Chapter 3: Getting a life again

I had taken one of the cars available for my own use and drove towards Las Vegas, but stopped for gas and provisions at a roadside gas station. I didn't plan on going straight to Vegas, but wanted first to meditate and do some soul searching away from everyone. The murmur of voices was always in my head, no matter how forceful a shield I put up. Out in the desert it should be a bit less noticeable, at least I hoped so.

I stopped on a dirt road a few miles to the side of the main highway and after eating and drinking a bit I sat down to use my power on myself in an attempt to learn more about what I had become. I already knew that I was quite a strong Telepath and Telekinetic, but how strong and what else? I just wanted to know. I also wanted to get some rest from all the voices and noise in my head.

As I meditated using my telepathic power to find my inner self, I didn't find anything at first. Instead there was something else there, but it eluded me for now. Then I felt like someone was watching me. 'Did some telepath find me? Am I vulnerable to an attack?' Slowly I began to see a few shapes, they weren't very coherent at first, but gained clarity within moments. They were the orderlies Steve and Herb, but I killed the body of one and the mind of the other! They came at me silently at first, though their mouths were saying something. Then the sound came, "Why did you do this to us?"

I snarled, "And why shouldn't I have done it? You miscreants were torturing people for fun. It was time someone held you responsible."

"No one appointed you Judge, Jury and Executioner," said Steve. "You are just as bad or even worse than us."

"That may be so," I replied, "but I didn't even kill you. I just gave you a taste of what I always have to endure. Someone should've helped me cope with that, instead of locking me up in an asylum to be toyed with by sadists like you two."

Herb, or at least a ghostlike figure like him, came near me, "Well you did kill me, and I'm not gonna let you get away with it. I'm gonna haunt you for the rest of your life."

"Well, do your worst." I snarled, "I can't undo it and I did what I felt you deserved." With that I mentally swiped an arm through them and they evaporated. I knew it wouldn't be the last I saw of them, but for now they seemed to be gone.

I turned my meditation back into myself and expanded my telepathic senses. It was time for me to find out how strong I really was with my telepathic power.

Trance was sitting at his desk in the Nexus when he felt someone enter his telepathic range. It was quite familiar too, he had felt the signature of this telepath a few times before, but only briefly and it had given him the chills. He also felt something that could best be described as psychic death cries associated with the outburst of this telepathic presence.

Trance put up a shield or barrier against any mental attack and thought, Who are you, and can I help you?

Who are you, that you can hear my telepathic voice? The unknown telepath replied.

I'm Trance, I'm with a group that want to help people with certain powers. Trance sent back.

I was surprised that I was contacted by a powerful telepath, as soon as I extended my telepathic senses. 'Who is this Trance and can I trust him? His name doesn't give me any reason to trust him. Better play it safe.' My name is Mindcontrol and I don't want to be helped. Leave me alone.

The man who called himself Trance sent back, I beg to differ, Mindcontrol. I can sense some dark things around you. Please allow me to meet you in person.

'There you go, another one who wants to enslave me and keep me under wraps.' I mentally shouted to him, No way, leave me alone and stop contacting me.

I felt Trance push a bit further with his telepathic power, which was quite strong. Then again so was I, so I pushed back with all my strength and determination. Maybe that determination was what won my first psychic battle. I pushed Trance back out of my mind and back into his. He was so strong that I couldn't peek into his mind, but I could keep him at bay and give him a bad headache. I got one myself, but I was already used to it from the dampening machine. I could feel Trance's power weakening, but my own wasn't up to any probing as well, so suddenly I dropped the push and retreated back into my own mind. Then I put up a shield that was supposed not only to keep other telepaths out, but also cloak my presence from them as well.

Trance was breathing hard from all the mental exertion the encounter with Mindcontrol had put him through. He had never encountered such a powerful telepath before, and certainly not been in a battle with one. He had a bad headache, and didn't even want to think of searching for Mindcontrol in his current state. After composing himself a bit he walked over to Sanura's room. Usually he contacted her telepathically, but he didn't feel up to it right now.

He knocked on her door and at her crisp, "Enter," went inside.

Sanura looked up in wonder at her late visitor. "Trance? Is there something wrong? You don't look well and normally you call me telepathically."

Trance sat down in front of her desk, "I just encountered one of the most powerful telepaths on the planet. Maybe even more powerful than me."

Sanura looked at Trance in wonder, she knew he was not one to exaggerate, but a telepath stronger than him?

Trance continued, "I sensed some very dark things around him. I tried to ask him to meet us so we could help him, but he rejected the offer and me. We battled for a while on the psychic plane and I must confess that he pushed me back into myself. Then suddenly he retreated and vanished without a trace."

Sanura interrupted, "Did you try to look for him, with your teleview, coupled with your telepathy?"

"No, I didn't," sighed Trance. "I'm too tired from the battle and if I push myself too hard now, I will not only be pushing my limits, but I would also be vulnerable to attack from him."

"I see, what can you tell me about him?" asked Sanura.

"He called himself Mindcontrol, which doesn't sound well. Maybe he is out to control other people, if that is possible. I also felt his signature in brief flashes before. And twice during those flashes, I felt some sort of a death cry with it. I don't know if that was him killing someone or if it was a coincidence, but I think it should be checked out."

"Do you have a direction for me to look?"

Trance sighed again, "Sorry, but it was a bit too much for me to do. Best guess is south to southeast."

"Well that narrows it down to almost two thirds of the United States, if he is indeed in this country," replied Sanura dryly.

Trance shrugged, "I know, I do think that he was in, or from the US, call it a feeling, and the fact that he 'spoke' fluent American without a noticeable 'accent'."

"Don't telepaths simply exchange thoughts during contact?" asked Sanura.

"You know that is a misconception, the telepathic voice is a product of the way you think. So if you think in English, your telepathic language is English. Though some people can do it multilingual, just like they can speak other languages." Trance explained.

"Okay, well I have my work cut out for me then," said Sanura. "I'll keep an eye out for rogue telepaths and mysterious deaths. Now, please take some rest. I have a feeling you may be up against Mindcontrol again someday soon."

"I fear the same, good night Nura."

As I recovered from the battle with that Trance guy, I rested some and had a drink and a snack. Sometime later I felt up to doing some more exploring and this time wanted to try my limits on Telekinetics. First I looked at the car I drove up in, but I would need that to go the rest of the way, so better not try anything that might damage it. Fortunately there was plenty of rocks around. I first started lifting some small rocks and soon had about a half dozen of them floating around. Then my eye fell on a very big boulder. I dropped the smaller ones and tried to lift the big one. At first it didn't budge an inch and I was quickly getting frustrated. My head started to hurt again, but I pushed on and finally the boulder started to rise. It rose almost a whole foot up till my power faltered and the boulder came crashing down with a big thud.

I panted from the exertion and rested a while to get my strength back. Then I started meditating again and looked inside myself for peace and quiet. This time I found something fleeting at the edge of my senses. I went after it and chased it around for a while, then I caught it and examined my find. It wasn't really something I could hold onto, but in my mind it felt a bit like it. It showed me a close up view of my car. I didn't understand so I went in closer and it vanished, at the same time I felt a bit torn apart and whole again. I started panting again, just like when I had exerted myself a lot. I opened my eyes and I was sitting in front of the car. But I had been several yards away before. 'What is going on here?'

Then I understood, 'I must have teleported from there to here. Wait a moment! I can teleport? Woohoo, I have another power. I should explore my limits on that one. But I have to be careful, if I don't teleport safely I might end up in a solid object. Or would I?' But I didn't want to test my new power just yet. I felt tired and sleepy. So instead I gathered my things and tried to get some sleep in the car.

I fell asleep in moments, but the nightmares started straight off. It was like watching several movies with the sound cranked up high all at once. It really bothered me and was about to drive me insane. Then I woke up in a sweat and realized that my shield was down. I hastily put it up again. 'Damn it, when I sleep my shields will go down. I am not protected against all the thoughts of people around me when I'm not actively conscious. But I do need to sleep. What can I do?'

I tried to sleep without losing consciousness totally and failed several times, but then I found a sort of meditative state that I could do, which gave me at least some rest and relaxation, without losing my control. It wasn't as effective as sleeping, but it would have to do for now.

A quiet but not restful night later I drove into Las Vegas and left the car in a place where it most certainly would be stolen and stripped clean within the hour. Then I walked up to the strip where all the casinos that remained were. The smaller ones went out of business as Telepathic and Telekinetic powers as well as remote viewing and such became normal with morfed people. Only the big casinos could afford the blocking devices to stop people from using any of those super powers.

As I walked up to the Bellagio, I already felt the pressure of a dampener clamp down on my mind. Fortunately I had lots of practice resisting such a device and was still able continue using my power. The dampener from the casino wasn't nearly half as powerful as the one in the asylum. 'Maybe the one in the asylum had been a newer experimental model?' Though it was adding to my present headache. I was already tired from my fight with Trance, my exercises and not getting enough rest. This exertion wasn't helping. Still I had one more thing to do before getting more and better rest. I needed money.

I had no problem getting in and looked around for a moment to decide with what game I should start. From the lobby I could see straight into the hall with all the slot machines in rows, ready to take the money. Well, maybe I should start there and get some seed money from them. The sign on the first row I approached said, "Electronically operated Slot machines. No Technopaths allowed here. Handling these machines with technopath powers is subject to fines up to 10 million dollars and imprisonment up to 5 years."

I frowned, I couldn't do much with electronically engineered slot machines, fortunately for technopaths they kept a series of older mechanical operated slot machines. I went over to this row and used my telekinetic power to read the discs and levers inside the machines.

Finally, after a while, I found a machine that would probably pay out within 3 to 6 operations. Unfortunately, an old fat woman was about to sit down there with a pot full of coins. I focused and nudged her mentally to sit a seat further. At first she resisted, but then she suddenly cooperated and sat down at the next slot machine. Quickly I sat down at the machine I wanted and sure enough at the fifth turn I hit the jackpot.

I smiled as people crowded to congratulate me. Now I had my starting capital to continue gathering more money. Right away an employee of the casino came up to me and asked how I wanted my money. I told him that I wanted half of my winnings to be held in a the casino safe and the other half in chips. Half an hour later I was given a bag full of high nominations chips and wandered to other parts of the casino. I noticed two new faces nearing me and my crowd.

The crowd had already thinned a little, only the down on their luck people who wanted see if they could steal or borrow some from my wealth still stuck close to me. One of the new people, a guy that looked like a geek, was most definitely a telepath. When he came near me the dampening shroud of the machine lifted, I guess he had something with him that overrode the dampening. Which meant he had a blocker that allowed him to use his telepathic power without fighting the dampening effect, and was almost certainly a casino employee. Indeed I noticed someone wanting to intrude into my mind.

I kept my surface thoughts neutral and in a bit of excited state, but closed off the rest of me with my very powerful shield. The telepath kept up his attempts to intrude further into my mind, while his companion, a good looking woman tried on one hand to entice and distract me, and on the other talk me into gambling at other things. She asked if I wanted to do blackjack or roulette and other things. I just smiled at her, "Not right now, thank you. I guess you're one of the hostesses that is here to keep the whales happy and gambling. Well, I would like you to secure a room for me. I will be staying for a few nights at least." With that I brushed her off and went on.

The telepath followed me for a little while longer, but then disappeared into a service entrance. He probably went off to report his findings. I walked on through the rooms, debating what I was going to try next.

"Ah, Conklin! What did you find out about our slot machine winner?" asked the supervisor from the casino.

"Not a lot, his name is Danny Montro. He may be a telepath or have a high resistance against telepathic probes. I could only pick up his surface thoughts, he resisted further intrusion. It felt natural to me, so either he is a very strong and skilled telepath to be able to function with the dampener in place. Or what is more likely, he has a natural shielding and was lucky at the machine. If he was a telekinetic I think I would have picked up on it and the machine was not tampered with as far as we can determine."

The supervisor heard the report stoically before responding, "Okay, do keep an eye on him. I've got a feeling. But don't interfere with him for the moment. We will see if this was a stroke of luck or something else."

The telepath nodded and turned around to resume his rounds.

I neared the craps table and decided that I could try this next. I stood at the table and watched for a while as the shooter tried his luck. I felt the rolling of the dice with my telekinetic power and after some minor manipulation felt confident enough that I could control the dice without showing any tampering to anyone looking. I placed a small bet and through just plain luck won my bet. Then I let it ride and carefully manipulated the dice so that I won again. I placed a small bet on another outcome and lost.