Stepping through the door a weight lifts off my entire body. Like walking into a nice cool shady room on a hot August day. The sensation makes me want to sleep while running a marathon.

“The nullifiers are deactivated in here, but don't get any ideas. They heavily monitor these rooms. Especially if more then one person is in here.” Mac says.

“Stop calling the implants nullifiers. No one likes that name.” I said while rubbing some of the implants on my arms. They must be amazing pieces of technology. Of course it is highly likely I am on an interstellar space craft with liquid metal rooms and I have magic powers. So plenty of amazing things to go around.

“We named them nullifiers.” Mac retorted.

“Nah, you called them that. No one really liked the name and we didn’t want to hurt your feelings. Your best friend though, he seems to enjoy hurting your feelings. What do you mean it’s highly likely?” Lucy said.

“This can all be a delusion, drugs, or I have finally snapped. Oh, Mac was poking me while I laid there all in pain after being tested. Please tell me he hasn’t named too many things.” I said, they both sort of shrugged off my bits of denial about the abduction.

“He tried to name the pellets ‘Hannibal cereal’. Fortunately no one wanted to use that.”

“I am feeling attacked when Dimitri is the one who should be getting attacked.” Mac said.

She came at me like a bullet. Knocking me back and onto the ground. My perception barely registered that she was moving. Anger pulsed through me. I banged my fist against the ground in frustration. She is fast, strong and going easy on me. A foot comes down to smash my guts.

I roll out of the way and get back onto my feet. Not even close to completely on my feet and I sense her movement again. She is going for my legs to keep me on the ground. Hoping to use my upward momentum to jump out of the way. In the air, her kick connects with my hip and I find myself on the ground again.

“How did you kill Goliath?” Lucy asks. She is clearly playing with me. More stomping and more rolling. Her pursuit is relentless. During a roll I push off with an arm. Sending me up and away from her. I clumsily land with my feet spread, ass in the air, stopping myself from falling over with one hand.

“Stop trying to fight like a normal human.” Mac instructs. “You are fast and strong. Strong enough to make these walls shake.” He continues.

I hear him but don't want to focus on him too much. Not with Lucy pressing her advantage. She rushes me again. This time her fist is balled up tight. I straighten up, keeping my eyes on Mac but my perception on Lucy’s fist. Shaking my head because of my own stupidity. I have powers, use them.

Through my perception her fist radiates with kinetic force. It built up in her dash towards me. Figuring out where she plans to strike is much more difficult then the metal balls in the room, but not that difficult.

Her knuckles come into contact with my abs. Right before the impact the kinetic force of the strike is absorbed as energy. It tries to spread away equally, but I push it and shape it into the palm of my hand. She is shocked by the outcome. What was once a dependable form of attack rendered useless. Standing there with her fist still clenched in the same punching position. As if she was not moving faster than a regular human can run a few seconds prior.

“I hit you right.” She questioned.

“Yep.”

“Doesn’t feel like I hit you.”

“No. No it doesn’t”. I answer. The energy of the strike is still being held in my hand.

“What happened to all that ummm stuff….” Mac says and trails off in thought.

“Oh it's right here.” I touch her shoulder as I speak. Letting go of the kinetic force directed right at her. Our bodys barely made contact before she was sent hurtling away from me. Satisfaction was all over my face.

“So I think I can redirect punches.” Cockiness in my voice. Lucy recovers and looks at me speculatively. She gazes around taking stock of the situation. I keep a close watch on her in my perception. Preparing to repeat the force redirection ability if she moves towards me. Mac was undisturbed by my actions. All the while looking off into nothingness. His mind draws conclusions.

“Why didn’t you do that when she first hit you.” Mac asks, looking into my eyes.

“I wanted to see what she could do.”

“Bullshit,” Lucy says. Something hazed my perception and I didn’t see her coming. Her fist lands this time. I go right into the wall and flop to the floor. Again she presses the attack. Her strikes are so wild it is difficult to pin down where she will hit next, but she is pulling her punches. Only using enough strength to keep me on the ground. The closer she is to me the weirder my perception is. I can sense her movements like before. They are just murky when up close and super hazy when far away.

“Everything we do has a little bit of magic behind it. The more you put into an attack of any kind the more effective it is. The opposite is true as well. If you can put more magic into a block the more effective that is and the less damage is done to you. That being said, when two people of equal skill and available power fight. It almost appears as though two normal people are fighting. You will walk away more bruised and beaten then if someone just hit you really really hard.” Mac advises, as he walks around me and Lucy.

With his advice ringing in my head I form an idea. It is difficult to work out where the next hit is going to land. If I don’t focus on a single spot, but instead focus on my entire body. Not sending the force back into the moving object. Always have it going to the same spot. This could reduce the amount of damage I take over all.

I start with large areas of my body that I think Lucy will hit next. A kick to the side of my body. The energy transfer down into the ground. It still hurt and my body jerked in response, but it was a marked improvement. With my perception still wonky I had to stay close to even tell when strikes were about to land. If I got too far away Mac’s instructions would end up distracting me too much.

This goes on for a while. She would shake up her attacks and I would work out different ways to disperse or absorb them. I rarely attempt to hit her back. Focusing more on my endurance in a fight than my damage output. Healing isn’t automatic for me like Mac claims it is for him. It takes focus and effort to heal. Not something I want to be doing in the middle of a fight.

We stand with our hands on our knees breathing a little hard. Her more recent attacks have done little to phase me. Both of us are reevaluating and wonder how to continue.

“We have discovered with proper training that there isn’t a unique skill. If I or Lucy can do something, then so can you. Like hitting a baseball. Pretty much everyone stands differently. A handful of people require external aids to hit the ball. But with the right motivation and training, anyone can hit a ball.” Mac continues to instruct. I breath in the heat hoping to recover some.

“The majority of people here are little more than Jedi. They are physically better now. But there is a mental block that impedes their use of magic. Sure you will see them push and pull like using ‘The Force’,” he uses air quotes, “ but not much more. In time they might be capable of touching their potential. However, it won’t be anytime soon.”

“Why not?” I ask him.

“They haven’t been pushed to use their abilities in the right way, don't think they are capable of magic, or scared of what using magic will mean. It’s one thing to go to a shooting range. It’s a whole different thing to go to war.” Mac words resonate with me. They sound familiar and make sense. How long has he been doing this?

Annnd that was the distraction Lucy needed. She’s a blur as she runs around the room to gain momentum. I think my eyes lock on her but then my perception says she is behind me. I take a panicked stance and try to prepare for the impact. This one is going to hurt bad and it is all Macs fault for distracting me. He could have said all this before, or he could have actually given me actually useful instructions.

I stare at him, anger building inside me. Knowing full well Lucy was about to take the opportunity to her advantage. Mac needs to get slapped. I push off with a foot into a mad dash to hit him before Lucy can hit me. Before my next step the room melts around me. My body is pulled along as though I was tied to a car going full speed down the highway. Mac’s nose is practically touching mine. It all happened in a fraction of a second.

“You are kind of in my personal space Dim.” True shock on his face.

“Yep.”

“What? How? Did you teleport?” He asks as though I know what I just did. Lucy stopped running. With Mac thrown off balance mentally, I decide to act. Knee to the testies are always effective. He stumbles back protecting his groin. My perception explodes back into being. Lucy is still standing stunned by the events.

“So who was blocking my power to see the area around me in my head?” I ask.

“Mac’s skills with magical senses are way more developed than mine. He is capable of using them as a sort of a weapon. Not a great weapon. Steph will be disappointed.” Lucy explains.

“So you all have a perception like mine. Seeing the world around you in your head?”

“No.” Mac chokes out while he composes himself. “I mean yes it can work like yours. Lucy’s is kind of like that. I sense magic at a detailed level. Best way to describe it is I know how people's powers work and I can sense people. It's how I found you. I sensed a familiar living energy pattern moving around. Eventually it ended up radiating from the elevator shaft. So I waited. Kind of regret it now”

“Oh shut it. You’ve been watching me get my ass kicked for like the last thirty minutes to an hour. Which your mind power helped.” I retort.

“Can you see everything around you in your head? What is the range? Do you need to concentrate on something to make it work?” Lucy asks eagerly. It is the most excited and emotional I have seen her.

“Well I can see everything in this room. Outside your room I have issues seeing inside it. Honestly, I have put more effort into reducing the area of effect. It is ridiculously distracting and has kept me from sleeping. So I'm not concentrating. The only time it has ever shut off was when I tried to hit chuck. My focus on hitting him was so intense that time seemed to slow down.” I explain.

“That’s a common effect. In a heightened emotional state the adrenaline will alter your perception of time. I know a guy who figured out how to control it. With varying success. I’ll introduce you if we get a chance. But let's get back to the matter at hand. You can teleport.” Said Lucy.

“Maybe I simply moved faster than you can see.” I pondered.

“No, you were in one location, took a step, and bamf you were right in front of me. What other natural abilities are you hiding?” Mac asks.

“I could be mistaken, but something happened in the test chamber. Right before I blacked out. I created a shield. It was a partial circle. When I made the stupid thing it surprised me so much I didn’t see the ball coming until it was to late.” I said.

“Teleporting is extremely rare. We don’t have much in the way of advice for mastering that trick. Shields though. We can help with that.” Mac smiles. My senses pick up energy shifting around into his hand. Unlike Lucy who used the momentum from movement to increase the force of a strike, or me who can directly manipulate kinetic force. Mac summons the energy from deep inside himself and reforges it. He proceeds to throw it at me.

“W.T.F. dude” I scream.

“Make a shield.” he said as he threw another blast. “Lucy, you should start attacking him again”

She nods and comes at me. Now instead of just fending off Lucy, I have to somehow manage to create a magic shield. On the plus side he isn't mucking up my perception. She goes with light attacks. More interested in keeping me off balance than doing damage. Mac was the one trying to hurt me.

Mac and Lucy timed their attacks. One of them always managed to hit me. Usually it is Mac’s little energy balls. Fighting the instinct to avoid being hit with a dodge is hard. It is clear what they are doing. My subconscious is just being stubborn and doesn't like my squishy body to be hurt.

We take a moment so I can collect myself. Bracing myself as I brace Mac. That shield might be an extension of my energy absorbing ability.

“Ok just you Mac. I don't think this is a deep end lesson here. So attack me from afar all you want.” I say to him and get a nod in response. He starts lobbing his attacks at me in the same spot of my body. It stings like hell when it hits. The energy balls aren’t too different then the metal balls. In a short amount of time I was able to shift the energy from the attack. The practice with Lucy and the test chamber make it somewhat easy to do.

The energy balls keep coming. Hitting me right in the chest. I keep trying to project a shield out of my hand. It isn’t working out too well. I try to picture it in my head. That does absolutely nothing. Forcing the protective energy out to my fingertips almost works. A small shield forms a few millimeters away from my skin the diameter of my hand. Not the full blown shield I made in the test chamber. Changing hands I run through it again. Maybe it is arm specific? When that fails spectacularly I try both hands. Then I try different finger gestures, gang signs, Spiderman web shooters, and magic words.

“I can’t believe I am saying this, but hurting you is getting boring.” Mac complains. Each throw was less enthusiastic then the previous one. He didn’t appear to be getting tired or low on energy. He is just getting bored at my failure.

“How about you do that thing where you block my perception and Lucy can run up and try to hit me really hard?” I suggest. Mac shrugs and Lucy nods. They go to work. My perception shrinks and I can’t ‘see’ either of them. Mac proceeds to throw the energy balls at me in rapid succession. I am doing a good job blocking the balls with the back of my hand. Lucy ran around the room slapping me in the face as she passed by. Still no shield.

The slaps are frustrating. They are never in the same spot. I am able to put a light barrier around me to stop her but it only softens the blows. As time progresses we all start to get frustrated with my lack of progress. It leads me to push out with my perception. Right before Lucy comes in for another slap. Shear instinct drives my leg to jerk. My weight shifts to move into the slap. The room melts with an intense pulling sensation. I’m right in front of the wall. Lucy is behind me.

“You were supposed to create a shield, not teleport.” Mac groans.