(From) X Fighter

Crystal decided not to tell Blaze about Mach. The way he worried about her, he would probably pull her out of the tournament if he found at the Freeze had his eyes on her. Crystal knew that Freeze was powerful, and he kept strange company, but she had never seen Blaze act the way he did around Freeze around any other fighter. There was something about him that troubled Blaze, and Crystal never knew her father to worry about anything, least of all, another X Fighter.
The following afternoon, Blaze took Crystal too the courtyard to meet with Flare. He was already waiting when they got there, showing punctuality, which was good.
"You ready?" Blaze called to get his attention.
"Aye," said Flare, standing. "What are we going to do first?"
"Since I've already seen you fight," said Blaze, "I'm going to test your knowledge. Crystal here is going to be your sparring partner for today."
Crystal shook Flare's hand. "I'm going to hurt you," she sang just to intimidate him. The fact that it worked would only make things worse for Flare.
"Alright," said Blaze, "let's get started. First I'm going to teach a few things you probably don't know about yourself." Blaze took Crystal by the hand and stood her in front of Flare. "Here, I want you to hit Crystal with one of those Light Rings of yours. Crystal, do the same with your Energy Blast."
Crystal stepped back, glaring at flare the whole time. "You got it, Blaze."
Flare channeled his gaia into his hand and looked at Crystal. She stood waiting for him, looking totally unprepared to move. He prepared to throw the light, but hesitated, knowing how much it would hurt Crystal if he were to just hit her dead on.
"Hurry up, you wuss!" Crystal yelled at him.
Flare threw the ring and Crystal moved to one side swaying like a young tree in a strong wing. Easily dodging it. She then threw an Energy Blast and Flare sidestepped the mass of white gaia, throwing two more rings at Crystal. She jumped over them and tumbled when she hit the ground, shooting four Energy Blasts from each hand. While Flare dodged those, then leapt up and shot two more Light Rings at Crystal. Crystal planted her feet and swung her head, throwing her ocean of hair in a full circle and sending a very large ring of gaia at Flare. He hit ground before the gaia could touch him, but before he could go on the offensive, another blast from Crystal foot struck him. Flare felt his chest compress as it he was just struck with a sledgehammer and he dropped down on all fours gasping to recover the air that had been forced from his lungs.
"That's enough," said Blaze, approaching Flare. "Do you know why you lost?"
Flare had to take a while to catch his breath before answering, "She can shoot those things from all over her body. I can only use my hands."
"Precisely." Blaze helped him up. "You know how to channel your gaia, but you don't yet know how to build and distribute it throughout your body in order for you to utilize all of your release points."
Flare responded with a raised eyebrow.
"You can't power up, dude." Crystal translated.
"Crystal, front and center."
Crystal leapt over Blaze's head and landed in front of him. She was clearly having fun, helping Flare with his training.
"Power up for Flare."
At Blaze's command, Crystal clenched her fists and shut her eyes and her body jarred. With a dull flash, her colorless hair turned white. Other than that, nothing about her changed.
"Powering up is harder than Crystal makes it look," Blaze explained, using Crystal as his model. "You see, everything living thing in the universe is made of gaia. The difference between us X Fighters and everyone else is the amount of gaia our bodies naturally hold. But we still hold that gaia the same as anything else.
"We take in gaia from the environment every second of every day. When gaia enters our bodies, it's invisible and harmless. It goes directly into the bloodstream, where our hearts pump it all over the body, giving us energy. When the more energy we exert, the harder that gaia works until it reaches a point where all of its life-giving properties are gone. At that point, it is at what I like to call, 'critical mass', and it needs to be released or it'll break the body down. Fascinating, isn't it?"
"Aye," said Flare, taking mental notes of everything Blaze said.
"Crystal, would you kindly show Flare your Crystal Wave technique."
"Okay," said Crystal, "stand back."
Blaze and Flare backed away from Crystal until they were about twenty feet away. When they were out of range, Crystal took in a deep breath and called, "Crystal Wave!" releasing bright a dome-shaped wave of gaia from her body. It was like a miniature explosion, eradicating every piece of land it hit and creating a short rain of soil and grass. When the wave of gaia faded, Blaze and Flare returned to their original place near Crystal.
"That was one of Crystal's many Gaia Arts," said Blaze, "all of which, she egotistically named after herself. But that's a lesson for another day. I had Crystal show you that technique, because it utilized all of her gaia realize points."
"Release points." Flare echoed, hoping Blaze would elaborate.
"Yes. Everyone has certain places on their body where they constantly release gaia. Homo sapiens release gaia from their pores a little at a time. We X Fighters can't do that because we have to release too much gaia at a time, and when our gaia reaches critical mass, it becomes dangerous in most cases. That's why most X Fighters have thirty-two large release points. The two most commonly used are, of course, the palms of the hands.
"Crystallites, like Crystal here, have forty eight, excluding their hair follicles. Takires only have twelve, because their gaia takes days to reach critical mass where it would take an ordinary X Fighter minutes. And then there's Juritons, who can release gaia from anywhere on their body.
"There are two stages of powering up. In the first stage, you force gaia to all of your release points, enabling you to form new attacks, strategies, and Gaia Arts. When you power up to the second stage, the gaia in your body that has reached critical mass energizes the other gaia in your body, giving you a huge amount to work with, but significantly draining your body's energy—which is why Crystal is a little winded."
"I'm fine," Crystal panted.
"You should only power up to second stage when using an extremely powerful Gaia Art. If not, it cost you the fight and, in some cases, your life."
Flare nodded, deciding not to speak because he might forget something Blaze had said.
"Okay," Blaze beckoned Crystal, "now it's time for good old-fashioned hand-to-hand combat. What how many X Clan styles do you know, Flare?"
"Just one." Flare sounded ashamed.
"You suck!" Crystal yelled.
Blaze punched her in the back of the head. "That's enough, Crystal," he turned to Flare. "Alright, show me your stance."
Flare put his right leg back, bent his knees, and placed his hand behind his back and the other directly in front of him. His body was as stiff enough so that he was perfectly still except for mild breathing, but he was loose enough to dodge a bullet if it came at him.
"Lydon style," said Blaze, sounding pleased. "They were masters of light, a lot like you, but they manipulated light itself, instead of emitting Light Gaia. Still, if you had to master one style, you picked the perfect one.
"Legend has it that the Lydons were all born blind. With this style, they used their ears and nerves so they knew what was happening on all sides of them, so their opponent could never hide. If need be, they could fight in total darkness, in which case, their opponents' ability to see became more of a liability than an advantage. I've always been fascinated with the Lydons, I even live in Lydenia, their home country."
"Your stance is perfect," Crystal admitted, "but there's no way a one-trick pony like you can hope to take me." Crystal crouched lower than any ordinary human can, arched her back, and held her head up, her chin inches from the ground. One and was raised in the air while she used the other to keep her balance. She looked like a spider.
"Terrengon style. They were manipulators of the earth and sworn enemies of the Lydons. With this style, I can channel gaia into my hands, making them sensitive enough for me to feel every move you make, and in this position, I can move as fast as in insect. You'll never keep up."
"Let's test that, Crystal," said Blaze. "Flare, Crystal, I want you two to spar, no Gaia Arts except for ordinary projectiles. Let's see who's better. Begin!"
Using her legs like a frog, Crystal launched herself at Flare and sprang off of the ground when she was close, trying to uppercut him. Flare moved back just enough to not get hit and sidestepped an Energy Blast Crystal threw at him while airborne. Crystal landed behind him and tried to punch him, but he spun past it and tried to hit her with the back of his hand, but she ducked back into her crouching position and came back up with a kick after Flare had missed.
Flare back-flipped, just missing Crystal's kick and spun around, when he heard Crystal move behind him, to throw a Light Ring at her, but she moved past it and swept her hand under his feet. Flare jumped over Crystal's hand and prepared to attack, but she had already she met him in the air. Her speed was nothing short of incredible.
A knee to the back put Flare down hard, but he sprang up and reassumed his stance, ignoring the taste of dirt and blood in his mouth. Crystal stood roughly ten feet away from him, no longer in the Terrengon stance, but just an ordinary position. A Flare tried to think of what she was planning, but figured it would be better to just wait. Even he knew that trying to outsmart a Crystallite could be a fatal mistake.
Crystal smiled at him when she saw that he wasn't going to attack. "You're pretty smart," she said, "but then you should no that you've got no chance."
"I suppose I should feel honored," Flare replied. "A Crystallite just said I was smart. That means a lot, but you've overestimated me, because I intend to win this little sparring session."
Crystal giggled. "Good. I don't like it when my opponents lay down." Crystal leapt high into the air, letting the atmosphere carry her as if she were as light as a flower pedal. She then began to rotate while airborne. Flare tried his best to stay focused and be prepared, taking refuge of the fact that all X Fighters—himself included—had a bad habit of calling out the names of their best techniques before they used them.
It wasn't long before Crystal was spinning so quickly that that Flare couldn't even see her clearly, just a wisp of white light from her glowing hair, which was probably holding the gaia that kept her in the air. He prepared himself of the worst.
Sure enough, Crystal called out her attack, "Crystal Rain!" and the spinning blur in the sky shot out hundreds of tiny energy blasts, punching small holes in the ground everywhere they hit, like bullets from a machine gun. Flare ran swiftly away from the spray of gaia, barely missing being hit with the bombardment. When it ended and Crystal hit the ground, panting as if she were a winded dog, Flare was glad to have escaped her attack, but was a little disappointed that he had so easily eluded the great X Fighter prodigy. Still h could help but grin at his own speed.
Crystal looked up at Flare from her kneeling position on the ground. She grinned too, and Flare felt that his sense of achievement would be short-lived.
"That's right," Crystal read his face. "It's not over yet, pal."
Flare tried to run away, but his legs were held in place by streams of gaia that wrapped around his calves and flowed into the ground. It was then that he noticed that Crystal's right hand, which was on the ground, had a radiant white mist around it. She was crouching because she was tired, she was holding in place.
Crystal's grin grew. "I call that Crystal Binding," she said.
"That's two Gaia Arts," said Flare. "Blaze said not to use any."
"You really are clueless," Crystal chuckled. "I'm thirteen, do you really think my dad expected me to listen to him. He was testing to see what lengths you would go to, to win, and you failed. Now it's time to end this."
"How?" Flare asked, fearing the answer. "If you move from that spot, I'll be free."
"True," Crystal replied, "which is why I'm not going to move. Look around you."
Flare turned his head to the right and his eyes instantly doubled in size. The entire area where Crystal's Crystal Rain had landed glowed white with specs of gaia. He was surrounded by them.
"Come on," Crystal teased, "did you really think my aim was that bad? I'm insulted."
As Flare struggled futilely to free himself, Crystal stuck the fingernails of her other hand in the ground. "Special Gaia Art, Crystallite style." The specs of gaia grew brighter. "Gaia Minefield!"
The gaia specs around Flare exploded, filling the air with grass and dirt, and obsolescing all sound, including the sound of Crystal releasing her hold on Flare and running toward him. Before the dust cleared, Flare felt a hard kick to his chin that sent him sailing skyward, even higher than Crystal had jumped before. Flare tried to gain some momentum in the air, but Crystal appeared behind him before he could.
"I told you I was going to hurt you," she said as she placed a hand on his back. "I think it's time I made good on that. This is a new move of mine…" Crystal pushed off of Flare, somersaulting backward until she grasped one of his shoulders in each hand. She then pushed his body into a horizontal position and hit him with a drop kick to the chest forcing him toward a ground at a speed at which he couldn't gain control. "…You'll be the first to experience the…" Crystal grabbed Flare's side and flipped him over, using the force to position herself under him. She then pushed off of him again to land on the ground, just in time to infuse her hand with gaia, and let Flare land right on top of it. "…Crystal Crusher."
Crystal dropped Flare and he lied on the ground and stared at the sky, still dazed from the hit, and his spine screaming searing with pain.
"How was—" Crystal looked at the sun and jumped as if something had startled her. "Whoa! Where did the time go? I was supposed to meet Claire ten minutes ago." Crystal ran off, waving Flare and Blaze off as she quickly disappeared from sight.
"Blimey," Flare groaned, still lying on the ground, "she's a ruthless one, she is."
"That's Crystal for you," said Blaze, looming over him. "Can you stand?"
"Aye, I think so." Flare rolled over and managed to get on all fours. He stayed there for a while but eventually forced himself into a standing position.
"Sorry about that," said Blaze. "Crystal can be a bit of a showoff sometimes. And just for the record, I wasn't testing you. She just likes to hear herself talk—probably because no one else does."
"Don't apologize for her," Flare replied. "She's strong…" Flare rubbed his throbbing back. "…really strong. She has a right to have an ego. Besides, she doesn't mean to be a pain, she's just a kid. These life or death battles are all fun and games to her. She'll grow out of it."
"Wow," said Blaze, astonished by Flares good sportsmanship. "I can't believe how understanding you're being. Most of the X Fighters that fight Crystal hate her guts. You sound almost…intrigued!"
"Aye, that's one powerful fighter you're raising. A real, live Crystallite! Having her as a sparring partner really gives you something to strive for, you know? Honestly, I like her."
"Well," Blaze grinned, "she apparently likes you too."
"What makes you sat that?"
"You got up, didn't you?"