Ricochets of Life
The silence of his new room was something that the young man wasn't sure he would become adjusted to or ever be comfortable with. He used to have a room right by the road and the window about his bed had been angled over the playground, a construction yard just a block away. But this….this silence, this perfect quiet wasn't what he was used to.
He sighed deeply as he shifted in his bed, his green eyes closed halfway as he tried to move into a more comfortable position. His right hand was resting on his stomach in a closed but relaxed fist, with his left hand behind his head as he glanced around the room. The only light came from the computer attached to his desk and an LCD screen that was attached to his wall. The computer wasn't so bad because he could turn off the screen and the room would be bathed in blissful darkness, the small button shining like little stars across the sky. The LCD screen, however, was rather irritating because it gave just enough light to give the room a hazy illumination but it wasn't of any visual use aside from keeping the young man awake most of the night.
Well, it was only part of the reason he hadn't been able to sleep that night. He was incredibly anxious about officially starting tomorrow. His class yesterday with Snake Eyes had been such a rush, the sparring match really getting him fired up and ready while the shadowing of Snake Eyes's movements had been very enlightening. His new master had gone through and nearly covered all of the basics that Echo had ever learned by combining them into a smooth and flowing kata. They had gone on for close to two hours, Scarlett returning to help give directions before she reminded them that they should take a break.
It was so surreal, being able to train so comfortably with someone that he had only just met. Maybe it was the pace or that his new master was younger than Master Dogen and therefore able to push the young man harder and further. What ever it was, it had been one of the best training session he had been through, literally wringing his heavy gi out of sweat like he had gone swimming in all his clothes. His hands were actually shaking for the first time in years after training without a heavy amount of sparring, which made him very excited. Because it was clear that Snake Eyes was holding back on him on first day, which was nice of him, so that meant that it was going to harder and challenge him even more.
Master Dogen and Sensei Martin had been right. The growth that he was going to go through was far greater than what he would have gone through at the dojo back home. As sad as it were for him to admit, it had been time for him to go. It really did upset him that he had to leave so abruptly but what could have done? Said no?
Sitting up and swinging his legs off his new bed, the quiet fighter pressed the heels of his palms against his eyes and exhaled fully. He was thinking too much now and it was starting to weigh heavily on him now. He forced himself to stand and rolled his body down until his hands were touching the floor by his feet, thinking about just keeping his breathing even and calm. Sliding his fingers on the smooth surface beneath his feet to his feet and then grabbing his legs, he grimaced as he pulled himself closer to legs.
He released his legs carefully and slowly, letting his body moved forward from the stretch and rested his hands on the floor. It was only quarter to six in the morning, but he barely had gotten any sleep last night thanks to that stupid LCD panel. He reflected on his desire to rip the damn thing from the wall at one point as he walked his body out into the push up position, slowly pushing his hips down and stretching his shoulder back towards his heels. And he knew that wouldn't have gone down very well with the maintenance crew, but he at least would have gotten some damn sleep last night and be a little more ready for what he had to do today.
Today was going to be an assessment of what he was physically capable and what skills he possessed, a fairly important event for him to go through since it would decide how long he would be training or what he would be doing. The young man lifted his hips up until he looked like the top half of a pyramid, his fingers flexing as he straightened his back. His feet picked up slightly, his shaking legs slowly rising up as he pulled himself into a handstand but he forced himself to focus on his breathing and what he was going to experience today. As his legs rose closer to being in line with his torso, he acknowledged the fact that he was going to have to learn how to shot guns and that his weapons training was going to be applied in a lethal manner.
His body was finally in alignment and he was slightly surprised to find that he was okay with himself becoming a possible lethal weapon, bending his arms when he felt his body shift unexpectedly. Echo was well aware of the fact that he was safe and sound back home because there were men and women everyday willing to guard borders and countries from people that wished harm on him and that some times they had to kill those that went too far. It wasn't as if Echo condoned killing or wished to kill himself, but he knew that he would have to face the decision at some point and he would have to make peace with himself when it happened.
He let his knees bend and rolled forward, dropping down into a crouch before standing up and getting his uniform ready for the day. The clock on the wall showed that it was quarter past six and that it was close to time for him to meet Snake Eyes in the meal hall. He sighed, bending his knees and pressing his hands onto his thighs and then pushed his hips further down while straightening out his arms. A long and slightly sickening crunch slithered out from the orphans spine as he forcefully stretched it out and he shivered as a wave of tingles ran through his body. He straightened up and shook himself out, getting dressed for the day that awaited him.
Dr. Sarah Callahan looked over the file of the young man coming to see her again, gnawing on the edge of a pen slightly as she looked over his medical chart and a brief summary of what he had been doing most of his life.
She was an attractive doctor, her short black hair cut in a slightly rebellious manner and her glasses didn't give a geeky or seductive tone, rather a chilly and technical feel. She stood close to five feet and six inches in height, allowing her to meet many of her patients, colleges and superiors in the eyes with confidence and wit; it was probably why she had received the call-sign "Raven" when she joined the Joes. She knew her looks sometimes drew the question of whether her medical training had been legitimate, her curves having turned more than the odd head at a time. She supposed that what she got for graduating medical school three years ahead of her classmates and then getting recruited by the Joes two years ago when she was twenty nine. Shifting her glasses, she continued reading his report.
And when this ink-haired doctor said brief summary, she had read novel blurbs longer than this boy's activities list; it appeared that all he had done for the past decade and a bit was train in the martial arts, with some minor mentioning of model making and that he entered in a poetry contest and a martial arts tournament. The physician sighed as she looked over the young man's features in the mugshot of him, intrigued by this increasingly curious orphan. He only had one legal name, Tobias, and then there was that nickname that had been mentioned in a report, Echo. He declined to take on a surname of any kind and he remained with the orphanage even when he had graduated high school, with no more of a reason than that he wanted to get his black belt before leaving his dojo. An odd statement since he already held two to his name.
But none of that was what interested her; it was this photo that had been taken the other day. This boy was just going into his twenty first year and whens she looked at his eyes and the lines in his face, she would have said that he looked closer to twenty six or eight.
"Hey Dr. Callahan!" A cheery voice called and Sarah resisted the urge to sigh slightly, smiling instead as she looked up to her assistant entered the med bay. "How are you today?"
"I'm good, Cindy. And yourself?" The doctor asked knowing that she would get the regular perky answer that Cindy anyways gave her.
"Feeling awesome as always!" Cindy said, her bright smile and squinting eyes a picture of childish happiness and her her index and pinky finger raised in a rock star's salute. Well, no one was perfect.
Cindy Steen was given the codename "Cinderella" for a reason, being that she always had an upbeat and near fantasy attitude towards life. In fact, she probably could have played Cinderella in a school play, with her bright blonde hair and blue eyes matching her attractive figure and borderline ditzy attitude. But for all of her airhead awareness and exuberant attitude, she was an amazing field nurse and had been the head of the triage center when working back home as a paramedic. Her father, an amazing medic that Sarah knew of and held in high recognition, had probably raised with medical jargon from when she was a toddler and influenced her all her life to become a medic.
"So, Dr, Callahan, what's on our table today?" Cindy asked as she re-clipped her ID badge to her chest and looped her stethoscope around her neck. "Anything fun or exciting?" The blonde then looked down at the file Sarah was looking at. "Oo, he's a cute one."
Sarah rolled her eyes and shifted the file towards Cindy. "And he's close to your age for once." Sarah's teasing came from the fact that Cindy was only twenty five and most of the men on base were closer to their mid-thirties than her age.
"Mm, that is a change." Cindy said as she held up the report and scanned through it in confusion. "That's odd...it says here that he hasn't served with anyone before. What's up with that?"
"I asked General Hawk about that and he said that this was a recruitment by Snake Eyes, not him."
"Wow, our resident ninja picked up a ninja protege?" Cindy said in excitement and hummed to herself. "I wonder if he's as ripped as Snakes."
Sarah shook her head as she sat at her desk, opening up her email for any other task that needed her attention. "I suppose he might be, he has been training for the better part of his lifetime."
"Oh, cool." Cindy then fell silent and Sarah looked up from her screen, surprised to see the troubled look on her assistant's face.
"Cindy, what's wrong?" The younger woman never let her self look so concerned or troubled because she believed that it was a bad bedside manner to show. She was part of the school that felt hospice should go hand in hand with medical, something that Sarah wasn't convinced about yet.
"Huh? Oh, it's nothing, just..." Cindy walked over and handed the file to Sarah and sat on the edge of the desk. "He's got no family, that must be horrible."
Sarah was about to reply when the doors to her bay opened and the two men entered, one that she was familiar with and one that they had just been discussing. Snake Eyes, in his full body suit and mask, had his winter camouflage pants on with a slightly large jacket, his sword not in immediate sight. This was partially due to the fact that Sarah was not always comfortable around weapons and blades in particular made her jumpy, something that Snakes had always tried to take into consideration.
The young man with him was just like he had been photographed; reddish-brown spiky hair, intense green eyes, sharp and youth facial features and a pleasant smile. He had the standard black shirt of the Joes, the eagle emblem over the right side of his chest, and wore winter pants similar to his master. He held something in his hands, which looked like a hooded sweatshirt or vest, and she watched his eyes darted everywhere, taking in his new surroundings.
"Hello Snake-Eyes, how are you today?" Sarah asked, shaking his hand and he responded in sign language. It had been necessary for her and many others to grasp at least the basics of sign language due to Snakes non-vocal responses.
I'm good today, just getting my student sorted out for his first day Snakes said silently, to which he then gestured to young man beside him. This is Tobias, or Echo as he prefers to be called
"Good to hear." Sarah said pleasantly and then turned to the young man addressed as Tobias. "Tobias, right? My name is Dr. Sarah Callahan."
"Nice to meet you, miss." The younger man said, his quiet voice and polite response a refreshing change from the way the soldiers carried themselves.
"Likewise. Now, today, we're just going to be doing some basic tests and oversee you as you go through you initial exercises, okay?" As his nod, Sarah gestured for him to follow and walked over to one of the beds. "Alright then, hop up and have a seat here. My assistant, Cindy, will take your blood pressure and take a blood sample."
Echo nodded nonchalantly and sat himself down on the table, the resident ninja sitting down off to the side. Cindy smiled pleasantly at him as she pushed his sleeves up past his elbow and wrapped the pressure sleeve around Echo's bicep, looking at his well-toned arms. Many of the soldiers took pride in their physique and often had large biceps; the young man on the table had, however taken a different tact when is came to his arms. Yes, the bicep was well defined, the definitions coming from the , but he had also treated his triceps with the same attention and care, making his arm very balanced instead of favoring one muscle group over the other.
"Some impressive muscle development you've done here." Cindy expressed as she started up the machine and glanced back at him. "How did you get that? Playing sports, going to the gym..."
"Um, just doing a lot of martial arts and calisthenic exercises." He responded somewhat hesitantly, his shyness making Cindy smile. After the machine beeped and she got the reading, her brows raised as he flexed and shook his arm out from the pressure.
"That is pretty impressive to get from just push ups and chin ups." Her comment drew a slightly blush to his face and he shrugged. She then gestured to a small white scale, smiling at Echo pleasantly. "If you wouldn't mind, lets find out your weight."
"Okay." The young man said as he slid off the bed. "Last time I weighed myself, it was about a year and half ago...I think."
"Okay, and what were you then?" Cindy asked as she made a mental note for comparison.
"Um, I think I was around a hundred and ninety...five or six pounds." Echo said as he tried to remember, shrugging. "I don't remember, it not really that important to me."
Cindy giggled at his nonchalance attitude and glanced at the screen. "Well, you right now about ninety seven point five kilograms, which is roughly two hundred and fifteen pounds or fifteen stones."
"Huh...I put on some weight..." The young man said dejectedly and the young blonde in front of him shrugged as she looked him up and down.
"Well, muscle is a lot denser than fat, so it weighs more while having a smaller volume. So, I would suppose that you're martial arts and whatever you do has been working out very well for you." Cindy said, simultaneously reassuring him and making his blush come back. She then took a syringe out and attached a need to the end. "Now, I need an arm to take some blood from."
Then the blush was gone, the young gnawing on his lip as he hesitantly held out his right arm and she tenderly took his arm while Dr. Callahan made a note of his reaction. Apparently this young man had an issue with needles. But he just flinched slightly as Cindy slid the needle in a vein and hesitantly smiled to her own smile as she began to draw blood. Once she had enough, she removed the needle with astute swiftness and gave him a cotton ball to hold on the small hole left on his arm.
Seeing her assistant was done, Dr. Callahan walked over and looked over the records that she had before she looked up at him. "So, from what I can tell of your current medical records, you have no history of diabetes, low or high blood pressure, allergies to any foods or any disabilities. However, I am more than aware that there are some injuries that are not reported." She knew that she struck a cord when he no longer met her eyes and his excessive eye movement pretty much broadcast any thoughts that he could have been thinking about. " I was wondering if there were any injuries that you have sustained that you think I would need to know about."
"What kind of injuries would these be?" He asked cautiously, shrugging when she gave him a fixed look. "I'm just not sure what you would be interested in hearing about."
"Well, how about any major accidents that you didn't go to the hospital for?" The doctor suggested and Echo thinking was shown through his eyes, his pupils shifting from side to side.
"I got a pretty bad cut from a fight in high school...broke my ribs in the tournament I was in. Um, I don't what else." The young man named just Tobias said as he tried to recount any episode in the past, his eyes lighting up briefly. "I did get into a bad scuffle at the school when we used quarter-staffs, got really bad bruises from that."
"Okay, if you don't mind, I'd like you to show me where this cut was inflicted." Dr. Callahan requested and the young man nodded.
"Yes, mam." He said as he slid off the table and pulled his shirt off without hesitation or concern.
Now Sarah and Cindy were used to seeing the soldier and their well-toned bodies, often privy to when they would flex to show off just how toned they were. The exceptions to the rule were Snake-Eyes and Heavy Duty, because the ninja master was close to a perfect physical image and Heavy Duty was more along the lines of a power lifter and didn't care what people thought about him. Now they had to add Echo, this kid who hadn't even hit twenty-two yet, to the list because he was like a younger but different version of Snake-Eyes. They shared the same near perfect eight-pack, with taunting hip definition and complimenting obliques, but Echo's chest was a bit overdeveloped, since his pectoral and abdominal muscles weren't flexed and still shadowed his stomach, and his shoulder muscles were also rather over-defined.
She didn't notice it before because of the looseness of his shirt and she assumed that he was more filled out because of his chest and arms. Sarah also perversely wonder that if this was what his upper body looked like, then how well defined were his legs and other assets were...
"You see, it's right around my mid-back." He said, turning from Callahan so she could see her back and she blinked back to the task at hand. This also put him head on to Cindy, who had been trying to lean around to see him, and she actually unconsciously licked her lips.
But Dr. Callahan was too busy looking at the scar to reprimand her assistant. In was a clean cut and it hadn't gone very deep, though she knew that Echo should have seen a doctor for this. It actually stemmed from his right hip and curled up in a crescent fashion to his left shoulder, worryingly crossing over his spine at his mid back. This could have been extremely serious if it have been half an inch deeper and he could possibly have been paralyzed from such a cut, destroying and wasting his life long commitment to the arts he treasure so much.
"How long did this take to heal?" Callahan asked sternly, her hand tracing over the wound to inspected the scar for any sign or trace that it had been infected.
"Ah, I'm not too sure, mam. Um, maybe a month or two?" The young man clearly hadn't wanted to remember the incident and now didn't recall the incident completely. "I got a friend to tape it closed and then slowed my training down while the wound sealed."
"You trained with such a serious injury?" Sarah asked sharply, the young man glancing over his shoulder.
"Well, yeah..."
"That was incredible dangerous. What if this had become infected or if your actions tore the wound even deeper?" She scolded lightly, sitting back once she was satisfied and he faced her again.
"In all honesty, mam, who ever said you get to have a fair fight?" He asked gently and she tried to answer him but wasn't able to. When he saw that she wasn't going to answer, he continued. "I wont always have the luxury of being the best of health when it comes to a fight and I would rather learn how to cope under unfavorable circumstances."
Sarah sighed and pushed her glasses up as she rubbed the ridge of her nose, glancing at Snake-Eyes with a pointed look. "Well, I can see that the apple doesn't fall from the tree now does it." She rhetorically asked and the ninja master weakly shrugged before turning away from her slightly. "That's what I thought."
"What do you mean?" Echo asked humorously as he pulled on his shirt again, Cindy pouting as her show ended too soon for her liking.
"Your master over there came back from a mission with a gunshot wound and a dislocated shoulder and I recommended that he take some time off to heal." Dr. Callahan said, her hands resting on the folder as Echo sat on the table, nodding for her to go on. "Then, in his infinite wisdom, decided that he should be the ones to test the previous two additions to the Alpha team with martial arts. And when I heard about that, oh boy..."
"Oh yeah, I remember that day." Cindy added as Echo chuckled. "I think even General Hawk cowered while she dressed down Snake-Eyes for being so irresponsible to his body."
The young man's chuckle slipped out into laughter and Sarah smiled at the happiness that he showed. It was nice to see that he was still an optimistic soul, that he hadn't lost the ability to find a simple statement amusing. But she also wondered how long it would take; how long until he became a hardened smart-ass, a man whose jokes were cutting and found it hard to smile at anything in the world. She rested his folder aside and made a small wish that he would keep a small amount of his innocence and happiness.
"Okay then, Tobias, let's continue with the examination."
Echo followed his teacher from the medical bay and pulled his sleeveless sweatshirt on, the thick cotton exterior hiding the fleece inside. He got the sweatshirt from Abby and was quiet found of this hoodie, probably because it had a dragon wrapped around a sword on the back and the front it had the words "Victory in the face of Defeat" stylized over it. It was a fun piece of clothing that he felt would be a appropriate while he trained, a clear vocalization of what he always aimed to do.
The two martial artists entered what looked like a gym, weight machines and other devices aimed to increase one's physical fitness were scattered all over the room. Echo took a moment to scan it all in, noting the various machines that he had seen in his old high school. He was familiar with various free weight exercises but he didn't ever do any serious bench pressing or use any other machines that were in the room around him. It was either doing calisthenic exercises or some basic weight resisted training.
He hadn't lied to the nurse that had asked him about his arms and physique; it was massively due to the amount of cardio and martial arts training. Only recently, in maybe the past five years, had the young man began to use weights and even then it was so infrequent he doubted it did any good. Though maybe since that he was a part of the Joes now, it would eventually become a part of his daily routine and it could even help him get a better lift off for his jumps and kicks. If not, he could always just stick to what he was already doing since it was getting the job done as it was.
Following his master, Echo smiled when he saw the soldier known as Heavy Duty waiting for him and happily shook his hand when it was offered to him. He liked Heavy Duty; maybe it was the bluntness that the man had displayed when accepting or it was the humorous exchange that went between Ripcord and the man before him, but the young man felt an odd kinship with the man.
"Alright, kid. We're going to see what you physical limits are and so we've organized a series of tests to see where you stand in relation to the Joe standard." Heavy Duty explained, Echo nodding; it made enough sense to him and he guessed that he should be able to handle some tests from these military elites, only a little worried by what he would have to do. "We're first going to do a fitness examination with Sargent Stone, so we can see how strong and how fit you are. Following that, you'll have a firearms and accuracy testing with me, where I'll introduce to a lot of our standard weapons. Then you'll have your close-quarters-combat test with Snake-Eyes and Sargent Stone, where we can see what your unarmed fighting prowess is like, and we'll follow up with a driving course, to see how you can handle various vehicles. After that, we'll grab some lunch and finish the rest of the day after that. Cool?"
"Yeah, it's easy enough to understand." Echo said, fairly comfortable with what was planned for him. He wasn't too sure about the guns and the driving part of things, but he guessed he would have to get over that pretty quickly if he wanted to stay here at the Pit. "So what should I be doing first?"
"Well, since Sarge is running late, you go get stretched out and loosened up so when he gets here we can jump right into the testing." Heavy Duty suggested, pointing the young man across the room and Echo saw there was matted section in the gym. "That's the best spot for you warm up and we'll come get you when its time."
"Yes, sir." And Echo trotted over to the mats, running through the stretches that he could do loosen up and ready his body for the day.
A lot of them were simple enough and excellent for keeping the body loose and limber, but he just wasn't sure if he would have the time to go through them all. Echo shrugged figuring that he would just get as many done as possible, tilting his head back and then gently pushing up on his chin to stretch the front of his neck out. He then pulled his head to the right and to the left, finally lacing his fingers behind his head and pulled down to stretch out the back of his neck. He moaned at the tingle that slid down his neck and over the top of his shoulders, releasing his neck as he leaned forward.
Echo placed his hands flat on the floor by his feet, his breathing steady and even as he held his position and he then grasped his ankles. He gently pulled and he grimaced as his head lined up with his knees, letting go and straightening up. He leaned forward again, this time holding himself there long enough so that he could undo the boots on his feet and when he stood up, he slipped his feet out of them and set them aside. His training in Hapkido and Wushu demanded that he had a high level of flexibility and speed, his strength and agility mere by products of his constant training. It was why when he spread his legs out to the side, that he was able to push himself all the way down into the splits and hold himself there without much discomfort or strain. He missed the looks of surprised from the other soldiers because he leaned forward in the stretch and rested his upper body down on his forearms and focused on his breathing.
He carefully sat up, placing his palms on the mats firmly and straightening his arms out, and then slowly lifted his back over his shoulders with his feet sliding up. He exhaled sharply and tightened his lower back and legs as he carefully lifted himself up into a shaking handstand. His breaths were short and sharp as he tried to get his feet above his head, his body wanting to twist and turn in different directions, but he wasn't able to. He back rocked forward and Echo quickly bent his arms and tucked his chin to his chest, lowering his body to his shoulders and then rolling out until he was sitting up.
He could handstand against a wall and he could jump into the handstand but, for the life of him, he wasn't able to lift himself into it. It was a balancing exercise that his Wushu Sifu had given him but he still couldn't get it right. The one he got this morning must have just been a fluke or maybe because he was hyper-focused on himself in his dead quiet room but it was probably a one off thing.
"Well, I can see that your Snake's apprentice after that little show." A voice informed him from his left, Echo turning to see a gloved hand extended out to him. "The name is Sargent Stone, the head instructor for the Joes and I will taking you through most of your evaluation today."
Once Echo was on his feet and got a good look at the man beside him, the young man couldn't help but picture him as a military archetype, specifically the Hard Drill Sargent. He had the stereotypical square jaw and the thousand yard stare etched in his eyes that told Echo that it would take only the distinctively impressive efforts that would earn this man's praise. He had a black beret on his head with the GI Joe logo emblazoned upon it, Echo also catching a tattoo on the older man's right forearm and he thought it might have been the similar as the Joes insignia but with a more personal embellishment.
"Nice to meet you, sir." Echo politely said, shaking the man's hand that had helped him up and releasing the man's grip so he could get his boots back on. "I'm Echo, which I'm guessing that you already know."
"Yeah, Heavy filled me in as to what the general idea was to do with you today." The sargent said offhandedly, patting the new soldier on his shoulder. "You ready to get started, kid, or do you need a few more minutes with your yoga warm up?"
Echo scoffed at the joke, and shook his head. "No, sir. I think I should be sufficiently warmed up for now."
"Just want I want to hear." Sargent Stone said as Heavy Duty walked over and handed him a clipboard, the instructor glancing down the first page that was clipped to the small buckboard. "So, first thing we're going to look at is your basic level with exercises. We'll give you a time limit and we want to see how many of the exercises you can do in the allotted time."
"Hm, that doesn't seem too bad." Echo said, reasonably comfortable with his physical fitness. "Is there a certain amount that I have to reach?"
"Well..."
"For now, kid, we just want you to go all out, absolute balls-to-the-walls with these, okay?" Stone said when Heavy Duty didn't answer Echo and the young nodded in understanding, though it did make him wonder how many were really required. "So, if you're ready to go, let's start with some push-ups."
Echo knelt down on the floor and then realized something, raising his hand hesitantly. "Um, standard version or triangles, sir?"
"Just basic ones will do, soldier."
Echo nodded and then rest his body down, spreading his arms out to the side and crossing one foot over the other. He made sure that his hands were in the best spot for sustained pushups, knowing that if they were angled wrong it could cut down on how long you could go or how much energy you used. He glanced at his two instructors, giving them a nod to signify that he was ready to go.
"Okay, you going for two minutes starting...now!" The moment Heavy Duty began pronouncing the N syllable of now, Echo pushed down on the floor, his torso shooting up into the air.
As he rose, he made sure to exhale and to lift with his chest, back and arms instead of just letting one muscle group over exert itself, managing to keeping his back straight so that he could make his weight work for him. Another thing that he did was keep his core as tight as possible, using his midsection to center his weight as much as possible and to make his chest work. When it came time for him to lower himself, he made the descent a controlled drop by keeping his elbow joints and shoulder blade loose so that he could effectively bounce back upwards. He also inhaled the whole way down, ensuring that while he didn't fully inflate his lungs, he did take the needed amount. A surprising lesson he learned when he was much younger was how much breathing was able to affect the body and how you needed to make sure to keep breathing while doing certain activities.
As Echo plowed away with his push-ups, he didn't actually keep count but choose to displace his mind instead. He didn't want to think about how much the back of his arms were starting to burn or how his shoulder creaked a little bit every seven or so extensions. No, instead he focused his mind on keeping his arms moving and to keep going until he head the magic words.
"And...time!" Heavy Duty barked, Echo dropping his his knees down and sitting back on his heels with a grin splayed over his face as he breathed heavily. The rush he got was awesome, the muscles in his arms and chest warm and taunt. "Okay, Stone, how many reps did you count?"
"Ninety-five..." The older man said in disbelief, the young man kneeling on the floor lifting his hands up in victory. "How on earth did you manage to do ninety-five push-ups in two minutes, kid?"
"Back home...in the dojo...we had this competition called Ladder Reps." Echo explained as he caught his breath. "We had to do a certain number of reps of something to stay in the rounds...the rules were, you either had to match the reps done before you or exceed them, then the next person matched you."
"Damn, that sounds rough." Stone said as he squatted next to Echo.
"Well, when someone ups the game to doing clapping push-ups or handstand push-ups and the base number they set is twelve or fifteen, your stamina gets kicked up a few notches." The reserved young man said casually, swallowing as he rolled his shoulders.
"I'll say...maybe we should start doing something like that here." Stone said as he stood back up and nodded to Heavy Duty, the large man's stop watch beeping as he reset it. "Ready to do some sit-ups?"
"Sure, that would be fun."
Echo slipped his leg around to in front of him, rest back on his lower back and placing his hands by his head, and nodded at Stone. Heavy duty set him off again and Echo felt his torso snap up to his thighs, exhaling as he did so. He sucked the air back in as he fell back but made sure to keep his shoulder from hitting the ground and kept his core tight as he straightened back. He then snapped back up and repeated the whole process.
Again, Echo didn't count. Not because of pain reason since he always did crunches and other abdominal exercises, that this really wasn't too bad; no, he knew that if he counted instead of focusing on his form and doing the exercise right that he wouldn't be able to do as many as he could do. He briefly wondered if he would be able to do more sit-ups than push-ups, since he felt that he had more strength in his core than his arms and he was looser in his core than his shoulders. He just hoped that he got above-
"Time!" Echo stopped mid-sit-up, in what looked like a crunch, at Heavy Duty's command and let himself fall back, slowing his breathing. "Not bad, Echo. For two minutes, you got...?"
"I'll be damned...I got about eighty-two reps." Stone's gaze was on the young man before him, the fighter who was just at the legal age to drink was pushing his pelvis up with one leg over the other. He then straightened his legs out and rolled back, his hands under his shoulders as his whole body came onto his palms and upper back; with a snapping buck of his hips, the young man's legs flew forward and he flipped on his feet. "What the hell did you study again? The martial arts of Dragon Ball Z and Street Fighter?"
Echo had the decency to look embarrassed as he blushed lightly but also chuckled. He had gotten that comment, or at least ones similar to it, a few times... "I've only trained seriously in three arts, sir. Hapkido, Wushu and then Ninjutsu were my primary focuses and they just happen to have a very intense focus on things like balance, kicking, conditioning, grappling and, as you've seen by now, core strength."
What he didn't say was that he had often gone over and beyond the recommended number for the exercises given to him and would often train in the moves up to an hour after the class had been finished. The reason he spent so much time on the arts was because that he really wanted to push himself further and further until he was unable to progress anymore. But why?
It was the single most asked question that Echo ever received when it came to his desire to surpass his limitation. Why did he insist on pushing himself until he collapsed from exhaustion, till his knuckles bleed and his white gi became black from sweat and grime? The reason was because that Tobias really didn't have anything that his own except a nickname and the skills that he had rightfully earned and refined through his hard work. Sure, he had gotten good grades in school and he would have eventually found a school for higher education but the martial arts defined him. It was something that he excelled in like no other at his school and he truly loved training in the arts, to the point were he even considered becoming a teacher within the school.
Mind you, things had changed a lot since he thought about becoming a teacher...
"Alright, keep your secrets, Ninja Jr. Come on over this way." Stone mumbled, Echo grinning from ear to ear as he followed his two instructors with Snake-Eyes behind him. He liked these soldiers so far; they had been very welcoming and he enjoyed Stone's humorous attitude to the whole induction to the Joes. "You ready for round three, kid?"
"Yup, what's next?" Echo asked as he looked around and then happened to glance up, chuckling as he felt a wave of happiness hit him. "Really?"
"Yeah, but you don't get timed for your chin-ups." Stone said as he pointed to the red and black back above their heads. "Just do as many as you possibly can."
Echo nodded and glanced up at the bar, unable to stop grinning. His smile was from own personal feelings towards the chin-up exercise, which he found himself reflecting as he jumped up and grabbed the bar. The chin-up had a certain significance to Echo and that significance was that they were a mark of strength, a level of physical fitness, being able to lift ones weight, that the general society could aim for. He glanced to Sargent Stone and the man nodded, Echo beginning to lift himself up and down at an easy and relaxed pace while making sure to clear his head of the pipe each time.
This took Echo back to the first time that he was actually able to do more than three in a row, he had to be about sixteen years old at the time. He had been so excited, feeling his muscles push past the count of seven before he had to let go. Nowadays, he was able to do three sets of fifteen thanks to Dogen's focused attention and that was something he'd never thought he would be able to do a few years ago. He really did owe that small Japanese man a lot...
He groaned as he came down and struggled to pull himself upwards, his triceps stiffening and his back tightening up to compensate for the lat of arm lifting. He forced himself to get two more before his arms went slack, Echo breathing heavily as he felt the burn seeping in and then dropped down into a crouch. He actually stay on his toes and knees for a minute to catch himself, rolling his shoulders out to lessen the tension on his muscles.
"So...how'd I do then?" The young man asked as he stood up, a slight wobble in his step but he was fine once he opened up his legs a bit. "Sorry, I should have been counting but...my mind was just wandering."
"Its okay, we both were counting, right Sargent Stone?" Heavy Duty assured the young man and the larger man counted the tallies he had been making, whistling when he was done. "And that is a impressive tally of thirty-two clean reps."
"Huh, interesting." Echo said, mildly disappointed with himself as he honestly thought he had done more.
"What? You don't too satisfied about that." Heavy Duty observed, noting the number down and patting the young man on the shoulder. "Trust me, its a lot more that what some people have managed."
"I guess..." Echo said accepting, rubbing the back of his hand against his chest. "I was just hoping I could do more with what my old master had me doing."
"Well, what was that?"
"Fifteen chin-ups, four times in a row?" Echo said hesitantly, rocking his head from side to side. "Eh, he would also have me do push-up in-between on some days."
Heavy Duty stared at him and then started chucking while Sargent Stone rubbed his face. "Kid, your gonna fit in just fine around here."
"Awesome, man." Echo said, surprised and happy to hear such praise, dissuading him from thinking about his short comings. "So, does this mean I get to know what the repetition count was for then?"
"In certain military factors, like SAS, Navy SEALS and the Army Rangers, they have base physical requirements that applicants need to have if they want into the program. Since you haven't been through any military training and the Joes are above special forces, we had to get a measurement of what you were able to do." Sargent Stone explained, allowing Heavy Duty to do some more calculations and notations. "They all roughly have the same exercises that they use to assess their candidates and so we took their numbers, found a common average and used that as our physical requirements."
"Do you guys just test us the once when we enter or is it a continual thing?" Echo asked, curious as the whole procedure was completely foreign to him.
"We normally have assessments at different times for different people. Some of us get tested yearly and others are tested every six months. I mean, some even get tested quarterly if their role in the field requires it or they are put under a year long probation." Sargent Stone helpfully explained, looking over to Heavy Duty who had finished with the tallying and then gestured to the machine at the large man's nod. "You use weights at all, kid?"
"Not really, not that much at least." Echo admitted, shrugging as they walked towards a long metal pipe with large plates on either end. "I used those hand held weight used for toning your biceps and triceps a little bit but nothing serious or frequent."
"Well, this here is the bench press. Its a workout that generally targets your chest strength, with a minor targeting in you triceps and shoulders." Sargent Stone explained as he patted the metal bar, sizing Echo up as he walked around the exercise station and began to rearrange the plates. "We just want to get a gauge of the max weight you can lift. And going by what we just recorded, I'm going to go on a limb and say we can start a little above a hundred pounds. Maybe a hundred and twenty?"
Echo shrugged and nodded, pretty confident since it was under his body weight. "Yeah, lets give it a shot, sir." He agreed as he sat down and lay back under the bar.
Under the bar, Echo noticed the textured sections of the bar and wrapped his fingers around them, rubbing the callouses of his fingers and hands against the tiny bumps on the bar. The reserved young man pressed his lower back against the bench, pulling his lower set of abdominal muscles tightly together and in doing so, tightened the rest of the muscles in his stomach as Heavy Duty stood above him, in what Echo guessed as precautionary measure. Inhaling deep and exhaling smoothly, he nodded to Heavy duty as he took another breath and exhaled as he pushed up on the bar. Clearing the hooks with the larger man's assistance, Echo began his reps in time with his breathing.
The weight, one hundred and twenty according Sargent Stone went up easier with his breath that expected and he held the weight above him without needing to lock his elbows. He could feel the weight but it wasn't that bad for him, something that Echo had a theory about. He was used to lifting his own body weight, over fifty times in some instances, every day ever since he was able to at sixteen. Echo knew that he worked different muscles when doing chin-ups but that didn't mean that there wasn't some kind of cross training going on with his body and the other muscles had to be getting some kind of training as a result.
"How's that feel, kid?" Heavy Duty asked, receiving an easy nod from Echo.
"This is pretty easy, sir. I mean, I can feel the weight and I feel the muscles working, but its not that bad." Echo explained, Heavy Duty helping him ease the weights back.
"Well, if that's the case, you could add a bit more weight if you want..." Sargent Stone stopped when Snake-Eyes rested his hand on the sargent's shoulder. "What's up, Snakes?"
The fully clad ninja made some signs and all that Echo caught was the number three and then the ninja master pointing at his bar. "You want to what? Snakes, man, I know you got high hopes for the kid, but..." Sargent stone began and Echo furrowed his brow in confusion.
"What does he want to do, Heavy Duty?"
"He's talking about adding thirty pounds..." Echo didn't really see the big about that - "...to both ends of the barbell and increasing the weight by sixty pounds, making it one-eighty." Echo now saw the concern the other two had.
But then he saw how the ninja master was looking at him. Echo knew that they hadn't know each other very long but his master seemed to think that he could do it and given his previous physical test, Echo didn't disagree with his master faith because it was fairly well founded.
"Hey, Sargent Stone?" Echo called, sitting up as he drew the attention of both his superiors. "Let's give it a shot, okay? I mean, Heavy Duty is right there and can jump in if I have too much trouble, right?"
The drill sargent glanced between Snake-Eyes and Echo, sighing as he nodded. Echo watched as the extra plates were loaded on and rolled his shoulder back and forth as watched the bar above him. Getting the okay, from Stone, Echo grabbed the bar and took his two deep breaths. The bar was now one hundred and eighty pounds, Echo nodding to Heavy Duty as he lifted the bar up and the two guided it out to over his chest. Heavy Duty, however, kept his hands near the bar as the young man lowered it down.
Now this time, Echo could feel the weight as he lifted it up and down but it just felt like he was finally using his muscles. He had no idea why, but he felt a smile spreading over his face as he smoothly lifted the bar up and down, his upper body heating up slowly as he kept his repetition clean and smooth as before. He counted about fifteen reps before he nodded to Heavy Duty, the two of them easing it back into the slots above him.
"How was that then?" Sargent Stone asked, his tone playful and Echo had to smile back.
"Better, I could feel a lot more working this time around." Echo replied, rolling his shoulders forward and back.
"Excellent then." Sargent Stone said, making a note before looking back at Echo. "The gym here is for you to keep your self in the closest thing to your physical prime as possible and you can work with the older and more experienced Joes here to refine your body. Just ask anyone and I'm sure they'll be more than willing to give you some pointers."
"And if you want, you can always tag along with me and Snakes when we do our gym routine, kid." Heavy Duty cheerily offered, Echo slightly unsettled by his smile. The larger man then patted his shoulder, gesturing for him to follow. "Come on then, its time to show you my end of things."
Curious by that statement, Echo wiped his sweaty palms on his sweat shirt and followed the larger man with Stone and Snake-Eyes coming right behind him.
"Right, before you are all the firearms that we carry at this base. We will be introducing you a large variety over the next few weeks and from there, we will decide which firearms suit you best." Heavy Duty informed the young man that sat before a table that was covered in guns. "From assault rifles, to pistols, to RPGs, to sniping rifles and even throwing knives and grenades, you will be educated in their advantages and disadvantages so that you can learn to counter-attack them in the field."
"Yes, sir." Echo acknowledged quietly, his eyes studying the weapons before him.
Guns didn't interest him much. In fact, Echo had a great disdain for guns and preferred to use his body as the weapon. Aside from seeing them on TV and in video games, he had never used one or even seen one and didn't really find anything about them appealing. The skill required to fire a gun versus the skill to defend yourself without weapons was grossly different in his mind, as you just had to have the gun facing the general direction to kill someone while using your body took so much more practice; the guns of today made something that once was a hesitancy to perform now an almost a careless afterthought.
But this was a part of the job and he was going to do this job right the first time, despite how he might feel about the weapons of choice.
"Today, since you've never fired a gun at all, we want to expose you to a variety of sidearms and assault riffles that we will use in the field and give you a general target practice." Heavy Duty explained, walking around to the other side of the table. "Other lessons will involve learning to give maintenance to your weapon, how to identify other weapons by their gunfire, accuracy improvement and shooting with teammates in formation."
"So, today will be about me getting use to actually using a gun, right, Sir?" Echo asked and nodded when he saw Heavy Duty nod. "Okay, were do we start then?"
"Right, come around this side and let's start you off with something small." The larger man said as he picked a small gun that looked liked it was only meant for one hand and once Echo was beside Heavy Duty, the older man held the gun in the flat of his hand. "This one of the many sidearms, or more specifically handguns, that we employ here and one of three pistols that are frequently used in the field. This one is a Walter P99, a nice light and accurate sidearm and an excellent accompanying weapon for a larger assault rifle. The safety on the side here is engaged so no rounds will discharge and to fire, you will have to switch that to disengaged. For now, just have a feel for the weight and the grip."
Echo nodded and tenderly picked the firearm up from Heavy Duty's palm, the grip fitting easily into his hand. It wasn't as heavy as he initially predicted and the grips held the gun in his hand in a comfortable, his index finger resting unnervingly naturally beside the trigger. The top of the gun sleekly blended into the handle and upon examination of the weapon, the only part of the gun that didn't smoothly flow into itself was the light under the muzzle and the small bump under the handle.
Lifting the weapon, Echo placed his other hand under the gun and settled it halfway on the handle's base and on his hands. He swept the weapon around with in his sights, trying to gauge what he would use to aim or if he would just have to develop that sense over time. As he moved the weapon, he felt a button above the trigger of the weapon and tentatively pushed it. After he pressed it, he felt a vast majority of the weight in the gun shift and something fall into his left hand, the hand that cradled the weapon and his right hand. As he lowered his hand down, a long slender piece of metal slide from the weapon and Echo noted the bullets racked into the piece of metal that he removed.
He gave a glance to Heavy Duty as he slid it back into the handle. "This is a...clip, right?"
"Right, and you found the eject button for the clip, or a magazine being the other technical term. Once you spent all of your rounds in a clip, you eject the empty one and slap a new one in there." Heavy Duty instructed, Echo repeating the motions again and this time gave a harder slap to the magazine, a louder click sounding out this time. "That's the stuff. Now, grip the top of the gun with your non-firing hand and pull back. That's what's called the slide and it will load the ammunition into your gun so you can use it. The entire reloading process is a two-step process."
Echo gripped the top of the gun between his finger tips and his thumb, pulling until he heard a rhythmic clacking sound. He now knew that the weapon in his hands was load and made sure to keep the muzzle tilted towards the ground, away from anyone around him. The young man couldn't say that he wasn't interested to see how it felt to fire a gun and to see if he would be any good at it, though his dislike of firearms still remain in the back of his mind.
"I only need to do this when I put fresh clip in the gun, right?" Echo asked, studying the gun with such an intense focus that you thought he could see the mechanics in an exploded view. "Or do I need to do this to fire every time?"
"Just the time that you put a magazine in. After that, the process is pretty much automatic and self contained. The only exception is cocking back on the hammer but that is done to increase the sensitivity of the trigger on your first shot and to prep your self for shooting at someone."
"The hammer?"
Heavy Duty reached through Echo's line of sight and point to small tail of metal that was at the back of the slide, a small hook with textured grip on the top. "This part right here. Its called the hammer, the part that strikes the back of the bullet and fires off the bullet. Back when we didn't have automatic firing technology, you would have constantly had to keep pulling back on the hammer for each shot."
"But, automatic fire makes an unnecessary action nowadays?"
"Correct. Only a few of us on the base actually use revolvers, which are single shot guns, while the rest of us use guns like in your hands, which are pretty designed for automatic fire." Heavy Duty explained and then pressed a button, an image of a man with a rifle fading into existence. "Alright, now I want you to disengage the safety, line up your target and fire a single shot at him."
Echo nodded as he turned to the image more fully and took up a supportive stance, exhaling as he flicked down on the safety switch. He looked back up at the target, lifting the gun up so it match the line that his vision had on the target. He was annoyed at the wobbling of his hands and took a long and slow breath to help steady his hands, the gun slowly leveling out as he hesitated slightly before squeezed on the trigger.
The sharp bang of the shot was not something that Echo expected and spooked him slightly, the recoil shooting all the way back to his shoulder. But he kept his eyes towards the target, even as he flinched and blinked at the shot, and watched as the image stumbled back, folding back to protect his chest where Echo could see the distortion of the image. From the anatomy that he had learned from Master Dogen, he guessed he had hit the top of the man's lung and damaged the shoulder blade on his right side, which meant that...
"You clipped the top of his left lung and took out his firing arm while not cause immediate fatality." Heavy Duty said as Echo re-engaged the safety and looked back at the older man, who was studying a screen. "You disabled him and allowed for his capture rather than out right kill him."
"Yeah, I guess I have to get used to the notion that I'll have to shoot and fight to kill at times, huh?" Echo asked as he looked back at the image that had come back up. "I'll go again."
"It's not a bad thing to be reluctant about killing, kid. That's something that you need to hang on to because it'll help keep your humanity." Heavy Duty said reassuringly as he approached the young soldier while Echo disengaged the safety and sighted up his next target. " You just need to be able to-"
Echo fired without saying a word and this time he forced his eyes to stay open, his arms bent more for the shock and the kickback. The figure this time just snapped back at the head, like he had taken a hard jab to the nose and just fell back. The young fighter's gaze fell first to his target and then to the gun as he engaged the safety again, knowing full well that he had hit the target that he initially intended to hit on his first shot. He knew the logic of a gun was that it traveled in a straight line and so he knew all he had to do was make sure that the starting point and the target just lined up.
"...to turn it off once in a while." Heavy Duty finished slowly, their eyes meeting briefly as Echo licked his dry lip unsteadily. "I think you might be getting the hang this."
"Just maybe, sir."
"Well, lets look at some of these other weapons then..." Heavy Duty paused as a door opened and Snake-Eyes entered with a small bow. "Hey Snakes, you got something specific for Echo to try?"
The silent master nodded and walked over to the two, Echo checking to make sure that he had engaged the safety before handing the gun off to Heavy Duty. His master then pulled a pair of metal disks with razor points sticking out, the young fighter immediately recognizing it a signature ninja weapon called a shuriken, and a throwing knife with a nylon wrapped handle. He rested them on the table and gave Heavy Duty a series of quick and smooth hand gestures before giving Echo a pat on the shoulder and giving a thumbs up before he left the room.
"Snakes has to go and run a close-quarters training session, but we'll catch up to him in a bit. He said he wants you try and use these weapons before we finish up or go any further." Heavy Duty explained, Echo nodding as he followed the instructions and gingerly picked up the throwing knife and spun it in his hand as to get a feel for the balance. "With the throwing knife, you can either hold it by the blade or by the handle when you throw as each grip will be better for a different distance. This is mainly used to slow your opponents down or to disable them for interrogation but your master tends to use them with lethal precision. More so than I do."
"Okay. So, should I arch over my shoulder or around from my side?" Echo asked and furrowed his brow in confusion at Heavy Duty's shrug.
"Sorry kid, but I can't really tell you that one. It's not like shooting a gun because that has generally universal fashion in how it can be used and which way to hold it." Heavy Duty explained to the confused new recruit. "With knives, there are so many ways to use them and a lot of applications for them; with those variations also comes the various methods to use a knife and it ends up boiling down to your personal preferences of how you like to use a knife."
Echo shrugged and looked back at the holographic computer-generated image, tossing the knife up in the air in a slow manner. He then caught the handle between the heel of his palm and his fingers, with his resting on the bridge of the handle and his index finger resting on the back edge of the knife. His arm was heavy with tension as he lifted it up past his head and then relaxed as he wiped the edged weapon forward with the speed of bullwhips snap, the hurtling through the air as his arm stopped just in front of his face. Unlike the bullets he had shot before, the knife sailed visible through the air until it struck the man.
Unfortunately, the pommel of the handle struck the man instead of the blade and the weapon clattered harmlessly to the ground, the holographic image stumbling about. Echo sighed dejectedly and shrugged at Heavy Duty, gnawing on the inside of his lower lip. He wasn't surprised that he couldn't make the shot the first time but he had gotten a little over-optimistic after the two lucky shots that he had fired off earlier.
"Don't sweat it, kid. I'm sure that Snakes will have you tossing those things around blindfolded in no time." Heavy Duty assured him, the two turning to look at the firearms again. "Let's look at using this assault rifle, the M16..."
The young soldier followed the tall black man from the firing range, flexing his hands as he still felt the foreign shock tingling through his arms as they entered a large cavern area. They walked past dozens of men and women training until they reached a circle of men and women that Snake-Eyes was overlooking with critical sight. In the center were two soldiers, who were trading blows backwards and forward until one hit the mats and yielded. Then the winner would stay and another challenger would come in, the two fight circling each other before clashing with each other.
Echo and Heavy Duty stopped behind Snake-Eyes and the young fighter then noted that Beach Head was standing next to him, taking notes on what looked to be an electronic clipboard. But then Echo was distracted by the fight as one man gave a hard right hook to his opponent and then planted an equally hard front kick to the man's torso. The opponent fell back but then took the aggressor's legs out and mounted him, raining down a storm of punches.
"From what I've gathered over the years, the rules are that you have to yield or be knocked out in the fight in order to leave the match." Heavy Duty explained in a lowered tone, the other soldiers loudly encouraging the one on his back. "Sometimes, Snakes will intervene but that's only if he's concerned about the health of the two fighters or someone getting too carried away. Other than that, you're on your own."
"So, he's stimulating a real fight for these guys then." Echo summarized, catching the older man nodding out of the corner of his eye. "Hmm, that's good to know; I'm used to fights like that. Is there anything else I should be aware of?"
Heavy Duty paused, the man on the bottom in the fight bucking his hips up to throw the other fighter of of him and rolled onto his knees. As the other man tried to get up, the pounded fighter delivered a swift jab and then heavy right elbow to the other man, knocking him down again. "Yeah, there is." He said evenly but also cautiously, which made Echo look at him. "Remember that that these men and women, their soldiers. They don't fight for tournaments or for defense, but to survive and to kill. They are hard people and you have to be just as hard to make it through."
Echo was silent and then looked back at the match, the man who had just been punched staying down while the other man stood in victory and the other soldiers cheered him on. "I think I can understand that mentality." Echo then look at his guide for the day and shrugged. "And if I don't, I'll have to learn it soon enough."
"Hey kid! Echo!" Echo turned to face Sargent Stone and the drill sargent gestured to the standing man, Snake-Eyes glancing over his shoulder to his new apprentice. "You ready to give this a shot?"
Echo bowed his head slightly and stepped forward, pulling the sweat shirt from his body and leaving it at the edge of the mats. As he joined his opponent in the middle of the circle, he rolled his wrists and shoulder to jog them from their static hang and he bounced on his toes to wake up his legs as well. The man shook himself and then lifted his hands up by his head, nodding to Echo. The younger man nodded back and raised his hands in a similar fashion, beginning to circle with his opponent. He was in similar clothes to Echo, with the exception that his camouflage pants were a beige color, and they were also close in height, with the other man maybe being a slight inch taller than him. But it was his face that was nearly void of any tells and signs that Echo noted the most and it just gave him one reaction.
And that was to have a faint, ghost-of a smile slant onto his face.
The other stopped and shot forward with a jab, moving quite fluidly and with a good sense of his body but he dropped his guarding hand as he shot forward. Echo slipped to the outside of the punch, hopping his left leg up and then snapping his closer right leg into the side of the man's face with the flat of his foot. The man, in a lunge, wasn't centered or balanced to take such a blow and toppled past Echo, landing in a heap. Echo backed off and lowered his legs in case the rising soldier decided to take him to the ground. The man looked dazed and surprised, suddenly much more cautious of this young opponent that he now had in front of him.
He did try and go for a take down and Echo stopped him by spreading his weight more pushing down on him with his elbows, but he then missed the punch to the ribs. The man had a brick for a fist and the young man felt it, having a brief flashback to when Sensei Steven sparred seriously with him for the first time but this time he didn't freeze up. He wrapped his arms around the man and rolled himself to the side, both of them land on their side heavy. Echo quickly rolled around so that he had the man's body above his head and tightened his abs to pull himself up in a sit-up position, before arching back. The young man landed on his hands and bent them in as his body folded against himself, his feet arcing over in a semi-circle until his left foot smacked the center of his opponent's back.
After that contact, he then finished the handspring and flipped to his feet, spinning around to face his opponent. But the man was groaning as he rolled over, unable to pull himself to his feet and waved his hand under his chin, signaling his defeat. When he saw that, Echo relaxed entirely and helped the older man to his feet; the soldier nodded his thanks and walked to the edge of the mats. He then looked to the three instructors that were judging the fights for information as to what to do next, raising a brow when Snake-Eyes nodded into the crowds and Sargent Stone smiled a little smugly.
"Hey Talbot, hop in with Echo!" Sargent Stone called out, another average looking solder coming into the ring and Echo reflexively noted that he had tattoos on the side of his neck and he was in pretty good shape.
Echo and the soldier named Talbot circled each other, the young man taking his opponent's stride and size into account as he lifted his open hands to chest level. He remembered what Heavy Duty said to him a few minutes ago and understood that this was a combat-ready soldier and that he had to fight him as such. He wasn't going to be able to fight his normal defensive or patient way because it just wouldn't work in a more serious situation.
Talbot stopped and then lunged at Echo head on with a hook, the young fighter blocking him with the back of his hand. Another fist came in, this time to his ribs and his other hand slapped his forearm so his fist would swing wide; with both attacks so quick together, the man had unintentionally brought himself too close to the young man and let both of Echo's hands get inside his guard. Echo pounded four quick punches to the man's torso and then slammed both palms on his opponent's chest, Talbot falling back as Echo held his position.
Talbot was quick to rise, a good trait for fighters, and gave a roundhouse kick to Echo's side, the kick faster then Echo expected and made him grunt when it connected. The experienced soldier, seeing his attack work, tried to kick the younger man again but Echo caught the leg, bringing his closest knee up into Talbot's thigh. Snake-Eyes's new student didn't drop his leg but instead kicked the man's other leg out and dropped him on his back, stepping back. But Talbot was done, holding his leg that Echo had kneed and shaking his head.
"Williams, sub in for Talbot!" Sargent Stone called out and a heavy man walked forward from the crowd, Echo blinking at the man.
He was thick, a lot different from Talbot. If Talbot had been the quarterback in football, then William was like the offensive linesman that plowed through the defensive line. The shirt covering the large man, left nothing to the imagination and Echo could see that this man took pride in his muscles, probably exercising harder and longer than his teammates. So that meant that strikes might not be the best solution with him.
"Come on, kid! Free shot!" William goaded, pounding his beefy fist to his stomach and Echo gulped at the prospect but wasn't stupid enough to pass the chance up.
The young man took one step forward and brought his left knee up and he leapt into the air, his body twisted around as he coiled his right leg. When he had his back to the man, he pushed his right leg out with all his might into the man and forced his body to keep turning, giving a second strike, a front kick with his left foot. Williams stepped back a bit, his face showing surprise and Echo, not planning his landing, hit the ground on his back. He flipped himself up to his feet and watched as Williams rubbed his broad chest for a moment, smiling soon afterward which made Echo sweat even more. No, striking was going to be pretty much useless here.
The man then tackled Echo at waist, nearly knocking the wind from the young man upon impact and then managed to do so when they crashed to the floor. When they hit the floor, Echo did the best thing that Abby had advised him to do in such a situation and wrapped his arm around the man's neck in a guillotine choke. Williams tried to situp but found he couldn't because of the hold on his neck and began to panic, Echo hanging on for dear life as the man tried to shake him off. The reserved man felt the older soldier's weight lift off of his legs, planting his heels on man's hips and forcing Williams to roll over to the right.
Tightening his lock even more and pushing his hips up so his thighs were onto the man's chest, Echo slowly straightened his back began to close the air off to Williams and to stretch his neck joints out of place. The large man flailed about, clawing at the young man's shirt, trying to buck him off or even kick him, rocking his body from side to side with no luck until the attempts became weaker and weaker. Finally, after a few very long seconds, Williams reluctantly slapped the floor three times and Echo released him immediately and stood off of him so that he could breathe.
The large man looked very pale and had trouble standing, even with Echo aiding him to his feet. Two other soldiers, closer to Williams build, came over and helped him walk over to the edge of the mats, setting him down as Dr. Callahan looked over him.
"Hey Snakes, I think we're going to have to up the ante for this student of yours." Heavy Duty said with an ominous chuckle while Sargent Stone nodded in agreement, Echo shooting the men a worrying glance. "Richards, Bowman; front and center for this lad, boys."
The young soldier looked at the two men walking out, both limbering up as they bounced on their toes and shook their hands out. Again, these two looked like the average soldier in the Pitt and that didn't exactly make them stand out by much, aside from the fact that one was a sunny blonde and the other was a dusty brunette. Echo nodded to them and set himself into his loose stance again, this time closing his hands.
The other two didn't wait for him to move, both attacking him at the same time but at different levels; the blonde man swung his leg up in a high kick to Echo's shoulder and the brown haired man swept down at Echo's knees with his forearm. Leaning with the the kick as it came in, the young man kicked off the ground and leaped into a hand-less cartwheel over the lower attack. He landed in a crouch and rolled over his shoulders away from the soldier, standing up as the closest one lunged at him.
Echo stopped him with a hand on his opponent's right shoulder and blocking the left hook that came at his side. Pushing off the shoulder, he slapped the man in the face; it wasn't necessarily as fast or strong as it was hard but it did the trick. The bright red patch on the man's face blossomed and his eyes welled from a instinctive reaction that went beyond what a flinch was. You couldn't train this out of your body, it was a matter of the facial nerves being so sensitive. With getting such a broad strike in like a slap, he was triggering so many facial nerves that his sense would automatically go into hypersensitivity.
The man tried for another hook but Echo ducked under that and walloped the man with another slap on the other side of his head, the face moving away as his hand remained where it had met the cheek. The young man pulled back slightly as the other soldier kicked at him, the heavy front kick that followed up slamming into his chest. Echo stumbled back and hit the floor hard, rolling over his right shoulder onto his feet as the brown haired man advanced to him. He blocked another kick, moving with the blow to lessen the damage and slipped away from the slapped man as he tried for a quick hook to the ribs. The kicker moved to his left and a plan clicked into place, one that he had leaned from Abigail but he would have to improvise a bit...
He suddenly snapped a side kick to one man's face, a stream of curses flying from his mouth and when the man that he had been slapping around swiped at him, Echo slipped back and grabbed his wrist. He bent the arm, pushed up on the elbow with his free hand and then flipped him on the floor. Keeping his grip on the man's arm, the young man hopped his feet from the floor and scissor clamped them on the legs of the man he had kicked in the face. He twisted his hips and brought the man crashing to the ground, twisting the other man's arm so he twisted around to being face down on the floor.
Pulling his legs, Echo yanked the man's arm and wrapped one under it and then over the top while he put his other leg under the arm and that heel into his first opponent's stomach. Sitting back, the man yelped as a sharp shot through his elbow and shoulder and, knowing that one was taken care of, Echo looked at the man he had just swept to the floor. He had just rolled over onto his hands and knees, so Echo grabbed the man's closest ankle and used his back and stomach to pull the man over. The man's body sprawled and he slid over to new soldier, the reserved warrior wrapping his arms around the man's neck like a pair of angry pythons.
Alpha team had no idea of what to say while some of other soldiers which included Sargent Stone muttered an awed, "Holy shit!", at what the young man had done and Snake Eyes and General Hawk held their poker faces to not show how impressed they were with the young man.
Echo waited a beat for one of them to tap and when neither did, he tightened his arms and pushed his hips forward. The man in the choke gasped and the make in the lock grunted in pain, both pounding on the floor simultaneously. The moment Echo heard them hit the mats twice, he first let go of the man's neck and then pulled himself up to the man wrapped up in his legs, carefully removing himself. Once he was sure they were both free of him, Echo rolled onto his toes and then sprung backwards; his back arched over so that his hands would hit the floor first and then pushed up as he rolled down to his feet and into a loose stance while the blonde nursed his arm on the floor and the other man rubbed his throat.
"Now that, that was impressive, boy." Heavy Duty said, heavily patting the young man on the back so hard that Echo thought he was going to pitch over. "Anyone else want to give this kid a run?"
Everyone around Echo was muttering and whispering amongst themselves, not really jumping at the chance to go a round with the new Joe addition. "I'll take a swing at him." A female voice called out after nobody else volunteered, Echo looking over to the source of the voice.
A woman with black hair in a tight French braid, keeping her hair from her neck and shoulders and to her head, stepping out from the crowd, a lot of the troops snickering as she pulled her jacket off and cracked her knuckles. Echo couldn't help but see a lot of Abby in this woman, this soldier looked like it could be a future version of his close friend; her physique was well toned, her attractive body offset by her military dressings and violent intentions, a set of intense eyes and a forward attitude. The young man exhaled deeply and began to roll up his sleeves but was confused when the woman pulled two objects out, startled when they extended out three feet.
Echo was at a loss; did he fight her unarmed, with weapons as well or with what he could get; what was the plan here? He glanced from side to side while he hesitantly raised his hands and looked over his shoulder to Heavy Duty and Sargent Stone, his questions and confusion clearly over his face.
"Anybody have a baton to led to Echo?" Heavy Duty asked loudly, but no really jumped at the chance to hand him one or even see if they had one.
"I guess you gonna have to deal with Private Fantis on-"
"Hey! Kid!" Echo whipped around and he just caught the woman's movements in time to react; his right hand down to block a thrust to his stomach and his left arm braced against her forearm to halt her over head strike. "Me, I'm Fantis; I'm your opponent now, not them. So keep your eyes here."
She suddenly bent her left arm at the elbow and it dropped past his guard, the soldier nailing the young man on the shoulder. Echo grunt as he took the brunt of the pain, hooking his left arm over her arm and striking her in the face with a closed palm strike. As she stumbled back and he tried to follow up with another attack, the woman hooked her leg around and the young man leapt away from her surprising attack. She kicked at him again, this time with a front kick to his stomach and Echo tightened his abdominal muscles as he took the brunt of the attack.
The reason for this wasn't to show how strong he was but to keep his hand free and put her off balance, now that she had one foot planted against his stomach. Fantis swung her baton at the young man's head and he bent his knees as he dropped down, hearing the steel stick whistle above his head. She tried to get him on the back swing but Echo grabbed her elbow, stopping it in its place and gave her a knee to her ribs. He gave Fantis credit since she only grunted and tried to swat him with the other baton but he ducked under the strike. The young fighter's free hand went up and across, grabbing her free arm and crossing them over her chest right before he kicked the space between her left ribs and hip.
"Cute, but not that original." Fantis quipped before she vanished.
Well, she didn't vanish. Instead, the soldier had just dropped on the spot into a crouch and slammed the base of the left weapon on his foot, since her left arm was closest to the ground. Echo grunted as the pain shot up through his leg and her right-handed baton then swept his feet out, the young man dropping to the ground with an exaggerated slap. The slap came from letting his hand hit the ground to help break the fall and rolled to his right, kicking one of her knees with the heel of his foot. He brought himself up to his knee and when he saw her trying to stand up, the young fighter grabbed her by the belt and jerked her back to the floor. Fantis fell to one knee and Echo hooked his other arm around her neck and rolled her to the ground so that he was on top.
He caught one swing and then pinned her other arm with his knee, focusing on the arm he hand caught; he had her baton in the pit of his right arm, his right hand on her wrist and his left hand on her elbow. Fantis took advantage of his focus and bucked her hips, knocking Echo over her head. She grimaced as her trapped wrist burned with pain and released the telescopic baton, using her foot to push him further over. Echo rolled over onto his feet and grabbed the handle of the baton, rolling his wrist forward and back to get a feel for the weapon.
Fantis changed her stance up from before, her right side facing him with her right arm crossed over her and her left hand held under her right arm. Echo met her first swing with his baton and then had to immediately drop the weapon to his lower right side when she came through with the follow up attack, Echo taking some steps back as he observed his opponent. Fantis shot her arm out in a straight thrust and Echo tucked himself over, extending his arm in the same attack. The tip of her baton stopped short above his shoulder as his longer arms got to her side faster, the woman snapping the attack away and the younger fighter rolled on floor as she swiped over his head. Fantis pivoted around with a backhanded strike, Echo stepping back from the strike and he then dropped both arms to stop a front kick but she stopped her kick mid strike. Her foot slammed on the mats and the hook her baton right towards the right side of Echo's head, the young man's body recoiling from leaning forward to block.
Echo jerked his head back to avoid the baton but not entirely; while the metal shaft may have missed his right cheek, it caught the left corner of his mouth jerked his head off to the side. Without second thought to his possible injuries, the young man snapped his head back to facing Fantis and brought his steel stick into her right set of ribs with frightening speed. As she caved to the blow, Echo then brought the butt of the weapon, the reverse side of his fist, up and into her chin.
The heavy handed blow knocked her clean from her feet and Fantis landed with a thud, curling into herself as she groaned in pain. Echo just stood there, waiting to see if she was playing possum as he rolled his wrist and spun the baton in the air in patient anticipation. But she didn't get up again; instead she tossed the weapon away from her and Echo nodded, pressing the baton against his thigh. The collapsible weapon folded into itself and he dropped it as he leaned forward to offer his hand, pulling her up once she took his assistance.
"Nice hit, kid. You should fit around here in no time." Fantis said, shaking his hand once she was on her feet and nodded to him. "Might want to get that looked at, cutie."
Echo blinked and touched his cheek, his mouth twitching in pain as his finger brushed over the corner of his mouth. Pulling his hand away, he saw that there was blood on the finger tip and nail of his right index finger and glanced at Fantis. The dark haired woman winked at him as she collected her weapons and then went back to her place in the crowd, Echo looking at his examiner. Heavy Duty and Sargent Stone were looking between each other, trying to decide what to do, so Echo looked aside from them to Snake-Eyes, almost looking for instruction or advice.
Instead of either, the full covered soldier stepped forward and unclipped his combat belt as well as his wrist communicator, setting them down on the floor near Alpha Team and General Hawk. He then removed his sword, sheath and all, and rested it by his other equipment before finally taking his jacket off, folding it neatly. He then walked out onto the mat and stood across from Echo, the crowd around them growing nervously quiet as their faceless instructor stared at the new addition to the Joes. There seemed to be a silent communication between them, Echo nodding and bowing to his Ninjutsu master, which the older fighter returned. They then both took up their stances, Snake-Eyes low and guarded like a boxer while Echo was open stance and loose like a Kung Fu practitioner.
Suddenly, they were off; Snake-Eyes moved first and struck first, pulling one of his student's hands down and giving a closed palm strike to the young fighter face. Echo's head jerked to the side and snapped the flat of his foot to the inside of his master's rear leg, bring them into extremely close quarters. The young man ducked under an elbow and quickly stopped a surprising knee to his chest, stumbling away when his master smashed his other knee to his unprotected side. Echo dropped down and twisted around in the air to give a kick to Snake-Eyes's stomach, the surprising and desperate move knocking the older man to the floor.
Twisting his hips around so that he was facing the ground and then pushed up with his hands, swinging himself around onto his feet like a breakdancer from the street...which is exactly where Echo had learned the move from. As he focused on his master, Snake-Eyes just finished flipping up to his feet and lashed out with two very fast punches. The younger fighter slapped one down to the ground and palmed the other to the side, backing up as his master's body twisted around before swinging a roundhouse kick to his head. Echo leaned away from the kick, jerking his arms up when he saw the following up reverse-roundhouse kick and stunted his master's progression towards him. The man then swung back at him with the left hand, the right and back to the left, Echo keeping his arms up to protect his head. Throwing his shoulder into the middle of his master's back, Echo then shoved the older man forward and didn't see the reverse kick that caught him in the stomach and sent him stumbling backwards to his knees.
The young man rolled forward and then flipped backwards as Snake-Eyes swung another kick at him, stepping in to block the next kick with his right knee. He then kicked the older fighter backwards with a front kick to his chest and groaned in frustration when his elbow strike was blocked by the same attacked. Echo skipped backwards from the storm of punches from his Ninjustsu master and his eyes widened as the older man took to the air, spinning like a black twister. Echo saw the kick coming and braced himself as he used both arms to stop the kick at the end of those spin, his arms and legs shaking from the impact. But blocking that kick left him open and the ninja soldier switched legs to plow him over with a side kick. Echo fell back again but as Snake-Eyes approached, he kicked one of the man's shins back and then swept the other out, both of them on the ground now.
Both rolled to the side and came up on their knees, neither bothering to stand up as they just traded punches from their crouch positions on the floor. Echo primarily defended, but he started to strike the joints of Snake-Eyes as he punched at the young man and the master kept aiming for his student's midsection or his diaphragm. The older man suddenly dropped to his left and Echo immediately dropped to his right, a kick swinging just over his head. He then saw the older man twisting his hips and flipped upwards as a another kick was swung at him, landing in a crouch between the man's legs. Echo felt his master's boot hit his back and used the force to push forward into a handstand, looking his master in the eye before he twisted his hips and kicked the man right in the side of the head.
Snake-Eyes reeled from the blow slightly and Echo bent his arms so that his head touched the ground, rolling down and then up to his feet, breathing heavily as his master stood up. But Snake-Eyes didn't just stand up; he was actually already standing when Echo looked at him and had stepped into Echo's immediate space, swiftly striking three points on his chest which sent shocking pain through his body. The quiet youth yelp with pain and reflexively swung out with his right arm in an attempt to get space from his master. Snake-Eyes blocked the defensive move with his right forearm at his student's elbow and his left palm on Echo's wrist, then wrapping his right arm around the exposed and vulnerable limb while his left hand grabbed the young's shoulder. The military ninja then leapt up and swung his right leg over the boy's head as his other leg hooked around the chest, Snake-Eyes curling his body in.
All Echo felt was a sudden amount of weight and then his body was falling, his back slamming on the mats when he felt something around his chest and neck. When he saw that it was the legs of his master, he realized that Snake-Eyes was giving him an armbar but realized this too late as the older man began to apply pressure. Echo couldn't roll to release the pressure and the leg on his neck had its foot planted on the floor, the sharp pain in his elbow shooting through his entire body. The young man thrashed for a moment but eventually yielded, patting his master's leg. Snake-Eyes released the pressure slowly and crouched near his student, Echo breathing heavily as he caught himself.
"Okay, you guys, shows over!" Came the barking voice of Sargent Stone through the haze of adrenaline that Echo was still flooded with. "You all have training that you need to get on with, lets get to it!"
His right side throbbed from the previous fights and from the knee strike that Snake-Eyes had landed, his face felt a little puffy and swelled from the shots to the face and his chest was really tight from the pressure points that his new master had landed on him. His thighs also felt very tender, from all of the last minute things that he had forced upon his body to do and the sudden need for his acrobatics. Echo sighed as he eased himself up, Snake-Eyes assisting by gently pushing him up from the center of his back.
The young fighter rolled his shoulder in towards his chest and then pressed them back to open up his chest, the tension in his upper body slowly fading. Echo rested a hand on his neck cracking it as he sighed, pulling his legs in and stood slowly. He felt a hand pat his shoulder and he looked at Snake-Eyes, the mute ninja pointing to Echo, tapping his first two finger atop of each other and then give him a thumbs up. The young man blinked for a bit as he tried to figure out what was being said; he knew that it was about himself and that it was good but he was lost at the bit in the middle. He looked up at the masked visor of his teacher and got another pat on the back when the older man patted him on the back.
"Snakes is saying that you did really good, boy." The booming British voice of Heavy Duty explained, the gesture suddenly making sense. "I agree with him, you were pretty impressive. No wonder Snakes took you under his wing."
"Well, I think I was lucky rather than skilled." Echo said fairly, the confusion in Heavy Duty's face mirrored by his master's head tilting. "Well, most of those guys thought I was a kid and thought that they should take it easy on me, whereas I went in thinking I can't give quarter to anyone. Talbot didn't have to give me that opening and Williams didn't slam me but gave a safe tackle. They could have been a lot harder, like Fantis did."
"Mm, I see your point and not to mention that Fantis comes from a different kind of background than most here, so she she would run you to the ground."
"What do you mean?" That just added to his confusion.
"Her old man runs a stick fighting dojo, doing something called Escrima, and she was part of military riot police before she came here." Heavy Duty explained, Echo feeling the air leave him.
"See? I was lucky." He said, the older man sharing chuckle with Echo and the youth gestured to silent Snake-Eyes. "And then I had to spar with my master and he wiped the floor with me. I probably barely tickled those muscles of his with my half-ass tricks."
"Well, be that as it may be, you still held on longer than others have and at least the others look like they had a hell of session for once." Heavy Duty said encouragingly, Snake-Eyes nodding with the words that the taller man said and the Brit then clapped Echo on the back with laugh. "Aren't you glad we did the firearms test before this and not after?"
Echo smiled broadly and nodded, looking up when he saw that Sargent Stone was beckoning to him to come over to him. He respectively bowed to his master and shook Heavy Duty's hand before jogging over to Sargent stone, pulling his hoodie over his still warm body. He had no idea what they would want from him next but it would be better to be safe and take care of his muscles rather than injure them and be sorry.
As the young man trotted off to Stone, Snake-Eyes released a breath he had been slightly holding and pressed his palm to his stomach. Now that his own adrenaline was wearing down, he could feel his new student's sneak attack a lot more and was lucky that his abdominal muscles were so heavily conditioned. Had they not been, then he knew he would have been facing a chipped or a completely broken rib rather than the deep bruising he would be suffering. He had been caught unaware because it was so uncommon for someone to be able to manage twisting themselves around and give power to their kick while falling to the floor.
Also that unorthodox kick to his head was not to be ignored either; to leap or to even fall into a sustained handstand was impressive but to manage to co-ordinate your body to twist forward and then back with a kick without falling or injuring yourself was even more so amazing. Perhaps it had been a one time fluke or it was a result of his dedicated training, but the ninja master knew that he would be foolish to not encourage his student to explore such a fashion of fighting. It was a shame that he didn't take advantage of his kicking abilities but he had shown very impressive tenacity and diversity with his background of three arts and no military training against the elite in the armed forces.
But there was another confusing aspect of the young man that was weighing on the military ninja master...
"So, Snakes, I take it the kid managed to get a good hit on you then." Heavy Duty said mischievously, his remark not a statement but rather a tactful observation.
He actually got two good hits on me. I underestimated his creativity and his willingness to take risks in a fight. Snake-Eyes admitted, smiling under his mask and giving a slight shrug. I think that maybe his potential is broader than what his previous teachers thought.
"What do you mean by that? I thought this kid came recommend because he was the top of the class." Heavy Duty asked, now confused about the youth.
Well, he was in a way. He was a very disciplined and respectful student who was willing to sacrifice his progression for a respect to the arts that he trained in. Snake-Eyes said, his hands moving ever so smoothly. I think, however, that there might be more to it. He trained for twelve years, with such incredible focus and drive but his ranks don't reflect that.
"How so?"
He should be a second degree black belt in more than one art, not just a simple black belt. Not with the skills that we saw here today. It first registered to me when I discovered that he became a red belt in Ninjutsu in under three years, though the master felt that he could have been a black belt. Snake-Eyes said, watching as Sargent Stone and Echo walked towards the vehicle bay. I understood that he was attending school at the time, but he was also registering close to four hours every day of the week and six hours on weekends at the dojo without fail.
"So he managed to earn a high ranking belt in a certain art. Maybe it was just better suited to him." Heavy Duty suggested, the masked man shaking his head. "Some people just respond to different areas or different methods better than others."
The Art of the Ninja is a very complex art and takes many people their entire lives to master, myself taking close to four years to earn my black belt and I was consider a child genius by the Arashikage Clan. The ordinance expert slowly started to realize what his shorter friend was implying. So explain how he achieved a red belt in one of the oldest arts under a master I studied with in three years but then only a second dan black belt and a black sash in twelve years with other styles?
"...I...I've got nothing for you, Snakes." Heavy Duty said honestly, his big arms folding over his chest and he looked to his friend in serious contemplation. "Are you going to ask about it?"
I may. It's not really a serious concern but it does raise certain questions about Echo. I know that he had trouble with some classmates that treated him rather roughly but something that petty would be the last thing to slow him down. Snake-Eyes admitted, his hand pressing against his stomach again and he sighed slightly more heavily. He then caught Heavy Duty smiling at him and cocked his head in confusion. What is it?
"Its nothing really, but..." Heavy Duty chuckled and patted the smaller man in a brotherly fashion before he continued. "I think that you made the right call in taking this kid under your wing. And funnily enough, he's pretty much exactly what I pictured you to be like as a teenager."
Snakes thought about it, his mouth slowly spreading into a smile and he scoffed before nodding his head and moving to teach his next class of unarmed combat. Heavy Duty called out a farewell as he hurried to catch up to Stone and Echo and Snakes waved his hand over his head in acknowledgment, watching as the next group of soldiers gathered at the mats. He was confident that his student would be fine while he took this class and would catch up with him at the obstacle course after his vehicle testing and lunch. Seeing everyone ready to begin, Snake-Eyes took the floor and gestured for the highest ranked soldier to help him demonstrate, thinking that a refresher in grappling might be needed...
Echo rubbed his neck as he followed Sargent Stone into the mess hall, his body still groaning from the sparring matches and the heavy weights he lifted beforehand. Now that he was slightly cooler, all the strain of his muscles was coming back to him and he felt a little stiff as he stood in line for food. He quietly collected his food and followed Sargent Stone to a relatively empty table, glancing about as he took his seat.
"So, hows the first day been, kid?" Sargent Stone asked him as Echo tucked into his food.
"Mm, it's not too bad. I like the challenges that I'm getting, though I think driving is something I need a lot more practice at." Stone rolled his eyes as he chuckled and Echo had to smile; the man had been in the jeep with Echo when he took it for a spin and they both agreed that it was not one of Echo's more...refined talents.
"Yeah, I think we'll just keep you as a passenger for a little while longer." The drill sargent verbally jabbed and shook his head. "Oh man, I don't think I've ever felt that uneasy in a car in my whole life."
"Oh please, it wasn't that bad, was it?"
"I think I may have gotten some gray hairs from it, so yes."
"Ah, you just a sissy then." Echo quipped and Stone gave him a mocking glare.
"Hey, hey, watch it. I still got to give your obstacle course evaluation today." Stone teasingly threatened and Echo shrugged.
"Should be fun then." Echo decided and smiled at the scoff that Stone gave him, tapping his foot as he thought about his day. "So, what else do I have left to do?"
Stone's face took on a contemplative look, Echo taking the time to savor some of the food while the drill sargent thought things over. "Hmm, let's see...obstacle course, stealth, um, swimming and I think you'll get an introduction to logistics today."
Echo nodded, wondering what the obstacle course could be like and he would have asked the drill sargent if a woman didn't come over and catch both of their attentions. "Sargent Stone? I have some inquiries and results that General Hawk would like you to overlook."
"Yup, I'll be right there." Stone said with a slightly exaggerated sigh and patted Echo on the arm. "No rest for the wicked, eh kid?"
"Apparently not." Echo agreed and tapped fists with Stone. "I'll see you after lunch, Sargent."
"See you at the obstacle course." Stone called as he left the table.
Echo waved to the back of the drill sargent and resumed eating his lunch, musing over the events that had happened to him today. It was a lot more than what he had initially expected but at the same time it was a little like what he thought this would have been like. It was his first day and they were taking it relatively easy on him because he was new to the military but it was still hard work. He was solidly exhausted after everything that he had been doing, especially after the sparring, and he was glad that he was getting a chance to take a break before he just jumped right into the obstacle course.
Now that was something that he was looking forward to, especially given the technology that he had seen all around him so far. If they had a course with the holographic technology and the touch responsive screens or textures that he had been seeing so far, then the course could possible react and alter to him as he progressed through it and that would be amazing. It would thoroughly suck to be sprinting down the course as it rearranges or even attacks him, but it would still be an absolutely amazing application of the technology that this military base seemed to overflowing with.
Echo paused in his chewing, considering what other educational possibilities there would be for him and wondered if he would be able to learn a bit more about the technical aspects of the facilities. Then maybe he would be able to dim that damn LCD screen mounted in his room. But as he thought of learning and lessons, he wondered what Snake-Eyes had in store for him next, the master very hard to predict in Echo's mind. He possessed a similar asymmetrical thought process as Dogen, where he connected random things together and incorporated dozens of lessons withing a single action. It made him a little terrifying because of his professional specialty and his physical prowess.
There was no doubt that he looked up the older man and he did wish to follow in his footsteps a bit because it was an amazing possibility. He could become a master of the ninja arts and use the skills that he had religiously strengthened for a good purpose, defending his home. If that wasn't a worthwhile pursuit, then he-
"So...who did you bribe to get here?"
Echo blinked as he was interuppted in his musings and glanced to his right, slightly surprised to see Talbot standing there. He then let the words really sink in and turned to the older soldier as he his brow furrowed, pushing his tray aside.
"I'm sorry, but what did you say?"
"I asked who did you bribe or blackmail to get on this base?" Talbot sneered as he spoke, folding his arms over his chest. "I mean, that seems to be the standard fashion that new people get in nowadays and your not even military trained."
"Look, I don't know about the people that came in before me, but I was recruited by Snake-Eyes after a recommendation by my old master." Echo explained, trying to defuse the situation.
"Oh really? Huh, I wonder how long it will take you to get assigned to a squad or for you to get promoted to one of the alpha teams." Talbot rhetorically mused and the overrode any answer that Echo could have given. "I mean, you were handpicked by Snake-Eyes himself, so that I guess that makes you better than all of us."
"I didn't say that, you're just jumping to conclusions." The younger man said trying to reason with as he became aware that the entire mess hall was watching them. "I'm here on a probationary conditions-"
"Yeah, we know all about those 'probation conditions', kid. Last two cowboys that had those attached to their files were lobbed into Alpha squad within twenty-four hours, so its only a matter of time before your barking orders at us."
"Ease up, Talbot." Echo and the older soldier both turned to see Fantis leaning against her table as she watched them with irritated interest. "You're just sore cause a kid whose about ten years younger than you managed to get the better of you on mats."
"Can it, Fantis!" Talbot spat, his blue eyes burning as he glared at her. "I seem to recall this runt wiping the floor with you too! Only reason this wet-nose punk got the drop on me cause I took it easy on him."
The younger man felt his face flushing in embarrassment at being the focus of this argument and felt his hands tightening at the words that Talbot was tossing around, his mouth curling in a sneer. "Yeah, that was your mistake not his, Talbot." Fantis said with a drawl, shrugging as she glanced at the person they were arguing about. "I mean, you can tell by looking at him that he's not gonna be your normal opponent and I got a sneak-peek thanks to Williams."
"Pft, the kid was just lucky." Talbot scoffed, his next words turning Echo so cold that ice would have felt scorching. "Just cause he's sucking Snake-Eyes off to get his place here, doesn't mean he's actually a student of the man. He probably learned some stupid Tae Kwon Doe off some hillbilly hicks and idolized that UFC crap."
Fantis sharply glanced at Echo, who was almost blankly staring into the space before him and then slowly stood up. Talbot kept his eyes on the younger man as he picked up his drink and sipped on the water slowly as he walked away from the table. The quiet young man set the glass down on the steel table and slid it towards to his tray as he wiped his mouth. He could take the trash talking about himself, he was well past used to the verbal diarrhea bullshit from others and thought it was normal.
But no one, not a single soul within striking range, ever talked smack about his masters. Ever.
"If you're so upset by the fact that you weren't ready for the fight, lets have a rematch then." Tobias said gently flexing his shoulders back and forth as he spoke. "I mean, you must have a good grasp of my skills after watching me and Snake-Eyes spar, so what have you got to loose?"
"Alright, kid. Just keep in mind that I won't go easy on you this time." Talbot said as he pulled his service jacket off and lifted his hands up.
However, Talbot was unaware of how infuriated Echo was with the man before him because of the disrespectful words he had spoken about his masters and decided that he would give the man what he wanted. As soon as Talbot's hands were by his chin, Echo shot forward in a black and white blur and the older man was taken back when Echo simultaneously blocked his hook punch with his forearm and delivered an elbow to Talbot's solar plexus. This was the perfect target because it robbed his opponent's of their air and took away fifty percent of their strength when struck with enough force. It was an ideal and strategic spot to strike, especially with a conditioned soldier like Talbot who was use to taking unguided punches to his gut.
The sudden gasp from the tattooed man was the perfect signal for Echo because it told him that Talbot was breathless and he was caught off-guard; pivoting around towards Talbot's outstretched arm and grasping it with both hands, Echo effortlessly tossed the man over his shoulder with a well timed hip throw.
Talbot landed hand but he had a good recovery but Echo was already moving in for the finish. As Talbot spun around and stood up, Echo was stepping forward and dropping down. He then palmed on of the man's knees out to the side, punched the inside of his opposite thigh and then struck both hips at their connecting joint, effectively taking Talbot's legs away from him. As Talbot's legs gave way and he began to crumple, Echo shot up and leaped straight up, lifting his right leg as he vertically rose up.
The hard conditioned knee of Echo met the unsuspecting stomach of Talbot and the older soldier crumpled to the side, his face red as he tried to get his breath in with short-sharp gasps while Echo took long deep breaths to calm himself down. There were just some things that he couldn't stand and having someone verbally cut down his master was a very quick way to get on his shit-list.
"Damn, kid, you really don't do things by half measures, do ya?" The amused tone in Fantis's voice surprised Echo, especially when it came from right over his shoulder. He glanced at her, seeing that she was shaking her head at Talbot. "I'm not all that surprised since Talbot tends to speak before he thinks and doesn't like being shown up."
"Probably wasn't the smartest thing that I could have done, to be honest." Echo said in a slight mumble, only to get a light punch in his shoulder by the female soldier.
"You stood up for yourself and showed him, and the rest of us, that you ain't gonna take any shit from us. Not a bad approach in the long run of things." Fantis said, gesturing for him to take a seat and she sat opposite him, shrugging slightly. "Short term it might be a problem, but you should be fine as far things go."
Echo blinked. "Aside from the ass I just kicked, who is going to get annoyed with me?"
"Heh, good one, kid." Fantis chuckled at the younger man's joke and she shrugged. "I think you might get disciplinary warning from General Hawk or Sargent Stone and Snake-Eyes might have a word...or a sentence with you, but nothing that serious. You weren't technically in the wrong."
"Depends really..." Echo's half-spoken, half-mumbled comment was none the less caught by Fantis.
"On what?" He looked at her in confusion and she rolled her eyes. "Depends on what?"
"Depends on the point of view you take." Echo clarified, shrugging as her confused look. "I could get in trouble to being childish enough to rise to Talbot's challenges, or it could be seen that I instigated his first attack by rushing him like that and played on his responses, or maybe Hawk would see me abusing my position Snake-Eyes apprentice."
Fantis raised a curious brow. "That's a rather well-thought and intricate thought process you have there..."
"I was an orphan in a school with privileged kids that I over-passed at every test." Echo explained, fiddling with the edge of his tray. "I'm used to people to finding very inventive reasons for me being the culprit."
"I'm used to to people to finding very inventive reasons for me being the culprit." Echo's voice sounded grainy as it came through the speakers at the security station in the command room. The technical and security analyst technician that sat in the seat was Elisa Edwards, or more commonly called Cyber by the other technicians and soldiers that she worked with. And she was used to working with them, but she wasn't used to the audience that was gathered behind her.
Namely that the presence of General Hawk, the silent form of Snake-Eyes, the looming Heavy Duty and the scowling Sargent Stone. She pushed her glasses up her nose and fingered an imaginary lock of brown hair behind her ear as she fine focused the security angles for those around her.
"That lousy rat...I'm gonna hang Talbot out to dry for what he did." Stone growled, Cyber gulping slightly when she heard his knuckles popping.
"Wait till he's at the obstacle course. After the stunt he pulled with Echo, I'll gladly ensure some bruises are given to him." The promise of injury from the large British man wasn't unusual but he didn't tend to take to newcomers so well.
"At ease, soldiers. It seems that Echo took care of the problem on his own and I think the humiliation of having someone younger than him beat him twice is going to sting more than any punishment we could think up." The words that the General spoke made a lot of sense to Cyber but didn't mean she had to like them.
The guy that Talbot had provoked, a young man that the others had called Echo, was still sitting with Private Madison Fantis, codename Whiplash, but now they had been joined by two other soldiers in her unit and their conversation wasn't as audible now as it had been before; Cyber switched cameras and zoomed in slightly so she could see his face a little better. His face was lean and he had a significant weathered and worn tone to his facial features, but you could definitely tell that he was a fighter.
Though the funny thing was that Elisa was twenty four, putting her three years Echo's senior but she never would have guessed by looking at him. Just from looking at him and from listening to the way that he spoke in the conversations, she felt that he would have been older than her by two or three years at least and most certainly not be younger.
"I agree, Snakes. I think we should hold off on the rest of the physical testings for today and have either Lifeline or Psyche-Out have a sit down with him." Heavy Duty's voice made her jump slightly and she glanced over her shoulder to the four men behind her. "I would like to have a better understanding of what's happened with this kid before we do something that triggers a reaction we don't want."
"Agreed. I'll have Psyche-Out free up his schedule for the earliest time possible and Snake-Eyes, I want you to talk to him an see if you can't figure out some of the blanks in his life." Hawk assigned, Cyber gnawing the corner of her lip in thought. "You're right; somethings just aren't adding all the way up with this kid and I would rather keep him that loose him. As for you, Heavy Duty..." And Cyber tuned out of what was being said.
She couldn't help but stare at this Echo as he stood to leave and pulled his sweatshirt on, his piercing eyes almost like that of a snake in the grass that was waiting to hunt for prey.
Two "Yes, sir's" chimed out and Cyber looked up at General Hawk, who sighed and rubbed his face. "Is everything alright, sir?"
"Private Edwards, have you ever known that someone younger than you had been through hard times but had no idea of how to help them?" The older man asked her, the young woman licking her lips as she looked back to the screen.
"I used to, until she and I swapped places. Then I realized nothing could help, everything only made it worse." Elisa answered softly, hesitating before looking back at the General.
He looked at her like a grandfather who realized that he really didn't know the lives of the grandchildren that lived around him and he was beginning to realize the enormity of the weight that had been unfortunately place in their lives. He realized that dysfunction and traumatized lives were just as easy to find as healthy lives. "Hmm, not really an encouraging answer, soldier."
"Sir, sorry, sir." Cyber said quickly as she turned back to the screen and removed the security feed, jumping back into the work that she had been doing. Until she felt a heavy hand rest on her shoulder, her speedy typing halting mid-keystroke.
"Any insight is helpful, Private Edwards. Thank you." The older man said, patting her shoulder before he nodded. "As you were, Cyber."
Elisa smiled and turned back to her screen, her fingers soon dancing over the keyboard. "Yes, sir."
Having be told by Sargent Stone to wait in his quarters until his new master arrived, Echo was doubting the assured words of Fantis a little. He stood in the middle of his room and wondered what he should be doing, glancing over his shoulder at the door as he heard someone walk down the hallways and then past his room. Sighing, he crossed his arms over his chest and lifted his right hand up to cup his chin as he contemplated his next move when he spotted his duffel bag sticking out from under his bed and it sort of haphazardly and nonchalantly suggested what he could do.
"Might be nice to unpack a bit." The young man said to himself as he unwrapped his arms and stepped forward.
Pulling the bag out, he tossed it onto his bed and unzipped it to examine the chaotic mess that was left from his previous attempt to be neat. He started with a collection of four or five books, scooping them up and placing them on the left corner of his desk, seating them right under his table light. As he placed them on his desk, he opened the left drawer of his desk and went and retrieved his notebooks. After he had placed them away in the desk, he began to pull out his clothes, grouping them in orders of shirts, undergarments and pants as well as refolding them,
Many of the other orphans and Ian had noted that Echo seemed to have obsessive compulsion disorder, in where everything around him had to neat and in some semblance of order. But the only reason that he did order and fold things a specific way was because he liked to know where things were and by cleaning up his room and other such places, it felt like he was cleaning up his thought process. He organized his clothes in the closet that he had, humorously noting just how little his clothes filled, and then began to pull his various copied CDs that Ian had supplied him with over the years when he paused.
There was a box in his bag, drawn shut with red ribbons and hand-painted Kanji inscribed across it.
Echo set the CDs down on his bed in a heap and picked the case up, the grain of the sanded and painted wood filled with a weight in it. He carried it to his desk, taking a seat as he rested the case on the desk and just looked at it. Master Dogen had given him box just before he left the orphanage, telling him that he was ready to explore more talents within Ninjutsu. Echo had been far too nervous to open it on the ride to the Pitt and he had just lost track of the gift that his master had bestowed upon him but now there was no real excuse. But it was the character that Echo knew his master had inscribed on the wood and why he had placed it on the box that made him reluctant to open the box.
Echo only knew a little Japanese thanks to Dogen and he had been learning to read Kanji thanks to him and his Wushu Sifu, so he was able to recognize the painted character. It translated into "precision", a crucial aspect of the martial arts and an area of training of Ninjutsu that all students were to have before they progressed past their white belt. As he slowly untied the ribbons wrapped around the box, the reserved fighter could feel anxiety twisting inside him. Almost like the snake known as fear had wrapped around his heart and sunk its long fangs into his confidence and assurance. Because this was something that Dogen had given him, showing that he recognized him as a student that he could place his trust in and someone whose skills he recognized.
To open this gift was to accept that recognition and Echo wasn't sure he was ready to believe that yet.
He pulled the ribbons free from the box and then tentatively lifted the lid of the box, gulping slightly. He then relaxed when he saw a letter, picking it up and unfolding it. The handwriting of Dogen was immaculately neat and from just scanning the first few sentences, Echo could tell his master had an excellent grasp of the English language. Adjusting his desk lamp, the student began to read.
Dear Tobias,
I have been your master for three years, a seemingly short amount of time that seems so much long than what it really is. I have watched your growth in my arts and refine them constantly, setting a true example of what it means to be a practitioner of Ninjutsu. I can say without any concern in my heart that you will succeed with furthering your current skills in the arts and I believe you might one day succeed me as a weapons master.
I understand that you are most comfortable with the bladed weapons and the staff weapons, showing great skill with them. However, I am unable to give you a sword as a gift as that is something given to a holder of the higher black belts and in recognition of their devotion to the study of the sword. Instead, I have enclosed a weapon that I meant to introduce you to but you should be able to grasp the basic mechanics on your own and Snake-Eyes will be able to help you refine your technique.
In closing, I just want to say that I am very proud to have been your master and watching you progress has been one of the most enjoyable experiences I've ever had. Thank you for following the path that brought us together and for it leading me to one of my most promising students I have ever taught.
Yours Sincerely,
Motou Dogen.
A smile spread across his face as he finished reading the letter, folding it thoughtfully as reflected on his master's words. He had always heard Dogen give him praise and he always silently accepted the words with humility, but he didn't know the full extent of what his master's opinion of him was. Sighing with an almost foreign sense of contentment and happiness, Echo tucked the letter into the lid of the box so he wouldn't lose it and then looked into the other half of the box to see what he had been given.
The base of the box was coated with a dark red velvet, with almost a padded section under the fabric and atop of the wood frame. A chain was coiled in the center of the box and the two ends were hooked into the center of the coils. One end had what looked like a weight that he normally found on Wushu chain whips but this one wasn't covered in a bright cloth and was at least twice the thickness of the chain. The other end of the chain had a knife on a reinforced hoop, the blade length a little shorter than four inches and the handle of the knife a little longer than two and a half inches. Echo reached in the box and took a hold of the leather wrapped weapon, taking in the slight weight and the pulled that the chain had on the pommel.
As he pulled the blade up and fed the chain through one of his hands, Echo thought of how using such a weapon would be best down. On the one hand, he could use it in a similar fashion to a chain whip but with a greater focus to one end than the other and its defense again spears and swords might be better than that of a rigid weapon. But then again, it had the application of short edged weapon and a trapping weapon where he could get close and entangle his opponent's with the chain while applying the use of the knife.
As he moved the knife around in his hand and pulled the rest of the chain out, Echo was surprised to note that there were more papers under the gift from his master. Resting his new weapon on the table, the young man picked up the papers and was surprised to find that it looked and felt like a manuscript. As he turned the small booklet over in his hands, it he could feel the texture of older paper mixed in with new pages and the bindings that held the paper together looked fresh, like they had recently been replaced. With slight trepidation and a great deal of excitement, Echo opened the small booklet to the first page.
Tobias,
The weapon that I have given you is known as the kusarigama, one of my countries traditional weapons. Its name means "chained sickle" and the bladed weapon attached is normally a kama, a traditional Japanese field sickle. However, the knife is an adjustment the Koga-Ryu made when they adapted it into their forms because it was easier to conceal and the adjustments to forms and the weapon made the stlye of this weapon much more deadly. When the Arashikage developed off from the Koga-Ryu, we followed their weapon system very closely and this was one of the weapons we have adopted directly and has remained unchanged since it was integrated. I also felt that you would be more comfortable if the chain was attached to a weapon that you wear familiar with rather than one you rarely use.
This manuscript contains all the forms and katas that are associated with the kusarigama, all the way from the bare basics to the master levels of this weapon. I have inserted translations and have updated the information thanks to the years of experience I have had as the Arashikage weapon's master. This manuscript is a family heirloom and the only request is that once you have either completely mastered this weapon or you feel you are about to perish and cannot guarantee this books safety, that you please have it returned to my family in the Arashikage Clan.
I trust you now to blossom and develop your new weapon with your new master, for you are to become something truly unique. I trust you to find that uniqueness.
Motou Dogen.
Callused finger tips gently stroked the edge of the page, Echo looked at the weapon curiously and traced the groove in the metal of the blade. "A kusarigama, huh?" The quiet students said softly to the silent weapon, taking the handle of the knife and lifting it up. "I guess we're going to be getting to know each other very well. Maybe I'll even figure out what to name you one day."
He set the weapon down and licked the tip of his finger, leaning back in his chair while propping his feet up. With the manuscript carefully cradled in his hands, Echo began to read over the ancient and new texts that had been bestowed to him.
The silent figure of Snake-Eyes led a curious Echo through the Joe's complex, his sword handle extending above the jacket collar. He had been told by his new master that the rest of the evaluations would be finished up another day and that he wanted to speak with the young man about something instead. He wore a shoulder pack that had his new weapon in it, being hopeful that he would get the chance to experiment with before he retired for the night and possibly even ask Snake-Eyes for some advice. Echo was understandably uneasy with that delivery of news but at the same time, he didn't feel that he was in trouble but was rather being taken somewhere for his master to either gain insight to him or for them have a quiet lesson.
The young man noted briefly that they passed where his sleeping quarters were and were going down a section that was noted for being the recreational room for the Alpha teams as well as the smaller, more cardio based gyms and the briefing rooms. Echo guessed right as they veered to the right and entered a somewhat deserted room, with the exception of Breaker working on some new electronics. Snake-Eyes paused and glanced around the room, pointing towards a table with plastic chess pieces before they sat down at the table.
Chess was a game that Echo had learned from his buddy Ian, the smarter kid hooking his more physical friend into the game by telling him that the strategic board game could be used in everyday life. He had been exaggerating things with that statement but he did see the game in a lot of his fights, the three phases of the chess game occasionally linking up nicely with a few of his fights. Echo pulled the sleeves of his shirt up as Snake-Eyes removed his sword and gloves before taking a clear plastic pawn and cloudy pawn, hiding his hands before he held out his hands to his apprentice.
"Hmm, left hand, sir." Echo said, as he tapped the left hand.
The older man opened the hand that his student choose, the small cloudy piece resting in his palm and Echo turned the board around so his pieces were in front of him. His master tossed the cloudy piece in the air and the student smiled as he caught it, the older man shaking in a chuckle as his student set the piece down. Snake-Eyes briefly studied the board before he moved the pawn before his queen out two spaces while Echo removed his shoulder pack and he took his notepad out as his student pondered his next move, Echo glancing up at him as he moved a knight out from the left side of his board.
The master nodded his head repeatedly as he thought and made his next move, the apprentice patiently waiting and trying to learn from the developing game. As Breaker looked over at the silent game that taking place, even the technical genius was able to see the bonds of teacher and student in his close friend and the young man that had joined them. He smiled, relishing in the similar bond that he too had with Cyber. Respecting the privacy between the two, he returned to work as they got to know each other.