Training

After my morning rounds, I returned to my room only to find Alex was not there. It was too soon for breakfast, so I thought I'd better check around to make sure that nothing was brewing.

Peeking into the baths, I could see an almost catatonic Alex standing under the water. I slipped out of my clothes and went to the shower next to him. I snuck in before the next in line could. I noticed a bit of killer intent in Rachel's eye's as I butted in front of her until she recognized me and my right to jump the line.

"Alex, are you OK?" He turned on hearing my voice took one good look at me and hurriedly focused on my eyes. He was red of face before, but now he turned scarlet.

"Jane…" was all he managed in just over a whisper. I waited patiently ignoring the girls who wanted to chat with their new sister who turned out to be a hero, having helped rescue the littles of Crèche 290. "…Umm, well you see…, It's like this—three girls came and woke me and dragged me off to the showers this morning. Umm…, Did you know that girls take their clothes off before showering?"

I laughed in my sotto voice, "Come with me. I think you have had enough for now" Then changing from my whisper voice to my command voice, "Everyone, don't push Alex; she is still having trauma issues from the crash the other day. Give her some room, OK?"

I got some disappointed "Yes, Ma'am's" but they did back off. Snagging a towel, I helped Alex wrap one around his hips. I followed suit, although I don't think Alex relaxed much as after a glance at my attire his face started to burn up again.

As I was dressing in my room, back to back as had become our habit, I noticed in the mirror that Alex was sneaking glances at me and somehow that made me feel good inside. Breakfast was up to our usual standards. "Alex, today is our scheduled training day. Everyone here practices some form of martial arts. I generally teach. Let's see just how much you remember."

Academics were handled by self-paced learning in the study cubes. And if you did not understand it, you could grab anyone who had passed that section and get their help. I was saught out more than any of the older girls for guidance. As, according to all the girls, I seemed to know everything. But every other day we did training, and there I was the undisputed master.

Alex didn't blow a fuse this time as we all changed into our Gi's. Well, he did turn a tinge pink as he looked around at the twenty or so young women getting ready for this session. It turned out Alex's muscles remembered a lot. His moves were smooth, and he could find holds and openings that seemed like magic to the rest. He was almost as good as I am. I also noticed that Ariel ended up monopolizing Alex and as the two danced around in the way of the fighter that when Ariel could she stayed in the clench longer than needed, but somehow Alex was not turning red over this close contact.

We fought all morning. Afterward, Alex was so tired that he didn't react much when we all grabbed a quick shower before lunch. Ariel even helped scrub his back, and he only turned a bit pink.

After lunch was study time and I set Alex up with a review. The system would determine what he had conquered and what needed more work. When I went to pick him up for dinner, I noticed that his field of study was history.

If it seems that I was ignoring Crèche 290, you would be wrong. Jen and her team had been sifting through the evidence all night and all day. She reported to me right after dinner.

"Jane, what we currently know about the attack on 290, is mostly in the negative. We don't know what the gas was that knocked out the whole crèche. The residue that we recovered was unknown by the caretakers. The reports back on the girls from 290 all show that there were no lasting effects, although it appears that, given the slight amount of gas inhaled. That everyone had a much larger reaction to the dosage than the attackers probably intended—this is an assumption, but it seems to be a strong possibility. We did track back the intruders to their initial point of insertion. Based on the indentation of the footprints and their stride length, we estimate that they are much heavier and taller than the norm. As if somehow someone bred a tribe of Amazons."

"Good work, Jen, now get some sleep while I'm doing some thinking." Then gathering Alex up by eye, I headed up to my room. On the way, I told Alex, "I've got to ponder this information for a bit. You can come to watch me think or, if you feel up to it, go join the evening fun."

"I'm starting to get the hang of being a girl, and it is kind of fun actually. I'll go join the fun." And Alex turned back and headed towards the fun and games. I glanced back and noticed that as soon as he entered the recreation hall, that Ariel had her arm through his and was mighty close to him.

No matter how much I thought things through, I just did not know enough, I had some suspicions, but nothing concrete.

Hearing that the fun and games seemed to be dwindling, I went to find Alex. I found him alright. Ariel had him in a tight cuddle and was diving in to sample his lips as if they were the finest ambrosia she had ever tasted.

My guts started to knot, all the while, my head was saying how happy I was to see him being accepted into our group. I was standoffish in general, but with my team that I had named the Ninjas, I was much more relaxed. I swooped in and stole Ariel's lips for a goodnight kiss (by the way she is a great kisser.) And I rescued Alex at the same time.

Bedtime was fast becoming a non-event. We still turned our backs on each other, but that weird dance of trying not to be seen was not so funny looking anymore.

Talking to each other's backs as we changed, Alex asked, "Well, have you thought of anything?"

"Nothing my mind is blank. The only real clue we have is that whoever it is, is taller and heavier than average." And I sighed.

Alex repeated, "Taller and heavier than average?" His tone turned to one of excitement, "Do you mean like men are typically taller and generally more massive than women?"

I spun around forgetting my state of dress in my excitement. Only to find Alex had also turned to face me. "You're wonderful!" and I launched myself at him. By accident, our lips brushed. Well, a few other things grazed also, but who is counting?

Both of us suddenly stepped back, my chest and face were just as bright a red as I've ever seen Alex in the past few days. "Umm, thanks for the idea." While inside I was thinking 'Look, don't touch!' in an endless, mindless, loop.

Alex swallowed a couple of times, his mouth suddenly dry. "Sure happy to help, but umm…, don't you think we need to finish getting ready for bed? And his face lit on fire.