PROJECT ARCHIMEDES
A "Way of the Gun" Sequel
7. CONFIDENCE
January 11th, 2011
Eureka, OR
The punch wasn't amateurish so much as it was out of practice. Jo handily evaded the strike and parried the blow just slightly off target, grabbing her assailant's extended arm in a tight grip and twisting. She broke the contact before she could elicit much more than a startled yelp of shock and pain from her student. She was sure at this point that said student was thinking of the relationship more in lines of tormentor and victim and less as master and disciple.
She disengaged and stepped away from her charge, expression neutral. "Allison," she said with a note of disappointment, "You really have to stop hitting like a girl."
Allison sighed expansively, her exhalation tinged with a measure of the frustration she was experiencing. Getting her old self-defense training up to date was not going as well as she had thought it might, though there was progress. She just wished it had been more rather than less.
At present they were in the basement of Jo's-and she supposed at this point Zane's-replacement home. Allison had been coming here twice a week for a several weeks now, ever since she'd felt the motivation to get out and about again. After Tom Baxter's Lobot fiasco and her subsequent violation at that asshole's hands she'd withdrawn from a lot of her life. Three weeks of leave with Idha taking over her duties, cancellation of virtually every external activity… It hadn't been healthy and as a doctor she knew it, knew she needed to get out and engage again, but it was so hard.
Jack had been a true blessing. Not demanding anything, always supportive, always ready to lend a hand, even refusing to judge her when she wished to pour her heart out at Nathan's gravestone. It hurt her that he couldn't be as understanding about other things. His dogged pursuit of the ring and ceremony was driving a wedge between them. If she was honest with herself, she thought, it was both of their behaviors that were at fault, but right now it was easier to blame the active party.
Allison sighed and brought her mind back to the training mat. "Sorry, Jo. I'm trying-" she began, but was interrupted from the sidelines.
"Do or do not, there is no try" said Zane, imitating that annoying green puppet from Star Wars. If there was one thing Allison was desperately grateful for in Zane and Jack's improving friendship, it was that the two of them could go see some of the lamer science fiction movies that she really didn't care for. Star Wars repeat viewings ranked among the highest, especially in Eureka. Every year it seemed the petition to get Gene Roddenberry's birthday declared a work holiday came up, over and over.
"Zane!" Jo snapped, sending a glare his way. He chuckled and held up his hands, blowing her a kiss, then went back to the computer sitting in his lap. He was here to serve as an additional "training dummy" if needed.
Jo resumed her ready stance and turned back to Allison. "Again!" she demanded.
Sighing in resignation, Allison resumed a ready stance of her own and prepared herself mentally for some more pain. Jo was trying to teach her a mixture of Systema and Krav Maga, two of the security chief's favorites. Both were brutal art forms, but also were easier to pick up than some other martial arts Allison had learned back when she'd been training to be an Agent for the DoD.
She was never expected to be a front line bad-guy hunter, like Jack had been, but the Department of Defense was serious when they passed out badges. If you were an agent, you were trained to do the job.
Jo showed her a few more maneuvers in slow motion, coaching Allison through the holds and the locks. The first was a variation on one of the earliest reversals Allison had learned from the security chief. In this instance an assailant grabbed you from behind, but instead of the awkward choke hold that was thought most common, the assailant's grab was to the shoulder to immobilize the target for a rapid kidney shot with the assailant's knife.
Allison did as she was bade and lined up for the strike, executing a grab on Jo from behind and trying to touch the training knife to her target. Jo, still in teaching mode, showed the slow motion reversal and disarm, which went by fast even on what Jo deemed "easy-mode". The finish to this variation spun the assailant to the ground while the defender reversed roles and now used the captured knife for multiple strikes to the lower rib cage and abdomen.
Allison tried her part of the maneuvers next, performing them again and again. It was Jo's mantra that "practice made perfect" and she was tireless in the role of torturer/teacher.
"Enough, Allison," Jo said with a smile a short while later, sensing that the lesson was rightfully over, even if Allison wanted to continue. There was a point you just didn't absorb any more. Besides they'd been at it for at least an hour-and-a-half. "Come on, lets head upstairs and get cleaned up."
Allison just nodded tiredly, picking up her water bottle from the floor and taking long pulls from it. Zane had disappeared somewhere during their last bout, but she'd missed that; not so much his smart ass attitude, though.
After catching their respective showers Jo and Allison met in the spacious and airy kitchen, taking seats at the breakfast bar attached to the island. Zane breezed by in motorcycle duds with a causal "Goin' for a ride, be back soon, love!" He also stole a somewhat heated but quick kiss from Jo before exiting the house and tearing off on his bike.
Jo shook her head and grumbled, "At least he didn't say 'babe.' Goddammit I hate that, and I know he says it just to get my goat! Beer?"
Allison declined, saying "No, thanks. But I will take one of those electrolyte waters I know you stock."
Jo snickered and grabbed one of the water bottles out of her refrigerator along with an unmarked brown bottle. She passed Allison the water and expertly removed the cap on her beer. "Missing out, I got this special from an old friend who turned cop out in Chicagoland. He gets it from some really hole-in-the-wall pub. Bobby says the brewer would kill me if he knew I was chilling it!"
Allison took a long pull from the spiked water, enjoying the rush from the crisp clean flavor as well as the immediate refreshment that had to be at least 60% placebo effect, but she didn't care. She make a face at Jo, saying, "He serves it warm? That's worse than cold beer!"
Jo laughed and took another pull from the bottle, savoring the flavors intently. "To each their own vice, right?"
"You sound like Charles," Allison laughed lightly, thinking of the suave and debonair time traveler for the first time in months.
Jo rolled here eyes. "The smooth talking king! He was a looker though. I know he hasn't been back in town, mostly because I haven't had to hear Jack bitch about him or break up a showdown on Main. You ever hear from him or find out where he's been?"
Allison shook her head and took another drink.
Jo smiled and said, "I could think of a few guys that could stand to have a tenth of his charm, Jack included."
Allison laughed lightly, disagreeing, "Oh Jack's got plenty of his own. It's the competence without having to boast though."
"Yeah? I can see that," Jo said absently. She heaved a sigh and locked eyes with Allison. "Alright, level with me. Vin says you and Jack are fighting, what gives?"
Allison flushed a little and looked away. "It's nothing, Jo."
"Bullshit!" Jo pronounced, but grinned widely when Allison looked up, eyes hard. "Neither of you two are half-way about anything. What's going on? Really, Allison. I'm not playing for the enemy right now."
Allison sighed and rested her elbows on the island. "I don't know, Jo. We got into it a little while ago. He really, badly, wants us to get married, and I'm… I guess I'm scared."
"Scared?" asked Jo. "Seriously? Jack's like a puppy in the attachment thing, and you and he are such good friends…"
"I know," said Allison shaking her head. "But lets be honest, Jo. What's my track record?"
Jo had been about to say something and paused, mouth open while she ran through that in her head. Her jaw snapped shut and she looked away. "I'm sorry for bringing it up."
Allison reached out and touched Jo's shoulder. "Don't be. Sometimes we all need to talk about things so we can deal with them."
"Hey now," Jo cautioned, "This isn't an open invitation to run a psych eval the security chief." She blunted the comment a little with a wry grin, but Allison could sense the tension.
She shook her head and smiled at Jo. "You're right Jo. Besides, Grace is much better at that, anyhow. This is just girl talk."
Jo chortled in a decidedly masculine way and took a slug from her beer. "I think I like guy talk better," she said with a wry grin.
"So you say," Allison teased. "But I remember you helping me buy my last wedding dress."
Jo blushed and dropped her eyes. "Hey," she said, "It was a pretty dress!"
Then her expression sobered and she said, "Seriously, Jack's on the matrimonial bandwagon… Want me to corner him and give him a direct heads up? You know guys, they don't get subtle. I picked up a little Martian in the Rangers."
"No, but thank you, Jo." Allison smiled at her.
Jo blushed a little and shrugged.
"I'm serious, you have no idea what a confidence booster you being here to help me has been. It's more than the training. You're helping me find a balance and it makes all this easier." Allison looked out over the back yard and the rest of the house that she could see.
Usually when in private with Jo, Allison got the secret girl that the other woman hid away so often, but when she smiled here the tough chick was making her presence known. "Being ready to kick a little more ass never hurts."
Allison raised her water bottle and Jo matched the toast. "To kicking ass," Jo intoned, "Literally and figuratively."
Helmfast 4th, 7th year of the Age of Ruin
The Traitor's Cathedral in Arvandor
Late in the evening… more or less.
"Hold the line!" screamed Davakos, his voice tight with tension. The mage began the preparations for his next spell, his voice slipping into the stilted patterns required to make Fire Evocation work. It rebounded off the high vaulted ceiling of the Traitor's Cathedral, it's once lustrous, now stained marble walls veritably reverberating.
"What does it look like we're doing, Dav?" shouted Einkloss the Weary, a grizzled veteran of many wars. Swearing in frustration he tried once more to pierce the seemingly impenetrable armor of his foe, a viscious Terror Wight and minion of the Shade of Murkos, one of the Black Archbishop's cursed lapdogs. As he struck though, the fiend's thick armor turned aside his blade!
Davakos didn't respond, wrapped as he was in the complex interactions needed for his magic to work at maximum efficiency. Einkloss shouldered a heavy blow from the Terror Wight's death blade, his armor barely holding up. Even so, the nearness of the evil blade was sufficient to begin draining his life energy. A cold black nothingness poured over him and the horrid creature laughed in his face.
To his left and right his allies fought valiantly, occupying the lesser minions populating this room of the accursed cathedral so that they didn't move beyond and begin killing his other allies. Avanadra and Ysrael, the healers, wouldn't last long if the gnashing teeth and sharped bone claws of the undead swarm moved beyond the line! Speaking of those healers… "Come on you two, I could really use some help!" he shouted into the fray.
He could hear a bit of mumbling between them over the chaos of the battle. Dammit! Had they forgot they were supposed to keep him up? It was basic tactics! If the main tank goes down the whole party suffers! Almost immediately, however, the warm glow of healing magic suffused him, rebuffing the draining energies of the Terror Wight. Einkloss struck back hard at the monstrous creature, one of his blows landing home.
To Einkloss' left and right, the other stalwarts of the Knights of Tenvierre were doing their best, but none of them had his veteran experience leading a raiding party like this. Korath in particular was flagging… Dammit! "The Unstoppable" indeed! The mighty warrior was much more oriented on outright killing his foes than distracting and detaining them, as was Enkloss' job. Tonight though, Korath seemed off his game. Sure he'd slain at least seven of the swarm, but his usual numbers were significantly higher.
The wight's dreaded blade slipped past Einkloss' guard twice, leaving dents in his armor and causing serious injury! He snarled in outrage. "Dav! Hurry!" he yelled, and summoned the power of his faith to injure the foul creature. A pulse of light washed forth from his shield, washing over all the enemies in the immediate vicinity, doing minor amounts of damage but angering them all… except for the three Korath was with! Dammit! Dammit all to hell!
It was too late, Korath was supposed to keep his designated targets in range so that when Einkloss used his magic all the enemies would focus on him! The blasts of healing energy that washed over him right then, for all the good they did, immediately doomed both Ysrael and Avandra. Korath's undead snapped their heads around, orienting on the healers and immediately bounded away from the mighty warriors' bloody weapons.
Davakos finished his massive spell, hammering down a column of soul-crushing flame tinged with the light from a holy Dawn Crystal trinket. Einkloss, equipped with the matching crystal, was spared the vast majority of the flame's all consuming wrath. The fire chewed away at the swarm and their wight commander, all the while the healers' magics holding his death at bay as he prayed for all he was worth, blasting the area repeatedly with holy vengeance and keeping them all on him as Dav's fire ate them alive.
At least that's how it was supposed to work. It started out just fine, but as the three swarmers made it to the healers, their concentration was shot. Avandra, clothed in only the holy raiment of a Druid of the Silver Forest, was no match for the bloody creatures that eviscerated her in seconds. A moment later Ysrael literally lost his head, and screamed in frustration before is voice was cut off due to the decapitation.
Without their healing magic to sustain him, the fire immediately began to bite Einkloss, and in moments he was dying with the rest of the monsters. The three creatures jumped on Davakos next, while Korath stood mutely in his fighting position. That was it...
"Reset, everyone!" Dre said into the microphone on his headset, staring in disgust at the computer screen. "It's a wipe, let them finish us so the healers can rez up and have us back at it. We didn't get the wight in time anyway, this whole zone will reset in 10 minutes."
Groans of disappointment and curses of frustration answered him as thirteen of the other members took their lumps. Immediately three private messages popped up on his screen, all blaming Kevin for dropping the ball and getting the party killed. "Way of the Dragon Warrior" could be tough as hell on the multiplayer parts, easily the most complex raiding formulas he'd ever run up against, and he'd been playing MMO games since he was seven, and leading parties into battle since he was ten.
He sighed, they were right of course, and thus the party/principality leader's job was never done. He fired off quick replies to ensure them that favoritism wasn't going to inform on whatever punishment he felt was just for the rogue player.
He switched his channel over to a private one he always kept open for his buddy and the web-cam immediately popped up, showing Kevin Blake bent over his table, scribbling furiously on a pad of paper.
"Kevin, what the hell, bro?" Dre began, but didn't get any response whatsoever. "Kevin, hey bro! Can you hear me?" he tried again, but like before got no response.
"Kevin!" he shouted, and the other boy jumped.
"Huh? What?" he looked around, then finally noticed the light on the web-cam and looked at the right screen. Slowly, a look of horror dawned on Kevin's face. "Oh shit, the raid! Oh no… what happened?"
"About to ask you the same, Kev. You just sorta zoned out and stopped fighting all that well. It's not like the wight's even a big boss, Kev, we've downed this jerk-off at least five times!"
Kevin blinked at the pickup and looked a little lost. "Sorry, Dre, I dunno what happened. I just all of a sudden started seeing it!"
"Seeing what?" Dre asked, confused. Sure the graphics were killer, and Kevin's rig could handle anything in the computing world.
"The math, Dre. I was looking at the screen and all the program math started making sense! I could predict every sword hit before it fell, man! Every single hit or miss! It was like I was channeling something, dude!" To Dre's eyes, Kevin looked to be disturbed and unsure.
Dre looked at his friend on the web-cam. What the hell? Was he busy cracking code while they were raiding? Seriously bad form… though of course, if Kevin could isolate that code it would give them an edge in future fights!
The healers were back now and starting to resurrect party members. Dre cautioned Kevin one last time to keep focused on the game and soon, and the pair turned their mics back over to the common frequencies so they could engage the rest of the party.
It was time for the Knights to try once more and fight their way to the crazed Archbishop! Justice, treasure, and experience points awaited!
Disclaimer: I don't own Eureka, it's characters, or its concepts, I'm just playing for fun and an educational experience.
Author's Notes: So I have a host of reasons why I haven't posted in forever, but none of them hold much water. More or less you can say I was regrouping (thanks QuasiOuster for the definition of that ;-)) There's enough going on that I can't just vomit up stream-of-consciousness babble and string it together into a story when I finally realize what's going on. My God! I have to plot? Heavens!
Kudos to you if you caught my Dresden Files reference. Also if you play any MMO you will probably recognize some of Kevin and Dre's game.
I've made some changes in response to Syndew's spot-on review (thank you for that, by the way) and I hope to more accurately capture Jo's voice. I've tightened a few things up here and there as well.
Please R&R, all comments and criticisms are welcome.