A Full Hand

Janet is fascinated but the new senses and awareness of the animals. Focusing on the cat, she uses him to walk around the little farm and surrounding woods.

The farm looks very different to the cat; a barrel is a tower, a car is a hill, and the tops of things don't exist.

Until he thinks about jumping upon them, and then the smells of the upper surface tell him if it would be a good idea.

Dust smells differently from wet dust, which is distinct from fluffy dust, which is different from dry dust. All are as different as red is from blue. The cat's eyes see forward, but her smell and hearing are 360 degrees.

Everything comes through to Janet as black and white, except for movement. Whenever something moves, it assumes color, rather vivid and even garish color, but when it stops, it fades back to monochrome.

Janet notices (though Cherryblossom does not) that the fly passing overhead is moving slowly enough to see, no faster than a cloud passing in front of the moon. Indeed, everything Cherryblossom sees is in slow motion. Janet thinks she could move very fast if she wanted to.


Sky asks someone to punch him when he is heavy. "If I cannot take a punch, I cannot take a bullet. Maybe this is just weight gain, not tough skin, you know?

"No bruises on the kisser, please! I am electing to be escortifying this sweet young doll from the Save a Soul mission down to Havana on a wager, and dolls (as a rule) are unelectrified if a sharped-dressed palooka makes no configurings to keep himself cleanshaven and un-smudged in the mug. Which of you gents wants to take a poke?"

Richter waits for someone else to volunteer. When they don't, he stands up.

"You're either massive or just heavier," he muses. "We'll know who gets that fin in a second --"

And then he explodes in an uncoiling right cross that swings shoulders, hips, even feet into a sucker punch right on Sky's jaw. Onlookers gasp at its sudden ferocity.

CLUNK!

Richter recoils, nursing his stinging knuckles.

Sky feels the impact, but neither pain nor deflection. It's as if his sense of touch has been filtered by a colored lens, so only one type of sensation is still sensible.

"Definitely armor" Richter says, blowing on his hand. "Ow ..."

"So Christine currently has Massive, Torch, Healer, Beastie, Crackler, and, uh, Eye, I guess, in her hand of powers. This could be good ... we could surprise Hitomi, and also his goons, by switching things up."

"So do we take the time to master these Powers, or do we go after him again right now? I can find him ... it's what I do."

"Who's this Save a Soul gal you're talking about, Sky?" Christine wants to know.