On her final day of training, Jessica found herself on the mat, trying to remember how her lungs worked, again. Mr. Baller, who demanded to be called sensei for what is proven to be a damn good reason, smiled down at her.
“Good, but you lost your footing.” A hand was in front of her face a moment later. She gripped it, “Keep lower, knees bent.”
Jessica nodded as she gratefully sucked in the cool air of the sparing chamber. “Right… knees.”
Jessica took her place back in line, the next person who was called did marginally better before being thrown to the ground. Jessica thought it was so that everyone could see the throw they were learning in action. This had been hand-to-hand classes so far, a few minutes of drills, followed by getting yourself thrown down by the sensei, then sparring with partners. Jessica somewhat enjoyed this class but quite frankly if the last week had taught her anything, it was that she was really bad at fighting.
She watched as everyone had their turn on the ground, she couldn’t check her schedule as her glasses came off during the class. Of course, her schedule became super simple after testing out of most of the training. It seemed that when you have a month of extra time every night book learning was easy. That means she swapped between gun safety, firearm handling, and hand-to-hand classes, about two of each a day.
This was great, because she sucked… at all of them. Gun safety was fine, but it was mostly practical. The others… well, she had tried but it became obvious that she couldn’t translate real life rules properly into her head, so fighting and aiming would just go wonky.
That being said, training was going well enough. At the very least she wouldn’t shoot herself and she could throw a half decent punch. Jessica got paired up with another girl, about a head taller than Jessica. Her hair was cut short, shorter than Jessica’s pixie cut. They were practicing grabs and throws, mostly for the inevitable moment a civilian fights back.
“You wanna punch or throw first?” She asked. Jessica hadn’t bothered to learn her name, probably rude but honestly she had enough on her plate at the moment.
“Punch, get it over with ya know?”
They got into a resting stance, and Jessica threw a wide punch. Her wrist was guided a few inches past her sparring partner’s face before her elbow was grabbed and one of her feet was in the air. Then she was on the ground again. Jessica coughed a bit, then got up with the girl’s help. In position again, and the woman punched. Jessica followed the same motion but grabbed too high. When she pulled the woman yanked her arm out.
Class rules were you switched only after your partner successfully pulled off the move. It usually took Jessica a few tries each turn. The girl hit the mat with a satisfying thwack and Jessica helped her up. By the time class finished Jessica was sore, and she had another lesson here in a few hours. The class was led through stretches and Jessica changed into her clothes. There wasn’t a uniform for training, which was nice. She knew there was a uniform for her probationary period with her Training Agent, it was pretty silly looking compared to the suits Agents wore.
The girl from before waved at Jessica before leaving. She was nice, most people just ignored her. Jessica rolled her shoulders and went to the shooting range. There weren’t that many trainees, and training was usually a three month-long affair, fast track for the win. So when Jessica approached the shooting gallery, she was alone. Everyone else was in basic procedure or profiling, or whatever other classes Jessica was not being required to attend.
The instructor walked in and began the lesson. It was just aim training, reinforcing her stance and making the projectile hit the target. There were 3 types of pistols Jessica was made to train with. Each had their own purpose. The dart gun would fire silently with no kick to it. Easy to aim, very light, and her standard issue weapon while on patrol for taking down violent citizens.
The hard projectile gun, which was normally under a lock in the patrol car, would fire a high speed metal round that could kill if necessary. Primarily to neutralize citizens who were also using hard projectile rounds from a distance. The kick on it was awful but the range was better. As a bound she would almost never be using it since her ability was generally a better option. Then the plasma gun. These were issued at the wall, for when Agents would be wearing them on patrol. It was quiet, with a little kick, and it made a mess of anything that got too close to the walls. The instructor also said that for anything bigger it would hurt enough to deter whatever was out there. That comment gave Jessica nightmares.
There was also a taser, which apparently was the same technology as pre-war projectile tasers, you point
She put on her ear protection and spent the next hour practicing with the dart gun. Her belt would have two clips that she had to carefully insert into the handle of her pistol. Too hard and she could damage the darts. Not hard enough and the breakaway casing that held the clip together outside of the gun wouldn’t break. She was getting faster, but again she couldn’t really think of a scenario where she would use this when she could just get them to stop by a simple command. Then again, that was a fuckload of extra-paperwork she had to do for use of her power on a citizen.
Jessica winced as the pistol made a clicking sound. The sound meant the dart had bent while loading and was stuck. She would need to unjam the gun. The instructor approached to make sure she didn’t prick herself with the dart while she did so. That had been a fun way to experience tranquilizers. She lifted the top and, keeping her fingers away, pressed the trigger. The compressed air knocked the dart loose and she tilted the gun over to drop the dart in her hand.
“Good,” The instructor praised, “Move on to plasma for today, we will do a quick overview on rifles this afternoon in class.”
Jessica nodded and unloaded the dart gun fully. She cleared it, then walked over to the little armory that her glasses indicated. She deposited her dart gun, then scanned her wrist. She watched as the plasma gun was pushed from the hidden slot in the wall. It looked like a thick metal tube with a sight and a handle. There was a place for a heavy battery beneath the barrel that you needed to switch out after 20 shots.
Jessica walked back to the range, a cable with connectors for the battery space on the gun to her left. Before she connected it under the watchful eye of her instructor, she did a last check. Flipping the back and making sure the propulsion spark was clean. She found a piece of rubber over the spark. She removed it, earning a nod from her instructor. The high praise felt good.
Plugged in and ready to start, she set her stance and held the trigger at half cock for 1 second. She aimed at the rubber target. She fired. There was a small kick and a sharp pinging sound as a blast of white flashed in Jessica’s eyes, her glasses compensating. It wasn’t great compensation, she still had her civilian model, but it helped. Her eyes cleared and when they did she finally lowered the plasma gun. The rubber was heat treated so there wasn’t too much damage, but the nasty red spot from the thermal covering showed a shot just left of center mass. Good.
She spent the rest of the time firing blasts of superheated air, she let the gun cool, unplugged and dry fired to empty it of juice. A small flash blinked out the barrel but didn’t hit anything. She checked the spark for wear and tear. Looking good. She walked the gun back to the armory and deposited it. Her glasses updated with a new path. Saying goodbye to the instructor she headed for her Gun Safety class. Of all her instructors this one was the most openly angered by her accelerated schedule. The instructor was a nice lady, and getting morning and evening classes improved her mood somewhat but it was clear her idea of proper instruction for Gun Safety did not allow for a single week of learning. The class was practical instruction, making use of what seemed to be a series of halls and rooms to test gun handling in stressful situations.
Jessica bore the death glare of the woman as she greeted her instructor.
The woman sighed, “Since we have only one more class after this, I’m running you through a hostile zone, with citizens. You get from point A to point B. You will not get a good score and I will be recommending additional training. I don’t understand why you are special, I do not care. Do your best and don’t be upset that it isn’t enough.”
Jessica grimaced and nodded. She would not be doing well, but like the woman said it wasn’t exactly her fault. While she wasn’t liable to kill someone, she was not going to be helpful in something like a shootout. Jessica got suited up in a jumpsuit with some weighted pads to simulate a projectile resistant vest and a helmet to protect her eyes. She huffed a bit, this thing was hot and heavy.
She was led to point A. It was a race to get to point B as fast as possible, if she got shot it was an extra 30 seconds, every citizen shot was an extra minute . The course itself would be different every time but surely Jessica had the basics down enough to finish. She walked through the door and waited. It was a hallway lined with doors, the lights were out.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
“Ok, just keep a cool head. Finger off the trigger. Cover above all. Cut the cake. God this is so stupid.” Jessica muttered to herself. A loud buzzer sounded, lights flashing on and off to fuck up her dark vision, and Jessica ran forward. “Do it.” She whispered to herself as she passed a door quickly. She heard the smack of a pellet against the wall. Right, check the rooms.
This time the course was set up like a floor of an apartment building. Half the doors were open, some on both sides of the hallway. Jessica paused at the next door, and verified the one across was closed. She crossed the hall, and aimed her weapon. She slowly moved across, there was a flash of light and she jumped back. Looking again it was a citizen target with a flashlight. She moved along.
Time seemed to crawl as Jessica cleared room after room. Occasionally she would lay on the ground and slide into the doorway. If a pellet shot it would fly over her, it was slow though so she only did it on the double open doors. She growled as the corner turned. All the doors were open. Fuck this. Jessica went low, head practically between her legs, and she booked it. She felt at least two pellets hit her. Legs burning she stumbled and hit the door. She panted, crouch running sucked at the best of times, and the hard pellets left welts.
Jessica stood, steadying her footing, before opening the door. Two pellets flew out, a bit of paint hitting her helmet as the door was pelted. Jessica slowly looked into the room, pulling back immediately, she heard another pellet fly by. She saw at least one citizen target, but not the shooter. Jessica frowned, shit. Jessica decided to bite the bullet. Crouching once more on sore legs, she spun around through the doorway and against the wall. She saw four targets before the world flashed, one had a flashlight or something. Jessica fired 3 times, hoping the citizen would have the light like last time. She stumbled to the other end of the room and stood by a giant B printed on the wall. A loud buzzer sounded and the lights turned back on. She looked around the room and groaned.
All the targets were citizen blue. Two had guns with the words “Licensed” written in bright red on their chests. Fuck. While it was technically possible to be licensed for hard projectile weapons and Dart guns, it was so rare Jessica had never met one herself. Not even her dad, a veteran, had one, though he would likely qualify. Jessica walked back to point A, counting her extra time. Her bruises counted an extra minute, and the three now dead citizens would be a minute each. She didn’t have a good head for time so probably five minutes to clear the floor?
Jessica winced as she saw the final score on the wall after she left point A. 09:21.34, the minimum passing score for the course was 5:30.00. Yeah, that sucked. Her instructor looked at her with a look that was a lot less smug than Jessica was expecting. Jessica didn’t say anything in her defense, the woman had been right. She had done her best and it wasn’t up to standard. The instructor brought a hand up to her face, and spoke.
“It’s not your fault, or maybe it is if you pushed for accelerated training. Either way, I was honestly expecting a bit worse. Would have been better if it had been a bit worse.” The instructor looked back at the score on the wall. “Alright, let’s get this over with. What you did right. You cleared most of the rooms meant to be cleared and executed good trigger discipline on the first half. The crouch run was a good solution for the second half. It is meant to be run through, not cleared, so good job. The last room, you took the experience from the first half and made a judgment call. That's one less corpse than most first time runs have in that room, so at least take that with you when you leave.
The woman leveled Jessica with a much harder look than before, “But that was sloppy, and slow. You didn’t completely clear the first half and got shot twice in the second. You then fired without identifying a target. You should have taken a second and even third look if you can’t find a shooter.”
“In the event of a Licensed Citizen you Identify yourself and they will cease fire, you could not have known this since I was not given time to teach you this procedure and it was not deemed necessary due to the rarity of licensed citizens. You are clearly not ready for service and I will be pushing for further lessons before you begin probation and lessons during probation if the former is not granted. If neither is granted then may God have mercy on you girl.”
The hard look dropped, the woman began to rub the back of her neck. “Look, I don’t know who the hell thought this was a good idea, at least you have the book smarts to get me extra time, but I’m serious when I say that you should never take a hard projectile weapon of any kind anywhere within the walls. Got it?”
Jessica nodded, still saying nothing. She agreed, and while Jessica was happy to be skipping three months of training since it sucked, she also knew that it would leave her at a disadvantage compared to others, especially in the practical areas of her job. Of course…
“I understand,” Jessica replied, “But quite frankly, though my ability will generate more paperwork than a gun, it will be far more effective in any scenario you give me than a gun, and safer for everyone. I can do paperwork. With all respect, Instructor, I really won’t need your training as long as I carry a megaphone.”
The woman glared, which Jessica deserved, then the look broke. What came next was the face of defeat, “Well, yeah. That’s hard to argue. I don’t recommend a megaphone though, they’re bulky.”
With that the instructor led Jessica to the debrief room, where they went over some extra bits of procedure that she felt were necessary. Eventually it was lunch, and Jessica would begin her final classes. Another round of getting thrown, practice with hard projectile rifles, which Jessica would likely never use, and a group exercise in the same scenario Jessica had run that morning. With that, Jessica returned to her dorm to prepare for bed.
When she had gotten to the dorm, she found a pair of agents waiting for her. She looked to the girl that slept in the bunk below her, only to receive a jealous look. Another reason most of the other students wouldn’t talk to her much, they still had at least a month of training left, more in some cases. Jessica got to skip that and also skip the boring classes that no one seemed to like. Add to that private lessons in the fun classes and it was about the same as the isolation cell in prison, but with more forced politeness and dirty looks.
Jessica collected her things and was taken to the elevator. Thank God, she could finally walk out of this damn building. She would be allowed to leave, with a paycheck for the training in her bank account. Since her time wasn’t part of a sentence they had to pay her the full wage for training. That meant she could get an apartment, buy food that tasted more than halfway decent, and take a shower longer than five minutes, or a bath! She could go to a bathhouse! That would be incredible.
The elevator doors opened and instead of the ground floor she found herself on the fifth. The top floor where she could see rows of meeting rooms that looked out onto the city around them. Fuck. Jessica was led, arms holding a bag with her belongings, to one of these meeting rooms. She could tell which one, it was the only room with frosted glass. Jessica took a deep breath at the door, wondering what new horror awaited her. She walked into the room and saw… people she had never met before.
There were three people, with fine suits and one of them even had an armband that designated them as Bound. Thankfully, the director was absent. The three were sitting on one side of the oval table, backs to the windows. One of them, a large man with a smile that seemed to be trying very hard to look genuine, motioned to a seat.
“Please sit Ms. Adams, there is one last thing to go over before we can let you go. It won’t take but a few minutes.” He said, his voice a few octaves higher than she expected.
Sitting down, she took them in. The large man sat between a woman, who was the Bound, and a much thinner man. The way they sat made Jessica think of a triangle due to the height difference between the three.
“I am Jacob Rodriguez, my associates are Mrs Linda Torres, and Mr. Richard Adams, no relation to you of course.” The man, Mr Rodriguez, explained, “We are with the Department’s internal affairs. We deal with the conduct of Agents, specifically we deal directly with Bound agents.”
Mr. Rodriguez steepled his fingers, while Mr. Adams pulled a small binder from beneath the table and slid it over. “We are tasked with creating a code of conduct for any Bound with unique abilities, and quite frankly your ability is very unique, so we need to go over how you will be allowed to use your ability in the line of duty. Do you have any questions at this time?”
Jessica shook her head slowly, this was… interesting. She should have expected it honestly. Of course what is in practice audio based mind control, would be given it’s own book of do’s and don'ts.
Mr. Rodriguez smiled, “Alright then, we’ll skip the obvious for now, just the blanket statement of don’t use it on officers or citizens should cover that portion, the part we need to discuss is use in active duty situations and the wall.”
He waved to Mrs. Torres, who went over the Wall, “Bound are cleared for use of their ability any time they find hostile forces at the wall. Without restriction, usually. You will have restrictions due to the nature of your ability. The use of your commands will be restricted to contact scenarios. This means the hostile forces have touched the wall in some way, either attempting to damage it or climbing it or even just leaning against it, you are to use your ability to remove the threat by any means necessary. The only exception to this is if your Squad Leader explicitly orders you to use your ability. You will be treated as a last resort option due to how dangerous it could be.”
Jessica wanted to grumble but she figured it was fine. She didn’t see this as a bad thing or something that would hinder her all that much on the wall of all things.
Mr. Rodriguez continued, “For active situations, you will be similarly restricted. For all intents and purposes, your ability is to be treated as a hard projectile weapon.”
Jessica frowned, but again this wasn’t too bad and aligned with her expectations.
“Your Training Agent may not instruct you to use your ability. You will be asked to file all paperwork regarding your power personally, unless you are disabled by injury then your signature at minimum is required to file, and there had better be a good reason why you didn’t write the rest, understood?”
Jessica nodded, this was also what she figured would be required.
“Finally, you will be allowed, in situations where hostages are being taken, to use your ability at your discretion.”
Jessica blinked, “what?”
Mr. Adams spoke up, “It was decided that the loss of citizen life was of more importance than the free will of the citizens who threaten them. If you come across a scenario where innocent civilians are either being threatened by another citizen then you are to use your best judgment. There will be serious consequences if you are found to be abusing this privilege, and it is a privilege, you will be criminally prosecuted for the incident.”
Jessica slowly nodded, ok. This was… pretty good actually. Or really bad, another way for her to mess up.
“Furthermore, you will be required to wear an extra bodycam, this one will not record audio, and has a language model AI that will give indication if and when you give a command and alert our systems. So do not think you will be able to hide commands. Understood?” Mr Rodriguez asked.
“Yes,” Jessica answered, keeping her voice steady. She could practically hear King’s eyes twitching every time they referred to her authority as an ability. It was making it very hard not to laugh. She took the booklet, “I assume this has further and more explicit details?”
Mr. Rodriguez smiled, “Yes, though we covered the basics, do you have any other questions for us?”
“No, thank you,” Jessica gave a respectful nod.
The large Agent nodded back, “Excellent, congrats on finishing your training. Do you have a place to go tonight?”
Jessica nodded, “Yeah, I was able to apartment hunt yesterday during lunch. Found something close by.”
A final smile sent her way, and a handshake from each agent and she was finally free, for real this time. She walked out of the Bound Department, and just took in the fact that she was finally outside. She was bumped and reminded that other people existed, quickly forcing her from the doorway.
She was about to head for the bus stop when she got a call on her glasses. It shocked her a moment, since calls were blocked ever since her imprisonment, then a full minute as she saw who was calling. Jessica quickly walked away from the building, hoping no one could see her face as she answered.
“Hey Dad, what’s up?