I open my eyes, feeling a muted soreness in my muscles.
The tent is back to being plunged in discolored darkness, however it is worsened by the newly flickering neons. The kryptonite seems to have been crushed into thousands of chips and it is fully opaque and light gray instead of its former glowing green.
Cheryl appears to my right, thanks to teleportation I assume.
/How do you feel?/
I brace myself for a shot of pain, yet her voice slithers inside my head as naturally as if she were speaking out loud. I glance down at my hands and shuffle my feet... I feel completely and utterly... The exact same, apart from the slight tension in my body.
"I..." I squeak, my throat dry enough to sand a wooden chair.
I clear it and try again.
"I'm good. I don't feel very different, though." I do not know why I said it with guilt, but I did.
"You shouldn't, that's a good sign," she replies aloud.
I notice subtle eyebags underneath her kryptonite green eyes.
"What about you, Cheryl?"
/I'm happy. And very excited to show you how to use your powers! Are you up for lunch?/
"I could eat something... What time..?" I lift my wrist, stopping my sentence short, staring at my watch.
It is already a quarter past noon!
"Neither of us should be driving right now, I need to focus on you."
"I feel fine..." I hesitantly tell her, beginning to worry.
"Soon, you won't, believe me." She sighs and puts one of her hands on my shoulder. "Don't worry, I know just who to call!"
After she disappeared to make the mysterious call, Cheryl materializes in front of me. She swiftly tugs her hood back, and her clothes and hair smoothly change back to normal.
"Ready for your first lesson?"
I nod, remaining as calm as I can considering how casually she seems to be using her abilities in front of me, without any warning.
"Good! Your most important weapon is your mind. It will also be your greatest weakness if you do not treasure and protect it. No matter what powers you steal from others - or borrow - or how useful blasts of kryptonite are, your mind, Tanza, has to be your priority. Without a strong mind, you will be easily defeated. And your foes can take everything from you, but not your psyche... Unless they are a better telepath than you, in which case, what do you need?"
"A powerful brain to fight back?"
"Exactly. You learn quickly! Now... The best way to utilize telepathy is to consider a few specific states and you should avoid letting your mind stray from these."
"Okay."
I inhale silently, following her with my gaze as she paces and gesticulates.
"Right now, your mind is as open as any other non-telepath human would have theirs. It is vulnerable to any invasion, any injuries of a psychic nature... It is also open to perceiving any telepathic transmission."
/Anything at all that flies through the telepathic currents will reach you. You are listening to everything, but everyone can sense you, they can hear you as well./
Oh, and that is not good..?
"No. You want to control who can enter your mind by closing it... But you also want to leave it slightly open, in case something interesting happens in the void."
YOU ARE READING
Fascinating Villains
Action[ONGOING] "You're delusional. I should've seen it before..." ~~~~~~~ Tanza is an agender paramedic. They rely solely on themselves, and the last thing they need is for an incredibly attractive supervillain to disturb their (relatively) quiet existen...
