Seraphim - Chapter 1

Chapter 1

The dreary room was the only room she had ever known, bare concrete walls that were always cool to the touch surrounded her, kept her isolated.  Her room consisted of four walls, a door that had only ever opened once, a bed, and a desk with a chair and tablet computer.  There was a receptacle for waste as well as one for laundry and a small alcove to shower and take care of other bodily functions and on the wall opposite the desk was the medical and nutrition station. 

Her thin, lanky form sat alone on her bed.  Her back against the cool wall, chilling her sensitive skin.  She had one long leg hanging over the edge of her bed while the other was pulled up against her chest.  One hand reached down and lazily played with her toes.  She sighed softly as she remembered the only time the door to her room had opened and a man had entered.  He wore loose-fitting, teal-colored clothes and he had a matching mask over his mouth.  He didn’t say anything, but instead walked over to her and knelt before her, he gently took her hand in his.   

It was like her eyes had suddenly been opened.  How do you miss something that you had never known before?  She felt the searing warmth of his fingers gently touching hers as he first looked at one side of her hand and then the other.  She was sure she could feel his heartbeat in his fingertips.  Her breathing quickened and she flushed slightly at the strange sensation of physical contact with another human being.

He looked up and his eyes briefly met hers, they were sparkling blue, the color of oceans that she had only seen in pictures on her tablet.  He released her hand and brought a single finger up to his mask-covered lips and made a shushing sound and she nodded, a stray strand of light brown hair, not contained in her ponytail, fell across her face as he stood up and turned and walked out of the room.  She looked down at her hand and where his hand had touched hers it felt as cold as ice.  She gently rubbed it as if it hurt, trying to bring the warmth back to it, but she could not.

She shifted a little on her bed, the firm mattress barely compressing under her tiny weight and she stared at the door, trying to will it open.  She knew it was exactly three weeks and two days since the man had visited.  Yet she sat there, staring at the door, needing to feel his touch again, any touch again.

“Why have you neglected your studies?” the feminine-sounding voice that she called Voice, or just V for short, asked.  As hard as she tried, she could not figure out where the Voice emanated from.  It seemed to come from all around her.

This snapped her out of her daydream, and she lowered her head to lie on her knee.  She felt the soft cream-colored linen material against her cheek, “I’m sorry, but I just can’t concentrate,” she replied.  Her mind flashed back to the moment, his eyes blue and warm as he cautioned her against saying anything. 

“Please submit your arm for testing,” V instructed her.

She stood up and walked over to the medical station.  Her boxy top never fit her very well and barely covered her.  When she stood, it rose and exposed a small swath of her midsection.  She inserted her small arm into a hole in the medical station.  She felt the device grasp her arm and squeeze it softly like it had done a thousand times before and she knew in a moment, a needle would pierce her skin and take blood and tissue samples for analysis.

She felt the small prick of the needle entering her arm and a few seconds later it withdrew, and the medical station released her.  She looked down at her forearm, covered with needle marks and tiny scars, and waited for the ten to fifteen seconds it would take for the station to perform the diagnosis.

“Analyses complete,” V’s voice reported, “there appears to be nothing physically wrong with you.”  A moment later she heard the all too familiar sound of pills dropping into the dispenser.  The dispenser door slid upward and inside were two small cups, one with a few pills and the other filled with water. “These should help you to concentrate and focus on your studies,” V said. 

“Thank you,” she replied as she had been taught and she picked up the cup with the pills that she recognized as mental enhancement pills and tossed them into her mouth followed by the water to help her swallow them.

She climbed back onto her bed and once again leaned up against the wall while hugging a knee against her chest and waited for the pills to take effect.  As the memory enhancers burned through her brain, she thought back to the touch, she could again feel the warmth of his flesh against hers; the slight tingle that shot up her arm and the strange heat in her cheeks returned.  She laid her warm cheek against her knee as she found that once again, she was rubbing her cold hand absentmindedly. 

Once the medication had taken effect, she reached to her bedside table and picked up her tablet computer. She swiped the screen and turned it on.  She quickly scrolled through her available study options and chose something she found easy: math.  Her finger touched the link for the study course and the first question popped up:

The product of two consecutive negative even integers is twenty-four. What is the larger of the two numbers?

She thought for a moment, two consecutive even numbers would be like two and four or four and six. Since two times four was eight, it was not that, but four times six was twenty-four, so the two numbers were negative four and negative six because when you multiply two negative numbers you get a positive result.

“Negative four,” she said to the tablet, and she was rewarded with a positive response.

The next question popped up on the tablet’s screen: What number increased by five is equal to five less than twice the number?

She smiled because she knew the shortcut to this one, just double the number in the problem.  So, in this case, the answer was ten, because ten plus five is fifteen which is five less than twenty, “Ten,” she said and once again, the tablet chimed a correct response, and she was able to move on.

She continued solving ever increasingly difficult math problems for the next several hours, never missing a single question.  The numbers flashed in and out of her brain so quickly that at times it seemed that the tablet was lagging.  Once done with her studies for the day, she set the tablet down and waited for V to give her, her score.

“Why did you choose math again?” V asked her instead of giving her the score for the day.
She looked around confused; this had never happened before, “I’m sorry, I don’t understand.  What was my score?”

“Your score is irrelevant today,” V replied, further confusing her.  The score had always been what the testing was about, “Why did you choose math again?”

She answered without thinking, “Because it’s easy and I knew I could get a good score without trying hard.”

There was silence for what seemed like forever, but was only about ten seconds, “Your score for today is: failure.”

She sat on her bed, stunned.  She had never had a failure before! “But I got everything correct!” she exclaimed with a slight quiver in her voice, “How can perfection be a failure?”

“The purpose of your studies is to improve your mind,” V replied from everywhere in the room, “And you will never improve your mind if you keep taking the easy route.  Until further notice, math will be removed from your menu.”

She nodded, “I understand, and you are correct of course.”

“It has been seventy-two hours since your last shower, please proceed to the refresher facilities and after, it will be time to eat,” V instructed her.

She simply nodded as she stood and removed her clothes and tossed them in the clothes receptacle.  She knew they would be clean and folded for her when she was done in the shower.  She walked, naked, into the small alcove and pressed the button for the shower.  The button made a light chirping sound and instantly very warm water began shooting out from tiny holes in the dark brown wall.

She stood under the water and let it wash over her completely.  She closed her eyes as the water warmed her olive skin and soaked her light brown hair, making it stick to her frail-looking body. She let out a small sigh of pleasure as she let her thoughts go from the blue-eyed man and her failure at her studies today and lost herself in the pleasure that was the shower.

After a few minutes under the water, there was a soft chirp notifying her that she had one minute of water left. She quickly placed her hand under the detergent dispenser and filled her cupped hand with soap.  She rushed through washing her hair and the rest of her body, and like every shower, she finished rinsing off moments before the water stopped. 

She grabbed a towel and walked out of the refresher drying herself off.  She left wet footprints across the gray tiled floor as she walked across to the nutrition station.  She pushed another button and again there was a soft chirp of electronic sound and the nutrition dispenser opened and inside was a bowl of gray paste.  She took it out and walked back to her bed to eat, not bothering to get dressed.  

She had once asked V what was in the paste she was eating, and V had responded that it was everything that she needed to survive and thrive on and left it at that.  She scooped up a spoonful full of the slimy, gray paste and put it into her mouth.  It had no flavor, and she was long used to the texture on her tongue as she swallowed it.

When she finished eating, she stood up, returned the bowl to the waste disposal area, and returned to the laundry station and picked up her outfit, clean and neatly folded.  She slipped on the ill-fitting clothing and returned to her bed, exhausted. She slipped under the sheet she used for covers and stared up at the ceiling as the lights dimmed and then turned off and she drifted off to sleep.

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Her eyes opened and she looked up into the darkness, but only for a moment before the lights turned on and several soft tones announced the start of the next training cycle.  She sat up in bed and leaned against the cool, stone wall and let the chill jump-start her groggy mind and body.  She knew she had about ten minutes before V would summon her to the nutrition station for the first meal of the day.

She pulled her knee up against her chest and laid her head upon it and she thought back to a time shortly after she woke up in this room for the first time.  It was nearly ten years ago that she had been sitting on her bed, training on the tablet when she asked V a question.

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“Are there other people?” she asked as she looked up from the math problem that was exceedingly difficult for her.

“Of course, there are a lot of other people,” the Voice responded.

She crinkled up her tiny nose and thought about it for a moment, “Where are they?” she asked.

“They are everywhere across the world,” the Voice responded.

She set down the tablet and leaned back against the wall. Her legs barely made it to the edge of her small bed, “Can I see them?” she asked cautiously.

“Of course, you can,” the Voice said, “Pick up your tablet and I’ll show you.”

She looked down at her tablet and she saw images of other people slowly slide by on the screen.   She saw old and young, men and women and people of all colors. She stared at the tablet for about five minutes when she asked, “Can I meet them?”

“No, that is not possible,” the Voice responded quickly.

“Why not?” she asked.

“Because you are sick,” the voice said softly, “And if you met anyone else, you would get them sick and they would die.”

“Will I die?” she asked in a trembling voice as she held back tears and clutching the tablet to her chest.

“No, I am working hard to keep you healthy and alive,” the Voice said with sternness to her voice, “Now, back to your studies.” 

She picked up her tablet and returned to the problem.

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“Are you listening to me?” she heard V’s raised voice calling to her.

“I’m sorry, I was lost in thought,” she said as she looked up, her fingers were intertwined with her toes on the edge of the bed.

“Your meal is ready at the nutrition station,” V informed her.

“Thank you,” she responded as required.

“What were you thinking about?” V asked her.

“Other people,” she replied while she picked up the bowl of gray sludge, “And the fact that after all the time that I’ve been here, I’ve never once felt the slightest bit ill.”

“That is because of the constant testing and medication that I’m giving to you,” V responded matter-of-factly.

She sat down on her bed and slowly started to eat the gruel as her mind raced, “It just seems odd is all,” she said under her breath, unsure if V had overheard her.

After finishing her meal, it was time for blood and tissue samples to be taken again. She hopped off the bed and quickly padded over to the medical station and inserted her arm into the testing dock.  Blood and tissues were again drawn and as always, she was found to be in perfect health.  And then on cue, the pill dispenser opened, and inside were several pills in one cup and water in the other.  She quickly swallowed the pills in the cup and waited for them to take effect.

She returned to her bed, sat on the soft mattress, and picked up the tablet, swiped across the screen, and got started.  She noticed that Math had not been removed from her menu as V had said it would be, but she decided to select something more difficult for her: Chemistry.
What is the first element on the periodic table?
“Hydrogen,” she said quickly, and she received a positive response from the tablet.

Atoms of the same chemical element that have different atomic mass are known as?

She thought about it for a moment, “Ions?” she asked unsure of her answer, and she was answered by the negative tone.

“Incorrect, the correct answer is isotopes,” the tablet informed her, “Ions are atoms that have an electrical charge due to the loss or gain of an electron.”

She shook her head as if to clear it and tried the next one.

What is the center of an atom called?

This one she knew, and she responded, “Nucleus,” and was rewarded with another correct tone.
She continued with the testing getting more wrong than right, or at least she thought she did. At the end of testing, she set the tablet down and leaned back against the wall, and waited for the failing result.

“Why did you pick chemistry?” V asked instead of giving her the score again.

“Because it’s what I need the most practice in,” she replied quickly.

V paused for a moment, “Very good, the true test today was to see if you would pick an easy subject or a difficult one and challenge yourself, even if you might fail. You have passed this test.”

She smiled as she was given the passing mark on her exam, "Thank you!" she replied happily.

"You are welcome," V replied, "You may now take some free time to spend as you wish."

She quickly grabbed her tablet computer and sat with it in her lap.  She swiped it on, and she carefully navigated the file structure of the operating system to find what she had hidden there long ago.  She found the file and accessed it.

instantly her screen sprung to life with pictures of people and the outside world.  She saw crowds of people enjoying sandy beaches and swimming in the brilliant blue ocean.  Children played in the ocean spray as their parents watched from a distance.  She reached out and gently touched the screen, desperate for the company of another human being.  She sat, stared, and waited, feeling cold and alone.

"It is nearly time for sleep," V said as the lights dimmed slightly.

"Thank you," she said as she closed the program and changed its location quickly on the tablet before putting it down on the bedside table.  She pulled back the covers and slid into her bed and as soon as she was covered, the lights went out and she fell asleep quickly.

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The next morning everything changed for her. When she awoke the first thing she noticed was that a section of wall between the shower alcove and medical station was missing and there was another room beyond. She stared at it, waiting to be told what to do.

After a few minutes, she looked towards the missing wall and asked, “What is in that room?”
“Why don’t you go look,” V replied.

She quickly got up from the bed and hurried into the other room. Inside she saw more of the cold gray concrete walls and floor. The room was twice as long as it was wide. 

At the far end of the room, there was a large boxy device with a short tube about the size of her fist coming out of the front sitting on a tripod, pointing right at her. When she moved to the left or right, it turned to follow her. About halfway down the left side of the room, there was a mannequin standing there.  It looked to be made of a dull black rubbery material.  Apart from that, the room was empty.

She looked down and just inside the opening on the floor was a red circle.  The circle looked to be one meter across and was in the exact center of the room.

“What are these things?” she asked.
“This is the next stage of your training,” V responded.

She looked around confused, “What do I do?”
“Please step into the circle and the training will become self-evident.”

The red circle illuminated softly as she stepped into it.

“Do not leave the circle.  If you step out of the circle before testing is completed, you will fail and must start again,” V instructed her.

“Okay, stay in the circle,” she responded with a slight nodding of her head.

“Are you ready?” V asked.

Still unsure of what was to come, she responded, “Yes, I am ready.”

The moment she said the word ready there was a soft foomp sound from the end of the room.  She thought it was a strange sound and for an instant wondered where it came from.

A moment later, she felt something hard slam into her shoulder.  She cried out in pain as she dropped to her knees, her other arm grasping her shoulder where it was struck.   Looking down she saw what had hit her.  Rolling away from her was a dark green rubber ball.  It looked to be able six and a half centimeters in diameter.

“Ow!” she cried as tears welled up in her eyes, “that really hurt!”

“That is the point of this exercise,” V responded very matter-of-factly.

She continued to lay on the ground, her shoulder in agony.  She had never felt so much pain in her life, “But why?”

“Please stand and stay inside the circle,” V commanded her, “and don't let the balls hit you.”
She obeyed and slowly got to her feet and stood in the circle.  She closely watched the rubber ball cannon at the end, waiting for any sign that it was about to fire. 

Foomp, the cannon shot another rubber ball at her. She tried to jump to the side to avoid the ball, but it struck her in the side, just below her ribs. She fell to the floor outside the circle, gasping for breath as the ball made her diaphragm spasm. 
“Fail,” V said, “you have left the circle. The count has been reset to zero.”

“I'm… Sorry,” she said through pained gasping breaths as she slowly got to her feet, her side aching with every movement and she reentered the circle. 

Once back inside, the circle lit up and V said, “Please try to stop the balls from hitting you.”
“How?” She asked.

“I do not know,” V replied, “prepare yourself.”
Before she could say anything, the cannon fired, and the ball struck her high on the outside of her right thigh. She cried out again and fell as her leg went limp at the impact. Her momentum carried her out of the circle.

“Fail, the counter has been reset to zero, try again.”

She struggled to get to her feet once again and the moment she stepped into the circle, the cannon fired hitting her hard in the chest, making her stagger back, but not out of the circle. 

“Why?” She yelled at V, feeling anger for the first time, “Why are you doing this to me?” She felt a faint wave of cool wash over her as she yelled at V.

V seemed to pause for a moment, as if considering her words carefully, “Pain is a powerful teacher.”

“But…” She started to protest but the cannon cut her off when a rubber ball slammed hard into her face, just below her left eye. Her head was knocked back by the impact and her hands flew up to cover her face. 

She collapsed to the floor and curled up in the fetal position, tears pouring out of her eyes as she sobbed, “Please stop,” she begged, “Please, no more, please.”

“Fail. Please stand and ready yourself,” V once again commanded her. 

She curled up tighter with only her back exposed to the rubber ball cannon, “No, please, I promise I'll do better tomorrow!” She pleaded to the Voice.

”Please stand!” V said more forcefully. 

“No!” She screamed in response. 

“Very well.”

She relaxed a little, thinking that she was done when she heard the cannon fire again and a ball hit her in the back quickly followed by another and then another. 

She writhed around on the floor and screamed until her voice was hoarse as ball after ball pummeled her. She wanted desperately to get away, but she knew what would happen if she left the circle. She lay there not moving. The only sounds in the room were the cannon firing and the meaty thud of the balls against her brutalized flesh.

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She didn't know how long she laid there but when she woke up the night cycle had started. She slowly moved her arm and her body erupted in pain and she moaned softly. 

“Ah, good, you've come too,” V said in the darkness, “Cover your eyes, I'm turning the lights on.”

She closed her eyes, her left eye was nearly swollen shut anyway, and saw the glow of the room lights through her eyelid. Slowly she opened her one good eye and she saw that she was still in the circle where she had dropped. She noticed that her pants were soaked, apparently, at some point her bladder had released. 

“Can you get up?” V asked her. 

She rolled over into her back and instantly regretted it. Pain shot through her back as her weight, slight as it may be, pressed against the floor.  She cried out and rolled back over on her side and panted for a moment.

“I don’t think I can,” she replied weakly.

“Then please crawl to the medical station where I have painkillers waiting for you.”

Rolling over onto her hands and knees she slowly inched her way across the cold concrete floor to the medical station.  She groaned loudly as she pulled herself up to kneel next to it and found the two cups waiting there, one with pills and one with water.  She quickly grabbed the cups and swallowed the pills.  She sat back on her heels as she waited for the pills to take effect with tears of agony streaming down her face.

After a few minutes, the pain started to fade from her back and she weakly got to her feet, her head swimming from the strong painkillers flooding her system.  She slowly pulled her shirt up over her head and dropped it to the floor.  It landed with a wet-sounding thud and when she looked at it, the cream-colored material was stained pink from where the rubber balls had split her skin open.

“May I please take a shower?” she asked, walking slowly into the alcove, not even bothering to remove her pants. The water started pouring out of the showerhead and she slowly staggered into the water, even with the meds dulling the pain, every drop that hit her back stung like a large needle had been stuck into her.  

She slowly sank to her knees, the water cascaded over her head and down her face.  She wrapped her arms around her sides tightly as she sobbed on the shower floor.  The pain growing as the water poured over her bruised back. She cried louder and gritted her teeth, trying to fight the pain so she could get up, but she wasn’t able to. 

After the allotted time, the water stopped and the relief she felt was immediate and almost euphoric.  She slowly rose to her feet and walked slowly towards her bed.  She thought that she heard V saying something, but nothing registered with her as she dropped onto her bed and into darkness.

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When she woke, her body was still sore, but she could deal with the pain.  She slowly sat up in the bed and out of habit leaned back against the cool concrete wall.  She hissed in pain as she made contact but then sighed as the cool of the wall soothed her bare flesh.

Her arms were covered in large circular bruises as were her legs.  She laid her head on her bent knee and her fingers slipped between her long toes and absentmindedly played with them.

“How are you feeling?” V asked.

She ignored the question and sat on the bed, her mind trying to figure out what had happened.  Why had V hurt her so much and what had she been trying to accomplish.

“How are you feeling?” V asked again.

She looked towards the medical station and asked, “Why?”

There was a brief pause before V responded, “Why what?”

Anger welled up from deep inside her.  She squeezed her hands into fists at her sides, wadding up the bedsheets as she did so.  “Why did you hurt me?” she screamed as loud as she could.

“It was necessary for your treatment,” V responded matter-of-factly.

With the adrenaline pumping through be body, fueled by her rage, she bolted upright and to her feet.  She spun in circles looking all around her, not sure exactly where to direct her anger, “How could it be necessary?” she yelled.

“You have lived your whole life in a sterile environment,” V replied, “It is felt that by adding threat, danger, and pain, it will help your body to develop natural defenses and reflexes that you are lacking.”

She calmed a little as the reasoning sunk in and she couldn’t deny the logic, “But why not tell me what you were going to do?”

“Emotional development is needed as well and for the first time since you’ve been in my care, you were angry,” V stated.

“Why did you want me to get angry at you?” she asked as she slowly rubbed the bruises on her arms.

“There is power in being angry.  When one is angry, they say and do things they wouldn’t normally do.  For example, you have never yelled at me before, but you did so today because of your anger.” V told her.

She hung her head and said softly, “I’m sorry for yelling at you. It was very rude of me to do so,” a tear rolled down her cheek.

“And now sadness and remorse for your actions.  All your emotions are connected.  You do well, you feel pride in what you do, and you are happy, and you try harder.  You lash out in justified anger to get what you need but you feel sorry for having done so.  These are the checks and balances that help to keep you in check and better able to one day be integrated into society.”

Her head snapped up and her eyes widened, and she asked, “You mean that I could get out of here one day?”

“Of course,” V said flatly, “That is the goal here.  Once you are cured of your disease and can be around others without getting them sick, you will no longer need to be here.  But there’s a long road ahead of you.”

She smiled as she sat back down on her bed, “Okay, what do I need to do next?”

“That is now up to you,” V said softly, “You have progressed to the point where you will now be responsible for setting your training schedule. From time to time, I will introduce new activities and tests and you will need to work them into your training.”

She swelled with pride as she grabbed her tablet and started to make her new schedule which included time with the cannon.

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The next morning, she entered the new training room again. She looked around and tried to decide on what to do first, “What is the dummy for,” she asked as she pointed to the black rubber torso and head.

“It is a punching dummy, you need to build your muscles in your arms and upper torso,” V calmly replied.

She walked up to it and looked it over and then tentatively hit it with her closed fist. She walked around it a little more and hit it a few more times,” Am I doing it right?”

“Very nearly,” V replied, “When you make a fist to hit it, make sure your thumb is not inside your other fingers. If you hit it hard enough like that, you’ll break your thumb.”

She looked at her hand balled up into a fist with the thumb tucked inside the other fingers. She opened her fingers and then closed them with her thumbs on the outsides, “Like this?”

“That is correct,” V said “Now hit the dummy harder.

She looked it over again and hit it. The rubber made a dull thudding sound when her fist made contact, not unlike the sound the balls made when striking her.

“Harder,” V commanded her.

She hit it a little harder than last time, “Harder,” she was again commanded, “Try setting your feet a little apart with your left foot a little ahead and when you punch, start the punch at your back foot and let your body shift forward.”

She looked down at her feet and did as she was told. Her left foot was ahead of the right a little and she leaned back on her right foot, “Like this?”
“Well done,” V complimented her, “Now push off a little with your back foot and let the kinetic energy flow through your body and down to your fist until it makes contact with the target.”

She nodded, took a breath, and pushed forward with her right foot a little too hard.  She spun on her left foot slightly and as she lunged forward her fist barely grazed the dummy and she stumbled past it and nearly fell to the floor.

“Again,” V commanded.

She turned on her heel and got into the stance again. This time she calmed her breathing and pushed straight forward. She felt her body shift onto her left leg which bent slightly at the knee and hip. Using the potential energy that had been pushed into her leg, she snapped it back like a spring as her fist flew forward and struck the dummy dead center.

“Well done!” V said to her as she cradled her sore right hand in her left.

“Is it supposed to hurt this much?” she asked.

“Only at first, over time it’ll hurt less and less as your body gets used to it.”

“Ok,” she replied still eyeing up the dummy.

“Again,” V said.

“But my hand is hurting.”

“Irrelevant,” V said, “Again.”

She knew better than to argue with V. She took to the stance again and hit the dummy again, this time with a squeal of pain as her fist made contact.

“Again, harder.”

Taking a deep breath, she punched the dummy with everything she had. Her fingers and wrist screamed in agony when she hit it. She fell to the floor holding her hand protectively against her body as she tried not to cry.

“Again,” V commanded.

“I can’t,” she said as she cradled her wounded hand protectively, “I can barely move my hand!”
“You have two hands.”

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With the ability to set her training schedule and knowing that one day, if she worked hard enough, that she would get out of this room motivated her like never before.  She spent most of her time studying on her tablet and at least once a day in the physical training room as V called it.

She also continued to spend time in the circle with the cannon.  She soon learned to anticipate when the balls would shoot out.  There was a faint crackle of energy as the circuit activated the solenoid in the firing mechanism an instant before the rubber ball shot out at her.  She was able to begin dodging them or at least turning so the balls would strike at an angle and hurt less. V seemed dissatisfied with this and soon introduced white noise to the training.

“May I ask a question?” she asked, waiting for another ball to be shot out at her.

“Of course,” V responded.

Thwack, another ball slammed hard against her thigh just above the knee.  

She sucked in her breath and held it for a moment until the pain subsided slightly before asking. “The goal of this training is for me to stop the balls from hitting me, right?”

“Yes, you are correct.”

“What if I can’t figure out how to stop them all from hitting me?”

V paused as another ball struck her high on her chest, just below her left shoulder.

“Then training will continue to be very painful.”

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She would practice on the rubber dummy by punching it and kicking it.  V told her it was to help improve her reflexes and build muscle mass.  She soon became capable of fighting the inanimate object, so a robotic sparring partner replaced the dummy that could fight back as well as demonstrate more advanced techniques. The robot resembled the dummy except it had two arms that could replicate the full range of human motion as well as wheels, so it could move around the room. 

When she saw it for the first time, she approached it cautiously, not sure what to make of it.

“Defend yourself,” V told her a moment before the robot sprung to life and attacked her.

She jumped back away from it, but it was too fast, and it landed a punch to her midsection as well as another to her shoulder, knocking the wind from her lungs.  She dropped to her knees, but the robot didn’t let up and as she looked up, she saw a massive rubber fist coming straight at her face.

She closed her eyes and threw up her hands and waited for the violent impact, but it never came.  She felt an icy cold spread out from her outstretched arms a moment before she heard a strange cracking sound.  When she opened her eyes, she saw that there was ice on the floor as well as on the robot’s hand.  Water trickled down her arms and dripped onto the floor.

The robot didn’t move, and neither did she until she heard V’s voice, “Fail, please return to your living quarters.”

Confused by what just happened, she got to her feet and slowly walked back to the other room.