Episode 13: Kids are a Handful
After testing Liam, Raijo and Bella thought something was wrong, but they couldn't shake the feeling that there was no way someone who looked like he did, could ever be normal. Just maybe, there was some truth to these numbers. To what extent they were true, they didn't know. Fortunately, there was a way for them to get an idea.
Finally getting over the shock they were just hurled through, Raijo took a step back and had the kids stand side by side up against the wall. "That wall will be your starting point. What I want you both to do is run. More specifically, I want you to race each other. Whoever runs to me and slaps my hand first will be the winner. Listen Liam, don't use any of your power if it would help you here. Even though you are young, I want to see your natural strength. We don't even know what your ability is yet." Raijo stepped back to give them a distance roughly of fifty feet and spread his hands out wide to give them a target. "Are you both ready?" Liam and Paisley got in a runner's stance and nodded their heads. Raijo shouted, "Go!"
Paisley left a half second earlier than Liam did, but he did his best to hustle his slightly longer legs just that much faster to make a difference. A few seconds later and two distinct claps could be heard one after the other. Raijo sounded off, "The winner is Liam! Paisley, you did so good! I thought you had him there. She almost got you little man." Liam rubbed the back of his head and shrugged, acting like he let her get that close to beating him. "Alright, now I want to see something before we continue. When you used your ability before, flames were involved. Does that mean fire is your ability or is it something else?" Liam responded, "I don't use fire ever. That was my first time using my power like that. Like I said, I can do what I want."
Raijo and Bella were only becoming more and more confused. Bella asked, "Then could you show us what you mean by that? Maybe give us a demonstration of your powers?" Just as she finished her sentence, Liam vanished and literally less than a millisecond later, he was back. It seemed almost like a glitch in time, but only for Liam's figure being visible to them. However, he had something in his hands that he didn't have before. "Hey! That's my Territ 3 X gaming system! Wait, I left that in my room. How did you get it that fast?!" Paisley said in disbelief. The instructors were severely impressed, but this obviously wasn't the extent of his capabilities. "Let me put this thing back really quick." Liam glitched again and it was almost like a small blip in time. "You just traveled forty one floors and back in the blink of an eye twice. What's more insane is you had the time to grab something pretty specific to give us undeniable proof. Can you show us more? What else can you do Liam?" Bella was becoming more and more serious. It kind of scared Raijo because Bella started sounding like him. Everything she was saying was exactly what he was planning on saying himself, only she beat him to it.
Liam nodded and tried thinking about what he wanted to do, but couldn't come up with much. "Is there something you guys want to see? Just say anything crazy and I can do it." Paisley jumped at the opportunity, "Make me have my powers now like you!" Raijo and Bella laughed in their heads because Liam was the absolute sole outlier. There was no way he could do that. "I can try, but I don't know how I would even do it." Liam thought for a moment before asking, "Hey Raijo, can we go into a room to try this?" "Yeah sure kid. Let's go right there to room twenty nine. Your card will open it so just go ahead and we will be right behind you."
Paisley and Liam did as he said and went into the room. "What now?" Paisley asked. "How about sit down in the chair over there and let me see if I can do something." She did as she was told and then she felt his hands rest on her shoulders as he stood behind the chair. "I'm going to see if I can feel your power somehow, okay? Try to be quiet so I can focus." He closed his eyes and Paisley felt like something was entering her body through Liam's hands and there was a little bit of a glow. It wasn't a bad or painful sensation, but it was different enough to make her a little uncomfortable. "Oh wow!" Liam said out loud. "What? What is it? Are you okay?" She didn't know why he said that, which made her worry. "Yeah I'm great, but your ability, I can actually tell what it is. You've had your ability pretty much ever since you were born, but it looks like you just couldn't use it yet." She had no idea how he knew that, but now she was getting excited. "Tell me what it is please! Tell me! Tell me! Tell me!!" She was jumping up and down in her seat.
At that exact moment, Raijo and Bella walked in and saw Paisley's reaction. "What's going on here?" Raijo couldn't help but wonder if he had done it. His belief in a lot of things of the world was already starting to fall apart just being around this kid for the short time he had been. "Liam said that he knows what my ability is! He also said that I've had it since I was born, but I wasn't able to use it yet." Bella whispered to Raijo, "Do you think he's lying? That shouldn't be possible, right?" To their surprise, Liam interrupted with, "I'm not lying, Bella. Also, I can hear everything you're saying. Now hush so I can do this." Bella snapped her head back a bit. She looked surprised and a little bit offended that a kid of his age would speak to her like that. She grunted and sat down in a chair with some serious attitude.
Liam seemed to put more and more focus into his hands, but in reality, he was surging his power through Paisley's body at an incredible rate. The feeling for Paisley was changing. Slowly, it was going from slightly uncomfortable to increasingly pleasant. It felt like she didn't have to have a care in the world as long as she didn't want to. "Hey Paisley," Liam said with a smile, "do you want to know now?" Paisley squealed with happiness, "Yes please! Tell me! Oh my gosh!" He kept his hands on her shoulders and made sure to keep up his efforts. "Your ability is something called telekinetic force. My ability is allowing me to gain a lot of information about yours. Your ability was already a strong one, but I gave you some extra power to make sure you are even stronger. I don't ever want to lose you or see you get hurt, so if I can give you more after you learn it, I will." Just then, Liam began to bear down on her shoulders with the most amount of power running through her. A burst of energy left from Paisley and went outward in a sphere of broken glass that looked to be rainbow colored. The pressure alone knocked Bella out of her seat, where her face was slammed on the floor and held there by immense pressure. Raijo could be seen leaning forward at a forty five degree angle trying to fight the force, but was lifted and flung towards the wall. Just before he hit it, he was instantly by Liam's side. "Did… wow… did you just save me from hitting that wall?" Liam nodded once while still looking at Paisley as if it was business as usual.
Bella got herself together and stood up. "Hey, what was that? Kid, you have some serious power. Maybe the stennerometer wasn't messed up after all. You've got to be the most powerful person in the universe by miles. All you have to do is learn more about your power and control it at a high level and nobody would be able to handle anything you throw at them. My mind is breaking and I doubt I can take much more until I have to be sent off to the loony bin. But no seriously, what was that?" Liam replied with a smile that told her he appreciated the compliment. "Yesterday, I watched a video of the JK man giving me a shot and that explosion happened there too. I thought that if I pretended I was the shot and Paisley was me, then maybe it could work." For the instructors, it all made a little bit more sense. Knowing James was involved opened the doors for any and all possibilities. Raijo was still utterly lost for words and by Liam's side. Liam was curious, "Paisley, how are you feeling? Is anything different for you? I was a tiny baby when this happened to me, so for you, it might be pretty crazy." Everyone changed their focus from Liam to Paisley and could see she was taking in deep slow breaths. "The air, it smells different. My body," she stood up and shook each limb, one at a time, "it's so much easier to move. I feel like I want to run or do something. I want to see what I can do! Hey Liam!" Paisley had a huge grin on her face. "Want to play tag?"
Raijo snapped out of it realizing the danger, "Wait! You can't do that yet. I know this is new and exciting but you need to test it out or you run the risk of getting hurt or hurting others. I have a pretty good idea of how you can learn more about your ability in a safer way. Follow me to floor one." The whole group walked out of the room, across floor five and into the elevator. The whole way there, Paisley was so happy that she started tearing up. "I love you little bro. I will always have your back. While I'm around, you won't be alone, I promise." She gave him a huge hug. Liam felt the same and let her know through the shared embrace.
Ding
"We are here." Raijo said. Some sniffling was heard behind them and the three turned to look at Bella, because it definitely wasn't coming from Paisley. "That was just so beautiful, like, I just can't. I just freaking can't! Ugh! Both of you kids have such beautiful souls!" Raijo felt a bit relieved that Bella was almost acting like her annoying self after everything.
They walked down a hall and into a room with booths and what looked to be some type of gun range. "Paisley, before we start getting into your ability, I want to test out your power level now, if you're okay with that." She nodded nonchalantly. "Great! Just let me do what I did for Liam earlier." He grabbed her hand and pushed her finger down quickly and the blood dripped out. "Her blood is still candy red! I guess you're the only non-human here Liam!" Bella started laughing thinking that everyone would find that funny, but she was the only one. "Wow, tough crowd." She turned away from the group in embarrassment.
"Anyways," Raijo rolled his eyes and looked at the stennerometer, "what the hell?!" He looked up slowly from the meter and transferred his gaze to Liam. "How?" Raijo said in a low tone of confusion. Liam responded, "I gave her what my power felt like was safe for her body. Why? What's wrong?" Without answering, he just shook his head from side to side and closed his eyes as if he couldn't believe it. Raijo flipped the stennerometer around and put it on full display for all three to see. Bella rejoined the group quickly after Raijo's reaction. They all read that Paisley's power level was at forty eight thousand nine hundred sixty four.
Liam didn't feel like he gave her that much power and, for the instructors, it was hard to believe that both of these kids were technically the strongest two beings alive. At this point, they truly believed that Liam could do absolutely anything that he wanted. Next thing they knew and without warning, Paisley pointed her hand in the direction of one of the targets down range around one hundred twenty yards and felt the power rise within her. Before the instructors could stop her, she produced some visible pressure that left her finger around the size of a bullet. The thing was, the exact moment it left her finger, it already was blowing the target apart. The wood that held up the target, busted into splinters. They flew off in all directions and embedded themselves into the metal walls, the flooring and the ceiling. The scene was pure chaos and the noise produced was kind of scary to the instructors witnessing this power for the first time.
Paisley was so happy that she jumped up and down a few times. "Did you see what I did guys? Did you see that?! I even held back a lot! That definitely was different. I can't wait to show my mom and dad!" Paisley paused because in all the excitement, she realized they had no clue where her parents were. Liam said, "Let's practice some more and show them what you can really do after we get better! You should try and do some type of flying, like this!" He teleported in the air about thirty feet above them and held his position as if he was standing on something invisible. "Oh that looks fun! Okay! Here I come!" Paisley put some of the telekinetic pressure in her feet and let it explode her body from the ground. She flew by Liam so incredibly fast. The speed was on par with the bullet from moments ago. Before she smacked into anything, Liam pulled her from existence and, out of thin air, made her reappear right back where she started.
Raijo spoke up, "Paisley, please! You have to be careful! If Liam hadn't saved you, you might look like a bug on a windshield up on that ceiling! Do me a favor and let us make the calls okay? We are here to make sure you learn the most you can in a good environment, so let us do that." The kids looked at Raijo and apologized sincerely before looking at Bella. She didn't really have much of an expression on her face, but she looked frozen. Her hands were shaking, but it was hard to see unless you were really paying close attention. A moment later, a tear ran down her face and even though she was frozen, everything in Raijo told him that she was terrified for some reason. He ran to her and tried picking her up from where she decided to sit on the floor. Liam stopped him and said, "Wait, let me try something." "Liam, this is not the time!" Raijo started to raise his voice before realizing he could no longer see Bella next to him. Liam had her floating next to him and snapped his finger. Bella began to cough wildly and spit out some saliva that built up from where she couldn't move and that included her mouth. After she composed herself, she said, "Th… thank you Liam. I don't really know what happened to my body. It was almost…" she coughed a bit more, "it was like this. When Paisley launched herself in the air, I never expected the pressure to be so loud and so destructive. I mean, she left the freaking sound barrier. I think the noise she made threw my body into a terrifying shocked state. It felt like her power entered my ears along with the sound. That's freaking scary for someone like me who relies on their hearing a lot."
Paisley started tearing up while looking up at Bella. "No sweetie, don't cry! I'm fine." Bella looked at Liam and asked, "Hey, can you put me down now? I want to go to her." He did as she asked and Bella wrapped her arms around Paisley to comfort her. "Listen to me, you are strong. Much stronger than I've ever known anyone to be, but now that means you need to learn how to use it and be safe. There absolutely will be times in your life that you will use the full extent of your power even if it's just to send a message. I know you're excited. If I was as strong as you, little one, I'd be bouncing off the walls and telling people they couldn't boss me around." She chuckled thinking about it, "I'm so glad you aren't like me, but now is your time to get it down, you got it? I don't want you letting this stop you from learning, okay? Don't let it get to you, because, unfortunately, there actually will be much worse you will see out in the big bad world." To end this one sided conversation, Bella gave Paisley a last second squeeze.
In that exact moment, the doors to the gun range opened and four more figures slowly made their way over to the group. "Oh, hey there Deeno and Ren! I haven't seen you in a while. What was it, yesterday maybe? That's crazy! How's it been, you guys?" Bella seemed to ramble off at the mouth just looking at these people. Actually, it was obvious that she was looking at Deeno with near hearts in her eyes. Raijo cleaned up the messy ice breaker, "I know it was a pretty quick meeting earlier, but I'm assuming the other two are Travis and Brittany, correct?" Travis stepped out from behind Ren, "Yes sir, that's us! How have our kids been for you guys? I hope not too much of a handful." Both Raijo and Bella looked at each other with unreadable expressions and worrisome chuckles. Simultaneously, the instructors said, "Well…"
End of Episode 13: Kids are a Handful
Author's Note: if you are enjoying following Liam's life in the world of Keena, take a chance and go follow my social media. I have Instagram and Facebook and my handle for both are the same at ClodiasManga.
Author's Name
ClodiasManga