Instructor's Punishment

Garret awoke early in the morning, as he normally did, and got out of his bed. A lot of the normal facilities were located above ground. Bath house, infirmary, council room, the engineer's meeting room, the new recruits quarters a training room and an obstacle course, as well as a mess hall and a guest building were the primary things located on the villa's ground level. Underground, however, was where a majority of their high clearance intel and staff had their various personal rooms assigned to them. Though it was impossible to tell what time it was, underneath ground level, there was a system in place when the guard rotation occurred. They would wake up the officers and management level staff so that the new day's work could be accomplished and overseen.

It was primarily a courtesy. Most of them had a fairly good internal clock, and Garret regularly awoke a few hours before the sun rose. Garret lit a candle and set it down on his bedside desk, warming up his joints and stretching, using the same exercises he had done when working out with Hasan. It was a daily thing for him, the exercise, and kept him in good shape. Half an hour after he began his daily morning stretches and warmups, he sat down upon the tatami mat floor, something he requested personally as a reminder of home for his room, and began to meditate in the lotus position. The previous day, Garret recalled having sent two of the newer recruits to the infirmary. One due to the disrespect, and the other due to the attempt to attack Garret. His breathing was slow and deliberate as he sorted his thoughts on the matter.

The defiant recruit was angry because his training was lackluster. Garret appreciated this, as it showed that the young recruit was not only aware that his growth wasn't being nurtured, but also had the sense of loyalty to be offended enough by it that he would insult the most senior officer available at their headquarters. There was an issue with the recruit's ability to discipline himself, for sure, but Garret believed that once he gained the loyalty of that recruit it would be a bond that could not be broken. His type were the kind to be fiercely loyal, and to do what they believed was right. Of course, this type was hard to deal with if you weren't straightforward with them, which was one of the reasons that Garret had given him a warning to defend himself, and reprimanded the man through a trial of arms. He intended to obtain the grudging respect of the recruit at first through superior strength, and then convert that respect into loyalty as he purged the organization of corruption.

The defiant recruit's friend, who seemed meek at first, was also another individual who caught his eye. When Garret had first seen the recruit, he thought nothing of him. There was no sense of danger, no bad vibe, that had come from the young man when he was speaking to the defiant one. However, once this recruit's friend was in danger there was no hesitation in the assistance offered, no matter how futile the resistance they offered was. To be able to hide that kind of strength of character behind a meek facade... No, Garret intuited that it was no facade, but a strength of character that appeared under certain conditions. And that recruit's combat skills were not that of an amateur. He had managed to block one of Garret's attacks that specifically erased tells, making the attack itself seem almost illusionary. Somewhere in that recruit's background was some sort of training, whether it was military or otherwise.

Another half an hour passed during his contemplations, and Garret opened his eyes. He dressed into his plain white training shirt and running shorts before making his way through three security checkpoints in order to reach ground level, where he began his morning exercise of running for an hour before the rest of the facility woke up. By the time he was finished he was sweating fairly heavily, as he had pushed himself as he always did in order to make up for time through intensity. Garret made his way to the bath house, washing off the sweat from his workout and providing himself with a refreshed feeling. When his hands ran across the scars on his body, Garret didn't show any change in emotion. It was a part of him that he had long since grown accustomed to. As always, there were fresh towels and clothing set out in the morning for the staff who were beginning to wake up and head towards the bath house themselves to help them wake up in the morning. Garret dried off, making sure to wear a fresh set of clothing as well.

His first stop after the bath house was the infirmary, to check up on the two recruits he had sent there prior. When he opened the door he noted that the nurse was in the process of setting up food on trays to bring to the two recruits. The two recruits were awake and sitting up speaking to each other. The nurse was the first to see him, and bowed to him while greeting him. The two recruits saw him and immediately jumped out of the bed, getting into fighting stances. Garret fought back the urge to laugh. "Calm yourselves." He said, turning to the nurse. "Make sure these two stay here for the day. They're going to need some rest." The woman nodded to Garret and turned to the two recruits.

"You heard the Spymaster. Return to your beds and get some rest." It was true that the one that had blocked Garret's first attack the previous day was worse for the wear, but he was still up and raring to go.

"You'll need the rest, especially for tomorrow. After all, some changes are in order." The two looked confused at what Garret had said, and he raised an eyebrow to them. "Well? Wasn't that why you so boldly approached me yesterday?" Without giving them a chance to answer, Garret left and closed the door behind him. He didn't expect the instructors to obey the commands he had given the other day, and expected that he would have to dismiss the instructors and send them back to Zou. Which, he thought, probably wouldn't go over too well with them when they reached the capitol. Perhaps he could have them followed, and potentially see where they reported to? That was definitely a possibility that Garret was considering as he went about his daily tasks of approving requests, assigning missions and overseeing progress with the training.

During the day, Garret had received the reports he had requested from Acius the prior day, as well as reports on the recruit's training which, as he had expected, had not been done to his expectations. As Acius was about to leave, Garret called out to him. "Acius. We'll be losing two staff members that I will be dismissing today. I'm sending them back to Zou." Garret didn't mention who, and said it in an off-hand, matter-of-fact manner, almost as an after thought. Acius paused and studied Garret for a moment before bowing to the man. After he left, Garret had a servant summon the two instructors to his room. Garret, sitting behind his desk to the back and the right of the entrance, just beyond the meeting table, readied Kuroi Shimo, his wand. While he hoped there would be no problems, he couldn't rule it out. Azix still had political enemies out there that wanted him removed, and Garret had gotten on their radar after having worked together with Azix and not taking the hint to have the man killed.

The two arrived, and closed the door behind them. They bowed slightly, showing Garret that they held him in contempt. Garret didn't bother to get up from his desk, much less nod to them in acknowledgement. "You two are dismissed from your posts. Your papers are there. I expect you to be boarding the next ship to Balbadd, and take a caravan back to our homeland. Your services will no longer be needed here." It was an offhand dismissal, as if nothing of importance was taking place. The arrogance that was on the faces of the two instructors not a moment before were replaced by confusion as one of the trainers looked to the papers sitting at the edge of the desk closest to the door.

"Don't screw with us, asshole! You aren't fit to run things here, everyone knows this!" The larger man shouted to Garret, and motioned to the shorter one to charge with him to attack Garret. The shorter one hesitated as the larger one came rushing towards the Magician.

That hesitation would cost the man. Garret gathered water from about the area and formed a Jet Stream, two of the streams shot forth towards his face while the other two simultaneous struck towards his chest. The cowardly man managed to react fast enough to use a boxing rhythm attack, One-Two, to intercept two of the beams. However, two other beams struck his abdomen, knocking the wind out of him. The instructor turned while trying to regain his breath and made his way out the door in an attempt to escape. While Garret certainly wanted to follow him and finish the job, he had a more pressing matter to deal with; the man who had charged straight to him.

The burly instructor pulled out a switchblade knife while lunging at Garret, stabbing towards him at a rising angle. Garret's protective Borg bounced the blade upwards as he had placed his wand back in his sleeve and took a fighting stance. Wanting to test the man's capabilities before committing a serious attack, Garret began with his Water Corrosion technique. A vertical punch landed against the man's left pectoral muscle. The muscles felt as strong as steel, which surprised Garret. He retained a proper amount of stiffness in his wrist so it wouldn't roll over, and maintained his technique while sending out a barrage of other attacks in an attempt to find any weak points he could exploit. The large man laughed as Garret performed a front kick to his gut, a roundhouse to his side, a spinning elbow to his chest and a variety of punches to other parts of the muscular man's body.

During Garret's second to last strike, the man's hand shot out. Garret realized too late that his attacks were being analyzed by the enemy even as he was attempting to analyze his opponent's weak point. Garret's left arm was grasped as the brute of an instructor broke through his Borg with a Crushing Grip and fractured his arm between his wrist and elbow. The adrenaline flowing through Garret at this point dulled the pain that would have otherwise been excruciating. As Garret gritted his teeth, the instructor laughed deeply. An extremely flexible kick stopped that laugh in its tracks, however, as Garret's foot seemed to almost teleport from the ground straight into the man's chin. Garret had used River Styx Style: Tranquil Strike to send out a strike that dealt some damage to the man at last.

The instructor let go of his grip and shook his head to clear it of the ringing. Garret didn't let this moment slip by him. Utilizing River Styx Style: Raging Current, Garret performed a left roundhouse kick to the instructor's right ribs. He planted his left foot down to the ground on the right of his right foot, spinning him and allowing him to do a spinning back kick which he had also aimed at the man's right ribs. Garret felt something give way as the man fell backwards, wounded. He turned back to the man, who was getting back up on his feet to attempt to finish Garret.

Garret took a deep breath, accepting everything for what it was at face value. Entering a serene state of mind, Garret felt as if he were a stranger watching things take place from a third person's perspective. While using the technique River Styx Style: Redirecting Blows, Garret was able to anticipate the next two strikes the instructor performed with his Hidden Blade. A downward strike was met with Garret's right rising crane wrist block, which effortlessly pushed aside the instructor's attack, forcing it to miss Garret completely. Enraged, the man attempted a horizontal attack with the second strike. A high front kick redirected the attack above Garret's head. Growling, the man dropped the knife and tried to grab Garret's remaining good arm. The man's desperate grab for Garret's arm left him open as Garret not only deflected the attack with a standard middle block, but retaliated with River Styx Style: Sealing the Magoi Meridians. The man's arms went first, followed by his legs. Fishing Kuroi Shimo from his sleeve, Garret cast Water Manipulation Technique, gathering a blob of water around the man's body. He then sent forth magoi to command the Rukh in his casting of Pressure Control, crushing the man's already broken ribs. The pain was enough to make the man pass out, and Garret approached the unconscious man and strangled him to death.

Wish I could have gotten the other one, too. Garret though to himself, sitting down cross-legged after the job was done. He winced as the pain began to seep through the dying down adrenaline. He was going to have to go to the infirmary himself. Garret heard hurried footsteps approach his office. Acius' body filled the doorway as he looked in on the scene. Garret's head was propped on his fist, his elbow resting on his leg, as he looked to Acius. "The other one got away. They decided they would rather kill me than allow me to dismiss them." Garret's tone was amused. The amusement itself was more fictitious than genuine, as it stemmed from the fact that there were still people out there that were part of the Zou nation that would still try to hinder themselves instead of working together to properly lead this world to success.

"Ah. You mean this one?" Acius said, stepping aside to reveal the other instructor, captured and held by two guards with another two guards who had spears at the ready if he tried anything. "I figured something might happen when you told me you were dismissing staff, so I took the liberty of placing a few precautionary guards in different posts than usual..."

Garret shook his head in disbelief. "Lieutenant. I'm blessed to have officers like you on staff." Garret stood and walked towards the prisoner. "Care to tell us who sent you?" The man spit at Garret's feet. Garret knew that the man was actually a coward; he had run at first sign of a confrontation. He knew that torture would easily get any information that the man knew out of him. Garret pulled Acius' blade from its sheath and stabbed the man, giving him a fatal wound. Using the now-dead man's shirt to wipe of the blood, he returned the blade to Acius. "Thanks. Get somebody to clean this up. I've got other things to take care of..."

Acius commanded another man to fetch servants to clean up the mess and dispose of the bodies, quickly and quietly. No doubt some of the recruits would see the bodies, and everyone would have a general idea about what happened, but it would not be from a lot of first hand witnesses.

Garret went to the infirmary to get his arm set and to mentally prepare himself for filling in the shoes of the instructors...

OOC:

2644/1500 Word Count
70/250 Magoi/Stamina

Abilities Used: