All new Zodiac, and an important decision.

'Now that your ability is at full strength, you are ready to take your position in Zodiac' Dragon said seriously to Healthbar. 'I have been waiting for someone with your ability for a long time. Solar and Lunar energy fills you with strength, and give you mastery of the balance between light and dark, life and death. This is a position that cannot be compromised, there is one ability, and one alone that can fill this role. You seem to have a more complete version, in the past we have had members that can only heal and harm, or only have the lunar part, or only the solar part, but they are all minor versions of the same power. You must take the role of Tiger, and you must keep the balance, because it is the lack of a Tiger that has allowed HIM to gain so much power.'

Healthbar nodded, frowning as she thought, and went and sat down in a corner, thinking solemnly to herself.

Dragon assigned Diffy the role of Monkey, which everyone agreed suited him perfectly, and Playwrite, who could use his telepathy to go unseen, was given the role of snake, who as Dragon said 'often gets marked as a bad lot, but I was never let down by by old friend Snake, I couldn't have asked for a more caring man. Never in the history of Zodiac has a snake gone bad, and I see no reason for that to change.'

Dragon turned to Don. 'At last, we come to you, Don. I was hoping Tempest had a friend with fighting skills, and then there you were, at strawberry fair. I was delighted. You must become the Ox, who is by tradition a fighter, good at hand to hand combat. Of course, we've never had someone without an ability in Zodiac before, we all have friends with abilities of course, but sending one out in the front lines, as it were, was always too dangerous. As a martial arts expert, you would cope better than most, and suit the role of Ox well, but normally the ox has superstrength, or super athleticism, or some other ability that boosts his fighting technique. We have had a normal human as the veil before, but as one of the twelve...'

'Well, I could always join you, Double said he made this before Playwrite gave the original to Freezeframe.'

Don reached into his pocket and pulled out something wound in bubble wrap. 'I'm surprised it survived greece, but I can become one of you with this.' he unwrapped it to reveal a phial of dark liquid, with a number 9 written on it in white, exactly the same as the one Playwrite had given to freeze frame.

He held it up for us all to see. 'The question is, do I want to?'

Dragon's friends.

Sorry I haven't posted for a while, Dragon's been keeping us busy and we've just been trying to recover from Greece.

'The Eye' and his team left, hinting we should know them, but he grinned when nobody could place him. 'Another little gift Cleo will give us with the ability to be outside Fate. The Fates can't see us, or affect us, and it's all their own doing. Tell Cleo to look out for a girl that's immune. To everything. Hunger, Thirst, Disease, Injury, Abilities, Time, and, most importantly, Fate. She needs to take the fate bit and give it to me. After that, the immune girl can be affected by Fate, and Reality Warping, so Jorge can make sure she's happy. This ability let's us be hidden in plain sight, meaning none of you can realize who we are.'

And then they left, leaving us confused but in awe.

Dragon introduced us to his friend with the position of Horse, who had arrived late. He told us that he had the position of horse because of the most frequent use of his power, which wasn't healing, despite tradition. 'Some of the positions tend to have different abilities each time.' Dragon explained 'The position of Monkey for instance. Sometimes it is someone with shapeshifting, sometimes it is an illusionist that specializes in creation of things, such as animals, sometimes it's someone who can control animals. and Snake. We've had illusionist's, invisible people, and Telepaths, all of whom can go unnoticed. Our current Horse, a dear friend of mine, has Animal mimicry, meaning he can craft himself partial transformation around animals he has met. Once he has encountered a Tiger, he can grow it's claws or it's fur. Once he's encountered an elephant, he can grow a trunk or tusks, and increase his size or harden his skin. And, well, his favourite mimicry, which greatly improves his speed and power but impedes normal movement, is that of horses legs.....'

We had got downstairs by this time, and we were greeted by a centaur. Not one created in a battle of warpers, like in Paris, a real, definate centaur. Wearing a blue T-shirt with a picture of penguins on it. Pale pink skin faded seamlessly into deep chestnut brown horse, the same colour as his hair. He grinned and waved at us, and introduced himself as Centaur. 'Seemed like a good choice of Codename.' he said cheerfully.

The lady introduced herself as Blast, explaining she could generate beams, or lasers of energy from any part of her body, and the young boy explained that he was called Cecil, he was 103 and his regeneration had been almost at the speed of his aging from age 6 due to an exciting couple of years, meaning in the last century he'd only aged a couple of years, making him seem like a small eight year old.

'And now for two people I'm sure most of you already know' said Dragon with a flourish, and the door to the base swept open, revealing Tildy and Freezeframe.

After introductions again, Dragon explained their being here. 'Freezeframe is going to be our Rat, with her ability of animation, the first one to have the traditional power for 76 years. We've had a man with control over stone, and a lady with possession, who could take over statues as well, but we haven't had someone with the original power of animation and deanimation of all things since Puppeteer, three Rats ago. Now miss Tildy. Her mastery of the Psychic forces is what calls her into Zodiac's history today. Her single ability of being a psychic, as I'm sure Tempest has told you, gives her Precognition, Clairsentience, Clairvoyance, limited Telepathy (She can hear thoughts and sense emotions, but not do anything like Playwrite, she just has the sense part, not the controlling input.), and, most importantly, Mediumship. That which allows her access to the spirit realm. It is for that purpose she become our new Sheep.'

'And you give off Telekinetic bursts when you get angry' I said, grinning at her. We discovered ages ago she can't really do proper telekinesis, like Cleo, she can't pick things up or do fine work with it, like picking things up and floating them over to somewhere else, but she gives off sort of poltergeist like bursts of Telekinetic energy when her emotions are high, making things break, or send things flying across the room, stuff like that. She grinned back at me and told me that Lily had made it home ok, although her ability was weakened from having to rebuild herself.

'And now we come to you' said Dragon, turning to Healthbar, and, for some reason, Don.....

Escape to the void.

'Sage, is that you, or Howard? Do you still have reality warping, or are you good again?'
'I have returned, and once I'm through with you-'
'Well, that's enough of an answer for me' snapped Cleo, and she telekinetically snapped his neck, while a brought a large chunk of ceiling down on him.
'Dragon told me that me and Omni have a big part to play in Zodiac.' Precog sniffed, trying not to cry 'And, we have to save her, because, well, I...'
'I agree, we have to try' I said, as another rumble shook the cavern. Cleo nodded, and seemed lost for words looking round at all the people we had lost, as well as many others in the distance. There was a woman with short white hair, Arthur Petrelli that I'd met at Pinehearst, what looked like Nathan Petrelli, A wise looking Japanese man, and so many more, too far off to see. Cleo waved a hand and, using telekinesis, moved Omni, still in her blue Aura, towards the door. She bobbed along, out the door, and Cleo turned to the others, looking upset as she saw all the TP and CHASE members that had died so recently. 'Take Omni and go.' she said, watching the pile of rubble to make sure there was no movement. 'I'm going to do what I can for the others. If the portal closes, I'll just have to use my superspeed plus augment time travel I suppose.' A large boom sound was heard and there were screams and sounds of moving rocks from outside. 'GO!' she yelled practically throwing us out.

We saw Gravity, swearing loudly and constantly, holding half the ceiling up with his ability, and Doolittle struggling out from a large boulder which had crushed her leg. Tremor turned it to dust, and I made flat strechers of forcefield for Doolittle and Don. Evan led the way to where he said Moira had told him she'd open a portal, and Gravity helped carry Don and Doolittle because my forcefields weren't at full strength yet and starting to fail. More ceiling started to collapse, and Healthbar yelled 'I am NEVER making fun of Indiana Jones EVER again!' Just as Precog stopped dead, his eyes a blank white.

'Oh my god, Precog, NOT THE TIME!' I called, dashing back to grab his arm, and me and Playwrite just dragged him along. Tingle was talking to Evan about Moira, and narrowly missed a huge lump of rock that escaped Gravity's hold and fell behind him. Tremor started sending waves upwards and helping him by turning the rocks to dust, and as we rounded a sort of natural corner in the stone Evan cried 'NOW Moira!' and a blinding white light exploded infront of us, revealing a rip in time and space. Precog woke up, causing Playwrite to exclaim:'Now? Now you wake up! Perfect timing Pre.'
'We have to go back for Cleo.' was all he said. But Evan wouldn't hear of it. 'Cleo is a resourceful lady, I'm sure she'll be fine. I'll keep this open for her, and go and help if she calls me. Go quickly, the ceiling won't hold much longer. Save yourselves.'
Everyone piled in, but I stopped next to him. 'You're wise beyond your years, Evan. I think all the stuff that's happened since you met us has changed you, and for that I'm sorry. I wish we could have spared you from this.'
'Thanks. You talk like we're never going to see each other again.'
I looked round at the collapsing Cavern. 'If you stay here, I'm afraid we might not.'
We shook hands, and I asked him to come with us. he agreed, and went right up to the entrance with me. then he looked back at the collapsing rock, said quietly 'Cleo can survive this, but she needs the portal.' and then turned to me and pushed me, hard, into the white void, calling 'I'm sorry' as I sailed away from him into the void.

I caught up with the others, mostly by thinking about them, I think that's how that place works, and we floated gently through the nothingness. Looking around us, we saw glimpses of other moments in history, between the one we'd left and the one we were going to. I finished all the letters for the box, and as I put them all in, I saw a temple below me. It was partly see-through, and ripples kept going across it and distorting the picture, as with all the images of history, but I saw a small plateau of stone, withe the ruins of pillars round three sides and a temple behind them, and a man, leaning over a younger man, who crackled slightly with red energy, and seemed to be bleeding, with a hole in his chest, his face covered in blood. One of the Fates lay nearby, dead, with several severe wounds. I dropped the box, and it travelled through the ripples, and with each one it became less a part of this time and more a part of that one, until it left the void altogether and hit the man on the shoulder. I knew I'd guessed right when he looked up, and Dragon's face stared up at us, confused, unable to see where the box had come from. He put it in his pocket as we sailed away from the scene.

Eventually we tumbled out of the other end, all of VHS, Omni, still cocooned, Sam, Chelsea, and 'The Eye' and his friends. Dragon was waiting for us, and looked down at me, saying: 'You missed. It was supposed to land at my feet.' and then became very happy that we'd survived. Precog tugged on Dragon's robe from his place on the floor, and moaned 'Please, can you help Omni?' Dragon saw her and exclaimed 'Oh Lord! Whatever is wrong with her dear boy?' and knelt down to look at her. 'Pig, Dog, and Horse are waiting downstairs, Horse arrived shortly after you left.'

Healthbar had flung a window open and was soaking up sunlight, and turned it on us, shining healing power on us until everyone was standing again.

Sorry this took so long, I fell asleep not long of saying we'd got back so I haven't been able to do this until now.

Return at last

Well, we just got back. I'll take over from Dragon now in explaining what happened to us. I'm not sure if Cleo is back yet, we got separated before the Void, but we did bring someone back with us. I think it's been more days here than it was for us there, but that can't be helped. Double says he had clones of each of kept just in case, sort of powered down, as it were, but he sent them to our exams for us, and as they have exactly the same knowledge that we do, it's just like if we'd been ourselves which, in a sense, we did. Wow, clone talk gets confusing. Anyway, I'll explain more about the end of our trip after changing out of these ash coated clothes and everyone is fixed up and rested.

Talk to you soon.

The hall of lost souls

A small group of people descended from a large hole in the ceiling, and one started planning immediately.

'Right, Warcry, you work on the rock with Tremor, Stun, you watch for the Fates and give anyone that comes a quick jab, I'll go and see to Don. Move people, GO GO GO!'

'The Eye' ran off to check on Don, and the others went about their jobs. Warcry took a deep breath, aimed at Cleo's rocky bindings, and let loose a huge sonic scream, a high pitch echoing through the cavern causing us to clap our hands over our ears. The rock around Cleo shattered, and she fell to the floor. Tremor went to Healthbar, put a hand on the rock around her, and concentrated. There was a slight ripple, and it crumbled to dust. 'The Eye' called out 'Your abilities will work again now, we weren't dulled because of a useful little skill Cleo will give us when she finds it, in her future.'
'I will?'
'Yes, and it is vital you give it to me when you find it, or we won't be able to rescue you now, and you'll be stuck here forever!'
'Right, I'll make sure I look out for it.'
Cleo threw my staff to met and I gripped my rocky bindings until I felt my Earth ability surge and they unfolded to free me. I channeled it to my staff and threw it like a javelin into the wall, where huge cracks spread out and helped destroy the rest of the trappings. I reclaimed it and ran over to Don, closely followed by everyone else. 'The Eye' had lifted him into a sitting position, and as I got there a huge rumble shook the cavern. 'That wasn't us, said 'The Eye' looking up, concerned. 'I think the place is coming down. We need to move.'
Cleo, meanwhile, had gone off with Sam and they were opening the door Don had looked into.
'Oh my God! Omni...Tayla...Shifter..They're all here!'
'What?'
'Look!'
I went to the door and saw a huge room, full of people floating, in sort of aura things, eyes closed, marked from their last minutes on earth. Omni was nearest, floating gently, bobing slowlt, in a blue aura, with a hole going right through her where Damian had struck.
'Her Aura is usually a totally different colour' frowned Cleo 'This was made by someone else.
Further into the room, it was divided into sections, and there were some signs saying things like 'Need editing' or 'NEVER to re-enter the world'

'This is sick' I said, staring round at the huge hall. I saw, close by, a creature, a disgusting, ugly little hunched thing, curled up a short way ahead. 'Is that...'
'What hit Don? Yeah, tried to do the same to us.' said Cleo, but we were shoved aside by Precog, who had rushed in and gasped at the sight of Omni. He ran over to her and started pounding on the blue aura, slamming his fists against it.

'I always thought she looked two grown up' sighed Cleo, as we tried to drag him off, while he screamed about visions and kept yelling 'to hell with Destiny!'she looked over at the still Omni. 'I kept thinking she must be younger than she pretended. I saw it a bit when she had healing instead. I think, even though she tried to hide it, she was the youngest of the TP founders. 19 or 20 I'd say. I think Precog got closer to her than any of the four of us ever did.'

The volcano gave another huge shake, and a large piece of ceiling nearly crushed us. Tremor appeared in the doorway. 'I'm trying to cancel them out by causing one the other way, but it won't stop them forever. Can we go?'

'In a minute!' screeched Precog, and then we all turned to stare to our left. An aura there was changing. It surrounded Sage, and it glowed aqua, and then faded, causing him to float to the floor. He opened his eyes, focused on us, and grinned widely. 'Well well well, what do we have here?'

Escape?

I forgot to tell you something a couple of letters ago, before we were warped back here my Terrakinesis/Plant control had begun to come back, as had my forcefields.

So Healthbar explained that she had quite alot of solar energy left, but not for any big things.
'That's ok, we only need a few minutes.' said Cleo, and explained that if we could reverse time to when the void opened again, at least a few of us should be able to escape. Don and Stan, as the non-powered, and therefore free people, seemed the obvious choice, but Don refused to leave.

'Fine, I suppose it could be useful having one of you free around here.' said Cleo, slightly annoyed, but we agreed just Stan should go back. The next question was, how could Healthbar use her ability properly? With effort, Cleo managed to raise my staff (Which had fallen on the floor) a few inches into the air, I could phase a couple of inches in any direction, Diffy made a basic swirling cloud of colour, but no definite object, things like that. 'I won't be able to do much like this.' said Healthbar sadly. 'And the longer we try, the further away the portal gets.'

'Hang on' said Cleo, and screwed her eyes up concentrating. A lone red spark flew from her finger, and sank deep into Healthbar's arm. Cleo opened her eyes and slumped, panting, looking worn out, as Healthbar, temporarily at full strength, rewound time as fast as she could. 'The void started to open again, no more than about the size of a plate, but it grew until it was about the size of a large porthole. Time froze, and Healthbar's nose started to bleed. 'Stan, I can't hold the sun still much longer, will you please just RUN!'
Stan ran towards it, and with a telekinetic shove from Cleo, he flew through the gap, into whiteness. Healthbar gasped loudly, as if in pain, and time shot back to the present, with everything as it had been, but for the absence of Stan. 'He'll get help, trust me.' said Sam, who looked relieved that Healthbar and Cleo were ok.

After that we were stuck again. Don noticed a sort of opening in the ceiling, a natural vent in the rock I suppose, but it was impossible to get to. 'I wish we'd brought those shoes now.' said Pete, smiling sadly at me.
'What shoes?' asked Gravity.
'An experiment of mine and Tempest's back when we first set out collecting powers. I'm sure Cleo told you about him and me doing that? Well, we tried putting some powers in objects, like gadgets or something, like when we put John's powers in a box recently, only he regenerated them. OH MY GOD THE BOX!!!'
He frantically stared feeling down towards his pocket, trying to get inbetween the loops of rock. 'Tingle...yougave it..back to me...afterwards...oh come ON, you stupid thing!....it's still...in my pocket....nearly, nearly....a blast from that should....nyuh....break these loops....damn.'
He straightened up. 'I can't reach it. Anyway, one of our experiments was putting a wall crawling ability into a pair of trainers, but you couldn't really wear them anywhere else, because they were ONLY good on walls, they kept sticking to the floor to. That's what that big chest is in the base. I vault of experiments that failed, or just weren't as good as something else we came up with.'

Don was going over to Pete to try and get the box from his pocket, when three things happened, at the same time. There was an explosion above us, and a part of the wall fell in, narrowly avoiding us. A voice cried out: 'Be sad no more! I am 'The Eye' and me and my crew shall free you all!' and Don, caught in the blast, was thrown across the cavern, landing hard in a dark corner. He got up, and in the silence that followed the explosion, he called out, 'Ow! My left ankle's hurt. People, if any running happens, I'm going to need to be carried!' Then he looked round him and called out again 'Hey! There's some sort of door here! I didn't notice before because it looks like the rock. It says 'For further observation: Re-enter the world?''

We saw him open the door, and start to describe the interior, but a bright glow of yellow struck him in the chest, he gave a yell of surprise and pain, and collapsed, as more explosions began around us. People descended from the ceiling, and got to work on our rocky bindings. 'The Eye' had arrived.

More on who they are next letter.

Trapped?

The fates were floating down to surround us, cackling with glee. I then realised that Evn had been holding my Staff from Strawberry Fair, and he threw it into my hands. 'Dragon said you might need this.' he said, and turned to glare at the Hags as they landed. One laughed even louder, and called out 'As if that's going to work, little boy, we gave you all your abilities in the first place, did you reallly think telepathy would work on us?'
One of the two I hadn't met yet glared at me. 'So, you're the one that the old fool is supposed to have given my power too? Hmm....Strange, I CAN actually sense it in you, though far below it's true potential. I'd be surprised if you can even kill someone with it.'
'I don't want to.'
'No matter, you won't be able to soon.'
She waved her hand, and frowned. She gestured at me violently, and growled, but seemed slightly happier, but looked round at all of us as if confused.
'Sisters, he has done something. We cannot delete their abilities. I have dampened the boys version of mine own power, but it proves impossible to remove. He has done it to the others. We can stop them using their abilities, but not get rid of them. We could kill them of course, but that does not suit the plan....apart from the two girls of course' (She pointed at Sam and Chelsea) 'and perhaps the small one, I grow tired of his ways' (Diffy) 'but no. I think, as these three were SO determined to join us, they can participate. make them a little...incentive for the others.'
'Yes, we shall take them all!' screeched the third delightedly.

We were suddenly in a dungeon, with no idea how we'd moved. Everyone except Don (Who had grabbed onto Healthbar's hand as soon as 'Taking us' had been mentioned) was stuck, with large loops of stone sliding smotthly out of the walls, dragging us into them, making us part of the walls, but with a certain degree of freedom (We could turn our heads, move our arms, but not actually move from our spot in the wall) The Fates smiled round at us, and the warper one said 'Eleven new experiments! We'll send our littel protege after the rest of your band, and then the fun will really begin.'

And then they just vanished. We were in a large cavern, fairly hot, and glowing a sort of dark red, lighting up the rock in most areas, and leaving deep areas of shadows in between jagged areas of rock. Sam questioned Don's freedom and the 'Eleven' and we explained it to them, and Don made some failed attempts to get us out. By concentrating on my phasing as hard as I could, I was able to shuffle a couple of inches in any direction, but that was all. What seemed like about half an hour later, there was a burst of light and Cleo, Gravity, Stan, Brad and Powerpoint fell out of a hole like the void, I saw the shape of a thin man vanish from the otherside of the portal, and it slowly closed up again. The wall instantly reached out and swalloed them as it had us. Don was exploring the cavern looking for something to help, when Tingle spoke.

'The way I see it, and the way my power explained it to me before it was blocked, is that they don't actually know what we are up to unless they're focusing on us because of what Dragon did, whatever that is. They don't notice Don at all, because he has no special ability (At least not like ours, but your Karate is of the most excellent quality my friend.) and they don't really notice non evolved humans anymore. Whatever Dragon did prevents them knowing what we did while they weren't watching us, that's why they leave us like this, to make sure we CAN'T do anything in their absense. They can block our powers, but not destroy them, and with effort I have managed to make a slight shimmering in my vision around Diffy and Cleo, meaning that I believe that their block is only full strength when they are thinking about us.'

'Huh' said Cleo, thinking. 'In that case, we may be able to escape, or at least get out a call for help. Healthbar, you got any solar energy stored up?'

The back up arrives

With no time to come up with a plan, I phased us all down through the flat platform, and found a fairly low, dark, hollow chamber underneath, where the first ten or twelve stepped platforms had rectangular holes in, making a low chamber underneath.
'I can't see!' moaned Diffy loudly.
'Allow me.' said Healthbar, and she began to glow, lighting the chamber and casting a warn light on all of us.
'Thanks. This is a convenient hiding place until we work out what to do.' I said, heading to where the letter was on the outside and feeling through the step for it. 'Playwrite, any chance of making them think we're nice people that they should help?'
He tilted his head and looked slightly upward in the direction of the now hidden crowd. 'No good, they're thinking in greek. They would I suppose.'
Doolittle looked up at him from having sat down. 'Try doing it through my mind, I might be able to translate.'
She got up and went over to him and they stared trying.
'I have a question' said Playwrite, who'd been looking round at us in confusion.
'Yeah?' I answered, still up to my shoulder in stone trying to find the envelope.
'That Fate she wanted to send all '8' of us back here for observation, right? Then how come there are nine of us?'
I span round, the envelope in my hand, and checked. He was right. Everyone one else was checking too.
'Hello!' said Don cheerily, waving with a grin.
'Ah, this is about what Dragon said, isn't it?' said Tingle wisely, looking at Don 'About the Fates not noticing normal human's anymore?'
'Yeah, I realized it was true when she said the eight of you were being warped here, I knew she hadn't noticed me, but if damned if I'm staying there without you lot.'
'And that's why you suddenly grabbed my arm!' I exclaimed, it suddenly made sense. 'You needed to be touching one of us in order to come too. We should count ourselves lucky whatever Dragon wrote in this envelope came through! Oh thank god one of us was paying attention!'
Don smiled and then looked round at us all. 'So, what now?'
'Well, we can't get the crowd to go away, there's some sort of anti-telepathy on them, and Doolittle's got too much of a headache for me to work on getting round it.' said Playwrite, helping an apologetic Doolittle sit down. 'Sorry guys, something in the block gave me a huge headache.'
'The block was the fates.' said Precog, having just done three pictures. 'They're busy playing games with Damian and Jorge at the moment, and I think setting things up for us, so they haven't even heard about Don sneaking along either, they excited and protected the villagers to keep us busy.'
'Well, I'm going to read this letter. It must be important.' I waved it at them, but Diffy cut in:
'Teeeeeeempest, can I watch one of my docymentries what's stored on your phone?'
'Yeah, if there's enough battery left. But stop if Hana wants anything.' I threw my phone and he caught it and scrolled through some videos I's stored previously. 'Where you say we is again? Affens?'
'Yeah.'
'Okey Cokey.'
I settled down with the letter:

'Tempest, I wrote this awhile ago because I knew there wouldn't be time to explain everything. 'I am sure you remember me telling all of you about the first Dragon using two abilities, one to allow him to see time spread out before him, and one to manipulate the lines of fate, in order to entwine members of Zodiac throughout eternity? Those are two of the four Dragon powers I gave you, two that are more to be guarded than used. The fate ability is much weaker than when it was in it's original vessel, the Fate I spoke of beating, but it is powerful none the less. When I gained it, I realized it must be the power the first Dragon used, so I found a way of going back to the time of the first Dragon, and got the power transferred to him. I see that may have been confusing. I did not lose it, because it was then passed down to me the long way, you see?'

It said a couple of other things too but that's all that's important now.

After that we settled down for the night. We woke next morning to hear shouting in the square outside, and discovered they were scared of us and planning an attack on the steps hiding us. We were stuck for what to do, but Diffy seemed excited and whispered to Doolittle, who giggled and nodded.

I phased us out of the little cavern and saw a huge crowd of scared, angry greeks. 'Right, Healthbar, can you do your glowing trick again? they might think you're a messegner from the heavens. Me and Playwrite can both try and convince them we mean no harm, and try and get round the block, and Precog-'

There were gasps from the crowd and I turned to see wisps of light swirling round Doolittle, who smiled warmly, grew much taller, gained a helmet, a spear, a sheild, became dressed in Greek robes, and became much more menacing, but in a beautiful, peaceful way. I saw Diffy doing Tai-Chi like motions with his arms as he controlled the transformation, making gentle movements to make the chance a smooth, graceful art.

Playwrite linked us to Doolittle's mind so that we understood her as she called loudly in Greek:
'Mortals! People of my great City, I am Athena, your goddess, and I came to you in disguise as a test of your hospitality. I am appalled at my people. I bring my friends from far away lands to show them the wonders of my city, and they are forced to hide, in fear of their lives! Athena is angered by you all!'
Instantly the entire crowd fell to it's knees and bowed, frantically, making apologetic gestures and begging the 'Mighty Athena' for forgiveness.
'Or that.' I said, staring in awe at Doolittle 'That's a good idea too.'
Her face appeared out of Athena's back, delighted and trying not to laugh. 'Buying Diffy those films was the best move we ever made!' She disappeared inside again and with a wave of Athena's hand the crowd parted to let us through.

We found the box Dragon had showed us on a market stall, and the Stallholder was only too happy to give it to us. I started by putting the folded up letters I'd written the previous night under the steps in it, and put it in my pocket.

We had just made it as far as the main building (Sort of Town Hall I guess) when part of it's wall lit up, seeming to fade away, leaving nothing but empty whiteness. Three small shapes could be seen in the middle fo it, getting bigger all the time. We heard a drawn out scream, and three people shot out of the void, slowing down to a standstill in the air, then landing with a bump.
'Fat lot of good Technopathy is round here!' complained Sam, getting to her feet.
'Tingle, next time you see Moira, please tell her that her method of travel sucks! It was all I could do to stop us crashing.' said Chelsea, as she too clambered up.
Evan said 'Geoff is watching our branch of the restaurant, and Shifter was, sadly, killed by Damian. Only us three could come. Want a lift home?'
We were delighted, and were heading over to the slowly closing void asking what had happened, Evan explained he'd asked Dragon to summon them, and when they saw VHS was no good for voids, they got him to take them to The hotel in DC, which still had a bit of a void because it was so huge in the first place, when there was a cackling laugh, the void closed, and The Fates descended upon us.

Uploading.

This is Dragon. I am writing, word for word, what Tempest has asked me too write, as he is still in greece. This is coming from me, as I feel I should explain. The most recent post, mentioning the punching of Plato (I wouldn't have thought of Tempest doing something like that, but he really does seem to hate this him) took place, for them, last night, immediately after the previous one, but I do not have technopathy and have never really found the time to acquaint myself with a computer, so I have been a bit slow updating these. I had to rest after the last one, the Fates suspected I would still be here and tried to kill me, but I believe I have now secured the base against them. My apologies for the slowness of these updates, but Pig, Dog and myself are on our own, and I am still getting used to all of this.

A little conversation and a punch in the face.

Time seemed to have stopped. Nobody was moving, and then the Fate materialized in front of us. 'I think we should do some little tests before destroying you. And as for that drivel about my sister being destroyed, well, we can see our own futures, and we are never beaten.'

'Wait, before you leave us to, I don't know, observe us or something, can you tell us a bit more about all this?' Precog said, facing her confidently. 'I mean, it's not like we can do anything about it, and I know that you must decide to kill me off, because I've seen my death, so you might as well tell me about it all now.'

He ignored our looks of horror and stared hard at her face, and she gave a little chuckle. 'Ah, I was always proud of you, we did a good job there. One of the simpler powers, but such confidence, and put to such good use....very well. As I know Damian told you, I am one of three sisters, and we control the entire universe, as we were the first three to be granted abilities. And such powers. I warp reality, with more ease than any other you have seen. One of my sisters, the one Dragon claims to have defeated, can manipulate fate, and guide people's lives, make certain people meet, make events more or less likely to happen, and if need be, cut a path short, ending that life. My other sister has incredibly strong Thought Form Projection, meaning she can create anything through thought, including abilities. She can summon lightning, or a jet of flame, not just objects, you get the idea.'
'Damian said you were all warpers'
'He didn't stick around long enough to find out, did he?'
'You mentioned a brother?'
'Yes. Once, a millennium or two ago, we were tired of being the only ones like us in the universe. We wanted someone like us that we could teach our ways to, that would look up to us, and learn from us, so we created a brother. He was just as we wanted him to be for a while, but he rebelled against us and fled, out into the world we had created, and made the purpose of his life to destroy everything we had made. We have not spoken to him since, though we see what he's been up to whenever he gains too much power to hide from us.'
'He's not called Howard is he? Or Morto?'
'We never gave him a name, it wasn't important, we just referred to our brother as HIM.'
'Oh.OH. You mean-?!'
'Yes, he is who you and Tempest worked with his cousin's and Dragon to defeat a few years ago. For that, we have decided to test the eight of you before coming to a decision on your lives.'

She vanished after that, and time started up. People turned to stare at us, and Doolittle walked over and conversed with a stall holder for a few seconds. He seemed puzzled by her, but seemed to talk politely. 'We're in Athens, in about 380 BC' she said cheerily when she got back.
'Huh, really, that's about the right time and place for- Doolittle, you know how I'm doing Philosophy at college?'
'How could any of us forget, you won't stop being rude about all the dead people that think we're stupid, especially that Plato one.'
'Speaking of which, he should be around here somewhere, could you ask if he's about?'
She frowned, and shrugged. She asked the stall holder, who pointed at a group of men reclining on marble benches in a sort of temple area, a posh roof held by pillars, with a flat, open space underneath. Everyone followed me up to the group and Doolittle found at which one was Plato.

'This' I said, in english, pulling back a fist. 'Is for me having to read about you insulting the human race for a whole year.' and I punched him squarely in the chest, causing him to let out a loud cry and fall of his bench. He lay on the floor, looking up at me and wheezing.

'I've wanted to do that for almost two years now' I said, grinning widely. 'Bring on the challenge of the fates!'

I then noticed the envelope. It had my name on it, and clearly din't belong in ancient greece. It was halfway down the stairs to the area we were in. I remembered Dragon throwing something into the ripple with us. I also noticed a group of advancing Greeks. Things were about to get even more awkward.

The Fates intervene.

I am writing this to you via Dragon, apparently, and I only recently realised what he meant when he said he might need to do some updating for me, but this way you're being told about it as it happens to us, kind of. You're hearing it in the same timeframe we experienced it, if that makes sense.

So last night, me and Playwrite and Don had managed to calm everyone down, there were a few minor injuries due to emotional bursts of abilities, but once Healthbar calmed down she fixed us all up.

Tingle had, after almost being attacked by Precog, tried to get in touch with Moira, but with no success, so Precog was frantically trancing for answers, muttering 'One of her friends...that's how they travel so much...he can bring them all back.....' he was going crazy. At one point, he went into a trance involuntarily, and actually fought his way out of it, saying furiously 'No, I don't have time for other visions, I have to help Omni and the others!' We protested that it could have been important, but he just said 'It started with a view of a bunch of greek columns, but in good condition, it was probably about Damian, and funnily enough, if danger is heading his way, or was, clearly he's back now, I don't feel like warning him. Maybe I'll change history by not telling him by having him injured back then, and he won't be able to kill Omni.' and he went back to it.

Dragon turned up, with a young boy and a woman, but seemed very concerned. As soon as he saw us, he reached inside his long robe and pulled out a small marble box, flat and rectangular, with greek carvings round the side. 'Good, you are still here my friends' he said quickly, as if there wasn't much time, and then gestured at his friends. 'These are Pig and Dog, the other survivng members of Zodiac, but there's time for that later, just now, I must warn you of the Fates.'
'Damian's mentioned them, they sent him back to ancient greece' Doolittle said, just as Diffy laughed, giggling 'Pig is a funny name!' then he gave a small cry of shock as he leapt out of the way of a thin beam of whitish blue energy that shot from the eyes of the woman, followed by a finger laser burning a smiley face in the floor where he'd just been. 'Still think it's funny short stuff? I take my job seriously.' said the woman, a grin on her face. 'These people are our friends' scolded Dragon 'Please treat them with respect.'

He waved the box in my face. 'Remember this box Tempest, and when you need to contact me, use it. I am not able to warn you exactly what is soon to happen, and I will not be able to join you, but you make contact through this, understood? It makes it's way to me and the fates don't find it, they can't find me, I don't exist to them, you must use this to your advantage!'

'What?! More information please?'

'There's no time! Please, everyone, listen, I can only stop them knowing what we're doing while they aren't here. The Fates are targeting you Tempest, and Damian and Cleo. Healthbar, with your new mastery of your larger ability, it probably won't be long before they go after you. I wouldn't be surprised if they came for all of you at once. They don't like people working together, it makes them too strong. Twos and Threes yes, and of course evolved humans have been meeting each other for centuries, it's destiny, but always in a large team? They will want to stop you. They really only concentrate on people with abilities these days, normal humans have started to bore them, but-'

There was a large bang, and a flash of light, and a wizened old hag was staning in the room. 'Never could resist an entrance' she wheezed, and glared at Dragon 'I was sent to see what the black spot in our sight was that obscured these children from our view, but now it all makes sense. I should have known it was you, you meddling fool, we thought you'd died!'
'I...am guessing.....your sister....hasn't....met me at the temple in Japan yet.....my past...her future....your sister, the fate manipulator...I defeat her, and take her power, it's in Tempest...right now....'
'Hold on, What!!!' I was shocked.
'The ability to manipulate fate....is one of the four Dragon powers I gave you....one of the ones you must guard, and only....use when there is no other solution...' he seemed to be in an invisible struggle with the Fate, as if his energy was being drained. The Fate grinned at us and simply said 'I suppose I should just destroy you all now, but, you're such interesting subjects, and after all, the thing with my brother.....'
Tingle interrupted 'Brother? Damian warned us about you, but never mentioned a brother'
'He didn't know, did he? Our brother is a disgrace, we haven't heard from him for many, many years. But I think you eight are worth further testing...maybe a bit closer to home...'

Don grabbed my arm, and there was a wave of invisible force that rippled through us, a slight prickling sensation, and the base, and Dragon and his friends disappeared, but Dragon threw something at us, which got caught in the ripple and left with us. We suddenly stared around to be surrounded by a similar sight to Damian's: Greek columns, huge white buildings sitting on platforms that went up in steps, and people wearing large bits of cloth wandering around.

'Ah' said Precog, looking guilty. 'This MAY be what my ability was trying to warn me about earlier'

We glared at him.

I assume you'll be updated again soon.

Stressed reactions

Cleo, and anyone else who might be reading this, read the comment on your (Cleo's) 'Damian's rampage' post for a better idea of how this started.

It's chaos here. I'm having to right this through thought (Thank god my technopathy's back at full strength!) as I hold Diffy back from running downstairs and out the door, because he's screaming 'Stinkies! How dare you hurt all my friendy peoples! OOOh, Damian, how could you, me liked you, but now Diffy very, very mad at you all! You all get spookyed to DOOM! Lemme go, tempest, me's got to go teach meany stinkys a lesson!'

Playwrite's helping me hold him back from the stairs, all telepathic attempts to calm him Diffy down on his part is failing thanks to Diffy's annoyingly strong mind, Doolittle is in tears and surrounded by every creature within a mile radius (We think she sends out some sort of animal signal subconsciously, they just come to her when she needs them), Healthbar has come back in having failed to find Dragon and is glowing Black, if that makes sense, her anger and misery spreading from her in wisps of black fog, and she's just standing there, alternating between calling Dragon to demand he get back here, with things like 'The sun is so bright in the desert, I can bring them all back easily! I've brought people back to life before, never a mass job but with with sunlight of that intensity-', once she called Cleo to ask exactly what had happened, who'd been killed, and what had happened to Cleo's resurrection power that meant she couldn't bring them back, and the rest of the time she left messages on Damian's phone yelling that she had trusted him, telling him off with increasingly imaginative swearwords, accusing him of treachery, and telling him she wish he and John had never become part of our lives. I knew she didn't really mean that, at the beginning they'd got on really well, but she was angry. Precog was gripping Tingle tightly by the arm, saying 'Tell me how we can get in touch with Moira! WHERE IS SHE!!' Tingle was confused and in a state of shock about it himself, but asked 'What can she do? Why do you need her?'
'THE PICTURES!! Never doubt my pictures!! Are you saying you wish to mess with fate? Bring our only hope of a happy ending crashing down around our ears! Why? WHY!'

Don's just trying not to be killed. I'll keep you updated.

Posting

I may not post for awhile, or at least only have really short ones, because I have an exam next week, as do some of the others. Diffy and Dragon are the only ones that are definately free, so they may have to explain anything big to you on my behalf.

A not so sneaky attack

Well, John turned up AGAIN yesterday. Me and Doolittle were coming back into the base from having done a food shop, and as we entered there was a slight creak behind us. We looked round but there was nobody there. I glanced over at my machines, and the newest one told me all I needed to know. I gave a slight nod towards the stairs, and me and Doolittle went up as if nothing was wrong. On the stairs we passed Diffy, who waved and faded out of sight as he went down, proving my suspicions that the alarm upstairs must have gone off. We went into the main room upstairs and found everyone waiting for us. I channeled my phasing to everyone so we didn't have to be touching, and we all got in position, exactly above parts of the main room downstairs.

(I should explain at this point about my returning powers. Technopathy is fully restored, Phasing and Persuasion are nearly back but not full strength yet, the earth part of my Earth/Plant Manipulation has come back quite a lot, the air and water elements of my Weather were quite strong, and I can make Forcefields with effort, but I can't move them or use them to fly yet.)

Trusting Diffy to have started the plan and hide our descent, I phased us through the floor, using concentrated areas of wind to ease our landings. Precog ended up behind the counter, Playwrite and Tingle were either side of the door, Healthbar was off to their side crouched in the empty display window so the early evening light fell on her face, causing her to glow slightly. Doolittle was under the table, Don was in front of the stairs, Pete was at the corner of the counter crouching down, and I was standing on the table Doolittle was under.

From there I could see John stumbling around and get a great view of what Diffy had done. We were in a jungle. A thick, dark, swampy rainforest had burst into life in the base, with tall trees, vines, bogs, a dense canopy overhead, and the noise and vague movements of rain and animals in the distance. It was immensely detailed, and seemed to stretch way beyond the walls of the base. Thankful that Diffy had watched so many nature shows and Documentaries, I noticed that the part we were in fitted roughly round the base, and that the trees and landscape made definate paths, creating a huge labyrinth. The counter was a group of fallen trunks and tree stumps. The display window was where there was a gap in the trees allowing light in, The stairs were hidden in a tall hill, with Don concealed in foliage at it's base. Me and Doolittle were in a small cave, that we could see out of but no light came in, making it impossible to see into from outside. I saw John wandering the paths, and he kept trying to use his powers but Diffy made it look like nothing happened and Playwrite helped convince him that they didn't work. Playwrite couldn't control John, he was too strong, but he dimmed his mind, making it harder to think clearly or remember. He looked worried and kept saying 'This isn't right! Where is the base! I bet that fool Dragon sent me here. I enter the shop and suddenly I'm here! When I get hold of him! But first I need to get out....'

(I forgot to say, Dragon wasn't there because he's off getting the remaining members of the old Zodiac.)

He wandered towards the gap in the trees, but Healthbar hit him with a blast of burning sunlight when he got close and he flung himself back into the trees. He muttered about sheltering in the cave until nightfall, but as he came towards us Doolittle sent out a deafening roar. It was intolerable, a bellowing, inhuman feral roar of anger and rage, like hundreds of lions in a fury condensed into one sickening howl, and I backed it up with a blast of wind and a yell of 'Be afraid!' pushing my persuasion as hard as I could, he couldn't make out the words amogst the roar, but they got through, and our combined efforts turned him pale and he fled to the hill, where Don, still hidden, pulled some impressive moves on his legs, making him fall backwards with a yell, holding onto the counter for support, just as Precog leapt up from behind it and smacked him on the head with the cricket bat. Not having thought to use his powers thanks to Diffy and Playwrite, he collapsed to the floor infront of Pete, who clapped one hand over John's face, and grabbed the box he'd put in his pocket with the other. There was an explosion of red energy, John yelled, Pete slid the box across the floor to Tingle, and the jungle faded as we closed in on John. John gasped, sat up, and snarled at us. 'What was all this? I made sure I kept out of sight, and I made hardly any noise. You were as good as dead!'

'Give us a little credit, Cleo warned us ages ago.' grinned Doolittle, as Precog held the cricket bat threateningly over John's neck. Playwrite was making full use of the fact that John no longer had Telepathy to fight his. 'This is the real one' he said, and Tingle verified it after grabbing John's arm. 'He didn't have the stregth for more clones so soon after creating the army that took on TP, and he is powerless now...except...Oh no.' John gave his evil, gloating grin. 'Go on, tell them.'
'He had two Rapid cellular regenerations. The second one was hidden by the first, meaning cleaning him out of powers would ignore this one. We can't kill him.'
Everyone was shocked. Pete reached out, saying 'Well, surely now you've found it, I can just-'

John blasted a hole in Pete's hand with a blue laser from his finger. 'You like? A new aquisition, bringing my total of powers to 8. Regeneration applies to powers aswell, didn't you realize? And now I know my powers were working the whole time...' His legs and head wound healed rapidly, as we felt a familiar stuffy cold come over us as our powers were nulled. 'I should have known it was you' John said to Diffy, (Diffy still looked like Diffy, his passive illusion can only be taken down by him, John can only stop him making new ones) and he lifted him into the air with TK. 'Healthbar' I asked, as Diffy struggled madly 'Can't you null him? Your lunar powers, you have that fog stuff that that can make mental blocks?' 'I can only use it to null my own powers like I did at the start' she replied sadly. 'I can use it to knock people out, but it's harder to knock out an EH, and the stronger they are the harder it is. He would have noticed If I started it earlier and known we were playing a trick, and I can't now because he's blocking mine.' Even Don couldn't help, because we were all frozen in place. Only Tingle had a solution. 'You may not be able to die, but this has got to sting.' he said calmly, and, aiming it at John's back, he opened the box.

A blast of light struck him between the shoulders, with all his radiation and lasers and power nulling being used against him. He was thrown across the room and embedded in a wall, and as his powers were nulled Diffy fell to the floor and we toppled over backwards, causing Tingle to drop the box, which snapped shut as it hit the floor. As we got up a disgusting, almost skeletal form, hardly more than bones and blackened, smoking tissue, limped and staggered past us, now beginnning to heal as his powers returned for the second time, and John began to run as his body restored itself. We thought Diffy had stopped him when a sad, ghostly Aron appeared at the Door, tears rolling down it's cheeks, his body halfway between metal and skin, looking at John and calling softly, 'Why John? I was your friend, Damian was your friends, these people were-' but with something between a sob and a cry of rage he ran straight through it, after yelling 'NOW!' was picked up by a speedster and left in a blur.

'So that was John?' said Don converssationally as Healthbar patched everyone up. Pete was annoyed with himself for not catching the second regen, but Playwrite convinced him that nobody could have, he only found it because John was thinking about it smugly.

That's it for now, I'll write again when Dragon gets back.

Strawberry Fair, continued

So we're wandering along, Dragon teaching us about channeling our abilities, passing a few stalls, Healthbar got a new T-Shirt, we ate some chips, I bought a coostaff to test the channeling, a tall carved one, made of wood, a bit shorter than me and with a pointed top, it's awesome, but anyway:
we heading along the path nearest the river, when there's a huge bang and a tent on our left, nearest the river, bursts into flames. Four shocked people come running out, two of whom promptly faint, while a girl dangling her feet in the river behind the tent laugh and sends a wave of river crashing onto the tent with a wave of her hand, extinguishing it. A man staggered out, soaked, and called out 'uncool sis, majorly unawesome.' She laughed again, stood up, and grabbed him by the hand 'I don't know how we're doing this stuff, but you've got to admit, it's very cool. Now lets...lets...go look at the pretty colours..'and with that she feel to the floor, snoring. He chuckled at her, sat down nest to her, sniffed a pipe he was holding, and fell down beside her.
'I see what you mean' said Stan as we passed them, but our smiles faded as we saw someone with bronze eyes heading towards us. 'Oh come on, can't we ever just hang out?' I muttered, and gripping my new staff tighter, shot a fireball from my hand. It hit him in the chest, and it seeped away, sort of into him, and he grinned and shot a jet of fire back at me. I dodged and Cleo shot a wave of icy mist at him, freezing his arm. Again he smiled, and as his arm recovered, the grass around him froze. 'I have been selected to kill you, because your abilities are simply turned against you by mine' he said, and started forward again, but Healthbar shot him in the head with a blast of solar energy, causing him to stagger backwards. 'What? Last time I saw you lot all you could do was heal!' yelled Don, but I had to shove him out of the way from a beam of burning energy blasted the ground where we'd been. 'Come on, it's useless, accept your fate' gloated the newcomer, and Don got up and ran as I turned to face our enemy. I swung my staff into his face as Stan got a bullet in his shoulder. He screamed, grabbed a nearby man, and his eyes shone brighter as his victim went pale and collapsed. (We saw later he was breathing, Healthbar fixed him up) Our opponent turned, fully healed, and bellowed at us 'I am leech, none of you can stop me!' and ran at us once more. We had to defend ourselves, and the fight was going nowhere, until Stan was knocked out, I was on the ground with an injured leg, and Cleo was frozen in place with her own ice, making it impossible for her to use her martial arts. That reason only occured to me when Don stopped Healthbar's throat being cut by kicking Leech in the back, sending him toppling over onto the ground. 'I warn you, I don't have fancy stuff to absorb like my friends, just years of training in Karate' he said, and began a series of quick blows and kicks, causing leech to gasp and wince as he was quickly beaten into submission. 'He's getting a boost from an ability, right?' asked Cleo as she and I melted the Ice holding her. 'Nope, he's just bloody good. He learnt it the hard way, without an ability, unlike Chan' I said, looking proudly at my friend flooring Leech again. Don stopped when Leech was curled up on the floor, wheezing, bleeding heavily and looking terrified. 'I don't like people messing with my friends, we were having a great time until you came along.'
'What do we do with him now?' Healthbar asked.
I saw the answer heading excitedly towards us covered in chocolate sauce. 'Diffy, this man has been really horrible. I think he'd like some of you're special treatment.'
'Ooooh, he really big meany, I see it in his squinty squinty eyes. I help him, don't worry.'
'Oh gods, not the egg shaped thing. I've heard the stories about him, even the boss is afraid of him. Something else, please!'
I bent down to whisper in his ear. 'We have had enough of you people coming after us and making our lives hell. We're just trying to have a nice day out together, alright? Think about this next time one of you wants to come after us.' I straightened up 'Have fun Diffy'

We wandered off 'They know you're friends with us now' I said to Don, and sighed. 'Nah, you don't say. Did he work it out when I punched him in the stomach?'
'Fine, fine. I just mean you might have to stay with us for a while, it would be safer'
'Meh, ok, beats them breaking my houses door down I suppose'

Things calmed down after that. We signed some petitons, saw Omni and Precog having a painting competition with three other people (Two of which, I'm told, had abilities), and Diffy eventually ame and told us that he'd let Leech go, with clear instructions that we don't want 'meanies' invadig our lives anymore. I doubt that will last. Cleo said she might try recruiting some people from here, not sure how far that idea ever went. We saw a lady making bubbles fly from her hands, a long haired man with elton john glasses creating illusions, and another Hippie with petal flowing round him as he danced a slow, melodic dance. So many other things, but I can't mention them all, it would take hours. We saw Ali at one point (She may have got a little drunk) and she was joining in dancing to the band on stage with some out-of-it youths. Doolittle tamed a horse that had been spooked and Playwrite fixed a minor incident involving three tents, the nearby bridge, the river, and several drugged up men who had clearly triggered their abilities without realising. Other than that, pretty fun, simple day. If I remember anything that was important, I'll put it up later.

A trip to the fair

So not much happened between this and my last post, some of us went to Cleo's restaurant, Precog did a bunch of drawings detailing TP's fight with Linda and the Johns, Dragon had gone off to talk to Cleo beforehand, and we learned he'd had history with her family. Oh, and my Technopathy recovered more and Persuasion and Phasing started to come back.

So this is about what happened on saturday:

Strawberry Fair is an annual event in Cambridge, and a fairly big deal, with everyone looking forward to it, so I invited my new friends along, because me and the rest of VHS were going to it, along with a friend of mine without powers, who for now at least we'll call Don. It's a nickname we use, and I don't want him being tracked down for knowing us or anything like that.

Oh, I forgot to mention the box that Precog gave me. Dragon was about to point out to me that when he became the Dragon he got his chinese robe, because it fitted the part and he wanted to look more like the head of a secret group, stuff like that, and maybe I should do something about me. (I've mostly tried to be inconspicuos, it helps blend in with crowds in an emergency. I was going to argue with him, but then I opened the box to see a cloak, in a really nice deep purple colour. 'Admit it, you've wanted a cloak ever since you got you're first ability' said Precog with a grin, and with Tingle in the room there was no point denying it. I've always been one of those people that liked the superhero or wizard capes, just don't try and get me near any of that lycra ski-suit nonsense. 'Happy now?' I said to Dragon as I put the cloak on.

So, Damian couldn't be found, by telepathy or technopathy or electronic communication (Hana), and even Dragon couldn't tell exactly where he was (He has clairvoyance like that Molly girl) 'He's alive...but his signal is faint, and I haven't actually managed to see him at all' said Dragon, who we're still calling that even though he passed the title to me, at least until we get the new Zodiac complete. Cleo and most of her TP lot came along, and even a few CHASE members, making us quite a big group as we set off.

'Aren't people going to ask about the cape?' asked Cleo, eyeing it as Gravity lifted us into the air. 'Nah, not at Strawberry Fair' I answered. 'Alongside the great food, nice stalls, and good music, there is a hidden layer of drinking and drug smoking that rears it's head as soon as you look for it. A lot of the people here are so drugged up that they wouldn't bat an eyelid if we landed on the stage and turned the lead singer into a fish.'

Dragon was propelling us through the air, and we landed at the north corner of the huge green that housed the Fair. A few people turned around, and a young man in sunglasses called to his friends 'Oh look, some faires!' and then hiccuped loudly and procedd to tell the guy next to him that he would always love him. 'You didn't tell me you were flying in!' called a voice, and I saw Don running towards me. looking excited and a bit annoyed 'You could have picked me up earlier and I could've flown too!'
'Pick you up? Sure' said Gravity, and Don floated into the air. 'Whoa, that's cool! I'm err, Don, and you are?'
We went round with introductions, and I explained that because Don went to a different Sixth form as the rest of us, he hadn't been there the day Precog had discovered his ability, or the time we all got attacked, and had missed out on the founding of VHS, but knew about us, and had seen all our abilities at work, just not got really involved.
'Ok, couple of quick guidelines everybody.' I said, addressing our group. 'Do not eat or drink anything with the words 'Coke' or 'Hippie' in their names, avoid any pipes or tents full of smoke, and stay away from people with waist length hair. Other than that, have fun and try not to kill anyone.'
'Are you sure nobody will care if we use our powers?' Charlie was a bit dubious.
'It's fine really, we won't be the only powered people here. A lot of the people here have abilities and just don't realize it. You wait until they get drunk and drugged up. I've found cases of abilities being brought out by drugs, as the day goes on you'll see lots of people using powers they won't remember having tomorrow morning. Everyone else is expecting to see that sort of thing, because of the hippies.'
'Oh, ok, cool'

We set off in little groups, Me, Don, Cleo, Dragon, Healthbar and Stan went off together, Gravity was with us for a few minutes but went and joined a meditation class to spook them. They were all sitting with their legs crossed, humming, and the Hippie leading it was floating slightly, telling everyone to just relax and let them selves leave the ground. He was impressed when Gravity did. 'Dude, our brother is enlightened' he said to the others, and Healthbar whispered as we passed him 'That, or your not the only one around here with special powers' he stared at her and crashed to the floor. We walked off, still laughing at the look on his face.

Dragon was trying to teach me about channeling my abilities. 'This is something you can all learn' he said, addressing Cleo and Healthbar too 'You can, with a little effort, channel your abilities through other objects. You probably already have without realizing. Miss Cleo, I believe you have used superspeed while holding onto some of your teammates?'
'Yeah.......'
'Did you not find that they could travel at the same speed as you? You channeled your superspeed to them, allowing them to keep up with you. Without it the pressure would have seriously injured them. Damian can teleport people with him, Tempest can phase people along with him, Tempest has had Precog's and Tingle's powers shared with him, your clothes are immune to anything you are, these are all examples of channeling. Even when you focus on your beam of fire or electricity to form it into a certain size or shape, that is indirect channeling, you are only letting it into certain parts of the air. I wish to teach you about channeling abilities throught objects.'

He grabbed a deck of cards from a stall, paid the seller, and turned to us. 'I believe this is familiar to you?' He selected one card, span it into the air, and it exploded, just like gambit's from X-Men. 'Induced Radioactivity in the card' he explained 'channeled by me. Stan, your gun, if you please.' Stan handed it over a little nervously, and Dragon handed it to Cleo. 'Now, I want you to concentrate on your Cryokinesis. Feel the gun becoming part of the power, but, no, don't let it freeze, let it control the power, as you do.' The gun started to freeze, thawed, and then seemed to be fine. Cleo aimed it at the sky and fired, the gun glowed ever so slightly, and instead of a bullet, a shard of ice flew from it and arced into the sky, before falling and striking the top of a tent a little way off, and seemed to spread, coating most of the tent-top in a layer of ice.
'You see? And with practice, you will be able to do it without touching it, allowing young Charlie here to use your ice power in his gun while you use other abilities yourself.'
'Is it like how Pete can transfer an ability into an inanimate object? He did make shoes with someone's wall crawling ability in them once, but they got destroyed.'
'Exactly Tempest, but in this way you keep your ability yourself, instead of the object itself having it.'

With this cool discovery we started wandering again, and passed many more things which I'll explain in another post, because I think this one is long enough already.