Created

Part 4, Chapter 17

Skyler

CHESF base

2 hours after Swipe's injury

Skyler woke up from a long night where she fell asleep somewhere between 3-4. She spent it all thinking about Devin. What did he mean by "Are you sure she's the hot one?" That obviously meant attraction to her or Lizzie, but it would be perverted if it was to Liz. She was 7. Skyler was closer to his age, and it would make more sense. Or maybe he was talking about Carter, which, even though he had an amazing outline and shape, seemed unlikely.

All of these thoughts swam in her head even though she was groggy, and her sluggish mind had only three hours of rest and fuel. She continued thinking. If he did have feelings for her, then the attraction was definitely not one sided. She loved the way he smiled, full and wide, flashing brilliant white teeth, however rare that smile was.

Skyler got up and got dressed in a dark green shirt/skirt that came down to her upper thighs. She wore black workout pants underneath. Today, she would see what all of the fuss was about the training room and, hopefully, run into Devin.

She grabbed her suit, which was now into a pair of thin metal studded gloves. She put the glove on and checked to see if the micro-filaments worked. She tapped right in the center of the back of her left hand, and the glove came alive. The filaments spread across her clothing, wrapping it tight around her. The first glove was a skin suit anyway. The black leather looking material the snaked around her torso and down her legs, then back up and covered the whole of her neck and bottom of her chin. This was the under-armor. The scientists called it a tech-suit. Skyler then tapped the other glove and it also snaked along, this time not covering her whole body, just where the armor needed to be placed. Wherever it went, her yellow armor appeared. When her chest, back, arms and legs were all covered, she stuck out her hands where her yellow triangular helmet appeared. The whole process only took a couple of seconds. Maybe three.

She then fingered the center of the chest-piece and the armor(as well as the leather) reversed itself, snaking back into it's original glove form. Skyler was back in her clothing. She walked to the door, and it automatically opened. She walked to the gym, and it looked empty. Skyler knew that Carter was downstairs eating and would be back up in a minute. She peeked her head in just to double check, and surprisingly, he wasn't there. She had heard him mention that he wanted to try the training center, so she decided to head there too. She walked a little further down the hall and came to a huge room that was completely walled off by see-through plexi-glass. The dimensions of the room were gargantuan. It was about the size of a football stadium, with white walls, floors and domed ceiling.The ceiling itself was more than 100 feet off the ground with no support columns to hold it up. It was a modern architectural miracle.

Devin sat crisscrossed in the exact middle of the room, enshrouded by swaths of scarlet energy that drifted through the air like sea foam in the ocean. Skyler turned and looked at the wall behind her. There was a sign that showed that there was observation and control decks with a red arrow pointing down the hall at another sign She assumed said the same thing. She followed the signs down the long hall, through a door, up some stairs, through a very heavy reinforced bulkhead door, and stepped into the control deck.

It was a fairly small room, about 25 square feet, but that was just standing space. The room itself was probably about 35-37 feet, but there was a huge console against the other wall. The console was long, and took up the entire wall. It was filled with buttons, levers, screens, and all sorts of other technology that Skyler didn't know what they did. Right above the console was a semi-narrow row of plexi-glass about three feet wide for observing. She walked forward hoping to see Devin. The glass was too narrow to let her get a good look standing behind the console. She leaned over it and still couldn't see him. She stretched as far as she could and could barely see the top of his head. Skyler suddenly slipped and fell onto the console clicking several buttons and flipping some switches. A monotone female voice came over the intercom stating that the simulation was starting.