Genesis | Book One, The Genesis Series

EIGHTEEN

Kai and the others found themselves in a deserted city. It was in ruins, like the aftermath of a zombie apocalypse. Cracked streets were paved like a carpet for a queen that would never come. Smoke from the everlasting flames obscured his vision as he drew his sword.

It was exactly what his father had described when he'd talked about his time in the marines. Kai hated it. Even if it was only a simulation, it still felt all too real to him.

"This training exercise is designed improve your overall confidence in battle." Dr. Matthews' voice boomed over the intercom. "It also targets other aspects of combat, including reaction time, speed, strength, stamina, and coordination."

Amber reached into her collapsible quiver, which Dr. Matthews had designed for her a few days prior. At the moment, her arsenal only consisted of 60 normal arrows, as her personally customized trick arrows were still being designed.

Pulling a carbon arrow out of the quiver, she held her recurve bow in front of her torso as she furrowed her brow, scanning for even a single adversary. She would've chosen fiberglass for her arrows, but she preferred carbon because it was lighter.

Leo gripped his staff even tighter, trying to distract himself from Amber's incredible figure. Her tight bio-suit accentuated all of her curves. He couldn't help but stare. No matter how hard he tried to focus on the task at hand, his eyes were glued to the girl's perfect frame.

Amber side-eyed the guy, noticing that he was staring at her. "Why're you staring at me, sparkle fingers?"

"Because you're beautiful" is what he would've said, but he didn't know how she'd react. What if she had a boyfriend? Besides, they were training to fight a war against an army of soldiers led by a super-powered maniac. He didn't think romance was the thing she wanted to hear about, at the moment.

"I....um....uh.." was the only thing that exited his mouth as his face turned as red as a bottle of ketchup. "Nothing. Sorry." He mumbled.

Amber chuckled. She never intended to embarrass the guy, she just never thought that someone would be interested in her.

Bianca frowned at the both of them. She was used to guys paying attention to her, or really anyone other than Amber. Hopefully this training session started soon, because she couldn't take much more of it.

"Your session starts in 3..."

A flame swelled in the palm of Troy's hand as he smirked. He was definitely looking forward to this.

"2..."

Leo gripped his staff as he presumed a fighting stance. His eyes flickered with electricity.

"1..."

With a skilled hand, Amber notched the arrow and drew the bowstring back, her muscles flexed and strained against the natural strength of the longbow, forcing the arrow back to her cheek.

"Go!"

The arrow soared through the air as a faint whistle graced Amber's ears, heading towards one of the PRIMES-the virtual robots that acted as the team's adversaries.

They could be programmed with hundreds of fighting styles, appearances, attributes and traits. Kai had customized them to make them look and act as close to Primus' agents as possible.

Piercing the metal exterior of the robot's head, the arrow plunged into it with blinding speed, causing the virtual machine to fall over, hitting the ground with a thud. Another PRIME attempted to attack Amber, but she sprinted forward, sliding under the machine's speeding fist as she jammed an arrow into it's foot, causing it to short-circuit.