Chapter 16

The inquisitor shook with rage, his face a mask of pain and frustration. It was only through the sheerest effort of will that he kept himself from lashing out at those around him. "Send him in." He ordered.

The strike officer entered, still wearing his combat suit, albeit without any of his weapons. Not even an officer of the guard was allowed to bring weapons into the cloister.

"Evans! What the hell happened out there?" The inquisitor demanded.

"Sir," Evans said, giving his superior a pert nod. "It was some sort of gathering. There were at least five greater powers on that balcony, and maybe twice as many lesser powers. We never really stood a chance against them."

The inquisitor stood and began to pace. "Do we still have a lock on them? Do we know where they've gone?" The satellites under the church's control could track anything above a minor power by reading the energy emissions and tracking the albedo of the power.

"We lost a few of them when they crossed back over to Avalon, but the rest of them moved to an even larger gathering in Athens, centered on the Acropolis. That gathering lasted just under an hour before breaking up."

The inquisitor nodded slowly. This was bad. It was rare for any powers to work together, instead they tended to fight amongst themselves in their private conflicts seeking control and influence over each other. There hadn't been a coalition of powers this strong in over two thousand years. Not since Jehovah destroyed the last of the pantheons.

The old gods were greater powers that maintained humanity in helpless thrall, using them as nothing more than a source of power, and enforcing their worship with absolute authority. Humanity had been little more than slaves. The powers hadn't wanted anything more; a slave worshiped and did what it was told. That was enough.

But humanity demanded more. In the east a mortal named Buddha had a vision. He saw a future where humanity was no longer slaves to the powers, but free to grow and prosper and become more than they were. He found the eightfold path, and passed this knowledge on to others. Even with his death, the message he taught spread further, and he his followers raised him in status to a divine being, an object of worship. At that moment he was born again as Jehovah, a power of the realm. And he now knew how he could bring about the future he envisioned.

Jehovah had come to humanity, seeking to free them from the slavery imposed by the old gods. The humanist prophets had agreed to his plan, and the mass conversions had brought a million worshipers to his cause. With this new power he crushed the old gods and destroyed their pantheons. But that war had dragged out for a millennia, and had forced humanity to fight against itself on such a scale as had never been imagined.

The powers that fought against Jehovah drove their followers to fanaticism and extremist actions. It was a bitter time for humanity, for although they had been freed from their bondage to the old gods, that bond had only been given to another. That Jehovah had benevolent designs made little difference to those forced to spread his worship to the ignorant masses.

Then Jehovah had devised his greatest gambit. He would not even need to defeat his rival powers, instead he would seek to enlighten and advance humanity. He believed that humanity would become powerful enough in its own right to defeat any powers that sought to enslave them. Western society exploded with innovative ideas as humanity began to learn more of the secrets of science. Humanity became the masters of their world. And so Jehovah withdrew, content only to intervene when all other options had been exhausted, tempering humanity to face things on its own, and driving them to succeed.

The church forged new weapons capable of directly killing powers, something which had once been thought only possible with the holy artifacts provided by Jehovah. Times changed, and many of the powers were driven entirely from the earth. An uneasy peace settled between humanity and those that remained. Jehovah, inspired by the journeys of discovery made by his followers, had left on his own quest for knowledge, trusting in humanity to take care of itself.

The church still retained the artifacts empowered by Jehovah; weapons which would destroy even the greatest of powers. But those weapons had not been used in centuries, and few scholars had chronicled their use. The inquisitor couldn't even be certain that they would still work, and knew nothing about how to activate their power. Nevertheless the home of the church was protected by wards established long ago. The strength of these protections had waned some since Jehovah abandoned his throne, but their power was still terrible. No power could enter the inner wards without being destroyed.

"What about that other anomaly?" The inquisitor asked.

"When we first spotted it this morning it only rated a five point seven on the albedo scale. Now it's closer to nine point three. We've never seen anything like it before. No power has ever been recorded as being able to change its albedo potential." Which meant that powers couldn't fake being weak, or pretend to be stronger than they actually were. "Whatever that is, it rose close to four points in less than a day. And the potential is still increasing."

The inquisitor knew that the more potential a power had, the harder it became to increase that potential further. For a power to show such an extraordinary increase, the potential of this one power must have doubled five times. A terrifying thought. "Anything else?" He asked.

"It hasn't moved out of North America, and you know how the Americans are. They won't tolerate our agents inside their territory."

The inquisitor had an unbecoming moment where he cursed vigorously. "At least they've never failed to take care of their own problems." He said at last, sighing and moving on to the next inquiry.

I took a quick glance around the darkened street, watching for anyone who might accidently witness me teleport, and finding nobody, moved myself home. I didn't teleport right to my house, instead using a small wooded area across the street to hide my arrival. Crossing the street, I turned up the drive and came to a sudden halt.

There were police cars in the driveway.

The first two were standard black and white sedans. The first was emblazoned with 'County Police' on the side, while the second was the more regular city police vehicle. The last car was an all black sedan that I didn't recognize. It certainly didn't belong to anyone I knew.

Had I been found out? Did someone see me using my abilities and report me to the authorities? What would they do to me if someone had? I didn't have any answers, but I felt confident that I could handle anything that came up. At least I hoped I could. I was still somewhat nervous about walking inside but I knew I couldn't put it off all night, so I steadied my resolve and approached the door.

The instant I slid my key into the lock the knob turned and the door sprang open. I looked up and met the glowering eyes of my very anguished mother. She instantly went off on me. "Where have you been!?" She shouted. "It's two twenty in the morning! You've been gone half the night. What the hell have you been doing all this time!?" She demanded.