The Order of the Black Knights

Chapter Seven

OBK GHQ/New York/New Jersey District HQ

The Former Sims Metal Management site, New Jersey

November 1st, 2040, 6:45 am.

Blake Bradley Transmitting

I woke up pretty early the following morning, for two reasons really. The first was because I wanted to get the combat ring ready for Luna’s first round of training. The second reason was I was hoping that Samantha and/or Deseret had made any headway on Luna’s history. Luna was still fast asleep though I figured she wouldn’t be for long.

Heading down stairs and to the mission section, I could see Marcus overlooking the computers where Deseret and Sam were placed. I didn’t know if the trio had gotten any sleep the night before. But judging by how active they actually were, it was a safe bet they sleep was something they hadn’t achieved.

“Jesus don’t you guys ever sleep?” I asked walking up.

“Deseret and he did,” Sam answered, “But yours truly did not.”

“Well I hate to ask what kept you up but I will anyway.” I commented as I walked in.

“We’ve been scouring the gaming central trying to find anything about Luna.” Samantha answered.

“We got a lead on a ‘Princess Luna’ of the District planet called Equestria. But any information regarding the topic is heavily classified.” Deseret told me.

“What, by whom. The Red Forces would never classify a planet unless of vital importance, and there’s only four that are known to reach that level.” I explained. Given my position and lineage, I’m very familiar with the Empire. But you’ll find out why some other time.

“It’s not the Red Forces that classified Equestria and its information about it. The classified tag comes from the IGC.” Marcus told me.

“What really?” I asked to which Marcus nodded. This was shocking; the IGC never withholds any information regardless of external or internal circumstances. That planet must’ve had some vital importance that would keep all information classified. And that brief was only about to get worse for poor Luna.

“Worse still, Samantha may be the best hacker who ever lived but the IGC classified level is ten. Getting around that without anyone noticing is going to take a long time.” Deseret explained.

Externally I was the description of calm and content, inside I was screaming at the IGC. It was bad enough having to train Luna without knowing a thing about her background, but now having that information being delayed for months was worse. “Looks like the only way we’re going to get any information, we’re going to have to get it through the Union.” I said.

“We do have one advantage though, The Union believes that Luna’s dead instead of Mercury.” Marcus told me.

That was one good moment right there. If there would ever be one thing we Black Knights had a knack for it was hiding our dead from the world. “Well they’re gonna be in for a real shock when they see her again.” I sighed.

“You almost seemed sure that she’s going to pass Blake.” Marcus commented eyeing me.

“Oh I’m not sure, I know she’ll pass. Girl has that type of determination, and with a little extra push she’ll be one of the best right out of the gates.” I told Marcus, my voice dripping with ego.

“Well don’t go easy on her Blake.” Marcus told me.

“I don’t intend too.” I replied.

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November 1st, 2040, 7:59am

After that early morning briefing, I went to the training area to prep it. After completing that task, I headed over to the equipment room to get some training swords and hidden blades. When I got back, it was one minute to eight and time for Luna to arrive. Sure enough when I got to the training area, there she was sitting in the middle of the ring samurai style wearing Jezebel’s spare white shirt and white sweat pants.

Before I get to the reason for the color coating, let me address our training ring. Besides our Parkour section and weight room, we also have a combat ring used for hand to hand training. It’s an almost perfect circle though its interior dimensions are nearly similar to the octagon of Ultimate Fighter. The only breaks in the circle are the five four foot high poles that are placed around the ring.

Luna sat in the middle of the ring, her head down and eyes closed in deep meditation. From that action, I guess she had asked Jezebel for some pre-training advice.

“Well I’ll be, one minute early.” I said walking up, “I’m impressed.”

“Actually that statement should be ten minutes early,” Luna responded not looking up, “For we’ve been here in that time meditating.”

“Not a bad option to have.” I said putting down some of the equipment outside the ring. Once that was complete I picked up a wooden training sword and stepped over the two foot high barrier and entered the ring. “By the way, we discovered that the information regarding your origins has been classified by the International Gaming Community. We can get to it, but doing that and not alerting our IGC friends is going to take a few months maybe more. Your best bet of gaining any information is to beat it out of the Union. Are you still sure you want to do this? Last chance to back out.”

Luna looked up at me. Her face was stoic but I could see fire burn within her eyes, “I do.”

“Prefect,” I grinned, “Stand up recruit.”

The only time you will see a Black Knight wear anything other than Black is during his or her Recruit days. Newbies are always dressed in ice white clothing top to bottom. It symbolizes the purity and innocence that all new time killers have before their white is washed away with the dark blackness of their deeds. Recruits do not change their colors until their first mission, where he or she is given a navy blue jacket and the Recruit is now called Virgin. Once the Virgin kills his or her first target, they are given the Black Jacket and/or hoodie sweater signifying their arrival to Knighthood.

As ordered, Luna rose to her feet and I handed her a training blade. As Luna inspected the blade, I went back to the edge and picked up my own. “Welcome to day one of training, and also welcome to the ring of blood. Rules here are simple, last one standing wins. If an opponent is knocked to the ground he, or in your case she, must touch the top of one of these pillars to still be in the fight. If you are unable to touch a pillar you lose, if you get up and don’t touch you forfeit deal?” I said walking back to her.

Luna nodded, “Doesn’t seem too hard.”

“Oh really?” I commented, “Defend yourself!” Quick as a flash I jabbed at Luna’s left forearm. This act forced her to let go of the sword. But before she could even react, I tucked and rolled behind her. Swinging the sword, I struck her lower back with the wooden blade. The hit wasn’t hard, just enough to knock her off her balance. It worked and Luna landed flat on her face groaning and holding her back. I rose to my feet and walked over to her head. “You lack defense, poise to stand upon. Arm strength to support your blade and the striking blade of an enemy. We will start your training there. Now stand up Recruit!”

Begrudgingly Luna got to her feet, pressed a pole, and looked at me, “Where must I begin, mentor.”

“Well first off, figure out which hand you’re going to use as a striking hand. So which had do you write with?” I asked.

Luna looked confused for a second, then noticed the blade was clenched in her left hand and said, “Left handed.”

“Okay, I’m a natural righty, so whatever stance I take, you preform the opposite understand.” I told her.

She nodded and attempted to take a good stance. Once again I broke through it with easy and knocked her to the floor. As she stammered to touch a pole, I said, “We’ve got a long way to go Recruit.”

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November 1st, 2040, 12:43 am

By Mid-day I managed to get Luna’s feet and hands working in the same order to properly hold and wield a blade. Now it was time for blocking. “Now recruit you know how to hold that weapon. You still do not know how to use it though. So before I teach you how to strike, I will teach you to block. Defend yourself!”

I went at Luna. To my surprise, the girl was a fast learner. She managed to block a few of my attacks pretty well. Others weren’t so clean of a block, such as when I swung around and came at her from behind. Where a normal Knight would block the attack before coming around, she came around first and landed in an awkward blocking position. This allowed me to push her to the ground when the blades met.

Luna stumbled to her feet, pressed a pole, and raised her blade ready for me to attack again. “Come at us, we are ready for another volley.” She said sternly.

“Maybe,” I told her, “But eventually you won’t be. You cannot block forever. So there comes the option of dodging. If you realize that you cannot block, simply dodge.”

“Dodge mentor?” she asked.

“Yes Dodge, get out of the way.” I explained. “Now Dodge or defend yourself!” I charge Luna again. She managed to block my first and second strikes. Finally I could feel her weakening and I thought that it would be over fast. But then with my next swing, she ducked out of the way just in time.

She finally figured out what dodge meant. She wasn’t perfect as a few times she ducked right into the blade or tripped over her own feet. By late afternoon, her energy was completely spent and she flopped on the floor not getting back up.

I placed a towel around her shoulders as she rose to a sitting position and offered her a bottle of water. She graciously accepted.

“Not bad for a first day, not great but not entirely bad. Now go rest up and see Deseret back here within twenty minutes for your first history lesson. Tomorrow meet back here eight sharp and we’ll do this all over again.” I told her.

“How many times must we do this?” Luna asked groggily.

“Until you get it right without any mistakes,” I told her and walked out.

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November 6th, 2040, 4:30pm.

Luna was a very quick learner. By the fourth day of our training, she had managed impeccable skill with the wooden sword. Even better was that her hand to hand skills came even quicker. So by November 6th, she expected on the hidden blade part of the combat tests. What came instead was a completely different lesson; a lesson in balance and poise from Jezebel.

Jezebel taped out a straight line from where Luna was standing to the other side of the weight room. “So you think that you are ready for the hidden blades?” she asked Luna.

“I have passed all of the combat…” Luna began.

“Yes I am aware of all of that. But fighting with the sword and fighting with the hidden blade is much different. An assassin must first have balance and poise in order to operate fluently with her blade.” Jezebel explained, “But if you do not have that…” She promptly lightly pushed Luna, who backed up her point by stumbling several feet to the left. Her point proven, Jezebel added, “You fall all over yourself.”

Luna, having seen the point, repositioned herself at the tip of the tape line, “So you expect me to walk the line.”

“Yes I do,” Jezebel said, “While balancing this book on your head.” Jezebel placed a hard cover book on Luna’s head. Once she got it properly balanced, Jezebel took a step back. “Now walk the line.”

Luna attempted to nod but thought better of it. She simply said, “O-Okay.” Then she took her first ginger step. And the book promptly fell off. Granted this task wasn’t an easy trick to pull off first round so none of us were upset. Where am I you ask, I’m standing off to the side near the stairwell watching this.

Jezebel picked up the book, “As I said, balance and poise is crucial to how an Assassin operates. You must be so aligned and straight in your posture that I can draw a perfectly straight line from your forehead to your vagina. Now,” she replaced the book back on Luna’s head, “Balance the book on your head.”

Luna took another first step, the book fell.

“Try again,” Jezebel said replacing the book.

Another first step and the book fell.

Jezebel picked up the book and said, “Try again.”

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November 16th, 2040, 11:47 am

Training Luna Jezebel’s way took a lot longer than anyone felt, a full ten days’ worth of time. However each day she would gain another step in her attempt to balance the book. Finally Luna got her posture so firm that the book didn’t fall off even when she and I practiced sword fighting. It was a good progress, even more so that it bolstered Luna’s confidence.

She was growing more and more every day, though none of the Black Team members would admit it to her. It was the way of Black Knight mentoring, not to show admiration on a Recruit unless he or she passed a course with flying colors. That meant not making any mistakes. While we never yelled or belittled our student, we never directly encouraged them either. In the words of my mentor, the late Hannibal Suit of Iraq, “Encouragement must come from the pride a student gets upon gaining this knowledge.”

Luna however was more or less grateful for everything we were doing. She would snip and snap at us, to which we would respond in kind, but at the end of each lesson she would always smile and thank us for teaching her something new.

That gratitude showed it’s mark when it came time to teach Luna how to work her magic. Since none of us on Black Team were even remotely capable of handling Magic. Lsyric was the closest as he did have some dealings with witches during his Texan years, but still not enough. So we brought in our expert: Jane Burke, or as we knew her as, Glinda. “Okay Luna, now carefully this time, I want you to levitate the cup.” Glinda told Luna.

Sitting before the recruit was a china tea cup, filled with hot water. The ceiling above the cup was dripping wet and pieces of broken china were sticking out of it. This was a testament to Luna’s first attempt at levitation. Because of this both Lsyric and I had taken several steps into the halls of the dorm area as to not be hit by any runaway china.  Luna steeled herself for the task and reached out with her hand. A bluish aura engulfed the cup.

“Now, just try to relax dear, let’s not over do it.” Glinda soothed.

Luna took deep breaths in and out to calm her nerves. Pretty soon the cup lifted smoothly off the table and floating in front Luna’s hand totally depended on her whims. Luna smiled at her accomplishment, and so did Glinda. Now came the tough part, “Okay Luna, now just the water.”

“Okay Miss Glinda,” Luna said. She closed her eyes and focused. Then the cup floated down to the table empty of its water. The water was floating where the cup was previously.  Luna was ecstatic and gently placed the water back into the cup, “I did it! I did it!”

“Wonderful Luna simply wonderful.” Glinda cheered.

Lsyric and I were impressed, but we didn’t show it. I even sold the hiding by walking up to Luna with a sarcastic smile on my face, “Don’t get cocky, all you did was simply move water.”

Luna, not believing a word of my sarcasm, looked back at me, “That was not an easy task to execute.”

I proved my point my flicking the china causing a ripple, “If you really want to impress me, turn it into wine.”

Luna giggled knowing I was in fact proud of her.

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November 20th, 2040, 9:14pm.

After a good hardy dinner, I sat Luna down in the rest room with a folder. Usually this time would be dedicated for Recruit study, but I felt to push a few things ahead. Luna was already becoming skilled in Parkour what with the balance and poise training, her magic was coming along greatly, and better yet she was becoming a great fighter. All the while becoming a very nice and well-rounded individual. She learned how to tell jokes both dirty and clean, hung out with the teams on break, and even was a natural at the PlayStation and Xbox.

Her social skills were also coming together nicely, and I think she was becoming a natural twenty three year old girl. Luna was a good learner and a very good reader. I would almost say she has a photographic memory. But she had lagged a bit on her historical history. Historical training was done in private study, as was math and other education courses. What with the crap on television these days and so little good console games left, kids of the world were actually reverting to private study and learning much like the era before Technology.

So I decided to give her a little help with the learning of the Order’s history. “Okay so by now you of not only world history, but of the history of the Emerson Reality and all its fascinating details. You also know of the rise of the Red Forces, the formation IGC, and the Union’s appearance on the grand stage. Now it’s time for you to learn about the Order.” I said and pulled out my first sheet of paper. It was an advertisement for the game Lineage. “Lineage, launched in 2033, was the first game where players could create avatars that could be both born and die. Players would live in certain eras of their choosing though out world history, carving out their own lives that would affect the world in a linear history. Most of the players decided to follow the true Historical path, as making the history you read about is more important than creating your own. Because of this, Lineage was seen by many Emerson Veterans as a way to retire.

“Blaze Johnson, the founder and first leader of the Red Forces, went to Lineage for this reason. As you know, Blaze is an extremely famous member of the virtual realm. So when he went to Lineage, he chose Colonial, Pre-revolution America as his era and took the name Thomas Kincaid.” I taught showing her different pictures relevant to the lesson. One was a picture of Blaze Johnson, but instead of the young leader every text book printed, this one was of an early forties Gentlemen passed his prime. Well not really passed his prime, dad may be old in age but he isn’t in physical strength.

Oh did I forget to mention Blaze Johnson is my father. Yep Blaze Johnson, aka Mike Pinto, is my father. Sorry, probably should’ve mentioned it earlier, but it didn’t really matter so no big problem.

Anyway Luna watched and took in the lesson with awe. She didn’t speak as I continued, “However the Union saw Lineage as another means to expand their influence, and backed the British during the buildup to the Revolution. Thomas found out about this and began a one man war against both the British and the Union under the guise of Blackheart.” I explained and showed her a picture of Blackheart. The painting showed a hooded, black robed man with a black blade leaping from one rooftop to the next. “Thomas originally wanted his work to be a solo job. But the crisis and Union involvement became too great for him. So he picked up a few followers. After the war, he hoped they disband, but they didn’t. Blackheart’s followers reorganized themselves into the Brotherhood of the Black Knights, charged with defending the freedoms of man. After the American Civil War, the name was changed to Order.” I taught.

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November 21st, 2040. 12:12pm.

With Luna progressing as fast as she did, it was time to show her the tools of the trade. I called upon Ovatio and Q to perform this task. Q, Black Teams other quartermaster, talked at length upon how the gloves, Bluetooth mikes, and sunglass cameras called spec-ops lenses worked. Ovatio talked about the hidden blades as well as the grapple system. He also mentioned the cardinal rule with the grapple system; it cannot be used in succession, it is better to land then change than fall to your grave.

The Q conversed at length about the sensor grip within our hand guns before turning to the bullet/fire retardant outerwear we Knights carry. Truth be told I was half asleep during this part, so I’ll spare you the boring conversation.

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November 29th 2040, 4:15pm

Luna leapt from girder to girder, crate to crate, beam to beam over our Parkour course. With her hidden blades drawn only when needed, she pounced upon the straw dummies with cat like precision.

Her white clothes fluttering as she moved, the Recruit didn’t stay in one place for more than a second before moving on another target. She performed ledge kills, dragging the dummies over the side. Snuck up behind another and cut its straw throat. From a corner she jumped on a target and broke its neck. All the while I was on the ground watching her with a stop watch recording her time. Field record was fifty five seconds; she was at fifty with on target to go.

Luna ran towards a ledge and leapt off into a beautiful swan dive. Then her fall changed as she attempted to raise her arm back and perform an air assassination. She hit the target all right, digging the knife in, but toppled over the fallen dummy and landed on her back. Clicking the stop watch, I saw she was at fifty eight seconds.

“Well besides that fall, which will cost you the mission and thirty points, that all brings your mission time to three minutes ninety one seconds counting the clearing the dorms.” I said stoically, “You could do so much better.”

Luna got to her feet and brushed herself off, “It’s that last target that keeps fucking me up. I just can’t kill it.”

Luna had just made her first mistake in training; she said the one word that got my blood boiling. “Excuse me,” I said, “What was that?”

“I can’t do it; I simply cannot make that air assassin….”

“Can’t” I interrupted, “There is no such thing as I can’t Luna.”

“What are you talking about, I just said it!” she snapped.

“Oh so that makes it a real word? Just like you can’t walk, you can’t talk, you can’t use magic, like you can’t wield a blade with the best of them, you can’t do any of that?” I shouted back, “You can do it Luna; you have the knowledge and the ability to do it. Never, ever say I can’t! Now get back up there recruit and try it again! And this time don’t swan dive, just drop!”

Luna looked hurt but I didn’t care. She also knew she couldn’t snap back at me. So the Recruit bit the bullet and went back up to the dorm room. Two minutes later she was back at it, repeating all the same tricks before. But this time instead of swan diving, Luna simply jumped down towards the target. This time she found good footing as she dug her blade into the victim. Better yet she had broken the record by one second.

It was then that I showed my pride towards her and smiled. “Good work Luna,” I said.

Almost on the verge of tears of joy at her accomplishment, Luna looked at me and bowed saying, “Thank you Mentor.”

With a proud smirk on my face I said, “You’re ready for your first mission.”