By: Autumn R.

I jogged the hallway to catch up to Ira, who knew her way around the place better than I did.
"Ira, is training hard?" I asked.
"Some of it, but not all. You're training with other First Years, so it will be easier." Ira explained. The door to the training room opened, revealing a snowstorm. The girl, that accursed snow girl was there, creating a swirling creation of death around me.
"Ira..." I shivered, lighting myself on fire for warmth and getting the snowball's attention.
"Ira! I didn't know we hired a walking furnace!" She called, increasing the snow. I blazed brighter, a yellow more than a red.
"Glacier, please. Don't." Ira called back, her skin turning into pure iron.
Glacier huffed, but complied, stopping the storm. Once Glacier stopped her snow, I was a walking fire hazard. I mean, I was on fire, so...
"Why don't we lose the flames, Torchy, and then we'll talk." She said. I growled, stepping up to her. My heat was affecting her, so she backed away.
"Class!" Mr. Deg greeted, Casper and Eval following him. "Today, we'll be testing your agility skills! How about it, Brilliant? Care to join us?"
I grumbled, nodding. "I'll join." Mr. Deg smiled, motioning Glacier and I over to him. “First things first. What better way to test agility than an obstacle course?" He pressed a button on the ground, patches of the floor opened up to be replaced by several obstacles, including air rings and spinning columns with rods sticking out.
"Ooh! Ooh, ooh! Can I go first? Can I? Can I?" Casper asked excitedly, jumping up and down. Mr. Deg nodded, the excited girl ran towards the course. She did a handstand flip over the rolling lasers, avoiding the beams with practiced precision. Casper then avoided the columns with ease without a single hit, flowing in between like a leaf in the wind. Even Eval was surprised, and I thought he was emotionless. Mr. Deg applauded Casper as she scaled the wall easily and started swinging through the air hoops using her webs as leverage.
"Wonderful! You seem to have a lot of practice in the agility field." He praised, shaking Casper's hand once she had swung back over.
"My mother believed that having powers meant that Spire and I would need to hide our whole lives. So she taught us how to dodge and tumble. She also enrolled us in gymnastics and Ninjutsu." Casper explained, looking humbly proud. I rolled my eyes.
"I'm going next." I shouted as I raced onto the course. First obstacle: Laser beams. I turned to full flame, flipping and rolling under and over the thin red beams. Next: trapeze bars. I jumped up, grasping the first one and doing flips to each bar. Hands, knees, hands, knees, back and forth. The third obstacle was to be a challenge, with the close quarters movements. I slipped between the first few, using my flames like a cat's whiskers. Anytime a flame was brushed, I would move to accommodate. I ended up finishing the third obstacle easily, moving onto scaling the wall. This was fun, I thought as I used my fire to grip the wall around my hands. Once I reached the top, I did a little pose and dove off the other side and shot through the rings, a flaming bullet of small mass and incredible speed. The frame of my body was visible, the training suit still flawless against the flames.
"Well done, Brilliant! Well done!" Mr. Deg exclaimed enthusiastically. "Have you ever done a course before?" I shook my head no, and looked very smug as Glacier scowled in frustration.
-~-
"You showed her! I think you beat her record time!" Ira exclaimed, Dusty nodding shyly. Even though it was the girls' dorm, Dusty was allowed to stay because the boys in the boys dorm only beat him up. Stupid boys.
"Her record...time?" I asked, confused.
"Yeah! Her time was one minute and 18 seconds! What was yours?" Ira asked.
"54 seconds." I replied. Ira, Dusty, and Casper went nuts, while Eval clapped three times. I went and sat on his lap, letting my hair turn to flames slowly and then building into large flames on my head. The rest of my skin started slowly catching fire as well, creating a beautiful array of fire and light on a pale boy's lap. Eval didn't react, purple and yellow particles beginning to float around him.
"Brilliant, he's gonna-" I didn't let her finish, I disappeared. Okay, I basically disappeared in a puff of red smoke and reappeared in another location.
"So, Eval, what were you going to do?" I asked casually and resulting in shocked laughter from Ira and Casper.
"Um..." That was the first thing I had heard Eval say. "Teleport."
"Psh. Call it something cool, like warping. Warping's cool." Casper piped, bouncing in her chair. Spire nodded, watching the exchange with rapture.
Eval furrowed his thin black eyebrows, thinking it over.
"I guess it does." He answered quietly, Warping next to me. When he did, particles flashed outward then into a small point and disappeared with a flash.
"Interesting..." Ira mused, eyes narrowing.
A faint “Oh boy” from Spire later and then we were stuck in a rant for the next hour and 45 minutes. Talk about never doing that again.
"Worst. Mistake. Ever." I moaned, earning a pillow to the face from said rant-er. Eval snickered, getting the second pillow to his face.
"What? I was just..." He faltered, cowering under her sharp gaze. I scowled, glaring at her with glowing yellow eyes.
"Ira, that was mean." She mumbled an apology, fluffing her pillow. I rolled my eyes and did the same, settling down.
-~-
In my next class I was introduced to powers. The goal was that I was to learn how to control them, but I already had that skill. "Brilliant? Aren't you going to participate?" Mr. Deg asked. I shook my head, leaning against the wall.
"I can control my fire." I answered, not moving.
-~-
That night, I had just drifted off to sleep as an alarm began to blare. Ira and Dusty jumped up, hurrying to leave the room. I copied their movements, yanking on my pack and dashing out of the room. Students poured out of the classroom and dormitory doors, drenched in red emergency lights. "To the trees!" Casper called. Casper and Spire used their spider-shooting skills to get into the nearest trees, while Eval and I teleported. The sight we saw from our perch brought our little worlds to a halt. A huge black and purple cloud was advancing towards the facility.
"Oh great. A week in and already there's trouble." I scowled.
            "Let's suit up!" Ira called, reaching for the packs. I was digging through mine just as a large fireball of energy hit my back, knocking me from the tree and sending me tumbling to the forest floor. I gave a groan as another energy blast came right for me.
-~-
Find out what happens next to Brilliant and her friends in part 3 of Mystery Law and Protection ForcePart 3 will be posted at limegreengiraffe.org on August 26.

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