As the term went on, my team and I settled into a routine while training together, trying to make our skills mesh as easily as possible. From what I could see, this was similar across the year, especially with the Legends. We occasionally competed in things such as accuracy or speed of taking down Shades in the simulations.

However, despite the fact that our teamwork was improving, the routine did have the negative fact that we had slightly too practised battle tactics and our personal fighting styles too defined. At least this is what Dr Jacq had complained about; therefore for their next lesson was a one on one in which we were not allowed to use any of the fighting techniques we’d shown before. Mathew needed new spells, Alex, new tech, Oliver, new arrows, and I needed to learn how to actually fight. Knowing Jacq, we knew that this would be enforced; my guess was that he was going to use Ruler again, though I didn’t know his range.

Alex and Oliver seemed to have the easiest time with the task, as Alex was excited for the excuse to test out new things. Mathew begrudgingly hit the books to search for examples of aura manipulation or to see if his previous incarnations had written anything down. It was mostly a task of research and translation for him and, of course, finding something that would actually be useful.

My problem was that I wasn’t really a planner. When it came to creativity, I was more of an improv fighter. That being said, I did fall back on a basic fighting style, which had served me well so far.

We headed to the library, which seemed to be a popular destination for our year, as the pressure from Jacq was enough to motivate most people. Each of my team members went to their separate areas to research and agreed to meet up later, as it would have been difficult to find a table for all of us with how busy it was.

After about five minutes of wandering around, I found a free seat and took out a pen and paper.

“Ok, what is my Legacy exactly?” I thought to myself, “So, I’m fast, but how?”

“Well compare it with mine,” Edward said, making me jump as I wasn’t expecting it, “My Legacy alters my personal time to be faster, yours actually alters you as you use it.”

“Oh, yeah! The sparks! I could use that as an attack,” I thought excitedly, “While I run, I could build up static and add a shock to my punch.”

“Good start; how are you storing the static?”

“Ah, yeah.” I paused for a moment, “I could just ask Alex to add a battery or something.”

“While, yes, that could be a good idea that might just add bulk you don’t need, a better idea could just to see how long you need to store the static.” He continued like an instructor; it was strange that he was actually being helpful without any tricks.

It was almost suspicious.

“Why are you being so helpful?” I asked directly.

“Can’t I just mentor you like we agreed? Is that so weird?” he responded, apprehended by my questioning.

I gave him a look.

“Ok, this is the first time I’ve actually seen you try and plan something rather than running ahead and dealing with the consequences after.” He thought at me, rolling his non-existent eyes, “I know you’re more of a pantser and not a planner, but I thought I could cultivate this change. And you sort of remind me of my friend with your floundering around.”

I paused for a second before replying, “OK, ignoring how that sounds slightly patronising, I do appreciate the help. We could try going to the arena to test the static.”

“Sounds good.”

***

I left the library for the arena, where people were also trying out new techniques, the majority of which I only vaguely recognised from lessons. The arena had been set up with training dummies and an obstacle course for practice. The dummies clearly had been through a lot with char marks, and I could swear I saw one with bite marks, human bite marks.

I acquired one of the dummies that someone had upgraded with sensors so I could see how much static I could put into a punch. It could measure current, heat and pressure, which was incredibly useful for seeing how bad I was at regular punching. I quickly got distracted trying to increase my score with a regular punch but apparently, I needed my speed to make them hit hard enough to be helpful. I spent slightly too long not doing what I was here to do, but I do think I managed to get my regular punches to be reasonable. Edward reminded me to get on with it.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

In order to build up static, I ran while trying to focus on the aura in my arms. As I moved, I could feel the pressure building up, and once I felt a tipping point, I unleashed the energy onto the dummy. At least, that was the plan.

According to the sensor, only a small amount of the electricity was transferred; the rest seemed to just dissipate into the surroundings. It wasn’t a complete failure of a first attempt; it was successful conceptually, as I could feel my hairs standing on end. The problem was that it wasn’t concentrated, so it was far less useful in an actual fight.

It took me about half an hour in real time for me to work out how to make the electric punch useful in a fight. I needed to focus on the aura in my hands instead of the full arms, and although it was an effective attack, it was slightly too one-and-done as it only lasted for one hit, especially with how it needed a build-up before I was actually able to enact it. So, as a fighting style, it failed, but it did count as a good starting move and may be useful in a group fight.

“Ok, while it was successful, that idea is basically a bust,” I complained to Edward.

“It’s an alright start, though.” He replied, sighing slightly, trying to give a positive spin on the situation, “Plus, it’s still usable.”

“Yeah, but I need enough new stuff to have a chance to survive Jacq’s class.” I complained, “I mean, what is my usual stuff? Punching and kicking and hoping for the best?”

“Probably more just hitting a lot and evading. You probably could practise actually using your legs more, your preference for your arms is likely a thing you need to work on. Plus, your prosthetic would deliver a mean kick, though it’s probably why you don’t kick much.”

“So basically, I just need to do the Can Can as a fighting style?”

“If that means kicking, then yes.”

“Uh, fine. I’ll try different kicks.”

***

While I had a basic idea of how kicks worked based on what I had seen on TV, I thought it’d be best to look it up in the library. I ran into a couple of dead ends, such as when I picked up one manual that had the name “Pumped Up Kicks,” but that just turned out to be song lyrics, which weren’t helpful.

After finding the correct section of the library for what I was looking for, I managed to find a book on martial arts that focused mostly on the basics of kicks. The manual did mostly focus on kicks designed against humanoid and therefore might not be broadly applicable to all fights, it still was good for what I needed it for; more ways to kick.

Pleased with my find, I went back to the area to test the moves on the dummy. While the guidelines for the kicks were thorough, copying them from a still illustration was difficult. I was finding it difficult to put enough force into the kick to make it useful in a fight. I just couldn’t work out the follow-through.

It got to the point where Edward apparently had enough and swapped our places so I could see how it was actually done. It was actually incredibly helpful, as with the aura vision, I was able to even see how the flow of the aura affected the kick as he moved with my body. After going through one of the kicks a couple times he gave me back control so I could try again, I almost got it correct. Edward then made me try again, giving me sight adjustments as I kicked until I perfected the move.

We then went through a routine of me finding a kick and trying it out. Edward showing me how to actually do it, then me trying again, and then Edward made small corrections, rinse and repeat, until I got it. I managed to work out about four different kicks before Edward decided that I needed to combine them into actual fights rather than just some disconnected moves.

Then it was just me vs. the dummy, or, as Edward put it, dummy vs. dummy. I worked out how to input a ranking system into the dummy as it registered the impacts of my moves so I could see how I was improving as I went along.

It took me about an hour to have relatively consistent scores. My prosthetic increased the impact of my kicks but not enough to be over reliant on it, I worked out a good pattern of kicks that seemed to work well for me and was even able to introduce the static punch into the move set. I was quite pleased with my progress of planning a new move set, but I was getting sweaty with the amount of exercise so after a bit I decided to go check on the rest of my team to see how they had been getting on.

I found most of them in the library, Mathew was surrounded by paper and books, and had his hands covered in ink. It seemed to me like his main focus was on trying to learn a kinetic energy rune, and from the slightly manic, unhinged, pleased look on his face, I think he managed it. I don’t know how long it had been, but I feel it wasn’t long enough for him to look like that.

Oliver, when I found him, seemed to be trying to unlock his Legacy by the look of his notes about different methods of teleportation, as the system seemed to suggest that was likely what his flavour of powers was going to be. He didn’t seem to have had success yet. I asked where Alex was but apparently, he had been kicked out of the library for trying to use the computers as parts, Oliver suggested the gun range to look for him next.

When I got to the gun range, Alex had already been checked out there for a similar reason to the library. Luckily, because Telum has had experience with technopaths before, they had a storage area with random junk that no one needed, and I managed to find him there.

He had been trying to make what seemed to be rocket boots, which, in my opinion, was quite cool. While he was able to make a working design, using them seemed to be a different beast, according to him. He just hoped he was able to practically use them when it got to Jacq’s lesson.

Out of the team, Matthew and I seemed to have been the most successful in our research, followed closely by Alex. Luckily, though, we still had time before Jacq showed us all the flaws we missed. The main way I thought would be a good way to minimise this was to show the rest of the team what we had been working on.

Practice makes perfect, and we really needed the practice.