The next day Cliff woke up early and started his morning routine. He started to get ready for a run, changing to comfortable clothes and shoes for running. He got out of his room and quietly move to the door of the apartment. His aunt is still sleeping and will wake up after half an hour. Locking the door as he got out, he started to do some stretches and turned on his body monitor on his wrist. Cliff route is to run 5 laps around their block and head to the park to do more moderate exercise.

As Cliff starts to run, he really thankful to his aunt for forcing him to exercise every morning. Even though her aunt has one arm, she still train her body every morning before preparing breakfast. Its been 9 years since her aunt took him in, many people think that Cliff can live on his own now that he is 20 years of age, even if Cliff wanted to do so but he cannot.

The will his parents left states that in any event that his both parents died, Cliff will be taken custody by his father sister, Loraine and will be in custody until Cliff reaches the age of 21 or Cliff will be a registered diver. Remembering this, Cliff cannot wait to be a diver and end the custody of his aunt; not that he does not like it, but the expenses his aunt dishing out is no small amount. If he became a diver early, he can now provide for himself and might help out the expenses around the apartment.

Finishing his run, Cliff walked towards the park. He saw few people are also exercising early in the morning. Cliff started to do push-ups near a park bench, as he was doing push-ups, from behind he heard someone call his name. “Cliff!” said by the teen. Immediately Cliff stop doing push-ups and turned around and saw a girl and a boy standing a few meters behind him. He recognized the two as the Taylor twins.

The boy is called Marvin and the girl is called Lily, they are the same age as Cliff. Marvin and Lily are his first friends after moving in with his aunt. Marvin is the outspoken type while her sister, Lily is timid compared to her brother. Their family used to be a tenant in their building and move out after their father landed a big deal on their business. Now their family lives at a nearby subdivision and bought a house there.

Walking towards Cliff, the twins have eager face to know what happen to Cliff’s diver examination. “Cliff how did it go?!” Marvin immediately asked. “I passed the exam and just needed to go back next week to register the job I chose.” Cliff replied. “Nice! Why don’t we go together next week we are scheduled the same as you.” Marvin offered. Cliff did not see the twins yesterday, because the twins took the examination a day earlier than Cliff. “Have you finish reading the material given to you?” Lilly shyly asked. “I’m still reading and most likely to finish it around a couple more days.” Cliff replied to Lily. Looking at Lily, Cliff sighed because if Lily has her brother’s confidence she’ll become popular in the neighborhood. “Lets meet at the warper station after a week.” He suggested to the twin in turn the twins nodded in agreement. “I have to finish my exercise and cannot accompany you both any longer.”. After saying goodbye to the twins, he resumed doing push-ups. Cliff finish his morning routine after 45 minutes and walked back to the apartment as a cool-down.

Cliff arrived home about 10 minutes later, he saw her Aunt also finish her morning exercise also heading back to the apartment. “Oh your also finish with your daily exercise, how about we spar a little bit in space behind the apartment,” his aunt said to him as they meet up at the entrance. Cliff agreed and proceed to the empty lot behind the apartment building.

Though Cliff rarely win against her aunt, he still likes this spars because it improves his body coordination and split second decision making. “Same rules, land three hits and you win and if I pin you down I win.” Loraine reminded him. Cliff caught the wooden sword her aunt toss to him and starting to prepare for the upcoming spar. “We will start as this coin hits the ground.” Loraine showed the coin and toss it to the air. Cliff is thinking of strategies to use against Loraine, as the coin sailed to the air. As the coined neared the ground, Cliff tightly gripped his club and prepare for the fight; *kling!* and the fight has started.

Loraine lunged forward trying to catch Cliff off guard from her sudden attack. Anticipating this attack, Cliff also lunged forward trying to counter attack Loraine. Loraine was surprise from this response, as just two about to collide, Cliff dodge to side and swing his sword to the open Loraine. Cliff swing his sword toward the stomach of Loraine, thinking he have landed a hit, Loraine stopped her assault and blocked the incoming sword. Cliff smiled and as the two sword collide, he immediately grab his aunt arm and slammed her to the ground.

After the exchange Cliff immediately retreated a few steps back in fear of a sudden counter attack of Loraine. “Well played kid!, you exploited my weakness you landed a clean hit, two more and this will be over.” Loraine said as she got back up. Cliff smiled and shouted back, “I’m just doing what I learned.” He knows that his aunt weakness is her lack of one arm from sparring with her plenty of times. He just need her one arm to be busy with something else, and grab her to land a clean hit.

Again the two move in their stances and prepared for another bout. This time Cliff initiated the fight, he lunged forward and her aunt matching him, also lunged forward. Just like the previous exchange Cliff dodge at a crucial moment to land a hit. Just as he was about to swing his sword, his aunt thrown her sword toward Cliff. He immediately dodge the incoming sword and as he was about to recover from the surprise attack, his aunt was able to close in to him. Loraine punched towards Cliff’s abdomen, but was blocked by Cliff. Loraine smiled and use Cliff’s blocking arm as support for her to do a high kick towards Cliff’s face. Processing what’s happening, Cliff used wooden sword to block the incoming kick. Loraine was surprised that Cliff was able to block her kick by using the sword. Now that Loraine attacked failed she was practically open and Cliff immediately kick her aunt away from him. “Nice one kid! But you can do better.” Loraine shouted to Cliff.

Breathing heavily after the exchange, Cliff is really thankful to the teachings of his aunt, because if that kick landed he will have to attend the orientation with a black eye. “In moments of battle I have to be decisive or else I might die.” Cliff whispered to himself. In their stances once more her aunt shouted “Time to end this, I still have to prepare break fast.”

After she said this, Loraine lunged forward, but this time she is twice as fast. Before Cliff could react he was slammed to wall and pinned down by Loraine. “I win!” Loraine said with a smug face. “No fair! You used a skill to accelerate faster.” Cliff voiced out and Loraine replied, “What I always say when you lose like this?”. Cliff sighed and said “If you see an opportunity or have an advantage, use it!”. “That’s right, now stand up and clean your self up and help me prepare breakfast.” Loraine said with smug face. Knowing he lost due lack of actual combat experience and skill gap, Cliff stood up and help her aunt prepare break fast.

After breakfast, Cliff said to Loraine he will go out to settle some matters. Putting on clean clothes and fixing himself up, Cliff walked towards the door and said goodbye to Loraine. Cliff started to walk towards the convenience store, 5 blocks away from his home, he reached for his phone and looked at the time, 9:30 am, it showed. “I think boss will be there now” Cliff said to himself.

Even though Cliff is living comfortably with his aunt, this did not stop him from getting a part time job from the nearby convenience store. He took this job because he did not want to ask her aunt for allowance every week. This lighten the expenses her aunt is shouldering right now.

Nearing the store he saw a parked motorcycle outside the store. He is now sure that his boss in and walked toward the back of the store. Using his ID, he tapped on the scanner and the door unlocked itself. He opened the door and walked inside, seeing that his boss’ office door is slightly open he walked towards it. *Knock knock* as Cliff tapped the door and said, “Boss are you busy right now?”. From inside the room a voice replied “Come in Cliff! I’m just sorting some papers.” Cliff entered the office and saw a beautiful woman doing paper work. “Boss Ava I’m hear to talk about something.”, Cliff said.

The woman immediately looked up and replied “What do you want to talked about.” Cliff always be stunned by the beauty of his boss. Ava Chen, is Loraine’s friend who recommended him to do part time work for her. Snapping our of daze, Cliff replied “I will be resigning from the store.”. Ava sighed and said “Your aunt already told me you pass the examination. I know this will be coming but I did not expected to be today.” She immediately stood up and approach Cliff and proceeded to hug him. “Congratulations!” she said as she let go of Cliff. Cliff was in a daze and remember the sensation of Ava’s ample breast as she hugged him.

Snapping out, he immediately took out his BEEP card and handed it to Ava. Ava took the card and sat back to her desk and place Cliff’s BEEP card over the BEEP reader. The BEEP card is like a wallet that is linked to your bank account. Most use this as form payment transaction because of the security it provides, no more carrying tons of cash around. As Ava is processing the final payment of Cliff, his phone received a message, he grab his phone and did not believe what he have read. “Boss I think you mess up my pay, it so damn large.”. Ava giggled and replied, “No that’s the correct pay, I factored in your four years of working here and overtime you did plus you don’t have any absents.”Looking at his boss, Cliff still did not believe what his boss said he just let be bygones, be bygones. “Thank you boss!”, Cliff said. “Just don’t forget to visit from time to time.” Ava reminded in which Cliff agreed.

Cliff left the store and head back home. Thinking he has still many to read, he rushed home and immediately go to his room and to finish it. “That kid still have long road ahead of him” Loraine as he saw Cliff rushing towards his room. “I too must do my best to train him… I need to get serious for tomorrow's spar and prepare nutritious meal to help him solidify his good foundation” Loraine said motivated by the tasked ahead

Just like that a week passed, Cliff is either reading and gathering information about divers or training with his aunt. The day of the orientation arrived, as he walked out door of his home, “I’m now in the starting line, lets see how far I can go.” he said and proceeded to the warper station.

END OF CHAPTER