Psionics

Psionics are psychic abilities that are present throughout the population of Japan. The psionic gene was discovered by scientists in multiple test subjects over a century ago. The theoretics behind such a discovery are multiple, ranging from a progress in medical technology, to a result of the radiation that blights the land still to this day. While there are as of current, sixteen noted types of ability, it has only been observed so far for users to have one ability, aside from the ultra-rare ability of Cerekinesis. Abilties, whether natural or synthetic, show little sign of genetic familiarity or connection. A child of two sources, one who has pyrokinesis and the other who has hydrokinesis could be born with telepathy or clairvoyance for example.
While some may possess more natural talents in display of their psionics, if a user is to become powerful with their ability then they must train hard.

Tokyo in particular now runs on a system of Psionic users being seen as superior in society, and carrying more influence and power. Society is split into three categories this way:

### **Direct Sources**

Direct Sources, also referred to and nicknames as 'Directs', are those born with psionic abilities. These abilities usually manifest around puberty, although individuals can show signs earlier on in some cases. Sources are seen as the most admirable and superior in society, with many involved in high ranking positions such as politics and security. Many sources join the Blacklight Psionic Division, whether through voluntary means or being scouted as candidates. However, some Sources live completely normal lives, with some utilising their abilities for more homely or recreational means, while some never use their abilities whatsoever.

### **Indirect Sources**

Indirect Sources, also known as and referred to as 'Indirects', are Sources whose abilities manifest later than usual, around their later teens. If no sign of abilities have emerged by the beginning of adulthood, the individual will be classed as an Inept.

### **Synthetics**

Synthetics are those, usually teens or older, in who psionic abilities have not naturally manifested, but wish to acquire abilities. These tests are provided for free by Blacklight Industries, however, they are long, painful and on the understanding that if the individual is found to have abilities, they will be signed up to the Blacklight Psionic Division. The process is not 100% certain and any abilities gained will be weaker than the natural versions of Sources. If the process fails and no abilities are gained, the subject will then be signed up to join the Blacklight Security Division. Although Synthetics will have abilities, they will be largely viewed by Sources as inferior and perhaps even ridiculed and made prejudiced against for being 'test tube experiments'.

### **Inepts**

Inepts are those in society without abilities whatsoever. Though not at all impossible, Inepts will find it much harder to gain social acceptance, climb career ladders and so on, being largely seen as the 'bottom rung' of the four types. While hardly a minority group (being in the general majority of the population) or segregated from society, tensions can rise between Inepts and those with abilities, with both sides carrying grievances against the other. When it comes to Blacklight Industries, Inepts may only join the Blacklight Security Division, as those without abilities are completely unable to qualify to join the Psionics Division.

## Psionic Abilities

### **Psykinesis**

Psykinesis consists of the ability to attract and repulse objects, both organic and synthetic with one's mind.

Pros:

* Psykinesis is one of the most admired and coveted psionic abilities.
* If rigorously trained, can be an extremely powerful ability, able to move multiple and massive objects.
* Useful applications in everyday life such as handless cooking, grocery shopping etc.

Cons:

* Can create immense strain on the mind if overused, particularly at higher levels, resulting in collapse, migraines etc.
* Weight/mass of objects can only be moved depending on the user's training.
* Only solid objects can be controlled, liquids and gases are not affected by psykinesis.

### **Pyrokinesis**

Pyrokinesis consists of the ability to both create and manipulate flames, fire and smoke.

Pros:

* An extremely powerful offensive ability, highly suitable for frontline combat.
* Pyrokinesis users can create their own fire and therefore do not have to rely on a catalyst to use their abilities.
* In the events of a fire breaking out in a building for example, users can control the spread of the fire to ease any danger.

Cons:

* Although users can create their own fire, substantial oxygen must be present in the atmosphere to do so.
* While a powerful ability, untrained pyrokinesis users can be at major risk of harming themselves and others around them.
* Lack of defensive abilities when compared to some others.

### **Hydrokinesis**

Hydrokinesis consists of the ability to manipulate water.

Pros:

* A highly trained hydrokinesis user can pull water or liquid from any source, including water molecules from the air.
* A well trained hydrokinesis user can utilise powerful jets and waves of water, capable of great damage.
* Hydrokinesis can be used to easily clear obstructions and debris.

Cons:

* Cannot create water as such, a water source must be drawn from.
* Although capable of high damage, the output is not as great as some other abilities.
* While they can take certain actions to limit the danger, hydrokinesis users are not immune to breathing underwater or drowning.

### **Cryokinesis**

Cryokinesis consists of the ability to manipulate ice.

Pros:

* Cryokinesis can be used to create pathways of ice for the user to quickly traverse on, as well as long walls.
* Cryokinesis can be used to freeze objects completely, whether enemy lifeforms or a crumbling structure.
* Ice provides a solid defense the thicker it is laid before the user.

Cons:

* Like users of hydrokinesis, cryokinesis users must be able to draw from a liquid source in order to create ice.
* Unlike hydrokinesis users, cryokinesis users cannot draw from water molecules in the atmosphere, needing a more substantial base.
* Cryokinesis users will find themselves particularly outdone against pyrokinesis users, who can in most cases easily melt their ice.

### **Electrokinesis**

Electrokinesis consists of the ability to both create and manipulate lightning and electricity.

Pros:

* Electrokinesis users can create electricity without the means of a nearby source, as well as manipulating natural lightning, which is far stronger than electricity.
* Electrokinesis can be used to overload electronic devices and machines.
* Electrokinesis can be used more than many abilities to incapacitate rather than outright harm or even kill.

Cons:

* Even trained electrokinesis users can sometimes create accidental discharges and static electricity to the users and those around them.
* Though natural lightning can be manipulated, it is highly dangerous and unpredictable to wield, even by a skilled electrokinesis user.

### **Geokinesis**

Geokinesis consists of the ability to manipulate earthen-based nature, from rock formations to plantlife.

Pros:

* Geokinesis has seemingly the widest array of matter to manipulate in terms of elemental psionic abilities, anything from plants and foliage, to rocks and pebbles, to even synthetic materials using natural components such as concrete.
* Geokinesis can be used offensively, but can also provide great defense in the form of earthern barriers, armour etc.
* Skilled geokinesis users can use platforms of earth to travel on, akin to a surfboard through the air.

Cons:

* Like other abilities, geokinesis users cannot create their element and must manipulate a source.
* Geokinesis is deemed one of the harder abilities to master, as to mold different shapes and manipulations of earth is more complex than simply firing out a blast of fire or electricity.
* While geokinesis can manipulate many aspects of nature, it cannot manipulate wood or metal.

### **Aerokinesis**

Aerokinesis consists of the ability to create and manipulate wind.

Pros:

* Skilled aerokinesis users can focus vacuum blasts of wind to slice through hard substances, even thinner metals in some cases.
* Aerokinesis can be used to levitate or hover, or even fly short distances in some applications.
* Aerokinesis can create great amounts of destruction at high levels, damaging even sturdy and solid structures.

Cons:

* Unskilled aerokinesis users can easily find themselves blown off their own feet and knocked down by their abilities.
* If aerokinesis is used to create air fields around a user, they can cause unintentional damage to those close by or structural damage.
* If aerokinesis is used to try and put out fire for example, it could have the opposite effect and make it spread more.

### **Kinetikinesis**

Kinetikinesis consists of the ability to manipulate potential energy into kinetic energy.

Pros:

* Kinetikinesis can be used to charge up the energy of an object and make it explode, like a makeshift grenade, making it extremely useful with small ranged weapons.
* Kinetikinesis can also be used to temporarily boost the users own physical attributes through potential energy, slightly increasing their physical strength, speeds, agility etc.
* A kinetikinesis user can easily bypass physical obstructions such as locks by simply overcharging them and blowing them up.

Cons:

* When an object is charged with kinetikinesis, it must be either thrown or the user must withdraw from the object quickly, less it explodes in their vicinity and causes harm.
* If a kinetikinesis user uses the ability to temporarily increase their attributes, it will also be followed by a temporary period of sluggishness and drowsiness.
* As a result of the ability shifting potential energy, many kinetikinesis users suffer from conditions such as heartburn.

### **Sclerokinesis**

Sclerokinesis consists of the ability to instantly harden any part of the users body.

Pros:

* Sclerokinesis can coat the user or any part of their body in an unidentified but near indestructible covering on reaction when activated, making it one of the best abilities for defense.
* The covering of sclerokinesis will also increase the user's physical strength by on average, threefold.
* Sclerokinesis will also increase the user's weight at full covering, rendering them largely immune to knockbacks.

Cons:

* While the covering that sclerokinesis provides is near indestructible, it is not fully, and can be penetrated with enough force.
* As mentioned, full overing of sclerokinesis increases a user's weight threefold, which could be deadly if they were in a situation such as falling from a great height or drowning.
* Sclerokinesis training is particularly rigorous, as the user has to become used to immediately selecting the body part they wish to protect from attack or increase in strength.

### **Clairvoyance**

Clairvoyance consists of the ability to discern conditions and objects through otherwise preventative means.

Pros:

* Clairvoyance can be used to see clearly through disruptive environments, such as fog, rain, pitch black etc.
* Clairvoyance can also be used to detect the layout of a room and any objects or lifeforms in nearby presence.
* A skilled clairvoyance user can attain a 'sixth sense' to any immediate danger around them.

Cons:

* Clairvoyance, while useful, is viewed as a more one trick ability, with some viewing it as not suitable for frontline combat.
* While clairvoyance has its uses, it does not provide any offensive or defensive applications.
* While clairvoyance can see through illusions, a user would not be able to detect correction if under the influence or things like drugs, alcohol, hypnotism etc.

### **Duplication**

Duplication consists of the ability for the user to create copies of themself, others or nearby objects.

Pros:

* Duplication users can create both illusionary, and then at a more skilled level, physical copies of themselves or objects.
* Physical duplications can be used in many situations, from combat to completing a task quicker or giving oneself a massage.
* While a duplication user can start off with creating a single copy, more skilled users can create up to four copies of themselves or an object.

Cons:

* Duplications are limited to four at a time.
* Until a duplication user becomes more skilled, they can only create illusionary copies.
* As society is now cashless and is digitized, physical money for example cannot be copied.

### **Hypervelocity**

Hypervelocity consists of the ability to move at superhumanly elevated speeds.

Pros:

* Hypervelocity users can move at breakneck speeds untrained by the human eye. Essentially, while a user moves with hypervelocity, it will be as if they are moving at a normal pace and the world around them has slowed down or even stopped.
* Hypervelocity enables use of running on walls and other uneven surfaces.
* Users can figuratively slow time to plan more strategically.

Cons:

* Regular use of hypervelocity requires a user to consume several times more fuel intake than other individuals.
* Untrained hypervelocity users can experience dizziness and vertigo symptoms from using their ability.
* Hypervelocity users generally also think faster than other members of society, and therefore may become easily bored and in need of constant entertainment and distraction.

### **Invisibility**

Invisibility consists of the ability to make the user and those close to them invisible.

Pros:

* Invisibility is the definitive ability for use in stealth, spying and even assassination.
* A invisibility user can not only make themselves, but others around them invisible.
* Invisibility users are renowned for often having good senses of humour and being light-hearted pranksters thanks to their ability.

Cons:

* While invisibility renders a user temporarily unseeable, it does not negate the sound of their footsteps, breath etc.
* Invisibility also does not render the user intangible. If someone or something were to hit them, it would be felt physically.
* Invisibility can be risky to use in certain situations such as combat, where allies could potentially bump into or even swing a weapon in the invisibility user's vicinity.

### **Teleportation**

Teleportation is the ability to teleport oneself and others around them.

Pros:

* Teleportation can be used to make short bursts of travel in any direction by the user.
* Teleportation users, as with invisibility users, can use the ability on themself and/or others.
* While a teleporation user is in motion, they become intangible.

Cons:

* Teleportation users can only teleport a marginally short distance within their vicinity.
* A user can only teleport to a place they can see, or if through an completely solid object like a wall or a door, be able to picture exactly the layout of the other side.
* Rapid teleportation drains a user both physically and mentally.

### **Telepathy**

Telepathy is the ability to telepathically communicate with others.

Pros:

* Telepathy users can contact any individual with their mind within 500 km, making them excellent choices for squadron handlers.
* Telepathy users can single out select numbers or an individual within a squadron for example, if they need to deliver sensitive information that others should not be privy to.
* Telepathy users can relay information between parties at a faster rate than normal, holding several conversations at once.

Cons:

* Some telepathy users can become accustomed to merely talking via telepathy, and find readjustment to speaking physically temporarily disjointing.
* In some cases where a telepathy user is delivering sensitive information, they must focus on the information only reaching their target, rather than addressing a group.
* As telepathy has no offensive or defensive capabilities whatsoever, telepathy users are generally more used in the Blacklight Psionics Division as handlers, administrators and so on.

### **Cerekinesis**

Cerekinesis is the ability to absorb the powers of others on a permanent basis.

Pros:

* The most rare and coveted psionic ability, less than a handful of known users throughout history.
* Depending on the user which the ability was siphoned from, the user of cerekinesis can instantly possess a masterful grasp of their new ability.
* Massively powerful, able to wield several abilities at once to their full potential.

Cons:

* Outlawed due to its overpowered potential and past involvement of events. Anyone displaying even minor signs of cerekinesis will be forcibly deabilitated by the government.
* Has a high chance of causing massive cerebral damage to the user as a result of storing many psionics in their mind.
* Cerebral damage caused by cerekinesis can cause extreme instability.