Deathly

Death is a scary thing to have an encounter with...

So we were in Miami, and I was explaining Trigonometry to Cleo. She had no idea how it worked, and I was contemplating finding someone with Intuitive Aptitude for her to take the ability of, but then Tempest rushed out of nowhere, panting and blabbering about... Something. I didn't really pay attantion, because a strange force caught my attention.
See, whenever a teleportation is set up around me, I can feel the energy pulling on me, and I know the coordinates from where the teleportation came from, but this was an odd feeling. It was more like a portal, tugging inward instead of pushing outward. Cleo, Tempest and I soon found ourselves fighting against Death, a guy who reminded me of the cult members from an old episode of Jackie Chan Adventures, mixed with a vampire, and not the nice Twilight variety, the cool, Transylvanian type. But this was anything but cool.
Tempest was shooting lightning bubbles, Cleo was unleashing an entire arsenal of powers, and I tried everything, lowering the temperature around him to freezing point, burning him, telekinesising his skull open, I mean EVERYTHING! The guy's rebuttal was simply to slightly move a hand, and then... immense pain.
It wasn't the same pain I got when John did his Psionic blast thing, this was more physical. I felt my muscles contract to spasm point, my chest felt like it would explode any moment now, and my bones cracked under increased pressure in my organs. It was agony, but I managed to keep myself alive a bit longer by healing.

Both Tempest and Cleo have detailed the rest of the fight in their blogs, so check those out, but something else interesting happened.
While Tempest and I were Terrakinesising those giant rocks to crush Death, I also read his memories. I was shocked to see that everything he had been doing for over a week was all that was in there. No memories beyond it. It was as if someone had wiped him clean. There was a recurring theme though, and it was "kill Tempest and Cleo, leave the other to me..."
It was just a replaying sound as I watched his memories of killing people. He was under John's control. This made me less mad at the guy, he could barely be blamed for the bad he was doing, so I decided not to kill him for sins that were not his own, and I stopped time just before the giant rocks crushed him, and made indents in the rocks so that he would be hurt, but not killed. I restarted time and Tempest and I crushed Death's legs. When we pulleed back the rocks, I saw his eyes change between purple and bronze, due to his extreme trauma from the pain. This gave me a chance to glimpse his other memories, and I became very angry when I saw one in particular. It was him stopping the brain function and heart of a Company agent with the ability to alter the aging of things. My aunt, my mother's sister.
With malice, I stuck out my finger and began to cut his skull open, but Tempest saw what I was doing and persuaded me to stop. Because of my brain control, it didn't work on me, something about persuasion not working on persuaders, but it snapped me out of my anger-induced hunger. I teleported to Cambridge before it came back.

When we arrived, I wanted to face John. I was led to his holding cell in Techpower Co. Double clones with automatic rifles were watching over him, but it didn't seem necessary. He was just curled up in a ball in one corner of his gray room. I nodded at one of the clones, and they offered to open the door, to which I refused, and just phased through the wall into John's cell.
"We're on even grounds" I began, although I doubt he even knew I was there, he truly looked insane, curled in the fetal position, rocking back and forth and murmurring "My brain-control won't work on you, and yours won't work on me. Now, you're just one clone, not base John, but you have his abilities, which means that we can use you as a punching bag, and know how to stop base you by killing you." I paused, waiting for his response. He had, none but more mumbles, including "What have I become?", "You're a monster...", and "I hate me...". I got tired of trying to reason with a mentally destroyed person, and summoned one of the double clones to clone this clone. When they were done, a regular John was standing there, although the malice in his eyes was missing. This was a good John.
"Damian..." he whispered, and then he began crying, and ran up to hug me. At first I thought it was a trap, but I felt his sincerity once we touched. I hugged back, knowing that this was sadly not going to be a happy reunion.
John stopped hugging me as soon as I had a certain though, and stepped back. He had read my thoughts. He knew what I planned to do with him, and was insanely afraid. He tried holding back my abilities, but I was too fast. I used telekinesis to hold him to a wall, and then kicked into thinking mode. I tried a few painful moves on him, but he just screamed each time, and then healed himself. Bad.
I kept on killing him in horrid ways, until finally my understanding peaked, and I found his spot. A tiny, microscopic speck in the bottom of the back of his head.
"I'm sorry John..." I said once more, and then used terrakinesis to send a large spike straight into that part of his brain. John simply let out a final grunt, and then his body went limp. I began to walk out, but continued to be bothered by the murmurring of the crazier clone, so I humanely killed him in the same way.

I walked out the door, without phasing through it. Double's clones looked troubled about what I had done to the prisoners they were watching, so I decided to wipe their minds of it. They were clones, so I could've justifiably killed them and taken their ability, but through Thought Form Projection, I already was able to clone myself and replicate object, so I let them be.
I exited the holding area, and began walking around, when I felt a presence. I turned and saw a girl floating. She looked like a ghost, but my Intuitive Aptitude quickly told me that she had a passive ability.
"Hello" I said, and she looked puzzled. "Is there something wrong?"
"You..." she stammered "Can see me? Are you a Medium, like my sister."
"Um, no" I replied. "I guess my power lets me see you, since I understand you."
"Understanding? HA! You have a stupid power!"
"Well, atleast I can turn my power off"
"Ooh, I can't wait to get in your body!" And with that she flew at me, but she crashed off my body as soon as she collided. I didn't even feel her touch. "What the hell was that?"
"Well," I said, fully understanding what had happened. "I think its because of a rule of powers, where it seems that controlling powers don't work on those with similar powers. You tried to take control of my body, but my Mind Control ability stopped you."
"What?!" She looked genuinely confused "I thought your stupid ability was understanding. How can you have TWO powers?"
"Oh," and I smirked, beginning to grow tired of this ghostly-girl. I felt the Hunger. "I have many more than two. I can show you how I get multiple powers." I grabbed her with telekinesis, which grabbed her because it was a mental force, so her ghostlyness wasn't a factor. "I grab like this, and then, pin my victims against a wall" I did as I spoke, slamming her against a wall, but realizing she could just phase through, reinforced by pushing her on both sides with TK to make her feel crushed.
"Then," I continued "I close their mouth so they won't scream, and crush them against their will. Then, when they're incapacitated, I begin to make an incision" I tried cutting her head, but all I succeded in was making her feel a crushing pain on her head, but then I had an idea. As I conitnued holding her, I pictured her better, and looked at considered what she'd look like in the flesh, and thus, used TFP to make a body that would look exactly like what she would look like, and then forced her into the body.
"I don't need a garbage power like yours," I finished, leaving only a small cut on her forehead "but I hope you'll be grateful for this body I've given you. With luck, you can project your ghostly self out of it, but use it for commonplace things. Enjoy" And I teleported away.

-Damian