"Alright guys, we're here to capture it on film. Remember that." Andrew tells us, clearly thinking like a camera person. The boys and I are gathered around Andrew and he surveys the landscape ahead of us.
I toss a baseball, one graciously provided to us by Matt, and easily catch it. The ball is solid and heavy enough that controlling it will probably prove decently challenging for the boys, even though enough time has passed for them to easily be capable of moving this much with their minds.
Unlike me they are normal, and have correctly opted to balance facets of their lives with training their newfound abilities. I can't blame them for their decision to try and balance honing their abilities with other facets of life. They have their whole lives to think about, and because of the weird way American society is set up their high school years very much impact the rest of their lives for better or worse. I have previously endured American high school, and a Honduran high school, and my time as a nomadic army brat definitely shaped facets of the course of my first life.
They are not as lucky as I am, since I possess both meta-knowledge of their lives specifically, and also perks that are more often than not greater versions of attributes of theirs. That said, it's not like I haven't made sacrifices for my choices. I am still enrolled in high school, and I have no meaningful social life, nor have I had one for the two months I've been here. I've gone to exactly one party in the time since I "moved" to Seattle, and the only occasions I've gone out for anything other than school or buying groceries I was going out to fight crime or volunteer.
I've been the definition of a straight shooter the entire time I've lived in this city, living a life that is almost robotic in its coldness. Plus there's the added fact that I have had to live in this world knowing that any meaningful relationships, be they friendships, rivalries, or romantic relationships I make are doomed to be temporary, even by the sometimes cruel standards of a jump, lasting barely one hundred days. I don't have the same sort of future the three of them do, but mine is also costly and difficult to achieve.
Andrew spends a minute positioning Steve and Matt before tossing Steve a baseball and clicking his camera. I watch, fascinated, as Steve proceeds to beam Matt with a baseball, Matt failing to catch the thing at all. This action makes Andrew laugh raucously but I check on Matt and find that he is fine. For the next few minutes the two boys work on honing their abilities on camera, slowly but surely becoming better with telekinesis before my very eyes.
At first Matt struggles to catch the ball with telekinesis at all, and to be fair a baseball, while a lot slower than a BB pullet is a deceptively fast object. It doesn't help that Matt is perhaps the most normal with regards to his growth when it comes to telekinesis in the film. Steve is the one who discovers how to fly, and Andrew has remarkable potential when it comes to things like sight-less telekinesis. Matt is the closest I can imagine to normal of the three but persistence pays off and in time he is impressively manipulating the ball, catching it in mid-air and even tossing it back to Steve.
After Matt and Steve swap places Matt is the ball tosser and Steve becomes the catcher. The very first time he throws the ball he immediately catches it in mid-air and makes it a screwball so sharp that he zips it in a full circle around him and then beams Steve with it, causing Andrew to almost bust a gut with laughter.
Something that is very stylistic of their telekinetic abilities, in both Matt's and Steve's cases, is that they prefer not to gesture when they use their abilities. The three boys avoid the stereotype of indicating telekinesis with body language, carefully working to gesture as little as possible. They simply look at and focus on the objects they are manipulating, as opposed to doing something like moving their hands to indicate their focus. It's a nice little detail that makes their telekinetic abilities stand out amid their peers, though in the future other telekinetics on television and in movies will also lightly ignore this reused idea.
After a few more minutes Andrew calls Steve over and has him hold the camera while positioning me across from him. When I am in place Andrew looks at me and nods. I nod back and grin, ready to have fun.
At this point I've had time to think about how to cloak my skill with my telekinesis. I'm certain that I have more skill with these abilities in every facet than my companions are, due in no small part to how much I've carefully trained and the time I've sacrificed honing these abilities. I also don't want the boys to know that so I've mentally constructed a strategy that will allow my telekinesis to differ from theirs, even if I don't mind indicating that I'm a touch stronger than them.
"You ready?" Andrew asks, looking at me with a smile. I nod, grinning back. He tosses the ball at me and as it speeds towards me I opt to move my hand to stop it. I dramatically flair my hand out and point it flatly at the ball, while effortlessly grabbing it in mid-air. I move it closer to me before I will it to stop, mere centimeters from my outstretched hand. The boys cheer, and I allow myself to smirk.
I toss the ball into my hand and then toss it to Andrew, not at him but to him, and when he catches it I smile and with a gesture cause the ball to leap out of his hand. This makes him gasp in delight, and he quickly uses his telekinesis to grab the ball and return it to his hand. He seems very happy as he studies the object and I wonder if he never considered using telekinesis to manipulate something in someone's possession.
In the film the first evidence of Andrew's descent into villany that is hyper explicit and intentional on his part is when he rips someone's teeth out of their mouth so he clearly learns this idea at some point… Still it is fascinating that I have unintentionally taught someone something about telekinesis.
For the next few minutes Andrew and I practice our abilities. I continue to behave like a damn jedi or something and make all of my uses of telekinesis hyper obvious and deeply physical. I work hard to make the trio think that for me to use telekinesis I require grand gestures and obvious movements. I also work to make them think that my telekinesis is roughly on Matt's level, maybe a touch behind it, as opposed to revealing the fact that I already know secret techniques that even Matt won't learn until years from now.
Eventually Andrew swaps me out for Steve, and I get to watch the two of them work on their abilities together. As I do Matt daps me up and I look at the viewfinder on the camera he is now holding. We watch the boys show off their telekinesis and Matt occasionally laughs whenever something unfortunate happens and I opt to be the group mom.
This proceeds for about an hour in total, with all of us rotating out until we've each gotten to play advanced catch opposite every other person in the group. During this time I watch the ease with which all of them use their abilities increase. It's not dramatic or anything but it's a marked, visible improvement in their telekinetic durability. I can see how the boys become the telekinetic monsters they are meant to become as we all practice and steadily hone their powers.
In a way it's almost like all three of them have "Supernatural Savant" and "LIfting Yourself Up", two of the capstone perks the jump document for this universe offers jumpers. By mixing both of the perks together, a combo which would cost 900 choice points and that's assuming whoever does it is a "Drop-In" like me, one would have tremendously enhanced training abilities even if neither perk is explicitly a training booster, a perk that amps up the speed at which training improves their abilities.
If I succeed at creating a future where all three boys survive then their telekinetic abilities will be monstrous someday…
Eventually Andrew is satisfied with the footage he's captured and we opt to go to a diner and grab some lunch. It's currently early in the afternoon and earlier today we were volunteering so we've all worked up an appetite. Within minutes we're eating and as we eat Matt reveals a bit of what he thinks about these powers.
"So I think… it's like radiation. You know, from back in the cave." He tells us, and this causes me to smile as I put down a burger I ordered.
"So we're like… spider-people? Isn't that how Spiderman happened, he was just some guy before he got bit by a radioactive spider?" I ask, feigning ignorance about the true origin of all of this. Matt grins at me and nods his head.
"Kind of, I guess. I'm not sure if the radiation just burned away the part of our brains that kept us from being telekinetic, or if it somehow changed us, but I think that's the explanation that makes the most sense. After all as far as we can tell no one else went into the cave and no one else seems to have powers." Matt explains, which causes the boys to nod at him.
"I guess that makes sense." Steve replies as he dips one of his fries into ketchup on my plate.
We eat while quietly discussing the oddities of our abilities. Partway through the conversation I decide to go ahead and say something that will save us all a lot of pain and heartache.
"So we need to go ahead and set some basic rules about this before we do anything else with it." I explain, which causes both Steve and Andrew to frown but neither of them try to rebut my remarks.
"We have special abilities. It's like being a gun owner, but our abilities are a lot more dangerous. We need to promise to not use this on other people unless we're protecting ourselves or others. Because right now we're chucking baseballs but just days ago we were struggling with pencils. This is growing stronger as we use it." I explain, my last remarks a lot more serious sounding than I normally opt to sound.
I allow a beat to pass before saying anything else. The boys have been affected by my social perks but I've deliberately worked to not expose them to the full effects of my Steve perks until now. I have wanted to avoid over influencing them on a direct level until now.
My social perks are strong. I'd say that they are actually my strongest perks, at least out the gate. I've mostly avoided using the capstone perk, one which makes me an eerily powerful master of socialness and an idol-like entity, even on other people. For the most part I've been content to use the non-capstones, but I'm making an exception for this.
"Look I just want us to think about this from an outside perspective. How would anyone here feel if some asshole had been in the cave instead of us and they used these powers on us as a prank, or because they were petty and we pissed them off?" I ask, and I feel that question hammer home my point.
"These abilities are awesome. They are, in a very real sense, world-changing. We are… psychic, for lack of a better word. But demonstrably so. Right now it's baseballs, but even that is fucking world-altering. Imagine if this continues to grow? Imagine if this is only the start?" I ask, aware that my words are changing the mood of the conversation. I allow another pause to happen.
I feel the weight of my words, backed by the potency of my perks, to drop on my classmates. Ethically charisma perks are deeply suspect, especially ones as powerful as "The Game of Life", Steve's capstone perk, but I am using it to save truly countless lives and it's genuinely not mind-control even though it feels strong enough to be mind control. It's the sort of deep-seated charisma that pierces the minds of bigots and murderous assholes and sways them.
Right now I am not conversing with people so close-minded. I am talking to regular teens who are riding the high of feeling special and who, if not for my intervention, would make tragic, and believable, mistakes. I am determined to stop them from making those mistakes.
"I'm sorry for killing the mood, but I… I just imagine if an asshole had been in the cave and not us. And I don't mean an 'Asshole' in the same sense as a regular teenager might be considered one, but like a genuine monster. The thought of a killer or worse getting these kinds of gifts and having free reign with them is scary. And so is the thought of us using these abilities recklessly." I explain, and this causes Matt to nod at me.
"Yeah, you're right. These powers are awesome but they are a responsibility. We have them, we need to use them carefully." He admits, before smiling.
"I can be cool with the idea of us having rules for these abilities. I definitely think the idea of only using these abilities with other people for self defense or to protect other people is good." He acknowledges. The others also agree, and we decide to continue our discussion of this later on over text.
I smile and the rest of lunch passes by without incident. Once we've established that rule I momentarily wonder if we'll get the chance to see if we'd actually stick to it. I don't have to wait long for that.
We go to a nearby grocery store and the boys and I grab some groceries for me. I explained to them that I live alone a while ago, and while they've never been to my house they've seen pictures of it.
While I shop for groceries the boys are still mischievous and as I explore the store I wonder if this scene is what inspired the "Secrecy Insurance" perk which is a two-part perk in the jump document for drop-ins that allows people who see powers in real-life to try and rationalize them away, while also providing other protections in case a jumper's powers are discovered in such a way that they can't be denied. The boys are pretty obviously the culprits in a series of small scale, harmless pranks throughout the store but no one catches them or suspects them of any wrongdoing.
The scene that plays out around me does differ from the scene in the film, as this is an exact moment we as viewers get to watch. The boys do not accidentally knock somebody over with their powers, which does happen in the movie, and the scariest prank they do is give a little girl the fright of the afternoon by making a teddy bear float in front of her. For now it seems that the boys are serious about their commitment to not using their powers on people!
I pay for my groceries and while traveling to the car I have to persuade Steve not to use his powers on a car that was badly parked, but I still keep him from accidentally damaging someone's vehicle. When we're in his car Matt asks for my address, which I give him, and we begin to drive home. I am tense during the first part of the drive, as this is a critical moment in the original timeline that marks the beginning of a serious tonal shift. And it involves a car and a bad driver.
We reach a hilly road and begin to drive down it, only for the unlucky motorist I have long dreaded seeing to drive up behind us. The driver is a dickhead and pulls up unreasonably close to us, which frustrates Matt and he audibly complains. I keep my focus on Andrew, aware of what he must be thinking about doing. I keep my eyes on him, doing so subtly but focusing more on watching him than on hiding my gaze.
We drive for several minutes with the driver behind us remaining firmly up our car's ass. I continue to watch Andrew, and when we pass by a sharp turn where the driver behind us should have taken a telekinetically induced offroad tumble I relax and internally sigh in victory. The driver eventually turns when we cross an intersection somewhere along Seattle's edge, and this allows me to well and truly celebrate.
Andrew was meant to push the driver's vehicle off the road and, unintentionally, into a nearby pond. This action would almost kill the motorist, and would result in Matt taking action to save the man, call for help, and being the one to propose rules, as well as Andrew beginning a downward spiral when his friends reorient their priorities in the wake of almost killing someone. I have now well and truly altered the timeline since no major conflict happens here!
We reach my home and the boys help me unpack my groceries. They get a tour of my home, and spend some time here before they go home themselves. When they do I sit in the living room and actually relax. I watch television, genuinely watching it for entertainment value instead of to hone my "Polyglot" ability, and I contemplate the myriad of changes I have caused today.
This is a monumental win, one that is the result of my careful and targeted intervention in the plot. For months I have worked to arrive at this point, spending truly hundreds of hours in school, socializing over the phone, and even volunteering all for the sake of this specific moment. By preventing Andrew from being forcibly isolated from his friends and feeling separation so quickly after getting so many new friends, even ones that were not named characters in the film, I have thrown a wrench in destiny. It's far from over, and I plan to continue to intervene in ways both big and small, but this is still something.
At one point during the evening I use my powers to do my homework, so I can spend tomorrow doing real world training. I eventually go to bed, and when I wake up on Sunday I text everyone a lot more actively and energetically than I have been over the last few weeks. I purposefully cultivate the idea that before I used my telekinesis with the boys I was still a bit cautious and that this is me in my relaxed state.
I also redouble my efforts with regards to training, spending the whole day throughout Seattle and more aggressively using my powers than ever before. I spend the day protecting the streets and working to help people. Come Sunday evening I return home, and I do things like make dinner and study for school while continuing to refine my usage of my abilities.
The next few weeks pass by in a blur, though subtle changes occur to my schedule. As I take steps, both big ones and small ones, to the finish line for this jump I carefully rework my schedule.
On Monday, just two days after I watched Andrew resist an impulse to be mischievous and accidentally change someone's life forever, I begin to spend more time with him. He and I go shopping for clothes after school and I purposefully help him get new clothes, guided by a worker at a clothing store, which helps him look a lot cooler on Tuesday and this results in him getting more positive attention. I also talk him into going to the school's weekly AV club meeting, and we get to see Casey and other classmates of ours who are into tech.
These two things result in our circle of friends expanding even as early as later this very week. It brings out new sides to Andrew, who struggles to adapt right away but still goes out of his way to be kind and slowly comes out of his shell. Matt notices this and quietly thanks me for what I've done, and I tell him that it was a group effort. Lots of Matt's own actions helped his cousin, I just got Andrew to cross several important finish lines, and we're still not done.
Over the next three weeks Andrew continues to thrive. At the same time Matt and Steve, both of whom were already as successful as they wanted to be, continue to thrive as well. I myself am content where I am, and I continue to steadily hone my abilities, even figuring out how to begin to properly use my telekinesis on myself and eventually unlocking the ability to hover over the second weekend after I established the rules we'd operate by.
For some reason the ability to fly is a skill I can't quite grasp, almost always flipping in mid-air when I try it. I guess all of us have specialties, and I've already figured out techniques like healing and force field generation, but for some reason flight is just something beyond my reach.
Before I know it another iconic scene is playing out before my eyes. I am standing in an abandoned lot with Matt and Andrew, having been called here by Steve. I know what this means: a powerful ability, one of the signature powers of the trio, has been unlocked by Steve before it was unlocked by me. Given all I can do it's a bit surprising that the power that Steve is moments from revealing is one he figured out how to do before I did, but the man is skilled with his powers.
"Where is he?" Matt asks as he looks around the abandoned lot. We can see Steve's car, and I know where the skilled superhero is, but I don't want to spoil what's about to happen. All three of us get a text from Steve and Andrew is the one who reads it first.
"Look up." He quietly says even as he follows the instruction and suddenly gasps. He taps my shoulder and points skyward, and when I look up I have to feign surprise. Steve is hovering in mid air, and before I can say anything he begins to carefully, consciously descend. Steve has learned how to reliably fly. This is, in my opinion, one of the coolest powers of the Chronicle trio and even though I could do all sorts of things before they could, it still kind of stings that freeform flight is a skill I just can't grasp yet.
