"There are forty balls in here," Lucas tells me. "Ten of each yellow, pink, green, and orange. I'm going to scatter all of them about the arena, then you're going to go after them. Running, not shadow-walking. The first ball you reach, you'll only go for those balls. I'll flash them each back here once you touch them, but you do have to touch them first. Once you've collected all ten of one color, you'll continue, going after the color of the next ball you reach. You'll do this until you've collected all forty balls."

"So instead of running as straight across as I can," I say. "I'll be running around, hunting balls?"

"Correct," he says. "It adds a little more flavor to your training. We'll do this once a week. I figured we can do it Sundays, to build upon the skill training from the day before. We'll do the normal training on Tuesdays and Thursdays."

Wouldn't it be better to do this one of those days, so that I'm not doing this sort of thing two days in a row? I feel like Lucas might have some other idea in mind, though I'm not going to ask it right now. I have something else to ask, anyway.

"What do you mean by 'flash them each back'?" I ask.

"It's the term we use for light-walking," he informs me.

"Because of that brief flash?" I ask.

"Yeah," he answers.

"What causes that flash?" I ask. "It seems like the flash is only where the person or item moving was – it doesn't radiate out like normal light would."

Lucas reaches into the box and pulls out a yellow tennis ball, then holds both of his hands out and facing up, the tennis ball resting on his right palm, his left palm empty. Deep concentration fills his face, and it honestly makes him look kind of cute.

Over the course of a minute, the tennis ball resting on his right palm turns into pure, white-yellow light. Then it disappears before reappearing above his other palm. The light slowly fades as the ball returns to being a ball.

"What that 'flash' is," he's breathing heavily, as if he'd just moved something extremely heavy. "Is that complete conversion occurring in under a second. About a thirtieth of a second. I forgot how tiring slowing down light-walking was."

"That was light-walking, slowed down?" I ask.

"Yeah," he answers. "When you shadow-walk, you actually do the same thing, but as shadows. We can't actually see ourselves in that state, though. Not directly – we can through a mirror. You turn entirely to shadows before reappearing elsewhere. That delay you have, even as you perform another shadow-step? That's because it's taking you longer to turn back to shadows."

"Oh," I say. "Wait. Is that why you can't take me with you? Because I turn to shadows when I shadow-walk and you turn to light when you light-walk?"

"No," he snorts a little. "I already told you, remember? Grandpa said that a shadow-walker and a light-walker can take the other with them because they aren't shadows or light at the time. Or shapers, since we're those. Whatever it is that's preventing us, it's something different and I don't know what it is."

I'd forgotten he told me that. Then again, I'm not perfect, so it'd be unreasonable to expect me to remember everything, especially after how much has happened the last twelve days when compared to the normal amount of activity I go through. My brain is still starting to catch up, and I know I've forgotten a few other things.

Like the other abilities that Lucas has mentioned he can do. While I want to ask him, I can't figure out a way to do that without letting him know I forgot already, which would be pretty embarrassing. He's not the type to tease over stuff like that as evidenced by his lack of doing so over my cooking ability, so I'm not worried about that. I just find it embarrassing to have to ask him so soon.

Lucas would probably say it's understandable as they aren't important and I had other things on my mind at the time, and he'd be right. That doesn't change how I feel, though.

"Okay," I say. "I suppose we should get started, yeah?"

"Yeah," he nods before flashing the tennis balls out of the box. "They're now scattered around. Go as fast as you can, Kieran, but don't hurt yourself. Now go!"

I nod, then set off around the arena. The first ball I find isn't too far away, and it's an orange one, so I begin my hunt for the orange balls, working up a rhythm to move around and over the blocks that I can. It takes me around eight minutes to find all of them, and the nearest ball I know of from the tenth orange one is a pink one, so I go for it.

Halfway through collecting the pink balls, I notice something. A pattern to where the balls are located. They can be on a block or on the ground, but they're never in a shadow. Aren't even shadows somewhat in light? Is there a limit to how shaded an area can be for Lucas to flash into them? What are the limits to where he can and cannot go?

Continuing on, I find it taking me a little bit more time to retrieve all of the pink balls, having misremembered a few of their locations. For the yellow balls, however, I remember a bit better, finish a bit faster. Overall, it takes me roughly thirty minutes to finish, and by the time I do, I feel more exhausted than if I'd just done the normal agility training.

"Jeez," I lean against a nearby block.

"Take a breather," Lucas tells me. "Then we'll repeat this. Two laps back and forth, then a ball hunt again. I expect you'll go a bit slower, considering you're more exhausted and are probably feeling the shift in training a bit."

"Yeah," I answer. "I'm sore again."

"You'll get used to it," he nods. "Take another minute, then we'll continue."

The rest of my training today goes this way, with me performing two laps, then hunting the balls, and performing shadow-steps when I'm at full again, then again at the end of the session. By the time today's session ends, I'm just as exhausted as on skill or martial arts days.

Instead of putting my shorts back on, I just plop onto a block, a little too exhausted at the moment to climb over the barrier. I don't even bother crossing the fifty feet to the barrier, I just plop myself down.

Trying to catch my breath, I lie back and stare up at the ceiling of the arena.

"Mind if I leave to get changed?" Lucas flashes over to me. "Since I'm officially off the clock now? Or would you rather I waited until you have the energy to put on shorts, in case someone comes in here?"

"Nah, you can leave," I tell him.

"Alright," he says.

Lucas leaves without saying goodnight, so I'm guessing he'll be back before then. A few minutes pass before I realize something. I sweat all over these blocks and the floor during my training, yet I never wipe the sweat up. Do they not clean the equipment between uses? Lucas and I just leave and that's that.

Am I resting on a block that someone else sweat all over? That someone else's naked ass had been on?

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Just as that thought starts to disturb me, I hear the door to the room open. It's probably Lucas, but he doesn't flash himself over, so he's probably assumed I'm still resting.

"Uh… hello?" A voice calls out. "Someone in here?"

Sounds like a guy.

"Yeah!" I call back. "Just… resting!"

"Ah!" He responds. "Lucas had left and I saw the stuff but not a person, wasn't sure if it was abandoned or not! Were you still training in here?"

"No!" I stand and climb onto a block, allowing me to look over the highest of them. Only my chest and up is visible, so I'm not too bothered, even if I'm a bit self-conscious. "I just trained a fair bit harder than normal and was resting."

The guy standing at the barrier is dressed in the uniform of the center, with sandy-blond hair and glasses. I can't make out his eyes from here, but they're probably just as cute as he is, and calm down, you. Chances are pretty high he's straight.

He's also in here alone, so I'm assuming he's not here to train with someone. Lucas mentioned these rooms don't see too much use, especially not this one. While they have the facilities needed to train a wide variety of powers, that doesn't mean they're all used regularly.

"Ah, okay," he looks over at the shorts, then back to me. "Is it okay for me to wait in here, or should I head to the hall to wait for you to leave?"

Whatever he's wanting to do in here, do I feel comfortable enough going over and grabbing my shorts with him in here? Especially when I've never seen him before?

What the hell, why not? The way he asked that suggests he knows I'm naked and doesn't have an issue with it, so he probably doesn't care at all. If he's a trainer here, he's probably seen people in all states.

I hop off the block and make my way over to the barrier.

"Are you in here for training?" I ask as I grab my shorts off it.

His eyes are brown, and he's even cuter up close than he was from fifty feet away.

"No," he answers as I pull on my shorts. "My power is sanitation and purification. Until I started working here, they'd lock down a room and have a couple of workers go through and sanitize things after a session like this, as well as every so often, just to keep it clean. But with my ability, that's not an issue."

So there are powers like that, too? Is his power quicker than a janitorial crew, or does he do this because his power sanitizes better? Or is it because paying him is cheaper than paying an entire crew?

"How does it work?" I climb over the barrier.

"Want to see?" He asks.

"Is it safe?"

"Do you have reduced lung capacity?" He asks.

"Not that I'm aware of," I answer. "Why?"

"You have to hold your breath," he tells me. "You should manage it, it only takes about thirty seconds and normal people can hold their breath for longer than that. Be warned, you'll feel a tingling sensation across your body, and it'll feel cool, too. You don't need to close your eyes for it, though it might feel weird depending on your biology. Some people react badly to it, others aren't affected at all."

"Alright," I say.

"Take a breath and hold," he holds up his hands.

I inhale all the way in, then hold, the worker doing the same. Immediately after we're both holding, a sort of mist sprays out of his hands, quickly spreading through the room, swirling around as if caught in many, many breezes. Just as he told me, it feels cool, my body tingling where the mist touches.

My eyes don't feel weird at all, though I do have a blink reflex when the mist heads to my eyes that nearly causes me to lose hold of my breath. I can feel it penetrating through my shorts and going up the legs of them, too, which just feels weird, especially since it feels like it's even going under the waistband, despite that being tight against my skin due to the elastic part of it.

He stops spraying the mist after about twenty seconds, and after another ten, it's completely cleared up.

"The mist cleans anything it's in contact with," he tells me. "Well, most things. Sweat's one of them, so even you are cleaned. And your clothes, since they were in here. It penetrates through fabrics pretty easily."

"So that's why I could feel it working under the waistband, too?" I ask.

"Yeah," he answers. "It also goes into any cracks it can, no matter how slight. I can focus it into smaller spaces, too. Makes cleaning my teeth pretty easily, and I save on those expenses. Even if it's slight, it's helped me out some."

Most people in the lower districts ignore brushing their teeth or do it rarely. Most also don't use mouthwash because it's just extra money and water does part of the job, even if not all. I take care of my teeth as best I can, though I can't remember ever going to the dentist like I know people in the upper districts and some in the middle districts do.

"So it's safe to let in your mouth?" I ask. "Why did we have to hold our breaths, then?"

"You can't breathe it," he tells me. "Trying to do so results in choking until your lungs have cleared it out, and that's not fun. I can actually breathe it out, too, which is how I generate it when cleaning my mouth."

"Huh," I say. "That's a rather useful ability."

"Shadow-walking's a pretty useful one, too," he says.

"Does everyone here know about it?"

"Among the staff, yeah," he shrugs. "It's hard to keep abilities hidden from the staff at a center like this, so we don't bother keeping things a secret. Plus, Lucas was pretty excited to train someone who had an ability similar to his."

"Ah," I say.

"Yeah," he says. "My name's Todd, by the way."

"Nice to meet you, Todd," I say. "I'm Kieran, though I guess you already knew that."

"Yeah," he chuckles. "Nice to meet you, too. You'll probably only see me around if you ever stick around after your training, I work seven in the evening to one in the morning every day."

"You work pretty late," I say. "Isn't it busier during the day?"

"They still have part of the old crew that did the cleaning," he tells me. "I come in later and start doing thorough sweeps when it's emptier, makes it easier. Though it's really only rooms like these ones that actually need it, since they're the ones more likely to actually need it."

"But it's still good to do thorough cleanings, right?" I ask.

"Yeah," he answers. "Especially with the plague. While I can't cure a person with it, my power does neutralize the virus on objects."

"That's pretty handy," I say.

"So's being able to teleport."

"My range is extremely limited."

"For now," he says. "But you're training it, so that's going to improve."

"Yeah," I say. "It just won't be too useful for awhile, but I'm going to put in the effort that I can. When did you start?"

"I discovered it when I was six," he answers. "And my mom could do the same thing, though she never really trained her power. She did help me with training mine, she just never cared to use her power."

"Ah," I say. "How long have you been coming here?"

"Since I started working here a few months ago," he answers. "I don't really train here, except back in the area reserved for members at gold or higher. Just using my power to clean stuff counts as a form of training."

"Right," I say just as Lucas and Zane enter. "Well, I should get going. Thanks for showing me your power, that was pretty neat. It was nice meeting you, Todd, and I'll see you around."

"See you," he says, then leaves, bidding Lucas and Zane a good evening as he goes.

"Kieran," Zane says as I start changing into clothes since Todd cleaned the sweat right off of me with his power. "I was wondering if you wanted to hang out sometime this week? Maybe Thursday? I'll be free then."

"Sure," I answer. "As long as I don't need to work, either. What will we do?"

"Cool!" He grins. "It'll be fun. And it'll be a surprise! Just meet me out front of the Korriska Building at ten, okay?"

With his enthusiasm, I'm not sure if it'll be fun for me. But I'll give the surprise a chance, regardless.

"Uh, sure?"

"I was wondering," Lucas says. "If you wanted to go see a movie with me on Wednesday, Kieran. I managed to find out what a couple of theaters were showing and the two lovebirds still don't want to reschedule their love to Saturday."

"Let me guess," I sigh. "I do all the talking and you'll cover the cost?"

"Yeah."

"Sure," I try not to roll my eyes. "What time should I meet you, and where?"

"Eight-thirty at the latest and here."

"Got it," I respond. "I should probably get your numbers so that I can let you know if I need to change plans."

As soon as I say that, they both pull out their cell phones. I pull mine out and we exchange numbers, then I grab my bag and sling it over a shoulder.

"Alright," I say. "I'll see you two tomorrow, then. Have a good night."

"Wait," Zane says. "Mind if I walk you home tonight? Just to your apartment, not to enter or anything. Like Lucas, I don't feel too comfortable with you walking alone at night, not with as little training as you have."

Lucas nods, and I get the feeling they had a 'discussion' about who gets to walk me home, which would explain why they came in together. While Zane doesn't know my address right now, I don't really mind if he does. I let Lucas in literally the day we met, which probably wasn't the smartest of ideas. What's one more person?

"Sure," I answer. "As long as you feel safe going home on your own."

"I trust my skills," he tells me. "Let's get going!"

I'm probably going to end up getting escorted home by one of them every night, now.

"Good night, Lucas," I say.

"I'll see you tomorrow," he says.