Date: Thu, 5 Jul 2001 20:05:50 EDT
From: shiningstar@oceanfree.net
Subject: Powers Within 1

Well, here it is! The first chapter of the new 'Powers That Be'
series -- 'Powers Within'. I *know* I didn't keep you waiting
too long for it so I don't want to hear any complaints about it
that! I don't mind hearing complaints about anything else,
even though I do prefer hearing nice things. If you have
anything that you want to say to me e-mail me --
shiningstar@oceanfree.net. Or you can leave a note on the
guestbook at my site -- http://stories.i8.com. I know that I
haven't updated the site in a while, but there are still one or
two interesting features.

	Thanks to everyone who e-mailed me at the end of
'Powers That Be'. The sheer number of them overwhelmed
me, and I hope that I've managed to write back to everyone at
this stage. What I want to know though is why you weren't e-
mailing during the series! Thanks to Tim, who one of the new
characters in this series is based on. Just in case you think that
the Tim in the story is meant to be me -- it's not. Umm, for all
those who e-mailed me about the women watching them
teleport -- that was a link into this series, and even though you
won't find mention of her in this chapter she'll be along soon
enough.

	I've started a new story! It's called 'TimeWeave' and
the first chapter is on the archives for general consumption
right now! Make sure and e-mail me about it if you read it.

	This story is complete fiction! I know, you never
would have guessed by yourselves but I have to tell you so
there you go. I don't know Nsync, nor do I know of anyone
who wields the sort of power that is an integral part of this
story. *Please* don't try this at home.

	If you're too young for what's legal then I don't think
that you should be reading this. But I personally don't think
that it's going to scar you for life.

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

In the months that had passed since Drayn's death a lot and
very little had happened, it depends on your perspective. I'd
made a fortune on the stock market thanks to a couple of hints
from Baram, and had moved out of home and in with Justin in
a house near Nick in Florida. With Kevin and JC's help I
constructed an intricate spell which made people not notice the
fact that we were living together and they paid very little
attention to it. But at the same time most of the Black Mages
were staying quiet since Drayn's downfall, which made Lance
apprehensive, he was comparing it to the calm before a storm.
There was nothing for me to do but follow Justin around on
tour while still pretending to be a 'Personal Assistant' and
brush up on my spells, which was what I was doing when
Justin came into the room.

	"Baram's here Tom. She wants to talk to you." Said
Justin, stepping aside to reveal Baram Nihorsa standing behind
him, a faint smile on her face.

	"Baram." I said, getting up from my seat. "Please
come in."

	"Thank you Tom." She said, sitting down in the
armchair opposite me. Justin quickly followed her in and was
about to sit down when she spoke again. " Justin, if you don't
mind, I'd like to speak to Tom alone."

	Justin stood back up and blushed. "Sorry." He said,
leaving the room.

	I waited until Justin had closed the door behind him.
"What's so important that we can't talk about it with Justin
here?" I asked.

	"It's not really that important, but I wanted to talk to
you alone so that you'd think about it without anyone
influencing you." She replied.

	"Think about what?"

	"We'd -- the council, that is, would like you to do a
favour for us." She saw that I was about to speak so she raised
her hand to silence me and then continued. "I told you that I
wanted to you to think about it first, because it's a huge
commitment that we're asking you to make. There is a boy,
well, a man really, who has been training as a mage for the
past six years, since he was twelve. He has huge potential, to
be as powerful as anyone in *Nsync or one of our other
groups, but he can't seem to tap into that potential. He's only
capable of casting a handful of spells, despite his intensive
training." Baram paused to gather her thoughts. "We'd like
you to take him a student, try to teach him magic, he looks up
to you, if anyone can teach him magic then you can, he'll
work for you. What do you think?" She leaned forward
conspiratorially. "We need this Tom, the council has the same
views as Lance, this is only the calm before the storm, and
when the storm hits we're going to need all the help that we
can get."

	"I'm flattered, but I'm not a teacher." I said.

	"Neither were *NSync, but you turned out ok." She
pointed out.

	"True." I said. "If you're sure... then fine, I'll do it.
What's his name?"

	"Tim Fowler. Have you got space for him to stay
here?" She asked, already knowing the answer.

	"Yes. He'll be fine. Where's he from, by the way?"

	"England, somewhere in London. I'll drop by with
him later, I would stay, but there is so much to do... I'll see
you tomorrow." With that, she stood up and teleported away.

	I left the library to find Justin and tell him the news.
He took it better then I thought he would. "Well, we're just
going to have to put him in a bedroom *far* away from ours,
aren't we," He said, nuzzling my neck. Realising something,
he pulled away to look at me. "What are you going to do about
the tour?"

	I laughed. "Come on Justin, you're not thinking
properly, we're both mages, I'm sure that you'll be able to
teleport home at night if you really want to."

	He laughed too. "Oh yeah, god, you'd swear that I
wasn't born into a family of mages, wouldn't you? By the
way, Lance want's us over at his place for dinner. No option
in the matter, he's got something that he wants to say to us."
Because of the success of the spell that JC, Kevin and I had
created, Lance and Joey had decided that it was safe to move
in together and had done so a couple of weeks ago.

	"Fine." I sighed. "I was planning a romantic last
night together, but far be for me to control my own life."

	"Don't worry, we'll have plenty of time to do
*whatever* it is that you have in mind later on." Said Justin.

	"What time does he want us over there for?" I asked.

	"He said sometime between six and a minute past
six." Laughed Justin. "But I think that he was joking."

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

	We ate through the meal that Lance had prepared (i.e.
-- ordered.) for the six of us while making small talk about
various things, including Tim being my student and Baram's
ominous warning of things to come while waiting for Lance to
tell us the reason why we were all here.

	"Well, now that you've all finished your dinner,
there's something that Joey and I want to tell you." Lance
paused for dramatic effect and then continued. "We're
engaged."

	There was a clamour of noise as soon as Lance made
his announcement. I waited until everyone had calmed down
and then asked. "Who proposed?"

	Lance and Joey looked at each other and then Joey
answered me. "We were having dinner together last night at a
restaurant and we both proposed to each other at the same
time."

	"A case of great minds thinking alike." Added Lance.

	"Huh." Snorted Chris, but he didn't manage to keep a
straight face and broke out into a grin. "Who am I kidding?
Congratulations!"

	"So, have you decided when the big day's going to
be?" Asked JC.

	"Nope, we're going to wait for a while, but other then
that, I don't have a clue." Said Lance, looking at Joey
lovingly.

	We spent the next couple of hours just sitting around
talking about stuff, nothing serious. We agreed to meet at
Justin's and my house tomorrow to get some practise in. But I
thought that everyone was just curious to see what Tim was
like.

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

	"See?" Said Justin, panting. "I told you that there'd
be plenty of time."

	"Shh, I'm trying to get asleep. Big day tomorrow." I
said.

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

	"Wake up Justin. Baram's here with Tim." I said. He
mumbled incoherently and turned away from me. In response
I pushed him out of bed into a pool of water that had just
mysteriously formed.

	He propelled himself out of it rapidly and was
standing there, dripping wet. "What was so important that you
had to wake me up?"

	"Baram's here with Tim. I thought that you might
want to be awake for it."

	He pulled on some clothes quickly and we went
downstairs to the sitting room where Baram and Tim were. I
took my first good look at Tim. He was short, about five foot
nine, with raven black hair and startlingly green eyes. Overall
he was average looking, not noticeable in anyway. I reminded
myself that he was a shapeshifter, or at least, he had the
potential to be one, extremely neutral looks were a common
trait of shapeshifters.

	Justin shook hands with Tim. "Hi Tim."

	"Hi." He said.

	"I'll show you to your room so that you can put some
of that stuff away." Offered Justin.

	As soon as they left I spoke to Baram. "He's very
quiet, isn't he?"

	"He's just shy. Wait until he gets to know you a little
better, plus -- you're like a hero to him. You defeated Drayn,
remember?" She said.

	I glanced down at the plain golden band that
encircled one of my fingers. "I remember. Sometimes, when
I'm tired, I can hear him whispering to me, an echo at the back
of my mind."

	"He'll never be able to control you, if that's what
you're worried about. You said the spell, you bound him to the
ring."

	"I know all that." I said. "But it doesn't stop me from
worrying."

	Justin came back in with Tim. They were chatting
quietly, but as soon as Tim saw me he became quiet again.

	Baram got up from her seat. "Well, I'd better be
going. As usual, there is no end of work to be done." She
teleported away and then it was just Justin, Tim and I.

	"So, Tim. We might as well get a start on your
training. What do you know already?"

	He looked up at me and spoke so quietly that I had to
strain to hear him. "Basic shapeshifting, cubes, spheres, that
sort of thing. And some fighting spells, fireballs and
shielding."

	I looked at him. Six years and this was all that he
knew? No wonder he felt intimidated by me. I'd learnt to
control a vast amount of power within the first couple of
months of knowing about it. For the first time since Baram
had asked me to 'take him under my wing' I was having
doubts as to weather or not it was a good idea. He must be
feeling tremendous pressure, sitting opposite to me. What sort
of a message did he think that Baram was giving him? If he
can do it why can't you? Maybe. "Listen, Tim." I said. "I
don't know what you think is going to happen here, or what
you think I'm going to expect from you but I want you to
relax! Our home is your home. I'm not going to be pushing
you for anything that you're not ready for, when you're ready
to start lessons then we'll start, not before then. Ok?"

	He risked a smile. "Sure. Thanks. I hope you don't
mind but... can I ring home? I promised to do so once I got
here."

	"Go ahead." I said. "There's one in the room through
those doors there." I pointed to the kitchen doors and watched
him leave.

	"What do you think?" I asked Justin.

	"I don't have a clue what to think."

	"Neither do I." I said. "I mean, I can see the power,
but he can't use it..." I changed the subject. "The guys are
coming over soon. Where do you want to go to practise?"

	"Nevada Desert's always good."

	 "Nah, we wouldn't be able to move for all the UFOs
and government experiments." I joked. "But I guess we could
risk it."

	"Do we bring Tim?" Asked Justin. "I don't what he'll
do if he comes, and I don't know what he'll do if he stays
here."

	"Of course!" I said. "But what he does there is up to
him."

	The air in a corner of the room shimmered, indicting
someone teleporting in. There was an out rush of air and Nick
was standing there grinning.

	"Nick!" I exclaimed. "What are you doing here?"

	"Nice to see you to." He retorted. "I had some free
time and I heard that you were running battle drills... it
sounded like fun so I decided to come over."

	Just then Tim came out of the kitchen and was about
to say something when he saw Nick and went a deep shade of
red.

	Nick strode across the room, grabbed Tim's hand and
pumped it. "Hi!" He said. "I'm Nick, and you are?"

	Tim finally told Nick his name, stammering through
the entire sentence. And just when I thought that he was
calming down too...

	"Nick, the rest of NSync should be here soon, then
we'll head over to Nevada for some practise." I said, wanting
to give Tim some warning so he could prepare himself without
embarrassing him further. When they turned up in a couple of
minutes Tim was surprisingly calm, shaking each of their
hands in turn.

	When everyone had gotten something to eat we
formed a circle. Tim hung back at first, not sure if he was
invited to join us. But Nick pulled him forward and JC said the
spell that would take us out to Nevada, where the council had
a practise zone. No one could see anything that took place
there.

	"Tim, are you joining in?" Asked Nick, who was
taking a lot of interest in Tim's wellbeing.

	"He's on our team!" Shouted the other shapeshifter,
Joey.

	"No fair!" Said Justin. "You've already got Tom! We
need him on our team." Justin's point was taken well by Chris,
which left it as Joey, Nick and I against Justin, Chris, JC,
Lance and Tim. I thought that it was heavily mismatched, but I
told myself that I'd go easy on them anyway. We squared up,
facing each other and moved slowly apart. No one trusted
anyone else not to do something sneaky.

	When we were about one hundred feet apart JC send
streams of colour into the air, signalling the start of the fight.
Justin almost immediately opened a huge chasm below our
feet, but since I knew that this was one of his favourite tricks I
managed to telekinetically hold the three of us in place. We
drifted behind the rift in the ground, I figured that it would
give us an extra defensive advantage. But as soon as Justin
saw that we'd escaped it he closed it again. I looked over at
Tim and saw that he was still just standing there, not sure what
to do. My magical senses began screaming at me. They were
co-ordinating attacks on me. I wrapped time around me and
witnessed something incredible. The sand melted below my
feet and started bubbling, aided by lightening lashing from
Justin's fingertips at where I'd just been standing. JC started
telekinetically ripping apart every molecule in the air. Cacti
seeds began sprouting rapidly and grew at incredible rate,
lashing their thorns at where it still looked like I was standing,
only to be torn apart by JC. Lance's eyes glowed and energy
beams vaporised anything that had managed to survive. Even
Tim threw a couple of very impressive fireballs. And then it
happened. In the furious tornado of magic and spells that was
the place where I'd been standing something seemed to twist,
and for an instant it seemed like I was looking into another
world, a lush green vista where the desert should have been.
Then reality snapped back and I realised that the shock had
made me release time from my control. Everyone was staring
at me and I realised that I didn't even have normal shielding. I
jumped quickly up into the air as fast as I could manage it and
saw the ground dropping below me. I knew that Justin was
almost definitely following me up. He considered the air to be
his domain, since he could control so many of its elements,
wind, water, weather. A howling magical wind started up and
I knew that I was right. I pulled the clouds down to me quickly
and got lost in them, saturating them with enough power to
dampen any hope that Justin had of finding me by looking for
my magic.

	I was just starting to feel like I could drift along all
day when I remembered that the others were fighting with
very bad odds below. I hurtled down as fast as I could, while
pulling power into me, getting a new offensive method that I'd
been working on ready to go. I speeded up my own personal
time and reached the ground in what would have only been a
heartbeat for someone down below. I came back into normal
time and built up power into a shell around myself. The shell
exploded outwards, picking up everyone that I wanted it to
and knocking them far out.

	A very battered looking Nick hobbled up to me in the
respite that I'd given him looking for me to work some healing
magic. I took him by the shoulders and my power flowed into
him, smoothing out the cracks and undoing the damage that
had been done to him. I couldn't replenish his magic, only
Justin seemed to be able to do that, but I could stop the aches
and pains that would prevent him from using his magic.

	"Thanks." He said.

	"Sorry I wasn't here earlier, but Justin had fooled me
into staying out of the way." I apologised.

	"Where's Joey?" I asked, looking around and not
seeing him, but seeing the opposition gathering themselves
together. JC was probably trying to figure out how to counter
what I'd just done to them and Lance was probably trying to
find Joey as well.

	"Last time I saw him he was changing into a blade of
grass or something like that. What do you want to do?" Asked
Nick. "That last thing you did was pretty neat."

	"Thanks, but I don't think that I'll be able to do it
again too soon. I don't want JC figuring out how to get around
it." I said

	There was a sudden noise and Joey emerged from his
hiding place. "Are we ready to go again?"

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

	Fight scene will conclude in the next chapter. Let me
know what you think of this first chapter of 'Powers Within'.
shiningstar@oceanfree.net.

		Tim.

	BTW -- in case you were wondering, the name of this
series, 'Powers Within' is a reference to the Tim character
who can't use his powers properly.

	Make sure to check out my new story  -
'TimeWeave' and let me know what you think of it.