had heard his snide remark, he rolled his eyes. "Ha, ha. Very funny mom. I get it, I won't disrespect you like that again."

But Jamie's mother didn't respond. She just continued standing perfectly still, keeping that same annoyed expression as when she was chewing him out.

"Mom?" Jamie stood up from his bed, cautiously approaching her. "Seriously, this isn't funny anymore. I learned my lesson, so just drop the act already." He waved his hand in front of her face, but no reaction. It was around this time when he realised that she hadn't blinked or taken a breath since she got like this.

Panic began setting in as he realised this wasn't just his mom trying to teach him a lesson about respect, something was seriously wrong with her. Jamie began pacing back and forth, a hundred and one possibilities running through his mind. A stroke? A brain hemorrhage? A heart attack? What could have caused this? Until finally, during his worried walk in place, he finally remembered his words. "Sometimes I wish she would just freeze or something." He stopped in his tracks, slowly raising his face towards his mother. Could he... could he be responsible for her current state? No, surely not. He was just an average teen, he didn't have any powers! Unless...

On the news, Jamie had heard about this group of people called mutants. They were apparently humans who had a gene in them that gave them superhuman abilities. Normally, these powers would manifest at a young age. But there have been times where they've laid dormant all the way to when, just like Jamie, the person was 18. Jamie slowly looked down at his hands. Could he be like them? Could he be... a mutant?

Shaking his head and taking a deep breath, Jamie tried to calm himself. If it was true that he was in fact a mutant with newly awakened super powers, then he shouldn't be so worried about his mother. After all, if these powers had an on switch, then there surely had to be an off switch. Right?

Jamie tried activation word after activation word. From "unfreeze" to "continue" and "restart". After a lot of trial and error, he finally uttered the magic words.

"Mom! Resume!"

As if nothing had happened, Jamie's mother began moving once again, picking of right where she had left off. "And if I don't see any changes around here soon, there's going to be grave consequences. Understand that young man?"

Jamie blinked in surprise, a bit caught off guard from finally hearing his mother's voice again. "Uhm, yeah. Totally. Reading you loud and clear, mom."

"Good. As long as we understand each other." With a final "hmph" she turned around and headed out of his room, closing the door behind her as he stood shocked by his new discovery.

Jamie fell backwards onto his bed, staring up at the ceiling. It was true. He had the ability to freeze and unfreeze people at will. He had super powers! Now the question was, how did they work?

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Over the coming months, Jamie would experiment with what these newfound powers could do. After several tests, he concluded that 1. His powers activated when he told the subject to "freeze". And to undo it, he had to say "resume". 2. When released, the affected person has no memory of what was done to them during the time they were frozen. 3. This effect could be applied to multiple people at a time. 4. The effect gets weaker the more people he uses it on at a time, and when he uses it on several people for a long time, he develops migraines. His maximum so far without **** damage has only been around 3 at one time. 5. With enough focus, he could keep someone frozen for up to 24 hours. But this was just when he focused on one person at a time. When it's several, the effect reduces to only a handful of hours. And finally, 6. He can choose to unfreeze certain body parts while leaving the rest frozen.

With a tighter grasp on his powers, Jamie felt like a kid in a candy store. With this ability, he could practically do whatever he wanted. Mom's nagging getting too annoying? Simply freeze her for a bit. Friend beating you in a game? Freeze them, absolutely decimate them, then simply blame it on lag. See a pretty girl walking down the street? One simple word and you could grab her shapely body to your heart's contents and then walk off like nothing happened. One time, he even froze the entire girls' volleyball team while they were in the locker rooms. And even though his head pounded for an entire week and he could only manage to keep so many people still for a few minutes, the photos he took were well worth it.

But having powers like his means you don't go undetected for long, no matter how careful you are. Especially in a world with villains and heroes using technology specifically made to track people like him down.