Fastest Hand in the West
Fate pressed the button to open the hangar door, touching down somewhat roughly and flicking the engine off while opening the door. He walked down the ramp, slammed into by Autumn as soon as he was on solid ground and constricted into a bear hug, his feet leaving the floor. He could've sworn he heard something snap.
He used his Manifest Power to slip out of her deadly embrace, falling through her to land behind her and patting her on the back as he stopped his power. He laughed as he walked away, finding her stutters of confusion hilarious. Upon opening the door leading into the house, he was caught in another hug, this one from Tom.
"Good to see you, man," Tom said after breaking the embrace.
"I heard you had good news. It must be pretty great if it has you smiling like a lovestruck fool."
Tom tried to hide his wide smile to no success, the grin growing wider as the tips of his ears turned red. Fate couldn't help but noticed he looked older, around twenty-nine years old. "I'll tell everyone when we're all in the living room. So come on." He shouted at Autumn to follow, then turned and dashed up the steps. Fate just shrugged, following at a normal pace.
The living room was exactly how he left it, couches and bean bag chairs gathered around tables or facing televisions and bookcases lining the walls. Most of these bookcases were empty, but a few were filled with video games, DVDs, game consoles, and books. A large section of the front wall was a glass window, the black curtains pulled back to let the light inside. Gathered around on the couches and, in Nikolas' case, a bean bag chair, was Fate's family. They greeted him with the same enthusiasm he showed them, all of them happy to be together once again.
"Any of you know what this 'big surprise' of Tom's is?" Fate asked. Tom was currently in the kitchen, making muffins.
"I do, but I'm afraid I can't spoil it. It's his news to give." Cait looked much less shy than the last time Fate saw her, confidence coloring her every action.
"Never mind that for now. You're only in the middle of the Avatar Level?" Nikolas asked, himself giving off the strength of a newly-Leveled Personification. A quick glance told Fate that everyone in the room had made it at least this far, Cait surprisingly somewhere around three-fifths through.
"Apparently, it's a drawback of my Negativity Manifestation," Fate said nonchalantly. "But it kept me alive against three separate Incarnations, so I'm not gonna complain about it."
"It did?" Autumn asked skeptically, having just entered the room. "I can't even hold my own against a Personification at the peak of the Level, and I'm at the same Level as them! How'd you survive three of them?"
"For starters, I can't do that little forget-about-me thing anymore. It just… stopped working."
"Really? How'd that happen?" Nikolas asked, leaning back in his bean bag chair.
"I don't know. But I can turn intangible now, and if anyone tries to zap me with lighting or a death beam or something and I just tear the Divine Energy apart and use it to heal myself."
"That sounds even more bullshit than your old power," Maya said, squinting at his face for signs of lying. She turned to Cait, asking "have you heard anything about that while you were with the PPK? I've never heard of a Manifest Power just changing like that."
Cait nodded. "It's something unique to Negativity and Positivity," she explained. "The Embodiment loses their first true ability about halfway through the Avatar Level, and doesn't get it back until they fully comprehend how their Manifestation is capable of producing such a power. I don't know much more than that, because the Positivity and Negativity Manifestations only showed up about once every hundred thousand years or so after the death of the previous holders, and the wielders rarely are willing to divulge information on the core of their power."
"You make it sound like only one person can hold these Manifestations at a time," Maya said.
"That's how it is," Cait shrugged, her brown hair bouncing on her shoulders. "Only one person can have Negativity at a time, and it's the same for Positivity. So, it's pretty hard to gather info on them."
"You are a lot more talkative now," Fate observed. "Finally get out of your own head?"
Cait nodded. "A few dozen life-or-death scenarios where you come out on top tends to do that."
"So, she learned the same way we did. She is family, isn't she?" Nikolas said absentmindedly, no one noticing the slight blush that surfaced on Cait's face.
"Hey," Cait caught Fate's attention, trying to change the subject. "Why do you look older?"
"Time Dilation. Used it for training."
"How long are those muffins going to take, anyway?" Autumn grumbled, evidently not caring about Fate's escapades.
"I don't know. I say we put something on the TV while we wait." Nikolas hopped up, moving to a bookcase filled with DVDs and scrutinizing the contents. He found one that sounded somewhat interesting and popped it in the DVD player, shutting the curtains to reduce glare.
Fate and Autumn took a seat, watching the movie Nikolas put in with everyone else. It had an interesting concept; a cowboy Embodiment of Lightning who used his Manifest power-granted reflexes to be the fastest at drawing his gun. He was trying to find who kidnapped his sister, and the guilty party was revealed to be a gang of Vice Embodiments, all with Manifest Powers that worked coincidentally well with firearms.
The Lighting Embodiment had just gotten to the third gang member, Slothful Steve, when Tom came into the room, a bright smile on his face and a tray of muffins in his oven-mitt-covered hands as he announced "muffins are ready!"
Behind him, a woman entered. At the sight of her Personification-strength aura, the other five went on high alert, jumping out of their seats and making distance between themselves for maximum maneuverability.