02x08: Training

Austin teaches some of the newer students how to use their powers.

TRAINING

 

     While going up to the fourth floor, Kyle and Austin were talking.

     “Did you talk to her yet?” Austin asked.

     “Not yet,” he answered.

     “How’d you know she arrived?”   

     “She sent me a psychic message.”

     “Then you did talk to her.”

     “Not face to face.”

     They arrived there and walked to her door. Austin stepped away from Kyle.

     “What are you doing?” Kyle asked.

     “Leaving you alone, privacy is very important these days.”

     “AUSTIN!”

     “Come on! Make your move.”

     “Ok, here I go.”

    Kyle took a deep breath and knocked on the door.

     “Bye Kyle!” Austin yelled as he disappeared.

     “WAIT! WHA! WHY!” Kyle yelled as the door opened.

     “KYLE! It’s been a long time,” Berna said.

     “Berna, hi!”

     “So, how’s school?”

     “You really want to talk about school on our first real conversation?”

     “Not the classes, you moved out right?”

     “Yeah, but so did you!”

     “Well, it’s fine over there but Seton is still the best.”

     “MTS is hell. Everyone there hates me.”

     “Well, are you coming back next year?”

     “I don’t know.”

     Austin then walked from the elevators across the hall where they were talking.

     “Hey Austin? How’s Seton?”

     “Fine. And I just noticed, isn’t it sweet that both of you moved out?”

     “AUSTIN!” Kyle and Berna said in unison.

      “That still hasn’t worn off huh?”

     “Yeah!” Kyle said as Berna just shut her mouth.

     “Well, I better get back to my suite. I have to train the new students on Wednesday in using their powers and I’m gonna take a few practice sessions in the base.”

     “The base is just a table, two wards, a Dome of Power, and a patio, where’s the training room?” Kyle asked.

     “Oh, I made one underground over the course of the summer. I just made the environment codes last week. It’s air conditioned and I can control it using my powers. It’s like a virtual reality.”

     “Well, good luck with that,” Berna said.

     Austin walked away and took a last look at them. They both looked at him. Austin was teasing them with a smile.

     “AUSTIN!” they said in unison.

     “Smiling is illegal now? By the way, that screaming at me in unison thing is so cute!”

     “AUSTIN!” they said once again in unison but Berna stopped midway.

     “Bye!” Austin said while teleporting to his suite. He grabbed a few papers and teleported to the base.

     He arrived at the base and went behind the Dome where there was a curtain. Behind it was a futuristic looking elevator which was cylindrical. He went in and it went down. He found himself in a black room with white gridlines everywhere where a single different color would move around the gridlines. He went to the very back of the room and opened a panel, inputting codes for environments found on the papers and finally putting in his psychic signature, enabling him to be the only one who could control the training room.

     He tried turning the room into a forest and soon he found himself in the forest. The room wasn’t bound by space regulations so the room extended as far as the eye could see but if you ran in a straight line, the codes would limit you and make the forest its own small planet. He made the room back into the black version and went back up. He didn’t even do the practice sessions he told Kyle about.

 

The next day Wednesday in school, it was pretty boring. Their seating arrangement had been changed but Austin felt a little sad that the shoe’s on the wrong foot and Janella was now behind him. In front of him was Jem, he was pretty nice although he borrowed from Austin a lot; Jaja, someone who’d usually chat with Austin’s seatmate. He was seated beside Guen, another member of the Vanitiez. Guen was either PJ’s Girlfriend or they just share Mutual Understanding or “MU” as they’d call it in there. Ironically, PJ was seated beside Janella. They were two seats behind Austin. Behind Austin however was the big, healthy guy, Abram “Bambam” Napiza and a short girl named Marinel Esposo. Abram was Austin’s “idol” sort of when it came to music. He would be the one who’d play guitar around Austin the most. Austin wanted to learn but he didn’t have a guitar.

     As for the regular classes, Sr. Rommel would be entertaining to listen to, as always. Austin had netted the “Best in English” award last year but this year wasn’t really that good for him in English. He didn’t get any honors either. The only one in Bukidnon with honors was Kat. He was top one in average though but Sr. Leo gave him an insufficient score in Social Studies with an 83, 85 being the minimum score.

     Sr. Edmond began getting a bit stricter. Math was getting harder as they went into algebra.

     Ms. Delia would give them a hard time in the second quarter science with studying the hydrosphere and atmosphere.

     Ms. Arlene, their Filipino teacher, basically made them analyze Tagalog language short stories.

     Sr. Leo, they studied Natural Resources.

     Sr. John, the awesome CCF teacher, well, they focused on the Creation Story.

     Ms. Mauze, the Computer teacher, well they focused on Flash. Computer was one of Austin’s favorite subjects and Flash was incredibly fun.

    Ms. Ruby made them do sewing. Sewing was hell at most. The project was pajamas and that proved to be difficult.

     Sr. Philip, their kickass Music teacher who was simply awesome, and he played the guitar, basically taught them pitch and that stuff. Well they told them stories that were hilarious most of the time.

     Sr. Dhani and P.E. class was, for Physical Education, kind of boring. Austin always disliked Gymnastics but oh well.

     Anyway, that day, around Math time, Janella and Marinel switched seats. They had a bit of free time left over after Addition of Polynomials so as usual, they talked. This time, they exchanged birthdays. He told her that it was November 3, 1996 for him. She told him it was January 11, 1997 for her.  He put that in mind and awaited the day.

     “So, how happy are your birthdays?” she asked.

     “Umm…  Boring really. The first 10 years of my life, I’d spend my birthday in a luxurious hotel. Good enough but all I have to talk to was my mom and my godmother who’d pay for the room. My 11^th birthday was spent in the Mall of Asia.”

     “Wait, Mall of Asia, that crumbled to the ground right? December 13, 2008 right?”

     “Yeah, it’s still not fixed up?”

     “No, why?”

     “Can I tell you a secret, and promise not to tell anybody?”

     “Ok.”

     “We blew up that mall.”

     “AUSTIN, YOU NAÏVE, INEXPERIENCED, IDIOT! What girl would find a guy blowing up a mall attractive?” Austin thought to himself.

     She covered her mouth.

     “Oh my goodness, you did that?”

     “Not me alone. Me and my old classmates.”

     “Umm… I don’t know how to react to that.”

     “It was late, only two people got really hurt, I promise. Well, I didn’t do any of the hurting.”

     “Who did?”

     “I think it was Lanz, or Patrick. Lanz can make shockwaves and Patrick can make and control fire.”

     “Well, can you promise not to destroy any more malls?”

     “Umm…”

     “…Or anything big in general?”

     “I’ll try.”

     “Promise!”

     “Ok, I promise.”

     “Anyway, umm. So. “

     RING!

     RING!

     It was Filipino time. Ms. Arlene was really strict when it came to people who don’t sit in their proper seats. Janella went back and the class started.

     After that was lunch. Austin sent a letter to all the students’ suites that there will be a practice session facilitated by him for new first year students. There would be a power regulation official for other levels so he handled his year.

     After classes, Austin changed to casual clothes and fixed himself up. He made sure he looked completely perfect but he didn’t know why. He thinks it’s called “wanting to impress with looks along with ability” or something in that area.

     He teleported to the base since he made it impossible to teleport into the training room immediately. He waited and the first person to come in was Ernst.

     Austin and Ernst have this “frenemies” relationship. Despite his flaws, Ernst was indeed very smart and was top 5 in the first quarter. They’d have a strong rivalry but none of it would really matter because he promised to himself he’d train anybody.

     “Hey Austin!”

     “Don’t pull your gas pranks on me.”

     “I can release gas whenever I want.”

     “Everyone knows that Ernst, both gases.”

     “Ugh… but I can’t control my gas release when I don’t want to.”

     “Disgusting!”

     “Seriously, Austin!”

     “Later. Let’s wait for the others.”

     Soon, John arrived, then Jem, then Janella then in no order, Johann, Joseph, Ricardo, and Rico arrived. Austin caught news a few weeks ago that Janella and John had split but their being together was a rumor in the first place so Austin didn’t know anymore.

     He led them all to the big elevator. Everyone who came happened to either like him, or not hate him.

    They arrived in the training room. Austin lined them up in a horizontal line and started from the left. He decided to train Rico and Ricardo first because they can eliminate obstacles in pretty much the same way. He set up the room as a forest and two rows of targets stood in front of Rico and Ricardo.

     “Okay, Rico, you can turn any part of your body into acid.

     “Everyone, as a general rule, all you have to do for beginners is close your eyes and imagine your powers working, now open your eyes and continue the illusion. Practice this and soon you won’t need to close your eyes and practice it even more and you won’t even need to do anything at all. Just think of it and do it.

     “Rico, imagine your body turning into acid or maybe just your arm. You can shoot out any part of your acidified body and regenerate it. Ricardo on the other hand, your supernovas are technically super, yocto minimized stars that blew up. Basically, you are surrounded by atoms that turn to stars when you will it and they explode. Just do what I said and everything should be fine.”

     They took their places in front of the two rows. Austin went to the other end.

     “Ok, the goal is to destroy your row of obstacles before the opponent. First one to hit me wins.”

     “Wait, hit you?” Rico asked.

     “Yes, you shoot me with acid. Ricardo fires a supernova. Whoever does that first wins.”

     “Ok, you sure?”

     “Yes. Okay, ready, get set. GO!”

     Rico and Ricardo ran firing acid and supernovas at wooden boards, causing them to melt and disappear. Soon, Ricardo destroyed everything and hit Austin with a supernova. Austin caught it using a force field and declared Ricardo as the winner.

     The next batch was John and Johann. He placed them in an enlarged clock mechanism. Basically, they had to drop all the way to the bottom while destroying as many gears as possible.

     “Okay, John, you know how to control metal so no problems, Johann, You just have to use the diamonds break diamonds theory. Absorb the metal and break the gears. Good luck and GO!”

     John was breaking gears like crazy but Johann took time in absorbing the gears. But soon he was catching up. In the end, John was the winner and Johann arrived 3 seconds later. Not bad.

     Since Joseph and Ernst had similar powers, they went next.

     “Alright Joseph, Lumokinesis just involves imagining light coming out of your hands or attracting light. You can control and create light. Basically, you well, I’m not a science expert but you somehow change the air around you into photons or something. Let’s just say change air into light and continuing it in a continuous line.”

     “Ok, I get it,” Joseph affirmed while practicing.

     “Ernst, you release gas because you think of laughing, you’re too happy most of the time, relax yourself, don’t get overexcited. You’re on a rocking ship ride and you’re having the time of your life, naturally, you smile, which leads to laughter, causing you to release nitrous oxide. Control your emotions.”

     Austin took them all to an empty street during nighttime. There were lampposts on the sides.

     “Ok, your powers don’t involve destruction but more of distraction. Just try to distract the other person for more than 5 seconds. Ready, Set, GO!”

     Joseph quickly fired a light beam at Ernst. He quickly dodged it and fired a barrage of laughing gas at Joseph. He starts laughing but nails Ernst with a beam of light. He covers his eyes and trips.

     “Ernst, you lose. Sheesh Ernst, that was too fast.”

     “Sorry!”

     “Practice on that.”

     Austin took them back to the forest.

     “Looks like Janella and Jem are the only ones remaining.”

     “Oh no, another guy. What if she starts to like him? He doesn’t look half bad and he’s a nice guy. But I need to wrap this up. I promised myself to train them but it’s getting late!” Austin said to himself.

     “Austin, you okay?” Janella asked.

     “Yeah, okay, so Jem, these are virtual trees so no damage to Mother Nature at all, just put down as much trees as possible. Imagine the ground is shaking, cracking et cetera. You can also transform air into rocks or dust. “

     “Ok.” Jem said as he went off to practice.

     “As for you Janella, you have a lot of options; either burn them down or freeze them then knock 'em down. Or a combination of both. Just go wild. You have to stay in your spots and not move or it’d be too easy.”

     Austin started the challenge. Jem took down 20 trees in a minute, his aiming was quite terrible. Janella on the other hand took down 25 trees in 90 seconds. Speed is good but accuracy was still kind of edgy.

     “Okay, umm, Janella took down more trees but Jem took faster so umm… I guess it’s a tie or if I divide it I guess�"“

     “Jem’s the winner 1/3 is bigger than 5/18. Umm…” He thought to himself.

     “Okay, let’s settle for that for now. Let’s call it a day. I’ll be seeing Johann, Ernst, Rico, and Janella again next week, same time.”

    Before they went out, Austin thought he saw Janella and Jem looking at each other. So what? Don’t be paranoid. Calm down! Don’t be jealous! Envy is a sin!

     Well, Austin noticed that he was being more jealous or maybe it was just something else. Well, he was not good at this so he didn’t know what he was feeling but he decided to just go on as usual for now. Besides, their Recollection would be next Tuesday. Looks like it’s time to clean up his conscience.