Mirror Soul

Chapter Ten: The No Limitz Fallacy

“What wrecking ball did you fight?” Kai asked as Bruce opened the car door and hobbled out in pain. After a week of training everyday straight, Bruce's muscles were completely sore. 3 hours on the weekdays, five hours on the weekends, Layva never let up on his training to hold his S.O.L.E activation. They hadn't sparred since the first day, but instead spent hours trying to get Bruce to grab his soul and utilize it at will. It was awful for the first three days. On the second day he spent an hour curled up in a ball wrestling with his power to awaken. He was beyond embarrassed as he sweated more than he ever had before. But, Layva never laughed at him or mocked him during their training the way he thought she would. She almost seemed to view his training as important, despite her complaints when he failed. 

Gripping onto panic and fear when he wasn't scared turned out to be almost impossible. By the third day they had both realized that while panic was the way his power originally activated, it could not be used to activate it at will. 

“How do you activate your soul?” Bruce had asked her after spending an hour trying to force a mindset of fear.

Layva, who had been doing one armed push-ups in her black tank-top, stopped and looked up at him with those gray eyes of hers. 

Layva thought about his question for a second. “I don't,” she said at last. “I've been doing it for so long now it's like taking a step. One second you're standing still and the next you're moving.”

Bruce grumbled as he wiped his brow. “That's not very helpful, Layva. How long have you been killing those huge monsters anyway? You're my age.” 

Layva stood and walked over to the mini fridge in the corner of the training room. She grabbed a bottle of water. “ I killed my first nadir when I turned eleven.”
Bruce's mouth dropped. “They let a kid fight those… nightmares?”
 He stood and walked over to get his own water. 

“It sounds like the Horizon Core needs to have a chat with child services.”

Layva rolled her eyes as she took a sip. “I only became a Horizon Guard at 14. And I snuck into Limbotory to prove I could take on a nadir by myself.” 

Bruce stared at her. “You literally walked into hell and fought one of those things to prove a point? Why?”

Layva's face returned to its bored expression. “Cause i felt like it, okay?”

She set her water on the ground. “Now, get back to work.”

“Forcing himself to be scared to activate his soul won't work I'm afraid.”

They both turned to the door. A beautiful girl with auburn hair and smooth creamy skin. Bruce could not help but notice that she was in an expensive looking red gown that showed her modest figure. But the most eye catching thing Bruce noticed, was the wheelchair she sat in.

Layva had the biggest smile Bruce had ever seen her give as the red headed girl rolled up to them.

“Welcome back Rave.” Layva said as she leaned on the expensive looking chair's armrest.

The girl wrapped her arms around Layva's waist and hugged her, causing Bruce's jaw to drop again.

“I missed you LayLay! Switzerland was fun, but I missed you guys!” Bruce almost expected Layva to suplex the girl out of the chair, but instead she rolled her eyes, smiled, and patted the girl's back.

“I missed you too Rave. I would have met you at the door if i wasn't busy with this one.” Layva gestured towards Bruce.

“That's not a very nice thing to say...LayLay.” Bruce grinned at the dark haired girl as her eyes narrowed at him.