Batman Camp!

The main gym was set up with multiple risers run out so that there was a sort of stage in the center. The teachers were already giving the mass of students an impatient look. Even though less than half of M.R.C. was coming to this seminar, the mutants still managed to fill the risers.

“Students, welcome to the Stealth and Advanced Combat Seminar,” King announced,

“Batman Camp!” Chase practically squealed to Max,

Max was literally giggling.

Seminar started with a lecture. King went over basic stealth maneuvers that they'd been learning for months. Max and Chase took notes and could barely stay in their seats. The next hour was spent by Knight explaining a worksheet with over 200 ways to silently kill someone.

A short demonstration with Drake and a thick-skinned Special helped them to find pressure points on any humanoid.

“Avoidance is always the easiest way to win a fight. And the easiest thing to avoid is someone who's looking for you. You already know where the person following you is headed, and why they're going there. And that makes them easy to avoid,” King explained as the first day ended.

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“Today, padiwans, the training truly begins,” Knight teased with a smirk,

They spent the whole day walking on the creaky floorboards of the gym until no one remembered that the floorboards were capable of noise.

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The third day, they practiced being silent while various limbs were being broken. Then they spent the rest of the day learning how to walk silently, to stay poised with those broken bones. One arm was cake. Two arms was no different after one. One leg was difficult, but Max saw at least an Airbender and a Waterbender do it. Two legs meant crawling along the floor silently, trying to keep your elbows from contacting the floor in the wrong spot.

The floor squeaked for most of the day, but ceased complaining by the end of the day.

There was a long line to get into the Med Center because the Meds appointed to Batman Camp concluded the younger Mutes needed more practice balancing. They brushed the blood out of their teeth before they went to bed. Max never felt more like a super hero.

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On the fourth day, they were condemned to the main gym, accompanied only by the older Mutes. It was unfortunate because those still in Camp had been tasked with trying to avoid those previously graduated.

Max was paired with Lucien. Which was unfair in two ways. First, Chase got to play with Jordan. Second, Lucien played dirty. Max only finished before Chase because Max had gotten so used to getting randomly blinded by Lucien that he just hid in plain sight. Lucien snickered when Max came out of his hiding spot. Chase finally managed to elude Jordan after slipping to the bottom of the pool (she always checked the rafters first).

“Batman would've checked the pool,” Lucien whispered to her later,

Camp continued with an obstacle course only in the rafters. After the first Mute fell, the rest had to battle against sweaty palms and the shakes. At the end, they were tasked with hanging upside down on a wire for as long as possible. The vomiting and fainting weren't any prettier than the broken limbs.

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It was day five and there were only two days of seminar left. The Campers were getting antsy at the inevitable return to class. King “treated” them to learning basic parkour moves that would help them on the streets. Wall jumping, leaping across alleys and grappling edges. Max finally figured out how the parkour “club” got started. King was surprised when some of the Mutes caught on a bit too quickly.

Idiots, a telepath scolded all of them,

Everyone else fell at least once after that.

“Good,” King said with a hint of suspicion,

The mutants then unanimously voted that they should move on to combat maneuvers instead of advanced parkour moves.

Max was partnered up with Chase. They practiced “shadowing” each other. This meant they each tried to stick to the other's blind spot. Chase was more successful, but Max was a quick learner after Chase continually avoided his attacks. Since shadowing was fairly easy to learn the basics of, they moved on to some pressure point work before the day was over.

Max felt a lot more limber after having multiple pressure points abused. Chase said he had a headache.

Jordan grinned at Max that night when he declared that parkour was Batman Camp's version of extra credit.

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Day six was disturbing for some and exciting for the serial killers among them. And make no mistake, some at M.R.C. were seriously disturbed. And disturbing. The Mages had created for them anatomically correct constructs. The constructs were killed one by one. It was a test of sorts: making sure that you had done your worksheet on the first day. Each of them were required to kill 5 of the constructs before lunch. Chase seemed to be enjoying himself. Max reminded himself that Jordan probably took pride in it, too.

After lunch (mystery meat sandwiches), they had another parkour lesson. More basics: climbing up buildings, jumping through windows and side-flips. Jumping out of windows wasn't a strictly parkour, but it was fun, so no one argued.

Max was sure that a side-flip was a name that King had made up. Hunter called it a barrel roll.

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The seventh day was a doozy. Jordan had refused to tell them what the topic of camp was when they asked.

“You'll find out,” Jordan said before disappearing,

They did, in fact, find out.

The gym was completely dark when they walked in. Max had a feeling it had something to do with darkbenders because the gym's “ceiling” was open to the upper levels of the school.

Max walked into Chase when they stopped.

“Today,” King told them, “you're going to learn to see in the dark. Without your eyes. Without extra equipment or enhancements. Without powers, in some of your cases,”

Chase whistled a curse Max couldn't understand.

King earplugged Chase. (Even Chase couldn't see in the absolute darkness the other darkbenders had created.) Chase still felt people's breath on his skin, the air currents in the room. He couldn't interpret any of it. He could still hear through the earplugs. But not what he normally heard. No heartbeats, breathing, rustling of clothes. He felt vulnerable.

Max felt like he was isolated from everything. He couldn't feel the floor below him because he couldn't see it. Max teetered, almost falling. He couldn't keep his balance all of a sudden.

“Gain your balance,” King said, smooth and calm,

Max realized he could tell almost exactly where King was standing even if he couldn't see him.

“Take a step.” King said again, “Towards me.”

King had moved. Max stepped forward, a bit to the left. Chase had already moved. King listed off a group of names, told them how to correct where they had stepped. Chase wasn't surprised his name wasn't on the list. Max was. They repeated the exercise.

They did an obstacle course. An easy one. Avoiding walls and holes. They learned to feel with his feet before he stepped anywhere. They did a parkour course afterward. They counted the steps from one end of the ledge to the other before jumping. And hoped they landed.

At the end of the day, Max realized he didn't know how to see in the dark at all.


Hmmm...I don't know how well this flows. It could probably use a bit more editing, but I just finished it and wanted to post it :P