Chapter 45: Testing
DeDe was surprised on how we were woken up in the morning, she missed the song and had burning ears, she was a little harder to wake up. When she got to the DOJO, she was surprised to see both Susan and I leading the class. Those with tails followed me and those without tails followed Susan. DeDe had good form, but Susan helped straighten out the rough edges. She was so exhausted by the end of our routine; she went to the hot tub. And watched us frolicking in the pool, she had a big smile on her face. Mom, dad, and DeDe headed to the precinct, we got hugs and kisses from all three. Peter was mobbed by Elisabeth, Justin, and Scott, he left laughing as he headed out the door. Elisabeth, Justin, and Scott stayed with Miss Watts, and the rest of us headed for the DOJO.
As we came in the DOJO, we could feel some thing was off, Mr. Delaront came over too us. "Susan, Daniel the masters would like a word with you." We go over and sit down. Mr. Delaront speaks first. "Guys we have a small problem, other DOJO's feel we were wrong to promote you to masters. Normally we get one new master every decade or so, but we have promoted two in the last two years." He lets out a big sigh, "we have been asked to prove that you deserve the promotion. We will be holding the master's tournament here in a month's time, would you be willing to fight in this tournament?" I look at Susan and we both agree. "Yes, we would be willing to fight. Good, but you will have to learn to fight together, can you do this?
Sir, we have a link to each other, we believe we can do this". "Link what is this link"? "Mr. Spyromen, Susan and I have a bond with each other, that is we know what each other feels and sees". "I don't believe this; we are basing our reputation on whimsy"? "Sir I can prove we have a bond". "How would you do this"? "Sir, separate us and test us, we can see and feel what the other one sees and feels". "What, a cheap magic trick"? "No sir, you can choose any kind of test, so long as one of us can see or feel the test". "All right we will think on this, go train your family". We go train our family members, and help some of the newest members as well.
After awhile we are called over. Eight boxes are laid out in front of us. Mr. Spyromen lays out the terms of their test. "One of you will tell us what is in the boxes, and the other one will find out what is in the boxes. No touching of the boxes". I look at Susan and we agree, Susan follows Mr. Spyromen to the other side of the room. I stand there looking at the boxes. I hear from across the room "begin". I grab some power from the meadow and separate myself from my body. There is a gasp from the masters watching me. I go to the first box and look in. It's a ring I tell Susan. She speaks out the object. I move to the second, it's a knife I tell her. She repeats that it is a knife. We go through all eight boxes without a hitch. I re-enter my body and release my power. Mr. Delaront looks at me with new respect. "Daniel that was amazing, how long have you been able to do that"? "Just over two years sir". Susan and Mr. Spyromen walk back over. "So, Carl are you convinced"? "Yes, If I had not seen it, I would not believe it". "Can you teach us how to do that, Daniel"? "Yes, sir I can Sir". We spend the rest of the day in the centre of a circle of masters.
We practice hard, at home and at the DOJO. No spectators are allowed in the master's tournament, so the rest of the family stays home. We are welcomed into the DOJO. There are a few more masters in the room and we are getting looks of disbelief. There is a panel of older masters, who are the judges. We separate into four groups, and a gong is sounded. The judges decide who fights whom. Our single matches were draws, but our doubles match we won. Our final match was against three opponents. We waited tell they were on the mats before we pulled our last trick, we put blindfolds on ourselves. There were gasps of disbelief from around the room, but it was to late to change thing as the gong was sounded. We fought them all, they did get some hits on us, but we got some hits on them as well. The gong sounded for the end of the match, but one master refused to leave us on the mat. Susan and I decided to try what we had practiced. We practiced making a small shield, but what we were going to attempt was much bigger. We went back to back and putting our arm thought the others arms locked our elbows. We pulled in as much power as we could hold, and threw a dome of power over us. Susan used negative power which rotates in a clockwise direction, and I used positive power which rotates in a counter clockwise direction. We then stopped the power from rotating. When the master hit the shield we had created, the power threw him backwards three feet. Both of us fainted at this point, but as we had locked our elbows, we fell to our knees, but stayed up right, our heads falling to our chests.
WE found ourselves in the meadow with an angry Gab in front of us. "You fools, do you know what you have done"? We cower before him, we had never seen him mad or angry before. "Here eat this", he thrust a strange fruit in front of us. We do as he bids and eat the fruit. As we eat it his anger abates. "I'm sorry guys, but you scared me". "Why Gab"? "Do you know how close you came to killing yourselves"? "No Gab we don't". "If that power backlash had not gone to your opponent, it would have eaten both of you". "Did we kill him"? "No, most of the power went to throwing him away. But guys in the future please, please talk to me before you try something like that again". "We will Gab, and we're sorry". "I know you are, now time to go back".
We come too, still on our knees on the centre of the mat. We unlock our arms and fall flat on our faces. We untie our blind folds, and are helped to our feet, when the clapping begins. We look around and all the masters are clapping, even the poor fellow we threw with our power shield. Our black belts are removed from our karateka's and a white one is tied around us.
We are then left to stand in the middle of the mat as all the masters turn their backs on us and continue to clap. We are exhausted and just sit down in the middle of the mat. Mr. Delaront come over, "guys what a spectacular way to prove that you are masters". "What's with the white belt"? "Guys it denotes that you are master power users. No one in a thousand years has ever climbed as high as you two. Can you show us how you did it"? "I'm sorry sir, we can't. we don't know what we did, and we feel it almost killed us doing it". "I can believe this, as you two were not breathing for about thirty seconds. Again, well done".
We rest for a few, and when we could get up, we were brought before the judges. All the judges have smiles on their faces as they presented us with the master's plaque. One grizzly old mammal looked at us and asked what we were going to do for next years tournament. We shrugged and said we hadn't thought that far ahead. He laughed and shooed us away. We circulated around the room shaking the paws of all the masters. We are allowed to leave after a meal was presented and eaten.
As we come into the house, we are mobbed by our siblings. They had been watching us through the link. But there was an air of concern, they did not see the power surge that blocked our link with them, or the aftermath. We were then asked how we placed, in answer we held up our plaque.
When mom, dad, and DeDe came in that night, they saw the plaque hanging in the hallway. "Wow guys, you won"? "Yes dad, Susan and I did win". "You don't do things by half measures do you two"? "Well dad, what we did today almost killed us, we won't be doing that again any time soon". "I can believe it; says dad". Mom hugs us with tears in her eyes. "I'm so proud of you two". DeDe then takes her turn hugging us.
Vivian and Peter decide to have a honeymoon in the Hawaiian Islands they leave the last week of August. Scott cried when he found out that he was not going. But we explained to him, it was an adult only kind of week. They promised they would bring him back something. He accepted that and was better about it. He cried when they left, saying that he would miss them. Mom and dad drove them to the airport, and hugged them before they went through security. Dad let mom drive the car on the way back, as dad wanted to hang his head over the windshield. Judy just laughed at his lips flapped in the wind. She almost got into an accident laughing so hard, when dad got a bug stuck up his nose. For the rest of the trip dad kept his head inside the car. Mom snickered all the way home.