An Enigmatic Past (pt.7: A test of the Conscious)
Already almost a year has passed and so far the young hedgehog has survived his training. The setting is that of a dark room, all of the 80 trainees are dressed in their black trainer jumpsuits, black shoes, and black gloves, and on the jumpsuit is a yellow ring to symbolize their status, while student instructors wore blue, and instructors weren't held to the standard, though some wore red. Rane is sitting close to center, focusing in on every word his teacher has to say. His teacher is a top agent, part of the special assassination group, known as the Trinity of Twilight. His name is Nero and he is dressed in an unorthodox style, almost like he'd been born of the mystic ruins himself, he is of a maroon color with white stripes around his quills, he is only slightly taller than Rane, though appears to weigh less. His specialty is that of psychological operations, along with this he possesses the ability to create illusions using his chaos.
"Listen up and this is especially to those of you who plan to get into the Trinity. The first thing to defeating any enemy is figuring out his consciousness and subconscious actions. Once this is known, he becomes nothing more than simple prey, the only thing you have to do is choose the moment in which to strike. As for your training exercise, today you will all be going through a series of three tests. The first one has to deal with working as a team. You will all be put into groups of three, each given a secret codeword. If any of you at any moment give up the codeword, you will fail. Since all of you will be put in separate rooms, the first two to fail will repeat this exercise, while the last will continue on. If all of you maggots can last together for 30 minutes, then all of you pass. If two of you last 20 minutes you two will pass, and the person who quit will repeat. Do I make myself clear?" Nero says in stern manner.
"Yes instructor!" the trainees shout in unison.
"Ok, then all of you follow the student instructors over to the rooms. You will be blindfolded, given your word and sent through the test. By the way, none of you will know who's in your group. So trust will be key, along with loyalty."
The group quickly lines up and moves swiftly down until all are blindfolded with a black cold wet cloth. As Rane is split off into a room, he is told the word pendulum as his codeword. He is then shoved into a room where his interrogation begins.
"Ah nice to meet you, we wish not to harm you or your comrades." The man speaks with a thick tone in his voice, "But we need the password you were given by your government. You can trust us, we promise you amnesty into our country if you cooperate. Though if you don't, this could very well be a long day for you."
Soon Rane can feel as water begins to drip from above, water torture seemed to be the first, along with the psychological pandering. Rane so far felt that holding out shouldn't be a problem. He quickly put a smirk on his face and responded, "Well, ideally I haven't the slightest notion as to what you are concerning me with. I'm just a tourist wishing to photograph the beautiful countryside."
Anger soon came to the instructor as he struck the student with a wooden baton across his knuckles, before walking behind and kicking the back of the chair forcing Rane to the ground. He then bent down beside his injured captor and spoke again.
"I'm sorry to have to treat you so harshly friend, but you're not cooperating. If you wish to come out of this room with only these few bruises, then please cooperate. We are trying to be as hospitable as possible."
Rane knew that each sentence was nothing but lies. He was trying to get the young hedgehog to cooperate more easily. Though he knew if he kept calm and kept to his story he could last, that was only if they didn't pull some piece of evidence that would link him to the Organization.
"I'm sorry, but like I said. I'm just a simple photographer." The hedgehog responded quickly, while still grimacing from the pain.
"Fine you want to play it tough, then we will. Our hospitality has ended, we'll force it out of you until you die. Even if you don't give it to us, we know one of your comrades will." The instructor says as he pulls out a rope and begins choking Rane to the point of almost blacking out, he then takes his baton and begins swinging it across his student, striking anywhere from the chest to his hands. He then pulls a cigarette out and then lights, and pushes it into Rane's neck.
"Once again, I ask you what is the code. I am getting furious with your lack of cooperation, already your comrades have told us their parts. Give in and you may leave as is, I am being honest with you, now you should be honest with me! We know your name Rane!"
Rane just chuckles slightly and then spits into his interrogator's face. Though wondering if the instructor is lying or telling the truth, he doesn't care. He must survive this test and continue on.
"How about you just go kick a dead horse, I mean figuratively that's all your doing dumb ass." Rane retorts with a hint of arrogance in his voice, his ego only angering the interrogator.
In another room behind a glass window, the instructor Nero walks in and sits down in a nearby chair. "How long has this one been going and what's his team's current situation?"
"The other two have given up sir, even though this has been stated this trainee continues on. I'm curious as to why they're allowed to continue, he's been in there for nearly fifteen minutes." One of the student instructors responds.
"They continue, because I asked them to. In this situation I just want to test how long they'll hold out, if they'll still make it to thirty minutes, even though it doesn't matter." Nero explains the group inside, "If this one can, then maybe he can replace me someday.
Back in the room, the beatings have become more severe and water is now being forced down Rane's throat, still he continues on. His body though is becoming immensely fatigued and his mind is starting to crack. The only thing that holds him together is a sense of loyalty to his teammates, especially if they haven't given up.
"I've told you, this will only get worst for you. Though I must admit, I can begin to see your will fading. Your facial expressions and the condition you are in, give it away." The instructor taunts.
Rane just takes in a large breath of air, spits out the blood that has come from his nostrils into his mouth. He just stares into the dark cloth and says to himself, I believe this is the end of the line.
"You want your damn word, then have it. Its up yours, you stupid fool!" Rane yells as he braces for the next hit. Though none come, a buzzer goes off and the blindfold is removed. He is then helped to his feet and in front of him is the instructor, Nero.
"Well I must say I'm quite surprised, I never expected anyone to last 22 minutes of that and be the only one left, though we always expect 2 people of the team to fail and the last give up the word almost immediately after. You I must say lasted without giving up the word. The challenge is over, though this was only the first. We'll get you cleaned up and ready for the next." Nero says as he walks toward the center and pulls out a microphone and begins talking over a P.A., "For those of you who passed you will continue on, you will be taken to the next room where you will be given further instructions. For those of you that failed, you will be taken back to your rooms and given the date in which you'll retest."
Rane is guided into his next room; he is quickly wiped down with ointment and given a towel to wipe himself off. He is then given the instructions, his test this time is to play a game of chess against another randomly chosen trainee over a computer screen. All of the trainees are given a list of clues about their opponents' strengths and weaknesses. Six in all, though three are lies. Through this game Rane must discern his opponent's strengths and weaknesses by trying to use clues from the game. The clues Rane is given is timid, overaggressive, slow thinker, fast reaction, arrogant, genius. Rane takes a seat and starts the game. He is chosen as white and his opponent is given first move. The first move is quick, a pawn from B7 to B5. Rane knows the first move in the game is not necessarily a clue, so Rane makes his first move. He moves his knight into position from B1 to A3.
After several minutes of play and pieces captured on both sides, Rane has narrowed down his opponent's strengths and weakness. His weaknesses appear to be him being timid, arrogant, slow thinker. Though if his opponent were a genius, then it would be easy for him to disguise his true motives. Rane looks at the board; his queen is in position for a strike, though first he has to draw his opponent in. Rane makes his move, his bishop from H4 to H5. His opponent quickly looks at this as an opportunity and moves his rook down to take the piece, leaving his king unguarded. Quickly Rane grabs hold of the situation and moves his queen in. It's a checkmate, after a little over 30 minutes of game play. Rane wins, though barely, after looking at his pieces he can see his opponent in fact was a genius, though he didn't calculate Rane's move in. A door opens up in the back of the small computer room and Rane is pull from his seat and taken into the next room. In front of him is a wooden desk with packet of paper and a pencil next to it. He quickly sits down in a plastic seat and looks over the packet. It appears to be a combination of some sort of psychological evaluation, an IQ test, and a precognitive ability test. Rane guessed that the last two were unimportant and were just used for determining job placement within the Organization; it was the psych evaluation, which was important. Though from a quick overview, it wasn't testing Rane's psychology but his ability to determine his opponent's just from reading an overview on the person's battle tactics, background and history, and overall personality. From what he could guess, this was the way the organization developed assassins and spies, people who could read emotions well and know how to act on them. Rane went through the assortment of questions, ranging from fake battles with opponents to determining who in a room was his target. After around twenty minutes, Rane finished the complete test. He was then taken to a room where he waited another thirty minutes for his results. On the packet handed to him was the word pass in bold red capital letters. Rane read the overview; apparently his IQ was 142, basically a borderline genius. He was classified as highly intelligent, very analytical, and of medium precognitive ability. Though his weaknesses listed him as arrogant, egotistical, tends to be reckless. On the last line of the overview was written in bold lettering, to be given special training. Probably meaning that he might be placed in the Organizations top group, the Trinity of Twilight.
After around twenty minutes given to read their overviews, all of the members were instructed by Nero that they were free to deal with the rest of their day as they pleased. Rane quickly headed over to the chow hall to begin eating his meal after a long day of work. Afterwards he headed back to his room, freshened up and headed to bed to find what awaited him the next day.