Powers, activate!

The doorbell rang.

When Vladimir Severniy opened the door, he saw two panting teenagers. They were breathing so hard, he worried if they might black out from oxygen overdose.

"Hello, sir! We're here for Michael!" the taller one said. He had large facial features and protruding ears.

"Come on," the other one sneaked right past Vladimir without asking for permission.

The Russian man laughed.

"You must be Alex," he shook the black teenager's hand. "And that rude fella is Dimitri, huh? Misha's description was spot on!"

Alex nodded, entering the apartment with the owner's permission. He looked around for his frenemy's shoes when a yell sounded from somewhere inside.

"Asshole! Go take your shoes off! You're dragging mud all over my room!"

Further down the hall, Dimitri got thrown out from behind a door. With his back straight and a wronged expression, he strode to the entrance, slipped off his sneakers and told Alex, "They walk barefoot here."

"People usually do in their homes," the Belgian facepalmed.

Finally, they got to see their friend. Michael offered them the bed, and the three buddies settled down.

"Company meeting, boss?" Alex began. The politeness and self-discipline were so strong in him, he didn't mind postponing the Alter talk. Michael and him got close only a few days back, so he tried to maintain a professional image.

"To hell with that!" Dimitri shoved him aside, almost salivating with hunger. "Po-wers! Po-wers!"

Michael regarded Alex with appreciation. No wonder this guy was such a valuable advisor to the Belgian prime minister in his past life! To keep calm in this situation was an ability in itself. Compared to him, Dimitri was a terrible loudmouth.

"Yes, we'll start with powers. As an Alter with some experience, let me help you activate your abilities. Fine, Dim, you can go first," he chose the programmer who was making pouty eyes no worse than Puss in Boots from Shrek. "Give me your hand. Remember what I said in the video? Try to push out the energy."

Michael looked at the Qi inside Dimitri's body using his Mental Power. The thick grey strands of energy emitted a metallic sheen. There were fewer of them compared to Anna and Marie, but they were bigger in size.

Dimitri's face twitched as he concentrated. After a minute or so of exerting himself, he felt light-headed and had to stop.

Alex patted his shoulder, so obvious was the disappointment on the Greek's face.

"You don't have to worry. I've already made sure you're both Alters. Otherwise, doing this to you would've been pretty cruel."

Dimitri exhaled, at ease.

"If it doesn't work without props, there's a good chance your power affects certain objects. Rest a little, and we'll do Alex."

The linguist extended his hand readily.

Michael's inspection revealed long and thin strands of paper-white Qi. He remembered the bright flash that appeared at the time of Alex's incident. Light-based?

The reason Michael dared to help his friends activate their abilities was his huge reserve of glory points. As a 2-stage cultivator, he could use them a bit more efficiently. If someone's Qi went haywire, he could stop it with pure power. These youngling Alters' meager Qi wasn't enough to faze him.

As Michael prepared to construct a shield with pure energy around Alex's palm, a spark of light appeared there. Just above the palm, a tiny glowing ball illuminated the room.

"Woah!" all three sighed in unison. Even for Michael who was getting used to the supernatural, this light seemed mysterious.

"Unbelievable," whispered Alex. His eyes shone brighter than normal, too, as if Qi was leaking out.

Michael counted to thirty and asked Alex to cut off the energy supply. After a few seconds, the ball of light dimmed, shrunk and disappeared.

The trio sat in silence. Michael waited for the others to calm down. However free-thinking and open-minded they were, the world they knew changed in just one day.

"OK, Lamp, good job. My turn again!"

Except this guy, he sure was open-minded enough to accept anything.

Michael ignored him and asked Alex, "How much is left in your reserves?"

"About four times what I've used."

"Good. It's a very useful power, easy to train. Every morning and evening, I want you to expend up to 80% of your Qi."

Alex nodded, grateful.

"Now me! Me! I've rested!"

"Geez, keep it down," Michael rolled his eyes. He got off the bed and grabbed a few things off the table. A pen, some paper, a few small items from the drawers. He put his apartment key into the pile because the sheen of Dimitri's Qi reminded him of metal.

With the items scattered on the bed, Michael surrounded his friend's hand with a thin film of pure World Tree energy, same as before. In small amounts, it was invisible.

This time, Dimitri tried even harder. His face contorted, and his eyes goggled.

Shoo! The key flew up to his hand and stuck like glue.

"Ouch!"

Dimitri shook his hand, but the key didn't budge. He had to pry it away physically, which left a red print on his palm.

"Guys, I'm Magneto!" he announced. "I need a cool helmet and a cape."

"You can summon a key. That's useful in everyday life, but I doubt that's going to be enough to beat the X-men," said Alex.

"Put it inside a sock, and you will never lose the sock!" added Michael.

"Duct tape it to the TV remote!"

Dimitri jumped to his feet on the bed, pointing at them accusingly, "Shut up, guys! This is one of the best powers in the world, I guarantee you!"

His furious bickering triggered the other two, and they fell on their backs in laughter. Watching them, the helpless Dimitri couldn't hold back the giggles himself.

"If I really can't find the remote, Mr. flashlight here can help me look."

Another round of chuckles, followed by more bickering. Maybe that was how they dealt with shock? Those two frenemies knew each other like the back of their hand.

When they got tired, the trio quietened down. Michael called for silence and concluded, "Now that you are both officially initiated Alters, you must train every day. Your reserves will grow by themselves, but you should stimulate them to do so. Also, the both of you need to experiment with your powers. Alex, try to control the light from a lamp instead of summoning your own. Dimitri…"

"I know physics, thanks."

"Whatever, I won't bother with you. Our next topic for tonight is the company. With the explosion in popularity I'll get from the video, we need to move forward on a few projects. Alex, how are the websites we discussed?"

The linguist was also good at programming, and he strived to repay Michael's goodwill towards him, "All done. I've also crowdsourced the lessons as you instructed. Now we need an infusion of funds and the public's attention."

"Great," Michael commended Alex's work ethic. "Dim?"

"DestiniGo is in beta. I need a break from it, man. I wanna do something else now."

"What about project Striptease?"

"Oh," Dimitri sighed, "it's too hard. I can't do it."

Michael frowned. By his calculations, with the amount of time Dimitri had put into this project, there had to be some results. It was also crucial to their further success, increasing the revenue they got for every software product they put out!

"Are there no results at all?"

"Damn! I can't even approach this thing!"

"What are you talking about?" Alex asked.

After Michael explained the idea in detail, the Belgian's eyebrows shot up. His respect for Michael grew. Coming up with such ideas, worthy of being his boss!

If he learned that it wasn't Michael's idea at all but something from another world's future instead, who knows what he would think.

Alex considered the problem and asked Dimitri, "Did you try…" As he spoke, Dimitri frowned deeper and deeper.

"Mike," he said in a heavy voice, "we gotta get rid of this guy."

"Why, is he wrong?"

Dimitri shook his head, "I don't feel comfortable not being the smartest person in the room."

"What the heck, you ass!? Am I, your employer, not enough!? Rot in hell!"

Alex had a toothy grin, proud of one-upping the Greek.

"What are you smiling at?" Michael huffed. "I want it done in a month. Guess who has to work together now."

Their two groans were so loud, they scared the birds flying by.