The Guardian Chronicles 2: Dark Horizon by Matthew Burkey Page A

of a comic book. It was vast, the ceiling as high as his school’s gymnasium. The entire right side of the gym had a variety of gym equipment; free weights, treadmills, stair climbers, elliptical trainers, and stationary bikes. It all looked brand new as well, like no one had ever used it, although given the way that most of the Guardians he had met looked, he found that hard to believe.
    The other side the gym held a vast array of what looked like sparring areas. The mats, like the rest of the stuff in the training room looked like it was brand new. Again, Gabriel had a hard time believing that and assumed that the Guardians just took really good care of their stuff. He was surprised to see Cody and Tony in a ring. Both were holding short swords, though unlike the rest of the stuff in the gym, these looked like they had seen a great deal of wear and tear.
    “What are they doing?” Gabriel asked, as they approached the ring.
    “Sparring,” Ryan smiled.
    Even as he spoke the two of them leapt into action again, coming at each other at what seemed like a furious pace. The speed and fluidity of their attacks and parries was mind boggling, making the match look like something out of a movie and not real life.
    “Still too slow,” Cody grunted, dodging another blow. Tony struck back with renewed vigor, launching into an assault that included a series of kicks as well as sword strikes. But Cody moved to counter each one, pushing them aside or blocking them all together.
    “Maybe I’m just warming up,” Tony responded.
    “I would have thought that you'd be warmed up by now,” Cody responded, he back flipped away from Tony.
    That only seemed to up the ante and Tony was striking back harder than he had before, driving Cody toward the edge of the training ring. Cody vaulted over Tony, slamming the pommel of his sword into Tony’s back as he land, pitching him forward. Tony recovered, whirling around and nearly taking Cody’s head off.
    “They’re gonna kill each other,” Gabriel yelped.
    “Nah,” Ryan responded. “Actually, I think that Tony is about to win.”
    “What?”
    Gabriel wasn’t entirely sure what Ryan meant by that, mainly because he couldn’t see that either person was even close to making a mistake. Cody faked to the left and then was knocked completely off balanced by a snap kick to the chest. He faltered slightly, which was all the opening that Tony needed. He exploded into action, slamming into Cody with a series of precise blows that disarmed him in a matter of seconds.
    “Damn it,” Cody cursed, breathing heavy. “How is that you do that every single time?”
    “Because I’m that good,” Tony smiled.
    Cody rolled his eyes, grabbing a towel and wiping off his face. “Still beat your butt on the ranged course though.”
    Tony shrugged, appearing not to offer any resistance to that comment. It was commonly known that Cody was probably the best shot of out all the Guardians at this division of Aegis. They both turned to look at Gabriel and Ryan, who were standing at the edge of the ring.
    “Hey, nice to see you again,” Tony said, stepping out of the ring. “Decide to finally take a walk on the wild side?”
    “Um…yeah I guess so,” Gabriel shrugged. “Weren’t you afraid that you were going to hurt him? I mean you were both moving so fast.”
    “Pft,” Cody said, with a wave of his hand. “I’m not that slow.”
    “We train hard so that we can fight hard,” Tony explained, as they started to walk toward the other end of the gym. “I was in control the whole time; if I wanted to hurt him I could have just like if he wanted to hurt me he could have.”
    “But it was so fast,” Gabriel said, shaking his head. “It didn’t seem humanly possible.”
    “Because we aren’t entirely human,” Ryan smiled. “The Rite changes us; like you said before. We’re better than human, faster, stronger, more agile all the things you would need to take on the bad guys.”
    Gabriel was