Chapter 33: Superpowers and TidalBreaker

The heavy steel doors of the underground bunker hummed as the last of the drainage valves clicked shut, leaving the base's training bay submerged in a thick, stifling blanket of steam. It looked less like a high-tech operations base and more like a flooded sauna. Condensation clung to the exposed iron pipes overhead, breaking into fat, heavy droplets that fell with rhythmic, echoing splashes onto the slick concrete floor.

Nothing was permanently broken—thanks to Mia's quick light magic walls and Neiry's quick darkness efficiency, the primary computer racks and living room tv were dry and safe—but everything else was completely drenched. Puddles of water rippled across the rubber mats, and a thin layer of moisture coated the workout equipment.

Kaleb stood dead center in the middle of the mess, looking like a drowned rat. His clothes were plastered to his skin, his hair was matted across his forehead, and his glasses were so thoroughly fogged up that the world around him was nothing but a blur of grey concrete and glowing golden embers. He pulled them off with trembling, waterlogged fingers, using the dry underside of his shirt—which wasn't actually dry at all—to try and wipe the lenses. It only smeared the moisture further.

"Seriously, Kaleb, what the hell! this place is a mess," Mia said, her voice cutting through the humid silence.

She stepped onto the damp mat, her boots making a squelching sound with every stride. She made her skin lightly radiate a faint, comforting aura—the residual heat from her solar manipulation acting as dehumidifier. Wisps of steam rolled off her shoulders as she deliberately exhaled, sending a warm wave of air across the room to help dry out the couch. She took back what she said "I didn't mean to be rude, I apologize" and offered him a bright, reassuring grin, leaning against the edge of a wet countertop.

"It's fine look around. The base is still standing. None of our tech was wet, and if anything the automated backup sewer drain would've kicked in. It's totally fine," she insisted, shaking out her damp hair. "If anything, you just gave the floors a much-needed power wash."

"This was an accident," Kaleb muttered, his voice dropping into a tight, frustrated whisper. He stared down at his bare hands. His arms were still throbbing with a dull, heavy ache from where the hydraulic pressure had violently snapped back against his base biology. "I completely lost control. I thought I had it right there—I thought I knew the entry angle, the speed, even how it would rotate required to sustain the whip. It should have been stable."

"Maybe that's exactly why it failed," Neiry's voice resounded from the dim corner of the bay.

The prince stood, completely bothered by the humidity. He felt he had way too much water on him; he took care of everything else, forgetting to keep any water from getting to him. The dense shadow had naturally protected everything around him. He walked over his clothes damp, his eyes unblinking as he looked down at the puddle-strewn floor, then back up at Kaleb. "It's hard to control your powers but you can't treat them like they aren't yours. You're the one who controls the current, your emotions, your thoughts like a mechanical gear. Maybe a good example would be to imagine you're holding a water gun. You can control what comes out and how hard it comes out. You don't wanna force it when you have no idea how to control it, Kaleb. If you continuously push against an open sea, the sea will always tear it down."

"Easy for you to say," Kaleb snapped softly, a sudden flare of embarrassment heating up his cheeks. He clamped his jaw shut, instantly regretting the sharp tone, but the frustration burning in his chest was too heavy to contain. "Both of you just... step onto the mat and it happens. Mia can blur across the room with a sunstride. She just invented today. You can throw up a solid darkness dome that blocks thousands of gallons of water without breaking a sweat. And I almost fried our entire operational network because I tried to swing a whip wave."

Mia's expression softened, the golden glow around her body fading back beneath her skin as she walked closer. She reached out, placing a warm hand on his damp shoulder, ignoring the way his wet shirt soaked through her palm.

"Kaleb, give yourself a break you're comparing your day-one training to people who have been doing this through actual life-or-death combat, let alone someone like Neiry." Mia said gently, trying to catch his downcast eyes. "Do you have any idea how much stuff I broke when I first started? The very first time I tried to compress a solar burst in my bedroom, I panicked, lost my grip on how much energy I was actually making, and accidentally shot a concentrated needle straight through the wall."

She let out a soft laugh, glancing over at Neiry. "And guess who was outside. It went clean through the drywall and hit Neiry right in the shoulder right before he could go in and try to talk to me. He didn't speak to me for an entire week. I literally almost melted a hole in my bestfriend."

Neiry's eyes narrowed slightly at the memory, his arms crossing over his chest. "It was a brand new sweater," he muttered dryly. "And the plasma singed the fabric of it. But nonetheless I did forgive her; it was nothing more than an innocent display of emotional panic."

"See?" Mia nudged Kaleb's arm, her smile warm and infectious. "Everyone fails. It's part of this team let alone being human no offense Neiry. You just have to stop looking at it like it's something so simple or something that you gotta fix."

Despite her words, Kaleb couldn't shake the heavy, suffocating weight settling into his stomach. He looked away from her, his gaze landing on the dark, solid crescent marks etched into the concrete where Neiry's shadows had slammed down to hold the floodwaters back.

To them, it was a learning curve. A minor mistake. But to Kaleb, it felt like a terrifying reminder of the widening chasm between them. For months, he had been the guy behind the monitors—the tech guy who kept their communications secure, traced corporate information, and guided them safely through the dark from the comfort of a computer chair. He had reached inward, drawing the current beneath his collarbone, dreaming of the day he could stand right beside them on the front lines as a true equal.

But seeing Mia's effortless, graceful momentum and Neiry's absolute, terrifying command over the dark only made his own clumsy, volatile failure feel ten times worse. He wasn't a hero. He was a kid playing with forces he couldn't control, and if he couldn't even master a simple water whip in a controlled environment, how was he ever supposed to stand beside his friends and against the massive corporate reach of any syndicate?

"I'm going to start running a diagnostic on the lower overflow tanks," Kaleb said quietly, purposely stepping away from Mia's hand. He grabbed a dry micro-fiber towel from a nearby shelf and began aggressively wiping down the damp exterior of a secondary terminal. "Just to make sure the structural drainage didn't back up into the cooling."

Mia opened her mouth to say something else, her brow furrowing with concern, but Neiry subtly raised a hand, stopping her. He watched Kaleb's rigid, hyper-focused posture for a long moment, the humid air hanging heavy between the three of them as the silent tension of the base slowly began to settle.

"Let him cool off," Neiry said softly, his voice dropping into a low, resonant voice that bypassed the echo of the humid room. "If he can't see his own mistake, he'll just keep fighting the problem instead of solving it." 

Mia looked from Neiry back to Kaleb, whose shoulders were rigid as he aggressively wiped down the damp fiberglass casing of the secondary console. She let out a long, slow breath, the faint warmth of her skin gradually cooling until the remaining wisps of steam around her ankles dissolved into the damp floor mats. She looked like she wanted to argue, to stay and force him out of his own head, but she caught the quiet, commanding tilt of Neiry's head.

"Fine,I just feel bad" she murmured softly, stepping off the rubber mat. "I'm going to head upstairs and change into some dry clothes. Don't spend all night down here, Kaleb."

Her boots clicked down the concrete corridor, and a moment later, the heavy pneumatic hiss of the upper security door signaled her departure. The base fell into a profound, heavy silence, broken only by the rhythmic drip-drop of condensation hitting the floor and the steady, low hum of the server racks.

Kaleb didn't stop wiping the shelves. He kept his back turned, his jaw clenched so tightly it ached, waiting for the lecture he was certain was coming. Neiry didn't move for a long time, standing as an unyielding shadow in the middle of the damp room, before his quiet footsteps approached the tech bay.

Instead of scolding him, Neiry reached out, his hand cutting into Kaleb's line of sight to gently but firmly press down on the micro-fiber towel, bringing the frantic cleaning to a halt.

"Enough," Neiry said quietly.

Kaleb let his arms drop, his head hanging low as he finally let out a ragged, defeated breath. "I ruined the whole place. I wanted to be the one who got the hang of it quickly, supposed to be the one who just knew how to use his powers, Neiry. If I'm a liability here in our own base, I shouldn't even be training."

Neiry didn't pull his hand away immediately. He looked at the diagnostic screen, then down at Kaleb's tense profile. The usual harsh, detached edge in his demeanor softened into something rare: genuine, patient mentorship.

"You did something out of your league, Kaleb. That is not a crime; it is the natural consequence of ambition," Neiry stated, his gravelly voice echoing softly in the metallic space. "You look at Mia and myself, and you see heroes which I'm flattered by. What you fail to recognize is that our whole entire persona was forged in conflict and survival. You are trying to bridge that gap in a single evening by forcing the element to obey your mind."

Kaleb leaned back against the console, his eyes raw. "But how am I supposed to catch up? Iron Veil isn't going to give me a grace period to figure out the rhythm. So far I'm lucky they haven't sent you guys out on a mission leaving me behind."

Neiry crossed his arms, leaning back slightly against the edge of the terminal desk. He let out a slow, deliberate sigh. "Maybe we rushed you. In our eagerness to see you stand beside us, we threw you onto the mat without much of an understanding and time to think. That was our fault, not yours."

He paused, his eyes locking onto Kaleb's with a rare expression of solidarity.

"Maybe it will be best if just me and you try it again—but with structure," Neiry proposed quietly. "No more chaotic, separated trials. Moving forward, next time we train together, as a single unit. And I will properly teach you both the fundamentals of mana and elemental control. If you are to wield that water, you must first learn how to let it flow through you without trying to put a cage around it."

Kaleb looked up, blinking in surprise at the offer. The heavy, suffocating weight in his chest eased just a fraction, replaced by a cautious spark of hope. "You'd teach me? Together?"

"A machine is only as reliable as its base blueprint," Neiry replied, a faint, almost imperceptible trace of amusement touching his sharp features. "Tonight, get read, we build the foundation. For our team, put the towel away, Kaleb."

Kaleb slowly let out his breath, setting the damp microfiber towel down onto the edge of the dark console. He didn't go upstairs to change. Instead, he took off his wet glasses, wiped them properly on a dry section of his undershirt, and slipped them back on. The world sharpened. "If we're building the foundation, you're right, let's start now. I couldn't wait until tomorrow."

Neiry regarded him for a long, calculating moment. The damp, humid air of the base seemed to still be around them. "Very well. Get ready and head to the training room."

Kaleb walked out onto the slick concrete mats. The faint scent of cherries from Mia's perfume was still heavy from her training session and the heavy, damp cold of his own failed torrent hung thick in the air.

"Close your eyes," Neiry commanded, his gravelly voice dropping into the rhythmic, authoritative cadence almost of a seasoned hero. "Reach inward. Do not look for the water. Look for the spark that moves it. In my realm, and within Mia's solar lineage, every technique begins with the circulation of mana. It is the spiritual bloodstream. Find the reservoir beneath your chest, draw a single thread of it into your pathways, and slowly guide it to your palms."

Kaleb closed his eyes and breathed in deeply, absorbing the humid air. He focused entirely on the persistent, ocean-blue current sitting right beneath his collarbone. He didn't try to calculate the equations this time. He simply reached out to it, trying to find the "bloodstream" Neiry was talking about. He tried to pull a thread of that energy outward, attempting to feel it flow through his veins like a liquid circuit.

Nothing happened.

The water current was there, humming with immense, heavy kinetic potential, but it didn't flow through standard pathways. It sat locked in a singular, dense node, completely separate from his anatomy.

Neiry stepped onto the mat, his eyes narrowing as he approached. He extended his right hand, hovering his palm just an inch away from Kaleb's chest. Closing his eyes, the prince used a microscopic wisp of his own mana sensing Kaleb, letting it act as a sensory probe to read Kaleb's internal energy.

Neiry's brow furrowed. He swept his hand lower, tracking the base paths where a standard mortal or magical being should have possessed a mana gate.

"Open your eyes," Neiry whispered, his voice laced with a sudden, profound confusion.

Kaleb snapped his eyes open, looking up at his mentor. "What? Did I mess up the circulation again?"

"Hmm. No you didn't mess it up," Neiry said softly, pulling his hand back as if he had just touched a foreign piece of understanding. He looked at his own palm, then back at Kaleb's chest. "There is no circulation. Kaleb... you pretty much entirely lack any mana. You have little magical pathways. Your biology is completely devoid of standard mana."

Kaleb's heart dropped into his stomach. The familiar weight of inadequacy flared up again, hotter this time. "What do you mean I don't have mana? If I don't have magic, then what the hell is the water? How did I almost drown the base five minutes ago?"

Neiry turned away, pacing across the damp concrete mat, his boots clicking softly against the floor as his brilliant, ancient mind began to analyze the anomaly. "It's not that you don't have mana, you just don't have much, definitely not enough to create anything with it. Mia's powers come from magic without a doubt. Mine are the same, for me it's because I was born different, a different realm. Demons we naturally have an abundance of, it's one of the reasons why we age so differently being able to live so long. Originally I figured when Infinity gave you powers, it activated the dormant magical energy already woven into your soul. But you..."

Neiry stopped pacing, turning his sharp features back toward Kaleb. A sudden realization sparked in his eyes.

"Because you are entirely human. And like I told you before, as of now humanity possesses little to no inherent magic, no spiritual core to unlock. Infinity did not grant you a magical attribute because your body would have rejected the amount. Instead... it bypassed magic entirely. It rewrote your base genetics." Neiry's voice carried a rare trace of awe. "They are not spells, Kaleb. Infinity gave you something more tied to what humans now are capable of, they are superpowers. Your body isn't drawing from a magic reservoir; it is generating the physical phenomenon itself."

Kaleb stared at his hands, his mind racing to process the shift. "Superpowers... like a genetic mutation? If it's a physical trait and not magic, that's why my training hasn't been working. I'm not failing. We're just treating a biological muscle completely different from what it actually is."

"Exactly. And because it is purely physical, I don't completely know how to teach you how to control it," Neiry admitted flatly, crossing his arms. "I practically command my magic. I do not understand the mechanics of altered human biology. I do have an idea though someone owes me a favor."

The prince stood in silence for a moment, thinking, before he reached into his pockets and pulled out his phone. He tapped the screen twice, bringing up an encrypted frequency.

"We just need a little extra help," Neiry muttered, typing in a priority command code. "Someone who understands how to handle volatile, raw energy without relying on magic." He pressed the send button, looking up at Kaleb. "I am calling Volt to the base. If anyone knows how a human survives generating physical output, it is her."

Neiry slipped the device back into his pocket, his eyes locking onto Kaleb with some seriousness. "Before she arrives, listen to me. Do not mention anything about magic, mana, or realms to her. It's a secret I trust her but it'll be a bad idea if we just tell everyone it'll be more a need to know bases. As far as she's concerned, our abilities are generated differently."

Kaleb nodded, swallowing hard as he adjusted his glasses. "Got it. Keep the mystical stuff out of the talks.."

Twenty minutes later, the pneumatic seals of the elevator hissed open, and Volt stepped out into the humid, steam-laden training bay. She shook her head, her sharp eyes instantly taking in the damp concrete, the puddles, and the faint smell of boiled ozone hanging in the air.

Neiry stood near the center mat, waiting. To maintain proper security protocols, he was currently wearing his matte-black combat mask, the dark mask completely concealing his features.

Volt stopped at the edge of the stairs, placing her hands on her hips with a small, knowing smirk. "Alright, I got the priority ping. Looks like an indoors hurricane hit your underground setup. And what's with the face mask, anyway? I thought we were past the secret-identity phase if you're bringing me down to your kitchen. Neiry"

Neiry stood still for a second. Then, reaching up with a slow, deliberate movement, he unlatched the seals of the mask and pulled it free, exposing his face completely to the electric hero.

"Yeah, yeah I know and if I'm asking you for help, Volt, then I think I can trust you knowing where the base is—and seeing who stands within it," Neiry said. His voice was remarkably calm, and a genuine smile touched his sharp features as he offered her a warm, respectful nod. "I would normally guide Kaleb through his physical conditioning myself. I have broken down plenty of tactical training with Mia, but the truth is, my own abilities function on an entirely different spectrum. They are... unique, and his biology simply can't replicate them. His output is entirely physical. More like raw energy, much like your own."

Volt looked from Neiry's unmasked face over to Kaleb, her expression shifting from amusement to understanding. She walked forward, stepping onto the damp mat and clapping Neiry on the shoulder with a friendly, casual laugh. "Hey, no sweat, man. I appreciate the trust. Honestly, dealing with uncontrolled output is my entire life story. Whatever complex power you have, you guys don't need to worry. I deal with uncontrolled heat, and proper grounding. I'm honestly surprised you didn't ask me to train Mia, that poor girl had to deal with you."

"Calm down, I trained her well, she might even be able to beat you. Anyways we are in perfect agreement," Neiry replied, his tone relaxed and friendly as he gestured toward Kaleb. "He has an immense reservoir of raw potential, but he keeps trying to force the output through rather than physical intuition. He is fighting his own powers."

"Ah, the classic rookie who knows better trap," Volt said, turning to Kaleb with a grin, spark-like static faintly dancing across her knuckles. "You're trying to build a bridge while the river is actively flowing over your boots, kid. You can't just force your way out of a physical reflex."

Volt shed her jacket, tossing it onto a dry console, and stepped directly into Kaleb's space. "Neiry, keep an eye on how a pro does it and please be on stand by just in case we get another flood. Kaleb, get in your stance. Let's see how your body actually processes that weight without you thinking so damn hard about it." 

She paused, looking between the two of them, her expression softening into something more casual. "By the way, you guys don't have to keep calling me Volt when we're without masks. My name is Valerie."

Kaleb blinked, nodding as he anchored his feet onto the damp mat. "Valerie. Right. Thanks."

Valerie stepped back a foot, pacing a slow semi-circle around him. "Let's talk raw output. With my electricity, the absolute first thing I had to master wasn't how to hit a target—it was total control and scaling down the output. Lightning is incredibly dangerous, Kaleb. If I don't constantly regulate the physical voltage humming through my muscle tissue, I could easily kill someone. When your body is the literal generator of an element, restraint isn't just a skill—it's a safety precaution."

She stopped directly in front of him, her sharp gaze locking onto his hands. "Now, drop the internal anxiety. Stop trying to force the water in your head. Just activate your powers. Don't throw it, don't whip it. Just call it with your mind."

Kaleb took a deep breath, forcing himself to ignore the lingering embarrassment from his earlier failure. Instead of visualizing the others and flow rates, he simply reached into his chest, finding that heavy, dense biological energy beneath his collarbone. He flexed his forearms, treating the sensation like an actual physical muscle.

With a soft, pressurized hiss, moisture rapidly condensed out of the humid air, drawing directly onto his knuckles. A deep, ocean-blue sheen began to ripple over his skin.

Valerie instantly leaned in, her eyes narrowing as she studied the manifestation. She reached out, her fingers hovering just millimeters above the swirling liquid gauntlets. "Look at that. See how the surface tension is shivering? That's not a feedback loop of it fighting back at you, kid. That's a physical tremor because you're clenching your shoulders. You're treating it like a heavy weight you have to physically carry, so your muscles are straining to hold it together."

From the edge of the mat, Neiry stood as a silent, unmoving anchor, spectating the entire exchange. His eyes tracked every shift in Kaleb's posture, listening intently to every single word Valerie said. The prince was absorbing the foreign concept of having superpowers, analyzing how a human mind translated raw physical instinct without the aid of a standard mystical concept.

"Loosen your grip," Valerie commanded gently. "Let the current rest on your skin like a natural layer of defense. Breathe out, and let the pressure distribute evenly across your forearm muscles."

Kaleb exhaled, deliberately dropping his shoulders and relaxing his tense knuckles.

The results were instantaneous. The shivering surface of the water smoothed out into a dense, beautifully uniform layer of high-velocity fluid. For the first time all evening, Kaleb successfully sustained the pressurized water over his bare hands without a single drop breaking loose or splashing wildly onto the floor. The fluid hummed with a quiet, controlled kinetic density, perfectly responsive to his physical form.

A faint nod of approval came from Neiry, his sharp features acknowledging the immediate, visible progress.

"There you go," Valerie said with a proud grin, tapping Kaleb's shoulder. "No force required. Your body already knows how to adapt to it—you just have to let it."

She stepped back slightly, keeping her eyes on the perfectly stable, humming rings of water around his hands. "Now, give it a name. Seriously. If it's a distinct physical trait, naming it gives your brain a specific anchor. Next time you need to manifest these gauntlets in a split second, you won't have to think about the physical process—you just call the name, and your muscle memory does the rest."

Kaleb looked down at the deep blue, densely compressed fluid tightly gripping his knuckles. It felt strong, steady, and entirely part of him. "Tidalbreaker," he said, testing the weight of the words. "Let's go with Tidalbreaker."

"Simple and iconic. Practical. I like it," Valerie nodded.

From the shadows at the edge of the mat, Neiry stepped forward, his eyes fixed on the two of them. "I'm amazed, excellent training ," the hero murmured, his voice echoing smoothly against the damp concrete walls. "But at the same time sustaining Tidalbreaker in training is entirely different from sustaining it under the duress of active conflict. Valerie, strike him. Fight with Kaleb."

Both Valerie and Kaleb froze, turning their heads to look at Neiry in sheer disbelief.

"Wait, what?" Valerie asked, her eyebrows shooting up. "Neiry, the kid just mastered holding the water steady for thirty seconds without causing a literal monsoon. You want me to throw hands with him right now? I use lightning."

Kaleb swallowed hard, his Tidalbreaker flickering slightly before he forced his focus back. "Yeah, Neiry, I just started keeping this together. I don't think I'm ready to dodge high-voltage strikes."

Neiry remained entirely unbothered by their hesitation, crossing his arms over his chest with an unyielding expression. "Comfort breeds skill. You both treat his power like a fragile mechanism that will break under pressure. It is an extension of his form; it shouldn't be fragile. The absolute best way to learn how a muscle truly adapts is to force it to defend itself. Fight."

Valerie sighed heavily, raising her hands in an apologetic, defensive posture as she looked back at Kaleb. Faint, harmless yellow sparks danced across her knuckles, though she kept the voltage down to a spark. "I guess if the resident leading hero says so... Sorry about this, Kaleb. Keep your guard up."

"Right," Kaleb muttered, shifting his feet into a makeshift stance he had only ever seen in training videos.

Valerie didn't use her full power, but she moved with the fluid, effortless grace of a seasoned hero. She stepped inside his perimeter, tossing out a swift, probing left jab. Kaleb panicked. His mind completely short-circuited under the sudden physical threat. He leaned heavily into his upper body, throwing out a series of floppy, wildly uncoordinated brawler punches. His arms swung wide, his balance completely unraveled, and his knuckles cleaved through empty air as Valerie easily slipped and ducked beneath his erratic swings.

"You're overextending!" Valerie called out, effortlessly swaying her torso to the left as Kaleb threw a heavy, looping right hook that nearly pulled him off his feet. "Your weight is all over the place, Kaleb! Keep your center!"

Frustration flashed through Kaleb's chest. Every time he swung, his Tidalbreaker sloshed slightly, demanding too much mental energy to keep dense while his physical form was entirely out of alignment. Valerie was a dash, completely out of reach, dancing just beyond his knuckles with a confident, effortless smirk. He needed to close the distance. He needed to stop her from moving.

As Valerie slipped back once more, preparing to reset, Kaleb didn't think. He didn't think of a trajectory or analyze the fluid dynamics. Driven by pure instinct, he threw his right arm forward and unflexed his fingers.

The dense blue water around his gauntlets instantly uncoiled, violently extending outward like a heavy, high-velocity liquid blast. The pressurized stream wrapped securely around Valerie's stomach before she could even register the sudden shift in his technique.

"Water bullet!" Kaleb shouted, the name tearing from his throat as an instinctive command to his own biology.

With a hard, physical yank of his shoulder, he locked his core and pulled back with everything he had. The water bullet held its immense strength, forcefully pushing back a startled Valerie right out of her defensive stance and pausing her directly into her space. As she stumbled Kaleb capitalized on the shock, driving his left fist straight ahead. Covered perfectly in his dense Tidalbreaker, his punch connected squarely with Valerie's raised defensive forearm block, the heavy kinetic impact sending a sharp, pressurized thud echoing through the entire subterranean base.

After the silence the scream echoed "HELL YEAH!" Kaleb screamed, connecting his first punch.