"What the hell was that?"
Adam had quickly left Theia's apartment for the solitude of his own, still thinking about the brief kiss she had given him. He could feel the adrenaline rushing through his veins as he ran a hand through his hair to calm his nerves, mentally chiding himself for how he was reacting.
"One kiss and I'm acting like I'm in high school again." He walked over to his messy excuse for a dining room table, picking up the bottle of whisky and pouring himself a shot. "I don't even know if she's trustworthy yet. At least she's still as unpredictable as she used to be."
Adam let out a half-laugh, tossing back the shot like it was water. "Tomorrow is going to be awkward. Should I apologize? Act like it never happened?"
Now that he had managed to calm himself down somewhat he sat down on his couch, staring at the blank television screen in silence. He didn't want to turn it on, just to see the fake Eliza Cassan spouting spin coverage and lies about current events, but he also wanted something to just take his mind off of things.
Finally he decided to turn on the screen, surfing the channels for a movie or reruns of any sort of mind numbing boob-tube show that he could zone out to.
Daylight glared through the half closed blinds of his living room, rousing Adam from his sleep with a groan. For a moment everything from last night was gone from his memory, the only thing on his mind was the ache in his spine from the weird sleeping position he had taken on the couch.
Though he no longer had to truly stretch his muscles, he stood and raised his arms above his head, his shoulders stretching comfortably and his back cracking with an audible popping sound in multiple spots.
His HUD clock showed it was still early; he wasn't expected at HQ for another two hours. Enough time to get a shower and have some cereal he mused to himself as he moved his still groggy body across the hardwood floors, augmented feet moving soundlessly as he walked, to the bathroom.
As the hot water cascaded over tired muscles everything that happened last night came flooding back to him, that kiss at the forefront of his brain. Instead of the rush of adrenaline he had felt last night, however, he simply felt embarrassment. There was also a distinct feel of trepidation at what was going to happen once he got to HQ. If he stayed in his office most of the day he wouldn't have to worry about it.
"She was pretty out of it last night, too. Maybe she's forgotten? Hope so. Don't need this to be any more awkward than it already feels."
Adam turned off the water, stepping out of the shower and just enjoying the steam for a moment as his thought coalesced. Why was it so awkward and hard to talk to her? They had been close, closer than anyone else in his life, really. Megan had kept him at arms length most of the time and now he knew why. No one else had really ever gotten to know the inner workings of his emotions as Theia had when they were young and carefree.
So much of him had changed, though, with Theia staying almost the same. For the first time in a long time, since the day he woke up with these augments, he felt ashamed at how much he had indeed changed. The world had made him cynical, robbed him of most of his original body, and put him in a role he never asked for.
"Maybe reconnecting with Theia will be a good thing." He had toweled himself off and gotten dressed, speaking to no one in particular as he looked down at his jacket, crumpled in a pile on the sofa.
With a sigh he pulled it on, he had spent so much time in the shower and just daydreaming that he didn't have time for breakfast. He remembered a small pack of energy bars in his desk, though. He'd be able to have one of those once he got there.
Marcie greeted him as he walked through the door, she was currently dealing with a customer at Praha Dovoz and welcomed him as if he was simply an employee coming in for his shift.
Through the back and down the elevator he was once again met by Aria, all smiles and small talk. "Hey, Adam! Get to talk to Theia yesterday? She's certainly friendly, and her fighting style is top notch."
"Yeah, we talked for a bit."
Aria leaned in close, a smirk on her face as she brought her volume down a bit. "So... heard you two went out for drinks after work?"
His brow furrowed in annoyance. "Really? Who told you that?"
"One of Smiley's guys was walking past Svobody last night and saw you guys. You two know each other or are you trying to get on Miller's nerves by pushing the boundaries of fraternization?"
"We know each other, well, knew." Adam crossed his arms over his chest, a look of annoyance still plastered on his face. "She and I grew up on the same street. Detroit suburbs."
"Oh wow, so this must be pretty awesome for you, huh?"
"...Yeah."
Aria easily picked up on the apprehensiveness in his tone, prying a bit more. "Has she changed a lot? Since you guys knew each other, I mean."
"No. She almost exactly the same since the last time we met." He motioned to himself and his vast amount of augments. "I'm the one that did most of the changing."
"Well Theia is great in my book. Hope you guys get to be friends again, and maybe invite me next time you guys go out?"
"Heh. Sure, Aria. I'll definitely keep you in mind." Adam gave her a small smile as he turned to head to his office.
His good mood was cut short, however, by MacReady glaring up at him from his desk. "Jensen. Appreciate the new girl we have? She's not a Swiss army knife like you but I bet you'll get along just great."
Sarcasm dripped from his voice, apparently his pride was still a bit bruised from Theia beating him so easily. This only managed to make Adam smirk, however, and decide to rub it in. "She doesn't have all my augments, so I was surprised to hear she beat you, MacReady. As far as I know it's only her arms."
He scoffed, waving the comment off. "Please, she's supposed to teach us how to go up against augs. I may not like it but once she's done training our guys we might not need you anymore."
"Sure, because you could have taken down Marchenko with an EMP and a single bullet, right?" Adam remained nonplussed, grabbing an energy bar from his desk and eating it slowly. "Or gone into ARC territory by yourself and gone unnoticed."
"That's only because of your fancy glass shield and you know it, Jensen."
"Whatever. You can be anti-aug all you want, but these augments have helped the team more than you want to admit."
A small bell sound came from both of their computers. Mass email to the entire staff he guessed. MacReady already had his up and smirked at Adam. "Oh look, you and Aria are at the top of the list for training today. Starting a pro-aug club down the training room, are we?"
"Shit." He pulled up the email on his computer to see for himself.
"Good morning, everyone!
So in an effort to be fair, I've set up a randomizer algorithm to choose who does what each day. Each day I'll have a class of ten, five doing group training with me and the other five sparring with either virtual intelligence dummies of my design or sparring one on one.
As this is the first day, though, all ten will be on group training. Once everyone has cycled through their first session then we'll be doing the five/five set up!
The only things you're required to bring are you and your enthusiasm!"
She came off as excited even through text. But he was thankful she wasn't actively seeking him out.
"And if we are?" Adam returned the smirk, hiding the apprehension he felt at seeing Theia again so soon. "Not much you can do about it except whine to Miller."
"Just don't go oiling each other's gears. Then I would have something to go to Miller about."
Adam scoffed, making his way out of the office and down the stairs. The training room was a bit further down, past even the holding cells that were currently empty. A quick glance through the small window in the door showed he was the first one to arrive. Theia was inside, messing with one of her VI dummies.
He wasn't too thrilled at the idea of being alone with her just yet after what happened last night, deciding to lean against the wall next to the door and wait for the others.
He didn't have to wait long, the mass email had gone through the office and most of those picked for today were already headed his way. Unfolding his arms from across his chest he stood up straight, nodding at Aria as she walked up. The one person he hadn't expected to see, however, was Dr. Auzenne.
"Hey, doc, didn't see you on the list."
Auzenne gave him a tired half smile, it was still fairly early in the day and she appeared to not be a morning person. "I'm here to observe; not to mention that with Theia being an old acquaintance of mine, I wanted to see how she's doing." Delara held up a notepad and gave her pen a click. "Director Miller wants me to observe and keep track of each person's physical and mental progress, so as long as I'm not scheduled to be in the office, I'll be here with you guys."
As if on cue, the door behind them swung open with Theia standing in the doorway. Her t-shirt was gone, now she was sporting a dark blue tank top that showed off her shoulders with Adam's gaze following her arms up to where they connected with the flesh of her torso. They were much like his; Sarif's athletic model and his tactical model connected in the same way to the body, which meant she most likely had a reinforcing bar across her chest beneath her pectoral muscles.
Theia sported a smirk as well as a determined, dare he say blazing, look in her eyes as she scanned the crowd of nine before her.
"Looks like we're missing one. Hell of a day to be late. Shall we do roll call?" Theia held up the clipboard, grabbing the pencil from behind her ear and started checking off the names.
"Adam? Alright. Aria? Sweet, got my eye on you, bet you'll be top of the class in no time Argento!" She continued down the list until all but one was present and accounted for. "Too bad, they'll get the bulk of the grunt work when they decide to show up. Alright everyone! File in!"
Theia stood aside, motioning for everyone to file in ahead of her, allowing her to close the door behind them all.
"Okay." Her smile faded, and the fire in her eyes shifted from a flame of determination to an ember of what they once were. Now that she was in her teaching mode it was like night and day. "Listen up, because I don't like explaining myself too many times! Look around at your group, this is the group you will be seeing every other day for the rest of the time I am here. You will pick a partner, it will be you AND your partner's responsibility to show up on time. Failure to do so will result in BOTH of you getting extra exercises."
She had been pacing along the line of bodies, stopping in front of Adam and pointing a finger up at him, her steely gaze with those eyes of deep sapphire was now locked on him. Locking eyes with him she continued. "You're the most augmented out of everyone here! As such, you and I are going to be partners for the day. You and I will be sparring for the class as an example of weak points."
Theia had taken on the air of a drill sergeant, reminding Adam of his early days in SWAT. Almost as if on instinct he had straightened himself upright as she barked her orders at him. However the air of authority she was trying to manufacture rubbed him the wrong way; it was so out of place for her that it must have been an act.
Nevertheless, he nodded down at her. After a quick stretch of his neck and feeling the bones crackle he stepped forward, shaking out his hands as if he was readying for an all out brawl. Getting into a defensive position he sent out faint neural impulses to slide his mirror shades back, looking over at Theia with a smirk.
"This is certainly new." She stood across from him as he spoke, looking him up and down, sizing him up and calculating the best way to take him down. "I mean, yeah, you always used to be the hot-headed one picking fights, but you've definitely come up in the world."
Theia allowed the ghost of a smirk to cross her lips before she struck out quickly, Adam allowing the hit to his shoulder and rolling into it.
"Class, when dealing with a combatant that has artificial arms, you may think to strike here at the shoulder."
Lightning quick reflexes kicked in, and Adam thought for a brief moment that she must have neural augs as well as she released two more hits, one a flat palm to his shoulder again while the other swept up into his elbow, breaking his blocking stance.
"However, spots where meat and metal meet tend to be reinforced underneath the skin."
It was almost comical to Adam how she explained herself as she moved, allowing her to continue as the hits she had landed were barely even enough to take down a flesh and blood human, much less his state of the art augmented self.
"The best way to decommission someone with arm augments is to go for the weaker spots of the elbow and wrist. The servos there aren't made to extend past a certain point."
Theia shouted, a loud kiai that caught Adam off guard, allowing Theia to bring down a blow to his elbow that actually caused the servos to slip a gear, giving her the chance to pull the arm behind his back and bring him down to a knee.
It had happened fast enough that Adam hadn't had much time to respond, Theia grinning up at the class as she focused on normalizing her breathing.
"Everyone catch that?" She let go of Adam's arm, allowing him to stand. "There are similar servos in the knees and ankles, although those aren't usually a concern as most offensive arms are going to be in the subject's hands and arms."
Theia gestured at Adam, looking down at his arms. "For example, those small slots on the top of your arm, between the myomer muscles, those are nanoblade ports, yeah?"
"Uh, yeah. Sarif's tactical model." Adam hadn't noticed those when he first started toying with his arms back when he got them, how did she notice them so quickly?
"Well, no using those on my dummies. I get good funding through Interpol but those things are expensive, and I don't like writing code from scratch either." She turned back to the rest of her class. "Demonstration over, Adam and I are going to continue sparring, each of you pick a partner and practice the disabling moves I showed you. Don't go all out, most of you are flesh and blood and I don't want any major injuries, okay?"
Her sweet demeanor was back, giving them all a bright smile. "I have faith in all of you to pass! Just keep at it and I know you'll all be great by the time we're through!"
She watched as everyone picked out their partners, Theia had been worried that Aria wouldn't get picked right off but her fears were shown to be unfounded as she was bombarded with people asking her to be their sparring partner. With a satisfied nod she turned back to Adam.
"Your arm alright? Sometimes I get so caught up in a fight I hit a bit harder than I should. If anything feels too slack or too tight I can tinker around with it with my small set of tools. Couldn't rebuild you from scratch but once most of the LIMB clinics were scorched I kinda had to learn maintenance on myself."
"I'll be alright. If it does get bad I got a local tech here. Could probably get you two acquainted in case you need anything more than normal maintenance."
"Hah! Sounds good. Oh hey, we still doing movie night tonight?" Her cheeks took on the slightest hint of pink as her tone became low and sheepish. "I... I kinda want to apologize for last night. Alcohol and... other shit got to my brain. We cool?"
He hadn't expected her to be the first to bring it up, leaving him brooding over what he was going to say if anything. Nodding, he brought a hand up to the back of his neck, rubbing it in embarrassment as he spoke. "Yeah, we're cool. And movie night sounds good. Although maybe we should start sparring again before anyone else starts staring at us?"
"Oh! Right, bring it on!" The carefree smile returned as she took up her pose, with her eyes locked on his and that smile it made his breath catch in his throat. He couldn't help but notice how beautiful she looked with her shining skin sparkling with sweat, those impossibly blue eyes and dark hair. He had to shake his head slightly to move the thoughts from his mind as he squared up to face her.
"I really need to figure out where I stand with her..."
