Chapter 8
Matthew spent about twenty minutes wandering around on the second floor looking for the gym, he finally gave up and sent out psychic probes to find it. Of course he had to just walk through the door in front of him to get there. He opened the door and saw a huge gymnasium compacted into one room. In the farthest corner, he saw exercise equipment, and on the next side, he saw sparing equipment, pads, practice weapons, etc. To his left he saw punching bags, of varying weight, and he saw a group of people off to the side, mostly women and men, naked, and with collars on their necks, apparently the slaves of the students. He looked at the center and saw a group of people watching two people, one a stocky, muscular person, and the other, a lean, tall man, both in the same position, each holding a practice sword held at the other man.
Without warning the tall one raced forward and swung at an incredible rate toward the shorter one. The wooden blades met, though the shorter man simply moved his sword to catch the other man’s. He flowed backward, spun his sword backwards and placed his knuckles on his hip, then rushed forward. The taller man swung randomly at him, trying to slash him, but the shorter man kept flowing back and forth, never attacking, never lifting his hand, but never getting hit either.
The tall man lunged straight at him, expecting his opponent to be in the spot he saw him last, but he pivoted on a foot and kicked his opponents leg out from under him, then kicked the tall man’s sword out of his hand and into the air. The blade flew up, and the short man caught it and swung at the fallen opponent’s head, but stopped within a fingernail’s thickness on his throat. The stocky man knelt on one leg and said in a quiet voice, mocking the old Kung Fu movies,“How did I beat you, young grasshopper?”
He helped him to his feet, and Matthew walked towards the crowd. “Ahhhhh, Matthew, so good of you to join us, I’m your instructer, Jason, eager to learn I hope?” he said smiling extending his hand toward Matthew. “Yeah, but you people sure hide these places, I’m surprised I could find you” he said as he shook his hand. Without warning, Matthew felt a burst of energy from Jason and Matthew flew into the air and landed on his back, looking at the ceiling. “Owww, that stung” he said, as he let go of the instructer’s hand and got on his hands and knees. As he did, Mathew’s leg flung out clipped Jason, and then he kept pivoting on his foot and spun into a standing position.
“Okay, I think I deserved that” said Jason, getting up, “he’s my first student to take me down on the first try” he said to the class. “Matthew, shall I teach you the sword?” he asked, picking up his sword he dropped, and tossing it toward Matthew, and caught it as it spiraled towards him, spinning it in his hand and held it point down toward the ground. He spread his legs, his left in front of his right, and his torso twisted, as he twisted his hands so his right went over and held the sword down. He took off his glasses and put them in his coat pocket, putting a small telepathy shield over it so it won’t break when struck.
“Ahhh, you’re already familiar with the stance, excellent. Now, let’s see your strengths.” Jason said, and lunged forward, wooden sword swinging high. It came down and Matthew had barely a nanosecond before it came in contact with his skull. He barely put the sword in the way to catch Jason’s. Jason held that position for a few seconds, pressing harder and harder till Matthew could barely hold it away from him. Without a flicker of an eyelash, Jason flowed back, a small smile alight on his face, then said,“You have the strength, now onto the reflexes”.
For one moment Jason held himself in one spot, the next he flew towards Matthew. Jumping backwards, Matthew found himself between a rock and a hard place, and could barely block Jason’s sword as it wished through the air, and he flowed from one form to the other. Jason had a smiling face, a triumphant look on his face. Matthew kept having to give ground, dancing backwards so that he could have room to dodge, until Jason finally got a hit off, a painful welt that appeared on his back seconds after it was struck.
Matthew started getting use to the feel of his weapon, and each time reacted faster and faster to the attacks of Jason’s. At first Matthew saw a small mist like shape or a shadow coming at him, but noticing it stop right where he was going to put his sword, and then felt the impact of the sword. As the fight wore on, Matthew saw the shadow become more and more clear, till he could distinguish it perfectly, and know precisely where Jason’s attack would go to. Matthew stopped backing up, and started earnestly attacking Jason, soon Jason’s face started taking a determined look on it, and sweat trickled down his face.
Matthew executed a double parry, spinning the sword into the air, and as Jason looked up, Matthew struck his back, chest, then back of his knees, sweeping him off his feet and landing with a thud, exactly the way Matthew and the last person did. The sword fell downwards and Matthew caught it, and threw it to the last person that tried. “I think I need a few more lessons coach” Matthew said, then helped Jason to his feet. When Jason was standing, “I think you should be the instructor instead of me, but since I was hired to teach you, maybe I could use a student teacher to help the other students.” he said. “I’d be honored” he said, then they paired off and Jason went up against another student.
After defeating all of the students easily, they moved on to weaponless fighting. Matthew walked up to the student he sparred with eariler and folded his arms across his chest and waited for the student to start. He came in with a roundhouse kick, and Matthew ducked easily under the foot, and came back to his same position. The student punched straight out toward Matthew’s head, Matthew pivoted on his left, and grabbed his wrist and rotating clockwise the arm so that he had to hunch over, or else have the arm pulled out of his socket.
Matthew lifted his leg and lightly tapped his stomach and slid his leg behind the student’s and hit the back of his knee, sending him to the floor, and Matthew laid a foot on the student’s chest and leaned over. Then he moved to the next student. Later off, he was sparring against the four top students of the class. All four of them took four points, like a compass, with one for North, South, East, and West.
Matthew looked to West, East, then looked at South behind him, then ran and kicked north in front of him, leaving him holding his stomach, without air in his lungs. Matthew pivoted around him and threw him at the oncoming people, sending South sprawled on the ground. He moved forward and threw folded knuckels into West’s throat, and Matthew could feel the cartilage bend, but not break, beneath his fingers. He left West clutching his throat, trying to breath, and Matthew jumped backwards, barely missed by East’s kick. Matthew kicked forward, catching East’s side of his knee, and sending him to the ground, with a swift kick to the back of his skull sent him to the blissful land of unconciousness.
One down, three to go thought Matthew, turning and seeing South finally getting up, with North a second after him. South rushed forward, Matthew popped his jaw a good hit, then he kneed South’s short ribs, and putting him into a half-nelson, faced North. North came in, and punched forward, trying to hit Matthew’s face, Matthew twisted and South was hit in the face. Matthew kicked South’s ankle, sending it up, and striking North in the groin, and Matthew tripped South, and slammed his outstretched hands towards the back of South’s head, slamming into the place between the neck and cranium, sending him to blackout then into unconciousness. North fell to his knees, clutching his important piece of anatomy, and Matthew nudged his back, laying him down after passing out from the pain.
Matthew looked at Jason, shrugged, then helped get the unconcious people up from their positions. “Marvelously done Matthew, I haven’t seen that good of expertise in a long while, class dismissed, and go to Sensei Sheryl’s class.” All the students, the concious ones anyway, walked over and picked up their slaves and headed out the door and walked the way Matthew came from. Matthew made sure everyone was alright, then followed, putting his glasses on.
After going through a network of halls, following the other students, Matthew came to another hall, though a smaller one. It was fairly high up, and a transparent wall(a feat accomplished by refracting light through the wall and setting it against this side of the wall, made completely with psychic energy). A old woman sat in a Siddhasana in yoga(the crosslegged position, except both legs came to the top of the thigh, and thumb and index finger in an O). Mattew sat down on a mat in the back, and waited for the rest of the class to arrive.
Without opening her eyes, the woman spoke,“There is a new Voice here today. Hello Mattew, has your stay been satisfactory?” Matthew said yes, and wondered how she knew he was here, because he could see nor feel any probe coming from her. “Now class, today I’ll be teaching how to feel psychic signitures without the Voice. First, cross your legs and close your eyes.” They did,“Now instead of looking inward for the voice, feel outward, away from your body, and you should feel energy, like when you charge your psychic, only weaker, and has a different frequency or feel than your own.” Matthew felt out, and he could feel the other people’s signitures, and could actually see how they were sitted, with his eyes closed, something like echo location or sonar, only the view could be rotated in Matthew’s mind, like a 3D computer image.
“Now class, feel outward, feel your surroundings, even feel your own body, like an image without color.” Matthew could feel how he was positioned, could sense every thing that touched him, and he could feel the floor, the walls, ceiling, and he could feel other people clearer too, he focused outward more, and he could feel through the whole school, like an astral projection without leaving the body. He felt his limit, he could feel a two mile projection, before the image deteriorated to an indistinguishable perception.
“Bring back your focus, focus on your body, feel your organs shift inside your body, feel as far down as possible, to the molecules that make up your body, feel them and distinguish them from the others, notice the difference from the lungs to the heart”, she spoke, and Matthew felt his own body, feeling every crevice, every imperfection, his perception of his body tripled, quadrupeled. What he knew about his body before was just a tip of an iceberg, the mound of an ant hill, millions of the latest super computers would be needed to to comprehend and hold the information inside the tip of a toe nail on the little toe.
“Now class, I want you to let go, stop focusing on the feelings, bring your mind back to reality. Open your eyes. But still pay attention to the signitures around you.” she spoke, and Matthew opened his eyes and could still make out the signitures, but they weren’t as detailed, he could only make out if they were male, female, big, or small. “Now it is time to learn how to place the body into hypertention. Watch out, you can only hold this ability on for a few minutes, depending on the amount you do to yourself. If you do the weakest possible, you can probably hold it for an hour, depending on your strenght. But remember, this puts great strain on ones body, and must only be used in battle or for a last resort.” she said, standing up.
She appeared frail, but suddenly she shimmered, and the old woman vesage dissipitated and a vibrant, young woman stood in her place. She was oriental, though that disguise could be as easy as the last, and Matthew kicked himself for believing appearances are down to the bone. A new voice took command replacing the frail woman’s,“First picture your body in your mind, as complete as possible. Then, I want you pulse your psychic ability, without letting it out of your mind, just pulse your body and let the pressure build. When it becomes unstoppable to hold, release it into your self. You should feel the difference.”
Matthew closed his eyes and pulsed his psychic abilities, feeling it grow inside him, like a damn holding against a huge river, he held it at bay, knowing he could wipe out this portion of the castle just from the amount of energy he’s holding. But he held on, he could feel other people discharging their energy, they became more perceptive toward their psychic signiture, like a candle flame suddenly turning into a 4,000 watt bulb, and extremely subtle change. When his body was writhling in agony, he released it completely, and it hurt worse than when he held it. Every muscle cramped, then released, it happened so fast all he did was sway where he stood.
When the fuzz cleared from his mind, he felt lighter than he ever felt in his life. It wasn’t a high a person gets when he smokes some pot, but it was close. He felt his heart going twenty times faster than it should, and he could feel his body working faster than it normally did. Besides for the annoying strobe light effect produced from frequent and faster blinks of his eyes, it was an incredible sensation.
Everyone around him, seemed to move through a jelly like substance, each movement slow but they acted like there was nothing there. He looked at his watch and he thought he could walk a mile by the time the next minute comes. He could feel his “well” of psychic energy drain slowly, extremely slow, but soon it was almost gone. The teacher said in a slow voice, “Class release hypertension” and almost immediately, he felt the psychic signitures go blurry again, and he released his too. Everything lurched back at him, and his muscles turned to water, and the only thing holding his body up was him forcing his body to hold him there.
His body recovered quickly, though he never felt that drained of energy, ever. Several people sagged to the floor, unable to hold themselves up anymore, but they got up soon after that. The teacher acted like nothing has happened, though he knew she did it as much as the other students. She smiled then said,“That’s why we only use it as a last resort, because your muscles go liquid after you do it, it takes years to learn how much to power down without falling down.”
“Today we will review part of our history, put forth by each Leader of the Clan, the prophecies every person takes to inauguralate his ascent to the Master of the Clan:
Matthew waited for the obvious question,“What is the last word?” He didn’t have to wait long. The teacher replied,“This is older than the creation of the Clans, every clan is to watch and find this being, because he will destroy everything, but will save it too, don’t ask about the last part it gets confusing. This first part is the easiest to translate from an extremely dead language, and the rest is as hard to understand as it is to read.”
“Since everyone seems so drained, I will dismiss class early today, but I want you each to read “The Prophecies” book, which is supplied in everyone room.” The teacher said, and the students grabbed their Followers and walked out. Matthew wanted more knowledge from a first-hand source, so he walked over to the flexible teacher.
“Hi, I’m Matthew, the student you felt enter the room before, and I’d like to say I am very interested in your class.” He said, standing a few feet away from the teacher. “Hi, my names Sheryl, sorry about the surprise, but after seeing zombie faces on these students for a while, you have to do something to break up the monotony.” Sheryl said, smiling.
“No, no, no, don’t take me wrong, I enjoy seeing surprise on people’s faces, but what I wanted to ask you was...” he trailed off. “...How we can control minds and do other things?” she said. “Yeah” Matthew replied.”
“Well, in the old days, the Clan didn’t give a shit, but since technology has advanced, we ruled out possible magic powers and telpathic brain waves caused by aliens. We had a DNA scans on all members a year or so ago, and the findings were quite interesting. The normal human being has 23 pairs of chromosomes, right. Forty-six chromosomes, excluding trisomies and other genetic defects. But for Voices, we have 23 triples of chromosomes or 69 chromosomes in all.” she began, taking a deep breath.
“Inadvertantly, we are still investigating the extra chromosome, but it will be a while before we figure out why or how it’s there. You, me, and everyone here, excluding slaves but some of them have it too, have 69 chromosomes. So far, we have concluded several traits that are caused by this, heightened senses, faster regeneration, less susceptible to disease, increased genius and IQ, photographic memory, faster reflexes, better spatial awareness, better nightvision, higher pain thresholds, increased sex drive and components thereof, craving for mango-orange juice, and etc.” she smiled at the her joke and continued.
“We then broke down the chromosomes and we found that instead of having a double helix, we have a triple helix, arranged in a equilateral triangle. Hell, we’re still trying to figure out how this works, but don’t ask, or it will give you a headache. Actually what we have found out is that we are a combination recessive genes and brain deficient. We have evolved from the same species as homo sapiens, but we guess that some were mutated from radiation, or some other weird ass solution caused this, and that’s how we were formed.” she shrugged, showing her ignorance about what they knew.
“Our psychic powers come from a section of the brain which usually has latent neural pathways to it, but because of the brain deficiency, we somehow don’t have latent neural pathways, we activate them, which opens up the rest of our brain, and unlike the rest of the norms, we regenerate brain cells too, though at an extremely slow rate, which is why it takes till someone is sixteen or so to develop any strength in telekinesis or telepathy.” she said.
“Our bodies have more neural pathways and is constantly rebuilding them, so not many of us go senile, but also we need a higher intake of sugar to maintain telepathic and telekinetic energy. Don’t think we haven’t figured this out just now. We did something to see if we can increase telepathic energy. We injected some glucose into the brain stem, a harmless experiment, but the results were less than encouraging.” she grimaced at the thought.
“The sudden increase in glucose levels caused the brain to go into overdrive. The body went into automatic hypertension, but after a few minutes blew itself up from the strain. What happened was the back muscles tightened and froze around the spine, while sending violent convulsions to the body, which caused the subjects to first go insane, then break their own backs. The hypertension also caused higher acidity of blood, causing the veins, arteries, capillaries, and organs to deteriorate and melt. Because of our higher regeneration, it caused their deaths to be drawn out, their screams filled the halls for hours.” she shivered and hugged herself.
“Also, during the hypertension, their neural pathways regenerated to extensive points, increasing telepathic abilites a thousand fold, though having incredibly fast, telepathically godlike, and insane test subjects aren’t the best people to have around. But, after a few hours of the brain and body struggling to keep up with itself, the brain and brain cavity usually have too much strain. This causes the head to explode. Some of them died at several stages of this experiment, so that’s how we gathered the information without having to scrape it off the walls.” she said.
“Moving on to the less gruesome parts of telepathy, several talents manifest in people’s lives. The most common is healing, the ability to help Norms regenerate like us, some have better telekinetic control, and others have the ability to see the future. We haven’t had a strong seer(fortune teller) in millenia, and we are really needing one. The last was at the beginning of the clan and she foretold the prophecies, though in another language which has caused the misinterpretations. Some people have lesser talent of it, like telling a few seconds into the future, they’re some of our best fighters because they can tell your move before you make it.” she said, brightening.
“Usually the brain interprets these sights as hallucinations, but if the person is semi-bright they figure it out PDQ. So now that you know what the hell is about the psychic talent we have, I suppose you questions about it?” she asked. “No, that’s plenty of information for me,” he said, then a thought came to him,“well, I do have a question, want to have sex?”
“Sure” she said, leaning in clasping their lips together, their tongues feeling the inside of the other’s mouth. Matthew had to lean down because of her small, oriental frame, but soon they attacked each other’s clothing, unbuttoning buttons and zippers, and dropping to the closest mat on the floor. They were finally free of their cloth prison, and he gently lifted her legs up, and noticing no resistance, placed them behind her head. He was intrigued by this action, but he didn’t really care at the moment.
He slid into her easily, his hands dancing over her body. He had excellent leverage in this position, while she had extremely little. Matthew began pumping into her, his hands massaging and kneeding her breasts and pinching her nipples. He began grunting from his exertion of the day, and he felt her whole body shudder beneath him, her wet pussy clasping onto his member. He continued pumping, coming closer and closer to climax, and finally he broke through, at the same time as she came again. Not his personal best, but because he had a long day, and other people would be dead from exhaustion.
He pulled out of her, and undid her legs and left his teacher laying on the mats in the room, and he left to sleep in his own room. He walked down the halls, toward his room, letting his body do the work, though he was so drained with energy it was an effort of will not to fall down where he stood. He got to his room and a ghost of a smile appeared on his lips as he entered.