Eritandellion stood in his house, watching the rain pouring down outside. Rain pattered softly on the window, the sound comforting Eritandellion. He thought back to his earlier conversation with the boy, Mat. It was obvious to him that Mat would thrive in this world, far more than his original. Remembering how he had fought that Garnlax a few days prior, Eritandellion smiled grimly. The boy had thought himself dead when running in with that rock. Eritandellion had been about to involve himself before witnessing that. After weighing up if he should jump in or not, he decided to wait for a while. In the end, despite the near deaths they had both suffered, he was quite pleased with his decision. Spring and Mat were similar. Both were brave in situations where anybody with survival instincts would run, both saving people they barely knew because it was the right thing to do. He had taken an interest in Spring at a young age. She had shown great promise, and Eritandellion had offered to train her himself. That was rare. Spring’s parents had almost thrown her at him, thanking him profusely. Clearly, it had been the right decision.

  Mat thought that the offer of training was only due to owing him, but that wasn’t true. One couldn’t be too cautious though, no matter how promising the student. If Mat was some type of agent, Eritandellion didn’t want to seem too eager to monopolise on powerful people. Even now, he could feel Mat’s powers forming inside of him. Not long now until he would discover if he was correct.

  Obviously, he couldn’t do everything for them. They would have to form their own teams, or go solo, to train many of their skills. Eritandellion could teach them cycling techniques and instruct them on how to use their powers effectively, but they had to do the hard work. That wasn’t to say he wasn’t powerful, but he couldn’t do it for them. Even if he could, he wouldn’t. They would never learn like that. As power formed inside the boy, Eritandellion grinned widely before walking away from the window, wondering if he should entertain himself with some monster hunting.

  ***

  Spring came back the next day to find Mat awake. He appeared to be doing a lot better than he had the previous day. His tattered clothes had been taken off when he arrived, and he had taken his pyjamas off. Apparently, Mat had searched through the wardrobe because he was now wearing a suit, similar to Eritandellion’s but blue, along with a long blue coat. He looked, if Spring was honest with herself, quite handsome.

  “Looking a lot better.” She said, making Mat turn around to look at her.

  “Thank you.” He said. “I didn’t want to sit in bed all day, so I thought I’d try some clothes on. How do they look?”

  “Well, it could be worse.” Spring teased. Mat smiled and walked over to her.

  “You said you wanted to do something when I was better. Well, I’m better now. What would you like to do?”

  “I could show you around town.” She offered, to which Mat agreed.

  They walked together down the streets as Spring showed off some of the sights, like the amusement park, which had several fun games and a huge rollercoaster. Spring bought both of them some ice cream, which they sat and ate together on a bench looking out over a park.

  It was full of children running about playing, along with some older people quietly cycling and parents enjoying a nice afternoon watching their children have fun. It was enjoyable.

  Spring hadn’t really noticed how tall Mat was until now, but she only came up to the bottom of his neck. Now that they weren’t fighting for their lives and instead were relaxing, Spring saw how sweet he was.

  She had never really taken much interest in boys as she grew up. That was partly because she dedicated a lot of time to training with her master, but mostly because most resented her. They all had to do regular training with, while competent trainers, nobody as famous or powerful as Eritandellion. Most saw him as some mysterious powerful figure. While he certainly was to a degree, he had never come across like that to Spring. He reminded her of a kindly older man, with a soft heart and incapable of deception.

  The man certainly was powerful, but nowhere near the level most assumed him to be. At least, he had never displayed that amount of power over several years of training together.

  Spring did have one friend, but she was busy often with other friends who all refused to give Spring a chance. Given all of that, no boys paid her any attention other than to be rude to her. Mat was kind though. He had helped Spring to her feet after some kids tripped her up and even offered her some of his ice cream.

  Spring was already quite fond of him. Despite that, she felt like he was still somewhat trying to emotionally distance himself from her. Maybe he was just shy.

  “I haven’t relaxed like this in months.” Mat commented as he licked some more ice cream. “I’ve been too busy with school and… other stuff. It’s nice to just chill like this.”

  “It is.” Spring agreed. “Speaking of that, I wanted to say that I’m sorry.”

  “For what?” Mat asked.

  “It’s rare for people to reach the level where they can travel the multiverse. Even if you do, it will take a long time and your world will be different. I just want you to know that I’m sorry for it all. If you ever want to talk to somebody about it, you can talk to me.” She said quickly, not wanting to bring his mood down.

  “It’s fine.” Mat said coldly. “I didn’t have much left to live for there anyway. Perhaps this is the second chance I’ve needed for a while.”

  “I hope so.” Spring agreed.

  They continued the tour of the city, stopping for lunch a bit later, until evening fell.

  The sun began setting as they finished their drinks, still walking and talking. As they were laughing at a story Spring was telling about Eritandellion tripping over a dulled dagger that Spring had left lying around to prank him when she was younger, they walked past a group of boys that were hanging around. Spring knew them, and tried to keep her head down, but they still noticed her.

  “It’s the special girl.” One of them said. “The old man teach you any new tricks today? Why don’t you show them off since you’re so much better than us.”

  “I’m not better than you.” Spring said. “Please just leave me alone.”

  One of the boys walked over to her, a bit too close for comfort, and sneered at her.

  “This is the least you deserve for being so smug and superior.”

  His breath stunk, and Spring was sure he had been drinking. She tried backing away, but another one of the boys grabbed her arm.

  She ripped it out of his grasp but didn’t want to get into a fight. It would just make everything worse, despite what her master always told her. She just wanted people to like her. If she showed no aggression toward them, maybe they would learn that she was actually nice. The boy grabbed her arm again, this time tighter so it hurt to rip it out of his grasp.

  “Leave her alone.” Mat said angrily. The group all turned to look at him, Spring in concern and the boys with a look of smug superiority. Mat was no longer holding his drink, and his kind warm gaze had vanished replaced by cold anger.

  The boy with the rancid breath, John she thought his name was, approached Mat. John was clearly scanning Mat, but he probably couldn’t feel it.

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  “He’s only at Foundation. A bit cocky aren’t you?”

  That was a surprise to Spring. Last she had checked, he wasn’t even at Foundation. How had that happened?

  “Leave her alone, and we’ll leave you alone. Sound fair to you?” Mat asked. He walked past John and took Spring’s hand in his own. At least he wasn’t doing anything stupid like attacking them.

  The boy behind her grabbed Spring’s arm again, though this time she couldn’t get out of his grasp. She realised that was because three of them were keeping her there. Mat realised and let go, not wanting to hurt her. While he was distracted, John launched a punch at his head. Spring closed her eyes, not wanting to see Mat’s head hit the floor, but the soft thud never came.

  ***

  Mat felt something deep inside of himself and ducked down, just barely dodging a swing from the leader of the group. The boy looked genuinely shocked as the hit missed, sending him off balance. Mat took this moment to swing up toward his jaw. The boy could have dodged he was sure, but his footing was poor, and Mat’s fist hit his chin before he could react. He wasn’t so easily defeated however, balancing himself and throwing another punch at Mat. He dodged to the side, again barely getting out of the way. How was he doing this? This was the type of unrealistic thing you saw somebody do in a movie. It wasn’t actually possible. Yet he was doing it. Mat was tiring though, and couldn’t keep it up for ever, especially with how fast his enemy was. Once the other three got involved, Mat knew it was over, as a fist was swung at his head.

  Then everything stopped.

  Mat looked around the world, now frozen in a single moment. The fist flying at him sat in the air, unmoving. Birds sat in mid-flight high up in the sky, bushes that had been moving now sat still, the animal inside frozen. Even the breeze had stopped, although Mat could still breath. He gave it little thought, bringing his mind back to the present moment.

  Mat, the only thing that could move, got out of the way of the fist. Looking at its trajectory it looked like the fist would slam into the leader of the group. Now that would be a sight to see.

  Mat exited the circle that the boys had made around him, seeing part of a fiery sword appearing in her hand. She was going to defend him. Only a couple of seconds later, for Mat at least, the world resumed. The fist, like he guessed, slammed into the leader. He was knocked out cold, his bloody face slamming onto the ground.

  Fearing what a punch like that could do to him, Mat took a step away from them. The flaming sword was now in Spring’s hand, and she looked much more confident than she had during their fight with the Garnlax, which he had just learned the name of earlier that day.

  Instead of fear shining in her eyes, there was determination and a calm confidence. She was confident she could fight them without any danger to herself. One of the boys charged at Mat, much quicker than Mat could react to, but Spring jumped in between them, swinging her sword. It slashed the boy’s arm, causing blood to flow out. The boy screamed out in pain, falling to the ground. Clutching his arm painfully, the boy wriggled around like a worm, groaning loudly. Mat realised what the fire was about. It didn’t just look cool; it caused some type of burning pain inside of the gouge.

  He wondered why the Garnlax hadn’t reacted the same way. Now wasn’t the time for that though. Mat threw himself to the side as a small silver knife flew through the air, passing the area he had just been standing in. Mat turned, seeing the smug look vanish from the boy’s face. He looked unsure, and Mat used that to dive on him, taking both of them to the ground. The boy was stronger than him, managing to get himself above Mat.

  Wrapping his hands around Mat’s throat, he began choking him out. Mat whacked him around the head, but it didn’t do anything.

  A stone sat lying nearby, and Mat began trying to reach for it. The boy above him didn’t seem to notice, being too focused on taking Mat out.

  His fingers brushed against it, but he didn’t get any purchase. He tried again, his fingers pulling it closer until he could wrap his hand around it. Clutching it tightly, he slammed it into the boy’s head. However strong the boy was, having a stone slammed into him still clearly hurt, as his hands were retracted from Mat’s throat.

  He looked a little dazed, so Mat jumped to his feet, kicking the boy in the face as he stood above him, panting loudly. The boy was lying on the ground, not unconscious but even more dazed.

  Spring had just knocked another one out and she walked over to the last boy. After a quick mental debate, she shrugged and walked away from him, not knocking him out.

  Instead of speaking, she pulled a cloth out of her pocket and wiped Mat’s face with it. He hadn’t even noticed how sweaty he was. Thanking Spring he pushed the cloth away from his face, feeling a little awkward about what she was doing.

  “Do you know how dangerous that was?” Spring asked after wiping her hands on her trousers. “You could have been killed!”

  She was quite right. Still, Mat stood by what he did.

  “Those guys deserved it.” Mat said.

  “We didn’t have to confront them though.” Spring argued.

  “They were harassing you!” Mat said, his anger growing as he thought about it. “They had no right to put their hands on you like that. They were stopping you from leaving.”

  “I know, but I don’t want people to think I was aggressive. I’m already hated enough as it is.”

  “Why are you hated?” Mat asked.

  “Because of my master. They resent me because I’m getting better training than them. I understand why they hate me, and maybe I deserve it, but it still hurts you know.”

  Mat took that in silently.

  “I’m sorry. You don’t deserve that.” Mat said softly. “But that still doesn’t give them the right to harass you like that.”

  Spring looked down at the ground, making Mat wonder if he should say something more to comfort her. When she looked back up, her eyes were filled with tears. As they slid down her face Mat embraced her in a tight, warm hug. She buried her face in his chest and sobbed for several minutes, Mat unsure of what to say. In the end, he said nothing, just holding her closely.

  ***

  Spring felt a wave of embarrassment as she broke away a few minutes later, wiping her red eyes.

  “Thanks.” She sniffed. “I needed that.”

  Mat gave her a warm smile, and she felt a little bad about her outburst at him. He had only been defending her after all. And he hadn’t actually initiated the violence, that was John.

  All Mat had done was try to get Spring out of a situation she clearly was uncomfortable with. After making sure she was okay, Mat suggested getting dinner.

  “It might take your mind off of it.” He said. “I can pay.”

  “How can you afford it?”

  Mat brought out a pouch of money from his pocket.

  “Took this after I escaped the group. They had several more bags like this, so they won’t miss it too much.”

  “So you robbed them?”

  “It sounds bad if you put it like that. Should I give it back?”

  Spring grinned at him.

  “Let’s get dinner.”

  ***

  Eritandellion jumped off of the roof of the building, landing with his hood covering his face. In the evening light, it might keep his identity hidden. The fight had been interesting in many ways. The first was how Mat, somebody who was still only at Foundation, had sensed all those attacks and dodged them perfectly. Eritandellion was very interested in developing that ability, once he learned more about it. The most interesting thing, however, had been him vanishing from the group of boys. It hadn’t been superspeed – somebody at his Rank wouldn’t move fast enough to escape his eye. No, he had just vanished. It could have been a teleport power, but that didn’t feel right. Eritandellion had felt teleportation before, done it even, and it wasn’t that. He had just appeared, and there was no trace of how it had happened. Now that was some power. After much consideration, Eritandellion decided to head into the Academy of Toh to talk to some people. Perhaps they would have some answers for him.

  These last few years, meeting Spring and taking her on, and now having Mat, had been the best in so long. Maybe things would be okay after all. A loud, powerful belly laugh erupted from his stomach, booming down the street. Yes, everything would be just fine.

  ***

  Spring's stomach fluttered as Mat sat down, handing her a plate of food. They had both ordered burgers and fries, which Mat had appeared surprised existed around here, and were now sitting opposite each other, eating their food.

  “What was that power you used earlier?” Spring asked.

  “What do you mean?”

  “When they were grouped around you and you just… vanished. I don’t know how else to put it.”

  “I – I don’t know. It just happened. Didn’t even mean to do it. The world just kind of froze for a few seconds, so I used that time to get away from them. I wouldn’t even be able to replicate itself.”

  Spring was shocked. She had never heard of an ability like that. Freezing time?

  “That’s insane.” Spring finally murmured.

  “Sorry.” Mat said.

  “Why are you apologising?”

  “I thought I’d done something wrong.” He replied nervously. Spring could see that he was trying to hide it but was failing.

  “No. No it’s not that. I was just… surprised that’s all. I didn’t even know you had powers.”

  “Neither did I.” Mat said. “Freezing time is quite cool though.”

  “You might be cooler than me.” Spring said playfully. “Debatable, since I’m so cool, but you’re definitely a contender.”

  Mat laughed along with Spring, his eyes shining. Thinking back to their argument after the fight, Spring felt guilty for getting so angry. He was only trying to help.

  “Thanks for backing me up earlier.” Spring said awkwardly.

  “Don’t mention it.” Mat said. “I’m sorry I made you feel uncomfortable; I thought I was helping.”

  “It wasn’t you’re fault. They got violent first. I just… I don’t want to be alone.”

  Mat nodded in understanding, his eyes soft and kind.

  “I – if you wanted, we could spend more time together. Only if you want to that is.” He looked nervous, a light crimson colour rising to his cheeks.

  “I’d really like that.” Spring said.