CHAPTER 4 — Tempest Training
Wind roared across the abandoned industrial park on the edge of Harrow City. Rusted shipping containers, cracked pavement, and flickering streetlights made the place look like a forgotten battlefield.
Perfect for two rising metahumans.
Aiden stood at the center of the lot, golden light building in his palms like warm breath. Every heartbeat strengthened it, brightening the air around him.
Across from him, Kael rolled his shoulders, dark matter whispering behind him like a living aura.
"You ready?" Kael asked, smirking.
"No," Aiden said honestly.
Then he smiled. "But I have to be."
Kael snapped his fingers — a ripple of shadow shot across the ground. Aiden jumped back, deflecting it with a burst of radiant force. The clash sent dust exploding outward.
"Better," Kael said. "You would've eaten dirt two days ago."
Aiden concentrated, and for a brief moment the light wrapped around him like armor. "Again."
Kael obliged.
Shadowbolts.
Radiant counters.
Explosions of energy that lit the night sky.
They trained until sweat soaked their clothes and the air shimmered with residual power. Aiden learned to shape his light into concussive bursts, shields, and controlled beams. Kael practiced modulating dark force, manipulating gravity-like pressure, and bending small objects with antimatter distortion.
At one point, Kael demanded they try something new.
"Hit me," he said.
Aiden froze. "What?"
"Hit me. Full force. If you're going to survive real fights, you need to know what it feels like to push your limit."
Aiden hesitated — then thrust forward with a focused blast.
Kael skidded across the pavement but recovered instantly, dark energy pulsing through him, anchoring him like a shadow-bound titan.
Aiden's eyes widened. "Kael… your power— it's getting—"
"Stronger?" Kael smirked. "Yeah. Yours too. And we're nowhere near done."
Aiden breathed out slowly, steadying himself.
Kael stepped closer.
Their expressions serious.
Their destinies diverging already.
"Aiden," Kael said, voice low, real. "If you go through with this whole 'hero' thing… you'll be painted as a target. By criminals. By metahumans. By the government. Maybe even by the people you're trying to save."
Aiden didn't look away. "I know."
"Do you?" Kael whispered, stepping into the moonlight.
His eyes glinted with something Aiden couldn't fully read.
Worry. Admiration. Fear.
"You can't save everyone."
"Maybe not," Aiden replied. "But I can save someone."
Kael looked down, shaking his head with a soft laugh. "You're impossible."
"And you're reckless."
They smiled — friends standing on opposite sides of an invisible road.
But then, Kael's expression changed.
The shadows behind him shifted.
"I don't mind your background," Kael said suddenly. "Really. Money, fancy parents, big-name company — whatever. You're still you." He shrugged. "Just don't forget that I'm with you because you're Aiden… not because of the world you come from."
Aiden's chest warmed. "I know. And I'm grateful."
Kael cracked his knuckles, smirking again. "Then let's get back to breaking stuff."
And the training continued —
light against shadow,
hope against instinct,
friendship against the storm forming above them.
Neither knew it yet.
But tonight's training would shape the war they were destined to fight.