Enigmatic: Sapphire City Supers

Chapter 29: Training Day

"Ready for action," I joked once I had it all on, saluting her.

"You'd better take best dressed at the Super awards," she saluted back.

"God, I hope that's not a thing," I said, wrinkling my nose.

"Nothing would surprise me anymore," she retorted.

*

All too soon, it was time for me and my kit to make our debut in training.

They were still looking for a telekinetic trainer, so for now, I was hitting the gym for some old-fashioned hand-to-hand combat. While my particular brand of skills meant that physical fighting was rarely necessary, both Gareth and I felt it best that I learned the basics at least.

I strode in for my session, not sure what to expect, flutters of anxiety and a little bit of actual anticipation mixing through my insides. Taking in a deep breath, I put on a confident face behind my swanky new black mask.

A small group was already assembled around a lone maskless trainer, so it looked like I was the last to arrive.

"Tempest, reporting for duty," I sang out, still a little sarcastic under it all.

They all turned to look at me, and I realised that these were all people I knew, except one. Gareth had promised me a small training group for me to get my bearings before he introduced the newest member to the whole team. I suppose I ought to have known that he'd give me mostly familiar faces on my first go.

Their reactions were pretty varied as I approached. Seb, who I'd already expected, still looked a little bewildered, as if he couldn't quite believe that his stubborn sister was actually here and dressed the part.

Gaia's face broke into a wide smile, which I gladly returned.

Cobalt stared like he'd seen a ghost, and didn't know how to feel about it. I knew that I definitely didn't like seeing him there.

The stranger was a female Super, dressed in yellow and black. She nodded at me in a friendly but professional way, which I also returned.

The trainer set his mouth into a line, maybe not impressed with my attitude. Whoops.

Finally, Ewan made no movement but watched me walking towards him as if he'd suddenly spotted an oasis in the desert and it was hard for me to rip my eyes from his mesmerising gold ones.

"Thank you for joining us, Tempest," the trainer said a little curtly. "I'm Mark and, obviously, I'm the Super team's head combat trainer. I don't know who of the team here you're acquainted with, so I'll run through names. Zeus and Wasp are two of our best hand-to-hand fighters, so they will especially be able to help you learn. Gaia, Cobalt and Enigma are all here for regular training as well. We'll start in three pairs of three, please. Zeus, perhaps you'll partner Tempest first."

I grinned evilly at Seb as he walked over to face me. "Hello, Zeus, you ready to do some sparring?"

"I do not know how I feel about this," he muttered.

"You never told me you were a star fighter," I teased quietly.

"I'll go easy on you for now, even though I know you fight dirty." The ghost of a smirk crept onto his face.

I snorted too loudly, earning a disapproving frown from Maskless Mark. Nearby, I heard Ewan covering up a chuckle with a hasty cough.

First we worked on blocking hits, as Mark deemed that easiest for me to start on. Unfortunately for me, he wasn't kidding about Seb, and the damn kid was fast.