Anyway, here is Step Four - "So now just keep growing the story. Take several hours and expand each sentence of your summary paragraph into a full paragraph. All but the last paragraph should end in a disaster. The final paragraph should tell how the book ends."
I don't know if I added a sentence or he subtracted one (looking back, he subtracted one) - That really should read that all but the first and last paragraphs should end in a disaster. It's five paragraphs long, not four. Just for the record!
Anyway, this was mostly written on the bus. I love the bus system, seriously. So good for writing - except that I'm having trouble reading my own handwriting. *sighs*
Here's the one-page summary, which most accurately (so far) lays out the story.
Gary Gray was a fairly normal first-year music major, at least as far as "normal" ever applies to a creative-arts major. He really only had one exceptional quirk; electronics had always acted strangely around him - everything from an iPod to a streetlight might turn off when he drew near. But when a transformer exploded as he walked underneath it, his powers seemed to grow - instead of accidentally turning off electronics when he walked too close to them, he could actually physically see the electricity in his grasp; it was the control that he couldn't seem to manage.
This fact makes itself all too clear when Gary, who had until this point mostly been trying to ignore his abilities, tries to be a "superhero" and save the terrified occupants of a city bus, trapped by a gunman yelling at a baby to shut up. Gary gets up and knocks the gunman's arm downwards, then - praying that, for once, his powers will work the way he wants them to - attempts to "taze" him; instead, he manages to shoot himself in the foot, and the pain causes him to unleash his power full-force and uncontrolled, igniting the gas tank at the back of the bus, killing about a dozen terrified people. He begins "training" in earnest with his adoring little brother Jesse, who eventually realizes what happened on the bus, and is torn about how to feel.
Jesse decides that the only way for Gary to properly see his improvement is to tape him demonstrating; when he later accidentally uploads it to YouTube, it goes viral; this video, combined with a third-hand account of Jesse's testimony about the bus incident is more than enough to interest the government; Gen Jared Reeves and Mjr Gen James Anderson are sent to the Gray residence to attempt to recruit Gary as a governmental assassin; unfortunately, Gary's anger and fear get the better of him, and he kills Mjr Gen Anderson.
When Gen Reeves reports this to his superiors, he is handed an ultimatum to pass on to Gary: someone of his power is 'one of us, or one of them' - Gary Gray must either join them, or be eliminated or contained, as the case may be. Gary is given a week - under as heavy governmental scrutiny as is possible for someone who can disable electronic devices with merely a thought; for the week, Gary continues to train with Jesse, only revealing the ultimatum - and his plan - as the time expires.
Gary tells Jesse that he has decided on an 'Option Three' - a government so willing to covertly execute one of its citizens due to his morality is clearly corrupt and evil, and since he'd always said that he would 'go out with a bang', he has decided to make his way to the Capitol and detonate himself, cutting the head off of the government, so to speak. Jesse relates this to Gen Reeves when he is approached the next day, and Gen Reeves decides that Jesse is the only person who Gary would be likely to trust enough to get close enough to kill him, and so he recruits Jesse, who is very willingly convinced that his brother has 'gone off the deep end'. The day of Gary's "demonstration", Jesse tags along for "added security" - and, before Gary is able to do any harm, Jesse plants a knife in his back, killing him due to a combination of rerouting the electricity and blood loss, and effectively 'containing the threat'.
I'm also thinking of calling this either Morally Gray or Shades of Gray. Thoughts?
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