《Somewhere Between Half a Dream》


 1 Memory One: The boy, the center, and metal.

    || Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author''s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental. ||


    It was training day at the Extraordinary School For Intellectuals, otherwise known as ESFI for short. Spike Firon and his team were in the training room located in a training center on the farther side of the school. Spike, is a twelve year old caucasian boy, he has short black messy hair, a average body build, and stands at around five foot one. His other two blue and red haired teammates with him were a few years older and thus taller, but were of a fairly more muscular build since they had trained for a little longer than him. Spike, like the others, was wearing the standard black and blue bodysuit/school uniform that he and the other students were always required to wear during ESFI training sessions.


    The training room they were in was a large (100 meters in diameter) round completely metal room in the shape of a circle, it was plain and open to start, but could be manipulated by a professor using the control panels in the control center up top to simulate any kind of terrain. Just like himself, each of Spike''s three teammates had their own powers. Spike has the power to manipulate earth and can even manipulate metal to a degree. His teammates who were there with him could manipulate fire and air respectively at extreme levels, thus they were put on a special team with Spike along with one other person who was running late.


    "You know D------, you think E--- would know not to run late on training days." Spike said in a half worried tone with his arms crossed and foot tapping furiously. "Well yah would think she would bu-" D---- mentioned putting a hand on his shoulder casually but was cut off swiftly by A------ "We may as well jump in without her before the professor ends this quick." A------ said in a hard but matter of fact tone towards Spike. Although, like them, another team had entered the training room around the same time and had already started the training that they were supposed to be doing as well.


    Jacob "Jake" Nichols is a four foot eight, twelve year old boy with a more milk chocolate skin tone, who has black hair with blonde highlights that was styled so it stuck up in the front and a muscular body build, he had the power over fire. Leona Wright, a four foot seven, twelve year old girl who has long blue hair that goes down to the middle of her back, and a rather slender body build that complimented her rather pale skin tone. She had the power over water. Lastly came Lily Nyphadora. A four foot seven, twelve year old girl who has short shoulder length brown hair and a fairly average body build with a slightly tan skin tone. She had the power over air. The three of them were Team M (for Maverick). Their exercise for today, like Spike and his teams, was to last through endless waves of attacking robots.


    Jacob moved ferociously through the robot attackers, burning them with quick punches and kicks that sent out flames from his limbs. Leona mostly stayed back since she could utilize a special property of her water powers to heal the others, though with the strain it put on her body it wasn''t always the best to use thus she played a more supportive role with ranged water attacks. Lily was more like Jacob, although using wind instead of fire, but she stayed back to fight with Leona so that she had back up. As they fought through robot attackers the room changed drastically, pillars formed from the floor and the terrain shifted quite a bit. Though as Spike watched from his position, a metal pillar that had risen from the floor to make the terrain difficult suddenly broke and began to fall, and it was on a course that would squish the girls of the team.


    "Hey! Lily! Leona!" Spike yelled out from where he was but Lily didn''t register it and neither did Leona. Both of them kept fighting unaware of the danger that they were in. Spike sighed as he rushed forward ignoring his teammates who were standing there and quickly made a path through the robot attackers by bringing up metal walls to block them from attacking him as he ran. The walls seemingly flipped upward from the floor pushing and knocking training bots out of his way. "Spike wait!" D------ and A----- shouted in unison as they moved after Spike. Spike ran as fast as he could while seemingly ignoring his teammates shouts, and in one smooth diving motion, pushed both Lily and Leona out of the way of the falling pillar.


    Both girls landed safely on the other side but Spike was nowhere to be seen. The training program was force stopped and professor Flynn who was overseeing the exercise came out to see what happened. "Spike!" his team shouted as they rushed towards the pillar concerned for their teammate and beloved friend. At that point E---- had entered the room and rushed in with her team even managing to pass them due to her worry as well as physical ability. As all the students neared the pillar it started to lift off the ground, and as it lifted they saw a small metal ball that seemed somehow transparent, inside of it was Spike seemingly untouched.


    "Don''t go near it just yet, let me check it out first." Professor Flynn told the students as he jumped down making his exit from the control room and braving to go near the sphere himself. Flynn happened to be the training instructor when it came to physical exercises, even though his outward appearance would say otherwise. He was rather scrawny in build, always had his green hair in a mess, and generally looked nerdy as well as unreliable since he always hid behind his dark framed glasses. Though he normally looked calm and collected, Flynn was visibly nervous as he approached the sphere. Flynn approached slowly but as soon as he went one foot closer to it, large metal spikes quickly spread out from the bottom of the sphere and quickly began to cover the room. "Everyone grab onto me quickly!" Professor Flynn shouted as all the students quickly obeyed, grabbing onto him as well as each other. Within a moment the Professor teleported them out of the room, leaving Spike in what would soon become the old training center.


    That very training center was never opened again, no one was allowed in even though many tried over some years. As for the people who tried, their memory seemed to make them forget why they were going there. As time moved forward Spike slept there untouched, and there he lays till he is reunited with the one thing he is currently missing.

 2 Another Side One: Three years and a new team later

    Lily was walking down the pathway towards the new training building, she was wearing her favorite vacation clothes which consisted of a blue tank top and white short shorts with a hibiscus design on them. She especially liked wearing them on nice days like today, it was currently sunny outside. It had been three years since the training incident, but she didn''t remember a thing that happened back then. She was now fifteen years old and had grown to be five foot tall already, but that didn''t matter much since she was the same height as Leona, although Leona had a bigger chest than she did as well as even longer hair that was blue instead of brown like Lily''s. Lily still kept her hair short and she didn''t grow in other areas like her friend but she didn''t care too much. Her friend Jacob however had grown to five foot five and had even developed more muscles, but he still kept the same hairstyle. The three of them had been inseparable since a young age. They all were from around the same neighborhood in Tenboro, a smaller city about 100 miles inland from Matin Town. They mostly spent their days together outside of school till they were scouted and came here to ESFI.


    "I hope they''re not late again." Lily thought out loud while she walked, she always loved hanging out with her teammates. Although she always tried to remember why her friends were always seemingly sad on training day. As Lily passed the old training building she decided to look into the old training room they used to all practice in. All the other students said the teachers locked it to prevent a large disaster but those were just rumors. Lily of course easily managed to open the front door to the center by cutting the lock with a swift yet powerful gust of air. She then walked down the hallway to the old training room, careful to look out for any traps. She had a tough time opening the large metal door to the room, but when she finally got it open she heard the sound of footsteps coming towards her.


    "Yah know you shouldn''t be here miss Lily. This is a restricted area." Professor Damian told her as he approached and Lily stood in front of the half open doorway. Professor Damian Jackson, the youngest and one of newest professors at ESFI, was a tall slender 18 year old man with long spiky red hair who wore a long white lab coat with a black shirt and jeans underneath that all the professors were required to wear. "I know I shouldn''t be here, but you can''t help a girl for being curious." Lily told him in a simple yet sweet matter-of-fact tone that she liked to use with teachers, especially him since he seemed the type who flirts with girls more than anything. Damian of course just sighed and ran a hand through his spiky red hair. "You''ve always been a curious one Lily, but I''m afraid you''ll need to be leaving now.... Although, I''ll be generous and let you take one look into the room.. It''s not like he can be saved yet anyway." Damian told her while saying the last bit under his breath as he motioned for her to take her look.


    Lily of course complied and opened the door, but when she did her eyes couldn''t believe it. The room was covered in thousands of fine pointed metal spikes and in the middle was a small silver sphere seemingly made of a type of clear metal. Lily really wanted to go inside and find out what was in the orb, but Damian placed a firm hand on her shoulder and proceeded to walk her out of the complex. "Wait, was someone in there Damian?" Lily asked as she sighed inwardly while thinking about what the school could be hiding from them all. Although before she could get an answer about it she heard "LILY!". It was Jacob''s voice calling her off in the distance, so she began to run for their secret meeting place leaving the professor behind.


    "Hmph, those guys.. They always were curious about their surroundings." Damian thought aloud in a somewhat sad tone as he looked back to the door of the building that was left ajar in its cut state. He knew what was in the room, and he knew the principal of the school wanted to keep it secret from the other students as long as possible so that panic wouldn''t break out. "Well you can''t blame them for being curious, Damian. You know better than I do what''s in there, anyone would be curious. Though we can''t let just anyone in there, not till we get HIM out." Damian would turn to the voice he heard behind him. "That is true, Artemus." Damian would say blandly to the cyan haired professor of the same age standing behind him. The two had just recently become professors around the same time, Artemus was first to get the job with Damian getting it second. Although who got it first didn''t matter to the two, they had their own reasons for being here.

 3 Memory Two: A New Teammate and Training.

    Now several weeks had passed since the day Lily tried to enter the old training center. Lily, Leona, and Jacob had gotten a new team mate named Will Falchion. Will had actually shown up at the school the day after Lily tried to get into the old training center. Little was known about the boy. Though Felixi Tempus, the principal of the school, had deemed him worthy to be trained after Will had demonstrated his ability to control objects around him via telekinesis. Will is a fifteen year old boy with short blond messy hair, a average body build and skin tone that matched Lily''s, he even stood at around five foot five like Jacob. He would of course be their new addition to the team as the previous team he would have gone to got disbanded for unknown reasons.


    On Tuesday it was afternoon training day, and as usual Lily walked down a stone pathway towards the training building to meet up with her team. Will was already there waiting, while Leona and Jacob were coming down an alternate pathway. "Geez, you guys are late!" Will shouted and heard some laughs for a reply. "Ha ha, very funny Will. But as i recall you''re usually the one who''s late all the time." Lily said as she punched him lightly in the arm and they all walked into the familiar training center.


    The object of today''s training was to get a small glass apple off of a pedestal in the middle of the room. Each team mate was told the rules, after they changed into their team uniform in the locker rooms, which were simply to get the apple at all costs while working as a team. "Well this should be easy!" Jacob shouted as he started to walk out towards the apple. A large pillar came crashing down in front of him from the ceiling. Jacob jumped and stumbled backwards avoiding the pillar before he was squished. "Or it won''t be as easy as you think." Lily said sticking her tongue out at Jacob as Will and Leona tried to hide their laughter.


    "O.k, Will head over to that corner of the room, Leona head over to the corner opposite of Will''s, and Jacob.... just stay where you are and try not to get squashed." Lily commanded using simple hand gestures to point out corner assignments before she made her way over to a corner like the others. Lily was like their unofficial team leader, she hadn''t lead them wrong at all since they became a team. When he was finally in his assigned spot Will whistled a high pitch note, which signaled for them to start making for the apple, then ran forward dodging pillars while using his power to jam the pillars that came down towards the others from the walls and ceiling. Leona of course had been surrounded by pillars from the floor before she could move, and Jacob was stuck between two of them that were trying to squish him.


    "Go! I''ll keep them up, just grab the apple!" Will shouted standing in place and focusing on keeping the pillars that were moving to squash Jacob and Leona still. Lily being the only free person ran out from her corner jumping through closing pillars and hurdling over small obstacles using what kids referred to as parkour to do so. She never skipped a beat while moving and kept a good pace till two walls came up around her and moved in to squish her between them. Only then did Lily jam her hands behind her and force out a gust of wind that launched her into the air, barely squeezing herself out from between the walls as they came together. She quickly gathered wind under her feet as she touched the ground and made a quick leap for the apple grabbing it just in time and holding it high for the others to see.


    "I gots it!" Lily shouted happily as the pillars and walls from the ceiling/floor receded and Will stopped holding them in place. The simulation stopped once the apple was stolen and a voice could be heard over the loudspeakers. "Great work team Maverick. Now you may leave, have a great summer break!" Professor Flynn up in the control room said as Lily and her teammates left the room going into the locker rooms before back to their dorms. Will and Lily walked together while Leona and Jacob walked behind them as they exited the training center. "You simply got lucky, that''s all." Jacob told Lily as they walked. "Luck had nothing to do with it, Will stopped the pillars from crushing us so that she could move across and get it. All i saw you do is almost get squashed." Leona commented and Jacob shut up immediately, embarrassed by his stupid actions. "Oh, don''t be so hard on him Leona. He didn''t know the pillars would come down at him, none of us did." Will told her using his modesty to win her over and get her to stop bashing on Jacob. "Well whether it was luck or not, you saved their hides out there, good work Will." Lily added as Leona and her turned off towards the girls dorms waving goodbye to the boys. "Good night!" they all shouted to each other in unison as they parted ways and left back to their respective dorm rooms for the evening.

 4 Memory Three: Strange dreams, Friends, and Summer.

    Will laid in his room asleep. His dreams were weird as usual, tonight''s dream was about him and his team mates in a smaller training room unlike the one he was used to. Except Lily kept calling him "-----", a name he didn''t even know as her voice had cut out, as if she had forgotten his name or something. What happened next gave him quite a shock and would soon wake him up. He was running towards Lily and Leona as a pillar came down almost on top of them, the next part of the dream was a blur of shouting voices he didn''t recognize. Will jolted awake sitting straight up sweating as if he had just finished running a marathon. "OK, that''s it, no more mango''s before bed." Will sighed then moved to change out of his simple grey shorts and white tank top he wore as pajamas to bed into some normal grey cargo shorts and a black t-shirt that had a white Fleur De Lis design on it. He then headed out the door to meet with his friends.


    At the same time elsewhere Lily sighed as she walked down a broken brick pathway. She was heading towards an old building that was closed down some years ago after it had caught fire due to a professor smoking behind it on his break, and leaving the cigarette in a seemingly empty trash can. Well the trashcan wasn''t empty they had found out later and the building had burned up but didn''t collapse. Now it wasn''t being used but was an excellent place for students to hide in. As Lily entered a hidden door, really a gap where some panels were missing in the side of one wall, she found; Jacob,Leona, and Will already there. Lily smiled as she sat down on a worn out couch right next to Will, the old cushions actually provided a nice softness as her body relaxed on top of it. "So, what are we going to do today?" She asked as she felt right in place next to her good friend while looking at the other two, she was bored and could tell they all were as well.


    "I seriously have no clue. what about you Will?" Jacob asked since he also couldn''t think of anything to do. "We could go to the beach today." Will suggested with a grin towards Lily. "Yeah! the beach sounds fun. I haven''t had time to get a tan in so long." Leona said with a bright smile while she stretched her arms out. They all got up and left the old building stopping by at the dorms to throw swimsuits on underneath their clothing before they made their way towards a local train station that would take them to the beach. The girls of course took a while to get ready so the boys met up at the station first and waited for them. While they waited Will and Jacob sparred with each other, though their one rule was to not use powers as it kept them more physically fit. Each one had a different fighting style which made it a bit one sided as Jacob attacked more while Will defended his blows. After a little while of sparring where the boys started to break a sweat, the girls showed up and they all walked over to get tickets. "Well is everyone ready?" Will asked as they paid for tickets at a kiosk then got on the train. "Yeah!" they all said in unison pumping their fists in the air with joy as they entered the packed train finding seats while it slowly started to pull away from the station.


    As they arrived at the beach Will felt odd, but he couldn''t quite put his finger on it. Lily and Jacob had already ran down from the train stop into the water, and Leona was setting up a spot on the beach to tan. Will decided to stay on shore to relax with Leona since he wasn''t feeling like getting wet for some reason. "You doing okay Will?" Leona asked as Will had finished helping her set up an umbrella for those who didn''t want to burn in the sun. "Yeah, just don''t feel like getting in the water right now." Will told her as he sat down in the sand next to Leona who was just sitting down on her lounge chair. "Oh okay" Leona said in response as she pulled out a reflective screen so she could tan. Will and her just sat there watching Lily and Jacob splash each other in the sea.


    After a little while Lily came up from the beach and dragged Will into the water by the wrist to help her combat Jacob. Will reluctantly went with and a larger water fight ensued as Will could pull up sand walls to defend against Jacobs splashes. After a few minutes Leona joined in and started launching large waves/funnels of water at her friends. Will, Lily, and Jacob joined up together to try and defeat her, but alas they were defeated by Leona''s supreme control over water after a few large waves went their way. They all laughed and floated in the sea for a little while before getting out and drying on the beach. By the time they were dry the sun had started to set.


    "You know why the sun sets red?" Jacob asked them while they watched the sun go down while sitting on a beach wall. "Not really, why is that?" Will asked Jacob curiously as Leona handed them all cold soda to drink. "Well of all the colors the sun is made up of, red is the one that travels the farthest." Lily explained finishing the fact for Jacob who looked at her as if she crushed his hopes and dreams. Will looked on towards the sunset with his mind only full of one question, why do I feel like I''ve seen this before? They all sat there and watched the gorgeous red sun for a little while finishing their drinks. Just before the sun set though they packed up their beach gear and all boarded the last train heading back to the school grounds tired from their first day of vacation. After saying their goodbyes on the school ground paths they all left back to their respective dorm rooms to sleep.

 5 Memory Four: More Dreams, And A Day in Town

    Will was having another weird dream. This time he was trapped in a small silver ball just laying there sleeping as if life didn''t exist and time never passed. Will felt another presence just then."Who are you?" Will asked the presence. "Me? I''m -----, wait who are you?" Will had been asked in return by an unfamiliar voice. "Ah, are you the one from--" Before he could go on Will woke up after his alarm went off making an annoying beeping sound. "Well that''s great, stupid alarm I almost got my question answered." Will mumbled as he got up and smacked the alarm so it shut off. He got dressed quickly in his usual clothes knowing he was running a bit late in meeting everyone today. He quickly left his dorm room with a piece of toast hanging out of his mouth heading for their "usual spot" hidden in the burned down building.


    Meanwhile, Lily woke up with a rather startled expression. She kept having horrible dreams about an incident in the old training room, which only made her more curious about it. Tonight''s dream was of a boy, whose face she couldn''t see, pushing her and Leona out of the way of a pillar. It then quickly cut to metal spikes enveloping the training room like she saw when she tried to get in there several weeks ago. "Man... maybe i should stop eating rice crackers before bed..." Lily mumbled with a small laugh as she got dressed then left her dorm room as if the dream never happened, she made out for the usual spot to meet her friends. "Wonder what''s gonna be planned for today. Hopefully something to take my mind off things." Lily mumbled to herself as she entered the hideout, with Will coming in right after her.


    As Will and Lily entered, Jacob was talking with Leona trying to figure out what to do today. "But Leona, why not?" Jacob asked Leona with a puzzled look on his face. "Because we went to the beach yesterday!" Leona explained while Will and Lily took seats on a couch opposite to them. "Well since we went to the beach yesterday, then why don''t we all go into Matin Town today?" Lily asked feeling as if they all might hate her for suggesting it since Matin Town was mainly a place to shop. It was a quaint town on the coast that was known for its old brick streets, brick buildings, and trolleys. But more well known as being a town of the rising sun, or "morning-town". "Sure, why not." Will replied for Leona and Jacob as they got up to leave the room.


    Lily walked with Will down the pathway to the train station while Leona and Jacob lingered behind. "I always wonder why those two always act strange around us." Will thought out loud as he walked with Lily and the others stayed out of earshot too occupied with bickering among themselves. "Well those two have always been strange, even when they were young they were pretty strange." Lily replied giggling to herself as she thought back to when they all used to play together, although Will wasn''t around, there was another set of kids she couldn''t quite remember. When she tried it gave her a slight headache, thus she didn''t think about it too much. "Oh, well they could try and tone it down, but I''m guessing that''s never gonna happen." Will blushed a little as Lily laughed at his comment, feeling stupid to say such a thing about the others out loud.


    The train ride from the station to Matin Town was longer than it is to the beach so the group killed time by talking about what they would do with the rest of summer break. Will in the meantime stared out the train window at the coastline. ESFI felt so far away from everything, of course that was because it was located on a small Island off the coastline of the country Maona. Though the train lines that were built helped with traveling to Matin Town, and from there they could catch other trains that could take them all over the country. At this time Will was thinking of the sun. The sun always looked great in the afternoon and morning to Will, the middle of the day not so much though since it didn''t have a pretty color. "Always sets red huh?" Will mumbled as he watched the town get closer and closer by the minute.


    As soon as the group got to town they left the station and walked down to the main shopping streets. The girls wanted to go shopping, so Jacob and Will were forced to walk around carrying numerous bags of clothes and other things the girls had bought. Although both boys refused to go into a lingerie store, the girls just laughed and went in anyway while the guys got coffee at a small cafe called "Cafe Kofi" across the way. "Gee those girls just don''t know when to quit." Jacob said as he and Will sat at an outside table taking sips of their coffee, basking in the afternoon sun while waiting for the girls to come out of the store. "Yeah, I know right? You''d think they were robots with all the shopping they do, and they make us carry the heavy bags!" Will told Jacob rather enthusiastically as they both began laughing from the thought of the girls being shopping robots.


    The two sat for a while just watching the locals walk by enjoying their time in the good afternoon weather. Will sighed as he looked to the sky wondering what the evening would bring them although he knew it would be mainly sleep by the time they got back. Meanwhile Jacob made a game out of stacking the creamer cups in a pyramid, then when that wasn''t enough he also stacked other things that were sitting on the table on top of the pyramid as well. Will of course helped him with this as it helped pass the time. Although something strange happened when Will placed a salt shaker on the tower they were making. Everything suddenly stopped as if it were frozen.


    Will sat there for a moment before he realized that Jacob wasn''t moving, nor was anyone or anything else. When he looked up the birds above him were even frozen in the air. "What the?" Was all he could say before he noticed some movement in the corner of his eye. When he turned Will was standing face to face with a girl with messy purple hair wearing an over-sized pink/purple striped hoodie just on the other side of the railing next to him. Will noticed that all the other people had disappeared from the walking street when time seemingly stopped. She was much shorter than he was, maybe about 5''1", he had to look slightly down at her to see her face. "Enjoying yourself Will?" the girl asked in a small cute tone with a smile. "Well I was- wait how do you know my name? Have we met before?" Will asked the girl who had a sly grin on her rather adorable face. "Well you and I have never met, but me and HIM met forever ago." She told will in a matter of fact tone. The girl then held her hand up to her chest saying "I wish he would come back soon, I miss him". Will looked at her curiously and took a step backwards. "Are you the one doing this? If so how? Also who are you talking about?" Will asked only his curiosity growing with each time she talked.


    "Wouldn''t you like to know? How about remembering my name first?" She asked him as she walked a step forward and leaned on the railing of the cafe patio that divided it from the main street. "Your name? How am I supposed to know that? we just met." Will asked while picking his brain trying to think if he did in fact meet her before. "Well I''ll give you a hint, it begins with an E." The girl slyly told him before another girl with green hair wearing a black leather jacket and jeans ran up next to her. "Come on we gotta go now! They know we are here!" the green haired girl said to the smaller one in a panic.


    "Oh Shura you ruined it! He was just about to remember!" The girl complained to her friend as the sight of the other girl actually triggered a headache for Will. Will suddenly saw an image of the same girl with a few other people. The smaller girl was holding onto the arm of a guy whose face Will couldn''t see. "Ugh¡­ E-.... Eevi?" Will painfully spit out as his head throbbed. "Huh? so you do have his memory!" Eevi gleefully quipped as Shura tugged her arm in one direction "Come on let''s go! Before we get killed!". "Oh alright. Well bye Will, see ya around." Eevi said with a wink towards Will, she then grabbed Shura''s hand and they quickly swirled out of existence in a pink and purple poof.


    As soon as the girls were gone time seemed to snap back to normal, the people in the streets were there, everything was back.


    "Hey you okay Will?" that question from Jacob shook Will back to reality as he looked down at the table next to him where his friend was staring at him questioningly. "Yeah, Yeah I''m good, just spaced out I guess." Will told him with a nervous laugh. "You didn''t see any of that?" Will asked as he sat down at the table and helped build the tower more. "See what? All i saw was you standing there staring off into the crowd like a loon." Jacob told him as he helped balance the tower. Will decided on not filling Jacob in with the details of what just transpired as he figured Jacob would just think he was crazy. Though he did want to check something "Hey, Have you ever met someone named Shura or Eevi?" he asked "Hmmm¡­ They sound super familiar but I''d have to see them to remember, why?" Jacob replied as he tried to get a sugar cube to sit still on the tower. "Oh. no reason. Just was wondering. Rumors ya know?" Will said as he tried to deflect the stare he got from his friend.


    A couple minutes later the girls finally came out of the lingerie store. Jacob and Will had just finished making quite a large tower of tableware that the girls just laughed and rolled their eyes at, sort of impressed with their antics. The boys of course grabbed all the girls bags and they all slowly walked back to the train station where they would catch one of the last trains back home. By then it was late afternoon so there wasn''t as many students on the train back to campus. Leona was passed out on Lily''s shoulder and Jacob sitting upright asleep next to Will. Lily and Will exchanged a glance and a chuckle. "It''s been fun today, thanks for coming Will." Lily said in a soft tone as she moved some hair from Leona''s face. "Oh, yeah, no problem Lily. It''s been a fun day." Will replied with a slight blush turning his face away. The two sat there in a happy silence for a while as the train neared the school.


    After they got to the Station Will and Lily woke the other two then exited the train with everything. The girls walked ahead of the guys egging them on with the promise of ice-cream tomorrow, giving them encouragement to make it back to school with the loads of heavy bags they had to carry in their hands. When the small group of friends finally got back from Matin Town, Will carried Lily''s bags to her dorm for her and Jacob carried Leona''s bags to her dorm.


    "Thanks Will, you were a big help today." Lily told him as she watched him set the bags down in her room. "Ha, ha, ha, very funny Lily. Good night." Will said as he set the bags down just inside her dorm room door and turned to leave, Lily only waved goodbye as the boy left "You think he would take a hint, He''s too cute sometimes" she mumbled to herself. Will walked over towards the guys dorm rooms taking a small path that lead from the girls dorms to the guys. On his way over Will was thinking of the two girls he had met and passed a dark haired boy who looked to be the same age as him. He was even wearing their school uniform heading towards the girls dorms, it even felt like they bumped into each other but as Will turned around no one was there.


    "Huh? i swear someone was there a minute ago... Do i know him?" Will wondered to himself as he saw Jacob coming down the path after him. Jacob only waved hello and the two boys walked back to their rooms without much of a word since they were tired from lifting the bags for hours. After Will said goodnight to Jacob he entered his room, changed into his pajamas, and flopped down on the bed. He just lay''d in bed thinking about the day and how much fun he had with his friends as well as about the two girls. These thoughts on his conversation with Eevi kept him awake for a little while but he soon fell happily asleep after remembering the great time he had with his friends.

 6 Memory Five: Dreams, extra training, and a weird occurrence.

    Will was having yet another weird dream, but this time he was running down the beach chasing after Eevi with Lily, Leona, Jacob, and three others close behind. It seemed as if they were playing tag, Eevi ran into the water shouting a name and the person in the dream chased after her. As soon as he hit the water it all went to black. Will awoke with a jolt, he didn''t know what to do so he got up, made some toast, and got dressed. Then after eating he headed out to the usual spot.


    When he entered through the secret door he saw Lily, Leona, and Jacob happily sitting there talking. "Hey guys, what''s up for today?" Will asked as he sat down. Lily looked over at him "Well we were thinking of maybe heading in for some extra training today." Lily replied seeing as the others were too slow to respond. "OK, sounds great." Will said as he and Jacob gave one look to each other then burst out the door to race to the new training building like they always did on training days as a friendly competition.


    Lily stayed back with Leona walking after the boys. "So, you still think they are hot-heads?" Leona asked giggling a bit. "Yeah, of course they are. But they are our hot-heads. So we can''t complain too much about ''em." Lily replied as they got closer to the building. When they finally arrived, Will and Jacob were arguing about who won the race. "Boys, BOYS!" Lily shouted getting their attention. "Let''s settle it by coin toss." Lily said as she pulled one out from her pocket then flipped the coin high into the air. "Heads!" Jacob called. Lily caught the coin and looked at it. "Well??" Will and Jacob asked in unison. "Well Will won. Its tails." Lily said surprising them with a grin. "Yes!" Will shouted with a victorious fist pump as he lead them all into the training building, Jacob of course followed them all inside last since he lost the toss.


    "Hello Team M. The object of today''s extra training is to make it to the end of the course and claim the object at the end. Begin whenever you are ready." An automated female voice greeted them all as they entered the training room after changing into their team uniform in the locker rooms. Since the professors were on break as well then they just left the schools resident AI to run the training room. This time the training room set up was way different, a large obstacle course was set up from one end to the other. This course included a simple vertical wall to climb over, a small pond to get across, a rope climb up to a zipline, and a seemingly blank space at the end before a pedestal that held an apple.


    "Alright guys we can do this easily." Jacob told them as he lead the way over to the vertical wall then turned himself around and got into a position where he could help vault the others over the wall. Lily being her normal seemingly fearless self vaulted over first with the boost from jacob, landing softly on the other side by using a gust of air to hover herself down. Leona was after her of course and vaulted perfectly even landing with a roll on the other side. Will came last and landed on top of the wall purposefully. He then proceeded to hold his hand out for Jacob to grab which the other male did after a quick sprint and run up the wall. He clasped onto Wills hand allowing Will to pull him up and over the wall with him, both landed safely on the other side.


    Next came the small pool of water. The other end of which seemed rather close, but actually was farther than any of them realized. "Don''t worry I got this." Leona told them as she moved in front of her friends and made a few sweeping hand motions slowly creating a bridge of ice using her powers. "Wow! I never knew you could make ice Leona!" Lily shouted excitedly as they all moved across the bridge slowly as it was made. "Well you never asked. Plus it takes a lot out of me to create it since I haven''t practised doing it in so long" Leona told her as they cleared that part of the course all making it to the other side safely.


    Leona had to stop briefly as she was panting from exerting so much energy, The team waited for her to recover before moving on. Next up came the rope climb, which Lily and Jacob skipped by boosting themselves up to the zipline platform with their powers. Lily used a jet of air to hover herself up there and Jacob used a quick burst of fire from his hands/feet to get himself up. Will and Leona however were left to climb it slowly since they had no way to propel themselves up fully. Only when they started to climb it did they wish they hadn''t. As soon as they reached the halfway point up the rope, arrows started to fire from the walls at them. "Oh crap! We could use some help here!" Will shouted up to his friends as he and Leona climbed quickly.


    Jacob and Lily started to knock the arrows out of the air with gusts of wind and fireballs respectively to make sure their friends didn''t get hurt. As soon as Will and Leona scrambled their way to the top, the arrows stopped firing. "Well that was surprising. Wonder what''s next?" Leona panted as they all looked down the zipline to where the apple waited on the pedestal. They all stood there a moment catching their breath as well as thinking of a plan to get the apple. The zipline went right over it, but they knew it would be too easy if they could just drop down and grab it. "I know, I''ll take the zipline and see what I can find out, If anything happens I can cut the wire and float to safety." Lily told them as she waited to hear her teammates thoughts. "That sounds like a plan to me, If anything I can shoot down anything that comes at you and Will can stop anything else." Jacob told her as he received nods from Will and Leona signifying that they agreed with the plan.


    Lily gave them all a smile as she got herself hooked into the zipline prepared to start. With a push from her comrades Lily moved swiftly down the line, and of course the problem with getting the apple showed itself. Metal pillars quickly moved out of the walls and moved to squish her, but Will blocked them from doing so using telekinesis holding them in place allowing Lily to slide on through the gap. Next up though came arrows firing from the walls, but Jacob shot those down with precise sweeping fireballs allowing her to clear that danger. By now she was almost over the apple, but one last unexpected danger presented itself. The floor around the pedestal holding the apple slid open to reveal a giant pit with spikes at the bottom of it.


    "That''s so cliche!" Lily shouted as she now had no idea what to do since she couldn''t possibly land on the tiny pedestal to get the apple, and the point in which she would need to jump was coming up quickly. All of the sudden a large amount of water in a squared shape appeared in the air above the pedestal. "Thanks Leona!" Lily shouted as she let go of the zipline and dropped into the water, the water cushioned her fall as she dived through it to the pedestal grabbing the apple. The water fell around her once Lily was standing on the pedestal as Leona couldn''t hold that amount of water there anymore. A loud buzzer sounded and the floor around the pedestal formed as "Test complete, please return to the locker rooms at this time" came from a familiar male voice in the control room.


    "Oh, I guess someone was here after all" Jacob mused as he looked towards the control room windows. Will looked that way as well but couldn''t make out who was in there at all, though he wasn''t too concerned as he helped Leona get down from the platform.


    The three of them still up the zipline met up with Lily before the locker room doors and exchanged high fives. "Great job you four, that was a great display of ability." Artemus said as he came down from the control room. "Yo professor A! you were still here?" Jacob shouted to him as he approached with a hand raised for a high five. Lily and Leona each took a step behind the boys, they couldn''t put a finger on it but Artemus always made them nervous even though he was only slightly older than them. "Yes, myself and professor Damian are still here to keep an eye on students as well as the school grounds over the summer." Artemus told Jacob while pushing his glasses up on his nose. "Oh I see, makes sense then." Will spoke up as he had been contemplating on who had to be keeping a watch on the school grounds for a while. Though when he looked into Artemus''s eyes Will instantly got a headache as if he was having deja vu. "You always did look at me like that" Will said quiet yet almost painfully. Artemus''s eyes went wide for a second but he composed himself with a cough and quickly motioned for them all to move along and change with a quick "Well enjoy the rest of your evening." Artemus said as he turned away from them.


    The students moved into the locker rooms to change after that then went off towards their dorms chatting about the obstacle course they just did. As they went off Artemus turned to the other figure in the training room who had come in from the control room. "Did you hear that?" he asked the figure. "Yeah I did, he seemed to remember." Damian said as he walked up to Artemus. "I guess he did. Though it more seemed like he pulled the memory from somewhere else than remembered it." Artemus told him as each of them gave the other a puzzled look. Both of them moved to a lobby room and grabbed coffee, they had more work to do besides making sure the students didn''t kill themselves in the training room. The last test was a bit much for their level, especially the last part, so Artemus needed to tweak that while Damian tested it out. This would be the rest of their day as they had nothing else to do, well nothing except making sure students stayed out of trouble.

 7 Another Side Two: Icy stares and Firey comebacks

    Elsewhere in Matin Town a couple walked down one of the side streets. The girl was rather short with her purple hair pulled back into a pony tail. In contrast the tall guy next to her had red hair in a fade-cut. Both however wore black jeans and matching leather jackets. They were known around town as Jes and Jen, the leaders of HAV3N, a gang known for taking in bad "strays" and causing general havoc at times. Today thoughthe two were on the lookout for a pair of girls who had been giving them tons of trouble. Of course they weren''t alone in the search, they had three other members who were following close behind as well as several members of the gang looking about town for them. Though as they neared the end of the street another group of people came wound the corner being led by a messy blonde haired male who was rather well dressed in a white jacket with jeans, Alibaba, A rival gang leader who''s gang HOPE was actually a town favorite as they frequently did community service and helped people.


    "Fancy running into you here Ali!" Jen shouted to the male as her and Jes stopped walking. "I told you not to call me that anymore! What are you two doing here? I thought I told you to get out." Alibaba shouted back as his earlier happy mood went sour. The three of them had a history together. They were the founding members of HAV3N and were gonna do good in the world, that is till Jes had other nastier plans. Since then they had been at odds with each other, Alibaba had found his own gang. "Where are the girls Ali?" Jes asked in a demanding tone.


    Alibaba just looked at him with a sigh "I don''t know who you are referring to A-hole." Alibaba told him. "Oh you know, Eevi and her friend. We need them" Jen told him with a smile in a cutesy tone. "Oh them, no idea, now leave." Alibaba told the two nonchalantly as he took a step forward and the air got chilly. "Why don''t you make me!" Jes shouted as he let go of Jen''s hand and threw his hands forward sending a cylinder of fire heading right for Alibaba. "You always were one to shoot first and ask questions later!" Alibaba shouted as He placed his hand in front of himself and a blast of ice went out to meet the flames.


    As Ice met flames it seemed to be a stalemate in the middle. Both streams of elements didn''t seem to budge at all and where they met they also shot up into the air a good amount too. Many people around town didn''t seem fazed by the sudden outburst, though those who were not locals jumped a bit and couldn''t help but stare curiously. Though two girl in particular didn''t seem to notice what was going on as they walked down a crammed market street. "Come on Shura, can''t we just go home? Why do we need to go shopping?" Eevi complained as she followed her close friend while holding onto the back of her jacket. "I told you Eevi, It''s going to be Sayori''s birthday and I want to get her something nice!" Shura groaned to her friend as she looked from stall to stall trying to find something her older sister may like. They moved down the street with the crowd at an OK pace but couldn''t find anything. Lucky for them the Matin town summer market spanned multiple streets. At some point Shura went into a store and Eevi separated from her.


    Eevi being her mischievous self wandered on down the street alone. Occasionally she would surprise people by popping in and out of existence, sometimes to scare people and sometimes for practical use such as getting through large crowds. Either way she loved using her quote "Cheshire Cat" power to pull pranks on others. After a little while of walking Eevi turned back to see if Shura was coming but she didn''t see her friend yet. "Man she sure is taking her sweet time.. Oh." Eevi mumbled as she suddenly stopped. Her heart had felt like it throbbed and her gaze was suddenly shifted into a certain direction. Eevi immediately moved in the direction her heart was telling her to go. After a little while of winding through alleyways she finally came to a stop. Just in her line of sight down the street a blonde boy and his friend were stacking things at a table. "Found you... Will." Eevi said as she moved down the street towards the cafe they were at. She had a hunch why she suddenly knew the boys name, and that only made her want to talk to him more.


    As Eevi approached she focused on her power for a solid minute, and after focusing she unleashed it on the surrounding area temporarily shifting their existence into a separate plane for a brief moment as she got right next to the cafe railing. "Enjoying yourself Will?" she asked the puzzled looking male in a small cute tone with a smile. "Well I was- wait how do you know my name? Have we met before?" The male asked Eevi who had a sly grin on her rather adorable face. "Well you and I have never met, but me and HIM met forever ago." She told him in a matter of fact tone. The girl then held her hand up to her chest saying "I wish he would come back soon, I miss him". The boy Will looked at her curiously and took a step backwards. "Are you the one doing this? If so how? Also who are you talking about?" Will asked her with his curiosity seemingly growing with each time she talked.


    "Wouldn''t you like to know? How about remembering my name first?" Eevi asked him as she walked a step forward and leaned on the railing of the cafe patio that divided it from the main street. "Your name? How am I supposed to know that? we just met." Will asked while picking his brain trying to think if he did in fact meet her before. "Well I''ll give you a hint, it begins with an E." She slyly told him before another girl with green hair wearing a black leather jacket and jeans ran up next to her. "Come on we gotta go now! They know we are here!" the green haired girl said to the smaller one in a panic.


    "Oh Shura you ruined it! He was just about to remember!" The girl complained to her friend as the sight of the other girl actually triggered a headache for Will. Will suddenly saw an image of the same girl with a few other people. The smaller girl was holding onto the arm of a guy whose face Will couldn''t see. "Ugh¡­ E-.... Eevi?" Will painfully spit out as his head throbbed. "Huh? so you do have his memory!" Eevi gleefully quipped as Shura tugged her arm in one direction "Come on let''s go! Before we get killed!". "Oh alright. Well bye Will, see ya around." Eevi said with a wink towards Will, she then grabbed Shura''s hand and they quickly swirled out of existence in a pink and purple poof while everything turned back to normal.


    ~ Minutes before hand~


    Shura had just gotten done picking out a dress for her older sister in a shop when she finally noticed her friend Eevi was missing. With a heavy sigh she exited the store, and to her surprise people went running past her. As Shura looked down the street all she saw was two males running her way throwing fire and ice at each other. "Well crap.." Was all Shura could say as the red haired male spotted her. "There you are greeny! Been looking everywhere for ya!" Jes shouted as he shot a blast at the other male who took it head on and was blasted into a side alley. "Can it Jes, I don''t know what you want but get lost!" Shura yelled at him as she clutched the bag in her left hand and extended her right hand, blue energy sprang forth from her hand swirling into a point summoning a rather plain looking longsword.


    "Great! I was hoping for a fight!" Jes yelled as he sent a fireball her way. Shura effortlessly blocked the magic with her blade but melted the blade in the process. Since the weapon was useless now she dropped it causing it to vanish in thin air, a the same time she summoned another three long-swords that floated in air for a moment before launching for the male. A few fireballs met the blades, though to Jes''s dismay when the blades were clear Shura had already ran all the way down the street. "Oh no you don''t Green!" Jes shouted as he ran after her watching her round the corner.


    Although before he could make it to the end of the street a large wall of ice sprang forth blocking his path. Jes immediately turned around and faced Alibaba. "We aren''t done yet." Alibaba told him as the two clashed again with streams of ice and fire. Meanwhile elsewhere the girls escaped without the two being any the wiser, and the town went back to its usual business. The boys would continue to clash for the rest of the day all over town until Jen stepped in and escaped with Jes using their gang members to cover their escape route. Alibaba and his gang would then move on to fixing things around town after their rivals were gone. They mostly apologized to people and fixed things that were destroyed in the fighting, setting things right with the towns folk as they did so.

 8 Memory Six: Natural Memory

    Will was having yet another weird dream, though this timehe was surrounded by some people he didn''t know and some who he did. One was a Red haired slightly older male, there was a smaller female with long purple hair pulled back into a pony-tail, there were two more older males one with blue hair and the other red, then there was Eevi and Shura. They all seemed to be getting along and having fun with one another, including Will. Though Eevi did cling to him, which was odd. He didn''t really know anyone except for the two girls, everyone else''s faces he didn''t recognize.


    Will did talk in this dream but he couldn''t hear his own voice, it sounded garbled and far away. He could tell that everyone listened to him though, they were even walking down a path he recognized slightly, though they were all wearing standard ESFI school uniforms that students were required to wear when school was in session. Which consisted of blue blazers and white shirts with black slacks for the guys, and the same blazers/shirts for the girls although they wore black skirts instead and had their shirts tucked in. They were all walking towards a building Will didn''t recognize. Though suddenly as they got closer to it Will realized what building it was, but at that point he awoke from his dream.


    Will laid there in bed for a good minute or two processing what he saw "The burnt building where our hideout is. That was it.. But when was that?" Will wondered aloud as he stared at his ceiling. He didn''t contemplate long as his alarm went off reminding him to get ready for the day. Though he dressed in school uniform today as it was the one day of the summer that he and his team had a summer class. When Will was done getting ready he walked out of his dorm room locking it behind him then went down to the pathway below and met up with Jacob. Both the boys waited for the girls to arrive, then they all went up to the nature building for their class. The building was just located west of the boys dorm rooms on the island, it was also a relatively new building.


    The nature building had two floors to it, the first floor had an entryway and a small classroom, the second floor was a huge greenhouse where most classes were held. The group of students entered the building and immediately went up to the second floor. Once there they met up with about 10 other students for their summer class. "Well since that''s everyone.. Today class we study the plant known as ''Vesuv Merchelum'', or better known as the Remembering Plant" A rather nice figured woman with long purple hair yet piercing yellow eyes told the studentsas she walked around the large group of them to stand near a large potted purple with yellow spots flower.


    This particular teachers name was Emiliana Karn, and like some professors she was rather new to ESFI as the Nature teacher. "Each of you today will be sprayed by this plant, can someone tell me what it does though?" Emiliana asked them all. One girl raised her hand and was immediately called on. She had short pink hair and always wore her uniform shirt out of her skirt, her name is Nora Virtanian, a known shapeshifter and troublemaker. "It helps you remember moments from your past! Specifically ones that are hard to remember!" Nora shouted enthusiastically to the teacher over the class. Even though Nora was a troublemaker, she was incredibly smart so teachers had a hard time being angry with her for acting the way she did.


    "That is correct Ms.Virtanian. Vesuv Merchelum is extremely useful for helping people remember deep buried memories, it''s often used by security forces for criminals whom they may think are guilty and won''t own up to the crime. In short, it can make them talk." Emiliana explained as she moved around the students waving her hand over some seemingly empty dirt pots. Within moments large flowers similar to the first one grew up from the pots, Emiliana is a Natura or one who can control nature to a degree. Once the plants all grew, and after instructed, each student stepped up and was sprayed by the flower. For some reason Will felt nervous about this but everyone else seemed fine. When Will got sprayed he expected to feel something, but he honestly didn''t feel anything. Everyone else was standing there going "Oh yeah! Totally forgot about that!" and telling stories from their memories with their classmates. Will just stood there not knowing what to do till he felt a tap on his shoulder, he turned to see Lily staring at him. "You okay? Remember anything?" Lily asked slightly concerned for her friend. "Not really, maybe it just didn''t work on me?" Will told her with a nervous laugh and visibly seemed to shrug it off. Lily didn''t believe him for a moment but she only sighed and patted him on the shoulder, she didn''t want to show him her worry.


    Soon after everyone had been sprayed Emiliana walked them through the various uses of the plant other than memory and assigned them a small summer assignment to collect a plant and research it''s uses. The students groaned at this but they figured it could have been worse. Once they were released for the day everyone split off into groups, of course Will met up with his friends in the commotion outside the nature building, they were standing in a group talking with Nora and one other girl. When Will saw this other girl though he froze. The girl was short with purple hair, and even though she wore their school uniform she had a purple and pink striped infinity-scarf around her neck, it was Eevi. "Oh hey Will! Class was interesting right? What was your memory!?" Nora enthusiastically asked him as he walked closer. "Yeah, what was it Will?" Eevi asked as well. Will stood there for a moment looking at her then looked back to Lily who gave him a worried look. "It.. it wasn''t anything important. Just something stupid." Will told them as he scratched the back of his head trying to play the question off.


    Eevi and Lily didn''t buy Will''s lie for a second, but everyone else seemed to so they didn''t say anything. Nora went on walking and talking with everyone while they moved over to the main building to grab lunch in the cafeteria. Like a few places in the school, the lunch room was a place where students could gather during the summer to relax as well as eat. The cafeteria workers were always there to serve food for all three meals if students needed. The group moved through the line and got food then sat at a large table and ate. Jacob and Leona were sucked into conversation with Nora about possible easy plants to find for the research, while Lily and Will were left to talk with Eevi. "So.. what did you remember?" Lily asked Eevi as she ate her sandwich.


    "Me? I remembered someone very important to me. Though he''s been gone for quite a while. Wish he would come back soon, I miss him." Eevi replied while placing a hand to her chest and directing a sad glance with the last bit at Will. Will uncomfortably sat there with the girls as they went on to talk about shopping for new skirts. He contemplated asking who Eevi mentioned, but he got a rather sudden headache that made him visibly put his hand on his head. "You okay?" Lily placed a hand on his shoulder in concern but Will brushed her off. "Yeah.. I''m gonna head in early." Will told her as he got up and threw his garbage away then left back to his room through a cafeteria exit. The rest of the group of course noticed their friend leave. Jacob started to move to go after his friend to see what was wrong but Leona grabbed him and just shook her head. The group all continued their conversations after Wills departure. Later after taking a walk out to the back cliff side of the island to watch the full sunset, the group of friends all returned back to their dorms for the evening. Eevi herself disappeared using her power off to her actual home when the others weren''t looking having got what she wanted from today.


    As soon as Will got back to his dorm room he took a medicinal potion from his medicine cabinet to relieve his headache and went right to bed after placing the bottle in the sink and changing into his PJ''s. He stayed awake in bed for a good amount of time thinking about the day but fell asleep after a while. Unbeknownst to Will, the Vesuv Merchelum would work it''s way through his system, and eventually, it would affect his dreams that night. Whether Will wanted it or not, he would have quite a few questions answered in his dream that night. For fate never left anything up to chance.

 9 Another Side Three: Acceptance and Goals

    ~Three years prior, after the training incident~


    Six students were brought into the principal''s office after a training session went wrong. Professor Flynn had seen to it personally that he brought the six students into the office himself as he gave the principal, Felixi Tempus, his report on the incident. Most of the students were in a sorry state as they sat in the chairs outside the office. Two of the girls were an absolute mess of tears, the other students had sorry looks on their faces. "It''ll be okay Eevi, Lily.. The principal will know how to get him back." Damian tried to calm the two girls down. They were both bawling, saying it was their fault and that they could have saved him. No one currently knew how to calm these two down enough. Damian stole a glance at the others; his other teammate Artemus was sitting there calm as ever staring into the ceiling. Jacob currently had his arm around Leona as she sobbed quietly into his shoulder. They all were in a rather sorry state and he felt useless.


    After a moment or two Professor Flynn came out of the principal''s office with a gloomy look on his face. He walked over to the students thinking about what to say. "So, what''s the plan? How do we get him out?" Damian asked in a half desperate voice, he wanted his best friend back. "Lily, Jacob, Leona. Ms.Tempus would like to see you." Flynn told them in a monotone voice. Jacob moved first of course and helped Leona and Lily into the office. Soon as the door was closed Flynn turned to the remaining three "There is no plan for the current moment. We still need to grasp the situation.". "Grasp the situation!? My best friend is in there! He could be dying for all you care!" Damian yelled as fire surrounded his fist while he pulled back a punch. Artemus quickly got up and held Damian back with his arms under the other boys "Hey get a hold of yourself! He''s a teacher!" Artemus yelled. Flynn only stood there staring at them all.


    Meanwhile in the office the three students stood before the principal. Felixi Tempus, a gorgeous 5''7" tall, moon white haired goddess of a women whose ever changing colored eyes stared at them with a sorrowful glance from behind her desk. "First off I am sorry to hear what happened. I want you three to know that we will do everything in our power to get, Mr.Falchion, out of there... No one wants their students to go through such a traumatizing experience." Felixi told the three as she glanced at the trapped students file briefly for his full name before finishing her sentence in a sorry tone. "What should we do?" Lily asked her through teary eyes. Felixi sat there for a moment contemplating. "For now, you forget." Felixi said as before any of them could utter another word they were each surrounded by a large swirling bubble. Once within the bubbles their memories would be seemingly wiped clean of the incident and replaced with fake memories of that days events. Once this was done the students stood in front of a smiling principal yet again. "Great job on the exercise today team M. You are dismissed, enjoy your summer break." Felixi told the three as they all smiled at each other before giving her a thank you and leaving. Their memory of the current conversation was that they had been giving a report to the principal of their last training session as per custom for an end of year team report, so it was normal that they heard those words from Felixi before leaving.


    As the three left the office they noticed Damian, Artemus and a crying Eevi. "Hey, what happened?" Lily asked as she approached them. "Wha-What do you mean what happened?" Damian stammered as he looked at her. He had a very strange feeling as he looked at the three who came from the office. They all seemed to be fine, even Lily who was just bawling moments ago. It only took Artemus and Eevi a minute to realize what happened, they quickly got up and stood behind Damian. "Ah, it''s your guys turn now it seems. Team M have a nice summer." Flynn told the three before turning to Lily and her team with a smile. "Uh, yeah. You too Prof.Flynn. We''ll catch you guys later." Lily said in a cheery tone as her, Jacob and Leona left while waving goodbye to their friends. Once they were gone Damian couldn''t hold back anymore as he walked with his friends into the principal''s office. "What did you do to them!? That- That isn''t how they should be acting right now!" Damian shouted angrily at the principal as they entered while pointing out the door.


    "What did I do? What any caring principal would, I helped my students." Felixi told them waving her hand in a half faked hurt tone. "As for you three, I think you need that same help for the trauma." She said as she went to use her power. "Eevi!" Damian shouted and before Felixi could blink the students were gone. In the nick of time Eevi simply touched her friends and they popped out of the room traveling as far as her power would currently reach. Felixi stat there for a moment bewildered as they left. "Pulled a fast one eh? Seems I underestimated my own students. Well no biggie, they''ll be back eventually." Felixi muttered as she turned around in her chair staring out towards the sea and the setting sun.


    ~Elsewhere minutes later~


    In an old building located close to the outer edge of Matin Town three students appeared in a dusty room. They all coughed as the dust was kicked up in the room and the girl slid down to sit on the floor, they each got their bearings about them after a moment. "Matin town? I didn''t know you could get this far Eevi." Artemus said rather impressed as he stared out the hold of a broken glass window. "Yeah.. But it takes a lot out of me." Eevi panted as she glanced at her friends. While she recovered Damian and Artemus both worked on moving what little furniture was in the room around to make it more comfortable. Lucky for them there were two couches, a chair, some lamps which they didn''t bother lighting, and some bookcases. The boys moved the couches over so they were across from each other with the chair nearby, they then helped Eevi up onto a couch to rest after doing their best to dust it off.


    "So, what''s the plan?" Damian asked Artemus while Eevi fell asleep curled in her uniform. Artemus stood there for a moment thinking of a plan before he sighed deeply and rubbed his eyes. "Look, I assume we are in the north east district of Matin Town from the look of these buildings. This is a section of the city ESFI students don''t come to. So let''s just lay low here for a while, find some work, and gather some knowledge." Artemus told him as they both sat on the same couch. "Sounds like a plan.. What about Eevi? You know he and her were a thing.. I hate to see her this way." Damian said with a hint of sadness as he looked towards the sleeping girl. "I know.. We can only hope we can get him back sooner rather than later.. Better get some rest, we start tomorrow." Artemus told him as he got comfy to try and sleep. Damian only stayed awake thinking of what they could do. In the end he couldn''t think of much and went to sleep.


    ~Two years later~


    Damian and Artemus both sighed. They were currently standing out back of a small restaurant catching their breath. Both were dressed in all white with black aprons tied around their waists, typical dishwasher uniform. This was their third job in two years, they had managed to get by with small jobs and finally landed this gig which paid well. They still stayed in the same run down place they first appeared in with Eevi, although they renovated it so that they had separate rooms and living quarters to make it much easier to live in. Currently the boys lived on their own, Eevi had ran off at the beginning of that year. Though they briefly saw her here and there with a green haired girl causing a lot of trouble. They themselves caused trouble as well their first year in the town with a local gang, even earning the nicknames "Hellfire" and "Windblade" respectively. After a while though the two decided to just let Eevi do what she wanted since she was the one who was hurt the most from the incident. When she lived with them it was constant crying everyday and occasional random disappearances using her powers. They had taken care of her as best they could but eventually she left them, which was probably because the two had grown to accept the current situation.


    One day as the two males were wandering through the south east district of matin town looking for side jobs they stumbled across a flyer for a teaching position. Though it wasn''t anything special, it was actually just a trainer position. Though what caught the boy''s interest was that it was for ESFI. The boys took the flyer back to their place that day and sat on it for a good while. Eventually they decided to apply under fake last names. Two weeks went by and they were given the job after both interviewing twice. Three full months went by before they were actually properly trained to handle the many students various powers with their own, which was important as a teacher.


    ~Three months later~


    Finally after waiting three months and teaching students for another three months it was finally summer, thus Damian and Artemus began to work on a plan from the inside to get their friend back. One rainy night Damian and Artemus snuck around campus into the old training center. They moved down the familiar hallways to the old training room and slowly pushed the metal doors open. They were of course greeted with a sight they didn''t necessarily want to ever see again. "Long time no see.." Damian muttered as he looked into the room of metal spikes and a lonely sphere. The two males carefully moved their way through the room till they were close enough to the sphere they could make out a human shape. "I''m getting you out of there." Damian said as flames danced up his right arm turning a more blue color as he focused.


    Artemus stood back a ways though he was preparing as well, wind swirled around his body violently. "Come on! Spike!" Damian roared as he shoved his right hand forward using his left to hold his arm up. Suddenly a huge blast of blue flame seemingly struck the sphere, the force of which shook the room. "I won''t forgive you if you die! Spike!" Artemus roared as he left fourth a howling gale to mix with Damians flames to amplify them. The mixture of the two seemed to start to hit the sphere, but to the two''s shock the huge blast was met with a metal wall that sprang up before the sphere. If one were to see this scene from the side they would notice that the wall was really thick and that the blast was barely starting to melt through it. "You always were a stubborn one! But you''re coming home with me buddy!" Damian yelled as he amped up his flames putting his all into the attack. The building shook as they started to burn through the wall, Damian of course had a plan to get through the wall then cut his flames down a bit so he didn''t hurt his friend.


    Currently though that plan was going rather slowly as the wall melted inch by inch. Damian though suddenly felt two quick blasts of wind go by him, which afterwards he heard two loud banging noises as the wind blades crashed through spikes that were closing in on the boy. "Damian! We need to go! It''s not working!" Artemus yelled as he defended his friend. At the current moment they were starting to struggle more and more as spikes launched around them defending the area. Artemus had been defending Damian the entire time while supporting him but couldn''t keep it up after so long. "No! We can get him!" Damian shouted in defiance as he tried to intensify his flames more but came up short. As he pushed Damian started to feel his strength leaving him, he had hit his limit and was starting to fall. "Damn it all.." Damian muttered as his flames died out and he physically started to fall.


    Artemus caught his friend as he fell moving to his side in a single bound using the wind. Though as he caught Damian he felt a sharp pain in his side. A spike had pierced his leg, which in turn caused him to call out in pain for a moment. As he broke the spike and tore himself away from it with Damian in his hands he noticed something in his peripheral vision. A figure was standing just on the other side of the wall, though they seemed to be standing over someone with blonde hair who was on the floor. "Who''s there!? Were you the one attacking us!?" Artemus yelled as he waved his hand blasting wind at the spikes that shot up near him crushing them to pieces. Though before he could try to make out who it was the figure vanished from his view and left the blonde haired person on the floor. Artemus didn''t have time to worry about anyone else as he dragged Damian out of the room and off out of the building. Once they were safely outside Artemus made a call to the school nurse''s office as she should still have been awake at this hour.


    Not minutes later did the nurse arrive with professor Flynn in tow. "What happened? Are you alright?" Flynn asked Artemus as Damian was moved onto a stretcher by the nurse and her assistant then hauled off to the office. "I was just out on night patrol, Damian met up with me, and we were attacked just a few minutes ago. I-I couldn''t make out who the attacker was. But they used a variation of wind skills I think." Artemus told Flynn leaving out the detail of being in the building and making it seem like they fought outside. Flynn looked Artemus over, and sure enough the boy did seem to be battered to hell, especially with the cut to his leg. "Well let''s get you to the nurses office to get that fixed, we''ll write up a report later, for now, you rest." Flynn told him as he placed a hand on the boys shoulder and with little effort teleported them to the nurse''s office. Once all fixed up Artemus went with Flynn to the principal''s office and gave her their report. He did mention he saw someone go into the old training building which the principal just sent Flynn to go look into it and told Artemus to go get some rest which he reluctantly did so. Even though the boys had failed that day they knew they would have a chance to get their friend out another time. Little did they know though that the blonde boy Artemus saw would later become the key to doing so.

 10 Memory Seven: Re:Zero

    Will had felt himself fall into a deep sleep, though his dream he started to have felt more surreal than previous ones. This time it was as if he was watching the dream from outside his body, but he still had his body he could float around in. From what he could see he was in a training room he didn''t recognize, though he did recognize most of the people in the room, though they somehow seemed different. Curious Will flew down towards a group of students to listen in on what they were talking about.


    "You know Damian, you think Eevi would know not to run late on training days." S----- said in a half worried tone with his arms crossed and foot tapping furiously. "Well yah would think she would bu-" Damian mentioned putting a hand on his shoulder casually but was cut off swiftly by Artemus "We may as well jump in without her before the professor ends this quick." Artemus said in a hard but matter of fact tone towards S-----. Although, like them, another team had entered the training room around the same time and had already started the training that they were supposed to be doing as well. Will tried to see the dark haired boys face but for some reason it was blurred out, which only made him more curious as to who it was since he didn''t recognize him,


    When Will looked over to see who they were talking about he noticed it was Jacob, Lily, and Leona. They were currently doing the robot attackers training and were doing quite well from the look of it. Jacob moved ferociously through the robot attackers, burning them with quick punches and kicks that sent out flames from his limbs. Leona mostly stayed back since she could utilize a special property of her water powers to heal the others, though with the strain it put on her body it wasn''t always the best to use thus she played a more supportive role with ranged water attacks. Lily was more like Jacob, although using wind instead of fire, but she stayed back to fight with Leona so that she had back up. As they fought through robot attackers the room changed drastically, pillars formed from the floor and the terrain shifted quite a bit. Though as Will watched from his position near the others, a metal pillar that had risen from the floor to make the terrain difficult suddenly broke and began to fall, and it was on a course that would squish the girls of his team.


    "Hey! Lily! Leona!" the dark haired boy yelled out from where he was but Lily didn''t register it and neither did Leona. Both of them kept fighting unaware of the danger that they were in. The boy sighed as he rushed forward ignoring his teammates who were standing there and quickly made a path through the robot attackers by bringing up metal walls to block them from attacking him as he ran. The walls seemingly flipped upward from the floor pushing and knocking training bots out of his way. "S---- wait!" Damian and Artemus shouted in unison as they moved after him. The boy ran as fast as he could while seemingly ignoring his teammates shouts, and in one smooth diving motion, pushed both Lily and Leona out of the way of the falling pillar. Will watched all this happen with a shocked expression as his head began to hurt.


    Both girls landed safely on the other side but S---- was nowhere to be seen. The training program was force stopped and professor Flynn who was overseeing the exercise came out to see what happened. "Spike!" his team shouted as they rushed towards the pillar concerned for their teammate and beloved friend. At that point Eevi had entered the room and rushed towards S---- with her team behind her managing to pass them due to her worry as well as physical ability. As all the students neared the pillar it started to lift off the ground, and as it lifted they saw a small metal ball that seemed somehow transparent, inside of it was Spike seemingly untouched. Upon hearing this name Will''s head pounded as he floated towards the sphere.


    "Don''t go near it just yet, let me check it out first." Professor Flynn told the students as he jumped down making his exit from the control room and braving to go near the sphere himself. Flynn happened to be the training instructor when it came to physical exercises, even though his outward appearance would say otherwise, Will knew better than to mess with him.Though he normally looked calm and collected, Flynn was visibly nervous as he approached the sphere. Flynn approached slowly but as soon as he went one foot closer to it, large metal spikes quickly spread out from the bottom of the sphere and quickly began to cover the room. "Everyone grab onto me quickly!" Professor Flynn shouted as all the students quickly obeyed, grabbing onto him as well as each other. Within a moment the Professor teleported them out of the room, leaving Spike in what would soon become the old training center.


    Will''s head pounded as they all left, he was all alone in the room with the sphere containing Spike. Though when he looked Spike was seemingly sitting on the sphere staring right at him. "So, you''re the other me? Hmm..Don''t seem too strong." Spike said as he pointed to Will. "Other me? I''m me. Are you, Spike?" Will asked him as he held his head staring him in the eyes. "Oh, your you? Kinda cliche ya think?" Spike said as he looked towards the ceiling for a minute before directing a rather dark gaze straight to Will. "There is no you, Will. You are me, or rather a part of me. The more fun outgoing part actually, which is a no brainer as to why Lily likes you." Spike told him as he hopped down off the sphere to stand in front of Will. "Lily likes me? What do you mean?" Will asked thrown off guard as he looked into Spikes eyes. "I mean she LIKES you dude.. Man this part of me is so dense.." Spike said as he rubbed his temples. "Anyway, I need you. I need that part of me that makes me feel fun." Spike told him as he took a few steps towards Will. Will instinctively took a few steps back away from Spike as he went into a more defensive stance. Spike stopped walking and just stared at the other boy "Looks like you don''t have all my memories yet.. Well it just means I need to make you understand".


    "I''d like to see you try!" Will shouted to him as his gaze shifted around the room looking for an exit from this nightmare. "There is no Exit buddy, but don''t worry about that." pike told him as he waved his hand and suddenly they shifted places to a black void. "Lets start at the beginning." Spike said as he and Will embarked through a journey down Spikes memory lane. That night Will would learn everything he needed to know about Spike, and what exactly his plans were for the future that involved Will.

 11 Memory Eight: Realization

    As they moved from memory to memory Will felt himself come to understand Spike and his ideals more and more. They of course started in the early days where Spike had grown up in the slums of Cyan City rather far inland from ESFI. His early days were spent stealing food till he discovered his powers when most kids came of age at age 7. After that of course they skipped to when Spike moved to Matin Town at age 13 and met Eevi, Damian, Artemus and the rest. His days in Matin town were simple with his friends, and of course it didn''t take long for ESFI recruiters to meet the kids and convince most of them to come to ESFI. After that they went through Spikes school days till the present. Will learned all about Spike, but his plans were still fuzzy as they didn''t go through that in all the jumping through memories. "So. Now you know everything Will.. So join me." Spike said as they returned to the training room where they started from.


    "Why? Why should I join you? For what!?" Will questioned angrily as he prepared to attack Spike. "Right, I forgot to show you.. You don''t even understand your power do you Will?" Spike asked with a wave of his hand "O-Of course I do! I have telekinesis!" Will said as he started to question himself. "No you don''t you idiot. Look at your hands." Spike motioned as Will looked down. For the first time Will actually looked at his hands when he activated his power. His hands glowed with a few different hues of blue energy and he thought of all the times he used his power, looking back this energy was always around the objects he stopped or attacks he did.


    "W-What is this?" Will asked stuttering in confusion. "You don''t have telekinesis Will. Your power is just raw energy. You can manipulate the raw energy of the world! That which fuels everyone''s powers! That is why Felixi even brought you in after the incident! She wants that power for her plans." Spike began shouting to Will as they shifted to another place. This place was familiar to Will, it was his room. "Felixi plans to use you to multiply her powers, for what I don''t know, but I can''t let her get you." Spike told him as Will sat down on his own bed taking it in.


    A few moments went by as Spike moved about the dorm room looking around, he stopped in front of a mirror hanging near the bathroom. "Will, move this mirror when you wake up. There''s a camera here you should destroy. Seems they''ve been watching you closely." Spike told him as he walked back to sit in a chair at Wills table but sat facing the boy. "So then what''s the best course of action? Because I''m not becoming someone else''s pawn." Will asked Spike as his head hung low staring at the floor. "I''ll say it again, Join me. That''s the only way to keep you from being used.. Other than that you don''t have any options." Spike told him simply. Will sat there contemplating what t do, but ultimately he knew what he needed to do. "So if I join with you, then what will you do?" Will asked finally as he still didn''t know Spikes plan fully. "If you join with me not only will I become whole again with my powers, but i might be able to use yours too. In that case I''ll escape with my team, and start by taking down Felixi when possible." Spike told him truthfully.


    Will sighed as he fought with his choice of running with his own team or joining Spike. Truthfully he had no options at all so he came to accept his fate. Will looked to Spike one more time as he felt a stir in the energy keeping them there. "Alright, I''ll join you. But on the condition you save my friends too." Will told him as he wanted to make sure his team was fine as well. "I can''t promise anything for sure, But I will do what I can." Spike told him as he thought for a moment before giving him another piece of advice "Something tells me you will fight many people on the way to me, so just be careful when you leave. That''s my last piece of advice to you Will." Spike told him in a cautionary manner before he looked to the ceiling then back to Will giving him a wave with a last "See you soon." as the dream came to an end.


    Will woke up on his bed staring at the ceiling. He knew what he needed to do, he only hoped the others would understand why he needed to. Will slowly got ready for his last day, taking his time to eat his last meal properly and get dressed. All the while he thought of his friends and how they would react to him leaving them suddenly. Jacob, Leona, and possibly Nora would undoubtedly try to stop him and of course Lily would as well. His "heart" hurt as he thought of Lily, he never had a chance to tell her how he felt. Will loved her, but she would possibly never know that, though he didn''t know when he began to love Lily and he didn''t know if she felt the same. While thinking of this he changed into his normal summer clothes and mentally prepared himself to face whatever came. Before he would leave Will moved back to the mirror spiked talked about, sure enough when he moved it he noticed it was a one way mirror, and there was a camera behind it. Will gave the camera a wave as his hand charged with energy then smashed the lens and replaced the mirror. Finally when he was ready he left his dorm room and started moving towards the school.

 12 Memory Nine: Between Half a Dream

    As Will left his dorm room, things of course would set into motion all over the island. Though first off upon leaving Will noticed one figure standing on the path towards the old training center. Will didn''t recognize this person as they were wearing a large black trench coat with a black fedora as well, he however did stop before this person as they blocked his path outright. "Can I help you?" Will asked in a rather rude tone as he didn''t know what to do. "Help me? No, you can come with me peacefully though." The person said in a deep voice making Will believe they were possibly male. "Look, I''d love to but I got somewhere to be, so maybe next time." Will told them as he moved a step to the side looking to go around the person. "Well ya see, Ms.Tempus would have a problem with that. So I can''t let you do that." The man said as they motioned with their right hand and a wall of earth moved up from the ground to block Will outright. "Alright, you asked for it." Will said as his hands glowed blue with energy and he rushed forward around the wall. Upon going around he came face to face with another wall, so he kept moving around to be met with another wall. Basically as Will rushed forward more walls would appear between him and the man, so each time he would have to move around like a zig-zag pattern.


    The more he moved the more Will realized that he was being forced to actually move away from where he wanted to go, he currently glanced to his left seeing he was close to the train station now, thus he figured actually stopping the man would be more efficient than running. So the next wall that popped up Will stored some energy in his fist and smashed his way through the wall. He was met on the other side with a spike of earth heading for him. Will jumped forcing his body to become horizontal at just the right moment to dodge the spike. He then pushed off it with his hand with enough force to swing his lower body down and give his legs purchase. As soon as his feet touched the stone Will lunged forward dodging yet another earth spike speeding for him from the side.


    Will rolled onto the ground on the other side and immediately got ready for the next attack. As the next spike came at him, Will made a breaking motion with his hands and broke the spike free from the earth that moved it. Will then made it float with his power and turned it back towards the man. With one quick shoving motion with his hand Will launched the earth spike back at the man. A wall went up to meet the spike though, effectively blocking it. "Haha! Nice try! Gonna have to be smarter than that to get through Goro''s defenses!" he shouted mockingly at Will. Will gave a small groan as he continued to move towards Goro while dodging spikes.


    The boy simultaneously was breaking the spikes and launching them back though so he didn''t let Goro just wildly attack him without retaliation. Will gradually made Goro move back in the direction Will wanted by forcing Goro to back off by dodging his attacks. Goro eventually caught on to what Will was having him do so he stopped moving and instead made more walls to block the attacks. Seeing as this was going nowhere Will did a fake and dived behind a wall to catch his breath. "Haha! Hiding I see! Smart! Though not smart enough!" Goro shouted as Will reflexively rolled forward managing to dodge the spike attack. Will this time dashed from where he was and broke off multiple spikes from his surroundings as he ran making them float along after him. As Will neared Goro he launched each spike he controlled to meet Goro''s own attacks heading for him, blocking them effectively.


    As Will vaulted a wall that started coming up he launched a surprise spike at Goro who moved out of the way but got scraped by it. "Haha! Come on Spike! More!" Goro shouted enthusiastically while laughing. This really bothered Will so he made a move to pick up more earth spikes as he dashed forward, he launched them immediately at Goro with lethal precision. Goro managed to block the first two but the third shot nailed him in his right shoulder piercing into it. When the lug of a man looked at the spike he noticed it was shaped more into a smaller spiralled javelin before it was launched. Will was getting smarter at using his power, but he also managed to run past Goro in all the attacks that were made. "Well shit¡­ Kid got smarter. I leave him to you then." Goro lamented as Will moved further away from him back towards the school. Goro would soon disappear through a gold portal like vortex back to whence he came, one would presume back to his base or headquarters.


    Elsewhere in the school Damian and Artemus moved from their rooms heading out to hopefully catch up with Will. Meanwhile Lily woke up with a fright from a dream, she calmed herself down but could hear the sound of fighting out her window in the distance and didn''t like the feeling it gave her. Lily quickly got ready then left her room. As she did so Damian was just walking past her when she heard him say "You better go before it''s too late.. Will might not be around for long if this keeps up." before he left quickly. Lily looked in his direction then back out to where she could hear the fighting "Don''t tell me that''s, Will". Upon her realization Lily began running in that direction meeting up with Leona and for some reason Nora as well who seemed to be out early that morning for breakfast. The three girls moved to meet up with Jacob who was out on a morning run, though by the time they met him the fighting seemed to have stopped. The group hesitated for a moment deciding where to head towards "The fighting stopped.. So what now?" Jacob asked as he looked at Lily. The girl had no idea what to do, that is till Damian and Artemus passed by them quickly on a different path. She felt they knew something so she motioned for the others to follow and followed the two older males from a distance.


    Meanwhile Will decided to just head around the new training center building and ditch the path that went between it and the main building. He had decided on this when he realized Goro maybe wanted him to go that way. So in order to defy him he chose a different path. Unfortunately for him though Will came face to face with another person in a black trench coat and fedora, though this time they had a slender female esque figure. "Hmph. I see you got past Goro! Too bad you won''t get through me though!" The lady shouted as electricity lashed out at Will. Will narrowly avoided the blast and immediately changed to a defensive position with his hands up in front of him like a boxer. "Got past him and I''ll get past you too!" Will retorted as he watched her carefully. The girl let out a short laugh then sent whips of electricity at the boy. Will tried to dodge them at first but kept getting stung by the tip. Finally he stopped dodging and tried coating his forearms as well as shins with energy instead, choosing to block the damage however he could.


    Once he figured out how much energy to use to block a good amount of damage, Will started to move forward blocking the whips as they came at him with electricity crackling about. The girl became more frantic as he got nearer and even started to throw out random bolts of electricity. Will simply gritted his teeth through any pain and moved closer, once close enough he dashed in and went for some punches. The lady dodged with quick reflexes and made some distance between them. "Hmph! Too slow for me, Viveen the lightning queen!" Viveen shouted antagonistically to Will as she lashed out at him. Figuring out her name didn''t help Will at all, what he needed was help figuring out what to do. For him right now he felt more lost using his power than anything, as what he once thought was telekinesis was actually something different entirely. Will was forced to learn how to use his power through experience, which in whole wasn''t bad, but in the long run right now it would hurt more than help.


    As Viveen got further away Will needed to come up with something to combat her at a distance if this battle went on any further. He hardly had time to come up with a plan though as the woman lashed lightning whips out at him constantly. Though as he blocked the whips, Will spread the energy out from his left hand into the air making a basic circular shield to block with. Once he did that Will concentrated energy into his right fist and when the time was right he imagined throwing the energy forward. Sure enough the energy burst from his hand like a glowing blue bullet at Viveen hitting her squarely in a shoulder. "Ugh! So NOT fair!" Viveen shouted as she started using only one whip and started to launch random bolts at Will with her other hand. Will would block as needed but focused on launching his energy blasts at her dealing small amounts of damage. After a short time Viveen''s attacks came less frequently as she had taken considerable damage while Will managed to protect himself pretty well. Thinking he had her cornered Will started to walk towards her with his shield in front of him while still firing blasts.


    Though before he could get close to Viveen an explosion of fire erupted out of the wall between them. Sure enough another figure in a trench coat walked through the hole made in the wall. "About damn time Frey!" Viveen shouted as the auburn haired man just gave her a dismissing wave and turned to face will. "Alright kid, enough playing games with her. I''m getting impatient so it''s my turn now." Frey told Will as he launched several fireballs his way. Will immediately created several shields of energy in front of him but only managed to block the first two attacks as they blasted through his shields. Will barely could dodge the next fireballs as they singed his jacket and pants in spots. Before Will could really think about it being two on one Viveen actually disappeared into a glowing vortex that vanished as she did. "It''s just one after another huh?" Will mumbled to himself as he struggled with blocking more fireballs and sent out energy blasts in retaliation as a firefight ensued.


    Meanwhile on the other side of the new training center building Lily and the rest were still following Damian and Artemus. Though the two boys stopped midway and turned to face them "We know you''ve been following us for a while! It''s no use though, you can''t save him!" Damian shouted to the small group. "Save who!? Will!? What did you do with him!?" Lily shouted questioningly as she noticed Damian take up an aggressive stance. "You really don''t know? Then let me tell you; Will should not have existed. He was a by product from the incident with Spike." Artemus told them all as they each felt a pounding in their heads at the mention of the name. "Shouldn''t have existed!? W-Wait, you said Spike? Who''s that?" Lily questioned as tension started to rise. "Let me tell you. Spike is our precious friend, he knew you all too. That day several years ago, the one that closed the old training center, was the day we lost him. You all were doing a training session, during this session though both Lily and Leona failed to realize that a pillar was about to crush them. Spike acted on his own before either Damian and I could react. Our third teammate Eevi wasn''t there yet either. He sacrificed himself to save you, and ended up trapped in that room!" Artemus told them as his tone grew more angry over time. Lily''s head was pounding as she heard the story.


    She remembered that day but then things got fuzzy. Though as she and the others concentrated on their story they started to actually remember what happened. There was a silence for a time between the two groups till Lily finally spoke up "W-Why, why did he save us? He had no reason to! We didn''t ask for it! But I don''t remember what happened exactly! All i remember is giving Felixi¡­" Lily trailed off as she remembered the principal as her eyes widened and she looked Artemus in the eyes. "We believe the principal tampered with all of your memories regarding that day.. As when Damian, Eevi and I saw you after you went in her office you guys looked normal. We thought it odd so we escaped and came back years later." Artemus told them his voice trailing off as Leona interjected with "Why would she do that!? Why tamper with our memories!?". "We think it has to do with Will. You see, he showed up after we tried to free Spike one day. Felixi has some sort of plan for that boy''s power. It''s not what you guys think!" Damian was the one who spoke up this time, his comment of course angered Lily.


    "Will only has telekinesis! It''s not a rare power! Why would she want that!? What does he have to do with this Spike person?" Nora shouted as she only wanted answers at this point since she had no clue what was going on. "You''re wrong. He doesn''t have telekinesis. Will has the ability to manipulate the world''s energy, the one people only dream of! Felixi wants this for her own agenda! For what we don''t know." Artemus explained as he rubbed his left temple, talking with these students was a hassle as they knew nothing of the real world or how it seemingly worked. "You can think of Will and Spike as two parts of a puzzle. That puzzle was taken apart though and still has a piece missing, it needs to become whole again. Will is that missing piece, the one that will bring Spike back!" Artemus explained the best he could to them using simple terms. They all stood there a moment as the group of four came to understand what Artemus meant. "So what? Will is going to disappear?" Lily said as she felt an ache in her heart "I''m going to stop him then! We can work this out!" She finished as she started to move forward but stopped as a fireball scorched the ground in front of her.


    "I''m sorry Lily, but I can''t let you do that." Damian told her as he looked to the others, it was clear to them all that they would need to defeat these two in order to pass. Jacob was the first to move, launching his own fireball towards Damian with Leona sending out a jet of water towards Artemus. Damian blocked the fireball easily and Artemus simply cut through the water with a jet of air. After a moment of feeling each other out it became two different two on ones. Leona and Jacob teamed up to fight Damian while Lily and Nora fought Artemus. Damian and Jacob had a literal firefight, attacking each other with fireballs and blasts of fire. Leona protected Jacob with shields of water and helped with attacking where she could. Meanwhile Lily worked on neutralizing Artemus''s attacks with her own since they had command of the same element, while Nora shape shifted into a leopard and tried attacking with physical attacks. The fights were rather one sided in favor of the older males, for they had far more battle experience than these four students. Although they did match each other blow for blow as time went slowly on.


    On the other side of the building Will was struggling against Frey''s onslaught of fire attacks. The young boy hadn''t come up with a suitable way to beat the man, all he could do was block and send his own energy blasts back. After a minute though Will decided to try something risky. When Frey launched another fireball at the boy instead of dodging it Will coated his hands in energy and seemingly blocked the fireball. In reality though Will caught the fireball and held it for a moment then sent it right back towards Frey. To astonished by what transpired the older male took the hit directly, though the damage wasn''t as great since a fire user naturally had higher resistance to fire, especially their own. Will was also astonished but recovered quickly and sent an energy blast at Frey. Frey took the shot as well and stumbled backwards but stayed upright "Sorry kid, but I''m not budging that easily! Especially from such a cheap trick by a fake!" Frey shouted to Will as flames started to dance in the air around him. Looking back for a moment Frey decided it was time to up his game and summoned a large amount of fireballs the size of basketballs that floated in the air high above him like meteors.


    Will''s eyes went wide as he counted about 20 or more fireballs. "Well shi-." Was all that Will could mutter as five fireballs launched his way forcing him to move as fast as he could to dodge. For the moment Will just ran while forming floating round shields of energy to protect himself from getting burned to a crisp. Unfortunately, Will could not run forever and he couldn''t keep making shields forever, and Frey knew this. Frey chuckled as he decided to play his trump card, so in grand fashion Frey made some more fireballs then increased the size of all the fireballs to the size of huge beach balls from their already basketball size. With a simple motion every single fireball launched at Will. Will panicked for only a moment before feeling a weird sensation come about him. He stopped running and faced all the fireballs holding a hand out towards them shouting "Seventh Legend, Aias!". As Will did so his right eye seemed to give off a visible deep purple glow of energy as seven 10ft in diameter disks made from a purple energy popped into being in front of the boy ready to shield him. "You think that will stop me!? Ha! In your dreams, fake!" Frey shouted as the fireballs grew in size yet again then rained down on Will. Will simply stood behind his shields as the fireballs collided with them.


    The first two shields broke after taking ten hits but the remaining five shields stood strongly in place as the rain of fireballs engulfed them. The shields continued to hold up as Frey started launching fireball after fireball down in a fit of rage. Will had no idea where the shields came from or how he knew to use them, but he had a strange feeling and that led him to use it, which thankfully paid off. Frey on the other hand kept sending more fireballs but the shields never budged anymore. Eventually Frey fell down to one knee having exhausted most of his energy. Will took this moment to switch to the offensive and started launching energy blasts from behind his shields. Frey had taken a few hits before he moved to dodge the rest of the blasts. The older male sent more fireballs Will''s way as he ran trying to break the shields in vain. When Frey stopped moving again Will took the opportunity to move in on him. Although Frey was expecting Will to come in to attack he was actually surprised that the boy actually bee-lined right past him in a burst of speed instead. "You dirty little sneak!" Frey shouted as he wanted to continue fighting Will but ultimately couldn''t continue. Their battle had ended there, and Will was the victor who now moved swiftly towards the old training center.


    On the other side of the building a battle still raged. Jacob and Damian we''re having a firefight, literally, with Leona supporting as much as possible by blocking attacks with water. Though no matter what they were doing Damian was overpowering them with sheer force from his flames. The fight seemed to drag on forever for the two as they couldn''t come up with a way to beat him, but after a bit Leona thought of something. "Hey Jacob, slowly start moving to the right. Just trust me." Leona told him as she started to move. Jacob only nodded and began slowly moving as well while he attacked. Damian in the meantime just kept throwing fireball after fireball at them without really taking the fight seriously, they were weak in his eyes. After a few moments Leona and Jacob stopped moving. It only took one glance backwards from Jacob to understand what Leona was trying to do, so he trusted her with his back. After a moment of relentlessly trading blows Jacob gave Leona an opening to attack. With one hard shove Leona harnessed water from the large fountain behind her and sent a massive amount of water rushing at Damian. Damian didn''t really expect this much from Leona so he didn''t really have time to react. The older male could only throw up a thick shield of fire which when met with the water and created a huge amount of steam. From within the steam basketball sized fireballs launched forth with accompanying jets of water. Damian was forced to bring up another stronger fire shield to block these attacks.


    In the meantime Lily and Nora''s battle with Artemus was going just as smooth. With each gust of wind from the older male Lily would have to muster up a gust just as powerful to counter it. She could easily feel the difference in their powers by just a few blows, but unlucky for Artemus he had two people to deal with. Nora''s shape shifting proved difficult to counter as she constantly changed between a leopard, hawk, monkey and various other animals to get the best of Artemus. With Lily blocking his wind, Nora was practically free to harass the older male with an onslaught of physical attacks. Artemus did manage to block a majority of them, but he was starting to get worn out quite quickly. "You two are quite the handful. I should have known since your tests in the training room always went smoothly." Artemus commented as he summoned a large gust of wind sending Nora flying in the middle of one of her attacks while she was in mid air.


    Lily quickly helped her friend with a gust of her own from the back trying to stabilize her in air while she grabbed Nora''s hand and held her in place as the wind blew fiercely around them. "Time to stop holding back." Artemus said as the air around him glowed a rather icy shade of blue. There was a reason he held the famous title of ''Windblade'', and the girls were just about to find out why. Before she could react Nora was suddenly struck by such a strong downwards wind it literally took her breath away forcing her to the ground in a gasping fit. Before she could recover though she was hit by a concentrated side wind and flung into the side of the training building with a crunch as a dent was made in the building''s concrete wall. "Nora!" Lily shouted in concern as her friend hit the ground unconscious. Before she could see if the girl was alright, Lily felt a sharp gust of wind go by barely missing her as if it was a warning. "Let''s see how good you are Lily!" Artemus shouted as visible crescents of wind launched in her direction at an alarming speed. Lily only managed to dodge them, not even attempting to block head on. Artemus had taken it easy on Nora since she didn''t have a large connection with Will, but Lily was another story.


    Artemus felt he couldn''t go easy on her as she could potentially put a wrench in their plans to bring Spike back, so he sent windblade after windblade at her. Lily barely managed to dodge from side to side by pushing herself with wind and stumbling about, causing herself to get small cuts here and there from windblades in the process. Sure enough though her thoughts were focused on what she could do in this current situation, which wasn''t really much besides try to survive. After glancing at Artemus after a while the young girl determined he wasn''t going to be letting up anytime soon so she needed to make a move eventually. At one point she decided to try something crazy. Lily proceeded to clear her mind as much as possible and focus on forming her own windblade while she dodged. Finally when she felt it may work Lily stood her ground against an incoming windblade and launched her own windblade to meet it. The two collided and canceled each other out completely. "What!? That''s impossible!" Artemus shouted in an uncharacteristic rage that actually threw Damian, Jacob, and Leona off causing them all to stop fighting for a brief moment to see what was going on before they continued on with their battle. As Artemus launched windblade after windblade Lily did the same, causing them to form a stalemate of sorts as each blade canceled the other out.


    Only growing ever more frustrated Artemus started launching as many blades as he could muster at Lily trying to overwhelm her. Lily stood her ground and matched blade for blade though, which only caused Artemus to start to panic. Within his panic Artemus started to launch less and less blades as Lily moved to overpower him, but this panic didn''t seem to last long as the older male regained his composure and thus started to match Lily again. It had been quite some time since this wind fight started and neither person seemed to be giving in. Finally Lily decided to try one gutsy plan out that would be an all or nothing. As the windblade volleys clashed she slowly built up small pockets of wind under her heels. On the next volley of clashing windblade''s Lily shot forward to Artemus''s side with incredible speed while gathering as much visible wind around her right fist as possible while cocking it behind her. "What!?" Artemus said with eyes wide as he didn''t even have time to physically react as Lily''s fist connected into his left side sending him hurtling into the side of the new training center with a loud impact as concrete dented inwards. After that kind of impact Artemus fell to the ground unconscious, severely injured but still alive. "Ya know.. Types like you who just send out attacks and use huge numbers to overwhelm your enemies, are physically weak. Especially wind users. Luckily I trained to combat that problem with Jacob a long time ago." Lily said as she stood there panting for a moment as her body felt like it was nearing it''s limit.


    The young girl didn''t get to rest for long as she heard a "Damn you!" before having to dodge a fireball that was launched her way. Damian was clearly pissed that his friend lost so of course he would retaliate the only way he could at the moment. "Lily go! Go to Will! We can hold him off!" Leona shouted as Jacob and her worked to keep Damian at bay. "No! I can''t leave you guys! We can finish him together!" Lily shouted as she turned towards Damian to jump into the frey. "Lily don''t you dare! Will is waiting! You need to get to him before it''s too late!" Jacob shouted to her as he and Leona swiftly changed positions to stand between Lily and Damian to block the latter''s attacks from reaching her. Lily couldn''t argue with her friends at this point as she started to head towards the old training center as fast as she could. "No you don''t!" Damian said as he stopped launching fireballs and sent out a huge fireblast towards Lily. Jacob swiftly moved to intercept with his own fireblast and the two got locked into a sort of power struggle of fire blasts while Lily escaped to catch up with Will.


    A bit after getting past Frey, Will finally arrived outside the old training center. Although he heard the sounds of battle in the distance he did not move to join them, which was rather difficult since his instinct told him to head that way. To his surprise though the doors were already opened to the building. Will cautiously walked into the building turning on the lights as he did so since the main light switches seemed to be near the front door. He made sure to stay on guard in case any more people in trench coats popped out to attack him. As he carefully moved down the abandoned hallways Will made sure to double check each room. The place was definitely abandoned as well as so run down that the ceiling had actually collapsed down in some hallways and half the lights seemed to work making some hallways look like they were straight out of a horror film. Will did his best though to make his way to where his heart lead him, as that was the only way he knew how to go. His chest had a very funny feeling, but it seemed to intensify the closer he got to what he assumed was his destination. Finally Will ended up outside of a door that was partially open with one side half off its hinges. The boy felt a cold air coming from the other side of the door but his chest held a familiar warmth within it. With a little effort Will took the door off its hinges and set it in the hallway then stepped into the room. Will was actually not surprised as he saw the same room from Spikes memories. The training room was filled with metal spikes and a metal sphere sitting towards the middle of the room. "I guess my summer vacation is.. over." Will muttered as he thought of how he could get to the sphere in the middle, but as he took one step fully into the room spikes started retracting making a pathway to the sphere. Will slowly made his way out to the sphere which slowly started to glow with a faint white light.


    In the meantime Lily arrived at the old training center doors. Finding them open didn''t surprise her as she figured Will had come through before her. Though to be safe she still entered the building with plenty of caution. Lily slowly made her way through the building while trying to think of how she would stop whoever was making Will do this. After checking most of the rooms her head began to pound as pieces of memories started to flash through her mind. Most of these were of her team training in here, but there always seemed to be a team she didn''t recognize in the background. As she moved further towards her goal the memories came more often and often were of a black haired male who was faced away from her, although when he turned his face was blurred out. "That must be.. Spike." Lily muttered as she saw an open doorway coming up ahead. She could feel a cold breeze from the door as she approached and as she entered the cold air hit her fully.


    Lily stood there with her breath taken away as she looked out into the large room filled with metal spikes. Sure enough though after a solid minute of taking it in her eyes focused on a boy standing a couple feet in front of a sphere towards the center of the room. There was a bright light coming from there even though the room was fully lit, the light from there was especially bright. "Will!" Lily yelled as she quickly jogged up the cleared path towards the male. "Wh-What? Lily! What are you doing here? It''s dangerous." Will asked as he turned around to the surprise voice that called his name. The boy had been very deep in thought as he stood in front of the sphere for quite some time. "Will. You can''t join him! If you do, you might not be able to come back!" Lily told him with worry in her voice. Will was about to tell her to go when she mentioned joining with someone, which clued him in that she knew what was going on. "Lily.. You know about Spike?" Will asked in a confused tone as he didn''t know what to think anymore. He had learned the truth not too long ago and was just going to leave his team since they may just forget him anyway.


    Although if they knew what was going on then that was a rather different situation he obviously didn''t plan for. "Yes. Well, sorta. We just learned about him from Damian and Artemus before they fought us.." Lily told him as she rubbed her arm starting to feel sore from the fighting. "Oh I see.. Wait, you fought with Artemus and Damian?" Will questioned before his brain put two and two together. "So that was the fighting that I heard in the distance.. Damn. If I knew it was you guys I would have come to help." Will said as he hung his head while he mentally punched himself before remembering to ask her something important "Wait Lily,. Did you guys meet with anyone in these black trench coats and hats?". Lily thought for a moment before shaking her head "No we didn''t meet anyone like that. Jacob, Leona, Nora and I only met with Damian and Artemus. We didn''t see anyone else". Will nodded along as he felt bad for not going to help them, although he didn''t know what he''d do if he had to fight Damian and Artemus.


    It was at this moment Will and Lily took a good look at one another. Lily looked like she had just gone through hell; Her clothes were ripped in places, her shoulder length hair was slightly a mess from what he guessed was intense wind, she was bleeding in spots from small cuts all over, and yet she was standing here to stop him still. Will on the other hand was in a pretty battered shape; His clothes were torn in places, he was definitely bleeding in spots, he had various burn marks from flames and electricity all over his arms from where attacks from Frey and Viveen got through, his legs were bruised and bleeding in spots, and yet here he still was ready to finish what he seemingly started. The two of them locked eyes after a moment and smiled. Lily smiled happily, but Will''s smile was more apologetic as the light behind him grew brighter and closer. Lily looked into his deep blue eyes and tears started to well up in her eyes. "Will.. W-Will no." Lily started to stammer out as she reached for his hand. "P-Please don''t go. You can''t go." She said as she held onto his hand as he slightly turned towards the light coming from the sphere behind him. "I know, but I have to Lily. It''s for the best." Will told her calmly as he turned back and looked into her beautiful green eyes.


    Will was being slightly pulled backwards towards the sphere by an invisible force. "B-But Will, We need you. I need you. Who''s gonna goof around with Jacob? O-Or help Leona and I with shopping?" Lily asked him as tears started to drip down her cheeks. "Hey, can you let me borrow your heart? Just before I go through with this?" Will asked her as he felt himself being pulled closer and closer by this light to the sphere until his back was right to it. For a moment Lily didn''t understand but then she smiled, laughed, and nodded while still holding his hand saying "Yeah. Yeah you can borrow half of my heart. But only if I can borrow half of yours.". Will just smiled softly to her saying "You will always have all of my heart Lily.. I''ve never gotten a chance to say it but..." He paused in between his words nervously before solidifying his resolve, although he didn''t know how to say what he really felt to her. Lily only held firmly to his hand listening to his words intently as Will''s body started to get pulled into the sphere by tendrils of light wrapping around his body as the light behind him intensified.


    "I-I''m glad I got to meet you, and Jacob, and Leona, and everyone else. This time with you guys has made me so happy. I hate that it has to come to an end so soon y''know." Will told her with a smile as tears starting to form in his eyes as he sank into the light with only his head, the left arm Lily was holding, and part of his torso sticking out now. "No! Don''t say that as if this is goodbye. Please, just stay here with me." Lily pleaded with him as she felt him sinking more and more into the sphere with each second that passed. Tears continually streamed down her face as Lily had a feeling that once he was fully in the sphere, Spike would awaken. "I wish I could stay, but he''s waiting.. B-but, I''ll come back for you! I promise!" Will shouted as now only his hand was sticking out from the sphere but Lily could still hear his voice. As Will''s hand started to slip through hers, Lily remembered something very important she needed to tell him. "W-Will! I love you!" Lily shouted as loud as she could for him to hear. As his hand slipped through hers into the sphere Lily could only hear a few words for a reply as the room around her was enveloped in a bright flash of white light.


    "I love you, too."

 13 Epilogue: One me, Two Hearts

    The clickety clacking of the train running on it''s tracks woke Spike from his sleep. He felt a familiar weight on his left side which was Eevi laying on him with her arms wrapped around his a little tightly. Next to her was a green hair girl Spike vaguely remembered, but since she was sleeping on Eevi then she must have been a friend. Spike groggily looked across from him and silently watched Damian and Artemus who were also sleeping on the bench across from him. Things had happened so quickly after Spike had woken up in the training center that he didn''t even have time to think straight about anything.


    When he had come to his body was stiff and weak, but Lily was the one who helped him out of the broken sphere he was laying in. Spike had no idea why the younger girl was there or even why she was crying. His head pounded every time he thought about it and his chest hurt. Not long after Lily helped him out of the sphere, Eevi showed up with a battered Damian and Artemus in tow. As the team had finally reunited the building they were in started to crumble around them forcing Eevi to transport them all via her powers to the outside. When they got out they were just outside the front door. About a dozen people in trench coats and fedoras had them surrounded from the start, Principal Tempus was there as well and shouted for their capture. Eevi hardly had time to recover from the first jump when she transported them all yet again to the school''s tram station. It was there that Lily had told them to flee while she would stay behind for her own team. Spike was too weak to argue with her but something in him made him make her promise to follow after them. The younger girl had agreed as Damian and Artemus brought Spike onto the train. With a last hug between the two girls the small team left on a train off the Island to Matin town.


    Once in Matin town the small group stopped at Eevi, Damian, and Artemus''s place to recover briefly and pack what they could. The boys had laid Spike down on a couch while they hastily packed whatever supplies, medical or otherwise, they had stashed here. Eevi still had half of her things here as well so she packed what she could then sent Shura a short message to meet them on the next train out of the city to the capital. Eevi then met back up with the boys confirming what supplies they had before they made ready to leave. As they left their apartment the small team was attacked by more of what they assumed were Tempus''s forces, as they all wore the same black trench coat and fedora combo. Damian and Artemus quickly helped them lose their pursuers, using walls of flame and large blasts of wind to cut off their pursuers or send them flying in some cases. The group left the town by hopping onto one of the many small trams that went through town then onto another actual train at the south eastern train station. The major train they hopped was heading farther into the country they currently were in, Maona, towards the capital city of Corslad. From Corslad, Artemus told them they had more options of transportation as the city was massive in comparison to Matin town. Also Tempus''s forces might not reach that far yet. For now though they had to run as fast and as far as possible. After scouting the train out for a little bit to make sure there were no pursuers, the group of four concluded that the train was safe for them to rest on.


    Spike must have immediately fallen asleep as he didn''t remember much after sitting down for a brief moment on a passenger bench after confirming the train cars they checked were safe. Since apparently this girl with the green hair joined them he must have missed a little bit. Although looking out the windows of the train he could tell they had been traveling for a while as the sun had set more since they originally boarded, so maybe he missed more than he though. Spike would have to ask one of the others about what happened after he fell asleep later. He vaguely remembered seeing a similar scene not long ago, as well as briefly smelling the familiar scent of the ocean, although he couldn''t tell if he was the one who had seen it as his memory was foggy. "That must have been his memory.." Spike muttered as he could only watch as the sun slowly went down, turning the afternoon to night. "I promise.. You''ll get back to them, Will." Spike said feeling a light ache in his chest while confirming the resolve for his own promise he had made his other half when they last spoke. Although he was awake for a bit, Spike drifted back to sleep after a while while listening to the train noise and resting his head lightly on Eevi''s.


    The clickety clacking noise of the train helped ease it''s passengers to sleep, for what lies ahead upon their arrival to their destination is the dawn of a new day, and what that new day will bring only fate will tell. For we all, want to be reunited with the one thing we are currently missing.


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