1.07

Michael led Hunter up to the school gymnasium. Walking through the school at night had an eerie feel to it.

Upon arriving, Michael switched on the lights and pressed a button on a remote. All sorts of obstacles and things popped up out of the floor. Ropes dropped from the ceiling and targets swung out of the wall. The plain and worn gymnasium was now a high-tech training ground.

“How much stuff is hidden in this place?” Hunter asked, taking everything in.

“The Academy owns the school. Using it as a recruiting centre and I keep it all in check.” Michael sounded pleased with himself.

“So, what do you want me to do exactly?” Hunter was unsure of what to expect.

“Five laps around the hall for starters.”

“Seriously?”

“When it comes to training, I never kid.” Michael wore a cheeky smile and Hunter was unsure on how to act.

Michael walked to the line that marked the border of the court and started a slow trot. Hunter scrambled after him and jogged in pace with the janitor.

“You trying to one-up me old man?” Hunter asked.

“You won’t beat me, kiddo.” Michael chuckled and Hunter quickened his pace.

“I won’t lose to you, old timer.” Hunter was a full lap ahead of Michael now, but his lungs hurt, and his legs were burning.

“Are you sure about that?” Michael called out. Hunter turned around and saw that Michael was catching up and he didn’t look to be struggling with the physical exercise at all.

Halfway through the third lap, Hunter had to slow to a walk. He clutched his side, the stitch burned with a searing pain. Michael had overtaken him and was finishing his fourth lap.

“I’m done. You win.” Hunter stopped himself and hobbled in toward the centre of the gymnasium. He watched as Michael finished his last lap.

“You need to know how to pace yourself. You need to work on your fitness, but you need to know how to drag yourself out, not meeting your limits so early. Otherwise us oldies will run laps around you for days.” Michael jogged over to Hunter and pulled a water bottle out of a box that Hunter hadn’t noticed was there.

“How…did?” Hunter panted.

“I’ve always worked on my physical health. And, I manipulated your emotions a little.” Michael chuckled.

“What? Why?” Hunter felt annoyance bubbling up inside.

“You’ve also got to work on your mind. I can teach you how to do that. Like I said, powers are only one tool for heroes. There’s so much more you need to train in.”

“Will these help me get into The Academy?” Hunter finished his bottle and Michael offered him another.

“Why do you doubt yourself so much?” Michael pulled out a snack bar and offered that to Hunter as well.

“My powers. My dad was Blockade, one of the greatest. I, can’t compare to him in any way.” Hunter finished his snack bar and took a moment to breath.

“I know Blockade. You’re right, he was one of the greats. I trained him too.” Michael gave another chuckle and then moved toward one of the targets.

“Really? You trained my father?” Hunter joined Michael where he stood.

“Of course. He was a very stubborn sort. Way too hard on himself too. Natural leader too.”

“Do you think I could be as great as him?” Hunter’s voice faltered a little.

“I don’t see why not.” Michael held his water bottle out to the side and flicked his wrist. The bottle soared and hit the bullseye perfectly in the middle. A ding rang out, proof that Michael’s aim was on point.

“You want me to throw my bottle?” Hunter readied the bottle.

“No. I want you to hit it with dust. Have you got some on you?”

“Yeah.” Hunter unclipped his flask of dust and poured some of the contents into his hand.

“How close do you need to be to the dust to manipulate it?” Michael observed the dust in Hunter’s hand. It stuck to the skin in a fine coat.

“A few inches. Its just easier to collect it directly on my hand or pour it out from a container.”

“Mmhmm. And your projectile range?”

“I can hit that target.” The target Michael had thrown the bottle at was about eight feet away.

“Let’s see.”

Hunter rolled his fingers around his hand, flicked his wrist with his hand out, his fingers splayed. The dust flew through the air and hit the target dead on. The target made no sound.

“It moved faster than I thought it would. How’s your control?”

“I could hit the target again.” Hunter did just that. Still no sound from the target.

“What’s the heaviest thing you’ve moved with your power?”

“I sometimes can have small amounts of iron filings in my mixtures of dust. Sand as well. But that’s really hard to manipulate and my range is shorter.” Hunter emptied his flask and hit the bullseye again.

“That’s the hardest you can hit something?” Michael’s stance changed. He looked to be deep in thought.

“Seems to be.” Disappointment was obvious in Hunter’s voice.

“Give me a sec.” Michael walked away and grabbed a bucket. He returned and launched to contents onto Hunter.

“What ar-” Hunter started.

“Look.” Michael and Hunter watched as all the dust from the bucket clung to Hunter’s body. Like a thin film coated his body.

“Now move it.” Michael instructed.

Michael watched intently as Hunter started to move his hands. The dust slowly moved up to Hunter’s hands and gathered as globules around his fists.

“Can you move the dust without moving your hands?”

“How?”

“Picture it in your mind. Will it.”

Hunter did as he was told. He pictured moving the dust.

“Did I do it?” Hunter had no way of knowing, the dust was too light.

“Yeah, you did.” Michael was starting to sound excited.

“That’s pretty cool.”

“Now. Can you project the dust without having to use your hands? Being able to shoot it out from you without body movement?”

Hunter shrugged and gave it a shot. The dust broke out from his like tentacles, flying at the target from multiple places around his body.

“I’ve never tried that.” Hunter’s renewed confidence sounded in his voice.

“You’ve never really experimented with your power, have you?”

“No. I just kind of took it at face value.”

“A hero should always train.”

“Definitely.”

“You’ve mentioned being able to use iron filings?”

“Yeah. I can’t quite explain it, but they feel different when I move them. Like there’s a tingling feeling all over my body.”

“Hmm,” Michael touched the side of his glasses, “eureka!”

“What? What is it?”

“Your power isn’t exactly what you thought it was.” Michael sounded proud with himself.

“How so?”

“You have a minute static field around your whole body. Its faint, but that’s what allows you to move dust. Even the iron filings.”

“Really?”

“Yep.”

“So, what else can I do with it?” A feeling of relief washed over Hunter. An understanding of his power was great.

“Who knows. Train and train, then train some more. It could change, it may not.” Michael started chomping on another snack bar.

“It can change?”

“Oh yeah. Power can evolve, mutate. Progress.” A very matter of fact tone echoed through Michael’s words.

“Let’s see what I can do.” Hunter and Michael trained the rest of the night.