“What do you want?” he asked.
“A moment alone with Eli,” Taia said.
Jesse rolled his eyes again. His eyes were really going to get stuck in the back of his head if this behavior from his best friend kept up.
“Come on Taia,” he responded. “You talk to him every day.”
“In the Stockade,” Taia said. “With guards there. Or with you around. I need to talk to him privately. With no one listening.”
Every day after the Academy, Jesse would escort Eli back to the Stockade after spending an hour or so with Taia under Jesse’s supervision. He and Taia would then go meet up with Kate after she got out of trade school and hang out for about an hour. Taia would then leave and go sit and speak with Eli in the Stockade until the guards kicked her out.
Jesse sighed. “Listen sweetheart,” he began. “I really don’t trust this guy.”
“But you trust me,” Taia said eagerly.
Jesse rolled his eyes for a final time. “Fine,” he said. “But only 5 minutes. And you owe me.”
Taia smiled. “Only for the millionth time.” Jesse walked away to leave Taia and Eli alone.
“What was that about?” Eli asked.
“Well,” Taia began “I need a favor.”
Eli raised an eyebrow.
“I need you to teach me how to fight Supes,” she said
“Huh?” Eli asked. “But isn’t that what you’re learning? Isn’t that what all of this is for?” He motioned toward the Academy.
“Yes. But you know just as well as I do that we aren’t prepared. My Sector has no chance of taking down the Regime.”
“But isn’t that why you have the other Sectors?” Eli asked. “For you all to work together?”
Taia looked down. “We aren’t in contact with the other Sectors.”
“What?” Eli asked, confused.
“We aren’t in contact with them. We haven’t been for almost 25 years,” Taia explained. “The Sector Generals all realized that there was no way we could communicate that wasn’t at risk of the Regime intercepting. So we cut all communication. Each Sector General knows the coordinates for each sector just in case of an emergency, but as far as we know, none of them exist anymore. Most people think Sector 6 is the only sector left.”
Eli’s eyes were wide. “But you said all those things. You were so convinced the Regime could be stopped.”
“That was before I had seen what they were capable of. What Supes could really do. And now that I know, I need you to train me against them. I need you to train me like they trained you in the Core.”
“I don’t know Taia,” Eli said, scratching the back of his head. “You handled yourself really well. You took down a lot of Supes out there.”
“Don’t kid me Eli,” Taia said angrily. “I was a liability and you know it. I need to know how to really take down Supes and I need you to teach me. And then maybe I can help my Sector so we can actually defend ourselves in case something happens.”
Eli sighed. “How would I even train you? Your boy over there is watching me at all times. And when he’s not, I’m in the Stockade.”
“You let me worry about that,” Taia said. “Will you do it?”
Eli groaned. “I don’t have much of a choice, do I?”
Taia smiled and motioned for Jesse to come back over.
“Do I even wanted to know what that was about?” he asked lazily.
“Nope,” Taia and Eli said simultaneously.
A few hours passed and Eli was falling asleep in the bed of his cell in the Stockade. That was when all of a sudden his floor started knocking. Eli jumped out of his bed and went over to the source of the sound on his floor. He put his ear to the floor before all of a sudden the floor opened up and smacked him in his face.
“Ow!” Eli said grabbing his face. Taia peeked her head up, above the hole in the ground that had opened up when she pushed the floor up.
“You okay?” she asked.
“No I’m not okay!” Eli exclaimed. “You just hit me in the face with a – is that a trap door?!”
And it was. Taia had come into Eli’s cell using a door hidden in the floor.
“Yep,” Taia said.
Eli’s mouth was open in shock. “Why is there a trap door in a cell?! Doesn’t that defeat the purpose?”
“Only if the prisoner knows about it,” Taia said smiling. “When we first made these cells, the Sector put trap doors in some of them that led to tunnels outside of the Stockade so that just in case the Regime ever came and took over the Sector and locked some of us up, we’d be able to escape.”
Eli gaped at Taia. He had to admit, it was a pretty ingenious idea.
“Come on,” Taia said before disappearing back into the trap door. Eli followed after her.
“Taia, wait,” he said. “Where are we going? What if one of the guards come and see that I’m not at my cell?”
“Have they ever come to check up on you?” Taia replied.
Thinking about the question, Eli had to admit that they had not. Not even one time. He kept following Taia down the tunnel.
Before long, the pair had arrived at another door. Taia pushed it open and crawled out and Eli followed her.
They were in a different part of the Sector than what the Stockade was located in. This part was uninhabited and was mostly filled with trees and not much else.
“What are we doing here Taia?” Eli asked.
“We’re here for you to train me,” she replied. “Here is where you’re going to do it.”
Eli stared at her. “What if someone sees me? Aren’t they going to be concerned that I’m not in the Stockade? They’re going to think that I was trying to escape.”
“Well based on our training, I’m going to be more worried about what they’re going to see you doing than them thinking you’re trying to leave the Sector.”
Eli raised an eyebrow at her. “What they’re going to see me doing?”
Taia nodded. “You’re going to be training me to fight Supes,” she said. “That means that you’re going to have to show me what a Supe does.”
Understanding dawned on Eli. “No way,” he said. “I’m not going to use my powers on you.”
“Oh come on Eli,” Taia said, rolling her eyes. “I’m not asking you to hurt me. But you’re going to have to come at me with everything you’ve got otherwise there’s no point in us doing this.”
“I don’t even understand why we are doing this!”
“Because I need help!” Taia exclaimed. “I need to be able to fight Supes better than I can right now. Better than I could when we were out there. And I need to be able to teach my people how to fight them.”
Eli groaned and rubbed the back of his head. “Someone is going to see us,” he said dejectedly.
Taia smiled knowing that Eli was going to help her. “No they won’t. Nobody comes out here. Everyone stays pretty much confined to the city. But let’s head more into the trees just in case.”
Eli and Taia then began walking further into the woods. Moments later they stopped and Taia turned around looking at Eli expectantly.
“So what are we going to do first?” she asked.
Suddenly she felt as if she was being held down by 1000 pounds. Eli was forcing his gravity down upon her.
“What the heck Eli?” Taia said, not able to move, laying on the ground. “Stop it!”
“Make me stop,” Eli said.
“How?” Taia responded. “You’re supposed to be teaching me that.”
“Teach yourself,” Eli said walking around Taia. “Didn’t you want to be trained by a Core captain? Didn’t you want me to use my powers on you? This is how we learned in the Core. Sink or swim girl.”
“But you’re a Supe,” Taia said angrily. “This isn’t fair.”
“You wanted to learn how to fight Supes,” Eli said, sitting down on a tree stump. “You said you wanted to know how to stop them. If you want to know how to stop them, you need to be able to train like th
em. You need to be just as capable as them.”
“But I’m not,” Taia said.
“I used to think that too,” Eli responded. “But someone showed me otherwise. Now I believe in that person. Do you believe in yourself?”
Taia didn’t respond. She just grimed at Eli trying her best to move but unable to.
“If you want to give up, just let me know Taia,” Eli said. “And I can go back to my cell.”
Taia ignored him and tried her best to squirm away from the hold of Eli’s gravity. She knew that he would get tired soon.
But then an hour passed and Taia had still not made any progress. She sighed. “Let me go Eli.”
Eli complied with her request, releasing the gravitational hold he had on her and followed her back to the trap door in total silence.
When they arrived back at Eli’s cell, Taia had still not said a word to him.
“If you want to stop,” Eli said. “Then we can. I understand. But this is the only way that I know how to train you.”
Taia glared at him. “I’ll see you tomorrow morning. But we’re doing this tomorrow night too. Be ready at the exact same time.”
She then began going back through the trap door.
“Wait,” Eli said. Taia looked up at him sitting on his bed. “If I’m doing this favor for you, I need something in return.”
“What?” Taia asked.
“Books,” Eli said desperately. “I miss my books. Could you please bring me some the next time you come?”
Taia smiled at Eli before nodding and going back into her tunnel.
Chapter 16
The next day of their night time training was extremely similar to the last. Eli held Taia under an immense amount of gravity and she somehow tried to find a way to stop him.
What frustrated Taia most was how interested Eli seemed with the entire ordeal. He just sat on the same tree stump, reading a book, not even bothering to look at her.
The same routine continued for several more days. And every day the pair would walk back to the trap door which led to Eli’s cell in complete and total silence. Eli could sense Taia’s frustration but he refused to change anything. Taia could tell that a part of Eli wanted her to quit this training. He probably thought it was foolish and wouldn’t make a difference. But that wasn’t how Taia was.
All Taia wanted was to do was ask someone for help. Her father had more experience than anyone she knew with fighting Supes. Or maybe even Jesse considering how intelligent he was. But she couldn’t. No one knew that Eli was Transcended and she couldn’t tell anyone. They would all kill him.
So Taia had to figure out this problem herself. But she was having absolutely no luck.
In sparring class, the instructor paired Eli and her up together for the first time. She knew that Eli was a better fighter than her but she didn’t care. Eli was pissing her off. And she had a lot of anger and frustration to work out because of him.
Eli and Taia both walked to the center of the room. Eli smiled slightly at Taia but Taia just rolled her eyes.
“Fight!” the instructor said.
Taia immediately threw a jab at Eli. He moved his head back and dodged it. She threw another one and he dodged it again. She faked another jab to send Eli back again, then threw a roundhouse kick at where she thought he would be but Eli anticipated the kick and blocked it.
“Oh, come on!” Wesley said, arms folded. “We know how this is going to go. Proof’s just going to let her win.”
This infuriated Taia. She would be insulted if that happened. But Eli beat her down enough during their private lessons. He wasn’t going to do it here too.
She then began punching wildly at Eli but he kept dodging. She couldn’t hit him. “Is all you’re going to do is stand there?” she asked angrily.
Eli looked at her in surprise. “What?”
“I don’t need you to take it easy on me,” Taia then threw a hard spinning kick to Eli’s chest. He caught it before it hit him and twisted her foot causing her to twist in the air. Using her agility, Taia stopped herself from falling on the ground with one arm and spun in the air and kicked Eli in the chin.
Stumbling back, Eli grabbed his chin where Taia kicked him and looked at her in surprise. “Told you,” she said smiling cheekily. All of the cadets in the room looked surprised. They knew Taia was the best fighter in their class but in the past few weeks no one had landed a hit on Eli in one on one combat. But now Taia had.
“He let her do that.” Wesley muttered.
“I actually didn’t,” Eli said in surprise. Maybe he wasn’t as much of a better fighter as she thought. He then launched himself at Taia with a right cross. Taia jumped to the right barely dodging the punch. Eli threw a spinning back fist at Taia that forced her into bringing up both her arms in order to block it.
She then grabbed his arm and flipped over his body. She lifted her leg high in the air and brought it down hard toward Eli’s face.
Eli brought one of his arms up to block Taia’s kick. He then threw a left hook to her body which caused her to double over.
A look of worry crossed Eli’s face. But this only infuriated Taia further.
She ran towards him with a driving knee to his face. Eli blocked it but immediately had to block a wild punch from Taia. He countered with a kick that sent Taia spiraling backward.
He ran forward and threw two kicks in rapid succession at her that she barely managed to block. He then hit her with a hard punch to the gut that brought Taia to her knees. He reached his arm back to punch her to finish her off but he hesitated.
Taia scowled at him. “Never show mercy,” she then brought her fist up and hit Eli right between the legs. Eli eyes widened in disbelief and he let out a loud cry as he doubled over and fell to the ground.
Every male in the room cringed in agony and some of the women did too.
“Jesus, Morris.” Wesley winced. “I didn’t know you fought dirty.”
“I fight to win,” Taia said walking over to where the rest of the cadets were standing leaving Eli groaning in the fetal position in the middle of the room.
“Trouble in Paradise?” Jesse asked Taia as she went over to stand next to him. She rolled her eyes in response.
“No trouble,” she lied. “I just fight to win. Even against Eli Proof.”
Jesse smiled wryly seeing through the façade completely. “I must admit, I am impressed. I knew you could beat the rest of the guys in here. I didn’t know that you could beat him.”
A few of the cadets went over to help Eli up and took him to the medical bay. Per his orders, Jesse followed them.
A part of Taia felt guilty, but she mostly felt vindicated. She had asked Eli to help her but all he did was torture her by weighing her down with more gravity than any normal person could possibly handle. Maybe now during their nighttime training sessions, they would actually do something useful.
But Taia was wrong. While Eli was undoubtedly much more standoffish and irritable, the training went the same way. Eli put more gravitational pressure on Taia than she could handle and she struggled fruitlessly against it. But this was the absolute last straw.
“What is your problem?” she questioned Eli angrily, squirming around on the ground.
“Giving up already tonight?” he replied back, not looking up from his book.
“No! But what is your problem? What is the point of this?”
“The point is to teach you how to get out of any situation that any enemy presents you with,” Eli answered. “It is how I learned. And it is how you will learn. You have to learn to adapt.”
“But how?” Taia said. “How am I supposed to get out of this situation? How am I supposed to stop you?”
“Any way you can,” Eli replied simply.
After nearly a half hour of frustration and no progress Eli came over to Taia and stood over her with his arms folded. “Are we done yet?” he asked.
Taia glared at him but said nothing. She just kept trying to break his hold.
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Eli sighed. “You’re not going to break it Taia. That’s obvious. Most Transcendeds with Super Strength can’t even break it.”
“Then why are we even doing this?” Taia asked exasperatedly.
“Because you’re not supposed to be breaking free,” Eli answered. “You’re supposed to be stopping me from being able to do this.”
“I don’t understand,” Taia said.
“You’re not going to be able to fight me straight up. You’re going to have to find other ways to beat me and to beat other Supes. You’re going to have to use your brains, not your brawn. Analyze our weaknesses.” Eli then walked back over to his tree stump and sat down.
After a few minutes Taia had a sharp intake of breath and winced loudly.
“What’s wrong?” Eli asked standing up.
“Your left hook,” Taia groaned. “I’ve been feeling it all day but I think I might have tweaked something.”
Eli rushed over to her and kneeled down on the ground. “Shoot. Let me see—“
Taia had her pistol pointed under Eli’s chin. He had lifted the gravity on Taia in his concern for her. “I win,” she said smiling and putting down her pistol.
“What?” Eli asked angrily. “No you don’t. You tricked me!”
“No!” Taia exclaimed, getting in Eli’s face. “It doesn’t matter! You said to stop you any way I could.”
“That’s not what I meant!” Eli looked furious.
“Why are you so mad?” Taia asked, she was inches away from Eli’s face now. She could see every single detail of his perfect brown skin. And his piercing black eyes. “You told me to use your weaknesses against you!”
“How much I care for you is not a weakness!” Eli yelled. They were both breathing hard now, noses almost touching.
“You make me stronger,” Eli continued, much quieter now, looking away. “And to think—to think that I had hurt you. It did something to me that I can’t even explain.”
Taia felt horrible now. Yes, Eli had frustrated her beyond belief these past few days, but everything he had done she had asked for. And everything he had done was to make her stronger.
But now she had ruined all of that. And she didn’t know how to make it all better. So she did the one thing that she knew she could do. She hugged Eli.
Becoming Super Page 19
