CHAPTER 11: "My Last Lesson For You"

A three-Black SUV convoy was crossing its way through Gotham at a quarter past 2 am. Their destination lay in the Narrows where they would meet up with the rest of Penguin's crew.

James stared at the passing streets from the car window, he could not help but feel a sense of great unease.

Taking a coin out of his pocket he began to focus. The coin hovered and began gliding through his fingers while avoiding it touching his skin. It was an old practice of his that worked to practice his telekinesis and distract him.

Penguin who was sitting on the other side had a stack of paperwork he was sorting through.

Without taking his eyes off his work he asked, "What is it like?"

James taking his gaze away from the streets looked at Penguin, "What is what like?"

"Your powers, when you were younger describing them, you lacked the knowledge and vocabulary. I hope now you can provide a decent description." Penguin said.

James' face took on a thoughtful expression, "When I first got my power, just moving a coin was like an arm curl of 80 pounds."

He raised the hand that had the coin floating in-between his fingers, it maintained a steady pace with it still following his control.

"At first it really did feel like clenching or stretching a muscle. I can just feel the object nearby, not its texture but its mass. From there it's just like lifting any object normally. My muscles tense and I lift, though I suppose in my case it is my brain that is moving it."

Cobblepot stopped working on his paperwork to look up at James, "If it is like a muscle then surely you can increase your range and strength in it no?"

"That is what I thought but it could be I also have a limit," James shrugged, "It took years for me to get past moving small utensils and such. And even longer to expand the range to something more than a few feet from me. The further something is, the more difficult it is to move. Same thing for the concussive blasts I do, which really are just concentrated forms of telekinesis that I blast at people."

"You shouldn't downplay how far you have come," Penguin admonished, "From pennies and pencils to tables and people, that is a pretty large jump in merely a few years."

James frowned, "People tend to be a little tricky, for whatever reason there is a slight resistance when I try to move them. I still can but it's harder, and some people seem more resilient... I can't really explain it."

Penguin responded with a "hmm" and refocused back on his paperwork.

"Perhaps a limitation of your power or a psychological reason, I have heard of such things being common amongst other metas," Penguin said.

James nodded, "Perhaps..."

The truth was James had some strong frustrations with the nuances of his power. He could with effort lift a car several feet off the ground, but when he tried to bind a person from moving it was incredibly difficult. He could finely manipulate a door lock to open it, yet trying to pinch a nerve in the brain of a person was impossible... well nearly.

He shivered at the memory.

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*2 Years Ago, Gotham City High.

It was not one of his proudest moments. When he still attended school before transitioning to online, he found himself in a situation that had become all too common. His biology class typically saw him doodling in his textbook or catching up on his sleep. One day, in one of the rare instances that saw him paying attention, the teacher began explaining some of the opening aspects of human anatomy.

Anatomy actually proved to be one of the few subjects that James found himself fascinated with.

The discussion led to the human brain, apparently, the slightest pressure in the right area could cause a person to go unconscious. The idea of waving his hand and causing his enemies to fall down was too enticing. So he may have accidentally or entirely purposely begun trying on his biology teacher.

It took an entire school year, but one day he felt a breakthrough. His teacher was sitting at his desk while a movie played explaining mitosis... or maybe it was about birds. James had been fiddling around reaching for the teacher's brain when it happened. It was the strangest feeling, like glass shattering and water rushing in. He could feel the teacher's brain and before he could pull back his telekinesis began applying pressure.

The teacher gave a bloodcurdling scream of agony and toppled out of their chair, spasming and screaming. The whole class erupted into chaos, some students sat in terror, and others ran out of the classroom in panic. One of his classmates, to their credit, a bespectacled redhead girl did run up to help the still-screaming teacher.

James meanwhile sat in his chair in shock and fear. After a year of sitting in the classroom trying to break the barrier that prevented him from affecting people, he thought it would never work.

But oh boy did it work.

He pulled back his telekinesis as quickly as possible, which did bring with it a cessation in the screaming. The teacher laid on his back, with his head resting on the red hair classmate's lap, with a wide-eyed look and a gaping mouth that kept opening and closing. A hiss of breath would occasionally escape from his throat giving him an almost alien quality.

James never took his eyes off the teacher as he lay there. Even when the paramedics arrived to load him onto the gurney, he never looked away.

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*Back to the present.

James shook his head from his memories. It was not wise to dwell on the past, though it had proved to be a poignant lesson for him.

His biology teacher eventually recovered but required 6 months' worth of rehabilitation to be able to speak again. He never did return to Gotham High.

The incident was chalked up to being an aggressive stroke that occurred in his pain receptors thus causing the agonizing effect witnessed by the class. Though for many doctors this was a poor theory based on the MRIs and other tests they ran on the man.

Since then he had tried a few more times to replicate what he had done, to reach out and be able to influence an actual brain. Of course, minus the stroke-like agonizing effect he had accidentally produced.

A voice from the front of the car broke him from his thoughts.

"Boss, we will be there in 5 minutes," the driver said.

Penguin nodded, "Hmmmm." His eyes never left his papers.

"I am worried about tonight," James said.

Penguin paused in his reading to glance up at the young man, "What concerns you?"

James' brows furrowed, "I don't know... We got the numbers, we got the weapons and the plan seems solid... but I can't help but feel like something is off."

"Maybe you are just feeling nervous?"

James grimaced and then nodded in agreement, "That is fair, but no..." he looked directly at Penguin.

"Something else feels off..."

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*Blackgate Penitentiary.

Standing in a darkened corridor of the prison a conversation was being held between a visitor and a prisoner with bars of a cell separating them.

"I still don't know why we are getting the cops involved?" The Visitor said in a disgusted tone.

A thick Brooklyn accent with a voice that sounded coarse like sandpaper responded, "The pigs have a use, they will be late and mop up whatever remains of the Penguin Mob, Black Mask, and the Blackwater gang. Hell a few of them might get killed in the leftover crossfire."

The Prisoner gave a barking laugh at that thought.

"What about Tony? He is still the Chief of Blackwater, we should probably pull him out..." the Visitor began before being interrupted.

"Tony! F&*k Tony, the guy could barely extort a circus without getting busted by the cops!" The Prisoner growled.

The Prisoner took a deep breath, "Plus it will help tie up loose ends, the last thing we need is any links back to us."

The Visitor nodded slowly, "Understood... what about the Hound?"

The Prisoner paused for a moment to reflect on that question.

"Mario my dear boy, it is best to pluck saplings lest they become trees. Once the Penguin is finished and if the Hound survives... hunt him down, put a bounty on his head, and spare none of his acquaintances." The Prisoner smiled at the thought of getting revenge on Penguin and murdering his best associates.

"Let that be my last lesson for you... soon our family will be back on top."