1 Chapter 1: Warm-ups

We were headed to summer camp, that still means headquarters, right?. I was still worried that people would be speculating the existence of monsters, in our case mutants, we did a bad job of maintaining the situation undercover.

I turned to Emma who leaned on the window.

"What's going on with you?"

"Sith's dead. I wonder how Wade will take it"

I sighed, indeed it was a big loss but we had our normal hormone-filled lives and families to go home to. Sith's death wasn't futile.

"Hey, Darcy!" I looked around for who called me and the group of trainees cheered.

"Gotta love some hero worship" Emma tapped my shoulder. I grimaced touching my headset when the driver veered around.

"Shut your holes!" She screamed, the others cringed at her loud order, she had the microphone on, I guess I wasn't the only one with pulsing eardrums.

Emma took off her headset frantically, touching her chest.

"Where do you think this is, Metropolis? Jesus"

There was quiet all around and the bus hissed to a stop, the windows cleared and we were at an abandoned gas station.

"It's always like this" Emma confessed.

They went out one by one and we stood outside under the heat, complaints arose when the driver crouched to check the compartment.

"The bus broke down didn't it?" Someone asked, she got off her one knee and her eyes scraped over the acne filled, oily, pasty faces in front of her

"It's not broken, you're going for a jog"

Everyone protested.

"Don't worry, it's only a warmup" She smiled sweetly at us.

I puffed air, fretting, my shirt clung to me, this time I wished I had my running shoes. Emma caught up to me, we were behind the group in two straight lines and this 'warmup' had been going on for hours.

The driver rolled slowly in the bus beside us on the road.

"I wanna see those knees up, I know you haven't been doing your lunges while you were at home with mom and dad"

"Remind me again why I joined the academy?" A boy said upfront and the rest snickered.

"Please stop" A girl with low-cut hair whined and dropped on the sand, the road had long disappeared into this sandy beachfront.

"As you wish" Her eyes crinkled and we halted dropping on the sand.

The waves swept over the sand a few yards from us.

"Is this boot camp or what?" She clambered out in her brown camouflage uniform stepping down from the bus.

"Why'd you bring us here?"

"Long story short, we're one day above schedule" She announced ensuing more complaints.

"Don't talk too much, I'm angry as well and Commander Wayne wants you to be here to bask in the time you have left"

My eyes rounded "He's back?"

She nodded "That's right Penumbra. I'm Dimpsy by the way"

Putting on her sunglasses, we couldn't believe our eyes at the sudden change in her attitude.

"Now that you're done sunbathing, let's loosen up the tension with some yoga"

"Oh God"

Blood rushed into my face as we did handstands.

"They're just making us do what we hate" I mumbled with wobbly hands.

Emma did pushups with her hands and grunted "Yup"

"I wouldn't do that if I were you"

"Oh please, I've been in the academy for years, no harm done_woah!"

She walked on her hands to steady herself and her legs fell forward to hit another trainee in front of her, having the domino effect on others.

Dimpsy folded her arms "Pathetic. Lesson number one. Don't get cocky unless you're on the field. Back to your positions"

...

The fire crackled sending sparks into the night sky, the ocean was perturbed by the wind, most had fallen asleep from the exercise but no one was to return to the bus for anything, not even blankets because it got cold at this time of night especially at the coast.

Dimpsy marched through the sleepy bodies and kicked sand into the fire, it went out instantly.

"What the hell?"

"We're gonna freeze over"

"Look, Dipsy or whatever you call yourself, all you've been doing is trying to make this day a living nightmare" The low-cut girl blurted out, frenzied.

"Yeah, lay off us"

"We're trying to get some sleep!"

They were protesting, she marched to the low-cut girl who flinched at her intimidating stair.

"Oh, I'm sorry, am I being a bully?"

"Uh_if you put it that way_"

"Am I bitch?!" Dimpsy yelled, spit came flying from her mouth to her face. The low-cut girl wiped her cheek.

"Yes"

Simply brushed off her spit from the girl's cheek.

"Well then, if you peevish know it all's manage to create a spark then you can sleep without me being a pain"

"In the bus" Emma said drily and she nodded.

"No drills"

"We'll see" She sniggered. "No lighters, no matches, just sticks and stones"

She added going to lean on the bus, arms folded.

They crouched around the pile with smoke going up, they brushed the pile of sand off of the shafts.

Emma nudged me "Hey, use your magic to light the fire"

I scoffed when the rest agreed pressuring me to do it.

"It's not magic_"

PLEASE!!!

"Fine, cover me" I whispered and a few blocked Dimpsy's view, she was munching on a buritto.

My hands glowed as I focused my energy on the stack without trying to hurt anyone within my radar. It sparked and faces turned at the purple fire.

"It's...purple" Emma said flatly.

My eyes lit up when it transitioned to ordinary flames.

They cheered attracting Dimpsy's interest, she went over and sighed

"Nothing here to examine. Good job, I bet it was a team effort. Get to your bunks before I change my mind"

Someone bumped me "Well done, hero" he drawled.

I paused while the others went in, Emma marched up the steps

"Anything to get us outta that slum"

Lying back on the seat that had been reclined to a bunk.

***