The Tear of Celeste

Chapter 31: Teaching

Stephen decided to train you, he was the sorcerer supreme and the one who had suggested you could stay. He wanted to make sure you had control of your powers and would not end up being a threat.

"So I'm like the sorcerer's apprentice now?" You said in a light-hearted tone, looking at your training clothing which he had upgraded to have some magical enchantment.

"Well I'm not teaching your magic yet," Stephen said as he watched Tony set up a machine.

"Yet?!" You said with exciting eyes, would he teach your magic if you did well enough?!

Stephen looked at you and frowned slightly. "Learn to master the abilities you have before you go looking for new ones," he said seriously.

You sighed and nodded. "Right, sorry, just excited! I love learning new stuff!" You said, shifting your weight between your legs just to move some more. "How long did it take you to master the stone you got?" You said, looking at his necklace. "Which one was it again?"

Stephen held up the necklace a bit more. "The time stone, which is being kept in The Eye of Agamotto to better contain its power and help me control it."

You look at him with big eyes "Time stone? So you can time travel?" You asked surprised..

Stephen frowned slightly. "In theory, but-"

"Wow! Then the title 'The Doctor' Really fits you! A time lord!" You said excitedly.

He looked at you a bit confused. "What do you mean?"

You looked back at him and blinked, did they not have that here? "You know? The Doctor?"

"Doctor who?" He asks confusedly, but before you can answer Tony announces he is done setting up the machine.

Thor and Loki were there too, the team had decided Thor was probably the easiest person to measure how much you boosted him. The machine Tony had set up could withstand a lot more electricity than a simple lightning rod.

You had a sneaking suspicion the machine was also set up to store the lightning into some kind of power bank for later use, but didn't comment on it.

So Thor was mostly used as the test dummy, a role he assured you he didn't mind. His job was simple, he just had to keep striking lightning into the machine, it would measure how much energy was in the lightning so you all could tell how much more you were powering him up.

Thor just threw out his attack as normal to get a baseline. The number on the machine would read somewhere around the thousands, it was not always the same number as Thor himself could not control it down to the last decimal, but it was always around a thousand.

Stephen had you place a hand on Thor's back and just do your thing without guiding you, seeing how you naturally used your powers before he would teach you.

You closed your eyes and concentrated on once again Thor being the most powerful Avenger, and the numbers on the machine went up to around five thousand on the next series of attacks. You did multiple ones to test if it was consistent, also trying to place two hands on his back, but the number kept steady at around five thousand.

"Try focusing specifically on the lightning power," Stephen said, wanting to test if you could focus on what you were boosting.

You gave him a nod as you put the hand on Thor's back again, closing your eyes and concentrating. You imagine the crackling of electricity, the power of the pure energy and you heard Thor gasp audible, the hair on your body standing up as the electricity in the air started to spark.

Thor quickly released the thunderstrike, hitting the machine dead center.

It was easily over nine thousand.

You staggered back from that, both in shock and because for the first time, you felt a sudden dizziness.

Loki caught you, supporting you from behind and looking down at you worried. "Are you alright?" He stroked some hair away from your face.

"Yeah, yeah just got dizzy," you told him, but Stephen summoned a chair for you. "We have been going at this for a while, you should take a break," he advised, summoning a cold drink for you as well.

You thanked him and sipped the cold drink, it felt nice, taking away most of the dizziness as you leaned back into the chair. "... Is this something I will be able to do forever?" You asked out of the blue.

Stephen looked at you surprised, thinking about it before summoning some books. "I am not sure," he said, looking at his book, "the text I found on The Tear of Celeste suggests that while it would give everyone its light shined on a boost of power for a while, a few received a bigger blessing."

Loki nodded in agreement. "The warriors that were blessed with her gift would sometimes gain new powers, and they still have them to this day."

You frowned at that, looking at Stephen. "I thought you said it only enhanced the person's normal ability!" You said with a pout.

Stephen sighed, closing the book. "I was still reading up on it when I told you that," he said, "we are still finding more and more text about it, I did hear about it blessing people, but didn't fully understand what it meant."

You looked at your hands. "So if this ability is a blessing I will most likely have it for the rest of my life, but if it's just a side effect of proximity..." You tried to guess, looking up at Stephen for him to confirm.

"If it's just a proximity thing then being separated should make the effect go away after a while, like how your boosting leaves the other as soon as you are no longer touching them." He nodded toward Thor.

Thor nodded, sending another lightning strike into the machine.... But you all noticed it was around the two-thousand mark this time.

That made Stephen lift an eyebrow as he walked over to Thor, looking him up and down. "... How do you feel?"

"Tingling," Thor admitted, looking at the machine again. "That last power surge felt a lot stronger than the others, and I can still feel an aftertaste of it, but it is fading," he said, looking down at the doctor again.

Stephen nodded at that, looking at you intrigued.

You just gave a tired sigh and leaned back into the chair, signaling that you were still on break.

Loki pulled up another chair to sit beside you, his face showing that he was deep in thought.

"... I'm sorry," you suddenly said, looking at him worried.

He looked at you confused, raising an eyebrow. "What for?"

"I just..." You looked down at your hands with a frown, "... It feels rather disrespectful, you know? Like I'm stealing her power." You looked at him sadly, "I'm sure she didn't want any of this."

Loki shakes his head and takes your hand. "You did nothing wrong, my dear." He looks you in the eyes. "She might be gone, but you having these powers means a piece of her lives on in you." He smiled warmly. "As long as you honor her memory I am sure she would not mind at all."

His words warm your heart and earn him a big smile from you. "Thank you, Loki," you say as you give his hand a squeeze. His hands are big, but they feel like they fit perfectly in yours.

༺☆༻

Your training with Nat and Clint continued too, and you were getting pretty good at it. You had started having real sparring matches with them both and found you were a very fast learner.

They were both impressed when you knocked Clint to the floor in one of the fights.

He grins up at you "Nicely done! I wasn't even trying to hold back that time!" He said, taking your offering hand to get back up.

"You are really absorbing all this like a sponge," Nat said impressed too, "very quick learner indeed"

"Well, I have some excellent teachers!" You told them both, giving them a classic honor bow like some martial-art students would give their teachers.