I ended up not having a second nightmare once I went back to sleep.

Tiffany and I were woken up before the sun by her father – He sneaked into the room with a pot and a large spoon in hand, which he immediately started clashing together.

“Rise and Shine!”

“Ahhhh!!!!” The two of us yelled as we jumped out of the bed and looked around to see what was going on.

We noticed Mr. Hwang staring at us from behind the pot he was now holding in front of his face. “Good morning girls.”

“Why, would you do that?!” Tiffany yelled as she sprang out of bed with a raised fist.

While she yelled, I slowly rolled out of the bed and rubbed my eyes in an attempt to gain my bearings.

“Rule one in the Liner’s handbook: Always be prepared.”

“There’s a handbook?” I let out a low groan as a stretch caused my back to crack.

“Actually no…” he responded “I just made that up. But we can’t waist time if we plan on helping anybody.”

Tiffany flopped back into bed and let out a grunt; to express her frustration.

“I’ve already made breakfast – Get dressed, eat, and meet me in the room.” He put up air quotes when he spoke the last two words and skidded out of the room.

“Your father is… strange.”

“Yes… yes he is…”

…

It took us some time to muster up the strength required to get out of bed, but we eventually found ourselves back in the room where we first learned about the Liners. We had decided on not telling Tiffany’s father about my nightmare, figuring it was just a one time thing.

My sister had already left with her friend for the day, so she remained oblivious to what was going on under the house. I felt bad not telling her the truth about our family, but it seemed like the best way to keep her safe.

 

“Took your sweet old time…” Mr. Hwang said while flipping through a few books.

The first thing that Tiffany and I noticed once we looked around was that: The machines that we had seen in the corner on the previous day were now scattered about the room.

“What is all of this stuff?” Tiffany asked, looking around.

“It’s gear for your training. They’re a bit odd in function, but the job gets done.”

Tiffany’s face drew back as she looked at all of the machines that would be involved in her training. I couldn’t help but allow a laugh to myself, seeing her distaste for the instruments.

As we walked over to Mr. Hwang’s desk, he put the books down and reached in a drawer. He pulled out our bracers, which appeared to have been buffed.

“Do you have your crests on you?”

“Mhm” the two of us said in unison. We figured it was a good idea to keep our crest with us at all times, so we found some string and made makeshift bracelets with them.

“That’s a resourceful idea” he responded as we showed him the bracelets. “But I think you should use stronger material…” He walked back to his desk and pulled out two small metal bracelets, which we could loop in our crests. “This should do it.”

He handed us our bracers and the bracelets at the same time, but Tiffany and I only paid attention to our bracers.

“Are we able to use them now?” I asked.

“Yes, but for the time being there are no passwords and you don’t have access to all of the features.”

We each equipped our bracers on our left forearms. As it first touched my skin, I felt a small pinch. I initially noticed just how soft the bracer was – I could barely feel its presence on my arm. The second thing that crossed my mind was: how little metal the bracer actually consisted of. The material was very malleable, but strong at the same time.

Tiffany and I waved our arms around to check out our new equipment. The bracers were basically weightless. I looked at the underside of my forearm, where the screen happened to be, and noticed that it was still off.

“I thought we were able to use them now?”

“You can.” Mr. Hwang responded. “There’s no button to turn them on – you have to do it mentally.”

“How in the world do we do that?” Tiffany asked.

“You just have to think about it, and it will turn on. That pinch you felt when you put on the bracer was its way of connecting with your body. Using it is sort of like walking or moving your arm – you don’t really think about it, but you subconsciously choose to do it.”

…

After a few minutes of us looking like idiots, Tiffany and I were finally able to get our bracers . Subconsciously turning something on that you can barely feel was extremely difficult – it was like trying to aim for a target that you couldn’t see.

The screen on the bracers flashed with a dull blue light as they . Immediately after my bracer turned, I could feel as if there was another tiny limb on my body.

“Do you feel that?” I asked Tiffany.

She nodded. “It feels like I have another finger or something.”

“Like I said before – It essentially become a part of your body.” Mr. Hwang added.

 

Moments after getting it , I eagerly checked out the screen of my bracer. The only information that I could see on the screen were my vitals.

Apparently I have high sodium levels… Probably from those bacon and eggs yesterday >,>

“What can we make this thing do?” Tiffany asked, looking up from her own screen.

“Well for now they can only do three things: Enhance your body, send messages, and beacon –You already know about the physical enhancement. The messaging feature works just like how it sounds – You’re able to send voice or text messages back and forth to other bracers within your faction. The best part about this feature is that you are able to communicate in the field without actually having to speak to each other. The beaconing feature is essentially like a GPS: You can send out a distress signal that lets other Liners in your faction know your exact location. This works in case anybody gets lost or is in trouble.”

That’s pretty useful

*“Hey Tae, can you hear me?”*

Tiffany?

I turned over and looked at Tiffany who was staring at me, curiously.

“How do you do that?” I asked, not knowing how to function the bracer.

*“You just have to act like you’re talking to yourself in your head.”*

*“You must do that a lot.”* I teased Tiffany, on how easily she was able to work the bracer.

Tiffany frowned, but before she could snap back at me, her father intervened:

“I see you have already started using the messaging. There’ll be time to practice with the bracers later but, training starts… RIGHT NOW!”

……………………

The two of us stood there waiting for him to say, or do anything, but Tiffany’s dad remained still.

“Ummmm…. Dad?”

“Ahem.” He straightened his stature and became serious. “Ok, now it’s time to get serious.” His face became stern. “Tiffany, you and I will start with running – nothing I teach you will be of any use if you’re not fit enough to carry it out. Taeyeon, you will begin training by reading these books.” He handed the stack of books to me. “Find a particular field that interest you, and place your focus on it – there’s not enough time in the world for you to become well rounded in each subject. In between your reading you’ll practice the enhancement feature on you bracer, so your body can get used to the stress.”

“Exactly how do I do that now?”

“You’ll figure it out.” Mr. Hwang responded as he started jogging in place. “Start off only using it for five minutes at a time. Do that every hour for five hours. Stop if you feel any lingering strain.”

“I’m only going to practice with it for twenty-five minutes?”

“Your body would break down if you used it any longer – you have to get adjusted to it before any serious use.”

“Hmmm…” I looked down at my bracer.

There’s so much I still don’t understand.

“Things will come naturally for you – don’t stress about it too much.” Mr. Hwang attempted to reassure me. He then waved at Tiffany: “Alright, let’s go. We’ve wasted enough sunlight.”

Tiffany turned to me with a small frown on her face as she started jogging, and followed her father out of the room. “Good luck, Tae.”

…

I have no idea what I’m doing…

Mr. Hwang had left me with little information, so I was essentially lost. I assumed the lack of information was also part of the training: Having to figure things out on your own.

I had put off reading the books to focus solely on working the bracer: The thing was still a complete enigma to me.  

How am I supposed to work this “enhancement” thing?

Nothing I did mentally would cause a reaction, and pressing the bracer was useless because there were no buttons on it.

“I quit.” I said as I slumped to the floor and lay down.

In my frustration, I randomly began humming a tune that my mother sung to me whenever I was upset.

“La, La, La… La, La, La La-La.”

The tune had always calmed me down, and nearly lulled me to sleep.

I suddenly felt tired – partly from my lack of good sleep, and also because of how serine the tune was. I closed my eyes; ready to take a nap…

**

I suddenly felt a jolt of energy. My eyes forced themselves open to view the strange world around me. From what I could tell, everything was the same, but it all looked different. The items in my line of sight were all so detailed that it felt like my eyes had become magnifying glasses. I brought my hands up to my face, in an attempt to rub my eyes, but ended up hitting myself instead.

“Ouch! What the hell?”

My arms were like two strands of spaghetti: They were so loose and moved with much more force than I intended them to.

Did I make the bracer work?

I steadied myself and tried to stand up. Rather than just standing up; my body did a small hop with me landing on my feet. With my feet touching the floor, I learned that my legs were equally as ‘spaghettish’ as my arms.

 

Author’s note* Made-Up Word Dictionary: Spaghettish – loose, wiggly, and hard to control… like spaghetti… That is all…

 

This is going to be difficult…

My first goal while using the enhancement feature on the bracer was to make my way to the kitchen. Walking seemed out of the question – My steps were like lunges, and I could easily have lost control and ran into a wall.

I decided to crawl my way over to the kitchen, and got there surprisingly quick. I stopped in the center of the kitchen and lay flat; barely feeling the gravity on me.

“This is can’t be a good sign.”

My face was beaded with sweat, and my breathing was becoming strenuous. I could feel my body starting to break down due to the stress. I hadn’t been using the bracer long… but five minutes was supposed to be the maximum amount of time.

I focused on remaining calm as my heart-rate rapidly increased.

“Ok, I got it on, now how am I supposed to turn this thing off?!”

I raised myself from the floor and worked my way over to the sink. Turning on the faucet, I stuck my head under and allowed the water to run over my face – it was the only thing I thought would help my situation.

After a few seconds of rinsing, my body tensed up. I suddenly lost feeling in legs, and started sliding to the floor.

“Unghhh”

I struggled as I reached my hand out to get a grip on something. My fingers were able to get a feeling on a drawer, which I immediately grabbed without attempting to hold back. The drawer flung outward, and all of the silverware within it flew into the air.

As my body hit the floor, the silverware did as well. The clashing of the silverware against the tile, along with my enhanced hearing, caused a ripple of sound waves in the air.

The amount of ringing that my ears received was crippling and deafening.

“AHHHHHH!!!”

I knew better than to try my luck at covering my ears. I lay there as the noise echoed in brain until I out.

…

 

“BLEHHH!”

I woke up to a nauseating smell and a terrible taste in my mouth. I looked out to notice that I was lying on a metal table.

“How are you holding up?” A voice asked from a counter next to me.

“I’m alright… I think. What is that smell?”

I sat up and turned to face the person I now realized was Mr. Hwang.

“It’s a paste made from a few rare plants. It doesn’t smell very nice, but it gets the job done.”

“What does it do?” I said as I tried to stand up.

“Don’t even think about trying to walk around – you’re still recovering, so stay put. The paste is  used mostly for the aroma it gives off. The scent helps the body’s recovery from stress-related injuries.”

There was a pause in the conversation as I lay back down on the table.

“As I’m sure you already know: I was able to get the bracer to work, but I didn’t know how to turn the thing off…”

“The bracers enhancement feature responds to your emotional levels – If you are in a state of complete calm, the feature will work. On the other hand: if you lose that peace, then that feature will automatically stop. Most people freak out once they feel that stress on their body for the first time, but you were able to stay calm. In this situation, your ability to keep a cool head almost got you killed. The same thing happened to your father.”

“He was able to remain calm too?”

“Yeah, but he was so stubborn that he remained that way for an entire hour?”

“An hour! How was he able to do that?”

“Nobody knows… but it was a very smart idea. He had to recover for two months before he was able to train again.”

“Wow… So what about me? How is my recovery time looking?”

“Well with the paste you and Tiffany should be good to go by tomorrow.”

“Tiffany?”

I rolled over to see Tiffany lying on a metal table next to me. She was just waking up, and there was a bandage wrapped around her right leg.

“She pushed herself way too hard.” Her father stated, before I could ask the question.

 

“Are you okay?” I asked Tiffany as she sat up on the table.

“I’m the one who’s supposed to be concerned.”

Mr. Hwang ducked his head and quietly snuck out of the room as Tiffany and I started our conversation.

“You’ve done nothing, but get into trouble since you’ve gotten here.” Tiffany said, amused.

“It seems to be following me around recently.” I joked.

The two of us lay back down on our respective metal tables as we wordlessly decided on getting some needed rest.

“We’re in for a rough couple of weeks…” Tiffany relayed what was on both of our minds.

“Yes… yes we are.”

_________________________________________________

Lol at the picture

Osu!