Breaking Point

In this short story, Hannah momentarily breaks from the stress of training.

## Story

Flame watched as Calias continued his training. Hannah was training too, but separately. Flame had quickly realized that when the two of them trained together, Calias did all the work. His powers put him on another level.

“Watch your feet!” Flame shouted.

Calias had a nearly unstoppable power. He had passion. But he needed finesse, he needed to learn control. Over the past couple weeks, he’d shown slow improvement.

Flame moved to watch Hannah. One of three training robots was on the ground, defeated. The other two fired stun lasers as Hannah jumped around dodging them. The dodging was skillful, yes. Hannah knew how to avoid combat, but she needed to learn how to succeed once within. She still didn’t like fighting.

“Hannah! Stop being like this; take the offensive! They’ll wear you out!”

Hannah groaned, and quickly jumped at one of the bots. She hit it with both batons simultaneously as her momentum sent it to the ground. She hit the bot twice more to ensure it stayed down, but this left her vulnerable. The other bot landed a shot on her, the stunning energy sending her to the ground.

“Focus!” Flame said. “You have to *balance* offense and defense!”

Enough time passed for the stun to wear off. But Hannah was still just lying there. Tears rolled down her face.

“Get up! You’re still in the fight!”

Hannah’s only response was to raise a baton and chuck it at Flame.

Flame stepped aside to avoid the projectile. “What do you think you’re doing?!”

Hannah just stared at the ceiling, completely ignoring Flame. Which she’d been doing a lot of ever since training began. The robot shot again. Hannah didn’t seem to care.

“Nobody’s going to deal with it for you!”

Calias zoomed up from his concluded battle. Before Flame could stop him, Calias dove in and made short work of the third bot.

“Sis, you alright?” Calias asked.

“STAY OUT OF THIS!” Flame yelled.

Calias didn't listen. “Are you hurt?”

“Not by the bots,” Hannah replied.

Calias shot Flame a look. Flame retrieved Hannah’s other baton and jumped into the ring.

Flame pointed up toward the other side of the room. “Get back over there.”

Calias scowled, but obliged. Hannah slowly sat up, then curled into a ball and placed her hands over her ears.

“The enemy stands ready to strike the final blow! And you’re just gonna sit there and take it?! You battled against Polybius, but wither in the face of a few training robots?!”

Flame slammed his fist into the wall. Hannah shuddered.

What was her problem? Was she... scared of him? Maybe she would respond to a gentler tone.

Flame calmed himself. “Talk to me, Hannah. Why are you giving up?”

Hannah lowered her hands. “There’s no point.”

“Of course there is! You have to be ready for your future missions!”

“I’ll never be ready. Nothing’s good enough for you.”

“That’s true, but you still have to get better.”

Hannah sighed. “I know.”

“Do you think I enjoy this? This is one of the hardest things I’ve done! Because one day, instead of keeping you safe, I’ll have to *send* you into danger. I can’t risk letting you out there without knowing you’ll come back unharmed. So you’re going to keep training, that way when the time comes..."

Hannah wiped her eyes. “Yeah. I’ll keep training.” She stood, finally making eye contact. “But I need something from you first.”

Flame offered her the other baton.

“No, not that.” Hannah stepped forward and wrapped her arms around him.

“Oh.”

Hannah separated after several seconds. “Okay. I think I’m better now. Needed to get all that out. I just couldn’t pretend to be tough any longer.” Hannah took her other baton. “I’m ready for the next round.”

## Characters

*In order of appearance:*

* Sonny Flame
* Calias the Phoenix
* Hannah Dash