Codi winced as the two quarter staffs smacked together, sending reverberations though both her wrists. She wore only her gloves right now while she and Lita free sparred. It had taken another week of training but Vasco finally let them loose on the weapon racks and started training them in a whole new slew of disciplines.

The staffs cracked again as they circled, each searching for an opening in the other’s defences. Then Lita stepped in for an attack and gave Codi an opportunity. Leaping inside the swipe of her opponent, she rammed her own staff crossways against the incoming weapon. Another jarring impact sent Lita’s staff rebounding away. In the same motion Codi twirled and ducked, stretching out her staff to neatly scoop the other girl’s feet out from under her.

Lita hit the ground with a yelp of surprise and Codi stepped over her in an instant, the butt of her staff at the girl’s throat. Her adversary scowled up at her for a moment before swatting the staff away bad-temperedly.

“Touchy, touchy,” Codi chided.

“You’re one to talk,” Lita retorted, picking herself up off the matt. “Nice spin.”

“A compliment? Really?”

“I’m a bit more gracious than some people.”

“Oh, let it go.” She flashed a vicious smile before her attention was snagged by a flashing movement across the training centre. Codi watched as Max, for the first time since she’d joined the academy, managed to hit his chosen target with a bolas. As the weapon wrapped around the neck of the training dummy their normally reserved companion let out a triumphant whoop that echoed across the training centre.

Codi smiled at that. Everything seemed to be looking up. Vasco’s brutal preparatory rituals were certainly taking their toll on the group in all the right ways. Physically she could see the difference in herself and her companions. Although the Gauntlet conditioning was subtle, it was unmistakable.

Everyone looked harder, leaner, their muscles far more defined that when they’d first arrived. And Vasco had also been right about their rising pain threshold. After spending the best part of two weeks, day in day out beating and being beaten by her companions, Codi stopped registering the pain as an anger trigger. For the first time in a long time she felt like she belonged somewhere. The more cynical part of her brain considered it brainwashing.

The twins took to the mats next, both armed with a training-weight Hacktor. Codi watched with amusement as the brothers managed to last a whole minute before the fight degenerated into a wrestling match, their weapons thrown aside. Neither of the burly pair seemed comfortable fighting with anything other than their own bodies. She, on the other hand, relished the weapon training rounds and had found an instant affinity for the quarterstaff.

“Another school yard brawl,” Vasco roared at them from his adjudicating position. “One of these days I’m going to crack your hollow heads together. Use the damned techniques I’ve been teaching you!” The twins exchanged sheepish smiles as he continued. “Codi, Lita, grab a Hacktor and show these two dolts how to spar with a weapon.”

Not exactly her favourite choice, Codi reflected, picking up one of the discarded Hacktors and facing Lita. Even at training weight they weighed a lot, enough to trouble her if a match stretched for too long. And Vasco had already pointed out several times that Gauntlet fights could last for as long as half an hour depending on the skill and endurance of those involved.

“Fight!”

Lita deflected her clumsy lunge with an easy sweep and counter attacked. Codi readjusted her footing to parry in turn, mentally cursing the sloppiness of her opener. A few exchanges passed with neither gaining the upper hand before they edged apart and circled. Looking at the other girl, Codi could have laughed at how different their approaches to the weapon system were.

Maybe just from her natural aversion to any kind of authority and sophistication, Codi kept her Hacktor resting loosely against her right shoulder in an easy, casual position. It didn’t look threatening – heck, it looked downright lazy – but it was comfortable and easy to maintain. Lita couldn’t have been more different, adopting a much more imposing, aggressive base to operate from. She sat very low in her stance and her Hacktor stayed almost permanently at head height, the point thrust forward to intimidate an opponent. Codi was quite difficult to intimidate, however.

They clashed several more times, Lita doing the bulk of the attacking while Codi absorbed the incoming blows with as little energy as possible. Eventually, as usual, Lita got a bit too zealous, overstretching out of her stance and giving Codi the instant she needed to pounce and end the spar.

All at once she unleashed a volley of blows, not stopping to allow the other girl to regain her proper footing. Eventually Lita realised she was being driven to the edge of the ring and stopped back peddling, at which point Codi simply ploughed into her. The Hacktor blades locked together and she lowered her shoulder, shunting Lita off balance and sending her tumbling out of the mat area.

“Not bad, not bad,” Vasco commented. “But she got awful close to your chest with the Hacktor when you pushed in like that.”

“But she didn’t hit me,” Codi snapped. “So why does it matter?”

“It matters because the only reason she didn’t hit is because you’re a lucky little twerp. Don’t think that winning a few training spars means you’re better than everybody else, missy.” He made a dismissive sound before striding off to berate Max about his bolas technique.

Standing fuming, Codi glared at his back. Then she tossed the Hacktor savagely to one side as the twins took to the arena again, this time armed with two short cudgels.

“You know,” Lita said. “Rather than getting all snippy with him why don’t you just listen? You did get lucky.”

Codi shot her a fiery look. “You’re just a sore loser.”

“And you’re not much of a winner.” With this parting shot Lita flounced off to take on one of the assault courses. Doing her utmost not to detonate, Codi instead kicked one of the nearby quarterstaffs so hard that pain lanced through her foot. What the hell would it take to get these people off her back? It had taken her some time to adjust, to keep herself in check if she lost a spar, and now that she’d done that they seemed to be even more unappreciative when she started winning.

The morning session wore on and their sparring continued unabated. They rotated every half hour between armed and unarmed, and the frosty atmosphere didn’t improve. Slowly though, over the past two weeks Codi had found her own style of combat in the unarmed discipline. Even to her it seemed strange, but it worked well enough which was all she cared about. Although she tried to amalgamate in as much of Vasco’s teaching to her fighting, the style she adopted could best be described as brawling.

Something about the perfection that most martial disciplines demanded left her frustrated. She couldn’t force herself into one pathway so completely as to have a full mastery. Instead Codi ended up with a messy hodgepodge of karate, boxing, wrestling and street fighting that all together formed an ugly and unpredictable style – if the term really applied. Still, Vasco wasn’t complaining, so she saw no reason to change.

After lunch the five fighters made their way into the classroom as they always did, and for the bulk of the two hours things rolled along like they always did. Then as though a switch had been tripped, Vasco’s manner changed, becoming earnest and low in a way that set alarm bells ringing in Codi’s head.

“There’s something you all need to know,” Vasco sighed with ten minutes remaining of their theory session. “I’m not going to run rings around you. We ship out for The Gauntlet in two and a half weeks, and we’re not ready. And if we keep going the pace we’re going we won’t be ready. So, a friend of mine has helped organise a little surprise to speed up the learning process.” He pressed a button on his remote. When the screen came to life it displayed three flags that Codi didn’t recognise.

“You’re wondering what these are.” He pointed to the flags. “These are the emblems of the three academies that are coming to Kantha in a week for a friendly tournament, hosted by us.”

Codi’s eyebrows shot up. “They’re coming here?!”

“That’s what I said.”

“What…I mean, why?”

“So you five can get a taste of a real Gauntlet fight before you have to compete in the real thing,” Vasco answered. “In seven days they’ll be here. We’ve got that long for you to try out a real combat suit.” He tossed the remote to one side and strode past them towards the door. “C’mon, follow me.” Wordlessly the group stood and filed out of the room after him.

Codi expected to be led back down to the training centre, but when they entered the lift Vasco punched the button to take them to the top floor. Upon arrival he turned away from the corridor to his office, instead leading them into an area of the academy they hadn’t yet visited. After a right hand turn Vasco halted in front of a formidable looking metal security door.

“Why the vault?” she asked.

“The stuff in this room is expensive, kid,” he returned. “They like to keep it safe.” He punched a code into the panel on the left side of the door then gripped the wheel in the centre and turned. A clanking sound emanated from the other side as whatever mechanism locking the door disengaged. Vasco gave the door a slight push and it swung open with a barely audible hiss.

Stepping inside, the only thing Codi saw was five standing caskets arranged in a semi-circular ring, and she could see her name – her name – printed at the top of one in bold white letters. As the others moved in Vasco pressed a button built into the wall on his right. All at once an electronic hum sounded and the caskets opened, their faces splitting down the middle and moving to either side. Codi’s eyes widened at the sight of what lay within.

“These are Mark XV Gauntlet Combat Exoskeletons,” Vasco declared. Then a smile slipped across his face. “The most expensive sports equipment ever designed.”

“Wow…” Codi breathed, stepping towards her suit as though in a trance. The design was similar to the practice suits they had been using, but at the same time looked vastly more impressive.

The breast plate and heavy padded segments around the thighs, shins and forearms shone with a polished gleam under the lighting of the room. Reaching up, she ran her fingers gently over the flawless surface, the armour and fabric coloured a deep, rich green. Golden strips ran down over both shoulder guards and on either side of the chest plate and she could see things that looked like servos placed around all the joints.

It was perfect.

“Every padded segment is formed of an impact resistant carbon weave,” Vasco continued. “The main suit itself is Kevlar fibre and lined with impact sensors. The mechanisms over the joints let you run faster, jump higher and hit harder. Essentially this suit is one big upgrade for your body.” He grinned at the awestruck group. “Things are about to get a lot more interesting.”