The rest of the day went by without issue for the most part. I ate with the girls and had a good time. Lizzy and Lori being pretty girls got my awkward ass more than a few curious and jealous looks from some of the younger guys. Apparently, I wasn’t looking appreciative enough of eating with two cute ladies. That’s what Lori told me when she read the room, anyway. Lizzy being completely uninterested in any of the guys who were very obviously checking her out did nothing to endear me to any of them either.
And, shocker, it turned out she was totally right about taking it easy the rest of the day. After we ate and I was guided back home, the fatigue hit me like a ton of bricks. I knew that it wasn’t helped at all by the poor night of sleep I’d gotten. My mind and body felt like they were jelly. Everything was just sluggish and unresponsive. I ate dinner in a fog, and while I had originally planned to sneak in some light practice in my room, I was out like a light the moment my head hit the pillow.
That’s why when I woke up the next day and saw that I had three texts from between eight and nine in the evening, I realized how well I’d actually slept. One was from Shelly telling me goodnight, another was from Lori asking if I wanted to do more training, and the third was from Lizzy insisting that I’d be doing more training. I felt a bit guilty at not having seen their messages until I woke up before deciding that the good night of sleep was well worth it. Lori must’ve given her my number sometime after we split ways. Or maybe Lizzy just forced it out of her, since she was hard to say no to.
Regardless of how she got it, I replied back to the both of them confirming my interest and asked for some more help getting there. Lori agreed quickly and gave me a time to be ready by, thankfully not being nearly as early. That gave me a bit of time to shower and make sure I wasn’t gonna suddenly collapse from my prior day’s practice. Right when I figured out that I’d be fine, both Lori and Lizzy showed up. Naturally, when Shelly saw Lizzy, she glanced at me and gave me a sly grin. After that, I shoved them out of our home, giving Lizzy and Shelly just enough time to shout introductions. Never had I wanted to be out of my own living space so much, so I just quickly asked them what was on the training regimen for the day.
“Well, if someone hadn’t left me on read last night, they might know what the plan was.” Lizzy poked my ribs with a perfectly manicured nail. I grimaced a little bit, mostly from her bony finger. Having Lizzy and Lori touch me wasn’t the worst thing in the world. “So, it looks like it’ll have to be a surprise!”
“If it means anything, I went to bed, so you weren’t really left on read. I just didn’t read it all.”
“Objection overruled. Still going to be a surprise, bud.”
This time when we made our way down, I made sure to pay more attention to where we were going. I’d only been there a bit, but everything was already starting to feel a little more familiar, and I’d begun to recognize some faces in some of the little cafes that we passed. It felt nice to have that sense of familiarity and it gave me some hope that I’d really be able to make this place my home.
When we ended up passing the same room that we used yesterday, I was curious if maybe someone else had claimed that room for the time. “We’re not using the same one as yesterday?”
“Nope,” Lizzy said, coming to a stop a couple rooms down. She signed all our names on the paper and hesitated before entering. “Um, I asked Alex to help out. Since you still have your present, I thought about what we did yesterday, and I think it might help you advance quicker.”
Lori, as expected, perked up almost instantly. She began to run her fingers through her hair, seemingly subconsciously. I wasn’t thrilled at the prospect of training with him, but since my friend had the hots for him, I was determined to make the most out of it. Bite the bullet for the both of us. She took a deep breath and I knew she was working to beat down her stutter. “You said Alex?”
“Yeah, I think this can be good for both him and Ethan,” Lizzy continued. If she knew about Lori’s crush at all, she didn’t point it out or embarrass Lori. With what I knew about her intuition, I’d have been surprised if she didn’t at least have any idea. “If Ethan can’t do what I’m hoping he can, this might be a complete waste of time.”
“What is it exactly that you’re hoping Ethan can do?” I asked. I followed her into the room and saw Alex standing there. I felt some anxiety and apprehension fill me, but I did my best to give a friendly wave.
“Please don’t tell me you asked me here to babysit,” Alex said, crossing his arms. “I have better things to do with my time.”
“What is your problem with me?” I asked, taking a shaky step forward. “I don’t know what Lizzy wants us to do, but-”
“You don’t even know what you can do!” Alex yelled back, himself taking a much more confident step forward. “I have been busting my ass for Pittsburgh and I need to be at my best.”
“Enough!” Lizzy snapped, placing a hand on both of our arms. I held back an instinctual flinch. I wasn’t going to lose any more ground. Plus, I could feel the restraint that Lizzy was exerting. It was taking basically everything she had to not dig her nails into both of our forearms at that point. “You aren’t the only one who needs practice, Alex. Help me out this one time to see if it works, okay? I’ll pay you back.”
Alex took a few seconds to ponder the request, his muscular frame finally relaxing. Even if he had some strange beef with me, he did seem to at least respect Lizzy and her request. I tried to calm my body to bring the tension down too. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Lori visibly wincing at the entire thing, so I had to make her my rock to keep me down and prevent me from losing my cool at the guy she liked. Her face gradually softened, so I think that the overall emotion in the room had settled somewhat.
“Fine, I’ll help,” Alex said, turning to me, looking much less antagonistic. “Do you know what you can do yet?”
“We’re not entirely sure. It might be telekinesis or something like it.” I appreciated Lizzy answering in my stead. “It’s a work in progress still. I’m sure you can tell that I gave him that little present on his face. It helped yesterday, and I think that there’s something that can benefit both of you today. For Ethan, this is going to be a completely defensive test, and for you, I want you to go all out.”
“What defensive lesson did you have in mind?” Alex asked, seemingly curious now that an idea of my actual power had been laid out.
“The way he described using it...didn’t seem exactly like telekinesis in the way that someone might think. It was more of a physical act of pushing something with his mind, not moving or grabbing something.”
“Meaning...?” Alex didn’t seem to follow Lizzy’s train of thought, and really, I wasn’t either.
Not hiding her disappointment, she sighed. “I don’t have a better name for it right now. I think he can do more than simply move things with his mind. You’re going to help him with a barrier. He brings one up with his brain, you try to break it down. Ideally, the barrier gets stronger, and you get to use more force in destroying it. Both of you get to try and outmuscle each other, so to speak.”
For the first time, I saw Alex smile at something. That made me a bit nervous. My only exposure to the dude hadn’t exactly given me the warm fuzzies, and he seemed to have a pretty good grasp on his own Anomaly. Plus, Lizzy seemed to be asking a lot of a first timer with creating a barrier just because she had a hunch. The idea did hold some kind of appeal to me, and I would have been lying if I said I didn’t want to create a barrier that he couldn’t punch through.
“Both in agreement? Lovely, then let’s get started.” Lizzy impatiently ushered us into the training room without letting either of us answer.
The first thing I noticed about this room was that it had some differences between the one I’d done the puck training in. There was no podium, but there were markings on the ground that reminded me of a basketball court someone had no idea how to paint. All the lines were perfectly symmetrical, and I was guessing that Lizzy would want us to stand on certain lines to measure distance.
I ended up being right and she guided both of us exactly where she wanted. She put me on a dot that was dead in the center of the floor. In front of me, there was a line that ran across the room, and I guessed that it was exactly five feet in front of me. Lizzy had placed Alex just beyond that line after seeing how far he could reach with his arms. I wasn’t thrilled at being that close. The dude could have cracked me like an egg and smoked me like a salmon. Knowing that, I wasn’t going to let myself look like a chicken and ask to move farther back.
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“I don’t care how you do it, but I want you to try and manifest a barrier on that line in front of Alex,” Lizzy instructed, folding her arms. “Make it as large as you can. Right now, I want to be sure you even can create what I’m asking for. We can work on the precision of it all later.
“And Alex, once Ethan gives the okay, you’re going to lay into the barrier. I know that subtlety isn’t your favorite thing, but please don’t be a dick and try to destroy it with all your power. I’ll say it again, I want him to gradually build up a strong barrier. Then you can go nuts.”
With that, she backed off and put all the pressure on me. I started at the floor, thinking that having a visual base would help me. I focused on the line and tried my trick from yesterday. In my head, Lizzy’s giftbox sat enticingly behind an invisible force field. No matter how hard I tried to punch or kick through it, it refused to budge. I even tried a mental push on it, but it still held firm despite my best efforts.
It wasn’t much, but I saw a faint shimmer about three feet long running the line. No one else seemed to comment on it, so I wasn’t sure if it was just a trick of the light. When it didn’t fade away, I was sure I wasn’t just hallucinating it. Mentally, I raised the barrier blocking my giftbox, and the three-foot line matched the shield in my head. Calmly and carefully, I got it to above Alex’s height to ensure that he wouldn’t miss, as funny as that’d be. When it was fully raised, I barely could see the pink-purple shimmer. It should have been difficult for me to see, but at the same time, I was aware of its size perfectly.
“Can you guys see that?” I asked, worried I might shatter the barrier by making any sound. They all confirmed to me that they couldn’t see anything, but I noticed Alex readying up. His entire right arm and fist began to glow that same dim yellow I saw from his sparring session. I shut down the giftbox scenario in my head, hoping to see if that would hurt my barrier at all, but it still stood strong. Just to be safe, I did keep my focus on the object in front of me, which seemed to keep it up and standing.
“Dominant arm at ten percent,” Alex said, pulling his fist back. He looked a bit unsure of where to punch exactly, glancing around in front of him. He narrowed his eyes and decided to keep it straightforward. I forced myself not to flinch when he launched his fist forward. His knuckles met my shield with an audible crack, not unlike the sound splintering glass might make. It was tough for me to really understand the sensation, but I could feel the barrier getting hit and damaged in my head. Sadly, my entire barrier crumbled like it was nothing. Alex pulled his fist back, confusedly looking at where he’d hit, but still unable to see anything. “You definitely made a barrier. Did it break?”
“It did,” I said looking sheepish. “You ran right through it like it was a piece of paper. Nice punch.”
“No, it was about ten percent of what I could do,” Alex said, damn sure to ruin any moment or compliment he could. “But for something you’ve just manifested, that’s quite good.”
“He’s right, Ethan.” Lizzy stepped between myself and my barrier, trying to find any indication that it actually existed. “If I hadn’t heard the impact, I’d think you were both in on a prank. Then again, Alex probably doesn’t know what a prank is.”
Before Alex could interject, Lori added her own comment. “That’s so cool! I’ve seen telekinetics before, but this isn’t the same. They could only use physical objects to act as a shield, but this is something else. It’s like...it’s like...I don’t know! It’s awesome!”
“Okay, if you’re going to be a cheerleader, go get into uniform. I have a miniskirt you can borrow.” Lizzy turned to face Lori, her gaze hard. I was learning fast that the Lizzy inside a training room was a completely different beast compared to the one outside a training room. “Because I want you to hone your own powers too.”
“But my-” Lori began.
Lizzy held up her hand. “We’ve been too complacent all these years. Everyone’s been so determined to hide what they can do that they never really stopped to think about what they can do. Well, we have someone who revealed that secret, and there’s no getting that toothpaste back in the tube this time. There’s no magic we can work that can keep the public largely unaware. It is do or die for all of us, and that’s why I want everyone in this room to get better.”
“I...I’m sorry,” Lori said, looking at her shoes. “You’re right. I can’t be the only one not working toward improving.”
“Damn right you can’t be,” Lizzy agreed, this time with a confident smile. She wrapped a supportive arm around Lori’s narrow shoulders. “But you’re a stronger girl than you give yourself credit for. Every time one of these nice boys does something in here, I want you to note any change in their moods. Read their hearts like they’re your favorite book. Tell me how many times their emotions change from now until the next punch.”
“Any orders for me?” Alex asked, maybe attempting the first thing close to a joke I’d heard him crack. Lizzy’s confidence did seem to get him a little riled up, so he probably wouldn’t have minded actually getting some orders.
“Don’t you worry that handsome head,” she said, returning to her spot next to Lori. “Let Ethan remake that shield, you bump it up to thirty percent, and then we’ll see if you need me to boss you around.”
Taking that as my cue to get back to work, I tried repairing the shield first. It didn’t take too long to make the first one, but being able to repair it was something that was nagging at me in the back of my head. How invaluable would it be if I could set up a shield and repair it before any chance of damage came through? Maybe if I could do that, I would actually be able to stop people from getting hurt. I could keep myself and my family safe.
Using that as motivation, I focused on healing the crack. I tried without any mental imagery, and to my surprise, the webs running along the shimmer began to mend. It was slower than I would have liked, but the progress was undeniable. I felt a heat run through my body and I attributed that to my excitement. When the mend completed, I mentally tried to reinforce the barrier a bit to withstand the next blow. I couldn’t visually see anything, though my connection to the shield felt a bit firmer. I noted the apparent connection my mind had with it to ask someone about later.
I nodded toward Alex to signal that it was ready. He nodded back and his arm regained its glow, this time coming in brighter. Getting a better look at his arm, I could almost feel the power radiating off him. I didn’t really have anything to compare it with, but I’d have to bring up the idea of seeing him hit solid steel to see the result. For all I knew, his ten percent power punch might not be significantly stronger than a normal punch, which would probably have made my barrier weaker than glass.
“Dominant arm at thirty percent,” he said, just like the first time. Once again, he pulled back and let loose. The second time around, unfortunately, my barrier stood no chance. The thing shattered the moment he struck it, putting up no resistance. It actually put up so little fight that Alex nearly fell through with the force of his punch, expecting something to stop him. There was a distinct, uncomfortable feeling in the base of my skull as I watched the shimmering fragments fade away to nothing. It wasn’t quite like pain, more like a tingling sensation that didn’t belong there. A cold shiver ran down my spine from it, and it made me resolve to up my barrier’s strength.
Lizzy clicked her tongue and once again tried to spot any sign of the destroyed shield “I figured thirty percent would be a bit much at first. Ah well, a girl can hope. Awesome work regardless, boys. Alex, you stay at that level for now and let’s see if Ethan can get a barrier that can withstand it.”
After that, we spent at least an hour trying the same thing. Manifesting the barrier became easy and fast. I didn’t need to use the visualization tricks in my head, and I could feel the thing getting a teeny bit stronger each time. They also crumbled each time, so they weren’t strong enough. I was disappointed and annoyed. Disappointed at my inability to create a stronger shield and annoyed at that tingling that hit every time one shattered to nothing. Since I’d started to expect it, it didn’t feel as bad as it first did, but it was still an annoyance. I tried to liken it back to Lizzy’s comparison to going to the gym. It might be easy to start with ten pound weights, but if that was my limit, I’d have to build that limit higher and higher each time.
Eventually, I lost count of how many shields I’d even created. Sweat was pouring down my face, chest, and arms. I didn’t even want to imagine what my underarms looked like. They felt—and likely smelled—bad enough. Alex looked barely winded with only a thin layer of sweat creating a small sheen on his face. Lizzy and Lori remained mostly silent, both intense in their own separate observations of our little test. To Lizzy’s credit, she didn’t try to push me too hard, yet I didn’t have to be Lori to feel the high expectation coming from her.
The next time, I put everything I could muster into the barrier. I retained the same size and shape of the others, but all my concentration went into durability, and the connection with it was awesome. To my mind, it felt like what a reliable shield would feel like on someone’s arm. I admit that I beamed with a bit of pride at it, and it even seemed to look more tangible. I swore I could see actual edges on it, but no one commented on it, so I couldn’t be sure.
Ready again, I nodded toward Alex to do his worst. Like a machine at that point, he went through the motions like usual. When his fist connected with the barrier, instead of crumbling away, it managed to stay standing! Okay, granted, the entire thing was cracked badly. It was still standing. Alex almost immediately grinned when his arm stopped against what likely looked like air to him. I heard Lizzy applaud and congratulate both of us.
I turned to face her and the proud expression she wore shifted to one of shock. Her mouth seemed to move, but she wasn’t actually saying anything. Not sure what the concern was, I rubbed some sweat from my upper lip that must’ve rolled down past my nose. When I lifted my hand to motion to her that I couldn’t hear, I noticed that my hand wasn’t covered in sweat. A red smear of blood covered most of the back of my hand. I looked down at the ground, confused about why there was blood on me, and I saw that it was dripping at my feet as well.
When it finally registered in my head that it was my blood and that Lizzy had probably been speaking after all, a sharp, stabbing pain took root at the same spot the tingling feeling had originated from. My legs went wobbly and I could feel myself falling, almost in slow motion. Everyone seemed to be spinning around. I tried to will my arms to move to catch myself before I hit the ground, but I couldn’t get them to react fast enough. Somewhere in my head, I was screaming for my legs to try and buckle in a way that would break the fall a bit for my upper body. That was useless too. It was like my brain couldn’t get any reasonable command sent to any part of my body.
I dropped like a sack of bricks, and the last thing I remember seeing was Lori’s look of horror and Lizzy trying to reach out to me. To her credit, she really did try to get to me in time. She just wasn’t fast enough. The moment my head smacked the hard ground, I was out cold.