Claudia gasped when Reno opened the door. She saw all kind of guns, swords, blades and, brass knuckles. She tried to think of what suited her style in fighting… 'I am pretty good with blades… but I like to hit people with things also… guns are too messy, and they are only long range. So I think I will get a metal staff.'

"I think I'll take the full metal staff…" Claudia thought out loud, "but it's the very back…. Reno will you get it for me?"

Reno just grunted and walked into the closet, waving spider webs away and had to bend over not to get hit in the face with a mace. All Claudia did was stare like she was hypnotized by Reno. She felt a big hand on her shoulder, as if it meant 'I know you like him'. When she looked up she saw Rude giving her a rare, knowing smile, Claudia blushed and smiled back.

"Hey! I found it! Is this what you want?" Reno asked as he dusted all the webs off himself, "please don't make me go back in there…. Make Rude do it…."

"… It'll do. So what do I have to fight?"

Reno and Rude said together, "me."

"Come on…. Your kidding…. Right?"

"Nope…."

"But this is just a test…."

"You have to start at an advanced level…." Reno said coolly, "You can't be a just so-so fighter… you have to just be mastery."

Claudia was starting to brake out in sweat, "but why cant I just fight a really hard monster?"

"Because," Reno began, "monsters aint in our missions…. It's people… and people are cunning… and have strategy."

"Oh…. Will I be able to use materia?"

"No…. and we wont either… come on! We have to get this over with…. And you will have to fight us both at the same time… if you last more than five minutes… then you are one of us… follow me." Reno said as he walked thru some doors.

After five minutes of walking thru countless hallways, they reached a large room. The room reminded Claudia of a gymnasium from school. The walls where pure white, and the floor was stone gray.

"Alright… we're here… Claudia do what ever to make yourself comfortable for running and fighting." Reno said, he sounded like he was depressed. Claudia nodded and took off her vest, safety pinned her skirt so it was a mini skirt, and removed all her jewelry except her silver thumb rings and, sex bracelets.

Reno and Rude stood next to each other. Reno produced an electro rod. Rude just put up his huge fists.

"Im ready when you are, Claudia…"

"Alright… on the count of three…. One Two…. THREE!"

With the end of the count, Claudia ran to the back wall hearing the gaining footsteps of Reno and Rude. She ran across the wall. And made a U-turn. She had decided to try to get Rude down first, so that she could take Reno down without any interference, so she smacked rude in the back of his knees.

To Claudia's dismay Reno spun around at lightning speed and gave her a level 3 shock. Claudia was stunned for 30 seconds, causing Rude to land a few good punches over her petite frame. When Claudia dropped to the floor, in pain, she pulled a fake and rolled far enough away so she could catch her breath for 3 seconds, before she had to go back into a defensive mode.

Reno was the first to arrive, he tried to slam his electro rod into her skin, but Claudia ended up slapping Reno with her staff before he could hit her.

When Rude reached Claudia, he decided to take her from the back. He picked her up, held her over his head, and threw her to the other side of the gym. Claudia crashed into the wall with a sharp crack! She knew that if she didn't think of something she wasn't going to have a job.

She lost her staff during the throw, so she was going to have to fight with her fists. She ran at Rude, and did a flip off of him, kicking him in the: knees, stomach, chest, and jaw. This caused him to fall onto the floor.

She landed a bit shaky, so she stumbled a little bit. Reno saw this and grabbed her arms and pinned them back. He whispered in her ear, "So you think you can be one of us…. You haven't screamed the whole time…. Why not? And admit it… you are holding back… why?"

"I do want this job, and I wont waste my energy screaming. And yes I am holding back… I'm not telling you why." She said trying to control the scream of pain that was building up inside of her throat.

Claudia finally broke free of the Turk's grasp. And slapped him. She saw her staff a few feet away, but Rude was guarding it… she could tell he wasn't going to let her have it without a fight.

Claudia decided it was either now or never, that she was going to get her staff back. So she ran at Rude as fast as she could, ignoring the cuts, and bruises that covered her body, she ran and when she got close enough she threw herself down and slid between Rude's legs, grabbing the staff, and ran headfirst into the wall behind him.

All that Claudia could remember was, seeing was Reno and Rude looking over her, and hearing a voice saying, "10 minutes with us… she is really good." Then blackness over took her eyes.