Hodge concentrated. He was sceptical at first, but now he did feel like he could see where Symco was in his mind. See was the wrong word. Felt? He felt her. Like something hard was pressing on his brain in a specific direction, and the thing was moving. He cocked his pistol and ran towards it, slamming into the closest tree. He fell backwards groaning in pain before getting back on his feet and recovering his bearings.

“You ok, Hodge?” The director shouted. Hodge chuckled

“With the blast shield down I can't even see! How am I supposed to fight?”

“Was that a Star Trek reference, agent?”

“Wars, director. Star Wars” He said. “ok.” he thought. “This might be harder than I had earlier anticipated.” Hodge stuck his hands out in front of him and groped around for solid objects. Once he found the tree he planted into he drew his gun and trained it in the direction of the object in his brain that he had decided must be agent Symco. Gun drawn, he slowly groped his way to her direction. This was disorienting to say the least. The blindfold was thick, so Hodge couldn't even see which areas had more light than others, he was completely blind, trusting what might be latent psychic abilities left in Symco's brain. Periodically he would fire off a shot in Symco's direction, hoping there weren't anymore trees in his way. Symco on the other hand was bolting as fast as she could to the other side of the training area. She wanted to find a tree, a tall tree that she could climb up and use as a good vantage point for snyping this punk. The training area was full of trees, it was actually quite beautiful. Symco made a mental note that she would like to come back here to meditate after the exercise was over. She grabbed hold of a tree with her massive hands and started climbing the trunk. It was easier than she had expected, Hodge had clearly done this a few times. Once she found a higher branch strong enough to perch on she took out her sniper rifle. As she lifted the scope to her eye she peered through and saw...nothing. She checked to make sure the cap was not still on, it wasn't, but the glass had been completely blacked out.

“Um, director?” she said into her com link, “How am I supposed to shoot him without my scope?”

“Hodge has excellent vision!” Pledgestone answered back “We're testing your aim and accuracy, wouldn't exactly be fair to send Hodge in blindfolded and give you a scope, now would it? See if you can spot him, and then see if you can pick him off.”

“I can barely see the other end of the training field” said Symco, “How am I supposed to spot him?”

“Squint.” Hodge said into the com. She did. She was surprised to find that when she squinted her eyes almost had the same effect as a zoom feature on a digital scope. Everything got a little hazier and a little shakier, but a lot bigger. “Any tips on how not to run into shit?” Hodge asked impertinently.

“You have to try and think past your mind” She said.

“And how exactly does one do that?” asked Hodge.

“Try and send out brain pulses, think sonar but with psychic energy. You could also try and see through the eyes of other people around you.” Hodge concentrated on trying to sense others. He started getting glimpses from the director and other agents watching the exercise.

“Oh, god, it's like trying to comb my hair using three mirrors. This is awful.” He said. It took a few more bumps and face plants, but Hodge started getting the hang of trusting his new psychic abilities. Symco, too, was now scanning the training ground with ease, trying to catch a fern or a tree branch move, hoping Hodge would be behind it. Hodge was skillfully dodging trees now and making his way towards the lump in his brain. Symco had spotted him a few times but didn't quite trust her new sense of aim yet and kept giving up at the last moment. They were closer together now, closer than Symco liked. She had hoped to be the victor of this exercise, but she knew her objective was to tag him from far away.

“Maybe,” she thought “Maybe I can still get him with distance if I go up...” She quickly scanned the training field for the tallest tree and started monkeying her way over there. Hodge noticed immediately that she was on the move and tried to alter his course accordingly. Symco reached the highest point of the tree that could support her now immense weight, clung to the trunk with her legs, flipped over backwards and aimed down. Hodge was nearing the bottom of the tree, she could take her shot. Hodge on the other hand was starting to freak out, he knew she was close but couldn't pin point her. He started firing in random directions hoping to hit her. Meanwhile, safe on her perch above, Symco took aim and fired. She had never used a rifle before, hand guns were standard issue at the PPD, but rifles were for marksmen. She held it clumsily and, in her big hands, it almost did feel like a hand gun. Her first two shots narrowly missed, landing beside each of agent Hodge's size 7 feet. Hodge immediately realized what was happening and quickly aimed his gun upwards. He popped off three shots just as agent Symco fired a third time. The paintballs whizzed past each other and each struck the opponent square in the forehead. The exercise was over, and, while both technically won, they both felt as though they lost. Hodge sank down the tree branch into a sitting position and took off his blindfold, slightly out of breath with his gun resting on his knees. Symco slowly climbed down the tree trunk and jumped for the last 10 feet, landing in a kneeling position.

“Good game.” She said, extending a massive hand.

“Thanks. You too, I guess.” said Hodge, slapping it in a way that let him think he was being cool. Symco helped him up and the both walked back to the entrance to the training room. A few agents were scattered around the field, having been watching them, and were now sarcastically slow clapping for them. One was humming the theme from Chariots of Fire, Hodge used his new psychic abilities and quickly figured out who it was, then nailed him in the head with a paintball.

“You both did very well” Director Pledgestone said as they got back to the entrance. “We'll be doing a number of these training exercises until we feel you are both field ready.”

“Both of us, sir?” asked Symco.

“Of course.” said Pledgestone, “You're going to need to work together if you want to track down Cornwall and get your situation reversed.” Symco and Hodge looked at each other and nodded. Things were getting serious.