Phoning it in 3
I dropped a slice of pizza in the fish bowl as we watched bits of the Waterbed Warehouse fall in on itself as the lightsaber cut hole after hole in it at high speeds. "That's an impressive amount of destruction," I noted, as Murphy cut a hole through the wall next to the front door and climbed through it.
The lightsaber fizzled and went out, leaving Murphy to shake it and hit it with his hand to try and get it to work again, like you'd do with a flashlight. He seemed to come back to himself and looked around at all the destruction sheepishly. He quickly spotted us and hurried over, offering the lightsaber back, obviously embarrassed.
I accepted it back. "Yeah, the batteries on these things are only good for an hour or so of continuous use. Most Jedi battles last a couple of minutes at most and if the charge isn't fully depleted it will regenerate to a degree."
There was a loud crash as the waterbed store collapsed in on itself, which set off a chain reaction that took out all the stores on that side of the street. Murphy shrank down.
"That's actually pretty impressive," I told Murphy, trying to cheer him up. "And it's not like anyone's going to complain."
He seemed to brighten up a bit and stood up straighter before slumping once more.
I could tell what he was thinking about. "Yeah, losing people sucks," I told him. "Personally, I take comfort in the knowledge that there are worlds where everyone I lost is still alive and well."
He perked up at that and looked at me intently, a question in his eyes.
It was easy to guess what he wanted to know. "Give me a couple of years to work on my skills and I can do it. At the moment my aim kinda sucks and walking in the shadows is dangerous. My priorities are to gain strength and skill at the moment, which helps with that, but like I said it's going to take me a couple of years."
Murphy smiled broadly. A fire alarm sounded and smoke started rising from the rubble as something caught fire. Murphy buried his face in his hands while I laughed.
I picked up the Star Wars novel and pushed the lightsaber back inside of it. "At least you didn't trash the bookstore," I told him. "I'll grab a couple of books to raid for supplies and then find some place to train."
Murphy looked thoughtful, obviously considering what I told him.
I dropped the Star Wars book in my backpack and noticed that we'd spilled a little water out of the fish bowl.
The fish was watching as his astral form telekinetically moved the water back into the bowl a drop at a time.
To strengthen my powers, I need either practice or time, and I'm not all that patient a person when I have the choice. I stuck a finger inside the bowl, but the fish avoids it and I'd rather not scare the fish or splash water around, so I concentrate to add some distance to how far I can extend my ability to manipulate powers.
I manage to extend the ability out to a couple dozen feet, feeling it take at least a quarter of the energy I can feel connected to it. I'll see if I can extend that later, for now it's more than enough for me to alter the fish's power.
I can affect range with my power, now let's see what else I can do. I strengthen his telekinesis, adding a specialty of aquakinesis, and watch as he easily returns all the water back to his bowl.
He examines me, using his actual body as well as his astral form, before using his new ability to work like a fish tank's pump and send bubbles though it adding more oxygen.
He's pretty intelligent for a fish, probably a side effect of gaining psychic powers. I'm not sure how he manages to operate his body while astral projecting, normally you'd need multi-presence or something similar to pull that off and I can't sense him having that power. It's possible fish have a natural ability to do something similar since many have eyes on separate sides of their heads with non-overlapping fields of view. I consider that for a moment before deciding to do one more test. I'm not sure this will work, but if it does it'll open up a lot more uses for my power.
I power all my remaining energy into strengthening his natural ability to split his attention into a true multi-presence ability and am rewarded by the feel of him gaining that ability and the sight of his astral form multiplying into an entire school of fish.
Being able to turn natural traits into their own powers is a game changer. Give me a couple of years preparation and Godzilla's going to have to run from me!
Murphy pokes me in the side and I realize I've been laughing maniacally. I blush. "Sorry, just figured out I could do some impressive things. Let's go to the bookstore."
He waves for me to follow and starts pulling the little red wagon down the road, ignoring the flaming wreckage of half a dozen stores just across from us.
He leads us to the mall and I smiled as the crisp air conditioned air rolled over us and elevator music played in the background. Being an 80's kid I love the mall, it was a place I often went to hang out with friends, commit petty crimes, and play videogames. Plus all the end of the world movies took place in there, so I was culturally conditioned to head for them when these events occurred.
Murphy waved for me to follow him but I spotted an Orange Julius. "Let's grab a drink first," I suggested heading for it. If you've never had an Orange Julius I pity you. I hopped the counter of the open air fast food joint in the center of the mall and examined the drink machine. Now, I've never worked at an Orange Julius, but I have worked at various fast food places before so I have a general idea of what to do. They design these things so they can be run by trained chimps if necessary. You better believe I can run one. A few minutes later we are sucking down orange slush thingies like crazy. It's another half an hour before we leave the stand and that's because we have to pee.
It takes us a little while to drink ourselves sick of Orange Julius' and head for the bookstore.
Murphy waves at a Waldenbooks and says, "Tada!"
I grinned widely and quickly entered the bookstore, breathing deep the scent of ink and paper. I go from shelf to shelf tossing copies of familiar series in my backpack, two if it's ones I enjoy reading. It's a good thing I expanded the inside of my backpack or I would have run out of room quickly. I frown as I notice certain series are missing before I remember I'm in the mid 80's and a lot of the series I like haven't been written yet. Well, that's easy enough to fix.
"Murph," I call out, distracting Murphy, who is currently chewing on a sandal. "I've recovered enough to Shadow Walk, so I'm going to go. I'll come back and get you when I'm stronger, OK?" I don't wait for a reply before I turn to go. I don't like long goodbyes and although I'm not compelled to return yet, the feeling of the geas is like a leash around my neck that I can't forget.
I concentrate and take a step forward, slightly distracted by the smell of smoke that lingered on my jacket. Naturally that's the facet of reality that I end up strengthening as I concentrate on moving to a Waldenbooks in LA, some thirty plus years from now. Reality seems to flicker around me as I focus on stepping forward like a time traveler who's car broke down and is forced to hoof it. It's not quite a Hellride and I fall to my knees panting as I reach as far as I can Walk for the moment. I tried to substitute force for skill and as I look around me, I realize that was definitely not a good idea.
The smell of smoke and the sound of gunfire lets me know I am no where near where I was trying to go. The lights are out, there is dirt and debris everywhere in the store. This place has been through a war and from the sounds outside that war is still going on.
I hear a noise behind me and quickly spin around. Murphy attempts a smile and waves as he stands there with the red wagon. I sigh. "We're here until I get enough energy to walk again," I explain.
Murphy nods and flies up to a small window in the back of the store that lets in the little sunlight that keeps us from being completely in the dark. His ears go flat and his eyes go wide before he drops to the floor, shaken from what he witnessed.
"What is it?" I asked.
Murphy starts moving stiffly forward with his arms out in front of him.
"Zombies?" I ask.
Murphy shakes his head and mimes shooting while moving stiffly with his arms out in front of him.
"Robots?" I guess.
He nods rapidly.
"Just keep your head down and stay away from the window," I tell him. "The front half of this store is blocked with... looks like a semi crashed into it. Anyway we should be safe here, at least long enough for me to rest and get us someplace safer."
He nods slowly this time, calming down and looking less nervous.
"Let me find a lamp and we can block off the window so we can relax a bit," I tell him.
He looks confused and gives me a look.
"Just find me a book with a lamp I can pull out of it," I explain, as I start searching myself. I run across several fantasy novels, but I don't need a lit torch, I need a lamp, preferably electric. I'm stuffing books in my backpack as I go, since despite this not being where I intended to go it is when or close to it.
Murphy pokes me with a magazine which turns out to be a copy of Outdoor Life, a camping magazine. "Thanks," I say before I page through it finding a plethora of ads on camping gear to choose from. I pull out a box of chem lights and break a few, activating them, so we can see a little better.
"See if you can block the window, while I get us some sleeping bags and pillows."
He nods and grabs a pile of books on new age meditation to cover the small window.
I start pulling everything I can out of the magazine. I need the practice and we've got plenty of room. Took bad I can't strengthen this ability with my power manipulation... I really have to stop doing that. I keep making assumptions instead of experimenting and verifying what I can and can't do. I make a mental note to see if I can turn my non-power powers into powers I can manipulate as soon as I'm rested enough to use that ability. I'm quickly surrounded by boxes of MRE's and camping gear, along with a fair amount of hunting equipment. It's getting harder to pull things out of the magazine I have, but that seems to be because I'm running out of items left, not because I've reached my limit.
Murphy sits next to me and we listen to the sound of gunfire taper off as thunder sounds in the distance. Murphy jumps up and starts making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, giving the first one to the fish before making another two and offering one to me. I accept the sandwich and wonder what happened to Murphy that made him afraid of thunder. Hopefully he'll decide to start speaking at some point and I can ask.
We watch dozens of astral fish float around aimlessly as we eat and once I finish I start searching for a particular young adult novel which hopefully they have in this reality. I find the series I'm looking for, but the first dozen novels are missing. Fortunately, they have a hardback version that covers five books at a time I can use. I take a deep breath and reach into it. There's a little resistance but I pull out the item I'm looking for remarkably easy. I thought it would be harder for some reason.
Murphy pokes me in the side and gestures at the item I'm holding and grinning like a loon at.
"This?" I hold it up and smile. "This is an Escafil device," I explain, as I show him the fist sized sky blue cube. "This will allow you to blend in anywhere."
Before I can explain further a vent in the ceiling pops open and someone falls out, hitting the floor and cursing quite loudly. The next half a dozen or so people who drop down from it do so much more smoothly and we are quickly ringed by what looks to be a jr high version of the rebels from Red Dawn. We stare at each other for a minute in silence, well except for the one still lying on the floor cursing.
"We come in peace," a dark haired boy offers.
I look at the amount of weapons they are carrying. "Bullshit," I reply.
That kills the conversation for a moment.
Typing by: Abyssal Angel
