Seth woke up the next day to a late alarm, training usually started early but the sun was long up. He was thankful for it though, he’d slept off a good bit of his guilt and felt just a little bit better. He grabbed up the trainers he’d brought along with his belongings, just a toughened up grey t-shirt and loose fitting cargo pants. As he brushed his teeth he paused a moment, he’d been wearing his connector suit the entire last month and never really noticed the muscle he gained. He wasn’t scrawny before, lifting suit parts was a pretty decent workout before the Garkah taught him to use his powers physically, but now he was at least on par with most of the other heroes here. Though the similarities seemed… too similar. “*sigh* They really did put steroids in the food didn’t they.” Leaving the ethical questions of drugging trainees behind, he headed out for training, but left the suit against the wall. No sense luging it around to everything he does anymore if he still couldn’t use it.

The trainees filed into the arena as usual, musing about the late start and whether it was a trap… again. But they were greeted by no one as they entered. No Para, no Aegis, not even Mediknight. Even the stands were empty of power scouts. They milled about instead of lining up, grouping up to wonder what was going to happen. Ohm and Seth caught first wind of what was coming. Both whirled around toward the control booth as a strong electrical surge became noticeable. The rest saw this reaction, but were interrupted by the arena lights going dark all at once. It was like the monologue test, but no spotlight was afforded to the trainees. Seth could hear them stumble slightly in the pitch darkness, but that electrical surge kept up.

He took the moment to focus, trying to see what was going on. Gradually wiring lit up in the walls, spreading out and terminating in a massive array of points. He watched as the electricity spread to every corner of the arena, creating a uniform star field that only he could see. Suddenly though his extra sight was blinded, the ground flaring, the sand beneath his feet shaking like a sifter’s pan. It hardened, reformed. It still had give, but it almost perfectly mimicked road asphalt. Seth killed his ficus and looked back to the faux star field, but was quickly blinded again as each point flared in visible light. The trainees all covered their eyes as the flare illuminated the arena to an almost excruciating degree. Good few seconds of blindness and the flare died back down. The trainees rubbed their flashbanged eyes, but were greeted with environmental transposition. Instead of the arena, they were in the middle of a city block, standing at the intersection of two major roads. Skyscrapers filled the scene, their sudden appearance disorientating some of the trainees, David nearly fell over as he tracked one up. But for some reason this new environment was completely calm. No hustle and bustle. No cars. Even the street lights hanging overhead were dead. An empty cityscape stretching out in every direction.

*bwoo* “Welcome to Fackadia recruits!” The arena’s speakers resounded, echoed through the materialized setting. Though the windows of the control booth still glared out in the middle of simulated air. Aegis waved out the window to the few trainees who turned to face her. “You were all introduced to this during the monologues, or did you think we had a few dozen thugs just waiting in the winds to catch you out. The Hardlight Environmental Simulation with Tandem Inertial Automatons. The HESTIA training system at your service.” The trainees gawked around. Seth could barely believe the League was hiding something this big from the scientific community. ‘They really had hardlight tech! Oh man, the suit I could have made with this kind of-‘ *BWOO* “QUIT DAYDREAMING MAGGOTS!!!” Okay… that was loud. Para was in the booth too. The trainees almost instinctively lined up facing the booth along the crosswalk nearest to it. Despite mutual distaste for him, the trainees still would rather not get their ears burst from a sonic chewing out.

*bwoohoo* “Give me that back! Okay. Today you all will be put through the ringer in terms of effective fighting technique. A simple test to see what you understand about fighting… and to see if you took my criticisms to heart. To help in this regard,” One of the doors to the building behind the trainees opened. A lanky and obviously severely repaired robot walked out into the street for the trainees to see. “I present the League Armories Repurposed Robotic Training Dummies… What? It’s not an acronym this time.” The unit had thin arms and legs, more than likely housing very limited wiring and even more limited muscle motors. But judging from the beefed up servos on each joint it could still move with some speed. The chassis was like a metal vest hung over a rudimentary skeleton, piston like collar and hip bones and a reticulating spine poking out of it. The head was plain, just a metal face plate with ocular sensors. It just had a very obvious fist imprint on it, in fact several all over its body. This thing has seen a lot of punishment. And was ready to deal it all back as it raised its empty hands up into a boxing stance. ’Just four fingers huh, guess the designers got lazy.’ Its simple solid metal feet took up a stable gait as it slowly advanced toward the recruits.

“Your job today is to defeat as many of these guys as you can while their numbers last. Their designed to shut off under certain pressure, but if you break them it’s fine. We have plenty more.” The doors to… to every building opened all at once. A steady clanking stream of robots walked out into the street, filing into five wide platoons and taking up a variety of fighting stances. The trainees broke line and circled the wagons, setting up to meet the clanker horde. “Passing or failing here is irrelevant, but the ones who defeat the most won’t have to work on their fighting style with me again. So good luck, and fight well.” *bwoo*

Seth tried to vie for position, but was caught out as Ohm demanded the entire street to his left and Maya, David, and Jacob pushed up on his right. So he backed up into the center of the formation, intent on observing until he could make a move. Ohm took over most of the East road, jockeying out anyone who tried to take a share. Kaz moved in on the other side of him despite this. Kabar, Cleo, and Razor took the North side. Alex, Tabby, and Marco the West under the control booth. Zeleny moved in behind Maya, David, and Jacob on the South.

The ranks of robots continued to build as the lone first bot plodded toward Ohm. The scene devolved with every clank, like the pluck of a hair-trigger waiting to be pulled. Everyone braced for what these things were capable of. Were they really just old service bots after all, or were the modifications enough for them to be a real threat, or perhaps- *bwoo* “Almost forgot, ABSOLUTELY NO POWERS!! Just good old fashioned brawling. Now FIGHT!!!”

The first bot burst forward as if by command and attempted to plow Ohm over, meeting resistance in the form of a swift kick to the chassis. The bot went flying back, bowling over several others in the platoon behind it. The shoe shaped indent in its chassis made it clear their armor wasn’t very hard, but the quick pace at which it and its compatriots got back up made it sure seem a lot more intimidating. The synchronized dragon stance the front line took only added to the fear factor. Ohm’s smug demeanor melted away into frustration, only exacerbated as Kaz and Seth moved to flank him. “I don’t need help with a bunch of useless robots.” Kaz drew his sword and took up an opposing stance to the line. “Too bad, you’re getting help.” Seth kept his calm, he shouldn’t need the whisper for this, and took up an ambiguous stance. “Besides, losing to a group of service bots would only make your attitude worse.” “Grrrr.”

All three were prepped as the front line broke stance and ran at them at full speed. Kaz struck first, pushing forward with his sword leveled at the farthest left bot’s waist. It stuck in between the hip pistons, grazing against the spine. Kaz swept it right in a swift motion, slashing clean through and out the other side. Seth hit next, counter charging into the running right most bot. He slammed it with his right shoulder, the metal felt soft, more like thick rubber or plastic, but it clanged like metal as it crushed inward. The bot was knocked off its feet and slammed down to the ground in obviously commanded shut off. Their tolerance was low, but there was a lot of them. Seth shifted his foot to stop before the bot hit the floor, shifting to swing his right at the next bot as it desperately tried to slow its run. Ohm was last to hit, meeting the charging middle bots with swift duel arm bars to their hip pistons, crumpling them and shutting the bots down. He push passed, preferring to charge headlong into the rest of the bot army behind them. Kaz struck again as Ohm’s bot fell into his next target. Drawing his sword over to his right, he slashed the off balance second bot across the chassis. It cut straight through its blocking arm, falling to pieces as Kaz pulled his sword down to push ahead behind Ohm. Seth successfully conked the fourth bot across the face plate, causing it to fall backward with its own forward momentum. But he didn’t stop there, he dropped down and grabbed it by the leg and swept it around intent on shotputting it into the platoon.

Ohm smashed into the middle of the new front line, stumbling the platoon and himself as he brought the middle bot to the ground. The sides regained balance and closed in around him as Seth’s shotput slammed into the right side. Metal crumbled and lights turned off on three units. Kaz arrived at the left with an upward slash to the front bot about to swing down on Ohm. Its arm was sent flying as Kaz turned his blade around and slashed down on the bot. He finished his move with a pommel strike to the last unit flanking Ohm, knocking in the faceplate and dropping it into his reach on the ground. Ohm had pummeled the middle unit until that one fell beside him, shifting to bash it in the face to shut it off. He got up, realizing the gravity of his predicament, the army only slowed as it stomped over its shut off comrades.

Seth ran forward to clock the last unit on the right as Ohm backed up. Kaz finished off his flank’s two with another shift to the right into a sweeping waist slash, before backing up as well. “They are easy to destroy, but too light to effectively push back.” Ohm sneered. “I get that!!” Seth scanned the approaching and reforming line. He could hear the sounds of fighting behind him, clanking and crumpling, but he had to focus forward. “Let them come to us, they’re slow on the draw and make for good ammunition.” Ohm continued to sneer. “If you think I’m letting you steal MY kills-” “Yeah yeah, I get it! You think you can handle this. You can’t! All you’re going to do is get yourself beat to shit and leave us to pick up the slack!” Ohm never let up his sneer, but refocused forward as the new front line charged.

But that next line stopped short, taking up blocking stances as they startrd walked toward the three. Seth spotted something, the arm thickness was different, a clean shine run across them. He popped forward to simple jab at the new defense. *crack* “aAAaahh” His fist clanged off, soft give replaced with hard metallic bounce. He retreated with the same speed as he approached and a pained shake of his hand. “They’re fucking adaptive!!” Kaz leveled his sword again. “That just means we need to fight harder.” The line bared down on them as they… They just stopped. Like someone hit pause on a video they- *bwoo* “Sorry! You can use your powers now. Some ASSHOLE turned the adaptation protocol on. Don’t expect this all the time, but don’t hold back on our account either. Have fuuunn!” *bwo* Like a lightning bolt, Ohm lit up at the news. “HA, YOU GUYS ARE FUCKED!!!” He slammed forward, bashing through the metal defense with relapsed electric ferocity. Seth and Kaz both shared a look of exacerbation but relented and went to work on the line in front. ‘No more limits at least.’

Seth popped forward again, this time with a bit of power focused in. He shifting low under the guard of the right most bot, slammed a fist into and through the bots exposed abdomen. The bot fell limp as its spine snapped, but he caught and lifted it up by the bottom of its chest plate, javelining it into the next bot in line. Kaz pushed up at the same time, pushing his sword through the guard of the left most bot and skewering it in the chest. He pulled up hard, bringing the sword out the bot's shoulder and turning it over again to slash its head off with an upper right swing. Bringing the sword in tight, he pushed through the falling bot into the still shifting second one. He rushed and skewered it through the faceplate, slashing out the side and tossing the bot aside. Next line… Seth and Kaz looked back to the platoon.

The first couple of rows were in pieces, a crater in the formation surrounded a desperately punching Ohm. He was bashing robots as fast as he could, electrical discharges accentuating every swing. But Seth could see his strikes were waning in effectiveness. He wasn’t running out of juice or anything, this place felt like a massive power sink after all, the bots were just taking the attacks like they were nothing at all. Rubber linings, proper grounding, they had quickly adapted to electricity based attacks, a little too quickly. And Ohm was not getting the hint. “*sigh* Let's go save him.” Seth and Kaz squared up to the sides and charged forward into the re-massing bots. Kaz kept his sword high to his right shoulder, Seth kept a low stance and locked in a left hook. As they neared the line they crossed paths and planted feet in opposition of their attack angles. The front line bots that had turned prepped metal defenses to meet their attacks, but held them expecting those angles, so shifted quickly. But Seth and Kaz were feinting, pouncing on the opening by double crossing. Kaz bounding high with a blade set to cleave heads, Seth bounding low under Kaz’s blade with a heavy left to crumple legs. They hit their openings simultaneously, sword meeting neck, fist meeting knee.

Seth didn’t stop at the knee though, grabbing the other leg as his fist broke through. He spun up, swinging the bot around and overhead. Kaz for his part stepped closer and slashed the next bot deep. The two used their weapons to carve through the platoon, slashing and bashing until they reached Ohm. With a massive wind up, Seth chucked what was left of his improvised weapon at the units crowding over Ohm. Kaz came in after, clearing the area with slashes and skewers. Seth rushed in and grabbed Ohm by the collar, dragging him back out of the platoon with Kaz covering. Seth pulled him all the way back to the intersection, looking bruised in ego and condition, but okay. Seth let go and moved ahead of him as another line up formed, Kaz moving back in to his side.

Ohm held a hand to his bruised head as Seth turned to regard him. “You need change up your style a little. Focus more on enhancing not just propelling and electrifying. Like when you rushed Aegis. Otherwise they’ll just eat up your attacks and you’ll burn through everything you’ve got.” He looked up with a stare of burning indignation, but got up without a word. Seth turned back to the enemy, but felt him out. It was a little hard to parse in this sea of solid energy but he could feel him try to keep his power in and use it. Seth refocused forward as the line advanced, with a new round of adaptations. Thicker legs and arms, almost like solid concrete. They chugged ahead like a stone wall, but he felt something else behind them. Poles rose up over them, crescent shaped heads atop them, mancatchers. “Okay, this is getting ridiculous. I’m starting to think these things aren’t even…” Then it clicked as his ficus came to bear on them. Seth turned back to Ohm, a look of realization on both faces. They were made of hardlight, just like the environment, which means they are just solid energy. They were just mimicking rubber and grounding before, electricity wouldn’t work on them anyway. But siphoning would. Seth rolled his eyes and stepped aside. Kaz, looking like he knew all along, mirrored. “Took you all long enough.” Seth shrugged. “Eh they would have frowned on this at the start. Besides, they mislead us a little.” Ohm stepped between them, back up to smug. “I told you I wasn’t going to need help.”

Kaz and Seth squared up again, renewed in purpose, they had to kill everything Ohm missed, because he wasn’t going to get surrounded this time. Ohm lit up with power again and all three shot forward into the line of stone bots. Mancatchers dropped between them as Ohm powered ahead, using the enhancement Seth told him to. The catchers swiveled to meet him, blunted crescent blades set to keep him at distance. But as they made contact they disintegrated, hardlight matter breaking down into just normal light and energy, energy that flowed into him. He charged forward and punched the first stone bot with a moderate right. The fist passed through with no resistance as the bot disintegrated, Ohm receiving the energy dissipating around his fist. The maniacal smile returned as he continued, punching and bounding wildly from bot to bot. ‘This was probably a bad idea, but it’s better than getting the shit smacked out of us.’

Kaz and Seth made contact with the remaining hardlight bots, remaining mancatchers extended to meet them. Kaz rushed and ran parallel to the line and sliced off the crescents. Seth slowed to give him space, then leapt over the neutered defenses and behind the stone wall. He landed between the now stick-bearers with both arms locked, releasing dual back hands to the side of their turning faceplates. He then spun around and grabbed the stone bot he leapt over by the rocky collar and waist, wrenching up like a toppled turtle and hurling it at the remaining line. Stone shattered and metal buckled as the weight slammed against them. Kaz came in around him, cutting down two straggling stick-bearers with as many strikes. They turned again to the platoon, half expecting there to be some kind of rubberized super bot towering over a pulverized Ohm. Instead they saw nothing but dissipating hardlight particles, and a maniacal Ohm beating a straggling robot he left intact. Both shared another look of concern as they turned away to view the rest of the class’ progress.

The intersection was cleared, every team had pushed into their respective platoons. Straight ahead Seth could see two Tabbys and a Marco duking it out with a similar stonewall to his teams’, but instead of mancatchers this wall sported spears, blunted obviously. But their strike speed was phenomenal, not to mention they swiveled far more than expected, some kind of tube was being clutched around their middles. Tabby and Red Tabby (Alex) both took the form of tigers and were desperately swatting away the spears as they pushed in. Marco was in between them at the wall. Rapid fire air blasts kicked up a storm of false dust as he manually weathered the stone bot into submission. The other two covered him so he could create an opening into the back line. Judging from the scrap behind them, this had proved an effective strategy.

Seth and Kaz stepped into the intersection to view their flanks just as a bot baring some kind of elaborate staking system on its feet came flying in from the north. Both turned to see just as a massive leather strap snatched it by the leg and dragged it back toward its platoon, flopping it over and down into the crowded mass of bots with a massive metallic crash. At the basecof that obscene leather titan was Cleo, decked out in… an actually sensible leather armored suit, complete with helmet. It was all black of course, but it didn’t expose or add contour to anything. Occasionally a bot pushed toward her, through the withering barrage of titanic leather slaps, and was summarily beaten down by leather clad fists. Kabar was close by under the leather titanoboa's umbrella, fire whips pooled at his feet. The crowd of bots ahead of them looked charred, smoke clouded above them. Suddenly Kabar began swirling his arm around, winding the line up slightly but leaving enough to drag into a fiery circle beside him. Once at speed he underhanded the line out to the crowd, a perfect wheel of fire running along with it. It crashed into one of the bots, engulfing its charred exterior in flames and flinging it backwards. But Seth saw something. The line, it continued along with the wheel. It wasn’t made of fire, it was a wheel of burning line. The bots ignored the line running straight into their crowd as Kabar dropped low and gripped it hard. He pulled to the side deeply then snapped back to the other side, whipping the line sideways creating a fast moving bulge in it. The bulge swept the feet out from under the bots around it, opening a view into the crowd. In the center was a desperately slashing leather clad Razor. Cleo must have made him armor and thrown him into the thick of things. Razor saw the opening and rushed over the toppled bots, skidding to a halt under the leather basher. “WHAT THE HELL YOU LEATHER LOVING PSYCHO!?!?!” It was looking like this was nonconsensual.

Things seemed pretty covered there so Seth looked over to the South at M.J.D. +Z. The team of four was spread out, each taking a section of the platoon. Maya was off to the left for some reason, David was center, and Jacob right. Zeleny hovered overhead, looking to be waiting for something. “NOW!” She flew forward and… blasted the front line of the platoon with a laser from her hands. She wore laser patches after all, but Seth had never really seen her powers before. They were green… because of course they were, but it looked like they flowed out from her suit… and her highlights. She ran that laser over each of the bots in the front line, and each looked to react to the blast differently. The right, thin and lightweight, dodged out of the way. The middle ones, some kind of frog bots with grippy feet and smooth chassis, recoiled and burned slightly. The left, obviously heated and glowing with cold countermeasures, were pushed back and overheated. Behind this laser fire though, Maya shifted to the middle, David to the right, and Jacob to the left. Once the barrage lifted all three charged into their sectors. The lightweight bots had the ground beneath them frozen with a slick sheet of ice, causing them to slip when they tried to dodge, heads slamming into shut off. The middle plodding frog bots were crunched by Maya, unable to get away easily from a rain of rapidly forming bricks. The right hot bots, melted slightly by the overheat, were doused by water and cooled before they could try to reform themselves. They were stuck in solid metal melt. Seth smiled, they had countered adaptation with rotation.

Seth and Kaz looked at the fairly covered sectors, no openings that needed filling, no aid to be offered. So he shrugged at Kaz and watched from the sidelines as the robot army dwindled under the teamwork of the other trainee teams. Ohm joined them as the last few units were being felled, manic expression replaced with what could only be described as a power crash. Slumped over, tired eyes, the juice had a cost it seemed. He did well at least, though letting him get all the kills was going to cost Seth and Kaz. The teams soon joined back up in the center, tired, sore, and hoping they contributed enough.

*bwo* “Great work everyone. You certainly took my critiques to heart. Buuut a few of you fell short, or more specifically left yourselves short. Kaz, Seth, congrats. You get remedial training. Razor, congratulations you don’t have to do doubles since you actually participated. Even if it was a little… forced. Everyone else, normal fight training starts up tomorrow. Fuel up, rest up, you all performed wonderfully.” *bwoo* As the speaker died out the environment soon lost definition, edges became blurry, details reduced to colored splotches. Then the hardlight fabrication disintegrated, all at once.

The bright light from before came back, but flowed in reverse, flaring bright to start then dimming into the points dotting the arena. The trainees rubbed their eyes again as the real arena came back to them, complete with Aegis and Mediknight walking out of the main doors to meet them. Mediknight took care of the few bruises and scrapes, nothing he could do about the power withdrawals except lead Ohm out to rest back up. Kaz and Seth stayed put, already knowing they were going to be told to. Aegis looked obstinate at their correct presumption. “Not to sound discriminatory, but I find it a little disheartening that the two recruits with the least outward abilities were the ones who fell behind when powers were allowed. I’m not trying to say anything, but it just looks bad on paper you know.” Seth resignedly shrugged as Kaz sighed. “But hey, you still fought well, despite the fact you basically let Ohm cheat you through in the end…” Seth looked up and away trying to nonchalance his way through the ‘You’re getting a week’s worth of remedial training for this’ look he was getting from Aegis. Still the hard part was over, Seth knew what to expect, or at least extrapolate. All that that had to be done was to work on his fighting skills.

The next two and a half weeks were comprised of drilling proper fighting styles into each of the trainees. A lot of sand pounding, blocking and striking dummies, and rigorous form teaching. Though while everyone else was given free time after training, Seth and Kaz were forced through a remedial course. This mostly devolved into near endless sparring with Aegis, demanding more out of them than technical wins or bow outs. Kaz was in his element, able to keep up even when Aegis went all out. Like this just standard training for him. Seth could hold his as well, but he had to pull power to get anywhere when she decided to push things.

Going into week two, less emphasis was placed on drilling. Instead the trainees were put through more substantial course work, which tied in to increasingly demanding hardlight crafted scenarios. Learning proper procedures for bank robberies, alien invasions, even the rare few villain attacks. They even had to fight a few of the old Terror Matrix big shots. Getting used as target practice by the sadistic sniper Tango Delta was hell, thankfully the hardlight rounds weren’t lethal. ‘Still hurt though.’ Being subjected to Ms. Maleficence’s Malevolent Mind Maze was abhorrent. ‘I no longer care for her legacy, her taste in design is abominable and deserves to burn in hell.’ Their hardest test was just fighting Gold Breaker in general. ‘Breaking an economy of greed apparently required being unacceptably strong. Thank fuck he actually had principles in the end.’ They ended up fighting a fairly wide selection and… mostly succeeded. Para even subbed in to put them through an even more hostile obstacle course. Complete with pressure plates, moving platforms, and snipers, because every obstacle course needed snipers. ‘No… no they don’t.’ By the end of week three the trainees were looking prepared to fight the world. Most had concocted their own unique fighting styles, some relying on their powers a little too much but Aegis was lenient.

David, admittedly the weakest physically, used his water powers to add propulsion to his attacks and surprise his foes with splashy but straight forward punches and kicks. A little like Ohm but with less smug edge. Maya and Marco teamed up to learn advanced martial arts. Maya focused on slow stable and hard hitting forms and Marco on swift and lighter ones. She also kept up on strength training, though it seemed a little needed given her heavy power set. Jacob took up some rudimentary boxing as a backup for his main holdout, a one-handed fire axe. He would use his axe as a focus for his powers or add ice to his punches when needed. Razor maintained his knife fighting prowess, so learned to throw his knives instead as an augment to this. ‘Razor knives are pretty easy throwables apparently.’ Kaz maintained his sword skills, but was presented a smaller blade that matched his own by his father. Seth couldn’t remember its proper name, but it was to add more concise attacks to Kaz’s arsenal, or increase his defense.

Zeleny was tutored by Aegis on how to use her flight as an augment to her fighting style. Hovering kicks, sweeping punches, she could set up a strike from any angle if given space. Tabby took up kick boxing, though her style included a lot of swiping strikes and deep kicks. She did learn to grapple effectively though, hopefully using less teeth. Alex honed in on her copying to mimic her opponent’s style better, but seemed to spend much of her time in the stands. Seth couldn't see much, but he was sure she was writing stuff down and watching everyone closely. Kabar learned proper whip techniques, but added in knife fighting as an augment. He and Razor sparred a little, but Kabar didn’t seem too enthused. Cleo took up mixed boxing, mostly so she could still use leather gloves. Ohm preferred to practice at his high speed and frantic style and took constructive criticism poorly, only altering his move sets when it was necessary. Probably still wanted to hide some things. Lastly of course was Seth. He maintained his unpredictable and grapple heavy fighting style, but kept pace with everyone else in terms of speed and precision. Sparring with Aegis very much required that, but he still had to hold back. His training mostly boiled down to learning proper control based on who or what he was fighting, and who was watching. With little else to learn physically, the trainees were set to have their prowess fully tested.

They lined up on Monday as usual, Aegis and Para were waiting. But for some reason Aegis seemed concerned, and not facetiously. “Today we start individual combat tests. Not to discount any solo achievements you’ve had in sessions prior, but we need to see if you understand just what it’s like to fight alone. No back up, no advantages, nothing but you and your abilities. Powers are accepted, you’ll need to start learning to use them in conjunction with your fighting styles anyway. But really, these tests are going to require them. To say they will challenge you is…” Aegis looked down, this was way more than a normal challenge. Para stepped up, even more hardassed than before. “Is a disservice. You all know what I expect of you, failure. This challenge will weed out those who are truly not ready to be heroes. You will each be given a time slot for your test. These tests are personalized to a degree, but once you’re through keep your mouth shut about what your test involved. Those waiting or finished are free to use their time as they see fit. I expect you to train. For now head back to your rooms, your terminals will have the schedule by now.” The trainees filed back out again, but Para stopped Seth before he left the line. “Grab your suit, you’re up first.” Seth lit up internally, but nodded and quickly headed off. He was finally going to get to use his suit and the giddiness was getting the better of him.

Finally he could stop holding back… too such strenuous a degree. But in the back of his mind there were doubts. What the hell was he walking into that they would actually allow him to wear his suit? He guessed at it, but there is no way anything that arena could make would really stand a chance. ‘Shit… don’t get overconfident. Expect the unexpected, so doubly expect the worst.’ Seth stepped into his room, still unable to keep his giddiness truly at bay. His suit stood against the bare wall, unused and wanting. He pulled the release latch to open it up, had to make sure it was still fully workable. The quiet of his room afforded him the Garkah’s insight on this test as he scoured the suit for any degradation. Speaker seemed the most worried. “If even the trainers are reluctant, then this challenge is more than just that. It is personal, something of deep concern that even they are afraid of facing. I… please… be prepared for the worst.” Threat seemed stifled, he wanted to say what he thought but couldn’t. Seth felt his unease though. “Whatever happens… don’t lose yourself. This is likely to get ugly fast, and might require more power than you’ve ever used before. Be ready to resist, don’t let that power consume you.” Seth cleared the last check on his suit and closed it up. A blank stare meeting him as he looking into his suits eyes. Doubts rising as the realities sink in. He snapped back to this world as a chime from his terminal alerted him to his timeslot. He took a breath, let those doubts wash away. ‘I’m ready for this, for whatever they throw at me.’ He hoisted it by the collar handle and walked back out toward the arena. Back too…

The arena was empty, the control booth was occupied, and the hardlight array was warmed up and ready. Seth put his suit down and opened it, stepping in as the array flared up around him. The view screen came up white but dimmed as the suit afforded him some protection. As the landscape came into being, Seth could see a tree line in the distance ahead of him. It was distant, and thin. The leading trees toppled or just gone, burned away almost. Seth saw the world form around him, but found it slowed by reflexive perception for some reason. He was in the middle of a road, or what was left of one. Asphalt under foot, but caked in rubble and ash. He was in a town, leveled to the ground if not beyond that, with only a few buildings even looking vaguely like actual buildings. A warzone, craters and rubble spread out before him. The smell of cordite and… wait. ‘Hardlight can’t mimic smells.’ Just as it was perceived it faded, a memory of a smell, not a real one, subconscious. This place was familiar to him, but… he couldn’t place it. He focused on what he had sensed. ‘Cordite, dust in the air, garlic, and… blood.’ Seth couldn’t fully place what this all was, why was it memorized. His perception folded as he lost focus. The hardlight landscape completed behind him, but it felt off. The horizon was different, higher. ‘But why does my body remember this place when…’ Seth felt it, the Garkah stirring, they knew why. But it was more than that, they knew this place, Seth knew this place. ‘They wouldn’t…’ All the hairs on his body rose as he slowly turned his head to meet the rest of the landscape. ‘They wouldn’t!’ Every muscled tensed out of subconscious reflex as it came into view, more piles of rubble waning into devastated moonscape. ‘They Fucking Wouldn’t!!!’ his eyes becoming terror incarnate as they ran up that false horizon, a black to silver gradient towering over him like a scrutinizing behemoth. He was in ‘that’ town… Berta… Beyond The Wall!!

Seth focus shattered like lightning as he snapped his head around, weight a nonfactor as his head shot about. ‘This isn’t real…’ He saw the rubble around him for what it truly created, crevasses, holes, dugouts, doorways. ‘This isn’t real!’ Like the man who found him in Brighton, manic and frightened, he scanned every dark place he could, breathes shortened and heart threatening to tear out of his chest. ‘This isn’t real!!’ But it all came to a torturous halt, his back straight like an iron beam and perception grinding it all to a grim halt. He felt them, eyes in the dark. An intact door way down the road, a crevasse across the street, every dark corner stared at him as one. “They’re not real…” Claws pulled scaled bodies out of the dark. “They are not real!” Teeth glistened in the setting sun at his back, and eyes locked toward him… burning red eyes. “YOU’RE NOT REAL!!!” *RRRRRAAAAAGGGGHHHHH*

The closest one roared as it lunged toward him, eyes devoid of that forcible desperation, replaced with utter hatred. But Seth couldn’t move, couldn’t react, his body wouldn’t let him. His fear took control only allowing him to flash a guard up as a clawed fist slammed into him. Metal buckled, gel pressed and receded, and gravity stopped being a factor as he was sent screaming back into the wall. False metal clanged and cratered, and the air in his lungs was thoroughly removed.

Crunching back down to the venta blankened earth, he had the slightest moment to regroup. This is way too strong, even Goldbeaker wasn't this bad. He felt about, judging the damage. The gel layer was smooshed thin, the ferroceramic was obliterated, and the suit was cracked… ‘THE SUIT WAS CRACKED!!!’ He felt the alarms in his head blare, the Garkah worked frantically to restore the hull, but it required time he didn’t have a hope in hell of having. He was fighting FUCKING LACEROIDS!!

The first one crashed in again, Seth only able to put up a paltry guard that was swept away like nothing. It swiped across his chest, digging ruts into the metal, sparks illuminating this shadowed corner of his own personal hell. It swiped three times before Seth could regain his breath and guard. He grabbed the claw coming down for a fourth, both hands catching serrated digits in desperation. Seth reeled the abomination in and pulled up his right leg, kicking it away in the abdomen. ‘You have to fight!’ He gave the Garkah the second they needed to rebuild, but he still couldn’t psych out of the terror. ‘YOU HAVE TO FIGHT!!!’ The laceroid didn’t much care for getting kicked away from its meal, it roared and charged again. Seth pulled power, poured it into the suit, hardened it as much as possible, flashing up a heavy guard to meet the assault, but it was the wrong guard. It slammed his side with an unblocked sweep, more plates buckled and cracked as all that weight was nullified again. This false hell flew by, landscape blurred like he was an utterly despised ragdoll. He skipped over rubble piles, through walls, before impacting solid air. Protective layers of hardlight buckled and flared their demise as he fell away. ‘What kind of simulation is this!?!’

Seth crunched onto the ground, hacking in his suit. A crumpled plate jabbing his side, lung blood splattered the inside of the helmet. The barrier behind cried in deresolution, flashbulbs of dying hardlight constructs illuminated him as the false sun hid behind The Wall. He looked up, view screen still working, he could see the laceroid coming again with the rest of the swarm in toe. The Garkah fixed the damage, pulled the rib out of his sternum, but the pain remained. As Seth stood back up he could feel something, the abyss was louder in his head. It was yearning for that pain. Its whisper growing louder, becoming a low voice, an utterance. Seth couldn’t fight it, he needed it. He went to pull and channeled it, but it was too late. The laceroid was crashed toward him with total abandon. He hardened again, using everything he could grab from the abyss, and prepped to meet the abomination's first blow.

It lunged in with a right swipe, Seth clanged his right across his left and pushed hard to recoil the blow away. It didn’t recoil. Claws hooked around his right, cleaved plate and skin, and flung his arm out of the way. Blood trails following the claw. He pulled his left forward, a low left claw coming in. It hooked as well, metal rent and blood followed as his last arm was shot out of the way. He could only watch in abject horror as the laceroid reared back faster than he could fight the recoil and leveled another right, claws pointed straight at his head. Seth lurched backward as the claw shot like a harpoon. It grazed the helmet above his eye, spalling shaving off. But the ravenous monstrosity didn't care for missing. It lurched down, whipping its extended right down, and slashed the helmet open, right through Seth eye. “AAAAaaahhhh!!!” Burning black swallowed half of his vision, the claw caught his left, ripped a gash over it and exposed it to the open air. The rest of his sight went red, black, the pain drowning out everything.

‘I... have to fight…’ Seth fell back against the hardlight wall, armored hand desperate to stymie the gash, but ineffectual. An instinctual yet eviscerated guard put up despite the pain. ‘I need to fight…’ The laceroid righted itself and moved to tear into him again. ‘I need power!’ The abyss churned, pain drawing it up, its call growing ever louder, audible. “*hesshh*” The laceroid swiped, his guard held but metal and flesh tore away. ‘I need more!’ Seth slammed his staunchest hand into the guard and the abyss answered. “*hesh-ka-ri*” The laceroid struck again, the guard did not move, metal and flesh tore away but regenerated and reformed as soon as it was cleaved. “More!” The false wall at his back sparked, constructs died in radial sparks as the abyss began uttering a single word. “*ika-ge*” The laceroid kept hammering, but every blow was undone as soon as it landed. Sparking metal spall countered derezing hardlight as Seth’s gashed eye opened, burning red through the open but reforming wound in his suit. “MOOOORREEE!!!” The abyss answered with the only word it could, the only word it knew, and the only thing it could ever give in return. “Rage”

The laceroid swiped again, trying to whip its right around Seth’s guard. But it suddenly stopped. A plated hand caught it by the elbow. The grappling claws on the gauntlet spiked out as it death-gripped into the laceroid’s arm, recoiling it from the unexpected pain. It tried to swipe with its left, but the other hand met it and dug metallic claws into the other elbow. The laceroid howled, desperately trying to pull away so it could attack again, but the claws couldn’t be budged. Metal feet, solid with little articulation, split into spiked talons that staked into the false earth, locking the suit in place. The laceroid struggled, snapping at the helmet, but it was caught at arm’s length. The spine of the suit jutted out, plates converged and formed downward spikes. It continued down, clanking and expanding down into a tail that skimmed the ground until it locked in opposition like a counterweight. The laceroid stared into the soulless eyes of the helmet, vain programmed attempts to intimidate. It was met by a mirror image, an armored form mimicking itself. The helmet drooped as a set of forward swept horns sprang up from its top edges, electricity arcing between them. Then it looked up, straight at the abomination that had caused Seth such unimaginable fear only a moment ago. The right eye opening with a bright blue glow like the electric plasma arcing above it, the left burning open with a blood red burn of the wound driven through it. And no fear left in either.

In a single motion the arms shifted in, pushing the laceroid further away, then whipping its arms out with complete abandon. Hardlight bone and meat snapped and tore as the monster arms were rent away. It was recoiled back, howling in photorealistic pain. No blood sprayed, but it wouldn’t have mattered much. Claws released the dissolving arms and Seth dropped low, kicking off under the laceroid’s legs. Scooping up its tail, pulling it as he continued passed, the laceroid whiplashed over by the spine. A metal talon turned fulcrum as the yowling abomination was slammed down, Seth kicked airborne as it squelched and shattered into the ground. What was left seemed to crackle and sputter as its false atoms lost consistency and became pixelated dust. Plate mail talons landed back down as the glorified after effects cleared, and the rest of the horde came into view. They had stayed back, probably programmed more for intimidation factor rather than swarm tactics. But that didn’t matter… They all needed to die!

They snarled, made strange calls, a few large ones pushed through to the front. One in the middle was bigger than the one that had just been obliterated. They stared down at Seth, the faux sun thoroughly occluded by the horizon, sending this technicolor wasteland into artificially brightened night. The brightest star being the red menace that shined opposite the rest. The hulking laceroid reared back, pulled air into its false lungs to roar at him, at its horde. It never got the chance. The falsely rubbled ground burst, those plate mailed talons shooting Seth away with no restraint. A metal claw skewered the abomination through the chest, twisted to the left, and swiped through its side, splattering dissolving viscera over the horde. The laceroid sputtered out what was left of its roar as the right pulled over high and swiped hard through its shoulder. The claw caught and flung the dying approximation out of the way. ‘They will all die!!’

No hesitation was left, no apprehension, no mercy. Seth stormed straight into the swarm, cleaving lesser abominations in half as he rampaged through them. Charging through the rubbled fake Berta, smashing through everything that once bore his fear. Once back on the middle road, out of the rubble fields, he swung around, talons scraping him to a dead stop as they tore through the approximation asphalt. The swarm followed, closed in from all angles. They clawed over one another, running and crawling with total abandon. Right to their doom. Seth was shot forward with a low left, stabbing through a lunging laceroid’s head. Pulling it hard, he counterweighted passed it, stretched out his right leg. Articulating talons set to slash at the next in line. His body twisted further, snapping momentum into his midair twirl as another three came close. A right slashing roundhouse kick tore through them and sent their bodies tumbling past. Loosing the dead counterweight, he landed on his left and dropped down into a sprinter’s stance and rocketed off again. The left swiped into another one as he changed directions suddenly in front of the charging horde. He ran parallel with the front lines, hacking and slashing through them, maintaining a circle around his original point.

A larger one finally stopped the circumnavigation, a claw stuck in its sternum weighing him down. Talons locked down, pulling his stuck hand in close. He slashed it the rest of the way out the laceroid’s side. The talons released and kicked hard off the ground, borrowing the momentum, pulling the legs up to use the eviscerated abomination as a backstop. They barely pressed into its twitching chest before obliterating what was left, sending Seth blasting off. Three laceroids were decimated by an armored cannonball before it lost the inertia, flipping over and repeating the process, caving in another creature’s ribcage before kicking off. The field thinned to the sound of splattering abominations. Seth scraped to a stop as the swarm lost its advantage, and littered the faux street in derezing corpses.

His perception was in overdrive, everything that had once been too fast react to had been rendered immobile by comparison. Metallic claws as the spread out monsters came for him. One came from his left, low and clawing the ground. The left dipped and slashed upward, straight through its head. It splattered limply at his feet. Another lunged from behind him, maw agape and intent on grabbing and chomping into him. Seth pivoted and swung around, the right sweeping away the monster’s extended claws and sending it sprawling beneath him. The right leg lifted over it, slamming down on its head. It splattered and added itself to the crowded and dissolving pile Seth was making around him. “Die.” Another ran for him as his back was turned. The left shot back and harpooned it across the face. He shifted, brought it to the ground, then the right stabbed into its back. Claws snatched polyester bone as he yanked out its spine, tearing the tail off with it and throwing the whole thing away. “Die!” Three more surrounded him, two high on his front and right, one low at his back. The low one was closest, so Seth turned in place as the right harpooned this one in the face as well, but continued his turn. He span faster as the right slammed into the next one’s head, claws digging through it and harpooning another. The same fate befell the last one, three heads skewered and smashed together. He yanked the right away, decapitating and loosing the bodies out of the way, the heads splattering apart. “DIE!!”

The rest of the horde coalesced around a large laceroid that charged into him through the lifeless bodies now tossed aside. It sprang through them and grabbed him by the arms trying to hold him in place before turning its jaw sideways and biting down on his helmet. It tried to pull its head back upright, tried to wrench Seth’s metallic face off, but its teeth scraped hopelessly across the hardened surface. His retaliation was to simply ignore the monster’s hold, grappling claws completely outmatched and unable to stop the plate mail claws from wrapping around its jaw. They forced its maw apart, pulling it off of him, then a leg kicked out its knees out and dropped it low. The claws kept it sideways as it struggled, vain grip releasing to try and rip them away. The rest of the horde poured over them, clawing over one another, slashed and chomped at Seth all they could as he became covered, but utterly unfazed. The cacophony of ineffective attacks meant nothing, the struggles of the larger monstrosity only delayed the inevitable. The metal claws finally dug into both jaws, seizing skull as that burning red eye flared, and its falsified fate was sealed. “YOU WILL ALL FUCKING DIE!!!!!”

An all mighty popping chorus crecendoed, those claws tore the the whole damn thing in half, spine and rib cage coming apart and splattering to shrapnel. The force shook the hardlight coated arena, caused the lucky among the swarm over him to get knocked back. The unlucky splattered over the road by the sheer force output. The arms threw what was left aside as a leg pulled up, a still clamped laceroid attached to it. It flipped it up and stampedvover itself. The left reached over his back, stabbing down and tearing another that chewed on his shoulder. It was yanked over by the top of its jaw, leaving the bottom jaw to break backward over his shoulder as it was slammed down and stomped into the fizzling pile derezing viscera surrounding Seth. A few stragglers regained footing, those who weren’t power elbowed to giblets. They clawed back toward him. Unmoving, uneffected, he let the monstrosities charge their last in vain.

On his left, a claw reversed a bite by grabbing an upper jaw, pushing it up, snapping the laceroids neck with its own weight. On his right, the other swiped through another’s head, crumpling it. At his back the tail coiled and slapped one going for his legs, rolling it away. The left whipped down and deboned the laceroid still clutched in it before he turned toward the back one. It was the last one, and cared little as he tossed its kin's falsely denaturing spine away. It charged as soon as it got its footing. Claws splattered through dissolving and decimated bodies, eyes burned with that same programmed hate. It lunged out, claws extended wide and maw yearning for purchase. Seth was solid, unmoving, and thoroughly done with this hell.

The right shot out at the last second, catching and whiplashing it by the neck. Once off its forced deceleration, it clawed at the armored hand, scraping the surface but failing to find give in the over hardened metal. It grabbed at the claw in vain attempts to pull it off, but found even less. It finally stopped struggling and stared straight into those mismatched eyes, just as did Seth the same. Its eyes glowed red with nothing but programmed hate, no emotion, no desperation, just weak approximations with nothing beyond them… nothing… ‘but hate’. Those burning eyes shut as feeling seemed to flood back to him, as everything started to come off of... what ever he had fallen into. They openedvagain as the laceroid went limp and its eyes faded out. The eyes on his suit beginning to dim in kind, the red burn soothed to plasma blue. He felt the simulation abate, the laceroid in his hand lighten and dissipate. The hardlight nightmare flaring around him and ceasing. He let his arm go limp as the arena went black again, staring straight up in a burned out stupor, left still eye smoking from its burn. It was over, but what else began because of it.

The main door to the arena burst open, Aegis running out into the slowly illuminating arena, concern and fear spread across her face. She stopped halfway, finally seeing Seth not bloody and beaten as she expected. She saw his suit still horned and clawed, a form she’d seen too much before but not in this kind of medium. He paid little attention, emotion burned out and frayed. A weight like nothing he'd felt before pressing down on him. He dropped his head and turned to the door. Each step elicited an overweight thunk as he exhaustedly swayed. His helmet’s eyes dimmed down completely, belying nothing beyond them. As he drew close to Aegis the horns on his helmet snapped down into their grooves. Armored toes fused back into one piece, claws retracted along with the tail. Meaty metal clinks over haggard heavy steps. Aegis’ concern hardened as he halted beside her, neither facing the other.

“Para… he… he set the simulation up before I had a chance to review it. This wasn’t supposed to be dangerous, there was supposed to be just one laceroid at 20% strength… The bastard set it to 70. But… what the hell was…” Aegis turned to regard him, reaching out a comforting hand to his shoulder. She didn’t even touch him before yanking her hand back, heat from the suit, an intense amount of heat. Seth slowly turned to regard Aegis holding her reddening scolded hand. He dropped his head further, shakily raising his right up. Folding his fingers in, he pulled a plate from above a simple metal button, squeezed it tight. All at once a pressurized hiss escaped from across the suit, followed by a cloud of extinguisher foam from between loose plates. It vaporized and sizzled, but cooled it down as it was always supposed to. He dropped his hand back down and continued walking, still swaying. Aegis’ concern hollowed, she couldn’t do anything to help.

Seth walked under the control booth, feeling a familiar yet intensified glare through the opaque plated glass. He couldn’t return it, he could do little more than walk back to his room, to some semblance of sanctuary. He stomped through the periphery like a battered but victorious colossus, only without the stature or the victory. Once in, he practically fell out of his suit into the dark of his room, crawling the few extra feet up to his bed. What could be seen of him curled up on top of it, unmoving, sobbing. This day had gone on too long already.