Skyfall Chapter 6
6 Someone slammed a door down the hall, and I woke up as my body crashed down towards the ground. Dazed, I slowly stood up, realizing I had passed out on the couch. I rubbed my sore face, eyes squeezed shut. Upon opening my eyes, I could see that the sun was barely rising in the sky. I sighed. I wouldn't be able to fall asleep now, anyway. I hopped into the shower and got ready for my day. Same routine as always, same clothes as always, same blank expression as always. I headed down to breakfast but couldn't find Kato or Misha there. There was an entirely different crowd in the dining hall at this hour. I assumed most of them were guards, or assassins...I remembered Kato mentioning assassins last night. I grabbed some fruits and a pastry and headed off to a table at the corner when someone yelled out in my direction, "Hey! It's you again!" My ears flattened. Not him. I turned around to see the man who had invaded my shower the other day, grinning and gesturing me to join him. I slowly walked towards him, studying the crowd around him. He was sitting in the center of three other men, who all looked very similar; short hair, large muscular builds, and the same black armored outfit. "I'm Caliber!" The man shoved his hand toward me, and my reflexes made me shake his hand. "Decipher." I nodded, taking a seat at the table. One of the others laughed and gave Caliber a punch to the shoulder, "Hey, he has one of those stupid 'words that describes you' names, too." He said. "Yeah, well, better than my previous name." Caliber mumbled. "So what's your job, Decipher?" Caliber asked, looking up at me with brown eyes that shimmered with his excitement. "I don't really have one yet." I shrugged, picking at my food. "I've been doing training, but I have no idea what I'm training for." "I bet you'll be an assassin!" Caliber said. "They...haven't really given me the job description on that one." I said, avoiding eye contact. "Most other positions I see are pretty self-explanatory, but what does an assassin do?" "Really? Who's training you? Where did you even come from?" Caliber raised an eyebrow, studying my face. "I'm surprised they haven't told you anything!" The man sitting next to Caliber nudged him again, "Cal, they found him about a mile from here passed out, he has amnesia..." his voice went quiet as he mumbled the rest into Caliber's ear. I tilted my ears foreword in an attempt to hear what he had said, but he was too quiet. "Oh! That's right. Misha's working with you...got it." Caliber said, "To answer your question, think of assassins as elite guards. They train in very specific methods in order to take down their targets quickly. Fast and efficient, that's what they do." "Targets? So they kill." I mumbled, mostly to myself. "Well sure, but, I mean...they all deserve it!" Caliber said, rubbing his head nervously. "Don't worry." I sighed, "I didn't say I had a problem with killing." That made them all quiet. I finished my food while they slowly began talking amongst themselves again. After a few awkward minutes, I saw Kato from across the room. I jumped up and nodded at the group, "Um, see you all later. Maybe." Caliber nodded, "Bye, Decipher!" I ran over to Kato, who was dressed in a thick armored suit that covered his entire body. "Hi, Decipher! Good to see you up and socializing." Kato smiled at me, but something about his smile seemed different today. "We're going to be training together today, learning the basics of hand to hand combat, that sort of thing." I tried to study his face...was he nervous? I couldn't tell. "Are you ready to start?" He asked me. I nodded, and he led me into the gym. We walked in silence; the sound of his boots hitting the floor was becoming unnerving. We entered the main room that I had fought the entities in the day before. The room was completely empty this time and lit with fluorescent, white lights. Kato brought me to the center and we began to stretch and warm up. We ran around the room several times to warm up. I kept pace with him, but found that my long legs seemed to change slightly as I ran. I thought back to the werewolf's legs... When I looked back down at my own, I noticed that the joints had shifted to match the werewolf's legs, and when I slowed down they slowly morphed back. I stopped dead, watching the process. I couldn't believe what was happening. That should not have happened. I panted heavily, running through all the options in my mind. Shifts like this did not usually happen unless it was a deliberate, conscious decision. The fact that it was happening without me realizing it concerned me. Kato finished his last lap around the room and ran up next to me, "You alright?" He asked. I nodded, deciding to ignore it for now. "Great, then let's get started!" He said. Kato and I stood in the center of the room and he explained a few things to me. At the time, I understood them, but my mind was distracted. He instructed me to make the first move. I was somewhat afraid I would accidentally harm him, but his armor seemed to cover him well enough. I raised my fists and threw a punch towards his ribcage. He swiftly blocked my hit and diverted my arm with his, landing his fist on my ribcage. This process repeated several times. I was exhausted and unenthused already. "Alright, Decipher," Kato said, breathing a bit heavily from blocking all my hits, "your issue is that you only focus on your own movements. Study mine instead." My eyes closed tightly. I was frustrated again. That had been my intent this entire time! I was just having a hard time thinking about the present situation. I tried to focus harder, however, and ended up landing a few blows to his chest, but he quickly directed his fists right back at me. "DECIPHER!" Kato shouted, pausing for a minute, "You need to wake up." I had never heard Kato raise his voice like that before. Perhaps he was feeling frustrated with me, too. He WAS in charge of training me, after all. Poor guy... It was true, I hadn't been focusing. I sighed and closed my eyes for a brief moment. When I opened my eyes, Kato's fist was headed right for my face. I ducked, snatching his arm and twisting his body to the side. He jumped back and headed right back at me, but this time I was able to divert his blows and redirect his energy away from me. As the fight continued, I slowly began to pick up on more of the movements, and Kato's pace quickened. The fight slowly became more intense. Within a few minutes, he began to attempt to hit me, slowly at first, so that my mind could adapt to the situation. I began to work rhythmically, diverting his blows, blocking them, and then landing a hit of my own. Throughout the fight, he would explain certain movements to me as he demonstrated them. Usually, these demonstrations ended with me on the ground. He ended with a move that he did not have time to explain. As I struck at him with my fist, he ran at me, grabbing my outstretched arm and somehow launching my body over his. I landed on my back with a thud and a whimper, unable to breath. Kato slowly walked over to me, looming over my head and panting. He knelt down, trying not to collapse. I looked at his armor, some pieces had been shattered and the hard, black plates were torn open. I couldn't see any skin, though. I was glad I hadn't drawn blood. I looked at Kato's face; his golden eyes seemed to be tinted with a fiery orange. The left side of his head had a large bruise spotted with blood. His eye was squeezed shut. I slowly sat up. "Oh..." I rasped, "I'm sorry about your face." Kato laughed, "Nah. I'm glad you were able to land a hit on me. After all, I'm sure you'll be nicely bruised from this." He sighed and rubbed his face with the hand that wasn't supporting his body, "I'm the lucky one wearing body armor. You did well today." He said, patting my shoulder and offering me a hand up. We both stood, and he helped support my body, which was racked with pain. That last move he had performed had sent a paralyzing shock through my spine, and it still felt awkward to move. "Are you going to show me what that last move was sometime?" I asked. "Ha! Maybe. It's one of my personal favorites. I'm sure you'll learn and develop your own eventually." "Perhaps." I said as we limped foreword. "You're free to go wash off and do whatever else you want until after dinner." Kato said as we exited the gym arena. "You're supposed to go hiking with me after dinner." I nodded, sighing heavily. "Do I ever get a break?" "Not really until after you are trained, and as you grow stronger, your training days will last longer." Kato said. "Time goes by pretty fast during this time, don't worry. Soon you'll be out in the field doing your job. When that happens, you'll work certain shifts throughout the week and have time off all the other times." "Okay." I said quietly, feeling worse about this place suddenly. "It's only been a few hours, and we were supposed to start about this time." Kato said, watching my expression carefully, "Why don't you go and visit with Misha? He should be at breakfast around this time." My expression must have brightened, because Kato smiled back at me. I nodded and headed towards the dining hall. It was late now; many of the employees had already eaten. Only a few people remained in the dining hall, most of them I had seen before. Wes was sitting at the table with Misha, but as I approached, he got up and left. I said a silent thank you to the universe and rushed over to Misha's table. "Misha!" He jumped at my enthusiasm. "Hey, Decipher." He said, staring at me with a somewhat shocked expression. I looked down. I had forgotten that I had blood leaking down my neck and through my shirt in a few places from the fight. "Training this morning." I explained, "Kato and I started early. I couldn't sleep last night." Misha nodded, "I see. He didn't beat you too badly, did he?" "Well, his final move landed me on my back, paralyzed. But aside from that I think I did pretty alright." I said, smiling. It felt great to speak with Misha again. I took a moment to stare into his eyes from across the table. I missed this personal connection. "I'm also apparently supposed to go for a hike with him this evening; would you care to join us?" I blurted out, staring at him hopefully. "Uh." Misha looked at his food, avoiding my eyes. I sighed. I used this technique all the time. But why was he using it? "I can't. I have some things to do in the lab." He said. "Well, when's the next time we can spend some time together?" I asked eagerly. "I...don't know." "What about after my hike? Will you be busy all night? Maybe I could see where you live!" I rambled on. Misha's face seemed tense. "No." He said flatly. My ears fell back. I closed my jaw and looked away. "You seem stressed. Can I help somehow?" I asked timidly. "I have to go." Misha said, snatching his food tray and walking away. Confused, I watched him walk away with a blank expression on my face. I sat in silence for a few minutes until I convinced myself to stand up. I wandered towards the gym showers, figuring I'd be able to pick up an early lunch by the time I was done showering and washing all the red and brown dust marks off this damn white fur. I entered the gym shower dressing room and slipped off my clothes, grabbing one of the clean towels and wrapping it around my waist. I didn't care who saw me today. I was too exhausted to be worried about the taboo of nudity this time. I sighed, stuffing my clothes inside a locker and preparing to enter the showers. I overheard Kato's voice from the showers, "It was quite incredible, I have to say." He said. I heard another muffled voice but could not make out what it said. "No!" Kato shouted, "That's a ridiculous idea. I know I've never had someone learn this quickly, but it's a bad idea, Misha. I don't give a damn what his pain tolerance test showed. That thing is probably full of error, you said so yourself!" The muffled voice began again, this time I was able to hear some of it, "...my idea, it was Hale's. I'm just the doctor's opinion. I don't really know what to say on the matter, though." "Tell him it's a fucking bad idea!" I heard Kato say. "I don't know, Kato." Misha's voice called after him, "I'd like to see what happens." "Don't be a dick, Misha. That guy adores you." The water shut off and I heard footsteps walking this direction. I quickly walked back to my locker, pretending to use it. Kato entered the room, wiping the water from his body and wrapping the towel back around his waist. "Hey, Decipher." He said, his voice full of innocence. I kept quiet, moving the dirty clothes around in my locker and avoiding eye contact. "Oh, Decipher, if you want to use the lockers frequently, I can tell one of the maids to stock your locker full of clean clothing and get you a key." Kato said, unlocking his locker. "Sure. That'd be good." I said, still avoiding eye contact as I walked towards the showers. I caught a glimpse of Kato's body as I left the locker room. His chest was spotted with dark purple bruises from our fight. I felt a bit proud, and a bit guilty. I walked into the showers. Misha must have left through a different exit. I did not see him anywhere. There were a few other people scattered about in different showers, but I did not recognize any of them. I sighed, entering the closest shower and turning on the hot water. The steam blurred my vision as my thoughts clouded my mind. I had no idea what Misha and Kato had been talking about, but it did not seem good. I was confused again. I felt like I had been lied to once more. I quickly scrubbed the blood and dirt out of my fur and shut the water off. Walking absent mindedly into the locker room, I wiped the water off my face. I slung the towel over my shoulder and opened my locker. To my surprise, a few sets of clean clothes had been placed inside, along with a small card key, and my dirty clothes had been removed. I put on a pair of clean clothes and dumped my wet towel in a bin. I decided to skip lunch and head to my room and sleep. I was still exhausted from missing sleep the previous night, and I was not hungry. Upon waking up, I discovered that I had missed dinner. I sighed and rolled out of bed, I wasn't hungry anyway. I ran downstairs to meet Kato for our evening hike. I shook my head, trying to rid myself of the drowsy feeling that lingered from my nap. I found Kato right outside the dining hall. "Are you ready to leave?" I asked him, eager to be done with this and back in my room. "Oh, hey Decipher." Kato said, smiling, "I was wondering where you were. Yeah, let's get going." I nodded, and we left through the main entrance and walked towards the trail we had walked on before.
We ran most of the way, saving our breath for the air our lungs craved. We took a few different trails this time, winding up the hillside and around the cliff face. I tried to focus only on the run; I did not want to speak to anyone. We stopped at the same spot Kato had shown me the night before. After a few moments of catching our breath, Kato turned to me, "So how have you been?" He asked, panting. "Fine." I said, keeping my eyes fixed on the setting sun. "Are we done for the night?" "Well, sure, but I was going to sit out here for a while" Kato said. I could feel his eyes studying me. "Would you care to join me?" "I'm exhausted. I am going back to sleep." I said, turning and running down the trail before he could protest. I took the quick route back. I wasn't sure if I would be able to fall asleep, but I wanted to be alone. I would've loved to stay at the lookout point, had Kato not been there. I sighed heavily, entering the elevator that lead to my room. Someone else was in the elevator with me, and they might have even said something, but I was dazed. I did not have enough energy left for social interaction at this point. I opened the door to my room and fell onto my bed, not bothering to undress. I stared out into the darkening sky as my mind drifted away with the scarce clouds.