Balancer's Soul (45 page)

“Sonar isn’t as easy, but is more
reliable than any skill I have in my arsenal. When you read a mind
you can only focus on a small number of people at any given time,
but with our sonar you can see all of your surroundings in your
mind better than processing everything with your eyes.

“When we fought and I kicked you in
the chest, I couldn’t see you. I knew you’re exact position even in
my blind spot. Using this ability in any combat situation will help
you to survive. I used my sonar to feel your exact position. When
you are able to use it, you will be able to see everything from the
birds in the sky to the bugs that burrow beneath the earth. You
could be completely blindfolded and still be able to maneuver and
see your surroundings without hindrance after you can master this
ability.

“Everyone look around our surroundings
and then close your eyes.” Jack began teaching. They all obeyed his
every word. “Good. Now in your mind picture what you catalogued in
your mind’s eye.” Sarah clearly pictured all of the shrubs, trees,
dirt, rocks and sky. “Now picture your mind sending out a single
invisible burst of energy. Don’t use your elemental manipulation at
all; just energy.” Her father’s tone deepened. “Let me
demonstrate.” Sarah opened her eyes and so did Connor. Jillian
didn’t because she already knew how to do this.

Jack opened his eyes and stood up.
“Here I go.” The most subtle of breezes caressed her, but only for
an instant.

Connor stood up and touched his chest.
“You were right about that being difficult to detect. But I did
remember the same feeling several times during the fight. Hmm…”
Connor began processing this new information.

“Alright. Sarah, you try.” Jack urged
while he smiled happily.

Sarah did every step her father said
to do. In her mind she felt power rushing into her head and
continued to build. When it felt uncomfortable she released the
power and it expanded like an invisible sphere. As the sphere grew
like the speed of light, everything that the bubble passed
instantly became etched into her mind. Everything in her mind
became colored in black or white, but it was worth it. Everything
became overly vivid before her, to her front, behind her back and
above and below where she stood. Every leaf, bug, bird, reptile,
mammal and twig stood firmly there in her mind. Not only that, but
it looked like a perfect ultrasound. Sarah saw inside every object
and person as well, except for herself. The sonar didn’t take much
power, which was a good thing to know. It is so magnificent that
she never dreamed this would be possible. “That is so…”

“Nifty?” Jack asked, trying to help
with finding the right word.

“That’s as good of word as any.”

“My turn.” Jillian said, standing up.
And Sarah felt the same feeling that came from her father. A gentle
breeze kissed her body again.

“Let me try something.” Connor said
calmly.

“
Try
? Connor what are you up to?”
Jack eyed him suspiciously.

“I’m not sure I will be able to
explain it. It’s just a feeling that’s telling me to try.” Connor
looked at Sarah, smiled, and then closed his eyes.

As his eyes finally shut Sarah felt a
surge of power emanating from Connor. The power continued to build
until she could actually see the fine, dry dust swirl around him.
Jillian, Jack and Sarah stepped away from him instinctively.
Together they kept edging back until they were fifteen yards
away.

A quick burst of energy emanated from
Connor and instead of a single burst they all felt the energy
pulsating at a rapid interval deep within their chest like the bass
of a stereo. When Connor opened his eyes they all
gasped.

His body stayed completely motionless,
but his eyes were literally glowing. His normal hazel eyes became a
solid ray of white light and it almost looked like two brilliant
flashlights. The continuous pulses continued and it dawned on Sarah
that the pulsations didn’t come from his head like her father
described, but emanated directly from his eyes. This continued for
a minute before Sarah asked “Connor, what are you in the world are
you doing?”

“I’m seeing anything and everything.
Sarah you have to try this…” His eyes zeroed on her and for some
reason she has never felt so exposed before. And moments later he
turned off the flow and his hazel eyes returned back to
normal.

“Connor, what did you just do?”
Jillian asked defensively.

“The best way I could explain it would
be that instead of one singular blast, I could do multiple pings in
quick succession to make it like a moving movie instead of a
standing picture. I just felt like I was capable of doing it.” He
looked at Sarah again and his gaze and smile made her heart beat
quickly again.

Sarah brushed her mind
against his.
“Connor, could you show me
how to do that mental Movie thing?”
He
nodded and gave the details.

Connor waived her parents over to his
side. “Come stand over here. She is going to try it herself.” And
they moved quickly.

Closing her eyes and focusing power to
her eyes Sarah felt the pressure build. When she couldn’t handle it
anymore Sarah opened her eyes and released the flow. Pulsations
vibrated her eyes and she could see what Connor meant about the
movie picture reference. Hearts expanded and contracted, wings
flapped with powerful muscles, critters crawled all around and many
other small oddities made the moving mental picture so much more
enjoyable. “Your right, I did have to try.” Sarah giggled as she
stopped the flow.

He walked up to her, looking confused.
“Sarah, did you know that your eyes could glow?”

All of them laughed at his innocence.
“Connor, your eyes also glowed as you were doing your little
experiment.” Jillian couldn’t hold back another laugh.

“Could you show us?” Jack conceded
while wanting to know.

“I can try.” Connor said.

For the next thirty minutes they
failed miserably until Jillian eventually managed to do it, but
only for about two seconds. Her eyes faintly glowed, but at least
she and her mate could work on this new trick. And ten minutes
later Sarah’s father changed pace.

“Next is target practice.”

“Target practice? We didn’t bring any
projectile weapons?” Connor said in honest confusion while looking
at Jack.

His smile matched his
reply. “We
are
the projectile weapons.” He walked thirty yards away and
lifted a piece of shale and stood it upright. “We will use that for
practice.” Jack said while walking back.

“Father, I’m confused as well. Could
you elaborate?” Sarah asked, walking next to Connor.

“Oh, alright.” He sighed. “How about I
explain like this.” Jack raised his palm and conjured a fireball in
his hand by pulling the heat out of the air and igniting
it.

Jack then stood like a baseball
pitcher and threw the flaming ball, striking the target with
relative ease, making the fireball explode on impact. He hit
directly in the center of the target. As the dust and smoke cleared
the target transformed into nothing but rubble. “Is that
explainable enough?” He said, wearing a grin.

“We get the point.” Connor walked over
and stood several stone targets at different ranges and angles. He
walked back a few minutes later and made a line for them to use.
And Jillian was next.

She walked up to the line without a
word and shut her eyes. Making a flowing water ball by pulling the
moisture from the air, she threw it and it landed to soak a target
in the middle of the range. “I haven’t lost my touch.” And she
skipped away shamelessly.

Sarah walked up to Connor
thinking
“What element should we
use?”

“I think we shouldn’t use
metal at all or we could drain ourselves too quickly. Let’s take
your parents on with their elements and see how we
compare.”

“I agree.”
She nodded with a half smile after glancing at
them.

She went first. Sarah closed her eyes
and her power swelled. She opened her emerald green eyes and pulled
the warmth from the air and made her own fireball. She threw it and
did slightly less damage to the target, compared to her father, but
she did the same range and hit dead center. Jack gave her applause
and she turned around to bow to him.

“My turn.”
Connor pictured his surroundings and began
collecting the moisture from the area and focused it to his palm.
The air started to swirl and cool as he let the power flow. The
air’s moisture condensed and beaded then they came together into a
palm sized water ball. It gave Connor another idea, but
first.

Stepping to the line, with the water
ball in hand, Connor took his position. Throwing the water ball and
connecting on a target he heard Jillian whistle in awe. He hit dead
center on the farthest target. “I have another question,
Jack.”

“Fire away.” Jack now sat in the shade
with Jillian.

“Is it possible to combine elements as a
Balancer?”

“Yes, but changing the nature of an
object can be potentially dangerous if you don’t understand what
you’re doing.” Jack said.

“Don’t scare the boy, Honey.” Jillian
chastised. “Yes Connor, you can. Let me show you how we kept our
food fresher before the invention of the freezer.” Jillian stood as
well as Jack. Jillian formed another water sphere and held it up
for them all to see. “Connor, what happens when heat is taken away
from liquefied water?”

“Ice is formed.” He said. Connor knew
that basic form of science.

“Correct.” She turned her arm and put
it in front of Jack. He put both of his hands above the current of
liquid. Connor felt him gather a handful of power. Everyone watched
in shock as the liquid started cracking, hardening and gaining a
larger size as the frozen crystals expanded. When Jack took his
hands away, the water ball solidified into an ice ball. “This is
how we kept cool before electricity was harnessed. Here
catch.”

Connor caught the cold sphere of ice
and studied it. “Sarah, come here I have another idea.” He flashed
a wicked grin which gave her one too.

“What do you have up your sleeve?” She
whispered.

“Here hold this.” He handed her the
solid sphere. “Keep this in ball shape as I melt it back.” Calling
fire to his aid Connor melted the ice back to water. Sarah’s green
eyes looked at him in pride because she kept the moisture together.
“What’s next?”

“This!” He put both of my hands around
the flowing water. Connor closed his eyes again and imagined an
invisible shell covering the ball of water, using the element of
Pressure. Releasing the power and the element he reopened his eyes.
Connor felt the ball of water encased in the pure power of
Pressure. Lifting the liquid ball of water out of his wife’s hand
Connor gently said “You better get back. This might get a little
dicey.” She took a few steps away, knowing he wasn’t using
mirth.

“Connor what are you...?” Jack said standing
up.

“SHH!” Sarah hissed, silencing her
father.

Connor focused the pressure gradually
to compress the water to its limit; and to his own. The water ball
was originally the size of a softball, but after the compression,
it became the size of a golf ball. He walked up to the closest
target and knelt on one knee two feet away. Complete silence
watched from behind him and he could feel all of their eyes on him,
waiting to understand the method.

Delving into his own mind and
picturing the sphere of pressure, Connor modified the image of the
shell. A pinhead size hole began funneling in through the outside
of the shell to make the pressurized golf ball of water flow out in
the focused direction he chose. Connor opened his eyes just in time
before the tunnel reached the water.

The thread thin water stream shot from
his hand and cut completely through the rock a foot away, like a
hot knife through butter, but the rock didn’t fall. When all of the
water had been forced through his hands he fell back on his bottom.
As he tried catching his breath his new family rushed
up.

Jack spoke first “Connor, what magic
did you just do?”

When he was able to draw proper breath
Connor answered him. “No magic involved Jack. You told me what we
do isn’t magic. During science in my eighth grade year, we saw how
with enough pressure on water it could cut any material better than
any sword ever could.” he looked up to Jillian. “I bet you didn’t
know that your element is also the sharpest!” he smiled up at his
mother-in-law.

“That was miraculous, but
it only made a faint line in the stone.”
Sarah’s thought to herself as she ran her finger along the
straight line.

Connor stood up quickly and startled
her. “Excuse me please.” She moved to the side as he placed both of
his hands on the top side of the line. With one powerful push, the
rock slid back and crashed behind the now half stone.

Jack walked up and ran his palm over
the even surface. “The cut is perfect, clean. This is news to me.
Does my fire act in the same fashion?” He asked in
innocence.