Disclaimer – I just don't own Glee ok
Hello dear readers and welcome to chapter 5, the last of the 'introductory' chapters
As always thanks for reading and reviewing
Chapter 5 – With Great Power
The crowd dispersed till only Artie, Puck, Rachel and Kurt were in the corridor.
"Here," Artie offered his hand to Rachel and helped her to her feet. "Are you ok?"
"You saved me," Rachel gushed gazing at him with wide eyes as though seeing him for the first time. "You're not wearing your glasses," she noticed.
"I don't seem to need them since the Choir Room," Artie explained.
"Seriously," Puck interjected. "Wheels stands up out of his chair and you're talking about the fact he isn't wearing glasses? Call me crazy, but I think the whole standing and walking thing is kind of a bigger deal than the eyesight thing."
"Agreed," Kurt commented.
"Kurt, when did you get here?" Artie asked.
"He came with me," Puck said slinging his arm around Kurt's shoulders. "Since the Choir Room thing Kurt's become really good at hide and seek."
"I can turn invisible and walk through walls," Kurt clarified.
"What are we going to do now?" Rachel asked. "We agreed to hide this but Artie just stood up in front of a pretty large group of people."
"And one of the jocks saw me walk through a wall," Kurt added.
"That's fine," Puck said. "That was one jock. He probably won't say anything and even if he did no-one would believe him. The same can't be said for Artie though, too many people saw."
"Maybe if he just stayed in the chair and we all denied it…" Rachel began to suggest but before she could finish Artie picked up his wheelchair and launched it at a wall with a fiery rage he had clearly been containing for some time.
"I am not sitting back in that chair," Artie stated clearly and hearing the circulating thoughts backing up his words, Rachel nodded in acceptance.
"So what do we do?" Kurt asked. "People will talk. There needs to be some kind of explanation."
"A miracle cure?" Rachel suggested.
"So lame, no-one would believe that," Puck said. "We could tell a few people that Artie was faking the wheelchair thing the whole time and let the word spread."
"Nobody could fake something like that for so long," Kurt reasoned. "It's too unrealistic."
"Not necessarily," Rachel countered. "Tina's been faking her stutter and nobody ever realised. I must say I'm quite impressed by her acting talents."
"Wait, what?" Artie asked.
"Oh," Rachel said awkwardly realising what she had just revealed and wincing as she heard Artie's thoughts of betrayal over Tina's lie. "She only did it because she was shy," Rachel tried to defend.
"Seriously, Rachel, you need to control your mind-reading thing," Kurt told her. "Hearing other people's thoughts and secrets and accidentally revealing them to other people will only cause drama and upset."
"I didn't do it deliberately and…" she trailed off, blushing a brilliant shade of red as she heard Puck's thoughts as he undeniably looked at Kurt's ass. "Noah!" she gasped.
"What?" Puck asked with a casual shrug looking completely unbothered by the fact Rachel had obviously heard his perverted thoughts.
"I… I… I'm going to class," Rachel decided bending down to gather up her things.
"I'm going for a walk," Artie said before turning on his heel and heading in the opposite direction, breaking into a run halfway down the hall.
The other three simply watched the incredible sight.
"How is that possible?" Kurt asked.
"How is any of this possible?" Rachel queried.
"He can walk," Kurt said in awe.
"It must be pretty weird for him," Puck guessed.
"It's not, it's exhilarating," Rachel claimed. "He feels powerful, free, like he can do anything. He wants to dance and run forever, afraid that if he stops for even a second it will all go away and he'll be back in the wheelchair."
"Were you reading his mind?" Kurt asked, annoyed. "I've told you multiple times now to stop doing that. It's rude and invasive and it will only cause trouble."
"His favourite Disney movie is The Little Mermaid," Rachel continued as though Kurt hadn't spoken. "Just like Ariel he would be willing to give up anything, even his voice, if it meant he could have working legs. He's so brave, deep and intense. Such a gentleman too with the way he defended me. He's experienced true tragedy and such things really build character and shape people into excellent artists and performers. Now that he's not being held back by his chair he could really step up and make a great leading man to share the spotlight with me."
"Hey, dude," Puck called to Kurt. "Is she like crushing on Artie now?"
"Entirely," Kurt confirmed. "She has her psycho love-struck school-girl face."
"I must prepare a list of appropriate duets for Artie and myself to sing together," Rachel said.
"Ok, come on, Hummel," Puck threw his arm about Kurt's shoulders again. "I'd rather go to class than listen to Berry right now."
XXX
At lunch time, Rachel requested that everybody from the Glee Club meet in the Choir Room. Initially, Quinn, Santana and Brittany said no but Rachel recruited Finn to convince the three Cheerio's to join them.
"What are we even doing here?" Quinn asked.
"Rachel called an emergency meeting," Finn answered his girlfriend.
"If it's such an emergency why isn't she even here yet?" Quinn demanded to know.
"She's gone to find Artie," Puck said.
"Well I'm not waiting anymore," Quinn declared standing up.
"Me either," Santana agreed standing with her, Brittany following suit. "The three of us are actually still popular despite being in this stupid club. We might be hot bitches, but being popular takes a lot of work, not like any of the losers in this room would know that. At lunch time we socialise with people who actually matter and make sure we stay on top."
"Just sit down," Puck told them. "There's some serious shit going on and we need to include you three in it."
"Why?" Brittany asked.
"Because… we're team mates," Finn pointed out.
"More than that," Puck insisted. "We're family."
"So gay," Santana sniped and Puck just quirked an eyebrow at her in amusement.
"Just wait a little longer," Finn pleaded. "If Rachel and Artie aren't here in the next five minutes then you can bail."
"Fine, but just five minutes," Quinn said sitting back down and gesturing for Santana and Brittany to do the same.
The Glee Clubbers sat around awkwardly. Finn was by the drum set, occasionally drumming his fingers on the instrument. Puck was seated on the piano looking over at Kurt who tried to ignore the fact Puck kept staring at him. Mercedes was sat next to Kurt flicking through a fashion magazine. Tina was seated alone on a chair at the back of the room, her eyes covered by a pair of dark glasses. Mike and Matt were sat together, the dancing Asian sneaking looks at Tina every now and then and the silent boy was playing on his phone. Santana was filing her nails, Brittany fixing her hair and Quinn fiddling with her necklace.
"Fellow Glee Clubbers do not despair," Rachel called out dramatically as she burst through the door. "I have arrived," she announced. "As has Artie," she introduced and the boy walked through the door.
"Hey, who's that guy?" Brittany asked Santana.
"Oh my g-g-god, A-artie," Tina stuttered standing up. "Y-you can w-walk." She moved towards him, spreading her arms out in invitation for a hug but Artie moved past her. "Artie?" she asked but he didn't respond as he sat down next to Kurt.
"What's going on?" Quinn asked in an awestruck tone as she moved closer to Artie. "How… why… how?"
"This is what we needed to talk to you guys about," Puck said. "As you can see, weird freaky stuff is happening."
"This is a miracle," Quinn declared kneeling at Artie's feet and gazing at him with wonder. "Your legs… do they hurt?"
"No," Artie shrugged.
"If I touch…" Quinn reached out and slowly rested her hand on Artie's thigh, just above his knee, gazing up at him reverently. "Can you feel that?" she asked in a whisper.
"Yeah," Artie nodded, a smile on his lips and eyes fluttered closed as he experienced sensations he'd been without for so long.
"This is amazing," Quinn gushed. "Such a beautiful gift. You can walk," she laughed in delight as her fingers moved up to touch her little gold cross.
"Ok, hold up," Santana said. "I don't mean to be a bitch and put a pooper on Artie being able to walk but I really have to stand up and ask… what the fuck is going on? Miracles don't just happen, there is no explanation for this, it shouldn't be possible, what happened to the wheelchair?"
"Seriously, who is that guy?" Brittany asked again.
"Allow me to explain," Rachel said standing in the centre of the room, waiting for all eyes to be fixed on her. "It was just another ordinary day at McKinley High, or so it seemed," she declared. "But then in this very Choir Room, something extraordinary happened. The air went cold, the lights went out and the doors slammed shut, trapping the original five inside…"
"We got hit by some weird blue light and now there are side affects," Mercedes summarised before Rachel could annoy them further with her over-dramatised tale.
"Artie can walk," Puck listed. "The dude doesn't need his glasses anymore, not to mention that weird electric thing he has going on. Kurt can turn invisible and walk through walls. Mercedes can control the weather. Tina is faster, stronger, her teeth and nails are sharper, the light hurts her eyes and she likes the smell of blood. She's kind of like a vampire but without the being dead part or bursting into flames. And Rachel can hear people's thoughts."
Everybody glared at Rachel as though warning her to stay out of their heads.
"What?" Rachel asked defensively. "Come on, guys, don't worry, it's not like Carrie or anything."
"Well of course it isn't," Kurt answered. "Stephen King's 'Carrie' is about a girl with telekinesis, the ability to move objects at a distance with the power of the mind. It isn't about an annoying girl who hogs the spotlight and develops telepathy, the ability to read minds and invade on one's thoughts."
"Lord Tubbington can totally read minds," Brittany commented.
"Wait, hold up, this can't be real," Santana said. "This is ridiculous. Things like this don't just happen."
"Look around you, Santana, they are happening," Puck replied. "Check it out," he pointed to where Kurt was seated and they all saw (or didn't see) that Kurt was invisible.
If I could turn invisible I'd totally be sneaking into the girls' locker room, Finn thought and Rachel frowned at him. She then turned her frown towards Mike as he thought precisely the same thing. She then turned her frown on Matt and Artie before sending a surprised stare in Santana's direction when the same thought entered her mind but she wisely refrained from making any comment on it.
"We need to figure out what we're going to do," Kurt spoke up, most people in the room finding it weird to hear his voice without seeing his body.
"We just hide it right?" Finn asked. "Make sure other people don't find out?"
"It's kinda too late for that," Puck answered. "A bunch of people have already seen Artie walk. Haven't any of you heard people talking about it?"
"Nobody's talking about it yet," Rachel said confidently. "At least not out loud. The people who saw are certainly thinking about it though. A lot of them are still in a state of shock. Too shocked to even communicate with one another what they saw. But it will only take one person to mention it and then everybody who saw will be talking about it. I predict that everybody in the school will hear about Artie walking before the end of the day. In fact, probably before the end of lunch. Lunch is the opportune time for conversation and gossip to spread."
"She's probably right," Puck nodded. "We can't hide the fact Artie is walking. If Rachel just keeps her mouth shut then other people don't need to know that she can read their thoughts. But if Kurt can't control his invisibility and walking through walls tricks then pretty soon enough of the wrong people will see it and they'll start talking too."
"Well if Kurt just stays away from walls and doesn't walk through them then nobody will see anything," Mike pointed out. "So it's just the invisibility that needs to be controlled."
"I don't know how to control it," Kurt admitted. "I try to concentrate on it and make myself be visible again but it doesn't work. It seems to happen when it wants to."
"Just keep working on it," Mercedes advised him. "Relax and concentrate enough and you should be able to control it."
"What about you and the weather stuff?" Puck asked her.
"Actually, I think I've got quite good control of it already," she boasted with a smile. "Look, I'll demonstrate," she stood up and raised her hands high in the air and clapped them above her head. As she did, a clap of thunder sounded outside.
"Thunder without lightening, that should be impossible," Quinn commented.
"Well Mercedes Jones is your weather girl now," Mercedes replied. "And it's raining men," she sang out and rain proceeded to fall from the heavens.
"Sweet holy hell," Santana exclaimed scurrying to the Choir Room window to watch the rain outside.
"Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow," Mercedes sang and Mike and Matt joined Santana at the window to watch the snow fall. "I'm walking on sunshine," she sang out joyously and the snow melted away as the sun glowed down on Lima, Ohio. "See, I got this."
"Great, you can control it," Puck told her. "So cut it out. Leave the weather alone and let it do its own thing."
"Puck's right," Quinn supported. "It isn't your place to alter the weather to suit your liking. The weather should always be by God's design, no-one else's."
"W-what's the po-point of having these p-p-powers if w-we can't u-u-use them?" Tina asked.
"Why don't you say that again without the stutter?" Artie asked resentfully.
"Whoa, dude, lay off man," Finn defended. "Tina can't help it that she's got a stutter."
"Yeah, don't be a jerk," Mike added.
"She's been faking it," Artie revealed. "The stutter's fake. Right, Tina?"
"I… I… I…" Tina stammered not knowing what to say.
"You can drop the act," Artie told her coldly. "Rachel read your mind. She told me the truth."
"Is that true, Tina?" Mercedes asked.
"Yes," Tina answered quietly.
"That makes no sense, why would anyone lie about that?" Santana asked.
"We all tell lies," Rachel said in Tina's defence. "Some people pretend to have a stutter, some people lie about their sexuality."
"Oh, you'd better be careful what you say, Berry," Santana warned.
"Ok, stop," Finn interjected. "I don't want anybody in here arguing with each other. Some of us have got these weird new power things and yeah, it is kinda freaky, but with great power comes great responsibility. You guys are like superheroes now."
"Maybe you should all wear tights and capes," Brittany suggested.
"We're not superheroes," Kurt claimed. "Something happened to us, something we can't explain. We just need to control it until we can get rid of it."
"I don't want to get rid of it, or control it," Artie spoke up.
"Me either," Tina said not bothering to stutter. "I don't feel insignificant and helpless anymore. I feel incredible, I feel strong."
"She is pretty badass," Puck commented.
"Think about it," Tina said. "As soon as we set foot in High School, the five of us have been outcasts. We've been ridiculed and bullied. We've been the victims. Now, I don't expect the Football Players and Cheerleaders in the room to be able to understand that, but I know you can relate to it, Kurt. How many times have guys thrown things in our faces, knocked our books out of our hands, called us names and shoved us around? How many teachers have simply turned a blind-eye and let it all happen? Well not anymore. We have the power now and when they attack us we won't fall down and just take it, now we'll stand tall and proud and we'll fight back."
"I'm still mad at her but I agree," Artie said.
"Me too," Rachel agreed. "I'm sick and tired of being underappreciated at this school."
"You only hear people's thoughts, Boy-Hips," Santana remarked snidely. "It's hardly a superhero power that will stop you being bullied. The fact is that some people are meant to be popular and some people are meant to be losers, and you Berry are a loser, and no mind-reading tricks are going to change that."
"You're wrong," Rachel countered. "I might not be stronger or able to manipulate weather. But I have the ability to access people's minds and discover their innermost secrets and find their vulnerabilities. That's a far more dangerous power to have than you might think. Words can be like weapons. All I need to do is hear the right thought, share it around and then just like that," she clicked her fingers. "Somebody's precious popular reputation is destroyed."
Santana looked nervous, as did Quinn and Matt.
"Whoa, hold on, you can't use these powers for evil," Finn said. "They should be used for good. You know, to save the world. We're the good guys here."
"We're not saving the world," Mercedes claimed. "But we're not going to destroy it either. Finn's right. We're the good guys. We shouldn't let these powers consume us. I don't think we need to hide it exactly but we do need to be careful. We should experiment with these powers in a safe environment and make sure we're the ones controlling the power and not the other way around."
"Fine," Tina said. "But the next bully who tries messing with me is totally getting his ass kicked."
"No," Puck objected. "You can't experiment with how strong you are in that way. A guy picking on you doesn't count as a safe environment or whatever. I think your new badass strength is all kinds of awesome but if you really let loose you could kill someone," he warned.
"I wouldn't care," Tina insisted.
"Yes you would," Rachel said gently hearing the other girl's thoughts on how deeply Puck's warning had actually shaken her. "We can find safe ways to test your strength that won't get anybody hurt. Then you'll just need to rein it in and keep it controlled so that you can put up a fight and defend yourself if need be without anything more severe happening."
"You should probably test out the electric thing too, dude," Puck said to Artie.
"I could work with you on that," Mercedes offered. "You probably just need to concentrate on it like I do with my weather manipulation."
"In that case, the biggest risk is probably people seeing Kurt turn invisible," Finn said.
"What about Artie?" Quinn asked. "People have seen him walk and I think Man-Hands is right. I think the people who saw it will be talking about it during lunch and by the time next class comes around everyone will know."
"What shall we say?" Finn asked.
"Don't say anything," Tina suggested. "Let people decide for themselves and create their own reasons and rumours."
"That might be for the best," Mike said.
"Whatever, can we get out of here now?" Santana asked. "The Choir Room is starting to freak me out."
"Yeah, let's go," Puck agreed.
"Remember guys, with great power comes great responsibility," Finn reminded them.
"Walk me to class?" Rachel asked Artie brightly.
"Um… sure," he answered and Rachel beamed as she linked her arm with his, Finn watching them go with a confused and slightly hurt look on his face.
"Finn," Quinn called pointedly, a dark look on her face. "Shall we go?"
"Um… sure," Finn replied echoing Artie's response to Rachel moments before.
"Wanna ditch class with me?" Puck asked Kurt.
"I've skipped too many classes today," Kurt responded before slinging his messenger bag onto his shoulder and exiting the Choir Room.
"Wanna ditch class with me?" Tina repeated standing on Puck's left.
"Seriously, that's what you came up with?" Mercedes commented moving to stand on Puck's right.
"Huh?" Puck looked between them.
"Wanna ditch class with me sounds like the Noah Puckerman equivalent of asking someone for a date," Tina said.
"And my boy, Kurt, is way too good for you," Mercedes declared.
"And you don't exactly have a good reputation," Tina pointed out. "You would have zero chance of winning over a boy like Kurt…" she looked to Mercedes mischievously and they shared an understanding smile. "Without help from us," the girls said together.
"I don't even know what you're talking about," Puck denied. "But whatever, I'm going for a nap in the Nurse's office," Puck made his way out.
"He totally wants Kurt, I can smell it," Tina said to Mercedes.
"We'd better keep an eye on this, girl," Mercedes claimed. "There's no way those two hot boys will get it together without our help."
"Agreed," Tina nodded.
To Be Continued…
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