The Key To Combat

Chapter 4

Everything here at SOCS is unbelievable but I can't help but feel a little dissapointed. Knowing that there's a chance I could be in there for hours. I want to be a warrior more than anything but what if I'm in over my head? This simulation test is going to make or break me. But I'm ready to fight with all that I've got. I sit on my the bottom of my bed facing the wall. I look up from the RHI tech Do's and Dont's book. I look to my left over at Anna who is biteing her nails, which she only ever does when she's trying to make a decision. "what is it?" my voice snaps her back to reality. She walks over and sits on my bed in front of me. "Promise me you'll pull the plug if I'm not out like three hours after you." she says. I laugh to make her smile but she just looks down at her hands on her lap. She is so serious and I don't understand why. How could she be worried that she wont make it out on her own? She's one of the most self confident people I know. She doesn't seem like herself. This simulation challenge is making everyone second guess themself. It must be the real deal since we're all feeling the pressure but Anna is an amazing warrior. She has no reason to worry. I put my hand on hers. "Stop. you're going to do great." I assure her. She looks up at me. "I'm a fighter, I'm not good at challenges." she says. I smile. "I think you'll do better than you think. Just remember who you are inside. Once you remember how great you are it will become easy." I say. I smile and she smiles back. "I love you" she says. "I love you too." I reply. Anna grabs me in a hug and I quickly wrap my arms around her. Anna looks up to her left and sees Kyscin standing outside our room. When he walks away she releases and looks at me. "I'm gonna go wash my face. Don't want to wake up with day old make-up on my face." she says urgently and I laugh. "okay." Anna rushes down the hallway to try and catch up to Kyscin. Anna is running quickly behind Kyscin with a hunch that he is up to something. Kyscin and Jeremy walk up the stairs towards Kyscins room and down the hall. Kyscin and Jeremy make a left and continue a few paces forward. They make another left and go into the room labelled 'A, B, C.'. Anna follows behind them and stops beside the door eavesdropping on their conversation. "I have to tell her how I feel!" Kyscin exclaims. "I'm saying this because I'm your best friend. You've got no chance with Wavi. You heard Anna, 'MILES'." Jeremy says. "I'm going." Kyscin persists and Anna rushes away. "Hand me the screw driver in my bag." Kyscin demands. "Why do you have a screw driver in your bag?" jeremy interrogates as he searches through the bag. "For emergencies," Kyscin says as he grabs the screw driver Jeremy is holding out to him. He starts loosening the bolts in his simulator and continues, "Every room is equipped with ten simulators and Wavi is in a room with an unoccupied simulator. If mine is broken-" he bangs on the simuator twice and it drops. He smiles and raises his hands in the air. Anna comes running back into the room out of breath. "What's wrong? Why didn't you wash your face?" I question her but it seems like she already knows what she's going to do and say as she grabs my hand. " be..cause, I realized I need to do everything with my best friend for this next twenty minutes because who knows how long it will be before I see her again." she lies as she guides me quickly down the hall. We walk down the stairs and make a right into the bathroom. I've never seen anyone more thorough. I think, as I watch Anna scrub her face. "Anna we've been in her for too long, we're gonna mis-" I'm interrupted by Diane over a P.A system. I look up. "-Attention warriors, one minute until your simulators initiate. Head to you rooms and get settled." Diane interrupts. "Okay, I'm done." Anna says amused. Why is she smiling? It's like she's happy she made us almost miss our training. There's no time to even question her about, I realize while were running down the hallway. My body stops abruptly in shock when I see Kyscin sitting on the simulator next to mine. Anna rolls her eyes. "18" the countdown calls. Anna walks over to her simulator and grabs her wires. "17" why is Kyscin in our room? "16" I'm still shocked I can't move. "15" Did he get lost? "14" He seems to be everywhere lately. "12" I finally snap out of it and walk over to my simulator. "11" the countdown continues. "Wavi!" Kyscin calls and I turn to my left facing him. "10" the countdown proceeds. "I need t-" he tries. "no time lover boy" anna interrupts. "9" anna has never called him that before. "Lover boy?" I quiz. "8" why would she call him that? "what are you talking about?" I persist. "7" what does that even mean? "yes, gianna. Do tell." Kyscin says amused while he connects a wire to his left temple and a wire to his right temple. Maybe too amused, and now I'm even more confused. "6" Anna shoots a glare at Kyscin. "5" the countdown sings. "Can't long story. Only got 5 seconds." I shoot a glare at her and she lays down and connects her last two wires. "4" I grab a wire and press it on my left temple and then look over at Kyscin quizzically and ask, "Isn't your last name Andrews?" he laughs shyly. "3" he looks up at the invisible number caller. "I need more than 3 seconds to explain." I laugh and he smiles while he connects his last wire to the back of his head. "2" as the countdown nears the end, I grab two wires and connect one to my right temple and connect the other one to the back of my head and lay down. "1" and just like that, a whole new world right before my eyes. The sky is so... its beautiful. It feels like I'm in a calm, world-like ball of yarn with the pinky undertones from the soft violet sky. The leaves on the trees are orange and the ground is jet black tar. I'm standing in front of sweet fruits, my favourite eatery. They have the best fruit smoothies and they make the best fruit salads. My favourite part is the mild sweetness in every order. I'm not one to mix healthy with sugar but the way they perfectly proportion every ingredient it's almost a crime not to have any. I walk inside and it's practically empty. This is unusual. 'Sweet Fruits' is always packed. As the doors close behind me I scan the room for Anna and I spot Kyscin sitting at a table to my left with Lynn. As per usual, she is laughing and flirting while she puts her hand on his. I finally tare my gaze away from them and walk straight towards the counter and order my favourite smoothie. I grab my smoothie and turn around. Anna waves at me from the couch to my left. I walk over and sit down next to her. "mango banana" she says knowingly. "you know me so well." I say before taking a sip. "well" she says brushing the imaginary dust off her shoulder. I laugh and she smiles taking a sip of her drink and I do the same with mine. She looks up ahead at Kyscin and Lynn. "Isn't that Kyscin over there?" she asks and I look over at him. "go talk to him!" she insists. "What? No." I say with a shy laugh. Anna grabs my hand and stands up pulling me to stand. She steps behind me and puts her hands on my lower back.. "You must go over there and talk to him." she demands as she pushes me towards him and Lynn. "Anna what's going on? You've never encouraged me to do this before." I say quickly, fighting her very strong push. "You like him don't you?" she says loudly as we reach their table. "Hey Wavina, you like Kyscin?" she says very loudly. I look around and the three other people in the restaurant are starring at me even Kyscin. Why is everyone here curious to know the answer? I hate her so much. She thinks she's so cool with that smug little grin on her face. What did I ever do to her? I always thought she was a nice girl, I hoped we could be friends but she hated me every since I the second day of grade seven I don't even remember that day being a sad one or a dramtic one even. I actually recall being very happy. I had just taught Remone winslow a lesson after he cut in front of me in the school cafeteria lunch line... Remone bullied everyone. Boy or girl. No one ever taught him that girls are strong too. I twisted his arm so far back the bone cracked and he cried all the way to the nurses room. He never cut in front of anyone ever again. That day was a triumphant one for me. I don't even remember talking to Lynn at all. I don't know what she could possibly hate me for. I wish I knew why she dislikes me so much. I don't like people hating me. I look over at Anna, then back to Lynn, then over to Kyscin and realize that everyone is still starring and patiently waiting for an answer. I take a deep breath and turn my gaze from the nosey lurking eyes to Kyscin, "Kyscin," he stands up and now I am no longer looking down at him, he is now looking down on me. I look up at him and continue, "I never thought I'd ever gain the courage to say this, especially under these circumstances." I admit as I look around the room at the starring people. "but I've kept this in for four years and I guess there's no better time to admit this. I do like you, but I've come to terms with the fact that you're just not into me and we could never-" Somehow I'm now in a room with floor to ceiling mirrors on all four sides of the room. I look up and see my refletion from the floor on the ceiling. It's just mirrors in here. Where are we? Kyscin still standing in front of me starts to morph into someone else. It's me. I have to fight myself? Well this should be easy. "be together" I force out, shaking my head. The copycat winds her arms up and punches the floor with her left hand and the glass shatters. I jump to the side, roll and put my arms over my face. Okay so not only will this be difficult but I could die. Copycat me didn't come to play. I look behind her and see a charm. Why is there a charm on a petistole in here? It's so pretty and shiney. So shiney it's almost glowing. I want it. I guess all I gotta do is defeat me. Let's do this. I stand up and stretch my left leg out to crouch down on my right leg with my right arm stretched out towards her and my left fist stretched to the floor. She stands up and takes two big leaps toward me and whips her right leg over her head. Before her leg hits me I whip my left leg around and trip her and she falls on her back. I go to punch her but she spins out of the way, I try again and this time she spins twice and kicks her feet up to stand. I lunge at her with my fist and she grabs arm and flips me over. I pull her arm flipping her on the ground beside me. She quickly gets back up but I have a piece of glass in my back. She raises her right foot and stomps on my chest pushing the glass shard deeper into my back. I let out a grunt. She lifts her right foot again and I grab onto her foot with both hands, thrust her to the left and kick her left leg with my right foot. She falls onto her back. While she's on the ground I rip the glass out of my back and throw it on the floor. As I walk over to her she kicks herself up. She throws a right hook but I quickly throw my left hand in front of her attack and I thrust my right hand at her face. I hit her twice bfore she thrusts her right hand at me again. I recoil backwards and throw a jab at her with my left hand followed by my right. She steps back and spits out the blood filling up in her mouth. I step towards her and raise my right fist but she kicks me right in the face. I stumble backwards as she takes two quick steps towards me and jumps raising her right fist which connects to my face knocking me to the floor. She crouches down to me and grabs both of my arms and stands me up. Still holding onto my arms she throws me into the wall on the other side of the room. I hit the wall so hard it broke the glass and when I hit the floor the shattered pieces fall onto me. I slowly stand up and wipe the blood dripping from my forehead. She takes a quick step forward, spins around and raises her left leg. I quickly hit it away with the palm of my hand and knee her in the back. She lets out a grunt as she flies forward. I follow her and grab her arm to whip her around and I jab her twice in the face with my left fist and then once with my right fist. Her head falls forward and she seems to be a little dizzy. I grab her head in my hands pulling her lower and I thrust my knee at her head with a grunt. Her head whips back taking her off her feet and down to the ground, causing the glass to crack. I lean over her and jab her in the nose. I grab a piece of glass on the floor and plunge it into her chest. As I watch the copycat disappear I am startle by a beep sound. I turn around and realize the case holding the carm has opened, so I walk over to it slowly. I reach my hand into the case and grab the charm. I smile. This charm is a heart. So by being honest with Kyscin I got a heart charm. I get it. Your desires are what your heart and soul want. So by being honest with someone you are sharing apart of your heart with them.