The static in Xander's ears faded, leaving him in a limbo state. He rested in a void for a while, unable to do very much except think and stare back into the ebony maw. It wasn't harrowing or even frightening to him—uncharacteristically welcoming. He would awaken from his trance once the voice reached out to him again.
[It's time to wake up, Xander]
At the mention of awakening, Xander's eyes snapped open, staring into the bottom of the steel bedding that was hung above him. It seems like Kaiser had transported him back to his cell, more than likely. Upon shifting his eyes to the side, he saw Diane's small face staring sadly at him, though not crying. But the moment she saw her brother awaken, her disposition took one of shock, before subtle happiness.
"Xander?" she asked, whilst Xander rubbed his head.
"Yeah…I'm here," he said, before feeling her arms wrap around his neck in the makings of a hug. "Come on, I thought you knew I was a lot tougher than that by now."
"That doesn't mean I can't still worry about you."
Her legs were shaky, something Xander noticed readily after feeling her arms hug him. She had been standing for a good while by his side with her stuffed wolf in her hands, watching over him like a mother lioness of their cubs—though lacking any real protective ability within her stature.
"What happened while I was out?" Xander asked.
"They carried us back here, dragging that boy away who hurt you."
Xander instantly knew it was Icarus that she spoke of. Whatever they did with him, Xander knew it more likely had Falco or Duskwalker's name stamped right next to it. After the beating Xander had taken at the kid's hands, he grew quickly to understand why Falco would have an interest in him. Each punch he had received felt like being hammered with a cinderblock, firm and unyielding, unbreakable by ordinary means. And what was without whatever vector ability he possessed.
Imagine if I were strong like that…no one would have ever messed with us.
[You have a second chance then.]
What?
Xander immediately sat up, startling his sister. He scrutinized the contents of the room carefully for the voice that sounded so much like his mother, but found nothing in his search.
That voice again. This has to be my vector…It's something like Diane's–a glitch or something. But I still don't get how I can hear it here. Then again, Diane's own during the phase was doing the same thing…
Thinking so much about the issue made Xander's head hurt. Trying to understand the intricacies of his pseudo-dream tormentor was bad enough, but if it actually had a link to his vector, then that would lead to another whole list of queries, especially one's like why Diane's glitched state wasn't suppressed, or why Duskwalker's teleportation ability still worked.
"Xander, calm down. Nothing's here." Diane told him.
Taking a deep breath, Xander took his sister's advice. "Yeah–yeah, you're right."
Listen, whatever you are, can I at least know what your name is? Or if you're related to my vector or not?
There was no response to his thoughts. It didn't respond to the directive, either unable to answer that kind of question or trapped in some refractory period. Unable to get more out of the voice, Xander simply turned his attention back to conversing with his sister.
But as he did, the voice came right into his head.
[Someone is coming to the door.]
And just moments later, Kaiser was busy opening the cell door, standing in the doorframe like he had done so many times before.
"Subject #665," Kaiser said, with a bit of a grin on his face, "it seems like it's your lucky day."
If luck went so far as Xander's head getting dribbled against the floor, then much later, going through a recreation of one of his worst memories, indeed, he would be a very lucky specimen. Unfortunately for him, whilst those could be considered bad, the next words out of Kaiser's mouth were equally horrible, if not worse in some aspects.
"Your trial test is today. It got moved up in the schedule because of the Icarus incident." Kaiser continued.
Did he and everyone else not see me get put in the ground early?
"Come on, kid. I'm not trying to keep Falco waiting."
After Xander and Diane looked at each for a moment, their eyes said the consensus they were under. In that moment of unspoken words, coupled with memories and even a few words the voice had said to him by this point, a sense of realization hit Xander like a freight train. Its message was practically screaming at him in the face.
This is a second chance. I've heard of these trial runs…genuine tests of our abilities. If I can just show them some sort of flash of potential…maybe I can get us out of this, possibly even get a higher rank or something.
Trial runs were the only way lower-ranked vectors in the program could show their worth and have a chance of being viewed as anything better than a failure. But as it came with the upside of having eyes on the vectors and their abilities, it just as easily could lead to one's fall into irrelevancy, and in a good percentage of the cases, full-on failure—equalling termination.
Sometimes, since prior tests upon receival of one's vector were conducted—standard and rudimentary to know what the basics of each child vector was—children in higher ranks would be paired to square off against others of similar rank, almost like practical exam of sparring to see which was more fit to rise the ranks. But for rank-F vectors, exceptions were made. These ranks had little to no training, and testing for them was left up to the specialist's discretion to judge who to put them up against; no specifics or regulations were put in place due to how expendable they were seen to be.
Xander knew this would be his opportunity to make some sort of change. In this moment, he remembered the memories and vows the voice had shown him. Though Diane's eyes were scared for her brother's safety, a smirk came on Xander's face as he sat on the edge of his bed.
Turning to his sister, Xander told her, "Diane, I am going to be fine. And after this, you may need get roped into this too if they see the same potential in me, in you."
"What? What are you talking—?" she tried to say, before Xander ruffled her hair with his hand.
"Just prepare yourself until I get back, alright. I have a feeling they aren't just looking at me when it comes to this."
With a pained look on her face, Diane nodded. "Okay."
With a few final words to her, Xander turned to Kaiser. "Let's not keep my maker waiting."
********
Each of the facility blocks stationed nearby areas for spectating these trial runs and for training each vector rank. In these areas, classroom settings, sparring areas, firing ranges and a whole host of other things were implemented across the facility to develop these children's talents for hunting. The only sector, however, that lacked these certain qualities was the F-block sector, only having the aforementioned spectating rooms and sparring area for the specialists and the children to conduct their test runs. To make it out and be given such training, one needed to prove themselves to be better than the rank put upon them, a sort of prove-it test with major implications.
Multiple different sparring rooms were institutionalized, with about six rooms being down the F-block side and increasing in increments of two when getting to the higher blocks of the facility. The spectating room for each of these sparring rooms was a sky-box structure that sat at the far back of each sparring room, spacious enough so that large amounts of staff could be set up and different computers at an agency could spectate the room. Large window panes overlooked the sparring area from above, a large table in the center of the room with Dr. Falco's Vector Codexius was laid across it. The staff and their monitoring computers were set up against the walls of the skybox so that they mirrored the rectangular nature of the room.
Below the skybox was the actual sparring room, shaped in a square-fashion, just as monochromatic as the rest of the facility. However, the lighting of the room was in stark contrast, with the rays being dimmed to give a feeling of immediacy just as one would step in. Unique structures like battlefield cover were constructed around the room's tiled surface, each of them differing, starting from being no taller than a nightstand to as long and high as a walk-in wardrobe. This simulated the differing levels of cover that could be used in the real scenario of being sent on a mission. As such, they were destructible, made of an isotopic metal that was similar to the one used for the scaffolding of the children's vector—Igonite.
"Make sure everything is good to go. And check with Duskwalker to see if the dampeners are working properly if we need them." Falco said to one of the staff, tapping him on the shoulder, before walking to the window of the skybox.
"Come in, Duskwalker." The staff radio-ed in.
Duskwalker was at the far end of the sparring room, seated on one of the main silver, painted cover walls in the room. His legs swung back and forth without a care in the world, gently rocking his head back and forth. His hair was dreaded, his hood no longer over his head as his locks swayed with every movement. He seemed to have headphones in playing different variants of music, with most of his playlist being some form of Rap. Whatever device he used was hidden, like everything else about him.
"Duskwalker!"
With a quick shake of his head in surprise at the staff member's shout, Erebus double-tapped one of the wireless headphones, presumably to switch the channel.
"Goddamn, what? Can't you see I'm jamming out here…I had to take time out of my free-time to do what Falco wanted me to do before, and now I have to act as a test dummy." Erebus huffed, "Can't I get a sec without y'all breathing down my throat?"
With a deep breath the staff member tried to remain calm and responded, "We are just checking the power dampeners, alright?"
"Aren't we testing someone today? What difference does it make? They're going to be using their powers no matter what. And even if they get out of hand. I'll just put them into submission anyway."
Putting a finger to their head, the staff member rubbed their temple. Falco then came beside them once again and took hold of their headsets, intending to speak to Duskwalker directly..
"Listen…Erebus, you've always been a perceptive one and a good kid, alright. Just make the Lysander's life here easier so we can get this over with as quickly as possible. I promise I will see to it that you get a lot more in return than just your free-time."
Falco's voice had taken on a weird cadence that seemed to sweet Erebus, the boy taking a liking immediately to what he heard. With a quick smirk and laugh, Erebus responded to his creator.
"Alright, Gramps. Same as usual, I assume."
"Yes, Erebus."
Erebus reached to the back of the belt wrapped around his waist, detaching a small device that was circular with a constantly flashing red light attached to it. He pressed his finger to the flashing light; the device extended outward into a digitized interface with a myriad of functions.
He gave it a command: "Override Suppression Protector."
With that, the system interface re-stated his command in text form before following his directive. It then powered down and went back to its small circular nature. He then waved the item up in the air for Falco to see.
"Done, I can't teleport now," Erebus told him, the boy actively trying to manifest his vector with the inability to do so.
"I know he's your favourite and all, but damn, it's like he only listens to you," Lysander said.
Falco then gave the headset back to Lysander. "Because he knows what he is and what he is meant for. And he loves it because of all the good things it brings him. Tell them to bring in subject #665."
Underneath the Skybox in the sparring chamber was a small doorway that slowly peeled back to reveal Xander and Kaiser. Kaiser walked Xander in, removing his handcuffs whilst doing so. Xander marvelled at the size of the place, thinking that it had to be just as large as the cafeteria. But soon enough, his eyes settled on the most attention-drawing thing: the ebony-black menace of Duskwalker seated in the far back, having gone back to listening to his music.
Why does my day just keep getting worse?
Kaisers slowly left, whilst Xander was left in the room with a dark-attired boy, watching his carefree movements and music-filled head bops. He appeared to sing a part of the lyrics to the song his playlist was on.
"Yeah, I got all these racks, now they came in all blue. I feel like a butterfly just came out the cocoon, yeah, yeah!" Erebus sang, perplexing Xander as to the nature of the song, as it made little sense to him.
And he is now just listening to music. If I knew that this who I was going to die, would have rather died being killed by Icarus, Xander thought, before running back the whole thought in his mind, Nevermind, how about just not dying in general?
"Duskwalker, the trial is about to begin," Lysander said.
"Huh…Oh," Erebus said, taking out one headphone, disappearing it into his coat
After taking a good moment to look at who his opponent would be, Erebus's eyes widened, then soon, he let out a slight chuckle.
"Wait, aren't you the kid that got absolutely laid out by Icarus? I was expecting to fight him, not you. Now Falco has just gone and made this boring."
Ticked off at the reminder of his weakness, Xander grunted and grimaced at the young, cocky boy, staring daggers into him.
Don't worry, you bastard. I'll show you just how entertaining I can be.
[He is extremely dangerous. Proceed with caution, Xander.]
Like I didn't already know that. Wait—
[Yes, I am here with you know. We don't have time to answer everything you said before. I was limited due to the suppression tech.]
That means…you are part of my vector.
[This is not the time; focus.]
Just as the voice's words were finished, Xander's whole view was clouded in a bluish, digital interface analyzing and taking in every element of the room, from the material used to make the cover in the sparring room, down to the most minute changes in air pressure and vibrations. His eyes could register and keep track of it all. But much of it was so overwhelming that he soon began to feel a headache.
[Allow me to take away some of it. You need only a few things.]
In a second, much of the auxiliary information was removed, clearing Xander's vision. It was like his vector recalibrated itself into a simpler version, now only displaying his ceriumium intake amount, his Voltic Coolant amount, and damage taken amount. It also lost much of its blue lustre, with traces of it remaining.
[As an ability of yours, I will do my best to aid you. But after every ten seconds, I must recharge.]
Good to know.
Over a speaker, Lysander made one last announcement: "Trial run in progression. Duskwalker, take it easy on subject #665 for a while. Increment power only when told to."
"Seems like it's time we do this, small fry," Duskwalker said. "Hope you have some ability that can let you keep up with me."
Duskwalker's right arm then shifted into black, metallic scales all clattering about before making his patented katana that pulsed with dark shadows, virtually glued to his hand. "But I doubt you'll be able to."
"Begin trial run." Falco stated.