Powered Personnel: The Big Startup

by K. A. Maxwell

  "I'm sure you do." Trens chuckled and gave himself a bit more personal space.

  "Did you see how the commander looked at me?"

  Ebony followed the voice to its source, on the other side where the rest of the recruits were. Among them was a Brewin named Orsi, the grizzliest out of the group, and next to him was a Falcan, Angela Bailey, who kept her attention on preening her wings.

  "She took a long look at you during onboarding and she did not look happy," warned the hoofed and horned Gotefalk, Meng Jyolte.

  "You messed up, laughing at that Silvan," said Jace Regdab, rubbing his chin with his long black claws, a Badgen.

  "I couldn't help it. No way was she a superhero. She doesn't look the part at all." The report of Wyne Thomas said he was Botanese, but she wasn't so sure as she saw similar looks in other plant-based races.

  "I don't think it's that big of a deal. She's a director, so she's going to make way more credits than any of us are."

  The other recruits nodded in agreement; Bridget frowned at that. Any person chosen by elder Hilda Artemis deserved more respect than that.

  "Do you think we're going to fight Commander Ebony today?" asked Orsi.

  "She ain't the psychic type. She's way more physical, so we need to sneak up on her." The white furred, female Puman Laura Aranda said.

  "If she's all heavy and dense, we just have to ground her," said Regdab.

  "How?" asked Jyolte.

  "I ain't got a clue. I haven't fought against a Nyxazon before," said Aranda.

  "I can distract her," said Thomas. "Women like her are all rough and hard on the outside, but soft and tender on the inside."

  That declaration made Ebony snap her attention to him for a microsecond, then turn away before anyone noticed.

  "You believe that?" said Bailey while having a shaft of a feather in between her beak. "Lots of Amazon Elf races. The Nyxazon gap is the biggest."

  "It doesn't matter," said Thomas. "I think she's falling for me. Do you wonder why she'd be in awe of my beautiful personal arrangement?"

  Bailey folded her wings back. "I don't want to know," and turned away from Thomas.

  "You're no fun. It's because Amazonian Elves of all races and stripes appreciate their natural environments and habitats, that includes Nyxazons."

  "You're going to try to take her out for lunch after all? Can you even afford tha-aa-at?" asked Jyolte.

  "There's plenty of all-you-can-eat buffets around the city."

  "Dude, they don't offer that to everyone and it's obvious why they wouldn't for Ebony just by looking at her," said Baijar.

  "I'll find a way. We can't give up so easily in the face of a challenge, right?"

  Ebony rolled her eyes and growled. Even organic men on faraway planets were pigs.

  "Taking bets. How long will he last?" said Bailey.

  "One second," Jyolte said.

  "Half a second," Baijar said.

  Arnada sneered. "Grrrowl. Dead on arrival."

  "I'm hurt," said Thomas. He held out a palm, and a bud bloomed into a rose. "I'm a gentleman of many talents. I will outlast your predictions through the art of chivalry and strategy. Under all that muscle lies a hopeless romantic who wants to explore the depths of my forests. I have the right skills and talent to capture her, you know."

  Ebony tightened her jaw, and the ground shook as her boot sank a full foot through the asphalt. Everyone went silent for a moment while Ebony stumbled forward. If it wasn't for her dark skin, they would have noticed her flushed face. She kept her face stoic; because a warrior never, ever shows weakness in front of their adversaries.

  "Did you see tha-aa-at? She drilled her boot into the ground like it was cardboard," exclaimed Jyolte.

  "Don't worry about that; the evidence is there. Smell my blooms, they're so sweet just like yours truly. She won't resist," said Thomas.

  "You should rethink that." The ten-foot tall rock giant Alan Stonhart spoke in a gentle but deep voice.

  "Why?"

  Stonhart patted his pocket, which held the tickets to the Nyazonian Knights game. "She has super-hearing, remember?"

  At least four of the recruits' heart rates jumped after that realization.

  They reached a clearing about the size of three football field's length and width. At each side of the field were three house sized cubes.

  "Computer, activate field configuration 'recruit-1,' authorization Ebony-335," said Ebony.

  Each of the white cubes hissed and unfolded themselves into smaller blocks until they bordered the field. Once the blocks settled, they hummed, and a blue light shot under and across the field as well as up. The ground shook and some parts of it rose to form high hills while others dropped down forming a multi-level terrain. In another corner, trees popped up and formed a forest.

  Once the field was assembled, she led the group to its center. "All right, recruits, we'll start with a little bit of a warm-up before the real challenge arrives."

  Motivation was key to getting them to do their best and be showy, so they could make sloppy mistakes and show their weaknesses. She had hoped to do that in a team-on-team challenge, but she could improvise. Ebony reached down to her belt, which had a small red light on it and pushed a button, turning the light green. With that, a pressure around her body released. Her hair moved with the wind and she took a refreshing breath.

  "Yeah, that's more like it." With the next couple of steps she took, the ground split apart and sent tremors through the field, sending a couple of the recruits falling to the ground. Jyolte struggled to get back up, his legs trembling.

  Ebony resisted a smirk. "Sorry, I had to make sure the anti-gravity field was deactivated properly, and my real weight was released. I can't fly with it on."

  Ebony took a breath and hovered a few inches off the ground. "Your warm-up challenge is to come at me and score a clean hit. That's simple enough. I'll even stay on ground level. You can do this on your own, in groups, or you can all come at me all at once. But if I take you down, you're out. We'll do this over and over until your opponents arrive and then the real fun begins. Are you r—"

  Ebony stopped as her ears picked up scrapes on the ground. Her nose caught something fishy. Her perception sped up, and she turned. Chandroni charged right at her from behind, fist pulled back in slow motion. Ebony hovered around her at super-speed, then let her perception return to normal speed as Chandroni's fist thrust through air, before she tripped her up. Chandroni rolled on the ground and back to her feet, then charged again. Behind Ebony, Trens was only a couple feet away. Ebony sped up her perception again, and looked at Chandroni, cheeks puffed up, chest up, lips pursed. Ebony dodged to the side and covered her ears. The high-pitched scream blasted Trens instead, and he crashed into Chandroni. Ebony tapped them on their backs. "Out, both of you," she said.

  "Good," said Trens.

  A rumble came from below, and the Heun sisters burst out of the ground. By the Goddess, did these six have this strategy even before the challenge? With four arms per sister, Ebony had sixteen fists heading her way from all directions, but they were all airborne. Ebony landed and stomped on the ground, sending a plume of dirt into the air. The sisters flinched while Ebony struck them one by one and eliminated them from the challenge.

  She ducked, avoiding claws from both Arnada and Regdab. As they both swiped again, she reached out, grabbed their arms, and pulled them to the ground. When she turned around, Jyolte stood in front of her, at first with a blank expression on his face. Ebony stood still. Jyolte didn't move, he just stood there, just looking at her.

  "Recruit? Are you okay?" Ebony asked.

  Jyote continued to stand still, eyes forward for a good five seconds. Ebony looked up and down at his body and couldn't spot any visible injuries. She ramped up her hearing to check on his vitals. His breathing was heavy, heart rate elevated. Was he nervous?

  "Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaoooou!" Jyolte screamed. With her hearing sensitivity high, it was like being blasted by a speaker at a music concer
t. She staggered two steps back with hands on ears while Jyolte lunged at her, horns first. Ebony's boots sank inches into the ground with each step and could only shift side-to-side as Jyolte's horns skimmed across her hair, narrowly missing. She kept stepping back as Jyolte's head thrust forward and back like a piston. By her eighth step, the ground was at knee height and she had left a trench of dirt in front of her. Jyolte stopped, looked up, and jumped back as a shadow loomed over. Stonhart was airborne and was about to land right on top of her. Ebony raised her arms up and like a giant ball, she caught the stone giant, then pressed him up higher.

  "You're a lightweight, Stonhart," said Ebony.

  Orsi roared and charged right at Ebony. She shifted as best she could toward him and pulled her arms back. Orsi spotted this and tried to stop, but too late. Ebony tossed Stonhart right at Orsi, knocking them both down. Then she shifted toward Jyolte and pounded the ground with her fists. The impact knocked him down and helped her get back up. Of the recruits remaining, only Thomas stayed on the ground, watching with an expectant smile, with Bailey airborne, circling around the area.

  "Jyolte had you,” said Bailey. “He should have kept going."

  "That was an awesome strategy,” said Ebony. “He caught me off-guard and exploited my hearing and body weight. Did you guys plan that out too?"

  Bailey shook her head. "You should go after Thomas. You can't fly right now. Touch me up here, you break the rules. You are honorable."

  Ebony thought about it for a moment, then an idea came to her. Something she saw one of her rugby sisters do one time after seeing it in a superhero movie. It should work. She just had to make sure she didn't do it too hard.

  "You're right. I can't touch you. You're also pretty awesome." She raised her hands up in the air and gave the winged recruit applause. Each clap increased in power to the point of shaking the ground. The other recruits who had gotten back to their feet struggled to keep their balance as shockwaves boomed from the hands of the commander. Bailey, to her credit, flapped and rotated around the turbulence but struggled to keep airborne. Ebony opened her arms up wide and slammed her hands together, sending a blast of air which slammed into Bailey and sent her spiraling down. Ebony flew to catch the Falcan in her arms and set her down on the ground.

  "Glad I flew now, Recruit?" teased Ebony.

  "You're too much, Commander," said Bailey.

  Ebony looked back up to see Thomas and flew toward him. "You're the only one left. Why didn't you attack during all of that?"

  "I wanted you all to myself, because I knew all along I could win you over," he replied as he bowed and grew a rose in his hand. "I wanted to profess my adoration of your beauty and invite you out for some all-you-can-eat."

  "If you can beat me," said Ebony.

  "Lieutenant-Commander Ebony." Another security officer with the name "Wats" on his uniform led another group of security officers onto the field. He had brown fur with zig-zagged blond highlights across his head. He was a couple inches shorter than Ebony, with a solid, lean build, large thick ears, dark eyes, and a tail. Beside him was another Puman, blue-eyed, orange and white-furred with black stripes. She stood a couple inches taller than Ebony with a lean, athletic build and sported a short pixie cut black hair with light brown highlights.

  "Lieutenant Wats and Lieutenant Gatti. You're late," said Ebony.

  "Sorry about that, Commander," replied Wats.

  She observed the veterans, eight of them, including a female human who had a large rifle on her back. Ebony nodded at the ensign. The ensign stood up straighter and shivered.

  "At ease, Ensign," said Ebony.

  She eyed the other vets, who also stood at attention to her. A couple of them breathed heavily, and with her super-hearing, she picked up elevated heartbeats. They overall looked disheveled with slightly red eyes.

  "You guys look tired. What happened?"

  "We just got back from a long mission, sir," said Wats.

  "No one told me about it."

  "The mission intel was on a need to know basis, sir,” said Gatti. “Captain's orders."

  Ebony shrugged. “I'd very much like to know, especially if it made you guys this tired. But, if you can't share, I won't press it. Are you guys still up for testing recruits?”

  Lieutenant Gatti peered behind Ebony. "I think it's more of whether they can handle us, even as tired as we are."

  Ebony snickered. "Come on, Gatti. They made it through a warm up with me. They have plenty left in them."

  Gatti folded her arms. “They better, I wouldn't want them to lose so easily like the last bunch.”

  At this, Gatti glanced up at the recruits and eyed them, then made a deep growl which made some of them shift backwards, including the White Puman.

  Wats sighed. “Lieutenant, stop intimidating the recruits.”

  “Sorry, sir, instincts,” said Gatti.

  A rose hit Ebony in the head and bounced off harmlessly.

  "Got you, Commander. I win," said Thomas.

  "Recruit. The warm-up ended already," said Ebony.

  "But sir, you didn't say it was over. So, I got you fair and square."

  Enough was enough.

  "Recruit..." Ebony sighed.

  "You g...o...t..."

  Ebony ramped up her speed again and casually speed-walked on the ground around him, giving each step a good, solid touch. Once she finished, she slowed back to normal.

  "…hit gah—"

  The force she put in along with her super speed made a shallow hole in the ground before Thomas realized and fell in. The vets snickered.

  "Recruit. Look around at how much damage I did in the time you said that. I could have done that to you anytime I wanted."

  "Hang on. I was—"

  "And you didn't even bother attacking or helping your teammates."

  "He didn't do what?" said Wats.

  "You don't know everything," Thomas muttered.

  Ebony sighed, and in a blink, floated in front of Thomas.

  "Since I don't know everything, recruit, maybe you can teach me a lesson."

  Ebony pointed at her ears and folded her arms.

  Thomas stood up straight. "I didn't mean it."

  "Recruit, I had my eye on you ever since onboarding when you laughed at that new director. What do you think her first impression of you will be if you meet with her? What if you're with a customer who has a much higher power level and you upset them? Then, what are you going to do?"

  "Run and call for backup?"

  "Too late for that," Ebony said, and got into a fighting stance. "Recruit. I'm that angry customer. You're going to fight me."

  Thomas stumbled back from Ebony. "But that's not fair."

  Ebony advanced. "Tell that to the civilian you pissed off by dissing their friends and family. Maybe you should show some discipline next time."

  "I'm disappointed, recruit," said Wats, and walked up next to Ebony. "If I were your CO, you'd be off the team. There's no place for anyone in the force who doesn't show respect for others and most of all, doesn't support their teammates."

  Thomas looked at the other recruits. "Come on guys, you know I was going to support you, right?"

  No one on the recruits' side said anything to back him up. Most of them looked indifferent about it. Arnada and Bailey glared daggers at him.

  "Guys?" Thomas cried.

  Gatti walked up to join Ebony and Wats, arms folded and added her glare onto Thomas. "Commander, I think the recruit should see what he's really up against. You should fight him in your normal form, full power."

  Some gasps came from the others.

  Ebony winced. "What? Goddess, even as I am now, it's too much for him. Why should I transform?"

  "She's right, Commander," said Wats. "I'm not sure how he passed the attitude part of the screening process, but he needs straightening out right now. He needs to experience the consequence of his actions by facing someone extremely high-powered in combat, because if this happened in the field, it might c
ost him more than just his ego."

  Striking fear into a recruit that much wasn't to Ebony's liking. Clearly that was Gatti's style, but considering the guy's behavior and how much of a pig he was…

  "All right, give me a minute in the sky while I transform. Hang tough recruits, I'll be right back," said Ebony.

  "No. Wait, commander." Gatti reached out and held her shoulder. "You should do it here, transform right in front of him. The experience has to be exactly how it would happen in public. He needs to experience that, so he really gets the message."

  "The field's dampening power isn't near enough to shoulder the pressure while I transform. I'll put the entire city in danger if I do it here."

  "If I remember, there's a technique other Nyxazons use to reduce their power output while transforming," Wats said. "Mainly, slowing down the transformation process. If you can transform slowly enough, you can probably limit the collateral damage to just this field."

  "I've heard about slowing the transformation to lower the power output, but I've never tried it,” said Ebony. “Maybe I should do it over five minutes. No, it still seems like a bad idea to do it here."

  "Please Commander, I have never seen how you look when you're normal before," said a demon, Ensign Zurach.

  "Me neither, I only saw normal Nyxazons on TV." said Cadet Merisa, a Vixxin with three bushy tails and pointy ears on her head.

  “Commander, you are the most powerful security officer on campus and the fact he's not respecting you fully is an insult,” said Gatti and stepped forward. “Forget it, I'll fight him instead and I will teach him properly.”

  Ebony blocked Gatti and leaned in close. “Stand down, and don't overstep Lieutenant, I am in command here.”

  Gatti stood her ground and stared right at Ebony, a growl escaped her and then stepped back. “Yes, sir.”

  Ebony floated back in front of Thomas. "All right, new plan, Recruit. A game to test your endurance. You're going to stay right here and deal with me directly as I shift back to normal. Use all of your abilities to try to stop me from transforming. If you can do it, you won't have to fight me. But, if I complete my transformation, whatever tiny chance you have now, will be toast. Got it?" She flashed him a confident smile. "Good luck."