Eye of the Tiger

[ken]

--open

Currently Kennedy Cavan floated several feet off the ground, one arm encircled in flame while he attempted to lift several rocks into the air. The single tasks alone would stress his mind, and performing all of them at once was nearly killing him. But he knew he had to do it, had to practice these things . If he didn't master his Gift, then he was going to hurt someone. And he couldn't afford to hurt most of the someones in his life.

So he practiced.

Lately he couldn't seem to get rid of the Flight Gift even if he tried. He'd been spending so much time with Angela that he nearly always had it. As such, it was getting easier and easier to control it. The pyrokinesis was in nearly the same boat. That was Kellan's Gift, after all, and she was one of his closest friends.

And, well, he had slightly sinister reasons for practicing Telekinesis.

Beneath him and off to the side was an old boom-box, blaring out classic rock. In truth, Kennedy preferred other music, but he had to take what he could get. Besides, thinking about having the eye of the tiger really pumped him up.

"Alright, here we go," he murmured, waving his hand. The flames slowly stretched out to encircle the rocks, and Kennedy tried to form a flaming eye in the air. Didn't do too bad, either.

[Leogare Lasteulf]

Being in a new place was no reason to let yourself get out of shape, so Leo decided to get out and exercise. He'd been cooped up in jail for too long for his tastes, and now he was free to live again.

Living for him usually involved some kind of a physical activity. And so he ran, making some rather sharp turns to the gasps of what he supposed were students. Some of them looked pretty weird, but then he supposed that was what the guy meant by 'special' people.

He was running along at his fast pace when he saw something that made him stop on a dime.

There was a guy, flying in the air, with his arm on fire and it looked like he was lifting rocks like he was Yoda or something.

Leo merely sat back and whistled before running directly under the guy, who looked roughly his age.

"And what do you call all that then?" He called up, interested in this. Maybe he could learn how to harness fire too?

[ken]

The flames went out.

Which, for Kennedy, was a huge hint that another Gifted One had just wandered within the range of his strange Gift. Someone with a Gift that did not match one he already had. And one that, fortunately, was not one of the harder to control Gifts. Kennedy did not feel himself suddenly teleporting away, and time hadn't stopped. Even better: no extra thoughts invaded his head. For a few moments, he didn't speak, trying to figure out what exactly he had picked up.

Finally he looked around, eventually catching sight of who he presumed was a student. The other guy looked on with awe, which meant he was probably fairly new to the Academy. Occasionally older student marveled when Kennedy combined Gifts, and this was an impressive performance. But this guy's look seemed a lot more genuine.

"Flight, Pyrokinesis, and Telekinesis," offered Kennedy. Since he'd shifted focus, most of the rocks dropped. He had to actually think to lower himself to the ground, and he nodded in the direction of the newcomer. "I'm a sponge. I hold three other people's Gifts at once. Lost the pyro stuff when you showed up, but I honestly can't tell what your Gift is."

Kennedy chuckled, waving a hand, "and I usually can."

[Leogare Lasteulf]

A sponge eh? That was pretty damn cool. "Hmmm, nice little trick there. Must be a little unreliable though...never knowing what your gonna get...I mean whoever ya take the stuff from knows how to use it a whole lot better then you do, right?" For his own curiosity he went over and kicked one of the rocks. Nope, it was real.

"Huh, go figure." He said, still not answering the man's round-about question. "So you don't know what you just copied from me? Presuming I do have one of these 'gifts'? That seems like it would be a downside to all those fancy tricks of yours if you don't know exactly what you are doing." He paced around, trying to see if there was some trick to this all. None that he could see, which explained a lot.

"So you say flying, controlling fire and moving things with your mind? How many different 'gifts' you guys got around here anyway?"

Even those who moved fast could be slow.

[ken]

In a few short sentences, this new student had proven that he certainly wasn't a member of Edengrowth house. Or else he was the mentally deficient second-cousin of the house. Kennedy doubted that though.

"Sometimes I know, usually, in fact," admitted Kennedy. He shrugged. "But some Gifts are more noticeable than others. The subtle ones are harder to figure out. If I played a bit, I'd probably figure out what you did. Wouldn't take me that long, either. But you're right."

He nodded in Leo's direction. "I don't know the Gifts as well as their users, and I don't get to keep them. Kind of a decent trade off for having three at once, I suppose."

Kennedy turned slightly, looking to the Academy. How many Gifts were there? Kennedy had experience quite a few first hand, but even he couldn't enumerate them all. A bunch. Which was a horrible answer.

"There's more than I care to count," he offered, looking back at Leo. "I think I've gone through several dozen, haven't bothered counting them."

He shrugged.

"Sorry I can't give you more than that."

[Leogare Lasteulf]

At the mention of several dozen, that he had seen Leo slapped a hand to his forehead. "Ya gotta be kidding me! It's like a freaking comic book over here, what the hell is with you people? And by the way, what did that guy call it? Umm..." He thought for a second, trying to recall high school science. Well the part of it he didn't sleep through or cut.

A pretty small selection.

"I think he called it...Kin-something manipulation. Basically I'm fast, and I can change direction quicker then any normal person could. That and I don't really 'accelerate'." He explained. Leo hated sounding stupid, but he wasn't used to having to explain stuff like this to other people.

He wasn't a science teacher after all!

Then something occurred to him, something interesting.

"Hey wait a minute." He said. "You've got my power now, which means you can start and stop as quickly as I can...almost." A big grin spread on his face, it had been a while since he had competition in a foot race. "How about a race then? After all, you were trying out your sponge powers weren't you?"

[ken]

"Comic book's a pretty accurate description," agreed Kennedy, chuckling under his breath. Just wait until Leo met faeries and dragons. If he thought Gifted Ones were bad, they were at least believable.

"Kinetic Manipulation," supplied Kennedy. As usual, he'd heard of the Gift. When you could pick up anyone's powers, it was in your best interests to learn just what you could find yourself with. Besides, Kennedy had run into someone with KM before, and the result hadn't been pretty. Fortunately there was a regen nearby, or else Kennedy's nose would look extremely unattractive.

"A race?" Kennedy considered that for a few moments. "Usually my sister's more of the competitive sort. I suppose I could give it a shot, give me a chance to work on controlling KM a bit more. Did you have any particular route or something in mind? I mean, I know the area better than you, right? so we should probably pick a straight shot or something fairly equal. Unless you want to give me a handicap."

Kennedy grinned, sticking his hands in his pockets. He knew his best chance of winning lay in using his two other Gifts as well. Should be easier to win if you could fly over or telekinetically move any obstacles in your way.

[Leogare Lasteulf]

Did this sponge really think that he could keep up with Leo? With a stolen power? Hmph, Leo had plenty of training as a world class runner, even without this gift. He wasn't THAT much faster then the professional runners, it's just that he could get to top speed immediately without needing to accelerate.

"Psh, your gonna need a handicap to keep up with me. You pick the course then Mr. Sponge." Leo said stretching out his legs. It had been far too long since he'd had a good foot race, it'd be interesting.

"Any course you can think up, I can run." He added, as a little jab.

[ken]

Confidence was certainly something that Leo had no shortage of. If Kennedy had to guess, the student was a member of Almasy house. Possibly Cavan, but if so, then he'd have had a slightly bigger reaction to Kennedy. So, definitely an Almasy.

Again, Kennedy thought of his sister.

"Right. Well, from here we should head off to the Gardens, from there we should angle around the Academy. I think there's an outside track in the back. If so, we should probably go ahead and do a lap there. Then, we head back here," Kennedy nodded. "Top speed, shouldn't take all that long."

And there were tons of shortcuts between here and there. Even more if Kennedy decided to simply fly to the track in back. But that struck him as being juts a little too underhanded. No, he'd at least run the race, he'd just make certain to use every advantage he could find.

[Leogare Lasteulf]

Leo moved his finger around, following the trail Kennedy had outlined, seemed simple enough. And then he mentioned going full speed the whole way and Leo bit back a laugh.

He wasn't kidding when he said he didn't know how the powers worked. Oh this would be fun. It wasn't like he had super human stamina, you still got tired, it just removed the time to accelerate. And most people couldn't sprint at full speed for longer then thirty seconds of so.

He grinned and stretched out his legs. "Ready whenever you are Mr. Sponge." Leo said. "What say the starting pistol be dropping one of your boulders. When it hits the ground we start?"

Hmm, through the Gardens, around a track, and back to here. Nothing overly complicated, but lots of people in the way. He could get around them without losing speed, but he wondered if Kennedy had the skill to manipulate the power like that.

[ken]

"It's Kennedy, not sponge," Kennedy shot back, grinning. This was going to be kind of fun, even if Kennedy didn't figure he'd actually win the race. He just wanted to try out the Gift.

Wait, if he ran into three people, he'd lose the Gift, and then he'd be screwed. This was going to be chancy, and Kennedy would have to work extra hard to avoid anyone else. Or to at least stay close enough to the other guy that he could keep the Kinetic Gift.

"Rock dropping?" repeated Kennedy. He looked to a rock, mildly surprised to find it still floating in space. Nodding, he turned back to Leo. "Sounds good to me."

Kennedy took a starting position, remembering it from watching his sister, more than anything else. After all, Kennedy wasn't exactly an athlete, just a fit guy who enjoyed stuff like this.

a rock hovered in the air, and the others dropped. After a few seconds, Kennedy looked to Leo, nodded, and let go of the rock.

The second it hit the ground, Kennedy launched into speed. He knew just enough about the kinetic Gift to give him a burst, but it couldn't be nearly that of Leo's. For now, the older youth focused on just keeping up. He'd buy extra time elsewhere.

[Leogare Lasteulf]

"Leo." He said smartly, nodding to Kennedy. "Ok then." He said, standing next to Kennedy, ready to run.

And then the rock fell, and it thudded into the ground. And Kennedy took off at a decent speed, which Leo matched, stride for stride. While he could pull ahead, he knew the disadvantages of going too fast out the gate, you got tired. So he hung back and conserved his energy. The first stop was the garden, and he figured Kennedy probably knew the best path, if he followed him, he'd save his energy, reduce time, and then pull ahead in the end. A brilliant and ingenious plan.

"Better get outta tha way!" Leo shouted to a crowd ahead of them. "I'll sooner run ya over then go around!" He added, not showing any sign of slowing down for the dispersing crowd.

[ken]

Again, Kennedy remembered his chances of surviving a crowd unscathed. He lurched to the side, levitating himself slightly. This diverted his course, and put him behind Leo. But it also let him keep the trio of Gifts he started with, and more or less continue in the same direction.

It hadn't taken them long, at this speed, to get into the more populated areas of the gardens. Which meant that Kennedy had to play "dodge the people" far more than he wanted to. He was tempted to try and buzz crowds, trying to see if he could pick up a beneficial Gift. If he snagged phasing, he was set. Just plow right through obstacles, and hope he didn't lose it partway through.

On second thought, maybe he didn't want phasing.

"Get outta the way!" he yelled, thrashing his hand. People were used to seeing people dash about and play with powers, and reflexively dodged when the two came close. Besides, no one wanted to interfere with a popular tutor.

[Leogare Lasteulf]

Leo grinned as Kennedy was more then adamant about people getting out of his way, he must not have mastery of the power like Leo did, that made things easier. Kennedy started losing some speed, so Leo decided he might as well pull ahead now. Not like Kennedy was going to beat him in a flat out race, so once he got to the track he was ok.

So then he started taking a round about way around the gardens, messing with the students as he passed.

"Hah!" He grinned after he slapped a kid on the back and was gone before he turned around. "What's wrong? Too tough for you to adapt to?" He called back to Kennedy.

[ken]

Now Kennedy simply took a long jump, flying over several students. Literally.

He grinned down at Leo as he landed closer to him. The speedster still had a lead, and probably would for some time now. But Kennedy had still managed to catch up some distance with his long jump.

"Three at a time!" Kennedy yelled back. He suddenly felt his Gifts shift, and his vision suddenly intensified. The distortion left him slightly dazed, and he ran directly into a shrubbery.

"Sonuva!" he cursed, blinking. His vision adapted to the new Gift quickly enough, and he fought his way out of the leafy mess.

But now he was even further behind Leo, and had little chance of catching up. Unless the other guy got cocky or ran into something himself.

"Can only hope," muttered Kennedy as he hurried to keep up.