Part 1
Rich opened his eyes. He looked at the clock. 10 A.M. Saturday again. Time to get down to the Library for his lesson with Dan. It had been a good week.
The sting from losing in last Saturday's tournament had already worn off, to be replaced by a slight buzz of excitement. After seeing Dan do that trick with the fire, and all the other tricks people had used during the tournament, Rich was ready to get a lot better. Though he could make himself a lot faster with the words of power, clearly there were PLENTY of other things he could do with forces. He was definitely still on the bottom of the pile as far as strength went. But that was fine. There was so much more to learn.
All he had to do to be convinced of that was to remember Erica's fight. She had moved those knives in midair, as if they were just another part of her arm!
Suddenly Rich had a thought. That thing that Dan's opponent had used at the tournament- when he had tried to block the fire inferno thing Dan had used- maybe Rich could learn that. He could block fire, or maybe other stuff! That would be cool. After all, increasing his own kinetic energy and affecting the kinetic energy of other objects couldn't be too far removed from one another. Either Dan's fire, or Erica's knife movement, or that shield thingy; Rich was determined to get Dan to teach him how to do one of them.
He took a shower and prepared himself for the day while thinking about the possibilities. Then he decided to go downstairs and have some breakfast.
As Rich descended the stairs, he noticed that Hal and Collin were sitting on the couch in the living room. Even from here, Rich could tell that Hal looked haggard. He had been constantly bitching about last week's tournament, and what a 'punk' Ray was. And whenever he wasn't complaining about that, he was complaining about how his hockey had 'gotten stupid'.
Rich on the other hand was happy with his week. His tournament match had been the least traumatic of the three. He had actually made friends with his opponent- Nate. He even talked to him on the phone a few times. He had done pretty well on his Criminal Justice exam, and his other classes had been O.K. too. Not bad for a free education. It was good to know that SOMETHING good had come from his godforsaken foster parents.
Rich had been given up for adoption at birth. He then bounced around a foster family or two, but the ones he finally ended up with were spawned directly from hell. They'd put on masks of angels for a few days during the trial period, and immediately dropped it afterwards. They had been vicious parents.
After he was hit in the head with a wine-glass, he finally got a break. It came in the form of his foster Aunt. Before that she had only suspected the abuse, with belts, fists, and other various objects. When she had found him on the floor in the kitchen unconscious one day, bleeding from the head, she had immediately defied her sister and taken him to the hospital. Once he was there, it was obvious to the doctor's what was going on, even though, or perhaps BECAUSE his aunt had been a bit nervous and recalcitrant. The bruises on his arms and legs spoke volumes.
After that, an outside agency had sued the State for Incompetence on his behalf. Apparently a worker in the department handling his case had failed to do a background check on his family. As a result, he had been awarded damages provided that he used them only for a College Education.
When he had entered the care of those parents he had been 5 years old. He left at age 7. It had been 2 years in hell. Those 2 years were a lesson in power Rich would not soon forget. His criminal justice education combined with his new abilities should keep that from ever happening to Rich or his friends ever again.
He had spent all of his life from then up until college shifting from one home to another. He never stayed in place for more than a few months, and he had no chance of meeting his real parents either, since his records had been lost in a fire at the hospital shortly after his birth.
He had never had friends, never had anyone he could rely on, anything like family. Now that he had someone like that- his roommates- Hal, and Collin, he had to make sure that they all got stronger. Over the years they started to get close knit. And Rich's experiences in the last few months made it even more so. He had to get them to not focus on the past. The past is gone now. Nothing more than smoke. All there was to do now was protect the present.
Rich finished walking down the stairs, shaking himself from his reverie.
"Hey guys, what's going on? I'm going to head over to the Library in a minute or two. I've got some ideas about training we can get from Dan, next time we go to the tournament, no one will be able to touch us…" Rich trailed off suggestively, hoping Hal would make the right connections. He was obviously still angry that an idiot like Ray could be stronger than him. And Rich was partly inclined to agree. Cruel people didn't deserve to have power.
But right now Hal didn't seem interested in that.
"Dude Rich, come over here, you gotta see this."
Rich poked his head over the couch behind Collin and Hal, and read the letter they had in their hands.
Rich stood there, shocked.
They were getting a new roommate.
Apparently Derek had been missing long enough for them to feel justified in removing him from the apartment. There were a lot of students on the waiting list for housing, so they gave Rich and his roommates' one of them.
"Oh. Wow. " Rich said, stunned.
Rich looked up from the letter, and shared a glance with Hal and Collin.
"We can't tell him." Said Rich, hoping what he meant was obvious.
"You mean about you secretly wearing lingerie?" Collin chirped in, trying to look helpful.
Rich glared at him. "Shut up, Collin." He turned to Hal. "We can't tell him about what's going on. We don't know if we can trust him. We can't do magic in this apartment anymore and…"
Suddenly Rich had another thought. He seemed to be having many today.
"That's right! We have to move Mirvin's stuff into your room Hal. We can't have the new guy in there with that window to the Library. It wouldn't be a good idea."
Hal started to look furious at the idea of rooming with Mirvin, but Rich quickly cut in.
"Mirvin is never here anyway. He goes off with Michael for days at a time, and shuffles in from the Library to go to classes."
Hal still didn't look convinced.
Rich tried a new tact. "He would have to come in your room anyway, just to go to classes in the morning. You wouldn't see him any more than normal either way."
Hal shrugged. "Yeah fine whatever."
Rich nodded. "Ok, now what we should do, to prepare for his arrival, is-"
Just then, there was a knock on the door.
Holy crap.
Rich resisted the urge to swear aloud. This college sure didn't believe in giving them too much warning about what they were doing.
"He's here already? Wow that was mighty quick" said Collin, treating it as if it were more amusing than deeply problematic.
"Collin, go upstairs and move Mirvin's crap out of your room, into Hal's."
Collin started to protest, but Rich glared at him. Collin walked toward the stairs, none too fast, mumbling under his breath. Rich ignored him and moved to the door. He opened it
"Hi, this is Room 104 right?" said the kid in the doorway. There was nothing out of the ordinary about him, besides the fact that he was carrying two or three huge duffel bags.
"Yeah, this is the place" Rich said, trying not to sound nervous. "I take it you're our, uh, new roommate?
"Yeah, that's me. I'm Adrian, nice to meet you."
Rich stood there a second, trying to think of something to say, and trying NOT to think about the supernaturally opaque window in Hal's room, and the other billion ways this guy could find out that something strange was going on in good old room 104.
Hal stepped past Rich and shook Adrian's outstretched hand.
"Yo, I'm Hal." Hal said gruffly. And without further ado he grabbed two of Adrian's giant bags, slung them over his shoulder, and walked toward the stairs.
"I'll just take these up to your room." He said over a shoulder, as he walked away.
Adrian looked confused. He shrugged after a moment though, and laughed.
"Well, that was uh… cool- of him. So what were you guys up to before I came? Did I interrupt anything?"
Rich immediately felt an irrational surge of nerves. Did he know what they had been talking about? Had he heard them?
"We were uh, just about to go to the Lib- the uh, the gym. Yeah everyone was just headed for a little work out."
Adrian got a confused look on his face again, clearly not understanding Rich's nerves.
"Oh alright. I don't think I caught your name, by the way. Or anyone's name here for that matter. Where is everyone anyway?
Rich was feeling much calmer now. Hal quickly came back down the stairs after him and Collin had moved Mirvin's junk into Hal's room, and Adrian's stuff in with Collin.
The four of them were at the breakfast table now, eating some Fruit Loops. Hal had brightened up considerably since starting to talking to Adrian, and everything was going pretty well. Rich didn't think Hal was very good at staying grumpy for long anyway. It never really took much to cajole him out of it.
After a minute or two they all decided to show Adrian his room upstairs, and since Adrian wasn't done with his cereal yet, he carried it with him up the stairs.
"Yo Adrian, I saw a pair of boxing gloves sticking out of your bags when I was carrying them. Do you use them a lot?"
Rich was about to chime in about his own experience with boxing, when he froze. His mind quickly went through about a dozen different things he could do to fix what he saw ahead of him just now, but none of them sounded like he could get away with it smoothly.
Adrian hadn't noticed yet, but the milk and Fruit loops were no longer in the bowl he was carrying.
They were floating in the air, a foot behind his head.