The Center: Tester - Part 10

By Blackout

Editor: Zip

Give a thanks to Zip for the great editing! Zip thanks for doing such a great job editing!
Also I am happy to say this story has finally reached double digits in chapters!

Ryan thought he had all the happiness in the world. He had his beautiful girlfriend Mattie but life is a roller coaster as Ryan would find. Here is his story as he goes through what can only be considered the biggest change of his life.
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“Wait… A fight with Ray Lomax! Are you kidding me?”

I may be new here, but everybody who came to the Center knew Ray Lomax. He was probably most known for being Kris’s boyfriend. But he was also known for being a skilled assassin. It was the assassin part that freaked me out the most.

“No! I am not kidding, Rachael. You will be fighting with him. Don’t be afraid. I doubt he will hurt you.”

“I know he won’t. But why do I need to spar with him in the first place?”

“The reason we want you to spar with him is because we believe it will bring interesting data. You will be fine. Are you afraid you will lose because you’re a girl now?”

“Of course not, I still am angry at the fact that I became a girl. I may be more of a girl than I was when I first changed, but that was out of the need to adapt to my environment and what I am now. If I did not begin to accept the fact that I am a girl now, I could not have survived here mentally. I know I am a girl now, but that does not mean I can’t be a girl who kicks ass. But from what I have heard Ray Lomax is something else. He is probably too hard an opponent for me, right now at least!” I yelled.

“Ok Rachael, just calm down. I do understand your point but nothing bad will happen. Do you trust me?”

I looked into Mr. Trait’s eyes they seemed very sincere like he truly cared for me.

“Ok I trust you,” I muttered.

After that we got up and headed out of the office. We were headed to one of the sparing rooms. The sparring rooms were made to take a beating. With reinforced steel and many shock absorbers, the room was near indestructible. Not that it had never taken a beating before. With some powers, it only made sense that even a room like that, would take damage. I had never been in a sparing room before. I heard there were many different ones, designed with different terrain or for different powers. It was going to be interesting to see one of these sparring rooms.

The inner boy in me that was still left, was excited. I kept comparing the sparring rooms to the X-men danger room. The geek in me was freaking out and I was happy that I still had some boy left in me. So I could be a girl… and still like a lot of the boy stuff I did before the change happened.

We finally arrived at the sparring room. It was there that I saw Ray Lomax. He was a pretty cool guy to be around, but right now I was wondering about my chances of beating him.

“Hey Ray! It’s nice to meet you. I’m Rachael.”

“Ok! So you’re the one I’ll be sparing. It’s nice to meet you… but don’t think I will be going easy on you Rachael.”

“Ok you two now that you are introduced let’s get you two inside the sparring room and get this duel underway. I believe you will be in sparring room 6,” said Mr. Trait.

“The urban terrain, well that should be interesting, it seems you are giving me the advantage” Ray said.

“We’ll see… You will probably need every advantage you can get,” I bragged.

After that we headed into Sparring room 6. It really was urban terrain, if the urban terrain had been hit by a bunch of disasters. The room itself was huge, probably about as big as a football stadium. There were big towers that were undamaged and then there were many damaged building as if they had been broken in half. In my opinion this was like being in urban ruins.

“Ok Ray. Before I leave you guys to monitor this battle would you allow Rachael to absorb some of your power; it’s to make this battle fair.”

“Sure thing. I want this to be a fair fight.”

I took off one of my gloves and took his hand allowing the cold energy to drain in me. The feeling was powerful but not as strong as when I had copied from kinetics. Removing my hand I gave Ray a light smile.

“I’m all done and ready when you are,” I told Ray.

“Ok guys I want you to go to the designated starting points on the opposite sides of this sparring room. You will have to search out and restrain the opposing side. Rachael. Make sure to keep in mind that you will have to take him quickly as you won't have use of his power indefinitely.”

With that Ray turned and ran toward his location. It was amazing the way he ran. Every detail that let him run as fast as he did, I was committing to my own body. I knew I could copy those movements of his perfectly, and they made him so fast. Ray’s power was really cool.

With that, I copied his run and headed to my starting point. I did have to modify the run a little though because as a girl it seemed my body moved differently, which I already knew. But still the movements I had just learned from Ray would prove valuable.
It turned out my starting position was in the top of one of the buildings that was intact. I just followed the arrows pointing where my starting position was, they were painted bright red for me and blue for Ray’s side. There were arrows all over the place; in addition there were arrows in yellow to point out where the exits were located, probably so you would not get lost. This meant I would have to run down a whole bunch of stairs again after running up. Why did they not put an elevator in this five story building? It was not that it was hard it just seemed like a pain. But it also meant there were whole bunches of hiding places in the urban terrain. I was just going to guess that this was to help train us, in case we had to take out an emergent gone rouge in a very populated city, but it did make an interesting sparring zone.

‘EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!’

That was the siren signaling the beginning of the match. I would have to go out and find my prey now… before he found me. Though I had a feeling this was more cat and mouse and I had become the mouse. It was clearly obvious they put Ray at an advantage here. I had no idea why they would do that though.

I started to run down the building. I knew, once I got outside of this building, I would have to keep my guard up. Ray could be anywhere, just waiting to ambush me. I got to the door and peeked outside. No sign of Ray. I sighed taking a deep breath. I decided my next move was to run to the cover of a destroyed building. The plan was to stick to the shadows and try to find Ray. My only chance was to take him out by a surprise attack

I walked around keeping to the shadows… There was still no sign of Ray. For now I was in the clear. I noticed one of the lower buildings and came up with an idea. I started to pick up a few stones and other object I could use as projectiles they would probably help me and I could set them up. I was pretty sure I stood no chance against Ray in a direct fight. I finally got to the top of the two story building. It was here I decided to maintain base and keep a lookout for Ray.

I sat watching and waiting there, ever so patiently, for Ray to come. It was beginning to get annoying and I was getting frustrated and tired of this waiting game. Just when I thought I had enough, I noticed Ray walking about calmly and relaxed. Why was he so relaxed he seemed as if he was not taking this seriously. I picked up one of my stones and waited for just the right time, and then I flung it at him with all my force. Damn why was he relaxed? Was he not taking me seriously at all?

Just when I thought it was going to hit him he dodged it at the last second taking a half step to move his body out of the way. He did not even dodge with his eyes. Having access to Ray’s power I realized he was using his ears to dodge. He had been waiting for me to make the first move; he was purposely putting himself out there so as to lure me out. He then did that speedy run move, coming closer to me as fast as he could. This guy was in good form; I had to get out of this building quickly before he caught up to me. This was part of the reason I chose one of the lower buildings. I got out as quickly as I could, but he was already hot on my trail and he was a whole lot faster, this would turn out to be a test of endurance versus speed. I would have to out maneuver him to win since I had less endurance and was slower than him in speed. But maybe my lighter body would allow me to maneuver through this urban terrain better.

I knew there was a low wall to the right corner that I could jump over followed by a smaller hole that I could wiggle into. It was one of the advantages of being smaller, I could fit through the hole in the wall and he probably couldn’t. I needed to buy time. Unfortunately I did not have time as I would lose access to Ray’s Power soon. I was obviously out matched. I went to take the right turn but stopped. Some of the ruins were pushed down where I wanted to make my turn and crawl through the hold I knew was nearby after walking around before I finally found Ray. Ray had probably blocked the path with the rubble beforehand knowing what I might do. Damn he was smart. There was no choice now but for me to keep on running, although it seemed he was only jogging now. It seemed like he was mocking me.

I kept going into the more unfamiliar territory that was closer to Ray’s starting position. I had not explored this part of the sparring room. I kept running but Ray was still close on my heels he was only a few feet behind me now. I began to pick up rocks and hurl whatever projectiles I could at him as I ran. I needed to regain any distance I could. He had to block a few but using his powers it was relatively easy to dodge most of them. Luckily for me I was looking behind so I learned a few dodge techniques.

I kept running and running until I unfortunately found myself at a dead end. Damn how had this happened? I had played right into Ray’s Hands and he had cornered me.

I saw him round the corner with a smile.

“Whew, looks like the trap worked.”

“What trap?” I asked.

“Did you notice I blocked off a few paths? It was in order to trap you here.”

“Wait! I only noticed one blocked path at the beginning?”

“Oh! So you did not survey the entire area? That’s another mistake.”

“Well… I decided to set up a trap to find you, but I could not find you anywhere. Where were you?”

“I stayed in the building to let you survey the area before I went out. That was another tactic I used. If the person is impatient to get the battle over with, you can show up late. It was tactic used by Japanese Samurai. If you showed up late, the opponent was usually tired and frustrated from waiting and would be easier to defeat.”

“Wait… So you planed all this?”

“Yep, now all that’s left is to decide who the winner will be, be prepared because here I come.”

He came at me with that speed from before. This was bad because I did not have much of his power left I figured I had preserved as much of it as I could. He was using all these fancy martial arts techniques. I took off one of my gloves knowing I had to get a hand on him. I tried dodging but took a hit. Damn it hurt like hell. He was using a hold technique. It was partially to my advantage as I was able to graze my hand on him. I felt the absorption of some power. I understood the hold now and was able to devious a way to escape.

Twisting my arms up, I managed to pull myself out of his grasp. I would be damned if I was going to get taken out this easily. It looked bad for me. I was tired and exhausted now; escaping had taken too much out of me. If I still had a man’s body fighting would be so much easier. I now had to make up for the lack of strength with skill and ingenuity. A lot about fighting physically as a girl had to do with thinking. If I could not get my thoughts set straight and think of good plans and ideas I would lose quickly.

I came at Ray this time trying to use some of the techniques I had learned watching Ray’s moves just recently. Ray was extraordinary he had all this skill and power that he could call up instantly. I had to finish this quickly or else I would be out of energy soon and would be easy to restrain. Trying to use one of Ray’s attack techniques I came at him but he simply used another dodge.

That was another problem… I may be able to copy and learn from Ray’s power, but he knew all the moves in advance which meant I learned them after they were used ON ME! I kept trying to doge but he kept getting holds on me using different forms of martial arts. I was learning so many different techniques and breathing forms from him. But the rate at which he used them and kept switching them was astounding. I knew that soon he would finish me. I made one desperate move. I kicked up some dirt. I made sure to kick the dirt just right so that it went in Ray’s eyes. Taking my chance, I ran at him, knowing it was either now or never.

All of a sudden his arms spun around and he caught me by the wrists. How was he fighting me without eyes? I then realized my crucial mistake. Before, when I threw a rock at him, he had dodged my attack from the building, using his ears, not his eyes. Ray was doing the same thing now. He had caught me. Ray quickly put me into another hold using my own weight against me to hold me down. I tried to escape for about a minute, but the more I struggled the more fatigued I became. It was obvious I was worn out and tired. I had lost this duel.

“Ray I give, you win.”

“Whew finally over, good spar Rachael.”

“Yeah that was a good spar Ray; we should do it again sometime, but let me use other powers. Your power is sweet but I don’t think I can win against most people using their own power, that is if they truly know how to use their power correctly.”

“Yeah I hear you, the odds were stacked in my favor from the beginning, but you put up a good fight, Rachael.”

“Yep” I smiled.

“Good Spar Rachael and Ray. Now that it is over, please head for the exit!” It was Mr. Trait’s voice over the speakers in the sparring room. It was obvious now that they had cameras watching us. I hoped I had no embarrassing videos taken. I laughed inside at that joke.

We headed toward the exit and stepped outside. I was tired and sweaty from the sparring and ready to shower and change. Ray was sweating even more than I was. Sweating less was another advantage of being a girl.

“Good fight you two!” Said Mr. Trait.

“Thanks,” we replied.

“Ok Ray, you’re excused. I would like to talk to Rachael alone, I will see you later.”

“Where would you like to go Mr. Trait?”

“Let’s just take a walk outside for a little.”

We both headed outside to just walk around. I was wondering what he wanted to talk about.

“Rachael your power is very unique and special, so special in fact that it may scare certain people here at the Center.”

“What do you mean by scare people here at the Center Mr. Trait?”

“I am afraid your power is too much of an asset here at the Center and your potential is going to waste here.”

“Wait a second… What are you saying?” Things were starting to get strange. Why was he saying these things. I was beginning to have a bad feeling.

I began to run away. I needed to get away from Mr. Trait. But he grabbed my hand. He then took out a needle and injected whatever was in the syringe into my body.

I started to feel weak. I could not move, I could not even scream. Whatever he had injected into me was paralyzing me.

“Do you know why I had you fight Ray? It was so I could tire you out. You had no chance at the beginning but I knew you would go all out. I am so cunning. Now let’s get you out of here to where you belong,” he laughed.

I tried to struggle, but it was no use. He had gotten me. He got into one of the Jeeps and drove me to the Center entrance. When we got there I noticed the guards were still there, on duty. Why would he go through the front entrance when there were guards clearly waiting?

As we got closer one of the guards spoke to Mr. Trait.

“So you got her, good job Agent Traitor.”

“It is so good to be called by my code name instead of that shortened Mr. Trait. Agent Worm I expect you got everything covered from here.”

“Yep… Agent Delta and I got guard duty today like planned; we took out the cameras and everything. They should have a team over here soon so we got to hurry.”

“Ok take her; I will go back so they don’t associate me with her being missing, until it is too late. I plan to retrieve some files before I make my escape.”

“Ok good to hear Agent Traitor. Finally I get to stop working for the American Government, been waiting to serve the General again.”

“Yep now get going.”

With that the fake guards blinded and gaged and bounded me. I tried to scream but nothing would come out. I found myself thrown into a car. I was terrified now. The care was obviously headed away from the Center. Who were these people and what did they want from me? On thought I had to that question was maybe they were the same people who tried to abduct me before at the restaurant. That left many more questions unanswered.

The last thing I heard before blacking out was “Nice going Delta. We've lost the Center vehicles”.