Author's Note: Mmmkay, it's been sooo long since I've heard from my Beta so I figured, eh, might as well post it. But, anywho, this is an edited chapter one, split into two chapters.. each one over ten pages long. And I was supposed to make it shorter... But, anyway, I think it's much better and as soon as exams are over and done with I'll be restarting the story up and typing out moar!
Chapter 1: Introductions Part 1
The children weren't paying attention. Dull, unfocused eyes stared blankly at the wall behind Paige, mouths gaping in expressions of stupidity. Of course, not all the children were acting like retarded monkey's. Oh, no, they just happened to be doing something worse. Tesset and Sam, the troublemakers, were levitating a defenceless squirrel that had dared come too close to one of the windows. At least Olive and Buster were attempting to look interested, completely ignoring the muffled snorts of mirth behind them but the effect was broken by the slight smoking of Olive's hair ribbons and the expression of intense trying-not-to-catch-on-fire she sported.
Paige sighed. How long had she been teaching uninterested psychic rats, anyways? Three? Hmm... maybe it was two and a half. She would have to check her calendar. Well, this lesson was an important one so Paige decided to liven it up.
"For example take Razputin Aquato-" She smiled inwardly as heads perked and eyes focused intently on the teacher. Their hero, the Youngest Psychonaut Ever always got their attention. Every time. "His Primary Psychic Power is Telepathy. Now, Telepathy is connected to Clairvoyance and Empathy but Agent Razputin has no Empathy whatsoever. Can anyone tell me why this is?"
Paige raised her eyebrows at the class and crossed her arms over her purple and green housecoat. However, it was rather painful as she had worn the large beaded, silver necklaces and they were pressing into her arms. Irritated that her dramatic gesture was ruined by horrible pain she uncrossed her arms and settled for looking imposing.
She watched with amusement as the children glanced at each other, asking the others to raise their hands for an answer everyone knew. No one wanted to speak up. Well, that was fine with her, she could wait for as long as it took. Which shouldn't be that long considering Unda-
"Ooh, ooh, me me!" A small, vaguely purple hand bobbed into the air. Attached to it was an eager face and horrendous... disgusting beaver teeth. Well, and red hair braided back with blue ribbons, large brown eyes and a multitude of rainbow bracelets. But... the teeth! The teeth!
Paige shivered and reached into her housecoat pocket. She fingered the spine of the paperback inside and relaxed, calm washing over her. Was that creepy? Eh, if Sasha could take comfort in those chairs of his then she could use books as her drug. Paige refocused on the frantic Unda, her eyes avoiding the two protrusions, and pointed, silver rings catching the dusky sunlight. "Yes, Unda?"
The girl sat back down in her chair with a squeak and grinned, almost cutting her face in half. "Raz has- er, I mean, Agent Razputin has no Empathy because that portion of his powers was not developed and ended up being absorbed into his other abilities."
Paige sighed and rolled her eyes at Unda's puppy face. She didn't even need Telepathy to know the young girl's mind was running around in circles repeating the same line over and over and over: Praise me! Praise me! Praise me! Praise me!
Paige had once neglected to do exactly that and continued on with a lesson. Once. Apparently, the bucktooth snitch had run crying to Milla as the next day Paige was hauled before Morry and given a lecture on growing minds and the need for acceptance and encouragement. Paige had retaliated by blowing up a tree. In the forest. With no one around. Because setting your employers hair on fire was detrimental to your job.
"Very good, Unda, you are correct." Paige swallowed her powers as the tiny purple figure looked around the room, grinning and lording it over the others. Oooh, one day... one day. "Agent Razputin was young when he became a Psychonaut which meant that he could learn certain powers as they were taught in camp but not the higher level ones. Or, at least, not without the approval of the Grand Head. Because Agent Razputin's Primary Power was Telepathy, however, it was very dangerous to teach him Empathy at such a young age. Usually by the time the other powers are taught the Psychic has been training for years to perfect the lower level ones. As you all well know, Agent Razputin gained all of his merit badges in a day." And caused hundreds of idiotic children to fall into depression from thinking they weren't good enough. "Thus, Agent Razputin was taught other higher level powers but not Empathy. As a result his Emphatic abilities decayed and were eventually absorbed into his Telepathy. "
Paige eyed the class. Good, they were still interested. "Now, Agent Razputin has another power he has never learned. Who can tell me what that is?" She might as well get all of the previous lesson into this one time frame of listening. Sad that her classes had disintegrated to such a level.
Bolstered by Unda's praise, and not to be outdone in the subject of Razputin, Lorry raised his hand. Unda glared at the boy. Lorry simply ignored the red-haired, beaver-faced, purple child. Paige bit the inside of her cheek in an effort not to laugh.
Paige gestured lazily at the blond boy and he stood straighter in his chair. "Agent Razputin has never learned Hydrokinesis because of his hydrophobia."
"That's right, Lorry, good work." Paige suffered a moment of unprofessional triumph at Unda's look of pain but quickly squashed it down."Agent Razputin demonstrates the two ways that a psychic can not have a certain power. One, through lack of use or teaching and two, through physical or mental blockages." Paige pretended to glance at her battered watch, really eyeing the children as their faces lit with hope. Mmm... a little longer. Let them squirm. "Which is why it is always good to know which powers are connected to others. Someone with strong Telekinesis should be watched more closely when being taught Levitation." She grinned as the children visibly slumped and drooped in their seats.
"Okay." Paige turned to the large blackboard behind her. "The connected powers, as the Psychonauts know them, are: Pyrokinesis, Hydrokinesis, and Aerokinesis." The chalk beside her floated into the air and began listing the abilities on the board. "Levitation, Teleportation, Telekinesis, and Shielding." She heard Tesset and Sam chuckling but ignored the stench of burning squirrel. She'd get them later. "Telepathy, Empathy, Clairvoyance, Precognition, Retrocognition, and Medium." The chalk squealed and several groans were heard. "And finally, Invisibility, Confusion and Psi Blasting."
Paige turned to rows of dozing faces and drool. A few had guilty expressions or carefully blank faces, clearly having caused mischief while her back was turned. A purple hand shot up. Paige rolled her eyes. "What is it, Unda?"
"But, um, what does Invisibility have to do with Confusion and Psi Blasting?"
The others glared at beaver-girl, knowing they couldn't burn her in class but already preparing their revenge in the safety of the outside.
Paige gritted her teeth. "...good... question, Unda." A pause to gather her emotions and reign them back in. "Everyone knows what Confusion is?" No heads nodded. Oh for... "Okay, Confusion is almost like Psi Blasting. But instead of concentrating your aggression you concentrate on confusion. It's a lot harder than it sounds but once mastered it is a very powerful ability. Essentially when you go invisible you are doing the same thing. You don't actually go invisible yourself but cloud the minds of everything around you –and yes, that includes plants- so that they don't see you. Won't stop them from bumping into you or anything but combined with Confusion they'll never notice."
Paige wondered if she had enough attention left to finish her lesson and glanced briefly around the classroom. Blank, drooling psychic children. Well, apparently a lesson on Razputin could only take them so far. "And with that." Paige ignored Unda's frantically waving hand. "Class is dismissed." The children leaped to their feet, faces lit with joy, their tiny legs carrying them out the door and down the ramp at speeds previously unheard of. "Tesset and Sam!"
Two of the children froze then cursed at their acknowledgment of the stern cry. There was a brief moment of debating whether or not to run before they remembered what their teacher's Primary Power was. Guiltily, the two sat back down and tried not to look or act like they had done something bad. Paige warmed at their expressions of dread, her mood lifting as the two constant pains in the ass wondered what their punishment would be. Ha, let them wonder. The imagination was a better torture than anything Paige could legally do to them.
Paige made a great show of taking off her fuzzy housecoat. She set it on the ever present hook in the corner and plucked the tattered paperback from the pocket. The two squirrel tormenters flinched, remembering the horror of the books. Paige was known for carrying battered books to whack unruly children with. Paige paused dramatically, the paperback in hand, before unzipping one of the large pockets in her cargo pants and slipping the book inside. It was uncomfortable but she could live with it as long as it didn't impede her legs. With that done, she strode up to Tesset and Sam, jewellery clinking with every step.
"So..." She eyed them both. "Fancy a bit of squirrel on the menu?"
Tesset swallowed, her green eyes downcast. "Um... no?"
Sam followed Tesset's lead and shook her head so hard her ponytail got her in the eye.
Paige sighed and reached up to push her hair behind her ears. They were nice girls, really, just a little misguided. Well, Tesset was a little misguided. Sam just followed Tesset's lead and thus was... sort of in the clear. No... no wait! Nothing excused them from disrupting her class! Milla may have that patience but Paige was decidedly lacking and besides... she was a teacher, they were the students. "Well, you could have fooled me. I was certain you were going to burn that squirrel and give it to Mr. Cruller for dinner tonight."
Tesset wrinkled her nose, her eyes almost disappearing in the mass of cheeks. "Ewww. Squirrel is gross."
Sam nodded, watery brown eyes focused entirely on Tesset.
"Squirrels are decidedly more clean than you two." Paige began to violently gesture. "This is the fifth time you have disrupted my class! The fifth time! I've been lenient before but this has gone on long enough!"
"But... we didn't disrupt your class, you just kept tea-"
"SILENCE!"
The two girls fell into a shocked dumfoundedness as the echoes of Paige's physical and mental scream bounced around in their skulls. Paige took a deep breath and thought of books. Books with leather spines, books with colourful covers, books with minute writing. Okay... gather your wits and stop using your powers. That's bad for a teacher... very bad.
"While you did not entirely disrupt the class you still were not paying attention. Which is a disruption on its own. If you wish to be somewhere else than I suggest you do not come to class."
Their faces lit slightly. Were they getting a free ticket out of class? Was the teacher actually kicking them out?!
"But, of course, if you do not attend my class you will have to do the other one. Coach Oleander's. At night. For three hours straight."
Tesset and Sam paled. They had heard rumours about that class, only compounded by Oleander's reputation and 'totally true' accounts from actual students. Paige knew all this, had even started some of the rumours herself for fun, and so she waited.
It didn't take long. Tesset and Sam began babbling about how they would pay attention in class and never ever disrupt it again and oh my god are you going to tell the Coach because we don't want to go there and be tortured by his blind-kid throwing off cliff ways.
Paige raised a hand to stop the flood of words. "Okay, so I won't tell Coach Oleander..." She paused long enough for relieved smiles to spread across their faces. "IF you clean the outhouses. Those things haven't been scrubbed since Mr. Cruller was attacked by a raccoon and developed a paralyzing phobia of outhouses. They must be cleaned." She eyed the two Psicadets, daring them to protest.
Tesset was gobsmacked and wondered if this was more punishment than she could handle. But, of course, the alternative was Coach Oleander's class on Psychics –once, he blew a kid up for contradicting him! Then he tossed him off a cliff! Oh, and the kid was deaf or something. Tesset considered, aware that Sam was hanging onto her every expression. "Uh... o-okay." Maybe she could pretend to do it or get one of those newbie loser cadets to do it for her. Sam's Psipunches were nasty things and a little intimidation went a long way...
"Good. I'll be waiting at one O'clock –SHARP- tomorrow by the one near the cabins."
Tesset spluttered. "Wh-what?"
Paige smirked. "You didn't actually think I would just let you go do that whenever you wanted, did you? I'll be a supervisor and inspector until they're all done and sparkly clean."
Well, maybe it wouldn't be too bad as long as they could use their pow-
"And no powers. You shall clean each and every dirty plank with your own muscle. Not the mental one."
Paige waved the two dejected and shivering Psicadets out the door, practically pushing them down the ramp so she could close the cloth covering that served as a door. She adjusted the cloth until it covered the doorway to her satisfaction and turned to the mess that was a classroom. It never started out this way. No, when Paige first opened those doors for the morning students it was the tidiest as a rickety structure made out of reject wood in a tree could be. The children were the ones who messed it up. Drawing on their desks, dropping pencils, burning hair, squishing squirrels...
Paige focused her mind, concentrating on the small stuff. Slowly, almost painfully, crumpled balls of paper, wet soggy drippings from spitballs and the carcass of a roasted squirrel floated into the air. They drifted, almost infuriatingly casually, towards the garbage can before resting just above the gaping black maw. With a gasp Paige released the items and they clattered –or splatted- to the bottom of the bin. Sweat dotted her forehead and she leaned against a support pole when the world tilted sideways.
Paige hated working as a teacher in a backwater, underfunded summer camp for pissant little psychic worms. And yet it was still better than her previous job as a Psychonaut. Merely a pencil pusher! Filing... day after day after day. I mean, sure, she had practically no other powers besides her Primary but that did not mean she couldn't still be in the field. Well, the Psychonauts had lost all of her research into psychics when she volunteered for Whispering Rock so it was their loss.
Paige brushed her palms against her pants in an effort to get rid of the sweat. I guess I'll have to do this the old fashioned way. Sighing, she moved to get a broom.
----------
All of the counsellor's, plus Ford, were gathered in the Main Lodge's dining area. Some were sipping coffee and one was smoking –to the disgust of his comrades- but all were waiting.
"Where the hell is she?"
"Yeah, I mean she can only be late a couple of times before people start getting mad."
"This is the second time she's been late for a meeting! Second time!"
Ford decided to intervene at that moment. His psitanium winked in the sunlight as he put up his hands for silence. All stared at the old Grand Head, some curious, others mildly bored.
"Now, now, can't have strife among the adults, you know. Kids will pick up on it. Chaos will reign! Nope, gotta have peace and tranquility."
A tall, pale man snorted and took a drag on his cigarette. A dark haired woman with kind eyes and a dress that would blind everyone else's gave the black-clad man a warning glare. The man ignored her and sipped his coffee –black, of course.
Another counsellor/teacher spoke up. "We would have peace and tranquility if Paige would just show up on time. For once." She looked around at the others, her purple eyes searching for agreements.
"Well, Pig, still out to get me?"
The gathering turned and beheld Paige in all her baggy, silver-clad glory. The purple-eyed woman flushed, her hands fluttering around her face in agitation.
"I-I would never gang up on... on a fellow counsellor but... but where were you?" The last line was almost a plea and the woman hunched into her massive purple coat as if trying to become invisible without using her powers.
Paige walked to the coffee station, every step punctuated by the squeaking of her leather boots. Actually making the coffee was hard as her fingers couldn't quite bend properly with all of the rings on but she managed and took a seat on a table. "I was disciplining Tesset and Sam. Mostly Tesset I suppose, considering Sam is a wet napkin."
There was a chorus of grumbles and mutterings as differences were forgotten in the unified complaint. Everyone was frustrated with the two troublemakers and any action was a welcome one.
Pig spoke up from her mass of downy-filled winter jacket, voice muffled from the zipper. "What did you do to them?"
Eyes turned to Paige.
She grinned none too pleasantly. "I'm making them clean the outhouses."
Gasps and laughter followed the teacher's declaration. Except for Cruller who looked pale at the mention of the wretched structures.
Coach Oleander decided gossip time was over, especially now that everyone was there, and cleared his throat. The room obediently went silent and he reluctantly climbed onto a table for better leverage. "All right! Enough chit chatting!" Contrary to this statement the room was silent. "We have a party to plan!"
Confused silence.
For a long time.
Sasha took a sip of coffee. "Perhaps you should explain why we have a party to plan."
Oleander blinked. "Oh... er... yes, of course!" He started to pace and Paige quickly moved from the table to the bench, not wishing to be in the path of the steel-toed boots. "A great soldier is coming home in a few weeks! A mighty psychic machine! A pendulous participator- uh... I mean, Agent Razputin is coming for a visit." He raised his voice over the excited gasps and murmured babble. "And I expect full cooperation of everyone in planning this event as well as keeping it a secret from the cadets!"
Pig emerged from her coat, face flushed with excitement. "But why are we not telling the children?"
Oleander's fearsome gaze snapped to the rather portly counsellor. "Because it is a SURPRISE! The cover is that it's some old, unknown Psychonauts birthday! The true mission is Agent Razputin's visit! But we do not want panic... or... excitement in the ranks!"
A rather tall counsellor with a bald head raised his hand. The excited chattering did not die away in the face of the tall dark-skinned arm of doom but this man could wait. Despite his Pirokinetic Primary he was a rather level-headed person. Compounded with his cooking skills –to the relief of returning cadets and counsellor's- he had been immediately placed in the kitchen. If the barbecue or central hearth fire went out of control occasionally... well, many learned to cope and thanked the heaven's that the Main Lodge was fireproof after the... er, Phoebe Incident.
Oleander noticed Jeff's hand in the air and cleared his throat loudly, hoping to halt the babbling. Unfortunately, it did not work. Neither did subsequent throat clearings and hopping up and down on the table.
Finally, Sasha, rather irritated that his precious experiment time was being wasted, spoke. "Silence."
They obeyed.
"Now," Sasha gestured to the patient Jeff. "I believe our cook has something to say?"
Jeff cleared his throat, suddenly mildly nervous with so many eyes turned towards him. "Uh... are the... others going to be here as well?"
Oleander was flustered that Sasha had taken control and irritated that the counsellor's had listened to the other Agent instead of their real boss. But, he had to put that behind him. Take three deep breaths just like the therapist had suggested. And let it out. "What others?!" He barked, totally unconsciously, you understand.
Jeff considered for a few moments, gathering the words to him like puppies and sorting them by color and size. "Agent Razputin's... campmates. His fellow Psicadets. Aren't they coming?"
Oleander opened his mouth, prepared to fall into a rant about how having old and rather famous Agents hanging around the camp would compromise the surprise and cause strife among the children when the Main Lodge exploded.
Well, exploded with sound.
"Oh my goodness, that's perfect!"
"What a wonderful idea, Jeff!"
"Does anyone know who Razputin's psicadets were?"
"What about their phone numbers?"
"Addresses?"
Jeff blushed under the others scrutiny and praise. He wasn't used to all of this attention and it made him slightly uncomfortable. The fire crackled in the hearth at the other end of the Lodge, burning slightly brighter and chewing impatiently on a log.
Paige remained sitting during the announcement and following speech. She watched Oleander bluster his way through the suggestions and finally cave, as he always did. They would try to find as many of Razptuin's old acquaintances as possible and bring them to Whispering Rock for the party. Paige sipped her coffee, wincing at the cloying sugary taste. Damn. I just can't make coffee by myself. But, it was caffeine. She sipped again.
From the chittering mass of humanity came a fluffy purple blob. Squeezing through hips and chests, clumps of counsellors and excited babbling. Pig sat beside Paige, huffing slightly. Her round face was pink with exertion and sweat plastered her curly black hair to her cheeks. She spat a lock of hair from her mouth and made a face of distaste. Paige glanced over at the purple clad woman.
"Why do you wear that winter jacket in this heat? Or rather... how. You're not a secret Pirokinetic are you?"
Pig tittered –yes, tittered- and waved a chubby hand through the air. "This and that. Oooh, can I have some?"
Paige curled her ringed fingers around her mug of coffee protectively. "No way. There's some over there, go make a cup yourself. And don't change the subject! That answer made no sense at all!"
Pig pouted. "But it's all the way over there." She glanced longingly at Paige's lukewarm cup of caffeine. "Well, why do you wear those housecoats to class?"
Paige snorted. "Because I can."
Pig ran a hand down the puffy purple jacket, pausing to pluck a stray feather and flick it away. "And there you have it."
"You slowly kill yourself from heatstroke because you can?"
"No, no. Slowly killing yourself is Sasha over there- smoking his lungs away."
Paige glanced around and noted Sasha standing by a chattering Milla, the black-haired scientist smoking and drinking nonchalantly. "Mmhm." She went to take a sip from her mug and blinked. "Hey... hey! Give that back!"
Pig giggled coyly, sounding more like a gurgling than a giggling, and took another long chug of Paige's coffee. "Mmmm, tangy."
'What?! Did you put orange juice in my coffee again?!"
Pig handed the mug back, making a big show of wiping the droplets of coffee from her pursed lips. "Of course not. That would ruin it."
Paige eyed her mug. "That didn't stop you the first time."
Pig's purple eyes widened innocently. "Oh, it didn't did it?"
Paige frowned than set the suspect coffee on the table and left it there. She preferred not to take risks when it came to Pig. "So... what do you think of this... Razputin party idea?"
Pig's eyes glowed, literally. Paige reflexively ducked. "Oh... ooooh, it's a wonderfully brilliant idea! Can you imagine! All of those famous Agents... HERE!? And Razputin... Razputin the Greatest Psychonaut Ever here at Whispering Rock?!" Pig, unable to contain her excitement, began jumping up and down on the seat. Small sparks flared off her curls and a menacing glow gathered in the middle of her forehead. "I'll get to actually meet Razputin! Agent Razputin! Youngest Psychonaut Ever! In the flesh! Maybe he'll sign my book! Do you think he'll sign my book, Paige?"
Paige slapped her.
Pig blinked, shock tattered across her features. "Oh... I'm sorry... was I... doing it again?"
Paige nodded, rather enjoying the chance to hit someone. Like most of the adults at Whispering Rock, Pig was a reject Psychonaut. Unable to work in the field for whatever reason but still technically a Psychonaut. Because Whispering Rock was still a fledgling experiment the Psychonauts could send all of their useless fodder and cease to worry about a potentially dangerous psychic 'let loose' on the unsuspecting public. Not that that ever really happened... hehe.
Paige was one of the few volunteers at Whispering Rock and she hoped that meant when the summer camp became an actual Psychonauts Training Facility she would be allowed to stay. If they continued to shove out Psychonauts like the last batch perhaps Whispering Rock would actually be considered as a worthwhile venture. Paige believed that day would come, if only for the fact that the previous method of finding Psychics was to 'let them come to you'. So the idea was spawned to let them come to you as young and malleable psychics. Which meant you could not only pick the best to be Agent's but psychic's would learn to control their powers and the psychic death toll would go down.
Paige motioned for Pig to continue prattling, without the powers this time. Unfortunately, Pig insisted on spitting out Raz Praise and party ideas while sipping Paige's abandoned coffee/ possible orange juice. Paige, unlike ninety percent of the psychic population, did not like Agent Razputin. She knew it was unfair to judge someone before meeting them but Razputin's quick rise to fame had resulted in so many children's attempted suicides. The newbies came to Whispering Rock expecting to be 'special' just like Razputin. Of course none of them were and after realizing it would take years and they were not the prodigy's they thought they were most fell into depression. Paige had stopped a few suicides on her own and knew at least twenty others had been prevented by the others.
And yet no one could say anything par orders from the Grand Head. It was frustrating. Some were concerned what the information would do to the Psychic Prodigy and others simply denied the problem existed. Namely in the latter category was Milla Vodello. While the Mental Minx loved children and thought of each Psicadet as one of her own... well, she couldn't deny that Raz's quick rise to fame had caused many of the problems among the next generations of cadets. Yet the idea that her precious Raz had done such a thing, even unconsciously, was too much for her to bear. So she just pretended it didn't exist.
"Okay!"
The room's activity halted and all eyes turned to the miniature Oleander. The Coach nodded to all the counsellors, his helmet sliding sideways. "A list of names and jobs shall be posted in the counsellor's cabin tomorrow morning! Now move out, and remember this mission is a secret!" He saluted and knocked his helmet onto the table.
Slowly the counsellor's left, returning to scene's of various destruction from their charges. The meeting had not gone on long but give the children an inch and they go to the moon. Paige eyed the coffee table, wondering if there was enough for one last mug.
"So where are you going now, Paige?"
"Hmm?" Paige turned to Pig and encountered a wall of purple. "Back off, Pig. You're in my space."
Pig obediently stepped back but Paige still had to crane her neck upwards to see the others flushed face. Paige scowled, lamenting her lack of height. Well, she was still taller than Oleander and supposedly that counted as something. "I need to plan the next torture session for the children."
"You... mean class, right?"
"Same diff."
"Well, I'm going to a small meeting with fellow counsellors who think you need to shape up."
"Your next meeting should be about the incompetent swine that runs stupid meetings in the camp."
Pig huffed, drawing herself up in all her purple glory. Not dignifying Paige's barb with an answer she stalked... er, waddled out the door. Paige snickered and turned back to the coffee. Which Sasha was pouring into a mug. The Agent turned and saluted Paige with his new cup before walking out the door, trench coat swirling around his ankles dramatically. Paige clenched her fists. He did that on purpose! She would swear he did!