There were two days left until Operation: Prisonbreak.
The sun was barely rising over the Tokyo skyline, its orange light peeking through the many windows of the rebel compound.
Akilah began to worry. She had yet to come up with an ability to combine her Intelligence Mode and her new Spirit Weapon.
"The more time I waste coming up with the idea, the less time I have to practice it. I won't be the reason the team fails." She thought.
The girl walked downstairs towards the gymnasium.
"We meet again!" Jason joked, startling Akilah.
The red-head noticed the worry on the girl's face.
"Have ya come up with any ideas for an ability?" Jason asked bluntly.
"No. I don't even know how abilities work, let alone how to make them." Akilah said. Her mind raced through all of the abilities she had honed over her year and a half of Spirit training.
"All of my abilities stem from my main method of activating my Mode. I just channel my Spirit into different parts of my brain. I wish I could act on instinct like Vida or Hendrix." Akilah thought to herself. The task at hand felt more and more impossible the more she thought about it.
"Hm…" Jason put his hand on his chin. He checked his watch, nodding to himself before he continued.
"Hardy shouldn't have left yet. He knows more about the science of Spirit than me, so he'll give you a rundown on the specifics." Jason made his way towards the stairs. "Meet me in the gym in five. I'll go get Hardy."
Akilah walked into the gym. She felt both excited and relieved at Jason's plan.
"Oh, perfect. I thought abilities were just some unknown magic. If there's rules to it, I'll be able to narrow down on my options." Akilah reasoned. That was her strong suit, after all.
After a few minutes of waiting on the bleachers, Akilah heard a rolling sound coming towards the gym door.
Jason swung the door open, revealing a whiteboard and Hardy, still in his pajamas.
Hardy wrapped his dreadlocks into a ponytail, slapping his cheeks in an attempt to wake himself up.
"Is a whiteboard really necessary?" Hardy whispered to Jason.
"You gotta help her visualize it, dude!" Jason whispered back. Hardy sighed before turning to the girl on the bleachers.
"Alright. I hear you want to learn how abilities work." Hardy clapped once as Jason clicked open his dry-erase marker.
Akilah nodded excitedly. She pulled her tiny notebook and pen out of the pocket of her jean jacket, adjusting her glasses.
"So, every successful ability has three principles: Mode logic, Spirit cost, and cognitive load." Hardy spoke as Jason wrote the principles on the whiteboard.
"First: Mode logic. Abilities must emerge from your Mode's core function, which is a combination of the concept your Mode is based on and your natural Spirit patterns. Basically, if your Mode is fire, and you try to manifest ice, it won't work. We don't know the reasoning behind any of these rules, but rebels across the world share their experiences on the rare occasion we're able to speak from compound to compound." Hardy explained.
Akilah nodded, writing in her notebook.
"Here, let me demonstrate." Hardy held his hand out, channeling his Spirit into his hand as it began to glow orange.
Silence filled the room as nothing happened.
"See? I just tried to manifest a fireball. Since my Mode is Records, it didn't work." Hardy dropped his hand to his side.
"Oh! Wait… Records?!" Akilah looked up from her notebook with a confused expression.
"Y'know, like vinyl records. His main ability is playing back sounds he heard. Every noise has a different effect." Jason talked as he drew on the whiteboard.
Akilah nodded, surprised at the effectiveness of a Record Mode. Then again, she did know someone with a Guitar Mode.
"Second: Spirit cost. This one is pretty self explanatory. The bigger or more complex a manifestation or ability is, the more it eats away at your Spirit. I assume you know what happens when your body runs low on Spirit." Hardy said as Akilah nodded knowingly.
"The third rule is the most overlooked, cognitive load. Spirit is weird in the way it needs you to vividly imagine your manifestations. A lot of 'breakthroughs' mid-battle are based on the fact that the user already knew the inner workings of their manifestation, or the Spirit flow for living beings. You need to understand every little thing you're doing, so there's always going to be a cap on what you can do at once and the amount of abilities you'll be able to master." Hardy sighed. "Any questions?"
Akilah stayed silent for a few more seconds, writing in her notebook.
"Ta-dah!" Jason joked as he stepped back from the whiteboard. It was covered in drawings loosely connected to Hardy's speech, with explanations dispersed between the drawings. Hardy chuckled as he turned to witness the masterpiece.
"How do you practice an ability without visible manifestations?" Akilah asked, looking up from her notebook.
"All abilities are some kinda manifestation. You practice the mental process of activating the ability just like you'd practice the mental imagery of a manifestation. I hope that helped ya a little." Jason said. He threw up his hands, knowing it's a vague answer to a concrete question. "We don't know that much about Spirit. It only appeared two hundred years ago, and any research we could've done was stunted when the Regime came into power." Jason explained.
"Hm…" Akilah muttered. She thought to herself as she looked over her journal.
"I'm gonna go get dressed. I've got to open the record store in a couple hours. I like to get there early to mix up the order the records are in." Hardy stretched as he headed towards the door. "I'll see you on mission day, Akilah."
"Alright, see you then." Akilah waved before reverting her gaze straight back to her notebook. Her mind filled with possible solutions. Even though her options were narrowed, it felt like so many doors had been opened.
"I might actually have an offensive ability during the mission." Akilah thought excitedly. She put her notebook back into her pocket and stood up.
"You'll figure it out. I know you will." Jason smiled and nodded.
In the infirmary, Biggie woke up on his hospital bed.
The boy looked to his right to see Slim asleep in the chair next to him. He let out a tsk as he began to toss his red ball into the air.
The quiet noise woke Slim up. He slowly opened his eyes, moving his blonde hair out of his face.
"Why do you sleep here every night?! You're such a light sleeper." Biggie said, slightly annoyed.
Slim shrugged. "You wanna try the crutches today?" He asked quietly.
"I guess." Biggie looked to his left where two crutches leaned on the wall. Biggie had tried to use them with the assistance of Slim, but he was too embarrassed to walk out of the infirmary with them.
Slim noticed Biggie's annoyance.
"It'll be a week from today, when you're allowed to walk again." Slim said. "It's gonna pass by quickly." He smiled and nodded.
"God dammit!" Biggie squeezed his red ball. "If only the doc's Healing Mode could fix it faster. I hate this so much."
"Hendrix's ability wasn't normal, you know this." Slim responded.
"I know what it did to the Spirit in my leg, I just don't get how someone who's been training for half the time we have was holding back that whole match." Biggie gritted his teeth.
Slim went silent. He didn't have an answer for it either.
"It just doesn't make sense. I know some people are geniuses, but Hendrix seems like a powerhouse compared to his friends." Slim thought. He shivered at the memory of Biggie's knee bending backwards.
He wouldn't admit it, but Hendrix's power scared Biggie as well.
A knock came from the door. A man with a stethoscope around his neck walked through the entrance. His black hair was combed back. He was clean shaven and orderly in almost every way possible, the opposite of the chaotic rebels he was surrounded by.
"What's up, doc." Biggie threw a hand up in what resembled a greeting.
"I told you to stop calling me that. Doctor Nagi is fine." Doctor Nagi pinched the bridge of his nose in annoyance. "We'll start with some tests as usual. I still haven't fully grasped that boy's abilities, so I'll probably ask you to come back even after you can walk again." Doctor Nagi equipped his stethoscope.
"Then you'll heal him with your Mode?" Slim asked.
"Yes, don't worry." Doctor Nagi nodded. "I just can't wrap my head around it. The amount of Spirit in that attack almost shredded your muscle tissue. I'm glad he's gotten his temper under control, but I'll have some questions for him when I see him next."