Category : Stories

Sub Category : Adventure

Chapter Nine: Hold on to your hat, Hombre!

Marsellus was at a loss for words at the next room. It was a kind of place he had dreaded in high school, mostly due to the fact it reminded him of his physical shortcomings: Weight Training Rooms. He came upon a single corridor with three rooms on each side, only separated from the corridor with glass windows. As Mars peered inside one of the closer rooms, he saw a rather humungous man lifting what had to be close to 400 pounds as if it were juice boxes. The sounds of grunting was a definite audio that accented his every rep. Finally Marsellus was floored when he heard a grunting "500" before the man set the weights to rest and sat up. Now he could see the beast of a man a little more clearly, and was quite intimidated as he did so. The man had to be no less than 6'8", judging by his muscular tone and definition he couldn't weigh any less than 350 lbs of pure, raw power, and the man looked like he could literally rip a tank in half. Younger Toguro from Yu Yu Hakusho had nothing on this man, even Carlisle seemed dwarfed a bit by this behemoth. And Marsellus was even more scared when it turned out this was the room Saturn walked into. 

A pleasant chat by the looks of things had been exchanged, and Mars was almost ready to think it perhaps would not go so bad. That was until the monstrous man's smile faded and he turned attention to the window. 'Oh yeah, I am so screwed. Wonder if my affairs are all in order?' 

'What affairs? Who gets your prize hat?' Marsellus groaned as he heard Saturn's signature high energy voice invading his thoughts. So much for having any modicum of privacy. But he still gave his response.

'Are you trying to get me killed? Mr. 'I'm-A-Monster-Ready-To-Tear-You-Apart' looked over at me like I was gonna be lunch. What did you tell him?'

And Marsellus couldn't have been more shocked the next second had the man even been right behind him with a machete. 

'She told me that you need help in gaining strength. Physical, mental and I dare say you might even need some emotional strength, puny human boy.' Hearing a mocking auatrian accent at the end of the sentence took a bit of the sting out of the comment, But Marsellus got the message loud and clear: This guy was here to train him as well. Though it did not help him with the sting he felt at realizing his thoughts were apparently not safe around here.

'Don't worry, Mars,' Saturn's voice invading his thoughts once again, 'We will help you get some walls up after you have a little more mental training. It takes a bit to keep them up, which is why we usually let our thoughts roam here.'

Now the other man added his two cents into the conversation. 'Plus with our scramblers to stop outside influences from breaching heaven's Gates, they are completely safe. Now, Mr. Gustov, care to come in for introductions?'

Marsellus took a deep breath and calmed himself before walking into the room. It was not until he got close to them - perhaps 10 feet or so - that he took note of their wide-eyed expressions, as well as more details of his Physical Training Teacher. The short, spiky white hair atop his head, the red fingerless gloves over what looked to be severely scarred fingers and perhaps just as lacerated hands, the definition of glow in his startling crimson irises which made it look as if there was a fire burning within them. That didn't scream creepy at all! 


Heavy sarcasm aside, Mars sobered for a moment and cleared his throat before realization hit him again. Both of them were staring at him. "Um, Saturn? Is everything okay? What is going on?" And it was not until he looked at the floor that he realized there was a fog of thick purple rolling off of him. Threatening to swallow the whole floor, it crept at an alarming rate that in only a few moments had obscured everything up to their knees. Intrepidation of what it could mean began to seep into Marsellus being until the stranger placed a hand on his shoulder. "Relax, marsellus. This is your mental strength personified. These rooms possess a training mechanism which makes one have to exercise their control at all times just to stand inside. Then while one is physically training, it adds more of a strict regimen into their mental workout as well. Your objective is to keep as much of your signs," he stopped and pointed down to the fog as an example before continuing where he left off, "In check while you work out, otherwise you could very well be hindered within these rooms by them."

Now the stranger stood up and held a hand out to Marsellus, awaiting response. Of course he was still coming to terms with half of the first day, much less this, but Mars still took The Man's hand and shook as Saturn lead the introductions.

"Marsellus Gustov, meet Roger Eisenberg. One of the foremost researchers of mental health and cerebral capacity training. Or so he says," Saturn finished with a chide teasing, turning away from Roger whom blushed a bit in embarrassment before sheepishly shuffling his feet across the floor.

And finally Marsellus realized that these people were normal. Yeah they were far from normal by obvious standards, but they acted like normal at times. They felt things that were just like everyone else. This was a family, one that Marsellus had not known for years... It was almost an alien concept to him now, or so he felt. He had spent years now locked away from humanity and more caught on his automotons, growing more and more apart from civilization and his fellow man. 

"Marsellus, normality is an illusion," Roger broke him away from his thoughts, having him focus all attention between the two of them. "Your normal is not normal for the rest of the world. But one thing you do have right is we are indeed a family here. And you are officially a member in this group. If you really want to get your powers under control, we will help you."

Saturn continued from here and stepped up to place a hand on Marsellus' shoulder now. "Yeah! Besides, we have been using your codename this entire time."