Chapter 38: Startling Discoveries

Mid-August, 1986

Charlie’s POV: (Cont.)

With Rex, Jeremy and Willie all being called away to Chicago, and CJ seemingly trying to ‘help Willie’, I told the Family I needed to pay a quick visit to Zeus.

I needed to see just how much and exactly what kind of ‘help’ Zeus had actually given my son.

Since I’d only be gone from here for a few minutes, Mary was going to just tell everyone that I was going to my cabin for a bit. Bill, Sally, Emmy and their kids would be arriving shortly, so they needed to set things up for that.

Just as I was about to go, Mary was in my head, “Hang on a second, Sugar Bear ... I’m going with you. It’ll be easier to get Zeus alone if I help by getting Hera to take me shopping again!”

She was giggling. Something told me her desire to go shopping was the main reason she wanted to go! Who am I to argue?

When we appeared in Zeus’ area, Hera was thrilled that Mary was there. Within seconds they made their ‘excuses’ and popped off to parts unknown.

I smirked at Zeus, “Looks like we’ve been abandoned ... I really have some things I’d like to talk to you about, so, maybe it’s for the best?”

Zeus chuckled, “If you want to get into a private conversation, maybe WE should move to somewhere a bit more private. Have you customized your area in the 13^th dimension yet?”

I’d completely forgotten about that. “Ummm, no, I haven’t. We’ve just been either coming here or going to see Ibera.”

He grinned, “You KNOW, you could create your own domain in your 13^th dimension, just like Ibera has in the 5^th dimension, right?”

“Whoa! No, I didn’t. I just figured it was just another way for us to access Dimension or Time Travel. I can create an area like Ibera’s? Really!?”

“Come on my Son, let’s go there together and I’ll help you get started. It’s one of the ‘perks’ of being my favorite catalyst. Not to mention the fact that Hera and Mary can’t eavesdrop on us there!”

He told me to think ‘13^th Dimension’ and suddenly we were there.

It was weird.

It’s like we were just floating in space.

First, he told me to take my time and envision what I’d like my area to be like. My imagination wasn’t exotic right then, so, I imagined our house. ‘Poof’, suddenly we were standing in my living room! I looked around and everything was exactly like home.

Zeus chuckled, “Not very exciting, but, I like it. Let me try out your easy chair?” He sat down and smiled, “Ahhh, now, what have we to drink? I’ve never had any of your ‘imbibing’ grogs and the swill I have at home is getting old!”

I chuckled, “Well ... How about a Vodka tonic with extra lime? I’ve got some of that in the fridge.”

“Um, all ya gotta do is think it and we’ll have it!”

I did and sure enough, I had two of them in my hot little hands. I gave Zeus his and waited for his reaction as he took a swig. He puckered, then licked his lips, before taking another sip. “I like it! I think this is a bit weaker than my old grog, but it sure tastes a lot better!”

I made it a ‘double’ and had him take another sip.

“Wow! Much better! You’ve gotta leave me a bottle of this Vodka stuff and a bottle of that mixer ... tonic, you said?”

“Sure thing!” I said as I sat down in my other easy chair.

Zeus smirked, “Okay, Son, now ... just what’s on your mind today?”

I took a deep breath, “My son, CJ...”

He cut me off, with a light chuckle, “Ah yes, my ‘Little Apprentice’! I suppose his sudden maturity has you concerned?”

I was nodding and struck a smile, seeing his open admission of sorts about having ‘aided’ in it. “Yeah, about that ... it seems that mentally, he’s more like a 6-year-old than a 6-month-old!?”

“That’s partly YOUR doings, you know!?”

“HUH?” I was stunned!

He laughed, then patted my knee, “It started when you and your sister healed him after that bastard, Sherman, tried to kill him. You didn’t know it, but, your healing powers were never meant to be used on fetuses! When you saved him, his undeveloped brain was suddenly that of a newborn! Just like when you heal anyone, you ‘reset’ every bodily abnormality to its perfect functionality.

“Understand, since you’d already lost your Catalyst powers, the Healing Powers reset to full-restorative function. I’m sure you remember your wife’s sudden ‘virginity’!?”

I did ... but, I never understood why it had happened, since that and things like teeth replacement had never happened before. This made sense, and I believed now, that Zeus wasn’t trying to bullshit me.

“Ohhh, wow. I wondered how that had happened! Okay, that makes sense ... BUT, why did it seem like CJ suddenly developed wildly the second he flew into your arms when you were re-joining the two Bobs?”

He grinned, “Well, please forgive me, but ... when the little guy hugged me and gave me that little kiss, my heart just poured out to him. He told me how frustrated he was with his little body not being able to do what he wanted it to do. I gave him a mental ‘boost’ to that of a six-year-old. I also immediately elevated his status to full Catalyst, though, with the limitations that most of his powers wouldn’t kick in until his 14^th birthday. Some of the less powerful abilities will kick in before that, but, things like Teleportation, Time and Dimension travel will not. The only ability he has in that regard is to come and see me.”

He chuckled again, “He visits me almost every night! I told him last night that he needs to ‘tell things’ to his Daddy, too. He wanted to make sure it was okay, since he knows how he has to keep all of his abilities a secret! I can assure you he takes that very seriously.

“I also gave him a ‘boost’ in his understanding and now he has a nearly photographic memory. He’ll learn things the second you tell or show him something. His ‘IQ’ is nearly double that of Einstein!

“Anyway, I DID give him an ability I’ve never given anyone before. Understand please, your son has one of the purest souls of any human in history ... because of that, I gave him ‘Strength Multiplier’. This is similar to what your friend Greg can do, where he can multiply someones mental or physical powers up to ten-fold. CJ has that and can also use it for himself! That is how he can walk so well. I did that to help assuage his desire to try to fly! He was so cute telling me how his ‘Grandpa Lenny’ was telling him not to fly! I told him to listen to his wise ‘Grandpas’, but, maybe if he was a good boy, his Daddy might teach him some day!”

I gasped, trying not to laugh, “So, you threw ME under the bus! Or chariot, in your case!?”

He smiled, “Yes, but, let me tell you a little secret, my son. CJ’s deepest desire is to make you proud of him. If you’ll just talk to him, like your father does you, he will never purposely do anything to make you ‘not proud’ of him. I’m not saying you mustn’t correct his misdeeds, just, be gentle with him. A lashing with a cat-o-nine tails would not hurt him as much as thinking he’s disappointed you! Use that knowledge to both of your benefits. You DO have the most amazing son I’ve ever seen. I only wish my sons had a tenth of his goodness!”

We both finished our drinks then I turned him on to a sample of Greg’s favorite ‘grog’, Makers Mark Bourbon! One sip and he was hooked. He sheepishly asked for TWO bottles of that!

It looked like I was resupplying his liquor cabinet.

We relaxed some more, with Zeus begging a second bourbon, and I remembered another question.

“Oh, yeah, I DID have another question. My friend, Willie, had to go with Jeremy and Rex to talk to Dad’s and my friend TJ. It seems Willie’s bosses in the CIA need him badly for what I fear is a very dangerous mission. Just before he left, CJ, who also captured Willie’s heart, seemed to give or try to give him some ‘help’. Do you have any ideas about just what that could be?”

His eyebrows furled, then his eyes popped wide open, “Ohhh ... well, there’s only a few that he has that he COULD pass on, PK, Doppelganger and Multi-Me.”

Now I scrunched my eyebrows, “Multi-Me?”

He chuckled, “Here, let me demonstrate.”

Suddenly there were 5 identical Zeuses! “Point me out, if you can!?” He said.

I pointed at where he’d been standing. That one disappeared. “Nope, try again.”

It looked like a ‘shell game’, so I pointed at the one where I’d heard his voice.

That one disappeared, “Nope ... try again.”

There were only 3 left, but they were all facing away from me when he said it, making it more difficult to go by sound. When I pointed at the wrong one again, the rest of the identical images disappeared, leaving a laughing Zeus. “So, you see how this could be useful?”

I nodded, “Yes. So, those others ... were they like Doppelgangers?”

“No, they are all purely images of exactly what you are doing. Like a holograph, only much more lifelike. If you sit, they’ll sit. If you pick your nose, they’ll be doing it too! What you can do is mentally dictate where they are in relation to you. They are just images, however, nothing more. That could be very confusing to an enemy, though, wouldn’t you say?”

“Oh yeah! What about CJ’s ‘Power Multiplier’? Is THAT something he can pass on?”

Zeus held his breath, eyes lolling back and forth, “I don’t... think so. Darn it, you know, I didn’t think about that...”

I could only imagine Willie being ten times stronger! I might need to get with him and warn him...

Jeremy POV:

We popped into TJ’s office, after talking to him and insuring the coast was clear. I’d taken Willie’s hand, and he liked to crush my fingers. “Hey, Buddy, are you still nervous about teleporting with us?”

He shook his head, “Not really, why?”

“You liked to crush my hand! I thought you might still be nervous about it.”

“Ohhh, sorry, I didn’t think I was squeezing it all that hard. I’m still getting used to this stuff, but, I trust you guys, so I didn’t mean to.”

Willie looked at my hand and saw the blood was just starting to come back to my fingers. “Wow? Sorry Jer. It seems I don’t know my own strength!”

TJ had been watching in amusement. He held out his hand to Willie, “Nice to meet you Agent Monte, I’m TJ, SAC (Special Agent in Charge) of the Chicago branch of the FBI.”

I saw TJ suppressing a ‘Yeow!’ as Willie shook his hand. Looking at Willie, he was smiling and DIDN’T seem to be squeezing hard at all.

I began to wonder...

TJ chuckled tightly, “That’s one hell of a grip you’ve got there, Monte! Do you crush rocks for exercise?”

Willie looked distressed, “No! Sorry, I must have overloaded on my Wheaties today! Sheesh, this is embarrassing.”

“Don’t worry, I am glad you’re here. Monte, I take it you’ve met Lenny?”

Willie nodded, “Yes, what’s up with him?”

“He’s been watching all the things going down at CIA Headquarters. He’s certain that Franklin, who is now in Chen’s old spot, has been talking to E. Normistronzo. He’s also certain there’s this guy, an Agent Brad Marek, who’s like Franklin’s lap dog and has been promoted to Franklins old position. Do you know Marek?”

Willie nodded with a frown, “Yes, he’s a real weasel. None of my fellow Ops guys trust either him OR Franklin. Too many missions have gone south due to their faulty intel. It’s of course never ‘their fault’, but, they also never show any remorse that Agents have been killed or injured due to their ignorant plans. I’m glad Rodgers is gone, but, shit, they’ve gone from bad to worse!”

TJ sighed, “Well, just so you know, both the NSA and FBI are aware of what’s going on and we just need some proof of wrong doing and we can bring them down. That’s what we need your help with. I wish Charlie could have given you some powers, but, with your telepathy, just don’t be too proud to ask us for help. All of us will assist you. All you have to do is holler. Okay?”

Willie smiled at us, “Will do, guys. Oh, and just before we came here, Mary said she gave me some power to be invisible? I haven’t had a chance to practice it yet.” He was thinking, then added, “It was cute, too, but little CJ even said he wanted to help! I couldn’t help but hug the little guy. I’m glad I didn’t crush him, after seeing what I did to your hands!”

Ding! And the light came on!

“Ugh, Willie? Did you feel anything ‘strange’ when you hugged CJ?” I used air quotes.

“Now that you mention it, yeah. It was like a weird shock ... then ... Wow! I felt like a million bucks! Do you think he somehow made me stronger?”

We were all chuckling. TJ said, “He just might have! How much stronger than normal would a 3-month-old have to be to be able to walk? Lenny thought CJ had been using his PK to help his siblings learn how to walk ... maybe he’s just making them stronger!?”

Willie was grinning and looked at his hands in awe. “I’ll have to be much more careful. Ummm, Jer, I have this like vision of something called Doppelganger and Multi-Me. Do you have any idea what those are?”

I had no idea what Multi-Me was, so, when in doubt... “Hey Charlie! Que pasa Amigo?”

A chuckling Charlie replied, “I just got back after having a little meeting with our benefactor ... is Willie around, perchance?”

We were all laughing, “Speak of the ham-handed, bone-crushing devil, he’s right here! Care to enlighten us on your discoveries, oh Wise Grasshopper Guru?”

He was on ‘Broadcast Mode’ and fully explained Doppelganger, Multi-Me and how Willie may have come to accidentally crushing our hands.

TJ and Rex were asking how they might get these new talents. I had them, except the power-multiplier. His explanation on how to use them was very helpful.

Charlie chortled, “TJ and Rex, you guys will just have to talk to my son!”

When Charlie disconnected, we all helped Willie figure out how to use ‘Invisibility and Protective Bubble’ first, then we played with ‘Multi-Me’. I was playing with five ‘Me’s’ while Willie worked on four. It was going well, when Willie said, “I want to try something!”

Suddenly he disappeared, then five ‘Willies’ stood before us all dancing around. He had us try and hit him, or the one we thought was him.

We liked to throw our arms out of socket, swinging at air!

We could hear him laughing, but, his laughter wasn’t coming from any of the visible ‘Willies’. When we looked at where the laughter was coming from, he suddenly appeared.

“I just figured out, you can use this WHILE you’re invisible! If somebody was trying to shoot you, you wouldn’t have to worry that the bastard might get lucky!”

I tried it and was amazed.