Strain: Rebel's Rise

CAUTION: THE REBELS ARE HERE

Keyan and Zane were in the woods sparring with each other. Zane was shooting air at Keyan, helping him work on his reaction speed. Keyan's ice was still too weak at the moment. Especially in combat when he's focused on dodging, so If he can be able to focus, he can concentrate on building up his durability on his ice more. They know he can do it too, the evidence was here in the area where Keyan and Herbie first fought The Black Pine Forest. The ice still hadn't melted. Not even a little.

"COME ON!" Keyan shouted, throwing an ice ball at Zane, who effortlessly dodged it with the help of his flight abilities.

"Too slow, big bro. Heh." Zane stuck his tongue out and slashed Keyan's arm, a big wave of air hurdling at Keyan diagonally. Keyan ducked and sent a barrage of ice back at Zane from the left. He flanked right, and jumped in the air for a super punch. Zane was hit by the ice barrage, but it shattered against his skin. Keyan noticed this and was in complete shock. Zane shot a ball of air into Keyan's stomach and fell to the ground.

Ash clapped her hands , applauding the performance.

"Not gonna lie to you, Zay. That was actually impressive. Nice..Keyan you did good too, but the point was-"

"To focus on defense not offense. I know." Keyan grumbled, standing up slowly and cracking his neck. He put his hands up and sent two pillars of ice up when Zay dashed at him with full speeds. Ash glided her way out of harms way, seeing the winds hurling at him. She then gets to a safer spot and watches.

Time flies by, few days go on.  

Ash notices Keyan's exception hair growth. his dreadlocks were practically at his cheek not even 3 months ago, now they're at his shoulders. Not only that but his body growing darker too, tone shifting down a little bit. Ash takes every note of this as she makes Keyan and Zay do 50 push ups.  "alright, fifty. good job you guys, you actually are athletic."

"Where the fuck is Manny." Keyan grunts, wiping sweat from his forehead and taking a drink from his bottle. Zay pushes both of his arms down and gusts of wind fly up his body, drying him. Still, it didn't help with the smell. Good thing they were outdoors.

He asked, looking around for his best friend. Zane shrugged and Ash leaned against a tree.

"Don't worry about him. His powers are quite literally gonna keep him alive. Focus on you."

Ash created a few glowing spikes made of bone structure from her arm and slung them at Keyan, who instinctively set an ice wall up to protect his face.

"I mean, not bad but- There's no reason bone should be piercing through solid chunks of ice like that. Not even mine. Come on,"

Ash's hair began floating up a bit, her eyes glowing bright purple.

"Let's see what you got, Keke."

Keyan rolled his eyes and aimed a palm at Ash, cool air swarming the area before a beam of ice shot at her.

Hours became days. Days became weeks. So many weeks of planning, practicing. So much time is put into honing each other's skills. School was almost over anyways, and everyone was passing despite the last two months of missing homework. Only things that truly mattered were the Michigan State Tests and the Hero Exams. Graduation came sooner than expected anyways. Not for the team though, since they were all Juniors Except Dustin.

The team agreed only to use their code names when out. Keeps them from being caught in the act of vigilante justice. They even talked about the no killing rule, just in case. But frankly, Keyan and Ash didn't give a fuck.

4 months later.. July 24th, 2079

All four of the group snuck out, standing on top of an abandoned apartment building that stood face to face with another abandoned building with a glowing sign on top that says 'Caution'. The scenery was gray, deserted. Dead. This was the slums of Frontline City. The lowest populated part of the city. Unless they count the Backstreet gang, hobos and Icy Timberwolves. Maybe even a few Raccoons. Only a few buildings were left standing and functional.