Gus blocked another punch and threw up an Intermediate Shield. The Ion Storm coruscated against its surface with radiant blues, pinks, and whites. He whipped Jet a scant inch above the ground with an Ether Leash, but Aurora leaped over him with a perfect barrel roll. Instead of landing, she remained airborne and Jet sailed under her feet. Gus dashed forward and rammed into her with his shield, knocking her to the mat. Darik called point and they stopped to reset.

"Aurora, are you distracted or what? I never land hits like that on you..."

"It's Rory, he's been getting worse. He's still unconscious and his vitals are slowly decreasing. I don't know what they did to him, but they obviously wanted to keep him close. After all he has done for them over the years, and this is how they treat him. Mentally chained like some rabid dog!"

"We'll figure out what they did to him. Harmony and Grimdark told us a little about the compulsion they tried to put on them. We're calling it a geas for lack of a better term. We were lucky neither of them was affected."

"Harmony said she was worried about Grimdark, but the ritual must not have been completed, because he doesn't seem to be suffering any ill effects. I've gotten more out of Harmony than from Grimdark though. He says he passed out while they were doing everything, and Prime intervened before Harmony was brainwashed too."

"Sanura saved the day on that one. We could be down two members if they had achieved their goal. I've asked Nick and he has nothing besides vague information to share. Everything he's said leads me to believe that there's no way to break the geas except by those who placed it."

"I won't accept that!" Aurora almost shrieked.

"I'm not either, but we don't have a lot to go on. Rory might be our best resource, but we have to see if moving him closer to the faction will help his condition enough so he can give us something, anything. While I want to stay miles away from there, it may be our only option. We run the risk of having the whole Faction gunning for us, and we don't have base defenses strong enough to defend against the attack of an entire Faction. Yuki said she has some projections but we're going to need to procure some things."

"Gus, we need to hurry on this. He might not have much time. I'm worried about moving him though."

"We'll make sure BoJack comes along, with a bunch of gels to sustain him so there'll be less risk of him bottoming out."

"We have to do something. It's driving me nuts just sitting here, training of all things."

"I'm just trying to maximize my effectiveness with the time. Yuki and Prime both agree that they can process the waypoints much faster here at the manor than if we were relying on the corsair's computers," Gus stepped forward and grabbed Aurora's shoulders. "We will help him, Aurora. I don't want you to think we're putting him on the back burner. You've probably helped me more than anyone else as a super so I promise you, we will help him get better,"

She blinked her emerald eyes, willing away the tears. She cleared her throat, sniffed and murmured, "You better," She turned and gathered her things. "I can't focus today, why don't you spar with Darik." Without waiting for an answer she left the training arena.

"Lass is taking it hard, isn't she?" Darik said from beside Gus.

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

"Yeah. I wish I could do more. You up for some training?"

"You think you can take me on?"

"I'm willing to give it a try,"

"Bring it on boyo. Sure you don't want to call BoJack? Because I'm not going to go easy on you,"

"I think I'll be fine. Let's do this." Gus settled into a fighting stance as Darik sauntered to the other side.

"Anytime you're ready lad," Darik said, putting his hands on his hips.

Gus smiled ruefully and activated Hyper, doubling his agility stat. Then he dashed then activated Xyzzy and teleported behind Darik, wanting to surprise him. The smile faded quickly when he was clotheslined the instant he reappeared. His extra momentum flipped him 180 degrees and he landed face-first into the mat.

Coughing and clearing his throat, Gus massaged his neck.

"Yeah, probably not the best to use portals on someone like me. You do know I can see where they will appear, don't ye?"

"I do now," Gus croaked.

Darik raised three fingers with his thumb touching his pinkie. "I swear I won't use any portals on you, just to make it fair,"

Gus nodded as he got back into position. Darik just stood there, no effort made to attack. He just stared back at Gus. Slide shuffling forward, he tried to get in a punch and activate Sweep the Leg by using Jet remotely. Darik easily bent out of the way, appearing to be merely doing a stretch to limber up. When Jet was about to sweep his feet from under him, he dropped on one arm and slightly kicked up his feet, bouncing back to standing, almost as if he were bored.

Gus tried to land some kind of hit, but Darik moved around almost like he was staggering drunkenly, but he managed to avoid every swing Gus took. Panting, he stopped his attack.

"How the hell are you doing that?"

"They didn't tell you, did they?"

"Tell me what?"

"You think I'm a one-trick pony? When you are the youngest of 7 brothers, especially in my family, you learn how to scrap. When you're short like me, you really learn how to fight. There's always a target on your back with some bully who thinks you'll be an easy mark. I've mastered seven different forms of martial arts."

"Seven? That's just not fair," Gus leaned back, breathing deeply until his breathing slowed. "Hey, I've got a favor. Can you show me the basics, one discipline at a time?"

"Easy, lad."

"Which is the simplest to learn?"

"Simplest to learn, or simplest to master?"

"We're going to be here a while aren't we?" Darik nodded and scrubbed his hands in anticipation.

----------------------------------------

"I'd be lying if I said I wasn't impressed," Darik admitted.

Yuki's bright voice came in over their inner comms. "We're almost done here, Seneschal is getting the corsair ready, everyone meets up in 5,"

"I'm still staying behind," Harmony's voice said curtly.

"Fine," Yuki replied, in a voice that said she was definitely not fine with it.

"Saved by the bell," Gus moaned, rolling himself back onto his feet from his prone position.

"Nonsense, we can practice on the corsair!" Darik clapped Gus on the back as they made their way to the exit.

"Oh goody," Gus said, trying to mentally assure himself. It will be worth it all when that XP multiplier kicks in...

"Yuki, where are we headed?" Gus asked as Darik took another lift and disappeared.

"We'll be swinging close to Purple Faction territory. Do you want to swing by the hospital? See your mom?"

"I hadn't thought about it, but it might not be a bad idea. I'm not sure it's the best time though. Let's have BoJack load up Rory on the corsair, and let's all clean out the cafeteria from blue gels,"

"Got it, anything else?" Yuki asked.

"Anything on that list we can pick up on this go around?"

"We could swing by Rapture and grab some, it's a sanctuary city, but if Sanura went in alone I'm sure she could get some of the components,"

"You sure she won't mind? I thought cats hate the water,"

"Gus, don't be obtuse--she'll be fine with it. Besides, we only have 38 more hours left in the quest. It feels weird calling it a 'quest' instead of an op, though, but I kind of like it."

"While Prime's running her mission we can swing closer to Purple HQ and see if Rory improves. I wish we had more good news to give her but everything's happening too fast,"

"Aurora will like that, I'll let her know. See you on the ship, Yuki out."

Gus swung by his room picked up the Quorian cube and signaled for Jet to follow. He still had some notices to check in his logs but was waiting for some time when he couldn't reasonably be training to review them. Maybe it would buy him a few minutes' break from Darik's punishing training regimen.