After a vacation from his vacation, Shane felt pretty fresh coming back to Point Pleasant. New clothes, new haircut, new experiences and Toby had not trashed the house while he was gone so it was all in all a win. The weather was sweet and although he would miss having someone else change his sheets, it was kind of nice to be back in what he was temporarily calling his space. He and Reza spent their Monday evening chatting about AIR while Shane tried to bring him a little bit more up to speed about what he knew, though he did feel like it was all a bit disjointed. He didn't exactly know a lot about it himself.
On Tuesday afternoon he dragged Reza with him to go see Diego. The gay daddy might be busy but Shane wanted to at least let Reza meet him and talk about practicing their abilities together. He'd found a perfect place way out in the woods, an old fort of some kind that Shane was sure he would know more about if he'd actually gotten proper education at AIR. Looking for information about it online didn't do much for him but it looked long since abandoned - even the graffiti coating its walls looked old and aside from the exterior being fairly well grown over with weeds and moss, the interior was mostly rubble and not much flammable stuff. It was perfect and out of the way and he considered himself pretty damn lucky to have found it.
He and Reza arrived in Seaview after going out for lunch, that way if Diego was busy they could make other plans and at least see if he could make it to the party that Shane was planning on having the next day. Party slash meeting, he just wanted to get everyone in the same place for once, get a better feel for the group. There was no car out front but as far as Shane knew, only Diego's husband or co-daddy or whatever he was had a job so he didn't let that stop him from knocking.
In spite of the fact that they were standing in a trailer park, the type of place that Reza had avoided most of his life -- mostly out of vague safety concerns -- he was pretty excited to be there. The mobile home in front of them wasn’t even very run down or trashy, it was just small and didn’t have a real foundation. Inside of it was the man who could control gravity, which was just delightfully cool. And he was going to get to see it today, which was exciting. Reza hoped this wouldn’t turn out to be a bad idea, mixing anti-gravity and fire, but that was part of why he was there, to help douse any flames that got out of control. Hopefully. In any case, he was excited to see the two of them in action.
Diego was home alone, with Oliver at work and Haisley out with some of her friends, listening to some music as he cleaned up the kitchen. The knock on the door came as a surprise, he hadn’t been expecting anyone, but Diego didn’t hesitate to snag a towel to wipe his hands off as he went to answer it. A bright smile took over his face immediately when he opened the door and Diego laughed a bit. “Shane,” he said, glancing between the two men standing on his porch. He recognized the other man as Shane’s boyfriend from the picture Shane had shown him -- it would’ve been hard to mistake him for anybody else, he had a very unique look. “You never text, man. Come on in.” He stepped back and opened the door wider for them.
Shane shrugged with a little grin and didn't get into how he neglected his phone enough that it was chock full of angry messages by now and he was starting to hate the messenger apps on it. He was barely even consciously aware of why the phone was such a nuisance to him. "I prefer face to face," he said casually as he stepped inside, glancing at Reza to try to gauge his reaction to the man and the place, very much aware that it was nowhere near the luxury kind of place Reza was used to. He didn't seem put off though so that was good, Shane could be a snob but even places like this had been way above his pay grade in the early years so it would have stung in some weird way if Reza hated it, even if Shane didn't like it much at all. "This is Reza, Reza this is Diego. I was hoping we could drag you out to the middle of nowhere to set things on fire. Reza's got some tricks up his sleeve that could come in handy if things get a little too hot." He waggled his eyebrows and damn if he didn't feel a little proud of them both, as if he had anything to do with their abilities.
Reza had to laugh softly at the friendly accusation -- at least he wasn’t the only name on Shane’s phone that he ignored -- as he stepped inside the modest living room. It definitely wasn’t a place he would’ve wanted to live, personally, but everybody did what they had to do, and at least it was clean inside and smelled nice. He and Diego shook hands as Shane introduced them, and Reza’s smile was warm. It was hard not to smile when Diego was just beaming away at both of them. He seemed like the friendly sort.
“Oh yeah?” Diego responded to Shane, glancing at Reza again. Shane hadn’t told him about his pretty boyfriend having any powers, and he was pretty sure Shane wasn’t just talking about big fire extinguishers or anything. “You mean like, right now?” he added with a laugh, glancing down at his sweatpants and dishes-damp t-shirt. “Did you find a place you think might be safe?”
"Yup," Shane replied and pulled out his damn phone to find a satellite map of the Point Pleasant area. "I found it last week, drove out there and checked it out. See this spot here? It's an old fort, kinda perfect for what we want to do. I know we said we'd start with something smaller but-" he trailed off and grinned. "Small is boring, right?" He had enough faith in his abilities to know he could keep the fire away from the two men so it really was just the environment he had to worry about and that fort had definitely seen worse than a little fire. "It's about an hour's drive but we can bring snacks." He grinned at Diego. "You game? You got other plans?" He'd be lying if he said he didn't want to go right away and would definitely sulk if Diego was busy but he looked pretty excited too, unless Shane was projecting.
Diego leaned in to peer at Shane’s phone screen. He wasn’t familiar enough with the area for the map to mean much to him, but he could see that it was a bunch of concrete nestled in the middle of the woods, so that was something, right? Concrete didn’t burn, at least. The pleased rush of having visitors was starting to morph into real excitement. He’d told Oliver that this sort of thing was probably going to happen, experimenting with Shane, but not when, and his lover would probably be miffed that Diego had gone and done dangerous stuff while he was at work, but ... it was really a perfect time. Diego wanted to do this without a disapproving audience, and Reza looked anything but disapproving at the moment. He made a grimace that was still a grin, sucking in some air through his teeth, then laughed. “Yeah, okay, I’m game,” he said. “Oliver will probably kill me for going without him, but ... let’s do it. Just uh, lemme change real quick, just a sec.”
As Diego hurried off down the short hallway, Reza flashed Shane a little grin. “He’s a perky gay daddy,” he murmured. He was a bit nervous about this whole experiment too, but not enough to make him averse to being a part of it.
"Isn't he cute?" Shane replied and wrinkled his nose as he shot Reza a delighted smile. He didn't think for a second it would make Reza jealous since there was nothing sexual about his adoration of Diego. Admittedly there could have been under different circumstances since he was an out and proud slut, but they were both taken and Shane while perhaps not entirely retired from his title, was at least on a little break. It was pretty telling he hadn't wanted to hook up with anyone else in a long time but it wasn't something he really liked thinking about. "We'll defend you, Diego," he shouted then. "No killing you on our watch." He tittered and reached over to slip his hand in Reza's back pocket. "I think he can handle himself," he whispered playfully. "But camaraderie."
He was cute, but in a way that Reza didn’t sense Shane was attracted to, so there was nothing threatening in it. Even if there had been, Reza felt more secure after their little trip to Boston that Shane wanted only him. He didn’t know if that would be something that lasted indefinitely, but it was good enough for now. Reza was just enjoying how delighted Shane seemed to be here, with that huge grin and cracking jokes. “You’re fuckin’ cute right now,” he murmured back, grinning himself before he leaned in to press a kiss against Shane’s jaw.
Diego laughed from the bedroom as he hastily pulled on some jeans and a different shirt, then some sneakers. As he grabbed the stuff for his pockets, he looked around, feeling like he should be taking something else with him, like a fire-proof blanket or some extinguishers or ... something. Maybe Shane had thought to bring some safety stuff and it was just in the car, or maybe he hadn’t. Diego felt too excited to think too much about it though, and he wasn’t the pyrokinetic, so what did he know? Shane could probably just snuff out a bunch of flames with a thought. Or his boyfriend. Anyway, he was game to find out. He emerged again with a smile still on his face. “Should we bring anything? Like ... I dunno, buckets of water, or ...?”
Shane shook his head and for a moment he wondered if he should have brought something, like a fire blanket or extinguisher. "If I can't control it, a bucket of water won't do much good either," he said then, pretty much deciding that on the spot. There was a first aid kit in the car at least, he just really hoped they wouldn't need it because all the damage their abilities could do didn't feel like they might be small scale. "We'll start small, work our way up." Nobody said they had to go All Out today though Shane wouldn't be surprised if they'd get carried away, it was exciting just to think about what they could do together.
Diego apologized to Oliver in his head, because he really wasn’t able to think of any safety stuff they could take with them that didn’t involve stealing a fire truck or something, especially if they were going to be out in the woods where there weren’t any hookups for hoses. At least it wasn’t a dry season, he doubted they would set the whole forest ablaze or anything. Diego hoped not, at least. “Okay,” he agreed to starting small, glancing between the two men. “Shall we then?” He had his keys ready to lock up behind them, and he gestured Shane and Reza toward the door. Diego just knew that Oliver would be upset about this, but they had to practice sometime, didn’t they? If they were really going to be useful to the team. Better to do it and ask forgiveness than try and ask for permission ahead of time.
Shane used the car ride to get Diego and Reza better acquainted, letting them talk among themselves a little and feeling weirdly relieved that they were getting along great. Reza's jealousy had been hot at the club but he was glad it didn't carry over for this. Not that Diego was posing a threat in any way, he was cute and funny but he wasn't flirty and he was very taken already so that probably helped. That didn't mean Shane wasn't allowed to think things and he for one thought a threesome with these two men would probably be amazing, zero-g or no. It was a sweet little thought he wasn't sure carried any real life yearnings; the thought of Reza kissing someone else was hot but he still felt a possessive little pang whenever he thought about it happening for real.
When they arrived at Blackwater, Shane found a good place to park and reminded them, somewhat apologetically, that it was a bit of a hike. The place was perfect for what they wanted to do because of how isolated it was, but that also meant that whatever roads might have led there were long since grown over and impassible. At least it wasn't too hot out and it wasn't a rough road or an uphill battle, just a bit of a wander through a forest that at times felt a little haunted despite the sun streaming in through the branches up ahead. "Voila!" Shane finally shouted, spreading his arms as they reached the first clearing where they could see the concrete slab that felt so out of place here. "It's like a damn... What do you call them? Like those old Roman theaters. Arcane?"
The drive was nice, though it was a little mind-blowing for Diego to learn that magic and witches were real. Reza patiently answered his dozens of questions and even gave him a small demonstration of what he could do, and Diego was amazed. He’d of course known that psychics were real, being one himself, and he’d been open-minded about the other strange things people claimed existed in the world, but learning that magic was a whole real force in the world that only some people could tap into was a pretty big revelation. In any case, it was a good conversation, and made the car ride go quicker. As they walked through the woods, Diego briefly pondered whether these two were leading him somewhere to be murdered, but it wasn’t a serious concern. He trusted Shane, and it was a nice day, so the walk wasn’t bad.
Once they finally arrived, Reza let out a soft laugh at Shane presenting the place to them like he’d built it himself. “Amphitheater?” he suggested, smirking softly as he walked toward the concrete. He wasn’t sure if that was what Shane meant, but it was the only thing that sprang to mind.
"That's what it's called?" Shane asked with a disbelieving little frown before turning his attention back to their destination, amphitheater, fort, arcana, whatever. He didn't wait for an answer as the question had been rhetorical, but jogged up to the entrance and slipped his backpack off to carry it by hand as they headed inside. If they could call it inside, the part he was heading to had a collapsed roof so the sunlight was streaming down into the center of it, painting the old concrete in a warm light. "Perfect, right?" he said, grabbing a seat on one of the flatter rocks in there and opening up the bag to get them each a bottle of water. "As long as we don't let the fire out of here, we should be fine."
Diego and Reza exchanged a glance, and the witch shrugged. If there was another word Shane was hunting for, Reza didn’t know it. Diego forgot the vocabulary teaser as soon as they walked into the building, and he looked around with awe. It was like some ancient ruin, but made with modern technology and marked with the signs of modern people -- there was faded graffiti here and there, old rusted debris that at one time were likely desks and chairs used by whoever occupied this place.
There weren’t as many signs of life as Diego would’ve expected though, it didn’t look like any local teens or junkies used this place as an escape. Maybe it was too far out of the way ... or maybe there was another reason. He didn’t feel scared though, just excited to get started and reassured that it was unlikely anyone would just happen by. “Totally perfect,” Diego agreed with a grin as he wandered into the center of the pool of light, looking around at the walls around them. It was enough of a room that he felt like he could contain his gravity effects pretty easily, and there wasn’t much left of the building that could burn. “I can keep it contained within here,” he said, gesturing around to the walls. “And pull it away from us if needed, there’s enough gravity anchors.”
Gravity anchors made it sound like it was a lot more complicated than just letting fire sprout out randomly and Shane wondered if there was math involved and if this was far more dangerous than he'd thought. "Can you safely put a person in zero-g? Like if I wanted to float, you could make that happen without accidentally ripping me apart or crushing me?" He grinned, the question playful despite the very serious undertone. He was itching to see just how big Diego could go, and that went for Reza too now that he knew a little more about how his magic worked. It was a bit of an overkill to start a giant fire just to show off and he knew himself well enough to know that going too big would be like drifting off in a drug haze. He wanted to be clear-headed for this.
Instead of answering directly, Diego decided to show Shane the answer. He’d given him a tiny demonstration when they’d met, but that was nothing compared to what he could do. And Diego almost never got to really show off -- Oliver had already seen it all, and he worried about witnesses and Diego losing control, but there were no witnesses out here, and Oliver wasn’t around. Diego weakened the gravity under himself enough to let him push off and lift five or six feet in the air, a big grin on his face. He pulled his legs up to cross them like he was sitting on something invisible. “Easy stuff,” he said with a laugh. “Come into the light if you wanna try it, there’s like ... a perimeter.” He gestured vaguely at where the line was.
Reza had taken one of the water bottles and was about to sip from it when Diego levitated in front of them, and his brows lifted. It just seemed so effortless, like it was something he did all the time. Maybe he did. He looked over at Shane, a half-grin taking over his face, their bullshitting around about fucking in zero-g popping into his mind again. “You could start your own space training camp, Diego, that’s amazing,” he said, amused and impressed.
Shane had seen a fraction of Diego's gift before but this was so much cooler and he beamed at him as he watched him lift off. For a second he even thought he could start a space training camp, before he remembered how nobody could really do anything cool with their powers without some assholes wanting to use it for their own gains. "Super secret space training camp," he settled on and gulped down some of his water before putting the bottle down and approaching Diego's area of effect. He rushed at first, but then slowed down, making a joking little yikes face before stepping forward. Of course he didn't quite hit the right spot at first but another step and he could feel the lack of weight in his foot. "Holy shit," he whispered and then pushed himself up and into it with a rush of glee he hadn't ever felt before. "Reza, you gotta try this, holy shit," he blurted out and while he didn't have Diego's control and couldn't show off in a god like pose, he felt pretty damn awesome just floating there. "How do you not just do this all the time?" he added as he looked back to Diego, eyes wide and his smile wider.
Diego just laughed at the idea of a space camp, beaming as Shane approached and joined him. The area didn’t have zero gravity, otherwise they would still be drifting upward into the atmosphere, but he’d lowered it enough to keep them buoyant. Shane looked delighted, and Diego reached out a hand to steady him a little. Oliver would probably be shitting a brick over this, showing off in front of people, but he finally felt like he’d found his people. More than just his one person. If anybody could understand this, it was other people who’d been held by AIR. “I do it a lot at home when I’m alone, yeah,” he answered Shane with a little laugh. “I just have to be careful everywhere else, you know?”
An anxious part of Reza wanted to hang back -- what if they got stuck up there? But he had to admit it looked amazing, and how could he really turn down that opportunity? “You know what you’re doing, right?” he asked Diego as he approached them, but lightly enough that it was mostly a joke. Reza had seen right about where Shane had become weightless, and he stuck his arm in first just to test the waters. It felt weird, but kinda cool, and he stepped into it. His stomach gave a flip as he floated up toward Shane, his arms out a bit and a laugh in his throat. “Oh fuck,” he tittered, reaching for Shane’s hand. “It feels so weird.”
Shane's grin became almost playfully strained for a moment as he grasped Reza's hand as he desperately held back his comment about imagining fucking like this but it felt like the words were leaking out of him anyway, showing in his expression and the glint in his eye. He had a feeling Reza was thinking the same thing anyway and there was no need to make things weird for Diego. "Bet this feels a lot like being air," he murmured instead and it came close to how he imagined it might feel to swim - without the drowning part. He didn't remember much about it except for the bad parts but this just felt euphoric, like he barely had a body at all. "Is this what swimming feels like?"
It didn’t strike Diego as strange that Shane didn’t know what it felt like to be immersed in deep water -- he hadn’t really swam himself until Oliver had freed him as almost an adult. AIR hadn’t held Shane that long, of course, but that didn’t really cross Diego’s mind at the moment. “Water is easier to move in,” he answered, since he’d done both. “There’s more to push against, more pressure on your body. But see, you can move a little ...” He uncrossed his legs and gave a kick, scooping his hands through the air at the same time, and he rose up a couple of inches.
All of this was fascinating, and while weightless sex did cross Reza’s mind, he was more fixated on flying at the moment. He saw how little progress Diego made with ‘swimming,’ and decided to flex a bit of magic himself and help them along. Reza let go of Shane to make a few hand gestures and murmur a few words, and a wind blew underneath them, straight up from the ground, to lift them all higher. Reza was careful not to make it too strong so they didn’t go flying, but they were definitely rising quicker than all the air-kicking would do for them.
"Whoa-whoa-whoa, not too high!" Shane blurted out and it wasn't often other people made him feel vulnerable but this did. He just had to trust neither of those men wanted to crush him or suffocate him or fling him into space and while he did trust them, it was a sobering thought that even if he could fight back against the actual people involved, too high up meant the fall would kill him either way. He trusted these two, he reminded himself and then doubted it for a second because how well did he really know Diego? A little chill went through him, even as he laughed because this was fun and nobody had actually turned evil on him right now except his own mind. "Just remember I can't fly," he said, his hold on Reza's hand just a little firmer.
The sudden gust of air from below caught Diego off guard too, but his reaction was just more delighted laughter. Maybe it was foolish of him, but he did trust the both of them, even though he’d only just met Reza. Shane trusted him, that was enough. It was kind of exhilarating to rise up higher, and his stomach gave that fun dropping feeling. They were closer to the collapsed ceiling than the ground now, and while Diego would’ve loved to just go flying around with Reza’s help, he could hear the concern in Shane’s voice, and he didn’t want any of them to actually be scared. “It’s okay, I got us,” he said with a bright grin. Diego strengthened the gravity under them once more to pull them gently back down to earth. They did have work to do, after all. It was just so fun to show off, especially to new friends.
Shane’s reaction pleased Reza in a way that he probably ought to be ashamed of, but he wasn’t. His man’s power was huge and showy, and Reza’s rarely was, so it was nice to have an opportunity to give a demonstration of what he could do. He squeezed Shane’s hand back as they floated back down to the floor. His body felt heavy again as Diego’s power released them, and it was a tiny disappointment. “Man, I would just be weightless all the fucking time if I were you,” he told Diego with a breathy laugh.
“Ahhh, you say that, but it makes a huge mess in a house, believe me,” Diego answered, chuckling a bit. “I can’t do it for just me, it’s everything in the area. And I can’t fly in open air, there has to be like, a wall to anchor to and pull me in that direction.”
"I've never felt like I needed to lose weight before," Shane drawled as he got used to being on the ground again. It was strangely hard considering they hadn't been in the air for long but he really felt heavy compared to just seconds earlier. "But I do now. Shit." He felt more at ease on solid ground though since this power wasn't his and he wasn't used to putting himself so completely in somebody else's hands. "If I were you I'd have an empty room in the house just for this, zero-g therapy room." He grinned again, that excited tremble inside him still buzzing a little. "The two of you make a good team, I feel like Wendy from Peter Pan." He pulled Reza closer by his hand and pressed a kiss to his cheek. "Happy thoughts."
“I read that one!” Diego said with delight, his face lighting up. “They let me read a lot. I liked it. I wanted to be a Lost Boy.” Sometimes he forgot that many of the stories he’d filled his time with in the facility were classics out in the world too, known by the public at large, even if they’d never actually read the books. He almost said that they would probably have a room like that if they had any rooms to spare, but Diego didn’t want to draw attention to how poor they were at the moment. Or that it was harder to maintain weightlessness for too long with Oliver around.
Reza could relate, that normal-gravity heaviness was hard to come back to, even after just a minute or two in the air. He smiled back at Shane and didn’t let him pull too far back without darting in for a quick kiss on the lips. There was something sappy on his tongue about how Shane gave him lots of happy thoughts, but he didn’t want to say it out loud with an audience. “So, ready to see how good of a team you two are? Shall we get the fires going?” He was eager to see it, but still felt that fluttery anxiety in his stomach. Fire was more dangerous than levitating in anti-gravity, and if this was going to turn into a disaster, best they get it over with.
Feeling vulnerable, even for such a short time, had probably been a good reminder for Shane to go easy with his own power. Neither Reza or Diego could withstand fire and he had no way of 'catching them' like Diego could if it got too close. Sure, he could try to redirect the fire but with no gravity he wasn't so sure about his control. "We're starting small," he reminded them with an excited but slightly apprehensive smile. "Do you want to stick to the same area of effect? Or can you make it smaller?" His question was aimed at Diego as he backed out of the light, taking one more look around to make sure he hadn't missed something very flammable close by.
Diego felt pretty confident that he could get the fire away from them if he needed to -- he could anchor it to the farthest wall from them to draw the fire in another direction, or try to smother it right where it was. They had another layer of safety in Reza, from what they’d discussed in the car, he could pull enough oxygen away from a fire to put it out. So he felt pretty ready, they were as safe as they could be without being armed with fire extinguishers. “I can make it smaller,” he told Shane. Diego glanced around, then gestured in a square within the pool of light, only a couple of feet on each side. “Let’s say here.” He backed away from the spot and the light to stand next to Shane with Reza slightly behind them. Diego looked over at Shane with a crooked little grin. “Ready?”
Shane grinned back at him and he wondered suddenly if this was what parents felt like when their kids took their first steps. He was releasing his fire into an unknown situation of his free will and he felt so excited it verged on making him feel stupid. "Ready," he whispered and let a flame the size of a basketball flare up in the palm of his hand.then stepped forward and reached his hand into the anti gravity area. He watched with fascination as the whole construct of it changed, the color and feel of it as it lost its anchor to his hand and rolled up in a little ball. "Holy shit," Shane whispered, withdrawing his hand and staring in pure fascination. It almost didn't feel like it was his anymore, still burning despite nothing to latch onto, hovering and flickering in a way he'd never seen fire do.
While Shane called up his fire -- a cool process that Diego had to work to not be distracted by -- Diego drained the gravity from the area he’d mentally mapped out. He watched with open awe as Shane put the fire into it, though he tried to stay ready to turn the gravity back on in any direction if it just went out of control. As they watched, the fire grew out of its ball shape, expanding vertically until it became a column, filling the weightless space. It seemed to stop there, penned in by the change in gravity, a burning column of swirling flames reaching up into the sunlight streaming in through the collapsed roof. It was incredibly beautiful, and a soft “wow” fell from Diego’s lips. He tried to imagine it bigger, roaring and flowing through an entire gravity-free building, eating up anything it could latch onto. For the moment it stayed contained, still fed by the oxygen in the air but locked in place.
Reza was staring too, open mouthed and impressed. He was sure it could turn dangerous at any moment, if Diego expanded the gravity field or if Shane amped up the fire somehow. But right then it was just beautiful, and he couldn’t help but just watch it. Reza wondered how long it could last with no fuel to burn but air, and he was tempted to feed it more oxygen, but they were experimenting for a reason, so he didn’t want to interfere.
Shane was quiet for a few long moments, staring at the fire, transfixed. It wasn't so big that it was making him reach that strange state of mind he sometimes fell into but it was so new and so lovely to look at, he just wanted to take it all in and maybe learn something from it. It had been a long time since he did something new with what he could do and he wondered if he could ever replicate this alone, without Diego there to manipulate the gravity pull. He felt a deep sense of longing too, wanting to step into the fire, to be one with it and drift upwards but he'd need to be naked for that and it was really something he would have wanted to do alone. "Can you make the area bigger?" he asked finally. "I want to see how it spreads." He stepped back and finally tore his gaze away from the display to look to Diego questioningly.
The fire being there didn’t put any extra strain on Diego, he was grateful to feel that. If they were going to use this inside of the multi-story AIR building, he would already be stretching himself. “Yeah, no problem,” Diego answered, backing up a few paces himself. He expanded the area slowly, making sure it stayed a good few feet away from Shane, who was the closest. The fire inside rolled outward, expanding in all directions until it hit the gravity barrier again, the soft whooshing sound it had been making getting louder. It was strange for Diego to hear without the crackle of wood on a campfire, but he liked it. The power in the air made the hair on the backs of his arms rise up. “Imagine if it had fuel to catch on,” he said, his tone a bit awed. Like it would inside of a building.
"We don't have to imagine," Shane said softly, glancing around for something to burn. It was all rock in there so he took a second to think about it, glancing down at himself before grabbing his wallet and keys out of his pocket and pulling his jacket off. "It's time for a new one anyway," he said with a little shrug and while that wasn't really true, he didn't have any attachment to what he was wearing. He pulled the sleeve of his t-shirt up a little more and stepped closer to the fire, cautiously pushing his hand inside the anti-gravity field to make sure the fire hadn't somehow changed and become hostile to him. It flickered around his hand but otherwise did nothing notable so he shot Reza and Diego a mischievous grin and shoved his jacket in there. It was a light summer jacket so it caught fire easily, moving like a living thing as the flames spread through the fabric. Shane was enraptured and it had definitely been worth the sacrifice to see the display and the way the fire changed when it had something to chew on.
In spite of how many times he’d seen Shane touch fire with no issue, this time it gave Reza a little jolt of fear. Maybe because he was holding something very flammable, he didn’t know. But a noise caught in his throat as Shane thrust his jacket into the fire. Reza heard Diego make his own sound of protest next to him, but Shane’s skin wasn’t even red when he pulled back. And Reza had to admit that it was kind of beautiful, watching the jacket float upward as it was consumed from all directions by the flame. It was like watching something underwater, only with fire instead. “So how big can you make it?” he asked, looking over at Diego. “This is cool, but we’re going to need more.”
Diego glanced around them at the expansive room -- if you could still call it that without much of a roof and a couple of crumbling walls -- and he shrugged. “I can fill up this whole place,” he said. “Or un-fill it, however you wanna say it. How big do you think you can sustain a fire, Shane? Just through the air?”
"I don't know," Shane admitted. "I usually just let it go and let it do its own thing. Give it something to feed on." He was itching to strip down and step into the fire now, to float into it, be one with it and it was hard to take his eyes off the display. "If it gets too big, I lose control. If it has something to feed on, anyway." He ran his fingers against the fire again. "This is effortless though, like it's happy just being there. I bet I could fill this place up if there was no gravity." It was almost like the fire was feeding on Diego's power in a way, Shane had no way of knowing if this was how it would behave in a natural zero-g environment but the psychic manipulation of this space was having a strange effect on him. He pulled a small flame out of the area, connected to his hand and that part was hard to maintain since he had nothing to burn.
Diego wasn’t sure how this was working as well as it was either, but he’d never set fires in literal space, so what the hell did he know. He was slightly aware that playing with the gravity here was easier than it normally was at home, so maybe there was something to having another psychic involved too. Or maybe that was just how Oliver always kept him calm. He felt pretty calm at the moment though -- or at least not scared. This was more exciting than anything. “There’ll be plenty for it to feed on in the AIR building,” he pointed out. “I just think maybe I can make it spread faster. And y’know ... keep everyone in the air so they can’t do much about it.” That would be the darker part of this -- the people inside. But maybe Jane had a plan for them, he didn’t know. For now they were just experimenting. Diego lifted his hands a bit and concentrated, expanding the zero-g area to the wall opposite them all at once, away from where Shane was standing. The fire inside whooshed to fill it in a flash, flaring brighter as it gobbled up the expanded supply of oxygen.
The reminder of what they were practicing for might have put a damper on Shane's spirits but the fire was so big now and he was starting to feel that haze, like being in his body was the out of body experience and he was truly meant to be in that block of fire. He remembered the escape all those years ago but there was no regret or shame attached to it in this moment. His state of mind had felt altered then too, like he was barely a sentient being as he walked through the institution, feeling the fire everywhere, devouring everything, everyone. He wanted Diego to make the area bigger, wanted to step into it, let his clothes burn away and become one with the flames and the pull was so strong that he almost said it, the words starting on his lips. "Make it-" he trailed off, licked his lips and focused on the fact that he wasn't alone. "Make it smaller," he forced himself to say and ran his fingers through the flames again. "For now."
During his own escape, Diego had been ready to crush and fling anybody who got in their way. Luckily Oliver had gotten him out without anybody seeing them, but still, Diego had been prepared. He still felt prepared in a way, like that readiness had just lain dormant for so many years until he needed it again. Now felt like that time. If it was to save more kids from what he’d suffered, he would happily burn through as much of AIR as it took. He did as Shane asked, bringing the gravity back into a single square column, watching as the fire spilled out of the retreating wave, only to fizzle onto the concrete floor and burn out. Interesting.
Reza watched all this with crossed arms and a keen eye. He’d seen Shane stoned enough times now to recognize the subtle haziness on his face. Being around this much fire for so long was doing things to him, and he wasn’t sure if that was good or not. Reza glanced between the two other men and shifted from one foot to the other. “Can you put it out, Shane? Just to see how that works in zero-g,” he suggested. Not just to sober Shane up, but it would be good to know how much control he had now.
Shane studied the column in front of him and shook his head slowly. "That's the thing," he said and while he wasn't eager to admit to any of his shortcomings, being honest with Reza and Diego felt easier than with most. "I can start them up just fine but when they get big I can't put them out." He clenched his jaw as he reached in for the fire again. "I can direct it though, draw it out. It won't survive on the rock." He glanced at the two men with a wry smile. "Sounds cruel, doesn't it." Cruel or not, he showed them exactly what he meant, pulling at the fire to come to him instead of staying in Diego's gravity field. It was a strange feeling, like nothing he'd ever felt before, and the fire wasn't eager to obey him this time, not when there was nothing there for it to catch on. It took all he had and at first only small flames trailed toward him but eventually the whole thing shifted closer to him and dispersed in the air in front of him.
With the fire gone, Diego relaxed his hold on the gravity and let everything normalize again, shaking his hands out a bit at his sides. It had looked like Shane struggled to draw the fire back in, but that was okay. When it came time to do the thing, he had a feeling they wouldn’t need to be calling it back. The question about it being cruel had made him smile a little -- he’d never thought of fire as anything sentient, but maybe his new friend the super-pyro did. Or he could feel it in the way that Diego could feel gravity. When you had such intimacy with a force for so long, the sense of it kind of changed.
Reza was just glad that Shane could do it, even if it looked like it took effort. If he hadn’t been able to, Reza thought he could put a fire that size out, but bigger than that? He wasn’t sure. He uncrossed his arms and glanced between the two psychics, a small smile on his face. “Guess I’d call that a successful test, gentlemen,” he murmured.
"I've never seen fire act like that before," Shane murmured before physically shaking off the daze he was feeling and walking over to Reza. "And this was just the first run. I'd love to see what you can do when given this much space and no audience." He'd never really seen Reza do much with his magic beyond just sound and a small display of depriving his fire of oxygen. Here and now was a perfect time to let loose. "How big can you go?" he asked with a cheeky grin as he smoothly stepped around Reza to lean up against him from behind and loosely wrapping his arms around him. "This is all yours to play with now."
“How big can I go with what?” Reza asked with a laugh, his hands coming up to squeeze Shane’s arms a bit. “My shit tends to be invisible.” He wasn’t opposed to flexing some magic for them, though he didn’t have supplies for any complex spells. He would just have to show off his most natural abilities. Without having to strain much, Reza called up a wind that didn’t make any logical sense, letting it run through the room on a circular track, making their hair and clothes flutter, disturbing all of the old crispy fallen leaves out from their corners. Reza held his hands out to focus better, bringing them closer together to narrow the wind and speed it up, until he’d created a mini tornado of dirt and leaves in the middle of the room. While he was at it, Reza altered the sound waves to make it sound much louder than it actually was.
"That," Shane whispered, awe struck as he watched the raw display of power unfold before them. "Imagine if I set that on fire. Fire tornado." The thought made him feel gleeful but he also knew that might become a far too destructive force to play with, even out here. It was still fun to think about and he grinned and nudged his nose against Reza's ear. "You're amazing," he whispered before seemingly recalling they weren't alone and pulling away enough to look over at Diego. "Pretty cool, huh?" Not like he'd seen it before but there was still a part of him that felt a bit like he was showing off his boy.
They were all just showing off today, weren’t they? Diego had watched the wind come out of nowhere and organize into a small tornado with his own awe, one hand pressed to his mouth and his eyes a bit wide. Maybe it wasn’t as visually flashy as a column of floating fire, but he could hear and feel the power in the air. The noise of the rushing wind seemed crazy loud in the enclosed concrete space, so much so that it took him a second to suss out what Shane had asked him. As he looked over to answer, the wind died down and disappeared, leaving a bunch of dried leaves to float down to the ground again in a messy circle. Diego let out a laugh and a low whistle. “And you can do all that just with your mind, brujo? You don’t need like, magic words or candles or anything?” he asked, eyeing Reza with some admiration. “You’re more like us than you say, maybe.”
Reza couldn’t help but grin, feeling a little flushed with all the positive attention. He’d experimented plenty by himself, but he’d only given a real show of his magic to anyone else a handful of times in his life. Shane’s breath in his ear had left a flutter in his gut, but Reza tried to ignore it as he answered Diego. “I do need that stuff for pretty much anything else,” he explained. “Spells have steps, all that. But air’s my element, so ... it comes pretty naturally.” He turned his head enough to peek at Shane’s face, his lips curled up. “So maybe you’re right, in a way. We all have our affinities.”
"So you know actual spells?" Shane asked and holding Reza like this was doing things to him so he let go for Diego's sake and wandered out to where Reza's tornado had roared just a few moments earlier. "I never got how that works. Do you need ingredients? Drop of blood, random flowers, bat wings?" He shot Reza a little grin over his shoulder and fought the urge to burn all those leaves at his feet. The three of them together could cause massive destruction if they wanted to and he wasn't even sure if they'd get to that point. If they did, would Reza balk at the idea of killing people? It wasn't exactly something Shane wanted to get him mixed up in so he had to think of this exercise as just precaution and not a part of the big plan. He didn't even know what the big plan was, but it was good to know their limit and to know Reza could potentially help with putting out the fires they started.
Reza felt like they’d already talked about this, but Shane was forgetful and Diego hadn’t heard any of it yet, so he launched into a short explanation of how magic worked for both of them. Every witch had an affinity for a specific element, and that genre of magic tended to come easily with practice, none of the stereotypical trappings of magic were required, all that. But if a witch wanted bigger, more complex effects, spells came into play. Reza didn’t go into too much detail, this wasn’t his arena to hold a class or something, but in the end he hoped it was a satisfying enough answer. He huffed a breath and smiled a bit when he was done. “So, anything else you guys want to do while we’re out here?”
Diego just took it all in, still amazed that magic was a real force in the world. He’d spent some early gullible years believing most anything he was told, so he’d been through phases where he believed in magic, but since then he’d put it out of his mind as possible. It was pretty incredible to not only be set straight on that, but to see it first hand. He sure had a lot to tell Oliver. The question made him focus up better and he looked to Shane with a cocked eyebrow. “I think I’ve seen what I wanted to see,” he said. “How about you?”
Shane remembered some of what he'd said but it still didn't make a whole lot of sense to him and probably wouldn't unless he one day watched Reza perform a spell. That was okay, he knew Reza was a force to be reckoned with in his own element and that part he could relate to so that was enough. "I think we're good for today, yeah," he replied cheerfully and while he wanted to try more things and go bigger, he felt like maybe today wasn't the time. "We need to come back here, maybe drag Neil along, see what he can do with his lightning hands but most of all, we need to bring something we can burn." He gave them a lopsided grin. "Something other than my jacket. And then? We need to all do something at once because that will be insane." He slowed down his words for that last part, excitement glinting in his eyes. "Imagine the fire column tornados." They couldn't go too high, of course, that meant it could be seen from far away and they didn't need that kind of attention but the temptation was still there to build a massive column that reached for the clouds.
Diego huffed a laugh. “You’re fucking crazy, man,” he told Shane, his tone painting it as a good thing. Fire tornadoes would be an insanely dangerous thing to create, but that didn’t stop him from wanting to do it with these guys, just to see if they could and how much havoc they could cause. “But yeah, let’s do it sometime. Soon.” He’d never had anyone in his life who encouraged his powers like this, at least not after the point when AIR had deemed him too much trouble to keep training. He and Oliver’s life had been so much about hiding and keeping him calm and firmly on the ground, getting room to stretch his proverbial legs was ... something. It felt big, whatever it was.
“I liked that jacket, too,” Reza faux-complained, smirking a bit. He wasn’t so sure about making fire tornadoes, but damn if he didn’t want to be weightless again sometime. That had felt cool. Reza started walking back in the direction they’d come, ready to get out of this crumbling building and back on their way home.
"I'll buy another one just like it," Shane said with a grin since even if it hadn't been cheap, it wasn't like it was an out of stock vintage or anything. He could probably order one online for that matter and if Reza really liked it, he would buy it again because he liked making Reza happy. He slung his backpack over his shoulder and strolled out after Reza with one last glance back at this place. He wanted to come back here soon, since he didn't have a batcave of his own to do crazy and dangerous experiments in. This place was good for that, as long as nobody else was around. "Does this stuff make you guys tired?" he asked and coming down from a fire-high was nothing like coming down from drugs for him, he felt energized and giddy now to the point where jogging back to the car sounded like it could be fun.
Diego didn’t say anything, but some part of him marveled at the casual ‘I’ll just buy another one’ attitude from Shane. He wasn’t sure if the feeling was envy or admiration or both somehow -- he would never dream of burning up something he needed. He and Oliver had so little, and not much financial wiggle room, having that sort of expendable income was just a dream to him. Not everybody had the same life though, so Diego set that aside. “Only if I’ve done a large area for too long,” he answered the question, glancing over at Shane with a small smile. He sure didn’t look tired. “I’m fine right now.”
“It can, yeah,” Reza chimed in. “But in the same way, if I’m really doing a lot, or sustaining some sound effect for too long.” There was backlash to consider on his end too, reality didn’t like to be bent to a witch’s will, and it had a tendency to snap back hard if you pushed it too far, but Reza didn’t feel like explaining all that to people who hadn’t even known magic existed until very recently. So he just kept it simple and walked along with the other two men as they started the trek back to the car. Reza shot Shane a little smirk. “You look like you could skip the rest of the way,” he observed.
"Yeah," Shane admitted. "It affects me differently, doesn't really make me tired unless I have to fight to get a big one moving in a set direction, it has a mind of its own. You guys though, your abilities combined are crazy. Imagine if one of us twisted an ankle out here, you could just... float them back to the car. That's so god damn handy." All of their abilities were god damn handy and most in a way he hoped they wouldn't have to fully flex on but feared they would anyway. Burning up a whole building, moving injured people - those were all possibilities in their future. "Of course if you twisted your ankle, I could carry you and skip back to the car," he added with a cheeky smile at Reza, well aware he was being cocky but at least he could afford to be.
Reza hadn’t thought much about those sorts of uses for their powers, but Shane had a point. It was kind of exciting to think about new ways his abilities could be used, especially by working with others who weren’t even fellow witches. Not that Reza had been involved in much group magic before, he just never really thought he would be teaming up with a bunch of psychics. “Oh yeah, think you could?” he posed, smirking back at Shane. Reza moved in closer to grab Shane’s arm and step in behind him. “Carry me now, then.” He hopped up onto Shane’s back once he seemed steady, already laughing a bit.
Shane hadn't put his backpack on fully and as soon as Reza jumped up on his back, it slid down from his shoulder where he caught it with his elbow and laughed. "The shit I put up with from you," he faux-complained and tossed the backpack to Diego for him to carry before slipping his arms around Reza's legs to steady him. "You're a pain in the ass!" he said loudly, voice cracking a bit with renewed laughter but he didn't set him down nor did he really mind. If anything he liked having him there on his back, with his arms around him and his breath in his ear.
Diego caught the bag with a laugh and a shake of his head. “You guys are gross,” he informed them good-naturedly. He really kind of loved it, if he was being honest. Diego and Oliver hadn’t exactly gotten to spend a lot of time in the company of other gay couples, and it was beyond cool to see two other men being playful and loving with each other. Diego fiercely hoped that Oliver ended up liking them too, because he really wanted them all to be friends, so stuff like this could happen more often.
“You’ll put up with it and like it,” Reza teased softly, nuzzling a bit at Shane’s ear. He didn’t make for the most comfortable mount, but Reza was still going to enjoy it while it lasted. How often did one get carried as an adult, after all? Shane was nicely built and strong, and he would speak up if Reza got too heavy, so Reza didn’t feel bad about it either. A few more filthy things to whisper into Shane’s ear crossed his mind, but Reza was mindful of Diego, so he bit his tongue. “It’s a nice view from up here,” he said instead. “A fine way to travel.”
Shane bit back some quip about being a good ride, also mindful that they weren't alone and while he didn't normally care much about whether people around him were offended but he actually liked Diego so he tried not to be too obnoxious around him. "Glad you're having fun," he said instead, smirking to himself. It was a good workout. Reza wasn't a heavy weight for a man but Shane doubted he'd carry him this easily if he wasn't in great shape so he took some pride in that. "Is this how you're gonna be traveling from now on?" he asked. "Like a baby koala?"
“I think I might,” Reza said mildly, grinning a bit. He moved one hand down to squeeze one of Shane’s pecs, then pinched at the nipple a little through his shirt. “Lots of luxury perks.” They were the same height, so he knew he was decently heavy in spite of being a thin sort of build, but it was kind of hot that Shane could tote him around without too much trouble. Reza smooched his temple, then looked ahead at Diego. “Does Oliver give you piggyback rides too?” Reza asked him, smirking.
“Not in a long time,” Diego answered with a soft laugh. He slipped the backpack over his shoulders and tucked his thumbs into the straps as he walked along with them. “We’re getting too old for that kind of shit. ... at least not without cheating, I could carry him all day with some gravity bending.”
“Never too old,” Reza countered with a little scoff, groping Shane’s chest a bit more just because he could.
Shane flinched playfully at the pinching though it wasn't painful so much as arousing and he didn't really want to be trudging back to the car with a hard-on. "Too old?" he scoffed at Diego. "No such thing," he agreed with Reza. "You're thirty-six, right? Is Oliver an old man or something?" There was no way he was going to be too old for shit like this in just three years, if he even lived to see that age, that wasn't exactly a given. It did make him wonder briefly if he'd still be alive and if Reza would still be by his side - or on his back, like now - and it was a weird thing to think about, frightening but not for the usual reasons. If anything he felt afraid that he'd be alone or dead by then and it was unsettling to give a damn.
Diego laughed lightly. “Something like thirty-six, yeah,” he answered, shrugging a shoulder. “I don’t really know. Oliver’s only a little older than me. He’s a medical tech though, so he could probably pick me up, but I dunno about the other way around.” Neither of them were in gym-shape like Shane seemed to be, and both were decidedly thicker in stature than Reza, so he doubted it would be as easy for them as it looked. Not that he minded that, they had plenty of fun without giving each other piggyback rides like a couple of kids. Diego bent down to pick up a stick as they walked, lightly hitting some of the trees as they passed. “I’ll spare you the dire sorts of ‘age sneaks up on you’ warnings though,” he added with another little laugh.
Shane knew all about how age snuck up on people, he still felt like a kid most of the time and thirty-three had sounded so old not that many years ago. "Hey, old man, you're only three years older than me," he snorted and bounced Reza a bit. "How old are you, Reza?" he asked with the shocked grimace and intonation of someone who just realized he'd never asked. He knew his birthday by now and he knew what he liked to eat for breakfast and how he liked to get fucked, age didn't really seem all that important but it still felt silly, like he should have snuck a peek at his driving licence or something.
Had they never traded ages? Reza couldn’t remember, but he wasn’t surprised to hear that Shane was thirty-three, so maybe he’d known and just forgotten that he knew. At their age, the number didn’t matter much anymore anyway. Diego seemed significantly older than they were, in a way, but from what Reza had gathered, he’d led a very different life, so maybe all that trauma aged a person. “Thirty four,” he answered with a soft snicker near Shane’s ear. “So how’s it feel to be the baby of the group?” Reza’s tone was light and teasing, especially since he was the one being carried around like a little kid at the moment.
"Wait, what?" Shane asked, feigning some distress at that information. "But I was gonna be your sugar daddy, how the fuck does that work if you're older than me? This isn't gonna work out." Not that Reza had given him much of a chance to actually pay for everything, Shane had tried to act like a sugar daddy but Reza was stubbornly independent so it only got him so far. "Wait, are you turning thirty four or thirty five this year? I can still make it work if I'm only a few months older than you."
“Turning thirty five, ugh don’t remind me,” Reza answered with a laugh and an eye roll. Amused by Shane’s distress, he kissed the side of his head. “You can still be my sugar daddy, you’re richer and stronger than me.” He never really thought of himself as older than Shane, and at their ages those sorts of things ceased to matter as much, but he could roll along with the joke.
“‘Sugar daddy’ seems more like an attitude, right?” Diego cut in, amused by the both of them. He glanced over with a little grin. He and Oliver had never had that sort of dynamic since both of them had been equally poor for the entirety of their relationship. Even if they hadn’t been, he was pretty sure it wouldn’t have changed their relationship all that much. They just wanted to take care of each other, at the end of the day. “Is there like, a ‘sugar baby’ or something too?”
"Yes!" Shane replied eagerly to Diego's remark. "You gotta have a certain swagger. Reza can be my sugar baby even if he's older than me. Fuck the rules." He was pretty sure 'sugar baby' was the recipient of the sugar care anyway, but then it wasn't exactly a term he'd studied. "I'm just teasing you," he added, tilting his head back to bump it against Reza. "You don't need a sugar daddy, but I'd happily be one for you anyway. 'Least until my money runs out." He didn't know if he'd live long enough to see his stocks crash enough for him to actually go broke but like most things in life it all felt pretty haphazardous.
“Then I’ll just sugar daddy you until you make some more,” Reza said with a little laugh. He kissed Shane’s head affectionately. He doubted it would come to that in reality, but if it did ... Reza didn’t care. He knew he was in this for the long haul, even if life threw some crazy shit at them. It was already happening and he had no intention of jumping ship anytime soon. What he’d seen today was incredible and had great potential to be dangerous, and Reza was feeling good about their chances, even if he barely knew what was going on. It was a confidence he was going to ride as long as he could -- they would need to be sure of themselves when they took on AIR.