The first lesson the Academy taught about power was that possessing it and controlling it were two entirely different things.
The second was that the difference could kill you.
Aryaan had always considered the second lesson unnecessarily dramatic.
That opinion lasted until three seconds after the training sphere detonated.
He hit the ground hard enough to forget every philosophical argument he had ever made about Academy instructors.
The impact drove the air from his lungs, and for a moment the ceiling above him became an abstract arrangement of white panels, glowing strips and one deeply unimpressed instructor staring down at him.
“Get up.”
Aryaan coughed.
“I’m considering it.”
“Consider faster.”
He rolled onto one elbow.
Across the chamber, Ron was hanging upside down from a restraint field.
Lane was on one knee.
Riyansh had somehow remained standing.
Potter was lying flat on his back with one arm raised.
“I’m alive,” Potter announced.
The instructor didn’t look at him.
“Unfortunately.”
Potter lowered his arm.
“Hostile work environment.”
Bonita groaned from somewhere behind a collapsed practice barrier.
Mitchell was sitting against the wall, examining a thin cut along her forearm.
Saiyuki had already regained her feet.
Sia stood several metres away, her Dracodian wings partially unfurled, the membranes trembling slightly from the residual energy.
Eight students.
Eight separate reactions.
One spectacularly failed exercise.
Aryaan pushed himself upright.
The training sphere hovered in the middle of the chamber.
It was no longer spherical.
A chunk of its outer casing had been ripped away, exposing the energy core inside.
The instructor stared at it.
Then at them.
Then back at the sphere.
“Would anyone like to explain?”
Ron raised his hand.
Everyone turned towards him.
He lowered it.
“On second thought, no.”
“Wise.”
Ron looked surprised.
“Was that praise?”
“No.”
“Right.”
Aryaan finally got to his feet.
His ribs hurt.
Not badly.
But enough to remind him that whatever his parents had meant about his abilities, he was nowhere near powerful enough to walk around believing himself special.
That was the uncomfortable truth.
The eight of them were good.
Better than most students their age.
Their telepathy alone placed them in a category the Academy considered exceptional.
Graduates were supposed to develop controlled telepathic communication only after completing the Academy’s advanced curriculum.
The eight had been doing it for years.
Sometimes deliberately.
Sometimes accidentally.
Sometimes without even realising they had crossed the boundary between spoken thought and transmitted thought.
Yet none of that meant they were strong.
They were talented.
There was a difference.
The Academy had spent years making sure they understood it.
Their instructor walked towards the damaged sphere.
“Do you know why you failed?”
Potter raised his hand again.
The instructor pointed at him.
Potter lowered it.
“Because we are secretly terrible?”
“No.”
“Because the sphere is badly designed?”
“No.”
“Because—”
“Potter.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Stop helping.”
Potter nodded solemnly.
The instructor turned towards the eight.
“You failed because you attempted to use eight individual strengths as though they were eight times one strength.”
Aryaan frowned.
That sounded simple.
It wasn’t.
The instructor continued.
“Power doesn’t work that way.”
The training sphere reconstructed itself.
The broken casing sealed.
The energy core stabilised.
“Riyansh possesses the greatest raw physical strength among you. Saiyuki has superior precision. Sia possesses greater aerial mobility and enhanced sensory perception. Mitchell has an adaptable biological architecture that allows her to respond to multiple energy environments. Bonita has the strongest tracking ability. Potter’s observational and analytical ability is considerably above average.”
Potter looked pleased.
“Finally.”
The instructor continued.
“Ron is unpredictable.”
Ron looked at him.
“Is that an insult?”
“It is a tactical description.”
“Oh.”
The instructor turned towards Lane.
“Lane possesses an unusually sensitive spatial perception.”
Then Aryaan.
“And Aryaan has a developing temporal sensitivity.”
Aryaan felt the room become quieter.
The instructor didn’t explain further.
He didn’t need to.
Aryaan had learned over the past twenty-four hours that some things were better left unnamed.
The instructor looked at all eight.
“None of those abilities make you invincible.”
The training sphere opened.
A simulated environment unfolded around them.
A ruined city appeared.
Buildings rose around the chamber, translucent but convincing, their broken windows reflecting artificial sunlight.
The instructor’s voice came from everywhere.
“Imagine an enemy capable of overwhelming any one of you individually.”
The simulation generated a humanoid combat construct.
It stood approximately two metres tall.
Then another appeared.
Then another.
Eight.
One for each of them.
“Now imagine that enemy understands your abilities.”
The constructs moved.
Fast.
Too fast.
Aryaan barely raised his guard before the nearest one struck.
He twisted aside.
The blow missed his jaw by centimetres.
He felt the pressure wave.
The construct pivoted.
Aryaan reached outward.
Time seemed to—
No.
Not time.
His perception of it.
For the briefest instant, the construct’s movements separated into possibilities.
One trajectory.
Then another.
Then another.
Aryaan selected the one that felt safest.
He stepped left.
The construct’s fist passed beside his head.
Aryaan countered.
His palm struck the construct’s chest.
The impact barely moved it.
The construct hit him.
Again.
Aryaan went down.
He rolled before the next strike landed.
Across the simulated city, the others were fighting.
Riyansh’s fists collided with his opponent.
The impact sounded like a hammer striking steel.
The construct staggered.
Riyansh grinned.
“Finally!”
He hit it again.
The construct didn’t move.
Riyansh’s grin disappeared.
“Okay.”
Saiyuki was different.
She didn’t meet strength with strength.
She moved around it.
A step.
A turn.
A low strike.
A palm against the construct’s shoulder.
She was using the techniques passed down through her family, movements refined across generations from the martial traditions of the people who had once lived in Japan.
Her opponent swung.
Saiyuki slipped beneath the attack.
Her foot struck its knee.
The construct dropped.
She moved behind it.
A precise strike against the neck joint.
The construct froze.
Saiyuki stepped back.
“Done.”
The instructor’s voice answered.
“No.”
The construct rose.
Saiyuki’s expression changed.
“That’s cheating.”
“It’s a combat simulation.”
“That is cheating with educational branding.”
Potter laughed.
Then his own construct punched him through a wall.
“OW!”
Saiyuki glanced at him.
“Focus.”
“I’m trying!”
Bonita had disappeared.
Aryaan saw her for half a second on the edge of his perception.
Then she was gone again.
Her tracking ability was extraordinary.
Bonita could follow disturbances that most people couldn’t even perceive.
Footprints were crude to her.
She tracked displaced dust, residual heat, scent changes, subtle pressure variations, and the disturbances left by moving bodies.
But her opponent had no biological footprint.
It was a machine.
The problem visibly irritated her.
“That’s cheating,” she muttered.
Saiyuki shouted from somewhere nearby.
“Apparently that’s the theme!”
Mitchell moved differently.
Her body responded to the environment almost before her conscious mind did.
The energy in the simulation changed.
Her pupils contracted.
Her posture shifted.
A faint pattern appeared along her skin.
The inheritance of her mixed ancestry was impossible to categorise neatly.
Mitchell’s parents had belonged to different interstellar races, each carrying biological traits humans had never naturally evolved.
Mitchell had inherited some of those talents.
She had also inherited something neither parent possessed.
A mutation.
Something uniquely hers.
Her body adapted.
The Academy had not yet determined whether that mutation was a gift, a vulnerability, or something that would eventually become both.
Mitchell’s construct attacked.
She absorbed the first strike.
Then the second.
Her body adjusted.
On the third attack, she moved before the construct completed its motion.
Her hand struck its chest.
Energy rippled.
The construct staggered.
Mitchell stared at her own palm.
“What was that?”
The instructor answered.
“Adaptation.”
Mitchell frowned.
“I didn’t do that before.”
“Correct.”
“Then why now?”
“Because you’re under pressure.”
Mitchell didn’t like that answer.
Neither did Aryaan.
Because pressure was exactly what had triggered his own ability.
The thought came at the wrong moment.
His construct struck him again.
Aryaan barely blocked.
The impact sent pain through his forearm.
He stumbled.
The construct advanced.
Aryaan tried to sense its next movement.
The world changed.
For a fraction of a second, he saw the attack before it happened.
Not clearly.
Not like watching a recording.
More like standing beside a road and seeing several possible vehicles approaching at once.
He saw the construct strike high.
Then low.
Then step backward.
Then twist.
Possibilities.
Aryaan chose one.
He moved.
The punch missed.
Aryaan struck.
This time the construct’s head snapped sideways.
It staggered.
Aryaan smiled.
Then a blade of pain drove through his skull.
He collapsed.
The possibilities vanished.
The world returned to normal.
His ears rang.
He tasted blood.
Someone was shouting.
He couldn’t understand who.
Aryaan tried to stand.
His legs failed.
The simulation ended.
The ruined city vanished.
The training sphere returned.
The Academy chamber became visible again.
Aryaan was on the floor.
Someone was kneeling beside him.
Lane.
“Look at me.”
Aryaan blinked.
“I’m fine.”
“No.”
“I’m fine.”
“You’re bleeding.”
Aryaan touched his nose.
Blood.
“That’s inconvenient.”
Lane’s expression tightened.
“What did you see?”
Aryaan looked at him.
“Nothing.”
Lane’s eyes narrowed.
Aryaan knew immediately that he had made the wrong choice.
“Don’t.”
“Tell me.”
“Not here.”
Lane stared at him.
Then looked away.
Aryaan could feel the disappointment.
Again.
He had hurt him again.
Before he could explain, the instructor approached.
“Temporal perception.”
Aryaan looked up.
The instructor crouched.
“Was it your first conscious activation?”
Aryaan hesitated.
“Yes.”
“Then don’t use it again.”
Aryaan frowned.
“What?”
“Not until you learn to control it.”
Aryaan sat up.
“Why?”
The instructor looked directly at him.
“Because you didn’t see the future.”
Aryaan’s stomach tightened.
“What did I see?”
“Possibilities.”
Aryaan waited.
The instructor continued.
“And your brain attempted to process all of them simultaneously.”
Aryaan suddenly understood the pain.
“You mean I overloaded my perception.”
“Yes.”
“How bad?”
“Temporary neural strain.”
“Temporary?”
“If you’re lucky.”
Aryaan looked at Lane.
Lane’s jaw had tightened.
The instructor stood.
“Every power has a cost.”
He looked towards the others.
“Remember that.”
The training sphere opened again.
“Especially you eight.”
Ron raised his hand.
The instructor stared.
Ron slowly lowered it.
“I’m beginning to understand the hand thing.”
Potter groaned.
The instructor looked at him.
“You are not exempt.”
“I wasn’t asking.”
“You were about to.”
Potter shut his mouth.
The instructor walked towards the centre.
“Power without discipline is not strength. It is an accident waiting for an opportunity.”
The words settled over them.
Aryaan remembered the message.
Your ability is not an accident.
He wasn’t sure whether that was comforting anymore.
The eight left the training chamber nearly an hour later.
Nobody spoke much.
That was unusual.
Normally, leaving a combat exercise meant arguments.
Who had performed best.
Who had cheated.
Who had been responsible for a particular failure.
Ron usually provided enough commentary for all eight.
Today, he was quiet.
Aryaan suspected he was thinking.
That was almost more alarming than the possibility of Orion activity.
Potter walked beside him.
“You nearly died.”
Aryaan looked at him.
“I didn’t.”
“You nearly did.”
“I’ve nearly died before.”
“That’s not the reassuring statement you think it is.”
Aryaan smiled.
Potter studied him.
“Seriously.”
Aryaan’s smile faded.
“What?”
“You okay?”
Aryaan nodded.
Potter didn’t believe him.
He didn’t press.
Instead, he said:
“You know what’s interesting?”
“Usually no.”
“Your parents’ message.”
Aryaan’s attention sharpened.
Potter lowered his voice.
“They said your ability wasn’t an accident.”
“Yes.”
“But they didn’t explain what it was.”
“No.”
“And they knew about Lane’s.”
“Yes.”
“And Ron’s.”
“Yes.”
Potter’s expression changed.
“But they didn’t say what Ron’s was.”
Aryaan looked at him.
Potter stopped walking.
Aryaan stopped too.
“Why is that interesting?”
Potter smiled.
“Because your parents were scientists.”
Aryaan frowned.
“So?”
“So scientists define things.”
Potter pointed towards Aryaan.
“Your temporal perception.”
Then towards Lane.
“Spatial sensitivity.”
Then Ron.
“Whatever the hell is happening with him.”
Aryaan looked towards Ron.
He was arguing with Bonita.
“What?”
Potter lowered his voice.
“Your parents didn’t describe Ron’s ability.”
Aryaan’s expression changed.
“Why?”
“Exactly.”
Potter walked on.
Aryaan remained still for a moment.
Then followed.
He glanced towards Ron.
Ron was now trying to convince Bonita that walking into a door while distracted counted as an involuntary spatial experiment.
Bonita looked ready to strangle him.
Aryaan smiled despite himself.
Whatever Ron’s ability was, it certainly didn’t look impressive.
Not yet.
But Aryaan had learned something in the training sphere.
Not every ability announced itself with a spectacular display.
Some abilities might be hidden in patterns.
In instincts.
In accidents.
In things everyone dismissed because they happened too often to seem meaningful.
Ron looked back.
“Aryaan!”
“What?”
“Bonita says I have to apologise.”
Aryaan glanced at Bonita.
“Apologise.”
Ron looked betrayed.
“For what?”
“You called her tracking technique ‘creepy stalking with extra steps.'”
“It is.”
Bonita’s eyes narrowed.
Ron turned towards Aryaan.
“You’re supposed to support me.”
“I support your right to apologise.”
“That’s not support.”
“It’s the best you’re getting.”
Ron sighed.
“Fine.”
He turned towards Bonita.
“I’m sorry you’re creepy.”
Bonita’s expression became murderous.
Ron immediately ran.
“RON!”
The corridor erupted into chaos.
Aryaan laughed.
For several seconds, everything felt normal.
Then he noticed Sia.
She was walking beside Lane.
Not close.
Not far.
Their conversation was too quiet for the others to hear.
Aryaan watched for a moment.
Sia said something.
Lane answered.
Sia looked away.
Lane looked at her.
Then Sia’s expression softened.
Aryaan looked away.
He had learned enough about his friends to know that some things were better left untouched.
Especially when neither person involved had any intention of admitting anything.
Ron ran past him.
“HELP!”
Aryaan moved aside.
“Absolutely not.”
“Traitor!”
Potter chased after him.
“I’m with Aryaan!”
“Potter!”
“Sorry!”
Aryaan shook his head.
Eight people.
Eight different problems.
And somehow they were expected to graduate together.
Perhaps that was the real Academy test.
By afternoon, the graduation assignment had become official.
The eight stood in the Academy’s central command hall while the planetary map expanded above them.
Dozens of worlds appeared.
Some were green.
Some were red.
Some were little more than dead rocks.
The map was an enormous lattice of routes, planetary systems, artificial stations and restricted zones.
Bonita stepped closer.
“The first assignment is Kalyx-9.”
The planet enlarged.
Its atmosphere was visibly distorted.
“Mutation levels are rising.”
Riyansh crossed his arms.
“What kind?”
“Flora and fauna.”
“Cause?”
“Unknown.”
“Energy source?”
“Unknown.”
Riyansh frowned.
“That’s getting repetitive.”
Potter nodded.
“It’s becoming a theme.”
Bonita continued.
“The Academy believes recent combat in the region may have triggered environmental changes.”
Aryaan’s attention sharpened.
“Recent combat.”
Bonita nodded.
“Six weeks ago.”
“Between?”
“Unknown forces.”
Aryaan looked at Potter.
Potter looked back.
Neither smiled.
Bonita moved to the next location.
“Veyra Belt.”
The map changed.
“Residual combat energy.”
Then another.
“Orion’s Wake.”
Then another.
“Gaia.”
Aryaan stared at the planet.
He felt the strange pull again.
Not as strong as before.
But there.
Something inside him recognised the coordinate.
The same sensation.
A thread pulled across impossible distance.
His vision blurred.
Aryaan blinked.
The planet remained.
He looked away.
The sensation stopped.
Lane noticed.
Of course he did.
“You felt it.”
Aryaan nodded.
Lane said nothing.
Ron leaned towards them.
“Felt what?”
“Nothing.”
Ron looked suspicious.
“Everyone keeps saying that.”
Potter leaned towards him.
“Maybe you’re the problem.”
Ron frowned.
“How?”
Potter smiled.
“Statistically.”
Ron considered punching him.
He decided against it.
Probably because Potter was standing behind Riyansh.
The Academy official continued.
“Your mission is not combat.”
Riyansh looked disappointed.
“You will document environmental mutations, investigate the causes of those mutations, catalogue any anomalous energy signatures, and determine whether recent combat has produced long-term biological consequences.”
Saiyuki nodded.
“Will we be permitted to engage hostile entities?”
“If necessary.”
Riyansh smiled.
The instructor noticed.
“No unnecessary engagement.”
Riyansh’s smile disappeared.
“Understood.”
“Your objective is observation.”
Aryaan listened.
Something about that bothered him.
Their parents’ message.
The Academy’s assignment.
The hidden coordinate.
The strange temporal disturbance.
The warning about Gaia.
Everything seemed to be pointing in the same direction.
But not directly.
That was what made it frightening.
It felt as though someone had arranged a series of doors.
And every door led them closer to something.
The Academy official concluded the briefing.
“Departure is in seventy-two hours.”
The map vanished.
Students began leaving.
Aryaan remained behind.
Lane stopped beside him.
Ron stopped because Lane stopped.
Then the other five stopped because Aryaan hadn’t moved.
Aryaan stared at the empty display.
“We’re going.”
Potter looked at him.
“Where?”
Aryaan turned.
“Gaia.”
Bonita’s expression hardened.
“That isn’t our first assignment.”
“I know.”
“Then why?”
Aryaan looked at the others.
“Because my parents warned us not to go there.”
Ron frowned.
“That is not exactly the strongest argument for going.”
Aryaan looked at him.
Ron sighed.
“Fine. Obviously we’re going.”
Bonita stared at both of them.
“You two are impossible.”
Potter raised a finger.
“Technically, all three.”
Bonita glared.
Potter lowered it.
“Noted.”
Aryaan looked at the group.
“We don’t go alone.”
Riyansh nodded.
Saiyuki nodded.
Mitchell hesitated.
Then nodded.
Bonita sighed.
“I’m going because somebody has to stop you from getting yourselves killed.”
Potter smiled.
“That’s friendship.”
“That’s damage control.”
“Same thing.”
Sia looked at Lane.
Lane looked at her.
Then he nodded.
Sia nodded too.
Ron watched them.
Aryaan saw the expression forming on his face.
“No.”
Ron turned.
“I didn’t say anything.”
“Don’t.”
Ron looked wounded.
“You people keep assuming the worst about me.”
Potter patted his shoulder.
“Because you’re consistent.”
Ron shoved his hand away.
“Traitor.”
The group began walking.
Aryaan followed.
For the first time since discovering the hidden message, he felt something other than fear.
Not certainty.
Not confidence.
Something smaller.
Resolve.
They were not strong enough.
That much was obvious.
They were barely beyond beginners.
Their telepathy was advanced, but their control remained imperfect.
Their individual abilities were developing, but most were still instinctive.
Their combat skills were good, but against a true elite fighter they would be outclassed.
And their greatest problem was not lack of power.
It was that they did not yet understand what their powers were becoming.
Aryaan had sensed possible futures and paid for it with neural pain.
Lane could detect spatial distortions but had no idea how far that talent might eventually reach.
Ron remained an unsolved question.
Mitchell’s body was beginning to mutate under pressure.
Riyansh’s physical cultivation was increasing, but every increase demanded greater strain from his body.
Saiyuki’s precision was exceptional, but precision meant little against overwhelming force.
Bonita could track almost anything—but not everything.
Potter could see patterns others missed, but seeing a pattern and surviving what it revealed were different skills.
Sia’s Dracodian inheritance gave her strength, mobility, and sensory abilities, but she had yet to discover where her own mutation ended and her inherited abilities began.
They were talented.
They were dangerous.
They were inexperienced.
And somewhere beyond the known routes, the Orions were consuming worlds.
Aryaan did not know yet that the Academy assignment was only the beginning.
He did not know that the mutations they were about to investigate would eventually become clues.
He did not know that the strange coordinate would connect to his parents.
He did not know that every injury, every misunderstanding, every failed mission and every seemingly pointless argument would eventually shape the people they became.
For now, he knew only one thing.
They had a mystery.
And they were going to follow it.
Three hours later, far below Mokshabhumi’s public habitation levels, Devdutt stood inside a chamber that did not officially exist.
The room was ancient.
Not physically.
Nothing on Mokshabhumi was old enough to be called ancient.
But the technology inside it was.
A circular platform occupied the centre.
Around it stood seven pillars.
Each pillar contained a different energy signature.
Devdutt stood in the middle.
He placed the metallic disc on the platform.
The chamber activated.
A planetary image appeared.
Earth.
Then Gaia.
Then dozens of other worlds.
One by one, they disappeared.
Devdutt watched.
“Again.”
The system repeated the sequence.
Earth.
Gaia.
A dead planet.
Another.
Another.
The final image was not a planet.
It was darkness.
A region beyond mapped space.
Devdutt’s expression tightened.
“Show me the original sequence.”
The chamber hesitated.
Then responded.
ACCESS RESTRICTED.
Devdutt smiled without humour.
“By whom?”
Silence.
“Show me.”
The pillars illuminated.
A stream of ancient data filled the chamber.
Devdutt watched the symbols appear.
He recognised some.
Others had been deciphered only recently.
One phrase repeated.
ORION.
Devdutt’s face hardened.
Another appeared.
GAIA.
Then:
HUAXIAN.
Then:
SVARGNAGARI.
Then the symbol.
The same symbol from Aryaan’s parents’ message.
Three intersecting lines inside a circle.
Devdutt stepped closer.
The system produced another line.
TEMPORAL DEVIATION DETECTED.
Devdutt’s heart sank.
“How long?”
The system calculated.
SEVENTEEN YEARS.
Devdutt froze.
Seventeen years.
The exact period since Aryaan’s parents had disappeared.
His sister had been right.
The boys were not simply inheriting unusual abilities.
Something had been waiting.
Something had been moving.
And now the Academy had unknowingly placed all eight of them on the same path.
Devdutt looked at the final coordinate.
Gaia.
He whispered:
“So you were right.”
A voice answered from behind him.
Devdutt turned.
His sister stood at the entrance.
“You said you were alone.”
“I was.”
“Then why am I here?”
Devdutt glanced back at the display.
“Because I found what they were looking for.”
Her face changed.
“The boys?”
“No.”
Devdutt’s eyes remained on the symbol.
“Their parents.”
Silence.
His sister stepped into the chamber.
“Are they alive?”
Devdutt didn’t answer.
She stared at him.
“Devdutt.”
“I don’t know.”
“Then what did you find?”
Devdutt pointed towards the display.
The image changed.
A location appeared.
Not Earth.
Not Gaia.
Not Mokshabhumi.
Something far beyond them.
A place marked only by a designation that had been erased from every modern star map.
Devdutt’s voice became quiet.
“This.”
His sister stared.
“What is it?”
Devdutt looked at the coordinate.
Then at the message.
Then at the symbol.
“The place where they disappeared.”
The chamber went dark.
For a moment, there was only silence.
Then a single line appeared.
Not from the system.
Not from the old archive.
From somewhere else.
THE CHILDREN ARE MOVING.
Devdutt stared at it.
Another line appeared.
THEY MUST NOT REACH GAIA.
Devdutt’s expression changed.
Because this time, he understood the implication.
Someone was watching them.
Someone knew where they were going.
And someone was afraid of what would happen if the eight reached Gaia.
Current Powers & Skills — After Chapter Four
The eight remain slightly above beginner level overall, but their unusual talents are beginning to separate them from ordinary Academy graduates.
Aryaan — Temporal Perception: He can briefly perceive multiple possible immediate outcomes rather than simply predicting one future.
Cost: attempting to process too many possibilities causes severe neural strain, headaches, bleeding, and possible long-term damage.
Lane — Spatial Sensitivity: He can detect distortions and irregularities in space that conventional systems may miss.
His ability remains primarily perceptive rather than offensive.
Ron — Unknown Innate Ability: Still deliberately unexplained.
His seemingly random actions continue to produce disproportionately useful or consequential outcomes, but neither he nor the others understand why.
Riyansh — Body Cultivation: His physical strength is already the highest among the group, but increasing it places increasing stress on his body.
Mitchell — Adaptive Mutation: Her mixed-race inheritance is beginning to interact with her unique mutation, allowing her body to adapt to unfamiliar energy conditions.
The long-term consequences remain unknown.
Saiyuki — Ninja-derived Combat Discipline: Exceptional precision, movement and close-combat technique, although she lacks the raw power to dominate stronger opponents.
Bonita — Exceptional Tracking: Can read environmental disturbances, biological traces and subtle physical changes with extraordinary accuracy, although artificial or non-biological targets remain more difficult.
Potter — Analytical/Investigative Talent: His greatest weapon remains his ability to notice patterns and inconsistencies that others overlook.
His combat ability is comparatively ordinary.
Sia — Dracodian Heritage: Enhanced strength, aerial mobility, and sensory perception derived from her Dracodian lineage, with indications that her own abilities may eventually develop beyond inherited traits.
The important lesson of this stage is simple: none of them has reached the point where their abilities can be used freely without consequence.
Their greatest growth will come not from suddenly becoming powerful, but from learning what their bodies and minds can survive.