Chương 48: Stop and Go

I put a hand on my hip.

"Hey, I saw you get a nosebleed too before, and you specifically said it was because of skill fatigue. So clearly it is normal." Rigel held up his hands.

"That was after I'd spent hours making new devices in my lab and then creating something for you. If you'd used your power all during your fight like a super usually would, then yeah, that would be normal. But getting it so quickly here means you're overfatiguing."

"So, you're saying I'm weak?" Hardly surprising, but disappointing all the same. Rigel shook his head.

"I think it has to do with being untrained. This is what the Academy is for, to help you figure out how to use your powers. Does anything else happen?" My other hand rubbed at my forehead.

"I'm pretty sure someone is smashing a hammer into my skull –the pronged side too– at least that's what it feels like. You don't get that either?" He looked up towards the huge domed ceiling of the mall.

"After a lot of work, I feel mentally tired, but not actual pain."

"Well," I said, crossing my arms in front of me.

"Whether super or not, guess it's just my lot in life to always be the weird one, now isn't it?" I tried to make my lips smile, but inside my chest, my heart twisted. Why was there always something wrong with me? Why did I always have to be the defective one? Rigel's helmet was cocked to the side.

"And these symptoms increase each time?"

"Yes, once I used it four times in succession and I passed out by the end. And vomited. And wanted to die."

"I don't think you're weird, I think with your power you must have a lower threshold for strain than others do. Or maybe you're supposed to use it in a different way. Or maybe it is just how chronomancy works, especially at F rank. This is why we need to test things out." His arms folded in front of his chest as he leaned back against a wide column.

"Has it always been like this?" I let out a deep breath. This was dangerous territory. But if he knew something I didn't about how to get rid of these side effects, then I was willing to walk this minefield.

"I haven't had my powers for long– well, I haven't used them for long. Technically, my system said that my powers were in atrophy at first, so I assume they've probably been around for a lot longer." He scratched his chin in thought.

"That's got to have something to do with it. I've never heard of a system atrophying either. It may be due to you being a chronomancer; if you get fire powers, you'll immediately know, but your time powers seem to be much harder to activate." I clasped my hands together behind me, tilting my head to the side.

"How did you figure yours out?" I didn't know exactly how this friendship would work out. Were we going to team up to fight crime together now as a permanent duo or were we just pairing up for fighting the Chem Heads? Would I ever reveal my actual self to him and vice versa? A part of me just wanted to keep things professional, distant, but the reality was I needed to know more about the experience of being a super, and sharing things about ourselves would probably help us trust each other more in a fight.

His helmet tipped forward, looking down.

"I haven't had mine for long either. There was an accident, the room filled with smoke and I couldn't breath. I couldn't get out but suddenly my mind filled with ideas and possibilities. I made an air purifier out of old clothes, charcoal, and what I could find under the kitchen sink. Sometimes I think there are so few tinkers because the majority die if they can't find what they need to make something to survive." And I thought I had problems.

I might be the weirdo who could barely use her power for more than a few seconds, but at least I didn't need a physical object to make them work.

"So, basically if you have nothing around you, you might as well have no power at all?"

"Yep, that's one way to put it."

"I'm guessing people– especially villains– would try to use that against you." Rigel's head hung down again.

"Yeah, it wouldn't be good if I got trapped. That's why I have to plan things out, always think ahead. And I've developed some stuff I could use in that kind of situation if I needed it. But, it's something I have to accept." His lips turned up on one side as he looked at me again.

"See, we all have positives and negatives about our powers." I kicked at the decapitated head of a mannequin across the room.

"It would be a lot easier if the system gave powers that actually helped instead of whatever it felt like at the time. Sometimes I wonder if it's just straight up evil." He shrugged.

"I've never thought it worked that way. I think it's in our genes, something we're born with and that's why it doesn't always work out depending on the situation." I snorted.

"I certainly did not have super hero genes in my blood. I was born with scaredy-cat DNA and I've only just started to fight against it."

"You've been in multiple fights and it never occurred to you that with your power, it would be incredibly easy to shoot someone or just kill them because they were trying to kill you?" I looked up at the ceiling and sighed.

"Oh, it's occurred to me before, alright. I even got close once– it was the night we met. I had been choked out and was bleeding all down my arms. I finally had her pinned and yeah, I thought about it."

"What made you stop?" I folded my arms in front of me.

"I have someone in my life that I look up to and I didn't want to disappoint him. I'd like to be a real hero like he is." This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it. He smiled, his head shaking.

"What?"

"Can you imagine your power in just about anyone else's hands? So many people would turn into villains because… that's what that kind of power does to most people. And it's never even occurred to you to use it that way." He shrugged.

"It's impressive." I looked to the side.

"Well, you know, world domination would require too much interacting with people for me. That's probably the biggest reason why I avoid it." I pushed myself away from the wall, shaking my hands out.

"But you know, people hardly need fear me trying to take over everything when I can barely use my power and I'll be huddling on the floor with a migraine after a few tries. I just want to fight villains, so I need to figure out how to make it work right, if that's even possible." Rigel walked up to me.

"Right now you're trying to extend your chronomancing as long as you can. That's obviously too much work for you. So what if you instead did it for smaller increments? Have you ever tried that before?" My brain stretched as it went through all of my time stopping escapades.

"Yes, when I first used it at sc– a place. I tested it out with probably one second per incident and I didn't do anything in it, just paused time to see if I could before losing my grip on my power."

"And did you feel bad after?"

"I don't think so, I definitely don't remember being in danger of puking."

"So let's try it out."

"Look, there's a big problem here: it's not easy to call up my power; I have to concentrate hard; I have to get angry– yes, like the Hulk– so, that's the biggest reason why I try to make it last as long as I can because I don't always know if I can bring it up again."" That's the problem we need to fix. I don't know if it's because you're a chronomancer or because your skill was damaged from lack of use but if you have trouble controlling it, training could really help.

Besides if you used it four times for four seconds intervals, that's sixteen seconds total. If you could gain control of activating and deactivating your power reliably, maybe you could use it in short bursts and that could give you a lot more uses." I grimaced, sure that this would only result in me getting sixteen migraines, each one increasingly worse than the other, but what choice did I have? This was what testing things out would have to be.

"I know how to turn it on; I'm not sure about turning it off. I did it a few times before because the stakes were low and I didn't do anything while time was paused. I'm not sure if that will work when I'm trying to fight. But, I guess if anger starts it, then maybe, the opposite would stop it." He smiled.

"There's only one way to know." I grumbled about tinkers having more empathy for machines than people as I made my way to my previous spot. I sure had a new friend for Orion to meet. Something about that made me falter in my step, but it quickly slipped away. My eyes closed, taking a long breath in and out. When I opened them again, the mannequins were all I could see. My shoes squeaked as they pushed against the smooth tiles.

I needed to bring up anger quick, but the Alchemist and his army were a little too removed from me. So my brain short-circuited to things that hit closer to home. I saw Brandon Meat Tower standing first in line, one mountainous arm raised high, ready to slam into me. As my feet came within inches of his, I glared into his smirking Neanderthal face and felt pain slice the space between my eyeballs.

A quick glance to Rigel told me that he was frozen solid, so I dipped my hands down, grasping at the small object in Brandon's pant leg, then shut my eyes for a second. Gran's apartment was behind my eyelids– the holey, musty-smelling couch with Jiji on it, black and white movie on the T. V., and Gran sitting in her chair with a smile on her face. As simple as washing away dirt from your hands, the pain evaporated from my forehead and Rigel began moving in my peripheral vision again.

I stumbled down onto the ground, the plastic M&M tube rolling from my grasp.

"I did it." My chin scratched against the floor as my head turned to look at him walking closer.

"I clicked it on and off like a lightswitch." He held a hand out to me, a smile on his face.

"You don't have a nosebleed. No need to barf?" I shook my head.

"Not even if you showed me Hot Magma's Playgirl spread." He took out a pen and notepad to make some notes.

"Let's see if we can get these quick time stops closer together. We need to get the timing right. You stand there and I'll throw things at you. You're only allowed to dodge when your power activates. Try and turn it off again as quickly as possible, as soon as you have moved out of the way. Got it?" I nodded my head but I should have been paying more attention because he had already stepped towards the mannequin and pulled the head off to chuck in my direction.

The head flew through the air but I didn't have time to concentrate or react. It hit me in the chest and bounced onto the floor. I watched it roll back towards him.

"You don't have tennis balls or something? Maybe we could find a sports shop around here somewhere?" I asked.

"Nope. They cleared out all the merchandise. You're stuck with dismembered body parts of the plastic persuasion." As he spoke he disassembled the mannequin to give himself a small arsenal to assault me with.

"Ready?"

"One moment." I closed my eyes. I had been doing breathing exercises for weeks with Mr. Cheng. Maybe they weren't useless after all. I breathed in and focused on my anger. There was so much to be angry at in this screwed up world. Bullies at school who got off because they won games, supers who never bothered to patrol the slums where she lived, and the villains and their gangs that infested it. Then I breathed out and let it go.

High school was almost over, I didn't need or want the heroes around anyway, and once I was stronger I would handle the criminals. I opened my eyes.

"Ok. I'm ready" Rigel didn't hesitate as a plastic foot came flying at my face. I breathed in remembering Brandon slamming me into the lockers as I flexed that new muscle in my brain. The foot paused for a moment while I stepped to the side and exhaled, visualizing him on the ground at my feet. The tension left my body as I relaxed the muscle and the foot flew past my ear. I smiled but a hand was already careening towards my chest. Again I breathed in the anger and frustration as I flexed my power.

My body twisted back to its original position as I exhaled and let it go. The hand flew past me as Rigel started clapping. His gauntlets sounded like someone bashing two trash can lids together.

"Good job!" He stepped closer to me.

"How are you feeling? Still no nosebleeds, I see." I touched the bottom of my nose and my hand came away dry.

"Not a drop. My head hurts but not nearly as bad as it usually does." He took out the notepad again.

"On a scale of one to ten how would you rate your pain?" This guy and his notetaking. He clearly had a backup job as a researcher or EMT if the whole superhero thing didn't work out.

"I would say a three. It's getting into annoying headache territory, but not as bad as the hammer digging into it."

"Ok lets try it again. We will run it two more times an–" There was a resounding crash from outside and the floor shook beneath our feet. I looked up at him as he glanced down at me.

"We need to get out."