Chapter 60

A Therapeutic Dodge

“Darcy!” Kenzo exclaimed. “What a surprise!”

I exaggerated my laugh. “Riiight. I saw you waiting on me.”

He tutted, without missing a beat. “I’m working! This is my office, you know. Not everything revolves around you, Ms. Rae.”

“Not even your favorite student?” I held my hands up to my face and smiled cutely.

“Sadly, my favorite student is not the Sun.”

“I can shine like one! Wait one second.” I equipped my new disruptor and made the light yellow, then cranked it to full blast. “Behold!”

Kenzo exclaimed and held his hands up to block the light. “Darcy! What the hell is that!?”

I laughed maniacally a bit longer but eventually killed the light show and returned it to my inventory.

“New equipment. It’s gonna make me harder to hit!”

“How are you going to hit anyone else from the heart of that thing?” He asked, putting his hands down but still prepared to raise them again in case I brought it back out.

“I… didn’t think of that. But! I won’t ever use that high setting so it should be all good. I’d show you what I’m going for but I currently can’t do an aspect of my idea. Which is why…”

He gave me a knowing look. “So you’re not here for therapy, hm?”

I smiled as pleasantly as I could. “No?” I sighed. “I know, I need it. I’ll get it. But right now I just need–”

“Darcy. There’s always going to be a reason not to do it. You’ll always have something else you would rather focus on. Wouldn’t you rather tackle this head on?”

“No.” The word came out so fast that it felt like I hadn’t even had time to think about it, that it wasn’t really me who made that choice.

“I’m worried about you. And Stephen–”

“I don’t care what he thinks. I’m sorry for worrying you, though. I’m fine.”

“You’re fine,” he agreed, startling me. “But you’re running.” Ah, there we go. I was about to say something I would regret when he kept talking: "I'm not going to say anymore. You'll have to forgive me, it's just difficult for me to see you and Stephen how you are right now."

I didn't say something at first, but I was grateful that we weren't going to argue any further. I was angry but it was because everything he said was true. I didn't WANT to forgive Stephen, I was running. It would catch up to me eventually.

I decided to voice my promise to myself.

"I'm not going to make any more excuses. After I save Sam, I promise you, I'll fix things with Stephen."

He smiled, seeming to doubt me, but that was okay. I'd made the promise to myself AND voiced it. I'd committed to it.

"How goes the search for Sam, any leads?" He asked.

"Uhh..." I didn't think it would be a good idea to tell him about all that I'd been up to. Would just worry him. And possibly freak him out. "Yeah, sort of. I think I know where the guys who took him hang out. I'm... working with some people to stage a rescue."

Wasn't even a lie! Except I guess for the fact that my "people" were just a conspiracy theorist and his giant boot robot...

"You have people you're working with? That's great. I worried you were attempting it all yourself. That's very good, Darcy."

Why did his praise make me squirm? It was such a tiny lie. But the truth was that the lie hid the fact that I was doing some pretty dangerous stuff with very little real help. If he knew all that, there'd be no way he would approve.

So I just had to tell my little lies and get on with it. I decided to swing the conversation back to why I was here at all.

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"Sir, I need some help. I've gotten pretty far on my own, but I can't for the life of me figure out how to make a long range blast with my powers."

Kenzo scratched his chin. "Ah, you've already set your sights on that, huh? What's been your strategy for attempting it?"

I described my thought process, about focusing the power in a point and forcing it out. It seemed to please him.

"You thought of that on your own, huh? I'm impressed, that's definitely one way to go about it."

"But it isn't working," I said.

He put up a finger. "That's one way, I said. There are more, almost limitless amounts of them. All tied to everyone's each individual way your power naturally moves and manifests."

I raised an eyebrow. "What makes this ability like that? If that's true shouldn't every Skill we learn need to be different? But you gave Stephen and I identical instructions."

He smiled even bigger. "Very intuitive, Darcy! You're right. Any Skill we try and learn can work slightly differently for individual people. What I've done with you so far is teach you the basics, the usual way that people learn to access their abilities and use them. We could have gotten extremely unlucky and one or both of you would have had a completely different way of using those abilities."

I whistled. "Damn, we really did get lucky, huh?" Kenzo nodded his agreement. "But, okay, so the normal way worked for everything else but now it's not working for this. So I gotta mix it up? How?"

"When you imagine your power, what do you see?" He asked.

I thought about it for a second. "Just the flames, like everyone else."

He laughed. "What makes you think everyone's power looks like flames?"

"Cause when I use Mind Link, that's what everyone looks like. Little flames in the middle of their brains." Kenzo just kept on smiling. "Is that not right?"

He shook his head. "Everyone pictures it differently. Some have flames, some see spirals or shapes, some only see colors, where the different shades mean different things. The possibilities are endless."

Interesting. I envisioned my mental flame in my minds eye, trying to picture it any other way. Just couldn't do it. Except...

"Sir, there is something strange I've noticed about my powers."

"Oh?"

I frowned as I talked, trying to find the words to explain it properly. "It's like... it's a fire... but it's almost water like?"

Kenzo resumed his chin scratching. "Hm, like water being heated up?"

"Yes! In some scenarios my power was sort of bubbling, just like that. I assumed it had something to do with my helmet but now I'm not so sure."

"Definitely wasn't from the helmet. Your power appears to be in the flames of the beginning stage. It's possible your true form is something different, more connected to water. Do you have a connection to water in your real life?"

I equipped the fishbowl helmet and Kenzo laughed. "Besides that."

"I mean, not really. I have a goldfish, as you know. I like fish a lot, and fish bowls. But I've never really been super into swimming or going to the beach or anything."

"Hmm... it might be that you've connected so strongly to the fishbowl that your mind is willing to mold itself to fit your declaration to always wear it in combat."

I unequipped the helmet and held it in my lap. Could that be it? It made sense, my resolve to wear it and the connection I felt I had with it was strong. But enough to change my powers? Kind of crazy.

"So what do you suggest? I wasn't really after all this, all I want to do is be able to shoot a long range blast. This is going to be way complicated isn't it?" I sighed. "Why can nothing be easy?"

Kenzo waved his hands. "Wait, you're spinning out of control, it's not that serious! So, what you need to do is first become closer with your powers and try to develop what it's wanting to become. I would suggest you spend some time in water."

I wrinkled my nose. "I really don't like baths."

He laughed. "Darcy, we live in the Interverse, we have access to any number of weird and wonderful bodies of water. Find somewhere. But, to be honest, a bath wouldn't be a bad first start."

I jotted down some notes in my menu. "Okay, that part doesn't sound bad. What next? I just swim a lot?"

"Focus on the water, feel it around you, and just call upon your power. You should start to experience something different. And, finally, the only other step depends on what you learn about your power. You will need to find the right way to channel it to use it as a long range weapon."

I finished taking my notes. Not a long or complicated list, really. I guess I should be grateful for that. I brought my attention fully to Kenzo and smiled real big.

"Thanks, I really appreciate the help. I don't know if I can promise this fully but, I hope that the next time I see you it won't be for help, but with Sam in tow."

Kenzo's smile mirrored mine. "I hope that as well. And then, therapy!" He winked, making me laugh. "Go on then, kiddo. Good luck. And be careful. I hope the group you're working with knows what they're doing."

"Oh yeah, totally, they're the best of the best. They really know how to kick people where it hurts. Just finding the best place to administer the kick."

He somehow didn't find anything odd with that choice of expression but maybe it was only weird to me because I knew the double meaning: that the biggest muscle I had in my corner was a robot boot. And she would only be good for protecting her master and not me. Yeah, the more I thought of what I was doing the more I realized everyone around me would think I'd completely lost my marbles.

But I'd lost my Sam first. Maybe the marbles would come back after I saved him. Didn't have much hope of that.

I said my goodbyes to Kenzo and walked back into my apartment. I said hey to Percy, who was happy to see me, but still looking a bit anxious. I gave him some food and then plopped down on the couch.

A place with water, huh? I didn't think I could go there now, it'd been a long day and I was exhausted, but it didn't take much energy to flip through worlds so that's what I was doing when a blue light flashed onto my knee.

"The fuck?" I hesitantly reached out to touch it.

The light became familiar blue flames and inside, the mask appeared, grinning. "The time has come, fleshbag!"

The skull cackled and flew at me, flipping over at the last second and binding to my face, my world overridden with flames and pain, as the couch below me disappeared, followed by the sensation of falling.