Leo
He smiled lightly as he looked at the commander finally taking the time to size him up after his little show of force. The man was taller than him by a head and had a light skin that indicated a mixed heritage probably a Caucasian parent. He was quite young, probably mid-twenties which was impressive considering he was a commander. Leo was not sure how the ranks worked but the man was leading all the 20 or so solders that were here to settle. "Nice to meet you Mr?" Leo said confidently as he extended his hand to the man. The man did not take his hand but instead smiled at him.
"Sgt Luke Jacobs, others call me commander but you can just call me Jacobs because I like you kid," he said and then he turned to the crowd that was watching them and said, "okay so we have arrived here, I will confer with August privately and get debriefed on the area as well as the residencies in this neighbourhood. I know some of you once lived here so its best if you already prepare yourself to live somewhere you did not live before after we have checked which houses still possess fully functioning facilities and utilities."
The people went back to removing supplies from the vehicles and Leo saw food supplies as well as various machinery that he was not sure its purposes but assumed were for electricity and water systems. The army would need to make the place completely self sufficient and removed from the main power grid and water system that worked in the City of Harare before the invasion. Jacobs gestured for him to follow him and he was led to a tent that was erected close to the fleet of vehicles.
Inside was a desk with two chairs, one on both sides. Jacobs gestured for him to sit and he took his own seat and started arranging the few documents on the desk before looking at Leo again. "so, I am assuming that little show of force was a warning of some sort. What are your goals and most important of all, are you going to be a pain in my ass?"
"it was necessary in order to make sure that you would not underestimate me due to my age, usually I would be fine with being looked down on but I was aware that it might lead to you grown ups trying to dictate how I should live my life now which is against my goals."
"interesting, I see that you do not seem to be after a permanent residency at this safe zone, you have decent combat skills. I can see from that little display of yours that you are an amateur at best however your observational and reactive skills are top notch. You did not use any skills in the course of the battle though which is interesting. I find you interesting."
Leo was surprised at how accurate the analysis of his current abilities Jacobs had given and his respect as well as cautiousness increased in regards to him. "once again I ask what your goals are and whether you will be trouble. You see I want to establish an order here, I want to get this settled up and running so that I can head to the frontlines in the war zones quicker and I can not have someone making that much harder than it should be," Jacobs said while rubbing his chin.
"I will not be trouble as long as you allow me to maintain my status quo, which includes my current accommodation as well as the freedom to move around within the settlement as I please in order to further my training. we share the same goal; I seek power in order to finally take the fight to the invaders in the war zones."
Jacobs whistled low, as he looked at Leo assessing him. He was trying to see if the guy was insane or if he meant what he said. "what you are asking for is nearly impossible seeing as though we have people here who might be against the idea. But I can see your determination so I have a counter proposal. I can probably allow you to stay in the house if you do not mind a housemate."
Leo thought about the idea and instinctively felt an aversion to it as he had things about himself to keep hidden such as how his abilities worked or how he trained them. He was also against the thought of shacking us with some guy or family that he did not feel comfortable with. " it depends on who I will have to stay with and whether they can respect boundaries as well as my privacy."
Jacobs had a satisfied smile on his face as he said, "simple enough, you will live with me and I will definitely be able to maintain personal boundaries. Besides, I think I can help you with your combat training seeing as though we might end up being comrades on the front lines someday. It's a good deal."
Leo was not against the prospect as he felt that the man was decent and seemed easy to get along with. He extended his hand to seal the deal however once again Jacobs simply looked at it and then smiled. "okay kid first rule, no skin contact with me, it would not end well for you," he said and then pulled out some leather gloves put them on and clasped hands with him.
"I will tell all the people out there that I have adopted you as my younger brother so as to explain why I am suddenly living with a minor, I have an image to maintain after all," he said with a wry smile on his face. Leo smiled and nodded his head, realising how peculiar it was for him to suddenly gain a family member so easily as if collecting rocks by the side of a road.
"very well, big bro hope we can get along well before I have to move on." Jacobs excused himself as he went to handle the settling in and Leo went back to his place to get ready for the new resident. He cleaned up and tried to remove any undesirables he might have left around as well as to move all his stuff into his room. He had a lot of personal effects lying around that he used to train psychometry as well as stuff he brought home for training his physique. He put the weights and dumbbells outside in a storage shed that was in the back of the yard.
He then went back into his room and sat on his bed and began a session of meditation, he relaxed his body as he sent his body into a near sleep like state with the gathering and circulation of energy around it. Once he had struck a perfect balance, he then diverted part of his mind to begin running simulations of the fight he had with the two soldiers from before.
Jacobs had been able to determine that he was an amateur because his movement were not fluid enough and he needed to eliminate any weaknesses he possessed. It seems it was true that actual combat would go a long way into improving your fighting capability. He realised that his high levels of processing ability would greatly speed up his reaction ability making it seem like his opponents were moving in slow motion, however that was a crutch that would limit his actual improvement. He decided that from that moment forward he would try to limit his brain power when in a fight by either multitasking by doing various mental exercises while fighting or limit the amount of information available to the brain by shutting off one of his senses.
He knew that he had to be better than humans before he went after the monster since their combat standards were probably far and above those of humans. Jacobs arrived in a jeep with very little luggage, just three duffel bags and a single small suitcase. Leo went out and helped him out and gestured to the house, "well then bro, mi casa es su casa."
"way to pick such a fancy place kid, I am not one for luxury like this," he said walking in and looking around at the nice place. Leo coughed and said, "it was purely out of necessity, it's the first house I found that had both a solar system and borehole system installed and I did not know whether the main systems were still up and running so you can fault me."
They settled in and agreed that they would talk more the following day as Jacobs had a long day and needed to rest. Leo went to rest with a concise plan of his inquiries as well as an excitement at what kind of training he would receive from Jacobs in the days to come.