A/N: Short update today, mostly because the next few chapters deal with his PR meeting and stuff, and thus might need major rewrites come Wednesday, depending on the poll up on the SB thread. I reserve the right to choose freely from all names, but the poll tells me what's popular, so please feel free to vote or suggest names. I'm thinking a Monday and Friday update schedule, so expect the next chapter Friday.

Stasis 2.3

Aegis and Triumph went to face off, and I offered to supply a training zone, minus the roof this time – Aegis didn't want to risk flying through, not before it got tested. I chose another at random, allowing it to fill the space. The new locale looked like a patch of forest, but this time it was less jungle, and more magical poplar or aspen stand. Magical because motes of light glowed in the wide gaps between the trees, and the ground cover consisted of glowing purple heather and blue, crystalline rocks, with black shining dirt beneath. A whistle came from the audience.

I really needed to show them the sky-river one next.

Aegis and Triumph took positions, and with a thought, I began to grow a barrier of the blue crystalline material, thin enough to be mostly transparent, thick enough only a heavy impact would crack it. I might have an extra ability to intuit the abilities of materials I summoned, because I sure didn't know how else I would know that. Either way, it should make a decent splash shield while the two low-level brutes tangled.

A three count, and they were off. Triumph ate the distance with a powerful stride, while Aegis pulled a Superman haymaker to meet the charge. Triumph shouted to make Aegis flinch and miss, then grabbed him, spun, and threw him at the wall. He slammed into the wall, and Triumph closed the distance again in his commanding sprint. Aegis barely flinched as he hit, flying straight upward to get a height advantage.

Triumph shouted, louder this time. Aegis was able to dodge a direct hit, but Triumph's versatility lay in the area his blaster power had. It was hard to dodge, moving fast as rolling thunder, and hit a wide cone around it. Aegis still took a hit, and smacked a tree to boot, but managed to regain control. He went into a dive again, while Triumph was out of breath, and sent him flying into a tree as well. Triumph recovered in time to barely dodge Aegis' punch, and wasn't able to get away when the punch became a Brute headlock. Triumph tapped out, readjusting his lion helm as he stood up.

"Nice one, Carlos. Didn't even see the hold coming. Okay, who's next? Stalker, you want a go?" She stood, stretching. "Fine. Who do I get the honor of fighting with today?" She seemed a bit happier than usual today. Or maybe, this might be her normal? I doubted it. Something in her body language-

"Materia, you up for another round?" I nodded absently, lost in my thoughts, before realizing what I'd just volunteered for. Sighing, I pulled out my phone, and typed, 'Okay, you're a good jumper, right?' She grudgingly nodded. 'Let's try this one then.' I let go of the magical forest, reaching for the sky-mountains. As they filled the arena, I moved the glowing point off the surface of the sphere, searching blindly for a decent battlefield. Finally, I felt the right kind of terrain start to form.

The sparring room no longer looked enclosed. On all sides, you could see sky. The battlefield consisted of the edge of a flying mountain, complete with huge vines and tall trees. The rest of the battlefield was open air, spotted with floating chunks of rock, ranging in size from a basketball to a car. A floating river flowed straight through the center of the area, exiting through where the far wall had been, flowing off into the distance.

Stalker sounded like she wanted to purr in satisfaction as she overlooked the battlefield, but only said "Nice". The others stared for a minute, just taken aback from the view. Clock was the first to speak up, as I silently groaned.

"No fair! Until you came along, Vista and I had the local market cornered on bullshit powers." I responded in a shrug. Triumph spoke up next. "Can you grow a floor? I know it kills the vibe, but we still don't know what happens when we cross your areas of effect, and plummeting miles to the ground if we can cross seems like undue risk." Stalker shot a look at him, but didn't say anything on the subject. Instead, she walked closer to me and said, "Okay, pipsqueak." I bristled a little as she went on. "Tell you what. You manage to stay up for a minute, and we can unmask to each other, get that bullshit out of the way. Don't, and I expect you to stay out of my way from now on."

She had at least stepped close enough no one else had heard her, so I wasn't being drowned out by inane complaints about her attitude while I thought about it. I did want to get the unmasking finished up; it was awkward having to put on my mask every time I entered the room, and I barely had a mask. On the other hand, the last thing I wanted was another bully who wanted to walk all over me because I was an easy target. Could I defeat her? I didn't know. The only time I had seen her fight was a short clip of a cape fight on TV, but I hadn't paid much attention.

I was confident I could handle myself for a minute, though. I nodded. I would go all out, and see how long I lasted. We jumped into the ring. She shifted from flesh and bone to a sort of gaslike substance, and I immediately realized how screwed she was.

I could feel her, hear her. She was dischordant as heck, and I wouldn't dare try to use my powers directly on her, but she was loud to my power, her sound like a haunting organ to the normal air's pan flute. There was no way I wouldn't hear her coming. I smiled a little as I jumped, augmenting my leap with a cushion of air, focusing on the flow of the wind in my world. I almost wanted to go easy on her, with that little discovery, but she was really rude, and I hated a bully. I wanted her to acknowledge me, so I had to fight seriously.

I held up a hand, counted down from three, and it was on. She shifted to shadow, leaping up from the floating boulder she had been on to another, then whipped out her crossbows. I ran along the edge of the mountain like a fierce wind, ducking low to stop my eyes from tearing up, then jumped, kicking off a torso-sized rock to alter my path. I arced towards her as she fired her crossbows, the new bolts sliding into place as the payloads flew. I spun myself, wind forming a blunt wave that stopped and scattered the twin bolts before they hit me, then landed on the side of her boulder, holding myself on with air pressure. She ran again, copying my trick to redirect herself to a huge boulder near the center, next to the river.

Big mistake.

I jetted off the rock, using a combination of air and stone to rocket myself into the water in less than a second, and burst through the other side, now controlling a decent amount of water in my clothes and around myself. I adjusted my trajectory and spun, slamming into the mountain with a crash, shattering the ground as I landed in a crouch. She had shifted to shadow as I flew, unprepared for the missile impression I had done, so I heard the next two bolts separate from her main mass, and struck out with a whip of water as they stopped being shadow, breaking them in half.

I looked around for her. There, back on the center rock. I threw fire, and she dodged, another, dodged. She tried to hit me again, but I casually water-whipped the bolts out of the way. If I wanted to prove to her I could fight, I needed to draw her into close combat. I ran further down the edge of the mountain, and she growled, then followed. As soon as she landed, I ran back at her, enhancing my speed with the wind again. She clipped her crossbows to her belt in a practiced motion, and then I was there.

She lunged with a jab, and I dodged to the left, focusing on my boxing and tai chi, allowing myself to move with her, like a leaf on the wind. She followed with a left hook, which connected in a glancing blow, but I recovered and gave an augmented kick. She shifted to shadow, and was subsequently blown back when the wind from my kick blew through her form. I followed with a sweep of my hands, sending water through her body, and she staggered, reeling as her body reformed from the rent I had blown in it.

Huh, maybe that was the way to beat her. I tried again, drawing water in tendrils a few inches thick, giving myself the mental image of a squid or octopus, and proceeded to whip in a steady rhythm, my arms swaying to maintain the control. It was super difficult, but I was getting results. Each hit took a chunk out of her mist body, and her body language screamed anger, but she knew the moment she changed back I would have her. Any attempts to escape were cut off by a tendril or gust, and after a few more seconds of the assault, her body language shifted, and she raised her hands in surrender and changed back. I stopped, breathed a sigh at the relief of not having to maintain the tendrils anymore, and dried myself with a gust and a gesture, water pouring off me.

"Huh, you're not what I'd have pegged for a predator. Maybe we're not so different after all."

The words hit me like a truck. She thought I was like her? She thought I was a bullying, self-centered… wait. She was being… friendly now? What the heck? Had I hurt her brain or something when I hit her?

She pulled off her mask, holding out a hand. Contrary to her tone of voice, her face was hard, her eyes shining in silent anger. I quickly took off my mask. A deal was a deal. "I'm Sophia. Good to see someone on this team has a spine, even if it is the pipsqueak. Don't cross me, and I won't cross you, got it?" I nodded, numbly confused. This was surreal. She had some weird mindset where it was all us versus them, but somehow, I was an us now? I had just beaten her soundly. I expected her to leave me alone, not try to befriend me. I shook my head a little. Right, my name, her handshake.

I reached out and took her hand, shaking it. After we jumped back to the observation area, I reached for my phone and typed out a generic introduction. Everyone else was plainly sharing the same confusion I was with the sudden comradery Sophia was showing. Glad to know I wasn't the only one in the uncanny valley. I absently nodded at her acknowledgement of my name, and went to sit down on the benches. At a request, I shifted the world back to the ground level, allowing Stalker and Kid Win to fight in the beautiful locale.

Dennis and Missy sat down next to me, looking just as shell-shocked as I felt. Dennis, as always, was the first to speak. "Did you literally just beat some sense into Shadow Stalker?" I shook my head a little again, trying to clear the confusion she had caused with her sudden shifts in personality. She was back to being rude to Kid Win, so I guess it was just me. 'I honestly have no idea.' That didn't even cover how confused we were.

I groaned, started typing. 'Hey Clock, you remember that joke you made about my powers earlier?' "The news at 11 one? Yeah, why?" 'I think that was too on the nose.' 'Before I came, the sky was blue, the grass was green, and Stalker was mean.' I started silently shaking a little, a grin on my face as I typed. 'Then I showed up, and broke everything with my bullshit powers.' He and Vista listened quietly, nodding solemnly before it really hit them. They started chuckling, then we were all laughing. It wasn't the joke itself, it was just good to laugh about something, good to put aside our thoughts for a bit.

It was good to have friends.