[hr][i][h1][color=skyblue]Wendy Emily Lucker[/color] & [color=lightseagreen]Rowan Campbell[/color].[/h1][sub]Written in collaboration with [@Mr Allen J][/sub][/i][hr]
[i][u]Academy 61, Roseview.[/u][/i]


Since his return from the hospital, Rowan had been unable to forget the events that had led to his injury. There was something frustrating in how weak he'd been in comparison to Ezekiel and how the man had overwhelmed his own abilities, putting Wendy at risk. Time at the Academy had taught him that practice led to improvement and if he had any hope of helping her out and getting some payback, he needed to practice.

As it happened, there was a spot at the very far edge of the campus, technically outside the boundaries, known as the 'junkyard', a little corner which a few students had, over the years, used it as an unofficial training ground. Littered with debris, it served as a good opportunity for Rowan to hone his abilities.

Wendy had approached Rowan... her new partner in crime in all of this madness. She wished that she didn't get him involved in the first place, but it's exactly what it is. An unfavorable situation. While Wendy trained in the training hall, Rowan chose to practice in the "Scrapyard" or whatever they called it. Only because it felt like more of Rowan's place. Though, she tried to convince him that the training hall was better equipped. 

"Rowan!" Wendy shouted, waving her hand around in the air. "How is your training going?"

She caught of the scrawny kid stood before the husk of an old station wagon, long since stripped of anything valuable - it seemed as though Rowan was trying to concentrate on lifting it. Well, that is, until Wendy broke his concentration, causing him to drop it with a firm clatter that sent pieces of trash bouncing all over. "Uh shit, sorry!"

A piece was flying toward Wendy, but she put her hands up and had enough reflexes to block it. Apparently. It hurt a little, but that wouldn't bother her. "... Uh, It's my fault for, uh, breaking your concentration." She shrugged. "But, I wanted to ask you how you're doing."

"I'm doing fine... I guess." Rowan said, albeit hesitantly. "You? You all okay?"

"I'm... still worried about Diana," Wendy honestly said. "But, otherwise, I've been doing great. Sticking to my training regime."

"Yeah?" Rowan asked, raising an eyebrow. "Me too. I'm not gonna let those assholes hurt me or anyone else again."

"I'm getting the hang of Ms. Zhao's ability...." Wendy said as she looked at her hands... and pulled small pieces of concrete out of the ground that hovered around her hands. She released her control, and the stones fell to the ground. "I think I'm getting close to the point where I can face the Hound alone, but I still need more practice." Her voice had a hint of anger in it.

Then it hit her.

"Oh! Would you like to train with me?"

"Y- yeah, that'd be a good idea." Rowan said, caught a little off-guard. 

"Training hall... or here?" Wendy asked.

"It's up to you, I guess," Rowan said, "But out here is good, y'know?"

"Alright then..." Wendy said as she looked around. "Um, how do you want to, uh, uh, go about it? A spar?"

"S-sure, I mean uh, yeah - whatever you saw." Rowan's answer sounded equally befuddled.

"Alright..." Wendy said as she thought about how she was going to do this. There was a lot of space in here, and she would prefer the open training hall, but this will have to do. She picked a large open space, pointed at it, and then shrugged. "Alright... let's start... however the hell we'll do that." Wendy said.

Rowan paused, then finally nodded and headed over to a spot just across from where Wendy was stood, yet he couldn't help but hesitate. Despite all the practice, his powers were unpredictable and whilst they might not have hurt someone like Ezekiel, he was worried what harm he could do to Wendy. "You sure you're okay with this? I don't wanna hurt you, or anything."

Wendy clenched her fists. "Rowan..." She started off, in a rather somber tone. "I don't care, if this is what it takes to fight the Hound and Ezekiel, then I'll do it." She raised her fist in the air with hope in her eyes.

That was enough encouragement, though he was still a little confused as to how they were going to 'spar'. "So uh, how's this gonna work?"

The thought never really crossed Wendy's train of thought. She thought about it - how to use this clearing to the advantage of their training. Then it hit her: 

"We're going to try to knock each other out of the ring," Wendy said pointing at the ground. "This being the ring.... Without hurting each other. "

"Right." Rowan said, a little reserved about the notion of moving first, "You start, I guess."

"But, Rowan-" Wendy was about to explain that, in a real fight, there would be no turns. But, she knew that it was just best to just go first and get Rowan in the groove. Because that was the problem, he was hesitant and didn't have a "groove" just yet. So, she raised her hands up into the air and drove off some small rocks from the area around her. No bigger than her fingertip... because she didn't want to [i]kill[/i] Rowan. The stones floated in front of her, spinning around, before she thrusted both hands forward, and shot a barrage of small rocks that would only bruise slightly.

Going off instinct, Rowan crudely pulled towards him the discarded hood of a wrecked car and embedded it firmly into the ground as a shield against the rocks, which pinged against the rusting metal surface with a firm clatter. Wendy meant business, it seemed and he had been given her explicit consent to fight back - at least to a certain point, and so he followed this up by pushing the same hood through the dirt towards Wendy at a speed fast enough to knock her down, but not so much that it'd have done any real harm. 

Using up all of her ammo right off the bat was not the most tactical decision Wendy had made. Rowan had sent a hood right for her. Damn it. She was tempted to dive on the ground away from it, but she didn't want to leave herself open like before. She has to take it head on. Wendy quickly raised her hands in the air and gathered concrete in a mess of concrete dust.

Dropping her weight, she slammed her fist into the ground. A concrete shield popped up and blocked the hood... but, it all fell apart with the hood's impact.

[i]Need to practice that.[/i]

Meanwhile, Rowan had  started drawing in more pieces of metallic junk surrounding himself with a crude shield that gave him some protection at the cost of a limited field of view, before he started advancing towards Wendy's position. "A new trick?" He asked, referring to her use of concrete.

"... Just trying to do what Ms. Zhao does." Wendy just bluntly said as the shield fell to pieces. Rowan's shield was probably far more effective before it didn't fall to pieces right off the bat. She needed a plan to take out Rowan... because she was imagining herself fighting Ezekiel again, and with an ability more suited to fighting him on even terms.

Then she remembered that Rowan was human, too. And his barrier was blocking his field of vision. Perhaps she could take advantage of that. She looked down and willed a piece of concrete upwards, and she clenched her hand as if she was crushing it. Cracks covered it as it was turned into a barrage of tiny pieces of stone.

She sent it at Rowan... the idea was that it would break into a cloud of dust on impact with the shield. Before she sprinted off into another direction.

It seemed to work; Rowan found himself blindsided by the mass of dust and had to hold his breath to avoid coughing and spluttering, still recalling the effect that the other gas had held over him before. It was only as he opened his eyes again that he realised that Wendy was out of sight....

... And by the time he realized where she was, she had sent a stone to swipe his foot from underneath him, knocking him flat on his ass along with his shield.

"Nailed ya'!" Wendy said, fist pumping.

"Oh yeah?" Rowan said as she stood there triumphant. Admittedly, he had a trick up his sleeve, but he wanted to hold up on that for just a second. "Hey, paper girl," He said, reaching into his pocket, and withdrawing a crumpled piece of paper and tossing it at her. "Catch!"

Wendy was so utterly caught off guard by paper being thrown at her she didn't know what to make of it. She caught it, but stared at it, then back to Rowan, then to the paper again. It wasn't the paper itself that threw her off, but the action of throwing a crushed piece of paper. Is it his strategy against Ezekiel and the Black Hound?

That wasn't the case, hilarious as it sounded - Rowan wanted instead a chance to demonstrate something he'd been working on himself after a little inspiration from her, as well as after seeing what Ezekiel could do. Concentrating, Rowan put his mind to matter as he felt the metal bands he'd fitted under his sleeves pulling upwards.

Slowly but steadily, Rowan found himself lifting upwards.

"... You're..." Wendy trailed off as she stared at Rowan in disbelief. "... Flying?"

"Yeah... woah- just gimme' a sec..." Rowan said as he found himself a couple of metres above where she stood. "Yeah... I'm flying." He said. ".... Holy shit! I'm flying!" He repeated to himself, though in doing so he gesticulated a little too much and lost his balance. "Oh no- how'd you do this?!" He exclaimed at Wendy, as he flailed about mid-air, before he finally found a balance and was able to stabilise himself by outstretching his arms, until finally he was above the tops of the trees. All whilst Wendy could only look on.

"You've got that paper, don't you? C'mon, view's  up here!"

"I can't use my paper powers if I just copied..." Wendy thought about it for a moment as she stared at the piece of paper. Whenever she copied a power, she would be locked into it until she gets to learn it a little bit... a strange limit of some sort, indeed. But, limits can be broken... and through those broken limits she can reach inside herself and gain new strengths. She clenched the piece of paper really tightly, and focused. Channeled her Metahuman energy and... 

... her hand turned white as paper and her jaw dropped as she stared at it with large eyes of optimism. She could make the paper fly... she then realized that she had learned enough of Lihua's ability to switch powers. It was amazing, she took [i]weeks[/i] just to master enough of electrokinesis to change it. How....

Limits are meant to be broken, after all.

She looked up at the sky, and turned into a cloud of paper and flew upwards to Rowan's level.

It took him a moment, but eventually the scrawny kid was beside her, still in awe at the sight before them; above the trees, they could easily make out the academy and dorm buildings nearby, but further out was something that Rowan had never truly seen before, the silhouette of Baybridge in the distance. 

Wendy went up a little higher than Rowan before she reformed, then she became weightless and floated lazily down like a piece of paper. Gently swaying left to right as she listened to Rowan.

Somehow, he couldn't help but remark, "Cindy's probably gonna be pissed if she saw me doing this."

Then he cracked a wry grin. "Good thing she won't know."

"Yeah... she isn't omniscient...." Wendy said, taking the statement a bit more seriously as she fell down a bit lower than Rowan. Out of irritation, Wendy turned into paper again and flew upwards, and when she reformed, she was, once again, light as paper. "It's beautiful up here, y'know?"

She stared off at the bridge.

"... I think it's time to go find Diana, yeah?"

"You got another plan for that?" Rowan asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Of course I do..." Wendy said as she whipped out her phone, and typed in a text for her mystery contact.

[quote][code]Okay, I am ready.[/code][/quote]

It was only a few moments before she got a response.

[quote][code]You better be, because things are about to get really crazy... Head to Hazelwood Dr in Roseview, and go off the trail at the stop sign, and into the woods until you reach a warehouse. It's merely a hideout for members of the Intimidation Unit from other cities to lay low for awhile, and currently it's empty. Poke around in there until you find a computer with all other possible Family Base locations. Good luck.[/code][/quote]

Wendy nodded her head. "Okay... we're heading to Hazelwood... mind if we turn this into a race, Rowan?" Wendy asked.

"That a challenge?" Rowan asked, the corner of his mouth betraying his concealed interest.

"Well... it'll be a challenge for [i]you.[/i]" Wendy grinned wryly as she floated upwards.

"Fine," Rowan grinned back, "[i]You're on.[/i]"