Mod Superhero

Chapter 5.33 - Clara 3

Clara spent the next few minutes explaining her training to Emmett—how she'd found the core of her power and how she was using meditation and yoga to tap into it.

Emmett's eyes had gotten progressively wider as she talked. "This is safe, right? We don't have the containment protocols—"

She grabbed his arm. "It's safe. ...I'm pretty sure it's safe—almost positive. I'm taking my time with it just to be sure."

Emmett nodded. "I know you're being safe. It's just... I don't know if I'll be able to help you. If something happens..." Emmett met her eyes and trailed off.

Clara smiled, trying her best to look reassuring. Then she turned and went back to the bedroom.

Emmett cleared his throat, a mischievous look in his eye. Clara paused outside the doorway. Her cheeks flushed.

"Next time, tiger. We've got work to do and some of us need a break!"

Emmett smiled sheepishly and Clara closed the door behind her. She settled down on the floor, picked up her sphere, and started tracing feather patterns on the surface.

She ignored the flush of heat in her skin and focused on the sensation of power in her fingertips. She felt the electricity in her hands flow to a steady pulse in her arms. Followed it all the way to the motionless pool of lava in her core. Breathe in, trace shapes, follow the flow of power, exhale, repeat.

Getting in the right headspace took her a little longer than usual.

She kept going until she could focus clearly on the core of her power, only satisfied when it hung in her mind's eye like the midday sun.

Finally, Clara stopped tracing shapes. She let the sphere of metal cool and set it aside. Then she started meditating.

Over the last few days, Clara had worked her way up from finding the core inside her to trying to tap into it. She focused on her breathing, using the rise and fall of her chest to push and pull on the core of power inside her. The core felt heavy and solid, more rock than lava. Each breath became labored until she was sweating, just like Emmett had been moments ago.

Slowly, the core yielded to her. She worked it like stubborn clay, kneading it until the surface began to bubble.

Clara smiled, allowing herself a small victory. This was as far as she'd gotten.

Today, Clara was determined to push herself.

She pulled on the core. She drew it outward, expanding it with each inhale. Slowly, the ball of lava grew. To call the process slow was an understatement—it felt like Clara was crawling up a hill, one handful of dirt at a time. Worse, she couldn't relax even when she exhaled because it felt like she'd lose grip of what she'd gained.

One small slip, and the core would disappear inside her again.

Clara lost track of time as she expanded her core. When she'd first found it, it had felt small as an apple, but now it felt roughly the size of a bowling ball. She had no way of measuring something like that for sure, but the description felt close enough. The metaphorical bowling ball of lava sat right around her stomach, just below her ribs—almost wide enough to touch them.

Clara had spent so much time controlling her powers, and yet there was so much she didn't understand.

For instance, she knew there wasn't actually a core of molten power inside her. It was just a mental representation. She'd read about other supers that described their power in different ways. The electric super, Livewire, wrote about their powers as flowing along their nerves and reacting to the flexing of their muscles. The aquatic super, Wave Warrior, described his powers as entering a flow state—swearing that he didn't actively control his movements. When using his powers, it felt like he was merging with the water around him. Druids and nature-based supers described similar sensations of calmness and also connectedness with nature.