The world, now full of completely unnatural phenomena, has achieved a somewhat stable system of order. The existence of inter-spacial 'gates' and the beasts of the worlds on the other side has even created the greater fame within the dangerous occupation of 'heroism'. We globally recognised those who take this occupation as 'heroes'. It is through these 'heroes' that we can achieve the aforementioned stable system of order.
'Heroism' is a broad topic of discussion, but we are only concerned with a certain bit. The existence of the 'Heroics and Liabilities Act' enforced globally within every legal system of the nations that are part of the United Global States (UGS). It is an Act meant to manage the problem of legally certified heroes taking responsibility for damages caused in their actions. It is over 17 sections long containing detailed laws and actions to take in case of unusual circumstances when a hero is persecuted.
The First Section [Supremacy of the Global Heroes Agency and its positional functions]. This section covers over 230 parts, each with detailed information on the powers of the GHA. Powerful as it may be, the GHA has powerful limiters placed upon it. For one, it is subordinate to the sovereignty of the UGS. It can carry out no major operation, globally or otherwise, without the approval of a vote of at least two-thirds of the UGS council.
Any stray from this law and the GHA is to disband immediately and all its assets to be retrieved by the UGS.
For the sake of a better humanity.
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Oliver stood in his room in his comfortable home clothes. His computer was playing his favourite music playlist on loop and his room was perfectly warm. In one hand, he held a bright red apple and in the other; he held a bright red pencil.
{Ok... let's see...}
It was approaching 10 in the night and Oliver felt there could be time well spent before midnight struck.
A Personal Boundary Field. Oliver had gone over the idea through his head repeatedly. It wasn't the first they had introduced him to the term, if anything it was thrown around commonly at school. But what Jason Smith had taught his son was about the range limit.
We could learn a couple of things from the way Jason Smith had displayed his ability to his son. First, a Personal Boundary Field had a limit to the range depending on the person. Second, a Personal Boundary Field's effects depended on one's ability: this could be determined because all Jason Smith did was manipulate matter around him, just like telekinesis does. Third, and probably something Jason Smith hadn't meant to teach his son, was what Oliver wanted to do right now.
Jason Smith had caused Oliver's shirt to pull towards him with his finger. This didn't account for much until one remembered how Jason Smith caused the withered rose to uproot itself without looking at it. Just because it was within the range of his Personal Field Boundary. Oliver saw something.
You didn't need to look at an object to have it be moved. This may not have sounded like much, but it was a GameChanger for Oliver.
He placed the pencil on the bed and turned to face the wall. He felt the apple in his hand, its weight, its firmness and its curvature.
Oliver looked down at the apple and focused on having it moved. An image of a floating apple hovered at the back of the mind... yet the apple didn't so much as move. Now that confirmed yet another theory of his.
"Telekinesis isn't reality manipulation, huh?"
Perhaps it may not be clear what Oliver was trying to emulate here, but it's quite simple. Oliver has never used telekinesis as an ability before and although Jason Smith showed how it worked, he never showed how he 'did' it. Oliver noticed this and so now he was trying it for himself how telekinesis worked.
He stopped forming a picture of the apple moving in his head and tried to brute force it with invisible energy. 'Reality Manipulation', the ability to manipulate reality around you just by having a mental image of just exactly what you want reality to be. Telekinesis could be confused with this ability by those who may not understand the difference. To move an object required the prowess of one's mental capabilities, but if objects moved according to the images in your head, then it would fit better in the territory of 'Reality Manipulation'.
'Reality Manipulation' is an ability theorised to be possible, but the probabilities were too difficult to be calculated.
Oliver was wondering if telekinesis worked under reality manipulation in principles. But now he was sure they didn't.
So now it was through a vague sense of invisible energy surrounding his body.
And it worked.
The apple hovered off the palm of his hand slowly and without the slightest of sounds. Oliver stared at it in wonder. It rotated like a globe. But something caught Oliver off-guard.
He could still feel it, its weight, its firmness, its curvature. Almost like as if it had never left the palm of his hand. He willed it to move higher, and it did. It felt heavier though, as it rose to his eye level. Oliver's face broke into a wide grin.
He had done it!! He had control over his telekinesis!!
The apple dropped to the carpet as Oliver got distracted with victory. He looked down at it and willed it to rise once again. It did so and although shakily it rose to eye level with him once again. This was a major achievement for Oliver.
"I can practice control some other time... now for the second half of this educative test..."
Oliver continued to stare at the wall but imagined the pencil on top of his bed. Now that Oliver had confirmed 'Reality Manipulation' couldn't be used in telekinesis, it made things more difficult in this second half of his test.
He had a general idea of where the pencil was, but since he wasn't looking directly at it, he couldn't be exactly sure. If an item was in his PBF, then having it moved would feel the same as holding it in his grasp. Maybe the weight wouldn't matter much, but Oliver wanted to test it.
He closed his eyes and tried to picture his PBF; it grasping the pencil on the bed. The pencil being round and long, its weight being so minimal almost barely present.
He felt it. With a smile on his face but his eyes still closed, he imagined it floating over to his open right hand.
It landed on his palm, and Oliver clutched it, as if to confirm its existence. When he opened his eyes, there it was... the pencil held tightly in his clenched fist.
"Am I cool or what?"
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(From the backyard of a nearby house.)
Two people sat on white deck chairs in the center of the big empty backyard, bathing in the silver moonlight. One had a lit cigarette in between his lips and a deck of poker cards in his hands, unconsciously shuffling them repeatedly with a practiced hand. He looked like an average American immigrant with his bright blonde wispy hair and barely stocky build. His bright blue eyes traced the night sky with boredom.
"Don't you think he's advancing a bit... slow?"
He was addressing the other person sitting in a deck chair. They were a beautiful American woman looking to be in her early twenties. She had long brown hair braided into two long pigtails with red ribbons. Her coal-black eyes weren't tracing the night sky, but were looking through the curtained window of the neighbouring house on the second floor. The light was on but with the curtains drawn she shouldn't have been able to see through yet she had no trouble.
"Slow. Fast. What reason do we have to care?... everything's planned out to the point of even just how fast he'll die in the end. Just let him be."
She then pulled out her phone tucked in the pocket of her tight blue sweat pants and called someone. The phone ringed about four times before they finally picked it up and the voice on the other side spoke in a low tone, confident yet secretive. The captain.
"How are things there?"
"Karyu thinks the human is advancing slowly."
"HEY!"
Karyu bit on his cigarette and looked directly at his partner with an expression of disbelief. She ignored him.
"And what do you think, Rano?"
Rano returned her gaze to the curtained window and watched the human jump around in joy, as if he had achieved some sort of victory. She didn't know what to think of the boy, but her response to the question was automatic.
"Slow, yes, but he will be something great if this system thing works well."
"Good."
Rano then gave her report to the captain, orderly and clearly. Karyu lost his interest and turned his gaze towards the curtained window. His card shuffling stopped for a moment as he watched the silhouette disappear from the light in the room.
"Something great, huh?"