First Training Session

“What! I thought you said you were done,” Wren protested.

“With the general testing of your health, but now I need to evaluate your fighting skills so I can create a program specifically tailored to your strengths and weaknesses. Could you please step into the next room, and I will start the program?” Shorty said, starting to push buttons on his control panel.

Once he saw that Wren was in the room and the door had closed securely after her, he began.

“Now,” he said into the mic, “they will not kill you, but you can and will take damage from them, so be careful. We try to keep the training as realistic as possible. That way, we can build up your stamina and healing abilities while preparing you for the real deal. Good luck.”

“But…” Wren argued. “I have no idea what to do.”

Shorty waved away her concerns.

“Relax. This is a program that is designed to activate your power and get a general idea of how much talent you have. Once that is established, we will move on to how well you can control it at this stage, nothing more.”

“Gee, is that all?”

“Trust the man.” Talon stepped in. “We have all had to go through this. You are not the only person who has come through here without any fighting ability.”

Wren looked up at him.

How the hell did he know she had no fighting experience? ~Jerk.~

Wren hated the thought of him watching her fail. He would lord it over her; she just knew it.

But since he was going to watch, she would go on the offense.

“Fine. It is going to get ugly in here, and I will not be laughed at for it. Understood?” she grumbled.

Talon looked at her in surprise. It was the first time she had directed anything at him other than a question or polite response to one of his.

Her sudden change in attitude threw him for a loop.

~The woman has spunk.~ That thought caused a grin to flash across his face before he got his emotions under control.

There was no reason for Shorty to know that she had the power to make him smile, even if it was just for a second.

“Are we complaining already?” Talon asked innocently.

“Absolutely. So shut up and let me make a fool of myself in peace,” Wren’s cheeky response filled the room, surprising him even more.

~Now what am I supposed to do? She is feisty too.~

Wren glanced up to the large window at the top of the room just in time to catch the second grin that crossed his face.

~Damn, the man is really hot when he smiles.~ For the first time in years, she felt a flutter in her stomach rather than a shudder, and she almost toppled over at the feeling.

~What did that bonding do to me?~ she wondered.

Maybe there was a chance that she would be able to overcome this phobia that she had.

She took a quick glance up once more, but Talon’s face showed no trace of the smile that she had seen.

~Did I dream that?~

No. She had seen that smile, and if he did it with any type of regularity, she was going to have more to worry about than just her phobia.

That man was lethal.

Wren swallowed hard and took a calming breath. She needed to concentrate on the task at hand.

Shorty had told her to try to keep her “damage” to a minimum. If she did not, she knew they would be scraping bits of her off the floor and walls when she was done.

“All right. Let’s get this over with.” She stood there, waiting, dread making knots in her stomach.

“This will be the shortest test you will ever give, I am sure of it.” She muttered to herself as she tried to keep her nerves steady.

“Ready?” She heard Shorty come across the mic again.

She nodded. “Bring it on.”

A Being like the one that had attacked her suddenly appeared on her right, and she jumped away just as his hand shot out to grab her.

She felt the air flutter against her cheek as his claws slid by.

~That was close.~

“Nice reflex,” Shorty commented.

“You did that on purpose.” She did not tell him that she had already been through an experience like that before. It might hurt his feelings.

“Of course I did. I need to see how good your reflexes are.”

That Being disappeared, and another took its place.

Without hesitation, it moved in with lightning speed.

Wren instinctively flung her arms up to cover her face, bracing for the impact that never came.

She felt a focused pressure above her and opened her eyes to see where it was coming from.

There, all around her, was a very faint barrier that the Being was trying to break through.

~That is a nifty trick to have.~ Wren took in the barrier.

It was translucent to the point that if you were just glancing around, you might not even notice it.

~I wonder how I did this.~

“Good. You can produce a barrier already,” Shorty’s voice came through the mic again.

He turned to Talon, who had not taken his eyes off Wren yet.

“Not real strong, but it is there.”

Talon did not even acknowledge whether he had heard the comment.

“Next!”

“Wait!” Wren watched as the creature disappeared.

“How did I do that?”

“Do not worry about it. Next!”

“At least let me catch my breath.”

“No time.”

That one was gone, and another took its place.

It was bigger and wielded two wicked-looking blades.

It started to stalk toward her, and although she could not see its face because of the cloak covering it from head to toe, she was sure it was grinning at her.

“Now what?” she yelled. “How am I supposed to defend against that?”

“Good luck.”

Wren was sure Shorty’s voice was getting more excited every time it came across the speaker.

The man was a fiend. A madman. A terror.

She was going to throw him in here and make him go through all of this once she got out of here.

~Let’s see if he is still happy afterward.~

“Why do you make them so creepy looking?” she asked.

She muttered to herself, “I am sure that it is grinning at me underneath there.” But Shorty still heard her.

“How do you know that?”

“Trust me,” her voice rose once more. “It is. Besides, it seems to be something that you would do.”

“You barely know me!” Shorty exclaimed.

“Exactly.”

“If you have time to chat, then you are not working hard enough,” Talon commented dryly, interrupting their banter.

Shorty was supposed to be assessing her skills, not her commentary.

He told himself that this frustration he was feeling stemmed from wasting time, not because he was seeing her flirt with another man.

“Why don’t you try dodging him first?”

The Being lunged, and Wren ducked and rolled away from it, coming up a bit dizzy and disoriented but no worse for wear. It was fast, and she struggled to stay away from it.

“Not bad,” Shorty said, impressed.

She did not look as if she could handle herself in a fight, but she was proving them wrong by the minute. “See if you can pick up your speed a bit.”

Wren quickly found a pattern in the Being’s movements and used it to find a rhythm that allowed her to stay out of the reach of the blades that were trying to slice her into pieces.

“Watch out!” Talon called suddenly as the Being suddenly changed its pattern.

She tried to dodge, but her foot slipped out from underneath her, causing her to fall, but saving her from getting her head chopped off at the same time.

“Why did you do that?” Shorty asked him.

Talon just shrugged his comment away. He could not have explained it to himself, let alone to anyone else.

She flung up her arms again and felt the barrier go up, a bit stronger this time. This Being was stronger, too, and he started chipping away at it.

She would not be able to sustain the barrier for very long against this one.

“Good. Next.”

The Being was gone, and Wren stood. She was already dog tired.

~Shorty, you are a fiend. How much longer are you going to make me do this?~

“She is tiring,” Talon commented.

~How is she still going?~ he mused, watching her chest heave up and down. ~She should not have made it this far.~

“Yup. Let’s see how long she can go.”

“You are an evil person.”

“Thank you. It is my job,” Shorty said. He continued to push buttons and turn knobs.

Talon did not like the grin that was on the man’s face. He was enjoying this a little ~too~ much.

He did not think he wanted to piss Shorty off. The man might decide to take away the restriction in his next training session.

***

Wren watched as the creature disappeared, and yet another took its place.

This one was much taller but still shrouded in the same black cloak as the others. She did not want to know what was underneath.

This one held a long, thin pole in his hands and stood still, just watching her. Or at least, she thought he was just watching her.

“Now what?” she asked.

A table appeared on her right. On it, a set of metal rings.

“Slip them on your wrist,” Shorty commanded. “They will eventually change shape and become your weapon. That is, if you can figure out how to activate them.”

Wren could hear the glee in Shorty’s voice become even stronger as he continued, “If not, he will take you out.”