Metamorphosis, Aer-ki Jyr [best classic literature .txt] 📗

do so now with meditation, but suddenly Paul’s body leapt into the sky and floated up some 20 meters above the beach and hovered there motionless, aside from his hair and clothes blowing in the gentle wind.

I’m fine, Paul said telepathically as he sensed Cal-com watching. Too much sitting.

Shall we switch locations?

No. This is a pretty good find. I’m supposed to do something, but I keep missing the switch. I can feel a need, but can’t find it.

You have to complete the transformation?

Maybe. Maybe not. I’m starting to get annoyed sitting still and not finding it.

Are you tired?

Not as much as before, but some lingers.

Sometimes the mind functions better when it has simple activity to open it up, while leaving plenty of processing power to roam where needed.

Any suggestions?

Let me try and hit you.

Paul smiled and flew over to where Cal-com was standing watch some 100 meters away. His bare feet landed in the sand and sunk in to cover his toes. “Flying or no flying?”

“Nothing higher than my head,” Cal-com said, pulling off his armored shoulder plates and tossing them to the side…where they transformed into little drones that hovered off the ground in sentry mode. Next came his shirt, showing his bare black chest that looked out of place on the lightly colored sand and green foliage beyond. “You need to be constrained from running away, but with your speed this shouldn’t be hard for you. You will have to pay attention…” Cal-com said, darting forward and punching towards the shorter Human.

Paul stepped backwards and sidestepped, with the larger fist passing by his face with an inch to spare. He reached up and slapped the forearm to the side then darted backwards, getting out of range as Cal-com pulled back.

“Not bad,” Paul offered, raising his arms into a defensive stance. “But you’ll need to do better.”

“I will try,” Cal-com said, coming at him again for multiple punches and kicks, trying to chase down the very slippery Archon. His one advantage was his leg length, which allowed him to cover more distance in a single step than his opponent, but when needed Paul could skid across the ground a few inches above it using his flight psionic Yen’mer.

Sand was getting kicked up everywhere, because they couldn’t truly step over it all at speed. So it got scraped and dragged into a dust cloud every time they veered off the wet sand the waves were keeping moist as the two proceeded in a sort of dance. Cal-com would advance, Paul would counter and retreat in a game of chase that didn’t really go anywhere, but roamed around the beach for the better part of an hour before Paul moved so fast he was one moment in front of Cal-com, then the Voku felt his arm being pushed aside as the Human slipped behind him and shoved him in the back…hard.

Cal-com fell face first into the sand, but rather than rolling out of it he just stayed there, sat down, and turned around to face Paul. “What did you do?”

“Something,” the Archon said, staring at his arms as he held them up in front of him. “I’m burning inside.”

“Good or bad?”

“Raw. It felt like I was pushing on the air for leverage, now my body is burning. Especially my arms.”

“Continue or…” Cal-com asked, but his words were cut out as Paul’s head went wobbly and his vision altered…except that it wasn’t his vision. He could feel all around him, like Pefbar, but it wasn’t. It was like the ocean had risen and he could see the subsurface currents trailing all around him, as well as creating eddies where it intersected with him.

All of this was overlaid on his regular senses, and though Cal-com was talking he wasn’t paying attention. Paul moved his arm up and saw the currents alter slightly, then realized the drag was causing the burn. He pulled back, inside his body somehow, and the pressure disappeared and the currents passed through his arms as if they weren’t there, but he could still see them.

“Wait a minute,” he said aloud, trying to make his arms heavy again, with the burn returning, then he tried to move them without using his muscles. Imagining his forearms going to the left following one of the currents…and suddenly there was grip there pulling his body that way. It felt a little similar to Yen’mer, but that was pushing and pulling off of gravity. This was actually touching something here, not a distant effect.

Doing so hurt, but Paul decided to try a little more before backing off. This time he tried to use his legs…but they wouldn’t work. Only his arms seemed to get traction, so that’s where he focused, being able to pull himself along against, with, and parallel to the current as if the direction didn’t matter, though he thought he noticed a bit more ease when going with it.

Before the burning intensified any further he let go and sat down, with the thump of his butt on the sand knocking away his enhanced senses and returning him to normal…except the pain remained.

“I’m sorry. I zoned out there.”

“Do not apologize. What did you learn?”

“A new way of moving. I can grip the air and pull myself along it, except it isn’t air. Doing so hurts, so I’m probably too new at it or not doing it right, but there’s something else here. Some kind of energy field…I don’t know, but something. I have intermittent access to it. It’s gone right now. I can’t make my vision change back to it.”

“Take your breakthrough and let it absorb,” Cal-com suggested as he knelt down next to his friend. “Perhaps this is what he meant.”

“Maybe, but I don’t see how this is connected to my Saiyan genetics altering enough to let me