10/17

Episode 2, Chapter 6

"Make sure you get all of this. I am going for a double drop and I want to be able to review all of it from start to finish," Parker insisted, as he once again stood in the middle of the garage. It had taken more food than he had ever eaten in one sitting to do it, but his previous weakness was a gone. He had also reviewed over the footage of his last disastrous port so many times he felt like it was burned into his retinas. After some internal debate he had agreed that delayed teleports were something else he should avoid until he could find out more about his situation.

"Yeah, I got it already. I just think you should just, like, be more careful, or something," Peyton griped. "Mom is going to freak when she sees that kitchen."

"I cleaned up. It'll be fine, just record," Parker replied, ready for the conversation to be done. Payton rolled his eyes but adjusted the phone's camera and gave the thumps up. Parker shook himself once then pushed his mind at the rafters overhead.

"Parker Allen!" Mrs. Carlisle's shout startled Parker so much he reappeared on the roof, falling against the shingles with a thud. He slid into the AC vent, knocking the top off and sending it crashing to the yard. At least the vent halted his decent. Lying with his back against the shingles, with one foot against the vent, he stared at the sky trying to rein in his galloping thoughts. That's it, he thought, the next thing I do is learn to phase out unexpected distractions. He really needed to get a grip on that before he was startled into a much worse situation than the roof or the dog pen.

Below him, he heard the back door open as his dad's voice filtered up, "...something out here." Park figured he had about three seconds before his dad spotted the vent cap now decorating his back yard. He needed to get back down there to explain. Unfortunately, just as he tensed for the jump back, the rest of the outer section of pipe gave way.

"Oh, shoot!" Park rumbled as the rest of his body began a quick slide toward edge of the roof. He frantically scrambled to find a hand hold. Fortunately, in his fumbling, he splayed his legs out far enough to catch his foot on the edge of the sky light. Unfortunately, he was still not used to his new, overly large body. His fumbling spun him around to the point he was skidding off the roof head first. And, of coarse, because his luck could not have been any better, the first thing Parker saw as his head breached the edge was Mr. Carlisle was bent over studying the dented vent cap, right in Parker's landing zone.

"Crap! Dad, lookout!" Parker shouted as gravity torpedoed his large frame right at his father's far more vulnerable form. Mr. Carlisle looked up, and threw his arms up in an instinctual, and ineffective attempt to protect himself from the painful impending collision. As time around him slowed to a trickle, Parker took a moment to memorize the look of complete shock on Mr Carlisle's face. He knew he had less than a moment to consider his best choice of action. Then, as his fingers brushed his dad's arm, one second, father and son were in the back yard, the next, multiple crashes, thuds and other destructive noises could be heard ringing out through the house.

"Ugh," Parker groaned as he pushed himself up from the remains of his parent dresser against the wall at the end of their bed. He stood on shaky legs, trying to get his bearings. His body knew he wasn't hurt but his brain had not gotten the memo yet. His skin might be invulnerable, but flying off the foot of of a bed into a dresser was still not something he would have picked if given a choice. It took a moment for his eyes to catch on to the chaos around him. Another groan drew his eyes to the arm creeping up the wall beside the destroyed bed. "Crap, Dad!" Parker hopped over to check his dad's prone body. "What happened?"

"Umph" Mr. Carlisle groaned, pulling himself to one knee with Park's assistance. "What happened was, I just got bounced into a wall, after being thrown on the bed after being poofed out of the back yard where my seventeen year old son was flying head first off the roof where he was not supposed to be to begin with, Parker. That's what happened." His tirade had begun at a reasonable tone and volume, but every word increased until the last came out just under a bellow.  "What were you thinking?" he added, rubbing at his soar ribs.