The Band of Misfits

Chapter 18

Monica

Sarah really knew how to tire us out.

We had been training all day after Iris and Joe's battle. She had been pretty beat up afterwards, but Sarah did her magic Mother Nature healing voodoo magic on her. Her stomach had been bruised, and one of my ice pellets was stuck in her thigh, but she was up and training in no time. Her and Sarah were sparring in the separate clearing Sarah had made.

Joe and Jason were practicing axe kicks on a tree stump at the edge of the battleground. I thrust my arms out, guiding my cold, sharp, deadly ice at a tree a few yards away. A large cracking sound ensued, and the formidable sized tree fell with a loud crash into the forest that surrounded the clearing. I smiled, proud of the strength in my ability. I realized everything had gone silent.

I looked over. Sarah and Iris were both staring in awe at the fallen tree. Joe's leg was stuck in mid-air above the stump.

"Show off!", Jason called out.

Everyone laughed. I rolled my eyes, and with the flick of my wrist, he slid and fell on a patch of ice. Everyone laughed harder. It was hard to believe that what we were doing was all in effort to potentially save the world. We were just teenagers. I looked at the people I held closest to me. They all had matured, grown even, in these last three days. Maybe it was an effect of the serum in us, but we had actually grown. We were all stronger, faster, smarter.

I had been developing my own theory on why our abilities were presenting themselves now. I think it's because we were all together in one place. The fact that we all interacted with each other brought the serum's effects out. That would make sense that the more we used our abilities, the stronger we got.

I mulled this over in my head, swirling my hand over the ground, my thoughts taking over my mind. Before I knew it, I had created a beautiful swirl of delicate frost. I loosened my hand, and it blew away with the wind.

I should be training.

I looked over at Jason and Joe. They were both talking laughing and kicking the crap out of the tree stump.

Idiots.

I started walking in their direction.

"What are you guys doing?" I asked.

They turned, toothy grins on their faces.

"Well..."

"We were practicing, but..."

"We got distracted."

I rolled my eyes, their immaturity amusing me. That's one thing I could always count on. Joe was really smart and super hardworking, but the kid had an attention span of a goldfish, and that's giving him something. Jason was more of the laid back type. He was cool with anything any one of us suggested. That made these two completely and utterly childish(maybe even dangerous to themselves and to others)when put together. I looked down at the stump. Joe must've used his ability to break apart segments in the wood, because there were words.

'You are a slwhore' it read.

I looked intently, confused.

"We made a new word," they explained.

"You guys are idiots"

They just laughed.

"Either of you guys wanna spar?"

The laughing stopped. Instead, it was replaced with a competitive glint in their eyes. They looked at each other, wicked grins on their faces.

"Rock paper scissors to see who gets to beat the crap it of her?" Jason suggested.

"You're on," Joe said.

An idea popped into my head.

"Hold up," I said. They stopped, Joes rock and Jason's scissors in mid air.

"IRIS!" I called out. She turned towards us, an expectant look on her face.

"How about a double battle with these two dorks?"

The competitiveness in the air was palpable.

"HELL YEAH!" she yelled back.

I smiled, feeling empowered by her confidence. She had lost to Joe and Jason and I'm sure she wanted her payback. I hadn't battled either of the two imbeciles.

Jason and Joe were shaking with excitement. I don't really know what came over me. I just wanted to fight. It had been a while since I battled, and I wanted to try out Sarah's new lessons on the field.

Sarah and Iris jogged over, and we all circled around the mangled stump.

"A double battle, huh?" Sarah said, grinning.

We all nodded in unison. My stomach was flipping and turning.

I'm gonna win, just like last time.

"I guess I could shift the battlefield and judge how you guys use your training." Sarah said.

So it was settled. Me and Iris versus Joe and Jason. I couldn't wait. Iris grabbed me by the arm, and the wind around me sped up. Before I knew it, we were on the far edge of the battlefield. I smiled and we started discussing our strategy. We had never done this before. All battles had been between two people before this one. I was ready to win.

"You know Joe is gonna try and get inside your head as soon as the battle starts. So act impulsively until we can isolate him, then we can use strategy," she said.

I could almost see her ideas swirling around in that Asian head of hers.

"As for Jason, always think twice. His ability is tricky."

When I said this, I realized what we were up against. On one hand, we had Jason, who could tamper with our senses, making us think before we believe something to be true. On the other hand, we had Joe, who could predict our actions if we thought about it. We also had to bypass Joe's telekinesis and his advanced combat skills.

Then I remembered that Iris was just as good as he is.

"Alright," I said,"here's how it's gonna go down."