Aaliyah’s braids bristled under the lake breeze. She stood out of the way alongside Hannah and WhiteOut. Streaker, in full costume, was on the runway with Immortal. They were separated by the dashed line on the asphalt. Kenny bent his knees, hunched over, and held out his fists. Immortal had his posture straight and hands by his sides.
Kenny dove forward in a blur to get behind Immortal then lunged an attack. Immortal tried to turn around, but of course, he would be too slow; in Kenny’s world, he was an olympic swimmer surrounded by doggy paddlers.
That’s what he assumed. When the elbow struck Kenny in his stomach, the force blew him out of his water. Ripples of pain stunned his whole body and he coughed up spit in his helmet. When the elbow was removed, he would have fallen to his knees if Hannah did not fly in to catch him. He clutched his stomach as he continued to cough.
“Kenny! I told you this wasn’t a good idea! It’s too dangerous!”
“...too dangerous?” murmured Kenny. He grit his teeth. She realizes he was being shot at just the other day right? Or maybe being bulletproof makes it hard to relate. He pushed her off, as much as she let him push her, and slowly rose to stand in a stance again. “I just wasn’t paying attention and got punished for it. If this was real, I would be dead. We keep going.”
Kenny motioned to dive again, but just as he flipped his switch to flood the world with water, Immortal came in front of him. Kenny tried to pull back but a gloved hand held him by the collar of his parka. Kenny punched and kicked at a rate faster than light but Immortal did not budge a bit as Kenny was lifted into the air. When the grip was released, Kenny was thrown so far up that he would have drowned in the clear blue sky before he landed if Hannah had not caught him.
“What’s wrong with you!” screamed Hannah as she descended, “are you seriously trying to kill him!”
“He asked for me to train him the way I did you. But I guess you’re right. He is far too fragile.”
Kenny pushed himself out of Hannah’s arms again. He fell onto the runway but rose to stand in his stance. He did not need to repeat himself.
Kenny dove at Immortal again and again. He focused on dodging a jab that was faster than a bullet only to trip over an outstretched leg. He baited out a movement to activate his superspeed at the last second only to find that he was the one caught in a feint and tossed to the side. He swung only to have his fist batted away and receive a slap across one cheek then a backhand across the other.
It was clear for others to see, but it only dawned on Kenny as his determination left him and pain took its place: even an olympian would flounder when in the water with a predator.
Kenny struggled to stand straight and keep his eyes open whereas the Gator stood tall as ever with golden eyes glaring. When Kenny saw Olympus in flames or Angel in the doorway, he thought that he could have done something if only he was not already exhausted. Here, it was clear he never had a chance. This must have been what it was like for FatMan and GalvanGal, too.
“What the hell…” grumbled Kenny as he clutched his other elbow, “how are you countering everything? What’s your secret?!”
“There’s no secret. You’re just slow and predictable,” stated Immortal. Kenny’s ragged breath mixed with the wind was the only sound in the air. “You have too much faith in your power. Kenny, what is it that makes humanity stand above all other species?”
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“Our…” Kenny took off his helmet to catch his breath, “intelligence?”
“Wrong. It’s endurance. You don’t understand your best traits as a human. You are completely reliant on your power. Beings of pure magical energy are called daemons. I am daemon slayer. That is why you can’t win. Still, I shouldn’t go so hard on a beginner. For the rest of this session,” he put his hands behind his back, “I won’t use my arms.”
Kenny couldn’t understand what Immortal was talking about. How would endurance help here? Man to man, it was clear that they had a massive physical gap, let alone in endurance. All evidence pointed to the gap in experience and skill being even bigger.
The only advantage Kenny had was his power, and he wasn’t done with it yet. Just a little bit was enough to make laps around others while staying in control. But if he put everything into it he could make the world standstill.
This situation demanded nothing less than 100%—no, he would have to go beyond 100% to defeat this villain.
Kenny grit his teeth through the pain and flooded the world under a tsunami that even an alligator could not swim in. He dove at Immortal and cramped up along his whole body and tripped and fell and skidded across the runway beside Immortal. A streak of blood, spotted with shreds of lip and cheek, was left behind.
Hannah jerked forward at the sight of Kenny convulsing on the ground, but WhiteOut stayed her hand. Immortal, hands still behind his back, came up to Kenny as he was curled up on the ground, bleeding from the shredded side of his face and whimpering.
“Are you done?”
“I don’t get it…” sobbed Kenny, “I don’t know what else I can do. No one should even be able to keep up with superspeed…”
“Superspeed?” asked Immortal inquisitively, “can you describe this super speed?” Kenny wiped some of the oozing blood and tears from his face with his sleeve and then pushed himself to sit up.
“It’s like a switch, I guess. I turn it on and a flood comes in that makes everything around me slow down and get blurry like it’s all underwater. But it makes me sick to use it for too long… guess you already figured that part out…” Kenny admitted dejectedly. Immortal unfurled his arms from behind his back.
“That’s not super speed. What you’ve been using is time dilation.”
“...Huh?” gasped Kenny and the rest. For a moment, Kenny forgot what pain he was in until a stabbing sensation reminded him.
“Think about it. Something like superspeed would affect your body alone. The reason your vision gets blurry is that light itself has trouble reaching your eyes. You’ve been flooding the universe with an already strenuous power. The problem with time manipulation is that you tire much sooner than your opponent. That kind of strength can only come from the greed of a dragon.”
“That’s… a compliment?”
“The dragons were strong, but they weren’t strong enough to survive. You are already more than they could ever be—you’re a human; more importantly, you’re you. How can you count yourself out just because of a misunderstanding?” asked Immortal. The sincerity of those words made Aaliyah sick.
“I don’t know what you’re saying. I don’t know how this helps me,” Kenny curled down, “I don’t know what to do.”
“To start, instead of imagining a switch that unleashes flood—a binary option to unleash all your energy at once—instead imagine you’re directing it—like a flowing brook carved meticulously.”
“Shaping the flow of energy…” whispered Kenny. His eyes lit up and he clenched his fists in front of him. “Of course! The most important ingredient in cooking is water! Just the right amount of water can make or break a dish before you can even begin. Then there is boiling and simmering to avoid sogginess or bring out moisture. Even steaming can be used to make it tender without agitating. The quality of the water will also seep into everything else so…” Kenny snapped out of his ramblings, “Sorry, I guess that was a weird tangent.”
“No, you have it exactly right,” Immortal reached his hand out to Kenny, “That’s what makes it special. That’s what makes it yours.”
Kenny looked at the gloved hand for a moment. He tried to get up on his own but that stabbing sensation in his lumbar crippled him. He had to brace himself on asphalt to keep from falling over. With his eyes to the ground, he reached one arm up to accept Immortal’s hand. A second gloved hand clasped around Kenny’s, and Kenny brought up his other arm to stack on top of the others. Secure now, Immortal yanked Kenny onto his feet, and let him go.
He bled still, stumbled a bit, and almost fell over, but in the end, he stood.