Division, Pt 11

Frank, Nance, and their teams are utterly astounded at what has happened all around you. In one moment, everyone's guns had been pointed at everyone else. And in the next moment, half of the town had fallen to the ground unconscious, some groaning and grumbling in pain.

It takes a few good seconds for the two of them to recover, with Frank taking the most time to do so. Simply, the sight of his friends falling one after the other shocks him deeply.

"They… they ain't dead, are they?" his voice low and quiet and dry.

"Still breathing, don't worry," you tell him. "And they'll come out of it soon enough. Maybe a few minutes, maybe longer. No matter what, some'll get up faster than others, that's for sure."

"You best not be playin' mind games with me, Nomad," Frank tells you, his voice elevated a slight degree. You sense a hint of distrust in it. Perhaps understandably so.

"Nomad ain't doing that," Nance replies for you. "Trust me, I can tell."

"Could you tell Lisa was a psion? If you did, why didn't you tell me?"

Frank's question is met with Nance's silence. She gives him a long, hard look as she ponders what she needs to say.

"I didn't know," she eventually says. "I-I don't think no-one knew. Chris and I never talked about it, that's for sure. But I know for a fact that Nomad ain't doing any powers on you. Just trust me on that."

Frank sighs, then nods in agreement, though it takes a few seconds. You sense his doubt lift, although his mind still roils from the day's chaotic events. His heart, too.

"Sorry I accused you," Frank tells you.

"It's alright, I get why."

You turn your focus on the non psionics laid out around your feet, and do a wide Scan on all of them. Since they have no defense from your attack, you sense that they'll be out for a good long while. You guess it'll take them about half a day to get back up. Even then, they'll likely be mentally confused and physically weak.

Frank and Nance both turn their gaze towards Chris and Mayor Lisa at nearly the same time, as they ponder who to trust and who they can't. They immediately understand that the two psions will awaken first and fast. 

Of course, you want to make absolutely sure how long they might stay under, and so you perform deep, focused Scans at the two of them in particular.

Chris is out like a light - it seems he practically emptied himself of energy. After all, he had spent a great amount of it during the fight prior, and defending himself against your Interrupt practically wiped out whatever he had left. It's clear it's going to take hours before he recovers. Even then, he'll be drained of energy and won't be able to fight. Hell he'll hardly be able to stand.

Mayor Lisa on the other hand tanked a great deal of your attack, though her energy reserves seem relatively low. Seems she used up a bit to defend against you. Thankfully, she still succumbed to you. But that doesn't take away all your worries - it doesn't take much to activate a power she's experienced in using. She certainly has enough to perform a handful of lethal Interrupts of her own, at least if she also knows how to do it.

What you worry about most is that you still have no idea what powers she's capable of, or which Discipline she's attuned to the strongest. She could be a Telekinetic terror for all you know, or she might be able to see further with her Foresight, or who knows what else. 

Either way, having to fight someone like that would be tough for you.

Thankfully now that she's unconscious, all of her shrouds and caps have been lifted, allowing you to sense her full reservoir of energy. Activating your Third Eye and observing her glowing Thread more closely reveals that she's about equal to you in capacity and experience. 

Which means it'd be a toss-up in a fair fight, of course. But you've got Noir in your Network, so you're certain you two could overpower her if it comes to that.

You hope it doesn't.

"Look, it doesn't really matter how long it takes for them to get back up," you say. "What matters is that we all get the hell out of here as fast as we can, before they do get up."

"I ain't leaving here!" Frank says, his eyes wide with disbelief. "This is my home. These are my friends, my family. I'm supposed to be protecting this town. Protecting them! I can't just turn tail and run like some mutt!"

"Frank," Nance immediately interjects. "Half your 'family' just tried to kill you. Tried to kill all of us! They ain't your family any longer."

"That don't mean we gotta run."

"What do you want then? Want us to shoot 'em?"

"We… we can't just do that. We're civilized people here, alright! We tie 'em up. And we hold 'em up in the Lodge under my watch."

Frank's voice shakes to some degree, even as he puts his plan together. You can easily tell just how riled up by all of this he is deep down, and it's more than he can physically bear. It must have taken everything he had to keep it all together while all those guns were drawn on him.

He clenches his fist tightly to stop his fingers from shaking.

"After, we get the whole town together, tell them what happened from the whole fight onward, and we can all decide what to do," Frank concludes, though it takes him a few seconds to come to it.

You grimace at the suggestion - all you want to do is get as far away from Lisa as possible. Once she gets up, who knows what she'll do. Even Nance wants to protest it first, but you can see her thoughts rearrange themselves, as she processes Frank's words.

"You're the Chief," she eventually says. "You know better than us what to do."

Frank and Nance's team work quickly to secure Carl and his team, along with Chris and his. They search them thoroughly and empty them of all their weapons, from guns to ammunition to blades and clubs, everything. Then they bind them up with lengths of paracord and keep their ankles and wrists tied together.

Frank binds up Mayor Lisa himself, though he keeps you close by "just in case". Nance and her team take care of Chris and his team. You note that Nance has low levels of Telekinesis - just enough to levitate Chris and slide him across the ground. But it strains her to perform that feat, and you can sense her energies deplete quickly as a result.

They carry all of the prisoners to the Lodge where you're staying, and place them all into their own rooms, individually. Though they keep them tied up, they also make sure to make them comfortable and set them down on the beds or chairs.

While guards post up to keep watch in the individual rooms, you head back to your room and gear yourself back up. Although you truly would have wanted to clean yourself up a bit and maybe have a little breakfast, you'd rather just get away from here as fast as you can. 

It doesn't take you very long for you to don your kit. And for some reason, having it all on you relieves whatever stresses that are working their way through you. Your kit has become your "home", and simply having it all equipped shields you from the negative emotions wafting around you.

A sigh escapes your lips as you affix your conical hat on your head. The very act of doing so simply feels… right.

Before you can step out, Frank brings Mayor Lisa into the room and lays her down onto the bed. 

Though her wrists are bound up by a length of paracord behind her back, as are her ankles, you can sense Frank's doubt as to the bindings' effectiveness - it ebbs from his body in waves.

"I hate to ask you of this, seeing as you're getting ready to leave and all," he begins. "But can I get you to look out for Lisa here? For when she wakes up. I mean, none of us have a hope of handling her. At least you -"

You hold up a hand to stop him from speaking further. A shard of your Foresight reveals what he's about to tell you. Though you don't even need it to guess correctly.

"I get it," you reply. "And that's fine. I'll stick around, at least until you all figure out what to do with her. But you oughta know that the longer you take figuring it out, the stronger she'll get."

"And the harder to deal with, I get it," he says with a firm and solemn nod. "I'll take care of it. I'll post up a guard with you, just in case."

You nod in agreement, though you're not sure what good a non-psionic guard would do. You'd rather have Nance at your side - she'd be much more useful at suppressing Lisa. But she and her team have to deal with Chris and his team, and so already have their hands full.

"And also thanks again for everything you've done for me," Frank continues after a moment. "Not just me, but for the town. You didn't have to stick your neck out like that, but you did anyway. Means a lot. I'm sure plenty others feel the same."

All you can do is nod quietly, unsure of what to tell him.

"Far as I'm concerned, that book's yours now, you more than earned it," he says, pointing at the book in your hand. It's only now that you realize you've been gripping it all this time. It's all rolled up, a bit banged up, and its covers scratched up… but it's otherwise still readable.

You loosen your grip on it and allow it to unfurl a bit. Once it's relatively book-shaped once again, you stuff it into your messenger bag.

"Thanks Frank," you tell him. "It'll really help me last longer out there. I appreciate it."

"Also, when you leave, stop by my place," he says. "Pick up a couple bottles of water, or anything else you might need. Except my guns. Or my hats. Can't have those."

"There's time enough for proper goodbyes," you tell him. "Right now we still have some work to take care of."

You both shoot each other with grins, then he heads back out of the room and out the Lodge. No doubt to gather the rest of the town for that discussion. You're almost certain it's going to be a long one, and now you're starting to get a little tired. 

You sense Noir somewhere out in the town, perhaps scouting the perimeter, or at least something like that.

Hey, stay close if you can, you transmit to her. I need someone to watch my back a bit.

I'll come by, no worries, she replies with a thought. Lemme just finish my circuit first. Just seeing if any of those weirdo militants are still around.

You agree with her mentally, then drag one of the chairs over to the wall opposite the bed. Then you plant yourself down on it and keep watch over the unconscious psion Lisa.

It's only moments later that your eyes droop a little, and it occurs to you that keeping watch is boring. More than enough to start putting you to sleep, at least in your current state. Your body clearly needs some rest. Although you certainly got a little bit of sleep last night, your own circadian rhythm dictates that the daytime is when your body actually rests.

You sense your own body falling towards that state automatically, almost on schedule. Of course you can't sleep - doing so undermines the purpose of keeping watch in the first place. And if Lisa wakes while you're asleep… well, you'd rather not think about that.

Instead, you focus your energies into your Temperance. Not so much as to energize your body, but rather to put it in a sort of hibernation state. Something that uses low amounts of energy, enough to allow your body to rest and your energies to recharge.

At the same time, you channel some of your energies into the Discipline of Connection, and emit a constant low-level Scan in a small area around you. That allows you to get a sense of everyone and everything in and around the Lodge itself. Well, at least everyone and everything that has thoughts and feelings to read in the first place.

Finally, you close your eyes and pour in another small amount of energy into your Third Eye. As it opens up, you peer into the flowing streams around you and keep watch over the dozens of swaying Threads reaching up and out and around. 

The energies from the three Disciplines weave into each other, allowing your mind and body to come to rest while also maintaining a watchful vigil. You even out the energies until you can sustain them easily, allowing them to swirl into each other and bind together. From there, you form another Combination Power, and name it Chakra.

The name is fitting, considering you feel an abundant connection not just to yourself, but to everyone around you. It's almost as though you're walking amidst the ocean with sparse strands of kelp swaying to the beat of the waves.

Despite half the Threads here belonging to people who have violent thoughts about your existence, you still feel at one with them. It's here, where you're all merely shapes and silhouettes and Threads that you find that you're all the same in the end.