As soon as breakfast was over, Shade led Leo out of the mess hall and back to the main cavern. A new song was now playing on the speakers throughout the base. The voice was female and the song seemed a little sad. He turned to Xavier, who'd tagged along with them, to ask about the song. He didn't even have a chance to voice the question before Xavier answered it.

"Skyscraper. You know, if you get some free time, you can stop by the music room and I'll show you some music." Xavier said. Leo nodded.

"Sounds good." He replied, turning to watch where they were going again. Shade led them to a doorway close to the wall that held the entrance doors. Fire glowed off the walls and the sound of hammer upon steel rang out. Leo remembered seeing this when he'd woken up out in the main cavern. As soon as they stepped through the doorway, a massive wave of heat blasted them, causing Shade to fan herself slightly because of her fur. Xavier backed out of the room to wait outside since his fur was much thicker than Shade's. Luckily, because he was cold blooded, Leo felt fine.
"Mac, you got that sword made for Leo?" Shade called out.

"Yeah, just give me a second." A voice said from behind a metal door on the other side of the room. The door slid open and they were blasted with a fresh wave of heat, more intense than the first. Even Leo began to sweat. He couldn't imagine how hot it was for Shade with her fur. He also couldn't imagine anyone willingly being in this enclosed, heated area. The door slid shut, cutting off the air and Shade pressed a button on the stone wall and a slightly cooler breeze began to blow through.

Leo eyed Mac

She was a human, tall and strongly built, with mid-length brown hair, up in a braid, probably to keep it out of the fire as well as to keep her neck a little cooler. She had electric blue eyes and was wearing faded blue jeans with a light colored tank top under a leather apron. She looked to be around twenty and had a tattoo on her right shoulder of two blacksmith's hammers crossed over an anvil with a fire for a background.

"So you're Leo? Nice to meet you." She said, sticking out her hand. When Leo took it, he wasn't too surprised to find it calloused and with a strong grip.

"Alright, the katana's over here." Mac said as she led them over to a cupboard built into the stone walls. Mac opened it and carefully pulled out a long bundle. She set it on the table in the middle of the room and unwrapped the leather wrappings carefully, to reveal a single katana blade. Leo was surprised that it was the exact length as his old ones. Its blade had a slightly dark tint to it, but it was still as clear as a mirror. The hilt was wrapped in braided leather, not adorned with anything fancy; just standard. Leo picked it up carefully, checking it over for any faults before giving it an experimental swing. It was balanced perfectly for him, exactly like his lost katanas. Mac and Shade looked at him expectantly as he set it back on the table.

He grinned.

"It's perfect." He said. Mac smiled.

"'Course it is. It ain't in my nature to make a crappy blade. Come by around dinner and I should have its partner done. I'm working on it right now. In the meantime, you can take this one with you." Mac replied, taking a sheath from beneath the tabletop and handing it to Leo who slid the blade into it before slinging it over his shoulder so the hilt stuck up over his right shoulder.

"Alright, now that that's all settled, I have some orders to get back to as well as your other blade. I'll see you later with the other one." Mac said, sliding open the door to her workroom and closing it behind her before the outer room got too hot.

"Come on, I'll show you where the training rooms are." Shade said, leading him out. Leo followed a step behind her as she headed towards the doorway closest to the blacksmith's, which happened to be occupied by Zayne who was twirling a throwing knife around his fingers with extreme skill seeing as how he wasn't paying even the slightest attention to it as he leaned against the doorway, looking away from them as they approached. Leo looked around for Xavier, but he'd apparently been called off. Zayne's intent gazed was centered inside the room he blocked. This was probably where he kept all the weapons.

"Hey Zayne, I need a training room and a shooting range." Shade said as they reached the lynx. Zayne turned to look at them, still twirling the blade.

"All I got is an open training area. Shooting range is done full up. I can get Seth or Crea to set up some targets for ya once their done with their work. Just hold on a sec." he said, walking into his store room. Leo and Shade followed. The walls were covered in weapons of all sorts; bows, knives, swords, guns, daggers, dirks, rifles.

Every weapon known to man.

Ever.

Leo even saw a mace and chain hanging just above the floor. Two mutants were in the middle of the massive store room, unpacking more weapons. They were the two jaguars Leo had seen the day before with Shade and Tristen. Zayne was watching them with an approving eye, grunting every time they put something in the wrong spot. Or, at least Leo assumed so as this only happed once and the female jaguar moved the scythe to some place more fitting which earned her a nod from Zayne. As soon as the box was empty and all the weapons were put in their proper place, Zayne and the two jaguars headed over to Shade and Leo.

"Seth would you and Crea take the Sergeant and the Rookie to the empty training room and help set it up." Zayne said, more of an order than a request. Both jaguars nodded to Zayne and headed off through the store room towards a door on the back wall, Leo and Shade following. The door opened up to a hallway with doors on each side, distanced apart for the rooms beyond with a long window along the span of each room, revealing a large shooting range for guns, another for bows, another for slings, and yet another for throwing knives. These four took up the first part of the hall, two shooting rangers on either side. All the other windows revealed training rooms behind in which humans and mutants trained with weapons or just hand-to-hand. The hall was filled with the sounds of gunshots, the clash of weapons, and grunts from training. However, these were somewhat muted. Leo guessed the rooms were all semi-soundproofed. The jaguars led them to the very end of the hall, opening the door and ushering them in. The male jaguar began to set up targets as the female turned to Leo and Shade.

"So Serge, you gonna formally introduce me and the Rookie?" she asked. Shade smiled.

"Leo, this is Crea. She's one of Zayne's apprentices and also a member of the chamber. Over there is her twin, Seth." Shade said. Crea smiled widely at Leo.

"I'm the youngest." She said. Seth came back over.

"Targets are set up for ya Serge. As for the Rookie, the training bots are stashed in the closet, as usual." He said. Shade nodded to him

"Thanks Seth. I'll let you know if we need anything." She replied. Seth dipped his head respectfully and left the room, heading back to Zayne.

"See ya Serge, later Rookie." Crea said, hastily dipping her head to Shade before racing after her brother, shutting the door behind her.

"What's with all this 'rookie' stuff?" Leo asked. Shade smiled, laughing gently.

"It's nothing personal Leo. It's just that you're new here. You weren't born into the Outcasts, you were brought in. That makes you a rookie. Don't worry, it'll go away after a week or so, once they fully accept you as a fellow member." She said. Leo didn't tell her that he was planning on heading home as soon as he could. He felt like that would disappoint her and he didn't wanna do that.

So far, she and Xavier were the only two people he'd connected with in any way.

Shade headed over to the targets that'd been set up for her. She adjusted them a little then stepped back to check that they were right.

"So, Seth said that the training bots were in a closet." Leo said, looking around for it.

"Right over there." Shade answered, pointing to a closet set into the wall. He could barely discern the door from the rest of the wall. He walked over and opened it. Inside were a couple of training bots. Leo pulled one out and leaned it against the wall, judging it. Shade came over and closed the closet door. Leo began to drag the bot out into the middle of the room, but Shade stopped him.

"I'll do it. I don't wanna get chewed out by Lex for you undoing her work on fixing you up." She said, taking it and dragging it to the middle of the room.

"Yeah, I've been wondering about that. If my leg's broken, why aren't I on crutches or something?" he asked. Shade smiled.

"Two reasons. One, with a broken arm, crutches would be pretty much useless, especially because of how yours broke. Two, your leg wasn't broken too badly, so you can walk on it without too much pain and it won't do any damage. Lex got really technical at that point, but that's the gist of it." She answered. Leo nodded, watching curiously as she lifted a panel on the back of the training bot and did something. The robot came to life, electric eyes lighting up as Shade shut the panel and stepped back.

"Leo, meet your opponent. Jarak made a boatload of the things some years back. He's been upgrading them every few months or so." She said.

"Sounds like a very smart, tech loving guy." Leo said.

"Well, sort of. Jarak prefers to be in the middle of the action, but he's amazing with tech so does both. Lately though, he's had to do more tech than anything else. So, back to right now, I set this to just above easy so you don't undo all of Lex's hard work. Like I said, I do not wanna get chewed out by her. You do no wanna get on that chick's bad side. She can make your nightmares seem like a happy place. Anyway, just let it know when you're ready and it'll start." Shade said.

"Why easy? I mean, I get the whole not undoing all Lex's work, but wouldn't medium be at least a little challenging?" Leo asked. Shade smiled.

"For this bot, easy just means it'll mostly dogs your attacks and when it attacks, it won't' feel like a brick wall slamming into you. Here, put these on." She said, tossing him a set of muting headphone. Leo gave them a curious look over then slipped them on, noting that Shade had something somewhat similar covering her own ears. She gestured for Leo to start with the bot before she turned to her targets. Leo continued to watch her as she swiftly drew her two pistols, cocked them, and fired rapidly into the targets that had been set up.

Twelve targets; one for each bullet with six bullets in each gun.

As the last show rang out, Shade twirled her smoking guns and holstered them. She turned around; a small look of surprise on her face as she realized Leo had watched her the whole time.

"You're a good shot." He said as she walked over to him. She smiled and glanced to the floor, rubbing her left arm slightly, near her brand. Leo could've sworn her cheeks darkened a little; it was hard to tell with her black fur.

"Thanks." She finally said, glancing up at him. "You gonna fight that thing or what?" Leo shrugged.

"I guess so." He said. Shade wandered over to the wall with the window and leaned against it, folding her arms cross her chest and crossing her ankles, left over right. Leo unsheathed his new katana and held it before him in a two handed grip. The bot went into a fighting stance. Leo eyed it over one last time before twirling his katana and slicing it down in an arc at its waist.

The bot jumped back, sweeping a leg at Leo's stomach in the same movement. The wind was knocked out of Leo was the bot's foot connected. He stumbled back, pulling in ragged gasps of air. The bot backed up, waiting until Leo recovered. Leo shot a glance over at Shade to see that she was cleaning out her left pistol, eying them as she worked, her hands moving instinctively without her need to watch. Leo turned back to the bot and brought his katana up once more. The bot went back into a fighting stance.

Before Leo could strike again, the training room door flew open. A tall, lean, female mutant cheetah stood in the doorway, wearing the usual Outcast attire of dark jeans and a dark colored tank top. Her right ear was torn and bleeding and there was a bullet hole on the side of her right pant leg. It couldn't've been deep since it wasn't bleeding badly. It was most likely just a flesh wound.

The cheetah saluted to Shade who had stood up from the wall. Shade returned the salute. The cheetah relaxed as both their hands dropped to their sides.

"Sergeant Ma'am, the Traitor's followers have broken in through the front entrance." The cheetah said. Shade cursed under her breath.

"Where's Mother Silvia?" she asked.

"Getting all sick, wounded, elders and kids into the safe rooms."

"My brother?"

"On the front lines."

"Alright, thanks Kayla. Do me a favor and take Leo to the safe rooms. I gotta go join Tristen." Shade said, loading her pistols and bolting out of the room before Leo could protest. Kayla turned to Leo and gestured for him to follow. She led him down the hallways just as Shade closed the Armory door behind her. Kayla unlocked a door at the front of the hallway, beside the one into the Armory, by pressing her hand against the wall and allowing a green light to scan her hand. She slid the door open and dragged Leo through.

The door slid shut behind them silently, plunging them into darkness. Kayla flicked open a lighter and lit a lantern. She stuffed the light back into her pocket and held the lantern up high, checking the door. Satisfied it was locked securely, Kayla took Leo's hand of his good arm and, as quickly as possible, led him down what Leo took to be a tunnel. It was deathly quiet save the dull thud of their footsteps. Finally, Leo could hear the shuffling of many feet and whispered voices. He was able to pick out Mother Silvia's voice, encouraging them all to hurry on. After turning a corner, Kayla and Leo ran into them. Xavier waved them over, obviously relieved to see them. Leo realized there was a camouflage blanket covering a doorway which everyone was going through into a large room with space for them all. As the last of the others went in, Leo, Kayla, Xavier, and Mother Silvia all walked in, closing the solid iron door behind them. Lanterns were lit all around the room as everyone settled down, whispering quietly to each other. Leo looked up at the earthen ceiling, wondering what was going on up above.