It was the day after the gauntlet, and overseer Jones was presenting one of his morning speeches to the floor one inmates. He was going on a long tirade about how one should gamble responsibly, and how one shouldn’t be swayed by the crowd and join in and spend all their money on a popular bet.

He would have kept going on but he stopped when he noticed the crowd of inmates parting in the middle of the hall. He squinted his eyes as he looked on and saw Owen Walters walking forward towards the stage with his hands in his pockets. A smug smile was plastered on his face.

The inmates hurried out of his path, like he was a dangerous beast that needed to be avoided. Well after yesterday’s events, it was no wonder why they acted like they did.

Owen reached the bottom part of the stage and looked up at Jones.

"Can I come up?"

Jones raised up an eyebrow.

"Why would you want to do that?"

"I have a few things that I want to announce to the crowd."

Jones wondered if he should humour his request, but the pain of losing his money made him petty.

"No, why would I let some inmate stand where I give out my important speeches. Get lost."

Owen shrugged. "Alright, I can just say what I want to say at lunch. But Jones, I wonder what Mayers would think if he knew that one of the reasons why I won the gauntlet, was because one of his overseers had handed me some pretty expensive aether pills. Those things really helped out you know."

Jones' face almost instantly went beet red. He bit down on his bottom lip as he stared down at Owen.

"You…" he began to say, but knew arguing with this teen would end up being a fruitless endeavour. "…I’ll give you a minute."

Jones stepped away from the podium and moved to the side. Owen casually hopped up onto the stage and stood behind the podium. He grabbed its sides as he leaned in close to the microphone.

"My fellow floor one comrades. I can see that most of you have become afraid of me. To that I’ll say this, you’re all cowards."

Looks of hostility and anger flashed across the faces of the sea of people in front of him.

Owen carried on. "Don’t you think it’s weak-minded to be frightened of someone who is the same as you? Look at me, I’m trapped in the same building with the lot of you."

The expression on Owen's face became more serious as he stared at the crowd.

"Do you think the inmates on the floors above you are better than you? Well, they are not. They’re exactly the same as you." He pointed a finger to the side at overseer Jones. "Arden wants to divide us. Oppress us. And keep us docile. And you guys just roll over and let them do that to you? How pathetic. But I do understand your inability to act. You think you’re weak."

"Owen." Jones said but he was promptly ignored as Owen kept on talking.

"I received some rewards this morning for my **win** yesterday in the gauntlet. My first gift was a personal training hall the size of a massive field, with multiple training droids included into the hall. My second gift were ten caskets of low grade aether pills filled to the brim of the lid. Do you get why I chose those rewards?"

A small murmur began to spread among the inmates.

"You saw my strength yesterday. If you want the same power, I can show you how to attain it," he spread out his arms like he was a pastor at a church. "I’ll show you how to become warriors."

***

It was lunchtime, and Owen sat with Grace, Isaac and Will at a table as he picked at his food. Isaac was staring at him, a concerned look was coming from his face.

"You’re going to draw the ire from the officers, with the way you are openly rebelling against them now."

"They’ll be annoyed, but I don’t think they’ll be doing anything to stop me for a while."

"Why?" Grace asked.

"Because In their eyes, I’ve become someone valuable. They’ll want to convert me to their side. But by handing me out a punishment, they’ll know that the won’t be winning me over."

Isaac’s eyes narrowed. "So, do you think you’re invincible now?"

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"Nah, I mean they’ll still retaliate if I cross the line. If I do some egregious shit like kill an officer, they’ll probably deem me a lost cause and get rid of me. But what I do have now, is a little breathing room to do the things that I need to do."

Grace spoke up. "What’s the plan now?"

"I need to find somebody with a useful insignia that’ll help us break out of here. Preferably someone with a tech insignia."

Isaac spat out his drink that he had raised to his mouth, and started coughing loudly.

Owen raised an eyebrow at him. "You good?"

Isaac nodded as he put the drink down and grabbed a napkin. Owen turned back to face Grace.

"During the gauntlet I tried to find somebody like that, but I guess they either hadn’t signed up for it, or there isn’t someone with that insignia. Either way, the next step then is to find somebody that can stop all the advanced technology in the facility, and somebody with a vehicle insignia that could help us get off the island."

"Alright, I’ll help anyway I can." Grace said as she smiled.

"You believe that we could do it?"

"You said that you would win in the gauntlet, and then you did," a serious look came over her. "I haven’t seen my dad since I was twelve. I want to see him. If you say you’re going to find a way to break out of here, then I’ll put my trust in you."

Owen nodded, understanding the gravity of the new responsibility that now sat on his shoulders.

Grace turned to look at Isaac and pointed a finger at him. "Don’t rat out this plan of ours."

Offended, Isaac scoffed at her. "What do you take me for? I may not believe that you guys could actually break out of here, but I won’t snitch."

As they bickered back and forth, Will looked to Owen with big eyes.

"What can I do to help?"

"Just eat and train hard. I’ll need you to be strong once we attempt the breakout."

"Yes!" Will said as he lowered his head down to his food and began hoovering it down.

Owen smirked at him. Meanwhile, footsteps began approaching him from behind. Owen turned around to see who it was, and saw a young woman with light brown hair tied in twintails. He recognized her.

"You’re… Hannah, right?"

She was the woman he had fought in his third to last fight.

"Thanks for remembering my name," she put her hands on her hips. "I overheard from some floor one inmates that you offered to help train them after lunch. Is that true?"

"Yeah it is. Why’d you ask?"

"Does that offer only stand for floor one inmates?"

Owen raised an eyebrow at her. "Don’t tell me that you want me to train you too."

"Well, I honestly want to spar with you when you’re at your full strength. I could tell that you were getting a whole lot stronger throughout the gauntlet. And I’m guessing to grow stronger, you need to fight someone who’s on par with you. That’s the same with me, I learn faster when I have a training partner with similar strength to me."

"Yeah a training partner would be helpful to me. But I’ll accept if you do one thing for me," Owen smirked. "Even though it won’t be official, you’ll have to cross out the 'floor five' on your jumpsuit, and write floor one."

Hannah smirked herself. "Is that it? I’ll go ahead and do that later," she held out a hand towards Owen. "I guess I’ll be a part of floor one then."

Owen took her hand and shook it. "Welcome to the crew."

***

Owen stood in a large white training hall, with a small crowd of people standing in front of him. Around thirty people had shown up for training, which was less than he had expected. Grace, Hannah and Will were standing next to him. Grace turned to look at him.

"There aren’t a lot of people here."

"More will come in the future."

Owen stepped forward and clapped together his hands. "Alright! Let’s begin."

For the next hour, he went through the basics of combat with the class. He used Hannah to demonstrate some moves he had learned from his father. And after that, he split the group into pairs so they could practice what they had learnt.

He meticulously went to each pair to correct mistakes, hand out compliments, and give out advice. Soon another hour had passed and he decided to end the class with a duel between Grace and Hannah, to show what strength they could attain by continuing to come to the lessons.

Hannah bounced up and down on her feet, loosening her body as she stared down Grace. The other inmates stood to one side with Owen and Will as they watched the match about to begin.

"Are we going all out?" Hannah asked Grace.

Grace frowned. "I don’t think I could take you on at your full strength."

Owen cupped his hands to his mouth. "You’re stronger than you think Grace. Show her that you’re more powerful than her."

Grace turned to glare at Owen. That was easy for him to say. She wasn’t him. How could she possibly stand a chance against a floor five inmate?

She sighed as she turned back to look at Hannah. "Fuck it. I want to find out how long I could last against someone like you."

She surged essence throughout her body and raised her arms. Hannah did the same and took a stance.

Hannah moved first. She took a step forward, slamming her foot down onto the floor which shook the entire floor. She pulled back a fist, and shot it forward, causing a blast of air to propel at Grace.

Grace leapt to the side, dodging and then rolling out of the way. She got back up to her feet and then materialized a chain in one of her hands, and whipped it in a horizontal arc at Hannah.

But before it could hit anything, Hannah disappeared from sight, only appearing a moment later a few metres away from Grace.

Hannah came closer and in an instant, shot forward an open palm at Grace's chest. Hannah thought the attack would land, but to her surprise something unexpected happened.

Instinctively, Grace threw out her own fist to intercept the attack. The two strikes clashed together, causing a shockwave of air to explode forth from them. It caused them both skid apart from each other.

Grace's eyes went wide. She looked down at her hand. How had she blocked that attack? She looked towards Hannah, who also had wide eyes on her face.

"I didn’t know you were that strong." Hannah said.

Grace shook her head. "No. I’m surprised I could block that."

Grace turned her head to look at Owen. His mouth was hung open. So he was just as shocked as she was.

Hannah raised back her hands and smiled. "It’s good now that I’ve found another training partner. Come, let’s spar."

Grace looked down at her chain and flung it to the side. She raised her fists and produced a smile of her own.

From the side, Owen watched as the two engaged in combat again. For the next few minutes, Grace seemed to be keeping pace with Hannah. They exchanged powerful blows with each other, causing the other inmates to yell out with each shockwave.

Will tugged on Owen’s sleeve to get his attention. "Why is Grace so strong now?"

Owen looked down at him. "Dude, don’t ask me. I’ve got no clue why."