Nothing Stranger Than Life, Chapter 16

Printer-friendly version

Sorry for the break in the action. Between work being a real pain in the posterior and a vacation because work was being a real pain the posterior, it has been a while since I could string enough minutes together to finish a chapter... and now... on to the story

Shopping with the spousal unit? Will wonders never cease?

Chapter 16

Dropping back into my favorite chair with a small grunt, I kicked off my sandals and reclined the seat back and propped up my feet. I had power shopped until I was ready to drop. The spousal unit was now sporting new threads and was happy and we had put up all our purchases. I had managed to keep the amounts down to numbers that wouldn't threaten the budget of a third world nation... barely.

And... I had only had a SlamFast bar since I had gotten up this morning and it had been hours ago! The problem was, I sat down before I got any food together. I had left the laptop within reach, though, and checked the bank account. I ordered a medium pepperoni pizza for my son and a large veggie supreme for us. I paid for it online and called my son in to show the pizza person the charge card and to give the tip. He was happy enough with that arrangement because it got him his favorite pizza ASAP.

The spousal unit was happy. We had both been dieting and this would be a treat and she had the new clothes, too. We had been almost the same size when we got married and that had gone back and forth. Other than being taller, I was now smaller than her in all regards, but only barely. We could easily share most of our clothes.

In my fatigue-induced relaxed state, I was almost to the point of dozing off when I felt a sensation, almost at tickle, at the base of my consciousness. My shields were still up and doing their job but were now “porous”, something I did not normally allow to happen. I could just ever so slightly detect a feathery probing touch my shields. I tightened up to the point I had closed off all the pores but one, and that one I made intrusion-proof, but could still detect through it. I visualized it as an unbreakable window. Nothing could touch me through it, but I could see what was out there and I could also focus my mental energies though it as probes as well as offensively.

Back tracking the touch, I found the Guardian Shamen using spirit totems to try to sniff me out on the astral planes. They were too well shielded for me to do more than detect and locate them without tipping them off, but I felt no hostile intent on their part.

I knew instinctively that they were looking for me and had been for a while. They would also be interested in my coven sisters. This was somewhat disturbing. If they had alerted to me, who else knew about me? I had figured out that I could do a great many things if my determination and visualization were both good enough. Using a mental image of passive sonar, I attempted to listen in to anyone else looking for me. I found the DHS crew almost immediately. Giving credit where credit was due: they had plenty of power focused on finding me. They just had no finesse or subtly. The very amount of power they were using made them blind to me. It also provided me plenty of astral noise to make the echoes I needed to use my psychic sonar. In a matter of an hour, I had located all the assets DHS had assigned to me, including their mundane (non-magical, non-psionic, non-psychic) members just from the surface thoughts radiating out with the power they were using.

As I was tracking down one particular ley line that DHS was taxing heavily, I happened, accidentally, to notice the Chinese mystic in meditation. He had excellent mental discipline and a moderate amount of power and talent. However, he did not understand the concept of firewall-style shielding. He was using a visualization that was basically a Chinese battle shield with a hole in the center to allow him access through it. I just flanked him and looked around his shielding. After checking carefully for traps and hazards, I let my awareness sneak up on him and read his surface thoughts remotely. Think of reading someone else's paperback book at the park, from up in a tree, with binoculars. While they are reading, too. They turn the page too quickly. Or not quickly enough, They get fingers in the way, etc. I managed to get the general gist that my power burst was what had attracted him and how he was of the opinion that his “mentoring” would be best for everyone. Blarg, best for him!

I thought for a minute and considered how I formed my shields and how he formed his... and then I built an psionic construct that would appear to be attacking him in a circular pattern, forcing him to continuously reinforce his shield. In actuality, the construct was drawing the excess energy from his shield. It would also drain any attacks he made. The ironic thing was if he stopped attacking or defending, the psionic construct would eventually run of out stored power and dissipate. I thought that might take a while, I'd built it to be efficient and to soak up every last erg of available power. Also, I'd know if it started getting low.

I spotted the Russian psychics fairly early in my explorations but they were busy giving a show and were focused tightly enough I didn't realize that they were a potential threat, even though they were manipulating an amout of power that was not insignificant.

I didn't spot they husband and wife team at all, due to them not being stateside and not having access to enough power to attract my notice.

Fargo and company were still offshore and also escaped notice.

I realized that the ley lines were a problem and visualized them gradually shifting so that they would not be directly beneath me withing a few days. I know this sounds like something that should be a red flag to those assigned to watch, but the ley lines would sometimes shift in a drastic manner for no particular reason. I personally had the suspicion that they played in response to the strongest draws on their power flows. I had simply used an visual image of someone similar to me but many times stronger taping the lines at points that would cause them to withdraw to accommodate the new power requirements. I'd be in a position to decoy everyone that was looking for me from a strong but stealthed position that allowed me full use of my talents and abilities and actually made finding me harder the more power I used, openly or otherwise. [insert evil giggle HERE]

And now give me 2 points on all other parties concerned! Well, wait, I hadn't spotted the husband and wife team, but they weren't a real issue, anyway.

Chapter 17

Already in progress!

up
72 users have voted.
If you liked this post, you can leave a comment and/or a kudos! Click the "Thumbs Up!" button above to leave a Kudos

Comments

Yay!

Will wonders never seize? Shopping with spousal unit and pizza? Fun! Keep up the good work!
Hugs!
grover

re: Yay

Thanks so much, I'm having a ball, hope you nice people are, too!

Spousal Unit?

Is the previous tension between them because he -- well nearly she now -- referes to her as the spousal unit?

Quirky fun. Good show.

John in Wauwatosa

John in Wauwatosa

Spousal unit

That's an upgrade from spousal abuser and it is a tension that exists in real life because she is a religious wacko and feels she is justified in hating anything she does not understand or which she does not personally approve

And the tension came first, the nick name came later

D.D.

Sorry

You are correct.

It's been a while and my Acme Br_rrain has a limited capacity to remember things from months back.

I'm constantly having to go back to my previous stories in my Timeout serial to avoid contradicting myself.

John in Wauwatosa

John in Wauwatosa

I so know that feeling!

I was in a coma for 6 days following this:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/7550046@N02/484557702/

I keep an unbroken version of this story going and only paste in the latest chapter so I have the master copy in progress in a continuous form. Having all the chapters together helps me