Working Himself to Death(OPEN)

[Cole Kessler]

His breathing heavy, Cole's heart raced as he channeled his power through his body. His arms felt like they were about to fall off, his legs were weakening more and more with each passing minute, sweat dribbled down his forehead and cheeks and finally dropping from his chin beard. His hair shone in the light around him and seemed to stick to his skin as if it were a freshly applied bandage. His body longed for a break in the action, his eyes and mind longed for a warm bed or a nap, or practically any type of sleep.

This had been the scene for about a week now as Cole tried to erase Taeyeon from his mind. His shallowness, and recent run-through of women, still hadn't given him the mindset he needed to get over her and their relationship-that-once-was. So in turn he had been training day in and day out, working his body to death. For him, the bright side of it was that it kept his mind off of her. The wear and tear on his body, however, would eventually take hold of him.

He looked down the make-shift shooting range he'd built up a few days ago. Using it to help him fire projectiles at empty plastic bottles. Allowing him better control over projecting his electrical power into reality. He'd actually learned to generate his own electric current by drawing upon his neurosystem. Harnessing his inner neuro-electric energy and projecting it into a physical form.

--C'mon, Cole! You can do this! Just focus!-- He yelled at himself in his mind. His eyes began to glow a teal hue as the electrical current around him manifested as small discharges around his arms. His breathing grew heavier as he held his right arm up, palm facing the bottles. His left arm curled at the elbow, a clenched fist at it's wrist. Cole's heavy breathing grew into growling and finally a minor roar as he launched his shot.

The bolt flew down the range cutting easily through the bottle and slamming into the rubber padding he'd placed behind the ledge to cancel out the discharge. Cole's arms relaxed, still noticably twitching as his blood and adrenaline pulsed through him. He walked over to the nearby bench and grabbed his cigarettes and lighter. He looked around to make sure no faculty members were around him and once confirming it, lit his smoke and took in his first drag in the past six hours.

[Levente Cohen]

Levente was mopping up the floors near the training rooms, when he heard noise coming from one of the rooms. Normally, he wouldn’t have bothered to check it out. After all it was a training room. But the noise was familiar in a way he couldn’t place at first. He reached the doorway just in time to see the boy fire a bolt at a bottle. Of course, he thought to himself. Electricity.

Levente hovered in the doorway for a moment while the boy sat down to enjoy his smoke, before he walked over to approach him. “Those things will kill ya,” he said. He was about to scold the kid, or at least make him put out his cigarette, but he noticed the boy looked troubled about something and thought better of it.

Instead Levente turned to face where the bottle had been sitting at the end of the range. Gathering a ball of current in his hand, he shot it to hit the spot that the kid had just hit. “Havin’ a rough day?” Levente asked, still looking down the range.

[Cole Kessler]

Cole took another drag and laid his head back. Trying to let everything in his head go and jump off a cliff. The problem with that is that they wouldn't let up. Between nightmares and bad thoughts Cole wasn't sure if he wanted to go jump off a cliff himself.

As he let out another puff of smoke, he heard a voice from behind him. Spooked for a bit, he froze, hoping that it wasn't a professor. He slowly turned to face the man. Just as he did, the man walked around in front of him. He addressed Cole and did just as the boy had just done with his power. Cole quietly put out his cigarette before addressing the man.

"Honestly, 'Rough day' doesn't even cover it. Rough two or three weeks is more like it." Cole stood up, "I recognize you. Your in maintenance aren't you? You're, uh, you're Mr. Cohen aren't you?"

[Levente Cohen]

Levente was glad the kid put out his smoke without having to be forced. Levente hated being the bad guy. He tended to let a lot of the kids slide with rule breaking. Especially if he could easily tell they were having a bad day. Levente understood bad days.

As he turned to face the kid, he gestured toward the mop and bucket he had left by the door. “Yeah,” he said. “I’m Mr. Fix-it. Or I guess Mr. Clean today.” He smiled when the kid knew his name. Some of the kids never bothered to remember it. After all, he was just the maintenance man. “Call me Levente. Mr. Cohen is my father.” He knew that line was a bit of a cliché but the truth was Mr. Cohen made him feel way too old.

“Sorry to hear that,” Levente paused. He knew men, especially young men, weren’t all that into talking about their feelings. But he could tell the kid was feeling troubled. “Ya need anything?” he asked, hoping the kid would realize he was being sincere.

[Cole Kessler]

Cole laughed as Levente joked about his duties today, "Okay, Levente." It was good the maintenance man had come through. Cole was lonely, and the images running through his head were less than ideal. It was a dark time in his life at this point. At least with the jokes, Levente could help shine a little light in that time.

Cole thought long and hard on the man's question to him, "Not unless you know anything that can remove the crap from my heart. Sometimes, I really dislike women. It's mainly my fault when I go through a break-up, or at least I think so." Cole explained, "I mean, hell, I kinda just popped into her life outta nowhere and we started dating like two days later."

Cole stopped himself there. He didn't want to bore the janitor with his "poor-pitiful-me" sob stories.

[Levente Cohen]

Levente was glad that the kid could at least still laugh. When Levente had his down days it was hard for him to manage a smile, much less laugh. “So what’s your name, kid?” He felt bad for not knowing, but it wasn’t like he was a teacher or a trainer. So he didn’t have as much interaction with the students. He tried to make the time for getting to know most of them, but he didn’t know near enough of their names.

If the kid had been older, Levente would have offered to take him out to the bars to get sloppy drunk. But other than that, he couldn’t really think of much relationship advice. “Yeah women can be like that,” he said, already feeling horrible for not having much else to offer. He sighed.

“I dunno if it would help, but your more than welcome to chat, or vent, with me. Anytime. Seriously.’ He looked at the kid, hoping he sounded trust-worthy. “I know I’m just the guy with the mop. But I know what it’s like to be going though a hard time. It’s not good to keep it all inside.”

Great, he thought to himself. Now I sound like a shrink.

[Cole Kessler]

Cole stood up, "Some can, sure, but for me it seems like every damn girl I meet ends up dumping me because I'm not the insensitive asshole she thought I was. Women meet me, think I'm an ass because of the general stereotype, and then are disappointed, for reasons unknown to me, because I'm not."

He channeled the neuro-electrical energy of his body again, this time not taking as long, but the bolt not being so powerful. The discharges around his arms were small to non-existant, his breathing just barely heavier than normal. With a smirk, Cole's powers revealed themselves once more. A smaller more versatile bolt flew down the range.

"I appreciate that, Levente. And you're not just a guy with the mop." Cole laughed, "I may just go get drunk tonight. Yeah, yeah, I know I'm not old enough, but High School parties always help."

[Levente Cohen]

“Yeah people’s stereotypes will get you every time,” Levente said as he offered a shrug. Whenever people found out about his mental diagnosis, they automatically labeled him as ‘crazy’ or just plain weak in some way. Even people who had known him for years. “Maybe you should start out with the real you from the first second you meet a girl. Don’t let her label you too quick,” Levente paused. “Of course, I realize that’s not always as easy as it sounds.”

He watched as the kid shot another bolt down the range. He remembered being that age and feeling proud when he finally developed some measure of control over his power. “Nice,” he said, holding back from patting the kid on the shoulder. “Does it usually help your control when you’re angry?” He wasn’t trying to sound like a smart ass, but he knew that usually the calmer he was, the more control he had. So he was just being curious.

“Awh shucks kid,” Levente said, acting a little bashful. When the kid started talking about going out for drinks, Levente felt like he should scold him again. But that wasn’t the kind of man Levente liked to be. So he didn't. “Be safe kid,” he said instead. “And remember that as good as it feels alcohol doesn’t solve everything. When you wake up the next morning, all hung over, the same problems will still be staring you in the face. But I’ll agree that is sure does feel good to forget about things for a night,” he laughed. “Don’t tell the administration I told you that.”