Chapter 29:

Early the next afternoon, Will and Cierra woke up and immediately went to satisfy basic biological needs. Especially the ones involving hydration, and caffeine.

After they were more functional, they decided to discuss a plan of action for the next week. Cierra started by explaining her existing responsibilities.

“So I’ll have to go home sometime to check in. Luckily that last job I got with The Activated paid me enough that I’m able to take a little time off.”

“I can’t decide how I should feel about you being literally paid to hang out with me at first.”

Even as he said that, Will couldn’t keep a straight face.

“After last night, I’d suggest some gratitude.”

Will snorted.

“That seems fair. On the bright side, it also means we have time to play secret agent to figure out what the hell is going on up in Reno.”

“True. For tonight, I think we should get a few hours of training in. I can give you a couple of basic pointers to work on, and that will occupy us until the sun sets.

After that, I’d say maybe you can show me where Frankston’s place is. From there we can choose between his place and HQ to stake out for a few hours.”

“That makes sense, and seems like as good a start as any. I'm not sure we'll get any benefit out of it, unless Artie's sensors start to go wonky in the area, but I suppose there's only one way to find out."

“Yeah, if nothing else we should probably watch the places for a while. That will let us get a basic idea of what to expect under normal circumstances. It's hard to spot what's out of the ordinary without knowing what qualifies as ordinary, after all."

“Haha. Alright, smartass. We’ll eat after training, if it’s cool with you. Something tells me you aren't going to go easy on me. It seems like a bad idea to go into that on a full stomach. I’d prefer not to redecorate the training spot with THAT smell. Does that sound good?”

“THAT sounds like some solid common sense.”

“Excellent. Well, care for a shower, then we can get started?”

“That depends. Are you planning on keeping me company?”

“Well, I’m certainly not one to deny the request of a lovely lady.”

“Gag. I’m not sure I want you to, anymore.”

“Ha! Good to know. Well, I’m going to go take a shower. Then, hopefully, I can get the shit kicked out of me by my training partner. Would you like to join?”

“Better.”

With that simple response, Cierra walked away with an extremely distracting sway to her hips, leaving Will to enjoy the view. He then shook himself back to attention, and followed after her.

Three hours later, Will and Cierra stood in their little clearing stretching and shaking out their limbs. After showering, they had done some weight lifting at the house before heading out to their training spot. Once there, they had used boulders, and each other, to gauge how strong they were compared to previous trips.

Almost out of nowhere, Cierra made an observation.

“You know, I feel like I’m growing more quickly than I was before. That must be the benefit of having someone to work on this stuff with. You’ve officially passed me up in raw strength, too.

I’ve literally never even heard of someone improving as fast as you have. Have Sil or Artie told you anything about how that’s possible?”

“Just that it has to do with my genetics. I haven’t actually asked about it, though. It just hasn’t occurred to me to even ask. Now though, I’m a little curious. How much of the history of The Activated have you researched?”

Cierra blew a raspberry, before adding words to her response.

“Not as much as I would like. Unfortunately, they are pretty archaic in a lot of ways. They’re still in the process of digitizing all of the records, from the various branches. They only officially made the decision to create a centralized database for historical records that everyone could access in the last few years.

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Of course, when it comes to banking, stock markets, and everything finance they’ve faithfully kept up with evolving tech. Well, at least the leadership has hired people to do that for them.

The upper echelons are all super isolated from what people like us deal with. I don’t even know who they are. There is still a ton of leftover paranoia from the times when being different was a death sentence.

They’ve only become more than ghosts to the average member in the last few years. I can’t really blame them for that, as death is a quick way to ruin anyone’s day, after all. Unfortunately, it’s definitely allowed some portions of our community to be perpetually stuck in the dark ages.

Anyway, that rant is done. My point was, I’ve gotten to look into a fair amount from the journals and stuff my family has kept through the years. Since they’ve been in the society since it was founded, they’ve been around others of our kind going back hundreds of years.

So, my knowledge is limited to wherever my ancestors were over the decades, but, between them and the observations they recorded about others… Well, it’s not a totally insignificant number of people.”

“Interesting. I’ll have to ask them about myself. Also, I bet Artie could get us hooked into all of the historical information we could handle. It might be worth asking them about it.”

“Holy shit, I just realized how ridiculous it is that this secret society is so old fashioned. Our abilities are literally based on being infected with super advanced alien technology. Is that ironic? I think it is.”

“Well, it’s definitely a plotline an amateur writer might come up with, so I’ll go with ‘Yes.’”

“Anyway, you think Artie has his own database, or something?”

“It’s just a guess, but he probably has at least some sort of documentation. He had influence on the whole founding of The Activated. He explained why he interfered when they told me about it, but I don’t remember what they said.

I got the distinct impression he just knew he would eventually be interfacing with people in the secret society being formed. With that knowledge, and a streak of OCD that would find inconsistencies in basic structure and vocabulary super annoying, he decided to establish a baseline for everyone.”

“Huh. I suppose I could see that. I feel like neither of us is nearly as concerned over the idea of a powerful true AI as more… normal people would be."

"Honestly? I think I just forget about that part a lot. I mean, I know it's something we've been told we should be wary of, but when I'm talking to him, he's just a person.

With everything else I've been hit with since this all started, I've basically just had to roll with the punches as they come. The existential crisis his nature might represent just isn't something I've considered important enough to dig into."

That's fair, I suppose.

Anyway, back to training for at least a couple of more hours. Let’s do some sprints into the hills. We can look around for some larger boulders up there. We’re growing out of what we have handy, here.”

Will didn’t audibly respond. Instead, he immediately took off in the direction of higher elevation.

Not far behind him, he could hear Cierra yelling at him about being a cheater.

A while later, Will and Cierra were standing across from each other in their little fighting ring. Will had learned his lesson about rushing in too soon, and it showed in the more cautious approach he was using in this match.

He hadn’t trained in any specific martial art, but he had learned quickly how to defend himself while fighting the girl across from him. Arms up and ready to defend or attack, eyes focused, and balance centered, the two approached each other more slowly than previous bouts.

Moving toward each other, they suddenly came within a certain range of each other and exploded into motion.

Cierra darted in to try and get inside his reach, hoping to spoil his balance with a sharp kick to a knee. Will countered, pivoting sideways and taking weight off of the leg she had targeted, right before the kick connected.

Using the momentum from the painful, but not debilitating, impact, Will completed his pivot and caught the elbow Cierra had followed up with before it could impact his jaw.

Yanking her in reverse with the arm he’d used to catch her elbow, he was then able to land a solid blow directly to her solar plexus, sending her reeling backward several steps.

Before Will could close the distance to her again, Cierra threw herself backwards into a gymnastic style flipping move that succeeded in letting her get her balance, as well as forcing Will back to avoid being kicked in the face.

Will moved in to try and seize the initiative, but before he could decide on an approach Cierra suddenly dove forward into a somersault. She was moving so quickly, she was almost a blur, and he didn’t manage to get an arm up in time to totally block a fist driving into his stomach with all of the momentum of her dive and roll behind it.

Even just a week or two ago, Will was positive that hit would’ve ended the fight. As it was, he was pretty sure the only reason his diaphragm wasn’t totally fucked was because of the partial deflection he had managed with one arm.

Luckily, it was his off arm, as he was pretty sure it was fractured, judging by the pain that shot through it as he swept his other arm in a backhand to get some room between him and his current nemesis.

Cierra had jumped back out of range right after landing the massive hit to Will’s gut, so his swat didn’t connect with anything but air. Before he could get his bearings, she jumped a few meters sideways to change her angle of approach, then rushed back in.

This time, she dropped and spun into a leg sweep, but was surprised when Will suddenly dropped to his knees just before her leg connected, effectively pinning that leg with his own.

Grabbing the leg he had managed to pin, Will pushed back to his feet, and pivoted into a spin with both hands in a vice grip around her ankle and calf. Twisting ninety degrees, he launched his opponent with as much force as he could manage at a boulder about twenty feet away.

Stumbling after her, unstable from the shifts in momentum, he didn’t understand what he saw.

Cierra, instinctively responding to her impromptu flight, had just enough time to gauge the angle she would collide with the boulder at, and threw a fist in that direction with every iota of force she could muster in midair.

CCRRRAAACCCKKK!!!!