Page 42 of Failed State

Rory Stormbringer is going down.

“Welcome back to your first real day of training,” Krista chirps from the front of the classroom.

I forced myself to eat enough to keep my energy solid for the rest of the afternoon—I think—but I have no idea what the hell these people are going to work on with us. Everything supes are taught in the schools since the sweeps is specificallynon-aggressive, but that’s not what this stupid contest is about. They’ll have to assess each team’s skill level person by person to figure out who was trained before that became illegal. I’mnot worried about myself at this juncture; the one thing my dadcouldteach me was physical self-defense.

The magic part is where I’m going to be deficient.

“These two gents are Brick and Lancaster. They are hybrid supernaturals contracted by the FHSA to work with you because of your special physiology. Don’t worry! They’re very skilled and come with superb qualifications prior to The Unveiling.”

Dante looks at me, his brow arched as if to say ‘see what I meant?’ I guess that means these guys were locked down somewhere because I know they’re not from the Tempest Seven sector. I don’t know if the dragonknowsthem or knowsofthem, but he’s very smug right now. They don’t acknowledge him, though, so I’ll have to keep my theories on ice until later.

Brick is built… well, like a fucking brick shithouse. He’s almost as tall and broad as Elias, but the dangerous energy coming from him tells me his physicality isn’t his only strength. The vibes rolling off of him are intense as hell and some of it is frustrated fury. I can empathize with that; being locked up by these clowns and then having to pretend to willingly assist them now has to chafe something awful. I’m not sure what he is; my senses aren’t developed enough to scent it, nor is my experience with rare supes.

In contrast, Lancaster is muscled, but lithe, like Rory. He exudes a dark aura, and his appearance matches it. Everything about him screams pain and vicious intent—so much so that the air gets colder when my eyes fall on him. He’s glaring at Huck and Elias in particular, so maybe his kind don’t like demons or dragons?

Who the fuck knows anymore?

“We’re here to work you both physically and magically, though an assessment of your physical speed, strength, and endurance are on today’s menu,” Brick says in a gravelly voice. “It will allow us to develop personalized, rigorous trainingroutines for each of you, plus detailed team exercises. Once we set that over the next two weeks, we will move to the supe arena to measure those skills and abilities. The process will repeat again until we have that training decided, and your real weekly schedule will be given to you.”

Dante grunts and Sebastian rolls his eyes, but it seems logical to me. Deciding that being the only chick on the team means I’m going to have to be the one to ask, I clear my throat. “Is that all we’ll be doing when the schedule is set or…?”

Krista waves her hand, looking amused. “Ofcoursenot. These are beginning battle classes, but you will have strategy courses, marketing with me once branding is set, on-off fittings or shopping trips when we’re live and you gather funds and points, social media sessions, events, and more. Schedules will bepackedif I’m doing my job right and you’re doing yours.”

I don’t want to ask what will happen if we're not doing it, even before we hit the field for whatever trials there are.

“Performing monkeys,” Elias says as he looks at me.

He’s right, so I give him a slight nod when our hostess is looking away. A soft chuckle sounds from the front, but I don’t see which one of the trainers made the noise. “Fine. Let’s get this over with then. What do we do first?”

Brick stabs a finger at the track. “Ten laps around this. Startnow.”

I blink, looking at the guys for a split second before I jog to the marked track. The sounds of their varied footfalls tells me they’re following along, but I ignore it. I run laps around the entire sector by myself at night when I can’t sleep—which is more often than Huck or Thad know—so I want to be alone while I do it. It’s comforting to the point of hypnotizing, so the room falls away as I simply pace myself. Ten laps around this is a much shorter distance than I’m used to, but it’ll do for now.

“Vicious, wait up,” I hear Rory call, but I don’t even twitch a muscle to let him know I hear him.

The voice that answers surprises me when the bear says, “She’s in her running zone, man. Leave her be. It’s like she’s in another world when she does this.”

How the hell did he know that?

My expression turns irritable as I surmise he’s probably followed me at least once without my knowledge. Maybe Huck has, too, and it rankles me to think they’re sneaking around to ‘protect’ me when I’m plenty capable of it on my own. We’re going to have a come to Zeus moment later on, that’s for sure.

Shaking off my annoyance, I use the jogging time to muse about what we’ve experienced so far. This endeavor had to be at least two years or more in the making; it’s got so many moving pieces and so many variables. Is it possible that some savvy human corporations used Taterman’s hatred of our kind to play a long game? Capitalism is a scourge, so I wouldn’t put it past them. Those dickwads use and abuse their own kind, so getting him to enact the registrations and sectors wouldn’t be hard.

All they’d have to do after The Unveiling was present profit projections and stoke a senile old racist’s fear of the unknown… it would slide through like a hot butter knife.

It’s just as likely Taterman and his fellow crusty old white dudes and their ass-sucking sycophant women did this on their own but discovered they could profit off us, too. After all, they cut every corner on the sectors to pinch pennies, but finding a way to monetize it as well isn’t outside of their wheelhouse. Spinning a positive look on the camps to the rest of the world might help keep the do-gooders who keep trying to get in to inspect from the U.N.B. from making noise.

There are just too many evil reasons for these fuckers to put us in death games; I can’t decide which one is most probable yet. I’ll see the board eventually, though, and that’s when I will beable to plan accordingly. Magic isn’t my strength at the moment, but strategy is, and I’m going to break this entire thing down to nuts and bolts to win.

Freedom will be mine, no matter who I have to go through to get it.

RUNNING YOUR MOUTH DOESN’T COUNT AS EXERCISE

ELIAS

Watching Sydney run was impressive.She could use a bit more endurance, but if I know the guys they picked to be our trainers, she’ll get what she needs in short order. I’ve been moved around some since the Sweeps, so I met them during stays in places other than my most recent home in Inferno Seven. Now we’re working on weight training, and I think she could use a lot more work in this arena. Her legs are fairly strong, but her arms are weak—something common in people who train for cardio to escape but not for strength to break free.

I will help her with that myself.

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