**There was a mix up with the last two chapters, I posted 4 before 3, but that's fixed now. For this chapter I'm not very good at writing fight scenes, cause I don't know the names of the moves. So please forgive me if it sounds a bit vague. & as always please review, I love writing this story and do not want to stop, but if I don't get any feedback, well you get the idea.
Chapter 4
Training Programs
Kale strapped Frost to the chair and jacked him in.
"Isn't this a bit kinky?" He asked with a smile. Kale ignored him and loaded the first program. After a few minutes, his eyes popped open. "Boring." He said in a cocky tone. She loaded another. After hearing about seven 'borings', she loaded a higher-level program. This time when he opened his eyes, he was sweating and breathing heavily. Kale smirked at him as she loaded the next one.
A few hours later Oz walked in with Faith. Ivy was watching Frost; she brushed his hair with her hand lightly.
"He's incredible, the first programs he breezed through in a matter of seconds."
"How far did you get?" Oz asked.
Ivy jumped.
"Last program; you know it's funny, she's the oldest and yet she's falling for a vampire." Kale remarked.
"He can't hurt me." Ivy said defensively.
"Not like that." Faith said.
"Am I done yet?" Frost asked as he finished the program.
Oz pulled the jack out. "Yeah, Faith, you're up."
Ivy unstrapped frost as Oz strapped Faith to another chair. Ivy and Kale switched.
"Come on," Kale said to Frost. "Eyecon wants you to work with Twitch." Kale led Frost away, as Oz left Faith with Ivy.
Ivy put the headset on and sat down. "Buckle up, cause you're going for a ride." Ivy said as she started the first program.
Hours later, Oz was fixing something in his room when El walked in looking worried.
"Oz?"
He turned around and saw the concerned/scared look in her eyes. "El, what's wrong?"
"Frost he just flipped. One minute he's with Twitch being showed the engine. And the next he's attacking Twitch."
"Where is he now?"
"Locked in his room."
Oz opened a drawer in the small desk in front of him and pulled something out. He closed the drawer and pocketed the item. Oz turned back to El. "Don't let him out. He's going through withdraw, it's part of being a changeling." Seeing her mouth open to say something he cut he off. "It's worse than what you or the others went through, trust me."
She nodded her head, and then stepped aside to let him out of the room. She followed him down to Frost's room.
"What are you going to do?"
"Surprise him."
Oz stopped in front of Frost's door. "Remember do not open this door until I say." With that he opened the door and walked in. He closed the door behind him and looked around. Suddenly frost tackled him. Oz didn't struggle he let Frost hold him down.
"Put me back!"
Oz just looked up at him.
"PUT ME BACK!" Frost repeated louder this time.
"We can't you choose the red pill."
"I'm a fucking vampire!" Frost said as he leaned in to bite Oz's neck.
Oz didn't struggle instead; he simply pushed Frost off. Frost was thrown onto his bunk.
Oz stood up and pulled a small circular mirror from his pocket. "Vampires don't reflect, but you do." He put the mirror in front of Frost.
Deacon blinked. He had not seen his reflection in over two hundred years. He had piercing, icy, blue eyes, he face was pale, and his hair was nothing but peach fuzz.
"See anything?" Oz asked. He didn't wait for an answer. "You have it easy, you had a choice in the matrix: to kill or not."
Frost looked up narrowing his eyes, wondering what Oz meant. "I didn't as a werewolf, I could kill people and not know about it until I read the newspaper the next day. I had no control over the hunger. You did."
Frost looked back into the mirror and opened his mouth. His fangs were normal human sized human teeth. "What the fuck?"
"And you won't like the taste of blood either."
Frost's eyes sparked at the mention of the word. "Why not?" He asked in a dark voice.
"None of the other vampires who have been pulled have."
"Why?"
"Doesn't taste the same."
El knocked on the door. "Faith's done." She yelled.
Oz stepped toward the door. "Come on."
Frost stood and followed.
Faith opened her eyes. El told her that she would feel tired like after staying up studying all night. Faith didn't feel that way, instead she felt energized like when she was about to fight vamps. That slayer charge is what she felt. She looked up to see Oz looking at her, he knew.
"El, Frost, want to fight?" Oz said still looking at Faith.
Frost wrinkled his eyebrows in confusion.
"Kale, put mine in." Kale nodded her head at Oz as she rifled through discs and pulled one out. Ivy handed her the headset and stood up. "El vs. Frost, Faith vs. me." Oz said as he laid in a chair and Ivy jacked El and Frost in. She then moved over to jack Faith and him in. "Kale, load to the construct first, then the program after five."
Frost opened his eyes; he was in the white again. Oz smiled.
"As I told you, Frost, you and Faith are changelings like me. When we were created there was a glitch, a problem with our encoding, which was later corrected when we were sired, bitten, or chosen. This so-called problem makes us faster, stronger, and more agile than normal humans. We are said to be as powerful as The One. But since The One has not been discovered yet, we aren't sure if that's correct or not. As changelings we can manipulate our self-image, Frost."
Frost reached up and felt his elongated fangs, he grinned.
"Changelings are not limited to werewolves, vampires, and slayers. Demons, witches, and ghosts have also been unjacked." Oz checked his watch. "Now here's the object of the game: get in one good punch on El and I."
Faith and Frost looked confused. The construct began to change; windows and walls appeared. It transformed into the gym at Sunnydale High School. Faith smiled at Oz. She got into her slayer stance. Frost used his training to get into position, as did El who was facing him. Oz just stood still and faced Faith smirking. It was only then that she caught Oz's cruel joke. All four of them were dressed in Sunnydale high gym uniforms; girls wearing shorts and guys in pants. Faith laughed at Frost who was oblivious to the costume change. Faith also noticed that there were not any mats on the floor and that the bleachers were pulled out. Oz advanced on Faith; she backed up and then tried to punch him. He moved to the right. Every punch and kick he either blocked or slid away from. But faith wasn't giving up.
Frost was surprised by El for a petite17 year old; she was kicking his ass. He went to kick her; she grabbed his leg and threw him. He landed in the 3rd row of bleachers to their right. Before he could jump up she jumped and landed next to him. He scrambled to get up, but she knocked him down. He rolled back and jumped up. He punched, she blocked. As he kicked, she tossed him about.
"Come on, Frost, you're a vicious vampire and this is the best you can do? I'm a 17 year old girl, kick my ass."
His eyes flashed as he lunged for her neck, she back flipped out of his grasp.
"Just fucking hit me! One-good-punch!" She said facing him.
He growled and tackled her.
"You're getting there, but not quite." She said as she pushed him off. He flew straight up two feet and landed hard on the bleacher. "You need something else." She said looking down at him.
Faith didn't understand it, in Sunnydale Oz could barely dust a vampire. How could he now block every one of her punches? As she tried to kick him in the head, he ducked a split second before her leg would hit him. He slid down and knocked her right foot out and she fell. She jumped up and watched as he tried to kick her, which she blocked. She tried the same move he had just done, but he hopped and flipped back a step.
"How?" She gasped.
"Faith, this isn't real, the rules of gravity, not real. You can fly if you really tried."
"But?"
"Faith, what's the first rule of slaying?"
"Don't get killed."
"Okay, second."
"Use your instincts."
"What do yours tell you?"
Faith froze, "that I should be able to kick your ass."
"Why can't you?"
"You're too fast."
"Wrong." He looked up to see El watching him. "Kale, load the jump program."
The ground underneath them suddenly changed as it rushed up to them. Faith and Frost looked around, they were on top of a building in a city. Oz and El are standing at the ledge of the building staring at the building across the street.
"Remember," Oz spoke, "the matrix is control. But you can break the control, break the rules and fly, well jump." Oz jumped, soared, and landed on the other building. The concrete cracked under his feet. "My lesson," he spoke as he turned to face them, "clear your minds." El smiled as she turned and jumped over to Oz. Frost smiled nervously. "No sweat, my minds clear, here goes." He stepped back twice ran and leaped. He soared over the street, but as he neared the building he smiled over confidently. He lost his arc and plummeted. He fell, the ground bounced him up a few feet and then he slammed to the ground.
"Kale, take Frost out." El said, "Faith?"
Faith stood alone on the roof, she hopped fences before and fell off a building, but she never jumped them before, at least not over a large street like the one below.Her instincts told her that the jump was impossible, maybe it was time to stop listening to them. She could do this, it was just a program, right? She stepped back, ran, and leaped. She sailed straight out over the street, her arms flailing around, her legs spread out like a ballerina during a jete. As she neared the building she glanced down, fright shivered up her spine and she began to fall too soon. She reached up and grasped the ledge, her body slammed against the building.
"Faith, just push yourself up, like getting out of a pool." El said.
Faith tried, but her body felt too heavy and she lost her grip. She closed her eyes waiting for the end, but it never came. She opened her eyes just as someone unjacked her. She was back on the ship with Oz looking down at her and Frost's nose bleeding.
"If this is just a program, how the fuck am I bleeding?"
"Your mind makes it real." Oz answered.
"So if we die in the matrix?" Faith asked.
"You die here too, the body can't survive without the mind."
"So what's with Eyecon?" Frost asked.
"Cancer?" Faith asked.
"Sort of." Oz answered as El left the room. "He was pulled out wrong." Oz sat down. "They say it better to pull people out when they are younger, the mind has a harder time letting go the older and intrenched in the matrix you are. In the matrix he was diagonesed with brain cancer, right after he was contacted. That wasn't truth, the machines were trying to use him to get to the rebellion. So even though he was pulled as a child he still had a hard time letting go. They messed with his mind, so now we have to be careful when he goes in. The last time he went in to get you two, his mind tried to stay in. In his situation he's a liability." Oz sighed. "He's resigning."
They looked up to see Eyecon had walked in.
"Oz, you were right to tell them. I was avoiding them, because of our situation. (He look to Faith and Frost.) You need to know the risks, but the rewards are worth it. Oz, plan a trip to the Oracle for these two."
"Sir?"
"They need to know they're destiny, before we reach Zion."
"Zion?" Faith and Frost asked, but Eyecon was gone.