"What?" Taylor asked.
"Ike and I have devised a little game to further strengthen your empathic abilities."
"Actually it was my idea Zac, not yours."
"What's the idea?" Taylor asked before Zac could reply.
"Simple, we just take you to a crowded place and ask you to identify what someone is feeling."
"Oh…" Taylor seemed a little confused.
"It'll be crowded Tay." Isaac pointed out. "You'll have all these emotions coming your way. You'll have to block everyone out in order to focus on that one person."
"Oh ok. Cool."
"We'll do small crowds first, just to be nice." Zac grinned.
"And so we don't get mobbed." Isaac added.
"Oh, Ike, you don't have to worry about being mobbed. Just find yourself a corner where you can turn into someone else."
"Someone else?" Isaac repeated. "I can do people?"
"Uh oh." Zac said. "I thought you knew. Damn."
"What? Don't you like me changing into people?"
"It depends on who." A grin started appearing on his face. "Which reminds me, once you turned into a sexy teenage girl and went to the mall."
Isaac shrugged.
"So?"
"So? So when you came back you said that all these guys tried to pick you up. Including Rick."
Taylor cracked up at the look of disgust on Isaac's face.
"Gee, thanks for warning me Zac."
"My pleasure. So, when do we start this little game?"
"Well, the skate park will probably be pretty crowded by now, lets go there." Taylor suggested.
Zac and Isaac looked at each other.
"Ok." They agreed.
Actually, the little 'game' turned out a lot more beneficial than they had expected. Taylor quickly got the hang of blocking out people and focusing on a one or a small group. They also found out he could project emotions that he or someone nearby was feeling, onto another person. In other words, if he was miserable, he could make other people miserable. Or if someone was excited, he could make someone else nearby (or even himself) excited.
"Isn't this great?" Taylor smiled. "I could make the whole world happy."
"Yes… of course, you'd have to travel everywhere in the world first, and you don't know how long the effect lasts." Isaac pointed out.
They later did find out: about thirty seconds. But over the years as his skill improved, the time grew longer, gradually second by second.