The Guardian Chronicles 2: Dark Horizon (9 page)

Stop it
, he admonished himself.
He’s not into you that way! Just concentrate on learning and not standing around staring at him!

“Gee, way to make him feel welcome,” Ryan grunted.

“Sorry,” Ethan said. “It’s good to have you man, really.”

Gabriel took the extended hand and shook it.

“Not a bad grip,” Ethan nodded. “I’m sure you’ll do fine, Ryan and Tony are almost as good as teachers are I am. I need to get going, I think that Jonathan wants to yell at me some more.”

“For what?” Gabriel asked.

Ethan shrugged. “I honestly don’t know I tune him out a lot.”

And then Ethan turned and walked away. Gabriel quickly turned back around to the other side of the gym, lest be caught leering at Ethan as he made his way out of the gym.

“Is he always like that?” Gabriel asked.

“Yup,” Tony said. “Sad thing is he can be like that because he is that good.”

“And he’s always been arrogant, he seems to think that he’s God’s gift to well…everyone I suppose. But yeah, he is that good, which is maddening sometimes.”

Gabriel refrained from saying anything else as they continued down toward the end of the gym. They happened on another ring, this one held two stunningly attractive females. Like Cody and Tony, they were both covered in sweat and looked like they had been sparing for hours. One had dark skin, dark hair, and deep brown eyes. The other was taller and blonde with gray eyes and short hair. Like the other girl, she appeared to very lean and athletic.

Had Gabriel been into girls he was pretty sure that his jaw would have ended up on the floor. Like everyone else in the Guardians that he had so far met they exuded an aura of confidence and power…and something else, something dangerous. But these two women did it and still managed to hold onto their beauty as well.

“Gabriel, this is Elise,” Ryan said, gesturing toward the girl with the dark hair. Gabriel took note of the look that Ryan gave Elise, although it appeared that she didn’t notice. If he had known Ryan better he would have asked what was up with that.

“Pleased to meet you,” Elise smiled.

“And this is Marissa,” Ryan said, indicating the blonde.

“It is my pleasure,” Marissa nodded.

“Elise is Lion like Ethan, and Marissa is Wolf like Cody.”

“Nice to meet you both,” Gabriel said.

“Pleasure is all ours,” Elise smiled. Gabriel liked her at once; she seemed very much like Ryan. Warm, caring, and radiating something that made him feel almost instantly at ease.

“Do you know where Everett is?” Ryan asked.

“Magic range,” Marissa said. “Blowing stuff up like usual.”

“Blowing stuff up?” Gabriel asked. “She is joking, right?”

“Probably not,” Tony responded, as they started toward the entrance.

“We keep the magic range away from the gun range,” Ryan explained. “They tend to react badly to each other, you know with all our explosives and whatnot.”

“You have explosives?” Gabriel asked.

“Oh yeah,” Tony smiled. “Lots.”

They exited the gym and continued down the hallway and around a corner. Again, Ryan had to punch in a code and the door opened, admitting them to a room that appeared to be just as large as the gym. What was different and immediately noticeable was the electric charge that seemed to run through the air, causing the hair on his arms to stand on end.

Most of the room was wide open space, littered with targeting dummies.

Seemingly out of nowhere, brilliant blue-white lighting arced across the room, slamming into a training dummy and causing it to explode. Gabriel blinked his eyes several times and looked left just in time to see Everett hold his hand and watched as he launched another arc of lighting from it, destroying another dummy.

“Whoa,” Gabriel breathed.

“Told you magic was real,” Ryan said, from his side.

Everett had was now charging forward, holding a staff that that looked almost like it was composed entirely of glass. As he approached the downed training dummies several shapes emerged from the ground. They were transparent humanoids, lacking any real features.

Everett flipped over the first one, landing and sending it flying sideways with a blow to the head. He spun the staff in a circle in front of him before slamming it down, releasing a shockwave of purple energy that toppled two more of the ghostly combatants. He dashed forward, closing the distance between himself and his remaining enemies and then launched into a full scale assault with his staff. Within minutes all the ghostly soldiers were strewn about the area, slowly fading from view.

Everett, breathing heavily and sweaty approached the group. He seemed to be wearing a grin that was similar to what Gabriel had seen in the faces of the others in the training rooms. He let go of the staff, which seemed to evaporate.

Gabriel found himself looking for the tattoo that he knew was gracing Everett’s skin. As if reading his mind, Everett sighed and lifted up his shirt, revealing a purple tattoo in the outline of an owl, with its wings spread out across the center of Everett’s chest.

“Everett here really enjoys psychology,” Ryan explained. “He probably read your body language or something. Either that or you were checking him out.”

Gabriel blushed at the comment and looked right down at the floor.

“Must be your first time seeing actual magic,” Everett smiled.

“How…what…when…” Gabriel stammered. “What were those things?”

“They were magical training constructs,” Everett explained, grabbing a water bottle and gesturing toward a group of teens across the room. Gabriel hadn’t noticed them until now, although they all looked like they had been training just as hard as Everett. “It takes a lot of mages to summon and control them. The more complicated the fight, the more concentration it takes out of you.”

Gabriel nodded like he actually understood what it was that Everett was talking about.

“How do you like the place so far?” Everett asked.

“It’s big,” Gabriel shrugged.

“He’s a man of few words,” Tony added.

“If you can do all that then why do you need…”

“The rest of them,” Everett smiled, looking at Ryan and Tony. “Because as much fun as it would be to go around smiting everyone with lighting big offensive spells like that are taxing, really taxing, and require a lot of concentration. Others, like that repulsion spell aren’t nearly as bad.”

“Do I even want to know what else you can do?” Gabriel asked, trying to keep the disbelief out of his voice.

“He can’t pull a rabbit out of his hat,” Tony offered. “He tries but usually he just ends up with some sort of fireball.”

“He’s joking, right?” Gabriel asked.

“I never could get that trick right,” Everett sighed.

“Wait, are you being serious?”

“Guess you’ll just have to find out,” Tony smiled.

Gabriel turned to Everett only to find that he also was smiling.

“What are those?” Gabriel asked, pointing to several glowing symbols on the floor of the training area.

“Glyphs or wards,” Everett explained.

“What do they do?”

“It depends on the glyph. Some of them like the ones that you see here, dampen our magic slightly so we don’t blow too many holes in the walls. Others, like the ones on the helicopters or the fixed wing aircraft, dampen the electronic signature. You can even use glyphs to seal a room or block out noise. Comes in awful handy if you have, how shall we say, adventurous roommates.”

“Hey!” Tony quipped. “You were warned.”

“I don’t think that I want to know what he means by that,” Gabriel said, shaking his head. Though he didn’t know Tony all that well, he surmised that his reputation for being a ladies man was well deserved. That last comment from Everett only furthered that assumption.

“Alright, see you later,” Ryan said, steering Gabriel toward the door. “We’ve got a few more stops to make.”

Gabriel nodded as they headed out of the room. If he ever had had any doubts about what Ryan was telling him, most of them had evaporated just like the weapon that Everett had been using. This was a world completely unknown to him and he wasn’t entirely sure that he was going to fit into it.

“What’s next?” Gabriel asked.

“Gun range,” Tony smiled.

“He really likes his guns,” Ryan explained, as they continued down the hall.

Tony only smiled at that comment, which made Gabriel a little nervous. Ryan stopped at another door, punching in a code again. The door opened and soon Gabriel found himself standing in a room much smaller than the other two. Thick glass separated the entryway from the rest of the room. Beyond the glass barrier there were ten rows of stalls, all of which were unoccupied at the moment. To the right and left of the door stood several gun lockers, all encased in glass. Tony walked over to one and entered a code.

“We have a lot of weapons in here,” Tony smiled, taking a handgun from the locker and then grabbing a clip.

“Wait, you aren’t actually going to fire that are you?” Gabriel asked, as they walked through the door to the other side of the barrier.

Tony only smiled, walking up to one of the stalls and flipping a switch that sent several targets popping up down range, all of them at different distances. Tony slipped the clip into the gun brought it up and unloaded every round in the clip, sending them all down range with deadly accuracy. Tony toggled another switch, bringing the targets racing to him.

“Holy crap,” Gabriel muttered, after getting a good look at the targets. All of the targets had clean holes through the heads and center mass.

“Are you kidding me?” Tony snapped. “That’s really not all that impressive. Watch this.”

Tony toggled another switch and then everything changed. Targets popped up from every angle and at different distances, disappearing at random, while others raced around. Tony jammed another clip into his gun, brought it up and fired rapidly. It was so fast that Gabriel couldn’t tell whether or not that he hit anything. Seconds later, Tony hit another switch, stopping the program.

“Now take a look at this,” Tony said, pointing above their heads.

A small LCD screen was blinking at them.

“Ninety nine percent,” Gabriel read. “Really, you hit every single one of those targets?”

“The computer only counts kill shots,” Tony said, making sure the weapon was safe.

Gabriel wasn’t sure if he should be impressed or disturbed by that fact.

“Here,” Tony offered, handing Gabriel the gun. “Take a shot.”

“I’ve never fired one of these things before in my life.”

“Good a time as any to start.”

Tony flipped a switch and a targeting dummy popped out of the floor.

Gabriel took the weapon and held it just like he was instructed to do so. He squeezed the trigger, sending a glowing blue projectile down range. The bullet impacted the targeting dummy, sending a net of electricity sizzling and popping along the dummy’s surface.

Gabriel yelped in surprise, Tony and Ryan both let out a giggle.

“What the hell was that?”

“That was a stinger round,” Tony explained. “It does...well that. It’s designed as a less than lethal way to take someone one down.”

“That does not look anywhere near non-violent,” Gabriel huffed.

“It only kicks out as much voltage as a taser,” Ryan assured him. He went to the wall and grabbed another clip and swapped it out with the one that was currently in the weapon. “Try this one.”

Gabriel hesitated, though he supposed he would have to get used to these weapons eventually. He took a deep breath and pulled the trigger, sending three shots down range in rapid succession. Unlike the stinger round, these glowed red. All three shots impacted the target dummy, leaving smoking holes behind.

“Heat rounds,” Ryan explained. “Basically incendiary rounds, they work great for when you want to use lethal force.”

Gabriel didn’t even want to think about what kind of damage that could do to a human being. Though, he supposed that he needed so start remembering that the kind of people that the Guardians dealt with were ones that had already harmed innocents several times over.

“This next place is really cool,” Ryan said, as they exited the gun range. He led them down the hall, this time stopping next to a door that didn’t have a keypad. Gabriel could clearly read infirmary across it, he had a feeling that he had been here before.

“Get injured a lot?” Gabriel asked, as they stepped through the doors.

Although given his own experience with the sort of work that they did – and now he was doing – he believed that they needed a fairly expansive medical facility to deal with a variety of job related injuries. The room was bathed in a soft blue glow and looked much like a modern ER. Curtains could be closed off around the twelve beds that were scattered about the room in a horse shoe shaped pattern.

“It’s good to see you up and moving my friend.”

Gabriel turned to see a young man walking toward him.

“Gabriel, this is Aadesh, he’s our surgeon and the guy that helped save your life,” Ryan explained.