“ALRIGHT MAGGOTS!!! LeETS Get to… Ppphh okay yeah that’s way too over the top. Hehe!”

Aegis took over the course as if she was always meant to. Like she’d been waiting to do this for a while

“Now, for the next month, all of you are going to be getting stronger. No, not more powerful, actual physical strength.”

She didn’t mock the trainees with nicknames, she didn’t leave anyone to wallow.

“Powers can be blocked, defeated, countered. You’re going to have to learn how to fight without them eventually.”

She made sure every one of her trainees at least gained something from this course.

“But before all that, your first lesson is to bulk up.”

And fucking hell was it brutal!

Sprints around the arena, all four hundred yards of it. The standard push-ups, sit-ups, and the like, but wholesale in the hundreds. And all the weight and strength training in between, except jacked up to the physical limit. And then some.

‘When the hell did Aegis become a gym rat?’

For half of that first week Para was tagged in, letting nothing go unaccosted. His training usually focused more on competitive regimens. Obstacle courses were his favorite, but some days he would mix things up with one ton block pushes and endurance runs. By the end, if everyone wasn’t passed out or close to it, he’d make them run it again.

By the end of most of those days the trainees were comatose in their beds, only even thinking of getting up when dinner was being served. The food was the only real saving grace. The Hill’s super chef Ambrose made dishes from every corner of the globe. ‘And holy hell were they good!!’ Despite being sore to the bone, the trainees, and a lot of off duty heroes, scrambled into the canteen to at least end their days on a high note.

The rooms for the trainees were small, but not quite broom closets. A built in bed and dresser on one side, sink and enclosed bathroom in the back. Even a fold out desk and chair. Seth could live with it. It at least didn’t have yellowed wallpaper. Each room also had a terminal that popped out of the wall as well. Full access to the internet, though with obvious security features, and a full schedule and directory for The Hill’s facilities. All in all this was probably a life he could still get used to, if it weren’t for a rather serious handicap.

Aegis stepped up to Seth before starting her first regimen, that same concern turning mild and more apologetic.

“Seth, right? I’m not going to lie, that suit seems pretty important to you. But relying on it, even if it doesn’t do anything for you, is going to make things harder in the long run. All the other recruits are going to be carrying around powers they can’t fully use for a while, and to see you wearing that suit is going to cause some… jealousy?... nah they will just straight up hate you for it. So listen, for the next month… I’m going to need you to take the suit off and carry it everywhere you go.”

Seth recoiled, the stairs were one thing but… he sighed in surrender knowing full well he should have expected this.

“I understand.”

He stepped out of the suit, turning and folding it in, back into its travel ready form. He thought for a second and turned to Cleo,

"Think I could get some of those straps?"

Who in turn smiled maliciously.

“Sure, anything for yoouu.”

He ignored her more than off putting tone and accepted the materialized, and hopefully inert, leather straps. A few knots and loops and he had a near ton backpack to keep him down. Pulling it up, the weight was obvious to the other trainees, most seeing it as payback for the free for all. Aegis glared down their malice and turned back to Seth.

“There… I know it’s heavy, but I also know full well you can handle it. Especially after all of that. But if Para gives you shit about it, tell me okay. I’ll knock him on his ass.”

She turned back to the gathered trainees.

“Okay recruits! Let’s Get Running!!! … What? This is a training camp! What did you think we were going to do?”

Seth trudged in behind everyone. He was already starting to regret ever comin up those stairs. ‘Huuggh.’

The running wasn’t so bad actually, lugging around nearly a thousand and a half pounds of metal secured to your back with what can only be hoped to be non-maliciously attuned straps of conjured leather was rather easy on flat ground. The real work started with the pushups, he lost feeling in his arms after the first hundred, don’t ask about the second hundred. Much of the other workouts were similarly brutal, sit ups at least offered a reprieve, the suit acting as a spotter. But of course to compensate, he had to do an extra hundred.

Seth burned through most of his saved up energy just trying to stay conscious. The other trainees at least were mutually exhausted, if not outright broken from over exertion. He could tell though that they were only able to train this hard because of Mediknight, who watched over each session and repaired the quickly tearing muscle before it was even able to feel pain. This didn’t ease the exhaustion though, or the perpetual soreness.

Seth had the hardest time during Para’s tag-ins of course. He regularly stood on Seth’s block during the one ton block push, using it as a stage to berate anyone who fell behind him. He at least didn’t limit his accosting, but it was annoying to still be considered powerless at this point. The obstacle course was obscene though. Much of it wasn’t designed to handle the weight of the suit, let alone the obtuse nature of it strapped to his back. Logs and ropes snapped regularly, eliciting collective punishment each time, usually devolving into more endurance runs. The idea he favored competition but distributed collective punishments was irksome to everyone, especially Seth since he was the one most likely to be called out for it. Thankfully Aegis stepped in after the first few sessions and took over the obstacle course. To balance the schedule, Para opted for rock climbing races, the indoor units at least appeared sturdier than the wooden obstacles.

By the end of the first week, the trainees were beaten to shit. They were allowed weekends off, but everyone used them to simply remain passed out in their beds. Seth mostly used the time to watch TV on his terminal and recharge. Even if he quit, he still liked keeping tabs on the armor industry at large. The next week started with more of the same, but… it was surprisingly less taxing. Even those that struggled with the training were improving. Before long it was like nothing at all to sprint around the arena, knock out five hundred pull ups, or a twenty second rush over the obstacle course. They were all still pretty sore though.

By the end of the second week the trainees were actually enjoying their Saturday, though they were confined to The Hill or chaperoned for security purposes. ‘The League doesn’t seem to take any chances with security these days.’ The next week flew by, the trainees feeling stronger and stronger each day. Most wagered the food was full of steroids or something, others just passively thanked Mediknight’s abilities for the accelerated gains. Speaker seemed to affirm that suspicion.

“But remember to practice at your own healing, better to not have to rely on others after all.”

‘Don’t you start too.’

Whatever the cause, the prospects were looking good. Good enough for Para to alter his courses for the last week of the month. The trainees lined up for Monday drills as Para waited as usual.

“Aright. You’ve all made progress… I guess. But don’t expect things to be easy now that you’ve gotten stronger. Next week you’ll be starting fight training, as well as a little selected coursework. Can’t have you just skip out on a proper education. But this week though, heh heh, this week you're all mine. To prepare you properly for fighting at the level expected of you, we won’t be doing standard training routines. Instead we will start learning to control all that strength you’ve built up. Aegis!”

The lined up trainees looked to an opening storage door on the side of the arena. It was large, almost reaching the stands above it, but no one could make out what was actually inside the space. The keen eyed saw a rounded shape matched into the darkness, but could only put real definition to it once the door was fully open and the object started rolling. When Sethfinally saw it though, he and the Garkah collectively reeled.

The matte black and circuitry etched sphere from Frigateville, the Garkah’s Ark. But it was… different. The melded in space rocks had been removed, and it was visibly scarred from all manner of attacks. Cracks from punches, burns and slightly melted sections from energy attacks, there was even a deep, but small, gash from a sword. As Aegis somewhat effortlessly rolled it out onto the arena floor more marks became visible, but none of them seemed to be anything more than surface wounds. It finally stopped behind Para, looming over him at nearly three times his size. Seth hadn’t realized it was that big. He could feel the Garkah scramble for understanding, a few looking for countermeasures. Had the League deduced their presence, learned anything from their ark? Para slammed a hand onto the sphere, causing it to resound with a deep metal gong, silencing the trainee’s gossip that Seth was too lost in thought to hear.

“A few of you seem to understand just what this is, good for you. For the uneducated, this is… was… the source of the Laceroid Crisis.”

Seth was forcibly reminded of the first few months in the orphanage, watching the only TV in the building and seeing the daily reports. The speculations over the cause, the classifications of the monsters… the casualty numbers. Hundreds of thousands were dead by the end. A globe spanning effort, all the terror and pain, everything the crisis had caused. All of it had stemmed from this massive black sphere. And yet no one really knew what the hell it was.

The trainees were visibly shaken up a bit by its presence here, Seth especially. But… but he understood he needed to get ahead of things before his reaction drew notice.

“Why is it here?”

The grit on his teeth and warble of his voice turned the trainees toward him, most seeing a similar stare of internal dread.

“It’s here because no one can do anything with it.”

The trainees turned back to Para, scowling at Seth for interrupting.

“This accursed thing is virtually indestructible, these marks and cuts are proof of that. They weren’t made by tools or machines. These are all marks from some of the strongest heroes who survived the crisis.”

Para rolled the sphere back slightly, the massive weight undeniable as it creaked the floor of the arena despite the sand. An indent that appeared to crack its surface slightly came in over his shoulder.

“This one was made by Kineticlysm, the force he put out almost leveled the old Terrace base.”

He rolled it again showing a melted blast mark.

“This was made by our very own Hothead, the temp he put out was measured at just a touch over 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit. This thing could skip off the surface of the sun and still remain solid.”

He rolled again, revealing the gash from before.

“This is the deepest damage we’ve ever done to this thing, and Makani Samurai’s contribution. He studied this damn thing for months, tested every weakness, every attack angle. This was the best he could do. Today this thing is used as a test of true strength and skill among the League’s heroes. A rite of passage for the best of the best. If you can leave a mark on this thing, you’re strong or skilled enough to do anything.”

The trainees lit up at this comment, raised dread melted away by common spite and future recognition. Secondary goals were powerful motivation. A few though seemed to truly relish in the fact that the cause of the crisis was being used as a punching bag. Para killed the motivation real quick.

“Don’t even think about it. This thing is off limits to trainees… with one exception. Today I’m taking you all up to the mountains, we’re going to find the steepest rock wall we can find, and we are going to climb it. First one to the top gets to smack the ball. ONCE! I sure hope those rock climbing routines stuck, because this is going to be a free climb. No safety, no ropes, just you and the wall. Now come on, transport’s waiting.”

The trainees funneled out as Aegis begrudgingly pushed the several ton sphere back into storage. The trainees followed Para through the periphery of the arena to the logistical side of The Hill. Passing dispatch and command and control rooms bustling with support staff. They left through a wide double door to the outside platforms, landing pads for the League’s VTOL transports. They were led to the only active craft, Mediknight leaving it as they approached.

“You’ll have to do this without me. Can’t be gone from The Hill for very long. Left plenty of med packs, but do try not to fall.”

He walked off, staying at the doorway to watch the class leave. They were led in and strapped into jumper seats on both sides of the craft. As Seth stepped on, the craft audibly groaned under the weight of his suit and limit alarms blared from the cockpit. He strapped the suit to the cargo hooks in the center to balance out the weight and calm the sensors, before taking a seat himself. The craft began to thunder to life despite the burden, the dual tilt-jet engines roared deafeningly as it lifted off slowly. The noise from the engines disappeared as the loading ramp closed, leaving nothing but the metal reverb to fill the silence.

The trip was quick, the pilot had apparently scouted the area ahead of time and the mountains were fairly close.

“Trust me, the view‘ll be worth the climb.”

Para glared at the pilot for encouraging his trainees then turned back to the cockpit window, scanning the area around the ascent.

“Land there, we’ll walk the rest of the way.”

The craft wobbled slightly as it turned to land in a clearing.

“I’ll stay on station if you-”

Para dead eyed the pilot into silence.

The trainees funneled out as the engines died down. Hefting the suit back on his back, Seth could see the area was… kinda odd. Relatively young saplings surrounded long dead trees that still stood at defiant attention. There was little canopy left of the forest here, like a fire had swept through years ago. He recognized some of the plants, it was like his backyard, just a lot more barren. And as the engine finally stopped… it grew quiet. Unnervingly quiet.

The mountains loomed over their clearing, but were still a mile or so away. A visible set of trails snaking out toward them, just as defiant of the considerable disuse. Para passed the nature observant trainees and headed up the straightest trail to the mountain, the trainees filing in behind him without a word. Seth felt like this exercise was as odd as the scenery. He’d mentioned they would learn control, but free climbing seemed like too simple a task for that. Though he realized it would be simple for everyone else, the obscene amount of dead weight on his back colored his expectations.

Only to have that turn down several more shades as Para finally stopped everyone at the base of an almost sheer wall of sedimentary stone. Though even calling it stone was too much, there were obvious soft spots in between several of the rocks, and a substantial wash flowing away from its base.

“We’ll rest up here. Tabby, Kaze, fire wood. Combo Breaker, fire pit. Toaster, fire. Waterboy, Snowcone, fill up canteens. Butterknife, Ditto, I know you brought food, prep it here, you’ll be sharing it at the summit. Everyone else, butts down.”

Everyone did what they were told, though with obvious obstination at the continued use of their derogatory nicknames. Maya raised a stone ring to act as a fire pit. The area was fairly barren this close to the mountain and the wind was barely noticeable, but Para seemed to at least subscribe to safe camping practices. Razor and Alex asked Maya for a table for prep work and were quickly given one. David and Jacob took turns filling and icing everyone’s canteens. Kaz sized up a few small dead trees that lined the path behind them and sliced them up while Tabby scrounged up loose twigs for kindling. Kabar poked at the empty fire pit with a slowly burning twig he’d picked up. Once finally given burnables, he ignited the twig and stuffed it into the kindling, using his hands to add to the smoldering spark as needed. The rest of the group gathered around the growing fire, the cold mountain air wasn’t too bad but a fire made it nice and relaxing. Baring the odd grit in the smoke. Seth sat down, letting his suit fall back like a makeshift seat back so he could lounge. Para leered at him almost immediately, so he sat up a bit more properly.

“Now. You should have noticed by now that the wall behind me is unstable. The connecting soil, dust, ash, and sand between the rocks makes this climb treacherous for even seasoned climbers. It takes more than strength to pull yourself up on this thing. Pull too hard and you’re liable to loose a boulder that will, at best, take you with it, at worst, take out everyone below you. To this end, I’m allowing limited power use, but no pulleys, no flying unless you fall, and no breaking my wall! You ruin it, I will make you drag that accursed sphere around the arena until you pass out or get crushed by it. Is that understood?”

“Yes sir!”

Seth was almost astonished by the unanimous affirmation. Even if he was a jackass, the trainees still respected Para. To that end they quickly rested and planned their ascents.

Kaz and Razor were going to use their weapons as artificial handholds, everyone else was left with just their hands. Jacob could use his powers to freeze his in place, but worried about leaving slick spots for the others. Tabby seemed to have things made, taking on the form of a snow leopard and testing the first couple of handholds. Maya tested the consistency of the loose material, theorizing she could solidify it with a little water. David overheard and quickly joined her as support. Zeleny tried to cheat slightly by barely floating as she pulled herself upward, but Para spotted and scolded her quickly. Ohm rocketed up the wall almost immediately, little care paid for the dangers or the consequences. Marco followed suit, but with more forethought. Alex copied Tabby and gave chase, a red tinted snow leopard looked weird but it was effective. Kabar and Cleo took up the rear of the main pack, promising to catch anyone who fell with their lines and straps. That just left Seth to be last, though he was having to alter things.

“So… does limited powers mean I can stop hauling my suit?”

Para, observing the climbers from below, glared at him.

“No.”

Seth’s shoulders dropped in disappointment, but he thought through it again. Releasing the suit from its travel mode, he twisted off one of the gauntlets.

“How about if I at least use these?”

“Hmph, just give up and get climbing already. You’re way behind.”

Seth scowled.

“You and I both know I’m set up to fail this as is. Either I go up without it or you let me use pieces of it. I’m not going up to just fail automatically under all this weight.”

Para turned to him, meeting scowl with scowl.

“Fine. If you want to cheat your way through this then go ahead. You weren’t winning this competition anyway.”

Seth turned away, only partially relieved. He took the straps from the suit and fashioned a line to hang the bulk of it below him, it would be too cumbersome as a backpack otherwise. He took off both gauntlets and put them on, the gel layer forming tight around his hands to avoid slipping. The gauntlets offered traction he didn’t have naturally, they also had retractable claws for grappling like this. Seth focused before starting up, making extra sure the gauntlets were locked in place and his hands were strong enough to get him up. With one hand he raked a low boulder for a handhold until it snagged and allowed him to pull himself upward.

To say this climb was treacherous was understating it. Dust and loose pebbles rained down with every foot gained by the rest of the class. ‘How something this unstable is still standing is beyond comprehension.’ Every hold or step up needed three other anchor points, and finding even one was hard enough. What looked like sedimentary rock initially may as well have been a filled in gravel pit that was forcibly turned into a cliff. Thankfully Seth found some of Maya and David’s quickcrete hand holds and made better progress upward. As he climbed though, the weight of the suit began to make itself known. The wind at least was blocked on this slope, but every motion required equal footing just to even progress. And the holds were getting smaller and smaller until-

“FUCK!!!”

A hold slid free of the wall, loose dust surrounding it slipping the whole concrete block out into Seth’s hand. Thankfully he was at least stable as it dragged him back. He desperately forced himself forward and slotted the block back, but saw something strange between exacerbated breaths. Some kind of black dust that hadn’t mixed into the concrete. Sand and gravel, ash and dirt, it was all mixed together in the block, but not the black dust. He looked around and saw lines of it everywhere, seams around some of the stones, and on them, like it had seeped in from above somehow. Seth didn’t really have time to investigate, his weight was going to weather any holds he held so he had to keep moving.

Foot by foot he climbed. The claws on his gauntlets allowed him purchase on the larger more stable stones, some even had weathered vertical grooves that made it easier. But ‘Fucking hell’ was the suit getting heavy. He could hear celebration from the peak, sounded like Ohm was gloating about beating everyone. He kind of expected this. What he didn’t expect was Para climbing up past him, barely fazed by the nature of the wall.

“If you’re this slow with cheats on Tinman, why even bother with the suit. Better to just ditch it all together and start from scratch.”

Seth fought the urge to sneer at him, his balance was a little precarious at the moment, but he still caught the ridiculous speed with which Para clambered upward. He’d done this before, grabbed handholds no one even saw and moved with barely a single grain falling in his wake. Seth was a little sure he was cheating, but accusations were a luxury right now. And he was only a few yards behind Kabar and Cleo when they pulled themselves over the lip.

Those last few feet were the hardest though, much of the stable rocks were in pieces, looked almost shattered. And the loose sediment was even finer, running like water when disturbed. He stabbed into what solid rocks he could to make progress, every inch a burning struggle on already whining muscle. Finally he slammed his armored hand down on the solid plateau that marked the summit, digging metal claws into it for even the slightest grip. He crawled over the lip on all fours, still weighed down by the suit, using every ounce of strength he had left to pull up to his feet and hoist the suit up onto the plateau, falling into a heaving heap as it cleared.

He slowly picked himself up, grabbing the suit by the collar and dragging it to a clear spot. The trainees were quiet, exhaustion maybe, he didn’t care. Seth found his spot and collapsed back, leaving the suit to stand guard at his feet. Every muscle, every bone felt stretched near to breaking, and even his power felt drained for some reason. He could feel the dust in his shoes, in his clothes, despite the seal he could even feel it in the gauntlets. He sat up and pulled them off, but caught sight of the rest of the group before he could flop back down. They were all looking out over the landscape below, Para standing ahead of them. They looked… tense despite their exhaustion. Seth struggled up to see what was the… big… deal…

He saw it immediately, how the hell did he miss it getting up here?! ‘HOW THE HELL DID I NOT SEE IT!?!’ The landscape was cut in two, on one side pure barren wasteland, pockmarked craters and poisoned earth. What tree line remained long dead, burned, and almost completely gone. The other side was abandoned tents, overgrown concrete slabs, and hollowed out warehouses as far as the eye could see. And in the middle of it all… was a wall. The Wall.

Seth's knees failed as the weight of the past fell upon him. He’d put most of the memories of the crisis behind him, but they all began forcing themselves to the forefront. He fought it, but nothing he did could hold them off. Para made little indication he noticed his plight, but he did.

“You all know the stories from the crisis, First Contact, the Signal Massacre, the Longest Day. No one tells the stories from this side of the wall though.”

Para moved to face the bombed and once burning landscape on the other side of the wall.

“Up here we didn’t have infrastructure, turrets, support staff. All we had was each other, the unforgiving terrain, and an enemy that took everything you had just to hold back.”

He looked down at two indentations, ruts in the plateau that no one paid any mind to.

“I stood here 10 years ago. Not much older than most of you. For weeks we were forced to hold this position, the only company the hero to either side, several yards away.”

The trainees looked around, similar plinths stood on peaks that chained down to the wall below.

“The only saving grace we had was that the big hordes never came up here. But it still meant we had to fight those fucking things face to face. You know why this wall is so treacherous, it’s because I pulverized it to bury the bastards several times over.”

Seth put his hands on his head, he couldn’t get the thought of that first monster out of his head. Burned practically to the bone, but still dead set on ripping him apart. The look of desperation locked in behind its eyes.

“Despite being smashed and buried by boulders and gravel, they kept coming. I saw them chew and pull their own arms and legs off to get out of the rubble. Every time they just grew back, but seeing an enemy do everything it can to fucking try and eat you… It adds a lot of perspective to things.”

Seth was trying his damnedest to bury the memories, but he couldn’t stop thinking of the couple that tried to help him in Brighton. Their screams.

“Despite how difficult the climb was, they always found a way up, either charging straight up the pulverized rock, or climbing over their falling comrades. When all else failed, we were forced to fight hand to hand. They tell you to just keep hitting the damn things till they burst, but the reality is you have to force back 12 for every 1 you can kill. And our powers weren’t making things easy either. Sonic waves disrupted them fine, but my flanks were left to guys with water powers. They did all they could just to force them back every time they attacked. Most of the fire based heroes were assigned the heavy platforms on the wall. Here… we only had one.”

Seth remembered the smell of the fires, of shrapnel burning through flesh, and of… the dust.

“She was our saving grace most days. Swooping in to clear our backlogs. Till she swooped too low. They grabbed her cape and pulled her down into that campsite we just made.”

The trainees peered over the edge, down at the barren site they camped at, circles radiating out from it that they couldn’t see from the ground. The ground that was rippled by a massive weathered crater. Seth slowly pulled his hands off his head, a grit sticking to his scalp.

“I jumped from my position to try and save her. I blasted at least 5 to dust before I saw it was too late. She was barely there by the time I had even reacted. Only one arm still able to move. She… used that arm to self-immolate… and take the horde attacking us with her. I only had a few seconds before she turned herself into a fucking thermobaric bomb. So I climbed. I climbed faster than I ever thought I could. The explosion nearly pulled me off the damn wall, but the fire she started turned this mountain side into an impassable hellscape. When I made it to the top… I saw those fucking things suffering, rolling around in the fire. Bursting. But… They still! Kept! Coming! They followed me up, half burned and barely healing. Snarling with hardly a lung left between them.”

Seth finally looked down at his hands.

“I blasted them all apart right then and there.”

His hands were black with dust, the dust of the dead laceroids, the dust of all of his neighbors and friends. All their eyes staring at him, staring down from all sides at him. But he could only look ahead. At the hazel eyes crying at him while her body snarled like a starved animal.

“Let it be known then that this is the level you need to achieve. This is what will be expected of you as a hero. The will to survive despite the abhorrent odds. The skill to not die pointlessly for an inch of gain. And the strength to hold out for the countless miles behind you.”

Seth couldn’t hold out anymore, his vision was blacking, his ears were ringing. He felt Speaker trying to organize the control room, to stifle the memories. And Threat doing what he could to… *thumph* He passed out, falling into the ash and dust that caked the plateau. Falling out of this world the only way he could.

The metal dimmed drone of jet engines met him as he returned the emptiness of his mind, back on the VTOL and headed home. He tried to blink the world into focus, but his eyelids felt heavier than ever. Scanning around, he saw the other trainees in similar states of exhaustion, his suit laid down in the center of the hold. And Para stood over him with- “RRhmph” his gauntlets. Unceremoniously dropping them into his lap. The pain and shock sobering him up and raising his ire as little as it could go.

“If you’re going to pass out so easily, you’re going to need to get your shit together. We’ve all been through the meat grinder in one way or another.”

Seth was still too exhausted to retaliate, but understood the sentiment. He put his head back, the din of the engines turned to a soothing vibration. Letting him nod off until the VTOL landed back at The Hill.

The trainees dragged themselves out like the dead and headed back to the arena, little fanfare left for their competition. Seth lugged his suit behind him like a ball and chain, metal scraping against tiled floor. Aegis met them in the arena with the sphere back in place, congratulatory smile melting away as they shambled in. Ohm, being the winner of the contest, moved up to the sphere with a shaky stance, before passing out himself.

“What the hell kind of mountain did you make them climb Para!?”

He didn’t answer, he just picked up Ohm and hoisted him over his shoulder.

“You’re all dismissed. We’ll do this tomorrow… And you all did well today.”

The trainees that could actually comprehend that they were just complimented by fucking Parasonic were agape. They just couldn’t voice their surprise. They all just funneled out again to their rooms, Para hauling Ohm to his.

Seth trudged into his room, leaving the suit by the door. He stumbled into the shower without bothering to take his training clothes off and turned the hot knob, crumpling onto the tiles as the water showered over him. Black dust washed off into the drain like dried blood as he curled up with his head in his knees. He thought he’d been done with that hell, with these memories, but they just laid dormant. Hidden in the dark corners of his mind, like the abyss. They’d faded away, but his mind refused to leave them be, flashing them again and again without mercy. He slept in the shower that night, too tired to eat and too hollowed out to move.

The soft comfort of his bed greeted him the next morning, clothes drying in the bathroom. The slight care of the Garkah coloring his dried catharsis. They’d pulled him out of his stupor so at the very least he wasn’t miserable ‘and’ depressed. Getting dressed was at least easy. His room was still sparse in terms of personalization. Only ‘officially’ having a highschool education and few mementoes from Frigateville will leave one bereft of choice in this regard. The only decorations were a framed sticky note with the word “dent” on it and a small compact box he kept by his bed. The note was how he got into United Armors in the first place. The box was something he’d bought not long after. It was simple, he bought it with his first paycheck so it wasn’t about to be extravagant. But inside he stored his mother’s red scarf, tightly folded down and protected. He looked at it as he groggily rubbed the memories down and went to grab up his suit.

But his hand stopped once he took it in. It was coated in dust, black stains clinging to leading edges like iron filings. Tearing at him, reminders he didn’t need, he didn’t want. Without thinking he swiped away at them, the lights of his room flickering as he drew power. But he stopped himself. He could feel the dust clearly in his hand, balled together by magnetic forces he hadn’t instinctively created. He could feel a pull, an attraction. But the longer he felt it, the harder it was to keep the pain down. He gritted his teeth, stomping over and throwing the dust ball into the shower. He was desperate to push all those memories back, to get back his already hard won optimism. A short spray of water washed it all away with the rest. He took a shaky releasing breath and finally grabbed the suit, folding it back up and strapped it to his back. He was dressed and as ready as someone forced to relive their darkest moments all over again could ever be.

Everyone seemed in equally shaken spirits as they lined up for morning training, except Ohm who was beaming at finally getting his winnings. Para and Aegis met the trainees with the sphere, ready for his go at it. As did several other heroes who more than likely came to observe the proceedings from the stands. Para stepped up ahead of the forming line up.

“You’ve noticed we have an audience today, they’re not just here to watch Ohm break his hand. They’re here to watch our training sessions from here on out. Over the next month you will be scouted by heroes of every shape and shade. They are all here to see if you’re worthy of training under them. They are power instructors, seeking to share their understandings of their power types with you. But you’ll have to earn their instruction. For now ignore them, no sense psyching yourself down just because you’re being watched. Without further ado. Ohm, take your shot so we can get the rest of the day started.”

Para stepped to the side, relative safe distance was apparently warranted. Aegis walked in behind the sphere and a halo of orange energy formed around the back, wrapping around just enough to keep the sphere in place.

Seth noticed something else, a slight pull over his shoulder. He turned and was met with a matte black panel advancing up on him. He stepped out of line and to the other side of it, seeing the panel had a whole apparatus joined to the back. Pushing it was… Technomancer. He was obviously struggling, the wheeled cart the panel was on wasn’t meant for sand.

“Excuse me, out of the way.”

He continued to push the apparatus closer to the sphere, startling the trainees as he passed by, but stopping short suddenly next to them. He tried to keep pushing, but it wouldn’t budge. Para peeked around the panel to Technomancer’s surprise.

“That’s far enough Techno, you’re barreling through my recruits.”

“Sorry, can’t really see through metal you know.”

Seth looked at the apparatus proper, batteries, specialized energy conveyors and converters, some kind of computerized sensor system, and all of it wired into that matte panel.

“Why are you bringing in such a massive electromagnet?”

Techno and Para turned with mixed surprise and curmudgeon respectively. Techno observed Seth rather indignantly.

“It’s not just an electromagnet recruit, it’s a high powered magnetic sensor array… that doubles as an electromagnet.”

Para put a hand over Techno’s unexpecting head and turned him back to his apparatus, stepping around him to address the other trainee’s confused looks as well.

“We still don’t know enough about this thing, what it’s really made of, or how the hell it was put together. Every piece, no matter how minute, needs to be collected. We also need to study every effect we have on it. So.”

Para turned back to Ohm from around the magnetic array.

“Even if you fail to even scratch the surface of this thing, we will still get something out of you shattering every bone in your hand Clarence.”

Ohm sneered back.

“The only thing shattering today is this spherical abomination, you understand that! Just watch!”

Seth stepped around the magnetic array to get a better view. Techno looked up from the apparatus’ keyboard to measure the levels on its screen.

“We also put every ounce of material we get off this thing to use. It’s slowly advancing our computing and conductive technologies beyond our comparatively meager methods. Now back up! Your suit is distorting my readings.”

Seth reeled and backed up behind the array.

‘Well… at least I’m not the only means of redemption for the Garkah.’

Ohm stepped up to the sphere, he was carrying a battery pack at his side, but dropped it once he got close enough. Seth could feel the electricity he had taken in, his nerves lighting up like high yield power lines wrapped around his muscles. He pulled his arm in and the electricity stored up became visible to everyone else, sparking and glowing beneath his skin. Lining up his attack with his other hand, he set his sights on a blank part of the sphere. Seth felt a tinge of apprehension from the Garkah, not so much in the force about to be projected, but in the electrical energy behind it. He knew a little about the Ark from what they had taught him, but was pretty sure Ohm wasn’t going to cause a second crisis by slamming a few hundred kilowatts into it.

Ohm held his stance for a full minute before pulling his aiming hand back like a counterweight, adding its force to the now released punch. Electrical discharge coated his fist as it screeched into the sphere, a final arc seen jetting out his elbow adding propulsion. Surging his fist in like a lightning strike… mixed with a gibbing. A sickening snap could be heard under the thunder and screech of the electricity.

Yeah “AAAHHHH!!!” He broke his hand. ”FUCK!!! FUCK FUCK FUUUUCKK!!!”

Ohm recoiled hard off the sphere, curling up around his shattered hand, blood dripping between his fingers from whatever was left. Mediknight was already prepped behind the trainees, pulling around them and calmly bee lining to him, while Para just watched on with only a tinge of smugness.

“Told you. Let this be a more concrete lesson. It takes more than brute strength to deal with things and move forward. You’re all going to have to learn where to strike and how to strike, else you’ll just be pounding sand. Heh, or breaking your hand. Ha!”

Seth kept his eyes on the Ark as the smoke and ozone from the impact cleared. The electricity that Ohm imparted into his attack had merely danced over the surface ineffectually, he couldn't sense any power from inside the Ark. The only mark left on the surface a red stain in the shape of a fist. ‘Sheesh, Ohm really fucked up his hand on this.’ Techno’s sensor array showed no signs of material collection, or interesting readings as well it seemed. His disappointment clear as day as he grabbed the cart again and started pulling it back out of the arena. Seth turned back to the Ark though.

‘What kind of force could even hurt this thing anyway?’

The silent murmurings from the crowds afforded him some silence as he felt Speaker’s quiet answer.

“Not so much a force but a specific kind of energy. Hit it with just the right variables and it will shatter like glass. Anything else would just result in… well what you saw here. The surface scarring already inflicted are a clear indication that these heroes are getting close in other regards, small scale matching of its resonance, but they are not going to have enough raw power to do much else. Let alone the right abilities to judge our Ark as anything but solid metal.”

Seth stared at the Ark a little more. A juggernaut like this undone by just a specific variance of electrical force seemed an odd choice. He focused and tried to look closer, trying to feel through the Ark’s systems.

A guiding hand drew his focus to the right spot, Speaker at least helping him along. The systems still seemed dead on the surface, empty and burned out. But he could just barely feel… see something. A small current, completely unnoticeable to even the deepest of scans he knew how to do. Seth couldn’t even make out what it fully was, just that it was there. Like a mesh screen seen from a distance. With a better picture, and a better path, he tried to deepen his focus. Get a bit more resolution out of it than just abstract feelings. A sight for the power flowing within. Only a slight flow past the mesh, the energy that Ohm slammed into the Ark. He could actually feel every joule of it as it flowed down the Ark’s wiring, but… it felt so small for some reason. Like it was farther away than it really was.

Then, as he followed it along, his sight almost shifted, lensed. Like the Ark had a hold over even his focus. A pull all its own. The Ark… it was like a black hole. The energy was only small in a relative sense. Trapped in a fossilized gravity well for energy that pulled and swallowed it up with little outward notice. It was far deeper than anyone could ever perceive. And that miniscule current… It was everywhere, binding and condensing everything down. It stopped short of singularity, but the picture was clearer despite its infinitesimal parts.

“So you see it now? The issue is not the force alone. It is the scale. The ones who scarred the surface could see the Ark as a puzzle, pieces formed together, saw minute weaknesses and exploited them to the best of their ability. But to really damage the Ark you would need to effect it all at once. Disrupt the current that keeps it together. And to do that you would need to be able to directly match the variables of a far grander amount of energy than can ever be realized from just looking at its surface. And I can say with certainty this is beyond much of your species’ abilities. At least so far anyway-”

”Oh thank gods!!”

The silence was broken by Ohm exhaling in relief, his hand reappearing fully repaired from Mediknight’s clutches. But Speakers still words rang clear. Seth had found a bit of his resolve again, a new goal to reach on his path, but he had a ways to go before he could challenge this titan. Yet despite that… he felt better than before. in an odd way. Even as Para retook his place before his recruits with a rather evil smirk, leaving Aegis to, once again, push the super heavy sphere of alien metal back into storage. Alone.

“There. Now that that’s out of the way, I still have 4 days’ worth of control training for you maggots.”