Delmar's storyline part 83 - Newton

The group on the floor cheered happily while Delmar desperately tried to hide his face in the scarf. 
“He's a mind reader, he got the ability to hear your thoughts and see you memories, so be careful with what you think because he can hear your own inner monologue.” Stark joked in the microphone and the group scoffed. 
“Not even Cain could break through my mental wall.” someone on the floor said. “I'm not worried.” 
Stark turned to Delmar, “Do you want to introduce yourself? Tell them something about who you are?”
“No.” Delmar answered terrified by being the center of attention. The deafening sound of the thoughts in the room filled his mind as the nervosity made him lose control of the psychic powers. 
“Ah, stage fright?” she asked kindly. Delmar just nodded and hid his embarrassed face in the scarf. He started to sincerely consider to ditch this place as he got the book. If any of the shifters in the room was a rebel spy they could easily rat him out at any time, and so could the loyalists. He doubted that the council had lost their interest in him just because Radiation was in a coma. 

Delmar had hoped to be able to evaluate the members before revealing his identity to them. But now everybody knew. He should change his name… color his hair, anything to make himself look unrecognizable.
“Okay! Let's just walk off the stage then.” Stark said and led him down the stairs of the stage. The people below gathered curiously around him. 
“Is nice to finally meet you.” someone said and lay a hand on his shoulder. 
“I heard you killed dark matter, good job.”
“Are you a loyalist?”
“Why did you leave your pack when you were a kid? Cain was desperate to find you.”
Delmar didn't know how to react to all the questions and commentaries. He slowly backed away from the others.
“Please, I don't…” suddenly he tripped and fell over something lying behind him on the floor. With a loud thump he crashed down. Delmar groaned, rubbed the back of his head and looked at the furred lump he had tripped over. It was a fat brass yellow cat. Delmar sat up to check if the other shifter was alright, but as he looked at the cat he saw it was an empty body. The others gathered around him in a ring.
“Are you alright?” Stark asked and sat down beside him.
Delmar just looked at the lifeless cat on the floor, there was no spark of life in the body, no soul light burning in its chest… the cat was dead, and this was not what he had intended… 
“Oh you found Newton.” Stark said happily.
“He’s dead…” Delmar answered. He just felt more and more uneasy with the unfolding events, he had come here, joined a brotherhood, revealed his identity and then accidentally killed one of brotherhood’s members the first thing he did. By tripping over them! He couldn't believe what a screw up this had been.
“Oh no.” Stark laughed. “No, not at all.”
“That lazy bum.” Opal said and picked up the dead cat from the floor and dangled it in front of her. “Hey, Newton! Wake up!”
“N-no… he's dead. He's got no soul.” Delmar tried to explain.
“No, he just drifted off. Don't worry.” Stark reassured him and rose. “Newton!” she started yelling. The others followed her example. The psychics spread out in the room and started calling his name. 

Confused Delmar remained on the floor. He took a second to breathe and to rethink this situation. This was madness, the whole brotherhood was calling for a dead person.
I should get out of here before they realize he's dead and turn their attention back to me… he thought, got up, sneaked through the room and silently opened the door to slip out of the hall. This had been a bad idea all along. At least he had the book now. Silently he climbed the stairs and covered his head under the scarf. He went a long way around Neutron’s table and went out of the club again. 

When he got out on the street he took a deep breath. This was just so typically him. Burning the bridges as soon as he had built them, and on top of that by a mistake… the blue screens on the walls lit up the wet street as rain drizzled in the puddles. Most humans seemed to hide from the rain inside and the street was nearly empty. Delmar checked if the bag was water proof and started walking through the cold and rainy night. He would have to find Blacktown some other way. Question was how? The society had searched after it ever since they got to know about its existence and they hadn't got a clue of where it lay. After just a few steps he stopped. A shifter soul light hovered on the street a couple of meters before him. His first thought was Edgar. It hung in the air just like Edgar's soul had done. But this wasn't Edgar, this was another soul. Another person. Delmar’s curiosity took over and he decided to inspect it closer.

This was not like Edgar at all after all, this was not an invisible person. Rather a shifter without a body. Like a soul embryo but a grown shifter… it was hanging in the air in a state of mind which reminded Delmar of sleeping.

What are you? He asked by sending a thought to its mind. The soul light came to and curiously slid closer. Delmar wasn't scared. This being could not be more dangerous than a soul embryo.

Oh? It though curiously. The mind reader? The thoughts were slow almost like running syrup. It reminded him of the thoughts of a dreaming person. I heard you had shown up to the meeting. I must have fallen asleep.

You're one of them? The psychics of the brotherhood?

I'm Newton, nice to meet you.

You're the cat? Delmar asked surprised. I thought you were dead… I tripped over your lifeless body down there. 

The soul seemed amused. Why are you out here? Shouldn't you be down at the meeting?

No I'm leaving… Delmar answered grumpy. 

So soon?

Yes, it was a mistake to come here. I got what I came for. 

And what was that?

That's none of your business! He snarled. But soon he changed his mind again. He would gain nothing from bashing off this stranger like he was yet another enemy. 

Is something wrong? Newton asked and slid a bit closer concerned for his well-being. 

Is something wrong? Delmar thought hopelessly. Is something wrong? He repeated it like he expected Newton to know exactly what the matter was. He squatted down on the wet street and hid his face in the scarf. Everything was wrong, how would he ever manage to do any of this alone? How was he supposed to kill a God? How was he supposed to even find the black shifters? How was he supposed to learn how to work with other people without treating them like enemies? How was he supposed to explain to Reed why he had left him on his own? How was he supposed to face Reed after what he had done to him? He had done the one thing Reed asked him not to; he had changed something in his mind. He simply couldn't face Reed before he had killed the God. That, if anything would justify the greatest sin. And how was he supposed to be able to teach Kit how to not go insane? If he couldn't even have a civilized conversation with a stranger, how was he supposed to have a civilized conversation with his own daughter later on?

The drizzles in the puddle around him stopped and someone lay a hand on his shoulder. Surprised Delmar lost his balance and fell backwards so he sat down in the puddle. A human squatted beside him and held an umbrella over him. He had his AR glasses on his forehead and looked straight at his blue face.
“Relax Delmar. It's still me, Newton.”
Confused Delmar stared at the strange human. Newton's soul light burned in his chest together with the human's soul.
“How?”
“Oh this?” Newton looked down at the human body he possessed.  “This is my power. I can possess bodies which aren't mine.” 
“That’s really weird.” Delmar gave him a tired smile. “Here I thought you were harmless.”
“You should never underestimate a psychic, especially not if you don't know what they can do.”
“Can you possess anyone?” Delmar asked.
“I must leave my body, but yes, pretty much. Anyone who can't build mental walls.”
“Could you possess Wilfred and make him kill himself?”
“If the host dies, so do I.” Newton said a bit sorry. 
“How come the council is not using you? Like they used me? They pretty much blackmailed me into helping them. And then tricked me into trusting them. Why are they not building an army of psychics?”
Newton sighed loudly.
“We’re not that many.”
“But why not make use all of you? Why only use me?”
“They are using as many of us as they can. Do you remember the official appearance of Gravity? That was Stark. And the chemical faction’s third division? They've been using Shirley to dig up as much information about the rebels and the black shifters as possible. She sees visions of past events. Others joined the rebels just to get away from the council using them, like Leon and Opal. Most of us don't even want to be known as psychics for this reason. And the council? They don't want the world to know we exist either.”
“Why not?” Delmar asked. 
“If the council know you're a psychic then you're bound to run their errands. They're going to keep you on a short leash. Many of us decides not to tell the society about our powers in order to not be used as tools. The council prefers to keep us hidden as secret weapons. We are much more effective to them if others don't know what we can do. Besides, Cain spent his whole life trying to create a new faction for us. He wanted to give the psychics the education to control and develop our powers. The council kept ignoring his requests. He never gave up, but many of us could tell it was a dead race. If not even Cain, who had Chemical wrapped around his little finger, could make the council listen, not even with the help of several empathic psychics, it was doomed to fail. I think they simply don't want us to develop our powers too much.”
“They’re afraid, afraid of the old psychic alliance.” Delmar said with realization.
“The old alliance?” Newton asked confused. 
“Cain’s ancestors. The council want to make sure we don't know how to use our powers, they don't want us to reach our full potential. We were the only threat to the council until the black shifters appeared. So they have suppressed us. Refused us education so we wouldn't contest for the power.”
“It seems like you know things I don't?” Newton said confused. 
“It’s yet another thing the council kept from you guys.” Delmar rose and squeezed out the water of his drenched muffler. “Thanks for the chat.” he turned to walk down the street.
“Where are you off to?” Newton asked and hurried to catch up with him. 
“I'm of to kill the shadow creature.” Delmar answered like Newton had asked him if rain was wet. 
“The shadow monster? The same one the precogs, and postcogs been talking about?”
“Precog?”
“Precognition, it's the psychic ability which lets you see visions of a possible future.”
“Like Hope?”
“Yes, exactly like Hope. The postcognitions are the ones who see the past. Like Shirley.”
“To answer your question, yes that's the monster I’m going to kill.” Delmar said.
“I can help you if you like to?” Newton asked as he kept following in Delmar’s quick pace.
“Which side are you on?” Delmar asked him and at the same time dived into Newton’s mind to make sure the answer was an honest one.
“I'm on no side. I've been living as a pet cat the last 16 years. So I'm as neutral as you can be.”
“What’s your goal?”
“What’s yours? I want to help the son of Cain. I owe him that much for everything he's done for me.”
“Even if his son is a murderer who’s done terrible things?”“If he turned out to be an all rotten man I would head home to my human and go back to being her pet cat. But I doubt a bad guy would ask me this, like he was terrified of what I thought about him.” Newton smiled emphatically. 
“I don't trust myself to be able to be a good guy that's all.  I always screw things up.” Delmar muttered.
“Then it sounds like you could use some help.”
“Do you know how to get to Blacktown?”
“No but some other members of the brotherhood does. You could ask them for help?” 
“I don’t know...”
“Why not? I doubt Stark refused to help you.”
Delmar twisted.
“Do you want their help?” Newton asked calmly, no judgment in his voice.
"Well yes, but I ran away from them.”
“What happened?
“I got uncomfortable, my first impulse was to get out of there.” he stopped and buried his face in his hands hopelessly. “Everybody was asking me questions. Questions I didn't feel like answering.”
“So you ran for it?” Newton smiled a bit amused. “Don’t worry, they're just excited to finally meet you. I'll talk to them and ask them to back off.”

Newton listened to Delmar as Delmar tried to explain the reaction he got as he  met the members of the brotherhood. How everything had become too intensive for him and how everybody had asked him questions he didn't feel like sharing with strangers. Newton just listened, nodded and said he understood.  After a while they walked back down to the meeting room, Newton left the human body above the stairs in the drug club, and found his way down to his own body.

“Okay everyone, Delmar's a bit shy so give him space. No unnecessary questions, if he want to talk with you about it he will come to you.” Newton explained to the other members. 
“Can we sit down?” Delmar asked and sat down on the middle of the floor. He was still dripping wet, but the water had started to form icicles in his hair.
“Right here?” someone asked.
“Yes, I feel less stressed if we all could just sit down.”
“Whatever makes you comfortable.” Stark said happily and sat down on the floor beside him. She had now taken the shape of another shifter in the room. The others followed her example and finally everybody sat down in a big circle. 

Delmar took a deep breath before he spoke to the group. He told them about the shadow creature and how it seemed to control the black shifters. Then he explained his plans, about how he was going to look for Wilfred and the other black shifters in Blacktown. About how he hoped to study their minds yet again and to study the shadow creature in order to find a way to kill it. 
“I can take him to Blacktown.” Leon said laid back. “I transport rebels there sometimes and I’ll have no trouble getting him past the gates."
“I will go with him as well.” Hope said determined. “I need to get back to Blacktown anyway. If I come back empty handed, they will be suspicious. This way, I can keep an eye on Delmar so he doesn't blow his cover and doesn't raise suspicion. It also gives me an opportunity to learn more about the shadow monster.”
“I don't need anyone to look after me thank you!” Delmar snarled. He changed his mind in a trice. So this brotherhood didn't trust him after all? Delmar regarded Hope suspiciously, she used mental walls, and was apparently a member of the black faction. On top of it all she didn't want to come back to Blacktown 'empty handed'. It wouldn't surprise him if she was a torpedo sent out to kill him as well… or to manipulate him… it was she who had tricked him here in the first place. 
“Sorry, Delmar but maybe you do. Due to recent events, you are a popular subject to discuss and people have done their research on you. We can’t have you behaving like normal. Appearances alone are not enough to disguise yourself. You need to behave differently too. Having people looking out for you would add depth to your disguise. We are working towards the same thing. It makes sense to work together, right?”
Delmar took a deep breath. 
“And how can I be sure to trust you? I do want your help, and I do want to trust you. But so far you have done nothing to deserve my trust. And I have had enough of people ‘looking after’ me. All they wanted to do was to control me. I have a goal and I will not let anyone stand in my way. I will accept your help to get me to the black shifters, but I will not be something you bring back to not be 'empty handed'. If you think I will ever let any of you control me, I will not have mercy on you. Not on anyone who even thinks about giving me up to either the black shifters or the society.” 
Great! Ending on an idle threat… Delmar thought sarcastically. Wasn’t he just a brilliant negotiator…? You are an Idiot! “Building mental walls does not help gaining my trust.” Delmar added and then cursed himself yet again. Why couldn't he just shut up? Here they offered him help, many of them had known his father, and all he did was showing them ingratitude. 
“Control you? We couldn’t control you even if we wanted to. It seems like you have forgotten about that deal we made before.” Hope pointed to the bag “You received your book, didn't you? I kept my word. I put that mental wall up in case you chose not to work with us. There are some things that I rather keep a secret from non-members.” She seemed sincerely offended. “I have searched for the shadow monster for months, I joined the rebel faction just to get close to the source of it. I have given up a lot to search for it and I will not be stopped now just because you trust me or not. I'm going to Blacktown either way. Either you let me help you or not, but we are traveling the same road, to the same destination.”
“You can trust her. None of us here want you any harm.” Newton said reassuring.
Delmar grunted and nodded, still clueless of how to handle the situation. 

“Good.” Stark said. “I would join you but I need to discuss the shadow creature with the council. Delmar gave me some alarming information which can't wait.”
“Why the council?” Opal exclaimed displeased. “I thought we were neutral? Not running the council's errands.”
“Easy child.” Stark staid reassuring. “We are. I will not give them something that will give them the upper hand in the war, if we are going to see the light of the other side of this tunnel we need to work together, both loyalists and rebels. This is a battle for our species survival not a fight for a power shift.”
“Why?” someone asked. “What information are you going to share?”
“I got no reason to keep you in the dark. Delmar informed me that this shadow being may in fact be a god. And if that is the case, that the gods have found us and are truly watching then we need to stand together, not fight a war.”
A worried mumble went through the room. 
Delmar interrupted it.
“I'm bringing Newton as well.”
“Newton?!” Opal exclaimed. That fat lazy cat is good for nothing, he's going to slow you down. He barely walks on his own.“
Delmar shrugged. “I like him. And he's neutral like me.”
“I think it sounds like a great idea. Newton is both old and wise. Opal you should respect your elders.” Stark rebuked her.

The meeting ended and most psychics headed home. Left in the room was a few people. Delmar, Stark, Newton, Hope, Opal, Frost and Leon. 
“Do you feel okay?” Stark asked Delmar and lay a hand on his shoulder. “I'm sorry I dragged you onto the stage, I didn't know you had a phobia. Cain never had a problem with attention or stage fright.”
Delmar looked at his mirrored face, still feeling awkward by looking at himself. 
“It’s alright, just don't do again...”
“What now?” Hope asked impatiently. 
“I should find a grocery store before we head to Blacktown.” Delmar answered.
“Why?” 
“I should find some hair dye. I'm too easily recognized.” he complained. It still bothered him that Neutron had spotted him without a problem before. 
“Oh! I love disguises!” Stark exclaimed and clapped her hands together. 
“You are a disguise.” Leon chuckled amused. Stark started fiddling with Delmar’s hair. 
“We should disguise you into something similar to what you are. A snow shifter perhaps? How's your snow?”
Delmar flicked his fingers and a small cloud of snow puffed above.
“Good enough I would say. It's just another form of ice crystals.”
“We should color your hair white, just like Frost's.” she said delighted. Frost looked a lot less delighted. “We should find you some new clothes as well.”
“The clothes are fine.” Delmar protested. He didn't want to leave his clothes behind. Reed had given them to him and they still smelled like him. “There’s only one person who recognize me in them.” he lied. The truth would be more like three people except for the brotherhood. Reed, Neutron and Rot.
“And we can trust this person?” Stark asked.
“Yes it's my boyfriend. He won't rat us out.”
“Alrighty then.” Stark started to inspect his face instead. “We should do something about your scars as well… they are a dead giveaway. Are they permanent wounds?” 
“Yes.”
“I could teach you how to heal them?” she offered.
“no.” he combed his hair over his right eye to hide it. He had cursed his scars so many times he had gotten used to them. They had become a part of him, a reminder to not underestimate his opponent. 
“We could pretend you lost your right eye? You could cover it with an eye patch.” Hope suggested. 
“We should find you a new name as well. The name Delmar is the top name on all the black faction’s torpedoes' and guard’s lists.” Leon said.
“You could just call me Snow?” Delmar suggested. 
“No! That's blunt and boring! You don't want to be like Frost, do you?” Stark exclaimed.
“I'm a snow shifter, not a frost shifter.” Frost objected. “My name is legit.”
“Frost, snow, same shit different name!” Stark proclaimed. Then she turned back to Delmar and added with a big smile. “I'm going to call you Akkaidan.”
“That’s my father's name…”
“It was his last name. You know, humans let their last name pass down to their children. According to their logic is your name Akkaidan as well. It’s perfect, it's just what he would've wanted.”
“Won’t people recognize it though?” Delmar asked.
“Nah, only members of the brotherhood who know who you are. They need to know you're his son to make the connection.”
They discussed the name for a while before Delmar settled with the name Akkaidan. In some odd way it felt like he honored Cain’s memory by taking it. 

When the time for coloring his hair came, Leon produced a can of bleach out of nowhere by shifting back and forth rapidly. 
“Where did you get that from?” Delmar asked surprised. 
“Limbo.” Leon answered with an aristocratic grin. “The same place where you store your clothes as an animal. My storage space is almost unlimited.”
“You know those cartoon characters who just pulls a hammer out of nowhere? That's Leon.” Hope explained with a grin. “He has got everything you can imagine inside his limbo storage space.”
“I bet he has a whole land walker stored inside of him.” Opal sneered.
“I got everything except steam trains, Atlantic liners and space rockets inside of me.” Leon joked and out of his old oil drenched coat picked up a pair of shades to put on for the dramatic effect. 
“How many weird psychic abilities are there?!” Delmar wondered.
“A few.” Stark answered while shoving him out into a side locker room. “Your specific bloodline seems to have a great number of different abilities mixed together, merging, reading, sending, writing, protecting, meditating, and so on.”
“I should’ve stolen Cain’s book on different psychic abilities as well.” Delmar said.

Behind the locker room lay a shabby shower room reminding of a public shower at a bathhouse. It looked like it hadn't been used for a long while.
“Why are there showers here?” Delmar asked while Stark asked Leon for towels and a chair. 
“This part of the club used to be a brothel.” Hope answered and leaned against the wall while she watched Stark make Delmar take off his shirt and cover him in towels. 
“Wow, great… the more you know.” Delmar answered while he let Stark have her way. 
“I wonder what happens if we color your tail white as well? Will it still shine in a blue color or will it be white?” Stark contemplated while she fiddled with his tail. She now looked like a copy of Delmar again as she studied and circled him.

It didn't take Stark long to apply the bleach to both Delmar's hair and tail. He soon sat on the chair in the middle of the shower room waiting for the color to work.
“Hope?” he asked. 
“Yeah?” she was still there waiting with him in the room. The others had gone out into the meeting hall discussing how they were going to smuggle Delmar into Blacktown and whether he needed a whole fake identification registered into the society database or not.
“You can see visions of the future, right?”
“Yes.”
“What are your visions like?”
“It's kind of hard to explain, but I can give it a shot. Imagine that every living creature has an intention. These intentions creates a number of possible actions. These actions interfere with other people's intentions and actions. Different people with different intentions may intend to be at the same place at the same time, this meeting creates a web of possible outcomes. These outcomes creates what feels like ripples through time and space to me. I can feel the ripples pass through me like a concussive wave. Instead of air, it’s information. Unfortunately I only get information about that specific event, not what leads to it. The bigger the event the bigger the ripple. And the more intentions I snap up from people around me who intend to be at that place at that time, the clearer the vision gets.”
“Did you see the explosion?”
“I did see parts of it. I knew something bad was going to happen.”
“Why didn't you stop it?”
“Not all my visions becomes reality and I rarely know what will cause an event to happen. I didn't have enough information and no possibility to stop it.”
“You could've warned people.”
“I could, but who would believe me? I kept my powers secret from the public, I am a rebel and have no contact with the leaders in New Devantos. Besides, I did not know the time for it to happen or exactly what the catastrophic event was. It is hard to warn someone about something you can vaguely sense. I could warn that this war will have terrible consequences, but that is hardly news to anyone.”
Delmar sighed, nothing was ever that simple. He still hadn't gotten the answer to his question though.
“But what are your visions like? How do they feel and act to you?”
Hope took a deep breath, thinking about how to answer.
“It is like losing your balance, being underwater, like someone splashed water in your face, a bit like dreaming, and then it is like you suddenly wake up and try to understand what you saw.”
“I'm having these dreams every night, do you think they are visions like yours?” Delmar asked.
“What kind of dreams? Cain never had the precognition ability, I cannot tell for your other parent though.”
Delmar described his dreams, the way the shadow creature haunted him every night and how he woke up in panic every time. Hope listened attentively but she didn't look too impressed. 
“Relax kid that sounds like regular nightmares to me.”