Microstory 156: Ambrose Richardson

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Ambrose Richardson was born as a meta-anomaly, capable of manipulating the abilities of others. Though his primary ability could not present itself until being around another anomaly, he found himself early on being drawn to the others, and was innately aware of his condition. The more anomalies that congregated, the stronger his attraction to their location. But Ambrose was a shy and quiet person and always kept his distance, choosing only to observe. If he advanced close enough, they would feel his presence, and grow stronger for it, but they would not understand why. He watched the early discussions of Freeman, Gus, Diane, Cosmo, Peyton, and Kiel. He saw Don and Valary introduce themselves to Hosanna. And he witnessed one of the many meetings between Denton, Dathan, and Ling. He was even one of the six members of the infamous Botanical Gardens painting, and had accidentally fueled the incident. But there was one spot he feared. He felt the strongest pull towards towards the center of Usonia in Lebanon, Kansas. He knew only one anomaly was there, but the urge to go was almost inescapable, and it was for that reason that he exerted great effort in subverting it. Then the focal point of his attraction began to move. He tried to outrun it, but was unable to. It seemed to be drawn to him just as powerfully, and eventually caught up with him. He was relieved to discover the nature of The Keystone, but still reluctant to remain near her. She explained that his ability would be important to their kind one day, but that he was smart to stay away from those he encountered. He could enhance other people’s abilities, allow anomalies to share amongst each other, and even give certain normal humans their own abilities. And this made him unavoidably dangerous. Though he was integral in the early stages of Bellevue, they made the decision to keep him secret from everyone at first. He and the Keystone didn’t want to interfere with the recruits at that level until they had all learned to control them as they were.