A Bit More Clear

“Blink... Have you ever done this before?” Aaron asked.

“That’s not my name! And… I don’t know.” Blink shook his head. He opened one of his yes to take a peek at what was going on around them and notice each of the smirkers slowly moving toward them. He quickly shut it and the smirkers immediately froze.

“Let me guess, intense stress, you close your eyes, things get quiet, and when you open your eyes, thinking danger has passed, thus momentarily lowering your stress level, things are back to normal. I take it you also run away.” Aaron shrugged.

“Well, yeah. I don’t typically get in trouble, but that sounds about right. I don’t like to stick around in those situations, either.”

“Which is why you don’t really get to test your powers. Most interesting.” Aaron smiled. “I need to see if this is affecting anyone else. Keep your eyes closed.” He used his telepathy to probe the campus, ‘listening’ for any minds which might be active. He noticed the smirkers each becoming a bit more active, and voices slowly coming alive in his mind.

“You know those guys are moving again, right?” he asked Blink, eliciting a gasp.

“How is it you aren’t frozen?” Blink asked, anxiety in his voice.

“I guess the brief telepathic link I started with you. It makes me immune to your powers while we’re connected.” Aaron finished probing and came to a conclusion.

“Well, Miche said I should ask her for help. Problem is, I can’t do anything with you freezing the entire university. So, you’re just going to have to open your eyes and we will make a run for it.”

“No!” Blink yelled, jarring his eyes open. The smirkers instantly became active. All of the surrounding minds suddenly hit Aaron.

“A little warning next time?” He yelled, shaking his head. He had no time to plan; he increased his speed and used his telekinesis to propel Blink with him. He was still a bit disoriented from the psychic feedback of all of the minds starting at once, so he didn’t want to start searching for Miche yet. When he was a safe distance away from the smirkers, he threw them backwards with his telekinesis, giving him and Blink a little bit more time. He was still a bit scrambled, so his push was not enough to get them completely in the clear.

“Awesome!” Blink yelled, excited.

“That wasn’t my best, unfortunately. We aren’t safe yet. We need to knock him… Or them, I guess, out.” Aaron responded, running again to increase the distance between them and the smirkers. When he could pull his mind together, he began searching for Miche. He couldn’t exactly pinpoint her, but he found her building and broadcast the message, “Miche, I’m not exactly sure where you are and don’t have much time to explain so… Get somewhere you can help me!” and, as though he could read and actually did read her mind, “And insert a please in there somewhere.”

Miche, meanwhile, was in one of her classes. Each of the students and the professor, who had also received the message, turned to look to her.

“Uh, I have to go.” Miche quickly spoke to her professor and ran to the bathroom. Aaron was almost completely put together and began pinpointing Miche’s location. In the distance, he could hear her thoughts mention ‘Bathroom’.

“Miche, you got me?” he asked her telepathically.

“Yeah. What’s the deal?” she asked.

“Uh… Just check this out,” Aaron responded, hitting her with the most recent events.

“Ow… Never do that again,” she rubbed her head. “So the blue-flashy guy? You have him?”

“Yeah. He can time travel. I call him ‘Blink’”

“Apparently he’s connected to you and ‘Captain’. What’s your pla--. You don’t have a plan, do you.”

“No! That’s why I called you! Help, please! I can’t just keep running!”

“Okay. I need you to stop and hide somewhere, then start looking for the guy’s mind. What’s his name?”

“I’m not sure. He didn’t introduce himself like Rouge and Breaker.” Aaron grabbed Blink and ran behind a tree wide enough to conceal them. He looked for the smirker’s mind, but could only grab one of them. He peeked from around the tree and saw all three approaching.

“For some reason, I can only pick up one of them. They saw us though…”
“Good thing we’re already connected,” Miche said. She used their telepathic link to send three copies of herself to fight the smirkers.

“Oh? I’ve heard of you ma’am. I must be careful.” The smirker responded.

The copies put a hand to each of their respective smirkers. “You will not accomplish what you set out to do today.”

“Oh really?” each of the smirkers said before making a copy of themselves. “Never stopped us before.”

“Aaron, get Blink to safety while I take care of this.” Miche said before copying herself.

“Gotcha,” Aaron replied. He motioned to Blink to keep moving to another spot. As the copies of Miche and the smirkers began to fight, Miche’s copies began to flicker. The further away Aaron moved, the weaker their image.

“Oh no…” Miche gasped. “Aaron! Come back! I think our connection is weakening…”

“But I can broadcast to the entire campus,” Aaron replied.

“Broadcasting may not take the same energy that using our powers together does,” Miche suggested.

“Shit…” Aaron spoke to himself. “Blink keep run—“

“That’s not my name…” Blink looked down.

“Well, what is it?” Aaron put his hands on Blink’s shoulders.

“Aaron…” Miche was getting nervous.

“It’s okay. This is important.” Aaron reassured her, though realizing time was of the essence.

“My name is Harris,” Blink responded.

“Hey, cool name. Now, get to safety. I have to go help Miche.” Aaron smiled. Blink nodded and ran off.

“Now, back to business!” Aaron yelled while speeding back. Miche’s copies stopped flickering and each smiled at the smirkers. “Let’s do this Miche!” he said to her telepathically.

“Absolument!” she replied.

“French?” Aaron asked, tossing one of the smirkers away with his telekinesis.

“Yeah, that’s what class I was in.” Each of her copies were duking it out with the smirkers. The smirkers were proficient at offense, so her copies had to stay on the defensive. Aaron managed to stay long distance to fight the smirkers. He sent a psychic wave through each of the smirkers, but found that none of them were buckling.

“What is this…?” he wasn’t sure what to do. He couldn’t pick them up telepathically and couldn’t weaken them with a psychic wave. He was taken off guard long enough to find a new smirker attacking him. He had to brace himself and begin fighting.

“Miche, this isn’t working!”

“I know… Well, here’s my trump card!” She made one of her copies explode, expelling magnificent force using light energy. The smirker her copy was fighting simply faded.

Aaron had an epiphany. “Miche, make all the copies explode!”

“Got it!” Each of her copies exploded in a force of light, and each of the smirkers disappeared.

Aaron and Miche were only confused for a moment before they figured things out: The original was hiding out somewhere.

“Aaron, did you ever come into contact with the original?”

“Yeah. That’s how I knew to help Blink.”

“Can you find him now?”

“Possibly.” Aaron began looking for the original smirker. Soon, he zeroed in on a location. “Got him.”

“You may be getting to far away from me, can you handle this alone?” Miche asked.

“I think so.”

“What if he makes more copies?”

“I think I’ve found a way around that.” Aaron said before speeding off. He had to catch the smirker off guard and incapacitate him. As he headed to the smirker’s location, he sent wave after wave after wave, slowly crippling his mind. Eventually, he found a crumpled heap hidden in a small building.

“Enough. Why did you try to kill Blink?” Aaron found the body, raised it in the air, and used his powers to manipulate the weakened mind.

“Orders.” The smirker spoke.

“From whom?” Aaron was stern.

The smirker began to open his mouth, but quickly closed it. “I can’t say…” the smirker struggled under Aaron’s power.

“Actually you can,” Aaron increased his powers. “Now, who gave you the orders?” he asked again. He noticed a faint trace of purple energy coming from the smirker’s head.

Again, the smirker struggled. “I can’t…” was all that came out before his eyes rolled in the back of his head.

“Fuck… Miche, if you can hear this, I need you. Head to the chapel. It’s empty.”

“Class isn’t over, just talk to me from there.”

“Okay. Well, now there’s what I’m pretty sure is a dead body.”

“Did you check his pulse?” Miche asked.

“Uh…” Aaron leaned down and put his fingers to the smirker’s neck.

“Aaron, why wasn’t that the first thing you did?”

“I don’t know! And he’s not dead, but maybe catatonic.”

“So you won’t be accused of murder any time soon. Did you get anything out of him?”

“Just that he had orders, which tells us absolutely nothing.”

“Well, maybe this one won’t disappear…” Miche began.

“Too late,” Aaron said, watching the body fade away.

“Not a copy?” Miche asked.

“Nope.”

“Damn. Well, where do we go from here?”

“Blink.”

“What do you mean?”

“Maybe we can find a way to access his time travel powers, rather than just the freezing ones.”

“It’s a plan. Now we just have to find him.”

“Yup,” Aaron conceded. “By the way… Earlier, were you on the toilet, Miche? Were you pooping?” He laughed until he noticed a floating ball of light. “Uh, Miche? What is this?” He poked the ball and it exploded with enough force to send him into the wall.