Destined: 2 Be Continued

23. Jeremiah Runs Into People

Jeremiah stepped out of Heather's cabin, through the small space of open air in between, and smack dab into Alex. Alex seemed legitimately surprised and apologized. "It's okay," Jeremiah answered, worse things having happened to him than falling down from someone walking into him. Alex helped Jeremiah up, but that turned out to be a bad idea--temporarily, at least.

Alex's arm, the one that had touched Jeremiah, turned into a tornado. Alex leaped back and retracted his arm swiftly. He gave Jeremiah an evil eye. "Fine, I'll help myself up," Jeremiah muttered, helping himself up. Alex's arm turned back to normal. "What was that?" the master of wind asked.

"That's the power of hope. Until I can learn to control it, I will be randomly turning everyone I see into a monster, tornado, or extremely overkill version of their powers. That's what I've figured out so far, that is," Jeremiah explained. Alex, having fought a six-foot-tall pest alongside a giant bear, was barely fazed. He nodded, then took a few steps from Jeremiah. They were the kind of steps that said, I'll just give you some space, rather than You're a monster. Get away from me. Being an expert in manners, Jeremiah appreciated the gesture. He walked on, running into Belle this time.

"Really? Really?" Jeremiah asked himself as he and Belle fell to the floor. His first question was why everyone was heading in the opposite direction he was. His second question was why everyone walked at a great enough momentum to knock someone down. Jeremiah stood up, then risked trying to help Belle up.

On contact, she turned into a sword.

"Sweet Mercy of Pearly Whites! I'm sorry!" Jeremiah apologized, picking up the sword. It was a rapier, to be specific--an elegant, swift, and deadly weapon. Certainly Belle would know all about it, but she was kind of a rapier right now. After a moment of Belle not becoming human, Jeremiah set her down. She morphed back into a human on the ground, then looked at Jeremiah with utter confusion.

"It's some power glitches," Jeremiah explained to her. "I just need to work out a few kinks, Opal will help me in my dreams. Stay a few feet away from me, and good day." Belle took a polite step back, letting Jeremiah, who hoped that he didn't run into another person, step past. Jeremiah finally reached the eating room, where Penny was still engrossed in a book. When Jeremiah tried to look at the cover, Penny closed it and glared at him. "What do you want?" she snapped.

"Just this." Jeremiah, hoping that he wouldn't turn Penny into a rapier, a gargoyle, or a tornado, tapped her on the arm. The area surrounding the point of contact, including the point, of course, turned to snake skin. Penny seemed mildly startled, but that wasn't as bad as say, a gargoyle, a rapier, or a tornado. She looked at him curiously. "What was that?" she asked, more politely than before.

"The power of hope," he answered. "It's just some glitches--I can't touch anyone without transforming them. Yours wasn't as bad, though." Penny made a thoughtful expression, then went back to her book. Jeremiah, grateful that he wasn't talking to a giant venomous snake, continued the clearly perilous journey back to his room.

He walked right into August.

"Where is everybody going that they need to run into me? Every single person!" Jeremiah cried out as August fell backwards. August, thankfully, got back on his feet without any help and apologized to Jeremiah for the coincidence that was entirely not his fault.

"It's just fine," Jeremiah responded, extremely tempted to tap August on the arm and see what happened. However, the interest in the box his Spanish teammate was holding was slightly more powerful than temptation. "What's in that box?" he asked.

"It's just some stuff I was going to test my suit, which is in the training room, with. The blessing of the Machinist allows me to use my power telekinetically, you know." Jeremiah, in truth, did not originally know, but he knew now. He nodded. "Cool. Hey, I just found out my new powers."

"And what are those?"

"These, mostly." Jeremiah grabbed August's forearm suddenly, and it turned into machine. August was not frightened in the least bit, to Jeremiah's fortune. "Awesome! You can turn me into machine, amigo! Try it on my face!" Jeremiah put his other hand to August's face. August's eyes glowed red, and his face turned to metal. The machination(?) spread down August's body, transforming him. August looked down at his new metal body.

"Amazing! I ought to see if I can use my gadgets with this new body," he cheered, but he turned back human again. He looked disappointed, so Jeremiah tried to cheer him up. "Listen, man, I'll go train with Opal tonight, and I can learn how to make it last longer. But until then, I don't really know what I'm doing."

August nodded, then went over to the training room. Jeremiah finally reached his room, sitting on his bright bed. He was beginning to get used to all the light, but it was going to take a bit before he actually liked it. He opened the book that Heather had given him and started to read. It was going to be useful to know a bit about his powers before he started training with them. 

The more Jeremiah read, the more he liked being a master of hope. Hope was a very rare...Destiny, Jeremiah supposed. No one really knew what it was, and the closest thing they had to it was courage. All courage did was take away fear and doubt, and even though that did more than one would think, hope didn't seem all that great. Now that Jeremiah knew it enhanced other Destined powers, that was more interesting.

Jeremiah took a peek at his mind watch. He had been reading for four hours, and it was getting late. He was becoming sleepy, too.

Jeremiah changed into pajamas and laid down in his bed, almost unable to sleep from the excitement of training with Opal.

Sleep did come, however, and it was one of the most interesting sleeps Jeremiah had had in a long time.