Codename: Freedom - Book 4 - Chapter 25

I'd say it's about time we get started with the rest of book 4. What do you say? :D

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I noticed the height of the Jungle from a distance. It was five or six stories high and nearly as wide as it was tall. It looked like a giant box of concrete with only a few slots for windows on its upper half.

Destiny was still keeping mostly to herself, but she was still observing me enough to notice what I was focused on. A little box popped up with an arrow pointing to the building’s material.

Self-Healing Concrete – Structurally strong material often used when it will undergo abnormal amounts of stress.

Taking my first step inside, I found my eyes being drawn up. Much of it looked like a city landscape. There were rectangular shaped mock-buildings lined in inviso-solar paneling for realism. Others were nature inspired, standing like limbless trees and canopy mimicking domes. There were people near at the tops of some of the lower mock-buildings, but no one had climbed even as high as the middle ones.

My immediately surroundings looked like the mix between an orientation and changing station. No one was there, and even the desk sitting between the reception area and the actual Jungle was empty.

“Incoming,” Destiny said privately.

To my surprise, Marabella rounded the counter, walking toward me. She’d lost the long strawberry red hair and wore her hair in a short afro. In place of military garb she wore a sleeveless gold leotard. Sweat dampened her brow and made her neckline glisten.

“Lucius. Hey,” she said with a wave.

“Hey. Marabella…” I immediately wanted to ask her how she was doing, but something stopped me. Even though she was a bit winded, she seemed like her usual cheerful self.

“Just call me Mara. Welcome to my world,” she spun with her hands extended out to her sides. “Ready to get started?”

Standing with her hands on her hips, I gave her a good once over. I was used to her being one of the most stylish people present in any given situation. Nothing was off limits to her. Pants, skirts, cosplay—she looked good in everything. Even though she was wearing something bathing suit thin, it was just too simple for what I was used to seeing her in. Despite that, her tall, elegant figure was on full display. She was almost too thin to be considered an athlete, but that was just the deception of her body mechanics. Her quads were much more pronounced than the rest of her musculature, but her upper body was still well defined, and her abs were like layers of bricks.

My silence might have made others uncomfortable, but, seeing my confusion, she snickered. “Before I got into rhythm gaming, I was a gymnast. Although, I admit it was tumbling I fell in love with. The rest, eh.”

“Really?” I wondered aloud a moment later. “You said this was your world? So you’ve done this before?”

“You’ll just have to wait and see.” She said cryptically, waving for me to follow.

Catching up, she began to explain. “So what the instructor has been teaching the others is really just the basics—the simplest ways to scale and bypass obstacles. I completed all of his challenges on the first go, so he let me move on to do my own thing. And yes, I’ve done this kind of stuff before, but just for fun. Here they teach none of the acrobatics or more challenging skills used in normal parkour.”

“Okay, gotcha.”

“In her vast wisdom, Victoria thought I might be a better person to help you get started. She said you’ve already got some experience?”

“On flat ground maybe. But climbing over things? Not at all.”

“Cool. Then I’ll have a few things to show you. Plus, somersaults, spinning, and a lot of advanced movements aren’t always just for show. Using a bar to swing yourself for instance or rolling your landings if you have the momentum and right angle are a musts. Oh, and before we get started, Victoria wanted me to warn you not to use anything more than rank F psionics, and only internal abilities. I saw you throwing yourself around in your fight yesterday with push. So none of that. We’re going to be using only aura today.”

“Okay.”

“All right. Now try to follow me.”

Destiny appeared in the top corner of my vision and waved me on. I hurried past the counter and after Marabella, or Mara. There was a runway as the first obstacle that everyone had to bypass before they could enter the open parkour area. At its end were three platforms. Each of them was at a higher elevation than the last just like three giant stairs. As I examined them, Destiny placed the wall’s height out to the side. The first was six foot exactly, only two inches shorter than I was. Scaling it wouldn’t have been difficult for me before psionics, but I was sure the goal wasn’t just to climb it.

While I was lost in thought, Mara glanced back at me with a devilish gleam, stealing my attention. She skipped forward before cartwheeling into a back handspring. Her speed increased into a second and third handspring as she neared the first platform. Orange light blazed around her as she launched herself into the air. Not resisting her momentum, she flipped as she climbed. She cleared the six feet with easy. At the end of her second flip, she landed in a crouch. Straightening she finished with a gymnast’s salute and smug look.

I brought my hands together in light applause.

She did an exaggerated curtsy, first to me, then in every direction as if she was surrounded by a crowd.

As dark as my mood was, it brought a grin to my face.

“Your turn,” she called out.

Turning serious, I considered how to approach it. Jumping that high should be easy enough even without my aura, and especially with a running start. Without one though? What I really needed to do was figure out precisely what I was capable of. I also needed to know what the most efficient use of my physical and psionic energy was at any given time.

There were a few things I was already quite clear on. Relying solely on my physical strength would physically exhaust me quicker than it would if I also adding aura. The question was, how much psionics should I use. Too much and I would exhaust my psionic energy first. There were also many different approaches I could take. If I replied on physical strength, I could use my healing psionics to recover from my physical exhaustion faster. Another method would be to only use my aura when absolutely necessary. However, running with my aura on a flat surface could increase my speed, or, if I kept a slow pace, it would extend my overall endurance. There was also the option of not using aura, but other psionic abilities like Othisi, or push. In other words, there were numerous variable and I needed to try everything.

Already forgetting Mara was even there, I decided on systematic approach. Walking up to the platform, I stood few meters away, eyed my landing spot, and jumped from a standstill without any aura at all. It wasn’t the kind of movement I practiced, but I’d developed my body enough that I was confident in what I could do. When I neared the lip of the platform’s edge, I was forced to bring my knees to my chest to be sure to clear it. My landing was a little unsteady, but I stood without having to take a step to steady myself.

“I’m going to knock you off,” Mara grumbled, feigning like she was actually going to push me. “Show off.”

“Uh…” I began, relaxing when I saw he was messing around. That hadn’t been my intention.

“Fine. Then beat this one.”

There was a large runway atop the first platform. Mara used all of it, cartwheeling into another back handspring before launching herself into the air. That’s when I noticed the next platform was higher up than the first. Destiny had the information waiting for me. This one stood eight foot tall.

She didn’t soar with the same tight rotation as her first approach. This time she was loose and her whole body was extended. When she reached the lip of the next platform, she was flipping backward and reached out with her hands, landing in a handstand. With her legs straight up and toes pointed, she hand-walked herself away from the ledge before coming to her feet.

I had no experience in any kind of gymnastics, and competing with her really wasn’t my goal, but she was also challenging me so… What else could I do?

Walking toward the next platform, I eyed the eight foot ledge suspiciously. Reaching it wasn’t a problem. The question was, did I need my psionics to do so? After my last jump I honestly wasn’t sure.

Spotting her looking down from above, I gave her a wink. I judged the distance the best I could. Shaking out my legs and shoulders, I loosened up as I visualized my next move. I seamlessly dipped low then sprung upward. I knew it was going to be close the moment I left the ground. My trajectory seemed to be enough. Reaching the pinnacle of my jump’s arch, I fervently brough my knees up, getting my feet as high in the air as possible with them still being under me. My height was good enough, but it looked like I was about to land on the edge. It was time to bail out or commit. As embarrassing as failure might be, I went all in.

I touched the edge. Only the front half of the balls of my feet made it. They immediately started to slip. Leaning forward as if I was going to roll, I gained some traction with my toes. When I thought I had made it, my right foot lost traction and slipped from the edge entirely. My forward momentum was just enough for me to catch myself with my hands so that I could three legged-dog crawl away from certain embarrassment.

Coming to my feet, I scratched my head and looked back. Falling from that height wouldn’t kill me if I used my psionic abilities, but it wasn’t exactly a comfortable thought.

When I recovered, I found Mara standing there glaring at me with her arms crossed in front of her chest. “Boys and their moronic strength,” she said, clicking her tongue. “Try that with this next one, hot stuff.”

I chuckled under my breath. “I’m just trying to figure out what I’m capable of. Without psionics, I’m not exactly sure.”

“Whatever, Mr. Optimo,” she said, playfully sulking. “I have nothing fancy for this last one. Just a simple wall run. If you’re not going to super frog it, make sure you run at it fast enough so that your foot doesn’t slip.”

With that, she turned, took a moment to focus, then ran straight at the wall to the next platform. This one was ten foot high. Nearing the wall, her footfalls sped, and she jumped. With her leg outstretched, she kicked off the wall, transferring her forward momentum into upward. She caught the ledge with her hands and pulled herself up with ease.

I already knew that I couldn’t scale it by jumping from a standstill without the help from my psionics. The eight foot platform was close to my max. Would my rank G psionic aura give me enough of a boost to add two additional feet, though? Rank F would be the safest to try, but that wouldn’t teach me anything.

Repeating the processes, I walked toward the wall. I activated my rank G aura and felt the vibrant energy fill my limbs. My aura wouldn’t double my strength but augment it approximately to the next rank.

From my days in Freedom, I had my personal experience, but also the collective experience of other players to go off of. Peter had once mentioned the synergy that existed between body and psionics. What we learned in Freedom only reinforced this truth. If two people had identical auras, the effects would still vary. If one person had more fast twitch muscle fibers and the other had slow twitch, their auras would enhance what they already had. It would also strengthen their weaknesses, but it was dependent on their physical ability.

This meant that my aura should enhance my explosive power fairly well, but to add almost two feet to my max vertical jump was extreme. I decided to stop thinking about how difficult it would be, and just focused on the action itself.

I dipped down, practicing the motion, before springing upward with my red aura blaring. I could feel the additional power make movement more comfortable, however, I knew before reaching the platforms edge I wouldn’t have the height. As I reached it, I placed a hand on the platform and swung my feet up. I had been close, but it certainly wasn’t enough.

Feeling disappointed, I found Mara giving me another of her cross-armed glares.

I blurted out, “Oh come on, you won that one.”

“As long as you can admit that,” she replied with a satisfied nod. Her face turned serious. “I get what you’re trying to do. Really. Can I make a suggestion?”

“Yeah. Of course.”

“At least for today, since it’s your first time, don’t go at it with such a somber mindset. Try to have some fun with it. I’ve always found that gymnasts that do the best long term take their craft seriously, but never lose sight of their enjoyment of the process.”

“I see.” I was immediately reminded of what Achilles had once said to me. He enjoyed combat training. The losing… The winning… It was fun for him. Did I enjoy it? There were certainly moments of overcoming opponents stronger than me that I remembered fondly, but could I honestly say I’d ever had fun with it?

What most clearly characterized my own motivation was desperation, not enjoyment. I knew there was a ridiculously overpowered being out there that had made himself the enemy of Earth. We were to somehow fight against this person, Victoria’s father. After fighting the Ekseliksi elite and having our entire battalion almost wiped out, I was even more desperate. This elite soldier was many levels below our true enemy. Achilles and now Mara, one of the highest ranked rhythm gamers in the world, had given me the same advice. It wasn’t my first time pondering this same question. Even if I wasn’t in the mood, I should at least try. I still needed to take a systematic approach though so that I could learn what I was capable of as quickly as possible.

As I was lost in thought, I felt something smack into the back of my head. Spinning, I saw a purple orb floating there with a miniature blond woman in military dress standing atop it crossing her arms across her chest.

“Did someone forget I was here?” Destiny rebuked. “You’ve only been back from Freedom for a few weeks, so this time I’ll forgive you. Listen to the lady. Go have some fun. I’ll do all the calculations while you’re getting a feel for things. I’m better at it then you are anyways, then we’ll discuss it later.”

I opened my mouth to say something but as I looked from Destiny to Mara and saw them giving me the same look, I shut it. Turning to Mara, I asked. “Okay. So what’s next?”

She waved me to follow and stopped at the far edge. Joining her, I looked out at the open parkour area which took up most of the building. It was practically a small city laid out before us.

“Now, you choose a line to follow and try it. You can also work on one specific obstacle, but you’re Mr. Optimo. There shouldn’t be any obstacle of basic or moderate difficulty that you can’t handle fairly ease, right?” She nudged me with her elbow.

I shrugged. “Optimo, is that Spanish or Italian?”

“Huh,” she blinked at me a few times before taking pity on me. “Nah. You know—prime, preme, optim—awesome?” Seeing understanding register on my face, she added. “So Optimo is just my version of optim made into a name.”

“So you’re saying I’m awesome?” I gave her a smug look.

“It would be more accurate to say that I’m mocking you, but if you want to take it that way I’ll try not to laugh in your face.”

Inclining one eyebrow, I almost let it go, but remembered I’d decided to try to have fun with this. “I think I will take it literally, because, even if you are mocking me, I think deep down inside you know it’s true.”

She gave me a disgusted look. “It’s true that one really does learn something new every day. I never took you as an arrogant dope, but I guess even I sometimes get people wrong.”

I started to laugh, but, remembering Kline, I suddenly became very still. I gave her the gravest look I could manage.

She looked at me like I was crazy—at first. As I held her with my gaze her expression softened, and doubt started to settle in.

I couldn’t hold it in any longer and burst out laughing. Kline really had rubbed off on me way too much.

Glaring at me, she was doing her best to hold back her own laughter. “Fiend.”

“Who says that?”

“A person who has millions of young followers,” she said, digging her knuckles into my shoulder.

“Oh, so you were thinking something a lot worse.”

Wide eyed, she spun away. “So about finding a line to follow…”

“Optimo understands.”

She spun back to me cringe-faced. “Don’t do that.”

“Op—” Her hand shot to my mouth.

“In all seriousness, that totally goes against your normal vibe. You don’t want a bunch of vids going around the meta making fun of you.”

I nodded my head before she removed her hand from my mouth. “I’m just trying to own the persona you gave to me.”

“I gave it to you because I thought it described who you already are. You know, thoughtfully silly at times and often brooding. If you start acting like whatever that was, then it no longer describes you. Get it?”

“So you do think I’m awesome.”

“And you wonder why Victoria never gave you a serious chance,” as soon as the words left her mouth her eyes shot to the floor. She shaded her face with her hand. “Sorry. I do that sometimes. That was meant as a joke but instead came off nasty. Really, I didn’t mean it at all. I know it’s not that simple.”

I was more confused than offended. I didn’t spend a lot of time pondering how my relationship with Victoria looked to the outside world. The way I dealt with it was simply never to talk about it. It seemed we had done a good job keeping how close we were to ourselves. It was human nature to want what you couldn’t have. Of course, I wanted others to know the truth, but… Once again, my mind turned to the Teleios, and I felt anger welling up inside me.

“I’m such an idiot…” Mara said under her breath. Her lack of volume stole my attention for some reason.

“Stop that,” I insisted. “You didn’t offend me, just got me thinking. Besides, who would dare to think Mara Optima was an idiot?”

She went from hiding behind her hand to cupping her face with it. “That’s so bad.” She laughed aloud. “Still, I’m sorry.”

“Yeah, so about finding a line to follow?”

Now with an excuse, she happily changed the subject and went into a detail explanation about what she meant by finding a line. The simplest way to look at it was that it was a prechosen path from one obstacle to another with a clear begin and ending point in mind.

From the top of the third platform, there were numerous possible lines to follow. There was a ramp down, stairs off to the side, a sheer drop with pole to slid down, and even giant stairs identical to the platforms we’d just scaled. And that was only the first obstacle.

I watched the other soldiers already in the midst of parkour training, and saw that most of them were following a preset line. Some would follow it then go back to their starting point, while others had a second line they took to return to the first. After a while, I no longer saw the people, but a maze of possibilities. It was the same thing I’d realized during the fight with the world boss in Freedom. Psionics gave humanity a whole different level of freedom of movement. It seemed like such a simple concept, but if we’d fought the Ekseliksi elite here in this type of terrain, it might be possible for us to defeat him without the help of Victoria’s massive energy weapon—and with far less sacrifice.

Listening intently to Mara’s explanation, I soon chose a line and leaped into action. It wasn’t easy for me to focus on trying to enjoy it, but I still kept the concept in the back of my mind.

During that first session I didn’t do anything extreme, or even that impressive. The limit Victoria had request I put on my psionics was the main reason. I did get a good feel for moving around in varied terrain, though.

We finished about the same time that the other squads did. Many of the people there I knew, and I was greeted by a number of them. Only a fraction of them were a part of our battalion though. After a few minutes of speaking to others, I spotted Mara sitting with her feet dangling off the first platform. At first, I thought she might just be waiting for the crowd to clear, but she seemed uncharacteristically distant.

As I approached the six foot platform, she still hadn’t noticed me. Taking a quick step, I jumped and landed, plopping down next to her.

My sudden appearance startled her.

“Hey,” she said.

I ignored her response. “Thanks for today. I think had fun.”

“You think? Sulking is too pleasurable for you, huh?”

I chuckled. “Having fun just doesn’t seem as important as it once did.”

Her shoulders sagged. When she didn’t respond right away, I began looking for some way to cheer her up, but she spoke first. “I know you what you mean.”

Her change in demeanor caused me to genuinely worry. “You okay?”

“No. Not really.”

“Because of yesterday’s battle?”

She nodded, swallowing a knot in her throat. “It wasn’t my first death. There were four, maybe fives it happened in Freedom, but it never felt so personal. It wasn’t even the pain. It was probably my least painful death, now that I think about it.”

“Then?”

“That a-hole was practically flirting with me before he snapped my neck,” she said through gritted teeth. “That…” She began rubbing the back of her neck and became more and more anxious as if she was about to have a panic attack.

I put my arm around her shoulders and pulled her to me. She was trembling.

Without looking up, she hugged her arms to her chest and leaned into me, letting me hold her. We sat that way for a few minutes in silence until her breathing calmed.

“Do you know what he said means?” I asked. “Antianeira. A match for men. I think you impressed him. You were still trying to stand up and fight when few of the others could. You impressed me.”

She snorted, sitting up.

I removed my arm.

“Thanks, Lucius.” She shook her head. “I just don’t get it. How sick can a person be? Did he think killing me in such an intimate manner was honorable or something? It makes me sick just thinking about it.”

“I really don’t know. There are a number of things about the Ekseliksi culture I don’t get. Not that I’m an expert by any means.”

“How?”

“How…”

She pulled one of her legs to her as she turned to sit facing me. “How are we supposed to fight something like that? I mean, I get that we are still new to psionics, but I’m just having trouble getting my head around it. I’m sure some of us will become elite practitioners eventually, you’re a perfect example, but me, the rest of us? And aren’t their supposed to be Ekseliksi even stronger than the elite? How the hell are we supposed to win anything, let alone a war against such monsters?”

Telling her I’d been struggling with the exact same question wasn’t going to help anything, so instead, I made something up on the spot.

“Look at it from the opposite perspective. That Ekseliksi elite guy has been using psionics his entire life and ended up losing to a bunch of newbs. It’s kind of daunting because it’s going to take us years to get to that level, but I still think we’ll get there. All of us, Mara. Think about it. Why do you think you were chosen for Freedom?”

She gave a frank answer. “Because of the diversity of the followers I have. Compared to other pro gamers, I bring things to the table few of them can.”

“You’re not wrong,” I replied. “But think about how quickly everyone unlocked their psionic ability. Do you remember how long it took Cornelius to do the same? He admitted to me that he was told that he didn’t have much natural talent with psionics. Yet he decided to participate in Freedom anyways. The main reason most of us were chosen was because we were determined to have high natural talent. That includes you. Being Mara Optima was just a bonus.”

“I really never should have called you that.”

“Regretting it now, huh?”

She rolled her eyes. “So you think we’ll be able to compete, once the war starts?”

I considered her question momentarily before responding. “This is what I know. Focusing on what we can’t do, or what might go wrong, will distract us doing what we can and should. All that can do is take it one step at a time and train like mad.”

She nodded slowly at first, then quickly as if realizing she agreed. After a long moment of silence, she seemed to snap out of her funk and released a long whistle. “Well, that was uncomfortable. Thank you, though. And for what it’s worth, don’t let anything any smart-mouthed, gamer chicks say,” she pointe to herself. “Get inside your head. You’re a great guy.” Reaching out, she gave my forearm two quick pats then slid off the edge of the platform and left me sitting there.

I chuckled to myself, but my thoughts quickly returned to the topic we’d just been discussing. What I’d said wasn’t actually wrong. I even believed most of it. What I’d left out though was that I didn’t think it would be enough. Liam had said I’d now have earlier access to my cube and could customize my training. Hopping off the platform, I knew where I was heading next. Doing everything I could might not be enough, so I’d just have to push even harder.

“Destiny. Lead the way to the cube, please.”

I could tell she was holding back her chastising tone, but some of it slipped through. “I must remind you that you’re not to use more than your aura today, and to limit it to rank F.”

“Yes, drone head. That doesn’t mean I’m to limit my physical training, right?”

“Right…”

“Good. Let’s go.”