Aery smiled a little thinly at the barely-concealed threat. "I don't think anyone is going to "break" me quite so easily as you might think. I don't look like much, I know, but I'm rather fast. And as far as breaking me mentally, well, let's just say that even the CIA can't do that, and they had two years to try."
Peter nudged her as the threat registered with him. "Oh, now you've done it, Banana. And now he's going to kill us all."
Aery shoved him playfully, whispering fiercely. "If he tries to kill us, I'll kill him first. And don't call me Banana! You know my parents aren't Latin scholars!" He was referring to the fact that her name, Aerienna, was rather like the Latin word Ariena, which means Banana.
"You know, if we are going to be in combat with one another, I would really like to know your name. If you would be so kind, sir? Or I'll just come up with an epithet, but..."
"Tell her your name, you'll hate the epithets!" Adam shouted. He would know, too.
Aery grinned at the comment about practice weapons. "Nothing on me. However, our "clubhouse" as we call it is just up the street, and I have a goodly supply of items there. Perhaps nothing quite so effective as your rope dart, but I'll find a suitable weapon to spar with. If we take a right turn here..." she guided them onto a side-street, stopping before a tiny house. "Peter, key? I always leave mine at home when we go on runs."
He grumbled about "idiot bananas who are going to get themselves squished" but stepped up to the black door and flashed an ID badge at a sensor in the doorknob. The door swung open, to reveal an elevator taking up the entire teeny house. Bowing sarcastically Peter held the door open for Aery, and she and the other boys piled in. Down at the bottom of this elevator, about a quarter of a mile down, they had an enormous sprawling complex, of which they only regularly used about a quarter. Their "clubhouse."
"Come on, hop in! I promise it won't break. We've taken full gunsafes down in this before and it's not even squeaked." Aery called to Orion.