I rolled over in bed. I couldn't sleep.

I looked up at the ceiling, beginning to count the dots. I stopped after ten and decided to do something else. I looked at the box of blond hair dye that I would need for the mission, and jumped out of bed. I popped a tube of paste out of the box, taking it with me to the bathroom and wetting my hair under the faucet. I put a little dab of the paste on my palm, rubbing it into my recently cleaned brown hair. I continued until it became a rich lather, and rinsed it off. My hair was now a nice dark blond.

There was a knock at the door. I stopped drying my hair to check it. I looked through the peephole.

Aston.

I opened the door partly, keeping the chain locked. "What?"

"Hello, Luke."

"What's the occasion, General?"

He frowned, saying, "During the mission briefing, Erian brought up something. You haven't been properly trained."

I slid the chain off, opening the door the whole way and sitting on a chair. "So? I'm leaving tomorrow, you can't teach me anything in a few hours."

"Yes, we can."

I frowned, too. "How?"

"Come with me."

He led me out of the room and across the vast underground halls of the HX. We went on for nearly half an hour, until we came to a pair of sliding metal doors.

Aston walked up to the door and put his hand on it. He just as quickly withdrew it, an odd green imprint where his hand had been. The imprint faded, and Aston said loudly, "I am General Samuel Aston, allow me entrance."

The doors slid open. Inside was a dentist's office like chair with a lot of screens, lights, and speakers around it. "Sit, Luke."

I sat down, curious to what he had to tell me. "What's this?"

"It's a device that allows quick learning."

"Learning?"

"Just sit back and watch."

I sat back, anticipating what it would do. Three objects with nozzles came out of nowhere, pointing at my head. They began to hum, and my brain began to tingle.

Aston began to explain the machine to me. "The chair is currently firing a certain type of wave at your brain, stimulating your ability to learn quickly. It is putting that part of your brain back to it's infant state, allowing you to absorb information quicker, as in you will remember it faster. They also fire off a second type of wave at a different part of your brain, speeding up your ability to comprehend. You can read faster, talk faster, listen quicker, see smaller and more."

The screens descended, coming about two inches from my face. There were about thirty of them, each showing the same thing. Speakers came to the sides of my head, about a hundred on each side. They all played the same thing, fast. Then, a pair of spinning line lasers came just above the screens, shooting the light right into my eyes.

The sound, the images, the lights, they all made sense somehow, even though they came at me 100 a second. I was learning things- how to behave, how to control my muscles, how to control my opponent.

I felt my arms and legs heating up. I tried to look down at them, but the lasers mesmerized me, locking my eyes, if not my entire body, in place.

Everything began to move faster. Faster, faster and faster. I learned more and more and more, my body getting hotter and hotter and hotter. I so badly wanted to leave the chair, and I began to panic. Just as I was on the verge of a mental breakdown, the machines all stopped. They all returned to their original place, freeing me. I was struggling for breath. I looked at Aston. "Well, Luke, your teammates are ready to go."

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I looked around th Denver International Airport, trying to find Terminal 18, where my plane was. Erian had thought it would be a good idea to split up immediately instead of going with Aston's plan to all go to London. I was still going to London, Logan was going to Japan, and she was headed to South America. I walked into the plane, head still aching from the chair, ready to start my mission.

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Okay, nobody's reading the damn thing, so it's going on hiatus. Not that you'd know, since you probably won't be reading this. Who the fck am I talking to?