Awakening Pt. 01

The girls who weren't doing anything sat either against the wall or in the bleachers, watching the others play football. Meera found her friends and sat beside them. They noticed something different about her, and gave her a teasing smirk. They immediately guessed what Meera had done.

"Arjun! Go long!" Raymond yelled, holding a football tightly in his hand.

Arjun ran fast across the gym, charging past other players. As he ran, he turned his head to catch the football.

Just then: BOOM!

"OH MY GOD!" the coach screamed, seeing Arjun smack his head against the wall. His glasses had crashed into his eyes, bending slightly.

"Arjun!"

"Arjun!"

"HEY!"

"ARJUN!"

"SOMEONE FIND THE NURSE!"

#

THE POWERS BEYOND

Arjun stood, frozen, with his eyes wide open and glazed over. They didn't appear to have any emotion, or light of any kind, in them. His body stood like a statue. The space around him appeared to be a black void. There was no colour, other than the colours on Arjun's skin, hair, and clothes. There didn't appear to be any light source either, yet somehow, Arjun looked just like he would have in broad daylight.

Suddenly, a figure appeared in front of him.

"Hey, buddy, can you hear me?" The feminine voice from earlier returned. In another moment, the figure gained detail, becoming distinctly female. Like him, it was clearly defined against the black void. The woman waved her hand in front of Arjun.

"Hello?" another voice said, this one deep and masculine. Once again, a body appeared in the void that seemed to match it. When the masculine voice spoke again, however, the new masculine form's mouth did not move.

"You there?" it asked. "Is he brain dead? OH MY GOD! NO!"

"We just got someone like us and he's already brain dead!" the feminine voice cried out. The feminine body's mouth did not move. "Por que, Dios?" In her panic and anguish, a different language and accent slipped out.

"Maybe you did it wrong?" the masculine voice suggested, appearing in front of Arjun's still body.

"How would using my powers wrong make him brain dead?!"

"Who's brain dead?"

"AHH!" The woman screamed, surprised to suddenly hear Arjun's voice. "¡Chingada madre!"

"Wait a minute, aren't you--"

"TALK IN YOUR HEAD!" both voices yelled.

"Why?" Arjun asked, eyeing both figures in front of him. He slowly noticed where he was, and wasn't even sure it counted as a "there." He was a bit too out of sorts to think about the implausible details. The black void itself was troubling enough. Even though the two bodies in front of him were strangers, he felt better that he wasn't alone.

"You're unconscious," the woman explained, "or would be, if you didn't have powers. You're basically inside your own head right now, and we're visiting. If you 'talk out loud' here, you'll be babbling out in the real world. Best not to risk it."

"Ahh! Am I dreaming?"

"No," the woman said flatly. She'd regained enough control to drop her accent and return completely to English. "This isn't a dream about you being unconscious, or dead. You're actually mostly-unconscious. As far as everyone out there in the real world is concerned, you're knocked out."

"You sure?" Arjun asked, with his eyes narrowed, unconvinced. "Because I have the hots for Cisco's mom, and from time to time she comes to me in my dreams... and you look exactly like her."

"Well, I'm flattered that you have the hots for me, Arju," the woman said, smiling widely.

Arjun's jaw dropped and his eyes widened again.

"MISSUS García?!" Arjun screamed, realising the woman standing in front of him is his friend's mother, Marianna García. There was no questioning it; it was her: the same busty, black-haired Latina mother he'd seen countless times, and who he'd fantasised about ever since he'd hit puberty.

"Si, baby. ¿Cómo estás tú? Bien?"

"Bien," Arjun said, slowly nodding. "Muy bien." He wasn't, but didn't know what else to say.

"You remember me, right?" the man asked, floating in front of Arjun. He looked to see the man's face clearly, and saw that it was Cisco's father, Francisco Senior, whom he usually called Paco.

"Yes, Mr. García!" Arjun nodded aggressively.

"Wait, what are you guys doing here?" Arjun asked. "And why is the inside of my head a black void? That seems bad. Is it bad? Am I dying?"

"You're probably not dying," Mr. Garcia said. "I doubt you'd have 'woken up' inside your own head like this if you were. The black void, well, yes... it's not ideal. You got knocked unconscious, and that will disrupt most people's inner mindscape. Yours got disrupted a lot. Once you consciously construct your own — which you'll be able to do thanks to your powers — it might withstand a few blows to the head better than the usual chaotic mess of dreams and emotions."

"Sorry," he said, finally noticing Arjun's discomfort. "That's a lot. You're not dying. You just got knocked out. You're probably going to be just fine. That's the most important part. Are you with me so far? Not dying."

Arjun slowly nodded. He didn't want to admit it, but he appreciated the repetition. It felt good to know that somebody else thought he wasn't dying.

With that, Paco turned to his wife. "Do you want to continue, or should I?" he asked her.

"You start."

Paco turned back to Arjun. He gave a sheepish smile. "History lesson incoming, Arjun," he said. "But hey, you're in school, right?"

Arjun nodded again. The fact that all of this was about his new powers was starting to sink in. He was even feeling eager to hear what Mr. and Mrs. Garcia had to say.

"We — me, you, and Marianna — are gifted with amazing powers," Paco began, "powers which are older than most ancient civilizations — well, the ones they teach you about in schools around here, anyway. As far as we know, they originated in ancient India, and have been passed down through the bloodlines for thousands of years.

"As you might imagine," he continued, "people did what people do. They made up fancy names and tried to figure out all the rules and relationships. For my part, I'm not entirely convinced they got it all right."

"He needs to know it anyway," Marianna chimed in. "Common vocabulary."

The masculine figure nodded. "You're right, of course," Paco said. "The Path of Blood and the Path of Maya; that's the fundamental division. All three of us are on the Path of Blood. You and I have the power of sight-swapping; Marianna possesses telepathy. The name of ours is very convenient for beginners, but there is a bit more to it. With enough practice, for example, it can be used to take over the bodies of animals."

"Wait, my powers can allow me to take over people's bodies?" Arjun asked. He couldn't hide the excited glee from his voice.

"No," Paco answered. "Only animals. Humans... are too complex."

"Oh..."

"Yes," Paco said, nodding. "It's a little hard to understand just how difficult the road ahead will be, at first. And since I'm pretty sure you're going to attempt to try and control an animal on your own, I'll offer you a warning instead of just telling you not to do it: the bigger the animal, the bigger the consequence — at least the first few times you do it. Start with ants if you can, and make sure you have some pain relievers handy."

"Wait, seriously?!"

Paco nodded his head. "It gets easier, but it's never completely painless. Your own body doesn't want so much of your consciousness leaving it, and the animal's body certainly isn't meant to house such a complex will."

Arjun nodded, thinking to himself in his head. "I guess I'll have to make do with sight swapping for a while." He didn't realise that Paco and Marianna could hear that thought just as clearly as all of his others.

"If it makes you feel any better," Paco said, "I couldn't even manage it until years and years after my powers first awakened. When I did it, I couldn't move my body for weeks. My cousin, on the other hand, was able to do it from a very young age, and the pain didn't seem to be so bad for him. So, who knows? Maybe you'll get lucky."

"Or maybe I'll die." Arjun said to himself — or, again, so he thought.

"Don't worry," Marianna replied. Her avatar smiled. "You won't die."

"Wait, how did you hear—oh..." Arjun said. "I guess all thoughts are the same."

"For you, for now," Marianna said. "Sight-swappers have to struggle to learn how to erect new mental walls. Telepaths have it easier."

Arjun nodded slowly. "And what about the Path of Maya? What does that do?"

"Well, the Path of Maya doesn't really involve us, right now," Marianna said, pausing for a moment. "But since you're interested, the Path of Maya is said to have come from the same source as the Path of Blood, although its powers are more, how shall we say, fanciful than ours."

Arjun stared dumbly.

"She means they're much more what people think of when they think of 'magic,'" Paco explained.

"Oh!" Arjun exclaimed. "Does that mean I also have magic powers?"

"No," Marianna said flatly. "We don't even know how you have powers from the Path of Blood, but we can be sure that you don't have any from the Path of Maya. It's one or the other — in most cases at least. Moreover, we haven't found any ancestral link from your family back to Maya Lokam."

"Damn, that sucks," Arjun said with a heavy sigh, before perking up. "Wait, does Maya Lokam mean 'World of Magic?'"

Paco nodded his head, asking, "How'd you know?"

"I still remember a little bit of Malayalam, and in Malayalam that's what it means."

"Ohh, that's right," Paco said, remembering Arjun's ethnic background.

"So, is Maya Lokam a real world or is it just a name of a place?"

"It's a real world," Marianna said. "It was created about four hundred years ago by a powerful magic user from the Path of Maya."

"Wait, so there's another planet, out in space, right now, that people can go visit?"

"Not out in space," Paco corrected. "Maya Lokam was created as a parallel world. No rocketship will get you there. You have to use magic to... step to the side."

"How?"

"To be honest, I have been asking that question since I was a child," Paco replied.

"Ahh," Arjun said. "Then, does anyone know how that power came to be?"

"Unfortunately, we don't know where or how any of these powers came to be. The elders have theorised that they might have naturally evolved during the time of hunters and gatherers. But that seems too far-fetched to be true. That's one of the reasons Marianna and I don't really believe in it." Paco sighed. "The last elder who might have known for sure died three hundred years ago, during the early European rule of India."

"Wait," Arjun said, stopping Paco's story. "How would we be hunters? That doesn't make any sense. Also, what elders?"

Marianna eyed the boy. "That's why we said we didn't really subscribe to it, and that it was just a theory."

Arjun's head was still swimming — as was the black void — taking in all the information given to him. He gave a quick nod, but then pressed forward.

"Okay, but what's this about elders?" Arjun asked again. "Is there a hierarchy in Maya Lokam or something?"

"Something like that," Paco said, moving his head side to side. "Like I said, we have powers older than most civilizations. On top of that, they're powers that are uniquely suited to finding others with the same powers. It would be more surprising if our ancestors hadn't gotten together and started planning, plotting, and forming a hierarchy. Powers or not, that's what humans do.

"The elders, in this case, are the highest-ranking members within our society, and also the oldest. The oldest of them is, de facto, a grand patriarch of sorts."

"Two hundred years?" Arjun asked, his face contorting in disbelief. "How?!"

"Like we told you, Arjun," Marianna said, "the Path of Maya is a lot more like 'magic.' It can accomplish some pretty wild feats. Nobody in the society has to undergo the ritual, but if you want to move up the ladder, it is expected that you'll partake."

"So, are you two super old, too?" Arjun asked, warily, pulling his head back.

"No," The couple answered together, giggling at his question.

Arjun lifted up his finger. "Question: I should have asked this earlier, but how are you guys able to do this?" he asked, pointing generally at their forms.

"Oh, we combined our powers." Paco said, floating around. "It's a technique we developed. It basically involves Marianna using my eyes, and combining that with her powers, to travel to others' minds. We don't like to brag, but we're quite proud of it. It's nice to be able to visit another person's mindscape."

"It can be very nice when that person has constructed a mindscape and invited us to come play," Marianna chimed in. "Perdon, hijo, but we thought this was an emergency. We were worried, and we needed to make contact somehow anyway."

"Ahh." Arjun nodded his head, understanding well enough for the moment. "A few things: how are you floating? And if I have powers, does that mean my parents have powers too? And what about Cisco?"

"You can float too," Paco replied. "You're inside your head. Just imagine you're flying and you'll be able to do it."

"And as for your parents and our son," Marianna said, "The truth is that we don't know. If anything, Cisco should have powers by now, and you shouldn't at all." Her usually-smooth voice gained a harsh edge at the mention of her son.

"Oh. But how do you know that my parents don't have powers?"

"The same way we know you have powers," Marianna answered. "I can use my powers to sense it."

"Then why do I have powers? And not Cisco?"

"I said we don't know," Marianna snapped.

"Mi amor," Paco said again, urging calm. He turned his attention back to Arjun. "It's a sore subject, Arjun. We're torn. We don't really want to think about it. We hope he'll just suddenly get them. Sometimes, though, we think that maybe we should be investigating it some more."

Arjun didn't press for more answers on that topic.

"Arjun, please don't tell Cisco about us, or you, having powers," Paco requested. "He doesn't know anything about this, and if he never gets powers, we're not sure we ever want him to."

Arjun nodded his head. He remembered the feeling of knowing that powers existed, and that he had one, but that he couldn't control it. That had been bad enough. He immediately knew how terrible it would be to learn that superpowers were real, and that one was your birthright by blood, but that you didn't receive it.

It wasn't difficult to redirect the conversation. Arjun felt as though he could ask a million questions and still not be satisfied.

"How long would it take for me to take over an animal's bodies?"

"It varies," Paco replied. "It honestly, depends on the person. Since you're an odd case, I'm not sure. Maybe a few weeks, months, years, or never. Who knows? But let's not rush that."

Disappointment mixed with excitement. Arjun imagined being able to surprise Meera with one of her favourite birds, directing it to fly towards her and land upon her shoulder or finger as though she were a Disney princess. He also imagined straining to master a new facet of his power for weeks or months. He shuddered to think that it might even take years.

"Oh my god, is he okay?" Meera's voice flooded into Arjun's consciousness, cutting off his conversation with the couple.

"Hmmm, time passed more quickly than I would've thought," Paco said. He'd heard Meera's voice as well.

"I think it's because he was knocked unconscious," Marianna suggested. "His body might be trying to wake itself up, rather than letting his mind enjoy the usual time dilation." She turned to regard Arjun. "I guess we'll have to talk another time — when you get home, maybe."

"If you're feeling up to it," Paco added. "Your mind seems fine, but you may want to take some time to let your body heal."

"Okay," Arjun replied. "Also, uh... is that a bad sign?" He pointed towards bright red water that was suddenly bleeding into the black void.

"Maria, could you take a look at that?" Paco calmly asked his wife. Arjun thought he might have sounded unusually calm.

"Yeah," Marianna answered, before turning her attention to Arjun. She, too, sounded unusually calm. "You'll be fine. When you wake up, they'll probably tell you to stay home as a precaution."

"Bye," Paco said. It was friendly, but abrupt.

Marianna waved goodbye. Paco did the same.

"WAIT!"

******

Before Arjun could ask how she was going to fix his bleeding head, his eyes involuntarily opened. A throng of muffled voices washed into his ears.. It was as if he were underwater, hearing people above it speaking. His vision was blurry — even worse than it should have been when he wasn't wearing his glasses. It was mist-like. He didn't know what was happening to him, but it didn't seem good.

Just then, he heard Marianna's voice in his head.

"Arjun, blink."

He did as he was told. His regularly-bad vision returned, and the muted voices around him became louder and clearer.

"Arjun, sweetie, are you there? Hello?" The school nurse called out to Arjun, flicking cold water onto his face and lightly patting it, trying to rouse him.

"Huh?"

"Okay, are you okay?"

Arjun nodded his head. "Y-ye-yeah."

"Okay, good." The school nurse smiled. "Listen, I'm gonna need you to stay awake, okay?"

Arjun nodded again. For no reason at all, he thought to himself that the nurse was very pretty.

"Okay, we called your parents, and they should be here in a few minutes. They'll take you to a hospital and get you checked up by a doctor, okay?"

Arjun nodded his head again, this time looking around, seeing all the faces looking at him.

"How long was I out for?" Arjun asked groggily.

"Not long, but we should still have you checked out, okay?"

"Okay."

"Are you able to stand?" the nurse asked, sitting Arjun up.

"I think so, yeah."

"Okay, let's try and stand up now." The nurse held Arjun, and he couldn't help but notice her sizable breasts pressing against his arm. Ray and Cisco helped hold Arjun as well as he struggled to his feet.

Arjun sat in the bleachers. Meera was at his side, clutching his arm. Ray stayed with him, too, in case he needed help. Cisco handed Arjun his glasses before leaving for class; he apologised, but explained that he had a test he just couldn't miss or be late for.

Meera attempted to talk to Arjun, but he only moaned at the words she spoke.

"Sorry to scare you like that Arjun," Marianna's voice intruded again. "I thought you had an actual brain bleed; that's why you felt like you were underwater. So sorry. But fortunately it's nothing like that."

"H--how did you do that?"

"I'll explain later. But right now, talk to Meera before she thinks you're brain dead."