"I don't need to breathe?"
"That's what I said. Your body, it still has the survival instincts, it still thinks it needs to breathe; in order to trick it, I had to trick you as well."
Terri attempts to hold his breath, only for his face to turn red before he gasps for air.
"That's not gonna work. Again, both you and your body still think you need to breathe. Even if I could fully convince you that I'm right, your body will still fight for what it falsely believes it needs. It would take a long time to retrain yourself to not feel like your lungs are on fire. This only worked because the human body can't detect when something it's breathing doesn't have oxygen in it. But, the act that I passed out almost as soon as I walked in proves that I'm right. Thank God I left the door open though."
I open the windows in the room that are still able to move and to try to fan more fresh air in. I then walk over and untie Terri from the chair.
"I'm gonna go take a breather outside, okay?"
Outside, now fully back to normal, I'm able to focus and think about what just happened.
"I was right. His cells can't die."
"I still don't know about that, I mean isn't cell death and replication what allows someone to grow as they age?"
"He said he's had this all his life… maybe there's a difference between cell death that hurts him and cell death that helps him."
"Maybe it's a compromise. A power that allows you to be invulnerable to any damage, you said the universe is trying to flex enough to allow it without shattering; maybe this is one of those flexes. Cell death and regrowth won't hurt him, that means it won't violate the intent of the powers. But, the cell death from asphyxiation will definitely hurt him, so the power wouldn't allow it."
"And the universe flexed a little more. I think the starvation test is gonna be more than a flex. If the power decides it needs to violate the laws of thermodynamics to work, that's gonna put a nice dent into reality."
With that, I walk back inside, my mind trying to come up with some way to convince Terri to starve himself.
I find Terri suffocating himself without a plastic bag. It's clear that he is struggling against his brain's survival instincts telling him to breathe.
"I told you that isn't going to work."
"I'm forcing it. Even if I can't convince my brain, I can use this bag to give it no choice. I've lasted two minutes so far."
"Two minutes of torture. That's all you're doing is torturing yourself. I need you to save that energy for me."
Terri looks at me, sees that I am serious, and takes the bag off. He quickly takes deep breaths of air that he does not need.
"What kind of torture?"
"Starvation."
"But… Actually, if I don't need air…"
"Skip it; I already came to the same conclusion. You don't need to eat. Your power will break the laws of thermodynamics to continue working. The only factor of issue here is you."
"Let me guess; just like how I feel I need to breathe-"
"You'll also feel you need to eat. And it'll take alot longer to complete this than shoving a plastic bag over your head."
"You can't trick me this time; can you?"
"Nope. To truly confirm I'm right and to break our first foundation, you're gonna need to suffer. It'll be the worst pain you've ever felt; and you will have to power through it."
"I don't know if I'm gonna be able to make it all the way through, but seeing there's way more to what I can do, I'm interested in exploring further."
"Don't worry; I'll help you every step of the way."