Brimvale Academy Chapter 4: Two on One

The next six weeks pushed Silas to his very limits.

Every morning began the same way: Silas would wake at 5:30 AM to find his mother already in the training room, dressed in her old hero workout gear, ready to push him beyond what he thought possible.

"Again," she would command after he'd rewound for the twelfth time in as many minutes, his body trembling with the effort despite the Chrono-Watch absorbing much of the temporal backlash. "Faster this time. Don't wait for the pain—anticipate it."

The afternoons were devoted to tactical training. Evelyn would create increasingly complex scenarios, forcing Silas to make split-second decisions about when and how to use his limited rewinds. The Chrono-Watch became an extension of himself, its weight on his wrist a constant reminder of both his father's legacy and his own growing capabilities.

"You have six seconds of rewind and a thirty-second charge in the watch," she would say, circling him as holographic opponents closed in. "How do you neutralize all targets without depleting either resource completely?"

Evenings often found him collapsed in exhaustion, only to be roused by Lydia's particular brand of "encouragement."

"Come on, time-boy," she would taunt, sparks dancing between her fingers. "One more round. Brimvale girls won't care if you're tired."

Despite her relentless teasing, Lydia proved to be an invaluable training partner. Her electrical attacks required different evasion strategies than Evelyn's kinetic strikes, forcing Silas to adapt to multiple combat styles. And though she'd never admit it, she carefully calibrated her electrical output to push him without causing permanent damage.

The Chrono-Watch proved its worth a hundred times over during these sessions. What had once left Silas drained after three or four rewinds now barely registered as the watch absorbed the temporal backlash. He could chain five, six, sometimes seven rewinds before feeling the familiar exhaustion creeping in.

More importantly, he learned to discharge the stored energy with increasing precision. What began as wild, unfocused bursts gradually refined into controlled pulses that could incapacitate a target without causing undue harm. The tablet Maxwell had left contained detailed training protocols, each building on the last to develop Silas's temporal manipulation skills.

The final day before departure arrived with a sense of looming finality. Silas's room was packed, his new Brimvale uniforms (reinforced with subtle protective materials) hung neatly in garment bags, and the Chrono-Watch gleamed on his wrist, now as familiar as his own heartbeat.

He stood in the training room one last time, facing both his mother and sister simultaneously—the final test they had devised for him. Evelyn in her full Momentum gear, and Lydia crackling with barely contained electrical energy, both prepared to come at him with everything they had.

"No holding back," Evelyn instructed, her voice pure Momentum now—the hero, not the mother. "At Brimvale, no one will show you mercy because you're tired or overwhelmed. This is your reality check."

Lydia grinned, blue sparks dancing between her fingers. "Translation: we're going to try to bust your balls one last time before you leave. You know, for educational purposes."

The training room shifted around them, transforming into a complex urban environment with multiple levels, limited visibility, and numerous hazards. The perfect simulation of the type of arena Brimvale used for its infamous assessment battles.

"Begin in thirty seconds," Momentum announced, her form already blurring as she took position somewhere in the simulated cityscape.

Lydia winked at her brother before dissolving into pure electrical energy, traveling along the simulated power lines to a hidden vantage point.

The countdown appeared in glowing numbers above the arena: 30… 29… 28…

15… 14… 13…

The Chrono-Watch on his wrist hummed softly, already charged with 47 seconds of stored temporal energy from his morning training. It would be his ace in the hole if things got desperate.

5… 4… 3… 2… 1…

"Simulation active," announced the computer's voice. "Combat assessment final exam commencing."

From somewhere above, Lydia's laughter echoed, accompanied by the ominous crackle of gathering electricity.

The first attack came from above—a brilliant blue arc of electricity that split the simulated sky. Silas was already moving, rolling behind a concrete barrier as the lightning bolt scorched the ground where he'd stood. Lydia was starting with her usual approach: overwhelming force to pin him down.

"Too slow, time-boy!" her voice echoed from somewhere among the rooftops.

Silas remained crouched, eyes scanning his surroundings. Lydia was dangerous, but predictable. His mother was the real threat. Momentum could be anywhere, silent and lethal, waiting for the perfect moment to strike.

A faint displacement of air was his only warning. Silas activated his power instantly, rewinding his body 3.8 seconds to avoid the attack he hadn't even seen. As his consciousness snapped back to his previous position, he witnessed what would have happened: Momentum materializing from behind a simulated dumpster, her palm strike passing through the space his kidney had occupied moments before.

She registered his disappearance with narrowed eyes, already adapting her strategy.

"Interesting choice," she commented, her voice professional. "Rewinding before confirming the threat. Risky in a prolonged engagement."

Silas didn't respond, knowing conversation was just another tactic to distract him. The Chrono-Watch hummed softly as it absorbed the temporal backlash, its second hand ticking backward by nearly four seconds.

Another lightning bolt crashed down, forcing him to dive sideways. This time, he didn't rewind—conserving his energy and letting his physical training handle the evasion. The electricity scorched his sleeve but missed his body.

"Come on!" Lydia taunted, finally visible on a rooftop to his left. "You can't dodge forever!"

Silas sprinted for cover, using the buildings for protection while keeping his senses alert for his mother. Lydia's attacks were flashy and dangerous, but Momentum was the one who could end this in seconds if he lost focus.

A subtle vibration in the ground—almost imperceptible—made him dive forward just as Momentum emerged from around a corner, her leg sweeping through the space where his ankles had been. She flowed with the missed attack, transitioning seamlessly into a forward strike that grazed his shoulder as he twisted away.

The contact was minimal, but Momentum's power made even glancing blows dangerous. She had absorbed kinetic energy from her own movement and could redirect it with devastating precision. The slight touch sent a jolt of pain through his arm—a fraction of what she could have delivered.

"Sloppy," she commented, already repositioning for another strike. "A Brimvale first-year would have capitalized on that opening."

Silas rewound again, 2.5 seconds this time, just enough to avoid the shoulder contact. The Chrono-Watch absorbed the backlash, its stored energy now approaching 54 seconds.

This time, as Momentum's attack missed, he was prepared. Instead of retreating, he moved into her space—not to attack, but to position himself where Lydia had clear line of sight to both of them.

"Lydia, now!" he shouted, as if calling for a coordinated attack.

The electrical blast came exactly as he'd anticipated—his impulsive sister unable to resist the perfect target. Silas rewound 1.2 seconds, removing himself from the path of the lightning bolt just as Momentum was preparing her counter-strike.

The electricity caught her mid-movement—not enough to hurt her seriously through her specialized suit, but enough to disrupt her rhythm and force her to absorb and redirect the unexpected energy.

"Sorry Mom!" Lydia called out, genuinely dismayed at hitting the wrong target.

Momentum recovered almost instantly, but those milliseconds of disruption were all Silas needed. He activated the Chrono-Watch, releasing a carefully calibrated 10-second discharge at his mother as she regained her stance.

The temporal energy washed over her, not enough to incapacitate someone of her experience and power, but sufficient to induce a momentary disorientation—her movements slowing fractionally as her perception of time distorted.

Seizing the advantage, Silas moved to higher ground, using the urban terrain to separate his opponents and control their angles of attack. He needed to neutralize Lydia first—she was the more vulnerable target.

Another lightning bolt split the air, this one less focused than before. Lydia was getting frustrated, her attacks becoming more powerful but less precise. Silas tracked the electrical discharge to its source, pinpointing her position on a water tower.

He feinted left, then right, drawing more attacks that revealed her exact location. Each bolt brought a deafening crack of thunder and the smell of ozone, but none found their mark. The Chrono-Watch now held 44 seconds of stored energy—more than enough for what he planned.

Momentum had recovered from the temporal discharge and was circling below, waiting for him to make a mistake. He could feel her calculating eyes tracking his movements, analyzing his strategy. He had perhaps thirty seconds before she found a way to end this.

Silas ducked behind a ventilation unit, out of Lydia's line of sight, and pressed the crown of the Chrono-Watch three times. The device transformed smoothly, extending along his forearm into its offensive configuration.

"What's wrong, afraid to face me directly?" Lydia called out, electricity arcing between her hands as she prepared another massive discharge.

Silas stepped into view, seeming to offer himself as a target. "Just giving you a fair shot," he replied, watching her gather power for what would surely be her biggest attack yet.

The lightning bolt that came was blinding—a jagged spear of electrical fury that would have sent an ordinary human into a seizure. Silas rewound 4.6 seconds, placing himself at a completely different angle but still in Lydia's sight.

Confused by his sudden relocation, she hesitated for a crucial moment—just long enough for him to discharge 30 seconds of temporal energy directly at her.

The effect was immediate and dramatic. Lydia's body seized up, her electrical aura flickering wildly as the temporal backlash hit her system all at once. Her eyes widened in shock before rolling back, and she crumpled to the water tower platform, unconscious but otherwise unharmed.

"One down," Silas muttered, already turning to face his mother.

But Momentum was gone from her previous position.

The attack came from behind—impossibly fast and precisely calculated. Her palm strike connected with his lower back, delivering a fraction of her stored kinetic energy—enough to send him stumbling forward without causing serious injury.

"Never celebrate prematurely," she advised, her voice still in teaching mode despite the intensity of their combat. "And never turn your back on an opponent like me."

Silas rewound 3 seconds, but this time Momentum was ready. She adjusted her attack angle the instant he reappeared, striking at where she predicted he would be rather than where he had been.

The blow caught him in the ribs—pulled at the last millisecond to avoid real damage, but painful enough to drive the air from his lungs. He staggered backward, gasping.

"That's how the experienced fighters at Brimvale will counter your rewinds," she explained, circling him with predatory grace. "They'll learn your patterns, anticipate your reappearance points."

Silas knew she was right. His mother was fighting at perhaps 30% of her true capability, and still she was dismantling his defenses with methodical precision. At Brimvale, he would face opponents who had trained specifically to counter powers like his.

He had one advantage left—the Chrono-Watch still held 22 seconds of stored energy, and Momentum didn't know exactly how much he had discharged against Lydia.

She moved in for the finishing sequence, her body a blur of controlled power. Silas rewound twice in rapid succession, 2 seconds each time, trying to create confusion about his position. The watch absorbed the backlash, its store now at 26 seconds.

Momentum adapted instantly, her attacks flowing like water to cover all possible angles of his reappearance. She wasn't striking to break bones—this was still training—but each near-miss demonstrated how thoroughly she could have ended the fight if this were real combat.

"You're out of options," she stated calmly, backing him toward a corner of the simulated rooftop. "In a real fight, this is where you'd face a choice: surrender or suffer serious injury."

Silas knew she was right—in a straight fight, he couldn't win against someone of her caliber. But this wasn't just about winning. It was about surviving, about finding solutions when conventional tactics failed.

"Maybe," he acknowledged, his breathing labored. "But sometimes the best defense isn't about fighting back."

He activated his power one last time, rewinding 6 full seconds—his maximum—to position himself at the edge of the rooftop. The Chrono-Watch hummed as it absorbed the significant backlash, now holding 32 seconds of temporal energy.

As Momentum adjusted to track his new position, Silas did something unexpected—he stepped backward off the roof, falling toward the street below.

Instinctively, Momentum rushed to the edge, her maternal instincts momentarily overriding her combat mindset. In that split second of distraction, Silas discharged the full 32 seconds of stored temporal energy upward, directly at her leaning form.

The blast caught her unprepared, the concentrated temporal backlash hitting her system all at once. Even with her experience and resilience, the disorientation was overwhelming. She swayed, fighting to maintain consciousness as her perception of time distorted violently.

Silas continued falling, waiting until the last possible moment before rewinding 4 seconds—not to the rooftop, but to a point midway through his fall, near a simulated fire escape. He grabbed the metal railing, swinging himself onto the platform as the temporal backlash made his vision swim.

Above, Momentum had dropped to one knee, still conscious but temporarily incapacitated by the massive temporal discharge. Below, Lydia remained sprawled on the water tower platform, completely out of the fight.

"Simulation complete," announced the computer's voice. "Assessment results: Objective achieved. Both opponents neutralized."

The urban environment dissolved around them, returning to the familiar white walls of the training room. Lydia groaned as she regained consciousness, while Momentum slowly rose to her feet, shaking off the effects of the temporal discharge.

For a moment, there was silence as the three Rathbones processed what had just happened. Then Evelyn removed her mask, her professional demeanor giving way to unmistakable maternal pride.

"Well," she said, a smile breaking through her composed expression, "I think you might actually survive Brimvale after all."

Silas grinned at her praise, panting heavily from the overwhelming exhaustion setting in from the repeated rewinds. The watch helped, but it didn't completely eliminate the backlash to his own body. "Sorry about using your mom instincts against you there mom," Silas said apologetically towards Evelyn, before turning towards his groaning little sister. "Not sorry at all about knocking you on your ass, sis," he teased with an even bigger grin.

Evelyn approached him, limping slightly as the last effects of the temporal discharge worked their way through her system. "Never apologize for exploiting an opponent's weakness," she said, squeezing his shoulder. "That was exactly the kind of thinking you'll need at Brimvale."

She glanced at the Chrono-Watch on his wrist with newfound respect. "Your father would be impressed with how quickly you've mastered that device. The targeting precision on that final discharge was exceptional."

From across the room, Lydia pushed herself to a sitting position, her hair standing wildly in all directions from the electrical discharge. "What the actual HELL was that?" she demanded, looking disoriented and indignant in equal measure. "It felt like my brain was being pulled in fifty directions at once!"

She staggered to her feet, using the training room wall for support. Small sparks still jumped erratically between her fingers as her powers fluctuated from the temporal disruption.

"Thirty seconds of compressed temporal backlash," Silas explained, unable to keep the satisfaction from his voice. "Basically, you just experienced what my body feels after rewinding thirty times in an instant."

Lydia glared at him, though there was a reluctant admiration behind her annoyance. "No wonder you're always whining about being tired." She took an unsteady step forward, then had to catch herself. "Shit, my equilibrium is completely shot."

"The effects are temporary," Evelyn assured her, though she was watching her daughter's recovery with scientific interest. "Your powers should stabilize within the hour."

She turned back to Silas, her expression growing serious. "That said, I wouldn't recommend using the maximum discharge against anyone you don't intend to incapacitate completely. The effects on non-powered individuals could be… severe."

Lydia had managed to make her way across the room, still moving like someone who'd had too much to drink. "Gotta admit, bro," she said, punching his arm with a fraction of her usual force, "that was pretty badass. Especially the fake-out with the rooftop dive." She smirked. "Mom's face when you stepped off was priceless."

"It was tactically sound," Evelyn conceded, though a faint blush suggested she was embarrassed by how effectively her maternal instincts had been exploited. "Using environmental hazards to create emotional leverage is advanced strategy."

She checked the time and straightened her shoulders. "We should clean up. Your transport to Brimvale leaves in six hours, and we still need to go through the final equipment check."

As they headed toward the exit, Lydia bumped her shoulder against Silas's. "Just so you know," she said, her voice uncharacteristically sincere, "if any of those Brimvale bitches actually manage to break your balls, I'm personally going to turn their dorm into a smoking crater."

"Lydia!" Evelyn scolded automatically.

"What? It's what sisters do." Lydia flashed a grin that was all teeth. "Besides, only I get to torment him. That's, like, the sibling code."

Despite her protest, Evelyn didn't actually contradict the sentiment. Instead, she placed a hand on Silas's shoulder, her expression softening. "You're as ready as we can make you. The rest will be up to you."

She glanced at the Chrono-Watch, then back to his face. "Remember what your father said—use it wisely. Not every situation calls for rewinding time, and not every opponent deserves the full force of what you can do."Silas nodded seriously, internalizing his parents' combined wisdom.