Growing Pains

Today had been a blur for Aaron. Constantly distracted by the evening g prior, his arm still throbbed with pain. All he could remember from how it started was how sore his hand was from smacking that scumbag. Arnold had given him a bowel of ice for him to rest his knuckles in when he'd got back but Aaron wanted to brave it out like he knew better than a man who used to punch people out for a living.

"How's the hand?" Mr Welling asked his son at the dinner table. Aaron kept feeling a tingling sensation from the wound but tried to ignore it.

"Ah ya fucker!" He Exclaimed. Aaron went to the bathroom to unwrap his shoulder.

"How?" He wasn't expecting this, he thought it may have clotted by now but he was bewildered. "Is this apart of my powers? I'm not indestructible but I can heal quick" Aaron brought up the menu. "How is it that its can heal this fast?" He asked.

"It is but one of four gifts I have granted you"

"So I can read minds, beat the shit out of wankers and heal stupidly quick" Aaron posed infront of the mirror with his shirt off. "Have i put on some size too? This is awesome" He knew that he wasn't super strong but he could definitely feel like he was stronger now than a few days ago. "I wonder what the last power could be?" He said aloud. The menu popped up.

"Would you like to open a portal to the proving ground?" Followed by yes and no. If it wasn't obvious already to Aaron, he was becoming addicted to the rush of victory.

The Wardrobed glowed red once again and he stepped through.

"Would you like to undertake the difficulty assessment?" Aaron was more than ready, but a raising of difficulty it would turn this into more of a chore. "But i do need to get more skilled, there's no telling how this Thomas Smith will react when I confront him"

"Yeah fuck it" Aaron answered.

He'd warmed up enough with the last five successful slaughterings of that poor shadow.

There was no call back to the armoury... the Arena got darker, walls were being erected from the ground.

"Arena is ready for difficulty assessment"

Aaron awaited his instructions. "Difficulty assessment: Eliminate all targets within the time provided...Time provided 2 minutes...number of targets: 26"

"Twenty six in two minutes...this place is huge" Aaron's voice echoed throughout the proving ground. "Gotta do it at some point i guess" Aaron gripped his short sword and Dagger tightly. "Maybe the parkour lessons i did won't go to waste."

"Difficulty assessment to start in 3...2...1." Aaron sprinted towards the first wall that let round to the right. "Gotta slash and run"

"Targets eliminate 1/26." Now onto the next with under a minute and a half left. Aaron hops onto one wall then up to the next yo get a better view of his targets.

"Fucking hell this is gonna be tough" he scanned once more.

"Targets eliminated 2/26"

"Targets eliminated 4/26"

"Targets eliminated 12/26"

"Time is up...please return to the Armoury" Aaron was exhausted. He knew he'd failed he'd just wished that it would straight up tell him.

"You have failed the difficulty assessment you have 2 daily attempts remaining"

"I get three attempts at each of these assessments, that's good to know" He thought.

"Would you like to try again?" Aaron surprisingly didn't feel disheartened.

"May aswell do one more, I've not done my pull ups today so I could do them when I get back" Aaron muttered. He made his way back out onto the arena.

"Targets Eliminated 5/26"

"Targets Eliminated 15/26"

"Targets Eliminated 23/26"

"Time is up...Please return to the armoury"

"Fucks sake" Aaron wheezed as he spoke. "Only three and i could have passed" Aaron was frustrated with how big the area was that he had to cover. "One last go then I'll have to wait till tomorrow anyway right" Aaron pulled up the screen.

"AGAIN!" He ordered.

"Difficulty Assessment attempt 3" All his wanted was to go back to bed after a long day but this, oh this he would lose sleep over for sure.

"Can I try a new weapon?" A doorway appears in the corner of the Armoury. Aaron sped towards the open door.

"A whole room for one gun" Aaron peered into the Firearms room of the armoury disappointed. "Lets take a look at that new training"

"Training available: Pistol handling. Firearms are a ranged weapon that do damage to human but do no damage to enhanced individuals"

"Enhanced individuals? Like this Thomas guy?" Aaron grabbed the revolver from the night before and headed for the arena.

Set up before Aaron had set foot in the arena was his dream come true. As firearms were nearly impossible to aquire in the United Kingdom due to strict gun laws the only way you could get to a real gun range with a real Pistol was through the black market or the company his dad invested heavily in.

"Training for varias weapons can be acquired when the corrosponding weapon has been acquired"

"How much ammo do i get" Aaron raised the revolver down range.

"Any weapon that requires ammunition no longer does whilst using it within the proving ground." That brought a smirk to his face.

"Unlimited ammo has been unlocked" Aaron said in the same way the ai voice did. "Now this is gonna get fun" Aaron raised his weapon in the direction of his target, the brought his left hand as to steady his aim.

BANG! BANG! BANG! "3 ROUNDS FIRED, 3 REMAINING"

3 shots and 3 hits. The targets down range were your standard sort of targets you'd see in the movies.

Most angel investors tended to put their money in and leave the board along with the employees to use it as they see fit, Mr Seth Welling on the other hand had an office overlooking the city. Unfortunately for Mr Welling this meant that he was easy to find for one Private eye that had a few questions for him.

Dustin Wilson, a private eye looking into what be considered to be the most interesting case of his career had managed to infiltrate the upper levels of Stellar International's office.

"If it remember correctly, his office should be down the hall and to the left" He was using the janitors cart he'd acquired along with a cleaners uniform which he'd managed to buy from a former employee, the rest was just his gift of the gab.

He knocked on Mr Welling's door. There was no answer so he knocked again. Heavy footsteps could be heard approaching on the other side.

"Who is it?" The voice asked. Dustin had disguised his voice during his time in the building and with the same Irish accent he responded.

"I'm the cleaner, sir is now a good time?" The door opened and stood infront of Dustin was a behemoth of a man.

"Get to it, i don't have all day" Mr Welling barked as he spun around to face the direction of the bookshelf where he kept his work whisky. Dustin pushed the cart into the office and set it up in the corner closet to the door. Mr Welling was stood with his back to Dustin.

"Plug in my thumb drive and get the intel I need" Dustin thought as he slowly cleaned to Mr Wellings desk.

"How long with you be?" Mr Welling asked.

"Around ten minutes sir"

"I'll nip downstairs to grab my afternoon coffee, Is that okay with yourself like?" Dustin nodded.

"This will make this even easier" he thought. When Mr Welling left the room Dustin made a b-line for the laptop.

"Put this in here and all I have to do is take it to my client" Dustin plugged the thumb drive into the terminal.

The screen went from the login screen to red...no information seemed to in the process of being extracted. "What's this all about?" He asked himself.

"WHOSE IDEA WAS IT TO CLOSE THE COFFEE SHOP? CECILE I WANT THEM IN MY OFFICE AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!" Mr Welling was getting closer.

"Straight up asking may have to do" Dustin stayed planted by the laptop as this hulking man entered.

"I had you pegged the moment you walked into the building Detective Wilson" Mr Welling went back to his whiskey. "Go on then" He said in a stern tone.

"I take it you know why I'm here?" Mr Welling indeed knew and nodded at the private eye. "I've been hired by Olivia Sturges, her husband worked for Stellar International" Dustin explained. "She's not seen or heard from him in ten months" Mr Wellings expression told Dustin that he was on the right track.

"David Sturges handed in his notice around that time, see he was the head of R&D. I was annoyed but I know better than to hold onto someone if they don't want to work for us anymore" Mr Welling was smug. "Do you know who owns the security company looking after this building?" He asked. Dustin didn't need to hear the answer.

"What happened to Davis Sturges? Because he never went home to his wife that day" Dustin had been chasing this for a while and untill now the closer he'd gotten to Mr Welling was the Galar a few nights prior.

"I've told you all I know" Mr Welling Cleared his throat. "You can either walk out on your own or i could get my army of ex Military personnel to do the same thing but just a little more aggressively" Dustin was trembling and struggled to hide it.

"I'll go on my own, save your men the paper work"