Fate: Day 1

Chapter 3

     "Alright everyone," says Kal as he stands alone above the recruits, "are you ready for day two?"
     "Actually," says a confident-looking Wattson, "I believe we'll do quite well."
     "We'll see about that." continues Kal, "Today, the objective is the same. And again, bonus points if you can do it under 5 minutes."
     "Alright," Wattson says as he turns to everyone, "here's my plan."

Later...
     "On your mark, get set, go!" barks Kal as he disappears from view.
     "Just like we planned everyone!" reminds Adriel as the group begins to move down the hallway, "Knight, Larson, and Okumara, take point. Kiden and Max, wait back and watch our backs. Cipher and Peanut, stand ready if any one of the point men gets in a bind. Tucker, be ready to put your tech to good use. I'll keep the air clear and call out threats. Let's roll."
     "We got this!" shouts an excited Okumara as everyone starts down the hallway. As before, 7 training droids appear out of the walls, this time brandishing electro-staffs.
     "Knight, Okumara, Left 4. Larson, help me out with the 3 on the right!" yells Wattson as he soars down to the first droid on the right, kicking out and catching its head, sending it staggering back.
     "Watch it!" Tucker warns everyone, "These guys look like they're tougher than last time."
     "Got it!" confirms Knight as he twists the left arm off of his droid and gives it a big punch in the chest, sending it to the ground.
     "I've got this" yells a running Okumara as he comes to help Knight. Knight bends down as Okumara hops on than off of him, bringing his sword down into the fallen droid's head.
     "We could've done this together you know." said Okumara.
     "I know." Knight responded as he calmly disarmed the next droid and shoved it's staff back through its face. Knight turns to see Larson suddenly appear behind a droid, pushing a long dagger through it. "That was easy." he mutters as he disappears again with a chuckle.
     After Larson's teleport, Cipher decides to go in for some action. After immediately failing in his attack, Knight yells, "Can someone please help Cipher, I need to finish up this guy!"
     "I got it!" Okumara yells, "Boost Knight?" As he runs past, Knight gives him a push in the back towards Cipher's droid, speeding over, Okumara chops it in half with his katana. Getting up and looking over to the left, Cipher sees Zachery bring his droid over his shoulder by its arm, smashing it into the ground.
     "Coming on your left!" Wattson warns as he throws his droid into the ceiling, smashing it to pieces.
     "I see him." says Max as he hurls a water construct at the feet of the droid, knocking it down.
     "Watch!" yells Kiden as he sends a dagger through the head of the droid trying to get up.
     "Meep." mutters Peanut as he crawls up another droid heading towards Kiden from the right and calmly removes its head.
     "Thanks for the assist" gasps a winded Kiden, "I think I need to start working out a bit more." As Kiden rises to his feet, he sees that all of the droids are now down or beheaded.
     "Alright," says Wattson, "let's keep going. We're almost there" gesturing to the post, now 30 meters away. As the group continues down the hall, it suddenly falls into a blackout, with the only light coming from a bulb directly above the post. With a flash of bright light, two turrets appear, shooting stun bolts at the team.
     "Cover!" yells Wattson as he dives to the ground and rolls behind Kiden's makeshift walls.
     "I don't know how long I can keep this up." stutters a struggling Kiden as the bolts increase their tempo and smack into his constructs.
     "Max, take the one to the front. Larson, the one behind." Adriel commands.
     "Got it." says Larson as he appears far back down the hall. Reaching to his back, he calmly removes a collapsible spear and throws it through the turret, disabling it.
On the other side of the group, Max hurls a water construct at the turret, watching with horror as it shrugs off the hit and continues to fire.
     "I think it has some kind of shield." says Tucker, "Try this." he says, handing Wattson a strange looking orb.
     "Attach this," he explains, "and I think it should disable the shield."
      "Okay." Wattson says as he prepares to move, "We need a distraction if I'm going to make it to the turret."
     "I'm on it." says Peanut as he shoots to the left crawling up the wall and drawing the turret's attention. With a rush of air, Wattson soars toward the turret, throwing the orb. With a whine, it stops shooting for a second and then resumes.
     "Its shields are down!" shouts Tucker. Max then again hit it with a big round water construct, finally disabling it.
      "Whew!" exclaims Okumura as he steps from behind Kiden's now diminishing walls, "That was intense."
     "We're not done." says Knight, gesturing toward the post where a standing Kal looks on with impatience.
     "Alright everyone!" says Wattson, "Just like we planned out, okay?"
     "On it." Max and Kiden say simultaneously as they each throw a bar-shaped construct, one high and one low, forcing Kal to roll between them. As Kal comes out of his roll, he comes face to face with Knight. Sending a knee into his gut and throwing a quick one-two punch, Knight knocks Kal back right into the waiting arms of Larson, who picks him up and slams him to the ground.
     "Sorry about that." mutters Larson as Kal rolls toward the rest of the group, only to be body-slammed by Okumara and then picked up and sent spinning through the air by Wattson. As Kal struggles to his feet next to the post, he looks up to see the entire group standing above him.
     "So," exclaims a happy looking Wattson. "what was your first mistake?"
     "You guys aren't pulling any punches." he said wincing.
     "Actually, I was." replied Zachery Knight. "Unlike the bad guys, I play fair."
     High-fiving Tucker, Okumara exclaims "Now this is what I call a team!"
     "Great job everyone." says a pristine looking Commander Vinh as he slowly walks down the hall toward them, picking his way through the droid parts scattered along the hallway, "You all performed better than expected." turning toward Wattson, he says, "I think you learned some important lessons today. You proved you'll make a capable second in command who can lead the team himself if need be. That goes for you too Zachery. You will be our third in command in case we have to split up or if Adriel and I aren't there." as he turns towards Kal, Sang says, "I think Kal's training paid off for all of you. That will be all for today."