Star Force: Cascade (SF73) Read Online Free Page A

blushed. “That obvious?”
    “Well, I do try to stay in shape…”
    “I noticed,” she said, smiling widely. “Rio said it’s
important, so he sent me to find you.”
    “Important enough to bother me, but not stop his own
workout?” Paul said, raising an eyebrow.
    “Sorry. When I felt you in here I didn’t think I’d
actually be disturbing you…do you always mediate naked? And where can I buy
tickets?”
    Paul laughed. “No. I’m not meditating, just needed
some privacy to work on my new ability. The clothes really get in the way,
hence they had to go.”
    “If you wanted privacy you could have closed the
door.”
    “I’m displacing a lot of air, and connecting to the
hallway makes it less turbulent. I didn’t know any hot padawans would be
walking by.”
    “Hot? Are you flirting with me?”
    “A little.”
    “Why…other than just messing with my head?”
    “Returning the compliment in your eyes. I can get
dressed if it’d make things easier on you?”
    “I’ll manage, thanks.”
    “Is there more to the message or did you just want to
play cheer leader?”
    “Can I?”
    Paul smirked. “What is it that Rio wants?”
    “He said something about wanting to get to your
memories while they were fresh. Wouldn’t get into it when I asked anything
further.”
    “How long until he’s finished with his challenge?”
    “A little less than 3 hours to go.”
    “I’ll meet him when he’s done then.”
    Synthia nodded, then walked over and leaned against
the wall, still staring at Paul. “Don’t let me hold you up. What exactly are
you doing anyway? I know it’s Jumat related, but…”
    “Trying to get a feel for the damn triggering
sensation,” Paul said, with a bit of frustration in his voice. “It feels like
goosebumps, and I’m only able to do it about a third of the time I try. Once it
starts I’m also having trouble sustaining it, and when I can it blows off me
almost immediately. I have almost no control at all and ripped my shirt
earlier, so I ditched the clothes. Until I can at least confine it to my arms
and legs I’m better off naked.”
    “Makes sense,” Synthia agreed. “Is it really
invisible?”
    “Save for a slight distortion, yes. Hold on…let me try
again,” the titan said, closing his eyes and trying to make himself get
goosebumps. It wasn’t something that he knew how to do, so he just tried to
imagine himself in places of cold or excitement previously that had rendered
the skin pucker. He had to run through four different memories before he got
one to catch and a tingle manifested itself at the base of his neck.
    He tried to latch onto it, which was like grabbing for
a wet bar of soap under water, and managed to increase the volume a bit before
it traveled down his back and mushroomed out into the air behind him.
    Synthia laughed, covering her mouth with her hand
before she said anything.
    Paul frowned. “You saw the distortion?”
    “Yeah,” she said, giggling.
    “No, it didn’t come off my butt,” he clarified.
“Started in my neck and went down my back before releasing.”
    “Took you a while.”
    “It’s getting harder and harder to get goosebumps. My
bag of tricks is wearing thin, but I’m not that close to finding a way to
manually do it yet. This may sound odd, but it’s like getting a third arm that
you’ve never used before that’s twitching around all over the place whenever
you send a mental signal to it and…yeah, ok, bad metaphor. I don’t know how to
explain it.”
    “Kind of like the bioshield?”
    “Somewhat, but that’s a direct activation. This energy
has to be generated, then released. Two step process that makes it a whole lot more trickier .”
    “Are you ticklish?”
    “Um…not sure, actually.”
    “May I?” she asked, raising her eyebrows in an unsure
gesture.
    “Is this training related or are you flirting back?”
    “Both,” she said honestly.
    “That’s the best kind. Go ahead.”
    The padawan walked over to him