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Chapter Four: Fork In The Road
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Rose nodded as she hesitantlly looked away from Apollo, wondering if he was alright. Concentrating more than before, Rose’s eyes turned a dark gray as light shot out to the cannonball, instead of stopping, Rose continued until the cannonball broke. Jumping up Rose cheered happily. “I did it!”
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Apollo smiled happily. “Congratulations! You can do it! Wait till Andaluza sees!”
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Rose nodded happily and tried a few more times, the ability becoming more fluent as she practiced more. “I can’t wait until I get better so I can explode things!”
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Andaluza looked down on Rose from the second floor. “I’m impressed, Rose! Good job. Apollo, how did you manage to do it without going postal?”
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Rose smiled brightly before turning to Apollo, confused at what Andaluza meant about postal. “Postal?”
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Apollo looked at Rose, confused. “It’s a word invented by humans, but Ascendii use it widely as ‘bolting out the door accompanied by crying or yelling.'”
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Odysseus walks in, and replies. “Insane. Out of control. An interesting question, Andaluza… Why would you say that? Are these powers detrimental to sanity?”
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Andaluza looked at Odysseus, noticing his resemblance to Ozymandias. “No, they are not. If you have no morals for life like I do, you’ll do just fine.”
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Rose nodded in understanding, “Is that why you looked like you hated it when you showed me an example? Do you not like the power?”
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Odysseus raises an eyebrow. “And if you do have morals?”
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Apollo began to shudder. “Yes…Rose…I’ve been trying to get over it…just not possible…”
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Jack still sat at the table of the kitchen as his teammates talked among each other that late night, leaning both elbows on the table, his hands to his chin, thinking.
“I do think being given unnatural power does contribute to sanity.” He said, tracing his finger across the blackened ashtray.
“Humans are not meant to have powers like these. Ascendii handle it well, they are born with it. Ascendii do not have any powers, technically speaking. Would you consider a bird’s ability to flight one of their powers? No, it’s just something they can do. So they do not take the erosion of sanity with their abilities, but people given unordinary powers…do.”
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Andaluza jumped from the second floor railing and pointed to Apollo. “That happens. Rose, you’re half human, I assume. I’m surprised you’re even able to handle it, by the way. Very brave of you to try.”
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Rose gave Apollo a small hug, “I’m sorry for asking that of you.”
Rose shrugged as she turned to Andaluza, “I take to a lot of things well, even some I shouldn’t. Unnatural, maybe, but so am I.”
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Odysseus glances out the window. “It’s time to move. We need to get those children back. Every minute we wait… Here, take these. These will get me directly into the OGA mainframe. Put them in any holo-port, and their local servers will be mine.” Odysseus passes out small silver, featureless, and thin bars to each member of the team. “Suit up.”
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