"talking"

'thinking'

~telepathic talking~

Gwen and Mina were doing their weekly practice session, Max watching from the sidelines, a habit they got into 2 weeks before after Azmuth came to Earth and their battle with Sixsix. Gwen used these sessions to get better at focusing her mana in battle, and Mina uses them to get good at controlling new forms. This week they were in the desert area outside of Bellwood to keep a low profile. This was their 3rd session of the day.

Currently, Mina was transformed into an alien she named Whiplash. Her current form had a centaur body, but instead of a horse, it's more a deer, with a long scorpion-like tail that had a jagged foot long natural metal blade at the tip. Her body was covered in lavender fur, and while her upper half was humanoid, and feminine, it was a lot different than a human. She had very thin, wiry, lanky arms reaching about half way down her taur body, ending in 7 fingered hands. Her head had deer-like ears, 3 ovular nostrils in place of a mouth or nose, and 4 eyes with green irises, 2 on stalks protruding from her head.

Gwen was shooting mana bolts toward Mina, while she dodged and slashed with her tail at Gwen, who threw up a shield. Both were holding back since it's just sparring, and they didn't want to hurt the other, but that didn't mean they didn't get competitive with it.

~Getting tired Gwen?~ Mina taunted telepathically as she circled for another run.

"You wish Mina." She responded and fired a few mana bolts in front of Mina, causing her to trip over the debris she didn't see, skidding across the mesa.

~Okay, okay…~ She conceded and turned back human. "You win this week." She panted a bit and took a swig of water from their bag they left outside the arena. "Whiplash is amazing." She continued. "So agile and the tail strikes are lightning fast. Just gotta make sure I pay attention, else I'm gonna crash like that again."

"Yeah," Gwen said, grabbing her water. "You did good with this one, but yeah, you gotta pay attention, our enemies are going to play dirty like that."

"I know, I know…" She sighed. "Wanna go to Mr. Smoothie? Water isn't doing it for me right now."

"Sure, but loser buys." Gwen teased. They started walking towards the Rustbucket.

Then a laser was shot at them. Gwen threw up a shield and as the dust settled, they saw their attackers, a squad of Forever Knights were all aiming alien guns in their direction.

Max ran up to his grandkids as the parties stared each other down.

The Knights then just turned away and started running through the desert.

"Oh, you are NOT getting away!" Mina said as she slammed the Omnitrix down, turning into Jetray.

"Mina wait." Max said, putting a hand on her shoulder. "That's obviously a trap."

"I wasn't going to engage them grandpa, just see where they're going." Mina said. "Besides, I've learned how to use Jetray better since my fight with Sixsix, so I should be able to dodge their blasts."

Max sighed. "Okay, just be careful. Gwen and I will be on your tail in the Rustbucket."

Mina nodded and took off in the direction the Knights went.