Issue 1 Downtime

((open))

Dressed in her training uniform, Callie was in the middle of training.

"Oh, come on," Callie calls out to her holographic attackers. "My girlfriend hits me harder then that!"

The crowd charges at her and Callie slams her fists into the ground. There's a white flash and then there's nothing but Callie and a crowd of scorch marks surrounding her.

"That's what I thought," Callie says, picking up a water bottle and taking a drink. She'd been training for over an hour and was starting to work up a bit of a sweat.

"Very good, very good," Zeryn said, admiring the work as he walked into the Danger Room.

"Please. That was bad-fucking-ass," Callie says, smirking at Zeryn, "What's up, Z? Taking a break from babysitting?"

"I'm no good if my skills are left to atrophy," he said, the coating of water on his skin seeming to ripple a bit. "If you don't mind me joining you, at least."

"I don't mind," Callie says with a shrug. "I could use the handicap."

Zeryn glared at her. Then he reached for the control panel, changing the scene to a lakeside area. "We shall see whom is held back, boastful one."

Callie laughs, stretching out a bit, "Deal. And if I win, you have to learn how to start speaking in actual English."

"My English is excellent," he said defensively as he waited for the simulation to start.

"For someone who was raised by a Shakespeare troupe, maybe," Callie says,

"I do believe that I will keep my dignity," he said.

"That's good. It's important to lose with dignity," Callie says, smirking at Zeryn.

"Should I ever need to lose, then, I shall follow your example." As the simulated enemies began materializing, water flowed up around him from the lake. "So do try to give me a good example to use!" He barked as he lunged at the first enemy with a hard-water trident.

Callie just walked casually towards the enemies. One of them opened fire, but the bullets tumbled away from her body harmlessly as she she absorbed the kinetic energy. As she got closer, her hand glowed brightly.

"Boom," Callie says, pointing it in direction of the enemy firing at her. Her hand exploded outward, taking him and one of his buddies out.

Watching this, Zeryn felt no real reason to hold back. The pond rose up around him, raining down like a torrent of impaling icicles on a group of opponents, bullets splashing harmlessly into th watery onslaught. "Your control has improved," he observed conversationally.

"I've been taking night classes," Callie says, a hint of irony in her voice. Some enemies tried to take cover, but Callie put her hands on the ground and focused her explosions towards them. The blasts shredded their cover and sent them flying.

"Good to see you didn't get rusty while you were gone."

"Giant squid make excellent sparring partners. You should see my unpowered techniques," he answered. "Duck," he added, sending an explosion of ice shards over her head at another crowd.

Callie took a running dive and somersaulted into the crowd. There was a bright flash and another explosion as she took out anyone not caught by Zeryn's ice shards. As the explosion died down, Callie straightened up, stretching a bit.

"It feels so good to just cut loose," Callie says happily.

"You do not strike me as one who represses herself overly," Zeryn mused as he grabbed one of the surviving opponents, slamming his head firmly into the ground.

"Only when it comes to avoiding taking out a couple city blocks."