PIP/Overmind/1995

I could have guessed that you would want to start with how I realized I had my powers. As you probably already know, I was born and raised in a small town in Wales called Ceg Uffern. Ceg Uffern in Welsh means mouth of hell. It was named that for the fact that it had a small thermal mineral springs slightly below the ground and the steam rose from a fissure making the frightened peasants of Olde believe it was a gateway to hell. It actually isn't even that large of a fissure or spring; but you know how idiots are.

My father was a bastard of a man named Angus Darren McAlister. Hailing originally from Glasgow Scotland, he moved to Wales before I was born. My mother was a street whore before my father married her after a night of particularly nasty drinking. But Angus McAlister was a man of principles . . . sorry I'm having difficulty trying not to laugh. Give me just a moment, I'll compose myself. Anyway, the Church of England had Angus believing that since he had married this woman, and slept with her, he now had to spend the rest of his life with her. For my mother, Helen, this was an upgrade in her lifestyle; so was there was no way she was squandering it. For my father, there was no way he wasn't getting laid regularly now that he was married. So it was that my sister Amy was born nine months later . . . or so insists my mother. Two years thereafter, I was born.

And that, my good lady, is how I got my powers. That doesn't mean that I was able to use them right away, mind you. That would take twelve years of hell to accomplish. My heterochromia got me no end of trouble growing up. It's not like children to pass up on an opportunity to tease someone as obvious as having eyes of different colors. The children in my school weren't the big problem however. That would be my bastard of a father. There wasn't a single night that I can recall before I got my powers that he didn't go to the pub after work, and come home absolutely pissed. When my dear father was pissed on cheap lager he had a tendency to become even more of a bastard than he normally was. It was about this time that anyone in the family in their right mind would hide and wait things out. I was in my right mind, but somebody had to take the beatings for the rest. I didn't do it for my mother, or Amy. I did it for my little sister Penelope. Penny was too good for this world. Even though father scared her, she tried to make him feel better. It still raises my hackles today. While he was beating her, she was trying to make him feel better. So I took the hits for her.

One of the abilities that I have is that since my powers manifested I remember everything perfectly. This is a form of perfect recall that does not exist outside of myself from what I've been able to determine. Most people's memories aren't complete. To save storage space, the human mind just records parts of a memory. The memory is reconstructed each time it is recalled. Even people with eidetic memory use this same process; they just record more of the details. The process in most people is short term; with much of the increased detail being abandoned before being transferred to long term memory. That isn't how my memory works. Each and every detail of everything that has ever happened to me since I gained my powers is recorded perfectly in great detail in my brain; and it is always transferred to long term memory. It is for this reason that I can say with absolute certainty that my powers fully manifest themselves on Saturday, 22 July 1995 at 10:47 PM Greenwich Mean Time.

My father hadn't been home very long, and we were in the middle of a beating session. I had had a very bad day at school even before my father decided to take out all of life's concerns on me. My mother had the good sense to take the opportunity to be out with her friends; a fact that just added to my father's rage. Amy had also taken off with her friends, so it was just myself and Penelope. Penny was hiding under the table, watching dad as he smacked me around. He had just hit me particularly hard, knocking me back against the sofa hard enough to knock the wind out of me. Penny ran over to me out of concern. Unfortunately that put her directly in father's crosshairs. As he drew back his hand to take out his rage on my little sister, something snapped inside me. It's hard to describe how it feels when my powers function. It's a sense unlike any other; my ability to peer into the minds of others. I did it instinctively that time. I didn't even actually look into his mind so much as just . . . turned it off. I couldn't even breathe, but he just crumpled where he stood. Penny hadn't taken notice, she just threw her arms around me and sobbed softly; her concern over my welfare obvious in her actions.

There I was, heaving to catch my breath with my little sister sobbing as she held me tight. While I understood and appreciated the fact that she wanted to hold me so tightly, it did make it a bit harder for me to regain my breath. My father, in the meantime, simply laid there like a dead fish. When I finally regained my breath I comforted Penny to the best my ability; rubbing her back, and telling her everything would be okay. She was sobbing, and trying to talk through the tears. I simply comforted her kissing her forehead and trying to say soothing things. We were like this for a bit, then my father's mind cried out to me. He was dying.

It was an incredible sensation, seeing into the mind of another individual. I was not the least bit concerned with the fact that my father was dying on the ground. His mind was in a panic. He knew he was dying. His mind was thrashing, trying to control his body; but he couldn't get past the block I'd put up. I stood up, Penny still clinging to my side, and walked over to him. I stood over my father as he lay dying. With my new ability I looked into his mind. I wasn't very skilled at sifting through the information there yet. It was a bit overwhelming. I was able to see how my block worked, however. I didn't want him getting off this easy, so I modified my block. It didn't take me long to figure out how to allow signals to go to his lungs and heart. He started breathing and his heart started beating again. I turned his autonomic functions back on and stood there trying to decide what to do next.

Penny was still clinging to me, she didn't realize exactly what was going on yet. I looked at her, and automatically looked into her mind. It was beautiful. I could see no sign of hatred, anger, or malice of any kind. There was trauma there, but her reaction to it was wholly different than my own. She had a level of empathy that I have rarely seen since. I returned her embrace, and kissed her on the forehead again.

"Penny," I said softly, "I think I just shut off dad." She finally turned her face towards our father, looking down at him. Her concern went from me to both my father and myself in an instant. She looked up at me, her large, soft, green eyes pleading; without knowing what she was pleading for.

"Is he okay?" She asked.

"I think so," I said. "I turned him off too hard earlier. But I fixed it. He's breathing again, so I think he's going to be okay." I didn't want to tell her that he was only going to be okay because I wanted him to suffer before he died.

"How did you do it?" She asked. "Are you wizard, like Merlin?"

The question was innocent and endearing, and I couldn't help but to chuckle. "I don't think so," I said. "I'm not sure what it is, but I can look into his mind. It's very dark in there, Penny."

"Can you fix him?" She asked gently. This sent my mind reeling. Could I fix him? If I could see his mind; could I alter his mind?

"I'm not sure, Penny," I said. "I just got this power. I'm not quite sure how I can use it yet. I might need to practice some."

Her brow furrowed. "Just be careful, Chandler. We don't want to hurt him." But I did want to hurt him. I just didn't want to kill him when I hurt him. The fact that she had taken some agency in the matter, by using the plural form 'we', gave me pause, however. Whatever I did to him, she would assume some responsibility for it. This complicated my revenge greatly. I had this great new power, but suddenly I wasn't sure how I was going to use it.

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