Chapter 14

"Good," said Phillip reassuringly, "that's four, you ready to try for five?"

Since I was pretty busy maintaining my armor while holding four soccer balls in the air I just grunted my reply while nodding slightly. I had broken out in a light sweat with number four and it took several long seconds before it hovered steady but now all four were rock solid in the air. I was pretty sure I could handle another one.

"Okay, catch." He didn't wait for me to try and raise another ball, instead he threw one, hard, right at my head. This wasn't new and I had gotten pretty good at stopping objects in mid air, but this was the first time I tried it while concentrating on several other things at the same time. About the only thing I did right was to maintain my armor so I didn't get a black eye when the ball slammed into the side of my face. I'd been so flustered I hadn't even dodged effectively.

"Hey! No fair!" I protested as the balls bounced all over the garage.

"Haven't I told you to expect the unexpected?"

"Well, yeah ... but what if I hadn't kept my armor up? I could have been hurt."

"Yes, you could have, and the next time you certainly wouldn't have made the same mistake."

"Yeah, yeah." I grumbled as I retrieved the scattered soccer balls. While Phillip and Alek's personal philosophies differed immensely, their training techniques were remarkably similar in that they both believed in the school of hard knocks. I had to admit it was effective, but it sure made screwing up suck.

Phillip, still believing I was a straight telekinetic, thought that by teaching me how to focus my thoughts and perform mental manipulations without seeing auras (which he conveniently forgot to mention) he had taken my psychic training as far as he could and now focused on what he considered to be my rather unimpressive telekinetic abilities. Truth be told, by normal standards, my telekinesis was very sub-par, but then normal Telekinetics couldn't do the other things I could either.

My mother and I had done some telekinetic training on the sly and I had been shocked at just how poor my talent was compared to a strong Telekinetic like her. While we both could manipulate things over twice our body weight, she could do it from as far away as fifty feet but I could only manage it if I were nearly close enough to the object to touch it. Further, her range was the same whether the object weighed in at her maximum or was just a feather while my ability was dependent upon proximity and weight – the heavier something was the closer to it I had to be. I still had mass and momentum on my side though, so whatever I could move up close could be launched quite some distance, however once it had left my sphere of influence I had no control over where it would land.

My limited telekinesis did have one advantage; Phillip was so disappointed that he was only showing up about one Saturday a month for training. I kept expecting him to send a telekinetic talent to train me but so far it had been just him. Alek felt that it was because he hadn't reported my existence yet – citing the older man's penchant for holding his cards closely to his chest.

"How about a rematch?" I asked, tossing four balls into the air and concentrating hard, though I tried to look nonchalant, held them in midair with my mind.

"Are you sure you're ready?" He asked walking over to the remaining balls lying on the floor.

"Of course," I answered, still concentrating hard on holding the four balls, "have you ever gotten me twice?"

"Well then, if you're ready."

Using a sliver of unused concentration I watched Phillip out of the corner of my eye, waiting for him to bend over to pick up a ball. Instead I heard the sound of something striking a soccer ball and without any warning other than that, there was an object flying towards my head. The sneaky bastard must have realized I was watching him and kicked a ball at me rather than throwing one. I did manage to catch it.

"Got it!"

"You did? Looks to me like you're still only holding four balls."

Shit. In my excitement at catching the kicked ball I hadn't noticed that one of the balls I had already been holding had escaped and was even now bouncing across the floor. Irritated at my apparently false bravado, I angrily flicked out a tendril of thought and brought the ball back to hover around me.

"There! That's five – happy now?"

"I will be, if you can explain how you just picked up a fifth item without even thinking about it, when earlier today it took you hours of intensely focused concentration in order to manipulate a fourth object."

"I ... I don't know. I just did it." The balls wobbled slightly while I tried to puzzle it out.

"Could it be that you were frustrated with your failure and instead of spending hours agonizing about how you could possibly do such a thing, you simply did it?"

"I ... well ... I suppose that might have something to do with it." I replied meekly, remembering the several times I had been berated for over thinking whatever it was I had been trying to do, lectures that had come, not only from Phillip but from Alek as well.

"Yes," he added with a wry grin, "I suppose it just might."

His phone rang, he answered, his voice low, but I could still overhear, "Hello? ... I'd hoped to hear from you ... Wonderful ... You have made a wise choice, my friend ... I'll be in touch soon."

He put the phone away, with a smile on his face.

"That will have to wrap it up for the day." He said.

I picked up the bag that the soccer balls were stored in and held it open while guiding the balls into it.

"Got something important to attend to?"

"Oh, no." He said quickly, "merely a reminder about an appointment – nothing monumental."

I managed to continue filling the bag with balls while my mind raced.

Phillip had lied!

One of the first things Alek had taught me was to use empathy to be alert to certain emotions that are involuntarily connected with lying. This was the first time he had directly lied to me. He didn't know whether or not I was able to determine if someone was lying and up to now he had always been very circumspect when trying to deceive me. Had he been so caught off guard by his call that he hadn't the presence of mind to talk around whatever it was? Why had he felt it necessary to deceive me?

Of course I had no idea what he was really up to and after a few minutes I decided that, rather than there being something nefarious going on, he had just come to the conclusion that I did not have the lie detector ability and had just stopped being so guarded.

I momentarily considered establishing a hard link and trying to divine what was really going on – experiments with my mother had shown me I could connect to another talent and pick up and even influence active thoughts without advertising my presence. But the risk was too great – if I were discovered I wouldn't be the only one to suffer. So, I merely watched as he went out to his car and pulled away.

"So how did it go?" asked my mother, coming out while I was still watching the street.

"Another object lesson on my propensity to over think details and lose sight of the big picture, other than that I think I did pretty good – levitated five balls at once."

"Almost there, most of us can only levitate around six. For combat though, the goal is generally not more than two or three. Even then, only one with any real precision."

"Why's that?"

"Moving things around takes more concentration than simply floating them and you'll have to maintain a shield as well. But remember, your combat is different than mine. I grab heavy things and whip them around bashing the enemy, you will be launching things on a trajectory then forgetting about them – we should spend more time working on your aim and control."

"I've been thinking about that. Your method is akin to having a couple invisible warriors running around bludgeoning the unshielded psychics while mine is more like sitting back with a ballista or a sling. Almost like having a gun – except this one can't be taken away in the first moments of battle." She had explained that, while most talents arrive at a confrontation armed, guns are the first things to go flying along with most other hand held weaponry.

Shields were a defense against almost anything, but a bullet with enough muzzle velocity could get through. Trying to fire a gun from within or behind a shield robbed too much velocity from the round as it punched it's way through the invisible wall. The minute someone aimed a gun the telekinetics on the other side would know the shield was down, at least around the weapon, and the gun would yanked from the wielder's hand.

My shield was only effective against the smaller, slower calibers if I wore it very close to my skin, and even then it only spread out the impact. I surmised that being shot would, at the very least, leave nasty bruising and a shot to the head would likely result in a severely fractured skull.

"I'd say those are pretty accurate analogies, what were you thinking?"

"What if I bring my own ammunition? I mean, I can't always count on there being enough items close at hand and, in case whatever I've thrown lands too far away or has any real weight at all I won't be able to keep using it over and over like you can."

"You do have some unique limitations."

"What do you think about billiard balls? They're round so they'll will fly true, they're not very big so I can carry quite a few of them, they will definitely do damage wherever they hit and they're light enough that I can re-use them even from a good ways off."

"Sounds effective but it's sort of an expensive solution don't you think? Those things aren't cheap."

"I don't need new ones, or even complete sets, I figured on hitting garage sales, pool halls ... things like that. I think I can build up a decent stockpile of used balls without spending too much. The trick is going be finding someplace to practice. I don't think you'd appreciate a bunch of billiard balls launched across the living room"

"You're right there. You know, I like that idea, it might be worth practicing this with you, we can both practice launching and blocking, with our shields up we shouldn't be in any real danger."

"Should be fine, we can use the field out at the old quarry." I answered somewhat distracted. I was considering telling my mother about Phillip's lie but opted against it. I was sure our cover wasn't blown or we would both be dead by now.

Before we could plan our joint training a stunning redhead of my intimate acquaintance came around the corner.

"Jake!" she said immediately, using the tone of voice that told me I had just fucked something up. "You're not even dressed yet – did you forget tonight is Kristen's birthday party?"

"No, I didn't forget," I said as we headed inside, "I just got done training and the party's not for a couple hours yet."

"Men!" she exclaimed looking at my mother, "It hasn't dawned on him that we haven't gotten her a present yet."

"Ohhh..." I groaned, "Shopping? Are you sure you want me along for that? You know what lousy taste I have. Why don't you take mom and pick up the present while I get ready?"

"Nice try." She said, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

"Did you really think that was going to work?" chuckled my mother.

"Not really, okay, you two stay down here and tell embarrassing stories about me while I go get cleaned up.

"That's a good boy." Quipped Samantha, giving me a kiss on the cheek before I bound up the stairs to take a much needed shower.

A few torturous hours later we parked in front Kristen's house and walked up to the door carrying her present. After visiting every store in the mall we had finally gotten her a ... well ... to be honest I don't know what the hell it was. I was pretty sure she would wear it, I just have no idea how or, for that matter, where. Samantha said she would like it so I went along. All I knew for sure was that it was blue.

"So are you ready to make Kirsten pay for all her snide remarks?" Asked Samantha as we made our way to the front door. "You wouldn't believe the crap she gave me for talking to you. That bitchy little control freak was almost as bad as Tiffany."

"Are you sure about this? I meant it when I said that you are all the woman I'll ever need."

"Yes, I'm sure. Do you mean to tell me you don't want to fuck a hot, perky little Asian girl? And even if you don't, I do. After all this time being in the squad with her I can't wait to get into her pants."

"Well ... sure I'd like to fuck her, she's sexy as hell, I'm just saying I don't want to do anything that may ... concern you ... I mean, you don't seem like the jealous type, and this whole grudge fuck thing has been your idea – but ... I don't know, I'd be okay with just making her crawl a bit if you don't want me to..."

"Jake." she said abruptly, taking my arm, stopping us and looking at me seriously. "I know you love me. That night I overheard your thoughts planning to change me, I felt it – and the love I felt from you is every bit as true and deep as mine is for you. So I'm not worried about losing you to any of these bimbos. But if it's making you uncomfortable we can stop. I told you I don't want to give up pussy, but I'm sure I can find girls for us the old fashioned way if you don't like using your ability to do it."

She paused, thoughtful for a moment, then grinned wryly.

"I'm pretty new to having a boyfriend, I guess I bought into the stereotypes and just assumed you would want to get with as many hot girls as you could, and you have the power to let you do just that – I suppose this was my own clumsy way of letting you know I'm cool with sharing, I know where your heart is. That said, I really want to do this to Kirsten, she was awful. The rest weren't really all that bad but she deserves it."

"Don't feel too bad. The stereotypes have it right, I think about fucking any number of hotties every day. What do you think about when you're walking behind Susie Monroe or watching Ms. Anderson really getting into a lecture?"

"Or chewing the end of her pen." She added with a lusty glint in her eye.

"The thing is, I think about it, I want to do it, and to be honest, if it weren't for having you in my life, I don't think there's a pretty female at that school who would be safe – and quite likely any number of the not so pretty ones too. But you're the most important thing. I love you and now that I know how you really feel about it, it takes some of the pressure off, but I don't ever want to feel as though I'm too distracted to give you all the attention you deserve ... and I certainly never want you to feel neglected in any way."

She snaked an arm around my waist and tilted her head up to give me a kiss.

"You're so sweet. Don't worry, I'm pretty sure I know how to get your attention."

"Okay, okay, if my screwing a hot girl will make you feel better about the balance of the universe, well ... sometimes a man must sacrifice for his lady."

"Putz." she said slapping my shoulder, "besides, if you don't do this, you're not the only one who'll be deprived of Kirsten's pleasures, remember, Mike gets a piece of her too. As long as you're sure you can make Tiffany okay with it."

"It'll be the first time I've tried controlling more than one person at a time, but I think, given the preliminary ground work I've done with Tiff and Kirsten, I'm up to it. Just wait for my signal before starting anything."

"No problem, if you can't do it, just have Mike and Tiff take off." she agreed as she reached for the doorbell. "If we have to have her all to ourselves, so be it."

"Hi guys," exclaimed Kirsten, her white teeth flashing a happy smile that glowed brightly – at least at Samantha. When her gaze crossed mine there was a hint of disdain clouding her sultry, almond shaped eyes. "We take our shoes off in the house around her, it's a custom my folks brought with them from Korea. There are house slippers over there. Everyone else is already here."

I was suddenly glad that Samantha had talked me into this. The petite girl was gorgeous and as we followed her into the family room my cock swelled at the sight of her tiny waist and long silky hair. She was wearing a short skirt but I knew that she had a tight little round ass underneath.

It was only a few steps and we were in the heart of the party. I had to pause for a moment to come to terms with the surreal visage. At the beginning of this school year I never would have been welcome in such company. But now – well, most of the biggest jerks had been tempered, but even then, I still would have been rudely and pointedly ignored at best and at the very least, asked to leave. Of course I wasn't exactly the guest of honor, but at the very worst I was being politely ignored and I was sure Mike was getting the same treatment.