45 Training with A-Train

[Date: October 2022]

As the warm sun rays of the cold fall morning fell gently on him his eyes surveyed the bright but small clearing for any movements in the trees.

His body only slightly tense in preparation to move at an instant's notice, not because of any so called perceived danger instead due to wanting to fulfill his task and though he wouldn't really admit it also because of the small thrill he was feeling.

As usual it was his ears that first picked up the telltale sign of the incoming target, though to be technical he was the target and the other one was the pursuer.

It only took a split moment for his pursuer to enter the clearing in what would be considered a way too fast blur for anyone else to follow yet posing no strain on his eyes.

He waited until the last possible moment to move, when his opponent felt the most confident, lunging hands forward towards his waist to grab the blue colored flag tightly secured to his belt.

In a smooth motion he simply twirled out of the way letting his now wide eyed assailant fly by him while at the same time removing the unprotected red colored flag from his waist.

The surprise move must have briefly startled his opponent for he lost form and fell unceremoniously causing his body to bounce off the ground multiple times as he struggled to stop his speedy momentum.

"Too slow!" he said with a big smile, happily waving the red flag as the dirt and grass covered boy stopped finally in a forceful hover.

"Dammit!" the sullen boy said. "I thought I had you this time. You were standing still!" he finished as he floated towards him.

"I was anticipating. It was a trap. I knew you wouldn't be able to resist trying to catch me off-guard. All I'd have to do is wait for you to make your move and simply move out of the way." He said with a smile as the blue and black spandex wearing boy landed in front of him.

"I used your eagerness and momentum to defeat you. Moving fast is more than just hurling yourself at the greatest speed possible. You have to anticipate, you have to think ten moves a head otherwise you crash."

"Ugh, but it's so hard, especially when we run through the forest! There are too many trees and branches in the way." He responded frustrated.

"And in the city there will be moving people and cars which are more unpredictable than standing trees."

"I could just fly, it's easier when I fly the skies are clear. I can go as fast I can!" the boy responded.

"That maybe so but the people that you will need to help are mostly going to be on the ground. You don't want to accidentally crash into them do you? Accidentally hurt them?' he asked the young boy.

"No. I don't." He said somewhat resigned yet serious at the same time. "It's just you make it seem so easy. I'll never catch up to you."

The older man chuckled good-naturedly at his words. "You know, Ryan, at your age I crashed into everything around me as well."

"Then how did you get so good?" Ryan asked.

"Practice of course. Practice, practice, practice and I had a good coach." He said his tone more solemn now. "My brother, he made me practice every day after school."

"You sound like my dad now. Every day we have to train." His tone annoyed.

"Well how do you think he became the world's greatest hero?" A-Train asked rhetorically, ironically the last month was the most he'd ever seen Homelander train in any way shape or form since he'd been in The Seven but he wasn't about to tell that to the kid.

"Now come on it's almost lunch time, let's get you home, running NO flying."

Ryan sighed,

"Fine."

-

"Dad! We're home!"

Ryan yelled as they stopped in front of the giant sized open garage of the equally large mansion where the father and son duo now resided.

Ironically the estate was only a few miles away from where the Herogasm house was in Vermont.

Why Homelander chose this place A-Train didn't know, sure it was a decent plot of land and it offered privacy but in his opinion there were better places in New York and around the country than cloudy Vermont.

"No need to yell Ryan. I could hear you from miles away." Homelander responded.

A-Train could see the leader of the Seven in the garage where he was pulling with his right hand on a cable attached to a large and complicated machine filled with gears, weights and motors providing resistance to his slow and methodical movements.

"How much are you pulling now dad?" Ryan asked enthusiastically.

"50 tons." Homelander responded not turning around to face them his focus solely on the machine.

"Wow!" The boy was amazed. "That's so heavy! Is that why you're going so slowly?" He asked as we slowly walked up to him.

Homelander was in a white T-shirt and dark training slacks. A-Train could see the lightly pink colored scarred and crinkly skin running down the side of his neck through his right arm.

His hair was shaved on the sides and while he'd let the top grow longer the dark strap of the eye-patch was clearly evident.

"It's not too heavy." He responded. "But I'm going slowly because I want to train my fine movement control under pressure. I could simply yank it like this." He said and suddenly jerked his right hand backwards past his body making the machine's motors whirl with a loud whizzing noise as they tried and failed to resist the motion.

"But that wouldn't be help with what I needed. It's not always about strength, I need control as well and for that I need to practice."

A-Train could feel Ryan roll his eyes. He couldn't help but think he was going to be a handful once he's fully in his teen years.

"Plus I don't to break the machine." Homelander finished as they all felt a distinct burning smell caused by metal rubbing on metal.

He gently released the cable back to its slack position and turned to them.

"Now then how did training go?"

Ryan slumped. "I lost…again."