I would hang back as the rest of the group would enter powerful combat with a wide range of combatants. We were introduced to some wild abilities that I couldn’t even understand.
I walked over and stood next to Ryder, “It looks like everyone is really getting the hang of using their abilities.” An explosion peppered us with dirt and grass.
“I really wish that we could be working on your abilities.” he smiled.
“Why are you training everyone in martial arts?” I had seen most of the moves they were now fluently using in one movie or another. I had always thought that the combat in those films was nothing more than expensive choreography and didn’t really translate into actual combat.
“We use martial arts to teach discipline just as the creators had intended. In fact, some of the styles that we teach were developed by Kinetic users like ourselves.” He took a few steps back, “Why don’t we start your hand to hand training?” He held up his hands.
I had made excuses up until that point and avoided taking part in the actual lessons, but as far as I knew we were still wanted, dead or alive. Powers or no, I needed some way to defend myself.
I took a few steps back and copied what he had done with his hands.
“What do you want me to do?” I looked at my hands trying to recall what I had seen in movies as I was growing up.
“Whatever you can think of then we’ll go from there.”
“Be easy, it’s my first time.”
“Come at me with your best shot.”
I took a deep breath and tried a surprise round house kick. As fast as I was in a blur he swiped my leg. He used enough force to not only divert the energy of my kick, but also make me lose my balance and stumble. I couldn’t catch myself and fell face first into the grass.
“Not bad, but… not good either.” He held out his hand to help me up off the ground. I took it and pulled myself up onto my feet.
“You are so fast!” I brushed off my front.
“It’s part of my ability.” He said, “When I realized just how much power you had behind that kick I had to move fast or you might have crushed my skull.” He said.
“You can tell by one kick? I would say that crushing your skull would have been useful in a fight to the death.” I really didn’t think that the kick would have caused any real damage.
“You have a lot of raw power; your kick would have broken bones. We have determined from your group’s blood tests that they tampered with your DNA in more than one way. Your muscles are much denser and somehow lighter. So much raw power.” He pumped his fist behind his back to dissipate some pain.
I heard Sam’s truck before I saw it. The thick cloud of dust that always kicked up when someone drove to where the tent was set up was billowed high in the sky. Everyone joined me and Ryder at the tent.
“What’s with the visit boss?” Ryder asked.
“I just wanted to have a chat with the new recruits.” He opened up the back of his truck and unloaded a cooler full of drinks. He tossed waters to everyone.
“Is there something wrong?” I grabbed a chair, and took a seat near the tent.
“No, everything is as it should be.” He took a deep breath, “Look, I just wanted to talk to you about a difficult topic to get into. Sometimes in our situation,” he paused pondering his words carefully, “There is death and killing ones enemies before they kill you is a necessary evil. The Aurora Corporation, as you have seen, has no reservations about taking the lot of you out of the equation.”
“So we are supposed to just flip some switch and be soldiers.” Ronnie crossed his arms in determination.
“I’m not saying that you should just give up on your humanity, but the Sabers for instance are killing machines that are quite literally programmed to kill. You can’t dissuade them, you can’t stop them. Most of the users that Aurora has on their payroll are there for their own reasons. They are highly trained, extremely powerful assassins.” Sam grimaced having to explain this to a group of teenagers.
“Wonderful.” I sighed and took a swig of my water.
“However much I hate it, you may have to kill.” he looked down at the ground. “Our goal is to help people like us. We do whatever is necessary to get people out of Aurora’s grip, or at least slow them down. If we can help normal people so be it, but our kind is our priority. I know that that is a simplistic way of looking at things, but we don’t have the resources to look after everyone.”
Quiet fell as we drank our water. I thought about the first time we had seen Sam and the Last Line. Hothead and Silence had killed the Sabers without hesitation. They just did as they were told.
The others returned to training, while I watched. Ryder helped everyone to get back into rhythm offering suggestions, and then he rejoined me sitting on the ground next to my chair.
“How do you do it?” I squinted from the sun as it reached its highest point. The temperature had begun to rise to the normal August levels.
“You have to understand that Aurora is more powerful than anything on the planet, and the man in charge of all that wants you dead. You can not hesitate. If you do, you die.” Ryder leaned back on his arms basking in the sunlight, "I can’t say that there will always be someone to watch your back.”
“So why put ourselves in their path by going on what seems like suicide missions?”
“If we just hide here forever, they’ve won.” He looked me in the eyes, “I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to hide my whole life. This little town is great and all, but I have a feeling that they will find it eventually, and when they do there is nothing stopping them from leveling it.”
“You don’t think that Sam can keep us safe?”
“It’s a team effort. He is only one man, he needs our help.” He stood up from the ground and brushed himself off. He held out his hand, “Now let’s get back to work.”
I took his outstretched hand and pulled myself up. He let go when I had my balance, and took a few steps back. He balled his fists and spread his legs to give him perfect balance.
“Give me your best.” He yelled over the explosions in the field behind us.
When we got back to the house I could feel the bruises from fighting Ryder. I knew he was taking it easy on me too. I did learn a lot about defending myself.
I went up to my bedroom and laid down in bed.
I woke up after a few hour nap when Ronnie knocked on the doorframe. "Hey, the showers are open.”
“Thanks.” I heaved my sore body up off the bed.
I grabbed a new set of clean clothes and went down to the first level. When we had gotten home the sun was still up, but now it was pitch black outside. I went into the bathroom and looked at my side where there was a nice bruise starting to show.
I had taken so many face plants to the ground but every time I just got back up and rushed Ryder again. No less than twenty times he asked me if I wanted to stop. He kept telling me that we could pick up the training another day.
I didn’t want to stop. I needed to be doing something.
I took my shower and then went back to bed.
Sleep came quickly that night.
Chapter 15: Past
I could hardly get out of the bed the next morning. I forced myself to crawl out of bed and go down to the kitchen to satisfy my stomach’s need for food. It growled loudly but there wasn’t anyone around to hear it. Everyone had left already for the practice field.
For the second time I had to wash dishes before I had a bowl to eat cereal. Once I had my brand cereal and milk I curled up on the couch to doctor my bruises while I watched TV.
There was nothing on that I wanted to watch so I just stared at the wall and ate my brunch. Once I had finished I cleaned up everyone’s mess.