The Incredibles

☆ Chapter 14 ☆

I started walking around the training ground with each step as easy as ABC. It was a piece of cake.

"Sherrie, I'm glad it worked perfectly! Dan and his owner can't hold a candle to us!" Delphene exclaimed in happiness.

"Only say that when we overtake them!" I laughed and got ready to increase my speed.

"Ready?" I turned to Delphene to see her smile smugly, full of confidence.

My legs reflexes moved faster forward. I could feel my energy draining, but since it was minor, I continued to carry out my agenda of overtaking Isaac and Dan. Not long after, I was on par with Isaac. I was proud, and overtook him in no time.

"Isaac....Isaac... Don't you have the urge to overtake them? They were so smug about their minor achievement!" Dan was spurring Isaac on to win the training.

"Shall we show them what we've got?" Isaac's reply was unexpected.

Isaac then sped off to reach us.

The cycle continued, with the leading person of the race changing each minute. The rounds ended with me resulting victorious. Even though we were almost out of breath, the experience was fun. George was smiling and seemed very happy with our performance. We still had 8 more sets to go before the end of the training. We had our lunch after that. It was fulfilling.

The remaining 8 sets was gradually more difficult, and it required a lot of strength. We had reactivated our abilities for a lot of times, and Delphene had miraculously not let me down even once, unlike the other times previously.

The results of the sets proved that we were equally matched, with my 4 wins and 4 loses. Totalling the 10 sets, each of us had 5 wins. It was a desirable ending for the training.

Hardly even able to catch my breath, George approached us on the training ground. It was already evening by that time and the sunset in the mountains was a feast to my eyes.

"Isaac, Sherrie, well done on the completion of the training! Don't you feel a gush of energy inside you now? You will use the energy for future battles." He stopped to look at both of us.

" Sherrie, you have immense strength inside of you. Take for example, the first 2 sets. You started later than Isaac, but you have unexpectedly barely managed to overtake him without the use of your ability for the first set. And with the use of your ability, you have successfully managed to overtake him. Inside of you hides great potential." George commented on my performance.

Now that I thought of it, I was really cool. I was elated to hear compliments from George. He was really focusing on us.

"And for Isaac. You have also won some of the rounds. I like your quick thinking of using your ability. You have also performed well." The comments were lesser than mine, but they were from the bottom of George's heart.

The sky quickly darkened as the sun passed the baton to the moon and stars, who evidently did worse than the sun in lighting up the earth. We had our dinner which consists of different energy sources. I gobbled down the food like a tiger who had starved for several days. Even though I could see the shock forming in both Isaac and George, I had decided that my tummy was more important.

"Sherrie! What about me? Don't I get my share?" Delphene popped out from my collar. I terminated my operation in satisfying my appetite upon realizing that I had nothing left for Delphene.

"Hehh... Um... What can you eat?" I wanted to go to the kitchen to cook for Delphene.

"Anything! Just tear the food into small pieces and I'll eat it!" Delphene sounded excited for the food.

I nodded my head and maneuvered myself to the kitchen.

The kitchen was empty. I pulled the fridge handle. There were only bottled water in the pathetic cooling machine. I placed the door back to its original place and sighed. Delphene would not have anything to eat at night.

I dragged my reluctant feet back to the table and separated my lips with dread. Exasperation of the famished Delphene was in the offing.

"Sorry Delphene... I think you will have to go back to the Meadows for your dinner..."

To Delphene's predictable consternation, she blasted at me.

"How can you forget my share! I don't want to go back to the Meadows...it's scary there." Her tone was different towards the last sentence. It sounded depressing.

Before I could clarify my curiosity, Dan disrupted my thoughts.

"Hey. I could share some of mine with you. I've got lots." Delphene and I shot him a perplexed look. Delphene was hesitating, as the sudden change in behavior of Dan was worthy of our suspicion.

Just then, Delphene's hollow stomach grumbled. It lasted awfully long, enough to even allow Isaac to turn around, searching for the source of the noise.

Delphene's face immediately flushed red with mortification. Her wings then flapped vigorously towards Dan's food bowl that Isaac had specially and thoughtfully prepared for him, and without hesitation she engaged herself with the gobbling of the long-awaited food.

I twisted my head to look at Dan and Isaac, and mumbled an apology to them, as it was my fault as Delphene's owner to forget about her share of food.

I watched as Delphene filled her empty stomach, trying to figure out why she did not want to go back to the Meadows in the mean time. Was it because of domestic problems? I made up as many possibilities as possible, but none seemed to be frightening enough to stop her from going back to her own house. Even I was starting to miss my family and house now.

"Sherrie! I'm finished! What are we going to do now?" Delphene flew in my direction with her fastest speed.

"Woah...easy there!" I warned as she halted just in time to not bang into me, namely a few millimeters away from my face. "Lets wait for instructions from George...but I'm having a really bad feeling about this."

I took a quick peek at George who had just emptied his bowl of rice. My heart was palpitating for no reason other than my ability to see the future had predicted something unfavorable to me, and that I subconsciously felt it. I was interested in whether my guess was correct, but I didn't want anything unfavorable to happen to me. I waited for the next sentence that George was going to say.

"Finish your dinners and lets get cracking, you've got lots to do, children!" He smirked and walked out to the training ground. Isaac started going after him, and upon seeing that, my legs started to move forward step by step to wherever George were to go.

Damn I knew it.

We arrived at the training ground a few minutes later. On the training ground hints that we would not get to rest even though it was already dark. It meant another round of torturous training. It meant disaster for me.

"Sherrie! Look at me and listen." George was on the verge of erupting.

"Both of you will sleep on the ground today... You see the wall with ropes tied to rocks on top of that wall. You are supposed to tie another end of the rope to your wrists and hold your arms out while sleeping. If your arms gets put down, the rocks will hit you, either on your heads or if you are lucky enough it'll be on the ground. This exercise will continue for 3 hours. Training your arm muscles is important in combat battling too. The use of ability is once again allowed if you have figured out how to use them to help you."

I looked up to see the materials for the training this time. The rocks were humongous. The illusional wall was probably created by George using one of his many abilities. With much hesitation, I staggered towards the rope hanging down the wall waiting for me to retrieve it.

I stretched my hand out to hold on to the rope, as George whistled to mark the start of the training.