KINETIC

Chapter 145 Cain's Ability

"So what was it that you needed help with?" Leo asked.

The agreed upon time had arrived and Leo had gone out onto the training grounds to meet up with Cain. The two of them were now standing in the middle of the training grounds alone.

"Something strange happened when I was fighting the cultist in Grove village. I had already run out of Energy but I felt so much hate towards the cultist that I attempted to use my ability anyways."

"Suddenly I felt a different but similar Energy going through my body and my hammer got heavier during my strike, allowing me to deal the final blow." Cains face was just pure confusion and frustration.

"So you're trying to figure out what this different Energy is, or where it came from?"

"Yes. When the hammer got heavier that time, it felt different...like the way it got heavier was changed but...I don't understand how." Cain answered.

"Have you been able to use the other Energy again since then?"

"No... I've tried but I can't figure out how to use it. I can still feel it but I don't know what's different about it so I can't direct it into something."

Leo made it very obvious that he was 'thinking hard' by placing his hand on his chin and turning away slightly while looking at the ground. He was actually speaking to Dreifus.

'Do you have any ideas?' Leo asked.

'Actually, I do. There is a few ways he could be changing the weight of something using an ability. Since he seems to be doing it on instinct, I doubt he realizes which of these he's doing do we will just have to explain all of them to him.'

'The problem is that he needs to understand what molecules, density, and weight is, as well as the differences between them.' Dreifus said.

'That might be a problem. He's not exactly the sharpest tool in the shed...' Leo replied while looking at Cains hopeful expression.

~Sigh~ 'let's give it a go.'

Leo then attempted to explain the existence of molecules and what they are in as simple a way as he could. Once it seemed like Cain could somewhat understand the concept of molecules, he moved on.

"To change how heavy something is, you must be able to change it's density, mass or the gravity influencing it." Leo said, copying the words Dreifus was saying from inside his mind.

Leo understood what these things were but not at the level that Dreifus did. He would constantly be asking Dreifus to re explain the specifics of the information that was forced into his mind. For some reason, unknown even to him, the knowledge felt natural to Dreifus.

"Uhm...okay." Cain was very confused. He was still trying to wrap his head around molecules and now this...

"Gravity is what prevents us from floating away from the ground. When you jump, you fall back down. That's gravity. It's like an invisible force that pushes things towards the ground." Leo said, trying to explain as best he could so that it was easy to understand.

"Okay, thats not so hard to understand." Cain said with a mostly convincing attitude.

"Good, that's the easiest on to understand so I wouldn't know how to continue if you didn't understand." Leo paused for a moment before continuing.

"Mass. The mass of an object is what makes something heavy or light, it determines somethings weight. Gravity is a force that pushes things towards the ground but if something weighs more then it falls faster, right?"

Cain nodded "Like how a block of metal would fall faster than a feather?"

"Yes, exactly. So the metal has more mass than the feather, this means that gravity will pull the metal down faster. So if you increase somethings mass, then it will become heavier because the gravity will naturally pull harder on it to come back down to the ground."

"So if you take a bucket and fill it halfway with water and take another bucket of the same size but fill it all the way, which would be heavier?"

"The full one..."Cain answered hesitantly, questioning the validity of his own knowledge.

"That's mass, the bucket is the same size, but there's more water in one so it's heavier. To make something heavier this way, think of an object as the bucket and whatever molecules make up the object as the water. If you add more of those molecules then you would be adding mass and it would get heavier." Leo explained.

'This doesn't feel like the best explanation, arent you leaving out some of the more specific details?' Leo asked inside his mind.

'Explaining these things in relation to science compared to your abilities is completely different. With an ability, you can do things that aren't supposed to be possible possible. If he believes he can just add more to an object to increase its mass, and his ability allows him to do so, then it will happen and will somehow work.' Dreifus shrugged.

"I don't think I'm doing that though. It doesn't feel like I'm adding or taking away from something when I change its weight, it's more like I'm changing something about it on the inside." Cain said.

"Then it's the last of our options, density. The density of an object is how close together the molecules inside it are to each other. Think of the molecules like people standing in a room, to increase the density you could make these people all hug each other."

"If you drop a block of metal and right next to it you drop two blocks of metal that are stuck to each other, the two blocks would fall faster because their weight is adding to each other."

Cain continued to nod, giving Leo the impression that he at least sort of understood what was going on.

"You told me that you get stronger when you make yourself heavier, that your bodies defense gets better too, right?." Leo asked.

"That's right." Cain answered.

"Well I think we've figured out what you've been doing until now then. You can manipulate density." Leo said confidently.

"How does my strength and defense increasing have anything to do with density though? I can understand why it makes things heavier because of your description but..." Cain was still struggling to understand everything even though he was able to grasp the basic concepts.

"Let's use the same example as earlier. If you had two people in a room that are standing next to each other and I told you to push them apart, it wouldn't be too difficult."

"Now imagine if they were holding hands, it would become more difficult. What if they were hugging each other tightly, it would become even more difficult. This is how density changes the toughness of something, by making the molecules more compact, they will add to each other's strength just like they do with weight." Leo explained.

" So I've been changing density and that's how I've changed the weight of stuff? Then what's the other Energy doing?" Cain asked, excited to finally have something that might help him understand his ability better.

" Well, you said it yourself that your original Energy didn't add or take away from the object, it just influenced the inside. So what did the new Energy do?" Leo asked.

"It definently didn't add or take away, so I guess it wasn't changing the mass... So it must have been changing the gravity?" Cain half said and half asked.

Leo shrugged "Maybe, it's up to you to figure it out now. I believe that this should be enough information to help you figure it out for yourself. If you have any questions going forward, feel free to ask."

Leo turned and started to walk away so Cain would be able to think about everything he had learned and experiment with his ability alone, but before he could walk away Cain called out to him.

"Wait! How do you know this stuff?"

Leo paused his steps "I can't answer that, but I promise I'll tell you some day." He then continued to walk away, eventually leaving Cain to stand alone in the training grounds.

'Density and gravity...what incredible potential.' Dreifus said with a hint of excitement in his voice.

'I know that to others it seems like I have more than one ability but we know that I'm just using my ability to achieve different things. I don't think it's the same for Cain, at least not that I can think of. Is it possible he actually has more than one ability somehow?' Leo asked with intense curiosity.

'Who knows, it's not like he has a voice in his head and a system to tell him what his ability is. For all we know it is just one ability but it can do different things like you're can. Or like you've just said, he could have multiple abilities. There's no point in thinking about it.' Dreifus said with a 'shrug'.

'I suppose. Maybe he will figure it out one day and tell me...'