Moon 514 || Blaze and the White Griffon

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Last revision: 7/10/2013

Sprawling on all fours, Blaze struggled to maintain consciousness.  The blow from the alien creature left him dizzy, off balance, and staring with dazed eyes and blurred vision.  He did his best to channel the energy around him and fleetingly wished he hadn’t been so aggressive in pursuing overly modified simulated aliens.  As he felt the energy swirling around him, he heard the beast approaching from behind and guesstimated that it was already within closing distance.  He jumped and focused on channeling the energy to enhance his physical strength to enable him to reach the large branch looming a good nine feet off of the ground – and a good four feet in front of him. 

Success – but barely.

Hands loosely gripping the branch, he swung himself heavily towards the tree trunk and then quickly sprang back towards the gargantuan beast, thrusting the speared tip of his staff towards its heart with all of his strength.  The alien easily swatted the staff to the side and pounced upon the young warrior with all of its weight.  Darkness enveloped the young warrior for only the briefest moment before his involuntary sleep was interrupted.

“Simulation ended,” announced the simulator’s emcee.

Blaze slowly pushed himself off of the ground and winced as his ears rang loudly and as his head ached.  It would be a minute or two before his body offered any semblance of recovery from that last blow.  Five hundred pounds of alien muscle slamming you into the ground was not the most pleasant experience he had had in the simulator over the past several days but he was learning – and as he learned to manipulate the energy around him and enhance his own physical abilities, he was gaining in his ability to defeat larger, faster, and stronger opponents. 

This time however, he had to face some disgrace for a glaring failure.  Still, the small audience of onlookers was impressed – both because of his daring bravery and for what he had been able to accomplish against such a large, hulky opponent.  That didn’t make him feel much better.  And neither did Evelia’s commentary.

“You expect too much of yourself Blaze,” she consoled.  Her ever soothing voice did manage to calm down a little but his discouragement overwhelmed any effort she was making to help him feel any better about his loss.  “Today marks one week since you were first able to stand up at all.” Evelia realized that Blaze was not looking towards her and gently waved her hand towards his gaze to regain his attention.  “Hey!” she continued jestfully, “Remember?  Just because you have super genes to boost your recovery doesn’t mean that you don’t need any recovery at all.  Aria said a normal person would have been down for at least another month so don’t be so discouraged.” 

Evelia had been feeling quite ill as well and considered herself lucky that she was able to attend Blaze’s training sessions at all.  After an exam, Aria informed her that she had apparently caught the virus from Blaze and that she was only slowly feeling the effects of the virus.  She would probably spend the first few weeks back home subject to bed rest unless her body defeated the virus entirely, a prospect that Aria had suggested was a real possibility.  Evelia wasn’t sure whether or not that was good news.  Part of her wanted to escape the possibility of being genetically manipulated.  Another part of her didn’t want to get left behind if Blaze passed her up in intelligence.  Yet another part of her thought that a partial modification – a real possibility with this particular virus – might be a welcome change.  Only time would tell.  For now, Evelia just felt tired a lot and needed much more rest than she thought was reasonable. 

Noticing that Blaze wasn’t in a fiercefully playful mood yet, Evelia offered a slightly pouty look to see if a little tease might cheer him up.  Blaze responded with an offhanded look that drove her to another degree of playfulness.  “Come on Blaze, it’s written all over your eyes.  17% speed increase … what? 500 pounds this time?  Really? … and if I didn’t know any better, I would bet that you modified your own weight as well to make the simulation even tougher.”  She waited patiently for him to respond but all she received was a small grin and a slight rolling of his eyes as Blaze looked away from her.  “It is no wonder that you lost though …” she continued but left her voice trailing as if she wasn’t going to say anything further.