[Bzzt Bzzt Bzzt] Tap.
I got out of bed, it's five-thirty in the morning. The sun has yet to rise but that's okay since New York is always lit up. Either way I can get some morning exercise in. Yesterday was crazy.
I should probably wake up Zack. But first, It's important to do some morning warm-ups! A couple of stretches, burpees and push-ups should do it!
After the quick warm-up I go to Zack's room and slap his face lightly a few times, "Zack, Zack oi wake up." This is taking too long. I quietly stepped over to his light switch, turned it on and yanked his blanket while declaring "Wake up! Let's do some morning exercise!"
"What the hell!?" he groaned.
"C'mon man, let's at least get ourselves moving a lil bit before breakfast!" I excitedly said.
"Yeah… no." He rolled over out of bed and grabbed his blanket from me, "It's winter break. I'm GOING to sleep in. My brain and body needs rest from what happened yesterday… especially my brain."
"Bro c'mon I'm gonna get my gear today, you won't even go for me?" I did my best to fake those dog-eyes when they wanted some food or something.
Of course Zack was too smart for it and he just raised his right eyebrow, "No." and he climbed back into his bed, "If you want to learn more magic, Xeno's packet is in the third drawer to the right of my desk."
"Which one? You have many drawers. Third from the bottom or top? Left, middle or right?" I asked. Zack's room is always filled with random computer parts, notes and nonsense. None of the drawers are even for his own clothes, his clothes are piled on a chair in a corner of his room.
He rolled back over, "Third from the bottom on the right side." he groaned, "Third from the top are my spare tools that broke so I can use em for stuff later" he rolled back facing away from me, "maybe ask Sam to melt em down for me. Now get out, I need my sleep."
"Fine, fine." I said while stepping to the doorway and then asked on my way out, "can you at least send me the address for the labs so I can head there on my own?."
"I already did last night!" Zack threw one of his three pillows at me, NOW LET ME SLEEP!"
I just turned off the light and closed his door without saying a word. I don't know how he can afford to sleep all the time when he should be training to get even stronger! I know that's what I'll be doing!
After eating a jar of overnight oats I make on the weekly, I grabbed a pair of my running shoes, phone, wallet and keys and sprinted out the doors with an everlasting excitement!
"I should probably go to the labs, someone might be there!" I talked to myself while stepping into the subway. I rode the subway all the way to Brooklyn and stepped out, this looks right so far. I walked a couple of blocks away and the regular old accounting firm is right outside.
"Whatcha doin' here at this hour?" A voice said to my right while I was staring at the front door. I turned and it was a bigger guy, a bit taller than me and in a large winter coat.
He raised his hand out which was wearing leather brown gloves with the finger holes, "Sup, you're the ice guy right? Will?"
"That's me yeah." I shook his hand, "And you're…"
"Cyrus." he said while taking his hand away from mine, "Awfully shit power to have in this cold eh? Would much rather have Fire right now." He cupped his mouth and blew on his hands to warm them, "C'mon let's head inside." He opened the door for me.
"Thanks. And no it's not that inconvenient, I don't feel the cold all that much. But yeah it would be hard to warm up," I acknowledged his comment as I took a step into the building. The front doors were open to the vestibule but the secondary door was locked.
"Shit." Cyrus said as he tried to pull on it.
"Here, I have a card," I pulled it out of my wallet and opened the lock, "Just ask Quinn the weird, kinda short guy with the orange visors and lab coat to make you one. Y'know the guy who always has a phone or something in his hands." I rambled while opening the door,"He'll make you one if you just ask, or he might just have one for you."
"Thanks, I'll ask for one then." Cyrus said while cupping his hands around his mouth and exhaling. The both of us kept chatting about random things while we got the elevator. How empty the building was and how frankly weird our situation was.
On our way down into the spaceship-like corridor –right out of Zack's dreams– he asked me, "Ya any good at magic?"
I choked on my own spit somehow, "pft! No, not at all. I've only been practicing for like the past few days, maybe a week."
"Why not?" he blankly stared at me.
"Because… I don't know man magic is hard and I have to learn from my brother and not the space wizard guy." I tried to reason.
"Your brother?"
"Yeah, I have a twin brother, he was like, definitely at the debriefing yesterday and he's been here longer than me."
"TWIN!?" He acted so surprised. Then his face turned perplexed like he was thinking, "Oh ya I saw his ass yesterday. What power he got?"
"Lightning." I stated.
"DAYUM!"
"Yeah." I sighed, "Much cooler than ice amiright?"
"No," he coughed purposefully, "Ice is fine. I have rock or Earth or whatever."
"So it's versatile," I consoled, "Lightning might be cool but Zack said it's hard to create, same goes with fire… which he also told me." The elevator finally stopped and the doors opened into the corridors which all the lights were on.
"So whatchu mean is that it's easy to use?" he said as he held the elevator door for me.
I stepped out of the elevator, "yeah it is pretty easy considering that you just need to pull it out of the ground and throw it or whatever."
"True true." he stepped out of the elevator, "anyone hear right now!?" he shouted out into the corridors only to be met with echoes.
"Dude, it's like six something. Ain't no way someone is here right now." I told him.
"Yeah, right." He started to open every door.
"Empty. Empty. Locked. Empty. Locked. Locked." He kept saying the status of the rooms as he opened them, "What're all-ese' rooms for!?"
I told him they were,"Open gymnasiums to practice and their respective watch-rooms."
And then we heard a slight buzzing sound in one room. The both of us walked to where the sound was coming from and the door was open. We peered in and it was a guy welding stuff together and the buzzing sound was his using a welder.
"Hello?" Cyrus said.
The person jumped like he was startled. They turned around and flicked up their mask covering their face, "Oh it's just Ice and Earth." he sighed.
"And you are?" Cyrus led on.
"You're Andrew right?" I asked for Cyrus, "the metal guy that helped my brother and the others out?"
"Sure whatever. That's me if that definition will work for you." and he turned back around to continue welding, "Why are y'all here so god damn early?" he asked.
"Why are YOU here so early?" Cyrus smirked.
Andrew stopped welding and pointed with the welder to the other side of the room. It was a small twin-sized mattress on the ground with a sheet as a blanket and a pillow with no casing. "I live here," he said.
"Really? That's all it takes for you to live here?" I asked, "Don't you want a real warm bed and a nice home with a family or anything?"
"Don't got no family and I don't need anything more than the rest of my lab." He waved his arms around at everything in the room. There was a desk with four monitors set up, three as you'd expect and a fourth skinnier longer one propped on top of the three and sat at an angle so you could see it easier, a couple of work tables with scraps of metal on them and of course the table he was working on.
"Whatcha working on?" Cyrus asked.
"Classified. Now if the both of you could stop bugging me and leave my room that'd be great. I kinda wanna finish this ASAP." he stated.
Cyrus rolled his eyes, "fine." and he stepped out, I did the same and he shut the door.
"Well he was a bit rude wasn't he?"
"Sure I guess," I shrugged, "it's fine, nothing to bring my day down. I'll go change at the locker rooms. If you wanna do the same you can."
"I didn't know we even got locker rooms, I just wore sports clothes under all this winter shit."
"Then that works, you can just leave your stuff in a locker." I said while starting to walk to the locker rooms. He followed me in as I trained.
Once the both of us stepped out, Xeno was in the hallways twirling his spear around him, "Oh perfect! Andrew notified that thou are present!" he said, slamming the butt of his spear on the ground, "I must teach Cyrus basics of magic!" he grabbed Cyrus's hand, "You've already been stamina-training so your magic power should be workable!"
"What of WIll?" Cyrus asked about me.
"Oh right!" Xeno opened up the brown satchel he's been carrying around and pulled out a ton of papers stapled together, "these should be better explanations of magic for you. And a few more Ice spells to practice. If you need help, ask Sam, Sheila or your brother."
"... Thanks." I grab the papers and flip through them. Its lots and lots of notes neatly organized with tons of sketches of what the magic circles are supposed to look like with explanations of the spells and how they work. Also some basic forms to practice free-form magic too. "Wow, this uh will help lots." I say as I close the packet, "I'll go to gym number-two to practice these cause I assume you'll be using gym number-one."
"Correct." Xeno nodded, "practice well. I'll check on you later towards sunset."
"The sun has barely risen-" I commented.
"I know." he said back, "come now Cyrus, you don't even know what a spell is." and they left me to my own devices.
I stepped into the second gym and flipped through a spell that I thought was cool and easy. "Ice shards: a spell that shoot out sharp elongated shards that impales thou's opponents and enough to crack through walls," I read. I haven't done any attack spells yet, just basic ones to practice magic. Seems simple enough, and Xeno may need to work on his writing. I started to mimic the drawings on the page to make the magic circle. I started to open a light blue magic circle that was right in front of me and pointing at the wall. It was pretty small, like a small frozen pizza probably… "Haha, get it frozen" I thought to myself. After finishing the spell, I shot it out and only three small shards shot out and they shattered instantly once impacting the wall.
"Well that didn't crack a wall now did it?" I said out loud. I tried again, but made the circle bigger by spending more magic. Now the spell shot out five shards that were a bit thicker and longer but when they broke, they broke into bigger ice-cube-ish shapes and not shattered little ice bits.
I got a cup of water from the breakroom and brought it back to the gym with the hopes of trying to freeze it. I saw a page of how to freeze water and other substances or at least make it colder. It said it was easier to practice making water cold and freezing it instead of trying to do it for air or something. I hovered my hands a bit above the cup I set down on a table and tried to freeze it, "C'mon water, freeze… c'monn freeze." I kept thinking in my head, but it never worked.
I drop to the ground and look up at the ceiling, "Agh this is so damn hard!!" I complained while staring at the lights. I slammed my left hand on the ground and some ice spikes started to stem right next to me from the ground and the surrounding area freezed, "Uggh."
At that moment I saw the water from the cup hover on my head and splash on my face, "Agh" I coughed, "What the hell!?" I turn to the doors and I see Sheila, Sam and my brother cackling, "Why? What the hell was that for?"
"You seemed like you were in a daze," bro said while he was laughing.
"Sam told me to do it!" Sheila was still cackling and pointed at him.
"It wasn't me," Sam kept on laughing, "nice ice stalagmite though." he pointed at the ice spike that I accidentally made.
I rolled my eyes, "thanks." Zack walked over to me and extended his arm out. I grab it and he pulls me up, "and thanks to you."
"Whatever," he brushed me aside and offered, "Ya need help practicing at all? Martial arts? Magic? Weapons? Anything? Sam's getting pretty good at martial arts y'know." and Sam smirked.
"Probably magic." I softly responded.
"Cool! I'm out! I was gonna do weapons practice!" And Sheila stormed out, she stepped back in and grabbed Sam by the collar of his coat, "Actually I need a sparring partner… Sam you're coming too until Sage comes in today!"
Sam shouted, "I'm coming too!?"
"Yup!" and then they both left.
"... That's normal." Zack pointed with his right thumb to the door, "It realistically shouldn't be normal, but it is. So about that magic practice? You want to practice spells, working a little more advanced are we?"
"Yeah yeah, just show me how to do this better." I pointed at the packet.
He walked over and picked it up, "Ice shards huh? Yeah okay, I doubt I can actually use this spell at the moment, I mean I could try but it'd be much harder to do it than your case." He threw the packet back on the table, "realistically I should just watch you make the spell and tell you pointers on what you're doing wrong."
I tried to reason that, "I'm not doing anything wrong per say, the spell very much still works," and then I mumbled that, "I just can't shoot a lot of them." and shrugged.
"Yeah you could be doing movements that are close but not one-hundred percent correct."
"Bzzt wrong," someone said at the door. I turned around and it was… the other girl, the one that uses light, "It ain't about movements and precision or whatever. Just relax, be smooth and let your feelings control your powers, you'll feel most in-control when you feel calm and collected!" She said stepping into the gym while digging for something in a small backpack she was holding in her left hand instead of carrying on her back because she had her bow strapped around on her back, "Also morning y'all."
Zack asked, "Sage, who the hell taught you that!?" Oh so her name is Sage…
"Xeno, duh." she grabbed a can of soda out of her backpack and cracked it open, "Who else would teach me magic?" and she took a sip.
"That's horse shit!" Zack exclaimed, "Xeno taught me to be rigid and practice magic with accuracy and precision! Not with your emotions or whatever."
Sage shrugged, "I don't know what to tell you dude, he probably taught each of us differently so we understand magic into our own beat or whatever," she took another sip.
Out of random I asked, "why are you drinking a soda at what… seven or eight in the morning?"
"Why not, I need sugar and some caffeine for practice but not too much caffeine y'know."
"No, I don't really understand-" I was perplexed.
Zack came up to me and whispered, "Sage is a bit of an oddball."
"I can tell," I whispered back.
"Y'know I can hear you guys right?" she calls out to us, "Not like I care though. But word of advice, if you don't want me or others barging in, try CLOSING the door?"
Zack asked, "Can you close it for us on your way out then?"
"Nah." she walked to the table and sat on it, "I think I'll watch. Cyrus is still practicing, and I don't wanna get in the way of the two S's." Both Zack and I were VERY confused on what she meant.
"Sam and Sheila, for clarification." Sage fingered an S in the air as she said that,"also I don't want to do weapons practice cause I don't want to pelt them with light arrows and frankly I'm a little scared of Sheila. Now if you could make an ice wall for me to burst an arrow right through it that'd be cool."
"I can try," I shrugged. I walked to the center of the gym and started wiggling around to loosen up, c'mon easy, easy just relax I got this…
"You're thinking too hard!" Sage shouted from the bench, "You can do what Zack said by being precise and accurate but you also need to be clearing your mind!"
"She's… kinda right. You can do similarly to Sam does, and take one deep breath before he does anything tough. He doesn't even realize he does that but he does!" Zack called out.
I took that deep breath… Imagine the action taken in front of me. I can see it, the wall of ice rising from the ground! "HUP!" I closed my eyes and slammed my left foot on the ground, opened both of my hands and raised my arms up.
I took a slight peak out with my right eye, I could see it. The opaque blue-ish color that ice has! I opened my eyes, "Wahahh, I actually did it." I opened both my eyes! There it stood a six foot tall rectangular prism of ice, "WAHOO!" I shouted.
"Nice job!" Sage peered her head around from the other side of the ice with a thumbs up, "though it's only about an inch thick, but it is very tall so it gets a pass from me!"
"Nice work bro," Zack slaps my back, "nice work. Now just regulate that for that or stronger to be the commonality kay?"
"Sure."
"Watch out!" Sage shouted and I ducked to the left of the ice wall. An arrow that looks like it was made of pure light shot right through the ice cleanly, "I wanted to see how much magic it'd take to pierce it. Apparently not much."
"Shut it," I told her. Sage just stuck her tongue out and booed at me.
"She's right though," Zack then kicked my ice wall and it fell over and broke into pieces, "being able to increase the thickness would be better. But I think it's impressive that you managed to get a textbook perfect rectangular prism."
Sage nodded, "mhm mhm… what's that again?"
"Rectangle, but three dimensional." Zack stated.
"Oohh, I get it now." She nodded firmer.
"Guys, just let me practice, I'll get it eventually." I told them, "Though I am feeling a bit tired, I might take a power break."
"No shit," Zack shrugged, "You woke up at five and decided to exercise instantly without eating much beyond your gross oats or whatever. Of course you're tired."
"Excuse me, my overnight oats are perfectly good starters for breakfast!" I proclaimed, "did YOU even eat anything?"
"No," he said flatly, "I'm just used to this magic stuff. When I first started I had to eat a lot more than normal to sustain my body."
I acknowledged, "That… makes sense. I'll probably just head up to the bodega down the block to grab a bacon-egg and cheese with an energy drink or something then." Then I turned to Sage and asked, "You want anything?"
She responded with, "Are you paying?"
"You'll have to pay me back," I stated.
"Nope! I'm good." Sage exclaimed.