Souls of Power OCT Audition - Chenana REMAKE

Deep inside a forest near the Emerald Square Park, Chenana was training as usual to learn how to control her powers. She was exhausted. She had been training for five days and not a lot of progress had been made. She had been summoning random weapons she thought up, and firing crystals at targets she had created. She also had decided to summon a sword and made crystal targets to practice her techniques with today, so was really running low on energy.

Sitting on a log to catch her breath, she thought about how it had almost been seven months since she first obtained the MindoBendo Crystals. Ever since she had gotten them, things had been extremely difficult. She couldn't even get a job without people calling her a freak for having green crystals fused into her hands. At least her close friends like Monique  and Jeff didn't look upon her any differently.
But sadly the only thing she wanted to focus on now was her training.

"Why am I even doing this?" She asked out loud, while looking up at the leaves on the trees around her.

"Because you want to get stronger, Chenana." A spirit-sounding female voice resounded in her mind.

Chenana rolled her eyes. "I know that, Aura Flaire. It's just that, what's the point? I'm not making any progress and you're not really helping me out at all. I mean, you're the spirit of these crystals right? So why aren't you DOING anything?"

"Because I want you to learn how to control these abilities on your own," Aura Flaire said. "You cannot rely solely on me forever."

"And it's not like I can get rid of these crystals without killing myself either," Chenana said, feeling annoyed.

She could hear the spirit giggle. "You must lighten up, Chenana. You are making progress."

"Well it doesn't feel like it to me." Chenana flatly stated as she looked at her bandaged hands. She unraveled them to reveal a green crystal orb infused to the palm of each of her hands.

She sighed deeply. "I still wish that I could get them back... I really miss them."

"I know, sweetie..." Aura Flaire spoke with a sad tone in her voice. "Again, I am truly sorry..."

"Don't be Aura Flaire." Chenana said. "I know you didn't mean to do it." She put the bandages back onto her hands as to hide her crystals from view again.

"Let's head back home." She said while getting up off the log and walking through the path back in the direction of the bus stop.

"So, you desire a way to get back what you hold dearly..." Someone suddenly spoke.

Chenana's eyes widened as she quickly looked back to see who it was. Seeing a tall shadowy figure standing in the treeline, she quickly took out  her knife and got into her fighting stance.

"Wh-Who the heck are you?" She asked, looking annoyed and slightly startled.

He steps out of the shadows and is revealed to be a tall, slender man with golden, snake-like eyes, and a bright yellow-greenish scar running across the bridge of his nose. Long scraggly black hair framed his face, a black fedora adorned by a small red vertical stripe on a horizontal green stripe located just above the brim rested atop. Around his neck he wore a gray collar that had a circle of yellow set inside a square of red in the middle of the front of it. A black jacket covered his upper torso, while a pair of dark gray jeans with a wide set, silver buckled belt over the pants and a smaller light brown one holding them up covered his lower. The gloves had dark brown on the digits, with light brown on the main hand with the design in the shape of a fire ember on the back with the same color scheme as the design on the collar. Black shoes with a red stripe near the toe and a zipper on the side completes the ensemble.

He raised his right hand and looked at her dubiously. "Really now, is that how a pretty thing such as yourself always responds to a man walking out of the forest, or is today just my lucky day?"

She looked at him with a deadpan expression. Then her left eye started to twitch, before responding. "Dude, I have NO IDEA who you are, and have NEVER seen anyone like you around here before. Now, tell me who you are, and what your business is here, before I call the cops."

"Oh? Why call the police?" he says mock surprise. "Don't you have those pretty, special crystals to help defend you My Lady?"

Chenana's eyes widened, shocked that he knew about the crystals, but she shook herself out of it, stepped closer and quickly aimed her knife close to his throat. "You. Were. Watching. Me?" She stated slowly and angrily.

"Yes, and I have to say that's a very unique ability you have there." He said, winking.

She looked at him, disgusted, then put a bit more force on the blade so that it was actually touching his skin. "Answer the question! You are REALLY starting to creep me out!" She yelled, half in fear, the other half in frustration.

"If you seek a way to get back what is yours, how about entering a tournament?" the stranger asked with a lilt to his voice.

Chenana raised her eyebrow and slowly lowered her weapon. "Excuse me? A tournament?" she asked incredulously.

"Yes, a tournament." He stated matter-of-factly while staring straight at her.

"A battle against you and 31 other contestants to obtain the ultimate power," he takes off his hat and starts to twirl it in his fingers, "and the sword of a very powerful man." He begins to toss the hat up in the air and catch it, all the while still not taking his eyes off of her. "Your powers and weapons will be taken away, and be replaced with a random weapon and spell." He stops and takes a step forward. "But, there is always the possibility that you might get irreversibly damaged..." He puts his face close enough so that she can see his tongue is forked while he talks, his voice going an octave lower. "Or even die..." he trails off, turning abruptly around, walking back to the trees and leaning against one, one leg bent up with his foot leaning back against the tree.

She frowns as she puts away her knife. "Hmmm...sorry, but I'm not interested."

He arched an eyebrow and smirked in amusement. "Oh? But what with that power, you could get back what you've lost. Don't you want to..." He lowers his head so that his eyes are in total shadow. His voice lowers again and gets softer this time. "See them again?"

Chenana visibly cringed. She looked at the stranger, trembling a smidgen.
"H-…How do you...?"

He looked back straight up at her deviously.

"Well, what do you say My Lady? Don't you want to..." He cocked his head to the side and stated in a mocking manner, although the next words were stated rather softly, "...get them back?"

Chenana gazed at the ground lost in thought. In all her life, she had known that she shouldn't be trusting somebody like him, but at the same time she wanted to get back what she had lost.

He gets a soft look in his eyes as if he can see the turmoil running through her mind, and waits a minute before stating softly, "Tell you what: I'll give you a day to make your choice. Just be sure to come back here tomorrow with your answer, alright?"

She sighs and looks at him.
"Fine then. I'll...think about it." She finally states.

After a few hours of walking and taking a bus later, she was in her living room and laying on the couch. Everything that the stranger had said to her was buzzing through her mind. If she did enter the tournament, she had to face all of the other contestants and beat them to obtain this 'ultimate power' and this 'sword' he spoke of. Deep down, she did want to enter the tournament, but she wasn't too sure about it mainly because it may cost her her life.

"You truly wish to do this…?" Aura Flaire echoed in her mind concernedly.

Chenana sighed. "This may be my only chance to get them back Aura Flaire. But I'm not sure if I could even possibly stand a chance against those 31 other participants."

"You have disregarded the fact that I will be there with you. I shall do the best that I can to help you through this tourney. Even if the powers that my crystals have bestowed upon you happen to vanish, I shall remain here with you and help you along your way."

Chenana chuckled a bit. "Huh? What happened to the 'I have to fight my own battles' thing?" she teased.

"Well, I have this feeling that since there will be 31 fighters competing, you may need some assistance on your side for when things do get too strenuous for you to handle on your own." Aura Flaire stated.

Chenana sighed and pulled the blankets up over herself. "Well, we better get some sleep. Night, Aura Flaire."

"Sleep tight, sweetie." She said as she felt her host fall out of consciousness.

The next day, after breakfast, Chenana left her house and started heading towards the park again, when she spotted her friend Jeff, an African American young man wearing a baseball cap with a black leather hooded jacket, sitting on the bus stop bench.

"Hey Jeff." She said as she walked over to him.

He blinked, then noticed her and smiled. "Hey Chenana. Heading back to the park again?"

"Yeah, but I'm gonna be in the woods."

"What exactly are you doing there all alone all day anyways?"

"I'm training, and have been for the last five days."

"I see. So how's your training coming?"

Chenana frowned. "Well, I've got some of the crystal attacks nailed down, but I went all out by summoning my sword and attacking the targets with it yesterday."

Jeff's smile slowly disappeared. "You've overdone it again, haven't you?"

"Well, I didn't pass out this time." She said, laughing nervously.

He sighed. "Come on, Chenana. You really need to stop pushing yourself. I know that you need to train, but not taking breaks in between sessions and pushing yourself way over your limits is not going help you improve at all."

"I KNOW that Jeff. I just want to get stronger…" she said, looking to the the right, and holding her left arm.

"Well, since you're just gonna go back into training again today, please do me a favor and take a break every few hours, OK?"

Chenana sighed and nodded. "I will. I promise." She said, nodding her head, then waving back to him as she hastily headed towards the forest.

When she got back to the spot where she had met the stranger the previous day, Chenana started to look around for him. "OK, where is the guy? Didn't he say that he'd be here?" She asked herself aloud.

"Why don't you look above, you My Lady?" Said a familiar voice. She looked up to see the same stranger she met yesterday sitting in the same tree he was leaning on yesterday, in front of her. "I was just wondering when you'd show up."

"Why? Got a little impatient, did ya?" Chenana asked with a smirk.

"Not really." He spoke as he jumped down. "So, have you made your decision?"

She hesitated a moment before she tightening her fist and looking at him. "Yes, I have." She said in a serious tone. "Count me in."

The stranger smirked as he held out his hand to her. "Alright then. Give me the weapons you have My Lady."

Chenana rolled her eyes. "Please stop calling me that. My name is Chenana, not 'My Lady'." She said as she took out her knife. But as she took out her iron bat, she started to hesitate. The bat had been given to her by Jeff and she didn't want to give it up. Chenana sighed as she handed it over to him.

"That's all the weapons I have..." She said with a very sad tone in her voice, but then she realized something. How was he supposed to take away her powers?

But before she could voice her query aloud, the stranger walked over to her. "Give me your hand." He stated while holding his own out to her. She hesitated for a moment before gently putting her hand into the waiting one.
As the stranger gripped her hand hard, she felt her powers being sucked away from her by an invisible force It was akin to the feeling of too much air being sucked from your lungs when you put your head out of a car window, except this was with the whole body. He let go when he was finished and she falls to her knees, feeling rather light-headed and also as if a part of herself that she had just gotten to know had suddenly been taken away from her.

"Oh man...Well...That's o-one way to take those powers away..." She said, trying to catch her breath and shaking her head.

The stranger opens up a portal behind him and then looks back at her. "Enter the portal and remember," he says with a slightly twisted smile, "there's no turning back."

Chenana nodded and looked back to where she had entered the forest, frowning. She knew that this may be the last time that she was ever going to see her friends again. But despite all of this, she got up shakily and walked through the portal. He followed not too far behind her before the portal disappeared. The quiet in the forest leaving no trace of what had just transpired there.