Date: Fri, 13 Jul 2001 16:14:38 +0100
From: Tim <shiningstar@hotpop.com>
Subject: Powers Within 2

Hey there everyone. This, as you may well know is a new
chapter of 'Powers Within'. Let's call it 'Powers Within
Two.' I hope that you like it. In this chapter we are starting to
see the lay out of how this part of the 'PTB' series is going to
go. We have an introduction of the main bad guy as well!
(Exciting, I know.) And Justin gives everyone a surprise.
Now, I hope that you like this chapter because it's going to
be the last one for a while. Now, let's make this clear - I'm
not stopping writing completely, but I'm going away for a
month and I'm not going to have any access to a computer
where I can write. It's unavoidable, sorry. But, I can still send
and get my e-mail so make sure to write to me!

	Now then, I've gotten a lot of e-mail from people
over the last while, and I know that I haven't been able to
respond to any of it, my e-mail server is completely messed
up. They claimed that they were 'upgrading', but I don't
think I've seen any sign of that, so I'm changing my e-mail
address in the short term to shiningstar@hotpop.com. I'll still
be checking the other one, but any replies that I send will be
from that address, I don't think that I'll be able to reply to the
mail that I've collected (about 50 messages over the last
week) so sorry if you sent something to me, I've read it and I
really love reading it. Don't let it stop you from writing to me
please! Or, if you don't want to do that, then post a message
in the guestbook on my website - http://stories.i8.com. At the
moment I'm trying to update it before I go away, I hope to
get that done before I leave.

	Here I'm going to do some self-promotion - I
recently started a new short story called 'TimeWeave'. I
really think that it's a good, original story and I hope that
you'll read it, it's available on the archives. I'm posting the
next chapter to it tonight.

	None of this is true. The celebrities mentioned are
not aware that I'm doing this and I doubt that they'd be
pleased to know that I was. Events in this story bear no co-
relation to real events, and if you think that they do then
please apply one piano to head, twice a day. I am not aware
in anyway of the sexualities of the celebrities; all other
characters belong to me, so they can do what they want. If
you're too young, then don't tell me when you e-mail me.

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

	"Where have you been?" I asked.

	"Like Nick said, I was being a blade of grass."

	"Why weren't you helping me?" Asked Nick.

	"Sorry, I figured that there was nothing I could do
against that lot." Joey gestured over at the other group, who
looked as if they were getting ready to attack again.

	"That's not the point! I could have done the same
thing, but I stayed and fought because I thought that you'd
need the help, and then when I realised that you'd hidden, it
was too late to do the same thing myself!" Raged Nick.

	"As interesting as this conversation is." I said
sarcastically. "They look like they're going to attack in a
second, and I don't want to just be standing around here
listening to you two bitching when they do."

	"He's right." Said Joey to Nick. "We really should
stop arguing." He turned to me. "Got anything in mind?"

	"What about a dampening spell? Just stop them
from using their magic."

	"You should know that you those things are non-
directional. We'd lose our magic too." Said Nick.

	"You two would, but I wouldn't, my magic isn't
black or white, remember? It's both and either at the same
time."

	"Nah, I don't think that it would be very sporting of
us. Let's just play it by ear, will we?" Asked Joey.

	"Fair enough." I said.

	"Will we attack, or will we let them?" Asked Nick.

	"Let's do the attacking, shall we?" I said, getting a
huge grin from Nick and a barely perceptible nod for Joey as
a response.

	We launched ourselves towards the other group,
none of us flying but simply jumping the distance, power
crackling and pooling in our hands, we lashed out at them,
taking them by surprise.

	They reacted with a quickly thrown up force field,
but it was sloppy and didn't cover them all properly. I took
advantage of the gap for the split second before JC realised
their mistake and sealed it, pouring a stream of near boiling
water in at them, hitting Justin full on in the chest. He yelped
and retaliated with a thin stream of lava, which I barely
managed to dodge. JC seemed to be preparing something
particularly nasty while keeping his eyes fixed on Joey. A
glance at Joey told me that he hadn't noticed, he was too busy
exchanging spells with Lance while Justin and Nick were
doing the same thing, with Tim throwing the odd fireball.
And
Chris was simply watching at the moment, which was one of
the things that were worrying me the most. Chris isn't
someone who stands on the outside of things; he must have
been up to something. Looking closer at him, I saw a pearly
sheen to his eyes and it looked like his pupils had
disappeared. I telepathically sent a warning to Joey about JC
and then devoted more attention to watching Chris. His lips
were moving slightly and I could see that he was chanting the
same four words over and over again, but I couldn't tell what
he was saying.

	Suddenly, the ground erupted beneath Justin,
spewing out molten lava and the air above him was suddenly
filled with lightning, repeatedly striking him. Glancing at
Chris, I saw his eyes glowing brightly and cracks seemed to
form in his skin, and wherever they appeared light poured
out. A second later, both he and Justin had collapsed. No one
else but Lance had noticed, he glanced at me, still standing
there in shock, and went to Chris as I mentally shook myself
and ran to Justin's side. I held a hand over him and instantly
knew what was wrong with him, he had several fractures,
two broken legs, internal bleeding, concussion, and on top of
everything else, his heart had just stopped beating. I still
wasn't unduly worried; it wasn't really that bad, I just had to
act quickly. Everyone else had stopped fighting and they
were milling around, knowing that they couldn't do anything
and probably hating themselves for it.

	I took a deep breath and then decided what to do
first. I couldn't deal with the stopped heart until I'd gotten the
rest of the damage cleared up, because his body wouldn't be
able to cope with a direct bolt of energy yet. I took another
breath and started knitting back together the broken and
fractured bones, as I got into it the process sped up and I
worked methodically, shoving my emotions to one side.
Within thirty seconds all the damage was healed and I
quickly moved to the bleeding, forcing the blood back to
where it belonged and quickly sealing the ruptures that it had
spewed from. Next I dealt with the concussion. When all that
was done, and it had taken less then a minute, I started to get
him ready for a direct shock to his heart. I needed to get him
out of contact with anything else so I used my power to shred
the clothes from him.

	JC came up to me. "Let me help." He said.

	I nodded briskly. "Bring him up to waist height, will
you?" Justin hovered up and I put my hands on his chest. A
surge of power raced through me and converted to electricity
when it reached my hands, coursing through him, but it
wasn't enough to restart his heart. I did it twice more before
his heart started and he drew a sharp breath. He opened his
eyes and looked at me weakly. I stared at him in relief and
drew him into a tight hug. "That's the second time Justin,
you're making a habit of dying on me."

	"Ha ha." He said dryly. "Man, I'm so drained." He
commented.

	"Take all you need." I offered.

	He pulled back from me, holding me at arm's length
while JC dropped Justin to his feet. "Are you sure?"

	"I wouldn't have offered if I wasn't." I said. There
was a tingling sensation and I felt and saw Justin pulling my
power into himself. After a couple of seconds he stopped and
grinned, black sparks flowing along his teeth.

	"Are you ok?" I asked.

	"I feel incredible!" He exclaimed. "Man, this power
of yours is something else." He laughed excitedly and created
a black fireball in his hand. He let it fade away. He looked
down at his naked self, laughed again, and created clothes on
himself.

	"Is this normal?" I asked JC.

	"I've no idea." He said. "It's not a normal ability,
remember? I can only guess that because your power is so
potent it has more of an effect, looks like he's got the same
level of power as you, only he's not used to it."

	"He sounds drunk." I said flatly.

	"He's probably intoxicated by it." Said JC.

	"Great, just what we need, a Justin who has no
control over a vast amount of power!" Said Lance
sarcastically.

	"Hey! I've got control!" Said Justin. Everyone
ignored him.

	"Where's Chris?" I asked, looking around for him.

	"I don't know." Said JC. "Now that I think about it,
I haven't seen him since he did whatever he did to Justin."

	"Hmmm." Said Lance. "Come on, let's go. Maybe
he'll be at your house Tom."

	"It's my house too!" Shouted Justin happily. Again,
everyone ignored him.

	"Let's go." I said. Everyone grabbed someone else's
hand and once we were in a circle I said the spell that would
bring us back to my house, where Chris wasn't.

	"I'll ring him." I said, dialling Chris's cell number.
It rang a couple of times and then he answered it.

	"Hello."

	"Chris, where are you?" I asked.

	"At home, where else would I be?" Asked Chris.

	"Why?"

	"Well, after Justin rang me this morning and said
that the plans had been cancelled I sort of didn't have
anything else to do." Said Chris sarcastically.

	"What are you talking about?" I asked.

	"Justin rang this morning and said that you'd
cancelled the plans to meet up." Explained Chris for the
second time.

	"No he didn't, and anyway, you were there with us."
I said.

	"What?"

	"Justin didn't ring you this morning, and you turned
up and we went out to Arizona to fight." I said.

	"Is this some kind of a joke?" Asked Chris.

	"Get over here Chris." I said, hanging up on him
abruptly, a sinking feeling in my stomach.

	"Well?" Asked JC, who had just come into the
room. I told him about the odd conversation that I'd just had
with Chris and I could see that he was worried about it too.
Just then the object of our conversation teleported into the
room and it was established that it wasn't Chris who'd been
with us in the desert and that it wasn't Justin who rang him
that morning.

	"So what could it be then?" I asked.

	"I can only think of two possibilities right now."
Said JC. "A shapeshifter who can imitate our magic and fool
us into thinking that they're the real thing, or someone who's
so good at illusion that they managed to create something
that could look, feel and act like Chris, even mimicking him
power. Either way, it's going to be someone powerful."

	"You don't know of anyone like that, do you JC?"

	"Not off the top of my head, but I'll check later." He
replied. "What are we going to do about someone imitating
us?"

	"I don't know. How do we know that someone in
here isn't the imitator." Asked Chris.

	"Well, the person was imitating you, and the rest of
us have been together since this morning, so I don't think that
it could be any of us." I said. "But in the future we can't be
sure. We're going to have to use a password or something."

	"Are you sure that it wasn't just someone playing a
joke?" Asked Chris.

	"I don't think that anyone that powerful is going to
'play a joke', and besides, he almost killed Justin!" Said
Lance.

	"You're right. I think that we should ask Baram
about this, and since I want to go to the council library
anyway, I'll talk to her about it." Said JC.

	"It's any excuse to get to the library, isn't it?" Said
Nick dryly. "I swear, you'd live there if you thought that the
librarian wouldn't light a fire under your butt."

	"The librarian would know better then to light a fire
in a library, unlike you." Retorted JC.

	"I'm sure she'd make an exception, just for you."
Laughed Nick.

	"How did you know it's a she?" Asked JC. "You've
been in there, haven't you?"

	"Of course I've been in there. " Said Nick. "Just
because I'm not in love with the place doesn't mean that I'm
not going to get books out, y'know spells, they're things that
I'm guessing that we're supposed to know?" He said
sarcastically.

	"Not that I'm one to intrude." I said. "But don't' we
have something *slightly* more important to talk about like...
oh I don't know... the person who's trying to kill us."

	"You're right." Said JC. "By the way, when you
have time could you teach me how to do that new trick of
yours?" He asked.

	"Sure." I said. "I show it to you later." I had been
planning to torment him about him for it, but with this new
bad guy, we needed everything that we had, and I wasn't
going to hold anything back.

	"Teach me too!" Said Justin, still on a high from my
power.

	"Not now Justin." I said. "You're just going to have
to sit in the corner for the night and stay quiet, and I don't
want any magic from you either!" I ordered. "You're going
to have to wait until you're back to your own power."

	"You're going to be waiting for a *long* time for
that." He laughed.

	"What are you talking about?" I asked.

	"I'm not going to lose this power!" He laughed
again.

	"What?" I exclaimed.

	"Isn't it obvious?"

	"No! Just tell me what you're talking about." I said.

	"Well, you know the way that if you're sleeping
with someone more powerful then you or if they've got
different abilities to you, you can pick up on their power?
Lance and Joey told you about it,"

	"Sure, so you're getting more powerful, what's your
point?"

	"Well, when you gave me some of your power
today, in the desert, that sealed it. I'm going to keep this
power, and I love it!"

	"Are you sure?" Asked JC excitedly.

	"No! But we'll see, won't we?" Laughed Justin.

	"Great, I'm going to have a drunk boyfriend
forever." I said.

	"Don't worry Tommy, I'll get used to it in a while."
He said, slapping me on the back and giving me a sloppy
kiss.

	"You two are together?" Asked Tim, his voice
dripping with disgust.

	"Yeah, didn't you know?" I said.

	"Fuck no, if I'd known that I'd never have come
here. I don't believe it." He got up and stormed off in the
direction of his room.

	We all stared after him in shock.



	"I'm sorry that he thinks that way Tom." Said JC,
breaking the silence.

	"It's not your fault." I said. "I'm just surprised that
he didn't know it before, and even if he didn't, I would have
thought that he should have guessed it. He's been with us all
day."

	"He seemed ok, up until now." Said Nick.

	"He'll get over it." Said JC.

	"How can you be sure?" I asked.

	"I am a telepath, and I reckon that he'll get over it,
as for being sure - I can't be." He replied. "But there's
always hope."

	"Yeah, there is that." I said, and then I brightened
up. "Come on, I'm tired and I want to go to bed. If you want
to stay here, you know where your rooms are and if not - you
can go now!" I said.

	"I'm staying!" Said Justin.

	"Yes, I know Justin." I said.

	"Are you sure you can handle him?" Asked JC.

	"I've dealt with drunk Justin before." I said.

	"But he's got all that power at the moment... and if
he thinks that he's got it for good." Said JC, his eyes dancing
excitedly.

	"I'm not going to have sex with you JC." I said, a
big grin on my face.

	He blushed deeply and started stammering. "I
wasn't... I didn't... that wasn't." He gave up and stared
helplessly at me while the others in the room burst out
laughing.

	"I know you didn't mean that JC. Listen, if you're
so worried about his, then stay here tonight."

	"I will."

	"I will too." Said Nick.

	"Well, Joey and I are going home." Said Lance,
giving a meaningful look at Joey.

	"Oh, didn't I tell you?" I said. "We had your
bedroom soundproofed, after the last time."

	It was Joey and Lance's turn to blush. "I still think
that we'll go home, thanks all the same."

	"Yeah, I think I'll go home too." Said Chris.

	We all said our goodbyes and the three who were
leaving teleported out of the house.

	"Do you mind if I use your library?" Asked JC. "I
want to see if I can find any mention of the latest bad guy."

	"You don't have to ask every time, you know. But
it's not really that extensive yet."

	"It's better then nothing, and I really want to get
started."

	"Go ahead then." I said. JC went out the door into
the hall, and then uttered the spell that would open the library
doors.

	"What are you going to do Nick?" I asked.

	"I want to see this film." He said, not taking his eyes
off the TV screen.

	"Fine." I sighed. "Come on Justin, we're going to
bed." Justin obediently got up off the floor and followed me
out the door to our bedroom.

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

	Well, that's it for chapter two. Make sure and e-mail
me at my new address - shiningstar@hotpop.com. I don't
know how long I'll have that address for though. See you in a
month!

	 Make sure and read 'TimeWeave'!


		Tim.