[center][h3]Arm in Arm[/h3]
[b]Sector 5 Suoh - The Otherlobe[/b]
Peach, Raz’s [@Truthhurts22], Sakura’s [@Zoey Boey]
[b]Word Count:[/b] 5,666
[b]+6 EXP[/b] [/center]

Test six was a pretty ordinary speed test, being the starting point for a timed lap around the rooms perimeter. The cadets would need to his checkpoints arranged at positions three, twelve, and nine before stopping at six again. There were a couple of literal hurdles on the way, but nothing serious. It went pretty unremarkably. Peach and Sakura simply ran the whole way, while Raz got to use his Levball.

Everyone skipped past the seven o’ clock spot, it being the scoring zone for test two across the way, and stopped at the eight o’ clock spot. It turned out to be a shooting gallery, the exact sort one might expect to find at a carnival. Moving targets shaped like Others needed to be hit, while cutouts of citizens and Psych-OSF troopers should be allowed to scroll by unscathed. Raz could use his own psi-blasts for this marksmanship trial, but Peach’s weapons were too explosive to avoid losing points on the wrong targets, and Sakura’s fireballs were too slow. Peach ended up using the provided pop-guns, but she did appreciably well.

Sakura was a little frustrated by this test. [color=f49ac2]”They’re right there. If this was a real fight I could just go over there and be 100% accurate.”[/color] She shot another fireball, predicting the path of a target. A civilian intercepted her ball before it could hit the target. [color=f49ac2]”Stupid grandma! Get outta the way!”[/color] She shook her fist. Then she shot a big fireball at a group of Others, the explosion hitting several Others, as well as a cutout of an OSF soldier. Dejected, she resigned herself to taking half-accurate potshots with the popgun. 

After that, everyone arrived at test eight, the big one. At the center of an enclosed arena stood a big, mechanical platform. When Crenshaw turned it on, the doors slid open and  [url=https://i.imgur.com/9lOjkM7.png]towering machine[/url] made from stacked components rose up. With a loud slam it stopped at five stacks high, and the components began to rotate. “The Omen Modular Exterminator,” Crenshaw announced. “Re-engineered and made a little less deadly for testing purposes. Crammed it full of psych tech so that it uses Visions. Endurance is good, but not getting hit is better. This challenges your reflexes, pattern recognition, dodging speed… just about everything. Once you’re in the ring, you can only get hit five times. Go as long as you can, up to ten minutes.”

The machine featured five firing modes, one per stack. The Pendu Module at the very top would regularly create Pendu Visions that would fly down and home in on their targets at a decent clip, with low turn speed. Next, the Yawn Module would create bubbling circles on the ground every so often, which after a moment would give way to a Yawn Vision bursting up from below to snap its jaws. In the middle, the Pool Module would belch out a total of six tar balls from its sides to arc through the air. Second-lowest was the Perry Module, which would spit out high-pressure water jets at a consistent head height. At the bottom, the Sabbat Module would periodically slam down to release a wave of darkness that could cover the floor for a moment. At the start only one of the five would activate, switching after thirty seconds to another random module. When one minute passed two would turn on, only to flip to another pair thirty seconds later. At two minutes three would come online, and so forth, until at four minutes when all modules were active. If a challenger reached five minutes, a random module would suddenly double its output, and then Omen would repeat the earlier output until all modules were working double-time at the nine minute mark.

Raz worked out the kinks in his joints left over from the other tests. More than halfway through now. Raz usually had the stamina for long marathons but the directed, limit-reaching tests they were doing were wearing him down quicker. Not that he was going to let it stop him..

[color=FF8c00]”Big attack maker sorta thing? I’ve got this, easy!”[/color]

Raz hopped into the area, immediately setting up Levitation, both for the speed and to keep him elevated off the floor. And for the first few minutes things went swimmingly. Having one, two, even three modules active at a time was almost a cakewalk for the dextrous psychic, the increase in difficulty still manageable for what was being doled out. He jumped pools of Yawns, skated past swooping Pendus, slipped under the balls of tar, and the waves of darkness weren’t even an issue as he was on his Levball.

At the third minute mark, things started going south. Four modules at once were pushing at Raz’s attention, making him act sloppier. He still hadn’t been hit but the close calls were beginning to pile up. Four minutes in and the hits started. He ducked low to avoid a jet of water blasting ahead of him, inadvertently scrunching his Levball down, which sprung him up afterwards right into a swooping Pendu. It knocked him to the ground just in time for the bottom module to activate, sending a wave of darkness to swipe him across the floor. Two hits at once!

After that Raz’s momentum petered out. He did manage to make it to five minutes, at least, before taking the fifth and final hit. [color=FF8c00]”Haaah. Are there going to be, like, cookies and orange juice after this? I’m gonna need a rest,”[/color] he muttered as he climbed back out.

“You’ll have as long as it takes the other two to finish. As well as their time spent on the next test, if you elect to go last,” Crenshaw told him, nonplussed.

Speaking of, Peach stepped up next. After seeing her teammate go at it she had a better idea of what to expect versus the total lack of knowledge Raz went in with. Through grateful for the knowledge, she did feel a little bad that she essentially used him as a guinea pig to get an advantage. Still, she knew that without a Levball of her own, it might be tough to emulate his feat. There was a lot going on at once, and mindfulness had never been her biggest strength. The princess descended into the arena, and the Omen Modular Exterminator whirred to life once more, ready to put her mettle to the test.

Things started off easy, almost insultingly so. Since the water jets from the Perry Module shot out at head height, simply ducking them was enough, giving Peach thirty seconds to build anticipation for the next escalation. When it turned on the Pool Module wasn’t much more challenging, and she just jogged around the area clockwise to stay ahead of the rotation. Next the Pendu and Yawn Modules came online, assailing her with a manageable sequence of imminent underfoot eruptions and incoming fliers. The crocodile-like Yawns could be avoided with any dodge but a jump, and the Pendus could be sidestepped. Unfortunately, at one point Peach got so focused on the enemies that she dodged into the Omen machine tower itself, and in the ensuing bonk the Yawn emergence she’d been trying to dodge clipped her.

When the third minute began, Peach faced the Sabbat, Perry, and Yawn Modules all at once. In frustratingly quick succession she ducked beneath a water jet only for the Sabbat floor wave to catch her, then jumped another Sabbat wave only to land on top of a Yawn. Three lives down, only two to go. Her heart pounding, Peach pushed herself into overdrive, but the panic that fueled her dodging spree came at a cost. Right after the Omen switched to Sabbat, Pendu, and Pool, she forgot what she was doing when faced with a Pool projectile and blocked it, leaving her with just once chance. “Gah, idiot!” she chided herself, gritting her teeth. Peach leaped a floor wave, airdodged a Pool globule, and ducked beneath a Pendu, but just shy of four minutes fifty seconds of living on a prayer she succumbed to an almost impossible combination that caught her in a corner. “Agh…” she griped as she exited the arena. Doing worse than Raz despite him going in blind was not a good look. Hopefully the average test-taker set the bar pretty low.

[color=f49ac2]”Thanks for testing that out for me, you two.”[/color] Sakura said cheekily, sheepishly rubbing the back of her head. [color=f49ac2]”My turn!”[/color] 

Sakura breezed through the earlier stages like the others did. Sakura could jump, and she could dive. With her telekinesis she could even redirect herself mid air, far more technically than just doing a spin kick mid air. 

When things started to get more intense, Sakura started having more fun. The grunts of her exertion were often accompanied by sharp bursts of excited giggling. 

[color=f49ac2]”Wah!”[/color] Sakura shouted, leaping over a Yawn. [color=f49ac2]”I remember you! Not this time!”[/color] She said.

Without being able to block or Focus parry, her defensive options were somewhat limited. But she was fast and mobile, with good reactions and situational awareness. But when two started double timing at once, she jumped over a Yawn only to get clipped by a Pendu. When knocked from the air she was quick with a back roll and was right back up on her feet, and she never got tagged twice quickly. After a while though she couldn’t move in the air enough to avoid getting hit while also jumping over the floor obstacles. With the most intel to go off of she ended up doing pretty good. She rolled her neck and rejoined the others. [color=f49ac2]”That was pretty fun, I bet we could all beat it after a few more tries.”[/color] She said optimistically, nudging Peach on the shoulder and patting Raz’s head.

After the exciting challenge provided by the Omen Modular Exterminator, only two trials remained in the Psych-OSF proving grounds. Crenshaw led the three recruits over to test nine next. Much smaller than the last one, it featured a single psi-blast turret and a Vision of a generic OSF trooper. “It’s not just fighters with value,” the grader observed. “So this is the Support Test. The turret will open fire, and it’s your goal to keep the soldier alive as long as possible without physically blocking for him, since anyone can do that.” He looked between the three with a doubtful expression. “Do any of you have support powers…?”

“I do!” Peach replied, perking up a bit. “I can heal people in an area! Although…I kind of need someone else to team jump me into the air for it to work.”

Crenshaw furrowed his brow. “Interesting. Well, we can’t ignore any possible medics, so let’s see it.”

With a teammate’s help, Peach could be sent flying into the air over and over again, and upon landing a splash of healing magic restored the Vision. This went on for a little bit but the turret eventually outpaced her healing. Crenshaw noted the results down, nodding. “That could be useful. I have to ask though, how is that related to Materialization?”

“Uh…” Peach ran a hand through her hair, an embarrassed look on her face. “It actually isn't. It’s just a technique I learned a while back while fighting with the Rabbids.”

“I see…”

After that came the final test. “It’s said that the most important skill for any soldier is the ability to follow orders, so here’s the ultimate test,” Crenshaw said. He introduced them to what looked like a fancy dance pad machine, with four directional buttons on the ground, a screen in front, and a punching bag to either side. “It’s also good for reaction time and attack speed. Just step on the pads and hit the targets you’re supposed to. Simple.” Everyone got a turn on the machine and did pretty well overall, even Peach, who’d played plenty of minigames like this in the past. That said, she wondered if the sort of orders she might be expected to follow on the field would be more complicated than ‘left right left right punch punch punch’.

A few minutes later and the results were in. Crenshaw stood before the three in the center of the room. An array of dark Vision screens with outlines and contents in gold appeared all around them, displaying graphs and readings of their results. “Well, even if you didn’t ace every last test, the numbers don’t lie. You’re all ahead of the curve by a country mile. It can take ordinary civilians years of training to reach these levels, but it looks like you’re all pretty seasoned fighters in your own rights. It’s my official recommendation that Psych-OSF would be glad to have you.”

Peach jumped up and down, pumping her fists. “Yessss!”

[color=FF8c00]”Heh, knew it.”[/color] Raz crossed his arms with a smirk. [color=FF8c00]”I already got in the Psychonauts once, a second time was gonna be a cakewalk.”[/color]

Sakura jumped up and down with Peach. [color=f49ac2]”We did it, we did it!”[/color] 

Crenshaw held up a finger. “That means we can move straight to the hard part. That last test wasn’t exactly the ‘last’ test. More like the last qualifier. Before you can call yourself a Scarlet Guardian, you have one last test before the final: the SAS Aptitude Test. This aptitude test will determine your platoon assignment. Stand in a line here.” After the three did as instructed, Crenshaw crossed his arms. “The virtual brain-link cable will now be connected. This will hurt much more than anything you did in training. Be strong.”

A claxon sounded out from the room, and a female voice rang out over the intercom. “Systems all green. Beginning SAS cable connection.”

Behind the recruits, red cables suddenly materialized in the air like holograms. Their far ends dissipated into the either, but their fronts raised up like serpents about to lunge. Red ports that resembled gears appeared on the shoulderblades, spine, and head of the recruits. Very quickly they began to glow, first orange and then vivid yellow, before plunging down to violently plug into the ports.

Instantly, an immense pain coursed through the recruits’ minds, worse than a terrible migraine. It felt as if those cables had plugged into their brains themselves, pushing a stream of solid information through its neurons like drain cleaner through a clogged pipe. Peach cried out, thrashing around with both hands clamped against her head. The seconds felt like hours, but after only a mere moment, a bright red crack spread across her face from her eyes, and the pain ceased. With a whimper Peach crumpled to the floor, her breathing heavy. It hurt an awful lot, but it was over, and something felt different. Though the cables disappeared, she still felt connected–her mind more clear than she ever remembered feeling before.

Raz had his shoulders hunched from the pain, not as dramatic as Peach’s had been, but still visibly affected. [color=FF8c00]”Ahhggh,”[/color] he groaned, drilling two fingers each against his temples, where the sharpest stabs of pain had been, maybe due to being a [i]natural[/i] psychic. He quirked an eye open - it was all he could do through the pain. [color=FF8c00]”S-So, that was the, ehhn, the ‘SAS’ thing? What’s it do… exactly?”[/color]

Sakura was laying flat on her back, chest heaving. She peeked one eye open. [color=f49ac2]”I-is it over?”[/color] She asked, voice weak. [color=f49ac2]”Th-that was pretty rough.”[/color] With a groan she pushed herself into a sitting position, rubbing her head. Then she sneezed, and rubbed her nose. [color=f49ac2]”Huh! It’s like I had the flu the whole time and didn’t even know it.”[/color] She looked down at her own hand with newfound appreciation and clarity.

Crenshaw nodded in approval at the cadets’ quick recovery. Then he replied. “The Struggle Arms System, in short, is a brain-to-brain connection that allows us to fight side by side, supporting another in a variety of ways. Now that you’re hooked up to the system I, the program allows to you to do a number of things depending on distance and whether or not you’re squadmates. By the way, your ‘squad’ is designated as the three of you right now, but that’ll change when you’re assigned a Platoon.”

He held up his fingers, listing features off one at a time. “First, it lets you send and receive Brain Messages. Makes texting look like writing letters. Brain Messaging works with anyone in the network.”

“Second, it provides a customizable, personal Vision overlay system you can use and share with others. You can pin useful information like your own health, resources, and stamina, make waypoints, mark locations and enemies for your teammates, bring up database information on things you find, leave notes and reminders in 3D space, and so forth. The world is your whiteboard. Just so it doesn’t surprise you, some of this stuff is enabled by default when you enter combat. So don’t freak out when stuff suddenly appears.”

“Third, you can use Brain Talk with your squadmates. Like your own private channel of telepathy. But before you do, I recommend switching on Protect so you don’t end up oversharing your thoughts by accident. Not having it on has led to some embarrassing situations in the past, to put it mildly.” The lack of amusement in Crenshaw’s voice suggested that it was less of a laughing matter than he made it sound like.

“Fourth, you and your teammates can share your primary psionic powers. This is our greatest weapon, but there are limits. When you switch on a squadmate’s power, you’ll get a brief Vision of them -which can also be customized, incidentally- and then the SAS gauge will begin to drain. It takes time to recharge and if it runs out completely there will be a delay before it starts again, so remember to switch them off again before they run out. Some drain over time, during use, or both.”

“Last but not least, support. The closer you are to your squadmates, the better connected you are, and the more you can do to help one another. With bonds high enough, you can call upon Visions of your teammates as Combo or Assault Visions, even if your actual teammate is busy or not close by. Visions might even appear on their own to block attacks for you, sometimes. You’ll also be able to use your friends’ powers more, and power them up. So don’t be lone wolves out there. You’re much stronger together.”

Sakura was shaking, hopping on her heels and wiggling her fist, her excitement and grin growing in equal measure the more and more Crenshaw talked. 

Crenshaw crossed his arms. “It’ll take some getting used to. And that brings me to my last point. The Final Exam. It’s time to show what you can do in on a real-world battlefield.” He put his fingers to his temples. “Well, [i]technically[/i] not real-world. But now that you’re connected to SAS, you can experience much, [i]much[/i] more elaborate Visions. And be warned: the mind makes it very real.”

The female voice on the intercom spoke again. “Sakura Kasugano. Razputin Aquato. Peach Toadstool. Identities confirmed. The Psych-OSF aptitude test will now begin.”

Around the three cadets, the room began to disappear, going black in a somewhat psychedelic ripple. To each of them, the other two vanished as well. Then another ripple passed through the void, creating a new reality around them. This area, suspended in a black abyss, seemed to be a strange gameshow arena with four sections branching off from the main stage, where audience seating surrounded a central plinth. Everything seemed to be interconnected by hazardous obstacles, whether rotating bridges, perilous grind rails, sticky slides, or burners.

[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/39jIrqz.jpg[/img][/center]

The three appeared on different sections, and a giant projection of Crenshaw floated behind the stage, read to quietly observe the proceedings. What he planned to watch the Cadets do became clear after only a moment. Others began to manifest across the arena, including [url=https://bogleech.com/vgmonsters/scarlet-poolscummy.png]Scummy Pools[/url], fire-spitting [url=https://bogleech.com/vgmonsters/scarlet-rummykitchen.png]Kitchen Rummies[/url] with bent steel pipes, and rotten-smelling [url=https://bogleech.com/vgmonsters/scarlet-pawssaws.png]Saws Paws[/url] whose blade-tipped legs were actually gloves arms holding knives. These simulated Others started moving the moment they appeared, ready to attack and kill just like the real thing.

“Exterminate all Others,” the voice simply decreed.

Sakura gasped, looking around. [color=f49ac2]”This is amazing!”[/color] She exclaimed. [color=f49ac2]”Peach-san, Razputin-kun…we can fight without any worries! If this wasn’t a test, I could spend a whole year in this place.”[/color] She said. Even as the Others started moving in, she looked at Peach and Raz and squinted. 

[color=f49ac2][i]”Testing, testing, ichi ni san!”[/i][/color] She thought real hard at them, trying to get her new telepathy to work.

“I can hear you!” Peach responded in kind after a moment. She’d made sure to look through the virtual settings that Crenshaw mentioned and enable Protect, just to make sure she kept any unnecessary thoughts to herself. It felt weird to hear someone else’s voice in her head, but communication in this manner was as simple and easy as it could be.

[color=f49ac2][i]”Awesome!”[/i][/color] Sakura said in her thoughts back to Peach. It was like she had headphones on the inside of her ears!

[color=FF8c00][i]”Hey I know this place,”[/i][/color] Raz ‘thought’ to the other two, adjusting his goggles onto his face. It came much more naturally to him, for obvious reasons. [color=FF8c00][i]”’Ram It Down’, it’s a mental world!”[/i][/color] He stopped short of blabbing more details, since that felt a little wrong to be doing. [color=FF8c00][i]”I’ll run point for this one. Now it might be a little weird to be having other peoples’ thoughts in your mind, but there’s an easy way to keep focused, and that’s–”[/i][/color]

[color=f49ac2]”Let’s go!”[/color] Sakura ran forward, looking to get into the action. Wasting no more time she skidded to a sudden stop in front of the nearest Saws Paws. It came at her with its creepy knife arm legs and she back pedaled. [color=f49ac2]”Ew, ew, ew!”[/color] She found her footing and knocked it away with a [url=http://static1.1.sqspcdn.com/static/f/271672/6525675/1271187403110/sakura-standing-medium-kick.jpg?token=eTFzvrHdRcbkvprjrndaFMJqmzY%3D]standing kick. [/url] 

After wards, she pointed at it, and started spamming a perhaps unhelpful waypoint on it. [i]Ping ping ping ping ping ping.[/i]

When the battlefield changed, Peach had readied herself for action. Sudden shifts in her surroundings were nothing new to her thanks to Mario Party and other such kingdom-spanning pastimes, and by now, sudden enemy encounters weren’t either. She took stock of the Kitchen Rummies that staggered stiffly up the orange ramp toward the prep station where she wound up. Remembering how her last confrontation with a whole gang of Rummies went, she brought out her Scatterboom and let loose a fiery blast while her foes were still grouped up. While it staggered them all, it dealt low damage given the distance, and the princess searched for a way to use her environment to her advantage. This prep station featured a giant mechanical pig clad in a white chef’s outfit with a cleaver, but it would be difficult to bait any enemies beneath Pork Chopper’s blade. Instead, she thought of something else. As the Rummies continued to totter up the ramp, she put her own kitchen expertise to good use and used her Materialization to manifest a giant rolling pin. With a grin Peach dropped it on the ramp and watched it roll right over the Rummies, knocking a couple of them off into the abyss.

At that point the princess noticed Sakura’s pings. She must need help! Without pausing to wonder why the better fighter would need her help, Peach moved to assist. “On my way!” she called out, not using Brain Talk. Rather than try to use the rails or navigate the obstacles separating the prep stations, she jumped into the air and floated over the gap. Quickly she realized that her natural float wouldn’t be enough to go the whole way, though. Peach started to finagle her way toward a landing point, but suddenly remembered what Crenshaw said about SAS. “Uhhh,” she muttered, imagining herself reaching out to flip a light switch. “Your power, please!”

A Vision of Sakura suddenly flashed before her eyes, performing a default fist-pump animation. [i]”Here to help”[/i] a slightly distorted version of her voice said, as if spliced together by an artificial intelligence. The ‘light’ switched on, and virtual cables extended from the back of Peach’s head, reaching out through the space to her teammate. Just as Peach’s flight would have been cut short, she held herself up with borrowed Telekinesis, bearing her the rest of the way to land near Sakura.

The princess arrived with a bang, showering the Saws Paws with a scatterboom blast. “We’ll mop ‘em up together!” she smiled.

Sakura grinned. [color=f49ac2]”Hey, it worked!”[/color] She pinged Peach a couple times, and then she pinged the Saws Paws again. She offered a fist for Peach to bump and then got to work.

 Figuring it was too dumb to dodge, she charged up a fireball. [color=f49ac2][i]”Hadoken!”[/i][/color] She unleashed the slow moving projectile it’s way and then followed up behind it. Even if it did move she was fast enough to react. She aimed a powerful swip towards the creepy wrists of the creature to knock it over and maybe even disarm it depending on how strong it was. Disarm? Disleg? Sakura wasn’t sure.

Peach unleashed her projectiles alongside Sakura, materializing an explosive grenaduck to blow apart the pack of bizarre predators apart, opening them up for further punishment from her ally. Once embroiled in close-quarters combat, she unloaded the withering might of her scatterboom at point-blank range to turn one simulated Saws Paws to cinders, then switched over to her parasol. Just like in the endurance test, however, she used not one but two umbrellas in combat, wielding once as a shield and the other as a a beatstick. Their crystalline construction, courtesy of her new power, boosted their durability beyond what they would have been as mere everyday items.

Still, these Others were vicious, putting heavy pressure on her with their ferocious power and agility. In a straight fight their numbers might overwhelm her, but Peach wasn’t about to give them that courtesy when she could fight a lot smarter. Jumping off the platform, she popped open one parasol to float in midair over the training area’s abyss. One Other leaped at her to cut her down, but she thrust her other umbrella forward to jab it right in center mass. After that, just popping her weapon open was enough to bounce it back toward the group. As it staggered to its feet among two other Saws Paws, not sure how it was going to reach her, she took aim with her rocket launcher. “See you on the ‘other’ side!” she quipped, and with a giddy laugh blasted all three monsters off the bridge to their deaths. By that time the sludgy Scummy Pools were getting closer, so Peach floated over to handle the fodder. Hopefully Raz was dealing with the Kitchen Rummies alright.

Peach might not have had much luck in traversing the field on her own, but Raz whizzed around like a mosquito. He skated across the many rails with ease, using the vantage point to pepper the mob of Kitchen Rummies with Psi-Blasts, a series of psychic drivebys that struck a good portion of the Others. Plenty more where they came from, though, and Raz realized that he was doing the thing Crenshaw warned against: going it alone.

He dived off the rails into the audience stands, where a lot of irate Kitchen Rummies had been trying to swipe at him from. [color=FF8c00]”Here goes!”[/color] Before the Rummies could get their vengeance, Raz concentrated hard, and in a tense moment a Vision of Peach popped up beside him. [i]”Here to help,”[/i] it toned, a similar cable reaching out to Raz, like Vision-Sakura had before with the real Princess. 

Raz raised his hands, mimicking the gesture Peach did when she used her psychic power, and a large crystalline replica of her Scatterboom appeared in the air. With it, Raz [i]BLAMMED[/i] the collected Rummies, tearing through near all of them in a single shot. Though not being used to the force, Raz himself was kicked backwards, nearly falling right into the dark abyss if not for a quick use of Mental Connection to pull himself into a thought bubble.

[color=FF8c00][i]”Whoa, that thing’s got a real kick,”[/i][/color] Raz sent out to Peach. Following the Brain Message to its recipient, Raz saw some of the Scummy Pools moving in to take shots at her. [color=FF8c00][i]”Hang on, I’m coming!”[/i][/color] Raz leapt from his floating bubble onto another grindrail, taking it straight to those Scummy Pools closest to Peach. [color=FF8c00]”Hyaaaah!”[/color] A small battle cry as he jumped down, battering them with a solid downward slam with a psi-palm, followed by a backflip (for style) and blasting them even harder with a volley of Blasts.

Sakura tossed a Rummy of the edge and laughed as she saw Raz get cooking. [color=f49ac2]”Awesome, Raz-kun..! Can we really summon Peach-san’s gun?! That’s amazing!”[/color] Sakura blocked a few more projectiles and pushed forward toward Raz. Two more Saws Paws interfered but this time Sakura was prepared. She jumped up, kicked one and staggered it, using the momentum to launch herself fists first into the other one, slamming it onto the ground. She grabbed it, rolled backwards, and flipped it over her head, slamming both the Saws Paws into each other.

[color=f49ac2]”Me next!”[/color] She said, willing a pulse of psychic Raz energy into her palms.

[i]”Here to help”[/i] Creepy AI Raz said with the default animation, immediately repulsing Sakura’s chin into her neck as she cringed. [color=f49ac2]”Oh, what- anyway- Psychic Hadoken”[/color] She yelled, coming up with the attack name as she combined Blast with Hadoken to laws the Saws Paws off the edge. 

She dusted off her hands, satisfied, then surveyed the battlefield. Sakura remained grounded, unlike her floatier teammates. [color=f49ac2]”Can you flyers group up by me or something?”[/color]  She said. [color=f49ac2]”If we were playing Tag, maybe I could be the Base? If that makes any sense.”[/color] 

Raz was already circling around to Sakura’s side, keeping the Others at bay with his continued fire. [color=FF8c00]”Uhhhh… no, no it doesn’t,”[/color] he replied rather bluntly. 

[color=f49ac2]”Oh…”[/color] 
[color=FF8c00]”But sticking together, that I understand!”[/color]

By now, there wasn’t a lot of opposition left. Even if Psych-OSF was unfamiliar territory, fighting was old hat for the three cadets, and with a combination of potent powers both new and old they managed to make mincemeat of this training challenge. In a flurry of psychic rays, martial arts, materialized objects, and good old-fashioned bludgeoning the trio finished off the remaining Rummies and Pools. This environment offered a lot ot stuff that could be used to their advantage, probably in order to teach them to use every possible means at their disposal to combat this supernatural threat, and Peach especially did not hesitate. After what felt like mere moments of nonstop action and excitement, the Others stopped coming. Peach stood, breathing heavily as she looked around the strange arena, and after another few seconds the simulation fell away. Everyone stood in the training room once more, in the exact same spots as before. 

Had that whole thing been in Peach’s head? But it felt so real! Or maybe she’d just been too distracted with the Others to look more closely. Either way, it felt like it went really well, and Crenshaw certainly looked impressed.

“Very good,” he told them. “I’d say you passed with flying colors. You may now consider yourself official members of Psych-OSF. I hope you’ll forgive the lack of induction ceremony, but there isn’t much time. Get yourselves situated in and well-rested in the dorms tonight, I’m sure you’ll be assigned to the operation tomorrow morning. In the mean time, all the rules and regulations are accessible via Psynet, so take some time to bring yourselves up to speed on the do’s and don’t’s. You’ll get your squad assignment tomorrow morning, most likely. That’s all for now.”

[color=f49ac2]”All right! Yes sir, Crenshaw-san!”[/color] 

[color=FF8c00]”Thank you, sir!”[/color] Raz gave Crenshaw a salute before turning to the others. [color=FF8c00]”You guys really knocked it out of the park! If I didn’t know any better–”[/color] He paused, glanced sideways to Crenshaw, then continued in the trio’s personal Brain Speak. [color=FF8c00][i]”If I didn’t know better I’d think you were natural psychics yourselves.”[/i][/color]

Peach smiled. “Aw, thanks. But all it really comes down to is fighting as part of a team, and we’ve done plenty of that.”

Sakura stretched, smirking confidently. She replied in Brainspeak. [color=f49ac2]”Yeah, we’re pretty great.”[/color] 

(anything else more relevant here idk)

A thought occurred to Sakura and she switched the gears of the conversation. [color=f49ac2]”Did you guys see that weird little fake version of ourselves that appeared when we used each other’s power? What was that all about? Weird! I wonder if we could get rid of it or…maybe customize it!”[/color] 

Peach nodded. Since the training was over, and Crenshaw was already going, she began to follow him out at a slow enough pace that the others could follow along easily. “Yeah, I think he said we could. Not that I’ve had much of a chance to try it out yet, but it’s rather incredible all the stuff we can do. Like using those computers we saw in Alcamoth, but anywhere, and without any extra equipment.” Just by holding her hand up and willing it into existence, she could conjure a Vision of a menu where she could access all sorts of information and settings. It was almost intimidating.

[color=FF8c00]”I’ll fiddle around with it later,”[/color] Raz said with a shrug. While being lead out he tried to look for Lili, in case she had stuck around anywhere closeby, but it didn’t seem like it. Something came up? Hopefully nothing too serious… [color=FF8c00]”I don’t know about you guys, but I’m [i]beat[/i].”[/color] He stretched hard, trying to work a few knots out of his joints. Been a while since he worked himself that much. [color=FF8c00]”Shall we go check out those dorms?”[/color]