“How about Coach?” suggested Denny. The others seemed to approve of that.
I considered that for a moment. In terms of being someone who people would listen to, it was kind of the middle ground. People tended to respect coaches or trainers and have better relationships with them than what they did with people who marched around and barked orders.
“Coach, it is,” I decided. “I won’t be sending you off doing cross country or any physical exercises – that’s Commander Michaels’ department. All I will be concentrating on is aiding you with your gifts. Now...considering that you’re all lazy sods it’d be stupid of me to assume any of you have been practicing on your own time.” They didn’t deny it. “Right then, let’s deal with all that excess energy because until you learn to channel it I can’t teach you how to use your full potential and make use of it in combat.”
They reminded me of a rugby team getting ready to play the way they were getting rid of any cricks in their necks and bouncing a little on the spot.
“I’m going to give you all individual coaching, but do not at all mistake this as an insinuation that you only look out for number one. The point is to all become stronger as a squad, but you can only do this by first improving yourselves individually.#p#分页标题#e#
“Also you will need to know each other’s gifts inside and out – there might be a situation one of you can’t handle but another can by, for instance, paralysing an enemy’s senses or by mimicking a certain animal. It’ll also mean that if you see one of you in deep shit with an enemy you’ll know whether their gift will mean they can protect themselves or whether someone needs to intervene. What’s more, you’ll know exactly who is the best person to intervene. All of that clear to you?”
“Yes, Coach,” they all said.
God their compliance was weird. “Just to be sure that having your eyes almost glued to my cleavage isn’t making everything I’ve said fly right over your heads, someone tell me the first goal you all have.”
Max immediately said, “To work out how to channel all the energy so there’s none leaking out.”
I nodded. “Good. Someone give me the next one.”
“To improve our use of our powers so we can improve as a squad,” shouted Butch.
“Good. One more...”
“To know each other’s powers in and out,” offered Reuben.
“Well what do you know, you lot actually do listen,” I said, smiling wide. “After you’ve reached all those goals we can start looking at formations. But for now, let’s tackle the first goal. Denny?”
Instantly the animal mimic stepped forward. His baby face made me want to take it easy on him – it wouldn’t have the same effect on an enemy but it might very well make them underestimate him. Hopefully he was the type not to be estimated.
I stood opposite him, arms folded over my chest. “Right, what animal-like tricks have you got?”
“Well, um, I’ve got a sting. At will, I can make a poisonous needle appear out of the top of my right index finger.”
“Okay, what effect does that have?”
“It doesn’t really cause much harm but it can make you itch like crazy. And I mean crazy.”
“So in combat it would be distracting, would you say?”
“Definitely,” he assured me, widening his eyes to emphasise his answer. “All you can think about is the itching.”
“That’s good. What else?”
“I can make my body go as soft as liquid, and then obviously back to hard again. Like the sea cucumber. So I can be mush and wiggle through little cracks or anything like that.”
“Interesting,” I drawled. “So it’s slightly similar to how Stuart can shred into molecules and then reassemble himself.”
Denny nodded. “I can ooze slime out of my pores, too. It’s the most amazing slime – I can wrap someone in it and suffocate them. A little like with Hagfish.”
“I’m impressed. Anything else?”
“He can jump higher than you can believe,” Harvey spouted out.
I twirled and raised a brow at Harvey. “I can’t remember asking you anything so pipe down. You’ll get your minute in the spotlight in a sec, big boy.” I had to think of this as a classroom of students; let one get away with something and they’ll all try it, and then before you know it you’re at risk of losing total control of the students. I turned back to Denny. “As you were saying...”
“Yeah I can jump really high. Better than a frog – about as good as a colepod.”