Category : Stories

Sub Category : Adventure

Chapter Ten: Padawan, you are!

After a few hours of getting prepared for his training, Marsellus had been asked when he could start. Of course he never would have expected immediately from her, but when Saturn confirmed it, he lit up like a Christmas tree. It excited him to think of just what he could accomplish with some control of his power. 

'If these psychic powers can be pushed to the limit,' He thought to himself as he walked the corridor to the training area, 'I just may be able to bring them out with more usage. I just have to keep calm, work on more training, and practice with a lot of my willpower.' 

"Piece of Cake!" Saturn called down the hall to usher him faster. Marsellus had been lost in his thought for a second as his brain racked at what they could be doing to start his training. When he got to the other end of the hallway however, he knew immediately. There was a large soccer field that he came upon where Saturn now resided. The sight of seeing her in a soccer uniform however had his thoughts racing. 'Oh god. Don't tell me-' but before he could even finish the thought, Saturn reared back one of her legs and kicked a ball to rocket it at him. And with a startling force he thought unreal, he gasped and dodged the oncoming object just before it could make contact with him. Barely missing his head, all seemed to move in slow motion for a second to a point he swore he could see the stitches of the ball just as it was passing his line of vision. Every detail of the exterior was ingrained in his mind for a moment before it whizzed past his skull and collided with the wall behind him, burrowed into the concrete. 

"What the hell was that??" He exclaimed as he turned back to Saturn just in time to see her use her powers to lift another ball from the sideline and hover it toward her. Was this some kind of game to her or something? Was his training taking such a childish turn for her that she thought he was a punching bag to him? And with the force she was apparently kicking these things, it could prove to be lethal just playing around with him. She broke the silence a few seconds later.

"I will be using some of my powers to help you oversee your training. Your ass is mine as long as we are training your powers to come out at will, and I will continue this same exercise until you can manifest your powers to stop me." She motioned with her hand to the first ball, still spinning in its tiny crater behind him. "These soccer balls are coming at you with enough force to put a man in a grave, most likely. Your job is to either use your own powers to stop me, or keep dodging until you can do that. Figure it out, keep control of yourself, and focus. Because you never know where the next ball could come from." Marsellus felt a knot forming in the pit of his stomach at those words due to what they meant. And he got the hint just as the first ball rocketed from its hole in the wall and soared back at him once more. Rolling out of the way, the ball hurled itself back toward Saturn but stopped just a few inches from her face.

He looked up at the scene and blinked in incredulation. 'Such control. Is this how she learned to use her powers...?' She responded to this verbally as she shook her head.

"No. The way I learned was much more harsh. Dr. Calico had such inhumane ways of having his guinea pigs learn control. And they were a lot more lethal compared to this. Most of us didn't even survive..." And as Mars saw what looked to be ten to twenty soccer balls hover around Saturn, poised to strike at him, he knew that he was in trouble. He stumbled to his feet and ran around the field, hopping over a few of the balls that were now aimed at his feet to narrowly escape their clutches. 

Saturn's face showed a smile as she lifted a hand and called the shot balls back with her powers. Marsellus had run half the length of the sidelines when she shot the next batch toward him. He tucked and rolled out of the way for their first path, watching them hit a set of bleachers before bouncing upward. And as they descended upon him, he knew they were too quick for him to dodge then. He covered his head with his hands and braced for impact, but had only felt one of the five he remembered hit and only with perhaps half the force. He felt a twitching pain in his wrist from the impact itself, inspecting it for a moment to see if there had been any extensive damage dealt to it in the process. Overall, it looked like there had only been normal contact made. 

The other four looked to have been deflected by a barrier of some sort. Though how such a thing occurred, he did not know honestly. "Get up, Marsellus," Saturn called out, hands outstretched as the balls once again came to her presence. "We have only begun this exercise and you are already damaged. This is no good. And you have only shown one sign of your powers at use. You must use them more in order to bring them out more proficiently. Do not make me have to be more serious in this, otherwise I can raise the stakes even higher and not send just a few at you."

Mars was absolutely terrified at such a notion. It was already hell just to avoid up to five at a time. And as he saw what looked to be another thirty or so join the original set, he knew he would not be able to dodge them all. He just wanted to be able to control these powers... He only wanted to find some way to be able to keep them in check. Panting and out of options, he looked at his shaking hands. 





'This can't be it. This can't be how it ends. If I do not do something, this could be my end...' He turned his attention back to Saturn with a steeled gaze. Focusing solely on her. He gave nothing else notice. He gave nothing else the time of day. She became his only object now in a world of black. And for a single fleeting moment, he thought he saw a change in her facial features, just a minute narrow in her own eyes. Something that made him think that she recoiled, hesitated. 

'I have to have a resolve stronger than hers. Keep a focus that can make hers waver. Just breathe, focus...,' he thought to himself as he raised a hand outward....


----------------

Saturn was not getting anywhere with this training. All he had done thus far was show he had some pretty good reflexes for a nerd. And now it almost looked like he had given up. He was looking at himself as if taking his own body to memory in his last moments. She almost felt that she should give up this training if it was traumatizing him so much. Perhaps a different approach to take in his training.

That was until she took a closer look at him. It froze her to the core... His eyes had changed color, hair beginning to whip about in a wild dance. And as he turned his gaze upon her, she felt a chill run down her spine. Something told her that this had happened to him before, fight or flight situations... 

'This kid has had an intriguing past,' Saturn thought to herself, taking a step back to get into a defensive stance. And that was the moment he sprung into action. His body forced forward, loose and relaxed. 'Is it his instinctual methods to attack such a way? His poise is ready for counters at least.' 

Marsellus came within a foot or so of her in the blink of an eye, fist balled up as it rushed for her face. A faint green outline showing he had augmented the punch with his psychic powers. He was learning! And as she used her own power augmented hand to deflect the punch to the side, she saw through the corner of her eye the exact destructive power Marsellus was capable of as the soccer field was uplifted with earthen schisms and cavernous discord. The lights of their psychic energy spiked in exuberance as they clashed in combat, Saturn shaken off balance by the volatile reactions of the strike.

Marsellus was stoic nonetheless in the battle, like he had shut down completely and was running on this subconscious need to survive. 'Like a desperate man with nothing to lose, you are pushing your powers out without restraint Mars.' Saturn had to take a moment after deflecting an oncoming kick to admire his abilities, 'You got the guts and will to survive. Especially if you bring this out in every crazy scenario we could be facing soon.'

And as Saturn came up under a left jab, she smirked and grabbed at his arm to keep him in close quarters before coming up in his guard to deliver an elbow to his jaw. 'Checkmate, Padawan...'