Chapter 14

Alex stretched out on the rock on which he was sunbathing. The heat of the sun felt luxurious on his bright white fur and the gentle murmur of the passing crowds was soothing in a pleasant way. Life was good. Food was plentiful, the sun was warm, the water cool, the gaggle of tourists were waving at him from behind the glass…

Oh… right, not actually a bear, Alex thought to himself as his awareness as both a human and a Gem and a Jumper all came back to him. Or I could just take a nap, a nice long nap in the sun with a full belly and no worries at – Alex shook his head and focused on his new 'SB Bear' perk. He pushed his bear mentality away and focused on 'functioning as a human.' Quickly the memories and associated detached attitude of an animal faded until he felt more like himself.
Being a bear was… interesting. There was a certain peace to the mind frame of an animal. Bears didn't care about the future much beyond the need to eat. Even long-term, a bear goals only arose when presented. A bear didn't worry about mates until one was available. They didn't worry about the winter until the leaves turned and the world became chill. Once Alex had supressed his Bear persona, the new memories proved easy to push to the side and generally forget about. He had been a bear raised in captivity and the years within the zoo simply blurred into one long day of eating, sleeping, swimming and occasionally fucking a provided female polar bear. Don't ask.

Alex lumbered to his feet, all four of them, and shuffled to the cave at the back of his exhibition: much to the disappointment of his watching crowd of Zoo attendees. In the cave he was actually surprised to find that the Jump classified him as the owner of the space, or at least that's what the Gemtech warp pad set into the floor suggested. With a massive shrug the polar bear stepped onto the warp pad and disappeared in a flash of light. If he had been thinking clearly, or at all, he would have given thought to the observation camera installed in the cave or of the park ranger sitting at a desk watching the live feed of the bear disappearing. Instead, he had been thinking of finding the new temple location and then contacting the others to organise a group meeting.

He arrived at the temple with another beam of light to the temple room in which he had spent so much time in in the last jump. Alex let out a breath of relief when he saw all the modifications and equipment had remained in place. It wasn't that he wasn't prepared to remodify the temple to his and the girls liking, but it saved plenty of time and energy.

A quick look outside showed that the temple was no longer on an island but built into a rocky hill in the middle of an old growth forest. The giant woman statue that made up the front of the temple was speckled with moss and lichen that blended with the granite rock face and matched the dark green and brown drapery of the established forest growth. The abundant firs and yellow cedars along with the similar climate to the Zoo Alex had just left pointed to the likelihood that the Temple was in one of the forests near Seattle and thus near the movie location.
The hum of the warp activating alerted him to the arrival of the others and so he made his way back into the temple so see that Lyn, Lapis and Morrigan had warped in together.

No one was in their bear alt-form but each was in a different form than the previous jump except for Lyn who was again in her half-Gem persona though this time much taller. Morrigan and Lapis had both seemed to utilise their new alt-form blender perks as they both appeared as teenage girls with stylistic additions. Lapis had pale skin and black hair with vivid streaks of blue and her eyes shone gold-speckled blue after her namesake. Morrigan appeared much a like a teenage mixture of her ghost and gem forms: pale skin and scarlet eyes that contrasted vividly when framed by her muted rainbow of green, blue, ochre and grey layered hair. Everyone was dressed comfortably in dark jeans and shirts or blouses, but that made sense when they could each simply will clothing made from light into being from their Gems… even when the Gems were no longer visible. 'Sir Bearington' was awesome.

"Did anyone have any trouble with their arrival?" he asked.

"I think multi-cross jumps might be a little glitchy if you take multiple origins." Lyn grumbled.

"Why?" Alex asked concerned.

"I woke up as large bear in my teen-girl bedroom." Lyn flushed. "It took a little bit to get my head around my bear instincts and shift back to my half-gem form… in other news: I need a new bed."

"Any problems with the parents?" Alex asked.

Lyn shook her head. "Nah, they're out of town on business. From my memories they're often distance and gone. I've got the whole mansion to myself; likely because I technically own it seeing as it's a perk and all." Lyn said before looking enquiringly at Lapis to pass the conversation on.

Lapis nodded with sympathies to Lyn's situation. "I woke as a bear in the 'Strange Cave' I purchased. Last thing I remembered from my 'Average Guy' origin was going for a hike, so it's likely near our town. Thankfully the cave got a warp pad installed so we don't have to go searching for it. As for my origin family they seem normal enough. Busy but not absent or anything, maybe a little distant but only in a generation gap way. They don't really get my anime and gamer hobbies… also I now have hobbies."

Alex smiled along with Lyn and Morrigan, it was nice that Lapis was getting a good 'human' experience."

Morrigan tilted her head to the side when everyone turned to her. "I didn't seem to have any problems with my bear persona but I think 'Sir Bearington' may have glitched my parents."

And wasn't that weird? Morrigan had never had parents before and likely never would again if given the choice. She had listened to Alex and Lyn when they had described their homelives both pre-jump and from the Monopoly Gauntlet and they both had nothing but praise for their parents. These new parents of hers failed in comparison. She could already feel a kernel of angst and resentment against them that was wholly the new memories gained from the jump.

"Did something happen?" Lyn asked with a frown, her new wild bear instincts flaring and wondering if she needed to crush some skulls for her friend.

"No." Morrigan shook her head. "Just that my 'Awkward High Schooler' origin may have conflicted with my 'Hollywood Bear' origin and my 'Sir Bearington' perk. My lovely parents see me as both a daughter and a bear and have decided to supplement their income by blogging my life." Morrigan explained with an exaggerated eye roll.

"Wait! You're 'My Un-Bear-able Teenage Daughter?'" Lapis asked. "I wrote a paper on that blog for my sociology class… well, I remember doing so."

Alex nodded. "Implanted memories are weird like that."

Lyn tilted her head to the side. "What are they even blogging?"

"Mostly it's just them filming meal times and outings while I act like a bear," Morrigan frowned, "but they also parade me about in costumes and my room is a cage."

Alex and Lapis both growled as their inner bears ruffled at what was being described.

Lyn raised a hand. "All in favour of knee-capping Morrigan's parents say 'aye.'"

"Aye." Alex and Lapis responded.

"Then we're agreed." Lyn nodded.

Morrigan blushed. It was nice having protective friends.

Alex noticed the blush and smiled. It was good to see the real Morrigan shine through since she had been often lost while in her Gem persona. The alt-form blender was doing what it was supposed to though since he could see the Gem resolve she used to lead the Danann Colony beneath the flushed exterior. He could feel himself balancing out for the first time in a year as well. No longer switching between Diamond arrogance, Ghostly obsession and his original human empathy. It felt good in a way that was impossible to explain.

"So we've agreed on one thing to do while in Jump but do we have any actual plans for while we're here?" Lapis asked the group.

Alex shook his head. "I just really wanted the powers and the improvement perk, other than that I had no plans other than taking advantage of it being 2012 and stock up on games and movies and such for the warehouse."

Lyn nodded along with Alex before she spoke up. "I was only half joking about knocking up a high school or two. There's a chance that this world is going to be attacked by telepathic-murder-geodes after we're gone and it would be kinda cool to create a super-powered group to protect it."

"I'm defiantly going to be spending a lot of time on Danann trying to improve the population but I don't mind helping out with that." Morrigan told Lyn.

Lapis smiled. "I have memories of watching something called 'Sailor Moon,' I think it would be fun to make something like our own sailor scouts."

Lyn's eyes we're practically shining.

"Can we please?" she pleaded of Alex.

Alex rolled his eyes. "Sure, as long as people actually agree to it then I'm fine with us turning rando highschoolers into weird superheroes."

Alex paused as he remembered the actual 'Superheroes' of the movie.

"Also, I'm going to try and head off the clusterfuck that is Andrew's life before he goes nuts."

"The creepy kid from the movie?" Lyn asked.

Alex nodded. "He's a creep but most of his issues can be solved with money and a helping hand. It will be interesting to see if he still goes nuts without the burden of his mother's illness and his dick of a dad."

Everyone nodded along with that.

Alex walked over to the bank of Gem-tech along the wall and started up the systems to start producing spectres and warp pad seeds.

He smiled over his shoulders at the girls. "Let's get started."

⦖⋄⦕

That night Alex ghosted through the wall of a quiet suburban house. It was actually a nice two-story weatherboard home that had obviously seen better days. The lawn was overgrown and the paint on the weatherboards was leaning towards the bad side of weathered but other than the need for some cleaning, some general maintenance and a lick of pain; the house still echoed with the dream of a family home.

It was nearing one in the morning and spectres that Alex had sent out had confirmed that the chronicle boys had just left the party to explore the cave. The rooms were dark and the house quiet as Alex drifted through the building. He passed Andrew's father (Rick? No, Richard? He wasn't actually sure) passed out on the living room sofa, a half dozen empty beer bottles standing vigil around his sleeping form. Leaving the man in his slumber he floated up the stairs to the second floor and searched for Andrew's mother by poking his head through the doors to the rooms off the hall.

He found Karen asleep in the master bedroom. She… was not looking well. Her eyes were sunken with deep shadows beneath them, her face was thin and the skin on her arm above the covers was lose showing that she had lost a lot of weight and muscle. Her breaths sounded laboured behind the gentle hiss of oxygen supplied to her from the tubes attached to her nose.

Alex considered his next step. He hadn't expected the woman to be as frail as she was when he knew she lived for some months yet. He had originally planned on simply overshadowing the her but he honestly didn't know how her body would hold up to him getting in and walking her into the warehouse.

He squeezed the bridge of his nose as he considered the problem. His chronical powers were out. He and the girls had already played with their burgeoning psychic abilities back at the temple and they were still weak and immature. These abilities were defined on the concept of practice and use making them more powerful and dynamic. Two hours and three blood noses did not automatically mean he could put them to best use. His new 'Supernatural Savant' perk meant that he would eventually excel in the use those powers and his few training booster perks would ensure he improved quickly but that would not help him now.

The 'Savant' perk would have improved any of his other abilities from prior jumps but he was unsure of how to put them to best use. Ghost-style telekinesis was a possibility but Alex had found that objects he moved with it had a mind of their own. It was almost like a part of him possessed whatever he was moving and in that made it act like it was semi-alive and under direction. Useful when cleaning a room and causing items to dance to their proper spots like a rip-off Sorcerers Apprentice but less helpful in carefully moving a frail woman. He could bubble her but that would just mean transporting a large unwieldy bubble that would eventually pop and drop the poor woman.

Fuck! This shouldn't be as difficult as it was! How about magic? He thought with frustration.

He hadn't had much opportunity to practice with the Ghost King's magical abilities but that was mainly due to how vague they were. He just didn't know what he could actually do with them. But something simple shouldn't be out of his reach and wouldn't hurt.
Alex searched down within himself and tapped the roiling energy that was his magic. Violet light dimly illuminated to room from his now glowing eyes. He reached out to the sleeping woman with the magic in his grasp and tried to empress the idea of calm and of restful sleep; of a slumber she would not wake from until dawn. At the same time, he tried to impart a sense of strength and vitality into the woman to keep her alive for the next part of the plan.

Despite his apprehension about using his unpractised powers, Alex could see how the woman relaxed in her sleep. Her breathing became deeper and easier, her cheeks gained a hint of a colour and the frown of pain he hadn't even noticed she was carrying had smoothed out leaving her looking at least a decade younger. Alex smiled. That had worked better than expected… though he still had to actually move her.

Eventually, Alex remembered that innate powers weren't the only things he had at hand. His whole trip to the Steven Universe jump was to pick up tools to solve unexpected problems. He was still wearing a Gem-tech tractor beam wand shaped like a crystal bangle around his right wrist. In the last jump he had mostly used it to moving large rocks or machinery that were not made of crystal but now he could use it now for much the same reason he used it then. The wand didn't just move things it placed them in a stasis field when it did so. Perfect when moving heavy yet delicate machines. No matter how fast he lifted the sleeping woman or what direction he tilted her, she would not feel a thing and more importantly not suffer any strain from the movement.

So, with a smile, Alex carefully removed the woman's bed covers, unhooked the oygen line from her face and opened a portal to the warehouse on one wall. With a touch the bangle straightened into a short blue crystal rod which he then simply pointed at the sleeping woman and, in a beam of pale blue light, levitated her through the portal. Thus, it was only a matter of seconds before he was lowering her to the metal table that was the medbay.

⦖⋄⦕

Andrew was happy. Confused? Yes. Anxious? Certainly. But happy? This was not a natural state that Andrew generally found himself in.

It started the morning after the cave. God, he can't even keep the smile off his face when thinks of it. He had stumbled home late that night; well, early that morning if he was being truthful. His cousin, Matt, had somehow driven him home despite the fact they were both near blind from the headache. Fuck. That had hurt more than breaking his wrist in elementary. Stupid monkey bars. It's a miracle that Matt hadn't wrapped them around a tree in a bloody twisted mess of steel and flesh.

He remembers stumbling into bed and nearly instantly losing consciousness. He hadn't even been able to change from his clothes which had been filthy with sweat and dirt and with a ridiculously large red bloodstain down his front from the nosebleeds. Had to clean that before Dad saw and berated him for ruining a shirt. Despite his exhaustion from that crystal… thing, and despite the late hour of his return; Andrew woke early at seven, only a few hours after getting home. A full bladder could not be denied by strange otherworldly experiences, terrific head pain, a possibly broken nose — did an asshole punch him? He swears he remembers someone punching him — and a sore ankle that he didn't even know that happened.

After relieving himself he grabbed a quick shower before planning to return to bed when he stopped in the hall… he could smell pancakes, sausages and eggs. Dad didn't cook breakfast. Dad's idea of a cooked morning meal was a toasted bagel and an overdone fried egg. Only Mom ever made pancakes.
Andrew had cautiously edged his way into the kitchen and froze at the site of what he found. His mother was cooking, her back to him. His mother was fucking STANDING! She wasn't curled into her wheelchair and smothered in fleece blankets, instead she was humming the theme song to Inspector Gadget to herself as she flipped another pancake out of the pan and onto a plate of already cooked cakes. Andrew met the eyes of his father who was sitting at the table eating. His father. The dickwad. The angry, drunk, sad, hurt man who struggled to show anything but anger and pain to the world was silently crying while eating his breakfast. He had had this strange look on his face. Constipation? …no, it was just a smile.

"Mom?" Andrew had asked hesitantly.

Karen turned around from the stove with a smile on her face. "Andrew! You're just in time for pancakes!"

She had looked amazing. Healthy, pink flushed cheeks and vibrant dark brown eyes that lacked the dark shadows she had been carrying for so long. She was still thin, painfully so, but she looked better than she had in years.

Andrew nearly threw himself at her as he wrapped his arms around her and cried. He didn't know how, he didn't know why, but somehow, he knew that his mom was going to be alright.

"Think fast, numb-nuts!"

The almost empty soda can smacking him in the side of the face pulled Andrew out of his reminiscing.
Andrew scrowled at the laughing duo of Sean and Wayne or as Andrew referred to them in his head: Dickhead One and Dickhead Two.

"No camera today, huh? Did you have to pawn it for a bus fare?" Dickhead One giggled.

Dickhead Two smirked. "Nah, the loser sucks his cousin off for a lift each morning."

Andrew tensed. He hated them. He hated the way they spoke to him. He hated that they already ruined the happy high he'd been riding all weekend. He hated that they were also insulting Matt, the closest thing he had to a friend.
Yet, all he could do was stand there and shake against their ribbing. He'd learnt long ago that rebuttal, either physical or verbal only ended in pain.

Dickhead One and Two were already walking away laughing at their own antics. Andrew just… he just wants to hurt them. To teach them that they can't just go around fucking with people! But he can't. He's weak. His own father had made sure he understood that. In sullen fury Andrew kicked the fallen soda can that the two had pelted him with and watched in surprised satisfaction when it shot with a greater force than should have been possible for its empty weight right into back of Dickhead One's head.

"Motherfucker!" Dickhead One exclaimed.

He spun around to try and see who had nailed him with the can. But the hallway was already empty. Andrew had fled around a corner as soon as the can had hit him.

A.N.
And we're in Chronicle people! A found footage superhero movie from 2012.
I remember watching this movie and loving the inspiration of it. It was a new superhero origin movie that didnt already slip into an established fiction. It simply gave three teens psychic based superpowers and let them work it out.
It's not the best movie there is but to a teen me it sent me off with thoughts of "What if?" raging though my head.
If you haven't seen it i would suggest giving it a go but it wont be needed to understand what happens.

I'm open to ideas of what people want to read going forward. I can't promise I'll do any of the suggestions but I will certainly read them and likely be inspired to do somehting else if not what was suggested.
I mention this because people have given me a few suggestions for Alice that i was about to impliment until i ended up with a crazy weird idea that i've ended up doing. You'll see.