The morning sun was shining brightly in a cloudless sky above training quarters. Viper could only be grateful that it was such a clear, warm day- since he was going to be out on the training grounds for the duration of the morning and afternoon. He had a long day ahead, and so did a large majority of trainee's.

The burly, purple-haired man's eyes scanned down the list of names on a metal clipboard he was holding to check who was next due for their first training session. His eyes rested on the two names under the previous trainees- Cassidy and Butch. Viper racked his brains, mentally going through each of the various pairings he'd recently met.

Ah. That was right- Cassidy was the blonde girl with the big ego, and Butch was the green-haired young man with the...voice. It would certainly be interesting to see how those two had been getting along.

Today, official training started. It was a rather hectic day, especially for the poor Drill Sargent who had to deal with countless trainee's, not to mention standing up all day and watching pairing after pairing take on the assault course. Still, this was just the beginning of training.

At least five minutes later, with late being the operative word, Viper glanced to his right to spot Cassidy and Butch approaching; Cassidy striding and looking ready to face the beginning of her training, and Butch lagging behind a little with his hands in his pockets.

Viper gave them both a quick nod once they stood beside him. "Good morning, you two. How have you been getting along?" he asked briskly, eyes flicking up from his clipboard to them after he placed a tick next to their names.

"We've been getting along just perfectly, sir. No problems at all," Cassidy announced breezily, before her partner could say anything. She glanced at him. "Right, Butch?"

Butch's mouth hung open for a second, as if he was debating whether he should speak up and tell Viper how displeased he really was with the way this partnership was turning out. Surely if he explained about how difficult and obnoxious Cassidy was being, something could be done about it? But the hard, icy stare directed at him by her was enough to make him comply and nod his head obediently. "Yeah."

"Pussy."

Butch frowned at the hushed insult that left her lips. He just couldn't win with this girl. Unfortunately she'd muttered it far too quietly for Viper to hear.

"Good good," Viper said briskly as he led them over to the beginning of the obstacle course. Looking ahead, it looked pretty lengthy; with various obstacles- reminiscent of a military assault course. "Now, today you will be assessed on agility, speed and endurance. All three of those qualities are going to be essential not only in training, but for when, and if, you become field agents. This assault course is used to increase physical fitness, practice team work, and to demonstrate techniques that can be used for crossing any rough terrain- which will be much later on in training. You'll be given a time limit of ten minutes to complete the course; if you exceed that limit, you'll go back and do it again."

The two young adults simply nodded.

"So, without further ado, if you'd both like to get ready, you can begin as soon as I blow my whistle. And remember- this is about team work. Help each other out if necessary," he advised, shaking his head as he remembered a couple of the other extremely competitive duo's who had seen it as a 'race' rather than basic training.

Butch and Cassidy both got into a ready stance just behind the white line painted on the ground at the beginning of the assault course. Cassidy was clearly planning on getting ahead; judging by the determined frown on her face and the impatient little twitches her body was making. The only thing her brain was focused on right now was getting to the end of this course before him. She wanted to show off her natural agility, and make him feel like a loser. Although admittedly, by the looks of Butch, he was pretty fit too.

Viper cleared his throat, bringing his whistle to his lips. "Alright. On your marks, get set..."

The moment the whistle sounded, both Cassidy and Butch took off. They were head to head as they sprinted along the first part of the track, until the first obstacle came up and Butch managed to leap over and get ahead for a minute or so by using all of his stamina at once.

Apparently Cassidy wasn't the only competitive one around.

She struggled to vault over the higher obstacles and had to hurriedly clamber over instead, mentally cursing at herself for letting him get ahead of her. But the moment the first few sturdy wooden structures were out of the way, she began to sprint again. She soon caught up to her partner, who's speed was decreasing rapidly.

Cassidy smirked, choosing to slow her pace and jog alongside him instead of rocketing off ahead straight away. "What's the matter? You're not tired already?"

Butch huffed and shook his head determinedly. "No...just getting- a little short- on breath..." he retorted.

Cassidy frowned. "Too bad. I'm not having any team-mate of mine lagging. Come on, slacker. Put some effort in!" she commanded, scoffing before her jog changed back into a sprint and she shot off ahead, smirking to herself.

Butch mustered up all the energy he had left in an attempt to catch up with her, but it wasn't much use. She appeared to have endless bursts of stamina, whereas he was now too exhausted to even jog. After reluctantly struggling over another obstacle, he stopped in his tracks to catch his breath, leaning over slightly and clutching his aching side. At this point, he didn't care if he failed and had to do it all over again- better than having a heart attack.

It was only a few seconds before he heard a shrill screech of, "What are you doing?" from up ahead. He glanced up wearily to see his scowling partner storming back over. No surprises there.

"I told you to put some effort in, that doesn't mean stop!" she yelled in his face, giving him the most contorted look of anger and disgust when he shook his head feebly. "Move!"

"Give me a minute, will ya?" he panted frustratedly, rolling his eyes in a mixture of overall exhaustion and annoyance. Who did she think she was?

Cassidy didn't notice his insolent expression, fortunately, since he was facing the ground. She crossed her arms and scowled at him, shaking her head. "When we make it to agents, and we're running from the cops, you won't have a minute to catch your breath."

"I know- but that's-"

"Seven minutes left!" Vipers voice boomed from in the distance.

Cassidy jumped at the call from the drill sergeant, taking one last irritated glimpse at her partner. "Screw you," she grumbled with a snarl, before turning on her heel and once more dashing off without him. He could fail and re-do the course as many times as he liked, for all she cared. No way was she going to wait on a slowpoke.

She had no problems, crawling through nets, clambering over blockades, ascending over frames, and vaulting over several bigger obstacles- which seemed to get easier and easier once she found a better technique. It was around four more minutes before she reached the last remaining obstacle, sprinting up to it and then leaping over, whilst using only one hand to assist her. She stumbled a little upon her landing, but she'd done it. She'd completed the course- and beaten Butch with much less effort than she'd originally assumed she would have needed.

Mission accomplished.

She smirked satisfactorily to herself as she sauntered across the white finish line and plunked herself down on a nearby bench, sighing with exhaustion. That had been easier than she'd thought; sure, it required plenty of determination, but she'd pretty much soared through the thing. Butch on the other hand, could still be seen up ahead, struggling. Cassidy snorted to herself and shook her head as she watched him with slight amusement. Ridiculous.

A few more minutes passed, but Butch finally clambered over the finish line and reached his unimpressed partner; panting, red in the face, and sweating. This was the first time Cassidy could honestly say she didn't find him so very attractive. She simply rolled her violet eyes as he collapsed next to her on the bench.

"Phew!" he puffed, running a gloved hand through his damp hair. "I need to work out more often."

"Oh, you think?" Cassidy shot back sarcastically. "That was hopeless. What a wimp."

"...Shut up."

"All you're going to do is slow me down and make me fail."

Butch exhaled exaggeratedly, lolling his head back. She was being a complete brat, again, but he was too beat to argue this time. "Okay, fine. Sorry for 'slowing you down'. Hey, it's not like I forced you to lag behind just to yell at me. Seems more like you slowed yourself down."

"Who are you to criticism me? You're nothing but a useless, pathetic lump with the lung capacity of a child. That's it now; I'm going to ask Viper to give me a new partner- we're obviously not compatible in terms of fitness. Or anything else, for that matter," she snapped, jutting her head in the direction of the Drill Sargent, who was approaching the duo in his own time, jotting something down on a form attached to his clipboard. Cassidy got to her feet and stalked over to the man, crossing her arms and staring up at him indignantly. "Sir, would you please do something about him? His physical fitness is despicable. I'm requesting a new partner, here and now."

"Stop being so dramatic."

Viper ignored the two of them and shook his head, jotting down a few last notes on the form as Cassidy impatiently followed him to the bench where Butch was sitting.

"No no, you both completed the course in under ten minutes, therefore you have both passed your physical assessment. Congratulations."

Cassidy's jaw hit the floor, while Butch glanced at Viper with a look of disbelief. "...What? I passed?"

"Hm. But only just," Viper replied, cocking an eyebrow at the young man as if in slight reprimandation for his lack of endurance.

"Are you kidding me?" Cassidy snapped. It didn't seem fair; she'd put all her effort and determination into completing the course as quickly and faultlessly as possible, while he lagged behind and put absolutely nothing into it. Yet they both passed? "But he didn't even try! Make him do it again!"

"Shut up."

"That won't be necessary. He completed it with a minute to spare, which is still a pass. You are both free to go now. And don't forget- group classes begin tomorrow," Viper reminded them, before he gave them a dismissive nod and turned, heading back to the start of the assault course to watch yet another team take it on.

Cassidy snorted as she watched the man walk away. "You know, if I was the drill Sargent, I'd have you go over that assault course 'til you couldn't stand."

"Yeah, well, you're not the drill Sargent," Butch replied, sighing as he stood up from the bench. He wavered for a moment as he glanced over at her. She was just standing there with her arms crossed, not looking at him. "You uh, coming?"

"I don't have to be with you all the time, raspy. We went over this yesterday?"

He sighed at her cold tone of voice, shrugging resignedly. "Suit yourself," he replied gruffly, standing around for a few more seconds to see if she'd reply. "...See ya." He then turned and walked off without giving her another glance.

It wasn't that he particularly even wanted to hang out with this stuck-up girl; he was simply trying to make an acquaintance out of her, instead of an enemy. There was no way he was going to tolerate the constant insults and sneering if they made it to agents- he'd be spending every single day with her. A nightmare.

Still, it wasn't as if he wasn't used to people being hostile towards him. It had happened all through his childhood. At least Cassidy was just one person. And her abuse was generally only verbal. It wasn'tthat bad, or anything he hadn't had to put up with before. He could handle it.

For the moment.

After all that hard work, and attitude from Cassidy, he was in need of a cigarette. He decided to do that before taking a much-needed shower in the changing rooms.

Training quarters was pretty huge; so there were plenty of places he could sneak to for a quick smoke. He certainly wasn't taking any chances getting in trouble with one of his superiors like Viper; so he went in search of a quiet spot, eventually coming across a smaller part of the building which seemed desolate, and sneaking behind there.

Finally, he thought to himself as he leaned against the wall of the building, taking his pack of cigarettes out of his pants pocket and extracting one. Peace and quiet. It took a few flicks of his cheap lighter before it worked and lit the end of the cigarette. He took a long drag before blowing the grey fumes out. Ah, that was good.

Only a couple of minutes into his peace and quiet, Butch heard another pair of footsteps approaching. He glanced to his left with a look of annoyance and saw another male trainee come around the corner. This boy had chin length lavender-blue hair and a red variation of the trainee uniform on. When the blue-haired boy saw he wasn't alone, he hesitated suddenly, as if he was awkwardly about to turn around and leave again. But then he leaned against the wall too.

Butch didn't say anything to the other male and went back to smoking his cigarette; although acknowledging each other was soon unavoidable as the two of them accidentally looked across at each other at the same time and made eye contact.

The boy bobbed his head casually. Butch nodded back.

"You smoke?" he asked, holding out the pack to the other boy.

The other boy adamantly shook his head. "Um, no. No thank you," he replied politely.

A long silence ensued, until the lavender-haired young man glanced back at Butch hesitantly and spoke up again. "I'm James, by the way."

"Butch."

"A pleasure to meet you, Butch," James chirped, extending a gloved hand. Butch raised one teal-coloured eyebrow. It was certainly a little odd, seeing a young man like himself with such manners. Nonetheless, a nice change from being judged or snapped at. He hadn't even made fun of his voice yet.

Butch casually reached out with his free hand and gave James's a quick shake. "Likewise," he replied, taking another few puffs on his cigarette. "What'cha doin' behind here?"

James shrugged. "Oh...just...you know, being alone. Well." He hesitated and scratched the back of his neck. "Actually...I'm hiding. So that I don't have to do the assault course."

"Ahh. I just got done with that. Heh, it was way too easy," Butch lied- albeit very believably. "Finished the whole course in around a minute."

James fell for it unhesitatingly, eyebrows raising in awe. "Impressive. I doubt I'd be able to; besides, it's not really my thing. I'm just going to stay around here for a while and skip it. Although, my partner's probably going to go berserk at me. She's a bit...hostile."

"Heh, you too, huh?" Butch said with amusement, earning a curious glance from his new found acquaintance. "I've got the most stuck-up little bitch as my partner. Y'know, I can't even speak without her snapping at me. I don't know what to do."

"I'm in a similar situation. My partner's being all cold towards me. She makes it seem like I'm always getting on her nerves, like it's my fault we're stuck as partners, you know? I don't get it."

Butch rolled his eyes. "Women, eh?"

The two young men chuckled awkwardly, cueing another awkward pause.

"So, um...what brought you to Team Rocket?"

"Uh...just...just circumstances, I guess," Butch replied with an aloof shrug. It was probably best not to go into much detail about the lonely, troublesome life he'd been leading up until recently. He'd had no permanent home, no friends or family, no job. No luck, really. He'd never felt like he 'belonged' somewhere, due to the fact that there had never been anyone to make him feel it. Joining Team Rocket was a last resort; something that could potentially allow him to make something of himself. Maybe not for the right reasons, but who cared?

"I'm just... no good for anything else," the green-haired young man said decidedly. "Got no talent, no brains, no money. Nothin'. So I thought I'd try my hand at being a criminal. And you?"

James sighed. Such a simple reason. If only he could say the same for himself. He chose not to bore Butch with stories of his life as a poor little rich boy, with controlling snobs for parents and a psychotic brat who was pretty much infatuated with him in the creepiest way possible, making his childhood a misery.

"No reason, really. It just seemed like it'd be a fun job."

Butch nodded, although he doubted that was the complete truth. Nobody signed up to a crime syndicate for 'fun'. "Yeah. I'm sure it'll be a hoot. Anyway," he said, pushing the last stub of his cigarette on the wall to put it out. "I'll see ya round, pal. I really gotta go take a shower."

James nodded, smiling. "Alright, it was nice meeting you."

Butch shot him a grin as he turned to leave. "Same here. Later, Jim!"

Didn't get a chance to edit this one thoroughly since a friend demanded I edit/post within a most unreasonable time limit. :|