Shadow let out a sigh of relief and leaned back on his hands as Emperion wandered over.
"So how did this test go for you?" Emperion started. Shadow let out a big sigh.
"It went alright. After saving Aurora, I spent half my energy trying to convince Eclipse to help me save this guy." Shadow casually pointed at the man from the lake. "What about you?"
"M-Me?" Emperion stiffened and glanced around nervously. "I was… busy! Saving lots of people… and that stuff…" There was a small pause between them. "A-Anyways, you look like you got pretty wet. Want me to dry you off?"
"Sure." Emperion snapped and Shadow set on fire, startling Eclipse. Shadow quickly healed himself.
"Thanks." Shadow smiled up at Emperion.
"Sure thing." Emperion reached out a hand to Shadow. Shadow grabbed it and Emperion pulled him onto his feet. Eclipse watched them in confusion but didn't say anything. "The ginger woman told me you rescued her, so why are you hanging out with this guy?"
"I saved the woman, then helped save the man." he explained.
"Didn't we only need to save one person?"
"Yeah. But Eclipse seemed to be doing such a poor job I had to butt in." Shadow snickered. Eclipse glared at him sharply.
"For your information, I was not-." He was interrupted when the wall suddenly opened up and Silver and Scaldris stepped into the rescue area.
"So what do you think of these newbies?" Scaldris roared. Each volunteer stood up and walked towards the pair. Even the ones that looked like they wouldn't be able to stand up walked over.
"They did good." Aurora spoke first. Each volunteer took turns praising their saviors, without stating specific names. Silver smiled with pride and Scaldris nodded as they listened. Once they finished, Silver stepped forward.
"Next up is the one on one matches. It'll take place in a few hours but before you start, you will get to meet the squad captains. You will each get a turn to pick which captain you want to fight." His eyes shifted over to look at Shadow, wondering how he felt about the announcement. Shadow looked back with anticipation.
"Go rest up in the break room and prepare for your matches. We'll call you once we're ready." Scaldris ordered before turning away and walking back through the door with the volunteers. Shadow yawned and stretched before taking off towards the break room on the opposite side of the room. Once he stepped into the break room, he yawned again, laid down on one of the benches and fell asleep immediately. Emperion entered the room soon after. When he noticed Shadow on the bench, he smiled and sighed before finding his own place to sit down. When Eclipse walked in, he spotted Shadow on the bench, out cold. He glared at Shadow and shook him awake. Shadow reluctantly opened an eye and looked up.
"What are you doing? You are supposed to be preparing for your one v' one?" he growled.
"Since when?" Shadow mumbled, rubbing his eyes.
"Silver and Scaldris told us too. I advise that you take this seriously, or you wont end up passing." He narrowed his eyes. "Unless you think this is a joke?" Shadow yawned.
"I'm going up against a skilled squad captain. They have way more experience and skill than I do, so if you think there's any way I can suddenly get strong enough to beat one, by all means, spill the beans." Eclipse opened his mouth to counter when he realized he had nothing to say. Shadow watched him for a moment before turning over. "If you have nothing important left to say, leave me to dream." Eclipse gritted his teeth and walked away.
"Trying to reason with him like that is pointless." Emperion called over. "It's hard to shake a guy like him. He's this calm, carefree idiot one moment, then this psycho fighting machine the next." he smiled, as if amazed by his own statement. Eclipse just gave him a huff before finding a spot to sit.
After half an hour passed, Shadow sat up and rubbed his eyes. He looked around. Some people were stretching, some idly chatting, some eagerly waiting. Emperion looked as laid back as ever. Eclipse looked tense, twiddling his thumbs in anticipation. Shadow yawned and stood up. He began stretching, to prepare himself.
"Look who's awake." It was Eclipse. He had this intense stare about him.
"You make it sound like you have some kind of grudge against me. Should I expect you to suddenly leap up and tackle me or something?" Shadow's tone got cautious and he playfully took up a defensive stance.
"No, of course not." He sounded irritated, and it showed on his face. It was easy to tell how hard he was straining himself. Shadow took a teasingly cautious step back. "Where're ya going? I still gotta talk to ya!"
"What's with the sudden accent?" Shadow stood up straight and looked at Eclipse with a confused expression. "Just relax and wait patiently."
"How can I relax? We have a big fight ahead of us. I don't understand how you can just waste half an hour sleeping and act like nothing is wrong."
"Is there anything you can say that isn't criticizing my every move? It's 'how can you' this and 'how can you' that. Get off my back, man, you're not my mom."
"I wouldn't criticize you so much if you didn't do so much concerning stuff!"
"Well I'm sorry that not every stranger you meet lives up to your expectations." Eclipse opened his mouth to reject, but closed it again. "Besides, waiting for hours on end is so boring. I'd rather sleep through it and be unprepared than be bored the whole time."
"Where's the logic in that? How stupid are you?"
"First of all, that's my line. Second of all, how many times are you going to say 'how'? It's getting old. We don't even know what we are preparing for."
"Silver said we would be fighting the squad captains, isn't that enough information for you to prepare?" Shadow put his hands together in front of his mouth and breathed in deeply before letting out a long sigh. He then pointed his hands at Eclipse.
"Let me explain the whole situation to you. In an unspecified amount of time, we will be forced into a one on one fight with unknown rules, time limit or winning conditions. Additionally, we will be fighting an opponent we know nothing about. Not their strengths, not their weaknesses, not their specialities, not their fighting style, not even their favorite food or whether or not they prefer cats over dogs. For all we know, they could've been stalking us for the past two months, not to mention that we don't even know where we'll be fighting. We have to go into battle assuming they know all our trump cards and habits. And all we do know is that, of the strangers we see, we will decide who we want to fight and we have a few hours to prepare ourselves before we choose. Can't you see what a disadvantageous situation we are in? Staying well rested, energized and in high hopes is all we can do to prepare under these circumstances." Shadow explained. Eclipse was at a loss for words. Seeing that he was thoroughly stumped, Shadow strolled past him and over to where Emperion was sitting criss cross on the floor. "Hey Emperion, do you want to play a game?"
"What kind of game?"
"Let's play Word Chain. If you can't say a word in thirty seconds or get a word wrong, you have to do ten push ups." he snickered.
"What? That's ridiculously low. How about twenty push ups?"
"That's too many. We would hardly play in between all the push ups you would be doing." Eclipse watched them bicker for a moment before a small smile crossed his face. He then shook himself and his smile vanished. He stood up and walked over to Shadow.
"Mind if I join your little game?" Shadow shook his head eagerly and Emperion just huffed.
"It's Word Chain! Miss a word or get it wrong and you have to do fifteen push ups!" Shadow explained.
"Fifteen? But I said twenty!" Emperion argued.
"Well I'm trying to compromise here so just roll with it."
"How about a hundred?" Eclipse suggested.
"If we do that, we won't be able to actually play the game." Shadow frowned.
"Not if we play and do push ups." Eclipse smiled mischievously.
"A hundred is too much! And if you're trying to look smart, stop it. You look like an idiot."
"What! I am not an idiot!"
"I didn't say you were, I just said you looked like one!"
"Well, I don't look like one either!"
"Stop yelling, you're attracting unwanted attention." Emperion whispered. Shadow and Eclipse looked around the room. Everyone was watching them. Shadow turned back to Emperion with a mischievous smile. "What's with that look?"
"Is somebody being shy?"
"Shut up! I'm not shy, you are!"
"Such an obvious lie." Shadow shrugged and shook his head. He had a smug look on his face. Emperion's face started to turn red as Shadow rattled on. Angry, Emperion grabbed the collar of Shadow's shirt and brought their faces close to each other.
"You just shut your mouth!"
"Your face looks as red as my eye!" Shadow burst out laughing.
"Your eye? You mean your left one?" Eclipse asked, confused. Shadow looked at Eclipse, ignoring Emperion's grip on his shirt.
"Yup! It's really a wonder. Did you know that my right eye would turn black when all my wings are out?"
"I'd like to see that." Eclipse leaned closer, curious.
"Sorry. It was basically cut in half so I'd rather not open it up again." Eclipse studied his face intently. Shadow stared back blankly. "Also, my wings are mismatched in color. My left wing is red and my right wing is black. You can't tell right now, though, because I lost my first right wing, but it was black while I still had it!"
"Losing a wing isn't something to sound proud of." Eclipse turned away and slumped over, putting his hands in his criss crossed legs. "How did you lose your wing anyway?"
"First of all, that's personal. Second of all, it's a bit of a story but I can tell you the short version if you'd like."
"Damn it, don't ignore me." Emperion growled, shaking Shadow. Shadow suddenly slapped Emperion, shocking him enough to let go of his collar. Eclipse's jaw dropped but Shadow seemed unfazed. "I can give you a rundown of what happened but I won't mention any names."
"Ok?" Shadow turned to fully face Eclipse.
"I was visiting an out of town friend, friend one, about a month and a half ago with two other friends, friend two and three, and while at friend one's house, I got to meet another friend, friend four. Well, the last time I saw friend four, they had just learned I was a demon and they don't like demons very much, so they pointed a gun at friend one and two, who were sitting close together, and forced me to wear magic-sealing clamps on my wings. Where friend four got those, I don't know. After that, friend three attacked friend four while I tried to take off the clamps when friend four tried to shoot at me. The bullet scratched my neck and hit the wall behind me... ," he pointed at the scar on his neck. "...and with three clamps still on, I cast a smoke screen. After that, I grabbed friend two and three and tried to teleport us out of there but the remaining three clamps delayed my spell, leaving enough time for friend four to attack me with a sharp object, probably a knife. Because of the smoke, I couldn't dodge or defend from the attack so it cut across my nose, sliced my eye and nicked the top of my ear." he traced the scar on his face. "After that, I was able to teleport friends one through three and me back to my house where another friend, friend five, was waiting. Friend five treated me and told me to rest but I ignored him and tried to climb the mountain. But just as I was about to reach the top, I slipped and tumbled part way down the mountain before friend five stopped me and took me back to my house." Shadow had an excited expression on his face the whole time he was telling Eclipse his story. Eclipse was listening closely. Emperion had calmed himself down enough to listen as well.
"Ok, I didn't need to hear the part about the mountain but I think I get the jist of it." Eclipse put on a thinking face. "Basically an old friend who hates you tried to kill you but couldn't."
"Pretty much." Shadow agreed. "Next time I see him, he'll have to see a doctor once I'm finished with him." He clenched his fist.
"Gotta get back at him for ruining your eye." Eclipse nodded in understanding.
"What? He threatened to kill friends one and two! I'd say that's more than enough reason to get revenge!" Shadow growled. Eclipse was taken aback. The surprise showed on his face.
"You're a kind person. I can tell that much." Shadow's expression lightened and he nodded cheerfully. "I… have a question." Shadow looked at Eclipse. "Have we met somewhere before?"