Meiko tossed me a pair of boxing gloves to try on while she put out a set of soft mats. After our talk yesterday about training, she had decided that we would go through with it today. I agreed, wanting to get started as soon as possible. Especially since, according to Gumi, "it's going to be a little longer before we can get the chip working for us." It seemed like a good a time as any to get our training in while we had the chance.

We had found out that the base had a training facility, with sets of weight training equipment, exercise bikes, treadmills, and punching bags. The amount of equipment on display was more than enough to use for three people living in this facility. I wondered how many were supposed to be stationed here at one time, and then wondered what happened to all of them. Just like the facility on Other-Earth, it was a mystery, and one that really didn't have any concrete answers.

"I'm so glad we found this place," Meiko said."I was considering looking into a gym membership, but that would mean going out in public, and I'd rather avoid that if I can."

I nodded in agreement. "It's better we have a private space to begin with. The last thing I'd want is you drawing attention to yourself because of me."

"I mean, I go out plenty. I try not to stick around here too much because being in tight quarters drives me nuts."

"You don't like it down here?" I asked.

"God no, I prefer the outside, where I can be alone."

"Sorry," I said, "I didn't know you felt that way."

"It's nothing against you. It's the other two who drive me nuts sometimes."

I remembered Meiko getting frustrated at Gumi a couple of times. I guess she had less patience for her antics compared to Luka, who seemed to tolerate them.

"I prefer being around you, frankly," she continued. "It's not that I don't like either of them, but being down here in such a tight space is... I like being outside, and you're a good excuse to use if I want to get out of here."

"Good to know I'm good for something," I said.

"Oh, don't be like that," she said, almost scolding me. "I didn't bring you here to throw a pity party, I came here to train you. If you want to have a pity party, the door is right over there."

"R-right," I said, "sorry, Meiko."

"As of right now, you're going to train to be a better fighter. If you want to feel sorry for yourself, you chose the wrong place to be. Now, stand up straight, and get those boxing gloves on."

I did as she said, and put the boxing gloves over my hands. It felt like Meiko had just snapped into being a drill sergeant, almost like a switch in personality. She felt intimidating, but I also felt as if I was in good hands.

"By the end of today, you'll have a better understanding of how combat works, and by the end of the month, you'll be a machine."

She slid the boxing gloves on her hands, and readied herself. I attempted to copy her, with my fists facing out, and my right leg forward.

"I'll start with an easy mode for you," she said. "It'll be a good start."

"Okay," I said, taking a deep breath, and nodding. "Let's do this."

She waved her left hand, signaling for me to come forward. I threw a punch, and she dodged immediately, almost as if she could read my mind. I tried another, and she dodged again. The third time, I tried again, and I almost hit her, but she didn't even move herself.

"Almost," she said, "but not quite!"

She swept her leg under me, and before I even hit the ground, she slammed her boxing glove right into my face. I felt the sweat I was already building up fly right off of me.

I laid on the ground, my face hurt, my back feeling like it had just landed on rocks even with the soft mats beneath me.

"I thought you said this was going to be easy mode," I groaned.

She looked in my eyes, staring at me with a wry smile on her face. "That was easy mode."

She pulled me up, and I dusted myself off.

"You're a lot stronger than I am," I said. "How exactly am I supposed to match up to that?"

"It's not about power, it's about control," she said. "Your stance matters just as much as anything else. Let me see your fighting stance again."

"Okay," I said, placing myself back into a proper fighting stance. She immediately started correcting me.

"No, this isn't right. You're not properly balanced at all," she said. "That's how I managed to trip you so easily."

"You kept dodging my punches, of course I was off balance."

"The trick is to keep your legs planted at the ground. I saw you trying to use your legs to push yourself at me, and that was your undoing, essentially. Try punching again, but this time, keep your legs on the ground."

I swung with my right hand, this time focusing on keeping my leg down.

"That's much better," she said, "you won't be off balance quite as much."

She took her fighting stance again, and signaled for me to come at her.

I tried swinging, but she dodged again. I swung again, this time with my left hand, and she promptly countered with her right hook to my face. I went down.

"Jeez," I said, rubbing my cheek, "how do you dodge like it's nothing? Are you using something in your programming that lets you do that?"

"I'm keeping that off, trust me. I wouldn't use anything like that against you."

"So, what am I doing wrong this time, then?" I asked, picking myself up.

"You're really easy to read. Your face is telling me when you're going to make a move.

"It's that easy?"

"Again, your face. It's your emotions that are pulling you down. Breathe in a little bit, and relax."

"What if I'm in the middle of an actual fight?"

"You're not, that's why we're training."

"Haha, good point," I put my fists up again, taking a deep breath. "Let's try again."

It felt like an uphill battle trying to learn how to do any of this. Each time I thought I had it, Meiko would always find a way to beat me. Every time I thought I had it, and it turned out something else was a problem. It was starting to frustrate me how much I still needed to learn, but I also knew it wasn't going to be something I could learn in a day.

"I almost had you that time," I said, lying on the floor after the sixth time she managed to trip me up there.

"Almost only accounts for horseshoes and hand grenades, I'm afraid," she said.

"You have me at every corner, it feels like. How the hell do I compete with that?"

"You starting to give up?"

I stared at her. "Am I supposed to give up?"

"I don't know, you tell me."

"I don't want to give up.

"You seem like you want to, it sounds like it anyways. Here I was, thinking you'd be a good trainee, now you're just taking it bad."

Her words stung. The feeling of giving up hurt, but now, I felt like I wanted to prove her wrong more than anything.

"I bet you anything, Miku would probably be thinking the same thing," she scoffed. "No wonder you couldn't hold your own."

"Shut up." I said.

"Why should I? You want to give up."

"I said shut up!"

"Go ahead, make me." She smacked her gloves together.

I lunged at her, and she dodged, and pulled back when she threw a punch in return. I paid attention to her fists as she swung at me. She could keep cool in a fight like this, and her face wouldn't change, but if I stayed focused, I could find an opening.

"Come on, Griff, you want to shut me up so bad, you know what you have to do!"

She kept swinging, and I kept dodging.

"Maybe you weren't ready for this." She took another swing. I was starting to wear out, and she knew it. It was either I keep dodging and lose, or I take a risk and finally try and hit her.

She lunged her fist at me, and I dodged underneath her arm.

I took a good look in her eyes as she looked at me in surprise.

"And maybe you should have kept your mouth shut!"

With my legs planted firmly, and my fist pulled back, I put all of the force I could into my punch. It landed in her face, perfectly. She fell over, and I towered above her.

"Wonderful," she said, a huge grin across her face.

"What's so funny?" I asked.

"You did what I was hoping you'd do."

"What?"

"Sometimes, getting really mad is the best way to win a fight."

I stared at her in confusion.

"I know, it doesn't make sense. It's hard to not have emotions when you're fighting, but sometimes, the best way is to let them out, rather than bottle them up. I just wanted to see if you'd break eventually."

I started laughing, and so did she.

"That's why you said that, then," I said.

"I had to say something to piss you off. Sometimes it's best to get a little angry."

She kicked her feet, and pulled herself up, and patted me on the back.

"Feel better?" She asked.

"A lot, actually. That felt kinda good to hit you."

"Good, I deserved it that time. Now come on, I think that's it for today."

"Sounds good," I said, "I'm feeling pretty hungry."

We both walked out and headed back to the changing rooms. I still had plenty of the day ahead to spend here, but a break didn't sound so bad. Once I had cooled off, especially, I had realized how exhausted I actually was.

I changed back into my normal clothes, and walked out. Meiko was sitting on the bench outside waiting for me.

"I worked up an appetite from our fighting," Meiko said. "How about I get us something to make up for earlier?"

"What are you thinking?" I asked.

"I dunno, you like pizza? I've been wanting some today."

I nodded. "Nothing like a good pizza to follow-up a punching session."

"I'll take that as a yes, then," she said. "What do you want?"

"Pepperoni."

"Classic choice. I'll head out and grab it. You can stay here if you want."

I walked out of the room with her, and we parted as she headed outside, while I went into the Operating Room. Gumi was inside, sitting at her usual spot. She was eating Chinese takeout.

"Hey," I said, walking in, over to her workstation, "how's it going over on your end?"

"Oh, Griff," she said, her mouth full of chicken teriyaki, "enjoy your training session?"

"How did you know I was here?"

She swallowed her food, and replied. "With cameras? You think I wouldn't know if someone was here?"

"Right," I said, "I forgot who I was talking to."

"Well, anyways, how'd training go?"

"I got punched in the face a lot, ended up finally getting a hit on Meiko eventually."

"I take it everything went well?"

"As well as I expected, maybe," I said, rubbing the back of my neck. "She hits hard."

"That's Meiko, she'll do whatever she thinks is necessary to get something done."

"I guess," I said, shrugging, "I just wish she'd be a little less cruel."

"Meiko has methods that aren't always the best, but she's good." Gumi took another bite of her food. "Though, we could always try the V.R. Pod."

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

"The what?"

"Sorry," she said, "there's a bunch of other training equipment on the floor you guys were on. One room in particular has a few virtual reality training pods. Likely for training involving Interspace expeditions."

"That would have been nice to know before I got my face punched in."

"Oh well, I can get it set up so you can learn how to do weapons training before the day is up."

"You'd do that?" I asked.

"Hey, if it makes you better on the field, I can do that."

"Let me know when you want to. I'll be ready."

She giggled. "Let me finish my lunch first, then we can head down."

I looked at her lunch. It was a mix of chicken and beef teriyaki, steamed vegetables, and white rice. Strangely enough, her steamed vegetables were almost all gone, except for the carrots. They seemed to have been untouched.

"You don't like carrots?" I asked, pointing at the small orange discs.

"I love them," she said, scooping rice into her mouth, "I only save them for the last because they're my favorite."

"Saving the best for last?"

"The best being the most delicious vegetable that had ever been created by Mother Nature, then yes!"

Down the hall, I heard the elevator pinging. I went to check, and saw Meiko had returned with a pizza box. It smelled delicious.

"Hey, I'm in here," I said, "Gumi here was just telling me how much she liked carrots."

"Oh, did she?" Meiko asked. "That's Gumi alright."

Meiko propped the box on a makeshift table right next to a wire housing.

"One half-pepperoni, half-supreme pizza right here!" she announced. "I got plates too."

"Thanks!" I said, immediately digging in.

"By the way, Gumi," I asked, "where'd you get takeout from?"

"Luka grabbed some on the way home from a used books store. She's in her dorm reading them right now."

"This place has dorms?" I asked.

"Of course it would. We've all got our own rooms to sleep in. Where did you think we would be sleeping?"

"Good point," I said, "I guess I hadn't thought of it."

"I sleep in my car more than here, honestly," Meiko said. "Our rooms are big, but it always feels like I'm in a cell."

"Sorry you feel that way," Gumi said. "If I could build you a bigger room, I would."

"It's okay. I need to get used to it, I guess."

She looked away from both of us for a moment, then went back to eating her food, staying silent. Her expression read as if she wasn't in the mood to talk anymore.

Gumi ate the last of her food, almost joyfully savoring the carrots she ate. It was like watching someone enjoy sweets, where they would savor every bite of it before finishing.

She pushed out her chair, and walked over to the door.

"Might as well get started," Gumi said. "Are you coming?"

"I haven't finished my pizza," I said.

"You can finish it on the way, come on!"

Meiko, who had snapped out of her trance, perked up. "Where are you two going?"

"I'm taking Griff in for some V.R. He should learn how to use weapons before we get back out there. No telling what we'll run into next!"

"Wait, we have that here?" Meiko asked.

"If you had asked me, I could have told you," Gumi said, rolling her eyes.

"Well if he's going, I'm coming, too."

We all piled into the elevator, and headed down to the lower floors. The doors opened, and we walked down another darkened hallway into a room labeled "Virtual Testbed Operations Room." Inside, a collection of monitors sat along one wall, and opposite to them, a pair of two spherical devices, all connected to wires that hung from the ceiling above them.

"I assume these are the V.R. Pods?" Meiko asked.

"Yep, only two of them, but they work. I got these working a little over a couple of weeks ago. Might as well get them to work, right?"

"Do you ever sleep, Gumi?" I asked. "You seem to be working on something constantly."

She smiled and replied with, "I only sleep if I feel like it. Besides, getting this up and running was so easy, I could have done it in my sleep."

"You never cease to amaze me, Gumi," I said.

"It's a natural talent." Gumi said, "there can only be one person so incredible!"

"Can we please get moving on with what we came down here for?"

"Of course," Gumi said, "here, let me get the pods open."

The front end of the pods opened, with two doors shifting opposite to each other. Inside was a collection of blinking lights, a set of mechanical arms, and a chair in the middle of it.

"Well," Meiko said, looking inside, then over at me, "go ahead, Griff, climb in."

Without any hesitation, I crawled into the pod, and sat in the chair. It was surprisingly roomy for something that looked so cramped on the outside, but I fit well enough inside. The door shut in front of me, and suddenly a cold male robotic voice spoke.

"Beginning Virtual Training Test Sequence. Identified Operator Link with Griff Darhen. Deploying breathing apparatus."

A mechanical arm lowered down, holding a red triangular face mask. It placed the mask over my face, then secured itself. I relaxed my breathing, and closed my eyes briefly while the machine performed their tasks.

"Initiating Neural Link"

Flashes of green lights surrounded the pod, and suddenly I found myself in another plane entirely. I wasn't sitting anymore, either. I was standing, and was back in my armored suit that I had on Other-Earth. I hadn't been sent here through virtualization, but I wondered if the pod could connect to the other world in some way.

"Griff?" Gumi's voice rang in my helmet, "Griff, are you there?"

"I'm here, you're coming in fine, too, Gumi."

"Good," she said, "I'm sending Meiko in next. While we're waiting, I'll get the weapons system loaded."

"You can do that?" I asked.

"I can load up the weapons that are linked to your Watcher. Anything you scan should show up here."

"You've been hard at work on digging into those ever since we got them yesterday, haven't you?"

"They're fantastic, so of course I am!"

Within a moment, the robotic voice from earlier spoke.

"Beginning weapons test range."

From below, an array of weapons lockers rose from the ground in front of me. Rifles, pistols, shotguns, machine guns, all lined up in separate cases. Following that, the simulation's landscape changed as well. At first it was a solid white room, but suddenly, plants, trees, and grass all appeared.

"Huh," Meiko said, appearing out of almost nowhere, "these weapon lockers really don't match the venue, frankly."

"You're right," Gumi said, "hang on, let me see if I can change it up a bit."

The simulation changed again, this time into a far more industrial look, with metal catwalks, concrete walls, and rusted pipes, and factory equipment that was all left abandoned.

"Much better," Meiko said. "This feels more at home."

"So," I said, "what do you want me to try shooting first?"

Meiko handed me the SA-4 sidearm. "I figured we should try for the smaller stuff, then move up gradually."

I nodded in agreement.

"So," I said, "what do we use as target practice?"

"If you'll give me a second," Gumi replied, "I can give you some targets. I'm still trying to figure out how most of this works."

"Take your time, Gumi," Meiko said, "there's plenty of things over here we can use as targets."

Meiko grabbed a rifle off of the locker. A sniper rifle, specifically, labeled as the "R400 Recon."

"I haven't handled one of these in a while," she said, loading a new magazine into the bottom of it.

"I've never fired any of these," I said, struggling to load a magazine into the pistol myself.

Meiko walked me over to a position on top of the catwalks, and pointed to one of the barrels.

"You see those over there? Let's try and see if you can hit one of them."

"Okay," I said, pulling the slide on the handgun back, "let's hope I can hit it."

I aimed down, the pistol was gripped with both of my hands, though it still felt shaky. I took a deep breath, and fired. The bullet rang out of the chamber, and collided with the barrel below. Sparks flew out for a second.

"Well, hey, you hit it," Meiko said, lightly clapping, "now do it again."

I fired again. It hit.

"Good," she said, "but I didn't have you come here to shoot barrels. Let's aim for something smaller."

She pointed at a chain hanging off the ceiling. It lit up on my heads-up display.

"Huh," she said, looking at her hands, then at her Watcher, "I didn't know it did that. Good to know."

I trained my handgun on the chain, and fired. I missed it. I tried again, and missed again.

"Not so easy when it's farther away, is it?" She quipped. "Don't worry, it's hard at first, but you'll get the hang of it. Focus on your breathing, and you'll be able to hit it in no time."

I breathed out, and relaxed. Meiko helped adjust my stance.

"This will help, too. A good stance can really help with accuracy."

She adjusted my legs until I was able to balance better. Then stepped away, and signaled for me to fire again.

I aimed down, keeping an eye on the chain, and fired. The bullet hit this time, and snapped it in half, and the chain hit the ground.

"Now that's what I'm talking about," Meiko exclaimed. "You keep that up, and you'll be able to hold your own in no time."

"You think so?" I said, enthusiastic about her compliment.

"Sure, if we ever get attacked by hanging chains, I'll be sure to hope you're the one having my back."

"Har-har, Meiko."

"Just giving you a hard time. It's what I'm here for."

"Wouldn't have it any other way."

We kept training on random targets for the time being until I got the hang of it, awaiting Gumi's return.

Gumi came back again, announcing that the field would be changing.

"Get ready," she said, "we're going to be pulling in a live-fire exercise!"

I readied myself, wondering what exactly a "live-fire" exercise meant.

The simulation changed, and now we were inside of a building with the architectural equivalent of how the Operating Room was designed. Sleek metallic walls, bright blue lights, and extremely tight hallways.

"Close quarters, then," Meiko said. "Fine, I can play that game."

She pulled a shotgun out of a nearby locker, and loaded it.

"I'll go for the rifle," I said, "it might be good to try for something heavier."

"Aim and shoot, Griff. It's easy once you've gotten the hang of it."

I nodded, pushing the magazine into the gun, and setting the next round in the chamber. Meiko secured a knife into her holster on her chest plate. She tossed me one as well.

"Your targets," Gumi said, "are going to be six holograms. They're all tactically minded, work together in a group, and will do anything to hunt you down. It's a two-versus-six situation. You're outnumbered, but they don't know you're there. Show them what you got, you two."

"Alright," Meiko said, "let's go!"

We ran down the hallway towards a door. A message flashed across my visor's display.

"Initiating combat simulation... Weapons finalized. Change-out restricted."

"Guess that's how it is," I said. Meiko nodded, having also seen the message on her helmet, I assumed.

Outside of the hallway we started in, the room we stood in the middle of was covered in moisture, with an awful smell of sewage. We were in a sewer, built near a facility. It seemed as if this specific training exercise was built around defending the Operating Room itself from intruders, judging by the area.

Suddenly, footsteps could be heard below, and we both investigated the noise. Two pairs of lights peered from beneath, observing the area. Then, two figures appeared, with flashlights mounted to their weapons.

"They don't know we're here," Meiko said, "and I think it's only these two. We could get the drop on them."

"We'll have to move lower," I said, "better we lower our odds of getting overrun, right?"

"Right, still have that knife I gave you?"

"Right here," I said, pulling it out, and flicking it. "I don't really know how to use this, but it should be easy, right?"

"Just aim for the head," she said. "Use them as a landing, too. I don't know how much our suits are going to absorb from a landing that far."

"Got it," I said, and we moved further beneath the catwalks to get a better angle.

The two holograms shared idle chatter between each other.

"This is Patrol Two," one of them said, "we're checking for the disturbance. It's clear for the moment. Not seeing any movement."

A brief pause. "Yes, sir... Yes. We'll hang around for a second. Yes, sir. Patrol Two, out."

Meiko and I got into position, directly above them.

"Make sure you keep an eye on your target," she advised. "They can move at a moment's notice, and if they raise an alarm, it'll be that much harder for us."

"Anything else?" I asked.

"Make sure you know your target before you attack."

I trained my eyes on both targets below, and pointed at the one closest to me. The patrolling figure highlighted on my visor. Meiko gave me the thumbs up, and readied her knife.

"Only get one shot at this," she said. "We go on three."

I took a deep breath, and nodded.

"Three, two... One... Now!"

The two figures below us looked up in surprise as we landed on them. I fumbled around trying to hold my knife, and dropped it as I landed on them. In a haste to control the situation, I pulled my gun out, and fired.

The hologram disappeared immediately after that. I looked over at Meiko, who had also dealt with her target.

"Good," she said, "a little worried about you there, but you did good. We still have four left to take care of. Let's keep our guns drawn, and see what we're up against."

"Got it," I said, pulling out my rifle.

We moved into the hall where the patrolling guards had come from. The room was dark, but our helmets' night vision activated automatically. The path only led one way, and we followed until we arrived at an entrance.

"Cover," Meiko said, ducking behind a wall.

"What's going on?" I moved behind her.

"The last four are in here. They're all crowded around something. Looks like a computer. How do you wanna do this?"

"Can we pick them off one by one?" I asked.

"I dunno, it depends if we can get them over here. Personally, I'm getting tired of the quiet stuff. I wanna have some fun."

"How do you want to do that?"

She didn't answer. She kicked open the door, and started firing into the room.

"Christ, Meiko," I said to myself, "if you do this on a real mission, I'm gonna be really worried."

I ran in behind her, taking cover behind a metallic pillar. Gunfire rang out as she shot at the four, who were now dispersing into separate directions.

"Contact, contact!" One of the soldiers started yelling. "Two contacts! We're under fire, requesting backup! Repeat, need backup-!"

He was cut off as Meiko unloaded a shotgun shell into him, and he disappeared into a holographic mist.

"Three," she yelled, "that's three left! Griff, give me some covering fire, I'm moving!"

I aimed my rifle out, seeing two soldiers looking in my direction. I immediately aimed it up and started taking fire on them. They took cover behind a wall. One of them stood up to fire back, and in an act of pure luck, I shot at him, hitting him in the head. He disappeared.

"Good shot," Meiko said, "I got the next one!"

She ran over, the shotgun aimed at the wall, moving quickly. The soldier standing behind it popped out and fired at her. She dodged, and rolled under his shot. With her momentum, she started sliding, and the moment she was right in front of the soldier, she fired. He flew away as his body disappeared.

"Got one last one to deal with," Meiko said. "Let's take him out."

Bullets whizzed past me, and I looked over to see the last soldier above, moving and shooting. I started firing back in a fit of panic.

"He's got me pinned, help!" I screamed.

"One second, I'm coming!" Meiko yelled back. She took out her pistol, and started firing above. The sounds of bullets ripping through armor could be heard, and then nothing. The firing had stopped.

The room went black, and then a robotic voice spoke. "Simulation complete. Returning."

The darkness lifted, and then the blinking green lights returned. I was back in the pod. The breathing mask lifted, and the doors opened.

Gumi, who had been quiet for a good majority of the simulation, sat at the monitoring tables with her laptop. Her expression looked upset, frustrated almost.

"Hey," I said, worried, "you okay?"

"No, I'm not." Gumi said.

"Sorry, we just finished V.R., and-."

"That's great and all but we have bigger problems."

I walked over to Gumi and checked what it was she was looking at.

A series of still images sat on her screen, showing what looked like Duodecim's drones in a forest.

"Did they find us?" I asked, a little panicked.

"No, they haven't found us; this is from Other-Earth. The Ranger's scouts saw the drones moving out there. It looks like our suspicions were confirmed, and now we need to stop them from finding our new base."

"Any idea where they came from?" Meiko asked.

"We do. According to the scouts, there's a base they're patrolling from. We're not sure what they're doing there, but if Duodecim is there, we've got trouble."

Meiko and I looked at each other.

"So," I said, "are we going there?"

"We've got time to be patient," Gumi answered, "I'd rather not rush this. If I can find the base they're coming from, we can hit it with a surprise attack, and even potentially gain access to it for info."

She closed her laptop and stood up.

"We'll meet back here tomorrow, does that sound good?"

"Yes, ma'am," I answered.

Gumi dismissed us, and Meiko and I left to prepare for tomorrow.

Change of plans, I thought, but hey, maybe it'll work out this time. Hopefully that training pays off.