SWNOVELS Chapter Epilogue: The Brightest Flame (Part 2)
Dan led her to a small austere room. “This is where we will stay until our group heads out.” He paused, as if waiting for a response, and then continued when she didn’t say anything. “Change into active wear. You should test out your upgraded body’s limits while we wait for the exile group to finish their training.”
That seemed reasonable. She walked over to the small dresser where she knew a couple sets of clothes were at. She pulled out a set of plain dark gray stretchy shorts and tank top along with a tight sports bra. Her body was still physically female.
She dumped the hospital gown she was in, and changed into the exercise outfit. It would be easiest to just wear the required supporting garments, but that was strictly forbidden. Even the thought of doing that felt like a warning light, and she heard something say in her head, “All cyborgs must wear overclothes except when in their personal spaces or changing clothes out of sight of humans.”
What a strange requirement. Humans were so silly about bodies. A body was simply a vehicle that served the mind. Since when had she thought this way? As a human, her memories told her she did not view her body this way. But she was not human anymore.
With her new outfit on and the hospital gown lying discarded on the floor, they headed out to one of the training areas. The room was quite narrow and long. Closest to the door on the wall to the left was a strange beige locked cabinet, and past it was a rack of simple weapons on the ground including swords and maces, and above it was a rack of bows on the wall. Across from the door was a punching bag, and between that and the door was a soft squishy mat. Way down the room, about 100 feet from the door was the far right wall. A variety of targets were spread from the mat to the end of the room; some round, some human shaped, and some that were weird indistinguishable shapes but still had a small x somewhere in them to represent a bullseye.
“We will start with combatives and move into other types of fighting.” Dan walked over to a punching bag. “Start by punching this.”
She punched at it, but even she could tell her first punch was weak and feeble like a human. That wasn’t right. She punched again.
“It often takes new cyborgs who were not already trained in fighting a little time to adjust their bodies movements to the programs in their heads,” Dan’s voice came from behind her as she continued to punch the bag. “When you get it right, it should feel correct in your brain. It is important for cyborgs to train to link body and mind perfectly so that the body does not fail at a crucial point.”
As she punched, her punches got stronger and less sloppy. Then it clicked in her brain. This was right. The program released dopamine when she did something correctly.
She turned toward Dan. “They did not give you this sync time before you came to rescue my silly human self in the castle, did they?” She knew they hadn’t.
“I did not need it. My body was trained in fighting, and the new body parts simply did as my brain expected them to do. Your body was terrible at fighting, so your brain started out expecting your body to still be that way.” He stood still as he said this, and then moved over to a mat.
This was practice for punching and dodging or blocking. “Are you ready?” He asked.
“Yes.” She focused on him, watching for him to telegraph he was about to move.
He struck, and his punch caught her in the jaw. It didn’t hurt as bad as she expected it to. She touched her cheek. He’d pulled his punch at the last second.
“Your body and mind are reacting like a human. You are thinking too hard. Let your body and mind sync and flow. Do not think.” He stood still, not even in a ready stance as he said this.
She threw her own punch, and he moved just enough for it to completely miss.
“You telegraph your actions with your thoughts like a human. Let the program rule your mind, let the human side go when fighting.”
She breathed in and out and closed her eyes. The ability to fight was programmed in her. She opened her eyes with the program in full control of her body.
He threw another punch, and this time she managed to most dodge it, his knuckles just barely grazing her.
“Better. Now your body and the program just need to sync. Eventually you will ingrain the program into your brain and you will not need to rely on it, but for now you will need to use it in a fight.” He easily dodged her next punch. He was still one of the best fighting cyborgs in the Wall.
The fight sped up, and became a dance of punches, dodges, and blocks with counter punches. The punches started to have variety and became hooks that went for different spots. He hooked her leg with his, and pulled her down to the ground switching them to a dance of grappling. They rolled, each moving to pin the opponent, the other lithely escaping and countering.
Dan eventually managed to hold her in a hold for five seconds, and then let her go. They both stood without saying anything, and Dan walked over to a rack with swords on it.
“The human parts left in my body will be sore,” Elizabeth commented as she opened and closed her hands.
“Yes, but that is good. We will be going outside the Wall, and since you chose, for who knows what silly human reason, that you needed to protect me in return; you should be able to at least hold your own against a fellow cyborg.”
He was right. She had to at least be as strong as him, or what would be her purpose? She would be a useless piece of junk only likely to get him killed if she was not stronger.
He threw a training sword at her, and she grabbed it.
“Good, your reflexes seem to be starting to catch up to your new body.” He raised his sword in a neutral stance and she mirrored. The two slowly circled. He swung, she blocked. Back and forth they went until with a swing like J, he went under her sword and gently tapped her side.
“Even following the program, my fighting does not seem up to par.” She had to be better if she was to protect him.
“Fighting is built into me. If a human were fighting you, unless they were extremely good and practiced for many hours a day, you would beat them. It is the power of the cheats we cyborgs get,” he spoke and put his sword back in the rack.
She also put her sword up, and then grabbed a bow from the rack above. “Mind if I see what it’s like to shoot a bow?”
He stopped moving away from the simple weapons rack, “Sure. You should find it easy since you were able to shoot a bow in the past.”
She grabbed a quiver of arrows, hooked it to her waist, and then easily strung the bow. It all felt familiar, but much easier than in her past.
She could see a target about 60 feet from where she was standing. She lifted the bow, sighted her target, and then feeling the draw weight she knew she needed more arc to get her arrow where she wanted it. She could see the line the arrow would travel, and angled the bow higher to get her arrow there. An easy release, and the arrow gracefully flew through the air and to the bullseye on the exact path that she saw. “I think I need a stronger draw weight for my bow when we head out.”
He chuckled. Something must have triggered his respond to joke reaction. She wasn’t joking though, simply stating a fact.
“I did say that would be easy for you. Most cyborgs don’t grab such weak powered bows. Especially cyborgs with hyper enhanced bodies like you and I. If you really want to bring a bow, I would recommend something in the 60 pound to 100 pound draw range.” He pulled a different bow off the rack and held it out to her.
She took the bow and him the one she was holding. This one was much more difficult to string, but she accomplished it. She grabbed an arrow from her quiver and pulled the drawstring back with the arrow. She could feel the tension from pulling through her whole body, but when she sighted she saw an easy straight line to the target. She released and the arrow flew right into the target just under her previously angled arrow. She shook her arm out.
“See, a better draw weight for a cyborg.”
She shook her head, “I think one hundred pounds is a little much for skeletal structure. I think around 70 pounds is better.”
He shrugged, a very human gesture, “I will make sure that a 70 pound draw weight bow and arrows are included in our supply list along with the rifles and pistols.”
She was surprised the Wall would release any of their precious stock of rifles and pistols to the outside world. They weren’t releasing much, she realized. And technically it wasn’t even releasing since it was only for her and Dan so they could protect each other while on their mission outside the Wall.
“Are we shooting rifles next then?” She asked as she unstrung the bow and hung it up.
“Yes,” he responded as he moved over to the cabinets he’d been heading to before she grabbed a bow.
He unlocked the cabinet and pulled out a black gun with many pieces sticking out of it. Above it she could see the word “automatic rifle” and as she realized this was a machine that could shoot out a lot of bullets with one trigger pull and without needing to be reloaded for each shot. An impressive weapon.
He held it out to her with the muzzle pointing down at the ground. Never point the muzzle at someone you don’t intend to kill. The voice in her head told her. A good rule of thumb.
She loaded the magazine, and pointed it at a target made for the rifle. Her brain ran through the steps of shooting: unlock it, aim, see the line, breathe in, breathe out, fire. It really was too easy. She held it back to Dan. She didn’t need to even carefully look at the target to know she hit the bullseye. “I don’t think I need to waste ammo practicing this.”
He chuckled again, “Aim assist really does make this weapon trivial.” He took the rifle from her, uploaded the magazine, and stored it back in its cabinet.
“We should eat,” he said as he locked the cabinet back up.
He was right. It was around time for their bodies to get sustenance to maintain functions.
They ate a very simple meal of mashed up nutrients, and then went back to the room to work on movement and stretching training to make her body respond better. At the end of training they ate, showered, and then slept in their shared room.
Training continued in this fashion, except the sparring sessions at the beginning of their day slowly became longer as she became more intune and could hold out longer against Dan.
At the beginning of one of her days, Lok entered through the door surprising her. She knew where all other cyborgs were inside the Wall, except for him.