****************************** Author Note **********************************************

Hay guys,

Sorry about the first postings coming out like crap. When I copy it from Google Docs (what i use to write the story) I edit it to change color and format (cuz for some fucking reason my formatting on docs doesn't copy over). But when I post it the site bunches everything up and changes the color back to black, so i go right back in and re-edit it to be white and have spaces. this seems to be a pattern so if you guys come in right after I post it and see it's all bunched, just give me a few minutes and it will be fixed. I promise! xD

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Since Drake couldn’t run, the walk took over an hour. All the while he carried Alina like a princess, and she wrapped her arms around him and held him tight. Rather she was consciously doing that or not Drake wasn’t too sure, but he didn’t mind since it helped him hold her the whole way. Once they got back to the room he laid her down in her bed then went back outside to practice swinging his swords some more. He lost track of time and had no idea how long he was out there when a group of the armored personnel walked over to him.

“It’s time for you to go to bed.” One of them said.

Drake just ignored them and continued to swing his swords. He was now able to stop both of them, and could stop the black blade whenever he wanted too, but the red blade was still giving him trouble.

“Did you not hear me? It’s time for bed.” The armored person said as he reached for Drakes arm.

But he grabbed Drakes left arm; the arm that Drake holds the red blade in, and so he couldn’t fully stop the swing yet. He did try to stop it to prevent a lot of force, but he still ripped his arm out of the person’s hand.

“That’s it!” The guard yelled.

Then the group of three tried to stop Drake, who just avoided them. He didn’t strike, and even dropped his swords just to make sure. It’s not that he didn’t want to fight; rather he didn’t want to risk waking Alina up. Her wrath was something he would rather not incur again. So he used every ounce of willpower he had left to resist the urge to beat the three to a pulp. Then one of the armored people decided to pick up and use Drakes swords against him. However, he couldn’t even lift the hilt off of the ground, much less the actual blade.

“How can you swing this around?!” He asked in shock.

Drake just shrugged while dodging, ducking, dipping, diving and dodging the remaining guards.

“They are heavy, but I’ve gotten use to them…. Kinda.” Drake explained once the guards stopped chasing him.

“How can a three tail pick this up?? One of the guards asked out of breath.

“Like this” Drake answered as he picked up and sheathed the blades, not realizing they had said he now had three tails.

“They are still a pain in the ass to move around, but I can swing them now.” He continued.

“Why pick such weapons?” One of the guards asked.

“I liked 'em. They felt nice, n’ when I can fully control them they will be a force to fear.” Drake answered.

“Anyway, I’ll stop now and go to bed. Sorry for causing any trouble.” Drake finished and walked off.

But he could hear the guards talking behind him.

“Probably best to not mess with him if he is that strong with three tails and no marks on them.”

Drake was shocked, he knew he had nine rings on each tail and only needed one more set to make a third tail. So when he heard he had a third tail he looked back and sure enough his third tail was there and they were all black. He wondered when that had happened, and figured that’s what Alina was giggling about earlier, but he couldn’t ask her until the morning. He walked into his room and Alina was deep asleep and spread eagle in her bed. He chuckled, set down his swords and crawled into his bed.

But then he remembered about the time he made Alina mad last week. He shivered at the thought of her rage as the memory became clearer and clearer in his head. As a joke, and somewhat to torment her, he had pushed her away from him when they were walking since she was holding onto his arm as usual. What he got instead was a killing intent so strong, the pressure suffocated him. Her eyes were cold, glowing with rage, and didn’t have a hint of affection in them. But still the thrill of making her anguish to such an extent made Drake smile, and he returned the pressure. It became a violent stare down that would have exploded if Jeff didn’t step between the two and stopped them. But deep down Drake was terrified. That sudden rage and the willingness to kill the only person she held close was something he did not expect. He tried to force the memory out of his head before he fell asleep, but failed and had a nightmare about it.

Drake was woken up a few hours later when Gabby brought in breakfast for them. Over the past half year, the two had become close to Gabby and loved to talk to her. She would usually stay for a few minutes before she had to leave and take the next room their breakfast now that all the others had woken up and started training as well. To Alina and Drake it was funny to see some of the others struggle with stuff they thought was easy, even just sparing was troublesome for them; and they had received the same programming that Alina and Drake had received.

“So how was your first day of weapons training?” Gabby asked the two.

“It was simple for me” Alina replied.

“For you? Aren’t you two the same since you both have three tails now?” Gabby asked.

“Huh I don’t have….” Drake started as he looked back to see.

“Whoa I do have three tails!” He said with excitement.

Then Drake remembered that armored group saying he had three tails and that he had looked then too. But he was so tired and and still half asleep, he didn’t really remember.

“Yah… thought you knew that already… Anyway why was it easy for her and not you Drake?” Gabby asked again.

“Oh ‘cuz of my swords” Drake answered while playing with his third tail.

“Why? What’s wrong with them?” Gabby asked.

“See for yourself.” Drake replied.

So Gabby walked over to his twin swords and struggled to just unsheathe them.

“Why are they so heavy? You can use these?” Gabby asked then she dropped Drakes black blade.

“Those things are hard just for me to hold them, much less swing them but I’m getting it.” Drake explained aggravated she dropped it.

“So… how many tails do you have?” Alina asked as Drake walked over to re-sheath the sword.

“Three.” Gabby replied while clasping her hands to apologize.

“You only have three?” Drake asked with dubious tone.

“Yep. Why?” Gabby asked.

“Just curious.” Alina answered.

Drake had realized that his sword felt much lighter than he remembered and the shock was showing on his face.

“To answer your question, you have rapid cell recovery, which I’m assuming Jeff already explained to you. But when you rest for longer periods of time, that rapid cell regen works overtime to vastly increase strength, endurance, and speed. But it still has physical limits… Ones that you are exceeding.” Gabby explained.

“So while it’s good to take a break for a few minutes to catch your breath, when you sleep your body will automatically go into overdrive to heal and increase strength. But like I said... There’s still a limit… and the laws of physics…”Gabby finished.

“So soon they should be as easy for me to use as a normal sword is for others?” Drake asked.

“I doubt it. Those things are too heavy for anyone to realistically use. You are going beyond the body’s natural limits. Normally you would hit a wall and stop getting stronger, much like I did twenty-five years ago, but this is beyond that. You’re trying to defy the laws of the universe. ” Gabby replied.

“You’re twenty-five?” Drake asked Gabby.

She just looked at him dumbfounded. She just explained that he is trying to do the impossible, yet he is more concerned about her age.

“No, I’m fifty. I stopped gaining tails twenty-five years ago.” She answered.

“Fifty? You don’t look that old” Alina pointed out after she swallowed the food in her mouth.

“We stop aging after a certain point, but up until you are twenty-five or so you will age, grow and mature normally.” Gabby responded while cleaning up.

“Where are your tails Gabby?” Drake asked

“It’s a medicine we use to hide them for infiltration missions. So you guys will learn about it soon. But I got to go to the next room and deliver their food. I’ll see you guys tomorrow.” She said as she pushed the cart out of the room.

For the next two months it was the same thing day in, day out. Drake worked on his physical strength to help with his swords while Alina worked on her technique with her Katars. On top of that, they also had to maintain regular physical training and combat practice; to which Jeff started teaching individually. As soon as Drake was capable of swinging his swords as if they were feathers, he started his sword play training and took to it immediately. After only a week, he was swinging his swords around, switching hands, and spinning the blades around as if he has used them for hundreds of years and was creating his own unique fighting style. With another week of training, Drake had closed the gap between himself and Alina in weapon skill by vastly improving his own fighting style. He created a very unorthodox style where he would primarily fight with his red blade, keeping his black one sheathed. Then when he closed the distance, he quickly drew and attacked with his black blade and switch to a two sword style. He would then switch between the one and two sword style as he saw fit using the quickness of his black blade to surprise or distract the enemy.

Drake wanted a spar with the weapons but was denied since his blades are too destructive and Alina did not yet have the skill required to handle such devastating power. He did, however, get his request for a regular spar again. As they were about to start up their infiltration training, Jeff figured this would be the best time since combat would be a side activity for now.

They all went over to the practice field to start a spar, but what Alina and Drake didn’t know was that Jeff had invited their class to come watch the two top students spar. When the crowd started to form, Drake got nervous.

“Don’t worry Drake, they are far away and not here to surround you.” Alina comforted him knowing he doesn’t like large crowds.

“Yah… easy for you…” Drake replied nervously.

“Only focus on me because if you don’t, you’ll lose” Alina said sticking her tongue out.

That got Drake fired up and ready to roll. He had no intention of losing to Alina. But before the spar started he picked up on members of the crowd commenting on the two. Some were good, about how strong they were, both having three tails. Others were jealous remarks since they got personal training.

“Before we start I want to say something.” Drake shouted over the crowd.

Everyone got quiet real quick to listen to what he had to say.

“To all you pricks who are making jealous comments about us getting personal training, how would you like it for us to join yer class and kick the ever living crap out of you instead. If you think it’s unfair that we have a private trainer and private lessons, show us that we don’t need them. Show us you are on our level. Otherwise shut the hell up” He said angrily.

“How could he hear us?” a few said in the crowd.

“Cuz we are that much better than you. So shut it and accept it.” Drake said

“And I’ll take on any who think otherwise” He finished

With that he got ready to roll. Yelling at his classmates got him fired up even more so he got into position. He once again noticed Alina got into a fighting pose, but he truly felt no need to do so, so he just stood there and waited. He wasn’t underestimating Alina, he knew damn well of her abilities and skill, but he felt more comfortable just standing, and when he is comfortable, he is able to focus that much better. Drake knew though, that this fight would be different. They both spent a lot of individual time with Jeff who trained them to strengthen their weaknesses and improve their strengths. For him, it’s brutal up close and personal fighting, but for Alina its quick attacks and retreats. So he has to figure a way to get her in close and keep her there.

But he wasn’t given the time to think and Alina started to run in. Drake was confused because she had tried that last time they spared, and it ended horribly for her. Suddenly though, she changed direction and Drake lost all track of her. Before he could come to any sense about it he was rocked hard by a hit from his right. As he started falling towards the ground he couldn’t figure out what had happened. Alina’s hits should be quick but light, building up damage over time, but this… this was a heavy hit. He then sensed a movement coming from his left, and before he could react he was rocked again by a hard hit on his left side.

Now back to his senses and excited about the fight he was able to focus. He used his tails to center his balance and stand upright again. He opened his eyes and smiled an evil grin.

“Hahahahahahaha, this is perfect.” He shouted.

That caused Alina to pause for a second in intimidation, and that was all Drake needed. He located her and began his attack. Now that her pattern had been figured out she would have to change it up to get Drake, and he knew that. So he forced her into moving in a pattern he wanted. Alina knew Drakes patterns well and knew he would try that, but eventually she fell to his pressure and practically walked into a counter Drake had been trying to set up. He went for a left straight punch, which Alina easily saw and tried a cross counter, and that’s what Drake wanted. He bent his elbow, pushing Alina’s punch out of the way and causing a downward angle for his punch. When it connected it caused Alina to drop her head a bit. Drake then ducked down, stepped in closer and swung up with his right elbow as he stood back up, connecting on her chin with a loud thud. The added strength from his raising elbow impact sent Alina up into the air a bit, and she used that to her advantage. As she was rising, she quickly lifted her knee and smashed Drake in the chin as well.

Drake fell back, as Alina came crashing to the ground. When they both regained their senses half a second later, they quickly got back up. But their attacks hurt and they both were dizzy. Alina recovered first and tackled Drake hard. After the initial impact she lifted him up and slammed him into the floor with a frightening amount of force. The shock quickly brought Drake back into focus just in time. Alina had already sat up and threw a punch that Drake just barely dodged by moving his head to the side. He looked over for a millisecond to see an imprint of her fist in the ground. Seeing her destructive power on full display shocked and confused Drake, but mostly it scared the ever loving crap out of him. A hit from that would be an instant K.O. Out of desperation to not get hit by that punch he reached up, grabbed her head, and pulled it down before she could muster up the energy for another punch.

He had her in a full guard, and maneuvered until he had one of his feet on her hip. He pulled his left foot up into a rubber guard and pushed with his right foot that was on her hip. Alina countered this by extending her left leg so Drakes push was nulled. As soon as she did that, Drake shifted his weight by swinging his right leg out and rolled her over. He was now on top and in her half guard. Before she reached up to grab his head, he got a few hammer shots in and a missed halfhearted punch that also left an impression in the ground. When Alina saw that, her eyes grew wide and she had the same reaction Drake did, but what she didn’t know was that Drake couldn’t put even half force into that punch. He didn’t have a good enough angle to muster the strength. Seeing that kind of power being aimed at her scared the crap out of her and she knew she needed to avoid receiving one of those punches by any means. So she threw a punch up as Drake went for another halfhearted punch down. Alina’s punch hit first and caused Drakes to lose most of the little power he could generate, but it still connected, and it was still a heavy punch which dulled Alina’s movements. She recovered quickly enough and lifted her free leg above Drakes shoulder. She swung it down, forcing Drake off and crashing him to the floor. Now Alina was in the dominate position with her leg wrapped around his arm. She quickly rolled him over into an omaplata and started torquing his shoulder. Drake though is insanely strong and resisted on brute strength alone.

Drake had realized that Alina was slightly off balance while she tried to torque his shoulder. So before she could generate enough force to make him tap, he used a tail to grab her by the neck and slam her into the ground. He pulled his arm out and turned around to attack again when his face met with one of her feet. She had straight kicked him right in the face and knocked him out cold. He woke up a few seconds later to Jeff standing over him to make sure he was okay.

“Wow, out for only a few seconds after a kick from hell like that huh. You’re one tough S.O.B.” Jeff complemented.

“Yah. But I still lost” He replied.

“Barley” Alina said out of breath.

Then Drake noticed that Alina’s right eye was already black and blue from when he got the punch in from the half guard. He went to stand up to go to her but he quickly lost his balance and fell back down. Then Alina tried to get up to help Drake, but she fell to the floor too.

“Both of you need to rest. Just chill and lay there like good kids” Jeff said

“Whatever you say Snowball” Drake said halfheartedly.

Jeff gave him a dirty look but got over it. When Drake looked around he noticed that the crowd was in shock. They had just witnessed a very technical and crazy fight by classmates.

“So any of you think you better than us?!” Drake shouted.

“You’re only that good because of the special training!” Someone shouted back.

“Not even close you dumbasses! Even before I started training them, they woke up a week before any of you and already had two or more tails. When they had their pre training spar, one of them alone was good enough to take all of you on, and Drake over here knocked out an entire armor detail just for the hell of it. How many of you can do that now with six months of training? And he did that a day after waking up no less.” Jeff said in their defense.

“Thanks Snowball.” Drake said.

Jeff just gave him an acknowledging nod and walk off.

“Good show.” King said as he pushed his way through the crowd.

“Very good indeed, and very close. It was back and forth the whole time. But congratulations Alina for winning this time.” King continued.

“And now we will start on your infiltration training. Combat is still a must, and you will continue to practice, however, for the time being, stealth, infiltration, and gun training is your priority.” King finished before Alina or Drake could say anything.

The two just looked at each other in confusion, but shrugged and waited till they could both stand up. When Alina did, she walked over to Drake still very unsteady, and helped him up. They supported each other and walked back to their room very slowly. They were more exhausted than hurt, and after a while of walking and catching their breaths, they were fine. But Alina still held onto Drakes arm as she always does.