Libertatem: Origins

Chapter 3: Wylie - Part One.

"Hey, are you sure you want to do this?" Luke asks me, for the umpteenth time today.

"For the hundredth time Luke: YES!" I reply. I don't know why he's so worried, it's not like we haven't done this before. Granted we're doing it on a bigger scale, but ever since I discovered I was telekinetic we had been practicing to help me gain proper control of my... abilities.

"No, I mean are you REALLY sure you want to try this now? This is way beyond anything we've ever tried." He says, turning to face me and making me stop abruptly. Luke was my most trusted friend. We met when his family moved from Canada to Trentville five years ago. I had been standing on the front porch watching them move their stuff into their new home when he walked up to me smiling and introduced himself. Since then, we had been very close friends.

"Yes, Luke. I'm very sure I want to do this." I reply, taking his shoulders in my hands and turning him around so he's facing the opposite side. "Now let's go get started before I push you there myself."

"Fine, fine. I just think it's crazy you want to do this. I mean, we've known each other for years and we've done some crazy stuff, but this is insane. You must really..."

I zone him out and just keep walking after him. Despite being the best friend any girl could have, he's still too much of a worrier. But that's all part of his charm so I just overlook it. Within minutes we're at our destination: a warehouse complex that was abandoned long ago.

"Remind me again why we're using this place?" The worried look on his face says it all; Luke really doesn't want to be here.

"Because it's the safest place to practice without interruption, or being seen by anyone. What do you think is going to happen if a recording of me using my telekinesis gets out there?"

"Fine, you win. Let's just hurry up and get this over with." He drops his backpack and takes two tennis balls out of it. "Ready?"

"Yep. Let them at me." I relax and focus, like we had been practicing these few weeks. He tossed the first ball at me, which I stopped mid-air easily.

"Seriously?" I look at him incredulously.

"A little warm up. Just making sure you're ready." He replies before the other one comes shooting straight at my face. I knock it out of its trajectory with the other ball, still keeping it in the air.

'Good. Let's get serious then." Luke cracks his neck and takes out some more tennis balls.

The first comes straight at me and I stop it a few inches from my face, just in time to see the second bounce off the wall to my left and ricochet towards me. I stop that one also in mid-air, turning to face him again. He lets loose a few more balls, each one taking a different direction but ending up coming at me after bouncing off a wall of an object nearby.

Yeah, I forgot to mention Luke is some kind of genius. All he has to do is see something and he can calculate the angle and speed at which an object has to hit it to cause a desired effect. Despite this skill, he still refuses to join any sports club at our high school. A waste of his skills, if you ask me.

In quick succession I stop the first two which came at me from my sides, then I start rotating the balls around me quickly to knock the others out of their trajectories.

"Nice, you're getting much better at this." He commented. It was true. A few weeks before today it took all my concentration to keep more than three balls up, and I had to use my hands to do that, but here I was now doing all this without breaking a sweat.

"Now let's try something more difficult." He says, picking up two pieces of wood I was all too familiar with. I hate this part but he deems it a necessity.

"Do we really have to?" I ask, dropping the balls I'm roataing. He has been learning Kung-Fu for years now and is the most skilled fighter I know personally, but he has no mercy when we practice. He only smiles and runs at me, I prepare to stop him in his tracks but he must have know what I was thinking because he runs off in a different direction and attacks me with another ball he had hidden on him somewhere and it hits me square on the side of my head.

"Ow. What was that?" I yell at him.

"You should be prepared for anything. You never know when you will be attacked. Focus on your environment, try to sense where your enemies are."

"Enemies? What are you talking about, Luke?"

"Dude, I'm trying to be all mystical and stuff here. Just go with it, alright?"

"Fine." I say and close my eyes. I had been practising this at home but I still have yet to get the hang of it. I focus on my immediate surroundings, trying to judge where the next hit will come from. Within a few seconds I hear a thud and feel somewhere in my body that the ball is coming for my abdomen. I immediately open my eyes and get hit in the stomach by it.

"Concentrate, Padawan. Use the Force." He's standing in front of me now, smiling. I roll my eyes and try again. "Imagine a bubble surrounding you, and within that bubble is your consciousness. You can feel anything that touches or penetrates that bubble."

I listen to him and try to do as he says, which works better than everything else I had been trying. I open my eyes and look at him, readying myself for another round. He calmly walks up to me till he's about two feet from me, then he attacks. I feel what feels like a ripple when his body moves and I know where his attack was going to hit, so I create a mental barrier between him and me. His attack connects with the barrier and I throw it at him. He flies a few feet back, falling into a pile of cardboard boxes.

An hour later, we're both exhausted and ready to go home. We pack up and leave. When we get to his house, he stops at the door and asks, "So, tomorrow?"

"Nope. I need to rest and recuperate. How about Monday?"

"Sure." He answers and we part ways. At home I flop on my bed and pull out my phone, selecting my favourite playlist. I didn't want to tell him this but I'm going back tomorrow by myself. There are a few things I need to practise alone.