Control and Stumble

Walter sat outside of the toilets in the hallways, resting himself on a metal bench. His feet were constantly wiggling and knee was bumping up and down as his mind whirred with nervousness.

He had seen the past two people display their links on the monitor, and it was terrifying. Both Ajax and Aaliyah were clearly powerful. Although there was no sound on the outside of the training room, a privacy measure maybe, he could tell that there was some conflict between Willem and the trainees.

Walter was worried about this all going wrong and him messing up and being kicked off the team. Willem was so overpowering even in comparison to the towering Ajax, the sight of the short man destroying the sturdy dummy replayed in Walter's mind on repeat.

"You okay there, man?" A deep voice rung out as Ajax casually walked out of the toilets, rubbing his hands on the sides of his shorts, dripping with water.

"Oh, uh, yeah! Just nervous, y'know?" Walter stammered out, trying to put on a brave face in front of the charismatic man. Ajax nodded sagely.

"I'm kind of glad that I got called up first, to be honest. Then I don't get to see everyone else and overthink things." Walter scratched at his chin, being caught out in his thoughts.

"Yeah, I mean, I don't really know how I could follow up on what you did, Ajax." Ajax just shrugged in response; disregard written on his face.

"Nah, I didn't do anything special. I think I just gave Coach Willem what he wanted to know. I don't think that this really is a pass or fail thing, just do your best and you'll be fine." Ajax smiled at the nervous Walter, walking over and patting him warmly on the shoulder.

"Come on, we need to get back anyways." Walter hurried after the big man, cutting a swath through the few groups of people that were in the hallway, always in groups of four or five. The big man was easily the tallest of those that Walter had seen in the Underground. It seemed that averages applied to Linked as well as non-Linked.

The two boys managed to make it back to the training area without much hassle. Upon arriving they were greeted with Mirah and Aaliyah both standing apart from each other, not looking at, let alone talk each other. Walter had been worried about those two. Mirah had been exceptionally cold to Aaliyah when they first met at the cafeteria table and he felt that he needed the rectify the dynamic there somehow, but he had no idea how to even begin with that.

Walter and Ajax walked forwards, and Willem appeared from one of the corners of the training room.

"Alright, Mirah or Walter." There was a pause, but Walter decided that he needed to bite the bullet and stepped forwards toward Willem.

"Good man." Willem turned and walked into the area and quickly called for training to commence. Walter's nerves skyrocketed as he entered the area and the metal walls closed down around him, leaving him with only Willem, staring at him.

"So, elemental control, huh?" Willem asked, a genuine intrigue on his face.

"Uh, yeah. I just kind of make and control them, I guess."

"In a magic sort of way?" Walter hesitated, but nodded, knowing the subtext that a link being called 'magic' inferred. Willem thought about it for a while and then shrugged, seemingly reaching a conclusion in his mind.

"Well then, just show off what you've got."

Walter nodded and began to focus in on himself, deep inside where his link lived. He had only used it a few times, sparingly trying it in a previous examination and when he had been drunk once. But doing it under the watchful eye of Willem made Walter incredibly nervous.

He stretched out his hand, palm up and leaned his body away from the outstretched hand. Willem rose an eyebrow at him, but Walter didn't notice the gesture.

Walter took a deep breath in, and then slowly let it out, the air leaving his lungs pushed away some of the nervousness just long enough for Walter to connect.

It was like plunging yourself into a power socket, electricity coursing through your flesh, and suddenly power radiated from Walter. The skin near his hands glowed, like light warmly shining through flesh. In but a single moment, there was a sputter of sparks spewing from his hand, and then the flame was born.

It grew, becoming a spire of flame burning directly from his hand, the heat was intense, the fire burning hot, making Willem take a few steps back in self-preservation from the flame.

This fire had been the most he'd ever summoned, the spire of flame burning on his hand would be able to melt through steel, heating it till molten. It went on for seconds, and then minutes. Walter was frozen in fear, too terrified to move, lest he hurt someone or himself. Though, oddly he didn't feel that much heat from the flame, it was like holding something a little warm, and maybe a little uncomfortable to the touch, like a freshly made cup of tea.

Out of nowhere there was a massive booming sound that vibrated Walter's eardrums so severely that he swore they would burst. Immediately forcing him to dissipate the flame, and making him raise his palms to his ears, scrunching his face in pain.

"A good amount of power you can sustain there. But not so great control." Willem's voice boomed throughout the sudden silence of the training room. The voice of the small man was surprisingly deep and resonant when he was loud, rather than his relatively quiet voice.

"Ah, that hurt! Did you… clap?" Walter asked, fighting through the residual pain in his eardrums, looking to the small man now standing much farther away from Walter than he was previously.

"Indeed I did," he said quickly, "but what is really interesting here, is just what the limits of your link might be. It seems you have more raw power than Ajax or Aaliyah, for sure. Question is, where is it coming from?" Willem lifted an inquisitive eyebrow. Walter just shrugged.

"I don't know, really. I can just use them. The elements, I mean."

"'The elements' is a wide plethora of things, kid. Are you talking about the periodic table of elements? 'Cause then I dunno how you just summoned fire out of nowhere." Walter spluttered as he tried to answer, but he saw the teasing look on Willem's face and just sighed.

"I think its based off of the legendary or mythically important elements. Fire, water, wind, earth. I can do fire and water at the moment, but I haven't figured out the other two yet." Willem tapped his foot against the concrete in thought.

"How do you know that the other ones are earth and air then?"

"Well, uh, Awakening dream." Willem took it in stride, obviously believing Walter with just those words.

"That'd be an interesting Awakening dream. Though, I guess I can relate to meeting the avatar of something." Willem smiled as Walter's interest was piqued.

"Uh, who, if you don't mind me asking?" Willem shook his head. His grin widened as he gave Walter a wink for his troubles, leaving him wondering just what Willem's link even was.

"Either way, give water a go, if you would." Walter shrugged, and just upturned his hand and his hand began to turn ever so slightly blue, water simply leaking out of the hand itself, creating a rapidly increasing puddle on the ground. Willem looked at it and nodded.

"Able to do anything else with it?" Walter just shook his head.

"Alrighty then, that was an excellent showing. You clearly have access to a large amount of power, and if what you said is true in the sense that I think it is, it'll mean your powerset may be extremely versatile in how to attack an enemy. However, it will simply all come down to you practicing, a lot." Walter nodded, feeling pretty chuffed about that analysis. Actually no, he wasn't just chuffed. He was excited. His link was finally being recognised for something more than just handwavy magic that so many Linked seemed to despise, that he had been ridiculed for and trodden on. Here, Willem was simply telling him that all he needed to do was practice.

Practice was something that he could do.

Willem called the end of the training session, and the two of them walked out, the walls closing behind them. Walter was faced with two surprised gazes and one interested look. Ajax and Aaliyah looked at Walter with an entirely new frame of mind.

"Holy shit, Walter. That was fucking amazing." Ajax said in genuine shock, "Why were you even anxious about that!" Ajax laughed to himself, the absurdity of the timid man producing a massive pillar of flame from his hand at least as tall as Ajax, was almost comical in how dichotomous it was.

Aaliyah was surprised in a similar way, baffled by how the boy she had thought so harmless had contained in him such an obvious amount of power that it made her jealous. Green spots appeared on the girl's skin in a very light spattering before she actively pushed the jealously down, but she felt the eyes of Mirah look at her. She resorted to putting on a pleasant smile and congratulating Walter. He blushed ever so slightly, letting himself bathe in the surprised gazes for a while, before nervously pulling back to his shell.

"And then there was one." Willem called out, jerking his head in the direction of the opening walls. Mirah nodded and simply walked right into the training room, looking around at the undamaged interior. It must be a mechanical marvel to be able to repair itself so completely. She was sure there were limits to it, but that was how it was.

The walls hit the floor, and a locking mechanism held them in place. Willem stood in from of her, looking up towards her face with a thoughtful expression.

"So then, what can you do?"

"Move things." She answered plainly. He nodded.

"Telekinesis?"

"Maybe." She shrugged, responding dourly

"Hit me with it." Mirah simply closed her eyes and waited. Mirah had never truly used her link, but it was intrusive. Mirah knew next to nothing about Linked but she had known from the moment she received her link that it was not of the usual sort, that it was extremely different and possibly entirely unique.

She let her mind delve deep into that space, where she somehow subconsciously saw everything, where little whispers rushed past her ears, a maelstrom of voices that all argued with one another. Every time Mirah had delved this space in her mind, she was left with having to sort through what they were telling her. Minutes passed and Mirah could find nothing, voice after voice slowly going silent. She could do nothing but wait.

"What are you doing?" Willem asked softly, interested. A spatter of new voices appeared, but quickly died away as stillness consumed the room once again.

Then a voice spoke to her, louder and clearer than the garbled mess of the other voices. There was a short scuffing of the shoe and Mirah grabbed and pulled against this thing within her mind, pulling on every iota of mental power she had, straining against this strange force, and then she heard a thump, the sound of Willem falling to the floor.

Her eyes snapped open to see the short man lying on his back on the concrete, slightly confused. He sat back up and looked at Mirah, amusement growing on her face.

"You did that, yes?" She just nodded in response. His face went through a series of emotions and thoughts. It started with befuddlement and ended with a resigned amusement and slight awe, chuckling to himself all the while.

"I have no idea how to even classify that. It felt like nothing more than me placing my foot wrong, but I haven't placed my foot wrong in years." To prove his point he, more nimbly than a man of his proportions should be capable, stood back up and looked deeply at Mirah, who was suddenly becoming more uncomfortable with the idea that he may hold a grudge over this.

"Before we can collaborate on how to train your link, we need to figure out what it is first. All I can think of is a strange form of telekinesis." He ran a hand over his balding head, scrunching his face in determined thought, trying to dredge up something from his whirring mind. After seconds of thought, he had nothing and just sighed.

"Either way, whatever it was that you did was done excellently. I haven't been knocked down by students who possess links that borderline hard counter mine, ever. It's a new one for both of us." Willem let out a great peal of laughter, almost mocking himself, and promptly ending the training session and walking out of the training room. Mirah following closely behind and when they reached the outside, the entire group was looking at her with a confused gaze. They had just as little an idea of what happened in there, as Willem knew what happened to himself. Willem ignored the strange looks and soldiered on.

"Alrighty then. You all know how you did in that little test of mine. We will begin with more physical training tomorrow and then we will work more individually with your links after that, like today. I expect you all to put a fair amount of thought into the usage of your links." He looked around the group, each face coloured with a various shade of resolve, and nodded in satisfaction.

"Back to your rooms for the day, group, and rest well."