fortifying the mind

One by one, the students led by miss lira then headed to the training room. Placing her right palm to the small palm biometric machine just by the side of the door, her imprints were then scanned.

[Biometrics confirmed. access granted!] The robotic voice chimed, with the titanium door making a clang sound before going backwards, revealing the training room.

"Woah." There were looks of shock and amazement on their faces, seeing the mind-blowing spacious room in front. Several huge glass windows were placed in respect of walls, several equipments were stationed for use, duel arenas, white oval pods, you name it!

Everything they ever needed to train with were already here, just waiting to be used.

"This way." Miss lira said walking forward along with the elite squad following behind her, she then led them to the pod area as she was about to say something.

"Am sure most of you are excited to try out the cool gadgets here." She smiled, and many had already started shaking their heads in approval. They just couldn't hide the excited and anticipant look on their faces.

"Well you can keep on dreaming cause it's never going to happen." She spoke again crushing their hopes, as the excited looks on their faces immediately dwindled down.

"What happened? I thought you were all excited, why the sudden change in expression?" She chuckled softly, a sly grin plastered on her face seeing their reactions.

"Anyways.. it's never going to happen, because you all haven't completed the first stage of training which is fortifying your minds." As soon as she said those words there were small chitters and murmurs, amongst the crowd of students.

"Boring.."

"What does she mean by fortifying our minds?"

"Yeah. it sounds kinda creepy, like some mind control shit."

"I don't want to be controlled."

"Silence!" Miss lira shouted, causing the little murmurs and talks to immediately die out. She was really annoyed and disgusted, by the way this supposed weapons of the resistance acted like mere babies.

"Do you all think this is a joke." She angrily spoke, staring at the students who had their head bent down.

"Since you all think you don't need this ridiculous training, why don't we see how well you do in combat."

"You and you! step forward." She pointed to an average body dark haired guy, and to another person Atlanta once wanted to beat the hell out of.

'This should be easy.' Kaiser had a cocky smile plastered all over his face, as he confidently stepped out standing opposite the boy facing him.

"Imagine both your opponents are hunter's that abruptly attacked you, and both of you are now engaged in a life or death battle." "Show me how much am wrong." She smiled, gesturing for the duel to begin as the students made space for the duo.

"Ahh!" Kaiser was fast already going in for an attack, his fist sent out aiming for the boy's head. The boy was also ready as he blocked by lifting his arm up to his head, sending out his knee to Kaiser's gut.

Sidestepping, Kaiser then attempted to slam the boy to the ground but the latter predicted this, avoiding and sending out a kick to Kaiser ribs.

'That won't work.' Sending out a kick of his own, he followed up the momentum by swiftly sending out his tightly clenched fist to the chest of the boy. Just as the attacks were about to collide, they heard two bang sounds go off.

And the next moment, it felt as if a trailer slammed both their legs shoving them off their feets to the floor. No less than one or two bones, were broken in their legs from that unknown attack.

"Looks to me like you're mind's are blank." she coldly spoke, holding her black whip reaching the floor.

"Y-you did this, why?" Kaiser yelled, having finally realized who the attack came from.

'Bang!' Miss lira swung her whip fast again and Kaiser couldn't keep up with it, he was sent skidding across the floor a bit with a bruised body.

"This was a simple analytical test to test how quick you can respond in battle, and how well you've adapted to your surroundings to which you both failed woefully."

"You're lucky this is just an assessment and not a real life or death battle, cause you two would've been dead." She slowly uttered the word 'dead', letting it sink into their memories.

"Now would any of you lucky lads like to try your luck?" She asked with glistening eyes hoping for some more scapegoats, but unfortunately none dared to even look up straight after what just happened.

"Very well then, I'll take that as a no." She smiled softly, acting as if nothing just happened.

"You two can go back in line now." She calmly said, to which Kaiser and the black haired boy bowed slightly before returning to their positions.

"I know some of you may think some of the training you'll be undertaking here is trash or not worth your time, but I promise you it is. To become a full elite squad member, you'd have to undergoe the hardest and silliest of trainings, all of which are for your benefit." She paused for a moment, letting what she just said sink into their heads.

"You'll be under just three forms of training here namely the fortification of the mind, the physical enhancement training, and the last the advanced protocol training. They may sound easy, but I assure none of them are all roses." She smiled then moved over to a white pod beside her.

"This here is what we call a fortifier. It may seem like just an ordinary white pod, but don't let it's looks deceive you. It's been programmed to train and expose your minds to all sorts of battle experiences, making you mentally fit." She tapped it a bit. She could see most of the students view of perspectives had now changed, as they looked at the fortifier differently.

"All previous, existing, and new elite members must go through this process. so with that being said, who wanna go first?" She stared at the trainee's to see who was excited to try it out, but all were scared or didn't have the guts to do it.

'Wow.. I didn't think I'd scare them that much.' Miss lira thought, seeing none of them ready to volunteer themselves.

"I'll do it." A voice suddenly spoke with her hands raised.

"W-what are you doing?" Rhoin panickly asked, trying to dissuade Atlanta from her insane plan.

"It's just a mind test." she lazily spoke, placing Rhoin's hand from her's.

"B-but what if something goes wrong?"

"Seriously.. what could possibly go wrong?" Atlanta shrugged, not paying attention to Rhoin's nagging as she made her way through the crowd, standing opposite miss lira.

"Well well well... if it isn't the new kid." Miss lira had a smile on her face seeing Atlanta, she vividly recalled her from the time she first interrupted her speech.

"Are you sure about this?" She asked trying to get under the skin of Atlanta, but the latter had a calm face as she boldly answered.

"Trust me, I can take much more than this." Atlanta softly uttered, making the smile on miss lira's face grow more wider.

"Very well.. all you have to do is sit in the pod and the machine will do the rest." Nodding Atlanta then went to the entrance of the pod, it made a small hissing sound as the white frame slid open. Walking in, she calmly sat down on the surprisingly comfortable chair with the frame sliding shut.

"There are three processes you'd face from easy, medium, and hard." Miss lira explained, all to which Atlanta nodded. "But I must warn you, not many people have ever passed the medium stage let alone the hard." With that lira left the pod, standing besides the crowd of students as they watched Atlanta get tested in the fortifier.

[Easy stage activated. Stimulation starting in..]

[3..]

[2..]

[1..]

Atlanta suddenly felt her body go weak as her eyes went shut, opening them a minute later she found herself in a different place entirely.

'Where am I?' She was standing in a vast white plain without any signs of life at all, it was peaceful like a space where one's soul floated when dead.

'Wait, am in the Fortier.' She remembered the few incidents that happened, before she passed out.

[Stimulation has begun. Good luck!] She heard the same system voice from the pod and within the blink of an eye, the environment suddenly changed to that of a plain barren field with hard ground.

There were many towed up destroyed cars and spaceships, all lined up forming a huge pile extending far and wide. Up front she could see massive skyscrapers, small buildings, all destroyed and on the verge of collapsing.

"Shit." Multiple heat blasts where shot towards her location, dodging thanks to her fast reflexes she managed to hide under some of the towed and destroyed cars.

'Nexus are you there?' She reached out to Nexus, she didn't know if she could still access him in this space but she really hoped so.

[Of course Atlanta.] Nexus replied easing her worries a bit.

'Where are we?'

[We're still in elite city]

'No I know, I mean which location are we in this stimulation.'

[Location: elite city, date: 2006 time: 00:54pm. 50 years back during the first war against the machines.] Nexus said, making Atlanta stunned a bit as she took it in.

'Wait.. so you're telling me this is elite city, during the time the resistance fought the hunters?'

[Yes..]

'Why would they choose this location for me?' Atlanta pondered. she knew during stimulations, different locations and environments were used to help give the user, a better sense of his surroundings. She'd expected an arena or a plain field or something else, but never did she expect her consciousness to be transported 50 years back to elite city.

....

'H-how did this happen.' Atlanta wasn't the only one with a shocked expression, as miss lira was also surprised. She had chosen a different location for Atlanta but unknowingly, this was the location she was transported to.

'The machine hasn't glitched in forever.' She had been using this machine, to train future elite squads and it hasn't malfunctioned ever since so why now?

The students all had their eyes fixed on the huge holographic screen, projecting Atlanta's view inside the Fortier. They were all surprised to see elite city 50 years back, as none of them had been born that period.

....

'This might be the only chance I get, I might as well use this opportunity to explore.' She thought. Checking round, she saw the air was free from hunters shooting at her from smaller hovering spaceships. She wasn't going to take any chances as she carefully made her way out from the scrapyard, using the tall destroyed cars as cover from the air strike.

'What happened here..' It didn't take long before she reached the city, as in front of her laid nothing but waste and deserted city. Hunters were patrolling everywhere firing off at any civilian cyborg they saw, she also saw some of the resistance fighters fight back but alas, their numbers were nothing compared to the hunters. Heavy shots were fired off from cannons and energy beams guns from both parties, but when the dust settled the hunters came out victorious.

"So this is war.." She muttered seeing the scene unfold, she'd never seen war before so this was her first. Children adult young and old were being slaughtered mercilessly, lives were being lost like flowers being plucked.

"Hey who are you!" She was immediately jolted by the sound of a voice, as her attention immediately turned towards the direction in which the voice came from.

Looking at the two she could see they were hunters armed, one with a energy plasma rifle while the other was holding a ray gun. Her mind raised on what she could do as the duo inched closer, she still wore her elite squad trainee outfit so they would definitely know she was part of the resistance.

"Wait a minute.. she's with the resistance!" The one with the rifle yelled having identified her uniform, they immediately raised their weapons ready to fire at her.

"Shit!" She prepared to dodge but she doubted she could avoid much, she couldn't run cause she knew she wouldn't get that far.

'Swoosh! swoosh!' Two sounds cut through the air as the hunters dropped dead.

"Are you ok?" Atlanta heard a soft and sweet voice of a male, she thought she'd recognized. Opening her eyes, her view immediately became blurry with her eyes teary as she stared at her parents.

"Mom! dad!" She cried jumping to their bodies, hugging them tightly without a care in the world.