They began walking, deep into the complex, until eventually they came to a room scattered with
armour and weapons of various types hung up on stands.

“Choose your weapon and we’ll head off to the arena.” She took a look around at the models.
Most were pretter similar, so she ended up just taking the closest one, before heading next door. Erun was inside, along with many more trainees.

“Our tech guys managed to rig these weapons to fire fake lasers. They hit your armour, you lose
a point. Three points and you’re out.” Erun explained. It sounded pretty simple. It was a free for all, so she just needed to hit as many people as possible. “You’ll all get 30 seconds to go whereever you like in this arena. I’ll signal you when you can start attacking. So, begin!”

Immediately, the entire room scattered. Herba froze for a second, before also heading out into
the network of tunnels. Erun’s voice soon echoed through the maze. “Aaaand, go!”

Beep. She got hit before she could even see her opponent. How was she meant to defend against
this. She hid behind a barrier to protect her. Beep. This time somebody managed to bounce it off the mirror behind her. This was ridiculous. She was beginning to feel frustrated. How could she possibly do anything if her reflexes were this slow, and the others that fast?

Then everything slowed down. It was as if the world had been switched to easy mode. She
targeted the others with ease, and when the shot did come towards her, she saw it coming and dodged.

She was too focused on taking out the others to think about what was happening or why, but soon they were all out. She relaxed and everything was back to normal.

Erun looked shocked and impressed. “I’ve never seen anything like it. Relax for today. We’ll try and work out what on earth’s going on tomorrow.” Herba was just as surprised – she didn’t even know what had just happened. As he left, she felt a strange sensation in her groin. Why would she be sexually stimulated now? She went to her room to pleasure herself while wondering about everything that had transpired. Her mothers death, the Empire, the Rebels and her unexpected athletic ability, if you could
call it that. A lot had happened and it was only going to get more intense.

***

“Ok,” said Erun, “The Empire has sent out reinforcements to a riot going on in the south. This is a good chance to take out their western communication tower here in the west.” He pointed towards the map. “While a pretty significant goal, it should be pretty easy with all the guards distracted – should be a good starting one for Herba.” Herba nodded with acknowledgement.

After that training exercise, Erun put her through many more training excercises to test the extent of her abilities. The results really were extrodinary, and he finally decided to try giving her a shot in the field. If she could do half as well as in the simulations out here, she’d be a game-changer.

The rebels filtered out of the meeting room, and Erun took Herba aside to talk “Are you sure
you’ve got a handle on whatever this is? I wouldn’t want to force you to use it and have it backfire or something – we’re still not sure how it works.”

Herba was touched by his concern “Don’t worry – I know what I’m doing.” She reassured him,
and they headed out.

When they arrived near the area, they sat in predefined positions until the guards moved to the right position. All at once they moved in, attacking from both sides at once. Fire came down on the guards who weren’t even sure where it was coming from. It felt good to take revenge on the Empire.

She could never get her mother back, but she could take something from them too.

With the guards gone, they quickly moved up to the top of the radio tower, and Marie, the tech
girl, started reconfiguring it to anti-Empire messages. Meanwhile, John was out planting explosives so they could take down the tower before the Empire got it back.

“Why are we bothering to take out the radio?” Herba wondered aloud.

“Peoples perceptions of how well the battle goes is based on the news. We take it over, it seems
like the Empire is losing control. They feel more confident they could fight the Empire and win. It doesn’t seem significant, but these things make a big difference.” Erun replied. As he finished, a small ball rolled into the room, and smoke suddenly appeared everywhere. An ambush!

Herba began to panic, but then froze, remembering before. Every time she used an ability, she felt anger, or frustration, or some other emotion. Maybe, all she had to do was feel the right way, and she would get some ability. So she let herself become scared. This was terrifying, this might be the end for her.