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I give her a moment to take it all in. Our gymnasium is larger than a football stadium with a retractable roof far overhead. Inside, the space is partitioned into scores of training spaces for different things.
“This is insane.” She grabs at my arm and tries to look at everything all at once.
We pass the massive rock wall, where we train for missions. It spans the length of the football field and soars nearly all the way to the roof overhead.
“How tall is that?” She cranes her neck, taking it all in.
I pull at my chin. “I honestly don’t remember.”
“And it runs the entire length of a football field.”
“It does.”
“Why?”
“For various training activities. We have something running almost all the time.”
“This place is… Wow. Just wow.” She releases my arm and spins in a slow circle. “When Rafe and Hayes said they came from the climbing wall, this is not what I pictured.”
I guide her into the center of the field, where dozens of sparring mats spread out in a grid over the ground.
“We’ll train over here.”
There are enough sparring stations for all four teams of Guardians to split into pairs and face off against each other, plus many more for ongoing skills maintenance of non-Guardians.
“Train? What do you mean?”
“Self-defense. Remember what Doc Summers said?”
“I don’t remember much of last night. I was overwhelmed.”
“Well, she thinks, and I agree, that you and your roomies should take advantage of our self-defense training while you’re here. We start this afternoon.”
“Oh, that makes sense, and you’re going to train me?”
“It involves a lot of close, physical combat, lots of holds and grabs. There’s absolutely no way I’m letting the guys get that close to you.”
“You’re funny.”
“It’s the truth.”
“Possessive?”
“Yes, but not in a bad way. To be honest, our best trainers are Jinx and Lily.”
“Who’s that?”
“They’re former DEA agents. Lily was a field agent. Jinx was in crypto, but she’s got this badass Brazilian fighting style that we’re all trying to learn. I’ve yet to beat her.”
“I find that hard to believe.”
“You’ll understand when you meet her.”
Silence drops between us as Kaye tries to absorb everything around us.
“Come on. I think you’ll like this next bit.”
“What’s that?”
