C’mon. C’mon. Blue lightning buzzed over his fingers, jumping from knuckle to knuckle and dancing between digits. Each fizz and snap came louder as he tried to force the energy into more than just a short-lived burst. “Just… just stay, broooo…”Hands clamped hard around empty air, all ten fingers shuddered as he did his best to form something more long-lived and stable than usual.
Just… All he needed was something solid.
“Just a bat.” Boomer Mojo grit his teeth, pushing the current outward. “Just a simple stupid baseball bat!” Lightning stretched, pulling away from the skin to form a cylinder in the air. Hazy and glowing, sure, but for a half-second it looked almost perfect as it crackled in the air.Then — as soon as Boomer let go of the constant charge, his hands wrapping around the bottom of it — it sputtered out with a pathetic wet bzzzzt, a couple dozen harmless blue sparks scattering across the white GDA floor.“LAAAAAAAAME!”
His still-crackling palms smacked his sides as he let his arms drop, Boomer’s entire posture bottomed; shoulders slumped as he groaned annoyance toward the equally-white ceiling.
With a huff, the Blue Rowdyruff peeked over his shoulder, checking to see if any of his brothers bothered looking his way. “Tell me you saw the bat!”“Nobody saw nothin’.” Across the scorch-marked testing floor, Butch snorted back without even looking his way. “How’d you not see-!”“Shut up, Boom!” His green brother grunted the words. “Training time, not talky time.”“...he’s got a point.” Brick floated a few feet over the center of the training area, a scorched blast zone beneath his feet as half-lidded eyes kept themselves on their target. Thick rings of red glowed around his eyes as Brick pointed one gloved hand out in front of him. For a single second, Boomer could only watch as a pale ripple of flickering red force pulsed from his brother’s palm.
A tungsten target only had an instant more of life as a whole object before the block went bye-bye, the cratered block sent flying a good three dozen feet down the empty space that made up most of Training Sector Four. Before it could go too far, Brick’s palm pulsed again with a twitch of his fingers; air screaming as the block was yanked back in a blink, the heavy target skidding across white plating till it landed right back where it started.
“...you’re so fucking lame, bro. I still say you got that off Naruto.”Brick’s eyes fluttered shut, his older brother’s jaw clicking shut as Butch snorted his way. “For the last time, I did not.” His voice was as calm as ever, even with the sweat Boomer could see beading over his forehead after the last couple hours of this. “It’s an externalized kinetic pulse that I l-”“Pffftttt.”
Boomer bit back a giggle at the fart noise Butch let out with the back of his hand. As funny as it was, he wasn’t really feeling like getting on Brick’s bad side today.“You got it off Naruto.”
“Like I was saying.” Brick’s jaw twitched even as his eyes slid back open, a red promise of pain aimed at the greenest of them all. “I learned it from mimicking the power manifestation of Damien Far-”“Shut up, nerd!” One green boot stomped the floor, sole grinding into the tile as Butch pointed a gloved finger at Brick. “You watch Naruto daily and you’re all about that edgy guy with the piercings. ‘Almighty Push’ lookin’ ass. You can’t trick me with big words!”
“Big wor-” Brick’s eyes twitched for all of a second before Boomer watched his big brother just shake off what Butch had to say, a sigh hissing out of him like high-pressure steam. “Whatever. Just do your thing, idiot.”“Watch and learn, boys!” A green blur burst toward his own block, the air around him spiking jagged and jade as Butch’s aura intensified for a split second. A right hook swung out at empty air and — out of nowhere — a fridge-sized construct of raw green formed itself around Butch’s fist.
In the shape of another fist.
It mirrored his swing perfectly, pale fist and green force detonating against the reinforced wall with the force of an unrestrained bunker-buster. Brick’s mullet flew back and Boomer’s bowl-cut got a blowout as the entire training center rattled on impact.
“What if punch, but more punch?” Butch grinned back at them both, the construct lasting no longer than the hit itself. “Top that.”
"Whoooooaaaaaa!" Boomer buzzed across the room, a trail of crackling blue after-images formed behind him by the time he came to a stop. "Bro, that was siiiii-ck. But wait, does it only do fists? Could you make a giant green foot and just stomp on a guy?"
"What do you think I'm gonna do to you if you don't get out of my way?" Butch rolled his shoulder, a snarl aimed at Boomer. "I can hit 'em from ten feet out now. So, no running away for either of you next time we throw down."“Tch. Still sloppy.”“Say that again!” Butch didn’t waste a second in launching a kick out, a giant jade foot forming for an instant to launch a piece of tungsten right at Brick’s head.
Brick didn’t even flinch. Red rings lit up again as he held a hand up, the lump of steel caught in his TK field. “See. Sloppy.”
Alright, my time to shine! "Check this, though!" Boomer blurred backward, spinning on his heel as he flared his aura a bright buzzing blue. Lightning flashed all across the room as the youngest of them rushed from side-to-side until — “Yo-yo-yo, did you SEE that?” — three distinct cobalt-blue copies of himself flickered into existence, standing in a perfect, glowing row.
Each one sparked, crackling with static, as they held up three matching peace signs in a pose for one... two... three seconds.
Then they all popped like wet balloons.
"Aww, c'm-on!" Hands thrown up out of pure frustration, Boomer was forced to wince as his voice cracked for the second time in the same minute "...well, that’s my new stuff.”
"Your new stuff sucks, Boom.” Butch’s scoff came with a thumb thrown over his shoulder, all the sparks dissipating to nothing. “Bad part is there’s more of you I gotta tune out. Ugh, gonna need earplugs.”
“Subject Boomer, please clear Testing Bay Four.”
He shoved down a second wince as the scientist monitoring their testing session echoed down a command from the loudspeaker. Dangit…
"Saved by the bell." Butch cackled out loud, already winding up for another giant green ghost-punch.
“Whatever. Gonna grab a juice box anyway.” Throwing out a raspberry at Butch’s back, Boomer barely wasted a moment in zipping out of the reinforced door the instant the heavy steel slid open, leaving no chance for retaliation. Cackling back at Butch, he rode a slipstream of static to a halt in the sterile white hallway, blue sparks shedding off his sneakers as h-
“Boomer?”As he turned around to see Hannah Washington swinging her legs on the edge of a chair outside the Training Bay. “Hannah?”
Her hair was pulled up into two perfectly round puffs like usual, Grissom Academy hoodie on as she kicked her sneakers against the bench.
Boomer had known her for almost a year by now since he and his brothers had started at the Academy. She was his school liaison or whatever and they shared third-period history.
The girl was a police-dad kid, super nice, and always had the best snacks.
But she was just... Hannah. “Wait. You're here. At the…” His blue eyes went wide, mind racing at the obvious. “Why are you here? Like, at the power labs?"
“No, see…” Hannah scratched at the side of her ear, a little laugh leaving her. “My dad, he got tired of me sneaking out to play around so he finally signed the forms the GDA kept pushing at him and now I’m up here for testing.”
"Wait, you have powers?" It was times like this when Boomer started to wonder if Brick wasn’t right about his mouth moving faster than his brain as he blurted out the obvious again. "Since when?!”“Since before like double digits?”“Why didn't you tell me?” Both hands met his face in a loud slap, gloved fingers pulling at his cheeks as he dragged them down. “We literally play duos on weekends!"
“I mean, being real?” She giggled, the sound coming louder as Boomer progressively lost his mind in front of her. "Did you ever actually ask me? You guys talk about punching giants or aliens or giant aliens, but you don’t really ask a lot of questions.”
That was easily solved, because Boomer had a question right now.“Soooooo…” Boomer leaned in close, one eyebrow raised as he dropped his voice low. "What do you do? We talking Bruiser? Blaster?” A loud gasp exploded out of him, entirely ruining the point of his whisper. “Speedster?! Oh man, tell me you’re a speedster? Pleasepleaseplease, we can totally race."
Hannah giggled again as she looked up and down the empty hallway, dark eyes sparkling.
"I'm just asking!” Boomer almost bounced up and down, hands clasped together. “Like, I won't tell anybody, promise!"
“I can do…” Hannah stood up from the plastic chair, yellow hoodie pulled off over her head and tossed aside. She stood there in a skintight bodysuit and nothing else as she smiled right into his wide blue eyes. "This.”
"...oh."