The Liberal Assassin

"Here we are!"

The cheerful voice brought me out of my reverie. I took a peek over Khronos' lab coat and gasped.

The control room was impressive! It had controls for wide ranges of terrains and conditions. This was something I could never work with in the Slums. They didn't have skyscr.a.p.ers or twisting alleyways. The Slums also had a relatively slippery foothold from the lack of proper pathways and was always freezing from the lack of outdoor heating.

"This is a simulation, right? How will you replicate the actual conditions?"

Ignacio smiled. He probably asked that question earlier and Rush g.r.o.a.n.e.d.

"Glad you asked. See those tiles?"

I glanced over towards the control panels into the training room. We were on the second floor and the room had a very high ceiling, almost the height of a fourteen-storey building. Khronos hit some buttons on the control panel to demonstrate. The triangular tiles and moved to form elevated or tilted platforms recreating the various cityscape conditions. I smiled and mentally kissed goodbye to uneven footing and lack of friction.

"Weapon simulation options are available too. I can run a program for a real-time simulation of various weapons. For hand to hand combat training, I had Nash help me recreate replicated sparring sessions. I've recorded several fighting patterns and the artificial intelligence can recreate those moves in random patterns during your rehabilitation."

Now that was something Khronos beat me to. "You know, I can have Kevin transfer all the fighting patterns I recorded of Nash for you to analyse and improve on."

"You recorded me?"

I grinned sheepishly. Nash doesn't have to know about my visor's spy-cam.

Khronos hummed in amus.e.m.e.nt. "I'll be glad to have them." He then turned to ask Nash how long the rehabilitation should take.

Nash frowned and eyed me from head to toe. "No less than two weeks. He's lost some muscle mass and his bones are still strengthening."

"You have two weeks to look forward to," Ignacio winked. "Rush and I need to leave now, there is a meeting tomorrow. Don't stay up too long, Nash. You're needed too."

With that, the brunet dragged his reluctant friend off. Khronos yawned and excused himself, giving Nash and I some time alone. I bet they did it on purpose.

"Look," Nash began and I tensed.

I had things that I wanted to tell him but if all he's going to do is lecture me, I'm not going to try anymore.

"I'm sorry," he started, taking me by surprise.

"I was worried about you back then," he confessed. "I know you're capable of caring for yourself out there and you came back to us even though you could have died. I just can't help but worry, kid."

Hearing those words made me choke with various emotions. Not trusting my voice, I settled for an awkward kind of hug.

The old man tensed for a while but returned the hug eventually.

"Hey Nash, can I call you dad instead?"

He snorted but I knew it was only to cover up embarrassment. "Do whatever you want."

I laughed and hugged him even tighter. "Yes, Dad."