Chapter 7: Double Edged Sword
Roland woke up at 4 in the morning to look at that disk he'd made, he looked it over. "Okay Nearie and Vixy's power levels are normal for them," He pressed a few more keys and thought, "Shin and Lionhawk are a bit above average…which I wouldn't doubt, now let's see Hope's…since she's a pacifist I'm going to expect her powers to be below the others." He looked at Hopes' power reading and stared with his mouth agape, "No bloody way!" He whispered to himself, he took out the disk and stared at it for a bit. Then he looked at his watch, "Can't dwell on this now, have to get ready…the teacher can't be late."
Roland waited patiently until 5:15…when the kids started to arrive again, Roland looked at all of them with the look of a drill sergeant looking upon new recruits. "I hope you all got to training with your parents…because for the next five weeks, your hopes of defeating the Psychics belong to me!" Roland said to them, "The first six days of this week will be the beginners training, at the end of the week I'll set up a certain test to see how much you improved, after that…the next week will be the intermediate course, and so on and so forth. My exercise regiment for you will test you physically, and the tests will sometimes challenge you mentally. I've printed it out here for all of you." He handed them a sheet of paper, each of them looked at the print on the other side. This is what it said:
BEGINNERS EXERCISE REGIMENT:
30 push-ups
10 sit-ups
30 min. of steam meditation (meditation in the steam of the hot springs)
A 3 mile run beginning at the Tower and ending at the Tower
Note: During these exercises you'll be wearing 3 pound wrist and ankle weights.
Shin looked at Roland and asked, "Three pounds…I could lift that weight in my sleep, that's not beginner weight…that's wuse weight, why are you starting off with weak weights like that?"
Roland took off his trench coat, folded it neatly and asked, "Hold this for me, would you?" Shin held out his arms and Roland placed the coat into them, no sooner had he removed his grip from below had Shin fell backward with the coat on top of him. "What the heck…uh, a little help here this thing is heavy…errr, really heavy. Grrrrr…what is this thing made of, lead?"
"Roland crouched down so his eyes and Shin's were staring right at each other, "Lead weights to be precise…that's about 170 pounds of lead placed in pockets all over that jacket, it took me four weeks of training…the same training I'm putting all of you through, to wear that without being encumber lanced by its weight, so don't question my methods……do I make myself clear?"
"Yes sir." Shin said, Roland then took the coat from Shin and put it back on, Shin got up gasping for breath. "Now that that's over," Roland continued, "Let's put on the weights and get under way shall we?"
And that's how it started, the push-ups, sit-ups, and meditation were the only bearable parts…but the running had to be the hardest of all, all the way through the course Roland would be on a bicycle yelling things into a bull horn like 'is this the best you can give me? Pump those legs for what they're worth!' or 'Come on, are you going to let me beat you back to the Tower?'
When they all got to the front door they looked like they were all half dead, "Oh god my poor legs." Shin moaned, "I'm hurting in places that don't exist." Groaned Vixy, Lionhawk looked at them and said, "Don't talk about hurt, I'm in pain enough already."
Roland looked at all of them and said, "Okay…you all deserve a break for breakfast, you have an hour and a half, then it's right back to training!"
During Breakfast Nearie sat down next to Shin and Vixy and said, "There's something strange about Roland."
"Oh and you realize this NOW!" Shin snapped, Nearie shook her head, "Not in the physical sense Shin, but the mental…I've been reading his mind, I won't reveal what he's been thinking about recently…but on the bigger picture, it's almost as if part of it's asleep."
As soon as they were finished with breakfast Roland pointed at his watch and said, "Time to get back to work, ladies!" And that's how the rest of the day went, the training followed by an hour and a half break. During one of the runs Shin tossed his lunch back up, by the end of the day Roland looked at all of them. Shin, Vixy, and Nearie were down on all fours catching their breath. Hope was flat on her back groaning, while Lionhawk had his body laid out like it was ready for burial. "Okay…that's it for today, you can all do your own thing. But I want you in bed by 10:30…don't want you staying up too late."
"Who does he think he is…our parents?" Vixy thought to herself. "But I promise you this…by the end of the week I'll have a surprise for you all, not much…but I'm sure you'll like it."
That night Roland managed to drift off to sleep…but at Midnight he woke up again, only they weren't his eyes anymore. "Where the bloody hell am I?" he thought to himself, he then stuck to walking the halls, stopping outside the door that lead into Kate and Bengala's room. He felt something behind that door, something white, clean, and nice…boy did he hate it. He walked in and saw the two of them sleeping, he sensed the feeling coming from the lady…he held one of Roland's guns and pointed straight at her, pulled the hammer back to full cock, and squeezed the trigger. 'CLICK!' the hammer went, but no report…he saw the empty cartilage fall to the ground, it was a blank. He pulled the hammer back again and again, 'Click, click, click!' all blanks. "DAMN IT!" Roland cried out.
Kate woke up and saw Roland standing across the room, "Roland? What in the name of—?" She started to ask, slowly getting out of bed. Roland saw she was awake and quickly closed the gap between them, ripping her from the bed and throwing her against the wall with blinding speed. "Thought you and your crew could take me prisoner…huh, sheila…thought you could hold me here against me will and do what-not to me, well guess again. I'm a different kind of animal."
Bengala woke up and saw what was happening to the right of him, he sprang up and said, "Roland…what are you doing!?" He asked in shock, Roland backed away and said, "Don't come a meter closer bloke…or I snap your little witch of a leader's neck like a chicken." Bengala took a step forward, but Roland held on tight to Kate and waved his finger at him saying, "No, no, no…I wouldn't go any farther than that if I was you bloke, wouldn't want the little witch of a missus to die now would we?"
Bengala looked frustrated at Roland, there was something different about him…but what? Suddenly the door burst open and Minos, Howl, and Kayin burst through, slamming Roland against the wall and putting their weight against him. Bengala looked at them, "We saw and heard everything…looks like you can't judge a book by it's cover after all." Growled Minos, Roland was writhing and twisting…his face literally looked like a skull, "Unhand me you overgrown brutes…unhand me RIGHT NOW! Or you'll soon face my wrath…you'll all face the wrath of Roland Noir!" That's pretty much what he kept saying to the point where they put him in his bed and put restraints on him so his couldn't get away. "So what do you make of it?" Pulsar asked, looking at Roland as he jerked around in that bed, trying to get out of the binds that held him. "I don't know…I mean he was such a nice person, why would he bring it upon himself to shoot one of us?" Carmesi asked in reply. "Yesterday's sheep…tomorrows' wolf I'm guessing." Howl suggested, Grace shook her head, "I don't believe that…but it feels as if something about him has changed."
"The other part of him is awake," a voice replied from behind them, they all turned to see Nearie leaning against the doorway. "Nearie…go back to sleep." Ambar told her, "Mom…I'm trying to give you my insight on this, I've been reading Roland's mind for the last few days. I found something really old about it, one part of it was awake…the other part was in slumber land," She looked at Roland…she didn't know if he could see them or not, but it looked as if he was staring straight at her. "but now that's reversed…the other part is awake, and not all too happy about where it's other half has brought it."
"So I was right…" Ambar whispered to herself, "What did you say?" Kayin asked. Ambar took a deep breath and said, "I made a diagnosis of what Roland had when he told us about his memory blanks…at first I thought I was being a little quick about it, but seeing this now……I realize I was right and should've said something sooner."
"Well what is it then, what's wrong with Roland?" Carmesi asked, Ambar looked at Roland again, "He has schizophrenia, a good deal of it to…it's a psychotic disorder where the person in question has another personality opposite of his or her own."
"So we're seeing that other side of that personality?" Kate asked, Ambar nodded.
"You think these lousy restraints will hold me for long? HA, think again…as soon as I'm out of these I'll come after the guys that put me on here and cut off their genitals, but heck…maybe I won't find them, maybe they'll just be too small to see!" This same type of slurs lasted for about 10 minutes.
"You guys go to bed," Pulsar suggested, "I'll watch over this guy."
Kayin looked at Roland, "So he has two personalities?" he asked, Nearie nodded, "And neither one realizes they have one another."
"We may need to make Roland…our Roland realize what he has, after all we may need both of them in the future." Kayin told her, Nearie nodded. "And speaking of going to bed…you should be on your way there."
Meanwhile, Roland Noir felt weak…then he saw it before his eyes, the shadow of the bad man…the really, really, really bad man. But maybe he wasn't so bad…I mean he'd brought him into this world, but suddenly he felt these words rip right out of his mouth, "YOU SON OF A WHORE, YOU KILLED MY FATHER! I OUTTA CUT YOU FROM WHERE YOUR UNION MEETS YOUR SOUTH PACIFIC YOU…" Then he drifted off to sleep and Roland Victoire came back to reality, he looked and saw that the faint rays of morning were seeping through the window…and from that light he saw he was restrained to a bed. "Uh…hello? Is anybody here? I know something's up because I was in my bed last night."
Pulsar jerked awake and looked to see Roland, their Roland, was awake. "Well time to talk with the man in question." Pulsar muttered to himself.
Roland watched as Pulsar entered the door and sat next to him, "Oh Pulsar…may I asked what the meaning of this is, I mean one minute I'm in my bed the next I'm here."
"Well considering the night you had I wouldn't be playing dumb Roland Noir." Pulsar said, Roland looked at him confused, "What? That's not my name…my name is Roland Victoire, not Noir. You're obviously mistaking me for someone else."
Pulsar looked in Roland's eyes for a moment and saw no malice in them other than to be released, Pulsar undid the binds and followed Roland back to his room.
When Roland heard Pulsar walk away he took out a bunch of papers and laid them out in front of him, he looked at the designs on each one of them. "Well they're all here…now that just leaves the making of them, didn't lose that much time so I'll still be able to make them……oh CRUD! Look at the time!"
Roland made it to the roof to see the kids all waiting for him, and then the second day of training was done he saw them all collapse from exhaustion, Roland shook his head and said, "No one said this was going to easy guys…you all agreed to do this, but I'm going to be working on my surprise for you guys tonight…don't be surprised if you hear anything coming from the roof."
That night Vixy stepped out onto the balcony from her room, from the roof she could hear a faint 'tom-tap, tom-tom, tap-tom, tom-tap, tom-tom' noise. The sound of a hammer against metal, "What is he working on up there?" Vixy wondered to herself. Then she looked at the time, best get to bed. The next morning started the same for them and ended at early evening. Ambar showed up with a small bag, Roland looked in it and thanked her for getting him what he needed.
That night Vixy snuck out of her room to see what Roland was working on, she wasn't surprised to see Lionhawk out as well. "So you're wanting to see what he's up to up there as well?" She asked him, Lionhawk tried to thinking of a viable excuse…but then said, "Yeah…I mean I heard the sound that bag made, there were jewels in that bag Ambar handed him. I just want to find out what they're for."
Slowly both of them made there way to the roof, soon as they slipped through the door a faint scent of burning charcoal hit there nostrils. They rounded the corner to see Roland working with what appeared to be a Blast Furnace, he had a heavy pair of work gloves on and a pair of tongs in his right hand. He took the tongs and stuck them into the furnace…pulling out a piece of glowing red metal, he then walked over to an anvil, picked up a hammer and started pounding at it 'tom-tom, tap-tom, tom-tom, tom-tap, tap-tom, tom-tom'.
They were about to leave when Lionhawk slipped and fell to the ground, that was enough for Roland to turn in their direction and see them. "What are you two doing up?" he asked sternly…he then told them to go back to bed and be ready for next morning's training.
By the end of the week Roland looked at them and said, "Now as I hope you recall I said that by the end of the first week of training I'd have a gift for all of you," Roland then walked over, went behind the blast furnace and brought out a small bundle of packages. He laid them down, "take only the one with your name on it, I think you'll be surprised."
One by one the kids stepped up and took the package with their name on it, inside was a short sword version of one of their parents weapons. For Shin, a short sword version of Half-Moon, Nearie a shorter version of her mom's lance, Lionhawk seemed rather intrigued on how Roland had made a short sword version of Reiken so easily, Vixy looked at the short sword versions of the Twin Slayers, and for Hope…a short sword version of Angel.
While they were handling their new weapons to see how they felt, Roland got the scanner set up and had them give him another energy reading. When that was done Roland dismissed them, he needed to look at the disk…he had to know if what he was expecting was right, if so…he'd ask Kayin about his years before meeting Grace, and vice versa for Grace, if that didn't reveal anything…then he was up mystery creek without an oar.
Roland looked at the new reading and made a chart of it:
Name
Starting Power Level
After Week 1
After Week 2
After Week 3
After Week 4
After Week 5
Shin
447
494
Lionhawk
470
510
Nearie
144
218
Vixy
170
244
Hope
4700 for 4 sec. then down to 74
4700 for 7 sec. then down to 91
"That settles it…I have to talk to Kayin." Roland thought to himself, he managed to find Kayin and showed him the chart. "This can't be my daughters' energy reading…as you called it." was Kayin's initial response, Roland gave a solemn nod, "That was my belief at first…but I checked the scanning equipment, it was working at 275 efficiency…it didn't make a mistake, it couldn't…which is why I have to ask you and your wife about your past, it may help me deduct a more solid conclusion."
When Roland got both Kayin's and Grace's background stories…he ran them through his mind, but a conclusion…he could find not. "Hope Ravenhurst…a mystery barricaded by a mystery shrouded in an enigma," as he walked by Hope's room, faintly able to here the sweet voice singing behind it. A faint smile crossed Roland face, "yet I believe she'll be the one true bit of faith this universe will need."
Meanwhile at a alley tavern two black cloaked figures met, they were later met by are dear wolf in black. "So what's the game plan Mr. Edge?" one of the figures asked.
"Well Taylor…looks like you'll be next up to bat, I've even picked a good day and event for you," Mr. Edge said, pulling a concert poster and laying it out in front of them. "A lot of Prisms' youth will be there…and if Victoire isn't as overbearing as I think he is…the children of the Crest will be there too."
"And where do I come in?" the second cloaked figure asked, Edge looked at him and said, "You'll offer to walk them home Mr. Westcot…little will they realize that you're leading them right into a trap, then the sins of the parents will be taken out on their children."