“So, should I be insulted that you had some thought about the devil when you saw us?” Amelia asked. Both she and Trina stared at him as only a woman who knows her man loves her can.
“Uh, it was just an errant thought. You know us boneheads, sometimes our minds wander. But shouldn’t we be going into this meeting. We have dealt with the rest of the clusters. Now it is time to set a plan in motion. I sense that the science girls have arrived. Their tempus fugit fields have all come down. Hopefully, some of them have good news for us,” Jay replied and then moved to walk past the two of them.
Trina held out her hand and placed it on his chest. “Not so fast, we want to talk to you first.”
He looked at them, and felt the tension rolling off of them. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing or maybe everything, it depends on what you have to say. I felt your worry earlier when you were creating the circuit with us. What was that all about?” Trina asked.
Jay sighed forcefully. “It was just that I realized I am not sure that I know what true power is. We are all caught up in how much stronger we are than when we were on Earth. Certainly, all of us could be superheroes back on Earth. The fuses would practically be goddesses and I hold even more power.”
When Jay didn’t expand upon that but left his words hanging in the air, Amelia asked, “What about that made you worry?”
“When I had ten thousand PSI, I thought I had more power than I’d ever need. Then when I held fifty thousand the same. That first circuit when I held over a million PSI, I felt like I was a god. But is it just the narrow scope of my view?” Jay asked, almost as though he were speaking to himself.
“Are you worried that you have hit a cap and won’t be strong enough, because so far you have handled everything pretty easily,” Trina said.
“I wouldn’t call some of what we have been through easy, but yes we have won. I just don’t know the scale of the enemy we are going to be fighting. What if we have to deal with a hundred spaceships that can blow up planets? What if it is thousands?” Jay asked.
“Or tens of thousands,” Amelia added ominously.
“Okay, I get that. You are realizing how big the threat is. The truth is the threat was always there, we were just oblivious to it. More than that, we still don’t really know how big the threat is,” Trina said.
“I mean, that is true, but I always seemed to gain enough power to handle every threat. My leveling has slowed to almost nothing. The only way I seem to be able to gain levels is to fuse now. Although, I hope that if I were to get my skills leveled up that I would be able to gain levels normally again,” Jay said.
“We have both noticed our leveling slowing too. I guess it makes sense that with our skills so far behind our stats that it might be hard to level up. It is even worse for you since your stats are so freaking high,” Trina said.
“I don’t really see the problem. We are about to start intensive training. Skill levels will go up obviously. And if fusing is the way to increase levels, then fuse more,” Amelia said.
“You really want me to just fuse all of Team Jay? I want to like the people I’m fused with. I want them to like each other as we are all part of one greater whole. And if we survive this, we are going to have a long time to live together,” Jay replied.
Amelia rolled her eyes. “If things were normal then I would not want to share you with anyone. But why does it matter who you are fused with if you don’t survive. Survival is the first pre-requisite. So maybe start with those who will take an exclusivity oath, those that we can get along with, but in the end, you have to do what you have to do.”
As always, Jay recognized the pragmatism of his blonde wife. She had started out things between them on the same note of practical necessity and that hadn’t turned out too badly. That memory brought a smile to his face. There was a reason that he often dreamed of bathtubs. He looked from Amelia to Trina.
“Fusing with so many so quickly before was necessary but it made me feel scattered,” Jay said.
“That is why you need to handle this more systematically. Take on new fuses more slowly. But Amelia is right. If we don’t survive, none of the rest of this matters,” Trina said.
“So what are you proposing?” he asked.
The two women looked at each other. Jay didn’t even think they were telepathically communicating, but just doing that thing that women seem to be able to do. Amelia was the one to speak first. “Do you trust us?”
“Yes. I’d be a poor leader if I demanded that you trust me without extending it back when you have earned it. And for that matter a worse husband. I don’t always agree with you, but I do believe that you want what is best for me, for all of us,” Jay answered.
“You aren’t gonna like this, but you need to listen,” Amelia said.
