Hungry

He kept moving around and gradually entered the inner portion of the kitchen so that no one could spy on him, for safety he also moved out of sight of the door. Taking a deep breath, he focused on the feeling of that particular unique sensation appearing in his mind.

It was approximately a minute later, quicker than last time, that the feeling reappeared. Along with it, a set of similar lines of information began manifesting in his mind.

/Ability - manifest a weapon using idle mental capacity of beings around you./

Conditions to use - No conditions

Side effect - Intense Headache.

Aiden continued focusing on the unique sensation with the intent of knowing the ability, but when it became clear that no more information was appearing, he was baffled.

That's all? No conditions?

He realized that his circumstances were truly strange. Hellen always talked about there being a condition to use the ability, but if his ability had no condition, wouldn't it be overpowered? 

No. That headache is nasty.

He slightly shook his head. He knew now for sure that the headache he experienced when he manifested the baseball bat was the side effect of using his ability. And it was absolutely horrifying. He couldn't think straight, his vision became blurry and god knew what else happened.

One thing was for sure, he couldn't revel in the joy of no conditions if the side effect was so dreadful.

Looking around one last time, he went to meet up with Lucas to see if he had gotten any clues.

He was in a bedroom where no corpse was found, looking through to drawers. When Aiden found him, he had just taken out a chocolate bar from the drawer and helped himself to it.

"The fuck are you up to?"

Aiden's expression was a mix between helplessness, laughter and anger. 

With a mouthful of chocolate, Lucas replied as it is.

"Fhis spuff is nos mafe for me. I canf fo ith."

"Talk after you're done eating."

Aiden shook his head with a slight smile, not even attempting to figure what he meant. He took a seat on the edge of bed and let his upper body fall back onto the fluffy bed.

…

"Bozo, you could've asked for something to eat if you were that hungry."

Aiden had woken up from a short 15 minute nap to find Lucas was still stuffing himself full of food. There were empty packets of food laying around messily in the room. Aiden gave a quick smack to the back of his head to establish his point.

It didn't look like it did much though. Lucas continued eating after giving a nod to Aiden to show that he understood and pointed at his current and made a couple of gestures.

"You'll stop after the current packet?"

Lucas nodded. Aiden looked at the box next to his friend and noticed it was empty.

You are already done with all packets. What do you mean you'll stop of your own will? You'll have to.

Aiden inspected the room in the meantime, but found nothing. Finally, he heard Lucas speak as he began cleaning up the trash.

"I was saying, this stuff is not made for me. I can't do it. You are saying I need to examine all the crime sites and think of patterns and similarity in the traces left behind? I really can't. I simply don't think I am smart enough for that. Just tell me if you need my powers, I'll do the best I can to help you in that situation."

After heaving a sigh as he finished collecting all the trash, he continued. "I can't believe the ones in the Specter department need to deal with all of this."

Aiden said nothing as he watched Lucas put all the trash into the box and close it. When he was done, he asked, curious to verify his theory.

"Can you show me your ability if it's not very problematic to you? It doesn't need to be much. I just want to see how it works."

Lucas' expression shifted, a smile forming upon his face as Aiden finally asked him for something. 

Yes. I am not useless. 

He opened a zip to one of the pockets on his pants and took out a small crystal. Aiden soon saw a small screen of white light in front of Lucas' hands. 

"I am limiting its brightness, colors and size since you said it doesn't need to be much. How is it?"

Aiden could definitely see it, and he could feel it too.

It's the same feeling I got from that lady named Marsha, so it is indeed true that only supers can feel it seeing how no other worker or even Valeria came running.

"It's amazing, you can stop. I got an idea of your ability."

Lucas stopped his ability, immediately squinting his eyes as he pocketed the crystal, which was a bit smaller than before. Aiden inquired upon seeing his condition,

"The side effect shouldn't be so serious considering you didn't use much of the ability. Right?"

Nodding slightly, Lucas answered. "Yep, it was just because of sudden brightness caused by a bit of increase in sensitivity to light which caused me to squint my eyes. It's not much trouble at this intensity."

"Great. Let's go. You can rest anywhere you want if you feel this is not for you. I'll handle the rest."

Both of them headed in different directions with different thoughts in their mind. 

For the next hour, Aiden analyzed the entire house, but couldn't find anything else noteworthy. 

Taking out a bar of chocolate, he settled himself on the sofa of the living room and munched on it while he began putting his brain to use. He continuously tried to piece together clues, only to find an inconsistency and break off the clue.

For the few minutes he took to finish the chocolate, he witnessed many people going around with all kinds of different items. From the window of the bungalow, he also happened to be able to see Lucas sleeping in his car. 

His line of thoughts once derailed as he pondered upon earlier actions of Lucas.

Taking food from even a stranger's house to eat, one from that of a crime scene nonetheless. What happened to you while we lost contact? What kind of life did you live?

Realizing that the dustbin was nearby, he bundled up the empty wrapper and tossed it into it without getting up from the sofa.

Just as he was about to lean back to take a short rest from all the thinking, he caught sight of Hellen leaving a nearby room and Valeria entering the house.

Aunt Hellen came back already? Nice 

"You called?" Hellen asked Valeria after nodding to Aiden.

Realizing Aiden was here too, she too, gave him a nod and said, "Good to know you're here too." Turning to Hellen, she continued in a heavy tone. "Another murder has been discovered."

Hellen clenched her fists tightly by her side. "Where?"

"It's the Smiths. I'll take you there later." She glanced at both of them, letting the silence sit in.

Hellen asked after a bit of thought. "When did it take place? Did your team find it yet? You probably should be able to find the time period of murders with high accuracy after all these samples, no?"

Valeria nodded, glancing at her notes to make sure before answering. "It's between 11 and 12 at night."

As soon as they heard the timing, Aiden's and Hellen's pupils widened as they turned their heads to glance at each other.

It was the time period when they were hunting the Helping ghost! The only time period where it couldn't use phaseless ability!