Massive

Richter observes, "Every time you active your new Power, Sky, the floor bends. I think you're putting on weight, like the opposite of a Fade."


"You're probably bulletproof when it's on you. But," he adds quickly to the room, "let's not test that, please!"

Christmas Morning, Post-Wrapper

Sky says, "Less someone else wants, let me try the heavy brute one. Five to nine nothing happens."

"I'm in for five dollars," says Richter. "Hitomi wouldn't sport a tattoo that didn't do anything, in my opinion."

Christine says, "We'll know in a second! Coming at ya, Sky!"

She deals with a flip of the wrist, and Sky feels coldness cut into his skin.

His muscles tighten to resist the cold, of course, and the cold subsides. As soon as he relaxes, though, it's back. He tightens his limbs a little again, out of reflex, and the cold passes away.

Sky, and those near him, heard a creaking sound as he did so, like a dry door swinging.

"Well?" demands Richter. "Do I owe you five bucks, mister?"


"the mountain and the sun symbols--they have to do with truth and a faraway place," says Kaze. "...it -may- allow the bearer to see the truth although he is at a distance from the subject...."

She is looking at Voinovich.

"All right, I will try it," Voinovich affirms.

Christine hands the symbol off the back of her fingers, already swinging around to see who wants the last one.

"I see ... everything, I think," Voinovich says. "The sky is full of aircraft. There is a man emptying an ashtray into the snow."

"It's not snowing here," Richter says.

"It is where he is. Hm ... the signs are in English. There's a Yellow Cab -- I think it is New York."

"And over there, a few degrees to the right, a little girl is looking in the snow. She is, yes, she is looking for her dime. I see where it is, but she does not. She is looking in the wrong place."

"Little girl! Over there! The dime is to your left!" he says. "She does not hear me."

"You will need to learn to focus your mind," Kaze says softly but decisively. "That is a discipline of which we know much. Come with me."
She takes him to a quiet place on the farm, away from the lightning and chatter and teaches him first steps in meditation.


Belle gets a huge smile. "Golly! This is swell! Sorry about the lamp. I'll have Daddy send another...but...Gee wiz! There's electricity everywhere!

"You guys should see this!"

(Very cool about Janet's new gift!)


Janet takes a moment to listen to the chorus of animals, then slips into the hawk for a minute and dose a quick circle around then area, then switches to the cat.

Their senses are utterly different, but their focus is the same. Intense, steady activity, watchfulness, the creep into position, the strike.

Cherryblossom's meat scraps rarely offer much evasion to the strike, but it still has to be done properly.

Powers for All

The fourth kanji is the signs for "Heavy" and "Brute" but altered, so that its meaning is not a simple combination of the two but something which could be compared to both, as "truth" is both "sweet" and "eternal" but is neither sweetness nor eternity.

The fifth symbol combines the ideograms for "sun" and "mountain" in a way which suggests they are not to be taken literally. "Sun" symbolizes clarity, enlightenment, even truth, while "mountain" is the traditional way to imply "far away". So the power of sending the truth far away? That might be useful, if it were the power to deceive (banishing truth) or cause forgetfulness (another sense of banishing truth) or invisibility (sending clear sight far away) or ...

Belle says, "I'd love to be a Crackler, it goes so well with weatherman."

Christine says, "Crackler for Miss Belle!" and makes a hand gesture, transferring the symbol over to Belle from across the room.

Belle sees the electrical map of the room spring into being, radiating outward from her as her perceptions open. People are dull flickering glows, like clouds lit by distant lightning. Wires are strobing lines, and batteries pools of radiance. The sky overhead is a complicated whirlpool of colliding forces; she can see this even though there's a roof overhead.

And Belle herself, in her own eyes, is a virtually opaque statue of energy. She has as much lightning at her fingertips as a whole thunderstorm. And there are currents of potential drifting through the air, like cigarette smoke, which can easily conduct that power into anything she pleases.

Oops. The lamp can be replaced.

Janet says to Christine, "I would like to try the Beastie."

Christine says, "This one? You got it!"

She deals with both hands, and the odd symbol expands in Janet's vision until it seems to rush past her on all sides.

The passage is cold and sudden, and leaves a lingering buzz ... which sounds like a roomful, a houseful, no, perhaps a convention full of people, all talking at once. And no one's listening.

Janet can pick out voices from the hubbub, with a little effort. Some are chittering about winter and whether they've hidden their food well enough; others patiently bite another mouthful of rich, moist earth and squirm another inch forward; others use their eyes, and see everything in glasslike clarity, moving in slow motion, from a viewpoint just below the clouds.

Each thinks of itself as Me, but Janet can tell from context that some are squirrels, some worms, some birds, and some are fish, although the fish don't think of themselves as wet, which makes it a little longer to grasp.

If Janet focuses more intently, she can see through a hawk's eyes, steering it where she wants to look. It' s harder with the cat on the barn roof, because she doesn't use her eyes as much as her nose. Janet's not used to constructing her mental map out of odors.

Fortunately, Cherryblossom (the cat's name) does know how to do so. And once Janet forms her preference, Cherryblossom hurries to carry it out, as though it were her own idea.

A New Deal

Ronald Richter reluctantly pitches his Grimnoir ring over the side of the airship, so that Hitomi can’t track it.

Kaze, meanwhile, is telling Nick:

“As the New York table had a traitor in their ranks, perhaps it is not the case that Hitomi can track our rings.”

Nick, who can see Richter over Kaze’s shoulder, nods sagely.

“Yes,” he says, “that may be so. But best to be safe, surely.”

Belle conns the Gee Bee to Illinois, where the Grimnoir have a safe house on the farm of one of their retired members, Jake Sullivan.

Wounds are dressed, notes are compared.

Richter: “We know what Hitomi wants now – new Powers. So we find them, and we get there first, and we nail him before he can get away.”

“How do we find them?” someone wants to know.

“Finder, remember?” Richter says, touching his brow. “And Torch now, too, thanks to Christine.”

Christine smiles.

“I think my Power should be called Dealer,” she says. “I can take Powers no one’s holding and hand them out.”

“Yeah, about that,” Nick says. “Did you get any kanji off him?”

“A whole handful!” Christine enthuses. “I don’t know what they do, but I’ve got them right here …”

She spreads her fingers and lines of ink ghost into the air. There are five of them. They’re not actually Japanese letters, but they’re similar in style, just way complicated.

Sullivan squints at them.

“Yeah,” he grits out. “That one’s Iron Strength. Seen it on the Iron Guard … most of them have it. And that one’s Crackler. This one, I think, is Beastie, or something like it. And this isn’t a kanji at all, it’s a spell. Never seen that one before.”

“Anybody want to try them out?” Christine says.

Standoff Stood Down

Kaze fades towards Richter and hopefully reaches him, . She materializes with a hand to heal the damage in Richter's torso and another clasping a three-bladed knife that she has pressed against the Reader's spine.

Richter gasps as his wounds are mended.

"Mr. Kellogg, she's got a knife on me," the Reader says softly.

"I know, Carl," says the voice. "She will not use it if you remain calm. Do not try and turn the tables. You've done well -- let us handle the rest of this problem."

"Well, Mr. Richter? You seem to have the floor. What should we do, that we have not done, such that you will cease to trouble us?"

"Kidnapping and murder are a good start," Richter snaps back. "Where do you get your students from? And what happens to the ones you can't use?"

"My students come from everywhere," says Kellogg. "Some are referred by their parents, others I become aware of as I travel. My Power makes me keenly aware of others like myself, wasting away in a world of ordinary men."

The sounds of crashing explode from outside, where Saburo, Janet, Sonny-Boy and Michael are. There's the crash of lightning, the whoosh of flames, the whir of objects hurled through air -- the usual Active medley.

And Belle Weather brings the Gee Bee hovering to rest right over the hangar, blotting out the Moon.

Richter says, “Hitomi’s slipped the noose again – he’d rather we kill all of these kids to buy him ten more minutes than stay and take his medicine. We’re leaving. And we can’t have this young fellow telling all of our secrets … oh, but wait, you know them too, don’t you, Mr. Kellogg?”

Kellogg takes a step back, clutching his chest in terror.

“Right,” says Richter. “We can’t let you live either. So we’re just going to have to shoot through your boys here until we get to you.”

But instead, Richter sticks his captured gun in his pocket.

“But we don’t kill kids and we don’t kill fools, unless we can’t help it. Chew on that, and if you decide you’ve been on the wrong side, give us a call.”

Richter glances up, but of course cannot see Sky.

“Sky, we’re leaving. The bird’s flown. If these fellows try anything … well, let’s just say it’ll be their hard luck.”

Outside, the noise of smashing, burning, exploding magical battle continues.

“Oh, right. Kellogg?” he says.

Kellogg puts a hand to his temple, and the fighting ceases.

“Come on, Sky, Kaze,” says Richter. “Let’s gather our dead and get back on the case.”