Chatter echoed up and down the devastated street. Rubble spilled from block to block in a haphazard mess even after an hour of walking, fighting, and talking. Lots of constant talking. Eli found himself half-listening while he tried to fix his overextended Space power aspects.
“—type of power? I love them all really, if I am being honest. Worst would have to be basic enhancements. Everyone acts like they’re the hottest shit ever because they are a bit faster, stronger, or can heal. Really annoys me how much people still over-hype them a year after we were graced with powers, you know?”
“Do they really? I’m pretty sure you can turn any power into an enhancement one, though?” Eli asked once a long enough pause opened in Daisy’s tirade. Thorns of irritation jabbed at him. How long had it been since he had to walk this long? Or be stuck without being able to teleport away.
“Oh my god, yes, that is exactly it! They do not understand that every. Single. Power. Can become an enhancement! Losers acting all tough. Not much better than the Controllers. Basically, elemental telekinesis and blasters.”
“What’s wrong with that?”
“Right. I forgot that most of the powers cluttering your unequipped list are elemental based.” Daisy rolled her eyes at him with a sneer. “Where is the whimsy? The excitement!”
“So, what, you prefer Dream powers? You like having fuckers see your aura, thoughts, and emotions?”
“Dream powers cannot read minds.” Daisy aimed her hand at him and teleported a wall of air to thunderclap him back. Lightning flashed in an aegis around him, blue and golden, heavy with sorrow and euphoric enough to harmlessly part the blast of wind.
“Oh, really, then what do you call what the government did with that mandatory threat assessment bullshit?” Eli grimaced at her, or tried. Despite himself, a hint of a smile tugged at the corners of his lips. Sorrow was everywhere except for the faint bubble of joy originating from both of them.
“You really count being forced into a simulation, illusion, or whatever the fuck happened to you as ‘reading your mind’? What kind of plebeian take is that? I bet you ripped the Dream powers you have off of aboms or a trade because you do not understand them enough to make anything that high quality.”
“Fine, maybe I did get them off of spawn.” Eli tried to push her with one of his powers. Colors flickered in a mirage around him except for red. None of them did more than make his eyes hurt.
“Are you trying to push me? Really? After I kept you company, saved your life, and been such a good conversation partner?”
“You basically took me hostage and have killed sixteen people and twenty-five spawn since we met…” Eli said, paused while Profound Erudition counted, “an hour and a half ago.”
“Your point being? I know you had to have killed to get as many powers as you do, and to be as strong as you are. So, obviously, you’re too reliant on space powers. What would you have done with your current set? Zap them? Splash them with whatever colors you have at hand? Or did you want to waste the other random powers you have on them? Honestly, you should give those powers to me since you seem to only use your good ones.”
“What, no, never!” Eli skipped away from her grasping hand.
“Wait, that was weird. Why didn’t a trade offer go off?” Daisy’s good humor plummeted to a sharp, inquisitive frown.
“Doesn’t matter, I’m not trading it with you, anyway. So there!” Eli walked faster. Essence churned inside of him with the uptick of panic and certainty that she would somehow figure out he no longer had a system. Profound Erudition practically guaranteed it happening. She was too smart.
“Do you have a System virus or something? Is that even possible? Is that why you’re able to have four powers equipped at once?” Daisy caught up to him with a single teleport. He felt more sympathy for everyone he had annoyed and terrorized with his teleportation power.
“What? No! Of course I don’t have that. Is that even possible?” Eli waved his hand in a flick and felt the gathered essence coalesce in a familiar form. Energy shifted in a field around him, swatting her with a gathered ball of air held in a kinetic shape.
Telekinesis fuzzed into existence for a few seconds before the construction of essence and intention fell apart.
“Um, never mind about that. You had a power appear then vanish? It was some basic evo-0 Control power, but what was that?” Daisy grabbed his arm.
Eli shrugged, unsure of what he could feasibly say. Profound Erudition spiked to help him come up with a convincing lie. Unfortunately, even with his thought boosting power, he was an unconvincing liar. Memories of his attempts at pretending to be Herbert in the second dimension flashbanged his mind.
“Seriously, how did you do that? It was not created or disassembled by another power.” Daisy lunged closer until they stood half a foot away from each other. Closer. He leaned back, heart pounding with jolts of joyful sorrow.
Loose stones clattered in the derelict wreckage to their left. Both of them whirled toward the noise, conversation momentarily forgotten. Three identical green plastic soldiers swarmed out of the rubble with jury-rigged toy rifles aimed at Eli and Daisy’s center mass.
“Give us a power if you want to live!”
“What? No.” Eli stared at the three constructions of plastic and crossed his arms. Their essence and aspects felt like twisted reflections of dreams. No way they were spawn, so they must have been created somehow by someone’s power.
“Leave us alone, Toy Soldier.” Daisy rolled her eyes and glared at the trio. One of her powers shifted. A nearly inaudible voice whispered in his ears, “Be on the lookout. These are projections.”
Eli glanced around the abandoned street choked in dust and urban decay. There were thousands of potential hiding spots for anyone who wanted to ambush them. None of them showed any signs of someone with essence, but would he even be able to sense them if they were invisible? He hated not being able to rely on his spatial senses.
“Someone had a big battle with Land and Sky earlier and both of you are buzzing with goodies. Prime Target won’t shut up about it. So, make like the Collector you are, and share the wealth.” The lead green soldier sneered. His plastic orange-tipped rifle shifted to point at Daisy.
“Oh, shut the fuck.” Daisy snapped, thunderporting a slab of stone into the three soldiers. They popped in a wash of Dream essence that swirled toward its host and creator. Above them.
Eli pivoted. Vibrant colors sparked in a wreath of emotional lightning around his hands—
Daisy’s Will flared, snuffing out everyone’s powers except for hers. The man floating above them dropped, landing in a tangled heap. Both of his legs jerked from the impact, twisted into reversed pretzels, along with one of his arms.
He whimpered incoherently.
“What the hell was that?” Eli searched their surroundings for any further signs of trouble. Nothing or no one moved. There was only the downed man in front of them at Daisy’s feet.
“This is one of Anhedonia Prime’s biggest parasites. Whatever-your-name-is meet Toy Soldier. Never learned his real name and I don’t care to, but he terrorizes anyone and everyone he can with his Toybox Militia power. Uses it to ambush and steal from those weaker than him. Isn’t that great?” Daisy crouched to peer at the shattered man like he was an interesting insect she wanted to study or dissect.
“Really, dude?”
“H-help me! She’ll kill me.” He reached his unbroken hand out toward Eli, who retreated as if his cowardice were contagious.
“Good.” Eli ignited his fists with blue sorrowful lightning once more, ignoring whatever Will stat power Daisy had used to disable their powers.
“Glad to get your approval,” She smirked at Eli. Snapped her fingers.
“No, wai—“
Teleported rocks buried the man in a pyramid cairn as tall as Eli’s midriff. A spreading puddle of gray squelched out from the base. Eli frowned at the familiar liquid, certain it should have a color and name. He blamed Chromatic Dream and could not wait to give it a rest in favor of his normal powers.
“Figures he had no real good powers.” Daisy spat on the mound of piled boulders. She turned to head back the way they had been walking to wherever Roman and Scott were. Stopped when Eli failed to follow. “You coming?”
Eli blinked, unable to tear his attention away from the gush of essence swirling in a cord between Daisy and the buried corpse. Each of the man's aspects separated and sorted themselves in response to her will and lingered. Waiting for her to choose which power she wanted.
“Which power are you going to choose?” He forced himself to follow her. His attention stayed on the line of power, bridging her to the dead man. More threads from their previous fights hung around her at the edge of his perception.
How had he never noticed?
“I’ll probably take Mint Condition? Everything else is trash. Better powers than what the scavengers had, though.” Daisy made her choice. Essence flashed inside of the System’s threads, evaporating everything but that singular power. All so the System could take it.
Eli reached out with his will and blocked it from returning to that egregious entity and took the essence for himself. Pure power settled in the gaps around his core and the outer clusters of his aspects. He glanced down at the front of his dusty, blood-splattered shirt as if he could see inside of him with his eyes alone. What if he rerouted it into his overextended Spatial aspects? Juiced them back up?
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
Space warbled in a fizzing bubble surrounding Eli and Daisy. Her copy of Teleportation shuddered in response to the essence he flooded into Starspace Nexus.
“What was that?” Daisy turned with her hand raised. Space sheared into the ground and the air to scoop into a weapon she could teleport. He stepped out of the way.
Atmospheric pressure hammered a spike of rubble into the ground, staking out a small crater where he had been standing. Daisy grinned at him. “Are you finally ready to fight?”
“I’m not fighting you.” Eli rolled his eyes, extending his spatial field to its reduced max range. Pins and needles pricked his mind and will from using his power so soon after waking it back up. Or at least, that’s how it felt.
“What are you doing, then?”
“Leaving. Bye, Daisy.”
Eli teleported about three and a half miles away. Stumbled. Starspace Nexus folded under the strain of actually teleporting him so soon. Profound Erudition reminded him that his spatial powers had literally reformed him out of nothingness only a few hours ago.
So he teleported back to Roman one mile at a time until the distance closed. His friends felt like a beacon in his mind he could sense on the horizon. Steria’s existence and lunar powers helped pinpoint the direction further.
He jogged down a pockmarked street, already feeling more alive than he had since all the bullshit in New Faram.
Energy thrummed both in and outside of him as each of his Spatial powers rejuvenated themselves. Stellar Body kickstarted once more, an empty virtual galaxy for him to fill and embody. Stardust Aurora burst out of him a teleport two miles away.
A team of blue-skinned giants spun toward Eli where he had appeared in the middle of the parking garage they loitered in. He eyed their identical sets of armor, swords, and javelins. Either made by a power or a dungeon.
Starspace Nexus stretched out in a mile radius. Blips pinged his mind where more of these spawn lurked in this more intact area.
“Intruder!” roared the nearest of them. He — Eli could unfortunately tell via his spatial sense — swung his colossal greatsword at Eli’s head. Stardust crackled in a reversed magnetized field around him, repelling the blue giant’s blade.
“Quiet, I’m looking around.” Eli glared at the giant held in place by the massive sword they both pushed against. Thrown javelins whistled toward him. Each new piece of metal diminished his magnetic barrier more than the last.
He teleported on top of the parking garage instead.
Ramshackle iron and plywood sloped beneath him in an odd makeshift roof. More of the blue-skinned giants roamed in this section of the parking garage camp. A lot of them were nearly the same as the male ones he had encountered below, yet a few were different. Some were women and children.
Resonant horn calls sang, shattering the camp’s quiet peace. Eli watched them muster into an impressive force within a minute at least. All the copies had the same sets of weaponry and armor, but a couple were more unique. Other camps up and down the street kicked into motion at the sound of the alarm. A sensory power spread from one of the giants with a unique sword and armor..
Eli disappeared in his void to hide and continued to watch. The sensory power still buzzed against the slight apertures of space he used to anchor himself to this spot.
“He’s on the roof!” Shouted the giant whose power locked onto Eli. He swung his own sword in front of him, cleaving nothing. Dream bloomed off the blade crashing into Eli’s side with a silent crunch of metal crumpled into the folds of his skin.
Numb discomfort sliced along the impact site.
He touched his palm to it and studied the gray fluid under the gray-yellow-green flickers of stardust clotting the cut shut. Ever-present irritation sharpened to a bloom of anger, saturating the stain of gray on his hand into the vibrant red of his blood. Growing rage and instinct guided swirls of essence into a new power that slotted in-between Starspace Nexus, Chromatic Dream, and his emotional lightning powers.
All traces of blood vanished off him in a earth-shattering roar, jolting into the blue-skinned giant who had harmed him. Dream flashed off his sword, parrying the spatial crimson lightning into the ground, where it teleported again into his spine. Eli’s pain and anger bowled the giant over, smearing his face against the ground.
Eli teleported half a mile away, his sub-power trick having strained his other powers more than he preferred. Horns and warcries rattled the shingles of the apartment building’s roof he ran across. He jumped to the next. Starspace Nexus took the entire distance of both building’s roofs to recharge for another teleport.
Maybe Daisy was onto something.
This made him feel more alive than championing other people’s causes and problems. He loved testing himself, seeing new places, and experimenting with his powers. It reminded him of when he train for a swim meet.
Improvement one lap at a time.
*****
Daisy followed the interesting boy’s distance hopping trail off into Azurite territory. Paradoxical Will pushed Pinnacle of Glory far enough to let her wield a whole suite of lesser tracking powers. Information filled in the gaps of her knowledge about her quarry the longer she watched.
One of the sapient Azurites cut him, he retaliated (yay!), then he ran. Interestingly enough, the boy regenerated quick enough he noticed none of his temporary wounds.
Emulate Other: Teleportation expanded with the more examples he provided. Soon, she would figure out enough to access the next iteration of his power.
Analytical Mind crunched and logged the growing puzzle. She had to keep talking to him. To copy all his other powers, of course. No other reason. Even if they were alike, after all! Everyone else acted like the System and its powers were a curse or a tool. It was nice being around someone else who knew it was the gift it was.
Too bad he had never introduced himself to her. Daisy shook her head idly. Apparently manners were not one of his superpowers. Gift Today, Debt Tomorrow stirred. Maybe she could trade him Chivalrous Conduct? Nobody else wanted it. No, better not.
She had no interest in trapping the only equal she had met in her power’s debt.
“Guess I’ll have to ask him what his name is the next time I see him,” Daisy smiled and followed with her own teleport.
*****
Impressions of fortifications filled Eli’s mind once he closed in on Roman’s location. Bubbles of Dream cut off Eli’s spatial sense so cleanly the absence jumped out at him. He eyed the haggard corporate skyscraper with distaste. To his spatial senses, the interior was a warren of enchanted deathtraps choked in toxic darkness and flagrant flames.
Anyone who entered was a fool or determined.
He was both.
Eli teleported to the top floor below the familiar thrum of Roman’s Dream powers. He glanced around the open loft cluttered with furniture, clothes, and all the necessities of someone’s everyday life. Smiled at the meticulous bookshelf sprawling from wall to wall, full of whatever new books or comics had caught Scott’s eye recently.
Based on that and the amount of feminine clothes in here, his friend was doing okay. Apocalypse be damned. At least, if that woman from earlier was Scott’s girlfriend?
He wandered around the room while he waited for Starspace Nexus to recharge. Each teleport had chipped deeper into the power until its cluster ached. Still, that sense of pain let him know he had not only found his limits, but pushed past them little by little. Funny how it felt like he progressed so much more after leaving the System behind.
Shadows thickened and crept out of the corner of the room. A silhouette burst out of it with a sword on track for Eli’s neck. Profound Erudition guided him through the sensory motley from his spatial sense. Eli sidestepped, ducked, and countered with an electric, joyous punch.
Scott flew back, upturning and flattening the coffee table in his way. He reverse-somersaulted into a low stance, shadow-sword bared in a diagonal guard across his body.
They stared at each other in a long, drawn out pause. Golden sparks crackled on the already faded, glowing scar on Scott’s scaled armor.
“Hey, Scott. Long time no see, huh?” Eli smiled at his friend as if the weight of their history didn’t linger. Why should it? All that happened was in the distant past, before powers. Nobody was the same anymore so—
“Surprised you finally learned how to throw a punch. Huh, I guess Roman was right. Looks like all you needed to stand up for yourself was a world ending apocalypse.” Scott straightened, his sword still summoned and pointed in Eli’s direction. Footsteps banged in a stairwell adjacent to the wall behind Eli, now revealed by the disappearance of Roman’s Dream barrier.
“I see you’re still bitter about what happened.” Eli crossed his arms over his chest. Profound Erudition buzzed that defensive body language would not help. He ignored it. “Even if I don’t understand why you are acting like it’s all my fault? You’re the one that moved away and left.”
“Not your fault? Tom put us through hell because of you. Beat the shit out of all of us for being friends with you. Tormented us and what did you do? Remind me.”
“Guys, come on, let’s not fight!” Roman shoved the stairwell door to the roof open with a clang of metal on metal. Traces of machinery scarred his body where Ethel and Alfred had brutalized him. Eli reached out with a ribbon of stardust, but there was nothing to heal. Scott eyed the flickering band of unkindled aurora with suspicion.
“Stop defending him, Roman. Eli is a big boy now. We’re all adults here. So! Tell me why it took getting literal superpowers for you to stop being a coward?”
“I assume it’s the same reason why you’re being a dick, Scott. Powers just help us be who we are.” Eli frowned at his friend. Steria and Scott’s girlfriend trailed behind Roman, stopping at the sight of their confrontation.
“What happened to the coffee table?” Scott’s girlfriend asked.
He ignored her, closing the distance between him and Eli.
“That’s cute. It really is, but it still doesn’t answer my question. Why is it okay for you to hide behind us, leave, and then show up two years later, acting all high and mighty now that you’re strong? Where was all of this when I actually needed you?”
“I don’t know. Look, man, I’m sorry for that. I fucked up and cut both of you off. My hope was that they would leave you two alone, and they didn’t. Then you moved here, and that was that.” Eli shrugged, unable to explain himself any further. He knew he had sunk far too deep into a depressive apathy when all of this happened. “But that’s all in the past. We can start over. Be better.”
“Are you kidding me, Elias Newton? ‘That was that’ and ‘it’s all in the past’ is all you have to say? As if everything is fixed now? Look around you. It’s fucking hell out here and you’re walking, sorry, teleporting around like it’s all sunshine and rainbows. Roman told us about what happened to you guys. So, let me fill you in on our last year. My parents were killed in the first couple of months by idiots who wanted their powers. Celi accidentally burned her house down when she got her powers. Oh, and then the abominations started appearing and attacking! Our school was wiped out by the Azurites. Hell, they’ve taken most of the city on their conquest if you even noticed.”
Eli retreated a few steps under the verbal onslaught. Scott pursued him, tense as a coiled snake. Or some other reptilian monstrosity based on what his aspects whispered.
“I have spent this last year honing myself on every nightmare that dared threaten us. Hunted, gutted, and killed the fuckers who took my parents from me. Carved out this sanctuary for us. I am doing my best to reclaim my city for Celi and I. So, Eli, are you the next abomination I have to face to bring back a little more normalcy to our lives?”
“I don’t want to fight you, but I will if you insist.”
“Good, then let’s stop this!” Steria attempted to push in the middle, but both Roman and Celi held her back.
“Out of the house, please! I don’t want any more of our furniture broken.” Celi glared at Scott and Eli equally, as if they were the bane of her furniture.
“Sounds like we’re fighting. I want to see who you really are beneath the veneer of cowardice you claim is in the past. Fight me, Elias, or leave.”
“And then we’ll talk?”
“Sure. Are we doing this or what?” Scott rolled his eyes and lifted his sword.
“If a fight is what you want, that’s what you’ll get.” Eli flickered forward in a teleport and kicked Scott in the chest with a flare of stardust. He fell into the open portal behind him, linked outside a mile in the air.
An arrow of shadow shot through the portal before the tear in space closed. Pain ate at the burning, bleeding gash in Eli’s cheek. Black flames howled behind him, spitting Scott out. He grabbed Eli with a large, shadow-scaled hand.
“I said, take this outside please!” Celi shouted at them. White and blue flames guttered along her hair in her mounting frustration.
“You got it.” Scott hurled Eli out of the burnt out hole in the wall behind him and jumped out blade-first. Eli expanded space, warping it so he could dodge. He collapsed it with a kick, punting Scott into the street.
We’re definitely going to win the Tri-Cup if Scott agrees to join our team. Eli thought, falling with a smile.