“Might as well be me. I’m already up here,” H-Bar said as he stood back up still flexing his right hand. “Lets see if the kid can figure out my name.”

Figure out his name Liam wondered. How was he going to do that? There could be any number of reasons for it. Maybe his real name had an H in it. Or the first Cowl he beat’s name started with an H. As Liam was trying to work through the question H-Bar started his demonstration.

First He tapped one of the pieces of metal on his suit and it started to glow, a tiny beacon of light on the otherwise inky blackness of the suit. The metals weren’t an aesthetic Liam realized, they were little lights. That must be related to his power, otherwise it just killed the whole ninja vibe. Watching, Liam was already putting the man’s name together.

The little light bulb was still glowing, but the light coming from it was changing. It was starting to bend and compress, as if it was being drawn by something. H-Bar stretched out a hand and the light rushed into it. Forming a spinning ball of brightness in his palm. A small tether of light connected the light bulb to the growing orb of light as it drew more light along the connection.

H-Bar used his other hand to turn on more of the little metal lights. As each bulb ignited a repeat to the first occurred. He drew the light into the growing ball in his hand. Once half the lights on his chest were aglow, he was satisfied. H-Bar switched his focus to molding the ball of light in his hands. Liam tried to think of a better word to describe what he was seeing. Try as he might, he couldn’t figure out any better description than H-Bar was sculpting the light.

Seeing H-Bar move the glowing blob left Liam speechless. The beauty of it was otherworldly as the bright white ball changed to a thin string and wove itself around H-Bar’s fingers. Liam wondered how it would feel to do something like that. To control something that no one else could.

With everyone watching, H-Bar continued to mold the light like clay from a thin string to a series of small balls. Then flattening the balls into discs that orbited each other before joining back together in a single large disk, that was paper thin. All the while the light continued to dance to H-Bar’s melody.

“Understand my name yet?” H-Bar asked.

“Planck’s constant divided by two pie,” Liam responded automatically.

“Exactly! I knew it’d be a great idea to have a techie on the team!”

“Um, Thanks?”

“You don’t understand. These fools never understood my name. I explained it to them over and over and all I got back was a blank stare. I control light, H-Bar, I mean come on. Learn a little math.”

“That’s because you’re a nerd,” Gladius said with a shrug.

“No, I’m embracing my ability, like you tried to do,” H-Bar countered. The ivory white light still dancing in his fingers.

“Fine, but at least I didn’t do it in a nerdy way.”

“No you went full history buff,” H-Bar said.

“Watch it, light man,” Gladius laughed.

“Whatever you say, sword girl.”

Turning to Liam, Gladius said, “If you create something to shut him up, I’ll pay good money.”

“I don’t think anyone could create something like that,” Liam mumbled.

There was a moment of stunned silence as the team registered what he’d just said. Liam’s eyes grew large when he realized that comment hadn’t been in his head. His vision snapped between people, looking for some sign of how they’d respond.

The silence was short lived as Gladius spoke up, “I think you’ll fit in here.”

“He got my name so I can’t be upset with the insult,” H-Bar said with a crooked smile. “Now, what d’you think of it? I debated going with Planck’s constant or maybe an equation but ended up with H-Bar”

“Oh, come on, there’s no way he can be honest now.”

“Let the kid speak.”

“I like the ring to it. It flows better than the other options,” Liam said. Cutting in between the two bickering Heroes.

“That’s what I thought.”

Gladius might be right about H-Bar being a nerd, but that wasn’t a bad thing. Liam was one himself and was always happy to find more people like him.

Getting the team back on track H-Bar said, “As you saw, I can manipulate light. But not just that, when I use light it changes. Becoming strong and flexible.”

Almost as if that was a cue Ullr threw the weight he still had with ease. It hurtled towards H-Bar, closing the distance fast. Seeing the incoming projectile H-Bar moved the white disk he’d just created to intercept the weights. With the sound of shattering glass the weight collided with the light. As the disk absorbed the impact, there was a noticeable dimming of the light. Cracks spider-webbed from the sight of the impact, radiating outward. Each one a void in the otherwise uniform ivory surface. But the disk held. Liam had just witnessed hundreds of pounds being blocked by light. How was something like that even possible? He had to run tests. Maybe H-Bar would let him study it?

“Thanks for the demonstration boss,” H-Bar said as Ullr inclined his head, “The other thing I can do is attack with it.”

As H-Bar said that the wall of light dissolved into dozens of tiny bright balls. With a wave of his hand the balls shot forward. Each speeding across the training room before they splashed into the targets or wall on the far side of the room. As each ball hit, the sound of breaking glass came again with a flash of bright light to follow.

As the light faded Liam could see the damage the little balls did. Where they hit, there were scorch marks. They even knocked over some of the dummies.

“They each carry a little force and heat behind them. Good for taking out a lightly armored opponent,” H-Bar said.

“That’s so impressive,” Liam said. And it was, how was he able to make light behave that way? “I would love to study your manipulated light. I have so many questions.”

“Of course you can, we’re teammates now.”

“Great! Now let me guess you wear the black clothes for black body radiation?”

“Bingo again.”

“No, nerd again,” Gladius said under her breath. This time H-Bar either didn’t hear or ignored her.

“While it doesn’t make the light any stronger, I think it looks cool.”

Liam chose not to answer that question and instead asked, “Does the intensity of the light affect your power?”

“Yep, more powerful lights let me extract the energy faster, but the light itself is the same strength.”

“Maybe I could help create something for you. A stronger light perhaps?”

“That’d be great!” H-Bar said. The way his eyes flashed showed his true excitement at the thought of new lights. Well Liam was offering to increase the man’s power, so it was understandable.

“Before these two run off to the workshop and build flashlights or something just as nerdy I’ll show my power,” Gladius said.

Maybe he was getting a little too excited about the lights, Liam thought. He’d forgotten two members of his team still hadn’t gone. But ideas of how he could help H-Bar were already flooding into his brain. The chance to build something new was always exciting. And using it to get on good terms with his team made it even sweeter.

Gladius walked over to some of the still standing dummies and pulled out her sword. The thing wasn’t just a prop, or some technologically advanced weapon like Liam had hoped. No, it was a simple metal sword, if comically long. The blade was over three feet long, but was thin. Maybe three finger widths at its broadest. The blade shone a brilliant silver in the fluorescent lights of the room. The cruel beauty of it was something to behold.

Reaching a dummy Gladius stabbed the long-sword into the thing’s chest. The sword ripped through the dummy as if it wasn’t even there. Plunging in almost to the base before it came to a halt. Then Gladius let go of the sword until only one finger touched the hilt as she turned back around to address the observing team.

“I can manipulate three metal objects I’m currently touching. I can make them nearly indestructible, manipulate the weight, and increase their sharpness. To me whatever I’m manipulating weighs only one tenth of what it normally would. While it carries ten times the force when I hit people with it. Don’t ask me for the details on how it works. H-Bar over there already tried that, and it didn’t end well. All that matters is attacks with my sword are fast and devastating.”

With that she activated her ability. There was no obvious change to Gladius herself, but her blade changed. In a moment, it went from resting in the dummies chest to plunging to the floor. Leaving a clean cut through the dummies chest as it descended. The slice had taken a fraction of a second and looked like Gladius hadn’t even tried to make it. The blade was so sharp it slid right through the dummy.

Liam would have to look at that ability as well. The mechanics behind it was something he wanted to understand. The techie in him demanded to know how things worked and the mysteries of how the weight and sharpness of an object were changed was too juicy to ignore. If not for Gladius’s earlier warning he’d be spitting out questions already.

Next, Gladius picked up her shield and faced H-Bar.

“If you’d be so kind,” she said.

Nodding his head H-Bar molded more light from his suit. In a fraction of the time balls of light were already flying toward Gladius. Each comet of light streaked across the room before colliding with the giant shield. As the sound of broken glass echoed across the room more and more attacks were directed at the shield. But Gladius didn’t budge instead she started to walk into H-Bar’s attack, unfazed.

As the distance closed H-Bar changed from marble sized balls of light to ping pong ball sized attacks. But this only resulted in a louder sound. Doing little to Gladius as she continued her approach. When she finally made her way in front of H-Bar, the attacks stopped, allowing the room to come to a momentary silence.

“That’s all there is to it. Not the most complicated power, but great if you enjoy getting up close with your opponent this is where it’s at.”

“She likes it because she gets to play ancient warrior,” H-Bar said.

“Yep a true warrior’s power unlike, light boy and his little flashlights.”

Before the entire demonstration was side tracked again Skip spoke up, “I can teleport.”

Immediately after he said that Skip disappeared then reappeared behind one of the dummies. In Skip’s right hand was a jagged knife that he thrust into the dummies back.

“I can teleport and am stronger than most,” Skip said, still behind the punctured dummy’s back. Not planning on explaining anything more if it wasn’t needed.

“He also leaves behind a mess,” Gladius said.

“I like to think of it as a slime trap,” H-Bar said. To the obvious annoyance of Skip.

“Both ends of my jumps leave behind a residue. It lasts for about four hours. But it doesn’t impact my jumping ability, and it’s not toxic.”

“You could also call it his jump juice,” H-Bar said as Skip tried to ignore him.

Looking back to where Skip had just jumped from Liam spotted a small puddle of what could best be described as goo on the floor. It was clear, but wouldn’t be confused for water. Odd that the stuff disappeared after a few hours, another thing he’d have to look into. He was making quite a list for himself.

“Does the residue always last the same time?” Liam asked. His curiosity, getting the better of him.

“I’ve counted a few times, and it’s always four hours on the dot, why do you ask?”

“Since it’s always the exact same amount of time, the residue is a byproduct of the jump. If it was created from the jump interacting with the air, then you’d expect the residue to last varying amounts of time. You’d also get different amounts of it based on the conditions where you jumped. It’s very interesting…” Liam looked up and saw a glazed over look in both Skip’s and Gladius’ eyes. Maybe he should keep deep dives into powers until later, when he was by himself.

“Yeah, interesting,” Skip said as he teleported behind where he’d started.

With Skip’s quick demonstration over it was Liam’s turn to show his stuff.

“I guess it’s my turn.”

“Show us your stuff,” Gladius said.

Liam walked away from his new team, towards the dummies. Twirling his staff as he went. Picking out a suitable opponent Liam rushed the last few feet before swinging his staff at the side of the thing’s head. As the staff made contact, there was a zap of electricity. The end of Liam’s staff buzzed angrily with blue sparks as it sent an electric shock into his target. The blow followed by the shock would’ve been enough to leave most people reeling.

Twirling on-the-spot Liam lashed out with his right fist then his left. The right was charged with another electric shock. While the left came forward with fingers burning bright like a comet. Each attack struck home, leaving scars on the unfortunate training dummy.

Next Liam turned to a target that was farther away and fired a dummy grenade from his chest. The grenade landed at the thing’s feet before it ‘detonated’ with a puff of Foam. Which solidified into something like glue.

With each of Liam’s strikes the HUD in his visor gave updated readouts. Recharge time on the staff, fuel left in his glove, and remaining grenades were only a few. With a flick of his eyes the information vanished. No reason to cloud his vision when this was just a demonstration.

After the initial strikes Liam moved to some of his additional gear. A grappling hook to climb walls. A rope trap to entangle enemies. He displayed almost every gadget on his suit before turning back to the team.

“Some impressive equipment you have there,” Ullr said.

“Flame glove, was the best!” H-Bar shouted.

“How strong is the armor?” Gladius asked.

The deluge of comments took Liam by surprise. Looks like they enjoyed the show. Focusing on the one question Liam said, “It’s ten times stronger than steel and is heat resistant.”

“What about cold?” Gladius asked.

“I’m still working on that. While the polymer is strong and resistant to heat, it becomes brittle in the cold. One strong hit at the inopportune time would cause the entire thing to shatter,” Liam said.

“You’ll have to work on that,” Gladius said.

“It’s one of my top priorities. However, the temperature has to reach below freezing before it becomes an issue.”

“You don’t have Kill power,” Skip said, changing the direction of the conversation. “What do you do if one of your opponents wants to kill you? Ask them to stop while you try to incapacitate them?”

“Well I could...”

“No, you won’t get time to think in a fight. Either you bring them down or they kill an innocent. Be ready for that,” Skip said as he walked toward the exit of the training room. “Good demonstrations, right Ullr.”

“That they were,” Ullr said as Skip teleported out of the room.

“What Skip said was true even if he said it in a horrible way. Sometimes you need a weapon that’ll bring someone down, for good. You should be prepared for that possibility,” Ullr said. “Thanks for the demonstrations everyone. Let’s head back to the kitchen and have a true team meal.”

That got a cheer from H-Bar before he raced out of the training room. As Liam left with everyone else, he thought about what Ullr and Skip had just said. Could he build something lethal? The answer was a definitive yes. Would he be able to use it if the situation called for it? Even after years of training Liam still had no idea. Only time would show.