Gene. Sys. by Aaron Denius (best ereader for comics txt) 📕

is going to work, you are going to have to listen to me and do as I say.”

“Why?” he asks as he leaves the elevator and walks to the center of the room.

“Because they put me in charge.” I ball my fists in anger as I follow to the center of the room.

Titan turns to face me. “Are you better than I am?”

All I want to do is scream ‘yes’ in his face, but I know it’s not true. We were created from the same mold. I take a deep breath to calm myself down. “No, I’m not, but I have been around longer, and I have more experience. So I will leave it up to you. I can leave you down here alone, and you can try to figure it all out for yourself, or you can let me teach you what I know.”

I stare at him as he processes his options. I’m about to turn to walk away when he speaks. “Wait. I’m sorry. I’ll listen.”

I turn back and head straight for the weapons. I start Titan off like I did before, on the knives. Then we move toward the longer handheld weapons. We don’t really speak to one another. I just explain, and he listens. As I anticipated, he picks up on everything quickly. With a few more days of practice, he could be as good as I am.

I check the time and see that we have about ten minutes before the rest of the group arrives, so I use the little time we have left to give him some pointers on hand-to-hand combat.

I square up to him. “The first thing to know is that you never attack. You counter. A smart fighter studies his opponent.”

“That’s why you wouldn’t fight me?” he pries.

“Exactly. I was looking for your patterns. All fighters have patterns. What hand they lead with, how many punches per combo, whether they always charge, and so forth. Once you know a fighter’s pattern, you can anticipate and counter.” I reach for his arm, and he flinches. “I won’t do anything, just going to show you a counter.”

I grab the arm I broke and gently pull it toward me as if it were a punch. “When someone throws a punch, you roll into it. Never away. By rolling into it, you are taking both of your opponent’s arms out of the equation.”

I roll off his arm and slowly move a fist toward his face. I stop right as my knuckles touch his cheek.

“That makes sense.” He pulls his arm away.

Just then, the elevator doors open, spitting out the first of the Genesys. We both look toward the incoming group.

Titan walks over to greet them as they see that he has recovered, but before he gets too far, he turns. “Thanks.”

“No problem. Let me know if you want any more one on one training.” I watch him as he turns back to the groups. Cal keeps his distance but remains close to the group. I’m glad I’m not the only one who doesn’t like Titan.

I walk over to the control panel, and by the time I reach it, Ev has caught up to me.

“What are we doing today?” she asks.

“First simulation. You and I will pick teams, and we will be using the longer handheld weapons.” I begin to enter codes into the panel.

“What’s the simulation?” She looks over my shoulder at what I’m entering. Before I can answer, the room begins to change into a dark and dense forest.

“The one we slept in before.” I smile at her, and she smiles back.

We both look at the group that has gathered in the center of the room. They are all looking around in wonder. The blizzard simulation we had before wasn’t very detailed, so this is without a doubt an inspiring sight.

“I choose Ox,” Ev says. Her face is as intense as I have ever seen it. She’s out to win, and she made a brilliant choice with Ox.

I want speed and quickness. “Cal.”

“Hydro,” she says without hesitation.

“Al.” I hate to split him and Hydro up, but I know that I can trust him to do what I ask.

“Titan,” she sneers. I’m surprised by the pick, but I instantly understand her strategy. She knows that he will do all he can to beat me.

“Fe.” I’m happy to get her on my team, but the pick was made because of her skill.

“Mag,” Ev exhales. I can tell she’s not too happy about this pick. Mag has been one of the slowest to develop, but Ev picked her because they are friends.

The group walks toward us, so I finish the picks to even out the teams. “You take Sil, and I will take Sodi and K.”

“Fine.” She turns to the group. “Ox, Mag, Hydro, Sil, and Titan, step over here.”

“The rest will be on my team.” I turn back to the control panel and hit a couple of buttons. A sliding door opens up on the wall, revealing the cache of weapons. They all look real, but none of them are lethal. They just might leave a bruise or two. “Everyone pick a weapon. Ev, take your team to the opposite side. I will set the countdown to ten minutes.”

I know I don’t need to explain everything to them because they all did the blizzard simulation, and I’m sure Grant already went over a lot. The Genesys all grab a weapon that they feel most suits them, and then Ev and I walk up to the cache. She picks what I can only assume is her favorite, a double-ended sword, and I choose my weapon of choice, an eight-foot-long chain.

Ev takes her group to one end of the room. I hit the button to start the countdown and lead my team to the opposite end.

I’m happy with my team, and I look at the weapons they chose. Both Al and Sodi grabbed swords. K picked a scythe, which instantly gives her a more menacing demeanor. Cal went for