“Jab. Jab. Hook,” Beta nodded in approval when as I demonstrated the moves. “Are you sure you’ve never been trained before?” Beta looked with an eyebrow raised.

“No, growing up my parents always told me to avoid any kind of violence, so I never saw a reason to even think about fighting.” Beta nodded looking slightly confused, but still understanding. Watching Beta do combinations and demonstrating my understanding of them was how my first morning in this place was being taken up. Jab, Jab, side-step, ducking an invisible haymaker, Hook.

“Right there! You’re good for someone who has never really fought, but I knew something was off,” Beta proceeded to mimic how I was throwing my ‘hook’ punch. “See that, cause I can and probably all the other Betas will be able to see it. You’re basically saying you’re about to throw a punch with how much to load up. The best punches are ones they never see coming...if you can’t land a hit, it doesn’t matter how strong you are Omega. Remember that, I’ll show you..square your shoulders and get your hands up.” Beta assumed his fighting stance and I followed. Sweat dripping down my body, my brain was frying itself anticipating this demonstration I knew was coming. Staring at Beta, I let out an exhale and with the slightest movement Beta’s fist grew in size but it felt like my depth perception was off. The jab landed cleanly and my head shot back for what could’ve only been maybe half a second. In that brief moment I felt a blow to the ribs on the right side of my body. My vision went blurry, it felt like a vacuum had been shoved into my lungs and all the air was taken out of them. My body couldn’t move as I lay crumpled on the cold refreshing floor with spit dripping from my mouth.

“That’s enough training for now Beta, we need to get ready for breakfast and morning exercises,” Alpha’s said from across the room as he sat in his bed doing whatever he was busy doing. Beta’s body stiffened. “Yes sir! By the way kid, that’s called a liver shot, one of the most painful kinds of hits you can feel. Figured we’d get that out the way before you felt one when it matters. Think of it as another learning experience,” Beta said with a sly smile and a slight look of contempt in his eyes towards Alex.

Andre and Ruby were sitting at the table where Ruby had been working on her projects the night before, “Hey, Omega come sit with us for a bit before we head to the cafeteria,” Ruby said in a welcoming tone. “So it occurred to me while I was asleep, that’s where most of my ideas and solutions to problems come from, about The Arbitration…” she trailed off. “Yeah. What about it,” I said mildly annoyed and rubbing my ribs where Beta hit.

“You’re a freak,” she said. “ The Arbitration isn’t like some normal test where you circle or write in an answer. There’s physical components and hypothetical scenarios, and you’re telling me you basically maxed it out in every category?” Ruby and Andre started to chuckle a bit and now Andre decided he wanted to chime in, “What asshole lied t’ ya bout somethin’ like that?”

“Sovereign Leon Cromwell, Mr. Cromwell told me in person,” I said flatly and the two stopped chuckling.

“Holy shit, I guess you’re the real deal then Omega,” Andre slapped me on my back “ To be honest I thought ya might’ve been embarrassed about what ya did on the outside to get in here.”

“Well if you have the scores they say you had, then you’ll live up to your job as Omega perfectly!” Ruby said energetically. “And what exactly IS my job as the Omega, no one has told me yet!” a slight hint of annoyance could be heard in my voice. Ruby winks at me, “Beta told you, kind of. He might have come off like a dick when he said it, but you don’t have a specialty. So what do you think that means?” Her head tilted in my direction waiting for an answer.

“I don’t know...I figured it meant I was the lackey in the group,” the hint of annoyance was growing. “Well that’s one way to think about it, but you’re more of an all around team support. What does being a specialist mean?”

“It means you’re really good at one thing,” I said and Ruby and Andre nodded in agreement “Exactly! One thing. YOU on the other hand aren’t good at one thing,” Ruby said plainly. “ Oh wow, thanks for the pick-me-up this early in the morning..” I said sarcastically and Ruby carried on as if ignoring me. “You aren’t a specialist, your job is to be a Jack of All Trades and from the sounds of it, it looks like you have the aptitude to do this perfectly.”

“How does that old sayin’ go though? My dad used t’ say it a bunch talkin’ about certain people,” Andre thought for a bit and snapped his finger at the ‘Ah-Ha!’ moment “Jack of All Trades, Master of None.” Ruby nodded in agreement and my head hung and I shook it as if the negative gesture was wave away my growing sense of uselessness on the team. “That’s a saying from the Old World, but the full saying is "Jack of all trades, master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one" Ruby said and my heart lifted a bit. “Omegas are generalists, you have to help out every position which often time gives off the appearance of being the weakest since you can’t really specialize.”

“So what you’re saying is that because Omegas have to help everyone else, they never have time to focus on what they want to do or what they’re good at?” I said. “Exactly!” Ruby said with a thumbs up. “The general understanding and from a historical standpoint the Omegas have been the weakest members of the team,” she was about to continue, but a lightbulb went off in my mind and I finished the sentence for her, “From a conceptual standpoint, we can be one of the strongest.” With a smile on her face she nodded approvingly “If you think about it, the Alphas and Omegas are two sides of the same coin.”

“I get where y’all are comin’ from,” Andre said “ but in reality the Alpha members are easily the strongest members of each team and the Omegas have always sucked...sorry man no offense.”

“None taken,” I replied. “But how many of the other Omegas had the potential that this one is expected to have from Sovereign Cromwell?” Ruby argued back. Andre shrugged his shoulders a bit and relaxed in his chair “I don’t know, but don’t try fillin’ his head with this crazy talk. Don’t let that asshole with the mohawk hear ya and especially don’t let Alpha hear y’all talkin’ like this.”

“Why does it matter it matter if one of them hears us?” I said with a puzzled look on my face. Andre sighed and shook his head “Cause the way the hierarchy is NOW, you can think of Betas as enforcers for the Alphas. They hear you thinkin’ you’re on the same level as the Alpha that’s basically sayin’ you wanna challenge the Alpha.” Andre looked around the room to see where the two other guys were and lowered his voice even more. “Look you can challenge for the Alpha spot, but typically the people in that position are so dominant no one ever does it and even fewer people have succeeded. None of the Alphas in the months I’ve been here have ever been challenged.”

“Andre I don’t want to challenge for the Alpha spot... at least not in the foreseeable future,” and Andre nodded in approval after hearing me say that and his body relaxed again. “Good,” he said “ Just be careful with that kinda talk cause it can lead to an ass kickin’. There is a reason why all the Betas are hand-to-hand specialists and there’s a reason none of them challenge the Alphas.”

“Everyone get your training gear on and let’s head out for breakfast.” Alpha said calmly yet sternly.

“You heard the man, get dressed and do it on the double!” Beta parroted.

Both Alpha and Beta were wearing tight fitting clothing that seemed to have soft pads on all the joints and shoes that were covered in the soft pad material. The same clothes I had seen already packed into the drawers under my bed the night before. The only other clothes we had were all white and made for function, not style. In fact, the clothes lacked any kind of distinguishing features whatsoever, just plain white shoes, underwear, pants, and T-shirts. Slipping on the form fitting training gear the outfit fit almost too perfectly, as if they were tailor made to my exact measurements.

“Hurry up fucker, we don’t have all morning!” Beta barked out, and I looked up to see that everyone else was waiting at the door looking at me.

“Sorry!” I slipped on my shoes and rushed towards the door. “Alright lackey,” Beta said “Open the door.” Annoyed I grab the handle on the massive door, “Really...none of these assholes are willing to open the door. I have to do it?” I think to myself. As I pull, the door creaks a bit and moves maybe an inch. “What the fu-?” puzzled I begin to pull harder and the door slowly opens inch by inch. Ruby let out an adorable, barely audible laugh; Andre was nodding in approval, and Beta was smugly smiling. “Well if it’s so entertaining why don’t one of you help out?” I said as beads of sweat were forming and the dense door was slowly swinging open.

“No that’s not how this works asshole,” Beta barked back “ I didn’t tell them to help you, I told you to do it lackey. I say to do something you do it, I say jump you say how high. Is that concept getting through to you? Now open the damn door before I teach you another lesson.”

“Alright, calm down...I’m opening it aren’t I?” The doorway now had a gap in it large enough to fit everyone through one at a time. A monotone but recognizable voice spoke up “That’s enough, we can walk through, let’s go. We’re burning chow time.” The pitter patter of feet echoed in the cul-de-sac and for the first time I saw the members of the other teams making their way towards the cafeteria and my jaw dropped slightly in disbelief that this many other people were here. “Hey, Omega..can you do me a favor?” Beta said in a tone nicer than usual. “Sure, what’s up?” I replied. “Can you do me a favor and CLOSE THE FUCKING DOOR. Hurry up, we don’t need the other teams raiding our shit.”

I smiled “ Yeah no problem,” and grabbed the handle and mumbled “How about you do it, fucking asshole.” The door slammed shut and I made my way back to the team. We walked down the passageway and made our way back to the large cavern and I can see where the floor sinks further into the Earth, The Pit. We make our way to one of the other snaking passageways and it opens up into a brightly lit room where concrete is replaced with marble walls and floors. A stainless steel conveyor belt is performing its never ending dance as it spits out trays holding different colored blobs of “food” on them. A line of people forms and they each take their tray and sit at the tables in the eating area.

“Teams tend to eat together,” Andre said and I nodded in agreement.

Surprisingly the blobs of food had a good flavor to them and we ate at an uncomfortable speed then placed the trays back on the conveyor belt where they disappeared into a slit in the wall. Alpha led the way to another one of the passageways which seemed to contain classrooms similar to those we were in during The Arbitration. Inside the classroom was the familiar man wearing a gas mask who I’d come to know as Johnathan and standing next to him was The Rabbit. They waved us in and the Rabbit gestured to the 5 seats in the classroom, “Welcome welcome, good to see you all alive and well! Well except your last Omega, kinda died in the last group training huh?” Rabbit let out a slight giggle as if her latter statement was some kind of funny joke.

The Rabbit looked at each of the team members then stopped and stared at Alex.

“Well since at least one of you is new to the program, let’s breakdown the basics.”