Chapter 16

"Gravity… Gravity... Gravity...… Grav-"

"If you say gravity one more time, I'm gonna lose it."

"Thinking out loud helps me solve problems."

"Yuri, you're not gonna figure out how to break gravity by saying the word over and over again."

"I don't see you coming up with any good ideas."

"Because I'm not the one who's trying to break it. This is your mission. I'll do whatever insane nonsense you need me to do, but you need to be the one who comes up with that nonsense."

"I've been trying to come up with something, but it's just not coming to me. I can't think of a way your power can defy gravity."

"I don't think you're gonna find one. Maybe we should switch to one of the other forces?"

"No. I'm tired of not having powers, I wanna break gravity so I can get whatever flight based power I'm destined to have."

"Why do you keep talking about flight powers?"

"Because, if I say it's gonna happen, it puts the idea out into the universe. With the right conditions, I may be able to trigger the universe to give me those powers."

"If it was as easy as saying 'once I do this I'll be able to fly', why didn't you just do that with the first force we broke?"

"Because, I didn't think about that."

"And now you're stuck thinking about an issue you can't possibly solve."

"Can you stop being so negative? You know what, I'm taking a walk."

"Maybe if you think hard enough, you can get some powers by the time you come back."

"Shut up!"

I rush myself out of the room, and make my way towards the stairwell at the end of the hallway. I make my way downstairs to the gym on the first floor and open the large double doors.

It doesn't take long before I get bored with walking around, and I look for something else to do.

The basketball hoops catch my eye and I decide to see if I can find a ball. Eventually, I find one that's a bit deflated, but has enough bounce to work.

I'm not very sporty, so I miss the basket with almost every toss I make.

Eventually, I start thinking out loud to myself again, trying desperately to figure out some way to use Terri's power to break gravity.

"What if I throw him from a really high point?"

"And do what? Just cause he can survive the fall, that just reaffirms his invulnerability, it doesn't break gravity."

"This sucks. I just can't see a single way his powers can have any effect on gravity."

"He was right. You should have tried to will yourself powers when we broke energy."

"Yeah, well it's too late for that. It's not like I'm gonna be able to just gain gravity powers out of nowhere."

And just like that, like I entered the right cheat code combination into the universe, the basketball shot up into the air.