Disclaimer: I own nothing of Sigma 6, which is owned by Hasbro. Only the plot is mine.

(-)

Spirit looked up from his new book, finding the plot too predictable to keep his attention for long.

Once again in the small rec room of the base, his gaze landed on his teammate Tunnel Rat, who was yet again sprawled out on the room's only couch. Emboldened by both boredom and curiosity, Spirit called out to him, "Hey, Tunnel Rat?"

There was a groan for a reply, but it meant he had the other's attention. Spirit asked, "When did your powers come in?"

There was a pause, then Tunnel Rat slowly rolled himself over to lay on his stomach, looking at Spirit with slitted eyes, "Why do you wanna know?"

Spirit shrugged, "I'm curious."

What he actually meant when he asked the question was what happened when Tunnel Rat's powers came in. Everyone knew that shape-shifters tended to acquire their powers around puberty if they didn't have them since birth. In either case, there was normally an event that triggered the activation of their powers.

There was a long silence before Rat finally said, "Basic."

The shaman blinked, not certain he'd heard right, "What?"

Tunnel Rat snorted, "You heard me, Basic."

Spirit blinked again, "Wait, you're saying your powers activated during Basic Training? How?"

Rat snorted again, scratching the back of his neck, "I was a late bloomer I guess. All I knew was that a buddy of mine got hurt pretty bad during a training exercise, I was freaking out and next thing our drill sergeant knows, he's getting tackled by a red-furred dog and dragged into the woods."

The redhead pulled himself up into a sitting position, slumped back against the cushions as he eyed Spirit, "Even then though, they didn't really realize it was me until they found my uniform in the woods and someone noticed the 'weird dog' was reacting to my name, plus what my buddy was able to tell them after he regained consciousness. Apparently he saw me start to shift before he blacked out. It all went crazy after that."

Something about the way he said that last sentence told Spirit that 'crazy' was a light term to use. Trying to think of something else to talk about, he asked, "How did your buddy get hurt?"

Tunnel Rat laughed bitterly, "He stepped on a bear trap. Thing was pretty old too but it's spring was still good, unfortunately for us."

The smaller man sighed and added, with a touch of nostalgia to his voice, "Besides all the bad stuff, it was kinda...freeing I guess. Finding out I was a shape-shifter answered some questions I had and explained a few things, like why animals seem to hate me with a passion."

Looking back at Spirit, Tunnel Rat asked, "So, what about you?"

Spirit shrugged, "There's not much to say. I come from a line of shamans, so my grandfather had been training me since I could walk. We didn't find out about my other abilities until I was older."

There was an awkward silence between them, which Tunnel Rat broke, "So, any luck I could ask you to get Billy to stop with the pecking?"

Spirit gave his teammate a weak smile, "Sorry. I've talked with him about it but I think he likes your reactions too much to stop."

Tunnel Rat pushed himself off the couch, grumbling something that sounded like 'see how he likes a cougar then'. Without saying anything else to the shaman, Rat left the rec room. Spirit himself only stayed there for a few extra minutes before getting up to leave as well.

That hadn't gone like how he'd thought it would.