Turtles' Big Sister

Bat in the Belfry

"You're too stiff," Pepper scolded gently. "Just relax, dude."

She and her twin were in the dojo practicing with their powers. They'd finally traded their conduits back; Pepper figured that after using her staff so long, Lucian could handle trying to channel his magic through the chainmail gloves instead.

"I'm just excited," he complained. "It's about time you're teaching me that invisibility spell."

She rolled her eyes. "What, did you expect me to teach you immediately? You got your powers long after me, dude. You're still way behind me. I had to wait to make sure you're ready for an advanced spell. I still say we should have started with the water spell."

"Like that's any easier."

"It is, actually. It's just shifting an element to another, not using two at once. Sure you're ready for this?"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just teach me."

"You're so impatient." Sighing again, she pulled out her staff. "Okay, first, connect to your fire magic and let the heat build up. You'll have to focus, alright? Those gloves are harder than the staff. It's easy for your intent to get lost in the links."

"Yeah, yeah, I got it."

Pepper arched a skeptical brow and summoned her own fire magic, letting the familiar warmth spread through her hands. "Let out only the heat, no smoke or flames, and direct it into the air around yourself." She pushed out the heat into the air and the temperature shot up several degrees. The air started to tremble from the heat distortion. 

Lucian's eyes were closed in concentration and he frowned, brows furrowing. Sparks flew from his hands, calming after a few moments. "I think I got it."

"Mm-hmm. Okay, now here's the hard part." She paused for a moment, searching for the right words to explain it. "Your hands are like...invisible tethers to your magic. You have to sever one of those tethers and switch it to air magic, while still keeping the other tether in place with your fire." 

She followed her own instructions, exchanging one of the tethers to her fire magic for air magic instead. She'd practiced this invisibility spell a lot since the first time, and it was almost easy now for her to hang on to both the elements at once, isolating the heat around herself in a semi-solid bubble. Glancing down to check, she was pleased to see she didn't cast a shadow, as intended.

She looked back up at her brother. His jaw was clenched in concentration. A moment later, he exhaled sharply and opened his eyes. 

"How do you manage to do that?" he demanded. "Every time I try to form a connection with my air magic, my fire magic starts fading."

"I told you it's a hard spell," she retorted, letting go of her own magic so he could see her. "You can't just expect to get it your first try."

"You did."

She shrugged. "Like I said, you're behind me by several months."

He scowled. "You don't have to rub it in."

"What, don't tell me you're jealous?"

"Hmm. That you managed to unlock three new spells in the same day? Yes, definitely." 

She rolled her eyes. "Okay, dude, that's not fair. We were trying to survive a booby-trapped mirror maze, of course that gave me extra incentive to do that invisibility spell. And the healing spell was literally a life-or-death situation. As for the lightning, I didn't even mean to do that. You can't be jealous of me for something I didn't know I could do."

"Oh, I totally can. Speaking of your lightning spell, have you figured out how you did that?"

"At that specific point in time, no. But I have figured out how to do it again. During forest fires, smoke and carbon micro-particles can become the initiators of static when introduced into the upper atmosphere, and sufficient atmospheric static can spark discharge as lightning. I use my fire magic through manipulation of the thermal energy in my body and use that heat and my own energy to excite the atoms and create flames. With some extra concentration, I can change the manipulation to create a static charge like what forest fires cause in the atmosphere and convert the particles to create an electrical phenomenon rather than a chemical one, creating lightning blasts."