Heather's Adventures: The Search for Maxamus

Chapter 80. Max

Heather and I were fortunate enough to find a campsite with cabins that night to crash in.

Heather seemed pretty happy to be sleeping in a cabin, even if we didn't have anything with us.

"So you wanna take watches tonight or do you think we'll be safe, considering no one has yet found us?" I asked as Heather sat in her bunk, fiddling with her amulet.

She took a moment playing with it before she turned to me, "oh, yeah, uh I have this thing activated so I think we'll be fine."

"I thought you said you weren't going to use it?"

"If I didn't...I don't think I would've made it out of there walking. Yeah I took in and released a lot of powers...but when I activate my heart's power I don't exactly have full control over all of it yet. By that I mean...well I don't know my full power capacity and I'm not used to holding onto that much power—"

I gave her a strange look, "What do you mean? Haven't you used a lot of power before, just testing stuff out?"

"Well, my hair never turned different colors before. Usually I can control all the power before letting it flow through me. But this time I decided to just let it flow right through me instead of handling it because I don't know my limitations out here, like you said...and I kinda...well it felt great, okay? I felt my blood boil and just all that power...Max that's the best feeling I've ever had with my powers, usually I don't feel anything with them, just the warmth of a fireball, but that—"

"That is the reason people get consumed by powers." I told her.

She shook her head, "No, I was in total control. I've never had that feeling before. Is that what it really is like being in my power-self?"

I shook my head, "I don't know, I don't use my powers that much to begin with anyway."

"It felt magical, amazing. Max I've never had that much power and it felt great! Everything else just feels like eh, I can throw a simple fireball no trouble at all. But this Max! This power—it's amazing!"

"So then why exactly haven't you used this much power in the past testing out your limits?"

Heather looked to her amulet, "at the academy, we are taught to user our powers wisely, instead of just blasting someone with a fireball at maximum strength, we are taught to calculate how to use our full power capacity before we run out of energy and limit it so we don't run out of power mid-battle. So rather than see who's the strongest, it's who's the wisest. Because power is nothing if you don't know how to properly use it."

"So instead of testing and finding your limits, you just worked on being slightly better than everyone else and resorting to being lazy rather than trying to figure out how much you can handle?"

"I knew the answer was a lot. I tanked some huge shots back two years ago in our capture the flag competition. The school should have record from their devices how much I tanked and how much I could handle. I just decided that until I knew for sure where my power capped off I wouldn't go crazy just so I just used enough for the situation rather than testing the limits. But considering what it felt like using my actual potential and not just keeping up with everyone else...I wanna try more. I wanna see how much power capacity and potential I have. If only I could find those records...."

"Would they be at your school?"

"I doubt it. Those people from the UWO committee come and supervise then probably take them back to the UWT. Hmm I bet they're there." Heather thought, "I know we're trying to get back, but do you mind making a stop that's a little bit out of the way?"

"Oh? You're asking not demanding this time?

Heather simply shook her head, "I'm too tired and cold to be demanding. Besides, I know we need to get back sometime soon before the weird-o and Dawnlight freak."