General Smith and I stood face to face ten feet apart, hands wrapped up and ready to give and block blows. Ingrid stood in the middle and to the side. I could hear Hunter trying to talk to me, but the blood in my ears was pounding too hard for me to pay attention. General Smith has been working in the military longer than I have, but if I'm correct not by much. He is getting older, which means slower, judging by the grey hairs blooming on the left side of his head, and there is the slightest tremor in his right leg. The jaw is the knockout button, and he guards the left side more than the right. He keeps his legs a bit wider than shoulder-width apart, suggesting that he doesn't kick them as much and relies heavily on his hands and own movement ability, he also braces with his right leg, despite the tremor. He received the tremor after training and never learned how to compensate, or by the fact that the tremor isn't consistent, he is bullshitting me right before Ingrid finishes the countdown.

"-wo, one, Sparr!" Smith makes the first swing, left hook. I dodge and bring my foot up to kick him in the kidneys. Smith ducks slightly and blocks the blow with his forearm. He hooks his arm around my leg and tries to flip me to the ground, I use the momentum to spin and bring my other heel to his face, hitting the left temple. Smith stumbles to the side but because he kept a firm grip on my leg we both went down. I try to scramble to my feet, but Smith was faster. He brings his knee up and catches my chin while I'm still on two knees and a hand. I rolled backward but pop back up, jumping to avoid the spinning kick coming my way. I bring my legs to my chest and then kick out. I hit Smith in the chest and we go backwards in the opposite directions. I did not account for the fact that the weight rack was a lot closer than I remember and hit my head on the metal bars. Hits on the back of the head are like half-knock out buttons, great for interrogation purposes, horrible when trying to stay alert. Smith recovers faster than I do. I barely had time to raise my fists up before he hooked me in the jaw. I went out like a light.

"We have to stop meeting like this, Darling." The nurse with the snowflake tattoo was standing above me, filling out a chart with great concentration. I started to sit up when she came rushing over. "No, no, no, no, no. You hit your head against a metal bar and then got knocked out, you are not gonna wanna sit up right now," I nodded and instantly regretted it. The nurse chuckled and went back to her chart. The room was too bright and almost fake. Nothing seemed real, like I wasn't lying in the bed with a splitting headache. I heard the chair squeak against the floor and winced violently. "Oh shit, fuck. I'm sorry. When a weight settled on the edge of the bed I opened my eyes again. The nurse was sitting on the edge of the bed, smiling apologetically. "I forgot that they always give the newbie shitty chairs, how bad did that hurt on a scale of one to ten?" I held up eight fingers, afraid that the use of my own voice would cause my brain to throb so violently that it would explode out of my skull. She furrowed her eyes together and bit her lip as she wrote down the information. I haven't the faintest clue what she could need it for, I usually just get patched up and sent on my merry way. A knock came from the door and I covered my ears, gritting my teeth together to cope with the pain. The nurse walked over and opened the door, Ingrid, Hunter, and General Smith were all arguing with her about something, Ingrid was the only one allowed in. Ingrid sat in the chair and waited for me to take my hands off of my ears. I glared at her and took them off as slow as I possibly could.

"Red, I'm so sorry that this happened, I tried to get him to do something else but you had already agreed and I didn't know what to do after that," I put my hand on top of hers, and she shut up, I smiled a little at that. "You were very dehydrated though, I was looking at some of your results, and I almost fainted. Why haven't you stopped to take any breaks? You need to eat and drink. It's not a suggestion, it's the basic requirements for living," I shuffled slightly in my seat. I couldn't remember the last time that I had really eaten, I showed up for meals but mostly picked at my food. All I wanted to do was train so I could get out there faster and keep those kids from getting hurt, my room connects to a vent that leads outside. While I try to sleep I hear the screams of the children on the streets, terrified because their military has failed them.

"I honestly forgot, I wasn't really paying attention and was just focused on getting stronger so I would work in the field again," Ingrid nodded, I could see the gears churning in her head as she tried to think of what to say. A spiking pain came from behind my eyes and I screamed. I clawed at my face, twitching in agony. Ingrid was over on the other side of the room now, yelling at the nurse to do something. She was watching the monitor hooked up my vitals, she pressed a few buttons and then walked over. The nurse grabbed my hands and held them above my head, with her free hand, she fiddled it the knobs on the tubing while I writhed in agony. How was she being so calm when everything hurts so bad? What was happening? I felt a stream of liquid start to drip down my forearm when I blacked out.