1.2

1.2

Monday wasn't too terrible so far, but I had only just gotten to school. I brought my notepad and notebook to go over some ideas with Greg at lunch. I stashed my bag and everything I didn't need until later in my locker then headed to class. On the way I nearly choked, there were hundreds of silver hair-thin strands of light spreading through the hallway all-of-a-sudden. It reminded me of the aura I saw from Glory Girl, but this one 'tasted' more like ironclad control.

Looking closely, the strands went through the walls, the ones he could most easily make out seemed to end on people around him, some people had two or three strands but the more I looked the more it seemed EVERYONE had been affected... which left me with a bad feeling. I looked around myself - though I got a few odd looks for it - and managed to find there was a strand attached to his back. It was all I could do to keep from making a scene and sprinting out of the school like my life depended on it.

Under my breath I said to myself "Okay, just... just act natural. Someone's doing something to the students-" a teacher passed and I saw a line attached to her "And staff. Just because someone is trying to influence everyone in the school doesn't mean a super powerful master is trying to take over the school for the young hostages." I nodded to myself accepting that I was lying to myself and looking on the bright side... it's a good chance to test what interrupts mind altering effects.

Aaaand I should write that down in case said master makes me forget. I made my way quickly to class and took my seat, immediately pulling out the small notepad and after turning to a clean page writing in somewhat large letters 'Build a shield to block silver threads!!! NOW, IMPORTANT!!!', then tore it out to place it on my desk. There now if I forgot I'd immediately know there's a problem.

I breathed a sigh of relief, then closed my eyes to start focusing on what I could feel of the 'commanding tendril' through my aura. When I focused on it, it felt very similar to my aura so possibly some sort of modified aura? I know I can't restructure mine into a shape like that, at least not yet. It also seemed to be pulsing so maybe it's issuing commands? 'Urk, I really hope not...' Another alternative - It could be alive, some sort of mana based organism and it's just siphoning off a bit of life force to stay alive and it'll be on its way, yeah, that's a much happier thought than super master of doom.

I let my head fall to the desk with a thump that earned me a couple of giggles. 'What the hell is wrong with my life? I practically get assaulted by Glory Girl, then I almost die due to a misunderstood mugging, and now the -good- possibility is my school has a giant astral mosquito.... Alright, alright. Focus. We wanted a mental shield anyway. The first idea would be to reverse the pulses I can feel but even -if- it worked, it would only work for this thing and it'd take all my concentration. Not a good plan.'

I heard the teacher droning on, something about welcome back, weekend and some book report this week. I tuned him out again and started making some loose aura shields. Sudden glowy shields would probably stand out a little in class. Once I had one built and programmed with the impression I thought would work I pushed it through the tendril, and.... no effect, the silver thread just acted like the shield wasn't there. So let's try another idea...

By lunch I had tried upwards of fifty different ideas and structures, but I finally managed one that was FAR too complex for real use, but I was happy enough to just be free of the damn tendril. The tendril wasn't like one of my spells, it was more like my aura. It didn't have much strength so a thin wall was enough, but it had to be programmed to let nothing 'astral' through. The problem there was if I built that around me I'd light up like a Christmas tree from the buildup of mana I naturally generate. The solution was... odd. I built airlocks into the structure that I had to vent every few seconds and if anyone passed close enough to me I had to quickly rebuild the section of the structure they collapsed. Needless to say, today had been very VERY stressful, but as long as no one touched me I was free from control!

At lunch I grabbed Greg and sat him down, then I sat across the table from the confused guy. Greg opened up with "Um, Will, what's up man?"

I produced the large notebook and placed it in front of him. It had been updated with the new spells and commands I had built... other than the mental shield - going to redevelop the thing later. As Greg opened the page I told him in the best evil mastermind voice I could manage while keeping my focus on the shield "I need your IDEAS" when his eyebrows raised as he was reading through I said "You play more games than I do, you should have a pretty good- Hurgh" I started attempting to cough out a lung. 'Damnit, I think I swallowed a stupid fly'. I let my shield fade with a soft *pop* that couldn't be heard over the din of the cafeteria - there was no way I'd be able to keep venting the mana build up while trying to eject my lungs.

Once I got my lungs under control I glared at a laughing Greg. A few other people were laughing, but I blamed Greg anyway. "Just read the damn notes, I need some ideas on how to make things work better and ideas for new commands and spells. Remember the commands have to be simple."

I started slowly rebuilding my clunky shield when I saw a tendril headed my way. I chose to ignore it and pulled out my little notepad to write a few ideas on. "The thing I'm stuck on right now is astral attacks. I need some way to block them, preferably with some sort of enchantment setup - without interrupting the path of mana regeneration. Anything come to mind?"

Greg looked up from the notes, his eyes shining, "This is pretty awesome, a little clunky though, you need units of mana so you can compare how much maximum aura you have, how much can be controlled and how much you regenerate. Without some sort of unit it's impossible to keep track of. Even strength has units, it's measured in how many pounds you can lift." He looked back down the list then tilts his head saying "You already have a command that does directions, why can't you just apply force to anything that isn't 'away'. That would let anything pass through one way... or does that not work for astral things? You may need to apply a sort of Astral force, or maybe you could list astral as a target type so 'force' can be applied as one or the other... though I guess that's really the same thing."

After thinking about it for a few moments I shake my head "Nah, won't work, the spell can only apply direction to itself"

Greg hunched his shoulders and his eyes lost focus as he thought for a while then said "Y'know, you need to log processing costs for these 'commands'. I don't see anything keeping you from having a 'split' command. You already have a command to apply a 'command' to clean mana, it's how the constructs stay around, they eat the 'battery' you talk about here, which is basically just refreshing their code right? If that's the case you can create a spell that casts spells - the problem is you have to feed it. Well that and you'd get no experience from the spell it casts since you're casting the master spell, not what it's casting."

I just stared at him shocked 'Wow, I feel kinda dumb right now...' I shake my head laughing under my breath "Alright smart-ass, keep going. Enchantments. chop chop." he laughs and holds out his hand for the pen, which I toss to him. I let him doodle around in the notebook while I toy around with how to create an astral shield spell using the ideas he gave me.

My restructured shield falls apart as I focus on building the new idea 'Start with the battery, give it enough power to build up the outer sensor layer of... hell let's make it a thousand sensors linked together. Make the battery system like a host, the sensors just feed from the battery orb as needed. I'll have to keep feeding mana into the battery orb at all times. It'll take focus but it's necessary. The sensors just let mana through like that first shield, but they measure direction and force. If it feels mana that isn't moving 'out' it constructs an astral shield behind it, then applies equal and opposite force on contact with the astral shield.... ugh this is going to take me an hour just to -build-'

I get Greg's attention then say, "alright Greg, Write down any ideas you come up with, I'll get it from you after school at the science lab. And thanks, I was stumped."

I stood up and started heading towards the classrooms hearing Greg say "Yeah man, anytime" behind me. the halls were clear other than a teacher's aid heading toward the cafeteria so I went into the men's restroom and locked myself in a stall to skip the next class and build this stupidly complex astral shield.

Roughly forty-five minutes later I had a brand spankin' new Astral Shield spell and I was damn near ready to kiss Greg's feet. If I had to keep up my version any longer I think my head would have exploded. Now I just had to carefully balance the power level of the power orb, low enough it doesn't glow, but high enough to power the shield.

I looked up and gave a smug smile to the silver tendril wiggling against my shield. Then I blanched. A mosquito kept flying into my shield, then moving out, when it left, the tendril lashed out and sunk into it. Then the mosquito would turn around and come back into my shield only to leave the tendril behind again. I hadn't noticed the mosquito before, I thought the tendril was just attacking my shield trying to get to me. "Oh fuck me. He can link with people AND bugs. This is -not- a good day... alright, nothing to worry about, just have to avoid him for three more classes and I'm outta here. If the hostage thing happens I can probably manage enough to free Greg at least." I let out a sigh telling myself "Suck it up, stop talking to yourself and get to class." Which I did.

The rest of the classes weren't much trouble, particularly now that I had the new shield - Seriously, it's like going from buckets and a well to having water on tap. The last class ended with no problems other than now I was being followed by -three- bugs... I'm a little worried I may have drawn some unwanted attention. "Alright self, don't worry, we just have to meet Greg at the scie- Urk!" I looked up and there was a giant silver glowing sea anemone in front of me with countless tendrils trailing off in every direction. And the girl inside it was looking straight at me.

I turned and... well I attempted to run, I slammed into a shorter black girl, who then slammed into Emma Barnes. I only knew her because Greg pointed her out to me one day. I can be a little clueless when it comes to that silly social hierarchy thing. Emma got tangled up with the other girl and a couple of... I guess their clique? that's what School gangs are called right? Anyway, I noticed all of that in the second and a half it took me to say "Sorry!" and keep running.

I became a little more worried because I'm pretty sure Sea Anemone Girl just used her master powers to crank the anger of the girl I ran into up to 11 since now I was running through a crowd and away from not only Ms. Sea Anemone, but also an angry tiger in a short girl's body... and I'm pretty sure this won't go well for me, I think I've seen Tiger girl on the track team. The silver lining? No one else was trying to stop me, so it's possible Sea Anemone could only control one at a time. Also there was a whole lot of laughter - though that seemed to just fuel Tiger Girl the rage monster into running faster.

I saw salvation! It was in the form of a middle aged teacher standing just outside her classroom yelling at me about running in the halls. I put on a burst of speed and dashed right by her into her classroom and slammed the door behind me, then flicked the lock in place and collapsed into a desk just in time to hear a primal scream from the other side. There was some commotion outside the classroom, and I remembered around that moment 'teachers often have keys to their classrooms'.

The door unlocked and Tiger girl burst into the classroom screaming "YOU! Your ass is DEAD!". I blinked and had to keep a smile off my face as my mind supplied me with an image of me holding her back by the head while she flailed at me.

The teacher - I think her name is Mrs. Fletcher, walked in behind her, a little shocked by the threat but she says "Ms. Hess has made a complaint about your conduct. Why did you assault her in the hallway?"

Okay, this one took me by surprise. I narrowed my eyes to look between her and 'Ms. Hess' to make sure this wasn't some joke. When no cameras popped out and no one started laughing, I stood up, now practically towering over 'Ms. Hess' and looked pointedly at the teacher. "Ma'm, I don't know if you noticed, but I was -running away-. That is nothing REMOTELY close to assault." There was a little laughter from the hallway until Tiger turned around and it abruptly stopped.

Mrs. Fletcher seemed nonplussed and went on to ask "Then, Mister Taylor, why were you running in the halls?" I had to do a double take before I answered and pointed at Tiger "Just in case you didn't notice... There was a demonic tasmanian devil possessing a little girl's body screaming for my blood like - oh - ten seconds ago." I actually heard Tiger growl that time. I immediately continued "I have a -wonderful- idea, you want someone to punish for the situation and I want to get home before demon girl finds a knife. Give me detention tomorrow and hold her here for five minutes so I have a head start to get home safely. Win-win" I can see a smile on Tiger's face, it wasn't the happy kind. That smile was a promise that I just got the worst kind of stalker ever. The kind that wants to find out where you live so she can take her time killing you.

Mrs. Fletcher sighs and says "Fine, Detention tomorrow for running in the hallway." I didn't point out that she forgot to issue a detention to Tiger for the same reason.

I turned to Tiger just to make sure "So... I get a five minute head start right?" She rolled her eyes and walked out the door.

I know you should never assume, but I'm pretty sure that's as close to 'yes' as I can hope to get. Now let's just hope Anemone isn't waiting for me and that she doesn't have another minion lined up. I look towards the threads hanging around and trace them... and they're going towards the door I was running for. Nope, changing directions -back- toward the science classroom.

I -walked- with powerful long strides, yay for semantics, I'm not running. I made my way to the doorway of the science classroom where Greg was setting up with his pals and the teacher to get some extra credit done via cleaning up the mess the other students left. "Hey Greg, I gotta get going, got five minutes until demon girl tries to stab me."

Greg looks up and adopts a decent impression of deer in the headlights, then shrugs it off. He knows my humor is a little odd. "Taylor's got 'em, she said she was going to get them to you. How'd you manage that anyway? I swear she just disappears the moment class lets out every other day."

I give him a shrug "No idea, maybe she wants to stab me too, she might tag team with 'Ms. Hess' for the opportunity."

Greg's eyes widen in shock "SOPHIA Hess?"

I step back into the hallway "No idea, but I gotta run, see ya man!" and I 'power walk' out the door -away from- the origin of the fancy silver tendrils of angry doom.

Once I make it out of the school I'm running the rest of the way home. I feel like I've been doing a lot more running than normal. Feeling it too, man my legs are burning. Also, great news, the Sophia girl didn't drag me into an alley with a knife. Though to be honest, outside of school I'm not that worried. I'm near double her size so I'm pretty sure I could take her, though she seems the type to go for 'anything to win' style combat so I'd probably get clawed and bitten. Better to just avoid the whole situation.

I greet my parents then head upstairs to my room and finally let the Astral Shield dissipate and I can feel the load off my mind. I flop onto my bed and let out a content sigh. "Well, master girl - probably Taylor based on what Greg said, is either recruiting for a gang, or just happens to be a cape in school with an absolutely terrifying power. Probably why she's not a Ward actually. No one would trust someone like that. Alright, I'm going to assume average teenager with terrifying power that auto activates but she doesn't actually do anything with it... aside from maybe make Sophia into a rage monster. That can't be natural." I sat up and dumped out the books I needed for tonight's homework. Around that moment my phone rang.

I closed my eyes and muttered "No... No Greg, you didn't." I pull out my phone and look at the number... 'I don't know that number'... "Damnit Greg!"

I consider it for a ring then give it a 'what the hell' and answer the phone. "Hey, I don't know this number so - whatever you're selling I don't want any."

A girl is on the other end and says "... I'm not selling anything."

I grin, "Wow, that makes this even easier!" and promptly hang up. Half a minute passes and my phone rings again. I pull it out and it's the same number. 'Of course she couldn't have just let it go. That's not how your life goes anymore.' I answer only to be interrupted before I can even say 'Hi' -

"Weneedtotalk!"

... I wait a moment then say, "Come again?"

"We need to talk." she says with certainty that I'm just not feeling.

"No, no we do not need to talk, particularly tonight. Even more 'No' if it's someplace dark. That's just asking to be stabbed by your minion." I can tell she flounders for a moment before just giving up on understanding. She and Greg seem to have that in common.

She accuses, "Look, I don't know how you know, but you -know-. And I know there's something off about you too."

To which I reply "Nope, 100% completely normal here. No idea what you're talking about you crazy person."

Taylor sounds pretty angry when she finally growls through the phone "This is NOT a game! You do NOT get to make this into a joke!"

I sigh. "Taylor, it -is- Taylor right? yeah, alright, Taylor, of course I get to joke about it! I joke because it's how I deal with crazy shit. I spent a terrifying day at school worried that everyone was going to be taken hostage by a super powered master that could take control of every living thing in the school, then I was hounded by bugs, then some strange girl is waiting where I was going to meet Greg. Lets top that off with being chased by a demonic rage monster that's been crammed into a high school girl spewing death threats. That was my day today! How was yours? Pop quiz in history followed by a bit of stalking?"

I can hear her calming herself down for a moment before she answers "Alright, I get it, I'm sorry for 'stalking' you. I knew you gave something to Greg, I went to talk to him to find out who you were-"

I interrupt her "And he's Greg, so when the cute girl asks him who I am he gives you everything he has on me and now thinks you're dating. Right?"

She laughs a bit then says "Yeah, that sounds about right."

I continue; "So, we're now no longer on terms of stalker and stalkee. I'm still not meeting up with you. To be honest you're kinda terrifying and I don't want to have anything to do with any of that nonsense. Not for a while anyway - no offense meant but yesterday I nearly died when some guys decided to mug me. If I can't handle normal stuff I'm not getting near anything bigger. I'm not going to tell anyone your secret so just... don't mess with my head and we're golden."

Taylor is silent for a moment before agreeing "Alright, you keep my secret and I'll keep yours - but we -will- be talking later. Goodnight Will."

I flop back on my bed with a "Goodnight" and hang up.

"Now just to round up the evening I'm going to find out that Sophia girl is actually a super ninja and she's been hanging from my ceiling waiting for me to hang up."

I look around the room and when no Sophia ninja appears I do a fist pump "Yes!" I glance at my homework and decide to brush it off. The way things are going I'm going to need this power cranked up before too much longer. I lock my door and sit down for meditation, developing a physical version of my Astral Shield and practicing all the varying commands it uses to assist in efficiency.

AN: Again, let me know what you guys think. Will isn't insane but he has had a really crazy few days.