A Nervous Wreck's Guide on How To Solve Your Life's Problems

The Storm Has Yet To Recede

Mavis sat back, taking a sip from her water bottle, then capping it back up. Training seemed to take a toll on the team, since there's not been as much virus activity as they were all used to, and they started to wonder if Count Venamous had shifted focus to another planet, virus wise. Mem and Zen seemed all the more strict in training sessions, saying that just because things had slowed down, didn't mean they could give up on training, especially since Mavis was still a fairly new member (although it'd been almost a year since her induction to the noobs) and since her...incident....months before, Mem and Zen had to make most certain she knew how to work her battle ball. Mavis, on the other hand, felt too spread out, she was stressed, since she still had ballet rehearsals (her yearly recital was just weeks away), there were her noob duties, and she still had to figure out the state of her and Tyler's relationship. Tyler had been sending her mixed signals, but from what Mavis understood, Tyler still very much had a thing for Amy. Mavis sighed and returned back to training.
One of the reasons Mavis thought Tyler was giving mixed signals was the fact that he always volunteered to be her training partner. And it wasn't a matter of them both being left without partners (since Roach and Kevin always buddied up, and Yolanda and Shope were girlfriends, so them partnering was a no brainer) because Tyler always called her as his partner before partners were even brought up. To the point where Kevin even noted, every time, without fail, that no one was planning on taking Mavis from him, so he didn't need to stake claim on her--but yet Tyler still did, every training session.
Mavis was a little curious about his reasoning for staking such claim, but even a year later, she was too shy to ask anything of him, she felt she was being rude.
Mavis took position. Tyler did as well.
"Okay, try to hit me with your fire." He said, adding in that weird smile he just does sometimes.
Mavis's elemental powers weren't quite stable enough for her to know whether she could procure any element other than fire, if there wasn't any around, so usually during training, she'd practice fire most, since the first time they'd tried to practiced water (with a faucet), they'd accidentally left it running, and flooded the Galacticus. Mem and Zen had not been pleased, and decided that for now, fire would be focus, since she could make it appear and go away without too much harm to their ship.
Mavis took a deep breath, feeling the flames within--she summoned them using her pent up rage that she had bottled--and threw it towards Tyler, who immediately teleported behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist from behind, which surprised and disarmed her. She gave a small squeak in response, and Tyler immediately let go, blushing a whole bunch.
"M-Maybe I shouldn't have done it like that" he stammered, rubbing the back of his fluffy blue head of hair, with his gloved hand, his blushing growing more intense.
Mavis felt her cheeks go warm, and choked up, unable to speak for a moment.
"Mav?"
"Uh" she coughed a bit "Yeah, yeah I'm fine...." She looked down, and her currently pink, candy floss-like hair brushed her face a bit. Her cheeks grew warmer.
"We should get back to training, candy floss" Tyler said the affectionate nickname he'd given her when she first transformed into her suit after getting the hang of her battle ball. Mavis blushed more.
"Yeah."
The pair continued training until Mem and Zen told all six of the noobs that training could end. Mavis panted a little, and she and Tyler both desuited. Her hair went back to its natural dark red, although a little more frizzy from all the movement and humidity.
Tyler patted Mavis's back. "You were really good today" he complimented her.
She smiled. She grabbed her bag, and was about to go.
"Do...do you want me to walk you to ballet practice?" Tyler tried to be casual.
She shivered, and blushed, knowing her face was surely red as her hair. "Yeah....I-if you want..." Her voice went hoarse, and quiet--about the same volume as a whisper.
Tyler blushed as well, and rubbed the back of his head again.
The pair walked together, to the studio where Mavis practiced every day. They said their goodbyes for the day, and then for the next hour and a half, immersed herself in the discipline and balance of ballet. Of course, she couldn't stay focused on the discipline and balance, since Tyler was in the back of her mind--as if that was surprising.
But, as unfortunately stereotypical as it might sound, what could be more distracting to a fifteen year old girl, than a boy who she'd been crushing on since middle school--especially since most middle school crushes never last out of middle school. Tyler had proven himself to be a genuinely nice and sweet boy, and it honestly drove Mavis insane with the desire to give him hugs and kisses--it drove her insane even even more so that she couldn't give him hugs and kisses. Well, maybe hugs--they'd hugged before--but as much as she wanted to kiss him, she could not. For a few reasons. (One being Amy, another being the fact that--why would he want to kiss her? Her overbite would just get in the way and make things awkward as fuck--who'd want to kiss a girl with rat teeth?)
Mavis missed her cue, which got her a scolding from Mrs. Duval, to which Mavis promised to pay attention next time. After all Mavis had worked more than ten years of her life for the opportunity to be a lead dancer in the big recital coming up, she had to be more focused. She had to prove to Mrs. Duval that she'd made the right choice. When rehearsal for the day ended, Mavis made her way home--well not really  her home, but rather Mem and Zen's home, since, due to her less than ideal parental situation, she had to live with them. (Tyler had tried to take her in, but his mom didn't let him).
"Mem? Zen? Anyone home?"
No answer.
This was weird. Training was over, and usually when Mavis came home from ballet rehearsal, she'd find the two pretending they hadn't been kissing, and fake arguing when she arrived there each day.
Tyler teleported in. "Mavis, there's a slight emergency..." He grabbed her hands, and teleported her to the Galacticus.
"A battle ball has been stolen." Zen stated.
"There were two remaining balls. An orange one and a yellow one. About minutes after training ended, security was breached, and a thief made off with T he orange battle ball, and it appears they tried to steal the yellow one, but was almost caught. Security footage, unfortunately, doesn't tell us who it is..." Mem played the footage. A figure cloaked in black grabbed the orange ball from its holder. Then the intruder attempted to grab the other but flashing lights started. The intruder began to run.
"Who would want to steal a battle ball?" Shope questioned.
"Count Venamous?" Tyler asked
"No, the XR4TI scanned the intruder's vitals." Said Mem.
"The intruder is an adolescent Martian male, about 5'9", his weight is 115 pounds, with green blood type, his body temperature is 49 degrees Celsius." Zen read off the information.
"Why is he so hot?" Roach asked
"Bro, you haven't seen his face, how would you know that?" Kevin questioned
"He meant why is his body temperature so high, dingus." Shope sighed.
"Martians have unnaturally high body temperatures to combat the extreme Martian conditions." Mem explained.
"But why would he want to steal a battle ball?" Tyler narrowed his eyes. "I have to get to the bottom of this." Tyler stared at the footage, as it replayed on an endless loop. His face was full of determination. Mavis stared. Something about when Tyler was determined, made Mavis want to be with him even more. Tyler was so amazing to her, and she wanted to be close to him so badly--which led straight to--
"I'll help you!" Mavis blurted out.
Tyler turned to her. "Mav, this guy could be a madman."
"Which is why you shouldn't do this alone."
Tyler frowned. Mavis could tell he didn't want her to get hurt.
"Tyler, I can handle myself." She touched his upper arm, which made him wince. That had been where she'd burned him during the incident. He'd been healed, but it was a bad enough burn to leave him scarred and tender in that one area, possibly for life. Tyler moved her hand from that area.
"Okay." He said quietly. Against what he felt was his better judgement, he was going to let her do this. But deep down, he was scared for her--he wasn't entirely sure why--though there were many possible reasons why--but he just desperately wanted her to be safe. It's all he wanted for her, ever since that day he saw her bruised.
Mavis hugged him, and he hesitantly wrapped his arms around the much shorter girl. This was the start of a whole new mess.