“Alright, and that’s the last of the patients. Now you know all about these people’s abilities that we could know. We theorized through them all, and you got at least a rough idea of how to deal with each situation.” Ravela concluded after they slogged through the entirety of the patient’s files.

Turning back to her suitcase, Ravela returned the files where they belonged. The fact that Laena kept looking over her shoulder curiously even though she knew what was in the suitcase wasn’t lost on her.

Something was on her mind, evident by the bobbing and swaying from one side of her shoulder to the other.

“Do you have a question, Laena?”

Laena hesitated, and Ravela wondered why. She turned her attention back to Laena. There was something she wanted to ask but didn’t have the courage and right words for. “Be direct. Don’t be ashamed or skittish about the apparent questions you have. You don’t have to weigh your every word in my company.”

There was a long pause, and Ravela watched as the girl worked up the courage to ask what was burning in her little head.

“How would I defend myself against some with telekinetic powers?” Laena said timidly, looking away from Ravela, only giving her a sideways glance as if she was ashamed she had asked.

It was Ravela’s turn to pause, stunned by this relevant and direct question. “I see why you were hesitant to ask. My advice is simple: don’t find yourself against someone like me. That’s easy for you now. You only have to make sure not to get noticed. It sounds harsh, but your anonymity is your best friend. If you ever get into conflict with somebody you can’t overpower, defeat, outsmart, or at least outplay, you need to run and call me. If you encounter someone like me, you, as you are now, unprotected and ill-equipped, stand no chance of beating someone like me. Understand that you should get cover and run if you get face-to-face with someone with such powers.”

Laena thought about what Ravela had said for a moment. “Is the power difference that big?”

Ravela tilted her head. “The small amounts of my powers that I used while teaching you to fight were mere glimpses into the things I could do if I just thought about doing them. And even those small amounts of powers applied differently can be fatal to you. Laena, I am the worst foe for you in many ways. You can see an explosion from the Bomber coming, but make no mistake, even you can’t see a thought, much less react faster than one. If I engaged you without restraint, you would stand no chance.”

The teenager looked deflated. This wasn’t the answer she was hoping for, Ravela could tell. “Wow, you certainly aren’t sugarcoating that opinion,” She grumbled.

“Let’s say for a moment that you get the drop on someone like me. You only win that fight if you knock me out instantly. If I could use my powers, that fight would be over,” Ravela raised her hand, “Allow me to demonstrate.”

Using her powers, she put a strong hold on the girl. It was just for a split second, but Ravela could see the shock in the teenager’s eyes. “I could hold you like that for an excruciatingly long time. I could add much more pressure if I were so inclined. Being strong means nothing if I can hold your muscles at bay with my mind. And strong as you may be, even you need to breathe. I could make that difficult, too. I want you to understand the difference between what you can and can’t do. I can do that without raising my arm. I merely have to will it. As perceptive as you are, you can’t see that, and you can’t stop that.”

Laena stood there stunned.

“Maybe I’ll give you a second to mull that one over,” Ravela said and turned to her suitcase.

No sooner had she turned than a flood of questions washed over her.

“Wait, you could do that the whole time? What is the longest time you could hold someone like that if they struggled against it? Did you teach us only the lame stuff so far? When do I see what you can do in a fight? And how is not fighting me properly preparing me for an actual fight? How would you fight with that armor?”

The volume and speed with which she rattled off her barrage took Ravela by surprise. She hadn’t expected the girl to go from getting a reality check to fully exploring the idea and implications in a few seconds. Ravela looked down at her armor suit, a craft of beauty. Clad in this, she would have no issue taking on any foe. It would be unsporting to use a tool that made her even more of a weapon of war than she already was.

Her lips pursed, and an idea came to her mind. It had been a while since she wore the armor suit. It didn’t have trouble adapting to her changed body shape. Looking back over her shoulder, a grin formed on her face. “Good questions, all of them. Do you want to find out?”

Laena blinked. “Find out what?”

“All of those answers,” Ravela said, laughing. “If you think I am intimidating just because of my telekinesis and strength, you’re in for a surprise once I am fully protected in this beautiful piece.”

Laena’s hand shot up, and her chin as she started bouncing on the spot. “Oh, can we? Yes! I’ve been dying to know what that armor does! This is awesome!”

Ravela raised her brow. “You could have asked.”

Laena made a face. “It never came up naturally, and after what Safora and I pulled, it seemed kinda pushy just to ask.”

It was an understandable, even commendable, sentiment, Ravela had to admit.

She was pulled out of her trail of thought as Laena shouted, “Okay, let’s go! Put on the suit! Oh, I can’t wait to tell Safora about it!”

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

Ravela chuckled. “Just remember not to tell her in the middle of a classroom full of other nosy teenagers or the cafeteria. Alright, you wait outside. I will need a moment to put that on.”

She put on the boots connected to the pants and watched the plated parts widen as she slipped inside. The same happened to the rest of the suit, though the space around her chest was stiffer than she remembered. As she locked the helmet, she felt the soothing safety of the environmental seal.

Ravela straightened to her full height. Her clothes were piled into the suitcase, which she shut and floated aside. “Alright, you can come back in.” Her voice sounded dark and vibrating through the helmet’s filter. She never noticed that she sounded like a proper villain in it before. Then again, until she arrived on this planet, she hadn’t been talking a lot.

Laena came running into the barn in a hurry, whirling excitedly around the armored Ravela. “Wow, seeing it on a person is really something else, but isn’t it heavy? I bet it slows you down significantly.”

“If it slows me down at all, the protection it provides me is more than making up for it,” Ravela responded confidently.

“Where did you get that anyway? It looks out of this world.” Laena said, tilting her head.

Ravela crossed her arms. “I know I promised you answers, but you know I have issues with my memory. I had it with me, and thus it is mine. I thought long and hard about it, but I am certain I did not make this myself because I know I can’t build something like this. I know because my first idea was to build you girls your very own armor suits. I can’t, though.”

The teenager still circled Ravela. “I remember how heavy these gloves were when I was still a normal human. I haven’t held them since. Can you give one of the gloves to me again, please?”

Ravela indulged the teenager, unbuckling the left glove. The pressure on her wrist changed slightly as the suit sealed up at the next cutoff point, a feature she hadn’t noticed till now. Holding the glove out to Laena, she said, “Come take it if you think me so slow.”

Laena’s eyes sparkled as she inched closer. She had accepted the challenge. “You’re on!” She said before lunging forward.

It was Ravela’s turn to answer some of the girl’s questions from before. Pulling herself out of Laena’s path with a mere thought, she moved too quickly for even Laena’s senses to keep up.

Laena stumbled to a halt and was after her in a heartbeat. The game was on, and Ravela was happy that she distracted Laena from meeting her with herself in Michael’s disguise. “Having trouble keeping up?” Ravela mocked Laena as she darted with no indication of muscle movement out of her way.

This time, Laena tracked her movement, but Ravela, pulling herself with her telekinesis, maintained enough of a distance, swooping around one of the barn’s wooden support beams.

“Getting better, but not even close yet,” Ravela said teasingly. “You have to try much harder than that, Laena.”

The teenager chased her around the beam for a bit, then suddenly jumped toward her at stomach height, arms outstretched. Ravela pulled herself off her feet, sticking her feet to the horizontal support beam above her. Hanging from the ceiling like a bat, Ravela laughed as Laena dove right into a pile of hay still inside the barn.

“Better but not enough,” Ravela said, holding herself to the beam and walking along its length toward the pile of hay, which was shivering from Laena’s transferred irritation, confusion, and frustration.

Laena exploded from the hay, lunging once again toward Ravela. The teenager's eyes grew wide as Ravela didn’t dodge as she stood the wrong way around from the roof beam and didn’t budge. Ravela slowed the girl down, and before she reached Ravela, the girl stopped suspended mid-air.

“Eh?”

Ravela dropped down from her wooden beam, landing firmly on her feet. “I believe you asked me how long I can hold someone trying to break my hold. Feel free to test me.”

She held the teenager in the air, trying to prevent her movements. Ravela struggled to hold every muscle twitch Laena made but held her well enough for the next three minutes.

“I believe that should give you a good idea of what I could do if necessary,” Ravela threw her glove in the air in front of Laena. “Now, think fast.”

As Laena reached out to her no longer held arms to catch the glove, Ravela let go of her hold.

The yelp Laena let out upon her reacquaintance with gravity was amusing. Ravela watched as Laena kept her focus trailed on the glove. The girl really wished to win this little game. Now was the time to put a serious note on this little game of theirs. She spun on the spot, pulling her knee up and aiming her kick at the girl's stomach. The girl's eyes darted toward the incoming foot when her feet touched down, but her arms were outstretched into the air, still reaching for the glove.

Ravela stopped her kick before making contact, but the flailing girl stumbled backward in shock and surprise nonetheless. The glove landed with a thud in Ravela’s hand.

“Never look at stuff when you should protect yourself,” Ravela said sternly. “You only have one body, one life.”

Weighing the glove in her hand, Ravela became more thoughtful. “Do you think you could have defended yourself properly while hanging up there?”

Laena still sat on the barn floor, her head spinning from the ease with which she had been made a fool.

Ravela threw the glove into her lap.”Now that you have seen some of what I could do if I put my mind to it. There was another question you asked me. Oh, yes, how does this armor change a fight? Let’s assume for a second that you are just some…superpowered person that happens to face me in this armor. Why don’t you strike me and see how it feels?”

Laena got up, weighing the glove in her hand. Mustering Ramiel skeptically. “This is way lighter than before I got changed.”

Throwing the glove back to Ravela, she added, “You are asking me to punch you? You won’t surprise me with an uppercut while I am distracted this time, right?”

Ravela chuckled, “I promise I won’t whoop your ass unless otherwise announced. But it would be appreciated if you could be so kind as to limit your hits to exclude the helmet.”

Laena walked up to Ravela, eager to dish out some payback.

“Be mindful of the force you put in. Don’t break your fist by foolishly punching with all your might from the start.” Ravela warned the way-too-eager teenager as she put her glove back on.

Laena got ready, and Ravela didn’t even bother to put her guard up. She didn’t shield herself and just steadied herself for the incoming punches.

This was more fun than just training them in the basics of hand-to-hand combat and slight usage of her abilities. Ravela could go for a more intense training routine for the teenagers if they showed they could keep up.

A few more hours passed, and Laena got to learn a lot more about what Ravela was capable of and immune to if she willed it so.

They sat in her house, and Ravela was no longer clad in her armor. Laena was nursing her hand with a bag of ice wrapped in a towel.

Ravela leaned back in her foldable chair. “I told you not to punch too hard.”

Laena blew a raspberry at her and said, “I didn’t punch too hard. I just punched too much.”

“You’d think after twenty punches and seven strong kicks, you’d get the idea that you weren’t making a dent, wouldn’t you?” Ravela replied dryly.

“You said I should test it, and that's what I did!” The girl quipped back.

“I think you got a bit too excited at the prospect of punching me after I embarrassed you like that,” Ravela said, taking a sip from the big soda she got herself from the gas station where they bought the ice bag. “But it was fun to show you more of what someone in control of their powers can do. What do you think? Learned something valuable today, didn’t you?”

“I learned that I am glad you are on my side,” Laena said, putting the ice bag against her right shin. “And that telekinesis is way more useful than the power I got.” She added, somewhat grumpy.

Ravela leaned forward in her chair. “Don’t ever feel ashamed of the power you got. Don’t compare it to others, either. There will come a day when I wish for a chance to get as much time to analyze a situation as your powers afford you. I will make mistakes that will be evident once you grow into your powers. Time is much more powerful and meaningful than you may think now. I will never get the chance to stretch a split-second choice. When you search a crowd for someone, you will be much more likely to find them than I ever could hope to be. Don’t degrade what you got.” Leaning back, she tried to lighten the mood by adding a joke after that. “Especially when you could have easily gotten smelling like flowers or smoking from your head. Or you know… died.”

Laena threw the bag of ice on her stomach, and she allowed it to hit her. “Had to ruin good advice and counseling with a joke, didn’t you?”

Ravela laughed.

“But thank you, Ramiel, for saying that. Sometimes, it is much easier to be jealous of what you don’t have than to appreciate what you’ve been given.” Laena said. “Can I get a sip of that?” The girl suddenly changed the topic.

“Nooo!” Ravela cradled her cup protectively. “I asked if you wanted one too!”