Chapter 42

Training again

The engineers had finished their work. I had slightly modified Black Eclipse with some nice attachments, specifically a silenced machine gun, an EMP launcher and a single shot missile launcher, not to mention flares and anti-satellite/radar-scrambling stealth, if visible stealth wasn’t enough. It’s perfect for exactly what I was doing.

I didn’t waste much time. I got another glimpse at the guy’s profile, checked the cameras and waited until he walked outside. Surprisingly I had found that the office he worked in had a very expansive and nearly personal garden balcony. So I watched as he made his way through his office and talked to a few people, generally looking quite disturbed and restless. This was perfect, and he’s undoubtedly a suspect.

He walked out of his office and onto the balcony. This was my cue. I started my engine and rose, taking just a minute to get to his building.

There wasn’t much details. I had just located him, came down to his altitude and fired a couple bullets from my silenced machine gun. His look was nearly the same as he had been a second earlier, but just a small hint of surprise and blood all over.

I zoomed off, made a circuit around the city to make sure I wasn’t being followed and went back to headquarters.

I visited Clyde’s ship, got another profile and managed to find him before lunch. It was much the same work.

After lunch I got another two before dinner. And with that called it an early day, going to visit John in the kitchen.

“How was your day?” He asked. “Somehow I never get the chance to ask.”

“I took four off of the suspect list, I figure it’s going to be another three days to finish it up.”

“And then what?”

“I have plans, but I can’t say. I’m in the frame of mind that I want a retaliation from the Nightmare, just to find him. But on the other hand I don’t want to see what he might have in store for me.”

“I understand your predicament,” he said honestly. “I once, when I was a youngster, had nearly ten Felinesses chasing after me. And then when I was with one, another would come by, and then another and soon I was flooded with these ladies, but I had to keep my faith to the one I had.” He ended his story there.

“Sounds dramatic.” I said and, as I saw he was now humming to himself, stirring the pot and more or less content with reminiscing his childhood, I left.

I found Bandera sitting down in her room and reading some textbook. I felt happy that she seemed to have learned to read.

“You want to see something?” I asked her. She looked up at me curiously, thought for a second less than it does to dodge a punch and closed the book and stood up ready to go.

I laughed and led her off to the Talpas’s tunnels.

“What is this place?” She asked a bit accusatively as I led her into the room with a single hole in the floor.

“It’s an expansive space. I brought in some Talpas to dig us a few new rooms.”

“Talpas?”

I guess she had never met a Talpas before. She wasn’t around when I had them save us in the last big battle. “You’ll see.” I said and hopped down into the hole.

We walked through the tunnels for a minute or so before arriving to the new dugout houses. Bandera was lost behind me.

I walked back to find that she had barely taken ten steps. “I forgot you can’t see I the dark.”

“I can but not like this. There’s no lights at all!” She said. “Wait, you can?”

I realized I didn’t have my goggles on, not able to say a white lie. “I can, something the Talpas gave me when I first met them.”

She looked at me curiously, well not at me, but a little to the side, she still couldn’t see where I was.

“Come, I’ll help you.” I turned up the external lights on my goggles to shine bright white and led her by the arm.

Finally we had made it to the renovated area. “This is it.” I said.

“I can hardly see it still.”

I shrugged. I guess I’ll have to show her around quickly. So I pulled her inside one of the houses and my goggles’ light brightened it up to see that there was a quiet little room for someone to sleep.

It seemed like she had enough, not really worth showing something to someone when they can’t even see it. It reminded me of my own visit to the Talpas, blindly being led around, toured like I would be expected to notice what I’m being shown, and see the beautiful paintings on the wall.

“Well, I have one more to show you.”

“Alright,” she said still somewhat cheerfully. “I hope there’s lights.”

I led her back into the tunnels and into the arena that was being made. It was through a different tunnel, still without lights, and the arena had been cleared out though was barely high enoughfor me to stand up straight. I found the chief Talpas and brought Bandera over to meet him.

She nearly walked straight into him, but I had pulled her to a stop quickly. “This is the Chief. He conducts the digging and most of the construction as well.”

She said hello in a bit of a frightened attitude, makes sense when you can hardly see who you’re meeting, just a blob of fur.

“Don’t worry, he’s friendly,” I said. “And this is Bandera,” I told the chief. “She’s my Huntress in training.”

“Pleased to meet you,” he said, holding out his hand to shake her’s. I quietly waved him aside and motioned to him that she can’t see a thing.

“Well, this is it,” I said to Bandera. “Our future arena for all the sparring we do at nights. I thought it might be better than the cramped dining room.”

“I don’t mind it. It’s good for training when you don’t have much space to maneuver.”

“True, but we’ll get this all up to date with lights and all that. I’ll even put in a little snack and refreshments bar.”

“Okay. Sounds kinda cool, I have to admit.”

I walked her around the space and led her back to our dining room. “So, how have your studies been?”

“Boring, but good enough. I’ve learned a lot about Xenobia and it’s history, after I finally figured out how to read.”

“That’s good. I have to say you’re a fast leaner.”

“I guess so. It’s all I have to do for the whole day,” she complained.

“I’ll tell you what. Why don’t we go out for a little joy ride in the Eclipse.”

“The what?”

“The Black Eclipse. It’s my new ship. You’ll love it.”

I took her outside, probably the first time in a while. But she does go out with John and Nancy, shopping for food or just on a walk for the sake of old people getting some movement in the bones.

She marveled at the ship, not the way I did, but she looked around it properly and mentioned how sleek it looked.

“Jump in,” I said as I pressed the button on my controller to open the cockpit. I adjusted the seats so she could sit properly and be fitted with a seatbelt. She looked pleasantly surprised.

I did the same and took off.

“What do you want to see?” I asked. I remembered the first time I had taken her for an excursion in the ship. She loved it. But now I’ll let her decide.

“Oh, I don’t know,” she said.

“There has to be somewhere you’d like to see. You’ve been reading a lot of history, maybe some historical tour?”

“I want to go home.”

“Of course,” I said sympathetically. “I think that’s a good idea.”

I headed west, coming out of city limits so we could make it there in half a hour.

After a long and silent ride we were over the trees of our jungle. I had even tried to start a couple conversations but they had ended quickly.

“Here we are. Would you like to see the village? Temple?”

“We can see the Temple.”

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I started to set the ship down and the hangar door opened for me. I’m sure Clyde is still keeping an eye on me. I landed inside and the ship and the two of us got out. It felt like being home again.

“How do you like it?” I asked, trying to nudge her into conversation.

She didn’t say anything but at least I could see her face. Her eyes had opened and she took a deep breath. “I feel home.”

She walked around a bit. I followed closely, trying not to feel like I was hovering. We went through the halls and I showed her each room. Storage, storage and more storage, then we found the shooting range, she looked at it skeptically and moved on. The training room, black and empty. “What’s this?” She asked.

“Training room where I polished up my fighting skills.”

“Can I try?”

I wouldn’t know if I’d be able to turn it on. So I messaged Clyde, walked around to the operators room and found that the first level was already on the screen and ready in my goggles.

“Put these on and step into the room.” I told Bandera, giving her the goggles.

I watched from the window and the screen which put her into the virtual reality.

After the brief orientation she had found the snake. She did well, but still had to restart the level a few times. I could tell she wasn’t entirely unfamiliar with fighting.

But, after a few more rounds and another hour later, I told her, “It’s time to get back to headquarters, it’s already quite late.”

“No,” she said firmly. She looked at me straight through the glass. “I’m not leaving yet.”

It was hard to argue with her. I wasn’t going to tell he it’s her bedtime.

“What good am I as a Huntress if I can’t fight properly.”

“You can fight,” I said. “You did as good as I did when I had done this. Plus I had already gotten into quite a few tight spots before this.”

“I’ve also been through a few tight spots.” She took a deep breath. “We’re not the same, but who’s going to be the Huntress when you’re gone.”

“I’m not leaving.” I said, taking her to mean that I’ll be dead before long.

“I know that you’re not planning to. But you can’t promise me everyday that you will. After every battle what will be the outcome? There’s always a possibility. And now that half of our team is gone who’s going to be the one to save you. Who will be the one who’s always got your back?”

Now I really couldn’t argue with her. And I could use a day to lay low and keep the attention off of the killings.

“So,” I started, “are you ready for the next level?”

She clapped her hands together and grunted an affirmative.

It was the middle of the next day when we had finally left to headquarters. She had stopped only a few time for snacks and refreshments before she was entirely exhausted. We got into the Eclipse and I flew back slowly, letting her sleep. It took an hour instead of half.

When we arrived I had managed to drag Bandera out of the ship, along with myself, and put us to bed.

John had looked at us strangely and asked where we’ve been. I mumbled something about a visit to the jungle, and before he could respond with asking why we didn’t take him, I turned the corner with a half asleep Bandera.

“You might want to head off to the east, there seems to be something going on there.” Ares said just as I had hit the pillow.

“Something?” I said, just wishing for a good sleep at the moment. “You mean the other suspects?”

“Exactly. A couple men showed up from another planet of men. They joined forces with our suspects, and now they’re looking to kill Caine.”

“Really?” I asked, somewhat intrigued. Something seemed odd though. “Suspects against suspects.”

“That’s right. But I don’t think they know about the Nightmare at all.”

Then is the Nightmare getting them to fight each other?”

“It doesn’t look like it,” she said. “These two other men had come for some strange reason, trying to find Caine. But why, I don’t know. And if they don’t know about the Nightmare, I can’t guess why they want to kill him.”

“I’ll take a look into it. If we can’t find the Nightmare then we should get all the help we can towards taking down his minions.”

“Indeed,” she agreed, nodding. “Then take care of the rest here and head over there.”

I slept well and woke up after midnight.

There wasn’t much to do at this time. If I wanted to find a few of the suspects I’d have to find them sleeping in their houses or apartments. Something a little too risky. Unless they’d be staying up late at the bars or doing something strange on behalf of the Nightmare.

I asked Clyde about it. He seemed to have more attention with me at this time of night. But he answered my question with a negative. All of the remaining suspects here have been tucked away into bed.

We had a nice conversation, me telling him about the experience in the Black Eclipse, taking Bandera off to the jungle and practicing in the training room, and updating him on the specifics of our plans with the Nightmare. I told him about the Talpas and what I had them up to, or down to, and that we probably needed some lights. And finally I caught him up to date, Ares hinted at something in the east side of Xenobia.

“I’ll put that data into my processors. Some things are moving into place and other data has been thrown into confusion. The possible outcomes may take a minute to come through. But by the looks of it, nothing certain yet.”

I went back inside and found Bandera had woken up. You might have thought that she would have said something cheerily or begged me to take her back to the temple. No.

“We’re going back to the training room,” she said with the same face Clyde always gives me, deadpan.

A few thoughts raced through my head, we should be dealing with the suspects, the Nightmare doesn’t wait. But, her earlier argument was what got me, I did need backup, and a second Huntress in case I’m not here… “Fine.” I replied.

She slid me a quick smile and said, “Let’s go to the ship, I can eat on the way there.”

We were there in less than an hour, she jumped out and went straight to the training room. She stopped at the door, holding out her hand, “I need the goggles.”

Without resentment I did, started it up and got her fighting.

She was well in to the twenties, in terms of levels and just kept going.

I had the bright idea to find her a set of her own goggles. I ran up to the top of the temple and opened the last of the three doors. I wondered to myself, she didn’t go through everything I went through to get these, not even half of the Huntresses did, now I get to come in and take them for her, for little of her own effort. Well, lucky her. I had found another set and took them for her. It’s not stealing, I told myself. I am the Huntress.

I got back to the training room and programmed them for her, trying to remember the exact setting I put, but remember that Clyde had given me a lot more software and data than was initially installed. I noted to ask Clyde to give her the same treatment.

I watched her for many more hours. She was much the same I was, maybe faster, she didn’t have all the first hand tricks that I had learned fighting Ancients, nor grooved in fighting styles which took longer to undo than learn correctly in the first place.

But many hours later, she was again a mess of sweat of panting, a wide grin on her face, and she had finished the program.

“Once more, from the beginning.” I recalled that Clyde had made me do this again, timed. Oh right, but the second time I had gun. “Hold on, we need to go somewhere first.”

She rolled her eyes, “Can’t I just start?”

“I have something for you.” I said. I took her with me to another floor, another hallway and into the target practice room. Guns lined the front wall and the room had a long ranged hallway for shooting practice.

I showed her the guns and told her to pick one. She immediately went for the bigger handheld guns.

“You have to think,” I said, “you are a Huntress. Do you really want a big gun like that while you’re crawling through tunnels, through the jungle or trying to walk down the street in the city? You’ll be arrested on sight.”

She looked at me solidly.

“Suit yourself.”

She calmly went through the majority of them. I gestured for her to try it out on the targets.

She came out of there with a medium sized gun, one which I recalled having been able to stun an Ursine pretty well, if not knock him out for quite a while. I had seen it on the range, the reload time wasn’t bad, but not when you’re surrounded by five Ursine.

We were back in the training room. “So, you do them all over again and this time with a time limit.”

She had gotten her self back together, fed, and was now breathing regularly. “Sounds good,” she said, and I started her on level one once again.

She had gotten through the first ten levels very quickly, hardly no time at all, and the next ten as well, except for the few monsters Clyde had dreamed up, those which had some very shot resistant skin.

It was much later than any normal person would stay awake, and she had finished the program again.

She jumped out of the room and we celebrated, going down to my old room and getting some food and drinks.

She wasn’t as exhausted as the last time, she had a gun and though the last few were tough, it was much less physical action.

This time she was ready to go back. With the training done, now she was ready. She even looked older, how in two days she had managed that, I’ll leave it to what happened in the training rooms, between herself and it.

It was mid morning by the time we arrived back to headquarters. The sun was already lighting up the sky by the time we had left the Temple.

I could tell she had a much more peaceful sleep this time, sleeping with a slight smile on her face, mixed in with the newly found determinism stiffening her brow.

I too went to sleep.

The next morning, (yes I managed to sleep through the entire day and following night, I needed it) I woke and told Clyde about the success. I knew he would already have known, but I can’t let that stop me from telling him.

“I’ll make some custom levels for her. The same as I did for you. Let me know how she likes them. Already looking at the footage I can tell she’ll need some tricky baiting and ambushing. Something that would be hard to get out of.”

“I’m sure she’s up already,” I said. “I’ll let her know that there’s more. By the way, I picked up some goggles for her, can you give her the same settings that I have.”

“No problem,” he said, getting back to his work.

“Wait.” I said before I walked out the door. “Did you just remember something from before you lost your memory?”

“Let me check,” he said, pausing for a few seconds, which I know that for him would be a very long time to think about something. “No, but thanks for asking. I had to check the source of that piece of information and found that I merely saw the last program and that it was filed under Customized Trials for Dawn.”

“You had me hoping for a second.”

“Unfortunately, as much as I would loved to have shared in your hoping, I haven’t recovered my lost memories.”

I replied a soft, “okay,” and walked out the door.

Bandera finished her final trials in the span of a day. The agonizing frustration she went through was nearly unbearable for me. If breaking old habits was something I had learned in the early stages of the training room, she had learned it all in one day, just when she was feeling very confident in how she fought.

But, fortunately for both our sakes, she had redone a few of them even after she had beaten them. She liked being thorough.

We packed it up at the end of the day, eager to get back home and move on with the tracking down of the Nightmare.

I had invited Bandera to come along with me and finish off the last few suspects on our list. After this we headed east to find these humans, and hopefully Caine.

The first two suspects I had chosen were very obviously under the Nightmare’s orders. Within ten minutes one of them had changed directions, suddenly forgot what he was doing and did something else, talked to someone and then right in the middle of the conversation shook his head, looked around all confused and asked the other guy what he was doing here. This happened twice in those ten minutes. The other one had much the same problem but would run away, stuff his face with drugs and go to the bar, order a hundred dollars of drinks for himself and then just walk away before the bartender filled his request.

I pointed out each to Bandera, they way they did these things and a few others which gave away the Nightmare. She seemed to understand and was very eager so we got in the Eclipse and went off to find them.

I had Bandera watch me fly, I took it easy so she could see the basic controls, naming nearly everything that I did, even up to the uneventful shootings. Finding a quiet spot in that time and place, to evade potential chases. On the second suspect I had just used the Eclipse’s stealth function, making the ship nearly invisible and shooting through traffic.

The next two I gave to Bandera. The first hour letting her fly around the city and even going up high enough to zip around and do whatever she pleases. This made me nearly sick. It’s one thing controlling the ship like a leaf blowing through the wind and quite another to be the passenger in that ship.

We scouted them out and I let her do the job. One of the surprising things is finding out how well she is at learning, I know hands-on learning is easier sometimes, but she made it look like she had done this ship flying business before. I, in a motherly aspect, only wished she could do the same with her studies at headquarters.

She finished off the last two with no problems, hardly any mis-controls in flying and only once had to shoot again. Nothing bad at all.

Now, hunting was finished. But only just begun.