Newu

Author's note: Hey Readers

This is where the story starts delving into the mid control/sci-fi elements of the narrative, this chapter is mild in terms of erotic scenes but it is where our pre-power hero starts to understand the scope of his ability... the fun stuff starts back up again soon.

Hope you enjoy

The Novalist

The rest of the day had been fairly uneventful; Becky had gone off shift a few hours after our 'appointment', she had popped in to say goodbye but, other than that, I hadn't really seen her - or any of the other nurses - since our rendezvous had finished. Jimmy had come, as expected, for the afternoon's visiting hours; the conversation had been normal enough, almost exclusively dominated by his growing desire for Philippa. My mind was consumed with the memories of Becky's touch; her hands, her skin, her lips... both sets... her warmth and, most dominantly, her eyes, flashing with primal hunger before I spent myself into her mouth. That serene satisfaction that she had pleased me filling her thoughts, that glow about her that radiated blissful contentment... she was genuinely happy with her decision to follow through with her plan and would have spent the rest of the day with me if her duties had allowed. Unfortunately for both of us, they hadn't.

Jimmy had, of course, noticed my distracted involvement in our conversation; he had bought my excuse about being tired and had shrugged the rest off as a hangover from my parents visit. For his part, Jimmy had been elated at Philippa's perceived - albeit vague - interest in him, I was the only one that knew her real desires and her growing attraction to my friend; but he'd had the good sense to swear off other women until he got a concrete answer from the object of his obsession. As far as he was concerned, he had gone 8 weeks without any pussy, another few weeks wouldn't hurt if there was a change of Philippa being his reward, especially if it meant something more long-term than his usual conquests.

Despite me being awful company - and in a true testament to his friendship and character - Jimmy had not cut his visit short and had stayed right up until the end of visiting hours, his happy chattering about Philippa - or occasionally, and briefly, another subject - had gone a long way in distracting me from my own thoughts which were as happy and optimistic as his, and he had known when to stay quiet and leave me to my thoughts when my mind drifted away from the conversation.

Becky wasn't the only subject occupying my mind, although she was by far the most dominant and enjoyable; it was becoming increasingly difficult to drown out the thoughts coming from random people around me. At first - immediately after the accident - I seemed to be only able to hear people that were right next to me, especially if they were concentrating on me, but over the past day or so, that limit had loosened; now I could hear the thoughts of random strangers in the hallway, thoughts that would grow in volume as they approached my door and then die away as they moved further away from me. Although I had never seen it, I knew that the nurses station had to be reasonably close to my door, because a lot of the thoughts I was picking up involved complex and undecipherable medical jargon, thoughts about treatments, medication, therapies and - from the male nurses especially - the relative hotness of guests and colleagues. Apparently, Jimmy was right, Charlotte - who I still hadn't met - was the epitome of feminine beauty, surpassing even Becky and Philippa on the nurse's scale of hotness.

It had become overwhelmingly exhausting. The promise of this ESP thing was quickly being tempered by the sheer volume of 'noise' it was picking up from useless sources. Sleep seemed to be the only respite and as Jimmy stood up to say his goodbyes, my feelings of guilt for giving him less than my full attention was offset by the prospect of blissful respite from the thoughts of the people around me. My eyes dropped shut almost as soon as the door closed behind him.

I couldn't tell you what time It was; the still curtain-less windows showed nothing but blackness in the night sky but I was pulled from my sleep by a feeling - a presence - that I could only describe as

power

.

My eyes took a few moments to adjust to the dimly lit room, but soon a figure could be made out, standing off to my left. It was male, that much was obvious from the sheer size and shape of the intruder but there was more about him that that.

He smiled as he stepped into the small amount of light from the window.

Now, I have never been homoerotically inclined; I am not homophobic in the slightest, it's just that the relative attractiveness of other men is not a concept that I am familiar with, but this man was an Adonis! His broad shoulders, chiseled jaw, immaculate features and piercing blue eyes could drop panties, harden nipples and moisten labia at 50 paces. There was an air of well-earned superiority about him, like a pro-athlete, multinational business billionaire or Hollywood superstar deeming you worthy of unrequested personal attention... like a demigod stepped down from Olympus just to talk to you; it was awe inspiring.

Strangely, however, I felt no danger or threat from this man whatsoever - counterintuitive when you consider being woken by a shadowy figure in the middle of the night, albeit a perfect specimen of masculinity - in fact, the man gave off an aura of friendship, trustworthiness and safety that I doubt I will ever be able to adequately explain. My mind instinctively reached out to see his thoughts, it wasn't a conscious act, it was something I had been involuntarily doing since the MRI incident but this time, I genuinely wanted to know what was on this stranger's mind, but - for the first time - they seemed cut off from me.

"So, it

is

you." He smiled warmly.

"I... err... Who? ..."

"I've been looking forward to meeting you." He said, his smile never waning for a second.

"Have you?" I asked with a cocked eyebrow, I was surprised by his statement, aside from the severity of the car crash and the fact that I survived it, I didn't think there was anything special about me at all, at least nothing that anyone other than I was aware of.

"I am like you." He simply said, his statement was followed by a rush of thoughts, as if the gates baring my gift from his mind was suddenly thrown open and everything behind them came rushing out in one unrelenting torrent.

Suddenly, I was aware of things that I couldn't possibly have known; his name was Marco and he was old, hundreds of years old, more importantly - at least to my addled brain which seemed to jump over that nugget like a rat in the street - he really was like me. I could almost see the activity on his theta wave and although Doc Harris had said that judging the relative power of a person was difficult from just looking at a wave form, I instinctively knew that this man was powerful, how his power compared to mine - it would seem - was still a matter of investigation. What was most important though, was that this man identified as a teacher... maybe an apprentice's master would be a more accurate description, but even that hardly did it justice.

Moreover, we weren't the only ones; dozens, maybe hundreds of faces flashed through my mind... his mind... whatever, each of them possessing the same gift I had miraculously gained, yet I somehow knew that of all of them, I was the only one not gifted with this ability from birth. He was here to initiate me into their little brotherhood and train me in the use of this new gift, but given the source of my power, my 'training' - for lack of a better word - would be unusual for the both of us.

As quickly as it started, the flow of information stopped. My eyes eventually refocused on the dimly lit room that I had completely forgotten I was in; his smiling face was the first thing that drew my eyes. "Impressive," he nodded, "not many people can handle that level of exchange on their first attempt."

"Err... thanks."

He huffed a laugh, moving forward and sitting himself down into the chair usually reserved for Jimmy, crossing one leg over the other and straightening his back into what can only be described as a perfect posture. "I'm guessing you have questions."

"A few."

His smile widened. "I knew I would like you."

"You did? How?"

"As you probably know now," he started, "we can... sense... another person with our gift from great distances, the limit of that distance directly corresponds to the power of our gifts, in our case, the power of mine... and the power of yours."

"Cool, so how far away were you when you sensed mine."

"I was in Rome." My eyebrows shot up, he had located me from easily over 1000 miles away, I was suddenly very grateful that he bore me no ill intent, not that I could have done anything to defend myself against this man in my normal condition, let alone my current one. "I have been reading your memories and your thoughts since I detected you; you haven't had an easy life, Pete, but you have conducted yourself honorably, you deal with your problems and hardships, not with violence or aggression like most, but with humor and integrity. As you already know, I usually only deal with children - the ages at which their gift becomes active varies in age from 9 to about 14, so I have never initiated one so... mature before. Hopefully, that maturity and your character will go some way to offset the... err... novelty of your situation." I already had more questions than I could count from that statement alone, but I seemed to know that they would all be answered as his lessons went on. "I suppose I had better start from the beginning.

"The Doctor you spoke to was right, at least in part; we are the next step in human evolution, but by the same determination, we are also 'not human' - the only analogy I can give is the evolution from Neanderthal man to Homo-Sapiens: related, but different - with enough numbers and enough time, ours will become the dominant species on the planet. Humans, as we know them now, will simply be bred out of existence."

"I'm not sure they will be happy about that."

"We'll get to that," he replied, his words slow and careful, as if each of them was carefully considered before being spoken, "but safe to say, the homo-sapiens were extremely violent when it came to replace their less evolved cousins, we are committed to not following their example. Anyway... the first of us, at least the first of us that we are

aware

of was a woman, her name was Maria - our Eve. We don't know exactly when she was born, but her writings tell us that one of her parents and both of her siblings were killed in the Black Death - the plague that swept Europe in the mid-1300s - somewhere around modern-day Munich. She was caught up in - and eventually killed during - the Salem Witch Trials in 1693 meaning that at the time of her death, she was about 350 years old.

"In that time, she had travelled all over the world, looking for others like her, and she found them... she is the spiritual mother of our species, even though it is unlikely that she truly was the first of our kind. She also spent centuries trying to discover the source of her powers... of

our

powers. What she first postulated - and we have since confirmed - is that our kind go through some sort of transformation in the womb under some very specific circumstances; in short: the mother needs to contract some sort of illness, the type of illness is unimportant, but it must be one that transfers through the mother to the fetus - the common cold or the flu, or even cancer, for example, don't work. The fetus, in turn, needs to be at a point in its development during which the brain is being formed from a group of cells into a more complex organ... if all this happens at the right time, a new part of the brain develops, bridging the gap between the right and left hemispheres and the various lobes and giving us what we have called 'the gift'. I'm not going to lie, it is an extremely complex process that some of the best minds in the world have spent decades trying to explain, but that is the best theory we have so far... the only other way is for one of us to have a child, passing it down genetically is the most common and easiest way for us to grow our numbers.

"In your case," he went on, "our best guess is that your mother

did

contract some kind of illness that transferred to you, enough to partially develop the new lobe, but not enough to activate the gift. Then, when the MRI overloaded, the magnetic waves finished the process and activated your abilities. What we have discovered is that the strength or power of a person's gift is directly proportionate to the severity of the illness they were subjected to; there is little doubt that without the lobe, the waves of that errant MRI would have killed you instantly. Some of our greatest scientific and medical minds are keen to see how much power that translates into, but the working theory is that you may be one of the most powerful of us all, maybe only matched by the great Uri."

"Uri?"

"Uri's mother lived in the city of Pripyat" my look of confusion told him to continue, "she was only a few miles away when the nuclear reactor at Chernobyl melted down, she was dosed with unimaginable amounts of radiation, most of which was transferred to Uri... his power far exceeds any other known gift by some margin."

"Ah, so why is he so great?"

Marco laughed again, "If we were ever to say we had a leader, it would be Uri" he thought for a second before correcting himself, "maybe leader is not the right term, guardian maybe... he protects us."

"From what?"

"That will come later in your training." Marco smiled again.

"And how long will that take?" I asked carefully, "I don't mean to sound rude, but the sooner you can show me how to control these powers, so I'm not bombarded with random peoples' thoughts, the better... It feels like my head is going to explode sometimes."

Marco's smile faltered for a second, his brows arching into a concerned frown. "Really?" he mused to himself, "that's interesting... I'll show you everything you need to know, but to answer your question... about an hour."

"An hour?!?"

Marco's smile resumed its rightful place. "You'll be amazed what you can achieve with the gift. Before we start, there is something that you need to consider... it will help make the whole process go that much easier; humans are one of only a few species in the natural world who are born lacking an understanding of their own abilities. A baby does not know how to walk, or talk, it cannot feed itself or communicate with its parents; it is totally reliant on adults to keep it safe and alive, there are almost no other examples of this in the natural world. Almost every land going animal is born knowing how to - and being able to - walk, there are a few exceptions, but the overwhelming majority are on their feet within minutes of being born. Most know how to feed without help; they know where the mother's teat is or how to gather food for themselves, fish are born knowing how to swim and how to feed, some species have genetically passed down the instinct to hide in shallow waters to avoid predators and almost all animals can communicate with their peers. Even birds, capable of the most complex physical activity on earth, are born knowing how to fly - even if they are not physically capable for it for a few weeks.

"The reason why human's cant is simple. The human brain is so advanced that it takes about 2 years to develop to the point that it is capable of something approaching self-sufficiency, but if that were to take place in the womb - as it does almost everywhere else - a human woman would have to give birth to a toddler. A woman's body simply isn't designed to allow a child of that size through the birth canal, neither the mother nor the child would survive that kind of pregnancy.

"This becomes relevant when you consider the gift; in the same way a horse is born knowing how to walk, we are born with an instinctive knowledge of how to use our gift... most of us don't become consciously aware of our powers until we hit puberty, but when we do, we go through a process known as 'the awakening'... it is our evolution's way of allowing us to comprehend and access our powers.

"In your case, its slightly different... you didn't have your powers when you went through puberty, and we can't make you go through puberty now, but the theory still stands; your subconscious mind contains the knowledge and ability to control your gift, the fact that you have a lobe - and are still alive and possess the gift - proves it... we just need to initiate your awakening."

"Cool, so how do we do that?" I asked. There was a small part of me that felt like I should be laughing my ass off at the absurdity of what I was hearing, or at least thoroughly questioning it, but there was something about Marco that made me accept his story without doubt; whether it was part of the gift or a conscious compelling by Marco, I wasn't sure, but nothing that Marco was telling me seemed anything other than the logical explanation of my condition. I wasn't confused or doubtful, I was just grateful and eager to learn.

Marco's warm smile remained in place as he effortless pulled himself from Jimmy's chair and walked up to the side of my bed. "Take my hand" he whispered almost reverently. I arced an eyebrow, suddenly worried I wouldn't be able to keep a straight face if this guy started muttering a prayer or a spell, but I did as he asked.

As soon as our fingers touched, existence fell away.

I found myself standing in a room; it was odd, like an overly dramatic movie set. It was dark, with invisible light sources overhead providing the only illumination yet I could see everything. If I were ever to imagine what the insides of Bond villain's office would look like, this would be it. There was a huge computer against one wall, multiple screens - currently blank - hanging off the wall above the keyboard. Alongside it were huge units of memory banks - the kind you see in server farms or on supercomputers, the kind that hold incalculable amounts of information, I had seen these kinds of things before as part of my studies into computer game development for online games. Along the wall opposite the computer was a large, black, leather, comfortable looking sofa and an equally luxurious looking bed. On the walls behind me, either side of the door I didn't remember entering though, were hanging sets of Plasma screen TVs. In the center of the room, was an illuminated, round white podium, the kind you would see at a tailors... it all looked very impressive but I had no idea what any of it actually did... or where I was... or why I was here.

Suddenly, Marco was standing next to me.

"Where is this?" I asked, still looking around the office.

"That's... hard to explain." He answered after some thought. "this is your subconscious mind's interpretation of your gift. It's a way of explaining it to you in a manner that you can understand."

"Hmmm..." my subconscious wasn't doing a particularly good job on that front. "Ok, so... what's that?" I asked, pointing to the computer, obviously the most important thing in the room.

"That's where things get complicated," Marco answered after another pause, "You see, what you are seeing is

your

subconscious mind's interpretation of

your

gift. Even though you can see me, I cannot see what you are seeing, I am in

my own

subconscious looking at

my

gift and you are here with me. In my case, it is a library; rows upon rows of books and information and memories, maps, diagrams, and a desk to study and organize them all... a writing bureau to make my own additions... and - probably like you - a very nice bed. My library is the physical manifestation of how my subconscious perceives the world and my understanding of it. Yours will be very different.