Of course, relaxing didn't mean doing nothing at all. Just having the chance to catch up on some of the incredibly long list of things I needed to do, without some sort of end of the world, life and death battle interrupting was basically a vacation by that point. Enough of one that I seriously expected something to pop up at any minute. Which didn’t exactly do much to help with the relaxing part of it, but I kept telling myself to just take it one hour at a time. One minute at a time.
First, I slept in my own bed for once. My bed in the Fusion school student house that I hadn't actually spent any time in for what was probably close to between eight months and a year, even before adding up all the extra time my various duplicated selves had spent at various rifts. I stayed up for hours and hours talking to everyone I could, before sleeping in my actual bed. The night before, I had ended up crashing at my parents’ quarters. But this time, I stayed in my place. It was a very… different feeling. I had to imagine it was sort of similar to what it was like for some normal person to spend a semester at college, then sleep at home. Which made me wonder just how weird it would feel for me to go back to my bed at my actual childhood home.
In any case, I slept for a couple hours, which was all I needed, even after thoroughly exhausting myself at the party. It was still early when I left my bed, so I quietly slipped out and took a long walk. First, I made my way through the student housing area, taking in everything I had been away from for so long. I even pulled Eurso and the sharks out of the pocket dimension (the shiver safe in their bubbles of water, of course), and let them take the walk with me. I showed Eurso around, including heading up to the main part of the station itself to head through the corridors. He was clearly super-interested in everything he saw, like an excited puppy going for their first walk. Every time we passed someone, he would want to sniff them and get scritches. Which made the sharks want to be petted too, naturally. Fortunately, people seemed to like that.
Speaking of people, even with a single-file line of my shiver of sharks floating in their bubbles, the armored raptor curiously sniffing in every direction, and me, we still weren’t the strangest sight passing through those halls that morning. I saw what looked a lot like a twelve-foot-tall version of the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man, only pink and bright blue, and with a fancy silver knight helmet covering his head. He was carrying an enormous machine gun in one hand, and a picnic basket full of food in the other, walking in the other direction as he whistled cheerfully.
As he saw me, the marshmallow man tipped his helmet and greeted us with a polite, “A fair morning to you, miladies and migentlemen.” Then he just kept walking, the squishing sound of his body moving filling the corridor. He proceeded to meet up with a steampunk robot man with various visible gears, a furnace in his chest, and two small smokestacks sticking out his back.
After watching those two walk off together, I shook off my surprise and started to turn back to head on. That was when I felt someone else enter my item-sense range, and glanced over to see Sarah walking right through the wall just ahead of us. She was already dressed for the day.
“Oh, hey, you couldn’t sleep?” I asked, while the sharks and Eurso went right up to the girl to get as much attention as she was willing to give all of them. Which, knowing Sarah, would be plenty.
She, however, shook her head. “I don't need to sleep at all now. Not the normal way.” With that, she seemed to focus for a moment, brow furrowing with concentration. A second later, Sarah quite literally turned into a statue. She looked like a marble version of herself in that position, one that had been chiseled by an absolute master craftsman, with extraordinary, beautiful detail and polish. If the sight of ‘statue Sarah’ took me off guard, it absolutely shocked Eurso and the sharks. They jumped backwards, then spread out to look at her from all sides, looking worried.
Fortunately, Sarah only stayed like that for a couple seconds, before transforming back to her flesh and blood self. She explained that it was a power she’d picked up from all the fighting the day before. When she changed into the statue version of herself, it was actually a healing and rest trance. Every minute she spent in that form was worth eight hours of actual sleep. The only real downside was that she had no idea what was going on in the outside world during that time. She was entirely enclosed in the statue form, cut off from everyone and everything. The way she described it, she was basically in a dark, cozy cocoon, like snuggling down inside a thick and very comfortable blanket. She felt completely at peace in there. It also healed her much faster, like having very strong regeneration powers, but only while safe and sound in her statue form.
Hearing all that, I shook my head in wonder. “Damn, and I thought I made out like a bandit with my own sleep-aid power. I still need an hour or two depending on what’s going on, but you’ve cut it down to a minute? You could do that anytime. Jealous, I’m totally jealous, and I can’t believe I’m saying that about sleep.” I was playing it up a bit, yes, but it really was really cool.
Sarah snorted, a light blush touching her face as she waved that off before asking, “What about you? Everyone wants to know what you… um, absorbed when you killed October and Patrick.”
Oh, right. With everything that happened yesterday, I’d actually managed to completely forget about that whole thing, somehow. “I’ve got a way to find out pretty quick,” I informed her. “Just gotta step into the Archive and see the rest of the Flique. You wanna come with?” My eyebrows waggled teasingly. “You can find out before any of the others, and then just lord it over them.”
Her mouth opened to immediately agree, before she paused and gave a short nod. “Yes, but we have to find Sands first and bring her with. She won’t forgive me if she doesn’t get to go in too.”
That was fair, so we waited for Sands to wake up, spending the time talking about random stuff and getting some breakfast. I had to tell Extra, who was copiloting, not to tell me anything about what they already knew about the powers I’d absorbed from those two, just so it would be a real surprise when we went in the place. She, in turn, informed me that the others were arranging a show and tell situation for us, to demonstrate the new powers. Which sounded pretty intriguing.
So, once Sands was up, Sarah grabbed her, dragging the other girl back to the cafeteria table where I was waiting. Sands was still scarfing down a jelly donut she’d managed to grab on the way through the room. “Dude!” That was the second time she tried to say the word. The first time, it came out muffled by pastry, forcing her to chew a few more times before swallowing. “You really don’t know what you picked up from those two Committee lapdog jerks down there?”
My head shook. “Not yet. I mean, technically a huge percentage of me knows. Or… a huge percentage of me’s know? I’m not sure how to say it. Either way, the Flique knows, but the Flick doesn’t.” After getting that out, I snickered softly, waving a hand. “But hey, before we do this, I have to ask… what do you guys remember about the rift you went to? Cuz when all of me came back together yesterday, it wasn’t exactly all of me. I mean besides the obvious Jacob part, I still have… uhh, okay, so the Ankou gave me a sort of general idea of what happened back there, but I don’t-- err… are you the Sands and Sarah who got taken through the second rift when Cassiel showed up? Also, do you know who Cassiel is?” There wasn’t an easier way to ask.
The two of them looked at me for a moment in silence before Sarah quite bluntly said, “You mean are we the versions of ourselves who went to Desoto with Cassiel and that version of you, or the ones who were sent to the vacation rift, then to the World War 2 rift where Jacob-you left.”
We all stared at each other for a sustained several seconds of silence before I nodded. “Yup.”
“We don’t remember Desoto, sorry,” Sands informed me. “We’re not-- yeah, I guess the Ankou duplicated us too, when that Cassiel girl took us through the rift, after that whole thing with Fossor and your… uhh… that Saign guy. Wait, you think he was actually bonded to Jacob? I mean, the fully Jacob version of you, that-- the other-- yeah, the one who lived all that time.”
I shrugged. “No idea, but I guess it makes sense. I’ll be sure to ask that me if he ever shows up. But I guess that means you can’t tell me anything about what happened in Desoto after all.”
Shaking her head, Sarah murmured, “Sorry. We don’t have any of those memories yet either.”
“Guess those duplicates of us-- or are we the duplicates?” Sands thought about that before a visible grimace came. “Nope, not gonna think about it right now. Whatever, those versions of us haven’t caught up with this version of us. And neither has that version of you. Ugh, headache.”
“Tell me about it,” I muttered. “But okay, the simple, simple version is, the three of us were at a rift in the Old West. We met Saign and Fossor, got Fossor to leave by planting bomb spells at his homes, captured Saign and gave him over to Aylen, and then went up to the rift. But just before I was about to go through it, Cassiel showed up, apologized, hit us with their paint-- oh yeah, it’s they, not she, by the way. Anyway, they hit us with paint and yanked us into the rift.”
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Sarah’s voice was contemplative. “I remember sh-- they said something about the Fomorians. It was time to go fight the Fomorians in Desoto. But, um, why would they want to take us there?”
“I wish I knew,” I admitted. “That’s why I was hoping you guys might be the ones who went there, so you could actually tell me. But since you’re not, I guess we still have to wait for that.”
We all grimaced at the idea of having to wait for answers, before I shrugged once more. “At least we have something to distract us right now? Powers check! Come on, let’s get in there.”
“Wait, wait, what about Tabbris?” Sands abruptly put in. “Wouldn’t she want to be part of this?”
I grinned. “She is, where do you think she’s been all night? She’s in the Archive already, helping the Fomorians and Elizabeth. I-- yeah, it’s a long story. but she’s there, and apparently she’s part of the show and tell.” With that, I held out my hands, waiting for those two to take them.
As soon as they did, I focused. For a long time there, I’d had a hard time putting my own physical body inside my Archive, being stuck with a sort of mental presence that left my body behind, essentially asleep. But after going through all those rifts and coming back together, I had the hang of the actual physical access. It did, however, still take me a few long moments of very intense concentration. So, doing it in the middle of a big fight probably wasn’t gonna happen.
Fortunately, there wasn’t a fight going on. Unless you counted the valiant struggle the guy a few tables over from us was having with the truly massive stack of pancakes he had ordered. Come to think of it, maybe he wanted some help with that. There were so many of them, I could just--
Sands kicked my foot, snapping me out of it. “Hey! Focus, you can have pancakes later, dude.”
“Right, right, sure, yeah, I wasn’t-- I mean I was just-- uh, working on it.” A blush crossed my face as I shifted and turned my attention back to what it was supposed to be on. That time, it worked. A few silent seconds passed, before the view around us shimmered and melted. Then we were there, standing at the base of a mountain, with a narrow trail ahead of us leading up through a thick stand of trees. We could hear birds chirping cheerfully, while squirrels chattered.
Sands blinked in confusion. “Uh, wait, mountain? Wasn’t this a beach before? And an island? There was an ocean right over there, I think.” That much came as she twisted to look behind us.
“Yeah, sorry.” That was Twigs, a Flique member who had spent almost his entire existence living with the ghosts of a whole bunch of Garrenkau. Essentially, they were distant ancestors of the Relukun. So yeah, Twigs knew a lot about trees. And about surviving in the forest. He, a masculine version of me, always had camouflaged clothing and matching face paint. Now, he stepped out of the trees, making the other two jump. “We’re doing some remodeling. Didn’t really feel like leaving the place looking like Crossroads any more.”
“Yeah, they’re… trying out some things,” I confirmed, gesturing around at the forest and mountain. “It’ll probably change a lot more often now. Cuz why not? It’s not like it takes much to redecorate the place. We’ll leave it as a mountain for awhile, then try something else for kicks.”
Before the twins could react to that, the sound of footsteps running down the mountain path drew our attention that way. A second later, Tabbris came into view, jumping the last few feet to crash into me with a gleeful squeal. We embraced after I regained my footing, a laugh escaping me. “Hey, you just saw me last night. And you’ve been seeing other me’s the whole time.”
“I can still be excited,” Tabbris sagely informed me. Then she jumped over to hug the other two. “Come on, come on! We’ve gotta show you stuff.” Just like that, she was pulling the twins by the hands, practically dragging them back up the trail the way she’d come. “Let’s get a move on!”
As we headed up the mountain together, I glanced over at Sands. “Oh, right, I meant to ask, what about you? Did you get anything from… from everything that happened yesterday? Or anything else I don’t know about yet, really. It’s kind of been a busy… uh, everything lately.”
The other girl snorted softly before answering by reaching out with both hands. As she did, they disappeared. Like, both of her hands vanished, leaving what looked like a faintly glowing yellow disc at the end of her wrists. I felt a light tap on my shoulder, and turned my head to see her right hand floating there. It waved, gave me another light tap, then pointed. When I looked the other way, her left hand was tickling Tabbris a few feet away, making her giggle and squirm.
“I can move basically any body part to anywhere in my general area, about a hundred feet or so,” Sands explained. “Fingers, hands, feet, eyes, mouth…” A yellow field appeared over her lower face, while her mouth appeared, all by itself, Cheshire Cat style in the air. Her voice even came from that, and I could see the inside of her mouth, tongue, teeth, throat and all. “Like this.”
“Okay, now that’s weird,” I announced. “You guys think I get weird powers, but that’s out there.”
“I like it,” Twigs put in, reaching out like he was gonna try to touch Sands’ disembodied mouth before thinking better of it. Instead, he just looked to the girl in question. “Probably makes it a lot easier to spy on people, as long as they don’t notice an eyeball and ear floating right under their table.” He paused briefly, considering a bit more. “And as long as they don’t notice someone sitting about a hundred feet away with a yellow forcefield where their eye and ear should be.”
“Sunglasses and a hoody,” Sarah noted. “And gloves… attached to the sleeves.” It was her turn to consider how that would go, before she offered a faint smile at her sister. “Work in progress.”
We kept going up the mountain, while Sands explained that she’d also picked up the ability to focus on any nonliving object and living creature, making the object hotter or colder. Except it didn’t seem to be based on any specific temperature. Instead, what happened was that the object would become painfully hot or cold to the living creature she was also focusing on. If it was possible for them to feel pain from hot or cold, obviously. Whatever the threshold of real pain or potential damage for something being too hot or cold for them was, the object Sands was focusing on would be that.
By that time, we reached an open area further up the mountain where a cluster of cabins surrounded a central firepit. There was a barn off to the side with some offroad vehicles parked in it, and another trail led up to the summit where a couple helicopters and several hang gliders were. The others had set this whole place up like some sort of vacation wilderness cabin retreat. We could see some of the several dozen active members of the Flique going around doing random things, waving to us as we arrived and calling out greetings. And yes, it was still weird to see what amounted to thirty or forty various versions of me, some with more physical differences than others, walking around like that.
Tabbris led us over to the vehicle barn, as I asked where the Fomorians were. In response, she pointed off the other side of the mountain. “The demon trains are in the canyon down there. The Fomorians are sleeping inside them. They like it. I mean, uh, both the trains and the Fomorians. I think they really like each other. And, um, Elizabeth is with them. She likes them too. She umm, she likes all of them, the demon trains and the Fomorians.”
Well, I couldn’t argue with that. I was, however, gonna need to go down there and talk to all of them soon. But first, I needed to know what new powers I was dealing with. So, Sands, Sarah, and I all sat in the lawnchairs that Tabbris indicated, making ourselves comfortable, as instructed.
And then we watched the show. First came Knockout, the… ahh… very buff (even more so than Fathom) version of me. The power she was, at least temporarily for this demonstration, holding was a sort of super speed power. Basically, she had to picture herself performing some physical action. Then she could picture the same thing again, and again. The more time she took to imagine the action, the faster she would move once she actually did it. The problem was that if she lost too much focus while repeatedly picturing it, the power would fizzle.
On the other hand, it also included the opposite of that. She (or whoever ended up keeping the power once all was said and done) could focus on an action that someone else was going to take, and the more times she pictured it happening, the slower that person would be once they actually tried to do it. It didn’t have to be exact, apparently. If she was picturing someone running up and kicking a ball, she didn’t have to perfectly imagine every step they took.
Then there was Spook, the Flique guy who dressed like he was in the Secret Service. He showed off three powers. First, he could write something down and make the words come in a silent voice inside the mind (or minds) of anyone he focused on, as long as he could either see them or had a good idea (within a mile or so) of where they were. It did, apparently, have to be on the same planet, so it wasn’t limitless. And they couldn’t communicate back. Still, very useful.
The second power Spook showed off allowed him to make an area about one hundred feet in diameter brighter or darker on a per person basis. Up to five people could be affected, each individually. He could make that area brighter for two of those five people, and darker for the other three.
Finally, he showed the ability to create life. Well, not really. Basically, by touching any inanimate object, he could animate it temporarily, giving it verbal instructions that it would attempt to carry out to the best of its ability. He could do that for two objects at a time.
Once Spook was done showing those three powers, he gestured, voice calm and even. “Of course, you can split those up however you like.”
“Eh, I’m pretty sure you guys know which of you would do best with each power,” I replied. “And those seem pretty useful for you, Mr. Spymaster.”
“Hell yeah, they do,” Sands agreed. “So, what’s next? Anyone else got any new powers?”
Spook raised one eyebrow. “Anyone else? Sandoval, those were two very strong Boschers, and we absorb every power someone has. You guys might want to settle in for the long haul.
“We’ve got a lot to show off.”
Joke Tags: In Lieu Of Points? Take Three Extra Pancakes If You Remembered That Flick Sort Of Has An Obsession With Them
