61 Chapter 61

Amongst the new arrivals that I recognized were three were girls that Micheal had slept with more than once. There was also Kevin, his girlfriend Tonya, and the Jansol brothers, Brian and Brandon. The brothers weren't bad, but Kevin was a real asshole. I didn't get along with him and I would have preferred he not be here. Unfortunately he and Micheal had been friends since before I knew him.

All three men were tall, broad, and muscular just like Micheal. Kevin was the smallest of the three men with black hair that he kept really short while the brothers had slightly longer dirty blonde hair. While the brothers were easier to get along with than Kevin, they usually followed his lead like good little minions.

Tonya on the other hand was a cute blonde. She was a sweetheart that almost made tolerating Kevin worth it.

"How do we want to do this?" I asked curiously. Micheal knew full well I wasn't friendly with some of them, and I doubt he wanted me awakening girls that he had slept with.

Micheal seemed to think about that for a moment. "Can you handle the neighbors?" he asked me gesturing towards the living room where they were still talking amongst themselves. "Plus Jake and his fiancé Carol?"

I looked over at the woman with purple and pink hair. "Carol?" I asked.

She nodded, "I am already awakened." she told me almost coldly.

I looked at Micheal who seemed just as surprised as I was.

"That one is on me." John spoke up as he walked into the dining room with Tracy by his side. "It was so late last night that we didn't have a chance to tell you what happened to us or Carol's awakening." John explained.

"Yeah, my Carol is really amazing." Jake said with some pride as he wrapped his arm around her waist. Carol smirked as she leaned into Jake.

Huh? Well I could understand how that happened, I did have other things on my mind. Though I had to wonder, if she had been with them yesterday, why wasn't she with them last night? Then again I hadn't really given them a lot of time to get their friends when I pulled Jake through my portal.

I didn't understand her attitude though. Like she was expecting the other girls to fight with her for Jake. Well whatever, one woman's trash was another's treasure, or something like that.

"Can I have Carol awaken me?" Jake asked while eyeing me warily.

I nodded, "Sure." I replied. "As long as she can supply enough energy to get you going." I replied. "There is some risk involved, but we will keep an eye on everyone."

Jake nodded while visibly relaxing. "Let's do that then." he said.

With that decided I made my way into the living room with my girls following close behind me.

Samantha seemed to hesitate for a moment, looked over at the guy who had been speaking with her initially, then followed after me and my girls. He didn't follow her.

John, Tracy, Rosa, and Mike followed us as well. In the living room Samantha followed John and Tracy to a couch then sat down beside the older woman. Mike and Rosa took up some empty seats nearby then the five started to introduce themselves.

I could hear Micheal getting everyone else organized in the dining room while I looked at the four neighbors that needed to be awakened. "Alright, I am going to help each of you awaken." I told them then proceeded to tell them what I was going to do, and what they should do once they began to awaken. After a quick discussion Rebecca had Emily go sit with Tracy while she was awakened.

Once everyone was ready I walked around and pushed the energy into each of them then instructed Sil and Enya to keep an eye on all of them as they awakened. I asked Delilah to watch over Jake. While I didn't like the guy, that didn't mean he needed to have an accident.

Once they were all awakening I looked over at Mike and Rosa. Both looked a lot better than they had the last time I saw them. Mike was thinner, still big, but not as big. While Rosa looked more vibrant. She gave me a playful wink when she caught me looking her way, but with the way she was holding onto her husband's hand I was sure she was just teasing me. I wanted to ask them how things had gone since I last saw them. Last I remembered they had said they were going to check on their kid, so where was the kid?

"Daryl." Caly said grabbing my attention before I could question the couple.

"What's up?" I asked, giving her a smile.

"I think we should all put as many wisps into our mental ability as we can." she told me seriously.

I frowned then nodded. "The cat?" I asked.

Caly nodded. "If there is a cat like that, then there are likely other beasts who can gain a similar power. Worse, there will be plenty of people who could abuse that kind of power." she told me.

I nodded, she was right. If that cat had been aggressive that encounter could have gone very differently. Other animals were likely to be more aggressive, and I myself could think of several ways to abuse that kind of power. Given what I could come up with, I didn't want to know what the really sick and twisted could come up with.

"So powering up our mental ability will help us resist?" I asked.

Caly nodded. "Yes, though a mental defense ability would be better." she told me.

I nodded. "What about ability limits? I already have a lot of abilities." I told her.

Caly smirked then switched to telepathy as she continued. 'As a metal core, you can have as many stage one abilities as you can awaken, it is your stage two abilities that are limited. As a gold you can have eleven stage two abilities. Fourteen if you are able to successfully advance into platinum.' she told me.

I nodded, but I was still worried.

'Your abilities can't advance into the next stage unless you allow them too.' Caly added telepathically when she noticed my expression.

I sighed in relief. While I didn't have a lot more abilities than my stage two limit, I wanted to make the choice in which to advance, rather than leaving it to chance during the gate openings.

"Alright." I said, "What about you three, do you have enough wisps?" I asked Karen, Megan and Grace. They all nodded, giving me a smile.

"Great but before I use my wisps, can you tell me about the ability you want me to get?" I asked Caly.

Caly nodded then looked around to be sure no one was listening in, which didn't make any sense to me since she could just tell me telepathically.

'It's a variant of the spatial pocket ability.' Caly told me telepathically which made me wonder why she had been worried about anyone listening in. 'The first stage allows you to create a storage space that can hold people in it. I am not sure how big it gets, but I heard it wasn't very big even after you max it out. It's the second stage we want, but you can't advance it to the second stage until all of the elemental abilities have advanced.' she explained.

I nodded as I thought about that. 'What about the second stage? What changes?' I asked mentally.

"A lot." Caly said with a big smile.

Before I could ask her again I heard Marshal groan, a moment later the other three also started to wake up.

Caly gave me a kiss on my cheek. "Just wait and see." she whispered.

I rolled my eyes but left it alone. With the number of wisps I was likely to get from the next three gate openings, I should be able to gain the ability and advance all of them before the day is over. Or at least I hoped I would.

As everyone started to wake up Emily hopped out of Tracy's lap and ran over to her mother. She had been very quiet the whole time, but now it was obvious that she had been worried. While she wasn't crying she clung to her mother tightly.

It was then that I felt a very familiar wave of energy wash over me. It was the same tingle I felt from the second mana spirit. Everyone groaned as they felt the energy rushing into them. My girls quickly laid down on the floor and shifted their minds into their mana cores. Before I could tell the others I saw everyone closing their eyes then going limp as they shifted their attention inward. I gritted my teeth as I turned to look into the dining room. This time everyone, including the new people seemed to know what to do. Everyone sitting at the table was slumped over while the rest had sat on the floor and were leaning against the wall. Satisfied that everyone remembered what I told them I was about to shift into my own mana core.

"Mommy?" Emily called as she sat on her mother's lap poking her cheek.

A moment later Bryan started to cry from in the dining room.

Only then did I realize that we didn't have anyone to watch over the children during a gate opening.

My shadow expanded then Delilah crawled out, but instead of taking on the form of a wolf she took on the appearance of a human woman. A human woman who looked almost identical to her fairy form, just taller with wolf ears and a tail. "I will take care of them, master. Hurry you have to gather as much energy as you can." Delilah told me.

Her appearance completely surprised me, I wanted to ask questions, but the pain was getting worse so I just nodded.