New Markets - 02 (33 page)

When we closed in, the strong sense of bullying the small man flowed into me from all three.  I dropped my backpack nearby and walked the last ten feet up to them quickly.  My upper lip curled as my anger rose.

One of them glanced over at Megan and me.  The feeling of contempt became extremely strong from the three.  The one guy watched me walk up to him; he noticed the light in my eyes.

You want some bullying?  Let's see how you like it yourself, jerk! 
I slammed my palm against his chest and crushed him against the wall, a foot off the floor.

One of his friends said, "Holy shit."

Their contempt quickly turned to a mix of anger and fear.

I grit my teeth and felt the tingling flow through me.  All five mindviews of those near me darkened and gave me the same overall body backlight I had in the hospital with the scumbag mutant attacking Rael.

The man I held up against the wall screamed and wet his pants.  The other two stumbled back a few feet, and then ran off down the corridor.  The poor guy they were bullying slid down in the corner and tried to hide behind his knees.

I felt this rage in me about these scum.  I was about to enter his mindview and really tear into the guy when I realized that Megan was running away down the corridor as well.

I dropped the bully and stumbled back a few steps.  I shook my head a few times to try and clear it.  I looked back at the two men and then at Megan running off down the corridor.

I said, "Shit.  Megan."  I sprinted off after her down the corridor.  All three of them had entered the stairwell, though Megan was behind due to her heels.

I rushed in after her - she moved pretty slowly.  I didn't think I was that much faster than normal people.  I wrapped one arm around her and held her against the wall.  She struggled and tried to escape me, her eyes were huge when she glanced at me.

I held her there and concentrated on spreading calm and trust.  The tingling came quickly, and her breathing slowed down.  She hugged me and stuck her nose in my neck, smelling my hair.  I didn't push her away this time, and simply spent a minute hugging her.

I whispered, "I'm sorry.  I didn't mean to do that.  You're safe."

It took a lot of effort for her to pull back and look at me.

She was breathless as she said, "What - what in the hell did you do?"

"I ... I'm not sure, really.  They looked like bullies, and projected that when we got close.  It made me mad, so I walked up to push them away from the guy in the corner.  Oh shit, that poor guy!"

I ran back up the half flight of stairs and down the corridor to the guy in the corner.  Both he and the bully still sat there.

The bully saw me running back down the hallway toward him and scrambled quickly to his feet, then ran off down the corridor just before I reached them.

I took a deep breath, and then spent a moment focusing on spreading calm and trust again.  After a few dozen seconds the smaller man recovered and stared at me.  A few other students walking down the hall slowed down as we stopped and stared at us, but as with most people they didn't interrupt us.

The man, Dorrian, whispered almost in awe, "You're not human."  He held up the comic book he’d been holding in his hand, looked at it, and then back at me.  "Whoa."

I said, "Sorry about that, really I am.  I wanted them off you, not to hit you with that too."

"I ... god, that was horrible."

I cringed a bit, "Sorry.  I, uh, I need to get to class.  Are you going to be okay?"

He nodded.  "Yeah, I feel pretty good right now.  What's your name?"

"Psystar, but I'd rather that you didn't spread that around.  I looked pointedly at the comic book.

"Oh ... yeah.  Yeah.  I understand completely.  Very cool.  Uhh, thanks, I guess?"

I smiled and stood up, then held my hand out to him.  He took it and I pulled him up.  I noticed that Megan had stopped behind me again.  She had my backpack in her hand.

I winked at Dorrian, and then walked down the hall toward our classroom.  Megan handed me the backpack.

Megan said, "You
so
shouldn't do that.  That's really messed up."

"I ... yeah.  Not much I can argue against there.  However, you've got to admit, the bullies
did
stop trying to take the comic away from Dorrian."

"Err, isn't that a lot like using a flamethrower on an unruly crowd?"

"Oh, come on, no one's permanently injured like that would do."

"Well, true.  At least not physically."

"I still think they deserved it.  I'm just not happy about the collateral effects - like you and Dorrian.  Sorry about that."

"I'm ... fine.  I see why you did it.  It's just really, really awful to experience.  You'd be pretty scary in a packed theater pulling that stunt."

"Oh, yeah.  That'd get ugly."

We waited outside the class.  Kell, Trevin and Odes came along in a group and approached us.  Megan waved at them and said, "Morning amigos."

I gave Kell and Odes my normal quick hug, but I gave Trevin a great big hug, pressed tight against him.  Then I noticed him doing the nose-in-hair thing and pushed him back.  Kell raised an eyebrow at me.  He didn't say it, but was thinking,
Wow, since when are you two an item.
  I narrowed my eyes at him and shook my head.

I narrowed my eyes at Trevin.  I was pretty sure he made me hug him like that.  He just grinned broadly at me.

Professor Pomplun appeared shortly, and waved me into the classroom next to the one he used.  I grinned at him, mouthed 'thanks' and headed in there.

As I turned to leave her Megan said, "I wish I could hang with you.  You can't share those mind thingies, can you?"

"Mindviews?  Share them?  You mean take one person's and let you see it as well?"

"Yeah."

"I ... I've never even thought of that.  I'm willing to try - but not right before a class.  One or both of us could get knocked out for a while.  I tend to do that when I dig into people's minds."

"Bummer.  Okay, let's try that soon.  Besides, it could really help us all with the study group if you could do some kind of group mind thing."

"Yeah.  Group mind.  That's an interesting concept.  Hey, sit in the front row for me.  I might be able to talk to you.  I did that with someone the other day."

"And this morning for breakfast."

"Right!"

Megan headed into the classroom.  She had no problems obtaining a front row seat; those always seemed to fill up last, if at all.

The whiteboard in the classroom I entered was on the same side as the opposing whiteboard in Professor Pomplun's class.  I had to pick up a table and move it to reach the optimal distance - to just receive mindviews for Professor Pomplun, Megan, and a few others.

I pulled Megan's mindview to fill my entire vision and concentrated hard on talking to her.

I mentally said, "Megan, can you hear me?"

I heard her say, "Whoa, I hear you, Steph.  Wait, did you just say that or did I imagine it?"  I noticed that she had an image of my face speaking to her when she thought about it.

"I hear you, and yeah, I'm trying to talk to you.  Do you hear this?”

"Yeah, I heard that too.  Why do I feel like a kid with a metal can and a string going over to you?"

I laughed, "Yeah, I kind of feel like that too.  It's probably the feeling of a new toy."

"Do I need to do anything to talk to you if I want you to hear me?"

"No, although I hear so many voices it might help if you say my name once or twice first just to get my attention.  If we aren't already chatting, err, mentally, then assume it's like we are in a crowd and I'm not looking at you.  You have to get my attention first."

"Very cool."

Professor Pomplun began his class, and we concentrated on writing notes.

I was pretty excited during the class.  I had successfully talked with a friend mind to mind.  Perhaps the key was having the mindview pulled up close, though I hadn't done that before breakfast.

Chapter 17 – The Cell

Rael’s Viewpoint

I woke up, my head was groggy.  I lay on a table of some sort.  I tried sitting up, but something blocked the movement.

Looking down I saw a clamp holding down my biceps, and another restraining my forearm.  I felt more around my legs, neck and torso. 
Whoever is doing this isn’t taking chances.

A drip bag hung on my left, the tube running down into my left elbow.  I noticed that I still had on just the shorts I wore to bed.

The room was only about ten feet long and wide.  Very heavy bars blocked the only open wall.  I heard footsteps walking down the hall toward me, and quickly lay my head back and closed my eyes.

The footsteps walked past my room from the left to the right, and then turned around and went back the other direction.

I strained my left arm, trying to rip off the clamp, but it appeared to be extremely heavy duty.  The effects of the drug appeared to be going away, I felt stronger by the moment.

I extended my claws, sure enough the extra inch length on each fingertip allowed me to reach the clamp.  I dug my fingers into it, and they tore through the metal as they did everything else.  I did the same on the right arm to free each forearm.

I curled my elbow and wrist as much as possible to shred the upper clamp when I heard the footsteps quickly approaching.  I just finished the biceps clamps on both sides when I saw a man with a pistol.

We locked eyes for a moment, and the man began firing the needler pistol at me.  I quickly tore through the neck and chest clamp.  He continued firing darts into me.  I felt the drugs they had in the darts going through my system, the sluggishness came on quickly.

I sat up and reached for the leg clamps.  His pistol began making a clicking noise.  My torso was covered in tiny darts.

Then I fell back onto the table, unconscious.

Chapter 18 – Biology

Stephanie’s Viewpoint

Megan came into the classroom I was in after class was over.  I moved the table and chairs back to their normal position and walked over to her.

She said, "That was really cool, I even knew it was you!"

I gave her a quizzical look, "You have other telepaths contacting you regularly?"

"No.  I guess not.  Shall we get to the auditorium?"

"Yeah.  I'm just waiting for most of the students to clear the hall."

After most of the students were gone, we walked to Professor Stonewall's massive Biology class.

The first students already filtered into the large auditorium classroom.  I waited outside the lower entrance Professor Stonewall always entered the room through.  The constant flow of students into the room was distasteful, to say the least.  Mindviews constantly appeared and disappeared seconds later as they left my range.