Training exercise?” I repeated in disbelief. I looked at the downed mini-mecha in horror. “But that thing was trying to kill us!”
“Only so you’d actually use your powers,” said Mario, sitting up and rubbing his back. “If I hadn’t gone all out, you wouldn’t have gotten the training you needed. Kids these days, I swear.”
“Mario is right,” said Shade, patting me on the shoulder again. “Truthfully, none of us were ever in any real danger. Although Mario is our best Super Smasher pilot, he wouldn’t have killed us. Beat us up a little, yes, but kill us? No.”
“So … this was your idea of training?” I said, glancing at the Danger Chamber. “Is this what you do every day?”
“G-Men agents train in a variety of different environments and situations,” said Shade, “so this is just an example of the k
