Chapter 6: Testing begins

After four days of taking care of details that would enable me to leave and not put any more pressure on the girls we were ready to leave. We had an 8:30 flight out of Sea-Tac Airport that would take us to New York's Kennedy airport and from there to Edinburgh Scotland. After spending six hours getting to N.Y. and then another 19 getting to Scotland I had a serious case of jet lag. So after I rented a car I let Sandi drive while I slept. I had plenty of time to rest as it took about nine more hours to get to where we were going. Sandi had stopped at a small parking lot at the base of a large mesa.

I looked around and asked, "So where is this castle at?"

"Right there." She said as she pointed to the top of the mesa.

"I guess we'll have to climb." I said wearily.

"Hell no, just follow me." And she grabbed her suitcase and started off toward the base of the mesa. So I picked up mine as well and started off after her.

At the base of what can only be described as a shear cliff she pushed a rock stuck in a crack. There was a voice. "What do you want?"

She smiled as she said, "It's Tanna, will you please let me in. There is someone here you need to meet."

To my amassment the crack got wider until it revealed an elevator. She stepped in and I followed. The elevator started to move when it stopped the doors opened and we were greeted by two men. They were huge. They must have been 6'6" and about 370 pounds, mostly muscle. They asked us to follow them, which we did. They led us out of the small shed we were in. As I looked up I was impressed, the castle was enormous. There had to be 100 rooms covering 70,000 square feet. "WOW!!"

After leading us through a maze of hallways and corridors the stopped at a very large set of double oak doors. " You may enter." Then they turned and left.

As we entered, I was not prepared for what I saw. There were eight men sitting on what looked like thrones. Sandi led me to the center of the room facing the thrones. Since this was her gig, I would let her do all the talking while I stood there with an impassive look on my face.

The man in the center looked us over. "Tanna why have you come and who is this?"

"Sir John I have come for training and guidance." Sandi said.

"What is it that inspires you to train?" The man asked.

"Fear." she replied.

This was not the answer that Sir John was expecting. " Fear, fear of what?"

"My fear is that there are others out in the world with his power," she said pointing to me, "and are not of a good heart as Rick."

Sir John got up and walked down to look at me as if he was looking at a dog he was about to buy. "What about this young man is there to be fearful."

"Sir John, I have seen this man paralyze his enemies with a thought, imprison them with a wave of his hand and rip them limb from limb without breaking a sweat. I have also seen him heal the horrible burns of his family just by touching them."

Sir John's eyes widened a little. I don't know whether it was from fear or excitement.

"I find this hard to believe, so we will test him to see if he is worthy of our training. There will be eight tests. As the hour is late, we will begin in the morning. You will be shown your rooms for the night."

Sandi looked at Sir John, "One room will be sufficient for us both."

Sir John looked at her then to me as his lips turned up at the corners with a small grin that lasted less than a second. "So be it. Rest well for tomorrow we test you."

As he finished speaking the two men from before entered the room and usher us out. We followed them down several different halls to what would most likely be our home for a year.

Once we were alone in our room (which was the size of a small house) I turned to Sandi. "Ok now what's going to happen?"

"Well you will be tested by the eight masters. Each will test you in a specific skill. John Mac Millen will test you on your TK strength. Ian Mac Rainy will test you on TK dexterity. Richard Mac Ivee will test you on your telepathic ability to read and control minds. Carl Cambell will test you on telepathic attack. Jim Montrose will test your mental defense. Edward Mac Gregor will test your body's strength. David Canmore will test your speed. Lastly Robert Baliol will test your dexterity."

"That sure is a lot of tests." I said.

"Yes it is but there are three disciplines Telekinesis, telepathy and body. These disciplines are broken down into skills. Each of the eight men is a master of a specific skill." she replied.

"Are you saying that I will be tested by men that are stronger than me in any thing I do?" I asked.

"Most likely but with what I have seen you do you may be stronger than some of them." she answered.

Well I felt a little better when she said that, just a little. Well I better get some rest if I'm going to go up against the masters tomorrow so I started to get ready for bed. As I crawled in to bed Sandi slipped in next to me and kissed me good night.

The next morning I awoke to the smell of hot coffee, eggs, bacon and toast. When I opened my eyes there was Sandi holding a breakfast tray.

"Good morning sleepy head." Sandi said.

"Good morning." I said as I stretched my arms trying to finish waking up.

"The Adepts thought that you should have a good breakfast before they try to break you." She said as she snickered.

"What's so funny?" I asked.

"I was just thinking that if they knew what I know you wouldn't get the chance to surprise the shit out of them." She replied.

"So when do these tests suppose to start?" I inquired.

"As soon as you've had breakfast." She said as she stuffed a piece of bacon in my mouth. " So eat up."

After breakfast we were lead to a courtyard that was about 200 feet square. At the north end of the courtyard sat the adepts. As we reached the center of the courtyard Sir John got up and walked toward us. I noticed that he was wearing a blue jogging suit, not what I expected of a man that could use his mind to rip someone apart.

"Good morning, are you ready to begin?" Asked Sir John.

"Yes." I said in a cool and neutral tone. The last few months had given me a real confidence boost. I didn't feel that I had any thing to prove but I needed their help and if I had to jump through a few hoops to get it then fine that was just what I would do.

"I will be testing your TK strength. Tanna you may sit with the adepts and watch." Turning back to look at me he said. "Lets begin."

"Ok what do you want me to do?" I asked.

"Start by trying to push me down." He replied.

"Are you sure that you want me to do that? I could hurt you." I said.

"Yes I'm sure. I don't believe you can hurt me." He answered.

"Okay, just remember you asked for it." I warned.

He turned and walked about 25 feet away and then turned to face me. "Okay, begin"

I pushed with my mind. I didn't want to hurt him so I only used a little power.

He didn't even budge. He got a disappointed look on his face. "Come, come you can do better than that. Try it again this time use all your strength."

"I don't think that's a good idea." I said.

"Let me be the judge of that, now do it" He commanded.

"Ok." I said doubtfully. I gathered all my strength into a ball of power and let it grow for a few seconds then let it explode at the man. The result was a little shocking. The wave of force was actually visible as it left my mind and shot at Sir John. When it struck him he was thrown back 75 feet here he hit the courtyard wall. He then slipped down the wall into a heap of unconsciousness. I raced over to him to see if he was all right. As I bent over him, I saw that he had a broken arm and a nasty gash on the back of his head. Out of the corner of my eye I saw the other adepts and Sandy running over. I figured I was the one that caused his injury (even though he asked for it) I should be the one to fix his arm and head. So I put my hand on his body and concentrated on healing him. As the other adepts reached Sir John and myself his eyes had begun to flutter as he started to wake up. At this point I collapsed from exhaustion and closed my eyes. Between the amount of power that went into the strike and healing Sir John I had no energy left.

When I woke up, I was lying on a couch with everyone looking at me like they were expecting me to tell them who shot Kennedy.

Sir John got up and came over to me. I noticed that he had his arm in a sling. "Well my boy you passed the first and the seventh test with flying colors."

"First and seventh?" I asked.

"Yes my boy, your TK punch over powered my shield and definitely pushed me down." He said with a grin. "When you ran over to help me, your movements were but a blur to everyone watching. By the way thank you for the pick me up." He said with a smile.

"Your welcome, I just wish I could have finished the job, I was kind of tired." I said.

"No worry's, you just rest and tomorrow we will continue the testing. Although we aren't testing to see if we will train you, we are testing to see where your weak points are so we can work on them." he said.

I nodded weakly, but I could already feel my strength returning. I asked. "Sir John, why is it that you all live up here in isolation?"

"Well my boy, we live here for two main reasons. One is that we like the solitude. It is very conducive to training. The other reason is that we don't like to have to shield our selves from the normals."

"I see," I said, "well I think that I should go to my room and get some more rest."

Sir John motioned to one of his servants who immediately come to my side to help me up to my room. After I was in bed, I don't remember any thing until the sun woke me the next morning. I realized that I had slept for nearly 19 hours.

A few minutes after I had been awake, Sandi came in with breakfast. "Good morning darling." It wasn't until I smelled the eggs and toast that I realized that I was famished. "Breakfast in bed, what a wonderful idea. Thank you." I said then I tore into the meal with a vengeance.

After breakfast we went down to the courtyard again and I was introduced to a man named Ian MacRainy. "Well lad, are ye ready for more testing?" He said in a very thick Scottish accent.

"Yes sir I am."

" That's good me boy, cause testing is what ye weel git. Lits begin." He said.

He led us over to a table with a lot of different items on it. "I weel test your fine control of your powers, now take the boll out o' the glass." He said as he pointed to a thin, tall glass with a red rubber ball in the bottom.

After yesterday I was feeling kinda cocky but at the same time a little apprehensive. I had never used my powers like this. I tried to make a pair of TK tongs to grab the ball with. After I moved the tongs into the glass I mentally opened them to grip the ball but I ended up exploding the glass from the internal pressure of the tongs opening.

"Well me boy effective but nout what I had in mind." he said laughing.

"Sorry I didn't mean to do that." I murmured.

"Don't worry me boy, weel have to work on it. Onto ye next test, now ye need to go over ta see Carl Cambell over there." He said pointing to the man sitting on a stone bench.

After all the success in the last few months I couldn't believe that I couldn't pull a ball from a damn glass! As Sandi led me over to what I was sure to be another failure I started to get angry, I don't know why I was getting angry, I just was. Maybe it was all the things I had to endure or maybe it was all the things that I had lost, but by the time I reached Mr. Cambell I was really pissed.

"Good morning son." he said greeting me with a handshake.

His greeting reminded me that even though I was pissed I wasn't angry with any of the adepts just myself. "Good morning" I said trying to hide my rage.

"I will test your ability to attack a shielded mind. When I say 'begin' I want you to try to get through my mental shield. When I say stop, the test will be over. Do you have any questions?" He asked.

"No sir." I replied

"Ok... begin" he said

I reached out with my mind and found a very impressive wall around his mind. In terms that most would understand, his mind was protected by a wall that rivaled the hull of a World War II destroyer. I could have thrown every thing I had at it and not dented the surface. But I did see a weakness. The signals from his body passed right through the wall, and they had to. If he created a defense that stopped those signals from reaching his brain and returning to his body he would die(i.e., no signal for his heart to beat). Ok I had found a weakness but how do I exploit that knowledge. Then I remembered the saboteur from work. I will let the signals from his body carry a virus to his mind that will bring down his defense from the inside. I had been studying the lights I saw around people for months and knew what most of them meant. I changed a few lights here and a few lights there and then let them slide into his mind on their own.

I started to grin then I sat down on a chair to watch. The anger I felt earlier was fading as I started to feel good about my self again. I saw the wall start to get some cracks in it than all at once I saw it crumble and fall.

Cambell's eyes got very large. "Stop."

"Do I pass your test?" I inquired.

"Yes and how... nobody has ever beaten my defense how did you do it?" he demanded.

I smiled as I said. "I used your own body against you." I saw the confusion on his face so I explained it to him. As I explained it made me realize how this attack could easily work on me so I went about making changes to my brain. I took a small portion of my unconscious mind and turned it into a 'virus scanner' that would remove any altered signals. I then routed all the signals from my body though this part of my mind. There were a few minor side effects when I did this. For a second I got dizzy but it all cleared up and I could see any altered signals not only in my self but in others as well. A good tool to screen people for mental tampering.

Cambell said that was a very ingenious way to attack and that he didn't even know that the attack had started until his shield fell. Even though I felt good about the test I knew that particular attack would not work on me and I also knew that I needed help on more direct attacks, I said as much to Cambell.

"Well your method was effective but I think you're right, you do have some weak spots. We will work on different styles of attacks. Well it looks like its time for your next test." He said pointing to a small man about twenty feet away.

"Hello." said the small man. "My name is Jim Montrose."

"Hello." I said shaking his hand.

"I will be testing your mental defenses. Now I want you to shield your mind the best you can so I can't break in... do not worry if I beat your defenses I will withdraw immediately."

"To be honest I haven't taken my shield down since I got here."

"Really?" He asked with a surprised look on his face.

"Yes it doesn't require much energy to maintain." I said.

"Ok lets test it." He said, then he recoiled in pain as he reached out and touched my curtain of pain with his mind.

As he stood shaking his head I asked. "Are you okay?"

"Yes I'm fine I just wasn't expecting any thing like your shield... it's more of an attack than a defense." he said.

"Well I never thought about it that way but I guess it is." I said.

"Well let me try again." He then pushed out to my mind again. The pain was mostly deflected by his mind shield. He was weakening but I saw that he would get through before his shield collapsed from the painful bombardment. I had to think fast. I came up with two ideas to stop him. One was to build another wall inside the curtain of pain, a wall of tightly woven thorns. It could be beaten but not without hours of untangling each thorn. The second was to speed up my mind to the point that the swirling lights in my head looked like a multicolored haze that no one could make sense of even if they got into my head.

I felt him get through the curtain just as I finished my other defenses. Then I felt him withdraw.

"Well-done boy, you have a nearly impenetrable defense." He said, "Nearly, because as good as it is it would only take some time to penetrate it."

I smiled an evil grin. "This is true but you only saw the first two levels of my defense."

"How many levels do you have?" he asked.

"Three. But the last is the hardest to maintain and is I believe impenetrable." I replied.

"May I see it?" he asked.

"Sure." I said as I lowered the first two levels of my shield.

He reached out with his mind once again, probing several times then pulled back. "Wow, that is amazing. I have full access to your mind but can't do a single thing to it let alone read it. Maybe you could teach me a thing or two... "

"Thank you, but I don't think I'm that good yet." I said in modesty.

"Yes you are my boy, yes you are. You have the best mental defense I have ever seen. How do you do it?" he inquired.

"The first two layers are easy to maintain but the third is much harder so I only use it in the event that someone makes it through the first layer. All I really do is speed up the signals in the brain so they become so fast that they look like a haze of light."

"Incredible. I see you will have more time for other studies as you can better defend your mind than I ever will. I would like to learn how to do that myself though." he said.

"Well I can try to teach you but I'm not sure it's some thing that can be taught." I replied.

"If it can be taught, I want to learn. Oh my its lunchtime already. Lets eat." He said as he pointed to the servants bringing out several trays of food. "After lunch the testing will resume with Richard Mac Ivee."

After a lunch of fresh crab salad, roast beef and sourdough bread we were served fresh picked blue berries in a heavy cream as a dessert. Man these guys know how to live! About 30 minutes after the trays arrived, they disappeared and everyone sat around for about an hour to let their lunch settle.

Just about the time I was ready to fall asleep a man came up to me and introduced himself. "Hello young man, I am Sir Richard Mac Ivee. I believe you have a test to take." He said with a grin.

"I believe you are right. Lets get to it."

"Good I like people with enthusiasm. I will be testing you on your ability to read minds as well as to see how well you mold minds to your will." he said.

"Ok where do I begin?" I asked.

"Well first of all you have to choose a couple test subjects." he said.