After getting back to the house, Greg, the part of him that wasn't smoke at least, slept most of the day away, waking up as the sun began to set. He stretched, yawning as he stepped out of the portal Chris had set up semi-permanently, expanding the house so they all had a place to stay. "Have you been sleeping all day?" Andrew asked incredulously as he entered the living room.

"Yeah, I had a late night." Greg shrugged, yawning again.

"What were you doing all night?" Chris asked, frowning slightly. "You didn't visit a brothel or something, did you?"

"Ugh, I wish." Greg grumbled. There was no Tessa in this World and he was beginning to have urges. Of course, he'd probably just make himself a Tessa out of smoke, rather than resort to prostitution, but still. "No, I just figured out I could fly using my smoke and kinda got carried away with it."

"You can fly using smoke?" Chris cocked his head curiously.

"Yeah, I just need to attach it to my body. Which also lets me scan things without destroying them." Greg replied, grinning slightly.

Chris frowned. "How does that work? The flying, not the scanning. That makes sense."

"As far as I can tell, my smoke has a force component, but it can only leverage it on something it's attached to." Greg explained. "Weirdly it matches gravity, so as long as I use more smoke than my mass, I can fly."

"Huh… neat. But why?" Chris wondered.

"I don't know, why can you open portals?" Greg shrugged helplessly. "The moment we start questioning the why of all this, it sort of breaks down."

"No, no, there is a reason, we just don't know it yet." Chris shook his head. "Everything has a reason. The question is whether we can reasonably figure the reason out or not. Besides, my portals come from overlapping my world with this one. Not that complicated."

"Okay, so what could explain my smoke having force?" Greg replied, raising an eyebrow.

"I don't know." Chris shrugged. "You said it's the same as gravity, so maybe it's related to that? It's a weird coincidence if not."

"But it works against gravity. How can it be related to it?" Greg frowned.

"Well, I suppose the question is what your smoke actually is." Andrew interjected. "Like, you embody the physical side of reality, right? Which should mean that everything that isn't magic, i.e. gravity, electromagnetism, weak force, strong force, all that crap should be in your ballpark."

"Wait, aren't those my deal?" Chris commented. "That's the point of my world, I make the rules."

"Yeah, I just make the substance. I don't decide how it interacts." Greg nodded.

"Not when it's substance, but what about when it's smoke?" Andrew retorted. "I mean, your smoke clearly isn't substance, so maybe it works differently?"

"Well, my smoke is a field… I already learned that one." Greg muttered. "Maybe it can somehow interact with the gravity field to… I don't know, something." He frowned, not sure where he was going with that.

"Hm." Chris hummed thoughtfully. "Maybe your smoke can tap into the forces affecting it and redirect them?"

"How would that work?" Greg frowned.

"Well… the rules say that when this happens, this force is created and it acts on an object in this way. But your smoke isn't defined by the rules, so when a force acts on it, you get to decide how it responds?" Chris offered tentatively.

Greg blinked. "That actually kinda makes sense…"

"We can test it out if you like." Chris offered. "Head into my world, throw a few forces at you, play with the gravity, see what happens?"

"I think we just might have to." Greg nodded.

*

After a bit of experimentation, it became clear that yes, Greg's smoke was reacting to gravity, because no matter what planet Chris set him on, his smoke always perfectly counterbalanced his mass. However, they didn't get similar results with forces like electromagnetism or Chris punching him. "Maybe it's because electromagnetism affects things for certain reasons, while gravity is just a general force that acts on everything?" Andrew offered. "Like, for electromagnetism to have any effect, you'd need a charge, but your smoke isn't anything, which means no charge and no effect? And when you get hit, that force isn't acting on your smoke, it's acting on your body, so there's nothing your smoke can do about it."

"Maybe…" Greg muttered, frowning thoughtfully as he considered his smoke. Flying was great, but otherwise he couldn't figure out how to use this. The problem was that the smoke didn't actually add mass, and extra mass or smoke didn't make gravity accelerate any faster, so even if he used his smoke to shoot a metal ball at something, it would still just be a metal ball under the effect of gravity. Though if he let it fall for long enough… Plus, it was basically telekinesis as long as he could grab it with his smoke, so that was nice. It just felt like there was something more he could be doing with it.

"So, what other forces act on everything around them?" Chris cocked his head, before frowning. "None. At least, not unless you think you can do something with the strong force?"

Greg raised an eyebrow at him. "I don't think so… how would that even work?"

"No clue. Would be pretty cool if you could though… it's a pretty strong force." Chris shrugged.

"See, this is the problem with only having four foundational forces." Greg chuckled. "So few options."

"Well, besides forces, what other things can you insert your smoke into and fuck with?" Andrew wondered. "I mean, if you can attach smoke to things, then you can attach it to other processes, right?"

"What, like chemical processes?" Greg cocked his head.

Andrew shrugged. "Why not? If your smoke acts as some sort of null variable, then you could add it in and change the effect, right?"

"Except chemical reactions rely on atomic interactions, which I'm pretty sure his smoke won't add much to." Chris commented. "Unless Greg can alter the atoms, but I'm pretty sure he can just make whatever he wants out of smoke, so not much point to it."

"Wait." Greg raised his hand as Chris's comment gave him an idea. "Can I use my smoke to alter matter that isn't mine?" He focused on his hand, concentrating on it for a moment. All he needed to do was rearrange the atoms and what not, so… "Oh, that's what the strong force is useful for." He muttered as his smoke began to move the particles around, changing his hand into a metal spike and back. Turns out he could mess with the weak and strong force, it was just only useful on an atomic level. Which, you know, made sense since that was pretty much all they affected anyway.

"Can't you shapeshift already?" Andrew frowned.

"Yeah, but only as smoke." Greg shook his head. "Which was a pain, because anytime I turn to smoke, I lose all my energy. But now, I can shapeshift and still keep my cultivation! Plus, now I can probably turn Gaia into a human if I have to."

"Outstanding." Chris muttered.

"Yeah, that's cool, but I still think you should do something with chemical reactions." Andrew added.

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

"I'm telling you, I don't think there's anything there." Chris shook his head. "If his smoke doesn't respond to electromagnetism, it isn't going to respond to chemistry."

"We could at least try." Andrew pointed out.

Chris paused. "Well, fair enough." He shrugged. "Baking soda and vinegar?" He offered, making a table with the two ingredients sitting on it.

Greg snorted. "Pretty basic, but I'm game." He sent his smoke into the two substances and mixed them together, watching them begin to foam. He began to shake his head, not feeling any way to affect the interaction, before pausing as he felt a slight draw. "Huh…" He could feel the reaction happening, needing something to keep going and if he wanted, he could provide it, so he did. Immediately the reaction of the two chemicals surged, bubbling fiercely! "Whoa!"

"Did it work?" Andrew asked hopefully.

"Kinda?" Greg cocked his head, slightly confused. "It just- well, I think I fed it energy from… me, and it kinda supercharged it?"

"Interesting." Chris muttered. "Do you think you could do it in reverse? Get energy from a reaction to… I don't know, punch harder?"

"Maybe?" Greg shrugged. "Let's test."

Chris nodded, considering it for a moment before creating a small pile of wood and lighting it on fire. "Try that."

Greg raised an eyebrow at him, before shaking his head and connecting his smoke to the wood. He frowned again as he realized he could add energy to the reaction, but he couldn't take the energy that was being created. "Nothing. Well, I mean-" He sent some energy over, causing the fire to jump in intensity. "But I don't get anything out of it."

"So you can increase the intensity of reactions?" Andrew commented. "That's pretty cool."

"Though being able to draw on reactions would have been cool too." Chris added.

"Yeah." Greg nodded, before pausing. "Wait…" He made another self, infusing it with smoke. "If I can add energy to reactions…" He muttered, going to throw a punch, trying to draw energy from his other self. His other self suddenly felt a wave of exhaustion wash over him as energy drained out of him, empowering Greg as he felt his body go into overdrive! "Whoa! Now that's a rush!" Greg cackled.

"And a drain." The other Greg groaned.

"A lot to take in too." Greg continued. "I think I got more than just energy in that… I feel more focused, sharper."

"I need to sleep." The other Greg yawned.

"Or just-" Greg dismissed his other self, and suddenly everything equalized. "Ah, crap." He scowled.

"Lost it?" Andrew asked, narrowing his eyes at him. He'd actually noticed something, a flickering of Greg's aura as he did whatever he did. Auras generally increased as people got stronger, so he wasn't exactly surprised, but there was something… off about how Greg's had changed, not so much increasing but some kind of overlapping, which had gone away the moment the other Greg had. "I- I think I actually know what you're doing." Andrew muttered. "Or at least why it won't work on normal reactions. Somehow you're tapping into people's auras using your smoke and… sharing something."

"That doesn't make any sense." Chris shook his head. "That'd be something you do, not Greg…"

"Well he's doing it!" Andrew protested. "I can see it!"

"You're probably just seeing a manifestation of his ability, not what he's actually doing." Chris insisted. "Like how you can transform using your cores. That doesn't mean you can control matter, it's just an effect created by your manipulation of your cores."

Andrew hesitated. "So something he's doing is creating an aura connection?"

Chris nodded. "That's my bet. Probably something to do with his smoke being him or something. Like somehow the smoke connects them, because technically the smoke is all Greg and why can't Greg share things with himself?"

"What, like quantum entanglement or something?" Greg raised an eyebrow.

"I'm not sure about that, but… I mean, metaphysically, all your smoke is one body, right?" Chris commented.

Greg cocked his head. "Basically- actually, yeah, it really is." He frowned. "I mean, no matter how dispersed my smoke is, it's all one mind until I create a form for myself. You think when I connect my smoke to things, I'm connecting them to that… oneness?"

"I mean, it's your thing, so I can't be sure, but I wouldn't be surprised." Chris nodded.

"Interesting…" Greg nodded, before frowning. "Wait, so then why can't I draw energy from things like the fire?"

"Because you're not making them the same physically, you're making them the same spiritually!" Andrew clapped. "They need an aura for you to use or it won't work!" He paused. "Wait, hold on, you can still send energy to them…"

"Well, aura is the thing that connects everything, right?" Chris interjected. "So if you want to do anything that doesn't involve a physical connection, you need aura to make it work, like you need a wire to transfer electricity."

Andrew snapped his fingers. "That, yes."

Greg paused. "So… you think it'd work on plants?"

*

"Guys- what are you doing?" Thomas asked as he walked in on Andrew, Chris, and Greg standing around one of his house plants, which was oddly wilted, studying it intently.

"Greg killed your plant." Chris commented.

"It isn't dead!" Greg protested. "It's just dying."

"Why is Greg killing my plant?" Thomas frowned.

"It makes him stronger." Andrew replied.

"Temporarily." Chris added.

"And your plant is kinda wimpy, so it wasn't that big a boost." Greg sighed.

"So it isn't enough that you kill my plant, you gotta insult it too?" Thomas raised an eyebrow.

"Literally adding insult to injury." Andrew sighed, shaking his head.

"Well, to be fair, if it wasn't so wimpy, it wouldn't be dying." Greg chuckled.

Thomas shook his head. "So you're killing plants to get stronger now. We're just a wonderful group, aren't we?"

"Hey, all I'm killing are plants." Greg raised his hands. "That's not too evil."

"But you could do it to people, so…" Andrew raised and lowered his hands in an iffy gesture.

Greg sighed. "Yeah… maybe I should just be a villain."

"You do have the laugh already." Andrew nodded.

Thomas clapped his hands. "Okay, guys, before we get distracted… My parents want to meet you. I mean, Victoria's parents, but… you know, same thing. Tomorrow."

Chris frowned. "I thought we were done with parents."

Thomas sighed. "Well, I didn't want to get them involved, because I've already subjected them to enough weirdness, but… well, I mean, that was probably naive of me. You guys are here, they're already involved in everything with the Hidden Blades… it was kind of inevitable they'd find out about you." He shot a glare at Greg. "Though someone dropping out of the sky didn't help."

"Hey, if you don't want people dropping in, get a roof." Greg retorted.

"There are walls! A locked door! It's a private area!" Thomas countered.

"But no roof." Greg repeated with a grin.

"So we're going to meet your parents, huh?" Andrew interjected. "Do I get to be one of the weird people this time?"

"I would prefer it if you guys at least tried to be normal." Thomas sighed. "Not that I expect much, but as I said, I've already put these guys through a lot, what with the system and- it's just been a lot. If we could just not bring them into all our weirdness right off the bat, that'd be great. Chris, it'd just be best if you didn't talk."

"Got it." Chris gave him a thumbs up.

"What about me? Can I talk?" Greg asked.

"Can I stop you?" Thomas raised an eyebrow.

"No, but it'll be more fun if I know I'm annoying you in the process." Greg grinned.

Thomas rolled his eyes. "Yeah, that's what I thought. But seriously, just do mundane weird, okay? None of the avatar shit right off the bat."

"Okay, fine, but how are we going to explain our abilities then?" Greg asked.

"They don't need to know about our abilities." Thomas insisted. "As far as they're concerned, you're all just my friends, and that's all they need to know right now."

"Gotcha." Greg nodded. "So when do we bring up the fact you fucked Jade?"

"You don't." Thomas growled and Greg snickered. "No, Greg, I'm serious. You tell no one about that. If anyone needs to know, I'll tell them."

Greg rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah, I'm just kidding. Don't worry, I'll only be the non-damaging kind of asshole."

"Could you just not be an asshole?" Thomas sighed.

Greg paused. "I don't think so, no."

Thomas shook his head. "Well, at least you're honest."