NewU Pt. 10a

The armies of Rhodri and Neil were closing the distance fast. They were already approaching the halfway point as I crossed the one-quarter mark. I straightened myself up, letting the full might of my power channel from the power plants in my city and into me. I could feel it. It started in my chest, like a tingle just below the surface of my skin, a sizzling warmth that grew exponentially with every step I took. It was a conscious effort to direct it all upwards to my shoulder and then down the length of my arm, but after a few more steps I could feel it gathering against my palm. It was like trying to force hydraulic fluid through a system. The energy didn't want to naturally flow there, but that was where it was going, whether it liked to or not.

I could feel my outstretched fingers vibrating, I could feel the skin on my palm heating up, I could feel the energy building there, trapped only by my will. I instinctively knew, without the slightest idea of how, that there was more power in the palm of my hand than my two opponents possessed combined... The screaming Mongol riders, the Valkyries from Flash Gordon, the Star Wars speeders, the charging war Rhinos, the Egyptian chariots, The Dr. Who Darlecks, the varying assortment of angry-looking Pokemon, and the German Panzers... the entire vanguard of the charging armies... were only a few yards away from me.

With a backward swing of my arm, something reminiscent of a softball pitch, I launched every shred of energy toward them.

Everything slowed down. It was like the frame rate of the mindscape dropped to compensate for the massive amount of energy it now had to account for. To everyone watching, be that the hundred or so people on the hill, the armies charging me, my two wide eyed opponents within their ranks, or even to myself, it took a few seconds for the supersonic-traveling blast to cross the hundred yards or so of the field.

It looked like a vaguely yellow glowing bubble with a comet-like corona tailing out from behind it, but it was the size of a house. The force of it ripped open the very air of the mindscape, tearing a deep gouge into the land below it and then letting the air slam closed again after it had passed.

Anything it hit was turned into little more than blood spray and flying body parts. That included the terrified looking Rhodri and Neil. Neither of them had a chance to even change direction before the blast of energy smashed into them, and then smashed through them. Faye had said that the length of time it took for a player to respawn was directly related to the amount of damage done to him, and judging by the slack-jawed look on her face, not to mention the wide-eyed Uri and the maniacally grinning Marco, nobody had ever been subjected to this level of damage in all the time that dueling had been a sport.

The thunder-like crack of the air slamming closed behind the bolt of energy was only drowned out by the deafening crash as it finally hit Rhodris walls. The masonry and stonework that had once been part of his fairly formidable defenses were treated no different than the body parts of the army he had created. The walls were completely obliterated. Chunks of stone the size of Buicks started raining down onto the field, even more peppered the buildings of his city. It was only a fluke of how the mindscape worked that stopped this apocalyptic barrage of falling debris from damaging the buildings that constituted his mind. Simply put, parts of his own mind could not be used to damage other parts without some serious thought being put into it. It was also biologically impossible for a person's sense of security to be used to destroy, say, his ability to breathe.

Either way, by the time the dust and the debris settled, there was nothing left of the entire front facing section of his city walls. Nor was there anything left of the armies that they had sent to attack me. The field was completely silent. Even the crowds on the hill to my right were muted.

A few minutes later, I crossed the threshold and stepped into the ruinous remains of Rhodri's city. It was a peculiar sensation, I was suddenly aware that I could access the very core of the man, everything that made him... him. I had been inside Charlotte's city, but she had invited me and, apparently, that distinction made a difference. I could rob this man of his memories or stop his heart in his chest with little more than a thought... It was a very sobering realization. He was a smug, vaguely-cheating douche, but I didn't want to actually harm him. I had been tempted to have a look around, but with this new realization in mind, I just took a few more steps deeper into his city and stopped to wait.

As if on cue, the man of the moment launched himself from the shadows between two buildings, wildly swinging his longsword. His eyes were wild with fury, his face a mask of desperation. I instinctively held up an arm to block a long, powerful swing and he connected. The blade shattered as soon as it touched my skin. Both of us just blinked at it a few times. His eyes flicked up to mine, a face filled with a mixture of confusion and awe, his jaw slack and his brow unable to decide if it wanted to raise, or furrow itself above his eyes. I shrugged, picked him up by the scruff of his neck, swung his seemingly weightless body around in a wide arc, and dashed his head against the wall of his hospital.

There has to be some irony in that.

Neil, looking significantly more exhausted than his friend, threw himself at me before Rhodri's lifeless body had reached the ground. Too drained to even conjure up a sword, he had picked up a chunk of rock and was making every attempt to introduce it to my skull. I spun around and drove my fist into his gut. It took me a few moments of staring at my arm, I had buried my forearm deep into the man's abdomen, to realize that I was still filtering every ounce of power from my powerplants, and had just used that force to impale a man on my clenched fist. Neil, for his part, looked just as surprised at the situation as I did.

"Well," I mumbled to myself. "That was unexpected."

I felt something hard brushing against the back of my knuckles, grabbed hold of it, and pulled hard. Neil's spine snapped under the force, and was yanked out of his stomach. With a lung crushing gasp, his whole body collapsed in on itself and crumpled to the floor. Once again, silence fell around me. A few seconds later, the city around me seemed to evaporate into thin air. The ear splitting squeal of joy from Faye, followed quickly by the resounding applause from the crowd on the hill, snapped me back to the moment as the meaning dawned on me.

I had won.

Rhodri and Neil both shimmered into existence next to me. Rhodri looking more than a little defeated, but Neil was smiling. He clapped me hard on the back with one hand and shook mine with the other. "Shit, man, that was intense!" He commented breathlessly. "I mean, Holy fuck! That energy ball thing... I've never seen anything like it!"

Rhodri finally turned and offered out his hand. I shook it, noting the complete absence of any smugness on his face as I did. "Good match, Pete," He said with something approaching a smile. "I'd be honored to duel against you anytime."

"Thanks, guys." I smiled back, rolling back the flow of energy still being pushed into my chest. "You were right, that was fun." My sentence was cut short by Faye almost barrelling me over. She had sprinted as fast as her legs could carry her from her place on the rise and had thrown herself at me in prideful joy. A fair-sized crowd, including Marco and Uri, was not too far behind her.

"OhmygodohmygodohmyFUCKING GOD!!!" she breathed excitedly into my ear as she hugged me tightly. "That was fucking INCREDIBLE!! Shit, I know I told you to kick his ass, but Jesus-fucking-fuckballs!..." She was interrupted by the rest of the crowd joining us, a few of them offered their commiserations to Rhodri on his loss, but significantly more of them eyed him suspiciously, wondering if Neil's assistance was the reason he had beaten them in the past.

All of them congratulated me, though, the vast majority making some sort of complimentary remark about the resounding, unequivocal style in which I had done it. There was a buzz of excitement in the air, as if everyone there realized that what they had just witnessed, if not something remarkable, was certainly something special. Marco finally pushed his way through the crowd and found his way next to me. "Nicely done, my apprentice." He beamed proudly.

"Umm. Thanks Obi Wan." I smiled back, Faye chuckled a little louder than she meant to at the look of confusion that momentarily washed over Marco's face.

"Jesus, it's a Star Wars joke." Uri said as he pushed past a few people to join us. "You need to get with the times. But, I agree, that was very impressive. Perhaps I judged you too soon, my friend. We will let you enjoy your victory, but once you are done, we should talk." With that, he held out his hand, and, after I had shaken it, he offered something of a respectful nod and then he and Marco faded out of the mindscape.

********

It had taken over an hour for things to settle down in the mindscape. There had originally been a few more duels scheduled after ours. Allowances had been made for the fact that Rhodri, in his haste to battle with me, had skipped the queue. One of those duels was supposed to have been between Jerry and Neil, but between the excitement of my victory, the exhaustion of Neil after his defeat and Jerry's discovery of Neil's tactics, they had both decided to postpone it for another time.

Gradually, however, the crowds began to thin. I wondered, briefly, what it must have looked like to the bar staff of the club, trying to serve a room full of people, all of whom were standing perfectly still and silent with their eyes closed. Whether in groups, or individually, the people in the mindscape started to leave, heading back to the bar to continue the party. Finally, only Jerry and Faye's blonde friend remained with Faye and I.

There was clearly more than a friendship between the two of them, maybe not something as typical as a full-blown, official relationship, but there was definitely something. The slight glancing touches, the teasing smiles, the lingering gazes, all of it added up to a familiarity that seemed to be burgeoning, if not quite fully developed. But as we stood there, the last of the gushing congratulations and amazed remarks being thrown my way, I couldn't help but notice that something similar was starting to happen between Fay and I as well.

That sense of comfort and compatibility that I had felt on the rise had been forgotten during my duel with Rhodri and Neil, but it had reannounced itself with a passion as soon as she had tackle-hugged me after my victory.

Just like the feeling of compatibility, it was a very hard thing to describe, even to myself, let alone explain. There was just something about her. I found myself inexplicably mesmerized by her fiery red hair, the way her cheek dimpled when she smiled, and the way that her eyes seemed to dance and sparkle magically when that smile reached them. There was something about the way it felt having her close to me, like she belonged there. What was more inexplicable was that I could tell that she felt the same way about me.

I should be clear here. Faye was not human, just like I wasn't. The gifts that I had given myself to make girls swoon at the mere sight of me, the ability to wet panties at 50 paces and have them drop almost on command, simply didn't affect her. Nor, for that matter, did it affect any of the other Evo women in the bar. I didn't know if it was because they also had power, or if it was a more complex matter of brain chemistry, but Faye was completely immune to the changes I had made in my internal editing station.

Yet she wanted me. She was as drawn to me as I was to her. She was gorgeous, she was beyond beautiful, there was absolutely no denying that, but it was more than looks and attraction. This was more like gravity. There was a force that I could neither see nor understand, pulling us together. It was more than that 'lightning in a bottle' effect I had felt with the other women in my life too. With them - possibly with the exception of Olivia - I had seen them, thought they were hot, and that was all it was, from that moment onward, they were throwing themselves at me, either figuratively or literally.

With Faye, it was slower, yet it seemed cumulative. Like each passing moment in proximity to her added something more to the whole. What was more confusing, at least to me, was that neither of us seemed to be doing it intentionally. With human women, I was influencing them to act out on the sudden, often overwhelming attraction they felt towards me. It was me affecting them. This wasn't that, this was different. But the lingering gazes and subtle touches coming from Faye told me that I was not the only one who was feeling it.

Jerry and his blonde companion were making small talk that I was in no way paying attention to. Faye was smiling politely and nodding along but she seemed to be just waiting until they left. Finally they did, saying something about getting us a drink to celebrate my victory and they both faded out of the mindscape. Faye and I just stood there for a moment in complete silence, her fingers brushing lightly against the back of my hand.

"Well, this is unexpected." she sighed softly.

I arched an eyebrow and looked at her, just in time for her eyes to turn to mine. "What is?" I feigned ignorance.

She smiled. That bright, almost luminous glow spread across her face. "Oh, that's right. You're still new. You feel it too, don't you? This... pull toward each other. This thing we've got going on." I nodded, swallowing with a gulp.

"I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that nobody has bothered explaining to you how our..." she blushed a little, her eyes faltering as they dropped to look at something on my chest. "Erm... how our... Mating practices go, have they?"

I shook my head. I would have gulped again but my mouth was suddenly very dry.

"It's complicated." she smiled, taking a deep breath and turning her body to face mine, one of her hands reached out to take mine and her eyes locked onto it as my fingers curled around hers. "The important part, though, is that we don't necessarily choose our partners. At least not in the manner that a human would recognize. With us, it's more like instinct. Animals have the instinct to migrate south for the winter, or the urge to to travel in herds, hunt in packs, or return home to give birth. It is not really a conscious thought, it is a product of aeons of evolution. It is similar with us. Our minds, for reasons we don't fully understand, seem to find us the perfect mate. Physical attraction, genetic compatibility, even geographical proximity, they are all factors, but don't really explain it..." Her eyes slowly rose to meet mine. "It is two souls finding their perfect counterpart in each other. It is almost spiritual."

"Is that why I feel so..."

She nodded. "Yes, I feel it too. It was small at first, I felt it when you arrived, it made me approach you at the bar. But bit by bit, it has been growing to the point where it can't be anything else. Normal relationships, ones based on personality or physical attraction, are perfectly normal between Evos. We seek companionship as much as any normal human does. Those are a dime a dozen. But this..." her fingers curled a little tiger around mine. "... this is pretty rare. Some Evos go their whole lives without experiencing it, some are drawn to someone but find that person isn't drawn to them. To find something so mutual and so... Strong... is fairly uncommon."

"What does it mean?" I asked after clearing my throat.

Faye licked her lips, her eyes holding mine with something that was approaching nervousness. "It means..." she swallowed hard, "That our bonding process is starting. It means that our lives will become linked... It means we will be... mated. I mean, if you want to, that is?"

I wanted to. The more I listened, the more sense it made, and the more Jeeves seemed to use his innate understanding of my mind to fill in the blanks. There was a connection of such a deep level that everything else, all the other women in my life, any other men in hers, would be inconsequential. They simply wouldn't matter. We could continue relationships with them or end them as we saw fit. But Faye and I would be together on a level that a human simply wouldn't be able to comprehend. We would become two halves of the same... one. We would be one. The simple insufficiency of words like 'love' when describing what would grow between us would be like describing World War II as a bit of a scuffle, or a thermonuclear bomb as a pretty big firework. A whole new vocabulary would need to be invented just to give any sort of meaningful description to what had started to blossom between us.

I must have been standing in awkward, stupid-looking silence for longer than I reaslized, because the nervousnes in Fayes eyes had exploded and was now approaching something close to embarrassment. She opened her lips to speak, to back away from the moment, to make a joke about it, to say it wasn't as big a deal as we both knew it to be.

I silenced her lips with my own.

There was a squeak of surprise, a moan of acceptance, and then she melted into me. Her arms wrapped around my shoulders, her mouth parted to allow my tongue entry, she purred happily into my lips as she started to kiss me back. This wasn't sexual, this wasn't even passion; this was a melding of two halves. This really was a bonding. I knew it would take weeks, perhaps even months for the bonding process to complete. But for the rest of our long lives together, we would always remember this as the day we found each other.

Time itself submitted to the power and the meaning of the moment, to the depth of the kiss. In the fields on either side of us, both our cities shimmered triumphantly into being. Once we were bonded, they would become permanently joined, intermixing, sharing the characteristics of the other's. We couldn't share power, we couldn't share bodies, our Palace, our marketplaces, our powerplants and Wells would always remain our own, they had to, we would always be two physically distinct and separate beings. But in every single other way, we would be more than joined. We would be merged.

Her city started to take on the characteristic blue glow of mine. A small lake grew in one of the massive parks within my city, a tribute to the water that played such an important part in the life of a woman who had grown up loving the sea. Every single part of me was open to her, in an even more profound way than Rhodri had been earlier, or Charlotte had been before that. Every single part of me opened to her in return. I could spend days pursuing the story of her life, getting to know her on a level that would make even Charlotte feel like a stranger. But there was no rush, we had all the time in the world to learn about each other. Right now, there was only the timeless, soul-merging kiss.

It would be an understatement of biblical proportions to say that, for the first time in my life, I understood what it felt like to start falling in love with someone.

I knew that for both of us, our old lives had ended. The old Pete had died in that car crash, the new Pete was being sacrificed on the altar of 'more' with this kiss. From tonight onwards, the world would have the better Pete. We would face the world together, we would love, laugh and live together. And all of hell would not be able to protect the man who ever hurt my Faye.