Something pulled him from the grimy clutches of his slumber. Eli blinked his eyes open in the pitch black of his room as he groggily curled up on his side. He was pretty sure it was nothing. Just the wind... He drifted as he closed his eyes...
Until a sharp vibration rocked his nightstand and a dazzling radiance speared through the dark straight into his closed eyes. He squinted his eyes shut as tight as he could as he waited for his phone screen to dim... but right as it did it lit up again. He sighed as he reached for it. Fingers fumbling, he unlocked it and blinked once, twice, then again as he read the message Dad had written.
VERY IMPORTANT!
I THINK SOMEONE IS IN THE HOUSE. TWO FLASHLIGHTS TURNED ON DOWNSTAIRS AND I SENSE MORE CELLPHONES THAN NORMAL IN THE HOUSE. WAKE UP AND BE READY TO RUN OR HIDE.
WITH LOTS OF LOVE, PLEASE STAY SAFE
- DAD
Another message.
DAMMIT ELI. WAKE UP. THIS IS NOT A DRILL AND I DIDN'T SENSE YOU OPENING YOUR PHONE.
"Oh shit." Eli rolled onto his stomach and hurriedly got dressed as quietly as he could. Then he groped along the wall for anything he could use... If only he could teleport anywhere he wanted then he could check on everyone and either evacuate them, or even go into the basement for the weights. Eli prodded at the spatial field around him as he thought about teleporting and took a shaky breath. It felt fine, but fragile.
At least he'd be able to teleport if he had to.
Eli’s eyes roamed over his room as his eyes slowly adjusted to the faint light that streamed in through his window. On his dresser he had his mostly full laundry basket and a lamp that one of his siblings had pushed on him months ago, but he’d never plugged it in. He picked up the bulbous weight of ceramic and metal and gave it an experimental swing.
It was awkward, but it’d be better than his fists. Hopefully.
Wooden boards creaked downstairs while Eli's heart hammered in his chest. A glance down at his dimmed phone screen showed no new messages. Too bad he never got into sports or he'd have a baseball bat in his room like Lana did and not the awkward weight of his lamp. Sizzling nerves pulsed across his skin as footsteps climbed the stairs. His hand tightened around the base of his lamp as he hefted it over his head, the cord tugged against his skin where it snaked around his arm.
Someone paused outside his door. Menacing silence loomed in the night while Eli stood there with the lamp heavy in his hands, but still far too light for what it might be needed for.
Instead of his door, another door was opened across the hall. Lana’s scream shattered the still night. Eli wrenched his door open and narrowed his eyes at the vague silhouette all dressed in black who was stepping into Lana’s room with their hands spread wide. Gray metal shimmered and glowed from them as a knife made out of the same metal appeared in their hand.
Eli threw himself forward in a teleport. Air screamed in a shrill cry as he crashed into them in a gust of displaced air. Glass shattered as he slammed his lamp down against their head as his tackle knocked them both down to the ground in a sprawl. Shards rained and clattered as they spilled across the floor. He hissed as blood streamed from dozens of tiny and large gashes sliced into his palms.
Gray light flashed again as the figure, an average sized man dressed in a ratty hoodie, stood up armored in that same gray metallic light. Their knife elongated and thickened until they held a sword that they lifted up—
Lana swung her baseball bat into the intruder's face with a tortured squeal of metal as her bat twisted around his gray light helm. The blow was enough to knock the armored assailant off balance. As he stumbled, he blasted out a wall of gray metal that clipped into Eli and sent him flying out the door.
He landed in a rolling skid before he crashed halfway into his door and his door frame in a crack of wood and plaster. He shifted with a groan as stars danced in front of his eyes and a buzzing drone blared in his ears. Agony lanced through his left shoulder where’d struck the door frame as he started to try and stand back up.
A loud impact shook the room as wood broke. Lana roared and the man grunted as another crashing impact shook the room.
"What the hell are you doing?" asked a nasal voice as the other intruder called from the bottom of the stairs.
Eli's phone buzzed from where he'd left it on his dresser, but he ignored it as he tried to shakily climb up to his feet. His hands shook and trembled as he wobbled with his weight on his right shoulder where he leaned it into his door as he frowned at his sister’s room barricaded by the same shimmering wall of gray metal that had sent him out of the room.
“Brandon! What’s going on?” shouted the nasal voice of the man downstairs as a beam of red light speared up the stairs into the ceiling of the hallway. Eli startled as the flash dissipated with only a seared spot sputtering with red-hot embers on the ceiling. Ash drifted lazily from the ceiling.
Nasal-voice started to climb up the stairs as a dull red light glowed and pulsed as he charged up his power again. Eli turned to peek and winced at the sight of the man with an orb of crimson light that radiated heat. He lifted his hand up and fired right as their eyes met.
Eli stumbled back and tripped as he fell into his room. Wood popped in a burst of sparks and smoke as the beam pulsed into the ceiling right where it’d have drilled into Eli’s head if he hadn’t moved. Nausea sent his stomach careening as he stood back up. Footsteps drew closer.
Eli’s heart pounded as the red light started to charge back up again as the stairs creaked. He jumped out of his room and stared past the man to the foot of the stairs, ignoring the growing sphere of light in his hand.
Light fired into another beam.
Tunnel vision clamped down on Eli as he shot through the void to reappear at the landing of the first floor. He turned with a wobble as the man swore.
His parents' door to their room banged against the wall as one of them peeked out.
"Lana! Elias! Are you both alright?" Dad roared suddenly as every light in the house turned on. Loud crashes and grunts of pain were all that answered him from Lana’s room. Eli remained silent as he stared at the intruder’s back as his hands shook.
The laser-intruder growled as he started to barrel up the stairs as another orb of light grew in the palm of his hand. Eli's heart throbbed as it pulsed against his ribcage. He glanced down into the now-lit staircase where he'd left the weights out a few hours ago. Dad couldn’t escape like he could.
Dull red light brightened into dazzling brilliance as the man reached the top of the stairs and started to lift his hand up to aim.
Eli's eyes widened and before he could change his mind, he teleported downstairs and ballooned his spatial field out before he even landed. Cold metal and dusty concrete prickled against his senses as he teleported back upstairs with the full set of weights. He felt them lift up in the air all around him like they were asteroids orbiting him.
Blistering pain tore his head apart, even as nausea and vertigo smeared scars of lightning across his vision. He stared up at the red spotlight of a man and before he could change his mind again, he contracted his spatial field as hard as he could and teleported the weights straight into the man’s back.
Howls of pain mingled with Eli’s shout of pain as ninety pounds of weights whistled through the air and landed with a crunching cacophony of broken bones. A salvo of metal and various debris from the entryway blitzed into the intruder. He stumbled into the wall at the foot of the stairs as tears streamed down his face from the pain, blood spilled in a hot rush from his cut and his now bleeding nose. Bile burned as he swallowed it back.
The world rocked as it spun on its axis. He collapsed to his hands and knees as he retched. Notifications spilled across his vision scrambled with afterimages and unshed tears, but he pushed them aside. Suppressed them while he tried to stand. Tried to roll over to right himself, but all he could do was writhe, each of his nerves a cluster of pain and lightning. Over the crackling thunder in his ears, he heard shouts from his family. From his dad, from Lana who still needed him. He tried to push himself back to his feet, but his body resisted. His muscles felt sluggish and leaden, his skin as rigid as iron.
Eli had to stand.
Had to protect his family.
Seconds. Minutes. Hours.
He had no idea how much time passed before he was finally able to stand up with the support of the wall. He gasped at the wreckage of a human body and the shattered step at the top of the stairs. Blood splatter and spray had streaked and exploded all over the walls of the staircase and presumably deeper into the hallway. Blood trickled and flowed down from the top of the stairs in a growing pool. Dumbbells, the glass in his hands, debris from the walls and the floor, even the tip of an umbrella that had hung from a hook... all laid scattered across the staircase beneath the intruder without a trace of damage. Meanwhile, the intruder was more of a broken human pancake than a person with the way their bones twisted and jutted out in sharp angles.
He blinked in shock as he slowly looked up into the eyes of his father whose hands were wreathed in swirling thunderclouds. Dad nodded to him once as he burst a cloud that scattered wind and air all over the remnants of the corpse and blood smeared staircase. Then he turned and shoved his hands out towards the gray light wall blocking off Lana's room. Motes of gray light billowed out into the hallway as the wall exploded from a gale of power
Everything stopped.
"It's okay! Everything is okay! We're safe!" Dad crowed as he pulled a grinning blood-soaked Lana out of her room in an embrace.
"Oh my god, what happened?" Mom screeched as she burst out into the hallway and shrieked at the state of Lana. Eli leaned against the wall and winced at the sting of the cuts in his hands. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine. Most of this blood is his." Lana shrugged as she beamed like this was a boxing tournament and not a home invasion. "I'm already healing, but I’m going to take a shower.”
Stolen novel; please report.
"Elias! What about you?" Mom asked into his empty room. Dad tapped on her shoulder and pointed down the stairs where he still leaned against the wall. "Elias Herbert Newton! What happened to you?" Then she glanced down at all of the blood and blanched as her face turned pale as bone.
"I'm okay." He croaked as he swayed on his feet.
Dad winced and shook his head, but mom had already leaned forward, and then she blanched as she pulled back from the grisly sight. "Rick... Deal with this. I'm going to check on Lyra."
Mom hurried away into Lyra's room which she then sighed as she walked out of the room. "She's asleep. She slept through all of it. Unbelievable." A few moments later, she gingerly tip-toped around the corpse and came down the stairs so she could pull Eli into a firm embrace. The only sound other than his sobs came from the ticking clock above them.
It seemed so quiet after everything went insane. It took several minutes before Eli finally spoke again, "I can't believe this happened. How are we supposed to return to normal after this?”
Mom squeezed him tighter. "I don't know, but we'll stay together."
"Why didn't the police do anything?"
"Rick called with his power, but they didn't even pick up. We were put on hold then we heard fighting. What happened?"
"I heard the one walk into Lana's room and then she screamed... After that I... I just reacted. Then the one down here... he started firing these laser beams. After that, I went behind him and remembered the weights I had been practicing teleportation with. And I... I used them."
Mom sighed as she guided him into the kitchen and sat him down at the table. He rested the back of his hands on the tabletop and stared into the pitted gashes sliced into his palms. Time passed as mom set a glass of water down alongside two slices of bread with a pat of butter on each. A moment later and the butter spread itself out, sizzling as the bread toasted itself golden brown. He heard people talking, but he couldn't focus. All he could do was stare at the slices of toast.
Eli couldn't wrap his mind around what had happened. Powers had seemed so cool at first, even if they were scary. He knew something like this could happen... but they lived in Farbrook, a cozy little suburb of New Faram. Before today the scariest thing that had ever happened was two days ago when Tom had beaten him up when all of this began. Other than that he had only ever been afraid of getting made fun of or failing a test, which had happened often enough.
His hands shook as he thought about the way the intruder's bones had snapped as easily as the wooden boards had. Or the way they'd been so casual about attacking Lana and him. The one had created a suit of armor out of that gray material and shot him with a wall. Then the other one had shot at him with lasers right at his head. What would have happened if he hadn’t tripped?
"Here. Eat your toast, I enchanted them to heal and relax you. Okay?” Mom asked as she pushed the plate he’d been staring at idly closer to him. When he didn’t respond she patted his shoulder and walked away.
"Hey." Lana called out as she walked in and sat down wearing her robe and slippers like nothing had happened. Her hair hung damp over her shoulder.
"Did you... did you take a shower?" Eli blinked and looked up. A plate full of loaf’s worth of bread had been toasted and slathered with butter. Crumbs sprayed out all over the table as Lana bit into.
"Yeah. I needed to scrub all of that blood off of me. I had to wrestle that guy and choke him out while I tried to beat the shit out of him. What power did you get from killing your guy?”
"What? What power?” Eli asked as he carefully picked up his own share of toast from the plate mom had prepared for him. His palm burned as he moved his fingers, but bite after bite, soothed his body of aches and pains like cobwebs in an attic being swept away.
“You should’ve gotten some from killing that guy. I got a new power and from all of that fighting I even managed to push my power enough to max it out and evolve it. Check it out.” Lana beamed as she flipped her hand over and fizzles of gray light sparked from her skin as a small ball formed. "He was really powerful at level eight, but I'm getting the hang of this 'Graylight Construction' power."
Eli shook his head as he frowned and noticed she was right. He had quite a few notifications stored up that were all too eager to flash across his vision the moment he thought about them.
Siphon Power Experience Gain a Power Perk Obtain Power from the Conquered > Evolve Power Obtain New Power N/A N/A> Eli ogled the mess of text. He sighed after he finished the toast and reached for his second while he thought over his options. Already the cuts on his skin were slowly starting to scab and heal along with the bones that shifted and realigned in his shoulder and ribs. It didn’t hurt or anything, it even felt good. "So, what did you get?" Lana practically bounced in her seat while she waited. "I maxed out teleportation at level five apparently, but the... the person I… I, ahem, he had a power called Photon Shot. I can either use it to level up my teleportation, which is already maxed out, or I can take a perk or get the same power he had." He frowned while he thought about his choices. It would be nice to have something else, but he didn't think the laser beams were really his style. Plus, it’d feel morbid to use a power that had belonged to someone eager to kill him and his family. "Take the perk then." Lana shrugged as if it were simple... which he supposed it was. He sighed as he thought about the 'Gain a Power Perk' option and watched the next wall of text scrawl across his vision. Light Charge Focus (Light) Light Blast BACK> He squinted as he thought about each of the options and frowned as he felt a wash of sensations and impressions form about each choice. It was almost like he had a small preview to each of the perks hooked up to his head. Light Charge would allow him to gather and charge up light whenever he used whichever power he slotted it into. That sounded pretty useless unless he wanted a weak flashlight plugged into teleportation. Eli disregarded it with a shake of his head as he focused on Focus (Light). It seemed like it'd improve the effects of whatever power he linked it to, but only when he was in the light. Then his power would be considerably worse in the dark. He frowned as he thought about the void that he disappeared into whenever he teleported... would that mean that he wouldn't be able to use the power at all? Or would it not count? He was a bit tempted since he wasn't able to teleport that easily if he couldn't see already, but he hoped that would change if he could evolve his power. "How good was your power evolution?" "Oh, it was excellent. Enhanced Athleticism became Superhuman Conditioning! Before I felt a bit more resistant and just slightly better, I guess, but now I actually feel improved. When I was wrestling that guy down, I felt my power change a little and checked the notification and evolved it. My strength and everything became... well, superhuman. After that it became far easier." "Hm..." If that was the case then he may not even need to worry about seeing where he wanted to teleport for much longer. He decided to check out Light Blast then wind back around to Focus if he didn't like it. Light Blast gave him an impression similar to Light Charge, but instead of a slow, weak flashlight it was more of a physical flash of light. It gave him the sense that he'd be able to practically imbue anything he used his power on, including himself, with an explosive flash of blazing light similar to the intruder's Photon Shot. Unlike Focus, which felt like it was permanently activated, this felt like something he could choose to do or not. He took a deep breath in while he considered for one last second before deciding. It didn't make any sense to take the perks when the power had all of it and offered far more versatility and power. Would you like to equip it? Y/N> He didn’t think he’d ever rely on it as more than a flashlight, but if he had something like that he wouldn’t have needed to go down into the basement in the first place to move the weights. Besides, he’d rather have it than any one of the perks. They sounded okay, but at least with this new power he could do all of it. Each of those perks felt like a possibility he could achieve with it. You may now select from one of the following options: Evolve Power Obtain New Power N/A N/A> With a grin, he selected evolve power and then frowned at the option. "That's fucking bullshit," Eli growled. The impression it gave him was hardly any different. Nothing changed except that he could teleport a little bit farther and with a bit more weight. He'd do it if he didn't have any decent offerings for a new power, but so far he was pretty disappointed about his options. Teleportation was a bit lamer when he couldn't even use it to travel across the globe at a moment's thought or appear anywhere he’d already been. "Language!" Lana smirked jokingly, but she glanced at him with a smidge of concern before it melted away. He frowned at her then glanced over towards the living room where mom and dad were huddled together whispering in a frantic discussion or argument. He shook his head as he ignored Lana's curious look and then selected the 'Obtain New Power' and then read the list of rather mediocre choices. Photokinesis Ev.0/Lv. 0 Pyromancy Ev.0/Lv. 0 Hydromancy Ev.0/Lv. 0 Geomancy Ev.0/Lv. 0 Telekinesis Ev.0/Lv. 0 BACK> Right away, he knew he was only remotely interested in either Hydromancy or Telekinesis. He had the very clear feeling that he'd only be able to control what each of these powers correlated to, not create it. That turned powers that could be interesting into something that was almost useless. What was the point of Photokinesis when Photon Shot mostly did the same, plus it’d allow him to fire a laser? Pyromancy would rely on more fire than he’d prefer. Plus even Tom had a power that allowed him to create fire. He couldn’t have a fire power worse than Tom’s. Geomancy could be interesting, but something about Hydromancy and Telekinesis called to him far more. No. Hydromancy would be useful since there was water practically everywhere and he felt like it'd be easier to grind out levels for it than any of the others except for Telekinesis. Photokinesis could maybe be an easy level up, but he didn’t even know if he’d like Photon Shot. However, Eli was very excited at the possibility that he'd be able to move things around with his mind and thought it'd also pair nicely with his teleportation... especially if the exploit he was thinking of worked with it. Would you like to equip it? Y/N> "I got telekinesis." Eli grinned as he felt the power start to integrate with him. Over his spatial senses or second skin, he felt something far more tactile and stretchy form around him. With a thought he willed the scraps of crust left over from his toast to float and move towards his mouth while he winked at Lana. Instead something wavered in the air as it distorted shredding the curst into a fine powder of crumbs that launched straight into the ceiling in a shower that spread all over the kitchen and dining room. He winced and blinked around at the mess sheepishly before casting a nervous glance over at his parents who hadn’t noticed yet. [Stats: Body: None Mind: None Will: None ] [Equipped Power List: Slot One -- Teleportation Ev.0/Lv. 5 (Maxed) Slot Two -- Telekinesis Ev.0/Lv. 0 Slot Three -- Photon Shot Ev.1/Lv. 0 ] [Unequipped Powers: N/A ]