First of all, I want to thank you all for the wonderful support you give me. It really makes my day reading your lovely reviews. Please keep them coming, just as I will keep the chapters coming to you ^^
I hope you will enjoy this chapter.
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Chapter 12: Beginning
Because of her late arrival last night, Asami had been sleeping in a spare room next to the administration office. Amon had told her that new recruits lived together in small teams of four and that she would be shown her new room and introduced to her roommates by the end of the day. They still had to find an appropriate room for her.
She was woken early by a rapid knocking on the small wooden door leading to the small room. Dressing in her usual garments, she quickly got ready for the day.
When Asami entered the office, the woman behind the desk greeted her with a smile.
"Good morning," the woman spoke and tapped on the typewriter in front of her, the paper moving to the left as she wrote something down. "Please sit down." Asami took seat in front of the desk.
"What is your full name?" she asked. Asami wondered if she knew of her father – and her relation to the Avatar.
"Asami Sato," she said calmly. The woman nodded, seemingly tapping her name down onto the paper. Then she released the paper and reached it to the new girl. Asami eyed the paper silently.
"It is a blanket which you need to fill out," the woman instructed and handed Asami a pen. With a nod, Asami started to write down information about herself – everything from her personal data to her mental state and her clothes size. She took her time and made sure everything was correct. There was no use trying to fool the Equalists. She knew Amon could and most likely would speak to her father to make sure she had written true facts.
"Alright, Asami," the woman said as she quickly let her eyes glide over the sheet of information in her hand. "Please follow me."
Asami was led through the building and downstairs. The musty smell of cellar hit her nostrils the moment they had descended the stairs, and she grimaced.
"In the cellar we have our uniform and equipment stocks. Right now we are getting you a uniform and a few other things," the woman told her and turned to the left. Asami followed silently. They stopped before a desk behind which a scrawny man was seated. He looked up through his thick round glasses and greeted them with a smile, several teeth missing.
"Good morning, Jayak," the woman greeted said man, who stood up and bowed.
"Always a pleasure to see you, Emima," the man answered with a sheepish smile. The situation was almost comical, seeing as the scrawny man clearly liked Emima based on the way he acted and laughed as they were led into the stock room to get Asami her new uniform. But even so, Asami did not feel that there was any reason to smile or laugh.
Jayak's stride was confident as he read the paper with Asami's size details, knowing where everything was exactly. In the back of the room was a doorway leading them into a much smaller stock room.
"This is the women's clothing department," Emima explained when she noticed the wonder in Asami's face.
"The majority of the recruits are male, so we hardly order any female uniforms. We always make sure to have about one spare set in each size. As for the men, we need at least ten spare uniforms at all times," Jayak told casually as he moved around and gathered the many pieces of her uniform. When he had collected her entire uniform, he handed Asami the bunch of clothes and continued to the other side of the room.
"That is your outdoor uniform," he explained while rummaging through a shelf with some black clothes on. "You need your training outfit as well. For indoor training only, naturally." Another bunch of clothes was added to the one she was already carrying, and Asami suddenly found it difficult to see where she was going.
The scrawny man smiled proudly as he led Asami and Emima out.
"Regarding weapons, those will only be handed out whenever you need them. You are not allowed to carry weapons unless you are given one by your instructor," Emima added. "The remaining daily necessities you will find in your room."
"If there is anything wrong with your uniform, please do come tell me. And in case of broken equipment, we will make sure to repair it for you, but it will be subtracted from your monthly pay," Jayak grinned toothlessly. Asami nodded in agreement. The three stopped at the desk where Jayak took seat again.
"Thank you for your help," Emima said with a smile and gestured for Asami to follow her. "Come, Asami. I will show you to your room. I just remembered that we have an empty bed in room eighteen."
Before leaving, Asami bowed shortly for Jayak, whose grin widened.
"Good luck," he said just as she and Emima started climbing the stairs.
"Before I show you to your room, I must show you around. I will have to get back to work in a minute. We cannot have you getting lost. This place is like a labyrinth until you get to know it," Emima continued and started to walk a bit faster than before. Asami had to focus to not stumble over anything.
"First of all, this is our canteen," Emima introduced as they stopped before a rather large room filled with tables and benches. At the far end was a long counter behind which a door led to the kitchen. "Breakfast starts at seven in the morning, lunch at twelve, and dinner at six. Every meal lasts about half an hour. If you miss it, you will get no food. Simple as that."
"Unless you are lucky and there are leftovers," came a loud voice from the kitchen followed by a resounding laughter. Emima rolled her eyes and shook her head.
"That is Jarrad, our chef," she said and gestured for Asami to follow her. "He usually has a trick up his sleeve. And a piece of friendly advice; do not eat anything from the kitchen the first of April. You will regret it."
For the very first time in days, a faint smile tugged at Asami's lips, but only for a brief moment.
She was led through more hallways, turned several corners and had already forgotten the way when they stopped. Even without opening the doors, it was easy to hear voices and faint battle cries from the rooms.
"These are our training halls. Please notice that the doors are marked with one letter each. These letters indicate who may use the respective halls. You will be using hall A since you are new. As you become better, you will be promoted to other halls, in which the training is harder. Amon will explain this to you later." Pointing at two doors on the other side of the hallway, Emima smiled wickedly. "And these are the changing rooms. One for the men, one for the women. It would be very unwise to enter the wrong one."
Wondering about the consequences of doing so, Asami followed along as Emima started walking again.
"Oh, and you are allowed to use the changing room at any time. Sometimes, having four girls sharing one small bathroom can cause problems." Asami nodded, knowing that two girls sharing one bathroom could be a pain sometimes, too.
At one point, they passed stairs which led upstairs, and Emima stopped for a brief moment and turned around to face Asami, her eyes suddenly cold.
"Nobody is allowed to go upstairs. This is the place where our leaders have their offices and private quarters. Any recruit caught upstairs will face either great punishment or immediate exclusion. Luckily, we have yet not had anyone breaking this rule, and we would prefer to keep it this way." Asami nodded quickly, feeling almost threatened by the woman's stern words. Then Emima smiled, turned around, and continued forward.
Asami could not help but wonder why going upstairs was such a crime. Was it security reasons? Or did they keep something hidden up there?
The tour ended in a long hallway with doors on both sides. Reading the small signs on the doors, Asami figured that this were the recruits' rooms.
"As I said before, you will be living in room eighteen for now. A girl has recently moved out and left an empty bed," Emima spoke as they went through the hall, passing a lot of doors. Asami let her gaze wander over the many door signs which contained a room number and the names of the residents. As Jayak had told her, almost all of them were male.
Opening the door to room eighteen, Emima led Asami inside. On each side of the room was a bunk bed, four beds in total, three of which had clearly used recently. The upper bed on her left was empty with folded blankets and no linens. The far wall was lined with tall wooden lockers, and on the far end of the right wall was a door to the bathroom.
"I must ask you to change into your training outfit and return to your training hall as soon as possible. When you return to your room in the evening, I will have arranged everything for you. You can ask your roommates to show you the living room later," Emima spoke with a smile.
"Thank you," Asami said and bowed shortly. Emima then hurried back toward her office, waving at Asami just before she rounded the corner.
Sighing in relaxation, Asami quickly changed clothes. Her training outfit consisted of black sweatpants and a black T-shirt. There was a black tank top as well, but she did not feel like showing herself off too much on the first day already. Tying her black boots – which were rather uncomfortable compared to the rest of her outfit, she realized with a frown – she folded her old clothes and placed it on her bed, deciding that she would deal with it later.
"Okay," she told herself. "Cannot wait to see if I can actually find my way back to the training halls..."
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Korra felt terrible in every possible way as she woke up to the sound of Amon closing the door to the bathroom.
Realizing that the feeling in her arms had finally returned, she wrapped her still naked body in the blanket and went to retrieve her clothes, which had been so carelessly tossed on the floor during the heated night.
Nearing the bed, she frowned, catching the smell of sweat and intimacy still lingering to Amon's blankets. Bending over to grab her clothes, she froze, feeling as something thick and wet ran down her inner thigh.
It took her only a few seconds to figure out what it was. Shame, disgust, repulsion, and – most of all – panic overwhelmed her. And anger.
Amon had not pulled himself out in time.
In desperation she used her blanket to dry off most of it, but she knew she would have to wash herself in order to remove it all – if she were lucky. Maybe it was already too late. She would not have her period in the next one and a half week. She could not wait this long to find out whether or not Amon had gotten her pregnant.
Just the thought of it, the mere word spoken in her mind, made her feel sick and made her feel anger to an unexplored extent. She was so angry that tears welled up in her eyes, her body shaking uncontrollably.
The moment Amon left the bathroom, she was on him, grabbing his collar with such force that he heard the seams snap apart.
"You," she hissed, warm, quick tears rolling down her face. "You..."
She did not know what to say. Sobbing, she collapsed onto knees in front of him, clutching his shirt in longing for support. Amon watched her coolly until the moment he realized what it was all about. He tensed.
For the first time in ages, he felt dumbstruck with a nagging feeling of helplessness. Had this happened to any other woman, he would just have kicked her out and told her that this was her own problem, but he could not release the Avatar. And he sure as hell could not seek help about this. Someone would figure out what was going on between them. If word about it got out in public, he would lose everything he had worked for. His own people would turn their backs to him. His plan would shatter into nothingness.
At a loss for words, he did the only thing he could do; he left.
The feeling inside of Korra was indescribable. Not only was this Amon's fault entirely, but he also ignored her. She did not know what she should have expected of him in the first place, seeing as she barely had had time to think about her situation, but surely she had not believed him to just walk away. As the leader of the Equalists, the man had to have a great feeling of responsibility for everything that happened in this building and all the other bases. Especially in those situations where he was involved, not to mention those situation he had created himself.
Korra could not stop crying. Even when she stood up and went to the bathroom, warm tears rolled down her cheeks.
She turned on the water and entered the shower cabinet immediately, not caring that the water was still far too cold to shower in. She needed to clean herself now.
Using her fingers, she tried to force out the rest of Amon's sticky remains, repeating the movement until her fingers seemed somewhat clean against the water. Even then, she continued for a moment, wanting to feel as secure as she could – which was very little.
She remembered her mother's lessons from before she moved to Republic City. Her mother had explained her that the chance of becoming pregnant was connected to the menstrual cycle. According to her theory, it was only possible to become pregnant during the three dry weeks, the closer to the middle, the bigger chance. It was impossible to become pregnant during a period. Although Korra hated that time of the month, she truly wished that she had been in her period right now. Then this would never have happened. She even doubted that Amon would have touched her like that in the first place, seeing as many men found the blood repulsive.
Feeling that this was at good as it got, Korra turned off the water and wrapped herself in a towel.
When Amon returned, they needed to talk.
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Finally finding her way back to the training halls, Asami hesitated for a moment before entering hall A.
The hall was surprisingly large with a high ceiling and shiny wooden floor. Scattered around the floor were eight large rubber mats on which people were fighting in teams. Asami watched in awe as they charged and dodged, their bodies moving rhythmically as if dancing.
"Why hello there. You must be Asami," a voice sounded next to her, and she was ripped from her observation in surprise. By her side stood one amazingly tall and brawny man clad in something that looked like a mixture of her training outfit and the usual uniforms. Asami had to raise her gaze to look him in the eyes. He grinned widely by her reaction and slapped her shoulder so that she was about to stumble forward.
"Hey, Talan!" the man then called, summoning a much smaller but very athletic-looking man.
"Asami, right?" Talan asked, assessing her body in a way that was rudely obvious. She ignored his stare, knowing that there were many more to come. She nodded.
"Good," Talan continued and gestured for her to follow him. He stopped by one of the rubber mats, nodding toward the lot fighting. "Before you can perform like them, you must know some theory behind our fighting style." He paused to let Asami observe a bit in silence.
"As you see, our primary strength lies in our offense. The best defense is an attack, as they say. One should never underestimate the efficiency of being defensive at times, however," Talan spoke and then pointed at one of the younger men fighting. "Only when our strength is surpassed by our opponent, we should tend to defensive fighting. Then we wait for an opening, wait for them to make a mistake, become distracted, or just about anything that gives us the advantage – and then we turn offensive and strike again. Like a spider killing its prey."
Asami remembered the times she had fought against Equalists and realized that Talan was right. They were mostly aggressive – or "offensive", as he put it. She nodded thoughtfully.
"But does it not give a huge advantage to men, seeing as you usually are stronger of nature?" she asked, still observing. The man by her side smirked.
"Not necessarily. Being offensive is not only a question of physical strength – it is just as much agility and speed. Women are generally more agile than men, which gives you an advantage there. In the end, men and women end up fighting a bit differently. While men strive to place quick and strong hits, women are better at avoiding hits and may attack more often, but not as strongly."
Asami let her eyes find a new person to observe, one of her own gender. Finding one, she smiled faintly. The woman was indeed moving faster than most of the recruits in this room.
"The same goes for you," Talan added. "You do not seem to be of the muscular type, rather elegant and agile than anything. I know nothing of your speed, however, but this can be trained just as easily as everything else."
"I would not say that I am faster than what is normal," Asami shrugged. "I have fought before, but I have been relying on weapons too much, I guess." The man who had greeted her before showed up at the other side and laughed.
"Oh, we use weapons, alright. You will learn to use them once you have learned the basics," he said and winked. Talan nodded in agreement.
"As Boban said, you must master the basics first. We cannot depend entirely on our weapons in a fight, should they break or be lost in any way. Our bodies are our most important weapon." Talan then turned to Boban with whom he exchanged silent messages. Boban grinned widely, and Talan nodded.
"Come with me, Asami. I will show you where to begin. I do not hit as hard as Boban, after all," he spoke and led Asami to the only free rubber mat in the far end of the room.
"First of all, you must retain a relaxed posture. Spread your legs a bit and bend you knees lightly. Sway a bit, let the weight of your body shift between your feet. Do you feel how your body is more easy to move around?"
Asami nodded, shifting her weight as she was told to.
"The key to never lose this readiness is to never stop moving. Once you stand completely still, your joints will harden, and your muscles will start producing tiny amounts of lactic acid. We must avoid that," Talan explained, swaying slightly like Asami.
"Your goal is now to hit me in the stomach with your fist, nothing too hard, but do it quickly. Become offensive already from the beginning," the man continued, raising his hands in defense. Asami gulped and scrunched her brow.
"Come on," he goaded her with a smirk. Counting to three in her head, Asami charged for the man, her fist ready to strike. Just as she was about to extend her arm, she was kicked away, Talan's move so quick and precise that she never really realized what was going on before she was lying on the rubber mat, her stomach aching.
"Come, try again. This time you need to begin your strike before you reach me." Asami sighed and climbed to feet.
I sense that this will be a very long day, she thought with a wry smile and readied herself for the next blow.
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"They are growing stronger for each day, are they not?" the Lieutenant asked proudly, watching some of their more experienced recruits fighting. Amon had been silent ever since they had eaten breakfast together, but the Lieutenant was sure that he just had a lot to think about with the whole moving to another base event. Amon nodded absentmindedly.
"They are," he finally spoke. No matter how many breathtaking fights he observed, only one thing really made it though to his consciousness. He had to do something.
"You are going to the city today, right?" Amon asked. The Lieutenant was surprised to hear his superiour and friend finally wake up from his mental sleep. He smiled and nodded.
"I am to retrieve some test equipment from Mr. Sato, as you know."
"Of course," Amon answered. "I need you to do something for me, seeing as I am not going for the next few days. Something personal which I would appreciate if you kept to yourself."
"Oh?"
"I had one of the recruits approach me yesterday. She is having a bit of a problem, seeing as she has been with one of the others under irresponsible circumstances. She asked me to get her something at the drugstore, like a morning-after pill," Amon told his second-in-command, who looked at him with a look of disbelief and confusion. Amon shrugged casually. "I asked her to talk to Emima about it, but she seemed reluctant about the idea of sharing it further. Can you do it?"
The Lieutenant rubbed his temples with a sigh.
"I will see what I can get."
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Thank you for reading! :3
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