Country of Champions 20

Early the next morning, two hours before dawn, Garret was woke up by a light knock on his door. The guy found that he was so full of energy, he could hardly sit still but that didn't last for long as he was put through his paces while Orison watched on the sidelines in the training bunker. A spectacle of amazing superhuman feats, it was not.

No matter how 'perfected' Garret's physical performance was to the human standard, at his base, he was just a human. What made his enhancements shine when compared to a group of athletes, was overall performance rather than specialization. That was especially significant in a handful of important areas.

A runner might have up to around a twenty percent greater bone density in their legs compared to the average. Garret, who was originally around 15% greater overall, held a couple more and showed signs of density continuing to rise. That density trend held true in muscle fiber as well as percentage of muscle capable of both explosive strength and endurance. It carried over into recovery rate, resistances and even longevity.

Between observing Garret and reading up on Rogers family information, Orison realized just how much the world had paid attention to their conception and development over the years. If D-class Rogers family members could be considered the golden standard of humanity's top one percent, then C-class Rogers defined the limitations. After three generations of observation, when the S&M bars were established, physical performance mutations were measured against B-class Rogers family members' average base performance. They were the yard stick that humanity used to differ mundane from mutant on the physical side of things.

Orison wouldn't have been nearly as fascinated as he was with it but for something personally rewarding that came from such a study. There was a significant loosening of physical potential limits in himself. In observing and better understanding human potential and how it was achieved, dormant supernatural forces within himself had discovered new definitions of limitations for his own body. Ones that didn't conflict with the directives he had instilled long ago and continued to subconsciously desire.

The young mage could finally understand why he had felt that reaching a helping hand out to the teen had seemed like such a good idea, even with the cost and aggravations. For Orison, who deeply desired not to move any further away from humanity than he already had, Garret was practically a living instruction manual on how to get the most out of a human without fundamentally changing them to something else. And whether meaning to or not, Orison's own personal code would allow nothing less than returning to the teen value of advantages given within his reasonable ability to do so.

Once the gambit of basic measurement exercises had been ran over the course of an hour, the young mage called a stop. "That's enough. We're trying to get a good idea of where you are, not start training to reach new personal records this morning."

Looking somewhat disappointed in himself, Garret said, "I-I expected a lot more. I felt like I had a lot more to give but just couldn't seem to reach it."

Orison chuckled. "Your body's not much different compared to a person who recently recovered from a period of malnutrition and long term illness. Despite that, you can slightly outperform your original standard. Imagine how much that will improve over the next couple of weeks. Imagine how much more you can pull out from your newly expanded potential over the next few months!?"

He gave the teen a quick breakdown of what should be avoided and how to best take advantage of the body's attempt to fill in bone tissue and muscle fiber while it was actively attempting to 'heal' present tissue and fiber to its new density standard.

"After taking a look at my history and bars, trainers would push higher load strength training and letting the rest take second string. You're telling me that I can even choose to refocus to an agile spec if I want?" Garret said, mild excitement beginning to build.

Orison smiled wryly. "You're the one who told me survival is justice. In this case, that would mean balance would equal justice. We're not jumping into dark age warfare. Being stronger doesn't mean having to run less and being more agile doesn't mean you'll be able to escape. Consider why Avalon rates a large collection of E-class M bars 'broad spectrum D' or a collection of D's broad spectrum C-class.

"But returning to your previously puffy muscles. I think I know what the real reason was. The hormone imbalance in your food several years ago, manifested itself in such an unpleasantly semi permanent way because I believe your mom scored you some illegal enhancers."

Garret became upset and ranted for a bit.

Once the teen calmed himself, Orison added, "I think she was actually trying to help you and even though the results came with a slight drawback, it's probably what got you over the hump to accelerator to begin with. Now, I don't like her but that doesn't mean you have to be as obtuse about her as I'm intentionally making myself. There's plenty of evidence that she has looked out for you the best way she knew how, through her somewhat mentally ill way.

"I got a notification from the board of health affairs AND the board of legal affairs at three this morning. The babysitter who tried to pull herself up in the world on your jockstrap, went to the hospital last night. She was there until almost one. Tests suggest that she had more than one synthetic source of progestin in her bloodstream when she declared herself to be taking NO sources."

Garret blinked in silence, somewhat stunned. "But I only gave-"

The young mage interrupted. "Yourself the impression that she took a Plan B? Apparently your mother had an impression that the babysitter was taking birth control as well. No wonder she felt comfortable letting the girl give you a pregnancy scare. Pet theory here. She may have been under the assumption that you were getting a little too sloppy with your affections and was afraid that you would be the victim of someone like her younger self.

"She's still crazy. She's still in a tailspin. I still don't like her but she might not be the monster yesterday's water park incident painted her out to be. It's not as if she could come out and say that her little play with what's her name was just a big misunderstanding when she was caught red handed hamming it up. The only way she could clear her name to you would be to admit drugging a teenage girl."

A little panicked, Garret said, "There's going to be an investigation! God, it's only been three days since she pulled her bathroom stunt. Didn't anyone tell her that you have to wait a week afterwards or you might get a false negative?"

Orison said, "You don't have to admit anything. I guarantee your mom won't, even if someone was pulling her teeth. The very same catch that would keep you from clearing your name if that girl was pregnant is the very same catch that'll stop her from accomplishing anything meaningful.

"The burden of producing evidence of wrongdoing lies on her and the law enforcement involved aren't emotionless robots. They're going to piece it all together and secretly clap kudos for you even as they put their all into finding that evidence they hope they won't find. You'll be fine."

"For your sake, I even swallowed my bile and sent Janet a message that I'd cover any fines or fees associated with a civil suit if they somehow figure out how to earn a handful of merits that way. I took the liberty of telling her to get her insanity back to high functioning levels again while I was at it. It didn't quite have the impact I wanted, though."

"That... person actually thanked me. These two emojis made my skin crawl... I know how to make this heart one but how do you make the crying smiley face one?"

Garret didn't say anything. He just patted Orison's shoulder and headed off the the shower stall in the training bunker. Sensing the need for a couple minutes of alone time, the young mage left him to it and went to make breakfast.

Around the time he was finishing up, Garret was sitting down to his honey glazed chicken and orange juice as Rio zombie shuffled in and paused on his way to reach for cereal. Before the kid could pop off, Orison shoved a plate of turkey bacon, eggs and hazelnut spread on toast over with another glass of orange juice. Telling the overlooked Glenn to help himself, the young mage looked on in confusion as the guy swallowed a large spoonful of raw honey, chugged down a glass of milk and started cleaning up the dishes.

In amusement, Orison said, "If someone had offered you sleeping clothes to change into last night, would you have immediately left, never wanting to come back?"

As Glenn broke out in large beads of nervous sweat, he said, "Don't be ridiculous."

Feeling a little mischievous, Orison said, "Spell work can lower blood sugar. Which one do you want me to fix tonight, brownies or-"

The pan that Glenn was scrubbing slipped out of numb fingers.

"-Honey cakes?" he finished, watching slow rising horror compete with a salivating mouth on Glenn's face at the mention of the second option.

Rio shrugged. "Whichever you feel like. I don't have much of a sweet tooth."

Orison said, "Well, since I'm approving your junior trainer to come over on legacy training nights, if he wants, I'll let him decide."

Glenn turned around with sudsy hands and blurted, "Honey cakes."

The young mage smiled and said, "I don't know how much you might need to run in and out or pull overnight sessions but if you're the guy that Blue Rose is providing to help with Rio's supplementary physical training, feel free to keep a few personal affects in the far left locker cabinet of the training bunker's storage room. I know how trainers can be a bit OCD about using other people's towels and clothes."

Catching the drift and latching onto the offered excuse like a life-line, Glenn said, "I-I really appreciate that. It's the sweat and stuff, you know. All that hygiene awareness makes you a little crazy."

As he passed by the man on his way to finish getting ready for school, Orison whispered, "By guest rights I bind you. Do no harm within my home."

Glenn's skin pebbled in goosebumps. A small spark of fear and awe lit up inside the man's face. It was the first time in his life to be touched by the deep magic and he felt it keenly, even through the dulling and watering down of human blood.

The look of awe still hadn't completely left the man's face as their ride to the teleporter station showed up. With a quick reminder that the three members of Orison's household were only were cleared for two uses a day apiece for distance hardship, they were on their way. Thankfully, they found out that the short range teleporter was cleared for use up to four people at a time which left some creative wiggle room.

Once they were at school, Rio rushed off to find Daphne. They had been separated for a whole eternity of one night without any real time to video chat. It belatedly dawned on the young mage that in an imitation Earth, 1970's America, someone like Rio may have been very popular with girls but they would have mostly been secret hookups. Openly dating free of societal harassment would surely be like a fantasy wonderland to the girl crazy teen.

Mentally shoving errant thoughts aside, Orison realized that Glenn had continued following him and Garret long past the point the junior trainer should have veered off to get to morning Rowdies standard session. "Uh, not that I mind you tagging along but wont you be docked or given demerits for showing up late?"

The Brownie blooded man realized his own error and parted ways with burning ears.

In amused confusion, Garret said, "What was that about?"

"Let's leave it at bloodline affinity for now. It touches too close to personal secrets. Something you should understand pretty well after yesterday," Orison said blandly.

For the first half of the day, they were in Juice Box after Garret had applied for an academic leave from morning training session. Abusing guardian privilege to mess with other granted ones, he split off a fifth of his logged VR time for Garret to use. By the time that midday rolled around, they were both glad to be done. Four hours continuous on the settings Orison had pushed for had tested his maximum ability just a bit too hard. He was glad that he had split some off for the teen or he might have experienced the 'echoes' side effect that LeStrange had warned him about.

After a light lunch, they went to the campus quiet room for a half hour nap that Orison ended with, "Are you ready for this? It's going to take about two hours. So, if you need to do some business that involves paperwork or whatever, it's the last call."

Without waiting for a response, Orison brought out his ring, viciously palmed Garret in the guts and followed it with a heal. The teen rushed off and came back five minutes later with a look of betrayal on his face.

"You saw some of the more violent parts of the obstacle course. You've even ran it once. Do you want to be distracted by personal needs right in the middle?" the young mage said with an appeal for understanding on his face.

Garret's temper simmered down but he continued to grumble on the way.

"Well, well. Look who finally decided to grace us with his presence," The head instructor said jovially with just a touch of ridicule.

Taking advantage of the pause of silence caused by the man's words and the inborn respect that kept the ten seats from shouting challenges while the man talked, Orison said, "I challenge Aiden Firebrand for the title 'Prince of the Hill'. Once I'm done, I want to challenge the First Hill obstacle course to test out."

Everyone in the gymnasium dropped what they were doing to get closer.

The lead instructor said, "Hold your horses, kiddo. The seats get a shot at you first. We'll-"

Orison interrupted. "Then I'll take the first seat challenger with Aiden."

Getting a little red faced, the lead instructor said, "I'll allow it but if you interrupt me again, you'll be spending an hour duck walking before you do anything."

He sensed a trap in the statement. The instructor stopped talking as if waiting for an apology. Orison knew he'd be punished if he spoke because the man would immediately say something but be punished for disrespect if he didn't apologize. To wiggle his way out, the young mage offered a 'respect to the teacher' bow with cupped fist as if he was in a dojo.

As he held it, waiting to be acknowledged to stand straight, the young mage thought, "Your move."

Conceding the first round of psychological sparring, the instructor opened the floor to the waiting reserve seats.

As they clamored to be the one chosen, 'Red' said, "That's not fair. When I win, you won't accept it."

Orison said, "Not only will I accept it, I'll call you big brother for the rest of the week."

Aiden's face lit up like a Christmas tree and said, "Really!? Then you better get ready, my little brother."

Black lines ran down Orison's face as a few more eastern term savvy people snickered.

The cocky youth in red turned towards the sidelines and said, "No one's allowed to laugh at my little brother but me!"

While Aiden looked dumbfounded at the handful of people who were trying harder not to laugh and therefor failing worse, Garret leaned in and whispered, "He's fast and a home trained striker. The one that's being selected from reserves to join him isn't well trained but flexible and capable of absorbing punishment before he'll go down.

While the lead instructor got everyone calmed back down, the young mage looked over his opponents with faint spirit sight. The boy with a slight green/gray hue to his skin had a strange elasticity to his skeletal structure and Aiden had some kind of enchanted earring that definitely counted as a mild physical enhancer. Orison wanted to complain about how First Hill trainees weren't allowed equipment of any kind but there was no way that the instructors didn't know about it. Ultimately, it didn't really matter that much anyway.

While the three squared up inside a mat floored area, he noticed that Aidan had a look of innocent glee on his face. There was no malice or contempt at all which conflicted with Orison's first impression. The kid was just a lonely and socially awkward try-hard, presumably too good to be in accelerator but not good enough for elite. He sympathized that it would be rather hard to make friends if the elite looked down on you but the classmates you were with saw you AS an elite stealing their limelight.

A little segment of time was given for the sharing of words, mostly used for trash talking. Not into playing dumb games When it was his turn to speak, Orison just asked why Aiden's title was Prince instead of King of the Hill. The instructor chimed in that he was the king and that would be the same for the other two hills as well. Instructors were number one and only number two was given to student's during the Three Hills.

With a final lecture on no special abilities besides internal and passive augments being allowed, the lead instructor blew his whistle to start the spar. A few was curious about what Orison could do but most were just waiting for a quick end so things could get back on track. Sparing a glance over, he noticed that the instructor was more for the second than the first and the young mage smirked at him.