The pair stood in front of the door, the others sitting behind them and watching. There were a few screens on the walls for the audience to watch the pair’s progress. Next to the door, the beefy dude with dog tags, Axel, stood with his arms crossed. He was one of the new hero instructors that had arrived over the past few days. He reached up and adjusted his sunglasses with a grin. “You two ready?” He asked with a grunt, “Happy with your choice of partner?”

Greg rolled his neck and rubbed it a bit with his hand. Next to him, John stood as stiff as a board, shoulders rigid and eyes straight forward. His hands moved, though, a long training knife in his hand. He’d switched from bouncing between butterfly knife and switchblade after some extra attention from Miss Chernovna. Greg tilted his head and glanced at his partner who nodded in his usual sullen way. Greg smirked and looked up at Axel, “We’re good.”

Axel tilted his head up and looked down at them, “We’ll see about that, best time is three minutes so far. Clear the room of hostiles, today’s theme is villains and human criminals. There’s a volunteer ‘villain’ inside. Keep the killing blows to a minimum. You’re heroes, don’t forget,” He crossed his arms and turned his eyes to the small crowd of aspirants sitting behind them. “You lot can watch on the screens.”

Greg licked the inside of his lip and rubbed his thumb over his palm, tugging a bit on his fingers and flexing them. “Got it.”

“Woo! Get ‘em Gravitic!” A voice called out from behind them. He rolled his eyes and glanced over his shoulder with a smirk at the girl with blue highlights sitting near the front of the crowd, gloved fist in the air. He raised his fist as well and winked before bouncing a bit on the balls of his feet. He’d seen Lillian do it a few times to get pumped up.

“You first?” John asked.

Greg glanced at him, “I’ll set ‘em up for you.”

“Shortest time then,” John nodded with a twitch of his lip, his version of a smile.

Axel looked between the two of them, “Back up that confidence,” He turned and tapped a button on the panel behind him, “Fifteen seconds till the door opens.”

Greg and John stepped forward and stood at the door. John twirled his knife and shifted his stance to provide a side angle of himself. Greg’s right palm began to glow and he entered a crouch, ready to dash. Three… Two… One…

The door snapped open with a hiss.

Greg darted forward first, his eyes combing the room in a few moments. He was one of the two more observant members of the Nashville crew and he took the details in quickly. Fifteen odd doll-like figures stood in the room holding airsoft guns. They looked like store mannequins wearing clothes. They were all stationed in various spots with large boxes scattered around to provide cover. The good news was it was all one room with one big wall behind him. He grinned and slapped his palm against the wall to his right. “Surprise!” He murmured.

Gravity shifted, the wall he touched became the sky as the doorframe behind him remained open, protecting him from his own ability. In an instant mannequins and boxes went flying towards the far end of the room. Normally this would be the part where the shouts of confusion started but it was more just a series of loud thuds and crashes as boxes and baddies hit the wall. From behind him, John darted into the room with his knife at the ready. His entire body leaning forward at an impossible angle as he picked up speed.

John hopped into the air and caught the gravity push of Greg’s ability like a tailwind, letting it hurl him across the room. Greg quickly knelt down and slapped his right then left palm to the ground with a few heartbeats between each slap. The first sent gravity up from the ground, giving John a little lift, the second normalized gravity in the room. The result of all three slaps was John turning into a bullet from above aimed at the tangled mess of enemies on the other side of the room.

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The set-up took only a few seconds and after that Greg was already back on the move, darting to the right and towards the side of the room where the majority of the boxes had been. Ahead of him, John crashed into the first of the rising mannequins with a kick before an elbow drove into another’s head. The enemies scrambled to their feet with increasing urgency as John turned into a blur, blocking attacks with bats and bladed weapons with his dagger while he delivered disabling blows to joints and heads with his body.

Greg whipped his head around, Right, where’s the- A large shape hurtled in his direction and his eyes widened. Fuck! He dove for the ground and rolled before getting back to his feet, “John, it’s Alex!” He turned to face his attacker with hands held out as the masked ‘villain’ snapped his leg back like a rubber band. He could plainly see fangs in the mouth beneath the mask and scales were forming along the skin of his friend’s neck.

Alex popped his neck left and right and grinned, his powerful muscles growing larger as he started forward at a slow trot. He’d positioned himself between Greg and John. John was busy with finishing off the Mannequins, it wouldn’t take him long, but it would take him longer than Greg liked. Still, he had options.

“Whatcha gonna do now, hero?” Alex barked with a laugh, bearing his arms forward with fingers outstretched as he charged. He was nearly a head taller now.

Greg kept the surprise on his face for a moment longer as Alex picked up speed before tilting his head with a smirk, “You’re not the only one who’s been figuring out new tricks,” Greg chuckled, and took a breath. He toned down the glow on his left hand and then slapped his chest. Alex, ahead of him, blinked behind his mask in confusion for a moment before he started accelerating even more.

“Woah!” Alex gasped as Greg slapped himself in the chest with his right hand and stepped to the side. Alex hurtled past him and Greg darted backwards, moving to get back with John who had just knocked out his last Mannequin with a swift kick to the ‘ribs’ before turning to glance at Greg.

“Good work.” John muttered.

“Thanks,” Greg said and rubbed his shoulder, his body ached from being the center of gravity for a few seconds. He was still getting used to doing it to himself and he didn’t plan on doing it often in real situations until his body could take it better. He took a few more steps back so that John was in front of him, “He’s all yours, Mister Happy..”

John gave him a deadpan look before looking back at Alex and twirling his knife between his fingers. Alex was back on his feet after colliding with the wall with all of his weight and force, he flexed his arm and and turned to face the two. John shifted a bit in his stance, “Strong.”

“Very,” Greg grumbled, “Borderline-fuckin-heroic.”

“Kick his ass anyway?” John muttered.

“Of course,” Greg chuckled and hopped back playfully to one of the crates facing their opponent and hopped on top of it, he slapped his right hand down on the surface and gravity erupted from it, pushing out towards John and Alex. John darted forward, his light body taking advantage of the ‘falling’ while Alex jumped into the air to land on the wall behind him, looking up at John as he hurtled ‘down’ at him. John turned into a pinwheel, twisting his body into a falling axe kick aimed at the center of Alex’s head.

Alex grinned and opened his mouth, his jaw widening to fit John’s entire leg if it had to. Greg snorted and slapped his left hand down on the box, John suddenly falling towards him for a moment. Alex grunted as he was lifted while John kicked off the floor as Greg reversed gravity again, the result made Greg burst into laughter. Alex landed back on the ground on his butt as his jaw snapped shut so he could change which limb he was increasing. Meanwhile, John landed behind him and whipped his knife out to press against Alex’s neck.

“Finish.”

Alex groaned, “Ah fine!” He grumbled and threw his hands up.

John looked ‘up’ at Greg and nodded, perspective was weird when you could selectively change gravity based on surface area. Greg disabled his ability and the two landed on the ground properly, hopping off the wall and onto the floor. Greg slipped off the box and landed on his feet, rubbing his hands together. A buzzer went off over his head.

“Not bad, boys!” Axel’s voice came in over the intercom, “The new time to beat is one minute, fifteen seconds.”

Greg threw his fists up in the air, “Woo hoo!” He cheered, “Yes!”

Alex and John came over to join him, Greg reached out and clapped Alex on the shoulder. “Scales look good, bud.”

Alex smirked, “Been a while since we tussled, you look happy.”

Greg grinned, “Well yeah, I just scored myself a date tonight.”