“No strike, just grab.” I reminded him.
“Gonna fold you like a lawn chair!” he taunted.
“Bold. Good. We go now.” I advanced slowly, so I gave him time to react.
“Oh that’s not fair!” called Ashley. “Where was that restraint when you schooled me?”
“He not claim to protect me by himself.” I called over my shoulder. The Marine took advantage of my apparent distraction to grab for me. I countered by leaping at his head. Scrambling over his shoulder, I hooked my knee around his chin. Grabbing the back of the waist of his pants, I pulled hard, making him tumble backwards.
“You have broken neck now. We go again?”. I let him go and scrambled free.
“I’m not convinced you could break my neck like that, so yeah.”
“We do pain now then.”
He came at me again. I kicked out his right hand from the grab, leaving me both hands to deal with the left. Sweeping my left foot down and around from the kick as a counter balance, I pulled him across my body and fell, keeping my tail close to my heel. This braced my knee in the air, and I guided him to fall directly atop it. Unfortunately for him, I missed his middle, and brought him down onto my knee somewhat lower. The practice armor he was wearing guarded him from injury, but it still hurt. My knee wasn’t armored so it hurt me more, but it didn’t wound me so I continued.
While his face was in the grass and his hips in the air over my knee, I let go of his wrist and traded for his ankle. He predictably rolled over to try to gain control, but I took the opportunity to cross his legs and grind his lower leg bones together.
He flipped over again to throw me off, but I relinquished one leg and put all my power into bending the other. Flopping down onto his pelvis, I pulled hard to try to put his heel into the small of his back. Reaching behind to try to grab me, I instead caught his opposing wrist again and pulled his wrist and ankle together.
At last I got more than a grunt out of him. Repositioning so I had his ankle under my arm and my foot on his neck, I could now use both hands for his arm again. He made small pain noises while I torqued down harder.
“Pss pss pss.” I shushed him. When he was quiet again I continued.
“You very much… danger now. Want see remove arm?”
“Rules!” He wheezed.
“Ah ah ah. You feel pain now or you feel break?” He struggled more, which I respected, but I pulled harder until the noises came back and he stopped.
“You trust remove arm?”
“Yes.”
“Going let go easy now. No struggle or hurt. I not can fix now.” I eased off pressure from his limbs. I pointed to two nearby Marines.
“Take. No walk. Hot hot water treat now.” I rolled him over and looked him in the face. “You no walk. Lift, rest for day.”
“You got a lot more strength than anyone your size should have, you know that?” He wheezed.
“And you no have quit, like much. Secret later, rest now. No mad?”
“No, Gee Gee. Rematch sometime?”
“When you earn.” The two Marines carried him off into the barracks, and I quick-changed back into my skirt and long coat with the body armor underneath. Ashley came over and patted me on the torso, satisfied that I was wearing the vest she gave me.
“Kos-api, your English goes to shit when you are excited.” she said to me quietly. I took a few calming breaths and focused on my heart. Thumpthumpthump thump thump… thump… thump… thump.
“Too busy to think of the translations.” I shrugged. “I could just start yelling at everyone in Raltian, but it would not be better.”
“So are you going to watch the race with them today?” Ashley asked.”If you are not going out today it will make things simpler for me.”
“I will get them to explain the race to me.” We went back into the day room, and many of the Marines had retrieved snacks from their quarters. On the television several people were quite seriously discussing something of which the relevance escaped me. Everyone was very enthusiastic though, and by the time the race actually started a half dozen of them had talked over each other enough so that I had a rudimentary understanding of what they were trying to do.
About 10 minutes into it I got the attention of one of the marines from earlier.
“Where is the Marine I friendly combat earlier?”
“He is soaking in Doc’s tub. First floor, end of the hall on the right.” He pointed to the other end of the building. I headed down there, and since there was no pull cord for a bell on the wall, I administered the human standard smacks to the door in a way that would announce me unambiguously.
After a moment Michaels opened the door.
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“What the hell are you… oh. What do you need?”
“Speak to Marine… Not learn name.
“You wrecked someone’s shit without finding out their name?”
“He say something rude. Serve as a lesson to others.”
“It’s Parker, by the way.”
“His name?”
“Yeah, come on in, he’s in the bathroom. It’s not um… socially acceptable to go in while he is in the tub, but you can talk through the door.”
I sat against the outside of the latrine door.
“Parker. You alive?”
“Who is it?”
“It is I, Kos-api.”
“Are you going to explain how you got that strong?”
“Mana techniques made over thousands of year study. You do them gradually over years of combat training. Do them wrong or in wrong order and maybe die. Even done right, there is cost.
"And what did you do to yourself?"
“Improve bone strength. Improve blood function. Improve heart… tube… strength. Improve body command speed. Sorry, I not know the word in English. Improve muscle strength. Improvements small, but still improving over time. Separate, big improve for sickness recover and big improve for ah, soft body part replacement. More of not know the words.”
“So how can we do that?” He asked.
“First start make magic energy. I go watch contest out in Day room now.
The race seemed ok. It didn’t make a lot of sense to me.
The following morning the Marines got together outside again and then ran. After breakfast Ashley and I went to meet with more of the Elder Marines.
Mia had come from California to talk for me. First thing we agreed that real in depth testing of magic would have to wait until specialists and equipment were gathered. Until then, they would be permitted to a few blood or tissue samples on the provision that they explained on a case by case basis what they needed and why.
They gave me a card that had my image on it and told me that I had to keep it with me all the time and that it would identify me. Then they gave me another card and said that it would act as money for me.
“Make sure you understand how much you have and how to budget it before you start spending money. Make an appointment with financial services and make a budget.” Mia told me.
“Respectful, Mia, I am not so young to be poor with money. I need person explain how card work but count just fine.” I admonished.
“Sorry, I keep forgetting because you look like you're 22.” she apologized.
“Once we determine your actual skills and experience, we can adjust your pay scale accordingly.” said the woman who had given her the cards.
“Aside from being accomplished combat doctor, also know much about magic. Teacher upset not fully devoted to magic and instead dilute with combat learning, but was best choice for Smoke Rabbit tribe.”
“You are a doctor where you come from?”
“Medicine have different meaning in Other world, but yes. Can recover from down state, and if enough time completely recover from most wound. Destroyed body part tricky, take much time not in combat. Claw rake or talon puncture easy.” I shrugged. “No magic now though, bandage and sew not as good.”
“And medications?”
“Not used much for reasons you use them. Medications in home most used for body improve.”
‘So while we are getting researchers together, what are your goals?”
“I am combat doctor. I want to still be combat doctor here. I can be good combat doctor when I learn how you combat doctor here, and when magic work again I will be best combat doctor in this world.”
“So you want to learn to be a medic with the Navy?”
“That is good place to start, but I can do more than medic. I learn how to do many things in Other world, even with no magic right now.”
“We will discuss if this is possible and get back to you.” The Elder Marine said.
By the following weekend, all the plans had changed.
“We have to go now.” Stated Ashley, coming through the connected bathing room and into my room. I quick-changed into medium combat gear. Changing equipment like this was really cutting into my available mana, but there wasn't much I could do with it otherwise.
“What happened?”
“Something appeared between us and the moon about thirty minutes ago. The president has been moved, and my boss thought to clue me in. The Marines should get notified in another minute or three.”
There was a knock at the door.
“Ma'am, everyone is being ordered to gather at the armory. Your presence is requested.” came a call through the door.
“We will be down in a minute!” answered Ashley loudly. She turned to me. “Do you have everything you need?”
“No.” I walked through to Ashley's room and started moving all her extra equipment into storage, although it was only a few pieces past the weapons and I was too low on power to do much else. I kept enough to keep the medallion with the storage enchantment functional. I would be able to remove things from storage again later when I had rested.
“Let's go.”
We went downstairs to the room past the day room, where the Marines kept their weapons. All of the Captains were already there, and the lower Marines were getting organized as they came into the room.
“That kit looks expensive. Please tell me it has a decent rating and isn't just cosplay?” One of the Marines said, examining my armor.
“It stop good crossbow at not-close distance on hard parts. Links stop blade. Have better, but it hard to sit down in.” I demonstrated by quietly squatting on my heels. I pulled off my helmet to free up my ears. “It good not-special protection in Other place. Usually fight in less weight. Sometimes fight no armor, but not with no magic.”
Most of the Marines were there by then. The head Captain clapped to get everyone's attention and started explaining.
“We don't know what just popped in overhead, but we aren't waiting around to get caught with our pants down. We are heading out into the training areas with our special guest. Captain Paxton will stay to round up the stragglers, and as long as everything stays quiet we will rotate back into civilization so this doesn't suck as much as it otherwise would.”
We all headed out to the trucks. Ashley left the Suburban behind and we climbed into Marine trucks. As we entered the forest that I had been so eager to see, I had recovered enough to change equipment again, so I traded the stronger armor for my scouting equipment, which the Marines in the truck with us liked much better. This began my first “field-ex”. This was going to be so much fun.
