When Missy had triggered, in the middle of a horrible, throwing-dishes argument between Mom and Dad, she thought that her problems were solved.

But they weren't. She could force her parents to stay in the same room, but not stop… backbiting. They didn't, and on the day Mom announced the divorce, Vista went to the Wards and stayed there for two days.

But the Wards… She was the smallest, the youngest. Never mind that she had a power better than any of them and more experience, she was the kid, the baby. Nobody at her school knew, and some kids claimed that she was being pulled out of class for special-ed. And she couldn't tell them anything.

And then Shadow Stalker showed up. At first Missy had hoped that she'd be a friend on the all male team but…

"Oh look, it's the kiddy table. Tell me, did they give you a crayon coloring book today?"

"Anyone pat you on the head lately?"

"Why do they even bother pretending with you?"

She was awful, always mocking Missy, and whenever Youth Guard pulled her away, because it was too dangerous, Stalker was always there with her grin and a mocking comment.

Suddenly, the Wards quarters felt as bad as home. As much of a trap, constricting around Missy instead of freeing her.

For that reason, if for no other, Missy was happy that Jim and Claire had shown up, because they were part of the reason Shadow Stalker was gone and Missy hoped she was in the worst juvie in the nation.

And Claire and Jim were nice. When she asked if she could stay for a sleepover, because it was "shared custody day," complete with screaming fight or passive-aggressive politeness, Claire agreed. Mr. Blinky was nice, even if he couldn't cook, and Claire didn't treat her like a baby. And unlike friends from school, they knew she was Vista.

"Besides," Claire had said. "Merlin respects you enough to insult you." She hadn't even told Piggy when she'd seen the scar on Missy's chest when they were showering after a workout.

Claire had just frowned. Missy had finally told her how she'd run into Hookwolf, and he'd practically run her over because he'd moved faster than she'd expected. The only reason it hadn't been worse was that he was just trying to get away.

And that's why Jim decided to give her some… Lessons.

They couldn't do it off PRT premises, not without risking her identity and sending Youth Guard into a freakout, but Wards were allowed to use the training areas for personal development (Missy kept trying to get Miss Militia to agree to let her use a taser.). So here they were.

Claire was sitting on the side, in a sweater/skirt combo, while Jim had armored up. A few PRT troopers were doing unarmed combat drills to the side, while Vista was in her costume. Carlos and Dean were watching. Vista hoped she didn't screw up. Especially in front of Gallant.

Jim put his sword down. "Okay," he said. "I'm going to give you the important lessons first."

Vista tensed.

"Lesson One: Always be afraid." Jim looked at her, no amusement on his face. "Always. It's not just things like Jack Slash or Behemoth or Hookwolf. Even Uber and Leet can kill you, even an ordinary thug with a gun can kill you. Always be afraid, not terrified, but afraid. Being overconfident kills."

"Lesson two: Always finish the fight." Jim frowned. "Where I came from that… well a lot of times, that meant kill the person. We were fighting a war. That's not what you're doing here, but until they're out of the fight, unconscious, handcuffed, or dead, they can turn it around on you."

"Lesson three: When in doubt, kick them in the gronknuts."

Behind her, she heard a trooper laugh, but Jim wasn't laughing.

"If it's a serious fight, fight dirty. Use everything you've got," the Trollhunter told her. "Fight like your life depends on it. If you take them out of the fight, be merciful, but until then?"

"Kick hard," Claire said.

Vista giggled. "If Mom or Kyle from PR heard you…"

"They'd be really surprised—and hopefully so would whoever you were fighting." Jim grinned. "And that's how you want it. Now for rule four. Jim's rule. Always trust your team. Your friends can help you, they can see things you can't. You will always be stronger together."

With that, Jim went over to Claire and she handed him a bag full of…

Balloons?

"We made these today," Jim said. "I don't think Director Piggot would like us filling the gym with confoam grenades, so these are fake grenades. After all you have authorization to familiarize yourself with confoam, even if you don't use it in the field."

"And…"

"And you have to hit me with them before I kill you," Jim said. "Brute Six. If I get my hands on you, it only goes one way, but because I have the combination to a bomb in Armsmaster's lab, I have to be taken alive. So you need to hit me with two balloons anywhere, or a single balloon on my chest or head, before I'm out."

"Well, boys, let's watch this one from the gallery," one of the troopers said.

"Okay," Jim said, as Claire joined the troopers. "Ready?"

Vista put the bandoleer of balloons around her and prepared. The only thing she'd been allowed to do with Wards had been to watch videos about how confoam grenades were to be used, and that would be the case until she was fifteen.

But she'd also been feeling the room around her. Sure it was before he said go, but…

Rule three.

"Ready," Vista said.

"Go!" Jim was leaping towards her right after, and Vista pulled the room apart, making Jim recede, even as Vista dodged to the side. Jim was just turning to leap when Vista shrank the distance. Suddenly he was just in front of her and she threw the first balloon.

Somehow Jim saw it and spun around like a cat, the balloon flying past his head. Vista jumped back, once again stretching out the room, using it to keep the distance between her and Jim. But he was fast and was now running… up one of the walls?

He was trying to get up and over her effect! Vista let the front snap back and then was pulling Jim closer, changing the height of the pool. She threw one, than another balloon. The first one missed, but then she twisted space, sending the second balloon into Jim's right arm. It splashed, the bright yellow marker fluid conjuring cheers from the gallery. Vista grinned, then eeped as Jim hit the low wall that divided the areas from each other and just pushed off like a rocket. She dodged to the side, using her power to get there fast.

But Jim was moving faster, and suddenly his hand was around Missy's ankle, pulling her towards him.

Missy had a sudden thought, and pulled off the entire bandoleer of balloons and burst them over both of them, so that they were both stained yellow.

There was silence.

"I got you," Jim said.

"And I got you," Missy said. "And it's confoam. You can hurt my leg, but by now, it would have hardened. Even if you could hurt me worse, would you? I mean, now you're going to get caught by Armsmaster."

Jim grinned. "Was that part of the plan?"

Missy giggled. "Rule three."

"Rule three," Claire agreed. Behind her, some money was exchanging hands between Dean and Carlos. "That was smart. Remember, fighting head-on isn't what you or I do." She paused. "And you don't need a gun to be smart."

"Yeah, but a gun would make me safer," Missy grumbled.

Jim and Claire glanced at each other. "Maybe not," Jim said. "Besides, your power is bigger than any gun we have."

Missy tried not to grump, but she bet they'd talked to Piggy.

"Impressive." Missy snapped to attention as Armsmaster walked out. He glanced at Jim and Claire. "Did you come up with that drill on the fly?"

Jim shook his head. "No sir. We did a lot of that back home. Trolls are big, strong and tough so a lot of our drills were about keeping away and not getting trapped into a head on fight, especially before I…" he gestured. "Got big myself."

Armsmaster nodded. "I have been working on some predictive combat programs. I've never actually fought you, save for our initial test drills, which means I have very little of a baseline. Would you mind a drill? I would like to test to see how quickly my systems can compensate for a largely unknown opponent."

"Er, yes sir." Jim glanced. "With or without my sword and glaives?"

"With. You can dull them, correct?"

Jim nodded.

"Very well. It wouldn't be an effective test otherwise."

Missy got into the gallery with the PRT troopers, Carlos and Dean. Claire was watching intently as Jim started to limber up. There was a lot of muttered betting going on.

"Well, this is going to be interesting," Dean said. "The only one Armsmaster usually does this with is you, Carlos, at least when he's going full out."

"Well, Jim is a bigger brute than I am," Carlos said. A few moments later, there was the sound of rushing, and Dennis and Chris were shouldering their way into the observation chamber.

"A trooper said Halbeard is going to go at the Trollhunter?" Dennis asked.

"Yep," Carlos said. "Who are you betting on?"

"Why, the honor of the Wards!" Chris said.

"I'll take some of that action." A PRT trooper said.

Missy knew that the Wards weren't supposed to bet.

Screw that. She put her week's allowance on Jim.

Claire just leaned forward, faint concern on her face.

And then the fight began.

Note: We see Jim in Trollhunters going all out during drills with Toby and Claire, so I'm going to assume that being magic, his weapons do have a "training" setting for them, either conscious or driven by intent.