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Aye lads

Soooo this should be the last chapter before Harper's flight.

Been building it up since what, chapter 5 or so?

I've prewritten the important parts (and I actually did before I even published "recruitment") so some of it's been conforming this timeline to fit into that loop and part's been editing it heavily.

Which I still have a lot to do.

DSA is my new name for the USA (since it is divided S/N/W) and I didn't want to refer to it as plainly "America" because that encompasses a lot of land.

This chapter shows off some of Tai's Janus abilities and I guess this is my guideline (if Lynx's remark last chapter wasn't) as to what they can do.

Like I said, trying hard not to make them Mary Sue but still make them OP as hell

///

CHAPTER 11-PAROXYSM

The room was glass, and fogged, droplets condensed on the glass.

Outside was white, and I had no desire to go there.

Not out of fear, but the plague of curiosity was erased from my being and now I felt like I wasn't free, just on the tracks.

The room itself was small, maybe the size of my bedroom.

As I made the comparison it shifted and became just that, and it wasn't odd or anything.

This was a dream, I realized.

Lucid dreaming wasn't rare for me, I never seemed to fully lose consciousness.

Looking around, nothing was exact, and it was blurry as all hell.

The mind's lazy mess of picture didn't much care if I was awake to see it or not.

I didn't dare stir myself up too much, didn't want to wake up at 3, or whatever time it was outside.

There was one thing that wasn't blurred.

It took me a moment to pick it out, reality starting to pull back on me and the aftereffects of the cords of dreaming being severed deafening my senses.

The shape, too, began to blur, until a white circle appeared. It was marked with red, maybe even blood, I realized, as it began to drip down...

It was a mask, with a sinister grin.

Everything else faded, and I stared at the one thing that wouldn't.

///

I felt around me, and solidified it was just a dream, whatever it was.

Eyes fluttering open, I looked instinctually to the right of my bedroom, by the window.

My... Bedroom?

No mirror, just a gray painted wall.

Window was in the right place.

My head aching for whatever reason, I supposed there had to be some sort of ailment every morning.

The events of yesterday came to me again, and the feeling of waking up somewhere you didn't belong reconciled itself.

Pulling my covers off and walking over to my dresser (duffel bag), I realized I was already dressed as well. I was too tired to do anything when I got to the base.

I was in a polyester tank top and gym shorts, both black. I got a few odd looks at the magnatrain station while I was freezing my ass off, but everything was in the wash and I'd taken off the jacket I brought when we got to Connecticut.

Connecticut.

We were at some sort of base for the rest of the day, the flight being tomorrow.

The Brazilians had arrived a day before us, and I still didn't know why we were here.

Or them, for that matter. From what Jake told us on the magnatrain they were the best of the best, but I'd never heard of them.

Then again, I'd never heard of the head of the GSS either.

Funny how only the bad guys make it into the books, but you hear the opposite.

Nothing I could have done here, and I wasn't the person to stay in bed, so might as well explore.

I half expected the familiar polished wood hallway with the flags and windows with snow on them, but instead got drab concrete walls I'd been to drunk on fatigue to pay attention to last night.

It had a few windows, giving a view into Hartford, over a pretty broad barbed wire fence.

Going closer for an angle on the ground below the window, I could see a few people walking around at the edge of the building, mostly people in office wear, not soldiers.

Hartford Base was our place of residence while we were here. Marshall had come with us but he was staying somewhere else.

Since the Jinn Uprising in the DSA, little bases like this in the middle of big cities weren't uncommon. Now they functioned as more or less training facilities or places for soldiers you really didn't have much to do for.

And there weren't many people GRA didn't have much to do for, suspect that it was very empty for a base and I had my room all to myself.

I followed one of the Brazilians outside to a large courtyard, the same drab gray with what looked like solar paneling for walls.

The walls themselves were incredibly high and unless it was high noon, I wasn't going to be able to see the sun unless it was the right time and I was pressed to the opposite wall.

Upon closer look... I could see people climbing on the top of it, the wall terraformed.

I had to strain my eyes to see the entire place, and I was a cat...

Now I knew why everywhere looked empty, everyone was here, training.

Besides the terraforming walls I saw a track around the whole place, a range, a ring way off to the side, among others.

I remembered when I thought the weight room was good shit...

To think this facility was going to waste disturbed me. What else did the GRA have up their sleeves?

Obviously I wasn't going to find a familiar face around here, so I sat down on a bench, the ripped members of Brasilia Esquadrao discouraging me from showing off my noodle limbs.

Looking to my left, from my right, a figure pounced onto the bench, making hardly any noise but the creaking and then the heavy breathing caught me off guard.

It- he- picked up a water bottle from beside the bench's legs and wiped his face with a towel that had the GRA logo, both provided most likely by the base.

I hadn't noticed them at all; and I was too shy to sit on a claimed bench one way or another.

He was a feline, but unlike me not domestic. Jaguar, cheetah, leopard, some sort of short furred spotted species in that family.

He was dressed exactly like me- they virtually all wore the uniform black gym clothes, but everyone else's had that blue logo with the gold lion.

He looked at me once and I saw the ruffled up fur, even as it was short, tinged with moisture suggesting he'd just got back from working out.

Looking away, it seemed to register with him I was there after a moment, and he looked back quickly, and smiled.

"Ah, sorry. Distracted and tired, haha."

"Same here. No worries." I said back, noting his strong South American timbre.

He stuck out a hand, perspiration tangible in the textures as I shook it, a smile I attributed to the inside joke of handshakes coming to my visage.

"Lio." I noticed on his shoulder nearest me was a green and blue armband with De la Rocha monogrammed on it.

"Tai. Pleasure."

He gave a laugh and I wasn't sure what for. It wasn't strange or anything, or daft, but made me want to laugh too, for some reason.

"You're from Norway?"

"G-..." I stopped, something holding me back, maybe not wanting to give my life story over for the 500th time...

"Yeah, Global 201. You're from Brazil?"

"Only the best." He took a deep gulp from his water, exasperation escaping his lips afterwards.

Looking around, he leaned back in his seat and I didn't notice his vigilance, as casual and covert as it was, until it was gone.

"Wish I could be home right now, though."

"From the war? Or back at base?"

He took another sip, looking over at me. "I'd take either one. But I just don't realize why we're here."

The first phrase surprised me. He didn't look like one of those war junkies I'd seen a few times back in Gibraltar, the ones that could tear through anyone who attacked them, but...

For a member of the best of the best, he couldn't have been much older than I was.

"Yeah, me neither." I stared at the ground. "You, obviously your squadron's gotta be on the VIP's. But I'm the world away, you know?"

He batted the air with his hand. "Location doesn't much matter. What I meant was, nothing's going to happen when we get to Harper."

Watching the ground, it wasn't concrete but a sort of gridlike polished material, that flashed white through the grid every once in a while.

"Why's that?" I asked, absent.

"Jinn never makes good on their threats."

I looked over at him. "Reverse psych... Psychology?"

He gave me an odd look. Naturally being from Norway I would have my Euro Common down better than someone from Brazil.

"Look, bro, I'll bet money."

He looked serious for a moment and it made me laugh, for no more rhyme than him earlier.

"Sorry, I'm out of funds"-

"Private First Class Tai?"

I looked over behind me, and the first fully uniformed person I'd seen all day-

All week-

My short career in the GRA-

Life-

He was wearing gray fatigues, no armor or anything besides, a rank I couldn't identify sewn into his lapel, an empty holster at his belt.

I'd never been addressed as Private First Class, and I didn't know how I got there, because I was sure as hell that wasn't the most basic rank...

GSS gave me a free pass, I'd learn later on.

The name "Hayes" was stitched into his lapel as well, in black, and he was a wolf with brown fur, no lighter parts.

I knew Riley's last name back then, but not her species, and wondered relation until I saw his face, and it looked like someone died.

That deconfirmed he had anything to do with my Squad Support, and that he had good news of any sort besides.

Looking over at Lio, he wasn't looking at me, but the guy.

"Yessir?"

It took willpower not to stutter.

"General Harper has requested you meet with him in a more discreet location. I've been sent to escort you."

Now the jaguar was looking at me, mouth open wider than before.

I had no clue, either.

Getting up and following Hayes, I took a look back at Lio and shrugged.

///

"Harper is just through there."

Hayes stood outside the open doorway, eyes not on me but back the way we came. I didn't look behind me down the dark hallway with the odd terraforming grid walls or in the doorway.

"You aren't coming with me?"

"What is in there," he said, not moving his eyes whatsoever, "is not approved for me."

I stared at him for a good few before walking in.

It was a small room, entirely concrete. A naked bulb hung down on a plastic portable table.

It was the most primitive thing I'd seen since Gibraltar.

But in the back of the room, on either side of it, were two fully armored soldiers, completely back, the helmets having visors that must have been one-way mirrors, chrome, big guns across their chests.

In the center, leaning on the table as if inspecting a map, bulb directly overhead casting shadows on his face that made him look gaunt, was a Shiba I assumed was James Harper.

"G-general Harper..."

"Tai. If you would join me, there's a seat for you somewhere..."

He himself went off, much to my surprise as I imagined one of the armored men would to it for him, to grab a folding chair from the shadows at the edge of the small room.

I noticed a table with several objects as well, though I couldn't make any of them out.

"This inspection," he began as he set the chair beside me, then sat in his own, "can last anywhere from five minutes to five hours, and I'm prepared for either."

I heard the door slide shut behind me and if I could have got any more heavier in the stomach...

"What are we going to do, General Harper?"

Going over to the table and awkwardly getting out of his chair like he'd forgotten to earlier, he came back with a cube of glass, or something of the like.

You could tell it wasn't hollow, a large chunk, from the scratches.

Apart from those it was near perfect, no bumps or depressions.

"I was planning on testing you next month, when you could answer questions better, but since we're in the same area, I figured now was fine."

I wished he hadn't ignored my last question, maybe he hadn't heard...

"And I insisted on giving you the test myself, because you're an enigma to us right now."

"Pardon, sir, but what am I being tested on?"

He gave a smile. "Nothing academic, if that's what you're thinking. I trust Marshall's informed you about your... Condition?"

It took me a moment.

"Y-yeah. Janus. But not much."

Harper nodded and I noticed under his chair were a few folders and a notepad, from which he pulled some of the former and the latter.

"As instructed... We don't tell the scope of your abilities partially because we ourselves don't know, and sometimes..."

I know he wasn't trying to be intimidating or anything...

"And sometimes, Tai, it's best left unsaid."

I settled back down in my chair after a moment, not realizing I was on edge.

He'd given me a moment to settle down.

"Before we begin, any questions?"

I looked around at the two at the back of the room, statues.

"...No."

Harper nodded, opened one folder and stacked the rest. "Let's begin, then."

He cleared his throat, and raised the folder, shuffling around papers until he found the one he was looking for.

It was in his lap, I could only see the top of the manila and the bit of white sticking out over it.

"Keep in mind what I ask you applies to simulations and real life, perhaps more so the first one."

"...Alright..." I had no clue what else to say.

He cleared his throat again.

My mouth was hanging open slightly, no idea what I was supposed to feel like here.

"There are no wrong answers here. Now, first question... We've noticed in the recordings you sometimes seem to... Fire at things before they are present."

"I... It's like hearing them, but amplified. People trying to sneak around the corner are like people stomping on the ground right next to your ears... And I can't explain how I know where they are so well, my gun just goes to them, it feels like..."

He nodded, hanging onto every word, scribbling things down.

He seemed very relaxed in his chair.

No emotion from the two at the back of the room, and I'd almost forgotten they existed.

In fact, now that I remembered, I was getting more anxious...

Harper pulled another folder out from the stack, in the middle. I saw the word "links" on the side tab.

Harper shuffled papers until he found the right one, just like last time.

But to my surprise, he slid it across the table and turned it so I could see.

It was a giant web, with rectangles, each having words on them.

Scratch that, only three or four had words on them, the rest were blacked out.

He looked at a similar copy, the light shone through the paper, but none of his were marked off.

"From the words you can see, how many of those have you experienced?"

ESP, Narcolepsy, Hyperacusis, Bipolarism, and Precognition.

"I think Marshall said something about the first one when I first met him. Er, Leftenant Marshall."

He nodded. "Do you need me to define anything?"

I didn't want to spend much time in here, even if it was to my benefit.

It wasn't that I didn't like Harper; just the room reminded me of Gibraltar too much.

And the two at the back unnerved me more than anything.

"Just, uh," I thought of one. "Hyperacusis and... The last one. At the bottom left."

"Hyperacusis is a definite for you, it's when you hear very specific things. The reason I picked this particular cluster. Precognition is a... Vision of the future."

Those two were the most prominent.

By chance, I'd picked those two.

But the last one...

It sounded made up.

There was no possible way, that was make-believe.

Fairy tales.

But I'd done it for myself, Reyna getting shot, me getting shot...

Nowadays I have full control over it, can turn it off or on.

I don't like fixing every little error I have.

It's...

Wrong.

"The last one, I've done that."

Harper's eyes narrowed, and he drew back slightly. "Looking over your highlights in the sims, it makes sense. Pulling Trojan out of fire preemptively."

I nodded, not sure what the last word was either.

I'd come to realize just how limited my vocabulary was in Euro Common, and how quick I was picking things up.

Harper leaned forward again, as he did when he gave that intimidating bit of conversation earlier.

"We've had one Janus warrior that's ever had that, Tai. I'm glad you're with me."

He put his hand on my shoulder for a moment and it was awkward, at least for me.

Once more I felt uneducated.

"I don't have any of the others. I fall asleep in the day sometimes, though."

"I wouldn't attribute that to Narcolepsy. Unless you have odd dreams?"

I opened and closed my mouth, thinking of not but an hour ago.

"Yeah, actually, this morning... I had a weird one about... A mask. Well, someone was wearing it, but it was all I could focus on..."

Harper froze up, even his chest stopped rising and falling, his eyes widening.

"W-.... What did it look like?"

He looked over his shoulder to one of the men, and the man nodded, approached the doorway, and walked out.

"It was white. And red in some parts. The eyeholes were blacked out, so I guess it was tinted glass or something... Like that guy."

I pointed to the one remaining man behind Harper, and the reason I referenced him was to give him life in my eyes.

He gave me a terrible feeling. I didn't know why.

Harper was staring at me, unmoving.

"Did she... Did it have a grin?"

I didn't know what else to tell Harper. Sometimes I contemplate whether or not I should have said it had no mouth, or the person was a guy, or it had a GRA logo on it or something.

No reason to panic him beforehand...

Well, I would have at least gotten him out of the way and saved myself some trouble later on...

"Yes, actually. Ear to ear, you know."

Harper dropped his shocked look and just stared at me.

He looked to the other man behind him, who drew closer and stood just inside the doorway, looking out.

Harper licked his lips.

"I... We'll proceed with the more immediate parts of the test. Maybe cover the other half next time."

He took a deep breath, and I felt I'd somehow unnerved him.

At first I thought it was me, but the way he'd accurately described the defining feature of the mask meant...

He'd dreamed the same dream?

Naturally, back then, I didn't know some of my dreams reflected waking hours, and that they held semblance of the future.

"This cube," said Harper, finally acknowledging the glass cube that caught me for some reason, "I want you to try and shatter it."

Looking at it, I wrinkled my nose for a moment, scratching the back of my neck. It was clearly not hollow.

I reached for it, but Harper caught my hand like fangs on the neck of an animal. Gentle, I mean, but quick. His reflexes were insane.

"I meant... Ach, I should have elaborated."

He looked up at the light, as if on cue.

"I want you to... hate this cube. With all your force. Do anything to envision it as the temple of your anger. Anything."

I didn't understand, just stared at the thing.

How could I hate... Nothing?

It was just an inanimate object. It was hard to conjure up emotion out of nowhere.

"Think of it as someone you hate."

Hate?

I didn't hate anyone...

I was... innocent.

I thought of myself that way, at least.

Remembering the day in the alley, it came to me.

The blade under my eye, just to come down to my arm.

The fate I'd sealed for the unknown stranger who I'd stole from just so I could live...

The paw around my throat, mercilessly choking me to where I would have just been able to survive.

The missing right eye.

I projected Omar onto the cube, things i'd forgotten I had coursing through me.

Was I supposed to be feeling something?

The cube did nothing.

Was it supposed to be doing something?

I looked up at Harper, who shrugged.

"This is the most lengthy part of the test. Take your time, son."

I'd never had anyone call me son, and some part of me opened up for a moment.

He saw this but said nothing.

Staring at the cube, I had to think of someone.

Something.

No, I knew someone.

It didn't logically make sense, but... It worked.

I was certain, somehow, that this was the person I hated more than anyone else.

It was screaming in my head, the image of them.

But...

I loved her.

The jackal was there, in front of me, pummeling me, fiercely correcting every mistake I made with a sharp tongue and wit.

In that instant yet another paradigm I had on her opened up, not making itself known when it felt like it but screaming for my attention, clawing its own flesh, clawing mine.

Harper was staring at me, nothing new, but this time intensely.

He knew i'd found it.

My hand began to twitch.

One eye closed shut and I found I was unable to open it, even when I consciously tried to.

Gritting my teeth, I emitted a low growl and my neck began to convulse, jerking to one side.

Suddenly, I arched my back and I felt saliva from my mouth down my chin as I snapped my eyes onto the concrete roof, now red.

A feral cry escaped me at last, and I felt a heavy object whack me in the face.

Not so heavy, but it brought me back to reality.

My chest was rising and falling at a rapid rate, and what transformation I had just undergone had never happened before.

A tone was playing throughout the room, from the light. When Harper had looked up.

It annoyed me.

Normally I wouldn't have said anything, and I tried to keep my mouth shut but instead ended up wincing and staring at the shattered remains of the cube.

"Cut it off, James Harper."

The voice wasn't my own, something much deeper.

Ghostly. Two speaking at once.

Neither were me.

Harper was across the room, a... Gun aimed at me.

My strength was gone and I couldn't ask him to stop.

The tone was still playing, but it stopped and I saw him slip a remote into his pocket.

Looking behind me, the two armored men had their guns on me, two red lasers painted on my back.

I stood up slowly.

This was the first time they'd acknowledged me, and it was as a threat.

"My apologies, Tai... The sound heightens the abilities of the Janus subjects... I didn't think it would irritate..."

I could describe the feelings toward me in the room, but I choose to cut to the part where I leave.

I was seconds and a well trained soldier away from death.

///

On my hurried way out, I ran into the Trojan.

She had nothing to say to me, and vice versa.

I had to say something. I had to.

I couldn't reconcile my dissonant attraction to her if I didn't-

"Are- are we training today?"

Just to get her attention, to get her to say something to me.

Was this what it was to be attracted to someone?

And how could you wholeheartedly hate them at the same time?

She turned around quickly, and stared at me a full five seconds.

"You... Must rest, if you will be instrumental to Harper."

Reyna didn't meet my eyes or even face me for the last part of her sentence.

It hurt me, emotionally.

I'd never loved someone as much as her, really.

Never grown even attached before coming to GSS.

To be tossed away, even on such a small scale, felt... bad.

I knew she was lying. Reyna didn't break schedule, she told me a long time ago.

In addition to that, the most blatant bit was that everyone _else_was warming up in that giant complex thing.

It was a façade. And I didn't know why she was avoiding me.

Which made it hurt worse.

Stepping back outside, between Reyna and whatever took place in the concrete room, I was shaken.

I turned for a moment to find her disappearing off on the way to Harper, and wondered what he wanted with her.

Probably had something to do with the Trojan organization, or her uncle Ramses.

...

But I wouldn't say there wasn't a chance of her being a freak like me. If anyone else was.

It would be the jackal.

I went over to the bench to try and find Lio, but he wasn't there.

I saw the jaguar far off on a track, racing against some sort of canine I couldn't identify from this distance.

Watching him, there was no undermining his speed, especially compared to his larger and less agile opponent.

Sitting down, I saw and felt a shadow eclipse me.

Looking over my shoulder, the timber wolf stood there, arms folded.

"Kyle."

"Tai."

We stayed that way for a moment, and once more I couldn't meet his eyes, too intense for me.

"I was thinking," his Russian accent pronounced, "the jackal does not appear to be training you, and I am free for the time. Perhaps we could...?"

Some part of me was ecstatic to work with the wolf, and maybe it was making the team have one less enigma in Kyle.

We walked over to a course of some sort, like a track but not straight, swerving off to the side and then going down another lane, and repeating.

As I saw it closer, the odd equipment on it, the ropes and whatnot, I realized it was an obstacle course.

Better than getting punched in the face...

Especially from a tank like Kyle.

But was it any better than Reyna?

Like choosing from a car hitting you at top speed or being dropped on you from a mile up...

Kyle walked over to a control terminal sticking out the floor... ground...

"Go ahead and get on the track."

Heeding his orders, I stepped onto the slightly raised area that dictated where the track began and ended.

He began mashing buttons on the terminal, but I knew he was knowledgeable.

From my few conversations and observance of the wolf, I could tell he had attic salt.

As long as he didn't use it like Reyna or Riddick, I would be fine with it.

I wasn't paying attention, so when the floor began to shift under me I almost fell. Kyle hopped up and caught me as we began to...

Ascend.

The track seemed ten times thinner as the course raised into the air, the area underneath us becoming a maze with giant walls.

As I watched us raise I subconsciously grabbed the wolf's arm and held onto it, staring down at the floor below.

We stopped interminable feet up.

Kyle maneuvered his arm out of my grip, and I let go, flushing.

"W-was it necessary to raise the course so much?"

"This is the max setting, and yes." He brushed off his shoulder absently, no fear.

"You see, in Russia, in the Wolf Pack," he seemed to struggle with some of the words, pausing slightly.

"The first order for recruits is the course. It is one of the most highly trained areas, and these days taken for granted."

I watched him move over to a short fully vertical wall and realized we were standing on the course's ground.

An eternity above the actual ground. I would have to ascend again...

"Without proper knowledge of agility, one cannot grasp stealth, speed, sniping, or cover. Best to learn this early on or you will have a fear of the air, no?"

Might be too late for that.

"S-sure... What do I have to do?"

"You will follow me and do as I do. I can see your fear, cat. Good that you have it, so you can crush it in an environment such as this."

He backed away an almost unnoticeable distance, then ran one pace to the wall, put one foot up on it, and lifted off that one, grasping the top, and pulling himself up.

Remembering what he did in the Vervous simulation, faster than Alvin could ever have with his grappling hook, I once more wondered what his finished product was.

He turned around and looked at me. "Follow, bratja."

Unsure of what the last word was, I decided I would get a running start, remembering what he did in Vervous when scaling such a tall building.

Going to the edge as far as I would, I ran up the length of the platform and planted a foot on the wall, then lifted off...

My hands touched solid ground and I hurriedly locked them onto the ledge.

I smacked my head on the uneven area in my hurry to get up, and was now dizzy and barely holding on to it.

Kyle pulled me up the rest of the way, and I beheld what other tortures awaited me.

"We will go only the next chetyre... four obstacles. You seem tired already."

I nodded, unable to speak as I was breathing heavier than Lio earlier, dizzy as well.

I noticed there were terminals along the course similar to the one at the start. Checkpoints if you wanted to stop.

He moved to the edge of the course, and I heard a small grunt.

"Perhaps this one will be enough."

There was a large expanse I hadn't noticed earlier, view being obscured by the ledge.

There was a small... rope made of glowing blue material bridging the expanse.

The gap itself was only mildly large, and we were elevated on the ledge, so the rope was like a going down, just wider and hardly steep.

It was out of jumping distance though, at least for me.

Kyle placed one foot on the rope, and calmly, the other, and part of me froze up until he was halfway.

He gave a glance back at me saw my face, then hid his expression with his hand, maybe the brick wall gave a smile for once.

I stared down at the rope, and up here, even though the walls still towered over us, I felt the wind ruffling my fur.

My tail moved with it, the rest of my body shut down.

He walked onto the edge, the wolf's balance unnatural for such a tall and muscular person.

"Tai? It is not that hard, promise."

Kyle's voice was Greek- Russian to me.

"W-what happens if I fall?"

He looked over the edge, as if to make sure of something.

"Electro net will come out and catch you."

"What's an electro net?"

"It shocks you when you get to it, so you don't make mistakes again."

My mouth dropped open, and closed.

No failure here, Tai.

Get your self together.

I wasn't going to have a net pattern burned into my ass.

"If I jump..."

I had to raise my voice, but I ran out of air for some reason, perhaps I'd expended it on my heavy breathing.

"Then I will catch you."

"...Are you sure?"

He nodded, but I couldn't help but take the half second before he did as hesitation.

I stepped forward to the ledge, then back.

"How much does it hurt when you fall on the net? Which part of my body's best to fall on?"

"...I am sorry, my European Common is not as good as I would admit. Repeat?"

I shook my head and walked back to the ledge.

I couldn't repress the habit anymore, and began biting my nails, looking back down below.

I could hardly see anyone. A layer of mist formed, the sky had been overcast but the walls of this place would naturally capture and condense any stray water droplets in itself...

"...Fuck..." It was the first time I'd used a Euro Common word to swear, every other time simply being in Arabic.

I contemplated asking Kyle to lower it back down.

No, I wasn't a coward.

I was that fucking idiot that joined GSS on a whim because I had a terminal illness. Which apparently made me a super soldier.

I should have stayed in the slums.

Turning around, I grit my teeth, and sprinted at top speed towards the edge.

A voice in my head told me to stop and retake, but I screamed at it and threw it out.

I didn't notice I myself was yelling, my eyes shut in a wince as I left the Earth, and entered the realm not made for my kind.

I was free for only a moment, flying, until Newton acted on me.

I looked down and could see the thin layer of blue now, the net waiting for me with open arms and hungry fangs.

I had not enough in me to snap my head back to Kyle, and I was falling rapidly.

An arm caught mine, and I winced as I felt it and the Earth fighting for claim of me.

Kyle brought his other arm to mine, and slackened his pull.

"Grab onto the ledge with your other hand."

I reached up, but missed.

I was slanted with Kyle holding only half of me, and my right arm wasn't going to make it.

He saw this and gave an exhale.

"Plant your feet, if you can, and try to get up. I will push."

I hoped he confused push with pull.

My feet slipped when I planted them, and my shoes felt loose over the open air.

He pulled, and though I tried, we got nowhere.

I knew the net was coming.

The melodrama hit me before I said what I next did.

I'd read something like this in one of those books.

"Let me go, Kyle."

"Nyet."

"We'll both fall."

"Nyet, I will save you."

He gave another pull and I came up slightly.

"Whatever's down there, I can take it."

"You do not have to."

He was the polar of Reyna. She wouldn't have helped me here, or even let me jump.

I felt myself lower and realized Kyle was slipping.

He was on his stomach already, but his eyes were shut in a wince and his teeth were bared.

He gave a low growl, and I looked down at the net.

"Mors vincit omnia..."

He gave a roar and tried to lift me again, but only slid further down.

I realized we were going to fall now.

I felt him drag forward again, and I snapped.

Instinct above all controlled me, and I pushed off with my feet as he began to fall past me, everything in slow motion.

Holding on to the ledge, resurgence and stamina and feral nature flowed through me as I clawed my way up, white iron hands welding themselves to the ledge.

Pulling myself up, I rolled and came to a halt, wondering what was happening to Kyle now.

I laid there, staring at the walls, their changing, the sky.

I wasn't on Earth anymore.

I wasn't in Gibraltar.

My chest heaved and I barely felt the platform move under me.

It began to lower, slowly, but quicker than when it raised.

Closing my eyes, I was more comfortable here than in bed.

Returning to the ground, the timber wolf leaned over me impassively.

"Was not I the one who hit the shock net?"

"...One minute..."

"Da."

///

SORRY FOR THE DELAY

Not much more to say, I just want to get this one out

Next chapter is Harper's flight!!!!!