The Cloak Guard

Training

Occasionally, after reading a Superman comic, Franklin would wonder what that would be like, to have all that power at your fingertips, all that strength, and yet constantly have to hold yourself back so you don't destroy everything.

After today, he no longer wondered.

He also totally got the 'walking on eggshells' saying now, though it was more touching the eggshells with him as practically everything he touched felt brittle and weak. After the incident with his locker, he had tried to be more careful but it was way harder than it seemed. He had almost broken a classroom door just by pushing it, nearly shattered his lunch tray by holding it a little tightly, and had gone through over a dozen pencils, even when using the snapped off pieces as well.

"This is without a doubt in the top 3 worst days of my life," he muttered, leaving his last class.

"That's pretty sad cause this is my number 1 best day," Travis said, his grin seemingly permanently etched onto his face now. "I can't wait to start doing some tests, see how fast I can really go. I wonder how fast it would take me to run across the entire world." His eyes widened considerably at the thought. "I wonder if I can run faster than the speed of sound. Or light!"

Franklin just shook his head. Honestly, he kind of wished he had Travis's power. Flash had always been one of his favorite characters and since he had been strong almost his entire life, super strength hadn't really been on his wish list. But now it seemed he was stuck with it.

"So what now?" Travis asked. "Where do you think we should train?"

"I have football tryouts," Franklin replied.

"Seriously? You're still doing that, even with everything going on? What if...you know..." Travis trailed off, grimacing a little.

Franklin understood. He honestly thought he should bail on the tryouts as well. But he didn't want to let any opportunities slip through his fingers. His father had always told him to seize any moment life through at him. He was good at football. Really good, despite his own feelings on the game. So, if he could go pro, his scholarship and future could be secure. That was something he couldn't pass up on.

He just had to double down on containing his new strength.

"We'll consider this extra training," he told Travis. "See how much I can do while reigning it in. Then, later, we'll see how much I can do without holding back."

Travis nodded. "That's smart, yeah. Alright, well I'll be in the stands then. Partially. I may run off to grab food and stuff but I'll be rooting for you the entire time."

"Thanks man."

"Especially if you kick my brother's ass."

Franklin didn't know how to respond to that so he opted for silence instead.

The second he had walked out onto the football field, he knew it would be trouble. For the first time, he wasn't worried about how badly he he'd do but how good. When he was asked to shove the dummy across the ground, he had to put all his effort into making it look even the tiniest bit difficult. Because it honestly felt like he was pushing a bag of feathers around.

Kicking the ball was even worse. He didn't even know how much strength he should put into it as too little would be lame and too much might send it into the stratosphere. Fortunately, he managed to do it right. It still went far, way beyond the goal and anyone else's score, but in a way that still seemed normal.

After that, things got a little easier as he did laps around the field. While he didn't feel tired in the slightest as he ran, he did notice that it took some effort to move faster. He was still moving faster than most people, but it was like he was carrying weights on his back. His strength was apparently slowing him down. Well, at least he didn't look like some freak prodigy anymore.