It had been a few days since the alarm incident. Chase had been banned from firing any weapons until further notice, but he still practiced his manifestation and assembling.
Chase practiced with Amora in the corner of the gymnasium since both of their training required repetition for the time being.
"Are you guys ready for today's training?" Alex cracked her knuckles as she looked at the five teens that were participating in the group activity today.
"This is gonna be good." Alex thought to herself, she was proud of the setup she had thought of last night with the help of Milo and Bloom.
The kids saw Alex's face and got a little worried. The boys in particular, since it was the same face that she made before their last training setup.
"What is it this time?" Taro sighed.
"We're going to take a little road trip." Alex smiled as the kids became excited yet worried.
"The last time we went outside of the compound…" Vida thought. She flashed back to that fight with Officer 1060. She grew worried.
Bloom saw Vida's face.
"Don't worry, Vida. We're all more careful now. Milo has taken all the precautions we need." Bloom smiled reassuringly as Vida tried to stop her worrying.
"We'll be simulating a hostage situation. We're going to drive over to an abandoned building that me, Bloom, and 'Frewins' used to train at when we were growing up." Alex put quotation marks on Frewins. She had never gotten used to calling her sister and her brother in law Mr. and Mrs. Frewin, but she had to so that the five children would recognize who she was talking about.
Chase's eyes perked up towards Alex as he overheard the plan.
Chase got excited. It sounded just like his favorite 21st Century classic action thrillers.
"Can I join?" Chase raised his hand.
Alex turned to him with a scolding stare.
"You know you aren't ready for combat, Chase." Bloom smiled to balance Alex's lingering embarrassment towards Chase.
Chase groaned.
"Don't worry, babe. I'll be here with you!" Amora smiled shyly.
"Yeah… You're right, I guess. I wouldn't go without you anyways." Chase had a way of accidentally saying heartfelt things that Amora loved about him. He said those words while casually going back to assembling his handgun. Amora smiled.
"Alright, then let's get on our way." Alex made her way out of the gym with Bloom as the five kids followed.
On the way to the van, Kai crossed his fingers and hoped for a painless day of training.
"It's hopeless, bro." Taro whispered to his brother, who groaned in response.
The group piled into Alex's van and made their way to the abandoned building that Alex spoke of.
As Vida looked out of the window, she noticed that the whole district seemed to be abandoned. Up until now, she assumed that the factory that the compound was built inside was one abandoned factory among active ones. It made sense to her now how the compound has lasted for this long.
The van pulled into a parking garage that was stationed directly next to what seemed to be an abandoned office building. The kids got out of the van as Alex began to explain the training drill.
"This is something that we used to run when we were kids. It seems simple, but you'll have to keep your eyes out. At the top of this building is a dummy that you'll have to retrieve and bring back to the van. That's it." Alex grinned a knowing grin at the kids, who looked back at her with confusion.
"That's it?" Taro asked.
"Yep! That's it!" Bloom's smile was somewhat knowing as well.
"You can start in 3… 2… 1… Go!" Alex clapped her hands together as the kids immediately began to look up towards the top of the building.
It couldn't be any less than forty floors. It was probably only a couple meters from being considered a skyscraper. It stood out among the smokestacks and completely square factories since the sides of the building were made up almost completely of gigantic glass windows, some broken and some still intact.
"Akilah, can your vision reach up there?" Taro asked.
Akilah rolled her eyes and channeled her Spirit into her brain. Her eyes began to glow purple as she tried to ignore the searing pain it caused her.
The pain had gotten better since Akilah had been training more. It seems she had gotten used to it, but not fully.
"There has to be a remedy to this." Akilah thought.
As she focused her vision to the top of the tower, she could only envision the inside of the floors up to about the tenth floor. Beyond that, it was just like using the naked eye.
"I'm still lackluster." Akilah pushed her glasses up as she mentally beat herself over the head.
"Nope, I can't see past the tenth floor." Akilah shook her head at Taro.
"Then we'll just have to get you closer." Taro got on to the back of his brother, like Kai was his noble steed.
"Onward!" Taro exclaimed as he pointed towards the top of the tower.
"What!?" Akilah asked, bewildered.
"You're coming with us too, beautiful!" Kai picked up Akilah in a bridal carry.
"LET GO OF ME!!-" Akilah's words faded out as the three sped off into the building. Kai's black blur sped up the stairs of the first floor before vanishing from the others' sight.
"We should follow them, Hendrix." Vida chuckled as she thought of the ridiculousness of what just happened.
"Yeah." Hendrix chuckled as well. "Hold on." Hendrix grabbed Vida by the waist and manifested his strings out of his other forearm.
"Don't Look Back In Anger." Hendrix thought of the title of the song he was thinking about instead of saying it. Even though he didn't feel like his friends would care about such a small accomplishment, Hendrix was slightly proud of himself. He didn't have to look like a crazy man mumbling to himself anymore.
Vida didn't even notice Hendrix's strings, she was more focused on Hendrix's hand on her waist. Vida froze in a flustered shock as Hendrix swung the both of them through a broken window on the second floor using a lightpole closeby as a pivot.
Kai made it to the third floor without incident. Akilah had been screaming at Kai about how many times she was going to kill him for this once their training was over.
Out of nowhere, a plank of wood seemed to eject from one of the inner walls of the building like a booby trap from an old adventure movie.
Kai was going too fast for his own reflexes, hitting the board with his face at full speed. Kai shot back onto the floor, hitting the back of his head on the thin carpet of the office.
Akilah went tumbling forward as Taro landed on his back.
Akilah's insults immediately stopped as she looked around and saw Kai's bloody and bruised face. She rushed over to see what Kai's state was.
"Oh my god. Are you okay?" Akilah held Kai's head up so that he wouldn't choke on his own blood. She remembered the technique from when Mrs. Frewin used to take care of Vida's constant nosebleeds as a kid.
Kai was silent. Akilah grew worried as her eyes began to water. She didn't know how training could go so wrong.
She began to think about the little gestures Kai did for her. Even though he was over the top, she enjoyed when Kai would give her a ring pop or a flower he found.
"I should have told him thank you." Akilah thought.
"Ow. My nose." Kai whined. He seemed fine. Akilah sniffled and wiped away her semi-tears as her face flipped on itself.
"Get up you fucking idiot." Akilah's demeanor went back to normal as she dropped Kai's head back onto the floor and got up, walking away towards the stairs to the fourth floor.
"Ow. My head." Kai whined again.
Taro had been sitting on his behind the whole time, silently watching the ordeal. He knew Kai was alright, he just wanted to see how Kai's self proclaimed "Love of His Life" would react.
Taro chuckled to himself.
"Alright, c'mon bro. We still have the rest of the building to climb up." Taro dragged Kai onto his feet as Kai reluctantly stood up on his own.
"At least we know this place is rigged with traps." Akilah channeled her Spirit into her brain to check if there were any more.
"I hope Vida and Hendrix catch on." Akilah thought. "Are we?" Akilah questioned.
Above them was about forty more floors of what could be equally dangerous traps, probably escalating in severity.