Foresight level 1

Dan was obsessed. This Aaron kid was clearly hiding something, and Dan spent the next few days trying to learn everything he could about him.

It turned out there wasn't much to learn. Aaron had been at the Academy for years, and his story matched most everyone's. He was an orphan from somewhere in Europe and he had been saved and trained by the Academy. His marks were good, he seemed to have a close circle of friends. Nothing suspicious.

And yet, Dan saw that face and those wings. He knew Aaron was somehow connected to those monsters... he just didn't know how, or who to tell. Lily had been distant lately, as she was integrating with her class more (truthfully, Dan was busier too), and he didn't know if this was something to share with Cedric or the Director. Was it all in his head? Was it safe to trust his powers, or the Quantum System? He decided to keep an eye on Aaron, and to try and learn more about his powers.

His team scored high enough in the quarter finals to make it to the Semi finals, and the match was soon. 'Come on Dan, get your head in the game', he thought to himself.

The semi finals were different than the earlier rounds. Now, instead of a team battle, they had to complete a timed challege. They would be scored most heavily for speed, but creativity and skill would earn points too. So far they didn't know what the challenge was, but Dan heard that other years usually did a variation on capture the flag. Except they weren't trying to stop the other team, just get the other flag as fast as possible.

Dan was in the training centre with Caleb and Peter, working on some drills to improve their speed and coming up with stategies for different scenarios. Dan realized it was strange that Peter and Caleb were relying on him for this; he was never much of a 'plan ahead' kind of athlete, always letting coaches and captains come up with the plays. With his new power though, and the Academy training, he seemed to have become a natural strategist. Probably because his power made him uncomfortably aware of how many ways things could change in just a moment.

"Do you really think the scenario will be protecting a non-combatant," Peter said, sweat dripping from his chin. They had just finished a high intensity interval training circuit with burpees, rope climbing, deadlifts and sprinting... they were all exhausted. After each circuit they would catch their breath while discussing their plan.

"Probably not, to be honest, but it would be really tough on the protector team," Caleb said, also sweating.

"Right. Like we said, it is good to have a strategy for extreme cases. Then a regular capture the flag run will seem easy," Dan said. He was tired, but smiling. Pure exercise came much more naturally to him than all the fighting and marksmanship at the Academy. "The way we've been trained for combat, I think the other team would expect us to make a formation around the client and try to cover all sides. That's why only one of us should accompany the client, while the other two run a zone defence far ahead. I think the other team would be clumped together, or have set up a kill box. Either way, the lead units will find them or trigger their traps, and the protector and protectee will have a better shot of slipping through."

"Yeah, if you don't care what happens to the forward team." Peter said, looking a little surprised.

"No no, the forward team knows what to expect. If we anticipate properly, the forward team can take out the whole other team, with no risk to the client we are protecting". Dan had to admit that he did like thinking about scenarios, and seeing them play out. He was definitely getting better at it. Even without his power.

Dan looked over at Caleb and Peter, and thought '[Foresight]'.

Immediately his view was overlayed by the system display, floating in space directly in front of him.

[Initiating Quantum Skill: Foresight Lv 1]

Dan's view of Caleb and Peter didn't disappear, but now he could see the blue ghost images of them, and the whole room in fact. Unlike with his regular ability, he only saw one ghost outline, and it was following them exactly.

[Foresight: 80% likelihood]

Suddenly, Peter's ghost image moved quickly towards Dan, or Dan's image, and it executed a pretty fast punch to Dan's arm. It was different than his regular ability, which all happened in real time. Dan couldn't tell if the images were moving really fast and his perception speed had increased, or if time around him had slowed down except for the images. Either way, Dan's arm was moving on it's own. Way too late to stop the ghost image, and actually too fast to block Peter's punch properly.

"Oww, what was that for," Dan said, as Peter's punch connected with his wrist. It hurt a lot.

"Dude, I was just going to tap your shoulder. Not sure how you spazzed your arm in front. I swear I didn't see it there."

"Sorry man, I was zoned out there I guess," Dan said. He wondered if this power was even going to be useful, so far he'd only managed to injure himself worse than if he didn't know the future. If he could get the timing down, or understand it better though... a few seconds insight was the difference between life and death maybe.

He thought about his skill again,

[Foresight]

He looked at the room and everything was outlined in blue again, but nothing was happening. He glanced towards the door and saw Cedric walk through.

"Hey Cedric," Dan called out. Of course, it was just Cedric's image he'd seen.

"Are you ok man," Caleb said to Dan, a worried look on his face. Then Cedric did walk through the door, and Caleb looked more than surprised. 'Dan, you always seem to know things... what is that, exactly?'

Cedric looked at them curiously too. He'd heard Dan call out, but there was no way he could have seen him in the hallway approaching the door. Maybe he'd made more noise than he thought... but still, how would know it was Cedric?

"Hello cadets. I came to check on your training, and tell you that your next opponent has been chosen," then Cedric smiled. "It's about to get a lot tougher".

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Deep in a dark void, where light refuses to shine, a denser darkness stirred. The cosmos is mostly empty, millions of lightyears of near blankness with nothing but debris and radiation to most observers. Of course, this was especially true in Imus Universe, the deepest, and newest, addition to the multiverse. It's vast expanses had not yet been taken over and populated by intelligent observers, and thus there was a near infinite expanse of places to hide within Imus (and from the greater multiverse).

She smiled, and the blackness was broken by that quick flash of white.

"The powers are finally awakening here. What will the factions do, I wonder" she said to no one, her sinuous form coiling around herself. "Will He reveal himself? Will the forces of the great divide come and lay waste to this nascent universe... Will I need to wait for the next Universe?"

Nearly every civilization, in every universe, had tales of her power, cunning, and cruelty. Gods trembled at the suspicion of her return, and the regular residents of the cosmos didn't believe the ancient legends. Legends that told of the destroyer of worlds.