Date: Thu, 10 May 2001 20:42:03 +0100
From: Tim <shiningstar@oceanfree.net>
Subject: Powers That Be 10

Here you are then! Part 10, do we all know what that means? Yes! It
means that I've now written 10 chapters of Powers That Be. (How clever
of you if you figured that out by your 'lil old self) I know that I took a
while getting this out, but I've been too busy to write recently. Also, I've
got exams coming up in a couple of weeks and I really have to get some
study done for them so things might be even slower over the next while.
The same goes for Shining Star. But, on the Shining Star front, I've got
the conclusion to the last chapter written up, even though it's not a full
chapter. So if you'd like me to send that to you then e-mail me and let
me know! Please e-mail me to let me know what you think / thought of
my characters, storylines and writing. I really really love to hear from
readers so make my day and send me e-mail! The address is -
shiningstar@oceanfree.net.

	Thanks to all those who've e-mailed me, especially Tim, who
has effectively co-authored this story, he's got so much input into it!
Thank you Tim! And to Sher, who we all know and love as the author of
'Body Switch with Nick Carter'. I wish she'd update, but as long as she
e-mails me I'm happy enough.

	This story is not real and is not based on anything in reality.
The celebrities mentioned don't know that I'm writing this and I doubt
very much that they'd approve. I don't know or claim to know the
sexualities of those same celebrities's. If you're too young then you
shouldn't be reading this should you?

---------------------------------------------------

	We all jumped straight out of our seats at the sight of Drayn,
one of the few people that we had reason to collectively fear. I winced at
the pain of jumping straight up after the exertion outside but ignored it
as I questioned myself - could we really fight him in the condition that
we were in. From where I was standing I could see that Lance was
frowning, then suddenly, the creases cleared away and he visibly
relaxed.

	"What do you want?" Asked JC, trying to keep the tremor out
of his voice.

	"Relax JC. It's not really him." Said Lance. Walking over to
the figure in the doorway, which hadn't actually moved since it said
those first words. Lance reached over and waved his hand through
Drayn. "It's only a simple illusion. See?" Once Lance had stirred the air
inside the illusion it disappeared in wisps of smoke.

	JC sighed and sat back down in his chair. "I should have
known. I wasn't thinking. This house has any number of protection and
early warning spells imbedded into it. There's no way that Drayn could
have gotten in here without us knowing."

	"But he managed to get a spell in here." Said Joey. "What's to
stop him from doing the same with different spells? Ones that could kill
us?"

	"I don't think that they were really thinking about illusions
when they were creating the protection spells, but you can be sure that
they put a shit load of thought into harmful magic so don't worry."

	"But Drayn would have had to be fairly close to manage
something like that so we know that he's nearby." Said Joey. "That
makes me worry."

	"It should. But we're staying here for another seven or eight
days so I say we make the most of it and hone our fighting skills.
There's a nest of vamps in Dublin that I want to wipe out before we
leave Ireland."

---------------------------------

	I spent the next couple of days fighting with the others, them
teaching me the skills required to make sure that I'd survive a real fight.
My reflexes and my speed increased exponentially as well and I learned
to use my magical senses just as much as I used my eyes so that I could
'see' what was going on all around me and not in front of my eyes, that
was what had held me back in the first fight.

On the fourth day JC announced a change of pace for me and
sat me down in the main sitting room and started lecturing. "Now then
Tom, over the last couple of days you've learning how to use your
physical attributes to compete effectively in a fight, but there's more to it
then that. I wanted to wait until I thought that you were ready for this
and I think that you are now. I want to teach you telekinesis, using the
power of your mind to move things. It shouldn't cause too many
problems and mastering this leads to the time control that we were
talking about a while ago."

	I nodded; thinking that some contribution on my part was
necessary.

	"That's another thing, I'm going to have to teach you how to
shield your thoughts a bit better! I can read you like a book, even when
I'm not trying to!" He said, laughing.

	"Let's got on with this will we?" I suggested.

	"Fair enough. Now, telekinesis isn't very hard at all. You just
have to be able to see everything with your magic and I know that that's
what you've been trying to do over the last couple of days so you should
have any trouble at all." After saying that JC went over to a small side
table and picked up a small block of wood. He came over a put in on the
table in front of me. "I picked this because it hasn't had anything to do
with magic, so it'll be one of the hardest things to find with your
senses."

	I nodded again and started listening to my senses. Straight away
I could find JC and I could feel the house easily enough because of the
magic impregnated into it. I closed my eyes and concentrated further,
after a while I could make out the table and then finally the block of
wood began to swim into focus. Once it was completely sharp I opened
my eyes.

	"You've got it? Good. Now that you can feel it in your mind
it's like holding it, isn't it? You can make out the texture on it; you can
even turn it over in your mind. Do like you would with your hand and
try to pick it up. Just reach out with your mind and pick it up. Don't
think about how you are doing it; just concentrate on doing it. Does that
make sense to you?"

	I nodded again gently, afraid that if I moved my head too much
then I would lose the block and would have to find it again. I thought
hard about what JC said and suddenly what he said and it clicked. I
grinned and mentally reached out an arm to the block to pick it up, and
saw it rise slowly into the air.

	"That's it." Said JC encouragingly. "Now try turning it
around."

	I did so.

	"Good. Now, forget about the normal constraints on movement.
They don't exist. Spin it around. That's it." He said, seeing that I was
doing it. "Faster! Make it a blur."

	I really concentrated on the block and pushed it. Suddenly
someone came into the room slamming a door on their way in. It broke
my concentration and I dropped the wood. JC must have caught it
because it stayed in the air, and started slowing down. I turned to see
who was to blame - it was Justin.

	"Hey there." He said and sat down on my lap. "What are you
doing?"

	"Oh." I said with a glimmer in my eye. "JC was just trying to
show me how to use telekinesis."

	"Any luck?" He asked.

	I looked over at JC, who could see what I was planning so JC
covered for me. "Well, we've only just started..." Leaving Justin to draw
his own conclusions from that.

	I concentrated, and because Justin was so magical I got him in
my grip easily and vaulted him towards the ceiling.

	"Shit! JC! Bring me down!" Yelped Justin. You'd think that
he'd be used to heights considering that he could fly, but I guess it
depends on if you're under your own control or not.

	"I can't." Said JC.

	"Why the fuck not? Just get me down!"

	"You're going to have to ask the person whose got you up
there."

	Justin looked at me incredulously. "You?"

	I smiled. "Yup."

	"I thought you said that you'd only just started learning." Said
Justin in an accusatory tone.

	"I have."

	"Whatever. Just get me down. Please!" He begged.

	I dropped him slowly back down into my lap and put my arms
around him. "Was that really so bad?" I asked.

	"Just you wait." He growled, not happy with me.

	"I'm waiting." I said as I thought some very dirty thoughts.

	JC blushed. "Justin get off him! I'm gonna teach him to guard
that mind before I have to listen to anymore of that!"

	Begrudgingly Justin got up. "I will get you Tom." He
threatened.

	"I look forward to it." I said back to him as he left the room.

	"Let's do this before you go to bed tonight shall we? I don't
want to have to hear your thoughts then." Said JC.

	"You know you love it really."

	"I do not! It's sick."

	"Whatever." I said dismissively. "How do I do this?"

	"Close your eyes and go to your power centre."

	I closed my eyes and almost instantly I could see the black star.

	"Now go into it." Directed JC.

	I moved towards it getting closer and closer. "How close do I
go?" I asked.

	"You have to go into it. Keep on going until you get to the core.
It should be white." He said.

	I kept going as JC said until I finally got to what he was talking
about. It was beautiful, pure white radiating all around me. It wasn't a
harsh bright light but soft.

	"What you can see there is your mind. What Lance called your
essence, it's where the white light that you can see on the outside of your
power centre comes from. Now, use your magic to build a shield around
it, blocking it off from outside. Make it as strong as you can."

	I concentrated on the task that JC had set me and soon a barrier
formed around my 'essence' and it soon grew incredibly strong. I moved
outside it again and then opened my eyes. "How is that?" I asked.

	JC focused on me and then grinned. "Perfect, it's strong enough
so that I can't hear you normally, and not strong enough to keep me out
if I really want to get in!"

	"Can I go now?" I asked, eager to join Justin outside where I
could see him lying on the grass.

	"Sure, but work on the telekinesis. The idea is to be able to
move almost anything without thinking about it for too long." Said JC.

	"I'll keep it in mind." I said, before leaving Josh and walking
out the doors to the garden where the sun was blazing down without a
cloud in the sky to threaten its dominance. I stood over Justin, casting a
shadow over him.

	He opened his eyes. "Get out of the way will you?" He asked.

	"Is that how you talk to all your lovers?" I said, pouting.

	"Just the ones who throw me ten feet into the air and don't let
me down." He responded.

	"I did let you down. If I hadn't would you be out here?" I said,
while moving out of Justin's way and lying down beside him.

	"You know what I mean."

	"You know something Justin?" I asked.

	"What?"

	"It's odd. I was watching TV earlier and the weatherman
predicted nothing but rain for this part of the country and yet I come out
here and find you sunbathing. Can you explain that?"

	"The weatherman can be wrong."

	"Don't you think that you're just drawing attention to us doing
this?"

	"Nah." He said, turning on his side to face me. "Weather
control is fairly innocuous magic. Besides, all I've done is kept the
clouds from covering the area, you can't even see the spell from here."

	"But all you're doing is creating Florida, in Ireland!" I
exclaimed.

	"I didn't ask to come here. I wanted to be in Florida,
remember?"

	"Fair enough." I said, closing my eyes to concentrate on
basking in the warm glow of the sun. "But if you keep this up people
might get suspicious."

	"I know." He sighed. "From tomorrow we're going to have to
go back to rain. So let's enjoy this while we can."

	"Justin." I said in response to a twitch from my magical senses.

	"Yes?"

	"If that cloud of rain comes anywhere near me then I am going
to kill you." Despite my threat the cloud came closer. I was too lazy to
get up so I simply cast shields around me. Just in time too before the
cloud dumped on me.

	"Justin." I said. "I do not renege on my threats." I stood up and
looking skywards, I built up my own cloud front and sent it his way.
Unfortunately he was expecting it and so he had his own shielding up
and was ready to play. In one sweeping and graceful movement he
jumped to his feet.

	"You think you can beat me?" He said. "You're welcome to
try."

	I tried lifting him by telekinesis again but it didn't work this
time.

	He grinned, knowing what I'd tried. "Here's a lesson for you
Tom - when someone's expecting what you just tried they can protect
themselves against it surprisingly well."

	"How?" I asked.

	"I don't really know how to explain it. I guess it's just by
steeling yourself against it."

	"Fair enough." I said, trying to think what else I could throw at
him. I had learned a lot recently but I didn't want to do anything to hurt
my boyfriend. Oh what the hell, I thought, he could be fixed up again. I
jumped, using the wind to help me, and landed away from Justin and
behind him.

	He turned towards me and, putting his hand out with the palm
facing downwards he used his control over the elements to cause an
earthquake beneath my feet.

	"Oh no you don't." I shouted, jumping away from him again.
Mid-leap I threw fireballs at him, which he easily dodged. I looked up
and saw that the clouds that I'd originally meant to us to soak him were
still there. I changed them quickly into the thunderclouds and sent them
to harass Justin while I concentrated on creating lightening from my own
hands. Once I had done so I threw a couple of bolts at him, but thanks to
his own adeptness with weather magic he deflected them and they
earthed harmlessly in the ground. I was really struggling to think up
what I could do to him. Suddenly, a very nasty idea crossed my mind
and I gave a low chuckle. I threw another fireball at him, only this time
kept a telekinetic grip on it. I fed more power into it and it grew larger.
He tried to jump out of its way, but wherever he moved to I sent it after
him. Pushing with my mind I split it up into smaller balls and they
surrounded him, spinning and diving around him so that he couldn't
move.

---------------------------

	Make sure to let me know what you think of it!
shiningstar@oceanfree.net is the e-mail address that you are going to
send mail to right now!

	'Til next time,

		Tim.