Power Swap: Colors of the Wind [Closed]

[Evan Brackett]

Something was up. Evan wasn't sure what, but he was determined to figure it out by the end of the day or at least figure out what his new power was. It was no secret that something weird had happened at Hammel, and now a lot of people's powers had change. And what was better, their control over their powers had changed. That was the important part. If Evan could actually control his ability, whatever it was, then he would be happy. The problem was finding out what it was he could do.

Like most people, he had discovered something was going on a few days prior. That is, he was able to open his dorm room door on the first try. That was weird. On any normal day, he had to fight with the doorknob as his hand slipped through it several times before he could solidify himself and open it. At first he hoped that he could suddenly control his phasing, but when he tried to walk through the door and smacked into it face-first, he knew that wasn't the case. Part of him was afraid that he had no power at all. It was true that he found his ability frustrating at times, but he never wished to not have it. Relief washed over him as the day went on and he noticed other students (and teachers too) facing the same problem. Some of them even claimed to have new powers. If they had a new ability, then he must also have a new ability; he just needed to find it.

As soon as he finished his homework, he darted out the door and headed off campus. Evan wasn't entirely sure how he would discover his new ability, but he figured he might as well be away from public view. Knowing himself, no amount of control would keep him from looking like an idiot, or screwing up and breaking something. That was why he was getting away from the school and away from Pilot Ridge, towards the lake and solitude.

It was on the way that he noticed how the breeze seemed to isolate itself around him. Breezes themselves weren't out of the ordinary for this time of year, but the fact that only the leaves of trees he was passing by rustled was odd. And that the breeze would tousle his hair and his scarf, maybe those of the people around him, but not the people walking on the opposite side of the courtyard or street. When it started to annoy him and he wanted it to go away, the breeze would instantly stop, like it knew it was bothering him. It was from these occurrences that he realized what his new ability probably was, and what he decided he wanted to try first.

The first thing Evan did when he arrived at the lake was look around to make sure no one else was there. Of course the beach was abandoned. It was off season--too cold for swimming--and leaves were already tumbling across the sandy shore. It was the fallen leaves he attacked first, willing the breeze to pick them up and drag them through the air. And it had, just as he wanted it to, and it stopped when he wanted it to.

He knew it. He could control the wind. He could really control the wind; in a way he was never able to control his own ability. And that was awesome. Evan laughed in exhilaration, making the breeze rush by again and pick up more sand and leaves. Then he ran off the beach and into the forest, blowing leaves around himself along the way. Eventually he stopped and stood still, watching as the fall colors slowly drifted around him. This was fun, and so much better than getting stuck in his bedroom every morning.

[Levi Xu]

It was wonderful.

Levi had started his run slowly, letting Buccaneer lead the way. It was such a gorgeous day outside; he just wanted to run through the woods with his dog, crowing like the lost boys.

In the months since he'd moved to Vermont, he'd become quieter, more withdrawn. It was hard to be anything else when his entire world revolved around how much he didn't fit in at the compound. He was the youngest, both in age and experience. No one--particularly not him--understood his power, and they couldn't help him train something they didn't understand. He was utterly useless.

Plus, most of the people who lived in that old, austere house terrified him on a daily basis. Reese with her guns. Jahel's cold eyes. The blank emptiness behind any of Paulo's expressions. And Fifi's creepy little laugh that sent shivers down the back of his neck.

But now that he could shapeshift into a dog, he could be helpful. So what if he couldn't manage an older dog? He was still young himself, and would be able to do it eventually. And Mr. Underwood had been enchanted by the transformation, so he'd spent way too much time in that form already.

Levi's joints were sore, and his muscles ached from the different use he'd been subjecting them to for the past few days. He'd decided to take up jogging on his own, as a human, to see if that kind of warm-up helped him at all. And the little Aussie puppy alongside him seemed to be enjoying the exercise and the full glory of the autumn as well.

Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a whirlwind of leaves. It looked so pretty, blowing the reds, oranges, yellows and browns through the air. They spun and twirled like giant, multi-colored snowflakes, and since the air was pretty still otherwise, he had to go investigate.

Quietly, he creeped up, trying to keep Buccaneer silent as well so they could see...Evan?

The boy he had met a few weeks earlier was standing, letting the drift. There was a moment of recognition, but it wasn't accompanied by his usual impulsive knowledge. He didn't know why he'd been convinced the older boy was Spider-man before, and he didn't believe it now.

However, he now believed that Evan was absolutely a meta-human, and a talented one at that. "Evan?" he asked suddenly, stepping forward from behind a tree, hoping the surprise in his voice would disguise that he'd been spying for a little while.

Levi gently batted at one of the falling leaves, managing to change its flight pattern, but not quite able to catch it. "Did you...was that you, doing all of that?" He was smiling widely, because he knew, the answer was yes, and that meant that they had something in common.

[Evan Brackett]

Evan didn't think twice about running into the woods, despite the fact that he had no idea how far he had wandered from the lake. In fact, this whole plan wasn't well thought through. He didn't consider that other people might want to spend their day in the woods or that he wouldn't be alone there. It also never occurred to him that the rest of the forest’s trees were still, and that a bunch of concentrated, moving colors would be incredibly conspicuous.

As such, he continued to play with the leaves in blissful ignorance, making a gust of wind blow by periodically to keep them all in the air. At first it was a simple game to see how long he could prevent them from touching the ground. Then Evan started to test the power more, toying with the wind speed and direction. The control he had astounded him. It was no wonder that he didn't notice another presence approaching until his name had been called. He turned around reflexively, his brain not yet processing the other boy’s arrival. Their previous meeting had been a few weeks ago, but Van definitely remembered him and his dog. "Hi, Levi!" he shouted with a smile.

And then it hit him.

Panic set in as Evan realized that he had just been caught using his ability (his new ability) by a boy who didn't even know he was a meta-human. To say he was mentally freaking out would be an understatement. The wind flared up in response, tossing the leaves in a fierce whirlwind very unlike the breezes he was making before. Fortunately, some rational part of his brain manage to kick in as he realized that Levi had been smiling, and pointed out that meant he wasn’t not frightened or angry. That quickly ended the panic, and the wind instantly died with it.

But even though he had calmed down, Van could still feel his cheeks burning with embarrassment. "Oh, um. Hi. Yeah. That was me...sorry,” he admitted softly. He didn't know why he had apologized, other than he simply felt bad. It dawned on him a moment later that the final whirlwind was out of control, and he didn't know what kind of damage that could do. Right, that's why he wanted to apologize. “Oh! Uh, you’re not hurt are you? I'm sorry!”

[Levi Xu]

It was so cool. Levi watched in awe as Evan turned the clearing into a dancing, multi-colored snowglobe.

When the older teenager noticed him, he gave a small wave, still smiling. Mr. Underwood had warned him about trusting non-metas, but this was something different....

Then the wind picked up, and the leaves were whipping around in a frenzy. Levi ducked his head, hoping not to get anything in his eyes, but the whirlwind died down as fast as it had started.

"No. I'm fine." Though he had bits of leaf in his hair and Buccaneer looked like he'd been attacked by a leaf-blower, but that didn't matter since that meant Evan was a meta-human too. And even with all of the persecution and hatred of metas out there--that was why he had to keep quiet about the compound, after all, for protection--he'd managed to find someone who might be able to understand him.

And even better, Levi now had a power that was worth showing off. Previously, the best Evan would have gotten was questions about being Spider-man. But now, the younger boy could do this. "That's so cool. I didn't realize you're a meta too." And then, as if to prove the "too", the boy stepped forward and shifted into a dog.

The transformation was fast, as Levi shrank down, out of his clothes. It took him a moment to squirm out from under his coat, as he had once again become a black lab puppy. All ears and paws, he scrambled out of the clothing and ran across the clearing, up to the older boy. Look! I'm special too! Levi said, but it came out more along the lines of "Rowf! Ruff!" as he put one paw on Evan's shoe. Buccaneer, amused by his owner's antics, bounded up beside him.

[Evan Brackett]

He breathed a sigh of relief when Levi said he was fine. "Good. I'm glad," Van said with a small smile. He would have felt terrible if he had hurt someone because of his carelessness.

Upon noticing the leaf bits in the other boy's hair, he ran his hands through his own a few times to get any leaves that found their way into it out. The wind-swept style wasn't much different than the scruffy way he normally kept it, but he grunted when a multitude of red and brown bits fell to the ground. Oops. Well, if that was the extent of the mess he made, he could deal.

"Sorry," he apologized again, sheepishly kicking one of the leaves by his feet. He felt ridiculous for being so careless, but he was glad that Levi had showed up. It gave him something to do other then waste the day away by playing with his new power. And there was the bit about being cool. "...Thanks." He never thought of himself as cool, and he was happy to know someone else did (even if it was on slightly false pretenses). The only thing that could make that even better just so happened to happen next.

Was Van ever impressed when the other boy disappeared into his clothes and reappeared in puppy form. "Wow," he breathed. "Now that's cool." It was exciting to see that Levi was really another meta, and it made Van feel a lot better too. He watched with a big grin as Levi and Buccaneer bounded up to him, then crouched down and gave both a scratch on the head.

The older boy laughed when he realized how small Levi was as a puppy, particularly compared to his own hand. "Look at this! You're tiny." He held his hand over Levi's head to prove his point, and then scooped him up into his arms because it was too hard to resist holding him. Evan smirked at the puppy-boy as he stood up and added, "But totally adorable."

[Levi Xu]

On their way across the clearing, Buccaneer came running up behind Levi, bumping into him and pushing him into a pile of leaves. In retaliation, he attempted to tackle the dog, but their comparative weights meant that Levi couldn't knock him over, and he quickly gave it up. Evan was more important anyway.

Yeah, I'm tiny. I think it's just because I'm young. Yes, Levi was well aware that his words came out as little, excited yips. But that was fine with him. He didn't struggle when Evan scooped him up, but once the--now much bigger--teenager stood, he wriggled around so he was looking up at him. He really liked Evan, and it was even better now that he knew he was a meta-human too. And if Labradors could smile, Levi would have done so at the adorable comment. He liked being called adorable. With another series of yips (Thanking Evan, naturally.) he squirmed and put his front paws on the boy's shoulder, so he could lean over and lick Evan's cheek.

Maybe he should learn how to shift into something that was capable of human speech, because while licks were acceptable for communicating that he thought Evan was pretty cute as well, he would have to shift back into his human form to actually talk. He didn't want to do it just yet though, so he just yipped again and licked his friend's ear.

[Evan Brackett]

Levi might have looked like a dog, but Evan could tell his behavior was human, especially when he replied to the comments. The meaning of the yips was lost on the tall boy, but he could at least tell they weren't angry and he assumed his words weren’t taken offensively. That was more obvious when Levi licked him. He chuckled, "You're welcome."

It crossed his mind that dog licks were equivalent to human kisses, and he blushed when Levi licked him again on the ear. The thought was quickly suppressed. Evan was sure he was reading into it the wrong way, that Levi was just using what little methods of communication that he could. Yips and wagging tails only went so far. It wasn't what he wanted to believe, but that's what he told himself.

And now that Levi had demonstrated his ability, Evan wanted to do something else cool with his own. He pet Levi as he thought about, his eyes wandering around the clearing. The pile of scattered leaves that he and Buccaneer tumbled through earlier caught his eye. "Hey! I have an idea," he announced suddenly and put the lab down.

"Watch this." He took a deep breath then willed a breeze to swirl by, tossing the leaves back into a tiny, loose pile. "Erm...hold on." He tried again (and a few more times after that) until there was a decent sized pile, then ran and jumped in it. Evan flopped down--laying on his back--and let the leaves scatter around him. "See?" he said grinning, straining to look at Levi from his awkward position on the ground. "All the fun of jumping in a pile of leaves, but no raking required." It wasn't the best or most mature use of his power, but it was fun.

[Levi Xu]

While it had occurred to Levi earlier that licks were the equivalent of kisses, but his puppy persona didn't really remember that until after he was already snuggling into Evan's arms. He liked that he had this excuse for contact now. He liked being held like this, and being able to cuddle with someone.

But of course, Evan had to put him down eventually. Like the obedient little dog he was, he sat at the boy's heel and watched, awed, as he made the wind blow again, eventually forming a pile big enough for jumping.

Oh wow. That looked fun. Levi started sprinting towards the pile as well, then just before he jumped, the changed his mind and darted back. Half the fun of jumping in leaves was the colors, and he couldn't see them when he was a dog. So Levi ran back to his clothes and shifted into his normal form, quickly picking up his discarded garments and putting them back on as he did so. "Sorry about this. Just give me a sec." It only took him a minute to get dressed again, and then he ran back across the clearing and jumped into the leaves. "I can't see the colors in dog form."

Levi flopped onto his back beside Evan, grinning the same way he had been since he'd seen the older boy use his powers. Buccaneer was amusing himself by trying to eat the leaves. This was nice. He didn't really have friends at the compound, besides Jake. With everyone else, it just seemed like one-sided respect, with a little fear mixed in for flavor. "I didn't realize you were a meta-human too. I just thought you were Spider-man."

[Evan Brackett]

Evan respectfully looked away when he realized what the other boy was up to. "Nah, it's fine. I get it," he assured. After all, half the fun was in the colors. He started playing with the wind again when Levi joined him in the pile, making the wind toss the leaves into the air then letting them float back to ground, as he had done before.

The wind stopped suddenly when Levi surprised him with his comment. "Where'd you get an idea like that?" the older boy asked, quite confused at the prospect. He never read the comics, but he didn't realize he was anything like the web-slinging superhero. Particularly not enough to make anyone think he was Peter Parker.

As Van thought about that, he realized there was something else that had been bothering him since Levi had transformed, but he couldn't pin point what it was. It wasn't that he hadn't said anything about being a meta when they met before. A lot of people didn't go around flaunting their powers just to see if other people had them. It was bad practice. Then what was it? Oh, that's right. Home school. That didn't fit into the picture at all because every meta-human in North America had to go to Hammel.

He looked over at Levi with a confused expression still plastered on his face. "I don't get it. How-ow...ooowww? Ow!" The question quickly dissolved into cries of pain. He sat up and rubbed his temples as he became more aware of the headache growing in his head. Not once did Evan think about the side-effects that would come with the new power, and after using it so much within the last hour, it was inevitable that he got a massive migraine. Unfortunately, he wasn't normally prone to them and was clueless on how to cope. "Ooowwwww," he whimpered again.

[Levi Xu]

The one part he actually disliked about his power was the fact that he kept shifting right out of his clothes. Why couldn't he take them with him, like in Animorphs? (Okay, he hadn't read the books himself, but they had been on his sister's bookshelf when they were kids, and the pictures on the front covers were pretty epic.) At the compound, it hadn't been that big of an issue, except when Oliver had poked his head in and seen him naked on Jake's bed. That had been awkward.

But since Evan wasn't making a big deal over it, it was okay. He just quickly redressed and returned to the pile to flop down. "That's just so cool..." Levi batted at the leaves as they swirled to the ground around them.

"I don't know, I just did." Levi half-shrugged, making the leaves rustle under his shoulders. Now that he wasn't seeing people the same way he had before, he realizes what his delusions must have sounded like to the rest of his family, and to the rest of the people at the compound. (The people at Mr. Underwood's house had actually become more frightening without his old power. Also, Jahel suddenly had two full arms, and Levi didn't know how to deal with that one.) "We weren't sure what my power was before, but this--the shifting--is new. Before I could do something else, at least the blood test said so. But it made me see people...differently, I guess. I just knew things about them, though they weren't really right. I knew you were Spider-Man right after you tripped over Buccaneer's leash." Then he rolled onto his side to look at Evan, eyes going wide with embarrassment, "But I don't anymore! It's different now."

When Evan sat up, so did Levi. "Oh no, what's wrong?" Carefully, he wrapped his arm around his friend. "Can I help?"

[Evan Brackett]

"You mean your power changed too?" He asked, full of curiosity. "So did mine!" Why was he so excited about this? He already knew that other people were going through power changes, so it shouldn't have been surprising. It wasn’t something to be proud of either. Especially since his actual power was a lot less "cool", and he didn't actually want to share it; not the finer details on it anyway. But as he listened, he got the feeling Levi wasn't thrilled about his original power either. In fact, Van could tell the younger boy was embarrassed about it. If it could make his new friend feel better, then it couldn't hurt to share his own woes.

"Mine wasn't that great either," he admitted solemnly, a frown shaping his features. "I could phase, but not really well. I could barely get my arm through a wall. I'm probably the worst practiced phasing meta on the planet." He finished up with a biting scoff. "It's...disappointing." So in his attempt to make Levi feel better, he made himself feel worse. Nice.

The headache only compounded the feeling. He winced as the pain transitioned into a pounding. "It's my head." Because that wasn't made obvious by the fact that he was still holding it. "I have a headache," He added to clarify.

Levi's touch barely registered as Evan tried to sooth himself, still working at his temples for lack of another idea. He didn't even notice when he pulled Levi into a desperate hug and buried his face into the other boy's shoulder. And when Van finally became aware enough to realize why he was close enough to Levi to count the threads in his shirt, a blush formed on his face. "S-sorry!" he stuttered with his face still hidden, too embarrassed to look up. "Uh, no. I have no idea; I never get headaches. But, uh, I guess this is helping...technically." Well, it was.

[Levi Xu]

"Yeah, it did!" Evan's enthusiasm for the whole thing was contagious, particularly because Levi had already fallen in love with his new ability as well. "I was just letting out the dogs one moment and then I was running along with them, and I had paws."

"Phasing still sounds like fun though, and practice makes perfect, right?" The younger boy was trying to be encouraging, because if everything went back to the way it had been, once again Evan would be with a not-as-cool-as-the-new-one ability, same as him.

And with the people he lived with , that was discouraging. "Everyone else," Levi was too distracted by the glee from having a friend who was a meta and didn't live at Mr. Underwood's house to realize he really shouldn't be talking about all the other members of M.S.A.D. like this, "they all had awesome abilities. Stuff like manipulating shadows and puppetry and that thing Fifi does, where she touches people and they get high." The fourteen-year-old evidently didn't know when to shut up. "We couldn't even figure out what the power was, just that it made me think you were Spider-Man and that Jahel--someone else I know--only had one arm"

Having spent so much of his time recently as a puppy, Levi was actually pretty used to being manhandled for the purpose of snuggling. (Jesse could stay Mr. Underwood's favorite student. For a little while at least, Levi had been his pet.) He wrapped his arm more firmly around Evan, gently rubbing his shoulder. "Hey, don't be sorry. Sometimes powers make them happen. It's okay."

Levi leaned his head on Evans, keeping up his smile. He spoke softly, trying not to disturb the other boy, but he couldn't help his observation, "Your hair is really fluffy." And he didn't even have his power to blame his observation on.

[Evan Brackett]

"Yeah, I guess," he agreed half-heartedly. He had been practicing for almost two years already, and it hadn't done him much good. There was no point arguing about it, though, since Levi was just trying to be helpful. The brunette just shrugged it off without another word.

With everything Levi told him, Van just grew more and more confused. Of course, he could just be talking about other people he met in town, but it sounded like he meant the people he lived with, and that didn't make any sense. Particularly once a certain sleazy girl was mentioned. If there was one person Evan regretted meeting, it was her. And there was no mistaking it was that particular girl; her name wasn't exactly popular amongst humans. "Fifi? You know her too?" That was so weird. Then again, Pilot Ridge was a small town, and the older boy had yet to put two and two together.

He had to admit, he liked having Levi there to comfort him. The headache began to cease--the pain far less noticeable than it had been--enough so that the tall boy chuckled when his friend complimented (or what he was going to assume was a compliment) his hair. "Um, thanks?" Evan pulled away from the other boy and ran a hand through the fluffy mess. "I think the wind helped, um, volumize it." He wasn't so sure if that was the right word to use, but he thought he heard it in a hair spray commercial once.

“My head feels a little better,” he announced. There was still a dull thudding sensation in his temples, but it wasn’t as bad as before. “I don’t think I should use my power anymore, though. We‘ve got plenty of leaves around us anyway.” He picked up a leaf and absently twirled it between his thumb and pointer finger.

[Levi Xu]

"You know Fifi?" Levi did his best to avoid her, as a rule. She just made him feel uncomfortable, with her creepy voice. "She comes to Mr. Underwood for training too..."

And then he realized, he'd just blown their cover. He was supposed to be keeping all of this a secret. But Evan didn't count, surely? After all, he was a meta too. It was better if he knew about what Mr. Underwood was doing. He could help, even. "I kind of...lied to you before. I'm not really homeschooled. I'm living with Mr. Underwood. He has a school for training meta-humans outside of the town. Fifi comes in most days to train, but she doesn't live there like I do, and Jesse." Levi smiled and shrugged, "We're trying to make the world safer for Metas. Well, they are at least. I will when I'm older."

It was nice, Levi thought, to have his arms securely around Evan like this. Sure, the other boy was bigger than him, but he rarely got to be the other offering someone else comfort. It was just nice. It made him feel warm, a sensation that stayed even when the older boy pulled away. "Probably. And that's also probably why you've got some leaf bits in it too."

Levi scooped up a handful of leaves and launched them into the air. They didn't float down as elegantly as they might have with Evan's help, but they were dry leaves, and came down prettily anyway. "That's good. About your head, I mean. And I guess about the leaves too. They're so pretty here. They were always all wet back home; we'd get rain all fall, and most of winter too." Though Evan had moved away, Levi slid a bit closer, so he could lean against the other boy. "But I know how you feel about the headaches. Whenever I shift too many times, my joints start to hurt. I think I spent all of yesterday as a dog so I wouldn't have to change back."

[Evan Brackett]

"Yeah, of course. She goes to Hammel too." It took him a second to realize he never mentioned his school by name, so he tacked on, "That's the, um, boarding school I go to."

The lie about being home schooled wasn't much of a surprise. Evan had enough sense to figure that much out already. What he didn't get was everything else Levi was saying. "What are you talking about? Hammel Institute is the school for training metas. It's suppose to be the only one in the country, in the entire continent, even." None of this was making sense, and it made his head hurt (more than it already was) to try and sort it. "I've never heard of this Mr. Underwood or his school or any of these other people you‘re talking about." Jesse did ring a bell, but he wasn’t sure from where.

"Hm?" The brunette had almost completely forgotten about the leaf matter that had got caught in his hair earlier, and he blushed when the other boy pointed it out. "Oh, uh, yeah." Evan plucked some of the pieces from his hair, giving up on getting them out when he realized that would take forever. “The dangers of aerokinesis: headaches and messy hair. I think I prefer the latter,” he joked, tousling the mass one last time to knock some more of the leaf out.

He watched with interest as Levi performed his own version of the game Evan had been playing all day. "Yeah. I like fall here too." It was a lot better than the autumn he experienced as a child in South Dakota, where there were hardly any trees at all. He smirked when Levi moved to lean on him, and this time the close contact made his face flush for a reason other than embarrassment. "Yeah?" But instead of pursuing the topic of side-effects, he placed the leaf in his hand on top of Levi's head and grinned. "And today you're the leaf king, instead of a puppy."