Vector || An Ryeji Adventure

Becoming a Scalpel

Yeji woke up in the infirmary, an IV in her arm and her feet wrapped in a thick layer of bandages. There was a plate of food on the table beside the bed. She grabbed it and began shoving food into her mouth with her fingers. The food was cold, but since she had gone so long without eating, it tasted like the best food she had ever had.

The door opened and Slipknot entered. "Being nice hurts my brain, but I'll say it: Vector, that was one of the greatest feats we've ever seen here. You beat the previous record - set by a male Royal Marine - by two hours. Two hours! Your willingness to sacrifice your body to get the mission done is exactly what we're looking for. Keep it up, and you'll have a future here. Now the bad news: you have eighteen stitches in your feet, three on your cheek, and as far as we can tell, you dislocated your shoulder at some point. You lost a toenail, but the doctors said there's no permanent disfigurement there. You were so dehydrated we almost airlifted you to a critical-care facility. You have more bruised skin than unbruised skin."

"Yeah... right now I'm feeling every single one of those bruises."

"You're going to need to rest for awhile. I'm not sure you'll even be able to walk for a week."

Yeji started to get out of bed. "I can walk. I don't want to miss one second of training."

Slipknot put his hand on her shoulder. "Vector, lay down. That's an order. This life is going to be hard enough without you looking for a fight all the time. As an operator, you'll need to be calm, cool, and have your wits about you at all times. There will be fights, but you have to learn to be the master of your mind and body. Training is going to get a little easier from now on. You'll be doing a lot of exercise to get stronger and faster, getting combat and surveillance training, but you've proved you are tough, so no more mind games."

"Can I beat up that little guy now?" Yeji asked.

"I wouldn't. I know it's hard to tell now, but at one point, he was one of the most elite operators in the world. He was on a mission and his parachute partially failed, and when he hit the ground, he broke his back. But that's not even the best part. He completed the mission and walked three miles back to the rally point."

"That's incredible," Yeji said. "It's an amazing story, but it in no ways alters my intention to knock his teeth out." She smiled.

"Save that determination for your first mission. It's sooner than you think."

. . . . .

Yeji's feet healed after a couple of weeks, and she was back in training. She wasn't wired to sit in a bed 24/7, and had almost lost her mind.

As Slipknot said, she began a grueling course of physical training and learned the specialized skills she'd need as an operator. In addition to weapons and martial arts training, she studied electronics, hacking, lock picking, working as a member of a commando team, field medicine, and interrogation techniques.

But the mind games were not 100% over. One morning, at 4am, her door crashed opened and a team of black-clad soldiers entered, screaming at the top of their lungs in an effort to frighten and disorient her.

Yeji was instantly awake. "If any of you touch me, you're going to limp for the rest of your life. Again with the hood, guys? Really? Just give me the stupid thing, and I'll put it on myself." Once she was ready, they frog-marched her outside. She knew they were taking her to the martial arts training room. When they got there, they pushed Yeji to the ground and got in a circle around her.

"This ain't practice anymore, sweetheart. You're about to get the beating of your life!" one of the men said. She heard their feet coming nearer. She tensed every muscle in her body, took a deep breath, and exhaled slowly. Then she let all her muscles go loose.