Kinetics by Andrew Peed Page A

that point
and avoided taking part in the actual lessons, but as far as I knew we were
still wanted, dead or alive.  Powers or no, I needed some way to defend
myself. 
    I took a few steps back and copied what
he had done with his hands. 
    “What do you want me to do?” I looked at
my hands trying to recall what I had seen in movies as I was growing up.
    “Whatever you can think of then we’ll go
from there.”
    “Be easy, it’s my first time.”
    “Come at me with your best shot.”
    I took a deep breath and tried a
surprise round house kick.  As fast as I was in a blur he swiped my leg.  He
used enough force to not only divert the energy of my kick, but also make me
lose my balance and stumble.  I couldn’t catch myself and fell face first into
the grass.
    “Not bad, but… not good either.” He held
out his hand to help me up off the ground.  I took it and pulled myself up onto
my feet.
    “You are so fast!” I brushed off my
front.
    “It’s part of my ability.” He said, “When
I realized just how much power you had behind that kick I had to move fast or
you might have crushed my skull.” He said.
    “You can tell by one kick?  I would say
that crushing your skull would have been useful in a fight to the death.” I
really didn’t think that the kick would have caused any real damage. 
    “You have a lot of raw power; your kick
would have broken bones.  We have determined from your group’s blood tests that
they tampered with your DNA in more than one way.  Your muscles are much denser
and somehow lighter.  So much raw power.” He pumped his fist behind his back to
dissipate some pain. 
    I heard Sam’s truck before I saw it. 
The thick cloud of dust that always kicked up when someone drove to where the
tent was set up was billowed high in the sky.  Everyone joined me and Ryder at
the tent. 
    “What’s with the visit boss?” Ryder
asked.
    “I just wanted to have a chat with the
new recruits.” He opened up the back of his truck and unloaded a cooler full of
drinks.  He tossed waters to everyone.
    “Is there something wrong?” I grabbed a
chair, and took a seat near the tent.
    “No, everything is as it should be.”  He
took a deep breath, “Look, I just wanted to talk to you about a difficult topic
to get into.  Sometimes in our situation,” he paused pondering his words
carefully, “There is death and killing ones enemies before they kill you is a
necessary evil.  The Aurora Corporation, as you have seen, has no reservations
about taking the lot of you out of the equation.”
    “So we are supposed to just flip some
switch and be soldiers.” Ronnie crossed his arms in determination.
    “I’m not saying that you should just
give up on your humanity, but the Sabers for instance are killing machines that
are quite literally programmed to kill.  You can’t dissuade them, you can’t
stop them.  Most of the users that Aurora has on their payroll are there for
their own reasons.  They are highly trained, extremely powerful assassins.” Sam
grimaced having to explain this to a group of teenagers.
    “Wonderful.” I sighed and took a swig of
my water.
    "However much I hate it, you may
have to kill." he looked down at the ground.  “Our goal is to help people
like us.  We do whatever is necessary to get people out of Aurora’s grip, or at
least slow them down.  If we can help normal people so be it, but our kind is
our priority.  I know that that is a simplistic way of looking at things, but
we don't have the resources to look after everyone.”
    Quiet fell as we drank our water.  I
thought about the first time we had seen Sam and the Last Line.  Hothead and
Silence had killed the Sabers without hesitation.  They just did as they were
told.
    The others returned to training, while I
watched.  Ryder helped everyone to get back into rhythm offering suggestions,
and then he rejoined me sitting on the ground next to my chair. 
    “How do you do it?” I squinted from