The next moment they weren’t in the same room. An Asian-styled dojo with hardwood floors and walls had replaced it. The room was now much smaller as well, roughly 50 by 50 ft.
“No shit? This is pretty awesome!” Shouted Falco.
Gabriel went to stand next to him on one side of the room. From all around them came Zero’s voice, as if he was some sort of omnipresent being. “First round, Falco vs. Rosenquartz. Begin now.”
The reports on Rosenquartz said he could sprint, but Falco and Gabriel never saw it coming from the almost perpetually still creature.
Gabriel had just enough time to jump out of the way, boosted by a slight push from his flight generator. Falco moved faster than anyone he had ever seen in person. Safely placing his gelato on the ground without spilling a drop, he blurred a safe distance to the side of the behemoth’s charge.
Rosenquartz moved for the speedster again, determined. The man in the trench coat dodged aside once more, drawing the two large machetes strapped to his hips.
From where he hovered, Gabriel could tell they were nano-steel. Those two chunky blades would be almost impossible to break through conventional means, but this fight wasn’t conventional at all.
Falco ducked a swing and took his own, bringing both blades crashing against the large man’s ribcage. A resounding snap shot through the room as Rosenquartz’s midsection cracked, and Falco’s blades were mangled beyond reason. Jumping back, the German cursed, dropping his weapons and shaking his hands to relieve the stinging pain.
Rosenquartz took this chance to try to grab Falco’s clothing, but the Speedster stepped aside. Falco pulled a knife from his coat and stabbed at the stone arm as if the blade were an ice pick. A small chip came off Rosenquartz’s elbow, and he screamed. The resonating noise hurt Gabriel's head. He was sure it had a more pronounced effect on the Speedster, who didn’t have a helmet on.
One ear bleeding, Falco stood where he had. His face contorted in pain, but he held his ground. Seeing the effect his ice pick tactic had on the crystal giant, Falco drew new knives from his uniform. The one he had used before was bent and twisted like his machetes.
Blurring into motion, he began demolishing his knives against Rosenquartz’s hardened body. Broken handles and blades began to fly from the melee as the large man’s screams grew louder. Pink chips started to fall from his body.
His head behind his arms, Rosenquartz crouched like a child. Suddenly he jumped forwards, attempting to wrap his arms around his attacker. Falco had grown too confident, and Rosenquartz’s Class 3 speed was enough to land him a glancing blow on his target.
Falco flew into a wooden beam with a loud thud rather than the crack Gabriel expected. The simulation must have made the arena around them much tougher than it seemed. He looked up as Falco groaned and stood on shaky legs, holding his side.
Rosenquartz capitalized on his advantage and was right on top of the smaller man when Falco spun like a top. Blurring behind the giant, he continued his assault. Round and round he went, so quickly it began to make Gabriel dizzy.
Rosenquartz threw his arms out time and time again, but it was like he was trying to swat a fly. He screamed - this time in frustration rather than fear - and looked to his side. The pink monster ran to the faux-wooden beam and ripped it from its fixtures.
He started swinging it around himself with ease, gaining speed with each second. Soon he was moving so quickly not even Falco could get close. The Speedster slowed to a stop just outside the range of the beam.
Falco grinned, unwilling to wait for an opening. He jumped back ten feet and disappeared from sight. Suddenly, the beam flew into the wall but a few yards from Gabriel’s wing. He gulped as he looked back to the fight to discover Falco holding Rosenquartz’s severed left arm. The giant man was kneeling on the floor, silent, as if in shock. He stood slowly, his glowing eyes set in a look of determination, and stepped for Falco.
The Speedster chuckled once and shot behind his opponent, straight into Rosenquartz’s waiting elbow. A squishing, gooey sound is how Gabriel would describe the sound Falco’s head made as it exploded in pinkish mist. His body ran a few more steps before falling limp to the ground.
A German scream rang out from the air. “SCHEISSE, I’M DEAD!”
Zero’s deep voice followed. “You would be in the real world. Here you just lost, spectacularly. A false death should be a lesson to all of you. Never let your guard down. Ever.”
“Where’s my body? Why am I looking everywhere? Is that it? Oh my god, why!?” Falco started speaking annoyingly fast. It seemed the common Speedster habit only came on when he was flustered.
“Oh, jeez. Here.” Said Zero, exasperated. Falco rematerialized in front of them. He patted himself down and looked at his former body’s remains.
“Gross.” He said.
A fresh gelato appeared in Falco’s hands. He beamed. “That’s more like it!” He dug in.
“If that’s settled let’s begin the next fight!” Zero exclaimed excitedly. Gabriel immediately powered his generator to 90%, wanting to take no chances with a surprise attack.
“Ready? BEGIN!”
Lilith wasted no time, letting loose a primal scream and tearing across the dojo. Her armor and helmet made her look like a valkyrie, an angry one waving a mace and shield. She was faster than Gabriel, that much was clear, closing the distance with terrifying swiftness.
She raised her hands as she neared and sent forth two clouds of a dark miasma. One Hex struck his left wing, searing through it and leaving the metal feathers around the hole curling back on themselves, eroding away.
Gabriel frantically fired back with his Hard lasers, aiming for her chest. The three white beams fired mere moments after warming up, but by then, Lilith had jumped aside, understanding what the glowing dots on his armor meant. The warrior rolled out of her leap and directly at him, swinging her mace with a crushing force that crumpled his chest plate and sent Gabriel flying into the wall.
His nerves on fire, Gabriel fought to keep from blacking out. He stood as quickly as he could, knowing Lilith would be chasing him down. She had followed his arc through the air and was about to land a hit to his helmet when Gabriel managed to push himself from the wall with his wings - surprising her, and propelling his fist into her face.
The thud her body made against the ground satisfied Gabriel's aching chest as he kept moving. He activated his flight generator and shot towards his downed opponent. Ruthless as it might be, he knew she would have no mercy on him - he aimed a stomp at her midsection.
She was ready for him, rolling aside and catching his armored foot on her shield. She slid along the floor from the force of the blow and somersaulted up from the ground, landing deftly near the center of the room. Her face was a mess; swelling marred her previously heartstopping features. Gabriel could see how her body healed at an accelerated rate; already, the bruises were clearing.
Lilith huffed in frustration, then closed her eyes. Suddenly she glowed with a bright light, but like a flickering bulb, the glow disappeared. That’s not all that was gone either; her face had returned to normal as well.
Gabriel’s eyes widened with awe at her healing powers.
His staring cost him dearly as Lilith followed up her angelic healing with a sudden burst of twisting Hex energy. Gabriel frantically flew aside, but she tracked him through the air. He brought up his wings to block the attack just in time to get tossed into the other wooden beams in the dojo. Before his eyes, his wings were destroyed, losing more than 70% of their mass from that single blast.
Righting himself with his flight generator, Gabriel rushed Lilith, knowing she had been charging at him. Powering his sword and lasers, he forced her into a duel, exchanging blows and allowing his lasers to get in some hits.
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Lilith proved more than his match, diverting or dodging his sword with ease and powering her mace at him constantly. Every time he blocked with his shriveled wings left him hurt and less wing to work with. His lasers glanced off her shield; she seemed to know where exactly he was aiming, and when a beam would come. The few hits he scored she healed in an instant, glowing and blinding him in the process.
It seemed she had not been using her full abilities before this point, as she didn’t lose a beat healing herself while fighting so fiercely. Gabriel steadily lost ground before coming up with an idea.
Floating centimeters off the ground, he spun as swiftly as he could, ducking under her last swing. He snapped what remained of his wings outward, striking Lilith and tossing her back a few yards.
It was his chance, so he flared his generator to full and flew at his opponent faster than she had seen him move thus far. He caught her unaware as he rocketed past her side and threw out his arm, sending his AM scissor through the flesh and bone of her upper arm. He loosened up on the throttle and stopped on his feet just behind her.
Her arm fell limp to the ground, shield along with it. Lilith could do nothing but stare for a split second. She screamed with fury and flung herself into a spin that Gabriel couldn’t follow. He stopped her arm at the elbow with his palm, sinking his sword fully into her abdomen.
Lilith dropped her mace, allowing it to hang from the leather strap around her wrist, and brought her hand down in a hammer blow to Gabriel's elbow. His arm buckled, and he noted that she had jammed his armor’s lower arm actuator. There was nothing to prevent the follow-up blow to his visor. His head shot back, and his brain rocked as he took a few shuffling steps backward, losing his grip on his AM Scissor.
Gabriel saw his opponent fall to her knees, removing the sword and attempting to heal herself. This time the glow flickered and died, and her blood started to pool on the floor. Gabriel knew he had to end the duel now to claim victory, so he got close to her and reached for his sword on the ground.
Lilith’s head shot up, vicious anger in her eyes, and Gabriel knew he’d erred. Her mace shot up and slammed into his chest again, throwing him back into another airborne arc into something hard and painful.
Gabriel felt how Lilith’s blow had completely torn through his armor and into him. The entire head of the spiked mace, as well as metallic shrapnel from his exo-suit, had torn through his chest cavity.
He was dead now. He knew that. Closing his eyes, Gabriel said his goodbyes to the world and slept.
He opened his eyes, looking down at the room as if he were a ghost. The realization that he was in a simulation hit him like a tonne of bricks. “Ouch,” was all he could say.
“That looked like it hurt.” Came Zero’s voice from beside him
“It did,” Gabriel answered.
“Yeah,” Lilith said at the same time.
Lilith and Gabriel were startled when they learned they’d each “died” from their confrontation. Zero laughed. “That was quite the show, but now it’s time for the important part. End simulation.”
The world went dark for a moment. Then they were all standing in the same spots Zero had directed them towards earlier. “Team, that was awesome! But we are really going to have to go over some of what happened in sim. Come on over to the ready room and get comfortable, we’ll have a quick chat, and you’ll be free to go.”
As the team sat in the recliners positioned around the ready room, Rosenquartz stopped in front of one of the chairs.
Zero looked at the crystal man. “Don’t you worry, Quartz, those chairs are reinforced. You won’t break them.” The pink man sat down.
“Alright, now that we are all comfy, let’s go over the first fight. Before we begin, Falco and Rosenquartz, how did you feel about that fight?”
Falco was the first to respond. “I died, man… that sucked.”
Zero chuckled, “True, but you took off a Tank’s arm. You had him on the ropes!”
Rosenquartz spoke next. “I...fought...hard… He… too… fast.”
“Very right you are, big man. I assure you that move with the support beam would have had either one of your other teammates with no way out. However, you never stopped trying to hit him. That got you the only solid win of the day when he got too cocky.”
Zero turned to the group. “First lesson, youngbloods. After an all-out fight that leaves you struggling to find an advantage over your opponent, DON’T STOP TRYING YOUR ABSOLUTE HARDEST!
In battle, a split second is all the enemy needs to end you. Falco’s gruesome death should be a shining example to you all. I mean, think, people, if your opponent is someone who forced you to bring out all the stops, why in all hell would you let up when they’re cornered and have no way out unless they kill you?”
His words had a significant impact on the assembled Supers. Strike Force Gamma wouldn’t let their guard down after today, even when winning by a landslide. Zero knew this, but it wouldn’t stop him from testing his recruits further.
Allowing them to reflect for a moment longer, he kept talking. “Rosenquartz is a classic Tank, if not a ridiculously fast one. His skin can’t be cut, and his bones can’t be broken except by tremendous force.
Pairing him against Falco was meant to show you all that patience and strategy will overcome challenges that you can’t steamroll with your powers.
A fight like Falco’s is not a fight one ever looks for on the battlefield. You should only ever engage a Tank directly if you can’t stay out of their range. All it takes is one swing, and most Supers are down for the count. Many would die outright.” His grave expression and well-timed pause gave his words the needed emphasis to reach his crowd.
“Falco showed that no Tank is unbeatable. While Rosenquartz might have a lot of tactical training to do, I believe the environment in which their battle took place more than makes up for that. Falco was stuck in a room with a raging bull and used his head to figure out that he could chip away at Quartz’s body knife by knife. While no one else could have done that, since no one carries that many knives on them, his actions are still a perfect example of a Hero’s ability to solve impossible situations.”
“With regards to Rosenquartz’s specific perspective, I will say similar things. Falco is a Speedster gifted with speed far beyond the common Super. Most Speedsters have a Class 4 cap to their speed, but Falco consistently breaks Class 5 speeds without more potent physical mutations like other Class 5’s. It is safe to say he is head and shoulders above almost every Speedster that has ever graduated from the academy.”
Pausing once more, Zero noted how Gamma looked appraisingly at their team member. “This is all to say that Rosenquartz had it no easier than Falco did in that match. I mean, we all saw that! Falco couldn’t be touched. I myself lost sight of him when he threw himself into Quartz’s spinning beam.
Dealing with someone eons faster than you is a massive problem for most Supers. Even more so than taking on someone who can take more hits than you.
The secret is to get them in close and keep them from making passes at you from anywhere they can pick up speed. That’s what brought Falco down. Well, first off, he purposely stopped moving as quickly as he could, and secondly, he stepped into Rosenquartz’s immediate space without every intention of getting out of range again.
If you want to keep your head, Falco, don’t stop running. The Super community sees speedsters as a whole to be quite annoying in combat. If given a chance, they will focus you down without a second hesitation; you are almost a big a target as a healer would be.”
Falco’s horror-stricken face elicited another laugh from Zero. “Don’t worry too much about it. You are more than fast enough to take them all out before they get you. Plus, if you time it well, you can divert the enemy’s focus by slowing down. Your speed is a gift. Always be on the lookout for what you can do with it.”
Falco nodded seriously.
“Now, as for the second fight. Let’s hear your opinions, Gabe? Lilith?” Zero asked.
Lilith spoke first, softly in an almost begrudging tone. “Gabe is fast and wily. His lasers sting; they kept me on guard the whole time. Those metal wings of his move like another pair of arms, and his suit stopped my mace. Nothing stops my mace. Also, that sword of his cuts too well. My barrier couldn’t stop it, and neither could my armor or skin. If we would have fought for real, I’d be dead.”
“Yes, you are correct. You would be dead. But so would he. Gabe? What do you have to say about the fight?”
“Lilith was incredible! She’s faster than me and better in hand-to-hand combat. Her Hexes wrecked my wings, and her mace crushed my lungs. She was too strong for my armor to take more than one hit, and on her own, she was strong enough to get my suit to work against me when she broke my actuator.
My arm wouldn’t move, and she threw me off. I let my guard down at the end as well. By the time I knew I’d messed up, it was too late.” Gabriel stared hard at the floor, unashamed to admit he had been hard-pressed but disappointed at his performance nonetheless.
“You both bring up great points,” Zero said reassuringly. “And the fight was top notch. But there are a few pointers I need to make clear to all present. The first of these is that Lilith is indeed stronger than Gabriel, faster as well - by a Class. Gabriel’s suit makes up for the difference in strength and also adds a thick layer of protection, while Lilith’s armor is much thinner.
These differences made their fight the most evenly matched across the board and shows a fundamental lesson. Anyone you face in single combat has trained to survive such encounters. Because of this, you will either end up seriously injured or dead when duking it out with someone of your power level. Try to fight enemies when you have an advantage and don’t stray from your team unless absolutely necessary.”
He let that tidbit of knowledge sink in. “Next are weapon skills. Lilith outclasses Gabriel in hand-to-hand combat, having been trained by Paladin himself. Furthermore, her regenerative powers allow her to Hex her mace into doing far more physical damage than it should.
Gabriel has an assortment of weapons, most of which allow him to fight from range, yet he threw himself into an old school duel before even understanding his disadvantage. Had his wings been gone by the end of the fight, he would have had nothing to block with and would have been crushed instantly.
Never willingly engage another Super in their comfort zone, there is no easier way to get killed, save pulling the trigger yourself.” Gabriel's cheeks heated at these words, but he knew the older Super was right.
“I also have a question for you Gabe. Why didn’t you use that energy I saw yesterday?”
The question hung in the air between them for a moment before Gabriel responded. “I couldn’t. She didn’t give me enough time between blows for me to activate it neurally or for the generator to increase power.”
“So you mean to say that she kept up the pressure so well you couldn’t even access a neural interface?” Gabriel nodded, and Zero turned to the team. “That’s how you all should fight, don’t give them an inch.”
Lilith beamed with pride.
“But Gabe, I suggest you find out how to deploy that energy more quickly. I was sure you’d use it to take out her shield, if not end the fight immediately.”
At these words, Lilith became confused. Her prideful expression dimming; she couldn’t help but speak up. “What energy?”
“Ahh, my dear,” Cooed Zero, “That’s a secret until Gabriel deems fit to inform you.”
“Hmph.” Lilith glowered.
“With that said, it's time for today’s final lesson. I have praised Lilith enough because while what I have said is true and she is the more experienced warrior, she committed the gravest mistake anyone can in battle.”
The Strike Force went still.
“She underestimated her opponent. When Gabriel flew in that final time, Lilith could have reacted fast enough to avoid losing her arm, but she didn’t. Her brain was too busy telling itself that her opponent couldn’t be moving that fast to tell her to move out of the way, that his sword would not pierce her Class 4 skin.
Never assume you have seen everything your opponent can do. They will try and catch you off guard with an unexpected ability or tactic. It’s your job to see through that and make it home safely.”
Suddenly, the elevator doors dinged open and out rolled three identical droids. Zero glanced at them and nodded before turning back to the team. “All done today, guys! I’ll take Quartz back to his lab. You may head back to your rooms or wherever you like. The Custodians will guide you almost any place in the Spire. Goodbye, now.”
Zero raised his arms above his head, and shadows engulfed him before stretching to envelop Rosenquartz. The shadows bled away, leaving no trace of either Super in the room.