Centurion- Dark Genesis

by Christofer Nigro

  “Seriously?”

  “Very seriously. Not only do you have to be watched while you’re there, but we must make sure that the school suddenly becomes more concerned about preventing bullying in general. Admittedly, this is more for the sake of the bullies than you or the other bullied kids right now, but it will be beneficial for all students there in the end. So, expect to see three new staff members at the school when you return to school.”

  “When do I have to go back there?”

  “You will go back there after the municipal government decides to re-open the school following that little incident you pulled. I’ll let you know when that is but count on it being about a week and a half.”

  “Swell.”

  “Next up, I’m sure you understand that there is no way in hell we can let you go home to your grandparents. At least, not until you’ve had a good share of counseling in self-control and anger management, as well as further training in mastering your powers. In fact, based on the research I’ve done, I’m not sure it’s a good environment for your mental health at all. So, here’s what we have to do…”

  Chapter 10: Basic Training is Also a Bitch

  Benny’s mouth gaped in astonishment at Donovan’s pronouncement regarding his living conditions.

  “Dude, you can’t be serious!” he proclaimed. “How can you convince my family to let me stay here?”

  “Leave it to us, Benny,” Donovan replied with his characteristic sense of confidence. “You know you can’t return to that house until you get some serious counseling, not to mention sufficient training in the use of more fully controlling your power. I’m not going to put your family at risk, or you in a situation where you’re likely to get provoked. Our intel has made it clear that you have your share of trouble at home too, right?”

  Benny sighed audibly. “Yeah, I do. My family doesn’t really understand me, and my grandfather can be a very harsh man if you get on his bad side…”

  “Something I’m sure you do with regularity, considering you’re who you are, and he’s who he is. Correct?”

  Benny sighed again. “Another gold star for you.”

  “We already did more than enough research on your parents, also. Your dad has never been a part of your life, and your mother and stepfather…”

  “Yeah. It would be even worse to have me go and stay with them. I’m with my grandparents for good reason. Even if that didn’t exactly turn out to be copacetic either. But it was most def the lesser of two evils.”

  “Well, I was never a fan of ‘lesser evilism.’ So, you need to stay away from that family of yours for a while, at least until we can work on things.”

  “Fine. I have no great desire to go back there anyway, especially not after this. But what about the police investigation?”

  Now it was Donovan’s turn to sigh. “That is going to… take some effort. And it’s not going to be taken care of easily. One of the things I need to do is talk to those two boys you put in the hospital, before they talk to the police.”

  The soldier turned to Claire, the look on his face evoking an obvious question.

  The powerful esper was quick to respond. “Based on their emotional state and a quick scan of likely possible futures over the next few days, I’m going to venture a very educated prediction that it will be around three days that they will each be able to speak coherently again. But it won’t be until Monday afternoon that the doctors deem them well enough to give detailed testimonials to the police. Prior to that, they will be too doped up with pain killers to even give their own names accurately.”

  “Good,” Donovan said. “That gives us a bit of planning time, though not nearly as much as I’d like.” He then turned a firm gaze back at Benny. “You’re going to owe me big after this, young man.”

  The youth looked down slightly. “I know. And I’m sure you’ll never let me hear the end of that.”

  “Of course, I won’t. Which leads me to my next question. Are you serious about wanting to learn to use your power for the greater good?”

  Benny’s countenance suddenly beamed an expression that, for the first time in many hours, was even remotely indicative of a positive emotion. His response barely concealed his level of anticipation. Was this opportunity really happening, considering what happened earlier?

  “I can’t think of a better way to live my life and to make up for what I did, Donovan. I’ll follow your lead, because even though we just met barely two hours ago, I already owe you a lot. As long as we understand that the type of hero I’m going to try to become will be at least partly on my terms.”

  “Don’t get too big for your silly little britches already, guy. And don’t get overly pretentious. You have potential, but it’s going to be a long road and a lot of hard work before you have any right to call yourself a ‘hero’ by any proper definition of the term. I know because I’ve met more than my share of true heroes, and a far larger share of pathetic souls who only thought they were.

  “And no, in case you’re wondering, I do not consider myself among the honored ranks of the true heroes. I’m simply a battle-weary soldier who tries to aspire to certain codes and principles rather than just obeying the orders of authority figures in uniform. You will be working with me, and not for me, the government, or any corporation. However, the Institute will be on you like mold on weeks-old cottage cheese for the entire ride. Count on that.”

  Benny looked up at the stern but invariably fair-minded figure before him. “I… don’t consider that to be a bad thing, Donovan.”

  The soldier now allowed himself to smile, once again filled with a feeling of hope for this young metahuman’s prospects. But it was a very cautious and tentative form of hope.

  ***

  The following day, Benny found himself with little opportunity to recover from the emotional tumult he had experienced a mere thirty hours earlier. As it turned out, Donovan had other things in mind bright and early that morning. These plans entailed having the young metahuman awakened and reporting to the Buffalo Valis Institute’s cavernous training chamber. This was located much lower in the hidden underground facility than the main laboratories, control center, and living quarters.

  “You could’ve warned me about that alarm buzzer you had in the cell that is now my bedroom, Donovan,” Benny griped to his new mentor.

  “Of course, I could have,” the soldier retorted. “But I obviously chose not to. I’ve always noticed that people are more on their toes when their training begins at an unexpected time. Especially when that time is several hours north of noon.”

  “I’m used to sleeping in on Saturdays.”

  “Then you need to get used to not sleeping in on Saturdays. Which brings up an important question: Have you even noticed yourself getting tired anymore since those cosmic energies altered your physiology?”

  Benny thought about that query for a second. “Actually, now that you mention it… no. Because of my depression, I used to sleep all the time, and I never seemed to get enough sleep. But since the change, I don’t really feel myself getting tired anymore, and I seem to sleep just to put my mind at ease and dream. Though my dreams were really messed up last night.”

  “And they will likely continue to be for a while, but we’ll work on that. Which brings us to this training chamber, one that I like to call The Stadium. The reason why will is about to become obvious now that your training partner has just hit the entry request bell on the door.”

  Donovan hit the “enter” button on the smart panel connected to his wrist watch, which caused the automatic sliding door on the far end of the chamber to hiss open. Through it emerged a rugged looking and husky young man with brown hair slightly lighter than Benny’s own. His complexion was olive, and his musculature looked quite impressive, as if he worked out intensively.

  “Benny, meet Mac Campton. Or, as his ego prefers we call him, Brick.”

  “Real cute, Donovan,” Mac rejoindered as he cracked his knuckles in a posturing manner.

&nb
sp; The soldier grimaced in response. “Mac, meet Benny Lonero, who hasn’t chosen a code name yet.”

  Benny reached out to shake Mac’s hand, but he refused to accept the gracious gesture. Instead, the burly youth simply looked the smaller boy over for a moment while bearing a countenance of disdain.

  Mac was then predictably quick to utter a complaint. “Wait a minute, Donovan. Are you serious? This is the guy you expect me to--you know--spar with now?”

  Benny suddenly developed a look of incredulity upon his boyish face. “Donovan?”

  The grizzled veteran grinned to himself again. “Yes, to your direct question, Mac; and the same to your implied one, Benny (based on your expression). See, not only do both of you start your training today, but you both also need to let off some steam in the worst way. And it’s much better you do that with a fellow metahuman than your non-powered and non-trained peers.”

  “You mean this guy is a metahuman, too?” Mac queried with his index finger rigidly pointed at Benny. “He don’t look like anything at all. Does he know how strong I am?”

  “Not yet, but Benny is quite strong too,” Donovan noted. “And we have yet to try testing his upper limit. So, as strong as you obviously are, as far as we currently know, he may be even stronger.”

  “Oh, bullshit, man!” Mac exclaimed with waving hands. “This kid is as scrawny as a set of pipe cleaners! And just look at me compared to that.”

  Mac flexed and flaunted his prominent biceps to emphasize the point.

  Benny rejoined simply with an angry glare. The young man called Brick reminded him of a few choice athletes that he knew from school.

  “Who the hell do you think you’re eyeballing, man?” Mac asked with a clearly hostile tone and a thick index finger poking his smaller sparring partner in the forehead.

  Benny’s reply to that was a gritting of his teeth almost immediately accompanied by a sudden conversion of his dark brown eyes to a luminescent blue. This was followed in turn by a crackling corona of bluish energy that appeared around each of his tightly clenched fists.

  “What the hell is all that?” Mac said, as he stepped back involuntarily.

  “Benny, calm down,” Donovan stated firmly but soothingly, while risking a painful injury by putting his hand on the boy’s shoulder.

  After a moment of strong effort, Benny did as requested. The glowing coruscations of energy quickly buzzed out of existence while his eyes lost their luminosity in unison with his hands.

  “Mac, I’ll have you know that learning not to underestimate someone you’re facing in combat, even during a simple sparring match, is one of the most important lessons I can possibly teach you,” the soldier lamented upon turning his attention back to his other young charge. “Let me inform you that Benny here may not look nearly as tough as you, but he’s proven capable of doing an incredible amount of damage. Show him the respect he’s earned.”

  Mac shook his head. “Whatever, man. When are we going to get this thing started? My Wizard of Warcraft crew across the world awaits my return to the computer.”

  Donovan wasted no time with his response. “No need to delay any further. I’m going to start your joint training by teaching some basic moves from American boxing. I’ll give you two your own pair of specially constructed padded gloves. What I want to see first is not only a comparison of your respective strength levels by facing you off against each other, but also to see what type of natural fighting skills each of you may possess.”

  “Pshht!” Mac sputtered with a roll of his eyes. “I just got these powers a few months ago, and before that I kicked more ass than a cowboy’s saddle has ever seen.”

  Benny sniggered at that comment.

  “You find that funny, man?” the tightly muscled youth heckled his smaller opponent.

  “Since you asked, I find you highly amusing, Mac,” was Benny’s comeback. “And what’s the source of your power, by the way? Do you draw strength from your own cockiness? Sort of like Anteaus does from the Earth?”

  “What the hell is an ‘Anteaus?’” Mac enquired. “You’re really stupid, man.”

  “No doubt,” Benny quietly retorted. “I’m really stupid for thinking you might be educated enough to have actually read Greco-Roman mythology.”

  With that said, Mac jumped into a defensive stance. “Why don’t you make a move, you little dickweed?”

  Benny quickly duplicated both the stance and the attitude, as Mac’s gesture triggered a deluge of highly unpleasant memories. “I’ll make several moves, you jock piece of trash!”

  Elsewhere in The Stadium’s spacious chamber stood Agents Sasheen Kahn and Helda Bauer, both of whom now suddenly took on expressions of alarm. In accordance with their security duties, each of them began drawing their high-powered taze rifles. Having immediately noticed this action, Donovan signaled them to stand down; that he had this situation in hand.

  The tough-as-nails soldier stepped between the two angry young metas and simultaneously gave both of them a hard shove to the chest with each hand.

  “Enough, guys!” Donovan commanded. “As I said, you’ll both get your chance to let off steam this way, but only under my direction and control! And within the confines of mutual respect.”

  He then turned to the larger of the two combatants. “Mac, no more provocation of your fellow meta trainees, understand? You can’t afford to be running around in common society acting like that, or you’ll just put me and others in the position of taking you down. I’m here to train you and see to it that you use your power responsibly, with enough training so that you can. There is no place for the street punk mentality among the ranks of heroes, you dig that?”

  Mac lowered his arms in a huff. “Fine. I’m cool, okay?”

  Benny followed suit and stepped a few feet back. “I’m cool too, Donovan. But I didn’t start this…”

  Donovan raised his right hand to stifle any further verbosity from his trainee. “Let it go, Benny. I already saw who started it, and I stopped it so you didn’t have to. Don’t get it started again. Okay?”

  “Yeah,” the dark-haired boy replied with only a slight hint of vexation in his voice.

  With matters now apparently under greater control, the two contestants were directed to the middle of the chamber, where there stood a large cage-like structure. It had a lock just above the lever on the door that resembled a souped-up deadbolt.

  Mac pointed at the construct. “Seriously?”

  Benny looked at the metallic mesh structure with equal surprise. “What he said.”

  “Hey, if this worked for the MMA tournaments, we figured it would work for our purposes too,” was all Donovan had to say in response. “And I think we were right. Now get inside, please. Oh, and in case you’re wondering, the mesh of The Cage—yes, we call it The Cage, because that simple name fits it just fine—is a titanium alloy.”

  The two boys grudgingly entered, slipped on the special hand gloves that were given to them, and stood several feet apart in opposite corners as Donovan entered alongside them.

  “Are you sure it’s wise for you to be in there like that when the two of them start going at it, chief?” Helda hollered from across the room.

  “Absolutely not, ma’am,” Donovan replied with grudging honesty. “But I think it would be even less wise for me not to be in here.”

  “Do you at least want one of us to go in with you?” Sasheen asked, also via raising his voice from across the room.

  “No,” Donovan confidently answered. “I’ll signal if I need you. Until then, I got this.”

  He then directed Benny and Mac to stand at ease before each other. After he insisted that the two bow to each other to display mutual respect before starting the slug-fest, Donovan braced himself a moment before uttering the word everyone in the chamber was anxiously anticipating.

  “Fight!”

  Mac immediately proved himself the more aggressive of the two by charging forward like a maddened rhino and swinging a right hook at his much smal
ler opponent. He was startled by Benny’s reflexes when the latter easily evaded the blow, and then avoided its immediate follow-up with similar ease.

  Having now become a bit more confident with the full realization of the edge his enhanced reflexes afforded him, Benny threw a punch capable of smashing clear through a cinderblock wall at his larger foe. To his consternation, Mac caught the fist in his meaty left hand, barely evincing any pain at doing so.

  The bigger youth then tugged Benny forward slightly and laid a crushing haymaker clear across his chin. The brown-haired meta of Italian heritage was sent airborne by the force of this blow, his flight halted only when he crashed into the metallic mesh a about twenty feet behind him.

  Oooohh, Donovan said to himself.

  Benny landed hard on the mat and stumbled back to his feet. The fact that he could receive serious pain from another powerful metahuman was now made unnervingly clear to him.

  He instinctively moved his tongue around the interior of his mouth to check for broken teeth. Finding none, Benny forced himself back to his feet and resumed his fighting stance.

  Mac danced around in the center of the cage and struck his fists together a few times in another posturing motion. “You done? Because if not, I’m going to hurt you worse.”

  For a moment, the same fears of being beaten upon by stronger individuals that Benny had lived with every day of his life prior to the metamorphosis infested his mind. And it did so like a horde of filthy rodents that find a way into the sanctity of one’s home through the toilet.

  However, the boy would be damned if he was going to allow this situation to follow him into the new circle he had just entered.

  With this determined resolution, Benny’s fear was quickly replaced by an utter refusal to end up on the lower pecking order of the dawning metahuman population. He would not allow himself to be forced into a position amongst the emerging gods that was comparable to the one he experienced amongst the mortal peasantry.