Kyle:

"I really don't want to go back to that tower," I said aloud in the car, after assuring myself in my own mind that they wouldn't go back to Janet's. I looked at our swords riding with me in the back seat of Allen's car. I picked up the blade Jessica had given me. "Hey Jess," I called up to her.

"That's my name... well kinda, it's a nickname and-"

"Yeah yeah, anyway, I was wondering, could you teach me to use this thing? How long did it take you to master lightning?"

"Actually throwing lightning?" she asked back.

I eagerly nodded. Even without the need to avoid the tower, I loved the idea of learning to throw electricity. "Yeah, how long?"

"Oh, I was born able to do that-parents had to play dodge whenever I was upset as you can imagine."

"No, I mean..." I had to think for a moment on that. "Exactly where are your parents?"

"Not sure... wouldn't blame them if they skipped town a few days after I was born considering." She was grinning, but it started to fade.

Trying not to think about that on too deep a level, I proceeded with my inquiry. Truth was, I wasn't sure if she was serious. "No, I mean when did you finally master the actual blade?"

She paused like she was thinking of something. Then she resumed. "It's not something you master per se," she replied. "There's no on-off switch... kinda like my personality, but not at all." My mind tried to think on that comparison, but I mentally told it not to bother. "Ya see, the skill evolves over time. For you, actually pushing a bolt out six feet would be impressive I'm sure. As you practice you'll be able to throw bolts of energy further and with more power... who knows, one day you might actually compare to me in any way shape matter, or form."

I decided to ignore her brag at the end- it was kinda true anyway. "So that six-foot bolt I pushed out earlier... that was normal?"

"I told you I customized the blade for you, of course, it works," she said looking back at me from the front.

I took out the blade. "I want to train with... Bobby here."

"Oh no, you don't!" Jessica shouted at me. "It's your sword now. You name it. You sleep with it and take it everywhere you possibly can. That thing needs to become apart of you."

"I'm not a soldier Jess."

"Yeah, like you'd make it as a soldier." She said chuckling, which stung a little because her tone sounded a tad honest. "It's part of training kid. I need you to get used to having that thing. Your body needs to be able to push part of itself into that blade, something it has only ever done with things that are actually part of you. I want you to feel lost without that thing." She nodded at me. "Well put it on." I clipped the scabbard to my belt. "It's your baby... so what are you gonna call it?"

"I'm not naming a sword Jess."

"You're not naming your own flesh and blood?!" she demanded. "I won't hear of this."

"I don't think-"

The girl reached back and grabbed me by the collar. "NAME IT!"

"Rita..." I said with wide eyes and a voice that almost squeaked in fear.

"And thus shall be her name," Jessica said pushing me back into my seat and returning to hers. "Don't forget it. No one forgets the name of their own child."

"It's not my child Jess."

"The point is to treat it like it is Kyle," Allen said back. "Jessica is trying to teach you proper weapon discipline from the sounds of it. You clean it, name it, keep it with you at all times, and always know where it is when it can't be with you." Turning a corner, Allen continued to speak. "The werewolves have properties that we unofficially own all over town. There's an exclusive gym with a very large basketball court not far from here. We've set aside a pretty decent chunk of change to maintain it. It's where we practice using our powers. It should work pretty well for training."

"Well then let's drive on!" Jessica shouted.

"We're there," said Allen, parking the car beside a large building with glass doors.

"I see... well then just drive around the block a few times to justify that statement then." I blinked at the back of Allen's seat. If he said no... heck with it, I would defend Jessica's point.

(***)

After driving around the block about six times, Jessica finally admitted it was time to actually enter the gym. Mutant and normal humans are different in many ways, but the basic form is human for both races so I wasn't taken for a ride looking around the place. I knew for the most part what each piece of equipment I saw was for. There were weight lifting benches and free weights and different running machines. Allen commented to me as we went by some of the running machines and people using them, that they were called treadmills, but really, outside this and a few other werewolf gyms, no one outside the societies really ever used them aside from doctors and prison inmates. This made no sense to me, but I took it in stride nonetheless.

We walked presently into what Allen called a basketball court. In truth, the sport of basketball had been imported to my world a long time ago, but we had modified it for a much bigger court to incorporate a few of our powers into the game. I was used to nets being three times higher, in the sky, and in constant motion. Course I doubted the technology to maintain that kind of game was even on this planet.

Jessica entered the huge court. I noticed it really was quite big, possibly the ceiling a full forty feet above me, with the actual room being about one hundred fifty feet across by one hundred feet wide. The baskets were only about ten maybe twelve feet above the ground.

You could smell the sweat that was evidence that other people had been through here but it was pretty bare for now. It did seem strange to me to have a solitary building to work out in- just go outside. We had facilities for fitness on Triad, but generally, they were huge so you had room to run around during bad weather. This place was about the size of... maybe two or three moderate-sized homes.

Jessica and I both had both our swords attached to our belts at this point. As we walked into the stadium, Allen spoke up. "Ya know... ever since you two got here and started talking about the lightning blade I've been wondering what exactly the attack really looks like. I'm pretty sure Jaden would like to see it too," he said, nodding up to the child riding on his shoulders.

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Jessica nodded with a grin splitting across her face, one cutting across my face too. "Get clear kids," she said. The three of us moved away to the edge of the court as Jessica moved to the center. "See those seats?" she said, drawing one of her swords and pointing it at a large series of benches on the edge of the gym with it.

"The ones in front of you?" asked Allen. I folded my hands in anticipation. If she pointed at it, soon enough it wouldn't exist.

"ALL of the ones in front of me," she said. Across from her were a series of stadium seats which must have been a full two stories high, spanned fifty feet, and stood in front of Jessica, being about twenty-five feet from her.

The girl turned to face us, closing her eyes. I grinned even wider. The girl started to glow subtly at first. Then bolts of electric energy flashed from her form, shooting out in hundreds of directions many firing off as far as ten feet out. She slowly drew her second sword, bolts of energy dancing around it, firing off and cutting into the floor, starting to rip through it. Both swords started to emit like this. There was no need for this lead-up, but Jessica was nothing if not a showman. The girl spun around, her swords drawn out, bolts of energy shooting out from them. A huge electric blast fired out from her blades, impacting the seats and tearing through them like they were made of dust and scrap, rather than wood and metal.

The energy around her ceased. "Now imagine if you will, that you were standing somewhere I didn't want you to be standing," Jessica said, not turning to look at us.

Allen and I both stood quiet, surveying the shredded benches. Metal bars had been split and wood chips lay everywhere. The wall of the gym only showed slight burns, but the entire stadium seating had been dealt such a blow no single bench was still intact over three feet up and the base was burned and splintered. There were wood pieces all around us, the metal frame cut in half as well as having several pieces broken off besides.

Allen seemed speechless, his kid looking at Jessica with his mouth gaping open. I smiled. "She kinda scares people as you can imagine."

"You guys can buy new benches right?" asked Jessica turning around. "Cause I really wanna do that again." With Jessica's priorities in that moment- I completely agreed.

"I'll bet you do," I said moving over to her. "Course now that you blew up all the benches what am I supposed to shoot at?" Jessica looked at me with concern. "What?"

"You're not targeting a bench the size of a building for practice kid. I think first we've got to get you able to actually project a little, but once we get there, you've got to learn control of this technique or it's useless for doing anything but blowing yourself up. You'll never have a target bigger than your head. That wasn't practiced, it was showing off." Jessica picked up a small piece of wood. Walking out a few feet she threw it in the air saying, "Now blast it."

"I can't project yet Jess," I replied, not even trying as the board dropped back to the ground. "I thought you said we were working on that first."

"We are," Jessica replied. "Who practices throwing without something in mind to hit? I just don't expect you to impact anything."

I drew Rita from her scabbard, wanting to prove Jessica wrong and show her that I could indeed throw electricity pretty well. Well, at least that I could exceed her low expectations. I had no practical idea how, but that didn't need to stop me.

"Visualize pushing your electricity through that sword," Jessica said. "It's pretty simple." The girl threw the board in the air again as energy erupted from my body, nowhere near the potency of Jessica, but it still... existed. I fired a bolt as the board arched in the air to go back down. The moment of satisfaction of getting out an actual bolt was momentary as I realized the bolt only arched at about seven feet, Jessica now about where the benches had been, over three times that distance away from me. Jessica threw the board up again, me lighting up again. Again, a bolt shot from Rita, again not even close to far enough.

Behind me, Allen chuckled. "Guess you two will be here a while. I think I'll take little Jaden and get to church." Jessica threw the board again, grinning at him. I didn't like looking helpless like this. I had no practice with a blade in this way, what did they expect?

But if they wanted a show then that was what I would give them. My body lit up again, but I decided to throw out the actual lesson for the moment. Instead of directing my energy to Rita, I shot it to my feet, forcing my legs to move at a blinding speed, jumping in the air with my blade out to the side. I sailed past the board swinging Rita with an energy burst to my arm, splitting the board. I then fired my right hand forward throwing myself forward and to the ground, rolling as I hit.

"Let's see you pull that off Jess," I yelled, snapping my fingers at her.

"You have any idea how many things can go wrong with an attack like that?" Jessica demanded. "Suppose you didn't hit the board with your blade and just ran into it?" Wasn't sure when Jessica suddenly became a killjoy.

Allen spoke up behind her. "You gotta admit, it was still pretty cool."

I grinned. "You're just jealous because you can't do it."

Jessica shook her head. "I don't have to," Jessica pointed out.

"Not all of us were born freaks of nature missy," I said snidely.

Allen put up a finger. "Actually... I think technically we all were."

"Point," I admitted. I shook my head. "How far do you think we're gonna get today Jess?" I asked.

"How far?" she asked, "Honestly? Most lightning blade masters take about five maybe ten years to get an arch that travels further than twenty meters."

"TEN YEARS?!" I shouted. I walked over to her. Oh no, I would not be... helpless that long. I wanted this power NOW! I needed it. I really did need it. "Give me that board," I said snatching a piece of the board from her as she went to pick it up again. I lit up in mid-stride as I passed by her. "I'll see about that!" I threw the board into the air myself, swiping Rita through the air, pushing my energy into her, but again she failed me, only pushing out a three-foot arch this time. "C'mon!" I shouted. I stabbed Rita into the board on the ground. I was furious with both the sword and the board.

At that moment I wanted with every ounce of me, to push every last bit of energy I had into that blade and rip it apart in my frustration. I barely noticed as I lit up, that my energy, even outwardly, arched directly into Rita.

I did however notice when I stopped glowing period and no further arcs emitted from my form. I pulled up Rita, backing up a little. "What the he-" The floor erupted in a tremendous electric blast throwing me like a rag doll, forcing me to slide across the floor as I landed.

"KYLE!" Jessica shouted, running over to me. Both she and Allen were by my side in seconds, young Jaden not far behind. (Not sure if he did or didn't understand that I probably just got hurt.) Jessica helped me to my feet, steadying me. "Are you okay?"

My ears were ringing, I was incredibly unstable and a feeling of nausea was taking over as parts of my skin were turning red, still, I nodded my head, pushing her away a little. "Yeah... guess I'm fine. Just a few electric burns really, lucky there wasn't much shrapnel in that blast."

"I think all the shrapnel was disintegrated," Allen commented. "That was like an electric bomb you just set off there."

"Neither statement is possible," I stated matter-of-factly.

"Well there WAS shrapnel," Jessica stated, pointing at a piece of the gym floor, now embedded in a wall a few meters away. "At the same time, that WAS a bomb." She looked back at me. "You're lucky it didn't shred you. Just how did you do that?"

I paused for a moment. She was right. I had planted a bomb, hadn't I? "More than that," I commented without answering. I shook my hand, expecting sparks of electric energy to shoot out. Instead, nothing came out, me just meaninglessly flopping my hand in the air. "I want to know what happened to my powers."

"They're gone?" asked Allen.

"That's not possible," Jessica said.

"I'm sure it is if he just doesn't-" Began Allen, but Jessica interrupted, beating me to the punch.

"No, our powers aren't just a sideshow Al, they're part of what we are. You can't just turn them off any more than you can just turn off your right arm."

"You can turn off the outward electric field... or drain it," I said, slowly trying to work through what happened out loud. "But that would be a tremendous drain and would put out a massive amount of energy..." I looked over at the crater left by my blast. "That... that's just not possible." Jessica walked away from me over to the crater.

"You... you sent your entire electric field through that blade?" she asked.

"I get the feeling we'd basically have a thermo-nuclear explosion if you did that Jess," Allen commented.

"Why would I ever WANT to do that?" she asked.

I looked at my blade. "With an attack like that and a little control, anything I hit would die instantly, even gargoyles."

"But it drains you."

I looked at my hand, electric arcs dancing between my fingers on command. "Not permanently." I smiled, "I got some choices in my attacks already." I said, feeling pretty good about this. Like I had a few tricks up my sleeve.

"Yeah," Jessica said back. "You can either run dead at someone with a strong chance of killing yourself on arrival, or you can completely deplete your primary weapon. Choices, choices."

I sighed, "It's progress."

Jessica walked over to a small scrap of metal lying about twenty feet from me. Picking it up she said, "You want to learn the lightning blade or not?" I nodded, feeling better. At the very least, I had discovered a pretty cool power of my own. The thrill of sparing was building up in me. "Good, then let's get moving," she said tossing the bar in the air. I lit up.