Finding A Rhythm

(Carter POV)

Variety. Something people would tout as the spice of life. I never thought the same. I always enjoyed when things could be predicted and how I could just coast on with the routine.

I never wanted things to change, even if change was inevitable. Like how I could get up, eat the same breakfast, do the same routine day in and day out, and be satisfied with that.

Even with the entirety of the omniverse at my fingers eventually, I wondered how I would change over time and how little of the current person I was would remain. With every perk I get, I become "better".

Better memory, enhanced strength, increased understanding of the universe, etc., etc. , I wasn't complaining. Still, it did bring into thought how much I would have to change over time and how little I could completely understand being immortal.

Even if I didn't get any perks, that would make me ageless as long as I didn't take any drawbacks that rendered me an older man. I never had to worry about aging out, so I was technically immortal. The never-ending back-and-forth in my mind consisted of me questioning if I was OK with changing myself.

I spent months pondering these questions as I practiced my telekinesis, as after the first month, I could lift a small car. After the second month, I could lift an entire shipping crate full of heavy items.

Then came the third and fourth months, where I found that my telekinetic aura had developed to the point where if someone were to try to stab me with a knife, it would simply just bounce off of me.

The progress was being made, and thanks to the powers being one that can grow on their own in combination with my lifting yourself up perk, it made my progress increase at an exponential level.

The story of the world had definitely changed thanks to Andrew, who never developed telekinesis. He was never hospitalized, and without him being hospitalized, his mother wouldn't go into shock and then die.

It did help that Andrew received a donation from an anonymous donor who bankrolled his mother's surgery to get rid of her throat cancer. Luckily, the cancer hadn't spread to her lymph nodes and was still curable but it did cost over $40,000.

But at this point, with all of my investments and all of the cash I made, it was barely chump change. I almost laughed at myself, considering how $40,000 was chump change to me now.

It was a euphoric feeling to see how far I'd come with just a little bit of future knowledge. Andrew eventually found out it was me. He was smarter than he let on, and I did make it easier for him to figure it out as the day he told me about his mother. His mother coincidentally was able to be rushed up the surgery line.

He confronted me about it, but all he asked me was one question containing only one word.

"Why?" It was silent but asked with complete seriousness.

Staring at his face as multiple emotions crossed in front of it, I grabbed myself a small glass of water from his cupboard .

"Because I could?" The nonchalant response did seem to throw him off.

"I didn't need your-" Andrew starts to retort, but I cut him off.

" Before you start talking about how you didn't need the money, which I know you do, it cost me what was essentially 40 bucks to you." I then pulled out my phone and showed him my bank account, and as he saw the six zeros, his eyes widened.

I grabbed a chair for him, and as we sat down near the counter, he just sat there silently until he started crying in happiness. I simply stood there and waited for him to finish.

It took him around 10 minutes to get himself back together enough to form a basic sentence. He thanked me, and I made nothing of it as it cost me nothing.

I was getting something out of it, at least that being the piece of mind. And with Andrew's mother's cancer gone, his father managed to get a job at an office. Seeing the change in Andrew, I no longer saw any signs of bruising. I did make sure to keep an eye on the family to make sure there was no relapsing or backsliding.

Andrew eventually told his father, Richard, about my generous donation, and when I was invited over Richard, the abusive father of the movie, came and hugged me and never stopped saying thank you during my time there.

It was nice, to say the least, and in terms of school, I was doing really well. Having a perfect memory really did help with work that mainly included just remembering stuff and recalling things on paper.

The bullies would try their best to embarrass me, such as trying to throw literal crap at me or find embarrassing photos of me, or just straight up trying to beat me up.

But as my telekinesis grew, I was able to keep a field over myself at all times, and any time they would try to grab me, I would "slip" out of their hands. I always made sure that if this were ever to happen, I destroyed their phones and fought in places where there were no cameras.

Even the bully drawback wasn't able to make the teacher so incompetent as to take only eyewitness accounts of me, beating them all up, and who would think that a scrawny-looking guy like me could fight off seven people at once?

So yeah, thankfully, incompetence works both ways, and after I beat all of them up, they stayed away, and while they did try to go after Andrew, I made sure that I was there to keep them in line.

Not to mention, I may or may not have threatened the leader to drop him into a volcano. Honestly, they were just so forgettable that I couldn't even keep their name straight. and since I didn't kill any of them, the drawback couldn't spawn any more bullies.

So, before I could even blink, the school year had already ended and I graduated with honors. I could've gone to any college I wanted, but I didn't see the point as why would I want more work when I already had enough money to live thousands of lives.

What I did do was invest in the insurance company that Andrew's father worked at, and since I told him to tell his bosses that he convinced me to do it, he actually got promoted and now works a well-paying job.

I did subtly let him know that I knew about what he did to Andrew before his wife had her cancer treated, so let's just say he's gonna be on his best behavior. If there's one thing I could barely stomach, it's child abuse, but I didn't want to complicate Andrew's family any further.

Steve went on to get into law school as he wanted to be a lawyer before trying to go for political office. Matthew, on the other hand, drifted for a decent amount of time before becoming a manager at a Walmart.

Thanks to Richard's new job, Andrew was able to get a few tickets to go to Europe and then to Tibet. I asked if he wanted me to go with him, but he told me he needed to do it on his own. Knowing that I could check on him when I needed to, I saw him off as his plane left.

I did leave Andrew an emergency fund in case he needed some cash in Europe, and after that, it mostly just evolved into me practicing my jumping in telekinesis.

And that's why I find myself now sitting in the junkyard, looking at one of the derelict shipping crates.

I held out my hand, and with a crushing motion, I felt as if the material resisted, but I simply just focused further, and second by second, I saw the metal crumpled under the weight of my telekinesis.

It felt like crushing a tin can, and I knew the next step now. I looked at the sky and saw the cloudy sky. Focusing my telekinesis on my body, I tried to counteract Earth's gravity, and as I did so, I felt my head begin to hurt, but I pressed on, and soon I looked down and saw my feet a few inches off the ground.

Practically ecstatic at the sight, I giggled to myself off the high I was getting from simply floating above the ground. I knew that being able to fly in comparison to everything else wasn't much, but it meant a lot at the moment.

Dropping to the ground, I did trip due to how woozy I was feeling because of the mental strain. But I was already improving as the most challenging part about learning new things was just getting my foot in the door, but after doing so, my perks would make improving a much simpler process.

So, during the second year, I mainly spent time improving my telekinesis. I did make sure to balance the training, though, as I still needed to improve my physique and make sure I stayed in shape.

While, thanks to my perks, I could never truly grow out of shape, I could still lose my edge. I practiced and practiced and found a couple of months into the second year that I could fly while controlling multiple objects at once.

When I did manage to fly at a consistent rate, I always made sure to wear masks and clothing to cover myself and conceal my identity. I also ensured that I never went high enough where I had to deal with planes.

Sitting atop the space needle, I focused on trying to trap oxygen in my telekinetic aura. I was going to need this in case I ever found myself diving into the ocean or somehow finding myself in space without preparation.

Such things are why I don't actually drink because I'm afraid that I'll accidentally teleport myself into space. But putting those start aside, I focused on levitating ten cement blocks in a circular motion behind me as I focused on remaining entirely still.

What made this exercise difficult was that I wasn't just focusing on sitting still; I also repeatedly teleported while keeping those cement blocks in a circular motion. So in one second, I was on the space needle in the next, I was on top of Mount Everest, and in the next second, I was sitting on top of the Statue of Liberty.

I continue this process every single day because when you don't have to worry about washing yourself, going to the bathroom, or going to school, you find out that you have a lot of time on your hands.

But as I practice my abilities, I never find myself growing bored of improving, so I just continue to do it. Each day, I was inventing a new way to enhance my telekinesis.

To anyone else, this would seem very dull, and it might be boring even for me, but I very much try to convince myself that it's not. Besides, when could someone say that they went from lifting a small baseball in a couple of days to lifting entire trucks within months?

Having access to teleportation and telekinesis was an enriching feeling as I could feel the various options I had, even though most of them included, just lifting someone up or lifting something up to throw at them at the basic level.

I knew for this reason that I was special. I had to be.

I had to be.

With that thought, my final teleport came to a stop inside my apartment in Seattle, and as I set all of the cement blocks down, I did the one thing I always enjoyed doing, and that would be sitting on my balcony and watching the sunset.

Seeing its golden glow on the horizon fade into the dark. It was a breathtaking sight. Just staring into the sky was enough for me to forget and just to exist. I still had eight years to go, and I promised myself that I would at least lift a building by then.

I knew I could probably do more within eight years, but I wanted to set a baseline for myself, like a mandatory quest, with anything past that just being bonus objectives. There were no times for fun and games when dealing with supernatural powers, after all.

( I am considering the next jump will be the movie Limitless, then Aladdin, followed by Monopoly and Farmville. And before you guys ask, no, he won't be going for Princess Jasmine. I have some plans in mind for romance, but they're in the planning stages still.)