Chapter 13:

Kirsten helped Inuyasha into the sensor suit and braided his hair back for him. Her closeness did not bother him so much, since sometime during the night the mutant's scent had changed back to normal. It also helped that Kirsten was always in a very clinical and professional mode whenever she had to touch him more intimately.

"This will be a good day to do this," she said to him. "It's Sunday and not many people will be around in case things go wrong."

A different training room was going to be used for this exercise. It was a specially designed blast room that Jonathan trained in. Inuyasha was curious – he had never seen Jonathan show any of his abilities other than speed and strength – and not much of that.

Jonathan was already in the training room, dressed in an outfit that Inuyasha had seen once before. The skin-tight black suit looked similar to the sensor suit Inuyasha wore, but did not cover Jonathan's hands and feet. Instead, Jonathan wore a pair of boots of very flexible material that came to just below his knee. A Chinese-style dragon was embroidered in silver thread on a patch under his left shoulder. He also had his sword in the shoulder sheath.

"Alright, Inuyasha," Kirsten said, "here's what we're going to do. A target will be set up at the far end of the room and you will both take turns at it. Jon will go first, since we have a lot of measurements from him. Then you will show us your Wind Scar. Okay?"

Inuyasha slid the Tetsusaiga from its sheath and willed it to transform. Both Jonathan and Kirsten had seen this before, so they were not as impressed as Tamisé was, who was in the control room with the equipment.

"Great Xi!" the alien said over the room's speaker. "That's a big one! Kirsty, I want some of those portable sensors on Inuyasha's temples. There was an energy spike when he drew the sword, and I suspect he may be using bio-energy like Jon does."

Kirsten went to the control room briefly to get the sensors. Inuyasha bent his head down so she could place them at his temples.

"What's bio-energy?" he asked.

"It's power your own body generates. I'm beginning to think that you're a psi, Inuyasha. I was watching you jump about with the boys last night and the way you moved reminded me of Chantal when she levitates. We can check that out today too. Now, I'm going to be in the control room with Tamisé. Cerberus, start recording."

"Recording now. All equipment in the control room is on-line and ready."

"What's Cerberus recording?"

"He's making a video of us," Jonathan said. "Smile!"

"What's a video?"

"Uhhh…moving pictures. That way, if things happen very fast, we can play the video back at a slower speed so we can see what was going on."

"Oh." Inuyasha was not sure he understood. But then – he did not understand the television either, but that didn't stop him from watching it.

"Here comes the target, guys!" Kirsten warned over the intercom. "Remember, Jon first, please."

Inuyasha watched as Jonathan took a stance, then raised his right arm. At the far end of the room, a target came out of the floor. Inuyasha started a little – he could not get used to the science these people used. He understood from Kagome that this technology was far advanced from what others seemed to have available, and he supposed that they borrowed alien technology as it suited them.

Beside him, Jonathan closed his eyes for a brief few seconds, then opened them again, focussing on the target. Inuyasha jumped a good three feet in the air as a blast of energy pulsed out of Jonathan's right hand without any warning. The target was blasted into tiny pieces by the energy and Inuyasha hit the floor hard to avoid shrapnel. Jonathan did not move at all, and it seemed that the pieces of target that came his way bounced harmlessly off of him.

"Holy shit!" Inuyasha said, using Jonathan's favourite expression. He stared up at his friend with a new respect in his eyes.

Jonathan put his hands on his hips and grinned down at the prone half-demon.

"You'll have a little more respect now for the Dragon, huh?"

"I think that goes without saying." Inuyasha got to his feet. "Whoa! I never thought you had such power."

"I use it sparingly. It takes a lot out of me to do that too often. Even with that small blast, I need to replace energy reserves. Hey, wife!"

"Yeah, yeah," said Kirsten over the intercom. She opened the control room door and tossed something to Jonathan, which he caught neatly.

"What's that?" Inuyasha asked.

"An energy bar. It helps me replace what I use up when I blast. When we get out of here, though, I'll need a big meal." Jonathan wolfed down the bar quickly.

"Okay, Inuyasha. Your turn," said Kirsten through the intercom. "And Jon - Tam says it's his treat on the meal."

Another target came up.

"Heh! I'm more used to moving targets, but I guess this'll do."

Inuyasha raised his sword and called forth the Wind Scar. Jonathan backed away a respectful distance as energy curled around the blade of the enormous sword.

"Wind Scar!" Inuyasha yelled, and brought the blade down swiftly.

The energy from the Tetsusaiga destroyed the target with far less mess than Jonathan's blast.

Inuyasha rested the blade on his shoulder and turned to grin at Jonathan.

"Not bad," Jonathan said. He examined his nails with a slightly bored air.

Inuyasha's face fell. "What do you mean, 'not bad'!"

Jonathan laughed suddenly and slammed the half-demon on the back. Inuyasha stumbled forward a few steps before catching himself.

"Pretty impressive," Jonathan conceded.

"Inuyasha, can you do that again for us?" Kirsten asked over the intercom.

"Any time," he said, curling his lip a little at Jonathan.

But this time, instead of a stationary target, a hideous creature appeared at the far end of the room. Whatever it was, it was nearly ten feet tall, with a grinning head that looked remarkably like a tusked boar. Instead of arms, it had four sinuous tentacles. The body was scaled, but glistened with some kind of mucous. And the stench! It was like nothing Inuyasha had ever smelled before.

He gagged slightly and took a firmer grip on the Tetsusaiga.

"What the hell is that?"

"That, Inuyasha, is a Krull. And unless you move right now, you're about to become lunch!"

"I don't think so!"

Inuyasha refused to quail in front of such a creature, regardless of the fact that its scent was making him sick to his stomach. He refused to feel dismay when the creature began a charge – surely something of that size should not be able to move at that speed! Instead, he watched carefully to make sure that the charge was straight and would not deviate, then swung the Tetsusaiga with all his might.

"Wind Scar!"

The Krull dissolved in the fires of the Tetsusaiga in a most satisfactory manner.

Inuyasha rested the blade on the ground, sneezing to try to get the stench out of his nostrils.

"Gods! That thing was vile!" Inuyasha shook his head vigourously. "Atchoo! Argh! I'll never get the smell out of my nose."

"How's your tummy?" asked Jonathan.

"My…urk!"

Inuyasha dropped to his knees, vomitting onto the floor, thankful that his hair was bound. He retched for some minutes, while Jonathan rubbed his back in a comforting manner. Then he sat back, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.

"How did you know I would…"

Jonathan shrugged. "Everyone does. At least, the first time."

Kirsten came into the room with wet paper towels and a paper cup of water, which she handed to the half-demon. He wiped his mouth again and sipped at the water gratefully.

A panel opened in the wall of the room, and a small, flat robot came out. It zipped across the floor and stopped before the nasty mess Inuyasha had made. After a few seconds, it extruded a small vacuum-like attachment and sucked away the offending heap. Then it zipped away, and manoeuvered itself back into its cupboard.

Inuyasha had watched all of this with wide eyes. "That's a handy little gadget."

"Feeling better, dear?" Kirsten asked, putting a hand on his shoulder.

"I'm fine now. That … Krull… was it real?"

Kirsten smiled. "We call that a solid holograph, or solidograph. It wasn't a real Krull."

"But it seemed real enough. It even had a scent."

"If we hadn't given it a scent, then you would have known it wasn't real."

"Could it have touched me?"

"Oh yes. And it might have killed you too. Except that Cerberus is controlling the program, and would have pulled the plug if things looked like they were getting out of hand."

"So the two of you have fought the real thing?"

"Many times. But not recently. We've driven them away from our area for the time being. But they'll likely come back. Another year… another decade… who knows? We're a potential source of food and resources to them, and they won't give us up easily. For now, they'll go after easier prey."

"I can see why some would think they should be exterminated. I've never met a demon viler than that… well, except maybe for Naraku."

Inuyasha got to his feet and resheathed the Tetsusaiga.

Jonathan shook his head as he watched the huge blade change back to a more normal size. "I'll never get used to that!"

"Do you want to continue, Inuyasha? You haven't shown us your Backlash Wave yet."

Inuyasha looked at Jonathan, then shook his head. "Another time? I can only use it to send someone's energy back against them. Jonathan could do it, but I'm afraid I might hurt or even kill him."

"Alright," Kirsten said agreeably. "Then we'll try it when I can get Jerry to come and help. He can put up a barrier that nothing can get through, so we'll use him to shield Jon. Okay?"

Inuyasha nodded.

"Fine, then," Jonathan said. "Let's get out of these clothes and go eat! I'm starved! And Tam, you'd better take us somewhere good!"

"I'm making reservations right now," Tamisé said over the intercom. "Just don't be all day about a shower and change."

"Ten minutes," Jonathan yelled back. "Come on, 'Yasha. Race you to the showers!"