Jonny woke to a small popping sound and a clinking of something small falling a short way.

He frownd feeling the stiffness in his back and his arm, noticing that he was still wearing his clothes from the day before.

It took him a minute to remember what had happened and how he had ended up in the tiny fold out bed.

He took a breath and yawning suddenly remembering that he had set up a Crystal to charge electricity while he slept and that if it broke it could explode with the power inside it.

He jumped up looking around for the Jacobs latter that he had set up and saw it was going with the arcing electricity jumping between the tongs and on the table right under it was a glowing yellow white stone that seamed to nearly buzz with energy.

Jonny picked it up slowly half expecting it to shock him but it was smooth and cold to the tuch.

He held it up looking into it and seeing the sparkles had half fused into a soild glow it surprisingly wasn't hard to look at, though it shown like a lightbulb in his hand.

"Beautiful." Jonny whispered looking at it and was almost afraid to start trying to mess with the power stored inside. He had no idea how much power was held with-in or how much could kill some one if he was to try and use it on them.

He shut off the Jacobs latter and set aside the glowing crystal and txted for Andy to bring him some coffee and something to eat while he got started on the water gem poring absorb and timing mana into it.

Where just yesterday it seamed a trickle of mana today it seamed like a flood the mana pored out and filled the Crystal seamingly filling as he watched.

It wasn't instant just noticeable, the center filling and glowing noticeably.

He smiled watching the slow glow of sparkling light when a soft nock on the door made him grin.

He could smell the coffee even over the other smells inside the old explosives test sight.

He put the gem into one of the cups turning on the water to a trickle so it could absorb at least a little while he ate and drank his coffee.

He opened the door to see Andy holding the bag of breakfast sandwiches and Cup of hot coffee he had ordered.

"You are an angel." he said taking them from her.

"Nope. Just a working girl" she said "and we also have your crystals in storage so when you need them let us know."

"thank you" Jonny said nearly burning his lip on the coffee. "so good."

He saw a slightly dark look cross her eyes behind the medical mask that today had drawings on it to make it look like a unfolded fan.

"Don't like coffee?" he asked

"No, just not HOT stuff" she said with a little twitch in the corner of one eye. "anyway il be going now."

"ok well ...thanks." Jonny said awkwardly closing the door with a foot as she turned away.

He enjoyed his food and his coffee wondering exactly what Andy was hiding under that mask. Then his mind moved onto what he should do today. He was half remembering something that he saw but didn't really take in yesterday.

Reading the book again he did in fact see that soul mana was described as a duplicating element. He had ben a little worried about mana manipulation getting out into the world and people drying up the oceans trying to get water mana, or figuring out how to get life mana from the living things and bleeding the world dry trying to heal there fighters.

Wich reminded him he had no idea how healing magic worked or if the crazy Journal writer knew how it worked.

He looked up healing magic in the book and it showed lines saying that due to his power the wizard thought that healing magic was a waist of time when it was much better to ether just die and try again or to figure out how to stop from getting hurt in the first place.

But then there was a few more lines saying how much he regretted never learning to heal just hurt or block away everything that some healing would have helped him more then he wanted to remember.

'Ominus and fucking usless for me when I do want to know about healing and you didn't ...Dick' Jonny thought shaking his head. 'iv got to get a better magic book'

His phone went off with a reminder that he had a quest to explore the portal in the bomb shelter with unknown rewords and +4 points.

'odd... wait dose that mean the unknown rewards is a better book of magic?' Jonny wondered looking at the quest as if expecting a txt in answer.

None came so Jonny just glared at the screen and returned to his work with the water gem. He saw it was still filling up nicely so he thought it would be better to leave it alone for now. Looking over his pitchers of candle wax and sand, then just felt like that was to much work and plans and things. He wanted to actually plan out and make some plans before he started jumping into that but right now he didn't have time for plans and toys he had to start getting battle ready.

With the main weapon he knew he had being his power to solidify elements and to make the air solid enough for it to tern into bricks.

He wondered if he could use that to walk around inside an invisible castle, or just make it so that he was inside a bubble stronger than metal but still able to walk around like normal.

He found himself wishing that Mike was awake and thought that maybe Drew had a back up or read something that would help.

He txted drew asking if he knew anyone or anything that mite help him with that.

The reply came back quickly asking If he had enough of a grasp on mana like he said he was going to in order to help the other guys out in the basement.

Feeling a little self centered that he had forgotten his goal he txted back that no he wasn't but knowing about his own power would help out a lot of things as well.

He was sent a short list of things to read up on or to watch to help him before he GOT BACK TO WORK.

Jonny looked up what he could of super hearos and anime characters using the power to tern the air soild or using other elements to make weapons.

He found out that nearly every god damed one had at least 2 guys who used elements as weapons and that elements were much more then just the he was thining of.

He felt foolish but also oddly freed. Apparently there was nearly no way to fail whatever he tried with his power he should be able to do sense so many others had thought of every damned way to use it possible.

The door opened surprising Jonny turning to look he saw Drew walking in taking a large drag of his Cigarette. "look I know you said you didn't want to go in there alone, But iv ben thinking. Your bigging a friggin pussy right now!"

Jonny barely had time to blink before Drew was walking around the room dragging on his cigarette and nearly yelling at him.

"This is the chance of a life time, people would kill for this. A quest, power, money, FUCKEN MAGIC?" Drew took that long drag of his cigarette then glared at it like it was a waist of his time and threw it to the ground to stamp it out. "Iv looked at the blueprints Jonny that hallway is barely big enough for Mike's fat ass let alone Jason's bulk... I looked into the power you said you got and damn it son. You could do a lot with it if you just grew some balls!"

Jonny just stared for a moment at his red faced uncle. "Are you drunk?"

Drew glared at Jonny for a moment then let out a breath. "no, but god I need a drink."

"...Want some coffee?"

"...Yeah." Drew said with a sigh sitting down next to Jonny on a stool by the work bench then txted Andy for coffee.

"So... Wanna talk about why you just came in here like a Kid who doesn't want to take a bath?"

Drew sighed again "after some coffee."

The door opened and Andy looking a little annoyed set three large cups next to Drew along with a plastic spoon still in the wrapper.

He didn't so much as nod to her as he started lifting lids to show that one had coffee the others had sugar and milk he started to add them in and Andy just left closing the door behind her.

Jonny thought about what Drew had ben saying, he was right Jonny was a coward and Had ben all his life every once in a while he had gotten a push but mostly he backed down.

People kept telling him he had to be fearless to dress up like he did or show off so much wanting everyone to look at him, but he never felt scared by that.

But fighting that was something he always tryed to stay away from, at least sense he was 10. Right after his dad had died one of the kids on the play ground was talking about how Jonny was a crybaby loser for crying after seeing a guy driving a car he thought was his dad before finding realizing it was just a stranger.

Jonny had attacked him his greif making him strong but not only that It made him feel 'good' not in a sexual way, but like driving fast down the highway, or bungee jumping made people feel.

Like he was finally alive and real for the frist time. After they had pulled him off of that kid blood running down his face and got his teeth fixed. Drew had taken care of it and Jonny changed schools.

Drew never asked about it he didn't need to he had seen the look in Jonny's eyes that day. His mother couldn't get him she was setting up his dad's funeral. So Drew had come to get him and fix everything.

In the car on the way home Drew had told him about what cinda life a guy would have if he didn't watch that cinda thing and let it get out of hand. Of the guys they called the mad dogs the ones that his guys always had to clean up, the ones that got out of hand and thought they where big shots. The ones who didn't even get to see jail.

Then he told him of how he could use it right watch himself and try to get it under control. Or he could barry it let it die and never fight again.

"Find something els something that'll make people like you." Drew had said. Jonny had started looking he tryed to forget about that day and found that acting out, standing out, and bing the bright fool gave him something of that feeling of bing alive.

Jonny looked at the scratched wooden table thinking about that day and about how kicking the rats had scared him but also gave him that same feeling of being alive. He was still feeling it and it scared him.

They were feeding off each other at some point, the mana experiments were a good distraction for a while and they were good to, but he kept thinking about those nasty week smelly rats. About how easy it would be to just go down there and start playing a janky wack a mole.

"I don't know..." Jonny said. "Im... worried about what this will make me."

Drew sturred his coffee slowly deep in thought. "...you know sometimes we get guys in the casino, they stay way from the bars make sure never to tuch a drop of any of the free booze we offer them. We always know that those guys are worried that one is to much. We see them run from it, then we got those other guys who seam to drink all the time seam to never stop, but never once seam to think they got a problem. Now for different reasons we talk shit about both of them. Because thats not how life is supposed to work. You cant just run from things spending your whole life trying not to be something, and you cant make it your whole life either. You need to accept that you need balance, if you love something you take it wear you can and when its ok. Il admit its hard sometimes to know when that is. Its some wear between never and forever"

"...thats helpful." Jonny muttered taking a sip of his coffee.

Drew nodded sipping his own coffee. "years of wisdom kid."

They sat drinking coffee for a little bit before Jonny sighed "allright, lets go see those fucking vermin."

Drew nodded looking pleased taking his coffee with him. "il drive."

They pulled into what was now a bussy construction sight, they were hard at work bringing the building down not using a bulldozer so that they could prevent the rats getting free.

Jonny was lacing up the heavy boots Drew had brought with him, and adjusted the light strapped on his forehead. They grabbed 2 sticks with nails in them from the back seat and headed to the fine wire mesh that fenced the locked wooden doors leading down to the basement.

Drew waved a few guys over with cages and thick shoes of there own before opening the doors.

Jonny had his arm rased holding the collar out other arm rased with the stick at the ready, but it seamed empty. They glanced at each other before heading down into the basement.

They continued to see no rats Jonny half expecting them to be at the very bottom like last time just waiting for him, But they weren't there either.

There was rat shit, and torn up papers, even one or 2 dead rat bodys but no rats.

That was when jonny started to get nervus. "what happened to the rats?"

Drew shot him a dirty look "I took them all to do experiments with them, like what happens if you eat a bunch of them."

Jonny looked at him wide eyed for a few moments before Drew looked pissed and shook his head "no I didn't really... at least not 'all' of them. I did have the boys snag a few."

Jonny wanted to say something about that but decided against it. Instead he shook his head and asked about there next move. "so what you think I should just keep going? check out the rest of the tunnel? while you wait here?"

Drew frowned looking around then nodded. "yeah unless I want to spend the next four days down here in this shit."

Jonny nodded and tryed to sike him self up jumping up and down and going "ok ok here we go."

Drew gave him a disbelieving stare until he looked a little ashamed and head into the long dark tunnel.

Again he could feel the moment that he passed from his world into this other one of magic and danger. He could feel the air get lighter, smells growing sharper, and his own body feeling energized like he had just taken a shot of espresso but with out the jittery feeling. It worried him that it felt good, for what reason would somebody want to stay inside this stone tunnel.

He didn't lower his gard, nail stick in one hand at the ready the other holding out the collar to keep away any surprise rats. But none came he saw a warm orange glow in the distance, then heard singing. It was a light scratchy voice singing just a few lines of a gospel song.

"i shall not, I shall not be moved. Like a tree planted by the waaater I shall not be moved."

But the odd thing was it seamed to get louder even as Jonny hesitated wondering if he should just tern back. The voice seamed to be coming from right next to him. Remembering that magic was real Jonny swung the stick half expecting to hit some invisible force or person. Instead the singing wavered for a moment before fading away back to what Jonny could tell was fire light.

The singing faded away then the song changed to a light repeated "BE... our... GEST be OUR gest BE our GEST." before fading away to nothing.

Taking that as something of a good sigh Jonny started walking forward again hearing what sounded like muttered voices arguing. He couldn't make out much but it seamed like all of them knew he was coming and they were arguing about what to do about it.

One stronger deep male voice called out "enough! begone the lot of you until I can talk to the boy and get things straight!"

Not douting for a moment that the voice had meant him, Jonny walked more confidently to the end of the hall finding a room containing a large wooden gate like the entrance to a castle, a torch burned on either side of the gate, and standing in front of it was an old bald man with a long dirty brown beard.

He seamed exited to see Jonny but covered his mouth with a cloth before coughing hard a wet sound coming from deep in his chest, it went on for some time before he finally got it under control and wiped his mouth with the cloth. "sory haven't much time left im afraid. An experiment gone wrong you see. Tried to make it so I wouldn't need to breath. I've always wanted to see space you see. ...Sorry mind slipping manners must have gone off with the others. I am Wallace Horbee. You can call me... well whatever you like I suppose. Not much point really going to be dead by the end of the day and thats the fact."

Jonny frowned no idea what to say or if he should say anything. Finally he had to say something. "how long have you ben down here?"

"hard to say... Few months... Maybe a year to be honest time has a way of slipping away to go explore while im busy with my experiments. It certainly hasn't felt very long at all. I have so much to do so much I wanted to try, but using yourself as a guinea pig has to have its price." He coughed again little green and red specks hitting the cloth he held up to caughit.

"id say...." Jonny looked at Wallace trying to hide a hint of disgust. "not contagious is it?"

Wallace shook his head "No no. shouldnt think so, I tried to change half my lounge into moss you see, So that when I held my breath it would change the oxygen to carbon monoxide then back again with out any more air being necessary. Trouble is it seams to have rejected the moss leaving them a mess"

"id say so..." jonny said "honestly iv got so many questions its like a traffic jam."

"yes to right." Wallace said "well come inside Iv got some things that mite help you out or at least I hope so."

He turned and the gates opened for him with a wave of his hand, jonny noticed a large golden ring on that hand. And it was hard not to notice seeing how it was glowing almost as bright as the torches.

The doors opened in word to reveal a large entrance way lit with candles hanging in simple iron chanlears or on wall sconces. Jonny noticed no wax was dripping or even melting off of any of the candles they were all clean and looked new.

"holy shit... how did you fit a whole castle down here?" jonny muttered in amazement.

"no idea... honestly I was working up to it but it seams that day will never come." Wallace looked even more depressed then he did talking about how he was about to die. "come along..."

Jonny followed the man as he kept talking his brown robes brushing against the ground as he walked. "I found this place... Rather it found me those many mouths ago. I was mad you see, completely bonkers. Raving voices in my head that would never stop never let me rest. Though they did help out from time to time telling me when people were looking at me, or what to say or do. They helped me to remember things or learn about things quicker. But for what little good they did they caused no end of trouble. Once I was in this place and met with Guidance she helped me understand that the voices wernt my demons haunting me but brothers born to the same body. She helped me let them out and they have ben much more useful ever sense."

"Guidance? is she hear to?" Jonny asked confused.

"what? no she was the one who comes to you in your dream to help teach you what the devil is going on man. DId she not speak with you while you slept?" Wallace seamed genuinely puzzled.

"...No the closest I came to that was the day after I woke up in bed having slept for 4 days I had a voice tell me just a little bit. But I did find a book, its ben very helpful" Jonny said confused as well.

"was that a little gray book? very soft?" Wallace asked.

"yeah... seamed like a rat ran off with it before a dog ate it." Jonny said.

"the.. rat or the book?"

"the rat, then the rat dropped the book." Jonny said. "speaking of witch what was with all the rats? where did they go?"

"I let the rats out hoping to get preditors to come and try to eat them. I hadn't noticed how many there were until yesterday. As I said iv ben engrossed in my work to try and get to space using magic." Wallace went on "Iv ben distracted by other projects of corse. Magic isn't as easy as I once thought... But I will say it is every bit as fun."

Another coughing fit forstalled the opening of a new door as Wallace leaned against it coughing into the cloth. After what Jonny was beginning to think would be his last cough the man seamed to get a grip on himself and opened the door revealing a grand hall filled with all sorts of strange devices looking like bronze and glass. Jonny thought maybe they were crystal instead. Book cases stood in between tables with the strange things on them. Jonny noticed statues on some of the shelves as well.

"this is the workshop. There aren’t many rooms in this place, a dormitory, bathhouse, small green house, the storage rooms, and of corse the workshop." Wallace walked over to the messiest desk papers and a statue of a rat standing crooked next to a bronze plate above what looked like a microwave that was left open. In the center of the table sat a crystal figure of a tortoise with a woodpecker purchased on its shell.

"iv written down anything worth knowing about me and what iv ben doing here." Wallace said setting down a rather thin notebook. "iv ben using those 2 for weeks now but I thought it would be better if they weren't here when I go... The Woodpecker go out and learns things, spying reading what not, and the tortoise remembers. Im sure you could figure out how to make more eventually but for now there our crowning achievement. Put part of myself into them you know, nothing I couldn't live with out and im sure you wont notice. They seam to act more like computers than anything alive witch was the point really."

Wallace fell again into a coughing fit large globs of red and green coming out this time he struggled for a long time before finally coming back.

"I just have one more thing to do!" he wheezed angrily panting holding himself up and staggering to what looked like a wooden out house with glass windows on the sides. "i know I wont survive it... its not ready and you have questions I could answer, but the truth is..." Wallace seamed both very old and incredibly young at that moment he muttered nearly in tears sounding like a scared child. "I cant be eaten by the worms... not like Tommie. I want to be in space were the worms cant get me let me burn up or freeze up there but don't let the worms get me."

Jonny didn't know what had happened to this man but he nodded "i wont let them get you..."

Wallace seamed to regain some strength tears still spilling from his eyes as he nodded. "help me"

Jonny helped the man into the wooden box and he sat coughing for a moment sliding the ring off of his finger handing it to jonny before calling out. "The only ones who want to come with me have to go!"

Suddenly the room was filled with nose voices, songs, animal sounds, car alarms, and random screeching.

Wallace looked surprised as the noses rushed into him growing quiet as they seamed to fill him up. The tears in his eyes now shown with a surprised wonder, a half smile on his lips. "all of you?"

Still smiling he slammed the door shut and pulled a lever next to him inside the box there was a sudden inrush of air along with a huge boom of thunder.

Jonny was nocked forward off his feet and feel onto the stone floor wear the box had ben his ringing ears felt wet and his whole body shook. His heart hammered so hard he wondered if it would bruise from the inside.

He knew his best bet was to just ride it out to wait until he got better he tried to focus and prayed it got better soon or he would lose his mind. He had forgotten that just before he had gone into the basement with Drew he had changed his phone to show any messages in front of his face.

(quest complete) '*' explore the Portal underneath the abandoned house. rewards unknown rewards +4 modification points. Rewards revealed College of magic ring of ownership obtained, reward revealed hidden quest.

'*'hidden quest help Wallace die with out his demons following. rewards +2 mana manipulation +4 mana distance +4 mana vision +4 magic knowledge.

You have leveled up.'

The warm glow filled Jonny shutting off the ringing in his ears, and his heart rate slowed. He felt relived to have it all gone, taking a deep breath he stood to find himself inside a classroom with white walls, and a single large desk before him. Also before him was a pail woman with white hair pulled up into a bun. She wasn't old but albino Red eyes looking at him calmly.

"Im glad I got to you. Though it normally doesn't take so long... or happen in such an odd way." She said to Jonny looking a little annoyed with him.

"are ...you Guidance?" Jonny asked a little unsure of everything at this point.

"You can call me Tutorial. I sometimes take on other names especially for the older people who don't play many video games." She said shortly. "now we do have time but not much, at least for you to ask me your questions or for me to help you with your real power. Instead I am just to teach you about magic answering questions with that, I can control this place and bring anything we need or that you would like to learn. The thing is time is tricky, so when you leave it will feel like we’v studying for years but at the same time it was only a few seconds. Your memories will only grow sharper when you actively try and remember how to do anything I teach you here and now. This is because you where given points into magic knowledge and I took an opportunity to jump in when you leveled up. This most likely will not or can not happen again thats why its so important that people stay in the magic portals when they change. ...now lets begin."

Jonny took a deep breath trying to organize his thoughts and memories. Standing up and looking around he had trouble for a moment remembering where he was, but seeing the little statues on a shelf besides the books reminded him.

'oh yeah... damn wish all college classes where like that.' Jonny thought looking around then using the new mana vision he had learned. At basic mana detection he was nearly blinded by all the air, movement, and light mana around him. He cycled through the layers of mana seeing that in fact most if not all of the things around him were in fact magically charged. Not even the floor beneath him was with out some sort of enchantment to it.

Jonny glanced at the 'runes' on them knowing that shapes had little to nothing to do with real magic, it was just to help the caster keep track of his work. Most magic writing was actually invisible or kept hidden either in pocket spaces or made smaller so that each line was actually a lot of things rolled up tight. Size was a thing of the physical, so was distance. Magic or mana didn't really give 2 shits about how big something was except for how much energy it took to make or to keep going.

Jonny walked over to the crystal statute that was the last gift from Wallace and slipped it into a pocket with the notes he had left.

A memory loud and sharp shown in jonnys head for a moment. "get your guys into the portal as soon as possible other wise they may be even worse off then you were."

Jonny walked with purpose slipping the ring onto his finger remembering that the owner of this place could in fact open and close the gate anywhere he wished. Jonny closed the gate and then opened it again right wear Drew was waiting for him.

Drew nearly choked on his cigarette having ben smoking and leaning on the wall. "fucking hell... Is that blood on you?"

"yeah cinda..." Jonny said stepping out. "But cinda don't have time for that... I need to get the guys in here right away. Turns out you miss out on a lot of shit if you don't spend the 4 days inside the mana rich environment of the portals."

Jonny closed the portal then opened it again to the dorm a large hall filled with bunk beds 3 beds tall. "Im honestly wondering if this ring isn't the real world and this is just the pocket space inside it."

Drew looked at Jonny letting his cigarette burn for a moment before putting it out under a boot. "so... a lot of shit happened to you in there huh?"

"you could say that... I think it mite be better if maybe you go in first then we'll talk." Jonny said. "...you were right. There are other portals and people are getting power from them. Nothing is really ever going to be the same."

"...fuck." Drew said eyes distant and lost in thought before blinking and stepping into the portal. "Better get me a fucken power then."

Jonny smiled just a little at that and watched as Drew walked then staggered to one of the beds leaning against it swearing a little before dropping down onto it.

"'*' Bring Drew to gain power bonus complete Make it safe for him to stay there the 4 days. 8 points awarded. You now have 16 points."

Jonny rased his eyebrows at that and smiled a little. 'with all those free points I had just got im not even sure what the hell to spend these on.'

He stepped inside then closed the portal focusing on the RV outside and how it looked from inside it then opened the portal again stepping out onto the soft carpet.

Jonny Looked at Micheal who was closest then started "casting" a slightly more advanced spell. He let his mana move out of him like smoke then turned it to something like water beneath Micheal with a string of mana running back into Jonny's hand. He turned the mana to amplification and copy mana then lifted his hand up the mana changing to lift Micheal up with the gesture.

Taking the little force an empty hand moving up made and turning it into enough power to lift the heavy man then move him into one of the other beds inside the portal. He did the same to the other 2 men the same way having a bit of trouble with Jason's bulk.

Once all the men were inside Jonny thought it would be easier to go back into the basement then walk his way out rather than just coming out of the RV and making everyone ask questions.

So thats what he did Making plans in his head for what to do next and letting the guys know that Drew was ok and that the rats were gone and not coming back.

To his sparize they said that they knew Drew had sent out a txt just before he passed out apparently letting them know and that some one should take back the RV so they could really get to work with out it in the way.

Pleased at this Jonny headed back to his own home across the street taking the time to take a shower and get a fresh set of clothes on while he thought about what his next move should be.

He decided to take the day and go have fun at the casino, ...by doing his job or what had ben his job. But fuck the bingo if his job was really to be a big shot wizard then he was planing on being a showy, flashy, wizard. Not just a killer with a wand. Plus the world was slowly ending this maybe one of his last chances to go out in his shinny suit before war was declared.

Jonny suited up taking his time and enjoying himself, half imagining he was suiting up like a bad ass just before a fight. Feeling a bit mischievous he took a portal to the casino instead of driving or trying to figure out any other way to get there.

That was the last time Jonny used magic until he went home for the day. It was tempting to show off and cast spells to get attention but he held back. He just wielded his personality like a sword copping up the crouds into smiling, laughing, cinda embarrassed, bits.

With everything that had happened it was the most fun he had in a while he thought again about a magic act going up on stage and doing real shows. Not just harassing people and getting away with it. But then he thought about how soon the world was ganna change and the magic shows he would put on would be just as interesting as juggling. Not mind blowing, but definitely shows skill and time bing put into it.

Jonny took the portal back to the workshop to get the things he left behind along with his car. He had a much better workshop now and he intended to use it, though he would miss the porters it was so useful having go-fors. He wondered if he could still use them some how or if they'd get upset with him for that.

He smiled a little realizing he could just set up his portal to the collage inside the workshop and just close it when they came in.

Jonny started walking out of the place pockets filled with crystals whistling lightly when he saw Andy come out of one of the other rooms she looked odd for a second then Jonny saw what it was. Her hair was half falling off her head and her mask had sliped of as well she seamed angery as her whole face was red and she was yelling into the doorway when a woman lept out at her smacking at her and yelling "GIVE ME MY FUCKING PILLS"

Jonny ran forward left hand outstretched putting forth his golden solidifying power going out and solidifying in between the 2 women then growing outward, pushing away the attacker while setting up a barrier to protect Andy. He made sure to make it more rubbery then stiff so that the woman wouldn't hurt herself to much.

Bucky came running up the hall with another man Jonny didn't know and grabbed the woman who tried to fight them off.

Jonny quickly shut off the warding before some one accidentally hit it, then turned to Andy. "are you ok?"

Jonny finally saw Andy for the first time, she had clearly survived being burned. Her red scalp was wrinkled and harless, her ears where just gone, her lips looked more like a lizzards small and almost scally, he could see now that she wore a lot of make up around her eyes and the eyebrows looked professionally glued on. He saw the look of fear then anger in her eyes as she saw him looking at her and probably saw the unintended look of horror in his own eyes.

"Im fine" She snaped pushing him away and trying to cover her face with her wig as she ran away.

Jonny was frozen feeling foolish when he was slammed in the back by something and bounced off the wall in front of him.

"sorry" a stiff voice from behind him said coldly "lost my grip on her."

Jonny turned and saw the buff one armed man glaring at him holding the still struggling woman the best he could. "Some people don't like our 3day policy especially when they think there on to something."

"right..." jonny said feeling like shit. "ah..." he thought he should say something, or ask for how to make things right with Andy but everything he thought of just felt like it would make it worse. Then he remembered part of the reason it was so important that people stayed in the mana zones was because they got a cosmetics change while there bodys were changing and being upgreaded.

He pulled out his phone and sent a txt to Andy "Sorry about that... and meet me by my car... please."

Jonny headed to his car the golden ring on his hand feeling heavy as he walked, wondering if he was doing the right thing and trying to plan out what exactly he would say to her.

Jonny waited by his car thumb idly rubbing on the water filled crystal he had grabbed from the overflowing bucket. Instead of Andy the one arm man walked up looking pissed.

"Look Andy doesn't like anyone seeing her face. Shes transferring to somebody els who isn't going to pitty her and give her the oh im such a nice guy I don't care bullshit." The man said as soon as he saw Jonny. "so just forget it and move on. OK buddy?"

Jonny fround at the guy wondering if he should argue if he should push his luck and tell the guy to fuck off and let him talk to Andy and let her in on the secret that was ganna change the world soon.

"ok...fine. I don't know if you know what im working on but I think Andy would want you to go get her and have her talk to me." jonny said

The man looked like jonny had just offered him shit in a hotdog bun. "im not going to say it again leave her alone."

Jonny sighed. "OK... sorry." jonny licked dry lips "...Im just feeling awkward you know? I mean I feel bad but I feel bad for feeling bad. But at the same time I really think I can help her." Jonny glanced at the guys arm that ended at the elbow. "...and you for that matter."

"YOU THINK WE NEED YOUR HELP?" the guy yelled and pushed Jonny up against his car forearm braced across his chest. Jonny could hear the man wheezing a little and saw he was more out of breath then he let on. "We don't need your money or your fancy fake fucking robot hands. OR skin cream that feels just like your real doll. We need people to stop looking down on us like freaks for serving our country. SO FUCK YOU AND YOUR HELP."

The guy seamed like he was struggling to breath then started coughing in Jonnys face he struggled to stay up right then went limp grabbing at johnny's shirt with a hand to try and stay up right, as the man coughed. Jonny tried to help grabbing him under the armpits to hold him up and felt a large rough patch under his left side.

The man let out a loud grunt of pain glaring at Jonny clearly having no air left to cough with. He fell back Jonny trying his best to lay him down gently with just one arm but the guy was just too heavy, he fell to the ground landing on his back seaming to get enough breath to start coughing again.

Jonny started to panic looking around "HELP CAN I GET SOME FUCKING HELP OVER HERE?"

But they where alone in the parking area of the secret underground mob owned mad sience lab. Jonny was scared for the mans life he had no medical training and the only healing magic he learned needed gear and tools he hadn't ben able to make yet.

Jonny saw the golden ring on his hand and knew there was only 3 options, Try and go find help leaving this guy to maybe die alone, try to help him himself with no idea what he would even start doing, or to trust in magic and Tutorial to help.

Jonny felt angry that those where his only options but as soon as he saw thats what they were he didn't hesitate pulling up a portal and pushing the man into it using a little to much mana in his panic and sending the guy flying into a wall.

The guy let out a breath and lay still. Panicking jonny ran over and put his hands to the guys neck to try and find a pulse after a minute of just foolishly groping the mans neck the man started to breath low and slowly as if sleeping peacefully.

Jonny sat back on the floor wiping the sweat suddenly coating his face and took some long slow breaths of his own trying to get his heart to stop hammering in his chest.

His phone buzzed and jonny aloud it to display the message in front of him. "hidden '*' Trust magic to save a life. rewards +2 life magic."

Jonny's eyes went a little wide as he started finding memories of how life magic worked of how he could look at something alive and look though everything that made it. Like looking through a blue-print and he could tell the thing to make it or change it.

He couldn't tell if there was more thoughts or memories of things he could do with it, if it was as easy as changing out parts or grafting them on then he could make mix and match creatures, like pokemon or try and tern animals into robots. He wasn't sure how he would do it but if he could do something like make rats into rumbas that didn't shit all over the place then he could make millions.

Hell just being able to make dogs smart enough to use a toilet like people then he'd be rolling in the money. Silk worms that would make dresses instead of cacoons would mean you could get so much more with out just killing the things to get there silk. Sheep that shed there wool when it got to the right length like trees losing there leaves.

'holy fuck' Jonny thought 'what if I could actually make a chicken wing tree?'

Jonny was so overwhelmed with his new magic type that he had forgotten that he had just dropped off a guy in the other world after yelling and fighting with him.

4 guys with medical gear burst out of the hallway looking for him. "where the fuck is Bucky?"

"ah..." jonny thought for a moment about how to answer that question when Cid came out of the hall way door.

"ok guys pack it up and put it back." he said looking at jonny "Jonny took care of everything and Buckys alright."

"But"

"i said pack it in." Cid snapped "wev got things handled and you should know by now id tell you if that dumb ass was dead. Honestly we've got some big things in the works and im sure it wont be much longer until we go public. Soon as you need to know something il tell you, now get back to work."

The men didn't look happy but they started to go back shooting Jonny dirty looks while they did.

Cid looked at Jonny for a long time as if thinking of exactly the right words to say. "don't use magic portals near so many damn cameras. And if Bucky's dead don't exect me to clean up the body you hear me?"

Jonny nodded. "he should be fine ...really."

"you coming back?"

"...i don't think so. ...iv got my own place set up now. I think" Jonny said.

"good. I hate when I see someone doing impossible things and I cant learn how." Cid said with a little glare. "so don't come back until your ready to teach understood?"

Jonny nodded looking around awkwardly before pulling out his keys and getting into his car. Cid stood and watched him go clearly wanting more answers.

Jonny felt for the guy not knowing anything that was going on or even the right questions to ask. Driving carefully out of the hidden lab Jonny wondered how many people had actually seen him portaling around. He felt like a child for bing so blatant before, going to work with a portal was so stupid.

He shook his head ready to go home and get some sleep in his own bed. Those last few minutes with Bucky had ben draining as hell, add on to that the full day of prancing around at work and Jonny was tempted to just pull over and sleep in the car. But he made it home and into bed with out trouble and of corse it still took him nearly half an hour to get to bed.

There was just to much to think about and to much new info in his head.

Jonny's dreams that night where disjointed, blurs of images, colors, ideas, words and memories. Its not a good idea to try and shove 2 years worth of knowledge into your head all at once. Then to add in the extra few months on top its a surprise that people don't go crazy when they try to do it.

After Jonny woke up he swore to get his sleep schedule back in place, taking a long hot shower and planing out his day seamed odd at 11am instead of 5am.

After a quick meal of cheesy scrambled eggs and bacon that before his body upgrade he would only eat sparingly for his health. Jonny felt both full and satisfied but greasy and dirty then he wanted to be so soon after a shower. He very nearly jumped back in but instead washed himself off in the sink before heading into the Collage and finally read that notebook he was left for him by Wallace.

It was a very dark life story. Wallace had ben hearing voices sense he had ben little and Tommie had ben Wallace's brother Henry who was older then him by 10 years who had tried his best to take care of Wallace and had gotten it into his head that maybe if Wallace just went into someplace quiet for a while Wallace would be able to think about the voices and listen to what they had to say and tell them to just stop or to help him live with them and do things while ignoring them.

It had started to work or at least Wallace was able to start doing things to help out. They went camping often and seemingly randomly Wallace didn't know just how bad things were in his home he just knew he felt better in the woods then he did at home. But one day while they were chopping firewood the ax missed and what they thought was the ground turned out to be a fallen tree so old and large dirt had hidden it away just in time for Henry to fall through it like the earth itself had chosen that moment to kill him.

All of the worms, termites, centipedes, and beatles came bursting forth and seamed to swallow Henry up as they fell down what was just a simple hill. But what could have ben just a scary moment turned horrifying when Henry landed on the ax he had still ben holding. Crying out in pain from the ax in his ribs while being buried by the downfall of rotten wood, dirt, and bugs would haunt Wallace for the rest of his life half of his voices would tell him it wasn't his falt but the rest would scream at him that he could have helped him live if he had just known better had just gone down there to help. But what could a boy of 8 do?

Wallace lived in the woods 2 weeks before he stumbled across a park ranger he thought he would die in the woods and that the bugs would come for him to that he would lay there and it would turn out that all of the trees were filled with them just waiting for him to die so they could explode with wriggling slimy things.

Therapy and hospitals didn't help, they made the voices quiet but the best they could say to him was that it was natural that it was actually a good thing that bugs ate the dead and that no matter were he was on earth he would be one day taken by them. "theres nothing you can do so just get over it." was what he was told time and time again. Some just took longer to say it then others. He vowed to so something to make sure that he would not end up like that.

Wallace spent far too many years of his life trying to find out some way any way that he could not end up eaten. He demanded to move to the desert and after running away from any place with trees and grass the doctors finally agreed that it was better for him not to be in any place with them and just let him have his sand.

Time passes as it dose Wallace existed nothing worth noting. No great loves, no families, no jobs or frends worth mentioning. Just sand, time, and fear. Its sad to say many of the people he had met on the streets seamed the same way. Just waiting to end things or for things to end them.

Until the ring had appeared on his hand and the portal had opened before him into the college and his meeting with Guidance and telling him that magic could help him and that his voices were now his new brothers able to come out and interact a little with the world for themselves. They had a lot of time to make up for those dirty moochers and the rent was do. From now on Wallace would have brothers helping him again instead of just carrying them around, doing all the work.

There biggest use was spying on people and learning things, they could after a fashion pick things up and move them and once Wallace had learned enough magic to teach the rest of them things became a lot easier with them also able to manipulate mana and test for things just like he could this made there work much much faster. Things that should have taken years happened in just a few weeks and with there ability to go as far as they wanted from him, along with there lack of human needs, his space box project was zipping right along.

He didn't notice that he had left the rats on the summoning box after trying the moss lung experiment on them. It had seamed to work for the rats but that was because they had ben artificial and not brand new real rats and not people. He also had no idea that Jonny and the others had ben trying so hard to get in until after trying the moss lung experiment on himself. It was only then that his "brothers" tried to go and find help for him that they had seen Jonny and the others fearfully trying to run away from the rat problem.

He spent the next day getting rid of all the rats and trying to make sure not to many had ben leaking out into the world before sending out a voice to Drew to whisper at him about how they needed to come back to the tunnel to find out what was there.

That was the end of the journal like part of the book the last little bit was how to tern on the Tortoise and the Woodpecker. Inside the crystal animals was a lot of spell work infused with the statute its self. It didn't go into any detail but the fact that if you put mana into the Tortoise' mouth then it would activate them both until you stoped sending them mana. Or you could put another full mana crystal against its activation point to keep working until taken away.

Jonny set the book down a little sparized it didn't get downloaded like the last one, maybe that was because it wasn't written in that weird line pattern, but in simple english.

He pulled the water mana stone out of his pocket wondering if it had that much point now that he had the workshop. Looking around he thought he knew what some of the things around him were supposed to do. The strange Globes with bronze around them seamed like they where supposed to open and the there was symbols on it that even a child could see in just about any language. Little fire picture, a water drop, little moving lines, but the others he had no idea what they where supposed to be.

He guessed that the thing was there to fill up a gem with mana and there to help teach people the different types of mana and how they mixed. Witch is something so useful that Jonny had just ben racking his brain to try and make.

That also showed how shitty that little book had ben that the rats had ben chewing on. Looking over the other books with the same odd lines on the spines he was sure that any one of them would be a better book then the one he had.

Having an odd thought Jonny looked through the book case near him and then at another, one more just to be sure and Jonny knew he was right.

The gray book wasn't one of the ones from the book case. The little journal must have ben somewhere els before the rat had eaten it. That rased more questions, plenty of witch didn't seam worth asking, so he just set it aside.

Instead he placed the water mana gem underneath the Tortoise. Hidden lines inside the crystal started to glow and spread through out the Tortoise and the Woodpecker until they both filled with blue light then the light grew out taking on the statue's form.

The woodpecker's wings fluttered and started to flap looking more like a hummingbird then what Jonny thought woodpeckers would fly like before it lifted off noticing the notebook next to them, before landing and pecking away at it.

The Tortoise blinked slowly looking up at Jonny waiting, for what Jonny wasn't sure but after a moment the woodpecker stoped pecking and landed back onto the tortoise and seamed to whisper into its ear before jumping off landing on Jonnys shoulder. Before he could stop it the thing started pecking away at him, Jonny jumped back expecting it to hurt but it didn't. The thing was like a hologram so Jonny decided to just ignore it for now and looked back at the tortoise completely at a loss for what to do next.

"...Do you talk?" Jonny asked not seeing any other way for the thing to be able to communicate with him.

"Yes." the tortoise said in a deep gentle voice.

"oh... good." Jonny thought for a moment then asked. "have you... gathered all the books in this room already?"

"Yes."

"and you've got information on all of the items as well?"

"yes"

"good." Jonny was at a bit of a loss not sure where to start on his own. It was all well and good to have all the info at once but looking at a big pile of info all at once. "...is there a book that tells you what books to read?"

"yes." At the same time that the tortoise answered the gold ring on Jonnys hand glowed for a moment then a thin golden light shot out and pointed at a book set on a stand on top of the short bookshelf. Jonny glanced at the bird who suddenly stoped pecking at his shoulder and flew off to the tortoise and started whispering in its ear. Jonny waited for the bird to stop before taking them off of the Mana stone. They seamed more useful as a magic google than something to help him hear and now.

Jonny turned on his music picking up the book looking it over so it can be downloaded into his "phone" He thought about doing the same with the other books but the Tortoise had already done that so no point.

He sat and started reading thinking about making a portal to go back to his own home to sit more comfortably while he read. But it seamed unnecessary especially sense the book he was reading now was more of a teacher's guidebook then a real book.

It told him that the order of books was top shelf to bottom and right to left, the very first book was a book on meditation, sense control, and ways to start being able to feel and control mana from scratch. This corse could take between 2 weeks or a year depending on the student. For some it would be very hard to grasp the concepts of how to do the training properly, but others should grasp it nearly intuitively.

The next book would be the basics of mana moving it changing it and learning how to channel it along with some of the soul mana. This should take between 3 weeks and 1 year, again based on student aptitude.

Jonny figured that he had those covered with his time learning from Tutorial.

The next books were a matter of choice on what the person was wanting to learn about and those topics were animal magics, plant magics, advanced mana mixies, magic item making, and large area magics.

Of course there was a few books on mixing them as well witch sounded truly terrifying if use wrong. Jonny sat looking over the the books trying to decide what he would like to learn more about and what would help him out the most, in the end he gave up and just started at the beginning he would skim over anything he thought he knew and double check them against what he learned before. It would be a loss of time but right now he had time to spare and it was hard telling what things he mit not know hidden in the book.

Besides once he thought he knew what was in the book it would make it easier to talk with the Tortoise latter and use it more effectively. He just wished he still had access to the assistance like in the Lab...

Jonny looked at the golden ring and thought about how he could just portal to the casino for food or to home for anything els he wanted. Then he remembered what Cid had said about being so blatant with his powers.

'driving a little bit wont kill me iv just gotta remember not to get to lost in my reading.' Jonny thought as he turned on his music and picked up the first book.

The book of meditation and mana sensing was much more then Jonny thought it would be. It wasn't just hippy feel good things, it was a primer on how to relax feel the world feel your own mind and try to learn how to really feel the world then change and shape it with your willpower.

It also had lessons for combat training as well saying that one should learn to meditate even in high stress or physically active environments. Like while running or even trying to doge blows from attackers. This would not only teach you to be one with your body and mind but also let you cast spells while under stress. This seamed like it could have so many uses.

He sighed a little and hoped that he wasn't wasting time and started on meditating.