"Ow" Maxim muttered, as Karl came into the bar, opening the door with too much force, making it bang into the wall, and aggravating Maxim's migraine.
"Oh, sorry Max" Karl apologised "I didn't know you were here"
"The usual?" Aya asked from behind the bar
"Sure" Karl replied, coming to sit next to Maxim "No change in the migraine then?"
"No, nothing"
"That must suck"
"No shit"
"Well, at least you should unlock more psionic stuff afterwards"
"Maybe"
"I thought you said using Psionics helps it?"
"It does, but not much"
"Ah. Anyway. Any of the others showing promise?"
"Masambe has basically finished. Harold's also showing some small amounts"
"Hey, 2 new Psionic guys"
"Masambe's gotten even more philosophical recently"
"That's possible?"
"I didn't think so-" Maxim interrupted himself as he felt something strange, a sudden build up of psionic pressure behind his eyes
"What's up? Karl asked
"Uh, something's happening. You might want to back up a bit"
"Oh crap" Karl said, a took a few steps back, looking concerned. Aya also stepped back
"What is it?" Aya asked
"Not sure, some press-" He again stopped himself as he felt the pressure suddenly explode outwards. Maxim could see it, expanding in a nova from him, passing through Aya and Karl, before dissipating into the air a few feet behind them. "Uh... You guys, alright?" He could see a light purple glow around them, similar to the glow around the bodies of those that had been hit by a Mindfray a few minutes ago. Visible only to someone with Psionic abilities, and shows that either a powerful Psionic effect was used on them, and has been dissipating for a time, or a weaker Psionic effect was used on them recently.
"I don't feel any different" Aya replied
"Uh, Not that you mention it, I do feel, strange"
"How so?"
"I don't know how to explain it. Calm?"
"Well. The migraine disappeared, so I should go visit Vahlen. And you guys should come as well"
"Why?" Aya asked
"Well, I think I just did some kind of Psionic power. So Vahlen's going to want to check you out"
"That's probably a good idea" Karl came over, finished his drink in one go, and lead the way to the Psionic training area.
"Explain what happened" Vahlen said. Maxim and the others had arrived at the training area, and had told Vahlen what happened. But she seemed to want details.
"Well" Maxim began "We were talking, then I felt a shift in the pressure causing the migraine. It suddenly went from the back of my head, to behind my eyes. I told them to stand back a bit. The, the Psionic energy just, released"
"Interesting" Vahlen turned to the others "And what did you feel when this happened?"
"Not much" Aya replied
"I just felt, I don't know, calmer, easier to focus, just like I'd gotten any stress just taken out" Karl answered
"Interesting. If it's a psychological effect, that may explain Aya's lack of reaction" Vahlen was taking notes on her tablet "Do you still feel any effects?"
"No. It faded pretty quickly. Like, 3 minutes, maybe"
"Maxim?"
"When I did it, I saw the purple glow that showed they had Psionic's done on them, but it was weak, and, yeah, it's gone, I can't see any remnants in them"
"We shall have to do some more testing, but it appears to have been a low-level pulse of Psionic power. We don't even know if you can replicate this feat. Aya, Karl, you are free to go, but if you begin feeling anything strange, report to me immediately"
"Gotcha" Karl turned and walked off
"Sure" Aya answered as well, following Karl out the room
"Are you sure their heads won't explode?"
"I did some scans, we couldn't find any Psionic energy in them, besides that of the average picked up by close proximity to an individual with Psionic powers"
"Well, that's good"
"Yes. Now. Harold and Masambe have shown development of Psionic powers, and are scheduled to be released from here tomorrow. After they leave, I wish to perform some tests, see if we can't get you to replicate the effect, and if we can determine it's effects"
"I figured as much"
"Of course. Anyway, thank you for bringing them in"
"Sure, I didn't want to have their heads explode from my little Nova"
"Nova?"
"Gaming term, basically a power that comes out of the user, and spreads to a certain distance. It looked like it worked like that"
"Have you got a name already?"
"No. I want to see what it does before I name it. But, for now, let's just call it a Psionic Nova effect"
"Very good. Well, see you tomorrow"
"See ya" Maxim headed off. He had some gaming to catch up on.
"Woah" Maxim said, as he tested out his new power "I got a name now"
"And what would that be?" Vahlen's voice came over the speaker
"Inspiration"
"Why is that?"
"Well, that seems to be what it does, inspire allies near me. It did nothing to the Sectoid's, and Karl seemed more able to do stuff afterwards"
"A suiting name then. Any other abilities manifesting?"
"Nothing new, but" Maxim engaged his Psionic vision "I think I can, see more with this"
"With what?"
"Oh, sorry, I forgot you can't see my eyes go purple. I think the Psionic vision's improved a bit"
"That's intriguing. We'll need to so some tests to determine the exact capabilities. But that will have to wait"
"Why?" Maxim wasn't really complaining, he could be gaming, or hanging out with Karl right now, but Vahlen never postponed these before.
"Someone just arrived and asked for your appearance at the armoury" (The Psionic's training area wasn't connected to the base coms. So that it wouldn't interrupt someone when their trying to focus on Psionics)
"Why?"
"They didn't say"
"This sounds interesting"
"Hi Vampire" Aya said as Maxim entered the armoury. He couldn't see her, which was strange, he should be able to see her, it was one room.
"Look up" Aya called again, and Maxim looked up, to see Aya, floating in the air, wearing a suit of armour, with some kind of pack on the back, out of which blue jets were shooting, there were smaller versions on the ankles.
"What the-"
"New armour"
"I can see that"
Aya floated down, landing just in front of him. The jets turned off just before she landed on the floor "Cool, right"
"You can fly"
"It's the armour"
"Duh"
"What do you think"
"I think that's fucking awesome... How are you so good at controlling that? It took me 10 hours of training to use the grappling hook"
"I'm a fast learner" Aya smirked. Maxim had never seen her smirk before
"Why'd you get that?"
"So that I can get over obstacles and get to the alien's easier"
"I guess that makes sense"
"Come on"
"What?"
Before Maxim could do anything else, Aya moved with her usual teleport-speed, grabbed his arm, and flew upwards. Maxim yelped, and wrapped his other arm around her waist, he didn't have his armour on, so a fall would do normal damage.
"I'm not going to drop you"
Maxim kept his arm around her waist, briefly noting that his head was at boob-height before looking up at Aya. She was, smiling. He'd never seen her smile before either (except when she interacted with non-X-COM personnel)
"Who are you, and what have you done with Aya?"
"What?"
"You smirked. And now you're smiling"
"And?"
"You've never done that before"
"Yes I have"
"Only when talking to non-X-COM people"
"Well. Different things make me happy"
"I didn't-"
"Let's not get into a discussion of my Psychopathology while I'm flying"
"That's a weird sentence"
"We're weird people"
"Uh. Would you mind, shifting a bit?"
"Why?"
"Uh, my heads kinda, getting between your girls"
"My girls?"
"Oh for-. My head's going between your tits"
"Oh, right" They dropped quickly, and Maxim was shunted upwards, his arm now around her upper-body, and his head at head-level "Better?"
"Much"
They floated there for a few minutes, Maxim looking around, blushing from the awkwardness, even though he knew she didn't care, the up-side of a psychopath friend he guessed, they honestly didn't care about embarrassment.
Suddenly Maxim heard a beeping noise "Uh, what's tha-*gurk*"
Aya suddenly dropped downwards. Maxim's head seemed to say in place, while his body dropped, and he choked on his own words. As quickly as they'd dropped, they were on the ground.
"What was that?"
"Low fuel warning" Aya replied "I apologise, I got lost in thought, and I didn't pay attention"
"It's fine, just got me by surprise"
"That was fun. We should do it again sometime"
"Do what?"
"Flying"
"Oh, yeah, probably better outside though"
"Probably" Aya smiled again, and Maxim noticed that it caused her burn scar to move when she smiled, almost making it fade a bit.
"It's a date. Uh, not a date, an arrangement of time to do it"
"I know what you mean Max"
"Yeah, see you later Aya"
Halfway back to his room Maxim realized 'She didn't call me Vampire. She used my actual name, well, my nick-name... Does that mean something?'. And spent the next hour in his room, with similar thoughts running through his head, before he was interrupted by the coms unit blaring.
"Will Operatives: Maxim Popov, Aya Haidar, Karl Wagner, Joe Sanders, and Keith Taylor please report to the Hangar"
"A mission, well... Wait, William?.. Oh yeah, that's right. He's doing the Psionics training now. I wonder who's going to be the leader then"
Maxim got up, and headed to the hanger. Aya's swap of name's shifted from his mind for the time-being, his sub-conscious Psionic abilities pushed the thoughts that would cloud his mind away, to allow him better focus for the situation to come.
This one's a bit shorter than normal. So I apologize for that, but, standard thing, if one's a bit short, the next one will normally be a bit longer. I felt like it was time to be some more relationship stuff as well, and I prefer to have those separated from any fights. I'll probably be getting more relationship and character development in the recent future. I wont try to force anything that I don't think the characters would do, but, this is my first story, so sorry if some things do end up coming across as being a bit forced.