Dashing Devil Omnibus 2: Books 4-6, page 88
“Perfect. Deploy it as you see fit to protect yourself against the threat,” Boyd told her.
Laura gave him a nonplussed look. “You’re this unknown threat, aren’t you?”
“It wouldn’t be an unknown threat if I told you, now would it?” Boyd grinned.
“You know I have to be close to you to use my Power, don’t you?” Laura raised an eyebrow over one pale green eye. “I’ll be close enough that I’m going to get a dose of that aura of yours if I manage to knock you out with this. Are you sure you want to leave yourself unconscious around me after I take another round of that? I barely managed to avoid embarrassing myself last time and I don’t want to cross any lines.”
“If the unknown threat has a Power similar to mine, Paciferiline won’t cause them to lose control over it,” he reassured her. Boyd was not only grateful that she’d thought it through, but also that she brought it up instead of quietly taking advantage of it.
“You should also know that anyone with at least B-ranked regeneration metabolizes Paciferiline much more quickly than you might expect.”
If she got him with a full dose, he would only be unconscious for thirty seconds to a minute. He wasn’t looking to nap on the job.
“Alright then.” Laura fastened the simple belt around her waist and tightened it. “Can I walk the course first or am I running it blind?”
She scanned what she could see of the course from where she was, trying to memorize as much of it as she could in case it was the only look she would get. It was an instinct he was glad she’d displayed, though she would have to learn to hide it better.
“You can walk it.” Boyd shrugged. “I won’t be changing it between your runs, so it will only be a mystery the first round either way.”
“Wait… first round?” Laura turned back to look at him. “How many times am I running it?”
“I thought I was clear before.” It was Boyd’s turn to raise an eyebrow. “We’re looking to test your limits; you’ll run it until you can’t. There will also be obstacles you are unable to cross. If you can’t think of a way to pass them, you may go around them. Go as quick as you can, but this is as much a test of your stamina as it is a test of your strength and agility.”
“Run myself to exhaustion?” Laura looked skeptical, shifting her stance to the one he now recognized meant that she was going to be stubborn. “The studies I’ve seen say that’s really bad for training.”
“It is,” Boyd confirmed with a nod. “This isn’t training, though. It’s a test. I’ll use it to determine the best course from here out for your personal growth. It’s also meant to see how well you adapt your Power to new circumstances. I’m sure you have thought extensively about how to use it in a medical setting, but very little on how it might help you to scale a twenty-foot wall.”
“Well no, I haven’t… wait, did you say a twenty-foot wall?!” Laura gaped at him. “I have done rock walls at gyms that have them, but I can’t climb a twenty-foot wall unless it has handholds.”
“That sounds like a limit to me, then.” Boyd smirked, adding a little challenge to his voice and eyes to get her in the right mindset. “I guess we’ll find out if it’s one you can push beyond… or not.”
Her pale green eyes narrowed a little—not all the way into a glare, but she met his challenging gaze readily. “I guess we will. But I can transport small amounts of liquid over short distances. It’s not like I can propel myself twenty feet into the air on a jet of water. Maybe I’ll be able to do cool stuff like that after you Enhance me, but I’m not sure this is a limit I can push beyond as I am today.”
Boyd shrugged a shoulder. “I’ve thought of a way I would try to wall climb if I had your Power.”
“Oh? And how is that?” She planted a hand on her hip in a display of agitation. No one liked hearing that others thought they could use your Power better than you could.
“I’ll tell you in three days, if you don’t think of it yourself.” Boyd smirked at her scowl. “For now, if you can’t think of a way to complete an obstacle, I want you to try three times before you walk around it.”
“Three days?” Laura sighed.
“You’ll be starting your morning this way every day until I say otherwise,” Boyd rumbled happily.
The obstacle course wasn’t exactly good training—at least not in a physical sense. But it was an excellent way to get her thinking about her Power and the resources she had available differently.
“Once I’m satisfied you’ve learned what you can from this exercise,” he continued, “it will be retired.”
Laura had ‘goal-oriented’ written all over her, so he gave her a clear goal—even if it wasn’t clear how she could reach it.
“What are the rules?” Laura moderately surprised him by asking one of the right questions instead of any of the other stubborn responses she might have used.
“You are only permitted to induce unconsciousness in the unknown threat using Paciferiline. Other than that—and the basic principle of safety first—there are no additional rules,” Boyd explained. “Just keep in mind that an injury is an automatic failure. Any day you get hurt will not be the last day you have to run the course until exhaustion.”
“Sounds simple enough. Which is most important: finishing fast, completing more of the obstacles, or lasting the most rounds?” she asked.
Boyd thought this was another good question, and he had to hide his look of approval behind a cough as she scanned the course and began to stretch, pulling her arms to the side over her chest.
“I can think of situations in the field where any of those possibilities might be the most important.” Boyd kept his reply simple.
“Should I aim for a middle ground?” she asked, frowning.
“Is that what I said?” Boyd flipped her question on its head.
Part of this test was how much she could figure out on her own. That was partly because Heroes had to be able to identify their priorities in complex situations without external guidance, and partly because now wasn’t the best time for him to be picking up a trainee.
“Well… no. I was asking because what you said wasn’t clear.” Laura scowled at him.
Boyd shrugged. “That was intentional. You can rest for no more than five minutes between rounds. Stopping for more than three minutes while running the course disqualifies the round and you must move back to the start. Once you can no longer run the course, you can rest until breakfast. If you last through breakfast, you may rest for a half hour and then enjoy a meal. Either way, Hope will heal you before you eat and then we’ll start you on the training videos.” He chuckled. “I figure it won’t help if you start on those before we get some coffee in you.”
Laura groaned. “Ugh! No one mentioned training videos.” Her shoulders slumped halfway through an over-the-head stretch.
“My understanding is no one ever mentions the training videos. But regardless of what field you wish to apply yourself in, there is always monotonous information that needs to be conveyed before you can hold a position. And training videos remain the best way to convey it.”
Privately, Boyd agreed with her sentiment. He wondered if Silvie would think he was getting soft because he’d mercifully selected the least boring of several options for her. Many editions covered the same material, and he had reviewed most of them.
“What’s after the training videos?” Laura asked with a hopeful note in her tone.
“Practical skills training.” Boyd grinned. “I’m sure you’ll find this much more entertaining than the videos. Unfortunately, I’m going to have to pass you around to the others for that, and some of it will be solo training. We will all be busy preparing for the next mission, so I can’t devote one-hundred-percent of my time and energy to your training. And then there is the upcoming gala.”
“I understand.” Laura shrugged a non-committal shoulder that showed him that while she understood, she didn’t like it.
She had made a life-altering decision, after all. It wasn’t surprising that she’d hoped it would be his top priority. If not for the fact that he planned to make some world-altering moves at the gala, he likely would have given her that attention—if only to ensure she remained committed to her choice.
Positive reinforcement was a powerful thing, even if he’d had more experience with negative reinforcement, himself.
“After dinner, you and I will play a game for a half hour. We’ll start with chess.” Boyd offered her a carrot. “Tonight, we will just talk about what you’ve learned so far. But normally, we will discuss the readings I would have assigned the night before… and yes, you will be quizzed.”
“While playing?” She scowled. “You strike me as really good at chess.”
“I played a game or two as a teen,” Boyd lied.
He had studied the ancient game in minute detail. He’d almost beat Victory Seeker by the end of his time in the PAC. He wondered how he might fare against Granny. None of the available computer opponents had been able to mimic his mentor’s ability to subtly control the board and his loves weren’t interested in the game.
“Okay… so get quizzed on the assigned reading while also getting my butt kicked in chess after dinner. Got it.” Laura tried to frown in protest, but her lips quirked up at the sides and gave away it’s forced nature. “Is that going to be an every night thing?”
“Every night except for weekends,” he agreed.
Boyd smirked. One-on-one time seemed to be the motivator he’d hoped it would be. Now, to set the hook and prioritize her the way she wanted him too. “I’ll schedule any dinner dates with the others on the weekend so as not to interrupt your training.”
“That’s good… thanks.” Laura’s smile won out over the forced frown. “I am hoping to get through training as fast as possible, but I do understand that you have responsibilities. Don’t let training me interfere with changing the world, but I’m hoping you’ll get me ready in time to help you with some of those changes.”
“Don’t worry, we’ve got a long fight ahead of us.” The big demon sighed. “I hope to see some major changes in the coming months, but given the nature of our mission, it is going to take years. There is no quick and easy way to change the minds of those with hard-held beliefs.”
“True enough. But either way, the sooner you get started, the sooner you will be done. Sort of like this obstacle course.” She scanned it one more time. “I’m going to walk it once before I run it.”
“No reason not to,” Boyd agreed.
He gestured to a desk set up with several large displays meant to monitor the general-purpose room. It would serve well enough for him to complete some of the basic planning for the upcoming mission while she checked things out. “I’ll be over there. You are welcome to run any ideas related to your Power or how to complete any particular obstacle past me.”
“Sounds good,” she called back over her shoulder with a wave as she walked past him towards the obstacle course. When she thought she was out of range, she added under her breath, “Yeah, you’ll be over there whenever an unknown threat isn’t hunting me.”
Boyd still heard her. He resisted the urge to chuckle ominously as he moved to the desk and set up the terminal. After setting the cameras up to track her movement, he ensured they gave him multiple angles so he could ensure Hope got to her quickly if she fell and broke her neck. Then, he began pulling up what he could on their next mission’s location on another display.
The big event would occur at a decommissioned facility that was built in an age when Hero Duels were common. It was an arena designed specifically to allow spectators to safely enjoy Powered combat. It had officially been abandoned almost two hundred years ago, so he didn’t trust the details he had. It was too likely that changes had been made over the centuries, but it did serve to provide him a general layout—at least enough to begin planning.
After about forty-five minutes of bouncing general ideas around, Laura was on her third round. He figured that was the perfect time to throw in a surprise. He waited for her back to be to his side of the room before he leaped up onto a walking path that the bright lights hid by being below it. The big demon strode up until he had a good angle on her and Laura was distracted by getting a good running start on the ten-foot wall.
Boyd dropped from above just as she went over the wall, landing right in front of where she would roll back up to her feet. He snapped out a jab that ended only four inches from her nose and growled, “You’re dead… start over.”
Her eyes were wide as she stumbled back, falling on her ass.
Boyd leaped up into the air and sent himself back towards his desk with a flap of his massive wings. She was off to a good start, but the path to becoming a Hero was long and winding. And there were always bumps in the road.
Chapter 34
Their upcoming mission had hit a snag. After reviewing the systems that they needed to access the target database and the most recent schematics of the facility Granny was able to get her digital hands on, Tinker concluded that she couldn’t get in remotely. She’d stated that signal jammers would block anything she could use to transfer large packets of data.
That had been yesterday after breakfast. Today she had a solution—which was good because they had only five days until the event.
“Okay, Tink… what do you have for me?” Boyd asked as he entered her lab, having come from just down the hall where he’d set Laura up with her day three training videos.
Tinker spun on her stool to face him, a nervous smile on her face. “First, I wanted to go over the improvements I made to the latest iteration of everyone’s suits. Silvie’s now incorporates strands of her hair, which makes her suit as tough as the rest of her. People won’t be able to blast holes in it now, and it will give her just a bit more extra protection. Well, it’s only a little boost if you compare it to her standard durability. For anyone else, it would be a major upgrade—which is why it will now be incorporated into everyone else’s suits.”
“You know… no one thought of that before you did,” Boyd rumbled with a smile as he sank into his favorite stool beside his little inventor. “Even before I Enhanced her, Silvie’s hair was nearly indestructible. I’m sure other Powered have similar traits like that. Silvie isn’t the first with hair that couldn’t be cut. You would think that someone would consider incorporating it into something—even if it wasn’t Hero suits. I imagine it could be useful for many things.”
“Well, yes and no.” Tinker hedged her agreement as she waggled a hand back and forth. “Unfortunately, it doesn’t gather energy or work, really, unless it is in contact with a Powered. If it isn’t gathering energy, it isn’t indestructible. Remember all those tests we did where I had Silvie, Raev, and Mindy pick up various bolts of fabric and you told me when they reacted under your Black Flame Vision?”
Boyd nodded.
“That was me figuring out how to code synthetic Silvie hair so it responded to the others. Silvie was the control. The stuff I made for Raev’s suit would have the same genetic heritage as the hair of Raev and Silvie’s genetic child… if they could have children.”
“The world is not ready for a mix of Silvie and Raev,” Boyd replied solemnly. He shook his head. “No male would stand a chance. That child would be just too beautiful and charming.”
“He-he!” Tinker giggled.
She smirked at him, amusement dancing in her hazel eyes. “Imagine if it were your child with either of them, though. We’d have to invent a new word for beautiful, because ‘stunning’ or ‘gorgeous’ just wouldn’t cut it. The kid would break the beauty scale before even hitting preschool.”
Boyd laughed softly, the sound rumbling through the lab, before he shook his head ruefully. “I’m still getting used to thinking of myself as good-looking. Of course, if we really want to turn the world on its head, all we have to do is have a child of our own. Imagine that combination. Your adorableness and technical knowledge combined with my charm and mind for strategy? Our kids will end up ruling the world if we aren’t careful.”
Tinker’s face was beet red by the time he was finished, her mouth dropping open and closing rhythmically in a display of speechless shock. Her always big hazel eyes had opened as wide as he had ever seen them as she stared up at him. He sensed a whirl of emotions over their Bond, but both excitement and terror were the strongest.
Boyd recognized the source of the terror and smiled reassuringly at her. “I suppose I’ll have to legally register a last name at some point, so if you do decide to have a child they don’t have to be a Bell—at least not if you don’t want them to be. Of course, you could also take my name if we get legally married.” He suspected that she was dead set against bringing another child into her mess of a family.
The terror didn’t leave her completely, but the excitement he sensed grew stronger. “We can talk about it later,” he rumbled. “No life-altering decisions need to be made today.”
“Did someone mention great grand-babies?”
Granny appeared on the big screen. And given that she was a digital being, the fire that burned in her eyes was quite literal in this case. “A decision should absolutely be made right away! You should start trying right now. I can be Granny the Great instead of Great Granny!”
“Granny, I swear if you pressure her into having kids when I’m not around, I’ll figure out how to fill your data banks with videos of people popping zits and animals with explosive diarrhea,” Boyd grumbled at the screen with a glare.
Granny scowled at him and crossed her arms over her chest before scolding him. “Tut-tut. There is no cause for threats, young man.”
Boyd’s scowl deepened, mirroring the intensity of the conversation. “Yes, there is,” he retorted with firm conviction. “That we are discussing this stems from it being mentioned in jest. Choosing to have a child isn’t a matter to be taken lightly—it’s a lifelong commitment. Those not fully prepared for such a monumental responsibility should not be swayed into making that decision.”
