Jake smiled. At least it seemed some were able to find things to make them feel better during these hard times. Jake hoped that he would be able to find something like that.
"So, besides her what else has been going on with you lately?"For the first time in a while, Grayson felt genuinely happy. He wasn't vomiting, he had friends, someone that was a little more than a friend, and he wasn't worried about the immediate future.
"Oh, you know, same old same old. Radiation sickness, spooky powers... Harley."Grayson wiggled his eyebrows and pushed off of the wall he was leaning against, walking over to join Jake on the other side of the expansive hallway and sliding down the wall into a sitting position next to the other man.
"What about you Jake? You got anything interesting going on recently? Other than impending doom and crap." A hearty chuckle escaped Grayson's lips and he felt a surge of genuine contentness course through him.
Jake slid down the wall to continue chatting with Grayson.
"Well, i figured out I have the ability to shift density. Think Kitty Pryde from the X-Men. I can also adjust the density of other things. Still haven't gotten a handle on that. Spent most of yesterday hanging out with Trinity." Jakes smile widened when he said her name.
Yesterday, had been kinda fun despite feeling somewhat saddened at times. Hopefully, things would start turning around for the whole group.
"Was planning on heading out to train my ability a little more. What about you? What power did you get?"Grayson let out a huff as he recalled his earlier incident with his powers.
"I, uh, can turn into a ghost, I guess?" He shrugged, genuinely perplexed by his own abilities.
"I dunno, I just kinda ditch my body and float around as this purple guy. Pretty cool, but it has some downsides." Grayson turned his head to look at Jake, giving his shoulders another shrug.
"It's a little hard to describe. Think like, Doctor Strange. That kind of ditching your body, only people can see me and I can only touch people, not like rocks and stuff." The entire idea of being able to turn into a half-corporeal ghost still broke Grayson's mind, leaving him bewildered and confused.
"But anywho, mind if I tag along?""Sure, training is always a good thing. Eventually everyone should start a training regiment." Jake stood up and held out a hand to Grayson.
"Don't slow me down."Grayson raised an eyebrow and grabbed Jake's hand, pulling himself to his feet and flashing Jake a cocky smile.
"Why are you assuming I'm gonna be the slow one?" The Texan chuckled and gave Jake a playful shove, taking off in a light jog outside of the bunker and out into the sun.
Jake followed behind Grayson. They needed to find a good open patch of ground to practice. First thing Jake wanted to do now that he had someone to train with was see Grayson's ability in action. If Jake could help Grayson get better with his power then maybe Jake could help the others.
Jake ran to be in front of Grayson and lead him towards where the road was. It was open enough that if an animal was stalking them they'd have enough time to react if it attacked.
"Alright, umm I guess first thing we should do is let the other see our power." Jake shrugged slightly as he said this unsure if that was what would be the best course of action. He walked over towards a tree and punched his fist at it making it go through without any struggle. He pulled his fist back showing no signs of intrusion on the wood and no damage on his knuckles.
"Awesome. Your turn."Grayson stared at the tree and whistled loudly, shaking his head.
"Damn, son, you can phase!" Grayson shook his head, impressed but also slightly devious. Sure, Jake could phase, but Gray could phase and jump out of his own body.
Grayson smiled, rubbing his hands together and preparing to go Astral.
"Just a fair warning, I sometimes have issues going back into my body, and if I stay out too long, I die, so I hope you know CPR."Grayson flashed another smile and laid down on the ground, face up towards the sky. Breathing deeply, the man closed his eyes and let his head rest on the ground. His breathing slowly regulated itself until he had a steady rythem, inhaling deeply repeatedly until he stopped without a single reason as to why.
Grayson's body lay limp on the ground, unconcious and unmoving. The only sound throughout the clearing was the twittering of birds as they squawked at the two men invading their territory. For a long moment, nothing happened.
With no warning, Grayson's Astral form phased through the ground behind Jake, wrapping his arms around the density shifting man and lifting him up into the air, dropping him from about eight feet in the air onto his belly.
Jake was extremely startled by the sudden effect of being lifted into the air. He braced himself for the fall and landed hard. When he stood up he brushed the dirt of unhurt at all.
"Just so you know I can increase my density as well. At that point I'm basically Luke Cage without the extra strength that comes from being Luke Cage." He turned to look at the Astral form of Grayson.
"Okay, that is better cool. Only thing," he looks back at Grayson's body then back at the astral version,
"You may need to find someway to keep your body safe."Grayson smirked cockily.
"It's protected," He interlaced his fingers behind his head and floated at a reclined angle.
"Go ahead, try to get it."
A few hours laterBoth men were tired now. They were each worn out due to the sparring they did both with a few bruises on their physical bodies.
"I'm gonna call it a tie. You ready to go back in?"Grayson remelded into his own body, slowly getting the hang of disabling his powers. He sat up and gasped for air, gulping in lungful after lungful, groaning as he felt a new sore rising on his chest from where he had fallen. Over the course of their sparring session, Grayson had repeatedly liften and throw his body away from Jake, however in the process he had roughed himself up a bit on top of the damage Jake had dealt.
"Ugh, hell yes." He slowly got to his feet, aquainting himself with each new bruise and cut. Being in his Astral form was wonderful, however it left him unable to fully understand how much abuse his actual body was withstanding. But, on the bright side, it seemed that is he strained his muscles in his Astral form, it reflected in exercise for his real body.
"I need water," Grayson groaned. "And a bath. A hot one. Like, a
really hot one." The man slowly moved towards the edge of the clearing and looked out over the hill that led to the bunker. The grass had an odd taint of yellow to its green that betrayed the catastrophe the rest of the earth had withstood. Grayson had noticed that about all of the plant life. Each had somehow warped, with trees growing darker and more twisted, flowers becoming oddly curved, and underbrush becoming far more prickly.
"I definitely see a bath in my near future. Let's head back."
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I tried just editing and deleting the entire thing but it didn't work.