UnConventional

Fiona loved science fiction conventions. They were awesome. She had learned Klingon at one convention and so many techniques for creating cosplay props and costumes that it blew her mind. The best thing about conventions was that she didn't feel so absolutely freakish at them. Most of the people at the conventions believed in the possibility of things like telepathy, telekinesis, and the other realities of Fiona's life.

"I would rather know what someone was thinking than know how they feel." Kaplan, the DM of the roleplaying game argued on the snack break.

"Dude, they could be thinking, I want to kill that jerk, but if you can't feel what they are feeling, how serious is the thought? When do you call the police?"

Fiona piped up, "On earth? Or in a scifi situation? Because on earth you call the police claiming to sense the murderous intentions of your neighbor or having heard them think they are going to kill someone, you are the one they come after. You are the one that ends up in the straight jacket."

Kaplan chuckled and shot juice out of his nose, "She's got you there Stephen!"

"Steppenwolf! Call me Steppenwolf!" He whined.

Everybody laughed except Fiona. She could feel Steppenwolf's pain at hearing his given name. It caused him to flashback to all of the teasing and belittling he had suffered under that name at home and at school. "You mean we aren't supposed to be in character guys? I have been Feathersword this whole time!"

Kaplan held up a hand, "Feathersword and Steppenwolf are right. Just because we aren't drinking life potions and eating lembas doesn't mean we should drop character completely. I am giving them both extra luck points for the next five rolls!"

"Luck points? That is some fracking BS." Gemma groaned. From there the conversation deteriorated into another campaign.
Three hours later the game broke up and Steppenwolf slapped Fiona on the back, "Great counterspell, you saved my ass!" Fiona staggered for a moment as his pinky finger made flesh to flesh contact with her through the neck hole of her tank top.

Her surprise was such that she couldn't help but blurt out, "You can teleport?"

He backed away from her and blanched, "Don't be silly! The game is over we can be out of character now."

Fiona changed tack, I am a telempath among other things, you just taught me how to teleport.

His eyes got wide and he grabbed her by the shoulder and led her to a quiet corner of the room. "Seriously? You can read minds with a touch?" he whispered.

Fiona nodded, "Among other things. I read emotions in general. I thought it was crap the way you were treated as a child."
"That's why you spoke up?"

"Yeah, this is so weird. I haven't ever really had a conversation with someone I learned something like this from."

"You mean you know how to do more than read minds and now teleport." He radiated the same kind of loneliness and open curiosity she felt.

"A little, telekinesis, the ability to refocus heat energy, electrokinesis and the ability to control electronics. I am also a multi-level blackbelt in karate, taekwondo, and kung fu. I got tired of taking lessons to explain away my knowledge. Oh and I learned Klingon last convention."
"That is so cool. Who knows about this?"

"Me, my family, and you."

"I am honored you shared this with me."

"I felt bad for blurting your secret. So what do you do with your teleportation?"

"Mostly free movies. I didn't pay for the Lord of the Rings Trilogy. I really don't know what to do with my powers. I mean it's not like I am Ironman. So what I can teleport. I'm not bulletproof and I do not know karate or any of that. What are you doing with your powers?"

"Collecting them, and keeping them secret."

"I know you're probably nothing more than fifteen or sixteen, but look at Spiderman and all he had was superstrength, the ability to stick to walls, and a spidey sense. He went ahead and figured out web-shooters too but you have way more going for you."

"I'm not bulletproof either," Fiona hesitated. Why didn't she use her powers? Was it because her parents had drummed it in since she first spoke that she had to keep it a secret? What was she really afraid of.

"There is a ticketed showing of Rocky Horror Picture show in The Waterfall room, want to sneak in? It's easy to teleport!" He grabbed her by the hand and had teleported them both into the back row of the movie before she could respond. Experiencing the actual mechanics of teleportation as he did it live gave her an even better grasp on the process. She was about to thank him when another woman appeared behind them with a slight flicker of light. She walked right up to Steppenwolf.

"Nice 'port, I see we had the same idea. Vina's the name, what's your's cutie."

Steppenwolf looked at his feet. Fiona knew he didn't know how to talk to an attractive woman his own age. "His name is Steppenwolf, or that is what he goes by."

"Cool, cool, what is yours?" She held her hand out to Fiona.

"Fi." She was hesitant to touch someone so soon after someone who had given her a new ability, but then again she did know how to teleport already. Fiona wrapped her hand around Vina's hand and shook it. She nearly convulsed. Vina didn't teleport. She shifted herself through interdimensional barriers, creating wormholes to get from place to place, world to world, time to time. It was drastically different from what Fiona had learned from Steppenwolf.

Steppenwolf caught Fiona as she collapsed in slow motion. Vina just stared in surprise. "Come on, I have a room, we'll talk there." Steppenwolf scooped up Fiona and teleported to his room in the hotel. He laid Fiona on the bed while she attempted to regain use of her own body. Vina stepped into the room a moment later.

"Okay, Steppenwolf, what's up with Fi? Did I break her?"

"I would assume learning your teleportation technique was too much for her. She and I just met this morning and I taught her how to teleport not thirty minutes ago. I think it blew one of her mental fuses."

"Wait, you just met her this morning, and figured it would be okay to bring her to your hotel room in an incapacitated state! Are you some kind of creeper?"

"It's okay," Fiona said finally sitting up, "I'm sixteen and far from helpless. I would rather have this discussion privately rather than where just about anyone can hear."

"Okay, you tell me what just happened," Vina insisted.

"Steppenwolf is pretty much right. Usually, I don't absorb so much information or so many powers in one day. Let alone one hour. I am usually more careful than this."

"So what did you learn from her?"

"She transports herself through interdimensional rifts. She basically opens wormholes. I just learned how to travel between parallel universes, and through time."

"Cool!"

"How did I teach you to travel through time? I don't know how to do that!" Vina argued.

"Sometimes, I just figure new things out, though I don't know how you didn't know you traveled through time. You left New York City at seven in the morning and arrived in Bejing China at seven in the morning five seconds later. They aren't remotely in the same time zone..."
Vina blinked angrily, "How much do you know about me?"

"Most everything having to do with your abilities," Fiona shrugged.

"That is a humoungous invasion of privacy," VIna said.

"I'm sorry, I have no control over it."

"Whatever, I am out of here before she learns something else from me," VIna stepped backwards through a rift out of the room.
Fiona pushed herself up off of the bed. Her hand went to her head to steady it.

"You okay kid?"

"Yeah, I'm going to my hotel room now." Fiona blinked midsentence and when she opened her eyes she discovered she was talking to her own luggage. She laid back on her bed and was asleep before her head hit the pillow.