A glimpse

Ch 5 (E)

Lucas scanned his surroundings; the scene before him was anything but favorable.

Allison's arms were held outward, while her fingers tightly grasped the air.

A red ceiling strap strained as Sam held on, challenging the violent gusts of wind that slammed into the two. His iron grip managed to prevent either of them from flying out.

On the contrary, to Lucas this wind was surprisingly calm, flowing through the cargo hold as it lazily passed by him.

The invisible force gently caressed his face as a feeling of bliss rushed through him, Allison's hair slowly flowed and twisted in the wind, creating bizarre patterns.

Lucas watched as Allison's frantic face subtly changed to struggle, Lucas observed as her forearm muscles slowly snaked into constriction as she gritted her teeth.

This was all so surreal to him, the warm feeling of embracement slowly waned.

His mind began to feel fuzzy, as the exhilarating feeling that had permeated his body subsisted.

Lucas's eyelids became droopy, struggling to stay conscious as his vision tunneled.

As his thoughts slipped into nothingness, time around him immediately sped up to its normal pace.

Lucas struggled to remain even slightly aware as waves of fatigue bombarded him, every muscle in his body felt as if it had been bruised and stretched beyond its limits.

"BOOM" the sound of the exploding rocket pulled Lucas out of his stupor.

The helicopter jolted violently,

Various large boxes of supplies and much-needed items ejected from the chinook making Sam and Allison dodge the incoming projectiles.

Included in the pile of supplies was Lucas's wheelchair. Lucas could only stare as the chair flipped and cascaded in the wind, falling to the vast ocean below.

"Shit!" Lucas yelled as he watched his black wheelchair slowly fade.

The large military jet quickly followed as it lost altitude plummeting toward the ocean.

"She can take more than that! Commie bastards," Sam yelled while examining the exterior damage through the circular windows.

A smile spread across Sam's face as he positioned himself on the ground, resting his head against the wall.

"This is an important thing for both of you to learn." He looked at Allison as she rested in her seat once again.

"Being in situations like this, experiencing things that are completely utterly out of our own control is a part of the job. You both need to start expecting the unexpected in order to grow as recruits."

"We aren't gods, and as soon as you two realize that the better." He added

"And don't worry about the wheelchair, by this time tomorrow you'll already be accustomed to your new pair of legs" he reached over and tapped a green polymer box strapped to the floor, one of the few objects that hadn't fallen.

Lucas examined the box, focusing on a large label, "Exon M-45". Now realizing the absurd amount of special treatment, Lucas began to become wary.

He shouldn't be important enough in the military's eyes to garner the use of this many resources.

Pushing this to the back of his mind, he planned to find out more when the right time presented itself.

Overall, the situation couldn't have gone better. Sam managed to get the kids some hands-on experience and this was very beneficial.

"We are getting close to the academy and should arrive in about two hours. You guys ought to ready yourselves"

"I do hope they haven't found us out already, it would truly be a shame, all that work for nothing. Well, whatever" said Sam as he shrugged, walking back to the pilot's seat, clicking a button on the wall as the back ramp began to close.

Lucas didn't even want to ask Sam what he meant, instead, he got comfortable still tired beyond belief.

From the stressful experience and the activation of his powers, his body felt like it had gone through war.

But still, he couldn't stop thinking about what he'd seen,

'Could this be my power?' To his knowledge, not once had someone capable of such a power existed in this world.

Lucas's very limited understanding of powers made what he had just experienced impossible.

***

The rest of the flight was, fortunately, uneventful and the group of three was desperately ready to get back on the ground.

Luckily Lucas was able to sleep off the immense tiredness, although it was still somewhat present, the severity had dropped drastically.

The vibration of the rotary blades slowed as Lucas looked out the window, a large mountain met his gaze as they rounded it.

"We have arrived, welcome to Academy 0 kids" Sam once again said over the headset.

Looking at the landscape below, tall evergreen trees scaled up a particularly steep Mountain. Rivers and lakes winded through the forest floor, fed by numerous snow-topped cliffs.

If Lucas had to guess it appeared somewhere far northwest, the beauty of the scenery reminded him of a laptop screen saver he saw once.

One small thing was bothering him, there were absolutely zero signs indicating a military presence anywhere in sight.

He had expected the base to be secretive and hidden but to this degree, seemed excessive.

Sam spoke into the mic "inspection as well as finding an open hangar bay might take a few minutes."

"Allison, would you mind helping Lucas get into that suit" Sam pointed through the doorway at the green box.

She hastily stood up and shimmied over, arriving at the box she began unstrapping the rachets on the side.

Allison flipped the hinge, swinging open the case. The slender and state-of-the-art exoskeleton was a marvel.

Its simplistic yet intricate design was completely overshadowed by how sleek it was. The legs could easily fit underneath clothing and be unnoticeable to others.

She grabbed the side and tried to lift it, just to realize that it weighed a lot more than it looked, easily reaching over a hundred pounds.

"What is this thing made of?!" she exclaimed as she strained.

Allison strained to drag the apparatus over to Lucas, leaning it against a chair next to him.

She then unlatched a lever on the front of the device, splitting it down each side and separating the legs into a back section and a front.

"Are you going to be able to get up and put this on or will you need my help?" Allison asked with remorse, completely unaware of how Lucas was injured she assumed the worst.

Lucas sharply inhaled as he pulled himself up, using the back of the chair and the roof as support.

"Here let me try something to make this a little easier," Allison said as she let go.

She slightly outstretched her loose hand as the pieces began to move.

It was very difficult, but she managed to move one of the separate halves behind Lucas as it fit snugly against his legs.

Although the pieces weighed around fifty pounds each, it was still a substantial weight for someone who was a telekinetic type and had yet to comprehend half of their power score.

The front piece pushed up against Lucas's thighs as his pants tightened, connecting to the back piece like a harness.

It was very uncomfortable, in certain areas... He could only hope it would get better when he wore it properly.

Lucas felt for the lever he saw Allison pull, pushing it back into place as it clicked, securing the exoskeleton onto himself.

He wanted to try it out but the space they were in was way too small to try anything.

Both Allison and Lucas sat down, now side by side instead of across the aisle.

The awkward silence between them seemingly lasted minutes.

"…Thank you." Lucas's statement was weighted.

"Is it really so hard for you to talk to people? If you haven't noticed I have been trying to have a humble conversation with you for the past few hours." The once stoic Allison had now lost her composure, as she threw her hands in the air.

"Oh, you should have just said something. I didn't know you wanted to talk and just assumed you were focused on something else" he responded.

"It's fine, I got sleepy anyways," she said while pouting like a child.

She couldn't stand how quiet Lucas was, she needed to befriend him fast, or else they wouldn't ever become the team Sam was trying to build.

Allison had always needed to be the best, when it came to grades or how powerful she was compared to others, she needed to be on top.

But now, with the introduction of Lucas, it felt like the feat would be next to impossible.

In truth, Lucas was well aware of Allison's conversational advances, instead looking out the window and avoiding eye contact in order to dodge them.

It wasn't very nice, but he wasn't very open to spending hours on end talking about lives and sharing hobbies with new acquaintances.

"Fine…" Lucas steeled his resolve.

Realizing that he would be working with her for the next few years at least and in the worst-case decades.

"Ill… try to be more aware-talkative!." as if sensing the mood souring, he blurted out what he knew she wanted to hear.

On the outside, he seemed fine but inside he was grieving all the time his future self had just lost.

"Thank. you! See, wasn't so hard was it, now we can build a good relationship"

"Yea, sure" Lucas agreed nonchalantly.

In the end, they did need to become a well-oiled machine by the end of the military academy to successfully graduate as well as carry out their duty to their country.

Lucas had never openly praised the government, but he did appreciate them for what they did for him to help.

Originally when he started attending the academy, he half expected them to throw him to the streets or surmise a way to get him legally discharged.

Contrary to what he thought they did no such thing, aside from the bullies the staff at the academy always sympathized with him.

Either the fact that he was crippled or because of Lucas's past, he might never know.

Lucas, looking out the window, the side of the mountain they were near started to rumble, sliding open as If it was a glass door.

"Wow!" Allyson exclaimed as she looked through the same window over his shoulder.

They both felt the helicopter change course from its usual pattern as it flew toward the mountain, preventing Lucas and Allison from seeing farther inside.

As they passed through the massive doorway the camouflaged gates inside of the hanger buzzed with activity as people ran around in organized chaos.

The helicopter jolted as it touched down, the engines powering down.

Sam reemerged from the cockpit as he motioned for the recruits.

"Prepared for hell?" he asked with an exaggerated smile.

The two kids looked at him like he was insane, this entire base was inside of a huge mountain, and he didn't seem to bat an eye.

"Hehe." Sam chuckled under his breath.

The sound of the colossal gate closing overwhelmed his laugh as he walked past the two, heading towards the opening ramp.