บท 56: First Practice

Liam and Natalia stood right beside the stairs and were waiting for Alexis to do whatever she wanted to do. Liam was especially interested to see all the power displays by Alexis. But Natalia was somewhat scared that Alexis might accidently throw her fireballs towards them.

Alexis stood at the center of the bunker and took a few deep breaths. Then she parted her legs a little and took a strong stance.

She moved both of her hands slightly outward to the side then she turned her palms upwards and started concentrating. She exhaled deeply again and tried to feel the rush of power in both of her palms.

But just when Alexis was slowly feeling the power surge, she was distracted by Natalia.

"Be careful!" Natalia shouted at the top of her voice.

But Natalia's words seemed to have done the opposite effect and instead of the fire accumulating just in her palms, Alexis's whole body was glowing in azure fire.

However, it was a sight to behold for Liam. He knew that Alexis would light up in fire but he did not know that she would look so magnificent like she was straight out of some superhero movies. "Oh! So that's what you meant when you said she catches fire?" He whispered to Natalia in amazement.

"Natalia, don't shout like that while I am concentrating okay?" Alexis tried her best not to get angry at Natalia and not to speak in a loud voice. She knew that Natalia would avoid coming here from tomorrow if she scolded Natalia when her whole body was glowing with fire.

"Sorry! My bad" Natalia put her index finger over her lips and suggested that she would not make any sudden noises anymore.

Alexis took a few deep breaths and tried to calm herself down. Slowly the power rush diminished and she was no longer glowing with fire. Then she again tried to concentrate her mind on her palms. She tried to replicate the previous power surge but only on her palms.

After a few seconds, the azure fire started to appear on her palms and then it started to take the form of balls. The fire was swirling on top her palms, ready to hit kind of target.

Alexis was facing Liam and Natalia right now, so she turned to her side and faced an empty wall. The whole bunker was made out of Astrostial so there was nothing to be worried about, it could even take on heavy missiles and it would still not get damaged. So, Alexis pointed both of her palms towards the wall and released the fireballs.

Bang - A huge sound was heard when the fireballs hit the wall. Though no damage was done by Alexis, Liam could feel that those blows were very powerful. Because when he used to practice to shoot the laser guns, it would just make - clank - sound when it hit the wall.

"I would hate to be in the other end of that blow. Those fireballs would obliterate anything that it hit, of course except this Astrostial." Liam was seriously impressed at the powerful being that was in front of him.

Alexis tried repeating the process again. And this time it took less time to her to focus her energy on her palms. And as soon as she accumulated the fire which was the size of a tennis ball, she released the fire again. Bang - bang.

Again, Alexis took a deep breath in and flicked her palm open. And almost in an instant the fireballs were created on her palms. She did not need to concentrate her mind and think about the power rush. Alexis smiled slightly at her progress and shoot out the fireballs again.

A loud noise echoed inside the bunker again. Every time the sound echoed, Natalia would involuntarily flinch a little. Liam noticed how jumpy Natalia was and then whispered near her ears, "I think we should bring a pair of earmuffs from tomorrow."

"You spoke my mind." Natalia stared into Liam's light brown eyes and smiled softly. But then she gasped and jumped again when another bang was heard.

Liam smiled back at Natalia and put his hand around her shoulder. Then he pulled Natalia closer to his chest and said, "You don't have to be scared of your own best friend Nat."

"It's easy for you to say that because you have not seen her in her most scary form up close yet." Natalia whispered back to him so that she would not distract Alexis from her practice. She didn't want another fireball to come flying at her.

Alexis was now trying to mix her different abilities while shooting the fire. She flicked her palms to create fireballs but didn't release them just like that. She held her palms in front of her chest, tried to gather her strength, and pretended to push something very heavy while simultaneously releasing the fireballs. BANG… This time the sound of her fireballs hitting the wall was even louder.

And this time, even Liam flinched a little. Natalia immediately covered her ears with both of her hands. "Yup, we definitely need those earmuffs." Liam exhaled as he spoke.

After practicing by mixing her strength with her fire power for some time, Alexis decided to test her flight. She had never consciously done it before, or at least had not done it when she was not angry. There was enough space inside the bunker to take a good spin so she decided to test it as well.

To create her azure fire, Alexis knew that she had to feel the fire-like energy running inside of her body. But she did not know what she needed to do to lift herself in the air. And she had no idea how she was supposed to maneuver around.

"How do I fly? Do I have to jumpstart it by getting angry? Or do I have to jump off from a height? How do I do it? It's not like there is a manual for it." Subconsciously, Alexis had been pacing back and forth really fast while thinking about all these.

Natalia was watching Alexis and she was not sure what was about to happen next. "Please don't do anything scary." Natalia was praying under her breath.

Alexis stopped suddenly and thought to herself, "Hell! Let's just try staying still and think about levitating. Maybe just thinking about that will work."

Alexis closed her emerald eyes and then tried to relax by inhaling and exhaling deeply. Then as she kept on breathing deeply, she focused her mind solely on the sound of her breath. And after a while, when she was in a light trance state, she felt like she was levitating. So she abruptly opened her eyes to check.

She looked down and she had actually managed to levitate about a feet above from the ground. But she became misbalanced when she opened her eyes. She tried to maintain her position but she stiffened too much and she fell down on the floor with a thud.

"Are you okay?" Natalia shouted and ran towards Alexis out of instinct even when she was afraid of going near to her friend.

Alexis got up from the floor and replied back, "I am alright Nat, don't worry." After making sure Alexis was alright, Natalia went back to where Liam was standing.

Alexis patted her uniform after getting up. Then with even more determination on her face, she got right back to her position. She closed her eyes and calmed herself down. She focused on her feet and then imagined that her feet were lifting off from the floor.

After focusing for some time, slowly she could feel her feet leaving the floor. She maintained her posture and slowly opened her eyes. She did not do any sudden movements like before. And after levitating for few seconds, she slowly landed on the ground.

Alexis's lips curled up slightly after successfully levitating without the use of her anger. Instead, she felt extreme joy and freedom when her body levitated, even though it was only a few feet from the floor.

Alexis wanted to feel that same joy again so she tried lifting herself for the third time, and this time she did not need to take deep breaths or close her eyes. She raised her heels and pushed her toes at the same time and she managed to hover in the air.

She tried moving to her sides while hovering, and to her amazement she could. Then she tried moving backward and to the front, she did that as well. She was getting a little hang of it. Finally, she did a little spin in the air and landed safely on the floor.

Alexis was feeling ecstatic at today's practice. She was happy that after being suppressed for years, her powers found a way to break the seal and manifest. She walked towards Natalia and Liam, feeling invincible.

But before she reached to where they were standing, she crouched down. "Aahhhh..." She shouted as she held her stomach.

Natalia and Liam ran to her side and held her up. "What happened? Are you hurt somewhere?" Natalia asked in a panicked voice.

At the same time, Alexis's stomach growled very loudly. She was a bit embarrassed and laughed nervously, "I am just extremely hungry. I guess I drained all of my energy."

Natalia sighed and yelled at Alexis, "You scared me, you fool."

Liam opened the door of the bunker and said, "I will ask Rupert to prepare some warm food. Till then you can munch on some bread."

"No that's okay… we have given enough trouble to you already." Alexis did not want to be indebted to Liam. He was allowing her to use such a huge place which was more than enough for her. But her stomach growled again and she was turning red with embarrassment.

"Come on, you don't have to be so polite with me. We are friends after all." Liam then led both of the girls towards the Kitchen.