Oscar Piastri // Null

"You... want me to train the rookies?"

Doubt laced Oscar's voice, though his expression barely showed it other than just a slight furrowing of his eyebrows. He shot a sideways glance to Lando, who seemed to be holding in a laugh, albeit poorly. The poor man was in shambles from trying to keep himself in check, and Oscar was tempted to reach out and drain his laugh and make it easier for the both of them to listen to Zak's idea. He held himself back and instead chose to focus on the situation on hand.

"I'm just not sure that's a good idea..." His voice trailed off, and he frowned slightly. It wasn't that he wasn't sure in his own abilities- quite the contrary, he understood his abilities quite well and had a solid grip on them. But for others? It was painful to explain to others how his powers worked. How, in a powerless environment, you had to pick out anything and everything you had in your surrounding and use it to your advantage. How to have enough will to hold on when everything drained from your mind, and conversely, how to tackle the insane surge of emotions in your head...

Wow, the answer really came to him there, huh.

"I'm sure you're gonna do great, Oscar," Zak nodded, giving him a small pat on his shoulder. "We just want to make sure that none of our allies gets crippled when you're simply trying to fight a villain, that's all. And so they don't freak out if they do end up getting paired with you."

"That does make sense, yeah." Oscar agreed, and pushed himself off the stair rail. He gave a small smirk. "I'm... impressed that you think I can handle a bunch of volatile teenagers." His tone remained sarcastic, though with no real bite.

"You're the safety net after all."

"Sheesh." Behind them, Lando had finally given in to his urges and began snickering, causing Oscar to roll his eyes and look up at the ceiling. He heard Lando come up behind him and his hand moved to his behind almost on a reflex, to prevent Lando from hitting him, but his teammate simply slung an arm around his shoulder.

"Our Oscarino's gonna give a yoga class," he jibed, and Oscar gave him a side eye. "You're so lucky I don't hate you, honestly."

"Does that mean you love me?"

"Shut up."

And that is how Oscar finds himself, out in Nova's training grounds, with a bunch of freshly promoted provisional heroes, all bright eyed, eager; fresh hero suits on them that have barely known any fights. He knows that look. 'I have a strong power that won't be wiped away by any null fields.' Normal suppressors don't work on them. He wonders if he looked like this when he'd started out.

The other heroes responsible for training the rookie heroes are Lando (much to his annoyance; Oscar's aware that he doesn't appreciate being stuck in his area of effect), Alex (he can still fly with his wings) and George (he's going to be borrowing Oscar's powers for a short while to help with maintaining, in case things go awry). The plan is simple. A standard extraction simulation in a controlled environment; the trainees will have to find and rescue a 'victim' while the active heroes try to stop them. They have two hours to do so without getting captured by any of the 'villains'.

The four of them take their positions; Oscar keeps his position high up on the roof, allowing him a good view of the trainees as they enter the assigned building. He notes one of them has got a flame dancing at the tip of their finger; it's clever. He lets them enter the building, and he keeps watch on his setup- a bunch of screens he has spread out on a table that allow him to cycle through the different rooms. He sees them fan out, and without warning, activates his ability.

The effect is almost instantaneous- panic ensues, even if the trainees should have been mentally prepared for this very thing. The guy with the fire and his partner seem way more disturbed than they should be. Some of the trainees in pairs and trios are doing well.

Oscar's eyes scan the screens as he keeps his power activated, partly. While this is a test of wills for the trainees, it is a test for him, as well. Even as he snuffs out the abilities of the trainees, he's trying not to do the same for his team; which is leading to some pretty fun effects with Lando making people stop or speed up at random and George using one of his borrowed powers to echo voices all around on some floor. He's pretty sure if he confronts them with it they're gonna say that they were just 'having fun'- traumatising trainees, that is.

He gauges the abilities, the presences of the trainees. Thanks to years of using his ability he can picture it in his mind's eye on how someone's power or emotions 'feel'- Lewis' abilities are almost blinding to confront, Max's abilities feel dangerous and black, and Lando has a soft orange-blue feel. Happiness feels soft, sadness soggy, anger spiky. It's difficult to explain, but these work well for him.

He expects the fear, anger, competitiveness from the trainees. But one specific person with the most confusing emotion profile ever stands out. They're... stationary. Alone. Stuck somewhere in the right wing. He goes through the screens till he finally finds the person who matches that profile.

{{user}}.

It's strange. There are no immediate threats, so why? Why does their emotion spike so much higher than all the other trainees? Why are they alone? And most importantly, when everyone went one way, why were they there, so close to the 'victim' they'd hidden?

Oscar decides to pay them a visit himself. Since everyone's inside anyway he waves down Alex, who has been up in the skies for all the while. He asks him to monitor the screens while he goes down.

It doesn't take him long to get to the specific floor {{user}} is in. If it's just a trainee having a random breakdown, lost, he's ready to deal with that. If it's just them having an unnatural skill... he'll deal with that too. A good challenge is always appreciated.

His padded shoes conceal his steps, allowing him to sneak up behind {{user}}. His voice cuts through the silence as he speaks, uttering just one word. "Lost, hm?"