Thirty-seven
Swing, clang. Swing, scrape. Push, clang. Swing, swish. Miss.
"Try to cool down. You're angry and it's not helping." Cyclone advised. Their training session had started with swords, basic shortswords, and so far all of Kate's moves were blocked or swiftly dodged. At the fifth swing she guarded for the planned switch, but Cyclone lowered his sword instead.
Kate breathed heavily and spun the sword down. "I'm sorry, Cyclone."
"You wanted to train our powers. Let's switch to that." he suggested.
Despite the hurt lingering in the front of her head, Kate smiled and turned to face the bunker's empty wall opened to the edge of the World, the sky and clouds beyond. This subterranean bunker was built up to the Block Yard's edge, and could be entered by rockets behind disguised hanger doors. Some tools and machinery were off to the corners, allowing Kate the breadth and room to cool off.
She pushed her arms forward and sent twin jets of fire into the open air. Dark orange reflections danced over the gritty concrete walls from the moving flames. They stretched fifty feet out of the hanger doors before blowing out in bonfire sized puffs; a small distance in the overwhelming space separating the Block Yards, but a overflowing range for close combat, and she wasn't giving it her all.
Heat built up in the hanger and Kate let the flames end. She dropped her hands to sides, then flapped them in the air and blew on her fingers. "Stuff's hot!" she yelled, spinning around to see Cyclone standing slack-jawed.
"That was an impressive display." he managed.
"Supposedly we can do anything with our powers." Kate told him, which raised Cyclone's eyebrows. "I think some testing is in order."
"Where do we start?"
"Use your Imagination."
"Nice one." Cyclone ran a hand through his hair. "There has to be a catch. Using our powers takes enough focus already."
Kate considered. "Think it'll be something cliche like getting lost in the power?"
Cyclone shared her glance. "Possibly. I bet Interpid has a file on it, from the Future Dimension."
Kate masked her glower with a one-eighty degree twirl. "Where do we get that?"
"We ask nicely."
On the surface they found Intrepid close to where they left him. The others were still milling about and all the sorting work had been done.
"It's two hours till we're expecting on Crux Prime, like you said." Intrepid told the two. He looked more haggard than usual; he was exuberating confidence in comparison fifteen minutes ago. No doubt about it, Allison Ryder's reveal and their subsequent encounter had a thing to do with it.
"Plenty of time for a cursory glance. Or more." Cyclone said brightly. "Who knows, what we found out might come in handy."
Intrepid handed him an unlinked laptop computer. "Everything's downloaded to this."
Cyclone got to his knees and Kate crouched behind him as he began browsing. "Look under 'Nexus'," she suggested. "That's what Ryder called our powers, 'Nexus Powers'."
There were about 1523 entries beginning with Nexus. Cyclone glanced backwards and put a hand on the lid. "Sure we're not better off asking her?"
Kate stood and looked about. "Where's she anyway?"
Intrepid was still standing nearby, hands in his pockets, and turned the other direction. "Red gave her a chewing out." he said as if absentminded. "She's on the scouting roster though. Probably skipped town." He then stalked off towards their fleet of rockets, to oversee loading of supplies.
Inwardly Kate felt a little sorry for flipping out like she did earlier, at him, but she didn't say anything.
"Speaking of the devil," Cyclone caught himself at the swear, then continued, "there's a file on Miss Ryder." His eyes scanned left and right, before he returned to the index. "There's a lot of history in these files... but it wouldn't be history to us."
Kate returned to behind him, curious. "What's it have on us?"
"That's not why we're here." Cyclone reminded. "Nor do I want to read about my future. Or yours. Or anyone's for that matter." he added quickly.
"It's another dimension, silly. Nothing that happens there affects us."
"I just don't want to know anything that will change how things should happen." Cyclone sighed.
"And how should things happen?" Kate inquired.
"I don't know and that's the point, I don't want to know. Here, this article on Creation Sparks has a subsection on 'Anomalous Variations'-"
Cycloe was cut off by an invisible shockwave that rippled his skin and toppled him sideways, and knocked Kate the other way. Less firmly planted items took to the air, including the laptop, which flew over their heads and probably smashed into more than a few pieces. Funnily, Kate imagined how long it had taken for Intrepid to copy the database, since that progress was likely gone now, before the flash of light and thunderclap of an interdimensional rupture hit them. That sent another shockwave of the auditory type over the Block Yard.
When Kate could hear again and her brain wasn't being marauded by high pithced ringing, she got up and blinked to bring the dark mass looming behind the Block Yard's mountain into focus. It was a Venture Class starship darkened by the combined shadow of several smaller Pirate ships and Maelstrom dragons flying above it, headed straight down towards them.
It was a Maelstrom Dimensions Invasion Force, arriving early, and Kate knew immediately it was coming for them.<ac_metadata title="Chapter 37"> </ac_metadata>