The heavy rain outside started to splatter on the window, a streak of lightning flashing in the sky as Reynolds looked to Alexia, still puzzled about her little situation. How could someone with such a power exist? Reynolds sat down on his desk and took a deep breath in glancing outside at the stormy weather. What a perfect day to be at school; with barely any students, only a few faculty members, and your club.
"I have to ask, Alexia. Have you ever shown others this side of your power before?" Reynolds asked, looking to uncover a bit more information on Alexia.
"Only my family, but that was a few years back. Uh…" She continued to sit in her seat before thinking back about her powers when they started occurring to this level.
"Well, you know when we're young our powers appear, right? Think back around that time. Age five through ten." Reynolds added.
"Now that you mentioned it when I was five-years-old. I was taken to the check-up facilities. But, they labeled me as harmless. Mainly because my singularity at the time only produced water."
"Of all things, water was the first one, huh?"
"Yeah, But, it was pretty minimal. I only remember making tiny puddles at first. Or forming water in my hands."
"What about your star?"
"Like I said last week. During that solar eclipse across the continent, that's when I first learned how to do it." Alexia informed again this information that she did give away. Reynolds rubbed his chin now, remembering back to that.
"Yeah, you did say that. Though, that's…Also odd. The star powers at least, and you're saying it started during the eclipse? Am I getting that right?"
"Mhm. Before, I only knew how to make water and change a few things based on the periodic table. That's how I knew that my singularity revolved around the table, at least."
"I'm not surprised by the multiple abilities. It's quite common for people who develop their singularity to witness multiple occurrences with it. You saw Heidi's match; she's a good example of that. Roy, not so much."
"I did notice a few things during that match with that Pro. She was sweating a lot after the match."
"Heidi's specialty is heating, but that heat can make you see things not normally there. Pearl is a different case. Similar to Roy, they're typically one-trick pony's once you figure them out." Reynolds let out a soft chuckle before getting off his desk and walking over to the window to see the rain pour.
"Right. Now, make that star again, okay? This time keep your bracelet on. It might be a bit difficult, but you should know the bracelets are power suppressors overall, so your powers don't go wild in everyday life."
"Teach. Mine was on the entire time." Alexia rolled up her uniform sleeve, revealing her power suppressors. It was an ancient model by modern standards at a closer glance; she seemed not to have had the chance to upgrade it in recent times.
"Full of surprises, huh. Honestly, I forget you guys have them on here and there. But, for now, here." Reynolds got off his desk and moved to his desk drawers, taking out another bracelet. This one was far more advanced. It was painted in a black coating of alloy with red markings carved into it.
"Put this on your other wrist. It's a new model. But, a bit more on the suppressing end." He handed her the bracelet. Alexia took it and applied it to her right wrist; at first, it seemed far too big for her to place on suddenly it shrank down clamping onto her as if it was a perfect fit from the get-go. The immediate effect of this bracelet was apparent as her body felt far more cumbersome than usual. It felt as if gravity was rejecting her; pushing every ounce of force down onto her. It was as if she had just taken sleeping medicine feeling drowsy, and low on energy. The weight she felt seemed unbearable for her body to withstand primarily because of the weights from earlier.
"W… What is this… Thing?" She tried to muster up her voice here, only for it to be quietly flowing through her cords.
"A new model, some dear friends of mine, lent me for testing. They told me it's still a work in progress. That and think of this as another form of training." Reynolds smiled, looking at Alexia, who was now trying to stand up to collect her thoughts.
"W-Why in the w-world…. I-Is it in y-your desk?!" Was the only thing she could mutter out at the moment, trying her best to get over the effects of the suppressor. Immediately, she placed her hand up against her mouth. Then bite down on it, enough so that a tiny ounce of blood could be seen coming out.
"H-Hey! Don't do that!" Reynolds was surprised he did feel bad about giving something like that to one of his students. However, after biting down on her hand, Alexia took a few steps back to compose herself. It seemed she needed some adrenaline to keep from going to sleep. What better adrenaline than the pain, she thought in the heat of the moment.
"I-I'm fine. Sorry about that." Alexia rubbed her part of her hand she bites down on before taking a seat, moving a few strands of her hair that had fallen in front of her eyes.
"Let's continue."
"Are you sure? I can wait for you to compose yourself." Reynolds glanced at the bite mark on her hand; it wasn't healing at all, the tiny bits of blood still seeping from it. Like he thought to himself before what an exciting group of students gathered around him. At the same time, Reynolds was glad he gave this new model to her at this very moment. He was days away from giving it to Deveron.
Alexia held up both of her hands side by side as a dense sensation of energy began to heat up in the room. Not one but two stars began to take form in both of her hands. However, they were pretty small, looking to be on the verge of collapsing as well. Similar to the first ones she created, both were about the size of a penny, only this time around, they were growing and shrinking at the same time.
"Y-Yeah! I'm sure." Alexia was struggling just maintaining two while being suppressed immensely from this new device that strapped tightly to her wrist. While retaining the two stars as they continued to fluctuate, Alexia wanted to question her teacher on a few things, at least.
"S-So, how did you obtain such a device? Who're your friends?"
"Well, long story short. I'm friends with a singularity research and development company."
"Is that also h-how you know that p-pro?" Alexia's voice was stuttering. Her body seemed to be still receiving the effects of the device. It made her vision hazy for brief moments in between, making it harder to focus on concentrating.
"Pearl? No…Honestly, she's about as big of an oddity as you. I met her three years ago when her career started to take off… She's quite the unique individual in a lot of ways by American standards." Reynolds continued to watch the stars fluctuate. It was quite mesmerizing. Despite how small they were, he could tell they were packing power. These were still stars but on smaller-scales. Reynolds seemed quite amazed at how controlled these stars were. Expecting them to suddenly collapse and vanish into thin air like a candle in the wind. Or suddenly collapse and create quite the damage. The latter, he didn't seem at all concerned.
"S-So. What about the tournaments? G-Give me a rundown on what they're like? I know I'm the captain, but if I'm going last. W-What's the point of participating?"
"Haha! Well, you see, sometimes it won't always go the way you want. For example; A team might suddenly get the upper-hand on one of us and tie the match to 2-2. They are thus leaving the captains to wrestle for the remaining point. The tournaments are all point-based, depending on if you win a match or not. This is also the case for individual tournaments. Still, for team tournaments, which is what we'll be doing, it's on whoever wins a point ahead." Reynolds sat down once more in his chair, continuing to look at the stars, this time, they were beginning to rotate around each other as if they were on the verge of combining.
This was honestly making him start to worry. Knowing what the convergence would do, it might be best for him to stop her. He noticed the rotation was slowing down before he could do so, then speeding back up, but the two stars never collided. He breathed a sigh of relief for the moment and continued his explanation. It seemed she did have control; the longer she held the stars, the more he started questioning the device.
"If a vanguard wins their match. That's one point for the team. If the sergeant loses one, that's a point for the enemy team. The tiebreaker being the lieutenants match now. Let's say the enemy team wins the tiebreaker. If they win one more, they win. But, normally, it's a 1st to three matches. But, with so many students these days participating, it can go any way. That's about it." Reynolds took this chance to clap his hands, signaling for Alexia to stop.
"That's enough for now… Mind. Stopping 'that'?" He pointed toward the spinning stars in her hand; she was still concentrating quite a bit. Then, the two stars suddenly collapsed before touching each other and dispersing tiny particles throughout the room. Reynolds was taken aback by the sight of these particles. He was expecting quite the opposite, but looking at it now in his office resembled one of those sci-fi holo-rooms. The particles dissipated, with Alexia finally lowering her hands. Her body began to shake with the impression that she was hit with a jolt of energy.
"Urgh! O-Okay! I…I think I'm good!" Alexia stood up from her seat and began to stretch her body after that. It felt stiff and rough with the impression she sat down for hours on end without ever getting up.
"So, what's the downside to your singularity?" Reynolds noticed the change in her body movement; it was subtle at first until she jolted upward.
"Stiffness in my body, and dizziness. It's also one reason why I didn't like using my power before. Even when I manipulate the water, my body suddenly freezes up after using it."
"So, paralysis?"
"Yeah, but one time it was so bad I couldn't move for an entire day." Alexia was visibly distressed now after recalling a bit of that history.
"Sorry to hear that. I won't prattle around about you anymore, then I have to." Reynolds looked back outside the window. The storm was now passing through for good. The rain slowed down to a crawl, and it looked like the sun had a bit more to go before coming back out.
"Let's get back to the others. I'm sure you're still dying to fight Pearl." Reynolds walked to the door then turned to Alexia.
"Oh! Then I can finally take this thing off." Her left hand was rubbing the black suppressor on her wrist.
"No, I'd prefer it if you kept it on. Even in the fight."
"But, the system doesn't allow suppressors within it."
"In the settings, you can change it to allow suppressors on. It's just typically commonplace to take them off in fights. But she doesn't have to know. The only time you can do this is at home, school, or public matches if the system is updated. Of course, in tournaments, they have to be taken off." Reynolds walked out of his office while Alexia followed close behind, although at a slower pace. He took note of this and slowed his pace down for her.
"So. About the state tournaments. Did you already register us or not?" Alexia held her head as they walked down the hall back to the others.
"Of course not. We can't register until August. Then the tournaments begin in the middle of September over three days."
"And the nationals?"
"The winner of the state tournaments, also known as Regionals in other nations. Go in early December. It usually lasts about the same time as the previous ones. Three days maximum, but depending on how long it takes until the semi-finals, the days may be extended to five."
"Oh! T-Then do we get paid to sleep in a nice hotel?!" Alexia suddenly began to brim with excitement at the thought of staying in a five-star hotel.
"Haha! Sorry, Alexia. But, only the seeded states, to my knowledge, get that luxury. Or if the state government pays for their expenses. States like Hawaii and Alaska have the luxury of getting to spend the government's money when the nationals arrive. It's rare for the nationals to be located in their respective areas."
"Makes sense. Any schools we should look out for during the regionals?"
"Let's see, East bridge high and Saint Mary's academy the two we should look out for. East bridge was last year's state representative. So expect a strong fight from them."
"Anyone that stands out?"
"I can't say… After all, I only recently came to Idaho. My research of the other schools is minimal at the moment." Reynolds stopped in his tracks. Standing in front of him was the door to the club room inside; he could hear a bit of chatter going on.
"Well… More on that later." He opened the door and saw Deveron and Pearl chatting it up.
"That's quite the fortunate power God has given you." Pearl closed her parasol and sat down on the machine.
"Yeah. Granted, it's not enough." Deveron gripped his hands, walking off the staging panel.
"It's plenty compared to some I've seen. But, alas. Such is the entangled fate of singularity." Pearl closed her eyes and began to rest. She always seemed tired after a match was one thing Alexia noticed at this point. A possibility of a downside to be keeping in mind.
Reynolds walked back into the room with a smile on his face. He looked around, noticing Roy was on the floor resting and exhausted. It seemed he had fought Pearl, and it ended just as fast as Heidi's.
"So what's the score?" Reynolds looked to Pearl. She merely opened up one of her eyes as it glimmered, piercing her gaze towards him.
"The girl. 0-1" She pointed towards Heidi.
"The boy. 0-1" Her finger shifted towards Roy, then lastly towards Deveron.
"1-2. He kept asking for a redo, only winning the recent one. Overall, I can only say that your team is nice, Rey." Pearl closed her eyes again, proceeding to think more on the topic at hand before mustering up her energy to speak again.
"But, they have a long way to go. If these were the individuals you're signing up for, I'd say they'd do fine state-wise. But, when nationals come, it's a flunk. They all lack cohesion and tension, beset the room even now. Some are unsure of where they stand, while another stomps ahead, brushing past the crowd in front of them." Pearl stood up and walked down from the staging panel.
"You don't have to be that on point about it." Deveron didn't like what she said clearly, but her words spoke the truth. She had, at this point, evaluated half of the team with only two remaining, but she didn't feel eager to see what the other two could do. Perhaps this was just from her own experience as a professional and could tell from a glance winners and failures, especially in this day and age, that was the case. Often, singularity users could be picked out at a glance based merely on their control and abilities. Be it for government purposes or research. It wasn't uncommon for kids age 3-10. This is the time frame in which singularity develops to be taken for study to find a cure for a disease or enhance the average human body. Singularity users rarely caught colds, so such a thing can be deemed necessary.
"Well.. if that is all. I shall be taking my leave. Come along, Milton." Milton merely nodded, following behind Pearl, who was leaving.
"Wait! What about our fight?" Alexia stood there behind Reynolds, looking to Pearl for an answer.
"Another time. For now, I've done what I had to do. I do apologize." Pearl merely left with Milton out of the room then down the hall to exit the academy.
Deveron merely chuckled to himself in the corner at Pearl, refusing a fight. Heidi tried to pull Roy up from the ground struggling a bit due to his weight. While Reynolds merely ran his hands through his hair, observing the situation before speaking up.
"Don't think too bad of her, Alexia. She's like that sometimes." Reynolds then began to think for a brief moment. "Well… The majority of the pros are like that." The simple thought merely ran through his head.
Alexia was disgruntled, to say the least; she felt a bit folly for even asking for a chance to take on a pro. But, just as quickly as the feeling came, it went away. This was a bit of motivation for her.
"Yeah, it's fine. I'll have to show her my skills when the tournament arrives. With my power Stardust Radiance!" A smirk drew onto Alexia's face. She was quite determined now.
Roy chuckled in the background at the name of her singularity. "You know. It's a bit odd now that you say it."
Alexia seemed embarrassed by the fact her cheeks were red at the expense of the name. The name made sense the more she used her abilities.
"We're the ones that gave it to her," Heidi informed.
"Hehe, Yeah~!"
"Well! Now that you have gotten a taste of a pro…Or most of you. We're going to continue our training, but in July I'll be contacting you all for something special. But that'll be a bit. For now, let's continue to improve all of you to show the state what we're made of." Reynolds was confident in his words. He knew his team could do it, but the road to nationals was going to be rough. Despite being one of the lesser expressed states, Idaho did crank out a variety of solid fighters that could compete nationally. Only time could tell before their next challenge.
