Trinity Nova's Story

Sapphire did have a tendency to ramble, especially in situations were she was nervous about something- in this case, being around other people with abilities who also wanted to become heroes. That also gave her a bad habit of tuning out her surroundings, causing her to be in the way of her new teammate trying to move in.

”Oh, sorry about that! Didn’t mean to keep you out of your own room,” Sapphire steps out the way, giving the girl plenty of room to get inside. Her eyes widened when the girl, Trinity as she introduced herself, started to unpack some very intimidating weapons. It was becoming very clear while they all had abilities, her teammates would have more combat prowess than she had prepared herself for.
She hoped that she wouldn’t fall behind, but she was confident in her unique abilities setting her apart from the team.

She tried her hardest to not let that confidence falter as she was introduced to both of her new teammates. ”Oh wow, Rogue is a badass name! I’m Sapph-“ Before she could continue with her introduction, another male appeared, asking if she was Sapphire.

This must be her roommate Josiah, and it was confirmed that she would be living with a boy for her time in training. While she thought that a government facility of this size would have enough room for the trainees to have their own rooms, she wouldn’t be that girl who immediately complains about being around her teammates. She wanted to make the best impression, and she was sure their pairings were to improve teamwork between them by living in a shared space. She wouldn’t be happy about it, but she also would t be the brat of the group if she could help it.

”You guessed correctly. Also, I go by I. T. for my hero name.”

Dominic wasn’t sure how his room became the epicenter for his teammates to congregate and introduce themselves, but now wasn’t the time for pleasantries. Certainly their handlers had plans to get them all acquainted, so he would not be doing that himself. But, he did note that the Trinity girl he was living with was less chatty than the Sapphire girl, which he was thankful for if he had to live with her. She also had quite the array of weaponry, which peaked his interest.

”Weapon specialty?” Dominic asks her, stepping closer to get a better look at her weapons. He was always more of a hand to hand fighter, especially considering his ability heightening his combat skills, but had an appreciation for a skilled weapons fighter. ”I’m Prodigy, my skills are specialized for hand to hand. I've worked with some of those weapons before.”

He needed to know more about his teammates if he was going to be the best of them. Learning how their abilities worked and the advantages they would have over his combat skills would be necessary to work with them as a team and show the most powerful aspects of his abilities. He would have to prove himself not only as an opponent no criminal would want to face, but as a hero that could easily work with any other hero in unexpected battles.

He could approximately guess both of the girls’ abilities, Trinity by her display of weapons and Sapphire by her hero name. They would have a few more teammates trickling in, each with their own unique ability to study. He wasn’t sure how many of them had siblings or parents already in the hero service, except for Sapphire who had decided to divulge her family history of no abilities. He wondered how well she would do without the support that many of them received before coming to training.

”You must have some technology ability, right?” Dominic directs his next question towards Sapphire, who seemed surprised that Dominic had spoken with her again. ”Well, not exactly. I can manipulate information, it doesn't have to be technology based, it can be any medium of information.” Sapphire answers, about to ask him more about his own ability when Dominic interrupts her.

”And you?” He asks Josiah, having an idea of everyone’s abilities except for the other male in the room.

Failed?

Dominic stopped struggling in the hold that this beast had him in, the clearing smoke making the entire facility easier to see in. The beast was much more menacing without the smoke to hide some of its features, but when he glanced into the open room beside him, noticing Sapphire cowering behind the door frame, he pieced together that this must have been the ‘monster’ that Josiah was able to turn into. Just the sheer power of this beast was enough to make Dominic speechless.

When he was realized, his legs didn’t hold him up, and he fell onto his bottom in shock. The ‘villains’ around him started to pull off their helmets, brushing off and even some lightly conversing with other ‘villains’. The one that Trinity had shot was still sitting against the wall, but he had pulled off a vest and was showing the bullet shell to another. These weren’t evil criminals trying to kill them, Dominic assumed they had to be training agents and handlers.

Sapphire didn’t move even when the smoke finally cleared and their enemies revealed themselves as non-enemies. At least, that was what she thought considering they weren’t attacking anymore and practically ignored the four trainees in various stages of failure.

Now that was a word that was uncharted territory to Sapphire. Even without her ability involved, she didn’t fail. She excelled, with school work and extracurricular and even training her ability. Her high marks on ability control was what landed her on a field team despite her lack of an affinity for combat. To hear that word, on the first day of training, she was in total disbelief while still reeling from all the heightened emotions and panic she had just gone through. This wasn’t even a real attack, which started all these thoughts of what a real battle would be like if she couldn’t fight properly in a staged one.

”Team Alpha, I am Agent Suzana Angel, your handler during these next four years of training. Follow me to the control room for your simulation debrief.” The woman who had stopped the simulation spoke again to the four teenagers, not wasting a moment making her way to the control room. Sapphire picked herself up from the ground, and offered her hand for Dominic, who let her pull him up from the ground. They waited for their roommates to join and followed the agent to the room in question.

The control room wasn’t far from their rooms, passing by the same door they entered the facility from. It looked as if no time had passed, yet the battle felt as if it had lasted hours. Sapphire was taking a long shower as soon as she could get back to the room.

Video footage of the battle displayed on a map of screens at the front of the room. Agent Angel stood in front of these screens, a stony look on her face. Dominic could only wonder what this woman would say about their performance, and his chances of impressing his handler from the first day were dropping significantly as he watched himself on some of the screens. Sapphire didn’t look at any of the screens, her eyes focused ahead but not on anything.

Trainee Prodigy,” Agent Angel starts, the screens changing to only footage of his part in the battle. Dominic was ashamed at every screen, and his face clearly showed that. He couldn’t read the agent at all so he waited for her commentary. ”Attacking without a plan does not work when you do not know your enemy. You attacked one of our agents without knowledge of his ability, and without your teammate’s assistance, you would have suffered an attack from this agent. If she was an actual criminal, you could have been killed. You also attacked your fellow teammate in the midst of the smoke. Friendly fire is punishable by negation and removal of your status as a hero, if in a live battle. You need to plan or you will make these mistakes again.”

She did not wait for his response, turning to her next target. Footage of Trinity flooded all the screens. ”Trainee Rogue, you dropped your weapon in the heat of battle where you had a distinct disadvantage with the smoke covering the field. In a live battle, mistakes like that will get you killed. You need to have control over your emotions, this could be only the beginning of ambush attacks you will face as a hero and you need to be on guard. You also did not confirm that you had subdued the enemy you shot. Plenty of villains have bulletproof vests, or even an ability that would allow them to recover quickly. Subduing the enemy without fatal measures should be one of your most important goals.”

Sapphire knew she was next, with the unwavering gaze that burned into her from their agent and the videos of her on the screens. Trainee I.T. Your placement on this team was made under the strict direction that you would be able to perform combat should the mission require it. Your performance in this simulation was the worst of your teammates. You cannot use your teammates as a shield, and your use of the smoke bombs gave you and your teammates a distinct disadvantage in the battle. We will need to see improvement from your combat skills or we will be forced to reconsider your position on a field team.”

Sapphire was fighting back tears again, though from sheer embarrassment rather than fear. She wouldn’t cry in front of her handler or her teammates, but it was difficult to hold back the feeling of failure that made her eyes burn and her chest tight. Thankfully the agent moved on without commenting on her expression, moving on to the final member of their team.

”Trainee Goliath, your control on your ability is extremely lacking. You need to have more control on your emotions than any member of your team due to its impact on your ability. Like Trainee Prodigy, you attacked your teammate in the midst of the smoke without knowing if he was an enemy or a teammate. We are concerned that this was not because of the confusion of the smoke, but because of your lack of control with your ability. We need you to have complete control before we can trust you to take missions with your team.”

The screens blacked out after she finished the mission debrief. ”That is all for today. Tomorrow training will start at 5:00am sharp in the training stadium in the middle of this facility. Don’t be late.” Their handler left the room, leaving the team to whatever they wanted to do to prepare themselves for tomorrow.

Sapphire couldn’t help but let a small smile spread across her face as Dominic accepted her request for extra training. She knew enough about her new teammate to know that if she could get in some training time with him, her combat skills would be better for it.

Trinity joined them at the breakfast table soon after, leaving Josiah to be the missing teammate from Team Alpha. He had been dead asleep when she finally crawled out of bed to get ready, and she assumes he had his own alarm set so she wasn’t going to wake him up. She smiled as the other girl sat down with them, trying to be friendlier today to make up for her emotional actions yesterday. Nervous was the half of it, but Sapphire replied assuredly, ”I’m ready to prove myself to our handler today. No matter what she throws at us.”

Dominic finishes the small breakfast he picked up, and pulls himself from the table. ”We all weren’t prepared yesterday. You’ll be fine.” The blunt statement is all Dominic offers, mainly targeted at Trinity but really meant for all of them.Today was a fresh start, moving past their failures yesterday and proving to their trainers that they were more than a bunch of scared kids that blundered the moment they were given free reign on their abilities. Dominic would not let this training prove that he was just as weak as his siblings thought him to be, he would use it to prove them wrong.

Sapphire didn’t have much of an appetite after a night of unrest, and threw away the rest of what she didn’t eat to follow along to the training fields. They both waited for their teammate to finish her own breakfast, and the three of them made their way. Sapphire thought to check on Josiah, but there was still time for him to get to their meeting point on time and didn’t want to interrupt him getting ready.

Agent Angel was already at the front of the room, a set of files in her hand that she was scanning through. She didn’t acknowledge them as they came into the room aside from momentarily flicking her eyes up to see who was coming in, and then back down to the file she was analyzing. Dominic remained silent as he took his place in front of the agent, as did Sapphire as she took her place beside Trinity. They waited for Josiah to join them, but as Agent Angel checked her watch, she wasted no more time waiting.

”Today is your first official day of training,” Agent Angel’s voice boomed throughout the room as she spoke, and a few trainers joined her at the front of the room. Sapphire noticed one of them had prosthetic legs, and he was younger than the man who came with him and Agent Angel. ”Agent Orinwell and Agent Malillos will be assisting me in your training programs. We will train you with mastering your ability, your combat skills, your weaponry skills, and the ability to work as a team. Today we will be assessing your current skills in the first three areas to plan your programs accordingly. We will also be assessing your current physique with different exercises. Any questions?”

Dominic just wanted to start this and prove himself after the failure from yesterday. And Sapphire was too intrigued by what they would be doing to ask anything. With the absence of questions, the trainers started the first training day.