Chapter 27

What I really wanted to do was go to Hannah in New York. I had been really hurt by my experience with Stacy and needed my best girlfriend to talk to. After Hannah had expressed her feelings I knew I had to wait and deal with my emotional trauma on my own. Now the idea of having a relationship with Hannah had been brought to my attention and with feeling so hurt emotionally, I was pretty sure I would have fallen into a relationship with Hannah quite quickly. However, I was old enough and wise enough to know that would have been a very bad idea. Whether you call it a rebound or something else, the fact that you start emotionally vulnerable and are looking for the wrong things for a long term relationship. I needed to get my shit together first.

Instead, I spoke to the fish around me. I did wonder if I was going mad, but decided I would only be considered mad if I expected the fish to answer. I had loved Stacy and I didn't blame her for having loved someone before me. I couldn't really blame her for deciding that previous love was better, it was just my telepathy that had revealed what she had kept hidden and I imagined that would be true for a lot of relationships. Ignorance is bliss. Sexually, I had literally had to change my body so that we were compatible and that doesn't sound healthy. Although I didn't mind acting a bit submissive, I don't think my natural character is that submissive and Stacy needed someone properly submissive. I suspected that attitude was probably behind our last argument. I thought I was making a great sacrifice by bringing Celeste back to her youth. I gave up my secrets. There was no way I could have hidden Celeste, so what I could do, was revealed. I felt I was giving up my identity and made contact with Talia and Kalie very difficult. I was sure they would be monitored in the hopes I would contact them. To me it was all a big sacrifice, to Stacy I was just doing what I should have been doing and wasn't doing enough. This left me feeling betrayed. Part of the issue was probably that Stacy thought I should do what I was told.

There really wasn't an answer to my heartache, I just needed time to distance myself from it and distraction. So I tried to enjoy myself. Lying on the sandy beach wasn't distracting enough, so I bought or borrowed books, spent time snorkelling, dancing and trying to not spend too much time underwater so as to seem strange.

When I went dancing, I tended to attract a fair amount of male attention. I didn't mind chatting to them but wasn't interested in anything else. I usually told them I was fifteen and wasn't allowed to date and that deterred almost all of them. One of them was very environmentally concerned and I wondered if I could do anything about the carbon dioxide in the air, at least within my domain. Another experiment showed I could pull the carbon off the oxygen and attach it to other carbons. To make it easier I concentrated the carbon dioxide, pressurised it and then when I had enough to make a small diamond, about a carat in size, I did the conversion. Carbon dioxide was naturally occurring and plants needed it to grow, it was just the level that needed to be adjusted. I created an exception for any plants within my domain, to allow them a normal amount. Carbon dioxide was only a part of the problem according to my environmentalist. There were pollutants in the air, chemicals that either had a similar effect to carbon dioxide or created free radicals destroying ozone. So any chemicals in my domain that were not normal air, I separated and broke down.

This reduced the smell to an odourless quality that seemed quite boring so I experimented with natural chemicals in the air and through a process of elimination, determined which ones I would allow resulting in a more pleasant aroma. This did screen out all viruses and bacteria, but I still tasted the DNA, all of it from anywhere within my domain.

I did wonder how many mind partitions I would be able to create. There were all running on my brain and possibly using parts of the brain that often don't get used. I didn't think it was unhealthy and I had heard that neuroplasticity meant that if I challenge my brain it will adapt, so I didn't worry about it too much and figured if at any point my brain started suggesting it was struggling I could go through my brain partitions and remove less important ones. Just in case, I set up a brain partition to monitor my partitions and determine if there was any problem.

Both my micro telekinesis and my domain were incredibly useful, but without the brain partitioning and without the extra energy my cells were producing, neither would have been of much use. However, put it all together and I had a very useful tool that was heavily powered.

Anyway, I set my air filtering all up to occur naturally which also led to experiments with the airflow through my domain. I didn't produce any carbon dioxide, so I needed to pull it in from outside which required allowing the airflow. It wouldn't massively reduce carbon pollution, but at least I was doing my bit towards the environment.

The speed of the air flowing through my domain became an issue after I had been on the island for a month. We were hitting hurricane season and a tropical storm was moving in our direction and due to pass through and on to Florida. I was able to set a mind partition to limit the speed of the air in my domain to a pleasant breeze and another partition would prevent any speeding objects entering my domain from reaching me, I even set the water to pass through my domain interfered with only enough to make the rain miss me. So I wasn't worried, I should be protected from the storm, however, panic was beginning to affect the residents.

Chapter 28

There was a normal panic that holidaymakers were feeling especially if they came from somewhere that Hurricanes or similar didn't occur, and then there was the panic from a lady who was practically vibrating with distress. I couldn't walk away from that without taking a little peek with my telepathy mind division.

Her husband and three kids had hired a catamaran and should have long returned. There was a hotel employee who was the captain and the boat had a radio, however, for unknown reasons they were out of contact and with the approaching storm, even the normally laid back staff were worried.

Of course, if I didn't think I could help, then I would have felt sad and worried for them, but that would be it. However, when I wondered if there was anything I could do to help, I realised that my telepathy would probably be a good way to locate them, my flight would allow me to get to them and when they were within my domain, I could protect them from the storm. It still wasn't a certainty that I would find them. The ocean is overwhelmingly large and my domain was going to be largely useless in locating them.

Telepathy has practical and theoretical limits. Normally after you get past a certain number of people all shouting, hearing someone else a bit further out is almost impossible to hear. Listening to the ocean where there were no other people confusing the signal, meant even a whisper could be heard. Add to that using a mind partition that can put all its focus listening and the distance that can be heard is much further than telepaths normally claim is possible. Even with that being true I would have to use a search pattern and hope.

I didn't have an identity to burn, but I didn't want my latest face to be associated with superhero powers. I didn't have a mask ready for use so I had to come up with an alternative. I put on a pair of jean shorts and a white top as both were so common as to be non-descriptive. I changed my eyes to a crystal ice blue, darkened the skin of the top half of my face to make it look like I was wearing a mask and set my hair to braid itself and bring it up to make a crown. I reduced the redness from my lips and made my skin very pale, aiming for the ice princess look. Satisfied that I was unrecognisable from my usual look, I set off in search of the missing catamaran. From listening to the mother's thoughts I knew what general direction I needed to search.

Casey's POV

I was really scared. Alyssa, my sister was holding me while trying to hold the steering wheel, but I think she was just as scared as I was. Thomas was still fiddling with the radio, but it looked dead, and dad was trying to do something with the sails outside the cabin, but he had been trying for a while now and nothing had changed. The waves were throwing us around and with the wind whistling loudly and the water pounding, I just knew we were all going to die.

With a suddenness that was startling the noise cut out to a strange quiet, and the boat stopped moving. We all looked at each other confused.

“Ho, the boat,” a gentle female voice greeted us.

We all scrambled out of the cabin to the strangest scene I had ever witnessed, even from a movie. Our boat was floating above the ocean, the storm was still there but it was like we were in a giant bubble, protecting us from harm, while a girl in shorts and a T-shirt hovered next to the mast. She was really beautiful even with the mask covering her face. My fear left me in a rush. A superhero had come to save us.

“Umm... hello?” my dad said uncertainly.

“I am going to start moving us back to shore. Hold on while I get us moving,” she said.

I felt a force pushing me like I sometimes felt in the car when dad felt the need for speed as he called it, but rather than fall over I felt something hold me in place, gently but firmly.

“What is your name?” I asked her.

“I'm new at this, so I haven't got a name yet, at least, not one I can give you. What name do you think I should have?” she asked me.

“Angel,” I said almost instantly.

She gave a beautiful tinkling laugh.

“Could you hold me?” I asked. I wasn't as scared now, but I still wanted to be held.

She smiled at me. “Sure.” I floated towards her. I faced away from her with her arms around me, still floating in the air, looking out towards where land should be.

For the first time in hours, I felt properly safe. As the dread and excitement left me I started to feel sleepy. I woke up when she passed me to dad. “Thanks,” I mumbled, vaguely aware that dad was standing on the beach.

Josie's POV

The wind and rain was still too strong for the family, so after leaving the catamaran on the beach and pulling the unconscious local, William, from the cabin, I led the family to the hotel where the mother was panicking. I helped them get through the locked door, gently placed William on the floor. I waved goodbye as I stepped back and locked the door again. Hopefully, the hotel would have someone with medical training who could look after William, but I didn't want to stay for any questioning.

Finding them hadn't been easy. I had gone to where I had thought they should be and then started flying in a large spiral until I heard any mind thoughts. Flying back was a little awkward since I don't have a natural GPS or phone to give me directions, so heading in what I thought was the right direction and then used my telepathy again looking for life. I don't think they noticed me change directions, not that it really mattered, I just didn't like the idea of appearing incompetent. I should have brought my compass.

I was a little surprised by how easy I found it. Flying I knew was pretty effortless for me, but carrying a catamaran with family aboard should have increased the difficulty. Obviously, not enough to make me strain.