Time seemed to pass so slowly the next couple weeks. Young Ingrata trained all day, then laid awake every night trying to sleep. He became good friends with Solitaire and the other two kids that were trained by Mike.

Their code names were, hilariously, based off a tv show. Dipper and Mable. Ingrata laughed the first time he met them, mostly because he could see why they had those code names.

"I love the eyes. What are you, a demon?" The twins blinked a couple times before laughing with him. The girls glowing blue eyes matched her nails, which turned out to be retractable claws. Same with the boy, except his eyes and nails were yellow. Ingrata learned that the twins were telepathic, originally only able to communicate with each other but eventually learning to communicate with others as well.

They became good friends, actually.

Until the day came that they would be fighting. Turns out the fights go on week long, with no classes for anyone. They were like trials. Aim to win by what seemed to be wrestling rules. Don't leave the circle, knock the other out, taps out are allowed. If you lose, then, well, you go against a lower ranking person. It's kinda complicated, even most of the subjects didn't get it. All they knew was that you never go against your teammates and that the stronger your opponent, the higher up you go. The practice room was covered in large, chalk drawn circles. Only one member of a team fought at a time, and the others were to study in their room.

Ingrata started with a boy named Gardner. Our boy couldn't figure out why his opponent was named after a type of snake until he saw the forked tongue appear and disappear in a flash. Gardner grinned, showing off razor teeth. His teeth, along with his claw like nails, were his weapon. No matter how fast Gardner was, however, it was as if Ingrata could see the attacks before they came. He dodged every attack the snake threw at him. The snake moved like a ballet dancer, yet wasn't quick enough to dodge when Ingrata ducked under his arm and hit him in the back of the head with the butt of his knife. Gardner fell to the ground.

He fought a girl next. She was older than him, though not by much. Her hair looked to have been dyed dark blue with matching eyes. Her weapon was a staff and she didn't look to have any physical abilities. When the whistle blew, Ingrata attacked her head on. She seemed surprised for a moment, then attacked back. She dodged his knife, twisting her staff to knock it out of his hands put failing. He kicked her in the gut, sending her back a little. He didn't waste any time to attack her again, kicking her in the face and causing her to fall backwards on the mat, holding her now-broken nose. She stood back up immediately, only for him to kick her in the knee. She screamed, fell to the floor, and couldn't get up.

And then he was done.

Ingrata was escorted to his room, and Solitaire was taken next. Our boy was surprised to see the twins sitting in the room when he entered. I guess they wanted to study with Solitaire.

"Hey guys."

"Hello Ingrata." they said it in unison, which always creeped him out. Dipper returned to his book and Mable grinned at Ingrata.

"How'd it go?" Asked Dipper, without looking up.

"Easy. I need a harder opponent. To bad I can't go against you two, that would be a real challenge."

"Yeah I suppose it would be." Mable smiled. She has a beautiful smile, and a laugh like bells. The only thing she had similar to the fiction character was that she loved to smile and tell jokes. Her twin on the other hand was basically the same as the cartoon. He doesn't really smile much, and when he did it was only because of his sister. He was also a nerd, passing every test of endurance, knowledge, and survival with at least a 95 percent. He's probably the only reason why the team had made it as far as they did.

"You two shouldn't have to do this test separate, it would be like me trying to fight with one leg and one arm. It's not right, you're like two halves of a whole."

"If only we'd been identical twins, then that would be a hundred percent correct." Dipper didn't even look up, he just turned the page.

"Dipper you're being a nerd again." She nudged his shoulder a little.

"I can't help that. I was born with the brains, you were born with the brawns." He lowered his book.

"I can't believe you just admitted that," Mable began to laugh

"Me neither."

They all began to laugh, Dipper's book laying on the ground, face down and forgotten. Our boy stood up then.

"We should totally play a game!"

"A game, but we're supposed to be studying." Mable was still smiling as she spoke.

"No, it's a fun game. It's hide and seek. Have you played it before?"

"Yeah, it was a game when we were younger to teach us to sneak. The seeker had an electric stick he would shock us with when he found us."

"That's… okay, I'll be seeker! I don't have a stick though, so I'm gonna touch you with my hand instead."

"There aren't very many places to hide…" Dipper and Mable were standing up as he walked to a corner and stood with his face in it.

"1"

"2"

"3"

"4"

" 9…"

"10! Ready or not here I come!" Mable was on the top bunk, Dipper was hiding under the bottom one.

They got tired of that game real quick, so they went back to studying until Solitaire came back and they left.

Solitaire didn't look to happy. There were cuts on his arms and through his shirt. A cut over his lip and he was glaring at everything, as if he was trying to cut everything he saw with his eyes. Ingrata asked him what was wrong, but he just crawled up to his top bunk, curled up, and pretended to be asleep.

Ingrata thought he was done with the fighting, but every day he was brought back to fight a couple more people. They seemed to be hard the first time, then the next person was slightly easier. It was as if they were tested how he fought rather than how well he could. On the last day he was called to fight like he did every other day. Solitaire and the twins went, but he stayed in his room all day, wondering if he'd failed and was going to be shipped somewhere. And then, after all the ranking fights were done and the last three were to take place in the training room. Three fights would take place. One of them was against the Defence, which was a rare treat apparently.

Even if he didn't get to meet her face to face, he was excited to try and determine if it was Sandra, even if all he would see were a few locks of dyed hair and the graceful movements he'd been told about. After the fights the team members would be told their rankings by their trainer.

Ingrata followed Mike and his teammates excitedly into the large room once again. Solitaire still looked sad, but Dipper and Mable both looked okay.

"Ingrata, come with me, you three, go sit with team 4." Mike pointed towards a group of normal looking kids, except for one, who had spiky green hair and longish ears. Our boy followed Mike out and down the hall then around a corner, then down another hall. He was confused on where his trainer was taking him, but had learned not to ask questions in times like this. All will be answered in time.

They came to a small room, a wall of white, slightly dented up lockers on either wall and two lines of benches in the center.

"This is where you will get ready. Do whatever you want. Splash some water on your face, sharpen your blade, some even change into different clothing."

"O-" but Mike was already leaving him.

Inside the room were four other people. Most of them had physical abilities, plus an added weapon, which made them very powerful. Three were boys, one was really tall with long golden hair, another was about sixteen with dark long sleeved clothes spiky hair. His weapon was a katana with a black handle. The third boy could also be a girl...I suppose. He didn't ask them their gender, but he couldn't tell because their brown hair was cut in such a way that it didn't give anything away. The kid was probably only about twelve or thirteen. He looked up at Ingrata, showing off bright red eyes under their bangs. Their weapon was a large knife. It had a red tint, as if it was stained with blood.

The girl had pink hair tied back in a ponytail, the end of which still went past her shoulders. She was probably about fourteen or fifteen. She noticed Ingrata and smiled at him.

"Hey, kiddo! Wow, are you here for a battle? You're so young! Not as young as the demon was the first time though." She nodded towards the red eyed kid. The Demon looked away and began testing the sharpness of their knife with their finger. "Say, you want to change? There are a couple stalls just down there."

At the end of the locker area was a walled off area. There were a couple stalls and a line of sinks. Ingrata locked himself in one and sat on the back of the toilet, hugging his knees to his chest.

Who is going to fight? The rules of this are different than the other fights, you're allowed to kill. Is he going to die? He stayed there as names were called. He couldn't see the fight, but he could hear the cheering from where he sat. The Demon vs. The Ninja! Then Bubblegum vs. the Giant! And finally, after the cheering ended.

"Ingrata vs. Defence!"