Lilith was already waiting at the entrance of the training center when Soraya and Damon appeared with Jax slung between them, his limp arms around the back of their necks.
"I was wondering who would fall first," said Lilith, giggling at the sight. "Looks like you have a stronger will than I thought, Captain!"
"He got us here in one piece, that's all that matters," says Damon stopping in front of her.
She giggled again before stepping in front of Jax and studied him. "Hm, he's really out today." she says. "Since you've come this far with him I'll show you my super-secret Jax wake-up technique."
Lilith stepped back and took on a wide stance. She pulled her right arm back with her palm as flat as a board and made a wind-up charging hum. "HaaaaaAAAHHHH-"
Right when she flung her arm forward, Jax lifted a grumpy head and gave her a menacing glare. It stops Lilith's hand just before making contact with his cheek. "Aww, I was sure you were out enough to get a hit in today."
Jax mumbled something as he loosened himself from Damon and Soraya. Lilith responded, "It hasn't been that long."
"Now that we're all here... well, most of us are here... let's start our first training session."
"Please tell me we're training in the VR training room!" said Lilith, skidding to a stop in front of the nearest VR room door.
"It's the best way to evaluate everyone's skills," said Damon.
Jax mumbled under his breath and Lilith responded, "I was only banned from individual entry. I can still participate in team simulations."
Damon raised an eyebrow. "You're the CS who was banned from the VR facility?" Now that he thinks about it, it wasn't all that surprising. "What did you do?"
Lilith groaned and scratched the back of her head, "Err... It's a long story, but as long as I'm with a team member I can still participate in the simulation." She suddenly brightens again. "So what's the simulation?! Battle royale?! Team deathmatch?! Oh, payload is my favorite!"
Damon placed his hand on the door and a green light glowed before sliding open. The large, dark-grey colored room could easily fit the five of them… if there were five of them. Inside was virtually empty aside from the gear in the middle of five evenly spaced circles on the floor.
"This is just a simple practice simulation. Let's get into the sim before I explain the mission." said Damon.
Lilith didn't need to be told twice as she jumped to the nearest launch pad and began throwing on the VR gear with obvious repetitive efficiency.
Damon was surprised that Jax had also made his way to a launch pad and was slowly putting on his gear. He was sure that he'd have to coax him into participating.
"C-Captain..." Soraya said in almost a whimper. There's no way Damon would've heard her if it hadn't been completely silent as they were putting on the VR gear.
Damon turned to Soraya, almost forgetting she was with them. "Yeah?" he asked, noticing she hadn't even started to attach the sensors around her limbs yet.
"I-I um..." she hesitated bashfully on her multidirectional launch pad. "I've only participated in a VR session once before..." she finally confessed.
"Oh..." said Damon, remembering Soraya's poor performance results on her intel holodisk. "Well, do you remember how to put the gear on?"
"Y-yes."
Damon smiled warmly, "Just do the best you can. I'm not giving you a grade or anything so there's nothing to worry about."
Her shoulders relaxed along with her tense, worried face. He gave her another small smirk and she began to put the gear on along with the others.
Good, at least she's calm enough to put on the gear. Soraya, you may be the only one I can work with. Show me what you can do!
As soon as Damon linked into the virtual reality simulation, he found Lilith and Jax testing the integrity of the motion sensors in the virtual world.
"I've never seen this map before," said Lilith now scouting the rural grassy area.
"I made it last night," said Damon adjusting the light Kevlar armor around his chest. The only thing that spawned with them inside the sim, was the light armor. "Once Soraya gets here, I'll explain the objective."
Right on cue, Soraya's virtual avatar appeared next to them and she staggered to the ground.
"Alright, now that we're all here I'll explain our goal." said Damon. He waved his hand out in front of him to reveal a holographic panel that would enable him to modify the program as he sees fit. In a few swift motions he activated the objective of the program.
Suddenly, chunks of land disappeared and high mud trenches take its place. Everyone watched as a multitude of robotic combatants fell from the blue sky with loud, thudding booms.
Lilith could hardly contain her excitement as she jumped up and down to peer over the trench and hopefully catch a glimpse of their enemy.
"The main objective of this training program is to make it to the other side-"
"Get to the other side? That's easy!" said Lilith before quickly jumping over the trench wall.
"Wait! Lilith!" Damon shouted after her, but it was useless. Lilith was already long gone and soon after a barrage of gunfire sprayed over their heads in a colorful light show.
Next to him, Soraya squealed at the sudden firefight now surrounding them and took off in a panic down a random path.
"Soraya!" Damon reached for her but she just eluded his grasp. He glanced back and ordered, "Jax! Stay here I'll be right back!" He didn't wait for a response before he took off after Soraya down the trench pathway.
He followed the winding path, hoping he wasn't too far from her but the further he went, the more he's sure he lost her. Soon the path forked and all hope of finding her vanished.
Overhead, the heavy gunfire and barrage of cannon fire told him that Lilith must be nearby.
I'll get back to Jax first and we can both find Soraya then rescue Lilith.
He followed the path back and stopped where he knows he left Jax, but he's nowhere in sight.
Are you kidding me?!
The deafening gunfire has moved closer to him, along with a maniacal laughter and excited feminine voice. He peeked over the trench where Lilith was ripping through the army of bots with ease.
Wha-? I thought Lilith had no combat experience?
He watched as she easily disengaged a bot's rifle and takes out five bots before using the rifle as a bat and continuing to engage with the growing bot army. Suddenly, all the bots and firepower were focused on Lilith as she dodged, weaved, and countered the bots. Even though these are low-level bots, it's no easy feat to hold your own against the map's entire bot army.
There was only two things that bothered Damon as he studied her from a safe distance. Not only did Lilith take off on her own, she was completely ignoring the objective and made taking out the bots her priority.
"Hey! Lilith!" Damon shouts, hoping she's at least keeping an ear open. "LILITH!"
She takes a moment to glance back before blocking an attack and answering, "WHAT? CAPTAIN?"
"ARE YOU EVEN CONSIDERING THE OBJECTIVE OF THIS TRAINING SESSION?"
"OH..." She hesitated. "YEAH... OF COURSE, CAPTAIN!"
She totally forgot.
"ONCE I BEAT THE BOT DESTRUCTION RECORD!"
"SERIOUSLY?"
Then Lilith took off further away from him with an excited battle cry.
Damon sighed.
Result of first training session:
Lilith: AWOL
Soraya: MIA
JAX: MIA
Disel: DESERTION
Damon took off his VR helmet and takes in the sight of the others. He found Soraya in the fetal position on the corner on her launch pad, trembling. Jax was lounging on his launch pad with his hands behind his head, most likely sleeping. And Lilith was battling invisible advisories and laughing crazily to herself.
This training session is over.
He pushed the emergency deactivate button on his helmet and watched as the others are suddenly brought back to reality.
Lilith was the first to react.
"WHAT?!" she yelled before tearing off her helmet. "I WAS SO CLOSE TO BEATING THE RECORD!"
"That wasn't the point of this training session," said Damon, taking off the VR sensors clipped to his shirt.
"If I took out the entire bot army we could've had a picnic before walking over to the other side!"
"Taking out the bot army wasn't the objective. We were supposed to cross together."
"Everyone was safe! We could've-"
Damon cuts her off, "AS A TEAM! DO YOU EVEN KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS?"
Everyone was taken aback as the Captain of Team Fail quickly recovers from his little snap of anger.
"Alright, I'll make you a deal," he said, back in his calm, neutral voice. "If you can get a hit against me, I'll give you another chance to beat the bot record."
Lilith perked up, "Oh? You're challenging me?" she said with a sly smile.
"Meet me in the sparring room in five minutes."
Although he only expected Lilith to appear, Jax and Soraya had also made their way into the sparring room where Damon stood waiting patiently.
"So, you decided to show up..." said Lilith as she made her way to the center of the sparring mat.
Damon sighed, too annoyed to retort.
"Are you really prepared to take on the Gaming Goddess of ___?" she added, taking on a defensive stance.
Her form looked sharp and sturdy as she did in the VR and he can tell that she's actually taking him seriously.
Hmm... I might have to put some effort into this, but it might be worthwhile.
"Who do you think holds the bot record in that program?" Damon provoked, taking his own fighting stance.
Lilith lit up. "Ha! Now I'll hold two records over you, Captain."
Damon smiled.
Show me what you can do so we can win this tournament and I can finally get the out of this dump.
Lilith eyed him a moment longer and everyone watched in silence. She made the first move, screaming at the top of her lungs and charged at Damon with her fists above her head. His adrenaline is higher than usual as he was expecting the same high-level skill he witnessed in the VR so he doesn't think twice when he counters her childish attack and tosses her hard, flat on her back.
She doesn't move. When it's realized that she had completely lost, Soraya runs over to her on the mat.
"Training is over," says the Captain of Team fail walking out of the sparring room without a second glance.