Chapter 386 - 386. Rising Stars
"Bro, you are trying too hard. You need to lower your level then push up with your heels, not your toes." Art had found a move to use a proper uppercut. Since it was a common fighting move in many games, he had ended up challenging Asher to see who could learn it first. Naturally, Art had been able to beat him due to him being used to it more.
Asher listened and gave it a try while aiming at the training dummy. Just like the videos and Art said, he lower his level and got closer to the dummy. Then with all his force he pushed off the ground and let his arms and back release the pressure from holding the lowered position. This transferred the force and his fist hit the dummy with a lot more force which pushed the dummies head upwards.
"Damn! That crushes hands!" Asher had learned the very important lesson that came with the extremely forceful punches. They had an equal backlash. Luckily for Asher, he had not done any damage and just shocked himself.
"You know, we all use punches to some degree. We might want to add some wrist and ankle braces to our gear." Jackson had punched a heavier dummy a few times after learning a jab combination. He could feel his joints taking a little more pressure and was sure it would build up. He could only imagine the damage that would show up after years and years of doing such a thing.
"Hey Laura, tomorrow at the modern technology class, do you want to ask if they can somehow add braces to our gear?" Asher shouted over to Laura who was working on a jab combo technique that Jackson had shown her just a few minutes before. Since jabs were a light punch and relied on speed to shock someone, they were perfect for Laura.
"Huh? Braces? I already have those factored in to my shoes. But wrist braces would be good too. I jabbed like a hundred times and I think my wrists and arms will bruise if I did it a thousand. The way Laura spoke sounded like a hundred was nothing. Out of the entire group she might have been the most out of touch with the norm.
"Hey! If you four aren't going to work on something then I will make sure that my voice gets thrown at you when you are sleeping." Cara had come to realize that her inexperienced throwing of other peoples' voices was actually very scary. Instead of improving, she somehow ended up getting worse. Now when she attempted someone else's voice, it was more often than not that she would sound grave and evil. I would definitely wake and scare someone at night.
"Oh yeah!? Then what have you been working on?" Cara instantly showed a jump and roll that flowed in to a high kick and double handed hammer fist. This was an advanced combination that Jane was attempting to copy with little success.
"Yeah, I think she is doing fine. But I am going to try and learn that." Asher jogged over and attempted to roll forward in to a high kick without practice at all. No one was supposed to when he fell and landed on his butt.
"You're lucky I'm your sister ad can show you the tricks to a few things." Cara was sure that Asher would have been totally lost when trying these moves. Mostly because she knew that Asher was not as flexible as her and that he would need some help making the move flow at first.
The accusation didn't end as well as Cara had expected. In just a quick moment, Asher had jumped to roll and landed in front of her. He didn't even try to high kick when he pushed himself up. Instead, he cut it out and went for a hammer fist right away. The sudden change in his movements caused Cara to be forced back and dodge instead of countering. This left the two face to face ready for a battle.
The next few minutes were filled with the rest of the group trying to stop them and eventually Jane using her super power to freeze them in place by getting between them. "You two know we are learning new moves and not fighting, right?" The embarrassment brought a red tinge to both Asher and Cara's faces and instead of the training, they found themselves stuck with the majority of cleaning the gym. They has already been practicing for a few hours and that was that.
"Do you think coach Winters left us alone with these videos on purpose?' Louis was sure that something was just too good to be true as they left the gym without bumping in to anyone else.
"Regardless of intentional or not, we won big time. I think that if I use my super power with that jump and roll, that I can make it even more powerful." Sammy had thought that they should add their combinations in to the new moves but didn't want to push each other too far. She understood that if they did push too far that they would risk overworking themselves.
"We can try that out tomorrow after classes. It should be a light day since we just got back from break. It wasn't an intentional break but a break nonetheless." Art was certain that the teachers might try to assign some extra homework to get them caught up but that would be all. When it came to physical training they would most likely get off easy.
" Hey, look. That's the guy we saw on the news. He was able to catch a huge piece of a skyscraper that was falling." Laura had spotted the man flying through the sky. He had the super power of telekinesis. This was able to make him control some things with his mind. He had quickly risen in fame when he caught a massive piece of building with his super powers. Since then he had shown himself flying using his own super powers.
"That's wicked cool. I wonder why he was around here?" The area around the school was relatively safe and having a super hero around to fight crime was odd. Most of the small crime that happened was easily dealt with by law enforcement.
"Didn't you see the news this morning?" Louis and Sammy both spoke in unison. They had always seen the weather due to their grandfather's previous job before retirement.
" Hero corp is encouraging super heroes to patrol areas they normally wouldn't patrol. It's to show villains that heroes are everywhere and waiting to catch them. Some of the higher crime areas already have shown a change. A lot of people are more relaxed just in the morning knowing heroes are n their area more often." Sammy and Louis helped each other finish the story as if it was an impromptu news story. Everyone else watched as if they were crazy.
"Sorry, we do that at home because our grandfather thinks it's hilarious." The two were embarrassed but not a single person made fin of them.
"It's good that heroes are getting out of their comfort zone. I think people get too used to seeing the same heroes. Villains can also plan to sneak around the,m. Having different heroes around at different times will make them just as unexpected as a villain can be." Asher approved this completely. He would prefer to see many heroes than just one. It helped him, learn more while also keeping villains at bay.
"That means we get to meet more heroes right? I bet I can meet more on the way home than you can!" The challenge came from Laura and not a single one of them was able to resist rushing ahead. They had decided to each at Asher and Cara's house that night before trying to figure out some of the harder academic app quiz questions. They needed to be ready for their new and tougher classes when they got to school in the morning. They also had to decide on their morning work out routine.
The sad part was that they did not encounter any other heroes that they could watch or even get near. But the fun had been in chasing each other back to their friend's house. Meanwhile, coach Winters had evaluated the ones she had seen them practicing and using. To her surprise, she could see that they had all grasped an understanding of every move they watched. Not only this, but the group had helped each other get to basic mastery of the move without leaving anyone behind. This was the major reason that the group was progressing so far.
The report that she filled out was sent to the principal with the potential teaching tactics for the advanced classes and potentially even a whole new education program all together.. The group was already the top group in the school and would just need a little more time to show themselves as the strongest group in the school.