The Awakened World

Part 6: Presence and Power

Brian opened his eyes. He was briefly confused as to where he was, but soon remembered what had taken place. "Right, the resistance business" he said and sighed. It had been a day since the discussion with the leading members of the resistance. After the discussion he had eaten at a surprisingly nicely furnished cantina. "This is an old bunker from during the cold war", Mercury, the young and easy-going member had told him, "Apparently some rich guy owned this and was keeping it in a good condition. Too bad he wasn't an Awakened, though. Maybe he would be staying in this place instead of rotting in some cell for 'traitorous activities'". Mercury then proceeded to down his beer can in a single gulp. "But, y'know... then we wouldn't have such a nice base" he finished with a chipper expression. Brian had noted that, much to his surprise, most of the resistance members were not actually awakened, but normal people. When he asked about it, Mercury, who was showing Brian around just said that it wasn't all that surprising, considering that if you were an awakened you wouldn't have much of a reason to rebel against them; if you sided with them, you would be sure to have a comfortable and trouble-free life. "Why are you with the resistance then?", Brian asked. Mercury stayed silent for a while, and his expression darkened slightly. Then he started to smile and answered: "I'm just not one for such a life, I suppose?" He then led Brian to the crew quarters and told him to sleep, as they would start to train tomorrow.

When Brian finally managed to find the garage, which apparently pulled double duty as a training room, Mercury was already there waiting for him. "Well you are a heavy sleeper. I thought I'd have to come and wake you up, he said and started to do stretches. Brian looked around; the garage was a reasonably sized concrete room that housed three cars: an older white van that had some band's logo painted onto its side, a plain sedan and a weirdly extravagant sports car, that even had a custom red-and-black paint job. "Ah, I see you've noticed my baby", Mercury said and patted the hood of the van. "This old lady served me even before the awakening and is now our reconnaissance vehicle of choice". Brian recognized the van now; this was the car that had appeared outside the Abbot family's cottage and aboard which he had been smuggled. "Oh, and if you're wondering about the sports car, well, let's just say that its owner isn't alive to miss it" Mercury said, with a smile. Brian shuddered slightly as he realized how different the world he had entered truly was.

"Now then, let's get to business. Even though you, as all awakened initially do, have a rudimentary understanding of your powers, I'll help you to truly understand them". After saying this, Mercury closed his eyes and seemed to concentrate. The effect was immediate: Brian could start to sense his "presence". This wasn't something Brian could truly explain; he had started to sense them after awakening. Brian couldn't tell what exactly presence was, just that he could sense it and that the amount of it differed from person to person. Naturally, it was much stronger for the awakened, in fact Brian estimated that Mercury's pressure was roughly as large as 100 normal people put together. "Now, what I just did is that I opened my 'channels', if you will. You must have noticed that the air about me seems different, right? Opening one's channels allows them to manipulate the noosphere, and by extension, the world". To demonstrate this, Mercury turned his gaze towards his beloved van and started to levitate it. Brian remembered that energy had a different look, or manifestation, for each person. In Mercury's case, small red musical notes seemed to circle his outstretched arm. "By the way, if you ever think of touching or levitating my dearest, we're going to have a problem" he said with an uncharacteristically stern look. "Don't worry, I'll steer clear of your car. I don't even have a driver's licence" Brian replied and was relieved to see the stern expression disappearing.

After gently returning it to the ground, he concentrated again, and Brian could sense the presence disappearing, though it was still at least as large as ten people put together. "As you might've guessed, I just closed them again. In this state I cannot really use my powers. Why, then, would I want to do this, you wonder?" Mercury stared at Brian with a smile. Somehow Brian could tell that his instructor was really enjoying this. "Well, it is essential to be able to blend to the masses, and by closing your channels you cannot be detected as easily. Since you're so close you can probably tell that I'm an awakened, however if you were about 50 metres further, it wouldn't be so easy". Mercury paused for a bit and puffed his chest. "Let it be said that I'm the best reconnaissance operative this chapter has". Mercury shifted his weight and stared at Brian. "You do it now, closing your channels I mean. You have such an enormous presence that, frankly, I'm starting to get a headache. Just like with basically everything else, all you need to do is somehow visualize your channels, or pores, or whatever suits you, closing down; your brain will fill in the blanks". Brian closed his eyes and started to focus. After a while he decided to imagine a door closing. He could feel something, or rather he couldn't describe what exactly he was feeling. Regardless, he felt that he had succeeded. He opened his eyes and met Mercury's approving gaze. "Good, it would appear that you got it. Your presence is still about as large as 50 people put together but considering the fact that you have enormous amounts a power, it is satisfactory".

"Let's move on, then. Today we won't really be doing anything really, your combat training will continue tomorrow. Still, I'll explain the basics of combat", Mercury said as he "opened his channels" and let his presence flow. "Basically, there are two ways of utilizing noosphere's energy: you can either project it or use it to enhance your body. I just showed an example of projecting when I levitated the car, so I'll give you an example of enhancement". Mercury breathed out and suddenly red notes started to envelop his whole body. He then walked to the sedan, and to Brian's amazement, lifted it up with no visible effort. He then put it down and continued lecturing: "As you can see, us awakened have quite the amount of power. People who have focused on enhancement like our Pluto can even flip tanks with ease". Brian shook his head and spoke: "I suppose that's how no army could oppose the awakened?" Mercury nodded and continued: "That and the fact that you can make yourself nigh invulnerable by making your body stronger and creating shields of air around you. But that is something you will learn in time. For now, let's go and grab some breakfast, I'm starving".

After walking to the cantina and grabbing some food the pair sat down in the corner. After a brief moment of silence, Brian decided to relieve his curiosity. "So, I noticed that your energy manifests as notes. Is there a reason for that, and does anyone have a unique manifestation?" Mercury was halfway through eating a sandwich, so it took him some time to answer. "Yes, every awakened has a different manifestation. Nobody can really tell why, but the eggheads have surmised that manifestations are formed according to one's feelings and can represent one's personality. There was something about the fact that the brain organizes the signals needed to use powers and that's why there is a connection, but honestly, I didn't really listen". Mercury paused to drink his glass of milk in one, impressive gulp. "Ah, that hits the spot. But anyway, I really like music and was even the guitarist in a band, so I guess that's why I sprout notes". Brian couldn't help but notice that Mercury's eyes looked sad as he spoke of his past but decided that he wouldn't try to delve into Mercury's past. Instead, he decided to ask about the intricacies of his energy: "Does the nature of your manifestation also affect your powers?" Mercury looked a bit puzzled, but then his expression cleared. "Ah, it's because you fought against Minerva, right." Mercury chuckled, and continued: "Well, she's a bit of a special case. She used to be a physicist, y'know? That's why she understands particles and such pretty well. Once she tried to explain her powers, but the only parts I could really understand were about using projection to switch polarities or something." Brian still didn't feel convinced and noticed yet another discrepancy. "But when I killed Scott..." Brian saw images of Scott's burned corpse flashing before his eyes but hardened himself and continued: "...his body really did burn, and I wasn't thinking about doing that". "Oh yeah, that too. The reason behind that is quite simple. Our sources inside tell that you managed to overload him, that is, you let your energy flow into him. As you have an abnormal amount of energy, his body couldn't take it, and the energy started to burn him from the inside out. That's all. Because you have such a ridiculous amount of energy, I'll be teaching you to use a reasonable amount of it at a time". Mercury took his napkin and wiped the milk from his beard. "By the way, Minerva will be your actual teacher in enhancement and projection. Now, Pluto is better at enhancement, but really he isn't good at teaching and frankly scares the shit out of everyone here but Jupiter". Mercury stood up and clapped his hands together. "So, let's get back to training!"

Susan Abbot stared at the headquarters of the militia. All around it "commoners" clad in body armour and armed to the teeth were moving about, following orders. To her, this building embodied everything wrong with today's rulers: it was oppressively big, needlessly fancy and only the awakened could actually enter it. Susan sighed, and took a look at her clothes. Her black trench coat that had blood red markings hid the armour that shielded her entire body. A gun was holstered on her hip and knives sheathed all over her body. Finally, she raised the helmet she held in her hand in front of her face and winced in disgust. The mask was fashioned to look like a stereotypical witches' hat, and a gruesome visor covered her face as she pressed it onto her head. "The Crimson Witch has returned once more", she whispered and walked into the building.