It didn't take Tori long at all to make her way to the game systems in the living room. Being the Xbox nut she was she started playing on their Series X; some of their Xbox One games they had. And they just happen to have the 2013 Tomb Raider reboot game back when Square Enix published the property. To think she was only five years old when this game first came out and now she was sixteen.

Some of the students had came to watch Tori play. Tori had chosen the highest difficulty and was blazing through the stages in the game. Proving that this wasn't the first time Tori had played. Tori played the heck out of the Survivor Trilogy of the Tomb Raider games. They were her favorite games above all else.

"You can't get me I'm Lara Croft Tomb Raider!"

Some of the kids watching laughed as Tori continued blazing through the game's levels and showing everyone why Tomb Raider was the best game ever made. That was until...

Spring meant one thing. Allergies. Trees were ready to get it on and everyone else was punished for it. Normally this meant you sneezed a lot or had to blow your nose and you were done with it for five minutes. For mutants, sometimes you inadvertently used your power. Not always the worst.

Unless you generated electricity and were watching a new resident of the mansion play video games. Especially bad if you were standing by the TV because you had been wandering the halls while reading as Ion had.

”ACHOO!” Ion sneezed into his shoulder as a sudden burst of purplish pink corona formed around him. A small jolt of electricity popped off and caught a ride on a PCB inside the TV shorting the circuit to turn the tv off. Blessedly it was low enough current that it didn’t burn it out, just enough to trick it into activating.

”Oh… Uh. Yeah, sorry about that.” Ion said looking at the TV that had just clicked off. His corona slowly dimming as his body leaked away the rest of the power he had built up in the instant of his sneeze.

Tori was on the final boss of the game after hours spent playing through the main story and entertaining the other students who came by to watch. Just when she was about to defeat it, the TV turned off after an electric jolt and Tori stared at it in dismay for a moment as she had no idea what was going on.

"CRAP!"

Tori grabbed the remote to see if she could turn the TV back on and after a while jiggling with it it did, but by the time it did the main boss had killed Lara and triggered a Game Over on the screen.

"My perfect streak!"

Tori sulked in her chair as the other students felt bad for her before wandering off as the hype was over. Tori then looked over to the man who apologized.

"Oh shoot! That was you? I didn't realize. Don't worry about it it's just a game and games these days have auto saves so I can start right back where I left off."

Tori stood up from her couch and went over to the man and extended her right hand to him. It was weird using her right hand as she was a south paw, but she knew that threw people off in hand shaking things to use your left so she always remembered to use her right.

"I'm Tori. I just transferred here yesterday. So, that's what you do? Electricity or something like that?"

The TV going off broke up the watch party. The girl who had been playing on the Xbox sulked and her onlookers wandered off. Maybe to go watch someone play games on the internet. Having found himself over a decade into the future after his old self had been de-aged, Ion didn’t understand the whole ‘watching people play’ thing that had become popular. Hell, to him the Xbox 360 was still the peak of gaming technology.

After getting the TV back on, the girl sulked a little before turning her attention to Ion. She told him not to worry about it.

”In my day, autosaving happened at the worst possible time. Always right before an unskippable cutscene.” Ion said, sounding to himself like some middle aged person.

The girl got up and held her hand out as she introduced herself. Ion looked at the hand for a moment before he shook it. A moment before he’d had a corona and now she wanted to make contact. Points to Tori.

”I’m Will.” Ion said, taking Tori’s hand and shaking it. ”Yeah. Something like that.” Ion took the hand he’d used to shake Tori’s hand and as his power sprung to life a corona formed around him, but electrical breakdown arced across the fingers on the hand. ”I generate it and can direct it from myself. Guess I’m not insulated though so I leak.” Ion waved at the corona around himself. ”If you're new here you must have something fun you can do. What is it?”

Tori blinked blankly when the guy said "in my day."

"In your day? You don't look much older than me."

Unless his power was also deaging his day would've been the same as her day. Then again that could be possible as a power. It would suck though. To deage and get younger. Well to an extent. What if you got so young you cease to exist? That would be scary. Tori would keep those thoughts to herself though.

"That's cool."

It didn't take much to impress Tori. She was a hormonal teenager after all and he was kinda cute. But that was a thought she would also keep to herself. He wanted to know her power. A fair question since she asked about his.

"I'm an earth bender. I bend the earth. You know like in Avatar."

If he didn't get the reference then shame on him.

”Oh… Well, I’m only 18, but I was born in the 80s. From my perspective it was the mid 2000s then suddenly it was the 2020s. Somehow I got turned back to my youth, as I was. No memories of my twenties or thirties.” It was still weird for Ion to think about. There being a paper trail for his life leading up to when he was 33 but he didn’t experience it. Had no knowledge of it.

As for Tori she was an earth bender. At first Ion didn’t get the reference, but then it clicked. Avatar, Ion had heard of the show and sequel show. A movie that was in a superposition of existing but not. Ion had not watched it, it came out after his time in the 2000s. ”Oh, so you move around ground?” Ion had never met someone who could move around earth, but he had seen people control water and air so it only made sense. ”I’d actually like to see that.” There were so many fantastic powers that people had at the mansion. Ion loved seeing what people could do. How powerful mutants were compared to regular humans.

It almost sounded like some kind of standup routine she heard before. "I was born in the 1960s, but in the year 2000 I was in my twenties." But it sounded like he was being dead serious. With all the things about mutants and humans Tori guessed it was possible, but it was really weird and she had no idea what to think about it.

"So, you lost a whole two decades of your life?"

That was scary. Now Tori was afraid something like that could happen to her. That she suddenly deages and is even younger than she already is and being younger than sixteen would freaking suck. Now if she was made to be twenty-one and officially old enough to drink and go to dance clubs and pick up chicks that would be great!

"Oh, well... we'd have to go outside for a bit. I don't want to break anything in here."

Tori knew that earth benders behind closed doors didn't mush well together. Not ever.

Two decades of his life? Ion made a so-so gesture with his hand. While he had lost close to two decades, from his perspective its like he didn’t have them in the first place. All he had to show for them was a law degree that he lacked the knowledge to make use of and a lawyers bank account… And a car payment on a luxury electric car.

”More like… I got another shot at youth. I don’t have memories of the time when I was older. From my perspective I just got pushed into the future.”

Tori said they’d have to go outside to see her power. Ion gestured toward the outside and said, ”I got nothing better to be doing. If you’re fine letting someone else take the Xbox for a spin.” Ion said knowing that there would always be someone ready to jump in and keep the system from getting lonely. ”And I can show you what I can really do out there too. The professors frown on me burning though the walls.”

Well, when Will put it like that it didn't seem too bad. Few people got a second chance at youth. Once you're old and gray you're old and gray then you die and either go to some kind of afterlife or you're just dead. Tori believed in the latter as nothing she has seen yet has really convinced her of an afterlife, and she was certain she'd learn that once she was dead. But that's so morbid!

"Alright. Let's go then."

Tori felt herself become nervous. She always got nervous when she was about to use her powers. But at least this wasn't a combat situation where thugs were involved so there was no urgency or risk. She just needed to show a few tricks she has learned since coming into her powers and that was about it. Tori led Will outside of the mansion and into the back yard where there was plenty of earth and ground to manipulate.

"Okay. Here I go."

Tori held up both her hands and outreached her palms. She then focused her energy on the ground beneath her. In the minutes to pass she lifted up a small piece of the ground out of the grassy area and lifted it up into the air via geokinetics. Tori spun it around a bit and had it linger and float in the air for a while before she started to mold it like clay. She shaved off the edges and the bits of the ground and created a small statute of earth that resembled her favorite fictional character, Lara Croft. She then set it in her hands like it was a trophy and showed it to Will.

"Okay, so that's like a very minor use of my power, but I'm trying to learn to do small things before I do anything bigger."

Tori didn't want to mess up the yard too much with displays of her abilities. At least not yet.

Tori led them outside. Ionw was excited by the prospect of seeing an earth bender at work. It was a power that was new to him. Another way that mutants were superior. Tori found a spot she was happy with and went to work. She raised her hands and focused. Ion waited silently, watching. It took a few minutes, but in the end Tori had a sculpture of Lara Croft. It took Ion a moment to realize who it was. He was used to the older design. More triangular in the chest region.

”That’s super cool though. I can’t wait to see what you can do when you work on larger things.” Reshaping the Earth just had a primalness to it. Literally reshaping nature and moving mountains. ”I wish I had that level of control. My power is big and flashy. When I do small things it is glassing or burning.”

Ion thought for a moment then said, ”I have an idea. Can you move… Like, a square of ground, maybe six inches deep and set it on the concrete? That would give you a chunk of ground to work over and do whatever with. Then when your done just stick it all back. No harm done to the ground. Not like it’s a golf course where the grass has to be perfect.”

Tori allowed herself to smile a little bit. Whenever she successfully used her powers it made her feel good. Even if its a small application of it. He of course wanted her to try something bigger. Tori was sure the teachers here would've asked the same whenever they got around to training her. Tori wanted to be a superhero, so she couldn't shy away from bigger objects.

"My limit is a single metric ton, so six inches shouldn't be a problem."

Tori once again held her hands out over the ground and slowly began to remove a medium shaped square six inches deep from the ground and floated it up through the air. This one took a little more focus as it was heavier and she eased it towards the concrete. She took a breather and thought about what she wanted to do with it. Sometimes one of the limits to her power was just her imagination.

Tori decided to climb up on top of the piece of earth she removed from the ground and then placed a hand on the side of where she stood and begin to make it float in the air. She steered it accordingly with a hand on the side and turned around to face Will as she floated a few inches off the air. This object was a little bigger than what she normally used for platforms and gliders, but the effect was all the same as she went higher into the sky.

"Geokinetic flight. Pretty cool right?"

Tori sped around above the school for a bit before landing back on the ground and dropping off the piece of earth.

A single metric ton. A tonne. 1000 kilograms. Ion’s eyes widened. That sounded like a lot to Ion, he had a rough understanding of metric and could make a guess at how much that was. It wasn’t his preferred unit for weight but he could envision it.

”Oh. That’s a pretty sizable amount of dirt.” Ion said as he watched Tori lift the top layer off and move it. He was excited to see what she did once she had a clean working surface.

Tori did not disappoint. She had jumped onto the grassless plot of dirt and lifted it with her on it. She used it as her own personal flying platform.

”That has to be the coolest thing I’ve seen all month!” Ion called up to Tori as she flew up above the school. Ion was genuinely impressed by the control Tori had. Ion had nowhere near that level of control. He could only direct his power over an incredibly short distance.

When Tori landed Ion asked the only logical question, ”Can you fly other people?”

Tori paused for a moment when he asked if she could fly other people. Honestly, she didn't know. She never tried it before. Tori figured if the piece of earth was big enough to fit more than one person than maybe. But she didn't know how the weight stuff and what would work out as. But weren't they here to test their limits? So why not?

"I guess we can find out."

Tori climbed back on the piece of earth she pulled out of the ground and steadied herself on the platform before motioning for Will to follow her up.

"Hop on."

This was going to be a first time for Tori as she hasn't had passengers before. But with any luck one more extra person wouldn't be too much hassle to lift up into the air.

"How much you weigh anyway?"

Ion rubbed his hands together, exploring a power always tickled that sense of discovery that felt so rare in modern times. Bonus that it might mean flying! ”Epic!” Ion said, then when directed by Tori, he stepped onto the ground with her. At any other mansion in any other city it would probably just look like two teens randomly standing in the dirt. Maybe about to get themselves a little dirty. At that particular mansion—Nothing would be surprising, even if the round opened up and they were on the back of a jet or swallowed into the ground.

”About one-fifty or so… Haven’t weighed myself in a while.” It was oddly dissonant, standing on dirt and expecting to fly. ”So… Just stand here? Grab the ground, you?” Ion asked, looking from the ground to Tori.

"I'm one thirty-six so that combined with one-fifty would be..."

Tori trialed off in order to take out her green cell phone and use the calculator on her phone to determine the overall weight between them. Because who can add and subtract in their heads anymore? It was all technology based now. Don't have to learn how to count change just follow the computer. This generation was DOOMED! DOOMED I SAY!

"Two eighty-six. Not bad we're both skinny. This should be a piece of cake. Hold on."

Tori once again lifted the platform up. This time holding Will on it as well as herself, and started to circle the air right above the mansion as she shouted out, "WOOHOO!" before going up a little bit higher and then finally coming back onto the ground with a bang! Tori jumped off the piece of ground and landed back on the backyard.

"How was that? Thank you for flying Tori Airlines."