Tessa pulled up to what looked like a warehouse with other warehouses surrounding it.
"This is the bunker?" Terrance asked.
"Well, the bunker part is underground, it does provide more anonymity and conveniences than a conspicuous shed in the middle of nowhere with a satellite dish and nowhere to buy groceries.
"I assume the car pulls into the warehouse?"
"Yeah, but I have to go unlock it first. You can pull it in if you want."
"Sure, I can do that"
Tessa got out of the car and headed towards the warehouse door while Terrance walked around to the driver's side. Tessa went inside and after a few minutes, one of the bay doors with a ramp up to it opened. Terrance drove the car into it and Tessa closed the bay door behind him.
As Terrance stepped out of the car, he was hit with the smell of musty air mixed with the scent of cleaning chemicals and maybe faint diesel fuel. The room was dimly lit, and he could barely make out the outlines of boxes and crates stacked against the walls. Tessa led him to a door at the back of the room, and they descended a flight of stairs to a lower level.
As they reached the bottom of the stairs, Terrance could hear the hum of generators and no longer smell the faint scent of diesel fuel from above.
They came to a metal door that looked like it belonged to a small vault or to a sci-fi spaceship. Tessa pulled out her phone and then typed in a code on the pin pad.
They walked through a long hallway lined with doors before finally arriving at a regular but nice-looking door. Tessa opened it and as Terrance looked around, he was surprised to see that the inside of the bunker looked like a luxurious apartment. There was a big-screen TV, a comfortable-looking sectional couch, and what might be a fully-stocked kitchen.
"Wow, this is much better than I expected," Terrance said, as he walked around the space. Tessa looked relieved and smiled.
Tessa smiled, "The Council wanted to make sure that you were comfortable while you stayed here. This is your home for the foreseeable future, so we wanted to make sure that you had everything you needed. You can also continue to work from here, we've made sure you have a high-speed internet connection."
Terrance nodded while trying to sound grateful despite his reservations, "Thank you, Tessa. I really appreciate all that you and the Council are doing for me. It's just a lot to take in, you know?"
"I understand, Terrance," Tessa said, placing a comforting hand on his shoulder. "But we're here for you. We'll get through this together."
Terrance smiled, feeling a sense of relief wash over him. He knew that he was in good hands with Tessa, and he guessed the same applied to the rest of the Council.
As Tessa showed Terrance around the bunker, he couldn't help but feel a sense of excitement mixed with the anxiety. He had to leave his home, but at least he would not be in some barely hospitable hole in the ground.
"The movers will be bringing your belongings, hopefully, today, but tomorrow at the latest. They will park the truck outside and then unload the stuff into the warehouse above. We will have to bring the stuff down into the bunker for security reasons. If there is stuff we can't move down here, there is a clean room upstairs that it should be fine in. I have an order with some food and supplies coming in a few hours." Tessa said.
"There is only one bedroom here" Terrance noted.
"Well, I will just sleep on the couch for tonight. Your furniture will be here tomorrow," Tessa said while trying not to seem uncomfortable and looking around and decidedly not at Terrance.
"Tessa, you realize you are sharing your emotions right now," Terrance said matter-of-factly.
Tessa blushed and dashed into the bathroom and closed and locked the door behind her.
"Tessa, are you okay?" Terrance asked through the door, "I'm used to you doing it, it was just especially strong this time."
"Go away for a little bit Terrance. I am embarrassed." Tessa replied.
"I can tell, but you don't have to be. I don't mind. It's actually nice to know what you are feeling." Terrance said.
"Thanks for that Terrance, but I still need some space."
"Okay, let me know if you need anything but don't feel like leaving the bathroom," Terrance said. Tessa heard him walk away from the door.
Tessa started furiously thinking about the whole situation.
'When did it get so hard to keep my emotions inside and not broadcast them?' Tessa thought to herself.
---
Terrance went over to the table in the corner of the living room and started setting it up as his desk. Tessa had brought in a duffle bag he hadn't seen her use before, but Terrance was respecting her privacy and leaving it alone for now. He didn't have much to set up but one extra monitor, his laptop, and peripherals. He would look for the internet hookup while he waited for Tessa to have her private time in the bathroom.
---
Tessa came out of the bathroom more collected and with a more normal expression.
"Are we pretending it didn't happen?" Terrance asked.
"I have no idea what you are talking about," she replied.
"Okay, we can pretend it didn't happen for now. The world is already on fire, we can handle the weird emotions between us later. I'm sure being in this bunker together for the next month will definitely be fine." Terrance said.
"I can't tell if you are being sarcastic or trying to be positive about things," Tess said with a pout.
"You could just peek inside my head." Terrance shot back.
"I'm not going to do... HOW CAN YOU BE SARCASTIC AND SERIOUS AT THE EXACT SAME TIME!?" Tessa said while getting more incredulous.
Terrance just started chuckling and winked at her.
---
After Tessa was once again calm, she remembered she had a surprise for Terrance.
"Terrance, close your eyes and come here!" she squealed.
"I can't do it in that order without tripping since this is an unfamiliar place, but I will come closer and then close my eyes" Terrance retorted.
Tessa rolled her eyes at him exaggeratedly but then smirked when she knew Terrance was looking. When he got to her and closed his eyes, she got one of the laptops out of the duffle bag.
"Hold out your arms in front of you, palms facing up," she said. Terrance did so, and she placed the laptop in his hands.
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"Surprise! Open your eyes! This is your very own multiversal laptop!" Tessa said excitedly.
Terrance's eyes widened in surprise as he opened his eyes. He looked down at the laptop in his hands, examining it closely. It looked like a regular laptop, maybe a bit heavy and thick, but he knew it was anything but if Tessa was this excited.
"How did you even get this?" Terrance exclaimed.
Tessa smiled, "Let's just say that the Council has access to some pretty advanced technology. And we got permission to smuggle it through the current ban on extradimensional tech."
Terrance grinned, feeling a sense of excitement coursing through him.
"What are the specs? You are grinning so wide, and you are broadcasting smug excitement right now."
Tessa tried to pull back her psychic broadcasting, but it only partially worked. She didn't let that dampen her excitement as she proclaimed, "It has a very powerful regular processor along with a quantum processor, one petabyte of storage, an operating system that could natively run nearly any software, one terabyte of RAM, and it can even project small holograms that fit within a cubic foot of space. It's also supposed to be loaded with cybersecurity tools better than what your universe offers. I admit I am just telling you what I am told about the specs, but I have my own and it's great!"
"No way, Tessa. This is amazing!" Terrance exclaimed, grinning from ear to ear.
"I thought you might like it," Tessa said, smiling at his excitement. "Just be careful with it, okay? It's a powerful tool, but it can also be dangerous in the wrong hands."
"I will. Thank you so much, Tessa. This means a lot to me," Terrance said, feeling a sense of gratitude towards Tessa and the Council.
Tessa nodded, "You're welcome, Terrance. Just remember to take everything in stride. This is a lot to handle, but you're not alone in this."
---
It had been two weeks in the bunker, and the outside world had several more incidents happen as people's powers emerged. There seemed to be very little actual control of powers happening. The fire guy that made the news before seemed to be the exception, not the norm. He was a clay sculptor and had a pottery shop, so it seemed that some skill there may have been related to his ability to shape fire pretty much when his ability manifested. The multiversal authorities had sent people from Earth-255 (Tessa's Earth) to try and help the Earth-256 governments handle the ongoing superpower crises, but the scale of the incidents was larger than what even they were used to.
Terrance and Tess saw all of this unfold through the internet and some television news while in the bunker.
Despite the chaos outside, Terrance and Tessa had managed to create a comfortable routine for themselves in the bunker. They would work during the day going over information and with Terrance tweaking his new computer and then spend the evenings cooking together and watching movies on the big screen TV when they couldn't deal with more bad news from the world. As they spent more time together, Tessa found herself becoming increasingly attracted to Terrance. She had found him to be intelligent and funny, but now she was noticing his kind heart even when he was stoic. When she peeked in his mind, she could see his worry about the world, but not knowing how to help.
Tessa felt like her power was stronger here, but she couldn't tell for sure since she was so used to suppressing it. With only Terrance around, she didn't have to mentally clench it all the time since Terrance didn't mind her skimming surface thoughts.
"Terrance, I've been pushing the Council to let us smuggle in a medicine fabricator since this world is having more and more supply chain issues. They are usually restricted pretty heavily, but I think we can get away with it as long as we just use it for our own medicines. The small model doesn't have a very large or fast output anyway, so even if we wanted to, we could really only create medicine for maybe a few more people in an emergency. I know if I run out of my meds, it will be hard or impossible for me to be completely functional."
"Thanks, Tessa, that has been a concern. I have enough for about two more months, but I don't know if I could even get a few refilled if it was time due to the shortages. I'm so glad you stocked up on toilet paper."
"Oh yeah, we had a time on my Earth even before the upheaval where a pandemic shut down a lot of supply chain stuff. People were fighting over toilet paper. I never go below at least twelve rolls stocked up after that. Some people tried to push bidets, but I couldn't get used to it." Tessa replied surprisingly seriously.
"I will make note of that. I take it that influenced your knowledge of what to stock up"
"Yep. The Council has their recommendations, but I took them and added my own, too." Tessa said while smiling proudly.
"Ah, that makes more sense now. I have been wondering why we had so many bags of pickle chips and jars of pickles. I understood the meal bars, the dried fruit, the nuts, and most of the other things. I knew you liked pickle stuff, but it was a lot."
"You don't want to see me without my favorite snacks," Tessa said darkly. Terrance was a little worried for a moment, but then she bounced back to her normal self, so he just made a mental note to never eat the pickles or pickle chips to prolong them for as long as possible.
Terrance went to sit on the couch and Tess followed closely behind him. She had started off sitting on her own square of the couch, but Terrance had noticed the space between them was shrinking every time they both were on the couch.
Tessa's phone chimed and she exclaimed, "Yes! Eight P.M. It's my night to choose the activity! Close up the work stuff and depressing news, Terrance. Tonight I'm hooking up my multiversal laptop to the TV and I'm going to show you the amazing game of Ramio Go Go Go Karts! I have controllers, I will go get them." Then Tessa raced over to the drawers where she kept some of her stuff.
Terrance was nonplussed at the explosion of words and activity. He had learned back when they were in his home that Tessa needed some kind of fun activity every day whether it was a video game, some kind of book, or watching a movie or shows. If there wasn't by the time night rolled around, she would either be very grumpy or would start going on wild tangents and trying to figure out some aspect of his world that was different. He thought this was fine at first until he realized she would get stuck on something for hours and then not sleep enough. So, they had come up with nightly activities at eight p.m. She had been even more excited in the bunker for it. He figured it was a combination of getting to show himself from her world since she had her own laptop back now and the fact that they mostly stayed in the bunker at all times.
Terrance had slept on the couch that first night in the bunker and had Tessa take the bedroom. After that night, they had managed to get his bed down into the bunker after it arrived the next day. Terrance was surprised when Tessa came out in her nightwear to get coffee in the mornings. He was usually asleep pretty hard, but she was a bit clumsy, so sometimes she'd wake him up. The first time he woke up, he lay very still and slowly peeked over at the kitchen area. He was greeted by the sight of her bent over while grumbling. Normally seeing someone clean coffee grounds off the floor was no big deal, but her butt was facing him, and her underwear and shapely bare legs were on full display. She then stood up and turned and he realized she was doing this all in her night clothes and she only had a very thin white shirt covering her top. Terrance had immediately closed his eyes and from then on refused to look when she did her usual coffee-making shenanigans if she woke him up.
Terrance was thinking about this when all of a sudden Tessa turned and looked at him mortified.
"I thought you were always asleep!" she exclaimed.
'Ah yes, no mental privacy lately' Terrance thought wryly. He decided to be smug about it since she had promised not to get mad about his thoughts if she was peeking without warning him. He thought very carefully about how her shapely behind looked and she started blushing.
"Ahh, I can't disconnect!" Tessa exclaimed then stumbled backwards and fell on her butt.
Terrance immediately felt bad and stopped thinking about it and got off the couch to go check on Tessa.
"Are you okay?" he asked.
"Why are you so... so... I don't know the right word! You are so serious but then you throw in the corny jokes and you make a dry statement that's funny that catches me off guard. And now you are thinking about my butt! I can't even" Tessa said while being visibly flustered. She then continued, "Terrance, I peek into your mind without even realizing it, I'm broadcasting my emotions more... I don't know what's going on. My power seems harder to control. At first, I thought it was just that I let my guard down around you, but I think it's more. Being around you or being in your world or both are making my power stronger I think. I know I'm supposed to be here for you, but I don't think you understand what your casual acceptance of me and me invading your mental privacy constantly means to me." Tessa had started tearing up while she was talking.
Terrance didn't know what the right words were, so he just sat on the floor beside her and hugged Tessa. She clung onto Terrance while softly crying and he just held her. She was broadcasting her feelings so loud, the need for comfort while also being happy that Terrance accepted her. It made Terrance's heart ache as he just held her. He started rubbing her back and they sat like that for a while. She closed her eyes and laid against Terrance's chest and somehow ended up nearly in Terrance's lap.
"We are still going to play Ramio Go Go Go Karts" she muttered, "and I'm going to win."
Terrance just smiled and said, "I expect you to win a game you love and that I have never played."
"Dang it, don't take this from me," she said with a mock pout and then winked at him.
She then continued, "Okay, I'm feeling better, thanks, Terrance." She then kissed Terrance on the cheek and froze.
"Tessa?" Terrance started.
"Uhh, let's play video games!" she exclaimed and then burst off the floor to get things set up and to try to escape what she just did.
Terrance was left with hundreds of thoughts racing through his head, many of which were related the strange situation he found himself in, his worry about the world, but mostly wondering if it was okay to be attracted to what was technically the female version of himself from another universe.
'Maybe Tessa is right, and we should just play this game and try to avoid the topic, but I don't think that is feasible in the long run,' he thought.