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Fury the took the phone, catching it easily as Rhodes tossed it his way. He shook his head slightly. Hot tempers like that only got agents killed - or worse, they'd end up leaving to join a team with better costumes. He then accepted the file from Cassandra. "Thank you, Agent Reed," he said. "Believe it's high time you call your sister. There's beer for you and Agent Kennedy in room 308," he added. Once Cassandra headed off, he turned his attention to Sparky. As impressed as he was with her, she didn't have any sort of military experience or mission strategy know how. It'd be suicide to promote her to team leader - but he saw potential with her and she wasn't actively pissing him off, which was more than he could say for the others.

"Agent Sparks, during your weeks of training with the team, I want you to report to Agent Romanoff in the mornings for lessons on mission strategy and tactics," Fury said, giving her no explanation as to why or what his reasoning was. "Dismissed. Go back inside with the others...And maybe develop a healthy phobia of sabretooth tigers while you're at it."

Back inside, Agent Ridgeway overheard the discussion of an Antoine. "He didn't make it," she informed the agent, watching to make sure everyone was steady on their feet, and sending them to Agent Simmons for a physical whenever she caught one of their attentions. Chloe knew that there was likely a better way to put this - but she was being as gentle with them as she could. This was a dangerous procedure that they had all volunteered for. It wasn't something to agree to participate in lightly.

"Wow, did no one just hear what Abercrombie said?" Jim pointed out. He was a little more concerned with the fact that Rivera was freaking HYDRA than whether or not they'd have beer waiting for them. Sure, they could have fun and get to know each other, but the job came first.

"Really, a squid?" Raynor asked, looking disgusted. It was common slang for HYDRA operatives, referencing the octopus looking logo of the group. Jim nodded and together, the two men went to restrain Rivera. Rivera stared up at them, as her mouth started to foam. How the hell had she taken something? Who could have given it to her? She'd been in a medically induced coma - where had the tablet even come from? But those questions weren't going to be answered easily.

"Hail HYDRA!" Rivera spat, as her skin turned chalky white and she fell to the ground, dead.

"That was intense..." Novikova murmured under her breath. She had avoided looking at anyone until she put the sunglasses from Marygold on, but now, she could see the corpse in all of its gruesome detail. This wasn't a simulated death like in the Framework - this was real. She noticed that Agent Raynor quickly left the room, making sure that everyone outside was okay - only to return with Director Fury.

Fury sighed, looking at her. He didn't need to be informed as to what had happened. "Cut off one damn head....two pains in my ass grow back," he muttered. He flipped through the comments from Cassandra, making his own minor adjustments based on what he had seen, before he turned to face his cadets. "Never forget what we fight and stand for," he advised them, before Fury told them all their rankings and team placements.

(Note, the ability score refers to game mechanics. A score of 1 will give you a +3 on power rolls, a score of 2 gives you a +0 on power rolls, and a score of 3 gives you a -3 on power rolls).

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Z was startled out of her self-reflection by Tinley launching herself at Emilia. What followed was a whirlwind of action and commotion and before Nik could get anywhere near to the two agents, Emilia had screamed her last 'Hail, Hydra!' and expired in jerking convulsions. The explosives engineer stood gobsmacked in the middle of the room, wearing nothing but her medical gown. Yet managing not to feel self-conscious because of what had just happened.

"I thought S.H.I.E.L.D. was supposed to be squid free! What the bleeding actual fuck!" She pointed at Emilia. "We studied with this one, trained with her, lived with her! How do we continue to allow Hydra to infiltrate us?!" Z shook her head. "Moreover, how did she get passed the vetting process for the experiment?!" Nik was throwing questions at no one in particular. Rather it was more a statement of disappointment. "How are we supposed to trust each other after witnessing something like this?" Z asked, her tone now quieter, more uncertain. "I mean... Even I was somewhat friendly with Agent Rivera and didn't catch wind of her true nature." She shook her head again. This was not a good foundation to build a team of super powered individuals on! Not even a bit.

It was rare for Z to react so strongly in such an open forum of people, but Libra's were usually like that. They tended to be creatures of balance. But when their scales tipped, they usually tipped all the way.

Z glanced at Niah. She's probably the only person I can truly trust! God damned Hydra tossers! Always messing with our heads like that. Then something else penetrated Z's perturbed mind. Something Agent Ridgeway had mentioned while Nik was busy with her self-reflections. Antoine hadn't survived the procedures. As if things weren't bad enough already! Z felt a familiar rage rise within her. She went to Niah, sticking close in case her friend should need her.

Nik was still there when Fury arrived with their evaluations, and power rankings. She almost balked hearing she'd been promoted to Team Beta Field commander. Considering her low power ranking and her next to abysmal performance in the Framework. Z couldn't even muster the energy to feel chuffed with the promotion. In her eyes she wasn't deserving of it. But if the senior agents had decided to promote her than she would bust her ass off to become deserving of it. Forget stealth! I need to study up on mission and team tactics. Z was familiar with deploying tactically EOD specialists during a mission, but as a Sci-Tech alumna she hadn't really studied much S.H.I.E.L.D. mission tactics. More importantly, however, she needed to get a handle on her powers. Though simplistic in their nature, she'd had trouble deploying them in the Framework. And deep down Z had this feeling that they could potentially grow to be a rather powerful mix of super abilities. If only she knew how to hone them!

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"Y-Y-Yes sir, okay sir..." Sparky said, nodding her head at what Director Fury had said as he walked away, leaving her alone somewhat in the hallway. He wanted her to do some tactics training or whatever with Agent Romanoff, as in Black Widow. That was insane to think about, but there wasn't much else she could do, or say as she found herself alone, left with her own thoughts about it. After a moment, she walked back down the hallway to the lab.

When she walked in, she had shown up just in time to see them catch Rivera and her dying by killing herself. Sparky was a little surprised by what had just happened in front of her, especially considering that Rivera's death was the much more permanent kind, unlike a simulator. She couldn't do anything, especially since the woman was already dead, but that didn't mean she couldn't internally freak out or something at the whole thing. She said nothing when Fury spoke, just looking around the room at everyone else.

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Mary looked over at Maria, hearing her question, and she looked slightly annoyed at hearing the question. It wasn't exactly any of her business, asking more personal questions like that. Just being a little rude about the whole thing, asking straight out, not even trying to word it a little more nicely, no. She just had to flat out say it like there was something wrong with having a horrible relation with someone. However, since they had given almost death like glares to one another, it only made sense to her to answer.

"...A few months ago, SHIELD was still very much a part of, and worked really closely with, the X-Men. Up until of course, the take down of OMEN, which by the way, considering the fact that the X-Men were the ones who stopped the organization, you'd think people would learn a few things, or at least listen. I cut off SHIELD, since we literally fixed most of their problems, while as mutants, we were basically being prosecuted for nothing at all. You want to know the reason I'm pissed off at Agent Reed? It's because she knew what people tend to do to mutants, to anyone with powers and she seemed perfectly fine with making more. Which, might I point out, makes a hell of a lot more problems for me in the long run,so that's why."

Sami had cracked a grin at the witty answers in response to his question, along with other playful banter going across the room about alcohol and relaxation. It was certainly more lighthearted than when they had first awoken - and compared to the simulation too. Though he and Grif had entered at a separate point to the others, he doubted their experience went totally smoothly. Unfortunately, as if the Gods had noticed the light atmosphere in the room, they decided to deal out two events that would shatter the good moods well and truly. For one, Tinley brought Rivera to the ground, snarling about Hydra. Before anyone could even give her a hand or even question her actions, Rivera had pulled a Black Hand Gang and was soon choking on the fluid steadily filling up her lungs, though not before spitting out her true loyalties. Sami too was trying to get his head around just how SHIELD had allowed this to happen when the second occurrence took the wind from his sails.

Due to the commotion going down with Rivera, Sami hadn't even had chance to answer Niah's question. Sadly, Agent Ridgeway did, and they certainly hadn't suger-coated the awful truth that Sami had already considered. Niah's beau hadn't made it.

Darting a sour glare towards Ridgeway, he marched over to Niah, ready to give her hugs or give others punches if she so required. "I'm sorry, Niah." He said softly, ignoring the slight pang in his heart too. He hadn't been besties with Antoine, but they'd been good enough buds for him to be introduced to Niah in the first place. It was a damn shame to see him gone.

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Things quickly went from a cheery beer discussion to a full blown double agent twist as Rivera spouted she was a Hydra agent and took herself out via what she could only assume was some kind of poison pill hidden into a hallow tooth or something. Well it would make sense in a way, infiltrators usually had suicide tools in place to not be caputered alive. It made her wonder what exactly she had taken too, her first guess would be cyanide, but she had no way of proving or confirming that. It would be left to the medical examiners later. On the side note she wondered for how long she's been a Hydra agent too. There were two options from the start or she was recruited later. That alone begged the question how did they recruit her in the latter case, but once more not for her to find out, it would surely be investigated.

"Well that happened..." She mumbled at the scene. Val didn't feel like sticking around the lab any longer now. She sighed and moved away to clear space and went to the corridor, leaning on the wall by the door. Things were probably going to get even more hectic from now on. She had a sneaking feeling that all of them would be under investigations for a while until the truth about Hydra's infiltration was revealed and how many of the agents there were hidden among them. Frankly she didn't mind, she had nothing to hide really, but the death before her eyes was a new thing to her. It shocked her and made her feel just a tad bit unwell, but that had already passed. She wondered how she was going to feel if she ever killed someone with her own two hands.

Niah's heart was twisting. She held off the tears that were pushing out of her eyes as Agent Abercrombie accused Riveria, who had been one of the people to save the day in the framework, of being a Hydra agent. It was so quick and then Riveria was dead. Everyone was upset about that, but Niah didn't have the space to think about her. She had her own personal loss to deal with. She leaned into Sami. Thankful for his presence. Uncertain how she was still holding back the emotions.

She registered that she was on team Beta with Z has her new C.O., that was nice, especially since Abercrombie wasn't on that team, and Sami was. She didn't have all of her friends on team Beta but it was a good group. Though without Antoine... Niah quickly shoved that thought away. She couldn't think about that. Especially with Fury in the room. "We'll talk later." She whispered to Sami.

Once Niah was cleared medically she asked, "What now?" She tried to keep Riveria's corpse out of her field of view, briefly wondering how a child of two SHIELD agents had fallen so far. Niah only sort of caught Marygold's conversation with Maria, the important part was that X-Men no longer associated with SHIELD. She could sort of understand why, but the main reason her and Antonie had decided to join this project was to bring a "government" face to mutants hoping that it would drop some of the animosity the general public had towards mutants.

There was a lot to unpack mentally from this day.

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Before, Arcturus had thought it had been a quirk of the program, a glitch, and if not that then someone's musings on HYDRA. Now he knew the truth. Riviera hadn't been a friend of his, so there was know way he could have known. Or, well, he might have had a way now, but he held a great distaste for the idea of invading another person's private mental sanctum to uproot all their darkest secrets, although he could make exceptions for those affiliated with terrorists.

This intrusion happened on SHIELD's watch. How could they not know one of their prospective agents was working for the enemy? That alone concerned him the most.

He paused, briefly, in his musings on the organisation's security measures when he heard the belated news of Antoine's untimely end. Deeply uncomfortable with death as a concept and unsure of how one usually comforted friends through the sudden onset of grief, given that he'd never experienced it first-hand, Arcturus wisely decided to stay quiet for now on Niah's loss. Rhodes had that covered. Antoine was not someone Arc new well, but everyone brought in to undergo the transformation were competent at the very least.

When they settled into their new roles, or during a quiet moment in the following days, he would bring it up with Niah –– in private. For now, he offered her a sympathetic frown, as no words came to mind, and squeezed her shoulder as he passed by to see the rankings.

Alpha Team, huh. Just one more thing to worry about: expectations. Not that he was complaining. While he would miss Nikolova, Arc was just glad to have Agent Abercrombie's competent leadership to look forward to.

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Tinley held Agent Riviera down as others came to arrest her, however, she had not anticipated what happened next. The woman managed to get out of her hold, knocking her to the ground, and pulling out a tablet and before Tinley could spring up to stop her, she issued her Hydra anthem and swallowed, dying.

Tinley stood up, unsure of what to do or say. Fury took the words thankfully, but she still felt empty. She knew through the whole simulation that she was bad, but she had to complete the mission. The mission came first. Now, she hoped she could stop her. She was dead, which was fine, but Fury had it right. Cut off a head, more come in its place. Tinley felt she could trust the team, but now she realized she may have made too big a leap in that judgment. For all she knew, everyone else was Hydra.

Tinley saw that she had been promoted and could not find the energy to be honored (though she definitely was). She saw her team and the only change was that Novikova would be with her instead of Nikolova. That was not a big deal (though she would miss Agent Nikolova's use of her power. She could think of some nice uses for it).

Tinley found a chair and sat down, rubbing her temples. She felt a headache coming on from all of this.

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Cassandra gave Fury a slight smile and nod towards him, she would call her sister once everything finally settled down she wanted to make sure that the new cadets were doing after the mission in the framework. Cassandra walked into the room seeing Agent Abercrombie, Agent Raynor and Agent Kennedy try and hold down Rivera. Cass was certainly taken aback when she yelled out Hail HYDRA, and took what was most likely cyanide and died rather quickly foaming of the mouth and skin paling. Cass rubbed the bridge of her nose letting out a slight sigh. She would certainly have to review everyone right now and to make sure that no other Squid Heads appeared.

Cassandra's attention went over towards Marygold and Maria when she said why things were tense between them, she wasn't going to say anything right then and there in front of the other agents. It really did irritate her after everything that she had done to help the X-Men, Cassandra did understand why but it still did hurt quiet a bit and she rolled her eyes towards Marygold.

If they wanted to talk to her then they can certainly ask her personally about it, Cass reviewed Fury's changes to the roster. They were minor to her as Cassandra looked over towards Fury for a moment, and then towards Agent Kennedy. "I'll search her room for any clues as to who she was in contact with." Cassandra said as she looked at everyone else, and nodded, regardless of what happened with Agent Rivera Cass was proud of the team, before she headed off to her room and prepare to grab her things as well as look into Rivera's dorm to find out anything in there.

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Maria was really shocked and surprised to find out that Rivera was actually a HYDRA agent, and on top of all that Rivera was her friend and roommate as well which made things really disturbing. "Fucking hell.." Maria said softly as Abercrombie, Kennedy and Raynor went to restrain her. Then a few seconds later Rivera was dead on the floor foam spilling out of her mouth slightly, Maria shook her head and rubbed the bridge of her nose. Her eyes then went back towards Marygold for a moment once things settled and answered her question, Maria nodded slightly though she signed up for the project for a different reason. She would do anything to try and protect her sister back home and it was probably the best way for her to do it.

Maria looked towards Cassandra for a moment, she decided to ask her later if she allowed it that is, as Cass walked off to tend to other things. Then Maria listened to Fury as he brought up the team placements for everyone, she looked over towards Novikova and smiled towards her friend. It certainly would make things easier for her to work with someone that she did enjoy having her spare time with. Maria did feel bad for Niah as well when Agent Ridgeway said that her friend Antione died as a result of Phase Three letting out a slight sigh as she reached over with her gloved hand and gently patted her on the shoulder to try and comfort her friend as well.

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In the past few days, people were transferred over to the Bus. The jet was grounded on the academy grounds, since the team needed the facilities in order to train, yet Fury wanted them to become accustomed to their new surroundings. There were several rounds of rigorous sweeps of the academy, including polygraphs, "truth serum," personality profiling, and even telepathically aided interrogations. None of them managed to find anymore remnants of HYDRA within the school or within the Phase Three program itself.

Of course, that wasn't to say it was an uneventful time of transition...

"And you're sure about this, Agent Johnson?" Fury asked, standing behind his desk as he spoke with Daisy Johnson, one of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s finest agents. Johnson nodded and Fury sighed, handing her a file and quietly informing her that they'd speak more about this later. "Send in Agent Rhodes, will ya?" he asked, rubbing his forehead. He wasn't sure if it was time to cut off a finger or not - but he was less and less confident in who could really be trusted lately.

Sami stifled a sigh as he was requested to see Fury. Now was the time to mingle more with his new teammates, get to know them a bit more before they started training, but it seemed that the Director had different plans. He sure wouldn't be happy if his Uncle had gone through the wrong channels again for yet another lecture. Agent Johnson's face hadn't given any clues as to what the talk would be about, anyway.

Heading off towards Fury's office once given directions, Sami let a quiet groan in the hallway, releasing what pent-up irritation he could before entering the room. Upon entering, Fury's face didn't give much clues either. "Sir." He addressed Fury in a more respectable manner this time, not wanting to toe the line as much as before.

"Have a seat, Sami," Fury said, his tone more gentle than angry for once. He opened a drawer on his desk and pulled out a few cheap pieces of candy, setting them down in front of Sami. Some people liked to do things with their hands. He wasn't going to give him a box of tissues - he figured that Sami could take this news like a soldier.

He froze as he closed the door behind him, eyeing the candy, then Fury, then the candy again. This was an unfamiliar and uncomfortable territory. Stepping cautiously towards the desk, he sat down warily. "Is uh... is this supposed to soften the blow of getting fired?" He asked with a nervous chuckle, motioning towards the candy pieces. If this was another test, it sure as hell was a weird one.

Fury chuckled slightly, shaking his head. "If you were fired, I'd be screamin' at ya," Fury pointed out. He then took a seat as well and sighed. There wasn't a good way to put this - so he figured it'd be good enough to just come out and say it. "Your uncle is compromised."

Sami felt only a brief moment of relief before it was shattered at Fury's final words. His back stiffened, and his mind scrambled around those words. He wasn't Army, but he knew that "compromised" was never a word one wanted to hear. Still, it was left vague... it could mean James was injured, captured, or just stuck in a really bad situation. And then there was the alternative that Sami didn't even want to consider.

"What happened?" He asked stiffly, wondering how things could have gone south for his Uncle so quickly after they'd spoken on the phone less than a half hour ago.

Fury stared at Sami for a moment, as if he were sizing him up, determining if he was someone that could be trusted with vital information. He then pulled out another folder - identical to the one he had given Quake - and placed it down in front of him. "Your uncle hasn't been seen in two weeks," Fury explained flatly. "Mission details are in there. But Sami, I need you to tell me - what did he say to you on the phone? Anything we should know about?"

The answer was something Sami definitely hadn't expected, but his shock was mingled with relief. James being MIA was bad, especially for a fortnight - but he'd spoken with him not an hour ago, so he was clearly alive. And okay enough to give him a lecture like he was 15 years old again.

"I- he didn't really say anything. I mean, berating me about messing up the simulation, mainly." He replied with an confused frown, picking up the file and opening it. "Don't use lethal force, Pietro is a nice guy now, pay more attention, phone your mother, blah blah blah." Nothing had stood out, barring the last one. James had always understood Sami's relationship with his parents. Mainly, one didn't exist anymore since he was turfed out at the age of 12 over something he couldn't control. Sami paused as he realised something, looking back to Fury. "If he's been missing for so long, how come you didn't speak to him? You had him listening in on the whole thing, right?"

Fury sighed slightly, looking at Sami. He had hoped that Sami would be able to clue him in on anything out of the ordinary - just one small piece of intel that would help them. Quake hadn't been able to trace the phone call and with other troubling developments, Fury couldn't help but assume the worst. Colonel Rhodes wouldn't be the only one to disappear - he was certain of it. "I tried. He wouldn't tell me anything. I was hoping he said something to you. Techs can't get a lock on the signal and as far as we can tell...it looked like he wanted to disappear. Or more likely, someone wants us to think that."

Sami was growing more bemused by the second. Things didn't exactly add up - his Uncle wasn't the kind to go dark, even for the sake of a mission. Even then, if he had done that, why blow his cover by phoning his nephew, via a S.H.I.E.L.D phone as opposed to his own personal one?

"Sorry I can't help, but... he didn't really say anything. Just pointing out how I'd screwed up in the simulation, that the US government didn't kill people with clean records - which in itself is just a joke statement to make, but whatever - that I should call my Mom, he loved me, but he had to go. Said I shouldn't suggest killing people as a solution, as it "makes us look bad", then hung up before I could even say hello or goodbye." Sami shrugged helplessly, wracking his brains for what had been said. Had he said something in code, maybe? Nothing that Sami could point out, not without a recording or transcript of the conversation to look at. "I'm sorry, but I can't think why he'd ring me randomly outta the blue like that, especially with something like this mission going on. He didn't mention it once to me, even when we last spoke." He then thought on Fury's last words, that someone else was behind all this. "Could it be a mimic, maybe? Trying to throw you off his scent somehow? Mystique could do shit like that, from what I've read about her." As far as he knew, the shape-shifting mutant was still at large, but he couldn't imagine what she'd be doing with his Uncle. He wasn't even part of the whole mutant side of things.

Fury nodded, a bit disappointed that Sami hadn't had better information for him. "That's all I needed to ask you about - don't worry, we've got our best and brightest people on this. I'm calling Stark soon, see if I can convince him to help us track down Rhodes. Figured he won't say no to helping out an old friend. And as far as killing people goes...Lucia von Bardas," Fury said, before he opened the door to Sami, signalling that the conversation was over.

Sami stood slowly, looking at the mission file once again in discomfort. There was a lot more he wanted to discuss, but Fury looked like he had clammed up pretty well, especially after stating a name that only seemed slightly familiar to Sami. Nodding stiffly and heading towards the door, he paused as he opened it, looking back. "Keep me posted, please? I can keep this all quiet... God knows I'm used to it after the job I've had." Struggling to find any more words, he left the room and closed the door behind him, slumping against it and taking a deep breath. These past few hours had been an uncomfortable rollercoaster of emotions, that was for sure.

It was only after he'd stepped down the corridor a few yards before he recalled the familiar name, and a cursory search of Google revealed her to be the Prime Minister of Serbia. He still couldn't understand the connection between her and Fury's statement, but at the moment, he wasn't in the mood to investigate and connect the dots. Right now all he wanted was a soft bed and hard booze... but unfortunately, the training rooms beckoned.

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Alright guys, it's training time. Depending on how things go, we'll have 2-3 rounds of training. This training will take your characters one week of IC time - in real life, you will have 10 days to complete these collabs. So remember, day 10 you need to have your collab up, day 11 it's kicking time. Once all of the collabs have been posted, I'll see what control over your powers you've learned or if you've gained any skills.

Training facilities are located in Building 2 of the Academy, home to Operations. In your collabs, it's just you and your trainer in the room. Most of you are being trained in groups, so trainers, play off of that! You have 10 days once more to get through the entirety of the collab. This is also a good time to contact me and request changes to your character's possessions. After the training rounds are done, we'll be jumping back in with our first mission.

Marygold Isley, X-Men (@BlueSky44):

—Dominika Novikova, SciTech
—Griffin Lee, Operations
—Arcturus Hale, Communications

Jim Kennedy, Operations (@Morose):
—Sami Rhodes, Operations
—Tinley Abercrombie, Operations

Raynor Blake, Operations (@Morose):
—Theresa Sparks, SciTech

Cass Reed, Communications (@Nallore):
—Niah Bautista, SciTech
—Zoya Nikolova, SciTech

Clint Barton, Operations (@BlueSky44)
—Maria Smith, Operations
—Val Johnson, Operations

Trainers, please start your collabs shortly. I'll be sending starters for Raynor and Jim's groups in a moment.

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Val's stay at SHIELD seemed to have reached a rather unexpected situation when she had recieved a world that her father just had a medical emergency and was in a hospital fighting for his life. This had arrived like a bolt in a clear sky and put a hold on all of her plans for the moment. Apparently the agency was also rather understanding because she already had a leave permission waiting by the time she was done thinking over the news and how to proceed." This is not how I imagined leaving this place..." She mused to herself as she finished packing her luggage in a backpack.

By the time she was done about 45 minutes later, Val realized just how little things she had with her here. It was going to be the just next place she leaves and wasn't sure when she's going to come back. She walked to the door of the room and looked back at her bed and the now cleaned up space around it. Yeah this was not how she imagined this, but it was for the best right now. She smiled, turned and just left. She didn't really need to inform anyone right now... They were going to get word of it sooner or later even her friends. Well she was going to call them later... probably. She smiled as she was heading towards the building's exit.

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Agent Blake was actually looking forward to helping out with training the Phase Three team. Director Fury had approached him to become part of the program and while initially he hadn't been interested, that had changed quickly. He sat in the empty training room over in building two, tossing a ball of light in his hands around as he waited for his student so show up - Theresa Sparks, apparently called just plain old Sparky by just about everyone.

Sparky wasn't too sure what to think of this whole training situation. She wasn't much for combat or anything, but that didn't really matter, since it was expected of her in some way. Walking into the room, she saw Agent Blake and nodded towards him, "Hello there sir," she said, managing to stay somewhat calm as she spoke to him. She didn't really know him, only having really talked to him when she came out of the Framework, but she was in the same room as him, so it didn't really matter now.

Raynor raised an eyebrow, looking at her. While he was a senior agent in comparison to all of the cadets, he never was quite accustomed to being called sir. There were other things that he had been called - other titles and honors that had been given to him, but he preferred to not dwell on them too much. He had come here in order to secure his future, not to relive his past. "No need to call me sir," Raynor said with a smile. He drew a dagger from his belt, twirling it as he showed it to Sparky. "This is what I learned to channel my powers with - his name is Lyting," he then held the dagger out to Sparky.

"Uh... Okay then," she said, looking at the dagger. Sparky wondered why he was telling her about this dagger and holding it out to her, but it was definitely not something she generally saw lying around. It was an interesting weapon, and she took it from him, "It is definitely an interesting dagger... Where did you get it?" she asked, handing it back to him.

"Abilities run in my family," Raynor explained, giving her a smile. "But if you listen to Lyting, he can help you to channel your powers, like this..." Raynor raised the dagger and it started to glow with a soft yellow light, before a blast of light went off, hitting the dead center of a target across the room. The light had solidified and the target was smoking, with a gigantic hole where it had hit. "Now you try."

"I don't know if I'll be able to hit the target... I tried, but it wasn't very easy, didn't take someone out until in the simulation he killed me... I don't think it'll be so simple to be able to shoot the target like that, but I'll try, I guess..." she said, before electricity started to dance along her fingertips. A moment later, she sent a blast of electricity flying at the target, slamming into the middle of it. It looked burnt slightly where the blast had hit it, and she was a little surprised that she had managed to hit it.

Raynor couldn't help but be impressed, his eyes widening. He had assumed that she would need Lyting to assist her in channeling her powers, but he put the dagger away. No wonder Fury had been having Agent Romanoff work with her on strategy. She had raw power and natural talent at this sort of thing. "So I need to rethink everything I was going to teach you today..." Raynor mused.

She nodded, wondering what he had planned on originally. "Sorry if I kind of messed up what you were planning..." she muttered, and she started hovering a few inches off the ground now. It tended to happen slightly when she wasn't paying attention, or if she got nervous about something, no matter what she did.

"Don't be sorry for being exceptional," Raynor said bluntly. He walked off to the side, grabbing a bag that the Ultimate Frisbee team used. "I want you to either catch or zap these, okay?" he said, throwing one up in the air. He figured she could either fly to get it or she could zap it. Either way, he imagined that she was about to exceed all expectations again. And she wasn't even from Operations. She reminded him of the Rogers experiment.

"Uh, okay then, sure..." she said, before she sent a shot of electricity flying at the Frisbee. The bolt slammed into it and it fell to the ground. She hadn't noticed that she was hovering, and stumbled backwards slightly and fell to the ground, not used to shooting at something without her feet on the ground.

Raynor surrounded her with light, slowing her down and breaking her fall. He deposited her onto the ground gently and released her only once he was certain that she had become steady on her feet. "Your electricity seems amazing - just need some work with the flying," he explained. "Fortunately, my powers let me cheat a little bit, so I can fly with you..." He then grabbed a small soft ball, the kind used by little kids for dodgeball, and held it up. "Let's play catch."

"I uh... I kind of forgot I wasn't on the ground..." she said, blushing slightly, she really did need to work on her flying, and doing something while she was in the air. It wasn't very easy for her, that is for sure, but she'd try her best. "Alright, let's do that..." she said, before she took off into the air.

"It's alright, you're still learning - it took me decades to figure out my powers," Raynor said with a laugh. He surrounded himself with light and lifted himself up into the air, tossing her the ball gently. It was a pretty easy throw and he was mostly wanting to help her become accustomed to moving in the air. It was different than fighting on the ground, with one's sense of balance pretty much being completely ruined.

"...Decades? How old are you?" she asked as she tried to catch the ball, problem was, she couldn't figure out the right way to move, in order to easily be able to grab it. Sparky tried to catch it, but it slipped through her arms and she kind of spun around slightly when she moved to grab it.

"I got my powers very young," Raynor said with a shrug. "How old do you think I am?" he asked. He suspended the ball with light, holding it up for her so that way she could take hold of it without hurting herself. He didn't want her to break her spine trying to grab at it. In his opinion, S.H.I.E.L.D.'s medical facilities were lacking.

"Uh, well... You look close to the same age as me... I don't know how old to guess for you though..." she said with a slight shrug. Once again, she blushed slightly as she reached up and grabbed the ball so that she could toss it back to him. When she threw the ball, she kind of spun slightly in the air again, but she managed to get the ball close to where he was so he'd be able to catch it.

Raynor caught it with ease, giving her a smile. He ignored the question as to his age, figuring that it wasn't important. However, a bit of idle conversation would be good for her. Whether or not Sparky realized it or not, she was making her job a lot harder by talking during this. It split her attention between the tasks, causing her to have to have even better control to remain in the air. "No need to be embarrassed - you're doing well," he reassured her, noticing her blush as he tossed the ball back.

"Uh, well... I don't feel like I'm doing well at this... Considering I keep spinning around in the air and not staying steady..." she said, before she tried to catch the ball again. This time, she managed to swoop over and catch the ball somewhat easily. However, when she grabbed it, she ended up falling somewhat, but managed to catch herself in the air and fly back upwards. There was a slight problem when she throw the ball back to him. She managed to send it flying towards him rather easily, however, she completely lost her concentration when it came to staying airborne and plummeted towards the ground, falling out of the air.

"I didn't expect you to stay airborne at all," Raynor explained, his eyes widening as she started to plummet. Instead of grabbing her with light, he flew forward himself and grabbed her, cradling her easily in his arms. Her face was a few inches away from his and he blushed slightly, just waiting to see how she was feeling. "Do you want to lie down?" he asked her softly, worried that she might have overdone it.

"Uh... N-N-No, I'm fine," she said, her face bright red as she found that she couldn't stop blushing. It was a little strange, seeing that they were so close together, especially since she noticed that he was blushing as well. "We can keep trying, I-I-I will be fine..."

"You're blushing," Raynor said softly, giving her a bit of a crooked smile before he set her down gently, making sure that she had her footing before he let go of her. He was used to women blushing around him - apparently he was quite attractive - but he hardly ever had any interest in them. Most of them were liars, speaking nothing but falsehoods, and it aggravated him. He could always tell when someone was lying to him. It was his curse.

"Y-Y-Yeah? Well you were too..." she said, taking a few deep breaths and she managed to lessen her blushing, but she still was a little bit. "A-A-Anyway, let's go..." she said, before she moved away slightly and took off into the air again.

Raynor just chuckled a bit, flashing her another grin as he went back into the air again. He tossed the ball over to her gently, noticing the way that she continued to blush and stammer. He had had a small suspicion that something like this would happen, yet he couldn't deny that he felt something as well. The blood in his body was rushing and he honestly couldn't have said how long they had already been in there, training. "I heard Fury's having you work with Romanoff," he mentioned, attempting to change the subject.

"Uh yeah... He is..." she said, managing to stop stammering as she flew over and caught the ball, this time having no trouble staying in the air this time. She threw it and it went straight at him, and she was completely stable this time around, having no problems.

"Nice throw," Raynor complimented. He tossed it back at her, figuring that once she got the hang of this, they'd move up to the next challenge. At the moment, she was just largely staying in place, but she wouldn't be just hovering for the majority of the fights she'd be in, as much as his stomach twisted with displeasure at that thought. He'd have her dodge the ball next. And once she understood that, it'd be up to her to hit him with it.

"Uh, thanks..." she said, before she caught the ball and managed to stay steady once again. It was becoming easier for her to not have problems staying airborne now, which was probably a good thing. Once again, she managed to toss the ball back without any sort of issues.

---

The first day, they had largely just thrown the ball back and forth, until Raynor had determined that Sparky was pretty adept at keeping her balance when she wasn't moving. He knew that he ought to train her with her electricity, but she hadn't shown any difficulties with that. Lyting hadn't even been needed, a fact that continued to surprise him. As she entered the room for their next training session, he was already in the air waiting for her. "Today, we're going to be working on moving while in the air," he explained, holding up a traditional dodgeball this time. "Your goal is to not get hit."

Sparky nodded when she walked into the room, she expected them to try and move around or something while in the air, it probably was going to be more difficult than the day before, but she expected it to be that way, so it wasn't surprising. "Well, let's get going then," she said, taking off into the air.

Raynor threw the dodgeball at her, aiming for her stomach. She managed to dodge out of the way of the dodgeball, just barely though as she felt the wind rush by her from where it had gone. She spun around as she tried to stay steady in the air again, thankfully not falling, but it was hard to stay steady when you were moving.

"Focus on your center," Raynor advised her. "You can't act like you're on the ground when you move in the air...The air isn't going to be there to catch your feet, so your stability comes from your center of gravity." He had the ball return to him with light and he tossed it at her again, aiming for her head this time.

"Alright... I've got it... I think..." she sad as she watched the ball come flying at her again. She wasn't quite fast enough to dodge out of the way of the ball, as it slammed into her head. However, despite how much it kind of hurt, she was able to steady herself in the air, not falling.

Raynor winced slightly, seeing her get hit with the ball but she took it like a trooper. "Alright, new idea...Since I really don't want to explain to Jim why you got a concussion..." Raynor flew over to the small music dock in the training area and soon, a familiar song would fill the room - the YMCA song. "Try doing the moves to this without losing your balance."

"...Please tell me you are joking... I already make somewhat of a fool of myself when I'm in the air..." she muttered, more focused on staying in the air instead of falling to the ground. She wasn't too sure about doing any sort of movements, she didn't trust herself to not fall from the air again. Though she wasn't sure if she'd be mad about it if he caught her again.

He shook his head. "I'm not one for dancing, but my cousin was...And it was almost the other song, the macarena. A lot of agents and individuals we identify with flight powers are trained this way," he explained. "If it makes you feel better, I'll be making a fool of myself dancing as well."

"I uh... I don't dance, like... Ever..." she muttered, looking down and floating back down towards the ground. She didn't really like making a fool of herself in front of anyone, or doing anything of the sort like that, she was a bit of a wallflower. She'd actually prefer being hit by a dodgeball than dancing randomly.

"...Alright," Raynor relented. He didn't like the idea of her getting hurt with another dodgeball, but if she wouldn't do the injury free method, he just had to make do and work with her. He picked up the dodgeball and chucked it at her chest this time, watching to see what she would do.

She wasn't really prepared for the dodgeball, she hadn't even really been looking at Raynor, she had been looking at the floor. When Sparky did look up, she barely managed to dodge out of the way of the ball, and somehow even with how little she had been prepared for it, she had managed to stay steady, not falling.

"You need to keep your eyes on your opponent at all times," Raynor said gently. "Look away and it gives them an opportunity to strike - and it could cost you your life. You're special, Sparks...I don't want to see you end up dead like Rivera." He then threw another dodgeball at her, flying high above her.

"...Why do you think I'm special... I'm no one important, sure I did do better than several people in the Framework or something, but I'm not one special..." she said as she managed to dodge out of the way of the ball again as she flew up higher after him, managing not to fall still.

Raynor held onto the dodgeball, looking at her sadly. It broke his heart to hear her not realize that she was incredibly special. "Most of the people in the world that think they're important - they aren't," Raynor said bluntly. "They aren't like you. You're an engineer who signed up for a dangerous experiment, fought nobly in the Framework, and has a natural gift for powers...There's a reason why Fury's taken an interest in you, Sparks. And if I'm going to be honest, there's a reason why he asked me to make sure that I train you."

"...There's a reason Fury asked you to train me or whatever? That's a little weird... I still don't get how I'm so different from everyone else... But it doesn't really matter either way..." she said as she managed to fly up level with him. This whole thing that he was talking about made no sense to her whatsoever, but there wasn't much else she could do.

"Everyone here is unique," was all Raynor would say, as he threw another dodgeball at her, clearly indicating that that line of conversation was over. He was under orders to keep certain pieces of information from certain individuals. He knew things about just about everyone currently in the program, a lot of it coming to light after the anti-HYDRA screening that was conducted after Rivera's death. Some of it was amusing - some heartbreaking - and some just bizarre.

"Why don't you say more about it?" she asked softly, dodging out of the way of the dodgeball again. However, like the day before, she ended up spinning around, and falling yet again. She might have just been getting lucky before, but there wasn't much else she could do about it, as she failed to catch herself again.

Raynor caught her in his arms again, saying nothing as he looked into her eyes for a moment. He was very much aware of the physical proximity, the way her hair seemed to shine in the lights - though that could have just been from her sweating - and how sturdy she felt. "Why do you want me to tell you why you're special? You're special because you're you."

"I-I don't know... I just find it weird that you are wanting to just change the subject randomly..." she said, blushing slightly when she looked at him. It was weird, there was something about him that she couldn't quite place, and there wasn't much else she could do. Right now she was focused on not stammering so much when she spoke to him or something.

He hadn't let go of her. "I need to help you with your powers, Sparks..." he explained softly. It was a half lie. There were other things that he just couldn't discuss with her - not yet. S.H.I.E.L.D. was an organization based on secrets and intelligence - but as much as they gathered information, protecting information was an equal part of their job.

"If you say so..." she managed to say, but she did notice that he hadn't let go of her. It was still a little weird to her, being in his arms, and she found Raynor to be an interesting person, for the most part anyway. She just went along with it, falling silent. A knock on the door broke the silence. It was time for the next group's training session and Raynor let go of her, setting her down gently. "Same time tomorrow, agent," he said, clearing his throat slightly.

"O-O-Okay," she stammered, still blushing slightly as she headed out the door.

---

Raynor took a deep breath, clearing his head as he was getting ready for his final training lesson with Agent Sparks of the week. After this, who knew if he'd get a chance to work with her again - as much as he wanted to. There had to be a line when it came to being a professional and he knew the S.H.I.E.L.D. policy on relations between agents. "So...How are you feeling about your abilities?" Raynor asked, looking over at her.

"Still not positive in my abilities, but a lot better than a few days ago..." she said, managing to keep calm and not freak out about seeing him again or something. This had definitely been a weird past few days for her, and she knew that aside from her training with her powers, she doubted anything would come of it.

"Well, if you still need help, I can request to work with you for another week..." Raynor offered, looking away from her. He was worried that if he made eye contact with Sparky, he wouldn't be able to concentrate. And today was the day that he needed to be able to focus, as he was going to have her combine her two powers together in something similar to combat. He liked his hair the way it was and didn't want to get shocked by being too distracted to dodge if things went wrong.

"Okay," she said, nodding her head. Though Sparky did notice that Raynor had purposefully looked away from her, and it made her feel a little sad, the fact that he seemed to be trying to avoid anything or whatever. Not like something was going to happen at all anyway, and Fury likely would get pissed if something did happen between the two of them.

"Alright, I'll uh...I'll make it happen," he said, forcing himself to not sound too excited at the prospect. He grabbed his dagger - Lyting - and set it aside, purposefully disarming himself for this session. "So today, you're going to be flying and then shooting bolts of electricity at things I'm throwing...If you can't hit them, dodge them," he explained, jumping up into the air himself. He tried not to pay attention to how good her hair smelled or the way it caught the lights of the room.

Sparky nodded her head, and took off into the air after him. Based on what he had told her about his dagger, she was kind of glad that he wasn't using it, especially if when he channeled his powers through it, they might be more powerful or something. That is if he decided to use his powers, he might just throw more things at her. Raynor looked at her, losing his focus for a moment before he shook his head again. Focus, damn it! he told himself. He grabbed a dodgeball - something easy for starters - and threw it at her, waiting to see what she'd do. Rubber wouldn't conduct electricity, but she should be able to use the force of it to knock it out of her way.

She was trying to focus as well, and thankfully she had pulled it off, flying around the ball that had been sent her way and she managed to stay in the air without too much effort. Sparky looked over at Raynor again, but she wasn't having the best time trying to focus. She wondered how her sisters would react, seeing her having problems focusing because of some guy. They probably would mock her for all eternity.

Raynor then grabbed a five pound weight, looking at Sparky for a moment. He really didn't want to throw this at her, but he knew that she'd see a lot worse thrown her way before her career as an agent was over. It took every ounce of self control, but he chucked the weight at her, aiming for her shin. "Focus, a-agent," Raynor stammered - partially giving himself that command again.

"I know..." she managed to say, though she noticed that he had stammered as he had spoken the two words. She just barely managed to lift her foot in time for the weight to soar underneath her, dodging out of the way. She stumbled slightly in the air, but was still able to stay airborne, but her focus was pretty much shot, it was becoming somewhat of a problem for her.

"Alright, try shooting sparks," Raynor advised, blushing furiously as he threw a frisbee in her direction, figuring it would be pretty easy for her to deflect with her powers. It was headed towards her head, so she'd need to move as well as strike, allowing her to truly combine those two powers. But all he could think about was how pretty her hair was as it flowed in the air.

She nodded, as she sent sparks flying at the Frisbee. The electricity slammed into it, but she wasn't quite fast enough to dodge out of the way of the disc and it hit her in the head, but she was easily able to stay airborne this time, not even stumbling in the slightest. "Try again," he encouraged her, picking up another frisbee and tossing it her way.

This time around, she wasn't exactly prepared for it, as she tried to shoot electricity, but there was nothing but a few sparks. She managed to dodge out of the way, but she stumbled and flipped around, before she started falling towards the ground, finding it hard to get back into the air as she fell.

Raynor caught her in his arms again, but it still sent goosebumps all over his body, as if it was the first time he had done this for her. "Do you...do you need to take a water break?" he asked her, struggling to speak.

"Uh, N-N-No... I think I'm alright..." she stammered out, noticing how close they were to one another, and now she couldn't stop kind of staring at him. She just stared at him, knowing that it was probably a little weird, but she couldn't help it. Raynor stared back at her, finding himself unable to look away as well. It was like it was magnetic and the longer she stared at him, the more he couldn't help but look back at her, getting lost in her gorgeous dark brown eyes.

"Uh..." she stammered, unable to find the words to go with her thoughts. She knew that they should probably get back to training, but she was finding it almost impossible to say a complete sentence now. It was weird, but there wasn't much she could do about it. She just stared back at him, not able to look away.

"D-do....do you want me to put you down?" Raynor asked softly.

"N-N-No... Preferably not..." Sparky replied, not being able to stop from stuttering, not to mention her face was bright red since she was blushing a lot.

Raynor held her a little bit closer, before he closed the distance between them and kissed her passionately. He could just feel all of the tension release and simultaneously build, tasting her lips - cherry? he noted absentmindedly. Needless to say, they weren't going to get much more training completed at all...

Sparky kissed him back, unsure of what exactly to think. They were supposed to be training, but instead, this happened. She hadn't expected something like this to happen, and she knew that it was possible that they'd get in trouble if someone found out considering the policies about relationships with other agents, but that didn't matter to her. She didn't care, and was happy to be there in his arms.

---

---

---

---

---

Agent Kennedy was scrolling through reddit on his phone, laughing at the jokes. His sister had pointed out a few of the subgroups that would interest him last time he had seen her and currently, he was staring at a comparison of the stunning similarity between China's president and Winnie the Pooh. The more he stared at it, the more it stood out to him. He had shown up early to the agreed upon time in the training room, wearing a loose t-shirt, gym pants, and his hands were wrapped with tape. He glanced up at a clock on the wall, wondering when his two trainees would show up - Rhodes and Abercrombie.

Tinley entered the training room wearing workout gear. One could tell it was top of the line workout gear too. Comfortable and useful. Her hair was tied back in a tight ponytail. She was anxious to get started. After the simulation, she became all the more aware that she needed more practice, especially if she were to be a Field Commander. Agent Kennedy was on his phone and chuckling to himself as she walked up. "Nice to see you Agent Kennedy. What's so funny?"

In all honesty, the last thing Sami wanted to do was to start training, even if it was with a cool pair like Kennedy and Abercrombie. The news of what had happened with his Uncle was still weighing heavily on his mind, but at the same time the information had been given to him in confidence. To prove to Fury he could be trusted with more details in the future, worrying would have to wait. Especially around others.

Arriving seconds after Tinley, he greeted them both with a smile. "Hope you got something fun planned today." Directed towards Agent Kennedy, his smile grew more mischevious.

"Xi Jinping photo comparisons to Winnie the Pooh," Jim explained, showing them one of the photos in particular. Unfortunately, he wasn't there just to show them things on reddit that amused them. As funny as it was, it wouldn't prepare them for the real world. He had seen their performance evaluations and knew the rough outlines of their capabilities. He knew each of them could push them further, but now wasn't the time for that. It was time for basic control. Only then could they become more advanced.

"We're going to start off easy," Jim explained. He put his phone away and shifted, becoming made out of pure rock. Only his clothing and other things remained normal. He gave them a smile, looking like a living statue. "Use your powers and work together to force me to shift out of my rock form. That's your first task." Sami wouldn't be able to pick up anything with his power sensing at the moment, but Tinley would be able to "feel" the minds of Sami and Jim near her, though Jim's seemed distant - as if the rock form was shielding it.

Tinley didn't understand the appeal of looking at stuff on her phone (though she will admit the similarity between the man and Winnie the Pooh was startling!), she was thankful to begin training. It seemed straightforward enough as Jim entered his rock form. Tinley could sense his and Sami's minds, but Jim's seemed distant. His rock form apparently added a mental shield. Still, Tinley assumed a fighting stance and reached her mind out to grasp his. It fell short. "I can't quite grasp his mind. We'll need to get his defenses down."

Sami couldn't quite see the resemblance between the asian man and the cartoon bear, but you could find all kinds of shit on the internet. He'd seen someone compare Tony Stark to some low-budget Sherlock Holmes character once, which was totally inaccurate despite the swathes of people agreeing to it. However, there was a different task at hand rather than playing spot the difference.

Sami echoed Tinley's stance as he looked at Kennedy, his head trying to work out how exactly he was going to be able to hurt a guy made of stone.

"My powers won't do shit here. Gonna have to go for something old fashioned to do some damage." Hoping his martial arts training would come in handy against the undoubtedly heavier and stronger opponent before him, Sami glanced towards Tinley before making his move. "Physical distraction creates mental distraction - should be able to give you a window." At that, Sami began his attack on Kennedy, aiming more to wear the guy down with swift attacks and instant retreats, as opposed to actually putting him down. Sami had been told of a second power he had developed, but it had yet to surface. Still, he wasn't sure what help reactive adaptability would be right now. He figured it would only work if he was defending himself, but then again, he had no idea how it worked. He didn't even know how to switch the damn thing on yet.

Sami managed to kick Jim in the head, sending the stone giant stumbling backwards slightly. Yet given that Sami had just kicked solid stone, he would be able to practically feel his foot vibrating with pain. If it hadn't been for his boots, he would have broken his foot. "I'll give you a tip - punching stone hurts," Jim advised. "And if you aren't careful, you'll break your bones."

Tinley fought back a scathing comment about how stupid it was to attempt to kick a rock. Sami probably felt that right now. Instead, she walked over to him. If they were to get him, his defenses needed to be down. They needed a big enough distraction. "We need a distraction big enough. Hitting him isn't going to cut it." She glanced around the room, taking it in. She whispered to Sami, "Go attack him again, but don't injure yourself. Get him to look away from me and I will pull the fire alarm. Hopefully, that will get his defense down enough for me to latch on to his mind."

Wincing painfully as he hopped back to his defensive stance, Sami rolled his eyes. He figured that even in a rock form, the neck would still be a weaker point than most. Unfortunately he aimed too high, and his heel connected with tough granite skull.

"Good job I kicked you then." He said in response to Kennedy, then looking to Tinley as she formed her own plan. Still running with the idea of a distraction, he nodded in agreement. "Gotcha." Well... he got the plan, but wasn't quite certain of the execution just yet. He had to fight Kennedy enough to distract him, but without getting hurt himself. He could slap at the stone dude all day and by either ignored or just swatted to one side like an annoying fly. Unfortunately, this would require some actual force to get the job done. Silently, Sami willed his power to kick in for the first time. Maybe his own rock-form would give him an advantage here.

Things didn't quite go as plan, but still worked out in their own way. In only took a single punch for his second power to awaken, and as he aimed for Kennedy's stomach it was as if his arm had suddenly turned to hard metal. Unable to stop the momentum even he had wanted to, his punch connected fully with Kennedy's rock hard abs (HA) and sent him flying into the back wall. For a second Sami was awed by the power that had just occurred, though it quickly ebbed away with that familiar sickening feeling of a broken bone. His powers had reacted against its opponent, but not against the consequences. Grasping his hand and bending double, he looked to Tinley with a strained grin.

"The bitch is all yours." He said somewhat breathlessly, hoping she could be as successful as him. Well, without the broken metacarpals, anyway.

Tinley was also in awe, she expected him to merely distract Agent Kennedy, but instead, he attacked him and unleashed power she hadn't seen before. Still, he fought against rock and that had to hurt, but Tinley couldn't think about that now. Instead, Tinley faced the now weakened and dazed Agent Kennedy and attempted to grasp his mind again. She had an easier time this round, just making it inside. While there, she situated herself. "Okay, Agent Kennedy. I'd like you out of your rock form now." She issued the command, hoping he would drop his defenses and, thus, securing them the win.

"Yes ma'am," Kennedy said, turning out of his rock form and into his human one. His clothing was torn where Sami had punched him and through the tear, a gigantic bruise had begun to form. It looked like he had managed to break some of Jim's ribs. Even though it had happened in his rock form, it only delayed the damage - he took it all when he turned back into his human form. He managed to wrestle back control of his mind, having done some training with telepaths before on how to resist. "Good work, you two," he said, grunting a bit. "As cliché as it sounds, teamwork is a powerful thing. Know your opponent's weaknesses and their strengths. Use them against them. But also kid...don't punch rocks," he advised with a cheesy grin. "Now uh...Sami, you're about to meet another agent in the Phase Three program - Tempest - she'll patch us up," he explained.

---

The next day, Agent Kennedy was waiting for them in the training room at the same time, feeling a little bit sore but he had pretty much healed completely, as would Sami have done. Tempest's healing powers were like magic and Jim couldn't help but grin slightly. It beat staying in a hospital bed for days and then doing physical therapy for weeks - or potentially even months. Once his students had arrived, Jim took a swig from his water bottle, before he greeted them with a smile, ready to get to work. "Today is going to be harder," he explained. "You're going to be sparring each other, but with these." He then handed them each a piece of ribbon. "To win the match, you need to steal your opponent's ribbon. No lethal force, but that should go without saying. Otherwise, use everything that is available to you."

Tinley walked in, again, prepared for another day of training. She figured the next bit would be them fighting each other. Tinley took her ribbon and placed it behind her in her back pocket. That way, it wouldn't be so easy to grab. She saw Sami's display of power yesterday and didn't want to be on the recieving end of those blows. But she also knew he was aware of her own powers. She figured her best bet was hand-to-hand combat this time around. She got into her ready stance across from Sami. "Good luck Agent Rhodes."

"You know, I've heard that's a power actually..." Jim mused, before he put on some music to set the mood with a shit eating grin. "Alright, you've got ten agents - go beat the crap out of each other, agents! Drinks on me after today's session."

Shaking his head and laughing as the music turned on, Sami mirrored Tinley's movements and placed his own tag into his back pocket.
"Well shit boy, if you're gettin' the rounds in, I'll do whatever you want." He said with a grin before readying himself against Tinley. He knew and respected her well enough to know not to underestimate her, nor go easy. Still, maybe there was a way he could do it without messing up that pretty face of hers.

Thinking on his power, he tried to image some kind of shield over his mind, anything that would prevent her from peeking in. There was no physical changes, but suddenly it felt as though he were wearing a hat of some kind. Deciding that would be the closest he was going to get, Sami made his move. Going in as if to punch her on her right, Sami feinted and dodged to the left, getting behind her and easily snatching away the tag with a triumphant laugh.

"Guess I have got luck on my side today." He said, twirling the tag in the air with a grin.

Tinley had to hand it to Sami, he was good. However, that would prove to be his downfall. She looked into his mind, seeing his attempt at a shield to block. She easily got into his mind and settled inside. "All right Agent Rhodes. You are going to hand me back my ribbon and apologize for taking it." Tinley stepped back, allowing Agent Rhodes to give her back her ribbon and apologize. She took it and smiled. "Thanks Agent Rhodes, but you realize you are supposed to keep the ribbon, right?" She gave him a playful wink.

Then she rushed at him. She grabbed his arm and attempted to flip him over onto his stomach, however she may have been a touch overexcited and, instead, forced too hard. He flipped, sure, but even she could hear the break in his arm. She grabbed his ribbon as he landed and stopped. "Oh shit! I didn't mean to break his arm! We may need Tempest in here." Tinley did feel bad, but that the same time, if this were a real enemy, she would feel no remorse.

She did get the ribbon, though.

Kennedy stared at the two of them for a moment, before he burst out laughing. "If you have a crush on Tempest, Agent Rhodes, there's easier ways to spend time with her," Jim joked, wiping a tear away from his eyes. He shook his head again, amused at this - he'd never met a recruit that had broken limbs so consistently in training. They were lucky they had a healer with them. "That being said, Agent Abercrombie...If he was an enemy, I'd be asking why you didn't break him more. But it's as much as a skill to hurt as it is to show restraint."

After rolling around on the floor groaning for a few seconds, Sami finally flopped onto his back and looked at Tinley, laughing. "Shit bitch, you sure got me!" He said through his laughter, sitting up uneasily as he examined his arm. It had thankfully been a pretty clean break with nothing misshapen or stuck out. He couldn't bring himself to be pissed off at her - served him damn right for letting his guard down after he got her tag. "I still got your ribbon first, though. Be sure to keep it next time." Said with a grin and returning her playful wink, Sami struggled to his feet, holding the injured arm tenderly as he looked to Kennedy."We'd better be getting double drinks after I visit the Doctor lady." Tinley sure had earned it, and he was sure he needed some "medicine" after receiving yet another broken bone.

Tinley was happy Sami was ok and was laughing about it. "Truth be told Agent Kennedy, if he was an enemy I wouldn't have stopped at asking for my ribbon back. I would have made him take out his gun and shoot himself. Or, better yet, make him punch himself in the head over and over until he concussed. But, I am glad Agent Rhodes is all right and that we have a competent healer at our disposal." At Sami's comment over him nabbing her ribbon first, she shrugged it off. She knew, in the end, both of them were competent in their fighing and, with practice, their powers. "Drinks sound good right now."

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Cassandra after getting her things set up she stood in a small training room, she got a few things set up after the round of questioning and getting her mind read the whole nine after finding out that Agent Rivera was a HYDRA Agent. She stood in the room there was a shooting range she had set up along with a few ICERs set up on the table as Cassandra started to set up a few shooting range targets. She figured she would start with some shooting practice since they would be out in the field and they needed to learn to shoot if it did come down to it.

It was a bit of a blur to Niah. She moved through the motions of getting her stuff. She had carefully packed everything she would need for a field kit. Even making sure she had her childhood microscope. Though with some testing she was able to realize her vision would be more powerful than it for most things. She could easily tell the difference between hair types, but she couldn't get DNA, she would still need equipment for that. She didn't have as much of a chance at testing her distance with her new enhanced senses.

Niah met with Agent Reed and had asked for some help with her shooting. It was something her and Antoine had been working on, but she had less than a dozen lessons. She knew she had to get back into the shooting range as soon as possible or she'd never be able to get past the emotion she felt when thinking about it. When the appointed time came she made her way there, pausing outside the door of the range. She wore the gloves from Marygold now, finally having learned she had a secondary power. She was thankful for the gloves, fearing that touching the door would open not just the power, but her own memories. That was something she didn't think she wanted to experience. Niah took a deep breath and stepped into the range. "Hello, Agent Reed. How are you today?" She held out her gloved hand to shake Agent Reed's. "What all have you planned for us today?"

Z was mildly impressed with the after-measures following Rivera's big reveal. It was a bit like putting the umbrella up after it had stopped raining. Of course, she was miffed with herself as well. She'd been friendly with Rivera and never once caught wind of her true self. So Z endured all the testing and the mind probing and whatnots unsure of their actual effectiveness keeping in mind Rivera had already infiltrated them and not only that, she'd managed to sneak into the experiment program. The thing still bothered Nik, but there was nothing, in particular, she could do, but be more vigilant and careful.

If there was a bright spot in this whirlwind of confusion and insecurity, it was when Terry had arrived at her doorstep. Shortly after all the medical check-ups and other testings had finished Z'd received a call about a delivery waiting for her at the dorms. Guessing immediately what it was, she'd rushed to witness her beautiful Triumph Speedmaster chopper, Amaterasu or Terry for short, being unloaded from a delivery truck. She was beside herself and couldn't wait to show Terry to Niah. But that would have to wait for another time as she needed to move her stuff to the Buss and begin the training with Agent Reed. Agent May would have been Z's first choice, not that Reed wasn't an outstanding agent... It was just... Agent May! The Cavalry!

But she was worried about Niah losing Antoine to the experiments and wanted to be there for her as much as possible. So Nik had agreed to train together with Agent Reed.

As Z walked into the range, she found Niah and Cass already there. Nik gave Niah an encouraging smile and a polite, if albeit curt, nod to Agent Reed. "So, what do we start with?" Z asked in a respectful tone. Of course, she needed training in team tactics and maybe some pointers on how to boost team morale, to help the agents under her care perform better, but she was sure Cass had a plan for their training sessions and there would be time for Nik to share her concerns and ask for guidance.

Cassandra turned her head when she heard the door opened seeing Agent Bautista come first and gave her a friendly smile and shook the fresh agent's hand. "Sorry for the loss of your friend during the experiment, my cousin isn't really known for sugarcoating things." Cassandra said, as she looked over towards the door again seeing Agent Nikolova come in next for training as well. "Glad that both of you are here." Cassandra said as she waved the two of them over where she had some ICERs on hand.

"First thing I'll be teaching you how to shoot, and once you are comfortable handling these then we will go over mission tactics and strategies. And if we have time then we will go over to a shooting course, using the ICERs we have and you will go against one another." Cassandra said looking at them and gestured towards the eye and hearing protection if they did need it and the guns. "First though tell me what an ICER is and what it does."

She nodded her appreciation at the consolation about Antonie. "Incapacitating Cartridge Emitting Railguns, originally a 'night-night' gun. It knocks people unconscious." Niah said as she put on the eye and hearing protection. She then took a spot along the range in front of a gun but didn't pick it up. Niah was looking forward to everything Agent Reed said they would be doing, except the shooting course. She didn't think she would be able to hold her own against Z, or honestly even bring herself to shoot her friend. It didn't matter that it would be an ICER round.

Z walked to the ICERs and picked one up respectfully. She had experience with handguns but had never fired an ICER before. Admittedly the principle would be the same, though without knowing the characteristics of the weapon... "It's basically a tranq gun on steroids." Z added her two cents in to what Niah had already said about the ICERs. "Can't say I've ever fired one. What's the recoil on these?" Nik was turning the gun this way and that in an attempt to gauge the workings of it with her engineer's eye. Unfortunately, firearms technology was beyond her preview. "If any." She put the gun back down. Z wouldn't mind the practice at the shooting range. But personally, she was more keen on those mission tactics and strategy lessons. She looked at Cass a bit uncertain but forged on. "Um... I was wondering if you could also give me some pointers on how to... Well... Rally the troops so to speak." Nik fidgeted a bit. "You know, raise team morale and stuff."

Cassandra smiled and nodded at Niah. "That is correct, originally made by Fitz as well." Cass said as she watched Niah put on the eye and hearing protection, then looked over towards Zoya and nodded slightly. "Yep, powerful enough to take out a mutant as strong as Sabertooth. Which I managed to do in that very mission you all did in the Framework." Cassandra then moved over towards one of the ICERs on the table and picked it up, removing the clip, and showed the bullet inside.

"The bullet contains Dendrotoxin which stuns a person essentially, very little to no recoil and completely harmless to those who end up getting shot by one." Cass said before looking back at Z when she asked about team morale and how to raise it. "As a team, you will have time to get to know one another and work together as a team, but you would essentially become a family as well, make the time to get to know them. Compliment them, help each other out while off or on missions, watch each other's backs make them smile anyway to get to know the individual team members." She said and then motioned for them to begin shooting.

Niah picked up her gun, testing the weight of it. Niah reflected on everything Antoine had taught her, being careful with her stance and how she held the gun. She flicked off the safety and slowly applied pressure to the trigger. Her first shot missed. She winced mentally and took another shot hitting the target in the chest area, missing the heart, but it would not be a pleasant experience for whoever received that bullet. Though a vest would easily block it. She was not proud of herself.

Z followed Niah's suit and, putting on her ear muffs and protection glasses, picked up her ICER as well. Everyone in the army had basic training with various firearms but it was a hot minute before Z'd handled one. So she took a moment to feel at ease with her stance. Nik sighted the target and squeezed off three shots in fast succession. The first two shots missed horribly, but the third managed to ding the target in the shoulder area. Z glanced at Niah. She was having a slightly better time than Nik as one of her shots had landed square in the chest area of the target. Okay, let's try this one more time. Z encouraged herself, readjusted her stance to compensate for her bad aim and slowly and methodically squeezed off the remainder of her clip. Pop! A head-shot! Pop! Another miss! Pop! She hit the same shoulder as before. The remaining ICER bullets also managed to hit the target in various locations. Z placed the gun on the counter and removed her ear and eye protection. One head-shot! I'm not as rusty as I thought.

Cassandra stood back and watched as Niah took her first three shots, noticing the stance was a bit off along with the aim, one missed the target and the next one hit the chest area. Niah would need a little bit more help in the shooting department, while she looked over at Z seeing some of the shots miss. She did manage to get a headshot and a few good placed shots across the body. "Your doing good." Cassandra complimented Z as she then turned her attention towards Niah and then approached her standing next to her. "Its good you managed to hit the target, however you'd need to adjust your posture." Cassandra said as she gently helped Niah adjust her stance and then looked at her once more.

"The key is to try and relax as best you can and take a deep breath, then focus on where you would like your shots to go." Cassandra said before stepping away from Niah and motioned for her to try again. "Once you two feel that you are comfortable with handling the guns, then we will hit the course." Cass said looking over at Z if she wanted to fire a few more shots it was up to her.

With a nod, Niah followed Agent Reed's directions. She relaxed into the stance picking up the small adjustments she had given her. Then she had an idea, would her enhanced sight make shooting easier? She focused for a moment to draw her attention to her eyesight. As she did her hearing left her. Even with the ear muffs on she had been able to hear Agent Reed talk, now she wouldn't be able to at all.

Her eyes watered as she sighted the target and her first shot went wild. She blinked away the tears and took her second shot. It completely missed the target too. Niah wiped at the tears clearing her vision and took one last shot as she exhaled the shot landed near the heart. A good shot against someone not wearing a vest. That was better, but she was going to be spending some serious time here. She dropped her enhanced sight so she could hear if Agent Reed had any remarks.

"Thanks." Z muttered at Cass' encouragement. "I'm a bit rusty. But it's coming back to me." Nik said as she stood quietly to the side as Niah took some extra shots to get more familiar with firing the weapon. Shooting at the range was fine if you were new to firearms and wanted to learn to shoot in general. But Z had already gone through that in the army and only needed to reacquaint herself with the feel of firing a gun. The real training for her would be hitting a moving target in the field. She wasn't all too comfortable with using her friend as target practice however. But if that was the training exercise, she would have to grit her teeth and just do it.

"You did better that would certainly have been a kill shot. Both of you are doing well, just practice as much as you can and you will see improvements." Cassandra said giving Niah and Z a smile, before gesturing them to follow her into the next room where she had an obstacle course set up for them, which had various small rooms and hallways with bits of cover as well. "So next will see how well you do against one another, do not worry ICERs are not lethal you will just be knocked out for a few minutes."

Niah looked at Z trepidatiously as she pulled off her ear covering, she left the eye protection on. She knew she would want to listen to Z's movements. Niah moved into the course and started walking away from where Z was to find a starting point. She didn't focus on any senses, for now. Niah was satisfied with the crate she found down the hallway. It probably could have hidden her inside of it, but she couldn't get the crate open. Then she waited, Cassandra turned to see Z suddenly stop where she was, and watched helplessly as it suddenly happened, before yelling out for Niah to come over.

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Wow, it's been some time since I've seen you all, hasn't it been? Did you enjoy my movie? I know I did, the soundtrack is also the perfect new sex mix! (Vanessa loves it, Piotr, not so much...But hey, when a guy has silver balls, you don't need much in the way of music to set the mood!) Anyways, it's Christmas Day every day for me, and guess what, someone else is on my naughty list! And instead of getting a hearty helping of Christmas spankings, they're going to help me with my new yoga routine!

I like to call this one the bend and snap.



...Wait, what? I don't get to go for the kill on this one? Awww, man! "Sorry dollface, but you get to be dealt with by someone who knows me better inside than out - my psycho ex, Nera. Or is it Esren these days? Or Golds? It's so hard to keep up with the name changes, you'd think she'd just stick with one by now...But look out, she's got the hairpin of doom and destruction!"

"Quiet Wade, I'm concentrating," Nera Hawthorn requested. That's her, craaaaazy! I think it has to be a ginger thing. I mean, you guys know what's happening to Luna and....Oh boy, I can't spoil that yet? Well, let's just say they aren't the only gingers with mental issues here! But wow, look at that form and technique! Z looks like a radioactive dildo and....Eww, she definitely does not age well. Such flawless work with the Time Stone though on Nera's part, I have to say, it's a great murder.

"Shut up. Your commentary is irritating."

"Awww, I remember when you used to hit me with an axe...*sigh* Those were the days..." But oooh, looks like Z is dead now! I wonder how that's going to impact Niah and Cass, having watched that? I guess it's time for me to toddle but I will say this....Your unit is still filled with HYDRA! Better watch out, Nazis are terrible in bed and don't get much better in the coffin if you know what I mean.

Bye~!

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Niah had been waiting for her mark, to say things went sideways wasn't even getting near the issue. She heard two voices. Agent Reed was yelling and Niah was there as fast as she could run there. Z, her best friend, was dead. Niah leaned against the wall. What was happening? She slid down the wall and sat on the ground. First Antoine and now Z. That wasn't even mentioning everything that had been happening since the framework. God this was all a terrible idea wasn't it. She removed her gloves reached up and touched her necklace. She pushed away her other senses reaching out with touch so she could just feel. Nothing seemed to change, but without the globe, she could still feel the familiar grooves of the necklace and it provided a little comfort.

Once whatever happened to Z she turned her attention to face Niah seeing the young agent collapse on a nearby wall, and quickly went over to comfort the young agent. And then quickly started to call in for a medical team to come in, today was just suppose to be a simple training mission. "It's going to be okay Niah." Cassandra said comfortingly towards her and gave Niah a hug, as she watched a few minutes later there were other agents in and quickly started to see if there was anything that they could do, but there was nothing.

Niah found herself leaning into the hug, as little as she knew Agent Reed until recently. "I need to get out of here. Do you run?" She took a deep breath, her hand still on her necklace. Niah needed to run.

Cass watched the agents starting to put Z's body into a body bag and then they brought out a stretcher before they started to drag the body away. She sighed quietly to herself two more agents in the Phase Three Program were now dead, her attention then went towards Niah and gave her a smile and nod. "Sure we can do that the rest of the day if you'd like." She offered.

Barton was waiting for Maria to arrive. He had his trademark bow and quiver with him, and he was twirling an arrow around. He wasn't too thrilled about being dragged into this charade, but there wasn't much else he could really do about it. He was a SHIELD agent after all, so he helped out when he was told to for the most part, though he still tended to make a decision on the fly that went against Fury's orders that worked out for the best every now and then.

Maria walked into the training room carrying with her was her own bow and a quiver filled with a handful of arrows, she couldn't help but be a little bit excited with actually training under Hawkeye. She made her way into the room and saw the SHIELD agent twirling an arrow in his hand and started to approach him. "Reporting as ordered." Maria said giving Clint a friendly smile as she stood there, wondering what he was actually going to be training her with today.

"So, you are stuck with me for training? This'll be fun. Well, as you know, I don't have any powers, I go up against the big baddies with nothing but the bow and arrows I've got with me here now. So, I can't really help you figure out how to control your powers, however, we can do a little bit of stealth training, since that is what I'm best at."

Maria smiled looking at Hawkeye as she listened to him speak and nodded, she figured as much since he didn't have powers unlike her, though she hadn't much practice with them. But she was training with freakin Hawkeye right now which was the best thing in her opinion, and extended her gloved hand towards him. "I very much look forward to learning, I haven't gotten that much stealth training. Is there a course or something we are going to go for?"

"Nope, nothing in particular... Might do some hand to hand combat training as well, see how things go. I can't help much with powers as I said before, but hey, it doesn't really matter if you have powers or not, as long as you know how to combat your opponents, you will be fine," he said, putting the arrow he had been holding back into his quiver. "So, we're going to get a baseline for how well you do in the stealth department. I've got a few different barriers or whatever set up around the room, your goal, try to sneak up on me without me noticing. Simple as that, guess I'll see you in a moment or two," he said, before he was gone in an instant, among the small walls and barriers that had been set up in the training area.

"I wont use my powers then, not like I know how to use them anyway." Maria said giving Clint a slight smile as she listened to him and nodded as she listened to him and getting a baseline for her and what they would be training further. "I think this will be quiet a bit of fun." And like that Hawkeye quickly went and hid among the barriers and walls that were in the training area. She quickly bolted as well and made her way towards the closest wall and hid herself behind it. Maria would quietly look over a corner, trying to look for him silently before hiding again once more.

Hawkeye didn't respond to her voice, he was well hidden among everything in the room. He had his bow and arrow in hand, prepared to strike, he was looking for easy access to a point where he could get up high and strike then. Sure, he knew that this was training, and that odds were that he'd win this little game of hide and seek, but if she didn't expect him to be up in the rafters or something, then he'd get a better view of her skills in the stealth department.

Maria quickly and quietly moved to the next wall, she wasn't sure where he was, she had a feeling that he was most likely up in the rafters somewhere. She took out her own bow and arrow as she looked up at the rafters for any sort of movment that was there, biting her bottom lip before hiding back behind the wall. She had a feeling that she wasn't being stealthy at all in the least, but she tried her best to remain hidden before making her way towards a nearby pillar.

For him, it was pretty easy to tell where Maria was, he could have sworn he'd have heard her a mile away with the way she was moving around. He found a perch, hiding in the shadows and just watched her move around, and he just shook his head. To him, it seemed like they weren't teaching any sort of stealth at the academy. She wasn't doing too bad, considering she probably wasn't the best at being stealthy, but she definitely could do better in his opinion. Barton was completely hidden up above her, there was no way she'd be able to spot him.

Maria still couldn't catch any form of movement near or around her, she tried looking up above but she couldn't find any sort of movement. She didn't really listen to much when they were teaching about stealth sometimes, but she managed to pass regardless and now she was starting to regret not listening to much. As Maria looked up at the rafters once more as she tried to find any movement again, or if she did miss anything.

She'd find an arrow with a rope attached to it shot right at her as if out of nowhere. It attached itself to the wall next to her, and Hawkeye swung down to meet her. "Well, I'm going to be blunt, you have a lot of work to do in the stealth department. I could hear you pretty well from where I was sitting, not to mention you couldn't see me. We need to work on how quietly you move, that is the major issue, as well as your sight and perception. Your ability to see others, and where they are in comparison to you."

Maria jumped when she heard the arrow and then watched as Barton swung from the rafters and then landed down next to her, as she looked up at him for a moment and awkwardly rubbed the back of her neck. She didn't mind the blunt commentary or have it be sugarcoated for her and nodded. "Sorry, I kind of didn't listen at the time when we were learning that in the academy." Maria said quietly as she looked down slightly. "Just show me what to do and I can improve."

"Well, there isn't really much showing, you just need to learn to move a lot more quietly is the main thing, otherwise it will be obvious where you are. Here, how about we try this again, except you go off and hide somewhere, and I'll stay here, wait a minute, before I see about sneaking up on you. Show you how a pro does it since I have been at this for a while now," he said simply, giving her a bit of a smile as he waited to see if she'd go off somewhere else.

"Alright then, see you in a few minutes." Maria said giving Hawkeye a slight smile before she quickly ran off into the shadows, as she took a moment before finding out a place she thought would be a good place to hide out for now. While it had a good enough view of the surrounding area of the place, drawing out her bow

He smirked slightly, just watching her race off, and after a few moments, he started sneaking off. He wasn't going to cheat somewhat and get up high, he wanted to show how someone who stayed low to the ground could blend into the shadows. It was pretty difficult for him, due to the layout of the room, but he managed to move quickly and silently towards the other side, edging around corners, trying to find Maria.

Maria remained still where she was as she watched him for a few moments before Hawkeye quickly moved off to the rafters above the room, she would try as best as she could to watch his movements where she was located. She drew out her arrow as she watched him, but didn't fire as she continued to watch his movements a little bit more, breathing ever so slightly as she remained as quiet as she could.

He would disappear completely from her sight, and she wouldn't be able to hear him at all anymore. Suddenly, she'd feel a tap on her shoulder from behind."I've been doing this for a while, so I know how to sneak up on someone. The main part is to look at your surroundings, find any sort of cover or shelter that you can use to hide. You also need to practice blending into the shadows somewhat, and practice your footwork somewhat, so you don't make hardly any noise as you walk, got it?"

Maria watched as Hawkeye disappeared as she stood up and tried to look around, which was certainly a bad idea on her part she didn't even hear the guy move anymore. That's when Maria jumped when she felt something tap her on the shoulder, which made her turn around instantly to see that it was Hawkeye. Maria nodded as she listned to him as he spoke about blending in and staying quiet, and hide behind cover while blending into the shadows. "I understand thank you for the tip." Maria said giving Clint a smile.

"Now, let's see if you've learned something. This time, I will be staying completely on the ground to make it a more likely scenario, and you just try and sneak up on me, keeping in mind what it is I've told you, got it?" he said, before he walked away again. He was finding this sort of hide and seek game to be entertaining at least.

Maria was starting to enjoy it a bit as well even though he obviously had the upper hand over her having years of experience and doing it so many times before. "I'll make sure to get you this time then, and whoever wins goes and buys some drinks." Maria said, as she watched him walk off once more, Maria quickly went into the shadows as she moved as quickly and quietly as she could while remaining in the dark occasionally stopping behind some cover.

He couldn't help but smirk slightly at that comment, but he didn't say anything in response, just staying hidden where he was while waiting for her to try and find him. This time, he found it very hard to hear where she was, which was probably a good thing, but every now and then he'd hear the occasional footstep. She seemed like a fast learner to him, so hopefully she'd do a lot better this time around.

Maria remained as quietly as she could while still being hidden behind a bit of cover, she then decided that it was now a good time to strike now. As she quietly left behind the cover she was hidden behind she stepped forward, crossing the room rather quietly until, just at the very last minute when she was about to tap him on the shoulder. Maria suddenly lost her footing which caused her to stumble making her footsteps very loud and obvious for Hawkeye to hear. "Damn it.." Maria muttered to herself when she finally caught her footing looking up at Hawkeye.

"Not too shabby for a newbie... Well... Think that'll do it for the session agent..." Hawkeye said with a smile, heading towards the door. "You almost got me, keep practicing and you'll be a stealth master yet... You need to remember to watch where you're going, otherwise you'll give yourself away."

Maria looked towards Clint and smiled a bit awkwardly towards his compliment, she didn't really feel like she did well the last part was actually pretty embarrassing for her as well. "I'll keep that in mind, thank you for the training session." Maria said as she watched Hawkeye turn and left the training room.

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Mary was waiting for her "students" to come into the training room. She wasn't too thrilled about this, but at least she was able to help them out somewhat with learning how to control their powers. Actually, this was going to be really weird, considering the fact that she was around the same age as these agents, younger than a few of them too, but that didn't matter. All that mattered was her experience and what she could teach these agents about people with abilities.

Novikova walked into the training room, her hair held into two silver pigtails. She had contemplated braiding it, but given that the Framework constituted pretty much the entirety of her combat experience, she figured the trainer would let her know if there was an issue with her hair. She was still wearing the glasses Marygold had given her, finding that looking at anyone without them was unbearable. She didn't know it, but had she had a little more control over that ability, Fury would have asked her to screen the team for potential members of HYDRA. "Miss Isley? Agent Novikova, reporting for duty," she said confidently, holding out a gloved hand. She enjoyed roller skating, but that was about it when it came to physical activity.

Shortly thereafter, Arcturus entered, prompt as ever, though he quickly realised was not the first to arrive. The roster informed him that two of those who had been on different teams in the Framework were also signed up under Isley, and he couldn't deny being curious as to what their powers looked like in action –– especially Agent Novikova, given they were to be on the same team after this. "Agent Hale," he introduced himself with a winning smile, "Nice to meet you."

Grif steps into the training room, decked out in a casual training suit with his battleaxe sheathed on his back, and notes himself to be the last to arrive. By this time he had set great expectations for himself, aiming to absorb as much as he could from these training sessions; his experience from the Framework had already proven that he couldn't rely alone on his military expertise. He would nod at the other agents, Novikova and Hale, so far being unacquainted with the two, before stopping at Marygold. "Ma'am. Agent Lee, reporting for duty." Ending his brief introduction with a prompt salute, despite being a civilian on paper, she would effectively be her superior during training until further notice, so he'd treat as such.

"Nice to meet you all, I'm Marygold Isley, but I'm guessing you knew that already... Anyway, you all are stuck with me for training I guess, or practice or whatever, but trust me some of the things I have had to do on the fly, not so fun... I also know the ins and outs of the mission you all were on in the Framework, though it definitely did not happen like that... I've gone against the Brotherhood way too many times to count by now. As I'm guessing you know, I'm currently the leader of the X-Men, so generally I have to make quick decisions on the fly, and use my powers the best that I can. You also need to remember one key thing, your powers do not always work. My first mission was in the middle of a desert, do you know how many plants grow in a desert? Not many let me tell you... So first things first, let's see how much control you've got over your powers currently... Don't worry Novikova, we've got some boulders brought in for you to try and move around, since I'm guessing you don't want to take off those shades and try that thing out... Yeah, before I came I raided everything that we had at the mansion, figured an old pair of Cyclops' shades would work for you... So, whoever wants to go first, be my guest and show me what you've got. If you've got any questions for me, or want to here a story of a mission I've been on for some reason, ask away," she said, edging away slightly from them. Mary was tossing plant seeds into the air and catching them in her hand again, on occasion one of the would sprout and go back to being a seed again.

"I'll go," Novikova said simply. In the Framework, all of the earth she had been digging up came from the ground itself. But now, seeing the handful of boulders in the corner, she couldn't help but find it was easier to focus. She held out her hand, looking at the boulder through the ruby tinted lenses, and she raised it about ten feet into the air. It was surprisingly easy and she smiled a bit, before she raised the second boulder at the same time. She then tried to get the third boulder up as well, but she broke into a sweat and the third one only went about five feet into the air.

Mine is significantly less exciting, Arcturus thought wryly, projecting it outwards the short distance to the other members of the team. It was accompanied by a self-deprecating sigh. Not that he was unhappy with his power, as it suited his role perfectly, but telepathy did leave him somewhat defenseless. While the whispering presence of other minds was wearing thin on him, shutting that off completely wasn't exactly what he wanted out of power training. I'm hoping to find a way of amplifying this to reach greater distances, or picking up more than surface thoughts. Even some consistency would be appreciated. Right now it's just... talking, but a bit special.

As it had turned out, Grif's powers were ever reliant on how much light he absorbed day-to-day and on this occassion he was essentially 'full' and ready to let loose. "I suppose it's my turn then," he says before concentrating on forming some basic constructs of light, be it barriers, balls, or cubes he had each visualised in his head. The end result were small flashes of light that fail to solidify into any shape but he continued on, undeterred. Next, he would gather his two hands, sparks crackling between the both of them, "Suggest that you keep your distance for this, I'll be attempting the same flashbang move I had used during the simulated mission." A white flash fills the room, briefly blinding its occupants for a few seconds Grif himself would slowly blink out the spots in his eyes, "Apologies for that. I did try to contain and minimise the flash," he pauses to regather his focus, "Now, I have one last demonstration." After a quick look through the training room, he finds a few targets away from where they were all gathered. His dominant, right hand was raised and leveled at one target and in an instant a beam of light would punch through said target, singing the behind wall. With his short display completed, he promptly turns on his heel back to Marygold, waiting for his evaluation.

"Alright... Looks like we might have a little bit of work to do..." she said, looking at the group. Novikova was by far the better of the group, while the other two needed some help when it came to their powers. Turning, she looked at Arcturus, "Trying to strengthen your powers, get it so that it can reach further can be useful, but just keep in mind that you can't get into everyone's heads. Like even if your powers were stronger, doubt you'd be able to read the mind of Charles Xavier, who is the most powerful telepath in the world. Though you likely would be able to create some difficulty, should another telepath try to read your mind, that is if your powers are strong enough for it. Don't worry, any sort of power takes time to develop properly, and telepathy is a little difficult unless you can sit there and practice with another telepath and getting past their defenses. Now, Agent Lee, your powers are very similar to a friend of mine, whose powers are light based and he can create things out of it... You seemed to have better luck creating that flash bang effect, much like how it is easier for him. You likely could use that to your advantage, blind your opponent and take them down that way. He also tends to form small balls of light in his hand, finding it easier to do that then to create light out of nowhere at a distance, and when he has the light, he swirls it around to create whatever he wants."

"That's just my take on things... So, let's see if you can take what I told you, and put it to some use, your goal? Simply manage to hit me, Hale, use the skills you gained in the Framework fighting wise, and use your telepathy as a sort of relay system, creating a connection of networks that you can use to communicate with the others, and so they can communicate with one another... It makes it a lot more difficult for your opponent to defend themselves if they can't hear what you are planning. Novikova, use the boulders in the room to your advantage, try to do something different, and Lee, see about taking what I told you, and coming up with ways to use that to your advantage. This is also to see if the three of you can use some form of teamwork together, and see if you can come up with plans on the fly if you need it. I started carrying plant seeds around, since I was finding it difficult to use my powers inside of a building so, yeah... See if you can keep up," she said, before she tossed seeds out of her pocket, and large vines sprouted from them, and she jumped onto one of them and took off away from them. Mary was somewhat far away from the group now, and she turned to look down at them.

Novikova lowered the boulders she had been holding, a bit disappointed that Marygold hadn't given her any feedback. She couldn't improve if she didn't receive constructive criticism, just like Marygold had done for Hale and Lee. The Russian-American agent nodded anyways, listening to Marygold's instructions. There was one benefit to constantly wearing glorified sunglasses - it'd protect her from any misfires on Lee's part, just in case he ended up nearly blinding his teammates. She then glanced at the boulder in the corner, getting an idea from something she had told Lee, and Novikova broke off a chunk of it. As if she were Saturn, small stones formed a near ring around her. If you can hear me, Hale, I can try and get the three of us airborne...

Arc listened along to the advice Isley gave, rubbing at his chin, though he was mostly tuned out for Agent Lee's part of the lesson, lost in thought. He felt a prickle of distraction, as if someone was trying to get his attention but he was working on the wrong frequency. Novikova's voice reached him, but it was just out of reach, too quiet to decipher, and trying to do so led only to frustration –– he pushed it aside to focus on other things for now.

Like a relay system, Arc mused. He wasn't sure how to visualise that at first, whether to imagine a satellite pinging messages from point to point, two towers signalling each other, a cable running between them, or a literal relay race, though the last one was more of an intrusive thought than a serious attempt at forming a connection. He stilled for a moment, figuring that their tutor was not going to attack them despite her show of control over the plants, and reached out to agents Novikova and Lee with the lightest mental touch.

Arc settled on the basic premise of a network, placing himself and his own mind as an interface between the two. If all went well, for one to contact the other, it would be translated through his power. Such a thing must be theoretically possible, or Isley wouldn't have suggested it, though it left him uneasy, having no knowledge of the boundaries of his power. He exerted more pressure, ensuring the connection had a firm grip, and sent, Plan? as a test message. He was still uncertain as to whether or not the link was formed correctly, and 'Hello, World!' seemed too on the nose.

A foreign voice, which he recognizes to be Arc's, reverberates through his head, never having had this sort of intrusion into his own mind before the experience is slightly unsettling – not that he would ever admit, of course. He attempts to communicate back through this so-called relay system by clearly projecting his thoughts 'outloud' I'll take the lead, my blast might be able to drop Marygold from her vines. Stepping towards where the vines had carried their instructor, he had his right hand readied and directed at her before his aim drifts to the appreciably larger plantlife, and therefore easier target to hit. Grif lets loose, the same beam of light from before is deadset accurate and manages to hit the vines. However there is a considerable lack of falling involved and the blast leaves only some burn marks across. We need to close the distance. If we can somehow meet her up in the air...

Mary just looked at them, she had no idea what was going through their heads, or what they were planning. It didn't matter too much to her, as long as they managed to do something. Lee had managed to hit the vines, but he didn't cause any real damage, so she was still in the air. They probably could knock her down, but she wasn't going to flat out tell them she was going easy on them. If she wanted to, odds are she'd be able to wrap them up in vines or something. She hoped that the group would be able to work together and create some sort of plan, and if not then things would be interesting.

I'm guessing you didn't hear me. I can get us airborne. Hale, I'm keeping you on the ground. I'll go high and distract her. Griff, you go low. Novikova then focused on the boulder, trying to break it into two platform sized pieces but it didn't work. She gritted her teeth and tried harder, but nothing happened. No matter what she tried, she just couldn't get the boulder to rip apart. ...Give me a minute, this is harder than I expected...

Thank God. Arc thought wryly, glad that his feet would remain planted firmly on the ground. He wasn't that keen on dashing heroism. The other agents' efforts did not go unnoticed, and he observed that the foliage was hardly destroyed by the blast of light. Keep working on that rock. I'm going to try and tap into her mind––hopefully it doesn't kill this connection. Now was a perfect opportunity to see what effects he could pull off with his telepathy. Finding a way to dampen someone's concentration was high on his list of priorities: if they couldn't concentrate to aim at him, he wouldn't get shot. In theory, at least.

The first thing he could think of that might get annoying on repeat, other than the obvious offenders, were some excellent Christmas carols. O Tannenbaum came to mind. Reaching out to find Isley's mind, he projected the song in its entirety, even bothering to use the English translation––it wouldn't work, he was sure, if she couldn't understand it. Still, as he focused on the volume, he could sense that the distraction wouldn't loop as he'd originally hoped. A single repetition at best.

Hang on, I got you. Grif thinks outloud before swiping his hand across the two boulders, a wave of light flashes through on a horizontal level. In the blink of the eye, the hunks of stone are sliced into clean-cut, perfectly square platforms. Would that do it? He promptly steps onto one of the platforms, waiting for Novikova to send him airborne. Standing on the spot, he would gather up his two hands and generate some solid, shards of light – proper hardlight constructs, this time – and shoots them off as a barrage to Marygold and her vines. The projectiles would find their targets, puncturing the vines but leaves little overall damage. I'm not cutting it with my long-range attacks so far. Just how fast can you send me?

"Try focusing a little more, though I guess I've got it easy, been doing this stuff for around 10 years now... I'm making it a little easier for you, since you are still learning how to use your powers by staying still. All you have to do is knock me down, not too difficult of a task... And really with the Christmas music? The German version of that song is way better if you ask me. Obwohl ich fließend Deutsch spreche," she said, switching to German rather easily as she spoke with a little bit of a smirk.

Novikova was caught off guard by Marygold's German, looking at her. The accent now became identifiable and she couldn't help but wonder if HYDRA had tried to recruit Marygold since she had been at SHIELD. She doubted that she was HYDRA - it would have been too obvious - but still...There were things that Fury never told anyone. He was the spy. His secrets had secrets. What if he had lied to them and HYDRA still lurked within their unit? Novikova shook her head, clearing it and she floated one of the earthen discs over to Griff, floating him up once he jumped on until he matched Marygold in height. She then tried to send another disc flying at Marygold, but it went in a crazed pattern and hit the wall instead.

Arc rolled his eyes. It wasn't really surprising to find someone else who spoke German, in his experience, whether it was from high school classes or a native-speaking parent. He always thought that it was part of the reason he was recruited by SHIELD in the first place, above other graduates with similar skill-sets, because HYDRA was such a danger. "Yeah, but the English one is far more irritating. I take requests, by the way."

Grif was floated up to where Marygold stood on top of her vines, far up from the ground and the rest. He leaps up from Novikova's stone platform and onto the green appendages suspended in the air but struggles to find his center and is slightly unbalanced on his own two feet. His gaze levels on Marygold, drawing his battleaxe from its sheath on his back and starts towards her, running straight down the vine. A blinding flare of light shines off of Grif's visible skin, and the glare would catch the leader of the X-Men in the eyes.

Not wasting a moment to capitalize the opportunity, he lunges and pulls his axe back for a nonlethal blow, attempting to catch her with the flat side of the axeblade. Only he'd slip off the vine mid-rush and only barely manage to hold on with his axe latched on but the blade will prove to be too sharp, and combined with his weight, would slice through the vine.

Nothing to hold onto, this sent him falling to the ground, a drop close to thirty feet. It seemed in a matter of moments, he'd be meet the training room floor with a broken back or worse, but inexplicably his fast downwards ascent stopped to a complete halt, floating mid-air. Though just as fast this brief lapse of gravitiy started, his fall resumed and return him back down to home sweet Earth. Didn't seem like anything got broken but Grif wouldn't be shrugging off the fall straight way, hard pass on that.

"Hold it," Mary said, before she went back down the the floor, getting off the vines and causing them to go back to being seeds. She caught them and put them back in her pocket as she walked over to Griffin. "Definitely did not see that one coming, nice idea, but next time you try something like that, I'd recommend making sure you can keep your balance. I'm used to walking on vines, plus I can make it so that it holds onto my ankles, so I can easily stay up, but you can't. Anyway, I think we're done for today, don't want anyone to get any worse injuries than they already have, no broken bones or anything yet and I'd prefer to keep it that way, you're lucky you didn't break anything. Anyway, we're done here, so see you around," she said, before she headed out of the room.

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If you received a skill reward, please edit it into your CS within 48 hours or it will be considered lost in a drunken haze. Skills indicate where they should be placed as well. IC wise, Fury has not yet revealed who will be taking over as the Beta Team Leader, but there's beginning to be a rumor at the academy that Phase Three is cursed. Rivera turned out to be HYDRA, Nikolova died from unknown causes, and Johnson went home for a medical emergency. Agent Kelley was assigned to go on a mission to Latveria and some are saying that he'll never come back.

Griffin Lee:

• Mission Strategy (Specialty Skill)
• Power Control: Level 3

Maria Smith:

• Stealth (Specialty Skill)
• Power Control: Level 3

Niah Bautista:

• Pistols (General World Skill)
• Power Control: Level 3

Arcturus Hale:

• Agility (General World Skill)
• Power Control: Level 2

Sami Rhodes:

• Staff Fighting (Specialty Skill) SKILL LOST
• Power Control: Level 2

Sparky:

• Mission Strategy (General World Skill)
• Power Control: Level 2

Dominika Novikova:

• Hand to Hand Combat (General World Skill)
• Power Control: Level 2

Tinley Abercrombie:

• Baton Combat - Dual Wielding (Specialty Skill)
• Power Control: Level 2

Cassandra Reed:

• Combat First-Aide (General World Skill)
• Power Control: Level 2

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You should know the drill, same message from last time repeated here:

Alright guys, it's training time. This will be the last round of training. This training will take your characters one week of IC time - in real life, you will have 10 days to complete these collabs. So remember, day 10 you need to have your collab up, day 11 it's kicking time. Once all of the collabs have been posted, I'll see what control over your powers you've learned or if you've gained any skills.

Training facilities are located in Building 2 of the Academy, home to Operations. In your collabs, it's just you and your trainer in the room. Most of you are being trained in groups, so trainers, play off of that! You have 10 days once more to get through the entirety of the collab. This is also a good time to contact me and request changes to your character's possessions. After the training rounds are done, we'll be jumping back in with our first mission.

Marygold Isley, X-Men (@BlueSky44):
--Griffin Lee, Operations
--Maria Smith, Operations
--Niah Bautista, SciTech

Jemma Simmons and Leo Fitz, Engineering (@Morose):
--Arcturus Hale, Communications
--Sami Rhodes, Operations

Raynor Blake, Operations (@Morose):
-—Theresa Sparks, SciTech

Steve Rogers, SSR (@BlueSky44):
--Dominika Novikova, SciTech
--Tinley Abercrombie, Operations

Jim Kennedy, Operations (@Morose)
--Cassandra Reed, Communications

Trainers, please start your collabs shortly. I'll be sending starters for Raynor and Jim's groups in a moment.

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Raynor waited in the training room, feeling a bit anxious. They hadn't disclosed their relationship to SHIELD, mostly because he was worried that he'd be reassigned if they did. He twirled Lyting in his hand, finding that the dagger always helped him to calm down slightly. Of course, there was a certain excitement as well, getting to spend alone time with Sparky, without the risk of anyone walking in. This was his time to teach her whatever he could - and hopefully steal a few kisses as well. "Jeg er så forelsket i henne det er ikke engang morsomt...," he muttered.

Sparky walked into the training room, a little anxious to get started as well. She was twisting her hair slightly as she walked into the room, unsure of what they were going to be doing this time around, and starting to wonder slightly what Fury would think if he found out about their relationship. It probably would result in them being separated, and she didn't exactly want that. "So uh... What's the plan this time?" she asked him.

"Um, well...Do you want to train?" Raynor asked her, figuring that was a good starting point. There were other things that he could teach her beyond fighting - beyond anything that S.H.I.E.L.D. would expect a freshly graduated cadet to need to know, but still. He couldn't help but be tempted to pass on all of this knowledge to her - and to tell her about where he had come from and why he fought to protect the world.

"Uh, yeah... Training would probably be a good thing... Otherwise some people might a-a-ask questions or something about what we did in here the entire time..." she said, blushing slightly and looking at the ground. The thought of that was a little weird for her, but she didn't say anything more about it.

Raynor nodded, shifting uncomfortably as well. He could think of a few things they could do in here. Then an idea occurred to him. "Come on, I have something I want to teach you," he said, heading over to a side door. He opened up the door and inside, there was what appeared to be a real life Framework Hub. This one worked more similar to the Danger Room and could only support up to two people at a time. "It'll help with your reflexes...And as an engineer, I think you could appreciate it...We use it to train people on stunt driving, tracking, stuff like that."

Sparky nodded, following after him. She glanced around the room, a little surprised at what it was she was seeing. The room was definitely an interesting one, and she was a little impressed with the room. "So... What exactly are we doing in this room... What sort of training or whatever?" she asked, still glancing around the room.

"...I'm told it's like a popular game - MarioKart," Raynor explained. He flicked on a switch and suddenly, it looked like they were on the streets of Chicago, with a car in front of them. "You drive and try to get to the destination indicated, avoiding traps...It's good for your reflexes as I mentioned, but also is a situation you might find yourself in the field...A classic chase scene..."

"MarioKart? Uh, okay... Sounds like it'll be interesting... So, what... Guess I'm the one driving? Um... What exactly is the point of this one? I mean, I get it, it's some weird chase scenario, but what exactly is the point of the simulation?" she asked, heading over towards the driver's side of the car.

Raynor nodded, getting into the passenger seat of the car. There actually were two pairs of seats in front of them, allowing them to actually sit and react to what was happening around them. "Right. In this scenario, one of your teammates has been abducted by an A.I.M. crew. You need to rescue them - they're in that car ahead of you," he explained, as suddenly a car appeared in the program and zoomed off.

"Uh, okay Ray..." she said, deciding to use a nickname rather than flat out using his full name. Sparky got into the driver's seat, before she took a deep breath and started the car up, before zipping off after the other one. She had no idea what she was going to do, and decided to just roll with it, going after the other car.

Raynor raised an eyebrow, a bit uncertain about that name - especially since Sparky rarely ever called him by his name. There were other things that she called him, strictly behind closed doors. Sparky managed to make the first turn taken by the car ahead, rather sharp for their current speed - 50 mph. However, as she finished her drift and saw the road ahead of her, the enemy car had thrown metal objects onto the ground, detonating and creating a minefield of potholes.

She spun the wheel, making her way through the potholes, it wasn't the easiest thing in the world to do. There was a lot of potholes in the road, and she kept spinning the wheel around as she avoided them, somehow managing to avoid them all. She was a little surprise that she had managed to avoid them, but she said nothing.

Suddenly, the car they were chasing shrunk down to size, driving underneath two cars in an intersection. A second later, it had popped back up to its normal size and the cars were flung into the road, landing directly in front of Sparky. "...The A.I.M. crew has also stolen some size manipulation technology from Hank Pym," Raynor added, hoping that Sparky would stop the car or avoid the obstacles without giving them whiplash.

In her mind, she had two choices, one, keep going and hopefully they cleared the obstacles, or two, slam on the breaks and with stopping distance chance hitting the obstacles anyway. In a split second decision, she decided to keep going, and ended up slamming into it. Looking over at Raynor, she was perfectly fine, but she saw that he was not fine, but badly injured, and she started panicking as the car stopped. "S-S-Sorry R-R-Ray," she stammered out, her eyes wide as she looked at him.

Raynor looked at the holographic pieces of metal piercing through him, as well as the images of the injuries. He waved his hand through the metal piece, looking a bit amused. "So I'm guessing it took you a few tries to get your driver's license..." he said simply, smiling at Sparky slightly to let her know that he was okay.

"I-I-I'm s-s-so s-s-sorry," she stammered again, still panicking. She knew that this was just a simulation, that it wasn't actually real, but she was still freaking out. It looked really real to her, and her mind wasn't wanting to accept that it was fake at all. "I-I-I d-d-didn't mean t-t-to..."

Shutting down the simulation, the room returned to normal and they were just sitting in two high tech chairs. He sighed slightly. "Look, you never need to worry about me getting hurt, okay Sparks?" Raynor said, pulling out Lyting and showing it to her. "As long as I have Lyting, I'll heal super quick. Like magic."

"I-I-If you say so..." she muttered, looking away. She was starting to calm down, at least somewhat, but her mind was still racing, still somewhat believing that Raynor had gotten hurt because of her. Thinking like that wasn't doing any good for her, but she couldn't help it. Her mind was wanting to play some tricks on her it seems.

Raynor put his hand on her cheek delicately, turning her face so that way she was looking at him, and he kissed her. He doubted they were going to get much training done anyways. She should have gone to train with someone else, but he just couldn't help himself. He adored her and wanted to spend time with her - something he had never felt about anyone before.

She kissed him back, but her mind was still freaking out. She hadn't meant to get him injured, even if it was just a simulation. Sparky cared about him, a lot, and the thought that she might be the one to cause him to get hurt scared her. The fact that Raynor was trying to calm her down, or somewhat laugh about it afterwards, but it didn't help that she was still scared.

"...There's something you should know about me..."

"...What is it?"

Raynor then proceeded to tell Sparky the truth about himself.

That was definitely not something she had expected to hear today, it was really weird. "Wow..." was all she managed to say, just staring at him. It didn't matter though, she still cared about him, and it did help to calm her down, at least a little bit.

"...So now you know..."

Jim was day dreaming about a blueberry pie as he waited for Cassandra in the training room. He had a playlist from the 90's pumping throughout the area. Unlike with the newly graduated cadets, he felt comfortable letting his guard down and relaxing a little more around Cass. Of course, most recruits thought his guard was down around them already and that's the way Jim wanted it. "Morning, Cass," he greeted with a smile. "Drinks and pie afterwards?"

Cassandra got changed into something a little bit more comfortable for training, it would be her first time really to test out her abilities. And she trusted working with Jim as she entered the training room, and made her way over towards him, and gave him a friendly wave and nod. "Good morning to you as well Jimmy." Cass said, as she stretched slightly and thought a moment when he offered some pie and drinks after their session. "I certainly wouldn't mind, so long as your paying for the pies and drinks that is as well."

He shook his head at her, chuckling. "Why do you always want me to pay, Cass?" he asked. "Just because I'm getting old doesn't mean I'm made of money. Plus, I've got a nephew to take care of. He's probably going to go to medical school eventually." Jim then set aside his water bottle and turned into his rock form, charging at Cass without any prior warning. Sometimes, you had to run before you could walk.

"Your the one who always offers, the one who offers usually is the one who ends up paying." Cassandra said jokingly as she got ready, she didn't really pay attention to her shoe laces. "I'm sure SHIELD has great coverage for family as well for whatever money they need for their agents families." Cassandra then watched as Jim went into his stone form, as she got ready she tried to dodge however she didn't know that she stepped on one of the lose laces which made her stumble forward into Jim's charge. Groaning loudly as she was knocked back feeling the wind getting knocked out of her, every part of her body stung as she laid on the ground while looking up at the ceiling.

"I think you and I must be getting different benefits packages, since SHIELD isn't going to give my nephew shit," Jim explained, getting up and looking down at her with a smirk. He held out a chiseled hand to her, waiting for her to get back up on her feet. He doubted it'd take very long. "So I guess now we know who wins in Stone and Bulletproof Skin, huh?"

Cassandra rolled over onto her side slightly as Jim started to walk over towards her, offering his hand to help her up using that time despite her insides aching slightly from the impact. She used her legs to trip him over and quickly got on top of him pinning Jim to the ground, cracking her neck slightly. "I'm just getting started you know." Cass said before pulling back and offering her hand to help him back up to his feet.

Jim shook his head, jumping back up to his feet. He was expecting her to attempt to flip him or something. At her remark, he had to smirk slightly. She was a spitfire, that was for sure. "I'm gonna ask you a personal question, Cass - your sister," Jim prefaced. "One of these days, the X-Men have to become a legit organization...S.H.I.E.L.D. offered them that...So how long do you think it'll be before she gets wise? The MRA was just the start." He then threw a kick at the back of her knee.

Cassandra shrugged slightly when Jim didn't take her offered hand and got back up on his feet, she started to get into a fighting stance as she looked at Jim letting him make the next move, raising an eyebrow slightly when he asked about her sister. "The X-Men are doing fine for the most part even before the whole thing with OMEN and Jakobson. And S.H.I.E.L.D. sort of messed up when Mary found out about Phase Three, and we were sort of using them in a way I guess." Cassandra said as she quickly side stepped Jim's kick to her leg, and quickly did a round kick towards Jim's back. "But it's her choice whether to stay with the X-Men, or join up with S.H.I.E.L.D. or settle down for a normal life. She is an adult now, so I cant force her to do anything that she doesn't want to do. And the last I talked to her she seemed content and happy with the X-Men now."

"Maybe I ought to talk my nephew into joining the X-Men," Jim mused, as Cass kicked him in the spine and he was sent flying to the ground. He turned into his rock form before he hit, in a way to kickstart a mild regenerative process, as that had smarted. Had they not been playing by dirty rules, he would have called foul - instead, he just smirked as he got to his feet again, slower this time. "Not bad, buttercup."

Cassandra smirked as she watched her kick hit home as she stood there as Jim briefly turned to stone once more, she started to circle around Jim slightly watching and trying to anticipate his next move. "Let me ask you a personal question now, why take the job for being the SO for Phase Three. Aside from training the cadets with getting used to their powers?"

"It's all about the cadets for me," Jim admitted. "I didn't have someone there for me when I got my abilities...Hell, I never see my own family as much as I desperately want to see them. I'm alive, but...I'm something new. And it's my job to give back - to help the next generation - to make sure they don't make the same mistakes," he explained, staying light on his feet. "Plus, let's be real...If it wasn't me, they would've got some asshat to be the SO for Phase Three and those cadets would end up dead."

Cassandra nodded slightly as she decided to try her second ability season manipulation, and try and get some use out of it and focused on the colder seasons as she watched Jim closely. "Its certainly a better way to help the others. And someone who isn't an ass would be better as well." Cassandra said as she backed up from Jim somewhat in case he made his next move.

"Yeah, I find that my day is always improved when the amount of asses in it is minimized," Jim said with a cheeky grin. He then feinted a punch to the left, catching Cass off guard as he instead used the momentum and drove his entire knee up into Cass, turning it into rock as he did so. The younger SHIELD agent was sent flying upwards and would be incredibly tempted to empty the contents of her stomach.

"You are the best trainer for them after all, and you certainly aren't like Fury." Cass said towards Jim giving him a slight smile as she started to focus on making the weather effect into a blizzard outside. Her eyes looking over towards the windows seeing the weather changing, that's when Jim made his move. Falling for the feint the moment she felt Jim kick her directly in the stomach, flying a few feet up into the air. When she landed Cass got down onto her knees nearly wanting to vomit all over the floor, but tried her best to hold it. "You are definitely going to buy me some drinks later.." Cass said between deep breathes.

Jim offered her a hand up. "Is that all I am to you? A human cash machine for drinks?" he asked, laughing a bit. He was planning on buying her a drink anyways. After everything that they'd been through so far in this program, he had no doubt that Cass needed one.

Cass smirked slightly but accepted his hand as she stood back up leaning forward slightly taking a few more deep breathes as her stomach started to settle down a bit. "Not at all, you'd certainly be a great drinking buddy during our free time. I'll buy the next round."

He nodded, looking at her. "So, should we continue to beat the shit out of each other or hit the bar now?" he asked with a smirk.

Cass smirked, before she decided to feint Jim with her arm, before feeling Jim grabbing her by the arm feeling herself suddenly being tossed over his shoulder and onto the ground with a rather loud thud. Cassandra looked up at Jim awkwardly before holding her arm out to towards him. "I think i'm done now. And I am ready to hit the bar now." She said awkwardly