As Behemoth led me to the person who was supposed to train me, he explained a little bit about my new abilities.

"Earlier, you created that spear, and hurled it at that Old Lady. That is your main ability. You can tap into the latent primordial energies of the universe, that have been in the atmosphere since Everything came to be, and use it to forge anything you want- assuming, of course, you understand how that thing is made."

I thought about it, and this made sense. A spear is a pretty simple weapon... a stick with a blade at the end. "So, if I wanted to make a machine gun..." I started.

"You could. You'd need to have made it at least once without help, or have extensively studied some kind of blueprint; but assuming you know how it's made, you can make something like that. However, bear in mind that the more complicated something is, the more time it will take you to forge it. Unless, of course, you're extremely familiar with said weapon. So I'd recommend learning a few forges at a time, and sticking with those until you've fully mastered them before learning new weapons."

We made it back to the cockpit, and started to head down the hallway, toward the training room. Just then, Behemoth stopped and looked at me.

"Earlier, you made those spiral galaxies, right? Try making one of those again, but make it as realistic as possible. Think about everything that goes into a star, and planets, and the result might surprise you."

I outstretched my hand in response, and made the little model of a galaxy again in the palm of my hand. I closed my eyes, and imagined the heat of the little sun in the middle, and the rocky planets surrounding it.. the asteroid belt, a few more plants- some of them just pure gas. I put together everything I knew about our galaxy. Somehow, the more specific information about the elements the galaxy was made of was all readily available right there in my head, which I again attributed to the time I spent in the chamber... that thing was like the gift that kept on giving.

I began to feel a powerful heat radiating from the palm of my hand, and opened my eyes. The galaxy had grown noticeably bigger.

"You can manipulate all properties of that galaxy. You could probably even make the star much bigger, and use that as some sort of attack. Here, test it on me."

I looked at Behemoth with a weird expression on my face. "You want me to hit you point blank with an actual star? Would you even be able to survive that?"

His expression suddenly turned very dark. "I've survived a lot worse. Just do it."

I held my palm out toward Behemoth, and reluctantly made the star grow to roughly the size of him. It expanded and engulfed him completely, before dissipating after a few seconds.

Just as he'd said, he seemed alright... but his mutated arm was bright red, and had a rocky-texture to it. He let out a little cough, and black smoke plumed out of his mouth as he did so.

"Whew, yeah. That was.. cough ...about what I expected. I'd keep that as a reserve move, if I were you. It's a little too dangerous to be used down on Earth, I just... cough... thought maybe you could use it if you really needed to get out of a tight spot. All that pent-up primordial energy probably makes it harder to forge other things, too."

I realized he was right, the "Universal Awareness" seemed a lot weaker than before I'd done that to him. I opened my hands, and noticed that there were little shutters on on the palms of my gauntlets. I seemed to be able to will them to open and close, and when they opened there was a seemingly endless pool of some kind of weird bright purple energy behind them.

"What's..."

Behemoth saw what I was looking at, and shrugged in response. "Eh, your armor constantly absorbs primordial energy from the atmosphere, and keeps it somewhere for when you need to forge things, so it's easier for you to channel the energy. It's not really a big deal, just your powers in action, I guess."

We walked in silence the rest of the way, before stopping in front of one of the giant "Training Rooms". There were occasional purple flashes of light coming from inside, so I assumed this was also where Blur was doing his laps.

I was about to enter, when I felt a hand on my shoulder.

"Look. about this guy you're about to meet... don't let appearances fool you. He's been doing this a long time, and there's a lot he can teach you. You should be able to adapt to his lessons a lot quicker than most, due to the time you spent in that chamber, but it's probably still going to frustrate you."

"Yeah... I see what you're saying. What are you going to be doing?" I responded, and he looked down the hallway.

"I'm going to go help Retina. Your next recruitment mission is in three days, and I need both of you in tip-top shape."

Behemoth started to head down the hall, but I stopped him. "W- wait, both of us? Me and Retina? What about Blur?"

"He'll be doing something else. I can't have our speedster bailing you out all the time, and regardless I do have some other things only he can deal with. You'll learn more about it later, for now just focus on your training." With that, he went down the hall, his steps making the familiar *clank* *clank* against the metal floor.

I entered the training room, and the place was even bigger than I'd remembered. It was mostly barren, and dark- except, of course for the constant purple streak that was forming a ring around the perimeter of the room.

Suddenly, the lights clicked on, bathing the room in light. It was as if I was back at the gym from when I was in high school, and afternoon sunlight would filter in through the windows near the ceiling. Well, if the gym was mostly made of metal... and was basically the size of an enormous shopping mall.

There was a man standing in the center of the room, and as I made my way toward him I could see why Behemoth said not to judge him based on his appearance... he just looked like some fisherman. He was wearing a life vest, and a bucket hat with little pins in it, saying things like "Biggest Catch 2021" and "Father's Day Fish-Off!". Some of the pins seemed to be of little sea creatures.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

The man sported a light beard, as if he'd shaved a week or so ago, and was smoking a cigarette. When he saw me, he looked up and took the cigarette out of his mouth, just holding it between two fingers as he started to speak.

"Hey there. I'm Justin Ketchermann. I understand yer the young'un what needs schoolin'?"

I could barely understand what he just said, his southern accent was so thick. "H-hey, I'm Chiron. Nice to meet you."

"Back at ye, son. I'd heard from Bee that yer Diamondback's successor. Pleased to meet ye. I was good friends with the old gal, was mighty sad t' hear of her passin'."

I still was trying to decipher what he was saying, but I kind of got the gist.

"Y-yeah, that must have been pretty awful. I'll do my best to, you know, honor her legacy."

He nodded at me, and for the first time, it felt like someone who knew what they were doing was actually acknowledging me.

"So, you can train me? How exactly?" I asked, a little skeptical of this guy. He just looked like an old man. But then, this past afternoon I'd been attacked by a crazy old lady piloting a robot chicken, so maybe this was pretty well within the realm of possibility as I'd come to understand it.

"That's simple, brother. We're gonna spar- just you n' me. You knock me down one time, and you pass. You c'n use whatever weapons you got, but no powers. I'm not trynna git burned alive or blown to smithereens when I'm just throwin' a punch at ya.

"Alright..." I didn't know what all this was about, exactly. Looking at Justin's stature, I thought it'd be easy enough to get the better of him. I rose my first, ready to throw the first punch, when something occurred to me.

"Wait, shouldn't I take off my armor?"

"Naw, you're prolly still tired from all the crap you took t'day, might help you a little. Not to mention, as long as you're wearin' all that stuff, there's no need for me t' hold back at all. Just come at me."

I just shrugged in response, before throwing a punch at him. At that precise moment, he sidestepped, and grabbed my arm. Using my own momentum against me, he threw me to the ground. He then popped his cigarette back into his mouth, and just looked down at me, as if nothing had happened.

I sprang to my feet, pretty much completely unhurt. Well, aside from my dignity, of course. Again, I took a swing at his face and he sidestepped, He grabbed my arm, but this time my other arm shot forward and I grabbed his life-vest. I was about to use my sheer strength to throw him against the wall, but he quickly took the cigarette out of his mouth, and blew smoke straight into my face. Luckily, I was wearing my helmet, but the plume of smoke obscured my vision and got into the little breathing holes in my mask.

I began to cough, and instinctively let go of Justin's shirt. I heard some rustling, and something that sounded like a zipline, along with a sound that was as if something was being reeled in. Suddenly, something got caught around my foot, and yanked me off my feet.

I hit the ground again, which was kind of a blessing in disguise because my vision was no longer obscured, and I got a moment to breathe clean air again. I looked back up at Justin, and found that he was now holding a fishing pole, and was standing as if he was about to go on some kind of fishing trip.

"Come on, git up." He said.

"I-isn't that cheating, or something?" I asked, gesturing at his fishing pole.

He chuckled a little at the question. "I said you could use weapons, didn't I? Well, why can't I? I'm just an old man with a fishing pole. Surely that ain't much trouble for a strong Champion like you?"

I was a little embarrassed at this, so I was happy to be wearing my helmet, since he wouldn't be able to see my cheeks getting red. I stood up, slowly, and finally was ready to get serious. Or.. so I thought.

I thought back to the fight with Super Semicolon. He was much faster and stronger than me, so maybe the same would be true here? I was clearly faster and stronger than him, he just had way better combat sense than me. If I relied on my powers, I could probably win. The fisherman mainly referred to energy-based abilities as being off-limits, not my superhuman speed or strength. It was kind of a loophole, but I wondered if that was the real test here- to think outside the box.

I ran toward the far wall of the room, picking up speed as I did so. I ran a couple laps around Justin, trying to build up to Superspeed, like when I chased Blur. Then, finally, I ran back to the far wall, and back to Justin again- I figured I'd built up enough speed to where all I had to do was slam into him or something, and that would be enough to knock him down.

I was heading toward him, the walls blurring as I neared the fisherman- but as I approached him, he sidestepped ever so slightly, and dropped the hook from his fishing pole down to where he was standing just a moment ago.

He dropped it directly in my path.. and I couldn't really change direction by that point.

My foot got caught in the hook, but I was a bit confused by this move of his. I was going insanely fast, wouldn't he still get pulled down from my momentum?

But somehow, I still tripped. The string tightened within seconds of getting caught on my foot, and I slammed down onto the ground.

Hard.

I slowly staggered to my feet, and looked back at Justin. Evidently, as soon as he knew I'd been caught in the fishing line, he dropped down to a crouch and put all his body strength into holding the fishing pole steady. One hand still gripped the base of the pole, and another pushed firmly against the top of the pole. He'd yanked it at just the right time, working it like a lever- sending me crashing onto the ground, again using my own momentum against me.

He walked over to me, a look of disappointment across his face.

"That's technically cheatin'. I'll let it slide this time, since I see what you were goin' for, but I don't want you doin' that again. You gotta beat me at martial arts, not a strongman contest. I ain't even tryin' that hard here. You kin use yer powers, just be creative for pete's sake."

I looked down, admittedly ashamed of the way I'd attempted to deal with my training. I kind of knew that wouldn't be allowed, but I thought as long as my speed and strength held out, I might be able to skip to him actually teaching me something, instead of being faced with yet another test. "Well.. maybe, if you told me what I was supposed to be learning here..."

"You gotta figure it out on yer own. Villains and intergalactic warlords ain't gonna teach ya crap. They'll just run ye through and go about their day. But, you c'n fail here, against me, and keep tryin' again as many times as you want. I'd take advantage of that, if I were you."

I was too frustrated to fully process what he said, and blindly charged at the fisherman. I pretended like I was going to punch him in the face, knowing he'd sidestep- and once he did that, I stopped my fist. Remembering the way Super Semicolon had moved, I instead used my momentum to twist my body, and attempt a kick at Justin's side.

Judging by the surprised look in his eye, I could tell he wasn't expecting this; but he dealt with it all the same. He blocked the kick with the base of his fishing pole, and gently pushed back against me. I nearly lost my balance, as I was on one leg when he did this, but managed to regain my footing. I realized that the way I'd adapted to Justin's movements was sort of like how I'd adapted to Semicolon's; but in this case, I could basically try over and over again until I could basically fight like that the whole time.

Thinking back to the fisherman's words, I suddenly understood the purpose of this. It wasn't for him to teach me how to fight... it was to create an environment where I could teach myself how to fight, battling someone who really knew what they were doing.

With renewed confidence in this training, I decided to make the absolute most out of it.

I raised my left hand, and imagined the spear. Slowly, the picture became more and more realistic in my mind's eye. I felt energy welling up and around my hand, and instinctively used my right hand to shape the spear, down to the blade at the end.

When I opened my eyes, the glistening purple spear had once again materialized. But this time, it had two smaller prongs on either side of the main blade, akin to a trident. It was within my grasp, and ready to be wielded by me.

The next few days were certainly going to be interesting.