Chapter 7: The Training Continues! Earth as Her Palette!

With a jump over the metal bench, Zach landed with a forward roll before returning to a sprint. Heading towards a stone building, Zach jump kicked a wall before landing a corkscrew flip. Reaching a group of buildings, he saw that there was an adequate amount of space in between as he started to execute a difficult feat…

Wall kick by wall kick, he made his ascension. Already he could feel the fatigue in his legs, but he refused to give in. It's been months since he had done this and he had to make up for lost time. After a few more jumps, he found himself upon the rooftop of the building.

'Now for the home stretch.' Carefully making his run across the roofs, Zach took a glance at the endpoint of this run. At every end of each building to the point, he had to precise his jumps. One bad step or leap could lead to a rough fall down below, or worse. Sweat dropping down from his head to his neck and brow, he knew he had to get this done quickly before any of it got into his eyes. From first-hand experience, aside from the stinging sensation, vision was key as well as agility and ability in this type of exercise as it was one thing not to make the jump. But to not even see the jump (or any hazard for that matter) was just as if not even more dangerous. After all, when would you know when to stop or jump if you can't even see where you were going?

'There it is…' Jumping over another gap, he noticed his decline in altitude on the rooftops. All he had to do now was slide down and he'd be at the finish line! Utilizing all the strength that he had left, Zach made a huge leap towards a lamp post as he wrapped himself around the metal pole before sliding down back to the pavement…

"Whew…" He sighed in amazement, fighting the urge to collapse on the pavement, but the walking citizens of the city helped with that, instead settling on bending over and rubbing his ankles. How long did it take to finish this run? Five? Ten minutes? An ice cold sports drink sounded good right about now…

"Could you… Picked… A harder… Course…" A panting Cassidy slid down the pole of the streetlight. Like Zach she was heavily fatigued with sweat dripping down her face and neck. Her t-shirt was drenched as the only thing that remained intact was her high ponytail.

"Well…" He sighed, "I was planning to have two wall jumps… But that would've been overkill… I'm out of practice as it is…"

"Well… Some of us have been trying to improve our game since you've been gone."

"Really? I could've sworn I saw you nailed a few flips and tricks on the roof!"

"Like I said, I've been practicing!" She grinned, "Wanna check out that playground at the park a few miles back?"

"Hmm… Does sound tempting… But aren't we forgetting something?"

She scoffed, "What on Earth could we possibly-" Her eyes blinked in realization, "Oh right…"

"Wait…" At the sound of heavy breathing, both teens turned to see a very exhausted Bonnie trying her best to walk over without collapsing to the ground. Like the both of them, her body was drenched in sweat as her hair covered her face.

Cassidy shook her head, "Didn't make it to the rooftops, did ya?"

The brunette tried to muster a glare towards the auburn-haired girl, "…Fuck… you… ugh!"

Zach managed to catch the collapsing girl, "Easy, Bonnie… You did well. Better than I thought, actually."

Cassidy wasn't as nice, "I'd figure with you being a cheerleader you'd at least managed to have some agility. Obviously I was mistaken. Even a 12 year old could've done a few flips."

Bonnie felt a bit of her strength returning as she pushed herself off of Zach, "So you're saying that a 12 year old could wall jump all the way upward?"

"A better chance of that happening compared to you."

"Okay!" Zach stepped in between the quarreling girls. "So Bonnie failed to make the jump to the top. She'll get better at this! It's gonna take time for her to get used it, that's all."

"Assuming she doesn't break a nail first."

"Cas!"

"It's okay Zach…" Bonnie stated, "I mean, clearly she should know, given that she's such an awesome cheerleader herse-" She feigned shock, "Oh right, I forgot! She was never a cheerleader! Though, it is odd how if cheerleading is so similar to parkour, she wasn't cut out to be-"

"Alright, alright…" Zach managed to stop his shorter friend from jumping the brunette. "Bonnie, go grab yourself a drink from the 7-11."

"Fine…" Bonnie glared at her would-be attacker before walking off, leaving the latter to fume…

"Just for the record, I really don't like her." She crossed her arms, "Already I'm sensing a strong case of Déjà vu. …Did you really have to tell her that?"

Zach raised a brow, "Tell her? I didn't even mention you wanting to try out. If anything I thought you've might've told her to make conversation."

"Why the hell would I do that? And if you didn't tell her, then who did?"

"Honestly, I'm more concerned at how she figured out who you were." Zach stated, closing his eyes.

"Yeah, that does seem to be suspicious. Very suspicious… And I doubt it has nothing to do with her blank outs yesterday."

"Tell me about it. I tried to ask her about them, but she refused to talk about it."

"Considering that one of her blank outs caused her to nearly crash while she was driving, this is a red flag." She shook her head, "I wonder if she'll be more of a liability than an asset…"

"You're the ones who wanted her to join in the first place."

"Just because I don't like her doesn't mean she wouldn't be a great asset. Like I said before, it's better than the alternative of her joining up with Xanthos."

"After what he did to her, I doubt she'd be willing to even associate with the man." A realization came to mind, "Nemesis, on the other hand…"

"What about her? I know that she's her sister, but come on! She can't be that stupid."

"Think about it. The girl originally came from a family where neither of her sisters loved her, and resented her because she was adopted. Never mind she didn't know that she was adopted herself. Then comes another family and she finds out that she has not just a sister but a twin sister. And already she's proven to be just as bad, if not worse than her other sisters. I mean imagine that: Having sisters in both families and neither one of them want anything to do with ya. Pretty sad story, once you think about it."

Cassidy nodded, "Yeah… But that still doesn't excuse any form of stupidity, especially if she reaches out to her, sister or not. Battered spouses go back to their abusers all the time while saying that they're their husband or wife, they should work it out. 'It'll get better!' Does blind faith make everyone stupid?"

"At any case, we'll have to keep a handle on her." He sighed, "I don't want Bonnie to make the same mistakes I did…"

"Do you still think about her? Be honest, Zach. Even a little?"

Zach closed his eyes, "…A little. I mean of course we're way past the point of hoping for any reconciliation. But sometimes I think about what if things turned out differently. If she didn't…"

"What's done is done…" She stated. In all honesty, she didn't think that their relationship had any chance of lasting in the first place, and she would be lying if she said she wasn't rooting against them. Nevertheless…

"What are you guys talking about?"

Both teens blinked as they turned back to find Bonnie holding a small Gatorade bottle filled with orange-flavored liquid. From the relaxed expression on her face, she has at least calmed down a bit.

Zach spoke, "We were just going over your performance today."

'You fail at lying, you know that?' Bonnie raised a brow, "And how did I do?"

"Overall, you did well for a newcomer at this. But you'll improve as your strength and stamina increases."

She sighed, "Not that I'm bagging on what you and her do for fun, but is there any real point in doing this?"

Zach raised a hand to stop Cassidy's response, "For one like I said, it'll build stamina, which could come in handy in frantic situations. Another is that it'll increase your agility. You're going to be doing a lot of dodging once you get out on the field."

"Dodging? Are you saying that I'm gonna get hit?"

"A lot." Cassidy stepped in, "You're gonna have to be able to take punishment as well as you can dish out. Or at least be able to dodge it. Otherwise, you're in the wroooooooong line of work. I understand if you're not up for-"

"Like hell I'm not…" She scoffed. There was no way in hell she was going to quit. Not after what she went through yesterday. She got beaten up and knocked out, and after she had woken up and changed back she vomited a bit. No way was she giving up now, especially not in front of her. "Still, is all of this really necessary?"

"To keep in shape? Yeah!" Zach saw that Bonnie didn't share his optimism, "You'll get used to it. You've already did better than most people, thanks to your cheerleading experience."

Bonnie let out a sigh. This exercise wasn't a complete wash, she figured. But she wondered if she could actually handle this. This Par-ker-whatever it was called. She knew cheerleading required a lot of agility and constitution, but back then the most amount of danger she was in was doing simple, yet high-risk routines such as the pyramid. But this? This was at a higher risk of hurting herself or even worse! But she'll get better. She just had to! She wasn't going to be overshadowed, not by Zach, not by Maya, and especially not by Cassidy!

Newport Suburban Area

A silver Porsche pulling over to the side of the road, a door opened as a boot-clad leg stepped out from the passenger side. As the door closing, its owner turned towards the drive, "Thanks for the lift, Chels!"

"No problem Marie! Just promise to tell me all about how it went down with you and Jason! Kay?"

"No problem! Just can't wait for all the girls at Perry to realize that it's me who has Jason Kelly's arm around her!"

She smirked, "I'm feeling jealous already!"

'That's the point…' She thought as she saw the car drive away. Turning towards her destination, she saw a fairly-large two story blue house in front of her as near the garage was a red Dodge. Straightened her skirt, Marie brushed back a stray stand of her shoulder-length chestnut hair as she walked towards the white door. Ringing the doorbell, she took a deep breath. "This is it girl, just seal the deal and you'll be the talk of the school!" Within a few moments the door opened, revealing a tall man with dark, sweptback hair. Still dressed in the school uniform of slacks and blazer over a white shirt, he gave a smile towards the arriving girl…

"Marie! So glad you could make it!"

She slightly blushed at his warm smile, "I wouldn't miss it for the world, Jason."

He takes the time to look at his guest from the ground up. Knee-high black boots with platform soles, blue miniskirt with a flower pattern on the hem, and an open grey t-shirt over a white tube top. Marie Morse was one of the hottest, if a bit overlooked, girls at Perry Prep. Not to mention coming from a good, wealthy family. In other words, she was perfect. "Please, step right this way…"

As the girl stepped inside the house, the door closed as a locking sound was heard. Standing outside, a cloaked figured watched as a smile formed on its hidden face. Everything was going according to plan.

Location: Undisclosed

The small smell of rust entering her nose, Bonnie glanced around her surroundings. Despite a few bits of old, obsolete, and abandoned machinery, it was mostly all rock. The terrain sure felt like it was at least. "Any reason why we're out here?"

"Why Bonnie, I'm surprised!" Zach feigned disappointment, "I thought you of all people would be excited, considering what we're going to be working on…"

"What on earth could we be possibly working on out here, besides being eco geeks? If it's to do any more of that Parkour stuff then-" She blinked in realization of the significance of being out here. It was deserted, far away from the city, and had a lot of space! "You mean we're really…"

He nodded, "Now we're going to move onto something that may or may not be the most dangerous aspect of your training: Your powers. Now Bonnie, I understand that you have abilities based on sand, am I right?"

"Yeah…" Bonnie looked down at her hands. Usually most, if any demonstration of her powers came from there. "All I've been able to do is shoot out sand. That's when I'm not imagining my whole body turning into it."

"I see…" A smirk grew on his face, "Alright B, let's see what you can do! Don't hold anything back!"

Closing her eyes Bonnie took in a deep breath. She had since changed into drier clothing, settling for a pair of loose pants and a t-shirt. Luckily this was one of the warmer days in Newport at this time of year so she wouldn't have to worry about freezing her ass off. Spreading her legs out, she dropped into a stance as both hands balled into fists.

'Let's do this…' Her arms shaking, Bonnie began to put as much focus as possible into her body to activate her powers. Grain by grain, sand began to slowly surround her hands until they were covered completely. 'Okay, this looks good…' During the gathering, she could've sworn she felt a slight sink in the ground.

"Hmm…" Dropping into a defensive stance, Zach took note to observe each of Bonnie's actions. He knew that the situation may call for him to dodge at any moment and he knew he could most likely handle what she could throw at him, but could she handle her own powers? He has seen plenty of times where a Mu-Type's powers would turn against them and consequently cause trouble and danger for those around them. Let's see how well Bonnie could handle hers. Out of all of the tests, this one would be the most important.

Within moments, Zach quickly flipped to the side as he saw a hard stream of sand blasted toward his previous position. "Wow…" The stream itself didn't seem to be too large for someone of her size, but it wasn't exactly small either. As the stream hit against the abandoned car, its interior began to fill in a rapidly gradual rate due to the open window. He glanced back at Bonnie who barely showed signs of fatigue. 'Man after all that and she's still going with this?' He didn't have long to think, as he felt himself tripping over, leaving his head to hit the dirt below…

"The hell?" Turning back, he saw what appeared to be a wave in the ground causing the mechanical debris to be "knocked" up an inch before dropping back down. He turned back as he saw the girl, who had since "ran out" of sand to fire as a shallow hole was formed around her. 'Did she do this?'

Sighing, Bonnie felt like collapsing before she saw her surroundings. 'What the-' She found herself a few feet deep within a hole as she noticed a change within the terrain in front of her. At least everything, from the abandoned machinery to the plants seemed to be off by at least an inch. 'Did I do this?' Climbing out from the "hole," Bonnie glanced at Zach, who was brushing himself out, "Zach, what the hell did I just do?"

"Aside from filling up a car with sand and messing with the terrain itself, not much really." Zach had to admit, while he knew about her sand powers, this was not what he expected. "Not only do you have the power of sand, but also earth as well."

"Wait, so not only do I have to worry about my body becoming sand, but rock as well?" Bonnie wasn't sure she liked this. As if she hadn't had enough problems already…

"Relax for a minute. It seems that while you can generate and turn yourself into sand, you can only control and manipulate the earth below you." Looking down, Zach found a large rock below. Grabbing it… "Still, we're gonna need to test them to the fullest of your abilities."

"And how do you suggest we do s-HEY!" Within an inch away from her face, Bonnie managed to catch the thrown rock. But not with her hands, but telekinetically as it continue to hover in the air. "What's your problem?"

"Yep, Terrakinesis…" Zach noted, "See that rock you're holding?"

"How can I not, you almost smashed my face with it you jerk!"

"Keep at it for a while! Play with it, move it around for a bit. Once you get used to moving rocks around, we can get to the even bigger ones!" He grinned, "How does that sound?"

"I think you're nuts." Bonnie frowned, managing to maintain the rock's levitation as it slowly began to float around. As tempted as she was to throw it back at him, she was sure Zach would just dodge it. Or was he even expecting her to retaliate in that manner?

"Try skywriting! Or do you want more rocks to juggle with?"

"I'm barely able to juggle this one!" She shouted as she watched the fool take a seat upon one of the abandoned cars. The thought of throwing this rock at him was very tempting…

50 minutes have passed as Bonnie managed to levitate not one, not two, but three fair-sized rocks. While they could've been bigger, at least they were larger than the one rock she was holding before. In what could be a major showing of mastery of her powers, she juggled them around in a particular pattern. While the process itself may be tiring, at least she was making serious progress.

Her eyes focusing on one descending rock moving below another before ascending upward over one more, Bonnie got an idea on how complex her Terrakinesis was. It wasn't simply moving a simple rock, but understanding and manipulating its properties. Weight, size, material… Everything had to be taken in account! It was like lifting weights, but with her mind! Small things such as rocks and pebbles took little to no effort, but things such as boulders and creating fissures took great control and concentration. While she was capable of making small sinks in the ground, in her current progress she had a long way to go before she would be able to pick a boulder up more than a few feet.

Nodding, Zach watched as Bonnie experimented with her newfound abilities. "Good… You're getting used to your abilities. But remember: While it's one thing to know your limitations, it is another to surpass them."

"What do you mean by limitat-WHOA!" Her momentary lapse in concentration nearly caused her to be hit by the stones she was juggling before regaining control at the last minute! "Don't distract me like that! You know how dangerous this is!"

"You're gonna have to learn how to keep it up despite distractions. What if we were in a real battle and there were about a million things happening at once? It would be up to you to maintain your control in spite of that. Otherwise, you might as well not use it."

"Well what about you?" Bonnie asked, her focus remaining on the three moving stones. "Have you ever had to work hard on perfecting your powers?"

Zach closed his eyes, "Actually, yeah. It's especially hard for Bi and Tri-Elemental Mu-Types as they have more to master. However, you should place equal dedication to all of your abilities instead of focusing on just one. Think about it like a castle that is surrounded by defenses on each side. The main entrance is north, so it is natural that you want to focus on strengthening defenses within the north. But when an invasion comes, they decide to attack on all sides. Of course the north is defended easily, but what about the south, east, and west? Because you put so much emphasis on the north, the other sides are so undermanned and unfortified that they're easily overcome. Instead of having four tools that are equally strong, you have only one strong tool and three weaker ones. Made even worse when you're forced to use one of those three…" He sighed, "As you might've noticed, ice is my strongest element. While I'm also good with electricity, fire is the one where I'm least proficient at. While it is true that the fact that I didn't even discover my abilities with electricity until later and even longer with fire, the fact is that I could've put more effort in improving both of my proficiencies to be just as good as with ice. The fact that I can't use all of them at once makes it another handicap…"

Leaping off from his seated state from the car, "So Bonnie, scale of one-to-ten, how well do you think you are with your abilities."

She scoffed, "While I know I'm not quite there yet, but I know I'm a decent nine!" She stated confidently.

He smirked, "Really?"

"Duh!" If Bonnie didn't think she was that good, she wouldn't have said so. Moron…

"Okay…" Zach thought as a smile formed on his face. If she was really as good as she said she was then this should be no problem… "If you're such a nine as you say…"

"You're making it sound as if I'm overestimating mys-HEY!" A stone barely managing to block a thin spike of ice, Bonnie glared towards its thrower, "What the hell?"

"You say that you're good enough?" Ice generating from his hand, he threw another spike towards her. Once again, Bonnie managed to block it with one of her levitating objects. "Prove it!"

Groaning, Bonnie made used of the stones as within each attempt she managed to block them all. While there were some "trick shots" attempted, she still managed to shield them away from hitting her. "Really Asters, that's the best you can do?"

"I wouldn't be so confident…" He singsonged, as within that moment, he threw two spikes from each hand to a designated target.

" Confident? About-WHOA!" As if her legs were swept from under her from behind, she fell down on her back! She was just a hairline away from a stone smashing into her nose. Managing to levitate them away, she looked down to see that the in the loops of her shoelaces were those four spikes. Her eyes narrowing, "You dick!"

"If you really were at a nine, you've would stopped that from happening. You need to be fully aware of what's going on around you, know every trick that can be used to and against your advantage. And don't expect your enemies to play fair, either. In desperate times, especially in desperate times, they'll look for anything to get the edge in a losing situation and are more than willing to use every dirty trick in the book."

Bonnie didn't look too pleased at that response, "So that's how it is?"

"Yep… While some are not like that, it's best to prepare for the worst case scenario."

"…Is that right…" A smirk was barely hidden on her face.

"Well we'll work on your awareness lateARRGH!"

No point of hiding her smirk any longer, Bonnie took the pleasure of seeing her so-called "teacher" falling flat on his face. Well… not entirely flat, but it was on his face as his feet were caught into sudden piles of rocks as the only thing that stopped him from falling over was the small pillar of rock that just smacked him in his face. "Like that scenario?"

"WHAT THE HELL?"

"Just like you nailing me down by my laces!"

"But at least you didn't get your face smacked!" Zach snapped, stuck and imagining a huge bruise forming. "I mean goddamn!"

"Okay, maybe that was a bit too far. Hang on, I'll get you out." Closing her eyes, she raises her hands as she felt the rocks before her move at her whim. However…

"GARGH!"

Eyes widened in shock, Bonnie watched as another pillar hit him just above…another place… "Umm…"

"Are you trying to make me into a Eunuch?

"Ohh…Sorry…" Bonnie shook her head, "Don't worry, I'll get you-"

"NO! I'll deal with this myself!" He was done trusting Bonnie's abilities with her powers. "9" his ass… If this was what she considered a "9" he wouldn't dare to see her at "8." Roughly placing his hands on the pillar sticking into his abdomen, it froze deeply to the point where he could shatter it to shards. The rocks that covered his feet were next…

Bonnie watched him free himself, "Listen Zach, I'm-"

"Save it… You didn't know what you were doing…" He stated, now just wanting the day to end. "I'm done…"

"Wait, that's it? That's all we're doing today?"

"I just got smacked in the face and nearly got my nuts crushed! Do I look like I'm in a mood to continue?"

"I said I was sorry!" She snapped, which Zach waved off. "Zach, wait! How am I supposed to work on my powers! How am I supposed to get home from here?"

Sighing, "C'mon, I suppose I can't leave you out here…"

Managing to dodge that bullet, Bonnie let out a sigh of relief. Still… Today showed that while she was good with levitating rocks and stones, she still had ways to go with her powers. Hopefully, Zach would be there to give her a helping hand. He was the only Elemental Mu-Type she knew.


Next Chapter: The Holidays have arrived as Bonnie spends her first Christmas as a member of the Hayden family.

Chapter 8: First Holiday! The Gathering of Friends!