armyinform Chapter 249 - The Warmup
Chapter 249 - The Warmup
Chapter 249
The WarmupAsh hit the ground hard enough to taste blood again.
She rolled onto her side, coughed, and spat sand from her mouth while the ocean dragged itself up the beach behind her. Her shoulder ached where Annie had touched her. That was the part that made it worse. The pain wasn’t from a punch or a kick.
All it had taken to put her down was a two-fingered jab.
Twenty minutes ago, four-on-one had sounded unfair. And it was. Just not for her sister.
“Up,” Annie said.
Ash pushed herself onto one knee and glared through the hair plastered to her forehead. Sweat ran down the side of her face, stinging one eye. Her lungs burned. Her arms felt heavy. Sand clung to her palms and the knees of her training pants.
Annie stood ten paces away with her hands loose at her sides, red hair tied back, boots planted in the sand. She was sweating too, but not because of them. And nothing like the soaked, trembling mess Ash could feel herself becoming.
Zane came in from Annie’s left, fast and low.
Annie pivoted half a step. Not even a full dodge. Zane’s shoulder passed through the space where she had been, and Annie’s hand tapped the back of his head on the way by.
His knees buckled and he hit the sand face-first, sliding for a meter.
Allie tried to use the opening. She fought smarter than Zane. Moved quieter on her approach. Tried to come in from Annie’s blind side while Zara raised both hands and dragged a knot of roots up from beneath the beach grass behind her.
Annie finally used a power.
Metal flashed across her forearm, unfolding into hooked claws. She turned, sliced the roots before they reached her ankle, then let the metal vanish back into skin.
Allie was already there, swinging at Annie’s ribs.
Annie caught her wrist, stepped in, and hooked a foot behind Allie’s heel, and Allie went down.
Ash hated it.
Annie wasn’t trying to hurt them. There was no cruelty behind each strike. She wasn’t even showing off. Annie was just taking them apart like they were amateurs.
“Again,” Annie said.
Zane groaned into the sand. “I’m good here.”
“You’re not.”
He lifted his head enough to spit. “Emotionally, I am.”
A few people laughed from the sidelines.
Ash didn’t turn. She knew they were all there, watching the humiliation. Davis and Yuki sat on a log, passing a bottle of water back and forth. Gilly stood near them with his arms crossed, too many eyes blinking at different times. The first real alien she’d ever met. Frank and Helen were there too, the ones responsible for making Annie sweat, even though they’d eaten just as much sand as she had.
Further back, away from the others, Augustus and Talia watched in silence.
Talia sat astride a dark red hoverbike that floated three feet off the sand, one boot resting lightly on a foot peg. The thing looked like it belonged on a battlefield with how much armor plating it had.
Augustus stood beside her with his hands tucked into his armpits. His spellbook floated open in front of him, pages turning now and then in the sea breeze.
They looked relaxed.
But two weeks of ‘basic’ conditioning and martial initiation had taught her that relaxed meant dangerous around Grimnir. She regretted ever asking to start the real combat training.
Zara pulled her hands back, breathing hard. “She’s only using her powers against me.”
“That’s because you’re the only one cheating properly,” Annie said.
“I’m not cheating! I’m just using my power.”
“Exactly.”
Ash got both feet under her and stood. Her legs protested, but she ignored them.
Annie’s eyes flicked to her. Her grin softened.
Ash’s anger flared. Of course. There it was. The older sister look. The worried look. The look that said Annie had dragged her out of Whitmore, thrown her into this impossible place full of monsters and soldiers and magical lunatics, and still thought Ash needed to be taken care of.
Then Annie moved. One second she was ten paces away, and the next she was inside Ash’s reach, hand already reaching toward her shoulder.
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Ash reacted on instinct. She slapped the hand aside and managed a straight kick.
Annie twisted, and the foot missed. Her elbow brushed Ash’s ribs, not even hard enough to crack anything, but still hard enough to steal her breath away.
Ash swung anyway. She threw a tight, ugly hook aimed for Annie’s jaw.
Annie ducked under it and tapped Ash behind the knee.
Ash hit the sand again. She lay there for a second, staring at the sky, chest heaving.
Annie leaned over her. “You’re getting better.”
“Go to hell.”
“Your trash talk is getting worse, though.”
Ash growled with bared teeth.
Annie grinned back.
That was the problem. Annie wasn’t pulling punches because Ash was her sister. She was just making sure Ash knew exactly how far away she was. From Annie. From Grimnir. From the serum. From anything resembling control over her own life and future.
And the worst part was that Ash understood why. She still hated it.
“Up,” Annie said again.
Ash forced herself to move.
Zane staggered into place beside her, sand stuck to one side of his face. Allie wiped blood from her lip with the back of her hand. Zara’s fingers flexed, green light crawling under the skin around her knuckles.
There were four of them and one Annie. And still they couldn’t even touch her.
“Together,” Ash said.
Zane glanced at her. “That was the plan before.”
“No. Before, we just ran at her at the same time and hoped she’d be polite enough to fall over.”
Allie huffed a breath that might have been a laugh.
Annie’s eyebrows rose. “Leadership. Cute.”
Zara moved first. Green light danced between her fingers and roots burst from her palms, thick as cables. They stabbed into the sand in front of her, vanished beneath the surface, then erupted in a jagged line toward Annie.
Annie shifted to her right, evading the attack, only to find Zane was already there, throwing sand toward her face.
Annie slowed. Barely a fraction.
Ash lunged, and for half a heartbeat, she thought they had her.
Then Annie jumped straight up. Just high enough for Zane’s sand to pass beneath her and for Ash’s outstretched arms to miss. Annie’s foot came down on Ash’s back, using her like a step. Ash buckled under the force as Annie kicked off, flipping over Allie’s delayed strike, and landed behind them.
Zara’s roots burst from the ground, reaching for her.
Metal rolled over Annie’s calves and feet. She planted herself, caught the roots with both hands, and yanked.
Zara came off her feet with a yelp.
Annie swung her in a half circle and slammed her into Zane. They went down together.
Allie froze. Then she slowly raised both hands. “I object to the learning environment.”
“Noted,” Annie said.
Then she swept Allie’s legs anyway.
Ash struggled to push herself up on shaking arms. Her vision had spots. All she could see was sand, boots, and Annette Sheridan standing over all of them.
Monster.
Ash had no other word for it. She’d known Annie was strong. Everyone knew that. She was a member of Grimnir. The metal warrior in the red jacket. All of the kids had seen videos of Grimnir. Of Annie’s arena fights. Or their early days fighting Mercy and Pandora in the city streets. Or Alexander flying a yacht over Manhattan. Then there were the recent videos, including the fight against the Panama Vampire and his blood servants, right before Dubai suddenly vanished.
But this was different.
Her sister wasn’t trying to prove anything to them. She was just unbeatable. Annie was a lesson delivered with bruises and a smile.
Ash hated most that she felt proud of her big sister, even as she beat them down.
Annie rolled her shoulders, then wiped sweat from her forehead with the back of her wrist.
“Break,” she called.
Zane lifted his head. “We can keep going.”
Allie, still flat on her back, raised one hand. “Yeah.”
Ash stared at both of them, still trying to breathe through the stitch in her side. “Speak for yourself.”
Annie laughed. But she ignored them, and looked up at the sky. Her grin sharpened. “The break isn’t for you.”
The sky fell.
Something dark dropped out of the sun and hit the sand behind Annie with enough force to turn the beach into an explosion.
Ash threw an arm across her face as sand blasted over her. The impact rolled through the ground and thumped into her ribs. Zane swore. Zara yelped. Someone on the sidelines laughed like an idiot, which probably meant Davis.
When Ash lowered her arm, a suit of dark gray armor knelt in the crater. There’d been no warning. No roaring thrusts or jets hissing. Just a flash of shadow followed by the impact.
Alexander Rooke straightened slowly, plates shifting over each other with quiet clicks. The helmet turned toward her sister.
Annie was already moving.
MetaMetal swallowed her skin in a rippling wave, silver and seamless. Wings burst from her back, snapping wide, sand whipping outward as she spun. One arm elongated, reshaping into a curved blade that cut for Alexander’s throat.
Or where his throat would have been inside the armor.
Alexander caught it in one hand.
The impact cracked through the air.
Annie’s feet carved twin grooves in the sand as the force rebounded through her body. Alexander barely moved. Not more than an inch.
Alexander’s voice came from the suit, sounding offended. “Whoa. Foul. The old man didn’t blow the starting whistle yet.”
Droney drifted lower above him, a little armored sphere wearing what looked, absurdly, like a knight’s helmet. It hovered near Alexander’s shoulder, visor slit glowing faintly.
Ash stared. From the first moment she’d met the rest of Annie’s guild, she’d had questions. And every day she spent with them, she had more questions than last.
A bolt of fire slammed into Alexander’s helmet, splashing flame over the dark armor, before scattering into sparks as the attack flickered and died.
Alexander turned his head toward the sidelines.
Augustus stood with his wand raised, spellbook floating open in front of him.
“Really?” Alexander asked. “It’s like that, huh?”
Augustus shrugged.
Talia’s hoverbike lifted higher without a sound.
Annie grinned, blade still locked in Alexander’s grip.
Ash, half-buried in sand and bruises, realized the four-on-one had been the warmup. Annie hadn’t called for a break because she was tired or worried about them.
She’d called for a break because it was her turn.