Base

Jack flinched away, struggling to swallow back his fear. He faced the ground firmly, trying to ignore the stinging behind his eyes. "Can you... Can you wheel me out, please?"

Jack shrugged, shifting awkwardly into the hug. The anxiety hadn't passed, but the tremors had at least. He should have expected this-- he'd known what he was getting into when he first opened Victoire's file and seen her powers. "It's no big deal. You can... You can go back if you want. I'll be okay."

Jack shrugged silently, fingers lightly tracing the thick scars at the stump under his right shoulder. "It's been years. I should be over this by now."

No one can expect you to be "over this" if you haven't had gradual exposure since the incident, Philip wrote with a huff. It's not your fault if explosions still trigger bad memories. He placed a gentle hand over where Jack's arm used to be, expression serious but still one of mild concern.

Lauren clambered out of her shower, wrapping a towel around her torso and sinking into the nearest chair. She could feel the dampness of her skin soaking through the fine material, but decided that she would dry the furniture later. Right now she had bigger things to worry about, like the complete uselessness of her powers. Jack had been awesome that day at school. So had Fernando, despite a few technical glitches. And Philip and Victoire had at least progressed in controlling their powers. She, on the other hand, was lucky to even raise the room temperature by a few degrees. The rain had been a first, and she doubted that she could pull it off again without the threat of being burnt to a crisp. What's the point of me being here? I should be creating tornadoes and lightning.

Philip gave him a small reassuring smile, reaching up to tousle his hair gently before picking up the pen and paper again. So, would you like to go do anything? Nothing important's really going on here at the base.

He nodded, tapping the tip of the pen against the paper for a moment. Don't forget that training in unfamiliar terrain would do us good too. Maybe I could test some out for you and give feedback?

Philip gave him a quick thumbs-up before standing and heading back to the training room to fetch Victoire.

In the practice room, the Victoire in question was pushing the weapon racks and other elements of the makeshift bomb shelter back into place. The mat was still wet from the extinguishing system's turn, but at least the remaining fires had been put out. Okay, so I screwed up a lot. I am not proud of that, but at least I seem to be gaining control over my powers again after the... um, fallout. I guess that's a good word for it.