Virus: Insanity

~11~

Luna's life was falling apart. First Stephen becomes a mutant. Then he gets jailed for attempted murder. Then he gets kidnapped. And now Jace was dead. He had shot himself late at night in the weapons room. Matthew had replaced him, and Connor put in charge of the guard. The Pureblood cause was falling apart at the seams and would soon begin to unravel entirely. They seemed to be held together by a thread with Matthew holding onto it. His next move determined the fate of the Purebloods. Luna only hoped he chose the right move. She fingered Stephen's phone, wondering whether or not she should give it to Matthew or unravel its secrets herself. She slipped it into her pocket, walking towards Matthew's office. She stopped right outside the door, still undecided. She thought back to her childhood days when she actually went to church. If there really is a God, she thought, then I wish he would send me a sign on what I should do. Right as she had finished thinking, Matthew's full, commanding voice resonated through the cracks in the old door.
"We can't storm the mutant base without knowing what goes on in their minds!" Luna took it as a sign, opening the door and walking in. The arguing men silenced and looked at her, relaxing slightly.
"I have Stephen's phone," she said, pulling it out of her pocket. "If it helps any."
•••
Stephen collapsed on his bed, exhausted. He had stayed up all night three times in a row, training hard and pushing himself to his absolute physical limit. He would have a day of rest tomorrow before going back at it. As he closed his eyes, the days' events replayed in his subconscious.
He had woken up early the first morning, going from his sleeping spot in what used to be a boy's locker room to the gym down the hall, the fading posters adding an eerie feel to the old building. The gym, lit slightly better in the daytime, was still creepy and obviously dangerous. The girls were already there. They told him today was flying day, and that his whole back would hurt when they were done. They had him fly up to the top of the gym with his hands and feet tied, then told him to stay aloft as long as he could without touching the net strung between the two basketball hoops on either side. He tried it all day, with the only breaks being for a quick snack or meal. His record time was a few seconds shy of half an hour.
The next day was weapons and defense. He got to test out different types of weapons in an obstacle course, seeing which one fit him best. The first one he tried, the machine gun, was hard for him to carry and fire. The second one, a hammer, was even worse. The third weapon, a broadsword, worked pretty well for him but was hard to store because of his wings. The fourth weapon he tried, a crossbow, worked perfectly in time with him and fit between his wings. He trained with it against each girl, targeting his different abilities. Tori drew up targets rapidly, testing his reflexes. He hit about six of the eighteen targets. Vera worked with him on hand-to-hand combat, beating him almost senseless while barely getting any bruises herself. Madison worked with Stephen on dodging and quick striking, which was basically just paintball. She won by a lot, but both walked away with welts. Ellie worked on Stephen's mindset and nerves, making him shoot her in her zombie form until he could do it with little to no hesitation.
The next day was the day where they told him about their location and the hiding spot they went to if it was compromised. Then they put him through a false interrogation to see how long he would last. Being a former Pureblood, he had already been trained in this, so he passed with flying colors. They also used a lie detector, which he got through as well. Then they left him there for the rest of the day to see if he'd crack. He didn't.
The last day was the day where they worked on crafting all the supplies they'd need for their next Pureblood raid, such as flash bombs, wood sharpened into spikes, and thin wood armor to prevent getting tasered or tranquilizer. They spent all day working on their objects of protection or destruction, playing old music on the computer in the room and chatting. Everyone went to bed early that night, the girls sleeping in the locker room next to him. His training session was complete.