Chapter Forty-One

 Inside Travis's mindscape, he and Prometheus faced off. Travis Popped behind Prometheus and, tongue hanging out of his mouth, blasted him into the ground with flames.

Prometheus rose, dusted himself off, and liquefied the ground, trapping Travis.

Travis formed his earthen prison into diamond armor and daggers and gave chase. Prometheus dodged his attacks, conjuring diamond daggers of his own, and they squared off. 

Travis's blades clashed against Prometheus's, leaving a chip in each. Then they retreated and attacked again, repeating this pattern until their weapons were reduced to diamond dust.

"Yield," Travis said through gasping breaths.

"Nah, kid. Looks to me you're gassed AF. Give up."

Travis wiped his face. "One last battle. We hold nothing back."

"I'm game if you take off that armor."

Travis removed his armor, and they got into fae'li sparring stances, each raising one arm and grabbing the other's wrists while placing one foot forward, so their ankles touched.

They counted down, and on one -- i'tochi (|ee|' |toe| |chee|), Prometheus tossed Travis over his shoulder. Righting himself in mid-air, Travis blasted him in the face with a blue energy beam, then kneed him in the groin. Prometheus's body hit the plateau with a thud.

 Then he Popped above Travis and stomped him into the ground. 

"Mess with the best, get wrecked." He did a victory dance while flipping off Travis until the ground around Travis exploded and shards of rock-turned-metal sliced through Prometheus.

"Nigga, that hurt."

Travis formed one of the metal shards into a Bowie Knife and Popped behind Prometheus. He cut him from ass to shoulders. Then he ripped out his spine. Prometheus clunked to the ground.

Travis smirked. "I win. And I told you not to use that word."

He stomped on Prometheus's limbs, then shattered his ribs. 

"Enjoy."

***

Back in his body, Travis shook off the effects of being locked in his head. Following Travis's return to the Magova, Prometheus wanted out all the time. At Oblivion's suggestion, he and Prometheus would battle, and whoever won got control of their body. This meant Travis spent hours, sometimes days trapped in his mind, only let out to visit Josh.

 He used this time well, practicing their mental abilities. He could now pinpoint minds and block thoughts at will, an unintended consequence of which was an increase of the range he could pick up thoughts and Pop.

He stood, working the kinks out of his back and legs, then took three steps and passed out, waking up in the Star Chamber. An alarm beeped, and the machine powered down.

His thoughts were fuzzy and jumbled together, as though he hadn't slept in a while. His brain was on fire. Luscinia and Co'laf helped him stand.

"What's wrong with me?" he said, fighting to stay on his feet as waves of nausea hit him. They looked at each other. She gave a command to the CPU, causing three-dimensional images to appear overhead.

"The picture on the left is of a human," Luscinia began, "and the one on the right is of a Torin. Note the smaller organs and circulatory systems," she said, and the hologram zoomed in to show the delicate blood vessels.

"This is due to our kahu'ki (|kah| |who|' |key|), our cores." 

"You mentioned that before."

"Yes. It provides us with most of our energy, enabling us to go long periods with little to no food, water, or oxygen." She tapped Travis's chest. "Due to your human nervous system interfering with your Torin circuitry--the system that allows energy to flow anywhere it's needed--your core has become unstable."

Travis swallowed the lump of dread in his throat. "What does that mean?"

She rubbed his face. "Tanna, it means if you keep pushing yourself, your core will explode, obliterating most of this hemisphere."

"What about my fainting?"

"Your circuitry has been overloading your nervous system, causing the latter to shut down."

"Is there any way for you to stabilize my core?"

"Were you fully Torin."

Rage and fear bubbled up inside him until rage won out. "But I'm not! What are my options?"

"You can continue training, on the off chance your core stabilizes once your powers mature and risk killing millions if it explodes, or you can go home and spend your remaining time with loved ones."

Travis didn't have to think about it.

 He would train.

First stop was the hologram trainer.

***

A jungle took shape, and he dashed off toward where he saw movement. Smack went his feet when they connected with the chest of the first of three opponents. Before the body hit the floor, Travis pivoted, decapitating the next with a well-placed energy blade. 

The final Torin went airborne. Travis gave chase, levitating and blowing a hole through its chest. He landed, fists pumping in the air.

"Travis wins; flawless victory," he said and continued celebrating. 

He plowed through the next level using a tree as a giant baseball bat and got to level five before his combination of luck, dirty tricks, and raw skill wasn't enough.

"This is bullshit," he said after his opponent knocked him down for the fifth time in less than a minute.

"You're holding back. Don't," Oblivion whispered to him. 

Chest heaving with each breath, pulse quickening, Travis's vision tunneled until all he saw were the opponents before him. In a frenzy, he tore them apart, leaving a pile of bloody limbs and organs.

"Beginning next level," the computer said. Reprograming it in English had been one of his greatest achievements to date.

"Targets will increase to eight; gravity will increase to 5g. Be safe, Travis," said the computer.

When the gravity took effect, Travis fell to his knees, his chest feeling as though it would explode from the pressure.

He stood, only for his legs to give out, sending him face-first into the ground. His enemies circled him, blasting him with fire, electricity, and ice attacks. Travis Popped a few meters away to buy himself some time while he thought.

"If ya need some help, why don't you ask your bro Pro?"

I don't need your help or anyone else's. Now shut up, you motherfucking ass-licking cunt.

"Whoa, you just cussed me out in fluent Na'iva."

Travis paused and smiled. "I did, didn't I? Cool."

He severed the connection by placing Prometheus behind several mental barriers and turned back to the fight at hand. If he couldn't walk, then he'd levitate. This proved more difficult than he thought, so he resorted to lightning attacks to move them into position for his coup de grace.

Once they were in place, he skewered them with metal spikes formed from the ground, then electrocuted, burned, and froze them for good measure.

 "Level complete. Would you like to continue?"

"No."

After the trainer powered down, Travis limped over to Co'laf and flopped on the ground. "I know you hate me, and the feeling's mutual. But if I die, so does your son."

"Point taken. Go on."

"Show me how to master my powers, and I promise to find a way to separate your son from my body."

"You can do that?"

"Between Luscinia and I, we should have it figured out soon enough."

"I'll agree on the condition I can speak with my son every day."

"Ahi."

 That was how Travis brought Co'laf to his side. They trained for five or six hours a day under increasing gravity, only stopping so Travis could eat, meditate, and check-in with Josh, Grams, and Jenny. Then it was off to the hologram-trainer, followed by eight hours of sleep, though he only slept because Luscinia disabled the gravity amplifier and hologram trainer.

From Jenny, he learned his parents were now out of the hospital but were restricted to bed rest for the next several months until their various fractures and breaks had healed. As for the twins, Grams had elected to stay with them at their house until their parents recovered; she'd also cover their bills.

 "I understand why you did what you did," she'd said when he visited her. "But you took the lives of those men and very well could have killed your parents."

"It wasn't that bad," he'd said, brushing her off.

"Listen to me." She grabbed his arm. "You can't go around abusing your powers. You were given them for a reason."

"But they--"

"I don't care what they did or didn't do. You have an obligation to help those who can't help themselves, to be a champion of good. Please, listen to the better angels of your nature."

He'd hadn't wanted to acknowledge her at first, but when Josh echoed the same sentiments, Travis was forced to accept his actions weren't as justified as he thought.

"Dude," Josh had said, "you killed people. That's villain territory."

"I acted in self-defense."

"Bull shit! You could have teleported away."

"I . . ." Josh is right. I could have Popped to Grams or anywhere else. But I chose to kill those soldiers, and the truth is I enjoyed it.

"Well, what do you have to say for yourself?"

Travis hung his head. "I lost my temper and allowed my emotions to dictate my actions, and now several people are dead because of it. I understand if you don't want to be with me anymore." He turned away and prepared to Pop back to the Magova when Josh stopped him.

"Travis, I love you. But you have to promise me right now you'll do your best never to harm me or anyone else with your powers, regardless of how mad you get."

"What if I have to defend myself from the DMRC or others?"

"Can't you knock them out instead of killing them?"

"Yeah."

"Then do that." 

"Okay," Travis had said, but he wasn't sure he could keep that promise.

***

"No, no, no!" Co'laf barked through gritted fangs. "All wrong. Your abilities, your urus (|er| |us|) come from here." He pointed to his chest. "Not here." He slapped the side of Travis's head.

Massaging his head, Travis glared at him. "I'm doing the best I can."

"Urawo ka, you want to stop?" 

Travis shook his head.

"Then this time, do it right. Urus aren't . . . tools. Extensions of you, a part of you they are. Again." 

Co'laf had been trying to teach him how to draw energy from the surrounding environment, but each time Travis got it wrong, either drawing too much at once and overloading his core or too little, so he passed out from the effort.

He planted his bare feet in the red dirt and focused on pulling the energy from it. Picturing water washing over his feet, he smiled at the energy's caress, willing it higher. But not too fast. Modulating his breathing, on each inhale, he pulled a bit more energy, then paused with each exhale. Sweat beaded down his face, clouding his vision, but he continued until the energy made it to his chest.

He smiled, but it wasn't time to celebrate just yet. Raising his arms, he visualized the waves of energy spreading to his hands.

"Good, Tanna, ju--"   

"Sshh!" Luscinia hissed.

Travis closed his eyes, imagining the energy turning into a ball as he waved his arms in a circular motion. Legs shaking, he pushed through the exhaustion that threatened to overtake him until his hands warmed, and Co'laf clapped.

"Well done. Took you long enough."

Travis opened his eyes, and a ball of green energy floated in the air next to him. He smiled and did a victory dance.

"Now uz (|ooze|) it, absorb it, and try again." 

Travis repeated the exercise until he was too tired to continue. He plopped beside Co'loaf on the cushions as he explained more about Torin abilities. According to him, their powers were partially sentient, and every Torin had to win their affinity before they could unlock their true potential. This sounded like one of Josh's anime shows, but given what Travis had experienced already with Body and Mind, he figured it was worth listening to.

"Every Torin must go through the vidashi(|vee| |dah|' |she|), the battle between life and death, before their powers fully awaken."

"Then why don't we start this thing already?"

"No Torin knows the day or hour of their vidashi. Like a bolt of lightning, it comes upon them without warning, testing everything they know about themself and their powers. Fail, and you die."

Travis stared at him slack-jawed. "And it's the only way to master my powers and awaken my full potential?"

He nodded. "That was the point of all these lessons. So much time has been lost. I fear you won't be ready." 

  

"Right," Travis said, drinking his miqua.

"Now you realize why I'm so hard on you?" 

Travis nodded.

 

***

Toward the end of December, Travis's fainting spells grew worse, lasting an hour or more.

Josh asked him about it one day, but he brushed it off as tiredness. He hated lying to him, but he didn't want Josh to worry. 

The night before Josh's parents were due back for New Years', Travis held him in his arms for the longest time, inhaling his scent. He didn't know why, but he had a gut feeling he wouldn't see Josh again for a while. As Josh nodded off, Travis looked at him and smiled, thanking whatever gods may be for such an awesome boyfriend.

He watched Josh sleep, planting butterfly kisses on his lips until he couldn't keep his eyes open. He scrawled out a letter and placed it under Josh's pillow. Then he Popped to the Magova and rested.

Author's Note: Two chapters to go. Again, if you'd like to beta read the next book in the series let me know (phenix39@yahoo.com). It will be ready by the end of August.

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