lethal //phan

e i g h t

Phil
Phil's emotions were a mixture of anger and confusion, the events of the last twenty-four hours had been playing on his mind non-stop; he found it ironic that he could control every thought of every single person in the world aside himself.

Dan was a contradictory person at the best of times; one minute Phil would think he was nice and that people simply aren't giving him a chance to prove himself, then the next Dan would say something somewhat idiotic, making Phil question why he had even the smallest bit of faith in him.

"Don't think about him, Phil." PJ reassured him from across the lunch table.

He hated it when PJ did that, it was a total invasion of his privacy. Anyhow, it wasn't like he could just shut down his brain in order for him to stop overthinking.

"About who? Dan?" Chris asked. PJ nodded with a look of sympathy directed at Phil.

He felt quite sorry for Chris, PJ knew everything that Phil thought about but Chris was kind of out of the loop, stuck in a permanent state of wondering what was going on.

And input PJ's opinion after he'd no doubt been looking in his head in three, two -

"One." came a voice, right on queue.

There it was.

"Don't worry about it, Phil, Chris is okay with it. He can do his own thing that I can't do so it balances out. That's one of the best things about everyone being here, we all feel disadvantaged around each other but all of us have a unique talent that gives us a sense of equality."

"Minus you, Dan and about two others of course, you all have more than one power. Greedy." Chris joked.

Something about that had confused Phil. He didn't understand it, there were other people that could do practically everything he could, yet their badges were purple and his was red.

Did he have some talent he wasn't aware of? That's impossible, he would've found it out by now, surely.

"Actually it's perfectly possible. No one can use their powers from the minute they were born, you access them at about three years old give or a take a year or two, so it's perfectly possible to find another power four days or four years from now; but the academy will always know how many powers you have or are going to have. I reckon there's someone working in the administration office that can see into the future of something like that." PJ stated.

Then that had to be the answer, it was the only solution that any made sense, if he didn't know about it maybe it was because he didn't possess it yet.

"That's not exactly true either. It's a rare occurrence that this happens but in some cases that two people can gain a shared power that can only be used on each other, by each other. There's a proper name for it but it's slipped my mind."

Phil's head began to fill with thoughts of the worst possible outcomes. What if they got an incredibly dangerous power and Dan used it against him? Phil refused to believe that he'd do something like that. He focused on the positives instead, that hypothetically they'd get a nice power that could do harm.

"Even the most innocent of powers can become deadly if they're used with that intention, Phil." PJ stated, there was a knowing look in his eyes, Chris gave the same look back at him.

"I'm not too sure on how it all works myself; I'm sure there's a book in the library you can look at to find out. I guess it's kind of like having a soul mate if you believe in stuff like that."

Phil now knew there were at least four ways to receive powers: passed down by older generations, from or after birth, and ones we share with others outside of our bloodlines.

He really needed to find a library book to find out more about it.

So from what he knew, he could control pretty much everything and he had a mysterious undiscovered talent that was yet to be named, PJ had all-access passes to everything in a person's brain, but what did Chris do? Despite Chris being the first person he'd met here he didn't actually know what his power was.

"I'm not sure if I should know this, but what is your power, Chris? I don't think you've told me, or maybe I'm just forgetful."

"You're right, I don't think I have. I'm a shapeshifter. I can transform into anyone or anything, which is pretty cool if I do say so myself, even if it is one of the most common gifts here."

"So you can transform into absolutely everything?" Phil enquired. "Meaning if you really wanted to you could become me?"

"Yeah, I can look exactly like you if I wanted to, I'll show you now. You might be a bit surprised at first - everyone is, but try not to freak out too much."

Chris snapped his fingers and slowly brown hair was replaced with the same raven black as his own and the once green eyes became the same sky blue as his.

"See, now I look like you."

Even Chris' voice had changed to match Phil's, they didn't sound immensely different in the first place but hearing himself out loud provided a completely different experience than listening to his own voice on video. He couldn't decide whether that was a pro or a con.

The only thing that didn't change about Chris were his clothes. At least, that's what it looked like. They were still wearing uniform so it was pretty hard to tell, but he could still see the blue badge hanging on his jacket and the socks he was wearing actually matched.

This wasn't the same as looking in a mirror. Seeing a carbon copy of himself was different to his reflection. Chris looked how everyone saw Phil, he noticed small details about himself, like the flecks of yellow and green in his iris'.

He clicked again and every feature changed again, black was replaced by brown, blue by green and within the next few seconds, Phil had vanished and Chris became Chris again.

The ringing of a bell brought him out of the state of awe and shock he was in; it signified it was the end of lunch and that classes would begin shortly.

The anger and confusion he'd felt before had disappeared over lunch, though he had no idea how he'd be able to sit with Dan for the duration of all their afternoon classes.

"Okay, I think that's enough party tricks for today, we need to get to class." announced Chris as he began to walk down a hallway.

"Phil, for love of God please stop worrying over him, it'll be fine, trust me." PJ sighed at him.

But what if it wasn't? he couldn't help but wonder as he followed them to the classroom.