This is When We Say Hello

Crisis Averted

     I decided that I do have to tell Newman about the wings, but I'm undecided about the Athena's Key. The wings I need to learn how to use, the key though it will show me the way. Besides I don't think that any one other than Eliza and I know about the key's whereabouts. Newman's reaction to my vision and the fact that I have wings was calmer than I thought it was going to be.
I stop thinking about the vision and more about the wings.
"Newman, now that I have wings do you think that I could use them to get around." Newman looks at me, by his face I already know the answer.
"I'm sorry you can't use them out in the world yet. It's too dangerous. We have to go to Mr. Rodney's place now." We head outside and picks me up and soon we arrive to a small cottage.
The cottage is like from a cheesy picture. In the middle of a meadow, surrounded by trees. So plain and simple.
"Newman, how can this be the home of someone like Mr. Rodney. It's so small. I was expecting a huge place, like the White House or the Buckingham Palace."
"As I've said before, please call me Brian. Only my staff call me Mr. Rodney." He walks out of the cottage and startles me. "And as for the size of the house, well looks can be deceiving." As he lead us through the door, and well looks can be extremely deceiving.
"Okay, Monica. You can fly, summon things, and have visions. We need to know if figure out the other things you can do."
"Other things, you mean I have more powers? I don't know if I want- or could even handle more!"
"You have at least five, no way to tell if you have more or not. First we have to learn how to use the ones you already have."
"I already know how to use my visions- I've had that one for a year. Summoning things is pretty self explanatory, but flying is the tricky one."
"Monica, I didn't say that out loud. By the rate that yo-" I didn't hear that right.
"What do you mean? You had to have said that. I heard you loud and clear. Newman you heard him right? He was talking about the amount of powers I may have and... you heard him right." I look over to my confused body guard while I continue to freak out. I don't know if I want all of this.
"No, Monica, he said nothing of the sort."
"As I was saying Monica, by the rate that your powers are developing, may have more than originally calculated. Which means that you have a lot to learn in the next couple of weeks. And there are more to every single power than what meets the eye. Now follow me please and we need to figure out if there are any other powers that may have snuck to the surface." I follow him, because my life couldn't get any more fucked, so why not learn how to use the fucked parts to fix the the others. As I begin to walk, Eliza shows up- again.
"Liza, I can't do this right now. I have a lot going on."
"Hey, I know you do, but it was you who called me here. Not me. You."
"I miss you, more than anything, but I'm not calling you."
"Whatever, believe what you want. I have to tell you this, and your probably not going to like it. You can only really trust me and Newman. There are some that you can trust more than others, but you have to be careful"
"If there are only a few that I can trust- how can I trust you. For all I know you could be a creation of who ever the hell I going to have to fight, and feeding me complete utter bull."
"Monica, I'm nearly dead- I can't lie. Besides I could never lie to you, I still care too much about you."
"Okay I believe you, but did you really have to resurface old feelings. We had our thing, we weren't meant to work out, and we decided to just be friends."
     "If you think that way, why did you just call me Liza?" I did, didn't I. I stand there, quiet. She was the one to end things. That's it. That's all.
     "If I'm the one who called you, then I'm going to be the one to hang up." With that reality came back and I continued to follow Brian. I felt a little guilty, leaving her like that, but what was I supposed to do. Deciding to dwell on it later, just in time too. We arrived at our destination. We stepped in to a huge room, almost as big as about four or five football fields, and as tall as extremely tall trees. There are ledges of varying heights, random obstacles, and tunnels.
     "First we are going to learn how to fly." He began to walk toward the left side of the room.
"Monica, with the power of flying, you also get strength. It makes jumps, and hand to hand combat much easier."
"So kinda like with Newman, except he doesn't have the wings."
"Exactly. Today I'm going to teach you the basics. We won't get to any flying. The strength is a good portion of how you fly, so you need to learn to control it."
He jumped up onto one of the shorter ledges, and I tried. It was harder that it looked. The ledge was just about 7 seven feet up in the air. I jumped and I just kinda crashed into it. I try again, and I got my torso onto the ledge, which is progress. I pull myself up onto the ledge and stand up.
"Good job, most people can't jump up that high when they start." That honestly shocked me.
"But I had try twice."
"When I started, there was a five foot ledge and it took me five or six tries to get myself up."
"Then why did you have me jump and a seven foot one?"
"I knew you were going to be better at it."
Better at it- I'm never better at anything. I'm lucky if I'm average. "Brian how did you know?"
"I just knew." I have a feeling that he knows a lot more than I can even conceive. "Okay now you are going to jump up to the next ledge. If you miss you have to start over. Once you get up to that ledge, jump up to the next. Repeat that process until I say stop." I look around and see that they not just right next to the walls, but rather kind of spread out over a good portion of the room.
~~~~~~~~
I spent about two hours jumping between about 30 different height ledges. Once I reached the highest I had to jump back down all of them. I miss calculated the distance more than once, and I had to go all the way back to the top. In total I had to start over nine times.
"Monica, tomorrow we are going to work on the visions, summoning, and if we have time mind reading." He shows me back to where we came in, pulls Newman to the side. I look at the pictures on the walls, and the random potted plants. I try to stay close enough to that I could hear, but not close enough that they would notice that I'm trying to listen. I can't, which makes me a little upset, so I just kinda watch them. They both constantly look over to me. More often then not I notice some lingering glances from Newman. Once they are done talking, Newman comes back over and we walk outside.
"So what did you guys talk about?" I'm extremely curious about all the looks.
"Why do you want to know?" He sounds nervous, more than he should.
"I'm not exactly blind I noticed that you and Brian kept looking at me."
"Mr. Rodney wants me to train you in combat, and to help work on strength control." He stops there, but I can tell that he has something else to say.
"And?"
"And what?"
"And you have something else to say."
"How do you know that?" There is a sprinkle, no, a pinch, no, a great big dollop of surprise in his voice.
"I have a younger brother who likes to take my things and hide them from me."
"I can't argue with that." He pauses for a moment, thinking. " I'll tell you when we get back to the safe house, and after training." I probably wasn't going to get much better than that, but I can try. He grabs me and leaps home.
     The moment we touch ground I turn to Newman. "Now tell me."
     "I told you that I would, but only after training." He starts to walk away towards the house.
     Catching up I say "Newman, I just met you, but I'm going to take a stab in the dark and say that you're the kind of person who avoids awkward situations."
     Newman turns around, few shades off of tomato. "What makes you think that it's awkward?"
     Laughing, I make my point. "First, you are putting off the conversation as long as possible. Second, you are a ripe tomato. I.e. Awkward. Now stop acting like a teenage boy about to ask his crush out on a first date, and just tell me."
     "Mr. Rodney believes that even in the safe house you may not be as safe as you could be. He thinks that I should sleep in the same room as you. Just in case."
      "Newman, I don't see how that's so awkward."
     "Really?"
     "Look at it this way. Your boss thinks that me, your 'client', you could say, is not safe. He wants to take a small step to help insure the clients safety. I can conjure up a bed or a futon for you and put it in the corner of my room."
     "Now that you put it that way."
     "See. Now that's how I believe you advert a crisis." I feel a slight rumble in my stomach. "Newman, lets advert another crisis and make some food."