If you really need to read the disclaimer again, then refer back to the first ten chapters.

Ch.13

After what seemed like, and was, hours of their personalized torture tests, they did not seem to be making anymore progress than the last time. No one could figure out why they were being put through this, let alone what the outcome was supposed to be, and Korran was not giving out any answers. However, unbeknownst to the test subjects, their desperation was exactly what Korran was looking for. The more desperate they got, the closer they came to the answer. Nothing like hopelessness to bring out someone's ability.

It started with the sisters who were in the middle of the room. Erika was getting bombarded on all sides with the brutal lights that were shooting out of the pillar in front of them, and all Stephanie could do was watch. If she could talk then it would be a simple matter of how to direct her sister. She could practically hear the instructions she needed to give in her head. Right, left, back-up, duck, left again, but there was no way to relay the messages.

As Stephanie pondered their own helplessness, she watched her sister trip and stumble to the ground. At the same time the pillar prepared to fire again, but Stephanie noticed something odd. It was aiming about a foot above Erika's head. It was almost sickeningly obvious. Her sister, in a blind attempt to get away would jump up right into the oncoming blast. No, Erika, stay down, she was screaming in her head, though she knew the other girl could not hear her. To her astonishment Erika stopped half way up, the beam just barely missing her head, and sat back down.

"Fu," she called. "When were you un-gagged?"

That's an idiotic question, Stephanie thought. Of course I haven't been un-gagged.

"You haven't? Then how come I can hear you?" Stephanie paused to take in her sister's words. Did she really say what I think she said? But she couldn't have heard me.

"Actually she can," an all too familiar voice spoke right beside her. Stephanie turned to see Korran standing there with a smug look of triumph on his face. "So one of you has finally broken through. I was wondering if you two would be the first ones." He proceeded to remove both the gag and the blindfold from the sisters and stood back to let the expected downpour of questions come at him.

Stephanie was experiencing the weirdest sensation in her life. There were a million questions running through her mind, as to be expected, but in the back of her mind she could hear a million more questions and thoughts that did not belong to her. "Am I reading my sisters mind?" Stephanie asked. It was the loudest question in both the girl's minds so it was the first one she asked.

"Well, sort of," he answered. "Yes, you can hear each others thoughts but it is more than that. You have a telepathic connection that allows you complete access to your sister's mind." The two girls just stared at him. What are you supposed to say to that? The two of them were hustled into a corner to watch the rest of the seen unfurl.

Once Erika and Stephanie were unleashed it seemed to start a chain reaction. A wave practically washed over the others as one after the other they discovered their abilities, starting with Mike. He was getting fed up with robotic arms and the pain they caused in their place of contact when he tried to move. He was bleeding, he was tired, he was just plain fed up, but mostly he was angry at himself for not being able to do any thing about it. However not even two minutes after the sisters had been released, he began to feel a weird sensation. There was something warm bubbling up from inside him and just when it felt like it consumed him entirely he began to glow a bright shade of blue.

When the light faded away it left a strange looking mike. His body and the clothes on it were still the same but there were now blue demon markings visible on his face and arms, and the tips of his spikes were tinged with the same blue. Unfortunately he was still held captive by the arms, but as his seething hatred for the devices racked his brain something else started to happen. It the exact same places, and only in those places, where the claws held him he began to glow blue again. When he did Mike found that the pain had gone away, and the metal was no longer digging into his flesh. He tried to move his arms and found it surprisingly easy. The arms were still trying to restrain him by holding him still but with barely a thought Mike found that he could easily out muscle them and make them move with him. After demonstrating his new found freedom, Korran released Mike and told him to sit with the other two girls with the promise that he would explain everything once the others were done.

The next one to come was Sam. She had not gone through any impossible tasks or really been hurt him in any way. The whole time she had been sitting there in her chair with no other choice but to watch her friends suffer. If only I could help them, she thought, but I'm entirely useless. All I'm doing is sitting here. I should at least be suffering like them, but I can't even do that. The people around her were screaming and suffering and there was nothing she could do. She watched as Yami was hit directly in the chest with one of the laser beams and fell to the floor; she did not get back up. Oh please, Sam begged in her mind. Be strong at get up. You have to keep going. The thing that you need right now is strength and I can't give that to you. At that point it was almost as if something snapped in her mind. Yami needed strength and as she concentrated on that feeling she watched as Yami raised herself from the ground and continued the useless attempt. What the… she decided to try it again. Looking around she noticed Aryn start to falter and concentrating on the girl and the strength she needed she watched Aryn surged with new found energy. Sam continued to do the same one for each of her remaining friends and once Korran noticed this he unbound her at took her over to sit with the others that were finished.

Jessica was the next down the line and as expected she was the breakthrough. It was actually a very subtle and easy change. She would think to her self that she wished the robot she was faced with would this or that and one time it did. Then a moment latter it followed her silent commands again. Deciding to experiment she tried directing her commands at it. Sometimes the thing would follow her and sometimes it would not but the longer she tried the more frequently it obeyed her. She kept this up and once the robotic man would do anything she told it, whether she said it out loud or not, Korran released her to go with the others.

Jamie's realization was not quite so easy, although it was completely by accident. One of the beams caught her in the leg, making the limb go out and causing her to fall. However the hand that she flew out to brace herself with did not come in contact with the floor, but instead hit the barrier. It stuck there like glue and no matter how hard Jamie pulled she could not get it off. Of course she did the stupidest thing possible and braced her other hand on the barrier to give herself more leverage and found both her hands now stuck to the shimmering air. The space around her hands began to vibrate and glow as the energy from the barrier began to collect towards the area where her hands were stuck. Her body almost seemed to go into auto pilot as she gathered up the energy around her and focused it at the pillar. A beam, very similar to the ones that had been aiming for her, shot forth and hit the pillar, right were the off switch was, and blew the entire thing to pieces. After this, like the others, she was instructed to sit and wait with the group.

Both Travis's and Yami's breakthroughs were short and simple. Travis, after about the millionth time he was shocked started to really just want that floating sphere to wither and die. Of course, it being an inanimate object, he assumed, he was not quite sure haw that would work. However he did not need to know for the tendril that had attached to him became visible again and started to glow. All the hatred that Travis had built up for that damn floating ball seemed to travel down the string and once it reached the other side the sphere started to get smaller and smaller until it disappeared.

Yami's enlightenment was just as painless. The answer practically smacked her upside the head and she could not believe she hadn't figured it out earlier. Fuck it! I can't believe what a dumb-ass I am. What were all those hours I spent learning Ki worth if I'm not going to use it. No physical attacks hun, well I don't know how well this will work but here it goes. She pointed her finger, like a spirit gun, at the pillar and focused her energy. Once she fired at it the thing instantly blew up. Holy shit I didn't think it would actually work! I'm surprised I even hit it with how bad my aim is.

By this time Jordan was huddled in a corner as far away from the other floating orb, the one that was attacking her, as possible. Not that it was doing her any good, she could not defend against it, she could not run away from it, and she had absolutely no idea what to do. As another blast headed her way she put up her hands in a messily attempt to shield herself and waited for the impact, but it never came. When she opened her eyes she found that the energy ball that had earlier been threatening to hit her was now firmly clasped in her hands. The longer she held onto it the stronger she began to feel and, what she did not notice, was that the sphere that had been firing at hare as shrinking in proportion to her increase in energy.

Elizabeth on the other hand was having a bit more difficult time. She had no idea where to even begin to try and stop the ninja/robot that was attempting to maim, and or, kill her. All she had managed to do was run around in circles to avoid the thing and she didn't know how much longer she could keep it up. Isn't there anything that could help me, I'll take anything at all. At that point images of people in her life that cared for her and would never want to hurt her started flashing through her mind. How very much like her brain to start thinking about a random topic that would not do her any good now. Unless this robot suddenly turns into my favorite teacher or something and the odds of that happening are none. As soon as this thought entered her mind the robot froze and the liquid like grey matter that she had seen before started to leak from its face and cover it's entire body. Once the stuff absorbed, Elizabeth was left looking into the face of her third grade teacher. He looked to the sword he had raised to her head and stumbled backwards, dropping the sword.

"What am I doing!" he yelled. "I can't harm you, you were my favorite student." At which point Korran deactivated it, turning it back to how it looked when Elizabeth first saw it, and instructed her to go over with the others.

Now there was only one human left it the tests, not the she noticed though, she was busy dealing with her own problems. Another thing se did not realize was that now every time she jumped she got a little farther out, and she was starting to land on her feet more. Of course she didn't realize this was happening until she jumped and found herself standing safely and the opposite platform. She tried it once again and found that she could for some reason now jump the insane distance with ease. She noticed Korran signaling her to come down below her and, with out thinking, jumped. On the way down she somersaulted backwards, putting her in the perfect position to land on her feet right in front of the man. Once she was safely on the ground she double blinked as the stunt she had just pulled off hit her.

"What the-" she started however Korran cut her off.

"I'll explain in a moment. I'm sure everyone has a lot of questions so if you will just follow me I will explain them," and he walked out of the room with the humans following obediently behind him, their overwhelming need for answers overriding their feeling of being baby ducks.

Once they were all seated in their room, the one they had been sleeping in the past few days, they all stared up at Korran, waiting to hear his long over due explanation. Before he began both Set hand Christian joined them and were filled in on what had happened while they were separated. Sense neither of them had been there nor had any weird unexplainable powers, they felt that they did not need to talk or ask any questions.

"Let's see, where to start," he pondered. "I guess I'll just start at the basics. First off each one of you has developed a special spiritual power. Erika and Stephanie have a telepathic communication and I believe that is pretty much self-explanatory. Mike is a Berserker, or in other words becomes a powerful demon like thing when he is angry or upset. Sam is an Empath. Aryn is a Cat Demon. Jamie can manipulate the energy around her, and Jessica can manipulate other people's minds. Jordan can steal other's energy for herself. Yami had the power of Ki. Elizabeth has the power of improbability," he named them all as he counted them off on his fingers. "And Travis…well Travis's is hard to explain. Basically it's like your energy has claws and when you push that energy onto people it claws at them and shreds their own energy."

"Alllllriiiiight," Elizabeth spoke up. "But why do we have these powers…er…why did you give them to us, er…I don't know."

"From the beginning, all of you were born with special, dormant, powers. Those powers created a connection between all of you that drew you together. Hence the reason you all currently lived in the same city. All I did was force you true nature to come to the surface," Korran explained.

"What I'm having trouble grasping is the fact that we've had kick-ass powers all this time and didn't know about it. How does someone not realize that?"

"Well," Korran ventured. "Take Aryn for example. A Cat Demon must be mixed up in her ancestry somewhere and that blood is just showing up stronger in her." There was a really long silence after this that was broken by Jessica.

"So where are you involved in this?" she asked.

"I," he answered, am the person that is going to harness your power. Now if we're done here I suggest you get some sleep. Tomorrow we're going to start training you so you can build up and control your power," and he swept out of the room. The lights went off and the safety lights went on, as usual, and all was quiet. That is until Yami fell over with a moan.

"What's wrong?" Jamie asked her friend.

"I think my brain just broke," was the reply.

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