Absorption Distortion

Chapter 16

Back in present day.

It had been a few days with Luna spending most of it in the Training Chambers. She managed to get them out of the mirrored room on the first day, mostly by feeling claustrophobic and as her heart raced, she had smashed all the mirrors around her. But today, Luna stood in the middle of the Training Chambers, the room altered to a battlefield, surrounded in large rocks and small pathways leading to the other side. The mirrors were gone and the four walls were darkened to provide a dark setting for the attack. Drake had taken his stance somewhere around the battlefield as Luna with her feet planted, had her eyes closed, concentrating. A tower overlooking the battlefield was preoccupied with Nick and Payton, it was surrounded in the deflector shield to protect them while watching. They could see over the field, with an infrared camera installed in the middle of the room spinning around slowly capturing any action. Nick welcomed the sidelined position as he had been Drake's punching bag and he felt a little rough waking up this morning. Drake hid behind a large rock in the far south east corner, holding a long wooden fighting staff, a Taiaha, a traditional Rãkau Mãori weapon. The room remained quiet as Luna breathed in slowly. She moved her hands to her side, holding them out. In one hand she had a small tennis ball sized fire ball spinning and in the other a water ball swirling around. She opened her eyes, one was red and the other blue, making the colour of the ability in her hand. She looked up at the roof and her eyes began to turn black, her fire and water orb absorbed back into her and the roof of the chambers began to inhabit clouds, they darken and thunder could be heard. The tower windows are covered in darkness as is the camera that shows them what is occurring. Drake looked up and began to climb on top of the large rock, moving slowly to the top and crawling along the hard grain to glimpse over at Luna from behind. He can see her between the battlefield layout and watched, waiting. Luna uses her psionic ability to modify the environment, the clouds bang with thunder and it starts to pour rain. Drake lifts his body up and throws the the Taiaha, his strength and accuracy is compelling as it flies precisely in between the large rocks. It heads directly for Luna's shoulder, the end tongue flutters in the wind with kãkã feathers and kurï hair attached at the spear head. Drake jumps down off the rock as it moves approaching Luna, moving stealthy between the rocks in the darkness. His body getting drenched in rain made it slightly harder to see without the height of the rock. Luna senses the Taiaha coming towards and turns to it, her eyes yellow and sparkling as a lightning bolt forms and zaps from the clouds above, snapping the Taiaha in two and splitting it. In the days since Luna began her training with Drake, and already she had shown great improvements, using her new found abilities of weather, water and fire control and the ability to levitate. But today's training was about honing in on Nick's ability, telepathy. She stood in the middle of the room and closed her eyes, concentrating on her thought waves, she uses her psychic ability to manipulate them, utilizing them telepathy to obscurely expand them from her mind, they move out an arms length from her but she loses concentration, hearing a rock Drake had climbed breaking off from one corner as his leg slips on the wet rock, his natural strength smashes into the stone. The cloud cover begins to ease up and dissipate as she concentrates, closing her eyes and focusing her energy on her thought waves. She expands her thought boundary, shifting it to the edge of the four walls. She doesn't speak and doesn't think, only listening as she can hear Drake thinking, "I'm right behind you Luna," he thinks. Testing her ability and waiting for her on the rock behind her. It was taller than most, providing him cover from above as he peers over, planning his descent. "Luuuuna..." he beckoned in his thoughts, knowing that she could hear him, seeing her head turn to the side and sensing her anticipating him. She opens her eyes and looks up at him. He smiles down at her and shouts, "Good. Now I want to try something," he commands, "I want you to try and find me. But don't zap me okay, light me up. Concentrate on the light, not the heat," He quickly disappeared from the rock and Luna closed her eyes, giving Drake the time to move from the center of the room. He quickly moved, hiding at the tower base in the north west corner behind the small gap of a rock near the wall. It was perfect as from the outside, you wouldn't think you could fit behind there. Drake began to call for Luna's name in his head. She closed her eyes, listening for Drake. As she heard her name whispered, she began to walk, moving through the rocks. "Luuuna," he thought again. She leaned against a rock and focused on her telepathy ability, hearing Drake call out again, she draws the energy to her palm, a small ball of light grows and her eyes change colour to match. Drake calls for her again in his thoughts, she turns, moving towards the tower as her glow orb grows, spinning above her hand. She stops, noticing something different. As her telepathic ability cross-powers with her electric light, she senses distinctive mental radiations being emitted a few meters away. She turns her orb out, using the art of surprise much like Drake and moving through the rocks. Drake doesn't call for Luna as he hears her footsteps nearby, even more so as she turns around a large rock, facing the rock Drake hid behind. Payton watched at the screen although Nick tried to look down the glass. But the natural darkness of the room made it difficult to see. It was easier to spot Luna when she carried her glowing orb. She looks through the rock and she can see a red silhouette forming. She shakes her head, not sure if her light gave her a blind spot but the red increased as she focused on it, seeing the outline of Drake. She didn't realise an ability she picked up when in the control of Eville was the mental detection of another human with special abilities. She smiled and raised her hand, conjuring her glowing orb and looking down as it let out a few sparks. She threw it hard against the rock, the electricity ran through it and cracked it in half, it split open and Drake stood there. The room lights turned on and he smiled at Luna, "Aww, not fair. How did you know I was behind there?" He stepped out of the debris of the split rock and shrugged her shoulders, "Lucky guess maybe," Drake narrowed his eyes, not believing Luna as he was certain it was unknown to anyone else, and he certainly wasn't thinking about it to give it away to Luna. He went to question her further when Payton and Nick walked down the stairs, as Payton followed behind Nick and touched the ground, the room transformed into a plain room. No windows on the walls, or furniture in the room, but the walls were white with marble and delicate features etched in each wall. This was the main room that lead back into the Special City. The room was created by Smith, his advanced technology creating a simulated reality facility designed for training modules of people with special abilities to help control them in a safe environment. Drake had spent years with Smith, learning how to control it and wield the room. Payton smiled at Luna, as did Nick as he approached her. He gave her a quick hug as a job well done. "You are improving quickly Luna," Elder Payton smiled, his skin wrinkled with age. "Your mother would be so proud of you," he said smiling. Her face dropped, "You knew my mother?" he smiled and nodded, "Did you know my father?" he stopped and nodded slowly, "Yes, I knew him," he said in a different tone. "What.. what's wrong?" she said and he replied with a light hearted smile, "I just haven't thought about them in a while," "With the Special City protected by Elder John's ability to prevent death, its hard to forget those we have lost," he turned away, and looked down using his abilities to created sofas to break the silence. He gestured for Luna and Nick who stood next to each other to sit down. Drake walked up to Payton and patting him on the shoulder. Drake turned to the couple, "I think we are done for the day anyways Luna," he smiled and walked out of the room, going through the automatic doors into the main chambers. Payton sat back against the white sofa as Luna crossed her leg, leaning eagerly forward to hear, "What do you know about your parents Luna?" She shakes her head, "Very little, only their abilities and they are both dead," she said the last part with sorrow in her voice and looked down. Payton sighed, "Yes, I was informed of your birth," she looks up at him with tears in her eyes, "and your twin brothers. We met him when he returned with Eville a decade ago. He was still so young," he looks down, recalling the day. "How did you know my parents then?" She questioned, lightning the conversation. He looked up at smiled, "Celestia, your mother, had an amazing ability and so do you Luna. You have the gift that keeps on giving," she looks down at her hands, unsure if she believes it as much as he does. "I met Celestia when I was 42 and she was in her early twenties as I recall.  She was beautiful and looks very much like you," she said lovingly. "I even remember what she first said to me, when I met both of your parents,"