With Nala riding in the back with me Megan drove back towards where we saw the elephant. Arriving at the intersection again we found that the elephant was gone. Along the way Rebecca told me she had already called Marshal to let him know she was with us and rea.s.sure him that Emily was fine.At the intersection Megan headed south then crossed over the 202 highway and then Salt River. Once we were over the river everything became a ghost town, the street was completely empty without any signs of people. Megan took advantage of the situation and speed down the street. She called her brother to find out where he was then headed in that direction as fast as possible. Personally I thought she was a little too eager to reunite with her brother.
When we pa.s.sed Broadway I spotted a convoy of military vehicles heading east towards us. Megan didn"t stop, in the back of the truck I was easily able to see the convoy as it pa.s.sed the intersection we had flown through. They didn"t seem to mind us and continued moving east. I wondered what they were heading towards. Was it the the stadiums I had worried about earlier? They were in that general direction, though they would have to head north after a few more streets.
"Daryl?" Heather called from the truck"s cabin.
"Yeah?" I asked leaning towards the window.
"How are you.., no never mind, is there a chance we can get my sister? I am sure she is worried sick about her son." she told me.
I was surprised then looked at the baby in the car seat. "Your nephew?" I asked.
Heather frowned. "Did you think he was mine?" she asked.
I shrugged. "I figured it was possible." I replied. "Where is she?" I asked.
Heather hesitated, "I don"t know. I tried to get a hold of her, but she hasn"t picked up." she admitted.
"Where was she supposed to be?" I asked.
"Work, she"s a waitress at Jaded Grill and Bar by the college." she told me.
I winced. There would have been a lot of people at and around the college today. h.e.l.l I was supposed to be there myself. If even a small percentage of them became twisted the devastation would be frightening. "Try to get a hold of her close friends or coworkers, see if they have heard anything." I told her. "Once we meet up with Megan"s brother we can discuss it."
Heather didn"t seemed happy with my reply but she didn"t argue with me either. Instead she started calling others.
With a sigh I tried to relax in the back of the truck as well as I could.
"Nala, keep an eye out and let me know if anything happens." I told the lioness mentally as I closed my eyes.
"Sleeping master?" she asked me in my mind.
I shook my head. "No, I need to understand what changes the second wave made to my abilities." I told her mentally. I had never made black lightning before, yet it came to me almost effortlessly when I was facing off against the giant elephant and Nala. With what I knew of the abilities it shouldn"t have worked that way. Though I was well aware that I was sorely lacking in information about the abilities and how they worked.
With my eyes closed I was able to see into my inner s.p.a.ce. I had several newly awakened abilities and most of the abilities I had before had upgraded. As my attack was elemental I started there. With the exception of earth all of my elemental abilities had risen to two stars. Looking into each of them left me more confused. The second level gave me access to more elemental energy and an easier time wielding it, I could also draw on a bit of pure element energy from an elemental plane outside of earth, but it was a tiny amount, and none of that explained how I formed the black lightning. The increased ease of control could explain making it easier to form a lightning bolt, as I had already practiced with that before, but I had never used the shadow element before. It just didn"t make sense.
After understanding the changes in my elemental abilities I shifted to the two new ones that I had no understanding of, Plant and Beast. To my surprise, other than changing the image in the beast ability it had also risen to two stars. Looking into the ability I had trouble understanding it completely. It felt like I had the ability to create servant bonds with the beasts. With each bond I would gain some of their strength while they received a bit of my strength in return.
Inside the beast ability I could feel the bond to Nala. I also realized that I could influence her through the bond, though I wasn"t sure how at the moment. I felt that there was s.p.a.ce within my ability for more beast bonds, but I didn"t have an exact number. Perhaps the strength of the beast had an influence on how many of them I could bond. As a guess I felt I could bond two more beasts equal in strength to Nala.
The plant ability was nearly identical to the beast ability. This amazed yet frightened me more than anything. It implied that there would be plants that would gain enough strength and sentience to be worth bonding. As I had no bonds with plants I couldn"t gauge how strong the plant could be.
My mind ability had increased by a star but I ignored it for now. I was scared of that ability and its potential.
Moving on to my s.p.a.ce ability I paused when I noticed there was a third ability floating with s.p.a.ce and time. Glancing at my mana core I noticed that it wasn"t just the four stars floating around in the silver core, there were traces of gold swirling around my mana core as well. I wouldn"t have thought anything of it if Calidia hadn"t said something about upgrading my core to a gold. Was I about to upgrade? How? Why?
Looking at the new ability I saw that it was a bit weird, it looked like it had awakened as it was in an orb form, yet it was still transparent. Was this because I wasn"t a full gold core yet?
I let my mind sink into the new ability so I could determine what it was supposed to be.
As soon as I did everything began to glow in a bright golden color. My body screamed out in pain as overwhelming waves of pain engulfed me. It didn"t last long, not even as long as the body transformation. It was like lightning surged out of my new ability core and flowed through my entire body in the blink of an eye reshaping and changing it faster than I could understand.
When the pain had subsided I was finally able to get a feeling for what the ability was. My black lightning came from here. The orb was full of black lightning but it was more than that. In the center of the orb was a shadowy figure that seemed to control the black lighting. After a few more moments I felt I had a grasp of the ability and dubbed it Elemental Lord of Black Lightning as not only did it give me access to the black lightning, I got a sense that I could controlled everything about it. As soon as I named it the ability solidified with two stars appearing in the orb and a sense of confidence and strength flowed into me. It was odd. I wasn"t used to the feeling of confidence, before my awakening I could only call myself an insecure fatty. I wasn"t fat anymore but the insecurities were still present. Having super powers for half a day and a romp in the sheets with a beautiful woman was a big step out of my insecurities, but not enough to wash them away completely. This strength and confidence that flowed from the ability was a strong panacea against that insecurity.
Pulling my mind back from the ability I could see that my mana core was different. It had completely changed into a golden core. I would have to talk to Calidia about this. I thought I wouldn"t be able to upgrade it again until the next wave or by killing golden twisted or mana beasts. It didn"t make sense, and it seemed far to easy.
Before I opened my eyes I looked at my s.p.a.ce ability. Like the elemental ability I had access to more s.p.a.ce and an easier time controlling it. I was sure that with a bit of practice I would be able to open portals now. I could ask Calidia about that too, maybe she had some advice for how to make it easier. The amount of s.p.a.ce I could use increased significantly. Instead of a ten feet cube I now had access to a hundred feet cube. I would have been completely stupefied by the amount of s.p.a.ce I gained with one level if I didn"t know that at later levels the s.p.a.ce ability was used to create a s.p.a.ce large enough to house at least a city worth of humans. Or at least that was the impression Calidia gave me.
With a better understanding of my abilities and a strong desire to take some time actively practicing with them I opened my eyes. I nearly jumped out of my skin when I saw Megan in the back of the truck peering at me worriedly.
"I tried to wake you master, but you would not respond. We all worried when you screamed out in pain!" Nala told me before I could ask what Megan was doing.
"You back with us?" Michael asked from the side of the truck.
I leaned forward and planted a kiss on Megan"s lips grateful that she had been worried about me. I kept it brief though. "I"m fine." I told her.
"You had me worried." she told me seriously.
"Sorry, I had a unexpected upgrade. It was a rather painful." I told her.
"But you"re fine now?" she asked.
I nodded.
Megan sighed in relief then stood up and moved back so I could stand up.
Having heard Michael"s voice earlier I knew we must have arrived, only after standing up did I realize where we were. It was an apartment complex close to where highway 87 ran into highway 60 and a bit east of Fiesta Mall. It was the home of a bunch of Michael"s high school friends who had moved closer to the college rather than continue the commute from Fountain Hills. They weren"t anything great, but worked well as bachelor pads and party spots. Around the truck was a group of college students I usually did my best to avoid.
"Has it been too much for the fatty to handle." Mark Willis teased with a snicker. He was one of the people I disliked the most. He wasn"t Michael"s friend but they had enough friends in common that he usually got an invite to events. He was one of the few who was willing to pursue Megan despite Michael"s discouragement. With a similar build as Michael he thought he was his match, though his brown hair, pale green eyes, and weaselly face he didn"t match up to Michael"s appearance making him the constant runner up.
I glared at him coldly for a moment, Mark unconsciously took a step back before he realized what he was doing.
"Your aura has changed." Calidia stated from beside the truck near Michael, Karen, and Courtney.
I ignored her, I had an important question I needed to ask as I stared at Mark without blinking. "Nala are you hungry?" I asked aloud.