Summus Proelium

As much as I was certain that Blackjack would have liked to bombard me with questions, he and his people didn't stick around long enough for it. Mostly because all the Star-Touched started showing up almost immediately. Caishen and the rest of Ten Towers were suddenly there, followed shortly by the Minority and at least a dozen police cars. And from what I heard, the Conservators were mopping things up in their area and would be there shortly.

The bombs were apparently still a problem, but they were being stopped from going off by some sort of device that Blackjack had brought with him. It was generating a field around the entire area preventing those things from detonating. A device they left behind so the authorities could finish safely disabling the bombs themselves. Something told me it wasn’t the only one of those things Blackjack had access to.

Technically, by the letter of the law or whatever, the Stars and Shields (cops) here immediately should have stopped La Casa’s people from leaving. Or at least tried to. But it was clear that they were treating it as something similar to a Collision Point or other sufficient emergency. Blackjack’s people had been helping prevent a massive tragedy, so they were given a pass. But that wasn't something that they were going to press their luck on. Giving me a curious look, the man ordered his troops to head out again under the close scrutiny of Caishen. Both sides simply let each other go.

Of course, the people who had been trying to put up those bombs in the first place had vanished as soon as La Casa arrived. The moment I wasn't alone, they retreated, disappearing back into the city. Because God forbid they stick around for something resembling a fair fight. We still didn't even know who they were with or why they had been so intent on destroying this cure.

By that point, my own team had shown up. They immediately swarmed me with apologies coming from every angle, along with questions. They wanted to know what had happened, how I had managed to get through all of that, if I was hurt, and so on and so on. And all that was with them having no idea about that second Orb or what had come out of it. All they knew was that I had been on my own against three strange Touched and an army of Prevs.

And speaking of having a lot of questions, Ryder was basically blowing up my phone with them. He'd seen just enough through the security cameras to know about the Orb and that something had changed about my powers.

Before I could either answer him, or finish assuring my team that I was actually okay, I was pulled aside by Caishen and Kriegspiel, who was filling in as leader of the Conservators for the moment. They both had a ton of questions themselves, largely orienting around how I knew where this place even was, let alone what was happening in it.

In the end, I told them the truth, sort of. I explained that I had been contacted by one of the tech people for La Casa, who knew me largely thanks to the whole situation with getting those vials for Blackjack’s daughter. He hadn't wanted to see the cure get destroyed, so he told me what was going on while I was out and about.

Obviously, the idea that a Fell-Touched had been keeping an eye on the place where the cure was being worked on didn't exactly make them feel much better. But I pointed out that the fact that he had been was the only reason the building hadn't been destroyed. That seemed to calm them down, though they made it clear that wherever they set up the new lab, they were going to make damn sure there was even more security. Silently, I wished them luck with that.

I probably should have told them about getting new powers and all that, but I wanted to figure all that stuff out myself first. Or at least with my friends. I would explain that part to them later, when I made my official report for the court. For the moment, I just wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible. I felt simultaneously exhausted and incredibly exhilarated. It was a strange combination. I felt like I could sleep for a week, but I also wanted to go for a run for an hour or so.

Once I promised that I would come back and give a full report later, they let me go back to the others. I took just a second to meet with the Minority, so I could tell Amber and Izzy specifically that I was fine. I also made it clear that I had more to talk about, but didn't want to do it right then.

Finally, while the other Stars and all those cops were carefully escorting the scientists and all their equipment out to some unmarked vans to be moved to an undisclosed location, I rejoined my team. Again, they kept blurting questions, but I shook my head and insisted we get out of there first. I also sent Ryder a text promising I would meet up with him later and tell him everything that happened.

We were mostly silent on the way back to the shop. Mostly because everything we might have talked about I was waiting to get into until we were all together. But I did ask them about what happened on their side, and they told me a bit about being ambushed by yet another small army of what appeared to be heavily trained and well-armed Prev troops, along with another new Touched they've never seen before. Apparently this one seemed to have some sort of ability to create and control wind-based animal forms. Like the elephant tornado that had slammed into the van and knocked them off the road. Which explained the large dent that I had seen before getting in. It sounded as though it had been a pretty intense fight, up until the wind animal guy had left. Which was probably right around the time that the rest of his people at the lab had retreated. And all of that still gave us no idea who these people were. They didn't exactly announce their name or their allegiance. That was all one big mystery.

It was also clear that Paige knew something big had happened with me. She was the one driving, and kept looking over her shoulder to stare at me the entire way back. She could tell something had changed, but something told me she couldn't begin to guess just what it was.

Finally, we made it back to the shop, after taking a circuitous route to make sure nobody was following us. After parking in the alley, we filed inside and met up with the others. Soon, the entire group was around me, staring intently as they waited for me to explain everything.

Instead of starting immediately, I stood there for a moment collecting my thoughts. We were in the main part of the shop, with everyone else either standing around, sitting on chairs, or perched on the counters. And all of them were staring at me.

After taking a deep breath or six, I started from the beginning. Or rather, from when I had shown up at the building. I told them about the snipers and how I had started out by trying to take them down one at a time without giving them a shot at me.

“That didn't last, did it?” As she asked that, Paige looked like she wanted to reach out and grab my hand, but restrained herself. She was squirming there on the edge of the counter, as it clearly took everything she had to stay put and keep listening rather than start to pace around.

My head shook, and I got into what happened once I was told about the bombs. The moment I mentioned going right out there, everyone started to object, but I told them I hadn't had a choice. There was no way I was going to sit still or go slowly when those people were trying to blow up the building with the cure and all those doctors in it. I didn't care how dangerous it was, it wouldn't happen. And I wasn’t going to apologize for doing everything I could to stop it, danger be damned.

Of course, every objection they had disappeared the second I told them what I had seen when I made it down into that parking lot and realized I wouldn't be able to get to all the bombs in time. As soon as I mentioned what had been right beside me, a very loud silence fell over the shop. No one said anything for several long seconds, before Fred finally found his voice, though it cracked just a little in the process. “Are you actually saying what I think you're saying? Did you ReTouch? That's the term for it, right?”

It was Sierra who answered. “ReTouch is when your powers change completely. Add Touch is when you add new powers on top of the ones you already have. And Second Touch is when the powers that you have are changed into some new but similar version.”

Peyton squinted at me while her marbles orbited around her. “So what happened to yours? Do we get to still call you Paintball, or do you need to go back to the drawing board for a completely new name? Oh, can we call you Drawing Board?” She was obviously trying to make it sound light, but there was a lot behind that question. Everyone was leaning forward, watching me intently. It was obvious that no one knew whether to be excited or worried. Which, to be honest, I couldn't blame them for. This was a lot. I had been through it, and still wasn't sure what it all meant or how I was supposed to react. Obviously, there was a part of me that was giddy. Seriously, this was a new set of powers of some kind, and I hadn't actually lost access to my old ones. I still had all my paint, at least as far as I had been able to tell so far. Everything seemed to be intact, anyway. But on the other hand, this was just… a lot to deal with.

Taking a deep breath before slowly letting it out, I explained, bit by bit, exactly what had happened after I came out of that gray void. I told them about my body seeming to be made of liquid paint, about the rats biting right through my costume and body like that, and even how that guy had hit me with the concussive blast that blew me apart into hundreds of droplets before I came back together. That bit seemed to cause the most concern for some strange reason, Paige jolting to her feet before coming over to stare intently into my eyes. I wasn’t sure exactly what she was expecting to see, and squirmed a bit under her focused attention. “Uh, I’m still me,” I managed.

For her part, Paige only seemed to realize how close she was and how intently she was staring after I said that. Her face turned pink as she stepped back to give me a little more room.

The Cuddle Corps all nodded together like that whole thing made perfect sense. “You fluffinated!” That was Ash, the little plush dragon called cheerfully. “We totally joined the right team, the leader can fluffinate like us!”

“Maybe not exactly like us,” Aspen noted with a thoughtful expression on that cute bunny face. “But close enough. You could be an honorary Cuddle!” That was accompanied by an assortment of cheerful agreements from the rest of them.

I could tell they all knew this whole thing, especially the experience of being blown apart and coming back together, was kind of freaking me out, and were doing their best to help with that. It worked, making me smile a bit at them. “Thanks, guys,” I managed. “I’ll do everything I can to maintain the honor of the Cuddles.”

“Um, so you're made of paint now?” Paige had found her voice by then, asking that weakly while hesitantly raising a hand as though to poke my shoulder, clearly afraid of what would happen if her hand went right through me like I was liquid. “That's going to be a little hard to cover up.” There was definite anxiety to her voice. Clearly she was picturing my parents trying to hug me and seeing their own hands pass through my body. Which might just make keeping my identity secret somewhat complicated.

Fortunately, I knew better after the tiny bit of experimentation I’d done back there and on the way back. “I can shift back and forth,” I explained slowly. “When I make myself solid, I can use my old powers, the paint projection. When I use the new powers, I can't use the old ones. I mean, when I'm made of paint, I can't shoot it out. It’s like…”

“It’s like your body becomes your paint supply?” Roald blurted.

My head bobbed at that. “Hey, yeah, it's like that. I can shift between having my paint as ammo, or turning it into my body. I mean, turning my body into that. Whichever, the point is, when I make my body into paint, it turns my clothes that way too. Don't ask me how that works.” To demonstrate, I made the conscious shift before stepping over to a random shovel that was leaning against a nearby counter. As everyone stared, I stepped into and past the shovel, letting it pass through me. Just like back at the parking lot when those rats had been biting me, or with that concrete fist, the solid object went through my costume and body alike as though they were liquid. I wasn’t exactly intangible or anything like that. I couldn’t pass through solid objects if there was nowhere for my liquid body to… move through. But as long as there was space for liquid to make it past, it worked.

After that, I focused on the paint that passing through the shovel had left on the thing. It was a random mix of all my colors in a rough approximation of the colors I was wearing or my own skin and hair. With a gesture from one hand, I pulled the paint off of it, leaving it in the shape of the shovel. Then I showed them how it would follow my instructions, swinging around and spinning in circles while retaining the texture and other characteristics of the shovel. When the others touched it, the handle felt like wood and the head felt like metal. It was about as durable as those things.

And speaking of touching, everyone had to come up and see what it was like to feel my liquid form too. They reached out to poke me, taking turns running their hands in and out of me with obvious fascination. Everyone kept asking if it hurt or anything and I just shook my head. It didn't feel like anything at all really. At most, there was a little tickle. Soon, Qwerty and the Cuddles were getting running starts before leaping to jump through my body, laughing the whole time as they passed back and forth, getting themselves covered in paint.

Of course we checked, but I couldn’t make physical copies of them. Not even of the Cuddles despite them being in stuffed animals. I wasn’t sure what the deal was with that. Maybe it just read them as being alive and made the copying not work.

After a minute of that, it was Sierra who spoke up. My Biolem twin had been watching me curiously that whole time, and her voice held no doubt in it as she asked, “There's something else to it, isn't there? That doesn't just make your body liquid and let you create copy-constructs.”

Coughing as Qwerty glided through my chest, I gave a little nod. “Uh, yeah, there’s also the shapeshifting and teleporting.”

Obviously, that made everyone start blurting dozens of questions all at once. They were talking over each other so quickly that it was impossible to pick out individual words. Though I was pretty sure I could figure out the gist of it. Finally, Fred gave a loud whistle that cut through all of that, his voice mild once everyone stopped. “Maybe they’d tell you more details if you let ‘em talk.”

So, I told them about that part, getting into how I had hit the rat-guy with a spray of paint, then transitioned myself into that same spray that had already hit him, before transforming into a copy of that same guy momentarily after crashing into him.

“Hold up, hold up,” Murphy quickly interrupted, head shaking. “You can shoot paint, then make that paint turn into yourself? Like, you can travel like that?”

After a brief pause to consider, I shrugged before pointing across the room. A thought sent a quick shot of that same rainbow-colored paint against the far wall. Then I was suddenly there, the paint shifting into my body while the old me turned to liquid and collapsed into a puddle. Which was enough to make everyone in the room give mixed choked, gasping sounds.

Straightening up after sending myself that way, I turned to face them with my hands out. “See? I think I can only shapeshift into something… or someone… that I’ve hit with my paint. Or, you know, that’s hit me while I’m made of paint.”

We tested that then, with Peyton volunteering. She braced herself, clearly nervous about how it was going to feel. Yet, when I shot that rainbow paint at her and reformed around her, she claimed it just felt like getting sprayed with water. Sticky, somewhat thick water, but still.

I, meanwhile, focused on picturing the girl herself while sending myself through the paint to reform next to her. And sure enough, I looked like an identical copy to her.

“This is so weird,” Peyton announced while staring at me. It must’ve been like looking into a mirror for her. A mirror that didn’t copy your motions.

Everyone moved up closer to examine us, looking back and forth before reaching out to run their hands through me curiously.

Paige, as usual, was the first to think up an important test. “Can you make yourself solid again while keeping that form?”

I tried, and… well, the answer was complicated. It turned out I could shift into a solid form while maintaining that shape, but only for a limited time. While I was in the liquid-state I could hold and adjust that shapeshifted form as much as I wanted. But once I made myself solid, it took concerted effort to maintain it. I could only do so for about a minute or so before my body reverted to its normal state.

Unsurprisingly, I couldn’t use any of Peyton’s powers that way, or control her marbles. And I didn’t sound like her or anything. But I could look like her. And I could sort of… pause that sixty second timer before I would revert to my old form. It only counted down as long as I was solid. If I shifted back to liquid, the timer stopped where it was.

After a bit more questioning and testing, we worked out another point of my new paint form. Namely, I was able to shift it into any of my usual colors. A thought would change my body from just looking like myself, to being fully green, fully pink, fully black, and so forth. Doing so gave me the benefit of that color.

Green made me move about three times as fast as I normally could.

Yellow made me slow, which was helpful for falling safely. But more importantly, it seemed to make things that were close enough to me slow down as well, to about half their normal speed. That included people trying to hit me.

Red allowed me to physically throw bits of myself (like chucking a baseball or something rather than projecting it in a blast the way I normally did) before pulling myself to the thing I hit, or vice versa. I would wind up, throw a ball of paint, then I could pull that object to myself, or myself to the object.

Black made it so I didn’t give off any sound, and things in a short radius around me were silent as well.

White allowed me to glow, which I could adjust to be very dim or bright enough that it was hard to look directly at me.

Blue allowed me to bounce off things, sending myself high into the air.

Orange made my body very solid and hard to penetrate, rather than liquid.

Purple made me stronger. Which might not have seemed important when my body was liquid, but again, I wasn’t intangible. I could still focus and hit people in that form. When I was normal, it was like getting hit by a normal garden hose. But when I was purple, it was apparently more like a firehose. I could hit much harder that way.

And finally, in the case of pink, it made my body collapse into a puddle. A pink puddle that could move around under my direction. I could see in every direction at once, though my depth of vision wasn’t that great. I could only see about ten feet out. But my puddle form could move, and it was liquid so running into obstacles wasn’t a problem. I was able to go under the cracks of a closed door and even through a long tube that Sierra and Paige set out for me to test.

There was clearly more to figure out, but that was the gist of it. I could shift back and forth between my body being paint or solid. When I was paint, I couldn’t shoot any paint, because it was making up my body. In my paint form, physical objects passed through me, my body would reform after being blown apart, and I could shapeshift to match anyone I had recently touched. And any object that I got my paint on could be copied to form a construct I could direct around. Speaking of which, we found out I could only make and control one Copy-Construct at a time. No creating an entire fleet of flying Paint-Constructs to attack people with. Still, I was able to make a copy of any object Peyton turned her marbles into, which would be useful.

Finally, I could shift my paint-body to match any of my old colors, getting the benefit of them. I couldn’t mix and match in that form. There was no ‘turn my legs green for speed and my upper body purple for strength.’ It was either my base body with no extra abilities, or all of one single color. If I wanted to combine abilities, or mix paint for any of those special things like the damage reflection or flashbomb, I had to be in my physical body and use the paint the old way.

Once we figured all that out, the others continued to stare at me. Wren found her voice first. “Well… what are you gonna do now?”

“Now?” I echoed, considering the question for a moment before nodding decisively. “Now I’m kinda hungry after all that testing.

“So how about we order some pizza, and talk about anything else besides me for awhile?”