The look on her face was almost worth all the torment she put him through, but almost wasn't good enough. She tried to say something but our mother cut her off. She rushed up to Eliot and embraced him in a large hug, everyone was surprised because Vivian was not an emotional person and Eliot couldn't remember the last time she gave him a hug.

“I'm glad you're alright, you made it back and with your eyesight no less” Vivian whispered into his ear squeezing him tighter before letting go and looking him in the eyes.

“Yeah, why wouldn't I make it back, and why don't you sound surprised that I can see?” Eliot asked confused at the sudden change in his mother.

“You're not the only one who's been cured of a ‘disability’.” Eliot hated when she said the word it always made him feel less of a person. It wasn't the word but the way she said it.

“There's been dozens of confirmed reports of people around the world suddenly getting their vision back or being cured of cancer and all sorts of ailments. All when these satellite things appeared, but not everyone made it, apparently whatever method used to cure you could have also killed you; there's been dozens of cured people but there's at least over one hundred confirmed dead. So again i'm glad you're safe”

Eliot couldn't believe what he was hearing, he could have died, just like that. In some dusty art room with his only companion being a dog, never having a friend or a girlfriend for that matter. Damn if that doesn't make you feel like shit what does.

“So what now?” Eliot asked after a long period silence, everyone looked liked they wanted to give him another hug, so he went to go sit down on the couch before they could. He looked over to his sister and noticed the venom in her eyes dyed down a bit but didn't disappear, he made a mental note ‘make sure never to be alone with crazy sister’.

“Now we figure out what exactly we can get from these satellites and how we can better protect ourselves.” Vivian said eyeing the whole room.

“Protect ourselves from what, Exactly? How do we even know this thing works?” Katherine asked

“Oh trust me it works, if you watch the teli, reports of people using abilities is all over it. Now can someone tell me what we will be protecting ourselves from?” Here it comes the teacher version of our mother, she's been a teacher at the Uni for last ten years now; teaching students the wonders of botany and how fun plants can be if you get to know their  genetic structure.

It got annoying fast, but no one would dare say anything to her about that. Our father may be big and strong but he most definitely does not wear the pants in this relationship.

“Most likely other people abusing there powers, and from what little I saw in the cluster market, there's going to be some crazy shit happening soon.” Eliot quickly responded knowing his mother has zero patience.

Vivian squinted her eyes at the curse word, but like her husband she knew saying something will change nothing. She could only sigh and ignore it.

“Exactly, you give someone a gun and all of a sudden they feel invincible, like they could do anything. Now imagine everyone has a gun, they'll all feel like kings and queens of their own little worlds. And I'm glad you brought up the cluster market because I came to the same conclusion as you, there were things in there that seemed vague but if you look closely, you can tell humans are the least of our concern. So what I want you all to do is go through the list of abilities and check out the cluster market and come up with something that's plausible for you to get and work with, also pack up your bags; we're going to the summer house until this blows over, if it blows over.”

Only his mother could make something as cool and totally world changing feel like homework. As he was making his way to his room he heard his sister creeping up on him; how he knew it was her, was because she was the only person who knew which floor boards not to step on to make any noises. He knew his sister already won before she pounced, he could only curse his luck.

“Fuck”

Then he was in a headlock and she was breathing on his face. “You thought I forgot about that shit you pulled huh little brother?” She said as she tightened her arms around his neck.

“Go fuck yourself Kat, you deserved it and you know it. So get off of me you goddamn neanderthal.” Eliot tried to sound like it wasn't affecting him but that's hard to do when you can barely breath.

“Oh, someone got new eyes and feel like they're top dog now huh. I’ll let you go for now, but know my revenge is coming El and you won't see it coming.” She then pushed him into the wall and stormed away.

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“...I love you too sis.” He said rubbing his throat, he couldn't get mad at her shenanigans anymore, because even though it annoyed the living shit out of him; he was thankful for it. She made him feel normal, she never gave him any sympathy for being blind and she always just treated him like a little brother, in her own fucked up way.

Finally in his room, he threw himself down on top of his bed, Anubis jumped up and joined him, resting his head on top of his chest. He grabbed the satellite and said activate.

Satellite

-Cluster Market           -Abilities

-Contacts                       -Forum

-Status

   points-7,409

He clicked his status option and watched the particles rearrange themselves into another screen.

Name: Eliot Blakesley

Abilities: N/A

Bloodline: Human

Equipment: N/A

Pantheon: N/A

Pet: Anubis (Siberian husky/Wolf)

Now there's more questions then answers, at least he knew that Anubis actually did have wolf in him, that's good to know. He clicked out and went to his contacts, but he didn't have any so he clicked out and went to the forum option. Here he found hundreds of threads being created from all over the world.

Everyone who had a satellite was able to write out and share their experiences and knowledge gained from the system. He even saw a couple former blind people who were writing all this gushy stuff about being able to see again. He could relate but he wasn't about to write about it. After a while of reading pointless threads he got down to business; what ability was he going to buy.

Apparently it wasn't that simple and it wasn't cheap. First off there was a compatibility issue with most abilities; he technically can buy any ability he wants if he has the points but that doesn't mean he can use it off rip. Only certain bloodlines can use certain abilities or you have to have mana or a type of energy inside you to activate the ability; the list goes on.

After going through the entire list, he noticed that only one ability was different from the others, this one had a small ‘recommended’ next to it. It was called Method Of Loci, it was an ability that needed high mental fortitude and the existing mind palace technique to utilize. It basically allowed you to send your mind/spirit into your mind palace where time is three times slower.

‘That seems pretty useless compared to some the other stuff in the list, and its five thousand points, seems pretty steep for something I can’t use to defend myself.’ But out of the thousands of abilities this is the only one that was recommended, and if he was honest with himself the only one he can really afford. ‘How do you get points anyway? Whatever, I don't have to buy it now i'll check out the cluster market and see what I could get there’

Cluster Market

-Arms/Armour

-Bloodlines

-Utility items

-Miscellaneous

After going through the entire market the conclusion he came to was, bloodlines are OP as fuck but also crazy expensive. In utilities you can buy stuff to protect yourself or your house like charms or huge kinetic shields and that's just naming a few. You can get pretty much anything in miscellaneous like food, water, gold, diamonds, platinum, even books all for the low low price of points. This is sure to fuck up the real world economy. In arms and armour you would guess that that would be self explanatory, well you guessed wrong.

There's all sorts of sci fi, alien, futuristic, magical, downright implausible things in here, that you can buy with points; but similar to the abilities it takes certain types of energy to use most of these weapons. After about an hour of going back and forth into all the abilities and the cluster market, and doing a lot of mental math, he finally decided what he's going to buy.

Method Of Loci 5000, Darksteel dagger 200, Necklace of shielding tier 1 1000, Book of Tut and its uses in shaping the universe vol 1 500, and a plasma pistol 400.

His thought process when acquiring these items was that, the books are ways to obtain skills through study and tedious repetition but they were cheap, and with his method of Loci ability he can have the advantage of extra time to study said books . The necklace was a hard choice to make because it would only last so long before it breaks, but it could save his life in the immediate future.

The plasma pistol and the dagger where for his protection; hopefully he wouldn't have to use them. There were even some stuff he could have gotten for Anubis, but they were way above his pay grade. After all that, it left him with a small fortune of three hundred points.

After buying them, the small glowing particles that made up the screen rearranged themselves into the items he selected, slowing gaining a more defined look before clattering to the ground. The dagger came with a sheath that he could tie to his lower back, it was made out of some dark leather; the plasma gun also came with a leather holster that he tied to his leg. The book was huge, and also made of leather with an iron spine, with a handprint on its front with the number one in its palm. The Necklace had a small crystal tied to it that slightly glowed blue.

He waited to see how he would get the ability, but when it came it didn't look as cool as the particles, it didn't look like anything at all actually. There was only a mind numbing cold going through his brain like the worst possible brain freeze imaginable.