When Vida got up in the morning, she felt a surge of energy as she remembered her plans for the day. In only three hours, the group would resume training.
After the altercation in the city, the kids had gotten a new sense of vigor. They never wanted to see each other hurt again, and they especially didn't want to bow down to the regime now that they've seen the full scope of their oppressiveness.
Vida got out of her room to see how many of the others were awake. She rushed into Hendrix's room first to be greeted with an empty room. Her face grew confused, but she brushed it off as she went to Akilah's room.
"Hey, wake up." Vida pushed her around as Akilah grumbled and groaned.
"What time is it?" Akilah asked as if the sun wasn't peaking through her window.
"It's time to train, girl." Vida acted with an excited urgency.
Akilah got up a bit quicker as she rubbed her eyes.
"I'll go wake up everyone else. Who knows when they went to sleep." Akilah yawned and stretched.
"I'll go see where Hendrix is." Vida's words surprised Akilah.
"He's not in his room?" Akilah's brows raised.
"Nope." Vida shrugged.
"After all these years, he's still a mystery." Akilah chuckled as she rubbed her eyes once again.
Vida chuckled as she left Akilah's room. She went to the cafeteria to see if anyone there knew where he was. After that, she headed to the infirmary. Maybe Jessica wanted to check in on his health before he tried to train.
On the way, she peaked into the courtyard as she walked by the window. To her surprise she saw someone laying the grass.
She took a closer look to see pink hair.
"Hendrix?!" Vida whispered to herself.
Vida walked out to the courtyard, surprising Hendrix.
"Hey.. What are you doing?" Vida began to blush as she noticed Hendrix was missing his shirt. He had taken off his shirt once the sun began beating on him.
"Doing some, uh." Hendrix was oblivious to what Vida was nervous about. He stumbled over his words as he looked for an excuse to why he would be out here.
Vida grew too nervous at looking at him as he stammered.
"Whatever, anyways. We have training in three hours. I just wanted to make sure you were ready." Vida turned around and started walking away.
"Oh, yeah. Thanks." Hendrix laid back down as he tried to recuperate himself.
"And put a shirt on." Vida yelled from across the courtyard.
"Oh, god." Hendrix put his hands over his face as it hit him.
After freshening up, the kids all gathered in the cafeteria to get a meal in before they started training. Hendrix arrived a couple minutes later, which made Vida roll her eyes.
"I can't wait." Amora said as she recalled what Akilah had told her. Amora's mind slipped into the memory of their conversation.
The day after the altercation:
"It was a miracle that Vida woke up. I wouldn't have been able to live with myself if we lost her." Amora and Akilah talked in the gymnasium as Chase, Taro, and Kai played basketball very incorrectly.
"Yeah, I don't know how you did it. You're amazing." Akilah playfully shoved at Amora as she complimented her.
"What do you mean?" Amora asked, innocently. Akilah had forgotten that Amora didn't seem to notice as she basically revived Vida.
"Oh, right." Akilah struggled to describe it.
"Well.. Before Vida woke up, while you were hugging her. This kind of rainbow light started glowing from you. It was kind of like glass that was being colored with light. The glass was broken, then it started to heal itself as you healed Vida. I don't know how to describe it." Akilah recognized how crazy she sounded.
Amora churned Akilah's words in her head.
"How did I do that?" Amora muttered to herself.
Back to Present day:
Amora still asked herself this question while she sipped on her second apple juice.
She thought how amazing it would be for her friends to never worry if they got hurt again. She could always be there to fix up Hendrix whenever he lashed out again, or when Chase's loud nature got him in trouble.
"Don't worry babe. Once I get a hold on my Spirit, you'll have nothing to worry about!" Chase tried to comfort Amora without knowing what she was pondering over. Amora chuckled lovingly at the attempt.
"I'm gonna kick your ass this time." Kai pointed at Taro.
"Like that's even possible." Taro laughed.
Akilah wrote ideas in her notebook, writing down ways she could put her intelligence Mode to use. Hendrix was writing on a piece of paper across from her as Akilah looked at him with surprise in her face. Vida looked to her right as she became perplexed by the very same thing.
"Hendrix, what are you writing? I'm used to Akilah writing stuff down but not you." Vida leaned over as Hendrix covered the paper with his hands.
"Oh, uh… nothing," Hendrix smiled nervously.
Vida caught a glimpse of the writing. It looked like a list of titles. To movies? Books? She didn't know. She hadn't gotten a close enough look before Hendrix slipped his hand over it.
"You finally got into songwriting?" Amora asked.
"He can't write shit with that broken guitar!" Chase busted out laughing at his own joke as Kai and Taro tried to hold in their laughter for Hendrix's sake.
"Ow, babe, you've wounded me!" Chase fell back in a theatrical manner as Amora pinched him on the side.
"No, it's alright. I'll get a new one sometime soon." Hendrix continued to write on his paper.
"Wait! You didn't answer my question, let me see!" Vida leaned in closer.
"Nope." Hendrix held the paper away from Vida's reach and smiled.
Hendrix noticed that the chef on the lunch line began to put away the food, which meant it had hit ten o'clock.
"Oh, it's time to go." Hendrix got up from his table as he silently thanked the clock for saving him from the situation.
Vida got up and made a playfully angry face at Hendrix. She continued to ponder about what Hendrix could have been writing as the group walked into the gymnasium. Alex, Bloom, and Jessica talked to each other as they sat on the bleachers sitting on the far side of the gym.
"You were almost late." Alex got up from her chair and clapped her hands together. "Alright, then. Let's get right to it."
"Do you guys remember where you were last time?" Bloom asked the group of five as Kai raced Taro to the other side of the gymnasium, winning by a full 20 seconds.
"Yeah." Chase groaned as he went to try to complete the first step of Spirit training by himself.
The rest of the group sat down with Bloom as Alex walked to the other court to supervise Kai and Taro's sparring.
Chase sat down and closed his eyes. He tried to focus, but his mind raced like usual. He used the position that Kai taught Akilah, but every time he thought about Spirit his mind would wander off somewhere else.
"C'mon, Chase. You're better than this, man." Chase mumbled to himself.
Suddenly he opened his eyes to see a light blue glow emitting from his hands.
Chase jumped at the sight, which caught the attention of those at the second part of the training.
Amora gestured to Chase to come join them as he ran to her in glee.
"Babe, you should've seen it. It was like a light blue, it was awesome!" Chase sounded more excited than ever as Amora giggled at his excitement as it made her happy as well.
"You'll do great." Amora smiled as Chase grinned back.
"This time, I'll be your hero." Chase's comment made Amora feel safe, it reminded her of the actions movies they would watch together when they were little.
"Alright, Chase. I'll explain what we're doing over here in a bit, but first." Bloom turned her attention to the others at the second stage.
"Does anyone need help with their Modes over here?" Bloom asked the group.
Hendrix pulled the crumbled piece of paper out of his pocket as he pondered over the question he was about to ask.
Hendrix raised his hand, still unsure.
"What is it, Hendrix?" Bloom turned her attention to Hendrix.
"Can I go spar with them? I think I can." Hendrix pointed at Kai and Taro, who were now stretching.
The group turned to Hendrix, utter confusion in their faces.
Bloom smiled a wise grin. She seemed to know what was going on.
"Alright, then. You can go ask Alex if you can join." Bloom smiled as Hendrix got up. "Good luck." She raised a thumbs up.
As Bloom brought her attention back to the rest of the group she was met with even more confusion than before.
"He's gonna get his ass beat." Chase chuckled.
"For once I agree with you." Akilah snickered back.
"Will he be okay? What is he thinking?" Amora looked on as Hendrix started to talk with Alex.
Vida looked on as well. Her eyes tried to read what was on the paper Hendrix held. She scrunched her face even more than it already was as he folded it and put it in his pocket.
Bloom noticed the attention shift to the other side of the gym as she stood up.
"Would you guys like to watch? We can resume after." Bloom gestured for the kids to follow her as she walked over to the court Kai and Taro were using for sparring.
The kids watched as Hendrix walked on to the court, immediately catching Taro off guard.
"What are you guys doing here?" Alex asked Bloom as her and the kids walked up to the side of the court.
"They were curious about what Hendrix was up to." Bloom chuckled as Alex smiled.
"So am I." Alex crossed her arms.
Jessica looked up from the piece of papers on her clipboard she had been buried in for the last fight minutes to lay her eyes on the sight.
"Uh, what is he doing? Why are you guys letting him spar, of all things?" Jessica pointed her pencil at Hendrix as Alex looked to Bloom to answer her.
"Have some trust in him. I saw something in his face, he means business." Bloom smiled at Jessica.
Jessica just groaned back as she turned her attention to the three kids on the sparring court.
"Wait. Hold on." Taro's eyes widened as Hendrix turned to him from across the court.
"Could we spar? Please?" Hendrix asked quietly, like he was asking for something shameful.
"I'm not fighting you, dude. Last time we fought you almost killed me. No hard feelings, dude." Taro put his hands up like he was surrendering.
"That's fair." Hendrix sighed as he began to walk off the court.
"I'll spar!" Kai raised his hand excitedly. "I've been getting tired of kicking Taro's ass."
Taro looked at Kai with surprise.
"Kai, this isn't a joke. He might mean no harm but he could still kill you." Taro whispered to his brother.
"Aw c'mon, bro. You know I've gotten better with my speed." Kai smiled as Taro sighed.
"Don't worry, Taro. I'll be right here." Alex spoke from the side of the court as Taro watched his brother step up to Hendrix.
"Thanks." Hendrix let out a small smile.
"You won't be saying that when I beat you!" Kai yelled from across the court.
"Alright, first one to step outside of the court loses. Three, two, one, go!" Alex clapped her hands together as Kai sped at Hendrix.
Hendrix took a kick to the side of the leg. Then it was a punch to the shoulder. A chop to the side. A knee to the back.
Hendrix didn't seem to be throwing out any attacks.
"Oh, god. He's lost." Chase put her palm to her forehead.
"Hendrix-" Vida's call began as a yell but then simmered down to a whisper as she noticed something.
"You see it too?" Akilah leaned over to whisper to Vida as she nodded in response.
Hendrix's eyes followed the blur that Kai had become. Kai was fast, but not as fast as Bloom. He noted this as his eyes continued to follow him.
He noticed how Kai's circles around him became tighter.
"Alright." Hendrix mumbled to himself.
Suddenly, Hendrix's strings expelled from his forearms, just like he trained for.
The strings caught Kai off guard as he tripped over one of them, catching himself just before he slipped over the court's outside line.
The four beside Bloom were taken back as they looked at Bloom and Alex to say something.
Taro's eyes widened as he looked at Alex to intervene. However, Alex stayed put.
Kai ran away from the strings, but the strings followed him in harmony.
Kai took a right into the center of the court, but one of the strings had cut him off. Kai quickly slid under the string as he tried to circle back to Hendrix.
Vida noticed Hendrix's focus. She had never seen him so focused, but also he was mumbling something. Through years of knowing Hendrix, she was able to make out some of the words he was saying.
"Hybrid Moments, Everlong, The Beautiful People," were some of the words she was able to make out.
"Everlong?" Vida mumbled to herself. She thought about the song by the same name. Vida only knew it from the time Hendrix showed Vida while they were going through Mr. Frewin's old vinyl collection when they were kids.
"Was that what he was writing on that paper?" Akilah asked Vida in a whisper as they both pondered.
As the strings followed behind Kai, he saw it as the perfect opportunity to attack Hendrix directly, but Hendrix was one step ahead.
As soon as Hendrix saw Kai turn towards him, he receded his strings back as they wrapped around Hendrix himself. Before they entirely coiled around Hendrix, the strings seemed to go back to their wild nature, even for just a second.
"Shit." Hendrix whispered to himself as he quickly regained focus.
Alex flinched forward at the sight of the wild pattern of movement from Hendrix's strings but calmed after they got back into order.
Kai stopped in his tracks as the strings covered Hendrix's entire body.
"What? Not fair." Kai threw up his hands.
After his little exclamation, Kai began to throw punches at the steel strings, seeing if he could break through the armor with raw speed in his hits.
Kai kicked, punched, knee'd, and elbow'd for what felt like forever. Out of nowhere, Kai was pulled by his feet, now dangling upside down. The thinnest of the strings unravelled from the bottom of the armor as it held Kai.
"Gotcha." Hendrix let out his slight smile as all but one of his strings receded into his forearms.