Chapter 10: Chapter Ten

Eli sat in the basement while he watched Lana and his dad play a spirited game of ping pong. Lana was a whirlwind of motion as she darted from one edge of the table to the other. Dad had a few tiny storm clouds that he used to create a burst of air to launch it back her way every time she sent it his way. Soon enough, their volley was a screeching ping pong ball that whistled through the air. It'd surely leave a welt if it made contact.

Lana refused to talk to Eli, he didn't know how her appointment with the therapist went, but Eli felt slightly better about everything. It wasn't like he had a choice not to go and Dr. Simmons seemed as good as he could have expected. Eli also respected the man's powers and his restraint. The thought that powers were customized and maybe even optimized for everyone was also a comforting thought. Sure, he had control over how it developed, but he also had that same level of direction for his own life. Only he could control himself and all of that drivel every adult said whenever a kid or teenager showed the slightest bit of attitude.

Except for dad apparently, he just played a game with Lana to help her train his powers. Or maybe… maybe they were just having fun?

He blinked at that thought before shaking his head to himself. Dad might just be having fun, but Lana was pushing herself to get stronger. Better. He had to do the same.

Eli’s senses flow into his Spatial Control, his other two powers unequipped for the improved focus. First of all, the power really was a perfect cross between Teleportation and Telekinesis. He had the same intimate sense of feeling for everything in his range, but only for the space. Space felt like a vast ocean of small points with an omnidirectional grid of lines outlining every possible angle from point to point. Actual objects were more like silhouettes with infinite gaps between each point. That's how he saw it, but it wasn't as overwhelming as it sounded. When he shaped his spatial field, he felt those points and lines sort of like a tapestry that he could influence.

When he pushed with his field, he expanded the line between points and the space grew. When he pulled, it shrank.

That was about the point where complications started popping up. A push forward would create a tiny pull everywhere else around it like it was actually a tapestry, or even if he had a bunch of dominoes lined up and if he knocked some down, others would stand up and vice versa. It was superbly difficult to figure out how each push or pull would affect the surrounding space. He hadn't figured out how to teleport yet either or use telekinesis, even though he felt like it would be possible through workarounds.

Both of the powers combined gave him more of a control around space after all.

So he should be able to brute force his way through teleportation or find a way to move the space around something well enough to basically mimic telekinesis. If video games were any kind of guide, he really hoped he’d be able to figure out portals at some point as well as making container spaces permanently larger, but he had a long ways to go before that point. He supposed he could temporarily do it, but it was far too inconsistent and draining as it was.

"Do you want to play, Eli?" Dad asked as he exploded another miniature storm cloud to send the ball careening back to Lana.

"Elias doesn't like to have fun, dad." Lana said snidely as she whipped her graylight paddle forward to send the ball back with a crack. One of the regular paddles had already been demolished from her super strength.

“I’m sure it wasn’t that bad, Lana. Addy was right to set up those appointments for you guys. I’ve been having nightmares too. We all have. And if you don’t want to talk about any of that stuff, talk about whatever. That’s a safe place to vent about anything you want.” His words were punctuated by the turbulent puffs of air his clouds released to gust the ball across the table again and again. “It’s a good thing. And if Dr. Simmons or Dr. Alphon isn’t who you want to see, we can find someone you’re comfortable with. Otherwise, if they think you’re really fine with it they’ll either schedule you less or say you don’t need to be seen. That’s non-negotiable.”

“Fine.” Lana sighed as she twisted in a blur to snare the ball out of the air and planted it on the table. Before anyone else could say anything else she shouldered past Eli causing him to stumble.

“I don’t get it dad.” Eli sighed as he sat down on the treadmill and cast a dour glance his way. “I didn’t even do anything.”

“She’s probably lashing out because she is having issues with it too. I’ll talk to her privately later. But how about you? How are you doing with all of this?”

“I honestly don’t know.” Eli admitted. “I’m trying to not be scared, but prepared. I don’t want that to happen ever again, but I already distrusted most people with guns before and now everyone has powers? I’m not sure if that makes things better or worse. But I really do enjoy my powers! They’re really exciting and every time I improve with them or find a new use, I feel a huge sense of accomplishment and progression! I merged Teleportation with Telekinesis and got Spatial Control. I’ve barely figured out how to use it. I still have Photon Shot and it’s level seven now. But I got a new power called Recovery that’s incredible. It heals and energizes me. It’s like the best cup of coffee and medicine that works instantly.”

Dad nodded while he listened then he beamed with a wicked grin. “Want to do some tests?”

“Sure,” he shrugged. He was pretty eager to get some practice in, especially if he could figure out how to teleport again. His training speed had dropped to a snail’s pace. Photon Shot was stuck at level seven and he wasn't sure what he could do to grind out the last two levels, nor was he sure if he'd keep it in his kit or try and obtain a new power and keep it as a backup. Recovery was easy to use, but demanding to level. In order to do so, he had to push himself really hard. For the moment, it was a nice substitute for lack of sleep or a way to get some energy after a hard work out or whenever his focus lapsed. The bonus of it helping heal him was nice too, but it took a lot more uses to actually heal anything.

Until he could relearn how to teleport… he was stuck inside. No midnight practice in a field for him.

"Want to head to the park?" Dad asked while he led the way upstairs, grabbed his keys and sunglasses, and gestured for Eli to hop into the passenger seat while he unlocked it.

"I thought powers couldn't be used at the parks?" Eli asked with a frown while Dad sat down and turned on the car with a flex of his technomancy powers. He then ogled in shock as the transmission moved itself into reverse and the car backed itself up perfectly out of the driveway onto the street. Soon enough they were cruising without his Dad ever once using his hands after he put the keys in. "How the hell did you do that?"

"Technomancer evolved into Technopathy at level ten. Now I have more intuitive control of all technology both behind the scenes and a sort of telekinesis for any tools. The more complex the tool or machine, the easier it is to control. I can float around a screwdriver, but I can actually pilot the car remotely. It takes a lot out of me, but it's easier to drive than otherwise actually." Dad said effortlessly as he waved and gestured with his hands with total abandon as the car vroomed down a series of streets rapidly. "It helps that I can sense other cars and even cell phones and stuff. As long as I still watch out for people or animals, it's fine. I'm trying to convince Addy that we should buy a fully electric automatic car so I can drive it effortlessly."

"Uhhh," Eli stretched the word out at the idea of people with powers sufficiently advanced enough using their powers to do something as complicated as drive. Sure, people throwing out lightning or fire or whatever was alarming enough and he could control and bend space, but that was just physics. This had to be flouting nearly every law there was. Plus! Wasn’t Dad technically using his cellphone while driving too?

He really wanted to crack the mysteries behind Spatial Control so he could re-learn Teleportation.

"Anyways, how does the park sound? GPS says there's a power friendly park a few miles away."

"Power friendly park?" Eli raised an eyebrow at that. The general public opinion of powers was hardly ‘friendly’. It wasn’t downright hostile or anything, but people were starting to make it nearly taboo to use too publicly. Teleporting across the street without too much fanfare? Alright, fine. But carrying everything Telekinesis? Disturbance of the peace.

"Yeah, it's kind of like a dog park, but you know, for powers. I heard about it on a power leveling forum and group chat. It's pretty neat. I just sent you a link." Dad explained eagerly as Eli's phone simultaneously lit up with a notification from his Dad with an invitation to a bizarre looking app blazoned with the letters PLL. He opened it up while he idly noticed that Kady had sent him a message with a picture of her dogs. He sent a quick response before he opened it up and saw plenty of posts about different theories about power sets and evolutions.

‘Power Leveling Library: Where Knowledge is Power’ flashed across his screen before it opened up to a general forum interface. He started scrolling through the front page and clicked on a random thread of someone with an evo-0 Psychokinesis that trained over the course of the last two weeks since the System that practiced until he could lift his trailer. Apparently it had evolved to an evo-1 Macro-Psychopathy power.

As he read, he noticed plenty of users had recorded what powers they had and how they'd leveled it, what evolutions they'd been offered, as well as new powers at various points. There were even tips on how to powerlevel different kinds of powers.

"Wait, I just noticed a trend on the 'known power list'." Eli said as he scrolled through it again. "There's tons of physical powers, but none of the more outlandish ones from comic books and stuff."

"Yeah. No real fate, luck or destiny powers have been reported. Same with telepathy and stuff like that. Strictly physical. Some people can conjure constructs of their thoughts, emotions, or dreams, and because of that they can sense them, but it has almost no real detail." Dad confirmed as the car drove itself off into the winding roads leading to Evergrove Park, an offshoot of the Evergrove Lakes. "No influence or persuasion powers either, which has been a huge relief so far."

"That's good. I'm glad no one has shown up that can control other people's minds or do whatever other wacky stuff that pops up." Eli said as he found a page for teleportation. He frowned as he read it. Apparently, it was somewhat uncommon, but there were several variations of lesser versions of it. Blink, Warp, etc. But Telekinesis and elemental type powers were the most common. There were already concrete guides on how to powerlevel them or even merge them for slightly more interesting powers, but after a certain point there seemed to be a lot of randomness to it. Also, individuality. How powers were trained seemed to impact the evolution, new power list, and merge results exponentially.

No mentions of Spatial Control popped up, but there were a lot of people theorizing about what could be possible with more control of teleportation powers.

"Interesting..." Eli muttered as he re-read the listing again and noticed some stark differences between his teleportation power and other people who had it. First of all, almost no one had a spatial field. Those who mentioned something similar just got increased range or teleportation weight load. Secondly, he didn't see anything about being able to teleport something with increased force.

"What is?" Dad asked as the car pulled itself into a parking spot, switched into park, and then shut itself off. All without his dad even twitching a finger the entire time.

"My teleportation is really different from other people. I wonder if that's how I got offered telekinesis... It seems like the 'Obtain New Power' list people gets more and more personalized the more they use their powers. Maybe the way I used teleport is what led me to getting telekinesis too." Eli frowned as he thought back to how he'd teleported so much weight with a mass of force into Trenton Knight's back. Right after, he'd been offered Telekinesis.

He leveled Telekinesis primarily by using it with Teleportation and to increase his range of teleporting objects and got the ability to control space and his spatial field when he merged the two powers... Something he'd been practicing and training towards. Not only that, but after he used Telekinesis to blast himself around and hurt himself, he'd been immediately offered an ability to help him recover as well as create force constructs. Sure, he didn’t accept it, but it’d been offered.

"Dad, have you heard about what people are saying about the System giving people powers based off our best memories and worst fears?"

"Yeah, of course. I read the study quoted in the Scientific Journal. It's still pretty preliminary, but it lines up. I always loved watching storms and being inside of them. One of my favorite memories was growing up and watching them roll in with my parents. Or when I flew in a plane for the first and saw the clouds from above… or when it started thunderstorming and I decided to go for a drive and found out when I got home that I’d left in the middle of a tornado" Dad said whimsically before stepping out of the car and continuing once Eli caught up. "Next was when I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do for a career. Your mom really pushed me to go back to school. Well, I guess I should say she helped me get the courage to do it. I decided to take some computer programming classes on a whim and I'll never forget that unshakeable joy at figuring out how to make the code work. And I always loved playing games and being on the computers and all of that stuff."

"Huh..." Eli said as he processed it. He had already bought into it before when Dr. Simmons mentioned it, but now he really did. "What about mom?"

"She always loved to cook and make things from scratch. Baking, cooking, whatever it was. Meals were more than food and always have been for her. They were experiences. Wishes. Our first date was us making a three course meal of tasty abominations then watching cooking reality TV shows knowing we’d have been yelled out of the room for what we were eating.” He chuckled then added, “I'm sure that's where Cooking Enchantress came from. Plus, she grew up basically in the middle of nowhere and spent all of her childhood outside with her sister. I don't know why plants specifically, but your Aunt Belle got the power to speak to animals, so I'm sure that's the source of that for her too."

Soon enough they walked off the concrete path into the woods and on the mild grass of a vast field full of people practicing with their powers. He saw a little girl shooting streams of water at other kids from her hands as they ran around through the woods. Off to the right, were older people playing games or even mock fighting. This little patch of green was so much more inviting than the field Eli snuck off to trespass onto in the middle of the night. His heart ached at the thought of crossing county lines nearly every night to do something he could’ve shared with others. Maybe he could make new friends interested in the same thing.

Powers were more than a means to an end, to safety. He needed to remember that. He gnawed on that thought while they walked deeper into the field until they had an empty patch dozens of yards large.

"Alright!" Dad clapped his hands together with a large beaming smile on his face. "What can you do with Spatial Control?"

"Well, I can sort of fold space, I guess," Eli said as he pointed down at the grass and folded it into a ridge of compressed space that made the air ripple in a haze. He pushed his hand past the slight resistance and plucked a blade of grass free from the ground without bending over. "I can also expand it, but it's weird."

They both watched as Eli shoved his will against the fold of space. The point that bridge his finger, the ground, and the air between it and his finger. Light bent and buckled into a prismatic light show, ribbons of light trailed across the ground as the space expanded more and more. A hole slowly formed as if a pole was being driven into the point he continued to expand. Resistance butted up against his will, against his control of the fabric of space once the hole reached a depth of about six inches.

His spatial field all around him quivered from the strain. He let go.

Dirt fountained in the air the moment he released all of the pent-up force he'd used to expand the space between his hand and the ground. Dad jumped as dirt splattered all around them to reveal a small divot about eight inches deep.

 

<Congratulations, Elias Newton! You have leveled up the following power: Spatial Control Lv. 0 -> Spatial Control Lv. 1>

 

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"Nice. I just leveled it up."

"That was definitely more than teleportation," Dad squinted as he studied the clods of dirt that covered the ground and their clothes. "It seems pretty dangerous though."

"Before I could teleport all of that dirt out of the ground. It's just different. Different method, similar result." He shrugged. Hopefully, he'd be able to do that again. It would really suck if he'd fully lost both his teleportation and telekinesis from that merge. "But now I can't teleport at all!"

"Are you sure?" Dad raised an eyebrow at him then turned to point back to a few paces away from the car where they’d parked. "Try to fold space as far as you can over there."

Eli turned to the billowing oak that he'd pointed at and studied the field of spatial points that dotted the way between him and the tree. He plucked at the line that connected him to the relay of points on the way to the tree and gritted his teeth at the massive weight. It resisted and yearned to spring free like a spring that he had to coil by hand. It fought against him at every step. Every twisting fold caused it to shift and shudder. Light shone as it twisted itself into a braid of cracks of compressed space along the path between him and the tree.

Every bone in Eli's body felt leaden from how tight he braced himself from the effort of keeping the bunched up space from surging free. Heat bloomed across his skin before pain blossomed behind each eye; bright light seemed to burst through his skull making everything spin. The pressure built inside his head until tears streamed down his cheeks. But still he held firm. If dirt exploded from his little trick earlier, who knew what would happen if he let go now?

He took a step forward and had to fight against a rising tide of nausea that used to plague him before he’d adapted. Now it was back hungry for its toll. Another step had him wince at the clamping pressure that bit at his skin. Static crackled in his ears. One more step, and he stumbled as he fell right in front of the tree.

Vibrations twanged up and down the path of compressed space he'd stepped through but before it could blast free, he crushed it still with every fiber of his being. Space shuddered as every small folded point in space snapped free.

A few moments—or lifetimes—later everything was back to the way it was.

"Eli! Are you okay?" Dad shouted over the echoing thunder of his ringing ears as he sprinted over to him. He hissed in pain as his arm flopped limply as he tried to force himself to climb to his feet. A glance down showed that hair-thin slashes covered his now tattered clothes. Blood dripped from his nose until he hurriedly slotted Recovery into his Equipped Power list and sighed at the relief that staunched the aches throughout his body. By the time Dad reached him, he was already swaying on his feet. Another activation helped stabilize him and restore his ringing ears to something closer to normalcy.

 

<Congratulations, Elias Newton! You have leveled up the following power: Recovery Lv. 2 -> Recovery Lv. 3>

 

"Yeah, I'm fine. I got a level in recovery." He wiped his bloody nose off the back of his hand as he turned to Dad with a grin. He continued to spam his power abandon as he stretched out as much as he could. Gashes knitted themselves closed into ugly puckered scabs, his blazing headache soothed. Best of all? His limp broken arm slowly righted itself as the bones and tendons healed themselves back in place. It was still most definitely injured, but at least it didn’t hurt as much.

"That power seems really dangerous..." Dad trailed off once he noticed the tattered holes across all of Eli's clothes. "Eli, what the fuck. I'm not sure you should mess with that power much anymore..."

"It's fine. I think I'm figuring it out. Watch." Eli tuned him out as he tuned out his flimsy mortal senses and watched the world through his spatial field. Lines were nothing more than the distance between points, with each little line representing another possible path. But when he had his original teleportation power, his power had forced him into a tunnel vision and blipped him out into a void.

He was just folding space together and walking through it with a prayer that it won't explode. That wasn't the right way at all. Eli focused on a point right at the edge where things became blurry next to the silhouette of connected points that was their car. Darkness blurred its way across all of the other points surrounding him in his spatial field until only two remained.

Himself and his target.

He tried giving the line between points a tug, but nothing changed except for a slight decrease in distance. Same with a gentle nudge. A chill numbness licked across his flesh leaving goosebumps in its wake.

Eli opened his eyes and nearly panicked at the absolute nothingness that surrounded him. Only a single point of light shone across the ink black void. The spot right next to the car he'd aimed to teleport at. He tried to take a step to the right and winced as he rebounded off of something invisible and utterly inflexible. A step closer to the light was fine, but then he couldn't move backwards.

Eli checked with his spatial field and felt the way it arched out from him to create the tunnel that surrounded him and guided him to his target. A flex of his will elongated it slightly until he could step back where he was. He felt the curved walls, the sloped ceiling, and the perfectly flat floor as if they were an extension of himself. With a thought, he imagined the tunnel closing behind him as it flung him out of the void.

Concrete grated against his hands and knees as he shot out of the teleportation in a roll. He stumbled past the grass in front of the car and found himself lying right next to the car in the parking lot instead. Pebbles and dirt stuck to his bleeding hands and knees. Another tug on Recovery helped scab his wounds, but it quickly ran dry. Eli frowned as he prodded at the power while he ignored his dad calling out to him.

Fuck, his broken arm howled at his repeated mistreatment of it.

He felt that Recovery was like… it was sort of well that he drew upon. Instead of water, it was full of rejuvenating power that sought nothing else but his absolute recovery. But how could a power that could help him recover run out? That didn’t make sense at all. Pain lanced deep into his bones and blazed across his veins as he yanked at the power and forced it to flow through him anyways. Emptiness flowed through him as deep and hungry as the void he’d just stepped through. Absence of Recovery wrapped around his body, mind, and soul like a tightening fist. Heat flickered across his skin as Recovery's recovery strained against him and his commands. It wanted to recover on its own, but he refused to allow it to slip anywhere but where he wanted it to. It would recover, so it could help him recover. Telekinesis never ran out. Neither did Teleportation. Why would this?

Aches. Pain. Agony.

Relief.

Throb. Pain. Suffering.

Relief.

Sting. Pain. Hurt.

Relief.

Eli leaned over to rest his healed palms against the shredded denim over his knees as he tried to catch his heaving breaths as his powers settled. Exhaustion was a sullen leaden weight that dragged at his every muscle, tissue and organ in his body. But he felt strong.

Full of life and power.

 

<Congratulations, Elias Newton! You have leveled up the following power: Spatial Control Lv. 1 -> Spatial Control Lv. 2>

<Congratulations, Elias Newton! You have leveled up the following power: Spatial Control Lv. 2 -> Spatial Control Lv. 3>

<Congratulations, Elias Newton! You have leveled up the following power: Spatial Control Lv. 3 -> Spatial Control Lv. 4>

<Congratulations, Elias Newton! You have leveled up the following power: Recovery Lv. 3 -> Recovery Lv. 4>

 

"Elias Newton! Where the hell did you go?" Dad shouted as he finally reached Eli and squeezed him into an embrace. "You were gone for so long. It was horrible. I thought you'd teleported farther away than normal, but then you didn't come back."

"What?" Eli asked, then winced at the icy discomfort of his tongue.

"You disappeared for about fifteen minutes." Dad held him back and frowned as he glanced at the state of him. "And you come back with your clothes absolutely destroyed then disappear again. What happened?"

Eli winced as he led his dad into the car and started to explain what he’d discovered about how his old teleportation connected to his new Spatial Control. It took almost an hour before he managed to placate his father enough to convince him that everything was fine and that he hadn’t actually been hurt at all.

 

That entire time was the most uncomfortable drive of his life as he tried to convince his dad to not take him to a hospital.

 

It was nearly impossible considering the destruction of his shirt wherever he’d touched the wall of his teleportation tunnel. Or the dried crusted blood that stuck to the back of his hand and his nose. He didn’t explain his struggle with Recovery or how he’d forced it back on itself to make it recover, so it could aid him in recovering himself.

 

Right when Dad said they were going home he passed the fuck out so thoroughly he might as well have been a light switch flicked off.

 

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