Chương 7: R&R Ch. 7 — Visualization Crystallization

Nicholas was still in the training room trying to figure out how to make his power finally listen to his own demands. At first he thought it was the sensation of power flowing out of him, but even after three days of constantly using his ability, he had yielded no results. He had thought it was the fact that it was targeting everything, so he changed the image to only target selected objects. And while it made the word more useful, it hadn't solved the problem either.

He had another day before classes would start, and he wanted this solved on his own. It wasn't that he was against help, and he had gotten a lot of help bouncing ideas off of Jasmine, but there was something special about doing it on his own. So, he meditated. In the mind space that seemed to speak of his power, he pushed away any of the half-finished cards, even if some glowed a real silver in his vision.

He had the natural inclination to push all of his power into any single motion, and that was the habit he had to break. He had two ideas of why it was like that. The first is it was just a part of his ability and it was just going to be like that, but he put more stock in the theory that it was how he felt reality warping should work. He was implementing his will upon reality and pouring everything into it, so of course his power reacted in the same way, spending everything.

His current leading idea for a solution sounded a little ridiculous to him, but his vision of his power was a bunch of free-floating cards. If there was a board for him to play his cards, however. He could use that to dictate how much force was being used. There was a time and place to flip the game board and release it all, but it wasn't a choice he could make until he had one. When he had first come up with the theory, Nicholas had been worried he was limiting himself for no reason.

That he instantly discarded for two reasons. Primarily, it was his brain making a random dumb image of how to control his power. If it didn't work or limited him, he could just fix it or make a new one. It couldn't be that hard, even if he had touched on something deeper. And second, his power was his toolbox. What was the point in having a tool for every situation if it became useless after one use? So painstakingly, a gameboard only he understood was beginning construction.

Modular and expansive, it won't have the right output for every situation he gets in, but he can include as many as possible now to not worry about it as much. And with it being modular, he can fix it later. After several hours of painstaking meditation, his ideal was made manifest. When Nicholas came to, he collapsed to the ground, sweat coating his body. That confirmed his other theory. Whatever he was doing was likely more than just a trick for his mind to make handling his powers easier.

He could ask Jasmine, but he felt no interest in doing so. Either she would confirm his thoughts or disprove them. It wouldn't push him more either way, and he figured she would feel guilty about it. Nicholas wanted to do it on his own because this was fun. He was growing. And just like a hard boss in a game after dozens of failed attempts, part of him thought he was finally understanding it. Though Nicholas did plan to mope for about an hour if this failed. He stood, limbs aching from the meditation.

He also hoped that was a sign of him doing things right. Once he adjusted to the fatigue, he went about setting up his training room properly with thirteen different barrels spread around the room. They were all filled with enough junk. They were close enough to the weight of an average person for his purposes. Up lifted things up. It was as simple as that. But the speed of the lift and how high they went were modular. Along with how many things it targeted at once.

His hands were shaking as he ran out of ways to delay his newest test. Emotionally, he felt numb, so he truly did not know what emotion beneath the surface was calling to him at this moment. He would find out tonight when he tried to decompress, most likely. Hopefully, excitement, though. Power flowed through Nicholas's throat." Up" The world trembled. And the part of the world Nicholas focused on obeyed. One barrel lifted six feet into the air, staying there as if the ground beneath it had risen to that point.

More than that, he could feel a slight but steady trickle of power flowing out of him. That would be the maintenance cost to keep that barrel lifted. With a wave of his hand, the connection cuts out. The barrel slowly lowers to the ground, settling gently. Once wasn't a guarantee, but Nicholas was smiling regardless." Up" This time, four barrels rose. Stolen novel; please report. Unlike last time, there was no consistent drain. Just one rush of energy. That was expected.

He had placed the card in a different spot, and once the energy he had used for it was fully expended, the barrels settled back to the ground. Now it was time for the final test. Nicholas knew there would still be a need to go all out sometimes. Hands outstretched, power built in his throat as reality trembled. It was waiting for him. He spoke, and the world rose to greet his command. And then fell seconds later. His power was still nascent and couldn't last forever.

He had pushed well beyond his limit today, thrice actually. Nicholas lay on the floor, eyes watering as he laughed to the empty room. He had finally done it; he had reached the proper starting line. Some many even would have said he had started when he got powers, but he disagreed. Having control was his starting line; now, all that was left was to go as far as he could. Nicholas let his hold on his visualization fall away as he pulled himself to his feet and took off the jacket he had worn during practice.

The cool breeze on his face and arms was almost the cherry on top of his day as he jogged back to the dorms so he could go to their suite. What he was really imagining was the dessert he had ordered a few days ago specifically for whenever he finally had control over all of this. Not all, but enough to start.

Once he was at his temporary home, he quickly showered and changed into more comfortable clothes, returning to the kitchen to find Jasmine perched on the counter, orange in hand, as she stared at him suspiciously.

"Hi," Nicholas said, going to the fridge and pulling out a few ingredients.

"Hi," Jasmine said, still watching him. Nicholas put the oddity out of his mind as he went to work making the burritos. While he had originally planned on dessert, he was now ravenous and wanted to solve that first.

"Would you like one?"

"Yeah," Jasmine said, still staring. Nicholas just began staring back at her. If she was going to stare at him suspiciously for no reason, he could oblige. This seemed only to embolden his teammate and slowly becoming friend as her eyes narrowed, eyebrows scrunching up as she continued to stare. Once the food was done and they could both eat, Nicholas was the one to broach the issue.

"Is there something wrong?"

"Yeah, my teammate, who always stayed out late and would eat whatever is easiest in the kitchen, came home early, and can cook! So you must be an evil clone!" Jasmine accused, pointing with her burrito.

"Interesting."

"Is that your defense?"

"No, just curious," Nicholas said.

"But also clone Nicholas, this is delicious. Thank you so much for cooking." Jasmine said now that her accusation was done.

"I can cook because I know how; today was just the first time I had the time and energy to do so," Nicholas said, deciding to answer that one first.

"Wait, if you can cook, then is that why groceries that aren't the microwavable or boil-water kind appear?"

"Yeah?" Jasmine snapped her fingers.

"Makes sense." Nicholas nodded.

"Glad that's cleared up."

"So what about the coming home early thing? You haven't done that once."

"You've known me for like two weeks."

"We've been living together for twelve days, and of those twelve days, this is the first time you have come home before the closing time of the training rooms. By hours." Jasmine raised.

"I wasn't going to get anything more out of it today. Not until I make a new training program," Nicholas said, smiling and pointedly being difficult. Jasmine was halfway through an apology before she paused, realizing what he had said and what his expression was before she began slapping his arm excitedly.

"You don't need to hit me," Nicholas said, squirming away from her enthusiasm.

"Dude!" She nearly yelled.

"You actually did it? You controlled your power and didn't use it all in one rush? That's huge!" Despite his own excitement at all of it, he didn't think it was worth this level of enthusiasm. It was just basic control. She had started with that. A small voice reminded him that their circumstances were nearly a world apart.

"It is amazing." Nicholas finally agreed.

"So are you completely empty or do you have enough to goof off with me?" Jasmine asked excitedly.

"Goof off?"

"Yeah, we're both done with our training today, so now it's time for hair down and wild vibes."

"Your hair is still tied up." Jasmine screeched as she quickly undid her braid before shaking her head so that her hair was down.

"Now we're off." Nicholas laughed.

"We can go after dessert."

"Hehe. You're going to be so jealous of what I made," Jasmine said. Ice cream and cookies were had, and before they knew it, they were in an empty park that had been requisitioned by the school. It was specifically for other supers to blow off steam.

"So you wanted to show me what you made?" Nicholas asked, setting his bag down.

"Psh nah, you're going to show me you can do it now." Nicholas wasn't going to disagree." Up" Jasmine floated two feet into the air.

"Dang, you actually did it," Jasmine said, lounging in the air.

"I should do a pose like paint me like one of those before the collapse girls."

"I don't know how to paint."

"Just wave a hand at the canvas and say paint." Nicholas nodded at that one; it would probably work.

"Only up is finalized though still figuring out everything else."

"I figured, but it's still fun. Now it's my turn," Jasmine said as Nicholas released his power's hold, letting her land. Between the two of them, a panel of orange light formed like a crack in the air. When the light vanished, Nicholas blinked his eyes to see Jasmine holding a massive, almost comically sized hammer. The head was as wide as his shoulders, and it was nearly as tall as he was. Jasmine was taller than he was, sure. But he doubted even she could wield the hammer easily.

Size aside, the hammer seemed to glow with emerald energy, runes down the haft and concentric circles of crackling energy carved into the head.

"The color green you use is gorgeous," Nicholas said, looking at the weapon.

"Thank you."

"I thought you gave up the lightning hammer idea?"

"That's because this is a force and gravity hammer," Jasmine said, grabbing it loosely and swinging it around the same way he could do with a PVC pipe. As Nicholas watched, he suddenly grew concerned. She had to cut off pieces of her soul to make these, and she had said she was going to wait to make anything.

"Are you sure it was okay to make that?"

"Oh yeah, I didn't slow down the healing at all," Jasmine said, waving a hand.

"And the hammer was easy to make; the paired armor and defense stuff will be harder. But I can't save the day if I can't break some Beyonder heads, so I made this in my down time." Nicholas's concerns weren't cleared up, but he guessed there was nothing he could do about the situation now. He still didn't have a clue on how he was supposed to help someone deal with soul damage either.

"Is there anything I can do to help? Even if it didn't slow recovery down, it hurt, right?" Nicholas asked gently. Jasmine faltered, the force of her swing dragging her along as the hammer's power pulsed.

"Uh yeah, after we play for a bit, do you want to go catch a movie or something?"

"Like a date?"

"Screw that, I just mean that, with us obsessed with improving, we don't actually know much about the person we're trusting to have our back," Jasmine said, shrugging. Nicholas thought for a moment before nodding.

"Great, so you ready to see what my power can do?" Nicholas nodded. The hammer pulsed with power, and suddenly down wasn't down anymore, and Nicholas was falling away from Jasmine.