The Gunpowder Society

8. "Our Gifts"

After the group finished breakfast, they were able to put Margaret down, and Fr. Maven took the other young students on a tour of the school which consisted of quickly going through the kitchen and living room, both of which Fr. Maven only briefly commented on.   He took them by the library and the study and had them look around inside each. 

Finally, he walked into a classroom full of small desks facing a larger desk and a chalk board at the head of the room.  There were waist-high shelves of books around the perimeter of the room and standing atop the shelves were various odd objects; some familiar like a Newton’s cradle, and some foreign like a nebulous piece of metal alloy in a catcher’s mitt.  In one corner of the room was a full human skeleton and in the opposite corner, the right half of a human skeleton adjoined to the left half of a skeleton that looked similar to a human but with distinguishable differences such as elongated fingers, thicker bones, and a enlarged canine-like skull and teeth.

“Please take a seat,” Fr. Maven instructed as they walked through the door.  The young students sat down in the front row of desks and watched as Fr. Maven walked to the front of the room and began writing on the chalk board.  The older students walked in and stood near the front of the room leaning up against the wall.  Fr. Maven wrote out a short bulleted list: Our gifts.  Our enemies.   Our mission.

“When the older students and I started out years ago it took us months to cover these topics in detail.  This can be attributed to the fact that we had many more questions than we do now and we have learned so much in the years since then.  We still have many questions, but we understand these topics much better now.

“Let’s start with the first,” Fr. Maven said tapping his chalk on the first item, “Our gifts.  I started to cover this at dinner last night when I spoke about how we all met, but there is more to tell about the older students and we didn’t discuss your gifts.”

“As you know my gift is that I have the powers of those around me.  This is beneficial in numerous ways.  Can any of you list a few benefits of this?” he asked.

Peter answered, “You can tell whether another person with powers is around, and possibly what their power is.”

“Correct.  This can be further advantageous when they don’t know that I have their powers.  I can also help people discover powers they didn’t know they have,” Fr. Maven added.

Peter opened his mouth briefly to say something but stopped.  Fr. Maven raised his eyebrows inquisitively at Peter.

“If a person claims they have powers you could confirm if they do or not,” Peter  said.

“Yes,” responded Fr. Maven in a tone indicating he had never thought of that before.

Peter turned to Bruce.  Fr. Maven noticed them trading looks and asked plainly, “What?”

Bruce answered, “When Peter fought the werewolves one of them claimed that they were gifted just like us, but their power was to change into a wolf.”

The room was silent for a bit while they thought it over.  Fr. Maven looked at Gwen who was looking back at him waiting for more details.  Fr. Maven said, “That’s very interesting.  We will talk about the werewolves next and I can start to shed some light on who they are… but that fact remains interesting.  What other benefits do I get from my gift?”

“You’ll never meet anyone stronger than you,” Gwen answered wisely.  Fr. Maven looked at her with surprised admiration.  Gwen added, “Anyone with powers at least.”

“Very good Gwen, but this is a fragile state.  If I met someone like Bruce I would be able to match his strength, but I wouldn’t be able to overcome it.  Additionally, if I met Peter I would be in bigger trouble because I don’t have a full understanding of his gift and how to use it.  Furthermore, if I were to encounter an armed mugger, I’d be completely out of luck.” Gwen began nodding slowly.  “Long story, short… it’s good for me to run with the pack.  Now, what about Logan’s gift?” Fr. Maven asked pointing to HP, “What is it?”