Fight!

"What should we do to kill time while we wait for Andrew?" asked Steve as he walked around the clearing to kill time, while Andrew had given up the pine needle bed to sit down with his back against a tree.

"Just wait for like an hour. It's not that long." I said as I too sat down with my back to a tree and closed my eyes to rest.

"Nah, that's too boring." he said, as he continued to walk around the clearing before suddenly coming to a stop.

"I know! Fight me." said Steve.

"What do you mean, fight me?" I asked, opening one eye to look at him.

"Fight me with our powers. Like superheroes." he said with a big smile, clearly excited at the prospect of his first superpowered fight.

"Ooh, good idea." said Andrew.

"Not a good idea. Then we'll have to wait for the both of you to rest up."

"So? Who cares? We're already waiting for Andrew to rest up. If we fight right now, my resting time will coincide with his resting time. We'll only have to wait for a while longer than if only he rested, and it'll be totally worth it if it's to fight." said Steve.

"Well if worse comes to worst, I could just carry you both back home with me. And we've never really fought with our powers, just trained simple things, and it wouldn't be the worst thing to try out." I said.

"Yeah, and it'll be awesome too!"

"Okay, let's do it." I said as I stood up.

"Yes!" said Steve, fist pumping in excitement.

"The clearing is our arena, and this-" I said before using PK Cut to create a groove on the ground in the shape of a circle, "is the arena boundary."

"That was cool. Props." said Steve.

"Thanks. Anyway, rules for the fight are only no going out of bounds and nothing lethal." I said.

"And nothing aimed at the face. Have to protect the money maker. And it would be a pain in the ass to explain to my parents." added Steve.

"Sounds good." I said while turning to Andrew, "Count us down?"

"Yeah." he said.

"3, 2, 1, Fight!"

As soon as Andrew said fight, I blasted Steve with my PK and pushed him out of bounds.

"I win." I said while Andrew started laughing at how fast and easily Steve got knocked on his ass.

"Aw, come on! That was cheap!" said Steve as he stood back up.

"The fight had already started. You should've been ready for something like that."

"Fine, fine, again." he said before turning to Andrew who was still chuckling, "Count it down."

"3, 2, 1, Fight."

Just like before, I blasted Steve, but unlike the first time, this time he created his own blast to counteract mine, which he was very smug about if the smile on his face was any evidence.

"Don't get too cocky."

I blasted him again, causing him to counteract it with his own, but while doing that I also scooped up some dirt and threw it at him.

Seeing the dirt, he created a barrier around him to block it but while he did that, I shaped my PK into a palm and slapped his barrier, making him bounce away from the force. The force of the slap was enough to push him out of bounds, but it was also enough to shake his concentration, causing his barrier to shatter.

Unfortunately, he was on a collision course with a tree and was too rattled from the slap, so I used my PK to stop his momentum.

"Ugh." groaned Steve.

"You okay?" I asked as I brought him to the center of the ring.

"Have a huge headache. Worse than any hangover." he said.

"Probably from shattering your barrier, a rebound of sorts." I said.

"No more. We can do this another time."

"You did well, all things considered. And it was fun."

"Told you."

~

"I'm bored again." said Steve, head tilted back in boredom.

"Just give it another half hour. I don't want either of you to run out of steam midway through the flight. Though I will say we would have already been on our way there if we hadn't fought." I said as I inspected a carved piece of wood.

We had been waiting for Steve to rest up for a half-hour after the fight, and while waiting I was using my PK to carve figurines. It was both a way to pass the time and to train since using PK Cut to make such detailed and precise cuts was difficult.

Even though I was becoming more and more proficient in the finer aspects of PK, I was not artistically inclined at all so all my carved statues looked like well, like shit.

For the moment anyways. I was sure that as I got more proficient in using PK Cut, I would be able to just envision what I wanted the wooden figure to look like and I would be able to use PK Cut to remove all the material needed to make my vision come true.

"Hey, what does this look like to you?" I asked Steve as I threw the wood carving at him, which he caught using his PK before inspecting it.

"Uhh, a blob?" he said, confused at what he was looking at.

"Sigh, it's supposed to be a cat."

"Haha, this is supposed to be a cat?" he asked, baffled that the mangled piece of wood resembling a blob was supposed to be a feline.

"Let me see." said Andrew, using his PK to snatch the figure from Steve, "Christ this is bad."

"Alright, alright. That's enough." I said as I took the figure from them before launching it out into the woods, never to be seen again.

"Finally we found something you're not good at." said Andrew, still smiling at how bad the carved figure was.

"Yeah, I was getting worried you were becoming someone we couldn't even recognize. I'm glad you're still normal. Or at least as normal as we can be with superpowers." said Steve.

"Someone you can't recognize? I'm not turning into a robot or anything. I'm still me. For the most part." I said.

"Well yeah, but you're so talented and you have such grand plans for the future and for your life while the two of us are just high school students still trying to think about what we want to do with our lives. And before, you used to be like us. High school student who smoked weed and had no real plan for the future." explained Steve.

"It just feels like you're leaving us behind." added Andrew.

"Oh." I said, not sure what to say in response.

'Guess I've been too focused on my plans for the future, I've neglected my friends and family. Not to mention it's probably also a subconscious reaction from me since I still feel a little out of place in this world.'

"Forget it, it's whatever. We're happy for you. Really." said Steve.

"No, uh, I get it." I said, tilting my head up to stare at the sky, "I used to feel that way too, you know. About other people. It always felt like they all had their lives planned out and the future was clear for them, but for me, it felt like I was just trudging through life without a plan.

But after the day we found the Crystal, something just changed in me, you know. Maybe it was because we could've died or something I don't know, but that's when I decided to actually make my life mean something, or at least die trying.

And I guess I've just been so focused on the idea of making my life worthwhile that I forgot about my friends and family. Sorry, guys."

"Now, I feel bad." said Steve.

"Me too." said Andrew before we all fell silent.

"What are we moping around for? We're possibly the only people with superpowers in this world and our future is limitless." I said, hoping to get their spirits back up.

"Yeah, you're right! Let's go save the world!" said Steve, standing up really fast before stumbling back down.

"Whoa. Never mind, still dizzy." he said as we laughed.