by Saless
Chapter 83

"Well," Jill said when they were all safely back in Sarah's living room, "that was anticlimactic! All that fuss and it's over in a couple of hours."

"It's not over." Sarah said, "It's just begun. Erica's chrysalis will take weeks or months to mature, maybe longer. She probably won't even notice any difference for a while."

"What about collecting tech from that world? Weren't we going to do that?" Mike asked.

Sarah plopped down on the couch and the others followed suit. "Another time. We went to the end of the game; beyond it, really. At that point the world is a mess and retrieving the stuff you want would be a lot harder. We'll use other parts of the game for collecting hypos and such." she said.

"Doesn't that mean we'd be traveling through time?" Tiffany asked.

"I…don't know for sure. But I have a feeling we wouldn't be." Sarah replied thoughtfully.

"If we really want to travel through time we can, though." Mike said. "My bronze dragon form can teleport through time and space."

Sarah shivered at that idea. "I really don't think that's a good idea!"

"Why not?" Mike asked.

"It's just a feeling I have, that trying to travel through time would be a really bad idea!" Sarah replied.

Mike shrugged, "I wasn't really planning on using it, anyway. If your portals do the trick then there's no need. Besides, we could still probably get what we want from the time period we already visited, it'd just be harder."

"So how do you feel Erica?" Jill asked.

"No different than I did before. I don't imagine I'll feel any different for a while yet, like Sarah said." Erica replied.

"Mike?" Tiffany asked diffidently from the shadows, "Would you be willing to teach me, too?"

"Teach you what, martial arts?" Mike asked. Tiffany nodded. "Sure, I don't see why not. We're going to need more room, though. We don't have room in here to practice as it is."

"I think I saw a karate place in the empty world. We could use that." Jill suggested. "In fact, why don't we go do that now?" The others agreed so Sarah opened the portal and Jill led them to where she thought it was. She was off a bit, but they found it with little trouble. The door was locked, so Tiffany used her ring to open it. Vash gave Tiffany the same info dump he'd given the others and they got started. Mike took it slow to start, to get Tiffany caught up with the others. Before long Vash had another transfer for them, which greatly accelerated things.

"Why don't you spar for a bit so I can see how you're doing?" Mike suggested after they took a break. He paired Sarah up with Tiffany and Jill with Erica, as he figured they'd have the least qualms about hitting each other in those groupings. They were all hesitant at first, but soon got into it. Tiffany was proving a quick study and giving Sarah a tough time. Erica was learning even faster and had Jill on the defensive. A flurry of blows broke through Jill's defenses and Erica delivered a sharp blow to Jill's abdomen.

"Time to switch sparring partners!" Mike said when he saw that Erica had won her match, and Tiffany hers. He paired Tiffany with Erica and Jill with Sarah this time. Tiffany and Erica were a better match but Erica was doing slightly better. Jill was keeping Sarah on the defensive as Erica had her. Knowing she was about to lose, Sarah took a long step to the side and spun on that foot, bringing the back of her other foot around in a kick to the back of Jill's head. No one was more surprised than her when she pulled it off. What surprised everyone more was the sharp "crack!" sound that accompanied the hit, and the way Sarah collapsed in pain.

Jill looked back in surprise, as she hadn't felt a thing. She looked at her hand, but she'd remembered to take off her ring before sparring, as Mike said it would only get in the way of learning.

Erica rushed to Sarah's side as she cradled her foot. "What happened Sarah?"

"I don't know! I thought I had her, but then my foot hit something really hard and I think I broke it!" Sarah replied with tears of pain in her eyes.

They'd moved most of the healing water to the storeroom with the other stuff they'd gotten from other worlds and Jill had brought a bottle along. Seeing how much pain Sarah was in she grabbed the bottle and poured some of it on her foot. Sarah sighed in relief. "Thanks Jill; that feels so much better!" Sarah exclaimed. She flexed her foot and found she was completely free of pain.

"You're not wearing your ring, are you?" Mike asked Jill.

"No, it's over there with Vash. What just happened?" Jill replied, pointing to Vash where he lay on the floor near the mat with the ring on the floor in front of him.

I think I know what happened. Mike, try to hit Jill. Don't worry about hurting her, I don't think you will. And we have the healing water if it's needed. Vash said.

Mike looked doubtfully at Vash and then stepped up to Jill. With a mumbled, "Sorry." he suddenly spun around and kicked her in the chest. Only it was quite obvious that his foot hadn't connected. He grunted and hopped back and flexed the leg he'd kicked at Jill with. "Okay, that hurt. Mind explaining that Vash?" he said.

I told you before that Jill's abilities are different than mine. Not only is she stronger than I, but her abilities are more varied. I've been expecting this, but there was no way of knowing when it would happen. Besides being an empath and telepath, she's also telekinetic. Vash replied.

"I am?" Jill asked in surprise.

Yes. Your abilities have matured enough for your telekinesis to become active. You are only using it instinctively so far, but now that you're aware of it you should be able to use it consciously before long. Vash said.

"What will she be able to do with it?" Mike asked.

That depends largely on how much power she has and her imagination. Telekinesis has nearly limitless uses. The primary limiting factors are power, control, and like I said, imagination. Vash said.

"That's going to make training a bit tough. No one's going to want to even try to hit her if they're going to break their foot, or hand, every time!" Mike said.

"Looks like you're stuck with me as a sparring partner, then." Erica said to Jill.

Jill looked confused and then put her hand over the spot where Erica had hit her earlier. "Oh yeah, you're immune to psionics! I guess that includes telekinesis, since that punch did hurt! At least I won't have to give up training all together." Jill said.

They went back to their original pairings after that and sparred for a while longer, with Mike giving pointers as needed. By the time they were done Vash had enough information and sent it out to them.

You'll have time to absorb this one before your next practice. It'll be interesting to see if that makes a difference. Vash said.

After dropping off the healing water they returned to Sarah's apartment. Jill and Mike decided to go to their apartment to relax for a while and Erica went into the kitchen to call her parents. That left Sarah and Tiffany and they started playing a game with Tiffany still hidden by her shadows.

"How can you even see anything, anyway?" Sarah asked as Tiffany trounced her in a game of tennis.

Tiffany paused and then said, "I hadn't thought about that. I'm in darkness more often than not, but I can see fine! Maybe that's part of being a Shadowkin."

Sarah nodded, "Maybe that's also why your eyes changed color."

"Yeah, that makes sense. I still don't understand why my hair changed like it did, though." Tiffany said.

"Well, it does stand out less than it did when it was blonde." Sarah said.

"Maybe, but the ends are snow white! They practically glow!" Tiffany replied.

Sarah paused the game and glanced over at her friend. "Hmm, you're right, they do. But it kind of gives you a ghostly look. Especially with that pale skin. I bet you can have all kinds of fun at Halloween!" she said.

Tiffany laughed at that, "I suppose I would make a good ghost! And I could even seem to appear out of thin air if it's dark enough! Hmm, I wonder if I could make the shadows billow around me like mist…" They both got into thinking about ways they could use their powers on Halloween, even though it was almost eleven months away. They were fully engrossed in their conversation, their game completely forgotten, when Erica returned with a worried look on her face.