The Skylar Experiment : Dead Ending (second draft)

101. Patch It Up, Ladies

RILEY

CLEAN UP ENDED UP, AS LUC PHRASED IT, being a bitch. I helped as much as possible after maxing out the tank. There had been some midnight errand runs involved for that broken section of wall. Lauren was forbidden from helping.

The tension in the room was thicker than chilled butter.

Luckily, by the end of the night, the arena appeared rather the same. When we left, I felt changed somehow after learning what I'd done. I remember not wanting Luc to be in her harm's way again and seeing Dad way too close for comfort, then it just... happened. 

We could have taken each other out in that last second, according to the boys. Lauren said she avoided the brunt of my impact by retaliating, knocking my lights out in the process. 

Dad bearing witness to it was so bewildering, though. I spent months hiding this craziness thinking he had no idea, and now it was all on display. I wasn't sure how to act around him anymore yet when I said goodbye, he didn't look at me too differently. 

Luc brought ourselves a whole club sandwich and ice cream in bed, and we cuddled in front of a cooking show, because then I was too full to sleep even though my body yearned for it. A pensive crease between his brows showed that he wanted to say something, but he refrained, and I didn't feel like going over the events. 

I wasn't exactly sorry for stopping Lauren. No one made me feel bad about it, not even her, but I worried about a rerun. I worried about now having to master this form of my abilities, a form whose only reason to exist was causing damage. How do I practice this safely? 

It was bad enough that I was becoming a menace around the kitchen and physical contact. No light had engulfed me since, but involuntary electricity poured from my skin.

I didn't figure out how to pull the plug on it yet, so yeah, I was a walking electric fence for the time-being. To be honest, I was pushing hard for the hand-to-hand combat to stall from the scary lightbulb thing in training.

Lauren tagged along for other practices, though Raymond stopped her at the entrance to put on 'the naughty bracelet'. She sat on the stands or the fence, just watching. One had to ask why Dad had carried an inhibitor to the meeting with us, and he replied something about being prepared for anything.

"Abilities are closer to muscles than you think" Raymond shared when it was his turn to play—well, roughen me up. "Everyone has their own limit, but the personal amount you can pack comes down to consistent training. Each seperate manifestation in your arsenal can wear down over time or it can be built up, then you have to smartly manage your energy stores in confrontation if you're in it for the long-run. The more you train, the more endurance you'll gather. Like XP points in a game."

"How long until what I worked for wears out?" I'd panted as he had me on the ground. 

"Ah, the perks of being us. Since we were made to surpass human capabilities, we also retain strength and conditioning longer even if we stop completely. For how long, we don't know for sure—"

"A year or two on average." Lauren hopped off the fence. "NIO tested that. For me and my brother? They're pretty sure it's even more."