Chapter Author: YouAreNowIncognito

Gravity's apartment was empty when they got there, it was rather big and luxurious. It lay on the top floor in a skyscraper right outside the shifter districts. All his furniture was modern while the art on the walls were new and old mixed together. Some paintings seemed to be hundreds of years old and was created with oils on a canvas. Almost all motives pictured elemental demons fighting in the war at the beginning of time. Delmar could easily see which paintings were done by humans and which were done by shifters who actually knew how the war forms look. Neutron’s talk about wrecking the place had only been a joke. He was rather careful with everything in there. He ordered up a big family pizza from the restaurant down the street.

Delmar didn't say much, he was still grumpy about the whole thing. He and Angi stood outside on Gravity's balcony watching the city down in the valley.

“It's actually quite beautiful watching the city from above like this" Angi said. She stood on her hind legs with her front paws over the balcony railing.

“The forest is hundreds times better though" he answered. Neutron gave them company.

“Hi, sorry, I think we may have gotten off at the wrong foot before. My name is Neutron. Radiation said you could help us with the black shifters. We appreciate that, thanks! Do you want to come in and join us for dinner?” Delmar who had decided Neutron was the kind of high power jerk who looked down at weaker shifters got surprised.

“Yeah sure."

“So, your wolf. Is she your pet, companion or girlfriend?” Neutron sneered.

“W-what? She's not my girlfriend!” he blushed, what kind of a question was that even?

“I take that as you don't know." Neutron said amused.

“I think he used the term, personal stalker last time we spoke of her!” Radiation shouted from inside the kitchen.

“The real question is actually, does she eat at the table or on the floor?”

Some debating later, Angi proclaimed that she wanted to eat with everyone else if it was at the table or on the floor didn't matter. Radiation set up plates for the five of them. After a few minutes of realizing Angi had no table manners at all, they all decided to be in their animal forms, joining her bad behavior. They were still eating at the table though. Radiation was a black cat and Neutron’s animal form was a snow leopard.

“So in what way can an ice shifter help us with the black shifters?” Neutron asked with his mouth full of pizza. Delmar was starting to consider if he was a jerk yet again.

“He’s a psychic, he’s got mindreading abilities” Radiation answered before Delmar got to answer with a snide comment.

“A psychic, huh? That's rather unusual.” Neutron said surprised.

“That's extremely unusual” Nuclear added.

“So prove it! What am I thinking?” Neutron smiled and leaned forward. Delmar gave him a dead serious look.

“I told you, she's not my girlfriend” he gnarled. Neutron laughed.

“I won't tell anyone. Everybody winds up with a non-shifter partner at some point. Just be sure not to make any demonbloods while you're at it.” he laughed. Delmar had made up his mind. He was obviously a jerk.

“Make any demonbloods?” Angi asked interested.

“Yeah, don't you know? Demonbloods are half breed shifters. You know when an animal and a shifter have…”

“We know what you mean!” Delmar cut of madly.

“I always thought I had demon genes. That’s what everyone told me"

“We are demons!” Neutron pointed out. “Just look at all these artworks Gravity have. This is what we really are.”

“Is there something wrong with demon bloods?” she asked concerned.

“No, it is just illegal to produce them, if the electrical faction knows about a first generation demonblood litter they will kill them and punish the suspected shifter. Grown up demonbloods and second and third generation demonbloods don't have to worry though. It's not your fault you have shifter genes and you make it easier for our weaker shifters to hide among you."

Suddenly, Gravity came home. He stopped in the doorway and stared surprised at the group of animals at his dinner table. The animals were staring at him just as surprised back.

“Who invited a whole zoo?” he said. The silence around the table was total… “Get those paws of my table! I don't want any claw marks in the wood!” Everybody except Nuclear shifted instantly back to their human form leaving everyone in unnatural positions for humans. Radiation sat on top of the table and Delmar and Neutron had their faces down on their plates squatting on their chairs.

"Oi! Lady didn't you hear me!" he said to Angi. Angi jumped down to the floor bringing her food with her. Gravity looked sternly at her before realizing.

“...you are a just plain wolf, aren’t you?” he said. Then he turned to the fellowship at the table.

“What are you, a bunch of animals?” Gravity laughed. He had a heartwarming laught and didn't seem upset at all. “What are you eating? Pizza? For heaven sake couldn't you find some better food in the fridge?”

“What if we happen to like pizza?” Neutron answered defiant.

“Then I'll guess you'll eat junk food.” he rolled his eyes and turned to the female sitting on the table. “Hi Radiation! Since you're here, I hope you found something useful for us"

“Maybe I did" she answered.

“What did you find?” Gravity said interested and joined them at the table.

“A psychic element shifter with mind reading abilities"

“A psyc…? With mindreading abilities? No way! There hasn't been any shifter with that power on the record since Cain was killed.”

“Not on the record no. But you can’t really say our community does anything to actually find out which shifters have psychic abilities.”

Gravity scratched his beard, “No, that's true, you got a point there. So introduce me! I believe we are talking about mister blue ice man here?" he turned to Delmar. Delmar had let out his ice crystals again when they got into the apartment. They hovered around him as usual. Gravity looked like it was Christmas.

“Gravity, this is Delmar. He’s our psychic, hopefully he'll be able to help.”

“Welcome! Thanks for helping us! You look like a decent person." Gravity said, took his hand and shook it firmly.

“About that…” Radiation started but Delmar interrupted.

“I'm an outlaw" he said with a smile.

“Then I guess you look like a decent criminal” Gravity declared like it was completely natural. Neutron on the other hand looked shocked but he calmed down when he realized everyone else was aware of this fact.

“So Delmar tell us a bit about your psychic ability. Exactly what are you able to do?” Gravity took up an old-school pen and paper to take notes.

“Ehm…” This was it, this was where he was going to lose his only advantage against everyone else. Did he really want to tell these people what he was able to do? On the other hand was he no use to them if they didn't know how they should use his ability.

“Can you promise not to tell anyone outside this room?”

“Certainly!” the others agreed.

“Okay, I'm able to kind of, how to explain this? I’m able to walk inside someone else's mind. It opens up to me like a big house. Inside there are feelings and memories stored away in different places. The older the subject is the bigger the house is. Everything the person thinks and says echoes inside the house. Thoughts are extremely easy to read. When I was a teenager, I heard everyone around me’s thoughts all the time. It was extremely tiresome. Anyway, in this house I'm able to walk around I can take up a memory and look at it, see what the person saw, feel what the person felt. But I can't see more than the person remembers. Things are blurry and messy.”

“Can you see a whole person's life?” Gravity asked interested.

“Yeah theoretically I can, but it takes time. First of it’s not always sorted in chronological order and secondly it takes time to look through it all. I mean try and remember your whole life in chronological order. It would take you days, even weeks to go through it all and to remember everything. It takes even longer for me. I don't know what order things happen in and where you've stored all your memories.”

“Are you able to interact with the memories? Can you change anything?”

“No, I have never been able to make a new memory or change an existing one. I have tried several times but I have never succeeded. I can however, plant feelings inside the person's mind. I can make them feel, for example, happy or terrified. I use this a lot when I'm going to fight someone. I make them scared of me, it makes them easier to defeat.”

“Fascinating, could you show me how this works?”

Delmar stared straight into Gravity’s eyes and send a cascade of bad and terrifying feelings straight into his mind. Gravity recoiled.

“That’s nasty!”

“I know," Delmar said proudly and smiled mean.

“Does the person of matter notice you're inside their mind?”

“No, the only person who ever noticed me is Angi. Now she has built some kind of mental wall around her mind. I don't know how she's doing it.”

“A girl must have her privacy," Angi said and looked pleased.

“I can probably break down your wall if I want to. I just haven't made any big effort yet.” he marked mocking.

“So, to sum it up, you're able to hear what a person's thinking, you're able to look into their memories and you're able to plant feelings inside their mind? Is there anything we missed?” Gravity read from his notes.

“Yeah, I can feel what they're feeling too. I know if a person is, for example, scared or sad. It helps me predict their next move. I can also tell what element an element shifter possess” Delmar added.

“You have really developed your abilities for being a villain, haven't you?” Radiation asked.

“Yes, yes I have.”

“Well, I must thank you for sharing this knowledge with us! This is more useful than anything I ever dared to dream of" Gravity looked extremely satisfied.

“So what's the plan?” Neutron asked “should we just sneak up and take a look into his mind?”

“Something like that, yes." Gravity declared.

“Can I just ask, what is it we're up against? I heard you call them black shifters but I never really understood what they are.” Delmar asked.

“Frankly, we don't know yet, that's why we need you.” Radiation explained.

They discussed the matter long into the night. Delmar learned the group of black shifters were led by a jackal they called Black Hole. He was the only one of the black shifters they knew anything about. He seemed to have the power to implode mass and to create black holes. Delmar didn't fully comprehend what this meant but he thought he'll learn it as soon as he took a look for himself.

Finally, they decided to go to bed, Neutron had his own room and Radiation and nuclear took the guest room. Delmar on the other hand joined Angi on the thick living room carpet in his wolf form. He lay awake for a long while just thinking. He had a hard time believing everything that had happened today. He had joined the Radiation faction, been eating dinner with three of the ten top council members of the shifter society and they had asked him for help. He knew that this was everything he ever wanted, it was like a childhood dream come true but everything seemed so unreal. It felt like everything would disappear if he just closed his eyes. The only thing that felt real in the room was Angi beside him. Everything was thanks to her. If she hadn’t convinced him to come, he wouldn't have been here. He crept closer to her, she seemed to be asleep. He buried his face into the fur on her neck, she smelled just like the mountain air.

“Don't leave me,” he whispered, “Don't ever leave me”