Jason Fuller & The Elementals: The Stones Of Olympus

by jmawesome

This story is about the adventures of a young mutant named Jason Fuller and his friends as they embark on a journey to save the world from Doctor Doom and the Masters of Evil. Lives will be changed, destinies will be fought, ancient magic will resurface, and for Jason, a question that has plagued him since his parents death, about what it truly means to be a hero, will be answered.

10. Chapter 10: More Training

Chapter 10:More Training

The ride back to the Helicarrier was uneventful. Grant took shotgun again, leaving Allyson and I in the back seat, which was still as awkward as ever. Plus, the novelty of the speed had pretty much worn off for all of us. Allyson could move at lightspeed, Grant and I could pretty much run at Mach 7 and rising. Once you've reached that milestone, a jet that could only travel at 2,000 mph became unimpressive. I could run to the Helicarrier faster than this slow hunk of metal. You'd think that we'd be buzzing out over what had just happened, I mean we took on Venom for Christ's sake. But that was the thing. Silently, we had all come to a general realization that, A: We were kids chosen to form a mutant strike team, B: In the past two hours, each of us had nearly died at least five times, C: We'd have to do it all over again if we ever wanted to go home again. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't going soft or anything, and I won't deny the awesomeness of what the team did, but still, there were other things to consider. During the mission, to many things happened too fast. We fought plant monsters, tar monsters, even each other for a while. There wasn't enough time to process the amount of fear and danger of what we were doing then. Now there was, and it was mind numbing to say the least. I didn't want this. Neither of us did, except maybe Grant. Yet here we were, three teens employed by an international spy agency to do something that really should have been left to The Avengers, or some other hero people. Even if we managed to survive this thing, our lives would never be the same again, especially not Grant and mine's; but either way we had to see this through. None of us said anything, Allyson actually fell asleep against the window, I simply held on to the canister that contained a stone infused with the power of the greek war god, and enjoyed the ride back to S.H.I.E.L.D.

As soon as we got out of the jet, we were teleported straight to the meeting room, where Fury, Coulson, and the teacher's lounge were waiting for us. There faces were a mix of satisfaction, disbelief, and relief. That meant that they were happy we got the stone, surprised that we made it back alive, but extremely glad that we made it back alive and in one piece. More importantly, they were happy that we wouldn't have to be mailed back to our folks in body bags for a little while longer. Nobody said anything, not even Grant had the nerve to say anything loud and dumb. Seeing that there was a really big elephant in the room, I decided to break the ice and drown it. I held up the canister for everyone to see, and tossed it to Fury, who fumbled around a bit before managing to secure it in his hands.

"We did it," I said plainly. "Happy?"

That got the ball rolling pretty quick.

"Um.. well...good work team," Fury managed to say after a few seconds. "You've successfully managed to keep a powerful cosmic artifact out of the hands of Dr. Doom; plus you managed to bring down one of the world's deadliest villains, i'm impressed."

Grant immediately rushed in to share the spotlight.

"It was nothing," he said with that football jock swagger he was so proud of. "Just what happens when you put together a team of pure awesomeness. Next time give us something harder though, this was way too easy."

"You're one to talk," Mrs. Kennedy scoffed at him. "Look what you did to my suit, it'll take hours for the nanobots to repair that, not to mention the upgrades i'll have to program into it to make sure you don't die later on future missions."

"Ok, if this relationship is gonna be a smooth one, don't you think we need to establish the fact that these are our suits?"

"It's not your suit! I made them, if anything you're lucky I let you borrow it you-"

"Enough you two," Fury interrupted them. "You two divas can catfight over your pretty dresses later, right now we have more pressing matters to discuss; Jason, we need to debrief you and the team, explain how the mission proceeded."

"You sure you want that?" I asked him. "A lot of stuff went down in that oversized forrest."

Fury gave me a "go on" gesture, so I gathered my thoughts and started summarizing the mission. I went over the various fights we had with the plant monsters, mentioned the fight between Grant and I, that Allyson broke up, and, with the help of Grant and Allyson, I explained in detail about the fight with Venom and how we managed to take the stone from him. Grant jumped in at the part where I sent him off into the distance, and explained that he fought some kind of dragon lady and her army of dragon soldiers. Which explained why he was gone for so long. Apparently, this chick had some crazy Armageddon level weapons on her ship, that she was getting ready to launch on every continent on earth, releasing a never ending horde of demons from another world into ours. So whether by accident, dumb luck, good leadership, or destiny, I sent Grant on a side mission that saved the world while we were already on a mission saving the world. At this point, my ability to feel shock was pretty much destroyed; if something like this could happen on any given mission, every possibility was now fair game. Fury contemplated on that huge rush of information we gave him for a little while. Finally, after what seemed like forever, he responded.

"So," he started. "You intentionally divided your team against an arcane enhanced supervillain, potentially sending one of your teammates to his death?"

That hit hard. Again, you never really know the gravity of these kinds of situations until after they're over, and it was getting clearer and clearer about all of the questionable decisions I made in the field. The thought of it was almost enough to make me want to quit.

"Well, I didn't mean to send him off to an ambush," I started, trying to get the lump out of my throat. "It was meant to be an in and out operation, I didn't know there was some sort of dragon lady tyrant waiting in the distance."

"Nevertheless, your leadership nearly became the death of this team, maybe I was wrong to give you a shot in the field, maybe I should lock you up right now and be done with it."

Before I could say anything, or should I say before I started shooting lightning all over the place, Grant spoke up.

"Wait a minute," he said, clearly worried and pissed off. "That's not fair, you can't do that man. What is it, 'Let's beat up on Jason Day'? In case you haven't caught on, we got the stone, we made it back alive, and it's all thanks to everyone here. Sure we had a little bit of trouble along the way, but Jason always managed to help come up with a plan to get us through alright. Besides, we're dealing with magic rocks made from the powers of greek gods; that one just turned the environment into a deathtrap, how is anybody supposed to plan for that on their first try? More than that, we're still figuring out our team flow. It's getting better but we need more practice, more time to get accustomed to each other's abilities, as well as improve our own. Sure, some of our plans didn't go exactly to plan, but it takes a great leader to be able to adapt and change plans when they go wrong. Jason did that. If anything, our divide and conquer strategy was more fruitful than we could have ever hoped for. Allyson can move at the speed of light, and has enough firepower to put an atomic bomb to shame. Jason is basically a thunder/speed god with dreads. Me? I'm basically a flying Hercules, plus I figured out that I can survive more than 2000 degrees of fire, and lift nearly 100,000 tons; and still were just scratching the surface of what we can do, I just know it. So don't give Jason such a hard time. We may be a little banged up, but he led us to success, I don't know about you, but i'm proud to call him team captain."

Again, you really don't understand how much it rocked to have this guy as a friend. I don't know where he got it from, but this guy could make anyone seem good, even me. If anything, maybe he really should have been team leader.

"Wow," said Fury. "You seem really content to play lapdog for Mr. Fuller. Grant, I thought you had a bit more self-esteem than that."

"What did you say?" Grant asked with a slight edge in his voice. Things had to move on quickly before someone lost a head.

"Ok, ok, ok," Allyson quickly piped up. "Everybody just calm down, you're all acting like idiots."

"Excuse me?" Fury asked as he turned to her.

"You heard me," she said with a small gulp, poor thing probably never talked back to an authority figure in her life. "Listen Colonel, I understand your concerns. Jason wasn't exactly Captain America material out there, but it was his first time, and he didn't do too bad. In a lot of ways, Grant could lead the team too, but he's more of our powerhouse, our secret missile against the enemy; missiles can't shoot themselves. Maybe he's right, maybe Jason will get better over time, but we'll never know if we don't give him a fair shot to improve. I'm kinda glad he's leader too, I would've cracked under the pressure after that plant made Hydra."

That managed to calm things down a bit, or at least negate some of the angst in the air.

"Well, if we're done with that mushy display of affection," said Fury. "Let's get to the part where I hand out punishments. So to be fair, who's idea was it to send Grant out into the distance, while fighting Venom?"

"Mine's," Grant and I said at the same time.

We both glared at each other for a few seconds.

"No way man," I said. "It was my call, my decision, I won't let you take the fall for that."

"But dude," he said. "I had just as much of a part in planning that takedown scheme as you, besides you don't deserve to be punished for being a good leader, it's not fair."

"It doesn't matter bro," I said clapping him on the shoulder. "I'm team leader, I have the final call on every decision we make; likewise, I have to take full responsibility for everything that goes wrong."

I turned to face Fury.

"It was my call sir, give me your best shot."

Fury started me down for a few seconds, before turning to his staff crew.

"What did I tell you?" he asked them, as if winning a bet. "I told you this kid had spunk, never doubted him for a moment."

Everyone started grumbling and nodding their heads in grudging acknowledgement, even Mrs. Kennedy shrugged half heartedly. I probably should have kept my mouth shut, but this was way too confusing, I needed some kind of answer for this.

"Hold up," I interrupted them. "I'm in trouble right? Can we hurry up and issue the detention slips already."

"Don't worry about it kid." said Fury with a small smirk. "That was a pop quiz, and you passed with flying colors."

"Huh?"

"You were never in any trouble to begin with, we just needed to see whether or not you passed as a good leader. Your teammates clearly have faith in you, and you've demonstrated that you have the courage to stand up and take responsibility as a leader, although I have to admit Grant has you beat on talking. But as far as leaders go, i've seen better, i've seen worse, you're not so bad, might as well give you a shot."

"So I get to stay on the team?"

"You led an amatur team through a monster infested jungle, and managed to take down a war crazed super villain; anyone that can do that on the first try is good to go in my books."

I exhaled in relief (what? I was starting to like this job). A few seconds later, Fury reached into his trench coat, fumbled around the pockets for a little bit, and pulled out his clicker (he must have really loved that thing). He pressed a button near the bottom of it, and a felt something in my leg heat up. At first I thought it was just me, but when I looked around, Grant and Allyson were also looking at their legs like there was a bomb in their pants. I was thinking the same thing, but then I realized that the blinking was coming from my actual pants that was beneath my armor; that was where I kept my keycard. After a while, the heat subsided and my leg felt normal again.

"What the heck was that?" I asked Fury.

"I just upgraded your keycards," he said. "For as long as this task force is active, each of you will have full access to S.H.I.E.L.D.'s databases, training facilities, and weapon storages. Furthermore, you are free to move around the Helicarrier as you wish, but no running in the halls."

"Wait a minute," said Allyson. "Does that mean we're S.H.I.E.L.D. agents now?"

"More like interns," Fury said. "But yeah, for the time being, me casa, su casa."

"Sure," said Mrs. Kennedy in a tone that reeked of sarcasm. "Let's give the little teenagers full access to an international agency responsible for the fate of the world, this won't come back to bite us in the butt. So, what now Mr. Fuller?"

She and the rest of the staff looked at me expectantly, like I had an answer that was worth a million dollars.

"Uhh, what do you mean?" I said, letting my cluelessness show.

Mrs. Kennedy rolled her eyes.

"I was hoping you'd actually have an answer for once instead of your typical naivete." she said. "For your information boy, we can't hold your hand for the rest of this operation, some of us have to work for a living. The team is now in your "capable" hands. You will be in charge of things like planning team meetings, strategies, training sessions, or you can sit in your rooms all day and eat junk food until the next mission; your call."

Oh, well why didn't she say so? Honestly , sometimes I think, no, I KNOW this woman loves to watch me suffer.

"Well," I said after thinking for a few secs. "First of all, i'm ordering the team to get some rest, shower, and eat. After 6 PM, we're gonna take a look at the S.H.I.E.L.D. databases. Fury, if you have information on the people Doom is most likely working with, i'd appreciate you setting up a portfolio for me, because the team and I are gonna spend as much time as it takes studying everything you know about them. Strengths, weaknesses, powers, the whole 9 yards; we got lucky with Venom, and found the chink in his armor by accident, we may not be so lucky next time. Tomorrow, we dive into some heavy duty training, figure out more about our powers, improve our skills, and work on breaking our limits. Until the next stone pops up, we'll just rinse and repeat."

Fury and the rest of the staff nodded in agreement.

"Very well then Mr. Fuller," said Fury. "You and your team are now dismissed, enjoy the rest of your day."

"Oh, before you go," said Mrs. Kennedy. "I need you to deactivate your battle suits, Grant's needs major repairs, and you and Allyson may be in need of some other upgrades as well, just press the red button on you're communicators and say 'Power Down'.

We did as she instructed and our suits flashed off of us. I expected to feel a lot lighter on my feet, but Mrs. Kennedy was right, the suits weighed practically nothing. We exited the meeting room, managed to find our way back to the elevators, and took the ride to our individual floors.

"Ok guys," I said through my communicator (it seemed like our mental connection only worked with the suits on). "Remember, do what you have to do now, but after dinner, we hit the books."

"No problem Jason," Grant messaged me back. "Never miss study hall with the team."

"Same here," said Allyson. "I'll be wherever you need me."

I changed out of my clothes, which were drenched in sweat, and put them in a blue hamper that was in the corner by the TV. I climbed into the shower, washed off for a good 30 minutes, now starting to feel how sore I was from the battle, and then put on a black T-shirt and some blue jeans. I climbed into bed, and checked the time; 3:15 PM. I figured I could get at least two hours of sleep before going down to dinner, so I didn't waste any time; in about 3 seconds, my body shut down, and I was in dreamsville.

Normally I don't dream, but today was the exception. To be honest, it didn't make much sense at first. Just a bunch of flashing colors everywhere on a sea of black space. After a while, I started to hear voices, like whispering people having multiple conversations. Again, still not much sense. As the dream progressed, the many voices started to ebb away until I was left with only two. They didn't sound like anyone I knew, in fact, I couldn't even tell if the voices were male or female, but I could hear what they were saying as clear as day.

"An interesting turn of events," one of them said.

"Yes, I did not expect such an outcome, perhaps we have put our faith in the wrong faction." said the other.

"Perhaps, but it is too soon to make such rash judgements, this was only the first, more will follow."

"At this pace, the two will face each other very soon, can you imagine the outcome of such a battle?"

"Again, you seek answers too soon, let these things unfold in time, as they are meant to."

"Fine, but recent events trouble my certainty of our gamble, if all does not go as planned-"

"It will, it will, things are just beginning, the next test will prove to be one of the more difficult ones, for both of them."

"I can hardly wait."

My dream faded away, and I was awoken by the sound of my alarm.

To be honest, I didn't give my dream as much thought as I probably should have. But that was because I had initially blamed it all on post-traumatic mission syndrome, as well as the fact that I was really freaking hungry. I rushed down to the cafeteria, where Grant and Allyson were already at our usual table, eating to their hearts content. I quickly grabbed as much food as I could fit on one tray, and sat down with them. Just like yesterday, we didn't talk, we just ate. Part of it was because of the fact that we were super ultra hungry, but there was more to it today. Part of the tension was between Allyson and I; we were still on rocky terms at best, and doubt we'd ever talk to each other again unless we had to. The other tension was just leftover jitters from the mission. They were fading fast but they were still there. After we finished up at around 5:50, we decided to head down to the databases a little early. Fury kept true to his word and set up a file of Doom's potential partners. To access those files, I would have to go to room 175A, and follow the standard procedures to access the files, whatever that meant (by the way, Fury sent me the instructions via my communicator).Grant, Allyson, and I walked there in silence. Once, at the room, I swept my key card in the slot, walked in, and looked around.

The room was a technological madhouse. There were computers everywhere. most of them had so many weird looking buttons, switches, and dials on them, that I wouldn't even dream of touching them. In the center of the room, there was some sort of circular table looking device that had a tabletop with weird looking streaks of light traveling across it; the thing looked like a really big fluorescent motherboard. I inserted my key card into a slot in the side of the table, placed my hand on the table top, and after it scanned me, a robotic feminine voice said: 'Biometric signature confirmed. Welcome, Jason Fuller. The table top flashed really bright, and a hologram of a woman's face with empty eye sockets materialized in the air.

"Whoa!" said Grant. "Talk about high tech!"

"Affirmative," said the hologram. "Stark Industries does indeed produce some of the most advanced technology in the world, I am a product of the company's many inventions. I am S.E.R.A; Schematic Encyclopedia and Retrieval Assistant, how may I be of service?"

"Retrieval Assistant?" I asked. "So you're like some sort of holographic librarian?"

"Precisely Master Jason, I have access to every public, private, and federal interface in the world; how may I be of service?"

"Ooookaayy," said Grant. "Someone please tell me that i'm not the only one who's slightly bugging out here."

"Grant," said Allyson. "How can anything in this place surprise you after what just happened today?"

"I don't remember swinging my axe at a hologram."

"Well you can take a swing at it tomorrow." I said. "Right now we have work to do. S.E.R.A., Fury said that he set up a file for me containing potential members that are working with Doom. Can you upload that file for me please?"

"Of course Master Jason," she said. "One moment."

She went still for a few seconds while random holograms of various people flashed really really fast. To a normal person, these images would've lasted only long enough for half a second, but my enhanced perception kicked in. I saw pictures of various super villains like: Dr Doom, Magneto, Green Goblin, Rhino, and various other people I already knew about (what? I live in New York, Spider-Man busts up villains like these guys all the time). However, there were a lot of pictures of people I didn't know about, like: some guy wearing weird clothes a horned helmet and wielding a spear. Also a gorgeous blonde woman wearing a green getup who was accompanied by a huge guy wielding a battle axe. After all of these images were done loading, a holographic file popped up over the table.

"File uploaded," said S.E.R.A. "Do you wish for me to read the files in alphabetical order, or by personal preference?"

"Let's start with the files of the people that the news has already confirmed to have played a part in the St. Mark Industries robberies," I said. "After that then we can go in alphabetical order."

"As you command. Let's get started."

The amount of studying that the team did on Doom and his squad was extensive to say the least. First, we did our homework on Dr. Doom, Green Goblin, Loki (I figured out that he was the guy with the horned helmet), and Magneto. Doom was definitely not a pushover, what with his suit, sorcery abilities, and army of Doombots. But considering the fact that we were immune to magic, plus we had experience with large armies of robots, we figured we'd be ok in a fight against him. Goblin was almost completely overlooked. The only thing that made him a light contender was his ability to bench 9 tons. Other than that, all we had to do was avoid his pumpkin bombs and get him off of his glider. Super speed and lightning strikes would be all we would need. Loki and Magneto were the only ones off the list that actually gave us some concern. I know Loki gets a bad rep because he keeps getting his chops busted by Thor and the Avengers, but then again, who could beat The Avengers? Anyway, Loki was a powerhouse as far as we were concerned. He could lift 50 tons on his own. Not nearly as much as Grant could, but still way more than I could. Based off of the footage we saw of his many fights against the Avengers, his skill with a spear was average at best, but I still didn't know how to fight with a spear yet; Allyson would have to cross that bridge if we ever crossed it. The only thing that mattered was his magic. Most of it was just blasts and illusions, but I also saw his ability to switch bodies; that worried me a lot. After a lot of strategizing and playing out different scenarios, the team pretty much deduced the fact that the best way to take him down, was for Grant to knock him out faster than he could blink. We went over the profiles of a lot more villains that were most likely be working with Doom. Among the list were people like Baron Mordo and Enchantress, two more magic users. There was some weird looking thing on a flying chair called M.O.D.O.K, and a guy named The Executioner, who had an axe so big that Grant was probably jealous. Also, there was a whole gang of Spider-Man villains like Rhino, Mysterio, Dr. Octopus, and some stupid guy in an oven mitt looking costume named The Shocker on the list of potential Doom flunkies. We studied, planned, and strategized with this massive amount of data for 5 hours straight, it was actually 11 pm before we trudged through it all, and let the team off for the night.

"Finally," said Grant said as he stood up and yawned. "Thought we'd never get to sleep until next week.

"Nah man," I said laughing at him tiredly. "I just wanted to get through this data now so we could spend all of tomorrow training."

"So you're gonna work us to death physically now?" Allyson asked me. "You won't have much of a team left if that happens."

"Oh please," said Grant. "Like he's gonna let a little thing like death stop us from training."

Grant and I busted out laughing, even Allyson smirked and giggled a little bit.

"Don't worry, i'll leave enough of you guys left to see the next day," I said. "But we gotta get into some heavy training, we did good as a team for our first time, now we have to work on improving ourselves, as well as our teamwork dynamics."

"Ok then," said Allyson. "You're the boss, so what's our first move."

"S.E.R.A?" I asked the computer.

"Yes Master Jason?" she responded.

"I know this may seem like a far fetched question, but is it possible for you to scan our bodies, or our DNA, or whatever? I wanna see if you can analyze or powers and their potential for development."

"Of course Master Jason, give me a moment while I upload the proper programs."

S.E.R.A.'s face went slack for a moment, which was weird considering the fact that she was a hologram. After a few seconds, the tabletop flashed really bright, and S.E.R.A.'s face went back into focus.

"Please place your hands on the designated areas," she said.

I cautiously craned my neck to get a better glimpse at what she was talking about. On the table top flashing in bright white lights, were six outlines of handprints. I put two and two together.

"Uhh quick question S.E.R.A.," I said. "Will this hurt?"

"Yes," she said bluntly. "However, the pain will only be temporary and will not have any lasting effects on your body or your abilities."

I looked over at Grant and Allyson, asking them the silent question of whether or not they wanted to go through with this. Grant nodded his head, trying not to let his nervousness show. Allyson took a deep breath and nodded as well. We all simultaneously put our hands in the outlines, and the table flashed lightly. At first I thought that was it, maybe S.E.R.A was kidding about the pain, maybe it was some sort of robotic humor. Then the pain hit me so fast, I didn't even remember if I had the time to scream. It was as if someone had injected burning nails into very nerve in my body, I literally felt the pain from my head to my toes. The pain was excruciating, but like S.E.R.A. said, only temporary. After three seconds, the pain started to subside, in fact, it felt like the pain was literally exiting through my arms and hands. The tabletop flashed again, and three DNA diagrams sprung into the air where S.E.R.A's face used to be. I looked at the palms of my hands, which were as raw and as red as an uncooked steak, and flexed my fingers, trying to regain the feeling in them. Grant and Allyson were doing the same.

"Dang S.E.R.A.," I complained. "What did you do to us?"

Her face appeared in the top corner of the DNA diagrams.

"I injected all of you with 3 million nanites that infiltrated your bloodstream," she said. "Once inside, the nanites duplicated all of your cells using an advanced synthetic duplication method that is essential in cloning technology. After the data was collected, I recalled the nanites out of your blood stream, via your hands. With the data they have collected I will be able to fully analyze current and future developments in your mutant powers. The results of the analysis can be expected to be completed around eight hours from now."

"Oh," I said. "Well then good work, send the results to my communicator once you're done with that."

"As you wish Master Jason."

"Hey S.E.R.A?" Grant asked her.

"Yes Master Grant?" she responded.

Oh, never mind," he said with a smirk. "I just wanted to see if you'd call me 'Master'."

Allyson and I both face palmed him.

"If there's nothing else, we can go now," I said. "Tomorrow, we'll be working on skill first."

"What do you mean skill?" Grant asked me.

"Hand-to-hand and armed combat." I said. "We need to be able to fight with a lot more skill than just straight up brawling, plus as your armor portrayed, a few sword lessons might not be out of the question."

"Amen to that bro, but what about the hand-to-hand thing?"

"I can help you guys there," Allyson spoke up.

"Huh?" Grant and I asked at the same time.

"I've studied Kung-Fu and fencing since I was six," she said. "If you weren't so strong or so fast, i'd probably be able to kick both of your butts."

"So you think you can teach us Kung-Fu in like three hours?" I asked her.

"I can teach you all of the basics and some advanced moves, after that you should be able to work through the rest at your own pace."

"Cool, we'll start that at 9 AM, oh and another question, I saw you kick some serious butt with that spear while you were fighting Venom; any chance you could teach me and Grant some of that stuff too?

"One thing at a time Jason! But yeah I can whip you dorks into shape."

"Ok cool, we'll work on the Kung-Fu stuff until Lunch, then we'll take an hour break. After that, we hit the swords. Grant, you're gonna spend an hour with Nightcrawler until you can wield a sword like a pro."

"But i'm more of an axe kind of guy," he said.

"Then do both," I said. "Get some sort of dual wielding thing going on or something."

"Ok, i'll see what I can do, anything to keep me from getting sliced like a christmas ham again."

"Good man," I said. "Anyway, while you're doing that, Allyson and I will be working on spear stuff. After an hour, we'll switch up, I wanna get to work on learning how to fight with a shield. We'll train with weapons until dinner, take another hour break, and then we'll get to work on improving our powers in any way that we can; S.E.R.A's analysis should help us out with that. We'll do power practice until 11PM and then we'll call it a day. Any questions?"

"Yeah," said Allyson in a "as-a-matter-of-fact" tone. "Do we get to use the bathroom at anytime during the day?"

"That's what the hour breaks are for," I said. "So shall we call this meeting adjourned and get some shut eye?"

They both nodded, and we all took our leave. We went directly to the elevators, took it to our floors and I shut myself inside my room. I didn't bother to change into my PJ's before crashing into bed, I just crawled under the covers at let the sleepy time take me away. I didn't dream for the night. Just as well; I had enough to deal with as it was.

My alarm woke me up at 8 AM the next day. I quickly got out of bed and brushed my teeth real fast. I had half a mind to just go down to breakfast in what I was wearing, but then I remembered I would probably need some more flexible pants. I went through my closest, grabbed some black workout pants with silver stripes, as well as a red muscle shirt that had the S.H.I.E.L.D emblem on the left chest (yes, all of my shirts have the S.H.I. . emblem on it). I made a beeline for the cafeteria, got the same thing I always did, and sat down at the team's usual table and started eating. It was like thirty minutes and two trays later before Grant and Allyson joined me. In fact, they came to the cafeteria at exactly the same time. They were both wearing black workout pants, and Grant was wearing a green muscle shirt, while Allyson was wearing a white tank top. Now I may not have had any friends before being drafted to this team, but I could read body language really well. Grant and Allyson had just got through talking about me, I knew that for sure. I wanted to confront them about it, but I knew this wasn't the time. I was team leader, I had to keep it together. So if that meant burying my feelings of anger and jealousy so that we could get through training, so be it. We ate breakfast in a hurry, while making small talk about about battle strategies, TV shows, and video games. It was really awkward for everyone because Allyson and I still weren't talking to each other. That meant that Grant was pretty much the conversation exchange way; if Allyon and I said anything to each other, it was through Grant. Poor guy was probably overwhelmed under the pressure. Anyway, after breakfast we all went to room 135X, which we pretty much adopted as our official training room. I called ahead and booked Nightcrawler for a session starting at 1pm, but for now, Allyson was in charge of training, which was why I wasn't really surprised to see a couple of punching bags (one made of steel) hanging from the ceiling.

"Ok," said Allyson who immediately went into teacher training mode. "I've got three hours to whip you punks into shape, so let's not waste any time."

She started to glow, and I immediately caught on. I shifted into Speed Mode and so did Grant (yeah I know, Blitz). This was a smart move. In Speed Mode every second in real time was like a whole minute to me. Do the math and instead of three hours, we had over six in training. At the speed we were going at, I could regenerate energy at a comfortable pace and still keep my head in the game. Not bad planning on Allyson's part.

"Ok," she said. "First, let's work on some basic stances."

Starting out, the first few minutes (in real time) was tough. Allyson taught us the horse stance, which was pretty much like squatting. The forward stance, a kind of leg stretch stance. The cross stance, or resting stance as she called it, resembled criss-cross sitting, but without actually sitting. We also learned the drop stance, which was almost the exact reverse of the forward stance. Finally, we learned one of the most recognizable Kung-Fu stances, the cast stance. That was about balancing 90% of your body weight on the back leg, and balancing 10% on the front. Learning how to do the stances were easy, however, Allyson made us learn the correct way to transit into each stance. We had to learn how to do a lot of waving arm movements that resembled windmills, arm movements that looked like snake and crane type stances, all while learning how to balance all of our weight on our legs. The first few stances were easy enough for me and Grant. It took a few tries( we had to ask Allyson to redo the motions again and again), but after a few minutes, we could do the horse, forward, and resting stances like it was nothing. The drop and the cast stances took a lot longer to get the hang of. First off, the movements were harder to remember in the drop stance; it involved all of that snake like moving. In real time, Grant and I spent 5 minutes on that, which is 10 in super speed terms. The cast stance involved me balancing a lot of weight on my right leg, which wasn't too hard to do, but my arm placing was always off, and Allyson was a harsh grader. Again, Grant and I got the hang of it in time, but I was really frustrated by the end. We had just spent an hour in speed terms mastering fake airbending moves; someone had to answer for that.

"Ok, what was the purpose of all of that?" I asked Allyson once she had finished drilling us again and again, making sure we had the stances down.

She looked me straight in the eye, which was still frightening when she was lit up in golden light.

"Because you ungrateful, ignorant troll," she started real meanish. "You and Grant needed a base level of coordination and balance before you could move on to actual basic combat moves. If you think you can find someone better to train you, please go ahead."

"Ok first of all," I said trying not to lose my cool. "Don't talk to me that way, i'm not a child. Plus i'm pretty sure this whole ship is filled with people who can kick your a-"

"What he means is," Grant immediately jumped in, flashing me the best 'stand down' warning ever. "Is that he's very thankful for you showing us the ropes, and he's just really eager to get down to the nitty gritty stuff."

Allyson and I stared each other down, silently calling our battle off for the time being.

"Fine," said Allyson. "Just remember who's the master."

"As long as you remember who's team leader." I retorted.

She humphed at me, and moved on. We moved towards the two punching bags, and Allyson took up a fighting stance at the non-steel one. She took a deep breath and started punching it. At first I thought she was gonna drill us on the proper way to punch, but she kept pounding the bag for quite some time. It was actually impressive to watch, she punched at a very fast, but steady and unpaused pace with so much power and focus that I expected her to punch a hole straight through the bag. Finally, after what had seemed like 100 punches, she stopped and turned around.

"In case you didn't catch on, Rocky Balboa," I started. "Grant and I kinda already know how to throw a punch."

She flashed me an extreme "no-duh" look.

"Obviously you can punch," she said. "But this isn't about simply throwing punches, I need to test your endurance levels, the longer you can punch, the longer you can fight."

"I can simply recharge if I get tired," I said. "And Grant doesn't get tired from regular workouts, so what are you gonna do about that?"

She walked up to my face and started me in the eye. Again, it was so hard not to cower under gaze when she was glowing like a sun goddess.

"You," she said, pointing a finger at me. "Won't be recharging anything until I say you can."

"And you," she said pointing to Grant. "After i'm done with you, you'll wish you were fighting that dragon lady again."

Grant looked at me, a look of terror and amusement plastered on his face.

"Now," said Allyson. "It's your turn, I want each of you to give me a thousand punches."

"A THOUSAND?!" Grant and I exclaimed at the same time.

"What's the matter?" Allyson asked us with an annoyed smirk. "Can't handle it?"

"I dunno," I said "Can you?"

"I've practiced punching things since I was six, of course I can, in sets of hundreds, just like I want you two to do."

"Oooohhhhh," me and Grant said together. 1000 punches at once was impossible; 100 at at time was slightly less so.

Allyson directed me and Grant to our individual punching bags and took a step back.

"You have until the count of twenty to get in 100 hits. Ready, Begin!"

At first it was super easy, I started with five hard punches to get the bag into the air, and then I started a straight up punching barrage. Punch after punch after punch, I kept going, using my anger and concentration to fuel my attacks. After punch number 60, my arms started to burn. I simply closed my eyes and focused even harder on keeping the chain going. Allyson was already down to ten by the time I had reached punch 80; I had to really push it if I wanted to make my mark. I made my arms go faster, despite their desperate cries for mercy, and with two seconds to spare, I managed to make it to 100 punches. My first thought was 'oh God that was brutal'. My second thought was on how much my arms hurt. Seriously, they felt super heavy, and hurt like crap; good thing I had the good ol' electric nurse to help me out. I was about to focus on electricity surging through my hands, but Allyson had other plans.

"No you don't!" Allyson scolded me. "No electricity until 900 more punches, no exceptions."

"But my arms feel like ankle weights," I complained. "How am I supposed to punch the bag when I can barely lift my arms?"

"That's your problem, you have about 5 seconds to figure it out, just do whatever it is Grant's doing; he looks alright."

That was a total dick move on her part, but I grudgingly let it slide and got ready for another punch barrage. If it meant shutting her up, i'd keep going until my arms fell off. If only I knew how close that actually was to becoming a reality.

For the next few minutes in real time, my arms learned a lesson in true pain. From 200-400 punches, the pain in my arms went from uncomfortable, to straight up excruciatingly unbearable. 500-700, my arms lost all feeling; which made it both easier and harder to keep up the punches. 800-1000, was when my arms felt like they were bleeding. It was as if my bones were taken out and replaced with hot rods. My lungs were struggling to get air, and my chest felt like someone stuck a hammer in there. Finally, after I had achieved what was probably the hardest physical attempt of my life, I sat on the floor and just let go. Everything in my upper body areas hurt, but through the pain, I managed to patch myself up with voltage. The pain in my arms, and chest went away immediately, and after I blinked the spots out of my eyes, I managed to bring myself to my feet.

"How do you guys feel?" Allyson asked us.

"I feel great," said Grant, who was barely winded by the exercise. "I could do this all day."

"I'm better now," I said. "My body hurt like hell getting through that, but i'm fueled up and ready for Round 2"

"You should be," Allyson said. "I'd be disappointed if you couldn't, given your... improved physique."

I didn't know what that meant, but then I looked at my arms. Now before you make any jokes, I just want you to know that I was much stronger than I looked beforehand. I wasn't scrawny, I wasn't a bodybuilder, I was average muscular build for my age; plus I always managed to beat up people who were stronger than me. Anyway, my arms had gone through a major change. It was like someone had pumped me full of steroids and left the meter running, because my arms were twice as big as they used to be, and so were my pecs. Don't get me wrong, my arms weren't as huge as Grant's massive pythons, but by comparison, I was a 7 out of 10 on the muscle scale.

"Wow," I said. "I should have done this sooner, this is a nice step up from going to the gym.

"I know man," said Grant. "You look like quarterback material, learn how to throw a football and you might be able to go pro."

We both laughed for a little bit before Allyson cleared her throat and demanded that we do one more set. I wanted to complain, but she'd never let herself get talked out of giving me extra workouts. As was such, I didn't even need much of a break anyway. With my new muscles, apparently came some new endurance, because on this set, I made it to the 700's before my arms started to hurt. After I juiced my arms following the set of punches, I felt like I could punch for days; Grant on the other hand, was actually showing signs of fatigue.

"You alright?" I asked him. "Looks like father time is starting to catch up to ya bro."

"Hey, i'm not that old man," Grant responded, still sporting his trademark stupid grin. "Just need a minute to catch my breath."

"Sorry Grant," said Allyson. "No rest for the weary, we gotta keep this pain train moving, all aboard, let's go."

We worked on roundhouse kicks next. Allyson took us through the motions: planting your feet, and kicking the bag at just the right angle, with just the right part of our foot. We worked on that for a good while. After Grant and I had mastered roundhouse kicks on our right leg, Allyson had us switch to our left; again that took a good while for me to get the hang of. Let me set you guys straight about one thing. From my perspective, we had been training for at least three hours. In real time, it was only 10:05 AM, which meant that we still had time to kill before lunch. Allyson didn't waste a single millisecond, and immediately got us on learning combinations. She explained that the most important thing in fighting was keeping your opponent off-balance, and digging in deep when it was time for the finisher. She started us off by teaching us a "simple" combo. It went like this: right puch five times, roundhouse kick from thee right three times, the same on the left, and to finish it all off, one powerful reverse kick (we learned reverse, forward, spin, jumping spin, and sweeping kicks). After all of the prep we had, combos were easy, once I got into my rhythm, it was easier than riding a bike. Allyson drilled me and Grant on various different combos, seeing how well we could adapt and remember certain directions. It was long and brutal, but by the time it was over, I was starting to feel like a black Jackie Chan.

Finally, we learned offensive and defensive moves. From flipping people, to learning how to perform and escape various types of locks, Allyson drilled us hard for 35 minutes straight. Once it was 10:50, we all shifted out of Speed Mode, and Allyson brought out a little surprise for me and Grant. She pressed a button on her watch, and a titan robot flashed into the room.

"Final test," she said. "Grant, I asked for that robot to be programed with an intermediate level of Kung-Fu skill, your job is to beat it."

"Sounds like fun," said Grant. "But don't go crying to Fury when I break your new toy."

He set up a defensive stance and attacked with a fast right punch. The robot simply swept his arm away and punched him in the gut with a right hook; if Grant could've felt that, it definitely would have hurt. Allyson and I watched him fight for the first minute, and he wasn't half bad. After the titan punched Grant in the gut, he tried hitting it again with a left hook. The titan grabbed his arm, but Grant had anticipated that. As soon as the titan gripped his arm, he turned around, grabbing the titan's hand with his right, and flipped it over his shoulder. Grant held on to it's arm and stomped hard on it's shoulder, dislocating it. The titan swept Grant's leg out from under him, but once it got up, Grant did the same thing and even managed to propel himself off of the ground into a jumping spin kick, sending the titan soaring across the room. Grant was doing awesome, and I was enjoying the fight until I realized one thing; why wasn't I fighting too?

"So what about me?" I asked Allyson. "Or did you forget that I still exist?"

"I didn't get you a robot," she started with a dangerous fire in her voice. "Because you're sparring against me, and i'm gonna enjoy mopping the floor with you."

We both took up a defensive stance and started each other down for a good five seconds, each of us looking for an opening.

"You gonna hit me anytime soon?" Allyson asked me. "I don't have all day."

That did it.

I rushed her and swung at her with a right hook. She grabbed my wrist but I anticipated that and flipped her over my shoulder. Whether or not I was actually gonna hit her is debatable, but I never got the chance to find out. Apparently, Allyson had managed to land on her feet, and she immediately kicked me in the head from below, causing me to stagger backwards. Quicker than I could recover, I felt her punch me twice and kick me once in the face, followed by a really hard roundhouse kick to the chest that sent me crashing to the floor.

"Ooohhhhh!" she taunted me as I got up. "That looked like it really hurt; you wanna quit now?"

I rushed her again, determined to take her down. I assaulted her with a couple of punches, which she easily countered. Afterwards, I tried for a roundhouse kick. She ducked it and tried to sweep my legs but I backflipped over it, and once I landed, I launched myself into a low flying kick that made contact with her body, sending her tumbling a few feet away. This time it was her turn to look pissed off. She stood up, not even wincing, stared me down and charged me again; this time, we were both equally serious about causing-each other pain, and you better believe we were out for blood.

Allyson rushed me with a barrage of punches and kicks. I managed to block and counter most of them, but she still managed to hit me a good few times in the face, plus some really good kicks to the gut. We went on like this for five minutes. Occasionally I would manage to land a punch or two on her face, but for the most part, she was really kicking my ass around. I managed to get a slight upper hand in the fight when Allyson punched at me with a right, that I caught, and twisted her wrist. She winced out in pain (which I felt slightly bad about), but on a reflex, punched at me with her left, which I also grabbed and twisted. Allyson somehow managed to turn around, also making me do a 180, and I felt her jump. Immediately I knew what she was trying to do, backflip to dropkick combo; that would've hurt a lot. Instead of that happening, I counter flipped, managing to plant my feet in her chest, and land perfectly on top of her as she crashed into the ground. I figured that would be the end of it, in fact I was kinda worried that I had actually hurt her. That was before she grabbed my hair and slammed her elbow into my forehead.

The pain was so sharp, I immediately saw five different colors flash, and my head wouldn't stop throbbing. If Allyson was in this much pain, she didn't let it show, because she immediately pushed me off of her, and I felt her grab my arm, and put me in a cross arm breaker. The pain from being in the lock was almost on par with the one in my head. Allyson held her grip tight, she even had my head locked in between her legs. And, yes my arm did feel like it was being pulled out of it's socket, they don't call it a cross arm breaker for nothing.

"GIVE UP!" Allyson screamed at me. "GIVE UP, OR I'LL TEAR YOUR ARM IN HALF!"

Believe me, in the state she was in, she probably wasn't bluffing. Even so, I had had enough of her yelling at me, telling me what to do, and disrespecting me nonstop. Even if it killed me, I would not give up. I focused everything I had into getting her off of me. There was only one way to do it, and if I failed I wouldn't get another chance at it. I used my free arm and managed to swiftly grab my trapped arm with it. As soon as I had a lock on it, I pulled my arm towards my body along with Allyson (good thing she didn't weigh that much). If she looked surprised, I couldn't tell you; my eyes were shut tight in concentration. I pulled her over my other arm, managed to stand to my feet, and with my free arm, I punched her dead in her face, making her left go of my right arm. She fell to the floor, and before she could get up, I wrapped my arms around her neck in a choke hold.

"Your turn," I said in a strained voice. "Tap out, or black out."

She tried to struggle against me, but my new and improved muscles were more than capable of keeping her restrained. After 30 seconds, she tapped her hand frantically against my arms, and I immediately let go. I would have offered to help her up, but there was way more venom and anger in that fight than you realize. Silently, Allyson and I were fighting because of her refusal to accept the fact that I had no problem hurting people who would stand against me. I wasn't a bully, and I wasn't a thug, but I wasn't gonna waste any time trying to explain that to someone who didn't wanna listen; if she wanted to hate me, I would hate her back and then some. I had to keep telling myself that. Deep down, I was really sorry about what I did to Allyson, (she probably wasn't) I didn't want to hurt her, but at the same time, I wasn't gonna back down to her. Anyway, Grant flew over to us, completely unaware of the ticking time bombs that were me and Allyson.

"Hey guys," he said. "Training hard I see. Uhh, two things. A: I kinda broke Allyson's robot into pieces, sorry about that Ally. B: It's 12:00 and i'm hungry, so let's go eat some food. Oh and Allyson? You should fix yourself up, your head's bleeding down the side of your face; It's in your hair too."

Allyson experimentally touched her forehead and looked on the verge of passing out when her fingertips came back red (then again, my head wasn't feeling so hot either). She looked at me murderously as she sung a few bars of "Wrecking Ball" over her fingertips and rubbed her head with her glowing fingers.

"I don't know what why you're looking at me like that," I said as we both got to our feet. "You were the one that decided to try and dislocate my shoulder, besides, you look good with red in your hair, it matches your inner psycho."

Her eyes flared dangerously, but she just turned and left the room, probably to go clean her face off.

"What the heck man?" Grant asked me. "Did I miss something? I thought you and her were hitting it off, what gives with all of this hostility."

"Not now Grant," I snapped at him as I fixed my throbbing head and body with electricity. "Let's just go get some food."

Grant and I went straight to the cafeteria after training; Allyson joined us 10 minutes later, the blood on her face wiped clean. For lunch I had a bacon cheeseburger with BBQ, some fries, a few slices of supreme pizza, and a soda that consisted of Diet Mountain Dew, Diet Pepsi, and lime flavored Gatorade (if it's from a soda fountain, my drinks are always mixed). I didn't talk much between eating, just occasionally talking to Grant about Kung-Fu stuff. Other than that, Grant and Allyson were having a lovely conversation. Three trays later, and 30 minutes of feeling like the world's biggest third wheel, I excused myself and put my trays away. I wasn't mad at Grant, but I couldn't take the feeling of being left out while in a group; it was worse than being alone.

"Don't forget," I told Allyson on the way to the exit. "Spear lessons, you promised to teach me."

"I know my job," she snapped at me. "Don't worry, I won't disappoint."

I walked out of the cafeteria and headed to my room, where I crashed on my bed and flipped on my TV. For the next twenty five minutes, I watched an episode of Spongebob; good thing a classic episode was playing, not the new crap they come out with. After the episode was over, I checked the time: 12:53 PM. I quickly went to the bathroom and rushed down to the training room. When I got there, Nightcrawler and Grant were already getting started on sword training. Grant was holding a 5 foot long medieval looking blade, and looked like he was in the middle of learning parrying techniques; he wasn't half bad. I scanned the room for Allyson and found her in a far corner next to a long table stacked with weapons. I dashed over to her in Speed Mode, not wanting to waste any valuable training time.

"You're late," she said bluntly. "Leaders aren't supposed to be late."

"I had to use the bathroom, plus i'm only three minutes late, sue me."

"Three minutes or three hours, late is late!"

"Ok, ok fine, i'm sorry."

"Humph."

'Humph' was her new favorite word. Anyway, I got a better look at the weapons table. On it were a couple of knives, three swords, and two spears, (one was double bladed).

"I don't get it," I told Allyson. "What happened to spear training? What's up with the extra battle gear?"

"I wanna get warmed up." she said as she grabbed the two knives. "Plus I wanna see if you're really worth the trouble. I've seen you take down unarmed beasts, now let's see what you can do against someone with a brain."

"Fine," I said reaching for one of the swords.

"You won't be needing that," Allyson told me. "For this first part, you're unarmed."

"But you have knives, that's so not fair."

"My game, my rules, suck it up and fight."

I rolled my eyes and breathed off, but I set up a defensive stance, and got ready for battle.

Allyson rushed in and started swiping and stabbing at me from every direction. I kept my distance, bobbing and weaving her swipes, and side stepping her stabs. I had to hand it to her, she was fast and deadly, if I were any slower, i'd be skewered (in spirit, the training weapons were always dull). However, and this is both good and bad depending on your perspective of it, but this wasn't the first time someone's come at me with a knife (it was my third time to be exact); I knew how to handle myself. Allyson swept at my head, and when I ducked, she stabbed at me with her left knife. I barely managed to move out of the way, but she was already stabbing at my back with her right. I backflipped over her (I love doing that), and swept her legs out. I would've capitalized on that, but on the way down, Allyson made a wild stab at my chest, and I had to back away in order to stay safe. Unfortunately, Allyson didn't waste a second on the ground, and immediately got up. We both stared each other down for a few more seconds, trying to catch our breaths.

"You know you ARE allowed to fight back right?" she goaded me.

"Just worry about yourself girl," I responded. "I don't need any tips from a soon to be loser."

She charged me with a yell (man, I am way too good at getting under people's skin). I rushed her back and fainted a punch, causing her to falter a bit, although she quickly regained her footing and started stabbing at me again. I ducked at weaved around all of her strikes, waiting for a golden opportunity to move in and strike. She swept one of her knives at my chest, and when I ducked, she thrusted both of her knives down at my head. The Golden Opportunity. Quicker than she could have reacted, I grabbed her wrists, rushed to my feet and twisted her hands. She refused to let go of her knives, so I backflipped, kicking her under her chin, and launched her to the floor with a dropkick that I managed to squeeze in between the backflip and my landing. Once hitting the floor, I grabbed one of her knives and threw it at her head once she managed to get to a semi sitting position. She crashed back to the floor.

This time, I actually did, rush over to help her; I may have been angry with her, but I wasn't heartless. Luckily, her head wasn't bleeding or anything, and she managed to get to her feet.

"Not bad huh?" I asked while semi rubbing my win in her face.

"Whatever," she frowned at me. "You just got lucky is all, let's move on."

"You sure you don't wanna just quit while you're ahead?" I asked her. "Swords are kinda my thing now, I don't wanna embarrass you anymore than I have to."

Allyson glared at me.

"Just grab a blade and fight," she said. "We'll see who embarrasses who."

I grabbed one of the swords and twirled it around in my hands; Allyson did the same with the ones she had. We stared each other down again, but this time I went on the offensive first.

I feinted a horizontal slash but actually attacked her with a good thrust. She sidestepped it like a pro and slashed her blades at my back; I just barely managed to duck under the blades, avoid a few stabs and slashes, and get back to my feet, playing heavy defense as I blocked, and parried Allyson's dual sword strikes. Now I had already trained myself not to give away signs of what my attacks will be, so I know it wasn't my face that alerted her. But at the same time, that was a really fast stab, even without super speed. Eventually, after a lot of contemplating, I just accepted the fact, that after eleven years of Kung-Fu training, Allyson was just that good, and just that fast to be able to keep up with my, two day crammed sword training. To say that Allyson was good wouldn't do her justice, because in actuality, she was pretty damn formidable. She kept me on defense as I blocked and dodged her dual sword strikes. Occasionally, i'd manage to get inside her guard and make a desperate stab or sash attempt, but she would simply dodge or block my blade. I slashed at her multiple times, trying to find an open attack spot, but she was having none of it. After three minutes of back and forth swordplay, I downward slashed her, and when she caught my blade between her's in an X, I kicked her in the gut and resumed offense. I slashed at her back and forth, using feints, speed stabs, and generally anything I had in my swordplay knowledge. Still no luck. One time when I tried for another stab, Allyson slashed it away with her left blade, and somehow managed to reverse the grip of her sword and slash at my neck. I just managed to duck it, as well as avoid a downward stab. When I tried to get her with an upward vertical slash, she backed up while simultaneously spinning. With two blades that was really effective. The first blade, which was still pointed outward nearly got my head. On the come around, her second blade almost did me in as well, but I managed to block it just in time. Again, she tried to take me out by trying to lock my neck in an X sword lock, but I quickly ducked and swept my sword at her gut. She somehow managed to front flip over it, as well as myself, and I almost got slashed from above with her swords. When she landed on the other side of me, I put pressure on her, slashing stabbing, kicks, etc. Then in a stroke of brilliance I got an idea; a way for me to use the environment to my advantage. I kept pressure on her with no real intentions to finish her just yet. Suddenly, in a move that nearly took her head off, I swept my blade across her neck. When she ducked, like I predicted she would, I side flipped over her, (trying for a stab from above just in case) and when I landed, I played defense again. This time I LET Allyson push me back, although I did have to watch myself, she was still wicked good. I kept inching back, waiting for that signal to do the thing. Finally, I saw it, that gleam in her eyes that suggested she knew something I didn't, the feel of something looming behind me. I would only have one shot at this, if I messed it up, it was Game Over, but I risked it. As soon as I felt I was in range, and as soon as Allyson thrusted her swords at my chest, I lept into the air, balanced my feet against the wall behind me, and flipped over Allyson, slashing my blade against her back.

She looked so put off about her loss, which she really shouldn't have, she put up a great fight. Anyway, I decided to be sporting about it and I gave her a shot at redemption.

"First one to three?" I sportingly asked her.

She was wary at first, but she slowly smirked in defiance.

"You're on." she said.

On the second fight, Allyson and I went back and forth for five minutes before I managed to beat her again. I noticed that her strength was also her weakness during our fights. She had range at versatility on her side with dual wielding, but at the same time, she assumed because she had two swords, that meant that she had to worry less about guarding close. At the same time, she assumed that I was afraid to get in close; I wasn't. After five minutes of fighting, I managed to break Allyson's guard by rushing in and kneeing her in the gut. She backed up and desperately swept at me from the left, but her swing was too wide; nearly child's play to counter. I kicked her in the face Shawn Michaels style, sliced her arm and brought my blade in for a point winning slash to her neck.

"Damn!" she swore after losing the fight.

"Language little lady," I playfully scolded her.

"Never call me that!" she snapped at me.

"Ok, ok, just chill. Look for what it's worth the problem isn't your skill, you're simply leaving yourself open on the inside. Try and keep your guard closer to the inside, it'll make you a lot less vulnerable, and leave me with limited options for finishing."

I didn't think Allyson would listen to me, but you'd be surprised how well people listen after they've been humbled. She grabbed her blades again and set up for Round 3; I did the same.

This time, Allyson actually beat me. And yes, my advice helped her a lot. With her new change in tactics, she cut off a lot of opportunities I had for fatal blows. For example, when I tried for a stab to the gut, her sword, which was closer to her stomach, easily parried my blade and she kicked me hard in the chest, sending me staggering backwards. Because she kept her defense a lot tighter, she could really guard her upper and middle body really well. In fact, the only real options for offense that I actually had were at the legs, and even that wasn't very reliable. We went at it for three minutes before she tried taking my head off with a wide slash. At first I was like 'have you learned nothing woman?' But as it turns out, she had it all under control. The slash was wide, but by the time she had thrown it, her arm had quickly folded into itself. Yeah, another thing. Without my super speed (I had pretty much willed my Speed Sense to shut off for a while) Allyson was pretty fast, even with my reflexes. She quickly reversed the momentum of her swing, and nailed me in the nose with her elbow (this time she drew blood). While I was staggering backwards, I felt the impact of a dull blade against my neck; which meant Allyson had just decapitated me for the first time.

"You ok," she asked me after the fight was over, trying hard not to laugh at me.

"Yeah i'm fine," I said. "Just wish I brought some tissues or something, my nose is really gushing here."

This time she didn't hold back her laughter, but she did help me out. She held up her hand, whistled into it and it started to glow. She grabbed my nose, squeezed it and held it for a few seconds. Once she let go, my nose felt better (I just wiped the excess blood into my shirt).

"Better?" she asked me, still laughing at me.

"Lots," I responded. "Now come on, the game's still 2-1 in my favor."

Again, Allyson beat me, but this time she got a lot more creative. We went back and forth for 2 minutes. I pressed her hard with a flurry of slashes and stabs, determined to break her guard. In a way, I think she predicted that I would be hell bent on the destruction of her new and improved guard, and exploited that factor. For the whole fight, I was the dominate offensive. Occasionally she would swipe back at me, or try to take me down with some fancy dual swordsmanship, but for the most part, she kept that guard nice and tight. When she did go for a fatal move, it worked. Basically, she waited until I tried for a downwards slash (which I did see myself doing), and then rushed into it. She did her X sword grip on my arm and sliced it. Naturally, we decided to end the fight there. I was defenseless, plus I was probably bleeding out. So yeah, the score was 2-2 now.

So far, Allyson and I had been sparring for at least 30 minutes (just getting warmed up my butt). That meant that we had wasted a little over half of an hour that could have been spent spear training on useless sparring (well maybe not useless, I was getting a nice tutorial on how to handle dual wielders). For the sake of my training, I vowed to end this last fight as quickly as possible; preferably with me winning.

I twirled my blade through my hand, preparing for Allyson to attack, thinking of better ways to get through that defense of hers. After five seconds of intense staring, Allyson made the first offensive move, and slashed at me with a volley of slashes in every direction. This time, it seemed like she was intent on not giving me any room to breathe, think, or maneuver. In other words, she was trying to put pressure on me until I popped; for the most part, she was succeeding. I had to keep on the defensive, moving back, dodging and blocking her swords, and watching her feet as well. I say this because she was starting to incorporate kicks into her fighting style (they found their way to my face once or twice). She kept pressure on me with her swords for a few minutes. When she tried to kick we in the gut, I flipped over her, trying to slice her back again, but this time she was wise to that trick. She slid on her knees, and just managed to dodge the blade. When I landed she charged me again, resuming her relentless assault. We exchanged a lot of sword strikes, and then Allyson feinted a slash from the right, but followed through with a stab from the other. I gotta admit, she almost took me out with that one, but that wasn't even the worst of it. She spun around, extending her arms, and nearly took me out with a windmill slash followed by another slash and stab flurry. However, I had figured out her secret. It was so blatantly simple, I kicked myself for not thinking of it sooner. I waited until the right moment, blocking, dodging, and countering her strikes until she swung at me with a right slash that was just right for me to parry it, lock it in the hilt of my sword, and wrench it away from Allyson. She looked totally dumbfounded, I don't think she was ready to fight me without the use of her two swords. Nevertheless, she tried. She slashed at me once, but I simply sidestepped, and when she tried for a downward slash, I blocked the blade with mine, and quickly kicked her in the gut (man I did that a lot today). While she went staggering, I threw my blade, the way Nightcrawler showed me, at her chest. The blade made it's mark, and I had won the game.

It was clear on her face that Allyson wasn't happy that I won, but she congratulated me and even went so far as to give me a handshake.

"So," she said after catching her breath. "You ready to start with the spears?"

"Not really sure we have time," I said checking the time on my watch. "We'd only have about an hour to train."

"Yeah. So?"

"We'd have to be able to…...ohhhhh."

"Yeaaaaaah."

We grabbed the spears from off of the table, shifted into Speed Mode, and got to work.

First, Allyson was intent on me learning how to twirl my spear like a freaking flag guy in a parade. She taught me the (in her own words) "Skip n' Catch" routine. Basically, while I was twirling my spear, I would spin it, skip a catch on the first spin, and then actually catch it with the intended hand on the second come around. At first, it was difficult, but once I got into my rhythm, it was simple. She drilled me on this for 10 minutes in real time until I was able to spin my spear with the speed of a powered fan. After that, we did MORE SPINNING! Now that I had mastered the art of twirling the spear like a marching band baton, Allyson drilled me on learning how to spin and rotate the spear to either side of my body. At first, I thought it was gonna be just another tedious waste of time, but after a few hits to the head from my own spear, I quickly learned how to get the hang of the lesson. It was basically taking what I learned from the twirling, and slowly moving it left and right. I started it slow after those unfortunate knocks to the head (which Allyson laughed at), and once I managed to master it at half speed, I gradually moved it up until I could do it on full blast; and it only took 10 extra minutes. Guess what I had to do after that? Yup, that's right, more spinning.

This time though, it wasn't a waste of time to me. Allyson taught me how to do that thing where you spin the spear behind your back and keep it rotating around your body. I didn't even hit myself in the head. All I had to do was keep my center of focus, take it slow at first, and gradually raise my speed. The lesson was actually only about 7 minutes.

"Ok," I said after the spinning stuff was done. "I think i'm all set to try out for the marching band. Now how about we get to the rough stuff, like stabbing, slashing, and spear throwing please?"

"Cute," Allyson mocked. "The little baby wants to try out his wittle claws."

I let that one slide, although I did promise myself to whack her in the head with my spear later. Anyway, we did move on to the stabbing. For this drill, Allyson used her powers, and created floating targets for me to stab at. Whenever I stabbed one down, another one popped up in a random spot. Allyson said that this was to improve my speed and reflexes. After five minutes real time, I got frustrated. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't to bad at the drill, but after five minutes of stabbing at glowing targets, and still not getting any faster or better at it, I kinda threw a small tantrum and threw my spear to the ground.

"What's the deal Jason?!" Allyson yelled at me. "You pick that spear up and you get your electric ass back to training!"

"No!" I snapped at her. "This is stupid, i'm not getting any better at this, it's just making me frustrated, besides, IT'S POINTLESS!"

"IS THAT WHAT YOU ALWAYS SAY WHEN YOU SUCK AT SOMETHING?!" she bellowed back at me.

"NO, IT'S JUST….I mean I...UGHHHHH!"

"Well said! Reaaaaal articulate!"

"Well if it's so damn easy, let me see you do it!"

She picked up her spear and set up her stance.

"Do it then," she said.

I focused on creating a bullseye target right in front of Allyson. As soon as it materialized, Allyson stuck her spear through it. I made another one, this time in the upper right corner. She didn't even hesitate before stabbing it ruthlessly.

Ok, I admit it, i've words were food, there wouldn't been enough space in my body to eat the ones I just spit out. Over the next 30 seconds, I must have created at least 100 different targets, each of them in completely random but reachable places. I even created a chain of targets in the same place in an attempt to throw her off; it didn't work. She was definitely a pro with the spear. Every stab was impeccably placed; she didn't miss, falter, or hesitate before taking out her target. In other words, she made me look and feel like a total amatuer (which I technically was).

"Good enough for you, princess?" she taunted me after I immediately cut off the target chain. "Or do you wanna complain some more about my 'pointless' methods'?"

"Okay fine," I breathed off. "I admit it, your methods do bear some nice looking fruit; i'm sorry. It's just...it's not working for me. I know i'm just starting out but i'm not getting any better, I can't feel myself improving, and I know i'm not. So what is it? What am I doing wrong; how am I not getting this?"

Allyson chuckled, although this time, there was no sting or insult behind her laugh. This laugh (I know it because i've heard it too many times to count) was because I had finally asked the right question.

"You know Jason," she started. "For someone who's so smart, you sure are stupid.

"You're not helping, this isn't helping me," I responded.

"Well then maybe this bit of advice will. Stop forcing it. You're using your eyes to much, you don't need to scan for the target, use your peripheral vision. Also, you're holding yourself back from your stabs, you're afraid of missing. If you wanna get better, you have to be looser, that's what all of the spear twirling was for. Your hand eye coordination is spot on, you're simply holding yourself back; don't think you can, know you can."

"So you're saying….it's a mental thing?"

"In a nutshell, yes."

I took a deep breath.

"Alright then," I said. "I'll give it another go."

Ok i'll admit it, Allyson is a damn good teacher. She was right about me not needing to scan for the target; using my peripheral vision was so much more effective. Once I got past that barrier, hitting the targets became a bit easier. Plus she was right about it being a mental thing. My brain was holding me back, in the sense that it needed confirmation that I would hit the target. Fear+hesitation equaled slower reactions. It took a little while, but after I told my brain to shut up, and started reacting rather than thinking, I was just as good at impaling targets as Allyson. Allyson had me doing this for five minutes before combining it with another practice. It was the same concept, just slashing instead of stabbing. At first, the practice was simple enough, but I quickly learned that I was swinging way too hard; my momentum made it difficult for me to recover and reverse my strikes. After a few minutes of fumbling around like a caveman, I managed to slow myself down enough to find a balance between power and speed. The result was spear slashing harmony. Basically, when a target popped up, I swung at it with about 60% of my power. When another popped up, I twirled the spear until I slashed the point right through it. Eventually, I discovered there was no right or wrong way to the method. Sometimes it was as cut and dry as slashing. Other times I used my momentum to get from A to B. If anything else, my spear twirling was the most effective of the bunch; it was the perfect balance of speed and power, plus I could stop the twirling whenever I wanted to with a firm grip.

After target practice, Allyson and I checked our watches. RIght now the clock was at 2:30 PM. 30 more minutes before Grant and I switched places (from what I could see, he was getting pretty good)

"Still think we got time for more lessons?" I asked her.

"Oh yeah," she said nonchalantly. "We got loads of time, plus these next two lessons will be super easy."

"Why does that not make me feel any better?"

"Hush. Now let's go, I don't have time to waste."

"Yes ma'am, Sergeant Grace."

Allyson hefted her spear again and gave me one simple instruction: survive. Then she attacked me with no mercy whatsoever. She took her spear and slashed at me horizontally. I blocked it with the blade of my spear, but before I could feel any better about myself, Allyson shifted the weight of the spear and slashed at me with the other blade, nearly taking my head off. She grabbed her spear by the bottom half, and swung at me again like I was a baseball. I ducked, jumped when she went for a leg sweep, and somehow managed to deflect her spear when she tried to stab me in mid air. She pushed me like this for 5 minutes, slashing and stabbing at me. I gotta say, I was pretty proud of myself. No matter how many fancy moves or powerful swings she threw at me, none of them made a dent on me. Unfortunately, that was when I got carried away. I started to twirl my spear around my body, getting the momentum up and keeping it steady with my right hand. When Allyson slashed at me again, I grabbed my spear at the back, deflected hers away, and in the heat of the moment, I forgot that the objective was to DEFEND. After I deflected her spear, I roundhoused kicked her in the face, kicked her with my left foot with the leftover momentum, and thrusted my spear into her gut (again, dull spear. I did not draw blood).

Believe me, i've never tried to apologize so fast in my life."

"Oh my God!" I nearly shouted. "I'm sorry, i'm sorry, i'm sorry, I got caught up in the moment, I didn't think, I-"

Allyson held up her hand in a gesture for me to shut up. She twirled her spear, set up an offensive stance, and smiled at me wickedly. I knew that smile too. She was so angry with me, her body couldn't process it. Instead, she was smiling; probably at the thought of wailing on me with that spear.

"I'm game." she simply said. "Let's play!"

She charged me with a huge 'YAAAAAH!" and started whacking at me.

News Flash: Allyson was holding back this whole time. When she actually put her mind to it, she was pretty much the bane of my existence in the arena. She stabbed at me fast and hard, I barely had time to defend or dodge. It's a good thing I mastered the art of not letting my brain shut me down, or else i'd have gotten some nasty whacks that I would've felt in the morning. She stabbed and slashed at me relentlessly, using her double edges to squeeze in a lot more combos. After a minute of blocking and dodging for my life, I managed to block one of her downward slashes, move her spear out of the way and kick her in the gut. I brought my spear down for a finishing slice, but she rolled out of the way and tried to sweep my legs with her spear. I jumped over it, and preemptively stabbed at her to keep her from doing the same to me. She managed to get to her feet, but by then I was already on the attack. I stabbed at her head once, and when that failed, I tried to hit her with the but of my spear in a surprise move. She simply ducked it, backflipped kicked me in the chin, and while I was staggering backwards, resumed her assault.

The fight was pretty one sided, due to the fact that Allyson was like some spear wielding goddess. She was so fast and deadly, each move she did either made me lose my balance or break my defense. We went back and forth for five minutes, stabbing, slashing, kicking, you name it. But after those five minutes were up, I got put out of my misery. I was getting tired, even in Speed Mode, eventually I would slow down, and Allyson would finish me off either way; so I made one last ditch effort, a final hail mary shot.

I managed to block a slash n' stab combo by Allyson, and force her backwards. Then I went all out. I started stabbing at her furiously, putting everything I had into being fast enough to make her stumble. It was working a little bit, but Allyson was cool under fire, she she always managed to deflect my spear point, and would've got the upper hand again many times if I didn't use the momentum and bring it around for a desperate baseball swing. After she blocked that, I stepped in, bringing the bulk of my spear towards me, and somehow I managed to use the butt of my spear to sweep Allyson's feet out from under her while up close. I wished I had a double edged spear like hers, I might've actually managed to finish her right there. As such, I had to rotate my spear so that the blade was facing the ground, but by then Allyson had more than enough time to roll out of the way before the blade came down. She quickly rolled to her feet, and when I rushed at her for a desperate stab, she placed her spear in the floor, used it as a weight source, and kicked me in hard in the chest, sending me tumbling into the ground; I didn't even have time to roll over before she planted her knees into my chest, and had a spear point pressed against my neck.

"Ugggghhhh," I groaned as she got off of me and helped me up.

"Well said," she taunted me, "You always this articulate?"

"Real funny," I said.

"Hey you started it, remember? I told you to SURVIVE, you were the one who decided to attack, you brought this on yourself."

"Oh yeah. Sorry about that by the way, I got caught up in the adrenaline. But thank you for the lessons and stuff. As long as I don't have to face you in the field, I should be good. Thanks."

I saw her smug and semi pissed off demeanor drop for a second, like the last thing she ever expected from me was a thank you. She looked like she was gonna say something, but Nightcrawler called me from across the room, it was time for Grant and I to switch stations.

"You better get going," she said.

"Yeah," I said, a little deflated. "Sure thing."

I ran over to the table and put my spear back, then grabbed my sword and jogged over to Nightcrawler.

"Watch out bro!" Grant called to me from across the room where he and Allyson were. "He's a handful."

"Thanks!" I called back, chuckling lightly. "Same to you buddy, she's a wild one!"

I turned back to Nightcrawler, who had just reappeared in a puff of smoke (how did I not notice him leave?). He was holding a silver shield with straps on the inside, the thing looked kinda heavy, but he was holding it as if it was light enough to be used as a frisbie.

"Time to play?" I asked him.

"Depends," he responded. "Are you ready?"

"You know it. I've been waiting all day for this."

He tossed me the shield, which WAS light enough to be used as a frisbee (seriously I could toss it the way Captain America does). Then he teleported to the other side of the room, grabbed a sword and shield from the weapons rack on the other side of the room, and teleported back to me. After getting ourselves properly suited up, Nightcrawler and I went to work.

First, we went over defense stuff. Nightcrawler slashed away at me, with my only instructions being to block every one of his attacks with only my shield. To be honest, it really wasn't that difficult. Nightcrawler hit me with a lot of fancy slashes, stabs, and strikes, occasionally throwing in a few feints or teleport slashes to keep me on my toes, but thanks to a half day of sharpening my reflexes and coordination, he didn't get through my silver circle of defense. Nightcrawler drilled me on this non-stop for 10 minutes straight, before having me do the same thing in reverse. For another 10 minutes, my job was to block and deflect all of his attacks, but this time, with my sword. On this exercise, I did pretty good, although there was definitely room for improvement. To be exact, my footwork; it was a bit clumsy and awkward. Out of the the five times Nightcrawler managed to tag me in the fight, three were in the leg, while the other two were from my sword arm.

"So what's the purpose of this?" I asked him respectfully. "I mean, why do I need to separate my sword and shield blocking techniques? I'm gonna have to use them both in battle, so what's the point?"

"Because," Nightcrawler started. "It's important for a swordsman, especially one who uses shields, to not become overly reliant on either his blade or shield. If you rely on the shield too much, you limit your maneuverability, and your opponent will find weak spots to exploit. Guard with your sword too much, and your opponent can do a number of things; Tire your arm out, use the weight of your shield against you, disarm you, anything. By using a balanced dynamic, your fighting will be a lot more versatile, you'll have more options for defense as well as offense."

"Oh,...well that's awesome. Please, let's keep going."

"As you wish mein friend."

For the next practice challenge, Nightcrawler got me introduced to switching up between sword and shield. What we did was a reaction game, Nightcrawler would strike at me with various types of strikes and such, but with every strike, he would either say 'sword' or 'shield'. Whatever word he said, that was the thing I had to block his strike with. To be fair, Nightcrawler didn't use any teleport moves; however, he did turn up the skill meter, and i'm not even embarrassed to say that he did manage to get through my defenses a good few times despite my best efforts. However, for the most part I did ok, i'd rate my performance at a 7.5 out of 10. Most of my success was due to the shield. While most would expect it to be heavy and in the way, this shield was lighter than air (seriously, it required zero body strength to lift). Also, I was just getting that good, sure it was only my second day of training, but like I said, I learn fast.

After the last practice challenge, Nightcrawler started teaching me the essentials of sword and shield combat. One of the basic rules was to keep my guard up, the shield was there for a reason. Another rule, strike fast and hard, but don't leave your defenses open too long. For me, that rule was a bit more flexible due to the fact that I could slash down 100 opponents in the blink of an eye, however for simple purposes it was pretty practical. Final rule that i'll mention, was to stare your opponent down like a hawk. With sword and shield combat, my opponent wouldn't be as susceptible to slashes and stabs to the body. In this type of combat, I had to take every hit that was available to me. Cuts to the legs were the most obvious, but Nightcrawler taught me how to wait for the right moment, and either dodge or parry my opponent's blade,and then slash off his arm. Other techniques he taught me were how to force my opponent's shield outwards, exposing his torso area, and of course, shield bashing and jumping stabs to the neck and face. We practiced these different techniques for an hour non stop; the guy wouldn't let me rest until he was 1000% sure I had them all down. Finally, after it seemed like my body would dissolve into sweat, Nightcrawler let me off the hook.

"Wait a minute," I said kind of confused that the training was over so soon. "That's it? That's all you have to teach me?"

"Correct mein friend," he said. "You are a natural, all you need now is to practice, and find your own way of fighting."

"But how am I supposed to do that if you don't teach me?"

"Style is not something I can teach you Jason, it comes from experience and personal training, I have taught you all you need to know to get started, and do not fret, I will be here for as long as you need my services, but the path you take must be your own, I can not hold your hand all of the time."

I totally got what he was saying. He had taught me all of the basics, and I had proven that I was proficient enough to go toe-to-toe with him, but I could definitely improve. The only thing was that I couldn't rely on him to teach me everything there was about swordplay, that would be up to me.

"Alright then," I said, accepting this realization. "Well, we have about thirty more minutes left of this training period, wanna spar till we run out of time? We can keep score, see who can rack up the most hits."

Nightcrawler smiled and nodded his head (I was starting to get used to it).

"You are on," he said while setting up his stance. "Let's see what you can do mein friend."

Sparring with Nightcrawler was so much fun. I could still sense that he was only using about 80% of his real skill, but that was more than enough to give me a decent challenge. In thirty minutes, we managed to squeeze in six fights. Nightcrawler trashed me in the first two rounds. His shield must have been as light as mine, because he was still jumping and flipping around like a circus performer. In the two times that he managed to beat me, it was because I had played too much defense. When he got into a slashing frenzy, I always hid behind my shield. Nightcrawler would either attack my legs or teleport slash and take me out at the back. After that, I got back in the game. On Round 3 after an intense battle, I managed to parry one of his slashes, knock his sword out of his hand using my shield, and then slashed his arm, figuratively taking it out. Nightcrawler won Round 4 by sweeping my legs and teleporting on top of my shield, pinning me to the floor and pressing the tip of his sword to my forehead. In summary, the score was 3-1 in his favor, and there was only 10 minutes of the training period left. If I hadn't let Nightcrawler get me with that last pinning move, I might've been able to make a play for a win, but with the small time frame I had to work with, the best I could hope for was a tie (hey, it's better than a loss).

In Round 5, I took the hurt to Nightcrawler. I realized that most of his wins came from me being overly defensive; I made a note to ditch that tactic. I rushed in and stabbed at the most exposed part of his chest. He easily sidestepped, but before he could take my arm, I quickly spun around and batted him away with my shield. For three minutes, we went back and forth in a pattern of slashing, stabbing, and blocking. My new aggressiveness kept Nightcrawler from attacking as often as he used to, but he was still no pushover when it came to defense. It took a little bit of maneuvering, but eventually I was able to get to him. I kept up the offense, pushing him back more and more. When I was certain that I could pull the move off, I tapped into a little of my speed reserves, and kicked his shield hard. While he was still flying backwards, I dashed after him, jumped over his shield arm, and hit him in the head with my sword. The score was 3-2 now, but I only had seven minutes to pull another win out of thin air; I had to make every second count.

The final round of our epic sword duel was as exciting and as challenging as any of the other ones. Maybe it was because he knew how little time was left, and wanted to make me earn this last victory, but in the last seven minutes of the training period, Nightcrawler turned up the heat to maximum; I was dealing with his 100% A-Game. To be honest, if I didn't tap into my Speed Mode powers, I would've lost the fight within the first 30 seconds. Nightcrawler decided that it was time to start cheating and use powers. I started slashing and stabbing at him as fast as I could at the start of the fight, while making sure to keep my guard up. Nightcrawler parried and dodged all of my strikes, sometimes counter attacking and putting me on defense. At full skill, even without his powers, he was WAY more than a handful. Within 10 seconds, he had already slashed at me 30 times. I managed to dodge, parry, and block all of his strikes, but i'd be lying if I said he didn't almost impale me in the chest, or take an arm off. Anyway, I managed to push him back a few feet by combining a shield bash with a power kick. When Nightcrawler landed, he swept his sword in midair, which made no sense until, he disappeared in a puff of smoke. Yeah...my Speed Sense lit up like a bonfire, in fact I could already feel the the blade making contact with my back. I managed to backflip over it, and turn my Speed Mode off (I wanted to fight for as long as I could without using my powers), then I resumed my attack. I slashed at Nightcrawler with a horizontal slash. When he batted it away with his shield, I ducked while spinning around, sweeping his legs out. He teleported away again, and this time, I saw him reappear in slow motion a few feet away from my forehead. In Speed Mode, I ducked under the slash, built up some power, and hit him as hard as I could in the face with my shield. He tumbled behind me, but quickly got back to his feet and attacked me again. We fought like animals for six minutes. At full blast, Nightcrawler was more than a match for me, but like always, I was a fast learner. I'm proud to say that I almost managed to peg him without the use of my powers. One time, after putting pressure on him for a full minute, I fainted a stab, followed through with a shield charge, and when he jumped over me, I managed to backflip, kick him in the butt (not intended), and then twist in midair . I was so close to slashing him in the back, but as my blade was coming down, Nightcrawler wrapped his tail around my arm and yanked it. I dropped the sword, and Nightcrawler also managed to twist in midair and go for a stab to my chest. I blocked it with my shield, and we both landed on the floor facing each other. Nightcrawler had already let go off my arm, but then again, he already had a sword and shield in hand; he had so many ways to beat me, while I was limited only to defense. Nightcrawler rushed at me again, with renewed vengeance and tenacity. He hit me with a slash, stab, shield bash combo, and then rinsed and repeated that for another minute. To be honest, I found a whole new level of respect for Captain America in that one minute. I mean seriously, how did he manage to stand up against so many villains with only a shield, and not get destroyed on a daily basis (yes I know the shield is indestructible, and Cap is like some sort of Super Soldier, but still)? Anyway, I blocked and dodged all of Nightcrawler's attacks, although he did get in some really dangerously close stabs and slashes at the head and legs. I tried many times to get to my sword, but Nightcrawler would always block my path and keep the pressure on me. Once we got down to the two minute mark, Nightcrawler started to really dig in deep, and let me tell you, it was not fun for me.

First, he started teleporting all over the place. He didn't hit me or attack or anything, he just kept teleporting around until I was surrounded by a ring or bluish purple smoke. Suddenly, my Speed Sense went off, and I just managed to turn around and block a flying stab from Nightcrawler. As soon as his blade made contact with my shield, he teleported away and attacked me from another angle. He did this for about ten seconds. Teleport slashing again and again until I was engulfed in a cloud of smoke. Nightcrawler tried slashing at me again, but even though I couldn't see him (or breathe properly), I managed to deflect his blade one more time, and run out of the smoke. Nightcrawler didn't give me any room to rest, he teleported directly in front of me and started hammering away at me with his shield. At first, I was confused as to why he didn't have his sword on him, but that question was quickly answered when he whipped his tail at my face, and I had to block the blade from taking me out. Nightcrawler pretty much danced circles around me, using his sword tail to keep me off balance, and occasionally grabbing it with his feet and almost kicking my head off. Finally I came to terms with the undeniable fact. If I wanted to win the fight, i'd have to use my speed; it was the only way. I blocked Nightcrawler's attacks for a few more seconds, and then surprised him with a shield bash that had the force of a high speed biker (I went into Speed Mode and went from zero to twenty in half a sec). While he went tumbling across the room, I made a mad dash for my sword, which was about 50 meters away from my current position. As I ran for it, I already saw a puff of smoke appear directly over it. Nightcrawler was trying to block my path. To bad he wasn't fast enough. I baseball slid (not a smart idea at 100 mph), grabbed the sword, and after I recovered from sliding halfway across the room, I dashed back to Nightcrawler and assaulted him for the last time. I was relentless with my attack, staying in Speed Mode and slashing him in every possible direction. I could've taken him out easily with my speed anytime I wanted to, but for now, I wanted to leave him with a small chance for a fight. I managed to trick him with a slashing feint, and almost took him down with a stab to the exposed part of his right chest, but he teleported away. This time, I would make that his undoing. I let him teleport until his whole body was tangible again, but I waited out of range of his strike. After he landed, I rushed in, and quicker than he could've reacted, I spun around, using my shield to scoop his out of the way, and on the come around, I slashed him in the chest and tied up the game with 3 seconds to spare. I celebrated my victory up until I saw Nightcrawler double over and start wheezing.

"That was an excellent fight Jason!" Nightcrawler exclaimed while trying to catch his breath (I may have forgotten to dial the final strike down a bit).

"Yeah for you," I said. "You were amazing. I mean that tail thing, and that teleport ambush, dude you were off the charts; I only managed to tie the score up because of my speed."

"Then why didn't you use that from the start?"

"Because I wanted to keep it fair. If I used my speed you wouldn't have a chance off pegging me even once. Plus I wanted to see how much of my own skill I could rely on. Sure, I know i'm a newbie, but I need to know that I can fight and win without my powers."

"Let me ask you a question Jason. When you and your friends fought against Venom in the Amazon, did he fight you without his powers?"

"No but-"

"And if you have the misfortune of facing off against future villains, do you think that they will fight you without using their powers?"

"Well, no I guess."

"Then why do you feel the need to hold your own powers back?"

"Well it's not like i'm gonna refuse to use my powers in the real deal for the sake of fairness, it's just that right here and now, I wanted to see how well I stacked up against a true swordsman, it's what i've always wanted to do."

"Well, while I am flattered by your respect of the art, I should inform you Jason that I used my powers quite frequently in that fight. If anything, I was the one who cheated."

"Not really, i'm faster, I can react and defend at a greater speed than anyone on this ship except for Quicksilver maybe. I can do a lot more with my speed than you can with your teleportation, no offense."

"None taken, in fact you have just spoken the magic words. You need not hold back your true potential for the sake of chivalry and sportsmanship, although the action is commendable on your part. The reason why I let you free from my tutelage is because i've taught you everything I can. Now, you must train and take your power and skill to a level that I cannot teach you. And please, if anything else, just remember the reason that you fight Jason; remember what you fight for."

"And what is that reason?"

"What do you think it is?"

I thought for a moment, shifting between the selfish and selfless reasons for why I decided to give being a hero, or at least a hero in training a shot.

"Honestly," I started. "At first I just wanted to get this all over with and go home, just a simple in and out. But after that fight with Venom, I kinda realized how much bigger this mission is than just me. I mean, that one stone gave Venom the power to blow up an entire state, if Doom or any of his other people get their hands on these stones, there's no telling what kind of destruction they can cause. So in a nutshell, I fight so that I can protect the world, so that I can protect my mom, so that I can protect my friends."

"Then may God watch over you and your friends on your quest mein friend," he said with a smile. "And know that I will always be available should you ever need me."

"Thanks Nightcrawler," I said with a lump in my chest. "Really thank you."

"Nightcrawler is my X-Man name Jason. My friends call me Kurt Wagner; last time I checked, you are a friend."

"Then thanks Kurt," I said as I reached out and shook his hand.

"Now go on, dinner has already started, your friends are waiting for you."

He disappeared in a puff of smoke, and I ran over to Grant and Allyson.

"What was that all about man?" Grant asked me. "You in trouble again or something?"

"Nah," I said. "Just a little mentor to student chat is all, no big deal. But enough of that, i'm starving, let's go eat more food."

I put my weapons away, and the three of us went down to dinner. I didn't feel like any burgers or fries again, but luckily they had this AMAZING japanese food buffet for dinner,and let me tell you something, there was nothing on this earth that could've kept me away from getting at least five trays of food. Conversation was a lot more lively at dinner than the previous meal. Allyson entertained us with tales of how exceptional she was at spear fighting compared to me and Grant. As it turned out, he wasn't that much better than me. He had a good basic foundation like I did, and he favored a more power swing fighting style compared to my scrappy speed driven fighting style, but overall Allyson deemed us battle ready, so long as we used lots of powers (and weren't fighting her).

"So how'd the sword lessons go?" I asked him. "Any improvement."

"Yeah," he said. "You were right, Nightcrawler's no softball coach, he kept me on my toes non-stop, but I did pretty good. I learned that i'm way better on defense than offense. Due to my bulkiness, it's better for me to defend, wait until my opponent slips up, and rush in with my strength to finish them. Also, as long as it's not Adamantium or Vibranium, or that Uru stuff, I can swing with enough force to break pretty much any metal weapon, so what I lack in offensive swordplay, I make up with power finishers. I'm gonna train some more and get my skill level up with the sword, but i'm still gonna stick with my trusty axe; who's to say the two can't co-exist?"

"Well good luck with that man, maybe we can use that sword and axe thing in the field."

Grant gave me a fist bump and went back to eating.

"So what about you Jason?" Allyson asked me. "How'd your sword and shield lessons go?"

I was honestly surprised. I could tell that Allyson and I were still on the rocks; and that sparring match where I almost choked her out did not improve matters in the slightest. Yet here she was, talking to me like it was normal. I decided to play it safe and answer politely. Who knows, maybe there was hope (though not exactly what for) after all.

"It went well," I started. "Nightcr-, I mean Kurt, drilled me on defense really hard. Basically, he taught me how to mix up defending with my sword and shield, and how not to get too reliant on one or the other. After that, we went over basic offense, and sparred for a good half an hour."

"How'd that go? DId you win?"

"I held my own. We played a point collecting game, and we tied it up three to three."

"Nothing wrong with a good ol' tie," Grant said. "At least you managed to put the heat on him, if I was any worse, it'd be like I wasn't fighting at all."

"Don't be so hard on yourself G," I told him. "You're still learning, give it time, eventually it'll all come together, you'll see."

"Thanks Jason. By the way, what was that whole mentor to student chat about?"

"Oh, basically, he told me that I had already learned everything I could from him, and that with my speed and electric powers, I could take sword fighting to a whole new level, and that it'd be up to me to go deeper into that. Also, we talked about the reason that I...you know participate in this whole teenage hero thing."

"And why is that?" Allyson asked me, suddenly really interested.

"Well for starters, I just wanted to go home, to be left alone. But after the whole Venom thing, I realized that this thing is so much bigger than just me. I fight on this team so that powerful weapons like that will stay out of the hands of people like Doom. In a nutshell, I fight to save the world, but more importantly, I fight to protect my friends. I know we don't know each other that well, but I feel like i've known you guys forever, and you may not need my protection, but if it ever comes down to it, I know i'd give my life to guys safe."

"Back at you bro." Grant sincerely said as he dapped me up.

Allyson didn't physically acknowledge my words, but the look in her eyes said it all, deep down, while she may not have come to peace with my more undesirable qualities, but she definitely saw some good in me.

After dinner was over (we stayed in the cafeteria the whole time), I gave Grant and Allyson the new game plan. I had already received confirmation from S.E.R.A. that our biometric analyses were complete at 7 A.M. After messing with my communicator, and figuring out how to enable the voice command, I managed to download S.E.R.A. into my watch, and instruct her to download our individual information into our watches.

"So here's how the last stretch of training will work for the day," I started. "In a nutshell, study your powers, see what you can improve, and spend as much time as you can doing so. S.E.R.A. knows how to make us better as individuals, and if we get better as individuals, then the team gets better as a whole, so no goofing off, but at the same time, know your limits; don't hurt yourselves."

"So we're training separately?" Grant asked me.

"Yeah, and before you argue about room space, i've already found two other rooms you and I can use for training; Allyson, you'll keep 135X."

She didn't seem upset about that.

"Ok, tomorrow, we work on team dynamics," I continued. "We'll see how well our powers work with each other, develop strategies, battle formations, ability combination, and basically whatever else we need to get better as a unit. Everyone clear on what they have to do?"

Grant and Allyson nodded.

"Ok then," I said getting up. "Let's hop to it."

We all exited the cafeteria, and made our way to our individual training rooms.

(Allyson's Perspective)

I went straight to room 135X, created a Sun Sofa in mid-air for no reason at all, and started pressing buttons on my watch once I got comfortable. I dunno if Grant or Jason have done this yet, but as soon as I got my watch, I pulled up the holographic instruction manual as soon as I figured out how to do it. This watch was simply amazing, I mean I had an iPhone 5s, but this watch could do anything that could and then some. I could access files from anywhere, surf the web, call anyone, even use a holographic version of Skype if I wanted to. Instead of doing that, I looked through my mailbox, and uploaded the file that Jason had sent to my watch. A loading screen flashed on the screen for a few seconds. After the download was completed, my watch flashed a bright blue and a huge projection beam popped into the air. After a few seconds, S.E.R.A.'s face popped up like a huge creepy digital tiki.

"Good afternoon Mistress Grace," she said. "How may I be of service?"

"Well first off," I said kinda grossed out that she called me 'Mistress'. "Don't call me mistress, i'm not a pornstar, Allyson is just fine, no miss or anything like that."

"As you wish Allyson."

"Ok cool. Now that we got that squashed, how about going over my biometric thingy or whatever?"

"Yes, your biometric analysis. I have divided my data into three categories: 1:Powers & Current Status, 2:Power Development Capabilities, 3:Suggested Practices for Power Development. What category do you wish for me to review first Allyson?"

"Well, I already know a lot about my powers, but maybe I missed something. I can't have that, so let's go over category 1, after that just keep going in order."

"As you wish. "Your power derives from your mutant ability to absorb and harness and unlimited pool of solar energy in your cellular makeup. This energy has caused greater friction and reaction between your cells, allowing you to use 40% of your overall brain capacity."

"Is that why I have such a good memory and like super good coordination?"

"That is correct Allyson. Moving on, your ability to discharge and reshape solar energy is actually due to your increased brain wave activity. You have limited telepathy and telekinesis, which allows you to further extend and develop your powers."

"Hold on for a second S.E.R.A. I can understand the whole limited TK thing, that sorta makes sense, but what's with the telepathy? The only time i've ever been in someone's head was when I was wearing the suit."

"That ability presents itself in your ability to sing. It is a unique and unheard of form of telepathy, but when you sing, the solar rays in your body are transmuted into mental, but sometimes tangible energy that affects your body as well as others. For reference, when was the first time that you discovered your healing capabilities through song?"

I thought for a little while; it was such a long time since then.

"Last January," I finally said. "It was about a month after I had gotten my powers; I was just starting to get used to them, didn't even try flying yet. Anyway, my cat, Dina, was playing in my yard, but suddenly after a popping sound, she screamed loudly and her front right leg was bleeding. We didn't find out exactly who did it, but she was shot with some sort of bb gun pellet. I took her inside my house and sung to her to calm her down. Midway through the song, while my eyes were closed, I felt my body heat up, and Dina, who was meowing softly, had suddenly became silent. I opened my eyes, fearing she was really hurt, but when I looked at her leg, the hole was gone. Also, her fur was hot, like someone had taken a hair dryer to it. My parents couldn't believe what I did, but they were glad nonetheless; going to the vet would've cost a lot of money. After that, I healed my dad one day after he got home from work with a nasty gash on his arm. That was when I figured out that I glowed and caused other people to glow when I heal them. From then on out, I was like a medic for hire, not that I charged or anything. I just went where I was needed around town, healing injured people, occasionally saving lives, and stuff like that. Everyone who knew about me, liked my family, so we managed to keep my powers a secret for a long time until S.H.I.E.L.D showed up."

"Very insightful Allyson," S.E.R.A. responded. "To further elaborate, your healing ability is a manifestation of your solar energy being transferred to a host's body by sending mental waves through your lungs. The energy causes the host's body to regenerate cells at a much faster rate than normal, allowing for near instantaneous healing. Furthermore, your ability has the capability to alter brain wave activity, specifically in the areas that deal with emotion."

"Oh yeah," I responded. "I dunno why, but my songs can cheer up people who are mind-bendingly sad, or calm people down even if they're hellbent on fighting or destroying stuff. Why is that?"

"Through song, your telepathy affects brain emotion by causing it's natural electric pulse to broaden on a precise area. This effect can be done on a numerous scale and can evoke more than just happy or soothing emotions, though I doubt you'd ever resort to anything other."

"Nope,"

"Furthermore, your voice is effective in a unique form of mental shielding."

"Believe me, I know that firsthand."

"Finally, it would seem as though your ability has a suppressed power reserve that has not been accessed until early yesterday."

"Oh yeah?" I asked now suddenly interested. "Go on."

"It would seem as though your powers come with a hidden reserve of energy that has been highly concentrated, and increases the potency of your abilities by 1000%, making you nigh invincible, as well increasing the power of your energy blasts."

"Don't forget about lightspeed, I can do that now."

"Of course Allyson. Though it is not clear how or why this portion of your powers chose to present itself until recently, my theory is that your powers have actually been in effect since your birth, without them, you would've died due to being born 2 months prematurely."

I was gonna ask how she knew that, but then I remembered that she was tapped into every digital record in the world, she could probably pull up my transcripts. Even so, that wasn't something I liked to tell people, it was like a slap to the face hearing it from S.E.R.A.

"However," she continued. "Your ability to absorb solar energy kept you alive and healthy. The power level readings suggest that even with constant absorption, you would not have vast energy reserves if your powers were only active for a year."

"Makes sense," I said. "But why would my powers take so long to show themselves?"

"You were not strong enough to use them," S.E.R.A. said. "Your powers, though beneficial, expose you to gravity fields that would've crushed you in on yourself if you used you used them prematurely, especially if you used them to fly. You are largely immune to gravitational forces and extreme heat as of now; even without your powers active, you can survive with minimal discomfort in the core of the sun. It seems that you had to come of age before being able to have access to these abilities."

"Well that was an eye opener. Anything else?"

"Negative. If you wish, we can proceed to examining the developmental opportunities that come with your powers."

"Sure that sounds fun."

S.E.R.A.'s face morphed into a super large screen that had my body outline on it. On the side, a bunch of data that I didn't bother to read flashed upwards like end credits.

"For the most part Allyson," S.E.R.A said as her face reappeared in the top right corner of the screen. "Your abilities do not exactly need improvement, just honing in other ways than normal."

"What do you mean by that?" I asked her.

"Take your flight for example. You achieve that by using your absorbed energy to surround you in a body aura that allows you to move fast enough to defy gravity."

"Yeah, so?"

"So, the same principle can be used to run a super speeds on the ground Allyson. This will make you much less of a target, and will offer more maneuverability in certain ground level situations."

"Well, i'm not much for running, that's Jason's thing, but I guess I could give it a whirl."

"Also, your ability to control emotions through song can be further developed to the point to where you no longer need to sing, but can speak to alter the emotions of your targets."

"You mean, I can tell them to sleep or punch themselves in the face, and they'd have to do it?"

"Precisely Allyson."

"Cool, I can have some fun with that. Anything else?"

"Only the small pocket of energy that you now have access to. When you breached the shell, your energy reserve doubled in size. With proper conditioning, I can help you expand it 5x it's size, as well as instruct you in how to access and channel the energy without harming yourself, or others."

"Now that sounds like a plan. What do I have to do first?"

The room morphed, and when the transformation was complete, the room was filled with weird looking weights that looked bigger than even Grant could lift, a weird looking treadmill, some type device that looked like it was meant for crushing cars, and a huge hologram of a human brain.

"We have a lot of work to do Allyson," S.E.R.A. said. "Let's get started."

First, a really big metal sphere, about the size of a monster truck tire, descended from the ceiling, and hovered 10 feet in the air.

"Uhhh S.E.R.A?," I asked her. "What is that for?"

"It's an energy absorber and magnifier." she responded. "One of the major drawbacks of your powers is that without the constant absorption of natural solar energy, your powers are slightly weakened. This orb will absorb your solar energy blasts, and magnify them, creating a constant power source for you to draw from while you train."

"So, i'm basically creating an artificial sun with natural flavors?"

"Not the way I would classify it, but yes, that is essentially what you would be doing."

I focused on creating a mini sun around the floating ball, and held it for a minute until S.E.R.A. told me that I could stop. The metal ball, which was now glowing with a brilliant golden light, absorbed all of that energy like a sponge; and yes, it was almost like the real thing. Except for the size, and the fact that I could sense the difference between self-made and real sun rays, I almost couldn't tell the difference. Anyway, after I created my artificial sun, I went to work.

The first part of training wasn't very hard. S.E.R.A. had me get on the treadmill and work on my running speed. At first, it was kinda tricky, I wasn't used to using my Sun Form on the ground. After a few minutes though, after I commanded my body to get used to staying on the ground, I was able to run faster than a bullet could escape from a gun. Now i'll admit it, I wasn't AS fast as Jason or Grant. At my fastest I could only reach Mach 4, but that was only because I wasn't used to running, even without my powers I didn't do that too much. However, seeing as I was fast enough to run on water, scale up walls, and outrun jets, I didn't complain much. Heck, on my first time running I could go at four times the speed of sound. Just wait until I got used to running.

I ran on the treadmill for 10 minutes before S.E.R.A. switched up the drills on me. She changed the room again, and I found myself surrounded by walls lined with turrets.

"New objective," she said. "Avoid incoming projectiles."

Before I could yell at her for being 100% insane, all of the turrets went off, completely spraying the room with bullets.

Immediately, time slowed down. Not because of that so called "Speed Sense" that Jason has, but because I immediately shifted into Comet Speed. The bullets were going so slow, it was like they weren't moving at all, which would be helpful if I wasn't being sprayed with bullets from four different directions. If I did it the hard way, I could've created some melee constructs, cut a path though the bullets until I created a small pocket where I would be safe, but that would've taken a really long time. Relative to you it would only be one second, but to me, it would've been like 2 minutes. Instead, I put a Sun Barrier around myself, and waited for the bullet hail storm to stop. The barrage of bullets stopped after 3 seconds, which gave just enough time to yell like a spoiled celebrity at S.E.R.A. She dismissed my argument, saying that the bullets were non lethal, and that I did really well for my first speed test. Before I could question her about what that meant, the room changed again, becoming empty, and after a flash of light, I was surrounded by hundreds of armed robots.

"New objective," S.E.R.A. said. "Defeat enemies using only super speed melee."

The robots opened fire on me as soon as she finished talking, and I had no choice but to go along with this crazy train. I created two Sun Swords, and went straight to business. As far as I could see, I was surrounded in a rough rectangle of robots. Not exactly the most stellar place to start from, but I had to start somewhere. I took off, taking care to avoid the lasers, and started cutting my way through the ambush. I wish I could say I had a plan of attack, but honestly, I was just running and cutting. At this point, I was already used to running at super speed, but fighting in it, was a little bit tricky. For me, it was like trying to swing at someone from a moving car, not hard, but not easy. Take that with the fact that I was simultaneously trying to avoid being shot with high pressure laser guns, and you can probably put together a picture of me struggling to keep my head above water. After a while, which was like 2 seconds in real time, I managed to get the hang of speed slashing, and finish off the robot pack with ease. Part of my success was me figuring out how to gauge and control my strikes while running. If I swung too hard, I would trip up from my own momentum. That nearly earned me a laser to the face a good few times, so I made it a new goal not to do that anymore. Another thing that helped me out a lot was my artificial sun. I never realized this before, but when natural light was touching anything, even when I wasn't looking at it, I could always sense where it was. That was how I managed to keep my bearings while avoiding the lasers, and making down the robots, my artificial sun was lighting the way for me. And yes, pun intended. After a wave of light, swept away the wreckage of the defeated robots, another flash of light illuminated the room, and this time, a single robot, one that was leaner and more agile looking, was left in place. At first I was kinda insulted, but I realized that, like everything i've been exposed to in the last few days, there was probably more than what met the eye to this robot. Pun not intended this time.

"New objective," S.E.R.A said. "Defeat the speed droid."

The robot charged me at like 100 mph and I simply stood and waited. You'd probably think that I would counter charge it or something, but their was no need. I waited until it was only a few feet away from me, and willed myself to get faster. The robot, who was previously coming at me at the speed of a cannon, was now only traveling at about 5 mph from my perception. The robot swung at me with a right fist, and after I caught it, I flipped it over my back, created a spiked boot construct over my foot, and smashed it's head like an egg. Forget running up walls and crap like that; I was gonna make speed fighting adapt to fit me, not the other way around. Another flash of light swept away the trashed speed droid, and spawned four more in it's place. This could be a bit of a problem.

"New objective," S.E.R.A. said, which was starting to get old. "Defeat the speed droids."

This time, when they charged at me, I did the smart thing and took off in the other direction.

Don't get me wrong, I already knew that I could've simply created a Mega Sun Sword and sliced the speed droids in half, but that would be too easy. Not that I was gonna become a super speed buff like Jason or Grant, but I would at least give this whole running combat thing a try before I immediately dispatched the droids. Anyway, it wasn't like I was any good at it. The first time a droid caught up to me, I swung at it with a hard right. It simply dodged my fist, and stuck it's foot out, tripping me up. I would've skipped over the floor like a stone over water, but I caught myself in mid-air, and put a barrier around myself to keep the droids out. They bounced off of my barrier like flies off of a windshield, and gave me some time to think. A: I realized was no good at running and punching like Grant and Jason. B:Odds are that it would take a training session or two with them or Quicksilver to actually build up some basic skill for this stuff. C: I was never going to be my own person as a hero if I was going to just copy other people. Sure, it never hurts to improve personal skill and develop new tactics for battle, but at the end of the day, I had my own way of doing things, and they worked out just fine. In a nutshell, while I was under that barrier, I remembered that I had to fight the way Sunbird does, not the way Super-G or Thunder Man did.

I put the barrier down and waited for the speed droids to get up and attack me again. They charged me from four different directions, but with the area being illuminated with light, they may as well have been coming at me in a straight line. Before they could even get within ten feet of me, I willed the light in front of them to harden into spiked wall constructs. They were going way too fast to stop, I doubt even Jason's Speed Sense could have saved him from being impaled. After they crashed into the spiked walls, I created four more, and crushed each of them like a car in a junkyard for good measure. This time, when the flash of light swept them away, the room changed back to the point where it had a bunch of weights and that brain hologram in it. Not that I was tired or anything, because I was still absorbing the artificial sunlight like a sponge, but I was glad that my speed trials were over now.

S.E.R.A. directed me towards the jumbo sized brain hologram, and I followed suit. She said that I could telepathically alter people's emotions through my song; and while that had it's ups, S.E.R.A. wanted me to use my songs to instill things like sadness and anger in people. I had no desire to do that to anyone, and I made myself a promise that no matter what, I would never sing if it meant crushing another person's spirit.

"Ok, so what do you want me to do with this one S.E.R.A?" I asked her. "Sing to it."

"Precisely," she responded. "Use whatever vocal skills necessary, and invoke the requested emotion on the virtual brain when I give the command."

"And how am I supposed to know when it's working?"

The brain suddenly flashed with a yellow light.

"That was happiness," S.E.R.A. said.

The brain flashed again with: black, blue, purple, pink, red, and green.

"Sadness, Hope, Lust, Love, Anger, Envy," S.E.R.A. said. "The hologram is attuned to all kinds of telepathic frequencies, even ones as unique as your's, as long as you perform your action properly, the brain should react to your telepathy."

"How," I asked her. "It's virtual, how can it hear me."

"Sensory technology lining the walls, the same way I can hear you."

"Oh right sorry,"

"No apologies necessary, just prepare for telepathy drills."

I did a few do re mi's, and waited for S.E.R.A's signal.

"First objective," she said after a few seconds. "Instigate happiness."

That was way too easy. By the way, for fair warning, most of my song playlists consist of Disney movie songs, and cheesy pop songs from 1999-2013 and a few GLEE covers. What? Eye of the beholder, don't judge me.

Anyway, for the happiness test, I sung the chorus of "Party in the U.S.A." by Miley Cyrus, you know, before she went insane. Almost immediately, the brain flashed bright yellow. By the way, if you wanna know how how my so called 'telepathy worked, it was pretty much like sharing. When I sang my songs, it was like I had something to give the other person, something I wanted to share with them. This'll sound really stupid, but my telepathy was like a mental UPS guy, and when the package was delivered to the brain, it exploded and resonated throughout the host's body. Again, really stupid but it's all I could think of. So yeah, I passed the happy test with flying colors; man I gotta stop with the puns.

"Next objective," S.E.R.A. said after I stopped with the singing. "Instigate sadness,"

I hated doing this, but I definitely had a handful of sadness that I could express in song. I sung the first few verses of 'Don't Forget', by Demi Lovato. And for reference, the inspiration was from a recent break-up. The brain glowed black, like a bottle of ink spilled on top of it. With each emotion, S.E.R.A. had me hold the songs for thirty seconds before she let me cut the track; by the time this one ended, I had tears streaming down my face like a waterfall, and my heart felt like someone had stuck pliers in at at stretched it apart like taffy. Yeah, it was a REALLY bad break-up.

The next objective was to instigate hope. It was asking for a bit much so soon after the last request, but I managed to pull myself together and deliver the goods. I sung, 'Seasons Of Love', which I didn't even know was a song until I heard it on GLEE. To be honest, this song was a lot more than one single memory. In the thirty seconds that I sung, I was sharing the times when my mom and dad comforted me for weeks after I got dumped, when my dad and I pulled together to help comfort mom when grandma died, and especially when my parents kept promising me how things would be alright, even when they found out I was a mutant. Roll all of that into one, and you get a virtual brain that was as blue as the sky.

For lust and love, the lines got a little blurred. Mainly, I had to differentiate the border between liking someone for their body, and liking them for their heart. Back where I was from, a lot of guys were lining up to get a turn with me, but I could tell most of them only wanted to get inside my pants, and the other half couldn't see past there over pumped egos. Don't get me wrong, i've been with a few diamonds in the rough over the years, but they were always way too clingy, and I had to break up with them for their own good; of course they never saw it that way. The point is, i've never really felt true love. I've felt more than my fare share of lust, so there was no problem there. To instigate that, I sung thirty seconds of 'Lovers & Friends' by Usher. It didn't take too long for the brain to light up bright purple; what can I say, i'm that hot. For love...well since i've never really felt it, when I sung, my song was relaying longingness for love. If this brain was an actual person, I was basically begging it to love me, not lust for me, but genuine love. For that, I sung "All Over Again," by Big Time Rush. It took a little longer than lust, but I managed to make the brain light up bright pink.

Finally for Anger and Envy, I got a little bit creative. Anger wasn't something that came too easily to me, even when in combat, unless you pushed me too far. I thought on it for a little while, but after I had run out of options, I decided to sing "Time of Dying" by Three Days Grace. It wasn't overly effective, but it got the job done. For envy, I got a little vindictive. Like I said, i'm hot. It's not liked a bragged on this, in fact, I tried to downplay it as much as I could, but I still noticed how other guys look at me when i'm taken, how they long to be with me rather than their shallow, uptight girlfriends. I conformed to one of the biggest cliches in the universe, but for this song, I sung the chorus of 'Don't Cha', by the Pussycat Dolls. Again, it was all I could think of at the time.

After I had finished with the first run, S.E.R.A. took me through another run of the emotional spectrum, except this time, I only could hum or harmonize. To be honest, it wasn't to hard. For happiness, sadness, and hope, I just hummed a rough version of the songs I sung for each emotion. Love, lust, anger, and envy were the same. The only hard thing was figuring out to hum songs that didn't have a natural vibe to it, like 'Don't Cha', and 'Time of Dying'. Going through the hums only took about 5 painless minutes; the real work was yet to come.

So remember how S.E.R.A. said that I could sing words and my target would have to do it? Well we tried that out for an hour straight, with little results. Maybe my telepathy was only advanced enough to affect emotions, or maybe I just couldn't hack the whole mind control business, but after an hour of constant practice, the only command I could get the brain to follow was 'sleep'. Anything other than that, I couldn't do. I didn't get overly frustrated about that, mind control wasn't something I wanted to master anyway; the temptation to use it would be too much. Besides, if worst came to worse, I could just sonic scream and bust some eardrums.

The last part of my individual training was both mentally and physically exhausting. S.E.R.A. was going to try and walk me through getting control of my…..i'll call them Super Sunbird Powers. The only problem was that I didn't know how to access them, even when I did it the first time, I had no idea how I did it, I just wanted to be faster, and suddenly I was too fast. Besides, the last time I went Super Sunbird, it drained me on the inside, probably my organs or something. I wasn't going to die, I could feel that much, but if something like that happened on another mission, and Grant or Jason wasn't around or in time to save me, what would happen then? Anyway, S.E.R.A. brought up the DNA screen thing, and gave me the rundown on the way she thought my Super Sunbird Powers worked.

"From what I have been able to figure out from your biometric scans," she started after I got comfortable on another Sun Sofa. "You're advanced solar powers-"

"Call it Super Sunbird please," I interrupted her. "It sounds better, plus now I have something to rub in Grant's face. He thinks he's the big guy when it comes to cool code names."

Thankfully, it didn't seem that scolding or sarcasm was a part of S.E.R.A.'s programming, because she just continued on without batting an eye.

"As you wish Alyson," she said before continuing her info session. "Your Super Sunbird Powers seem to be activated by extreme adrenaline surges. Though you cannot expose yourself to life threatening situations every time you need to access Super Sunbird, I believe there is a way for you to reach that level without the need for a supervillain to be present."

"And how would I do that?" I asked her.

The image of my DNA scan transformed until it was just my full body scan. In the center of my chest was some type of ball of fire, like a mini sun lodged in my chest.

"Simply put," she said. Your Super Sunbird Powers are powered by an extremely concentrated, but deeply buried collection of solar energy. Though deeply buried, your body's self-awareness should be able to detect, and with the proper amount of force, release the energy, resulting in the activation of your Super Sunbird."

That plan didn't sound too bad. Unbelievably, and probably unrealistically simple, but at least something that could be achieved. There was only one problem with this.

"What about the after effects?" I asked S.E.R.A. "In case you didn't pick it up on your scanners, I get the biggest power failure after I drop out of Super Sunbird. I dunno why it happens, maybe it's because my Super Sunbird powers have a low battery life, but after I drop out of it, I can barely stay conscious; how am I supposed to use that in battle, without risking myself or my teammates?"

"The problem is not your 'battery life' Allyson. Your Super Sunbird powers can be recharged by extracting a small dosage of power from your main reserves, and concentrating it until it becomes Super Sunbird fuel. The problem is your hyper sense. When you access your Super Sunbird Powers, your brain, heart, organs, and nervous system, function at 1000 times than normal. Your body adapts to the sudden change while you are still in Super Sunbird, and adjusts your body so that you will be able to survive the sudden drop in power; otherwise, you would have died of shock. However, your body still needs a bit of a warning before decelerating from Super Sunbird, and your muscles and organs can still improve to be better suited to withstand the drop in energy. That is where your singing will come into play. You see, your songs have the ability to heal injuries, but it can also be used to strengthen bone, tissue, your organs, even your nervous system. After we figure out how to access your Super Sunbird Powers, for your own safety, you will need to sing constantly and focus on strengthening your body, as well as increasing your power limit in Sunbird Supreme; the longer you maintain that form, the bigger the energy reserve grows. After the training is over, you can decelerate out of Super Sunbird, but I still encourage you to keep singing while you decelerate, for safety reasons. Do you understand, or have any questions about my proposed course of action?"

"Too many to list." I said. "If if you think it's safe, i'll give it a whirl, but at the first sign of trouble i'm pulling back."

"Understood, let's get started."

First, I figured out how to go Super Sunbird. S.E.R.A. was right when she said that the power was hidden beneath the surface. I stood up, closed my eyes, and focused on diving within myself. I felt around through my all of the power I had in my body, which was like an endless ocean of fire and light. I took a minute, but eventually I was able to find the Super Sunbird energy. To describe it, Super Sunbird was like the heart of my powers. Literally, when I managed to find the power, it was like pulling on a string until you managed to find the root. In my terms, I just followed the base level power until I got deep enough to find the source. I felt waves of energy coming of of the Core, i'll call it that. Like the sun, it was giving off intense energy, and the farther it got away from the center, the less powerful and potent it became. In other words, my base level powers came from the sun itself. But it seemed like the energy was filtered inside of my Core first, and then distributed to the rest of my energy reserves. Good to know. Anyway, once I found the core, I focused on unleashing the power. I didn't know how to do that at first, but I could feel that the Core was just concentrated swirling energy; so I focused on accelerating my heartbeat, getting my adrenaline up, and making that energy swirl faster. It was starting to work, or at least making the energy swirl was. The power felt exhilarating and terrifying at the same time, like that feeling you get when you're on a rollercoaster. The power kept building and building for 10 seconds straight, until it felt like I was carrying an atomic bomb in my chest, which I kinda was. Finally, when it felt like my chest was gonna explode, I let the power consume me, and screamed out in a sensation that was the perfect mix of maximum pleasure and pain.

After the feeling subsided, I took a quick look at my body. Sure enough, I was a glowing transparent Super Sunbird. I immediately started singing 'Firework' by Katy Perry, which felt appropriate at the time. My voice was different in Super Sunbird; more powerful, mature, heavenly even. I also felt the familiar power sensation again. Yep, the power to lift 300 tons, blast an entire city to bits, and fly around the world in a second was back in my control. The only problem was that I didn't know what to do now. S.E.R.A. was operating to slow for me to talk to now. I was about to call it off right then, but S.E.R.A's face suddenly unfroze and started talking again.

"Don't stop singing Allyson," she said quickly, probably knowing I was confused as heck. "Even now your Super Sunbird power storage is increasing. Keep it up, but head over to the weights section on your left. It's time to increase the strength of this form as well."

I did as she said and flew over to the weights. To be short, the weights weren't exactly normal. The way S.E.R.A. explained it to me, they were Vibranium cylinders that held an unlimited amount of gravitons. The more gravitons, the more it weighted; hey, at least I wouldn't have to waste time putting 300 tons of weights on it. Anyway, I got under one of the barbells, and S.E.R.A. set it for 100 tons. I started lifting, kinda unsure about whether or not I could do it, but sure enough, the barbell went up, down, and back up again easily. How did it feel to lift 100 tons you may ask? Well, to be honest, I don't know, I couldn't really feel anything. It's the same way that I was able to keep singing 'Eye of the Tiger,' while lifting more weight than a school bus. For some reason, I didn't need to breathe, and no matter what, I didn't seem to feel fatigue. I was still careful not to lose focus, but for now, it didn't seem like I was getting any kind of special workout or anything. After five minutes of lifting, S.E.R.A. seemed to pick up on that too, because she cranked up the weight to 200 tons. I still couldn't feel anything, and kept going on for another five minutes, still singing away like a bird in spring time. Finally, the moment of truth arrived, S.E.R.A. cranked up the weight to 300 tons. Now I could feel it! I can't really describe how it felt, because let's be real, how many of you can lift 300 tons? But let's just say it gave me the workout I was waiting for. Ironically enough, the only place that I felt slight feeling in, was in my arms. I was still able to sing, lift, and generally not get tired, but it was just like my arms had finally realized that they were lifting something extremely heavy. Still, I managed to keep up the effort for what felt like 10 minutes to me; I was moving at lightspeed, so it was probably like a second in real time. During that time, my body pretty much got adjusted to the weight. Seriously, it was like instant results. One minute, it's really heavy, 7 minutes later, it's not heavy anymore; it was cheating yeah, but i'm a mutant, my life is basically cheating.

After I got used to the weight, S.E.R.A. cranked up the weight to 350 tons. My arms felt the sensation of being overwhelmed again, but I kept lifting. This time, it only took about 4 minutes to get used to the weight, which gave me enough time to sing 'A Whole New World'. S.E.R.A. kept me on the same pattern for 200 more tons. Every time I got used to a bump in the weight, she'd crank it up by another 50 tons, and so on. Finally, when I reached 500 tons. S.E.R.A. dismissed me from the weights, and directed me towards the car compactor thing. I was not overly enthusiastic about that, trust me. After I got into position S.E.R.A. set the compactor for 500 tons, and let the thing drop on me. I didn't expect the thing to drop so fast, but apparently S.E.R.A. could make it move at lightspeed. As was such, I just barely managed to stop it with my arms, although the weight did force me to my knees. I held the weight for 10 minutes before I was able to stand up again, but S.E.R.A. turned it up by another 100 tons. She kept me on this path for another cycle, until I was able to effortlessly support 1000 tons. After that, S.E.R.A. let me off the hook for one day; now I had to figure out how to come down off of my high.

"Focus on slowing your heartbeat Allyson," she advised me. "Sing a song that calms you down, and focus on recapping your unleashed power."

I wanted to scream at her that it was easier said than done, but that wouldn't get me anywhere. I closed my eyes and focused. I could feel my heartbeat pounding away like a jackhammer. I took deep breaths, or something like that, again, I didn't need to, nor could I breathe while in Super Sunbird. I sang 'Breakaway,' by Kelly Clarkson, to help me settle down, and once I got to the chorus, I was already back to normal. It was still a little disorienting coming down from Super Sunbird, but the dizziness passed in a few seconds. S.E.R.A. insisted on scanning me for anomalies or something like that, but I didn't complain. After the scan was completed, she gave me her diagnosis.

"It would seem as though your bone and tissue density have tripled as a result of your training." she said. "You can survive a fall from over 1000 feet, survive a direct collision from a bus, and you are now strong enough to lift one ton without the use of your powers."

"Whoa," I managed to get out. "Well that's...awesome!"

I went back to the weights section to test out that whole 'lifting 1,000 pounds without my powers' thing; and while I couldn't do it as effortlessly as I could while in Super Sunbird, the barbell still went up. I was so excited about my new strength, that I flew around the room twice before landing and checking my watch. It was only 9:30 P.M., if you didn't know me better you'd think I didn't train at all. Still, I was stoked that I had so much time before bed, and yes I have a self-appointed bedtime. I rushed up to my room, showered quickly, slipped into my pajamas, and flipped the TV to Teennick. After four episodes of Drake & Josh, I turned it off at 12 A.M., said my prayers, and climbed into bed. As soon as my face hit the pillow, I was out like a light.

(Grant's Perspective)

What's up you guys? It's ya boy Grant with another story of awesomeness to blow your minds. So after dinner, I made my way to room 193X. In all honesty, except for the missing walls of weapons, plus the fact that this room was twice the size of 135X, I couldn't really see any real difference; if anything, I kinda liked it more. After fumbling around with my morpher, and lots of swearing, I finally managed to download S.E.R.A., and project her face on one of the walls. I hovered in the air and reclined on nothing as I started my training session.

"Good afternoon Master Grant," she said. "How may I be of service?"

I love it when she calls me 'Master Grant", I dunno why, it just gives me that warm fuzzy feeling inside, ya know? I was tempted to change that to 'Master of all things awesome' or 'Supreme being of coolness', but considering the fact that I had to work with teammates, I let my fantasies take a back seat.

"My physical if you will S.E.R.A.," I told her. "Tell me how awesome my powers are, and tell me how much more awesome they can get please."

"As you wish Master Grant. I have arranged the biometric analysis into three categories: & Current Status, Development Capabilities, Practices for Power Development. In what order would you like to view these categories?"

"Take it from the top please S.E.R.A."

"Affirmative. From what i've been able to gather from your biometric scan, your mutant ability of enhanced strength, stamina, speed, flight, and durability,-while mostly coming from your own X-Gene- is powered by an unknown, but incredible source of energy."

"Any clues on what that energy source could be?"

"It could be anything Master Grant, I am still running tests, but I do know that the energy source is untouched by you, and until or if you learn to channel it, your abilities will only be 40% out of 100."

"But I don't know how to use this 'energy source', I don't even have power blast abilities or anything like that; having a full tank of gas that I can't use is totally unfair."

"Again Master Grant, I am still running tests so that I can deduce the true nature of this energy source and how it connects to you, I shall notify you of any and all advancements in my research."

"Ok then that's cool, but hey, i'm already powerful as it is, let's see what I can do without some energy source."

"Well, your powers of flight come from your ability to manipulate gravitons and make yourself lighter than them. This ability also makes you resistant to high levels of gravity, in your current state, you can survive at 5x the earth's gravity with intermediate discomfort; however, if exposed to high level training with gravity fields, you will be able to endure more than that. Your strength, speed, and durability function due to enhanced cellular interaction, and based off of your biometric scan, your cells have been dramatically altered to interact even faster than before."

"You can blame that on Jason the bolt boy himself, the guy super charged me with 100,000 volts of electricity."

"It would seem as though he did you a favor Master Grant. Because of that jolt in your cells, your speed capabilities were greatly increased. On the ground, you are capable of moving at ten times the speed of sound. In the air, and after being properly trained, your speed can reach half the speed of light under optimal conditions. However, your most valuable ability is your metabolism and regeneration abilities. Based off of your scans, it seems as though your body has a unique healing factor. After being exposed to harsh conditions such as extreme heat or pressure, your body will adapt so that it will become highly immune to whatever it was exposed to. This ability is an enhanced trait of your invulnerability to most metals."

"Oh yeah, about that. How come Vibranium and Adamantium can cut me, while nothing else can?"

"It is an anomaly in your abilities, even after cross referencing them with the abilities of heroes such as Luke Cage, I am still unable to ascertain the reason for this blip in your invulnerability; rest assured I am still running tests and will notify you of any and all advancements n my research."

"That's cool, take your time, no rush, just keep going with the ability stuff."

"Yes Master Grant. Your ability of adaption is also relevant to your strength. After exposure to lifting extremely heavy objects, and exerting your muscles past their limits, your body not only quickly recovers, but enhances your strength accordingly. With proper training and conditioning, it is uncertain about the exact limits of how strong you can become."

"Limitless strength! Just what I wanted to hear! Anything else for me doc?"

"As far as your current abilities, no. Are you ready to move on to the second category?"

"Sure am!"

"Then let's proceed."

The room changed the way it does when i'm about to engage in activities that are gonna be painful for me in some way or another. On the floor, in every corner of room, were some kind of weird techy looking vases that looked like they were gonna spawn robots or something. In the air, three big techy gymnast looking rings as that looked big enough to shove a rhino through, hovered in the air and stayed there. In the far left side of the room sat a bunch of really weird looking weights; I imagine even I would have trouble lifting them. Finally, on the far right side of the room, next to one of the tech vases sat an advanced looking treadmill, and just safely out of reach was a looming trash compactor looking device. Oh, and I almost forgot to mention, on the opposite side of the wall were straps made of titanium looking metal, that wouldn't have worried me, if it wasn't for the fact that at the opposite end, rectangular holes were etched into the facing wall. I put two and two together, and came to the conclusion I really was in for a little pain train. Oh yeah, it was gonna be some serious workout time for ya boy right here.

"First," S.E.R.A. said as she materialized on the wall again. "You'll work on your speed. The treadmill is designed to be able to cope with speeds up to Mach 150, which is approximately 115,500 mph. Today, you will only be required to run at Mach 30, and after that you will be allowed a 5 minute respite, and will engage in gravity field training. The devices you see in the four corners of the room are gravity augmenters. At maximum, they can emit enough energy to create a gravity field half that of Jupiter; it is uncertain whether or not I will permit you to train in such brutal circumstances.

"Yeah," I said. "Because i'd haaate, to do anything life-threateningly dangerous."

"I can detect sarcasm just fine Master Grant," she said. "Moving on, you will be allowed 5 minute respite, and then will be subjected to the torture rack."

"Ok now i'm kinda scared," I said.

"Do not be," S.E.R.A. responded. "It is nothing of great consequence. After restraining you to the Titanium reinforced bands, I will subject your body to optimal, but not fatal burst of kinetic and energy attacks. The trials will strengthen your body, and render you more durable and battle efficient than before."

"Ok," I said. "When you put it that way, I guess I can trust you."

"Thank you Master Grant. The rest of your training will focus on your strength and flight speed. The weights you see over to your left harness and amplify gravitons, making them able to substantially heavy or light, depending on their setting. At your current strength, you are able to lift 5,000 tons on your own, without the use of flight momentum to aid you. Using the training gear, I can help you be as strong as you want to be."

"100,000 tons," I blurted out. "I know that's a lot, but I want to be able to lift that much before I finish training."

"100,000 tons it is," S.E.R.A. immediately responded. "However, I believe it will be more efficient to split half of the weight training with the compactor training. The latter will strengthen your legs as well as your torso area. Also, I think you should save this training until after your flight training."

"Oh yeah, is that what those rings are for?"

"Precisely. Like the gravity augmenters, this rings act as a mid-air treadmill, using gravity as the propelling force to push you backwards, these rings also have the capability of supporting speeds up to Mach 150. I believe you know what comes next."

I took a deep breath and floated back to the ground.

"Sure do." I said. "Let's get started."

First, I went to the treadmill. The way S.E.R.A. had this workout set up, was that every 2 minutes, the treadmill would speed up one Mach, and I would have to adjust my speed accordingly. The first 5 Machs were nothing at all. Yes, running at five times the speed of sound was child's play to me. After that, things got increasingly difficult. I was able to get up to Mach 8 with minimal discomfort, but it was already starting to burn a bit on my legs and lungs. If it wasn't for my ability to adapt, i'd have given up within the next 5 Machs. So about my 'adaptiveness', the way it works is, after a decent amount of exposure to pressure or body exertion, my body simply gets strong enough to endure it, and then some. Running at Mach 10 was difficult for the first minute or so, but after that, my body caught a second wind, and easily kept up for the remainder of the trial period. For an hour straight, I climbed up the Mach scale, steadily exhausting myself, and then getting an energy boost after my body adapted to it. How did it feel to run at Mach 30 you may ask. In two short words: Freaking Sweet! At first, the effort was wreaking havoc on my legs, but after adapting to the speed and stamina required to maintain the speed, I started to feel how fun it was. It was like flying but on the ground. Don't get me wrong, i'll always be a flying type of guy, but there's something about running- the adrenaline and the power- that made me feel like I could do anything. Anyway, S.E.R.A. had me on the tread for a few more minutes after I hit Mach 30 before letting me take break. Let me tell you something. My legs screamed in mutiny for the first 3 minutes. I know it's confusing, but the way my body worked, was that while it adapts to fit the nature of the task at hand, it also shuts off the pain receivers, and forgets how bone tired it is until the task is finished. Once it is, my body remembers how much it hurt to do that. Don't get me wrong, after a few minutes of lying on a metal floor, my body patched itself up real nice, and i'd be able to run at Mach 30 without it being hell on my legs, but like the saying goes: First time's always the hardest.

After my break, S.E.R.A. turned on the gravity enhancers, and set them for 5x the earth's gravity. The air didn't change, nothing shot out of the devices, but all of a sudden,it felt like someone really big was trying to push me down to the floor. It felt aggravating in the sense that someone has their hand on your shoulder who you want to get off of you, but as far as difficulty goes, this was easy; of course for you normal people, i'd imagine you'd be crumpling like a can right now. So, here's how my gravity training worked. The length of the room was about 400 meters; I know that because S.E.R.A. told me. With that knowledge, I came up with a 5x earth gravity training montage. In the exact order I ran a mile, did 100 situps, 100 pushups, and washed it all down with 20 sets of thirty meter suicides. For those of you that have never been on a sports team in your life, or have never seen a sports movie, suicides, are just running back and forth nonstop in a designated length; it's meant to improve stamina. After finishing the training montage, S.E.R.A. cranked up the gravity to X10, my limit. And yes, it was actually hard. Where X5 was annoying pressure, X10 was actually heavy, overbearing pressure forcing me downwards; I was actually hunching more than I was standing. As was such, I had to cut my montage in halves. Instead of running a mile, doing 100 situps, 100 pushups, and 20 suicides, I did half of that on the first go, waited five minutes, to get my second wind, and finished the rest of the workout. To be honest, this was a better way of dealing with it. The running was slightly bearable, but thanks to the extra gravity, pushup and situps were hard; especially the up part. By the time I had finished the first part of my workout, I was already half used to the gravity. The other half was a lot easier to deal with and I finished it a lot faster than my previous run by 3 minutes. So yeah, I basically did gravity training up until I reached 50X the earth's gravity, which was like being crushed under a million trucks mind you.

I would've taken another five minute break, but between all the ones I took between gravity training, I had wasted 45 minutes. Besides, I wasn't even winded after finishing up, so I quickly flew up into the gravity rings, and signaled S.E.R.A. to start em up. She started me at Mach 1, and we went up from there. It was just like the running; two minutes in one Mach before kicking it up a notch. Honestly, flying was pretty much effortless, if I wanted to, I probably could've flew all day. But yeah, only went to Mach 30, which by the way was AWESOME! I honestly felt like 1,000 missiles in one; if I was charged with explosive energy, I probably could've leveled 3 cities. Hmmm, now that I think of it, I could add that move to the team's playbook once I got around to making it. So finally, it was time for the moment of truth.

S.E.R.A. and I decided to save this part of the training until second to last, due to preparation purposes, but after gravity and flight training, she got me strapped into the torture rack and we got started. First, we started with blunt force. S.E.R.A. brought out some really big metal fists that were rocket propulsed, and started hitting me with them. At first, they didn't hurt, but that was because she had the setting at level 1; it wouldn't be another five more levels until the fists started to hurt. The fists weren't very fast, only moving at about four hits per second, but they made up for that with the pain. At level 6, it felt like an average punch to me; by the way, the fists were targeting my, body, face, legs, arms, everything. S.E.R.A. kept me on this level until I stopped grunting in pain, which meant that I was ready for the next level. So yeah, I went up the pain scale up until I reached level 10, which by the way, felt like Mike Tyson level punches. To put this all into perspective, at level 10, I was basically taking blows that could shatter a tank into 1000 pieces, blow a hole straight through steel, and fly straight through the moon. It wasn't fun for me at all, but it did help me get more durable. Like I said, it didn't draw blood, or leave any bruises, but it was quite the kicker.

After the blunt force was over, S.E.R.A. escalated the torture rack up to energy damage. Yep, for the next 30 minutes, I was target practice for fire, light, and electrical blasts. The fire didn't hurt nearly as much as it should've, and I should probably thank Dragon Empress for that; so for the 10 minutes of constant exposure, I was basically in a tanning bed. It was kinda relaxing, even if it was 10,000 degrees of fire being hosed on me. The light energy was, just weird to be frank. I could tell it was because of the gravity training as well as the first part of the pain training, but even after being bombarded with enough energy to give an atomic bomb a run for it's money, the most I could say about it was it stung a great deal, but nothing legendary. Finally, the electricity was just a joke. No offense to Jason, but after 10 minutes of being blasted with half a million volts, through excruciating for the first two minutes, I was basically laughing my butt off due to the pain becoming little more than a heavy prickling sensation.

After the pain ordeal was over, I got down to the moment I had been waiting for since the training began: weight lifting. I loved weight lifting, even before I had my powers. There, was something about the struggle of it that excited me; it made me feel like I was overcoming massive obstacles, and that nothing could get in my way so long as I worked hard enough to move it. I started small, setting two of the dumbbells to 1,000 pounds, and doing 50 reps on each arm to get me loose. After that, I got under the huge barbell, told S.E.R.A. to set the weight for 3,000 tons. S.E.R.A. and I worked out a steady flow for me to build my strength on. I would lift 100 reps at each setting, and after that was done, she'd crank up the weight by another half a ton, and i'd go up from there. I did this for like a whole hour straight without stopping, and even after lifting 50,000 tons, I still didn't break a sweat, although I was starting to feel the burn in my arms. I could've kept lifting all night, but after 50,000 tons, it was time to make my way to the crusher. This time, S.E.R.A. set me on a 'take no prisoners' type of training setting, and set the compactor to drop at 60,000 tons of pressure. The thing dropped so fast, my body called for a Timeout, and I just managed to stop the hunk of metal from…. crashing into me. Yeah, this whole danger element is hard to play off with me being invulnerable and stuff. So yeah, I caught the compactor, but boy was it heavy. The weight forced me to my knees, and for the first time in the whole training period, I was actually breathing hard. The crusher kept me pinned down for five minutes before I found the strength to push it up, and stand to my feet. Of course, S.E.R.A. kept trying to hold me down, and cranked the pressure up to 70,000. The same cycle continued for another 20,000 tons. I struggled under the weight for a little bit, managed to lift it up again, and S.E.R.A. put the pressure back on me. Finally, after making it past 90,000 tons, S.E.R.A. cranked up the weight to 100,000 tons; my personal goal. Struggling under that, was worse than lifting the Dragon Empress's ship. Sure it was only 4,000 extra tons, but when I was lifting that ship, I was in the air. Now that I was on a solid surface to stand on, I was caught between a rock and a hard place. It was hard no doubt, in fact it took me a few minutes longer to lift this weight, but after a while, I managed to get to my feet. I took deep breaths, and after a while later, managed to stand completely upright. Finally, with every ounce of strength I had in me, I lifted the compactor completely over my head with a yell of triumph. S.E.R.A. lifted the weight off of me, and I collapsed to the floor in relief.

I stayed there for a few minutes while I caught my breath. After standing up, I checked my watch, and nearly had a stroke when I realized it was 12:21 in the morning. I rushed back to my room, showered, put on some boxer briefs, and crashed into bed. Maybe half a minute later, I was out like a light.

(Jason's Perspective)

So at this point, i'm assuming you get the picture. Yep, this is all just one big pile of training stories. I apologize if this is old by now, in fact I wanted to skip this whole thing entirely, but Fury and Coulson made me add it in for explanatory purposes. Just bear with me for a little longer, it'll be over soon.

So after dinner, I made my way over to room 120X, uploaded S.E.R.A., and took a seat on the floor. I could've created a construct to sit on or something, but sitting on electricity isn't really comfortable.

"Good evening Master Jason," S.E.R.A. said once she popped into the air. "How may I be of service?"

"The scan you did last night on me," I said. "Let me see what you got out of it please."

"Of course Master Jason. One moment."

Her face morphed into a screen with data going up the side like animation credits. On the main screen was a body diagram, with a bunch of bullets highlighting certain regions like the head, chest, legs, and arms.

"I have organized your biometric analysis into three sections." she said. " & Current Status, 2. Power Development Capabilities, 3. Suggested Practices for Power Development. How would you like me to proceed with said information?"

"1-3 S.E.R.A.," I said. "Let's see what you got."

"First of all," S.E.R.A. started. "Your mutant ability to control and generate electricity comes from your body being able to harness and greatly enhance it's natural static electricity, as well as the electricity in the atmosphere around you. This same power allows your body to use it's natural static field to sense and alert you to immediate threats around you. It seems as though you posses a small degree of weather manipulation, as seen by your ability to create storm clouds, but that may only be a side effect of summoning lightning from thin air. Your speed, like Master Grant's, comes from the greatly enhanced interaction between your cells; however it seems as though your speed can be augmented by your electric powers. Also, like Master Grant, you have a healing and adaptive factor that, with proper stimulation, can equip you to be able to strengthen body density, strength, and stamina. As far as I can tell from your biometric scans, your mutant ability is only functioning at 20% of it's full potential. After performing my suggested practices the percentage should bump up by 30 or so, but there is still an unharnessed and unidentified source of energy that has yet to be unlocked."

"Any idea what i'll get once I can use that energy source?" I asked her.

"Data suggests that your abilities will be heavily augmented, but the data is inconclusive; you could end up with another power set altogether."

"Sounds interesting, but let's cross that bridge when we get to it. Now, I wanna get to the who power development thing."

"As you wish Master Jason. Your body's natural ability to enhance the interaction between your cells can be improved upon by giving them an electric jump at a cellular level."

"You mean like the way I did it with Grant?" I asked her.

"Precisely Master Jason," she responded. "I have calculated the required electricity needed to perform this feat, and while the experience may be a little disorienting at first, it will improve your speed at a phenomenal pace, increase the capacity for your energy reserves, and broaden the static field that encases you and alerts your body to threats."

"I call it my Speed Sense."

"Very well. Your body's durability and endurance can also be improved upon by exerting it to it's maximum limit, and then using your electricity to regenerate your energy, and give your body a small strength boost in the process."

"Oh yeah," I said. "Like today, after I wailed on a punching bag non-stop and healed up with some voltage; I got some muscle tone after that."

"That is only the surface of what can be achieved with your regenerative healing. You can push your body to be able to lift more than 1000 pounds, survive at 10X the earth's gravity, and make your skin completely bulletproof."

I couldn't help but smile at the thought of that.

"Sounds good," I said. "Anything else."

"Yes," S.E.R.A. said. "The burst of cellular interaction will allow for greater control and maneuverability for your lightning bolts. With proper training, you will be able to change it's direction, and release and control multiple tendrils of electricity that will lock onto your target, and avoid civilians, bystanders, or allies. That is all for the power development analysis; are you ready to move on to the next section?"

Wait a minute, that was it? I didn't expect my training list to be a mile long, but I still thought I was worth more than that.

"Yeah sure," I said, biting down my frustration. "What do you need me to do?"

A circle of blue light formed in the chest of my body diagram, and pulses were resonating throughout the rest of the body from that point of origin.

"First," S.E.R.A. said. "I need you to amplify you're cellular interaction. Based on my analysis, 50,000 volts should be sufficient enough to charge them to their maximum potential. All you need do is focus on charging yourself at a cellular level and let the power go."

The room was engulfed in a flash of light, and when it died down, a treadmill was lodged near a corner of the room, to the right was a set of weird looking weights you'd never see at an average gym, and in each corner of the room sat some sort of high tech looking containers that were as big as tires.

"After I analyze the change in your powers," S.E.R.A. said. "We can improve on your speed levels. As far as I can sense, you are capable at running at Mach 8 at your maximum. With training, I can have you up to Mach 30 in an hour or less; lightspeed may even be possible for you in the distant future. The set of weights by the corner will serve to increase your strength. I'll have you keep lifting until you are able to bench 1,000 pounds with little to no effort. Afterwards, we'll work on your durability. The devices you see in the corners of the room are gravity augmenters. They will increase the gravity of the room by however much I want them to be to; it is up to you to train while under these extreme conditions. Finally, after all of the previous exercises are completed, I will help you through controlling the extended nature of your electric blasts. Are you ready to proceed with the course of action I have planned out for you."

"Yeah," I said. Let's get to work."

The first step was the hardest. S.E.R.A. instructed me to create a ball of electricity in my chest, and force it to supercharge my cells with the energy. At first it was tough and aggravating, it seemed like the only thing I was electrifying was my ribs. Finally, after five failed attempts, I managed to pull it off by closing my eyes, sensing my own cells, and forcing the energy in my chest to resonate down to that level. The rush of energy came so suddenly, I didn't even have time to prepare for it. I felt like I was a dam that someone had broken, and now all of the water was flooding in. I lost control of my powers, and electricity exploded everywhere in violent and unpredictable flashes. At one point I was actually consumed with so much energy that I was levitating off of the ground, which I couldn't enjoy, because I was trapped in my own tesla orb. Finally, after it seemed like I was gonna be the world's first human light bulb, the energy overload stopped suddenly, and I dropped to the floor. S.E.R.A. was right, the experience was disorienting, like I had just gotten out of the water after being splashed around violently. I tried to process the ramifications that the surge had on my cells, but the truth was I couldn't accurately feel them anymore; they were moving too fast.

S.E.R.A. stepped in and scanned me with some sort of laser, and started calculating my new abilities (why couldn't she just do that last night?).

"Well Master Jason," she started after the scan was complete. "It looks as though your cells are moving so fast, that you now have the ability to vibrate your molecules at speeds that will enable you to phase through solid objects. Your speed has been increased tenfold, and you now have access to 100% of your brain capacity, allowing for greater reflexes and photographic memory. Also, you have broken the cap that was hampering your ability to absorb and generate electricity. Now, your body can store a limitless amount of electricity, as well as generate electricity without the need for you to manually recharge your reserves."

Ok that was pretty cool. I was stoked about the whole 100% brain access thing, but then again, it didn't turn me into Lucy. But seriously, I was flexible enough to do splits, and do triple flips in mid-air. I didn't buy the whole photographic memory thing, but after reading 1,000 words of a section from Moby Dick (S.E.R.A.'s idea), and being able to recite every word by heart, I caught onto the fact that I was now a genius. After shaking off my lingering feelings of dizziness, I stepped onto the treadmill, and got to work.

The way she had me set up, was to take it one Mach at a time up until I reached Mach 30; 100,000 or so mph. Honestly, I was bored out of my mind for the first 10 Machs, and that's saying something, considering that I had to bend over backwards to even dream of moving this fast yesterday. By the way, I may have been exaggerating a bit when I said I could move at half the speed of light, but I was just showing off. Anyway, for the next hour, I steadily climbed up the Mach scale, making hyperspeed seem like a casual jog. Honestly, I should've been getting tired. My legs should've been screaming in agony, my lungs should've felt like lead being juggled around in my chest, and breathing should've been as comfortable as gargling nails. Yet, I was fine. Seriously, I was running at Mach 15, which is roughly around 10,500 mph, and I honestly could've run like that for hours with no rest at all. Part of my newfound stamina was due to my cellular reconfiguration. After my body settled, my energy reserves were through the roof; even now, I didn't even need to focus on regenerating my Speed Mode Momentum; the more energy I used, the more my body generated for me to keep using. So long story short, running at 100,000 mph to me, only felt like going two laps around a track

After finishing up my running session, S.E.R.A. walked me through the art of speed phasing. To be honest, it was way harder than anything i've ever attempted. S.E.R.A. said that I could only achieve this by accelerating my body molecules up to the point to where they were no longer solid, and thus able to phase through solid objects. She raised a 10 foot metal wall in the center of the room and instructed me to phase though it. The first time, I focused on making my molecules vibrate until I literally felt like I was nothing but wind. I ran forward, and crashed into the wall. I tried it again five times over with no success, swearing excessively with each failure until I decided to pick up a new strategy. It was obvious that I wasn't ready to phase through the wall all at once, so I brought it down to a smaller level. I focused on making my hand vibrate with enough speed to phase through the wall. When I cautiously put my hand to the wall, it made it through. That's when it hit me: I lost my focus whenever I had failed. In order to phase, I had to be fast enough and maintain my focus. For the next five minutes I focused on phasing different parts of my body, and phasing them through the wall; eventually managing to walk through it. Finally, after I had that down, I tried running through it one more time. This time, I made it through, and for the next five minutes, S.E.R.A. had me run around the room while she randomly sprouted walls for me to run through. It would've been difficult, but thanks to my enhanced Speed Sense, I could tell that the walls were coming before they had even made it all the way up.

The next step of my training involved the using the gravity augmenters. S.E.R.A. set the augmenters for 2X the earth's gravity, which felt like someone dropping a 200 pound blanket over me, and left me to my work. At first, I didn't know what to do, but then I flashed back seven years ago. You see, ever since I was little, I had always loved hockey. Yeah I know, black people don't usually like hockey, but I was different (I was a huge fan of the Mighty Ducks movies). Doris saw this, and made me sign up to play for the rec team when I was ten, and didn't let me quit until I was 13. For conditioning, the coach would take us to a football field, have us run the entire hundred yards, and do 10 pushups before coming back, and repeating the process five times over. Running at 2X the earth's gravity was no walk in the park, but I managed to do it. Yes, five times, I ran up and down the room doing 10 pushups at every stop. It was hard at first (especially the part where I had to get up), but midway through the third set, my body began to surge with voltage, and I felt myself get...tougher is the best word I can use to describe it. It was if my body recognized that it was unfit for it's current environment, and tapped into my powers to adjust itself accordingly. After the five sets were up, I worked on my Kung-Fu. Nothing special, just basic punches, combos, and a few jumping roundhouses for good measure. I did that for five minutes before S.E.R.A. decided to up the playing field. She took it two at a time until I reached X10, but boy was each step up a chore. All the while I was pushing myself to the limit, my body was simultaneously crackling with runoff energy, like I was overloading. I felt my heart kicking into overdrive, struggling to keep up with the weight of the environment. I could feel my body becoming denser, heavier, and more rugged; I had no doubt that I was now immune to gunfire at this point. It was the most grueling 25 minutes of training that I had ever went through in my life, but I came out of it stronger than a Marine (no offense to the armed forces, you guys totally rock). S.E.R.A. tested my newfound density by opening fire on me with plastic bullets (nonlethal, but still strong enough to break ribs). They honestly felt like a baby was poking me multiple times everywhere, other than that I didn't feel a thing. S.E.R.A. even tried real bullets (without telling me), but the impact still felt the same, even my clothes weren't damaged (they were made with a mixture of polyester and unstable molecules).

After gravity training, I started lifting over at the weights section. Without my powers, I was able to bench 200 max, so I started there. S.E.R.A. set me up on a schedule to where after I did 50 reps, I would take a 2 minute break, and lift 50 more pounds than before; but I honestly didn't need it. I was so pumped up after training that even after I hit the 1,000 pound mark, I only felt like I was going at half my strength, so I requested extended lifting. After 1,000 pounds, that was when I started to feel the burn. S.E.R.A. set me up again, but this time, raising the bar by 100 after each set. At first, I was just skillin it; that was until I hit 1,500 pounds. After that, I actually needed to take the occasional two minute breaks between sets; it only got worse from there. Lifting the next 500 added pounds was pure agony on my arms and chest, it was all I could do to keep the bar from slipping between my fingers. Somehow though, I managed to push through it, and after feeling like I was struggling against a trash compactor, I managed to finish 50 reps at 2,000 pounds. Yep, I could lift a whole ton (yeah I know not much compared to Grant , but still cut me some slack, super strength, isn't my thing)!

Finally, after taking a five minute break between my weight lifting, I started on my lightning training or whatever you wanna call it. First, the room flashed bright again, and when the light died down, all of the equipment was gone, and in their place were a bunch of metal dummies. Some of them had targets on their chests, while other one's didn't. That wouldn't have been a problem, if they weren't in such close proximity to one another, there would be no way for me to hit one, without hitting another.

"New objective," S.E.R.A. said. "Deploy energy redirection tactics to destroy targeted enemies without damaging untargeted ones."

"How am I supposed that?" I asked her.

"By concentrating Master Jason. You are now in control of 100% of your brain capacity. This means that not only are you smarter, and in more control over your body, but your abilities are connected to you now more than ever. Focus on hitting the targets you want to hit, and then redirecting the energy to attack another. You can do this Master Jason, you need only focus."

I took a deep breath and willed my hand to surge with power. The only way that I could make this work was with a narrow bolt of lightning; anything else would have caused collateral damage. I focused on the targeted dummy right in my line of sight, looked around for the other ones, and focused my shot. The first few times I failed miserably, barely managing to make the bolt flinch before it rammed into another dummy. Afterwards, I managed to make it move in sudden jerks, but it was still like trying to control a dog that wanted to run when you wanted to walk (don't ask). In other words, I was fighting to control the lightning, but the lightning was winning. Finally, after watching me struggle for 20 minutes with this thing, S.E.R.A. stepped in to help me.

"You are focusing too much on trying not to fail Master Jason," she said. "Remember, your powers are an extension of yourself; an extra arm for you to use. Don't cloud your mind with doubt and frustration, don't think of your powers as just a tool for you to use. See them for what they really are, a manifestation of your consciousness, and make them work for you."

She was definitely one heck of a mentor, i'll give her that much. And for what it's worth, her advice worked. I closed my eyes and focused on the static electricity lingering in the air. It was in that moment that I realized how useless my eyes actually were right now. You see everything is surrounded by a vague field of electricity. By focusing on sensing this energy, I could pinpoint where everything was, even if I wasn't looking at it. I sensed all of the targets that I had to hit, as well as the ones that were to be spared. Then, I pretty much locked on to the targets, willed my lightning bolt to hit only those ones, and I let it go as I opened my eyes. It was like I had shot out a heat seeking missile. The bolt demolished the targets I had picked out, zigzagged around the ones I had excluded, and found it's mark every time; I didn't even have to redirect it. S.E.R.A. had me do this exercise five more times, until she was convinced that I had the redirection thing down. Next, we went on to shooting and controlling multiple bolts of lightning. This was honestly way easier than I thought it was gonna be. First off, I just willed five different bolts of lightning to shoot our of either fist, like I was a human thundercloud, and my powers obeyed. After my ordeal with the first redirection task, this one was only slightly challenging. While there were more bolts to work with, I kept the targets locked in my mind, and willed the ten bolts of terror (not an official name) to only attack those targets. Sometimes my bolts hit the same target, or had to double back into each other to avoid hitting unwanted targets, but after the dust had settled, all of my targets were destroyed, and not one of the unwanted targets were harmed.

At this point S.E.R.A. said that I could hang up and go, but I wanted to stay a bit longer. I could feel that there was so much potential for my powers to develop, and I spent the next two hours working on that. First off, I focused on replicating moves I saw when I played through inFamous (very good game). I made lightning grenades, fired megawatt blasts, I even launched myself in the air with a lightning bolt, charged myself up to insane power levels, and unleashed a massive shock wave when I landed. I did some of the other moves I saw on the game, like lightning tether (fun, but not effective, i'll leave the swinging to Spider-Man), but there wasn't much left to copy; everything else that could be done, like creating lightning blades, I had already done. Instead, I decided to focus on making, and controlling more elaborate constructs. I started simple, making things like bladed whirl storms, charging trains and buses, even missiles and jets once I got around to it. Yet, that wasn't good enough for me, I needed to think bigger. I took a page from Allyson's book, and focused on creating my own personal army. Unlike her I wasn't going for angels, but Spartans. It took a little bit of time to get the hang of controlling multiple constructs at once, but that was before I figured out that it was more prudent to give each construct it's own life support; basically giving them a set amount of energy to use, that would come back to me when it was exhausted, or if they were destroyed. And yes, the Spartans were totally bad ass. After that, I went back to basics, and focused on creating giant animal constructs. From lions, to tigers, to bears (don't say it), rhinos, bulls, sharks, etc. I even managed to encase myself in enough electrical energy to make a combat avatar shaped like Way Big (Ben 10 stuff). After the construct training, which left me beat, I checked my watch. It was 11:50, and I was about to go to my room and get some z's, when an idea popped in my head.

"Hey S.E.R.A.?" I asked her.

"Yes Master Jason?" she responded.

"Tomorrow, I wanna surprise the team with a little villain simulation battle. Can you set that up for me?"

"Of course Master Jason; and how would you like the simulations to occur?"

"Set it up to five levels, make them challenging, use whatever villains you want, and don't tell me what your planning; I wanna be just as surprised as the rest of my team."

"As you command. I will make the arrangements."

"Thank you," I said as I exited the room.

I went straight to my room, took a shower, put on my PJ's, and crashed into bed.

That night, I dreamed of the two voices again.

"Is it time?" one of them asked.

"Yes," the other one said. "This one will be interesting."

"Who will succeed?"

"To Hel if I know, most likely the one's who arrive at the scene the swiftest."

"You know they will. If that happens, it will all be over before it begins."

"Not unless they get a little surprise."

When I woke up, something felt off. First of all, I realized I was more hungry than I had ever been in my life; not even kidding. I was gonna just throw something on quickly and not even bother to properly get ready for the day, but then I noticed something lying at the foot of my bed. It was a bar with a green wrapper on it, with a yellow lightning bolt painted on top. On the bar was a note, I took it, and read: Eat it, us speedsters gotta look out for each other, and you use up more energy than a city full of lights-Pietro. I didn't know who 'Pietro' was, but I had a pretty good idea considering there was only one speedster other than me and Grant (and somewhat Allyson) on this ship. I unwrapped the bar, which was some kind of honey flavored energy bar and ate it. All of a sudden it was like my immense hunger was cut in half. Sure, I could still eat a bunch, but now I wasn't starving enough to where I couldn't focus. I made a mental note to thank Quicksilver for the bar (and apologize for blasting him to Kingdom Come), and quickly got up to get ready for training and whatever. That brings me to my other point. Have you ever woken up, and just knew in your heart of hearts, that this day, for whatever reason, was gonna be just unpleasant? Well I did, even while showering, and brushing my teeth, I couldn't shake off the feeling that something bad was gonna happen today; and believe me, the last thing I needed in my life was more bad. Anyway, I made my way down to the cafeteria, got my usual platters of pancakes, cereal, muffins, and juice, and sat down at the team's table. Grant and Allyson didn't come in until five minutes later, although they filed in one by one. We were all dressed in our workout gear (ironically all wearing black), and after a few minutes, we started talking about our training sessions. Allyson, as it turned out, got a hold on that advanced power she tapped into yesterday.

"Dude!" Grant said. "That is so unfair, you can go at like, a million miles per hour."

"A million miles per second," Allyson corrected him. "And that's only when i'm in Super Sunbird."

She explained how her extra powers, the one's she used when she fought Venom, worked.

"So now you can lift 300 tons, you're bulletproof, and a living atomic bomb?" Grant said. "Can I call cheating on that?"

"Jealous?"

"Hardly, just wait until you hear what I can do now."

Grant gave us the rundown on his progress last night. Apparently, he could run at Mach 30, just like me (although probably not as effortless), and was able to withstand up to 50X the earth's gravity; not to mention lift 100,000 tons. Plus, he was durable enough to take a missile point blank without any damage; not bad.

"Yep," he said smiling smugly. "I am amazing."

"Not bad," Allyson said. "But you still can't fire atomic bomb like blasts"

"You know what Allyson?"

Before they could get into a power debate (which Allyson would have totally won), I interrupted them, and started explaining to them why I was clearly better. I went over my whole cell jumpstart thing, me being a genius, me running at Mach 30, lifting 2,000 pounds, plus all of the new constructs I could create. I didn't think they would be impressed, but it looked like they were pretty starstruck.

"Wait a minute," Grant said. "You can use 100% of your brain? Does that make you Lucy now?"

"Not so much," I said. "Besides, she became everything at the end of that movie, I don't wanna go through that. But I do have better reflexes, body control, and photographic memory."

"Not too bad. Hey at least studying for tests will be a breeze from now on huh?"

"True that."

"Besides, the amount you can lift? Dude, you gotta join a team or something, so much athletic potential can't just go to waste."

"I'll keep that in mind, next to my secret dreams of being a ballerina."

That actually earned a laugh from Allyson, although she did try to hide it.

"Yeah, yeah," Grant said. "Laugh it up, but i'm telling you bro, you'd make an excellent wide receiver, or running back. So, what are we doing today?"

"First," I said. "We're gonna get warmed up with some Kung-Fu, and weapons training. Then I had S.E.R.A. set up a simulation for us with the data on some of the villains we studied the night before. Should be interesting, and it should keep us busy till lunch; after that, you guys can do whatever. Train, rest, whateves."

"Wait," Grant said. "Before we do the whole simulation thing, can we take some time out to practice some of the moves I made up in the Delta Playbook."

"The what?!" Allyson and I said at the same time.

Grant pulled out a black notebook, wrote in it at super speed, and handed it over to me.

"After training," he said. "I went to my room, and had the idea of combining our powers in semi elaborate operations. You see, one of the team's problem, like any new team, is that we don't have a single expected flow to our attacks and strategies. Sure, sometimes this can be useful, but I feel, just in case we need it, we should have multiple plans of attack that bring out the best in our powers and skills. I quickly added a few more to the list in light of our new abilities. Go ahead, give it a look."

I opened the book, and flashed though all of the pages. It didn't take me too long to read through the thing, but then again, super speed, plus photographic memory, equals instant three hour study. Honestly, the ideas in here were pretty good, I didn't know Grant was such a strategist. All of the plans came with elaborately drawn depictions of stick figures beating up on one, or many robots (which ironically enough were drawn pretty damn good). And yes, for your convenience, here's a look at the official Delta Playbook.

Delta Playbook:

*Delta Power Chain:Super-G knocks villain high into the air, Sunbird blasts him towards the ground, and Thunder-Man gets a running start, and kicks him with a high speed lightning kick.

*Delta Speed Thrasher:A triple super speed assault. Super-G strikes at the chest, Thunder-Man strikes at the back, and Sunbird kicks the face, and takes out the knees. Once the opponent is down, all team members attack the downed bad guy in a continuous circle.

*Delta Killer:Super-G launches the enemy into the air with a powerful uppercut, Thunder-Man summons a lightning strike from the air, while Sunbird shoots a concentrated bolt of light from the ground, trapping the enemy in two deadly energy attacks.

*Delta Cannon:A combined Kamehameha-like cannon powered by lightning and Sun Energy.

*Weapons Frenzy:A barrage of missile and sword constructs.

*Air Force:A barrage of jet constructs

*Demolition Derby:Super-G and Sunbird launch the enemy into the air, pound on him for a bit, knock him to the ground, and the guy gets crushed between two train constructs, created by Sunbird and Thunder-Man.

*Animal Kingdom:A barrage of raging animal constructs.

*Aerodynamics:Thunder-Man launches the enemy into the air with a lightning geyser, and the guy gets a beat down from Super-G and Sunbird before getting blasted to the ground again by a bolt of lightning.

*Hammer Time:A continuous beat down using giant hammer constructs.

*Delta Bomb:A combined energy ball made of lightning and Sun Energy, kicked like a soccer ball by Super-G.

*Delta Vortex:A vortex made of lightning and Sun Energy

*Delta Barrage: a continuous barrage of energy blasts from every direction.

After reading through the list of moves, I handed them over to Allyson to check out too.

"Dude," I said to Grant. "Those are really good, when did you have the time to make that stuff up."

"Come on Jason," Grant responded. "We're speedsters bro, we don't find time, we make time."

We gave each other a fist bump.

"Besides," he continued. "It's not complete yet, just some basic power set combos. I got the idea for it during training yesterday, but didn't start developing ideas until this morning, after I finished messaging Mrs. Kennedy."

"What did you message her for?" Allyson asked him as she handed him the notebook back.

"Upgrades for my axe and such," he said. "I don't wanna spoil the surprise, but let's just say in a few hours, i'm gonna be fully loaded."

"Whatever man," I said as I shrugged. "By the way, are you open for ideas from outside sources?"

"Of course man, inspiration comes from everywhere. Why? You got something in mind?

"Yeah, I was thinking we do a move where you launch the enemy into the air, and Allyson and I create huge combat avatars, energy bodies around ourselves, to pretty much use the poor guy as a living tennis ball."

"Sounds epic enough, you gotta name for it?"

"Avatar Beatdown?"

"Yeah that'll work!"

He opened his notebook again, and started scribbling furiously. After that, we focused on eating again, and after breakfast was over, made our way over to 135X to start training. We started off with an hour of Kung-Fu practice, followed by weapons practice for another hour. I stayed true to my word and allowed Grant a few practice matches against me. I gotta say, I was pleasantly surprised. He took up a dual wielding attack formation, using his right hand for the sword, and the left for the axe. Even with my sword and shield fighting style, Grant gave me a decent run for my money. His defense was phenomenal, in fact of the five times I managed to beat him (out of five matches), three wins were because he would make a mistake and rush in for a finishing move, and i'd simply avoid his rush, and slash him in the back. Otherwise, I rarely ever managed to break, or get inside his defense. On the other hand, his offense was pretty good as well. He seemed to follow Allyson's style of strike hard and fast. Add that with the fact that he was swinging a one-hundred pound axe like a tennis racket, and you get a really deadly fighter; if it wasn't for my lessons with Nightcrawler about not relying purely on sword or shield, plus my expert dodging skills, i'm not afraid to admit that Grant might've got me a good few times. After weapons training, we started working on moves from the Delta Playbook. Grant had us execute the moves five times each to prove that we had them down. We got through Delta Power Chain pretty quick, testing out our moves on various Titans; and after 10 minutes of practice, managed to find a natural flow for executing Delta Speed Thrasher. After that, executing the rest of the moves were easier than collapsing dominoes. Sure, moves like Demolition Derby, Aerodynamics, and Hammer Time took a bit more time to perfect, but we got through it all in about an hour. After finishing practicing the Delta Plays, I let the team take a small 10 minute break before uploading S.E.R.A. and asking her to start the simulations that she had prepared for us.

"Of course Master Jason," she said. "Prepare yourselves."

Before I could ask what for, a bright flash enveloped the room, and I felt myself being pulled into some sort vacuum. When I readjusted my eyes, I found myself, and the rest of the team, in New York City. That didn't make sense for obvious reasons, but even more so considering the fact that no people, cars, or vendors were combing the streets.

"Okaaay," Grant said as he got up. "Where are we? And for the record, this is so not my fault, I didn't touch anything."

"Do not concern yourselves," said S.E.R.A., who by the way, was projected high into the air, bigger than a jumbo jet. "You have all been transfigured into data, and are currently inside my programming. Your powers will not be affected by this transition, you will not suffer any effects from the conversion, and if Colonel Fury should have need of you, I can swiftly eject you from my systems."

"But why did you absorb us into your systems?" I asked her. "Wouldn't it have been easier to project the images out in the real world?"

"To the contrary Master Jason, projecting the images of your enemies as holographic tricks on practice bots would not be a very effective training exercise. You have all displayed the ability to effortlessly dispatch practice robots. I have analyzed your current power levels and abilities, compared that of them to the ones of your future opponents, and have put you in an environment where you can get accurate challenges according to opponents and their power levels. To further challenge your abilities, I have set up certain side missions for you to handle alongside your primary battles. Do any of you have any questions before we begin the simulations?"

"How many simulations are we gonna do?" Allyson asked her. "And how long is it gonna take us to plow through them?"

"I have set up five different levels for you," S.E.R.A. said. "Completion is estimated at approximately 90 minutes."

"An hour and thirty minutes?" Allyson said as she put her hands on her hips. "Fine, as long as we don't train through lunch; these training bits leave me starving."

I wanted to tell her to get in line.

"Do not concern yourself with worry Allyson." S.E.R.A. "Your tasks will be finished in time for you to consume your daily food requirements. Are you all ready to proceed with the simulations now?"

We all nodded and said yes. A moment later, a huge wave of light flashed across the virtual city. When the light had passed, there were huge metal jack-o-lanterns perched on top of four different skyscrapers that paced about a mile apart from each other, forming a square-like perimeter around the city. Furthermore, the Green Goblin, some crazy dude in a green and purple getup with elf ears, was riding around the air, laughing like a madman and throwing pumpkin bombs in every direction.

"Level 1," S.E.R.A. said. "Your objective is to stop the Green Goblin from detonating the bombs you see perched on the four skyscrapers. The bombs will detonate in three minutes, although the Goblin can trigger them manually if he suspects that you are tampering with his equipment. Your time starts now."

Green Goblin turned and faced our general direction, suddenly aware of our existence, and charged at us on his glider. Even without Speed Mode, we could have had a whole conversation without him getting close to us; but I didn't take any chances, and ordered the team to speed up.

"Ok guys," I said. "We gotta take him down fast, before he can detonate those bombs. I can feel the electricity that powers them, but I don't wanna risk him catching sight of my lightning trail. I'm gonna knock him out of the sky with a bolt of lightning. Grant, you make sure he doesn't get back up while I work on defusing the bombs."

"My pleasure bro," he said while cracking his knuckles.

"Hold on," Allyson said. "What about me?"

"Sorry Allyson," I said. "But we don't exactly need you to finish this mission, besides, it's gonna be really short anyway."

She didn't look all that happy about taking the bench for this one, but she grudgingly accepted her position. I put the plan into action by coming down from Speed Mode, and summoning a huge bolt of lightning from the sky to strike Goblin down. Even as I made my way up the first skyscraper, I could hear the huge boom of Grant's first impacting Goblin's face. I went to work immediately, draining the energy from the first lantern, and quickly moving on to drain the other three. In total, it took about 20 seconds to defuse all of the bombs and get back to the team. The city flashed again, and when it had finished, I was surprised to see the city starting to crumble. At the base of city hall (that's where Goblin landed), stood four villains:Rhino, Dr. Octopus, Vulture, and The Shocker; who was standing on top of city hall, vibrating like an earthquake.

"Level 2," S.E.R.A. said. "Defeat the four villains before The Shocker can reduce the city to rubble using his upgraded Vibro-Shock Gloves. Level begins now."

As Rhino, Vulture, and Dr. Octopus charged us, we immediately went into Speed Mode; at this point, this was a part of our team dynamic.

"Grant, take out The Shocker," I said, not bothering with formalities. "Allyson take care of Vulture quickly, then start working on Dr. Octopus. As for me, i'll keep Rhino busy until Grant gets back, then i'll help you take down four arms if you still need it. Assuming Grant hasn't knocked Rhino's lights out by the time we're done with that, we'll help him out."

I could tell that the team was on board with my plan, except for the fact that they thought Rhino was gonna steamroll me. To shut them up and prove a point, I created a charging train construct, and launched Rhino though City Hall, and probably three more buildings. After that, Grant and Allyson had no problem with letting me handle my business. Grant quickly charged at The Shocker like a human missile, and started to pound away at him furiously (although Shocker was putting up a little fight). Allyson flew at Vulture, not even bothering to shield herself from the razor wing projectiles he was flinging at her, and shot him out of the sky with a missile construct. Vulture was knocked out instantly, and Allyson started blasting at the Doc. He blocked most of her shots with his tentacles, and started lashing them at her; forcing her to maneuver in mid-air while creating different types of constructs to knock the Doctor off-balance. She was doing pretty good, especially when she hit him with an exploding mini sun, and moved in, attacking him with spiked fist constructs over her actual ones, and I was about to give her a hand, but my Speed Sense went off. I looked forward and saw Rhino charging at me through the hole in City Hall (I had forgotten about him). I waited until he was several feet in front of me, and created a lightning geyser under his feet, launching him a good ten feet in the air. I brought him back down to earth with a huge lightning strike, but apparently, that wasn't enough to knock his lights out, because my Speed Sense went off, and I had to roll out of the way of his massive charge. He stopped and turned around, getting ready for another charge (he's not all that bright). But before he could, Grant dropped out of the sky, hitting him with a huge right punch, and started beating him down furiously. Rhino was definitely strong enough to give him a bit of fun, but I could tell Grant had this guy.

"GO HELP SUNBIRD!" he said confirming my thoughts. "I GOT THIS GUY!"

I didn't question him, and raced to help her out. As far as it went, she was handling the situation just fine, but it was pretty evident that she could use an extra set of hands. I created a set of spiked fists around my own hands, raced behind Dr. Octopus' back, and brought a hard right hook to his head; he crumpled to the ground.

"I had it covered." Allyson said indignantly.

"I believe you," I said. "Just trying to be helpful is all; now come on, let's help Grant finish Rhino off."

Allyson nodded, and together, we sprinted after Grant (it was so weird seeing her run at my speed). When we caught up to him a nanosecond later, he had punched Rhino so hard, that the poor guy went flying through 7 skyscraper lobbies.

"You guys arrived just in time to see the show," he said with a grin.

"Sorry we could only catch the end," I said back.

Apparently, I spoke too soon. I heard Rhino yell really loud, and could see him charging at us from half a mile away (100% brain usage equals enhanced senses, I can hear, see, smell, and I guess feel, 10X greater than the average person). Grant looked at him with a sense of amusement.

"What do you say guys?" he asked me and Allyson. "Demolition Derby time?"

"You know it." I said.

"Let's do it!" Allyson said.

Grant and Allyson flew at Rhino like bats from hell, and started wailing on him with some punch and kick combos. Allyson backflip kicked him under his chin, a bolt of light erupting from her foot, and sent him high into the air. Allyson and Grant kept up the assault in mid-air before Grant hammer punched him back to the ground. Finally, Rhino got up, only to be caught in the middle of a lightning/solar train sandwich. The trains exploded once they collided with each other, and when the smoke cleared, Rhino was lying unconscious (or dead) on the ground. S.E.R.A. swept up the mess, and gave us an entirely new set of villains to face off against. Apparently, she knew posthaste that we would be a team of demigods, because this time, she gave us a challenge worthy of our skills. Staring us down were: Quicksilver (just wait for it), Sabertooth, Blob, Avalanche, Toad, and The Juggernaut; in other words, The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. You wouldn't believe how fast the team shifted into Speed Mode.

"Grant. Avalanche," I started. Take him out fast, we don't need any more earthquakes. Allyson. Mini-Sun. You can take out Toad, and maybe stall Sabertooth and Blob for a while, but it'll give me enough time to deal with Quicksilver. Grant, after you finish off Avalanche, work on Juggernaut. And believe me bro, you don't wanna hold anything back. Allyson and I will help out after we mop up the rest of the Brotherhood; sound good?"

They both nodded furiously (yeah I know it's only a simulation, but still), and took their positions. Grant and I charged the Brotherhood head on. Grant tackled Avalanche and started pounding on him before the Brotherhood could even blink, and I charged Quicksilver, who charged me back at the same speed. This time, I didn't waste any time on punches; I simply backhanded him across the face, and started running up the side of a skyscraper. I could feel Quicksilver following me, like I knew he would, and I waited until he was just a few feet away from me before I tapped into SMS (which was like so enhanced now, I could type a five page report in 3 seconds), turned around, and swept his legs out from under him. As he started falling, I jumped after him, and started wailing on him with lightning fists as we both free fell. Once we were close to the ground, I stopped beating him up briefly, so that I could blast him the rest of the way down with a lightning cannon (my version of a Kamehameha). Good thing that wasn't the real Quicksilver; he never would've walked, let alone run again. After I landed on the ground, I quickly caught my bearings. Allyson was hovering in the air, maintaining the mini-sun that, by the looks of it, had already incinerated Toad, and was keeping Blob and Sabertooth in a solar prison. No real earthquakes had happened yet, and by the looks of some familiar looking boots sticking out from a crater, there wouldn't be any. Although, based on the constant booms I heard in the distance, I was willing to bet that Grant and Juggernaut would do some earthshaking on their own.

"How you doing Allyson?!" I called up to her.

"Hanging in there!" she responded. "I already made fried frog legs, but Sabertooth and Blob refuse to burn!"

"Try going Super Sunbird! Blob can be knocked out, and I bet Super Sunbird has more than enough power to K.O. him! Leave Sabertooth to me!"

"Ok! give me a few secs, I gotta charge up!"

Allyson let her sun fizzle out, and Blob and Sabertooth crashed to the ground. I didn't waste a single second, and hit them with a Final Flash. Sabertooth was knocked into Blob, but unfortunately, Blob barely stumbled backwards. Sabertooth was pretty a bug on a windshield in an electric storm, but Blob managed to throw him away, and charge me head on. I didn't even need to shift into Speed Mode; I simply created a pair of shackles around his enormous ankles, and sidestepped as he crashed into the pavement. I created a thunderbolt and started whacking away at him, but I may as well have used a stick for all the good it was doing me. My Speed Sense triggered, but this time, it was picking up two threats. The more obvious one was Blob, who was reaching up to grab me. The other one however, was Sabertooth pouncing at me like a tiger. I phased through Blob, sidestepped Sabertooth's attack, and decapitated him on the spot; based on what I knew about him, he had come back from worse. Blob got up, and looked confused to find me on the opposite side of him, but before he could do anything about it, Allyson screamed really loud (we really gotta establish team earplugs one of these days), and glowed with the light of a supernova. Quicker than even I could follow, she landed in front of Blob, and i'm guessing she hit him for all she was worth, because he was rocketing into the air faster than a supersonic jet; plus, a lot of windows shattered for no apparent reason.

"You gonna stare at me all day Jason?" she asked me, snapping me out of my trance.

Her voice was different when she was in Super Sunbird, older and more powerful. It was like I was talking to Allyson's voice five extremely good years into the future.

"Umm, no," I managed to get out (smooth Jason). "Let's go find Grant, he probably needs our-"

Right on cue, a huge BOOM!, echoed through the air, and Grant fell through a hole in a skyscraper, and landed behind us, creating a huge crater. Allyson and I rushed over to check on him, but the guy was as tough as they came and was up in no time at all.

"Damn that guy is strong!" he said as he got up. "And damn Allyson, you are one bright chick!"

"Shut up Grant," she said. "We've got business to take care of."

Again, my Speed Sense triggered right on cue, and The Juggernaut came smashing through the skyscraper. We all managed to get out of the way of the guy (there was no stopping him once he got any momentum), and he crashed through a few buildings before managing to stop and turn around.

"Aerodynamics now!" Grant shouted.

I didn't hesitate, and slammed my fist into the pavement. A bolt of lightning erupted out of the ground, sending Juggernaut flying into the air, but that wasn't even the fun part. Grant and Allyson went beast on him, flying into the air, and just beating the living crap out of him in mid-air for like ten seconds before I summoned a mega lightning strike to blast him at least ten feet under. You could argue that it was reckless of me to summon lightning with my friends in such close proximity, but when the sky gets dark, and thunder starts to boom, they know what time it is (more importantly, they know to get the hell out the way). I figured Juggernaut would be down for the count, but he jumped out of the pavement rubble like a zombie.

"Guys!" I shouted up to them. "A good Delta Speed Thrasher would be welcome right about now!"

They immediately flew down, and we took our positions. Grant started pounding the guys chest with all of his strength, I went around to the back, created spiked fists, and started punching away, and Allyson kicked him in the face with a flying kick (which was way more effective in Super Sunbird), and took out his knees. Once he was down, we all ran around i'm, pushing furiously at anything we could get our knuckles to connect to. It was working for a second or two, but this guy was more durable than a thousand tanks. He suddenly rage quit, nearly getting the drop on me and Grant. But before he could try and gain any more leverage, Allyson took the reins. She uppercutted him as hard as she could, leaving cracks in the ground, and started wailing on Juggernaut as she kept flying upwards. Finally, she glowed really, really bright, and a second later, a huge energy wave, bigger than anything ever in the history of forever, erupted from her hands, and engulfed juggernaut in the massive golden death blaze. When it died down, the guy was nowhere in sight. Allyson flew back to Grant and I, sung a few verses of Beautiful Soul, and came down from Super Sunbird.

"What did you do to big and ugly?" I asked her.

"I didn't kill him," she said. "But I doubt I could've anyway. But yeah, he's in orbit right now, probably halfway to Mars."

I decided to take her word for it as S.E.R.A. set up level 4 for us. This time, $#!+ got real. I didn't realize it until just now, but that last battle between us and the brotherhood caused a lot of damage to the city; rubble was everywhere. That wasn't the worst part of it. The worst part, was when huge chunks of metal from the ground and the buildings started to float in mid-air, and throw themselves at us. I managed to get out of the way, while Allyson created a barrier around herself and Grant. Even without finding him, I already knew who was doing this, but I didn't have to look that hard to find him anyway. He was hovering in the air, wearing some type of red armor, and a red helmet with purple trimming. He was covered in an electromagnetic barrier (something I couldn't control), and was probably the oldest villain on earth. Ladies and Gentleman, I present to you Magneto.

"Level 4," S.E.R.A. said. "Defeat Magneto within 10 minutes, before the airplane that he has under his control, full of innocent passengers, crashes into City Hall, which is now filled with senators pushing for Human and Mutant co-existence."

Ok, first of all, WOW! Training just got really dark all of a sudden. This time the team didn't even need to go into Speed Mode for a meeting of the minds. We were all on one mindset: get to Magneto, and punch him in the face. Hard. At first, it seemed like maybe we could do that. Weaving in and out of his metal barrages were easy enough, but the main problem was that purple lightning barrier. Grant managed to charge into it like a missile, and while it didn't do much (Grant got knocked in the chest with a bolt of lightning), it at least moved Magneto a few feet down, proving that the barrier was not impenetrable. Allyson and I tried breaking the barrier as well. I shot at it with a few missile constructs, lightning bolts, even summoned a mega lightning strike for good measure, but I barely made a dent in his force field; not to mention the fact that I was running around so much, I could barely stop to get a shot off (I may be faster, but using electricity blasts still puts a damper on my speed, plus it gets even lower if I use constructs). Allyson was faring a little better than me, even managing to hit Magneto's barrier with a giant sledgehammer construct, but she had to keep up a barrier of her own to keep the slabs of metal away from her. I realized that we were not gonna take this guy down as individuals; we had to put him down all at once.

"GUYS SPEED UP NOW!" I yelled.

They did, and we met in on the ground for one of my famous team meeting sessions.

"We have to strike at once," I told them. "We're wasting time trying to do our own thing, we have to finish it together."

"What do you have in mind?" Grant asked me.

"One combined shot," I said. I'll summon a lightning strike. Allyson, get directly under him, and hit him with the biggest power blast you got. Grant, get a flying start, come in really fast, and punch his barrier as hard as you can, then get out of the blast range."

We all agreed on my plan, and took our positions. I quickly got behind some cover, and focused on bringing the thunder. Allyson got under Magneto and started charging up her blast, and I could already hear Grant breaking the sound barrier. This plan didn't last a single second (we were that fast), we simply let our powers go, and hoped that we were in sync with each other. As it turns out, we were. As soon as my lightning strike hit, Allyson's power blast did; and Grant's speeding rocket punch was the icing on the cake. Magneto went down in a glorious explosion, and went rocketing through the air. I made the mistake of thinking that it was that easy to put him away, or that S.E.R.A. would underestimate us. Magneto rose into the air again; another barrier enveloping him. I was gonna tell the team to do the same plan all over again, but then we ran into a complication. A flash of light erupted in the ground, several feet from where we were, and after the light dissipated, we were staring down an army. They weren't regular people (as if), but I could classify them into four categories: ones that were burly like Brock Lesnar, ones that had glowing red eyes, and ones that were vibrating at super speed levels, and ones that were floating in the air. The army charged at us, and for the time being, Magneto became a side mission. The good news was that their powers were generic (super strength, super speed, flight, and laser vision), and each person only had one of each; plus, it stopped raining metal. The bad news was, we were outnumbered 1,000 to 3, and these were not robots. Grant rushed down, and together, we charged straight into the thick of things, while Allyson helped us with ranged blasts and various constructs. I created a Thunder Sword for myself, but Grant refused the one I made for him, saying that his fists were all he needed. Together, the two of us mowed down half of the oncoming force. The only real problem were the speedsters, and even they weren't that big of a deal. I silently thanked Allyson for the Kung-Fu training, because on top of being slower than me, these guys did not know how to fight, so mixing lightning and roundhouse kicks really did the trick. After Grant and I had punched kicked, and slashed down a good 200 of the goons, which took about five minutes total, Allyson yelled at us to get clear. After we did, a mini sun materialized in the middle of the remaining fighters, burning them all to cinders.

Before we could make a play for Magneto, another wave materialized, and I yelled for another team meeting.

"Is S.E.R.A. $#!++!ng us right now!" Grant exclaimed. "I mean seriously, how are we supposed to finish Magneto off when we gotta take all these goons down. Look, I can already see the plane!"

He was right, all you had to do was look in Magneto's general direction to see a huge white commercial airplane falling from the sky. We had wasted seven minutes trying to take Magneto down; time was running out. I started think frantically, using my big brain to think of any fast solutions to our problem. Then in a Jimmy Neutron 'brain blast' (no, I didn't say it), inspiration hit me.

"Allyson," I said. "Can you make a mini sun inside of Magneto's force field?"

"I tried, but his barrier is somehow blocking me from the inside," she said. "The most I could do is get a flash of flame inside before it dissipated."

"Still, it'll be hard to concentrate on maintaining a force field, when you get sprayed with golden fire. It'll leave him open for a second; Grant, how fast can you knock him out?"

"A second is more than enough," he said.

"Then let's do it," I said. "Allyson. Flare blast, Grant, knock him out, and get that plane to safety. Allyson, you and I are gonna do Avatar Beatdown on these grunts; they'll be like ants compared to us. Grant, if you hurry, you might be able to get a piece of the action."

"That's ok," he said. "I'll just make do with lifting a 400 ton plane, and saving hundreds, if not 1000+ people."

"Whatevs man," I said. "You guys ready?"

They nodded their heads, and I signaled Allyson to do her thing. Quicker than you normal people could blink, a flare of golden flame erupted inside of Magneto's shield, and the old geezer screamed like a little girl as he dropped his shield. Grant immediately charged at Magneto, plowing through all of the flyers that dared to get in his path, and punched Magneto in the face so hard, it sounded like ten cannons going off at the same time. Magneto flew though lots of buildings, and this time, did not get back up. Grant didn't waste a second, and took to the air to redirect the airplane. In the meantime, Allyson and I started phase three of my plan. I surged with power, and felt myself rise into the air. When the electricity settled, I was in my Avatar form, I 30 foot tall Thunder Spartan (Way Big seemed too childish). Allyson joined me shortly afterwards in an armored angel Avatar, and together we went to work. Honestly, we didn't really have to do much, except walk. I created a Thunder Spear to help me sweep the bad guys down, and Allyson created a Sun Sword to help with clean up, but we were just so overpowered that it didn't even matter. Over the course of 30 seconds, we walked slashed, and smacked away Magneto's forces until we were left with nobody else to play with. Grant on the other hand, simply took the plane by the bottom, and gently moved it to the edge of the water, where the people exited the plane safely. For the fifth, and final time, light flashed through the city, and we were introduced to a final challenge.

This time, it looked like S.E.R.A. was going for a terminator type of gimmick, because there were Doombots everywhere. The robots had us easily surrounded, but it looked like they had to wait for the signal to kill.

"Final Level," S.E.R.A. said. "Clear the city of Doombots in under 5 minutes, before their self-destruct programming commences, and obliterates the entire city; final villain will be introduced depending on the completion of the first stage."

In other words, we had to take out the small fries, until we got the big man's attention. S.E.R.A. started the simulation, and Allyson and I quickly put up barriers to block out the incoming laser barrage. We counted to three, unleashed a huge explosive wave (taking out the foundations of a few skyscrapers in the process), and started a really amped up version of plan Sector. We got three minutes through the plan before realizing two things. A: The robots were LITERALLY all over the city, and for those of you that are stupid, NYC is REALLY BIG. B: There was simply not enough of us to go around. Sure, Grant and I took out a few thousand Doombots together, but the simple fact was that we were facing down maybe millions of those things. Allyson simply couldn't defend a perimeter that was an entire city wide, unless she went Super Sunbird and nuked the city. She did go Super Sunbird, and try to manually take the Doombots down (she told me afterwards), but she simply didn't have enough energy to complete the job herself, although she did take out a little over 2/3rds of the robot army before having to come down. With a little under a minute left, I got a last-minute-save-the-team's-butt idea. I remembered yesterday, during the final exam when I made the robots go haywire and go boom. I sensed around for all of the electric energy in the area, and was taken aback when I felt the presence of over 10,000 Doombots still in the area. I concentrated on all of that energy, and commanded it to transfer over to me. It took a few seconds, but eventually I was able to drain every last Doombot of their power, and was nearly overcome, as the tidal wave of electricity flooded into my energy reserves. True, to her word, S.E.R.A. released the final boss battle, who conveniently enough was placed on top of the Empire State Building. Dr. Doom, from as far as I could see, was less impressive in person, or simulation. Sure, with his metal mask, green cloak, and Sith-Lord type of demeanor, I could see him being a big deal in show business, but as far as villains go, so far Venom took the cake for biggest and baddest. Anyway, Doom lifted his hand into the air, in a 'King of the World' type gesture, and the ground that was within 200 feet of the building bubbled with some type of red, clearly magical energy. Out of the ground, shot out thousands of demons from Hell. They went around the park as far as looks go. Some were horned with cloven hooves, others were humanish with scaly red skin,others were bat-like and flying, heck, some of them were 30 feet tall, carrying huge swords, and axes. Either way, it looked like S.E.R.A. wanted us to play a climbing game; the only problem was that I was having none of it. I lifted my hand up, waited for the right moment, and after a few thunder claps, a huge bolt of lightning shot down from the sky, hit Doom point blank, and ripped through the entire Empire State Building. If this was real life, this would cost taxpayers at least 100 million in property damage.

The demons took this as their cue to try and put up a fight, but Grant, Allyson, and I were not gonna lose to these punks. Grant took up my offer for a Thunder Blade, and as one, the team and I charged the demon army like there was no tomorrow. As a collective unit in speed combat, we did pretty good. Grant and I cut down a lot of small fries, but were ultimately focused on taking out the giants. In fact, after slashing down twenty of the runts, one of the giants tried to crush me with his axe. I simply avoided it, ran up his arm, and stabbed him in the head. As the three of us got closer and closer to the building, it became apparent to me that Doom still had some fight left in him. Most of the entrance to the Empire State Building was covered in a huge red barrier, which also happened to be spawning random demon types (seriously, how in the world do demons get fat?). It wouldn't be long until he showed himself, but I wasn't gonna give him the time to prepare for us.

"GRANT!" I called out to him as I took down another giant.

"WHAT?!" he called back.

"GIVE DOOM A LITTLE GIFT FROM ABOVE PRESENT!"

He looked up, and caught my drift. The bottom level of the building was covered in a barrier, which was diddly compared to a 100 story building that had a gaping chasm snaking down it's structure. Grant took to the air, and speed down the Empire State Building. Half a second later, a huge BOOM shook the ground, and the barrier fell.

"ALLYSON!" I called to her. "DELTA VORTEX NOW!"

Thankfully, she heard me, and a few feet to my right, I saw a swirling circle of golden flame start to materialize. I added my own power to the mix, creating a unique, and kind of cool looking blend of gold and blue. The vortex grew until it was 60 feet tall, and together, Allyson and I swept it back and forth, obliterating the remaining demons. After mopping up, Grant, who was carrying Doom's unconscious (or dead) body, walked out of the building triumphantly.

"Game Over!" he said pumping his fist, and giving Allyson and me fist bumps.

"Indeed Master Grant," S.E.R.A. said as her face reformed back in the sky. "Congratulations to you all, you have proven that you all posses teamwork skills and dynamics that will aid you in your future missions. Jason, you have shown to be a very skilled and effective leader, who is also wise enough to consider other options from teammates. Grant, you are undoubtedly the powerhouse of the group, yet you do well in bringing out the best in them, rather than trying to outshine and outdo them. Allyson, your immense power has proved to be a valuable asset to your teammates, as you can be both a buffer force, and a driving offensive force in your team's plans. I congratulate you all on your success; you are free to leave."

My body felt weird again, and half a second later, I found myself and the team back in 135X.

"Well," I said. "That was fun."

"No doubt," Grant said. "Dude, that was the best training session we've ever had as a team. Plus, if that's the true power of our future enemies, we got it all in the bag."

"Don't speak too soon hotshot," Allyson said. "Computer programs are way different from the real thing. But as far as preparation goes, I think we're pretty ok."

We all agreed on that, and decided to call it a day on training. I checked my watch, and was surprised to find out that it was only 11:30. Still, we decided to hit the lunch room early. Allyson didn't eat much today, and left after 25 minutes to go shower, leaving Grant and me alone. He eyed her heavily as she left, making me kind of uncomfortable, and then looked back to his food after she was out of sight. We ate in a bit of an awkward silence for five minutes before he said something else.

"Jason?" he said. "I'm gonna be straight up honest with you."

"You like Allyson?" I asked him nervously.

"What?!" he said reeling back while laughing at me. "Dude, no! No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no! I just-, I mean-."

For the next minute and a half, he laughed like a clown, nearly breaking the table while banging on it.

"Jason no!" he said as he composed himself. "Don't get me wrong, Allyson's a good girl, but i'm more a bachelor type of guy, trust me, i'm no good for her."

"Then what are you trying to tell me?" I asked him.

"I'm trying to tell you that you are doing this all wrong. You don't get girls to like you by hitting them in the face and yelling at them, unless they're into that sort of stuff."

"Wait a minute, I don't… and she doesn't-"

"Dude, I can see the two of you together from a mile away. And for the record, she doesn't hate you. Sure, she doesn't understand you, and she's a bit afraid of you, but i've talked with her quite a bit yesterday, and believe me, she's crushing on you hard bro."

"Sure doesn't feel like it. She barely talks to me unless she has to, plus she said so herself, she's not into brutes."

"You're not a brute, you just got pissed off and she saw the wrong you, at the wrong time. Now what we have here is a simple misunderstanding, and I can't stand to see two clueless people suffer, so i'm gonna do you both a favor, and make you two work out this little spat you got going on."

"Well thanks, I guess. But why don't you like her."

"Like I said, she's a good girl, i'm not a good guy. There's a reason why i'm a bachelor Jason, i've done a lot of bad things to a lot of good girls, i'm trying to be a better person now, but for a lot of girls' own good, i'm off the market for a little bit. I'm only available for flirting, cuddling, and making out."

"So, friends with benefits?"

"Don't judge me, I have needs."

We both laughed for a bit. I was gonna tell Grant how much it meant to me for stepping in to help me solve my little issue, and how much I respected him for his decision to lay off of girls until he was ready. In my opinion, admitting IS the sign of readiness, or at least the start of it. However, before I could get the words out of my mouth, a SUPER LOUD alarm started blaring through the intercoms, and before I could figure out what was going on, I felt my body being transported somewhere else.