Chapter 7: Part 7: Progression, POV: Sam

I was staring out of a window in the ambulance. A paramedic was taking my blood samples and checking any wounds I had. This was the most exhausted I had been since the first time we ran on the rooftops. 

“How long till we get to the labs?” I asked the driver up front.

“Uhh not long kid,” he looked back at the GPS tracker, “twelve minutes!” 

Zack and Sheila were in their own ambulances on the way to the same place. After the paramedic finished she said “Some of the small wounds you claimed, they aren’t here.” 

“Huh?” 

“Some of the minor bruises or scratches or pains you told me you were suffering, they aren’t here visually. Either you’re overstating the condition, or you’re already healed.” The paramedic explained. 

“Oh-,” I tried to brush it off because I don’t know if she knows about magic or not, “That’s fine, I guess I was overstating.” 

“Then you’re all good.” She finished bandaging the top left side of my head, “You’re welcome.” and then she sat in the passenger seat up front to let me have my own time. I got up and grabbed a rag off the table on the other side of the ambulance and started to wipe down my Odachi. It was covered in charred or burned bloodstains and I couldn’t even remorse or find something to be sad about. All I could continue doing was focusing on the next task at hand. I neatly put my Odachi back in my base and then grabbed my phone out of a bag to check it. 

I saw texts from my parents, from other friends and really anyone who saw me and saw the news of Aliens in New York City. I checked social media of the area and most of them were indistinguishably blurry pictures of the four of us fighting together or the wreckage and flames the Zankoku ship caused to Times Square. 

I texted into the groupchat with the other two with a simple, “hey”

“So, you ARE alive! ????” Sheila texted back.
“We’re not dead just yet.” Zack responded too. 

“Not yet Zack, that's for later!” I joked, soon I texted, “no but seriously, when’re y’all gonna arrive back to the labs.” 

“A few minutes.” Sheila replied. 

“Same” Zack linked to her text, “you?” he responded next. 

I plainly said, “Maybe 5-10 min at most.” 

We all just texted for a little bit until we eventually met up at the labs. When we arrived Quinn was waiting for us but more importantly his “babies” The weapons we use in battle. He wheeled them into the building while we followed. 

Quinn explained to us the current situation of Times Square and how the public will not be allowed within a block of the place until the cleanup is finished.

“Great that's great and all but what about us?” Zack asked. 

“Training shall continue as normal. Now go change and get a night's rest!” Quinn sent us off, but he peered out of his office door really quickly to say “Oh and by the way, drop your suits somewhere in the new locker rooms. I’ll have someone grab them.” 

“Locker rooms!?” The three of us were confused, We just had to change in the bathrooms before. There were no locker rooms, right?

“Yeah I had them installed, recently with the increase of traffic in here. Last doors down the hall” He slammed the door on us. 

The three of us shrugged and found the locker rooms to change and then we headed home. On our way, I felt scared or startled if some reporters found out that we were the masked combatants in Times Square or something. Almost as if I was being watched… “but there's no way they could find me, right?” I loosely assured myself. 

We were sent home and I crawled into bed and I felt like I wanted to slither with how much strain my back and legs are feeling. In the morning, I just got dressed and went to the labs since the weekend. On the subway I thought, “Maybe I want to practice more with my Odachi than magic for now.” 

When the elevator opened to the labs, I saw Adam and Sage there waiting for something… or someone. 

I just walked by and waved,”hey” casually. 

“Wait, Sam, hold up!” Adam grabbed my shoulder and stopped me, “You aren’t gonna talk about what happened yesterday?” He asked frantically. 

“Well, if you saw the news articles, that's about it. We had to fight. That's it.” I brushed it off. 

“C’monnn we’re gonna need to know more deets than that!” Sage called out to me, “were you scared? How did you use magic so stress free in the moment? How strong were the aliens?”  Both of them started pestering me on and on with questions. 

I started to answer them, “I was scared at first, but there was a mental wall in my mind that kept shouting ‘do what you must!’ or something like that. I didn’t really think about using magic, I just went with it once I got the hang of it,” I lied, it was kind of hard using magic, “The aliens weren’t so strong this time, I think.” I awkwardly stepped past them towards the locker rooms to change after slipping my Odachi out of Quinn’s office. 

They kept pressing with more and more questions after I got out of the locker rooms. In one of the gym labs I was practicing my sword swings, Sage asked “what weapons are we supposed to get? Do we get to choose?” 

“I don’t know, maybe, I asked for a sword and I got one so… probably? I know Sheila is usually sarcastic and sadistic so I think it's fitting she got a whip” I shrugged. 

“What weapons would fit me?” Adam asked for my opinion. 

“Literally no clue, I barely know either of you.” 

“Okay, I’m Adam and I have the power of darkness and I’m a pro b-boy,” Adam backflipped, he landed head first so Sage and I shouted, “You good?” but he ignored us and he did a clean headspin before leaping up cleanly into a showy pose. 

“Like the work, much more flashy than I am!” I lit my Odachi on fire and spun it on my right hand, “And I’m literally meant for flashiness!” 

“Well so am I!” Sage added on and tried to cast a spell, she was slowly opening a magic circle and it broke halfway through, “damn it.” she cursed at herself, “Sorry I’m not too good at this stuff yet” she rubbed the back of her head while lowering it a bit. 

“No shit, you just learned this stuff existed.” I attempted to console her, “Oh by the way, what schools do y’all attend?” 

“Quardia arts.” Sage said. 

I looked at Adam, “...Same as her.” Adam nodded his head at Sage.

I told them, “Ohhh I think I’ve heard of it. It’s a performing and general arts school? I think Sheila wanted to go there as a secondary school if Computer Science didn’t work.”  

“Is Manhattan tech prep all just computer nerds?” 

“Pretty much-... eh not really anymore. It used to be really really nerdy before I even got into high school.” I explained. 

At some point Xeno popped into the gym and took Sage and Adam with him to start their magic training. I kept practicing my swordsmanship for a bit. When I took my break I saw through the windows of the gym where Sage and Adam were practicing. As they said yesterday, their powers are light and darkness. 

Adam’s magic circle was a dark purple almost blackish color with some purple linings to it, “That's a cool as hell magic circle”, I thought. On the other hand, Sage’s was a bright shining white with yellow lining. Their circles were different than ours, the circles had a slight mist coming off of their circles and dissipating. The circles that I made or the others were cleaner and emitted no extra colors or had a dissipating effect. 

“According to Xeno,” Quinn appeared behind me as if out of nowhere, and explained,  “their powers are harder to control than the rest of you.” 

“GAH!” I got startled and leaped a bit, “Quinn where did you come from?” 

“Checking up on all of my ‘assets’, you included of course.” 

“Where are Zack and Sheila anyway?”
“Well it's still the morning so-”

“It’s 11:48 am.” I responded while staring at a clock. 

Quinn opened a hologram out of his wrist watch, “hmm yeah it is 11:48, forty-nine now.” 

“How do you make these holograms?” 

“I saw the tech in Xeno’s escape pod and did my best to replicate them. It's a bit too complicated to explain. There are even some hologram stuff in your suits.” He informed me.

“Wait what!? How do I use them?” I started frantically touching and pressing random parts of metal on my suit.

“They’re on your wrists.” Quinn waved a little glow stick over my left wrist and then a hologram appeared in front of my face, “these holograms are controlled with the magic you guys possess.” The hologram was simple, it read the time and date but also read the vitals of my body’s medical condition. 

“So these basically just measure our current status’?” I asked.

“Well it not only measures your medical status but also the status on the battlefield. It will give a minimap of your current area and here is where to track your comrades.” I saw a purple and blue flashing dot near my flashing red dot, “you just need to rotate your left wrist quickly to undo the hologram.” He motioned his left wrist turning outwards then back. I tried it and the hologram ‘vwooped’ back in, mimicking the sound it made when the holograms turned off. 

“Cool cool, I’ll try it out myself later, but uh… what's with that glow stick?” I pointed at the pocket where Quinn kept it in his lab coat. 

“It's my magic stick. It's a stick that has some magic energy in it, specifically Xeno’s. The engines we found all had a metal in common that liquifies easily. This metal when you input magic into it, it outputs a greater amount of magic energy like its multiplying the magic. So I had Xeno turn this metal into a liquid by inputting magic and it came out into this tubular stick… and now it's just my magic stick.” Quinn rambled and explained, “I’ve been trying to make new weaponry using this metal but we don’t have a lot of it, and my current prototype is still in testing. But when it's ready. I need your weapons to do something with it.”

“Do what exactly?” 

“Something.” Quinn kept mystifying his works and it's a little annoying. 

“I’m excited,” I turned around towards the door and put my hands behind my head and leaned back, “I need to continue my training before you inevitably take my Odachi away.” I left the area and went to another gym room. 

I kept practicing my movements for regular martial arts and ones that involve my Odachi. Occasionally I would check the holograms and notice that Sheila and Zack still have yet to suit up or even get here. I would just sigh and keep practicing and practicing. 

The doors were open so Adam came in and said, “How ya doin’?” He was leaning on the side of the doorway with his arms crossed.

“Fine. I’m getting faster than normal and merging magic into the blade is getting easier. Ya need anything?” 

“Not particularly…,” he clapped his hands together like he’s praying or asking for a favor, “unless you can help convince the engineering team that I need a Scythe,” Adam tried to keep his cool, “but nothing beyond that.” 

“Yeah… nothing, right.” I sighed and sheathed my Odachi back into its case, “I can maybe ask Quinn but that's about it.”

“What about the other mechanic in the labs?”

“Other mechanic?” I was so confused, “Everyone else that makes weaponry works directly under Quinn’s command, who else is here?” 

“You didn’t know?” Adam peered out the door and signaled me to follow. I looked out too and he said, “that door at the end across the hall is where I saw a tiny glimpse of some welding in there and not from Quinn.”

 I scratched the back of my head, “huh,” I acknowledged. 

“Soo… you gonna ask Quinn or him?” 

“I don’t know who he is~!” I sarcastically remarked, “real Sheila move of me.” I thought to myself. 

“What are the two of ya staring at?” Sheila stood next to us in the hallway casually. Both her hands in a purple hoodie. 

“Adam’s saying that there’s another engineer here.”

“Well yeah, there are others but they all work under Quinn.” Sheila commented.

“No no, Adam means a guy who doesn’t follow Quinn’s order to a tea.” I assured her.

Sheila was mildly taken aback, “No way really? Should we figure out who he is?” 

“... Alright why not.” I started to pace down the halls while Sheila and Adam followed. 

I heard from the back Sheila ask, “Where’s Sage?” 

“We’re taking forty-five minute interval breaks. Master Xeno wanted to work with us individually to strengthen our speed for creating magic circles.” 

“Why’d you call him Master?” Sheila and I were perplexed.

“Because he is. He teaches us magic, do you not?” 

“No. We both just call him Xeno.” 

“Why?” 

“It's easier and it’s not like he’s a real master at magic or anything.” I said, “But he’s still is the best we got.”

We got to the end of the halls and the three of us just stared at the door for a second and then. 

[Knock Knock]

Sheila just knocked, “What? I don’t wanna stare at just a door all day.” 

The door opened and it was a guy. He has brown skin and a bit taller than us but his face didn’t show anything that would give the hint that he’s older than eighteen. He had a mask lifted up, one of the ones you wear when you’re welding and was wearing a welding apron and a trench coat, very clashing vibes. I frantically said,  “Hi hello… How old are you?”

All he did was sigh, he turned back to the computers in the back of the room and said, “Quinn, these my teammates?” 

A voice box opened and Quinn said, “Yeah they are.” 

“This wasn’t part of the deal!” He told him back.

“This was inevitable and you knew it. Aight now do some icebreakers to get to know each other or something, I’m busy.” and Quinn signed off.

He stared at us again, “Hey, I’m also busy so we could do this another time… or never.” 

“What’s with the cold shoulder hmm?” Sheila poked her elbow on his arm, “C’monn at least tell us your name and power?” 

“Andrew. Metal.” He slammed the door shut in front of us. 

“Damn what an antisocial.” I groaned and crossed my arms. 

“But we know he works with metal,” Adam pointed out, “So that may be why he’s an engineer or something.” 

“Possible. And it’s also possible that he’s one of the nine total people that possess magic,”

“Possible? No shit Sam of course he is, why else would he be here and be a teenager!?” Sheila commented.

“I don’t know, teen genius or somethin’.”

“Yeah that's soooooo plausible,” Sheila waved her hands in disbelief of my answer. 

Adam cut our argument off by asking, “Are we gonna knock again or what?” 

“No, asking Quinn would be easier.” Sheila told him, “but I don’t care enough to chaperone so I’m gonna go practice bye bye.” Sheila disappeared into the locker rooms at hyper speed. 

I just shrugged, “Alright let's go ask. More interesting than training anyway.”

We walked over to Quinn’s office and I just opened the door without knocking, Adam swept behind me and pestered Quinn, “Who is the other guy? What does he do? How long has he been here?” stuff like that. 

Quinn looked up from his monitor, “Ah. That’s Andrew, the most secluded member of your team. He was here a week or two ago, like a few days after Sam ‘n crew arrived.”

“How did we not notice about him?” I questioned the timeline of Andrew’s arrival.

“He asked us to keep his identity confidential from the rest of his own team and he would operate in secret from these labs. His powers are metal and he never made his debut in the first battle last night, but he was there.” Were the bullets Andrew’s doing? 

I frantically inquired, “What’s Andrew’s weapons currently?” 

“Uhhhh a load of them, let me check,” Quinn looked back at his monitor and scrolled through a few files, “Okay so a Barrett M82 Sniper Rifle, a pair of desert eagles and a machete with a few more files labeled as ‘prototype’ with a Greek letter and number following the list I just named.” 

“So basically he’s using his metal powers to build weapons?” Adam connected. 

“Well yeah, when you can make metal out of thin air and energy, of course you’d use it like that.” Quinn spun around in his chair to keep checking more and more monitors, “he’s a loner so get to know em’ or something. Now that you know he exists, he’ll be fighting alongside y’all but if he listens to you is up to him. Please, continue your training, I need to keep designing and making new products to fend off the Zankoku Empire.” He got up from his chair and showed us our way out.

Xeno was out in the hallways and called to “ADAM! I need you to c’mere for training!” Sage was following Xeno and then he said, “she’s your problem now.” And he took Adam with him. 

“Oookay… he was never that frantic with training for the three of us beforehand.” I commented. 

“Then why is he frantic now?” Sage questioned, “also why were you in Quinn’s office?” 

“I think it's cause the Zankoku are actually here now.” I reasoned, “also we asked about our new, well not really new but secret teammate. He’s abrasive and doesn’t really want to talk with us so c’mon let's go spar with Sheila or something.”

On our way to find out which gym Sheila was in, “There are five gyms by the way” I thought about telling that to Sage but she probably knows. I asked her, “so when’re you getting your suit?” 

“Suit? Like what you’re wearing? I just assumed the three of you were edgy enough to have similar vibe suits.” Sage took a look at my suit. 

“Oh no, these suits are made and tailored by Quinn,” I peered through the windows and didn’t see Sheila while explaining the suits, “they're made of mostly metals from space stretched out super thin to make fabrics.”

“Ohhh is that even possible?” Sage remarked, “I’ve sewn stuff before but not metals.”

“This alloy makes it possible… Ah.” I saw Sheila practicing movements with her whip alone in this gym, “we’re here.”

“Alright.” Sage burst through with a loud, “Hello!” 

“Hi?” Sheila was obviously perplexed and eyed at me a “What’s happening?”  

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“Wanna help Sage spar or something? I don’t know anything better to do.” I shrugged at her. 

“Fine,” Sheila sighed, ”she has no weapons though.” 

I tossed my katana to a bench on the sides of the gym, “no weapons then, free hand it.” I put my arms up, “you scared to square up?” 

“Nope!” Sage slapped me in the face. There was a red sting on the side of my face with the shape of Sage’s right hand, “ooh sorry, was I supposed to wait for you to say go?” 

I sighed and brushed it off, “hah… yes, it's fine though.” 

I waited for Sheila to toss aside her whip and then declared “Okay!” I started to leap back and shouted, “GO!” mid air.

Sheila immediately jumped at me and tried to lash her leg at my head. I ducked down and immediately got kicked in the stomach by Sage. 

“Oops sorry!” she called out.

I landed on all fours and pushed myself back up “I can’t tell if you’re taunting me,” I sprinted at Sage and avoided one of her punches, “But impact is the point of sparring!” I jabbed the side of my right hand into her stomach.

“Aww c’mon Sam,” Sheila started to throw punches at my head, “you’re supposed to go easy on the new one!” I dodged to the left side of Sheila’s right fist. 

I used my right hand to move her hand away and down from me and used my left leg to sweep her legs causing her to fall. I took a breath,“but I don’t need to go easy on you!” I remarked and put my hands on my hips.

Sheila sighed, “but don’t leave your guard open!” 

“What?” [POW!] I was kicked and fell over Sheila and forward to the ground.

“Yeah leaving your guard open isn’t the greatest idea.” Sage commented and then swung her arm right into Sheila’s torso, “And you too!” 

Safe to say, Sage got both of us, “It ain’t gon’ be that easy!” I ran back up at Sage and started to trade hits with her. Soon Sheila joined in and the three of us kept duking it out for a while and things started to escalate. 

As Sheila punched me I leapt back and ignited my right hand on fire, “Lets heat things up shall we?” I smirked and then I could see Sheila and Sage roll their eyes.

“Is he always like this?” Sage asked.

“Meh, not as annoying as right now.” Sheila commented, “maybe it's cause he’s actively trying to hit me.” Sheila coated her left hand in water and we both clashed. 

“Sam, how are your hands not burning?” 

“They are. I just want to win.” 

Both of us were trading hits of flames and water over all amounting to nothing. 

At some point Sheila asked, “Sage. Did Xeno teach ya any cool spells yet?”

“Oh yeah he taught me one and he called it ‘crucial’!” Sage opened a circle with a bit less white fades than the last time I saw her open one. She was weaving spells so I stepped over to stand besides Sheila and whispered, “ya think it’s gon’ be the vortex spell again but this time using light?” 

“It's possible.” She whispered into my left ear, “Oh wait, something interesting is happening!” 

Sage weaved out a spell more complex than what was originally laid out for the simple vortex spell and then she cast it down onto herself, “Why’d you cast it on yourself!?” I shouted.

“Just wait!” She said, in a few seconds Sage’s silhouette started to emit a glowing effect, “Here I come!” She declared. 

Immediately Sage was running at faster speeds than previously. I tried to stop her with an uppercut but she cleanly swept past me and jabbed the side of her right hand into my stomach, “That's for earlier!” 

Sheila tried to kick at Sage but she juked around Sheila and punched her back. 

“Woah what kind of spell is that?” I called out to Sage as I stood back up cupping the part of my stomach where I was jabbed. 

“Xeno called it an ‘enchantment’,” Sage started to explain and count from off the fingers in her hands, “So this spell allows you to boost your strength, speed and sensory.” The glowiness of Sage started to fade away, “So far it only lasts… about that long amount of time right now but I’ll train so it gets stronger!” The glowing of Sage’s silhouette was replaced with a gleam in Sage’s eyes with determination. 

“I guess I can see why Xeno calls it crucial.” I crossed my arms, “If we use it-”

“Correctly!” Sheila finished my sentence and now stole my point, “Ahem, if we use it correctly and you train this ability properly. Then we can have an easier time fighting off the Zankoku.”

“I know, but I also want to fight alongside all of you and not just be considered support!” Sage said with a fiery eagerness, “ya feel?” 

“I understand the sentiment!” Xeno shouted from the doorway. He started to pace closer to the three of us with Adam following behind, “I understand you and Adam’s passion. I’ll do my best to train the both of you enough to fight alongside the four that I’ve already set their path onto magic.” Xeno put his hands on Sage and Adam’s shoulders and smiled. 

“Thank you so much… but while we’re all here… we should continue sparring and add two more people into the fray.” Adam suggested. 

“Sure, we’ll practice physical conditioning here and end with maybe some free running. Also, ‘Two S's’, where is Zack?” Xeno asked while staring at me and Sheila. 

“Why’d you call us ‘Two S’s’?” I asked, “It's weird and I don’t know if I approve of it.”

“I sure as hell don’t,” Sheila crossed her arms. 

“Yeah okay same I guess, but I don’t really know where Zack is. He’s probably spending time or something with Christmas coming up and all.” I gave a reason.

“Christmas?” 

“It's a cool Earth holiday!” Sage excitedly exclaimed, “I need to do some Christmas Shopping after this for some new fits.”  

“What does a holiday have to do with shopping? And what is a ‘fit’?” Xeno was perplexed by Earth speech and slang.

“I think we may need to write Xeno a slang dictionary just so he can understand Sage.” Adam jokingly suggested. 

“I don’t even say that much slang.” Sage reasoned, “Do I guys?” 

“It’s not horrible but more than any of us.” I shrugged.

“Don’t worry about it,” I put it off, “Let’s just start sparring already!” I lit my hand on fire in excitement. 

“Seriously, does that NOT hurt you?” Adam asked. 

I seethed, “oh yeah it does, it very much does.” I patted out the flames.

Xeno threw aside his spear, “Let's get to sparring.”

All five of us started sparring for about a while. It was a chaotic event of everyone free for all throwing punches, kicks and jabs at each other. Sometimes we would use free form magic but generally stayed away from doing so since Sage had a hard time making anything. Adam didn’t though, most dark magic is easy spells to be made because most of them are support-like spells and not really outright damaging people. 

At some point Adam made a spell which caused him to be invisible and we were only able to find him through hearing his voice. Xeno said after the sparring that, “I want to teach Adam to be able to use a spell titled ‘Portal Gate’. It can create portals where you can summon any object that isn’t a live being. It’d be incredibly helpful for us but also his combat opportunities.”

“How so?” I asked while chugging a water bottle.

Xeno swung his spear around, “One of my old comrades was able to wield Portal Gate with various weapons and could confuse any of his opponents by switching weaponry and his position using this spell. I should also mention Portal Gate also works with live beings but only at tiny distances or the organisms within the gate may suffer some… consequences.” 

“What happened to your old comrade?” Adam asked childishly. 

“Hey dude-” Sheila and I called out, “That’s a hard spot for Xeno!” 

“No it’s fine”, Xeno shrugged and forced a smile, “Let’s go free running. I don’t think either of the new ones have gone before.” 

“Uhhh… that we have not done.” Sage said while looking confused almost with a face that read, “Xeno can just brush that off!?” 

“Then let’s go..?” I suggested as I opened the doors of the gym.

Everyone grabbed their things and stepped out of the gym as I held the door. Sheila and I changed back out of our suits back into the clothes we wore previously. 

“Isn’t it snowing out right now?” Sage asked, “Would it be harder to run?” 

“Yes, but we have to adapt. After all, the first fight we had,” I pointed at Sheila, “was in the snow. 

“Don’t make it sound that cool Sam, we were in quite a pinch back there.” Sheila sighed, “Andrew came to help in secret likely.”

“Whose that?” Sage asked excitedly. 

“The shut-in member of the group.” Adam explained, “He’s in that door.” he pointed, “Likely never wants to see us but it’s fine.”

“Ohhhh, so what are we doing again?” 

“Free running, basically parkour on rooftops and other stuff but we mainly stick with rooftops and sides of buildings.” Sheila explained. 

“Thank you Thank you,” Sage said in a way that sounded almost like ‘sank yuu’.

We all hopped into two SUVs and Xeno had them drop us off at a pretty crowded neighborhood with less long jumps than Sheila, Zack and I had to endure, “This should be a good spot.” Xeno said after going up to a roof top and inspecting the area. All of us left our bags and stuff in the SUVs so all we had to do was follow Xeno, we stretched in preparation then Xeno announced, “the task is simple. Catch ME!” And he leapt across to the next building. 

This was regular stuff for Sheila and I but not Adam and Sage so I told them, “Don’t worry we won’t leave you in the dust. We had to do longer jumps than these on our first try so just get the feel for it-” Adam leapt along with no hesitation and did a side flip as he landed across the short jump to the next building.

“Don’t underestimate us completely~!” As Adam shouted that at us, Sage did a run up and jumped over the ledge as well. 

“We’ll catch up in no time!” Sage kept running on towards Xeno. 

Sheila and I just shrugged at each other and kept up with them and quickly passed them with more natural magic power than they currently have. I slyly grinned as I passed Adam and threw up a peace sign with both of my hands then kept dashing.

“Oooh you’re so gonna get passed now!” I heard Adam say from behind me. 

“Pft don’t let them get too ahead of themselves.” Sheila said while leaping down from an air vent. 

“That’s the plan” I exclaimed while leaping up to one of the legs of a water tower to swing around it.

Sheila and I kept up our paces to a maximum and at some point we had lost track of Sage and Adam, “where are they?” I asked. 

“I don’t know, but let’s keep going and catch Xeno. I can see him a few blocks away from here.” Sheila held her right hand over her eyes surveying the area.

“I think it's better if we wait for the others.” I reached out my hand blocking Sheila to keep going. 

I peaked around the corner of the rooftop from where we came and we still didn’t see them, “did they take a different route?” 

“No I see them,” Sheila pointed with her left hand to a slight moving glimmer. 

“Ya sure it's them?” 

“Yeah I’m pretty sure.” 

I tried to look more closely but I couldn’t until they got closer and closer… and closer. Sage had casted yet another enchantment spell for not only her this time but also Adam, they were moving extremely fast but didn’t seem like they could slow down. 

Soon they caught up to us, Sage winked and slyly said, “hey” to Sheila and I. But, “woah woah woah I can’t stop-’ [SLAM] 

As Sheila and Adam caught up to us, they ran right into the wall to where the door into the building was. 

“...Owww” Adam groaned.

“Yeah, let's not use that so often again.” Sage decided. 

I helped up Adam and said, “that is some speed boost.”

Sage was cracking her back and cracking various joints then said, “Yeah but at this point, I can’t control how strong to make the enchantment or how to work my body at those speeds.” 

“It all comes with practice, it's impressive you can pull this off first.” Sheila comforted her. 

Adam stated, “it's the only thing we practiced. Xeno had us do more off spells for less impactful damage,” he created a spell circle and started forming his spell, “See?” He casted it and turned himself invisible, “Well you can’t see cause you can’t see me and stuff.” 

“Yeah we get it. He’s probably just trying to expand our arsenal so we work together better or something.” I tried to think of Xeno’s motive. 

“It's fair though. If Adam could conjure one of us to be invisible then our destructive power would be better especially if they can’t see us near them.” Sheila reasoned. 

“Yeah, but what of OUR destructive power?” Sage asked. 

I sighed then offered, “I don’t know, we can help you practice when you’re free. Most of our time is taken up by training magic anyway.” 

“Sure. But” Sage started to scale the wall we were leaning against, “we should catch up to Xeno first” and grinned at us.

Suddenly, 

[TSEW! CLANK!]

A metal wire shot right where Sage was going to put her hand. I put my hand on my side and noticed, “shit right we don’t have any weapons on us”. The Wire sounded like something was either retracting on it. In a few seconds a tall guy in a black and silver suit with a mask similar to ours, landed atop the ledge we were going to climb to. 

The armor he was sporting had some joints revealing a black undersuit with a thin-ish dark silver armor padding to cover up most of his body with large shin guards attached to his boots. You could see some clear welding marks on the lines of his suits that fold when he moves around.

He muttered, “Prototype three in a working condition. Continue field scheduled test.” Then he shot out the same metal wire towards the direction Xeno was going and he zipped away. 

“Who the hell was that!?” Sheila asked. 

“Likely Andrew. His mask looks really similar to ours,” I leaped up the wall and scaled over the rest, “C’mon we gotta follow!” I waved my hand to signal them.

They quickly followed and we dashed in the same way that Andrew left. 

“Are you sure that was Andrew?” Adam asked as he leaped to another building. 

“He’s heading the same way that Xeno was going. So he’s likely following him just like us.” Sheila called out to us while leaping through a water tower’s pillars. 

Sage climbed up a fire escape and shouted, “I follow that logic!” 

We kept dashing and dashing to the end point where Xeno was waiting for us… with Andrew too. 

“Ah you made it! Faster than I expected too!” Xeno exclaimed to us. 

“Whatever,” Sheila and I walked past him while Adam and Sage dropped down to catch their breath, “What the hell’s your deal!?” I screamed at Andrew, “You work alone and don’t follow along with any of us. Why?” 

Andrew unclipped his mask, “I didn’t expect you to figure out it was me,” he sighed and looked away from us. 

“And why not?” Sheila sarcastically commented. 

He turned towards us, “Didn’t think your intelligence was capable of deducing the facts.” and calmly stated. 

“YOU FUCKER-!” Sheila started to stomp her way to him until I body blocked her, “Sheila. Heel.” I told her. She slapped my face. 

“I’m not a dog.”  And she backed off. 

All Andrew did was roll his eyes, “I already told you. I’ll be working alone but we will still have the same cause. So what's the harm in working alone?” 

“Don’tcha think we’d be all-round stronger if we work together?” Adam panted from the back.

“Nope.” Andrew opened his left arm-brace and started to pull out the wires and replace them slowly, “Your current skill level and foreseeable capability are too weak to merit working with me.” He closed the left and opened the right arm-brace. 

“What do you mean our ‘foreseeable capability’?” Sage asked while getting up in front of the ground. 

“Simply put. You’re too weak. I’ll consider teaming once Xeno trains you to a level and mental degree where you wouldn’t hold ME down.” Andrew put his hand on his chest as he said  ‘me’. 

Xeno spun his spear and stabbed it right at the ground at Andrew’s feet, “Andrew. Stop your rabble.”  Xeno’s eyes glew with anger, “Do not harm MY students physically or mentally. Both of us fight on the same side. There is no reason for us to squabble among ourselves.” 

Andrew sighed, “Do what you want Xeno. I still won’t be working with them until I see enough improvement.” He stepped up to the ledge of the rooftop and clipped his mask back on and turned to us, “See ya later losers”  Andrew saluted us as he fell backwards and off the building. 

Xeno and I dashed to the ledge and looked over it. Andrew had already shot his own metal wire and we could see him zipping to the other side across the wide street from us. 

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