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BIII: Chapter Six
🕑 Added 2023-07-09 22:44:49 +0000 UTCOther-Rick’s chair squished against his legs. A bump rocked the whole car waking Eli from his deep slumber in an instant. He bolted upright as he relied on his Stellar Body’s spatial field to reassure himself.
Profound Erudition caught him up.
They had been in the car for almost three hours and were thirty minutes away from the Newton estate. Impressions and memories about every conversation he’d heard in his sleep unfurled in his mind.
“Good morning, sleepyhead!” Dad chuckled as he turned to peer at him from the passenger seat.
“Ha ha.” Eli rubbed his eyes. “You both got pretty cool powers, but what did you get Other-Rick?”
“Other-Rick?” Other-Rick chuckled. “Just call me Richard. It’s what my name is short for.”
“Oh neat, I was just named Rick,” Dad said.
“Wait, how do you know what powers we got?” Roman asked.
“You got Pyrovolt Foundry which lets you not only create metal out of fire and electricity, but assemble it however you want. Dad’s new power is Hydrovolt Monsoon which sounds badass and will let him basically create a torrential downpour of both lightning and water,” Eli recited with Profound Erudition’s help.
“Badass? I don’t know if I’d swear in front of my dad.” Richard’s chuckles turned to full laughter. “But I got something called Distorting Fog which will let me create an illusionary fog. Not sure what I’ll do with it.”
“I think Eli swearing is the last concern I have.” Dad shook his head. “If Lana swore in front of me right now, though…”
“I’ve been meaning to speak to you about that, actually.” Richard glanced at both Dad, then at Eli through the rearview mirror. “Grounding Lana from her powers is quite the punishment. I understand where you and Addy are coming from, but when are you planning on giving them back to her?”
“The current plan is either when she’s eighteen next year or when she’s legitimately sorry and isn’t pretending anymore.” Dad shrugged. “Addy and I just want her to take some genuine accountability. She’s acting like being sorry is enough. It’s not.”
“I get that, but taking someone’s power away is pretty extreme. It’s uncommon when it’s a child Cyrus’s age, but Lana’s old enough that it’s a bit of a last resort.”
“You were comfortable with your children having powers like ‘Vengeful Blade’, ‘Forceful Celerity’, and ‘Terrashape’ when they clearly lack judgment and responsibility? If Lana does something dumb she could level half a city or cut down whoever she wants leaving them with crippling wounds that won’t heal? On top of Forceful Celerity giving her superspeed and kinetic blasts as powerful as bombs? That’s not including her Silverlight and Gravity stat powers which actually are a part of her.”
“Rick, listen to me.” Richard muted the radio. “You and I could flatten most towns here with enough time and preparation. Meteromancers work together to keep the climate and weather stable, but a lot of wards and enchantments won’t hold up under concentrated pressure. Your range is about half a city or a full town, yes? Mine spans this county and the next. We were drinking yesterday. Who’s to say we weren’t going to go on a rampage and kill all of Rockford? If we didn’t care about the collateral damage or what would happen when May and any other enforcers busted our ass, it’d be easy. With enough of a push, nature would take over.”
“We wouldn’t do that.”
“Sure. What about Eli then?”
“Me?”
“You apparently pack enough power that you destroyed your challenge, wounded the challenge’s administrator for real, and impressed the immortal ruler of Eleyna to give you three gifts? That’s unheard of, Elias. Whatever you used would do just as much damage as what your father and I could do. But that’s not all. You can travel across the map in minutes, if not seconds. How many cities or even countries would fall before you were caught and stopped? If ever? How many dimensions could you conquer?”
“I don’t…” Eli started before Richard cut him off.
“Sure, none of us would do that. It’s all rhetorical, but if your father and I are allowed to drink and if you’re allowed to walk around without obstruction, why would teenagers be allowed to wield the power they do? Or for drugs to exist fairly freely?”
“I don’t know,” Dad said.
“Exactly. Everyone has powers, no matter what. It’s a fact of life. Give up all your powers? The System gives you a new, albeit shitty, one. Not to mention that spawn exist and want our powers just as much as we want theirs. Treating people like problems and not with compassion does nothing but ensure they’ll do the same later on. Grounding children from their powers does nothing to teach them responsibility, and everything to foster mistrust in authority.”
“Yes, but that’s not the point. She did horrible things and refuses to take on any of the responsibility she should! I get that powers are a part of people, I do. When we took Eli’s teleportation power away, we didn’t get that, and it was wrong and overblown. It made sense at the time, but we retracted it quickly and all was well, right, Eli?”
“I was about to leave after my birthday, Dad.” Eli looked out the window. “In a petty sort of way, I’m glad Lana had her powers taken away, but it seems awfully convenient to argue that it’s okay ‘just because it made sense at the time.’ I don’t know what the right answer is, but if I had kids, I don’t think I’d be able to do that.”
Nobody spoke for several minutes.
The edges of rural farmland leading to Rockford entered Eli’s spatial field through Stellar Body. He swapped Stasis with Starspace Nexus.
“I’ll see you all back at the house.” Eli started to teleport when Roman waved to interrupt him. He pointed at himself with a raised eyebrow.
“What? We’re almost there,” Richard asked.
“And I am there.” Eli inverted space around Roman and teleported them into his sanctum. It was funny how easy it was to teleport people when they wanted to be, but if he knew from experience that if he wanted to do the same in combat he’d have to wear them down. Was that due to the essence Alcius talked about or something else?
Without tons of regular space impeding him, his senses easily reached the Newton estate.
“You don’t think Richard had a point? Do you?” Eli asked before he teleported them over.
“Maybe, I don’t know,” Roman sighed. “We saw how things worked out when our government tried to control and regulate powers.”
Eli flinched at the reminder. “I can’t believe they treated powers, literal parts and representations of us, as something to control. Immediately used it to force us all into simulations just to give us bullshit ratings of danger?”
“I know.” Roman shook his head. “Not to mention that Daniels was colluding with your parents’ enemies.”
“Right.” Eli clenched his hands into fists at his sides. His left arm hung empty, nonexistent. Phantom sparks of orange flame seared his nerves. Gravel stung his skin. He remembered screami—
<”Sorry! You remember well enough without reliving it.”>
“You okay?” Roman’s eyes crinkled with concern.
“I’m fine,” Eli said automatically. He sighed, then answered honestly without even needing Profound Erudition’s nudge. “Well, no. I’m just remembering how that fucker tortured me. And all the rest of it. It was so easy to detach from it all when we were first dropped off here, but…”
“But what?”
“Being around my family again just brings it all back. All the arguing, the drama… I can see how they’re trying. Maybe even Lana, too, I guess, and it’s not enough. I know I pushed everyone away. Including you and Scott. But if I can’t forgive Lana, I don’t know if I can forgive how they didn’t notice what I, what we were going through. And did you hear him? He acted like it was okay that they took Spatial Control away from me! As if it justified doing the same now.”
Eli paced.
“Plus, Lana and that asshole Tom fucking catfished me, Roman. Set up a whole other person that I fell for in New Faram and sent it to everyone on the team. To you two. It was fucking humiliating and it turns out that Lana was one of the people on the other side of that goddamn screen?”
“We wanted to pay Tom back for that, remember?”
“Obviously. We talked about putting spiders in his locker or some other dumb shit.”
“Scott wanted to hack his social media and prove it was him who did it. Send it to the staff and police. Hell, we wanted to do a lot, but you refused to let your parents find out.”
“I would have been more okay with it if I knew Lana had been involved,” Eli scoffed. “I did nothing, so I guess it’s only fair that nothing happened to end things once they escalated. The mocking, name calling, everything got worse. I pulled away, and they called me a loser and loner. I notice how much time Lana spends with them? Try to stop it? They beat me up.”
“I know,” Roman whispered.
“I just hate that it only mattered when the world got superpowers and it turned out I’m good at using them. Instead of celebrating me or even acknowledging me, they restrict me. Limit me. Call me dangerous while ignoring how bad everything already was? How bad it was becoming? Lana and I nearly die in a robbery and it’s great we stepped in, but be careful! Never mind how they took until the last minute to stop cowering in their bedroom! Then the goddamn mall attack. I go across the city when they’re at the mall during it, fight for my life, lose my arm, and they yell at me for fucking doing something? Because I dared to do something about it?”
Eli realized he was shouting. Despite the depth of his anger, none of his powers strayed out of his control.
“I get that it’s been a whole year for them. They thought we were dead. I get it. I do. But holy shit, man! They act like none of that happened. I don’t know if I can stand to be around them all for much longer. I don’t even know if I can be in the same dimension any longer than I have to.”
“Eli, it’s okay.” Roman whispered after pulling him into a hug he could barely feel. Stellar Body relaxed so he could. “Trust me, I get it. I might be one of the only people that truly understands, okay? I was there at the beginning and at the end, and I wish I had been there in the middle. You are my friend and you aren’t alone anymore.”
A few moments passed before Eli pulled away. He nodded at Roman before turning away to open a portal back to the house.
“You know, Scott is still alone. I think it’s time we make sure he’s okay too,” Eli said while he stepped into the portal.
“Definitely.”
“I also want to talk to you and Maeve about the Tri-Delve Cup, Rome.”
Eli’s spatial field narrowed on town hall where Maeve waited outside the door to another dungeon. Secure enchantments in the building blurred his senses, but not enough to hinder him. Starspace scrawled in front of her in a simple message. ‘We need to talk.’ [Maybe change this convo to after Hazel and everyone coming back]
“You still want to do that?”
“Yeah. I know you said you don’t want to, but would you join me if we can? Maybe we could get Scott on our team too.” Eli turned around toward the tear of planar space that ripped next to him.
“Maybe, I guess? I still think it’s pretty fucked up though turning spawn killing into a sport.”
Maeve appeared.
“What is it? Is Dad okay?” Maeve’s eyes darted around the lawn, the whites of her eyes sparked with electricity.
“Oh. Sorry, everybody is fine. They’re almost here. I teleported us out of the car.”
“By the Savior,” Maeve shook her head. “You scared me. What is it?”
“I guess it’s not that urgent, sorry.” Eli winced. “I want to enroll in the Tri-Delve Cup and Roman might want to join me. Is that possible?”
“Possible? Yeah, but it’s unlikely.” She crossed her arms. “Most of the teams are from different universities across the nation. But there are a few spots open for independent teams as well as different company sponsored ones.”
“Oh, nice. That’s perfect. How do we—“
“Eli. The Tri-Delve Cup takes place in July and it’s about a week away from June. I don’t know if you’ll be able to meet the deadline or meet the requirements in time. You need two stats slotted.”
“What?”
“I’m sorry, but it’s not really likely you’ll be able to do it.”
His eyes widened as Profound Erudition prodded a few thoughts at him. “Would I be able to dilate time by traveling to another dimension or pocket space long enough to get better?”
“… It’s possible,” Maeve winced. “Dungeons like that exist and you both apparently lost a year. I don’t see why you wouldn’t be able to intentionally do it, but I don’t know if the risk of it is worth it.”
Eli smiled while he thought of his new Stasis power and his ability to lock down spacetime with Stellar Body and Starspace Nexus.
“I don’t know, Eli, that sounds kind of dangerous,” Roman said beside him. “I don’t know if I want to take the risk and come back missing more of Cyrus’s life.”
“I’m sure we could figure it out.” Eli turned toward the Hub leading to the other Newton properties. Fluctuations rippled from the doorway that led to Anchora. He idly watched as Mom stepped through first followed by Les and Herbert.
Adelaide was the last one through as the spatial doorway shut behind her.
Eli winced as Herbert beelined toward him. Les waved casually on his way to the garage.
“Shit. Well, he looks mad. I’m going to the garage. Bye!” Roman ran away. Not that Eli could blame him. Herbert’s eyes glinted with barely contained emotions.
“Want me to stay?” Maeve frowned.
“No, it’s fine. I can handle this.”
Eli felt her planeshift out of this plane of reality in one second and come back in the next at town hall.
“Fuck,” Eli swore while he paced and widened his spatial field. Dad and Richard were minutes away. What the hell did he do now?
“Elias!” Herbert shouted while he and Les marched toward Eli.
“Hey, Herbert. How was finals?” Eli’s smile felt crooked while Profound Erudition worked overtime to figure out what his problem was.
“Not great, because some dick took over my life for a week. I wasn’t able to study and fucked up most of my assignments. I have no idea what my final grades will be for a few more weeks!”
“What do you want me to do about it? I already told you all about this a couple of days ago.” Eli was half tempted to teleport away from this mess before it really developed. “Besides, you always have next year!”
“That’s not the point, Eli. I didn’t pretend to be you when your town treated me and my friend with hostility. Or when your friend Kady threw herself at me. I was honest and did my best to help your town out. You took over my life and would’ve sabotaged it if things went on any further!”
“My options were pretty fucking limited.” Eli glared at him. “I woke up in your dorm room with no idea where the fuck I was. Afraid to trust anyone in case they thought I was some sort shapeshifting spawn that took over your life. Not to mention that very few people can teleport or control space here, which would make me the biggest target of all time. Meanwhile, you went from a world with knowledge of powers and spawn to a place where they just got them!”
“You didn’t have to date my girlfriend!”
“At the time I thought I did. I had to do my best to keep up appearances.” Eli crossed his arms. “Besides, I told her the truth pretty quickly.”
“You failed catastrophically. Gerald and Jane asked us how we were doing because we had been ‘acting so strange’. Gerald’s fucking cousin Lacey cornered me for an hour after the Power Crafting final asking where the fuck you were. Oh, and I got pulled aside by half my teachers asking if I was okay or nervous about the Tri-Delve Cup, and I got chewed out by the Director of Athletics for clearing the fucking Crucible. What made you think you could pretend to be me without even trying to act like me?”
Eli opened, then shut his mouth while Herbert paced out the last of his rage. His clenched fists swung at his sides. He stopped.
“I understand you had it rough, I do. You’ve had a shitty time before you got powers. Sure, I get that. I don’t know how I would have handled a lot of what you went through, but… what the fuck man? You took over my life without a second thought until Maeve caught you red-handed?”
“I know, I’m sorry.” Eli winced. “I just… you had everything I wanted, okay? I guess I got carried away and didn’t think about how you were a real person?”
“Wow, okay.” Herbert shook his head with a snort. “You know, if that’s how you think and act, you’re not that different from Lana. All you cared about was what you wanted. Never mind how it would hurt me, my family, or friends.”
Stardust vapor twisted around Eli’s hands at that. He was nothing like Lana. Profound Erudition’s realizations cut off with a strangled chirp in his mind.
“Guys, why don’t we calm down?” Mom called out while she and Adelaide walked over to them. “We can talk about this calmly, right?”
Eli glanced at them for a second before he opened a portal behind him leading to a newly created pocket dimension. “I’m not finished with this, are you?”
“Hell no.” Herbert marched through without looking back at either of their mothers.
“Eli, stop!” Mom shouted as he followed behind his counterpart. The portal snapped shut as he stepped into the arid landscape he had created without a second thought.
“Even this. You’re bitching about how I had everything you wanted and you can create worlds. Go anywhere, do anything, and you whine like you’re trapped?” Herbert spun as he pointed out the sandy wasteland around them. “If I had your powers I would have done so much more with them than you ever could.”
“Kill me then and take them off of me.” Eli narrowed his eyes at Herbert’s wide eyes. “No? Then shut the fuck up. I get it, I actually do, okay? You’re right. I’ve made mistake after mistake, and even repeated the same ones a couple of times. It’s true, but I’m at least trying. What are you doing? You popped into my town for three days in the middle of an apocalypse and thought you could solve the problem a day after showing up? Maybe things wouldn’t have escalated as fast as they had, but it definitely sounds like the greants only attacked when they had because of what you did.”
“Fine. We’re both assholes. Happy?” Herbert spun a dune of sand into a chair before he flashfroze it.
“Obviously not.” Eli popped out a copied chair from his sanctum and sank into it with an exaggerated sigh of relief.
“Ha ha. Fair enough.” Herbert rolled his eyes while he rolled some conjured snow between the palms of his hands.
“Here.” He made another one for Herbert before he frowned. “What do we do now? I haven’t really thought about what I would do if I met a weird asshole battle junkie version of myself.”
“I don’t know either, overly serious power obsessed younger version of me.” Herbert threw his snowball as hard as he could with his arm and powers. It blasted into Eli’s face with a frigid pop of plush snow. “I thought you were going to dodge or teleport it away?”
“Why would I when I can do this?” Eli condensed his stardust into glittering, vibrant powder that formed into perfect spheres. He let them loose with a smile.
Herbert shrieked as a stardust wave knocked him off his chair burying him under a shimmering cloud. His body liquefied as he transformed into his Body of Water to stand back up. Soft arrows of snow appeared in a bristling vortex around him.
“It’s on now, Elias.” Herbert released a blizzard of snow.
“No, now it’s on.” Eli sidestepped through starspace appearing behind his counterpart as a shimmering tidal wave of stardust swelled out of him.He let go with a thunderclap of power. Each exchange between them escalated into swathes of sand froze in clumps or billowed in neutral aurora blasts.
This continued for another hour until they teleported back onto Newton lawn wet, covered in gritty dust, and with both of their hair standing on end. Faded bruises lingered on Herbert’s face, arms, and over any other exposed sections of skin.
It turned out that Eli’s endurance and recovery far outstripped Herberts, but whenever he managed to land a blow on Eli, he hit fucking hard.
“Oh my god, what did you two do?” Mom cried as she rushed over to check on Eli.
“He started it.” Eli faked a glower in Herbert’s direction. He rolled his eyes as Adelaide tutted over him and announced that he would live.
“You need to apologize right now!” Mom hissed under her breath. “That’s completely uncalled for!”
“It’s fine, Mom.” Eli smiled. She raised her eyebrows. “No really, everything is okay.”
“If you say so.”
Eli followed Herbert over into the garage where Roman, Les, and Cyrus all stood around the scattered detritus of their various spatial-dream machines. For the first time in forever, Eli believed that it actually was okay.
Comments
Beeees!
Big character growth happening. Really well written. Can't wait to see where Eli goes from here, hopefully with less anger bubbling inside
weas97
Thanks for the chapter, it was good to see Eli and Herbert hit each other and talk a bit, they already deserved to lower the tension and it's good that Eli let off steam and relaxed. I think that in addition to being beneficial for his mental health, it will be very good for his improvement and evolution. of his powers that he is not in a constant state of tension and anger so that this is not reflected in his new powers and possible statistics.
