26

After a few day's of rest - and a bit of Patsy's tender loving care - K.C was up and about again. He would have been up sooner under normal circumstances, but he enjoyed Patsy's attention so much, that he stayed in bed one day longer than really nessesary. Patsy had fluttered around him, bringing him food and water, had helped him to the bathroom when he needed to and entertained him when he was bored. She had found novels in the basement, which she read to him. He'd enjoyed that very much, just lying there and listening to the sound of her voice - he found it absolutely beautiful.

But after three days, when he felt he couldn't push it any further, he reluctantly declared himself fully healed. Patsy had brought warmth and laughter with her presence, and now in her absence his room felt cold and empty.

Cloe had been there a few times to visit him, bringing sweets she'd bribed Tyler to find for her. Even Ved had visited, checking in on him, apologizing again for causing this. K.C ensured him it was all forgot and forgiven, seeing as he himself was partly to blame. The two of them had almost become friends. K.C had found that he and Ved actually had much in common, despite that Ved wasn't the easiest guy to get to know. After putting aside their rivalry, they sort of just clicked. Ved even brought K.C a laptop, to make the time go by a little faster, which K.C was deeply grateful for.

Today was K.C's first day out of bed and his fingers were itching to get back to work. He would start up slow; his whole body still ached from the fight and he still became a bit dizzy from time to time - aftereffects from the concussion no doubt. Today he would learn the new recruits how to handle a zapper. He had sent Patsy to gather them up outside in the training fields behind the buildings.

When he got there, they were all waiting for him, smalltalking and laughing. As he aproached, they all went quiet and formed ranks, like soldiers, and stared straight ahead.

"At ease!" K.C shouted, giving them permission to relax and step out of line.

"Okay," he said loudly, in order for all of them to hear him, "Today we're gonna learn how to operate zappers. You are all given a zapper," (Tyler, today working as K.C's assistance, handed each of the recruits a zapper), "Now, pay attention as I demonstrate." K.C turned around, raised his hand and pointed it at a shooting target, standing 20 feet away. He activated the zapper by pressing a button on the side. Then he took aim and fired a bright red lazer, with a jerk of the hand. It zoomed through the air and hit the target very close to the middle. He turned around to look at the others.

"There are several levels of power ranging from 1-10. 1 is just to inflict pain, 5 will stun a person and 10 is lethal." He looked around at all of them with a serious face. "Please be careful when handling these weapons."

They all looked a little scared. Some of them eyed the device around their wrist with some sort of disgust. K.C didn't blame them, having felt the excruciating pain of being shot with one of these things. He himself loathed them. He thought is was a grusome weapon, that could kill a person way too easy. Once they had defeated the Technos and gained control back on their city, these weapons would be the first thing he would destroy. But for now, while he was undercover, he had to play along.

"Today, we will only be shooting at level 1. All stand in line!" The recruits, inclusive Patsy, all formed a line, standing shoulder to shoulder. There was a shooting target for each one of them.

"Now, raise your hand," K.C said, slowly walking down the line behind them, "And push the small lever so it's pointed at 1."

He waited until everyone had done so, then said, "Now, take aim and push the buttom on the left side of the zapper to activate it. On my command, jerk your hand to shoot." Once again he waited until everyone was ready.

"Fire!"

Severel red lazers shot through the air. Some of them hit the target, some flew right past it and disappeared into the air behind it.

"Again!" K.C shouted and watched as the process was repeated. He walked back and forth, observing each one and correcting them. Tyler walked around and helped them too, showing them how best to aim and telling them to breathe. When he reached Patsy, he whispered something in her ear that made her laugh. The sound made K.C look over at them and a furious beast awakened in his stomach at once. Tyler was not a bad-looking guy - a bit young - but rather handsome. And he was making Patsy laugh. The caveman in K.C screamed at him to grab a wooden club and bash Tyler's head in, but the modern man that he was, supressed that urge and simply scowled instead. When he reached them, he looked down at Tyler with a glare, which made the poor guy hurry away, looking slightly scared.

K.C then smiled at Patsy and said, "Your aim is slightly off - here, let me show you."

He stood close behind Patsy, taking her hand with his own and lifting it up to take aim. He lowered his head so that it was right next to Patsy's, their cheeks almost touching. K.C breathed in the scent of her hair and felt slightly dizzy.

"Take a deep breath," he murmured in her ear. This of course had the complete opposite effect as Patsy caught her breath instead of exhaling.

"Relax your shoulders," K.C said, putting his other hand on her shoulder, squeezing it lightly. Patsy then slowly exhaled and let her shoulders drop a bit.

"Good, now try shooting."

Patsy jerked her hand, sending off a red lazer. It hit the target a little to the left. She let her hand drop, looking grave.

"I hate these things," she said, quietly enough for only K.C to hear, "They're disgusting."

"I know, Pats," K.C murmured, "Me too. But we have to play along. Just a bit longer."

Patsy nodded her head, knowing he was right.

"Just - keep practising," K.C said, then stepped back and went on his way down along the line.

They kept going the rest of the day until K.C decided it was enough for now. He dismissed them in the late afternoon, feeling the ache and tiredness in his body. With slow heavy steps he made his way back to his room, where he took a long, warm shower to loosen the knots in his shoulders and soothe his sore muscles. When he was drying himself afterwards, he looked at himself in the mirror and grimaced. Large bruises of yellow, dark purple and red colour were all over his upperbody, where Ved had hit him. They were sore but healing.

He put on clothes and then left his room to go find Patsy. He knocked at her door and waited. When she opened it and saw K.C a smile broke out on her face, "Hi, K.C."

"Hey. Can I come in?"

"Yeah sure," Patsy said and stepped aside to let him in, "What's up?" she asked when she had closed the door behind him.

"Nothing much, I just wanted to check in - you seemed distressed ealier, when we were practising shooting."

Patsy's face fell, "I just hate those zappers," she said and looked disgusted, "I hate weapons that can kill that easily." She stepped closer to K.C, "I mean, look at what they did to you," she said, talking about the lightening shaped scars they had left on K.C's body.

"I hate them too," K.C said darkly. He could still remember the searing pain all too clear, "Jay asked me to show you and the others how to use it. It's part of the training programme of new recruits, and I had to play along, so he won't be suspecious."

K.C looked at Patsy. He couldn't help but feel guitly about working for the Technos - even though it was only pretent. He stepped closer to her and took both of her hands in his.

"We'll find some way to defeat them - soon, I promise." He looked her intensely in the eye, wanting her to trust in him.

"Okay," Patsy said, returning his stare. K.C then let go of her hands and stepped back a little, not wanting to make Patsy uncomfortable by his sudden intensity and closeness. He looked away and cleared his throat. Then he carefully changed his expression into a much lighter, cheerier one and looked at her again.

"We never did finish that last one book. I really want to hear to ending. Are you up for it tonight?"

"Oh, uhm," Patsy said and looked troubled. She bit her lip for a few seconds, then said, "Sorry K.C - I already made plans with Tyler tonight."

The caveman inside K.C awoke with a start. He roared out in animal rage, preparing for battle. K.C shoved him back inside his cave. He felt crushed. He'd thought that he and Patsy had gotten quite close over the past few weeks. He had even thought they had had a moment, down in the gym, when he had taught her selfdefense. But maybe it was only him that had had a moment. Maybe he was just imagining things.

"Oh," he choked out, "Okay, fine. Great. Yeah."

He then cleared his throat again and put great effort into sounding nonchalant, "That's alright - we'll do it another time."

"Yeah, absolutely," Patsy said with a small smile.

"Well, I'll leave you to it then," K.C said and went for the door. He opened it and then turned halfway around, and saying over his shoulder, "You two...have a nice night." Then he fleed out the door and back into his room, where he let the caveman out and punched a hole in the wall.