AN: I'd apologize for taking forever to update, but I think it's better to just jump into the chapter and conveniently forget that I haven't updated all summer. *innocent grin*
Xenon was sitting on a couch staring at a tin can in front of her so intensely that she didn't even hear Schuyler walk in. The boy watched her sit perfectly still for a few seconds before deciding to ask, "What are you doing?"
She jumped to her feet in surprise, buy returned to sitting position when she realized that it was only him. She looked at the can again before answering.
"Isn't it obvious? I'm practicing using the force so I can become a Jedi master"
"A what?"
Xenon looked taken back, "Did you have a childhood?"
He looked indignant at the question, "I know what Star Trek-"
"Wars"
"What?"
"It's Star Wars"
"Fine, I know what Star Wars is, I just don't get why it's relevant"
Xenon looked like she wanted to explain, but gave up before actually telling him what it meant. Instead she began focusing in the can again. Schuyler watched her in amusement until he noticed that the can was actually moving. At first it was so slow that one would barely notice, but without warning, the can shot all the way across the room and ricocheted off the far wall.
Xenon leapt to her feet cheering, "I did it!"
"I thought you were a magnet?"
She ran to the other side of the room to pick up the can,
"It was Minty that figured it out really. See magnets have two poles right? So I can both attract and repel objects. Pretty cool, huh?"
"Why would want to repel things?"
"There are many reasons", she commented, "the most important begin that I can now get rid of Lucas. That sounds so good just to say"
"He's still bothering you"
"Define bother. I mean his existence kind of bothers me to begin with", Xenon was trying to send the can flying again, with less success. Schuyler watched her try for a few minutes before interrupting again.
"So, Minty is actually helping you and Bridge?"
"Yes, he is which you would know if you didn't insist on always begin a safe twenty feet away from him. He can't help you unless you talk to him"
Schuyler shrugged off the suggestion. Every since the first night, he hadn't gotten within hearing distance to the criminal even though he always accompanied Bridge and Xenon to the cell. He had to admit that Bridge did seem to be improving. He'd even seen the psychic go a whole day with being plugged into his headphones.
"Have you gotten any farther with his files yet?"
Xenon gave up trying to move the can and turned to look at him, "For the last time, there are no files. The reason that he's being held in a cell and no a card is because passing judgment physically doesn't work on his species. The police have to investigate the old fashioned way and so far no one on the investigative team has put anything useful in the SPD database. Not since this morning anyway"
Schuyler sighed and sat down next to her, "Do you think he's guilty?"
She didn't answer at first, carefully thinking about her words, "I think that he's a good person. I don't think he'd hurt anyone he cared about, but I get the feeling that if someone tried to hurt him or someone her cared about then he would do anything to stop them. Whether or not that makes him guilty, I don't know"
"But, you think I should ask him for help"
"Yes"
The answer was straight forward and firm. Xenon looked up at her squad-mate as he considered his options. "One time. I'm only going to talk to him once and if he can't help me then I'm going back to stay twenty feet away.
...
Minty was pretending to sleep when the three cadets came to his cell, as usual. The second they stopped by the bars, the alien's eyes opened and he pulled himself over to them stiffly.
"So, you finally decided to join us Captain Cardboard", he croaked.
"How did you know that...?"
"That's what Sydney calls you. I know because when you two fight, it drowns out the thoughts of everybody in the base. You have quite the temper under that stony face"
Schuyler could help but shudder at the thought of some random alien always being able to enter his head. Minty must have been read his thoughts just them because the alien snorted, "Don't have a big head. Why would I want to listen to some teenager's thoughts all day. It gets very boring"
Schuyler repressed a snarl and calmly continued, "I came to see if you could actually help me"
Minty nodded and then turned to Bridge, "Do you think you could read his aura?"
Bridge nodded, "I think, I'm still not very good at it. It's not the easiest thing to practice and people weirder out when I just start waving my hand around"
Bridge quickly removed his glove and slowly moved it across his body like his was pulling back a curtain. For a second his face took on a very blank look and his eyes glazed over. As he pulled out of the daze he spoke, "It's kind of blue. Blue and red, but not purple like Xenon's was. It's like the red and the blue don't mix together at all, which is weird because they should. Maybe I'm just seeing it wrong"
Minty shook his head, his scaly skin glinting off the flashlight held in Xenon's hand, "No, that's right. Or at least it's very similar to what I see. Even though I've noticed that you see very different colours than I do"
Scuttled watched Bridge pull his glove back on grinning like it had been the first time he'd done something right all day.
Minty then turned to Schuyler, "So you want to know what your power is?"
"Yes"
The alien grinned, or that what Schuyler assumed. It was hard to see past the sharp teeth that jutted I'm so many different angles that the cadet had to wonder how he ate without biting his tongue off.
"Force Field"
Schuyler snapped out of his thoughts, "What?"
The alien raised an eyebrow clearly known what the cadet had been thinking, "Your ability is to make force fields"
"That's impossible", he replied stiffly.
Xenon was sitting cross-legged on the floor at that point and made a point of commenting, "Somehow I think being a human magnet is more impossible than force fields"
"How do I make a force field?"
"It's your power not mine", the alien replied dryly, "And in all honesty I don't know if I can help you. I've never met someone who could create force field before"
"You've met a human magnet, but you have met someone like me?"
Minty laughed at that, "You may have a sense of humour after all... I've never met someone exactly like Xenon, but I've met many telekinetics before so I at least have a faint idea of how she works. You on the other hand would probably handle individual study better"
A faint beeping noise from Bridge's watch alerted them to move on. As they headed back to their rooms, Schuyler spoke, "How am I supposed to figure out how to do this?"
Bridge, as always seemed to come up with a plan, "You could always glue your feet to the ground and then get a pitching machine to throw baseballs at you and then you'd have to instinctively create a force field so you wouldn't get bruised"
"That is the worst idea I have ever heard"
Xenon laughed at Schuyler's doubts coming up with and intentionally worse plan, "No, baseballs wouldn't create enough survival instinct. We should try shooting you. I'm sure Syd would just love to oblige"
Schuyler hesitated, "I'll go with Bridge's idea"