Laura was about to speak when a male entered the room and made some remark about being bitten. After he left, she continued.

"Rules? First one to give in loses, other than that, no rules. FILSS, countdown to match."

"Yes, Agent California. Match start in three. Two. One. Begin."

Laura took a standard boxing stance and began to slowly circle her opponent, keeping a careful eye on her movements. After a short time, she lunged in, throwing a quick jab with her left hand while keeping her guard up with the right.

Like California, Lizzy gave the agent who entered a spare glance as he backed out. Between California's comments and the other man's entrance, her eyebrows were beginning to creep toward her hairline. Only the first "real day" for them and she'd had run-ins with two... coworkers? Companions? Partners? What did she call them?

[i]Focus,[/i] she reminded herself, returning her attention to California as FILSS started the countdown for them. Her body settled into a comfortable fighting stance, and then she shifted into motion to counter California's movements, circling in the opposite direction from her foe. It was clear from California's equally focused stance that this was going to be a battle where Lizzy would have to watch her back. The freelancers for the program, she was led to understand, were picked specifically for their experience and talent with specific skills. Either California was excellent at faking talent, or she knew very well what she was doing.

And a lack of rules was going to show Lizzy that one way or the other.

Lizzy deflected the first jab and fired back as she did so with a right hook of her own. They were testing the waters now, but she knew it wouldn't stay that way for long.

Laura ducked under the hook, noticing her intentions almost as soon as she was starting to make her move. This was easy for her due to the years of hand to hand combat experience she had from the marine corp, and it would definitely give her an advantage, or at least, she thought it would. She knew almost nothing about the girl she was facing off against, except for being a good shot with a sniper, but of course that could have been balanced by some knowledge of close quarters combat as well. As she dropped, she planted her right hand on the floor, turning so her weight rested on her right arm and leg, then swinging her left leg towards the legs of her adversary, attempting to knock her down, or at least cause her to lose balance, which she would be able to use for a follow up attack.

Lizzy felt her legs go out from under her and hit the ground with a soft "oof." She immediately rolled to the side to avoid any attacks that would be aimed down at her in her prone position and swung up onto her hands and knees, bouncing back to her feet and immediately darting toward her opponent. She sent several blows toward the crouching California's head and then abruptly attempted to knee the woman in the face, throwing the force of her body fully behind it. Already she could feel herself resettling into the mindset of a soldier in the field and she was able to narrow her field of vision to California alone. It was one of the benefits of being in a training room, rather than on an actual battlefield.

Taking advantage of the awkward position Massachusetts had put herself into in the attempts to attack her head, which were still close to the floor, Laura turned onto her back and repositioned herself, sending both her feet towards the girl's stomach. The way she saw it, there would be little time to dodge an attack like this, and it would probably knock the wind out of her as well as send her back a ways, giving Laura the time she needed to get back to her feet while also doing a bit of damage to her opponent.

Lizzy felt Cali's feet impact and the ground disappear from under her as she was, yet again, knocked to the floor, this time by flying backward through the air slightly. Thankfully, she had been exhaling when the kick impacted her body, so although she felt herself gasp for air briefly, it wasn't nearly as debillitating as it would have been if she'd had a bellyful of air. The ground further took the wind from her, but Lizzy forced herself to roll and get back to her hands and knees. She lifted her head to watch California get up from the floor and ground her teeth together. Okay. No more fooling around. Her opponent was potentially-- likely-- better than she was. No hesitating.

Lizzy got to her feet and took advantage of the momentary lull to reposition her feet into a more stable stance. She raised her arms back into an offensive fighting stance and tilted her head at California.

"Your move."

"I was right, this is fun." 

Laura ran at her opponent, smirking under her visor. As she got within ten feet, she dashed to the left and then towards the girl again, sending another jab, this time a right, throwing the weight of her body into the punch so as to mae it more difficult to block or deflect. She was beginning to get into the mood she always did when she took interest in a fight, which meant that her stance would start to loosen from here on, and her movements more fluid. She didn't even plan on this punch connecting, seeing as she telegraphed it very clearly, but if it did connect it would be devastating, knocking some sense out of her opponent.

Lizzy didn't need to deflect the first attack; Cali had been a fan of direct assault thus far. As Cali's body began to turn into the punch, Lizzy twisted aside and, as the punch sailed by, she grabbed Cali's shoulder and slammed a punch of her own into the woman's side. Keeping a tight grip on her opponent's shoulder, Lizzy attempted to haul California forward so that she could drive her knee into the woman's stomach.

As soon as her shoulder had been grabbed, Laura knew she was in for a hit. She tensed up her body so as to take the hit better, and after that blow landed on her ribs, she made her move, grabbing at the girl's wrist and ducking down, then moving forward while turning her body slightly, causing the knee to miss its mark, pushing her shoulder toward the girl's stomach as she pulled her arm into the shoulder bash, tipping the leverage of her opponent as she began rising up again, in an attempt to lift the girl off the ground and onto her shoulder.

[i]Oh, I have had enough of this![/i] Lizzy thought frantically as she felt California's shoulder collide with her gut and attempt to lift her even higher. Her wrist was trapped in the woman's hold, but rather than try to free it, Lizzy twisted her body, stomped hard on California's foot, and slammed her head forward unexpectedly. Her helmet cracked resoundingly against Cali's and Lizzy again attempted to drive her fist into California's side. She was [i]not[/i] going back on the floor.

Laura barely noticed the stomp on her foot, and paid more attention to the headbut against the back of her helmet. Lucky for her, her long hair came into play, acting as a cushion under the helmet. 

[i]Maybe I won't cut my hair...[/i] 

Taking those attacks in stride, Laura continued with her own attack, lifting Mass off the ground and onto her shoulder, then hooking her arm around the girl's legs at the knees, locking them in place and essentially eliminating her legs as a problem.

"Last chance to give up, Mass."

[i]Ah, fuck.[/i]

Lizzy could tell she couldn't break the hold on her legs and the almost fireman's carry she was in was going to leave her in trouble. Take the hit, get back up, keep swinging. Only option.

"Thanks all the same!" she sing-songed, pulling her knife from her chest piece and slamming the hilt into the side of California's helmet in the hopes of disorienting her slightly.

The knife hilt to the head caught her off guard, but Laura wouldn't let that cause her opponent to get away. She recovered from the hit shortly after it connected, then almost instantly pulled down on Mass's knees, pushing her off of her shoulder, and letting her body drop to the ground while still holding her legs. After the drop, she twisted her legs so as to flip her onto her stomach, then locked her ankles under her armpit, holding her at the knees with her left arm, raising her up again and once more allowing her body to drop without releasing her legs, which would slam her head against the ground if she didn't stop the fall.

Lizzy's arms snapped out instinctively as she felt the lift and her wrists cried out in protest as they took the brunt of the drop. Her arms bent at the elbows, bringing her visor right to the floor, and then she twisted her body, rotating her legs in California's grasp before jerking them sideways and barely breaking free of the freelancer's grip. Lizzy thrust roughly off of the floor as she did so, succeeding in bouncing back, away from the freelancer, and landing unsteadily on her feet.

She slid her knife back into its sheath and, as she stepped forward to help her regain a more steady balance, she used her now-free hand to aim three sharp blows at Cali's visor. One of her hands snapped out to stop Cali's arm from coming up to block the shots so that at least one of them would connect. Even if they were blocked, Lizzy was ready for that. California was good. Very good. Lizzy had divided her skills between close quarters battle and distance so as to have a wider variety of skills, but that was going to leave her at a disadvantage here. If California didn't train exclusively in CQB, Lizzy would be very surprised.

Too bad Cali wasn't a man. There was a quicker and easier way to send them to their knees in a fight. On women the same move worked, but not nearly as well.

Using the grip she had on Cali's arm, Lizzy turned to the side, twisting the limb as she went and quickly stepping forward so that the arm would be pulled backwards, behind California. The hold alone would be painful, but if she had an additional second, Lizzy could make it much worse.

Laura was dissapointed in herself for not being able to hold onto the girl, but she wasn't about to let that hold her back. She watched as the girl got away, waiting for the girl's attack, and when it came, to her surprise, Laura was unable to block it. she took the full force of the first punch, but managed to tilt her head back for the second two, causing them to glance off her visor. Then another surprise. Mass had managed to get her arm behind her back. This was unfortunate, but not impossible for her to escape. She raised her leg up and brought it back down and backwards, kicking at Mass's knee. from her position, it would be hard for Mass to see this attack, thus near impossible to avoid it, and with any luck, the pain would be enough to cause her to lose her grip as Laura pulled away and turned around. If it didn't, then this manuever would be a lot more painful, but still possible. After managing to turn around, Laura threw her heaviest punch, aiming to hit Mass in the side of her helmet, hopefully disorienting her and doing enough damage to force her to give up.

The kick caught Lizzy by surprise, but when her knee threatened to buckle she forced it-- and the grip on California's arm-- to hold. Allowing pain to get the best of you in battle was a death sentence; she had to treat it the same way on the practice court, especially since they would all be going through intensive training soon. It was an even greater surprise to Lizzy when California ignored that her arm was still behind her back and turned so that she could hail off and punch Lizzy square in the head. The blue-armored freelancer staggered back, releasing California as her head briefly spun. That had been some hit.

She staggered back another step, blinking at California as her eyes came back into focus. Her fists were raised to defend against the next attack, but she was breathing heavily and she could feel where bruises might be starting. After taking a moment to calculate the odds, Lizzy nodded at California.

"All right. I concede the fight. I yield. Hell, if I don't, were going to miss the debriefing for sure." Lizzy grinned, as much at herself as at California, a bit disappointed in herself but not so much that she looked forward to a continuing beating. "Do you accept my surrender?"

"Heh, yeah, I accept. Good match." 

She extended her arm to Mass, opening her palm in the gesture of a handshake.

"I hope we can do this again sometime."

Lizzy dropped her guard and slapped her hand into Cali's for a firm handshake.

"Absolutely," she said, clearly out of breath. "I can always stand to learn something new. Maybe one of these days you can teach me some of those fancy maneuvers. I'm not used to too many soldiers who can literally ground me more than once in a fight."

When they released the shake, Lizzy turned and looked up at the observation room where the man from earlier was still watching them. "We'd better head up to the meeting room. Debriefing is going to start soon."

Aware that the freelancer in observation couldn't hear her, she held up her arm and tapped a finger to her wrist to indicate time. No sense in letting him be late if he'd forgotten that they had other obligations today.

"Yeah, maybe I will." 

With that, Laura left the training room and headed to the meeting room, not bothering to change out of her armor.