Looking out over the crowd, Kennedy finally had understood what she had been missing, however that also added a bit of sadness to her face."I wonder how many times he has actually risked his life fighting..." The thought flashed through her head at the same time if flashed through Malene"s head. Both girls had a momentary bout of sadness that soon left.
They could no longer dwell on the things that have already happened. They could only advance towards the future.
"Line up. We"re going right now," Kennedy said with conviction. After having her team"s short comings revealed to her, Kennedy immediately thought to remedy the problem. But Vivi had another idea.
"Hang on a second there big sis. How about we do things another way?" Vivi asked with a sweet smile.
"Another way? What did you have in mind?" Kennedy asked, looking towards her. Malene looked at her as well, wondering what she was thinking. In truth, Malene wished that Aqua was with her at the moment, or even her newest spirit friend Lilac. But they had ventured off together for some training with Aqua leading the way. With things the way they were, Malene preferred it this way. Unlike before where she was only able to fight using Aqua, she had gained her own abilities. This was the only reason that Aqua felt she was safe enough to leave by herself. Otherwise, Aqua"s growth wouldn"t be as exceptional as it is now since Malene wouldn"t have been able to go out with them as much.
Had they been here, Malene would have loved to have had Kennedy"s recruits fight Aqua as Aqua would have kicked all their a.s.ses. She figured that might show them just how lacking they are. After all, she understood Kennedy"s plight in not wanting the recruits she had trained so much to be killed uselessly. And showing them a battle they can"t win would have done wonders for their growth. Still, now that Vivi was offering something, Malene was quite curious.
"I happen to have a rather special ability that can... help to show them what they might one day fight," Vivi said, wording it rather strangely.
"A special ability?" Kennedy asked, thinking that she was up to something and wanting to play along.
"Yes. An ability to summon a demon beast here for them to fight. But there is only one problem..." Vivi replied, acting hesitant.
"What"s that?"
"Well, I can bring the creature here... but I can"t control it in the slightest..."
"What?"
"Huh?" Malene added on, not getting that this was a show. She continued,
"What"s the point of bringing a creature in that you can"t control? Is it super strong?"
"Yeah, very strong. I"m betting it can eat about half the people here," Vivi responded with a nod while looking at the crowd in front of her. Although they didn"t show any sort of expression, Vivi was more than strong enough to hear that many of them had increased heart rates and were taking faster breaths.
"EAT THEM?!?!" Malene was confused and shocked, wondering why this was a good idea according to Vivi. Although she had agreed that they needed harsher training, half of them getting eaten would be over kill, wouldn"t it?
Kennedy smiled at this. She was starting to get an idea about what Vivi wanted to do. Even she noticed the nerviousness in her group"s demeanor and that was what she was going for. They had started to get an inflated ego about their abilities which needed to be crushed. She couldn"t do it herself as they would just attribute that to Kennedy"s power. So if Vivi had some sort of way to do that, she would be greatful.
"Well... i mean, it"s not like it could swallow them all at once so it"s fine..." Vivi"s voice trailed off.
"Ok. You have all heard what is being suggested. Thoughts?" Kennedy suprisingly asked everyone for their thoughts about Vivi"s idea. As she looked out over the crowd, she noticed that they were a bit nervous, but there was also some looks of disbelief in their faces, as though they didn"t think that Vivi was being serious. Despite their flaws, they had fought demon beasts before and had seen real action. So why would this be different.
One of the young, blonde haired girls in the front row stepped forward and said "Mam."
"Go ahead Renee."
"I think it will be fine. But I must ask, will this be a one on one challenge? We have gotten used to working in groups against demon beasts so a bit of adjustment would be needed to fight one on one. If that were the case, wouldn"t it be better if someone as strong as you mam were to train us?" Renee asked Kennedy before turning her head to Vivi with a slight look of mockery. As far as Renee was concerned, if this girl wanted this thing to challenge them, it would only be right to do so when they were at their strongest. Otherwise, what was the point? Wouldn"t fighting the boss be better than wasting their time on whatever animal Vivi had in mind. This was also her way of sucking up to Kennedy
Just as she thought that she had posed a question that would disregard Vivi"s purposal, Vivi laughed.
"Ha ha. Oh d.a.m.n... This girl... Ha ah ah ha."
Hearing Vivi"s mocking words, the girl turned a bit red while her face displayed an obvious frown. When Vivi finally stopped laughing at this movie like scene, she finally said,
"It"s going to be all of you fighting this creature at once. No need for any one on one"s or group fights. All twenty some of you can work together. Any other problems?" Vivi asked while looking at the group. Seeing their smug faces caused Kennedy to frown but made Vivi that much happier. The more arrogent they were now, the better it would be when they fell later.
"I guess that"s that. Ten minutes and we will start. Clear the room." Kennedy quickly gave out instructions before turning to Vivi.
"Is there anything you need?" She asked, but then added,
*You can actually ocntrol this thing right?* Kennedy was asking half becuase she wanted to make sure it didn"t get lose somewhere and also half because she didn"t want all of her people to die due to their carelessness.
*Of course. That creature will be me afterall?*
*YOU"RE FIGHTING!?* In a strange twist, Malene somehow injected herself into their conversation, surprising all three of them.
*You heard us?*
*Is this now a group chat?*
Kennedy and Vivi both had their own questions and it was obvious this was the first time it had happened to any of them so Malene tried to explain.
*Well, yeah. I was able to catch the bits of conversation that were going on between you both and figured I would listen in. And then suddenly, when i spoke out, you all heard me. Kinda cool, huh?*
Staring at Malene"s pleased face, Vivi turned back to Kennedy and just said,
*I need a room. When the time comes, I will come out,* Vivi said. Kennedy then directed her over to her own private bathroom and sat down in the only two chairs that were there. One for her and one for Malene.
*You sure that Vivi is up for this?*
*Well. I have never seen here fight before, but you have. Do you think she is up for it?*
*After following that man around for almost two years, I think she is...*
*Sounds like you"re not sure.*
*Well, I mean. How do you know? How do you know that a guy who has been on the run since he left here has actually grown. And that"s coming from saying that we have grown as much as we did, based on the money that you have spent. They didn"t have that...*
*I know. But if she says she can, then we have to believe her.*
*Alright."
It didn"t take long before the ten minutes was up, and everyone was ready in battle gear. A few of the members of the group wore heavy padding including balistic vests and shields along with helmets while other members had lighter, Kevlar based clothing that allowed for faster movement. While a few carried fire arms, most of them did not and this was at Kennedy"s judgement. She didn"t want them to become to relient on the guns when they needed to develop themselves first. She remembered something Laz had told her once, that although guns worked for now, they wouldn"t always work. What was the point in having abilities if you weren"t going to use them.
Seeing them gather and set themsevles up, Malene couldn"t help but laugh as she wondered if it was intentional that they had set themselves up like a MMO raiding party with tanks in the front, melee in the middle and long range charaters in the back. Despite this, Malene had to admit that it was the set up that made the most sense.
As they all waited, facing the bathroom door, nothing happened.
One minute went by.
Then two.
Five minutes.
After ten minutes had gone by, the originally tense group had already started relaxing, the tanks setting their shields to rest on the floor while some of the others actaully sat down. When Kennedy saw this, her eyebrows twitched, but she didn"t say anything and continued sitting there while drinking some coffee with Malene. Mentally though, they were sharing quite a few things.
*Wow, how lazy can they get.*
*Sigh. I know. I know.*
*She"s doing this on purpose...*
*Yeah, I know she is. And it"s working perfectly.*
*Are they sitting down and acting uninterested?* Vivi"s mental voice chimmed in.
*Yes.*
*Good.*
*This was your plan?* Kennedy asked, a look of regret in her face.
*Just the start. But as you can see, they are treating this as though it was a game.*
*I see it and you"re right.*
*See? That"s why I like my big sisters so much. Whenever I argue with that brick for brains brother of mine, he just wants to do things his way and hear no excuses.*
*Well, I think even he would admit this is a good plan...* Malene giggled while thinking of Vivi and Laz"s relationship.
*He would... but only because it was something he suggeted to me in the past...* Vivi admitted. Both girls couldn"t help but smile at this.
Just as they were talking in their heads, Renee walked over, having left her position in the middle line. She was also serving as the coordinator for this excerise by leading the entire team.
"Mam," Renee said, standing at attention. Kennedy didn"t respond back and instead, just looked up over her coffee up at Renee, neither smiling nor frowning.
"I"m not sure what has happened, but maybe we should check to see if your friend is..."
Before she could even finish, razor sharp spears of ice had risen from the floor and bashed into all of the lazily a.s.sembled group members, sending many of them flying while only one or two people were able to dodge it. At some unknown time, a almost invisible white mist had drifted out from the bottom of the bathroom door and made a very fine layer which covered the entire floor of the training room. Had someone been paying attention to it, they would have noticed it.
But they had failed to take it seriously.
As the fallen members tried to pick themselves back up, Renee, frozen at the sudden attack, swore to herself while running back into place. She had just gotten there and was about to organize people into position when the bathroom door flew open and a shadow, devoid of all light, pounced forward. Before Renee could identify it, it had reached the three closest members of the group. The three tanks grabbed their shields as quickly as they could to try to get a defense up, but in the end, all three were touched by something and their eyes went wide. Looking at them from a distance, one could see a purple glow surrounding the victims and freezing them quickly. Before other"s had proccessed what happened, all three tanks were now ice statues with their life and death unknown.
Just as the remaining members were about to go nuts randomly start firing everywhere, a large, seven foot tall wolf appeared in front of them. The black fur seemily devoid of all color while the white star mark over the eye lent it a dangerous sort of appeal.
Yes, Vivi had taken her full size form and was about to teach these kids a lession.