Chapter 152 - 152. Art's Breakthrough

"Check it out. I can even use these free metal beads. There is a whole bucket so I can change the weight of this padding as I need." Art was struggling to lift a bucket of shiny metal beads for the body weights.

"This should be better than the weights, right? You can work on individual control and make sure your super power is really to use all of the metals and not just some." Asher wanted to make sure Art was comfortable with his power now that he knew it was not what he had been told.

"Oh yeah, I am going to figure this all out before camp is even over. Then I am going to be leveled up and ready to get to the bottom of this." Art was hyping himself up but also showing just how serious he was. He wanted to know what his older brother had gotten in to and the risk his family was at.

While Asher started to fall in to his own training Art had sat down with the bucket of metal beads. He was running his hands through the bucket finish g that they were various weights and sizes. This was a mix matched bucket of smaller and larger metal beads to add more or less weight to the padding.

Art started with the smallest bead he could find. He had a feeling that is was more attached to him than he had ever noticed before. This was the signal that he could influence it with his super power. He had first tried to bend and manipulate the lead in the old pencils at school to no avail. The most he managed was to break the tip.

However, Art had been running high on stress and emotions lately giving him a boost to his adrenalin. The little metal ball easily levitated in his palm and floated there for a few seconds until Art released a held breath. 'I need to stay focused and constantly think about keeping it floating. If I stop even for a blink of an eye I lose it.'

While talking himself through the motions Art started to make the little metal bead move on his palm. The path it took weaved around his fingers and sat back in his palm. Asher was watching from the corner of his eye silently cheering for Art. He was impressed that his friend had started to embrace the super power he had while ignoring the way he had found out about it.

Art constantly told himself of his goals as he picked up a slightly larger metal bead. This one was still easy to make float but not so easy to make move around Art's fingers. The size was similar but Art could feel that the alloy was different. It had less metal and more other material in it.

He grabbed another bead and another testing as many as possible to prove a theory he had built. 'The more pure the metal the easier it is to control...Does that mean the lead in the pencils was just a minor trace of it?' The realization that he had been struggling for so long with lead was due to the small amount inside the pencils hit him hard. He had been foolish and trained with something unsuitable for training his super power, not that he knew the truth of his power anyways.

Knowing this Art found what he felt was the most pure metal in the entire bucket of metal beads. The one he found was the size of a marble and looked to be a dull iron color. There was no shine to it since it was an older weighted ball but Art knew that it was the best one for him to train with.

Like it had a mind of its own, the iron ball rose from his hand and fluidly moved around Art's hands. He had complete control of it as long as he maintained his focus. The only problem was that he could feel the strain on his mind. His super power was wearing away at his mental energy to control the iron ball. He had not expected this to be the case and quickly lost focus.

The iron ball hit the floor with a dull thud making Asher stop his motions and check on Art. "You look a little tire, everything alright?" The worry in his voice was plain.

"I just didn't realize the strain that came with using my super power. I have had it all wrong. I might be able to manipulate every metal, but the purity of the metal matters. I couldn't manipulate the lead in pencils well because it was just trace amounts. I should have known." Art was still kicking himself for this.

"Well, that sounds like a break through if I ever heard one. You can just make sure you have pure metals with you for a speedy attack and defense then use alloys at worst case. Actually, if you use alloys to trick an opponent in to thinking you're slow you could surprise them with pure metals later." Asher saw the possibilities spread before Art easily.

"That sounds super sneaky...I'm going to do it." Art liked the sound of tricking a villain in to thinking they had the other hand then changing metals to trap them in a second. If he could make this part of his fighting style he would stand above many others in the hero world.

Asher was glad he could help for a minute but was at the beck and call of the elite home gym system. Hearing the alarm that he needed to finish his training he rushed over and continued his stretching tutorial.

Art returned to the smaller metal beads and attempted to control two of them. Before the second alarm went off for them to switch again he had started to gain the ability to manipulate two of the small metal beads at once. The movements were simple but it was a major improvement over what he could do just a few hours ago. He happily walked to the shower for a recovery period then to nap.