Chaotic Worlds: Book 1

Chapter 9: Training

Disclaimer: The only thing original here is the plot and my characters. Nothing else belongs to me.

Universe ?

A small pool of black shadow slithered slowly into the cavern, leaving a small trail of black slime as it did so. There was a faint painful groan coming from it. On reaching the entrance to a large cavern, the shadow reformed itself and a wounded Razorpoint leaned against a wall, breathing heavily. He glanced inside the cavern then swore loudly. "I hate asking for energy from that pompous brat…" he muttered as he hobbled painfully inside the cavern.

It was pitch-black inside. Razorpoint walked inside a few steps, and then stopped. He waited a few seconds. Nothing happened. A muscle twitched above his eye. "TURN ON THE BLOODY LIGHTS YOU BLITHERING IDIOT!" he bellowed loudly, dark energy bursting momentarily from him.

"Oh fine, if you're going to be so snippy about it," replied a distorted, disembodied voice somewhere in the cavern irritatedly. The cavern was suddenly bathed in light, and it certainly looked a whole lot different. The cave was a dirty orange, and its walls were dotted with pulsating globes of decaying flesh of different sizes. Aside from the disgusting decorations, the cave walls were riddled all over with small white alien larvae, little fat creatures with no heads or eyes but a mouth full of sharp teeth at one end and a tail extension that glowed dimly at the other. These larvae were feeding on the slimy brown liquid that constantly oozed out of the pustules. "That better, Razorpoint?" asked the distorted voice again. It was as if the larvae themselves were speaking all at the same time.

"That's much better," Razorpoint replied grudgingly. "I need some healing, Maggot."

"So I see. The work of the Seven Seals, am I right?"

"I underestimated them." Razorpoint winced. "It was a painful price to pay."

"Did they pay the same price as you?"

"In a manner of speaking. I severely wounded one of them. A Fanell. But he'll live to fight me again, I'm sure of it. I will wait for that window…and when it appears again I will enjoy his death. Now heal me."

"Yes yes, you old codger, I know. Give me a while." Numbers of larvae gathered at a spot in front of Razorpoint. From the mass a vaguely humanoid figure made up entirely of those larvae rose up from the ground, all the while making disgusting squelching sounds. What passed for a mouth broke into a cheeky grin. "Did I creep you out, old man?" Maggot asked.

Razorpoint fixed a cold glare at him. "Maggot…I am losing my patience."

"You know, you're a really boring War-General, you know that? At least Aeon's some fun…" went Maggot as he walked over to a giant throbbing pustule. With a hard kick, it burst open splattering slime all over Maggot, revealing two humans chained by his larvae. He licked at the slime casually and went over to the person on the right, slapping the man's cheek lightly. "Wakey-wakey, sunshine. It's feeding time."

Groaning, the young man opened his eyes slowly. On seeing Maggot's grotesque figure, he broke into a loud terrified scream. Maggot just stood there sighing, and then raised his right arm at the prisoner. Swarms of alien larvae burst from his hand into the shocked man's mouth. The man struggled frantically letting out muffled screams before his eyes finally rolled back and he slumped against the wall, dead. The alien larvae did not waste time, consuming the corpse from the inside and outside until only the bones were left.

"I have to say, even though these humans provide some of the best life-force, they sure are noisy," said Maggot as he killed the dead man's partner and sent his larvae to consume her too. Razorpoint said nothing as he stood in front of the first group of larvae, absorbing the little particles of energy that now emanated from their tails. A small, cruel smile grew on his face.

Universe 1566: Mithril HQ (the following weekend)

Ken stood in the middle of the training room, breathing steadily, extending his senses. 10 mechanical fighters stood around him in a rough circle. Far above him, Van stood on the command platform, while a Mithril technician rapidly tapped in instructions into the computer for the practice bout. With a final tap on the keyboard, he turned and gave the ok signal to Van.

"Ken," said Van into his commlink, "you ready?"

"All set."

"This will be a timed match. Take out all the 'bots as fast as possible, no Blade. Feel free to use your lightning powers, though. The computer will start timing the moment you make a move. It's all you now, kiddo."

Ken just kept quiet, and took a deep, steadying breath. He crouched slightly, body tensed. There was a faint blue glow. And then he was gone in a flash. High above the training ground, Van leaned on the safety railing and watched as Ken proceeded to make short work of the training bots. He was done in ten seconds. He looked up to the sound of clapping, and then caught a sport bottle wrapped in a towel thrown down by Van. His voice came in through Ken's commlink.

"Great job there, little brother. Ten 'bots in ten seconds."

Ken grinned. "Does this mean I get a break?"

"Sure. Come on up, Lisa just brought lunch," said Van as he greeted his younger sister who just walked in the entrance to the training room carrying a tray of food. Ken easily leapt up a series of platforms and vaulted over the railing where the rest were happily tucking in. "Where're the others? Weren't they supposed to meet us here for lunch?"

"Maybe they're still training."

"Well then I guess I'll help myself to these," said Ken as he reached out for a couple of chicken wings and started eating, chomping on them happily. He paused in the middle of stuffing himself. "By the way, Van what're we doin' after this?"

"More training, what'd you expect?" asked Lisa disbelievingly, only to be answered with a withering look from her brother.

"You're no help, you know that?"

"Overload," said Van as he continued eating. "Next up is a little Overload, for all seven of you."

"Overload?" exclaimed Ken incredulously as he accidentally choked on some chicken. "Tell me you're joking, bro."

Smiling to himself, Van ignored his brother and walked out the training room. Ken looked at his sister, then at his brother's retreating figure. He suddenly scrambled to his feet and chased after his brother, protesting all the way. Lisa grinned through a mouthful of chicken as she continued eating.

Universe ?

The light glowing on Razorpoint from the last larva finally faded away. The War-General smiled grimly as the larvae scuttled away, some rejoining their master who stood facing his 'brother', others with their brethren on the grimy walls of the caverns. Maggot couldn't hide the smirk in his voice. "Feeling all better?"

Razorpoint nodded tersely. He hated having to be healed, and he especially hated asking favours form Maggot. Grudgingly he spoke. "I suppose I owe you one."

"Oh no, no! This one's on the house, Razorpoint! We War-Generals need to stick together, after all."

Razorpoint exhaled impatiently; he suddenly disappeared, reappearing suddenly right in front of Maggot, his face thrust in front of Maggot's own. Maggot had not moved, but his larvae on the walls tensed up, still. The cavern was suddenly quiet.

"What kind of fool do you think I am?" Razorpoint asked sinisterly. "I know you. Tell me what you want in return, or your larvae might need to do a second job. A more thorough job, at that."

"Alright, you win." Maggot's voice had changed too, becoming more business-like. "I want you to ask Father on my behalf for permission to rampage in the human world. In case you forgot, I'm kinda grounded."

"In case you forgot," said Razorpoint irritatedly, emphasizing the words, "you went overboard the last time, a hundred years ago you idiot. You killed our client just so you could satisfy your bloodlust. Because you wanted a quick fix, you deprived our Father of life-force, life-force that you knew was meant for him. The client was a human smuggler; he could have provided us a meager, yet steady supply. You blew it, plain and simple."

"And that was a hundred years ago!" Maggot snarled. "I'm getting sick of consuming my reserves. I want fresh life-force!"

Razorpoint turned away, smiling to himself. He could not hide his satisfaction of seeing the normally-joking Maggot on edge. He walked out the cavern, stopping at the exit. "I will do what I can, but remember. The Master does not forget easily."

"You owe me, Razorpoint! You owe me!"

Razorpoint laughed evilly and strode out the cavern, still chuckling to himself.

Universe 1566: Mithril HQ (Main Training Chamber)

The Seals were gathered in the main training chamber, the largest of all the rooms. A circle-shaped room, the training chamber was ringed by a raised command platform, on which Mithril personnel were standing. It easily dwarfed the other rooms that the newcomers had trained in, with a floor area that was bigger than the combined area of four rooms. Over on the ringed platform, Van had activated a hidden switch on the wall near the entrance, revealing an array of training consoles built into the walls themselves. He and Brian went over to two of the consoles, punching in procedures while Ken and Isaac briefed the other Seals on the next exercise.

"Right," Ken began, "this here's the Training Chamber, or as some of us like to call it -"

"It's just you and Sam," interjected Van cheekily from where he sat.

"Don't forget me! I came up with the nickname!" piped in Brian beside him.

Van instantly shot him down. "It's not original if you copied it from a comic book, man."

"ANYWAY," said Ken impatiently, "this place is also what we call the 'Danger Room'."

"Like the X-Men?" asked Kyle.

"Yeah, and with good reason too," said Ken. "Isaac? Care to explain?"

"The Danger Room's where the combatants are fully tested according to their abilities. The Danger Room is able to simulate environments, weather conditions and so on; it's not something we can fully do with the other training rooms. Besides, since it's the biggest of the lot, we can fit in a lot more combatants than the usual with sufficient room for movement. Because of this, the Danger Room is where we are only able to conduct the really tough training exercises, like the one we're gonna be doing soon enough."

"Overload, right? What exactly is it all about, Ken?" asked Jake curiously.

Ken grimaced slightly. "The only thing worse than Overload is its opposite, Survival. If there's a training exercise out there that's tougher than these two, I haven't heard of it."

"That bad, huh?"

"It's a test of endurance and teamwork while also gauging our individual abilities; basically we get thrown in one at at time along with a whole bunch of bots and we gotta take 'em out as a team, preferably as fast as possible. Let's take the seven of us as an example. Say, Matt goes in first. Computer throws in…maybe 20 bots, which is already a lot. After five minutes, Cassie goes in to back him up and so the computer sends in an additional 25 bots. Five more minutes pass. Jake's turn now, along with 30 fresh bots, and so on. You guys with me so far?"

"Damn."

"You can say that again, Matt" smiled Ken grimly. "Once all the combatants for that exercise are in, the computer sends in a final batch of bots, way bigger than the groups it sent in before and then everybody proceeds to duke it out until every bot is trashed."

"Then Survival is the opposite of this?" asked Rachel

"Exactly," said Isaac. "In Survival, everybody starts out but after a certain amount of time a combatant must leave the arena while bots keep coming but in smaller groups and so on and so forth. It's hard on the person who comes in first or comes out last, depending on the situation."

"Both these training exercises, Overload and Survival, are meant to simulate usual scenarios on the real battle ground itself," continued Ken. "There'll always be a case where one of us will reach the scene first and engage the enemy first while the others are on the way, with the Legion throwing enemies left right and centre at us. Conversely, there might be a case where we get badly hit or incapacitated or are simply unable to fight, one by one, by the enemy, leaving only one or two of us left. Survival and Overload are meant to prepare Mithril agents for that. So I guess to answer your question…yeah. It's that bad."

"So now that you know," said Van as he walked over to them, "I think it's time for us to begin."

Universe 1566: Mithril HQ (Danger Room)

Cassie and Isaac looked on as Jake vaulted over the safety railing and landed hard, legs extended, on top of a small group of training bots which had been trying to sneak up on Ken. The latter nodded his thanks and then, as Jake leapt up and out of the pile, directed electricity through the metal floor towards the fallen bots, frying them instantly. Both looked up to see around 40 bots leaping down on them; this was the batch of training bots that had been deployed when Jake had entered. They never made it to the floor in one piece though, as Kyle who was a short distance away sent a wave of wind razors straight at them.

Matt and Rachel, in the meantime, were standing back to back fighting throwing boulders and balls of light at the bots as they stood within a circle of earth spikes that Matt had created. "How about we throw them a curveball, Matt?" asked Rachel as she created a shield to protect her from gunfire.

Matt grinned. "One surprise coming up!" he yelled out as he suddenly stamped on the ground, launching the ring of earth spikes out of the ground straight at the bots. The other four Seals, having heard his warning, leapt out of harm's way easily enough. They landed confidently and broke up in different directions.

All around the fighters, the remains of training bots were strewn all over the floor of the Danger Room. It had been around 20 minutes since the exercise had started. Ken had started first since he had had prior experience with the exercise before. Matt went in next, followed by Kyle and then Rachel every five minutes, with fresh redeployments of training bots as each Seal went in.

Five minutes later, it was Cassie's turn and she jumped into the arena, summoning Bagheera as she did so. Both split up in different directions; Bagheera headed to where Rachel and Matt were fighting a small but persistent group of bots whereas Cassie went in the opposite direction to where Jake, Ken and Kyle were dealing with a larger group.

Bagheera tore straight into the training bots, fangs bared. It quickly made short work of a bunch of damaged training bots that wouldn't go down and then attacked other bots with gusto leaving two awestruck Seals. The group taken out, Bagheera trotted to Matt for its reward. Matt grinned as he scratched Bagheera behind the ear. "You're cute, and you kick ass. I'm definitely glad you're on our side." He looked up to see another small group of bots advancing towards them. "You want another scratch; you help us take out those buggers."

Bagheera wasted no time in attacking this new group.

"Matt! You better not be bullying Bagheera!" called out Cassie a few metres away. She turned and narrowly missed an attack by a bot. Kicking out, she hit it directly on its chest. As it staggered away, the bot was suddenly electrocuted to a crisp. But it was yellow lightning, not Ken's blue lightning, which still coursed through its remains. The Seals looked towards Cassie and saw an unbelievably cute little critter perched on her left shoulder.

"Is that…" began Jake.

"…a Pikachu?" finished Rachel incredulously.

"What? It was the only one that I could think of!" Cassie answered, somewhat defensively.

"Wait, wait, you're a summoner?"

"Looks like it."

The short conversation was suddenly interrupted by gunfire above them. Both Rachel and Cassie rolled away to the side, dodging the hail of bullets. The gunfire abruptly stopped, and the remains of two training bots suddenly fell to the ground. Ken and Isaac landed coolly in front of them.

"We can talk later after the exercise, ladies. Right now let's just finish this." With that, Ken powered up, letting electricity form around his wrists. He clenched his fists and wrist blades popped out of the energy. He then ran after Isaac who was running straight forward and throwing charged spirit cards at the bots, cutting down any remaining stragglers. The last of the bots finally fell to the ground and the Seals regrouped, catching their breath.

"Now it's just the last group right?" Matt panted.

As if to answer his question, hidden trapdoors opened and out stormed about a hundred bots. Jake moved to the front of the group, taking charge. "Bring out the Blades, guys. Let's finish this."

There was a bright burst of light which then vanished to reveal the Seals standing ready side by side, each holding their respective Blades. "We're good to go, Jake," said Ken.

Cold fire burned in Jake's eyes. He smiled grimly, and as he did so, flame flowed from his body down to the edge of his Blade.

"Take 'em out."

Universe ?

Razorpoint glided along the tunnel to his own caverns, idly listening to the screams of terror and pain that came out of them, caused by his fellow War-Generals torturing their own captives. There was a gurgling from the cavern on his right as he went past it. He stopped at the entrance to listen.

"What is it Sludge?"

More gurgling emanated from within.

"Father wants to see me? About what? The battle? I see. So I'm to report to him if I'd like a rematch with them, eh?

There was another round of gurgling followed by a long hiss.

"Well, I'm not too happy about having to bring Maggot along; Father's always pampered that spoilt brat. But I suppose I can let him get all the life-force he wants as long as he leaves the Fanell Seal to me." He bowed slightly in the direction of the gurgling. "My thanks Sludge, for this bit of news."

He continued on towards his own caverns. His black hood did little to hide the growing grin on his face.