Scene 28 - December 19th

Exterior “Higgins Museum”, Afternoon

Quinn Kaufman

Reality warped and reformed around Journey, arriving with the last member of the expanded group - Referee. She slipped out of the bridal carry Journey had carried her in and blanched a little, looking up at the massive golem that Anima had turned the museum into as it gently swayed in the wind.

“Referee,” Loki said. “Can your aura reach up to the head?”

She frowned. “I... don’t think so. I’m sorry. I can only do about 50 feet at the most.”

“I bet if you could get inside that range for a moment, your maximum range would expand,” I pointed out.

“None of us can fly her up there, though,” Loki noted. “Unless one of you has powers we don’t know about,” he said to the knights - the Round Table, Acumen had called them.

Acumen waggled her hand. “Sort of. I do object manipulation - I can transmute or telekinetically control one object at a time, anything I can see. But only one, and I can’t do it to living beings, so unless she wants to get hoisted by her underwear...”

Sir Amethyst tilted his head. “I might able to help with my terrakinesis. But that’s a lot way up, too far for the telekinetic aspects of the power, and while I could build up a column underneath her, I’m not sure it would be stable at that height.”

I sighed. “Break off a platform for Referee to stand on, then have Acumen float it,” I told them.

Loki narrowed his eyes - I suspected he was uncertain about trusting the baby of our team to supervillains. Underneath the illusion, he turned his head towards me, and I felt his shoulders relax - trusting that I could catch her if she fell, I assumed. “As Newton says,” he confirmed.

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As the two of them got to work, violet mist swirling around Amethyst’s feet and Dame Acumen quietly chanting to make the platform slowly rise, Referee carefully perched atop it, I leaned in to Loki. “Why didn’t you just have me lift her?” I whispered. “Referee is well within my weight limit with the suit on, and my presence can reach that far, no trouble.”

“I’d rather have them distracted than one of us,” he murmured in response. “You’ll catch her if she falls, right?”

“I’m offended you even had to ask.”

Loki nodded, then whispered, “Newton, I... I don’t know if I can do this.”

“What - take down Anima? You’re doing great.”

“Just...” He sighed, and tilted his head until it rested against my temple. “This is kind of bumping into some of my personal issues. The overprotectiveness, the way she’s practically laying claim to us, as though we’re things for her to play with...” My friend shook his head. “This isn’t the time to get into it, I know. Don’t worry about it. Just... I might be a little fragile, when it’s all over.”

I had to take a moment to let that sink in before I responded, “Of course, Loki. Like I’ve said, I’ll be there to support you if you need me. Anything you need.”

Only a moment later, I felt a tingle run down my spine and involuntarily straightened up. Every sense I had sharpened and expanded over the full range of my presence, and that range itself had grown. My ability to handle the input grew too - the faint headache from overstimulation that I had learned to live with every time I went outside was gone, even as I realized that my presence was reaching around corners and through walls.

It was incredible. It was dizzying. It was indescribable.

All around me, everyone was having a similar awakening. Loki’s eyes widened, Sequoia grew two inches taller, Hypnos seemed fully awake for the first time. Journey shifted in place and I thought for a moment that the world around her was bending and twisting to follow - even the Round Table seemed affected, the faint colored mists that poured from their armor seeming thicker and more substantial.

“This feels...” Sequoia said, sounding awed.

“I know,” Hypnos responded, looking around like he had never truly seen until now.

High above us, I felt Referee backflip off the edge of the platform that Acumen had levitated. “No!” I shouted, reaching for her with my mind, but the force of my presence skidded off of her as though I was trying to grasp greased ice, and she continued to plummet.

She twisted in midair as she fell, and landed in a picture-perfect three-point pose, then glanced up at the rest of us with a grin, completely unharmed. “No need to worry,” she promised. “We’ve got this.”