Book 2 Preview
Peter Quill could ultimately say that this was the most trouble he had ever gotten himself into. Here he was pinned to a wall, his armor discarded away, his weapons out of reach, and one flaming fire element moving closer. Alexi's flames kissed the tips of his boots and he felt the searing heat seem to weld his clothes to his skin. Her eyes were deathly yellow and seemed to rage with the fury of a thousand supernovas. Her hair was wildly sizzling, fire tendons reaching up as the never ending supply of oxygen from Harmony over across the room fueled her even more. Peter was starting to realize that agreeing to help train the elementals was a insanely stupid idea. He'd expected to be a teacher not a candlestick!
"Okay Nova Prime I, I think we're done here!" Peter shouted. He prayed that Nova Prime was still by the com unit, or even anybody was by the com unit. Otherwise the soundproof training area would be the only thing that heard his cries. Sure, Harmony might stop feeding Alexi energy because Harmony was kind but Alexi had been told not to take it easy on him, and she was enjoying doing just that a little too much. Peter was internally cursing Nova Prime for not allowing Courtney in there with them, she would have been helpful at this point.
Just as Peter felt Alexi's flames reach his face a bell sounded from up above. Alexi glanced up as Nova Prime's voice came through the com. "That'll be enough for today Alexi." Peter breathed a sigh of relief as the fire spirit stepped back and slowly her flames dispersed. With a light puff of smoke, almost like when you extinguished a candle, Alexi turned back into her normal punk Terrain self. Complete with a Nova Core uniform of course. Despite the pleas of some higher ranking officers Alexi, Harmony, and Courtney had been dubbed Nova Core in training. It had been seen as not only a disgrace to the Nova Core title but their Terrain heritage made them the instant underdogs among the other trainees.
Peter heard footsteps approach him and opened his eyes from when he had closed them. The painful blisters stinging his eyelids made his whole body ache at the motion of keeping them open. The footsteps approaching him belonged to the wind sprite Harmony. Known around the Nova office as the "girl with the voice of a banshee" it was less that the other trainees didn't like her and more that they were scared of her. Why they weren't scared of Alexi's ever raging volcanic fire or Courtney's tidal force waves was beyond him. Xandarians and their culture just plain confused him.
"You okay Quill?" Harmony asked, her voice hoarse from countless screeching exercises. She hadn't yet been able to recreate the scream that had incapacitated Titanium on Sanctuary but that didn't make her other screams any less terrifying. Any one of them could leave you with headaches or even deafness for a number of minutes. As far as non killing techniques went, Harmony's were the best by a long shot. Alexi hadn't yet mastered the art of not killing with her fire and Courtney more or less threw people or left them gasping for breath briefly. Either way, Nova Prime had already dubbed them as different power handles. Alexi was the muscle of the group, Harmony the spy, and Courtney the diplomat.
Peter struggled to his feet, tears in his eyes from the pain in his nearly flambe`d muscles. "Yep, 100% okay." He groaned in agony. Harmony shook her head.
"You males and your pride." She turned her back and followed Alexi out of the training room. "I was going to offer advice on how to help with those blisters but if you aren't that hurt..." Harmony let the sentence trail off as she stood near the door. Peter didn't even bother to consider what she had in mind before he was stumbling forwards calling for her to wait. Harmony just smiled and took Peters arm to support him as they both stumbled out of the room. The girls had gotten pretty used to their time here at Nova Headquarters, and on Xandar in general. They had taken to the planet and its customs much faster than Peter had when he first saw it. It had only been three months since the battle at Sanctuary and already they had settled in among the Xandarians.
As Harmony led Peter to the infirmary Nova Prime stepped towards them from the room that overlooked the training area. "Mr. Quill, what is your evaluation on Alexi's heat abilities?" Alexi turned around from where she was going back to her shared room with Courtney and Harmony to hear what Peter had to say. Peter searched through his heat lashed mind trying to come up with an answer.
"Can you simplify the question?" He asked.
Nova Prime rolled her eyes. "How well will she perform in battle?" She asked with a little more exasperation in her voice.
"Oh!" Peter cried with understanding. "Yeah, she's, well, she packs a punch with that flame." No one laughed. "That was a stupid joke." Peter mumbled. "Well she has a long reach for her powers I guess, I mean my skin was being seared off when she was halfway across the room. Then again I think that was only when Harmony was feeding her oxygen from her wind power. Overall I'd say her heat was at a fairly high temperature but it only incapacitated you when she was right up in your face or Harmony gave her power. She also seems unable to regulate how hot or dull her flames are, I think only Courtney or Harmony could regulate that based on how she operates under their powers." Peter finished rambling off every thought on his mind and looked at Nova Prime to see how he had done.
"So you're saying that Alexi's power can only be useful and contained when under the influence of the others' powers?" Nova Prime asked.
"No, wait that's not-" Peter went to interject but Nova Prime was already walking down the hall talking into her com about Peter's observations. Peter turned around and was staring face to face with Alexi.
"You think I can't control my power!" She screamed. Peter flinched back but he knew Alexi's power wouldn't flare up. Each girl had a trigger on their power. Alexi's was fear, Harmony's was anger, and Courtney's was hatred. Those triggers were the only things that held the girls back in training, they couldn't bring those emotions on because they were emotions the girls had trained themselves for years to ignore. Still, Peter could never be sure what would cause Alexi to be scared.
"I didn't mean it like that." Peter tried to calm Alexi down. "I was just saying that usually your power work best when under the influence of another power." Apparently that was the wrong thing to say as Alexi turned around and walked off, hands balled up into fists.
"C'mon Alexi, it's not the end of the world if you get a bad grade on your training." Harmony tried to reason with her. Alexi whirled around, the tips of her hair starting to smoke.
"But it could be! Have you ever considered the end of that prophecy thing that stupid stone spat out? We're supposed to save the entire universe from something unheard of before and you don't think I need optimum power to do that? We all need to be at our best in order to fight, and if that stupid Nova person doesn't think I'm capable of fighting without some babysitters than I won't get to fight!" Alexi's tone turned dark. "And I want to make the people who did this to us suffer for an eternity." Alexi turned around and stormed off to her room. "I'll show you all!" She howled. "I'll show you just what Inferno can do!"