by W A Rowland
Why didn’t this kill me? Liam wondered, looking at it.
“The kinetic bubble you made probably slowed it down just enough to save your life,” Lily said.
“Yeah, what was that? Is that a new power you figured out?” Liam asked.
“Not really. I think we just assumed the wrong power at the beginning. I don’t think you actually have telekinesis; I think you can form kinetic fields around objects. I started to suspect it when we were training with Thea, because the counters you were using were more like shields than counterforces,” Lily explained.
“What’s the difference?” Liam asked as he got up to his feet and tried experimentally to move. “They seem pretty similar.”
“Well, they are. The difference is nuanced, whereas telekinesis would let you affect objects directly, kinetic fields have a wider affect. If you just had telekinesis, you wouldn’t have been able to form that bubble of kinetic energy like you did. You would have had to focus on each individual item flying at you and exert force to oppose it, whereas the field just acted like a fish net. Catching things flying at you and stopping or slowing them,” she explained.
“Got it. Kinetic field equals fishnet,” he said and stumbled back out onto the street. “So how did you come up with that idea then?” Liam asked, drawing a look from a woman passing by.
“We really need to get you a Bluetooth headset or something so people just think you’re on the phone when you talk to me out loud. Otherwise, you’re gonna end up in the loony bin.”
“I’ve been there, remember? Has a really nice basement,” Liam shot back.
“Har har, very funny. But yeah, the idea I had was for you to make the field around your body instead of an item, and then have the field push out in all directions, instead of just one. Then poof, you get your own little kinetic shield,” Lily said.
“Huh, clever,” Liam said out loud, again drawing a strange look from a man in a business suit.
“Yup, definitely need a headset,” Lily chirped.
JOYRIDE
Liam got a few more odd looks from folks as he took an round-about route back to his car. His side still hurt and he was pretty sure the bleeding wasn’t stopping. While it didn’t go through him or hit any major organs, the hole the bullet had made was large enough that it wasn’t readily clotting, and he had to hold constant pressure on it.
“Looks like I may need to use that number for the hospital after all,” Liam grumbled, grimacing as he spoke.
“Not to be a downer, but won’t that be the first places they’d check? They have to know you’re bleeding; you left a pretty good trail coming out of the building,” Lily pointed out.
“Right, maybe a clinic would be better. Smaller, would take longer for them to check them all, right?” he said, sliding gingerly into the driver’s seat of the little Civic.
It was nearly night now, the sun sliding ever lower over the horizon.
“I’d think so, but you never know. We don’t know how big Black’s group is. If he’s got Cork under his thumb…”
“He’ll have significant resources,” Liam finished the thought, starting the car.
“You could call Steven and see if he’s close by. He could patch you up in a jiffy!” Lily suggested.
“No, I don’t want them anywhere near this if at all possible. Gonna have to risk a clinic. I don’t know any other way to get patched up, and this doesn’t look like it’ll stop bleeding on its own,” he said as he pulled out of the lot. He drove for about 10 minutes, clutching his side with his left hand, until he spotted a small clinic with the lights still on and pulled in. The sharp pain in his side had evolved into a dull ache by the time he wobbled his way into the door.
The tired looking receptionist didn’t even look up from her computer, where Liam assumed she was playing solitaire, before handing him a clipboard with a patient intake form, and telling him to fill it out.
“I can’t really…” Liam remarked, nodding down towards his right side and lifting his hand to show the large blood stain on his shirt now.
The receptionist looked lackadaisically at his bloody shirt and shrugged. “Still need to run your insurance information before we’re allowed to do anything,” she said, nodding to the clip board.
“I can’t fill it out after y’all stitch me up?” he asked incredulously.
“Should have gone to the ER if it was that serious hun,” she said, resuming her game of cards.
Liam grumbled under his breath as he attempted to maneuver into a position to fill out the form with his left hand.
After a few muffled curses, he’d gotten all of the “Required” fields filled out and slid the form back across the counter to the receptionist who glanced at it briefly and huffed.
“Have a seat, Mr. Douglas, the doctor will see you shortly,” she said lazily, not going anywhere or typing anything into the computer.
“Excuse me, but I’ve been bleeding for about 45 minutes at this point. Can you at least tell the doctor I’m here? Or give some gauze or something?” he said, a bit of anger in his voice.
“Kid, I’ve had paper cuts that bled worse than that. Just relax and the doctor will be here shortly.”
At that moment, before Liam could reply, a slender man with glasses and wearing scrubs walked in the door.
“Evening, Delores, is this him?” he asked the receptionist.
“Liam Douglas, shallow contusion to the right Latissimus Dorsi, Vanus blood loss of less than a pint. Tetanus is up to date.” She rattled off, handing the chart she’d somehow made in the time they’d been standing there, to the doctor without even looking away from her computer.
Liam was speechless as the doctor glanced at the information and walked to a side door.
“Ok, come on this way, Mr. Douglas and we’ll get you fixed up,” he said as he held the door open.
Liam followed, a little stunned. What just happened? he thought.
“You assumed. And you know what they say about assuming. It makes an a-”
“Thanks, I know the rest, Lily.”
“Just trying to help,” she said cheerfully as Liam entered a small exam room.
Twenty minutes, eight stitches, and a tetanus booster later, Liam exited the clinic after thanking the oddly effective receptionist, who only responded with a lazy “have a good night hun.”
He felt better. He was still wearing a bloody shirt and his side ached, but he would survive.
At least, that’s what he thought until he saw the figure leaning against his car.
Julian, the ancient general of Rome, immortal werewolf, and all-around jerk, was leaning against Liam’s Honda Civic.
Liam started to panic, not seeing any way to get away in the middle of the empty parking lot.
“Run and there’ll be a bullet in your back before you get ten feet. Or did you think your kind were the only ones who could use rifles?” the man said as a red dot appeared on Liam’s chest. Liam got a better look at him this time; his eyes were old. He had salt and pepper hair and tattoos along his arms. His jawline looked like it was chiseled from stone, and by most modern standards, he’d be considered handsomely mature. He was smoking a cigar and was wearing a tight black t-shirt and dark blue denim jeans.
“Don’t really see another option. You weren’t exactly friendly last time we met,” Liam said, stalling as he tried desperately to make a plan. Any plan.
“Don’t get me wrong, I’m still gonna kill you, but I want to know some things first, and it’s hard to interrogate someone if they’re dead,” Julian said, his gravelly voice low and dangerous as he shook a bit of ash off the end of the cigar.
“Not much of an incentive for me to tell you anything then, is it? If you’re just gonna kill me afterwards,” Liam said hesitantly, frozen in place.
“Incentive comes in many forms. Like if I kill you before, or after breaking your legs and eating them. If you haven’t figured it out, demis can survive quite a lot of trauma before losing consciousness. Lots can hap
pen, and I have a lot of experience in getting information from people,” Julian concluded.
“How did you even find me?” Liam asked, trying to move the subject to something that didn’t turn his stomach.
“I’m a wolf. You left a trail of blood leading from the office right to you. It’s wasn’t even a challenge once we knew you were bleeding,” Julian said then took a deep pull on his cigar, and blew it out slowly.
“So this is what’s going to happen. You’re going to come with me, you’re going to tell me what I want to know, and then I’m going to kill you. There aren’t any other options. Lie to me or refuse to tell me what I want to know, and I cut off a toe. Do it again and we keep cutting off little bits of you until you either die or you tell the truth. Now get in the car,” Julian said forcefully putting out his cigar on the car’s hood and taking a step towards Liam.
Liam took a tentative step back as Julian advanced, preparing to counter Julian.
“Liam, bubble,” Lily said.
Liam thought for a second and reacted. Julian was a couple feet away at this point, and Liam put every bit of energy he had into forming a kinetic bubble and rapidly expanding it.
Julian lost his footing and flew back, slamming into the side of the civic, collapsing the frame around his considerable bulk. Liam heard a small tinkling sound as a rifle round fell to the ground next to him, having lost all momentum.
Liam was dazed for a moment until Lily yelled at him to run, breaking him back to the present, causing him to run towards the cover of the building next to the clinic. A rifle round struck the wall ahead of him. He needed to move faster, much faster. A screeching came from behind him and he glanced back to see Julian extricating himself from the ruined civic, and shifting into the giant white Varkolak Liam had seen at the landfill. Julian let out a guttural roar and started after Liam.
“Well, time to get creative,” Liam said.
“Liam, I see what you’re thinking and it’s a terrible idea!” Lily screamed as Liam threw his hands down, forming kinetic fields and blasted the energy down into the ground beneath him. This had the effect of launching Liam at an extreme angle into the air, covering a lot of ground fast. But by the time his brain caught up with his speed, he was about sixty feet in the air and starting to come down fast.
“Great! Now what genius!” Lily yelled at him as he scrambled to make a kinetic cushion to catch him as he fell. On the upside, he’d gotten a good lead on Julian and it seemed like there was a building between him and the sniper now.
Liam managed to make a decent backstop a few feet above the ground, but it stopped him a little too fast and he jerked hard before hitting the ground.
“Note for next time. Slower descent,” he said shaking out his spinning head and glanced back towards the clinic.
Julian was about a block behind him now. Running full speed and snarling.
Liam turned quickly and another idea struck him as he stated to run.
“Lily, how fast can you help me make those fields?”
“Yes, we can do that,” she replied without actually answering his question. “One per second should work, just make sure you do a controlled slowdown this time or you’ll probably break your neck.”
“Here goes,” Liam said and created a field in front of him accelerating up at a thirty-degree angle. Ten feet past that one, he made another, and another, then another. Julian’s greater size meant he was almost on top of Liam by this point and the giant wolf was rearing back for a swipe as Liam leapt up into the first field. In the course of about two seconds, Liam went from running to being launched up the track of kinetic fields at an incredible speed. As he flew forward and up, he started making more fields as quickly as possible, increasing his speed and height, slowly leveling out his ascent. The force of the wind against him flattened his skin against his face and made it hard to keep his eyes open, so steering around anything was out of the question. He just had to hope that no antenna or power lines were in front of him for a few hundred yards at least. He was so focused on creating the new fields and trying to level himself out that it took him several seconds to hear the yelping and growling coming from behind him. He glanced back between two fields to see Julian bouncing recklessly from field to field, just a short distance away. The wolf was definitely unsteady in the rapid acceleration, but it was fast catching on and streamlining its bulk.
“Shit, I didn’t think about that,” Liam mumbled and quickly formed a new plan.
After passing through the last field he’d made, he let himself enter into a free fall, being a few hundred feet up now. Julian, likewise, started to freefall, still snarling and swiping at Liam.
Liam focused on creating a massive field between himself and the Varkolak. One big enough to throw Julian a good distance. He released the energy and was rewarded a split second later with a satisfying yelp as the wolf was thrown forcefully up and in the opposite direction of where Liam was headed, its body whiplashed horribly as it changed direction and shot several hundred more feet into the sky.
Liam smiled. It had actually worked!
“Liam ground!” Lily’s panicked voice came into his head and drew his attention back to the fact that he was now falling far faster than terminal velocity, and the ground was approaching quickly.
Got it, Liam thought, much more confident now in how to use his kinetic fields to change direction. He made a series of fields lowering to the ground that gradually slowed him until he was a few feet above the ground. He did still land roughly and ended up sprawled on the ground in a park, but it was much better than splatting on the sidewalk, and worlds better than what Julian had in store for him. He got up from where he’d crashed, dusted off his jeans and started walking to the street like nothing untoward had happened at all.
A few blocks away, Liam managed to flag down a cab who agreed to drop him off at an address just outside of the city. On the ride, Liam chatted with Lily internally about how to refine his new ability further. He knew it wasn’t flying, but it functioned very similarly to flight. Ok, maybe it was more akin to being launched out of a canon, but it was still pretty cool. Between the two of them, they figured that if he could envelop himself in a field before launch, it might act as a buffer for the wind and allow him to steer a bit better, while also absorbing some of the g-forces being exerted on his body. He was already beginning to ache a bit from his earlier, hasty experiments and was pretty sure he’d pulled several muscles due to the rough take-offs and landings. But despite his aching body, he was excited for what this meant. He could fly! Sure, he had several homicidal maniacs hunting him, but he could fly!
He exited the cab at a large park in one of the city suburbs. Since it was now night, he didn’t have to worry about being spotted, so long as he found a nice dark spot from which to launch. The baseball field in this park would work perfectly. All of the outfield lights had long since been shut off and the open area gave him a good angle out, as opposed to going straight up and trying to level out later. This way, he could ramp into an easy flight parallel to the ground at a moderate height.
Liam focused on enveloping his body in a field that would negate forces moving towards him. The dust around his feet began to push out and away from him as the field took hold.
“Lily?” Liam asked, suddenly realizing something.
“Yeah?” she responded. “I just thought it too; I don’t know how long the fields last after we set them. The ones we put on your body seem to last until we dismiss them.”
“So, potentially, there’s a ramp in the middle of the city waiting to launch some poor soul into the air?”
“Probably,” she replied, unconcerned, “I’m sure they’ll go away eventually. They’re made from energy we pull from the astral plane. Once you stop supplying it, they would theoretically start to decay as that energy seeps back across the barrier between the physical and astral worlds. Conservation of energy and all that.”
“Ok, if you say so,” Liam replied and focused again on how
to begin his ascent while not leaving a trail of possibly dangerous kinetic fields behind him. He tried to set up his fields so that you had to run a very intentional way to get from the first to the next, expecting to spiral up like a plane taking off and immediately banking. Except when he ran through the first field, it sped him up, but didn’t lift him, so he immediately tripped over his own feet and face-planted into the grass.
He heard Lily laughing uncontrollably inside his head as he struggled to get up, seeing a furrow he’d left in the grass where his protective field had pushed back against the earth, probably keeping him from breaking his neck.
“We already figured out that you’re not super durable, Liam. You don’t have to keep trying,” Lily eventually said between giggles and what sounded like…Crying? Was she laugh-crying?
“Heh, I’m sorry. It was just so *giggle* so funny. Ohh my gosh.. my sides hurt.”
“You don’t have sides, Lily,” Liam said annoyed.
“Well if I did, they’d be hurting,” she continued, still laughing quietly to herself.
Liam stood up and thought through what had happened, quickly seeing his error. Planes had wings, he didn’t; no lift meant he needed a substantial upward force to lift him into the air. This made him wonder if he could levitate by making a field that exactly opposed his body weight, so he tried to make one, guessing at how big he needed to make it. He stood underneath the field and jumped, feeling it take hold of his body, but instead of holding him in place, it juggled him into the air, catching and relaunching him each time he came back down. He quickly dismissed the field to keep from getting whiplash from the repeated reversal of direction, and promptly fell flat on his butt on the grass again.
Lily once again broke out in a fit of laughter.
“I’d like to see you try it,” Liam said sourly
Lily eventually stopped laughing. “Ok, I will,” she quipped happily.