MISS Potts

[SparkleBreaker]

Sydney
​

To Sydney’s delight the Aoife took up her offer, without much convincing too. That must mean she made a pretty good first impression. The whole cafeteria reminded her of the movie Mean Girls and how everyone in the high school split up in the cafeteria into their own little clicks. Just like in the movie, some tables were friendlier than others. Sydney’s rivals were already quite clear at this time. Though she could feel some glaring at the back of her head as she guided Aoife over to their table, she kept her attention on the new recruit. Biting her lip, she reviewed all that had gone down since the start of all of this. A lot had happened, now that she was replaying back the last twenty-four hours. Their instructor wasn’t messing around and wasted no time at all.  

“A lot, honestly. . .” she trailed off, trying to think of the best way to summarize the events that had occurred. “On the way here” she did quotations in the air with her hand to emphasize the word here as she spoke. “they tried to drown us in the van. We had to escape from a sinking vehicle and then navigate through the wilderness with a map that had no compass or legend.  That took a little under twenty four hours, which means we had to sleep under the stars in the rain. It actually wasn’t that bad we created a shelter out of the tarps that were provided. Mei and Chris lead a hunting group so we could eat. When we finally reached our destination they made us run about two miles to this place. That pretty much sums it up. We chose our rooms and then were brought here to eat.” Sydney had taken her time walking back to the group so she could finish the summary before introducing everyone. That way it wouldn’t have been interrupted and the exchange would go sooner. Her timing was perfect because they were just now walking up to the group. 

“This is Mei, my partner in crime.” she mentioned with a giant smile as she pointed out her friend. “This is Chris, my other partner.” she said in a sultry playful tone. A smile was still on her face as she tucked a chunk of her hair behind her ear. “This is Efiah . . .Aoife.” she glanced over to the newcomer apologetically. “Sorry, not good with pronouncing names sometimes. My tongue just gets all tied up.” Again, she was biting her lip, nervous that she might have upset the other. Many could be very touchy about the pronunciation of their name. Sydney, not that many couldn’t pronounce her name, never dwelled on tiny details like that. Sometimes it sounded a bit cuter with their accent anyhow. Taking a seat in the one she sat in before she gestured to an empty one next to her. “Take a seat. Most a finishing up so I figure the next test will start or off to bed we go.”
 

 

[pyreshadow]

┏━━━┓
Mei
┗━---━┛​

Mei noticed from the corner of her eye that Sydney was walking back towards them with the redhead. As she straightened, she also noticed the way that Chris was looking at the new girl. "You like redheads?" Mei asked in a teasing manner, quickly gaining Giant's attention as he quickly shook his head. "N-no, of course not. That's not why we're here at all anyway so there's no point in thinking about that sort of thing." He could deny it all he wanted but it was clear on his face. It was rather amusing to Mei how things really were like high school all over again despite the reason why they were all here. Not that she'd complain any, in the end it would make things easier. Her attention turned to look at Sydney as introductions were being made. With her own, she gave a salute to the redhead as Chris waved at the same time. Hearing the accent the redhead, Aoife, had had her glancing over to Chris. Yeah, he was interested when he claimed he wouldn't. Why else would he ask if she spoke the language too? Men were so easy to read at times but Aoife either didn't catch on to it or didn't care.

"It's nice to meet you, Aoife." Mei spoke as the redhead sat down next to her, after listening to the more in depth suggestion for pronouncing her name. It was one of the reasons why Mei was grateful her parents didn't give her a full on Chinese name. Mei was simple but her mother's sure wasn't. Glancing to Sydney with other's thought, she quickly nodded in agreement. "I feel like it isn't going to end tonight at all if they claim we can go to bed. Something might happen in the middle of the night while we're all sleeping." Not that she was assuming since she had only seen that in movies before but it was still possible. "We should be prepared for anything, just in case."

┏━-━-━┓
Aoife
┗━-----━┛​

Aoife pouted for a brief moment knowing she missed a lot before a smile covered up the pout. There wasn't much point in dwelling on it since it wasn't completely her fault that she missed it. Not that she was blaming Caleb or anything but with how Aoife spent some of her time it was a wonder he even found her at all. She listened closely to Sydney as she recapped what had happened for her. Truth be told, it sounded like it could have been interesting to partake in but at the same time, Aoife was a little glad she missed it. At least it meant she had more energy for what was going to come. "Sounds craic." Of course she was being sarcastic since it wasn't completely fun sounding. Then again, this wasn't a place for fun since it was an interview for what could be the best thing that ever happened to the individual that survived to the end. As they neared the table, Aoife glanced over the other two sitting there and gave them each a nod when they were introduced.

"Cheers." Aoife greeted before letting out a small laugh with the mishap in her name. "No worries, Irish names aren't de easiest of names. Tink of it dis way: Ee. Fah. Den put dem tageder for Aoife and dat's how it's pronounced." She waved off Sydney's worries, the smile on her face only growing. Her attention went to Chris when he asked if she actually spoke Irish too before nodding her head. All too easily she started talking to him about what she was doing the day before in the dialect she knew. She only paused when he started laughing and said it was pretty cool. "A test or bed." Aoife repeated, sitting down next to Mei as the other named her own thoughts on probably getting tested while they slept. That wouldn't be too surprising since at some point it would have to happen. They'd have to be prepared for anything, right?

 

[SparkleBreaker]

Sydney
​

“Aoife, got it.” There was still a slight accent when pronouncing the name, but Sydney didn’t notice. That was the closest her tongue was going to let her get the right pronunciation of her name. The foreign language caught Sydney’s attention as she gawked at the red head as the she spoke her native language perfectly. “Wow, a woman of many talents.” She complemented with a smile. The conversation was moving along smoothly on what to expect next. It was right on que, the next training exercise. It was as if Brian had been eavesdropping on their conversation, because right after Mei comment the doors busted open and there was gun fire and men and women in black hockey masks shouting at everyone to get down on the ground. A yelp of surprise escaped as she looked to the others. Was this the time to play the hero and fight back, even though they had nothing, or were they to follow the “bad guys” instructions? The decision was made for her as someone strongly gripped her arm and tore her out of the pushing her to the ground.

“Get down ON THE GROUND” the woman barked angrily as she pointed the gun at the back of Sydney’s head. Her heart started racing as she followed the woman’s orders and spread her arms out, lying flat on her stomach. A male, large like Chris made a mad dash for it and was shot with a stun gun leaving him on the ground in a fit of pain. Only one other dared to do the same and met the same fate as the other candidate, thriving in pain on the ground. The room grew very quiet as the men and women took over. The silence was broken by the sound of a chair scraping the ground as the instructor stood with all his belonging tucked in his arms. Only three sentences were exchanged: “If you were shot, you’d be dead in real life. Therefore you are out. To get a goodnight’s rest you’ll have to outsmart your captors and escape in a timely fashion.” That was the last they saw of him that night as he went off to watch in a camera room.   

Their hunch was right, though Sydney would have rather been wrong. A good night sleep would have been wonderful after all they had put them through already. The bumptious woman grabbed the collar of her suit and pulled hard until she got up on her feet. A red mark was left around her neck that her hands were rubbing in attempt to ease the pain. They were not afraid to rough handle the recruits and they were making that clear as they guided them in groups of four into individual rooms. Everyone at the table was grouped together and in a small room. The instructor did say as soon as you escape you can get your good night’s rest, if you do it in time. That didn’t make sense until she saw the four chairs in a circle and the woman was pushing her down into it. “Make a move and you’re going to get a hundred volts of electricity coursing through your system.” The woman warned as she began tying Sydney up. The woman must have been an expert because she was done in no time, and the rope didn’t give away a bit when she pulled on them. It on dug into her skin leaving a rope burn the harder she tried.  
 

 

[pyreshadow]

┏━━━┓
Mei
┗━---━┛​

Mei hated it when she was right. Not even moments passed after the words fell from her mouth before a group of masked individuals busted into the room with weapons. For a moment, Mei was shocked by what was going on and felt frozen. It was when the first attempt was made to play hero and the guy dropped to the ground in agony that Mei felt herself moving. She was actually pretty glad she did since all too quickly a masked man came to pull her out of the chair. She was practically thrown to the ground as he shouted at her to not make any funny moves. It seemed the other three were in similar positions also, laying flat on the ground and just waiting. How exactly was this a test? Mei's eyes glanced to the direction of the chair sliding across the floor as their instructor spoke. He didn't say much but two more candidates were already tossed out of the competition. A gasp escaped Mei's lips when the man pulled her to her feet by her hair and shoved her to get her moving. It was good to know that they weren't afraid to get rough during these tests, which meant that getting rough back would be all right. Probably.

Mei didn't do anything as of yet except for eye the room she and the others were brought into. She was shoved into a chair across from Sydney before the man tied her up in a similar manner to the others. Mei recognized the type of knot that she was tied with too after a moment's struggle against it: a constrictor knot. The more she pulled, the tighter the knot would become and that just wouldn't do. Taking a small breath, she watched as Chris and Aoife joined them in being tied up before the masked individuals left the room altogether. The door closed with a 'click' sound, indicating that it was locked after them. It was a pity Mei didn't end up grabbing something that had required a knife to eat. "All right, so what's the game plan guys? If even one of us can get out of the ropes then we can all get out. We'll know when they're coming back, if they do, since they locked the door after them." Mei looked over each of them as she figured it'd be best to come up with a plan together. So far the tests let them work together and that just upped their chances of making it further.

┏━-━-━┓
Aoife
┗━-----━┛​

Aoife couldn't help the smile that stayed on her face, even as she attempted to wave off Sydney's compliment. It wasn't too big of a deal -for her- to speak since that was where she grew up. Before she could say anything more on it though, her smile faltered when the doors slammed open and armed men and women came rushing into the room. Aoife stood up rather quickly, eyeing the masked figures as her hands balled into a fist. She didn't need to see the first downed person to know playing hero was going to be a very bad idea. There were too many and they were outgunned, so clearly the only option was to do as the masked group said. When one approached her, she gave them a glare as they tried to touch her before she dropped to the ground herself. She had been handled roughly by too many people recently -sure it was her own fault for getting caught but that wasn't even the point- and she certainly didn't want this masked woman to do it too. She eyed what was around them to see if there was going to be something she could use but words being spoken were rather distracting. It was a good thing she got some sleep on the plane ride. One by one people were forced to their feet with a masked person on their tail and eventually it was Aoife's turn as well.

She was grabbed roughly by one of her arms and yanked to her feet before being guided after the others. The grip the woman had was almost shocking as it dug deep into her skin. A bruise was probably going to form there but she still bit her tongue from saying anything. It had been her choice to try for this job and she knew the risks it would involve. Compared to what could happen in reality, this was like getting candy. The room she was brought to along with the three she just met was small and barren, save for the chairs. A curse in her native tongue slipped out when she was shoved into one of the chairs and tied up like the rest of them. These masked people were brutes, all of them. She followed them with a glare in her eyes until the door closed and locked after them. "No point in actin da maggot. Best tink of sometin quick." A quick look was tossed her way from Chris, in which she stared at him like he was the odd one. "Messin around. Not tinking seriously." Her head shook slowly before she started pulling against the rope, not even caring much that it was cutting into her wrists some. She winced slightly when it started hurting to much and let out another small curse in Irish. "Da rope be too tight. We could move da chairs so dat one of ya pick at da oder wit ya hands."

 

[SparkleBreaker]

Sydney
​

The masked lady had waited for the other three strangers to finish with their recruits, tying them up, and man handling them. Sydney could hear the others struggle against their assailants, but didn’t look over to them. One should not let their feelings show when they cared for someone. That was the first rule in all the spy movies. Once the ones you cared for were identified they were used against you. Though urge to look over her shoulder ate at her she stared down the figure in front of until they left. Not once did she adjust her stare as she followed the woman as she left with the others, locking the door behind them. Mei was in front of her and she scanned over her body first to see if she was alright, before turning right where Aoife sat struggling with her own rope. Chris to her left, all of them facing each other in a circle. Once again she gave the ropes a hard yank as the others began trying to form a plan, but regretted it as the rope dug in even tighter around her wrist. That was not going to be the way to get out. Sydney heard Aoife’s suggestion and another idea came to mind. It wasn’t just to see if they could get out, they were timing them. That is a good night’s rest was reward, even if that probably wasn’t plausible to obtain. It would just show them if they could do it faster. 

“I have an idea, but if it doesn’t work your best bet is probably what Aoife suggested. This way just might cut down on some time.” The next part was tricky as she started to rock the chair back and forth a balancing act that hopefully would put her on her tippy toes. “I’m going to break the chair” she huffed, letting them in on her crazy scheme. It was a gamble and if it didn’t work it would render her useless on the floor. Making it on to her feet, she did a baby jump that as soon as possibly not to lose any momentum and then arched her body back, forcing her landing to come down on the back legs breaking the wooden chair legs, back rest, and had the arm rest come detached from the body. “It worked.” she groaned, rolling over on her hand and knees, one hand rubbing the pain out of her back before she crawled over to Aoife and worked on untie the nots. It was a bit tricky, because they certainly knew what they were doing, but she got the job done and then moved over to Mei to untie her. That one went a bit faster because she had a grasp already knowing what she was doing. “Great where should we go from here?” she asked, looking over the room. The door that the four captors had gone through would be an obvious no go, but there was another option. A different door that Sydney saw and gestured over to as she finished asking her question.
 

 

[pyreshadow]

┏━━━┓
Mei
┗━---━┛​

Mei turned from Aoife to Sydney when both girls seemed to have come up with a plan. "Best to go with Sydney's if it's going to cut time. We don't know if those goons'll be back any time soon either." Chris spoke up and Mei nodded her own head in agreement. Though she was surprised when Sydney said she was going to break the chair. Her mouth opened to say something but closed as Sydney was already working on putting her plan into action. Mei felt nervous for some reason, the feeling only growing as she watched the other woman's movements. Was she worried about Sydney getting hurt? It wasn't often she felt a connection with someone like this so quickly. "Sydney!" Mei's voice was quiet but full of worry when the chair actually broke with the pressure of the drop. She was more worried about if Sydney actually broke something with the fall than actually getting out of this place now. The other woman was certainly stronger than she looked and Mei couldn't help the growing smile. The moment Aoife was free of the rope, the redhead worked on getting Chris out as Sydney worked on Mei.

The question posed caused the black haired woman to eye the door their captors had gone through. That was out of the question since they had guns and who knew if it would lead to safety. The other door though, they hadn't a clue where it led but it just might be their best bet. "It's password protected." Chris announced as he had been the one to look the door over once he was free. "Great, a guessing game at the opportune moment. What if-" she paused when Aoife laughed and said she could get the door open in a flash. Mei glanced to Sydney for a moment with a tiny hint of doubt in her eyes before eyeing the door again. It hadn't even been more than thirty seconds and the door slid open as Aoife gave them a wide grin. "Wow. Okay, definitely glad you're with us. Come on, Syd." Mei reached her hand out to take Sydney's hand in hers, silently offering the other woman to use Mei as a crutch if needed. With a last glance at the other door, she followed after the others out the door and down a long white hall. At the very end was another door but one that wasn't as complex as the first. "All right, be prepared for anything guys."

┏━-━-━┓
Aoife
┗━-----━┛​

Aoife kept struggling even as the rope bit deeper, causing small rope burns to grow along her wrist. Force wasn't the answer but she figured it might help to an extent. These people knew exactly what they were doing. Hearing Sydney had a plan as well caused the redhead to glance over to the other woman. "I hope ya plan works." She spoke quietly, wanting to be out of these ropes faster if possible. She watched curiously with a growing smile as Sydney went about her plan to free herself in a somewhat painful looking way. "Wicked." Aoife's smile grew as Sydney worked her way over and started undoing the ropes. The second her hands were free, she brought them in front of her to rub lightly at the red skin. It was brief at best as she was quick to jump up and go about releasing Chris from his bonds. Now that the ropes were gone, it was time to think about where to go from here. Going the way the masked men went might end up poorly for them but who knew where the other door led. It reminded Aoife of the Matrix in a way: the red pill or the blue pill. The blue pill obviously being the door behind them where the masked people went; if they went that way, they'd likely get shot at and sent home. Which left the red pill, exploring the 'rabbit hole' as the movie called it.

Aoife's eyes glanced to Chris when he walked over to examine the door before looking over to the other women. When Chris spoke, her eyes lit up as she all too quickly started making her way to the door. "What ya be, a culchie? Crackin a code is what I be best at." Aoife spoke confidently as she cracked her knuckles before looking over the pad. It was a nine-digit box and clearly used in a way that would make it difficult to pass. Chris tried catching a look at what she was doing so she just laughed before stepping closer. Her eyes took in everything and noticed the most used keys had a smudge that was different than the others. It was a three number code, so her mind went through the combinations it could be before picking one to start. "Oh, jammy! Dat was a easy one." Especially compared to some of the other things she'd gotten into before, not that she'd mention that tidbit here. "Let's get going before dose wankers come back." Chris took the lead as Mei went to Sydney first. Once they went through, Aoife followed closely behind and kept her eyes open for anything else that might come in handy. Not that she'd try to hack into the system here, nope. Certainly not her...okay, maybe she would like to if there was a chance but she could resist. Probably. Shaking her head to rid the thoughts, Aoife focused on the door coming up and the fact that anything could happen; even finding their beds.

 

[SparkleBreaker]

Sydney
​

There was nothing broken, but she was definitely feeling the consequences of her actions. Using the chair Mei was tied up in as a crutch she looked over to everyone that was looking at the second door. A passcode? Well, she was already thankful she shaved off sometime, no matter all the bruising that was going to occur cause of it. The plan had gone a bit smoother in her mind. Getting hurt was part of the job; it was something that she would have to get used to. Sydney turned to hear Mei’s suggestion only to have Aoife’s laughter interrupted it. It seemed the gal knew what she was doing, though it seemed Mei had some doubts. Sydney shrugged at Mei. There was nothing up her sleeve to try so she was going to let the red head have at it, she was confident enough in herself. There was bit of her that wished it would have taken longer than a few seconds so she could rest a bit longer. The girl had skills though, and a minute hadn’t even passed before the door was sliding open. “Well. . .” Sydney nodded, impressed. “I think we’re off to a good start! Awesome work Aoife.” she complimented, but looked to Mei who was coming over to help. Good thing too, because Sydney was too proud to ask anyone for help. Taking Mei’s hand she wrapped her arm around her shoulder and leaned into her. “Is this ok?” she asked, not wanting to slow Mei down too much. “I’ve had better plans, huh?” she giggled, smiling over at Mei. “Thanks for helping me.” she said, truly grateful for the other. Not many in this competition would do this.

The hall reminded her something in a hospital. It was bare and seemed very sterile from how white everything was in it. Bright as well, sort of blinding in away. “This is weird.” she admitted, and was ready to go back in the wilderness. At least it was pretty straight forward out there, even if there were stuck sleeping on the ground. The door had no locking mechanism like the last, which made her stomach turn more. “Open slowly. Let’s go in in stealth mode.” she suggested, even though she was sure that Chris had the same plan. There was no way of entering the next room without letting them now as it was dark and they couldn’t see pass their noses. There was noise, so with the help of Mei she went into the room. Maybe there was no one in there. It wasn’t until everyone had entered did the door shut behind them locking. “Ok, I don’t like this.” she admitted, holding a bit tighter onto Mei. Sydney could hear foot-steps, but nothing much else. “What is the point of this?” she whispered, adjusting herself and relaxing a bit. That is one the first one spoke up. “To test your skills in combat.” The lights turned on, causing Sydney to cover her eyes while they adjusted. Not that the team was going to let them adjust they were already upon them in seconds as the lights were turned on. There were large wooden crates that she could see that they could hide behind, but she couldn’t get to them in time before she felt someone yank her from Mei. 

 

[pyreshadow]

┏━━━┓
Mei
┗━---━┛​

When Sydney took the offered help, Mei gave her a reassuring smile before waving off the question. One arm went around Sydney's waist for more support and the other held the wrist on her shoulders. "Course it's okay. So long as I've got two working legs and arms, it's within my power to help those around me. No one gets left behind." Mei replied to her in a more serious tone; whether this was just a test or not didn't even matter much to her. Of course that was also a problem of hers, she got attached to people pretty quickly. Or at least those people that actually liked her in some way or another. "And the plan worked, didn't it? Sure it wasn't the smartest but it was certainly the fastest. Just...next time let Chris do that sort of thing." She added with a small giggle as Chris glanced back at them with a confused look. He hadn't heard much of what they said, only his name. "Don't worry, it's nothing bad." Mei reassured him before chuckling again and giving Sydney a playful look. Aoife walked passed them to glance at the door in front of them, as if thinking there was some trick to it. "Stealth mode sounds like a good plan." She agreed with Sydney, taking a slow breath as Chris opened the door first and Aoife followed after him. With a quick look Sydney's way, they walked through the doors and some word was spoken from Aoife in her native tongue.

Mei herself felt like cursing as she attempted to look around in the darkness. "It's fine, we just have to stick together that's all." Mei sounded more confident than she felt as her hand gripped tighter on Sydney's wrist. Hearing someone other than them speak caused her heart to jump before her eyes shut tightly. The sudden lights burned her eyes even as she quickly blinked to try to adjust them. Fine, they wanted to test their fighting then so be it. By the time her eyes were mostly adjusted, she could see the group of assailants swarming around them. "Okay, so-" she stopped when she felt Sydney being pulled from her and quickly turned to look at the other woman. "Sydney!" It was Chris that yelled her name moments before one of the masked people started attacking him. He had a rough stance and certainly didn't know any fighting style in particular but he was holding his own. Mei's teeth ground together as she watched one of the masked men dragging Sydney off but there wasn't anything she could do about it now. Two people were in her way and she was more than happy to let off some steam. "You asked for it." She grumbled, lowering herself slightly into a stance from the martial art she knew. One hand was almost fully extended while the other stayed close to her chest. For a moment, she did nothing but the second one came at her she moved quicker. There was no way they were going to lose to these pricks.

┏━-━-━┓
Aoife
┗━-----━┛​

As the others paused in front of the door, Aoife glanced it over from where she was at first. It seemed all right but then at the same time, they were under training. So she stepped passed the other women and went to examine the door more closely. When she couldn't find anything that seemed off, she nodded in agreement with Sydney as well and looked over at Chris. He didn't seem like he wanted to go first but he was a gentleman at heart. He opened the door as quietly as he could and walked in, followed by Aoife and the other girls. A curse in Irish slipped from Aoife's lips when she heard the door close and lock behind them. "Dey 'ave de stealth." She muttered, closing her eyes to try and listen instead of relying on her eyes. The last time she was in a dark room like this was because of hacking so she was more than ready for what had come. The footsteps seemed to be getting closer and surrounded them. Aoife's eyes stayed closed as she heard the new voice saying they were testing combat. The lights when on and she was so grateful her eyes had been closed. Her eyes shot open as she looked around, noticing how one was closing in already.

Aoife dropped to the ground and kicked the person's feet out from underneath. Another was coming at her so she adjusted to throw another kick and landed square in the gut. There was a loud curse from the man but he grabbed her leg anyway. Aoife eyed her leg before waving to the masked man; in the split second he took to wonder why she was waving, she twisted her body and kicked him hard in the head with her other leg. She landed almost in a push-up position before jumping to her feet and looking around. Chris was fighting with some big guys about his size, Mei was fighting a couple other people...so where was Sydney? Her peripherals showed something coming so she ducked back in time to miss a punch. Grabbing the guy's hand, she pushed her shoulder up to break his arm before kicking his leg out. When he went down, Aoife started moving quickly to find the other woman. Mei had called out to her that they'd follow as soon as they were done with their targets. Now, if she were an injured brunette woman, where would she be?

┏━-━-━┓
Ethan
┗━-----━┛​

Ethan had slipped away before the start of the next test, already knowing that he was going to participate. What better way to fully see if they were competent enough to be a spy than making them realize it was more than just how Bond made it look. Show them it was real and it would hurt like fucking hell if they didn't end up dead first. He dressed himself in all black with the ski mask like all the others that were participating as well. Some had a little too much fun with the candidates but Ethan was one of them also. He helped drag one of the showy girls to her room and certainly wasn't light when he had tied her to the chair. He highly doubted she'd be able to get out of it, which was fine with him. If you couldn't get out of ropes, you weren't fit for this job. Period. He followed the others to the warehouse type room with various wooden crates. Much like the others, he waited patiently to see if there were going to be any groups worthy of escaping. When the lights dimmed some time later, a grin was hidden beneath his mask. At least one group was smart enough to figure out the code to escape. He moved silently to stand near the door that would open and waited as the four of them piled into the room.

Ethan inched closer, closing his eyes the second he knew the lights would turn back on. When his eyes opened again, he was rather surprised to see the group before him. What was more surprising was the Asian girl actually helping the other one. What was the point of that? If you weren't strong enough to withstand the training, they didn't belong here. Ethan held back the annoyed growl he felt coming and instead reached out to yank the brunette from the Asian. What was her name again? It took a moment for him to remember, not that it completely mattered. His grip on Sydney's arm didn't once falter as he dragged her away from the others and down the only other door on the right side. Inside was a small, barren room with similarly white walls to the hall they walked through. Once the door closed behind him, he used his strength to throw her into the nearest wall. "You sure you want this? Because from where I stand, it looks like you're just trying to play at this. You're smart but not very strong." Ethan kept his voice deeper and quieter than he normally spoke, more as a means of keeping himself out of trouble in case she tried to claim this as too rough. Rough was a part of the job. "Maybe you're pms'ing? Makes me wonder if you're even qualified with how weak you look." He was just talking to rile her up some, to see how cool she could stay in a heated environment. Truth be told, he was seconds away from trying to kick her depending on her reaction to all his. He was more than ready if she actually knew how to fight.

 

[SparkleBreaker]

Sydney
​

The warning wasn’t in time, as her assailant had gotten a hold of her before it sunk in what Chris was getting at. A squeak escaped her lips out of surprise. The person didn’t toss her to the ground or throw a punch, but they were taking her away from the group. It all felt odd and out of place, like it wasn’t supposed to happen. “Get off!” she tried to push him off her arm, but his grip was tight. Almost unbearable and would definitely leaving a bruise. At first it seemed like they were in another hall that was white, but it turned out to be just a room. There wasn’t much time to take in her surroundings as she was thrown against the wall. A shot of pain went shooting up, but that was nothing when her head snapped back and hit the wall. The sound was eerie enough to give someone a headache. It was all a blur the only thing she saw coming was the floor. There wasn’t enough time to catch herself before she made contact with the white tile floor. The side of her head smacked against that too, something told her that she would be living with a headache for a couple of days do to this asshole. Most of what he said in the beginning didn’t register as she was still trying to regain her composure and fight through all the pain. This had tripled what she was going through before. The gist she got was she was weak to him, unworthy. In a push up style she pushed herself up, slowly adjusting her body to face his, even though she remained on the ground, but did crawl backwards to keep a safe distance

What her menstrual cycle had to do with any of this was beyond her. A stupid point in her book, because if she were PMSing as he put it, she’d probably have ripped his head off by now. Not that any of this he was spouting off made any difference to her. The mask didn’t fool her for a minute and she knew it was Ethan. In the end Brian, Sir, made the final decision on who came out on top, not him. He was a trainee, just like the rest of them and she wasn’t going to let him forget any of that. Taking a stance, she got to her feet, though she could stray from the wall as that was still helping support her. “Keep talking shit.” she egged, looking right at him. Her voice was laced with anger as she was sick of his comments. “You’re nothing but a trainee. You have no real authority.” If we wanted to play let’s get under each other’s skin, then so be it. Combat training was what they were here for, but her body begged her not to move anymore. When it did, it was slow to respond. There was a definite chance she was going to get her ass kicked, but might as well be on her terms then when he decided to start up again. Quickly, she launched off the wall with the one arm holding her up, using the other to take a swing at him. To her surprise she made contact with his jaw, but began to stagger from the pain as soon as she was up on her own without any support system helping her right up.  
 

 

[pyreshadow]

┏━━━┓
Mei
┗━---━┛​

There were a lot more people than Mei had first thought they'd encounter. It was likely a scenario that could very well happen in the future. Getting captured and brought to an enemy's base for questioning. So it wasn't a surprise in a sense that they'd fight a lot of people to 'test' their skills. But really, some of the people were just not skilled when it came to fighting. Of the several people Mei had fought, the only one causing her problems was the one she was currently facing with two batons in their hand. Chris was wrapped up with a guy that was pretty skilled in martial arts but he was holding his own fairly well. Just a couple of licks on the chest and face but for the most part he was good. Seeing the stick come at her, Mei moved in and met the blow in a way. Because of bringing herself closer in a fast manner, it didn't give the masked man the chance to react before she punched him in the side. In a quick movement as he stumbled, she grabbed his hand and twisted until he dropped the baton. The moment he let out a cry, Mei sent a forward kick his way that sent him going backwards, groaning and gripping his stomach. Looking around, it seemed like there were no others to face. At least for the time being. "Let's go find Sydney." Mei called to Chris when she noticed him knocking out the last of his foes. He gave her a quick nod before running off in the direction that Aoife had gone.

┏━-━-━┓
Aoife
┗━-----━┛​

Aoife only came across two other people along the way to try to find Sydney. She knocked them out pretty quickly with her kicks but her eyes never once stopped darting around. There was no real place to hide in so where did they take Sydney? She felt herself nibbling on her bottom lip some until she noticed the door near the end of the wall. It was closed and locked, with a similar keypad to the one from the first door. Her green eyes darted around to make sure no one was trying to get at her before pressing her ear against the door. There was certainly noise in there and she could swear it was Sydney's voice talking about a trainee. Aoife eyed the door again before going to the pad to start examining it. It was different than the last one in a way but it would still be easy for her to crack. She found the numbers that were used the most and thought quickly about the different ways the numbers could be put in. She managed to narrow it down to a couple of them before hearing louder noise coming from inside. "What a dodder this is." She grumbled before punching in the first code she thought it might be. At first she thought it didn't work but when the pad glowed green, a breath of relief washed over her. She moved back to the door as it slid open and she noticed Sydney on the ground and a masked man ready to kick her; probably not the first time either.

Aoife said nothing as she rushed inside and kicked his back leg out; as he dropped to his knee in shock, the redhead rushed over to stand between him and Sydney. "Fucking wanker, it's not nice ta keep ya friends doin all da work. Don't be pickin on just one girl when there's a 'ole lot of lads." Aoife said as she eyed him carefully when he stood up. Somehow, she didn't like the way he acted compared to the other candidates. He was...different, almost dark in a way. His words distracted her for a moment and she didn't see the punch coming. He hit hard too, not like the rest of them. Aoife staggered to the side as pain shot through her cheek but she recovered herself in time to stop the kick. The two exchanged a few blocks here and there before a feign from him caused Aoife to double over when he hit her stomach.

┏━-━-━┓
Ethan
┗━-----━┛​

Ethan chuckled when she finally got to her feet, having expected at least some sort of fight from her. Whether she was the weakest one or not it'd sure be fun to find out. A hand was placed on his hip as she started talking, his eyes glaring at her from under the mask. "Trainee or not, I know who's got what it takes and you aren't one of them." Ethan replied coldly, not at all bothered by her words or at least not outwardly he wasn't. He should have a say in who gets in though since he got to see the candidates for what they really were. The trainers just tested their skills and nothing more, not their personalities to see if it matched what they needed. To have someone weak-minded come and take the position was out of the question. Seeing sudden movement brought him out of his thoughts long enough to notice her fist collide with his jaw. He didn't stumble but his hand did come up to rub his chin lightly. Maybe she wasn't as weak as he thought but she certainly had a long way to go. He brought his gaze back to her as she was staggering and threw a punch square in her stomach. There'd be no way she'd be able to keep standing soon enough.

"You might have potential in some areas but not enough." Ethan commented, rubbing his chin again slightly. "You might as well just give up now and go home." He stepped closer, ready to throw a kick that would hopefully knock her out when he felt one against his leg. A gasp came as he dropped to the ground, his hand instantly moving to rub the back of his thigh as the new recruit came between him and Sydney. Why did she feel the need to interrupt him? With an annoyed sigh, he got up and ignored her words as he glanced behind her to the other woman. Well, it was a test of combat so might as well test Aoife's too. "I'm not picking on one girl, I'm just taking it one person at a time." He corrected her before closing the distance and punching her hard in the face. He had grown up on the notion of not hitting women but when women hit back, he was perfectly fine with it. He threw a kick next that she managed to block before throwing a few other moves at her. She was better than Sydney at least, to be able to keep up like that but it still wasn't enough. One arm swung high as it feigned an attack to her face while the other hit low and hard into her stomach. When she dropped, a small sigh escaped his lips before he slowly shook his head. "Is that all you've got? Jeez, recruits these days are useless." He grumbled before kicking her in the same spot on the stomach hard enough to send her into the nearest wall. He could either stay here to make sure they don't get any sleep or see if there was anyone else worthless like them. Or really like Sydney, since at least the redhead put up a decent fight.

 

[SparkleBreaker]

Sydney
​

Sydney couldn’t keep it together and in her attempt to throw another hit she received one in the gut as she turned around. It knocked the wind out of her and caused an involuntary gasp followed by a groan as her body gave up and she collapsed on the ground. It wasn’t all about brute strength. Any history class or Disney movie could have told him that. Besides, he pulled her aside when she was injured, not in top shape like the rest. There was going to be a slight disadvantage. All of this she wanted to argue, but there wasn’t any time. Sydney eyes widened as the sight of him preparing to kick her and they closed tightly waiting for the inevitable. Her body wasn’t going to take much more of this abuse, she could already tell things were a bit fuzzier and she was slower. Her eyes didn’t open until she heard a familiar thick Irish accent in the room. “Aoife?” she asked, surprised that the red head had come back for her and was in fact defending her as well. She definitely was doing better than she had and Sydney found herself rooting for her competitor to whoop some ass. Didn’t even matter they should be pinned against each other; she just wanted to see the smug douchebag on the floor. It didn’t seem that was going to be the outcome. There were a few good blocks, but when he nailed her in the gut Sydney watched the Aoife collide with the wall and collapse. That, for some reason she didn’t understand, caused her to get even angrier at him.

Pushing herself up once more, she got to her feet. This time she was a bit stable as she was feeding off her anger. “Wipe that smug smile off your face. We’re not done.” she growled. No doubt this was going to end up with her on the floor again, probably knocked out. But if she got to land just one punch, it be a enough. Taking a lesson out of his own book, instead of going for the face she dropped a bit lower and aimed for the gut. She had made contact, and thought it was harder than the first one, it still didn’t have that oomph she was looking for and wouldn’t bring him to his knees like she liked to see. A bit of training in combat she was definitely going to need.  They wouldn’t assume that they’d know everything right? His words were beginning to dig in and was distracting her on what she should have been concentrating on, blocking any and all counter attacks.
 

 

[pyreshadow]

┏━━━┓
Mei
┗━---━┛​

During the search, Mei and Chris had come across another hall in the middle of the wall furthest to them. It seemed to lead to the lounge area of where their rooms would be but neither could be certain. They weren't there to find the rooms, they were both looking solely for Sydney and now Aoife. So Mei had led them back the other way and paused to look around. "Sydney!" She called out, her eyes scanning the area around them. "Aoife!" Chris added his own yell to try to get one of the other women to answer them. They both heard Aoife's voice and only exchanged one look before running towards it. Almost hidden along another wall was a door that neither of them had noticed before. As they neared, a masked man ran from the room and Chris damn near tried to tackle him. "Hey, that's not important right now. If he wants to run, let him." Mei reached out to stop him, gaining a glare before a sigh escaped his lips. "You're right, I'm sorry." Though he grumbled the apology, it was still clear he wanted to go after the man. More so when they walked into the room to find Aoife hovering over Sydney on the ground.

"Jeez, what the hell happened?" Worry laced Mei's voice as the two rushed over, looking over Sydney's body to see if there was any fatal injuries. When there didn't seem to be anything pressing, she shook her head and looked to Chris before either woman could answer. "Let's get her to the bed." He nodded his head and very carefully situated his arms around Sydney; one went to just below her knees and the other about mid-back so he could pick her up easily. He muttered an apology in case it hurt her while Mei looked over to Aoife. "Yeah, we found them while searching for you two. Come on." She bent slightly to help Aoife to her feet but the redhead was adamant about walking on her own. So Mei put her attention right back to Sydney. "Are you all right, Sydney? What happened?"

┏━-━-━┓
Aoife
┗━-----━┛​

Aoife groaned as she collided with the wall, curling into almost a ball from the pain. Damn that guy hit hard. She already knew she'd bruise up from it so she could only imagine how Sydney must be off right now. She could hear the other woman's voice but Aoife was trying to focus on dulling the pain. It took a couple minutes of breathing before she felt a measure of control over herself. By the time she looked up, the man had Sydney in an arm lock and was saying something to her. Whatever it was, Aoife didn't hear it but she also wasn't going to just let it be either. She pushed herself up into a sitting position and then glanced to the door when she heard Chris and Mei's voices calling for them. "Here!" Aoife shouted to make sure they knew where they were, knowing there'd be no way this guy could take them all on. He seemed to know it too since he threw Sydney aside like a rag doll and then made a bolt for it. As much as Aoife wanted to try throwing a few more hits, she didn't want to risk getting hit back. So she got on her hands and knees and started crawling over to where Sydney was. "The lad had a nasty hit on him. Are ya all right?" She asked quietly, trying not to touch anywhere in case the other woman was in too much pain. It was then that Chris and Mei ran into the room though clearly Chris wanted to go after the guy he had seen.

The redhead was quiet as the other two rushed in, giving Sydney a fast look over. Her mouth opened to actually answer what she had seen but the mention of bed caused her to look the two of them over. "Bed? Ya found da beds?" She asked in surprise, having expected something worse to happen based on this alone. The answer was a blessing in itself and she couldn't help but smile as she took the offered help up. She bit back the groan she felt from her body not liking the movement before quickly waving her hand towards Mei. "No worries, I amn't bad like Sydney. I can walk."

┏━-━-━┓
Ethan
┗━-----━┛​

Ethan's gaze went to the door briefly as he figured he might as well test some of the others. At least until he heard some shuffling and turned to find Sydney rising to her feet. He eyed her curiously for a moment before glancing to the redhead. Was it compassion that drove her to try to strike him again? That was a laugh. This was an individual competition and yet she held compassion for those around her. How useless. He wasn't quite ready for the blow to the stomach she gave him and as much as it actually hurt a bit, he let out a small laugh. It would probably bruise, unlike the jaw punch, but it was a sign that maybe -just maybe- Sydney had some potential to do this type of job well. The amount of training it would take would be a hassle in itself but if she was relying on compassion as her fuel then she wouldn't last. Instead of fighting her the way he had the first time, he moved around her as he grabbed her arm and twisted it tightly against her back. He held it there, pulling her closer with it until he could whisper into her ear.

"You do not belong here. Compassion, friendship, even love. They will all get you killed on the field as soon as the enemy can read it. You are not fit for this job." His voice stayed low as he made sure to keep her arm in a somewhat painful lock. Though that would have to end soon since he heard other people now calling for her and the redhead. "Hm." Ethan let go of her by shoving her forward, not even caring that she fell to the ground because of the force. Four against one wouldn't be good odds for him. With one last look at Sydney, he shook his head slowly before darting out of the room. He could hear a male voice calling after him but otherwise no one was following. At least now he knew should he participate in one of these again to go to next. There was no way they'd keep weak-minded people, let alone ones that teamed up with one another like that group did. It was unthinkable.

 

[SparkleBreaker]

Sydney
​

His laughter caused her to wrinkle her face in annoyance. There wasn’t much time to make a retort to his mocking laughter as he had changed up his game and instead of coming at her with another hit he went around and a piercing pain flew up her arm as she was put in a tight arm lock. She could hear Mei calling out to her, but only response she could give was a gasp a pain. She could feel his hot breathe on the back of her neck and ear as he came closer to spit some more ignorant words her way. Nothing of what he said got under her skin because he was wrong in every way. There was no way he was going to falter her views. You did this job out of compassion, for the people and country you cared for enough to put your own life on the line. Friends, she would have had her fate left in his hands if Aoife didn’t come and interfere with the fight that she was losing. Friendships should be built between agents, meant when you got over your head you could count on someone to help. Only power hungry beings wanted those things in their life. This she wanted to argue, but the pain kept her mum as she concentrated on her breathing and not getting over excited to be put in a worse condition. The footsteps indicated that Mei and Chris were near and apparently he didn’t want to take all of them so she was released and pushed with a lot of force. Sydney did nothing to stop herself from crumpling to the ground. Odd enough, the pain was relieved a bit, must have been because she was finally out of that arm lock. 

“Mmm bed.” she groaned, wishing she was already there. At least there weren’t more obstacles ahead of them. She did her best to sit up a bit and make it easier for Chris to help her up. After all that happened she wanted to refuse, tired of being seen as weak, but her body wouldn’t permit that. There was no way she would make it back to the beds in a timely matter without anyone’s help. This was the quickest and easiest for all of them. Only once did she let out a hiss from the pain. “Don’t worry Chris. It’s going to hurt a bit. I know that.” she smiled, as she was folded up in his arms. Sydney didn’t really know the answers to Mei’s question. “Guess, someone just trying to prove a point.” she answered, she wasn’t going to give away that is was the trainee. This was something she wanted to handle, especially since him seeing her use allies seemed to be the problem. There was no reason to add fuel to the fire. 

After they made it back to the room she was sure to thank Chris for carrying her to the room. “Thank you. Thank you. Really, I appreciate this lots.” she said, forcing a genuine smile. No part of her body wanted to work right then. A firm crappy bed never felt better in her life. Once she was in it she rolled over on her stomach and face planted into the pillow. She wasn’t even bothering getting under the covers for the time being, it felt good just not to move. “I hope they’re nicer tomorrow. Give us a bit of a break.” she mumbled into the pillow, but was still loud and clear enough for everyone to understand. Combat training would come in handy. If they weren’t going light on them she hoped they would be giving some pointers on that so the next time that goon showed his face she’d be prepared. There was no doubt in her mind there would be a next time. She had done something to get under the guy’s skin. What she wasn’t sure, besides have help, which she didn’t know was such a crime. Mei Chris and her and been putting their head together this whole time.
 

 

[pyreshadow]

┏━━━┓
Mei
┗━---━┛​

A point? What kind of point could be proven by individually picking on someone like that? Mei didn't quite understand it but it also didn't seem like Sydney wanted to say much more on the matter either. So she kept her thoughts to herself and stayed near Aoife as a precaution while they headed back to their room. The moment they got in the room, a heavy sigh escaped Mei's lips as Aoife seemed to head to the mirror first. "Come on, we're partners whether they want us to be or not. All of us. There's no need to thank me for doing something I want to do to help." Chris waved off the thanks he got from Sydney sheepishly as he helped her to her bed. Mei ended up chuckling some at the way she just rolled face down on it and nothing else. Chris went to lay on his own bed and Mei sat on the edge of hers. "Somehow based on how strict and rigid it's been so far, I don't think there's going to be such a thing as a break. I wish they had some dit da jow so we could help with the bruising at least. Oh. Maybe there is something." Mei got up to pull out the chest under her bed and set it on top to open it. She shifted through everything inside once again before sighing in defeat. Of course there wasn't going to be anything like that.

Hearing Aoife's question, she glanced to the redhead before closing the trunk and placing it back where it belonged. "It's a Chinese liniment that's used to help heal bruises and sore muscles. There are other things that could help too but for me personally that works best." And she really wished there was something since she could only imagine how much Sydney was hurting right now. "I guess this means we can at least spend the night relaxing? Since we got to our beds in a timely fashion and all." Slowly she plopped herself backwards to half lay on the bed and stare at the ceiling. She heard the creaking of another bed and just assumed that it was Aoife laying down also. She felt the urge to take another shower, just because it was available and not something she was used to having so available either. "What do you think might be coming next? I feel like we'll have to jump out of a plane or scale a building or something at some point." Again being from a movie, not that she legit thought that was what spies did.

┏━-━-━┓
Aoife
┗━-----━┛​

Aoife had to wave off Mei's attempts to help her a couple of times, feeling a bit better now that she was standing. Her stomach and back hurt like hell but she was sure that Sydney felt worse. There was no point in complaining any when someone was worse. As they got into the room with their beds, she watched for a moment as Chris helped Sydney to her bed before walking to her own. She unzipped the front of the suit and opened it up in front of the mirror. Already a dark bruise was forming from where he had kicked her and she was almost sure that there'd be one on her back too. Well, whatever. It'd heal soon enough anyway. "Fuckin gobshite." Aoife grumbled, zipping up her suit once more before looking around at the others. They all seemed exhausted which was likely due to the fact that they had been here longer than she had. "Never heard of dat, what is it?" Aoife asked Mei curiously when she mentioned deit...dot...whatever the heck it was called. Here all she'd need to do was get a hold of a piece of a raw potato and rub it on. Nodding her head some, she figured it'd be good to know for later so she stored that thought for now. With a glance to the bed, she couldn't help but half jump half plop onto it without even caring that it was pretty stiff. It was by no means her own bed but she could sleep anywhere. She pulled herself up to the pillows and grabbed one to hold in her arms while she rested her head on the other. "Whatever dey trow, it be easy enough to deal wit I'm sure. Ya just 'ave ta 'ave confidence."

 

[SparkleBreaker]

Sydney
​

“Dit Da Jow?” she said into the pillow. “Whaa?” Sydney turned her head on the side of the pillow and looked over to Chris to see if he had a clue what it was. She wasn’t the only one since Aoife spoke up about it too. To help with muscles and bruises seemed it could be very useful about now, but she kept that opinion to herself in attempt to keep the room atmosphere up. “Yeah, we handle this test and the one before well enough.” she agreed with Aoife. Confidence had plenty to do with it, but they also just needed to remember that they were doing well. “You know I always wanted to jump out of a plane.” she said, adjusting her pillows a bit so she could lay back on them, this time on her back. That way she could talk a bit before going to sleep, though she might struggle with that tonight. “Scaling a building one be pretty cool too. So I’m up for it. As long as they don’t try to drown us again I’m pretty good.” she giggled, remembering their first day. “Sleep’n inside is pretty nice too.” she added, reminding herself that they could be worse off. Some of those suckers were probably still struggling to free themselves from their chairs. At least they were in bed now. “You know, we do have breakfast to look forward to, hopefully.” She assumed since they fed them dinner breakfast would be served as well. The thought of scrambled eggs and bacon helped her drift off into a sleep. 

A booming alarm went off promptly at five AM, letting them know the time. “Nooooo!” she groaned into her pillow, not moving as it continued to blare and announce the time for the full minute. Certainly a rude awakening. Once she started to move she regretted it as her body started yelling at to quit. It was just as she thought, she would be more sore the next day. Gingerly, she went to the edge of the bed and rested her head in her hands as she grumbled on how unhappy she was and that there better be bacon or something yummy waiting. Slowly, she pulled out her trunk and got the next set of clothes out before heading to the showers. Fresh towels were stock and she set it outside the shower with the clothes she had gotten. The curtain was pulled around her and she began to remove her clothing, revealing all the bruising and a few scratches from the busted chair. Just looking at it made it hurt worse. “Ow.” she said tossing the ugly orange jumpsuit over and out of the shower before turning the water on. This time she was smart enough to let it warm up before going under. Instead of jumping right into cleaning, she just let herself sit under the hot water. It felt good as it washed over her and she didn’t mind if she spent the next forty-five minutes in there.
 

 

[pyreshadow]

┏━━━┓
Mei
┗━---━┛​

"Oh please, no more drowning. Once was enough." Mei nodded in agreement as she let out a small laugh with Sydney's words. She'd be more than willing to do just about anything else except for the attempted drowning again. Once in her life was enough. "The beds are firm but they're actually comfy in their own rights. Much better than sleeping outdoors." Clearly since already Chris could be heard snoring lightly as he had been the first one to pass out. It caused another fit of giggles from Mei before she pulled her blanket over her and turned to her side. The thought of breakfast caused a small hum of contentment to escape her lips as she was rather hopeful about that as well. Pancakes, sausage, eggs, waffles. She wasn't saying that she expected a feast but it was certainly going to be better than what she was used to. She had fallen asleep with a smile on her face as her mind even drifted her into a dream of being in a house made of gingerbread like that Hansel and Gretel story. Only there was no witch to try to kill her, just breakfast laid out all around in the house.

The second the alarm starting going off, Mei shot to a sitting position even though she was still half asleep. "Wha-ugh, I'm up. I'm u-" Her words trailed off into a yawn as her hands came up to rub the sleepiness from her eyes. With that done, she stared at the wall for across from her briefly before lightly smacking her cheeks. She could hear the water turn on, so when she looked around she noticed Sydney already up and Aoife beginning to get her things. Chris was still laying there since he was being gentlemanly and waiting for the girls to finish their shower first before he would. Hoisting herself up, Mei pulled out her trunk and dug for the appropriate color for the day. She also grabbed undies and a towel before heading to the showers with a lazy good morning to Aoife. How the redhead seemed to be so awake was beyond her but she didn't say anything. Instead she just turned the water on to let it heat up before stripping and setting her stuff in easy access. The first thing she did when she got into the shower was put her head underneath so the water could run through her hair. "How are you feeling Sydney?" Mei called out to the other woman after a moment of just lazing under the water. With a quick wring out of her hair, she grabbed the shampoo to start working it in.

┏━-━-━┓
Aoife
┗━-----━┛​

There wasn't much to worry about right now or at least not to Aoife. She was more of the type to take it as it came and not really worry about it in the mean time. Though what she was interested in was the camera system. She'd only noticed two in the room itself but she had to wonder if there were more and -more importantly- how they worked. The temptation to try to work her way into the system was growing and she hadn't even been here for a full day. She could already imagine how she'd be kicked out too, whether she got into the system or not. Maybe...no, she had to not think about it so her full attention went to the conversation going on right now. It had gone from what might be coming next to food, which caused the redhead to chuckle slightly. They were an captivating trio in their own rights and for that she liked them all a lot more. Aoife mostly kept quiet though and not too much longer did she notice that all of them were asleep. She sat up some and looked at each of them for a moment before she couldn't help herself. Aoife got off of the bed and walked over to where she knew one of the cameras were by the door. She resisted the urge to crack into it and just looked it over, not really bothered by the fact that someone could be watching. Probably just to keep them under watch and make sure nothing bad happened between the recruits.

After some time passed, a small smile grew on her lips before she went back to her bed with a pep in her step. She got comfortable in the bed but sleep was hard to come by. Being used to the time in Ireland it took quite a while before she felt sleep hit her. It was only a couple hours into the sleep when a rather annoying alarm sounded to wake them all up. Aoife was fast to jump out of the bed, if only for the habit of hers. It took a second to register that she wasn't in a secure building and she hadn't actually been caught for hacking into something. Instead, she was in the room with recruits that were all vying for the same job. A content sigh escaped her lips as she felt herself relax before going to the trunk. She pulled out the necessities, figuring if both Sydney and Mei were showering she might as well too. The pep in her step from the night before stayed as she made her way into the showers after the other two women. She was humming softly the whole time she started the water and stripped down. The hum only briefly stopped when she glanced down to the bruise before shrugging lightly. Hearing Mei's question kept her from humming more as she waited to hear the answer. Sydney could claim she was fine all she wanted but Aoife knew there had to be a measure of pain coursing through her body. That guy didn't hold back from his hits.

 

[SparkleBreaker]

Sydney
​

The heat from the water started making everything loosen up and help numb the pain. She didn’t move, just let the shower do it’s magic until she heard Mei familiar voice checking in. That is when Sydney remembered the others, Chris in particular, and started getting to work so he too could take shower. “Sore.” she mumbled, taking the some soap and starting to go to work. She found out soon enough that there were a few large bumps on her head that were sore to touch. Must have been where she had smacked her head those couple of times. “That bloke is an ass hat.” she added, with venom in her voice. This was far from over. The man had gotten under her skin like no other and she had never felt so strongly against someone before. The thought of him caused anger to grow deep from within. “Should be alright.” she said, dipping her head in the shower to rinse out the shampoo and to move on to conditioner. That one she let soak in longer as she shaved parts of her body. Once she finished that she rinsed the conditioner out and turned off the shower. Without the hot water running down her body she felt the cold instantly and it made her body whine with an achiness. No doubt something she would be feeling for a few days. 

“Aoife?” she said, to get the other woman’s attention. “How are you feel’in? The guy threw quite a few good punches at you as well.” she asked, as she wrapped the towel around her and began to dry off. It was a bit trickier with Chris in the room so she changed into her jumpsuit behind the shower curtain. That way no incidents could happen and awkwardness could be avoided. There was a whit T in the trunk that went under the jumpsuits, so instead of fully buttoning up, she tied the arms sleeves of the dark Navy blue around her waist. It was a better color on all of them in her opinion. Made them not look so much as like convicts. Not wanting to waste any time she went off to brush her teeth as soon she dropped off her dirty clothes and collected the items she needed from her trunk. Once that was over she dried her hair and pulled it back in a baby pony tail. It was just long enough for it all to get into one, though she knew it would fall out throughout the day. She had dark circles under her eyes, one that she was used to covering up with foundation. There were bruises up her arms, especially where the man had grabbed her and pulled her away from Mei. Sighing she took her thing back to put them away and finish putting her clothes on. Her socks and boots were left for last since her feet had still been damp. Plus, she just liked being barefoot more than wearing those heavy boots. “Well, who is ready to tackle another day?” she laughed, looking at the time. They had about ten minutes before they had to be out in the commons and waiting for Sir.
 

 

[pyreshadow]

┏━━━┓
Mei
┗━---━┛​

"I'm pretty sure quite the few of them are ass hats, you just happened to get one of the worst ones. Terrible luck really." Mei's voice was a little muffled since she was underneath the water rinsing the shampoo out of her hair. If she ever got the chance to figure out who was under that mask, she'd like to be able to show him a thing or two. Seriously, picking on one person like that especially after she was injured. There were cameras so they had to know what Sydney had done to get out, right? Mei didn't think it was fair at all but there wasn't really anything to be said about it. Life wasn't fair and the life they were all striving for now was certainly far from being fair. With a small sigh, she stepped out from the water to grab the conditioner and massaged it into her hair bit by bit. As it settled in, she washed her body and shaved what was needed. "I hope today isn't another day of physical tests. I'm not saying you can't handle it but it'd still be a nice break." But Mei knew better than to wishfully think things like that. She at least had an idea of what to expect now -for the most part- so she wouldn't put anything past them. Hearing Aoife play off the punches made her wonder if the redhead was being honest or if she was indeed just ignoring the pain.

There wasn't much she could do about it either way so she hurried up with her shower and dried off just as quick. She dressed inside of the curtain, not really minding the suit of the day since she happened to like blue. Then she went about gathering everything and walking back out to her bed to situate everything. A couple minutes later Aoife followed suit and Chris was all too eager to head into the showers. Flipping her hair over her head, she used the hair dryer to mostly dry her hair. Today she put it up into a loose hanging bun, mainly to keep it out of her face for the time being. Once she was set, she pushed the trunk back under the bed and then put her socks and shoes on. "I'm ready. We can handle anything they throw at us, I just know it." Mei nodded with a smile as she spoke even though she knew they shouldn't be relying on one another. She knew in the end, only one of them could be the one to walk away with the dream they all had. "I think we'd all feel better once we got some food." She agreed with Aoife, standing slowly so she could stretch out her muscles some. Not knowing the kind of day awaiting them meant it best to at least be as relaxed as possible.

┏━-━-━┓
Aoife
┗━-----━┛​

Aoife took her time shampooing and conditioning her hair, briefly paying attention to what the other women were saying. Not because she didn't care to listen but because she was still thinking about what she could do with those cameras. Thinking about it, it just might help them if she could manage to actually crack into the system and see through the other cameras. It was possible too but not probable. Hearing her name, a 'hm' sounded loudly above the water as she focused in on what Sydney was saying to her now. A small laugh escaped her lips as she reached for the soap and started lathering up. "No need ta worry about me, he hit like a girl compared ta some of my mates back home." To an extent it was true also, she knew plenty of people with hard hits. Sure they didn't leave bruises like this prick had but they hit hard nonetheless. Plus her bruising was nothing compared to what Sydney's had to be so there wasn't a point in saying anything. By the time she finished showering and dried off to get dressed, both Sydney and Mei were already out of the showers. That meant Chris was left so she needed to speed up a little bit. She quickly dressed, leaving the upper part of her suit hanging down around her waist. She left the shower like that, having forgotten the undershirt in the trunk. Chris passed her with a nod of his head on the way to the showers before she got to her bed.

She placed socks, boots, and her undershirt on the bed then put the trunk away to finish getting dressed. She'd never been one to like using a hairdryer so she didn't bother pulling it out. Instead, she let her hair dry naturally though she did use the towel to make sure it wasn't as wet. "I be ready to tackle breakfast if dat be what you're sayin." Aoife commented with a laugh as she slipped into her shoes and then the undershirt. "Best not ta bring up much 'bout what might be happenin' by da way. Cameras be by da door so who knows when dey actually want ta watch. You're deepest, darkest secrets ain't safe." Aoife was teasing towards the end, apparent with the way she was wiggling her fingers in the air in a 'magical' sort of way. Another laugh escaped before she glanced to the showers when Chris was already coming back out dressed and ready to go. Just like a guy to shower so quickly. "Best be goin ta be early, yeah?"

 

[SparkleBreaker]

Sydney
​

The girls were lucky to be able to just go without drying their hair, if she hadn’t blow dried her hair it would have turned into a nightmarish poof ball. It was ridiculous to maintain in that state. “If breakfast is served, then yeah.” she agreed, hoping that was the case. “My deepest darkest secret . . .” Sydney said if a false worried tone. “You mean like that I still sleep with my stuffed unicorn name Uni?” she giggled, opening the door and stepping through the entry way. Only a few candidates were there. Others must have planned on cutting it close, could be due to a late night. Soon enough, everyone trickled out of their rooms and stood in line and waited for Sir, or his trainee. Neither did come. A smaller Asian lady came in and before addressing them checked every room for stragglers before going back to the front. “Sir, is quite busy at this time and regrets that he could not greet you this morning. Breakfast will be served and you have 30 minutes to get it and eat it. Then the next part of your training will start. Sir has assigned you a partner for the day out the rooms you’ve been staying in. After I call your name you permission to do down to breakfast.” the lady didn’t introduce herself and she spoke with a heavy accent. It was near the beginning when she got to their names and hers was called along with Aoife. Sydney turned and gave her a sideways glance with a smile before walking towards the door like the previous candidates had done. Any of them would be great partners, perks of having good roomies. Mei and Chris were called after them, though it was obvious they were partners. 

“Breakfast!” she moaned, once in the hall and out of ear shot from the lady. “Oh, thank the stars.” she said, smiling with a bit more pep in her step now that she had something to look forward too. The time limit was a bummer, but food would be welcomed anyway. There was just as much variety as the day before. Sydney got three eggs over easy, bacon, fruit, a bottle of white milk and some apple cinnamon bread for desert. People were creatures of habits and everyone snagged the table they were at the night before. So Sydney did the same as well and took a seat at their old table. It was near to where Sir had sat, so perhaps she would see the man this morning. So far he wasn’t there. “What ya all get?” she asked, popping a piece of cantaloupe in her mouth. It was fresh and juicy. A great start to breakfast. She listened as she dug into one of her eggs. There was only twenty minutes or so and she didn’t want to leave any food behind before they started their next training. Lunch or dinner was a mystery if they’d get it. They could be stuck in another training session and getting her asses handed to them, though that was really only her last night. Training in combat she hoped was on the list and just not a bunch of test thrown at them to weed them out. They couldn’t expect everyone to be trained in all those areas right from recruitment, could they?
 

 

[pyreshadow]

┏━━━┓
Mei
┗━---━┛​

"Yup, that's exactly it Sydney. That's what they want to get out of you, your stuffed unicorn named Uni." Mei giggled the whole time she thought about it but the fact was, it was a rather cute picture in her head. She had to wonder if Sydney was being serious or not but even if she wasn't, it was still a cute thought. She followed after the others to the main area and glanced around at the few that were already waiting. Here she thought that their group was one to make sure to get on time but it seemed others would rather play it close. Eventually everyone was all lined up like normal and expected Sir or Ethan to show up to give them their instructions. Only Mei's eyebrow raised curiously when a more petite Asian came instead. What was with these people and being straight to the point? No introductions, no good mornings. Sure Mei wasn't exactly expecting them considering where they were but she was thinking at least someonewould be like a normal person. All well. When Aoife and Sydney were paired together, she gave Chris a quick smile despite feeling a little disappointed. In the short amount of time they'd been together, she'd grown used to being near Sydney and felt the most connected with the other woman. As much as she knew in the end one would have to be cut, she hadn't wanted to think about it for some time. The other Asian called her and Chris next so they fist bumped before following after the other two women.

"Makes me wonder what's going to happen today if we're doing paired work instead of team." Chris commented out loud as they walked into the dining area and went straight for the food. He ended up grabbing a little bit of every type of meat, some boiled eggs, bread, and orange juice. Mei went more for the sausage patties, scrambled eggs, grapes, chocolate milk, and a frosted cinnamon roll. Not the best choice of food but boy would it be delicious. "I don't know but I'm quite curious to see how things play out. I hope we don't end up getting pitted against one another." The thought alone put a small pout on Mei's face as she wasn't quite ready for that yet. She'd much rather focus on knocking out the other recruits first before her own. Oh dear, she was already thinking of them like friends. That wasn't a good mindset for a trainee to have when the goal was one person getting the job. Quickly shaking the thought from her mind, she decided to not worry about it and just focus on what was happening now. "Deliciousness is what I got." Mei commented with a chuckle as she sat down across from Sydney and next to Chris, who's reply was simply 'protein'. Aoife had a pretty similar plate to Chris, minus the eggs which was kind of amusing in itself. There wasn't too much time to eat so it seemed like that was the main focus of everyone at the table. Mei herself practically inhaled the eggs before starting to work on her grapes next. "Do you think there's going to be any classroom settings? I get all the hands on stuff to test what we're good at and what we need work on but it's also mental, isn't it? Like in one of the Bond movies, his partner gets caught and ends up being tortured until he caves and gives all the information. Do you think that'll happen to us?" She asked curiously, not quite sure if she even wanted to know the answer. Maybe she just watched too many movies when she actually had the chance.

┏━-━-━┓
Aoife
┗━-----━┛​

Aoife couldn't help but to laugh at Sydney's 'darkest' secret being revealed so easily. For a moment she thought the other woman was telling the truth but she could tell based on the tone she was kidding. Stuffing her hands into the pockets of her uniform, she followed after the others and lined up with the rest of them. It wasn't too before someone came into the room to address them all in an accent almost as heavy as Aoife's. Her head tilted slightly at the mention of 'sir' as she tried to put a name to a face; somehow it just didn't click but she'd know when she saw him. For now she was just rather happy to get breakfast, even if they'd be paired up. All sorts of thoughts swam through her mind ranging from what kind of food they'd have to why they were being paired. All of it was lost when she heard her name being called with Sydney's though. "How deadly." Aoife mumbled out excitedly, quite happy about being paired with the other woman. Truth be told, she would have been happy being paired with Mei or Chris too but in a way this was better. She'd get to find out just how 'well' Sydney was really doing after what happened yesterday with that goon. With a pep in her step, she followed the other woman down the hall to the dining area and took a deep whiff the second they got in. "Smells so good." Aoife felt close to moaning herself with the amount of smells hitting her nose.

Aoife grabbed herself some bacon, sausage, ham, some fried plantains, and an apple juice. Halfway to the table she turned around to grab a small chocolate chip muffin that had been calling to her before she sat down comfortably. Pair by pair everyone was filing into the dining area and it was only a couple minutes before Mei and Chris sat down with them. By that point, Aoife had already finished her muffin with a content smile on her face. "Delicious be right." Aoife nodded in agreement before nibbling on some of the ham, a 'mmm' sounding with how it practically melted in her mouth. Sure there wasn't rashers or black and white pudding but it would suffice. "I tink ya been watchin too many movies, Mei." She spoke in a teasing manner when the other woman mentioned getting captured, a laugh ensuing moments after. "Dey just be fixin ta see what we be good at and what we need work on. Notin more." Or at least she thought so based on her first encounter with the training. She couldn't be completely sure since she wasn't here from the beginning but that was what she felt. "Everyone 'ere be different, dey know different tings, trained different ways. Dey 'ave ta be seein who's good at what." She added as an afterthought before going right back to her food happily.

 

[SparkleBreaker]

Sydney
​

“All looks delicious” she commented, though she smiled how Chris responded with just one word, protein. The guy was buff enough, but it made her wonder he was trying to up his beefiness even more. Be hard to challenge him physically if that were the case, not that it was all about strength. “Ah, I think torture is a bit out there.” she agreed with Aoife a bit. There was no doubt in her mind that they would test if they could keep their mouth shut at some point. “I do think they’ll find a way to test if we’ll talk in tough situations though. Doubt they want someone blabbing about this place and spill confidential information.” she shrugged, taking a bite of bacon. It was very flavorful and she had gone out of her way to pick out the crispy ones. Slimy, nasty bacon that was floppy just wasn’t satisfying to the taste buds. Felt like you were chewing on lard. Next, she cut open one of her eggs open and watch the yellow substance spill out. It was the most delicious part of the egg and how some would skip it and just get the egg white was beyond her, even if it was weird eating another animal’s egg. Add a bit of salt to it she started in on that, keeping track of time so she would still be able to finish everything. 

“I think sine they paired us up it is more of a classroom setting sort of thing than survival” she added in-between bites. It might have just been hopeful thinking, because of her condition, but there was also a good possibility that it could happen. Sir walking in had caused her to pause while eating and watch the man go over to the empty table that he had been at the night before. He was watching, studying every one of them as he walked to his seat. About fifteen minutes had gone by, so they had around that to go, but she wanted to have her tray token care of before anything else happened. “Look who is here.” She said, gesturing over to sir with a nod before resuming eating once more. “Guess the answers to all our questions will soon come.” she said, taking a sip from her drink. Sir and Sydney made eye contact briefly as he was staring at their table. “You think that is a good sign or a bad sign.” she asked, slowly putting her drink down to look at the others to see if they were seeing him watch them also. “You think it is because of last night?” she added, as the man didn’t falter at looking at them.
 

 

[pyreshadow]

┏━━━┓
Mei
┗━---━┛​

Mei flushed a little when she figured that maybe she was thinking too much about what happened in the movies. She couldn't help it though, most of the time it was a lot easier to sneak into a movie theater for bigger budget movies and that happened to be the type of movie she saw fairly often. At least more often than other types of movies. "The hardest part is the wondering what comes next." She grumbled a little before nibbling at her food some more to try to finish it sooner rather than later. If they were going to be starting another test soon, it wouldn't do well to waste anything on her plate. Though she really couldn't help but wonder just how they'd test their willpower to keep the secret. There were a few different ways she could imagine it -all from movies- but they just seemed so overdone that she wasn't sure it was even possible. A small, muffled 'hm' sounded from her own thoughts and that brought her out of them to look the others over. Sydney was making a gesture to another table, so that was where her eyes immediately went to. Sir was sitting once again at the same table as before, only this time he was staring right at them. Mei stared back for only a moment before turning back to her food a little uncomfortably.

"I don't know what kind of sign it is but I don't really like it." Mei commented quietly, almost forcing herself to go back to eating at this point. It wasn't like there was much left but it was still hard to do with someone staring. Not for Chris though; the man took the last bite of his food and let out a heavy sigh of contentment as he leaned back into the chair some. "He's probably just trying to rile us up, don't think about it too much." He said with a light shrug of his shoulders before he grabbed the water to start chugging it down. Aoife going so far as to greet Sir caused Mei to inwardly groan a bit. "If it's because of last night, he could just say something instead of staring." Mei mumbled more quietly as she leaned closer to make sure only their table could hear and not him. She even went so far as to turn her body a bit in case he could lip read, her paranoia starting to get the better of her. It was a bad habit of hers, one that resulted from the years she'd spent going from place to place. She stole another glance his way before going back to finishing the last little bit of her food. Maybe Chris was right, he was just trying to ruffle some feathers; the only problem was it was working on her, she was just getting better at hiding it for the most part.

┏━-━-━┓
Aoife
┗━-----━┛​

Aoife went a little quiet as she thought about if they'd actually end up testing how silent they could be. That was something she was rather good at given her choice of occupation and her loyalty. She was never the type to rat out someone for anything, even if it meant saving her own ass. Though thankfully she'd only ever been in that type of situation once and it was only because her and her partner in crime so to speak got caught. A small smile grew on her lips as she thought about the memory as she continued to eat. "We find out soon enough." She commented right before taking a swig of her drink, not really bothered by not knowing what was to come. Even thinking about it was silly since they could think all they want and still have something completely different happen to them. They just needed to be prepared for whatever might get tossed their way, nothing more. Hearing Sydney's voice about 'who', Aoife turned to the table where Sir was sitting much like the others at the table. She looked from him to Sydney and then back again. Either he was staring directly at her or all of them but whether that was good or bad was a question none of them had an answer for. Chris had a point that the redhead nodded about as she picked up her drink to sip on it a little more.

"Cheers, Sir." Aoife called over to him in greeting, giving him a small smile before leaning back in her chair some. Whatever he was thinking, it couldn't be too bad unless he wanted to question about what happened last night. But then why would he? It was a training exercise so someone getting singled out like that was bound to happen at some point, right? Even if the prick ended up taking it a little too far. "Maybe the lad's just tinkin 'bout the test dat's happenin today or sometin. Hard ta say really." Aoife shrugged before downing the rest of her drink and moving on to the last of the food on her plate happily. "Maybe he's mad dat I found da spots for da cameras. Dere's many tings dat could be goin on in dat 'ead of his. Assumin won't do notin to help. We just afta be patient 'n see." She added as more of an afterthought than anything, giving the group a smile to try to get them all to relax a little bit. It wasn't that big of a deal to be stared at so long as you didn't let it bother you. Which is exactly how she felt, it didn't bother her in the least. What did was the lack of food by the time she finished eating though it would be enough for the time being. "Dat was good." Aoife said happily as she pushed the tray out in front of her, thanking Chris when he started gathering all of the trays together.

 

[SparkleBreaker]

Sydney
​

Breakfast had been finished up along with the rest of them. She thanked Chris for taking her tray. Sir was now making his way over, which surprised Sydney. “Guess we’re finding out now.” she said, a sheepish grin on her face as the man approached. There was just something about him that made her nervous and it wasn’t just because he held her future in his hands. Did he come over because he was addressed by Aoife or did he already have it planned? Was she just plain over thinking everything? The man came up and spoke outwardly to the red head, so it must have been because he had been addressed by her. There was a little jab at the camera she thought, but wasn’t for sure. The man had his way with words and he was very good at keeping things very low key if in fact he had been hinting at any of it. Their time they had with him was very brief as he only stayed a few minutes and now was clearing his throat and discussing the day’s plans with them. Something he was doing very differently from the previous days and she quite liked it, though she doubt it would continue to be this straight forward. 

The partner part didn’t particularly bother her any. Aoife seemed sure of herself well enough and had proven she was serious about the training aspect of it all. Guns. That was something she had little practices with, but she had some experience handling a hand gun. Never a rifle, and nothing was specified what they’d be using, though her gut feeling said a mix between the both. Once he was finished she got up and pushed in her chair, waiting for her partner to do the same. “Have any experience with guns?” she asked, as the crowd slowly followed behind sir down a hallway and into a door on the right, which was a class room. Set up with very large tables, firearms already on them covered with a blanket and also resting on one. It was two chairs per table and Sydney picked one closer to the front so they would have a good view of the video. It seemed like she was being a teacher’s pet in a way. “This one alright?” she asked, gesturing to the table that she had picked out. Part of her wanted to peek under the blanket to see what they were going to be working with, but she knew better. That would probably end up with her getting a giant scolding.

Brian
​

No one was sent home the night before, but there were a few groups that took their sweet time getting out. Brian had stayed up most of the night tallying up the pros and cons of each individual. A group was standing out more than the rest as they were working together on the task, leaning on one another when needed. Their skill sets were quite high, and most of them thought outside the box. Things he looked for in every candidate. Many were frowning on them leaning on each other, while he was sort of impressed. A group already forming like such meant they had a strong leader, even if they were unaware of it. Brian eyed the groups when he first came in, not many looked up from their breakfast as they were scarfing it down in the time given to them. His eyes landed on the group of four that everyone was buzzing about. Sydney noticed him from the get go and alerted the other of his presences. It seemed some didn’t do well with the attention he was giving them as Mei seemed she was twigging out. Sydney unsure what to think, of course after being singled out last night he was sure plenty was going through her mind. Chris seemed nonchalant about it. Aoife, well she surprised him with a well greeting, getting many others to look away from their plates. Most of the time he kept his distance until the last few was left, but he wanted to get a closer look at this group. Maybe to keep one wiz tech in check for a little while longer, though he was intrigued to see what she had planned with the cameras. 

“Morning.” he said as she walked up to the group’s table. He had his hands in his pockets. “Aoife, I see you’ve been learning your way around this place pretty well.” he smiled, wondering she would catch his drift. If so, would it even deter her from her mission? Must have figured one of them would notice. Didn’t exactly take rocket science to figure out she was scoping them out. Brian also took this time to notice the bruises on Sydney. One was in the shape of hand that must have had a pretty tight grip on her. They were easy to see since she had taken a different route of wearing the uniform, tying the arms around the waist. He just eyed it, not being able to make up his mind if he cared enough to ask her to change it. In the end it just didn’t bother him enough. “Well, I hope you’re ready for the next exercise because it is starting right now.” he said quietly, taking a few steps back from the table and clearing his throat loudly to gain everyone’s attention in the room. 

“Today is going to be a bit different from the previous forty-eight hours if you haven’t already noticed. We’ve paired you up with someone that you don’t know too well, but are still comfortable enough to work together. Team work is essential in this line of work. So get this right, your partner fails you fail. Your partner gets sent home. . . you get sent home.” he paused, letting it all sink in. Having your dream job rest in someone else’s hands wasn’t quite a nice feeling. “Think of it this way. In training it is your job. On the job it is your life. Skills working with someone you don’t quite know is crucial to get down.” he added, furthermore explaining the reasoning behind the severity of them leaning on each other. ‘You’ll be watching a video about gun safety and then we’ll be introducing you to some of the more common ones are agents use. You’ll be graded on how well you can clean one, how fast you can put it together and your accuracy with one. Another drill will follow afterwards were you’ll be working with your partner and your other roommates.” he said dryly. Like this was rehearsed. Adding them back together was just to see if they would forget that the main point of that day’s training was to work with the partner assigned to them. “Follow me.”  he ordered firmly, walking into a classroom. 

 

[pyreshadow]

┏━━━┓
Mei
┗━---━┛​

Mei situated herself to sit normally when Sydney announced Sir was coming their way. She gave him a small nod when he was close enough, still wondering why he was even coming over in the first place. It had to be Aoife's fault since she greeted him, not that Mei was saying no one shouldn't. It was just an awkward situation they were currently in, what with training and all. Still, Mei forced herself to relax more when he addressed Aoife first and a small smile grew with the redhead's response. Though she wasn't sure if it was a good or a bad thing, she wasn't going to stick her nose into whatever that was about either. Especially since Sir went on to mention the next test starting. It felt odd in a way but Mei didn't dwell too much on it as er focus was more on his words. Her eyes glanced over to Chris for a moment when it was stated if the partner fails, so too does the other. He seemed rather excited by the idea and held his arm up to her. Mei grinned a little by his enthusiasm and tapped her arm against his in a way that said 'we got this'. Her mind started thinking about the types of firearms they could be using in this instance. If it was revolver or a pistol then she was fine, not that she had a terrible about of experience with them. Much like the others in the room, she got up to follow after Sir with Chris walking beside her.

"This will be cake, Mei." He spoke quietly, gaining her attention as she noticed the wider grin on his face. He seemed to notice the questioning look and waved it off rather quickly. "I'm a hunter, it's not what I do for my profession but what I do in my spare time. I have a variety of types of firearms so we'll be fine. Have you fired any type of gun before?" He asked as Mei slowly nodded her head in understanding the more she listened. That explained why he was so confident about this part and looking him over, he did seem the type that would enjoy hunting. Not that she was judging him by any means, she was just thinking that they got lucky that he joined their group. "I've shot a pistol before, I think it was an automatic one. But I haven't had very many chances at that." Which might end up hurting them but he didn't seem to mind at all as he once again waved off the comment. At least one of them was confident, so Mei decided that she would just think more positively about this one. They got this. When they got into the classroom type room, Mei's eyes looked around and almost wanted to remove one of the blankets just to see what they were working with. She didn't though and ended up sitting at the table behind Aoife and Sydney. Chris sat beside her and started whispering to her about the different types of guns and how to clean them. It was short and brief but at least it was something that could help.

┏━-━-━┓
Aoife
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Aoife kept her eyes on Sir as he got up and walked over to their table, her smile not once deterring. She didn't see why he needed to be feared or worried about when he was there to give them their training. Probably rile up their feathers some while he was at it just to see how they'd react. It almost reminded her of the way the police worked back in her hometown. His comment to her instantly made her think about the cameras as she nodded her head some. "Learnin very well, Sir. Da place be more homey dan I first knew." She replied in an easy going manner as she placed her hands in her lap comfortably. She knew that he knew about her checking the cameras out but there was no way he knew what she was planning. It wasn't like she was going to break into the security system and find out all their dirty little secrets. Nope, that was too big a scheme for her right now and she happened to like her freedom. It would be much simpler than that but still give her eyes around them, if it worked. She gave him another nod to show she was ready for the coming test and listened quietly to what was being said. She had no problems working with someone to get the job done, though it was quite interesting to know it was about firearms today. A small hum escaped her lips as she thought about how that was going to work. Cleaning was easy enough but putting one together was a feat in itself. Unless it was a semi, then that would be easy enough.

Aoife waited until the rest of the table got up before she did too to follow after Sydney. "I 'ave a Beretta Nano, 9mm at 'ome and my cousin let me use his shotgun before." She replied as she kept close to Sydney, her eyes still looking around them to see what she could see. Nothing out of the ordinary, just a couple more cameras lining the walls and that was it. With the kind of play she enjoyed, she rather needed to have that gun with her as a precaution. As they arrived in the classroom, she watched Sydney pick out one of the closer tables before letting out a small laugh. "Where ya sit don't make much of a difference, so long as ya get da stuff done. It be da same eiter way if we be here or in da back. You nervous about dis?" Aoife asked her as she sat down in the chair next to Sydney, giving her a wry smile. "Notin to be nervous about. If ya want, ya can clean and I put da guns togeta." She added as an afterthought, holding a hand up in the air as if offering something in her hand instead. It would probably be the easiest way to go about it if Sydney didn't have much experience with guns but either way worked for her. It should be an interesting day and she was quite excited to see how things played out.

 

[SparkleBreaker]

Sydney
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It was clear Aoife didn’t mind the seating arrangements as long as she got stuff done. It rubbed her the wrong way, though she figured the other didn’t mean any harm by it. It had to be her just being over sensitive from the lack of rest and all the bruising. All of it was altering her attitude, though she was doing her best not to let it come through, but she was more irritable than usual. Sydney was never one to take the back seat. Just cleaning guns was off the table. “Nah, I can put them together.” she said, shrugging, acting like none of it was bothering her. “Why you think I’m nervous?” she asked, that really got under her skin. It was sort of like last night all over again, being seen as weak. That she had to be dependent on someone else, taken care of. None of it was ill attended, she hoped. Truth was she didn’t know Aoife as well as the other, so she did know her game plan. Going off first impressions though, that was not her MO. Hopefully, she was good at reading people. Yesterday she felt comfortable, yet those irritating words were twisting their way into her brain and clouding her judgement. Was that the point or was that bit if training off the books. 

“You don’t see me as weak?” she asked, worry growing her in her face. The lights had dimmed, but the film hadn’t begun yet. There were light foot-steps shuffling in the back she figured was Sir or someone else setting up the film. “Thaat is a stupid question. Don’t answer it.” She countered before the other could state her opinion. Sydney sort of feared the answer and didn’t want to know. It was a good opportunity for one to psych her out. It felt like she was having a mental breakdown in her mind. Nothing felt right or made sense. That bastard had worked something over on her. Now her thoughts were spinning out of control. Sir’s announcement that the video would be starting shortly pulled her away from the messy whirl of thoughts and feelings mashing madly together. The lights dimmed and she rubbed her temple and avoided her partner’s eye contact for the duration of the film. There were no notes she could scribble down since a note book wasn’t provided. Figured it was there way of testing their memories.  Another little test to past no doubt. The lights came on about forty-five minutes later. Sir gave them permission to look under their sheets and to get familiar with the guns they’d be working with that day. There was a 50 Cal sniper rifle, an automatic pistol with a laser pointer and silencer, a revolver and a shot gun. Sydney was the most excited to try out the sniper, it was the one she connected with the most in the videos that she felt she could handle well. “What one you excited to try out?” she asked, lightly touching the sniper.