The Call to Rise

Training Part 4: When Heroes Rise

The next week was filled with action. While there had not been any sign of the Hypnobrai after Cole's disastrous encounter with their leader, the four teens were training their butts off everyday since. They were woken up early by Sensei Wu banging on his gong,and managed to squeeze in a small breakfast before they trained. They ran through all of the different drills and sparred with another. They all worked on their individual powers while the others offered advice and encouragement. By the end of the day, it was all the four teens could do to drag themselves to bed.

Outside of the training sessions Sensei had given them, Cole had suggested that they all work on ways to not get hypnotized should they encounter the Hypnobrai leader with the strange goggles. Jay offered the solution to fight with their eyes closed. Unable to come up with another idea, Cole reluctantly agreed to testing that idea. So far, none of them had had much luck. Fighting with their eyes closed was proving to be rather hard. Zane had thus far proven to be the best, having an uncanny ability to sense attacks before they hit, but even he wasn't completely successful at dodging all of the attacks. It seemed hopeless.

Then, towards the end of the week, Cole had made a breakthrough.

That day, they had been training in the same valley that they had had their little tournament. They had just finished working on their elemental powers so Sensei had let them continue to try and learn how to fight while they were unable to see.

Jay had just finished his turn after getting knocked to the ground by Zane. He groaned and stood up, undoing the blindfold around his eyes. "Ugh, this is hopeless!" he grumbled, throwing down the blindfold in anger and frustration. "I just can't seem to get it right."

"Do not say that, Jay," Zane said, placing a calming hand on the frustrated teen's shoulder. "You will get it eventually."

"Jay has a point, though," Kai interjected, crossing his arms and scowling. "We've been at this for a week, and we've barely made progress."

"We can't give up now!" Cole argued, bending down and picking up the discarded blindfold. "If we can't find a way to counter those stupid hypnosis goggles then we risk a repeat of what happened last time! And I'm not allowing that to happen again!" He tied the blindfold around his head, covering his eyes, and shifted into a fighting stance. "C'mon, Kai. It's my turn."

Kai shrugged and also dropped into a fighting stance. The black-clad dancer had been the most insistent about these training sessions, which given what had happened to him was completely understandable. But still, he had been wearing himself down all week, trying to be able to fight without being able to see. Kai just hoped that he could do it soon, otherwise Cole would eventually crash.

The training session was similar to when they sparred with one another without their powers. The two exceptions was that one of them would be blindfolded, and the one who was blindfolded was allowed to use their powers. So far, the only result has been multiple bruises on everyone.

Cole hoped to change that today.

He couldn't see anything through the blindfold so he instead relied on his ears to be able to hear Kai approaching. He heard the sound of running and tried to dodge. Too late. The fiery teen landed a kick straight into Cole's abdomen. The dancer skidded backwards but managed to stay standing. He stomped his foot to create an earthquake and paused to hear if Kai had fallen.
Suddenly, he felt someone punch him from behind. He arched his back in pain, and Kai took the opportunity to sweep the dancer's legs out from underneath him. Cole landed on his back hard, and gasped as he felt the wind get knocked right out of him.

He heard Jay and Zane call his name, asking if he was alright. The dancer staggered onto his feet and gave a thumbs-up in the direction of their voices. He got back into a fighting stance and tried to listen once again for Kai. He heard Kai grunt and held his arms to block. He felt a fist collided with his right arm, and he moved to block his face. Unfortunately, this left his stomach open again. Kai took advantage of this, and punched Cole in the gut, though he was careful not to use all of his strength. Still, the blow was strong enough for Cole to double over and crumple onto his knees, groaning and holding his abdomen.