The Second Day

Lucaria clapped her hands together.

"WELL DONE TO ALL OF YOU, FOR MAKING IT THROUGH THE INITIAL TRAINING! Take a five minute break to collect your thoughts before we begin our next segment."

There was a pause, before everyone apart Yue threw up all over the floor, and blanked out, before for even her, everything became black and sound and light faded away.

Lucaria looked at Natasha and shrugged, saying, "Guess we'll have to stretch that to an hour."

"I'm just surprised you didn't show them your 'Fist of Retribution' that you enjoy using so much," Hirokoshi laughed as he yawned.

Lucaria blushed and scratched her cheek.

"It's only the first day."

Yue opened her eyes to a familiar sight. She sighed, before slowly turning to the right, to find a face that made her shiver. Havoc sat comfortably in a chair, a young girl in his lap, reading a large book, pages turning at a telekinetic will.

"Hello Yue. Say Hi Uri!"

The young girl waved meekly, before focusing her eyes back on the book.

"Oh look, your name's rhyme! Isn't that interesting. But surely not as interesting as this book, so let's carry on."

Yue was going to verbally question if Havoc was legally allowed to have any sort of interactions with children, especially when he became angry, but she kept that question to herself.

For her own survival.

Yue stood up from her bed, stretched left and right, and looked around her. Apart from her, Gao and Vadik were still in bed, while the rest were vacated. Looking at Gao, she noticed a slight shiver, his face distraught.

"That night's experience must still be clinging to his consciousness. It doesn't seem to be improving at all. Damn."

She turned to leave the room.

"B-bye Y-yue" The young girl whispered.

She half turned and revealed a wide grin, before waving as she left.

A few hours later.

"Well, after you guys all clonked out after the first day, we're gonna have to increase the intensity here to make up for it. Don't you all agree?"

"Yeah!!!!"

"I said, don't you all agree?"

A scream of enthusiastic despair bounced around the building.

"Mr Havoc, what's that sound?"

"The sound of a lot of fun."

"Now, the agenda today consists of three things. Pain endurance, Pain endurance and Pain endurance. Both your mental and your physical endurance will reach new heights! And, only then, will you be able to reach the next stage. Te-le-por-tation. Now, how are we gonna train all of you? 4 words, fight, fight, fight, fight."

Lucaria's smile widened more and more every time the word fight was repeated. Her eyes glinted red, as she clicked her fingers, and a large, black and barred cage dropped down from above all of them. Immediately, they all jumped in different directions, rolling and jumping to get out of its wake. It hit the floor, with a tremendous clang, to the great enjoyment of Lucaria, the general disgruntlement of Greta(who was fiddling with a new 'toy' in the corner) and the agony of the 8 it nearly dropped on.

"Unavoidable encounter, Cage of Despair!"

At that moment, all of the trainees shared a singular thought.

"She could have made a better actor."

Lucaria rushed at Vadik, but as Vadik lifted his hands to block an attack, Lucaria disappeared from her place and appeared right at his side, and side kicked him against the cage.

"Oh. I forgot to open it."

Vadik' outcry made Yue shiver. She threw her dagger at Lucaria, and jumped in Lucaria's direction, blade coming for a diagonally downwards strike. She moved in tandem with her dagger, a few metres behind, but the dagger was immediately pushed away, and just as she began to bring her blade downwards, Lucaria growled, and the blade dropped from her hand. Lucaria immediately turned and axe kicked her face first into the ground.

"What a great idea, but kinda rude for you to try and interrupt your friend's entrance into the cage."

The cage door swung open, producing another clang that rang throughout the room. Lucaria appeared next to Vadik, grabbed him, and while shouting a "Heave ho!" - which devastated the hearing of those in its range - threw him straight into the cage.

"1 down, seven to go. How long can you last?" She sang in a horrible sing song voice. Just after the intense raucous, the doors of the training room shut, and a padding appeared on the walls.

"Great, so now we're trapped in here with her voice," Astrid muttered.

Lucaria's turned to her, revealing an upbeat smile that hid a ferocious anger.

"You shouldn't have said that."

She smashed her fists together, and gauntlets appeared on each of them.

"But I'll give you this one hope for your souls. A game if you will. You have 2 minutes to touch Vadik's hand through the cage bars. If you do, I'll reduce the beating to something less than death itself. You have 30 seconds preparation. Begin."

Yue looked at Roshi. He nodded back.

"Gao, you'll be the runner. Haru, you'll support him while doing so. When you see a card, jump. Himari, you're gonna have to use your long blade to keep her away, even if just for a moment. Astrid, whenever Roshi throws a card, it's your job to make sure it gets to the right position for Gao and Haru to benefit from it. Neji, have fun, you're gonna have to get right up in her face."

Neji sighed and shrugged his shoulders, before grabbing his hammer from the room's far corner.

He quickly grabbed a cube from his pocket, and the cube began to ring.

"Go for it."

Neji nodded. Energy flooded into his hammer.

"Keep me alive, Huo he Shandian."

"3-2-1, Commence."

A metallic sphere appeared above the cage, and soon fell at a rapid pace, producing a horrendous sound that pierced through the padding of the walls, and rocketed to Uri's ears.

"Is that the sound of fun as well?" Uri asked.

Havoc could only smile back at her.