iGuard

Talent

A little later in the day, after we both got some sleep, I confronted Brian in the kitchen.

"So... that thing you did last night when you turned into Light... What happened?"

Brian, who was currently occupied with making a sandwich, sighed.

"Oh, it's just a 'quirk' of mine." He made finger quotations in the air.

"Is it one of your abilities?"

He sighed again. I wonder how many times he's had to answer these types of questions.

"Yeah, you could call it that too."

"Could you show me?"

Brian looked over his shoulder at me.

"What?"

"I said, could you show me how you do it? Change into other people, I mean?"

He completed making his sandwich.

"Sure, right after I eat this."

. . .

After he ate his sandwich, Brian took me out to the backyard, which, for the record, wasn't much better than the front yard. It was a giant expanse, the ground covered by concrete and shielded by metal fences, with a set of aluminum chairs and tables.

"It was designed by Apple for training," Brian explained to me. "It would be very inconvenient if he managed to start an electrical fire and burn down the neighborhood, wouldn't it?"

"Yeah, I guess..." I shrugged.

"So, you wanted to see how I do it?" Brian glanced down at me.

"Yeah, maybe I'll know how to do it too... Probably not, but if I have the capability of doing it, I should probably have you explain it to me," I told Brian.

"Ok then, lets get started." Brian grinned.

"Ok, so basically, all I so is concentrate on what I want to be, imagine myself as that person or object, aaand..."

Suddenly, Brian's body began to blur, shrinking and becoming smaller, until he was my height. When his form finally became clear again, I faced a exact replica of myself, freckles, jacket, and all.

"Woah!" I took a step back. Brian grinned at me through my face. Gah, what a weird sensation...

"Sometimes I do it on accident, when I'm thinking about a certain thing or person. It's kind of annoying... "

Brian's voice flowed effortlessly through my, well technically his, mouth. Weird...

"But basically, my body creates a 3d electronic projection of whatever I need or want to be, and distributes my mass to 'fill' the projection, creating a perfect copy of whatever I want or need to be. Wave your hand over my, I mean your, head."

I waved a hand over Levi Replica's head.

"See? nothing there. It's like I shrunk to Levi size. But in actuality, I still weigh the same amount as I usually do, I'm just compacted into the small amount of space that a Levi takes up." He grinned.

"Hey!" I protested. Come on, I wasn't that short...

"I have to admit," he pulled up an aluminum chair and sat down, leaning back. "It's really strange to be so small. I really don't think I've ever experienced something like this in my entire life..."

"Knock it off!"

"Oh come on, you are pretty short!"

"No I'm not!"

"Um, yes you are, small fry."

"Shut up!"

Brian got up from the chair, and raised his hands in defense.

"Ok, ok, sorry."

His body blurred, and turned back into his own in a matter of seconds. He turned to look at me.

"So, do you have any 'talents' I should be aware of, Levi?"

I shifted weight from foot to foot.

"Well, not really... It's more like a glitch in my system..."

I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, and focused. Hard. Suddenly, I felt the familiar tingle racing from the fingertips of my hands up and around my jacket sleeves. I opened my eyes and looked down at my hands. Jagged white streaks of pure electricity arced around my arms. Brian's eyes widened as he took a step back.

"Woah."

"Yeah."

The electricity grew with impatient anticipation, flashing around my sleeves like some freaky light show.

"If I focus hard enough, or if I get really surprised or nervous or scared or excited or feel any type of really strong emotion, my arms just kind of... spark, like this." I gestured down at my arms.

"I don't know how to turn it 'off' though, so I have to release it into some source, or it just keeps growing stronger, sapping my energy."

I walked over to the aluminum chair Brian had been sitting in, and tapped it lightly. The electricity surged off my arms as if happy to be free, coating the chair in white hot energy for a couple of seconds before dissipating, leaving a slightly blackened mark where I tapped it.

I stumbled a bit, feeling slightly light-headed.

"Damn, that's cool."

I turned to look at Brian, who was staring at the chair, awestruck.

"Yeah, but the only downside is that it drains my energy pretty quickly, and it makes me unable to summon a weapon..."

"What?" Brian looked at me in alarm.

"You can't summon a weapon?"

I shrugged.

"Yeah, the electricity is the result of my weapon trying to form, but being blocked by a bug or something."

I looked over at Brian.

"I get along just fine with a normal handgun, though. By your reaction, I take it that you can summon a weapon?"

"Yeah..."

Brian held his hand out in front of him, and with the crackling of electricity, summoned a giant, knife shaped broadsword that was about as big as I was.

The broadsword's hilt was made of weathered leather, and the blade was designed to look like a shark's mouth, black and silver steel forming teeth-like shapes across it's surface.

"Nice."

"Thanks."

He dropped his hand, and the sword disappeared with a pop of electricity.

"So," Brian grinned, "Since we're already out here, should we get some practice in?" He popped his knuckles. I shrugged.

"Sure."

And for the rest of the day, we practiced in anticipation for our first mission, which, in actuality, was not that far away.