The Power Series

Book One – Power: Awakening

Attacked

      I was dreaming….about a girl I knew. We were in her bedroom studying, and I was hoping for more. Suddenly her father started banging on the outside of the door. “Let me in Russ.” he was screaming. He sounded terrified. “Wake up.” She said. Wait. She? I opened my eyes and experienced the disorientation that comes with having not slept very long. The banging on the door happened again, and I turned towards it. “Wake up Russ!” My mom yelled. “Fire!”

     I jumped up and unlocked the door to let her in. I had not noticed it until she said fire, there was orange light playing through the shades on my window. That’s when the glass shattered, and the flames started pouring in. It looked unnatural, like water. The flames kept jumping on anything near and enveloping it. I grabbed my pants from the floor and closed the door behind me. There we stood in the hall somewhat disoriented in our night clothes. The smoke detector was deafening. 

     “Hold on to me,” I said. “I hope this works. Never tried this with two people let alone this far.” She grabbed my arm like I was going to run away. I closed my eyes and tried to remember every detail I could of Tom’s office and pushed.

     Everything was suddenly very quiet. It was very dark, but my eyes were adjusting quickly. I could see his desk and the big chairs he has arranged in front of it. I started pulling my jeans on.

     “How…How did we get here?” Mom asked. “The fire…”

     “Tom will know what to do,” I said. “We will wait for him here.”

     “But how did we get here? She asked again more insistent.

     “It’s something I recently learned how to do mom.” I tried to explain. “After some practice, I can now move from one place to another with a thought.” I continued to explain. “About three days ago, I found that I could move from place to place with my mind.” I walked over and turned on the light.

     Mom was standing there looking at me with her arms crossed like she wasn’t sure if I was lying or not. I vanished from in front of her, and reappeared behind her and whispered in her ear.   “What is your explanation for how we got here?” She jumped forward in surprise.

     “Don’t do that again!” She yelled turning around and pointing at me. “I don’t have an explanation of how we got here, or how the house caught on fire.”

Book Two – Power: Alliance

Patience

     The door burst open at that moment, and an angry old codger entered the room moving sideways, “What the hell is going on in here!” he yelled and then tried to catch his breath. He was only five foot six, but he was three feet across. Agent Drew was behind him. I scanned them both quickly. “Who the hell are you!” he asked pointing a finger at me.

     Using telekinesis, I closed the door. The lock snapped shut, and I put a sound net around the room so no one would hear what happened next. “I am Russell Knight,” I said to him and laughed.   Tim put his head in his hands and waited.

     “What’s so funny?” He asked me.

     “You,” I said simply. Agent Drew went white. “Is everyone in government a pervert?” I asked.

     “What are you saying boy!” he yelled at me getting in my face. His breath smelled of sour milk from his coffee, and he was breathing so heavy I thought he might pass out.

     “Who is Mistress Shauna?” I asked him even though I knew full well who she was. Mistress Shauna was a very high priced dominatrix that he visited weekly.

     His breathing accelerated, and he backed off a little bit, his face turning red. “What is your business here?”

    I stood up and looked down into his eyes, belly to belly roll, “It’s a private matter between Tim and me. If you know what is good for you, you will leave and pretend you never saw me. If I find out you are giving Tim or any of his agents a hard time because of me…..well let’s just say that misses Thurman will not just hear about your last visit, she will get video. I plucked this from your memory.”

     Tim jumped back from the edge of the desk as a two-foot-high 3-d image of Henry, his boss, appeared on his desktop. Henry was hanging from a rope by his hands in a full leather mask with no cutout except what was needed to breathe. He was naked except for the hood and a leash tied to his privates that Mistress Shauna would occasionally pull on as she whipped him on his backside. I let the image fade.

     “Fair enough.” He said catching his breath and changing his demeanor to be more deferential,  “May Tim update me later on this meeting?”

     “I’ll leave that entirely up to Tim. You will not pressure him to do so.” I said.

                                                                          *

     “You are a lucky son of a bitch Henry,” Tim said. “You have no idea how close you came to dying today with that act.” Tim looked over at agent Drew, “You instigated this didn’t you.” Both Henry and Tim were staring at him. “You almost got the both of you killed. You know Mr. Knight does not particularly care for you, Chuck. What the fuck were you thinking?” Tim thought for a moment. “Henry, I know you’re my boss, but I think for this one…for your safety, you need to not ask and not be a part of this. Okay?”

     “It irks me, but Okay,” he said shaking a little. “He was the real deal? A superuser?”

Power: Overdrive

The General Dies

     As I had done in the past,I teleported into the sky above my target, and during the free fall picked a safe spot to teleport to on the ground. I was a bit surprised to find that it was not just a single building. It was a compound with fencing surrounding it and a huge gate controlling entry and exit. Military men patrolled the perimeter and manned the gates. There was a large house in the center of the compound that seemed promising. I walked towards it collecting information as I went from soldiers that passed by. There were three buildings that were dedicated to making drugs and the house I was walking towards was the general’s home. The general was in the back room on the first floor of his residence sitting alone behind a large desk sipping on some kind of whiskey relaxing. 

     “Why do you hate Americans so much?” I asked General Sanchez in Spanish as I revealed myself to him. A single layer disintegrate shield was added to the open doorway I had just used. Even I could not use this doorway safely at the moment.

     General Sanchez turned slowly and set his glass on the desk but still held on to it. “Their arrogance has always gnawed at me,” he said and took another sip of his drink and set it down.      “Like your arrogance,” he said, “showing up here alone and it looks like you’re unarmed.”

     “It’s not arrogance in my case,” I countered, “its confidence and what makes you think I am unarmed?” His cup appeared in my hand; I chugged down the remaining half glass and slowly floated it back to his desk setting it down. “How about another?” I said smiling.

     “You dog!” he said and laughed. “That was 30-year-old stock.” He reached into a drawer and grabbed the bottle and another glass. He filled both and pushed one towards me indicating it was mine.

     I called the glass to me and started drinking it like water. “Slow down!” the general said. “Enjoy the flavor. There are less than thirty bottles of this particular batch remaining in the world.”

     “Hopefully they are not at this facility,” I said beginning to sweat the alcohol off.

     The general laughed. “Why is that? Do you plan on destroying this entire compound by yourself?”

     “Aye,” I responded throwing my glass into the air and pointing at it with my right finger, “bang,” I said, and the glass shattered as I burst it apart with telekinesis.

     “There is that arrogance I was talking about,” he responded shaking his head. Several men appeared at the doorway pointing rifles at me. “Goodbye,” he said and with his finger indicated to the men to shoot. The sound of gunfire was heard, but the bullets never made it through the doorway. 

     Confusion showed on the soldier’s faces, and one of them tried to step into the room. He and everything with him vanished as he disintegrated. The remaining soldiers were shocked, and one poked his rifle in the doorway; the end disappeared as it “passed” through the opening.

The general not realizing fully what had happened began yelling at the men. “Are you all so incompetent that you cannot kill him from three meters away? Kill him now!”

     To make a point to the general,I commanded the soldiers, “Go to the general’s side.”

The men ran through the doorway to get to the general and one by one they disappeared as they were disintegrated. The general’s jaw hung open for a moment, and then he took another sip of his drink. “It seems I underestimated you, and you are harder to kill than you look.”

     “Drink up general,” I said looking menacing, “When that drink is done, so are you.”

He laughed and downed the rest of the drink. He slammed the glass onto the desk in defiance. A moment later he gurgled a little as he slumped to the floor, his insides torn apart. I tossed his body through the doorway to dispose of it and then removed the disintegrate barrier.

Power: Nemesis

Agent Training

The waiter came back and apologetically said, “Your card was declined miss, do you want to try another?”

Elisabeth was stunned, “How is that possible,” she asked looking over to Maria.

Maria reached into her purse and handed her debit card to the waiter, “Try this one,” she said. “If that doesn’t work then something is definitely wrong.”

The waiter took her card and walked back to the reader.

“You must be out of money,” Maria giggled. “Did you do something to piss off Russ?”

The waiter returned. “I’m sorry miss; your card was declined as well.” He handed it back to her. Maria puffed out a stream of air that lifted her bangs. Elisabeth was smiling at her. She reached into her purse and pulled out the emergency money she kept hidden inside and handed enough to the waiter to cover the bill plus tip. 

“It’s all yours,” she said, “Sorry for the problems.”

“Not a problem miss, it happens more than you might think,” he said politely smiling.

“Excuse me, sir,” a man dressed in a suit said. “You are dismissed; we’ll take over from here.” Another man stepped up behind Elisabeth; the waiter retreated. “Remain calm ladies. We need to take you in for questioning.”

Elisabeth and Maria both stood to protest, but the men each put a hand on their shoulders and pressed them back down into their chairs. A look passed between the two women, and they quickly alerted the others with telepathy. 

“Remove your hand from me, or I’ll claim it as my own,” Elisabeth growled. She formed a razor thin ring of solid air around his wrist and began to close it slowly. 

“Three,” she said beginning a countdown. The agent could feel the fabric of his suit pressing against his wrist unnervingly. 

“Two,” she continued. The pain was unbearable, and it seemed she could back up her threat, so he lifted his hand from her.

“Good boy,” Elisabeth praised the agent mockingly putting a shield of air around herself. 

“Must I repeat her performance or will you willingly remove your hand?” Maria asked the second agent. He had been so enthralled by what just happened that he had forgotten his hand was on her shoulder. He quickly removed it. 

“Good boy,” Maria said mimicking Elisabeth and laughed, “They can be taught manners!” she exclaimed putting up her shield of air.

Disclaimer