fandomhigh | Fighting With Powers [Monday, Fourth Period]

The Danger Shop was set up to look and feel like a warm spring day in a nice open grassy field. Max could have picked just about anything with space to move in, but it amused him to go for something incongruous with the actual weather.

Again his voice was loud, but at least they were outside so the effect wasn't quite as bad as it had been last week. "Welcome back to Fighting With Powers. Last week we talked a bit about what each of us is capable of. This week we're going to take that and put it into practice."

Max took nearly an entire minute to study each of his students in turn. Eventually he nodded, more to himself than to them. "Since I want as much time as possible to evaluate each of you, there's no lecture or anything today. We're going straight to today's exercise."

"The activity comes in two parts. First, each of you will spar with me for a couple of minutes. This will allow me to really gauge what you already know and what you can do while allowing your fellow students to get a feel for the same thing. Then you'll break into pairs and practice with one another. Try to pick a partner who can teach you something, or at least challenge you with a power or technique you haven't dealt with before."

Any questions? No, of course not. Good.

"That's it. Let's get started."

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"I've never fought before," Tara admitted, a strange, confused expression on her face. "N-not counting self-defense. So, uh ... I kinda don't know how to start."

Max's gentle smile was sort of at odds with all the yelling from earlier. His voice even shifted a bit when he spoke. "Don't worry about it. Let's start with what you know."

"Imagine I'm about to attack you, and you know it. What do you do?"

"I don't know. I guess I push out with my mind as hard as I could," Tara said, centering her energy so she could create a slight version of the kind of telekinetic push she was talking about (not much more than a tap on the chest to Max, really), "and -- l-look for a weapon."

"Do that then." Max was still smiling when he rushed forward. Not quite at full speed, but fast enough to be a surprise.

Tara flailed and took some steps back, still pushing. Max was heavier than anything she could lift, but her mental strength still might be enough to slow him.

Her eyes searched the ground, looking for a rock or stick or anything.

Interesting. It was like walking into an extremely stiff wind, almost. Except that Max could tell that there wasn't any wind involved. "This won't hold me long," he pointed out, voice just a little bit tight from the effort of stalking forward.

"I know," Tara said, faltering. She was still looking for a weapon; she saw nothing but the grass.

She supposed she could throw it in his eyes, but there had to be another option. Concentrating hard, she tried a spell she'd read but never done and held up a hand, intending to summon an energy ball. If she did it right, it might zap Max hard enough to make him stop.

A tiny, pale ball of energy flickered off her fingers, aimed at Max's solar plexus.

As soon as it hit him, Max stumbled back a couple of steps. He eyed Tara thoughtfully. "Not bad." Not bad at all. That could have knocked down an unpowered person.

He smiled slowly. "You ever done that before?"

Tara shook her head, torn between surprise it had worked at all and some vague disappointment it hadn't done more.

Er. Not that she wanted to hurt Max.

"No," she said. "I know the theory, but, uh -- usually I would have thrown something but there isn't anything, so I tried the energy ball thing and I got that. Are you okay?"

"Fine," he assured her with a smile. "Think you can do it again?"

Tara nodded. "Uh-huh," she said, worried she'd chicken out if she talked more.

She gathered her focus and made another energy ball. This one was considerably larger and stronger.

"Impressive." Max studied it for a moment. "Is it hard to hold it in place like that?"

"Not really?" Tara said, contemplating the glimmering sphere as it floated before her. "I have to think about it, but it's not harder than floating a pencil or something. It's light. Sh-should I throw it?"

"Sure," Max nodded, making a mental note.

Tara drew another breath and moved her hands forward, throwing the energy at Max's chest again. It was a herder blow this time, one with some slight confidence fueling it.

Expecting it this time, Max dove to the side, wondering if he was fast enough to get out of the way.

Or if the thing would even follow a straight line, or if it would track him instead.

That depended on how fast it was; it moved at about the speed of a hard fastball, as if Tara were throwing a baseball instead of pure energy. But she didn't have enough skill to curve it in midair.

If she'd been a little farther away, Max could have managed to get out of the way entirely, as it is, it slammed into his shoulder.

Which hurt.

Fighting With Powers [Monday, Fourth Period]

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