now playing
feel it still by portugal. the man

02. A Couple Months Later

"Training sequence commencing in 3... 2... 1... 0." A horn blared.

Seph and Georgie stood back-to-back. A beat of silence passed before dummy guards ran at the pair.

Georgie lunged forward, dodging to the right of his assailant and kicking him. The guard hit the mat with a loud thud before being tagged out by the computer.

The teenagers chuckled at the grown man's whispered curses.

Seph dodged under a fist and elbowed the guard in the back. She grabbed him by the shoulders and brought his face down over her knee. Second target eliminated, a robotic voice announced as the computer tagged him out.

She looked over to see another guard coming up behind Georgie. Seph ran, and her and the guard made brief eye contact.

"Georgie, hip!" Georgie crouched down and put his hands out in a cupping motion.

Seph vaulted up from Georgie's hand and flipped over his head. While she was in the air, she grabbed the guards shoulders, bringing him down with her. She swept her leg out dropping another guard as she sat back on her knees.

A grunt pulled her attention as she watched the final guard go down.

Threat eliminated. Training sequence completed.

"Hey! You got the last one for the past two sessions."

He pulled her up. "You're too slow I guess. The Lieutenant's gonna make me primary if you keep this up."

Seph laughed, "In your dreams."

"All ARCH members report to the training course."

"Race you?" Seph smirked and tilted her head.

"Oh you're so on!"

The rest of the team stood patiently at the training course. Osamu stood opposite the group, taking bets on their leaders' daily race.

"I've got three puddings, two jellos, and 6 candy bars on Seph getting here first. Damn, you guys really have no faith in Georgie."

"We're not 12 anymore. Georgie can't weave through the guards like he used to. Most of us have grown since then. Yeah we know how to maneuver efficiently based on our physical aspects, doesn't mean it's easy."

"I'll put all my desert for the next two weeks on Georgie."

Osamu, Julia, and Joan stared at their youngest member with wide eyes. Joan blinked before pulling out her tablet and typing away.

"Ed, are you sure? Statistically speaking here, Seph has about a 38 percent higher chance of reaching the training course before Georgie does. Also considering that Georgie has finished off the guards in simulation the last 3 sessions, she'll be determined to win."

"Yeah, what she said. I don't like taking candy from a baby. . . doesn't mean I won't, though. If the kid's sure, let him make his bet."

"I'm sure," Eddie confirmed. A small smile tugged at his lips as the sound of approaching footsteps got louder.

They all turned to face the door, waiting.

Bam!

The doors slammed open as a figure came tumbling in.

"Can someone hand me a bottle of water and some ibuprofen? Please."

The older teens faces fell as Georgie pushed himself up from the ground. They didn't even notice the shit-eating grin on Eddie's face or the satisfied smirk on Seph's as she strolled through the open doors.

"How'd we do, kid?"

"Three pudding cups, two jellos, and six candy bars."

"Nice!" The two of them high-fived, celebrating their shared victory.

"What?! You threw the race on purpose, but that- that's cheating. Georgie, do you see this?"

Georgie snorted as he took the water and painkillers from Julia. "I see it. You got played, Samu. Well done, kid."

The group walked to the start of the training course, lining up for the first run and leaving Osamu dumbfounded.

"When did they even-"

"Osamu, move your ass! There's pudding with my name on it!"

Osamu huffed and joined the line, pouting through the rest of training.

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I'm back! I realized that I won't
have time to write if I don't
make time, so I'm making time.
This was a little filler to get the
ball rolling. Also, a lot of what
I'll be posting for a while are
the original chapters broken
down into smaller pieces with
new information here and there
or new stuff like this. So, make
sure you're reading, even if it
looks familiar.

I am also introducing chapter
questions. I will ask you guys about
one thing that happened, either
something funny and what you
would've done to your opinion
on a character choice all the way
to theories and speculation on plot points.

QOTC question of the chapter :

Who would you have bet on?

xoxo, Sage ♡