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Time Vs. Healing and Ice - A Superhero Academy Excerpt · Dad’s Bedtime Stories

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Hello, friends from across the nation and around the world.
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: I'm Martin, and you are listening to Dad's bedtime stories.
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: This weekend, I have another special treat for you, yet
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: another episode of my new and upcoming book, Unbound Superhero Academy.
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: I won't be releasing all the chapters here, but I
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: thought some of these introductory chapters in the introductory battles
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: were a good place to start because it sort of
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: introduces the other characters in the novel. This episode is
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: about Mira, who has the power to heal. We get
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: a bit about her backstory, and then we see her
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: battle with Alex, the main character of the story. If
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: you like the episode, don't forget, you can check out
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: all of the rest on Patreon. I've finished chapter twenty
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: four at this point, and I just have a few
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: more chapters to go, I believe, until the end of
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: this very first book, though I already have ideas for
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: a second one. But now it's that time again. Time
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: to get as comfy as you can in that bed,
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: close your eyes and imagine yourself doing what the kid
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: or kids or teenagers in this case in the story
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: do Chapter ten, all right, Alex Martin said, time for
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: the next one. Mira year up. Alex stepped into the
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: ring again. Physically, he was feeling okay thanks to the
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: whole healing thing, but he still felt tired. The healing
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: didn't seem to fix that. He also couldn't shake how
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: strange the whole situation was. He was at a superhero
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: cat of me battling other powered students in a makeshift tournament,
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: not exactly how he thought he'd spend the weekend. As
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: he entered the ring, he looked across at Mirah. She
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: didn't look very big or very tough. She couldn't be
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: more than five foot four, and frankly, she was kind
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: of scrawny, also kind of beautiful. Though, if he was
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: being honest, he knew she was a healer, but he
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: couldn't figure out exactly what would be dangerous about that.
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: He glanced back at Martin silently asking is this really okay?
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: I know what you're thinking, Mira said, as if reading
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: his mind. You're thinking I'm just a healer, maybe wondering
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: what threat I could possibly pose. Well, I assure you
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: if you go easy on me, you'll regret it. I
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: am far more than a healer, Otherwise would they really
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: have put me in this tournament. That was a good point,
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: But what other powers could she have? The truth was
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: Mira could do far more than heal. Healing was just
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: the first power she developed, but that gift had evolved.
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: You see, Mira was always a bit of a dreamer,
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: the kind of girl who stayed opened the impossible. She
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: also grew up with basic cable, no Netflix, no Prime,
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: no real streaming of any kind. They had Internet, but
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: it wasn't fast enough to watch much, so she watched
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: whatever was on whenever it was on. As anyone who
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: grew up with basic cable knows, on Sunday there wasn't
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: much of anything on. After early morning card tunes, most
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: of the network switched to televised church services, most of
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: them border to tears, but one always caught her attention,
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: a man named Reverend Hope. Reverend Hope wasn't your typical preacher.
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: He was a self proclaimed faith healer. Every Sunday on TV,
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: he'd give a sermon, then invite the sick and injured
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: on stage. One by one. He'd ask what was wrong,
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: and then miraculously heal them. Couldn't raise your arm, Reverend
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: Hope would grab it pronounce healing in the name of
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: a higher power, and yank it straight into the air.
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: Now years later, it would turn out that the whole
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: thing was a scam. Reverend Hope wasn't even a real reverend.
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: But Mira didn't know that. She saw what he could do,
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: and she believed it. Well. Most people thought Reverend Hope
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: had a special gift. Mira just saw it as proof
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: that the power existed. If some old guy on TV
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: could do it, why couldn't she. Her first attempt came
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: one Sunday, right after watching as broadcast, A bird slammed
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: into the living room window. It happened now and then
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: reflections confused them. She ran to check on it. The
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: bird lay on the ground, twitching slightly, not dead, but
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: definitely not okay. She picked it up, closed her eyes,
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: and spoke softly to the universe, asking it to grant
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: her the power to heal. She felt a profound sense
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: of warmth and love washed through her body. She transferred
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: that feeling onto the bird. There was a faint glow,
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: and suddenly the bird sprang up. It looked at her
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: and gave the best smile a beaked creature could manage.
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: Then it leapt into the air and flew away. Mira,
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: now thoroughly convinced of her new talents, tried healing every
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: injured animal she could find. A butterfly with a torn
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: wing fixed in seconds, a mouse that had been attacked
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: by a cat good as new. She wanted nothing more
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: than to help, but injured animals didn't just show up
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: every day, unless, of course, you were a veterinarian. Mira
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: started volunteering at the local vet's office after school. She
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: helped care for the animals, and when the vet wasn't looking,
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: she healed them. It wasn't long before the vets started
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: wondering why people kept bringing in perfectly healthy animals, but hey,
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: it made her job easier and she still got paid.
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: Then one day, Mira tried to heal a particularly mean
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: cat named mister Miyagi for some inexplicable reason, and she
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: got scratched. It wasn't a bad scratch, but it was
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: the perfect test. She placed her hand on the wound
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: and did what she'd done a hundred times before. By
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: the time she pulled her hand away, the only thing
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: left was a smear of blood. From there, she started
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: experimenting on other humans at first, just close friends, small cuts, scrapes.
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: She always asked them to keep it quiet, and for
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: a while they did. But when she healed her friend
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: Alexis's broken arm, everything changed. Alexis had already been to
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: the hospital. X rays had confirmed the brain when she
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: asked Mira for help, Mira placed her hand on the
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: cast and summoned that familiar warmth. By the next day,
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: the arm was perfectly fine. The doctors were baffled. The
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: x rays didn't lie, but the new ones showed no break,
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: no sign of any damage at all. Eventually, the doctors
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: just chalked it up to a mix up switching scans maybe.
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: Then came the visit from mister Smith and mister Black.
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: They visited Alexis first, and for some strange reason, she
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: told them everything. You see. That's the thing about mister Smith.
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: People always feel like telling him the truth, or really
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: they feel however he tells them to, And when he left,
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: Alexis didn't even remember the conversation. Their next visit was
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: to Mira, and by the next day Mira was gone
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: off to the Canadian Superhero Academy without a single worry
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: in her head. Also thanks to mister Smith. Of course,
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: she didn't regret it or anything, but he had subtly
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: made her wanted more than she probably would have otherwise.
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: Since then, Martin and the Academy's staff had helped her
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: develop her powers. She learned to heal nearly any wound
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: or illness with very minimal effort. But she also learned
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: the opposite how to inflict pain and sickness, something Alex
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: was about to find out. The two stepped into their
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: fighting stances. When Martin gave the signal, Alex shifted into
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: his faster self. This time, he didn't hesitate. He didn't
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: know what mere as other powers were, and he wasn't
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: sure he wanted to find out. He zipped over beside
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: her slow motion moving body and aimed a punch that
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: would end the match without hurting her too much. He hoped.
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: It felt strange like he was tagging her lightly on
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: the head. Her slow motion reaction was intense. She reached
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: for her head as she fell, a clear look of
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: pain frozen on her face. Alex immediately felt awful. Images
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: of Shane and the broken rib flashed through his mind.
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: He slowed down to normal and rushed to her side.
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: Are you okay, he asked, crouching beside her. Ay, I
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: think so, she said. Then she smiled. Her hands left
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: her head and grabbed Alex by the arm. A sudden
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: rush of pain tore through his body. It was like
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: being hit in the head with a hammer. Alex collapsed,
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: clutching his skull. The world spun and everything went black.
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: Warmth returned first, a glowing, peaceful warmth, and then came
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: the sound of voices. Alex Alex he opened his eyes.
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: Two beautiful faces stared down at him, Marry the adult superhealer,
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: and Mirah. Are you okay? Mirah asked, I think so,
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: he said, groggily. What did you just hit me with?
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: No?
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: I just gave you the same thing you gave me,
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: She replied. I can sort of inflict injuries just as
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: well as I can heal them. Thought a little taste
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: of your own medicine might be good for you. I
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: hit you that hard, Alex asked, I'm truly sorry. I
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: have trouble knowing how hard I'm hitting In that state,
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: I could tell, she said, smiling. Luckily, you hit someone
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: who doesn't stay hurt for very long. All right, kid,
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: let's get you some water. Martin said, coming over and
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: helping him to his feet. Then you can have a
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: short break before your final match against Ian. Alex took
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: a deep breath as he stood up. Just one more battle,
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: he thought, I think I can do that. Chapter eleven,
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: Ian the Iceman. Once the rest was over, Alex and
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: Ian both made their way back into the ring. Alex
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: was more nervous than he had been before. His best
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: strategy was clearly the same one he'd tried on Mira.
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: Speed himself up, run in, and take him out as
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: quickly as he could. The only issue was that he
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: still had no idea how hard he was able to hit.
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: Mira had shown him the damage he could do to people,
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: and the whole thing brought back memories of Shane. On
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: top of that, Ian wasn't a healer. If he did
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: too much damage before Ian could be properly treated well,
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: he didn't want to think about what could happen. Then
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: he'd have to be very careful. Ian, on the other hand,
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: and was anything but nervous. He had already been in
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: the program for a while now, and he was very
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: confident in his abilities. He had ways of slowing down
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: fast people, and after watching Alex fight the others. He
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: was pretty sure he could end this quickly. Ian's powers
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: worked much the same way as Ambers, only instead of
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: making things hot, he was able to make them cold.
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: The two had actually unlocked opposite parts of the same power.
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: They might have seemed different, but they had more in
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: common than you might think. In fact, Ian's power had
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: unlocked and much the same way Ambers had, only in
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: a very different climate. His parents were what many call
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: adventure tourists. Their goal on vacation wasn't to relax, it
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: was to do the opposite. They wanted to get their
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: blood pumping. The closer their adventures brought them to danger
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: or possible death, the better. The day Ian's power manifested
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: started like any other. They were on vacation in Nevada
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: and had signed up for a family ATV trip through
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: the desert. It was only supposed to be a half
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: day trip, so they packed just enough food and water
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: for that. Then they climbed into a side by side
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: ATV and headed out. It was a lot of fun
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: at first, flying over sand dunes at incredible speed, until
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: the ATV began to hiss and steam poured out of
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: the engine. They had a plan for such a thing.
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: The company had installed radios and all of their vehicles
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: to signal for help. Unfortunately, for Ian's family, the radio
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: was installed in the ATV itself. When they went to
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: use it, the ATV suddenly caught on fire. The problem
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: with the engine was clearly more serious than they'd thought.
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: The family rushed out of the vehicle and moved a
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: good distance away while they watched it burn. The sun
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: was at its peak and there was no real shade
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: to speak of. Perhaps the ATV would provide some shelter
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: once the fire went out, but for now it was
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: way too hot to get anywhere close to it. It
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: wasn't long before the water started to run out too.
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: They were far too deep in the desert to make
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: the walk back, so their best bet was to wait
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: for the ATV company to come find them. As they
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: sat together holding Ian shirt over their heads to try
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: and create some sort of shade. E decided to meditate.
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: When he was younger, he'd been a little too energetic
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: and scattered. His parents had put him in a special
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: martial arts program designed not just to teach fighting, but
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: mindfulness and life lessons as well. He'd been against it
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: at first, but he actually ended up flourishing it thanks
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: to his instructor, Since A. Paul, both the martial arts
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: skills and the meditation had stuck with him over the years.
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: He started by trying to empty his mind. He closed
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: his eyes and focused on a single thought, just as
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: Paul had once taught him. He concentrated on the word be.
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: No need to think, no need to change anything, just
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: be with the discomfort. He focused on his breath and
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: allowed it to anchor him in the moment. The practice
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: made him feel more comfortable, or maybe it just helped
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: him stop caring that he was uncomfortable. Once he reached
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: that state, possibly made easier by dehydration, his mind began
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: to wander. It wandered to colder places. He imagined sitting
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: in one of those giant walk in freezers that restaurants have.
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: Then he imagined himself outside in the winter without a
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: coat on. Strangely, he actually started to feel cold. At first,
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: he thought he was hallucinating, maybe he'd become so hot
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: that he'd actually lost his mind. But when his mother
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: started to shake him, he opened his eyes and saw
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: his breath as if he was really standing outside in
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: the winter. His mother screamed. The sweat on his body
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: was firm, and Ian was radiating cold. Before they could
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: really process what was happening, help arrived two more side
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: by side ATVs found the wreck. The family was immediately
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: taken to safety, and Ian's body went back to normal.
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: His parents weren't sure what to think about what they saw.
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: Eventually they convinced themselves it had been a hallucination, maybe
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: a trick of the sun or heat stroke, but Ian
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: knew it was real. He had felt the cold that night.
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: After a giant meal at the hotel, Ian sat in
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: bed and decided to meditate again. He emptied his mind,
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: went to the same place, thought the same thoughts. It
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: didn't happen right away, but eventually he reached that place again.
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: He saw his breath his hands became icy cold. He
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: didn't tell anyone, He just kept practicing. Soon cooling himself
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: down became easier. Then he moved on to trying to
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: pass the cold onto other things. He started with a
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: glass of water, holding it in his hands and trying
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: to will it into ice. To his surprise, it worked.
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: From there, he tried to increase the range of his cold.
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: He moved the glass further and further away. Each time
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: he succeeded, he pushed it back a bit more. Eventually
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: he learned how to cool down everything in the area.
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: He could even condense the water and the air around him,
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: causing it to fall like freezing rain or snow, the
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: result an instant skating rink. He got better and better.
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: He learned to focus cold into blasts of air that
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: instantly froze moisture in the air into ice, coating nearly
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: any object into a sheet of frost. He even figured
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: out how to form blocks of ice out of thin air,
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: and more usefully, how to make sharp icicles. The secret
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: was to let them form naturally, starting with a block
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: of ice in his hand and allowing parts of it
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: to melt, drip, and refreeze into a sharp point. Been
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: actually went undiscovered longer than most. What got Hm caught
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: was a fight at school. He wasn't the type to
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: back down from conflict. When another student tried to show
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: off by picking on a smaller kid, Ian stepped in.
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: The bully didn't take well to a challenger his own size.
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: Pushing turned to punching. Punching turned into the bully slipping
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: hard on a patch of sudden ice that formed beneath
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: his feet. Ian hadn't meant for that to happen, but
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: he'd practiced so much that his powers had become sort
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: of second nature. Most people were just confused about the ice.
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: They certainly didn't blame Ian, but some students, as they do,
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: had posted videos of the whole thing online. Two men
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: in black suits were eventually dispatched, and Ian found himself
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: with a very strong desire to attend a superhero academy
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: in the middle of the Canadian wilderness. It wasn't hard
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: to convince him really. Ian was raised for adventure, and
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: the idea of using his own new powers to help
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: people that was too good to pass up. Since arriving
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: at the academy, Ian had only gotten better. He could
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: freeze things faster and colder than ever. He'd also become
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: pretty adept at throwing icicles with deadly precision. His plan
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: to take on Alex was simple. Alex might be fast
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: on solid ground, but he wouldn't be able to run
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: so quickly on ice. Once he was slowed down, a
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: blast of cold air would finish the job. When Martin
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: called the start to the match, Ian acted fast. He
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: instantly dropped the temperature of the ring, condensing the moisture
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: in the air and freezing it into a slick sheet
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: of ice. Alex had already shifted into his faster time frame,
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: but now he had a lot more trouble moving. He
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: started taking smaller steps, keeping his feet under him, just
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: as anyone on ice naturally would. He watched Ian carefully.
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: As an icicle slowly formed in his hand, Ian raised
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: it and threw. Even with the icy ground, dodging it
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: was easy. Alex ducked and slid across the floor as
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: the icicles soared passed his head in slow motion. But
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: then came the burst of cold. A blast of freezing
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: air radiated out for me in flash, freezing the area
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: he started forming on Alex's skin. At his current speed,
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: the ice shattered as quickly as it formed. He could
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: still feel the bitter cold, but the ice couldn't build up.
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: He pushed forward. The closer he got, the colder it became.
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: If Alex had hid Ian without hesitation, he probably would
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: have won, but he was cautious. He took his time,
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: and the longer he waited, the more powerful the cold became. Eventually,
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: it got the better of him. The chill went deep,
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: bone deep, and as Alex stood long enough to line
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: up a punch, the cold overtook him. It even started
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: to slow down his time field, His movement slowed, ice
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: crept over his body. By the time he was mid punch,
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: he was frozen solid, encased in an inch of ice.
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: Amber Martin shouted, heat things up in here. Slowly, Amber
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: did just that, being stepped back, and the room began
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: to warm. The ice turned to water. Alex collapsed on
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: the floor, shivering violently. Mary the healer rushed over, placed
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: her hands on his chest, and sent a wave of
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: warmth through his body, once again complete with the profound
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: feeling of love. The shaking faded, his skin returned to
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: its normal color. Alex took a deep breath. He felt better,
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: but utterly exhausted. Well everyone, Martin said, time to go home, Alex,
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: walk with me. Martin helped Alex to his feet and
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: let him out of the room. Kid, you did well
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: in there, Martin said. I know you're probably thinking I
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: didn't win the majority of the matches, but the truth
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: is you easily could have. Really Alex said, how wow,
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: you hesitated if you'd run up and hit them as
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: fast and as hard as you could. Not one of
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: them would have stood a chance, luckily for them. You're
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: still afraid of your own power. Our first order of
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: business is to change that. I don't want to hurt anyone,
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: Alex said, as they exited the elevator and walked towards
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: the dorms. Well, I like that about you, Martin replied.
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: So our first step is figuring out how hard you
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: can hit without seriously hurting anyone. Part of that means
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: regulating your speed. The info from your suit shows your
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: speed as wildly inconsistent. To control your strength, you need
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: to control your pace. If you don't know how fast
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: you're moving, you don't know how hard you're hitting. After that,
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: we'll practice on something inanimate until you can consistently knock
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: it out without using lethal force. Of course, Alex nodded.
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: That actually sounds great, he said, and it really did.
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: He needed to learn the extent of his powers and
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: his strength. He wasn't sure Martin was right about easily
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: beating the others, and even if he was, Alex still
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: couldn't imagine running up and hitting someone with full force.
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: He could think about that later. For now, it was
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: time for bed. He said good night to Martin and
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: headed back to his room. It wasn't night yet, but
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: it might as well have been. All the fighting, all
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: the healing had left his body completely worn out. His
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: head hit the pillow and Alex fell asleep instantly.
• 30:13
  Speaker 2: M m.
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: M.
• 33:53
  Speaker 2: Never chion after name. Next more church unionism thing