...Chapter 3 Colour Coded Systems...

 

As I'm staring at the floating black text on a pink background, I realize most of my senses are completely cut off. But I can still feel Kaylie's hand intertwined with my own. Her hand is clenched tight, so I give her a quick squeeze. Her hand squeezes back and then loosens off. With my other hand, I reach around to each of my sisters, squeezing each of their hands even as I read the text in front of me.

"System Initialization Complete."

"Primary Essence successfully Awoken: Family."

"Warning: Deviant Essence Detected. Deviant abilities will show as their standard version to most identification magic."

Okay, I know video games. Maybe not as well as Sawyer, but I've played my share. And this isn't like any of the video games I've played.

The messages slowly fade away as my vision, hearing and general awareness of reality fades back in.

"Everyone alright?" mom asks, getting a round of confirmations from the rest of us.

"Okay, right. Did anyone else have text pop up in front of them?" Bethany asks, her hand linking overtop of mine and Kaylie's. Meanwhile my other hand is taken by Sawyer and Madison.

As we all confirm we did, mom says, "Okay, I know this might sound silly, but everyone try saying things like status or... Nevermind, status works."

Following mom's direction, the room is full of us all saying status.

"Status: Darren McHarran."

"Body: Mortal. Bound Lesser Essence: None."

"Mind: Mortal. Bound Lesser Essence: None."

"Spirit: Mortal. Bound Lesser Essence: None."

"Primary Essence: Deviant-Family."

"Primary Essence Abilities:"

"Rejuvenate: By touching a blood relative, you can restore their health.”

"Purify: By touching a blood relative, you can cleanse them.”

"Family Unit: You have awareness of the location and condition of all blood relatives within a small radius of you.”

"Blessing. By laying your hand on a blood relative’s head, you can channel your energy into them, granting them a small increase to their abilities. WARNING! Deviant augments: Blessed Seed: A sister who has been blessed with your seed receives increased benefits from your other abilities for the next day. A sister who has been blessed with your seed in their pussy receives increased benefits from your other abilities and can be targeted as if you were touching them for the next day. Blessing the same sister repeatedly will increase the duration of the blessing but will not have any other effect."

"Advancement conditions: Your love for your sisters will allow not only you, but your sisters to grow. These bonds require constant maintenance, both physical and emotional to nurture each of you."

As I read over my status, I blink, then read over it again. Most of it is cool. Except for the deviant augment. It's... insane. What sort of game requires me to have sex with my sisters to use an ability? I'm definitely not considering how awesome Kaylie feels pressed against me as I read it again.

Deciding to ignore it, if only to keep myself from poking into Kaylie, my attention goes back to my other abilities. Even though I’m touching all my sisters already, I realize I really do have a better sense of where they are. Closing my eyes, I can feel the vaguest sense of their well being. Considering we’re still in a cuddle pile, it should be easy enough to test my other non-perverted powers. With a mental push, I try to activate Purify. It takes several fumbling attempts before a pink light emanates from my chest before spreading to my hands then out to my sisters. The light pulses over them for several seconds until I stop pushing it outward. Looking at my sisters for any change, I notice that the smudges of grease on Madison's cheeks are gone.

"Darren, that was you, wasn't it?" Madison asks, rubbing the back of my hand with her thumb.

"It had to be," Bethany states, squeezing me from behind. "It felt just like one of his hugs."

"Really?" I ask, a little surprised at that.

"Mhm," Kaylie agrees, pushing back into my chest.

Sawyer holds her hand up next to me, and it pulses blue. Over her hand a blue orb appears. And then it flies across the living room, smashing into the old motivational poster of a kitty saying 'You can mew it!'

The poster never stood a chance.

"Sawyer," mom snaps, out of what I'm sure must be reflex. "Not in the house. If you all want to play with your new magic take it to the back yard. And don't tell anyone about it. Either we're special... or the whole world is about to go crazy."

"Ha, I don't know about you guys," I reply. "But if your abilities are half as messed up as mine..."

"Mine lets me wield water," Sawyer says with a shrug. "It's cool, but no weirder than you being able to take away my need to pee."

"I'm sorry, what?" I ask, looking at Sawyer.

"Your pink glow. That's what it did, right? Relieved our..." Sawyer trails off, her cheeks turning pink as I stare at her. Then I look to the others, Madison also blushes, her face getting closer to her red hair as she nods.

"Yep. Your ability is weirder, bro," Bethany agrees. "I can make constructs out of light. The only extra weird thing is my advancement. I mean, fighting monsters I get. But loving my brother?"

Kaylie stiffens against my chest, turning to stare at Bethany, her hair tickling my nose as a strand manages to get in my mouth. "You have that too? The extra condition?"

"Me too," Madison says, squeezing my hand while I spit out Kaylie's hair. Sawyer nods, setting her braid swaying.

"Well, I'm glad you kids are all able to get stronger without combat. Mine doesn't have that. It's defeating monsters or nothing. Classic system stuff for me," mom says while standing up only to start pacing back and forth beside the couch.

"Shouldn't we be worried about that?" I ask, enjoying the feeling as Kaylie relaxes back against me despite my worry. "The defeating monsters part? Which isn’t an option for me to get stronger, by the way."

"How do you advance?" Kaylie asks, reaching back to pull my arm forward to wrap around her.

"Uhm..." I read off exactly what it says. And then my other non-creepy abilities.

"That is so sweet," mom says. "Though it's weird your abilities are limited to your relatives. None of mine have a limitation like that."

"Mine either," Bethany says. "Maybe it's cause they're like healing spells? Maybe you can improve them to work on other people later."

"Uhm. Some of mine are limited," Kaylie says, waving at the potted cactus next to the window. As I glance to the side, my jaw drops as the old cactus mom keeps in the window shoots upward, growing to block most of the window in less than a second. "I can manipulate plants, but can't conjure them."

"Wow Kaylie, that's cool," I say. She gives me a surprisingly shy smile considering how forward she's been all evening.

"Damn. Now I'm feeling lame," Bethany says, popping a short blade into existence, giving it a single swing before it disappears. Before I can reassure her, she turns to Madison, "So what can you do? Shoot lasers from your eyes?"

"Uhm, no. We should go outside. Like mom said," Madison says, fruitlessly trying to tuck a crimson lock of hair behind her ear only to have it fall forwards again as she gets up off the couch.

We all agree and end up following mom into our backyard. Now, our backyard, much like the house itself, isn't exactly typical. Mom's been a geology nerd for a long time. And her job in construction has given her a lot of opportunities to collect rocks. Big ones, little ones, colourful ones and... well, basically everything. The point is, while our front yard might be neatly manicured grass, our backyard is a collection of boulders, half of which are as tall as the house. Luckily, the centre is clear, since we still occasionally like to use the yard as... you know, a yard. It gives the whole thing a sort of fort-like feeling.

As we get to the back yard, Bethany pulls the hood of her pink hoodie up, hiding her entire blonde head within as she turns to Madison. "So, what did you get? Come on!"

For some reason, Madison glances at me before nodding. Then she gestures out in the middle of the yard and a pillar of molten stone erupts upward. Except, no. It's not a pillar. It's a grasping hand. Maddie can summon a lava-hand as big as she is.

We all watch as Maddie experiments with the hand. Then she wavers on her feet. I jump forward, holding her up as I activate both of my abilities, sending a pair of pink pulses into her. But neither seems to help.

Madison waves off our other sister's concern while leaning her head on my shoulder, "I'll be fine. I think I just... overexerted myself."

"Okay," I reply, hugging her tighter.

"I'm also really resistant to physical and temperature damage," Madison adds.

"That just leaves you mom," Bethany says, turning to our mother. The rest of us follow suit.

Mom runs a hand through her long brown hair, shaking it out of the loose bun she had it in, letting it run down to her waist. With her hair free, mom shakes both arms, as if warming up to punch something. In the middle of the yard, Madison's still slightly molten hand is glowing. Mom reaches out to each side, and as I watch, I can't process what I'm seeing. It's like there's a gap wherever the tips of mom's fingers trace. She draws her hand forward and then... something happens. All I know for certain is that half of Maddie's magma hand is suddenly gone. And there's a deep furrow in the yard behind where it stood.

"What the actual fuck?" Bethany practically yells. And I can't help but agree with her.

"Language," mom and Madison say, practically in unison, drawing a quiet chuckle from all of us.

"But seriously, that was crazy. What was that mom?" I ask, supporting Bethany.

"Call of the Void," mom says, a silly smile on her face. "It's my weakest attack."

We all stare at mom, then look back to the furrow.

"Who votes we all remain on our best behaviour?" I ask, receiving a round of ayes from my sisters.

Before we're able to continue our tests, a roar echoes through the neighborhood. Mom takes off through the house, running to peer through our front curtain as the rest of us race after her. When we get there, she waves us over. We form a stack of heads, all looking out at the lizard creature walking down the street on its rear legs. It might be cute if not for the fact it's the size of a horse, and has hooked claws on each leg large enough to cut me in half in a single stroke.

As we watch, the creature roars again. Only to be answered by Mr Farlin from across the street.

Instead of demonstrating any magical ability, Mr Farlin produces good old American steel. He doesn't roar at the monster or give it any warning. He just lays his rifle across his balcony rail, lines it up, then fires. The bullet finds its mark, and the lizard collapses. Right on our lawn.

Mr Farlin waves at us, and we wave back before my attention returns to the body on the lawn. And the floating text above it.

"Uhm. Is anyone else seeing that?" I ask, pointing at where the words 'Dead Omniraptor-Mortal' are hovering over the dead lizard creature.

"The dead lizard?" Bethany asks, pulling away from the curtain to stare at me as if to ask if I'm being serious.

"No, the floating text over it," I explain, rolling my eyes. A second later, Kaylie confirms she can see it. But no one else can.

"Should we... investigate?" Kaylie asks as we all pull back from the curtain.

Mom paces back and forth a few times, glancing toward the curtain several times while tapping her chin. "I think we have to. You think it might be related to one of your abilities?"

"Yeah," Kaylie says, reading out her ability 'Hunter's Quarry'. It basically improves her ability to hunt. Which she feels includes harvesting from the lizard on the lawn. It doesn't say it in the description, but Kaylie insists it feels that way.

"Okay. We'll go out together. Madison, Sawyer. You girls watch for any more lizards coming from the sides. Darren, you're in the middle since you're the healer. Bethany, can you make something to carry the lizard with? Or should we get the wheelbarrow?"

Madison, Bethany and I all meet eyes, before nodding. "Wheelbarrow," we say together.

As much as magic is cool, relying on it for everything seems like taking too much of a risk.

With our plan in order, such that it is, we all take a breathe as we prepare to step out into the dangerous territory that is... our lawn.