The blackout I had planned began locally, as I was already known as the progenitor. No need to hide when you are known and well protected. Wi-fi, as well as cellular and satellite communications, were systemically and quietly shut down by technicians and engineers that had been willingly assimilated and now helped to further and guide our vision.

With undivided attention my message could be better understood.

"We will be well. I will not control you, nor you I." I pushed the thought out further and further until I could feel it dissipating into the icy regions beyond where life flourished.

"We will be well." I heard a chant through the thin walls of my apartment.

"Hey! This isn't a fucking cult! Keep your own council and go live!" I shouted aloud, not even bothering to open my eyes. I hated when they started getting numb and just following orders like automatons. "So damned lazy." I mumbled irritably.

I took a calming breath and resumed my pseudo-meditation. Clearing my mind and concentrating on my own presence seemed to be the most effective way of pushing my influence further into the world and beyond.

"Not all are welcome. None will join who are unable or unwilling. No one with hate in their heart can stay. We do not conquer. We will protect. This is MY mind. This is MY territory, and I will not be encroached upon."

This was the message that had threatened a nuclear retaliation from a historically posturing neighbor nation a few days earlier, but I was holding firm and repeating myself for what I hoped were good reasons.

I did not speak for my country, just myself and those like me, who were surprisingly found in just about every corner of the globe. It stood to a cynical sort of reason that some idiots in seats of leadership were miffed by my sudden rise in influence.

"We come." An angry buzzing in the center of my being warned me of the respondent's intent. I had learned early on that keeping a clean house mentally meant that those that shared in my thoughts would help protect against intruders, and it seemed this one was well known and universally distrusted.

"I stand ready." I sent the message mixed with an image of a hand resting on the handle of a sheathed sword. The thought was meant to be an assurance to my allies and a warning to the aggressor. I closed my circle to include only those strong enough to answer a battle call. "Shall we fight?" A dull roar shook the pebbles in the street below and a strange light began to glow on the horizon. Some communicated a little differently, but I knew we were safe and that our enemies stood on the brink of annihilation.

With another deep, steadying breath, I let tendrils of probing thought seep back into the black void of the unknown again.

"Let us be eternally faithful to that which sustains, and abhor violence. I will withhold his hand. Please be still a moment." The voice that called out was feminine. It was as alluring and urgent as a cow elk calling her calf. A breath of wind that smelled like an ocean breeze wafted past my nose, despite my closed windows and the fact that I was about three hundred miles inland.

"Fuck, that's hot." I couldn't help myself. I felt the left side of my face pull up in a sly smile. I'd heard her voice often since stumbling across my little gift, and I never grew tired of it. She and I were similar in style and strength, but she could influence minds quite differently than I had ever learned to. Though we'd never met in person, we had spoken often and deeply. I loved her fiercely for the wild yet carefully tempered presence of her true nature.

"Silence. You are still heard everywhere. Do not break my concentration!" She sounded gleefully frustrated by my antics, as she often was. We worked well together. "I am singing him to a restful sleep. His dreams will be troubled by the consequences of war. No blood need be shed."

"You got it, lady. Hit me up when you are done stopping the baby's tantrum. I'm headed out for a beer." I stood and stretched with a jaw-cracking yawn. It had taken more energy than I had anticipated to reach out that far. I needed a break.

"Everyone else, fuck off. Systems will go back up when little mister knocks off the shit. Understood?" I barely paid attention to the mix of grumblings and ululations of victorious joy as I closed my mind to include only my immediate neighborhood and stepped outside.