Citadel (Book 1): Training in Necessity

by Clevenger, J.

  He could be hurt, maybe even killed.

  Jason's ongoing contortions brought Hector into the center of his field of view.

  * * *

  Jenny was lost in the music. Its grip was getting stronger all the time.

  She leapt straight up, legs spread wide, and planted both hands on the top of Kerry's head. She used the extra height that bought her to roll forward, twisting as she went. Jenny was able to get a grip on one of the stubby spines that ran down the center of Kerry's back.

  Even as she tried to figure out how she'd done that, she fished in one of the pouches on her belt. The movements didn't seem to track. She retrieved one of her slap charges. It was roughly the size and shape of a sponge, one side red and the other blue. Jenny released her grip and slapped the charge against Kerry's neck as she fell. The red half contained a quick acting adhesive, enough to hold the device in place for a few seconds.

  As she landed on her feet, knees flexing and arms outspread, Jenny heard the shaped charge go off. Kerry screamed in pain. Her flailing limbs and tail crashed into furniture and shattered the floor. Jenny wanted to stop, run back into the vault and hide, but the music wouldn't let her. Its tempo was building, pushing her forward.

  She sprinted towards her fallen teammates, making no attempt to avoid Kerry's oncoming tail. Instead of crushing her head, it vanished as the dragon died. For a moment, she wanted to break down and whimper, then she was caught up in the music and everything was okay.

  * * *

  Sammy steadied her light weight rifle, taking a moment to line up her shot. She liked the pistols better, but they weren't accurate past ninety two feet, close enough to let him see her. Instructor Bruce said they had a lot of penetrating power but she didn't know if they'd be able to get through Michael's forcefields. Luckily, as long as Michael didn't know she was there, Sammy wouldn't have to find out. She squeezed the trigger on her rifle, dropping the gun as soon as she heard the shot.

  The Jordan type's knee shattered and Sammy appeared, hovering above him. She held two pistols, one pointed at each of his eyes.

  "Bang, you're dead." she said, doing her best not to squeal with joy.

  "Aaah!" he screamed, clutching at his leg. "Motherfucker, that hurts!"

  "You're dead Michael, drop the shields or I'll have to shoot the other one." Wow, she sounded totally badass.

  "They're down." he gasped out.

  Satisfied, Sammy shot straight up, stopping near the top of the dome, and took a second to scan the area. All the Hectors in sight were either taking cover or moving towards one of the dome's exits. This thing really was huge. How did it stay up? It didn't seem like stone should be strong enough to support a dome with a radius of thirteen thousand one hundred and ninety two feet.

  "Woops," she muttered to herself, "can't get distracted like that, not anymore."

  She didn't see Fred or Kerry, thank God, she really didn't wanna have to fight her. Just flying had turned out to be more effective than she'd ever dreamed... but still, dragon. Anna was down and so was Jason; she could see a Hector clone lying between them. Jenny was running towards Kelly so-

  "Wait, Kelly? What the-?"

  Not stopping to think, she pointed her left pistol, squeezed, then rushed forward as quickly as she could.

  * * *

  The tentacle whip worked perfectly, though Kelly was still having trouble getting her transformed arms to do anything else. She switched back to her regular form, well, her regular form plus a few of the upgrades she'd been working on with Instructor Bruce.

  The paralytic drug he'd had her store seemed to be working on Anna. Good thing, too, Kelly had been shocked at how much of a fight the other girl had put up. Everyone said she was only near the top of the rankings because of a fluke but... Wow, that had been really good for someone without physical powers. She felt pretty bad about Jason though. He seemed to be... kinda weak, like Sammy, but without all the scouting and stuff that flying would let her do.

  Her gaze fell on Hector. His duplicate? Whatever. Fred had come up with a really good plan but she wasn't... comfortable with it. Especially the part where she'd pretended to be someone else. It made sense, give the other guys the wrong idea about who they were up against, but she hated-

  Hector's head exploded and she went blind. She staggered forward, her hands on her face. She was blind. Her eyes were destroyed. She tried to fix them but there was something stuck in them. Kelly tried to absorb it but it didn’t work. It felt like... slivers of bone? Why couldn't she-

  She heard a gunshot and felt an impact to the side of her head.

  "What?" Kelly said.

  "Give up Kelly, I don't wanna hurt you." someone said. Sammy?

  She tried to smile. "Hey it's fine, just training, right?"

  Sammy opened fire. Kelly could feel the bullets hit her chest and bounce. Her ribs were fused into segmented plates and basically made of diamond now. It'd take a lot more than bullets to stop her. But... she'd heard the shots and had a rough idea where Sammy was hovering.

  Kelly swung at her, changing her arm to the tentacle shape in mid-arc. She felt some kind of impact in the middle of her back, not hard but just enough to put her off balance. She stumbled and missed. What was that? It felt like there was something stuck to her back. She reached back with the arm that still looked human but couldn't quite get to it.

  Kelly couldn't see it, but Sammy winced as whatever it was that Jenny had just hit Kelly with exploded. Bits of her friend were scattered everywhere. It left enough of a ringing in her ears that it took her a moment to realize the tone had sounded. The match was over.

  * * *

  Sparring Field

  Hector was present for the post exercise discussion, despite not having been involved in the fight. At least, he hadn't been one of the combatants, just a victim. That was Operative Richards' punishment, the compromise that had let Hector stay at the Citadel. He got to be a 'training assistant.' She stumbled and nearly fell. Hector caught his mother, supporting her with his bodies. That meant he participated, in some fashion, with just about every training exercise or practice session that involved one of his classmates. Usually he was a test subject, sometimes a stand in for innocent bystanders. Bruce had wanted to make that last one a permanent assignment. Good thing Director Melody had overruled him.

  It was a short walk to the bathroom, but one she could rarely make on her own. Oddly, she was less reluctant to use the bedpan on the good days.

  "Overall, you did well. I can see clear improvement in all of your fighting capabilities." Coach Achala addressed the day's 'operatives.'

  Tomorrow, they'd swap roles and be the criminals. Teams would be assigned at the last minute, supposedly at random.

  "Michael was able to steal from the jewelry story while your group was occupied at the bank. However, simple theft is far less important than loss of human life. You were right to prioritize the bank and its greater chance for civilian deaths." Coach Achala smiled, radiating warmth and approval.

  He helped his mother get back into bed, trying not to notice the trembling in her limbs. She lay down and he pulled the blankets up to her chest.

  "That was Jenny's call." Samantha volunteered. "She said we should hit them there, cause otherwise Kerry would try to help Michael and that would be, well, that'd go really bad."

  Achala nodded. "You're probably correct. Well done Trainee Awesome."

  She blushed and mumbled a thank you. Hector thought it was sweet. As effective a fighter as she was, as firm and decisive as she'd been on the battlefield, she was still humble and a little shy. Jenny really was pretty Awe-

  "That's it!" He couldn't restrain the exclamation.

  Coach Achala and the rest of the group turned to face him.

  Hector watched her sleep. She was so thin, always hurting and never truly happy.

  "Sorry," he said, "couldn't help myself. I just figured out Jenny's power and..."

  He'd been speaking in stereo. The other two hims, the o
nes made as part of the match, turned and headed back to the oversized dome.

  Doctors couldn't do anything to counteract the effects of Chemo's power. Healers couldn't fix her, couldn't even give her a moment of genuine respite.

  "Y'know, I appreciate you getting all excited over it..." Jenny grinned, "But I told everyone my power on the first day."

  He smiled back. "You're Awesome, yeah. I remember. I just figured out what that actually meant. You have some kind of idea about what you need to do to impress everyone around you, sort of like a limited precog. Is that right?"

  She nodded. "Pretty much."

  "Cool." It wasn't as good as a full Wayne type, but straight precogs almost never joined the Citadel.

  The critique resumed. "Samantha, you performed well, for the most part. I am pleased to see you are no longer so hesitant to engage."

  She beamed, thrilled by the unaccustomed praise.

  "But you did make one mistake. You shot a bystander."

  Hector looked at the syringe in his hand. It held a single dose of the painkiller that let her sleep, sometimes.

  Her smile left as quickly as it'd come.

  "You should have realized that Kelly was well outside of the effective range of your pistol. You did much better during your challenge matches last weekend. No stray shots, even your ricochets were under control."

  "I'm sorry sir. I know I shouldn't have tried for that shot, it's just... I saw two of my team were down and..."

  "I understand. Under almost any circumstance, your teammates come first. Please consider though, that round could just as easily have hit Anna or Jason." Achalla told her.

  "Yes sir. I... I won't make that mistake again."

  Hector saw Anna frown, wondered what was bothering her.

  "Jason," Achalla shifted his attention, "your hand to hand skill is improving. However, you are still underutilizing your ability. Keridwyn's dragon form-"

  "Oh come on!" Jenny interrupted. "That's not fair. He's just a low end Strong type with some regeneration. You can't possibly blame one of the weakest fighters in our class for not stepping in front of Kerry!"

  He loved his mother but he didn't want her to suffer. Hector didn't know what to do.

  Achala seemed taken aback, a rare break in his composure. Hector appreciated that Jenny was standing up for his friend, especially after their near disaster the other day, but he had to repress a smile at the idea that she thought he hadn't acted because he was too weak.

  "Jennifer, I appreciate your support but it is not necessary." Jason said in his usual, perfectly polite tone. "I believe I know the general thrust of your criticism, Coach Achalla, and the point is well taken. Next time, I shall be better prepared to act."

  Coach didn't answer at first, just pursed his lips in thought. "Very well. Also, please keep in mind that you won't be able to conceal the exact nature of your abilities forever. Be careful that you don't let others, or yourself, come to harm in the attempt."

  "Yes sir." Jason answered.

  Sammy and Jenny looked a little confused, but Hector could tell Anna had followed both layers of the conversation. Not surprising, she could identify the general nature of an Empowered's abilities at a glance.

  Hm, interesting point. Why hadn't she realized Kelly had been imitating Drew on sight? It should have been obvious to her long before the fight started.

  Jenny laughed at something Sammy was saying and Hector completely lost the train of thought.

  Hector still held the syringe. If he added any more, the overdose would mean she never woke up.

  * * *

  Instruction Area

  Billy leaned over the podium, examining the training class he'd be speaking to today. A few of their lights were pretty bright. The big negro-

  He shook his head to break that train of thought, old habits.

  One of them was even brighter than his own.

  "Okay guys, this lecture's going to be a little different. I'm sure you all saw the title: Citadel History." He didn't try to hide his smile. "Well, that's me. What do you want to know? Don't be shy. Just shout 'em out."

  There was a moment of quiet. At least a few kids probably recognized him. He'd found that those were usually the ones too nervous to ask anything, at first. As for the rest, their first question was usually...

  "Um, who are you?" It was a short girl, brown hair and glasses, almost bouncing in her chair with nervous energy. Her light was a little brighter than average... but there was something... something off about it.

  Giving a mental shrug, he answered. "My name is William R. Power. I'm the Citadel's senior Operative, literally."

  The girl's jaw slowly dropped. "You're... you're really...?"

  "Yep. I know, I don't look much like the way you'd expect." He was short, a little on the thin side and tended to slouch, just a bit. "But that's me. Anything more before we give someone else a turn?"

  "Did you... uh, did you really fight Adam Selene on the Moon?" she asked.

  He couldn't help laughing first, but he answered the question seriously. "No. As far as I know, there's no such thing as sentient supercomputers or space travel. Though some Richards type could prove me wrong about the first part any day now."

  She looked a little embarrassed. "Sorry, it's just... there was this cartoon show when I was a kid..."

  "I'll tell you a secret; I was a huge fan." He grinned. "I never could figure out why they drew me with all those muscles and a spit curl though." Billy had kept his hair short since his time in the army and whatever it was that made him so strong had nothing to do with muscles.

  "I know no one's managed to get a manmade object out of the atmosphere, but what about you?"

  This time it was a Hispanic kid. For a second, Billy thought he had a brother sitting next to him. The two were practically identical. A closer look told the real story, they shared the same light. He must be some kind of duplicator. That new Richards type, Bruce, probably had him keeping an extra out at all times, practicing coordination or something. The guy came up with some weird ideas but they usually worked out pretty well.

  "You're invulnerable and you can fly. I guess you might need to carry oxygen tanks or something, but couldn't you make it into space? Or someone else, teleporters, flyers, it just seems like there's a lot of Empowered that could do it with the right support."

  "That's..." Billy was momentarily startled. "That's true, we should be able to. But we can't. I was one of the handful that tried, back in the sixties. I know there's a version of this in the textbooks these days, but I doubt it has the whole story." He took a second to gather his thoughts. One of the worst parts of living as long as he had was that you got plenty of opportunity to gather bad memories. This wasn't anywhere near the top of the list but it hadn't been pleasant.

  "President Kennedy got elected in nineteen sixty and one of his earliest moves was to start the country's first space program. Things... well, the country was in a bad way at the time. The government thought we needed something to rally behind, and space travel was it." He gave a sigh. This wasn't a story he could grin through.

  "The first probe, Explorer, just vanished. No one could figure out why. The next move was to send up a group of Empowered, me and ten others. They called us the Apollo group. We had these special suits, airtight, shielded, state of the art communications... It was incredible. We headed up and..."

  No one said a word. This wasn't the kind of story you interrupted.

  "It went poorly. Everyone blacked out at about the same height the Explorer vanished. I came to just before impact... most of the others died when they hit the ground. I just hope they never woke up. No one else made it. There've been isolated attempts, with vehicles and Empowered... but it always ends the same. Nothing's ever made it and only the toughest even survive."

  The kid's face was grave and a little pale, despite his skin's color. "Should... should you be telling us this?"

  He gave a little smile. "Yeah. This is like a lot of things in the
Citadel. It's not an official secret, but it's not something to spread around. One of the things they look for in your personality profiles is discretion. You don't end up an operative if you're in the habit of putting everything in your life up on Mybook."

  "Did you really fight the Lords of Time and stop an invasion from the Mirror Universe? Or- is that stuff like the space travel, just TV?"

  It was that same girl. She was kind of cute and the rest of the trainees were all giggling. Apparently she was popular, but he was starting to get a little irritated.

  "Yes and no. The time travel episode was pure fiction, same as that Chrono Trek show, but the Mirror Universe was based on an actual incident. Alternate dimensions have never been verified but there was a man whose power created evil duplicates of popular Empowered, complete with goatees. Even the women." He gave a chuckle. "Intervention Prime got called in before they realized the catch. All the duplicates were utterly incompetent. The fight was over in a couple minutes."

  "What happened to the guy? Did you have to kill him to protect everyone else or something?" the girl asked.

  "Nope. The duplication was involuntary. Once we had the situation under control, he was able to hold off on making new ones while we teleported him to a US embassy in England. As soon as he set foot on British soil, the Monarch's power took hold and he wasn't a threat." Before she could ask another question he moved on to the other half of his answer.

  "As far as the time travel thing... that's a bit of a mixed bag. There's only ever been one case of actual time travel. It's a little ugly but..." He looked over the expectant faces and went on. "A child by the name of James Ray was murdered in nineteen thirty two. Witnesses said his killer vanished in a flash of strange blue light."