FSE

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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Want to get the full experience? Read the previous parts first! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~~~CHAPTER 4~~~

We stood in the training arena's waiting room, all six of us ready to prove who the better hybrid team is. The arena below us was roughly the size of two basketball courts put together, with a metallic floor and walls. One wall had a large gate that nearly took up the entire side. Multiple panels on these surfaces could slide away to reveal obstacles, weapons, or anything else HAC could think of. A large digital timer on the north wall was the only other thing in the room. Harry and Brian were joking around and getting better acquainted, while Isaac and Liz were talking about something else. Francis and I just stood and waited for the PA system to give us our instructions, in its same monotoned mechanical voice.

Human contact just seems to be slipping further and further away these days, but I know I've said that before.

"What do you think our tests are going to be like, Francis? I know what Isaac can do, but not his teammates."

Francis just shrugged. "I don't know, man. According to the announcement, he and his partners are similar to us, so I can only assume that like Harry, one of them has powers for widespread damage, while the other has some kind of precise, pinpoint fighting style like I do. Bases on what you told us, Isaac must have some kind of balance between the two."

"Geez, you make this sound like a damn video game strategy guide. But you're probably right; the tests must reflect the powers. Good news for Harry, he _loves _destroying things."

Before Francis could say anything in response, the PA came on again, to answer all our questions.

"Hello, and welcome to the first round of Human Advancement Companies' Advanced Combat Training. Starting now, with our struggle against the living dead entering its thirteenth month, we have instituted these random training exercises to ensure complete readiness and survival of you, our biological weapons, should an unexpected situation arise. Though you all have excellent results from our previous tests, we have determined that additional practice is a must. After every other team has been tested today, we will randomly select one every day from now on for another round of exercises. As previously stated, you have all been selected based on your similar abilities and performances, and will be competing against each other for a high score. Please note that your score does not reflect your overall performance, it is merely a means for us to determine who requires additional training and who does not."

"With that being said, we shall now begin the first round of pair testing. Subjects Delta Three and Delta Four, please enter the training arena for the first round. Everyone else will remain in the observation room until the round is over. You may observe your teammate's performances through the monitors and the windows."

"HELL YEAH! FIRST PICK, BABY!" Harry shouted.

"Because YOU guys aren't NEARLY as cool as WE ARE!" Brian shouted as they high-fived each other.

Oh, yeah, these guys must be long-lost brothers or something. It just makes too much sense...

Harry teleported onto the arena rather than walking, probably just to show off. But imagine his (and my) surprise when Brian smirked and did the same thing, also leaving behind a faint, red smoke cloud.

Wow, I guess I was wrong about that whole 'arctic hybrids only have ice powers' thing. Now I feel stupid...

"Awww, cool, I didn't even know anyone had the same powers as me!" Harry said. "Now things are REALLY gonna heat up!"

We all groaned at that. If this was an anime, we'd all have that little tear drop on our heads. You know the one.

The voice on the PA came on again with more instructions. "Subjects Delta Three and Delta Four: given the identical nature of your abilities, you will be tested on your pyro-kinetic accuracy. When the timer starts, targets will appear randomly on the walls of the arena, and you will simply hit them with your fireballs. As with any kind of target, a hit in the dead center yields a better score. Through our optimal monitoring system, we will be able to determine who has hit the most targets. You have thirty seconds to accomplish this task, best of luck to you both."

Seriously, this is _just _like a freaking video game. HAC must be running out of ideas...

I walked over to Isaac and asked: "So, which goofball has a better shot, yours or mine?"

"Brian never really aims for zombies, he just goes for collateral damage. It works for him, but it might be bad for this test. What about your guy?"

"Harry's basically the same. Hopefully this'll teach them to actually try to aim every now and then."

A loud buzzer sounded, and the timer on the clock started to count down. Multiple targets instantly appeared on the walls in random places. The challenge was on!

Harry and Brian both immediately zipped to opposite sides of the arena, and began blasting the walls with everything they had. Whenever a target was hit, the panel flipped over, and a new one would appear somewhere else in the arena. After fifteen seconds, they had both hit their fair share of targets, though they had yet to hit one in the middle. Harry started to zip all over the place, probably figuring that he'd be able to steal some of Brian's. Brian himself decided to stand in one spot and shoot from there, using his left arm to keep his right arm steady when shooting. This seemed to work in his favor, because by the time the buzzer sounded again to end the round, he had racked up eight plus bull's-eyes. I couldn't even follow Harry's progress, but that could only mean he's truly mastered his teleporting.

"The time is up, you both did very well. We shall now analyze the camera feed to determine your scores" said the PA. All the remaining targets disappeared into the walls.

Harry and Brian both zipped back up to us, completely out of breath from the test. "You two sure did a shit-hot job. Pun intended" said Liz. "I like how you two used a different strategy at the end."

"Yeah, let's hope it paid off" said Brian between breaths. "Good game though, right Harry?"

"Yeah it was! But I still prefer blowing up buildings" Harry replied.

After another minute or two, the PA came on again. "We have determined the results of round one, and the winner is Subject Delta Three. You both hit thirty-four panels exactly, but Delta Three had the better accuracy, and scored six more center hits than Delta Four. We shall begin the next round immediately."

Harry groaned, realizing that spraying-and-praying might not have been his best choice in this situation. But he took it like a man, and gave a congratulatory handshake to Brian.

_It's going to suck when he finds out that these guys are always away on missions. _

For the next round, will Subjects Delta Two and Kappa Ten please make your way to the arena."

Liz immediately perked up looking nervous, while Francis didn't seem too surprised to be called next. He just walked out the door, down to the arena. Strong, silent type at his finest. Isaac came over to Liz and gave her a good luck hug, which seemed to raise her confidence. I turned towards her and said: "Don't worry, he's not as brutal as you think."

That's a lie, he totally is. Sorry.

"Thanks, guys" said Liz. "I guess I have it in my head that we're fighting each other, but that would be silly."

She too walked out of the room and down to the arena, where Francis was practicing by firing several ice blasts into a corner. He likes to practice more than I do, that's for sure. Swordplay is one thing, pulling water out of the atmosphere and turning it into ice apparently takes a _little _more focus.

Liz walked over to the other side of the arena and decided to do some warming up herself. From what I could see, she can manipulate shadows and turn them into solid objects. The only catch looked like she has to use stationary shadows, and only those within her reach. But if she's in an urban environment with tons of tall buildings casting even taller shadows, Liz can strike the dead down from nearly anywhere. Using her own shadow, she focused her mind and made several small objects rise up from the floor, all of them thinner than air, but sharper than anything I could make.

"We shall now begin round two of testing. Subjects Delta Two and Kappa Ten, given the similar practical uses of your powers, you will be tested on your precision. Notice the gate at the far end of the arena. When the buzzer sounds, the gate will open, and a horde of captured zombies will be released. You will notice that some of them are wearing braces on their heads. Your task will be to, in any way you can, terminate the zombies wearing these braces ONLY. For every zombie without a brace you kill, you will lose points. Approximately seventy zombies will be released in total, and you must act quickly to gain a better score. Good luck to both of you."

Liz walked over to Francis. "Good luck, and may the best hybrid win", offering her hand to him as she spoke. Francis shook hers, and said "I intend to." But his added smile told Liz that he wasn't actually being a jerk.

They took their positions, and shortly after, the buzzer sounded while the gate slowly opened up. All the captured zombies slowly shambled out, and already I could see some of them wearing the aforementioned head braces. Liz and Francis took the time to wait for the entire crowd to come out, and began calculating their next moves. Francis seemed to already have a good idea, but after noticing that the lights on the ceiling were positioned in such a way that the walls cast huge shadows, Liz looked much more confident that he did.

After a few more seconds of mental preparation, Liz made her move. She focused her mind and split her own shadow and rapidly extended it to the ones on the two walls. I could already guess her plan; use the wall shadows to make a series of smaller ones, and pick off each marked zombie on both sides of the arena perfectly. But right as her shadow reached the larger ones, Francis made _his _move. He must've guessed what Liz would do, and launched a frozen wave of stalagmites that quickly surrounded the entire horde of zombies. This wall created a series of new shadows that conflicted with the ones on the wall. Liz wasn't expecting this, and immediately tried to implement these new shadows into her attack. But Francis was one step ahead of her, and launched a second, much smaller wave that entered the crowd and spiraled around, impaling every single marked zombie. No unmarked ones were even scratched. He had noticed early on that the zombies were arranged in such a way that the ones with head braces were in a spiraled pattern. Liz must not have noticed this at all. She had the biggest WTF look on her face I've ever seen on someone.

The buzzer sounded again. "Most impressive, Kappa Ten! You utilized the zombie's formation to your advantage, as well as countering Delta Two's strategy. The score is now a tie, one win for each team. The next and final test will determine the winner."

Francis and a still-baffled Liz made their way back to the observation room, while me and Isaac passed them along the way as walked to the arena. He hugged Liz and whispered something in her ear. She immediately brightened up, walked over to Francis and said "Congratulations, good sir. You win round two" while offering her hand to him. He shook it, and replied with "Don't worry, if this was in a city, where there are no closed rooms like this, there's no way I could've done that. If we were outside, you'd be the winner." That was nice of him, though in my opinion that statement was debatable. He turned to me and wished me good luck while heading back to the room.

"Good luck from me too, Greg. You'll need it" Liz said with a smile while also walking back upstairs. Isaac and me entered the arena, watching the zombie handlers round up the remaining walkers and send them back to wherever they were stored. Several machines came out to clean the dead zombies from off the floor.

"Subjects Delta One and Omega Three, you are the last of your team to be tested today. Due to the overall variety of your abilities, you will choose one of two tests for us to assign you. One option is to see who can kill the most captured zombies in thirty seconds, using your powers in any way you can think of. The other option, though much highly impractical in the field, is a simple one-on-one duel. You will each create a single dull-edged weapon, to avoid accidental injury, and cannot change them until the test is over. You will not be scored based on your power, but rather your technique. You have until the cleanup crew is done to decide."

We just stared at each other, never considering the first option for even a second.

"Option two?" I said with gusto.

"Option two all the way" said Isaac, equally eager to spar.

The HAC staff overheard us and said: "Very well. Please take this time to create your weapons. Remember, you cannot use your powers to modify them once the test starts."

Using his technopathy and nanobot-infused armor, Isaac created a bokken; a dummy samurai sword used for training by the Japanese. I chose something familiar; a smaller version of my zweihander sword. It took a few seconds to dull it out, but I needed to ensure I wouldn't accidentally decapitate my friend.

By this time, the cleanup crew was done, and we took our positions at the center of the arena.

"Remember, Greg, if you hit me in the head again, I'll be sure to return the favor. HARD."

"Don't worry, man. I'll _try _not to."

But if I do, I'll have to find some creative way to deny it. Again.

The buzzer sounded.

The fight was on!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Yeah, another short chapter, but with my college's fluctuating internet, I never know when it's going to completely drop on me. It's been down for most of the weekend, and I'm using this rare opportunity to upload what I've already finished. So, it looks like Team Delta will be around for one more chapter. I hope this tides you all over for now.

If you read this chapter and not the previous one (which I have a feeling applies to most of you), the cameo characters Isaac, Liz, and Brian belong to NvrRueger, one of the writers on this site that inspired me to give furry fanfiction a try.

Here's his page: http://rueger.sofurry.com/ I highly recommend reading his stories as well.

One last thing: I know a lot of people just read my chapters and leave it at that, as I check every day, but leaving a short comment isn't too much to ask, right? Feedback, good or bad, is the only thing I ask you good people for.

Though rating and subscribing would also be nice.