Oliver leaned casually against the wall, idly spinning the chamber on one half of Venation as he waited for the pair of teens to finish their sparring match. With the Vytal Festival's fast-approaching tournament, it wasn't uncommon to find people still using facilities like this one for last-minute training, even out here in Vacuo. Of course, he wasn't really in a position to judge their motives. Perhaps their school wouldn't actually let them go. Maybe they weren't even students and just liked to train for self-defense. Or, like him, they could have been settling a bet.

Beside him, Aspen stood quietly, arms crossed. She wasn't antsy like she could have been, but he still picked up on an air of anticipation as she watched the movements of the two fighters. In all honesty, Oliver felt bad for the girl. His skills against other Hunters may have atrophied slightly over the years with only Laurel to train with, but he still had years of experience over the black-haired girl. Actually, it didn't look like she'd had any experience at all. While she was certainly not out of shape, she didn't have the physique of someone who'd put countless hours of work into honing their body.

After several more minutes of kicking and punching, the two fighters on the training floor finally yielded to the buzzer that marked the end of their session. Pushing himself off the wall, Oliver snapped his hand cannon into its holster as he made his way toward the center of the small arena, Aspen ahead of him and Laurel just behind.

Laurel had not been happy with his decision to make a bet with the girl, nor with the fact that he'd roped her into it as well. What his long-time partner didn't know, however, was that he'd been planning on taking her to the Vytal Festival for some time already. It would bite into his savings a bit, but he was willing to pay for Aspen as well, and would take her regardless of how the fight turned out. They couldn't watch after her forever, but if she really wanted to be a Hunter, maybe they could start her on the path.

The three took their positions around the circle that marked the center of the arena, with Oliver and Aspen facing each other and Laurel standing off to the side. "Alright, this is how it's going to work," the orange-haired woman affirmed, crossing her arms beneath her poncho. "You'll be going for pins, three pins is a win." She looked at Aspen to make sure she understood the rule. "A pin is considered any position I consider to be one which the defending person cannot get out of." Aspen nodded, a slight bounce in her foot betraying her impatience. Frowning, Laurel backed off to the edge of the area. "Alright, go."

Oliver stood still, keeping Venation in its holsters. He wanted to go easy on the girl, so he was going to let her make the first move. Aspen lunged forward, swiping at him with her fist. She'd had an opportunity to pick from a variety of weapons, but she'd instead opted to use her bare hands and even wore the same store-bought outfit—not that she had much else to wear. All of this only served to strengthen his theory that she didn't have any fighting experience, which made her sudden speed that much more surprising.

The Hunter leaned backward, narrowly avoiding the clawed fingers that threatened to remove his eyes. The move was followed by a diagonal slash at his chest from the girl's other arm, but he easily stepped back to avoid any damage. It wasn't until she launched forward toward his throat that the two actually made contact. Slipping to her weak side, he grabbed her outstretched hand with his own while wrapping his other arm around her neck, trapping her. Laurel called the pin.

Releasing her with a small push to separate them, Oliver let Aspen stumble forward. As she gained her footing, she reached up and unzipped her hoodie. The Hunter frowned mentally; the whole round had lasted about five seconds. He didn't want to be too hard on the girl, but suppressing years of sparring instinct was harder than he thought it would be. I'll let her get the next one.

Squaring up, he once again let Aspen make the first move. She hadn't seemed to learn from her mistakes, rushing him again with wild punches and swipes, but the speed with which she moved was remarkable. There was a sort of fluidity in her attack, he noted as he stepped around an uncontrolled lunge that nearly left her stumbling. Her form was rough and was evidently self-taught, but it was there. Smirking to himself, Oliver decided to stop dodging everything and caught an attempted kick between his arm and ribs.

He immediately regretted the decision as he was sent tumbling to the side. Managing to regain his balance before he came to a stop, his hand reflexively went to his ribs. His Aura had protected him against any actual damage, but the hit had still hurt like hell. He'd been kicked harder, of course, but such events almost always involved some sort of weapon amplifying the strike. His thoughts went back to his education, the physics classes relating mass and acceleration to force, but he quickly pushed them off to focus on the matter at hand.

Taking advantage of her opponent's stunned state, Aspen dashed forward and swung her leg up high to bring it down on his head. Oliver wasn't about to make the same mistake twice, however, and swiftly unholstered his hand cannons. One batted the incoming leg aside as he stepped to the side and the other came up to point at the girl herself. The gunslinger hesitated, however, suddenly realizing that he didn't know if she even had her Aura unlocked to protect her. Aspen punished his uncertainty by delivering a spinning kick to his knees, effectively sweeping his legs out from under him. As he hit the ground, she leapt on top of him, hand at his throat.

Laurel called it from the side. "Pin!" It took a second, but the girl moved away, allowing Oliver to stand up. As he rose, he eyed her carefully. She had to have her Aura unlocked in order to move that fast and hit that hard. Despite his intentions, he hadn't actually let her take that one; she did it on her own, even if he had underestimated her. He needed to be more careful.

Keeping both halves of Venation ready, he squared up with Aspen again. Her expression was focused, not giving any indication that she was happy with the way the last round had gone. Interestingly, she held off attacking, waiting for him to make a move. Evidently, she was testing different strategies. Well, I don't really want to disappoint her, now do I?

Oliver pulled up one hand cannon and fired a quick shot at her, his concerns about the status of her Aura alleviated. That didn't mean he was going to risk killing her on a hunch. As the shot travelled toward her leg, Aspen swiftly moved aside, dodging it completely in an impressive display of reflexes. The Hunter pulled up his other gun and began firing more non-lethal shots, putting the girl's speed and agility to the test as she pushed towards him.

Amazingly, not a single round hit her and, within seconds, she was right in front of him. He fired one last time, but somehow she managed to once again sidestep, and the bullet passed harmlessly in front of her face. Reaching up, Aspen snapped one hand against his wrist and the other against the weapon, disarming him. Throwing the other half into the air, he caught the loose weapon with his now-free hand and spun around to strike the girl with it. She sprang backward to avoid the blow, giving Oliver room to snap up his abandoned hand cannon before it could hit the ground.

Fully armed once again, Oliver decided to test the girl's adaptability. Swinging them in front of himself, he brought the tops edges of the guns together, locking them into a single piece. A grip extended out toward him from the center of the joined weapon, while the rest extended out into a blade, just over three-and-a-half feet long from the cross-guard formed by the cannons' grips.

The Hunter gave the claymore a slow spin, Aspen staring wide-eyed at the weapon's transformed state. He swung in a broad arc, keeping things simple as he tested the limits of the girl's skills. She took an unsteady step backward and he pressed the advantage, crossing the distance in a second and knocking her down with his shoulder. There was no time for her to move before the blade was by her neck.

"Pin."

Oliver couldn't suppress a smile as he stepped back and allowed her to stand. The girl did have potential, and with the right training may actually be able to become a Huntress, but at the moment she seemed too easily startled by unexpected changes in combat. He still had a couple more aces up his sleeve and could—

Wait, wasn't I going to go easy on her? I mean, she's actually doing well on her own, but I'm treating this like an actual sparring match with someone at my skill level. This fight doesn't even matter, so why am I even doing this?

Oliver pulled himself from his thoughts as Aspen began circling around the center of the training field. He moved with her, keeping Venation low enough to block any attack easily. Sure enough, she suddenly stepped toward him, aiming a fist at his chest. He brought his sword up, catching the strike on the flat of his blade, supporting it with his left hand. Once again, however, he'd underestimated her strength and the punch pushed him back several inches.

They stood that way for several seconds, each trying to overpower the other. Oliver considered using his Semblance to help push back, but opted to hold that card for later. Using Aspen's off-center position to his advantage, the gunslinger removed his supporting hand and spun around, aiming to catch the girl with his elbow as she stumbled forward. As soon as the opposing force was removed, however, Aspen had dropped to the ground, using her momentum to roll forward.

With the girl out of range, the Hunter swiftly collapsed Venation down, splitting it back into his two hand cannons. He let off another volley of shots, but, once again the girl avoided every round fired her way. She rushed forward, coming at Oliver from his left as he attempted to track her. Dipping under his arm, Aspen collided with him in a tackle before, with seemingly no effort, lifting him up and slamming him into the ground, back-first. Oliver's world blurred, but he soon found himself once more lying underneath the girl.

Laurel called the pin, but as she rolled off him, Oliver felt Aspen take the weapon from his hand. He rose quickly to his feet, getting eyes on the girl in case she tried anything under-handed. He wasn't sure why she would, considering she actually stood a good chance of winning the fight on her own, but the way she was carefully inspecting the hand cannon put him a little on edge. Despite his reservations, though, she merely turned it over in her hands instead of trying to use it against him.

Carefully watching the girl, Oliver took the short break to reload the weapon he still had possession of. He'd nearly exhausted their magazines, so even if Aspen didn't give it back she wouldn't be able to do much with it. Unless she did something unexpected which, of course, she did.

While probing the top of the handgun, she suddenly ripped her hand down its center. The weapon unfolded itself, half a handle spiraling out the bottom and half a blade extending out the top. The inside edge of the sword was jagged, the hooked locks exposed without the cannon's other half.

As she gave the weapon an experimental swing, Aspen smiled for the first time during the fight. It was the first time he'd seen her smile at all, and it caused a chill to run up Oliver's spine. Venation wasn't even supposed to do that, so she'd either broken it or figured out a way to bypass the activating mechanisms built into the second weapon. In either case, she'd figured out how it worked in less than thirty seconds. Even with her natural skills, though, the weapon posed little threat in her hands given its unbalanced and cumbersome design.

Not wanting to risk damage to his other handgun, the Hunter decided not to attempt a recreation of Aspen's feat. He snapped the cylinder back into the body of the weapon, preparing himself for the final round. No more going easier on her; he was putting everything into this fight. Aspen seemed to be in a similar mindset, holding her sword at the ready, however awkwardly.

Oliver took the initiative, dashing forward to get within the girl's reach. She reacted quickly and stepped to the side, with the weapon held out for her opponent to run into. Seeing the blade, the man dropped to his knees and slid beneath it, firing up at Aspen as he moved. The stolen weapon moved impossibly fast, deflecting the bullet back down between her legs. Spinning around, she thrust the blade toward the man, wielding it in one hand. Alarmed by her sudden skill with an impractical weapon, Oliver stopped the blade's momentum with his hand cannon and kicked up at the girl's wrist. His boot connected and launched the weapon up over her head, leaving her vulnerable. He took the opportunity to shoot at her again, and this time, despite her speed, he saw a split appear on her sleeve, proof of a graze.

The girl didn't even flinch, but her face turned dark as she reached up to pull the sword out of the air in a left-handed reverse grip. Keeping her front toward Oliver, she slashed at him, not stopping even as he ducked. Continuing her spin, she brought her right foot around and aimed it at his head. He managed to divert it with his arm, but the sword came down again and forced him to roll away. With her opponent now on the ground, Aspen pounced, spinning the weapon to drop it down on him.

Her attack was halted with a flash as Oliver activated his Semblance. A barrier of white light shone at the point of contact, just a foot away from his face. Through it, he could feel her pressing down on it, and a bead of sweat formed on his temple from the exertion. Behind him, he heard Laurel call the pin, but Aspen continued trying to press, the light shining brighter with the increase in force. It was clear she'd lost herself to the fight, and while he couldn't blame her—he'd seen it far too many times to be judgmental—he did feel sorry for her.

The girl suddenly leapt backward, narrowly avoiding being struck by the massive piece of metal that was swung at her head. As soon as he was free, Oliver brought his legs over his head and kicked himself back up to his feet. Moving up on his right, Laurel kept her eyes on the girl as she kept Timekeeper's spiked flail head spinning in a tight circle. "You alright?"

"Yeah, I'm great," Oliver said, also looking at Aspen. She was smiling once again, but her smile was now more… manic than it had been before. "Alright, Aspen," he said casually as he stepped toward her, snapping his weapon into its holster. "You beat me. We'll take you to the Vytal Festival, just like I—" The girl cut his sentence off with a swing of her sword, forcing him back. "What the hell?!" he shouted, checking his coat for damage.

Aspen glowered at the man, a far cry from her… Well, happier wasn't the right word, but she had at least been smiling. Kind of. "I'm not done yet," she growled, tightening her grip on the spiraled hilt of her weapon.

"What are you talking about? The deal was that we'd fight to three pins and you just got your third, so we're done!"

Long black hair drifted in front of the girl's face as she shook her head. "I need to fight both of you to win."

The two Hunters shared a glance. What the hell is she talking about? Oliver was fairly certain the deal had been for her to beat him, and she hadn't protested when Laurel stepped aside to officiate. Why does she want to make things more difficult than they have to be?

Laurel was apparently thinking the same thing, but without her partner's reservations. "Well, if she wants us to double-team her, let's double-team her," she suggested, maintaining Timekeeper's circular path. "No holding back."

Oliver winced at the poor phrasing, but decided it wasn't the time to comment on it. "Alright, fine," he agreed, patting her a small push on the back of her shoulder. "Go at it then."

The woman faltered as she moved forward, her flail breaking from its loop as her arm stopped moving. "Uh, what? I'm pretty sure she meant both of us. As in at the same time."

"I know what she meant," Oliver said, gesturing toward his single weapon, "but seeing as I'm not going to be able to do much with just one gun, it's your show." While it was true that there wasn't much he could do without both halves of Venation, that didn't mean he wasn't going to fight. He just hoped Laurel understood his intentions.

It took less than a moment for the Huntress to figure it out and she nodded, turning back to Aspen. She took a few small, shuffling steps forward and swung her flail in a downward arc, the spike in the end traveling straight for Aspen's head. Predictably, the girl rolled forward to avoid it, lashing up at the connecting chain to give herself more room. Laurel pulled back on her weapon before it could hit the ground, bringing it flying back at her opponent from behind. As the girl dodged again, the Huntress shifted her grip on the handle and forced the spiked end up into the air above her. Spinning, Laurel fired a single shot from the back of the weapon and slammed the spike into the ground, narrowly missing her target.

Aspen pushed her opening, lunging forward with a thrust of her sword toward the woman's side. Laurel skipped back, however, before crouching low and leaping upward. As she flipped, she locked the handle into the flail head and pulled it up out of the ground, swinging it at the sword in the process. Aspen tried to pull her weapon away, but one of the locking hooks opposite the blade got caught on the chain running between the Timekeeper's handle, trapping it.

With Aspen's back now to him, Oliver made his move and dashed forward, wrapping his arms around her. "Dammit, Aspen! Stop!" The girl struggled for a few seconds against both the Hunter and the chain on her sword before deciding to focus on one at a time. Reversing her grip on the weapon, she slammed its point deep into the ground. With both hands free, she reached up and grabbed his right arm, ducked forward and flipped the taller man over her shoulders.

Oliver rolled up to his feet in time to see Aspen yank the sword out of the ground, spinning it to free the chain despite Laurel's efforts to keep it secured. Pulling the weapon's other half from its holster, he launched himself forward and fired at the girl's head. He had no doubt he would have missed again, but he wasn't trying to hit her. The stolen sword flicked up to deflect the round, but it never reached that far, striking the barrier created by Oliver's Semblance with a bright flash.

Aspen stumbled backward, blinded by the sudden light, allowing Oliver to get in close. Snapping his handgun back into its holster, he reached up with one hand to grab the sword handle and brought his other elbow down on the crook of her arm. The blow forced her to release the weapon back to its owner, and Oliver pushed himself backward to give Laurel room to come back in with Timekeeper.

While she kept Aspen busy, Oliver inspected the sword. Despite its fearsome appearance, it was horribly impractical. As he'd expected, the weapon was entirely unbalanced without its mirrored counterpart, especially with the grip sitting directly beneath the inside edge, causing the blade to constantly pull downward. The hilt made it almost entirely unusable on its own, with coiled, semi-cylindrical pieces leaving a gap for the other half to fill. It was so awkward and uncomfortable to hold, he had no idea how Aspen had wielded it so proficiently.

Wrapping his fingers around the half-cross-guard, the Hunter hit a switch and the weapon reformed itself in his hand. Hopefully she didn't actually break it, he mused wryly, pulling out the other hand cannon and joining the two halves together. Something inside clicked and stuttered, but the weapon soon sprang to life. Placing both hands on the once-again-complete sword's grip, he rejoined the fight.

(-)

Aspen hadn't expected just how much… fun fighting was. Even the frustration of how easily she had been pinned couldn't dull the thrill of combat, of coming within a fraction of an inch of drawing blood time and time again. In fact, it was the bullet passing mere inches away from her face that had sealed it for her. In her brief recollection of time, she had never felt so… alive. After that moment, it had almost become like a game to her to draw out everything Oliver had to give her: his transforming weapons and the mysterious flashing shield he'd used to stop her. And the sword… She felt comfortable fighting unarmed, but using the sword just felt right.

She had unfortunately lost control when her hoodie had gotten damaged, but, if anything, that had only pushed her further, made her realize that fighting Oliver on his own wasn't enough. If she was going to prove herself to Oliver and Laurel—truly prove to them that she could be a hunter like them—she needed to fight them both. As it turned out, convincing them to fight her had been the easy part.

Oliver's sword split the air above Aspen as she ducked forward. Dropping onto her hands, she kicked back in an attempt to hit one of the man's legs, but she had as much success in her attack as he had. Something exploded above her and the girl rolled aside just as the spike on Laurel's weapon crashed into the ground where she had previously lain.

The shockwave was strong enough to accelerate Aspen's roll, forcing her to dig her hands into the dirt—Why did they put a giant patch of dirt in the room for people to fight on?—to stop herself. As soon as she had the traction, she launched herself forward, back to her two opponents. Oliver held his sword at the ready, its tip pointed at her, while Laurel was working on removing her fail from the earth. She's vulnerable.

As soon as Aspen was close enough, Oliver twirled his sword and took a swing at chest level. The blade moved slowly as the girl leapt up, spinning over the weapon. She felt it clip several of her hairs, but didn't pay it any attention. Focusing as much power as she could into her right leg, she kicked out at Laurel, catching her in the side of the head. One of Oliver's handguns fired behind her and she felt something large and heavy—the sword—crash into her back.

The girl hit the ground hard, her breath knocked from her lungs. She wasn't given any time to recover, however, as the man continued to attack her the instant she was on her feet. It was all Aspen could do to avoid the flashing blade, the random gunshots making its movements faster and unpredictable. The assault suddenly stopped, and as Oliver leapt back, Aspen heard the sound of a chain swinging and saw the flail head coming at her. Still winded, she knew she wasn't going to be able to avoid it, so instead she put her arms out and caught it.

Aspen felt her muscles burn and her bones shake as the massive weapon collided with her hands, but it didn't feel like anything had been damaged. The force of the impact still pushed her back several feet, though, and when she finally came to a rest, the spike was less than an inch from her chest. Looking up, she saw both Oliver and Laurel looking at her with wide eyes; that was… surprise. Aspen didn't give it much thought as she wrapped the chain around her arm and began to pull, causing the two hunters to return their focus to the fight.

Rather than pull back on the weapon as Aspen expected, Laurel spun toward her, bringing the smaller, cylindrical weight on the opposite end of the chain with her. The girl leaned back to avoid the mass, but was forced to buck herself forward again to dodge an attack from Oliver. Now between the two fighters, Aspen felt the chain around her arm grow cold, almost unbearably so. At the same time, however, she noticed Laurel's skin beginning to shine—sweat.

Recognizing her advantage, Aspen rolled to the side to avoid another of Oliver's swings before putting both hands on the chain and pulling as hard as she could. Laurel's grip held for a moment, but the handle quickly slipped out of her hand. Catching the shaft in her free hand, Aspen brought it up to block Oliver's sword. The two pieces of metal grated against each other for several seconds before the man pulled away.

Aspen freed her arm from the chain, letting the heavy mass fall into open space. Finally getting a good look at the details of the weapon, she noticed it shared a number of physical similarities to the gun Laurel had been carrying in the desert. Does that mean this one transforms too? Oliver didn't give her much time to think about it, though, coming at her with a back-handed swing from behind her. Twisting around, Aspen leaned back just enough for the sword to pass over her head, but swung the large mass up at the same time.

The chain wrapped itself tightly around the blade, and the weight of Aspen's flail dragged the weapon out of Oliver's grip. The haft soon found its way into the girl's left hand, giving her full control of all the weapons in the fight. In an instant, she visually scanned the two weapons and deduced how each one worked. Adjusting her grips, she pressed a button with each hand. In her left, the sword collapsed down on itself, reforming one pistol around her hand while the other fell to the dirt, and in her right, the three pieces of the flail pulled themselves together, splintering and shifting into the shape of the gun from the desert. Within seconds of disarming Oliver, the girl was pointing both weapons at their owners.

Aspen felt her chest rise and fall as she sucked in breath. Her heart was pounding. Oliver was saying something, but she couldn't make out the words. She'd done it. She'd beaten them with their own weapons. It didn't feel right though. It felt… incomplete. Her fingers itched. Her heart stopped. She took a sharp breath in and pulled.