The strange skin lay on the ground as strange inky symbols slowly appeared on its surface before it lay inert.
"So gross." She spoke, but her expression clearly betrayed her morbid fascination with the object. After examining it curiously, she decided to activate the second component of her ability. A small spark ignited the skin peel, spreading a small flame across the surface of the object. Instinctually Elaine let go of the strange slip while taking a few steps backwards. When the flame covered the entirety of the slip, a small explosion occurred, leaving a tiny plume of smoke behind.
Elaine stumbled back in surprise, causing her to fall into a sitting position. Before anyone could react, she gave a thumbs-up before yelling out, "I'm fine."
Seeing that she was unhurt, her friends relaxed.
Elaine casually peeled off another strip from a different part of her arm, leaving another red square behind. She waited for the ink symbols to form before crumpling it up and tossing it as far as she could. She waited a moment before detonating the second slip. Unsurprisingly, a second small explosion occurred, but this time, without the surprise factor, it was considerably less impressive.
Seemingly satisfied with her discovery, she turned and looked at Darius with a teasing expression. "I wonder what's stronger, my explosions or your metal skin."
Darius, still covered head to toe in metal, took a step behind Jax before Elaine approached. "Don't let that crazy woman near me."
Jax then twisted around, placing Darius in front of him instead. "I'm not your bodyguard. Plus, who's the one with the metal skin?"
Elaine revealed a sly grin as she walked out of the training area. "Relax. I'm just joking." She then gestured toward Jax. "Alright, you're up."
Jax smiled, amused by Elaine's little joke, and walked to the center of the training section. Without a moment's hesitation, Jax activated his ability. Once more, nothing seemed to happen. After a moment of anticipation and silence, even Jax gave a confused look and attempted to walk back in their direction. It was then that Jax's legs slipped out from under him and he face-planted on the floor. Fortunately, the room's safety measures prevented him from hurting his body. His ego, however...
A moment of silence passed before Darius and Elaine burst out laughing.
"Did you see how he fell?" Elaine snickered.
"Oh my god, his face too." Darius cackled.
Jax's expression darkened as they laughed. A moment later he sighed and decided to ignore them. He reached into his pocket and dug out a coin. On the planet they were born on, it was not common to see someone carrying a coin. Most purchases were made using virtual currency. Currently, most coins serve as cool trinkets or are used in games. Jax himself had a coin because his Star Legends deck often involved coin flips. Supposedly it was an ancient tradition to flip coins in the card game community.
Jax gave the coin a familiar flip and then let it fall to the floor. 3/4 of the way down, Jax furrowed his brow, and the coin suddenly changed directions and bounced to the left, carrying all its previous momentum.
Victor looked over, asking Jax curiously. "How did you know to do that?"
Jax shrugged. "It just felt right." He retrieved the coin and passed back through the energy shield.
Victor frowned. Seeing as how his friends all discovered how to use their abilities so quickly, he came up with a guess. "Perhaps our abilities grant us intuition about how they work."
"Or I am just particularly talented and smart." Jax replied with a smirk.
"Yeah, you looked real smart laid out on the ground there." Elaine said sarcastically.
"Plus, a coin isn't really that threatening." Darius added on.
Jax glanced at both of them without providing an explanation, then reached out and gently tapped their shoulders. They both looked on in confusion before Victor interrupted. "Is it really a good idea to use your ability on them outside of the training area?"
Jax paused and looked at him before he shook his head and strode over to a corner. Elaine and Darius both looked around in confusion before Rosa spoke up.
"If you were paying attention instead of laughing, you would have figured out he has the power to change the direction of anything he touches. He ended up falling over because he was using his ability on himself, causing his legs to move in a different direction. He wasn't even able to catch himself properly because his arms also traveled in a different direction. The only reason he is completely fine right now is probably due to the train room's safety measures." Rosa explained calmly before she turned and gave them both a serious look.
"He just touched both of you on the shoulder. Imagine what would have happened to you just now."
At that revelation, the pair's smiles had long vanished. Seemingly satisfied, Jax turned to Victor and spoke. "It's your turn next."
Victor nodded and entered the training area. After seeing the previous displays, he wasn't too scared of his ability backfiring on him, so he unhesitatingly activated the first component. Victor looked around, but he didn't notice any abnormal changes. It was only after he quickly inspected his body that he noticed his hands glowing with numerous familiar symbols. They looked exactly like the ones that appeared in his dream. Victor waited for a moment, anticipating additional changes, but his patience yielded no results.
'Hmmm, I must have to activate the second component for anything to happen.'
Victor activated the second component without hesitation. The grey room he was in vanished from his vision, and he found himself in a dark space filled with mysterious symbols and shattered metal, all orbiting a tiny black hole. It was the same place he had seen in his dream! A white corona surrounded the black hole, and it began to spin. Victor instinctively knew this phenomenon was caused by activating the second component. As it rotated faster, Victor could feel the gravity of the black hole increasing, and strangely, all the floating debris remained unaffected.
Victor watched as the black hole spun faster until it reached its maximum speed. Victor waited patiently until it was clear it was going to continue spinning fruitlessly. 'Am I missing something?'
He began brainstorming ideas, but to no avail. In the end he just decided to give up. Right, then a realization dawned on him. He didn't know how to deactivate his powers to escape from this space.
Victor tried to reach out to his ability function, yet he couldn't seem to access it from here. Victor had to come to grips with the fact he was now stuck within this space due to his own ability. Since there was nothing he was able to do, he calmed down and decided he would just wait it out.
Fortunately, he didn't have to wait long because a change then occurred. Some light appeared, intruding upon the dark realm as the strange symbols and metal scrap orbiting the black hole respectively glowed and vibrated. Victor's awareness expanded, and he was able to see beyond the immediate area around the black hole. After a brief observation, Victor realized that another space had connected to his. As Victor observed that space, he saw that at the center of it was a giant multicolored hand reaching out and touching a metallic plane with the pads of its fingers.
'Darius.'
Victor wasn't sure why the thought appeared in his mind, yet instinctively it felt right. Victor's awareness approached to get a better view, yet just then a sharp pain echoed through his awareness as he was pulled and ejected from this strange space.
Victor opened his eyes and found himself outside of the training area, looking up at a grey metallic face while feeling a stinging sensation on the left side of his face.
"What happened?" Victor asked, perplexed.
"We don't know. You suddenly collapsed and didn't respond after we called out to you. We couldn't really examine you properly with the energy shield constantly covering your body, so we brought you out here." Jax explained.
"Oh, and then Darius slapped you in the face, and you woke up." Elaine added.
'So that's why my jaw hurt so much.'
Victor turned to look at Darius. "You know, it doesn't feel very good to get slapped by metal, right?"
A sheepish expression flashed across his face, clearly indicating that he had forgotten to deactivate his ability. Darius quickly apologized before the metal crawled back across his body, towards his hands, and disappeared before his hands returned to normal. "Sorry, I forgot."
Victor sighed before he stood up and brushed himself off.
"So did you figure out what your ability is?" Rose asked.
Victor held his cheek in his hand before walking over to the treatment kit. "Not really, but I think I saw what my ability looks like." He then pointed over at Darius. "His too. But I feel like I'm missing something."