Snippet #2823068

The last few weeks had been frustrating for all of Team Alpha. Dominic thought for sure that the agents would finally let them go on missions without speaking to the therapist, that something would come up that would take greater importance than speaking with some guy who would pretend to know what they were going through. Trinity had tried to convince him plenty of times, and while he was doing everything he could not to fight with her, the arguments were getting old and it was causing some tension in their relationship. With everything so new, trying to navigate having a girlfriend who was also his teammate was more difficult than going on missions. Angel had even taken it upon herself to speak with him and remind him that they wouldn’t go on another mission until they spoke with the therapist. Her words were still playing on repeat in his head. “If you three continue to be defiant to our orders, we can disband Team Alpha and schedule negations for the entire team. That’s your only other option here, Prodigy.”

Sapphire had attempted one session with Dr. Dalton, but after her little meltdown at the end of the session, it was fear that kept her from returning. Fear that he would make her relive the most traumatic situations she’d ever faced, or scold her for being so emotional at their last session. Plus, with Ruby on missions with Team Omega, there weren’t many people to pass the time. Other than in training, Orinwell seemed to be avoiding her. Ever since the kidnapping with Virus, he could barely look Sapphire in the eye. Today she’d almost gone to Dr. Dalton’s temporary office, her hand pausing on the doorknob, but decided to walk over to Orinwell instead. Look, if Agent Angel is telling you not to work with me until I go to the therapy sessions, I promise I won’t tell her. I can be very sneaky-“

“I. T., we’re not going to work on projects outside of your gadgets anymore,”[/color] Orinwell cut her off. Before she could protest, there was an announcement overhead for Team Omega to go on a mission. Orinwell looked up from his computer, sighing and standing up from his desk. “Look, if I hadn’t let you work on the facility security with me, then maybe your team wouldn’t have snuck out that day and-“ Another announcement cut him off, telling Team Alpha to report for training. Sapphire glared at Orinwell, and as she was walking out the door, she finally spat back at him, ”Maybe you need to go to therapy then, agent. That was nobody’s fault but mine. I’m stronger now.” She slammed the door behind her, going back to her room to change. Josiah wasn’t in the room, which meant he was probably already in the training room. Her bad mood followed her there, where she was the last to arrive after Dominic. She kept to the back of the room, eyeing the man who introduced himself as a representative. But she didn’t miss Orinwell slinking in after, a guilty look still painted on his face.

Agent Malillos took a step forward, resting most of his weight on his cane. ”Today’s training will consist of a series of sparring. You will each have three battles, unless seriously injured, utilizing your abilities.” Representative Patel made sure to keep a mental note of each ability and watch how they function. ”And Goliath, we do want you to change forms.” Josiah nodded in understanding, taking a moment to stretch. ”We will start with Rogue and Goliath.” Agent Malillos guided the rest of the agents off the center of the mat. Rogue and Goliath stepped up.

It has been a while since Rogue has fought with Goliath. The last time, he had lost control and she had to taze him. After that, she just spars with everyone without their abilities. But she wasn’t going to give in so easily, not in front of someone of such importance. Rogue watched Goliath change before her, going from 6ft to 8ft and doubling his wingspan. She was so used to watching the change, that she continued to make eye contact. Josiah let out a low growl, but smiled a bit to let everyone know he had full control of his beast. Without wasting any time, Josiah charged at her.

Rogue wasn’t expecting him to move so fast. She dropped and rolled underneath his legs and then pulled out her retractable staff. She placed the state weight on it and took her defensive position. Goliath was right in front of her and continually attempted to reach out to her. Rogue dodged as much as she could, knocking his paws away from her. Goliath reached up his foot and kicked her in the chest while she was focused on his hands, sending her rolling away from him. She stood up and Goliath just laughed and pointed to her feet. Rogue looked down and groaned. She rolled off the mat. ”Prodigy will replace Rogue on the mat.” Agent Malillos states as Rogue makes her way off the mat, ignoring the pain where Goliath had kicked her.

Dominic stepped onto the mat, his mind shifting from Dominic to hero prodigy. Goliath was his constant rival, someone he seldom beat in training battles like this. He remembered their first battle well; he’d managed to best Josiah, but the moment he was able to transform into Goliath, he didn’t have a chance. This time, his odds were better but he wasn’t sure by how much. ”Don’t go easy on me, big guy,” Dom barked out, using his ability to pinpoint his weak points. They flashed a brighter red in a bigger area than if he were using it on a stranger, considering Dom had the time to learn Josiah’s weaknesses. As soon as he locked in, he rushed at Josiah, aiming to launch from his chest and use his other foot to knock Josiah’s head back by the chin.

Goliath smirked at Dom and took his defensive stance. ”Wouldn’t dream of it.” Josiah particularly enjoyed battles with Dominic purely for the fact that his teammate wants him to use his full strength with every battle. Josiah always holds back a little but he definitely delivers twice as much as he is willing to give to the girls. The kick to his chin knocked his head back, but he managed to keep his footing. Josiah reached out a punch to the center of Dom’s chest with the intent of knocking him off the mat the same way he did Rogue.

Even with all the training they’d done recently, Dom wasn’t on his game today. Usually a punch from Josiah could be avoided, or at the very least wouldn’t knock him off his feet, but today when his fist connected with Dom’s chest he was thrown back. The moment he felt his sneakers connect with the wood instead of the soft mat, he was finished. ”I. T. will replace Prodigy for the final Goliath round.” Dom wanted to rush right back on the mat, turn the round in his favor, but merely stalked off the mat as their final teammate took to the mat. Sapphire knew Goliath would be at his ‘weakest’ after two rounds with Rogue and Prodigy, and while she wanted to use her improved gauntlets on a fresh transformation, beating Goliath was the only objective. Sapphire stood at the edge of the mat, her heels almost hanging off as she snapped her gauntlets onto her knuckles and gave Goliath a devilish smirk. No more was the Goliath that refused to spar her after so many transformations, they were each other’s favorite sparring partners.

Goliath was three for three. He only had one more battle and then he can be done with training. His muscles were starting to ache but he was gonna be able to hold out a little bit longer. He was the most excited for Sapphire. Though he didn’t use all his strength with her, she was still his favorite sparring partner. All of her gear and gadgets made their fights a bit more intense. Only a few times did something blow up on him but his Goliath form was tough. He didn’t mind gadgets going wrong. The more he learned with her the better off he was on a real mission. No words needed to be exchanged, once her gauntlets were on he moved towards her with a kick to push her off the mat.

Sapphire watched his movements, hoping he would charge toward her. She darted to the side, barely missing his kick, and went right back in to slam her fist into Goliath’s side. She’d been working on a failsafe to pull Josiah from his powered form if he ever lost control, and wired these gauntlets with enough electricity to de-transform him. They’d tested it out a few times before but she ramped up the electricity since their last test to make sure that it was a full de-transformation. If Goliath was back in his normal form, she may get a better chance to beat him in this battle.

Josiah was stopped from turning around by the punch to his side. He was used to Sapphire getting hits in, but what he wasn’t expecting was the electricity. Goliath dropped to a knee and released a low growl. That hurt way more than he was expecting it too. But he was about to let Sapphire take him down easy. He stood back up and turned to face her. He moved towards her again, this time with a punch directed at her chest.

If there was one thing she had learned all too well, it was that Josiah knew how to pack a punch. Once his fist connected with her chest, she stumbled back and fell off her feet, but managed to save herself from tumbling off the mat. In the beginning, landing a punch would have taken her out of the match. Today, she sprang back on her feet and reached into her pocket for two spheres connected by a wire. She winded her arm back and threw it straight at Josiah. If it worked appropriately, the wire would expand and the two spheres would circle like a tornado until the wire was completely wrapped around her teammate.

Josiah was hoping she was gonna roll off the mat but she caught herself. She was too smart to allow this fight to be lost on a technicality. He was ready to go back in for another kick but wires wrapped around him. Goliath tried to wiggle out of it but electricity moved from the gauntlets through the wires. He wasn’t sure how to explain what he was going through. Pain for sure but there was something else he couldn’t explain. Before he realized it, he had shifted back to his human form and dropped to his knees. He tapped the mat to show he surrendered. ”Are these new?” He didn’t even care that he lost. He was looking forward to doing this again with her. Representative Patel clapped impressively. ”Wow! That was amazing. You have done so well with this team. If you don’t mind, I would love to join in. I can’t do much but I have always loved the idea of being a hero.” He stated, sliding his jacket off.

As Sapphire caught her breath, she grinned and pressed on one of the spheres for them to retract and untie Josiah. ”No, they just wouldn’t expand last time we tried them so I fixed it,” Sapphire answers, holding her hand out to help him up. The representative’s applause did make her blush a little, she wasn’t used to the praise as the agents weren’t as transparent with their approval. Her eyebrows raised as he asked to spar. She caught eyes with Agent Angel, who gave her a nod to entertain the representative. She stepped back onto the mat, extended her hand for a handshake before starting at the back of the mat again. Sapphire figured she should go easy on the representative, she doubted they had much time for sparring. So she pulled a set of smoke bombs from her training belt, throwing them to the floor and filling the mat with smoke to shield her movement as she rushed towards the representative.

The Representative took what he thought was a defensive stance but was immediately caught off guard by the smoke. ”Wow smoke bombs too!” He said, impressed with the amount of gear she had on hand. He felt a hit from Sapphire and stumbled to the right. He threw a punch randomly through the fog and missed. With the smoke, however, he slipped one of his own gadgets to the ground ready to use it when his real target made it to the mat.

Sapphire heard the representative and pinpointed him even in the smoke. She’d gotten a lot better with finding her opponents in smoke, it was a common scenario in her training sessions. After getting a few hits in, she got him with his back turned. She could barely make out his shape but quietly rushed forward, tackling the representative and pinning him down on the mat. ”I wouldn’t be much of a hero if I let you beat me, right?” Sapphire jokes, waiting for the representative to call the match.

Representative Patel was brought to the ground and released a breath as the wind was knocked out of him. He then laughed a bit. ”You got a point.” He tapped the mat and then pushed himself up off the ground. He dusted himself off, with a smile still on his face. ”I would love to spar with Rogue, if you aren’t too tired.” Rogue shook her head and moved to replace I.T on the mat. She brought out her staff but decided against placing a state on it. Rogue wasn’t sure how to fight with a civilian, but she would do her best. ”Now that I have your attention, I have some questions.” He stated, the smirk still on his face. Patel kicked the gadget that was on the ground towards the agents and it immediately wrapped sprung out wires tying them together. The wires released a bit of knockout gas, putting them to sleep. Rogue eyes grew wide and gripped her staff tight. ”Wh-what…?” Josiah tried to run over to the other side of the mat to check in the agents, but the Representative waved his hand and sent Goliath flying back in the other direction.