It turned out that Alfred did not have Falco's information, but the Sentinel database did. He offered to place the call.
The communicator on Gabriel's wrist interfaced with the suit, sending the audio through his helmet. The ringing went on for about 30 seconds, but eventually, a tired-sounding Falco picked up. "Hello? Who is this? How did you get this number?" He asked.
"Falco, it's Gabe. What's going on? I'd like to meet up if you aren't busy."
"Right now, I'm in the middle of training, but you're welcome to join me. Training room c-28."
Gabriel went over the blueprint data in his head. There it was, c-28, on the 14th floor. "Sure thing. I'll be down shortly."
"Sounds great! Hey, what did Zero want to talk to you about anyway?"
"That's exactly why I'm heading down."
"Oh. Then cool! See you in a sec." Falco responded.
"Bye." Gabriel ended the call with a thought and stepped out of the lift.
The training room door said 'occupied' in large red letters, but the screen next to it offered an option to chime. Falco answered quickly; he was sweating, which was odd considering the training rooms were just smaller versions of the larger simulation chamber. "Do you exercise before you go into the simulation?"
"Yeah, I always take 15 minutes to warm up before I start, Zero hasn't been giving us time, so I've been doing it before solo practice." He said, blurring back into a series of rapid push-ups.
"You do know you don't have to do that, right? It's not like we can cramp in the sim or anything."
Falco stood, grinning. "Oh, I know, but you can in real life, so I do my best not to get out of the habit. Wouldn't want to forget to stretch before a mission."
Gabriel looked at his friend's earnest expression and smiled too. "You're right; imagine tripping from a cramp going Mach 9!" He laughed.
"Now you know why I stretch," Falco said, serious. "Did you want to talk before we train or after?"
"We can train for a bit and talk during a break if you want. I don't mean to intrude on your practice."
"Sounds good. Let's get on the disks." Gabriel nodded and followed Falco onto the scanners.
COMMENCE SIMULATION
Falco had chosen a beautiful location. They stood across from each other in the middle of a meadow covered in yellow and blue flowers. Pine trees ringed the clearing, so tight they were like a natural wall - birds and insects filled the air with noise. The sun was high in the sky, and there wasn't a single cloud to be seen. Listening closer, Gabriel heard a stream flowing somewhere nearby.
A few feet from him, Falco coughed. "Are you ready to start?"
Gabriel turned his attention back to his friend, having lost himself in nature. "Yes, I am. What would you like to do for training? I notice you didn't add any enemies. Can I assume you want to spar?"
Falco nodded, his expression more serious than Gabriel had come to expect from the man. "I want to go all out against you, we didn't get to duel yesterday, and I know we can both learn something from it. Let's go a round, then take a break so you can tell me what you need to. After that, we can try defeating a wave of enemies together. Sound good?"
"Sure. Set a countdown."
Falco nodded back and said, "Set 10-second countdown."
A large holographic 10 appeared between them. It flickered and started counting down.
YOU ARE READING
A Hero's Song (Darkest Secrets Volume 1)
Science FictionGabriel lived his whole life in an underground lab, surrounded by people who only sought to use him - tricked into believing he was broken from birth. Trained to be a killing machine, he never thought he could live a different life until one unusual...
