Triton Prism - 1. Training

CHAPTER TWO: TRAINING

On the outskirts of the city was Lysander's modern base. It was the tall glass house they lived in, but it was more reminiscent of a base. The blonde man had a left arm of black metal, his orange crystal embedded at his shoulder. That was his elemental crystal – Lysander could never die unless it was broken but doing so was no easy feat. He wore a white kimono-uniform. His only other distinguishable feature was his right eye – red and slitted. The 'Dragon's Eye'.

"I know I'm in trouble for sneaking out and fighting the Titania gang last night," Douglas said as he followed his elemental around the house "but can't you tell me if you have any idea how a Triton clan member could do what I saw?"

"Mutations are always possible," Lysander admitted with a sigh as he entered one of their mission-briefing rooms "But what you've described sounds so unlikely that it's virtually impossible."

"I know!"

Lysander stopped by a corkboard at the end of the room. Pinned up were wanted posters of criminals that the crushers went on missions to capture or kill. One printed picture was a candid shot: a group of three hitmen. A squad consisting of a reedy man, shaved-headed guy and a woman with purple hair. They'd been spotted a few times in the local area but so far haven't been caught.

"You said his name was Reburn?" Lysander picked up a pen and scrawled it on pinned paper, Douglas felt relief that his crazy story was believed. Lysander turned to face him "Elise wouldn't want you risking your life and dying just to avenge her. Think of what it'd do to the others. Now go out the backyard with your siblings, I'm going to introduce the new crusher."

The black-haired teen left the room. He took the long staircase, it bent at square angles down several levels. Abstract paintings lined the walls and there were uni-coloured vases on pillars, everything in the home fitting into a modern aesthetic. Douglas walked the black tiles of the bottom floor, past the granite counter and quietly-running miniature waterfall complete with smooth stones. He passed spiky indoor plants and the sliding door to their backyard.

There was no fence outside, just acres upon acres of long grass, gently rolling until the distant forest. The planet Haphestus was fairly new and only the cities were packed and sprawling. Beyond them there was still loads of unclaimed space.

The other crushers were lingering and sitting by the tall tree outside. Lysander's elephant-sized black dragon lay with them, it had a synthetic black-metal arm of its own. As Douglas walked to the others he saw only two with the dragon… someone was missing.

Vines whipped out from the tree, tying around a lower branch then a girl jumped off from above. Tugging the vine and swinging around, her extended foot aiming for Douglas's face. A hexagon of black metal sprouted from his shoulder and she collided, falling into the grass and clutching her leg with pain.

"Oops… sorry Shari."

"You broke my foot you asshole!" she continued rocking painfully on the ground and the other two ran over.

"Well you were too fast for me to dodge, so take that as a complement." Douglas lied.

"I have got stronger, thank you very much." Sitting up she started testing her sore foot on the ground.

"You're still Mark Two." A big, long-haired boy laughed "Lysander won't let you go on missions until you're Mark Three. Zao's newer than you and even he's Mark Three." He pointed with his thumb to the messy-haired boy beside him.

"Shut up, Kanra…" she mumbled.

"In fact Lysander said I'm almost Mark Four." He puffed his chest out proudly, self-absorbed as always. Kanra had always been obsessed with getting stronger.

"Lysander's coming," Zao rushed "Come on Shari, stand up!"

The four of them faced the house in a line. Their elemental stepped out the back and someone was behind him.

"Okay crushers, I'm going to introduce our newest addition and then we can get started on training. Shari… why are you limping? What's wrong with your foot?"

"Nothing, I uh- fell." From beside her Kanra snickered and Lysander narrowed his eyes.

"We might have to tend to it before training starts. Anyway, this is my newest crusher Yura." From behind him stepped a short girl with white chin-length hair and lavender eyes. She blinked at the others nervously. "Yura, these are your siblings. You're my sixth crusher but there's only five of us. My eldest Elise died about a month ago."

"What happened to her?" Yura turned to him with wide eyes.

"She was killed on a mission fighting the Titania gang. Someone shot her." Lysander raised his arm to draw her attention back to the others "The dragon over there is my personal companion, Lucifer." The black dragon had strolled over and blinked big orange eyes from within its reptilian head. Yura nervously waved while Lysander indicated to each of the crushers in turn "My second eldest crusher is Douglas with the black hair. He's from my Triton clan, a large number of their descendants occupy the city we live close to."

Yura turned her head to the collection of skyscrapers and overpasses to the north. Some of the metal beams being fastened in construction sites were also made from black metal. Lysander drew her attention back to the tallest among them, a boy with tan skin and long, unruly brown hair. He had brown eyes, his fingernails long and broken "My third crusher Kanra. He's infused with cloud dragon DNA which makes him extremely powerful." He gave her a wide grin.

Lysander pointed to the other girl, wheat-blonde hair and green eyes "Shari is my fourth, she has Dranglic nature powers. Vines and other weapons."

Lastly he pointed to the dark-skinned, messy-haired boy "The youngest before you is Zao. Like you, his power is very experimental. I tried to recreate another of Edgar's powers. He can use Marble Style, a variant of earth."

"Yura has another of Edgar's powers?" Douglas spoke up in surprise.

"Yes," the blonde man smirked at his new crusher "Show them what you can do…"

Yura gulped and stepped forward, cupping her hands together. White light shone but within was a mass of blackness. The grass seemed to bunch up by her feet, suddenly it was quickly growing with weeds sprouting tall. A green haze filled the air around her and spread, causing the others to cover their faces and swat at the air.

"Sorry." Yura closed her hands over the mass and it vanished. The green particles started blowing off in the wind.

"Edgar's life bomb power." Lysander explained.

"He's used that to destroy cities!" Douglas exclaimed "It has the destructive capabilities of a nuke!"

"Yura will probably never be that strong, but studying how her power develops will help my understanding and with making adjustments in the future." The green haze was now gone and Yura pulled her legs free, walking away from the patch of tall weeds and grass she'd grown. Lysander became serious "So now we're going to have combat training. Yura can sit out and watch for this one, but it's out to the fields for you four! After we heal Shari's foot…"

Later the four stood at equal distances in the open grassy space away from the house. Lysander stood watching from the sidelines with his arms crossed, Yura with him and the black dragon Lucifer napping behind the two. Shari looked serious, Zao was restless as usual. Kanra was at ease with a big grin on his face, Douglas ready and waiting for the signal.

"Begin!" Lysander shouted, taking a sip from his mug of tea.

Shari sprinted while Zao hesitated. Douglas ran at Kanra who stood haughty and smiling. Only Douglas really stood a chance against the guy cause he'd had more training. Douglas sprouted a black pike, he speared the ground and made it extend, vaulting himself up into the air. Shari made vines tie around Kanra's middle and they tugged ineffectively, her face went red with effort and he only laughed. While overhead Douglas extended his spear again, the end smacking into the back of Kanra's head and making him growl. He was too strong for normal attacks and his skin was impenetrable, only attacks aiming for his balance worked.

Douglas landed and his rod of metal fell in the grass beside him. Zao didn't want to fight Kanra so instead focused on Shari. A slab of marble rose from the ground and severed the vines around her target. Zao jumped at her and they started fighting hand-to-hand combat, stepping around and deflecting strikes and kicks. Kanra turned back to Douglas with a toothy grin, his only opponent. Douglas felt a hit of nerves, Kanra crouched forward and a skin-coloured dragon wing tore apart another of his shirts. The right one wriggled out a little slower, both bat-wings stretching and flapping themselves. Then Kanra raced forward with a roar, direct as always.

Douglas whipped out a black chain and it spun out, aiming for his ankle. He still hadn't mastered the skill yet and the chain broke apart because one of the links was too weak. So instead Douglas jumped aside and formed several throwing stars. He hurled them at the juggernaut and Kanra covered his face with his forearms, the weapons bounced ineffectively off his skin. His wild brown hair trailed after him like a mane.

Douglas dodged to the side as Kanra charged by, then falling to avoid the sweeping net of his wing. Spinning off the ground and up on one knee, Douglas's trusty black scimitar sprouted forth. He jumped and slashed, the blade hitting Kanra's shoulder and causing no damage. He turned, reached for the blade and clenched, snapping the metal in two.

"Dammit…" Douglas jumped back to avoid getting slammed by the wing as Kanra whipped around. He lunged forward with a punch and a hexagonal breastplate barely formed in time as he scored a direct hit. Douglas flew painfully back and tumbled, winded and sore.

Kanra watched him from where he lay, then turned and ran at the other two. He used his fists to punch apart the various marble walls Zao had created while fighting Shari. The girl used her vines to sling-shot herself on top of the slab that remained, it stood eight feet high. Then she jumped and swung again off her vine, foot colliding with Douglas's face just as he was starting to get up.

It was hours later when they finished training. They all sat around and applied healing salve to their injuries. Kanra had none, he sat smugly in a new shirt. Yura had been amazed by their fight and Lysander told her she'd be up at the crack of dawn with them for training tomorrow.

"Are you serious?" Douglas glared at Shari while holding the icepack to his face, it was the most bruised part of his body.

"We were in a fight, got to be on your toes." She wasn't looking at him as she applied the salve to her arms.

"I was clearly down, that was a cheap shot."

It was evening and getting dark. Lysander walked between them to give his ending comments as always.

"Douglas you are getting faster and swifter, but you should be able to better read Kanra's attacks by now. You must quickly learn your enemy's movements and abilities. Kanra you need to practice flying and stop toying around with your enemies so much. Shari you need to make smarter moves, think before you act. Zao you need to take bolder action, hesitation is an opportunity for the enemy to strike and you already know what the others can do. There's no reason to hold back."

The rundown was brief this time. Douglas went into the house with his siblings, most of their pain and stiffness had been removed by the salve. Yura was talking with Shari as they climbed the stairs tiredly. Everyone got off at the upper level, carpeted floors with black-painted walls and doors. They each went to their individual rooms where they'd collapse onto their beds and sleep.