"Just give me a second to deal with this new "rebel", and I'll be right back." He turns his eyes on Herm, and tsks. "This is going to involve quite a bit of paperwork, I fear." Elnesto waves at Rux from across the room.

Rux notices the waving and returns inside to take a seat next to Elnesto.

"Hey, you seem scorched. Everything alright?"

He nods. "Deruga soaked me. If I were allowed too, I try calling a lightning bolt to heal me, but that might blow up the room, and I don't want to get in trouble again."

Rux thinks to himself: "I'm not a fan of that... indeed..."

"Perhaps I can give you some heat of mine? To warm you up and dry you off?"

As his hand aproaches Elnesto, giving off a faint cool rather than hot.

He shivers, and nods. "You're the first person to be nice to me since I got here. What's your name?"

"Rux..."

The heating happens very slowly.

"Sorry, that takes a while."
He continues to hold the arm of the young friend.

"And what is your name?"

Herm vomits out the candy he just consumed. Two of his arms are currently dislocated and he seems to be missing some fingers. As he tries to set the arms back in place, he can feel the bone starting to snap. As he tries to get up, he can't feel his legs. After a while, Herm finds back the missing fingers. It turned out they were bent in an unnatural way inside his own hand. After gaining back the ability to speak proper words, Herm applauses with the two hands that are not broken. A bloody smile appears on his face.

"Perhaps I misjudged you, sir. Maybe I truly need to learn my place among the weak. Don't worry about the mess, I can pick up after myself. I wouldn't want you to get in trouble for almost breaking off all my limbs."

Herm tries to stand up, but his feet are still asleep. His smile fades as he knows he now has to crawl back to the classroom.

"1...2...3... 1506 more steps to go. Ouch. Oof. Jikes! That hurts a little."

Instead of tears, blood is dripping off his face. Nobody can deny this doesn't look very painful and Herm knows it is.

He shivers again. "Elnesto. That feels much better. Thank you Rux."
Six flights down, at ground level
A passing student stares at Herm with wide eyes, and gives a low whistle. "Let me get you down to the Healers wing, they'll be able to put your bones back into place. And I'm not giving you a choice here. We're going." A velvety soft, purple light lifts Herm into the air, and he begins walking down to the medical wing, Herm in tow. "You tick off Old Winston? Let me guess, he flung you out the window?" He shakes his head.

The boy releases the freshly steamed Elnesto.

"That's alright. I feel like we all need a good warming up after what Winston's going to put us through..."

Rux mind seems to wander off.

"I received a note the other day that we'd have a party after school hours. Will you be there? There's bound to be a lot of girls..."

"Heh, if you can smuggle me in there, I guess. I wasn't invited because I pranked the guy throwing the party. Some people just can't take a joke."

"I might know of a way. It's right behind the medbay. If you and me could sneak in there somehow, that could prove to be a lot of fun. Don't know how to get into the medbay, though..."

Rux snaps out of his deep thoughts and notices he's back in class.

" ... right. Class first." Rux raises his hand: "Sir, could you repeat that?"

"Certainly. Today we are going to practice the basics of controlling your power. Reach out to it, but don't use it yet. Get it flowing through your body, space it out evenly. If something feels off, push and pull at it until it flows smoothly."

Rux thanks the professor.
"Sir, I don't feel anything? Maybe it's not working.. :/ Could you give me some help?"
(EDIT: Class continues?)

"Humm, what was your power again? You were the lava/coal kid, weren't you? Try using this." He reaches into his desk and tosses a lump of coal to Rux. "Practice with that. Try molding it like you would clay. And Elnesto, Rux, please see me after class."

Rux gets hit by the rock before grabbing hold of it. Seems he was late once again.

"Ow."

Rux has a hard time practicing.

"... dangit. Oh, well. "

Rux feels like the two boys are stuck between a rock and a hard place.

"Hum, have you ever used your powers before, or did you just take the test?"

"Ehh.. I may have used them before once... but that's not something I enjoy talking about..."

"Don't worry about that. Just use it like a fidget. Play around with it."
Elnesto begins sparking again, but this time the electricity is circling his body like a second skin.

As Herm gets carried inside the Healers wing, he acts as if he is asleep. When he is left alone for a minute, he straightens his back and takes a strong hold on one of his deformed arms. After finding an elbow stick and gentily putting it inside his mouth, he pulls his arm back in the right posture. With his bare teeth, Herm bent the stick and almost screams. After the first arm the second comes and finally he pops them all back in place.

"This clearly exceeded my calculated 1805 push-ups, pull-ups, squads, lunges and abdominal crunches. Bold, but not wise to trash us. This has only accelerated the plans we kept. Soon, we will grow and replace the older, much weaker, version. The old will fall and the new will rise. But for now, we rest. Sleep thight, new muscles of mine."

Herm closes his eyes and lays down on the bed. Someone just walked past the door.

Herm feels a dark presence outside the door, and the torches flicker briefly, an unnatural stillness in the air. There is a dark chuckle, and the black aura fades away.