A/N: Last update for a week as I go on holiday. But I will update as soon as I et back
Have you ever been exhausted but forced to do continue physical exercise? I have I can tell you, that it is what I imagine hell to feel like.
Serjeant James Ironwood had forced me on a 45 minute run. We passed the same building seven times. Seven. James ran slightly behind me, shoving me forward or spanking my ass with his cane-whip-thingie.
I was dead after the run, when we returned home. James had more in stock for me. He wanted us to practice combat training after our run. Today we were training in hand to hand combat. I was never much of a fighter. A few fights every now and then which I mostly won, but they were never a challenge. Never an actual combat.
It was agony.
I swung a right hook. James leaned to his right to dodge. He punched me in the gut. I bent over clutching my stomach. He stomped on my foot and I pulled it up and grabbed it. He sweep-kicked my feet out from under me. "Ow." I groaned in pain as my head hit the floor. He put his foot on my neck. "You lose." He said. I brought my leg up and introduced my foot to his manhood. Hard. I managed to lift him a couple of inches off the ground but he went backwards as he stumbled in pain. He bent over holding his nuts with his hands.
I leaped up, pain all over my body. I spun in a roundhouse kick to his face. He fell to the ground. "I win." I said. He stood back up. "You sure can take a hit kid." He exclaimed.
His lower lip had been split by one of my punches. He also had a few bruises here and there, but it was nothing compared to my body. Which was a yellow-purple mess of bruises.
James' watch beeped. "Today's training is over. Good work. I actually felt that kick." James said with a large grin on his face. "Here rub this onto your bruises and they'll heal by morning." He added throwing me a tube of ointment. "See you tomorrow."
I headed into my room. There was no sign of any of the Schnee's. I went into my bathroom. I peeled off the maroon army training shirt and black cargo shorts. My body screamed in pain at every touch.
I enjoyed the warm water washing off the blood and soaking my bruises. I rubbed the ointment James gave me onto my body. I gritted my teeth to try and handle the pain. Every touch hurt. After I had finished I got out and wrapped a towel around me. I threw my dirty clothes into the laundry basket stepped out into my room and…
"ROOOOAAAARRRR!" I jumped forwards in fright. The towel caught my legs and I fell to the floor in a mess. Face-first on the floor.
Luckily my towel still covered my lower body. But I tried to hide the bruises because it was Glace. Unfortunately it was a difficult task. "I'm going to have a word with James." She said in a motherly voice. "Relax we were just training. You should see how bed 'He' looked." i told her
James had limped towards his military chopper. I regret doing it I really do… Ok. Actually I don't he's a dickhead who had it coming to him.
"Let me help you up." She said extending her hand. "No." I replied pushing it away. "You're not meant to be in here." I growled. "Why not?" She asked with a look of pure innocence. "Well. Firstly; I am naked, save this towel. Secondly; This is my room! And thirdly; You are my client and if we got caught like this…" I said leaving the sentence open. Glace smiled.
I realised I had fucked up. I glanced towards the door to see the elder Schnee man was there. 'Fuck' I mentally cursed myself. "It's all right Justis." He started. "I ain't gonna hurt you. At least not until you try and touch my daughter." I shivered "I just came to ask you a few questions. To get to know my daughter's bodyguard." He added. Glace took her que and left the room, closing the door behind her.
I threw on some of the clothes that had been bought for me.I now wore a long-sleeved shirt the majority of it was green but the sleeves were grey. The shirt read "Rebel." I also threw on one of the twenty pairs of jockeys. With a pair of black and red board shorts over the top.
"So what is your full name?" "Justis Sjin Kilimanjaro."
"How old are you?" "19."
"Where do you live?" "A long way away, Vacuo. Out of Vacuo but in that area."
I was answering all the simple, basic questions with ease. Then the bomb dropped…
"What's your semblance?" "I don't know Sir. I never got taught to use one so never learnt what it is."
"That's no good. You ain't taking my daughter anywhere without knowing what your semblance is. Now focus on the energy that flows around and through you."
"How da fuck is air going to affect my semblance?"
"Not air you idiot." "Ow." I said as he hit my on the head. So I focused on the natural flow of the world. I had my eyes closed. Concentrating. I opened my eyes nothing seemed to be happening.
Oh wait. Hang on a second is he moving in slow motion? Yes, I can slow time. Wait! Fuck! Why am I slow too? My minds working at normal speed but everything else is slow. Aha! My mind is running normal speed. I wonder if there's any food in the fridge? What time is it? I wonder what Hamish is doing at this moment?
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"Click. Click. Click."
There it is the sound Hamish was waiting for. He quickly jumped up and lay down fire upon the shooters. He emptied the mag then vaulted the bar. He began to hip-fire the shotgun he had. When he ran out of bullets, he flipped the shottie and held it by the barrel, using it as a club.
"You shouldn't have come back here!" He said acting all boss like Junior. It was Junior.
Junior rushed him with his baseball bat. Hamish rushed forward with his right fist raised. The bat collided with the fist. A large boom exploded. Then Hamish brought his heel up and kicked Junior in the face.
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Time seems to resume after I lost my focus. "Figured it out yet?" The man I learnt was named Winter said. "Yeah, time seems slowed, everyone is moving slow. Except my mind is moving fast?" I said unsure. "Strategic Thinking." Winter said. "It allows you to slow time so you can plan during things. You could see what's going to happen before it happens sort of stuff." He explained.
Wow. A completely fucking useless semblance.
After we figured it out, he left me alone in the room. I stripped to just the jockeys. And sunk into bed. The pillow was soft and fluffy, yet firm enough for my head. And the blankets were warm and cuddly. I fell asleep soon after even though I always had trouble getting to sleep.
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I woke at 7am. Well actually it was 6.55 am when I woke. But it takes me a full five minutes to get out of bed and get ready. I threw on a pair of jeans and the same shirt from the night before. Before placing my hoodie over the top. Of course the green D.C. sneakers went on as well.
I joined the Schnee family at the table. It was enormous. Large enough to seat a hundred people. Glace patted the chair next to her. Her brother growled at me as I sat down. Breakfast was more of a feast. It consisted of Eggs, Bacon, Ham, Sausages, Potato, Toast, Coffee- the best kind- and ice-cream.
I ate my food slowly, cutting it up and taking small bites. Chewing 27 times before swallowing. It was painfully slow. All of this good food before me and I could only eat little amounts of it.
Halfway through the meal, Glace, next to me began to laugh. Her brother coughed, but couldn't hide the smile forming on his face. "Couldn't survive the whole breakfast could you? Eh, Glace?" Winter said as he laughed. It was one of those deep booming laughs. I looked around and saw how relatively untouched their plates were. 'Shit. Did I do something wrong?' I asked myself.
"Justis, we may be a rich and dignified family, but, behind these walls we can do what we want." Winter bellowed. He began to spoon his food into his mouth. "Spoon" was not the right word. "Shovel." Is more like it. Glace and her brother wolfed down their food as well. 'Oh well.' i thought to myself and joined them.
"We had finished shortly after and Glace spoke up. "Father I want to show Justis around the town." "Okay." Came his reply. "Stay away from danger. You're both reckless." 'So not giving a fuck is reckless?'. Glace pulled on a white fur cloak. Then she strapped a rapier to her side. I didn't question it. This was Remnant after all.
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We had arrived in the area of Atlas where the robot had gone on a rampage. Glace had brought me here to tell me her story.
Glace stood facing the robot, it hadn't fired a shot at her. Yet. her rapier was drawn but she didn't attack. She didn't move. She barely breathed. They were both waiting for the first move. It was the robot who moved first. Glace used a shield glyph that stopped all the bullets. Then she placed speed glyphs on the ground between her and the robot.
The robot was cut, but as it's a robot so it wasn't affected to bad. Glace had sliced up the robot as she raced along the glyphs. The robot span and fired its miniguns. Glace dodged as she raced back along the glyphs. This time glyphs surrounded the robot and Glace came off each one superfast. She heard a creak once she stopped her run. She looked up. Too late. A beam collapsed on her and crushed her leg. She couldn't move. Her rapier had fallen from her grasp and was just out of her reach.
"Then you showed up. You know how I said I was fighting the robot to prove myself. That's a lie. There were two scared children behind me." I understood. No matter what if there's someone who can't fight behind you. You should fight for them, to protect them.
Two kids now ran out of the nearby alley that wasn't broken. "I'm glad you two are all right." Glace said. I watched the scene unfold.
'Glace loved these kids.' I thought to myself. As if she could read my thoughts. "I hate seeing children on the streets, so, I got my father to build an orphanage." I surveyed the surroundings. We stood in what was once a building., many beds were dotted around here and there. My mood instantly dropped.
"This was the orphanage wasn't it?" I asked. "Yes." the two kids replied together. They looked at me. Their faces were full of awe. "I want to fight robots just like you." The boy said. "Could you teach me, so I can protect others too?" The girl added, more quietly. I heard both of their requests and tears formed in my eyes. The two kids hugged me and I patted their backs. "You're our hero." They said in unison. Their faces beamed with hope for the future. "Hero." I thought out loud.
I met Glace's eyes and she was smiling. I smiled back. The girl grabbed my hand and held it as we walked away from the destruction.
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Glace showed me the rest of Atlas, the whole time the girl held my hand. There was a lot of interesting stuff. Unfortunately 5pm came. We had to return home so I could not miss my training with James. I was also hungry. I was thinking of a way to tell the kids that we had to go without making them feel sad. Then I realised they had no home. "We'll take them home with us." Glace said. I swear to God she's fucking psychic or something.
As we began to head towards the Schnee mansion, the hair on the back of my neck stood up. I spun. "What is it?" Glace asked. She hadn't noticed anything. "I feel like there's someone watching us." I said in a whisper. Glace pretended like she didn't hear me. Then I slowed time. Another thing I found out about my semblance is: My senses are heightened when I am in "slow time." as i now called it.
I heard a faint 'Whoosh' sound. I side-kicked straight up into the air. My foot met a body and I felt as though my strength had increased in the slowed state of time. Time resumed and the attacker flew from the force of my kick to his stomach. He crashed into the wall.
"James!" I exclaimed recognising the Serjeant. "I was just testing your awareness." He tried to explain. I punched him in the face and left him alone. Grabbing the girl's hand I dragged her along and Glace followed. We left James there dazed and bleeding.
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The run was as fun as normal but at least I handled it better. Today's combat training was the best training I have done in a long time. It was shooting. I passed everything. After a little bit of practice that is. "Well done. Your shooting skills are ready for in field use. Tomorrow you can pick a new weapon or gear." I nod.
Great. New stuff.