Malfunctioning Machinery

Upon arriving in the locker room, Kyle noticed the benches looked like an awfully comfy place for him to sit with Logan. He moseyed over before plopping down on the nearest bench in the currently deserted room.

It was almost spooky.

Logan gave him a look before slowly sitting down, clearly confused. Kyle stared at him blankly, trying to imply that the reason for their presence there was obvious. After a second, a look of understanding formed on Logan's face.

~~~~

Kai was hovering between Kyle and Logan, tendrils spreading out from his core and reaching into their minds. Influencing Logan took more energy, as the veil surrounding his mind was thicker. Perhaps Kai would fix that in the future, but for now he had other plans.

He practiced walking them across the room. First one at a time, then together, and then in opposite directions. While guiding the boys away from each other, he noticed a problem.

As his mind stretched out over space, he could feel himself straining, losing energy. He could hardly maneuver them from 10 feet away. There was no way he'd be able to manipulate multiple humans for an extended period of time across any distance.

Kai was so incredibly focused on expanding his understanding of his abilities, and therefore his existence, that he didn't realize time was passing until Ashleighe sprinted into the locker room, frantically searching for her boyfriend.

Startled, Kai nearly lost control of Logan, losing his grip on the feelings he was sending him. After the slight turbulence, Kai realized he had no choice but to drop Kyle's mind from the link to dissuade Ashleighe from asking any questions.

He quickly, if sloppily invaded her mind, putting most of his focus into informing her that there was [NOTHING INTERESTING TO SEE HERE]

She slowed, eyes vacantly passing over Logan and Kyle, before she turned around and walked out.

Kai dropped the connection with her as soon as he could, nearly crumbling from the mental stress.

He didn't realize he'd dropped Logan's link as well until it was too late.

~~~~

Logan was walking in lines, zigzags, circles, and squared as the felt, as the winds seemed to take him. Kyle accompanied him in this wonderful dance of the universe. He heard the bells ring, but ignored them. His feet were not calling him to his next classes, after all.

The first time he began to doubt the call of the universe was when his girlfriend walked in and his feet desired to remain firmly planted. His doubts were quickly assuaged, however, when she failed to call out to him and instead walked away.

Wait-

No! Something was wrong here!

This wasn't normal!

His heart dropped. Something funny was going on. He took a deep breath, preparing to call out to Ashleighe, when everything went black.

~~~~

Kai lunged at Logan as he began to call out, barely beginning the feeding process in time to shut him up.

He inhaled Logan's fear, replenishing the energy he had spent throughout the morning and then some.

Despite his lack of a physical heart, Kai felt as if his heart were racing.

'That was close! Too close!!'

Even if the consequences wouldn't be as bad as he had once feared, he still didn't like possibly getting himself into a situation he couldn't smooth over, powers or no.

However, a full stomach is a remedy for any manner of affliction, and soon Kai felt well enough to attempt what he had assumed to be possible - a slight memory wipe.

He dove completely into Logan's mind, searching the sea for the right currents. After a few minutes, he found one that just… felt right, somehow. With a slight tweaking, a slight slowing of the current, he withdrew and returned to the world, ready to observe what would unfold.

Logan's reaction was actually quite calm. He just wandered out of the room, as if to go about his day.

With that disaster averted, Kai returned his attention to Kyle. Not that Kyle's current state seemed to need nor attract any. He was just staring vapidly at the wall, like a machine that was experiencing an input it was not coded to handle.

Ready to rest after such a long morning, Kai slowly settled back into Kyle's body, steering him towards his 5th hour class until the original owner of the body seemed to understand enough of what was going on to take the wheel.