After my scrimmage with Grey, the little tyke had a slightly different tune when he spoke to me. I liked that, it felt extremely well earned. Especially when I'm pretty sure I could have brought things to a swifter conclusion if I had rolled the dice and attempted to break down his focus by flooding it with my own magis. The properties of my magis should have at least rendered it inert for a little while. Then all there would have been left was to rock him to sleep with a quick boxing lesson. I guess I'll keep that strategy in my back pocket if he decides to act up again.

With all of us having a team in full effect and my having been out for a few weeks, we decided to have a meeting at the Travers' Manor to bring everyone up to speed and make a game plan. The arrangement was actually pretty nice. We all lounged about in the living room area, in Traver's cushy furniture with expensive teaware at the ready. Old man even had a cheese board brought out. I opted for a protein bar I had leftover in my apartment, and Toby brought some hot wing-flavored chips, which I pilfered a few handfuls from him. I can never wrap my head around just eating cheese on its own. The meeting consisted of me, Hank, Alina, Wyatt, Toby, Carla, Velora, Alice, and our special guest who helped himself to just about whatever food wasn't locked away, Grey. The mood was a little off, most of us were getting along fine, but you could feel the tension between Wyatt and Toby creeping into your lungs with every breath. Needless to say, it was a bit of a downer.

Wyatt had quite a lot to share during his time. He covered how he had been able to fashion some armaments and focuses to help us fight that the recovered from Tinworth tower. It sounded like I missed a nice little excursion there. He busted out bag full of new toys. A set of 5 pendants with matching accessories that were all made out of this bluish-green metal.

"This is a project I've been working on that I think most of you will find great use in. They're called 'Reserve Armaments', I found a prototype in the tower that was pretty much finished. However, it was in the form of a clunky suit of armor that drained your magis at an alarming rate. This would be used to fuel the armor's battery, which could be activated with a command to cash out everything that had been saved up for greater mobility. After some tinkering, I've made some revisions to make them less cumbersome and have a more balanced design of application. Carla, you're up."

"Okie doke!" Carla beamed at Wyatt, looking hyped to demonstrate. "Alright Luchi, up and at em' boy!" The green puppy I always see her backpacking was released from its travel suite and began to stretch and yawn upon landing before letting of a discharge of electricity.

"Where can I get one of those?" I gestured to the pooch.

"Luchi and I were paired at birth Ty, sorry you missed the bus on that one."

I snapped my fingers at the news. "Lucky dog... Talking about you by the way Carla."

"Har-dee-har. Sorry everybody, he's usually not this lethargic."

We watched as the dog slowly grew to full size and shook itself awake. On his collar I noticed a pendant just like the one Wyatt showed us next to his tags.

"So, these accessories are synced up with the pendants."

"Exactly, but this comes with a little risk. You can see that Luchi here isn't being the usual rambunctious pup that we know him as. That's because his accessory is lined with his collar against the fur. I've optimized it for comfort because you know, animal cruelty isn't my bag. That collar is siphoning off roughly 20% of his full magis capacity each day. He should basically be feeling like he's had a rough night of sleep. Alice, can you send him to the track and give us a view like we talked about?"

"Anything for you." With a wink, Alice weaves a gateway; a black and white rimmed hole appears in the center of our seating arrangement. Luchi lets out a bark and goes through no problem.

"Allow me." Hank butts in, using his arts to give us a view of a nearby window overlooking the track at the academy.

"Give him the go ahead, Carla."

As Wyatt instructed her, Carla closes her eyes, assumedly tuning herself to her partner. "Okay boy! Run like the wind!"

Luchi barks in confirmation and begins running laps around the track at an impressive speed. Green electricity crackling in his wake.

He must've run a few miles in the first 10 or some minutes but showed some signs of slowing down.

"I'm sure you guys have noticed that the pup is getting tuckered out."

"That mongrel is also capable of much greater speeds on any other day." Velora volunteered. With what sounded like some thinly veiled disdain.

"Exactly. Luchi has been wearing that collar for a little over a week now. His was the first set I made after my own, and I've been comparing the results after daily use on myself. Luchi, has been stacking his savings the entire time. Do it, Carla."

"Okay boy, release!"

Luchi woofed with glee and despite the distance we could all see the pendant on his collar light up as his energy had been restored and then some. He shined brighter than he had all day and began to run even than seen before. Toby let out a low whistle at the display,

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Wyatt continued to speak as Luchi continued to zoom around the track at a blinding velocity and leaving a stream of electric sparks streaking behind. "As you've all observed, Luchi was able to tap into the reserve magis that he had invested over the course of the last week. Once this command is activated, you receive as much as you are able of the magis that you've supplied so far. I've had mine on for the last 5 days without any break. If I were to cash out now, I would receive a steady flow of magis up to about 100% of my normal capacity. While this is active, the siphon is deactivated until the user commands it to resume its function. Does anyone have any questions about the R.A's?"

Alina raised her hand first. "20% of full capacity means very different things to a lot of people. Would this be something I should even be able to use?"

Wyatt stroked his chin, " I gave that some thought. Your output has been limited, but your reserves are still as inexhaustible as ever, right? I think if you tried to use one, you'd break the siphon altogether. This is more for us normies in the field of energy storage. That being said, I'm confident this wouldn't do you any good either, Tyson."

Alina and I nodded, frowning at one another. I continue the discussion, "So that just leaves Velora, Carla, Hank, Toby, and Alice. What about kid frost over there?" Grey pretended not to hear that.

"From what I've heard, his capacity is definitely above average. We can probably work something out, once we understand his intentions about helping out."

Grey crossed his arms. "I don't have any. I'm just waiting for Alina to either come to her senses or listen to Dad whenever he eventually checks in to see why I'm we're not back yet."

"The transparency is appreciated." Wyatt rolled his eyes. "That's pretty much it for the R.A.'s. Any of you that would like to make use of them, help yourselves."

Carla was the first to take hers, followed by Toby who avoided eye contact, Alice, Velora and finally Hank.

"I have plenty of spare parts and free time between my training regiment, if any of you have any ideas for a tool you might want made. Don't hesitate."

Expressions of gratitude resounded in the room.

Wyatt cleared his throat. "I've got a couple more things to go over and then someone else can have the floor. I've managed to get us a proverbial eye in the sky after rummaging through the tower with everyone's help. Also."

I'm still shaky on the application, but I can do this now.

Everyone gasped, leaving Wyatt's face at the crossroads of smug and pleased.

Toby stood up out of his chair in a cold sweat, pointing a shaky finger at Wyatt. "Yo hold UP, I didn't hear that with my ears. Am I goin' crazy?!"

"Nobody did Toby, looks like ol' Thompson finally figured out his affinity. He's some sorta brain boy!" I chuckled at the development.

Alina immediately started scritching notes into a pad. "Of course! The dull gray hue of his emissions! Psychic affinities are incredibly rare. You're so lucky! How did you eventually figure that out? I have to know Wyatt." She stared at him with a laser's focus.

"All I'm gonna say, is it was a lot of trial and error, and a lot of help from a new friend."

'I'd wager whoever that friend may be, is also your 'eye in the sky?'" Hank surmised with an inquisitive look on his face.

"Speaking of wagers..." Wyatt deflected. "I'd like to settle ours before we potential go to war here."

Hank paled, being reminded of his use of motivation for our previous training. "Mr. Thompson, I've considered how inappropriate leaving something so personal to a bet, and I'd like to-"

"Nah." Wyatt held up his hand. "We'll follow through with it. I wanna see how far we've come in such a short time. Whaddaya say, Tyson?"

I considered things for a moment. Even thought I'd only been out for a couple of weeks, it seems like Wyatt had really handled business since then and got a ton of tricks up his sleeve racked up. "I'll be on standby."

He raised his eyebrows at that. I returned fire with a confident look. "I think you've got it. No foolin'. I'll be there just in case he tries anything slick."

Wyatt nodded. " The other news I had to tell everyone is more of a goal to keep in mind."

The others perked up at the notion. "Have any of you ever heard of and 'Art of Inclination'?"

We all looked at each other, puzzled until Hank piped up. "Yes. It's what I use, and what has been taught to Alice from a young age. An Art of Inclination is a mostly unique art, crafted and calibrated to the user. It is said that an inclination is discovered when one reaches a profound understanding of their self and what they wish to accomplish with their arts."

Wyatt crossed his arms. " I figured that's what you had going on more or less, I just had no idea that there was a name or classification for it. Well, the gist of what I'm going to say is, if we really want to take it to the Strauss' and keep them from messing with us, I think if each of us discover what our inclination is, we will be brought to a whole new level of power! Since the Travers family here are experienced with the concept, I'd like to ask both of you to tutor us if you could."

Alice fidgeted a little, seeming uncomfortable with the idea. "I'm not sure I'll be any help with that, but I'll be sure to lend a hand however I can."

Hank put a hand on her shoulder. "Balderdash sweet pea, with having achieved it at such a young age, you're likely more apt to instruct on the process than I am myself."

Alice just shook her head at that, uncharacteristically shy all of a sudden.

"Anybody else got anything?" Wyatt began to wrap up.

"I- uh...!" Toby stood up, his eyes darting around to see everyone staring at him. "I wanted to say I'm sorry, formally and stuff. For what happened at the tower. I got careless, and scared everyone else half to death. What's worse, I hurt Carla and broke the trust you had for me as a teammate and stuff...oh, and I punched you! Fuck!" He bowed his head as deeply as he could. "I never actually thought you were a dweeb Wyatt, and It was shocking to hear that you thought you could depend on me. It meant... It still means a lot, and I hope with time we can get back to how things were. Except with me being more considerate of others. Uh, oh yeah. Not making any excuses, but I just wanted to say, I only never worried about you when I did stuff because I thought that there wasn't anything I could do to faze you. Whether on purpose or accident. Wat I'm trying to say is, I respect you a lot and I'm sorry for being a dickling."

Wyatt gave a dumbfounded expression. "Dickling? Yeah whatever don't make a seen man. I did a lot of thinking myself, we're good."

Toby lit up. "You mean it?! It's been real shit avoiding you all the time, ya know? Oh, and Carla?" He looked over to Carla, who was tucking Luchi away in her pack now that the pup had finished working out.

She waved at him dismissively, a soft smile on her face. "I know you'd never hurt a fly Tobias, you're a real sweetheart once you let all the hot air out. No hard feelin's"

He let out a sigh of relief. "Thank you both!" Then he sunk back into his chair.

"I believe that leaves at least one more matter up for discussion here." Velora stated as she examined a piece of cheese. "Tyson, how and why are you back?"

Wyatt and Toby shot her a dirty look, and Alina looked at her with concern, before looking back at me.

"More importantly. Why are you still the same?"