Will staggered to a stop in the training ground, dropping to his knees and waving one hand in a gesture of surrender. Felix swooped past him with a grin, sliding to a halt as the water he’d been riding splashed out over the ground. The Nexians who had gathered to watch clapped and yelled, with a few wolf whistles mixed in. Will flopped back onto his behind, his chest heaving.
“Not bad,” Felix said. “You nearly made it two whole laps that time.”
Will had been working with his electricity again, trying to see just what was possible. So far all he got was the speed, so Felix had suggested a race around Nexus Hill. It was a good way to test his limits, both in speed and stamina. But it quickly turned out that he didn’t last long. Despite being able to clear ground nearly ten times as fast as he’d previously done, he ran out of steam very quickly. At least his Condition hadn’t broken, he told himself. So he didn’t have that migraine to contend with.
“Further than I thought,” he sighed, finally pushing himself back to his feet. The accompanying wave of weariness that followed his exertion threatened to put him back on his butt, but he retained his feet, swaying slightly.
“Odd that your Condition isn’t breaking,” Felix pointed out. When I was at this point in my training, I would have given up at the first lap.”
“I guess I’m just a harder worker,” Will thought, brightening. “Nice to know hard work still beats natural genius.”
Felix snorted. “I’m hardly a genius. You’re seeing the end of my training. Trust me, I was clumsy. Just ask my sister, she’ll tell you about my flops.”
“Oh well,” Will said. “I’m not done yet, so let’s keep going.”
Felix looked at him for a second or two, frowning slightly. Then he shrugged, and in a second, he was up on his sphere of water once more. “Fine. We should see about learning how to use that for something other than speed, though.”
“I’d like to shoot it out of my hands,” Will thought. “But speed is good for now.”
As if to prove his point, he lunged forward, swiping Felix’s legs out from under him with a well-placed kick. The white-haired boy flipped right over, splashing into the spinning sphere of water that had supported him, causing both to hit the ground. He let out a grunt, then spun on the spot, trying to return the favor. Will was too quick and jumped back out of range with a laugh.
“Looks like you two are getting along,” Rachel Smith had returned to the campus and was walking towards them. “Training hard?”
“Of course,” Felix replied. Will said nothing. Some part of him still felt as though it was Rachel’s fault, for what had happened to his father. The reasonable part of his brain knew it wasn’t true, but he couldn’t shake the feeling too quickly.
As if Rachel could read his mind, she said, “Will, I have something to discuss with you. It’s important.”
Felix took that chance to depart the scene, conjuring water out of thin air and riding away. Will watched him go with a slight frown, then turned to the Water Nexus Alpha. “What is it?”
“Your father and I have been talking,” Rachel began, then grimaced. “Sorry, that sounds like a parent talk. I’m not trying to assume that kind of-”
“It’s fine,” Will said quickly. “I get it. What were you and Dad talking about?”
“Well,” Rachel said slowly, clearly trying to weigh her words before speaking them. “We were talking about how he got abducted. I think it’d be best if he had some power to defend himself in the future.”
Will grasped her meaning at once. Strangely, it wasn’t that frightening of an idea. “Fire or Water?”
“Well, I don’t want him taking part in a war,” Rachel said firmly. Will nodded in agreement. “So I was going to ask you if you’re okay with me giving him my power.”
“How does that work? I only know of Edward’s process. Would my father have to live through some kind of trauma like I did with Edward?”
He caught Rachel’s look of confusion and explained further. “Edward took me out into the tundra. I had to make my flame wake up before I froze to death. It’s not traumatic for me, but it still sucked.”
“Oh,” she said. “No, I don’t do anything like that. I give my power, and he just has to find the power naturally.”
“Organic,” Will thought out loud, and Rachel nodded. “Well, I’d rather he have the same Nexus power as me, but you’re right, I don’t want him to be in the war.”
Rachel looked surprised. “You’re not upset about it?”
“About you giving my Dad a chance to defend himself?” Will asked incredulously. “No. I agree, he could use something to help himself stay safe. I’m less worried about Charlisa being harmed specifically because she can defend herself.”
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
“Oh,” She said quietly. “But what about your father and I being-”
Will cut her off quickly. “That I don’t want to hear about. I’m glad I have my training to distract me. All I care about is that he’s happy. If you can give him that, then I don’t care.”
She opened her mouth to say something, but he stopped her with a hand gesture. “I mean it. I don’t want to hear. Keep the details between the two of you.”
A small smile formed on her face, and she held out one hand. Will shook it, then moved on to another subject. “So you’re not making your entire Nexus fight, then?”
“No,” Rachel confirmed. “Some of them only joined to help with volunteer work. It would be wrong to ask them to fight the most powerful people in the world.”
“Good point,” Will agreed. “I don’t think there’s anyone in the Fire Nexus who’s not ready for the war.”
“Yes, Edward seems very focused on the effort. He’s very proud of you, you know.”
Will puffed out his chest, glad to hear the words. “I was a little surprised that he made me a Captain. I kinda feel bad about it.”
“How so?” Rachel asked, arching an eyebrow.
“Well,” Will didn’t quite know how to put his thoughts into words. “Everyone else in the Nexus tried for a while to get in. I just randomly asked, and he accepted me. And before Michael, I was the only… outsider.”
“Hmm. It’s a valid concern. But hopefully, you know by now that Edward selects his family very carefully.”
Will nodded. He did know that. It was the one thing that made him confident in his progress. Edward had taken a chance in recruiting him, both on pedigree and value. Will could have used his power for the wrong reason. He could have chosen not to fight against the Soul Nexus for people he’d barely met. Yet, something, that only he knew, had made him choose to adopt Will. The best thing he, Will, could do, was to train hard and make sure that Edward never regretted his decision.
“Hey,” Will said suddenly, a thought occurring to him. “I got a question you might be able to help me with.”
She looked curiously at his sudden change in tone. “What?”
“Tobias, the stranger, he told me something strange. When we were fighting in Tokyo. He said ‘you don’t know enough about your Condition.’ What do you think that means?”
“Well,” she said slowly, “There is a lot about this power that we don’t understand. Some things make us stronger, while others weaken us. In the Water Nexus, for example, we’re stronger when it’s warm out.”
Will frowned. “As in temperature? Something that insignificant?”
“It’s not insignificant,” she corrected him. “Think about it. Our aura cools the air around us. When we use our power, the temperature continues to drop. When it’s cold, we can’t do as well. That’s just how our Condition works. The more we use our power, the cooler it gets around us, the weaker we get.”
Will blinked. Some faint memory, some small detail he’d noticed, had stirred in the back of his mind. What was it? Something that had happened at the docks. He dropped into a crouch, ignoring Rachel’s look of sudden curiosity and concern, one hand on his chin, thinking. It didn’t usually take him this long to remember something. His memory was borderline eidetic, so he could usually retrieve the memory if it was linked to something he saw. Particularly when it came to numbers. He shot back up, suddenly remembering.
“Sixty degrees!” He said loudly. Rachel gave a little start and took half a step back. The look on her face was clearly what you gave someone who had taken leave of their senses. “Son of a bitch! I knew I felt more powerful that night!”
“Will,” Rachel began, “what-”
“Think about it!” He exclaimed. “It’s been a mild spring. The temperature hasn’t gone much higher than sixty degrees! And when I train with Felix, my power seems to stretch a bit further!”
“But-”
That wasn’t all, Will thought. He could have kicked himself, and he would have deserved it. It was so obvious now. When he’d gotten his power, he had to almost freeze to death. He’d done his first round of training at the end of winter when there’d still been snow on the ground. It was cold! Rachel’s Nexus was stronger the warmer it got! Sixty degrees, he thought. That felt right. Edward had gotten his power in the tundra, one of the coldest places in the world. And one of the more advanced techniques he’d learned had been to leech the heat out of a place.
“Can you make it cold around us?” Will asked. “I think I just figured it out.”
She continued to look at him as if he’d gone mad but obligingly raised her arms, creating more water. She released it in a fine mist, freezing it in the same instant so that Will was sprayed with what felt like a miniature blizzard. He could feel the cold, of course, but it didn’t sting like it would for a normal person. He could see Rachel becoming more uncomfortable by the second, little goosebumps popping into view on her arms. But Will, well he felt great. Better than great. He ignited his hands and gave a little shout of surprise at the size of them. The flames rocketed up to nearly twelve feet in height before he extinguished them.
“I can feel your heat from here,” Rachel said. She’d taken several steps back, catching her breath and leaving Will in the large pile of snow she’d created. She was almost ten yards away from him.
“That settles it,” he said, grinning widely. “The colder it is, the stronger I am. Sixty degrees has to be the cutoff.”
“Can you try to make it hot?” She asked, now excited herself.
“What are you two doing?” It was Noratuk. Will whirled in place and beckoned her closer.
“Just watch,” Will said. Noratuk could see his excitement, and instantly her curiosity was piqued. He turned to Rachel. “Aright, here we go.”
He ignited his hands again, noting that the flame he created was still strong. But they began to shrink almost immediately. He coated his entire body, then put as much force as he could into them. The temperature in the air around him rocketed upwards. The snow around his feet vanished in seconds, and Noratuk twitched uncomfortably. But Rachel moved quickly, conjuring a ton of water in her hands. She threw it high into the air, then swiped her hand down. The glob of water shattered into hundreds of large icicles, which all slammed down into the earth, piercing several inches into the ground before they stopped.
Will extinguished his flames, sweating profusely. He, Rachel, and Noratuk shared delighted glances. Around them, the other Fire Nexians had been watching, and quite a few let out shouts of excitement. Everyone understood what they’d just discovered, and they grasped it much more quickly than Will had. Will directed his next question at Noratuk.
“Can you teach me how to pull all the heat out of the air? If I can master that, then I can give myself a quick power-up whenever I need one.”
“Charlisa was right,” The Lieutenant said. “You’re a natural. They don’t stand a chance at that damn tournament.”