Zazm Mystic leaned back in his chair, his eyes half-lidded as he took a final sip from his coffee mug.
He set it down with a gentle clink on the polished marble countertop and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. The morning sun poured in through the wide windows of his luxurious penthouse, casting a warm glow over the modern furniture.
The room was minimalistic, but every item in it screamed wealth—perfectly curated art on the walls, sleek tech scattered around, and, of course, a breathtaking view of the city skyline.
Kiyomasa Saito, sitting across from Zazm, finished his plate of pancakes with an enthusiasm that could only come from a man whose stomach was a bottomless pit.
Jahanox Nova, who'd been quietly observing his friends as they ate, "This is the second cup of coffee Zazm, what else are you planning?" He mocked Zazm.
Zazm smiled and started,"So," Zazm said, stretching with exaggerated ease as he got up, his muscles rippling under the fabric of his casual black T-shirt, "that was a solid breakfast."
"I wouldn't call it solid," Kiyomasa piped up with a cheerful grin, his mouth still full of pancakes. "It was great, you really know how to cook, Zazm."
"Well besides that there aren't many things Zazm is good at," Jahanox interrupted dryly, as he picked up the plates.
Kiyomasa also helped him clean the table and spoke with a soft smile, "No he's good at fighting, and..."
Jahanox raised a hand, "Please I don't wanna listen about 'Oh great Zazm's" he said in a straight tone.
Zazm who was listening to there chatter, laughed slightly before he sat down on the couch.
Zazm smiled to himself. These two. The perfect contrast to his laid-back style. Kiyomasa, the ever-optimistic naive follower, and Jahanox, the brilliant, somewhat serious strategist.
They made a good team—when they weren't making Zazm feel like he was babysitting them.
"I'm gonna take a quick stretch," Zazm said lazily as he moved toward the couch in the living room, flopping down like a cat after a long nap.
Jahanox raised an eyebrow but remained standing, his posture sharp. "Are you ready to get to the point, Zazm?"
Zazm, eyes half-lidded, tapped the couch beside him. "Sit, Jahanox. Kiyomasa, let's get to the point."
Both Kiyomasa and Jahanox nodded in understanding as they took a seat in the opposite direction to each other. They didn't speak anything for a while and just stayed silent.
Kiyomasa spoke in a low tone, "Umm... So what do you wanna talk about?"
Zazm didn't reply still lost in thought, Jahanox looked at Kiyomasa and spoke with a grin, "This guy likes to add dramatic silences before he explains something."
Kiyomasa tilted his head in confusion while looking at Jahanox, Jahanox waved his hand in a dismissive way, "Don't worry you'll get used to it."
"Now that isn't nice, Nox." Zazm finally spoke in the same chill and carefree voice.
"I simply think about the things and try to make you understand them in a way your dumb brains can process it."
Jahanox raised a brow, "Who's dumb again?" His voice sharp and strong. Kiyomasa raised his arms asking Jahanox to Calm down.
"So as I explained before I already have the location of all the other peo-- No, let's call them
Power hold--" Zazm was explaining things when he mentioned the name they can be classified with.
But before he can complete the name Jahanox raised an hand, "It's shit," both Zazm and Kiyomasa looked at him in confusion.
Zazm crossed his arms and asked, "Are you saying me calling them 'Power holders' are shit?"
Jahanox nodded and raised a finger, "One your naming sense sucks and second that feels like a name out of some children's cartoon."
"Oh! Then how about you recommend something better?" Zazm asked Jahanox his tone mocking.
"I never said I'm good at choosing names," he simply shrugged with a carefree attitude.
"That means," they both simultaneously looked at Kiyomasa.
"Huh, me?" Kiyomasa pointed at himself trying to understand what they wanted him to do and both of them nodded.
"Wh-what... okay wait...." Kiyomasa quickly started thinking trying to come up with a name. He thought for a while before speaking.
"How about Catalysts?" The name rung through the silence of the apartment, both Zazm and Jahanox looked at Kiyomasa with a surprised look.
Kiyomasa got slightly nervous and started explaining, "We-well... I read it somewhere it's refered to people that being change with their powers or or...."
"Hahaha...." Both Zazm and Jahanox started laughing. Kiyomasa feel like they were laughing at him, "Hey don't laugh atleast."
Zazm controlled himself and spoke while looking at Kiyomasa, "We aren't laughing at you, Kiyo. We are laughing at ourselves."
Kiyomasa looked even more confused but Jahanox noticed it and said, "We are extremely bad at naming stuff while you actually gave a pretty good name, am I right?" He glanced at Zazm.
Zazm nodded, "Yeah, one hell of a name." He raised his hand in excitement, "Very well then, people like us, those who have powers would be referred to as Catalysts."
Kiyomasa and Jahanox also lifted their hand in the air syncing with Zazm. "Okay now let me tell you where the other Catalysts are from."
Both Kiyomasa and Jahanox quickly got serious again, or Kiyomasa atleast tried to be.
Zazm leaned forward and spoke in a low tone, "One of the Catalyst is from Sweden, Two are from Korea and one is nearby and the last one...." His voice dropped down to a whisper.
"They are from Japan like Kiyo." Zazm finished and was about to continue but Jahanox raised a brow, suspicious visible on his face.
He looked at Zazm and asked instantly, "Wait, if they were in Japan, there is no way you couldn't have sensed them, then why didn't you talked to them at that time?"
"I was also wondering that," Kiyomasa also raised his hand as adding to the question.
Zazm waved his hand in a chill way, "Well, I couldn't go there since they were from another city, what would I say to my parents?"
He leaned back in a carefree way and his answer made Kiyomasa nod in understanding but Jahanox knew that wasn't the answer.
"You could've teleported there with a portal, you can cover that much distance.... Whats the real reason, Zazm?" Jahanox's voice was sharp and demanding.
Zazm's smile disappeared, his voice dropped low, "It's because there is something weird with them and I don't want to go there....yet"
"What do you mean?" Kiyomasa questioned Zazm.
Zazm continued, "When my threads tried to get closer to their threads something stopped them from interfering.....it felt like something is wrong."
"Like?" Jahanox asked Zazm with suspicion visible across his face. Zazm tapped his fingers on the table letting the tapping sound echo throughout the quiet apartment.
"It's because there threads are either exhibiting their ability or....." He paused for a second and so did the tapping, his voice dropped low and contained an edge, "Or they are deliberately hiding the--No more like trying to hide them."
The words made the atmosphere slightly uncomfortable and heavy, Kiyomasa kept quiet because he didn't get half the stuff while Jahanox was trying to comprehend things himself.
"So, what are the chances for each?" Jahanox finally lifted his head and spoke in a curious tone.
"If it's the threads exhibiting this behavior independently.... Than probably 99 percent but that 1 percent means they know about me and are trying to hide them." Zazm finished and leaned back on the couch still deep in thought.
"What do you mean by exhibiting the behavior?" Jahanox looked at Kiyomasa who asked a question even he was curious about but decided not to ask it.
Zazm didn't changed his posture and leaned even more, "Well our threads move differently from others but they don't move same, they all move in different manners just different from those of normal people."
Kiyomasa tilted his head in confusion and spoke in a confused tone, "I don't get it."
"Basically what he means is that, that's just how there threads flow." He glanced at Zazm and said, "If I'm not wrong our powers have something to do with the flow of threads....correct?"
A smirk appeared on Zazm's face as he answered, "Right. But...," Zazm sat back up and straighted his posture, "It doesn't show any difference at the normal level or should I say eye level. If you look at our threads at eye level you can differ them from the threads of normal people but not from the threads of Catalysts."
"So what you mean is you need to look at it some other way or something?" Kiyomasa curiosly looked at Zazm trying to see if he got something right or not.
Zazm nodded with a smirk, "Correct, you'll have to look at them at an extremely small level.... Umm let's say at least at the atmoic level."
Jahanox was taken aback by the confession, he quickly spoke, "Atmoic level?"
Zazm tilted his head in confusion, "Wait did I never mentioned it?" He looked genuinely surprised, both Kiyomasa and Jahanox shook there heads.
Zazm put a head on his head, "Sorry Sorry, well you see on the space time fabric it's possible to look at the level or with a little more focus it's possible to go as small as at quantum level, How else to do you think I teleport?"
Kiyomasa didn't get it but Jahanox understood it, he got goosebumps and a frightened smirk appeared across his face. Kiyomasa looked at him in a weird way.
"You mean you actually send information from each of your atom to some other others?" He asked Zazm with a thrilling smile.
Zazm smiled, "Yep! across small distances, I can teleport via my threads but for longer distances, I have to transfer the data of my atoms to some other atoms to print me exactly the same way there."
"You fucking psycho," Jahanox put a hand on his head in both surprise and awe as he let out a dry laugh.
"Umm....??" During the heat of the moment they might've forgotten they have quite a naive child with them.
Zazm smiled softly and spoke, "You remember the portal and how it teleports us?" Kiyomasa quickly nodded his head.
"Well what that portal actually does is that it copies the....Umm let's say data of your atoms and send it through to another place and print us exactly on those atoms." Zazm finished and he can see Kiyomasa still didn't get the whole thing.
"Everything is made out of atom and they hold data... So what you did was use threads to transfer that information to where you want to go and then..." Kiyomasa's eyes also shot up in surprise when he finally got it.
Zazm's smiled widened after he finally understood it, "I didn't knew it was that hard to teleport a portal....," Kiyomasa exclaimed in surprise and shock.
Zazm shook his head, "If you try to understand it by science it'll look nearly impossible but with these fantasy powers it's not even 1 percent of that nearly impossible condition." Zazm simply shrugged as if it wasn't actually hard.
Kiyomasa slammed his fist into his other hand and spoke in an excited tone, "So that's why you teleport every step instead of walking."
Zazm clearly enjoying the spotlight was about to speak when Jahanox interrupted him, "No he does that because he's too lazy to walk.."
Zazm slightly tilted his neck to look back at Jahanox, "You know if your heart stops beating, you'll be dead in under 5 mins."
Jahanox whistled and looked back feigning ignorance. Throughout all this chaos Kiyomasa sat smiling.
'It is fun here, I'm glad I came,' He was happy he made the right decision to follow Zazm. "Thank you!" A single word of gratitude left his lips.
Zazm turned around to look at him, "You said something?"
Kiyomasa shook his head, "Nothing continue your fight." Zazm twisted Jahanox's arm even more.
"IT'LL BREAK," Jahanox screamed in pain and Zazm pressured it more. He finally left his arm and sat back.
"Anyways I'll be leaving for Sweden tonight, So Nox I leave Kiyo to you, Make sure to properly train him."
Jahanox still trying to fix his arm looked up in a half dead way, "Yeah whatever."
"By the way, what's your power, Jahanox?" Kiyomasa looked at Jahanox and asked him. Jahanox quickly looked up and smiled.
"He can use all powers." Zazm spoke before Jahanox could flex his powers, he looked back at Jahanox who was sitting there with narrowed eyes, "What?"
"Would you let me say something or should I just leave?" Jahanox asked with narrowed eyes and irritated voice. Zazm smirked and moved slightly backwards to let the two discuss.
"Kiyomasa," Jahanox began, his voice heavy, "My power… it's the ability to wield any power imaginable. But there's a significant cost."
Kiyomasa's eyes narrowed, a flicker of apprehension crossing his face. "What cost?"
"Each time I invoke a power, and then subsequently use another, the first power enters a cooldown phase. The duration of this cooldown is directly proportional to the strength of the power you initially used. The more potent the ability, the longer the wait before you can use it again."
Kiyomasa's brow furrowed. "So, you're effectively locked out of that power for a period?"
Jahanox nodded solemnly. "Precisely. Picture this: I use flight, then immediately switch to telepathy.
Flight would be unavailable for a time. However, if your first invocation was something as immense as multiverse traversal, that power could be inaccessible for a century, or even longer."
"But what if you don't use the second power? Does the first power is then usable forever?" Zazm looked at Kiyomasa and smiled, 'That's a great question,' he looked back at Jahanox waiting for the answer. Since Zazm himself didn't knew all about his powers.
"Yes but it also takes toll to use a single power again and again, if it's a power as simple as memory wipe them I can use it for a long while but the stronger the ability the worse the toll. Though the cool down gets shorter the stronger I get."
"I didn't knew that," Zazm also leaned forward clearly intrigued by the declaration. "But how can you tell how long a power is locked for?"
Jahanox nodded, "It's something I just know, it's like a feeling. Perhaps the same way you use somethings."
Zazm nodded in understanding, "Yeah I get it." Kiyomasa finally spoke with the same surprised voice, "But still your power is way too cool."
"I agree," Zazm also crossed his arms and admired the ability. "I've been wanting to ask you something."
"What's that?" Zazm raised a brow at the question.
"For some reason I can't use any powers related to time or space and...," Jahanox looked at Kiyomasa and spoke, "Nor any elemental powers."
Zazm quickly sat straight, his smile disappeared replaced with a strange look. "That's something I have no idea about."
"Figures," Jahanox nodded in understanding.
"Wait, are there any other powers you can't use?" Jahanox said well I used a few and I could use them, just not powers related to time and space or..."
Zazm put his head on his hand lost in thought, "The only explanation this provides is that you can't use powers that other Catalysts have."
"Wait so he can't use any power that others use?" Kiyomasa asked and Zazm nodded.
Jahanox spoke with a sigh, "I also thought of the same thing, well guess we'll see for now I'll train Kiyomasa while you focus on your mission."
"Wait I forgot to tell you," both Jahanox and Kiyomasa quickly turned around to look at Zazm.
Zazm started speaking and telling them about what to happen and every word was more wierd than the last.
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