Damian ran through the gym doors pumped up and ready to push his limits. He threw his stuff into the corner pigeonhole, and ran over to warm up. Damian was grinning from ear to ear, so wide it seemed like his mouth wouldn’t fit on his face.

“What’s got you so excited Dame?” said Jackson.

Damian blanked for a second as he realized he couldn’t say that he thought he had superpowers. “I… I just feel like I’ll do really well at training today, I’m excited to push my limits.”

“Sick, let’s go,” said Jackson.

Damian started pushing as hard as he could, as soon as training got underway and realized he was killing it, but the more he pushed the pain gradually started to build up, and before he knew it he started having to fight his muscles just to keep going. This didn’t affect much until he got to the new skills they were working on today. He had to balance on one arm on Jackson’s head like yesterday, but this time Jackson was standing with his feet planted on Ky and Yousef’s shoulders. He climbed up the tower of people onto Jackson’s shoulders, ready to start the skill, he pulled into position and slightly loosened his grip on Jackson’s left hand. He held a perfect handstand for three seconds, then folded his legs down toward the floor. As he swung his legs through the gap, one of the lights in the gym flickered on and off. His concentration broken, he panicked, and his toes clipped Jackson’s shoulder. His feet left behind him, he slipped and started to fall face first towards the floor. Blue was rushing closer and closer to his face, so he braced for impact, but then it just stopped inches in front of him as he felt a tug on his ankle.

Jackson had grabbed him just in time, Damian hung there for a second, and he heard Jackson call out, “Damian, put your hands down, I can’t hold on all day.” Damian’s heart still racing from the experience he placed his hands on the floor and as Jackson let go he rolled away.

His coach had marched over from across the other side of the floor, “Again,” she ordered then all. She pointed at Jackson, “Good catch, but weak here,” she pointed to his core.

“Trust him Damian,” she took a step back and crossed her arms, the scowl across her face becoming more and more pronounced as she waited for them to repeat the skill.

Damian climbed up still shaken from the experience, and all the previous momentum disappeared. Even though he tried the skill again and again. He could never do it as well as before. This fear transferred into other skills he was training, and as Kye and Yousef lauched him up into the air for a double back tuck, he threw his head back and bailed. Jackson who was standing there for the catch managed to run over and help him land on his feet, but it shook Damian again. The stress of the day was starting to catch up to him.

Eventually, they had a water break, and Jackson went up to Damian, looked him in the eye and asked, “What’s going on, little man?”

“Today’s just been a crazy day. So many things have happened and I just feel overwhelmed.”

“Tell me about it.”

Damian tried to think of something, other than I thought I had superpowers, “I got into a fight and I kinda got suspended from school today.”

“Wow,” said Jackson, even though Damian’s face told him that wasn’t the whole story, “that must have been hectic.”

“These two guys have been harassing me ever since I started going to the school, and I finally hit back really hard, I think I broke one of their noses, but they deserved it.”

“Interesting.”

“What do you mean interesting?”

“You said they deserved it, why?”

“Cause they did it to me first,”

“But what if someone else did it to them first, do they still deserve it then? There’s still no excuse for their actions, but do they deserve it?”

Damian drank his water without a word.

Does he ever shut up? He is right though. I know but it was still annoying to hear. But you needed it.

Jackson spoke again, “Well don’t get too lost in your thoughts, we’ve got some training to do.”

Damian and Jackson began to walk back to the group.

“Remember, the gym, it’s like a safe place you can literally be who you want to be the moment you walk through those doors. All the problems from the outside are left behind and all that remains is you vs your limits.”

“Let’s just train,” said Damian.

The session finished a lot better that it started and even though it was frustrating, Damian was glad to have people who cared enough to help him out and chat with him.

Damian walked out of the gym into the setting sun, slightly frustrated with the way he trained. He glanced around at the warehouses, and noticed how creepy they started to feel in the dusk. His walk sped up as he noticed movement in the reflection of a window, but the honking of a horn startled him and he turned and saw Jackson’s old holden commodore rolling down the road. He waved and laughed as he heard the engine cough and sputter as Jackson changed gears and turned the corner. He checked over his shoulder and saw nothing so he went back into his thoughts for the rest of the journey home.

As soon as he arrived home he picked up the orb.

It looks that same as ever, just a heavy hunk of metal.

Staring at the solid black sphere, he began to try and piece together the day.

So I feel faster, I have a weird dream where I thought I saw Dad, then nothing changes. I really wish that was real, I want to see Dad again.

Absolutely destroyed from the events of the day, he staggered into bed and crashed into a deep sleep.