1.1

1.1

When I woke up the first thing I did was make an orb of mana, just to make sure the whole thing hadn't been a dream. I let it disperse and laughed, I really had some crazy magic power, watch out world! Then I realized it was noticeably easier to do than last night. I doubt that sort of growth would keep up, good to know it does grow, but it added to my suspicions. I started mumbling to myself to sort my thoughts, "I don't think I'm like the average parahuman, they go from no power to sudden super powers, nor do I think the power grows after it shows up. I mean, how do you get 'better invulnerability'... Then again what do I know? I'm not exactly a cape geek."

I furrowed my eyebrows as I ran through the attempted kidnapping from yesterday in my mind, "It feels like my mana had unconsciously made a mental shield early on, which would explain both the odd ESP I had and why I wasn't affected by the fear aura until after everything exploded - the shield broke. Note to self: figure out how to make a mental shield. Just another of the million and a half things to add to the list." I sighed "Guess I need to pull out a notepad. Having some documentation I can look back at could help. How to hide it... heh, that's actually the easy part. I've been wanting to make a new magic system for a campaign Greg can run with his D&D pals, This way I can record it and even get some advice pretty easily. It'll even double as a spell list goal." I nod to myself and roll out of bed to find a pocket notebook for ideas and a larger notebook to compile everything. "Well, first thing's first. Shower and clothes, then I can worry about phenomenal cosmic powers."

The best place for inspiration is the shower. I've had most of my best ideas just taking a shower in the morning. This morning was no exception. I gathered and compressed mana into an orb in my hand. I couldn't really feel it other than the tingly sensation but if I waved my other hand through it I could feel the mana I had gathered disperse into my aura. "That's no good..." I focused on the orb I compressed again, this time I focused on hardening the outside into a shell, compressing all the power until it had as solid a physical presence as I could will. Suddenly there was a flash and I was holding a weightless bright emerald orb and my aura was draining frighteningly fast. "Oh shit!" Terrified that if it drained enough it would also 'eat' my core... which as far as I could tell was 'me' I let go of the concentration holding the construct. It immediately disconnected from my aura and instantly consumed itself in an attempt to hold it's form. "Well... That was interesting. I guess I can give them a sort of 'program' and I would assume at varying strengths, but they consume mana to run. It probably ate so much because of how hard I tried to make it. I can work with that."

An attempt to program a spell with 'Repair' and aimed at the broken lock on the bathroom door resulted in... nothing. It didn't even try to consume mana. "So, I guess it has to be a very clear and simple instruction." Satisfied with the new information I decided on one more test before finishing the shower. A few minutes later I was holding a spinning orb I had tapered to a point at front and back - which lead to a realization that complex constructs were going to be impossible for a while. It was all I could do to elongate the form to have a point on both sides while holding the hardness and spin impression on it.

Once I had the construct stable I crammed the rest of the mana I had control of into construct as a sort of 'battery' then let it go. It stayed floating there spinning for about ten seconds before it consumed itself and dissipated into nothing. A grin locked on my face as I let ideas bounce around and percolate while I finished my shower.

The rest of the morning was uneventful. After the shower I got dressed, typical street clothes - jeans and a green t-shirt, then grabbed my notepad and notebook to make some notes while I had cereal. My parents were avid church-goers so I didn't have to worry about them for a couple of hours. They typically had lunch with a couple of the other families after service.

While I finished up breakfast I listed what I knew about my magic system in the notebook, though I left out the growth by use - that would be too powerful in a game setting which I needed to keep the illusion of in case someone read it and so I could get some other ideas. Once the magic system info was listed and formatted to look like a game setting I took out the notepad and started making a list of goals. "Obviously the favorites would be flight, teleportation, invisibility, projectiles and aoe attacks. Aside from that we have status effects and other augmentation type things. Pocket dimensions. Maybe summoning? But hell, I have no idea how you would even -begin- to go about doing that. Probably some crazy combination of punching a hole through reality, dragging a creature across the rift - hope it survives the journey - and hope to god there's a spell to bind it to your will. Sounds just a -little- out of my depth." I rolled my eyes at myself "Alright, less 'godly powers' and something more useful to a mere mortal. Armor manifestation of some sort... so a mana shield. Mental shield as well. A training method I can use more often - the meditation training is great but I have a lot of downtime in school, it would be convenient to have a way to train without lighting up like a miniature neon blue-green sun... OH! Illusions, those are bad-ass if you do it right. Some sort of augmented sensory beyond what I naturally get from my aura." I listed down a couple more pages of ideas and fleshing out the ideas of how some would work. It left me with a somewhat severe problem "I need a place to practice actually using this stuff."

"Ugh, I really can't think of anywhere to practice. Any abandoned building is either going to be home to some homeless guys, or some sort of drug base. There's the junkyard, but a few explosions and someone's going to come check. There's that abandoned farmhouse outside of town but again, probably has a drug lab or something set up there. I read on PHO some newbie capes try out the docks but if that's common knowledge it's just a terrible idea..." I had gone back up to my room and flopped down on my bed thinking of solutions "Okay, so hiding out of view is out, leaving hiding in plain sight. How do you hide something like this in plain sight? Can't really do a juggling act - besides, to test how to use these I'd have to be throwing the balls at people and that just won't go well." My eyes started traveling over my room until they landed on a model pistol and suddenly widened "HAH! that's it, I mean not that, but that's a perfect idea!"

I jumped up and dove into my closet digging around until I found a few toys buried under years of other junk and pulled out an old toy ray gun, it had lighting sections and a dial for different 'fire modes'. The battery had died within the first week but that isn't important. A grin spread over my face and I dug around for some black and silver model paint.

Roughly twenty minutes later I had cleaned the clear plastic 'light' sections, and had left the main body painted black with silver accents. I also cleaned up and smoothed the trigger function and added some small metal bars to add weight to the toy, disabled the stupid ray gun sound and replaced the battery for the lights. I could have tried to simulate the lights with mana but I just didn't have that much control yet. "Heh, now the only excuse I need is to say I found some broken tinkertech - just gotta make sure I don't do much damage so it seems useless" Sure someone might steal it but what would I care? Besides, I can focus on aim and programming - which is the main point. I can practice other aspects at home in the evenings.

"I guess the best place to practice would be the junkyard, it's a feasible place to have 'found' useless tinkertech, there's plenty to shoot and there's barely ever anyone around." I nod to myself then practice making my mana bolts until my parents get home. When the door downstairs opened and I heard my parents walk in talking about someone named Susan I dispersed the mana bolt I was currently toying with. I tucked the 'gun' in the back of my pants under my shirt and slid a hoody on - I might find something worth picking up there and big pockets are severely underrated. I walked downstairs and waved "Hey mom, dad, I'm headed to the junkyard, I want to see if I can find a mostly whole car battery and belt" well, it's partially true, if I happen to find them I'll definitely take it, I have a little robotics project in the basement that could use them.

Dad gave mom a look so mom answered "Fine Will, but be back before dark, and if you have any more romantic rendezvous with super heroines make sure to introduce them to us."

"Yeah yeah, I'll bring my cell so when I irritate her I can call you to dig me out of the car I end up wearing." I give mom and dad a hug then take off saying "I'll see you guys at dinner!" and make my way to the junkyard. There aren't many people on the way. There just really isn't much to do around this side of Brockton Bay, most of my age group hang around at the mall or the movies, some of the more 'daring' types like to explore but personally that's just a good way to get yourself shot.

When I get to the junkyard there's a guy milling around on the outskirts digging in some of the piles. I've seen him here a few times, we're not exactly friendly but not hostile either, more of a live and let live relationship. I make my way further back into the area until I can find a place cleared out enough to practice. In a bit of irony the merchants have actually been slowly clearing out sections of the junkyard, they have a couple of capes that make use of some of the typically useless stuff around here.

It's pretty easy to set up some targets from all the junk around. I pull the ray gun out of the back of my pants, turn it on, then focus on generating an orb at the barrel tip, giving it an impression of speed in a direction - specifically, the direction of the target. I take a guess since I've experimented a little with this. The orb has no physical presence but physical impact can destabilize the construct. Releasing a large amount of energy with no program to tell it what to do should cause a shockwave. I nod to myself now that I have a plan for what I expect to happen, I watch closely to see how accurate my guess was. I let go of the 'spell' and pull the trigger at the same time. The foxfire projectile travels about a foot before it explodes in a shockwave practically right next to me. Luckily it wasn't overly powerful, it was just bright - though if it would probably hurt if it had exploded on contact rather than as far away as it did.

I slip the gun into my pocket and pull out my notepad to note beside the entry for 'foxfire' "Air resistance can destabilize the damn thing - consider slowing or adding a shell".

Trading the gun for the notepad I give it another go, this time adding a thin shell over the orb. When it fires it flies true and strikes the car door shattering the shell and destabilizing the orb of mana immediately releasing a small shockwave, just as predicted! Still I laugh because it WORKED.

Next was a mana bolt like I was playing with this morning, though with a very weak shell and almost all power applied to speed. It looked almost like I had shot a bolt of lightning, though the only sound was a small *pop* from the care door. On contact with the door the bullet's entire structure simply shattered and with so much energy consumed by speed not enough was left for a shockwave. It was like shooting a ping pong ball at a tank.

Over the course of the rest of the day I learned a lot about my magic and developed several spells, though I failed at developing a hundred more. The primary spells were Mana Bolt, Foxfire, Fairy Light and Boost. I also learned I'm going to have to increase my magic power quite a bit, right now if I gather my full power for a single full powered Mana Bolt I would guess mine is about on par with a standard hunting rifle. It's nothing to sneeze at but with the cost and cast time I could only fire roughly six shots at full power before I consume my mana pool. I've also found I'm getting better at commands I use often, like directional force, and the better I get the more cost efficient I can make it - it's almost as if it takes less to keep the program solid the better I can visualize and understand the 'command'.

I read over my notes after putting away the gun, mumbling under my breath, "Mana Bolt - Harden shape to desired penetration level and include double energy to hold shape on contact. Apply roughly 1/10th of total speed to rotation. All remaining power applied to speed."

"Foxfire - Create an orb of compressed mana, apply a shell, strength dependent on speed of projectile. Toss, launch, lob, etc. toward a target. On contact the shell breaks and physical contact destabilizes the construct releasing any remaining energy as a shockwave [Note: attempt to build an 'On Contact' command that does not trigger from air resistance.]."

"Fairy Light - create a weak orb of mana, the only command is 'Light'. It becomes a light that floats in place, it has no physical form but physical 'damage' can disrupt it. So little mana is used it only makes a soft *pop* sound when destabilized [Note: add a shell and additional power if it's windy]."

"Boost - wrap a shell around all or part of an object tightly and apply force in a direction instantly consuming the entire spell. Equal power applied to the shell and force. The sudden release of power makes the affected target glow for a moment [Note: use on self is probably dangerous without careful preparation - need practice]."

"I swear I've smiled more in the last two days than I have in half a year." I mumble through a grin. I put the gun back in the back of my pants and search around the junkyard to try to at least get my hands on a drive belt before heading back.

After a few minutes searching I felt someone behind me - my paranoia saved me. I spun to the side just as a tire iron came down where my head had been and rang out from the dead engine of the car I had been searching. Immediately I took a fighting stance and brought my fists up. There was a big guy in front of me, bad teeth tattered clothes, the works. He and his crew looked like they'd be right at home with the merchants. They also -smelled- like they'd be at home with the merchants. "U-um... where I'm from you say 'Hello' - y'know, with your words, erm, unless y-you can't talk, in which case a wave is great. Bludgeoning almost never comes in with the whole greeting thing... just um, so you know." Oh great, I was rambling and apparently insulting someone who is armed and with backup and my adrenaline was cranked up to 12 out of 10, my heart felt like it was going to punch it's way to freedom through my ribs. I've only been the victim of bullying twice, it ended pretty quickly - it's hard to bully someone nearly twice your size. I've NEVER been involved in gang violence or a situation where I could lose my life. If that had hit, my brains would be all over that engine.

A couple of the guys in the back apparently thought I was funny. I didn't see the humor, I could barely think. My first thought was to disable the guy in front of me but the other guys could have guns and I had absolutely no illusions that I'd win against a few people with guns. "L-look, just, um, I'll give you my wallet, whatever you want, I didn't know this place was yours, I-I'll just leave and no problems alright?".

Tire iron man looked vaguely amused before he spoke "The tinker gun. Now, boy. Then we -might- let you go." That's about the moment my brain decided step back into the room - just in time to kick itself for being stupid. I pulled the gun out with two fingers and dropped it on the ground and stepped back from it - I wasn't all that concerned about losing it, but I had to re-evaluate how much people want useless tinkertech.

"Yeah man, I just found the damn thing, doesn't even do anything more than make a stupid light show," I tilted my head toward the targets I was firing at saying "Been shooting it at those targets half the day, barely even a scratch. I think it's broken".

Tire iron man stepped over and grabbed the gun, switching it on with a laugh "Damn thing looks like a toy, crazy ass tinkers." His smile turned dark and he pointed the gun at me, at which point I rolled my eyes knowing what was coming "Let's test how 'useless' this is why don't we? - tell ya what, if you survive we'll just beat the shit out of you. Sound good kiddo?"

I just nodded in agreement, my adrenaline dropping into slightly more comfortable levels. I watched his finger and when he pointed the gun at me I was lucky the barrel was just within my influence. If it didn't work I'd probably be screwed after all. When he pulled the trigger and held it I started building a mana orb on the barrel of the gun - When the guy let go of the trigger I slammed my eyes shut and immediately sprinted through an opening in the junk. The orb had converted all energy into a single burst of light and exploded into a brilliant blast of neon green light effectively blinding the group. I sprinted out of the junkyard, and though I heard cursing behind me they weren't chasing me.

Once I made it further into town toward home I stopped and collapsed against a building breathing hard and sweating, "Sonofabitch" I sat there gulping air and trying to calm down. The rest of the adrenaline leaving my system left me jittery. Then I started giggling, and eventually laughing - drawing a few odd looks. Through the dying laughter I said to myself "I forgot my goddamn homework!" I went through a near death situation and here I am thinking about school. Once the laughter finally trailed off and took a deep breath and let it all out in an explosive sigh then stood up to walk the rest of the way home. Maybe I could get home in time to do my homework and still get in some meditation. "Heh, this crap is going to push me into sleep deprivation." I shook my head "Well, lets get home and get it done"

When I got home I told my parents about the homework issue so they didn't bother me much. I locked myself in my room and did my homework while I ate dinner. I looked over my notes again and wrote up a few questions to ask Greg and his pals, then moved things aside for my meditation after I heard my parents go to bed. Meditation tonight focused on growth of the basics - control, mana pool and mana recovery. I'd need a lot more power before I could even deal with common thugs. I gave a sigh before I threw myself into the meditation training, eventually tiring out and barely managing to crawl into bed for the night.

AN: I didn't read over this one as much as the first. Let me know if I missed something or something doesn't seem right. Thanks guys, hope you enjoy.