After Streak and Sleek went to bed, Ash headed upstairs to her room, grabbing Dan along the way. "Shut the door", she said. Ash stood there gathering her thoughts. When she finally turns back to Dan, she had resolved to go through with her plan, with or without his help. "I don't know about you, but the next time there's a fight, I'm not running. I'm never leaving Streak behind again." Ash hoped that she could keep that promise. Even though he had lied about who he was, that didn't change the fact that he was their friend, and Ash knew she couldn't live with herself if Streak was killed because he had stayed behind to protect them. "We're going to start training before Streak heals. Just the two of us." Dan's eyes light up, knowing exactly what she was thinking. About a year ago, Dan had wanted to teach Ash how to wrestle. But she had refused, thinking that as long as she knew how to punch someone without breaking her hand, she didn't need to learn anything else. "You're going to teach me some wrestling moves, and then we're going to make them lethal". Dan nods, clearly excited at the prospect of teaching someone his favorite hobby. "This is going to be epic!", he said with a huge grin. Ash let out a tentative breath, glad he had agreed. This would be so much easier with someone who knew what they were doing, and Dan knew wrestling. He was a two time state champ, and always seemed so much stronger than everyone else. Now that she thought about it, he probably was, just like she was faster. "Right then, meet me outside tomorrow morning at six". Dan left and Ash sat on her bed thinking over the days events. It had been totally insane. But something told her that it was all real. Someone else might have tried to make sense of all of it, tried to deny it, or claim that they were going crazy. But not Ash. Feeling it all catching up to her, she got into bed, setting the digital alarm clock that sat on top of the nightstand beside her bed for five thirty so that she would have time to get ready and talk to Sleek, who no doubt would be up. She had the early morning vibe to her.
. . .
Ash found Sleek in the kitchen, sitting at the table nursing a cup of black coffee, a far away look on her face. Ash sat down in the chair across from her. After a moment, Sleek's eyes meet hers. "Sorry. My mind was elsewhere. What's up?" Ash hesitates. "Is now a bad time? I can come back later". Sleek waves he hand dismissively. "You're fine, I could use the company". Ash nods, and, gathering her courage, asks her question. "What happened during the first war that got Streak hurt so bad? Last night when he mentioned it, you looked like you were blaming yourself. Like you could've stopped it, but didn't". She was probably crossing the line here, but Ash had to know. Sleek sat there with a pained expression, and Ash knew she had hit a nerve. Damn. So much for having to know. "I'm sorry", she says. "I shouldn't have asked. It's none of my business". She gets up to leave, but Sleek shakes her head, saying," No, it's all right. Please, stay. I need to talk about it. I've kept it bottled up for so long". Ash sits back down and waits patiently as Sleek gathered her thoughts. "It was a few days after the start of one of the the last battles major battles. We were on the front lines, and I had been cut off from my legion. My strength was failing and I was exhausted from days of nonstop fighting. I fought with everything I had, but I was just too tired and there were just too many. I wouldn't have lasted more than a few few minutes longer, and I thought I was dead for sure. And then Streak was there. It was the first time we discovered his battle rage". She pauses, taking a sip of her coffee. "He tore through them, slaughtering them, with a ferociousness that I had never seen before. He killed every Shadow Warrior within a fifty foot radius before we retreated back to my legion. We were still young Guardians, only about 3,000 years old, but we were exceptionally powerful. Streak was a prodigy in battle and I wasn't far behind. We were almost unstoppable together. But he was wounded so badly that I had to carry him to the healers, only barely able to. If I had been more skilled and trained harder, or at least fallen back to rest, I wouldn't have been surrounded and Streak wouldn't have had to rescue me". Her coffee mug shatters in her hand, crushed by her inhuman strength. She doesn't seem to notice. She stares hard at the table, and after a while squares her shoulders. "That will never happen again", she says, a small growl underlying her words. "I'll die first, and before I do, I'll take as many of the shadow dwelling bastards with me as I can". Sleek stands up and walks over to the back door. "I'm going to patrol the woods around the cabin. I'll be back in a little while, don't stray too far from the cabin". She slips out the door, all but slamming it, though strangely, it makes no sound. Ash isn't sure if Sleek is mad at her or herself. Maybe both. She shrugs and goes outside to wait for Dan. He comes out not too long after her. "Ready"? "Let's do this", Dan says, rubbing his hands together. He teaches her the basics or wrestling, staying low, feet spread a part, always moving, and how to control the match. He teaches her the leg sweep, the double leg take down, and the effectiveness of keeping your opponents head down. Then they made the take downs lethal. Ash thought of dropping onto someone's windpipe with her elbow after the leg sweep, and Dan devised a way to simply choke someone after wrestling them to the ground. They practiced until they were both dripping with sweat despite the cool morning air. Behind Dan, Ash sees Streak watching them through the window, a thoughtful look on his face. When he notices her looking, he gives her an approving nod before wandering away from the window, probably back to bed. Dan goes inside to take a shower while Ash goes for a run. After the first lap she is joined by a red fox the size of a large wolf, about three and a half feet at the shoulders, who she assumed must be Sleek. After six laps, Ash goes back inside. She gets into the shower and turns the water all the way up to hot. Heat never really bothered her, not even fire. She could hold a match and let it burn out in her finger tips. Everyone had said she just had a high pain tolerance, which she did, but the fire didn't even burn. Not to say she had ever lit herself on fire, but still... Ash let's her thoughts wander as the water flows soothingly over her body. When it turns cold, she reluctantly gets out. The rest of the week goes by slowly, Ash and Dan practicing every morning for about two hours. She didn't see much of Streak, as he slept most of the day (and night), and Sleek regularly slipped out to patrol the woods. Six days after they arrived at the cabin, Ash wakes up to the sound of chains rattling, someone pounding on something heavy, and heavy breathing. Curious, Ash goes out to investigate. She finds Streak wearing only a pair of grey sweatpants, the skin on his muscular back glistening with sweat as he pummeled a giant punching bag with a series of complicated moves. Right hook, back hand, elbow strike, palm strike, roundhouse, knee, left hook, etc. on closer inspection it was actually several punching bags bound together at the top and bottom by chains, covered in a canvas tarp. It must have weighed several hundred pounds, if not thousands (they were big punching bags), but the whole thing swung back and forth, and the tree it hangs from by a thick chain shivers under the force of every blow. Sleek sits a dozen feet away, stretching. Suddenly, Streak jumps, spinning as he does so, and kicks the top of the bags with such force that, to Ashes surprise, the chain snaps and the bags go flying into another tree so hard, it's trunk cracks on impact, and it topples to the ground. "Oops", Streak says under his breath. He breathes heavily, and is obviously satisfied despite accidentally knocking over a tree. "What did those punching bags ever do to you? Or that tree?" Streak turns around and gives her a small smile. "Morning Ash. You ready to see what real training looks like?" Ash grins at his teasing of her and Dan's attempts at combat training. "I don't know, are you going to kick me into any trees?", she asks playfully. Streak chuckles, as Sleek comes up behind him, slipping her arms around his waist and resting her head on his shoulder with a small smile. Definitely something between them. Dan suddenly bursts out of the cabin, in one hand a large meat cleaver, in the other a frying pan, looking ready for a fight. Seeing no one but us and a toppled tree, he lowers his arms in confusion. Looking at each of us in turn, seeking answers, and receiving only amused looks. After a second or two, we bust up laughing, which puzzles him even more. Shaking his head and muttering something about jokes he didn't understand, goes back inside. Ash turns back to Streak and Sleek. "Let me go get into some workout clothes and grab a bite to eat, and I'll be back out". Streak nods, serious again. Sleek goes over to the punching bag, and with relative ease, throws it over her shoulder. She carries it back over to Streak and together they hang it back up on the next link in the chain. After she gets dressed, Ash goes down stairs and grabs an apple off the counter before heading back outside, where Streak, Sleek, and Dan were already waiting. "All right, lets get this show on the road". Streak explains the type of techniques and fighting styles the would be learning, how they dealt with pressure points, and how to keep your opponent off balance, and other such skills to help them control the fight. Then he pairs them off, Ash with Sleek, Dan with him. Sleek begins to teach Ash how to use her size to her advantage. "You're smaller than most. Use that. Step inside your opponents longer reach and deliver small, but powerful strikes. Aim for the gut, the throat, the temple, even the groin. Remember, there's no such thing as a fair fight. Fight fair, fight to die, because no one is going to be fair to you. Use every advantage you've got. And don't forget to conserve your energy". She teaches Ash how simply twisting her wrist and turning her hips could add more power to a strike, instead of wasting energy drawing her fist back all the way. Kind of like doing the whip. Sleek also taught her the power of an open palm. "Sometimes a fist is just an excuse to break your hand or bruise your knuckles. Hit someone with the heel of your hand and you'd be surprised by how much it hurts them". She teaches Ash how to grapple and manipulate joints, and how to bring someone to their knees by simply twisting their arm. Then, showing her a series of simple, but effective combos, and having her move through the forms dozens of times before they started sparring. Ash and did her best, and though she was surprised at how much her body actually remembered, and reacted automatically, instinctively, no matter how hard she tried; Ash couldn't touch Sleek, who weaved around her with practiced ease. She flowed like water, but pierced like ice. "Don't be discouraged Ash. I've been training in combat for over 15,000 years. It's only to be expected that I'm the better fighter". Yeah not to mention Sleek was way faster and way stronger than her. "As you train more you'll be able to fare better in our sparring bouts. And you'll pick it up quickly. You're body and brain are hardwired for battle like every Guardian's". She nodded, understanding, though still a little flustered. But she now realized why Streak called this real training. After only an hour, Ash was drenched in sweat, covered with bruises, sore, and exhausted. Despite all this, it was exhilarating. And the thought that she would soon be able to hold her own in battle made her push herself harder. After an hour and a half, Sleek and Streak had Ash and Dan spar. Dan had been taught a little different than her. Streak had altered Dans knowledge of wrestling and applied it to their training. He focused more on overpowering his opponents and delivering devastating blows, or pinning the enemy and keeping them there with a pressure point while he finished them off from above. They were pretty evenly matched. Ash couldn't quite step inside Dans reach or he would just crush her with a bear hug, and Dan couldn't catch her to pin her down. At night they talked strategy and Streak and Sleek quizzed them. They also played chess to help them with their focus and quick thinking. And so the routine was set Combat training in the morning, strategy and chess at night. Dan and her learned quickly, and at night Ash practiced in her room, determined to become the best she could possibly be. In this way, the rest of spring flew by and before they knew it, summer was here.... as well as their sixteenth birthday.