The door slammed open, waking up all four boys. "Time to get up and dressed. You got to eat and then we'll start your first day of training." James said. Sonic looked at the alarm clock set up in the room. It was five am. He groaned. "It's summer, can't we sleep a little longer?" He asked. "Nope." James said and walked away, presumably to wake up the girls.

The other three boys got up right away and started putting on their suits. Sonic took his dear sweet time and complained, a lot. "Stop whining." Knuckles finally snapped. Sonic groaned. Shadow was the first out the door and headed towards the cafeteria. Silver quickly followed. Knuckles waited for Sonic, who rushed a little bit when he saw that his friend was waiting for him.

They walked to the cafeteria. Sonic started rambling to Knuckles. "I bet you'll do some weightlifting to get stronger. Maybe I'll run on the track. Or the treadmill. How long do you think before I can go faster than it can. Two, three days. Oh, I bet that we'll have to eat some really gross stuff to prepare our bodies." They finally arrived in the cafeteria to find everyone there. James made them all sit at the same table. He put some trays with school food in front of them. So not exactly what Sonic had been expecting. "Eat up, you got a long day ahead." James told them. They did exactly that, while listening to Sonic ramble about the training they may have to go through. "I wonder how good we will all be able to get with our powers. I wonder if Knuckles will be able to lift a whole building. Or Rouge might be able to fly for miles. I bet I'll be able to go faster than the speed of light. Shadow could probably make twenty spears at once. And Silver might be able to use his powers to fly. And, and Blaze could set herself and fire and not get burned. How cool would that be. Or maybe, she could even breathe flames like a dragon."

"Honey, you need to slow down." Rouge told him. "Have some food." She pushed a tray toward him, and he started actually eating.

James walked over to the small group of students. "Today, we officially start your training. Learning to use your powers is all about focus, concentration, and precision. Right now, your powers are controlled by your hormones, stressful situation, adrenaline, peer pressure, social anxiety, attraction, even the music you listen to. Now that we know what your powers are, training is about learning to control them."

"How?" Blaze asked. James smiled at her. "Practice."

James brought them all out to the yard where targets were set up for practice. "Grab a bow and a quiver of arrows." James instructed. Each student did as they were told and stood in front of a target. "Get the bullseye." He told them. Each of them started trying to hit the target. Blaze and Shadow were the only ones who had even held a bow and arrow before. They both hit the target but neither of them could get the bullseye. Sonic couldn't even get the target. He kept hitting the trees. At one point, he hit Knuckles target, which was the one next to his.

James told them he was going to pull them into their own spaces to practice their individual powers. Sonic was pulled onto the outdoor track. "So what, do I just run. Easy." Sonic said. "You haven't even begun to scratch the surface of your power. What's your mile record?" James asked. "About 2 minutes and 30 seconds I think."

"Amateur hour. I want you to run around the track four times and then stop here." James pointed to a cone a little bit ahead of where Sonic was starting. Sonic stretched and prepared for his run. "On your mark, get set, go." James said and Sonic started. He was around the track in a blur of blue. He stopped where he was told. James clicked his tongue. "1:54.38, come on you can do better than that." Sonic went back to the starting spot. "GO!" He started. "1:33.53, not bad. Let's try again."

"Right now, you've only formed you're weapon under adrenaline filled circumstance, but you have to be able to do it like that." James said and snapped his fingers. "That doesn't explain why I'm sitting on a yoga mat." Shadow said in annoyance. "Because even if you are at peace, you have to be able to use your powers. Form your spear." Shadow scoffed. He flexed his hand to show his teacher that he could do it, but nothing happened. He tried again. He was getting annoyed, and even that wasn't helping. "Aren't you going to give me some advice?" Shadow asked as he tried again. "Lesson number three, the best teacher is experience." James said watching. Shadow continued to try.

"Alright, what've you got for me James?" Silver asked as he was led to a room. "You are easily startled, are you not?" James asks. "Well, I guess." James opens the door to the room and walks in, Silver following behind. In it, there's a bunch of objects and a cushion in the middle. "Take a seat." Silver sits on the pillow. "Your job, is to keep one object in the air, no matter what."

"No matter what?" Silver asks skeptically. "Yep."

"Are there lasers?" He stuttered. "No." James assured him. Silver looked around the room. He saw a strange cup and decided to use that. He focused on it. A blue light enveloped it, and it floated. He focused on it. letting it float there. Then he heard a horn honk behind him. "CHAOS!" Silver shouted, he lost focus and the cup, and it fell to the floor and shattered. "In battle, things will be happening all around you, you can't lose your focus." Silver groaned. Of course his training involved been scared half to death every ten seconds.

"So, what's my training? Weightlifting, punching stuff, working out?" Knuckles followed his teacher. "None of the above." James told him. James opened the door a regular classroom. "Much of your power is about control. You already lift weights for fun, right?" Knuckles nodded. "But how many phones have you broken this month?" James asked him. "I don't wanna talk about it." Knuckles grumbled. James handed him a tablet. "I don't understand." Knuckles looked at his teacher. James smiled and grabbed a box full of very similar looking assortment of iPads and tablets alike. "You're going to sit here and play games." Knuckles just stared. "What does this have to..."

"Well, if you can get angry, or even just play with these fragile things and not break them, I'll know you're in control of your powers and you're not letting your strength take over you." Knuckles tried to press the on button, but as he had done many times over the last month, the thing immediately shattered under his grip. James just gave him a look that said, 'I told you so'. Knuckles didn't like this, at all.

Blaze was sitting a completely empty room, with only a torch in the middle. "Mr. Marrow, I don't understand."

"I told you that you can call me James."

"I understand that Mr. Marrow, but I feel more comfortable this way. But what are we doing here?"

"I want you to light the torch." Blaze just stared at her teacher. That was it? "Just light it up." Blaze walked over to it and tried to spark something, but no matter what hand gestures, kicks, or even straight touching the torch lit it on fire. "Let's just keep trying." Mr. Marrow told her.

Rouge was currently standing on top of the school, and not liking where this was going. "I have two ideas to teach you to use your wings, so we'll start with the stick."

"The stick?" Rouge inquired. "An old saying for how to motivate someone to do something. There's the carrot and there's the stick. A reward for a good job or a consequence for a bad job."

"So, we're starting with the stick." Rouge was increasingly not liking her situation. James put a hand on her back and led her to the edge of the building. She looked down and saw a whole bunch of padding. Rouge had gotten pretty good at gauging distances in her time treasure hunting (much to her family's behest) and she would say this was a good 10-foot drop. With all the padding down there, it wouldn't kill her to fall from this height, and she didn't think she would break a bone, but it certainly wouldn't feel good. She felt a hand on her back and realized what was about to happen. She looked at her teacher in horror as he pushed her off the building. She tried to fly, but to no avail. All she did was slow her fall. "Come back up here and we'll try again!" James shouted at her. "NO WAY! I WANT THE CARROT!" She shouted right back. She was not going to fall of a building to try to test her powers every five minutes.

James led her to a room that looked like a vault. He opened it up and in the middle was the biggest emerald Rouge had ever seen in her life. It was about three feet tall and if she guessed had a 1 1/2-foot radius, but from her perspective, it was hard to tell. "This vault can sense if something touches the floor, ceiling, or walls outside of that red circle." Rouge looked to where James was pointing. There was a circle about a foot in radius right outside of the platform where the emerald was. "No gear, get the emerald and don't get caught. There are traps that will spring if the sensors are triggered. When we aren't in here, in case you were thinking of trying to get the gem later, there are also laser traps and inferred sensors, so it is pointless." Rouge was not happy with this information, but she had hope. She did a quick stretch and flexed her wings. She tried to launch but ended up falling on the floor, and a net landed on top of her. This was going to be a long day.