“This is completely and utterly ridiculous,” thought Firewall as he nervously stood next to Cadet in the central S.A.F.E.1 simulator chamber waiting for the combat session to begin.
That they were about to participate in combat was not ridiculous in itself of course, they faced off against other Special Curriculum students at least once a week and it was one of the activities ‘Down Below’ that most if not all the students looked forward to. No, it was whom they were being paired against that confused them.
The teaching staff could not be serious. Admittedly, this session had been organised by a guest teacher – in this case Young Sam, previously of The Balance. Didn’t he realise the disparity in their combat capabilities? Having her face off against even one of them was frankly unbalanced, so what was he thinking matching her against both of them?
Standing opposite them, looking way too calm, was Bubbles. She was wearing a dark bodysuit with pale powered lines of lights running from the high collar down the body and limbs, linking up faintly glowing circular plates fitted all over the suit. This had to be the “K-Suit” that she’d briefly, and very excitedly, mentioned a few months previous.2
Since then though Bubbles had either been training alone or with the teachers, so this was the first time they had seen her in the suit. They assumed she had a slim tank on her back attached to her wrist-mounted spray units so that she could cover and toughen up her meta-bubbles using chemical sprayers on her wrists as she manifested them.3 Her face remained unmasked since everyone at the school already knew about her abilities.
Oh, they’d both seen Bubbles in action before and didn’t doubt her bravery. She’d used her powers to obscure and protect people on several previous occasions, but come on. They were combat-trained and there were two of them – against just her. What were their teachers thinking?
Then the light on top of the observation tower flashed red as Bubbles immediately created a wall of large opaque bubbles in front of them though they could still make out her silhouette behind the bubble barricade as several, compact, rainbow-coloured bubbles drifted towards them.
Cadet’s initial response had been the same as Firewall’s in that he couldn’t believe that they were being paired up against what he would previously have classified as a ‘civilian’, but nothing felt right about this situation and the suspicion reflex he’d ‘inherited’ from his parents’ swiftly kicked in.
“T.A.N.S.F.A.A.F.L”4 he muttered to himself as he readied his Escrima sticks for action. He moved closer to Firewall who also seemed to be readying himself by raising his energy barrier as the torrent of bubbles floated closer. Cadet was convinced that there would be a few surprises coming their way, otherwise why had this combat session been sanctioned? The answer had to be linked to her weird-looking suit.
He moved closer to Firewall, turned his face away from Bubbles’ silhouette towards Firewall and whispered softly but with clear emphasis “If you get a chance, do you think you can infiltrate the electronics on her suit? I don’t like the look of this.”
Firewall smiled in response but uncharacteristically kept quiet. He’d need to get close enough to touch her suit or locate some sort of input port if he was to do that.
The first cascade of rainbow bubbles reached Cadet and he immediately struck them. He couldn’t miss with that many targets but instantly realised his mistake as the bubbles he connected with exploded, knocking both of them backwards, though Firewall remained safe behind his barrier. Cadet wasn’t so lucky. Hitting the first bubbles had set off a series of explosions as the others nearby also blew up. Thankfully, he was able to roll with the pressure wave and landed in a crouch a few metres back. He was suddenly grateful that he’d expected the worst. That was a surprising new trick in Bubbles’ arsenal, what else could she do, he wondered?
Firewall’s barrier held and he responded back with a laser blast, which seemed to pass through the effervescent screen though its passage did appear to ‘bleed’ off some energy and leave a frothy trail through the bubbles but he was happy to see the blast hit and illuminate Bubbles’ silhouette. To his surprise though, the disks on her suit got brighter but otherwise Bubbles seemed unaffected by his attack.
The bubble barrier between them and Bubbles reached to a height of about 3 metres leaving a gap towards the ceiling of the chamber and that gave Cadet an idea. He ran back for a short distance then turning he called for Firewall to drop his barrier and make a stirrup with his hands. Firewall nodded his agreement even as Cadet came hurdling towards him. Running at full speed Cadet stepped into Firewall’s cupped hands and allowed his partner to hurl him into the air as he somersaulted up and over the wall, twisting in the air, before landing behind her. He dropped and struck out at the back of her knees with his sticks.
He was rewarded with her falling backwards, hitting the ground hard. The disks on the suit immediately glowed even brighter, stronger and whiter.
Back on the other side of the bubble barrier Firewall turned into data format and tried to pass through the ‘wall’. It was hard going, as the fluidic bubble structure seemed to weaken him and interact with his electrical state, leaving a fizzing trail through the bubbles behind him. He arrived at the other side and almost collapsed with the effort just in time to witness Cadet take their opponent’s legs out from under her.
Firewall was glad he was still insubstantial as Bubbles responded to the direct attack on her by unleashing a cascade of hardened bubbles from her hands, much smaller and more substantial than the exploding bubbles she’d unleashed previously. These marble-sized bubbles peppered the area, passing through Firewall’s incorporeal form but almost hit Cadet. She rolled around the floor still firing. Cadet was forced to jump back and throw himself towards the ground to avoid them. Several of the fast-flying bubbles hit the wall behind him like bullets and exploded leaving large indents in the concrete.
Cadet flipped himself back onto his feet, grateful for his caution, as he unleashed his bolas at Bubbles. They hit their target and wrapped round her wrists binding her hands together. He couldn’t help noticing that the weights hitting her arms caused the lights on the suit to again glow brighter. Alaina responded by erecting a bubble barrier around herself even as Firewall unleashed an EMP blast at her.
Most of the bubbles surrounding her immediately dissipated and the glow on her suit grew dimmer as the blast swept over her. The suit seemed designed to somehow strengthen her powers, they just didn’t know how.
Cadet set to work with his sticks, bursting what remained of her protective barrier as she tried to get her hands free and get to her feet. He couldn’t help notice that if he didn’t pull his strikes, any blows that hit the suit caused it to grow brighter. Was it somehow increasing her powers by the hits it received?
“Wait!” he shouted but was too late to stop Firewall from unleashing an energy burst at her. The blast burst her shield barrier but also powered up the suit further and she responded with a stream of large bubbles that shattered as they got close to them both; unleashing blasts of compressed air that temporarily deafened them both.
His ears ringing, Cadet scrambled in his utility belt, put his rebreather in before he pulled out a couple of pellets that he threw at her feet. A second later, a miasma of sleeping gas began to swirl up from the ground. Unfortunately, Firewall was in his data form so couldn’t use his own rebreather as he tried, unsuccessfully, to infiltrate her suit.
Bubbles responded by creating a large bubble of air round her head – a makeshift air reserve while she hurried away from the gas cloud. Cadet realised that the gas risked knocking his partner unconscious even in his insubstantial state. He had at best a second or two to intervene. Behind them both was still Bubbles’ shield barrier. He spun on the spot and began bursting the bubbles with his sticks. As each one exploded, the air contained inside swept the gas away from Firewall and towards Alaina once more, though the bubble round her head filled with untainted air meant she was unaffected by it.
He needed to even the odds and not with a direct assault either. He noticed Firewall ready himself for another attack as he realised that he needed to attack the wearer herself rather than her suit.
Seeing the sleeping gas gathered round the now-protected Bubbles’ head, Cadet tried throwing one of his sticks at her head to see if he can burst it and let the gas through even though he thought he had no great hope of success. To his surprise, the tip of his stick pierced the bubble and ripped it open as it exited out the other side and rebounded off the far wall.
Cadet leapt up his hand outstretched, catching it on the rebound even as Firewall unleashed a second EMP blast at the suit. This time the glowing disks on the suit dimmed and died, freezing Bubbles in place. She tried to manifest more bubbles but with the suit locked down the bubbles were no longer being toughened and no longer controlled. Bubbles slumped to the floor as she began to drift into unconsciousness from the gas she’d breathed in.
To their surprise, as the sleeping gas washed over her and she began to fall asleep she smiled and with a slurred voice muttered, “Almost got you!” Or at least that’s what they thought she said through the constant ringing in their ears. A stream of rainbow-coloured bubbles emerged from her fingers before dying out, as she got too sleepy to maintain the effort.
Firewall rematerialised as he and Cadet knelt down beside her. “You almost did and you’ll do even better next time I’m sure.” whispered Cadet, “Possibly next time create a smaller, tougher, breathing bubble over your head? Maybe start already powered up. It is powered by energy blasts or hits isn’t it? Perhaps you should power your suit up beforehand so you start out stronger? Now rest, you did good, Bubbles…” Cadet explained as Alaina finally gave in to the effects of the gas and drifted into unconsciousness with a soft snore.
He turned to Firewall who was carefully examining the suit. “Damn, the suit runs on some sort of quantum mechanics, translates kinetic energy into power. It’s like a language translator that I once tried to examine that Mace of The Balance had. There are no apparent input ports on the suit and it feels like it’s built round slivers of some form of highly condensed crystalline material which it uses as an integrated circuit board. Regardless, it’s too advanced for me to infiltrate.” Firewall explained. “Perhaps I should get one for myself?” Firewall asked as Young Sam wandered in to the chamber with Nurse Joy.
“Well done boys, though I’ll think you’ll agree given this was Ms Waraich’s first combat experience, she handled herself well?” asked an enthusiastic Sam even as Nurse Joy tended to Alaina. Nodding the boys watched the remaining bubbles pop as they walked out of the chamber.
1 S.A.F.E. Room – (Superhuman Active Field Environment combat simulator)
2 Bluebook 9b-the-game-continues
4 T.A.N.S.T.A.A.F.L – “There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch”
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