Paragon

Chapter 2:

I stood in the center of the mat, waiting. The Clone girl in front of me regarded me warily, balancing lightly on the balls of her feet. Then she lunged forward, kicking me in the stomach. I grabbed her foot, twisting it so she fell. She kicked me again, sending me flying over her head. Before I could recover she was on top of me, punching me in the face repeatedly. I pushed her off of me and put her in a choke hold. The other girls standing around the training room watched me impassively as the scientist in charge of the sparring matches made notes on a clipboard.

"Alright, Katana." He said. "You could let her go."

I let the Clone go and she walked away, glaring at me over her shoulder.

"Anyone else?" The scientist asked.

No one volunteered.

"Well, alright." He said. "Katana, you can-"

"Wait." Mahlika said, stepping onto the mat. "I'll go."

"Mahlika." I warned. "I don't want to hurt you."

"Go ahead." The scientist said.

"Mahlika-" I reluctantly took up a fighting stance. "-please don't. I don't want to-"

She ran forward, punching me in the face and spinning, knocking my feet out from under me. I landed hard, managing to pull her down with me. I pinned her arms behind her back, but she lunged upward, ramming her spine into my stomach with enough force to make me let her go. She brought her feet down on my back, pushing herself to her feet so she was standing on top of me. She grabbed the back of my head with one hand and my arm with the other, twisting it behind my back.

The room was filled with talking, and even the scientist looked surprised.

"No one has beat her in years." He said. "Where did you learn that? We don't teach fighting like that."

"I learned it in the streets." Mahlika said, letting me go. She offered me her hand and pulled me to my feet.

"I'm sorry." She said.

"No need." I replied. "You won fair and square."

The gong sounded and we all filed out of the room and down the hall. In the last six months we'd moved from the biosphere to a set of dorms in the same wing as the guards. Though we're still heavily guarded, it was clear that they were beginning to trust us.

"Hey, commander." Weska said, coming over to walk beside me.

"Don't call me that." I protested. Several days before Delta had informed everyone that since I was the official leader, I would be referred to as commander. I hated it, as everyone, especially Weska, teased me about it constantly.

We got our lunches and went to our dining hall to eat. I sat with Nikara, Weska, and Mahlika at a table by ourselves. Everyone else sat at two other tables, one for Clones, one for humans. Even after six months the two groups didn't get along very well.

"So, it's been six months." Nikara said. "Are we ever going to leave here?"

"Delta said phase two is going to begin soon." I replied.

"Phase two? What's going to happen then?"

"No idea."

"I thought Delta told you everything." Weska said bitingly.

"Almost everything." I replied, ignoring her sarcasm. "What do you have against him anyway?"

"Everything. He's married to Jinx, who obviously has issues. He works for Xavier Cane, who everyone knows dived off the deep end two decades ago. Am I forgetting anything? Oh yeah, he also experiments on children for a living!"