The Ball Went Back And Forth

                                    

                                          
One week earlier...
The ball went back and forth.
"How is the house suiting you? I know I tried to make it match how it used to look." Jack asked, pulling his arm back and tossing the ball as hard as he could.
Hope raised her hand and caught the baseball. Mr. Larison hadn't held back in the throw, and she had to press her heels into the floor to stop herself from being flung back. They had only just started, and already the ball was covered in scratches, and part of it was peeling off from how intensely they threw it.
"It's fine, I guess." She shrugged. He had been referring to the incident with Polaron. The villain had shown up and destroyed most of her home, and it had been Mr. Larison who fixed it. She looked down at the ball, and her fingers dug tightly into it. She pulled her hand back and threw it right back at him as hard as she could. "I don't want to talk about that, though! Why are we doing this exactly?"
They were on the roof of Pantheon's base. The others were away when Mr. Larison got the idea. He practically dragged her up with him after buying a new baseball. Because they were out of sight, he didn't bother hiding his powers. He held his hand up, and his golden light shimmered out and formed a web that caught the ball. The force of it still managed to push him back a few inches, though.
"What do you want to talk about, then?" Jack asked. His golden threading wrapped itself around the ball and began to move on its own, spinning it so fast that part of it caught fire. Then, all at once, the webbing vanished, and the baseball was launched like a rocket directly at her.
"I don't know what I want to talk about!" She said, frustrated. She slammed her hand out and used the thing she had learned from Wyvern to absorb the fire on the ball, putting it out and slowing it down, allowing her to easily catch it. Her 'training session,' the one that ended with the Victorian appearing, had happened just two days ago. "I don't know what I want to talk about or what I want to do. I- I just really don't get it." She looked back down at the ball in her hand and thought about crushing it, but instead, she lazily tossed it to Mr. Larison, not bothering to use any powers. "I just don't know what to do."
Jack didn't even need to use any powers to catch it this time. He held the ball and ran his fingers over the damage. "Do you remember what I first told you the day you decided to be a hero?"
"I know what you said. I- I just never thought someone like Wish would ever appear. She was like the Emperor, wasn't she... A Lord of Life who used their power for evil. Despite being as old as I am, she somehow beat me, crippled Money Tree for life, and might have killed Wasp Nest. It wasn't supposed to go like this. I was supposed to find the Lord of Life and save my dad! Why didn't anyone tell me the Lord of Life would be evil? Why didn't you tell me any of this? What am I supposed to think, Mr. Larison? I want to trust you, but this is... I just don't know what is happening anymore."
Jack listened to her rambling before he nodded his head. "There was a game that involved a baseball I saw once. A lot of kids would play it with their parents where I grew up. When a child had a question and the adult had the answer, they would use a ball to keep track of who was allowed to speak. When the adult tossed the ball to the child, the child was allowed to ask a question. When the child tossed the ball to the adult, the adult was allowed to answer the question or ask a question of their own. The child could then answer the question or ask their own as well. It was due to this ruling that some questions would be deemed inappropriate, not ready to be answered, and skipped. I always thought the concept was nice. The world would be a lot better if we all took turns answering each other's questions or asking someone a question of our own, don't you think?"
"Huh-" She barely had time to catch the ball that he threw. "Whoa! Were you aiming for my face!" She tossed it back at him just as hard.
Jack waited for the ball to reach him before he caught it. "Yes."