After events that change history many people will reminisce and ask, where were you when…? I personally would prefer not to. The reason? Simple, when the First Mana Wave hit me I was in the shower. Doesn't really sound like a bad thing does it? It could have been worse, I could have been sampling my collection of hidden videos on my computer with a box of tissues and a gallon of lotion. Actually I might have preferred that. It would get a chuckle out of people when I recounted it, and more importantly my little sister wouldn't bother me in my room.
Probably thousands of people in the world who were doing the same thing when the Mana Wave hit them. I doubt many passed out because they awakened. I bet even fewer had there seventeen year old step sister in the house scared and unsure what just happened then hear a thud from the bathroom upstairs. You can guess what happened next right?
I am not an very attractive man, at twenty years old I was five feet ten with attractive black hair and dark blue eyes, none of which could distract from my weight of a little over three hundred pounds. When my little sister unlocked the bathroom door and saw me lying down on the floor half in and half out of the shower she obviously screamed. Later she explained that she was terrified that she wouldn't be able to help the great white beached whale back to the ocean all on her own. Sadder part was I was paralyzed not unconscious. When she opened the door she did scream, followed quickly with a "Poor little whale!" So funny.
When I woke up I remembered what happened. I think it was the anger that knocked me out. I was also still in the bathroom, just now that water was off and I had a blanket thrown over me.
I looked around for a moment and was thankful the door was once again closed and Megan was nowhere in sight. I had no idea how long I was out but that didn't matter. Honestly besides being pissed that she had to joke even in that situation, I was worried about what caused me to be paralyzed. I moved to a slightly more comfortable position then closed my eyes to think about what happened to me.
I know I should have gotten dressed and went out to let Megan know I was alright, but I was afraid that my memory of what happened would fade. It happened all the time with the wonderful 'fluid' dreams I had of superstars and the hot chicks at school.
I was just about to rinse the shampoo from my hair when I felt a energy suddenly flow through me, it tingled like when you arm falls asleep, except all over my body. It was fucking horrible. Then the tingle turned into a burning in my chest making it hard to breath. The burning got stronger and hotter making it even harder to breath by the time my slow mind was able to start panicking I was already paralyzed and falling out of the shower. Another brief moment of panic as my head barely missed the edge of the toilet seat then I was on the floor. Moments later it was 'great white whale' then darkness.
I played it though my mind again and again without even realizing that I could see something with my eyes closed. I don't mean that my overactive imagination was acting up again and I was vividly recalling the situation, especially not the brief moment when Megan ran into the bathroom and I got a glimpse up her skirt to her black lacy panties. Or the fact that given the way I was laying Megan had a good long look at all I had to offer yet was able to crack a joke rather than being astonished. Hopefully paralysis makes the small parts shrink more than normal.
No, instead I mean I could see a bunch of shapes floating in a darkness glowing with their own light as they orbited around.
When I finally noticed it my eyes flew open and the image disappeared.
I closed my eyes again and the image reappeared. There were thirteen of them. In the center was a silver sphere with three glowing lights swirling around inside. Outward one layer were two shapes circling the center. One looked like a translucent golden clock while the other was a misty silver orb with one glowing point inside it. Another layer out were four objects circling the previous three. One was a translucent wolf snarling angrily, another was a translucent tree ripe with fruits, the third a translucent image of a body builder decked with muscles on his muscles, and the last was an orb with a man sitting in the lotus position a glowing dot on his forehead. Guy kinda looked like me. Just not so fat. Couldn't be me never mind.
The outermost ring had six objects circling all the others. These were much easier to guess what they represented. An orb with fire inside and a single brighter spot floating around, an orb with a wave constantly cresting and a single bright spot floating around, an orb with a tornado inside and a single bright spot swirling around, then a translucent rock, a translucent star, and a translucent black hole, honestly I have no idea if it was what a black hole actually looked like, but it was what I imagined a black hole looked like after the movies I saw during science class back in elementary school.
That triggered an idea and allowed me to name what each but the center most object was supposed to represent, at least if the image was what I would imagine it to represent. Outer ring; shadow, light, fire, water, earth, and air. Middle ring; beasts, plants, mind, and body. Inner ring was space and time. No idea what the center most silver orb was supposed to represent. However when I focused on it exclusively I 'felt' that it was my mana. Well that wasn't accurate, it felt more like energy, but with the subtext that it was energy used for supernatural purposes so magic or mana seemed more appropriate after playing who knows how many hours of video games.
More importantly it seemed to me a mixture of affinity, resistance, understanding, and so much more, rather than a pool of mana like what I would imagine. Oh and it seemed to be at the third level.
I concentrated on each of the other images, the translucent were the unawakened abilities, while the orbs were awakened abilities, each of which was at the first level. So the shiny dots represented the level of the ability? I will go with that for now.
Concentrating on the orbs gave me a download of information allowing me to sense the ability and a basic way of using it. More importantly I got a feeling for what I could do with it at later levels, it was a rough idea, just a glimpse of the possibility. All were awesome, though the space one set off my inner, well not so inner nerd.
The door to the bathroom opened to reveal Megan Meckner, my seventeen year old step sister in all her glory, tight blue tank top that barely contained her c cup tits, black skirt that barely covered her tight ass, and waves of long blonde hair. She was a natural beauty, to bad she had such a bad personality. Of course she was sweet angel around outsiders.
"Still naked?" Megan asked surprised. "Taking up naked meditation?"
I had covered myself with the blanket earlier so all that was visible was my upper body, given my weight I know it wasn't a pleasant sight, but it wasn't something she hadn't seen before.
"Yes." I replied simply. "As I have taken the first step to becoming superman, I felt it was appropriate." I replied.
"Should have started with the abs." Megan pointed out.
I glared at her which just elicited a smirk.
"Get dressed, things are getting weird." she told me.
I nodded then waited for her to leave, she didn't. Another glare didn't budge her.
I reached up over the sink and turned on the water. Megan looked at me amused, until the water followed my direction and flowed out of the sink like a snake to face her.
Megan's face paled as her eyes opened wide in shock.
"I would love to see you soaked but…" I told her calmly through my grin gave away how much I was enjoying this.
Megan disappeared in a flash.
I returned the water to the sink then turned off the facet before pushing the door closed and getting up.
Despite the changes that had occurred I didn't see anything different about me when I glanced into the mirror. Shaking my head at myself I grabbed the clean clothes I had set out earlier then got dressed. Shit was about to start, I should face it clothed, for everyone's sake.