It’s a good thing she’s pretty.

YEAH but she’s not thaaat pretty.

-Tabatha and Jessie

From Missed Conversations, Vol. 1

Alex sat on the side-lines with the boy named ‘Jesse’, watching the other fights play out. He kept shifting uncomfortably from the pain in his groin. He hadn’t expected a kick in the jewels to hurt so much, let alone bring about nausea of all sensations. Jasmine was still glaring at him from across the arena, her friends evidently torn between consoling her and casting venomous glances over at him and Jesse.

“Shadow dancer’s a rare one.” Jesse said, eyeing Alex up and down. “So, is that related to the whole goth thing you got going on?”

Alex raised an eyebrow and shifted his weight once more. “That’s just me.” Alex said, with more than a little disdain. “To tell you the truth, I don’t know what happened. I’ve never done… whatever it was that I did, before today. What’d you call it, shadow dancing?”

“Yeah. It’s classed as a Prime-Minus gift, so it’s up there. You really never knew about it before today? What’s your other power? Shadow weaving? Shadow… sifting? Are you like Peter Pan or something?”

Alex sniffed, searching for a way to change the topic. “More like a lost boy, at the moment.”

“Oh, that’s deep.” Jesse laughed. “Say, while we’re still on the metaphor, that girl over there is most definitely a croc.” He nodded towards Jasmine, who spat on the floor in disgust. “I mean, ranks don’t exactly mean much so early on, I’m guessing…” Jesse coughed, then crossed his fingers. “…hoping. But still, not a bad first day, all in all.”

Alex couldn’t help but wonder what a good day might feel like, as he wiped blood from his lip. A fight had just ended between a spindly telekinetic named ‘Simon’ and a raucous fire-slinger who went by ‘Ember.’ Despite the latter’s confident demeanour, it was the quiet and detached Simon who managed to sneak the eventual win.

“Ah, and now the real show begins.” Jesse said, as a tall raven-haired girl with a hooked nose and thuggish, non-regulation boots stepped forward. She didn’t mock or vaunt over her opponent like some of the others. Hers was a quiet, knowing air, that Alex felt to be far more unsettling. He didn’t want to fight anyone on the other side of the arena, having fully come to terms with the fluke-ish nature of his victory – but if he had to name the one wolf among the fold, the true terror in tights – he would probably pick this girl every day of the week. “That’s Tabatha.” Jesse continued. “When I think super villain… I think her. But maybe that’s because she’s my twin, I dunno.”

“She’s your twin?” Alex asked, dumbly.

“I know, I hate her too. One of us had to get my dad’s height, though…” Jesse said. “Well say hi, Alex.” He waved at Tabatha, who shook her head in exasperation. “I’ll introduce you to her after the lesson.”

The match began, Tabatha facing off against a hulking bull of a man. Alex had a hard time believing that both students were honestly sixteen. As a girl, he’d always been smaller than average, and now – even tall and strong-jawed as he looked – he doubted he’d look older than fourteen if cast in a line-up with Tabatha’s opponent.

The whistle blew, and the man charged forward. His powerful legs ate up the ground, leaving cracks in the surface of the floor. In a flash of light and smoke, he had transformed into living stone, and only seemed to be getting faster.

To Alex’s surprise, Tabatha stayed where she was, perfectly motionless.

“Huh. I could’ve sworn I saw them sparring together.” Jessie muttered. “But it looks like he really has no idea...”

With a surprising burst of speed, the man was upon her, a powerful fist bearing down on her centre-mass. The punch connected – and went right through. The image of Tabatha blinked out after a few seconds and in its place, there lay a small green –

“Is that a--“

Alex’s question was cut off by an explosion that shook the room and sent the stone man flying. The air before Alex lit up red as stray flecks of shrapnel impacted a forcefield that covered most of the nosebleeds. “-grenade…” He finished. Alex looked from the man lying slumped against the forcefield, to the empty arena. “Where did she go?”

“Right here.” A voice said. Alex glanced over to his right as Tabatha sat down next to him. The sound of applause was muffled while the forcefield persisted, drowned out by the disgruntled muttering of boys as they slouched wearily against the walls – no longer trying to intimidate the girls with taunts and mockery.

“Another point for the girls.” Jesse sighed.

Tabatha extended her hand for Alex to shake. “I’m Tabatha.”

Alex took her hand and they shook. “Alex. That’s quite a gift you’ve got, I should say. Only, I’m not entirely sure what happened.”

“You stole the words right out of my mouth, shadow dancer. Now there’s an ability. Meshes with your look, too.” Tabatha said. She had the same easy air as her brother but seemed to Alex to be the more serious of the two – though only by a hair’s breadth.

“Yeah, well. If I’d known I could bring a bomb with me, things might’ve been a whole lot simpler.” Alex replied.

“What, the grenade? Nah, that’s just my gift. Anything I touch for long enough I can effectively call into being – sorta.”

“And…” Alex grappled with the idea. “The grenade…?”

“Boy.” Jesse laughed. “Was that an uncomfortable Christmas.”

“Uncle Rick wasn’t playing around.” Tabatha agreed.

“Sure wasn’t.” Jesse said.

Alex hid his disbelief well and continued without really thinking: “And you can make yourself appear, I suppose quite naturally—” Alex began.

“I think we’re exiting the realm of polite conversation here…” Tabatha broke in. As she said this, another boy, whose skillset Alex hadn’t bothered to catalogue yet, was thrown against the barrier. Jesse buried his face in his hands.

“The girls always win, huh?” Alex asked.

“So it’d seem.” Said Jesse.

Class ended shortly after that, and the teacher - who Jesse had said was called Mr Clayton – approached him as he was about to leave.

“Alex, a minute of your time.” He said, pulling the boy aside and nodding dismissively to Jesse and Tabatha, who both took the hint in their stride. Mr Clayton took a step back, as if appraising Alex for the first time, then after a moment he nodded to himself. “Still alive.” He said, a small smile cresting his lips. Alex didn’t know what to say in the face of such a superficial truth, and so he simply nodded. Mr Clayton unfolded a small tablet and began typing on the screen.

“I had you listed as SGU. Single Gift Unknown.” He continued. “Oh, that Fitz, he just loves to play it cold. I can’t imagine why he’d feel the need to declare what should have been an easily diagnosable gift as ‘Unknown’.” Mr Clayton peered up at Alex from his tablet, eyes perfectly still. There was a long silence, in which Clayton waited for Alex to respond. Alex, who continued to play over Fitz’s warning in his head, said nothing. Eventually, Mr Clayton snapped the tablet shut. “Oh well.” He declared. “Not my department. I just wanted you to know why I called on you for the first fight.”

Another protracted silence in which Mr Clayton’s smile never wavered.

“You really took your time with it. I was surprised. Shadow dancing.” He said, goadingly.

“I wanted to see if I could beat her without using it.” Alex lied.

“Uh huh. And you almost did, by the looks of it. I mean you’ve clearly gone through some training, am I right?”

Alex resisted the urge to look away, as he replied. “No, actually. Today was my first day, like I said.”

“That’s interesting.” Mr Clayton said in a flat tone that belied his words. “Well, I’m glad someone’s showing promise.” Then with a quick glance at his watch, he continued. “You have a meeting with the headmaster and Doctor Fitz in ten minutes. Check your tablet for directions.”

With that, Alex slunk off to get his tablet, skin prickling in nervous relief. He could still feel Mr Clayton’s eyes on him when he left the arena as if they’d somehow become a part of him.

Now that Alex was on his own, for what he could tell, he began mulling over the events of the lesson. Shadow dancing. Two words that meant about as much to him as ‘Prime’ or ‘Prime-Minus’, or any of the other esoteric phrases being cast around by people already initiated. He had felt something within him awaken when he had descended into the shadows. It was something like hunger, small but emissive. And he needed to learn more.