Stu stood in the new gym; it was a reinforced concrete room within the bunker. Tom stood in front of him speaking, “Today we will work on controlling the power you have. Are you ready?”

  Stu nodded saying, “Yeah, let’s do this. One question though.. How?”

  Tom asked, “You don’t know how to activate any of your power? How did you do it yesterday?”

  Thinking hard Stu shook his head. He couldn’t remember how, or even what the power felt like. He said, “Yeah, I didn’t know it even happened. I just tried to protect Chaos and the rest of the girls. Maybe I could see if Broth has an idea or something..”

  Tom sighed, he yelled, “Chaos come here please!”

  The door opened and slowly Chaos came into the room. She still looked at Stu weird as she came inside. Chaos asked, “Yes?” Tom walked over to her and touched her leg with his paw and she colpsed.

  Stu yelled, “What the fuck was that?!? Did you kill her?” He ran to her; she was still breathing but it was shallow.

  Tom bluntly spoke, “You have five minutes until she dies, show me what you are capable of, or you lose her forever.”

  Stu gred at the cat saying, “You won’t let her die. I know you better than that..”

  Tom yelled at him saying, “You don’t know me! You have no idea what I’m capable of or not! So, if you don’t care about your god then just let her die! If you want to save her life then you better get angry, you better try to kill me..” Stu looked at Chaos, the anger welled up in him. He rushed Tom, striking at him, the concrete splintered. Tom spoke from behind him saying, “Not good enough, your too slow like that! You really want Chaos to die? I thought she meant something to you! Come on, quit acting like a pathetic human and hit me!” Stu turned facing him letting out a gut-wrenching roar as he flew at Tom swinging again, the concrete shattered. Stu unched from that spot to where Tom now sat cleaning himself. Swinging at the cat, more concrete splintered. Tom yelled, “Almost, but not good enough! You have less than four minutes now! What will you do?”

  Looking around, Stu couldn’t find Tom anywhere. The panic began to set in, what if he loses Chaos to this? The images started to fsh in his mind, but the panic wouldn’t allow them to take control of his mind. He yelled, “Fine..”

  Tom watched as Stu gritting his teeth began to bleed from his gums and eyes. The blue began to seep out; his teeth started to fracture before shattering completely. The blood turned green as it caught fire on his skin and inside his mouth. His bloodied gums had fmes in the shape of fangs from a beast. His skin began to crack allowing internal fmes to escape the pressure. His eyes were bck while shedding fming blood. He turned looking at Tom yelling, “Found you!”

  Tom barely got out of the way as the concrete around him exploded in psma like fire, with Stu nding in the middle. Tom said, “Very good…” Interrupting him, a hand grabbed him by the back of the neck lifting him into the air without warning.

  Tom now unexpectedly found himself face to face with Stu, Stu grinning and saying, “Got you! Now die!” Pulling his fist back getting ready to end the cat.

  Tom yelled, “Now!”

  Chaos woke up instantly, sitting up, stretching, and asking, “What happened?”

  Stu instantly snapped out of it, confused and staring at Tom. Stu asked, “What happened?” The confusion in his eyes was repced slowly with realization. “Oh, um, sorry Tom..” He sat the slightly shaken cat on the floor.

  Tom tried to hold onto some of his dignity saying, “Its alright, training is difficult sometimes. I think we found your trigger though, it seems pretty evident after that.”

  Stu sounded like he had a lisp while waiting for his teeth to heal. He asked, “So what, is it protecting Chaos?”

  The cat was still trembling slightly as he said, “No, it seems to be hopelessness.”

  Confused Stu sat down, asking, “How do you figure that?”

  Tom avoided eye contact saying, “You didn’t ask me to heal her, you were just going to kill. That was hopelessness. You obviously had already decided that nothing mattered anymore, you were going to destroy the problem, not fix it.”

  Chaos had been sitting there listening as well, she said, “That would make sense, chaos isn’t organized, but it can appear to be. Hopelessness and the will to fight seem to make perfect sense to me for some reason. I can’t put my finger on it exactly, but it seems like a perfect bance to me, and I can’t expin it any better than that, I’m sorry.” She stared at the floor.

  Stu looked at Tom saying, “Bancing hopelessness and the will to fight, makes the dancing star.. Alright, I guess that’s more than I had before.. I’d still like to know if you really think I’m autistic though, is that why you gave this stuff such a cool name? Is it to keep me from asking questions?” Tom just stared at him like he couldn’t get a read on him. Taking a deep breath Stu said, “Regulus.. Right?” Staring at Tom he waited for a reaction.

  Tom’s stare intensified as he asked, “What?”

  Stu rolled his eyes in hesitant anticipation, “Dancing star, blue blood, fire, complex retionships, and the chaos of it all.. Come on, I say Regulus..”

  Chaos was confused as she asked, “What’s Regulus?”

  Tom still in shock looked at Chaos saying, “It’s a star, but I fail to see…”

  Stu cut in saying, “Uh, no.. It’s a double binary system, that only appears to be a star. Specifically, it appears to be a blue star from earth..” He looked proud of himself.

  Shaking his head he looked at Stu saying, “Yes..”

  Stu jumped to his feet yelling, “I knew it! I’m a star-boy!”

  Tom ughed saying, “No, sorry. I meant, you must be autistic.”

  Stu went from jumping with joy to locking eyes with Chaos and blushing at the autism thing. Chaos smiled at him as this happened and he still felt better for some reason. Just seeing her smile after everything, even for a split second, made it all worth it. He looked at Chaos and smiled at her saying, “Worth it.”

  Tom jumped up saying, “This looks like a private kind of tender moment.. Well, I think this is enough training today, why don’t you take the rest of the day off.” He made his way out of the gym.

  Stu kept looking at Chaos and smiling, he was happy to have this moment even if it was silent. Meanwhile, Tom met Marrow outside the bunker. Tom said, “His power is coming along wonderfully, there may be some issues though. Control is a very sensitive issue.”

  Marrow grinned saying, “I can tell by the smell of urine. Scary guy, huh?”

  Tom frowned saying, “I didn’t pee myself.. That said though, I’m not sure he isn’t autistic. There also exists the issue that he may be compromised or even pying us.”

  Marrow asked, “You think he will throw a wrench in our pns?”

  Tom shook his head saying, “I don’t know anymore. I’m more concerned with what’s happening inside of his mind. If he gets ahead of us it will compromise everything we’ve done here. The tournament could be in jeopardy if this continues.”

  Marrow stood up grinning once again. “We have already gone this far, why shouldn’t we take this ride all the way? I say tomorrow we find our fourth star, what do you say?”

  Tom looked worried sitting there. He pondered for a moment before saying, “I don’t think he’s ready yet. It wouldn’t hurt to initiate contact before he does though. I suppose this time; I like your option better. Let’s do this your way Marrow.” The cats both stood up and walked down the street vanishing in the blink of an eye.