Bruce's concentrated frown deepened, seeing Zios' effort nullified and turned against him. 

He heard Jeff's suggestion. The Wild Card had a point. There wasn't time to leave anything in reserve. That wasn't how heroes, as they called themselves, [I]worked[/I]. 

[color=0072bc][b]"Oh, nothing much."[/b][/color] Bruce said in answer to Zelraka's comment.

[I]A semi-inebriated Luke blocked Bruce and Jeff's path to the training chamber. Bruce could empathize with the desire to drink, but the amount of alcohol required to get him drunk had reached a quantity more expensive than the experience was worth years ago.

[color=0072bc]"Luke,"[/color] Bruce said. [color=0072bc]"We need to pass."[/color]

"Do you guys know what makes you heroes?" Luke asked, leaning on a wall for a bit of support. "Why you are the ones who will fight the Order and save the world?"

Bruce blinked and glanced at Jeff. The machinist Wind Sage shrugged without an answer. Bruce sighed.

[color=0072bc]"Because we have the ability-"[/color]

"[/I]NO[I]!" Luke shouted, pounding on the wall with such force that Bruce angled his body back a bit at the outburst. "Your powers make you the [/I]ideal[I] choices, not [/I]champions[I]!"

Luke took a deep breath and gripped Bruce's shoulder. 

"I don't know jack about magic next to Mikey, or Ross, or any of you, but I know how heroes are made, and it's the [/I]work[I] that you put in to get back up even when you fall down that sets you apart!"

Luke thumped his chest with his other hand.

"Because when you strip away all the fancy stuff- the Ki, the magic, the superhuman talent, what's left is your training! Your effort to hone and take command of your souls is ingrained in your bones, in your very [/I]BLOOD[I]!"

Luke grabbed Jeff by the shoulder and pulled him closer, chuckling a little and swaying back.

"And, heh, my son- My son is right, the fact that you're a team- the culmination of that same effort in each of you, focused into one against those arrogant sons'a bitches- you're in sync, on the same wavelength, down to that blood that's gonna take you down the path of doing the impossible."

Luke stared at both of them intensely before he clapped their shoulders and shoved past them, muttering about getting ready for his next session of instruction.

[color=0072bc]"I suppose he's right,"[/color] Bruce said. [color=0072bc]"Still, I hope he can collect himself soon."[/color]

Jeff had gone silent, his gaze faraway and looking at something not present in the guild halls. 

[color=0072bc]"What are you thinking?"[/color] Bruce asked.

Jeff slowly turned his head toward him with a cautious, yet determined smile. The kind he got right before announcing his latest successful creation.[/I]

[color=0072bc][b]"Just... [I]everything[/I].[/b][/color]

Bruce rescinded his Sage state again, calling up a jagged, sharp-edged rock on his platform. He pressed his palm on it, and ripped it across the stone, cutting himself just enough to draw blood. 

[color=7ea7d8][I]"A simple exchange, of the foundational material of our beings, and it won't matter if our elements are as different as Earth and Sky or our Ki as opposite as 'Evil' and 'Heroic'."[/I][/color]

Bruce still had the knot in his soul to contend with. But he'd fix it, repair the flow, regain his fullest strength in the time it took for his blood, which he calcified with his magic and sent through the toward Jeff, to make the trade. Not because it was possible.

Because he [I]had[/I] to.