All's Fair in Love and War

Chapter 6 Growing Pains

She. Was. Exhausted. And not physically - her body itself was fine, even if her hands shook a little.

No, Evie's exhaustion came from the mind and the mental strain that she was taking as she tried to stretch her limits on her powers.

The day had begun easily enough – Charles had started her out by having her project her visions onto Erik (a willing guinea pig since he found her powers very intriguing), timing her on how long she could hold visions of varying degrees of difficulty.

A small alteration in the person's vision, such as when she projected the image of her eyes being blue, was easy for her and could be held up as long as she was awake. It took very little concentration; and especially in the case of her eye colour, she was so well practiced in it that she could do it without much thought.

Something like her usual tricks in making the other person think they'd flirted – and sometimes a little more – with her, required slightly more concentration. But even that she could produce and hold for any required length of time; though it became more difficult if she was trying to project the visualization onto several people at one. Charles had a theory on that, but...

If she were trying to project an entire new image - say like the underwater world she'd shown the team – however, that was a different story. First of all, it required a lot of concentration to create the space, the picture; like an artwork needed time for the layers to come together, her projected visions needed her to construct all the details if it was going to trick the mind into thinking what it was seeing was real.

Not only did it require a lot of concentration, and sometimes time, to build those images, but also it was extremely taxing. It left her drained if she tried to keep up the visions for any period of time passed ten minutes, and she had never tried passed fifteen until now.

But, Charles trusted she could do it. More than that, he knew she was capable of more; much more.

"You see," Charles had explained earlier that day, "when all the creatures, and atoms, and matter in this world run around with absolutely no control, we have chaos."

He and Evie had been sitting in his office; well, Evie was sitting, her hands fiddling with the grey tracksuit they had all been given to wear for training. Charles was walking back and forth in front of her as he went on.

"But, they are controlled by the laws of physics and reality. Laws that tell them to move in certain ways, to do certain things, make some things possible... and others impossible."

"Okay, so what does this have to do with me?" Evie asked, confused, and Charles smiled.

"You like to think you're only able to conjure visions in another person's mind." Charles pointed out, and Evie pursed her lips. "But, you and I know that isn't true."

"So, what are you saying is true?" Evie asked, and Charles grinned.

"Esso kinesis." Charles answered, and Evie just gave him a blank look.

Seeing it, Charles smiled as he explained, "It means reality warping, or the ability to manipulate reality. In short, it is a form of physikinesis, or the ability to manipulate physics itself."

Evie stared at him, as Charles continued as he walked about the room, "For example, if I drop this apple."

He dropped an apple that had been sitting on his desk, and they watched it fall.

"It hits the ground. Because the laws of this Earth, the laws of physics; in short, the laws of our reality say that gravity will pull the apple to the ground, or as far as it can go towards the Earth's centre before it can go no further."