The duo returned to the training area and headed toward the zone dedicated to the Ainolonian Art of Matter. Their footsteps echoed through the large metal hallways, mixing with the ones of the many other employees. Lion couldn’t imagine all these people going back to the surface after their shift. He could only imagine them living here for good. How did Z.O.O. keep their secrets here? Were they brainwashed daily by Timma on a large scale?

"A master of the matter,” Bunny interrupted his train of thought, “Think 'telekinesis' you almost nailed it."

"Telekinesis? Seriously?" Lion lifted an eyebrow.

As they arrived at the large dome made entirely out of a single, unbroken metal wall and with absolutely no items inside of it except for a few very soft rubber balls. Bunny handed Lion a strange transparent device.

“Put this on."

"How?"

It was a fair question. The device was no bigger than an average coin.

"Like this," replied the young agent, pressing another exactly like it onto his right temple. It lit up with a dim light-blue glow.
Lion followed suit.

Across them at the other end of the dome was a human-sized amalgamation of metal and glass. It reminded Lion of a coffin ever since the first one he encountered almost a month ago. He never saw inside, but they answered the agent's commands without fail in eerie silence. Lion had surmised there was an unwilling participant always present in each one of those. He couldn't shake the feeling he was being watched from inside of the metal encasings' jet-black glass.

"Now try to focus on this," Bunny tossed one of the rubber balls to Lion. It wasn't larger than a tennis ball and it was fairly light.

Lion had no clue what it meant but shrugged and gave it a try anyway. Before he knew it the thing flew from his hand and into the wall, bouncing off it and almost hitting him.

"What the flying fuck?!" he lowered his arms.

"Excellent," Bunny clapped his gloved hands, "This means you have the inert capability for this. It'll only be a matter of-"

"Matter."

"Shuddup," he raised a finger to stop Lion, "A matter of time before you learn to control it. We can't have you launching everything around you, "He then looked at the three balls on the floor, "Like this."

The balls flew up and circled around Bunny then stopped perfectly arranged in a tower in his palm.

"But not to worry. Being able to use this power is not a requirement, only a good bonus."

"Thank fuck..." Lion felt a heavy burden fall off his chest. He couldn't imagine himself getting the hang of it in time, especially since he only fully finished 2 out of 7 tests. First the test of mind and then of the body. Years of brawling, physical training, and his mechanical arm saw to it so he got a free pass even without knowing a martial art. Understanding that type of nomads was also fairly easy. Their body is extremely resistant, much like the suit he got this morning and so the written test was a pushover.
But the other 5 arts were hard to put his head around.

"You still with me?" Bunny snapped his fingers.

"Yeah, go on."

"Using it is not a requirement... but being able to defend from it is," Bunny finished his thought.

How does one defend from telekinesis? Lion couldn't even fathom a guess. Too many things in here were science fiction to him only last month. Not even waiting for the question, Bunny answered him.

"As you can imagine, this power is extremely diverse and dangerous in the hands of our enemies. But it has three major flaws…”

He again lifted the balls with only gestures of his hands and they danced to his will.

"Now do me a favor and stand between me and the balls so I can't see them."

Lion did as Bunny said and disrupted his line of sight to the levitated balls that fell to the ground.

"If they can't see it, they can't control it. Mostly."

"Mostly?" Lion asked.

"Yeah... the really powerful ones might be able to, even in pitch darkness, but it's almost the same as it is with us when we try to use our hands. Seeing what we're doing definitely helps."

Lion nodded. Out of curiosity, he tried to lift one of the balls. He gestured toward it but it flew right at him almost hitting his face.

"Goddamn it to hell!"

Bunny couldn’t help but laugh.

"So... the second flaw is better demonstrated than told," he turned toward the metal coffin, "Ok. Lift him."

Whatever was inside of the encasing lifted Lion off the ground and made him float helplessly. His stomach could hardly handle the sensation and it wasn't long before he let his coffee out and onto the white floor.

"Thankfully you skipped breakfast," Bunny tried to make light of the situation, but the man didn't find it funny one bit.

"Put me down!" he panicked. The free-floating was not his favorite thing in the world he came to realize. He flailed around desperately trying to grab something to hold onto.

"You see... I'm not certain you want it badly enough," Bunny said, "If you really wanted to be put down, you'd already be both feet on the ground."

"You motherfucker... aren't you enjoying this a bit too much?"

"Perhaps," Bunny smiled, "Doesn't it make you want to come down and punch me in the face?"

"Oooo-hohohoho! You can count on it!"

"Then show me!" Bunny spread his arms, "Show me you mean business!"

But it didn't work. Lion's will wasn't strong enough to get him back to the floor. Bunny sighed and decided to show him the third and final method of interrupting a master of the matter.

"Dude... just press the thing I gave you trice in quick succession."

At first, dizzy from all the involuntary spinning and ready to faint at any moment, Lion barely remembered the device on his temple and pressed it three times with his index finger.
It emitted a small wave and Lion fell down, luckily landing on his behind.

"I'm going to kil-"

"Aren't you glad I helped you," Bunny offered him a hand and dusted off his suit, "What you witnessed now is the third flaw - one of our own making. Or to be more precise, of Lala's making. She engineered it, like many other of our gadgets. It sends a short burst canceling any matter manipulation for a short time. She's working on perfecting it to hold the effect for much longer. Pretty neat, huh?"

"Lala is making your weapons?" asked Lion, after pushing Bunny's hands off him and fixing the suit on his own.

"Why do you always latch to the secondary, or tertiary point in a conversation?" Bunny opened a fresh packet of chewing gum, took one, and offered the rest to Lion who refused.

"Curiosity is a sign of intelligence," Lion answered.

"It's also what killed the cat," Bunny answered.

"It's fine. You can always wipe my memories if I find out something I wasn't supposed to."

"Heh... Ever the smartass," Bunny smiled, "You'll have to manage fighting against a master of the matter on your own, without the help of the device. Yes, it's useful, but like any other machine, you can't count on it. It can malfunction and cost you your life. We can't have that. Not while there's a way to fight it without external help."

"And what exactly is that way?" Lion asked.

"Haven't you been paying attention?"

"Sorry, I was busy playing 'marionette' with the freak," Lion showed at the coffin with his thumb.

"It's simple really... The more unwilling the subject of manipulation is, the harder it becomes to manipulate it."

Lion was puzzled...

"How come it works on living beings anyway? Isn't it supposed to be only applicable to 'matter'?"

"Like it or not, we are made of matter as well.”

"I suppose you're right," Lion sighed.

 "Until the fancy suit you're wearing was invented, agents would get lifted by their clothes and thrown around like dolls. It was that or go try to capture nomads butt-naked."

The imagery forced a chuckle from Lion.

"She also made the suit," Bunny added.

"Oh for fuck’s-"

"What? You plan on running around in your detective getup waving a revolver around? That shit may have worked against criminals, but if you don’t wanna die the moment you face a nomad, you better put your AI-aversion where it belongs."

It took Lion a moment before he asked…

“And where is that?”

“In the back drawer,” replied Bunny pointing at the back of his head, “Where I’ve put mine.”

* * *

Three hours have passed and Lion still couldn't force himself back to the ground when levitated.

"What's the deadline?" Lion asked, rotating helplessly in the air.

"To finish the training? It's left to us to determine if the trainee has any potential and is worth the time and energy investment. Why?"

Lion didn't answer. Bunny could see it on his face though - the lingering question. "I can't let you out," he said with his arms crossed.

"I know."

"But if you finish it in time, I'll make sure you're off on that day."

This took Lion by surprise. So, the young man knew it all along. Of course, he did. They knew everything about him.

"What's the record time?" he asked.

"From trainee to agent? Five days."

"Wow... who managed that? You?"

"I wish," Bunny smiled, "I finished in fifteen."

That hurt. The young man was already five days ahead and who knows how many more if this continued. It made Lion flail around and try his very best to get back to the ground.

"Fucking hell..." he whispered, tired from all the helpless waving around.

"So? Who was it? Turtle?"

Bunny lost it. He laughed so hard he had to hold his stomach.

"She pleaded three extensions," he wiped his eyes, "Took her three months!"

Bunny continued laughing, but Lion didn't find it funny at all. it meant he was supposed to be way better than Turtle to finish in time and be able to join his family.

"It was Eagle," Bunny finally answered.

"Should have went with Eagle..." Lion mumbled. To his big surprise, it wasn't Anaconda, but then he recalled what Bunny said. Anaconda was here perhaps as long as the Z.O.O. itself. And the thought was...

"Frightening."

"You say something up there, partner?" Bunny asked.

"Not yet."

"What?"

"I'm not..." Lion pulled all of his strength into this attempt, "...your partner... Nnnnngh!"

"Okay..." Bunny scratched his nape, "Sorry for trying to cheer you up."

"NNNGH! ....YET!"

At that moment, Lion slowly but surely started to go down. He was red in the face and tense as if ready to explode, but the levitation seemed to subside and his body seemed to come closer and closer to the floor.

"Almooost.... theeere!!!!" he reached his arm to touch the ground.

But to no avail. His body flew back up like a helium balloon and he exhaled as if deflated. His arms and legs hung in the air.
Bunny sighed.

"Ok, that's enough. Put him down. Gently."

After standing up, Lion smashed his mechanical arm into the wall.

"Goddamn it!"

Unfortunately, these walls wouldn't succumb so easily, and the fist broke from the impact.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk..." Bunny shook his head, "You know... you're more lucky than you realize. Come."

Bunny didn't talk. Instead, he let Lion wallow in shame. Maybe it will teach him to control his temper. The moment Lion noticed they were going toward the workshop again, he started falling behind.
Bunny stopped.

“Lion.”

“Yes?”

“See, you answer when I call you by your agent codename.”

Lion couldn’t figure out what Bunny was trying to tell him.

“That means you are confident enough in your ability to finish this training. And even more importantly, I’m confident enough that you’ll become an agent one day.”

Lion remained quiet.

“And even the talking-toaster calculated you have a chance of success…”

Lion looked to the side.

“…’cuz if she didn’t, she wouldn’t have made it for you.”

“Made what?”

“You’ll see,” Bunny said, but then added, “Well… you’ll see if you behave,” he crossed his arms.

Lion didn’t say anything. Bunny pointed at his head again.

“Back-drawer. Ok?”

“… Fine.”

 As they entered the workshop, Lala immediately stopped what she was working on and headed toward the workbench. Lion just kept watching from a distance. What happened before didn’t seem to faze her one bit. She continued where they left the last time. Picking up the object, she turned around and waited for Lion to approach. He did so reluctantly and then finally saw what she had been eager to present to him...