“I’m totally not ready for this!” Mark said as he was holding his chest while out of breath.

“It's quite literally only been 10 minutes stop overreacting.” Luna said with a blank stare.

“I don’t think he’s overreacting sis, despite being able to use Galaxy Energy he's never exercised a day in his life im guessing.” He rubbed the back of his head and sighed. “Alright kid let's start with the basics again. Enough with the muscle building and cardio training for now.. Straight abilities from here on out.”

Tom put two fingers in his mouth and whistled as 4 small circular drone-like robots appeared behind him and Luna as she stepped to the side knowing what was next. Mark looked at the drones and wiped the sweat from his forehead.

“What the heck are those? Robots?” Mark questioned.

“They’re battle preparation drones that I made a while ago primarily to train Lunas combat skills back in the day. That's what made her the exceptional combatant she is today Right Lulu?”

She blushed a little in embarrassment from the compliment then got red with annoyance. “I TOLD YOU TO STOP CALLING ME LULU ESPECIALLY IN FRONT OF HIM!”

“I think it's cu-” Mark stopped mid sentence as he saw Luna's finger hover over the gem on her necklace, “Nevermind, anyways what are the drones for?”

“Luna says you’re mastery with your powers is lacking. Look, I'll make a chart.” Tom scurried to the side and pulled up a whiteboard. “Old school huh? I would use my computers but that might be too complex for your tiny human brain.”

“HEY! MY BRAINS NOT TINY!” Mark said back in embarrassment.

“Anyways.” He scribbled on the whiteboard really fast with a dry erase marker. “On the left is my sister and on the right is you. The bar above both your heads shows your mastery with your powers. Right now I’d said Lulu has about 85% mastery with her ability while compared to you who frequently calls out the wrong powers is at a measly 25%. These are all just guesses though no one knows the mastery of any given ability besides the wielder.”

“ Although sometimes it’s easy to guess with context clues I have from witnessing and hearing about Luna’s and your abilities. For example, Luna has achieved an Awakening that's why I say the threshold for her ability mastery is above 80%.” Tom said with a smirk.

“You probably didn’t understand Luna’s explanation but the amount of mastery you have to gain for an awakening depends on both the ability and the person. For most normal abilities and the average person their mastery can be about half capping around 50% and then they can unlock an Awakening."

“This seems like a shortcut but people with more complex abilities and different body types take more ability mastery to achieve an Awakening. Making people with different bodies and more complex awakening have a further grasp on their powers. Furthermore even after someone with a low ability mastery achieves an Awakening their mastery of their ability can still grow but rather slowly.”

“Although for you Meteor Boy I’d say the way you are now with the number of abilities you possess your mastery for your power could probably cap at atleast 90% to even 100% before you get an awakening.This is also just a guess based on the amount of abilities you posess and your current scrawny, weak body type.”

“HEY STOP CALLING ME SCRAWNY! Also jeez I already thought the whole Galaxy Energy and Awakening thing was complicated  but there's even more layers. How am I going to remember all this? Also 90 or 100? How long will it take me to reach that percentage for my power mastery? A couple weeks? A few months?” Mark questioned.

“If you’re lucky. A year at the least.” Tom said while looking dead square at Mark.

A YEAR!?!

Mark yelled at the top of his lungs as Luna covered her ears while Tom chuckled. “A YEAR FOR ME TO FULLY MASTER MY POWERS! THAT’S GONNA TAKE FOREVER! ISN'T THERE A FASTER WAY!”

“There’s no shortcuts to becoming a better version of yourself, and there's also no shortcuts to becoming a Hero. Tom said as he flicked Mark on the forehead.

Mark rubbed his forehead and muttered under his breath. “Tell that to Captain America.” Mark folded his arms and sat on the ground with a thump. “OKAY FINE! I’ll do the training and in a year I’ll be stronger than you and Luna combined!”

Luna and Tom stared at Mark with blank faces then proceeded to burst out laughing as Mark's cheeks were red with embarrassment. Tom held his stomach as Luna started coughing violently from her laughing fit.

“Oh god, I almost wet myself, you're a hilarious kid.” Tom said as he took a breath to regain himself. “Anyways if that's what you think, show the both of us what you’re made of Mr. 25%.” Tom smirked as he snapped his fingers as his drones circled around Mark at high speeds.

Tom snapped his fingers once more as one of the drones turned red, the second turned light blue, the third brown, and the final one purple. Mark tilted his head as the drones stopped in front of him as Tom cleared his throat.

“So for this little training exercise I call it the "Pin The Element On The Drone." Each color on the drones corresponds to each one of your elemental abilities. Red is fire, Blue is Ice, Brown is Earth, and Purple is Plasma. The goal is the drones will circle you just like how they did before but this time they will lunge at you and attack you and you have to use the corresponding element to take them down. All in one minute by the way.”

“Oh okay, it sounds easy enough. Wait what do you mean by Plasma? I thought what I was shooting out of my hands was purple lightning?”

“I thought you’d at least know about one of the parameters of your powers but I guess I was wrong. This explanation will take even longer than the last one I’m afraid. Basically Plasma can be found in lightning but what you produce is a more raw and natural version of plasma. Both hotter and faster than lightning as well. That’s why it's that bright purple color. I hope you haven’t been tossing that thing around without knowing how dangerous it was.”

Mark gulped and laughed. “I wasn’t doing that, I'm not an idiot.”

“He threw it at me during the start of our fight by the way.” Luna said with a monotone expression.

Mark chuckled awkwardly and rubbed the back of his head. "Heh, my bad.."

Tom facepalmed as he sighed. “Okay anyways are you ready once this starts it won't stop until the minute is up.”

“Got ya. Now I can do this. I'm going to show you I have way more than 25% mastery over my powers.”

“Alright then whatever you say. 3. 2. 1. START!” Tom whistled as the drones hovered around Mark at supersonic speeds.

Mark looked to the left and saw the red drone fly towards him. He jumped over it and shot a small burst of fire out his palm hitting the drone dead on.

Mark gloated towards Tom as the red drone was only stunned for a bit and slammed into Mark's back. Mark tumbled onto the ground yelling out “What the heck!” as Tom replied “I didn’t say how many hits it takes for them down. Now heads up the next wave is starting.”

Mark quickly got back up on his feet as the blue and purple drone flew towards him as he glanced at his palms. Mark lunged forward and punched the blue drone with his knuckles covered in solid stone as the blue drone didn't flinch.

Mark messed up with his power control when he hit the blue drone as the purple drone took the chance to blitz him sending him flying into a pile of cardboard boxes.

Mark got up with a couple minor scratches on him as all four of the drones rushed towards him. “Should I shoot out fire first? Or ice? The Plasma stuff? Crap they’re coming!” Mark said to himself as the drones rushed him as one clocked him in the chin sending him flying into the wall.

Mark coughed while holding his chest as the drones turned back to their normal color signifying that the minute was up.

“You failed.” Tom said as he made an X with his arms. “We can try again later, take 5 for now alright.” He said as he walked into another room while Mark was still coughing.

“Hey.” Luna followed him into the other room and closed the door behind herself. “Orion, this isn’t like you first when you asked me to ask him a couple questions. Then you see him, clock him in the face, then say you wanna be his friend. Also what's with this whole Tom thing are you disgracing the name your father gave you, huh? You’re acting like a whole different person! You’re always cautious and calculating with new people. You even were with Oscar and the others when we first met them!”

Tom's gauntlet formed around his hand as he slammed it onto the table to make Luna stop talking for a second. Tom's gauntlet disappeared as he sighed and apoligze to his little sister immediately after.

Luna chuckled with a smile on her face. “I get it now. I can't believe I didn’t realize it earlier. You’re using him aren’t you? I can’t tell what for exactly but you’re using him. Trying to be all buddy buddy and training him. That was your plan from the moment you learned he existed.”

Tom smiled at his younger sister and nodded his head. “Like you said I’m surprised you didn’t pick it up earlier Lulu, but yeah i'm totally using the kid. I was thinking if things go sideways and the officials find Oscar and the others and god forbid even us we use him as a sort of meat shield. He has a little crush on you and he thinks of me as his friend so the first sign of danger we’re in he’ll  jumps in like the heroes always do and will probably get himself obliterated.”

“That's kind of morbid even for you, but it is a good back up plan if things go sideways, so you’re saying once he gets strong enough to hold his own, we’ll keep manipulating him, making him fall under a false sense of security, then WHAM. If we ever get caught, we use him as the bait and get away. That’s a member of the Star Clan for you always using your heads and you’ve been the best at that bro.” Luna said as she high fived her brother.

“I’m genuinely surprised he hasn’t realized it. The police are trying to cover things up, I mean. I’ve heard the schools have started incorporating drills for attacks with people with Galaxy Energy. The ever climbing crime rate and fatality rate on the news. It’s just an assumption, but I’m guessing the government has already taken some people with powers into heavily guarded and secured facilities and treat them like lab rats.” Tom said in a serious tone.

“That’s why if we’re ever on the end of the stick and you, me and the others aren’t enough we use the kid. I know you don’t wanna spend the rest of your life as a lab rat sis? This kid is weak now, but he has potential probably even more than us or anyone else in the galaxy. The reason is him taking the full blunt force of the Galaxy Energy that came out of the Meteorite that night makes him brimming with dormant Galaxy Energy in his body that can be tapped into in the right situation.” Tom chuckled.

“Hmph, I get exactly what you mean now bro, so for however long this does take we just keep playing him for a fool so we don’t end up getting caught ourselves. I like it, the whole reason my mother and your father sent us to this planet so that we could escape conflict and sorrow. There’s no way I’ll ever have myself, or you suffer that fate, so if using him means that doesn’t happen to me, you or the others. I promise I’ll do everything in my power.” She said while clenching her fist.

Tom hugged his sister lovingly as she started to calm down, wrapping her arms around her brother. He started to reaffirm her that she didn’t have to take this burden for herself. She’s always trying to be the big sister while he's the older sibling. Luna apologized as Tom patted her head as he smiled.

“Alright you got the plan? We stay with the kid even forming an alliance with him for the time being and if we’re ever in trouble we use him as a scapegoat and he’ll get sacrificed instead of us.” He smirked while Mark's demise ran through his head. “I’m doing all this to protect you and the others, Luna.”

“Trust me, I’m fine with it. I wish you had told me earlier I sounded like a jerk earlier. I'm sorry for making a fuss, by the way.”

Tom smirked as he patted Luna's head once again as he was about to walk out the door. “Are you ready to go back out and check on the runt?”

“Yeah I am. By the way, where are Oscars and the others? Are they out getting food?” Luna questioned.

“I guess. Oscar didn’t tell me but I assume so, him and the others have been living on their own for so long and getting by without powers it's probably even easier for them now to get food for us.” Tom said reassuringly.

“Yeah you’re right I was less worried about them when they didn’t have powers, if you can believe me. I thought they’d be reckless with them but I was wrong.” Luna chuckled.

“Galaxy Energy isn’t a child's plaything so I get why you’d respond like that but trust me they’re fine even with just the four of them. That's how it’s always been.”

“You’re right I don’t know why I was worried.” Luna smiled as her and Tom walked back out.

Many hours have passed since Mark began training with Tom and Luna as it was now nighttime. 4 figures could be seen at the top of a building, varying in size and wearing black hoodies. They soon witnessed two policemen chasing a burglar in an alleyway as the second tallest figure spoke to the tallest one.

“Hey Oscar, you see that down there?” A young boy with shaggy brown hair questioned.

“Yeah I see it Chris.” The Oscar boy said as he snapped his fingers. “Sully, Skyla! Come on, you know what to do.”

The four figures quickly jumped into the alleway as they stood in between the middle of the burglar and the police men. The four figures were facing towards the burglar as the cops asked them what in the world they were doing here. The four figures didn’t respond as one of the cops clenched their teeth.

“HEY ANSWER US YOU KIDS!” The police officer said with a loud bass in his voice.

“You can go.” The Oscar boy said as he pushed the burglar further as he ran away into the distance. “Hmph.” He turned around and faced the cops and so did the three figures next to him.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING? YOU’RE LETTING HIM GET AWAY! YOU DAMN KIDS! WHAT'S YOUR PROBLEM!”

“We’re superheroes!” Said a young brown skinned boy as he stuck his thumb out with a grin.

“Hmph. That's enough Sully don't mess with them like that.” The Oscar boy said.

“Superheros? No superheroes let a criminal get away! We’ll let you kids off with a warning this time, but if you intervene in a police chase again we’ll have to call your parents!”

“Parents? Hmph, we abandoned them a long time ago.” The Oscar boy said with a bit of malice in his voice as he stuck out of his hand. “Don’t scream too much, it's annoying you pigs."

FLASH FIRE!

The two cops looked at each other and wondered what the teenage boy was talking about as in that instance he shot a wave of fire out his hand. The cops screamed in agony as the flame's heat scorched their bodies. The two cops fell, now deceased as Oscar grinned as the other 3 kids behind him started to laugh out loud as their voices filled the night sky.