Marking Territory: An Awakened Novel (The Rising Storm Book 1)

by N. L. Paradox

  “So today,” the man said as he got close enough to talk with shouting, “we’re going to actually let you play around with your powers. I’m guessing neither of you have had a chance to really cut loose.” When both teens indicated a negative, the man nodded in conjunction with his own confirmation. “We’re going to do that today to give you a better idea of just what you can do. Of course, there are going to be some rules that will be followed to the letter,” he finished in what was certainly the commanding voice he’d made use of during his time in the Rangers. “First and foremost, only one of you will take part in this exercise at any given time. If the pair of you got out there and started slinging energy weapons every which way, you’re guaranteed to slice one another in half.”

  Kitty readily nodded since that very fear is what had kept her from doing any kind of substantial practice with her knives up to this point. “Neither of us has a problem with that,” she said, “but even if only one of us is using our power at any given time, what’s to prevent one of us from slipping or tripping or something and doing exactly that?”

  “Good question,” he said with a smile. “While one of you is practicing, myself and the individual waiting their turn will be up there.”

  Following where he was pointing, Kitty noticed that there was some kind of a window built into the wall high above the floor. It wasn’t very big, but it would provide a completely unobstructed view of the entire gym’s interior. “This entire building,” he continued to explain, “has multiple layers of protection built into its walls to ensure that there aren’t any incidents of wild fire. In other words…”

  “During the building’s construction, all of the materials used during construction of the base structure were infused with protective magical properties. This would likely be done to prevent any kind of magical effect from escaping it and thus turning this building into a contained unit. What?” Kitty asked with a shrug when both Link and Gunny looked at her with slightly widened eyes. “It’s not like it was hard to figure out.”

  “In any case,” Gunny went on with a good-natured chuckle, “that observation room is part of that protection built into Cain Hall, so we’ll be completely protected there.”

  “How can you be so sure?” Link asked cautiously.

  Now, Gunny’s grin grew wider and even a touch mischievous. “You’ve got pretty good range with your bow, right?”

  “I’ve maxed out at three hundred meters,” Link replied without hesitation.

  “Go ahead and take a shot at the window.”

  Both Link and Kitty looked at one another in cautious disbelief. While mind reading wasn’t one of her powers, she imagined Link was thinking the same thing as she was. This was proven to be correct when he hesitantly said, “Ummm, Mr. Sheppard, you said rule one was that only one of us was to be down here when we were using our powers.”

  “Very good,” the former Ranger said approvingly, “but in this singular situation, I’m allowing for an exception. Don’t do anything fancy, just fire one arrow at the window.”

  Nodding, and clearly still unsure about what was happening, Link moved well away from the teacher and his fellow student before bringing his rather unique bow into existence in his hand. Lifting his other hand, he moved it into what would traditionally be the ready position prior to drawing back the bow string and arrow notched in it.

  The moment his hand had attained this position, an incredibly thin and bright string of energy appeared, reaching from one tip of the bow to the opposite. There was also a simple arrow notched to this ‘string’, also made of the same, brilliant energy. Tilting the weapon up, Link drew back on the arrow with practiced skill before releasing it and letting it fly.

  While it only took perhaps a second to travel the distance, Kitty watched as the arrow struck the window dead center. However, instead of the arrow punching right through it and leaving a tiny, arrow-sized hole still smoking from the intensely hot energy, the arrow simply… vanished. No big explosion, no rippling of energy, it was simply gone.

  “Satisfied?” Gunny asked with a note of pride in his voice. When both teens nodded the man looked to Link. “Since you’ve already got your weapon out Link, you can go first. Kitty, come with me.”

  A short time later, Gunny and Kitty were standing at the window of the observation room, which was far more technological than Kitty had expected. Instead of being a simple, empty room, save for perhaps a couple of chairs, the walls were lined with touch screen interfaces, digital readouts, audio and video recording systems, and more. Directly below the window itself was a rather extensive touch panel that seemed to indicate the user could initiate any number of commands and activate what appeared to be… traps?

  “Mr. Sheppard,” Kitty asked in mild wonder as she looked around, “what is all of this?”

  “This facility isn’t only for fey with yours and Link’s specific abilities. It’s for any student who wants or needs combat training when it comes to their powers. We have a number of automated systems that will simulate anything from simple target practice to an active opponent or opponents. A couple of students nicknamed it ‘The Danger Room’, something having to do with comic books, but its purpose is for more than just combat training.”

  “Oh?” Kitty asked with genuine curiosity while also watching Link waiting patiently down on the ground level.

  Nodding, Gunny delayed in answering her question by getting on the PA system and saying, “Okay Link, go ahead and just fire at will for right now and get warmed up.”

  With a nod, Link brought his bow back into existence and, without any hesitation, began slinging arrows all over the room. To the casual observer, it looked like the boy was just haphazardly firing every which way. To Kitty’s eye, however, she was able to recognize that he was moving in such a way that wasn’t random at all. In fact, while she was no expert in the area, it almost looked as though he was doing some kind martial arts weapon’s kata.

  “As I was saying,” Gunny said, pulling the brunette’s attention partially away from the display below, “we use this facility for more than combat training. We also use it to simulate emergency situations as well as team-based exercises as well. You might want to consider signing up for a couple of those with your friends.”

  While she’d split her attention between her instructor and her fellow student below, that comment had her completely forgetting about Link for the moment. “Excuse me?”

  “From what I hear,” the ex-Ranger said, “the three of you would make quite the squad. You can switch between medium range and close combat, Aiden pretty much has a lock on recon and close combat, and Ashley would…”

  “Out of the question,” Kitty stated flatly, not at all concerned that she was cutting off the instructor. “First, Aiden has no need for healing support because she takes care of that all on her own. Second, and far more important, Ashley is not a warrior. She is the sweetest, kindest, and most non-violent person we’ve ever known. You have no idea how long it took for her to want to learn even a low impact martial art like Aikido just to defend herself. You want to classify Aiden and even me in a combat capacity, fine, but not Ashley. Never Ashley.”

  Whether it was because of the steadily growing firmness in her voice, or the fiery determination within her eyes, the combat instructor didn’t hesitate to nod his understanding. “Fair enough,” he said, not indicating that Kitty’s small tirade had affected him in the slightest, “though you may want to consider having the three of you participate in some emergency response training.”

  “I told you…”

  “Not combat,” Gunny said, now the one to cut off the other, “emergency response. I’m assuming Ashley wants to go into the medical field, correct?”

  “Human or animal, she hasn’t decided yet,” Kitty confirmed.

  “Well, we have several training sessions that involve responding to various emergency situations that might happen and how you can use your abilities to help. No combat involved.”

  Consid
ering it for a moment, Kitty lightly rubbed the underside of her chin with her knuckle in thought. “That might be something Aiden and Ashley would be interested in. I’ll talk to them and see what they have to say.”

  Nodding in approval, Gunny turned and, without any warning, started activating various protocols on the touch panel. Kitty watched as five different targets popped up in the combat area in various locations ranging from the floor to the wall to even the ceiling.

  Just as Gunny was reaching for the PA, likely to tell Link to try to hit the targets, the teen spun around and, without a moment’s hesitation, let loose with a flurry of arrows. To Kitty, it almost looked like something out of an action movie. Link’s posture was such that his weight was evenly distributed while allowing for quick, lateral movements if necessary. His hands were steady as he fired one arrow after the other, each one piercing the exact center of its target before hitting the wall and dissipating.

  Nodding his approval, Gunny activated another batch of targets which Link just as quickly and easily eliminated. This went on for another ten minutes, with no set of targets ever popping up in the same place twice. By the time Gunny called a halt to the exercise, Link was panting from the effort, seemed to barely be able to stay on his feet, and his bow disappeared almost immediately. Whether it was because of the use of his power or the sheer physical effort, it was clear Link was exhausted.

  “Nice job Link,” Gunny called out over the PA, “bullseye on every shot. Why don’t you come on up and take a break.” Switching off the intercom, the ex-Ranger looked over at Kitty and nodded that she should go down and take Link’s place.

  Now that she had an idea of what was going to happen, the girl practically ran down the stairs, not even saying hello as she zoomed past Link and raced out into the combat room. No sooner had the door closed she cast her eyes up at the observation window with an obvious look of giddy anticipation.

  “All right Kitty,” Gunny said with a laugh in his voice, “go ahead and start.”

  Her lips curling into a smile, the brunette activated her power and did something she had been longing to do for months.

  She let loose.

  Energy blade after energy blade zipped through the air as she hurled her magical weapons, each one streaking through the air until they either struck a wall and dissipated or traveled approximately thirty feet before falling to the ground and vanishing. It was fun, but what Kitty was really waiting for was the chance to engage some actual targets.

  “Come on,” she grumbled, tossing another blade in a clearly bored manner.

  The only thing that saved Kitty was, while turning to throw another blade, she caught faint movement in the corner of her eye. Completing her turn, the girl blinked in shock as an orangish-red, human shaped… thing was streaking right at her. She barely had enough time to dive out of the way. Even then, despite her fey-enhanced agility, the thing still caught her soundly on the hip and sent her careening across the floor.

  “You didn’t think I would make it that easy did you?” Gunny asked with a smile in his voice while Link could be heard laughing in the background.

  “Oh bring it on,” Kitty growled, scrambling to her feet and lowering into a slight crouch before carefully scanning the room.

  For several seconds, there wasn’t a single trace of movement in the large area. A frown of disappointment was just beginning to form when a very faint sound, almost like the whirring of a motor, reached her ears… from behind.

  Acting purely on instinct, Kitty dove to the side, contorting herself so she could roll across the floor and easily spring up to her feet. As she did, she saw the human-shaped object that now could be identified as some kind of target dummy, racing across the floor. She noted with some curiosity that while there was no visible track, the target dummy was attached to some kind of mental post that actually went into the floor.

  This was only observed in a vague sense since her active attention was focused on her fleeing target. Not wasting another moment, Kitty generated an energy knife and hurled it at the dummy’s head. While the blade flew straight, true, and fast, it ended up only clipping the dummy on the shoulder and slicing about a three-inch gash into it.

  “Goddammit!” Kitty muttered to herself, generating another blade for each hand in preparation for her next target. She didn’t need to wait long, as suddenly, three dummies popped up out of the floor (how the hell did they do that?) and began racing at her from three different directions.

  This time, however, the young brunette was ready. Since it was obvious that these dummies could be controlled and thus, their direction of travel altered at the wishes of whoever was in the control center, Kitty decided on a different tactic. Instead of waiting for them, she charged at what she deemed the closest one. Now on the offensive, she used her considerable agility to leap over the first dummy, twisting in mid-air so that she was able to stab it in the back. The movement was awkward, and she almost ended flat on her ass, but her blade struck true and her target fell too and then through the floor.

  Being so close to it this time, Kitty was able to see that a very precisely shaped section of the floor opened just before the dummy made contact with it, allowing the target to fall through and then instantly closing behind it, all in the span of perhaps a second.

  So that’s how it works, Kitty thought with a smile as she whirled towards the next target. While it was still racing towards her, the girl’s previous actions of charging her first target had allowed her to put some distance between them. This time, she was able to take her time and send an energy blade streaking through the air far more precisely than before. It struck the dummy in the torso as opposed to the head like she was aiming for, but it was still a solid hit that had the target falling through the floor.

  That left the last target, which was closing in fast on her right. Because of the time she’d taken dispatching her first two targets, the third was able to gain ground rather quickly. By the time she’d taken care of target number two, number three had closed the distance between them and Kitty knew she would be far too off-balanced to make an accurate throw. Instead, she merely pivoted, generated two energy knives, and leaped directly at the dummy before plunging her blades into its chest as hard as she could.

  For a moment, Kitty thought the dummy might have been programmed with human reaction sounds because it seemed like the thing was actually crying out. That was, until she realized that furious, primal scream of victory was exploding from her own mouth. She even postured with her blades held out to the side, glaring at the dummy and continuing to shout out her success in battle while the target fell back and collapsed through the floor.

  “A rough start,” Gunny said through the intercom, “but not a terrible finish. You feel up for some…”

  His words were cut off when an energy blade came flying at the observation window, vanishing just as its tip touched the glass. “Quit talking and give me some more dummies to slice up!” Kitty yelled with a kind of manic glee.

  More than happy to oblige, Gunny initiated another program and Kitty soon found herself assaulted from all sides. This time, however, the young fey wasn’t caught flat-footed and slowly began to work herself into a frenzied, yet acrobatic series of movements that had her slicing, stabbing, and hurling energy blades at targets in a dizzying spectacle of combat. The feeling of cutting loose like this was so exhilarating she couldn’t keep the wild grin off her face as she cut down her opponents like wheat. That faint whirring she’d come to know so well by this point sounded behind her, and without hesitation, Kitty spun and slashed out with one of her blades held in a reverse grip. The blade cleaved through the target’s throat with absolutely zero resistance, and as the head lazily fell backwards Kitty saw…

  “Ashley!” she screamed in horror, feeling her heart stop and then begin to wither away in her chest as her friend’s beautiful, smiling face tumbled away from her. It wasn’t until the image winked away to be replaced the blank, featureless one belonging to the targ
et dummy that Kitty found she was able to breathe again.

  “Power down Kitty.”

  Kitty heard Gunny’s command via the PA system dimly over the roaring that had filled her ears. Still quite firmly held in the grip of abject panic at the idea that she had potentially just slaughtered her friend, her blades winked out of existence, though not due to any kind of conscious thought. No sooner had they vanished, the girl sank to her knees and then to all fours, as she began frantically trying to suck oxygen into her temporarily deprived lungs. Each ragged breath she sucked in trembled with sobs that threatened to explode out of her at any moment.

  “Do you know why I did that?”

  Slowly lifting her eyes, the teen experienced a moment of complete and utter hatred towards the man currently peering down at her with a look of such sickening superiority. It actually took everything she had not to generate one of her blades and plunge it straight through his eyeball. “Because you’re a sick asshole,” she ground out.

  Shaking his head, Gunny extended a hand down to her, waiting until the girl reluctantly accepted it and drew her to her feet. “I did it to show you just what can happen if you lose control like that. You and Link possess some of the deadliest weapons in the world. They can cut or pierce practically anything, and you can never be disarmed. While it might seem fun to play around with your power like you two did, you both need to remember just how lethal you can be, even to people you love.”

  “So, why didn’t you give Link the same mind fuck?” Kitty demanded, ignoring the way her classmate winced at the curse.

  To his credit, the ex-Ranger didn’t take issue with the language, instead speaking to her calmly and rationally. “Because Link didn’t lose it the way you did. He might have looked like he was all over the place, but he was focused and in control the entire time.”

  “Yeah, I did notice that,” she mumbled dejectedly.

  “It’s because I’ve practiced, a lot,” Link explained when she looked over at him. “Even before I Awakened, I was bow hunting since I was a kid, so I’ve got more than a little experience.”