Chapter 10: Training
Wilbur released the massive orb of Blue Fire and watched as it totally disintegrated the target. He looked at Lucius who was furiously taking notes beside the platform. Violet, Cole, and Nikki watched from behind Lucius in excitement.
"He's got a lot more power than I thought!" Nikki commented.
Violet shrugged nonchalantly. "I think he's got more power than any of us know."
The teens stopped talking when they saw Lucius stand up; they wanted to hear what he was going to say.
"Okay, Wil. I'm thinking you have more power than I thought, so here's what I want you to do. I want you to make an orb, but hold onto it for as long as possible. That way we can see how big you can make it. Just don't knock yourself out." Lucius said with a smile, and then added, "But just in case, Violet?" he turned to look at her.
"Yes?" she answered.
"Be ready to make a force field. We don't want anyone getting hurt." Lucius replied.
Wilbur winced. "No, we do not."
Lucius quickly scribbled something down, then glanced up at Wilbur, and said, "Ready when you are, chief."
Wilbur turned back towards the target directly to his left. He took a deep breath and raised his hands, letting the Blue Fire engulf his hands again. This time, he held the orb in his hands and watched it grow bigger and bigger.
Although, the more he held it, the more he realized it was getting more difficult to breathe. At first it was no problem, but the longer he held the orb and the bigger it got, the more he began to pant, his lungs feeling constricted.
At this point, the orb was almost bigger than Wilbur. Wilbur could feel the sweat trickling down the back of his neck and forehead. He glanced at Lucius, who stared intently at the orb. That's when Wilbur started getting light-headed. Wilbur thought he would have pitched forward if Violet hadn't intervened.
She stepped toward Lucius anxiously, "Lucius, this isn't a good idea! Look at him!"
Lucius snapped out of his daze and looked at Wilbur's beat red face. "Wilbur, let it go!" he quickly called to him.
Wilbur immediately obeyed, thankful to let it go, but they all got a bigger bang than expected. No sooner had Wilbur let it go, that it blasted to the other side of the room, almost blowing a hole in the cement wall!
The pain Wilbur experienced from the blast was so excruciating, it made him collapse to the floor on his hands and knees, gasping for air. Violet and Lucius immediately jumped on the platform and Cole quickly asked if he should go get help.
"No, no…" Wilbur panted, but grinned. "I'm okay; I'm just… out of air."
Lucius sighed, "Well, I think that's enough Blue Fire for one day. Take a break, and then we'll work on some phasing, ok? If you feel up to it that is."
Wilbur swallowed, and then said, "Yeah, I'll be ok. From now on though, let's not make any really big orbs, okay?"
Violet giggled, "I agree!"
Cole offered Wilbur a hand to pull him off the floor, which he accepted. Wil still felt a little light-headed and wobbly, but he assured everyone he was fine.
"That's a relief! We wouldn't want to lose you on the first day of training!" Nikki laughed.
Wilbur grinned, "Yeah; that would be kind of bad."
A long, two hours later, they were in another training room, similar to the first. The first one had too much damage from the blast.
"Okey-dokey!" Lucius said happily. "Let's get started! How ya feeling, Wil?"
"Better than before!" Wilbur said with a cocky smile.
His cocky smile really made Violet have butterflies in her stomach. She had them the first time they had talked the day before. She was beginning to think she was developing a crush on a guy she barely knew. She laughed internally and thought, "He is really cute though…"
A big wall of cement crashing onto the platform snapped her back into reality.
"Okay then, go through to the other side. Let's just test random materials to see what you can go through." Lucius instructed.
Wilbur merely nodded and glided through the cement, reappearing on the other side.
Lucius nodded, "Didn't look too hard."
Wilbur agreed, "It wasn't."
"Ok, let's try brick then!"
For the next hour or so, Wilbur was able to walk through any material that Lucius placed in front of him. Brick, wood, glass, steel, even Titanium was no problem!
Lucius paused, "You know what I've noticed? Your clothes have gone with you through every material and your cell phone in your pocket has too."
Wilbur nodded and Lucius continued, "It makes me wonder if you can take anything with you through a wall. Maybe even someone."
Wilbur raised his eyebrows. "Take someone with me?" he thought. "Wouldn't that hurt?"
Lucius looked at the desk in front of him and grabbed a small box, throwing it to Wilbur. "Phase with that and let's see if anything is different."
Wilbur walked over to the cement wall, the small box in his hand. He put one side of the box on the cement, trying to make it phase through, but instead his hand began to phase through the box.
"I guess that won't work." Bryan, a new arrival to watch, said.
"No, wait…" Wilbur murmured. He had an idea. Wilbur simply phased his entire body through the cement, pulling the box with him. His hand with the box came slower, but also phased through, not harming the box at all.
"Nice!" Lucius commented. "Let's try something else."
They tried Lucius' laptop, a bigger box, and multiple other things, and all went through, but Lucius wasn't done. Turning to the teens behind him, he asked, "Any volunteers?"
All the teens avoided eye contact with Lucius, "Anyone? Don't make me pick someone!" Lucius teased.
Violet took a step forward sheepishly. "This could be awkward…" she thought.
Lucius smiled, "Thanks Vi. If you're in extreme pain or something, just start screaming, okay?"
Violet frowned at Lucius playfully, and then walked over to Wilbur on the platform.
He was looking at the wall in the opposite direction. The second Violet had stepped forward, he got scared. "What if this hurts her?" "How am I supposed to phase her through a wall of cement?" "Hold her hand?" "Wrap my arms around her waist?" "What?" his mind reeled with panicky questions.
Violet poked his arm. "Hey, you okay?"
He looked at her and smiled, "Oh, yeah. Just thinking about how to do this…" his voice tapered off, smile vanishing into a thoughtful expression as he stared at the cement wall.
Violet looked at her shoes. "He doesn't want to do this. Why am I up here? Why did Ihave to volunteer?" she thought, her self-confidence rapidly declining.
Wilbur looked at her and took a deep breath. "Okay, come here." He said lightly. "Put your hand on the wall." Violet put her right hand on the wall, and her heart began to pound as he lined up his hand and fingers with hers.
"Just a test run," He joked from her shoulder.
She smiled and tried to relax. "Chill out!" she told herself. "It's not like this is a date and he's holding your hand!"
Wilbur again took a breath to calm his own nerves. He couldn't concentrate on what he was doing with their hands touching, the smell of her hair in his face, the back of her shoulder on his chest, his cheek next to hers…
He blinked hard and tried to concentrate. Violet was beginning to wonder what was taking so long when he finally added pressure to her hand. The fluorescent blue surrounded both of their hands and hers started to phase through. She could feel her skin tingling.
"That feels so weird." she murmured.
"Yeah." He smiled, unsure how to proceed. "Just in case, hold your breath."
Violet frowned.
"Trust me; you can't breathe in the wall. Just do it." Wilbur said softly in her ear.
Violet could feel goose bumps on her arms. This moment was so… strange, but it was totally worth it. She obeyed and held her breath.
"You ready? This is going to happen fast." He asked.
Still holding her breath, Violet nodded.
Suddenly, Wilbur pushed her forward, but instead of hitting her face on the wall, she went through it! It was a big rush of that tingling sensation, then she belly-flopped onto the floor. Thankfully, Wilbur caught his balance and prevented himself from crashing on top of her, now looming above her.
As she started to get up, Lucius asked, "Well Vi, how do you feel?"
She smiled as she sat up. "I'm not sure; kind of tingly."
Wilbur laughed. "I'm not so sure that was the best approach."
Lucius grinned, "That's alright, because it's possible for you to phase people and objects! That will definitely prove useful someday! No doubt about it!" Looking at his watch, he continued, "Well, its 5:30 so I think that does it for today! Good job, Wil!"
Wilbur smiled at Lucius, loving the approval. Just before heading off to his dorm room, he caught up to Violet in the hall.
"Hey," he said sheepishly. "Sorry if all that seemed a little…awkward."
She shrugged it off. "Nah, it's fine. It didn't bother me."
Wilbur merely smiled as they stood there looking at each other. Violet thought as she looked into is hazel eyes, "He sure does stare at me quite a lot… Hmmm…"
Before she could ask him about it, Wilbur awoke from his own daydreams and told her that he would see her later.
"Ok, see ya Wilbur!" she replied happily.
But for some reason, she hated leaving that happy moment abruptly.