by K. L. Lewis
DeMarcus partnered up with Tyrone, who was first were up and ready. “Alright, show me what you got,” Ty said as he and DeMarcus paced around each other.
Ty shot at him with a quick left jab, and DeMarcus weaved away and blocked Ty’s right with his shoulder. When Tyrone came for another punch, DeMarcus delivered a swift kick to his groin, sending him flinching back.
Tyrone covered between his legs. “You…cheap-shotting…”
It had DeMarcus wincing as his ears drooped in shame. “Sorry? I thought they said it was okay?”
Then Ty delivered a swift punch to his, and he kneeled to the floor from the echoing pain. “Doesn’t mean I have to like it,” Ty said with a smile.
DeMarcus smiled back as he kept himself up. “I see how it is,” he grunted.
As the training went on and the team’s shuffled around, Keith and LaBelle began the topic of handling two attackers. They were clear up front—there was little chance of winning a two-on-one. Assuming there were no weapons involved, the best chance anyone had in this scenario was to keep an eye on the closest attacker.
They started with drills to learn by feel: Tyrone distracted Yue while DeMarcus snuck around and held her arms in a wrap. But she kicked Ty away as he rushed in, then gave DeMarcus and elbow to his side, then pulled him in to her knee thrusting into his stomach.
DeMarcus kneeled to the ground with his hand over his stomach. “I felt bone there.”
“You saying I’m skinny?” Yue asked.
“Yes?”
“Aw, sibling rivalry. How cute,” Ty teased.
Yue and DeMarcus looked and smiled at each other, then rushed at Tyrone. DeMarcus threw a punch, luring Tyrone to Yue who trapped him in a bear-hug. With him held at bay, DeMarcus scored three punches to Ty’s stomach as he flailed and missed his kick. But a second kick knocked DeMarcus away, and Ty elbowed Yue off before kneeing her in the stomach too. “I wasn’t freaking ready yet!” he complained.
Yue groaned, but made a light snicker. “Didn’t your grandpa say always be prepared?”
“Atten-TION!” Keith shouted, lining everyone before him. “Alright, we’ve covered enough today. Later during the week, we’ll practice with weapons and you’ll really learn some defense. Dismissed!”
Ty and Yue went to the locker rooms for their stuff with the other teens clearing out. Meanwhile, DeMarcus spotted Keith sitting on the benches mumbling to himself with his OmniMorph. There was no telling when he’d get this chance again, so he took a deep breath and approached Keith. “Um, Marshal Iyrons, sir?”
Met his eyes with a smile. “Hey there. You can call me Keith for now. How’d you like your first lesson?”
“It was great!” DeMarcus answered. “But I wanted to ask you something. Since you’re with Iuvia, do you know anything about my parents?”
“Sure, I do.”
DeMarcus’s eyes widened. “Really? Tell me!”
“Well, you already know about them,” said Keith. “I mean, I know it’s been a few weeks, but Jiao and Shen are great people. It was nice of them to take you in.”
Wait…that’s not who he meant. Earlier, Mironov said Keith took a special interest in him, and he wanted to get that cleared up thinking it had something to do with his mother. But before DeMarcus said anything further, their conversation was cut short by Tyrone and Yue’s arrival.
“Hey, grandpa! We’re ready!” Ty shouted.
“One sec. Captain!” he called. LaBelle came forth. “Mironov’s out on patrol, so hold down the fort.”
LaBelle saluted. “Qui, Maréchal!”
CHAPTER 17 – NEW VENTURES
Everywhere DeMarcus went, the public news-screens were tuned on the attack on Representative Allers. The media scrambled over it like starving vultures as they speculated who targeted him, the obvious culprit being the Amalgam Concord for his rumored ties to the Human Defense Front. Not even the Iyrons Academy was free from the news, with students talking and searching the attack on their OmniMorphs during their free time.
With the possibility of Amalgam involvement, it reminded DeMarcus of that orange strip of plastic he had with the evacuation message. It had their symbol on it, and he figured it might clue him in to the truth. Maybe it might bring him closer to his attackers? Doubtful, but during lounge hour he couldn’t help but try to understand the message more. He opened the slip and searched the Terranet on his OmniMorph for the locations—maybe the letters GLDET and GLILL stood for something close by? But what about the numbers behind them, what did they mean? His search came up empty on the Terranet for both of them.
Spooked by the bell, he tucked the message away. The last thing he wanted was anyone getting the wrong idea about him. Not that it mattered, as later on he, Ty, and Yue would continue their training at the Civil-Mil Compound. On the tram back home, he followed Yue and Ty to the Iyrons family’s backyard where Jun was present babysitting Bianca and Amy. As those two ran around the yard, the three practiced what they learned from the weekend. It was difficult to do without the protective gear they wore at the Compound—they had to pull punches and kicks lest they injure one another.
To say nothing of how easier things would be without Amy and Bianca running between them every time they practiced a drill, with Yue nearly falling to the ground to avoid kicking the two as they ran by. “Will you brats go somewhere else?” she fumed.
Amy blew a raspberry at her before continuing after Bianca. Yue stomped after them until Jun stopped her. “Calm down, Yue. They’ll grow out of it.”
“You’re just letting them get away with it,” said Tyrone. “We can deal with them.”
“No, Ty,” Jun denied. “We’ve already had someone come from the hospital.”
DeMarcus nipped his lip. Right, wouldn’t want that happening again. They continued practicing until Amy and Bianca interrupted them once again, mocking and stirring their rage. But Jun didn’t let this one slide and snapped at them. “Amy! Bianca! Knock it off, now!”
“We didn’t do anything!” Bianca lied.
“Stop it or I’ll let them pulverize you,” Jun warned. Amy and Bianca flinched at Yue eager to spring on them, and the two heeded Jun’s words and kept away.
Back to training, Ty caught Yue’s kick and laughed. “You think that someone would do that?”
“Maybe,” said Yue. “No telling what some dumbass might do.”
“There you are!” said Keith at the door. He approached them, dodging Amy and Bianca sprinting around. “Practicing, huh? I was just visiting James over the news.”
“Yeah, good thing we started training as soon as possible,” said DeMarcus.
“Well, I’m about to head to the Compound for the next session. Any of you need a lift?” They gave him a loud “YES!” and followed him to his aerocar.
“Take care, you guys!” said Jun.
Easier said than done. It was only a few days into their training at the Compound, and things got more intense as they progressed, with warm-ups and reviews of everything they learned before getting onto the next subject. “Again!” LaBelle shouted, pacing around as the students repeated their techniques.
Training androids came out with a number of props—training knives, pistols, and rifles, as Keith informed them their next lesson. “Alright. Next up, Armed Defense. LaBelle?”
“Attackers love weapons,” LaBelle began, holding a practice knife. “Be it some random punk or a militant, fists and kicks can only get you so far. And zee knife is one of zee most common weapons. But first tings first—in a knife or gunfight, zere is no guarantee you won’t be nicked, stabbed, or shot. Zat’s just zee simple reality. I can’t tell you how many idiots I’ve seen believe zhey are invincible after learning a few new tricks. I learned zat zee hard way myself.”
LaBelle revealed a scar on her arm, and DeMarcus wondered if she ever got stabbed in the stomach. No telling what else she might have gone through in her fights.
“You should’ve seen my wounds back in the day—looked like shredd
ed meat,” Keith added, sparking chuckles in everyone except DeMarcus. Yue stopped chuckling when she saw his agitated face, and Keith wiped his own smile off as he went on. “But let’s be real here, this ain’t no laughing matter. One of you happens to be a survivor of a knife attack, and they can attest to that.”
Keith and LaBelle began the lesson, preparing to fight as they detailed many ways to deal with a knife attack like avoiding the blade, disarming it, or redirecting it elsewhere.
“Say, for example, I was to rush Keith,” LaBelle said as she ran and made a stab at Keith.
Keith kept her at bay with a kick, nearly getting stabbed in the process. He grabbed LaBelle’s arm and held her knife away, both of them demonstrating a struggle that wiykd have them both on the ground. LaBelle then feigned a kick to move Keith away and take another stab. Keith dodged the blade, and had time to either fight back or run.
“It should be clear,” LaBelle emphasized, “zat zere is no fool-proof way to handle a knife attack. Now we begin.”
Everyone practiced the scenarios, with DeMarcus being partnered with Dana Millard. Each team was given one prop knife, and Keith and LaBelle repeated the earlier maneuver, instructing the trainees to use kicks to keep the knife-wielder away. And as the trainees performed their drills, each scenario was chaotic and random, resulting in slips to the ground or the small shock of the knife “cutting” them. DeMarcus tensed at each nick of the blade, his veins rising through his skin as he remembered getting stabbed months ago. He glared at Dana with the knife, picturing that pale, blue-eyed human in her place. He squinted and blinked, making sure his mind was right as he stared back at the woman.
“What’s wrong?” the woman asked.
DeMarcus shook the image of the human out of his mind, seeing Dana standing before him. “Oh, uh…nothing,” he said. “It’s just that I was that survivor he mentioned. Just remembering it all again.”
Dana eyes widen in horror. “Wow, sorry to hear that.”
“Let’s just do this.”
Dana rushed DeMarcus, flailing the knife at him. DeMarcus backed from the swings until he saw an opening, grabbing Dana’s arm and stunning her with a kick between the legs. Then he yanked the knife from her grip and tossed her onto the ground.
Dana groaned, smiling as she got back on her feet. “Nice one.”
“Okay, everyone!” Keith shouted. “Now let’s train with guns!”
Everyone lined up before him as he picked up a prop gun. “This here’s a training weapon,” he said. “It shoots like the real thing but hurts a lot less. And yes, you will get shot today.”
“Now, obviously, guns kill you at a distance,” said LaBelle. “But sometimes people like to get up close. Zee best sing about guns is zat zey can only shoot in one direction, but zat doesn’t make zem any less dangerous.”
Keith pointed his gun at her head up close. She froze for a second, then in a flash, she knocked his hand up, making the gun shoot over her head before she yanked it away and threw Keith to the ground. He smiled at her as she pointed the gun down at his head while he looked back at the trainees. “Like knives, don’t get cocky and think you can’t get hurt,” he said.
Like this couldn’t be any more intense. From yanking the gun away to moving around and locking the wielder’s arm, every screw up earned the trainees a shot from the pill-sized plastic rounds flying from the attacker’s gun. They were lucky this was just training.
As DeMarcus disabled on of the unarmed trainees, Dana pointed a rifle at his back. “Hands up!” she teased.
DeMarcus raised his hands and peeked over his shoulders at the position of her hand on the barrel. He twisted around, feeling a few practice rounds graze the edge of his back as he elbowed the barrel away, then gripped Dana’s arm and pushed the weapon towards her chest. He gripped the rifle in a struggle, and he pulled Dana down to his knee, loosening the weapon from her grasp and pointing it back at her.
Dana got on her knees, reeling in pain as she smiled at DeMarcus. “Well, you’ll do fine in a pinch. But do you always have to fight so dirty?”
DeMarcus shrugged. “This ain’t a fair fight.”
“Nice to see you’re catching on, Maahes,” LaBelle complemented before moving on to the other trainees.
Dana chuckled at him. “You’re almost like my sister, Kathy.”
“What makes you say that?” DeMarcus asked as he stood by.
They repeated the drill, with Dana knocking DeMarcus to the ground and pointing the rifle at him. “Well, you both enjoy low-blows for one,” She said before helping him back up.
“I just don’t take any chances.”
“Alright, we’re finished for now,” said Keith. “We will continue with more drills and exercises come the next session. Dismissed!”
As everyone packed up and departed, Dana turned back to DeMarcus on her way out. “Take care. I might introduce you guys someday.”
Keith walked up to the gang and stretched. “Alright. Time for us to move out.”
They bid LaBelle farewell, and flew home in Keith’s aerocar. DeMarcus wanted to ask Keith about his parents again along the way, but if he was going to get the same cryptic response he might as well not bother. It wasn’t worth asking anyway with Ty and Yue around, as he didn’t want them finding out who he really was.
“So, Ty,” said Keith. “I’m thinking about taking the family to the British Isles over the summer. You interested?”
“You know me!” Tyrone answered. “Anything’s good. But what about the Iuvian space colonies?”
“Someday. If the Overseers could answer my calls.”
The Iuvian colonies would be a better idea. DeMarcus can go to space himself, see Eden colony where his mother grew up, and see his grandparents while he was at it.
His ear twitched at Yue grumbling in her seat. “Must be nice,” she said. “You guys get to go all around the world, while we only go to the same places in the Sinic Republics.”
Keith grinned. “I tell you what, Yue. We’ll see what we can do for you this summer.”
That didn’t stop her pouting, but it had DeMarcus interested. He’d love to travel more himself, regardless of whether it was to the Sinic Republics or Iuvian colonies—anywhere outside the NAF. What an experience that would be.
Over the next several weeks came Tyrone’s fifteenth birthday, but there wasn’t any celebration. That said, DeMarcus knew what was in store given what Keith had planned. At school, he, Tyrone, and Sarah sat in History class on the mid-years of the UCR Fracture. Mr. Bann listed the topics from the crimes committed by the American Empire, the rise of the Human Defense Front, to the civilians of the Imperial Union of Iuvia who were overeager to join the fight against the AE.
It was one of Bann’s most active topics, but the days of training at the compound wore DeMarcus and Tyrone out. Both of them found themselves falling asleep, with Sarah shaking them awake as Bann went on with his lecture. “With their technology over two hundred years behind the Iuvians, the American Empire had no idea what kind of trouble they were getting themselves into. But despite having plenty of reasons and resources to go to war, the Iuvian Overseers were cautious of how the AE would react. So they sent small groups to assist the other nations, keeping an eye on the AE advancing near Iuvian territories in the Caribbean…”
DeMarcus’s head bobbed as he fought to keep his eyes open, but his body relented and he fell asleep on his wrist. Sarah shook him awake. “Come on, we’ve only got a few weeks left. Hang in there.”
Tyrone snored beside her, his head hanging back against the top of his chair. “Oh, for the love of—Ty!” Sarah whispered, shaking him.
Tyrone lifted his head up, facing the lecture. “…what I miss?”
“What do you remember?” Sarah asked.
“Something about the AE going to war with the Iuvians.”
“Okay, you’re off a little.”
Then DeMarcus’s head made a thud on his tablet. Mr. Bann briefly stopped his lecture and saw DeM
arcus’s head lying on the table. If he weren’t one of Bann’s top students in the class, DeMarcus knew he’d get called out for that, and he was fortunate that Bann just shrugged at Sarah before continuing with the lecture, letting DeMarcus rest. And when Tyrone fell asleep, Sarah left them alone until the end of class.
During lounge hour, Yue was equally tired and her face almost landed in her lunch tray before she caught herself at the last second. “Whoa, that was close.”
“What’s with you lately?” Mitch asked. “You look worn out.”
“She’s not the only one,” said Sarah, pointing at DeMarcus and Tyrone. “I had to keep these two sleepy heads up in History until Mr. Bann decided to let them sleep.”
She tapped a sleeping DeMarcus, spooking him awake. “Huh? What happened?” DeMarcus asked.
“You sleeping again,” Mitch answered. “What’s up with you guys?”
Tyrone’s head wobbled as he answered him. “Uh, granddad’s back…teaching us to defend ourselves…hand-to-hand…knives, guns…militants.” He slowly drifted to sleep.
Mitch caught his head. “Hey, wake up.”
“I’m surprised you guys are getting stuff done with all the sleeping in class,” said Sarah.
DeMarcus sipped an energy drink. “We manage…Stimulade helps a bit.”
“Are you guys going to do it all throughout the summer?” Mitch asked. “It won’t affect your usual trip to the Sinic Republics will it, Yue?”
Yue groaned. “For once, I’d like to go someplace different. We don’t go that far from Zhujing since mom and dad want to stay as far from Mid-Asia as possible.”
DeMarcus wished he had something to add, but the desire to sleep was calling him. He slumped on his wrist, the Yard fading around him, and the sounds of idle chatter making faint images in his ears. There was the laughter of girls drifting by his ears, and he recognized Elene, one of Crystal’s friends, among them. “What a dwit,” she mocked.
“I heard he likes me,” laughed another girl, who sounded an awful lot like Crystal. “Can you believe that? Me with him?”
