Chapter 85

Eyeing the Bowl

I instantly recognized it, the giant eyeball from the window in my mom's room—but it wasn't nearly as enormous this time. But it was there, right up against my helmet, staring at me. I was the fish in the fishbowl and it was the human owner, watching me.

As disturbing as that was... this time it didn't seem as sinister. More like... curious. I reached out to touch it and it blinked and was gone. I looked all around for it, knowing even in the ocean there shouldn't be that many places for a giant eye to hide but it'd completely vanished.

I honestly had completely forgotten about that eye from within that memory. How could I have forgotten something so massive and weird? Yet, as I swam back up to the surface, even in the midst of wondering that, the eye's existence had already begun to fade again.

My head cleared the water and I naturally took in a breath of air, as if the helmet didn't provide me with all the air I needed. The sea was still calm. I looked around until I caught sight of land, none of my friends visible, but I started toward it.

Anxious to use my powers with what I'd just learned. I hoped it would be enough.

#

The swim back was a lot faster than the swim out. The waves carried me back. I used a little of my energy to catch the biggest one I saw and ride it the rest of the way. When I emerged, only Kenzo was there to greet me. As far as I could tell he was in the exact same spot he'd been in when I left.

"Where is everyone?" I asked, the beach was empty, the net and ball abandoned.

He smiled. "You found something out there, didn't you?"

The eye long forgotten, I still nodded. "I think? My inner power is...more watery."

"Interesting way to describe it. Would you like to put it to the test?"

"Yeah, I'm—"

The ground beneath my feet exploded, ice arching up and around me. I tried to dive through the open sides of it but even more rushed up until I was completely encased in ice up to my chest.

Before I could even fully register that new development, two mounds of sand farther away rumbled. I expected more ice to explode and impale me to death but instead, Stephen and Dowser popped out on either side, covered in sand but weapons drawn, coming straight for me.

And then, finally, I was able to react. My mind rushed, the watery flame burning and sending the bubbles out of my brain. I recalled the original idea of how to shoot a long range attack: limit the gathering point, then force it out. All the bubbles rushed to my fingertips, meeting at a point. At the last second I twisted my wrists, fast, and let the energy out.

The inner bubbles became a wave of energy as they left my fingertips. The wave was pink but it still moved like a real wave, twisting around, becoming two jet beams blasting from both of my hands.

Stephen and Dowser's eyes went wide as they were submerged in pink and washed away. Luckily for Stephen, Dowser landed first, saving him from ending up head first in the sand again. He bounced up off Dowser's belly and then crashed down onto his face instead.

Someone tapped me on my shoulder and I aimed my glowing hands toward the attacker—but it was just Netta, smiling.

"You did it, Darce!" She tapped the ice and it melted off of me in seconds. I could move again.

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"I... I guess I did." I stared at my hands, still glowing pink, the energy moving around in endless waves. "What does this mean?" I looked to Kenzo for an answer.

"It means that you have unlocked your next step in controlling your powers. Your energy flows like water, not the flames that you were picturing."

"How could that have happened?" I asked. It made me feel small and dumb. Like I had missed something obvious. That I'd been going down a path that was much harder than it needed to be.

"It's an anomaly," he said with a wink.

Yes, that was it. Another way my stupid existence made things much harder for myself. Kenzo caught onto my thoughts.

"This kind of thing comes from a truer place than the Interverse's systems. I assure you, it's normal to struggle. There is no one who has their abilities laid out before them on a silver platter. Everyone struggles with this—the natural state of being for humans is to struggle. Despite what the age we're living in says."

Stephen slid off of Dowser and butted into the conversation. "I've heard that speech a thousand times," he said but not in a negative way, he had a big smile.

"It remains the truth," Kenzo said. "The artificial destinies of the Interverse are nothing more than a show. What I've taught you both is something real. And I'm so proud of how far you've both come."

He was positively beaming, the biggest smile I'd seen on him yet. His joy was infectious and I actually thought I had the beginnings of a real true sense of accomplishment. I'd gotten a taste of it by winning against the Eldritch Horror. But almost immediately after that Stephen abandoned me and I lost Sam, which all kind of killed any confidence boost I could have gotten from that victory. But now, looking at the past few months as a whole... I was fucking killing it. Won a battle royale, bagged two ghosts, and now I'd learned a new and better way of using my powers.

The only blemish: Sam. But I could correct that. That's what this all was for. I would bring him home, I didn't care how many User Killers I had to beat up to do it.

"You two have to be confused about all our mumbo jumbo," Kenzo said.

Dowser and Netta stood a ways off, just watching.

"I think I get the gist," Netta said. "And I definitely want to be more involved."

Dowser nodded like an excitable puppy. His eyes positively glowing. I could almost see the images of himself running around using Jedi powers.

"Your own lessons will come soon enough, I promise," Kenzo said, bemused at another of Dowser's cheers. "For now... how about we give Darcy another test?"

I perked my head up. "Huh?"

He clapped his hands again, his absolute signature move at this point, and the volleyball equipment slipped into the sand and then exploded right in front of us.

"You know, we could have just walked," I said.

"Where's the fun in that?" Kenzo moved his head and the ball flew into his hand. "Netta and Dowser, if you would please take up position on the left side of the net. Darcy and Stephen; the right."

Dowser dug his hands into the sand and catapulted himself into position, the excited puppy returning. Netta laughed to herself and followed him, much slower and calmer.

Stephen nudged me as he walked by. "Guess we're on a team this time."

"Great, maybe I can win this one then," I said and followed after him.

"Hey, you're the queen of last minute plans. That ice trick was my first one."

I considered that. "You're right. And it wasn't even in a real combat situation. I guess I'm still the best. Right, Teach?"

I looked back to where he'd been standing on the beach but he was about ten feet in the air instead, his body poised to serve the ball. Which he did, like an athlete on steroids and a Stat High—way too fast to catch, my only hope was to duck out of the way.

But I couldn't—my feet were rooted to the spot, held down by an invisible force. The ball arched straight for me, nothing I could do to stop it.

Well. One thing.

I re-equipped my fishbowl, really putting the new Reflex points to work. My helmet went on without a millisecond to spare. The ball collided with the fishbowl and knocked me clean off my feet. I flew into Stephen and we collapsed in a pile on the sand.

Dowser whistled. "Teach, you're one scary guy."

Stephen and I disentangled and he pushed me back to my feet. I offered him my hand. He took it but he was looking at Kenzo. "I've never seen you actually do something physical like that."

He landed back down, slowing his descent to where he barely disturbed the sand at all. He laughed. "Really? I guess I do mostly stick to mental displays."

"And the claps," I said and, weirdly, in perfect unison we all mimicked it. Even Dowser and Netta had caught onto how often he did it.

He laughed even harder. "I can't even deny it. I do that a lot."

"Everytime I see you, literally at least once," I said and Stephen nodded his agreement.

"It's just faster that way. I have aspects of my office and other worlds I visit set up to take my thoughts and manifest them. The clap sort of seals the intention."

"It can't be that much faster than using your menu," Netta said, voicing my exact thought.

He shrugged. "It also looks cooler."

We all started to laugh but his smile disappeared and he jerked his head, the ball flying up into the air. We all tensed up, preparing to get the hell out of the way. Except for the second time I found myself rooted to the spot.