Earlier that day:
Hendrix waved goodbye to Vida as he, Kai, and Taro followed Alex out of the gymnasium.
As the group of four turned the corner, Kai turned to Hendrix.
"Bro, how did you do that?" Kai asked. Taro turned in equal interest.
"Do what?" Hendrix responded.
"All those moves! It was totally different from a week ago." Kai moved his arms to mimic the chaos of Hendrix's strings just a couple days ago.
"Yeah, it's like they're listening to you now." Taro agreed as the group came up to the door to the courtyard.
Hendrix's favorite area in the compound opened up to him once again. The patches of green grass surround a circle of concrete, with a willow tree in the dead center.
"Alright, guys. This'll be where we'll train today." Alex walked up to the willow tree and leaned on its trunk as she turned back to the three boys.
"We're just sparring in a different spot." Kai scratched his head while looking around to see if the two other boys understood anything he didn't.
"Nope. While I was looking at you and Hendrix spar, I saw that both of you were exhausted by the end of it. If you guys are out of Spirit after a two minute sparring match, who knows what trouble you'll be in when the time comes to defend yourself." Alex paused to let her words sink in to the kids.
"Even with Hendrix's giant levels of Spirit, your bodies aren't made to release a steady stream of energy."
She pushed herself off the tree as she continued.
"That's why we're training out here. Extra challenges from the weather and obstacles like this tree. And the objective is to hit me once." Alex pointed at herself with her thumb.
"This is gonna be quick." Kai said as he stretched his legs.
"You're underestimating us, Alex." Taro cracked his knuckles.
Hendrix stayed silent as he thought over Alex's words. He thought about how he felt up to passing out during his fight with 1060, and how he felt the same weakness crawling in every time he trained since.
He grew frustrated while he claimed it as one more thing to worry about.
"I'll just have to start at square one." Hendrix thought as he got ready for Alex's challenge.
"You ready?" Alex asked the boys.
"Always." Taro smirked.
Kai got a head start as he sped his way behind Alex. Alex had already predicted that, sweeping Kai's feet with one of her legs.
"You're still too slow." Alex told Kai.
Taro used Kai as a distraction, throwing a haymaker right at Alex's face.
Alex turned to catch Taro's fist, using it as leverage to throw Taro over her head and on to the concrete.
Just as Alex had caught Taro's fist, Hendrix used the opening as an opportunity.
Hendrix held his forearms out as he mumbled "Mr. Self Destruct" under his breath. Alex side-eyed Hendrix as she caught the sound of Hendrix's words faintly.
The guitar strings appeared, moving in a spiral around each other, straight towards Alex.
Alex quickly tossed the still recovering Taro in the path of the strings while Alex ducked out of the way.
Taro was hit head on by the strings, flying right into a wall on the other side of the courtyard. Luckily, he was able to localize his Spirit in the front of his body to cushion the impact.
Alex turned back to Hendrix as she rotated her arm to loosen her shoulder. Hendrix began to reel his strings back in.
"What were you mumbling right there?" Alex asked. She had overheard Akilah and Vida talking about it during the sparring match in the gymnasium.
"Oh. It's nothing." Hendrix didn't like that he had to say his moves out loud to remember how they went.
"No, I want to hear it. C'mon." Alex tried to be endearing as Kai tried to catch her off guard.
Alex once again swept Kai's feet, sending him flying in the same direction that Taro flew. Alex turned back to Hendrix as she awaited an answer.
"It's the songs that make my strings go in certain patterns. I say the names outloud so I can remember the melody." Hendrix seemed embarrassed.
"Hmm. That's smart." Alex looked to see if Kai and Taro were alright, purposely leaving an opening for Hendrix.
He took the opportunity, mumbling "Eyeless" To himself as his strings dispersed in every direction, diverging back in on Alex.
Alex ran directly through the middle of the strings, right towards Hendrix.
"You're open." Alex said as she ran up to Hendrix, roundhouse kicking him in the chest. Hendrix flew back a few feet as he tumbled through the grass.
"That one hurt." Hendrix held his chest while he began to get up.
"C'mon guys, recover quicker. Remember, we're training for stamina here." Alex raised her hands up to signal the boys to stand up.
Hendrix began to mumble to himself as his strings shot out from his forearms, propelling himself towards Alex. He prepared to punch Alex, but Alex dodged his attack with ease.
"Gotcha." Taro caught Hendrix and shifted towards Alex, throwing a punch upward towards Alex's chin.
Alex met Taro's fist with her own, beating Taro in raw strength.
"You forget we have the same strength Mode. Stop with these head on attacks." Alex said as Taro jumped back and shook his hand around to make the pain go away.
"We're training stamina and combat at the same time, keep that in mind." Alex cracked her own back.
Hendrix tried to grapple Alex's feet from the floor as he shot out his strings from his left forearm, but the strings lashed out, causing Hendrix's to recede the strings back in and prepare himself for the next attack.
Alex caught the lash out from the corner of her eye. She was reminded that she needed to keep extra attention on Hendrix.
Kai tried a zig zag pattern. Kai zoomed around Alex, punching and kicking in various areas in a way similar to the beginning of his spar with Hendrix. This attempt was once again met by a sweep of the feet by Alex.
Taro lets out a battle cry as he throws a shower of punches at Alex. Upper cut, left fist, he thought at least one of them would hit, but none of them did. Alex seemed to slip between his punches like butter, she then retaliated with a single blow to the gut. Taro bent over in pain.
Minutes turned into an hour, turned into two hours.
Hendrix, Kai, and Taro all threw what seemed like an infinite amount of attacks at Alex just for none of them to land.
The three boys slowly realized they had never seen Alex at her full capability before. They wondered if Bloom was at the same caliber of combat.
After two hours of relentless attack, Alex showed no signs of wearing out. On the other hand, the three boys' attacks continued to get messier and less precise as they began to exhaust themselves.
"Now we're getting to the good part." Alex swept Kai's feet for the fiftieth time. "You guys are getting to the point where you would usually give up. This is where you push your body just a little bit more, telling it that we need to grow stronger." Alex smiled at the three boys on the floor.
They were even slower to get up, even after her pep talk.
The door to the courtyard opened as Bloom, Amora, Akilah, and Jessica laid their eyes upon the scene in front of them, with Vida following shortly behind.
"C'mon guys. That can't be all you got. If this is all you have, you'll never survive what's coming." Alex said.
"Don't push them too hard, honey." Bloom sighed as she knelt down to Taro, who was laying face down in the grass. "Are you alright, Taro?" Bloom asked sincerely.
Taro lifted his head to see Bloom's sincere face.
"Yeah, I'm fine." Taro said as his face dug back into the grass it had been sunken in moments before.
"Ohhh, baby." Bloom awed as she placed a hand on his shoulder.
"Don't baby them, babe. We're just training." Alex brushed a hand through her green hair.
"I think that's enough training for today. How about you kids all go get some dinner before the sun sets." Bloom's words caused a sigh of relief from Hendrix, Kai, and Taro while the kids that had been following Bloom had felt like nothing happened.
The three boys got up and out of the grass as they joined the rest of the kids and made their way towards the cafeteria.
"Meet me here tomorrow at 10!" Alex pointed at the three as they looked at each other and groaned.
The kids made their way to the cafeteria while Bloom and Jessica stayed back with Alex.
"You alright?" Bloom put a hand on Alex's shoulder and kissed her.
"Yeah, thanks." Alex smiled at Bloom.
"And, Hendrix?" Jessica got out her pen as she prepared to write on her clipboard.
"He's doing great. There were a couple times where he lost control, but he was able to get it under control before anyone could even react." Alex spoke while Jessica wrote on her clipboard.
"That's great to hear!" Bloom smiled up at Alex.
"I can't wrap my head around his Spirit levels." Jessica scratched her head while she looked at the numbers on her clipboard. "There hasn't been anyone with these levels in over a century. Not since, Aali. No wonder he can't keep control of his powers, this is too much for a kid to handle."
"Have some faith in him. He's doing great right now, and he has really good friends to keep him on track. Everyone's doing great." Bloom looked at the group of kids walking down the hall towards the cafeteria, joking and roughhousing along the way.
The kids got to the cafeteria, getting there just in time to get the dinner they so desperately needed.
"Ugh! I'm starving!" Chase said as he instinctively handed his apple juice over to Amora, she kissed him on the cheek in return.
"You act like you did anything." Akilah turned the page of the book she found left on the table.
"For YOUR information, I passed the first stage today." Chase crossed his arms proudly like Akilah wasn't there to see it happen, she rolled her eyes in response.
"How did your training go?" Vida turned to Hendrix who was trying not to collapse from exhaustion.
"Tiring. Yours?" Hendrix turned to Vida as her face lit up when Hendrix asked.
"Well, I had the best idea today…" Vida explained her breakthrough moment to Hendrix.
"That sounds amazing! I knew you could do it!" Hendrix seemed almost just excited for Vida as she was for herself. This made Vida happier than anyone could know.
Vida turned back to her food with a smile on her face.
"I found this today, I thought you'd like it." Kai held a flower to Akilah.
"Oh god, I thought we were over this." Akilah scrunched her face as she stared back at Kai. His childish smile, his innocent eyes. Ew. She grabbed the flower reluctantly. "Thanks, I guess."
Chase tried to hold back his laugh while Taro put his palm to his face. Amora found it kind of heartwarming while Hendrix and Vida just looked at each other and smiled jokingly.
After the group was done eating, they all got ready to retire for the night, saying goodnight to each other and heading into their respective rooms.
Vida thought about the smile that Hendrix made at her when she told him about her ideas. She smiled into her pillow.
Chase imagined himself as an action hero as he imagined all the ways he could incorporate his gun Mode into combat. Once he got a hold of it, of course.
Akilah thought about her breakthrough today, and Bloom's words. She thought about how useful it could be once she developed it more. She also thought about the pain she felt when she entered the heightened state. Would that ever go away? Would it become greater the more she saw?
Kai thought about Akilah. Such a hopeless romantic.
Amora thought about a way to repeat her miracle of power. She wanted to talk it over with Akilah tomorrow, surely she would come up with a solution. She grew urgent and scared as she thought about if she could ever repeat it at all.
Taro thought about how much he dreaded the training he would have to go through tomorrow.
Hendrix thought about the times he slipped up today. He could've hurt someone if he let loose even for a second. He tried to doze off. As he began to slip off into sleep, he heard a voice.
"Remember what you've caused, boy." A voice from the darkness groaned. It sounded deep, but also raspy. It sounded dead.
Hendrix appeared in a black void.
"What?" Hendrix looked around confused.
"Blood rusts your strings." The voice continued as the source of the voice came forward. A man in a long, rippled cloak came forward out of the darkness. The shoulders of the cloak bore feathers, all black in color. The man's eyes glowed like owl eyes through a blank white mask with nothing but eye holes.
"Remember how it all ends." The man uttered.