Chapter 17: Chapter sixteen

Fourteen years ago

 

Eleven fought against one of the other candidates. Twelve, his opponent, had a couple of years and a couple of inches on Eleven. He had more experience and better reach. He was also a psychopath.

Eleven was holding back.

As the other boy came in, his left leg began to twist as though he would throw a kick with it. Though, from how his weight was resting on his right foot, Eleven could see it was a feint.

The clearest path to victory would be to move as if to block the feint with his right arm, then use that movement to drive a blow down into Twelve’s head as he used the feint to try to take Eleven to the mat. From there it would be a simple matter to sweep his opponent’s legs out and knock him insensible with a price heel to the head.

A flashier way to win would be to reverse the takedown, get control of his opponent’s leg, and then break it in any one of three places.

He did neither of these things. He brought his arm up to block the feint, then let Twelve tackle him to the ground. The moment he hit the mat, he writhed out of Twelve’s grip and got the other boy in a straight armbar. He took a couple of blows to the head before the instructor called the fight.

“Almost had you that time,” Twelve said as they returned to their positions to watch the next pair of candidates spar.

Eleven grunted as though there was any truth to that statement. It was quite the performance.

Eleven had always had a gift for fighting, but it wasn’t until he started to truly develop his mind palace and mental techniques that his gift really came into its own. His knack for the Program’s mental techniques combined with his knack for combat combined to create something that was greater than the sum of its parts. Somehow the development of his mind had given him truly masterful control of his body and a deeper understanding of hand-to-hand fighting than any grandmaster could boast.

By the time he was eleven years old, Eleven was the best fighter in the Program and getting better every day. He had realized that he couldn’t demonstrate just how good he was to the others, lest they get ideas about poisoning him in his sleep or something. There was more than one fragile ego at the Program. So, he could be better than them, but not so much so that it was humiliating. He had thrown some fights early on. Even now that he was nearly sixteen and recognized as the best fighter in the Program, he made sure that some of the others felt that they would have a chance of beating him if they worked hard enough.

Even so, he had been undefeated for so long that the instructors were bound to start setting two-against-one matches for him soon. He would probably have to throw one or two of those to begin with or else Twelve or one of the other, equally psychopathic, candidates might get it in their heads that he needed to disappear.

After martial arts they had two hours of basic, taught in Arabic because it was a Thursday. They were learning advanced calculus from a mathematician the Program had recruited out of Bahrain. After basic knowledge, the candidates filed into the mess hall for lunch. Eleven sat next to Five, as had been his habit lately, and the two made small talk while they ate. Eleven had always thought Five was pretty, with long, dark hair and excellent bone structure, but as they had gotten older, she had developed from pretty to hot. Eleven was aware that part of Five’s supposed change was likely that he had gone through puberty and so noticed attractive girls much more now than previously, but the fact remained that he found Five visually appealing.

He had other feelings towards her too, a nervousness at being around her and an affection for her as a friend and potentially more, but, as with all of Eleven’s emotions, they were distant, feeble things. Easy to ignore.

So, he sat with her and they spoke of small things. He had done this for almost a month now, establishing himself as her friend. Today, he planned to proposition her to be more than that. There had been couplings within the Program before. They weren’t as frequent as they might have been as there were only two female candidates and one homosexual male. Plus, they barely had any time to themselves and were usually exhausted when they did.

But, they were all teenagers, so it definitely happened. Five herself had been briefly involved with a couple of boys, and it was clear that she could have her pick of them. Especially since Eight, the only other girl there, wasn’t nearly as attractive. So, Eleven had bided his time, using only the subtlest of techniques at his disposal to ingratiate himself to her. But now it was time to make his move.

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“So,” Eleven said, meeting Five’s eyes.

“About time,” she said, interrupting him.

“What do you mean?” he asked.

“I’ve been waiting for you to ask me out for twenty-six days now. I was beginning to think you were never going to get around to it.”

Eleven was rarely speechless anymore, but he had no idea what to say to that.

“I suppose I could have asked you,” she said. “But you seemed to be putting so much effort into your little plan that I thought it would be best to let you see it through.”

“You knew?” Eleven asked.

“Of course. I’ve been to all the same psychology classes that you have. Plus, am I meant to suddenly believe that you care about making friends? Come on Eleven, I’m not an idiot.”

“I didn’t think you were,” Eleven said sincerely. “Disguise and infiltration never was my strongest subject.”

“You can say that again. You’ll have to do a lot better than that when you’re a superhero.”

“Well you’re top of that class. Maybe you could show me what I’m doing wrong?”

“You want to study with me?” Five asked.

“Not really,” Eleven said, opting for honesty since his subterfuge was apparently lacking. “It’s a pretext to spend some time alone with you. Really, I’m asking you out.”

Five smiled. “In that case, yes.”

So Five and Eleven ‘studied’ together, and it soon turned into more. They may have been candidates to become superheroes, but they were still teenagers, and there was nothing wrong with their hormones. Soon they were sneaking moments alone whenever they could and stealing glances at one another while they learned how to defuse bombs, perform field surgery and all the various other skills a superhero should have.

And day by day, Eleven slowly began to feel things he never had before.

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