Hunter walked into the training area dressed in a pair of black jogging bottoms and a white sleeveless top. He had one of Dr Ingram’s aids on standby to provide targets at his request. In his hand was the bottle of water mixed with Trista’s blood.

Trista should be arriving soon, and Gareth had instructions to lead her straight to here. Before she arrived however he needed an excuse to drink the water mixed with Trista’s blood, which looked for all the world like a sports drink.

That was why there were four martial arts experts here, one in each corner of the room. Setting the drink aside he stepped into the centre of the room. As one the men charged him, and he began to repulse their attacks.

Moving left he caught the first with an elbow to the nose, breaking it and spraying blood everywhere. Spinning he blocked a kick and punched the attacker in the chest, knocking him back across the room.

Ducking under a punch he kneed the man in the stomach. Turning to the final man with speed beyond that of any human he caught the man’s wrist and flipped him across the room, where he landed hard on the floor and stayed down.

Hunter drove his elbow back, catching the man he had kneed moments earlier in the stomach again. The man staggered back, struggling to catch his breath when Hunter caught him with a spin kick to the temple.

Hunter looked around at the four men on the floor. He was sweating lightly, but not breathing heavily. It had been a light workout, but enough to warrant a drink to refresh himself, just as he had planned.

Trista Evans was being ushered back down the maze that was Mondragon labs with certain mixed feeling about the whole experience- well yeah, she wanted to start her training, it was the apart of the reason she'd agreed to do this whole Kabal thing..... but well, thing was......she'd hadn't even gotten to see her damn apartment yet, her and her personal Jeeves by the name of Gareth had been having a blast- well she was and he was along for the ride, sight seeing and shopping and stuff.......and then the damn watch had vibrated and Hunter had called her back in.

Gareth led her to one of the training areas where Hunter looked to be trying to demolish four guys attacking him, one after the other. Tris leaned against the doorway and silently watched the antics- noting speed and form and her estimation of her boss rising slightly...really wow.... until all four men lay defeated on the floor. Tris uncurled herself from the wall and walked into the room;

"Wow- note to self....dont make the boss man mad."
she stated with a twitch of the lips, suressing a smile.
"and okay seriously- I appreciate the need to train, and I really want to......but next time can I actually unpack first....and see this fancy new appartment thats apparently part of the benefit package."

“Don’t worry Trista,” Hunter said going over and picking up the bottle, “After this session you can go and unpack. However, after a little thinking I thought that you’d want to see this right away.” While he was talking the four men on the floor were taken away to the infirmary.

He quickly drained the drink, allowing Trista’s blood to work its way into his system. “You see, I have the ability to, with a lot of concentration, mimic peoples mutant abilities,” he lied with such ease, “It takes a lot out of me, so I can only do it once a week for about half an hour, but it’ll be enough for this training session.”

As he spoke the aid brought up five pillars with balls on them as targets. To prove that he had her powers he summoned forth his anger to a strong enough level to obliterate the balls and flicked a hand towards the first ball, exploding it.

Three more rapid flicks left only one ball. Keeping his hands by his sides Hunter increased his anger and focused his aim. With no movement from his arms the final ball exploded. Taming his anger he turned to Trista to see what she made of his display.

Trista saw the display, her eyes as wide as saucers as Hunter actually manged to do what she could do....seeing someone else blowing up stuff was alittle disquieting for her, not having ultimate control of this special ability that was hers.....she felt possessive and almost jealous......and yet so excited that someone else could actually do what she could,,,could understand alittle of what the hell she went though....it was wonderful, exciting, freeing....amazing.

...yes Trista always was a contrary soul.

All she said whoever was;
"Very cool."

Hunter smiled at Trista. “I can do everything that you can. Who better to train you?” he asked rhetorically, “Not only that, but I know everything you can do as well, all the possibilities. Watch.”

A ball was fired across the room and Hunter, recalling the witch hunter, flicked out a hand towards it. The ball froze in mid air. Hunter held it there for ten seconds before rapidly shifting from fear to anger and destroying the ball.

“You can do much more than simply destroy things,” he explained, “You have the ability to alter the speed of molecules, either up or down. You can increase there speed until they explode, or decrease it so they are frozen in stasis.”

Trista listened avidly;
"Wow, that actually makes sense."
She starred off into some distance memories and thiings started to click.
"I mean things sometimes slow down when I start to freak out...but I just kinda dismissed it as stress related perception of events. Huh.....just wow."

Trista turned eyes sparkling with excitement to her new teacher.
"So, where should we start teach."

Hunter had five more balls on podiums with balls on top brought up and went and stood next to Trista. “First you need to destroy the balls, but, you can’t use your hands. You’ll need to be more angry than you normally would be and aiming is difficult, but you can do it.”

He stood behind Trista and held her hands by her side. “When you are ready begin,” he said calmly. This would be difficult, but his demonstration had shown it was possible.

Trista looked at Hunter like he was the craziest man in the world, muzzy incomprehension on her face.

Not wanting to seem ungrateful, she turned and half hearted tried to focus on exploding the spheres, narrowing her eyes...unsurprisingly nothing happened.

"Ummm, love to....but can't.....seee....I can't use my power without my hands."
To demonstrate, she casually waved a hand at a sphere and it exploded into a million shards.
"thats how they work."

a life time of thinking is difficult to undo.

“Yes you can Trista. Watch me,” he said, “I have your powers, anything I do you can do.” He stood beside her and kept his arms by his side as he summoned his anger and targeted a ball. A moment to aim and it exploded.

“No arm movement and the ball exploded. You can do it,” he urged, “Trust me. You just have to focus your anger one the ball. It’s difficult, and may take a while, but it can be done. Now you try.”

Tris watched in doubt...and then stood, mouth agape as the ball exploded.

"But.....wha....bu-but you didn't use your hands or anything......and your saying I could do that?"

Tris's eyes held the faintest glimmer of maybe....just maybe....she might. She looked with renewed determination at the sphere, hands locked by her sides and eyes locked on the small metal ball.

She stared at it, eyes skewed up in intense concentration, willing the ball to explode......long minutes past and nothing happened....Trist resisted with an iron will to just give up and lift her hands and do this the easy way.........all she could see was the ball....that damn ball of metal that just would not cooperate.....it just sat there, mocking her......squat and solid and shouting her failure to the world......why the hell was hunter making her do this anyway.....he was just showing off- there no way she could do this...it was too hard.....he was teasing her, that was it.....showing off and making her believe and laughing on the inside...he was laughing, how could he not be.....this was just a fruitless excerise designed to make her feel dumb and stupid and hopeless.....and really that was just mean to make her think she could do something that couldn't be done be her.....that was just really really nasty and horrible and she just wanted too...."

There was a sudden explosion....not on the ball, but against the wall not far from the pedestal on which the ball was standing.....the force so powerful that the blast dented the wall and rebounded towards them, picking up the small metal projectile in the air pressure and causing it to come towards them at supremely high speed velocities.

Trista was so surprised she could do nothing but duck down to the floor as the projectile whizzed over her head and lie there with a small, amazed smile to her lips- she's done that, without her hands.......she felt pretty drained.....but....wow.

Hunter watched as Trista focused, and could see her getting more and more annoyed as time passed. Finally she became angry enough that she exploded the wall behind the target, just as he had done on his first attempt.

The explosion sent the ball flying towards them and Hunter shot his hand out and caught it in midair. “What did I tell you?” he said with a smile, “Anything I can do with your power, you can do. You have just proved that.”

He walked over to the podium and set the ball atop it. “We’ll work on that later, for in this session I want to show you the full range of your power. The stasis that I put on the ball is controlled through fear,” he explained, “If you are afraid then you can use that power with the hand gestures.”

“For you to practise balls are going to be launched at you. Focus on a terrifying memory and use that to stop them.” The sequence of balls being fired at her would shot fourteen very close to her, missing by the smallest of margins. To try and make her scared the final ball would be fired directly at her, if she failed to stop it, Hunter would catch it just before it hit her.

“What did I tell you?” he said with a smile, “Anything I can do with your power, you can do. You have just proved that.”

Tris looked up at Hunter as he spoke, calm and collected and smiling at her. She picked herself up and dusted herself off and wondered what was next up....what else would she find out.

He walked over to the podium and set the ball atop it. “We’ll work on that later, for in this session I want to show you the full range of your power. The stasis that I put on the ball is controlled through fear,” he explained, “If you are afraid then you can use that power with the hand gestures.”
“For you to practice balls are going to be launched at you. Focus on a terrifying memory and use that to stop them.”

"....Alright...can give it a shot I guess."
Tris answered, atad hesitantly, then walked towards the middle of the floor and waited for the test to begin.

It did with a blast....the sound being a ball hurling towards her....she was surprised, and ignoring the objective, she lept aside......
"Jees! Boss- you trying ta kill me.

More balls hurried in quick succession, seemingly anxious to get to know her cause they followed wherever she went. Some she ducked, dodged or ran from.....some she got pissed at and blew up or deflected.

The balls had almost completed their random round, and she risked a glance at Hunter- he seemed disappointed to her eyes.....and she remembered what she had actually been supposed to do. Sighing she relented her attack and standing still in the middle of the floor, she dediced to try for the last one....so she turned her attention inward and concentrated....

Hunter said to feel afraid, remember being afraid....she didn't particularly want to but still....taking a deep breath she cast around her memory, looking for something she did not want to find.

It was dark, and cold, and the tiny girl ran through shadowed corridors, yet still she felt its presences....looming, stalking, catching up ever so slowly. She looked around and there was nothing but blackness, yet still the fear that griped her heart and the ominous feeling that forewarned of the shadow still held sway.....it was coming for her....and it was faster....and there was no where to hide.........

it was clear from Trista expression she wasn't enjoying this bit.

....it was a childhood nightmare that still seemed to resonate with Tris, so she used it, didn't struggles and lock it away again like usual, but immersed herself it the feeling- the terror, the fear.....the feeling of helpless aloneness fill her up and kept her in icy grip.

As the last ball slammed out of the slot and headed at bone crunching velocities towards her....she froze, couldn't move...could almost feel the pain......the threat real....the fear already switched into overdrive.....she flung out her hands in a last ditch effort of force the ball away....

....it stopped.

Trista blinked and looked again, and there the ball still stayed, hanging there in mid air in perfect isolation. Curious, she walked up to it, circling around behind.

"Now that is sooooo freaken cool."
she expressed almost reverently.....she could tell though elated, she was drained by the experience.

Just then the molecules returned back to their original state. a.k.a....hurling towards the opposite wall and hitting with a terribly lound THUNK.
Tris winced;
"Now that would have hurt."

Hunter watched unimpressed as Trista disregarded his instructions and tried to avoid the balls being shot at her. He didn’t say anything, merely looked at her. She seemed to understand and stop dodging.

As she focused he could smell her fear, or at least her physical reaction to it. Then the ball fired. He readied himself to catch it if she failed, but he had no need. Trista stopped the ball midair.

“Good, now there is one final aspect of your powers that I want to show you,” he said as a small block of ice rose up from the floor in a bowl, “You can heat things up instead of just exploding them. Watch.”

With wild annoyance he extended a hand towards the ice. Water droplets began to form across the surface. Steadily increasing his anger the ice began to melt, and soon enough there was only water in the bowl.

He didn’t stop there. Continuing to progressively increase his anger the water began to boil, and a minute later none was left in the bowl. “You need a lot of focus,” he told her as another bowl with ice in it rose into place, “as you must slowly raise your anger. If you do it too quickly you will just make it explode. Now you try.”

Tris was skeptical....but Hunter hadn't let her down of things she didn't know she could do yet.....it kinda irked her just a tiny bit that he knew more about her powers than she did.....but (sigh) she was here to learn after all.

She copied his stance, extended a hand over her own block of ice, using the annoyance she got from having someone know her powers better than her to beneficial effects.

.....After awhile even Trista could see the results, as her ice block slowly yet surely became an icy puddle. She was going really slowly, nudging and fueling her annoyance with care as this was the first time she'd tied something other than blasting a thing in its entirely....but seeing this, she thought she got the hang of it and nudged abit hard to her ever ready supply of anger.

.....nothing happen for one long pause, then the water, and glass bowl it sat in exploded, blasted apart molecule by molecule.....sending glass shards everywhere......including right at Trista.....she was so tired, and a dull throbbing signaled a headache....and all she could think of to do was put her arms up to cover her face.....

Hunter was impressed with Trista’s control, and watched as she slowly melted the ice. But then she pushed to hard and it exploded, shattering the bowl and sending glass shards everywhere. Grabbing Trista he pulled her to him and spun, so that his body was shielding her.

He grimaced in pain as several of the shards hit him in the back, embedding themselves in him. Stepping back from Trista he asked, “Are you alright?” as he reached behind him and wrenched out one of the glass shards, his face contorting in pain briefly as he dropped the shard to the floor and reached for another.

“That was good,” he praised, “and we will work on that later, but I’ll set it up so that you’re in a more protected environment next time, so you won’t be at risk.” He yanked out another shard, letting it drop to the floor. His hand and back were covered in blood, but he ignored it as he reached for another shard.