A/N - Well here's the next chapter, I know it's been a long time and all, but degree shows and everything sorta get priority, sorry I know I am treacherous! Well on with the story.
***********************************
Chapter 3 - Explanations and demonstrations.
Well, if ever a more loaded question was spoken I havner heard it yet! Tae shook her head a chuckled. Most of the things I can do are better demonstrated by show rather than tell, but let me attempt to give you a sketchy low down anyway. But before I do, please say that 1) you won't lock me up in a lab, 2) tell all and sundry about this, cuz if ya didn't guess before now, this is just between you and me, and 3) I did mention the whole not locking me in labs and my aversion to being a guinea pig didn't I. Tae gave Lex her best You better say yes and mean it, or else!' smile and waited for his answer.
Quirking an eyebrow Lex held up his right hand and placed the left over his heart and replied No labs, no guinea pigs and not a word to anyone, I give you my solemn oath.
Good, now, where to start, well, first things first I do suppose is logical. Saying this, Tae got up and walked over to the stereo which had become silent during there conversation on the bed. Flipping out the old cd she deftly grabbed a new one with her kinetic power and placed it in the player, pushed play looked over at Lex, who held a slightly quizzical expression, Music, it helps to focus my mind, when it's calming that is! with that said she went back to the bed and sat down again.
Ok, as far as I have discovered there are four distinct facets to my gift as a whole, one is passive and always going on, even if I don't take notice of it, it's just become like a sixth sense or something, natural. The other three I have to actively concentrate on and only engage when I want to use them. Lex nodded at her opening statement as a sign that she should continue and that he understood so far.
Well, the passive power is an ability to innately know what everything around me is made up of, it's weight, mass, and volume, if it's alive or dead. Generally I just instinctively know what stuff is and where it is from, though it does work somewhat differently depending on whether the thing I am sensing is inanimate or organic. At this point Tae paused, she had to collect her thoughts, this bit of her gift was especially hard to put into words. You see, when I sense something, it's like my brain sees a type of code, a recognition code if you will. Take you for example, the first part of your code is like almost everything, it's a bit like a postal area code, Earth -America - Kansas. Next is species related, Human - Male - Caucasian - 22. Then lastly it's like miscellaneous notes, or individual traits, just little things, er, like Blue/Grey eyes, scar on lip, unnatural baldness and health, meteor exposure, weight, height, mass and stuff after that. Which, if it was expressed in english would come down to something like p3/9EAK-HMC22-EbgSlAn.b/hM-106745092', which is kind of a mouthful, but it actually takes very little time to register, it's if I have to then examine my senses findings of something uncommon that it takes a bit of time, your pritty normal, except for your exposure to a non earth originated substance. Lex blinked a few times, it had been a long sentence and he was just making sure that he had understood what Tae had said correctly, he was amazed that he could be summed up by such a long string of letters and numbers and then be called normal', if that was normal, what the hell was abnormal!
So, if you get a code of some sort for everything you sense, do you remember them all forever, or do you only remember the most important, or what? Lex pondered the possibility that you would have to have the mind of several super computers to not only hold, but reference that amount of information.
Er, it's much like anything that you encounter by any normal sense, the relevant stuff gets remembered and the rest just fades away or gets filtered out, but that's one of the things that I had to learn how to do, and I learnt that one quickly, how to set up a junk info filter that is, cuz boy do I ever get one big migraine if I don't. Tae remembered all to well the splitting headaches she had as a child, along with the disorientation and unconsciousness.
That must have been an interesting adjustment period Lex commented, smirking, knowing that he had just maid the understatement of the year.
Not wanting to dwell, Tae smiled and pulled her mind back to the present situation again and carried on with her explanation. It's this passive sense that is the keystone of my abilities, you see, if I don't know what and where a thing is I can't move it with any degree of safety or accuracy, it would be like shooting a gun blindfolded. Lex saw the truth and the dangers of Tae's statement but stopped his mental tangent when she spoke again. This now brings me to the first of the other three parts of my gift. This is the easiest of the three and requires the least amount of effort and concentration. It is the ability to move things that are within my line of sight and that are in my immediate surroundings, which at the moment, would be anything that I can see which is in this room. Erm, like that vase over there, all I have to do is reach out with my power and pick it up, much like I would if I actually went over and picked it up manually. As she said this, Tae made the antique vase in question rise from the dresser upon which it had stood and slowly made it come towards her and Lex, she held it in front of him and motioned for him to pluck it out of the air.
Amazing! Even though I know this is true, it is so fantastic that I still find it unbelievable, Lex turned the vase over in his hands and then a thought occurred to him You mentioned that doing this kind of thing took little effort, does this mean that there is a limit to what you can lift or for how long? Looking at her again he placed the vase on the floor beside him.
Ah, well, yes. The nearest thing I can come up with is that I have some sort of internal battery pack that recharges with rest, I have a certain amount of power that I can draw on which can only do so much before it runs out. Depending on the action I am taking depends on how much energy is drained. But saying that, strong emotions like fear or rage can give me terrific boosts in strength, only in emergencies though, because like an after burner on a jet plane, It dumps raw energy onto my gift and burns it at a greatly increased rate, and the few times that I have pushed my upper limits like this I ended up unconscious for days and then with splitting headaches and a total lack of any of my gift and a hefty recharge period, it's not something I like to experience, but in an emergency that doesn't usually factor at the time. As Tae finished speaking her brows knitted together slightly, she was pulled back to her childhood again, this time it was a memory that she had tried to forget many a time, the death of her parents.
They had lived in Los Angeles, and the earthquake had taken them by surprise. It had taken place when her powers were still new, and weak from under use. There apartment building was badly hit and Tae had instinctively thrown her mind out to support the structure as it started to collapse, fear and adrenaline acting as a catalyst. They were all safe out side, or so she thought, and she was just about to let the building fall when there was a cry from the top floor. An old lady was trapped, and her dad rushed back in to save her. Tae remembered screaming in pain as her mind began to burn in agony of her gifts abuse, but she held her resolve tight, she had to hold on a bit longer, just a few more moments. The old lady was safe and Tae felt herself blacking out, but just as she released her control on the building she saw her father trip and fall back into it's shadow, she desperately tried to reach out again with her mind but nothing happened and the world blurred. With her last conscious moment she felt her self fall sideways to the ground and watched helplessly as her mother ran to help her father, and saw the building crack and crash down upon them, then blackness, oblivion.
Snapping back to the present Tae gave Lex a half smile and sighed. Lex noticed her change of mood and gently placed his hand on her shoulder and shook her slightly.
What are you remembering? You seem so sad.
My parents, they died in an earthquake when a building fell on them. I had already burnt out my power moments before. I could do nothing to save them. Tae hung her head, that incident had made her get into a tough practice regime, so hopefully she wouldn't be caught short again.
I'm so sorry. Squeezing her shoulder, Lex waited until she was composed and then spoke again So, you never told me what your other two skills are. He let a small amount of humour enter his voice and Tae looked up at him again and let a small grin break onto her lips.
Well yes, where were we. Ah right, skill no. 2. Well, this one's like an offshoot or an advancement of the first one, but this new skill enables me to move things far away and/or that I can't see. It's much more difficult to do, mainly because I have to couple it to my passive sense so that I don't bang whatever I am moving into anything, it drains power like a bitch. And it takes major concentration for multiple objects. Tae knew that this was no lie, she still needed alot of practice where this skill was concerned.
My last skill is different to both of these last two, if only because it feels different in my head. It takes alot of power, and I haven't perfected it yet, it's the newest of my skills you see. Her grin grew wider as she continued, This skill is akin to teliportation of a sort. I can bring an object directly to me or vice versa, but it doesn't move though the world to get to me, it just disappears from where it was, and appears where I want it to, in theory that is, I haven't always been that successful with this facet of my powers. Yes well, he probably doesn't want to hear about what happened to the few things that I have lost' so to speak' thought Tae as she finished explaining her powers to Lex. To his credit it seemed to her that Lex had taken all this in his stride, he was smiling and nodding to himself, obviously lost in some train of thought. Tae suddenly realised that she was hungry and broke Lex from his musings.
Eh, what, oh yes, Tae? Lex focused on the extaodinary person in front of him again.
I'm getting hungry, any chance of a bite to eat?
TBC......
A/N - I am sorry for the amount of dialogue that this chapter involved, but I just couldn't see how else to get everything across. Any suggestions would be welcome! Hope you enjoyed this chapter! Not sure when the next will be up, hopefully not to far into the future.
