Flight Practise {Tag: Any Keen Power Trainers}OPEN

[Rachael Whitfield]

Rachael paced in circles, taking deep breaths. Her face was red, the usual sign that something had ticked her off. Although if it could be made known, she was always rattled about something.

The grass crunched beneath her sneakers. She didn't like wearing those ugly shoes, but if she was going to practise today she needed sturdy, reliable footwear- not five inch studded wedges.

The rest of her outfit wasn't up to her usual flattering standards, either. She was cloaked in long trackpants, a loose-fitting black top with a large gash ripped from the back and her luscious curls were propped up in a thick hairtye.

The morning sun scorched her face, boldening the colour of her already-crimson skin. It was abnormal weather, but she would just have to deal with it.

As she paced, unbeknownst to her, the lace on her sneakers had wriggled itself loose. Seconds later, and the poor girl had tripped over it, landing stomach first with a smack.

"That's it!" she bellowed. "That's the last straw today!"

As soon as the word " today" left her lips, the familiar boiling sensation rose up behind her cheeks. The skin melted, and out of the mess protruded a mass of brown feathers that scaled her entire face.

So furious, she began to mutter her thoughts outloud. "Fan-friggen-tastic! Wouldn't this just be a perfect time for someone to show up?"

[Alex Cross]

Alex rarely made it out to the training field as his power really didn't call for more than knowledge. Alex had a unique power, one he hadn't seen anyone else at Hammel possessing and one he had never heard of....yet. Alex had the ability to cause pain or pleasure in those he could make skin to skin contact with. As soon as he made contact with someone, he instantly had the ability to sense and sort of psychically see read the road map of nerve endings in their body. As long as Alex continued to touch whomever he was touching, he could alter their nerve endings in either direction. He could increase or decrease pain in their body, either in specific areas or just through out the entire nervous system. It wasn't something he specifically enjoyed doing, or rather the causing pain part of his ability, but he was getting pretty good at it. There had been a few instances at the school when someone had been hurt in some after school sport and Alex was able to take their pain away long enough for the school nurse to do her job. It was a neat power to have to be honest. On the flip side of the coin, he also had the ability to stimulate the pleasure center of the brain to cause it to release all sorts of psychoactive chemicals to bring intense pleasure to the body. Naturally, this made him a popular guy during parties and especially with his girlfriend during their more intimate times. So, with that said, time spent honing his power was spent in the nurses station mostly, not on the training field.

Out of boredom, Alex had wandered out to the training field, just to see who was doing what and what other sorts of powers were out there. He was curious by nature mostly and liked to know what kinds of abilities surrounded him on a daily basis. Truth be known though, Alex had been wanting to learn a bit of hand to hand fighting techniques, mostly for defensive purposes. He had thought about boxing or some mixed martial arts, nothing fancy just some basic moves to keep him from getting his butt handed to him in a fight. Out there on the training field, he might find a trainer who could help him. It never hurt to be prepared for a fight because one never knew when one would pop up.

Slipping his hands into his blue jeans, Alex sighed. He wore a simple white tee shirt today as the weather was nice for a change. The morning sun was bright in the blue sky and washed its heat over Alex's face. He squinted as he caught sight of a small figure pacing back and forth not too far from him. It was a girl, by herself obviously waiting for someone. No doubt she was waiting on her trainer. Alex looked around, not seeing any trainer about and so decided to approach the girl to make some small talk. Don't ask him why he made this decision, he just felt inclined. Ashleigh, his girlfriend, would be busy all day with school work and then some family time with her parents via the web so that left Alex sort of hanging.

As he approached the pacing girl, suddenly she looked as if she got caught up in her own feet and fell face first to the ground. It was hard not to laugh or at least crack a smile which Alex did feeling a bit bad though. He continued to approach the girl, intent on helping her up, but it seemed she didn't need his help. With a very excited yell, the girl's face suddenly burst full of feathers. This alone was enough to make Alex stop, and lucky for him just a step or two shy of the girl. "Wow.....its amazing what sort of just becomes common place after a while," he said, looking at the girl's face. "I mean, someone sprouts feathers all over their face and it just feels normal. Hammel has a way of bending normality that way," he added, holding his hand out to help the girl up.