Though she didn’t feel dizzy, she found she lacked the sense of balance to stand, and tipped forward.  Between one heartbeat and the next, everything seemed to click.  She felt as though she were floating in slow motion rather than falling, her body thrumming.

Flight?

She extended one arm toward the arm of the chair to catch herself, but she underestimated the speed and strength of the movement in the midst of this slow motion world.  The chair was sent flying, skidding across the floor.

Ahh, actual time powers? Niice. Time is a cool category, even with the powers that don’t involve actual time travel.

She fell hard, the moment over, her fall no longer slow motion.

Oof.

On the other side of the room, the chair hit the wall and shattered.

So she can slow time down for herself, consequently making her movements faster.

Makes sense, with the meditative void’s feeling of detachment and calm.

The ground split.  Chasms tore into the surface, dividing it, and-

Another image.  Earth.  It was as though she was looking at everyone’s face and every object and every living thing on the planet at once, from every angle, but then she was looking at a different everyone and everything, then another.

Hm. She put herself in the mindset of complete awareness of her own body. Did the Dandelions exaggerate that and give her complete awareness of the entire planet?

It dawned on her that it wasn’t her doing the looking.  She was a bystander.  Before she could realize what this other was looking for, the scene changed again.

Huh. The power / the Dandelions looking for a thing to latch onto, like Bonesaw described?

Utter blackness and silence.  It was only in this stillness and quiet that Jamie realized there was an undercurrent.  An impression.  She hesitated to call it an emotion. 

Reaching.  It was the only word she could use to place it, and it didn’t quite fit.  It was an action that was simultaneously frustrated and frustrating.

Is the power having trouble because she cleared her mind?

The pain cleared away so quickly she thought she might have imagined it.

She was on the ground, she realized.  On her hands and knees.  Tears ran down her cheeks.  Not all were from the pain.  Some were sympathetic.

Let’s see what happened.

Maybe it failed to find a power for her at all?

“Relax.”  The Doctor’s voice sounded far away.

She was panicking, and the idea that she was panicking made it worse, because it could mean she’d change.  She might look different.

The panic increases the chances of that, and that only fuels the panic, which makes the chances even scarier…

Scales, spines, metallic skin or something else.

Don’t think about spiny, scaly, metallic elephants!

The darkness swallowed her field of vision and she felt as though it were creeping over her skin.

What had she been thinking, doing this?

It’s certainly a big decision.

I wonder if Cauldron would be willing to use the cape who revokes powers on customers who got powers they didn’t like. Probably not with a refund, though.

Have to calm down.

She’d taken up Tai Chi when she was thirteen, something one of her therapists had encouraged to deal with stress.

Is that what she was doing while waiting for Cauldron?

She couldn’t move here, and it was impossible to stand, let alone do her exercises, but she could try to reach that mental state.

Sounds like it.

She attempted to take deep breaths, but she couldn’t even tell if she had air in her lungs or if she was breathing in or out.  She tensed the muscles in her fingers and toes, then forced herself to relax them.  She did the same with the muscles of her hands and feet.  She worked her way up through the entirety of her body, focusing on that simple action of tension, relaxation.

Honestly, being able to do this under these conditions is admirable.

It began to burn, the intensity increasing second by second, until she was convinced it couldn’t get any worse.  It did.

“Hurts,” she groaned, trying to push herself to a standing position.

…what if the vials work by causing a trigger event rather than by replacing one?

“It’ll get more severe before it gets better.  Stay in the chair.”

“Didn’t tell me,” she could barely speak with the way her chest felt like it was caving in on itself.

“I didn’t want to alarm you before we began.  It’s normal, and it does get better.  A minute, maybe two, and you’ll be surprised at how fast the pain goes away.”

At least it’s not a lengthy ordeal.

She clutched the arms of the chair.  As unfathomably bad as it had been just moments ago, it kept getting worse.  She had to endure another two minutes of this?  It felt like the burning inside of her was melting through the walls of her throat and stomach.  She could imagine the tissue blistering and dissolving, expanding outward until it touched on her lungs and her heart.

Hm. I wonder if she’s going to end up with a power that changes her biology significantly on the inside, like Aegis’.

As it seemed to consume her lungs, her breathing began to dissolve into breaths too quick and small to bring enough oxygen into her lungs.  Darkness began to creep in at the edges of her vision.

I’m beginning to question my assertion that two minutes isn’t lengthy.

“Sure.”

The Doctor unscrewed the canister and withdrew a vial.  It was no longer than a pen and no thicker than one of the Doctor’s fingers.  “The faster you drink it all, the quicker and cleaner the transition is.”

Bottoms up!

“You said something about a dream quest?”

“Some experience it.  Some don’t.  Don’t be concerned if you don’t.  Simply relax to the best of your ability and stay focused.

Dream quest? Hmm. Maybe some customers remember whatever interaction these vials may cause with the Dandelions?

The higher and more pronounced the physical reactions like your heart rate, sweating, adrenals, and emotional response, the greater the chance of a physiological change.  I recommend that you keep from dwelling on any stressful thoughts or memories.  Just stay calm and try to relax as much as you’re able.”

“And for the love of all that is good and pure, don’t think about elephants for a second or we’ll have to reschedule.”

“You haven’t eaten?”

“Nothing since this time yesterday.”

“You don’t have any colds, no aches and pains?”

“No.”

“That’s too bad.  The sample we use to moderate and control the effects of the finished products has a short-lived regenerative effect.  This is one of the selling points we offer to the clients we find in hospitals and the like.  

That’s not the direction I was expecting that to go. :p

Some have even recovered or partially recovered from life-long disabilities.  We’ve had reports from people who were mildly ill when they gained their powers, who found they never got sick again.  It would be nice to verify this.”

Now if only they could distill what part of the sample causes this, they could sell some amazing medicine.

“You couldn’t have told me that before?”

“It could easily be a placebo effect.  Not worth a rescheduling.  You’re comfortable?”

Fair point.

Nine years ago, she had been kidnapped for use as leverage against her father.  She had been held in their custody for three days.  No food, six water bottles to drink and no bathroom.

Yikes.

She’d gone to the washroom in the corner, had removed one sock to keep the pee from making its way across the sloped hardwood floor.

Sounds like a thoroughly uncomfortable experience.

She’d assured the psychiatrist that she had gotten over any of the trauma and any fear of the dark that had stemmed from that incident.  It was her father that’d had a hard time dealing with the event.

I feel like if that had become a trigger event for her, it would quite possibly result in a light-based power.

Heh, imagine if it turned out her dad had been a heroic cape on top of his detective work ever since then.

She’d been young then, and the event hadn’t really stuck in her memory.  But she couldn’t shake the idea that the kidnapping might have left some lingering effect on her that would taint the process.

Yeah, very possible.