Sean and others followed Captain Henry to a solitary storage building. Inside the building were brand new EVRST Capsules. They looked like they had been sent here right after rolling out of the factory. Counting them, Sean only realised there were only 90 capsules here. Before he could ask about it, Captain Henry explained why it was so.
"We have 90 capsules here, ready to be used. It only has to read your biometric structure. In a sense, you are the keys." He walked towards one of them and beckoned one of the trainees with his finger. "Drop your blood here, it will scan it."
The trainee made a cut to her finger and dropped a drop of her blood. What happened next made them think that the Capsule was alive. It suddenly lit up and made {VVUUUM} sound, and then the lid opened with the classic {FSHH} sound. As the trainee was about to enter the capsule, Captain Henry blocked her.
"These will be moved to your barrack's basement. You can use them in your free time, not now."
"I'm sorry, Captain." The trainee quickly apologised. Captain Henry then sent her back and called everyone except the top 10. Everyone put a drop of their blood on the machine, and the place was filled with machinery noises. Captain Henry then called out to the remaining 10 trainees.
"You ten, follow me."
They followed him to a deeper part of the building, where they came across a door. Captain Henry took out a card from his jacket before holding it for it to be scanned.
{BEEP}
The door opened after a beep and revealed another room of capsules inside. These ones were slightly different from the previous ones, not just by design, but also functionality. They too put a drop of their blood to the EVRST gear as Captain Henry explained what is different with these capsules.
"These are the real EVRST gear, a standard model that most of the Evolutionaries use outside. All of the ones you have used till now could be considered training wheels. These ones have some Red Gates stored in them, unlike the other which will only be a virtual white world. You can manually change the settings and harshness of the environment, and also the strength of Abominations. Training wheels only go up to Orange Grade, while you can store Aberrations of Yellow Grade here. Of course, they will be only Rank 1 until you achieve your first evolution. Your evolution will unlock higher ranks.
Now, go back to your training. These too will be in the basement with others."
""Yes sir!""
The trainees saluted, and left Captain Henry to himself in the room.
"We should speed up things a little bit," he murmured to himself. Then he too, left the room.
—
Sean, Tyson and Latoya went to the cafeteria to meet the rest of the team. They had taken their meals and had chosen a table near the enterance. Not much was there to choose from anyway. They grabbed themselves a bite and sat down to eat.
"You know- I thought we- Would have more time- To open the gap- You know- The strings."
"For Harsen's sake, Jayden! Don't talk with your mouth full. It's disgusting."
"{GULP} Aaaa… See, no more food, mom."
"This guy…"
Klein and Jayden were back at it again, which the rest promptly ignored. Samantha turned to Tyson to ask him what they got.
"Well, a standardised model of EVRST, some envious stares on the way back, and more training definitely." Tyson said half jokingly. "You may be able to raise yours to a standard model too, with merit points. Though I don't know if we will get more of them before we are sent to the Arctic Front. You should spend them wisely."
"Will do."
Meanwhile…
{Munch, munch}
"Are you eating those?"
"No, you can have them."
Latoya finished her meal and asked Sean, who was not eating the beans, if she could eat them. This had become a daily occurrence, which made the group feel like they were feeding a cat.
Latoya would quickly gobble her meals, then would eat whatever her teammates didn't eat. Sean was baffled where all those calories were going. She was just as slim as she first arrived, and other places too did not see an increase in the volume.
'Some people are just blessed with good genetics I guess.'
After eating their fill, the team went to request the standard models for the rest of the team. Since they had the
One of the perks of the standard model was it could be used in LAN or WAN, but WAN was closed due to them being in a military camp. They still could use LAN, and fight the Aberrations stored together. Maybe even team spars against Group A-1, since they too had them. They could go wilder in the Enhanced Virtual Reality, not pulling back when they were about to seriously injure the other party. The days went on as they trained. Samantha and Klein formed their first strings the next week. It wasnt until the week later Jayden joined them. Meanwhile Tyson had formed his fourth just as Jayden formed his first. He still had the habit of sleeping while meditating, and the group wanted to fix it first. So they splashed him awake with water every time he slept while meditating. This gradually fixed his bad habit. It wasn't only Jayden who fixed his bad habits; Tyson, Sean and Samantha too, had mostly got over their bad habits due to fighting Group A-1 every chance they got. Tyson wasn't as reluctant to attack other people as he was when he first sparred, Sean got used to fighting those with weapons barehanded and Samantha could use her mace and shield seamlessly.
Latoya was forming her second string the next week. As she had experienced it, it was easier this time, and would only get faster. Sean joined her a few days later, forming his second string. In the fourth week, Samantha and Klein catched up to them, with Jayden joining them too later that week. He had cut on sleep to catch up with everyone, so he was walking around like a zombie. Many trainees pitied him after seeing his state. One day, they had once again sparred with the Group A-1, and Sean couldn't help himself and confronted Jayden.
"Hey, what's up with your awkwardness towards Sherrly? I noticed that you avoid shooting her whenever we spar, and you shy away from facing her. I get that she looks intimidating with that sword and shield but, is there something wrong?"
"That…"
"That what? Are you okay?" Samantha too joined the conversation.
"They probably knew each other before coming here, that's why he is so awkward around her." Klein suggested.
{FLINCH!}
"On mark, as always." He smirked.
"He is right," Jayden confirmed. "We knew each other before coming here. Did you pay attention to her right eye?"
"Oh you mean the beauty mark?" Tyson asked back. "Oh, the beauty mark…"
Now Sean felt awkward asking about it in the first place. Even though he had no way of knowing that Sherry was one of his exes!
'She and Latoya would get along then.' He thought, but then quickly discarded it. If one brings exes into a relationship, it was a red flag about their personality. Although it could be just some childish behaviour she grew out of eventually, Sean had no way of knowing. Even if they sparred frequently, the groups had formed a rivalry that made it hard to get close to each other.
Tyson started another session with a Yellow Aberration to break the awkwardness. They were still trashed around by the Abomination. They were humbled quickly when they first tried to fight against it, suffering a horrendous defeat. Tyson was eaten half, Sean had turned into mush, Latoya had all of her bones broken, Samantha was impaled all around, Klein and Jayden were crushed under a boulder. Only then they had realised how lucky they were with the Green Aberration. It had no way of direct attack with abilities unlike the most of the Abominations, so they had survived a melee combat. There were many things that could go wrong, like the Aberration letting go of every illusion and mind-hex it had been using before to turn them into vegetables.
Since they have realised it, defeating the Yellow Aberration became their goal before they were sent to the Arctic front. Sean and his team trained relentlessly for another six weeks. They still hadn't come close to defeating it even with Tyson forming his fifth string, and the rest having three strings. They were not the only ones who had strings, as in the past two and a half months, other trainees too received Ether Manipulation lessons and formed their first strings. There were even some who had formed two strings! On such one day, when everyone was doing their physical exercises, the whole camp was swallowed by the loud noise of the sirens.