Ice Meets Ice (Dar)

Grace took a slow, deep breath. She didn't have her ice powers anymore, but she remembered how she had grown. She had once been just like Ayumu, filled with raw energy and armed with only a few self-taught skills. The friends and enemies she had met over the years in Jump City had given her inspiration. They fought in different ways than her, and to stay alive in a world of chaos, she needed to learn from them.

For example, from Lance, the boy she had once had a crush on, she had learned that even heavy things could be lighter than air.

"Form a suit of armor around you," Grace said. Once the armor was nice and thick, she would nod her head. "Now, grab onto that ice with your mind. Push that ice up into the air with all the force you can muster. It will move with you inside of it, allowing you to fly."

Grace was assuming that their powers worked in the same way. It had taken Grace weeks to learn how to control her flights. Many painful experiences involving running into buildings and falling from great heights had bruised her body. She wasn't expecting Ayumu to do any better than her. It took a tremendous amount of talent to fly by merely pushing your ice armor in the right direction.

"Be prepared for some pain."

Ayumu nodded and started to focus, trying her absolute best to focus on moving the ice armor around her, slowly lifting off the ground a little but she winced with pain from the headache she had gotten from so much concentration, she slowly moved off the ground little by little before she couldn't take it anymore and just fell to her knees in pain from her headache, it soon becoming a lasting migraine "owww...jeez that stings..." she said as she rubbed her forehead.

Grace put a hand on Ayumu's shoulder. It seemed that their powers did work the same way. Their styles of using their powers were different, however. Ayumu wasn't used to bending the ice she created to her will. On the plus side, she had shown elegance in her fighting style before. The act of flying would come more easily for Ayumu than it had for Grace, but first she had to build up her mental strength. Lifting a body, especially in such an indirect manner, was hard on the brain.

"You did well, Ayumu. You just flew. It was a short flight, but you can fly now. You should feel proud."

Ayumu looked up to Grace and smiled a little at her "thanks, I guess I should try practice more and more till I can get up onto a roof or something" she said happily before standing up "thanks again for teaching me" she said with a calm smile.

Grace felt a little guilty for being responsible for Ayumu's pain, but it was necessary. That monster, the EM weapon, was on its way back to Jump City, and then no meta would be safe. Being able to fly would increase Ayumu's life expectancy.

There was another move that Grace wanted to teach Ayumu. It was also very useful, but it was also much more dangerous. Before they could even attempt it, Grace had to understand how Ayumu's powers worked.

"I'm going to tell you how my powers used to work, so please pay attention. The universe is filled with heat energy. Even ice has some heat to it. When I used my powers, I could feel that heat moving from object to object and person to person. Normally, heat flows to cold areas, but when I focused, I could control the path that heat took. I could take the energy from something, like a glass of water. I could pull this energy into my own body, and as long as I was touching it, I could do this as fast as I wanted."

Grace looked at Ayumu, suddenly very serious. "The result was to instantly freeze anything I touched. It kept me alive many times when I otherwise would have perished. Ayumu, think about it, do your powers work in this same way? Where does your ice come from?"

Ayumu listened to Grace then thought deeply, trying to work out how her powers actually worked "well...as far as I understand, my powers are like a kind of ice-kinesis, a cryokinesis kind if you will, I have to put mental focus and concentration into creating my ice, small things have become like a mere passing thought, I can easily freeze drinks and small objects like that as well as create small objects from ice too, but the more bigger or complicated the thing, the more I need to concentrate, I tried making a fully functioning music box made of ice before, but I was only able to actually make it move for about a minute as I got a really bad headache after that, so yeah I have to focus my mind power through my body to whatever I wish to freeze" she said thoughtfully.

Grace nodded. "I understand." This girl might have the potential, but it would take her a long time to gain the mental power to fully master her powers. Well, at least Grace had given her the tools she needed. The rest was up to Ayumu's practice. Right now, the girl was probably limited to a few minutes of practice per day before her head began to throb.

Grace turned and started to leave the alleyway. "I'll be visiting you in a week or so to see how far you've gotten. Don't feel bad if it goes slowly. And always remember," Grace turned around quickly to smile back at Ayumu. "You have friends."

Ayumu couldn't help but smile at Grace's words "thanks" she said as she nodded, starting to walk back to the comic book store, playing with an ice yo-yo as she walked, focusing on making the ice string fluent and malleable.