Chapter 66 Tes invites you to a hot dog

He was dragged back to training and put through the shredder, exercises, fitness, strength and endurance training, fights against holo-opponents, against soldiers from the northern block. Breathing heavily, he lay on the gym floor. Tes dropped a cold towel on his face.

"Cool off with this."

He nodded, sat down, rubbed his head in the towel, took off his top and dried himself off.

Tes squatted beside him and watched him.

"Luke, why have you been searching the net so much lately for special forces and stuff?"

He winced, looking at her and wondering how she knew. She smiled and he sighed.

"I found a CD, with video footage. Well and the sarge had the symbol and wanted to know what it was, well and then..." 

She tapped her forehead.

"They were nothing more than Alex's bloodhounds, that's all. The women's squad to keep his women busy. His attempt to show he has elite soldiers like Uther." 

"Sergeant said you were an opponent of the women's squad."

She laughed. 

" No. I just thought it was unnecessary. So much effort just to give some emotionally effeminate females something to do. Oh, we're women, we need our own command," she sounded annoyed.

"And who named them?"

She grinned.

"I did, to get one over on Gitte. They were officially called 1st North Block Women's Special Squad, Alex had them trained by old veterans. Back then I just called them Hydras and always wrote that in my reports."

"Didn't you get into trouble?" 

She grinned.

"From High Command, yes, but" she grinned wider.

"I didn't care about that. Militarily, I wasn't in their catchment area. I was an Omega and they were a completely different division. Which drove the Council crazy. They had no command over us."

He looked at her questioningly. She sighed.

"The division leaders had been allowed to raise their own cadres back then to relieve the forces, and the Omegas relieved the most. "

"I saw robots and exos in the video." 

She looked at him.

"Okay, I'll show you..." He gave up. He got up and went to his things, she followed him.

He sat down and activated the tablet and started the movie. Tes watched it. She laughed when she saw Gitte pregnant.

"Ha! She was just grumbling back then. " 

The movie continued. She smiled when she saw Uther.

"He used it too, the others didn't know how to use it. So your break is over. It continues."

He groaned. 

It went on like that for a week, then he was invited after class and dragged into a huge gym after what seemed like an eternally long car ride. Tes handed him his sports bag and grinned thievingly. 

He looked at them.

"Eh, what are we doing here?" 

" Just a very small tournament ..." 

Luke looked around, saw a lot of martial artists, his gaze lingered on the banner hanging above them all.

" It says international district championship..."

She beamed. 

" This is where you can improve your dan." 

" Didn't you say that's not possible at the moment?" 

Tes nodded.

"But, with the tournament, they got enough idiots together to form a committee and" she smiled. 

"They've put it on the net that you can make your dan's here." 

" I see... "He wasn't motivated." She hugged him.

"There's a very, very, very good hot dog stand in the neighborhood, I'll buy you one if you win."

He scowled at her.

"Only if I win."

She grinned.

" For the good one yes, otherwise you'll get the standard one around the corner. " 

He thought about it, he hadn't had a good hot dog in a long time, and he'd had a lot of stress in Hawaii.

"Okay..." 

Tes beamed and pushed him into the locker room, where he changed and adjusted his gi. Tes took his normal bag.

After some back and forth, he stood in a room of his peers. He saw Tes talking to an admin.

He was called up, went to the mat, saw his opponent, same age as him, thinner but more sullen.

Luke looked to the referee.

"What kind of fight?" 

" Karate boy ..." 

" Ah ..." 

His opponent grinned and attacked directly after the release, Luke sent him to the mat with a kick to the side, where he whimpered in pain. 

Luke looked at his opponent, then at the referee.

He was declared the winner, left the mat and looked at Tes who had been filming him. The admin stared at him.

He was taken to another hall, the difference was like night and day. The start hall was bright and cheerful, families sat there etc. There was a depressing atmosphere here. 

Luke followed the admin, Tes looked around freezing.

They were unloaded and Luke could see his opponents. He looked at Tes.

"They look more like stereotypes, like you see in all those cheap movies. "

Tes grinned.

"That's what your Dan, really allows you to do. "

" I should have played dumb ..."

A fighter who looked like a running deer approached with greedy eyes.

"Poppet, why don't you come play with me?" 

Tes nudged Luke.

"He called you."

Luke rolled his eyes.

" He meant you ..." 

The pig reached for Tes, Luke reflexively struck, it crunched loudly and the pig stared at his deformed hand. 

Tes was grinning ear to ear.

Luke didn't hesitate and kicked him in the temple, causing him to fall to the ground with a groan.

Luke looked at him.

"I hope the hot dog is good..." 

"It is," she pulled him further into the hall. Leaving Luke standing by the fighters, she hurried to the spectators' seats.

He sighed, watching the fighters, feeling like a rabbit thrown into a fox enclosure. 

The way he felt, he had to fight 68 people. He wondered what holes they had crawled out of. 

Fights 1 through 18 were against martial artists aged 20 and up. They all looked like veterans. He was told to use all the fighting techniques that were officially allowed. 

So he did.

It was a good warm-up, he realized that his opponents were heavier.

There was a break so they could recover. Luke was pulled into a restaurant.

Opponents 21 to 56 were mixed martial artists. They were heavier and he took several hits. He had to think about how to fight them. 

Opponents 57 to 68 were the heavy fighters. He classified them as psychos and he really had to use his brain. Because they didn't give a shit about rules.

He was getting hit a lot, he was biting his way through, his vision was going crazy. He started to lose everything that could only be recognized in outline. Luke told himself to fuck it, gathered what was left of his strength, gave free rein to his rage and fought.

Until he leaned on his legs, panting. His vision cleared when he heard Tes call his name. She looked at him, beaming. Luke glanced at his overtired opponents.

"I even adjusted your training schedule." 

Luke sighed.

He was dragged to the award ceremony, where he had to behave according to all the rituals, bowing to the committee, thanking them. Thank his opponents etc... Then he received his prize and thanked his opponents. He also received certificates because they adjusted his Dan's. 

And then he was finally free, fresh air and Tes pulled him to the hot dog store. Where he got a hot dog straight out of an advertising magazine. It even tasted good.

He held out his prize money.

"No, that's your Luke, I've got enough money." 

" But ..." 

She smiled.

" I've enjoyed watching the idiots suffer. They've been getting on my nerves with their protégés for years."

"I see. So I was a tool?"

She grinned.

"No. I wanted to see how good you'd gotten. Fighting Holo and the soldier is one thing, but fighting others who are fixated on it is another. Luke you don't care because it's been with you your whole life without it being defined as the ultimate goal in life. "

He continued to eat. Then dragged him shopping. Clothes, junk. More stuff for her.

When they were done, her car was towed because she'd parked like a pig. She typed something into her cell phone.

"Oops..." was all she said. 

That was the Tes he had known since he was a child.

" We're about to be picked up. "

" Okay." 

She looked at him.

"So, how did you meet your girlfriend?"

"Um ... Well ... " He looked down.

"We got drunk and ..."

She raised an eyebrow.

" No love at first sight? " 

"No. I mean, I like her and I enjoy her presence and ... She has fluffy hair ..."

She scrunched it.

"Someday you'll find someone as stupid as Liz."

He looked at her fixedly. Tes grinned.

"I've known you since you were a baby, Liz was the first to capture your heart."

"Well, you too ..." 

" ohh" she nudged him again.

A limousine pulled up, a driver got out and opened the door. Tes looked at him.

"Not an SUV?"

"No ma'am, this is the only one in the neighborhood."

She smiled and got in. Luke stared at the car.

"What the ..." 

"Luke, get in!" came from her. Luke got in, marveled at the size of the interior and sat down in the first seat he could find. He winced slightly when he saw Liz sleeping on a bench in her uniform, her head on Uther's lap. Tes sat next to him, grinning. From a distance, he looked quite peaceful. 

He stroked Liz's head.

"Luke?"

Luke blinked.

" Hello Uncle ..."

Uther looked up from Liz to him. The same eyes as on the video. 

" Hi. How are you?"

" Quite well, I mean, apart from the bruises I have from Tes."

She smiled, looking at Uther.

"What, he flattened the tournament."

" Oh, that's why you told me you had dates."

She grinned. 

"Why sodas and not a Suv like usual?"

He reached for a coffee mug.

"Charity event and because Alex is busy with something. I went. "

She scowled at him.

"And were you there when ..."

He sipped from his cup.

" As Werner von Klüsen."

Luke looked at him in astonishment.

Uther looked at him.

" When I showed up there, they were afraid. I treated ¾ of the faces there like cattle when they fled the infected areas. Now that they're rich, they've forgotten, but as soon as they see my name..."

"Luke found an old video of you, you were still wearing a nice uniform."

" Ha , then it must be old. "

Tes fell asleep during the drive and cuddled up to Uther. 

Luke looked at her with irritation.

"So?"

Luke looked at him.

"Um ... Why don't you take Grandpa?"

Uther stroked Liz's head. Luke sensed that he was thinking.

" Alex, even if most people don't want to believe it, has a strong urge for freedom. Involving people etc. and I'm the opposite."

He looked at him questioningly.

"A certain order, you see. I've had enough of chaos. "

He looked at her, smiling.

"And order. Alex well, he likes to plan down to the smallest detail, he's chill, his desk has become his sofa with the tablet. He likes to handle things in the background. "

Luke fell silent.

"Abe ..."

Uther lit a cigarette.

"Luke, you're my family, Alex dragged me into a family photo and said I'm part of it. No matter what shit you do. You stay. I gave the world a taste if she chooses me and she ran to Alex real quick. "

"Oh, I remember, Mom said something about a hit on Grandpa."

Uther grinned.

"That's right, he was just rushing to pick up Liz and Mei. Ran into a snobby teacher who stabbed him for trying to sic the council on her. His escort activated the emergency code and poof I had to take over. "

He took a drag on the fag.

"You have to imagine that the other nations that had formed up thought they were stronger. Saw the northern bloc as victims, so big borders and all... I threatened them with war if they made a sound, which they did. They got an appropriate response. Until the last one, even on the council, understood that he had to have Alex instead of me."

"Were you there for the Manticore part too?" 

"Hmm." He sipped his coffee.

"No, I was out of it by then. South America was a problem, unlike the other free spaces, more organized by the North Block. If it had been up to me then, straight purification. But no....

Alex wanted to give them the freedom to become independent like the others. Uther said they could do it, look at South Africa... Yes, only in Africa had I set towers, with corporate subsidiaries that provided stability. South America, where there were towers, was civilized. Otherwise it was anarchy. I let him have his fun, even dressing up when they took over the country and all."

He patted Liz's head.

"Why is Liz here, anyway?"

" Good question, well. I don't know what's got into Alex or George or the other one. Liz can't take the pressure at the moment. Sending her on a mission to blow off steam tz." 

He stroked her head. 

"She ran off after the mission and came to me in a panic. She had a difficult childhood."

"But..."

Uther looked at him.

"True, she got a lot of love from her siblings, her parents, etc. etc. But other children often avoided her, or teenagers, etc. Her parents were always busy, and from a certain age so were her siblings. When her grandparents died and she didn't realize it, it hit her hard. Then she panicked and was gone. I took her in and got her back on her feet. "

He blew out a cloud.

"She's got three faces Luke, the radiant one everyone knows and well what you've already seen. I think that time she was alone with you at the amusement park, she was just herself. No expectations on her or anything. No pressure just Liz."

He looked at her.

"And of course they overdid it with her with the modifications. Tz elite soldiers need to be modified ... "

Luke fell silent.

Uther looked at him.

"Oh, sorry, one of the many reasons I left the army back then. "

Liz sat up sleepily, mumbled something unintelligible and pressed herself against Luke. He looked at her confused, then at Uther.

"Looks like she's more comfortable right now."

" But what the hell, I mean she broke Sergeant's bones."

" Well, she's in zen mode. Think of it more like she needs your body heat and heartbeat to come down."

He looked back at Liz, who was lying there peacefully.

" If you stroke her head now, she'll feel even better. "

Luke looked at him doubtfully and then stroked her head gently.