Down in the centre of the duelling hall, Freya looks around the, at best, patchy seats occupied for her fight, turning to Miles to complain.
In the top 10s private box, only four actually attend. Brian and Santos pushing one another over by the food table not concerned with the fight at all and Valentina standing by the window alongside Jacob.
"I hoped I'd see you here, nobody clued you in about the unspoken rule, right?" Jacob says, Valentina not bothering to even look at him, almost repulsed by his demeanour alone.
"Why did you come to this school?" He asks to no reply once again.
"Tell me and I'll tell you the rule." He waits another moment before continuing , "I'll even leave you alone." The forced smile on his face losing what little novelty it could have had.
Not bothering to tone her accent down like she usually does, Valentina responds, "My father wasn't aware how far this place had fallen. And I don't care for your rule." Waving him away her eyes turning back to the action unfolding.
Fog only Freya can see stretches out across the entire hall, continuing to throw chunks of debris despite hardly being able to see, Freya shouts out, "What do you think your doing?"
"You said to make it look real this time." Miles responds innocently.
"Yeah, that doesn't mean blinding me!" In her frustration, she carves out a long strip of earth using her telekinesis and launches it into the fog, it clearing up almost instantly afterwards.
"Miles?" She calls out in a panic to no response. "Miles?!" Even more frantically this time.
A tap on the shoulder from behind makes her jump out of her skin, instinctively launching a punch right at Miles' face, her fist hitting nothing but an already fading illusion, "Don't do that!" She calls out, to no response.
The crowd, completely silent except for the odd chuckle, see nothing but Freya swinging at thin air as Miles stands off to the side watching as if he were one of them.
"Are you ready to end it yet? I want to go out and eat." Miles, revealing himself to the increasingly humiliated Freya.
"Just about." Freya answers, ripping a chunk away from the wall , its protective shell scurrying to allow it, readying herself to launch it.
"Woah." Miles says to himself, Freya holding the strand infused chunk up in the air with only one hand underneath it.
Suddenly, Freya's forearm is grabbed tight by Miss Walsh, "Fights over." The seriousness in her voice startling her for a brief moment until she hears Teller call out, "I surrender." Staring right at the real Miss Walsh who swiftly responds heatedly, "Of course you do! Just like every other time!"
"The rule is never come to a Miles and Freya fight! Its Match Fixing!" Jacob shouts, one foot out the door already.
"Its a shame he's right." Valentina thinks as she turns away from the window and takes a seat.
Waiting in the corridor heading away from the hall, Miles stands waiting for Freya. When she finally comes out, he calls out to her only for her to silently walk past him.
Mark sits hunched over his desk, rushing through the stack of work he's neglected as Anthony pulls out and flicks through one of the books lining his humongous, filled to the brim shelf.
"I thought you said you'd help me get through this?" Mark asks, turning back to look at him.
"I just don't get it." Anthony snapping the book closed and sliding it back into place, "You'd rather have all this useless crap over a console when you couldn't care less about actual work."
"I find them interesting." Mark says, his focus solely on writing whatever comes to mind first without any deeper thought.
"Then why did you make a big deal out of not coming with me to the duels?" Anthony asks twiddling lint he got from his pocket in between his fingers.
"Because contrary to popular belief you can be fond of a part of something but not the whole picture." Mark responds, pushing the stapled together pieces of paper over to the pile and turning to face Anthony. "And mom didn't think it'd be good for me to be involved in any of that anymore." Mark keeping that part to himself.
"In short the abilities are the part you like, not the fighting. I get that, I'd love to awaken but nobody in my family has since my grandpas insane older brother. Even if its just a small one like your parents, it'd be so cool."
Mark rolls his eyes slightly, "Are you going to help?"
Anthony, annoyed walks over to the desk and picks up the stapled together pieces of paper. "Why the hell is your handwriting so good?"
Barging in Marks mother answers, "That'd be because of me." Placing some random clothes down on his bed.
"Hello, Mrs Halford." Anthony, putting the papers back on the pile.
"Are you staying for dinner tonight, Anthony?" She asks, Mark shaking his head the entire time.
"If that's fine with you." Anthony replies to the frustration of Mark who presses his head against his desk.
"Don't mind him you're welcome anytime, bring your mother next time and we'll make a day of it." She says before backing out of the room and closing the door.
"What's your problem?" Anthony asks, slightly insulted.
"I just had something I wanted to do is all." Mark, pulling himself up and readying himself to get back to it.
"I don't want to hear about any of that." Anthony laughing to himself, sitting back down waiting for him to be done.
Sitting on a full train, Alex and Karl beside one another, Karl hesitates to ask what's been bothering her, afraid he'll get the same answer he's been getting for the last few days.
Leaning against him its as if she can feel his want to ask once again.
Interlocking their fingers, she places her free hand on top of both of their hands.
"I thought this was an opportunity for someone like me." Alex says quietly, not wanting anyone other than Karl to hear.
"My family isn't rich and I've not got a strong ability, but when everybody left I thought here's my chance, now with people coming in launching straight into the Top 10 its like everything's slipping." Burrowing her face into his arm, Alex cant help but let the act drop in its entirety, "By the end of the year I could be out of the Top 10, then what?"
"Not everything." Karl says, stopping his power from controlling his heart rate, "I'm still going to be here, you still make my heart race every time I'm with you. I can help you with practice anytime, just don't bottle things up. Even if we drop out of the Top 10 its not like being a top student at Hammon Rock is worth nothing. It'll all work out in the end. Have faith in yourself."
Alex doesn't respond, only moving her head from being burrowed in his arm to resting against his shoulder.
"Are you ok now?" He asks.
Laughing slightly despite her tears Alex responds, "The only reason I told you all that was because I didn't want to hear you ask that again."
Now alone, Mark sits legs crossed on the floor, one of the books from his shelf open in front of him. Turning the pages he finally settles on one describing Earth Manipulation.
"The only of the elemental based powers without the inverse ability to conjure, Earth Manipulation is thought to be the weakest offensively but the most defensively sound when discussing the power to control the elements. Allowing for the precise control of strands despite the strands in question exiting the body. Unfortunately we were not able to speak with an Earth Manipulation user for specifics, but it seems they flood the targeted earth with strands, once done the earth can be used in any manner they wish. That being said the widely believed exclusivity to dirt and trees has been proven false as reportedly some of the stronger users can also infuse their strands into stone and even concrete."
"Useless.. I could've told you that, seventies or not. And Wind Manipulation can't conjure." Mark thinks to himself, flipping the page to see what ability resides on that side.
"Fire Conjuring and Fire Manipulation." It reads before listing the capabilities of both abilities.
Suddenly, Mark rips the page away from the others and holds it in his hands, "Really useless." Without a second thought he engulfs the page in a flame, watching it turn to dust in his hands. Before he knows it nothing but the fire remains in his hand and that too fades as quickly as it started.
Every awakener has a baseline resistance to both heat and cold, their resistances being able to be trained with exposure. Those able to use fire and water as their abilities naturally have a amplified resistance to their own ability. Ones durability does not factor into their resistance to the elements, unless their ability directly effects durability.
Getting to his feet, Mark slides the book back into its spot and sits at his desk, "Resonance takes half the fun out of doing all this." He thinks to himself as he silently sits at his desk.
"I really shouldn't.." Mark thinks to himself, the start of the battle that he always gives in to, "It wouldn't hurt to just feel like I'm back there though." Not even finishing the thought before he's pulling out the box and flicking to the end of the worn comic books to read the messages he already knows by heart, tracing his fingers over the already fading ink.
A quiet knock on the door catches his attention causing him to hurriedly return the comics to their box, "Yeah?" Mark calls out.
The door creaks open, only enough for someone to poke in, "You aren't asleep yet?" His mother asks only getting a shake of a head in response, "Well I just wanted to apologize about earlier, I shouldn't be doing stuff like that without asking first so I'm sorry."
"It's ok, I don't mind. I just wanted some practice." Mark responds.
"Oh really, what is it this time?" She asks, opening the door more ever so slightly.
"Earth Manipulation. Its that tricky though"
"That's three for four now right?" Her voice showing just how much she's proud, Mark answering her question with a nod.
"Its an early night for me, goodnight." Mark pushes the box to the side with his telekinesis before responding, "Goodnight."
"Love you." She waits at the door, hoping for but knowing a response wont come. Only the awkward smile he always gives.
Inside his room, Scott listens as their mother walks to the other end of the hallway and past his door, not even a hint of hesitation in her steps.
"She just forgot, its not that she doesn't care." The only thought in his head, being his fathers words, words he remembered every time she forgot about him, words that rattled in his head everyday.