(Took me a month to think this up…better be worth it.)

Chapter 4: Proof of Self

"Okay, we'll start her out slow, then work up to the big stuff," Professor said. "That way, she can warm up before tackling anything of your standard, so to speak."

"Aw, come on, Professor! I say we put it up high, and say that's the first level! She'll be so scared, she'll beg for you to turn it off!" Blossom gave a curious look at her green sister. "And exactly what brought on this sudden resentment of our guest?" "The fact that she pulled that little 'surprise' earlier!" Blossom sighed. "You're not still mad over that little 'boo' joke, are you?"

"Yes!"

Meanwhile, said guest was getting annoyed at the lack of happenings. "Hello? Anybody out there? Sorry to bother you, but nothing's happening! When does the fight start?"

"Right now!" came Buttercup's voice. She quickly flew over to the control panel and cranked it up to level 6. The Professor simply shook his head.

Back in the training room, the scene changed from a white room to the city. "About time," she thought. "Okay, we've got the scenery, but what are we going against?" "Just hold on," Bubbles said. "If it's not in here when we start, it'll show up soon." Before she could comment on that, they felt a rumbling beneath them. What Reia saw next surprised and shocked her.

A huge, orange-yellow, horned…thing was coming around the street corner. Its arms were as thick as a building, and the claws on each end were nothing to sneeze at either.

It took her a few seconds to get over the sheer size of it, and by that time, she already had a plan in mind.

"Okay…I've got an idea! Bubbles, all you need to do is distract it. I'll do the rest!" Bubbles looked confused. "Alright, but how do I do that?" By now, the thing had seen them and was charging its way towards them. "I don't know! Just keep its attention away from me until I say not to!" Then, the monster swung its claws down at them, and they split up, the claws missing by inches. Reia quickly pulled out her blaster, and charged it. Meanwhile, Bubbles had distracted the creature with a sonic scream, and it was currently trying to gouge her. "How long do I have to keep this up?" she yelled. "Just a little longer, Bubbles!" Reia yelled. Her gun was charged, but now she had to get a good shot. They were moving away from her current position, so she had some ground to cover. She ran full blast through the streets, keeping her eyes on the monster at all times. Finally, she called out, "Okay, turn it around, and get out over the way!"

Bubbles managed to get it to turn around, as she was told, and got out the way not a second too soon, as a laser blast passed within a foot of her, and struck the beast…squarely in the eye. The thing roared to the heavens in pain, as the blast had blinded it in that eye, but by the time it looked down at its attacker, another charged shot was on it way to its other eye.

Now completely blinded, the thing started randomly smashing anything and everything in hopes of scoring a lucky hit. Both Reia and Bubbles were too agile for it, however.

"Okay, what do I do now?" Reia thought. She suddenly noticed a building that was only a bit taller than the monster, but it was a distance away. But if this worked, they could take it down easy…she flexed her back muscles to check if it would…yep, it would work.

"Bubbles! Keep it busy!"

Then, Reia inexplicably dashed for a nearby building that was almost right behind the thing. Bubbles was left to dodge it swipes, but at the same time she wondered what Reia was up to. Reia was going full throttle for the building, and looked like she was going to run into it if she didn't stop. Suddenly, her thoughts were interrupted by a large, clawed hand slamming her into a building. Amidst the rubble of the impact, she looked up, and was surprised at what she saw behind the monster.

Reia was actually running up the building! She was using her momentum and claws on her feet to dig into the brick of the structure, and her legs were obviously strong to keep up the pace she was going.

That's when she did another unexpected thing. At the top of the building, she kicked off the edge, and at the apex of her jump, and turned around. Suddenly, something tore from the back of her suit.

While they somewhat expected what happened, they didn't quite expected it to this magnitude. Not one, not two, but three pairs of bird wings ripped from the back of her suit and instantly caught air. She quickly glided over to the back of the thing's neck, and proceeded to slash at it. The creature roared, and tried to get the thing that was scratching up his neck off, but it was already too late. She quickly pulled another gun out of a second holster on her suit, and fired two baseball sized orbs, and quickly tapped something on her gun before firing the third one inside the big gash in its upper neck. She quickly leaped off, landed near Bubbles, and hurriedly dragged her away from the robot. Seconds later, two muffled explosions sounded, and one could see blood coming through its mouth. It was obviously dead.

"Eww…" said Bubbles.

"Hold on…"

Then, a larger explosion sounded, and the thing's head was completely blown off. "Hey, that was a little…violent, dontcha think?" Reia sighed.

"Sometimes, there's no other way." She looked at the giant mess.

"Well, that felt good." The gird deactivated, and they walked out. She didn't notice the small, diamond shaped thing that fell out of her back pocket.

--------------

In the darkness of space, another ship approached Earth, this one also on a mission, but not as peaceful.

"So…this is the planet they wanted me to take over?" a raspy voice asked to itself. "Interesting…but why this far off piece of rock?"

"BECAUSE I SAID SO!"

"AHHHHHHH! Who's…oh." Apparently, the comm. had been turned switched on without his noticing, and his boss's partner was staring him down through the screen. "By the way, I didn't say 'take it over'. That would be expecting too much from someone of your lack of skills. What I said was, look it over! I've heard a few things about this planet, including the fact that its climate is very varied, which would make it an excellent climate training center for our forces!"

The lackey, simply embarrassed at his forgetfulness and so-called incompetence, simply replied, "Where do you want me to start?"

The figure thought for a while. "Hmm…somewhere influential. Somewhere that would be vital to us…Ha! I've got it!" She quickly called up a digital map of the Earth. "Here," she pointed at the U.S.A. "You see, I've heard from my very reliable sources that this is possibly the most powerful area on the planet. If we can get this area, the remainder of the world will be easy! Start there." "Yes…" -he hated calling her this, "Madam."

She nodded approvingly. "Good. Where you start in there, I don't care. Just as long as it's in this area!" She was about to sign off, when she almost forgot something.

"By the way, Voda…"

"Yes, madam?"

"FAIL ME AGAIN AND YOU'RE DEAD! AND I MEAN IT! "

"Er…yes madam." He turned off the panel and set his sights on Earth.

"Sometimes I forget she is a female…" he grumbled.

----------------------

Meanwhile, back on Earth …

After getting over Reia's fairly bloody victory, they settled down in the living room.

"Okay, if you don't mind me being so blunt, what's with the six wings?" Blossom asked. "I mean, I figured you'd have wings, but I wouldn't have guessed more than two."

"Simple explanation for that. Genetic mutation when I was born. Somehow the genetics of my parents' wings fused, made up what was supposed to be my one set of wings, and then split back into their original structure in my genes, or something like that. That basically means I have my mom's wings, my dad's wings, and a combination of the two to make up my wings."

"Oh…" Only Blossom seemed to fully understand it.

"So, now what do we do?" Reia asked.

"You can just relax, Reia. If anything comes up, we can handle it." She didn't want to relax right now; she wanted to find a way off this planet. Well, the ISA wouldn't send a search party for her for at least 3 carcacs (about 2 1/2 weeks), and she did have some vacation time coming…

She gave in. "Fine. I needed a break from exploring anyways." And she sat down on the couch, and drifted off to sleep.

They had no idea of what was going to happen…