Chapter 5: Chapter Five

Eli tossed and turned in his bed well into the morning. After he'd made his choices and chatted with Lana and his parents a bit more, he'd headed straight to bed. The toast had dumped him straight into slumber, but he’d woken up in a fit a few hours later. He’d been awake since, stuck staring up at the ceiling. People had broken into their home and they’d almost killed them.

But they hadn't died, instead, Lana and him had both killed someone. All he knew about them was that they were a burglar and had leveled their powers up to level six. Which meant they had practiced their powers relentlessly just so that they could rob others. He snarled at the thought, but his irritation felt hollow in the wake of what he’d done. Images and sounds echoed endlessly in his head. Forever on a loop.

He had obliterated that intruder. Jets of blood had streamed everywhere in a mist that had coated the walls and pooled down the stairs. Bone had crunched and popped in a barrage louder than a firework display. Yet he didn’t know if he regretted it or not.

They would’ve killed them, so he’d done a good thing, right? He’d protected himself and his family. But… his conversation with Lana flashed through his thoughts. Not a shred of worry or concern had shadowed a single inch of her expression. She had been excited. High on victory. Granted, she didn’t turn someone into gruel like he did.

So who was right?

The police hadn’t come, they hadn’t even answered his parents call. As far as he knew, they were still on hold. Dad hadn’t done anything and both mom and Lyra had stayed in their rooms. For fuck’s sake, Lyra had slept through the whole thing. He clenched his fists until the crescents of his nails dug into his healed, but faintly scarred palms. He nudged at each of his powers.

Space rippled along his skin more readily than it had just a couple of days ago. It felt far smoother, more natural. Like it was a part of him. He teleported in place and sat up with his knees crossed while he stared down at his blankets. Telekinesis bristled both along his skin where it butted straight against the air as well as in a knot behind his forehead. He put light pressure on it and watched as the blankets dipped in a sudden crater, the coils of his bedspring creaked along with his bedframe.

Photon Shot was next. Right when he thought about using it, he felt a sort of awareness of the low light around him. He could pull, store, and release it, but without any stored light… nothing happened. He lifted his hand up and pulled on it until his bedroom swam with shadows with only a slight area of visibility remaining due to the bead of red light that he cradled in his palm. It wasn’t warm or cold, he couldn’t even feel it besides the use of his power. He winced at the thought of firing it and burning a swath of destruction in its wake. He gently eased off his pull of the light and chuckled at the tiny low-powered beam that did nothing but glow as it trailed across the walls.

Cats would love him after this. It was incredible how much he understood it just from seeing the three perks… plus the encounter with its previous wielder. He winced at the thought and cut the power off and heaved a sigh. He was just avoiding his haunted thoughts, throwing himself into exploring his two new powers. Ignoring the weight that pressed against him every moment since he’d stared up at that man’s figure at the height of the stairs.

He could’ve tried to teleport the man away or even tried to hold back on his artillery blast of weights or even aimed to cripple. But no. Eli had aimed straight for the center of his back. At that moment, he had hoped that he would kill him. Visions of sitting at his dad’s funeral blitzed across his imagination.

No. He’d done what he’d had to and what he could have.

But did his family see it the same way? He’d made the decision to make sure that him and Lana were the only ones that had gotten hurt when he’d gone into the basement. So what if dad has a powerful ability that could’ve leveled the house and probably done far worse to the man. Eli had acted.

Eli knew with startling clarity that he would do it again. Except next time? He would do it even better. He’d have to train his powers until he could drive off any threats or put them down the moment they became unmanageable. Eli winced at the thought of facing the judgment, worry, and fear in his parents’ faces when he inevitably talked to them next. A small part of him seemed to howl at the thoughts he was having.

Of how he’d pin someone down with telekinesis, snap their arms and legs if they so much as raised a hand against any of them. How he’d teleport whatever he had to into their fragile bodies, and if they had body enhancement powers? He’d do far worse. Not to mention the laser beams that he would learn to fire with exacting aim. Char holes to the bone.

Then he flopped his head back into his pillow with a heavy sigh.

Mom and dad were ashamed, disgusted that they'd raised two killers. Would Lyra be afraid to be around him after this? If him and Lana would even be free. Maybe they’d be thrown straight into jail. If there was even a government after all of the riots stopped… if they ever did.

Dark thoughts called for some light. He focused on his Photon Shot ability as he held his finger up and pulled all of the dim light that leaked in through his window to his finger. A glowing red dot of light charged up as he contained it on the nail of his index finger. He thought about each of the perks the System had offered him. A nudge at the power that seemed dance through him like an aurora seemed to resonate in three distinct ways. He felt and watched all of those parts as they worked under the hood to achieve Photon Shot.

The Light Charge part of it was what allowed him to gather all of the light. Focus (Light) felt more like the core that linked the other two parts of it together, but it still had an integral part to play. Eli allowed it to activate and watched as the bead of light brightened to a cherry red as it condensed itself. Then Photon Burst would be the actual firing part of the power, but instead of activating it, he slowly relaxed his iron grip on the light until it vanished in a slight flash. The only light in the room was what streamed in from the window now.

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

Huh. He wondered why it leveled up so easily considering it was only the second time he'd used the power. Telekinesis didn't level up after he used it twice and neither did Teleportation. Was it because he knew about the different parts of it from the perks list?

Eli frowned as he closed his eyes while he thought about his other two powers, even though he knew deep down this was little more than a distraction from what had happened and that he was avoiding going downstairs and seeing the now tarnished way his parents looked at him. He couldn't bear to see Lyra once she realized her brother was a murderer. On top of the reason why their hallway looked like a demolition project carried out by a madman fulfilling a bloody massacre.

Okay. So Eli already figured out that first he had to decide what he was teleporting and he assumed telekinesis was the same with what he'd be moving. Then, he had to focus as his spatial field swallowed him up and transferred him to his new location. Easy.

Telekinesis... He thought as he activated the power and grimaced as his sense of touch expanded to encompass the entirety of his blankets. Eli sat up and moved his pillow with his hands and set it at the foot of his bed where he could barely feel it with the power. Eyes narrowed, he focused on telekinetically moving it towards him.

Eli paid careful, close attention as he became more and more aware as his 'telekinetic' field tightened into a cone instead of a spherical blob. He felt more detail from the blankets, but only the top of them. He tried to see if he could feel both the top and underside—

Damn. The telekinetic field snapped back into an amorphous blob and was already fading the second he stopped thinking about moving the pillow. He tried again. Soon enough, his telekinetic field touched the edge of the pillow. Eli squeezed his hand as he thought about grabbing it, and watched with tamped-down interest as his field wrapped around the pillow in a strange distorted imitation of a hand and snapped it back towards him like a whip.

Eli held his hand out to catch the pillow as it whooshed towards him, but before it reached his hand, his telekinetic field readjusted into a bubble and held it suspended in midair. He smiled as he waved his hand around then giggled as the pillow floated in time with his gestures. It bobbed as he pushed it away from him a foot, two feet, then a full yard. By then, his telekinetic field had thinned to a tether that wobbled every time he moved the pillow, but it still hovered under his own telekinetic might.

Then he sighed as he thought about how his teleportation could work off of other senses than just his sight, and how telekinesis relied on his sense of touch. Even now, he could feel the pillow and even the string-thin strip of air that was his telekinetic field anchoring him to the pillow. Eli teleported the pillow into his lap.

A loud rip tore through the room as his pillow was sheared in two as both of his powers competed with his attention. Half of the pillow appeared in his lap, while the other half dropped to the floor in a mess of foam. The sight of the status message was barely enough to make up for the destruction of his favorite pillow.

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

"Ugh, goddammit." He threw his head back in a sulk then hissed as he slammed his head into the wall where his pillow usually rested. Eli grumbled as he stared up at the ceiling and thought about how different things had been just a few days ago. Finals were just a short month away and he'd been terrified about failing his classes. Not to mention his impending birthday, college applications, and whether or not Tom’s crew would be bullying him or leaving him alone.

Now?

Now he and the rest of the world had superpowers. Two motherfucking assholes broke into their home, to either steal or hurt them, and both him and Lana had killed them.

That sure put his plans of going to NFU in New Faram for college in perspective. Hell, there might not even be colleges after this. He'd already had little idea of what he wanted to do with his life, but now that his childhood dreams of comic books and movies had come to life... he still didn't know what he wanted to do.

If he had to deal with nearly dying or having his family suffer then he couldn't be a superhero. Especially not if it happened with any sense of regularity. That had been beyond horrible. Weren't heroes supposed to not kill though? He'd already failed then. No. He had no plans or prospects just like before. Unless if he wanted to try and become one of the fastest delivery people in town.

He snorted at the thought while he turned his head so he could see next to his dresser and teleported out of bed to get dressed. Moping around wasn't doing him any good. A few moments later he sneaked out into the hallway in the low light of morning. He peeked down with a grimace at the bloody mess that was everywhere, but he couldn’t even begin to imagine cleaning all of it up.

It felt impossible. It was far too large of a task, but he felt responsible. He shook his head with a sigh before teleporting down to the foot of the stairs, then again through the living room into the kitchen. Good. It was only 9:27 AM, he could start some coffee and maybe even make breakfast for himself. Maybe for everyone else?

He thought back to his earlier thought and how he’d considered becoming a delivery person just because of his powers and how it felt like such an easy jump to a conclusion, but was ultimately unsatisfying? Maybe that was how mom felt about cooking just because of what her power was. No, he’d cook something. Maybe then he could even get to work cleaning.

Minutes passed in a blur as he teleport-hopped his way around the kitchen gathering mixing bowls and two skillets that he set on the already heated stovetop. Pretty soon he had the pancake mix and the carton of eggs set out and ready while he whisked the batter together with a wince. It was practically hard labor, how it all stuck together and refused to stir. Eli frowned down at the sludge of pale white with clumps of flour scattered throughout the whole thing.

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Then, he grinned as he reached out with telekinesis like it was an arm and willed the batter to blend at high speed. He watched with glee as the batter coiled together in a spiral like a tornado as it snaked up his telekinetic field. He condensed back down with a squeeze and nearly clapped with joy at how easy that had been.

How could he stop now?

Eli crossed his arms in a pose that he’d seen on one of those old cooking shows his parents had watched on one of their anniversaries and glared at the ingredients that dared to not be fully cooked food. He whipped his telekinesis out to free some eggs that he threw into his telekinetic grip above one skillet where he tapped it to teleport the shell into the trash.

A perfectly intact oval egg floated above the skillet where it slowly rotated in his telekinetic grasp. He brought the bottle of olive oil over to him so he could pour some into the skillet with telekinesis before dropping the egg in with a splat of sizzling oil. Pretty soon, he became a cooking machine of efficiency.

Limbs of telekinesis reached out to dole out portions of pancake batter before flattening it out into one skillet, while another dealt with the eggs. Two plates waited at the end of the counter where he soon piled up stacks of pancakes and fresh eggs. Now he had a feast ready and he didn’t even need to use a single utensil. He beamed over the best show of cooking he’d ever had before turning to the clock with a grin that slowly faded to a frown of irritation.

It was only 9:50 AM and no one else was even awake.

He stared at it all with a growing distaste as his mouth seemed to dry. Food seemed so unappetizing. Even the toast from last night looked better. He shook his head as he dumped it all into tupperware containers and packed them into the fridge.

It was time to clean instead.

Eli searched for all of the cleaning supplies, but found far more bottles and scrubbing utensils than he’d ever realized they had. Maybe he could just use his powers here too? He stretched as he straightened back up with his bucket full of soapy water as he towed it behind him with telekinesis. For a moment he just wanted to walk.

He didn’t want to have to see the mess any sooner than he had to.

Hands and fingers trembled and shook so badly that he was grateful he was able to carry the bucket with telekinesis instead. Otherwise he’d spill everything all over the place. Breath hitching, he rounded the corner towards the staircase and blinked at the sight of dad standing at the top of the stairs in his bathrobe and an orb of swirling water that streamed with bubbles. Lashes of water and wind scrubbed against the walls and the carpet before looping back around towards another orb dark with blood and grime.

“Dad?” Eli’s voice quavered and cracked far more than he liked.

“Hey, son. How are you doing?” Dad said with a forced level of calm and normalcy.

“I’m fine. I’m surprised you’re awake. I thought you and mom stayed up late?”

“We did.” He sighed. “But your mom used her powers to make us tea that’d put us to deep sleep… but I couldn’t take more than a sip. I couldn’t sleep after this. Then I felt you turn on the stove and the lights and figured it was time to be up.”

“Sorry about the mess.” Eli’s apology was a heavy, burdensome thing. Filled with far more apologies than the simple, but monstrous mess sprawled across the hall and staircase. He was sorry for waking him up when he knew his dad hardly ever slept as it was. Another apology for being a murderer. Then another for not cleaning up after himself. Finally, an apology for just… for everything.

“Don’t be. My power makes it pretty easy as long as I don’t let it form into a cloud.” He shrugged. For a second, the only sound was the bubbling of dad’s powerwashing the carpet and walls before sucking all of the water and everything else up into his other orb. “I hope you know that you didn’t do the wrong thing. I don’t like that you put yourself in danger, but… I appreciate that you didn’t leave either even though if things were much worse you should have… Anyway, the main point is that you didn’t do anything wrong.”

Eli nodded then used his telekinesis to try and help clean the mess up as well as he could. Whenever that didn’t work, he laid his hands on a filthy area and focused on teleporting out the mess. Slowly, they returned the state of the house to a more orderly state. Even if the wounds from the home invasion remained in the scars gouged through the plaster of the walls, or the scorch marks charred into the ceiling. Or the loss of Eli’s lamp. And most certainly the devastation in Lana’s room.

But in the end, they returned the state of chaos to one of order, as much as they could.

“Good job.” Dad nodded to Eli as they headed back into the kitchen to eat. Dad pulled out the platter of food Eli had made and reheated it, but Eli sat at the table with his arms crossed and his attention laser-focused on the grain of the table. Now that he’d made food and helped clean… what was he going to do? Static seemed to chatter in his ears and churn through his chest down to his stomach. Dad stiffened and came to a stop with his plate partially made, his head turned towards the door.

“What is it?” Eli asked in alarm at the thought of it being people wanting vengeance on the home invaders wrapped up in their garage.

“I’m not sure. I sense radios and cell phones…” He answered as a heavy series of knocks boomed from the front door. “Stay here.”

Eli shivered as he watched his dad make his way back towards the entryway. If they were people wanting vengeance, Eli would need to be ready to step in and prote—

A squeal screeched as Dad opened the door. Eli strained his ears to try and hear whatever was being said, but he couldn’t hear any more than the murmured voices of conversation. He started to try and throw out his senses in a partial teleport right as his phone vibrated. When he pulled it out to check on it, there wasn’t a notification or anything, but it vibrated again so he unlocked it and read the message that popped up on the notes app immediately.

THE POLICE ARE HERE. THEY’LL WANT TO TALK TO EVERYONE AND TAKE A LOOK AROUND. I’VE ALREADY SENT A FOLLOWUP EMAIL TO OUR LAWYERS, BUT THEY HAVEN’T RESPONDED. GET YOUR MOM. - DAD

Palpitations shuddered through Eli’s chest as his heartbeat hammered. Numbness frosted across his fingertips as he read through the message another time and wondered how the fuck he was supposed to get Mom. It wasn’t like he could just walk up the stairs with the police right there at the door. He climbed up to his feet as he tried to imagine teleporting into his room from memory alone, but nothing happened. No tunneling, no easing into the void.

Nothing.

He turned to glance out through the gaps in the blinds to the backyard. No one seemed to be outside, and wouldn’t the police need permission to enter their backyard? Or were they already out there? Invisible and watching?

He shook his head at the thought. Getting paralyzed about what powers people might or might not have wouldn’t get him anywhere. A teleport later had him standing outside with his bare feet on the grass before another teleport dragged him through space and through the window of the attic. A wooden beam above him shifted and cracked from his teleporting in standing, so he quickly crouched down before sneezing violently from the heavy musk of dust.

Okay. Okay. How would he get down now? He was in the attic, but he had no line of sight anywhere… Eli patted and swiped his hands everywhere he could and flinched at the grime of inch thick dust that coated every bit of box, old furniture, and floorboards. He tapped his phone screen turning his phone on and shined it around, but he couldn’t see the trap door. He was too far in the crowded back of the attic.

Maybe he could teleport somehow through touch? After all, he could teleport objects by touching them or even being near them.

Eli flexed his spatial field and felt it sink in through the floorboard and layers of insulation to the ceiling below him. Right now he crouched above the guest bedroom at the back of the house. He focused on teleporting below right on the bed and winced as bands of force seemed to clamp in pinching vises across his body until he slid out into the void and popped back into existence with his back to the ceiling.

He had a second to blink as the floor seemed to grow in size before he crashed into it. Pain swelled and seared across his chest and shoulders as he smacked through the air and smacked his head against the floor. He let out a groan of pain as he scrambled to get his bearings before rolling over and trying to get up. Thankfully there was that giant ugly rug that didn't fit anywhere else in the house to cushion his fall. But it still fucking hurt.

Aches pulsed from his forehead, to his shoulders and knees, as he limped his way over to the door and brushed his smarting hands across it to teleport on the other side. Only to frown at the departing form of his mom walking her way down the hall toward the stairs. He threw up his hands in exasperation only to wince as he jostled his hurt shoulders.

Eli didn't know which was more ironic, the fact that he had gone through all of that work to get his mom and she'd gotten up anyways, or that he'd made sure to make food for everyone so she wouldn't have to cook, only to injure himself again. Ensuring that she probably would end up making him food anyways to heal him.

Goddammit.

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