Chương 62: R&R2 Ch. 1 — Feet Wet

Nicholas strode into battle, blocking a punch and countering with his own. A dozen words hung on his tongue, but he kept them silent. This wasn't a fight where he could use them, so the power to bend reality would stay out of the fight. His opponent was stronger than him, faster than him, and had greater reach. And if he were being honest with himself, she was smarter than him when it came to combat.

It wasn't as if he was devoid of advantages himself, but when the largest one was the ability to read her soul, that wasn't one he could bank on for practice. Both of them had blocked out that connection, so Nicholas could only rely on his own growing skill in combat as he fought against Jasmine. Even if he couldn't read her soul, however, Nicholas still knew his partner, and that was the only thing that was keeping him in the fight for now.

That and he was pretty sure she was still holding back, it irritated him, but it wasn't like he could say anything to the contrary. Jasmine was strong enough to hold back. She should have been even stronger, but she had decided to wait for him again before ranking up. Though that was something both of them would do soon. Nicholas grunted in pain as Jasmine used the moment of his distraction to throw him to the ground and pin him.

Nicholas tapped the mat thrice, and Jasmine relinquished her hold on him and moved to grab the water bottles they had kept on the other side of the room. He stayed on the ground, staring up at the ceiling for a minute before removing the mouthguard and head protection. Nicholas wanted nothing more to just use recover to bring himself back to full strength and keep going.

And for the first few days of their stay on the train that had been what he had done, but even with his power providing the healing his body didn't quite get the memo and he had eventually crashed for several hours functionally dead to the world. So he had to limit how often he did that, and he had already hit the limit he had for today.

If he and Jasmine were supposed to guard the train today, he could have excused one more use if they were about to start patrol, but they weren't leaving him stuck with the exhaustion.

"You good to keep going?" Jasmine asked, tossing the water bottle at him. At the reminder, Nicholas released the tight control he had been keeping on his soul so they could communicate faster and get used to the bond.

"I can probably do one more round after a minute to rest, then I'm probably going to hit my limit," Nicholas said, taking small sips of the water once he had sat up.

"Awesome, you're working really hard at all of this," Jasmine noted, sitting behind him, leaning her own back against his.

"Feels like I have to." Nicholas shrugged.

"You've always been diligent, but it was only power stuff you actually worked hard at, so I wanted to know why?" Jasmine asked. This was probably the fourth version of the question she had asked in as many days, always timed for near the end of training when he was most likely to answer the question. He wasn't sure if he was annoyed or impressed at how well Jasmine had gotten to know him, but with their souls linked, it wasn't like it was that hard to figure out.

The difference between today and yesterday was that Nicholas had finally figured out the words for what was going on.

"I'm irritated."

"Irritated?"

"We're being treated like we're children. And it finally sunk in enough to piss me off. We're at the top of F-rank, and that makes us functionally children in the eyes of super society. And nobody's going to take us seriously until we are C. They're going to continue treating us like that."

"C-rank is pretty far away." Jasmine reminded him and herself.

"Not really, just another step for us to reach Pinnacle. Eight ranks, nine different evolutions from the system. The halfway mark isn't that special," Nicholas disagreed. That was a lie, and both of them knew it. If the pattern held, they would need more and more every rank, but two data points wasn't enough for them to be certain. They were both in the twenty thousand range for Belief and Karma, though it was meaningless till they were actually to the next tier.

"Sometimes I wonder if pinnacle is a bit ridiculous for us to chase," Jasmine said with a snort.

"Why shouldn't it be us? I want to change the world and make it my version of a better place, so no reason not to aim that high, right?" Nicholas reminded her. Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

"I know, and you're right. I owe the world an apology for what my family has done, so I can't stay still either." Jasmine promised. Nicholas forced his brain to stop following that statement to the logical conclusion. Habit and a desire not to blank out the last five seconds of memory was a powerful motivator.

"Should be tomorrow, maybe the day after that," Nicholas said, levering himself to his feet and taking both water bottles back.

"You sure that seems fast?" Jasmine said, standing up and tossing Nicholas his helmet back to him.

"Yeah, I'm sure my soul has been healing well. Spending time with you has been a huge help." Nicholas said, slipping the helmet and mouthguard back into place. Neither of them had cut off their soul connection fast enough, so both were well aware of the surge of joy that pulsed through their bond at the words. And both of them ignored it. While they were still getting used to it, they had decided some things.

The bond was useful, and both were good leaving it open most of the time, but there were parts of their lives they wanted to leave it out of for now. Nicholas and Jasmine didn't need to deal with dating for both their respective first times while having their souls attached to another person, and things that could be used around that were to be ignored for now.

"Ready," Nicholas called. It was Jasmine's turn to count them down. With all the energy he could muster, Nicholas surged forward to meet Jasmine and aimed to go for the win. It was roughly half and half whether Nicholas tried to hold out for as long as he could or if he tried to go for a quick and dirty win. He learned more about how to fight if he just tried to hold on, but the habits and instincts to win were something he had to hone as well.

He ducked under her hook before slamming his own into Jasmine's side, bringing up his own leg to block her own. Nicholas could do this; it wasn't likely, but he could see the path to victory. There! With all the force he could muster, Nicholas attempted to knock Jasmine down when she was off balance. Which worked, he hadn't planned for her to pull him down with her. And once the grappling began, he quickly lost. Nicholas tapped the ground thrice and was released from the stranglehold.

"That wasn't too bad; you almost got me that time," Jasmine said, helping him back to his feet.

"Next time I'll do better." Nicholas said, taking off the various padding he had been wearing for all of this. Jasmine opened the door to her soul forge, and they tossed their stuff into the magical space. Nicholas would clean it later, but the two of them had found it was easier to keep their stuff in there than to carry it with them. Jasmine was trying to figure out how to make a key so he could at least enter and exit on his own, but there had been no such luck.

"Break room or our quarters?" Jasmine asked. Nicholas hummed, thinking. There was a high chance that Rend was in their quarters, and neither of them really wanted anything to do with their mentor right now. They accepted he saw things differently, but that was far from forgiveness or a desire to deal with him. On the other hand, the break room would hold the other F-rank supers. Which meant hanging out with the dregs from the wave.

Everyone that could be called their peers were E rank already since they hadn't had the soul damage problems the two of them had.

"Think they would notice if we went to the E-rank rooms? We don't have the stats, but everyone knows we're at least equal to one. The only reason we didn't get the specialized license we are expected to hit it any day." Nicholas pointed out.

"We shouldn't risk it; you saw the punishment detail for that type of infraction." Jasmine said, shaking her head. His face blanched as he remembered. It wasn't that bad, but he had no interest in doing something like that ever.

"Dregs or our room?" Nicholas asked. Jasmine rolled her eyes.

"It's not the dregs if we're there besides Constellation and a few others are still F rank like us for one reason or another." Nicholas didn't find that a convincing argument. He was certain Constellation was trying to do something. He just didn't have any proof of what the spatial manipulator was doing, and he also had no idea how to broach the subject with Jasmine. Constellation was treating Jasmine fine, as were most of his cronies that were all formerly Lupine's cronies.

And Nicholas couldn't say for sure if it was different for him because it was all a trick, he had landed the killing blow, or Nicholas was just an ass and people hated him for it.

"We can go hang out there for a bit," Nicholas said, shrugging in defeat.

"But do you mind if we swing by somewhere to get something to eat first? I am starving."

"Amen to that." The duo strode through the train, occasionally peeking outside to see supers fighting off various attacks as they made their way to one of several dining cars. Free food, free board, the ability to travel, and one of the most consistent ways to build up your karma and belief as you went from city to city saving people. It wasn't a bad gig, especially for their goals, but Nicholas still marveled at how few people seemed to do it.

Rend had acted as if it was pretty easy to sign on, though there weren't nearly as many higher ranks aboard. That was probably because this was a new train and there were just fewer people at that power level. But Nicholas wasn't so sure. Today's cuisine in this dining car was Caribbean-themed, and Jasmine shot Nicholas a glare. For his part, he held up his hands in surrender. He would not make the comment today, so there wasn't a need to get mad.

Once they had both ordered, they took their seats in the center of the car, just so the explosions outside would shake them less. While eating, the two began quizzing each other on different types of powers and how they would each deal with them. Super on super combat only became more common as the ranks grew higher, and with both of them having toolbox-type powers, it was better for them to think about it now than wait.

These conversations had already changed both of their plans for next words, or builds respectively, so at least when they were still on the clock they would do that. And until they were in a city for some time off, while the train fueled, even on their days off they were in reserve. Even if they both were taking it easy.