Chapter 14 – Falling

“Come on, Mr. Argento. It’s not that far of a gap!”

Lars shouted out from the other side of the crater, where Divinity and her team stood happily. Barry’s grin couldn’t have been wider as Anthony cleared the jump in a single attempt, leaving only Sal on the other side. The whole class had been an absolute nightmare, and Sal was ready to wake up from it.

As he took a wary glance at the distance, Sal’s muscles were protesting already. His body was in no way ready for this, and he was going to regret it. Gritting his teeth, Sal took a few steps backward and tried to psych himself up. The comments from the other teams behind him didn’t help, and Sal refused to turn around, lest he’d see their pitying looks.

With a sharp intake of breath, Sal rushed forward and planted his right foot down on the tiny patch of even terrain before launching his body over the small crater. It wasn’t an impressive jump by any means, but it still rewarded him with a horrible shooting pain that went through every joint in his body.

His slight reprieve was the moment of airtime before he landed, when his body threatened to buckle under his own weight. As if sensing that he was injured or in a combat scenario, his trousers activated upon landing, causing more cracks to appear on the ground around him. More than a few eyebrows raised at the dramatic landing, with Barry’s laughter adding to his embarrassment.

Lars gestured for the other students to move back from the edge of the crater as he looked at Sal thoughtfully.

“Care to explain what’s going on, Mr. Argento? From all the fights I watched, you have a lot more to offer than what I’m seeing.” He paced around Sal with a flicker of annoyance that eventually transformed into curiosity.

“He asks about general fitness and refuses to step out to the side.” Lars spoke almost to himself as he smiled at Sal. “You’re not going to get penalized for admitting this is too much for you. Supports need to work on themselves more than anyone else, but incremental gains are the way forward. You can’t undo a whole lifetime of being sedentary in a single evening, so please ensure that you take care of yourself, okay?”

Sal nodded and made his way toward the group. They spent the rest of the morning going through the gauntlet at a snail’s pace, with many of the other students struggling to overcome the basics.

The jeering from his team died down when they saw how much pain he was in, and their tone switched to worry and encouragement. Namely, Barry did the encouraging while Blathnaid fussed endlessly that he was being a stubborn ass.

Divinity’s smile never faltered, so Sal knew that he would at least survive the day. She was likely enjoying the fact that his short-sightedness had thrown him into the deep end. Sal’s only cause for annoyance was with himself. The only small reprieve was the growing essence in his chest.

During rest periods, Sal inspected his core and saw that the threads were growing in strength with every passing hour. His hunger was reaching new heights too, and he wondered whether the increased appetite was a result of Vanessa’s handiwork.

When they got into the afternoon, Sal looked back through the simulated battlefield and felt a small sense of accomplishment. He had crawled under wreckage, leaped over countless craters, identified weaknesses in surrounding structures, and even managed to climb to the top of one of the ruined buildings.

The final step was a makeshift zip line that connected to the supposed safe zone at the end of the course. Sal looked at it warily. There was no way he was going to manage it. Even if he had the upper-arm strength to hold his bodyweight, he’d have been nervous about it. In his current state, it looked like a death wish more than anything else.

Sal turned to Divinity, and she shook her head. That confirmed it. It wasn’t going to happen, and it was time to step to one side.

“Sorry, Professor. I think this is my limit.” Sal turned toward Lars with a grimace.

Rather than agreeing with him, the field instructor shook his head with a smile. “I’m afraid I can’t approve of that, Mr. Argento. You’ve managed the rest of the course, so I can’t abide by you tapping out when you’re so close to the finish line. Recover your strength as much as you can, and we’ll allow you to go after the other teams have finished.”

Sal could only gape at Lars in shock, but rather than continuing the discussion, Lars clapped and issued out the instructions for how to use the zip line.

“Nobody is allowed to use their powers here. You could be at your breaking point out in the field, and our dearest Support teams have set up this extraction point for you. Some of you could be injured or on the brink of death, and this is quite literally your lifeline to get out of danger. It’s important for you to know your weaknesses, and this small exercise is usually a wonderful wake-up call.”

He hiked his thumb over his shoulder at the space between the buildings. “There is padding down there to break your fall, because many of you are going to. See this as a leap of faith, and a chance to show me that you believe in your physical strength.”

Knowing there were safety precautions made the challenge a little bit easier, but Sal was under no illusion that he was in for a world of pain when he hit those mats.

When everyone was briefed, Divinity and her team made their way across the zip line, with only Divinity managing to get to the other side. Her team of Supports fell within moments of their feet leaving the ground.

Sal felt better about everything as he watched both Jack and Blathnaid fall to the mats with a laugh. Anthony was next to hit the padding with a grunt. Maybe it was to spite Sal, but Barry made it the entire way across to Divinity on the other building, shooting Sal a grin while he was mid-journey.

The next teams followed suit, while Sal stood off to one side with Lars. They watched as more and more students plummeted to the mats, with relieved chatter from the ground making its way up to the top of the building.

“Looks like you’re suffering from dregs. Did you make something recently?”

Lars spoke so quietly that nobody else would hear, and Sal wasn’t even sure that he was the one being spoken to. After a moment of silence, Lars turned to Sal with a raised eyebrow.

Shaking his head, Sal tapped his chest. “Too much meditation, followed by a stupid workout routine.”

That statement was enough to pique Lars’s interest. He put a hand out expectantly. “Do you have it saved on your tablet? Show me.”

Sal wasn’t sure what to do, but the longer Lars was distracted, the more time Sal would have before he’d need to take on the zip line with the others. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled up the routine that Vanessa had made for him and presented it to Lars.

“And you did all this last night?”

Lars frowned as his eyes darted between the list and Sal, who wasn’t sure how to respond, so he just nodded earnestly. Before he could make any excuses for himself, or berate himself for the recklessness of his actions, Lars’s face broke into a smile.

“This is my routine. Is someone selling it at the Credit Store?” He didn’t sound annoyed as he handed the tablet back to Sal. “It’s throwing you in the deep end, but it is an excellent primer. If you keep it up, this gauntlet will be child’s play by the end of it.”

Sal nodded as he pocketed the tablet, happy that Lars hadn’t been annoyed by him referring to it as a stupid workout routine.

“Thank you, sir.”

They continued to watch as students started to lightly touch the bar of the zip line before throwing themselves down onto the mats. Lars barked a few instructions at them to actually try the challenge rather than giving up, but it led to a few halfhearted attempts at best. A few dozen students still needed to take their turn, so Sal still had time to psych himself up for it.

Lars smiled when he saw Sal’s expression. “It’s commendable that you want to improve yourself, but I meant what I said. You’ll only break yourself if you try to radically improve in a short space of time.”

Sal smiled politely as he inspected his internal core again, but Lars wasn’t done with his advice.

“I’m happy to see you trying this so diligently, when someone with your gifts would be content to hide away in a workshop until graduation.” Lars gestured at the zip line.

“Supports are vital to our success. Just having the equipment that can extract our Heroes from tough situations is great, but having Supports who understand our key challenges…that’s the special thing. You’re going to be bombarded with commission requests for weapons and defensive equipment, but I think the most value you’d bring to the field are devices that reduce casualties.”

With that said, Lars stepped away from Sal and started to coach each individual as they moved toward the zip line. Under his stern gaze, there were no more lackluster attempts at the exercise.

Sal mulled over Lars’s words as he watched the remainder of the teams take their turns. There were a few envious glances shot his way, usually by those being ushered into position in front of the zip line. With a glance at the other building, Sal could see that less than ten percent of the cohort had successfully made the journey across. Many of the captains had managed it, but there were a few others in their midst who Sal didn’t recognize.

When the moment of truth finally arrived, Lars grinned at Sal. “Don’t worry if you need to jump to the mats. I wanted you to see that you’re not a failure for being unable to complete it. Everyone has to have a starting point, and this is yours.”

Lars stepped to one side and gestured for Sal to get into position. The line was secured to a brick wall off to Sal’s left and shot down to a lower floor on the adjacent building, going off at an angle. The bar itself seemed to be pulled magnetically to the higher point of the cable, which didn’t have very far to travel from the previous failed attempt.

Sal looked down at the ground and could see a few people rolling off an inflated mat. There was laughter and cheering on the ground, but also shouts of encouragement coming from the floor in the opposite building. Nova’s voice carried louder than the others as she shouted for him to make it, and it genuinely calmed his nerves as he took hold of the bar.

With a final glance back to Lars, Sal braced his arms and readied himself.

Just at that moment, Barry’s voice cut through the crowd. “Lock your elbows straight and focus everything on your grip!”

Sal guessed that he was giving him faulty advice to send him straight to the ground, but when Sal stepped off the building, he took the words to heart and let his arms lock into position, with everything he had left being focused on maintaining his grip.

Maybe it was because none of his exercises had involved his hands, but Sal didn’t feel any real discomfort from them as he hung in the air. Tension shot to his shoulders, and Sal clenched his eyes shut, expecting his arms to eventually give out.

Every muscle screamed at him, and Sal desperately wanted to ensure that he stayed aloft for at least a second or two. The air whipped against his face, and he felt a weightlessness that he had never before encountered. The tearing in his right shoulder finally gave out, and Sal couldn’t stop himself from letting go. The disproportional weight caused the right side of the bar to shoot up into the air, leaving him dangling from the left side.

The jarring shake spun him in half a rotation before he lost his grip. Divinity had already indicated that it was going to be a failure, so he didn’t know why he was trying so hard.

Sal’s eyes shot open as his sunglasses fell from his face. He watched them, almost in slow motion, as they hit the mats while he remained suspended in the air. With a twist of his neck that caused intense pain, Sal looked around to see a set of hands gripping his leg.

Nova grinned at him as she hung out of the opening. Her grip was like iron. Above her, Divinity and Barry shouted for her to pull him up. Both of them anchored Nova as she made her daredevil-like attempt to catch him before he fell. As Sal was unceremoniously lifted onto their floor, he heard Lars’s laughter from the opposite building above.