Jack insisted that I needed to meet up with him in the woods, he refused to give any more details but to be ready. Lux decided she stay back, she wanted to find more out about Icarus. However, I could tell there was still this air of tension between us. I was starting to regret telling her how I felt. I had gone and made things awkward between us. I attempted to get it off my mind as I trekked over to Jack. I knew I couldn’t do anything about it right now.

So I focused on trying to figure out where Jack could be. I assumed when he said the woods, he meant the area where me and Zack met to hero up at. I did my best to look around and make sure I wasn’t being followed. As I got closer to the spot, I could hear a very familiar voice yelling about cheese.

“How dare you take me away from my grilled cheese!” I heard Zack boom angrily at someone, who I assumed to be Jack.

Once I got to the spot, I saw an angry Zack pointing his finger at Jack who was relaxed up in the trees. Zack kept yelling on and on about how pissed he was that Jack teleported him away from his food. But Jack seemed almost asleep in the trees. His eyes were closed as he leaned back against it. Not a care in the world.

“Jack what’s going on!?” I yelled over Zacks repeated yelling.

“I'll tell ya what’s going on! This Hippie took me from a perfectly good grilled cheese!” Zack roared in frustration. His hands had smoke coming off them as he growled, glaring up at Jack. Who still seemed like he could be asleep.

“Jack what was the emer-” I stopped speaking as I could feel the temperature begin to drop around us. Jack still seemed very much asleep, which made me worry.

“H-hey F-frosty. T-turn the h-heat ba-” Before Zack could stutter out another word, I felt the ground below us vanish.

I wanted to jump but I didn’t react fast enough. Suddenly the ground felt like a freezing pool as I fell down into its depths. I started to panic, but I relaxed once I realized this felt all too familiar. It was just like that moment I fell into the ground after fighting that stone guy. I relaxed and closed my eyes as I let the icy waves carry we away.

It felt like it was only a moment, but I could feel warm air hitting my face. I opened my eyes and I could see a bright light above my head. It was like opening your eyes under the water at the pool. I felt a rush of the waves pushing and I shot out of the depths. I focused myself as I came out and saw a dirt ground below me. I landed on my feet, almost falling over. Then came out Zack, who was now screaming uncontrollably.

He landed on his feet stumbling a bit, but held his ground. He was shivering and began rubbing over his arms.

“Eww, is that what being birthed feels like?” He shivered out.

Then I looked around us, and I was speechless. It was like we were in some kind of mountain area. I could see trees and plants surrounding us. I could hear birds chirping loudly, and the sun was much more overbearing here than back home. I had to take off my hoodie. There was a huge mountain behind us that made me feel like a speck of dust. Then, something odd that caught my attention. A single ice cube rested on the ground right next to us. Where the hell did that even come from? And where the hell are we even at!? Then Poof! I saw a blue light flash from the ice cube and out came Jack, yawning loudly.

“I’m glad you both could make it, now let’s get to business-” He started to speak but Zack interrupted him.

“What the hell is going on!? Where are we!?” Zack spat out question after question but Jack just sighed.

He flicked his wrist at Zack and an odd blue mist shot out from his hands. The mist hit Zacks face and ice popped up over Zack’s mouth.

“Hey, grown-ups are talking.” Jack sighed as he looked to me.

I just gave him a thumbs up, while Zack roared into the ice. He tried scratching it and pulling it off. I wonder if he forgot he has fire powers…

“As I was saying before Dumbledore decided to interrupt. We need to get down to business with training. And going over how your abilities work, and etcetera.” Jack said as Zack finally decided to melt the ice with his handset ablaze. However, he was still having trouble doing it.

“I think we're pretty good on the basics, we been superheroes after all. We got a lot of practice in.” I replied.

“Is that why you two still haven’t checked for your upgrades on your abilities?” Jack asked. Which made me feel like a complete fool.

“I.. Forgot,” I said embarrassingly.

“I figured as much. Do you recall stone saying anything about owning territories by chance?” Jack asked.

At first, I didn’t recall anything like that, but then it hit me. During our first interaction, he did say something about that.

“Yeah, I do act-”

“Ah! I can breathe!” Zack gasped out. He started panting hard as the remnants of ice slowly began to fall off his cheeks.

“And are you aware of your popularity and ranking among the gifted?” Jack added.

“Kind of,” I replied.

“You two are hopeless.” He sighed.

“Blah, blah, blah we get it. Were dumb. So help us out and explain it to us. And would you mind adding in there, why you needed to take us to the middle of nowhere to tell us this crap!” Zack grunted out in clear frustration.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

“Hhhhhmm I don’t know If I like that tone young man.” Jack teased with a clear smirk on his face.

“What did you just say? I'll roast you ali-!” Zack began to yell but I covered his mouth.

Jack just began to snicker at us and I sighed in annoyance. These two were just alike..

“Please, Jack. Help us.” I asked as I looked him in the eyes. His playful smirk never left, but he eventually nodded.

“Oh alright, since you're begging. Let's start with your abilities. Remember you get power ups for defeating another gifted, and pleasing your goddess. As you call them.” I removed my hand from Zack’s mouth as he tapped me.

“What do you call them?” Zack asked.

“Unpleasant and inappropriate things, moving on. You should always make it a habit to check and see if you’ve gained a new ability. Or check to see if something of yours has been upgraded.”

“So our powers can upgrade?” Zack asked.

“Not just your powers, everything. Think of it like a video game. Your health, stamina, strength, speed. They all can grow, but this is different from super strength and super speed.” He added which confused me.

“How?” I asked.

“Think of it like, your body’s normal abilities pushed to its limit. Like activating adrenaline.” he replied and I just nodded.

It made some sense.

“Next thing, tier list, and territories. There's no official list of either. People around the world all claim to a hero of their area. Thus, random gifted come to claim land, so to speak. It’s like a mini game within the game the gifted community made up. Which is why stone came for you.” Jack said.

“So like turf wars basically?” Zack asked.

“Oh yeah I forgot you two live in the hood.. I should've just said that..” Jack said trailing off into thought. “Anyways, to give you a perspective. You both went from what we call a D list group, to a B rank. Stone was undefeated, and you ended his winning streak Stryder.” Jack looked me dead in the eyes. He had a stern and intense look in them, which had me worried.

“So that means I gathered some serious attention then huh?” I asked

“Yes, but most are afraid of permadeath. So they don’t attack high tiers often. Unless their O.P that is.” Jack responded.

“So where are you in ranking?” Zack asked folding his arms.

“Well I gave my territories to Arthur. But I am ninety-nine wins to one lose. That loss being Arthur.” My eyes got wide as he said that.

He defeated ninety-nine people!? Already!? And Arthur, he has to be some kind of monster. I haven’t even fought Jack yet, but I can already tell he’s crazy powerful. And if Arthur took this guy down...

“How have you done so much in such a short amount of time!?” I asked in shock.

‘Well here's another secret. Your gen wasn’t the first.” Jack said with his more playful smirk again.

But my mind was blown. Not my gen? Just how long has this game been going on? How many gens are there!?

“Wait, wait, wait, slow down. You’re saying there are others who have been super for longer!?” Zack blurted out.

“Indeed, Arthurs group used to be made for keeping our kinda secret. But there’s just too many to keep up with now. Which is why we moved to recruiting more.” Jack responded.

“So tell me, how long have you had your powers? And does this mean Stone was new or old? And are all the high tiers people who have had power for a long time! And how many generations are there exactly!?” My mind swirled like a typhoon. I had question after question popping up in my head. There was so much to take in and think about. Right before I could ask another question Jack froze my mouth.

“Calm down, Einstein! Knowing any of that won’t help you right now. The point is you were noticed before we had a chance to get to you. The fact is strong people will be coming for you both, for all kinds of reasons. You need to get ready for when that does happen.” Jack had a very serious tone behind his words again.

Which really got me focused. He was right, no form of analyzing was gonna help me right now. If I stayed just as I am, I won’t be able to prevent anything for the future. I felt the ice over my mouth slowly fade away, and turn into mist before my eyes..

We stood there silent for a moment as me and Zack took it all in. I thought about all those casualties that happened when I fought stone. The beat down I got, I was nothing more than a punching bag who got lucky. I needed to be stronger.

“Let’s check our updates out,” I said looking over to Zack, who nodded in agreement. I could see that rare serious look on his face. I wondered if he had Annual in mind.

I held my hand out and summoned my book. A bright light appeared before me as my book materialized. It floated in the air before me and I quickly opened it, looking over the pages, scanning for any sign of an update. As I flipped however I saw nothing new, no updates at all for my powers, or any sign of physical changes for me. But I did see a new page. I looked it over quickly and read it, over and over.

Super strength, my new power was super strength. There wasn't much detail other than I had to consciously think about it to activate it. No percentage amount added or scaling, just super strength.

“Again with that wonderful detail..”I sighed.” How about you Zack?” I asked looking over to him as I sent my book away.

“Just some updates on my abilities, nothing new.” He responded a bit absentmindedly. He was running his thumb over his chin as he seemed to be in deep thought.

“Good to see you both onboard, now once you’re done. Come at me, with everything you got.” Jack chimed with a big smile on his face. Before I could even respond or react. I heard the crackling of fire beside me. I turned to see a smirk on Zack’s face as he had his handheld out beside him. Smoke secreted from his palms till it sparked and exploded. In its place, three small green fireballs. His book vanished from in front of him, and he stepped forward.

“Bring it on Frosty!” Zack cheered triumphantly.

No plans, no using the prep time, why would I expect anything less?