Chapter 90 (1/2)

Dan lurched back into consciousness with a gasp. His face throbbed and his chest felt like a hippo had sat on it. Judging from the frantic footsteps and worried shouting coming from just beyond the entrance to his lair, he'd only been out for a few moments. Oh, and the floor was covered in paper. Had he done that?

No, the orb did... something. Abby had clearly heard something, loud or strange enough to investigate. Had the damn thing exploded? Dan's ears were ringing, so signs pointed to 'probably'.

”This was a poorly thought out plan,” he berated himself. He'd had quite a few of those lately, brought about by some truly impulsive decisions. This, however, was the first time that anything had backfired so immediately or spectacularly. His body was one big bruise. It wasn't a great feeling.

The aches in his body were punctuated by the sound of an angry Abby storming across the room to where he lay. She pressed a hand against his cheek, frantically checking him over, completely disregarding the state of the room. After several seconds of worrying over him, the expression on her face contorted into a fierce frown. She jabbed him in the shoulder, just hard enough to make him wince.

”'I'll be right back,' you said!” she said, pulling her hand back to make air quotes with her fingers. ”'I've got an idea,' you said. 'Nothing to worry about,' you said!” She gestured to his body with a dramatic sweep of her arm. ”Why do your insides look like you were in a car accident!? You big fat liar!”

Dan winced at the accusation. It was, unfortunately, warranted. With a wan smile, he admitted, ”Sorry Abs, I messed up.”

His words had absolutely no effect on her temper.

”What were you thinking?” she exclaimed.

What was he thinking? Anger reared its ugly head at the question. For a fleeting moment, he considered snapping back something that he'd regret, but his most recent experience made him hold his tongue.

He breathed in deep and let it out slow. ”I'm not sure if you've forgotten, but your lovely grandmother has likely bugged every inch of my house. I literally cannot speak my mind without being overheard. How am I supposed to talk about anything I want kept secret?” He couldn't keep the helpless frustration out of his voice. ”I thought I'd found a solution, so I acted.”

”You can't just—” Abby paused, then made a noise somewhere between an angry growl and an exasperated sigh. She ran a hand down her face. ”Danny, I get that it's frustrating, but that's no excuse to rush into things like a dummy. We've got time, and more importantly, paper. You could've written it down!”

That was an excellent point. How had he not thought of it? He spent a moment running over his thought process, or lack thereof, before the answer hit him.

”Instant gratification,” he said, unable to keep the disgust out of his voice.

Abby's brow furrowed. ”What?”

”I've gotten used to instant gratification,” Dan explained, his mind running through the past few days. ”My power is instantaneous and almost perfectly responsive. It's made me reckless. I've just been... doing things, as soon as they occur to me. Because I think I can. Because I want to.”

He paused, then added, ”Fuck.”

”Recklessness is not a great trait to cultivate,” Abby noted with a worried frown. ”I hadn't even noticed. I mean, you've been acting a little more impulsive lately, but I thought it was just a temporary thing.”

”It's just been these past few months, slowly adding up,” Dan said, rubbing his temples. ”For every wonderful thing that's happened to me,” he waved at her, winning him a small smile, ”something insane seems to accompany it.”

Abby's insanity was named Anastasia and came in a convenient human-shaped package, but it wasn't just her. His Academy class was a breath of fresh air, right up until Matilda ruined it. He finally had a home, except it was formerly occupied by terrorists and had a hidden death dungeon instead of a basement. He'd made some great new friends, but was currently being blackmailed by two separate people.

”I just wanted this problem to be over and done with,” Dan explained, staggering to his feet. ”I was impatient, and I let it get the better of me.”

His power made him largely immune to physical consequences, so long as he could react in time. Having the ability to just step away from it all at the drop of a hat had given him a sense of unearned invincibility. It hadn't helped that his training routine had changed drastically, since he and Abby had started dating. Rather than a brutal, hour long beat-down, it had become something rather more intimate, if no less physical. He was quickly losing whatever edge Marcus had honed in him.

He needed to refocus himself. Despite a few impulsive actions, he had allowed his general demeanor when dealing with people to become passive, falling into old habits. Life had been happening to Dan, rather than the other way around. Reverting to form was a natural consequence of the stress he'd been under lately, but the constant barrage of of events was no excuse. This wasn't what he had promised himself, when he'd decided to seize this new start in life.

Deep breath in, deep breath out. He'd identified the problem. Now he just needed to solve it.

”I should spar with Graham again,” Dan said aloud. ”Its been too long since I've gotten my ass kicked.”

Abby snorted. Whatever her worries were about Dan's state of mind, they seemed to dim after that comment.

”You'll probably get your wish,” she informed him primly. ”Connor and Freya are both on their way over. I got their text around the time that you exploded. Speaking of which.” She gestured to her surroundings, covered in a vast assortment of papers. ”What the hell happened here?”

”I'm not rightly sure,” Dan admitted, scooping up the closest page. Abby mirrored the movement, grabbing her own bundle and quickly leafing through it. If Dan's idea had worked, these documents should be related to the People. He doubted that the silvery orb was filled with random bits of paper.