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John looked into the park, the massive tree of ethereal charm sheltering the people below it as other trees surrounding the grandest of the bunch. But now, on the very floor of the park, the trees were taller than he expected. John had seen some redwood trees, the image on the internet was an easy convenience. The trees in this park felt far taller than any redwood tree could ever be. A sky of leaves covers large patches of the sky above, rays of light reach out to the grassy greens and dirt roads below. The class followed the werewolf, Mrs. Luna, further into the park. Several trees of thick bark were strewn between layers of grass as they found a suitable spot, the outermost layer of the forest where the wendigo glances over and could still clearly see the city outside of the forest.

"Welcome to Conscious Control Class boys and girls," said Mrs. Luna. "While you're with me you are going to learn how to control your powers." the werewolf soon pointed to John. "Especially you, John Carter. You might just be the most powerful monster in this class."

Chen, Chris, the horse girl, and Luna, all of them were looking at him. John, in all honesty, did not know how to react.

'You just might be the most powerful monster in this class.' The words repeated in his mind.

"I'm...the most powerful monster here," said John.

"Yes. Ephenel recommended me to your class. I heard what you did to Sarah Gloria, only a minute and she was in the ICU, yes?"

The wendigo felt the werewolf read him like a book. "Y-Yes..."

"Disease manipulation. A very dangerous ability. Thankfully, you only seem to trigger it if you hit something with your fists, at least by your latest demonstration."

John felt his vision tunnel as he continued. He remembered the vague flashes of memory where the medusa was shaking on the ground, her scales bending away to show pus-filled spots of skin. "And morality manipulation. Something you need to work with. You have no control over this. Sarah, and now Chris, have both been affected by this ability that you have no conscious control over."

"Which," Mrs. Luna added. "Is why this course is called Conscious Control. When you control one of your powers, you will be able to control the rest of them. But this control must be, at the very least, conscious. While not every power can be controlled, they can be monitored or stabilized."

"Now, I know there is one other person we have yet to introduce. Chris, you can resume later." Chris, the Nemean Lion, nodded, sighing with some relief.

The eyes of the werewolf zone down on the horse girl, who went wide-eyed. "Iris Garcia, I presume?"

"Yes..." her eyes veer from the gaze of the werewolf woman. "My name is Iris Garcia, I'm from the Philippines. My family is still ignorant of what they are, though I could see what they are beneath the illusionary veil given to them. They were all Tikbalang, like me. That's...what I am, I'm a Tikbalang."

"Is that enough?" Iris turned to Mrs. Luna.

"Yes, now, can you give a demonstration of your abilities?" Mrs. Luna gestured to the vacant space of grass between herself and her students.

Iris bowed and places herself in the epicenter of the space. All three people watched as she demonstrated her abilities. She would suddenly vanish, the rabbit, lion, and wendigo, would all turn their heads to guess where she might be.

"Don't worry. She's still where she is," answered Luna.

John, and the other two, soon witnessed the extent of her abilities. The branches of the trees suddenly accelerate in growth, leaves branching from random spots on the growing plant limb. Flowers bloomed, rising above the grass to absorb more sunlight in its growth. Various animals, birds, squirrels, and other forest residents crept closer, despite their usual timid nature. Iris reappeared again, but this time she was floating in the air, assuming a meditative position. The dirt path behind the group seemed to lean towards them, or perhaps, the grass leading underneath the tikbalang was wilting, the dirt beneath that grass shuffles about, matching the color of the beaten path. But the last thing was confusing. John supposed that this was perhaps an ability of Iris that she had. Though he remembered being confused as if he lost a recent memory and was trying to remember. He felt someone watch him, about to turn to you, but the demonstration ended too quickly as Mrs. Luna smirked.

"Impressive, very impressive Mrs. Garcia." praised Luna. "You have good control over your abilities.

"Thank you. I uh, I just practiced."

"How much practice?"

"A few months."

"Nice. Mind if you tell us how you practiced? After all, you aren't the only one with a wide variety of powers." Mrs. Luna glanced over at John with a wink.

Iris understood what Luna was talking about, how she had gained conscious control of her abilities, and what she did in practice to control these newfound talents. "I...well I'm not sure how to explain this. It sort of...clicked together. I guess."

"Well, what did you mean by "clicked together"?" asked Luna, trying to specify this for the short-sighted wendigo.

"I guess...well the first power I remember discovering was being able to control the forest around me. I sort of just...was able to use my power. I remember the flowers growing around me. Though when I tried to do it with my conscious intent, it didn't happen. But I definitely felt my connection with the forest around me. So...every day I simply spent my time in the forest. At least for several days, for a few hours. But my power increased, and my control over it increased too. It was like my body knew what to do, even when I didn't have any knowledge of how it worked, it...it just happened."

"You heard all of that John?"

"Yeah. But, she's saying that I have to be an environment to gain more control?"

"Yes, but that's the painless way. While you won't get hurt, the chance of controlling your power isn't as high. At the same time, the time to gain control varies between days to weeks. Iris got the lucky straw and got her powers in a few days." Luna smirked.

"But we don't have that time. So, I'll let you have a sparring partner."

"Wait what?"

"Chris. Take this as an opportunity to make up for your behavior earlier and beat John into a pulp."

Chris sighed, while John felt his dead heart race. Then he felt said heart do some Olympic gymnastics as his knuckles made the pop sounds.

"It's nothing personal John, you heard what teach said."

John wasn't any kind of fighter, and that provided no form of help as Chris' fist once again swung right at him. A sudden dull pain crashed upon his skull, sending the wendigo tumbling into the dirt. Iris looked away, while Chen sighed and joined the Tikbalang in her solace.

"Come on John. If you want to get this over with, I could try and knock you out."

John felt mixed about that. He could just go down and out. But he felt that he would be undermining the lesson. That is if he doesn't get beaten to a pulp first.

"No. Let me try-" as he stood up he gets knocked right in the face again, sending him right back on the ground.

Again and again, the wendigo got up, only to be punched in the face every time. John was slowly adapting, blocking punches with his forearms which was quickly counteracted by hooks that careen around his arms and once again connect with his face. But even a wendigo can only take so much, even though his body was durable, he still had a limit and the pain from all the blows he was taking a toll on him. Albeit, his face was still pretty much fine, thanks to being a deer skull, though he still felt pain. His body was feeling numb, and his control over his muscles was waning. If he takes anymore blows he might pass out.

'I...I have to do something. I know I can't win, but I gotta make it stop.'

Those thoughts echo through his mind, fading in parallel to his strength. Another blow and what remained of his power had vanished, lying on the floor with a defeated breath.

"You...You got me, Chris." John gasped for some air. "Sorry, for...well...you know."

"You're a good guy John. But it's time to say goodnight." the last thing the wendigo had seen was a fist landing the knockout blow to his face.

---

Luna sighed, the werewolf expected at least some result but the entire fight bore no fruit. Still, the fight also gave a bit of interest to Chris.

"Chris?"

"Yes?" The lion grunted as he picked up the unconscious wendigo. "Damn, he's heavier than he looks.

"You're pretty good with your punches. I can tell how well you retract and swing out."

"Yeah, I take boxing classes. Mainly for anger management, but I also get to learn something as a side thing."

Luna smiled, it was a small smile that lightens up her muzzle. "You remind me of myself before I joined the military."

"The military?" all three conscious students would take on a look of surprise.

Mrs. Luna chuckled, though it was also small and she did it to keep an air of formality around her. "Yeah. I was a hothead, then I joined the military and straightened out. Though, I never really expected to go to war."

"Wait-" Chris dropped John right where he was again, his limp body sprawls over the grass again. "I wanna hear more of this."

Mrs. Luna deadpanned at what she just witnessed. "Don't do that."

"I mean, he can't really complain right now. So..." soon the Nemean lion puppeteers the unconscious wendigo, making a mockery of his voice as he moves the bone jaw of his face. The voice was similar to a mouse character that will not be mentioned here. "Hi everyone! I'm John Carter, I'm so thin I make anorexic girls jealous."

Iris, who had an orange juice box, laughed so hard she sprays orange mist from her nostrils, only to curse from the sting of citrus in her nose. Chen understood the joke but wasn't laughing. Chris used John as a shield to take the spray of orange juice for him, laughing while at it.

"You want me to tell my time in the military or what?" said Mrs. Luna, hoping it will stop her students and their shenanigans.

The effect was just as intended. Chris put down the knocked out John after patting him down to clean him up from the orange juice. Iris discarded the orange juice box, and Chen sat down on the grass, albeit away from the lion and the horse. Mrs. Luna sat down as well to tell her story.

"I guess the only way to start was in the beginning. I was in Afghanistan, the date was September 12th, 2002. The president had officially declared war on the terrorist group ISIS, sending in some military reserves to immediately deal with the problem."

"You went to war when 9/11 happened?" said Iris, who was wide-eyed to such significant detail.

Luna huffed with a tiny laugh. "Yeah, it's something I don't boast about though."

"Why is that?" asked Chen.

"Well, let's just say I wasn't supposed to be so lucky."

"But you're a werewolf, so you had advantages over the Ignorant." pointed out Chris.

"This was before I realized I was a werewolf." retorted Mrs. Luna. "Back then, I was constantly about to vomit from the knowledge of dying at any time. All that military training that I had did no good for me because I kept freezing in place in fear of being shot."

"Did...did you ever get shot?" asked Iris.

"I did, though, I never really noticed. My body heals exceptionally well. I'm near-immortal, to be honest. With each skirmish, I survived things that should've killed any human. But the illusion kept it hidden well enough, I kept thinking that my bullet vest or helmet absorbed the bullets for me. But then it happened..."

"What happened?" Chen would be the one to ask this time.

"Grenade to the face. I didn't even have time to react to it, there was a trap that launched a grenade right at me. Out of instinct, I grabbed the grenade and curled myself right on top of it to protect my squadmates. And then...everything went black?"

"You died?" asked Chris dumbfoundedly.

"Of course! This body may be hard to break but it's not impossible. The grenade was enough to kill me. But...when I woke up, well technically I regained consciousness after my regeneration, I didn't have any armor or clothes, because those were blown off too. But at the same time, there were angels around me. And," Mrs. Luna laughed, her laugh was something a hyena would've made if she was one. "I kid you not I thought I died right then and there. But it turns out I had to be told about the truth of the world. The angels were illusions and fake memories that I kicked the grenade away in time for the explosion to not kill anyone. They had to cast that magic not only on my squadmates but on the terrorists as well. They couldn't risk anyone finding out about the truth of the world."

"Wait." Iris paused the story-telling. "Why didn't they alter your memories?"

"Well, to be honest, the illusion wore off because my death was legitimate. However, what the angels didn't consider was that I would regenerate even after that grenade in my face. Turns out I have regenerative capabilities that are greater than most werewolves. Eventually, they had to spill the beans to me." explained the werewolf teacher.

"And I decided to retire from the military, work more locally. I have two jobs, while teaching is my main asset, my second job is simply being an undercover police unit."

"Wait, would the police want me too?" Chris pointed at himself.

Mrs. Luna nodded. "A Nemean Lion such as yourself would have a pretty good application in the police force. But," she switched topics, mainly to end their trip to the Mythos park on some analytical notes she needs for studying. "While you were fighting John, was there anything happening? Like, a change in temperature or the light around him seems to get darker."

Chris looked at the knocked out monster once again, considering a few things. But there was nothing that came to mind. "I'm sorry, I don't think anything happened." He says, turning away to face Luna.

"Well, from what I heard from his ability assessment, he was able to make a few snowflakes.

Chris raised a brow. "His other powers don't seem that impressive either, but what's so special about the snowflakes he made?"

"If you look it up, snowflakes only form at negative temperatures. It's a sign that for someone, who has never tapped into their abilities before, he has incredible potential with his abilities."

The lion put the pieces together, pupils shrinking in realization. "Oh shit..."

"Yeah, but the morality manipulation is beyond his control. If it were dormant or suppressed, he wouldn't have much of a problem. But since he can't, he's going to cause a lot of problems. While he means no harm to anyone, his life will go on a downward spiral from all the chaos that will ensue around him."

"Damn, I didn't think life would be that hard for him." Chris pitied the wendigo.

Luna nodded in agreement. "All animals with mental capabilities are usually kept a close watch. Like Iris." gesturing to the Tikbalang. "Her mental abilities aren't dangerous in comparison to others, but it is something that can cause commotion or trouble when unmonitored. So..."

There was a hum, the ground shaking like a person slowly plucking the gentle strings of a violin. Small waves that move back and forth, everyone looked up, barely seeing through the canopy of leaves. From what tears through the living veil can be seen, rings of gold, embroiled with runic symbols and an everlasting aura resembling the rays of the sun. The rings were layers, rotating and moving around the epicenter of the control user. They couldn't see it, but they knew what it looked like. It was like a fetus, a fully developed baby that shines like the stars in the sky. The otherworldy hum subsides as it flies out of sight, moving beyond the park of Mythos.

"Ezekial Wheels would always keep monitor and check on these abilities with their many eyes. They see through all spectrums of this reality, and ensure the correct counteraction is emulated."

Luna clapped her hands. "Well, I think this is the end of today's lesson, you guys should all go home."

"But what about John?" asked Chris, since he still has to carry him.

"Did I stutter?"

Chris mumbled in annoyance, carrying John with him.