Team Kraken: Introductions, Part Two

"Okay, do any of you have any questions before we go downstairs?" Kim was looking around the table, expectant. 

After a brief pause to make sure nobody else was about to speak, Maria said, "It would help if everybody told me what their powers are, and anything else you think I should know. I'll even start, if you like."

Kim nodded to her, looking relieved. "Good idea."

"Um. So, basically, I can manipulate water and electricity -- though I'm a lot better with water. I can't create them, but it sort of looks like I can because I can absorb them. So if I run out, I have to absorb more, but as long as there's some around I can use it." She paused for a moment, then added: "I also know how to sail -- anything from a catamaran up to mid-sized sailboat."

"How do you store...?" Kim shook her head, cutting herself off. "No, never mind, thank you. Cat?"

Cat nodded. "It's basically two things: I can see in the dark, and I can make it dark. When I make it dark, it also interferes with other kinds of electromagnetic radiation, like radio and bluetooth."

That sounds handy, Maria thought. She nodded thoughtfully. 

"Um," said Ally, the girl with the close-shaven brown hair, the one they called Armor. "I mean, mainly, I build things. All kinds of things. That's really my power. But I've been building this suit of armor to use with the team, so when I have that on I'm, well, armored. And super-strong. And I put jets on it so I can jump really far--" 

"How far?" asked Maria. 

Ally paused, looking thoughtful. "About sixty feet forward, or forty feet straight up. I haven't gotten as far as making it fly, yet. And I still haven't cracked the neural interface, so right now it mostly just amplifies my movements, but with a little more work--"

Maria interrupted her again, because that seemed like the only way to find out what she needed to know. "How big is it?"

"How-- how big is it?" Now Armor looked bewildered. "Um... I don't know?"

Gaunt spoke up. "When she's wearing it, she's about your size. It's powered armor -- not, like, a mecha or anything."

"Well," said Armor, "Not yet. Anyway it's got some cool countermeasures and weapon systems, but Tempest probably wants me to wait 'til we're done to tell you about all of those."

Kim was nodded gratefully, though for her part Maria was honestly a little disappointed. "I'd like to hear about them," she said, "but after the meeting will work just fine."

"Oh. Good." Armor was suddenly wearing the smile of a girl who was about to get to explain her very favorite hobby, which would have been worrisome if Maria hadn't actually wanted to know. Fortunately, she did. 

"Uh, yes," said Kim. "Tempest, team captain. I'm a blaster -- I can project blasts of heat, wind, or raw force -- or any combination. I know how to drive, and I keep up with all the latest research on Anomalies like ourselves. I think that's why Ms. Salvatore put me in charge."

Gaunt spoke up unexpectedly. "You've done fine so far." He turned back to Maria. "I have some physical abilities -- strength, damage resistance, improved healing -- but mostly I'm a short-range psychic." He closed his mouth deliberately and spoke directly into her thoughts, which was very possibly the weirdest thing that Maria had ever felt: I can speak to you telepathically, and I can hear it if you reply -- but I have to be listening and you have to make an effort to project. I can't just read your mind. He switched back to speaking aloud. "...And I can spot our fellow anomalies -- we have a kind of glow."

Given some of the things that had been going through Maria's mind lately, that part was a relief. "How many people can you talk to at once?"

"I can either pick somebody and talk to them specifically, or I can kind of shout so all of you can hear it. Gets confusing if you all answer at once, though."

"Oh. I can imagine," she told him, and he nodded. "Anything else?" She knew he took part in basically all of the school's martial arts classes, and was curious whether he'd mention it.

He shrugged. "I know how to fight, I know how to pick locks, and I know my way around guns... though I don't expect to be carrying one while I'm on the team."

"Oh," said Maria. "Okay." There were some things there that she definitely hadn't known about, and she wanted a chance to think through them before she asked any more questions. "Um...." She looked around at the rest of Team Kraken. "Any more questions for me?" 

"You said you could manipulate water," Kim said. "Would you show us?"

"Well..." Maria raised a hand, and water in the team leader's open water bottle flowed up, curled around like a serpernt, and then flowed over and shaped itself into a ball above her extended palm. She flexed her hand, and it broke apart into five smaller balls marching in a circle. "I haven't done that much with it yet," she said, and one of the balls flicked itself at the empty bottle, knocking it off the table as it impacted. Water splattered across the tabletop, then gathered itself back together and coiled itself back up into a tiny serpent-shape. "I could absorb it and save it for later if I wasn't already full from the thunderstorm a few weeks back. Could you pick up the bottle?" 

Kim obligingly rolled her chair back, leaned down, and held the bottle up. Maria sent the remaining four balls of water back to it and dropped them inside, one after the other, then took the serpent that had splattered across the table and sent it over to the trash can in the corner. 

"Okay," said Kim. "That's wild."

"What about electricity?" asked Armor. "Is your control that good?"

Maria shook her head. "...Yes and no? I could shock someone, or possibly electrocute them, and it might even look a little like that except with this sort of semi-lightning. I can make a light bulb glow if I'm holding it, and if I'm very careful not to burn it out. But if we're being completely honest, I'm way better at burning it out."

"Huh," said Armor, sitting back. She turned to look at Maria. "That's going to make this afternoon interesting."

Tempest nodded. "All right. It's your challenge. Let's go find out what it does."