I logged in Sunday a little after noon to my personal locker room to find a binder sitting on the bench in front of the lockers. It was titled: HOME User Manual; and had an actual post-it note stuck to it with a brief apology from Savira for not providing me with the information before now and that a matching document was sent via e-mail to me for review outside of immersion. I smiled a little at that, I could only guess that Phil had mentioned to Savira that I had no clue how the HOME area actually worked. For now it could wait, I had some training to accomplish before I worried about something that wouldn’t affect me as much for the foreseeable future.

Turning back to the door I selected the training hall from the display and stepped back through. The room was as empty as the first time, except for the fold down section of the wall. It now has six small switches on it, each with a different label. The first five were the power techniques I had while the fifth was labeled as combined training.

I decided to run through the exercises of the individual techniques first. The projectile training reminded me of a military or law enforcement shoot house that I had to traverse with a limited amount of ammunition. After the first three attempts ended with me running out of ammunition before I finished I finally realized that I had to use parts of the environment also. The bastion and armor training were much the same as when I initially learned to use the techniques, but also involved some movement between different targets I had to protect. I quickly realized that my bastion wouldn’t cover a large area, only about ten square feet when I made it a dome, so I had to shift my defenses on the fly while I moved between locations. My enhanced body training had a parkour obstacle course with various dummies that I had to hit with a certain level of force in key locations; and the radar training was a blind gauntlet with various moving obstacles, similar to old television shows that were more about the humorous way people failed than the winners.

It took me almost two hours to run through each training course a couple of times, and I could feel that familiar burn of a hard workout that I had missed over the past two months. As I finished my first successful run of the radar sense training I heard a slow clap coming from the entrance. Taking off the blindfold that was required for this training I looked over to see Phil leaning against the wall near the door. He stopped clapping and asked, “Did you try and use anything but the individual technique in each one?”

I groaned and almost smacked myself on the forehead before answering, “No, and now I feel like an idiot. The shoot house would have been simple had I just scanned ahead of my path, and the enhanced movement speed would have done wonders for the bastion training.”

“I didn’t expect you to, not with so little time training in how to use your techniques. You haven’t yet had to push yourself in a real test to see how you can combine them. I would advise you think of that when you start developing new techniques though, learning to combine them with your other strengths will do wonders for how effective you can be,” he responded.

“I’ll do that. I did a bit of research last night, and can think of a few other things I want to try out. Anything in particular you would suggest though?” I asked.

“Well the combined training would be a good start, also learning to work with your team, and lastly personal training. When we sparred yesterday you showed some basic hand to hand training, but either you stopped doing it or never put much effort into improving,” he answered.

He was right; while I had taken some martial arts classes, it had never really captured my attention like the more competitive sports had. The dojo I had gone to didn’t allow students below a certain belt rank to spar or compete, something about learning to discipline one’s self first, and I had given it up in favor of focusing on sports. Fencing was a bit different but more restricted as a combat sport. I shrugged and replied, “It never really took for me, I could never achieve the stillness my old teacher wanted to see before he would allow competition.”

Phil shook his head, “I can see that, but why not the mixed martial arts training for combat sports? I assume you have them in your world, since ours was modeled on yours.”

“Yeah we have them, but the ones that allowed competition required you be eighteen. I never went back to look after I finished high school since I had plans to join the military,” I said.

He nodded, “Fair enough, in a world that doesn’t have the same history of conflict it would make sense that you would wait. That being said, you may wish to devote some of your personal time to combat training in the coming months.”

“Well, I guess it’s time to try out the combined training course,” I said as I moved back to the switches.

He held up hand, palm down, and waggled it saying, “You can start that, but there was a request made by one of mentors for your future team member. The girl, Arya, decided to pick Psychic powers. While we can help her train her abilities that interact with the digital environment, it is a bit different when used with other ‘players.’ Since you will be on a team with her from the start, and still had remaining training time, we were wondering if you would be willing to help.”

I paused my walk and considered that for a moment. If she was going the psychic hero route then he likely meant she needed to test a telepathy technique of some sort on another player. After a few minutes of turning the idea around in my head I said, “I will help her.”

He looked pleased until I held my hand up to stop him from replying and asked, “What was going to be offered to entice me to do it if I refused?”

I knew there would be something, the tests were also being used to test the system and there had to be something. Surprisingly he looked even more pleased with my question as he responded, “Time spent in the training hall for this would count as her training time, regardless of what you were doing. In addition you have the opportunity to develop a technique for mental defense, which I believe is your restriction for any psychic abilities?”

That was actually a decent carrot to match the stick of letting someone attempt to look into my brain. It did depend on what she needed for her training, but I might be able to run through the basic trainings again while combining techniques with her here.

“Sure, but can we pause the training time while someone lets her know I’m game?” I said.

“It was paused the moment I raised the question as I was interrupting your training. As long as you don’t do further training scenarios before she gets here the time won’t start back up,” he replied.

I sat against the wall and discussed various martial arts options with my mentor while we waited for the arrival of my teammate. It actually took close to half an hour of waiting, and she rushed in apologizing, “Sorry, I was logged out when you responded. So you’re really okay with this?”

I stood and waved at the little bundle of energy and said, “I think so. Based on what I understand of how the system works you shouldn’t get much more than clear surface thoughts from players, and even then it might take you a while to actually understand them.”

She grinned, “Yeah, that’s about all I get from the NPCs too.”

I knew NPCs stood for Non-Player Characters; I knew they were more than that though. This made for a good test of her technique, and whether or not she was already trying it out. I focused on the words, “Yes, but how much have you learned of them though?”

Her eyes widened, which answered my question, and she blurted, “You know about them?”

“I guess it was kind of difficult for them to hide it from you when you started working on your technique. Yes, I’m aware that they are a bit more functionally intelligent than standard NPCs. The term does work though in the proper context,” I answered.

“Okay, well let’s get started. Umm, Mr. Daniels, Gwen said you would have some ideas on what I should try,” she said to my mentor.

He nodded, “She and I talked before I brought the question to my trainee here. What I want you to do is hold a conversation with him while he is physically active. He won’t have much breath to actually speak, so you will need to read his replies.”

She smiled and said, “I can do that. What should I do after I get the hang of that?”

“Gwen told me that you already did some practice at reading thoughts while you were active, but you will do the same test while reading him. After that, if there are no objections, I want you to try reading him while you spar,” Phil instructed.

The grin on Arya’s face got even wider at the last condition, and I recalled our conversation in the café about her long study of Aikido. That might actually hurt a little. I started off with the parkour course, assuming it would be the easiest to hold a conversation in and began thinking the start of a conversation, “So, what conversation topic would you like to begin with?”

She picked up those thoughts easily enough and replied, “Let’s address the elephant in the room, no offense Mr. Daniels, how much do you know about the mentors?”

My mentor laughed at that and I focused on my answer, “I’m not sure it’s my secret to tell. In the end though, Phil confirmed my understanding of their situation.”

“Does this have anything to do with that weird conversation with Savira and Mr. O’Brian in the café?” she asked.

“Damn woman, did your dad teach you how to question someone or something?” I deflected while I did a midair maneuver off one of the obstacles that allowed me to skip a tricky jump I had missed earlier.

“Yes he did, and you are really good at avoiding answering questions,” she said.

“I’ve spent the last two months with my mother taking care of me and not being able to get out and run. Mothers are better interrogators than any lawyer or detective out there. Avoiding some of her questions has given me plenty of practice. If you don’t mind my asking, how did you build your power set?” I asked.

“I don’t mind actually. I’m pretty confident in my physical capabilities, even with still getting used to seeing what I’m doing also. I had to decide between augmenting that or going with a classic that would support those skills. Since I already knew Jacob was a techie and the siblings have former military training; it just came down to you and me for support type abilities. It seems I misjudged your powers though, you stuck to the classic jock setup of increasing your physical abilities.”

“Yes and no, I actually went the route of an energy manipulator. I have an area defense technique, a sensory technique, and a ranged attack to compliment my close quarter’s techniques. I tried to be as well rounded in my powers as I could be,” I replied as I started up the projectile training scenario.

This time I was trying to use my radar sense along with my projectiles, which actually gave me a weird feedback at first as I could suddenly see a blue line from my hand to my targets. It was odd because the line would vanish at times when I moved. After the third time it happened Arya’s voice cut in, “You have aiming lines for your attack? That’s a total cheat.”

“So that’s what it is, I hadn’t put it together. How are you seeing it?” I said.

I hadn’t managed to put the information together in that context; but it was clear that when my body was positioned in such a way as I could reasonably make a kinetic projectile attack at my target the blue line would appear. I wasn’t certain of the extent of my aim, but it reminded me of a laser target from a gun. Arya answered while I pondered the development, “I have the telepathy technique, but I also took a visual technique that would allow me to see through my target’s eyes when I use telepathy if I choose. I can’t see out of my own eyes when I do it though.”

“So something you already have practice in, which leaves you step ahead in keeping yourself safe when you do it,” I replied, maybe a little callously.

As I finished the course I looked back to see a small smile on Arya’s face. She noticed my gaze and said, “You just take things in stride don’t you. This whole time you haven’t once considered any of the team a detriment because of our handicaps. The most you have considered was what I might miss because I don’t know to look for it.”

I answered, “Basically, I don’t really care that people see you as handicapped. Hell for all of my life I was told I had a mental disability, but it never stopped me from pushing forward.”

I had spoken my answer aloud, and in the vision granted by my sensory technique I suddenly saw a red line that was quickly getting brighter running right through the center of my torso. I still wasn’t used to the 360 degree information input but, between that line, Arya’s widening eyes, and instincts I hadn’t realized I had, I managed to dive to the side as a baseball rocketed through the space I had been standing a moment prior. Phil’s drill sergeant voice boomed through the room, “You’re not allowed to answer out loud. You’ve just given your position away to your enemy and now must defend yourself.”

More red lines appeared in my vision as my sadistic mentor, who sat behind a cannon-like device that had baseballs for ammunition, took aim at both of us. I quickly shifted in front of Arya and raised my hands, forming my Kinetic Bastion into a dome around us. “Well this isn’t good,” I said through the mental communication.

She didn’t respond right away, and I looked back at her to see a frown of concentration on her face before I heard her voice in my head, “Stupid fucking, sewage gargling, monkey humping, ass grabbing system. Work damn it!”

“Umm, it worked,” I replied while holding in a chuckle, it seemed like she had some repressed attitude.

“Oops, not sure how much of that you got. Internal monologue doesn’t work so well when you have a mental connection. This is a little weird though; the mental link technique seems to short circuit my ability to talk when I want to use it. I also got a message that stated other players could sever a mental link as it has to be voluntary,” she said as my barrier stopped baseball after baseball from reaching us.

I nodded; the system must have taken my intent to hear her as acceptance to the mental link. “Do you have any defensive techniques? I have a feeling he isn’t going to stop shooting at us until we either need to disable the weapon or get to him, he’s a brutal teacher like that.”

“Nothing that will stop them from hitting me, but notice how there are various bits of your parkour course still around. I think those are supposed to be for cover. His gun only shoots in one direction. I think we can split up if you use your radar sense, and then he can only cover one of us,” she said.

“Good idea, let’s get you behind cover first, then I’ll try and flank him. I can shift to using my armor to get close to him. Unfortunately he knows the baseballs won’t go through my armor which makes me think he has some other trick up his sleeve as well,” I agreed.

We quickly moved to our right so she could get behind a low wall still in the training room and without really thinking I pulled the bastion in until it formed the armor around me. The shift caused me to pause for a moment, getting pelted by baseballs, as I realized what I had just done. I could shift the defensive technique in and out, I wondered if I might be able to create solid objects with the kinetic field. Arya’s voice snapped me out of my considerations, “Theory-craft later, he’s changing the ammunition in the cannon.”

I snapped into motion as a four inch diameter steel ball rocketed towards me. In our earlier testing I had already realized that this particular ammo would punch through my barrier and hit me, about as hard a solid punch, and I didn’t want to get hit by it. Somehow I managed to focus on keeping both my armor and radar sense going at the same time, but for the moment that was my limit. I would have to let the armor start to wear off if I wanted to attack at range.

“I saw you throwing marbles for your projectile test. Can you pull a Star Wars?” Arya asked.

I smirked, I like how her mind worked. “Marvel later, ass-kicking now!” came her sharp reply.

Huh, guess the mind reading let coherent thought through. No matter, I started by trying to judge the timing of the attacks with my radar sense and blocking with my armor up. It actually worked rather well once I got the timing down, sixteen painful hits later. Now came the tricky timing. I focused my intent on deflecting a projectile into the cannon and the lines in my radar sense changed to show a blue line coming from points on me. Most of them were a lighter tone, but I saw that two of them were in a close enough trajectories to the red lines to potentially be what I wanted, these also had a brighter line. One of them would send the cannonball back at Phil, while the other one would send one ricocheting off the wall to smash the cannon from the side.

As the shot was fired I side-stepped and shot my hand forward in a palm strike into the side of the ball, and it rocketed towards the wall without losing any of its kinetic energy. I barely was fast enough to move with my enhancement, but the result was worth it as the ricochet smashed into Phil’s cannon.

Phil however was left untouched as an aura of light blue energy surrounded him and kept anything from impacting his skin. He smiled and said, “Nice shot, but you have a traitor in your midst; and now she is behind you.