Unity

Seven: Evasion

A/N: Oh boy, Clio published before midnight! It's a miracle. Above is the drawing I did of Lynette. It's not completely accurate because I'm not that good of an artist (I'm practicing I'm practicing) she's actually shorter and a little more rounded in the face, lots of stuff but there she is. Anyway, enjoy the chapter.

October has always been one of my favorite times of the year. The slow change of the leaves from green to yellow to orange to red and the shift of the climate to the chill of winter. This year I never experienced that. The closest I got was a created fall in one of the Classrooms. We were all feeling a little homesick. Not necessarily for our actual homes but just for the world outside the Facility.

During the week of our second mock field assignment we had an interesting training session. Lautrec brought us into one of the Classrooms and we had people waiting for us, Agents. They were the Potts' team, the one that was a year above Aphrodite's. Emily Potts looked at me with a smug indifference, which was a very strange look to pull off.

Lautrec walked over to their Supervisor, a stressed-looking young red-head with more freckles visible than skin. They were at such a stark contrast, Lautrec with his dark skin and gray hair, her with her relatively pale skin and vibrant hair, and yet they both had the same slumped shoulders, the same expressions that seemed to have angered gravity in some way. They began speaking in hushed tones. She rubbed her temples and dragged her hand through her messy red hair. Then she nodded and Lautrec nodded back.

"This is McCahan's team. They are two years your seniors." Lautrec introduced them. "Today they will be mentoring you on PreModern blades, as most of you need the help."

I hung my head. Blades were not my strength. Mallory had daggers down but as soon as a heavy weapon was in her hands she was rooted to the ground. Rex's hands got shaky whenever he held anything sharper than a butter knife. Lynette tried to manage bladed weapons but almost always ended up dropping, spinning or flipping them in such a way that she got cut. Chance's specialty was the sword and he somehow was amazing at all the other weapons too.

    "They will first give you a demonstration and then you will pair off to spar one-on-one." Lautrec explained, then tilted his head to the woman.

    "We'll be running formation Beta, guys." McCahan spoke in an Irish accent. She punched a code into the Classroom, which sprung into life the interior of a room that looked like some sort of lobby. About twenty men were generated, all holding swords. "Start!"

The five Agents all whipped out a weapon. Two were holding swords, the Latino and the one with the boyish hair. I remembered their names being Dani and Karole. Emily held a short sword and had a belt full of throwing knives. The last girl, Bev, which must have been short for Beverly, held a giant spear-like weapon that had an axe on the end. It was called a "halberd," not a typical weapon. The boy had a weapon I had never seen before that looked kind of like knives attached to a handle, he held the handles tight, which gave the illusion of huge claws protruding from his fists.

    They jumped into battle, the two sword-wielders in front slashed enemy after enemy, running them down like steamrollers. Emily and the boy cut down those who survived the sword slashes with swift stabs to the back of the neck. Beverly stood away from the group and drew enemies to her, instantly lopping off their heads once they were within reach of her halberd.

    They dealt with over half the group in this fashion, until there were only about seven left. Two men had successful pinned down Karole's sword with theirs and she was stuck in a battle of strength. Dani rushed to help her, leaving herself wide open to being disarmed by another man. Beverly charged in and jammed the spear tip of her halberd into the attacker's stomach. Then, the remaining enemies closed in on them.