"Alright everyone let's get going," Celeste said as she made her way into the arena. Team CODE's leader had decided that the team would begin their time together by doing a little training together. "Why do we have to do this after a full day of classes?" Owen asked, covering a yawn with his hand. "Because I said so, that's why. Now as your leader, it's my job to know how you all fight, I guess. So we're going to do some sparring so I can get a good idea to start with," she looks between the other three. Let's get this started. Wolf boy, you'll fight with One eye."

"The name's Eve," Eve responded.

"Yeah, whatever. Just get ready." The two got into their fighting stances in the middle of the arena. "Ready? Begin!" Celeste yelled.

An agonizing amount of time passed as the two brawled. Kick to the left. Owen read, avoiding it with grit teeth. Whip slash. Using his glaive, Owen casually deflected the strike. Eve's eyes narrowed and the telepathic messages were abruptly cut out. Owen made another attempt to read her, but was unsuccessful.

"Nifty trick." Eve said under her breath, so only the two of them could hear.

"Most people would refer to it as a pain in the ass. But nifty works too." Owen let out with a grunt, as the whip latched onto his leg. Driving his glaive into the ground, he held onto it as the chain tried to drag him backwards. Eve replied without a smile.

"Oh that's an accurate description of it as well." The other side of her whip flew around her, barely missing Owen as he suddenly let go of his glaive, flying backwards. He crashed into her, forcing Eve to stumble while Owen hurried back to his glaive.

"But it's still interesting." She finished.

"I'm flattered." Owen said, spinning his weapon in his hands before driving it into the ground, he then raised an eyebrow. "And you? You can manipulate...chains?" He finished lamely. Eve let out a sigh, dashing towards him and speeding herself up. Owen dodged her barely, taking his weapon out of the ground and jamming the blunt of it into her side. Eve was almost unaffected, her head snapping towards him to retaliate before someone shouted.

"That's enough!" Celeste and D'art strolled over. "You two have been fighting for longer than thirty minutes." Celeste observed, her hands on her hips. "I was getting bored." D'art gave her an exasperated look and then glanced at the other two.

"Who wins?" Owen asked, panting slightly.

"Owen, he has more aura left." D'art replied, giving his partner a sympathetic smile. "That okay?"He asked. Eve shrugged.

"I don't care, it was fun." She responded nonchalantly. Wrapping her chains around her arms, she gave a curt nod to Owen who returned it.

"Now for the final match, correct?" Celeste asked, a grin on her face. D'art faced her and smiled uneasily.

The final match was to be D'art verses Celeste. D'art had previously won against Eve, and Owen had previously lost against Celeste. Confidence high, the opponents prepared themselves. Owen and Eve sat in the sidelines, watching them cautiously, Owen glanced at her.

Who do you think's gonna win?

You CAN just talk normally, there's no point in communicating like this. Owen shrugged.

Meh. It's fun.

And to answer your question, I have to say D'art.

Really?

Mh-hmm.

We shall see.

I'm guessing you're betting on Celeste?

Bingo.

Their conversation was cut off as the battle began. Celeste, without any caution, immediately dashed towards D'art, slashing at him. D'art flipped backwards, channeling a bolt of lightning midair which Celeste dodged. Rolling past a flurry of slashes, D'art was cornered already, his teeth grit as he kicked Celeste backwards and tried to gain some distance between them. Getting his rifle out, he shot several shots, scraping his opponent's thigh as she sprinted towards him.

Using her head for a split second, Celeste slashed her claws into the ground, creating a cloud of dust around her. D'art lowered the rifle slightly, his nerves buzzing as he scanned for a sign of movement. Nothing. Wait. Blue, right there. D'art fired several shots into the cloud, missing her before Celeste popped out of nowhere, her foot connecting with his stomach to send him flying backwards. Pain flashed across his vision as D'art tumbled onto the ground. Rubbing his shoulder, he got his tomahawks out and drove all his strength into countering another slash. They stood there, struggling, metal against metal.

It's close. Owen leaned backwards.

Indeed. Eve's stomach growled. I wonder what I should have for lunch. She wondered.

Did you really just think that? Eve simply shrugged in response.

Celeste jabbed her elbow into D'art's ribs, forcing his stance to weaken as her claws slashed him, his aura having already become nearly depleted.

"You done?" She asked, panting.

"Not yet." D'art huffed, tackling her to the ground. From underneath her opponent, Celeste rolled backwards, pinning him to the ground, her claws inches from his throat. A strand of her blue hair fell from her ear, hovering over his cheek.

"What about now?" She asked, her eyes locked on his. D'art laughed uneasily.

"Alright, I surrender."

"Good." She huffed, standing up and retracting her weapon. "And Celeste wins again." She called out with a confident grin.

"Good match." Owen called out, clapping lightly. Beside him, Eve nodded.

"You lasted pretty long there," Celeste says, holding out her hand to help Dart up. He takes it and stands up. "Though you left yourself open. You all did. You need to learn how to read the person you're fighting. Read the way they move, when they're going to strike, or how."

Owen chuckled. "I have no problem reading people."

Celeste walked over to him. "Do you know why you lost to me?"

He looked at her, then looked down before responding. "You weren't thinking. I couldn't read you."

"Exactly. You need to learn how to read without your semblance. I rely on instinct over thought. Heck, I could probably take all three of you on at once."

Eve perks up. "Care to wager on that?"

Celeste looks over to her, then looks down thinking. "Let's do it. Next match is you three against me."

"You sure you want to do this?" Dart asked.

"It'll be a good learning opportunity for you three. You call it." Celeste stood on one side of the arena, while the others gather to the other side. "Everyone ready?" All of them nod.

"You still sure about this?"

"Just call it already."

Dart looks between the two beside him, then back to Celeste. "Begin."

Celeste charged head first into her teammates, slamming her fists into the ground to create a shockwave. Owen and D'art were sent flying, while Eve dodged their leader's opening attack, striking back with her chain. The chain struck Celeste once across her face, causing her to stumble back. "Any chance you two could get up and help?" Eve asked, dryly. Owen and D'art pulled themselves up, dusting off their clothes.

"Eve" Owen shouted out "she's going to try and grab your next strike, be careful!" Eve nodded looking back at Celeste, who was prepared to do whatever it took to win. Eve stood still for a moment, then sent the chain wrapping around Celeste's ankles. The brawler tried to grab the it, but missed causing her to be dragged across the dirt floor. As she was being dragged towards her opponents, Celeste tried to break the chain, attacking the metal repeatedly each time striking harder and faster. Suddenly the dragging stopped, briefly giving Celeste a moment to get up before Eve pulled again, knocking Celeste to the floor. Tired of being humiliated, Celeste pulled the chain back, flinging Eve to her like a Ragdoll. Celeste grabbed Eve's shoulder with one hand, draining the aura from her.

"Owen, flank her!" D'art called out, Owen nodded, running to the left of Celeste. Eve groaned, falling to her knees in pain. Seeing this, Owen jumped up, kicking Celeste away from his fallen teammate. D'art rushed over to Eve, trying to help her in any possible way. Owen overwhelmed Celeste with a flurry of stabs, hitting high and low forcing her to drop Eve's chain to defend herself. Celeste caught a lucky break as Owen went back to trying to read her thoughts. 'I'll kick him in the face so hard he'll need new cybernetics' she thought, preparing a kick. Reading this, Owen prepared to block the kick. Instead, Celeste charged up a punch that sent Owen crashing into the arena wall. "Hey, c'mon. I've got an idea." D'art said to Eve as he helped her off the ground. Celeste strolled towards Owen who was slowly standing back up using the wall for support.

Owen took in the sight of their seething leader and looked nervously to D'art. 'Well' he communicated to D'art through his telepathy 'What are we going to do now?'

D'art nodded at Owen. 'Keep her busy in the center of the arena. Eve and I have a plan."

Owen sighed and turned back to his opponent "Cmon Celeste" Owen taunted half heartedly "can't you keep up with me? You're looking a little slow." Celeste revved up another punch, but Owen struck first, repeatedly hitting her in the chest and sending her into the center of the arena as planned.

"Now!" D'art shouted at Eve. Nodding at his command Eve threw the chain at Celeste. It wrapped tightly around her arms and torso, restricting most of her movement. D'art took aim with his rifle and charged a powerful electrical blast, which upon contact spread throughout the metal chain and shocked its target. While she was distracted by the pain and desire to move Owen delivered a finishing blow, sending Celeste crumbling to the floor.

Celeste stood, after her teammates had beaten her, and removed the chain from around her. "That was a good fight, though you left yourself open," Owen said offering his hand out to Celeste.

"I don't need your help," She said as she slapped his hand away. "I can take care of myself." She felt a hand on her shoulder as she was standing up.

Looking up she saw Dart, "He was just trying to help. No need to be so harsh."

Celeste shrugged off his hand. "I don't care, and don't touch me. I'm perfectly capable of picking myself up."

She sensed the approach of Eve behind her. "Just because you lost doesn't mean you can act like a child." Celeste didn't turn to look at her; instead she hurriedly made her way out of the training arena.


Celeste made her way down the halls, mumbling to herself as she was walking. In her mumbling to self moment of not paying attention, she found herself bumping into something. She fell backwards, and looked up to see what she had run into. Standing before her was Riliane, looking around to see what she had run into. Celeste stood up, and brushed herself off. "You okay?" she asked Riliane.

"Oh! I'm so sorry if I caused you any trouble. I don't exactly have the best eyesight. My name is Riliane. May I ask yours?"

Celeste looked at her with a questioning expression. "It's me, Celeste."

Embarrassment showed for a brief second but was quickly replaced as a small smile appeared on Riliane's face. "Oh, funny bumping into you." She paused for a second taking in the other girl's heavy breathing and exhausted tone. "Coming back from some training?" she guessed.

"If you could even call it that. I thought it would be a good idea for the team to having sparring matches to learn how we all fight. It was going pretty well, I won the singular fights, but then they had to challenge me to a 3-on-1 fight. And of course I lost." Celeste continued on. Riliane stood listening and 'watching' her. She didn't exactly know what the other leader was talking about, but as she did want to befriend the girl she knew she should at least listen to her. "So anyway," Celeste looked up to Riliane. "What are doing around here?"

"I decided to do a bit of exploring and there is a good chance that I may be a little lost," Riliane said, poking her fingers together. Celeste chuckled lightly. "But if I may ask, what is so wrong with you losing?" Riliane asked tilting her head quizzically.

"The point of training is to get stronger. How am I supposed to do that if I lose?" Celeste asked, crossing her arms across her chest.

"Well, you don't train with the intention that you are always going to win." The blind girl responded acting like it was something super obvious "You train so you can get back up when you end up having to." Smiling brightly at the brawler she continued, "So to answer your question, you get stronger by losing and learning from your mistakes."

Celeste looked to the ground. "Yeah. I suppose you're right. Though it still doesn't feel good to lose." As the two girls had been talking, the remainder of team CODE had made their way out to the hallway in search of their leader.

'Seeing' the rest of Celeste's team approaching Riliane smiled "I'll leave you to settle things with your team then, I should be heading back to my dorm anyways," waving a short goodbye she started to walk away calling back "It was nice talking to you."

"Hey Riliane," Celeste called out to her. "Yes?" Riliane called back. "The dorms are the other way."