System Nullification

Chapter 22

 Hanging out with Skylar and Brianna last night was actually really fun. After Brianna ranted on about how hazel Reed's eyes, hair, and skin were and how hot it was when he talked about general topics or cooed "I love you" to her, we decided to try to play a board game. We got bored of checkers, though, and although chess was fun, it was ridiculously complicated for me and Brianna. Skylar got the hang of it pretty well. I would've loved to see her play against Reed. When Brianna mentioned the "I love yous" to me and Skylar, I thought of Zephyr for a split second and had to shake my head out.

 Anyway, after all that, we ended up dissing online trolls and watched movies all night. Friday nights were always the greatest things, especially after meeting everyone in Cameron's base and training in the government. It was a pretty crazy day, but I at least knew I would always have Skylar and Brianna to contain my sanity. Honestly, the sleepover made me feel like I was immediately uncoiled of all my responsibilities in life.

 Right now, though, I was currently with Zephyr, and I wished I was curled up in the sleeping bag on top of Brianna's fuzzy carpet again. Because the warmth from the sleeping bag was less nerve-racking than the warmth that Zephyr was emitting and transferring over to me. "So... training?" Zephyr asked. "The rest of our team went home and I'm really bored."

 I stood up. "Okay, what kind of training, weapons or hand to hand combat?"

 "Hand to hand, I guess," Zephyr replied, getting into position.

 "Should I charge or should you charge?" I asked.

 "You can charge, I guess," Zephyr said. "I still need to get used to... countering charges and stuff."

 I nodded, then ran towards him as if I were going for a more headfirst reckless attack. He tried to grab me, so I skidded last second, twirled around his arm, and elbowed him between his upper arm and forearm. He tried to counterattack me, and I attempted to block his fist with my hand. With that attempt, I nearly fell down, but I recovered with a handstand and kicking Zephyr, immediately getting back on my feet and back into position. "So... anything to do about Reed?" Zephyr asked, dodging one of my roundhouse kicks. "That you would suggest?"

 "I'm not sure. Evidently, stuff like this can get pretty big," I replied, lunging some more punches that he blocked. "You heard from me what went down with Behemoth Corporation when I texted you through the communicator."

 "Oh yeah, sorry I couldn't be there for that, I was out feeding people and taking care of some rabid animals that threatened the families," Zephyr said, nearly grabbing my arm as it was in mid-punch but missing it. "Ah, damn."

 "That's okay," I said, hopping back as he swung his other fist at me.

 "Oh, by the way, remember the old government policies?" Zephyr asked. "I told Reed about one of them."

 "Nope, I don't remember a single one of them," I said, dodging a punch. "Wait, what?! You told Reed about one of the policies?!"

 "The policy was partially the permission to tell the person about the policy itself," Zephyr stated.

 "Okay, state the policy," I said, grabbing his kick and shoving it away. "Work on your kicks."

 "Alright, so the policy..." Zephyr breathed. "Okay, it stated that government official workers could tell someone that they are secretly in service of the President. Then we can give them the location of one of the stations. Once we tell them all of that info, we have to say, 'But it might not matter. At least not to you. Do what you will with that info.' It's a pretty efficient way to get recruits in, because not everyone is biologically related to President Phake or is trusted friends with him or his family."