He smiled and tossed the ball higher, stepping out of the way.
"Eck!" Zanika scrambled to her feet, pushing at the ball with her darkness as it fell towards her. "Holy! What's this thing made of? Lead?" She must not have realized how heavily it was because she had to catch it to stop it from hitting the ground. Mathieu smiled as she gave a twitch when the energy ball touched her skin and sent a jolt through her system. Zanika dropped the ball.
Mathieu rolled his eyes, picking up the ball. "I told you not to touch it."
She swore and got to her feet, "Again!" Her forehead was furrowed in annoyance. This time, she managed to stop it a few inches above her hands, then used her darkness to push it back up into the air, sending it towards her sister. “This is cool!” She said, beaming after not being zapped again. Zerieve grunted as she forced the ball back into the space above their heads.
Mathieu rolled his eyes. "Don't try to adjust your darkness to be strong enough. Use your instincts to tell you how much power you need. Quit second guessing yourselves."
Both gave him an annoyed, 'butt out' look, but he just smiled and waved them off. Then he turned to the other two, hands on his hips, "Okay, Jo. You're up."
"I already know what my section says. Meditation and learning to control the release of my darkness. I can do that by myself." Jo wrinkled his nose.
"Excuse me? I didn't tell you what you're doing yet," he grinned at them, "you, my dears, are going to play a game of capture the flag." Jo snorted as if it were a joke.
Lione, who had a tendency to stand in the background and be invisible, nodded in silent agreement.
Jo, realizing Mathieu was serious, frowned. "That'll be boring with only two people."
"But you aren't playing regular capture the flag, Jo. Lione is going to be the flag; a human flag that can prevent you from touching him with his wind. Which is the point. You need to learn to be selectively vicious." Mathieu smiled, "if you can get a single tag on Lione by the time Zanika and Zerieve's practice is over, I'll let you do your training by yourself. If you can't, I get to supervise all of your meditation sessions."
"Waa!" Jo's botton lip stuck out. "Fine, Mathieu! You just wait and see!"
"Lione, stop him and the first drink is on me tonight."
The raven gave a small smirk before raising a hand in front of him. Mathieu felt the tingle at the base of his skull again, but he ignored it, realizing it was the shift in air pressure around him caused by Lione. "Come at me, kid. And try to be a challenge."
"Don't worry there, pet. I'm surprisingly mean." Jo grinned sweetly at his counterpart. They were well balanced against each other, in both personality and stature. While Jo was outgoing, childish, and sweet, naturally appealing to people; Lione was quiet, shy, and tended to put people off. Jo was cute with his button nose and short height, whereas Lione was tall with a hard jaw and sharp eyes. Yin and yang. But it was more than that. They understood each other. Jo made Lione feel comfortable enough to come out of his shell a bit, resulting in a smile here or a chuckle there. And Lione gave the brunet the devotion and attention he needed, never leaving his side.
The time they spent together was reflected in how they moved in sync with each other. Jo would feint this way, spin that way. Lione would retreat, always just out of reach even without his wind to protect him. On the rare occasion that Jo got close to the raven, Lione would just smile and stop his hand in its tracks.
Around and around the two went. Not far away Zanika and Zerieve were in a silent struggle of their own, but not with each other. Whenever either of the girls seemed to be getting the hang of it, Mathieu would adjust the density of the energy ball. Sometimes lighter. Sometimes not.
It made Mathieu smile watching the clones work. Sometimes, they would have to hunch down to avoid being hit by the ball and receiving a jolt, while at others they would hit the light version of the ball, sending it sailing up until it was just a speck, causing the two to stand stock still until it started to fall