One Half Radiant

Chapter 3

"You go girl!" Jimmy is here watching me spar off with Lee. I continue to throw punches and dodge Lee's advantages. "Can you not Jimmy, I'm ..." I pause for a minute to grab Lee's upper arm, spin so my back is to him and heaved him over my shoulder, to the ground. "Busy," I finish.

"What? I'm just proud of you, Peyton. There is no shame in that." Jimmy banters at me, I return with, "I can assign shame to anything I want, Jimmy, but thank you. You wanna spar with me, since you're so proud of me?" I smile with a hint of sarcasm. Jimmy backs up a bit with his hands in front of him signalling he doesn't want to.

"Yeah that's a good idea Jim" Lee states in pain from the floor. "Oh, you're fine Lee" I state as I help him up. It's about 2 in the afternoon, we've been at this since the morning. "Does anyone wanna get a snack or something, I don't think I can be thrown to the floor anymore without hurling up" Lee states while clutching his stomach, "Okay, you big baby".

We start our way across the Quad, campus is pretty compact but the walk can be brutal on cold days. Jimmy is making small talk to get us in a good mood. "Hey, you think I can stand on that?" He asks us while pointing to a statue of sorts that been here for many years before us. The statue is of a hand that symbolizes friendship from what you can tell of the old eroded words. "I mean why do you want to do that Jim" Lee questions. "Umm, why not Lee" Jim shoots back at him. With this he begins to climb the statue anyway. The hand is not flat nor meant to hold a fully grown 25 year old man. At first he sits in the hand saying "look this giant is holding my ass." Then starts standing, trying to balance himself. From prior experience around Jimmy he is anything but balanced.

Once he has found his footing he gets cocky. And starts posing as a leader or general. Starting to give a speech, "four score and seven years ago.." I begin waving my hands saying "no, no, no, no, no. Not this one, you always use this one. You learned nothing in what little history class you went to".

"Hey! You have no say in what I paid attention to in class." With Jimmy's angry demeanor he loses his footing. Keep in mind the hand is at about chest height from the ground so Jim boy here is gonna fall flat onto concrete from 5 feet. Being the oh so generous friends we are with our reflexes we have achieved from this rebel base, we fly in to attempt to catch him. But it's as if Jimmy doesn't want to be caught. So once he lands into our arms he rolls and jump right out onto the concrete.

"Jim, you are an idiot just let us help you!" Lee demands in frustration. "No! Never! This is my destiny!" He states. "Okay, Yes your destiny is to just damage everything you can of your body, and humiliate yourself?" I question.

"Yes, it is my calling, ma'am"

"As long as you've found one,"

..........,.........

Friday rolls its ugly head around the earth. I have a mission to talk to Anty about today. I'm not nervous it's just it's probably gonna be a solo mission and I'm more of a group mission kinda gal.

I know, I'm a big girl and I'm getting the hang of things around here. And she knows I can take care of myself.

I decide to stop by my friend Nate's office first. He has Intel on everything in this place and even in the Envisioned capitol. That's why he gets his own office. Though he's blind and I don't think having someone share an office with him would be bothersome.

Him being blind makes it hard to put him as a soldier of sorts with weaponry, but I wouldn't put it past him. He'd probably be all over it, but I do not want to be on the other side of that gun.

"Knock, knock," I announce at his door as I knock simultaneously. "Yes, Peyton, you can come in," I walk to an empty chair as he puts his current work down on the desk. "how's my favorite blind guy?" I ask.

"Really? In pretty sure I'm the only blind guy you know" he says matter of factly. "Nonetheless you're still my favorite."

"Okay, fine. But I'm good, thank you for asking." He seems grateful that I asked.

"So, got any Intel for me?" I ask.

"Peyton, I can't just share everything with you,"

"Umm, but you can, Mr. Morse." I implore him.

"Besides I've got nothing new," he states as he sets his hands on the desk and attempts to look towards me. "Well I appreciate you anyway, unless your hiding something...?"

"Look into my eyes and ask yourself, do you see a lying man?"

"Okay, okay, fine. You win, you are all knowing and yet a humble man," I say to him.

"I better be"

"I assure you, you are" I reassure him. "Well I've got a mission debrief to get from Anty so I'll see you later Nate," I say as I stand up. He replies with a goodbye and a nice to see you.

I start my way to Antys office. There's usually a line outside her office so she can give higher ups some tasks and missions. I find that there is actually nothing. But its Friday, maybe she's taking a break. But then again why is she having me come today then?

I knock on her door and wait for an answer. I hear her walk from her desk to the door and open it to me. "Ah, yes. You came at the right time, Peyton," she says as she leads me to a chair. "Glad I could, I'm just here for the mission you mentioned." I say looking at her and trying to be polite. "You are correct, I have everything ready for you to head out as early as tonight if you wanted! But let's get you debriefed first" I nod my head saying I understand.