The Storm of Elements

Training with Ice

"You're getting stronger. I'm impressed." 

Jake deflects another blast of ice from me with a force field. He puts his arms out and crosses them in an X shape. The bubble immediately forms around him, and the beam of ice bounces off harmlessly. 

I stop shooting, and let my hands fall to my side. The white glow around them fades. 

I smile at him. "What can I say? I'm nothing if not resilient." 

He lets his force field disappear and smiles back. "Well, still, you're doing pretty good for being on your death bed a week ago." 

I shrug. "I feel stronger than I was a week ago, too. More powerful. My stab sound doesn't even hurt much anymore." 

Only when I move and jump and fight, I don't say. 

But it's only a throbbing, or a sudden shoot of pain. Not like how it was before. It's more like a war wound now, not a stab. 

He nods. "Still, I'm impressed. Not too many people have had as speedy a recovery as you." 

"Well, I'm special." 

"Yes. You definitely are." 

The way he looks at me makes me turn away and blush. 

We've been dating for a week now, and, though this sounds sappy and lovey-dovey, it's been the best week of my life so far. Jake's a sweet, caring boyfriend. I couldn't be happier. 

To cover up my pleasure, I get in ready stance. "Want to help me with my hand-to-hand combat?" 

He pretends to sigh. "This is more of John's thing. I'm not an ex-Navy trainer like him. Plus I don't like my students beating me up for free." 

"You're a great trainer. Plus, this isn't free. Your reward is watching me recover. And the greater reward is when I use your training to beat up your dad. What more could you want?" 

He smiles. "True." He goes in ready stance in front of me. "I'm ready when you are." 

It's a moment of patient tension, trying to see who will strike first. I look at his face, which is full of determination. His green eyes follow my every move. 

I leap forward and aim my fist at him, but he steps backwards and my fist hits the ground. I remain crouched while he swings his leg over my head, and quickly stand up and dodge to the side as he tries to punch me. I grab that arm and twist it behind him, but this guy isn't exactly ripped for nothing. He jerks me backwards and in one motion swings around and pushed me in front of him, making me skid on the floor. 

 "Sorry, Jamie. Did I hurt you?" He offers me his hand. 

I look at it, considering whether or not I should take it. But I smile to myself. 

Jamie Cooper isn't beaten that easily. 

I swing my leg to hit the back of his knee, making it give out. Then I move to the back of him and push him down. He stumbles and whirls around to strike, but I fall backwards on my hands and use my hands to vault my legs into his stomach. He falls backwards on his tailbone, groaning. 

I land crouched in front of him, one hand extended towards him and glowing, threatening to release a flurry of ice. 

He holds his hands up. "I surrender! Please don't hurt me anymore." 

I stand up, and offer him my hand. Maybe I was too hard on him. After all, he wasn't exactly willing to be my training dummy, but he agreed to do it for me. I owe him some slack. 

He takes it, and I help him up. 

"I don't think you'll have any problem beating up my dad," he groans, rubbing his arm. 

"Sorry. Remember, you allowed me to do this." 

"A mistake I won't make again." But he smiles. "I'm glad you're okay. You had me worried." 

"Yeah, me too." I look at my hands, which have stopped vibrating at my command. "It's weird. The average person shouldn't have recovered from being stabbed as quickly as I have. It still sort of hurts, but it's like.......I don't know. My powers healed it, in a way. I don't know why or how. They've been sort of unreliable since all the experimentation Rave did, too. I don't know what they did, but somehow, they made it so that they're stronger than they were before. Does that make sense?" 

"I know what you mean. My powers have been like that, too. They experimented on me first, remember? They knew that whatever worked on me would work on you, and vice versa." 

"Like when Goodwin found a formula that worked on me. He told the other scientists to go ahead and use it on you." 

"Exactly. I don't know what 'formula' they were talking about, but whatever it was, it must've been the one to make our powers like this. Because I noticed that none of the others are having the same problems with our powers as we are. It's only us, because we were the ones Goodwin experimented on." 

"I still don't get it, though. I have so many questions about the whole 'experimentation' thing. What type of experiments did they actually do? We know the results, but what are they results of? Did they use the formula on us or our powers or both? What exactly is 'the formula?' I just don't like not knowing what they did to us. It feels like we should know, but don't. That's what bothers me."

Just then, a loud amplified ringing echoed through the room via speakers in the upper corners of the room. The dinner bell. 

Jake takes my hand. "Don't worry. I'm sure we'll know eventually. But for now, let's get some food." 

I exhale slowly. "Okay." 

But I knew this would stay with me for a long time. 

One way or another, I will get answers. 

On the way to the dining room, Jake suddenly makes the air around me move and it pushes me into the wall. 

He grins. "We're even now." 

I stand back up and pretend to roll my eyes. "Oh, we are so not even now. From now on, this is war." 

He laces his fingers through mine. "Just as long as I'm fighting you and no one else."