It did for Alice, sort of. The girl had gone to class and done her work, making sure to eat a good lunch before meeting up with WildSpire at the office. She had only been getting more and more anxious as the day went on. "Are you ready for your test?" WildSpire wrapped an arm around the girl's shoulders, a toothy grin on her lips.

"No." Alice had her hero costume on, but was shaking. "Im scared. Ive never met him before and now I have to fight him. My friends were not the best for reassurance today." She stared up at Wildspire, who rolled her eyes.

"Well I – your TRAINER- think you will do great. Now lets get going before Gang Orca eats one of us."

Alice made a choked whine in response. "Im kidding!" WildSpire laughed and they headed towards the car. They were meeting at Gang Orca's personal Gym.

The Gym was a bit out of town near the water's edge. Alice wasnt surprised by that, but the sheer size of the place made her chest flutter with excitement. The building wasnt just a Gym, but an aquarium styled Gym. As they walked through the doors there were fish tanks that lined the walls around them, some leading off down hallways or shown the inside of personal training rooms. Gang Orca was standing near the main doors, talking to one of his assistants. WildSpire greeted him like they had been friends for years, and maybe they had- Alice wasnt completely sure. "Afternoon, young Rise." The large male stood almost a head taller than Wildspire, his white and red eyes watched Alice with little emotion.

"A-Afternoon." Alice managed to stammer out. Gang Orca was a lot more intimidating in person. The male had the head of an Orca and two large fins were draped over his shoulders. He wore a suit and tie- which didnt help with the whole "Gang leader" approach he had going for him. Alice couldnt make eye contact. She kept her gaze to the ground, glancing up every so often to look at him.

"No need to be nervous, my dear." He held out his hand to her to shake, a faint smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. "I dont bite." He motioned for them to follow and headed into the main part of the gym. "So Wildspire gave me a list of things that she would like to see from you in the near future. I designed three tests around that." He led them over to a white fold up table and picked up a folder. "So there will be three tests. One will be related to your knowledge of your peers and observations, one will be related to your strength and resistance, the last will be strictly related to survival and stamina." He opened the folder and turned, leaning lazily on the edge of the table. "Do you understand? During battle, as a field support agent- you will not get the same opportunities to be debriefed like the rest of the pro-heroes. You will be expected to jump into battle and assist where needed without being seen."

Alice straightened and swallowed, "Yes Sir. I understand, Sir." She tried to sound confident, but her voice seemed to come out a lot quieter than she wanted. Gang Orca just glanced up at her and nodded. She was a nervous one, but from what WildSpire told him- that didnt last long.

"Alright, take a seat here and Ill administer the test." Gang Orca sat a paper down in front of one of the chairs and motioned for her to sit. "You will have ten minutes to finish the test, front and back."

Alice sat down and started going over the questions, they were about her classmates. Talking about relative heights and quirk strength. She hadnt expected this. She knew the answers well enough from watching them daily for the past two weeks. "Rapid Fire round- What is the chemical that Bakugo Katsuki sweats from his palms?"

"Nitroglycerin." Alice responded without missing a beat, she hadnt looked up from her test. Gang Orca nodded slowly and went back to reading through the rapid fire questions.

Minutes passed, "What kind of Quirk does Ms. Momo Yaoyorozu

have?"

"Creation."

"Mezo Shoji's Quirk?"

"Dupli-arms."

"Good, Ochaco Uraraka?"

"Zero Gravity." Alice flipped the test back over and put her pencil down, her magenta gaze determined.

"Good. You are quick." Gang Orca picked up the paper and looked it over. "Alright, go ahead and go to the middle of the Gym to warm up. Ill grade your test." He motioned to one of his agency heroes to join them. The male who walked over was in his early twenties. He was fairly tall, his skin covered in a light layer of green scales. "This is Lee. He will be working with you to test your strength and resistances."

Lee bowed deeply at the introduction, "Afternoon Lucidity, I have heard quite a bit about you. For my portion of the test, you will need to be able to react to the various situations that I will throw at you. You will need to defend against them, do you understand?" The male produced a small orb from his pocket- it was about the size of a baseball and jiggled like jello as threw it into the air and caught it again.

"I... Y-yes?" Alice kept her eyes on the orange ball, a strangled noise escaping her lips as he threw it in her direction. The girl scrambled to the side, rolling head over heels away from the object as it exploded into a sticky substance that coated the ground where she had stood.

"Good dodge! This is just the first level, so be ready!" He produced another ball from the palm of his hand, throwing it at her like a baseball pitcher. Chess reappeared from her shadows, putting himself between his owner and the assailant.

Alice threw herself forward and grabbed Chess, barely dodging the sticky substance that exploded outward. "You have bad timing." She hissed down at him to which the cat just meowed at her.

Lee switched elements and stomped, a large boulder being produced from the strength of his Quirk. He gave a wild grin, kicking it in her direction.

Alice ducked, barely dodging the boulder that flew over her head.

She was trying to get a good idea of what his quirk was, but with how fast he was responding. She wasnt getting the chance to. The male flashed her a charming smile. "You are quick! Ill give you that!" He straightened and ran a hand through his green hair. He'd heard a lot about Alice from WildSpire. She gloated about Alice and her abilities, but right now he was just seeing a little girl and her cat, but the battle was just starting.

"Thanks?!" Alice shouted and flipped her hair from her face, her cheeks red from the constant dodging. "Okay, you ready?" Chess had flattened against the ground, shifting to a shadow that spiraled up Alice's arm to take form of a large hammer.

Lee rose his brows, caught off guard by the cat's sudden shifting. Things were getting interesting. The male stomped on the ground again, producing another boulder that he threw in her direction.

Alice took a deep breath and readied herself- dodging a boulder would do nothing for her. She rolled to the side again, slamming the hammer against the stone and sending it flying back to a startled Lee- who dodged it just in time. "Good reaction!" He let out a breath and switched elements. This girl was proving to be much more resourceful than he thought, but that wasnt enough to win a battle. He was going to be skipping a few levels, see how she would react to such a change.

The male straightened and snapped his fingers, his hand covering in a deep flame. Alice's smile vanished. Fire? Lee didnt hesitate, he reeled back and whipped the ball of flame at her- which the girl barely dodged. He couldnt keep the grin off his face and whipped another fireball at her, which Alice wasnt prepared for. She brought up her hands to shield her face.

Chess reacted quickly and a large clawed hand shot out, shielding the girl from the fire. He meowed in annoyance, shifting back to a cat and shaking the burned fur from his body. "Holy crap." Alice knelt down next to him, checking him over. "Thanks Chess..." She looked back up at Lee- who was standing with a wide grin on his lips. That cat of hers had a good reaction speed.

Alice scooped the cat up and rolled out of the way as the guy switched to a different element. She knew Lee was going easy on her, he could make this test harder- but he was playing with her. 'Okay, think. Think. How are we gonna respond to him? He's not giving us a place to retaliate.' She kept her arm around Chess and bolted to get some space between them. Lee laughed, she was clearly struggling to find out how to retaliate. He was enjoying this. He hadnt had this much fun in ages.

'Idea! Ive got an idea.' Alice kept Chess close to her and changed tactics, she had been avoiding his attacks for the last five minutes. Defensive wasnt doing anything. He was toying with her and he'd continue to toy with her if she just kept dodging. "Ready Chess?" Chess couldnt read the girl's mind, but he did know of her intentions. They were connected via that willpower- which made jobs like this so much easier. Alice ran towards him and the male readied himself for hand to hand combat. She'd only been dodging. He didnt expect her next move.

Alice dropped Chess as she rolled past him, her foot catching in the shadow and pulling what looked like a chain from the darkness. She landed on her hands, spinning her legs around to pull the rest of the weapon from the shadows. Chess had turned into what looked like a spiked ball connected via the chain to the girl's ankle. It wasnt the ideal attack, but she needed to at least get a hit in. The spiked ball hit right against the male's back and he stiffened to minimize the blow. Luckily his scales had taken most of the hit, but god damned did it hurt.

Alice had grabbed the chain, disconnecting it from her ankle as she landed back on her feet. She whipped it around in his direction, the ball following suit. Lee was able to dodge her, but faltered when the attack came back around a second time. His shoulder took most off the attack and he danced away from her. Alice followed him closely and reeled back to hit him again, but Chess shifted mid attack. The cat had turned back into the hammer, the head slamming square into his chest. Lee stumbled back, the wind knocked out of him. He didnt know the cat could shift mid air. That wasnt something he planned for.

Alice came around again, connecting the hammer with his arm as he attempted to block. WildSpire was right, she hit hard. He bit his lip and tried to right himself, but the girl wouldnt let him get to his pocket to grab another element. She followed up with another smash that dropped the boy on his ass. He scrambled to the side as the hammer came down on the ground next to him. Lee choked back a noise and looked up at her, there was a difference in her determination that was for sure. The girl's magenta gaze was hard and unforgiving.

"Yield! I yield!" Lee laughed and held up his hands. The fight had gone a lot differently than he expected. Truthfully, he expected a shy hesitant girl with how things had started. He hadnt expected her to actually think while she stayed moving.

Alice blinked in surprise and opened her mouth to respond, but just ended up standing there confused. Chess detached from her arm and placed himself in her hood, his tail wavering back and forth lazily. What? "Wait, why?"

Lee scooted back and stood, dusting himself off. "Because this test wasnt to beat me, it was for Gang Orca to observe you. I was just playing the act of training dummy." He offered a hand to her, a fanged smile present on his lips. "You have the makings of a good hero. Color me impressed."

Alice reached out and took his hand, which he shook gratefully. "I guess it seemed sort of fast?" She frowned. He barely had touched her aside from throwing things at her.

A chuckle came from the tall man who approached behind her. "I was looking specifically for the switch between offense and defense. Nothing more. You were told to defend against an attacker, but making good choices in the midst of battle isnt something we can teach. You must learn." Gang Orca nodded his head. "There will be a time on the field where straight offense or straight defense will not cut it. You need to be able to identify that while on the field. Which you did a lot faster than I thought you would."

Lee broke out into a wide grin, shoving his hands in his pockets. "So did you figure out my quirk? I could see the confusion on your face when I lobbed that sticky bomb at you."

Alice tilted her head and frowned, "No, but I saw you reaching into your pocket each time and you only threw 2 "balls" before switching." She wrinkled her nose at the male, who chuckled in response.

"Okay, so see- I can take these small balls that I store in my pocket and basically switch elements rapidly." He produce four objects, one had a broken up match, another was a small stone. "I take on the elements I touch. I can produce fire, control the earth, and even create a sticky bomb if I have the right chemicals. Cool, huh?" He held them out to her and Alice took one to look it over.

"That's actually really neat. I was close."

"I bet if we fought longer you'd figure it out. We will have to spar again. You and that cat of yours are full of surprises. Im sure we only scratched the surface on what you can do."

Alice cracked a smile at the male and he excused himself to head back into the back of the Gym. She turned to look at Gang Orca, who had a faint smile on his lips.

"The last test will be preformed in Ground Beta. You will get a half hour to get situated somewhere on the field. Your job is to not be found until 1500 hours." The pro scribbled something down on his clipboard and turned to head towards the doors.

Alice froze.
No no no.

Wildspire cleared her throat and moved to stand in front of Gang Orca. "Kugo, maybe we can come up with something different?" She rarely used his first name, which got the male's attention.

He tilted his head. "Something different? Akiyama, you know as well as I do that your student needs to be able to stay hidden for extended periods of time." He sighed. "But if yo-"

"-Ill do it." Alice choked out the words and stood straighter. Her cheeks were red, but she kept her head held high. The thought of being stalked by the Pro-hero was one of the most anxiety inducing things she'd even come across, but if this is what it took for her to get her license- she'd do it. "If its what I have to do. Ill do it. I just will make sure I wont get caught."

Wont get caught... The words echoed in her head as the two hero's exchanged a glance. "Are you sure, love?" WildSpire furrowed her brows. She knew what Alice had gone through back in Canada. She didnt want to cause the girl to relive those memories.

"Yeah. He's right. I'll have to learn to stay hidden until Im needed." Alice swallowed and ran her hand through her hair to calm her nerves. Chess let out a soft growl in response. He wasnt happy with the arrangement either.

"Alright, only if you are sure." Gang Orca turned his attention to Alice to study her. "Instead Ill give you a full hour to get situated. You will need to stay hidden until 3.30pm. Is that fair?"

Alice nodded slowly and took a breath. "Yeah. That's fair."