Narrative: Black hole roulette Date: October 30, Late morning (Backdated) Characters: Jaime and Jadyn Ishii, the Mysterious Man Location: Their home Summary: Jaime does some training with his powers
Jaime stood alone in his backyard as he concentrated on the energy he drew his power from. Once he’d figured out how to tap into it, he’d been training himself on how to use them. He’d learned that he could create three different types of portals. There were the ones he made appear, the ones that happened on reflex, and the smallest ones he used for object transportation. These were actually the portals he’d started using first when his powers started to appear, and now he was working out how to use them consciously.
Unlike his other portals, these were simple black holes in space and time. He’d started out, opening and closing one in order to teleport small objects like his watch and wallet, but now he was practicing how to use multiple black holes at once. As it turned out, he was connected to each and every one of them, no matter how many there were. He could tell where each one would lead at all times. And if he could do that with his black holes, the possibilities with his larger portals were endless. But for now he kept things simple.
Today was the first time he would be using five black holes at once, an upgrade from three. He opened each hole one at a time, holding his thumb and forefinger together and then opening them wide. It was the same motion he used to make a page zoom in on his touch screen phone. He found that hand gestures helped him associate with his powers better, until he was more used to them anyway.
Once he had five portals opened, each the size of a basketball, evenly spaced, and surrounding him, he picked up the baseball that had resting on the ground beside his feet. Tossing it into the air over and over again, he lifted his free hand and twirled his finger around, spinning the portals in a circle around him in the process. Stopping them suddenly, he threw the baseball into one as hard as he could. The baseball disappeared into the black nothingness of one portal and he concentrated hard, trying to sense out of which of the other four holes it would come out of.
Suddenly he twisted his entire body sideways and to the right. The baseball flew past him as it came from the portal behind him. It disappeared again and he barely had time to grin before he was dodging again. Because there was no gravity inside the black holes, the ball was able to continue at it’s speed and velocity for however long he wanted it to.
He continued this way for about thirty minutes, twisting, and turning, and sometimes ducking faster and faster, as he became more in tune with each portal. Just as he was about to twist again, a few seconds ahead of the balls’ arrival, he caught a glimpse of a strange man, effectively distracting him. He was taking a picture of him from the fence that separated their back yard from the trees and underbrush that grew behind the house.
At the last possible second, Jaime realized that the baseball was hurtling towards his chest at high speed. Instinctively he pressed his hands together in front of his chest, and pulled them apart wide, opening a large black hole. It was about the size of a beach ball and the baseball disappeared right into it. Jaime clapped his hands together again, completely closing that hole, as well as all the others, before letting out a heavy breath of relief.
That had been close. Panting, he looked around, wondering what could have distracted him from his training. Nothing seemed out of place. He frowned before another thought occurred to him. Where had the baseball gone? Did it just stay in space, waiting to come flying at him out of the next portal he opened? A crass from inside the house was his answer. Cringing, he quickly made his way back into the house, giving no more thought to what had interfered with his training.
Inside the living room, scattered in pieces all over the floor was one of the table lamps, his baseball on the floor near the couch. As he went to retrieve it, Jadyn walked by, Beau close on her heels. She looked at the mess on the floor before raising her eyebrow at him.
“Smooth move.” She told him, taking a bite out of her apple as she left.
“Beau’s not supposed to be in the house.” Was his comeback. It was weak, even for him and he knew it.
“Yeah, yeah.” Jadyn called, her and Beau disappearing upstairs and leaving him alone with the broken lamp. He was just glad that their mother was working at the clinic today. He would be hard pressed to explain how he’d broken a lamp in the living room, from the back yard which was on the opposite side of the house. He retrieved his baseball, looking at it wistfully. At least it hadn’t ended up in some random poor old lady’s home.