the Mini-Crusher-Tournie - 11. Training

This room was specifically designed for someone with Jane's power. She knelt down, panting with exhaustion. Physically, mentally and energetically drained. The matts and padded walls were alight in several places with scarlet fire. Blake had told her that the materials in this room were fire retardant. Although he'd said 'fire retarded' and she didn't know why.

She wiped sweat from her forehead and flicked her lank ponytail over her shoulder. Panting. It was the fifth day of their preparation week, and finally Jane was starting to see results. Blue fire training, the colour above red fire, had been Jane's first idea. But expecting to improve it after only a week was a lot, and despite working hard the first two days she'd got no results with it. So after talking one-on-one with her elemental he'd come up with another idea for her. So she'd been training in something else instead.

Jane slowly got to her feet and walked to the corner of the room. A few scrolls sat safely away from her fire training, one of them open and showing descriptions of her current training. These came from the Zorgon Fire Temple. Someone appeared in the doorway and gently knocked.

"Ah, hey Jane."

"Lorac?" she turned and saw the small purple-haired boy, giving her a nervous smile.

"You guys sure have been training hard."

"We don't have much of a choice. We're all up against really strong fighters." Jane closed the scroll and started putting them away in her backpack.

"Yeah… I've been hanging out with Leaf."

"Really?" Jane was surprised. Leaf wasn't a trusting person – he was only comfortable with her and Marine.

"He's also fighting Ophelia, so…"

"Right." Jane recalled the fight between Lorac and Ophelia, the one before hers. "It was lucky she fought you. With your power she couldn't leave a scratch."

"I still lost." The meek boy lightly kicked his toes against the ground. "I can turn completely into smoke, but it drains my energy the longer I'm in that state. So I get exhausted if I can't stay solid for long enough."

"Well you're better at transformation than Marine or Leaf. Marine can't fully turn into water, part of her has to remain solid. And Leaf's plant-healing can't regenerate from serious injuries." Jane stopped to think. As bad as she might have it, her friends probably had it worse.

Claire's sword-strikes were quick and expertly graceful. She could slash Marine's torso, head and limbs in a three-second sequence. Ophelia was a monster, and if she ever got close to Leaf she'd tear him apart. As terrifying as that was to imagine, Jane couldn't stop thinking of Evan. His frightening proficiency. In her mind he was becoming an ominous inevitability.

"Leaf and Marine want to talk. He just went to find her in the outdoor training area, and he asked me to get you." Lorac's voice snapped her out of her bleak thoughts.

"Right. Let's go then."

Lorac walked comfortably beside Jane, despite his awkwardness. He was unburdened now that he was out of the Mini-Character-Tournie, or whatever ridiculous name the elementals decided to call it. The only other Zorgon loser, the small unkept girl, Joy had been sitting by herself the other day. Just sitting on a bench, undisturbed. Lip twitching as if she were talking with the animal spirits sealed inside her.

The rest of them had the tertiary rounds to worry about.

Between the warehouse-sized training buildings, eventually the outdoor areas came into view. Tennis-court sized fighting spaces. Marine could be seen crouching, Leaf standing beside her. A vast puddle of water reflecting off the ground.

"Hey guys." Jane greeted on approach while Lorac smiled.

"Jane!" Marine chirped.

"You look just as exhausted as us." Leaf pointed out with his arms crossed. They did all look dishevelled and weary. These past few days they'd spent almost every waking minute on improving the skills they'd need.

"Blake's been giving all of us pointers."

"I quote, 'that rigmarole Chris is surely doing everything he can to make sure his Godrid crushers win'." Leaf even pretended to stroke an imaginary beard before his arm dropped from tiredness.

They all turned at the sound of someone else.

"Training hard I hope!" Claire, with her wheat-coloured hair in a usual ponytail, standing cool and confident on the upper balcony of the nearest building. Her smirk widened as she added "Marine."

The Finn girl narrowed her eyes. Claire gave a superior stare as she leant on the railing before straightening up and strolling away.

"You don't think she's been spying on you...?" Leaf wondered.

"Like it matters." Marine sank, her body beginning to droop with her water power. "I'm doomed."

"It's not like you to be negative." Jane pointed out worriedly.

"I've seen Claire in training..."

"If she's been training too that must mean she thinks you're a threat." Lorac pointed out, trying to be helpful.

"No. She's always training." Marine moped. "Even before the tournament. That's why she's so skilled."

Jane frowned. Evan's agility was part of his vague 'to be awesome' power. Claire's power was creating that spirit sword, yet she was so dedicated to combat training that she was a threat even without an extravagant power. She was the perfect crusher - designed to be a fighter.

"We don't know how these fights are going to go until we do them." Jane began. "All three of us have decided what we need to do to beat our opponents. And these past five days we've been training harder than ever to do it. We still have two more days to get it right. We can do this."

She was thinking positive. She had to. Leaf and Marine were surprised, but nodded in agreement.

However unlikely it was, they all had a shot at victory. They needed to imagine what their victory looked like, and try to make that happen.

Jane smiled at her friends "How about a sparring match? It'll prepare us for next round."