Terry will be over here actually doing the reading, thank you. And when that's done, some math homework. Parties are not for him unless they're LAN parties, and the insipid gossip is annoying. But whatever.

Then he stops. It seems kind of like everything else stops, too, actually, even the noise of the people behind him. And for a moment he sees lines of light appear, coming out of him and forming a sort of web shape, getting dimmer as they get further away from him.

Then it's gone and it seems like the world resumes. The noise, however, doesn't. People seem to be looking at him, slightly shocked.

"............Huh. So either I'm hallucinating or turned."

Poke, poke, anything new in his senses? Something he can point willpower at?

The girl at the desk on his left blinks. "You. What." She turns to the teacher.

Fortunately, the teacher seems to have noticed and– "Terence, could you just come with me, please." She gets up and goes over to the door.

"One moment." School things are shoved into backpack and he shoulders it before following.

Ugh, that light in the hallway is still flickering. Probably corroded electrical contacts.

She mentions to the class that she'll be back shortly and they should continue with their work and then escorts him to the main office, tells them what happened, seems somewhat– unsure of herself, and then goes back to class.

"Hello," says the receptionist. "Do you– have you noticed anything yet, something I should notify the heroes about, or…?"

"I'm trying to figure it out. It's not quite as obvious as flying, whatever it is." Can he make that web of lights again? He holds out a hand and tries.

No response!

"I'll… let them know, then," she says, frowning. Then: "If you'd like to take a seat?"

There are some seats near the window to the office, if he cares to sit in one.

He does sit, and quietly runs through various mental configurations of trying to do things. Trying to fly, trying to use aero/hydro/tele-kinesis, trying to make a force field, trying to use telepathy like that famous communicating guy...

None of those go, though when he tries the forcefield it perhaps feels different!

Might be a bit dangerous to try it here, though, if he has that ability. If it's one of the ones that does bisection with objects, he could end up harming someone or damaging the building.

(The receptionist is on the phone to, presumably, a representative.)

Forcefield of some kind, then. There's a decent amount of clear space in front of him, nobody's there or walking towards there.

Come on, yea big, right there, forcefield.

… There's a slight blurring in the air. Probably. Slight blurring in the air is not that easy to confirm.

It feels like it worked. He lets go of the feeling.

"Ma'am, I might have a force field of some kind, if you'd let them know?"

… So she does so!

"Apparently someone should be on their way over?"

"Thanks." He pulls that book back out and gets to finishing the required reading. Extensive power testing in the middle of the school office is probably unwise.

Probably.

And then about… call it eight minutes later, someone in regular jeans and a t-shirt seems to fall out of the sky right outside the office, somehow managing to land quite gracefully despite the speed. He walks over into the office and– "Are you Terence?"

"Yes, I am. I don't know much about what happens next but I'm trying not to get too excited." Serious business deserves seriousness, not giggling over probably-having-a-superpower. He chokes down the slowly building eeeeee! feelings.

"Shine," he introduces himself. "Usually we would take you to the nearest base, temporarily, and introduce you to the system, unless you have any objections? We can notify your parents and give you an opportunity to talk to them."

"'Temporarily' sounds good. I-" He doesn't want to say 'I don't know if I want to be a hero' in front of one.

Shine tilts his head. "We can go now, then…?"

(The receptionist nods tentatively.)

"Yeah, sure."

So he leads the way outside, and once Terence is also outside, turns around, grabs him by the shoulders, and they shoot off into the air.

Fortunately it doesn't feel quite as painful as one might imagine accelerating that quickly would.

"EEEEP!"

Shine gives him a bit of a look, but it's too bad they're flying so quickly because he can't actually comment anything aloud.

And then there's a voice in Terence's head! Hi there, it says. I'm Relay.

How does he even respond to this is Relay reading his mind and I HATE HEIGHTS WHY DIDN'T I THINK OF THIS BEFORE GOING OUTSIDE WITH THE FLYER-

You just want to respond and you do, he says.

And Shine rolls his eyes and moves down slightly, speeding up a lot and glowing just a little.

It's probably not better. There are trees quite nearby, now that he's flying lower down.

No it's not better it's definitely not better. He closes his eyes.

It probably doesn't feel as bad when he closes his eyes! There's still a slight sense of acceleration but it's quite smooth.

Kinda loud though.

… Are you okay?

Will be. Once I'm not flying too fast too high.

He transmits the mental equivalent of a nod.

And then shortly they decelerate – again, it doesn't feel as bad as it should – and Terence is positioned standing on the ground.

Shine will let go of him if it seems he can stand.

He can stand. Shakily, but he can.

Brilliant. Around them is a small bit of forest and a relatively large building!

"… You okay to go in or do you need a minute?"

"No, let's go. Get my mind off it."

So he leads the way into the compound. The first room is quite large, has a reception desk with a receptionist who waves and smiles at them – Shine waves back.

So does Terry. At Shine and 'at' Relay if he's still listening- "So. I'm not actually sure how it works yet, but I've got what I think is some kind of - force field."

And at this point, someone comes into the room from one of the side corridors and… seems to stare at Terence, not introducing himself or anything.

"What do you know about it?" asks Shine.

"I only used it once so far, in case it hurt something - it wasn't very visible, but it definitely felt like I was making a force field and it changed the air currents of the room, it blocked a draft but I didn't hit it with a hammer or anything, needs more testing."

"Yeah," he agrees. "Noticed anything else?"

"Not yet. Maybe I'm more alert but maybe that's just adrenaline. I'm gonna keep an eye out."

"You've got something," says the newcomer. "Might be linked to the forcefield thing, though – it's a sensory-brain thing."

Then he leaves!

"… That was Eval," says Shine. "Nice and curt, isn't he."

"Eval as in evaluation? Curt can be good sometimes- Also called efficient."

"Yeah, as in evaluation. He gets details about people by being near and looking at them – useful in triage and assessment."

Then he's moving again.

He starts looking around at things. Trying to notice stuff. Maybe he can tell where he can place the force field?

There doesn't seem to be anything obvious telling him whether he can or cannot place a forcefield, nor does it seem to specify anything else, but it's pretty clear that the forcefield isn't just an on-off.

Shine leads him to an office.

How bland. The hero organization still needs administration, it seems.

What kind of things could he specify on a force field... Size, location, strength, perhaps duration or color?

Perhaps he should try those sometime! For now, though, a woman has opened the door and introduces herself. "Aura," she says. "Care for a chat?"

"As you like. I'm interested in getting to somewhere I can try to figure out this force field and whatever else I have - Eval said there's something - though."

She nods. "Makes sense – I was going to ask if you want to contact your parents and explain that we'd prefer you go through some basic training, especially if your power is potentially dangerous, even if you don't affiliate with us in the long-term."

"Oh I imagine they'll be ecstatic about this. They may even forget to compare me to my brother for once."

He looks like he wants to hit himself. "I should not have said that."

She shrugs. "It's okay, you don't have to decide now, but we should contact them eventually, relatively soon, and you should probably make a decision about if you want to speak with them then or at some other point."

"No, I'll talk to them, explain the basic training. Not sure what to do after that though."

"We go through a lot of things, including but not limited to," she rolls her eyes a bit but smiles, "best practices with respect to heroing, the law with respect to powers, and some basic first-aid and emergency response training. Plus we introduce you to the system we have set up, show you around places, explain how things work if you do decide to team up with us – it's not all emergency response, we do have some research-and-development teams if your power turns out to lend itself to such things – and, like I said, if your power is particularly dangerous, which forcefields definitely can be, then we try to go through how they function with you in a safe environment, test their limits, suggest ways you can mitigate potential harm, that sort of thing."

"I'd like to help with research even if I don't have something for that. I'm... A bit of a nerd." He laughs bashfully. "Some of the new tech coming out of here is really cool. You can check my grades I don't think I'd be terrible at it."

"That definitely sounds like something that can be arranged! Depending on how your forcefields work, they might be useful in it all by their own." Smile. "Anyway, I won't keep you from power testing – I'm sure someone can be found if you want their help with it, and there are some specific areas set out for it that should keep things safer?"

"I think I'll start on my own, if there's a good place set aside for it. I've barely even tried yet, bad form to ask for help so soon."

She nods. "Relay's available if you do want to fetch anyone, anyway. See you around, maybe."

"See you around, maybe." And he's off to find this fabled power testing room.

Shine has disappeared during this conversation, but there are some signs that point the way, and he could probably ask the receptionist or Relay for help.

Signs are sufficient to find the place.

The place: is a big hall! It presumably has something to keep it safe, but whatever it is is non-obvious.

There is a dummy if he'd care to test if he has enhanced strength.

He's pretty sure he doesn't have enhanced strength.

He finds an open spot and attempts to play with his force field. Persistently, varying the mental action and intent as much as needed.

Well, he can get the slight blurring! And if he focuses on it harder… he can continue to get slight blurring!

Does he care to try punching it or something?

Sure, let's test it. First poking it with a stick. Er, pencil from his pocket. If nothing happens to the pencil, his hand, then trying to punch it.

When he moves to get his pencil… it goes slightly fainter.

If he still decides to try poking it with the pencil, he'll notice that it gets fainter when he's moving and puts up some resistance but not a huge amount before suddenly disappearing.

It definitely feels like it's disappeared, not just gone really really transparent.

Okaaay... So it's more there when he's standing still.

Is there anything, like, a punching machine he can use to test it here?

… There is a thing that fires tennis balls? That could work.

He carefully stays away from the tennis balls' path once he starts it. Force field, you will kind of suck if you can't at least stop tennis balls.

When he's standing still, it stops them! And after two tennis balls, it disappears again.

If he's not standing still, it is definitely much weaker. Slows one – admittedly quite dramatically slower, almost seems like it just drops right down – but it disappears as it does so.

Feels vaguely… spread too thin.

It he makes it a narrow window, the size of an iPad, any difference?

… Maybe? Not really.

It seems like it might be tiring to keep it up for a long while.

So... Is it meant for short bursts?

He holds it for exactly one second.

It goes blue! Definitely not just blurring of the air, now, definitely looks blue.

Did he time it properly so a tennis ball hit it?

Not at first. Test one variable at a time, eh?

Now he does, though.

The tennis ball stops dead, and then falls to the ground.

Which is a similar result to when he last did it while making sure not to move around.

Relay, I think my shield's strength depends on how I time it. Is there someone who can hit pretty hard available? I want to test its limits.

Moment, he says.

… As in, just a moment, not as in 'yes there's someone named Moment'. Though there is someone called Moment. Solidity is nearby – I'll send him your way.

Thank you.

Might as well practice timing meanwhile - flare the shield for as short a time as possible to catch oncoming tennis balls.

It doesn't seem to do much extra, maybe makes the blue a bit more solid, though repeatedly flaring the shield seems to be taking some mental effort.

It's more to get used to timing this thing. Being mentally tired is an interesting sensation, though.

Is the ball-thrower throwing them at irregular intervals? Can it do that? He sets it to, if so.

He can definitely make it throw them at irregular intervals, but it was previously not doing so.

Slightly better for practicing reacting to things, this way.

And after a short while, someone walks into the room! "Hey there," he says. "You need someone as a heavy hitter?"

"Hello! I'm brand new - I get a shield that varies from 'barely stops a tennis ball' to some unknown high end based on how long I intend to keep it when I make it. I want to figure out the high end."

"Depending on how strong it is, I might not be able to hit the high end. My main thing is durability but it allows some for heavy-hitting, I was just the closest thing available for quick use."

"Doesn't have to hit the high end as long as you hit pretty high. Eval says I have something else and I'm gonna run off and try to figure out what that is, too."

"That should work. What's the intend-to-keep-it part, do I need to be ready to punch it quickly or something?"

"You throw punches of various strengths and I catch them? I need to practice timing anyway."

"Sure. Should I start low and work up?"

"Sounds like a plan. Thanks for the help." And now he is clearly paying attention.

So Solidity starts with a relatively weak punch, weaker than most people would probably punch.

The faintly blue shield that snaps into existence tanks it effortlessly.

So he ramps up the power a bit! And will keep going for a bit.

Turns out he can't quite, under these circumstances, destroy Terry's shield outright, but he can definitely put some strain on it.

"Do you mind staying long enough to get at least one line of reference for each curve? Strength and time, strength and area."

"Sure? Maybe see if it's weaker at the edge, if you can make it stronger or thicker at different points?"

They could spend a while on this. He takes notes and mutters about math to extrapolate the results to things they haven't tried.

It seems the shield is mostly equal strength across its whole area, except for very near to the edges where it's quite a bit weaker. Making any shield less than about a square meter in area is relatively trivial, though the mental effort builds if he tries to do it too frequently or if he tries to hold a larger shield for longer, and it seems that the shorter amount of time he aims to hold it for in one go results in a stronger shield, though there are diminishing returns past a certain point.

… And after a short while, but still after quite a lot of testing, Solidity has to go. "See you around," he says, and then departs.

"Thanks for the help."

"Hm, what now." He wanders back out to the front desk and asks if there is a computer he could use, preferably running linux.

There is, yes! Depending on what he wants it for, though, it might not have the applicable software.

Also perhaps he should contact his parents at some point, unless he was planning on leaving that for later.

"It has git, right? That and Python are all I need. And yeah - does this place get cell reception?"

"Cell reception, yeah, and the computer should have Python but I'm not sure about git? You should be able to install it, though."

"Cool. I'll call my folks while I work on it, I've got a phone. I don't think they'll have any objections, really."

"We'll contact them with more details later, and you'll probably want to work out whether you're able to stay on-site during the training period or if you need to arrange some mode of transport there – someone can probably be made available to transport you, but it'd be more convenient not to need to."

He gets to work installing analytics and various other things on that computer. And makes the phone call. 

He pops his head up looking displeased. "Is there a high school here? If not can you please convince them to arrange a ged test?"

"This is only one of the smaller bases, actually!" she says. "Your training will be at a more central one. And– convince your parents or convince some educational establishment to let you do it there? The latter I'm sure we can do fine."

"I'll take care of the first then. I'll want to discuss pay and expenses later, but that's later. Given a ged they're fine with me living on a base, and so am I."

She nods and lets him get back to the conversation.

He is actually trying to cut it short. It's... A strange feeling, them being so caring so suddenly.

And then Relay asks: Are you busy?

Unbusy enough.

Someone else turned. From your school.

"Shiiiiiiiiiii..." What happens now? Raise the alarm, high alert?

Approximately, yes. Evacuation of the local area, studying to see if we can work out what it's going to be, if it's going to be anything, and hopefully getting people to combat it. So far powers seem to be yours, forcefields, and someone with the ability to see through illusions and falsehoods, which doesn't neatly point at anything in particular.

You and whoever's job this is have way more experience predicting than me.

I want to help but if you think it's too soon, I'm too untrained and not useful in field yet...

Usually powers work well in disaster scenarios, even if you're not trained, so if you're up for it we can send you out with someone more experienced, but there's nothing for you to do yet.

My friends and family are there. I would feel like- Terrible if I didn't go, whenever it starts.

Mental equivalent of a nod. We're currently contacting people in the area, asking them to spread the news of evacuation to get people out, but it's probably quite short notice and people haven't started doing evacuation drills properly. I'll let you know more as we find it out.

I'm going to... I dont know. Hack together a piece software to warn me of incoming debris. Hook it up to an old radar gun I've got in our house's garage. Bet I can do it, maybe not fast.

If you know the interface for it and can work out a program for it quick enough, could be useful, but debris might come from a bunch of directions, which a radar gun might not help with. There might not even be debris, though there often is.

Yeah, parts on hand or I'd want... Not weather radar, but like a helicopter navigation radar. And cameras and ir sensors. And some other stuff.

He's already distracted, rigging up a cheap and dirty program on that computer.

… Are you typically this interested in computers and hacking things together, or could this be a power?

...I am nerding awfully strongly right now but I did this sort of thing before too? Too soon to tell. Encouraging idea though!

He sends a nods again.

...Back to work then.

Is he going to keep working for a whole forty-five minutes, or will he take a break at some point?

He occasionally asks how the evacuation is going and does go to the restroom while a prototype is compiling, but otherwise yes.

Unfortunately not as well as they'd hope, but depending on the timeframe they might be able to get most of them out before something hits.

Hasn't worked that well in the past, though.

… And then Relay reports that someone else has turned, this time with aerokinesis.

Well that just about seals it.

Can he get a ride back to be in position and get started on attaching his old radar gun to the computer, or should that wait? He'll choke down the fear of flying this time.

He can get a ride to his place if he wants, but they suggest waiting unless he needs something back there – the danger is currently unknown so there's no guarantee he'll be safe if he goes back.

Well are there any radar things or other sensors he can have laying around here?

There are a variety of sensors, yeah! Radar is probably available somewhere…

Or anything that can detect approaching objects he's not picky and this has to be done ASAP...

He finds something! It even has appropriate connectors to allow him to hook it into some sort of computer and presumably transfer data, how nice of it.

Data sampling program, go! Learn what format this thing will send its information and expect commands in.

It has a format! … It also has nice documentation because apparently it installs drivers and a nice user manual when it's plugged into a computer, so he could read through that.

Excellent. Let's have a look at those drivers and see if we can't sharpen up the response time- oh wait no source code. And he doesn't have time to decipher machine level code on this. Okay just work with what's here, hook it up to his warning program, test...

And it works. The device interface is quite good, too – not sure why it was just lying around, it could be useful! As it is being now.

Don't punch a gift horse in the mouth, or whatever that saying is.

Test test test. With that ball throwing machine- He turns around and tries to block the balls using only the beeping and lights from his shiny new warning system.

It's probably quite difficult to do, but he'll probably get the hang of it eventually!

This sensor has mediocre range, but the real concern is its relatively narrow arc of coverage.

Anything else he can attach to his makeshift power aid? (Described that way in hopes of securing permission to use things.)

There are no automatically targeted lasers or anything like that, if he was looking for an automatic weapon. There might be some sound-based detector but if so it's not very easy to spot.

And then Relay tells him that it's time to go.

He wasn't looking for a weapon-

Fifteen seconds to apply some sealant and zip ties and he's running toward the front door, his stomach feeling like a lead pit.

Shine's available to bring him closer to the event – it's a storm, currently, slightly windy but set to get worse.

They don't have that much information about it.

He'd like to visit a Radio Shack or Ace Hardware or both on the way in, if possible? This thing is moderately effective at best, currently, he doesn't trust it in comparison to his eyes. He has a credit card.

If he can direct Shine to a nearby one, sure! Or he can try getting directions – via Relay – from someone with a map, but that might take a bit longer.

He definitely knows how to get to Radio Shack from the school.

They can go there, then!

… It's a bit windy. Shine drops him off at the door.

He runs in - is there still a cashier here or has he been evacuated?

There's someone just about to leave the store with a coat! He brushes past Terry and goes out the door.

So, no cashier anymore, at least.

Eh, he'll make a list of what he took. Maybe. Making lists takes time.

Cheap radio: Get! Cell phone charger: Get! And then to the 'Miscellaneous electrical parts' section, aisles of little boxes filled with tiny chips and resistors and solenoids and so on.

The back rooms have soldering equipment, lucky!

He spends twenty minutes or until Relay tells him things are heating up attaching bits that ought to clean up the signal and, better, widen its effective arc of coverage.

He doesn't need to be in the center of the storm, anyway, it's just that he might be able to help protect a few people where the rest of them can't.

Shine has disappeared but will return shortly if asked to return by Relay.

He tests it, of course, and then fixes the problems that this shows.

Relay, this thing is as good as it's going to get without more parts and hours of work and you'd know more than me where I can help.

And he calls his parents again - cell phones still seem to be working, at least for now, maybe they plan the network structure for things like this, and they're already leaving. That's certainly a relief.

He sends the mental equivalent of a nod and gives a direction for him to go in.

Shine is along shortly to pick him up.

"You know where Relay is sending me." It's not a question. "Thanks."

...He looks a little sick. But determined.

"You don't have to do this if you don't want to," says Shine. "But you should be mostly safe – you won't be too near the center of it."

"Jes- I'm more worried about everyone around me than me. If my family, all my friends, got out, but even then everyone is someone's son or daughter or mom or dad."

Shine shrugs. "You'll notice I'm doing it – it's just, if you're not sure then you'll likely be more hindrance than help."

But since he apparently is sure, Shine grabs him by the shoulders and accelerates away.

Yeah, he's sure. And he's not about to do something impulsive, he's pretty much going to stand there and be vigilant for flying debris, or whatever Relay says to do.

He's not going to be too near the center of the action, no. Shine puts him down a short distance away from a housing estate – somewhere a bit windier than near the Radio Shack but still safe, out of the way of the danger.

There are storm clouds up above, and the sound of thunder in the distance.

He's directed to make sure people have left or are leaving the area.

He's not subtle about it. Running up to doors and banging on them and shouting 'only bring essentials nothing that slows you down'... He flares his shield for emphasis if it seems like his authority to issue evacuation orders will be questioned.

A lot of people are already leaving! Some seem panicky, some are also trying to notify others, some seem to be having hurried phone calls, and one person is fretting over their flowerbeds but being shouted at by someone nearby.

Most of them are receptive to his authority. The shield definitely adds gravity to his claims, though it might also be helped by the thunder.

Flowerbeds.

If the storm hits here her flowerbeds will be gone whether or not she's still here and they can always be replanted, won't you please evacuate ma'am?

She's worried but she does recognize that it's somewhat ridiculous! It's just– she put all this effort into it and this place isn't very hurricane-prone and she bought the flood protection on her insurance because it was really underpriced for how bad it'd be if it flooded and how frequently it could flood and she read a brochure for what to do in a scenario like this but the insurance company might not cover it because it's an act of god and she's worried about her petunias, she's worked so goddamned hard on her garden!

She does, however, have most of her essentials quite neatly packed and is gradually moving towards her car.

He makes sympathetic noises as appropriate and moves on once she's clearly moving carward, doubling back to check that she actually left a few houses later.

She does in fact seem to be leaving, along with a neighbor who is carless.

Other people have a wide range of problems, but most can be convinced to leave quite easily or are already being convinced by their neighbors. Quite a few houses seem to already be empty, and the whole estate doesn't take too long to check through.

The storm is definitely getting worse. It's darker, much darker than it should be for the time, and the thunder is accompanied by intermittent flashes, though fortunately there is not yet any rain locally, only wind.

And Relay is told that this neighborhood is probably clear and he's now checking again - unless it'd be better to move on?

It'll apparently be quicker for Shine to get there, take a quick sweep through the area for visible stragglers, and then pick him up.

To the next place they go. It's a town a few over, skipping the other, smaller estates in the area that seem mostly done already, and then off Shine goes to presumably help out somewhere else nearby.

People seem to have more pets here. Not all of them are anywhere near as easy to transport – one of them has a small horse.

Agh, pets. 

Don't pack your pets' favorite beds or anything people, bring a little dog food along but your prize great dane's food in individual lunch baggies doesn't do them any good if everyone's still here and the storm gets too strong! He's just about run out of politeness about it, by now, as the urgency keeps going up.

People will move quicker! Angry person flaring their shield, they made a hero angry and their pets might be okay and– that thunder was really loud.

Most of them move along just fine. Some are a bit slow about it, but he can probably keep moving and expect them all to leave, sweep back through after like before.

It's a bigger area to cover than the last time.

The vibe he's going for is not so much angry as 'reasonable person preventing you from being hurt by being stupid,' but it's hard for amateur actors to get subtleties like that across, isn't it?

Well, okay, maybe only a few of them interpreted him as angry – people don't seem scared, at least not of him, and they do move on gradually, some of them moving much faster than others.

The area will eventually be covered, and most people will have gone already, with just a few moving slowly.

As long as everyone's moving, and nobody needs help, like an old lady.

There are plenty of people about to help elderly ladies!

– However there do appear to be a couple of kids who are quite confused and surprised by everything happening! Their neighbors… seem to have disappeared, and nobody's around to help them.

"HELLO hello!" Shield up, shielding them from the wind and just short-lived enough that the blue glow is visible. "Do you two know where your parents or your neighbors went?"

And also, Relay, almost done here but I have two unattended kids, all the neighbors are gone, do I find a police officer to get them out or what?

It's kind of confusing to pay attention to Relay and your surroundings at the same time, but should be doable. He responds: Try to find where their parents are, at least the names, and we can try to connect them up later.

The kids look up at him and one of them, the older one who looks about fourteen, says, "I, uh– mom went to the store? Dad's at work." He sniffs, looking quite pale – maybe he's ill, maybe he's just scared.

His sister beside him, looks much younger, is biting her thumb and looking appropriately terrified.

Double thinking like that is... A bit disorienting.

"Hey, what are your names? And your mom's and dad's names. We're gonna get you two out of here, but we want to make sure you can find each other later. And make sure they know you're safe too."

Phones are probably down or strained at minimum so he doesn't ask for the folks's numbers.

"Uh– Jeff Parks? And Samantha. Are our parents. I'm Tom and she's Lily."

He Relays the names and tries to smile reassuringly.

"Have you heard of Relay? I'm asking him where to send you right now."

"He's the– telepath?" asks the older one, Tom.

The telepath in question mentions that he's getting people to look now and it shouldn't take too long and they might not be able to meet up immediately but they will be able to eventually probably after the storm.

"Yes, he's the telepath. I want you to follow me so we can tell your mom and dad you're already safe when we contact them, okay? You'll be able to get back to them before too long but right now the important thing is getting somewhere safe."

The older one nods, the little girl just clinging to him.

"Well, let's ask Relay where I should send you two." Doublethink is easier when you're saying the same thing to both parties.

Someone will be along in a moment, he responds.

The kids wait… quite patiently. The little girl buries her head against her brother but he seems like he knows how to handle her.

"Okay, Relay's sending someone. I'll stay right here with you two." He does look around for any other stragglers, though. At least the part of this subdivision he can see from here.

None visible!

Shortly thereafter, Aura arrives! She nods to Terence and then starts talking to the kids, explaining to them how things are going to go, trying to find out a few more details.

It feels quite calm around her, despite the wind. Might be something to do with her power.

You should be free to continue checking around, says Relay. Aura can handle them, Shine can move you on when you're ready.

So he does.

This is getting kind of tiring. He's not in particularly good shape. Programming does not lend itself to athletic fitness. But soon this area is double checked.

They'd probably let him take a break, and at least it means other people don't have to sort out the areas.

Shine picks him up relatively shortly, takes him to a third estate, a bit smaller than the first one.

This one is quite a bit emptier, only a few of the less organized people still around.

He goes over to help them, continuing to be a Visible Turned and reminding them that getting a move on is preferable.

Relay, this area is almost clear but I'm... Tired. Not in good shape.

It's fine if you want to take a break, should be relatively safe where you are or someone can take you back to base? Pause. It's good what you've been doing, even if not necessarily the most fun. Makes sure people are safe.

If it's safe-ish here I'll take a break here. Maybe one of these last three stragglers will offer me a snack. Thanks.

He's really glad he's not being yelled at for 'giving up'. And that he checked his family got out earlier.

If Relay knew about this worry, he might try to reassure Terence further that they appreciate the help, especially since he's putting himself slightly in danger!

The wind continues, gradually increasing in strength.

After about twenty minutes and a snack he's ready to move on again.

Someone else checked out the rest of this section already, but now they have a better idea of where the center of the storm will be and are evacuating people from nearer there, using their powers to fly them away or whatever they can do.

He could, if he were willing, go there and try to protect people while they move, some of them without vehicles and some of them unable to get out due to blockages in the road.

Or he could keep checking these areas in the outskirts, where it's safer.

He doesn't want to take up too much of the coordinators' time but can he get a number or something on how risky the first thing would be?

There is not flying debris or anything, not at this stage, and they should be able to get him out before that becomes too much of a problem – it's quite a bit more windy, there's rain and thunder, but he should be mostly safe helping these people out.

Right, they're not going to send teenagers of any description even Turned on suicide missions.

He'll help, that's what he signed up for isn't it?

Well, they're at least not sending him on a suicide mission, no, not unless they failed to tell him something.

Shine's along shortly to pick him up and take him to the appropriate place. Apparently his job today is to ferry people around as necessary.

Relay was right – the place is mostly safe, but with how windy and rainy it is one could be forgiven for thinking it might shortly not be so. There aren't many people around, and the vehicles that are moving seem to mostly be moving slowly, headlights on and people being careful to not plow into anything. A few larger vehicles can be found nearer the edge of town, not going further in but people getting on board to be taken out of town.

A few groups are moving along the roads in town, some near the exits to various estates and some further away, nearer the roads leading out of it. Some of them are accompanied by heroes, members of rescue services and some other volunteers, trying to keep them assembled and get them going the right way.

Relay tells Terence which group he needs to look after. It includes about ten people overall, four kids and one elderly woman, the rest adults of varying ages.

He supervises them with the same air of confidence. Looking like you know what you're doing is a valuable skill, and one he has a fair bit of practice in.

Does the elderly woman need any help to stay moving? Can one of the healthy adults be convinced to provide it if so? Or he will.

The elderly woman seems like she's coping quite well, actually, and one of the kids is carrying her bag for her.

Most of the adults seem quite panicked, two of them looking after the kids. They're not wholly reassured by Terence's appearance, but they have an idea of where they need to go and are trying to keep to it. (Relay has provided Terence with information on the area and where he needs to go, and is, he reminds Terence, available for consultation if required.)

Thank you, Relay, I'll double check if I'm not sure of what I need to do.

He uses his shield applied intermittently to protect the group from the worst of the wind and wet, moving forward and then creating it at just short enough intervals to not immediately dissolve to the rain. They can be not-entirely-reassured if they like, but with a display of actual power it should go a little better.

It does! They can successfully make their way out of the estate they were in and along some roads and around the edge of the town and they're pretty close to a vehicle when the wind rather quickly, rather temporarily, picks up and flings some stuff around.

Fortunately nothing huge, but a ball and some scattered twigs do end up aiming for the group.

His detector is done for, alas, but he is paying attention. He manages to intercept the flying objects without looking particularly fazed.

Well then, they can probably continue onto the vehicles just fine and he'll be thanked and Relay will tell him another place to go!

It's not far.

A headache is coming on. He rests his power while working over there, declining to shield himself from the wind.

He's a bit more economical about wind-shielding them this time, short respites then a break while he's still paying attention for debris.

The wind gets worse. It gets darker. Bits and pieces start flying around, he can hear the occasional crack in the distance, and when he walks nearer the center of town he sees a tree that's been knocked over by the wind.

Some heroes are flying about overhead, sometimes carrying things and or other people.

He'll just keep doing what Relay says to do. Escort this group, then that group. That's Relay's job, telling people what to do.

After a few bouts of this, there's a sudden quieting as the air seems to stop moving, and the thunder stops, everything falling still.

And a moment later he sees a lot of people fly into the air, all then aiming in the same direction.

Relay, do I need to do anything?

Not 'what's going on'. If he needs to know he'll be told.

You– you should be fine where you are, he responds. The wind kicked up into a small cyclone.

Mental nod.

He asks his current group to keep moving, just in case it comes back.

It does. There's a small pulse and then it gradually picks up to where it was before.

The rain falls sideways some more. It's rather annoying.

This continues for quite a while. There are pulses of more wind, the thunder and lightning get worse, and Relay starts marking places not to go.

Most people seem out of the area Terence is in, and then he's asked if he wants to go to another town, a similar distance from the center of the storm and not on what they predict for its course.

He's actually getting very tired - maybe in thirty minutes?

Yeah, that's fine.

The heroes continue working against the storm, people flying about in the distance. There's debris moving around, things that haven't been pinned down properly moving around, and the air currents are– actually more visible in the sky than one might naively expect, at least to him.

It's weird how they interact with the materials and structures around him, but he can get a sort of feel for it after observing it long enough.

Is... Is this a power thing?

Relay, I'm noticing things about the air, can you tell if it's my power? Could be helpful?

– That seems like it might be a power thing. Is it new, did you get things like this before?

I definitely did not.

He's studying it keenly now, mostly looking for an overall picture of the storm - high pressure there low temperature there centripetal force... Wind coming from nowhere, but emerging where?

He can't actually see from where he is – he can make some guesses that it's approximately over that way, and it's probably then directed through this channel made by the buildings and then around a bit, but where it comes from back from that isn't possible to discern from his current position.

He could probably make a reasonable guess of where the wind is about to go, though not much outside his field of view.

It might help, but– we already have a relatively good picture of how the storm's moving, a few of the other aerokinetics get things like this.

I'll use it to protect the local area but- Can I make this available but not push it at you and distract you?

Wouldn't get distracted if everyone flooded everything at me, it'd just mean I don't end up doing anything with it. – That's a yes, feel free and I'll make it known.

So he tries his best to do that.

Maybe a better vantage point... No. Nothing risky, he's not actually making a critical difference. So he remains attentive to debris and wind patterns and only gets distracted out of it once every couple of minutes-

After a couple of times of this, he'll notice that he can actually sort of– click to default to sending to Relay, and it seems to make things easier.

He's somehow able to look at the pieces of the picture that he needs, somehow able to know where that is and pick up the information and then move to the next bit and keep building a mental model of the local map, or at least the air currents throughout it.

Well, he's not going anywhere, he can barely see let alone drive. He'll just have to piece out the edges in all directions and watch for changes.

It changes frequently enough that he can spend basically all his time studying the surroundings and the inputs into the system from externally. He can get the broad strokes of what it might look like outside this area, with large fluctuations in air pressure over in the direction of the storm main.

After a while, Relay lets him know that he's probably redundant for the active parts of the attempt to dismantle the storm, but he could provide some useful data for how winds will spread out from this point, if he keeps studying the area.

Well, he'll just keep doing that then.

The computer has dried out enough to start up in the shelter of a car. He somehow hacks together an algorithm to help, but has no way to feed it data without getting it soaked again so there goes that. Back to the computer between his ears.

It's actually not that bad a computer, especially not when upgraded by what is pretty clearly a power by this point.

Clear because he's not used to this kind of intuition about air currents. Other than how disjointed it is from his previous memories of ever having observed air currents, it would feel… quite natural, actually.

Almost peaceful.

After another fifteen minutes, things seem to be calming down slightly. Relay lets him know that someone's coming to show him into the air.

He didn't have the time or resources to make this computer-sensor-other-things amalgam that amazing.

Back into the air... That's probably for the best. Knowing what the air's doing will help with the nausea.

He can definitely know what the air's doing, even with his limited vision, but observing how bits of debris and small quantities of smoke are moving in the air does a lot to help guess when he's going to be jostled.

Whoever it is – they don't introduce themselves – takes him pretty much directly upwards from where he was positioned, allowing him to get a glimpse of the storm proper. Or rather, the lack of storm proper, seeing as how it's all small currents held mostly being combatted by other wind, which seems to appear from nowhere but then cancels out the undesired movements.

Then there's the space around one of the heroes where– he can't actually get any information on air movement, and it's slightly disorienting. It doesn't just slowly decrease in fidelity, his ability to predict the currents doesn't have any clear reason in the vicinity of the area to fail for that particular region, but it looks almost as if there's a border across which there's no movement of air.

Which probably makes sense.

He might recognize the person in the center as someone from his school.

"Hello, um, Theo? What a day, huh?"

He looks around and– "Just a bit. You– um, powers?"

"Yyyep. I get a shield, and I'm smarter in a really strange way now, I can tell things about the wind and I'm also probably good at making gadgets." The new perspective is interesting. He focuses more towards the storm's center.

Dissipating. Dissipating slightly slowly, still present, but the ripples out from it are clearly weaker than they were before. There's a lot of debris around.

If he looks closely, he might see a couple of bodies. Apparently not everyone got out in time.

"– I got aerokinesis?" responds Theo. "Um, and flight along with it, and… apparently I'm better at just stopping air flat than most people are." Pause. "I got it about two hours ago."

"What a mess, these things."

"Right?" he asks. "Um, hi there," he says to the person carrying Terence.

"Hey," responds the person carrying Terence.

Then he resumes looking at the ground, quite far below them.

"… Anyway, I should– probably get back, to helping. Or whatever."

"Watch the corners, they like to turn into vortices. And good luck."

"Thanks, you too."

Then off he goes.

The guy continues to hold him in the air, allowing him to check out the air currents.

It feels like the channel to Relay is quite open, so presumably he's still receiving the data.

It looks like this is steadily approaching being over, at least.

It is.

It doesn't take much longer before all traces of the storm seem over, the winds back to their previous, calm state.

He's kept around for another ten minutes, ensuring the winds don't seem to have damaged anything too much farther afield – it's difficult for him to guess this solo, but when combined with others who have similar powers, they can work quite well together – and then he's taken back to base.

Relay suggests he close the informational channel if he wants to keep any semblance of privacy, seeing as it's no longer necessary.

There are a few people there – approximately twenty, mostly grouped loosely together in one of the larger halls – but he probably doesn't recognize any of them more than having perhaps previously seen their face in a corridor.

He wants to sleep right now thanks not say hi to a bunch of fellow Turned. He does indeed close the info-channel.

He could sleep! There are some rooms around, like hospital on-call rooms, if he wants to sleep in one of those.

His house is probably out as a place to sleep. Might be a bit water-damaged.

A couch would almost do.

Though clean clothes and a hot shower would be nice too.

There are shower rooms near the on-call rooms…

Clean clothes might be provided if he asks for them.

He asks someone in-charge-looking all of this, then.

He looks convincingly tired, and pops a head-sized shield to demonstrate his Turned-ness.

Sure, they have various sizes! Presumably he knows his sizes and can pick them out of a bunch.

Apparently they have someone who's good at making clothes. They're all decently fashionable while retaining practical use and being made of some fabric that he probably hasn't come across before!

(He perhaps could've asked Relay, but fortunately the person who looks to be in charge was not busy at this time.)

Relay's busy with just about everything right now. Stay off the lines unless you've got something important to say, right?

Yeah he'll just take these and text his parents that he's still okay wherever they ended up and sit in the hot water under the shower for about twenty minutes then collapse into a bed thanks.

He's not interrupted for a couple of hours.

How about 'all afternoon and into the night'?

… Someone comes in after about four hours, uses one of the other beds in the room.

He wakes up, observes this, texts his parents that he's sleeping on base, and goes back to sleep.

There are a couple more interruptions if he wants to sleep eight or more hours.

After the next interruption, he decides he'd better figure out what happens next, maybe see where his parents ended up.

This is still that same base right? He didn't end up somewhere else entirely by accident.

This is still the same base! The on-call room appears to be for people who are staying at base temporarily and don't have other sleeping accommodations.

Various heroes are available. A few of them have flight, so it would seem some of the cleanup is done. Theo might be available somewhere if he wants to speak to someone in a similar position to him…

Talking to Theo would be a good idea but he doesn't have Theo's number and this isn't worth poking Relay over.

Does the person at the front desk know where Theo is?

The person at the front desk does in fact know! … The person at the front desk says that Relay says he's sleeping.

Perhaps they poke Relay for relatively trivial things.

At both of them, "Oh, okay. Well I don't think I'm going back to sleep soon can I get access to a workshop and some parts? Make my scanner actually useful mostly by fixing the waterproofing?"

The answer is apparently yes! The receptionist tells him where to go and notifies the applicable person through Relay.

Now that he's aware it's happening, he tries to figure out what that tinker-sense is doing while he runs the computer through a quick battery of tests. System tests, a benchmarking tool, the unit tests he just now wrote for his sensor program. That'll tell him how to optimize using it.

It doesn't seem to be doing all that much while he tests the capabilities of the computer itself. All the results of the programs he didn't write – they don't seem to help him much overall, though if he's looked into how they function behind the scenes he might feel like he's getting something out of them.

The unit tests make him feel better about his program? There are some points where he could optimize it some more – he notices that a bit better now – but it's overall a relatively good program.

Okay, now what about the electronics he assembled for the actual sensor-bit?

It looks like a royal mess to him but maybe that's because he was feeling rushed when he made it. Looking at it again, more carefully, any grievous errors?

… It seems like it'll function. Probably. But he could alter it in a few ways, tweak it to make it overall a bit more stable.

Nothing dramatic, but it's definitely something.

He'll just go ahead and do those things. It should take about an hour. He's glad he only soldered the critical connections and just pinned the rest together, makes redoing it less messy.

It doesn't take him too far off his estimate, and he can get parts as necessary if he requests them.