Mark said farewell to his parents as they set off to claim their Home Bases, and turned towards the Crystal Ball - the only real feature of the "Base" aside from the hidden entrance. He sat in front of it and, as the classic instructions always said "Gazed into the crystal ball". It's was about a 6" ball of pure, clear crystal of some kind. Immediately, he could see a pinpoint of light form in the center of it, brightening as he sharpened his attention on it. After a short time, he could make it pulse in intensity or shift color a bit. About 15 minutes in, he felt something shift within himself and could FEEL in his mind the same spark of light he was looking at.
Dan coughed slightly to get his attention, disrupting the image in the crystal, but not the inner feeling, and asked how it was going. "There's an energy there, and I can feel it inside me now" Mark responded, explaining briefly. Dan suggested checking out his App for status changes, and Mark quickly found he had made Mage level 2 and gained a point. There was also a new option under Mind, called "Visualization". Dan also pointed out that the room was well lit, but there were no sources of illumination, and no shadows.
Mark had Dan try looking into the crystal, but nothing appeared for him beyond a slight headache. However, on looking at his menu afterwards, Dan could now see an extra note beside his "locked" energy control option - "unlock, 20 points". So maybe he COULD learn magic as well, but it seemed to be outside his current Path. Better to let Mark explore that direction, Dan decided, as he had plenty of other directions to focus on. The big question was if he could get to his own Base, and what would be in it. For now, he needed a nap - the trip ahead probably wouldn't be easy. He told Mark to go ahead and play with Magic until his parents came back, and Dan would make use of the cot and rest up.
Mark did exactly that, slowly making his tiny dot of energy in the crystal do stuff, and feeling the feedback in the energy he felt within. He could feel heat and cold effects, a vibrating effect, and a static electric effect, he soon discovered, he could also do inwards and outwards feelings of pressure after the first hour. When he checked in with his App, he had gained 2 more levels in Mage and another 5 points. He decided to put points into Spell Research Rate, 1 level cost 1 point, the 2nd cost 2 and each supposedly gave him a 1% overall improvement - not much, but at least they seemed to be cumulative percentages, not static. He saw that the 3rd improvement would cost 3 points (not 4, thankfully), but didn't invest in it yet.
After he had a good feel for the energy in his body, Mark tried moving it around and getting a sharper focus for where and how it was manifesting in his body parts. Heat and cold, he found, could get to painful levels if focused too sharply into a small enough area. By the end of the next hour, Mark was able to make one hand as hot as he could tolerate and the other cold - he guessed about 50 degrees F to 110 degrees F was his range for hands and feet. The efforts to that point had him mentally exhausted, but he had made it to Mage level 5 and gained 4 more points.
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Steve and Judith returned and joined the young men to plan the next step - getting Dan to his Home Base, which was still over 60 miles away. Steve advised him to "play dumb" and not carry along ANY Wi-Fi device on the trip. Dan thought he was being too paranoid, but agreed to have his phone and laptop fully powered down and hidden away. Dan felt fairly safe since he had his internal interface for access even if he had to abandon his technology. He was also supposed to deny everything if asked about anything related to what they had learned.
They didn't have enough extra gas to justify taking both vehicles, but Steve gave him one of the 5 gal cans worth for the pickup - which should be plenty to get him as far as roads could take him. He kept only a backpack's worth of supplies, as he would probably have to leave the truck for an extended time once he headed out for his Base. They estimated Mark had about 10 days supplies, while Steve and Judith had about 2 month's worth - most of which they had unloaded at Judith's Base, which had the easier access.
The Carters would camp out, Judith and Mark working on making their new abilities useful, while Steve would head out to find out how the authorities were reacting to the new paradigm and try to find independent contacts. Dan (in Research mode) asked Steve and Judith about their Bases. Steve's was IN a huge tree on a rough rocky slope and was a perfect Sniper's nest, with great viewpoints, lines of sight, and cover. Judith's had looked to Steve like just another mud puddle, until she calmly walked up, grabbed a rock near one edge of the "puddle", and simply slid the whole thing aside, revealing a wide ramp down to her Base.
Dan was given detailed instructions on how to find Judith's Base, since that would be their central supply depot. Steve gave nothing more away about his own Base location "What you don't know, you can't tell". He hadn't even taken Judith along to find it.
Shortly after that, one of Steve's "radio checks" showed that several major stations were back on the air, and they all heard the "Public Service Announcement". Steve said "Oh shit!" and quickly had them power down all phones. Dan did so, but told Steve "Don't you get it - this will be a perfect excuse for me to travel! I don't need the Wi-Fi anyway, and can get my phone officially "fixed" on the way. Then I can just pretend to be one of the true patriots, following all the rules and promising to be on the lookout for those "mind damaged zombies" out there. I'll call the 800-number as soon as I get near the highway and try to get a "service location" as near to my Base as possible."
Steve thought it over and agreed it should work, especially when told that the next level of "Interface" included internet access - and added that to his own priority list as well. Plans in place, Dan headed back down to I-5 and made the call.