Poor little thing.  He’s like an angry puppy. “Well, I could answer your question.  If that’s what you want.  Or I could tell you a story.  It’s one of my core memories.  It’s the kind of thing you should know about me, if we’re going to be partners.”  She grazed an oh-so-compatible fingertip down Tim’s arm. Take the bait, puppy.  It’ll be worth it.

He jerked away like he’d been scalded. It’s just so weird.  “Um.” Say something. “S-sure.”  Why can’t you so much as make eye contact with her?  She’s just a super hot, very compatible, dungeon veteran girl.

Lighter touch, I can work with this. She turns and stretches, working her arm and shoulder.  Her shoulder muscles flex and bulge while she does.  “See, this happened when I was a little kid.”

Carol looks at the boulder in front of her.  Twelve feet high, only a few handholds.  Old granite, probably.  It must’ve broken off the side of the pit at some point.  Make a plan.  Visualize the plan.  Then do it.  Sprint, jump, left foot on that ledge, both hands at that crevice.  Grab and hurl, your fingers can get you to that funny looking knob.  Brace your feet against the boulder.  Then another hurl, and you can get your stomach over the top.  Scrabble up from there.

Perhaps a lesser athlete or a saner mind would have thought twice.  Carol?  She’s been dungeoneering since she was seventeen.  Sprint, jump, left foot doesn’t quite bite in, but her fingers make purchase just fine.  She recovers and hurls herself up, makes the knob, clambers her way up to the top.  If she wiggles a little more than necessary while bent over the top of the stone, well, who’s to say that it wasn’t a coincidence.  Maybe her feet failed to find purchase.

Carol turns around and looks down at Tim.  She sits, cross-legged at the peak.

Whoah, so THAT’S where those muscles come from.  Okay.  You’re not born with the ability to do that, you don’t awaken with the ability to do that.  She’s good, and that’s because she worked for it.

“I was a little kid.  I was learning how to ride a bicycle, and I was terrified whenever Daddy said he’d let me go.  It was stupid.  I saw him ride, I knew he could do it.  He always told me that anything he could do, I could grow up to do, too.” And then some, as it turns out. ”So, he pulled the oldest trick in the book.  D’you know what that is?”

Tim shakes his head, mutely. What the fuck does this have to do with don’tthinkaboutit

“He let go, without telling me.  It felt like a mile, but it must’ve only been twenty feet.  I fell.  I skinned my knee and tore up my pants.  And after I got done being mad at Daddy, I told him to put me back up on the bike.  He offered to let me stop for a day.  And I had one of those moments, I don’t think most people get them more than twice.  I could see the future.”

“I could give up.  And I knew in that moment, if I gave up I would never get back on that bicycle.  I’d invent reasons to be afraid, or put it off, or to just not bother.  I’d make up a story in my head about biking is for smelly boys ANYWAY, no proper young lady needed to learn how to ride a bike.”  Dramatic pause for effect, yeah, I’ve got him.  He’s listening.

”Or I could get the fuck back on the bicycle.  You have a power, Timothy.  I saw that nurse.  I’m not an idiot.  I can tell he was pretty fucked up, and when you were done with him, he wasn’t.  I’m not going to ask.  It’s not my business.  But if you can do that, you can help so many people.”

“We have powers, Timothy.  Espers can teleport, we can see things from miles away, we can create fire and call down lightning at a word.  We have a responsibility, Timothy.  After awakening, if we survive, we’re given the world on a silver platter.  Money, boys, status.  Just by surviving Hell Week, we’re all gorgeous.”

And we need to actually earn it, don’t we.

Okay.  He’s hooked.  Let up just a little bit. Carol looks down, mentally calculates for a moment, and leaps.  Twelve feet down, feet land first, start to roll tuck the head, then her palms, slap down, then her left shoulder.  She ends the somtersault kneeling at his feet, looking up to him.  “Without us, humanity dies.  We can’t survive the dungeons without espers.  Imagine Volcano Range, imagine Nightmare, imagine Arrakis with just soldiers.  One of my philosophy teachers would tell students that ‘they’re not even wrong’, and sending soldiers into Nightmare isn’t even wrong.  It’s trying for a touchdown in baseball.”  Her gaze is intense, magnetic.  Timothy can’t look away.  He can barely breathe in the face of her passion.  “It’s building an airplane out of lead.  It’s turning a screw with a hammer.  We need you, Timothy.  We need you to get back on the bicycle, for all of our sakes.”

She reaches up, hesitantly. Moment of truth. When it comes, her voice is hesitant.  Almost painfully shy.  “Will you help us?” Will you help me?

Something inside Timothy clicks.  Coheres.  Maybe it’s the power of suggestion.  Maybe Carol’s vision rubbed off on him.  But really, when it comes down to it, Timothy needs a sense of purpose in his life.  Win the tournament.  Get a buck so Maman will be proud.  Study so he can get his EMT certification.

He reaches down.  Savors the guiding for a moment.  And helps Carol up to her feet.

”O-okay.  Let’s start.”

And when she doesn’t let go of his hand, he takes a deep breath.  And Carol is augmented for the first time.