After a meal and an actually pleasant conversation, James made the group go back to their individual training.

Rouge glared at the gem in the middle of the vault. She really wanted it, but the only way across was to fly, and this was something that she hadn't been able to do for more than a few feet. And James kept dragging her back to the start when she failed. It was becoming an increasing frustration and she felt like she wasn't making a lot of progress.

Blaze couldn't figure it out. She couldn't get her powers to work. Blaze had always been good at academics. She was a fast learner and there was never a challenge that she couldn't overcome. But this was seeming like it might be the first and it frustrated her to no end. She felt like there might be something stopping her, like metaphorical or physical roadblock, but she couldn't figure this out for the life of her.

Knuckles broke another iPad and was frustrated enough by the dumb exercise to end up accidentally on purpose break the table.

For some reason, the rate at which Sonic got faster was slowing down, which didn't make sense because speed was his thing. He was able a go a mile in 30 seconds, but it wasn't fast enough. He could feel it in his bones that he could go faster if he kept pushing himself.

The only explanation for his continued struggle was that James was messing with him. Because Shadow genuinely couldn't fathom what was causing him trouble forming his spear. It didn't make any sense to him. It made him want to spear James, but he couldn't even make a spear to do it.

Silver laid on the floor, breathing heavily after another scare, this time, it was the sound of a fire alarm blasting through the room, causing him to drop another porcelain cup. Silver new that another scare would be the one to kill his poor heart.

James watched each of his students struggle. They didn't know it, but they were doing great. They were getting better. They were only a week in and their progress was amazing, but what James did know, was that they needed a little bit of help.

"Rouge, how have you been using your wings?" Rouge was currently being dragged back to the start. "I don't understand?"

"How have you been trying to fly?"

"I mean, I guess I was trying to copy a bird?"

"Do these look like bird wings to you?" Rouge paused. "After further investigation, I believe they are modeled after bat wings. You're going to take a break from flying and do some research."

"On?"

"How bats fly." Rouge paused. In the end, it did make sense that she didn't have wings like a bird so she shouldn't try to fly like a bird. It might help.

"What's the problem?" James asks Blaze. She's sitting against the wall, trying to light the torch with her glare. "It's not working."

"That's surprising. I would have burst into flames with the way you're glaring at it." A glare which was now directed at James. "I think that maybe you need to stop willing it to be on fire and start thinking it is on fire."

"Huh?"

"Look at it and visualize what you want it to do."

"I have been, it's not working."

"You're overthinking it. Create a picture in your mind of it being on fire." He told her. She thought about it. She hadn't actually tried that. She had just tried to will the fire into existence. Blaze got up and walked over to the torch. Closing her eyes, she created a mental picture of the torch on fire. When she opened her eyes, there it was. Fire. She started cheering. "Thank you, Mr. Marrow." He smiled at her. "Keep practicing." He smiled back.

"Knuckles, you need to not get so frustrated. This is the fifth table you've broken." James told the boy. Knuckles sighed, about ready to give up. "Why is everything so damn fragile?"

"So is Rouge fragile?" James asked. Knuckles faced flushed red. "What?"

"Today, in the elevator, you didn't break her." Knuckles stared at his teacher. "Huh?"

"When you picked her up. Or when she made you give her a massage. You didn't break her. I don't see how this is much different." Knuckles took in this new information. He hadn't ever broken a person (except on purpose, but that was one time and the kid totally deserved it and it was only the kid's leg), only inanimate objects. "Just handle this," James placed a new device in front of Knuckles, "with the same care you would a human and don't think about it too much." Knuckles took a deep breath. He turned it on and not even a crack. He started playing that game with the little Disney characters that were also stuffed toys that he couldn't pronounce (Tsum Tsum Knuckles, it's called Disney Tsum Tsum). Nothing happened and he could have cheered.

James watched as Sonic continued to practice. His best time was 24.5 seconds. But James knew Sonic could do better, and so did he, so he kept working. Sonic stopped and grabbed some water. He decreased his time by a second. "You need to decrease drag." James told Sonic. "How do I do that?"

"Don't stand straight, bend down. It's like the difference between a truck and a race car. Let the wind go over you." Sonic thought for a moment. Like a race car. Sonic got back to the track and prepared to go. James called him and Sonic followed his teacher's instructions, and for Sonic, that meant doing something very similar to a Naruto run. Sonic came to a stop at the cones and James stopped the timer. "How'd I do?" James smiled at him. "14.3 seconds." He did a jump for joy with a fist pump.

Shadow was prepared to strangle the clone of James that was watching him and not saying anything helpful. "I understand your trying to teach me something by making me do it myself, but couldn't you just give a little more than 'use your powers'."

"You can't just will your powers to work. That work's for some people but not for everyone. I personally imagine a switch." Another James appeared. So, Shadow had the real James today, that kind of made the will to strangle him even greater. "A switch?"

"You know, like a light switch, but for your powers. Flip the switch and the power comes on. Flip it and it turns off." Shadow considered this. He didn't have any better ideas. He thought of a light switch. He flipped the switch. When he opened his eyes, he was holding a large glowing spear of light. "What do you want to call your power?" James asked him. Shadow threw it at the wall and a small explosion occurred. "Chaos spear."

Silver was waiting, listening. He heard the sound and was startled, but he turned to look at the object and caught it before it hit ground. "Pretty good. It's okay to be startled, you just have to work on staying focused. You're getting much better." James gave him a pat on the back. And Silver didn't even drop the cup.

The next morning, James woke everyone up at exactly the same time as every morning. Each of the students had gotten a morning routine down, but Sonic still grumbled about having to wake up so early. After everyone down for breakfast, each of the students began talking about the progress they made yesterday. "I'm almost under a mile in ten seconds." Sonic told everyone excitedly. "I think I finally have a grasp on how to use my wings." Rouge told them. "I didn't drop my cup." Silver smiled. "I didn't break and iPad for six hours yesterday."

"What about you Blaze?" Silver asks his friend. Blaze smiles and holds out her hand. After a second, a small flame appears. "That's so cool!" Sonic says excitedly. Shadow holds out his own hand to show off his chaos spear. Sonic and everyone else stare in awe. "Shadow, that's amazing!" Sonic says excitedly. A small blush graces Shadow's face.

"Class, follow me!" James says and starts walking away. They start following him. Sonic starts recognizing where they are, and he doesn't like it one bit. James opens the door to the school pool. "What's this?" Silver asks. James grabs a bag from the side of the pool. He tosses something to each of the kids. "Swimsuits?" Blaze asks. "You get a pool day." James told them. Sonic didn't like this at all. "And it's required." Not one bit. The group looked at each other and shrugged. They all went to the locker rooms to change. Sonic was taking his dear sweet time. Silver and Shadow thought nothing of it, because they didn't know, but Knuckles did. Once they left, Knuckles turned to his friend. "Are you going to be okay?"

"I'll be fine. I'll stay in the shallow end, or I'll only still my feet in. We don't have to make a big deal out of this. Clearly James is just trying to give us an actually fun activity to bond over." Sonic finished tying the strings of the blue swim trunks James had given him and Knuckles and him walked out.

When they got out, Rouge was splashing everyone. Shadow finally got annoyed with the barrage of splashes, tackled Rouge and forced her under for a few seconds. She came back up and started laughing. "Come on guys, the water feels great." Silver says when he sees them. Knuckles jumps on in. Sonic hesitates. Knuckles, Rouge, Silver, and Blaze start a water fight, but Shadow notices that Sonic hasn't come in. Shadow looks at Sonic and raises his eyebrow, silently asking what's wrong. Sonic looks at him and flashes a cocky grin. Sonic cannonballs into the pool where he knows where he can stand up. He's careful to not let fear overtake him and comes up ends up splashing Shadow in the face accidentally on purpose.

"Let's play chicken!" Silver shouts. "What?" Blaze asks. "How do you not know what chicken is?" Rouge asks. "I don't." Shadow says. "You'll love it. It's a battle game. Let's get into teams."

"I found my teammate." Rouge says and uses her waist to bump Knuckles. "I was afraid of that." He says. Silver and Blaze just share a glance and smile. "I guess that leaves us Shads."

"Never call me that again." Shadow glares at Sonic. "Just copy us." Rouge says. Knuckles bends down and Rouge climbs on his shoulders. Blaze gets on Silver's shoulders. Sonic walks over to Shadow and, somewhat begrudgingly, Shadow let's Sonic climb on his shoulders. "Now what?" Shadow asks. "We try to knock the other teams down." Sonic says. "That, I can do." Shadow says. All three teams start pushing each other, all laughing their heads off the whole time.

No team noticed, but Shadow and Sonic were inching closer and closer to the deep end of the pool. Blaze and Rouge got the upper hand, knocking Sonic off of Shadow and Shadow into the water. Shadow quickly resurfaced a let out a small laugh. The other two teams were fighting. Shadow waited for what felt like ages for Sonic to resurface. "Guys." Shadow said after a minute. Everyone else was too busy playing and James had left the room. "GUYS!" He shouts. Everyone turns to him. "Sonic hasn't resurfaced."