In the morning Emily was introduced to Charle company by the company commander Lt Colonel Jackson. He told the company that since they now had a Main type super they would be deploying in two months. He went on to explain that they were going to spend the next two-month doing workups getting ready for combat deployment. He expected them to treat this like they were getting ready for the championships. He stressed the need to be the best they could possibly be to save not only their lives but their buddies lives next to them.

“He's not very good at making inspirational speeches.” Emily thought to herself while standing in formation with the others in her platoon

Sergeant Major Redd held Emily back when the company was dismissed. “Never first let me congratulate you on receiving a Cat Lady weapon. I hear she gave you a tomahawk?

“Yes, Sergeant Major.” Emily responded.

“I have a weapons expert coming in this afternoon to train you on how to use it. Also, I hear your good with languages and that you speak Farsi and Arabic. Is that correct.” He asked looking Emily in the eye.

“Yes Sergeant Major.” Emily said nodding

“Ok, I have another language that the CO wants you to learn. He wants you to learn Urdu. Its a mixture of Farsi and Arabic with a mixture of local dialects. It's what they speak in most of the area’s we are going to be at. It shouldn’t take to long as you speak both base languages.”

“Ok Sergeant Major can do.” Emily said.

“Ok report back to your platoon. They should have your laptop ready for use. After lunch, you need to be ready for the weapons expert.” The Sergeant Major said dismissing Emily.

Emily was sent by her platoon sergeant to the second platoon to get the IED refresher course. Emily spent the rest of the morning jumping in and out of an armored Humvee. In the afternoon Emily reported to an empty gym to meet the weapons guy who turns out to be a Marine who was an expert in close combat weapons. He told her that she would report to him Monday through Friday after lunch. They would work until four-thirty learning how to use a tomahawk in combat.

“There is no real martial arts that focus on axes. Back in the day axes were considered to be a peasant weapon except in India. I am going to teach you some techniques from two different Indian styles of fighting as well as adapting some Chinese fighting hammer styles. Can I see your Tomahawk?” The Marine sergeant asked.

Emily pulled Righteous from its harness and handed it over to the Marine sergeant. “I named it Righteous.” She told him.

“It a lot heavier than I expected.” He told her holding it with one hand. “It's a good thing I am a Brute. Next time warn a guy before you hand it over.”

“Oh yeah sorry I've gotten used to the weight.” Emily told him feeling embarrassed.

“Ok, this is a mixture of a hatchet and a tomahawk. A normal tomahawk has a straight edge along the blade and the top is usually flat. See how the top curves to a point at the top. That's how a hatchet is built. But a hatchet is usually fatter than your blade and is designed like a wedge getting fatter the closer to the shaft of the handle as its designed to split wood. Yours is slim and has the same width all to the edge of the blade like a knife. This helps the blade penetrate deeper. I am not sure why she went with a hammerhead on the back on the blade. Usually, tactical tomahawks have a spike at the end like an ice ax. So, in my opinion, I think this weapon is designed more like a slashing weapon than a hacking weapon. Although it still can be used as a hacking weapon. With super strength, this is a very nasty weapon. Not my first choice of weapons but it will work well on the battlefield if you have room.” The Marine sergeant said waving the ax back and forth.

“Ok put it away. First, we will work on your hand to hand fighting then we will get into your Tomahawk.” The Marine sergeant said and for the next three hours beat Emily senseless. She knew she was good and won a bunch of trophies in competitions but the weapons instructor was beyond good. The last hour and a half she was showed basic slashing and hacking attacks that he wanted her to practice daily.

“Not bad.” The Marine said as Emily climbed off the floor once again. “You are really fast and with some work you're going to be lethal on the battlefield. Tang Soo Do?

“Yes.” Emily said standing up and bow to her instructor.

“It’s great Martial art for the unawakened but not so good for the awakened. You need to be more aggressive when you fight. I want you to copy these forms. These are based on Tang Soo Do but heavily modified for an awaken fighter.” He told her then went on to show her the forms he wanted her to learn. It was a highly aggressive style either avoid an attack or just ignored it in favor of a strike. It was also very brutal. The Weapons master encourage Emily to strike at the eyes, throat, and other lethal areas. He also wanted her to bite and scratch anything that would get a person kicked out of a tournament or even arrested.

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“Bring out your aggressiveness. This isn’t a fight with any rules or judges. You need to turn off your empathy for your fellow man because your enemy already has. If you need to rip his privates off with your hand then by god do it. Don’t hesitate. If you need to use your teeth to rip his juggler out then do it otherwise this guy is going to do it to you. Once he is done with you then he will go on to the rest of your company. You are the only Super in your company and if you fall so does a hell of a lot of good soldiers. I’ll teach you the forms and the techniques that you need to use in this kind of fight but only you can use it the way its suppose to be used. Anything less and you and your company will die.”

The next two weeks went by fast for Emily. During the weekday she spent the morning doing combat scenarios with the company and the afternoon learning how to fight like Super Soldier in both unarmed combats and with Righteous her tomahawk. The Marine weapons expert beat her senseless but kept saying she was making excellent progress. Her weekday nights were focused on learning the new language which was mostly easy as it was just a mixture of the two languages she already knew. The hard part was that there were some accent differences that she had to learn. It reminded her of how someone from the deep south spoke American English versus someone from the north. It was the same language but some words and phrases mean something different depending on what accent you used.

The weekends she spent with Jan and Wonder if she didn't have a duty day. She was assigned as gate guard every four days as her duty. The good news was that once her shift was done she could go home and she wasn't stuck on base. She spent most of her weekends at Jan and Wonders apartment and slept on their couch on Friday and Saturday nights.

Wonder remained friends with Mr. Honey but they broke up after two weeks of dating. While he was good to look at he was a bit of an idiot. He still came around and hung out with them but he sometimes brought a date. At first, Emily thought it would be awkward but it wasn't. Wonder was not a jealous person. Emily found herself designated driver most nights but she didn't mind. It was still fun to hang out with the group.

The closer to the deployment day the company the more pressure the Sergeants put on the platoons. It reminded Emily of training for States in track. The Sergeants pushed the company's faster and harder each day. For the most part, the company responded well. Emily felt the rising excitement and the fear each day with her fellow soldiers. It was a strange mixture of emotions.

“It's like its Halloween.” Jan said waving her beer around in the air.

“What is?” Wonder asked.

“That feeling as Deployment day gets closer.” Jan said slightly slurring her words. “It's like you get to be Lara Croft. All that badassery and cool but before Halloween gets here you have to watch all the scary movies that you tell everyone that they don’t scare you but they really do.”

“Ah, it's ok Ms. Laura Croft I'll protect you from all the scary monsters.” Ian said smiling hugging Jan.

“No, it's that feeling like you're all excited and scared at the same time. It's like you're going to get to do something really fun in the near future but you also could get hurt too.” Jan said leaning back in her chair.

“Man you're drunk.” A drunken Wonder said finishing off her beer. Emily finished her soft drink thinking that Jan was right. It did feel like the days leading up to Halloween.

As Rangers in a Ranger Regiment Emily and her fellow Rangers were supposed to be ready for short-term deployment at a moment notice. This was different though. This was a long-term deployment of up to fifteen-month deployment to a war zone. There was a lot to do from saying goodbye to family members to moving out of the apartment. The Friday before deployment Emily helped Jan and Wonder move back into the barracks and put their stuff in storage. Saturday they went out to the club and stayed until it closed. Sunday they went to the river one last time and spent the day hanging out. Monday was prep day. They had equipment inspection several times and the Sergeants were convinced that someone was going to leave something important behind.

Tuesday, deployment day, finally arrived. Emily expected to get on a bus with the rest of her platoon and head to the airfield and fly out. Instead, they got on a bus and went to the processing center to fill out paperwork. Emily spent a lot of time sitting around doing nothing but sitting with her bags. Finally the last of the paperwork was completed and their airplane was ready. They climbed on the bus and headed off to the airport.

The plane was a normal civilian airplane that normal people took everyday complete with flight attendants. It was strange to sit in a normal plane going off to war. In the movies, it was always a big cargo plane where everyone was packing in like sardines. The flight attendants did their safety briefing just like a normal flight and even passed out snacks and drinks.

The flight even had an in-flight move about Brute who used to be a baseball player but got hit in the head by a fastball during a game. His awakening ruined his baseball career. His love interest was some lowly normal secretary in some fictional superhero team in New York who dreams of being a superhero herself. In the end, the grumpy guy gets the optimistic girl who turns out to be empathic super and that she had been overlooking her whole life. The actors were normal actors and it was a pretty good movie. It even had some cameos with some really popular veteran superheroes.

The plane landed in Germany where they spent a week before heading in-country. Emily hung out with her gang. They were given a four day leave pass and they got all got a hotel in town. They spent their days wandering around Germany seeing the sights and the nights were spent in crazy cool clubs.

Jan the only member of their gang to have served a tour in the middle east she had them get a shemagh. A shemagh was a square cloth that could be folder to make a headscarf. “It's a sign of respect to the woman of Afghanistan when we wear a headscarf,” Jan said showing them how to fold the cloth to make a headscarf. “Also it's a great way to keep the sand off your face when a sandstorm blows up out of nowhere.” She also had them buy some expensive sunglasses to protect from them desert glare. Far too fast their break in Germany was over and they caught another civilian flight but this time it was to Afghanistan.