After everyone mastered taking down the wooden targets, several last line agents volunteered to spare with the others.
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