Welcome to ASA- IC

Geostar Fill;Arizonia;Yantramanav;Roboto;
Allison

Walker



Location
ASA Headquarters


Time
11:00 AM


Weather
50 degrees fahrenheigt, 15 mph winds


The rooms were definetly a point of contestation, and the heroine could tell as the apartment’s new occupants started streaming back out. Liam’s questions were answered first, as they seemed the most prevalant. “Of course,” she nodded. “Later tonight I’ll give you all the rundown on emergency procedures. And yes- in fact, each room is on its own power grid, and the venting systems are well-equipped to handle any outside tampering. The windows can shrug off a small missile- we tested it- and they have reinforced metal shutters that automatically descend in case of outside attack. Also, the tinting is the darkest you can get. No one will be able to see in- oh, and in case anyone was wondering, I will not be able to remotely access your rooms once your keycards are swiped for the first time. All access for anyone but the person with your keycard will be revoked.”

Her attention was next drawn to Emily, who was requesting curtains. “We can get you almost anything you want for your room- really, just fill out a request and HR will have it to you within a week. I can give you a request form later.”

Then, Mattew and Ashe exited, the former asking about returning to old residences and the latter inputting his curiosity on the matter as well. “Yes. Really, you’re all free to do whatever you want, as long as you stay on call so we can get ahold of you, and show up for patrols when you’re sceduled to.” She shrugged.

Finna’s voice was the next to rise, an anxious tone decorating it. The woman was shaking, poor thing. Allison gave her a look akin to pity. “Let’s go,” she agreed, knowing that she was probably overwhelmed. “Next is your introduction to each other’s powers. I hope you’re all ready, because this isn’t going to be easy on you.”

With that, she led the way down the hall.

Code template by @darkflames13


Geostar Fill;Arizonia;Yantramanav;Roboto;
Slate

Marshall



Location
ASA Headquarters


Time
11:00 AM


Weather
50 degrees fahrenheigt, 15 mph winds

The winged male followed the group quietly down the hall, his eyes resting on the white-haired woman that had seemed so affected by the dorms, and the girl that had taken up the spot next to her.

But he had no time to speak to her, or to gather up the guts to even approach, because they were soon entering the training room. It was a large area, with various gym equipment and even acrobatic items scattered around. On the far side, however, was just a large, empty area behind a large glass enclosure, and bleachers just outside. This is where they were headed, and Allison instructed the recruits to sit.

This is when he stepped forward for the first time, taking over for a moment as Allison stepped aside and sat down at what looked to be a control panel.

“Alright, my turn,” he remarked, giving them all a slightly awkward, quiet smile. “I’m Ebon- or, I guess you can call me Slate if you really want. This glass-enclosed area is where the true training will take place. You’ll each have a turn to fight non-deadly robotic adversaries in this enclosure, to show off your fighting skills and your powers. The most hurt you’ll receive is a bruise, or maybe a cut if you’re stupid with the weapon you pick.” A moment passed before he allowed an ever-rare smile to cross his lips. “Unless, of course, you’d rather show off against me.”

He glanced over the group for a moment, then pointed to the rightmost person. “You’ll start, Aiden,” he stated firmly. “We’ll just go down the line.”

She didn’t exactly seem happy about going first, but she wasn’t complaining, which was a relief to him. She stood up awkwardly, her eyes darting to her companions for a split second before she stepped down to join him at the bottom of the bleachers.

Slate gestured to Allison, who flicked a switch on the control panel. A podium rose from the floor in the center of the training area, populated with a variety of weapons- blades of various sizes, bludgeoning weapons, a rifle, and a pistol. “Pick one,” he ordered her, his voice almost indifferent. “Once you do, that podium will retract and the fight will begin.”

She walked in, plucked a small dagger from the pickings, and stepped back as the podium retracted. The lights inside the room dimmed, Slate sat down, and Allison flicked a few more switches and twisted the knobs on her control panel, and the fight began.

He watched in silence, then, when the girl finished her demonstration and returned, gave her a nod and a quiet ‘good job’, then gestured for the next person to demonstrate.

Code template by @darkflames13


Geostar Fill;Arizonia;Yantramanav;Roboto;
Aiden

Carter



Location
ASA Headquarters


Time
11:00 AM


Weather
50 degrees fahrenheigt, 15 mph winds


The white-haired woman seemed to be in a bad way, so as Allison led the group off, Aiden slipped through the crowd quietly until she was next to her. “Hey,” she greeted softly. “You’re going to be okay, yeah?” It was more of a statement than a question, but she felt that it was an important one. “My name’s Aiden. Yours?”

When the reply came, she smiled, but was prevented from speaking anymore as the group was ushered into seats in the rather spacious training room. She took the seat farthest from the control panel, but that soon proved to be to her detriment, as the newly-introduced Slate chose her to go first. She swallowed thickly, the familiar pit of nervousness settling in her gut as she slowly, hesitantly, and unwillingly stood up and strode into the center of the training area once she was instructed to.

Her skin crawled with the feeling of her comrades’ eyes on her back, but she swallowed the stage fright back and grabbed a dagger from the podium after a moment’s hesitation over the grenade.

The podium slid back into the floor and she gripped the handle of her weapon in the palm of her clammy hand. “Alright,” she muttered as the lights dimmed. “Let’s go.”

The wall slid open in four places, and rotund, compact bots began wheeling out of them, their sensors blinking red and a mechanical whirring filling the room as their sights locked on. Aiden didn’t move until the first rubber bullet was released toward her, which was when she just….disappeared. It was as if she simply blinked out of existence.

She turned up half a second later in front of the bot farthest from her previous position, raising her arm and driving her blade straight into its ‘eye’.

It sparked, shuddered, and fell on its side as she kicked it.

The whirring of machinery alerted her to a melee attack from behind, and the young woman just smirked, blinking out again before reappearing behind the bot that had attempted to swing a bludgeon onto her spine. Another spark, this time from the top, where Aiden had buried the knife into its cranium. It shuddered and died, but the girl’s smile fell when she tugged on the knife and it wouldn’t slide back out.

A shot sounded and she teleported away, just in time for the rubber bullet to pass through the air where her head had been a moment before. In the next instant, she was yanking the bat from the bot’s clawlike hands and running for the next bot. She darted in and out of its vision, each shot from its rapid-fire movements missing by a mere fraction of a second before its face was dented in by the metal bat from its dead comrade.

The bludgeon, however, was Aiden’s perfect record’s demise, because as she was recovering from this swing, another shot rang out. This one bounced off her shoulder, and she snarled audibly as she whirled on the last remaining bot. Another bullet was quickly flung her way, but it missed, and the revenge for its daring action was soon carried out with a hard hit from the metal bat. This time, Aiden hit it twice, both times with an overhead swing.

She dropped the bat, stepped back, and returned to the door, where she was quickly let out. Finally, the nervousness that had melted away with physical activity melted away, and her small smile fell as she hastened to sit down again with a short breath of relief.

The extrovert hadn’t expected to be this nervous doing this kind of thing, but she was, and she was glad to be out of the center of attention and sitting back down where she could hide her face in the hood of her sweater.

Code template by @darkflames13
 
c85d1a2e2628fc0f0192caed53127360.png

Location: ASA Headquarters
Time: 11:00 am


If anything, Liam was glad to hear all of this had been thought out ahead of time, but he mostly expected that to be the case. After all, they were the first among this kind of initiative, and there would be plenty of people gunning for them, especially of the criminal variety once they started making their debut. Liam nodded along to each of Allison’s answers, before watching as the others came out of the rooms and asked their questions. For the most part, it seemed to be about room customization and getting stuff from their old residences. Liam’s eyes fell to the ground slightly, as there was nothing from home that he cared to have back, every bit of it reminding him of nothing but a pitiful little basement, locked away by those too scared to do anything proactive, or too loving to risk anything. The argument was still deep seated in his mind as Fianna’s voice broke his small reverie with it’s near panicked tone.

Honestly, it surprised Liam to see a woman like her break down like that, especially after something so casual as seeing their rooms. She seemed like the kind of woman that was always about putting up a cool and collected front, so this broke his image of her for a moment even as he wondered what he could possibly do to help her with her situation. It didn’t seem like he needed to however, as the blue haired woman went to her and said some things. Seeing as she was more or less taken care of, Liam didn’t feel like it was prudent of him to intrude on their moment and went along with the group to the next area. Which would ultimately be the make or break situation for him.

Making their way to the gym/training area, a place that Liam knew he would have to spend a great deal of his time in order to simply keep up, Liam did his best to psyche himself up. He could feel the drink coursing through him, but it hadn’t been long enough to get the full effects going just yet. Not to mention that with the combination of nervousness and adrenaline, he wondered just how long that ‘high’ was going to last. Still, it was an all or nothing moment as they entered the room and were greeted with various workout equipment and a large enough area for their entire team and who knows how many more to be in and use comfortably. On the far side, surrounded by a glass enclosure and bleachers, could only be the actual training arena. As they got closer, Liam’s mind wandered to what they would be asked to do. Fight each other? Maybe. Fight one of the instructors? Possibly? Fight something else? Who knew. Liam sighed inwardly, he was getting ahead of himself and just needed to wait for an answer to those questions.

When they sat down on the bleachers, Liam ending up sitting next to the blue haired girl, the shadowy figure that had been trailing them finally took the center stage. He introduced himself as Ebon, or Slate, and the name rang some bells in Liam’s mind. He was a vigilante of some sort Liam thought, but he didn’t know enough about the man to determine if that was propaganda, a twist of the truth or outright wrong. Regardless, he continued on and stated they would be fighting non-deadly robots. I would hope they wouldn’t be deadly or this would be a very short program… Liam thought to himself, before hearing the last line out of the man’s mouth regarding the introductory training.

”Unless, of course, you’d rather show off against me.”

Yep...Nope.

It was then that Ebon chose Aiden, apparently the blue haired girl’s name, for the first test, stating they would just go down the line. Which meant that Liam was next, which meant his heart started to race a little. Like having to present in front of the class, he had no idea if he had a good speech prepared. As she went down and collected a weapon, she appeared to be a little nervous but her confidence quickly overshadowed that. Something Liam wasn’t sure he was going to be able to copy.

When the fight started, he had no idea what to expect from the woman. When the first shot was fired and she didn’t move, Liam thought she had stage fright. When she disappeared with no fanfare, Liam thought he had imagined the entire thing. Instead, she appeared next to one of the robots and proceeded to stab it with the knife she had brought with her into the arena. ”She can teleport…” Liam whispered to himself, leaning forward as his interest was piqued. She darted and moved with her instantaneous teleportation ability, moving like an acrobat of sorts through the enemies and dealing with them in kind. While she did end up taking a hit, it was still very impressive considering that appeared to be her only ability. She would still need a decent amount of physical prowess in order to perform that well. When she was done, Liam was still thinking about how that ability was pretty damn cool and how she did it. Usually teleportation had some kind of telltale sign it was happening...at least in comics and shows anyways.

His interest died away when Ebon pointed at him to get up and strut his stuff, and Liam moved like some kind of robot. Knowing full well he had to do it, but wanting desperately not to. His limbs moved mechanically as he got down to the weapon rack and looked at all the items at his disposal. The only thought running through his mind as he stared at them:

I don’t know how to use any of these…

Out of a concern of not wanting to hurt himself, he ended up with a billy club. A knife, he was more likely to slice himself open. A gun? Yeah, knowing his luck he’d ricochet a bullet right into his eye socket. Even as he stepped into arena, his body moving automatically, he stared at the club as if it were some kind of alien object. How was he supposed to use this against robots?! What was he thinking? Right, well it wouldn’t come down to the weapon anyways, he had his powers right? He could do this...he had to do this.

As he got into position, the lights dimmed and much like Aiden, four robots strolled out from positions in the wall, and Liam’s mind started racing. How was he supposed to take them out? How much power would it take? Did the rubber bullets hurt? What if he was seriously injured? Could he simply outrace them? Was speed a factor? Could he break the glass? What counted as a ‘failure’? Was everyone judging him? What were they thinking of him right now?

Liam continued to think this way until the first rubber bullet found its mark right below his right eye, followed by another one into his stomach, forcing the wind out of him and knocking him on his ass. He gripped his face as pain throbbed and desperately tried to get his breath back. Managing to peek through his hand at the robots, he saw them continue to fire almost in slow motion. Every bit of inebriation he once felt was washed away from him in a fit of nervousness, pain and adrenaline. In that moment, he could only think of one thing as his eyes started to glow a deep purple.

Protect

A massive concrete wall sprung into existence between him and the robots in an instant, a faint white glow surrounding it as the robots were forced to circle around it, buying Liam enough time to assess the situation. Do something! ANYTHING! Everyone’s watching! Liam thought to himself as the first robot rounded the corner on the wall, but even as it did he was still very much aware that he hadn’t used his power extensively. He didn’t know what would work and what wouldn’t...save for one thing.

As the first robot rounded the corner and took aim, the wall blinked out of existence and instead was replaced with a massive gorilla which roared with all the force of the ones he had seen on tv. It gripped the first robot it got its hands on, ripping it apart with its bare hands and throwing the carcass at the second one. As the collision happened, the gorilla was already moving and pouncing on it. Liam stayed in a nearly prone position, keeping his eyes on the situation to allow him to command his creation, but it still wasn’t fast enough. While it managed to get to the third robot before it could fire, the same couldn’t be said for the fourth. It took aim at Liam and fired, and in a split second Liam held up his arm as a medieval shield appeared, bouncing the bullet away from himself.

The gorilla appeared to weaken for a moment, with the keen eyed observer able to actually see through it the moment the shield was summoned to Liam’s arm. The moment he dismissed the shield, the gorilla returned to ‘normal’ and ripped the final robot to pieces. Once that was done, it beat its chest and roared once more, acting as Liam expected it to act even as he consciously willed it to disappear and the glow from his eyes faded. He felt his nose start to bleed and touched a couple fingers to it to make sure it was. Even now the headache was starting and he knew he was going to be in for a rough night. That was the most he had used his powers since getting out of his house.

Forcing himself up from the floor, he exited the arena and replaced the billy club back on the rack, taking his seat next to Aiden once more. He didn’t say a word, poking at the newly forming bruise around his eye and pinching his nose to prevent a nosebleed. He fucked up, and he didn’t like that feeling, especially in front of everyone here.

God he wanted a drink.
 
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ASA Headquarters
11 AM

"Woo! That was awesome!" Myla shouted from the bleachers, applauding as Liam finished up his bots. She'd had a similar reaction when Aiden went before, absolutely loving the way she popped back and forth. Emily was impressed too, but rolled her eyes at the woman's overly enthusiastic applause. She wasn't at all surprised when the fittest and most energized recruit jumped up and yelled, "Me next!"

Allison and Slate seemed to humor her as she hurried into the training room. While machines were cleaning up the remains of the training robots, Emily took this time to get up and go over to the no-nonsense angry angel-man. She looked through the window and saw Myla doing stretches as things started getting together.

"Ebon, I'll take you up on that sparring offer," she said to him. "My abilities are better displayed on people than machines. But...can we save mine for last?"

---

The training area was clear and Myla stood confidently as her four robots came out. She looked over at the wall of assorted training weapons and...completely ignored them. Instead she squared her shoulders and walked forward. "Okay, metal boys," she said, cracking her knuckles and giving the bots an intense smirk. "Thrill me."

The robots opened fire. Their rubber bullets bounced off her body without her feeling a thing. The bullets - being made of a naturally bouncy material - rebounded off her skin, off the walls, and sailed around the room in a vortex of rubber before they ran out of energy. She just walked up to them, building in speed until it was a brisk jog, the rubber bullets still bouncing harmlessly off her. Myla then leaped forward and swung her fist right at the first bot's face. No serious damage to the construction or armor, but circuits were shaken loose and the lenses were cracked. The bot swung down its club but Myla raised and braced her arm. The metal bat made contact with her arm and a loud ringing sound could be heard. The metal club caved in and bent.

"Let's see how you tick," Myla said and slid under the robot's arm. She found what she was looking for; a gap under the arm where the internal machinery was. She closed her fist and punched in, jamming her hand into its gears and hydraulics. The machine tried moving its arm, but the gears would find something quite unbreakable in their path. Their was grinding and screeching and finally a loud pop as the parts couldn't compete and broke out of the way. The robot arm raised up and then flopped uselessly on the bot's side. Myla pulled out her hand and shook it. That had hurt a little. She then grabbed the limp arm that was barely hanging on and yanked it off.

Myla was savage. She punched into the arm hole she'd made and pulled out gears and hydraulics. She grunted as thin bits of metal were bent in her fingers. Quickly she found what she was looking for, something her eyes' thermal sense had spotted before this fight even began: the radiant heat and electromagnetics of a battery. She grabbed it with both hands and braced herself against its side. She grunted and ripped the battery out of the robot, grabbing a handle that was there for convenience and pulling the whole thing out of its body. The robot made one step and fell to the ground.

---

"Holy shit..." Emily whispered as she watched the combat. "We sure she's a mutant and not a Kryptonian or something?"

---

"Next," Myla panted with a grin. That was tiring, but she still had strength and energy to spare. She grabbed the battery's handle, which had broken at one end, and swung the heavy black brick at the next robot's head. The robot had heavy denting, cracked lensing, and even broken hydraulics. She swung again and the battery broke off the handle after seriously damaging the head again. The robot stumbled and bumped into the wall. Myla raised her leg and gave a powerful kick. The robot fell, the head held in place by Myla's foot. "Two down."

She turned around to see one of the last remaining robots still shooting rubber bullets at her. This thing might have been doing this the entire time she dismantled its brethren, and she hadn't even noticed. She looked at the dismembered arm and tucked her foot under it, kicking into the air and in her arms. She bent it and charged forward, throwing the arm at the robot's head. She slid underneath the bot and jumped onto its back, grabbing the arm and squeezing it around the robot's head. She couldn't break the whole thing, but she could compromise its senses and when she let go the poor thing was blind and struggling to hear. She climbed up its back as it stumbled around until she was balancing on its shoulders. Then she jumped down and her knees delivered a piledriver, driving the bot's head into its own neck.

"Last one standing, buddy," she said to the final robot. She braced herself and sprinted forward, ran up the wall (some parkour skills from playing Mirror's Edge) and wrapped her legs around its head. Her momentum carried her and she helped maintain it by moving her arms and pushing off the robot's body. She circled with her legs wrapped around its head and when she went full 360 there was the sound of metal breaking. The bot dropped to its knees, the head hanging by a few wires. Myla smirked, lined up her foot, and kicked the head clean off, making it twirl in the air and smack against the window right in front of the control room and staring at Slate and Allison.

Myla panted, stood up, and bowed like she'd just finished a concert. She then left, having shown her power, and sat back on the bleachers. Damn. She needed some water after that workout. She also nursed her fingers, which hurt a little from digging into the machinery. No cuts, unlikely to be a bruise, but still hurt a little.
 
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Playfair Display Cardo [font=][/font]


Fianna




Play time with Slate


The pale blonde still felt the panic like a cluster of spark plugs in her abdomen. Even though people around her was talking, she was too tensed to hear any of it. Tension was still in her face and limbs, her mind replaying the memories over and over again. Her breathing was more rapid, more shallow. She wanted to flee. To get out. And while only a couple of seconds had passed by, to Fianna it felt like an eternity. There she stayed, unaware of what’s happening until she found the feelings had passed and that they are already in a completely different room.

W-What? How..

Fianna blinked and swallowed hard while running a hand through her short blonde locks. Only a few hours in since she joined ASA and she’s already having a panic attack. Oh how she hates herself right now. I’m supposed to keep a low profile and keep my emotions in check. Portray that I am level headed. Drawing attention to myself would only hinder me from my true purpose. I-

Her thoughts was cut short when a blue haired female tried to talk to her, telling her that it's going to be okay. Fianna could do nothing but fake a smile before realizing that the blue haired female was waiting for her to response. “F-Fianna” she introduced before standing straight to compose herself “Pleasure to meet you, Aiden and please forgive me if I made you worry. I just.. don’t like the lavish lifestyle, that’s all”

Soon everyone was ushered to take a seat and Fianna sat down a couple of chairs away from Aiden. As much as she wanted to talk and befriend her by sitting down next to her, a couple of people took her spot. Well, it's not like I’m not going to see her again

Slate, who she realized was the guy she was leaning on back at the dorms, began talking and calling names for the demonstration. Fianna couldn’t help but smile a little. This will be her chance to get to know everyone without interacting with them! Besides, this demonstration will be an advantage to me once I finalize my plan for finding my beloved

The first to demonstrate was Aiden.

Fianna watched her closely as she teleported left and right and was impressed at the blue haired girl’s abilities as well as combat skills. She’s great but... Squinting her eyes and letting her owl eye focus on the girl, she noticed that Aiden’s muscles tensed when she was hit by the rubber bullet. She also noticed for a second how she clenched her jaw as well as how her face showed annoyance if not anger. ...she can be pissed off very easily. Which only means she’s a ticking time bomb: unpredictable

Next to demonstrate was the boy she met earlier, Liam.

The whole thing was...interesting. At first it was painful to look at since Liam kept taking hits from the rubber bullets. But as seconds ticked by, things started manifesting out of nowhere. First was a wall and next was a gorilla. Fianna assumed Liam’s ability has something to do with his imagination. Although I couldn’t really understand his ability, I am sure it will be quite useful.

After that was a girl she barely knew. Myla was her name if she remembered correctly. If Fianna could use one word to describe the girl’s demo, it would be: savage. The girl was made out of pure strength!

Soon, it was Fianna’s turn.

“Oh goodness” Fianna smiled once she realized she was next. “I can finally let off some steam~” It was obvious that Fianna’s demeanor changed as she made her way to the training area. Gone was the girl who was shaking. She was now back to her old self, flirty and seductive but at the same time, her aura was sinister, cold blooded, and menacing. As if she was waiting for this very moment to happen.

Just as she was about to enter the enclosed area, she stopped on her tracks and looked at Slate. “Care for a round with me, darling? I mean, you did say to show off.”

The man responded with a small, almost curt nod, and rose from where he’d taken a seat, then moved into the ring beside her, his face covered as if he were out fighting in the city. “I’m sure I won’t,” he responded, though his voice was almost sarcastic. He was neutral as ever, shoulders rolled back and arms overlapped across his chest.

The door closed, clicking shut, and Slate got into a fighting stance, allowing her to make the first move.

Although the pale blonde typically doesn’t know how to start a fight, she figured that Slate was waiting for her to make the first move. Thus, she didn’t waste any time to open her mouth and release a sonic wave towards Slate before running towards him and balling her first to give him a hard punch in the face.

The sonic wave was almost predictable, though, and Slate easily knocked it out of the way with a hard gust of wind. The sound seemed to disperse, and he could hear the screech above his own wind as it came to a stop against the walls. Her fist was sailing toward him next, and he raised an arm, blocking her fist with his own hand.

His fingers closed over her hand and he swept her feet out from under her with a leg before stepping back a few feet and waiting once more. “Too obvious,” he advised almost gently. “Try feinting, or going for the punch when you’re closer.”

As much as he hated admitting it, he was sort of enjoying this.

Fianna eyes almost widened in shock when Slate dodged her sonic wave by releasing a huge gust of wind and stopped her punch before sweeping her feet. For a moment the pale blonde lost her balance but thanks to her gymnastic skills, she quickly found her balance by retracting her hand from Slate and doing a full somersault to get away from him.

A hint of annoyance flashed her features. Her abilities wouldn’t work on him because of the wind and as much as she wanted to fly and try to chase him, she doesn’t have wings, just feathers. Well, at least to her knowledge. Oh how she hated feeling helpless if not useless.

Fianna then squinted her left eye and focused on Slate. His heartbeat is quicker but his muscles are relaxed. Is that.. a smirk?! That damn bastard. He’s clearly enjoying this! The blonde her hardest to stay calm. She expected the fight to be easy and be done in under three minutes but she was certain that’s impossible now.

Desperate time calls for desperate measures..

Deciding to turn on her charm, Fianna tilted her head and smiled. “It seems we’ll be here for a long time..” Her voice was once again sweet and hypnotic, almost angelic. “...I better get comfortable, don’t you think?” She made sure to make eye contact at Slate as she skillfully and seductively removed her red pea coat to reveal her crisp white button down shirt and tailored slacks. She then unbuttoned a few to show some of her assets before speaking once again.

Now.. where were we?”

Slate didn't exactly know how to respond to that, and he certainly hadn't been expecting her to use flirtation right off the bat. A flush climbed up his neck to his cheeks and he clenched his jaw, trying not to let her words get to him even as his body attempted to betray him. “You were demonstrating,” he responded, voice almost shaky, unwilling, but still holding strong to that nearly cocky demeanor.

It was a reminder, too. This was not a fight, and he was not an enemy.

Fianna released a couple of more sonic waves, making sure to circle around her prey. She was trying to cage him if not hit him by randomly releasing sonic waves towards him. Besides, by randomly shooting at him, she’ll eventually hit him right?

Her waves were met and knocked back by gust after gust of strong wind, but they were coming fast, and the noise was disorienting him. It wasn't as if he were trying very hard, but still. She had some punch to her.

“Ready...to end yet?” He inquired breathlessly, flicking his fingers and sidestepping, keeping her in his sights.

That was when he made his mistake. She was just a bit too quick, a bit too small, and the wave hit him. Slate was knocked off his feet...which he rectified quickly by ending his fall in an army roll. She had knocked him down, though.

A huge smile was on her face as she watched Slate get knocked down. Finally! She got him! Adrenaline starts pumping through her veins as she watched him with her monochromatic eyes. It was obvious that he’s tired and running low on stamina. She wanted to attack him even more. To see him fall over and over again. But as Slate has said, this is just a demonstration. No need to show off everything.

Sighing, Fianna stood straight and composed herself before calmly making her way towards Slate and offering a hand to help him up. “Well, I guess we’re even now” Once Slate took her hand, she wrapped her hand tightly around his before giving him a quick kiss on the cheek murmuring a low “thanks darling” before letting him go, turning around, making sure to sway her hips as she walked away.

“Oh and Slate, sweetie?” she paused on her steps once she was near the doorway, “If you ever need company, don’t hesitate to give me a call, ‘kay? That cute blush from earlier told me a lot of things about you~”







 
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Matthew Michael Volt

"... I don't even know."
Location | Box of robotic death.

Time | For you to get a watch.
Weather | Windy. Very windy.
Matt continued following the group as they filed into the training room. He kept his attention away from the panicking woman out of respect, giving her space to get herself put back together. He wasn't good with feelings, he wouldn't be of any help, so he kept his distance. He took a seat. He paid attention to Slate as he gave his little speech. His foot tapped lightly on the ground as he felt his nerves begin to kick in. It had been a while since he'd been in a fight. He hadn't expected robots to be used either, but he'd take whatever luck he could get. As Aiden went up for her fight, shooting a nervous glance back at the bench-warmers, he flashed his lopsided grin and gave an encouraging thumbs up.

He was surprised by her powers. 'Holy shit she's actually awesome.' He winced slightly as he saw the bot get in a shot. He quietly noted to keep his guard up even while he was attacking. She wrapped things up quickly, and he reiterated his grin and thumbs up as she went back to her seat. Next up was the quiet guy, and seeing how tunnel-visioned he was walking into the arena, he didn't think a thumbs up would help him. And as the fight started, the guy took two nasty hits... 'If those were firing real bullets, he'd be dead.' It made the teen's stomach turn slightly, a sobering thought that had him reconsidering the evaluation he'd made on Aiden as well. It looked like something finally clicked in the guy and he just kinda poofed a wall into existence, then he poofed in a gorilla. Matt arched a brow in surprise. 'He's got some fight in him after all.' As he came back to the bleachers, Matt pulled out a handkerchief from his sweatshirt pocket and offered it to the guy when he noticed the blood coming from his nose. Without a doubt that was the guy's first fight, and he wasn't going to let him walk away without a little encouragement in the form of a helping hand. Apathy was one of his issues, but he grew up in a house where you had to look out for the new ones.

When the next girl went in and came out like a wrecking ball, he started to have some doubts about himself. He couldn't do anything like that. He wasn't that tough, he wasn't exactly strong either. He didn't want to seem like some pushover who only showed up to avoid jail time, especially considering how that one asshole acted earlier. He wasn't going to let them get that idea that all the jailbirds were scum. He was going to prove his worth. The woman who'd been panicking earlier was up next. His foot continued tapping. She was going to fight Slate? He paid close attention, trying to get an idea of the guy's fighting style. Wind to deflect, and then... An unamused expression appeared on his face when the woman started to flirt with the guy. Then her random strategy actually knocked him down.

It came to be his turn to go fight. He felt awkward as hell taking off his shoes and gloves before walking in there. As he walked past a few people on the bench, their hair stood on end. He quietly supposed that he'd been fidgeting a lot more than usual, and had built up a pretty strong static charge as a result. He'd just deal with the bots. "I just have to disable them, right?" He asked before he walked in. '...Grab something, the podium will go down, the bots will come out. Turn off the bots, maybe take control of one and have it destroy the others? Then destroy itself. Maybe. But then they wouldn't show what I could do in terms of the whole zapping thing, and the others might just think that the machinery is just faulty and call it a fluke. Maybe play that off as a malfunction and just ask Curtai-Slate to spar. Don't call him Curtain-Man, Matty, otherwise he'll probably accidentally kill you in the sparring ring. He wouldn't have that smile on his face if he was expecting to lose.' All these frantic thoughts filled his mind as he walked in and looked over the weapon selection. He hesitated, looking between the rifle and the pistol. "What exactly do these shoot? Rubber bullets?" After hearing the answer, he decided to go with the pistol. He'd seen plenty of crackheads and gang members using them before, so it couldn't be that hard to figure out, right? He looked for the safety as the podium descended.

There was a colder gleam to his eyes as he found the safety and clicked it off. He saw the sensors blink on, and that was all he needed in order to take over. The bots moved in, he got set to shoot, took aim, then suddenly the two bots approaching from the outsides turned on their compatriots. He allowed a confused expression to appear on his face. "Wha- uh... I don't... I don't think they're supposed to do that?" He made his confusion audible to his audience, kinda turning his head back to look at Slate with about as much 'help me' he could muster without completely taking his focus off the bots. The two malfunctioning bots had finished off their companions and were now fighting each other, though they appeared to short circuit mid-grapple and went still and silent. "Uh, Slate? Can I take you up on that offer...?"

Slate knew full well that the boy before him was lying about not knowing what he'd done- he'd read the files, knew that the young man could very well have caused the bots' 'malfunction'. Still, the older male just smirked a bit and stood, adjusting his suit a bit and flipping his cowl and goggles back up to his face.

"Alright, kid, let's go." His metal boots clanked ominously on the metal floor as he stepped into the enclosure, the door sealing behind him. He'd left his rifle outside, apparently not wanting to use a weapon in this spar, and marched to the center, where he spread his raven-colored wings on either side of him, crouched, and waited for the attack with a calm, almost teasing smile playing on his visible lips.

Matt felt a lot less sure about his decision when he saw the smirk on Slate’s face. The clanking of his boots was a new development though. They weren’t rubber soled. He didn’t have any weapons on him, and upon seeing that, Matt put down his gun and kicked it back with his socked foot. He’d keep it fair enough this time. "Alright, but if you call me kid again I might slip and call you an old man." He flashed a teasing smile back at him, though his eyes still held a cold gleam to them. 'He did something with the air currents, and he has wings. He flies, I die, game over. Force him to stay grounded.’ As the gun clanked against the glass, he sent a stunning charge of electricity down through the metal flooring, willing it to disperse up through Slate’s boots. The metal there would surely help in attracting the charge, even if he did take to the air. With that, he sprinted at him and by the power of the holes worn in his socks he miraculously didn’t slip on the metal floor.

The older man snorted at his words, an almost amused grin flickering to life from the embers of the smirk, and flung his wings open. Before he could take off, though, the electricity hit, and his feathers stood on end in an almost comical manner.

It was harder to lift his feet now, and Slate squinted in pain as it subsided, but still dodged the attack sent his way by the boy. He raised an arm and flicked his fingers outward, and a strong wind slammed into Matt's back, pushing him forward as he ran and making it harder for him to stop moving...or turn, and he was heading straight for the wall.

Matt's hood was blown over his head as he found himself going straight towards the wall, having missed Slate. 'Rule one. Use the momentum.’ In a truly lame manner, he pulled off an elementary school parkour move as he jumped and 'ran' three steps up the wall, aided by his added static cling and the strong wind pushing him there. He spun off his third step to face Slate again in the process. He stuck the landing, increasing the static cling between the floor and himself in order for him to better move against the wind, and in the process also making it more difficult for Slate to get his metal clad feet off the ground. "Drafty in here, ain't it?" He asked with his lopsided grin, lightly rubbing his arms, generating a bit more of a charge as he did so, as the breeze ruffled his hair and knocked his hood back off. He felt like a goof. Probably looked like one too. And that was the plan. 'Keep him smiling for two.' He sent another shocking charge through the floor, and three arcs of electricity suddenly shot off of Matt, triangulating on the tallest point in the room like lightning, though not the deadly kind. It was around the same voltage as a taser, if he had to guess. He wasn't aiming to rough him up too bad.

"Just a bit," Slate snickered, leaping up with a stroke of his wings right as the floor crackled once more- this time, his feet lifted off the floor, but the air wasn't safe either.

Electricity arched off the boy, slamming together right above his head. He ducked, folding his wings and plummeting for a second before catching himself only a half-foot off the floor and flicking his fingers out again. The wind howled, this time swirling around the boy and lifting him up in a mini tornado.

Nothing could have prepared Matthew for the moment when he was picked up. The teen could remember three distinct moments when he'd been removed from the ground, none of them ever going well for him. 'Not good. Definitely not good. He’s totally gonna drop me.’ He winced as the static charge between himself and the floor finally broke, a spark jumping from the floor to him as it did. He could feel his anxiety creeping up as he realized that he had zero control up in the air. Without his static keeping him lower in the vortex, he found himself really not liking the idea of falling from the height he thought he was at. But, things always looked way worse from above and he was pretty sure he was making things out to be worse than they were. ’Rule three.' He forced himself to take a deep breath, that cold gleam reappearing in his gaze as he located Slate through the little twister he was stuck in.

No way he'd be able to aim like this, though. He could feel his charge increasing from the wind racing around him. 'Well, desperate times, right?' His lopsided grin reappeared. "... Are you sure you're not the one showing off?" His voice rang out in a tone somewhere between accusing and joking, in a harmless way of course. He waited a few beats, finding something akin to a pattern as he tumbled through the air, then he lashed out at Slate with a series of quick lightning strikes. The negative charge they held was attracted to the vaguely positive charge that Slate had picked up from getting his feathers ruffled.

Slate wasn't actually planning on dropping him- in fact, he was keeping him only two feet off the ground so the boy wouldn't actually get hurt if he did lose his grip on the vortex that had claimed him.

Again, though, the electricity arched off of him and struck at his wings, this time landing it. The older man fell the remaining foot and rolled into a standing position, simultaneously letting go of the tornado and allowing the wind to fizzle out, successfully lowering Matt to the ground far more gently than just dropping him. "Nah," Slate spoke, finally answering his teasing remark. "If I was, you'd know it."

He was running now, quickly closing the gap between them in hopes of engaging the younger male in hand to hand combat before his boots were held down once more.

Matt's expression was honestly surprised as Slate lowered him back to the ground. A rare, genuine smile flashed across his face for just a moment, then it disappeared when Slate started to run at him. So he wanted to fight up close, then. "...Not a good idea." He muttered softly, but didn't do anything to stop or slow down the man. It looked like he was just going to stand there and take whatever hit Slate was going to throw at him. But he had plans, hopefully he'd be able to block and shock and the guy would get the idea that touching a live wire was only going to electrocute him. If he wasn't able to block, then Slate might get a stronger shock than he bargained for. With the others watching, they'd hopefully understand that he wasn't safe to touch.

Suspicions entered Slate's mind at his expression, and he abruptly slowed, taking to the air again and rushing a quick gust of wind to throw the boy off balance before coming down on him with an aerial strike. It would be no good to run at the kid- what was he thinking? Matt could easily stop him in his tracks.

The teen's expression flashed to confused for just a second as Slate suddenly took to the air again, though he didn’t exactly register what he was going to do until he was already stumbling back from the sudden wind. He managed to keep his arms up to protect his head and upper body, but the impact still knocked the teen onto his butt due to his compromised balance. There wasn’t a doubt in his mind that Slate had gotten a taser-like shock from the contact, and he worriedly looked at the older male.

Slate rolled over onto his back with his arm thrown over his stomach, then let out a hearty chuckle. "Okay, my bad, that was dumb." He laughed slightly, pushing himself up with a slight groan, and pushed down his hood. His already messy hair was staticky and sticking up in all directions in a comical manner that didn't quite suit him. The older hero then offered his hand to him, an almost genuine smile on his face. "Good show, man."

Matthew let out a small breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding when he heard the chuckle sound from Slate. His posture relaxed from where he’d been frozen still with nerves when Slate got got back up. His lopsided grin reappeared like a mask. “Thanks.” He reached out his had, a small static shock jumping between the two of them before contact was made, and carefully pulled himself up. As soon as he was up, he broke contact and took a little step back from him. ”Sorry about that.” He sheepishly added. He lightly rubbed the back of his neck, and awkward gesture at best, his gaze traveling to where he’d slid the gun away at the start of the fight. ‘Bravo Matty, way to slip up.’ He walked over to where he saw the gun, clicked the safety back on, and put it back on the rack. He rejoined the others back on the bench, their hair once again staticking up as he passed by, only to die back down once he shoved his boots back on and put on his gloves.

 
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Geostar Fill;Arizonia;Yantramanav;Roboto;
Ashe

Williams



Location
ASA Headquarters


Time
11:00 AM


Weather
50 degrees fahrenheigt, 15 mph winds




Ashe took a seat on the bleacher at the far top and watched the show, Aiden seemed to know what she was doing with her abilities, fading in and out of their sight and taking down each robot with precision, she had a good handle on her powers, and knew how to use them to a pretty extensive degree, but it wasn’t flawless.

Next was Liam, it was honestly quite entertaining to see someone get shot with rubber bullets, made him laugh a little bit, he thought the guy didn’t have a chance until some wall appeared out of nowhere, then a damn gorilla. It caused Ashe to go silent as he was purely amazed that some lackluster guy like him had such an interesting power.

Next was Myla, the damn power house. She took the bullets like they were nothing, and then straight up destroyed the bots with her hands, she moved gracefully yet with such savage power, it honestly made Ashe envious.

Fianna’s battle was loud, literally. Even in the confines of the arena, it still gave him a headache. Though she knew exactly what she was doing, at least it seemed as if she did. Something about her didn’t sit right with him, made him feel uneasy. It made Ashe want to keep a close eye on her, and never leave his back exposed to her.

And lastly was Matthew, the living battery. The fight was rather impressive, he got to see both slate and Matt’s abilities in action. If only he could shoot lightning like that, then his abilities would be perfect.

Once it was over, Ashe stood up and stretched his arms before starting. “ Alright, I’ll go up next. Watch and learn guys... ” The man took the initiative that wasn’t really needed, he just wanted to blow off some heat before the rest of the others had their chance, and he wanted to show that he wasn't some lacky in the firepower department.

Walking to the center of the training area, the podium rose up from the ground and he was presented a whole array of weapons, to which he pulled out a pistol. Plain and simple it was, he pulled back the hammer to inspect the inside of the chamber to make sure it was indeed loaded, and then let go of the piece, watched the hammer slide quickly back into place with a loud clap. And thus began the round.

The four doors slid open and out came the four bots, each buzzing and making mechanical sounds as they made their way towards Ashe aiming their weapons to fire. The young man smirked, and pulled back his arm to throw the glock at a poor unsuspecting bot, without hesitation they all fired at his direction. At that very moment, there was a controlled explosion where Ashe once stoon, a smoke trail followed the man as he was sent into the air, the palms of his hands slightly smoking and aimed at the ground. Anyone who could see him, could see the wild smirk he was wearing “ Ya missed me, ya fucking overpriced trash cans! ” He called out. Ashe reached the peak of trajectory, and was quickly falling, right in the direction of these machines. They went to raise their guns at him but wasn’t fast enough to shoot him, the man had extended his hands directly at the heads of the two bots in the middle, and just before landing, a explosive blast emitted from both his hands, dampening the man's fall, and completely destroying the two machines, leaving nothing but pieces flung everywhere, and smoke, enough to keep his position hidden.

There was a second of silence, the two bots on either side of the smoke cloud were scanning the area for any trace or movement. From within the smoke, there was some crackling, little faint flashes of light, before two blasts erupted from within it, going in opposite directions, but both aimed at the remaining bots, leaving them demolished from the force of the blast. The smoke slowly cleared and Ashe was left in the clearing with his arms extended at his sides at where the humanoid machines once was. His arms dropped to his sides as he stood up straight to go and pick up the pistol he had thrown from before, and smiled. “ would ya look at that, not a single round used…” there was a moment of silence before he looked around. “ These bots were a pushover, give me something more challenging, how about that offer, Slate? ” The man called out looking directly at winged individual.

The man raised his head in response, then shrugged coolly and strode over, glancing at Allison so she would allow him access to the room. ”As long as you don’t implode me, we’ll be fine,” he responded as the door clicked shut again behind him. It was a joke...mostly. His suit would be able to handle it, after all.

As he had done with the other recruits that had asked to spar with him, Slate settled into a ready fighting position, eyes warily locked on the boy before him, and waited for him to make the first move.

Too late to be saying that now ” he spoke, somewhat in a sarcastic tone. Ashe glanced over the man’s armor, it looked to be tailored to his being only, much like the new suits they just saw, meaning Huntress probably made it for him. Ashe then grinned widely, before going into a full on spring, right hand pointed in the winged man’s direction and began to crackle and pop at the palm of Ashe’s hand. “ Let’s see if that suit isn’t just for cosmetic purposes, ” and without much hesitation he let out a blast. It wasn’t as destructive as the one he used to destroy the bots, in the off chance that the suit was actually for show, and his assumptions were wrong. It would just singe and knock back the opponent if he hit.

Slate was too quick for the attack to even hit, and a quick flap of his wings sent him flying up above the blast as it flew past and dispersed against a wall. The man used this opportunity to grab at the air caused by his own wings, steering the rush of air and steadily strengthening it, rushing it toward the boy and throwing off his aim right as he released the next blast.

Ashe spun around and put crossed his arms, his palms open and facing slates direction. He braced for the incoming rush of air, and somewhat dropped to on knee. Grimacing, the young man ignited his canons once more, this time putting more power into it. More than enough to overcome the gust of wind, though it was hard to tell if it would hit given the current conditions, it would shake things up in the air.

The blast flew through the wind, fizzling out a bit through the strong breeze, and smacked into Slate’s side. The armor just shrugged it off, but the dark paint did chip and blister a bit. The winged male flinched only slightly before he folded his wings and rushed forward, pushing the wind behind him to give him an extra boost of speed as he came in for an airborne tackle.

Ashe scoffed as the man came for him. He aimed one hand down as the birdman came for him and moments before he was gonna hit, he let off another blast that launched him over slate, and with his free hand he aimed it directly at slate as he got the upperhand. His hand began to crackle, Ashe was gonna let slate have it, hopefully letting him finish the fight. “ hope your armor will save you, slate ” and with that he let off an explosion that shook the ground, giving enough thrust that would’ve sent Ashe to the other side of the arena.

The blast shook the room, and then slammed straight into Slate’s chest- but still, the armor shrugged it off. He ended in a roll and whirled, grabbing at the air once more and sending Ashe crashing to the ground, stopping his airborne momentum completely and leaving him grounded. “Truce?” He asked, raising an eyebrow.

Ashe flew through sporadically the air heading to the other end of the arena opposite of Slate. Ashe had to work hard to stabilize himself in the air before hitting the ground, letting off short bursts from his hands to slow him down before landing on his feet and sliding a few feet back. Once stopped, he retorted at the question, he didn’t want to stop there, but once he took a second to think, he felt his mouth was getting dry, showing he was getting close to his limit. He sighed in frustration before answering “yeah...truce

Slate raised an eyebrow and relaxed his tense muscles, slowly returning to the ground and waving to Allison, who flicked a switch and allowed the doors to open once more. “Good fight.” And with that, their spar was over. The older man allowed Ashe to leave the arena first before stepping out himself and calling down the last contender.

Code template by @darkflames13
 
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Fianna's turn in the arena with Slate had changed things a little bit for Emily. The moment she laid eyes on the blonde she wanted to get closer; natural shyness and introversion had just prevented her. When she decided to demonstrate through one-on-one combat with Slate she'd concluded that her powers must only work on people too. But...that wasn't what she saw. She saw someone with a sonic cannon for a mouth, which could have easily busted the circuits of the robots - if not outright destroyed them. No. In her mind there was only one reason for her to get a moment alone with Slate: to flirt. And she definitely did that. As she stripped off her overcoat on the floor - all teasing and sensual - Emily couldn't pull her eyes away, and her mouth hung open in awe.

After that Slate wasn't just an older hero to test herself against. He was competition.

After that came other people thinking they could take on the angel. They did pretty well, too/ Matthew kept Slate on his toes and they both did pretty well. Ashe...that explosive power explained his cockiness earlier. In a firefight he'd definitely be dangerous. But she was more worried about his volatility. The man's personality was as explosive as his powers.

When at last it was her turn to walk into the arena with the winged man she took a deep breath and tried to familiarize herself with his circulatory system. As she suspected, it was far bigger and more complex than a normal human's because of the wings. A lot of blood went to those wings. Maybe she could use that against him. He was physically very strong, so would probably be able to resist her blood puppetry. That wasn't to say she couldn't still make things difficult for him.

"I hope you're as healthy as you look," she said from the other side of the sparring area. She held up her hand and focused her talents. There. Pulsing. His heart. Her fingers curled, a helpful physical representation of what she was mentally doing. "Because otherwise, this will be over a lot sooner."

Slate looked like he was still playing it cool, anticipating her attack, little realizing it was already set up.

"Sorry in advance." With that she squeezed her fingers. What hit Slate was something no one could anticipate. His heart for a brief second beat backwards. All the blood that had just left his heart went right back in and all the blood that was already there left again. It was nothing a strong, healthy heart couldn't quickly recover from. If Slate had been packing away Big Macs, though, he'd probably be dead.

Emily used this disorientation to seize his wings. She reached out her hands and grabbed at the air. She pulled blood into his wings to pull them back. She knew she wouldn't be able to hold this for long; he was too strong once he recovered. But if she did this right, as soon as he tried to flap she'd release and he'd throw himself into the nearest wall.

Slate's heart clenched- literally- and he automatically grabbed at his chest, shaking his head as his vision left him and his breathing caught for a second. His wings felt weird, too- almost as if they were being grabbed by a bunch of tiny hands.

He knew better to take to the air, though, and so as it was, he swept his hand upward. "An apology to you, too," he responded almost roughly. A gust of wind picked up the dust from the ground and blew it into her eyes within half a second, and he used this opportunity to rush forward, aiming to get her in a chokehold.

She shut her eyes tight and rubbed them with her left hand, trying to get the dust out. She'd made a false assumption about his powers. But he'd made a false assumption too. He'd assumed she needed to see him to manipulate his blood flow.

She could hear his boots as he ran toward her and she stretched out her right hand and closed her fist. Immediate limit of blood flow. Pins and needles. Legs asleep. Not paralysis, just something to trip him up. Still, she moved back as she did it, just in case it wasn't enough.

Her eyes were clear and she tried to keep her distance from Slate. Distance was key. Close quarters and she'd have to use the more...messy aspects of her powers.

"I thought your wings were where those wind gusts came from," she said. Emily could feel the strain in trying to overpower someone so physically strong. She flexed her fingers as her mental map of his circulatory system grew more detailed with each passing second. "So...for the record...you don't want me holding back, do you? I mean, not completely. I could just end this now by giving you an aneurysm, but I'm guessing you guys don't want us killing anyone."

His legs hummed with that all-too-familiar static feeling of pins and needles, and Slate stumbled for a moment before pushing through it, now a bit slower. "This is just a demonstration," he reminded her, pulling her toward him with a strong gust of wind and shooting his hand out to grab her arm. "So no, killing isn't the goal here."

Emily found herself suddenly thrown forward, her arm grabbed by his outstretched hand. She tried to pull it away to no avail. This is a mistake, she thought. You don't want me this close! The man's heartbeat pounded in her ears, like it was hammering at her own head. That mental map she'd been working on became a full-body chart in her head. She wasn't a combat expert. So she had two options...and she really didn't want to use her big guns.

"Just bruises then," she nodded. Emily then snapped her fingers. The capillaries under Slate's skin popped in an instant around his right eye, all at once leaving a bruise like he'd just been punched in the face. Having blood vessels - even small ones - spontaneous explode must feel pretty close to a punch in the face, too. She snapped her fingers again and a second bruise appeared on his cheek. Still he wasn't letting go. "Fine. I just found your sinus cavity anyway."

She closed her fist and opened it again. His sinuses took a beating in that instant. Suddenly Slate's nose was bleeding profusely. "Don't want you to make a mess. Let me help you." She pushed at nothing with her other hand, but this let to Slate's blood clotting in his nose, limiting his breathing options to his mouth only.

Emily yanked her hand away and took a step back. She pulled her hands back like she was doing the Kamehameha wave and shot them at Slate's chest. Another bruise - this one over a foot wide - appeared on his chest. This time she'd hit so hard that some of Slate's blood had actually found its way out through his pores in little droplets.

Slate was beginning to get a healthy measure of respect for the girl before him. So far, she'd been the only one he was actually worried about losing against. Now, gasping for breath through his mouth, he was actually grinning. "Good, good. You're good."

This praise, no matter how sincere, was still a distraction. The man rolled his shoulders back, ignoring the pain that shot through his chest at the action, and flicked his fingers out. A strong gust of wind took hold of Emily, grabbing at her arms and yanking her off her feet, sending her crashing into the wall with a force he hadn't used with any of the others.

She gave a small smile back at the compliment. Hm. Seemed she was impressing him. Then she felt herself yanked and slammed against the wall. "Ow!" Now she had a few bruises of her own. Well, for a few seconds. As she rubbed her shoulder the pain receded.

"Charlie horse!" she yelled and yanked her arms back. Both Slate's legs were hit with a powerful cramp. She pushed her arms out and made another large bruise appear across his abs. She reached out and grabbed the blood flow in one of his wings and pulled. This time she made him do a flip. "You're not bad yourself."

A mumbled curse escaped him as he pushed himself back to his feet after the flip, the soreness in his wings receding a bit. Still, his whole body ached, and he couldn't help but wonder when she would finally finish showing off. He shook his leg a bit, ridding it of the cramp, wincing as he did.

The wind picked up a bit, this time pulling Emily's legs out from under her. Then it swirled around her, lifting her into the air a good six feet before suddenly leaving, leaving her to drop like a stone.

Emily groaned and rolled as she tried to get up again. That hurt. That really hurt. Her healing began fixing her even as she returned to her feet, but she had to gasp at a sudden pop. Her shoulder had gotten dislocated and just popped back into place! This was starting to piss her off.

"How long are we going to do this?" she asked while panting. "Everything I give you you just keep coming. Any time you hurt me I can heal myself and it's like it never happened. I'm running out of PC moves here." She brought up her hand and pressed the tips of her teeth-like nails against her wrists. "It's my last move and I don't wanna use it."

Slate shrugged, standing again and letting himself fall against the wall, holding himself up with one arm. "We can stop whenever you want," he responded, shifting his wings to rest against his back properly.

Damn, even moving his wings hurt. She could hit hard.

Emily sighed and dropped her arms. She slumped against the wall and offered a faint smile. "I say we're done then. That was a hell of a workout. Even though I'm healed, I think I'm going to be a little sore tomorrow. So...did I pass?"

"Pass?" Slate actually laughed at that, tiredly, but sincerely. "Yeah, yes, of course. It was never a test, anyway."

Emily nodded and left the training area. As she did, she became aware of the silence that met her. Even Myla wasn't trying to pump up the room with an enthusiastic cheer. She didn't look at their faces. She knew what she'd see. She'd seen it too many times before in others. Fear. She put her sunglasses back on to hide her face and sat down away from everyone.

She did turn her head just a little, though; to try and subtly gauge one reaction. She couldn't resist hoping that - maybe - she'd impressed Fianna.
 
Geostar Fill;Arizonia;Yantramanav;Roboto;
Allison

Walker



Location
ASA Headquarters


Time
1:45 PM


Weather
56 degrees fahrenheigt, 13 mph winds


The recruits were just as good as she had thought, and some were even better. She'd been candidly taking notes on a few stray pieces of paper strewn over the control panel between and during fights, noting things they had down and things that they needed to work on.

Aiden- Quick reactions and skilled with a knife. Close-combat ready, minimally strategic, but lacks finesse. Acts too much on emotions and has little defense, but seems to be a good covert option.

Liam- Good powers and unlimited potential, but severely lacking in strategy and any sort of training. Will need to rely on a companion until we can get him some actual martial arts training.

Myla- A heavy hitter and just as indestructible as her file says. Strategic to a degree but not good in stealthy situations. May not know just how hard she hits. Give weapons training just in case.

Fianna- The first to spar with Slate, likely to actually be able to demonstrate her powers. Relies far too much on her abilities and doesn’t seem to know any measure of self-defense, but I can’t tell how delicate she really is, since Slate was hesitant to fight her.

Matthew- Another spar with Slate. This one went a bit better, with both of them getting a few good hits in. He’s reliant on his powers but seems to be strategic and able to react quickly. Needs some more martial arts training, but he’s a good stealth candidate.

Ashe- Still a cocky little ass, but anyone can see why. He’s a cannon with a bad attitude. Will probably result in collateral and needs to be less reliant on his abilities if he’s going to be of any real use in the field. Seriously needs to get better at being a team player.

Emily- She’s scarier in person. Poor Slate looks like he’s in real pain. If anyone manages to take her down, though, she’ll be in trouble. She obviously has no martial arts or weapons training and relies solely on her powers.

She stopped scribbling once Slate stepped out of the arena for the last time, this time limping and holding his nose in one hand, ribs in the other. “Go to the medic, you idiot,” she admonished him, voice soft but still audible for anyone who was actually listening.

“I’m fine,” he grumbled back, sniffing around the clots in his nose and praising each of the recruits on their performances.

She rolled her eyes but didn’t insist, instead turning to the recruits and grinning widely at them once he was done, trying to relieve some of the tension in the room. “Guys! You all did so good. Every one of you- and I mean that.” Allison let out a sigh, relaxing a bit. “Since it’s not too late yet...there’s a big moving van downstairs, if you want to pick anything up from your old residences.”

Once the response was affirmative, Allison waved a hand and led them down the halls once more, this time to an elevator that they all piled into. The whirring soon took up any silent lapses in the conversation, and the doors soon opened up to reveal a large underground garage. A big, van-like vehicle sat near the doorway, black with tinted windows and a large by area in the back. This was the thing Allison led the recruits to and popped the doors open. Inside was surprisingly comfortable, with a few rows of soft, seat-belt equipped seats in front of the empty back.

Everyone piled in, Aiden finally breaking out of her shell and yelling that she called shotgun before realizing that Slate was taking the passenger seat and sulking to the back of the car.

“Don’t worry,” Allison began, smiling back at the group as she started it. “It won’t always be like this. I’ll get you all your own vehicles soon, but I didn’t have time to get around to that in the week I was given. Anyway...I think we’ll head to Matthew’s place first, since it’s the closest. Is that okay?”

Once she received a reply, Allison popped the monster into gear and sped out of the hidden garage out into the streets of the city. As she drove, she pressed lightly on a hidden switch near her ear, and her suit whirred, folding into a box about the size of a large suitcase by her feet, which she set casually between the two front seats. Under the armor she wore a pair of dark leggings, tennis shoes, and a long-sleeved burgundy shirt.

Now, without her armor, she looked very...normal. Maybe a bit more athletic than the average person, but otherwise she was quite demure. Her glasses were resting on the bridge of her nose lightly, and her auburn hair spilled over her shoulders. Her freckled nose was slashed across with a faded scar that ended at her cheekbone, and her now-bare hands were the only betrayal of her mutant status- the large, curved claws that protruded from her knuckles were much more obvious without the armor.

It helped to make the mood more relaxed, at least, as Slate did the same.

Code template by @darkflames13


Geostar Fill;Arizonia;Yantramanav;Roboto;
Slate

Marshall



Location
ASA Headquarters


Time
1:45 PM


Weather
56 degrees fahrenheigt, 13 mph winds

The man was sore, and rightfully so. He’d just been subjected to twenty minutes of getting beaten on by other powered beings, and the last fight had truly taken a lot out of him. Despite being tough and used to having bruises, Emily had given him a true beating. His chest and abs ached, and he was still limping just a bit from the cramp that was slowly leaving his legs. His dark armor’s paint job was chipped, burned, and dented- Allison would take care of that- and showing a few bright silver spots under it.

He limped his way back out, and after a short, near-silent argument with Allison, turned to the recruits. His voice was a bit more nasally than usual thanks to the clots in his nose, but he’d be able to take care of that soon enough. “Alright. Good job, all of you. I’m sure Allison has been taking some notes on what kind of training you’ll need to be given, but for now I’m just going to tell you that I’ve been impressed with every one of you. I think it’s safe to say that tomorrow you’ll be ready for your first duo patrol. I’ll work on the scheduling sometime tonight.”

Allison looked very much like she’d like to say something- and that she wanted him to stop talking through the clots- so he stepped back to take care of his nose as she addressed them.

Soon enough, they were all filing out into the hall, and Slate jogged a bit to catch up to them, slipping into the elevator just before the doors slid closed. The ride down was a bit cramped, but it was a big elevator and several of the young people were small, so it worked.

He stepped out of the elevator and followed the group toward the limo-like moving van, walking a bit slower than he usually did...until the shout of “I call shotgun!” exploded into the air.

Slate hurried his step, intercepting Aiden before she could swing the door open, and raised an eyebrow as he looked down at her. “I’ll fight you for it.”

She hesitated for a minute, sizing him up, before finally shrugging. “I could take you. But you’re an old man, so I’ll let you have the front.”

He barely had time to splutter in indignation before she popped away, disappearing and reappearing less than a second later in the back row of seats, giving him a cheeky grin and finger guns now that she was out of his reach. Slate squinted at her as he climbed into the front, fighting a smile.

Half of these recruits didn’t seem too bad, at least.

As Allison began to drive away, she allowed her armor to leave her completely, apparently no longer in the mood for theatrics. Actually...that didn’t sound too bad to Slate, either. He reached up and pressed the back of his neck. The cowl folded down, taking the goggles with it, and soon the whole suit compacted into a box similar to but slightly smaller than Allison’s.

He, too, set it between the front seats. Slate was wearing dark jeans and an army green muscle tee. His hair was windblown and messy, and his black wings set him far apart from Allison, who, if she hid her hands, could easily pass an ordinary human. He reached up and combed his hair a bit with his fingers, getting the remaining static from Matthew’s session out of it and taming the wild nest just a bit. His black eye was still blooming, and the bruise that slashed across his ribs was peeking from under his collar, but he didn’t complain. He was used to such pain, after all.

Code template by @darkflames13


Geostar Fill;Arizonia;Yantramanav;Roboto;
Aiden

Carter



Location
ASA Headquarters


Time
1:45 PM


Weather
56 degrees fahrenheigt, 13 mph winds


Her nerves hummed anxiously as she returned, but Myla’s cheers- and Matthew’s quiet thumbs-up- made her relax a bit and she shot both of them a smile before hurrying back to her seat as the next person was called up.

Aiden watched quietly as her new companions demonstrated what they could do, and she would be lying if she said she wasn’t impressed.

Liam’s performance worried her at first, but he recovered in a big way. A wall materialized out of nothing, then a gorilla, and then a shield. It seemed as if he had great potential. As he returned, taking his seat next to her, someone else offered him a handkerchief and she gave him an encouraging smile. He didn’t seem to be in the best shape.

Myla stepped into the ring next, excited and far too bubbly for someone of her physical stature. She looked startlingly normal, but she didn’t even take a weapon as she stormed into the ring and began simply...dismantling the bots with her bare hands, taking hits left and right but not even seeming to notice.

Fianna was called third, and she was the first to take Slate up on his offer to spar. Aiden honestly hadn’t been expecting much from her, so she was surprised when she started using her own voice as a weapon. The screams made her ears ring, and she covered them slightly, frowning, as the young woman abruptly stopped and seductively stripped off her overcoat, speaking quietly now. Later, she actually managed to knock the older hero over. So he wasn’t indestructible. Good.

Matthew, the one who had handed Liam the handkerchief, was called next. He frantically and awkwardly pulled his shoes and gloves off, shoving them under his seat before hopping up and making his way down. As he squeezed past her, the tips of her blue hair gravitated toward him, and she raised an eyebrow. She had an idea of what his powers were, now. The robots seemed to short out the moment he stepped in the ring, and so he called on Slate to join him seconds afterward. That fight was interesting to watch, and as he returned to the seats, Aiden gave him a thumbs-up- both as encouragement and thanks for earlier.

Ashe was second to last, and he strode up to bat with a cocky remark about ‘watch and learn’. What an ass. Though, his demonstration made it pretty obvious why he thought he could act that way- his powers were insane, and between him and Myla, they had at least two tanks on the team so far.

Finally, the last contender stepped in. Emily was the quietest of the bunch, just above Liam, and she took to the stage with a quiet, foreboding confidence. Her fight was one of the most confusing- and scariest- of the bunch. Slate was knocked back and forth, and seemed to put some actual effort in as she gave him a bloody nose, and, from the looks of it, several bruises without ever touching him.

She returned to her seat, and everything was sickeningly silent. Even Ashe wasn’t making some smartass remark, and Myla hadn’t said a word.

Finally, the silence was broken by Slate and Allison, and some of the tension eased out of the atmosphere. Some.

Before she knew it, the group was being led to a rather spacious elevator, where they were all crammed in together. Aiden took a spot in the very front, wanting to get out of the metal box as soon as possible. The doors slid open and she slipped out, rejoining the group as Allison led the way through the garage. Vehicles of all shapes and sizes surrounded them, all of them plain black and unmarked, with Exempt plates and tinted windows (if they had windows).

But their journey ended at a long, almost dopey-looking van with a massive, empty space in the back. The atmosphere was still tense, though the sight of the strange, almost awkward-looking vehicle had lifted at least Aiden’s spirits- so much so that she finally fit into her own skin again. “I call shotgun!” She didn’t know why she had shouted it- maybe just to lighten the mood since Emily’s demonstration- but she did, and she was stepping toward the passenger seat door quickly.


A massive bulk of feathered man stepped in front of her, and he calmly told her that he’d fight her for it. Aiden hesitated, narrowing her eyes and sizing him up. He was injured, but she didn’t want to fight him for a seat she didn’t really want, anyway. “I could take you,” she shrugged after a moment, tossing on an aura of casualness and stepping back with a smile. “But you’re an old man, so I’ll let you have the front.”

He scoffed in indignation, mock insult taking over him, and Aiden disappeared with a wink, taking her next seat of choice- the window seat in the very back, out of reach of Slate’s fake rage. She gave him a grin and finger guns, and he took his seat in the front.

She settled in for the ride, feeling rather awkward now after the performance, but hoping that it had worked to lift at least one other person’s mood as she dug her phone from the pocket of her jeans and plugged in her earbuds. She left one loose, just in case someone was going to talk to her, and started to compose a list of things she’d have to grab from her old apartment as she listened to the few songs she actually owned.

Code template by @darkflames13
 
Matthew Michael Volt

"Yeah, no. I'm done."
Location | Family road trip.

Time | To sit back.
Weather | Blown away.
Matt watched as the last two people got up and fought Slate. And after the explosions, he found himself a bit worried for the guy. After all, he hadn't taken advantage of the opening he had during their own demonstration when the initial panic of not being on the ground hit Matt. But Slate walked out of the ring no worse for wear, maybe needing a new paint job on his armor, but he was ok. Last came the quiet girl, the one who'd asked to go last. When she walked in, Matt hadn't caught on to whatever she'd been doing until Slate started to show the effects. Her power was kinda like his, once she saw, or sensed an opening, she had full access... And Matt had himself a little moral enlightenment. Avatar blood-bending creepy-ass shit that had no reason ever to be done to anyone, ever. He was still and silent as the two left the room. A distrustful gaze tracked the woman's movements back to her seat. He should say something. He should let her know that that was a little fucked up for a damn demonstration. And he stayed quiet, because, well, what if she turned on him? He didn't understand the parameters of her powers. 'Coward. Leo taught you better than this.'

He was still tearing himself apart for not doing anything in regards to Emily when the two heroes put on their best faces. His expression lacked emotion, for good reason since if he showed his cards he'd be picking a fight with the woman who actually bothered to hurt Slate in the demonstration. He felt himself growing antsy again, his knee finally beginning to bounce once more. "Sure... Could use some fresh air anyways." His voice tried to inch back to normal tones, but there was a note of something cold behind it. Whether it was his distrustful nature finally making an appearance at the notion of a group-supervised outing, or some leftover annoyance with himself that had slipped out from his internal debate, something that didn't match how he'd been acting before was there. There was a minuscule quirk to the corner of his mouth, a poor attempt at getting his grin to slide back on. As they went to move out, he kept to the back of the group and his hand went to the pocket he kept his handkerchief in, only to realize he'd already passed it off to bloody nose victim number one. So much for offering it to Slate.

He kept as much distance from everyone as he could as they piled into the elevator, and he found his anxiety spiking as he bumped shoulders with someone despite his best efforts. Once out of the elevator the teen walked off to the side of the group, getting a bit of a grip back. The van was one of the most absurd things he'd seen in a while. It was a healthy distraction since he had a feeling he was cutting a bit too deep in his own mind. His grin reappeared as he heard Aiden poke some fun at Slate, another old man joke. Poor guy was getting his feathers all kinds of ruffled today. He got in the back row of the van, taking the other window seat. His sharp gaze keeping track of everyone else as they got in. His confusion showed for just a second as he looked at Allison up front. He didn't remember putting his address on anything... "How do you- actually, never mind. Stupid question. Sure, we can swing by my place first." He realized that he'd been well-documented after his arrest a millisecond after he'd opened his mouth, covering it with a grin and a chuckle, playing it off as nothing. They had a file on him somewhere. He wondered how detailed it was. Did it cover every foster house he'd been at? If so, they had really done some real digging, because even he didn't have the full list. His foot lightly tapped on the floor as they set off. "My name's Matt, by the way. Figured we oughta introduce ourselves since we'll all be working together." The two up front knew who everyone was, but he hadn't caught anyone else's name and that seemed like something that needed to be fixed.

 
Playfair Display Cardo [font=][/font]


Fianna

Reactions, Smiles, and Concerns

Knowing full well that eyes will be on her, the blonde screamer grabbed her red coar and wore it, fixed her hair, and walked confidently out of the fighting area with her back straight and her head held high. She had quite a few ideas about what the others think of her but to be honest she doesn't care nor let it bother her. So what if others think she's great? Or that she rely heavily on her powers and uses flirtation to distract or get what she wants? As long as she's getting the results that she wanted then she sees no problem.

Fianna then took a seat before another person to enter the fighting area.

"Interesting" she muttered under her breath while her eyes danced with amusement as she watched almost everyone asked Slate to spar with them. "It seems these people are starting to have the guts to spar with the raven"

First to ask after her was a boy named Matthew who almost fooled her that the bots malfunctioned. Turns out he has the ability to control electricity. Everything was fine and interesting up until he finished the fight and started returning to his seat. As the boy passed by in front of her, strays of her blonde her stood up which made her tongue click out of annoyance, her hand immediately running through her short locks in an attempt to fix her immaculate short hair Seriously? Wind is one thing to ruin my hair but static? I swear, if my hair becomes frizzy and a big poofy mess because of him I'm going to lull him to eternal sleep

Next up was the raggedy guy who pushed past her earlier. He also asked to spar with Slate but Fianna was to bored to even watch the whole thing. To her, Ashe was not worth her time. He's foul-mouthed and stupidly arrogant that it infuriates her to no end! Maybe its because Ashe reminds her a little bit of her beloved. They're kind of similar with the explosive and fire except raggedy guy is much more arrogant that my Joshua.. before we fell in love and almost had a baby

Brushing the thought aside, Fianna realized that the fight was over and the next one to spar with Slate was the red haired girl she found cute: Emily.

She was confused if not perplexed at the fight. All she saw was Emily moving around, snapping fingers, and making weird hand gestures while Slate looked like a doll who's getting beaten up by some invisible force. Fianna had to cover her left eye, squint, and really let her owl eye focus to see what's happening. "He's getting..bruises." she murmured before wincing and biting her lower lip "Whatever Emily's ability is, its something internal. Is she.. controlling Slate's blood? And she needed to be in a close dis-"

She bit her lip harder and threw her head back, unable to watch anymore as her head throbbed and her right eye became blurry. I didn't realize I was watching them with my right eye for too long. God, it hurts.

Fianna closed her eyes momentarily and breathed hard. Another weakness of her right eye was that if used too long, she'll get migraines. Well, nothing a Xanax can't fix.. She quickly rummaged through her pocket and popped a pill in her mouth, just in time to see Emily looking at her.

I know that look she thought to herself before swallowing and allowing herself to smile seductively and stare flirtatiously back at Emily. It was a look all too familiar that she usually sees to her clients.Sweet Emily is interested in me. Oh how fun this will be~

Her thoughts were cut off short when Allison and Slate began talking and telling them about getting their stuff from their old place. Of course Fianna perked up at that and wasted no time to follow everyone at the moving van. She didn't care much where she sat since her mind was already occupied with the thought of what things she'll be getting from her home. Sure she doesn't own much but the stuff she owns may seem weird to others. Like hell I care. All that matters is I have something familiar which means no more panic attacks.. also, no feeling of loneliness when I sleep on that new luxurious bed

The first house they'll be visiting was the home of the boy who has the ability to manipulate electricity. Fianna was planning not to talk much but upon realizing that she was sitting next to the guy who introduced himself as Matt, the songbird couldn't help but talk back. It is only proper to acknowledge someone who's speaking, is it not?

"Pleasure to meet you" she replied, staring momentarily at his hand before focusing back to his face. "I'm Fianna in case you haven't heard"

"Oh and you must forgive me for not extending a hand for a handshake. I am a bit... concerned you might ruin my hair. You have no idea how long it takes to make my bob look immaculate"







 
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Performance Anxiety was something Liam knew he had in spades, often times paralyzing him with too many internal questions that were a detriment when time was of the essence. He prefered to have time to analyze and act accordingly, but this was a very real example of how that wasn’t always going to be the case. It doesn’t hurt as much as I thought it would, adrenaline still coursing through me maybe. My hands are shaking, can barely focus. Is this what’s called an adrenaline high? Liam retreated within himself, almost not noticing a handkerchief being handed to him from the guy next to him. Liam looked at it like a lost lamb for a moment before taking it. ”Thanks.” Liam managed to squeak out, using it to stem the bleeding from his nose for a moment. It wasn’t the worst nose bleed he had ever had, but it was still an annoyance. Maybe it would become less of a problem the more he used his powers, just like working out strengthens one’s body.

As he tended to himself, he watched as the next woman went into the ring. The Amazon really, if a single word were to describe her. She was the complete opposite of him, filled with confidence, and when the fight started it wasn’t hard to see why. The same rounds that had flattened Liam bounced off her like she was made of steel. She strode at them with all the power of a bulldozer and proceeded to rip them apart with her bare hands. It was interesting, terrifying, and humbling all at once. She powered through them with what appeared little effort, and that was that. In the time it took the woman to fight, it seemed like his nose had stopped bleeding. He took some effort to wrap the handkerchief up so it was at least clean on the outside, but he wasn’t sure if he should hand it back or wait until he cleaned it up. For the moment, he chose to keep it, as it seemed poor form to hand it back to the man filled with nasal blood.

After that was Fianna, whose appearance was now more confident than before when she seemingly had some kind of panic attack. She was in her element now, that much was certain as she strode forward and asked Slate to a round. Confidence, at that point, was an understatement. Either that, or her powers didn’t fit well to robotic enemies. As he agreed, they set up and the fight began, she unleashed what appeared to be some kind of sonic wave at Slate. So her abilities were linked to screeching? Was that why she called herself songbird? Liam wasn’t one to judge how well one’s martial arts abilities were, but he didn’t think Fianna was an exceptionally skilled fighter aside from her powers, but she was at the very least athletic and agile as she did some flips and such to move around Slate. When she started taking off her top, Liam’s first instinct was to look away. This was embarrassing, right? Was he supposed to stare? Would he be called out if he did? Still, he watched on and the fight was more or less over quickly. She launched a few more attacks, Slate withstood them all and they were done with a kiss on the cheek from Fianna. Confidence was definitely an understatement.

Next was the man who offered him the handkerchief, weirdly taking off his gloves and shoes to reveal bare feet before moving down. Liam watched with curiosity, his head throbbing slightly but definitely in bearable range. When he picked up the gun and went inside after asking a couple questions, Liam’s first thought was that maybe he had some kind of physical ability that meant he needed bare skin. However, as the fight started the bots started fighting each other with the man looking visibly confused. Liam was confused as well, what was going on? Could this be part of his power and he’s lying? Maybe the bots weren’t perfect? Regardless, he went on to challenge Slate as Fianna once did. Once the fight started and visible electricity coursed through the floor, it became clear that he had caused the malfunction before. Both lightning man and Slate used their powers to the fullest, with tornadoes and lightning strikes making it look more like a hurricane than a fight inside the ring. For a powered fight, it was entertaining if somewhat predictable since they both had somewhat elemental based attacks. They ended on a good note, and as the lightning man passed by, Liam felt the static cling to him and ruffle his hair which he hurried to pat down.

It was then that the most criminal looking one of the bunch stood up and made his intentions known. He wasn’t just confident, he was cocky. Maybe he had good reason to be, but only time would tell as Liam watched him walk to the practice area and took a pistol with him into the arena. When he made to throw the pistol instead of firing it, Liam had to question why he took it with him at all since grabbing nothing was a valid choice. Instead, he seemed to disappear in an explosion as the robots took aim and missed by a good margin. Liam saw through the smoke that the man had flown into the air instead, producing smoke from his palms. Exploding hands? Liam thought to himself as the man fell down on the bots and made short work of them through multiple explosions. Exploding hands seemed an apt way to put it. Seemingly not satisfied, he then called out Slate who obliged the request. Liam was getting the feeling that he had fallen far short of impressing anyone out there, but that was a given considering he his had gone. The fight was a mess of explosions, gusts of wind, and insults thrown by the exploding man who was cocky beyond measure. It was understandable, given his control and nature of the power given to him. Their fight was shorter than Lightning's, but it was still action packed and ended on pretty much the same note, only with both of them standing this time.

Finally, the last one to enter was a woman who looked like she was eyeing up Slate for dinner. Like Fianna, she challenged him directly rather than do both, and once Liam saw what her abilities were doing to Slate, he understood why. While he couldn’t physically see what she was doing, the effect on the senior hero was clear. He clenched his teeth, clutched his chest and went pale. Was it mental? No, that didn’t appear to be the case. It appeared it had something to do with the heart? Blood maybe? Or possibly a very strong telekinetic, able to stop and start internal organs with a thought. Now that premise scared Liam, as there was no real defense for that kind of ability. In a short amount of time, while Slate was fighting hard, it was clear he was on the losing end. Whatever she was doing to him was working, and Liam knew she wasn’t going all out. In short, her fight was the most terrifying of the bunch. Everyone else he could think up of some sort of defence around, given enough time, but how do you stop someone from simply snapping their fingers and apparently applying damage? Last but not least, she claimed to be able to heal herself, so it wouldn’t even be a matter of damaging her enough before she could fully unleash. In short, she was easily the most powerful here in Liam’s opinion, and that made him nervous.

With their fight done, that was everyone. Liam poked at the bruise under his eye once more, almost as a way to reaffirm that it was still there. Both Slate and Allison gave their praise to the recruits, but to Liam it felt hollow. He was no stranger to fake praise in order to control people, and while he couldn’t claim that this was it with one hundred percent certainty, it sure felt like it to him. At the mention of going back to their old places to pick anything up that they left behind, Liam looked up with a start as everyone started agreeing with the sentiment. ”I really don’t… I don’t have any-... I shouldn’t… “ Liam could barely stammer through his refusal before everyone was moving, and like a lemming he followed. Before he knew it, he was in the back of the overlong van, having wondered what had happened in the interim.

While there was a mention of getting their own vehicles, Liam was reminded that he didn’t actually have a license. Yet another way his parents had tried to control and/or hide him...or protect him. He needed to make up his mind about them, but he just couldn’t yet. He didn’t know enough, didn’t understand enough. He closed his eyes tight for a moment, forcing such thoughts from his mind once more and looking through the van to see the rest of the group. His eyes rested on the blood lady for a bit longer than necessary, seeing her nails and feeling a welling sense of nervousness build up inside him. In fact, this entire situation was too cramped, and without the soothing effects of alcohol working their way through his body anymore, he felt the all too familiar sensation of a panic attack welling up inside him.

He moved his eyes in different directions, looking for a distraction to keep him level as noticed that Allison had shed her armor. She looked almost normal, save for the claw like things coming out of her knuckles. It wasn’t until Lightning spoke up that Liam even bothered to return his attention back to where he was sitting. He introduced himself as Matt, which upon hearing that, was something Liam was acutely aware of again. He knew Fianna from… before, and the other two up front but he didn’t catch anyone else’s name. Fianna was next, as seemed par for the course considering she seemed perfectly comfortable in a social situation. Liam, however, was not. Instead of retreating in on himself though, considering they would eventually need to know his name, he opted to get it out of the way as quickly as possible. ”I’m Liam.” was all he said, in a semi-quiet voice as he blurted it out in an attempt to get past this. With that being said, he returned his gaze to looking out a window, any window, in an attempt to avoid eye contact with people.
 
Emily's eyes shot wide when Fianna gave her a seductive smile after her performance. Holy shit! She's looking at me! Oh those bedroom eyes! she thought to herself, her cheeks flushing quickly. Noticing the heat on her cheeks she took a deep breath and receded the blood into the rest of her body, getting rid of her blush. She did catch someone else's reaction - the man with the electric powers, Matt. He was eyeing her like a potential threat. You want to play with me, Sparky? she thought to herself. If you thought that was scary, wait until you learn I was holding back.

Then everyone was being complimented, told they'd done a good job, and were being led to a garage to go out and get some things from their homes. Emily didn't have anything beyond the small bag she came here with she wanted to get, but...Fianna definitely wanted to get things from her home. If she stayed close, she could see what her place was like, what she was like, and maybe find out how to get more than just a flirty smirk from her. She made sure to sit by Fianna, but not directly next to her as that'd be too obvious. She was about to introduce herself to the young woman, when she caught Matthew staring at her again. The tiny hairs on her arms stood on end and she glared back.

"Don't stare so hard, sweetie. You'll go blind," she threw up her open hand in front of him, but didn't use her powers. She smirked at the reaction, showing her pointed teeth.

---

Myla didn't know how to react to Emily's performance. Everyone else she reacted to like watching a sporting event. She rooted for Matthew when he went up against Slate, rooted for Slate when he went up against Ashe (he seemed the underdog in terms of firepower), but when Emily went up to take Slate on he seemed to have a fight on his hands. She'd absorbed enough media to recognize blood-bending when she saw it. The fact that a real person had this power was scary. But there was one thing about their fight she couldn't help but notice, and it actually made her feel less afraid of Emily, not more; she was constantly holding back, and even seemed to be begging to stop before having to do something really nasty. That reluctance told her that - as scary as Emily's abilities were - she wasn't a bad girl.

She headed down with everyone else and was more than eager to get to know her new teammates better. She noted Ashe and really wanted to ask him how hot his explosions could get. Could she take a blast directly from him? It didn't look too bad. Just some fire, a little bit of concussive force. Hell, she took a deer slug to the face once before coming over here and she barely felt a thing. But she also noted his attitude, particularly his cocky swagger as he seemed to think he'd shown most of them up. To be fair, he did well in the sparring area and his power was a heavy-hitter, so she kind of would get that mindset. Then again, he'd been kind of a jerk up until this point, so she didn't want to talk right away.

So instead she turned her questioning mind to Aiden and Liam - the teleporter and the projectionist. When getting into the van she did her best to get between them so she could grill them on questions. "So...Aiden and Liam, right?" she asked. "I'm Myla. I got a ton of questions, so hope I don't get too overbearing. It's just your powers are really cool!" She turned to Aiden. "Can you teleport other people with you? Like if you grabbed me could you pop me somewhere else? Can you drag stuff you couldn't normally lift with teleporting? Like you push a car and teleport over and over and it's like throwing the car? How fast can you do it? How far can you go?" She then looked at Liam. "And how about you? Can you make anything with your powers? How does it work? What are those constructs made of?"
 
Matthew Michael Volt

"You think I’m scared?"
Location | Family road trip.

Time | To sit back.
Weather | Blown away.
A little bit of an honest smile appeared on Matthew's face at Fianna's reluctance to make physical contact with him. 'Well, that's one person you don't have to worry about.' He slipped his hands into his pockets after following her gaze. He felt a bit uneasy with the way she talked, having to scratch the back of his mind to what formal people said in books during his English classes in order to bullshit a response since he knew that acting similarly would probably make friends faster. "That lack of formality would probably be better for the both of us. I'm not too fond of contact, anyways." He didn't say she was safe while he had his boots and gloves on, not willing to let a potential point of weakness show this early in the game. Liam was trying to run on silent mode and he'd try to run as a social blocker for the guy if he could, since he seemed to be in desperate need for some quiet time. Honestly, Matt couldn’t blame him, he could feel his own reserves of niceness starting to tap out and he really could use some time away from people in order to get a better grip on himself. But, here he was, doing the whole social overexertion thing mostly for the sake of a guy he really didn’t know. Maybe Leo did teach him better than he thought. ”Maybe give him a bit of a break, ok? He’s burnt out, let him rest.” His voice was a bit softer as he addressed Myla, who’d been hounding Liam. There was a little bit of warmth to it, nothing too heavy there in his delivery, underlaid with a bit of tiredness that was sure to win some sympathy points. He didn’t have to fake that one too much either, he already felt tired and strung out. He was hoping she’d pick up on the guy’s body language and settle back a bit.

His gaze drifted over the car once more, always paying attention to the variables at play. He noticed the little things, like Liam's gaze landing on the blood bender's nails -claws... no, teeth, the hell?- for a little bit too long, and it had taken him a bit too long to process that because she was looking his way now, and then their eyes met.

The little smile that he’d almost forgotten about wearing disappeared when he got the glare from the blood-bender. 'And that's one you definitely should worry about,' his mind unwittingly supplied. The emotions he wore slid away, his cold indifference front and center as he faced her. He didn't make a move until the hand came at him, and even then, he’d only blinked and inched back slightly from the hand that was in his space, no sudden movements as his mind screamed for rules one and three. He was expecting a strike. His cold blue eyes narrowed on her. "Posturing doesn’t exactly suit you and certainly won’t win you any favors here." His voice was a cold rumble, low enough to remain unheard by anyone that wasn't paying attention. He was used to threats. He grew up with dangerous kids that fell outside of the system's line of sight, he dealt with dangerous foster parents too, and went through the school of hard knocks just like any other unlucky foster kid. He refused to back down in the face of a person like her, someone who thought she could get results through fear and underhanded intimidation tactics, he wouldn’t give her any amount of satisfaction with this incident. He flat out refused, and retaliated in his own underhanded way, stripping the woman of any relevance. He'd get more attention on him, get the blood-bender to back down before she could lash out at him. She wouldn't want witnesses to her temper, right? Every other shitty thing happened to him behind closed doors, he doubted the pattern would break here.

His grin returned with a vengeance that rivaled even Myla's enthusiasm as he turned his attention away from the woman, a silent dare hanging in the motion. If she wanted to make a move, he didn't have any means of stopping her anyways, so his blatant apathy and apparent lack of self-preservation skills in a social context would get him through this one way or another. "I've got another question for everyone... Would you rather fight a single tyrannosaurus-rex-sized duck, or ten duck-sized tyrannosaurus-rexes?" He was going to lock himself in his room for a week after all this. He was so done with everything. He wondered when he started wanting to eat pancakes, too, the craving hadn’t made itself known until now but it was hitting him a lot stronger than it should be and the little voice that often supplied his more spontaneous decisions was chanting for iHop in the back of his mind. He’d never even been there before, but whatever. He wanted iHop. ”But, more seriously... Think we can go to iHop after we’re done with all this?” He called up front to Allison.

 
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Geostar Fill;Arizonia;Yantramanav;Roboto;
Ashe

Williams



Location
ASA Headquarters


Time
1:45 PM


Weather
50 degrees fahrenheigt, 15 mph winds




Ashe grew incredibly quiet while watching Slate get practically tortured, it was surprising how well he kept it together. That woman’s abilities were downright scary, she even looked like she was enjoying the fight. How can you fight against something that is happening inside your own body? The thought of it all sent shivers down his spine, and it seemed as if everyone else was just as quiet as he was.

Once it was all over, the silence was broke when the huntswoman spoke and brought them through the halls to the elevator. Alison was gonna take everyone to go pick up their belongings in each person's respected homes. Ashe personally was worried that there might not be anything left in his place, it wasn’t really secured, that and his former ‘employer’ probably ransacked the place in hopes to find anymore goodies that Ashe had cooked up before he was arrested. Bet the firecrackers got what they needed from my place…. Still it be nice to see if they left anything behind, and some of my clothes would be nice The man thought to himself. They all piled into the car, Ashe didn’t care for his seat, sat wherever, but his attention turned to myla who was chatting with Liam and Aiden, throwing several quiestions at them. Ashe chimed in “ Hey Myla, answer me this. I know you got some tough skin, but do you think you could handle the heat of my attacks? Could do some pretty rad stuff, turn you into a bullet maybe” He raised an eyebrow, somewhat disregarding the other two


Code template by @darkflames13
 
Emily scowled at Matthew's response. She wasn't expecting him to be scared of her, but she definitely didn't want to be mocked. She lowered her hand, but didn't draw it back all the way. "If you don't want me flexing my fingers at you, don't stare at me like you want me to burn at the stake. I had thought this would be the one group where I wasn't treated like a freak. You poke me, I poke back. And you see what I can do with my fingers."

She then looked down at her hand and pulled her sleeve back, revealing all the cuts on her wrist. "If you're judging me because of what I did in that arena, you should know how hard it is to reign this power in. I could've blinded Slate. I could've sent the blood rushing to his head, making him pass out. I could've popped a blood vessel in his brain, killing him instantly. People are like...puppets sometimes. And I can pull their strings. So easy...so wrong. This power disgusts me too, Matthew. This one," she pointed at a particularly big, but faded scar at the very front of her wrist, "is from when I couldn't take it anymore. And that was when I learned...what I can do with blood in the body is nothing compared to what I can do with it outside the body. I was holding the last card in my hand, and stopped before I had to use it."

She snapped her head at him. "So don't glare at me like I'm a monster. I've seen that face too often in my own reflection."

---

"Damn..." Myla leaned back, having given Liam an apologetic smile. But the drama with Emily looking over the cuts on her wrists had kind of killed the mood for her. But Ashe finally interacting with someone - namely her - brightened her up a little. "Well, they tested my dead skin cells in a lab while figuring out the extent of my powers and concluded that I could take up to...5,000 degrees before suffering severe burns. I could literally go skinny-dipping in a volcano. But no one'll buy me a ticket to Hawaii. Seeing those blasts you threw at Slate, I could probably take one of those to the face and not get anything worse than singed eyebrows. So if you can make me fly, that'd be pretty awesome."
 
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Allison

Walker



Location
Road Trip


Time
2:00 PM


Weather
56 degrees fahrenheigt, 11 mph winds

Allison fidgeted slightly with a frown as she listened to the small argument that was steadily erupting between Matthew and Emily. The two were both highly volitale- their sheets had said so, and meeting them in person only confirmed that, but she hadn’t really expected an argument to break out so soon.

“Let’s calm down,” she interjected quietly before Matthew could answer, glancing through the rearview mirror to meet Emily’s eyes, then Matt’s, with a sort of soft sternness. “I’m sure neither of you meant any harm, yeah?” She waited a moment, then, regardless of the answer, plowed through to answer the question that the boy had asked. “If iHop is something the majority wants, I’ll stop there once everyone has the stuff they want.”

Under them, the large vehicle continued to rumble softly, carrying them from the center of the city into the middle to lower class residential areas, until, finally, she pulled up on Matthew’s old place of residence. “We’re here,” she announced, twisting in her seat against the belt that crossed her chest to peer at Matthew. “Do you need any help?” She’d let him make the call- no use in everyone going tromping out.

Code template by @darkflames13


Geostar Fill;Arizonia;Yantramanav;Roboto;
Slate

Marshall



Location
Road Trip


Time
2:00 PM


Weather
56 degrees fahrenheigt, 11 mph winds

He was quiet for the journey, silently listening to the murmuring conversations of the trainees behind him and giving no expression or reply to any of it. Though at the mention of iHop, his stomach did rumble a bit- after the workout they’d given him, he could use some.

“My vote’s on iHop, too,” he muttered, just loud enough for the Allison and any attentive listeners to hear.

His olive eyes slipped closed for a few minutes, and he only opened them again when the car’s halt jolted him from a groggy stupor. Damn, had he actually fallen asleep? He dug the heel of his palm into his eye, trying to wake up fully as he listened to Allison talking. “I’ll help you out if you need me to, ki- Matt,” he offered, glancing back as well and sitting up straight, fixing his shirt where it had wrinkled in his sleep. His voice was deep with drowsiness.

Code template by @darkflames13


Geostar Fill;Arizonia;Yantramanav;Roboto;
Aiden

Carter



Location
Road Trip


Time
2:00 PM


Weather
56 degrees fahrenheigt, 11 mph winds


The beat of her song was interrupted by Myla’s barrage of questions, but before she could answer any of them, Matthew decided to defend Liam, the boy sitting between the two of them. Then, again, an interruption introduced itself in the form of Ashe.

Aiden pursed her lips in disappointment as the two engaged in conversation and went back to her list, her fingernails tapping lightly on the screen of her phone. Still, her free ear was focused on the conversation between Matt and Emily, and almost instantly she recognized the tenseness in Matt’s body language. She narrowed her eyes a bit, examining him from across the seat out of the corner of her eye as he turned away from Emily and asked a seemingly random question in an attempt to lighten the mood.

Maybe the two of them had more in common than she thought.

She soon had to turn her attention back to Emily, however, because within a few moments of Matthew’s retort, she had a story to tell. Despite her better judgment, Aiden had to cringe a little at the sight of the scars slashing across the woman’s wrists, and ran her fingers over the spot where the handcuffs had cut into her own.

Still...her sharp gaze cut over to the now-dozing Slate and the tensely driving Allison. Why had they invited someone so unstable with such a huge power into their team? At this point, Emily seemed more like a liability than anything, since the girl knew for a fact that some of them wouldn’t be staying on the team. There was no way.

Aiden swallowed thickly and stayed silent as Allison tried to break up the fight, then continued to attempt to keep the peace by offering to honor the iHop request. “I’ve never been,” she spoke up after a few moments of silence, only broken by the ongoing conversation between Myla and Ashe. “But I’d like to try it.”

A few more minutes passed, the silence from Matt seeming almost oppressive. But soon enough they were pulling up to his...house...and she leaned over to peer out of his window, trying to get a glimpse at his old residence. “I can help too,” she volunteered, meeting his eyes with a raised eyebrow once Slate offered his assistance.

He seemed interesting enough, and it would be a chance to get out of the stuffy, awkward-stuffed car.

Code template by @darkflames13
 
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Matthew Michael Volt

"I'm outta here."
Location | Get me out.

Time | To avoid issues.
Weather | Heated.
Matt leveled a glare at Emily as she started in on him. He tried dropping it. Now he was just about fed up. And her throwing a self harm story into the mix really did not help matters. He heard Allison trying to break them up, but he knew that what he wanted to say was only going to fester and the internal debate would rip him apart if he stayed quiet again. He was going to look out for his mental health above all else, stern looks be damned. He shot an apologetic glance at Allison in the mirror before hardening his gaze back on Emily. "I don't give a damn. Everyone who fought him could have drawn blood, but you went overboard for a demonstration. He's on our team, for fuck's sake. I keep an eye on threats, always have and always will. Remember that you escalated things here, not me." He stated sharply and clearly. He took a deep breath after getting that off his chest, and turned his gaze away from her and out the window, noticing that they were on his block, and he stayed deadly silent after that.

They pulled up outside the run down computer repair shop and his gaze flicked up to the equally run down apartment settled above it. He was aware of some of the others peering out to get a look at his home. But, honestly, the place looked about as tired as he felt, and he forgot to be embarrassed or ashamed of it. "I don't really have much, and it's probably a disaster inside, but sure. The extra hands would be nice." His voice had gotten some of it's warmth back as he got out of the car. He was quick on his feet, long strides easily putting distance between everyone and himself, and made his way around the side of the building equally fast, needing three seconds of peace that he was willing to fight for. As he started to head to the rusted metal stairs that went up to his apartment, he heard the familiar metal clatter that he hadn't realized he'd missed. A glance at the trashcans brought a plump and happy tabby into view, and it followed him up the stairs. "Hey trash-cat. Looks like I'm getting out of here." His voice was quiet and thick, it felt like his throat was closing up on him. He wasn't expecting the wave of nausea that hit him when he said that. It felt so surreal. All of it did. He cursed his shaking hands as he fumbled with his keys for a long second. He was letting himself get overwhelmed. 'Dammit Matt, get yourself together. Don't let them see the mess. Breathe. Rule three. Rule three. Breathe. Control. You can handle this.' His helpers rounded the corner and he forced a standard grin onto his face, posture relaxed and at ease. He'd gotten the door unlocked. "You guys coming, or what?" His voice was back to the usual notes of humor and energy. He walked into the apartment, gaze carefully sweeping over the place. Everything was left as he remembered it to be. Laptop on the coffee table, half torn apart with the tool kit next to it. "Oh, and don't mind trash-cat. They just kinda do what they want." The cat in question had already made itself at home up on the back of the sofa.

"I don't have any boxes, and I haven't gotten around to getting a luggage set yet. So... Yeah." A bit of uncertainty was clear in his voice, and a bit of self consciousness could be seen in his posture now as he did a vague presenting gesture to the relatively bare-bones apartment. A beat up but comfy as hell sofa sat in front of a wooden coffee table with scuffed edges, fluffy blankets piled up on the arms of it. The kitchen was old, small, but functional, and after a while one could learn to ignore the pink subway tile back-splash. "There are some trash bags up on top of the refrigerator that we can use for clothes and stuff. We can use the pots to carry out some of the little things like silverware and bathroom stuff. Aiden, you're in charge of the kitchen, Slate, you're in charge of emptying out the bathroom, I'll handle the bedroom and once everything's dealt with we can work on getting the sofa out. And Slate, there's a first aide kit in there. Should be some bruise cream left in there that works wonders, use it." Let it be known that Matthew Michael Volt was not a complete asshole, and was pretty good at thinking on his feet. He was quick to put the laptop back together, his focus shifting to what he knew how to do. Once that was dealt with and the laptop was travel safe, he went and grabbed a few trash bags and made his way to the bedroom.

This felt way different than it had when he was leaving the boarding school, or the number of foster homes he'd been through. This fucking stung. He'd finally gotten a good grip on his life and now he felt like it was getting ripped out from underneath him, again. Whatever, he should be used to it by now, honestly. He stuffed his bedding into a trash bag with a little bit more force than necessary. He'd get this done with as quickly as possible, like ripping off a band-aide. It was how he handled it every other time. He wasn't going to let it get under his skin.

 
AGLj3o3xOAf0eMAdtS_nBxgAj2PQ8yADc7ulnvGiYOTjGFoJ9K2Zk2qYx-QxX-94LtsoelLSoPWkpEBbpL-1XYNjboajtNxzNZQH2g2Li6BaFxjQp_q0HZIHV5s38EIq_vs37oKI


Location: Van of Awkwardness



Liam’s small reserve of personal courage towards strange environments and people was quickly being used up in such a cramped environment, with every fiber of his being screaming to get out of the van as Myla started bombarding himself and Aiden with questions, questions he didn’t really know how to answer. He himself didn’t know the complete intricacies of how his ability worked, only that it did and it mostly formed based on his thoughts and subconscious. He struggled to find an answer that would satisfy her curiosity, all the while attempting to calm down his ever rising panic attack. Luckily, an angel in the form of a conduit stepped in and managed to get Myla to stand down in her questions. A breath of a relief barely escaped Liam’s lips before the tension in the van started to rise again between Matthew and Emily. While he wasn’t on the receiving end, and it wasn’t the first ‘argument’ he had been around, the small enclosure of the van mixed with both of their abilities to cause damage raised the level of uncomfortably to unreasonably high levels. Liam returned to placing his gaze out a window, any window, barely hearing the conversation between Ashe and Myla as he did his best to simply get through the next few minutes.

Matthew did raise an interesting question, even if Liam understood it to be an icebreaker, but it distracted him for a moment. “A single tyrannosaurus rex sized duck.” Liam answered quietly, unsure if anyone even heard him. He’d rather face a single large threat than a number of smaller threats, less chance of being surrounded and ganged up on. The topic of iHop was brought up, and Liam couldn’t say he had been there. Most of his food had been home cooked, he had rarely been to any restaurant now that he thought about it. Even before his powers became known, his parents were firm believers in the home cooked meal. He wondered if it tasted good, but would it also mean sitting in yet another crowded environment, surrounded not only by other supers but people who noticeably weren’t? Even as his thoughts drifted, his body relaxing slightly, it was interrupted by the rising argument between the two which caused him to snap back to the present.

Luckily Allison intervened soon enough, stating they were at Matt’s place. Immediately people were stating they could help with moving some of his stuff long before Liam could offer any degree of assistance, and so he kept his mouth shut. Instead, as people moved to enter Matt’s home, Liam took the opportunity to exit the vehicle and stand outside for a moment. He looked over at Matt’s house, which appeared to be an apartment above some kind of electronic shop. Not the prettiest place, but Liam wasn’t about to judge. He didn’t know everyone’s stories, and for all he knew it could be immaculate inside. He started pacing slightly, rubbing his fingers out of some nervous habit as the open air away from the vehicle allowed him to regain some semblance of self. He wasn’t paying attention to who went to help Matt or stayed, in essence he was trying to reset himself so he could get through the rest of the trip as best he could. With that in mind, he placed his mind on the rest of the neighborhood.

It was a lower class neighborhood for sure, with some trash strewn about and the surrounding buildings in various state of disrepair or need of cleaning. The few people who did walk the streets looked down and kept to their own business, a ‘live and let live’ approach by those who claimed this area as their home. In some ways, Liam felt sorry for the people here, who looked like they were trapped in their own way. He continued to rub his fingers as he looked from person to person, building to building, losing himself in his own thoughts as he visibly calmed down from the trip and, for the moment, forgot all about the van and the people inside.
 
Playfair Display Cardo [font=][/font]


Fianna

Oops~

One thing Fianna hates about road trips or being in a car full of people were talking. Sure, she likes to socialize but there's something about the car ride that's starting to unsettle her. Perhaps its the annoying and relentless questions of Myla who she was starting to see as a golden retriever from being so hyper? or maybe it's because of unbearable tension between Emily and Matthew who was acting like children? Either way, it was starting to get on the pale blonde's nerves.

Soon, threats and glares were thrown between the two and Fianna was starting to get uncomfortable if not irritated. A heavy awkwardness settled over them, thicker than the uneasy tension in the atmosphere. Some decided to brush it off by talking even more while others decided to just shut up and deal with it. Good thing Allison decided to speak up and break the argument between the two before telling everyone that they've already arrived at their destination.

"Finally" Fianna huffed exasperatedly, already feeling stuffed and suffocated. "Everyone, out of the car! Now!"

Some of her soon to be called teammates decided to get out of the car to help Matthew but Fianna, on the other hand, decided to stay at the car and wait. "I don't do heavy lifting anyway"

The female then peered at the windows and observed the neighborhood, already regretting it upon realizing that it doesn't look much different from where she used to live. Now she couldn't help but wonder what happened to her little run down apartment at the top of the club she used to work at. I'm sure my boss still kept it in a pristine condition. He still believes that I'll come back after I'm done ruining my life

But I'm certain I won't be visiting him any time soon.


The female then looked around the van to check who's left in hopes she can establish relationships while the others were away. Therr were quite a few people who decided to stay but no one really caught her eye except Emily. How could she not talk to her when the poor girl kept stealing glances? Fianna was certain that the female had a crush on her. Besides, she was curious as to what really happened at the training room with Slate. And what better way to establish a relationship and gather intel with someone who's madly admiring you?

Well, by flirting of course~


Tucking a stray hair into her ear, Fianna then coyly smiled before letting her heterochromatic eyes gaze at Emily
"Well Emily dear~" she cooed in her hypnotic voice before biting her lip and making sure to angle her body towards her to show some of her... assets. "It seems fate has decided for us to spend some time together~"

"So pray tell me, how did such a cute girl like you end up in a place like this? You're not here to warm my bed, are you? Because let me tell you something sweetie..."


Fianna then leaned in closer for a whisper "...your cuteness is definitely warming me up~"








 
  • Bucket of Rainbows
Reactions: Quiet One
Location: Love Machine
Time: Too late yet somehow not soon enough
Weather: hot and foggy

Emily scowled and sat in thought for the rest of the ride. Even when everyone started filing out she didn't look up. Fianna's yell to get everyone out of the van didn't phase her either. I don't care how hot you are, I do what I want. But...maybe that was part of the problem. Matthew had no right to go tell her off and act like the moral high ground of the group, but at the same time did she really need to beat Slate that bad to prove her point? Well, it was still better than her alternative, opening her wrists and putting on a truly terrifying spectacle. But at the same time, she really didn't need to attack his heart like she did. He'd taken it all in stride, showing good spirit even when she didn't. She probably owed Slate an apology. Not Matthew, though.

She was pulled out of her thoughts as Fianna addressed her. She was talking to her! That voice was beautiful! And that view...Emily felt her cheeks heat up again and she squirmed in her seat. Yes. Fate was bringing them together. Thank you Goddess...

She got even closer and Emily was having trouble breathing steady. "I...I've never met anyone as beautiful as you..." she stammered, completely under Fianna's spell. "You...think I'm cute...?"

---

Location: A beloved dump
Time: Close to food
Weather: Cloudy, chance of rain

"This couch doesn't look that heavy, just a bit awkward," Myla said as she easily lifted one end. Of course, she exercised to make herself a frickin' tank, so what constituted heavy for her probably wasn't the same for everyone else. "I can help you carry it out when we get to it, but didn't your new room come with a couch? Mine did, and it wasn't this beat-up." She looked back at the feline just kind of wandering about. "Want to bring trash-cat too?"

Eh, that was probably up to trash-cat, not Matt. Myla always considered herself more of a dog person, but one thing she knew about cats was that they did whatever they felt like. Kind of admirable to not need loyalty or anything, but she loved playing and running around too much to ever get a cat. Instead of dwelling on cats and sentimental sofas, she followed behind Matthew and got in close.

"Hey," she said. "Can I talk to you about Emily? I think you're both being a little hard on each other, and as much fun as drama is to watch on TV, it sucks to be stuck in a van with it.

"First, I'm not defending her exactly,"
she began. "That first thing she did, giving Slate a heart attack or whatever she did - that was savage. I think she was going for tripping him up, completely throwing him off for whatever she was gonna do next. But, yeah, there's better ways to do that. It's fucked up.

"But also...I don't know if she can really tone her powers down. It's not her fault her powers are creepy, kooky, and all together ooky. If she wants to fight, she doesn't really have any choice but to do that creepy stuff. Also, I could hear her in there, and I'm sure you could too. She kept holding back, and eventually begged for a draw. That doesn't strike me as someone dangerous."


She chuckled. "Besides, we all wanted to show off in there. I didn't have to bust my bots up the way I did. It was mostly for fun. And if you think anyone bought that your bots malfunctioned you got more stuffing in your head than your couch. Emily...well, she's used to being treated like a freak, like we are. That does something different to all of us. Think she got so used to people calling her a monster...she started acting like one. But like you, like me, she wants to be better." She put her hand on his shoulder. She wasn't being aggressive, but the act was like a hard slap to his arm. She still didn't know her own strength. "I'm not saying to just drop it. If it bothers you, it bothers you. But remember why she's here. If you don't think she's acting like a good guy now, remember she wants to be. She just needs to learn what that means."

She then chuckled a bit to herself. "Wow. That sounded right out of a comic book, didn't it?"
 
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