by S M Olivier
“Because you’re so busy pushing him away,” I finally snapped at Jemmy after Sierra’s face fell in hurt. She shouldn’t feel guilty because she was working on her relationship with Gavin. “Why are you taking out your insecurities on Sierra? Why are you so hell-bent on ruining your relationship? Gavin cares about you, and he’s trying, yet you belittle him and push him away—everyone away—every time you get a chance! You knew you had a connection out there. No one said it was going to be easy. All relationships need work, ours more so!”
“How do you guys have a right to tell me how I should act? You guys aren’t perfect. It’s like the pot calling the kettle black,” Jemmy snarled before storming away.
“Simulation terminated,” the robotic female voice stated.
I let out a frustrated yell as I slapped the stone wall.
“Relax,” Drake said soothingly as he embraced me from behind.
“How can I relax,” I bit out. “We’re damn near useless!”
“We came close to finishing the simulation several times,” Remy reassured me although I could see his own frustration in his eyes.
“One more time,” I said in determination.
“It’s past lunch,” Jaxson groaned dramatically as he rubbed his stomach.
“I’ll make something when we go back to the apartment,” Drake said. “We’ll run through it one more time, and then we can go get some lunch.”
“Okay, fine.” Jaxson sighed.
“One more time.” Jace turned and held up his pointer figure at the booth. Gavin and Sierra were no longer running through the simulations but had stayed and were currently up in the box with Darren and his coworkers. In fact, all the Knights had stayed, with the exception of Jemmy.
Since Christmas, we adopted the slogan One team, One fight. Sam and Marcel had really, really hated the PJs, but Dawn quickly guilted them into it with the slogan. Even though we were ‘wounded’ we were all still a team, and we were all fighting the same fight.
“We can do it this time,” Remy stated as he slid his helmet back on.
We began walking, waiting for the next obstacle to pop up. We didn’t have to wait long when a man popped out of from behind a large boulder. He held his hands up, and before I could figure out his gift, I was sent flying back into the simulated wall. Troy placed a carefully aimed kick to the man’s head, making the virtual man successfully disappear.
“Holy crap,” I cursed as I sat up, trying to breathe again. The wind was knocked out of me, and I was desperately trying to catch my breath. The suits were a little too accurate when it came to the pain we could receive.
“Are you okay?” Drake asked in concern.
“I’m fine,” I muttered angrily, mad at myself for not being on guard.
Drake and Jace helped me up.
“Maybe we should split up,” Remy suggested. “We know in this simulation we’re searching for a black box with a blue jewel on it.”
“Okay,” Jace said reluctantly. “Blake, Drake, and Troy you come with me. Remy, you have Jaxson and Noah.”
“Now you guys know how I feel without an active gift,” Noah said a bit smugly as he started to follow Remy.
Noah and Rachel came with us often on our missions. I didn’t realize how helpless they felt when the rest of us were actively using our gifts. “I want my gift back,” I muttered angrily as I started heading to my right.
It was crazy how realistic everything looked. With the helmet, we were transported to another place. Right now, we were in what appeared to be a museum. Gavin and the other designers must have done some extensive research, because it looked authentic, like I was really there and not in the cave of a mountain.
It was a plus that our helmets and clothing were lightweight and weren’t cumbersome, so we were able to move freely.
“We know the room is−” I began to say when Jace held his hand up. I clamped my mouth shut and realized that there were simulated people in the hallway in front of us. He pointed towards the corridor they were in.
I knew he assumed that the box was that way. Every time we encountered more than one person, it usually indicated that they were hiding or protecting something. We hadn’t found the items we were looking for this quickly before, so this seemed promising.
We crept forward, sticking to the walls and behind the sculptures and displays. Jace pointed to Drake and Troy at one point and mimicked running. Understanding dawned in their eyes, and they nodded. I knew he was hoping they could draw out the people. Hopefully, they’d take chase and we could go after them.
Jace pushed me back so we would be hidden better in the shadows, then nodded at Troy and Drake. They both stood up and took off running in the direction we had just come from. We waited in bated breath as the simulations ran after them. Jace held out his hand and counted down to a fist. We got up simultaneously and crept towards where they’d been lurking. We were still silent, just in case anyone else remained.
“Stacked Jax terminated,” the cool mechanical voice came over the sound system.
I grimaced, knowing the scenario had killed Jaxson. We had all put in unique usernames for ourselves, and Jaxson being Jaxson, had picked out that ridiculous name. Noah, Jace, Remy, and Troy refused to share their names with me, so I hadn’t told him what I had chosen.
“Dre. Critically injured,” the cool mechanical voice said moments later. Dre was the name Drake had chosen for himself.
I shuddered, glad that this was just a training exercise. It still spurred me forward. The sooner we retrieved the box, the sooner the simulation ended. We finally entered the room that we thought it was in and saw a tall ladder mounted on the wall on the other side of the room. The only issue was that the ladder was missing several rungs. The first rung was approximately ten feet off the ground.
We ran over there, and without hesitating, Jace hoisted me up. In the simulation, the helmet made us believe we were climbing a ladder in a museum. If we were to remove the helmets, the ladder might be there, but it was mounted on a rock face. We had already encountered other obstacles similar to this.
The cold rungs of the ladder felt weird beneath my fingertips. We had all been given gloves that had tiny wires running throughout them. Jemmy had already realized how realistic the pain was when she was goofing around earlier and stuck her head in a simulated fire. Even though the fire was non-existent, she still felt the pain of it. The wires tricked her brain into believing the sensation and injury were real.
When I climbed to the top of the ladder, I viewed the box to the right. It was sitting on a pedestal that was roughly four feet high. I hoisted myself up to the ledge above me and ran towards it, continually checking my footing. From previous simulations, I knew that if something looked too easy, it probably was. Gavin, Sierra, Darren, and the other techies had brilliantly hidden other traps within the simulations.
I stopped short when I noticed small sensors around it. I slowly approached it and saw the sensors were surrounding a ten-foot area. I had seen enough action movies to bolster my courage as I gingerly stepped over the first two sensors. I army-crawled through the next four. I climbed over the next set. Then ducked, stood, and ducked through the remaining two.
I could only imagine how crazy I must’ve looked to the techies and Gavin and Sierra. The cameras attached to our helmets displayed what we were seeing onto a monitor in the tech area. If a person was just watching us and not the monitor, it would probably look like I was doing a strange dance.
I stood up and reached the box. I picked it up and smiled triumphantly. My victory was short lived as I noticed the case it was sitting on turn red, and a countdown box appeared. I hastily set it back down and saw it turn green. I rubbed my forehead, trying to figure out how I could remove it without it turning red.
I gingerly took the box back off, and the countdown began once more. I placed my hand on it. So it was a pressure plate of sorts. I looked around for something to replace the box with other than my hand and…nothing.
The box and my boot were approximately the same weight. I removed my boot, conscious of the sensors right behind me. There was one way to test my theory out. With my boot in my left hand and my right hand poised over the box, I tried to quickly place the boot on the platform as I pulled the box up. It had only turned red for a split second.
I turned back around and looked down at Jace with a satisfied smile. I did my weird, awkward dance back through. As I got to the top of the ladder, I heard the cold, detached, robotic voice. “Simulation complete.”
I whooped loudly and removed my helmet. I looked down at Jace and blanched. I had climbed a lot higher than I thought I had, and the place I was standing was a lot narrower than I remembered. I looked back to where I had just come from.
“Are you freaking kidding me?” I yelled towards the booth. They were too far away from me, but I knew the mics in the helmet were directly connected to them. “I could have died!”
“Relax Ake,” Gavin’s laughing voice responded in my ear. “There are safety nets below.”
I looked over the ledge, and sure enough, there were safety nets, but I wished I would have known the position I was in before this. The place I retrieved the box from was even more precarious.
“Whoever designed this simulation is twisted,” I muttered. “Now, how am I supposed to get my boot back?”
“Put your helmet back on.” Gavin laughed wickedly, and I knew he was the one who designed this one. I could hear the laughter from the other spectators as well.
“You just want to see my wicked dance moves,” I said acerbically.
I heard laughter in my ears confirming my suspicions. “Oh, we have it on video,” Marcel said smugly.
“Yuck it up now,” I warned him. “When I get my gifts back, I have a list.”
“Bring it on! Now, dance for us,” Marcel responded.
I growled at him before I began to walk through the obstacle. One zap, and I knew I had to do as he said.
“Can we not go?” I groaned as we walked towards the training room. Today was sparring day, and I really didn’t want to go. I knew Adams was going to be there. She was still relentlessly pursuing Troy, and I was getting tired of her.
Our winter break from training had ended yesterday. Today would be the first day I’d see her since her return.
“Is your arm bothering you?” Remy asked in concern.
I shook my head, not wanting to lie. The doctor already cleared me to return to ‘light’ duty, not that that had stopped me. I still ran every day and lifted weights with Micah, Kade, and the guys every other day on top of continuing my private martial arts lessons with Troy and Kade. Admittedly I wasn’t pushing myself to the full extent, but I had been enjoying the fact that I hadn’t been down in over a week (knock on wood).
“Adams is back,” Troy stated grimly as he grabbed my hand.
“You’d think she would have gotten the picture by now,” Noah muttered as we entered the training room.
“Honestly,” Jaxson added.
We all filed in and noticed Terrance and his team were already in there. Since our ski trip, we weren’t considered an outcast as much. A lot of the Nons and newly discovered gifted liked to hang out with us more and more. We had already proven ourselves to most of them. They had grown to like us.
There were still people, like Adams, that always treated us like outsiders, but I think it mainly had to do with jealousy. Adams clearly liked my men, Troy in particular, but she hated me.
“Finally completed a simulation,” Terrance stated smugly as we joined them.
“Finally,” Jace admitted with a small smile.
We were close enough that teasing was a given. We weren’t going to take offense to it. He was able to use his gifts, along with the others on his team. He knew it was going to be a different story when or if we got our gifts back.
“It took you some time,” Marcel joked. “Sweet dance moves, by the way, Blake.” He shot me a wink. “Tonight, I’m going to find some music to go with it.”
I shot him a mock glare.
“Laugh it up now boys.” Jaxson frowned. “Wait until we get our gifts back.”
“If,” Jemmy said snidely. She was still hateful towards us. I probably owed her an apology, but she wouldn’t even look at me, and when I tried to talk to her, she had just walked away. I figured she needed time to cool down.
“When,” Dawn stated emphatically as she shot Jemmy a look.
“Okay guys and girls,” Henderson blew on his whistle as he walked into the room followed closely by a tall, distinguished looking man that had an Asian look to him. “Let’s get this training started the fun way. Sparring. I hope you all didn’t grow lazy over your holiday break,” he said gleefully.
Henderson was the primary trainer in mixed martial arts training. He was probably the only man here that could give Troy a run for his money in the ring as well. Unlike most of the people here, his whole family lived on base. He had two school-aged children, and his wife was one of the nurses here
His best friend had been killed in combat, protecting their unit. The friend had also been gifted and had shared his secret with Henderson. It was because of him that Henderson had such an affinity for our cause.
“That’s Kirk, my brother,” Ford said quietly from behind us.
I started and looked at him. I didn’t think the South Carolina team would come until tomorrow. I looked at his brother, then back at Ford. They had a lot of similarities, but Ford was slightly cuter, in my opinion. They both preferred to keep their hair short, but Ford was shorter and stockier.
“He would have come before the rest of them, knowing him,” Ford said in fond exasperation. “He’ll also try to infiltrate and jump into as much as possible. He’s intrusive like that.”
“This is the new co-trainer, Kirk Ford,” Henderson stated with a slight frown. I assumed he just had the news delivered to him, because normally, he would have been very welcoming. It was just his personality.
I looked at Ford with a smile, and he gave me a ‘I told you so’ look.
“Who would like to go first?” Henderson continued.
“Remy and I will go,” Terrance said gleefully, holding up his hand.
Remy shot him a pointed look. Terrance and Remy were equally big and tall. They were the two most prominent men I had ever seen. They were evenly matched, but I knew Remy had used his gifts in the past in the ring. He didn’t fully utilize it, but he applied it enough to thwart the other man so that he never won.
“Let’s go,” Henderson called out before backing out of the ring. He then began to quietly talk to Kirk Ford. I imagined he was telling him what the rules were.
Three two-minute rounds. Controlled kicks to the head were awarded two points. Shots to the body were worth one. If you put your opponent in a submissive hold, you got the point for every three seconds you successively held your opponent down. If you exited the ring, you got the point deduction. If you exited it three times, you were disqualified.
Remy stood, wrapped his hands, and made his way to the rings. We didn’t wear any protective gear except for wraps, cups for the men, and mouthpieces. Helmets were optional. We were supposed to use controlled force in all our movements.
“Good luck,” I murmured as I caressed his back.
He gave me one of his rare crooked grins as he entered the ring. Henderson held a thumb up to the scorekeepers, ring watchers, and the ref. They all held their thumbs back up to indicate that they were ready. Henderson blew the whistle, signifying the start of the match.
Terrance went in immediately with aggression. Remy was a large man but was quick on his feet. He was the man I ran with the most. He loved lifting weights, but cardio was just as important to him.
Remy feinted away from him and landed a solid kick to Terrance’s midsection.
Remy didn’t have the flexibility of Troy or even Noah, but he was capable of landing good solid kicks to the midsection. He was more into the brute strength of his hands and b
ody. He did most of his fighting on the mats, adopting a Jiu-Jitsu or Judo style. He had used the element of surprise to his benefit, awarding him his first point.
Terrance grunted and turned, sweeping Remy’s feet out from under him. Again, despite his size, Remy was deceiving. He rolled with agile grace and wrapped his legs around Terrance’s waist before he could touch him, then flipped him over to his back. He lifted himself up and put Terrance into a choke hold, taking him down. Terrance struggled against him and made an astounding effort to try and break the hold, but Remy tucked his chin to his chest, making it harder for Terrance to find a grip and reverse it.
I watched with bated breath, counting silently to three. In my head, I cheered when the point was awarded to Remy.
Terrance twisted and used the momentum of his lower body to break the hold Remy had on him, scrambling to his feet. Remy jumped back up and immediately went in with more solid punches and kicks to Terrance’s midsection before Terrance was able to take him down to the mats and get his first point. By the end of the match, Remy was up by three points. They continued beating on each other and putting each other into submissive holds, making it a pretty even challenge.
I was happy when Remy beat him by two points by the end of the match. It had been entertaining, to say the least.
“Okay, girls,” Henderson blew his whistle. “I’m tired of watching these men sweat. Time to see some of you out here. Who’s first?”
“I want to see a rematch between Adams and Thomas,” one of Adams’ friends called out, looking smugly at me.
Somehow, I knew it was coming. Adams and her friends had been whispering and looking in my direction a lot this afternoon. They weren’t privy to my loss of gifts, but I knew they had noticed my absence from training. Plus the rumor had circulated about me being sick. I didn’t think anyone except for my immediate family and friends knew about the cause of my mysterious affliction.
“If she won’t use her gifts, that is.” Adams smirked as she looked at me. I knew she was implying that that was the only way I had won last time.
“She has a doctor’s note for light training only,” Remy stated to Henderson, indicating my arm. I was dressed in a black, racerback tank top, so my white dressing was clearly visible. I still had it wrapped because it was nasty looking. I hadn’t taken a pain pill the last two days, fighting through the slight pain it gave me from time to time.