Sicarius

Chapter 1: A New Mission

 July 29th 2012

Washington D.C.

7:52:21

A- 27 Training Camp

 “Line up Unit 7!” Sergeant Major Dexter’s booming voice came from behind the group of seventeen year old boys. One boy named Michael looked around him as his teammates lined up in twos. When everyone was in place they started running towards the training centers, left right, left right.

 “Man does he know the meaning of inside voices?” asked Leston as he and Michael ran alongside each other. Michael smirked; he could always count on Leston to complain 24/7.

 “I don’t think he was ever taught manners Leston, besides, he is right, to show who’s in charge, you have to prove that you’re superior. For only when one shows their adversary that they’re stronger than them will they gain fear and respect.” Their friend Tom recited word by word from their textbook.

Neither Leston nor Michael disagreed; they all had that textbook memorized.

“But it’s not like someone is going to go up to him and say Hey! I challenge you to for the position! So why does he have to be so loud? Sometimes being cunning gets you farther than sheer strength.” Leston said as they came to a stop and stood still with straight backs just as they were taught at a young age. They kept quiet as they each in turn got their schedule for the day.

0800 hours: a hundred lap around the training room.

 0900 hours: two hundred push-ups and sit ups.

1100 hours: Target Practice.

1200 hours: Lunch.

 “That’s why we have culture class. So that we know when to say please and be pleasant to people.” Michael added as they walked towards the titanium wall and started sprinting. They ran faster and faster until they were simply blurry figures running around the training room as if they could make the room turn by running enough times.

 “I suppose. . .” Tom agreed as they fell silent listening to each other’s heartbeats and footsteps as they kept running, even after their fiftieth lap they weren’t even tired. When the group finished they made their way to the center of the room and started doing push-ups and sit-ups. A thin layer of sweat was starting to appear on each of the boys’ faces. Tom- being the bulkiest of the trio-finished first and sat down to wait for his two friends. He looked up at a couple of guys that weren’t in their unit practicing their lightness skills on a spider web like bronze string. So thin, that normal people would think that the guys were walking on air. However, Tom could see the thin brown strings perfectly, they crisscrossed the whole entire room and despite their crude use, they were oddly beautiful.

 “Hey Leston you never told us how it was like walking on those strings.” Tom said absentmindedly. Not for the first time had he wished that he could learn the lightness skill, but being 6”4 and not an ounce of fat on his body, he was too big to be able to fly across the room. Leston on the other hand, being tall yet still not as bulky, had the perfect height and weight to master that skill.

 “It was great, but the preparations leading up to that was awful.” Leston panted as he continued to push his body up and down before laying on his back and started doing his sit ups.

“Yeah, having those weights strapped to my ankles were brutal, I had bruises for a whole two days, forty-six hours and thirty-one minutes to be exact.” Michael agreed as he too stopped and waited for Leston. Michael was the perfect combination of his two friends and more, he was the perfect GAA.

“And the jumping from pole to pole was kind of boring.” Leston added as he kept doing his sit ups, taking his sweet time just to annoy his two friends.