Adora pants as she leans over her knees catching her breath. Her and the other alphas have been training their sense of smell. Apparently now that she's an alpha her senses are much keener than they used to be, which is understandable. But the new and improved sense of smell has also become somewhat of a burden. She's never been coaxed awake by someone walking by her room with breakfast before.
They tell her that all new baby alphas' instincts start working in full force. For instance, what a more realized alpha might let slide, a baby alpha instead just doesn't know how to control themselves.
Adora has been realizing a lot about herself is different. Her lungs feel stronger as they expand and allow her to breathe more deeply. Running has not been a problem lately and if anything, she appreciates the boost in stamina.
I thought I was competitive before, but now! She internally laughs as her eyes get determined. She sees other alphas roaming around the arena in search of an explosive device. They were only given a few seconds to remember what it smelled like before they were dropped into the simulator. Adora catches a familiar metallic scent just barely with the twitch of her nose. She closes her eyes and follows it, but just barely opening them on occasion as to not run into anything. It keeps getting stronger and her wild competitive nature starts urging her on.
She climbs over an obstacle and then another as the smell increases. Out of the corner of her eye however, she notices that there's an alpha close by. She's been lingering closer and closer to Adora in the simulators, no doubt trying to jump in the last second and steal her victory.
She catches the direct trail of the scent and hastily runs for it. She follows it until it fills her sinuses. Adora looks around the immediate area. I know it's here. It's gotta be! She turns left then right in search of the key component and finally spots it a couple meters away in the center of a cracked tree. The explosive component shines brightly as the light from the top of the simulation catches it. She turns and sees that female alpha running towards her.
"Aaaah!" The female runs at Adora with fierce intensity. Her teeth are borne, and she looks ravenous. Adora catches the alpha as she leaps towards her midsection. The two tumble backwards as the female attempts to take out Adora from the competition. They both hit the ground hard.
The female alpha has light skin, very similar to Adora's, and dark flowing hair. She rears back a punch to throw at the blonde, but she puts up her simulated shield stopping her from following through.
Adora starts to feel exhilarated at the challenge. She hasn't had anyone come after her directly before. It has only been challenges and team building exercises, but this is different. The alpha uses her strength to smother Adora and pin her to the ground. She wants Adora to submit –
That gets Adora's attention as she begins to realize this isn't some game like she used to play with her childhood friend. This is dominance. She's heard about it from the alpha orientation she finally went to on Scorpia's orders. Alphas fight for dominance and the better alpha always comes out on top. A surge begins to run through her veins as the other tries to grab an arm to pin her with. She feels the heat rise and a growl releases from deep in her throat. Her eyebrows knit together as she focuses. She pulls her arm back with so much force is makes the other female fall over her shoulder.
The alpha's body skids away into a rock formation. Adora takes the opportunity to get up and run straight at her. She lands on top of her grabbing at her limbs and pins her down. She hovers closely to the other's neck as she growls. A scent comes off the woman beneath her and she feels her become lax. She recognizes the submission without even having any reference, or previous experience.
She grunts and raises herself off the other and makes her way over to the area she spotted the explosives. Other alphas are getting closer, but she's already had her eyes on the item and picks it up right away.
A buzzer alarms overhead as she does so, and it lets everyone know the simulation has been completed. She looks up and around noticing the other alphas heading towards the exit. She looks back at the spot where she pinned the other woman and doesn't see her. Well, that was intense. She turns as leaves the arena dropping the scrap metal into a bin.
Adora still tries to fight down the urge of her alpha making its' presence known in her mind. She closes her eyes and cranks her neck enough to pop it before she finally starts to relax. She looks around as they all receive a debriefing on the training and catches the eyes of the alpha who she dominated. I dominated you, she says in her mind as she holds their eyes. The other looks down and away.
After a tense session Adora starts to make her way to the chow hall with everyone. She is finally getting a chance to relax from their long day. She grabs her food behind everyone else in line and makes her way over to a table. Meals haven't been the same since she left the other side of the Fright Zone. She always ate with Catra. The thought instantly brings longing in her chest. A deep remorse from what happened…
She shakes her head free of those thoughts. She's sure Catra is doing great and she probably doesn't even miss Adora. Catra has always been the one who didn't get too caught up in emotional stuff. She probably still eats with Lonnie and the guys.
Adora rolls her eyes as she shoves another bite of food into her mouth. Sometimes Scorpia and her were here at the same time and she would eat with her. Her positive attitude always keeps Adora excited about her training. Talking to her about stuff just always makes her feel better. Scorpia just has that effect on people, she supposes.
But today she doesn't seem to be around. Adora would usually be able to hear her as soon as she enters the dining facility. She just chalks it up to missing Scorpia today and she'll just see her later.
Out of nowhere, she senses a presence behind her. The scent familiar, she turns and notices the alpha from before. She looks at her with her eyebrows knitted together.
"Hey," the other female says. "Can I sit here?" Her chin is up in defiance, but Adora doesn't take it as disrespect. She's known her fair share of distrusting soldiers in the Horde. Hell, she shared a bunk with one for over a decade.
"Sure." Adora continues to eat the slop on her plate while the other woman sits next to her right side. They sit there in silence for a few breaths as they both start to eat.
"I'm Dometria." She looks over at Adora, shoving food into her mouth after she spoke.
Adora looks over at her realizing the trepidation of the other. "Adora."
"Yeah, I know."
"Oh."
"You're pretty strong." She turns to Adora now facing her fully. Her left leg is draped over the bench, straddling it. "They sure do talk you up a lot. Not that I don't get it, though." She eyes Adora up and down – seeming to be sizing her up.
Adora's eyebrows rise up her face. "Yeah, well if anyone else here was any competition, then they wouldn't have to talk about me so much." She wonders if Catra would be proud of that one. She was always trying to get her to smack-talk other people, but she just never felt the need to. It was always fun enough to give Catra a hard time and they would just give each other crap. Gah, I miss that.
The words just roll off her lips like she has to keep this one in her place. She could sense the other was trying to get a sense of her. Adora has always been somewhat of a nice push-over, but the alpha inside her will not let that happen. Not with this one.
"Heh," Dometria halfheartedly chuckles. "Yeah, shit happens. But you know they're just using us right?"
"Well… maybe, but I want to get control of my instincts. If they can help me with that, then I'm going to give it my all." She turns back to her food, not letting the tone of this conversation disturb her.
"Why?" The simple question hangs in the air as Dometria looks back down to her plate.
Adora turns to her again. "Then, I can go out into the field sooner, and maybe get to see my friends again." Adora clenches her utensil tightly in her hand. I have to get back, somehow.
"Good enough reason I guess." Dometria eyes Adora warily. She shoves one last bite into her mouth and drops her utensil down to her tray. "Look, I want something similar. We should help each other out. Push each other to be better." Her tone is serious, but also eager.
Adora's eyes open wider in surprise. She definitely did not expect that to come from the overly competitive alpha. She eyes the woman up and down as she decides if she can trust her. In the least we could build off of each other until we make it out into the field.
"I know what you're thinking." Adora becomes confused worried her thoughts were discovered. "I'm not very bulky or big, but I'm strong and smart."
Adora sighs internally knowing she didn't read her thoughts.
"With both of our abilities we should be able to conquer this shit," Demetria says with confidence.
"Sounds good. We should meet up regularly to go over stuff." Adora takes another bite of her food after she agrees.
"Sweet. I'll come by your room later." Dometria goes to pick up her tray to leave. Adora nods her head in response. "Sure, okay. See ya later."
Dometria walks off out of the dining hall and Adora sits there for a moment taking all that in. Hmmm. I'll have to keep her at arm's length… Her eyes close in content. This gray slop is so much better than the other kind!
Adora finishes her food and leaves to head back to her room. Since they're finished with todays training, she heads to her room to grab her stuff to take a shower. She might hangout for just a bit because the showers are always full the first 30 minutes after drill.
She turns the corner and heads back to her room. She walks in noticing Scorpia is packing her stuff.
"Woah," Adora says. "What's going on Scorpia?"
The woman turns in the direction of Adora's voice and startles from the surprise. "Adora! Oh man! There you are. I've been looking for you everywhere! Well, there was the arena, the weight room and then our room, which is this spot and why I'm currently right here. But! I'm glad I found you. Have you heard what's happened?" Scorpia extends out her claws in exaggeration like her mind is about to explode.
"Uh, no. I haven't heard anything yet, at least I don't think so."
"Oh, man! So okay you may need to sit down for this." The larger woman grabs Adora by her shoulders and gently picks her up to rotate around and place her down onto her own bed. Adora's eyes are wide and she's fairly impressed by the feat. Scorpia kneels to one knee. "Listen," she sighs. "Force Captain Huntara… well… she got captured. By the Rebellion."
"Oh…" Adora's shoulders tense. "We've got to do something."
"Woah, there Hotstuff. Lets not go hijack a skiff and take off on an adventure by ourselves; although, that does sound fun." Scorpia puts her claw to her chin in thought and looks down in contemplation. She turns back, "no, no it's a terrible idea. There's nothing we can do right now. Lord Hordak knows and he'll be planning a mission to retrieve her soon." She looks into Adora's eyes reassuringly.
Adora slumps down after finally taking a breath and hearing the truth in her words.
"Oh, I almost forgot!" She scares Adora out of her thoughts. "She wasn't the only one. The unit they were with sent a young crew out with them, like four or five cadets. It was their first missions and uh, one of them got captured too."
Adora furrows her brow in concern for the poor soldier. "Um. Wasn't that the mission to Thaymore? What unit did they even go with?"
"Oh! Uhm, it was one of the old units on the far side of the Fright Zone…"
Adora's heart sinks for just a moment.
"… yeah it was Delta 1-19. Why do you –" Scorpia notices Adora's shock. "Oh no, is that you're old unit?"
Adora's eyes lower to the floor, not really focusing on anything. "Yeah, it was. Have they said anything about the soldier that was captured?" She starts to wring her hands together in her lap.
"Oh, shoot. Yano, I haven't heard anything like a name, but maybe I could look into it for you." Scopria stands to her full height in front of Adora. She clears her throat.
Adora cuts her off from what she was about to say, though. Her mind wants to run rampant on all of the reasons she should be freaking out. "Why are you um… packing?"
The bigger woman puts her claw behind her neck in trepidation. "Right! I was just about to tell you. I'm you're new Force Captain! Haha," she says it very awkwardly as though she isn't sure how Adora will take the new information.
Adora's eyes widen at the news, "congrats! That's a big promotion. Wow." She gets up and extends her arms for an embrace, which is when Adora realizes her mistake.
Scopria beams at the support and reaches out to Adora. She picks her up squishing her arms to her sides and squeezes her in a big bear hug. Adora nearly suffocates in the woman's strong arms. She sets the smaller woman down. "Oh! Sorry, I'm just so relieved that you're excited for me. I was worried you'd be mad or something."
"Mad? Where did you get that from?"
Scorpia looks down as she shrugs her shoulders.
"Scopria, you've helped me with so much and you work super hard. I'd be so proud to be your soldier. Plus I know you'll take care of us newbies and trust me, we need it." She winks behind her hand as if to clue in Scorpia that she has her work cut out for her.
"Oh wow! That's just so sweet. Thank Adora. Gosh you're just such a good friend. I'm going to finish up packing and then I'll see what I can do about finding out about that soldier. I'm sure one of the higher ups have to know something." She walks over and continues to pack her few things into a duffle bag and her gear unto a rucksack.
Adora huffs and drops her head down as she grabs her shower stuff. She packs things into a caddy so she can carry it all a little easier. I can't believe they got Huntara. She's so strong and big! This just doesn't make any sense… If they could get her, then they could get… She doesn't let her thought finish. She can't even think about that right now, especially when she isn't sure. It'll only get her worked up and she doesn't need that right now.
She grabs her towel and heads out to the showers.
She makes her way to where the alphas shower on this side of the barracks rooms. On the way she keeps catching glances from people walking by her. She grabs the collar of her shirt and sniffs wondering if she smells terrible or something. Her face twinges a little, but she doesn't smell too bad. Her scent has been way more potent since she started developing her alpha characteristics. She doesn't know how omegas could be so attracted to it.
She isn't sure what everyone's deal is though that keep looking at her, so she just keeps on walking. Then, one of them decides to stop her. "Hey, there alpha. You can shower with me." Thankfully for Adora, their friend gasps loudly and berates her as she pulls her along, giggling their way to the other showers. Those locker rooms are for betas and a select few omegas on this side of the Fright Zone.
What is it with omegas? One wiff and boom, they lose their minds. A trace thought did remind her of the absolute absurdity of how the alphas were training with the manufactured omega scent a few days ago. She rolls her eyes at herself.
She makes it to the shower area and sets her stuff down at one of the lockers. She hears a couple people still showering and feels relief at how sparce they are. She takes off her clothes and grabs her caddy bringing it over to one of the open stalls. She hangs her towel just outside on a hook adjacent to her shower and turns on the hot water. She's surprised there isn't an open bay shower. That's how they used to shower back in her old unit. It was open and vulnerable, but she never felt vulnerable at all. She knew everyone there and Catra was always just on the other side of her.
She huffs at her inability to not think about her best friend and walks into the stream of water. It scolds her scalp down to her back and thighs, but it brings relief with it. It washes away all the crap from today and she can just be. She inhales the steam and it soothes her throat and lungs. She lathers the soap onto her hands and rubs it down over her own stomach, rippled with muscle from the constant training. Then, she remembers when they were twelve:
"What the hell Adora?" Catra exclaimed ripping the blonde's attention off the heat of the water and towards her instead. "Since when do you have abs?" The catgirl said staring at the blonde's stomach. She'd stopped the movements of her arms that were lathering her own body in soap.
"Huh?" Adora looked down to her stomach. "You're blind. I've had them since forever! Besides you have them too." She pointed to Catra whose face was inflamed with a blush so cute Adora could've died.
Catra looked down at her own body and then back to Adora's. "Yeah, but they're not like yours. Yours are more muscley." She reached out and touched the skin of Adora's stomach, It was light like she could've just been making an observation, or light like she was reaching with trepidation, but Adora couldn't tell. The fingers grazed down her stomach for a second and then they were gone. Adora felt way more than just the heat from the shower because of the touch from her best friend.
"Eh, yeah they're pretty much the same I guess." Catra said it so nonchalantly like she hadn't just invaded Adora's personal space and invaded so deeply that she left a trace of herself behind. The cat girl goes back to rinsing out her hair, but Adora couldn't help but look at her just a little bit differently, even though she wasn't sure why it was different. –
Adora groans at her attachment to her best friend and how it's borderline obsession at this point. Why can't I just be normal for once? Adora does her best not to focus on the woman that will not leave her subconscious. I don't need to shift in here, ugh how embarrassing would that be?
Instead of forcing herself not to think of Catra, she tries to figure out what's going on with herself. What does she have to do with all of this? I can't believe I keep thinking of Catra like this. It doesn't even seem right. The Horde doesn't condone anything personal, hardly even friendships. She groans inside her head as she dissects her thought process. She also lathers up her hair making sure to get all the oils and dirt out. She gently scratches at her scalp loving the way her nails feel.
Why do I keep doing this to myself, she probably doesn't even feel the same way? She pinches her eyes tight as the water flows over her head. The suds running down over her shoulders and her strong back. The tight muscles in her body coil and uncoil as she shifts her weight from one leg to the other making sure she rinses herself clean. I shouldn't be dreaming of Catra the way that I am. It isn't right. It's like I'm fooling myself or taking advantage of the image of her. She digs the heels of her palms into her eyes in frustration and also making sure no soap gets in.
The mental torment of all the confusion brings tears to her eyes. She doesn't want to lose Catra. She needs her back but thinking of her brings so much need and longing. She starts to feel afraid that she wouldn't ever be able to see Catra differently than how she sees her in her dreams. There's no way she could stand to be near her again without wanting to know what she truly tasted like, and that scares the shit out of her. They grew up so closely and promised that they'd always be there for each other. But now I'm not. Gah, she must hate me. She's there all alone with Shadow Weaver. I have to get back to her. To protect her.
A surging, overwhelming need to protect Catra starts to take control of her alpha. The hormones coursing through her are strong and almost overpowering. But there's a commotion in the locker room that startles her out of her thoughts. She opens her eyes when did I close them? And she turns the knobs to exit the shower. She grabs her towel and barely dries herself before she throws on whatever clothes she brought and rushes back to her room.