"I still can't believe you both got more powers. I'm still stuck at level four and you both got to level five like that?" Lyra sighed as she created illusion after illusion of increasing complexity in rapid succession. Galaxies full of swirling nebulas with dazzling stars, radiant suns, and magnificent planets. He narrowed his eyes at the display when a blush of heat seemed to radiate from the illusion before Lyra replaced it with a desolate desert filled with ringed cities with shining white walls.
"It had a cost you don't want to pay." Dad said sharply while he created a miniature cloud and spun it up slowly to release a gentle, cooling breeze that blew over them in the shade of their backyard where they lounged on their patio. "Again, I'm sorry you both had to deal with that. Last night after... after the incident I put together more of a home security system. Hopefully you won’t have to go through that again. "
"Sure, I'm upset it happened, but I'd say we're better off. We know how this new world works now." Lana said while she created a sphere of graylight metal from her hands and shaped it idly while they talked. It glowed softly under its own light before she formed another one next to it. The glow faded away between each piece she made, revealing a steady stream of glowing spheres flowing around her hands like some kind of luminous river until they disintegrated into sparks. "I'm kind of glad they came."
"Are you serious?" Eli asked incredulously, he glared at her but she ignored him. "We had two people break into our home and they tried to kill us.”
"And we're fine, because of our powers. If this was before the System it would've been both of us who died instead. But now? Now we're stronger for it."
"Lana..." Dad started to say, but she shook her head.
"Look. For all of humanity's history, the only thing that has mattered is power. Whether that's social, political, or financial. Right? Well now, everyone has power. I don't want this world to be a 'might makes right' world, but... wasn't it already?" Lana ranted as she climbed to her feet in a tortured screech of her metal as her launched herself up to her feet too hard. Each of her steps ended early as she created block after block of graylight for her to stand on until she towered over him. "Would you rather be worried and afraid for us when we're powerless or when we have literal superpowers?"
"What kind of question is that, Lana?” Dad shook his head while ignoring her thematics. “I’ll always worry. This didn’t change anything, especially, since we don’t know how the world will turn out just like we didn’t know before. But now? Everyone is basically armed to the teeth with a gun at best and a nuke at worst. You got up in a bit of a tantrum and just ruined a lounge chair. Let’s say the world does return to normal. Right? And someone gets cut off in traffic or has to wait a little too long in a line. What happens then? Before it could’ve been just a honk or two, maybe an assault at worst. Now who knows? That’s not to even mention the scars of having to live constantly with fear and paranoia.”
“I’m not afraid.” Lana shrugged then scoffed when Dad opened his mouth again. “No, seriously. Every morning, day, and night I was plagued with news stories of bad things happening to young girls like me. Before I was a victim and now I’m strong enough to ‘break patio furniture’ with ease. Why should I be afraid when I’ll only get stronger?”
Dad took a unsteady breath before shaking his head and sitting back down. His mouth was puckered like he’d just shoved a lemon in his mouth while he thought over everything she’d said.
“Besides! Mom can heal us. A simple meal and we’re better than if we’d gone to the doctor. We’re fine.” Lana said nonchalantly as she started to lie back down on the lounge chair then frowned at the lopsided cloth with broken springs and a bent frame. She sat down with a huff as she held her hands out to try and create a chair out of graylight, but the metal kept collapsing before she could finish.
Eli shared a skeptical, fearful glance with Lyra and he was reminded again how grateful he was that she hadn’t been awake during the home invasion. He could imagine what could’ve happened as clearly as if she’d painted out the scene with her illusions. Lyra couldn’t teleport, she wasn’t superhumanly strong or durable.
Hell, Eli had been hurt fairly badly and was only healed back to normal because Mom had made him food after the police left with the bodies in the garage. He turned to study his dad’s face whose eyes were squinted in concentration behind his glasses, his eyes sunken from days without sleep.
Irritation flashed through him as he recalled the conversation he’d overheard before the attack. Was it a simple home invasion or burglary? Or was it perhaps more? Did those people his parents mentioned put out a hit on them? He didn’t recall either of those two men trying to steal anything.
They had gone straight up the stairs.
Eli started to open his mouth to accuse Dad, but held back after a moment. His phone popped into existence in his hand after a flex of his spatial field to rip it free from his pocket. He quickly unlocked his phone and scrolled through different news feeds.
Practically every supermax prison was now empty of prisoners, but full of more corpses than a graveyard. He opened up his browser and started looking at prison sentences for laundering money, ignoring his father’s raised eyebrow at him. ‘Not watching us use our technology, my ass.’
Oh yeah, whoever these Sandra and Dave people were, they were definitely in a federal prison after laundering money and doing who else knows what. He wished he knew what their last names were. So what were the chances that these two were hunting them and could’ve sent those two?
Probably pretty fucking high.
WHO ARE ‘DAVE’ AND ‘SANDRA, DAD? - ELI
SO YOU WERE LISTENING IN. Dad sighed and glanced furtively at Eli over where he sat by Lyra who was still practicing with her illusions. THEY WERE OUR BEST FRIENDS AND OUR MAIN INVESTORS WHEN WE CREATED ‘Denson and Newton Consultants’. THEY WERE JUST USING US TO LAUNDER THEIR MONEY. WE LOST A LOT OF MONEY BECAUSE OF THEM. IT’S TAKEN US THIS LONG TO GET BACK TO BEING VIABLE. - DAD
DO YOU THINK THOSE PEOPLE FROM LAST NIGHT WERE SENT BY THEM? - ELI
I DON’T THINK SO. Dad stopped typing for a moment while he stared off into space with a frown. BUT I WOULDN’T PUT IT PAST THEM EITHER. I’LL LOOK INTO IT, BUT DON’T WORRY ABOUT IT.
Eli sat there holding his phone while he thought about everything a bit more before sighing and teleporting his phone back into his pocket. He glanced over at Lana and Lyra who were both hard at work practicing their powers. Lyra was the center of nearly inaudible lightshow complete with the same two verses of a song stuck on repeat. Lana had most of the legs of a chair constructed out of graylight, but when she set it on the ground the legs kept buckling.
He glanced back down and reaffirmed his decision to practice his powers for real. There were so many limits that he’d barely begun to scratch. How could he test how far he could teleport if he was constantly cooped in the house or the backyard? Same with Photon Shot. He hadn’t been able to really test out its firepower since he didn’t want to burn holes in the walls or anything.
That left his Telekinesis. He willed it to activate and pushed it out and down to trace across the grass like a pseudopod flailing. Grass flattened and swayed in the wake of his powers passage. Soon he felt out the edge of a rock and snatched it straight out of the ground. A tug brought it smacking straight into his hand. He teleported it in place to clean it of all dirt until it sparkled a cloudy white. A bubble of telekinetic forced wrapped around it and he held it aloft straight above his head while he bent a stray tether of telekinesis to pull the lounge lever of his lounge chair back so he could lay down.
The rock floated above his line of sight about a dozen feet away.
Photon Shot charged in his hand, even though he wanted to try and power it up in his eyes. Laser vision would be sick, but it was pretty steadfast in wanting to only work with either of his hands. Good to know.
A beam of crackling red light streaked upward to smack into the rock with a flash of heat. The rock gyrated in his telekinetic grasp as the laser pulsed into the side of the rock. A second later his Photon Shot ran out light and fizzled out into sparks. He blinked a few times to clear his vision as he pulled the rock back to study it and frowned.
Only some soot and scorch marks? No cracks or molten bubbles? Eli didn't think he'd ever felt as exceptionally disappointed as he did in that moment. He had imagined the rock shattering in a pop of incendiary might or the beam drilling a hole straight through the rock to pierce to the sky. Or the rock even vaporizing, but instead he'd done as much or maybe a bit more than he could have with a lighter.
Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.
Fuck that. He was trying again.
A flex of telekinesis lifted it into position where he shot laser after laser until the rock had a noticeable hole burnt into it. He brushed his thumb across the hole in surprise. Over the course of several iterations, he'd honed his Photon Shot into more of a solid beam. He found that he could either charge it up to be more physical or to be an even hotter, brighter beam.
Eli started to open his mouth to cheer about his level up when Lyra burst up to her feet in a prismatic firework display of illusionary spectacle surrounding her. She beamed at everyone who stared at her with wide eyes then said, "I maxed out Illusions!"
"Did you evolve it?" Lana asked as she launched herself up to her feet with a twitch of her legs.
"Or did you get a new power? What are your options?" Eli teleported over to her in an effort try and see her status or level up message, even though he knew it wasn't possible.
"Wellll," Lyra drew out with a literal sparkle in her eyes. Damn, she was even more dramatic now with her illusion power. "If I evolve it, it'll become 'Synesthesiac Illusions, then my five new power options are..." A giant drum appeared beside her that began to thrum as a massive drumbeat blasted from it. "Forcefield, Flight, Projection, Geokinesis, and Telekinesis."
"Which one are you going to pick?" Lana practically bounced with excitement as she fidgeted from one foot to the other.
"I'm not sure." She shrugged then glanced from Lana to Eli with a mischievous grin that he knew far too well. Before she started hurrying back inside, she shouted over her shoulder, "I'll decide later!"
"Ugh. Whatever." Lana sulked as she kicked at the dirt then winced as her shoe gouged a divot into the lawn. "I'm going inside to lift some weights."
"How much do you want to bet she's going to pester Lyra now?" Dad chuckled with a grin before he settled back into his own lounge chair with his eyes closed. Eli glanced at him then stared as he wondered what he was doing. Playing a game? Working? Spying on their neighbor's devices to see what they were doing? He had no idea.
***
Eli kicked his feet over empty space while he thought about where he was going to train. He sat on the roof of the abandoned gymnasium behind the school and stared out into the residential warren of Farbrook’s suburban hell. Smoke hung in a cloud of smog over the horizon of New Faram city, but very little of it had reached Farbrook yet. From the corner of his eye he watched some people wearing full clothing covering their faces and bodies skulking around, but he ignored them.
Who was he to judge? Maybe they were tired of being trapped too. Teleportation made it so he couldn't be stuck in a cage unless he wanted to be. Or so he wanted to believe. He leaned back so he could stare up into the endless gray of the night sky. He felt so torn. The more he considered the future and what had happened and what should have happened, the more frustrated he felt.
So many feelings warred inside of his heart.
A part of him wanted to stay with his family so he could defend them, but he couldn't stand being stuck with them. He had been so excited to start finally living his life and not being stuck in a neverending tutorial of school and obligation. Now he was a month shy from being an adult in what could easily become a post-apocalyptic world instead of just a moderately dystopian one.
Another part of him wanted to run as far away from everything as he possibly could. He didn't want to fight ever again. Something about being healed easier made it so much worse than whenever he’d been hurt pre-System. Eli was pretty sure he'd broken some of his bones at least twice in the last three days and he felt perfectly fine now. Better than fine. Dad and Lana’s argument kept repeating in his head too. What Dad said about the possibility of people flipping out over the slightest thing… that was a real concern.
Tom and his goons already took every chance to bully Eli that they could take before. If school did start up again and he went back… he’d have to deal with that again. But they’d all have powers. He could barely fight back before, but now he’d… he’d killed. Would a brawl start? Would police now be stationed at every school?
But. Eli couldn’t deny there was a larger than he would like dark thrill at the thought of finally being able to fight back. Before he was just a teenager with the weight of his family’s expectations on his shoulders and constant abuse and bullying at school. Now?
Now he had fucking superpowers. Powers that grew and changed with him. He could go anywhere with teleportation. For the first time, it felt like the world had opened up. No longer did he have to worry about Tom and his goons catfishing him with people interested in him all the way in the city. Or spreading his intimate info all over school. Sure, maybe he’d still get beaten. Except, now he could return the favor.
It was just that he was so tired. Exhausted even and he wasn’t even eighteen yet. He kicked his feet over the edge of the roof again and frowned up at the empty night sky that didn’t even have a single star shining. What was the point of living under constant expectations and pressure? Of toiling away for others’ approval when it was never enough?
He had to succeed. Surpass. Overcome.
He only wanted to live, but that wasn't even the bare minimum of success.
Eli clenched his jaw as he squeezed his fists at his side and glared at the sky. He didn't want to feel helpless like he had last night ever again. He didn't want to hear his sister scream in terror as a hooded man snuck into her room at night. Didn't want to see his father's horrified face when he saw an intruder burst like a pinata. See the horror on his mother’s face.
No.
Eli wanted to be better. He wanted to get strong enough that everyone would leave them alone. Strong enough that he would be in control. Maybe people would expect more of him, but at least he could back it up now.
In order to do that, he had to keep training.
Improving.
Preparing for what was to come. Lana was right. This wasn't over yet.
Eli glanced straight up into the night sky and teleported himself up into the air. Teleport after teleport shot him high into the air until he could see Farbrook laid bare beneath him. Warrens of residential areas with a strew of lit houses and pinpricks of streetlamps glowed white and amber beneath him. Roads snaked and sprawled like veins. Red and blue lights strobed in the night as police patrolled or dealt with whatever they were doing. All he knew is that it wasn't enough.
Gravity started to reclaim him as he reached the height of his ascent. Brisk air clawed at his skin, and throttled the air from his lungs with a gust that grew suffocating as he started to fall. His clothes flapped and fluttered like thunder. He glanced out over to the distant lights of New Faram and the patchwork of empty farmland or even plots of rural land and he grinned.
Eli's stomach gurgled from the staggering chain of teleports that he hopped through. Moments after choosing a new spot and teleporting with a concentrated flex of will, he'd shoot through the void in a blast of force only to do it again. Air streamed and gusted across his skin and his hair until it was slicked up and back. Nerves tingled and buzzed across his skin from the exhilarating chill of what he was doing. He wasn't flying, but did it matter when he was able to teleport as far as he could see and launch himself through the air?
Cloudbanks drifted through the air and soaked his clothes with beads of condensation, but only for a moment. He left all of the unnecessary moisture behind each time he teleported. Dark, gloomy land disappeared along with the rest of the world before appearing in a whiplash blur as he flew through the air until he stalled out and started to dive. Then it disappeared as the shutters of the void swallowed and spat him out again. Rural houses and small towns cropped up with lights like glittering jewels, but he ignored them as he drew closer to New Faram.
New Faram was a two and a half hour drive just to enter the city normally. But he could probably do it in twenty minutes considering he blitzed through the night sky with ease until he managed to find an empty plot of land surrounded by nothing. Nothing at all. Just empty woods on one side, barren land that was just soil and rock. It was practically a dump with what looked like a pack of rusted, old cars and metal oil barrels.
He teleported in another flex and stumbled as he landed in a crater in the ground. Dirt and rough grass exploded all around him in a shower that danced on the breeze he'd created.
"Fuck." Eli breathed out as he tried to climb out of the hole, but his whole body was numb and cold from all of the wind. He teleported out of it and wobbled as he landed on solid ground again. His eyes roved over the desolate landscape. There was no sign of anyone for miles, just like he'd thought. It was perfect. There was even a highway close by that he could probably use in case he got lost. He patted his pockets down and sighed at the necessary loss of his phone. There wasn't any point in sneaking out if he brought his phone with his Dad's Technomancy. Who knows if he could track the GPS signal or would notice if it just vanished from the house?
No. Eli had an analog watch that he'd found in his dresser that he used to wear when he was twelve. It was a basic thing of rubbery plastic that chafed against his wrist. He had an old flashlight that he'd taken the batteries out of... and that was about it. A brush of teleportation was enough to make the batteries and flashlight appear in his hands. Another teleportation aligned the batteries and a flick of his thumb brought radiant light to the pitch black night.
He grabbed the flashlight with telekinesis as he lifted, turned, and angled it over behind his head so it'd follow his gaze as he started to wander over to the abandoned cars in his new training field. All of the windows were cracked or shattered entirely. If there were seats, they were a watterlogged rotten mess. Rust pitted most of the doors and the trunks, but the frame seemed solid enough. A quick push with telekinesis proved they were all still solid, hefty weights.
There were three oil barrels that were full of old stagnant rainwater and were caked in mud. But why worry about that when a quick touch of his hand was enough to teleport all of that gunk away and out in a ditch? Now he had three oil barrels, five abandoned cars in various states of junk, and a whole lot of land to play around in. He spun in a circle to study all of it for a moment before grinning to himself.
This was perfect.
Telekinesis flared to life as he lifted up one oil barrel while light streamed into one of his hands from the flashlight as he began to train. If his parents' enemies, Dave and Sandra, or any of their fellow prisoners, Tom, or any other home invader assholes wanted to mess with Eli Newton?
They'd be in for a surprise. He was going to be ready for them.
Telekinesis shuddered in a wave as he snapped it out to throw the oil barrel as high as he could before shooting in the charged crimson beam in his left hand. A glowing orange oval marked the falling barrel before it crashed with a loud reverberating thrum and a gust of dirt and grass.