Sam turned to me with a nod of his head. We both stared around the lobby as Sean, Pete, and Uriah looked on.
“Okay, then,” Pete replied dusting himself off. “Well, we’ll meet you guys later, you know, after we’ve gone over the schematics.”
“Okay, I’ll come with you guys,” Sean replied. “I mean, it’s the least I can do after putting you guys in this predicament.”
Pete and Uriah gave each other cynical glares before turning in a relenting fashion.
“Okay, we could use the help,” Uriah replied.
“Alright, then, it’s decided,” Sean replied. “I’ll see you guys later.”
I nodded as they turned and headed toward Uriah’s room. Sam and I headed into the room dropping our bags at the door as we headed for the training room. As we entered the training room we stretched and got ready with an awkward silence that seemed to fill the room.
“Look, I wanted to apologize?” Sam replied as we walked into the practice room.
“What?” I replied obliviously.
“You know, for what I said about you,” he replied in an apologetic tone.
I shook my head finally realizing what he was talking about. It slipped my mind that we had even had a fight. He just looked at me waiting for me to respond as I went over the argument from minutes earlier. I remember the feelings I had of betrayal, anger and for a time guilt and distanced myself from situation understanding Sam had a point in what he was said and I allowed it to past. Not totally, but for now it had to be put on the backburner for the greater good.
“Forget it, let’s just focus on this,” I replied signaling for him to follow.
He looked taken back by my response. He stood in place for a second then gave an awkward nod and followed me to the center of the training floor.
“Okay, what’s first,” he replied in shrugging manner.
“Well, first, we have to learn to work as a two man unit. So, as for the simulation, we’re going to go back to the Battle of New Angeles and see what went wrong and when. He nodded happy to hear it.
“Just a simulation though,” I explained trying temper him.
He nodded jumping and bounding from foot to foot like a boxer before a fight.
“I know, I know, but I still want to see how far I’ve come since then,” he replied.
I sighed still blown away by his energy and constant enthusiasm. I stared at him and steadied him signaling we were about to begin.
“Okay, on the count of three, okay,” I replied turning to him as I readied my stance. “Simulation, Battle of New Angeles, 7:45 ER Time, Latitude: 34.05, Longitude:-118.3895, Go!”
A burst of light blasted as we shot through a time warp scene. Landing in our precise spots from the day of the Battle of New Angeles. Before I could even react Sam had already leaped into action.
“Sam,” I replied leaping behind him.
WAM! WAM! SWIRL! SLAM! WAM! Sam was ferocious in his technique every move led to the next. It was clunky but brutal. This wasn’t the same Sam. He nailed one with a front kick taking the momentum into a flipping razor kick then bouncing into a clothesline before catching another beast with one hand spinning him around like a javelin before slinging him like a dart to the ground below. It was impressive to watch it took him seconds to destroy the whole platoon. He landed with a smile as the simulation disappeared.
“WHOOOOA!” He yelped. “Awesome! Did you see that? What was that 12 seconds?”
I shook my head realizing the more things changed the more they stayed the same.
“Sam!” I replied interrupting him. “Two, both of us! You forgot about me!”
He looked around still excited yet a little bummed by my words.
“Oh, my bad,” he replied. “Well, let’s do it again.”
I grunted then moved my arm signaling the simulation to come back up. I raised my hand doing the countdown with my hand this time. 3, 2, 1, boom!
“You go high,” I replied. “I go low just like with the flight pods during the trials simulation.”
He nodded leaping into action. I followed right on his hip.
“Right,” I commanded.
PUNCH! He smashed into a guy on his right.
POW! I cleaned up an attacking beast with a swift round house.
“Barrell Roll Toss,” I replied grabbing one more beast.
SWFF! TOSS! BOOM! I flipped tossed the beast toward Sam who flipped and nailed the beast with a front heel kick sending him hard to the surface below.
“Switch,” he replied flipping sides with me.
BAM! I flipped over his back with a side kick that nearly sliced the beast in half.
“Sam, Clear,” I replied as all the beasts attacked at once. “Electric Shock!”
“Element Alpha, Element Light Energy, Static Shock,” Sam commanded.
ZAPPPPPPPPPP! I flash stepped to the ground cleared as Sam sent a burst shock from his body that sizzled the remaining beast. We both landed as their sizzling bodies landed in ashes all around us. I shook my head in awe. The difference was so evident. We worked perfectly together.
“YEAHHH!” Sam replied jumping on my back. “C’mon, we were awesome. We’re going to own tomorrow.”
“Sam, get off of me,” I replied fighting him off and dusted myself off annoyed.
I was happy with the improvement but I was more than sure that it wasn’t going to be that easy tomorrow. We fought some low level Lycanthropes and as impressive as that might has been. Judging by the undertakings we had done so far this was going to be epic and in order to do that we were going to need to bring Sam further along.
“It was great,” I replied trying to temper him once again. “But you have no idea how powerful these guys are I’ve faced in these undertaking. They are a brutal, blood thirsty, and vicious. This isn’t a game. I’m glad we can work together but we have to get a lot better individually before tomorrow or we are going to be in danger.”
He nodded still breathing hard from his last fight.
“Sam,” I continued. “Do you remember what Pete and I said about fighting?”
He stood for a second contemplating my words.
“Um, what was it again?” Sam replied angrily.
I threw my hands up in frustration.
“Sam, that’s the problem,” I replied trying to filter my words. “You are fearless about things, you go in full barrel but you don’t think. I understand you’re an attacker but you have to learn to use your brain. Combat is about strategy, planning, and patience.”
He shook his head.
“Well, that’s not how I fight. I take punishment then learn from it and keep changing the way I fight based on the mistakes I made,” he argued.
“But you can still fight like that, just…you can’t be so reckless because you may be invincible but the rest of the crew is not,” I shot. “We can’t afford to take those losses stumbling to get things right.”
He nodded in agreement.
“You have to learn to control your wrath,” I continued. “I’m not asking you to change the way you fight just tweak it. In that last simulation you saw the difference. How long did it take you to attack all those beasts individually and how long did it take with me dissecting and maneuvering them into position for a final strike?”
He nodded again lowering his head. I sighed not wanting to bury him.
“Sam, man, like I said I’m not saying you’re doing anything wrong,” I continued. “This is about making you better.”
He perked up raising his head.
“You think, I could be…you know as smart as the rest of you guys,” he replied bashfully.
I sighed embarrassed by the way I made him feel.
“Nobody’s saying you have to be as smart as us,” I replied apologetically. “But of course, you could if you already aren’t. You are you and just like we need Jacob’s and Danielle’s discipline, Sai’s heart, Pete and Uriah’s mind, Eve and Luke’s Edge, and Zech and Jo’s innocence, we need you to be exactly the way you are. We understand how exceptional the kids are in Angel Haven but that doesn’t make us smarter we’ve just been pushed to our potential. You’re just as smart as any of us, we’ve just been pushed to mature faster because of the tragedy surrounding our town. You just happened to move into a town of weirdos.”
He smiled slightly then responded with another nod of his head.
“So, what do you think I have to do to get as smart…I mean, how do I use my head more?” he replied in asking tone.
“I don’t know but it starts with utilizing everything you have at your disposal,” I replied. “You’re stamina, you’re amazing faith energy, your power and quickness.”
He nodded approvingly.
“My point is we told you to use your elemental powers more often in our last sparring session,” I replied. “Did you try to implement that at all?”
“Well, yeah, but…,” replied hesitating.
“But, what?” I pressed.
“Look, it’s too dangerous,” he replied in a you know why manner.
I paused taking a second to understand what he was referring to before turning to him.
“The White Flame?” I replied in exasperated. “How long has this been going on?”
He looked down trying to avoid eye contact trying to hide his reluctance to talk about it.
“Since we got here,” he replied. “It’s always there. I can feel it every time I try to use my powers.”
I nodded in an accepting manner.
“So, how do you think we overcome it?” I replied trying to be understanding.
He shot a surprised taken back look and shook his head.
“We don’t?” he replied. “You saw what happened last time. I’m not playing with it anymore.”
I shook my head angrily walking toward him. I tried to be tactful and respectful of his situation but it was a handicap we couldn’t afford. How can he fight if he never maximizes his potential? I can be respectful of his reservation when I figured it was an added dimension but now knowing he was handicapping himself I had to do something. If he couldn’t fight at full strength than he was a danger to himself and everyone around him.
“No, don’t you get it,” I pleaded. “By handicapping yourself you’re putting us in just as much danger. Look at the Battle of New Angeles you should have let us know what was going on. By you working with a handicap you put us all in danger.”
He lowered his head.
“I wasn’t trying to,” he replied. “I wanted to say something but Jade told me not to so I tried to control it and train enough so that I could fight well enough without using my anointed powers.”
I was blown away. His faith energy was ridiculous, but the fact that he was holding back the entire time, it was almost scary.
“So, you’re saying this entire time you have been reserving your faith energy?” I asked shaking my head. “You can’t be serious? That seemed like a better idea to you? Sam, that is so stupid. You can’t do that?”
He shot an angry glare as his chest took in air.
“Well, excuse me. I’m sorry if I didn’t want to lose another group of friends and family to this stupid thing?” he shot angrily. “I’m not asking you to understand why I did what I did but don’t judge why I did it? It’s not stupid to not want to destroy any and everything around you.”
I stopped looking away as the frustration element in the both of us was becoming tension.
“Well, what do you think we do?” I replied. “Because I can’t help you not use you God given ability. This is stupid.”
His eye flared up at the sound of my words.
“Don’t call me stupid again, Tim,” he grunted walking into my space.
I challenged him stepping up refusing to back down.
“I didn’t say you were stupid, I said this is stupid,” I replied. “I’m not Sai, I can’t say it nicer than that. We are fighting for people that matter more than this and we are here to learn to control our powers not restrain them.”
As we stood face to face neither one of us backing down.
“This is why you get on my nerves,” he replied. “You’re so snotty and dismissive of everything as being stupid. I don’t care who you are and what you think? I can get good enough without that. I just need time. I’m getting there.”
I shook my head in frustration and anger.
“No, you’re not,” I replied speaking outside of myself. “Power doesn’t work like that. As you become stronger your power will grow and you’ll have to exert more power to restrain it. How can you ever hope to keep up with the rest of us doing that?”
He lowered his head angrily ashamed. I wanted to tell him it wasn’t him or his power that killed his brother. As far as I knew it probably wasn’t him who killed his godmother. He was backing me into a corner and we needed him at his best.
“So, what am I supposed to do?” he responded. “Just let this thing run wild and destroy everything around me? It’s not happening, it’s not.”
I shook my head frustrated. I knew he meant what he said. He wasn’t going to budge. He was stubborn but I could understand why but I still wished things could have been different and I wished I could tell him everything I knew but now I was between a rock and a hard place.
“Listen,” I replied. “Can you at least learn a proper way to control this thing better? Not fully release it but exert more resource to you and less to fending off this spirit around you?”
He sighed before turning with a nod.
“I’ll try but I’m not going all out like the last time,” he replied. “We are only going to do so much?”
I nodded happy I was able to make some headway.
“So, how do I do it?” he replied.
I stopped for a minute going over his words and dissecting and breaking down everything I had seen and we’d gone over.
“Well, you say it’s stronger when you use your anointed powers right?” I asked with a pointing finger snap. “Well, let’s see if we can allow for you to use those power more often. I can withstand it and last time I was even able to restrain it, well not me but whatever this spirit is in me.”
He raised a brow at my words.
“Wait, you have a spirit in you?” he replied surprised.
I nodded acknowledging his words.
“Yeah, I tried to tell you last time but you didn’t give me a chance,” I continued. “When you blacked out the last time a spirit emerged from me.”
“So, you have a spirit that comes out of you as well,” he replied. “Does it work like mine?”
I jostled not really wanting to get too far into because explaining it to Sam was not going to be easy.
“Well, no,” I replied shaking my head. “Or at least I don’t think it does. Yours was more aggressive, the spirit I saw surrounding me was more protecting me. Yours seemed to take you over.”
He nodded slightly upset.
“But it was good,” I continued. “Because I think it was trying to show me that we needed to work together to control both of the spirits in us.”
He looked at me with a dizzied glare.
“What do you mean?” he replied.
“It said the lion needs the lamb. Your spirit is in the shape of a lion and the spirit that covered me was in the shape of a lamb. My guess is there’s a connection there,” I replied.
“What?” he responded oblivious.
I shook my head and scratched my scalp annoyed.
“I just…forget it. I believe they somehow work together. Let’s just see how,” I replied giving up.
He waited for a second then finally relented.
“Okay, how?” he replied.
I hesitated understanding what I was about to say wasn’t going to go over well.
“You’re going to have to let that spirit out again,” I replied.
He looked and rolled his eyes exhausted.
“I’m not going to let that thing out again!” he shot. “Didn’t you hear me?”
I cut my eyes exhausted with the back and forth.
“Not all, but a little like we agreed,” I replied.
He sighed staring at me before nodding in agreement.
“Okay, well, let’s get going, at this rate we’re going to spend more time talking then training,” I shot.
“You got that right,” Sam replied.
We both headed to the center of the ring. We gave a nod to each other that we were ready to begin. Sam closed his eyes as the light exploded. I followed suit.
“So, ready?” I replied.
“Yeah, let’s do it,” Sam replied. “But like the last time if you can’t control it, get out of here.”
I nodded in agreement.
“Element Alpha, light energy, light reactor,” he replied.
STRIKE! STATIC! STRIKE! SPARK! He sparked before he looked like a static reactor. Sam struggle to control it as the static electricity around him sparked chaotic. I dodged as it sparked wildly.
“Alright, you have got to control it. Light Energy is wild and aggressive. Remember what Jade said, positive wrath,” I replied.
SPARK! STATIC! SPARK! STRIKE! SPARK! It continued to spark wildly. He wasn’t controlling it with a type of authority he was merely carousing the energy in a vacuum and if he kept it up things were going to spark out of control. He collapsed to a knee looking at me desperately.
“I can’t, “he replied. “It’s going to come out. I have to power down.”
“No, “I replied stopping him. “It’s all in your head. You’re not even using ten percent of your capacity right now, besides I know that spirits energy. It’s not here. Just focus on the positive aggression. Think about what you’re fighting for. Light energy has to have an aim. It’s not used to protect it’s used to attack so aim the aggression at a purpose.”
SPARK! BOOM! SPARK! BOOM! STATIC! He slowly started to stabilized rising to his feet. I sighed as I finally took control of it but as soon as he stabilized I could feel the spirit rising in him. I wanted to say something but I needed him to overcome it so I didn’t speak up as he continued.
“Do you feel it?” he asked still paranoid.
“Don’t focus on that Sam?” I replied trying to stop him before he went out of control again.
SPARK! SPARK! Sam shot the light energy all over the place at will.
“Awesome!” he replied.
His power was on par with anybody I had seen thus far. It was amazing how much faith energy he had as he continued to power up I slowly felt the presence of the spirit becoming stronger and stronger.
“Okay, Sam, pull it back a little,” I replied. “I can feel the spirit.”
Sam ignored my words summoning spinning wind and water.
“I feel so powerful,” he said controlling the elements like a vet.
He was drunk with the power of it as he moved the elements like a puppeteer. I ignored continuing to move and amp up his power. His power was intimidating even for me. What we saw as a weak ability was actually showcasing itself as truly powerful asset. The fact that he had amazing stamina made so he didn’t feel the fatigue that the rest of us did when we used our ability. Watching him was like watching a guy hold his breath underwater for an hour. It was an amazing feat. He used all his abilities at once and it looked effortlessly.
“Sam, I’m serious,” I replied trying to calm as the presence was full blown at this point. “Pull back.”
But before he could respond he collapsed in the middle of the sparring arena.
“Sam?” I replied approaching him cautiously.
His body lifted like someone was pulling him with an invisible puppet string. I recoiled at the sight.
BOOM! WHACK! The explosion of power slammed me into a nearby wall. My body ached as I crawled back to my feet.
“Sam!” I screamed trying to reach out to him and break him out of his trance.
Sam was out on his feet. The aura of the white flame around him morphed into the shape of the lion as the air became deafly cold.
“Sam!” I screamed once again helplessly.
The power became so dense that it virtually looked like a solid white lion with a mane of flames. I stood in awe as it towered above me.
“ROAR!” it yelped breathing out an icy breath through its nose like a bull.
I backed away slowly as it seemed to drop into prancing stance.
“Tim,” said a voice catching me off-guard. “What’s going on?”
I turned to see Sai, Eve, Beth, and Danielle standing at the entrance to the training room.
“Get out!” I screamed pointing toward the door as I sprinted toward them.
They all stared in shock at the monsterous huge spirit standing in front of me.
“What is that?” said Eve. “Is that…is that Sam?”
“Go!” I screamed trying to force them to leave.
Before I could react the lion shot for them. Eve quickly shoved Beth out taking Danielle with them as Sai turned to follow but before she could the door froze over.
“Ouch,” she yelled recoiling from the freezing cold knob.
BOOOM! The door exploded as Sai narrowly dove out of the way. I sighed realizing we were trapped inside this training dimension with a beast. I flash stepped grabbing Sai landing in shield stance blocking her.
“Sam!” I screamed praying there was still some way I could get through to him. “Sam, you can control it.”
I looked down at my body hoping to see the other spirit but it wasn’t there. There was nothing protecting me. I was as vulnerable as the suffocating dry fire became to pollute the area.
“That’s really Sam?” Sai replied looking at it in horror as she fought to her feet.
“Well, yes and no, it’s the white flame spirit. It took Sam over when we were training,” I replied shielding her.
The beast walked back and forth stalking us waiting to pounce. What was it waiting for? I didn’t take my eyes off of it for a second.
“Do you have your dimension jumper,” I asked not even looking back.
As I spoke Sai walked up beside me.
“No, and even if I did, you think I’d leave you here all alone,” she replied. “Now, how do we stop this thing?”
I shrugged not know what to say.
“I thought a had the power to stop it like the last time,” I replied. “But I don’t know how to use it.”
“What are you talking about, last time?” she replied. “This happened before?”
ROOAR! The spirit yelped staring at us.
“Yes, but Sam made me promise not to tell anyone,” I replied. “I felt I could handle it because the last time I had a spirit that came out of me as well.”
“Wait, what?” she whimpered as the spirit began to creep towards us.
“It’s a long story,” I replied angrily. “But I’ll tell you it later. The point is the spirit protected me the last time but this time it’s not here and we’re in trouble.”
WHOOSH! Before I could react the spirit shot toward us.
“Sai!” I screamed signaling for her to dodge.
She shot in one direction and I shot the other way.
ZIP! ZIP! ZIP! Sai catapulted in the air and unloaded arrows at the spirit that a little to no effect.
“ROAR!” the spirit let out charging toward her.
SWIFT! BOOM!! I built a gust of wind up and used it as a buffer as I charged into the spirit blindsiding it just before it reached Sai. I released the wind as it almost froze on contact diving for safety. I stared at Sai in awe.
“What type of…it froze the wind on contact?” I replied turning to Sai.
“I saw and look at my arrows?” she replied pointing to the center of the floor.
Her lightning shots were frozen in the center of the arena. What type of fire freezes lightning?
“We can’t let this thing touch us,” I replied turning to Sai. “It’ll destroy us.”
Sai nodded as this spirit beast circled around and charged again.
“Jump!” I replied as we leaped over it’s head.
I shuttered in horror as the spirits body grew an arm that seemed to emanate from it’s body. It was going for Sai. She was oblivious. I had to act.
SWIFT! I shot toward her knocking her out it’s path creating a dense wind as the arm enveloped me.
“Tim!” she screamed as she flew toward the ground.
I covered myself as the wind froze encasing me into a marble like ball.
“Element Gamma, Fire Command, Inferno,” I replied emitting as much fire as I could to counteract the temperature.
I watched as I began to freeze not knowing what was about to happen. I cringed as suddenly everything dissipated. I stared looking around to see what happened as the ice marble I was encased in exploded.
“Tim,” said a voice I had never heard before.
I turned in gasped at the sight as air seemed to come out of my body. It was Sai but as the smog of the ice dissipated I could see a face that was familiar yet still looked like something out of a dream.
“Mom!” I replied as I slowly hit the ground with a thud. “Is that really you?”