In order to test one's abilities whether they be purely physical or otherwise in certain cases, one must have the proper space in order to test themselves and see what they are capable of. But that is for normal people as well as heroes, as monsters didn't have designated places to test themselves such as the association branch buildings, or even something as simple as a gym with basic equipment. Then again, most monsters are either naturally born and know what they can do from day one, while humans who transform into them typically just go out into the world and destroy anything they find in order to figure out what they can do. Neither of these applied to Sunder though, as she was no doubt a known and wanted monster by now, but even if that weren't the case it still would be flat out stupid to do something like that anyways, as the likelihood of a hero beyond her capabilities showing up was unknown as she still didn't know all of what she could do.
But thankfully Garou had the perfect place where they could train and discover what her monster powers were without drawing any attention to themselves. Not too far from the apartment complex there was another abandoned building that was further into the more ghost town like environment of this district. So not only would they have plenty of privacy already but the chances of someone just walking by and perhaps catching of glimpse of them through a window was practically nonexistent. Furthermore the building itself was quite spacious, though neither Garou or Sunder could tell what the building was before it had been vacated, they figured it was either some kind of storage building or maybe an office space. Regardless of what it was in a previous life it now served as the perfect isolated destination for him to train, while she figured out what she was capable of.
"Alright." He spoke as he pointed to the other side of the building "You get that half of the space and I'll take this half, that way we won't get in each other's way." He directed.
"Wait...aren't you going to help me?" She asked.
"How would I do that, you don't even know what you might be able to do yet beyond healing quickly." He replied as he crossed his arms "I don't want us to be sparring and you suddenly spew fire at me or your spikes extend outward and nearly stab me." He explained.
"Couldn't you just dodge it though? I mean you were pretty quick when you handed those heroes' asses to'em." She argued as she put a hand on her hip.
"They were human, you are not." He told her bluntly with a sigh "I'm still not that good against non human attacks, punching, kicking, and even weapons I can handle without issue, but the moment something beyond that is added to the mix I don't know how to approach it." He explained.
"I...guess that does make sense, kinda hard to dodge something when you don't even know what it could be." She agreed earning a nod in response.
"Exactly, so like I said I'll be over here and you'll be over there, once you figure out everything that you can do then maybe we can spar to help improve your hand to hand combat." He offered before walking away to his side.
"But how am I supposed to do this? Do I just stand around thinking of shit to do then hope it happens?" She asked.
"Pretty much." He replied with a shrug "Just think of stuff you want to happen or stuff you think can happen and see if it works, if it doesn't then just move on and keep doing it until you find something that does work." He explained.
Even though what he was saying did make some sense, it didn't keep her from furrowing her brow before she went to her side to start trying.
"Okay..." She said with a sigh as she closed her eyes "Just think of something and hope for the best..." She muttered as she did her best to concentrate.
Deciding to go for the most obvious powers first to get them out the way, she started with flight as out of every power she could think of that seemed the most absurd to happen. And sure enough, after spending a solid two minutes lightly jumping in place and just trying to take off with her mind, she concluded that she could not take to the skies. After that she went for the more likely and realistic choices that were far less ridiculous given her body's appearance, such as super strength and super speed. And while she wasn't able to lift a bus sized chunk out of the ground or run around the building at the speeds of a fighter jet, she was able to break through the ground with her clawed fingers and pull out baseball sized clumps with ease while as for speed she was more agile and swift than a normal person would be, but it wasn't close to being super.
Moving past physical enhancement she then tried to see if her senses had gotten any better, or the very least they could do a slight bit more than before. Sadly most of her senses seemed to be the same except for her hearing and sense of smell, as she could now smell as well as hear things that were well outside the building with the same clarity as though they were right next to her. Now all that was left to do was to try and figure out what special powers she may or may not have, which at first might seem like a fairly easy task to accomplish it in truth was the opposite. For unlike the tests prior that just examined how she had been bettered on a physical level, this was going to try and see if she was able to do something like Garou suggested, such as breathing fire or anything else that her imagination could think of.
Choosing to start with the idea of breathing fire she did everything she could to accomplish this, or maybe something else like spewing acid or some kind of poison only to be met with no result. Next she tried making her spikes extend as Garou had also suggested, and while at first it seemed like nothing was going to happen, after a few more attempts a rather interesting discovery was made. Though unable to make them longer she was able to shoot them off at incredibly high speeds, which to Garou's good fortune she had been doing towards the back wall of the building, meaning he was in no danger of being hit by a stray flyer. In addition to this however the spikes grew back near instantly the moment they left their place on her body, and seeing as how they had grown from the obsidian like material that made up her arms and spots, an excited smile appeared on her face as an idea came to mind.
Focusing entirely on the spots that covered her arms she did her best to make spikes sprout from them as well, to which she succeeded after but a few short seconds. Feeling a great deal of pride at having figured out at least one super power she was capable of, she cautiously grabbed one of the newly grown spikes with her index finger and thumb before attempting to remove it. Sure enough, just as she had made the spikes fly from her form into the wall she was able to easily pull them away as well, and was even able to make a new one appear immediately. This in turn caused her excited smile to become a devilish grin as she began to remove and regrow her spikes in a rapid fashion, eventually having two handfuls of them.
"Hey Garou!" She called out as she turned around while holding them up for him to see "Check this out, I can basically make throwing-" She began to say, only to stop when she saw what he was doing.
Much like she had seen in movies and television shows Garou was essentially fighting with his own shadow, going through a vast variety of moves and techniques that showed he didn't just know how to fight, he was an expert. But while this in of itself was of course impressive, what really made it shocking was just how fast and powerful each movement was, as even though he wasn't making contact with anything she swore she could actually see the air around each attack be moved by it's sheer force alone.
"Whoa..." She said in awe as she continued to watch.
Lowering her hands down to her sides as she was stunned by how precise and deadly his moves seemed to be, making her more amazed at how he hadn't killed the heroes even by accident, after another minute or so passed by he noticed her just standing there staring at him which brought him to a stop.
"Hey." He spoke, managing to snap her out of it "You okay?" He asked.
"Uh yeah, sorry bout that." She replied with an awkward smile "I've just never seen someone fight like that, you a martial artist or something?" She asked.
"I was." He answered as he placed a hand behind his head "Or at least, I was training to be one, until I got my ass handed to me." He explained.
"Whoa, someone actually beat you?" She questioned, finding it hard to believe after what she just saw.
"Yeah, it was...actually the guy who trained me." He admitted before shaking his head "But that's just boring past stuff, what've you got in your hands?" He inquired, wanting to change the subject.
"Hm? OH RIGHT!" She shouted, as she remembered why she had turned around to face him in the first place "I can grow more spikes out of my spots! and I can even shoot them out or pull them off!" She revealed, causing a look of amazement to appear on his face.
"Whoa, so you have like built in throwing knives then?" He asked, earning a nod in response.
"Seems like it, pretty cool right?" She replied.
"Definitely, that's a really useful power." He complimented as he crossed his arms "You could stockpile those and take them with you into a fight, or when you're about to get hit you can make them grow to hurt your attacker." He suggested.
"I hadn't even thought about that..." She admitted as a smile came to her face "My body fuckin rocks!" She cheered as she threw a fist into the air.
Admittedly happy to see her so excited about her newly discovered power, Garou looked up to a hole in the ceiling to see how much time had passed, discovering that they had been doing this for what seemed to be nearly two hours.
"It's almost noon." He said as he looked back to her "Wanna head back home and get some lunch?" He asked.
Taking a moment to consider if she was hungry or not, the sound of her stomach growling managed to answer before she did, causing her to slightly blush.
"Um...yeah..." She sheepishly replied, a bit embarrassed at how audible that had been.
Walking over to him so that they could both walk out together, as they made their way out of the building and began walking down the sidewalk, Garou looked back at the handfuls of spikes that she still held onto.
"So what're you gonna do with those?" He asked, causing her to look at them as well.
"Probably will do like you said, stockpile'em in case shit ever get's real." She answered with a shrug "To be honest I'm still surprised I was able to discover anything, figured I'd just be standing there looking like some loser doing poses and saying stupid shit like a character from one of those hero shows..." She said, causing him to laugh.
"Yeah those shows are pretty cheesy, though the villains are always cool." He replied.
"So you watch those kinds of show then?" She inquired with an amused smirk.
"I did when I was kid." He answered "What about you?" He asked.
"Nope." She answered simply "I liked watching movies more, ones with action and violence, even some horror movies where things got super bloody." She admitted "How bout you, what kind of movies you like?" She asked.
"Monster movies." He answered with a shrug, causing her to roll her eyes.
"Of course, why did I think it'd be something else?" She asked rhetorically "Is there anything you like OTHER than monsters and bad guys?" She asked.
"I like fighting." He answered.
"And?" She pressed, wanting a bit more than that.
"And...that's pretty much it." He admitted causing her to sigh.
"We need to get you like a hobby or something..." She told him as she shook her head in disappointment.
"Oh yeah? then why don't you tell me what YOUR hobbies are hm?" He suggested.
"Fine, I like watching movies, reading manga, playing video games." She began to list.
"So you're a geek then?" He questioned with a smirk, only to be hit in the back of the head with her tail.
"As I was saying." She resumed as he rubbed the spot where she made contact "I also like weapons, guns, knives, swords, hell even spears and shit, I just think they're cool." She admitted.
"Anything else?" He asked.
"Well...I did get into drugs a year or two ago, though I wouldn't say it was a hobby really, more like an escape." She explained.
"Is that how you became a monster?" He asked.
"Hmm...maybe." She replied with a shrug "To be honest I just kinda woke up like this, after my boyfriend nearly beat me to death." She revealed, as she looked to the ground "In fact, that's why those heroes attacked me in the first place, well one of them at least." She added.
"Because you were going to kill your boyfriend?" He asked, wanting to be certain.
"Hell yeah I was, I had the little bitch pressed against a wall with my blade sticking into his neck." She answered with a scowl "But then the first asshole had to show up and knock me off to the side, letting the bastard get away alive..." She explained.
Taking notice at how angry she became just thinking about it, Garou could tell that when she said he nearly beat her to death, she meant it.
"...Heroes really do suck." He said, as he looked to the sky "They think they know what's good and that they're some kind of flawless moral compass, but the truth is they don't know anything, most of them probably have had really nice and comfortable lives for the most part, so they can't really put themselves in our shoes." He reasoned as he looked back to her "So...if you want me to like...help you find your boyfriend and kill him, I'd be down for it." He told her, causing her to look at him with widened eyes.
"Wait what?" She asked, as she wasn't sure she heard him right "Are...are you serious?" She added
"Mhm, dude sounds like a real tool, so who's gonna care if he winds up dead?" He asked as a smile came to his face "Plus you've got unfinished business with him, so you deserve to be the one to do it." He told her.
Even though she had wondered to herself just earlier in the day whether or not he'd be willing to help her, the fact that she didn't even have to ask him for his assistance and that he was just willing to give it, was something she could've never predicted.
"...Fuck yeah let's do it!" She exclaimed with a toothy grin "Let's find that asshole and kill him!" She shouted with zest as she threw her hands into air.
With a plan of murder now set into action the duo, more so Sunder, were eager to find her ex and give him the punishment he so desperately deserved.