Chapter Thirteen 

Part Three: Training Daze

 There was a long pause, no one wanted to be the first to raise their hand, to be the one to experience hand to hand combat. Eventually, with a hefty sigh, Below decided to bite the bullet. 

“Ngh. Seriously? Fine.” He Scoffed. “I’ll go first, and I’ll win against anyone you put me up against Captain T.”

Stated Below confidently as he raised his hand. 

Glitch eagerly clapped her hands together. “Great! So who wants to be his sparring partner?!” She asked, avidly waiting for someone else to raise their hand. 

Without hesitation Dart raised her hand; she volunteered to face Below in this brief combat lesson. Below looked over at her with a smug grin on his face.

“Oh? So I’m facing you Blueberry girl? Teh.” He adjusted the gloves around his wrist so they were tighter. “I’ve never lost a fight for as long as I can remember, so this will be child’s play.”

“Although, I’m not very happy about hitting a girl.” 

Dart raised her head, slightly, casting a deathly glance to her fellow Unit. Below dropped his smile and looked straight into Dart’s raging dark blue eyes.

“I would expect nothing less from our fearless “leader” after all.” She stated, her voice full of sarcasm.

Below growled, as the two both climbed up onto the sparing platform as they were told. The other four Units looked on as their leaders were preparing to fight. 

“My money is on Dart! She’s never thrown a punch in her life, but I know for sure she would rather die than lose a fight.” Cheered Quill. 

Fives started to pump the air with his fists with a huge smile on his face. “Dart! Dart! Dart!” 

Below rolled his eyes at Dart’s Batch cheering her on, and looked down at his team. Vanity flicked him off with a mischievous grin on her face. She knew she wasn’t being supportive, but the last thing Below needed was another ego stroke. Zero made eye contact with his team leader for a moment. Zero just gave Below a silent thumbs up.

“You guys are the worst.” He grunted as he gritted his teeth.

They each closed the gap between them on the platform, the two were inches away from each other. Dart looked up at the auburn haired individual.

“I’m not much of a physical fighter myself, but don’t go easy on me.” She declared as she put her fists up in a fighting stance.

Although she said she wasn’t good at fighting, for some reason Below was having a hard time believing that. Maybe it was the way she carried herself, or maybe it was her eyes that burned with the intent to kill.

“Okay, Bluebell. Just promise you won’t try to kill me, mkay?”

Trauma joined the two ontop the platform, Glitch followed him close behind. The Captain then cleared his throat. “Remember the goal is to dodge attacks and knock the other person on the ground. First person to touch the ground loses. If you both fall it’s a draw. Understood?” 

“And go for the kill! Don’t be shy to spill a little blood here! The Abyssiti won’t hold back, then why should you?! Break a limb! Shatter your wrist!” Added Glitch vigorously. Trauma flicked her in the head so hard it almost knocked her glasses off.

“Don’t listen to her; She’s a lunatic.” Muttered Trauma as he gave his teammate a disappointed look; Glitch winked at him to which he rolled his eyes.

 “I want a clean sparring match, there’s no need to harm your ally.” Ended Trauma as he pulled his plasma pistol out of his vest. 

He fired the gun into the air, signaling the match was starting. Dart and Below immediately locked eyes. Below approached Dart carefully, trying to remember the goal is to get her to fall while avoiding her attacks. His first blow was aimed at her right shoulder, to knock her off balance. To which Dart quickly stepped out of the way, still with her hands up in defense. Below continued to attack Dart with a few punches aimed at her head, forcing her onto the defensive until he landed a blow to her forearm which caused her to stumble back several feet.

“Ouch! Damn what the hell are your arms made of?” Whined Below as he shook off his hand. “I guess that explains why your name is Cobalt.”

“Tch. My name isn’t- Whatever.” Responded Dart as she regained her footing. 

 Below chuckled and decided to close the gap. Dart, very tactfully, evaded all of his punches by ducking. She was far too agile for him to hit point blank, so he retaliated with a swift kick, sweeping Dart’s legs from under her. 

“Ngah!” She cried out, however before she fell she decided to use her weight as an advantage. She quickly  snatched Below’s arm dragging him down with her. 

She twisted him in such a way that when she landed, it was on top of him. Exhausted, they both hit the ground at the same time; she had her elbow on his neck as his face was pressed up against the ground.  

“That’s Game, set, match!” Exclaimed Glitch. 

Vanity and Fives wince at the sight as Dart refused to let up. Trauma looked down at the two as Dart was still pinning Below to the ground. 

“I get it, Bluie! I get it! You win! You win!” 

She wasn’t hurting him, at least not physically. She just wanted him to experience losing a little bit longer. 

“An impressive display from the both of you, although the methods you used won’t help as much against Abyssiti, it’s still a valuable skill to have.” Declared Trauma. “Who wants to go next?”

The next thing on the agenda was target practice, run by none other than the sporadic Abyssus Unit 456-G, also known as Glitch. A small box-like device was placed in front of a thick metal sheet. Glitch eagerly placed her hands on Dart’s shoulders. 

“This is a classic tool that we Abyssus Units use to train our accuracy! A small target appears from that device at random intervals of time!”  Glitch pulled out a remote control and clicked it. The device began to buzz. 

“Since you never know when the target will show, It tests reaction time and your precision.”

Dart sighed and took a knee. Dart readied her Rifle and aimed it at where the target will be. Glitch smiled and patted her on her back. 

“Don’t feel bad if you don’t land any hits on your first try-“

The target quickly popped up from within the box-like device and almost instantly Dart fired her rifle, hitting it spot on. She repeatedly fired accurate shots, hitting the target every time it showed, without even flinching. Glitch’s mouth dropped. When she heard Dart had perfect aim, she didn’t quite understand the extent of it until now. Dart looked up at her and she collected herself; she was pretending she wasn’t fazed by that display. 

“OOOO, Ah! Wow!” Cheered Glitch awkwardly with a soft smile, while adjusting her glasses. She was beyond impressed. “That was just a lucky…shot-s!” 

Finally, In the basement of the Beacon, was the six Unit’s lecture, hosted by the Intrinsic Soleria Illow. They all walked out of the elevator, and followed Crest down the hallways of the basement. He led the Six children to a door and typed in a three digit code; the doors opened with a hiss. 

“Go in.” Bluntly ordered Crest. 

Fives gladly entered the room without a second thought and began to look around. It was like a laboratory, and a classroom mixed into one. With a giant monitor screen in the front of the room, and a desk at its base, where Soleria was scrambling to make sure her things were in order.

“Please, come in and take a seat!” Offered Soleria frantically. She was skimming through her notes from the night before just in case she overlooked something. 

“Don’t mind if I do!” Chuckled Fives, he then hopped into one of the spinning chairs. He twirled in the seat a few times while full of bliss.

“This is the The Beacon Seminar room, it’s located in the basement of the Beacon, however there is one floor lower than this one called the Deep Lab!” Explained Soleria, as everyone sat down at one of the boardroom tables. 

Crest sat in an isolated seat in the back of the room and looked up at the Monitor screen. The screen has a giant image of one of the creatures from beyond their realm plastered onto it. The Abyssiti. Crest scoffed, it’s nightmarish warped form wasn’t done justice in this display. The Abyssiti look several degrees more incomprehensible in person. 

“Have you all heard of the beings of Abyss?” Asked Soleria while pointing up to the monitor. 

She looked over at Dart, and smiled. Her gentle, loving smile was mirrored by her glistening golden eyes. Soleria then cleared her throat and continued her presentation. Dart didn’t smile back. 

“The Abyssiti are creatures from beyond this realm…that seek to eradicate all humans and their creations.” Explained the bubbly Intrinsic. 

That’s why we must defend the Federation and our Enclosures.” Stated Below confidently. 

“Precisely 197-B, however the Abyssiti appeared through portals, and are highly unpredictable… The only thing we have is that we get signals that a rift might form an hour in advance.” She declared. 

Quill dejectedly looked down at the table. “It’s strange we’ve been trained to fight something we barely know anything about.” She muttered to herself.

Dart wasn’t exactly sure where this was going. “So you want us to fight off Abyssiti? So we’re just Abyssus units then? Units that hunt Abyssiti?” She asked. 

“Oh no 773-A! Abyssus Units have been defending this nation for 170 years, but that method clearly isn’t working.” Soleria placed her hand on her heart. “They go through grueling hours and are always at a disadvantage, I believe it’s time for a new approach!”

Everyone stared at her blankly, none of them could quite pinpoint what exactly it is that she meant by that. Fives wasn’t paying any attention to what she was saying and was just mindlessly spinning in his chair. Below stopped his chair fiasco and adjusted him to face forward. 

“My new approach will make sure we protect those who protect our grand Nation-” Before the Intrinsic could elaborate however, someone barged into the Seminar room. It was Razor, he had sweat dripping down his brow and he was completely out of breath. 

Everyone in the Seminar room turned to see the Abyssus Unit catching his breath in the doorway. Dart lifted an eyebrow, he seemed quite distressed, and soon they would all know why.

“T-T-There’s a-an Abyssiti.” He panted. “T-There’s an unregistered Abyssiti within the walls!” Cried out Razor, his olive green eyes had nothing but fear in them.

Crest hopped up from his seat. “The hell? What do you mean? There haven't been any rifts inside of the walls today. How did it get inside in the first place?” 

“It’s unregistered… we don’t know how it slipped through, but all the other Abyssus teams are out right now, it would take to long to call any from the Northern Enclosures!” Trembled Razor. He was fearing the worst, the fact an Abyssiti that size got inside of the Federation Territory without being spotted or taken care of is unfathomable. 

Crest gripped the Abyssus Unit’s collar and pulled up closer to him. “Tell me someone has been in pursuit.”

“I- I don’t know… but it was spotted heading west towards the wall, and it’s going to climb over into the 5th Core!” Razor cried out while looking up at the Captain. 

“It might be a B-Class, possibly an A!”

“Tch. Someone dropped the ball, and now we have to clean it up.” Grunted The Captain to himself. His black piercing eyes shot over to Soleria across the Seminar room. “Intrinsic Illow. Will you dispatch the Revival Squad?” Asked Crest, urgently. 

“The… The 5th Core?” Stammered Soleria.

She felt her heart drop into her stomach, the situation became perilous at the drop of a dime. An Abyssiti was on its way to endanger her home and she didn’t know a thing about them, let alone the proper procedure of dealing with these anomalies.

“I…” mumbled Soleria nervously. She froze up,  she wasn’t sure what to do. She was sleep deprived and the looming threat caused her anxiety to sky rocket. Her heart was beating fast, she could feel it pounding in her chest.

 After all the reading and research explaining that those creatures were unstoppable forces of nature, it didn't register until now, when that unstoppable force is standing right outside of her home. She was feeling nothing but dread. Arsyle told her that this position wasn’t meant for everyone. Now she had other peoples' lives in her hands, Units and Intrinsic alike. Her decisions from now on we’re going to be much bigger than herself. She may have had the title, but it was time for her to become a true Observer.

“Intrinsic ma’am, we need your orders.” Called out Crest once more.