Dark Empathy by Archibald Bradford (inspiring books for teens TXT) 📕

“Yup.”

“And I failed?”

“Yup. But don’t feel bad, so did he.”

Nameless actually pointed one finger at his chest in confusion, causing the bald man to chuckle.

“Not you pipsqueak. Him.”

One finger was leveled at a suddenly annoyed looking Baron.

“How did I fail? I wasn’t the one stupid enough to try to meddle with a modified piece of lost-tech.”

The glare that Kavanaugh leveled at him would probably have melted paint if he’d been wearing any.

“No, you were just the one knuckleheaded enough to let one of your teammates try! If the little squirt hadn’t intervened she could very likely have just killed everyone in this room! You watch each other’s backs, or you aren’t Aegis. Is that clear?”

The proud young man could only nod his head, pink to the tips of his ears by the time the searing diatribe was over.

Once he was certain that his point had been made, the instructor turned to the rest of the class.

“I’m only going to say this once. No amount of intelligence and no amount of ego will stop a piece of lost technology from ending you. So forget about coming in first, or earning a gold star from me.” His gaze flicked to the wide-eyed Nameless and Ginger before he continued; “And unless you end up working with the ordinance disposal teams it isn’t your job to take this death-stick apart. It’s your job to make sure the one holding it doesn’t get a chance to use it.”

He gestured for the pair to take their seats before continuing his lecture.

“By the end of today you will all be able to identify this weapon, and its potential modifications, on sight, like bright boy did, so that if you’re ever faced with it in the field you won’t end up as a bloody puddle. Then afterwards we’re going to the range so I can show you just how dangerous it is, because every single one of you needs to be as afraid of it as the little twinky was.” He jutted his chin out at Nameless, who did his best not to squirm at the extra attention.

Since childhood he was used to being mocked for his stature, but never in the same breath as he was being praised.

At least, he thought he was being praised.

The class soon learned that instructor Kavanaugh wasn’t kidding about his lesson requirements. They were in the shop for over three hours, culminating in him dragging them all to the test-range and firing the weapon in front of them, just as he said he would.

The searing blast of red light was even more terrifying than he described, easily tearing through the simple wooden targets before the gun became too hot to hold and he dropped it into a barrel of ice rimmed water, steam erupting from it as the water hissed and spat against the heated metal.

He was wearing thick leather gloves so he wasn’t burned, but they all saw him casually shaking his hands from side to side in the cool air.

By the time he finally released them for the day they were all beat, mentally and emotionally, from the instructor’s grueling pace.

The sun was low in the sky as they trudged back to the dormitories, even the normally bubbly Ginger looked morose, Kavanaugh had barked at her so many times she was jumping at small noises by the end.

Nameless reached out with his mind to find that Milly and Nina had long since finished their walk and were going at it again in a nearby field.

They were no longer allowed to train indoors given Nina’s penchant for breaking things and threatening people.

He altered his course to meet up with them, but as he did a hand fell on his shoulder and turned him to face Baron’s frown.

“How did you know?”

“What?”

“How did you know it was a test? My parents are both with the Aegis and I didn’t know.”

It took the orphan a few seconds to catch up with Baron’s thinking.

“I didn’t. It never even occurred to me.”

Baron pursed his lips as he absorbed the words.

“Look, I need to go meet my bond-mates so...” Nameless said by way of farewell as he walked away.

But the taller man kept pace with him, apparently unsatisfied.

“Okay, you didn’t know it was a test, but you also didn’t know the gun was modified right?”

Nameless sighed as he realized he wasn’t getting away that easily.

“I just saw a friend in a potentially dangerous situation and acted, I’m sure you would have done the same.”

“Is that supposed to be funny?”

They entered the field and Nameless saw the pair dueling in the distance.

“No, man I’m way too tired for funny.”

Milly and Nina paused as they picked up on Nameless’s nearness, and his growing irritation.

“But it doesn’t make sense! Don’t think I haven’t looked into you! You were shit in school!” Baron insisted; “You had no way of knowing it was a test, and you didn’t know it was modified, so how could you know it was dangerous?”

Finally Nameless rounded on him.

“Were you listening to anything Kavanaugh said in the last three hours?” He demanded with incredulity; “Lost-tech is dangerous! Period! End of sentence!”

Baron paled as anger took hold, but when he spoke his voice was deadly calm.

“I have been preparing for this my whole life. I am well aware how dangerous lost-tech is. I don’t need another lecture.”

“Then I don’t know what you want from me!” Nameless shouted angrily.

Fortunately, a certain monster girl to whom anger was an old friend had made her way over to them by that point.

“Hey babe. Who’s the dipshit running his mouth? Need me to break him?”

Nameless smoothed out his uniform shirt as he regained his composure before turning to face them.

“This is Baron,