The cadets spent the rest of the day learning various strikes and there counters in the forward stance. Arthur was relatively surprised that everyone was progressing smoothly. Before he knew it, the class had ended and it was time to head back for dinner.
[30,000 EXP gained]
[77,000/200,00 EXP]
Arthur was liking the extra progress and he could tell the cadets were extremely surprised as well since the previous training awarded a fraction of this experience.
The cadets filed into the chow hall, ate for 5 minutes and then left to walk to the barracks. Arthur, Mackenzie, Strong and Asura stopped outside the barracks and Asura motioned for Strong to meet her outside again. Arthur expected this and turned around to walk through the doors when Mackenzie grabbed his arm.
"You should meet me out here too" Said Mackenzie, her cheeks blushing in embarrassment as Arthur looked back at her and raised an eyebrow. "Nothing like that! But with Asura gone until 2300, I get bored talking to myself. Some company would be nice and I haven't really had the time to see anything else in the Academy since I got here."
"I'll meet you out here in 20 minutes then" replied Arthur as he struggled in a battle of will with his two heads quickly losing out to the smaller one. He rushed inside and took a shower and changed out of his sweat soaked clothes. Strong was waiting for him when he got done and Arthur figured it wouldn't hurt to ask what was going on before he also went to hang out with someone of the opposite sex alone for the first time in his new life.
"It's not what you think" said Strong. "We are just talking and walking around"
"Walking around my ass!" said Arthur as he laughed. "Look, I don't care what you and Asura are doing, but now I've been roped into hanging out with Mackenzie and I don't even know what to do." I mean, what does two cadets do in the academy at night?"
"Don't ask me!" cried Strong as he looked away.
"What do you mean don't ask you? You're the one who's being shady about hanging out with a girl two nights in a row!" Replied Arthur as he looked at Strong without getting a response.
Strong finally looked back at Arthur and said "I hope you have fun tonight, I'll see you back here at 2300. Don't do anything I wouldn't do!"
"I don't even know what you would do since you wont tell me!" cried Arthur as he watched Strong exit the room.
Arthur waited a minute or two and then proceeded to go outside and was met by Mackenzie.
"I asked you to come because something strange is going on." said Mackenzie. "Asura had a few bruises on her last night and when I asked about them she claimed they were from training yesterday. I don't know about you, but to my knowledge we are all doing the same training unless her and Strong are doing some extra curricular "training". I want to follow them and see what they are up to. If its something personal and private we can always leave and come back."
"Oh, for a second I thought you actually wanted to hang out" laughed Arthur, "I was panicking and didn't have any idea what to do or where to go."
"In your dreams" winked Mackenzie as she set out to find where Strong and Asura went.
They followed the two for thirty minutes. At first it really did look like they were just walking around enjoying each others company. Arthur was about to call the whole thing off when suddenly they made a beeline for the indoor training complex after passing a few cadets walking the opposite direction. They quickly looked around, and then opened the door and disappeared in the complex shutting the door behind them.
"Well, that was weird" said Mackenzie. "No one stays in there after hours so it's possible they are going in there for some quality time, but did you notice they never touched each other or did anything that would indicate anything more than just friends?"
"I wasn't really paying attention that hard" replied Arthur. From their vantage point, they were fairly hidden in the woods by the complex. After debating what to do for a couple of minutes, they saw another group of people stealthily enter the complex when they thought no one was looking.
"Ok, something really is going on" said Arthur as he made up his mind to go in. "Let's go in and get some answers to our questions."
The two cadets got up and quickly entered the complex and shut the door behind them without a sound. They looked around but didn't see anything anywhere. The complex was huge with several warehouse rooms off the main training area so not seeing something at the beginning didn't mean much.
"Let's hide and see if anyone else comes in we can follow" said Mackenzie as she moved over into the the shadows behind some mats, keeping watch on the door. Arthur followed her over and sat down next to her waiting for anyone else that might lead them to where Strong and Asura went off to.
They didn't wait for too long as 3 cadets quietly walked in and went further into the training complex. Two males and a female, they were well built and stocky, looking like they were at least in their third or fourth year.
The two cadets followed them to a small door and watched as they disappeared behind it. "Let's give it a minute or two" said Mackenzie as she counted down the time. They didn't want to get caught with their pants down in the middle of the training complex after hours.
After a minute, they quietly opened the door and were let into a hallway. At the end of the hallway they could see two roll up doors on either side. One of them was closed with a lock on the bottom, but the other was partially open, light spilling into the hallway with the sounds of cheers and yells faintly heard.
They quickly ran to the roll up door and ducked under and into the large warehouse room. Their jaws dropped once their eyes adjusted to the light. "Are you seeing what I'm seeing?" asked Arthur as he peeled his eyes away and looked at Mackenzie.