Psi Plague - Training

Copyright (c) 2019 James Miehoff, All Rights Reserved.

This work may not be published whether for fee or free without this copyright.

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The following is a work of fiction and as such all characters mentioned herein are fictional and any resemblance to any persons living or fictional is coincidental.

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When I hit the bed I heard something snap. Again. But I just didn't care. I ached everywhere and it was blessed relief when blackness took me.

I woke up to the sound of the shower and my favorite smell. Honey was home. Groaning, I sat up and regretted it. "My body is the instrument of my will. My will is the instrument of my mind. My will does what I tell it. My body does what I tell it. Thought becomes action. Body, will and mind are one." I ran through the litany aloud three times before I started tearing the Velcro stays on my clothes.

By the time I reached the bathroom I felt better. Not good, but better. My underwear joined the line of clothes on the floor as I pushed open the door. A flood of steam and feminine scents washed over me as I stood in the doorway drinking them in. "This is why I do this," I told myself.

"Hey lover boy, sorry I was trying not to wake you when I came in." Those words floating out of the shower were the balm I needed. Glancing in the mist covered mirror I didn't recognize the shape I saw anymore. Gone was the skinny kid that had hung out in coffee shops drinking bad coffee and hacking unsuspecting rubes bank accounts. Now, my muscles had muscles and my bruises had bruises.

"Can you hand me a wash cloth?"

"Sure," I replied smiling as I draped it over my rampant member while stepping into the torrent of water.

Honey smiled as she saw where her washcloth was. "Oh you brought me a towel instead," she said with a grin. The smile faded as she saw the bruises. "I am going to kill Leopold when I see him," she muttered.

"No, you are not," I said. "You are going to smile and thank him for making me what I am."

"But did he have to drop you off a building to do it?"

"That was an accident," I said automatically. "Today, we just did a little sparring ..."

"Sparring my ass," she said harshly. "Was it brass knuckles and batons or baseball bats and bricks?"

"Barehanded," I said lamely. "No weapons."

"Oh baby," she said with genuine concern. "Let's switch places so you get some warm water on those muscles."

As I got under the hot water facing the wall and let the heat soak in, Honey began to stroke my tired muscles. I let her go for a few minutes before capturing one of her delicate hands and placing where I really wanted the attention.

She just clucked her tongue and said, "You are incorrigible." But she said it in a tone that I knew meant that she wasn't really mad. Plus she kept stroking me.

After a minute, she pulled one of my hands back and placed it in the corresponding place on her front. I was more than happy to play that game.

Sometime later, we finally turned off the water and climbed out of the shower, pruney but satisfied. One of the fringe benefits of living in a building powered by a nuclear reactor is unlimited hot water.

As we toweled off, Honey looked up at me and said sweetly as she said, "Usually I make the gentleman buy me dinner and drinks before I engage in such behavior."

I crushed her to me and kissed her long and thoroughly and then whispered, "I never said I was a gentleman.

An hour or so later found us in the cafeteria.

After placing our orders, we briefly looked for a place to sit. Honey spotted Leopold sitting by himself and marched off in that direction at full speed.

I was just barely able to catch up to her just as she got to his table. As she opened her mouth to unload on him, he looked up at her and then the unimaginable happened. She set her tray down and said, "Oh my god. What happened to you?"

Leopold smiled and said in that smooth baritone voice of his, "Your boyfriend."

Honey turned to me and suddenly, I was the bad guy.

"Oh my god," she repeated as she looked back at Leopold. "You look like you should be wearing that steak, not eating it."

"Please join me," Leopold said sweetly. Flashed me a grin and said, "You too, Smith."

Honey fussed over him while I flagged the waiter carrying our dinners over. Honey's salad looked amazing but I needed the protein and my steak smelled delicious.

After the first mouthfuls, Honey looked over at Leopold and asked, "Ok. So what happened between you two today?"

"Nothing," we both said in unison. That got us both laughing and earned us glares from the lady.

Leopold stopped first and said, "We were sparring and your boy got in a good left hand..."

I interrupted with, "Finally."

"And I went down like a sack of shit," he continued. "So I am on concussion protocol for the next couple of days."

"Does that mean he gets a couple of days off?" Honey asked hopefully.

"No," said Leopold, "I have a stand-in lined up for the next few days."

"Great," Honey and I said together.

"Can you at least not beat him up so bad on Friday?" she continued.

Leopold cocked an eyebrow.

"I want to go dancing and it is really annoying when my partner is groaning and telling me not to touch him there or there or there."

"Any special reason?" Leopold asked.

"Yes," Honey said. "It is our anniversary and I would like to make it special."

"Anniversary?" Leopold asked. I just cocked an eyebrow.

She glanced at me and then said, "It has been three months since I moved into that closet he calls an apartment. Around here, three months can be a long time."

I just made a big show of cutting my steak up into little pieces while my face had to have been radiating heat like a small oven.

While focusing on reducing the steak into meat shreds my mind wandered back to that first day of training.

"LISTEN UP YOU MEATBALLS," this guy screamed at us. "My name is Leopold. NOT LEE, NOT LEO, NOT 'HEY YOU'. IF YOU CAN'T REMEMBER THAT, THEN JUST CALL ME SIR!"

I glanced at the other three in line with me. A slightly overweight Goth chick, dressed in black, of course. A metal head punk wannnabe, complete with studded leather jacket and leather pants. The third guy was an enigma. He had sandy brown hair. He was wearing normal clothes and haircut; nothing that stood out. Then it hit me, a chameleon, he was trying to blend in so nobody would notice him. He could slip in anywhere and nobody could describe him later. Beautiful.

My attention came back just in time for the next tirade. "NOW THEN, somebody didn't get the memo. THERE IS TO BE NO JEWELRY WORN DURING TRAINING. SO WHAT IS THIS?" The last was directed to the Goth chick's nose ring.

"But it's small," she started to say.

"DID I ASK YOU IF IT WAS SMALL?" She was definitely flinching with each word. Not too surprising considering that he was right in her face when delivering each one.

His tone and timber suddenly changed. "Please remove it," he said sweetly. "NOW!!" There is the bulldog.

"AND ALL THE REST OF YOU RULE FLOUTING SONS OF BITCHES CAN DO THE SAME THING. I WANT ALL JEWELRY ON THE FLOOR BY YOUR FEET IN THREE SECONDS."

"TWO SECONDS."

"ONE SECOND."

Uh oh. Metalhead was having a problem with one of his earrings.

"WHAT PART OF THREE SECONDS DIDN'T YOU UNDERSTAND?"

The question startled him so much that he ripped it out of his ear and dropped it and the other pieces of jewelry on the floor. A small trickle of blood started from the damaged ear.

"Better," Leopold said moving on to the chameleon. He looked down and didn't see anything on the floor. He looked sandy boy in the face and his eyebrow lifted.

"Anything?" There was that sweet voice again.

The kid got pale but just shook his head no.

I don't know where it came from but suddenly Leopold had a knife and he had slashed the kid's pants from waist to knees on both legs. The flap created dropped in comic slow motion until he was standing there with his dork hanging out. It was a fairly nice looking dork, with a shiny metal hoop through it.

Leopold reached in with the knife and hooked the ring and tugged.

"And what is this?" God I hate that sweet tone of voice.

"A a a Pp pp prince Albbbert," the kid stammered.

"Do I need to cut it out, or will you remove it?"

I was pretty sure the kid was going to faint, but he held it together and stammered out. "I I I'll ggget ittt.

"Thank you," Leopold purred as he stepped down to stand in front of me.

He cocked his eyebrow again.

I pulled back on my sleeves and lifted my arms until my fists were near my face and my elbows were against my ribs.

"SIR! THEY ARE NOT JEWELRY, SIR! AND I CANNOT REMOVE THEM, SIR!" I announce proactively.

His other eyebrow went up and I triggered my dewclaws.

Startled, he stepped back and started to get into a defensive crouch. When I didn't move, he came up and took a good look at them.

Whistling a 'wow' he tilted his head and asked, "Are there any other surprises?"

"SIR! NO, SIR!"

"You can put your toys away, son. But from now on, when you come down here, I want those taped down so they can't accidently deploy. Understood?"

"SIR! YES, SIR!"

"All right recruits! We are going to go for a run. But you can't run like that. Turn around. You see before you the Model 1 Training suit. It is a Kevlar infused material with padded and hardened plates to protect your very soft tissues. You will take off your civilian clothes and get into the training suit. From now until you are released from training you will wear this exclusively while in the compound. NOW MOVE IT AND SUIT UP!"

Goth girl got, "But," out before Leopold was in her face again.

"YOU ARE A RECRUIT. THAT MEANS THAT YOU ARE BARELY ONE STEP ABOVE SLIME MOLD. SLIME MOLD HAS NO GENDER AND NEITHER DO YOU." Pulling back he continued, "THAT MEANS ALL OF YOU ARE BARELY ABOVE SLIME MOLD. I WOULD RUN YOU AROUND THE COURSE NAKED TO GET THAT POINT ACROSS, BUT," here comes one of those tone changes, "some of you would be chafed or sore from your flapping parts by the time we were done. And we can't have that. SO GET YOUR FUCKING CLOTHES OFF AND INTO YOUR SKINS BEFORE I'M DONE COUNTING TO 10."

"ONE"

Counting did it. I just had a light shirt and beltless stretch pants on so I was naked and putting on the one piece training suit while the others were still getting naked. Except for sandy boy, he had a head start.

"FIVE"

While slapping the Velcro down I had a chance to evaluate my training partners. Sandy boy had a fairly slim build but he looked like he had some muscles.

"SIX"

Metalhead was a slob. I kept thinking of cartoon characters that were balls with heads on top.

"SEVEN"

Goth girl was a little plump. Her breasts were nice sized and didn't sag form what I could see through the bra. Her panties were too opaque to tell if she was a shaver, a trimmer or a beast.

"EIGHT"

Sandy boy got to the line right at the count of eight even though he was still pulling his arms through the sleeves and struggling to get the top right. I leaned over and pulled his collar up and everything slid into place. While he was figuring out the Velcro, I had already headed over to help Metalhead. I whispered for him to just put his legs in and stand up. When he did, I pulled the suit up and roughly shoved his arms in. Goth girl had been watching and by the time I got to her she had her legs in and was beginning to stand up.

"NINE"

Before I could pull her suit up, Leopold was there. His knife flicked out and a hand reached in. Before Goth girl or I could react, he had what was left of her panties and bra in his hand and he was turning away. I shrugged and shoved her arms into the sleeves. Her breasts were very nice when seen up close and personal.

As she struggled with the Velcro, I headed back to my space. As expected, Leopold was there.

"TEN"

When I reached my place and stood at attention, he stepped right in front of me. "WERE YOU GETTING A NICE EYEFULL OF HER TITTIES?"

"SIR! NO, SIR!"

"ARE YOU TELLING HER THAT SHE WASN'T WORTH LOOKING AT?"

"SIR!" Uh oh! Box canyon. Anything I say will be the wrong thing. "NO, SIR!"

"SO YOU WERE STARING AT HER?"

"SIR! Permission to explain."

"Oh. An explanation. OK. Let's have your tale of wonder and amazement."

God I hate that tone of voice. "SIR! Looking at her was unavoidable. My goal was to get this team back to the line before ten. SIR!"

He stared long at me and then turned and moved about three paces out in what I would bet was within a millimeter or two of dead center on the ragged line the four of us were making.

When he addressed us, his voice was loud but not the barking loud voice he had previously used.

"Now then recruits. Thanks to the selfless actions of Mr. Smith, you don't get to find out if you can do two hundred push-ups. Y'all can kiss his butt for that later. Now, we are going to find out how well y'all can run. We are going out that door and across the grassy strip to the track. It is a standard size track. A quarter mile in the inside lane, more in the outside lanes, remember that.

"Rules are simple. Keep up with me. If you can't and I lap you, I get to kick you as I pass. There are medics that will haul your unconscious butt to the infirmary if you pass out. There are no hall passes. When we are done you are free for the night. You will be here tomorrow at 0800 in your training suits ready to go.

"NOW, OUT THAT DOOR. MOVE. MOVE. MOVE."

And we moved.

Metalhead puked first. But it was sandy boy who went to the infirmary first. He tried to block Leopold's kick and just managed to deflect it high into the side of his head. He went down like a jenga tower in an earthquake. I was on the far side of the field and saw it happen. There was nothing I could do. By the time I got there the medics had him on a stretcher and were wheeling him off.

Goth girl was next. He didn't even need to kick her. She just toppled over on the curve. I stopped just long enough to get a pulse and then had to haul ass to stay ahead of Leopold. I gave the medics a thumbs up as they headed for her. The lead medic mouthed 'thanks'.

Metalhead was still trying to crawl when Leopold came up and just put his foot on his back and he stopped. The medics had been walking alongside him so they were there, ready to scoop him up.

That left Leopold and me. He had lapped me twice and I had a knot in my thigh that kept threatening to cramp up and a bruise that stayed with me for a week over my left kidney. I hate to think what it would have been like without the padded plate.

As I could hear his footfalls getting louder, I realized I had screwed up. If I had just slowed down while he was putting Metalhead out of his misery, he would have had to chase me the long way around the whole track. Damn it.

When I could swear he was right next to me, I heard his voice, "You didn't take your shot."

'???' went my brain. Then I got it.

"It didn't seem right while you were showing Metalhead mercy."

"Metalhead? Oh you mean Josephson.

"Here, pull up in front of the stands. Don't stop moving, but slow to a walk. Don't worry. I'm not going to lap you. Training is done for the day."

Whew, that was the best news I had all day. I started to slow down.

"Keep walking or you'll cramp up like a sonnoffabitch. The medics are bringing some electrolytes. Drink up, slowly."

A cute redheaded medic handed me a squeeze bottle and I took a swig. And nearly hurled.

"Slowly, I said, you stupid rookie."

"Sorry. I don't think I've ever run that far in one shot. Ever."

"That's nothing. Once we whip you into shape, you'll do that in the morning before breakfast with a forty pound pack on."

"You are shitting me. There is no way I'll ever do that with a pack and eat breakfast."

He nodded. "Yes you will. By the way, where did you get your military training? It wasn't on your record."

I started to laugh and then let it trail off. "Full Metal Jacket"

He raised that eyebrow again.

"The movie, it came out in 1987 or 88. Directed by Stanley Kubrick. Matthew Modine, Lee Ermey, um, Adam Baldwin and a bunch of other people."

"Oh." He paused. "That's it?"

"Yah, you were acting just like that drill sergeant. So I acted like he wanted the kids in that movie to act."

Leopold came over and slapped me on the shoulder and laughed. "I think we need to talk about getting you out of the office corps and into the active side of the house."

As I was basking in his praise, I heard someone call my name.

"Smith, do you want me to go get a blender so you can finish liquefying that steak?"

Coming back to the here and now, I realized that was the now version of Leopold speaking and Honey was giving me the most peculiar look.

I looked back at them and said, "Sorry. I zoned out. I was thinking about the first day of training and what a bunch of knuckleheads we were."

Leopold laughed, "You guys were that. Jenny and Josephson did finish the four weeks, though god knows how or why. I never did see the other kid again though. Wonder what happened to him."

Honey looked pensive and then making a silent decision, shrugged and said, "His name was Phil and he was recruited by the spooks while he was in the hospital. There is a rumor that he was killed in Istanbul when a listening post got compromised."

Silence fell over the table, until it was finally broken by Leopold, "I am sorry to hear that. I didn't know he was one of those last four stars."

Honey nodded. Suddenly, I wasn't interested in my steak anymore.

Leopold got up and whispered to Honey as he left and she nodded. I raised my eyebrow.

She leaned over to kiss me and whispered, "You are not going to get out of going dancing on Friday."