Who: Stephen Jamison & Kaleb Krychek What: Stephen's arrival Where: by the fountain When: Friday afternoon Warnings: not really Status: started in gdocs/will continue in comments
Seeing the sheer number of Breakouts who made their way to the lair and were looking to him for guidance nearly gave Stephen a panic attack. He wasn’t sure he was equipped to be a leader, had no idea how to train these people to control their powers, and knew they were going to need a lot more space to comfortably accommodate their burgeoning population. At least he had Cara and Russell to help him and he wasn’t trying to do this alone.
He briefly welcomed the new arrivals, assured them that they were welcome, and then quietly told Cara and Russell he needed a few minutes to himself. There weren’t many places to get privacy with so many people around, so he decided to go topside.
Except when he teleported out of the lair, instead of finding himself on a busy Manhattan street, he was standing in a small park in front of a fountain in what seemed to be a small town. He looked around frantically, trying to figure out where he was and how he’d gotten here. It was definitely not New York, but their teleportation didn’t typically allow for long distance jumps.
‘Cara? Russell?’ He attempted to reach out to his friends telepathically, trying to remain calm while he sorted this out.
***
As was his custom, Kaleb was in the park exercising. It was a time he spent to make sure that his focus remained intact and his abilities primed. There was little use for the true force of his powers, but Kaleb would not allow himself to neglect any of his abilities. So he was working through a series of martial arts moves that would be lethal if combined with the force of all his telekinesis.
His mind was passively monitoring the town. He used the power of his telepathy was heightened by the use of his telekinesis. Since the telekinesis was rarely used, it seemed to prudent to use it to augment the telepathy he had so that he could monitor more of Madison Valley. It was passive and he gathered no information from the people of Madison Valley, but instead kept watch - able to go to locations where help was needed with ease.
With that, it was Kaleb who immediately heard the telepathic hail, sounding like a shout in the mental silence that blanketed Madison Valley. Pinpointing the location of the voice, Kaleb teleported to the side of the male who made the communication. Standing near enough to be seen, but far enough away to protect himself, Kaleb replied telepathically, ‘I am not sure who you are looking for, but you are not where you think you are.’ He held up his hands slowly to show that he was unarmed and unlikely to hurt the man.
***
Stephen was startled when someone teleported right next to him and he gave the guy a serious once over. He didn’t recognize him and there was something about his powers that felt… off. He couldn’t explain how, exactly, but they seemed different from what he was used to.
“Where am I?” he asked, opting to speak rather than use his powers until he learned more about the situation. It was possible there was some other group besides Ultra that had it out for his kind and he was on guard. “Who are you?” This guy seemed too old to be a new Breakout.
***
Tucking his hands into the pockets of his trousers, Kaleb considered the face of the young man standing before him. Though Kaleb could sense the young man’s power, he clearly wasn’t Psy as he knew the feel of all those powers inside and out. His black eyes watched the man and remembered how he had felt when he arrived in Madison Valley and his version of compassion rose.
“You have arrived in Madison Valley,” Kaleb answered in a calm cold tone. “My name is Kaleb Krychek. Who are you?” It perhaps sounded cold and rude, but it was just who Kaleb was.
***
“I’ve never heard of Madison Valley,” Stephen said. Maybe he should have paid more attention in geography class. And knowing where he was didn’t explain why he was here or how he got here.
He also didn’t recognize Kaleb’s name, but he figured he should at least introduce himself in the hopes that it would lead to some actual answers. “Stephen Jameson,” he said. “Do you know Cara Coburn or John Young?”
***
“Most people haven’t prior to their arrival in this rather forsaken space,” Kaleb commented, a hint of amusement turning up the corners of his lips. It reminded him of his own arrival in this location. Nothing about this place seemed normal in comparison to where he had arrived from.
“Neither of those names are people that I know nor are they names that are invoked or tied to people in this location,” Kaleb added. He felt sorry for the young man - well in his own way. “What are your skills that brought you to this place?”
***
There was no point in denying his abilities, at least the telepathy, since this man clearly heard his psychic calls. Stephen wasn’t sure if he wanted to reveal all of his secrets to a stranger though, especially in such an unusual situation.
“I have no idea how I ended up here,” he said. That, at least, was true. “I was in Manhattan. This does not look like New York. Where exactly is Madison Valley located?”
If he had to guess, he’d think the midwest, but it was impossible to know for sure just from looking around.
***
That he kept his mouth closed about what he could or could not do won Kaleb’s approval. “You are correct. This place is quite far from any reasonable form of urban environment,” Kaleb pointed out. “We are in the nation United States and somewhere in the midwest.” Kaleb affected a shrug.
“I don’t know the precise location in relation to what you may or may not know,” Kaleb continued, “but I do know, this is probably not the world you are from. People here are not capable of telepathy. They are human.”
***
At least he hadn’t somehow teleported to another country. That would make things a lot more complicated. “Most people are humans,” Stephen said. “Those who are capable of telepathy are a small percentage.” And those with the level of skills that Stephen had were an even smaller percentage since he was one of the rare few who had two parents that were Tomorrow People.
“So, how do I get home?” he asked. He needed to get back to New York and his people.
***
Clearly Kaleb needed to be clearer. “The people who live here are human,” Kaleb continued, “they don’t have skills or powers. The refugees who live here, such as myself and you, have powers. We are not human as a general rule. I am not.” Kaleb never wanted to be confused for human or perceived in such a manner.
“And you don’t get home,” Kaleb added, shaking his head slightly at the man. “This is a one way ticket.” For the most part, but the clarification was not something that would provide this man with hope. Better that he accepted that he couldn’t go home - and certainly not in the manner in which he had arrived. It had taken Kaleb a long time to accept that, but it had served him better than fighting to go home.
***
The clarifications only served to further confuse Stephen. “So a bunch of humans somehow kidnapped us and brought us here and we’re stuck?” How could that even happen? It sounded like there were others here too, but if they all had powers, how had the humans managed to capture them?
Unless they had some kind of power dampening tech. But since Stephen was able to use his telepathy and Kaleb teleported to him, that didn’t seem likely.
***
Immediately Kaleb shook his head, negating his supposition. “No one kidnapped us,” Kaleb commented, “though it may sound like a logical conclusion. In fact, no one knows how we ended up here or why. The towns people, who cannot leave just like us, are mostly human. Those of us who are refugees often come with other powers. But no, you cannot leave. We are marooned in this location.”
Kaleb watched him carefully, wondering how he would react.
***
Stephen had no idea how to react to that. Part of him wanted to find something he could fight, but one thing he’d learned over the past couple of months was to step back and gather intel before acting too rashly.
“So what are we supposed to do?” he asked. Since it didn’t seem like Kaleb was surprised that he’d just arrived, he assumed this sort of thing happened with some regularity and there was probably some kind of established procedure.