The familiar stale scent and the drab grey walls of the training arena dominated Dan’s immediate senses as he stood huddled with three of his other teammates. A whiff of Angie Bloodliner’s obnoxiously scented fruity aroma hit Dan’s face. Even with a mask his nose could still tell that Angie went overkill in applying her perfume.
“That’s some strong stuff you’re wearing,” Dan said to her.
“Thank you,” she said with a toothy grin. “I’m glad someone noticed.”
“Your perfume might cost us this exercise,” Li said plainly. “Jane Sunheiser has all five of her senses boosted to superhuman levels. The excessive scent you’re emitting would give your position away before you even lay a finger on her.”
“Fuck you,” Angie snapped.
“I mean, the guy’s got a point,” Allen chimed in. “He took the words right out of my mouth. Although, my delivery wouldn’t have been so dry. I would have added in a wisecrack or two.”
Dan and Li responded with light chuckles to Allen’s comment, but they knew that the humor was a cover for how stressed all of them were. Their latest training session was to gang up on Jane and execute their plan to overtake her as an opponent. It was four on one. Dan’s HUD notified him that he and his team had less than two minutes left to finalize their plan of attack.
“Is everyone solid with our plan?” Dan said. “Let’s review it one more time.”
Allen took a backseat for this exercise. While he was higher ranked and more experienced than all of them, his role in this exercise was to simply follow the lead of the tier ones of the squad while also studying their ability to strategize and execute tactics.
“Allen and I will rush Jane head-on. Allen is a tier two and I have my berserk mode, so we have the best chance of lasting the longest against her. We’re going to take her on in an all-out brawl and keep her distracted. While Jane deals with us, that will only be the initial assault.” He pointed to Li and Angie. “You two will get into your ideal positions and attack at range while Jane is occupied with us. You’ll both be the second wave.”
“Are you sure it isn’t too dangerous for us to use live ammo?” Angie asked. “I mean, I don’t want to be responsible for blowing a hole in our squad leader’s head.”
“Don’t flatter yourself,” Li dismissed. “Who says you’ll land a shot on her in the first place? She’s the Jane Sunheiser.”
Angie stared daggers at Li for his comment. But Allen stepped in and gave his input.
“He’s not wrong. Jane was the one who allowed the use of live rounds. Don‘t worry, she has full confidence in her abilities to handle us with live rounds in use.”
“Even though she’s empty-handed for this exercise?” Angie asked.
“Honestly, I’m more worried that she thinks she could handle us one against four,” Dan said. “She probably thinks she’s being generous by allowing us live ammo.”
“You have no idea what you’re in for kid,” Allen said. “Four to one odds to Jane is a walk in the park. There could be four of me and she would still comfortably take us on all at once.”
“I think I do,” Dan replied. “I was getting my ass kicked by her for weeks on end before the heist, remember?”
“Oh yeah,” Allen chuckled. “I saw the training recordings during that period. Those videos of Dan getting his ass handed to him were a trip.”
Another snag in the plan was Li and Angie. Neither of them would be fighting at their full capacity. A few weeks ago, both had undergone the procedure to retroactively upgrade them to the arctic serum, granting them the same potential for new crazy abilities as Dan. In the past weeks, both had reported various debilitating symptoms, similar to what Dan had experienced during the heist. Passing out, headaches, random bleeding from the eyes, the symptoms gradually piled on.
“Let’s get back to the matter at hand,” Li said. “The plan sounds solid in theory. The only wildcard here is Jane herself. Her being a tier three agent along with her fearsome reputation, who knows how this exercise would go.” He glanced at Dan. “I noticed you switched out your armor. Is that the new Mk. II stealth suit?”
“Yeah, got it at the armory yesterday.”
“Oh, looking stylish Dan. Love that red dragon pattern,” Angie said, feeling the customized pattern on his shoulder.
“I feel a lot lighter and quicker already,” Dan said. “Time to see if it helps against Jane. What about you guys? Are your bodies any better today?”
“The aches and pains in my legs are manageable,” Li responded. “I shouldn’t have a problem.”
“My eyeballs feel like they’re about to burst, but I think I’m okay,” Angie shrugged.
“Alright then, everyone set?” Dan asked.
Li took the Aero SMG off his back and Angie loaded a magazine into her ZK-77T assault rifle.
Planning phase is over. Training exercise initiated. Good luck agent!
The lighting brightened and illuminated the entire arena. Jane herself walked slowly to the center of the arena while Dan and his team still had their backs against the grey pillars and other pieces of cover at one end of the arena.
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Dan leaned to the side and watched Jane as she slowly walked with a carefree stride toward the middle of the arena. As she promised, she had no weapons on her and her energy shield was deactivated.
He opened a private channel with Allen.
“Ready for this? Let’s open up with some blind fire in her direction then we charge her head-on.”
“Heard you loud and clear. It’s been a while since I traded punches with her. I’m excited to see your new berserk ability in action,” Allen replied.
Dan drew his PX300 handgun and peaked around the grey pillar. He squeezed the trigger and let loose with his magazine’s worth of silenced rounds. Allen followed suit with his ZK-77 and fired controlled bursts in Jane’s direction.
As expected, Jane’s speed and reaction time allowed her to reposition herself. Dan’s eyes could barely follow her as she weaved through the streams of gunfire slashing the air between his team and their squad leader.
Both Dan and Allen broke cover and pushed their legs to the limit, sprinting as fast as they could across the metal floor. Allen continued peppering the floor in front of Jane, keeping her busy as they both crossed the distance. Dan felt the sudden surge of energy throughout his body and the accompanying thirst for bloodshed. Brief arcs of red bioelectricity filled his vision.
Berserk mode activated.
Just two seconds ago, Dan was trailing behind Allen due to his inferior physical stats. But with his berserk mode, he easily caught up to his more experienced teammate and they both came at Jane.
Too much happened within a short time span. Allen opened up with a punch aiming for the gut. Jane appeared to have anticipated this and grabbed Allen’s forearm, preventing the punch from making contact.
The squad leader’s reassurance quickly faded as she glanced in Dan’s direction. The curling of her other fist and the steeled expression brought a grin to his face. Dan was no longer a regular tier one in his powered up state.
Dan winded his arm back and swung at Jane with full force. Jane caught his fist, but was forced back a few steps from the surprising force of the punch.
What Dan didn’t expect was for Jane to pull him closer towards her. The air in Dan’s lungs forcibly left his body as a crushing knee to the groin caught him off guard. Dan collapsed to his knees from the brief but intense flash of pain.
Dan’s berserk mode compensated for the pain and he was back on his feet in the next second. His eyes saw the blurred figures of two superhuman agents wailing at each other. Between the short bout, Allen proved no match for Jane as she delivered a hammer fist to the big man’s nose. She followed up by swiping his left from underneath him. Allen tumbled along the metallic floor and didn’t stand back up.
Dan opened a private channel with his two other teammates.
“We’re not looking so hot here,” he said. “Li, are you and Angie in position?”
“Not quite. Both of us are still moving to opposite ends of the arena. I see we’re already down a man,” Li said.
Dan barely caught the sight of Jane’s figure blurring in front of him as she took the offensive. He brought both his arms up and covered his face, barely blocking Jane’s fist. Even with his berserk mode on, Dan felt the impact and pain the punch. Without his armor or enhanced skeleton, he knew Jane would have snapped his arms like twigs.
“Get ready ASAP,” Dan ordered Li. Jane’s punches came at him in rapid succession, giving Dan no time to counter. “I don’t know how much longer I can—”
Jane extended her foot out in between Dan’s feet and then yanked hers back, sweeping one of Dan’s legs from underneath him. Dan didn’t have time to hit the ground before Jane delivered an open-handed strike straight into his abdomen.
The immense impact slammed his entire body into the cold metal floor. The back of Dan’s head impacted the floor with such sudden force that the arena around him went dark.
Having no clue how long he was knocked out, Dan tried to open his eyes and through blurred vision, Jane no longer paid any attention to him or Allen. Jane had her back to him and took a smattering of gunfire to her coat and armor.
She lifted her foot up and slammed it down. Dan half expected her strength to cause an earthquake. Instead, a giant panel in the floor flipped over and provided Jane with a surprise piece of cover against the gunfire.
The impact of bullets against the raised floor panel reached Dan’s ears. He then watched as bullets flew past the floor panel, seemingly in slow motion. His eyes widened as he watched some of the rounds curve downward toward Jane.
The insane reaction times Jane possessed saved her from any of the rounds hitting her in her unhelmeted head. Her energy shields activated in the nick of time and blocked the rounds.
Dan had no clue what he just witnessed, nor had he seen anything like it. The average bullet traveled more than twice as fast as the speed of sound. And usually in a straight line. Somehow, Dan had seen the actual rounds fly through the air and then curve towards their target.
Jane blitzed past the floor panel as it slowly lowered itself back down to the ground. By the time the panel had become unified with the rest of the ground, Dan saw Jane standing over Angie’s body a distance away. She had no chance up close against their squad leader.
Dan was conscious and aware enough to contact Li.
“I think we’re sunk buddy,” Dan groggily said.
“It’s not over until it’s over Dan,” Li said with a leveled tone. “I got my own surprises in store for the legendary Ms. Sunheiser. Watch if you can.”
Dan was still conscious as he watched Jane slowly walk towards and past him. Mustering all the strength he could, he flipped himself over to watch where Jane went and how this disaster of a training exercise would conclude.
Jane’s stance immediately shifted and the entire side of the arena became enveloped in a cloud of smoke. Dan’s ears picked up the familiar muffled gunshots from a silenced PX300 handgun. His eyes widened once again as he witnessed a pink glow through the smoke. That was Jane’s viper fang sword. Did Jane deem Li enough of a threat to use such a weapon against him?
A figure frantically backed out of the smoke cloud and Dan was shocked to see it was Jane. The pink glow still shined through the smoke. She wasn’t the one who held the sword. It was Li.
Silenced rounds slashed through the grey clouds and towards Jane's direction. Her energy shields protected her from two rounds impacting her and the rest of the bullets went wide. Li walked out of the smoke with the glowing pink blade in hand.
Dan remained conscious long enough to watch how the exercise ended. Somehow, Li had stolen the viper fang sword from Jane and charged her with the deadly blade. Li held the blade with both hands and he rushed Jane. Li opened up with a wide slash from top to bottom but missed as Jane sidestepped the attack. The stealth specialist readjusted his stance, spreading his legs apart and holding the viper fang with both hands, pointing the blade at a downward angle towards Jane.
Jane’s expression didn’t change from her usual stoic straight face. However, Dan could have sworn her eyes narrowed at Li for his audacity in stealing her legendary weapon. His drying eyes made Dan blink, but he couldn’t open his eyes. When he did, Li and Jane were still in the middle of their one on one duel. Dan had no clue how much time had passed, but the last thing he saw was Li attempting a thrust with the viper fang. Jane swerved out of the way and grabbed Li by the throat. She squeezed his neck and forced him to drop the blade.
Dan’s entire world fell into darkness.