The team looked at those beside them, wondering if anyone was going to put their hand up to be tested first. In all fairness, there was a hesitancy to use your link in the first place. To the untrained Linked, their power was sometimes more of a curse. Something to be worried about, scared that at any moment their link might make itself known, causing catastrophic damage.

Willem, however, was a seasoned user of his own link. He had long since gotten over the fear of his power, now a master of its control and usage. Really, his job description was to simply teach the trainees control period. The kind of accidents that happen when someone has absolutely no control over their own link are always the most gruesome. Another reason on the list of why people fear and look down on ‘undefineds’ so much.

“Ajax, you’re up.” Willem picked one, as the team didn’t seem like they were going to pick an order to be tested on their own. Ajax shrugged.

“I don’t have my axe with me.” Willem looked at the man deadpan and raised an eyebrow, pointing towards the corner of the room, just beyond the retractable metal door.

“I had Tracker fetch it for you. From now on, you carry the thing everywhere.” Ajax looked a little surprised, his privacy obviously had been violated to get the axe and, by the look on his face, he was unsure how to feel about it.

“What, did you expect any privacy in a place where there are people being trained in links used precisely for espionage?” Willem rolled his eyes at the reactions of the team. For some reason, even those with links, never really comprehend how many types of links there are.

Willem walked within the bounds of the training area, motioning in Ajax after him.

“Training room: commence training.” There was a beep as some speaker in the room acknowledged the command, and a thunderous whirring sound began, the metal walls being lowered around the corner of the room, slowly creating a box around the trainer and trainee.

On the outside of the box, a screen had appeared from the roof, displaying a clear view of the inside of the metal and concrete box. Allowing Mirah, Aaliyah, and Walter to see the happenings inside, albeit without sound.

“Alrighty. This is your time to shine, axe boy. Take a swing at the wall first, give it a good amount of juice, if you could.” Willem said casually, pointing at of the concrete walls. Ajax nodded hesitantly.

He had never tried to cut concrete with his axe before. He could do wood easily enough, his axe happy with granting him some power for it. But concrete?

The tall man walked towards the wall and stood in place for a moment, before winding up a blow and letting loose a swing at the concrete. There was a small explosion of rubble, and an obvious cut in the concrete, but only ten centimetres in.

There were small concrete shards littering the floor around Ajax, but that seemed to be it for the power the axe had deigned to give him. Ajax just sighed, knowing full well that it wasn’t even close to how much power he had drawn in the past.

“Interesting. I assume that was because your axe wasn’t as in line with you trying to chop into some concrete?” Ajax nodded easily. He was good. Tracker must have given him some information about his power, but Willem seemed to understand with ease.

“Good. Then we now understand problem numero uno. You aren’t able to muster power on will, it has to be in line with the axe itself.”

“This axe doesn’t like wonton destruction, though it does give some power to me for it, more if I’m doing it for productive reasons like building my house.” Ajax said, trying to give Willem a larger scope to work with. Ajax’s fire axe hummed in agreement within his hands, a sensation that only he could feel.

“I see. So then, what does a fire axe want?” Willem’s amusement was visible on his face. He was having fun with learning a new link second hand. Maybe this was why he was a teacher.

“Protection. Its only goal is to protect.” The axe thrummed deeply in resonation with Ajax’s answer. Willem nodded thoughtfully.

“Protection of you, or of others?”

“Both, but more power if I’m protecting others.” Willem’s grin grew wider.

“And if you are trying to protect more people?” Ajax grinned easily.

“More power.”

“Good! An interesting link for once.” Willem dusted his hands off on his bulging stomach and called out a command.

“Training room: dummy.” In only a few moments, a hatch opened out of the floor of the room, where none seemed to be, and a stone rod with vaguely human shaped torso and head attached to it rose out of the floor, standing proudly in the middle of the room.

Ajax looked on in interest, the mechanics of this room seemed far more complicated than at first glance, for sure.

“Okay. This training exercise is simple. You have to protect this dummy,” the short man walked over to the dummy and patted it on its armoured stomach, “from me. No punches pulled.” Ajax looked at the short man with worry. No pulled punches? That was absurd, he would kill the guy!

The short man walked away to the corner of the room, letting Ajax a moment to prepare himself, positioning himself in front of the dummy, and raising his axe, the head acting as a shield in front of himself.

He took a deep breath in and focused, his mind going back to darker times, where the lives were real and defeat more crushing. He felt the axe thrum in his hands, excited by the chance to apply itself within his care.

He opened his eyes and prepared himself.

Once Willem saw the big man’s eyes, he began. With the barest grunt, he pushed off from the ground, rocketing forwards toward the man’s axe. Ajax was surprised by the sheer speed that the short man reached, barely being able to blink before the flat of his axe met with Willem’s fist.

The fist sent shockwaves through Ajax’s body, almost shaking the axe out of his hands entirely, but Ajax clamped down and pushed back against the overwhelming force. He sent the short man, who was surprisingly heavy, flying away from the dummy he was trying to attack.

“Much better!” Willem shouted, his voice not showing any exertion at all, while Ajax grunted lightly from the effort. Willem flipped mid-air, his feet landing safely on the ground and quickly rocketed forwards again, seemingly going for the same attack.

Ajax prepared, his grip stronger and more stable, but just as the form of Willem got close enough to punch, he twisted on a whim, ducking under the much taller man’s elbow, reaching towards the dummy behind him.

Ajax’s eyes widened in shock, a strange fear reaching up and clasping him up and grasping at his heart. The tall man spun blindingly fast, the handle of the axe suddenly being used as a bludgeoning weapon, racing towards Willem’s exposed chest as he reached forwards to the dummy.

Ajax realised too late just how much force was behind that blow and tried desperately to pull it back, but it was too late—the blow hurtled forwards toward the short man with impunity. But the shorter man’s head turned towards him and grinned, a hand raising lighting fast and grabbing the stub end of the handle, catching it without even a flinch.

“Good job!” Willem grinned as he ripped the axe out of Ajax’s hands. “This is why we train. You would have killed anyone with even remotely base human physical abilities. And also…” Willem’s hand flashed out as an insane speed, far faster than Ajax could conceivably see.

There was a loud bang as the stone dummy exploded into shrapnel, flying towards one of the concrete walls.

“You failed to protect the target.” Willem smiled sadistically as he handed back the axe.

“Training room: finish training.” The metal walls opened back up just tall enough so that both Ajax and Willem could walk back out. When they did so, coming in front of the rest of the group who alternated between staring at Willem and Ajax, the metal walls closed behind them.

“You might want to cover your ears for just a moment.” Willem said, without doing so himself. The rest of the team did so just in time for a massive grinding sound along with what sounded like a huge vacuum cleaner turning on. Only a few seconds later, the walls begun to raise once again.

“Aright then, who is next?”

Aaliyah stood in the middle of the room, looking at the shorter man who was eyeing her up and down.

“So, your emotions inform the effect of your link. Anger gives you strength, sadness gives others lethargy, correct?” Aaliyah just nodded.

“How many of your emotions do you know the effect of, precisely?” She shrugged lazily, but Willem looked at her with his eyebrow raised forcing her to sigh dramatically.

“There isn’t any way for me to know without someone to test it on or with. I only know a few because I’ve used them by accident, or I’ve learned through other people’s comments. The whole skin thing just makes it more confusing.” Willem nodded, satisfied with the answer.

“Okay then, how much control do you have over your emotions?”

“Enough.” Willem snorted at the confident words.

“Sorry to break it to you, kid. There is never a time when you have enough of a control over your emotions.” Aaliyah just gave the man a raised eyebrow and the man chuckled.

“Well, if you think you’re hot shit, then how angry can you make yourself on a whim?” Immediately as the words had left his mouth, the girl’s body began to slowly cover itself in red, but it simply remained at small blotches.

“Really, that’s it?” He egged. She snarled and the blotches of red grew bigger. Willem just shook his head in dismay.

“Not good enough. Not being able to control this much without outside stimulus is already a failing grade.” The girl’s face twisted into a vicious snarl.

Aaliyah hated losing. She hated others telling her she wasn’t good enough. The red of rage quickly covered her body, glowing a bright red as she launched towards Willem, who clicked his tongue.

“See, this is what I mean.” As the girl grew closer and close, Willem’s leg lashed out like a whip, slamming Aaliyah’s body into the concrete. Eliciting a yowl of pain from the girl, though she wasn’t all that injured past some scrapes that were rapidly healing.

“Definitely more resilient and able to regenerate at higher speeds, though it looks like anger just turns you into a big, dumb juggernaut.” Shaking his head, Willem held her down on the concrete floor with one foot without any trouble whatsoever. Aaliyah’s glowing red form, mostly covered in red calmed down very quickly, the red leaking from her skin, returning to below the surface.

Before long, Aaliyah was sound of mind again, and not struggling under Willem’s restraint.

“Still think you have enough control, kid?” Willem chucked when he heard a distinct lack of an answer.

“Fuck you.” Aaliyah said, the anger still simmering, tiny red blotches appearing on her skin again, before Aaliyah pushed the colour down into the depths of herself.

“Your ability may turn out to be one of the most useful on your team. The sheer versatility, and the potentially unlimited number of aspects, if you are able to call on the right emotions at the right time, but at the moment you are useless.” Aaliyah didn’t say anything back to him, silently repressing her emotions.

“You will not train your link independently; you are too dangerous to yourself and others. Until the time that I say so, you will only train your power with me, or with someone else that I designate as capable of handling you while you are busy zerking out.” Willem removed his runner from her back, looked down at the young girl lying on the ground, hands clenched.

“We will also be learning how to meditate together during your training.” This got a rise out of the girl, causing her to leap up from her position on the floor, growling like a rabid dog.

“Are you kidding me? Meditation? That’s the best you can come up with?” Willem looked at her, any joviality or wryness gone from his expression, just pure steel.

“Yes, it is. And you will wholeheartedly pursue it for your own benefit.” Aaliyah scoffed, turning to walk towards the metal walls.

“Or else what?” She turned her head to look at the man, a sardonic smile grading her face. But when she looked at his expression, blood drained from her face. It was a mix of pity and an ironclad warning.

“I’m afraid there is no ‘or else’, Aaliyah.” The short man looked away, his face returning to its regular neutrality.

“Training room: finish training.” The walls did the same as last time and raised about two-and-a-bit metres up, letting both Willem and Aaliyah to easily pass underneath.

“Alrighty. We’ve done two of you. You can all go for a pee break, chat for a bit and then come on back here.”