13 Shock and Awe

The Rune family stared at Alex in awe, his glowing red eyes visible to them all. Saying they were shocked would be a massive understatement, after all, the odds of having an ability were quite low to begin with yet a member of their family received one. The odds of someone awakening their ability past the age of 15 was unheard of, yet here stood Alex, an almost 18 year old boy who only just awakened.

"You have... an ability...?" Jenna asked in utter shock.

"I do."

"B-but you're too old... how is this even possible..." Jenna leaned forward and placed her elbows on the table with her hands supporting her head as she struggled to comprehend the situation.

"Wait wait wait... Did you just say you had a... Unique ability?" Benny asked with a similar expression on his face as what his mother had.

"That's right."

The room was silent in the moment after Alex answered these two questions, his family members needed a moment to accept the situation before their true feelings could be known. Jenna and Sarah were completely still, staring at the kitchen counter as they contemplated the situation.

Benny on the other hand was quicker to adjust. He looked at the black ID card and then at Alex as he nodded his head slightly, the shocked expression on his face was replaced with a smile as he asked a question with excitement.

"What's your ability!? Is it something cool like teleportation or controlling fire!? You said it was Unique so it has to be something cool, right!?" Benny's eyes were filled with excitement and wonder as he blurted out his question. Jenna and Sarah were brought out of their own thoughts due to the sudden questions and were both just as curious about the answer as Benny.

Seeing more curiosity than anything else in his family members' eyes gave Alex some relief. Seeing how excited Benny was to hear about his ability, Alex decided to put on a little show. The black ID card suddenly floated into the air and moved towards Alex, he opened his hand, with the palm facing up, and made the card float above it.

"Telekinesis! Yes! It was one of the cool ones!" Benny exclaimed as he stood up out of excitement.

"That's so cool! Mom, do you see what Alex can do!?" Sarah said, matching Benny's excitement.

"Yes, I can see. It's... amazing." Jenna replied with a mix of emotions in her tone and expression. She was in awe when looking at the floating card but she also seemed to be thinking about something, something that caused her mood to shift in a negative way.

Alex noticed his mothers reaction but chose not to say anything just yet. 'Mom's worried about something. I'll ask her about it another time, when the twins aren't around and she can speak freely without worrying about them hearing.' Alex thought. He knew his mother would have said something if it were something she could say in front of them all, the fact that she remained quiet meant one of them, if not all of them, weren't meant to hear it.

"I thought you said you had a Unique ability though? Isn't telekinesis a normal ability?" Sarah asked.

"You're right. My ability isn't actually telekinesis. Well it kind of is but not really." Alex's words did nothing but confuse his family so he decided to tell them a little more.

"My ability lets me copy other peoples abilities and use them. I won't go into the specifics of how it works but that's the gist of it. Telekinesis is the only ability I have copied right now though."

"That's even cooler then!" Benny said as he practically started jumping around in excitement.

'I can't tell them how my ability actually works but at least this is close to the truth. I told Tom the same thing as well so there won't be any problems with them talking about it if they ever choose to.' Alex felt a bit guilty about lying but he knew telling the truth would be far worse.

As the night continued, Alex was put to the test by his siblings as they bombarded him with questions about his ability. How did it feel to use it, what's it like when you get tired from using it too much, how much can you lift at once? These kinds of questions were thrown his way for hours.

The twins put Alex through some tests of their own as they asked their questions, trying to see the answers rather than hear them. They threw small objects like coins and forks into the air and watched as Alex caught them with Telekinesis. They asked him to try picking them up off the floor, as well as doing the same with the couch, both of which Alex couldn't do.

The night went on like this until everyone was too tired to continue and decided to go to sleep. Alex lay on the two seater couch with his legs on one of the armrests and his head near the other.

'I'm exhausted. Benny and Sarah asked me to use my telekinesis so many times I almost passed out from the headache and fatigue. At least I learned how effective increasing the [Mind] stat was. I was able to hold a fork in the air for almost 3 minutes and when considering the weight difference between a fork and toothbrush, however small that may be, it's a pretty good improvement.'

Alex opened the system and scrolled through it's different pages while reading the various descriptions again until he finally fell asleep, his exhaustion getting the better of him before he could even close the system window.