I followed my Teammates down several hallways to another classroom. It was about the size of a gym, but it was carpeted/ No desks, no blackboard, no chairs. Instead, there were dummies all lined up at the end of the room.
I glanced over at my teammates, trying to gauge their expressions. Wynn looked stoic as usual. Kelta stood staring at Wynn, a strange expression in her eyes. Kyle looked excited. Still no help. Eyrad was standing off to the side, looking as if he dreaded what was going to happen. I wasn’t getting anywhere staring at everyone, so I decided to just ask. Kyle was charming Ya’asa again, and Lorik was nowhere to be seen, so I chose the nearest person. Squirrel.
“Hey,” I said gently, not wanting to frighten him. I guess it didn’t work, because he jumped. Realizing that it was just me, he relaxed somewhat and smiled. I was surprised; then I realized that I hadn’t seen Eyrad smile yet.
“Hey,” he replied. “I guess it’s time we actually met, huh?”
The way he spoke sounded like he was from America, or at least Earth.
I laughed, pushing my still-uneven hair out of my face. “Yeah. Um, since I’m new, can I ask you a question?”
“Of course. What’s up?”
“Well, first of all, what is this class? Kyle never told me. And how many classes do we have a day? When’s lunch? What’s with the dummies? Why--”
“Whoa, chill out, Krystal!” Eyrad stopped me. “Slow down and breathe, my friend,” he suggested. “Let me answer questions before you ask me other ones, okay? This class is called ‘Battle Practice’. We’ll be having mock battles against another Team. Usually both Teams practice on the dummies before the battle. You’ll see. And this is the last class of the day. Instead of seven crappy hours of our lives, it’s only six. Three two-hour classes.”
“What about lunch?” I persisted.
“Lunch is after this class. I know it’s different back home, but here they want us to have a little more endurance,” Eyrad answered, beginning to fidget again.
“So, where are you from?” I asked.
“California, North America, USA,” he recited. “And what happened to “a” question?” Eyrad said, his hands moving everywhere. His pockets, his hair, his hips, etc.
I backed off. “Sorry, dude. Didn’t mean to be pushy.”
“No, it’s okay. I’m always like this in the School. You see, my IP is Gravity Manipulation. It’s hard to keep my gravity right in outer space. If I relax too much, I’ll float up to the ceiling,” he said, a slight tremor in his voice.
“Oh, I’m sorry about that,” I said sympathetically. “I guess there’s really no way I could help?”
Eyrad glanced at me and smiled. “Well, it’s only your first day, so I guess you don’t know how to, but when you learn you could lend me some of your Energy. Since Gravity is technically magnetic, and magnetism is based on electricity, your touch would help stabilize me. But don’t try it now; my Instructor would kill me for slacking off. I’m still a Class Gravitas Unum.”
My mind automatically translated the Latin words to mean “Gravity Class One”.
A door slammed at the east end of the room. A slender woman of medium height walked in stiffly, her short, woody brown hair in a pixie haircut. Her eyes were a forest green, with long eyelashes. She looked to be Mexican, or maybe Portuguese. Of course, people here are more likely to be from a different planet altogether. She could have been Chastanese, or a Chastanite, or whatever they were called. Or maybe from some other planet.
There’s a difference between “worlds” and “planets”, Krys, Lorik thought into my head. I looked around quickly, unable to locate him.
Don’t bother; I’m not in that room, he informed me, his voice slowly fading quietly.
The Battle Instructor addressed me directly. “Welcome to my class, Krystal. My name is Madara and I will be your Instructor for this class. I have heard that you learn quickly, so I am allowing you to join your Team immediately, instead making you do the customary ‘catch-up’ classes. Don’t disappoint me,” she said, not unkindly. So far, I had decided that I liked her.
Madara turned towards the door and called out “MAAAAAAARCH OUT!” What I saw next made no sense. A battalion of multi-colored gummy bears marched out of the door in perfect step. Except these gummy bears weren’t smiling; their expressions were fierce. Well, as fierce as a gummy bear could look. It helped that these gummy bears were about 5 feet tall. And that they were armed with non-candy swords and spears.
Madara turned back to us, a small smile lighting her face. “Krystal, meet my army. I would advise caution. They are much more dangerous than they look. Your battle will start in five minutes”
I giggled nervously and shot a glance at Eyrad. He, along with the rest of my team, looked surprised to see that we would be battling candy.
Madara grinned at us, obviously delighted with our reactions. “You never know what kind of enemy you will encounter. I have designed these soldiers specially so that it will be very hard for you to defeat them.”
I felt a mutual dread rising out of my teammates. This was going to be interesting.
Madara continued. “You will not be allowed weapons. The scenario is this: you have escaped from capture, without provisions, weapons, or information. Only the clothes on your back and your IP. You are weak and malnourished.”
As she said that, I felt exactly how she said. I wonder what her IP is.
With that, the gummy bear battalion attacked us. I expected to be sliced to shreds, but the two large orange bears attacking me couldn’t get their weapons closer than five inches to me. I supposed that I had my “forcefield” up. Unfortunately for me, as soon as I realized that, I lost it. My forcefield disappeared, and the gummy bears stabbed at me with their weapons. I tried to take control of their minds, but they didn’t have minds, so that didn’t do anything. At the same time, I was aware of my entire team, which confused me a little.
I did the only thing I could think of. Remember those Saturday morning cartoons? Like, the ones where the characters could make that ball of light come to them and then throw it at their enemies? Well, that’s what I did.
I reached into myself, drawing on my power. My finger lit on fire, but I didn’t feel a burn. The fire grew rapidly, until I had a smoking mass of light. I hurled it at the attacking gummy bears. The fire didn’t stick, but apparently it did irritate them. They growled, and attacked me with more ferocity. I felt drained of all my energy. I couldn’t think of anything to do. I knew then that I would get killed. And by my favorite candy, too I thought morosely.
I had retreated away from the enemy, avoiding their spears as best I could. Then I realized; the weapons were what was hurting me, not the bears themselves. I thought that if I could just get enough energy for another fireball, I could burn away their weapons. But I had nothing left. Too bad, I thought. It seems like these guys don’t get tired.
That’s when the light bulb went off in my head. I reached to the very core of my opponents. I felt the force that gave them life. It wasn’t exactly the raw form of Energy that I knew how to manipulate, but it would do. I drew on that force, and created a mass of fire larger than the first one. Because of the heat, the two mutant gummy bears facing me began to melt a little. But it was much slower than any normal gummy bear should have been melting. They paused in place, planning their next move. That pause was enough for me. I dove straight at their spears, lighting them on fire. It seemed that the fire was fueled by my own feelings. It burned the weapons to ashes before my eyes, leaving the enemy defenseless. The moment that the spears were destroyed, my opponents melted away. I had taken their entire life force and put it into my ball of fire. I smiled grimly, pleased with myself.
