But for some reason she felt like Rebecca gave up near the end. She couldn’t figure it out.
She was just happy that she had won and that she would be able to test someone. This was her first time.
The only thing that kind of burst her bubble was that she didn’t know one thing.
She didn’t know who she was testing.
****************
"Hey, uh, Jace?" Rebecca started.
"What do you want?" Jace asked in his most polite voice.
"When you were a terrorist, did you ever hear of a guy by the name of Enver?" Jace flinched, then answered her question.
"I don't want to talk about the things that I did as a terrorist, but I'll tell you what I know of Enver. I don't know very much, except that he had an important code to control something. I was never told what it was, but it must be important, obviously. Enver told us the wrong code, and we killed him. He's probably at the bottom of the sea right now, in chains and being eaten up by bacteria. I guess that it's a good thing and a bad thing, the good thing being that they'll never know the code, the bad thing that Enver lost his life. Don't ask me about this again, Rebecca, please? I don't want to remember the past ten years of my life." Jace replied, then went back to his training.
Rebecca nodded and walked away. Laura had obviously not told him that Enver was still alive.
****************
"Attention all agents. Another victim is ready to be tested. Tester: Agent Katie Hill. Victim: Armaan Helvik."
"Hey, can we see this one?" Kalyia asked Laura.
"Sure. I want to see how far that poor little guy will get." Laura agreed as they started to walk towards the cage. Kalyia remembered the boy. He was a little bit chubby and wouldn't last for very long. She was surprised that he could even lift her. Then again, she was very light, and like Laura had said, he had his strengths and weaknesses.
"Who's testing Armaan?" Kalyia asked Laura.
"A friend of mine. You wouldn't recognize her."
Laura had spoken correctly; Kalyia didn't know the girl that was carefully choosing a booby trap course for the victim.
"Oh, here he comes." Laura told Kalyia. Kalyia saw Armaan and her jaw dropped. She looked to Laura, but she had her jaw on the ground as well. Kalyia didn't recognize Armaan. Where were the chubby cheeks? All she saw was muscle, muscle, and skin.
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Armaan looked around the stadium, waiting for the traps to be ready. He saw the people who knew him with their mouths wide open, and the people that didn't know him whistling at his muscles.
His tester made the sign that the test was ready. Armaan looked around the place, found the booby traps and carefully avoided the traps until he reached the platform. He noticed that his tester was very small, and rather weak-looking. She should be easy to defeat.
****************
"What in the world happened to him? It looks like Superman decided to give him half of his muscles!" Rebecca observed. Xarissa and the Wests nodded in agreement.
"He might even make it into the HIA." Sarah thought out loud.
"Muscles aren't everything, Sarah. Remember?" Caitlin scolded.
"Yeah, I remember when you guys decided to turn off the booby traps instead of avoiding them." Xarissa said, remembering their attempts. Those were the good old times.
****************
Katie was so caught up in thinking about all of the things that she could do to him if he ever made it to level five, that she didn't notice him standing on the platform next to her until he tapped her on the shoulder. She reacted quickly and almost instinctively, grabbing his finger and twisting his arm into an uncomfortable position.
"You are not allowed on the platform." She whispered in his ear. Then she pushed him down to the floor again.
"Are you ready for your next test?" She asked him. Armaan nodded, and Katie smiled, coming up with all the painful tests that she could think of for him.
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Jace made his way to the cage. He hadn’t watched a single one of these tests since he came to the HIA. Maybe this would actually be good for him. Who knows? Maybe someday he’ll have to teach a trainee of his own. He chuckled at this thought and entered the cage.
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Armaan knew he had to approach this from a strategic position. There was a bunch of lasers across the room with trip wires across the floor. He looked up. The ceiling was hardly covered. He thought through this before making his move. He reached into his pocket and pulled out two specialized armbands, things he had designed himself without any help from Conner. He snapped the armbands on and pushed two places on them. They immediately grew into gloves, and the crowd gasped.
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