Defying Gravity (Part 4 of Mutants Versus Witches)

Lunch had transformed into a crazy brainstorming session about powers.

"I could totally revolutionize Amazon deliveries. Two second delivery." Elysse pointed out, teleporting their remote from one side of the room to the other.

"Harry would be a kickass poker player." Devon stated, and the telepath smirked, looking over his book.

Or a politician or a spy. Harry added telepathically, shrugging.

"Simin could be a renewable energy source." Elysse giggled madly, falling back on the sofa.

"Come up with something, dumbass." Devon elbowed Simin. "Or did you burn through your last two brain cells?"

"Two more than you have." Simin rolled her eyes, but then brightened up. "Wait, wait, I've got something. Devon can defy gravity right, so..." She waved madly, trying to get everyone to guess something.

They couldn't, shrugging.

"So theoretically, you could fly?" Simin finished gleefully, perched on the literal edge of the sofa.

Devon frowned, shrugging. "Technically, you can fly." If the fire wielder used her flames to propel herself. "Technically, Elysse can fly."

"Oh yeah," Elysse snapped her fingers, nodding. "If I opened a portal on the ground, and opened the next one up there. And then went splat on the ground."

They all turned to Harry, the telepath, who rolled his eyes.

Simin grinned. "Technically, Harry could force a pilot to fly a plane for him-"

"-technically, Harry could fly." Devon smirked and the telepath shook his head amusedly.

Wow thanks guys, I feel so included. The telepath told them dryly.

"But you could actually fly, D." Elysse said excitedly, standing up. "Try it now, holy shit that would be so cool. Yes, people, I swore." Elysse stuck her tongue out at the shocked telepath.

"You kiss your mother with that mouth?" Simin asked, widening her eyes and Harry burst into silent laughter.

Devon smiled despite himself. Hey, if Ellie thought it would be cool...

"You could maximise your punches, dude. Just telekinetically add some oomph." Simin mimed punches, leaping up. "You're basically the hulk-"

Devon narrowed his eyes. "Okay slow down, guys, shit I can barely levitate a cube, forget myself-" They always made it sound so easy.

"Just try it already!" Simin pressed, sparks coming off her fingers.

"Put the flames away, you goddamn arsonist." Devon sighed deeply. But he should try it. First time for everything right? And hell yeah, it would look cool.

The room held its breath and Devon glanced around, shocked by how they were all watching. Staring intently.

"Yo, find something else to drill holes into!" He barked, alarmed. Then Devon closed his eyes, breathing deeply.

Trying to summon...something.

He felt the familiar waves of his power building around him, forming connections to everything. Devon had always seen gravity like something fluid, that clung on you, pulling down. The first time he'd learnt about it, it was an aha moment, finally figuring out his enemy's name.

If he focused hard, he could get things to fly out of that fluid. But he'd never turned his ability on himself before.

The power hummed out of Devon's fingers, warping the air. And every single thing near them hovered into the air.

"Ah, shit, not again!" Simin yelled, going up into the air. Harry spun, trying to grab his glasses, which had floated off.

The sofa was listing upward, smashing a lamp into the ground, and the door whined at the hinges, threatening to tear right off. The shards of the lamp started floating around too.

"Devon!" Elysse grumbled, smacking into the wall near her, her hair framed around her face like she was underwater.

Devon winced. "Sorry, sorry, wait." He tried to grab control of everything, and Elysse screamed as she and the couch flew at each other.

Harry grabbed the curtain rod as he felt the pull, Simin ran up the side of the glass coffee table, flipping over to the other side.

The door snapped off one of its hinges. Elysse closed her eyes as the couch closed the distance.

He couldn't stop! Everything continued hurtling together, Elysse portalled away at the last second, reappearing on the couch itself.

Scorching the shit out of their coffee table, Simin shot out flames and zoomed around the room. She laughed like the maniac she was, ducking under Harry's legs in her path around the living room.

"What on earth is happening here?" John asked, entering the room briskly.

"John wait!"

"We're flying!"

John looked thoroughly exasperated as he suddenly flew up, the phone he'd been holding slipping into the air.

"Emily, I'll call you back!" He yelled at it and then turned to Devon, his voice patient. "Focus Devon, you've done this before."

Devin frowned, all his energy going into keeping everything exactly where it was. Pretty hard to focus when Simin was flying around everywhere, singeing the wallpaper and heating up the room.

"I'm trying! It's just-ugh, what am I doing wrong?" Devon demanded, his arms shaking with the effort.

Simin zoomed right up to him, her flames burning too close to his shirt for comfort. "Focus on one thing at a time. Put them down like the cube."

Devon nodded, glaring at the couch. It plunged downwards and Elysse clung onto the arm as it crashed onto the ground. It slammed into the floor, one leg snapping off.

"Devon!" Elysse complained, and Devon grimaced.

"Sorry!" He focused on the TV next. Gentle, be gentle.

CRASH!

"I seem to remember telling you to focus." John sighed, upside down near the ceiling. "We really need to do something about these cobwebs."

"Devon!" Elysse's shoulders had shot up by her ears when the TV fell.

"Do you even know the meaning of control?" Simin demanded, just to be annoying, like Devon couldn't list all the times her flames had gone out of control.

Harry just glared over his shoulder.

Devon tried to be careful, but it had been hard enough to keep everything up. Now he had to work with gravity?

Elysse was paranoidly clinging onto the couch arm. "Try thinking of it like a light dimmer, provide just a little bit of power-"

"-or a gas stove!" Simin interrupted and Devon looked over to her, trying to keep up with all the metaphors.

"-Okay, how about I give the advice?" Elysse asked indignantly.

"Who helped him master the cube? Let the experts give the advice, ma'am." Simin crossed her arms.

"Girls, is this really the right time?" John asked, face red with blood.

Maybe think of it like the ocean, Harry's voice said in his head.

"Guys can you just shut up?" Devon snapped, breathing out heavily. One thing at a time. Gently.

He tried to carefully guide Harry to the floor. Sweat trickled into his shirt, and he lost focus for a second.

Harry ripped the curtain off as he fell.

Simin shot down to catch the telepath, carefully dropping him onto the ground.

"Sorry, Harry, Jesus!" Devon growled, turning to John instead. "Okay, I'm going to-"

"I trust you. Just keep focused." John said encouragingly, and Devon breathed out. He could sense his power running out.

John moved one inch at a time. Slowly. Devon didn't dare break his attention for one second. Not even to wipe sweat off his face until John put his feet on the ground.

"Bravo, Devon." John declared and Simin let herself get back on the ground.

Devon nodded, relaxing, and there was a loud crash as their coffee table shattered, the door slapped the wall, and every other thing crashed right into the ground. "Oh, shit, sorry."

Simin cackled, pale with the exertion. "That was awesome!"

Devon and Elysse glared at her.

"So you technically can't fly?" Elysse asked sadly, shakily climbing off the couch.

Devon shrugged, panting hard. "Not yet anyway."

He glanced at Harry, "You good, man?"

The telepath gave him a thumbs up, inspecting a burn on his shirt.

"What were you all even doing?" John asked, tilting his head to the side.

Simin launched into an explanation. "Technically, I can fly, Elysse can-"

"I'll be right back guys," Devon said, leaving. Once he was in the darkness of his room, he shook. The last time he'd used up this much power, Simin and he had blown up a witch embassy.

Devon leaned against the closed door, trying to catch his breath. Well, shit, he still had a long way to go. He couldn't always count on adrenaline to save their asses.

He needed to get some goddamned control. But first, he needed to change out of this shirt, it was practically soaked with sweat.

The closet was pretty empty, but Devon remembered tossing a shirt onto the top shelf.

He reached for it, feeling around the darkness of the shelf.

His fingers tightened around it finally, and Devon frowned. Wait a minute, how the hell did-

He looked down, seeing his sneakers a foot above the ground.

"Oh shit, it worked." Devon whispered, feeling gravity's strings on him loosen more.