Realization

Kevin drops to his knees as he tried to catch his breath as the really challenging training drained him good .

“ Come on Kev ! You can do better than that ! Knowing you , that is certainly not the best you could do !! Destroy those dummies !” Riley shouted to the exhausted teen . Kevin just acknowledged Riley’s morale-lifting words and got ready for another round .

The two have been training together for over a month . Kevin had to make countless excuses and eventually had to tell John and his parents that he joined the Stage Performances club , and that they have practice 3 days a week . Though that excuse might result in most parents to investigate deeper , Kevin’s parents just believed it and let Kevin go his way which was a real relief for him .

Over the course of those 4 weeks , Kevin has improved greatly and his skills has escalated to a very high level . His control over his electrical flow is now more than great up to the point that it has perfectly synched with his entire body . That means , he didn’t need to keep calm at every moment he wants to bring out the power . All he needed to do is easily flow the electricity and it’ll appear just like that . Now , he can use both arms to launch attacks using the electricity .

At school , Riley finally broke out from his dead silent state and finally made good interactions with people around him . He has made a decent amount of friends . Though he treated Kevin more specially and friendlier than the others .

Kevin swiftly dodges the incoming metal poles that are shooting from the cannons , and heads straight for the large , fast moving dummies . He emits a great amount of electricity from his right arm and cuts through 3 dummies without breaking a sweat .

Kevin is currently doing a speed training which Riley deviced by using special metal dummies that are moving by rails that are built into the field that Riley soon opened up for this training . The dummies are equipped with strong punches and decent-level dodges . The dummies are strong and designed by Riley to rebuild and regenerate every time hit with a good , but not amazing move . Another aspect Riley wanted to improve in Kevin was his dodging . For that , he uses some cannons sticking out from the wall that shoot out 50cm metal poles . Even with his superhuman powers , Kevin still does not posses lightning fast speed like Riley does , well , Riley is more to teleportation but it’s still a way more faster method to move from point A to point B . And because of that , Riley set it up so that the cannons shoot at a rate of about 5 poles a minute , and there are 3 cannons , so that means Kevin will have 15 poles coming at him from different directions in a minute , and they don’t launch simultaneously .

“ Alright ! Keep it up ! You’re doing good ! And mind those poles !” Riley shouted as Kevin battles the dummies with greatly executed attacks and combo moves . The dummies kept on re-building and kept on coming to Kevin non-stop . He was ready and kept them away from even landing a single attack on him .

If anyone were to see the action , it would’ve been an amazing sight . As Kevin fights on the field , he orchestrates a graceful parade of body movements and attacks . The sparks emitting from his arm twirls and dances around his body like a beautiful light show . Riley himself was amazed by the entertaining display .

He maintains his great performance and effortlessly damaged the dummies over and over again . After about 5 minutes , the dummies look beaten up and short-circuited . Kevin’s lightning attacks had a heavy effect on them . When Kevin was done with them , they didn’t move and got completely disabled .

“ Amazing . You did great . Now get over here .” Riley said as he signals to Kevin to leave the field . Then , Riley presses some buttons on the control table and that stored away the damaged dummies and closed off the walls that the cannons were sticking out of .

“ You happy ? Haha .” Kevin said as he smiled to his coach .

“ Absolutely . Go take a seat and rest , you deserve it .” he replied . Kevin then heads for the benches and took a seat . He grabbed one of his energy drinks and takes a long sip . He was clearly tired and exhausted , but he was happy that he is getting more better and better . Riley was finishing up storing away the training equipments then heads to the bathroom .

After Kevin was done wiping away his sweat and refreshing himself , he grabbed his phone to take a look if he received any text . He looks at the notifications area and noticed there were lots of un-replied messages and interactions his friends sent him . There were more than 50 . Kevin realized that he didn’t even thought to check his phone these past few days at training until now , even though he always has it in his sling bag . Texts from Zack , Michael , classmates , even his brother . All were ignored .

Then a thought hit his mind . He never noticed that ever since he found about his abilites and started his training routines with Riley , he was unconsciously slipping away from his social-life and the friendship connections he had with the people in his school were slowly breaking apart . Slowly but surely . Because of the time he had to spend training and improving his superpower skills , he never managed to find any spare time to spend with his friends or family . Even at school , in order to avoid questions about his now different life , he had to stay a bit far away from his friends than he usually does . Only Riley is the person he can safely interact and befriend normally with .

He just sat there as his head tells him the countless things he thought was still the same regardless of his now different life as someone with superpowers . He scrolls through the texts they sent him .

“Hey , why aren’t you with us during recess today ?”

“ Where have you been ? You’ve been absent frequently from us .”

“ What happened to you ? You’ve been acting weirdly .”

Those were some of the countless texts that are all over his phone . He wanted to reply to all of them , but realize that he still needs to keep info about his current life suppressed . So he decided to reply to the only ones he trusts , who are Zack and Michael . He sends the text which say , “ Sorry I’ve been acting weirdly as of late . I didn’t mean to ignore you guys . I hope that doesn’t affect the connections we have .” … he didn’t say something like , “ I had something to handle “ , or , “ I needed to take care of something .” because that would just lead to more people asking him questions after questions . He definitely doesn’t want that .

Moments later , Riley exits the bathroom and walked over to Kevin . Kevin noticed that and immediately stored his phone back into his sling bag . Riley then took a seat in front of him .

“ You ready for the next training ?” Riley asked him .

“ I - … d-don’t really know .” Kevin hesitatingly replied with an awkward expression on his face . Riley was surprised . He never heard Kevin sound so doubtful . Everytime he asks that , Kevin would react positively , but now it’s different .

“ What’s wrong ? Do you have an injury or - ?” Riley asks . He notices the discomfort Kevin was facing .

“ No , it’s not that . It’s just … well , um , I’ve been thinking .” Kevin replied .

“ What is it . Tell me .”

“ Well , I just realized that , uhhh …  my social life is slowly getting a bit , well , bad ever since I started this training thing … and I’m kind of upset it about it , you know what I’m saying .” he replied . Riley didn’t say a word at it and Kevin knew he had to continue and say more .

“ Don’t get me wrong , I’m not blaming you or anything , but … I never wanted any of my personal life to get damaged because of this . Is there any way I can get things back to normal as it was before I had all this ?” Kevin continued letting out what was in his mind .

Riley thought for a few seconds and didn’t reply for a while . Kevin just sat there and didn’t say anything too .

“ I understand you’re going through a hard time bearing this power you have . I understand that all this training has had a burden on you , but you have something you are destined to do . If you abandon it , things will get bad in this world . You are going to be someone important to the world soon . Don’t you want that?” Riley replied , breaking the awkward silence .

“ Who wouldn’t want to save the world ? Well , I do … but , I don’t think I’m the one perfect for the job .”

“ You’re doing just fine .”

“ Yeah you could say that , but , you know , I never fought or get involved in any live battles . I too don’t really understand the complicated life a fighter has to live . Even with these powers , I don’t think it’s enough .” Kevin explains his concern . Only today has that thought hit him . The weeks before , it never did and he was fully focused on becoming stronger .

“ Why didn’t you tell me earlier about this .” Riley reacted .

“Well , I thought I could handle whatever is coming . I got too excited with these powers that I have . But just suddenly , I thought the exact opposite .”

“ A life as a fighter is never easy . I’ll tell you that . And now , you have became one , in a sense . I know you never wanted or expected any of this , but it’s the painful truth . Come on , let’s just continue this . I promise you , after you have completed what you need to do , you will have your life back and everything is going to be just as it was a month before .” Riley replied to the suddenly-worried teenager . Kevin just sat there and didn’t reply . His face looked like he has millions of questions that he asked himself which needed answers . Should he continue this life as an important individual or abandon it and get back with his friends and family ? What if he never comes back ? How is life gonna be after he’s finished what he needed to do ? Will his friends still treat him the same way ? Will everything remain the same ? Those questions haunt his mind .

Riley noticed that his student is going through a hard moment trying to find a reply . He then said ,

“ Alright then , let’s just do it this way . We’ll stop training for now . I won’t put the seal on you anymore because you are now skilled enough to harness the power perfectly . I’m gonna give you 2 weeks of rest . Go and do whatever you want . Try and get back together with your friends and rebuild those relationships that are crumbling . And also try to see how life is with your powers . Is it different or not . When those 2 weeks are over . I’m gonna tell you everything about your destiny and how things will turn out after that . Oh , and this will probably be the last 2 weeks you’re gonna spend before you start your life as a fighter . Live it every second .” Riley tells Kevin his decision . Kevin lifted his head a bit and looked at Riley .

“ That sounds nice .” he replied .

“ Well then , you should be on your way … get home early this time . I’ll stay and clean up here .” Riley said as he stood up .

“ Alright , I’m going now . Later .” Kevin said as he packs his stuff into his sling bag and heads for the steps . Riley just nodded and went on to clean up the place .

He took a deep breath of the fresh air . Flocks of birds were flying home to their nests . The sun sets and hides behind the mountains . Skies are changing colours to yellow . It’s been quite a while since Kevin saw such a sight . Usually he returns home at around 8 or 9PM , which is obviously way past the time that he could see this .

“ What majestic-ness , been a while eh .” Kevin whispered as he admires the beautiful scenery . He then closed the door of the training area and walks off to the street .

About 10 miutes later he reached his house . Apparently at the moment his mother was watering the plants at the frontyard . He walks on to the driveway .

“ You’re home early today . Was there anything up over there ?” she asked . Her name was Ellie , Ellie Sterling .

“ Not much . Just , the teachers dismissed us earlier than before . They said we did good and that we have had enough practice for the day .” he lied .

“ Oh okay , well get cleaned up . Your brother’s cooking today . He’s whipping up something special .” she replied . Kevin just nodded and entered the house .

John too was surprised that his little brother is home early today . He didn’t question him though and just let him make his way to his bedroom . He sets down his stuff on the floor and “landed” on his bed . He wasn’t really exhausted compared to previous days . He’s much stronger now and can handle tougher and longer training routines .

He lays there sprawled on the bed , curious as to how his final 2 weeks with his friends are gonna be . He knows he should spend it the best way possible , but not quite sure how . He always spends time with his friends doing normal and not-so-amazing things , so he’s not sure what stuff to do .

Then , he decided to call Michael . It’s been a really long time since he made a phone call to his bestfriend . He just wanted to let Michael know that he will be able to spend more time together with them .

“ Yeah ?”

“ Hey there , buddy . Been a while eh.”

“Dude , yes ! Where the fuck you’ve been man ? Me and the guys missed you . You were always at school but not with us . I tell ya things are different without you man ! What have you been doing ?  ”

“ Haha sorry , I …. I …..”  Kevin then hit a wall in the conversation . He didn’t plan out what to say if Michael ever asked what happened or what he’s been up to .

“ What ? What is it ?”

“ Just , some , umm , my dad needed help with some , family business . Yeah , it’s something that needed lots of work so yeah . I can’t tell you more , um , you knowww ….”

“ Oh alright I understand .”

“ Anyway , I’m planning on hanging out with you guys more . This matter that I had no longer needed my help . What do you wanna do ?”

“ Uhhh , I don’t know . What do you wanna do ?”

“ Tomorrow’s Saturday so … how about me , you and the others go to that new theme park that just opened outside of town ?”

“ For real ?! Oh hell yes ! Sure ! I’ll go tell the others now . Umm , are you paying it all or - ? Haha .”

“ Well , I’ll pay for MOST of the trip , but you guys bring your own money too . I’m not a millionaire .”

“ Omg thank you so much Kev ! Alright . DEAL !”

“Sweet . Alright , I’m out . Goodbye buddy .”

“ Okay .”

The call ended . Kevin had a really good feeling in him . He was really grateful that things between him and Michael are still strong . He doesn’t really know how the others are , but he’s sure they will be excited for his re-appearance after over a month of absence from his group of friends .