Juryokine

Chapter Twenty One

"This is called a dodger."

Toke and Zashiel were back at the Massaro Quarry, standing at the bottom of the cylinder shaped hole they had made into their training area. It was two days after their misadventure at the Flashing River, and Zashiel had decided it was safe to go back to Toke's training. She held up a bright green ball for him to see.

"It was made to repel itself from every source of gravity it detects," she explained. "That means that if I let it go, it would fly out of my hand and zigzag around this hole until it shot out the top."

Toke noticed how hard she was gripping it, and nodded. "I'm guessing you want me to catch it, right?"

Zashiel nodded. "Exactly. Sorakines use this to teach their trainees to fly faster and more agilely. By the time they're ready to be promoted, they should be able to catch it in less than a minute."

Toke looked from the green ball to his friend. "How long does it take you?"

Zashiel frowned. "Eight minutes," she said. Then her face went neutral again. "Since you can't fly, you'll have to run and jump on the walls to catch it. I'll fly around the opening to make sure it doesn't get away."

"Can't I just anchor myself to it?" Toke asked. "That would bring it right to me."

Zashiel raised her eyebrows challengingly. "Try it."

Toke wasn't dim. He knew that if Zashiel was giving him the chance to try, he wouldn't be able to do it. Still, he wanted to know why he couldn't do it, so he held his hand out and reached outwards with his powers, searching for the dodger.

"That's weird," he muttered to himself a few seconds later.

"What is?" Zashiel asked.

"I can't do it," he answered, lowering his hand. "It's like there's an empty hole right where your hand it."

"I told you, the dodger rejects any source of gravity it senses. It's made of an energy called kaosuryo." She gestured towards the ball. "Because of this, the dodger doesn't even have a gravitational anchor to lock onto. If I were to throw it out over a cliff, it would come to a stop once it ran out of momentum and just hang there in midair until something else came near it to set it off again."

"If it flies away from anything with a gravitational field," Toke said, trying to process all this new information, "then how do you catch it?"

In answer, Zashiel let go of the dodger. It immediately shot away from her, and her hand lashed out, catching it before it could get out of her range. "By being faster than it."

Before Toke could ask another question, Zashiel held the dodger at arm's length. "Ready? Go!"

With that, she released the ball, and it took off. At first, it flew in Toke's direction, but then turned at a 90 degree angle away from him when he lunged for it. It zipped towards the wall, and then bounced back over Toke's head. With a grunt, he gave a Juryokine-powered jump to catch it, but it shot in the opposite direction as soon as he came near it.

"You're gonna have to move faster than that," Zashiel said, taking off to circle the opening like she'd said. "You'll never catch it at that pace."

Toke anchored himself to the wall and let himself fall there instead of back to the ground. He watched the dodger bounce erratically around the huge cylinder, sometimes going up, sometimes going down. There didn't seem to be any real logic to where it bounced after coming too close to the wall, which only made it even more unpredictable. Toke crouched down, tensing his muscles as his eyes followed the green ball, waiting for the right moment. Which was... right... NOW!