Jun woke up quite peacefully. As usual he had had no dreams. He was used to this, as Jun rarely dreamt at all. He looked towards his bedroom window half expecting the sun to rise at any moment.
He had gone to bed after continuously experimenting with his new found powers, lifting and throwing things around his apartment for hours until he made another discovery. His ability to move things about all seemed to stem from a specific place or organ, he assumed, within his brain, somewhere close to his temple.
He had spent time pulling his consciousness as far back as he could to get a better idea of the source of this ability. Success came as understanding. He now knew that the powers worked like a muscle in his body; it could be lightly used allowing him to cause items to float in place or moving them around at a slow yet steady pace; on the other hand, when flexed with greater intensity, he could whip objects about at high speeds, enough to cause damage to whatever he manipulated or anything it collided with.
Furthermore, he could feel the source of his ability. With his eyes closed, he was able to perceive a void-black expanse that felt connected with his body. This expanse was mesmerizing, for within it he perceived tiny motes of black dots giving off an ethereal light-purple glow. It appeared more like a near-spherical constellation of black stars, stars blacker than even this black expanse of emptiness, collectively glowing with purple light; making an amazing sight. Curiously, it flared its purple light when he actively used his ability and remained static when he didn't. Unable to determine the actual location of this inner place, he assumed it all came from his brain as that was also where he focused to trigger his ability.
As he practiced moving objects with increasing precision, Jun established an effective two meter radius around himself where his ability cone could stably manifest and interact cohesively; beyond this two meter region, he found it extremely difficult to maintain concentration on his ability field, being struck with pangs of pain in his head which distracted him thus he had dropped many items once he floated them beyond his effective radius.
He also learned that every time he used his ability, especially when he lifted heavier objects of a few kilograms, the source of his ability would rapidly dim, losing more and more of its purple luminescence until he lost connection to the field, dropping the item, and causing him more pangs of pain. With rest however, the source would very slowly brighten up.
Jun was forced to sleep before 02:00am. He had been practicing until he realized this imaginary constellation that represented his ability had lost several of its black dot-like stars; considerably losing its 'shine', becoming a faint haze to his senses. Unlike when he over taxed his ability, losing the light-purple brightness, when the black stars themselves dimmed, the overall amount of purple light reduced considerably as well. He had pushed it further one more time in that state, however, the field he produced that time was significantly weaker; followed by a sudden bout of fatigue which he attributed to being akin to exhausting his 'energy' reserves or overtaxing a muscle.
While he hadn't sweated much that night, Jun took a refreshing shower before going to bed. He promised himself to call Rin first in the morning and to simply show up to work where he would directly apologize to Mr. Kim, and hopefully keep his job.
Jun set his alarm for 06:30 am. He trusted that at least four hours sleep would leave him capable for the work day ahead.
Lee Jun did wake up peacefully, surprisingly, before his alarm had gone off. He had at least expected the sun to be shining, but it was still dark outside and the streets were quiet, except for an occasional vehicle passing by.
He checked his phone.
'03:48am! HOW!' Jun swung his arms around, 'I feel great. Like I slept for a full eight hours.'
With nothing else to do, he decided to get back to practicing. He focused on the deodorant on his dresser table. The field reached out from him, enveloping the can of spray-on deodorant, lifting it up, then admittedly, with a speed far slower than if he did it himself, floated towards Lee Jun who caught it with a bright smile.
'Six seconds in all. For what it was worth, not bad.' He floated the can back to its place. He looked inwards to the source.
'Hmm?' 'I-It's sli-ghtly bigger?'
He wasn't entirely sure if he should attribute it to his prior exercises, but the constellation had grown slightly larger than it was before he slept. He could compare what he saw with his enhanced memory and confirmed, the constellation was indeed slightly larger by a few margins.
No matter how he looked at it, with this proof of growth and hopefully, with subsequent growths, his ability would get stronger.
Jun spread his field below him and floated his father's meditation manual from under the bed. He had wanted to consult the book, but with a thought, he realized he could recall every word written in the book as though he were looking at it. He let the book fall to the bed, shut his eyes, trying to recall what was written on the second page. He could.
He floated the book up to his face, allowing it to rotate and orient itself so the front cover faced him. Try as he might though, Jun didn't have the fine-tuned control to flip a single page open. He tried for several seconds until with a grunt; he pulled the booklet into his hands, flipping to the second page.
'Wow. It's like I have a photographic memory all of a sudden. Ha-ha!'
Jun sat in the only meditative pose he knew; the Lotus position. Next, he shut his eyes. Jun pushed his mind to the source of his ability. He wanted to repeat the same meditative exercise. The Thousand for One Meditation technique taught that one was supposed to guide their inner energy, their life-force, and begin channeling it along a series of inner pathways.
Unfortunately, the pathways described by the book were not applicable at all. Instead, Jun focused more on getting the constellation to channel the light-purple luminescence. While he wasn't exactly sure how to do it, he wanted to channel something through the automatic pathway that manifested the first time he used the technique.
The light eventually did move as he wanted, but instead he found himself perceiving veins and blood vessels within his body. He was so disoriented as he felt the subtle thump of his own heartbeat that he cancelled the connection, afraid he would accidentally pull apart his own blood-vessels.
'How is this supposed to work anyway? Didn't I already do this the first time around. I was able to move the-.' He cut his own thoughts off.
Jun thought back to that pain filled day when his own headaches had nearly overwhelmed him. A part of him began to wonder; if maybe he had let it do so, let the headache surge like the people with powers in the interviews online, the people who could now fly and were super strong, perhaps he would be like #Magicster…
He shook his mind, dispelling those thoughts. He would always be grateful for what he had and what was his. He had learned that long ago in foster care. To never let his greed or desires rule his actions or intentions.
A few deep breaths cleared his mind slowly bringing him back on track.
'That moment. What was I circulating through my body? I know father's meditation technique only partially applies here… so what was I manipulating that day?'
He remembered the strain he felt in his head. He remembered… pain so intense; thoughts of simply letting go began to form in his own mind. He paused.
'Where did those thoughts come from? I felt like if I only allowed-.' Jun's eyes widened.
Flashes of a moment when he pulled a stream of black dot-like objects from an unknown location. Memories of how these things rushed through his bloodstream. How, he had tried to guide it along the path depicted by his father's manual, yet, it had followed a path all on its own.
Jun knew what he had to do.
'It's the constellations themselves.' He thought.
This time, as he mentally approached his ability source, this imaginary constellation of black star-like dots somewhere in his body, Jun tugged at the black stars themselves. Starting with a random location and pulling at it, away from its whole.
It resisted him for a few brief moments. Until, a single star dislodged from the constellation and flowed away from his temple.
Stunned, but not distracted, Jun maintained focus, watching the stars like a guide as one by one, following each other, the black stars trailed down his temple, to his throat before following a pathway towards and down his right shoulder.
This time Jun monitored the movement of the black stars intently. He discovered that at certain junctions or seemingly random locations, a single star would stop along the trail. First was at the shoulder where the ball-joint should be, then an elbow, again, where the ball joint should be, two even stopped at similar locations; one at the front of the center of his palm, while the other stopped at the back of the center of his palm.
He watched as the trail of stars journeyed across his bloodstream. The trail, he noticed would travel down a limb, leaving stars at locations he memorized, and the more it traveled, the more strain his body experienced.
With pure determination, Jun watched as the trail traveled up his left side of his body, down the left arm and back up to his temple. He was sweating profusely, each limb that now hosted a star quivered with inexplicable strain and a tremendous amount of heat was being emanated from his entire body.
'Just… a- lit…tle m-mor…' he reassured himself.
Jun watched as the last of the black stars finally reached his temple. The very last star disappeared at the imaginary source of his ability. Then for an instant nothing.
Jun who held his breath in anticipation was about to complain when suddenly he felt and heard a muffled boom that erupted from within his very body. In that instant, a surge of energy erupted from his temple and like nodes in a circuit, each star deposited across his body detonated simultaneously, releasing explosive energy, spreading power through every cell in his body. He felt his bones jostle, his head spun, eyes somehow tightened, spine cracked refreshingly.
'Ahh.' Jun exhaled the deepest breath he had ever experienced. He was both tired and refreshed at the same time, as though his body had suddenly thrown off a great weight.
Lee Jun felt renewed. He felt lighter. Stronger.
He stood, looking around his room, even his vision seemed sharper than ever. He frowned, then dashed to the bathroom.
Jun toweled himself, careful to ensure no amount of his nasty smelling special sweat remained on him. It still didn't make sense to him, but right after he used the toilet, he had begun to sweat the same slimy, foul smelling sweat like he had the first time around, albeit not at the same amount as that first time.
His stomach growled, but not at the same intensity as his first time. Despite that, Jun had to consume as entire two liter container filled with rice before he was sated.
He sat in his living room this time. Eyes closed. He focused inward.
'Amazing.'
The constellation had doubled in size, while the ethereal purple light appeared slightly more pure purple, more pure, than ever. With a gesture, his remote flew much faster than merely floating towards him.
'Again,' he declared to himself.
He relaxed, focused and began.
This time, as he pulled the constellation along the trail, it felt like he was dragging rusty metal shard along raw veins. The pain caused him to shriek and immediately cancel the process.
'Maybe,' he thought between breaths, 'maybe I'll wait a bit in between these circulations.'
With nothing more to do, Jun sat back and checked up on the latest trending news.
#SuperheroesinKorea