Silhouette

In a large white room the size of a gymnasium, a lean robot with a camera-like head with a single glowing red eye waited for its opponent to strike. The humanoid machine had thin bar-like limbs, with bulkier parts to act as joints as well to host many of its components within its relatively large chest compared to the rest of its lanky build. Its arms, currently posed to catch the other fighter's attack, ended in large mitten-like hands with three large parts to simulate a thumb and two fingers each. every individual digit traversed by a thin line, a hint to the machine's ability to split them, going from three strong appendages to seven more dexterous ones per hand. Its feet benefited from a similar feature, going from toeless squares to taloned feet not unlike a parrot's, granting the machine a second pair of grasping limbs it could use for fighting or potential acrobatics. The chances it would actually use those abilities now were low, however. Its sparring partner was still a Hero trainee, and a Legion rarely went all out outside of suicide combat. The robots may be stronger than civilians, but they were still mass-produced fodder.

Facing the machine was a short ginger girl in an all-white body suit, with white boots and gloves on her extremities and a white domino mask covering her face. Her blue eyes glared at the robot, analyzing its posture to find the best way to initiate the encounter. She wasn't an expert in martial arts, but the training she had been going through and her own powers should still be enough for her to be victorious. Still, the goal was to take down the Legion as effectively as possible, and Sarah wouldn't let her guard down just because the machine was made to be fodder. In a real-life situation, even a Villain's weakest goon could carry some kind of surprise weapon that could end the fight in one hit. There were also the occasional Villains who hid amongst their minions, disguising themselves to sneak their way through while a body double caught the Union's attention. She had to get used to being as careful as possible now so that it would become a habit for the rest of her career.

A digital bell rang, signaling the beginning of the fight, and both the young woman and the machine moved at once.

Sarah moved to the robot's side and kicked at its waist with her right leg, her limb coming in from the side. The Legion's torso turned while its legs stayed still and caught the attack with one of its hands, only for a glowing fist to hit its head, the strength behind it making the camera-like structure spin a few times. While its head was rotating the robot let go of Sarah's leg and threw an attack of its own, its metal fingers rearranging to form a knife hand - most commonly referred to as a karate chop, not be confused with a literal knife-hand - that struck at the human's neck right below the chin. Sarah made use of her still extended, the limb suddenly glowing with light as she bent and raised it to intercept the robot's attack with her knee. The machine's elbow turned to the side from the force hitting it and its chop landed in the empty air, and it raised its foot to kick away the girl.

Sarah blocked the strike with her arms crossed together and let herself be pushed away, even going so far as to jump back to put even more distance between herself and the Legion. The robot's hand whirred as parts moved inside, and its palm opened to reveal a small nozzle able to fire weak kinetic bursts, not sufficient to injure, but more than enough to disrupt a mage's focus and push back most people. Before it could fire however it was interrupted by a ray of light that impacted against its bulky torso and pushed the machine back until it fell. The ray kept pushing the Legion back even as it lay on the ground, dragging its metal frame on the white floor until the light faded away.

Sarah's breath deepened as she held out her palm, not quite to the point of panting but still in need of a quick pause. The blast of light didn't take much out of her, but maintaining it and putting enough strength into it to push back the machine still pushed the limits of her endurance. She was working on that.

The Legion, fumes emanating off of its chest, shook for a few seconds before its torso suddenly spun and it pushed against the floor with all four of its limbs in a disturbing way, its torso facing the floor while its waist and knees were still pointing at the ceiling. When the robot got back on its feet its body parts spun once more to put it back in a more natural humanoid posture. It took a few steps forward before Sarah punched out at the empty air and a bolt of light flew directly into the mechanical being's red eye. As the energy met the lense of the Legion, its long rectangular head was violently thrown upwards, though it remained connected to its neck. The robot let out a few noises before suddenly falling to its knees in a clank, and the rest of its body collapsed forward.

A second Legion approached Sarah from the side, this one holding a water bottle and a towel.

"Single opponent fighting test ended. Successful takedown by the trainee Firefly with no damage registered in a blank room scenario. Would you care for a refreshment and a quick break before continuing the test?"

Sarah smiled as a third Legion emerged from an opening in the floor that wasn't there before and pushed its fallen comrade into the seemingly bottomless pit.

"Yes, a pause would be nice. How did the others do?"

She took the bottle from the robot's hand and began to drink.

"Succesful takedown with no damage received performed by all members of your class in this scenario so far. You rank fourth in speed, behind Glicer Glitter, Maledicta, and Elaimant."

Fourth out of six. That wasn't great. Not bad, just... Sarah wished she could have done better. She paused in her drinking to quickly wipe at the small amount of sweat that had formed on her brow with the towel the machine was handing her. As she finished and gave it back to the robot, it continued its report.

"Update. All trainees have completed this part of the test. You remain fourth in speed. You rank second in efficiency, behind Scareowl. You rank third in optimal damage dealt for a non-lethal yet still effective takedown, behind Elaimant and Kopper Kid. You and Scareowl tie in the second rank in overall performance, behind Elaimant, followed by Glicer Glitter, Kopper Kid, and Maledicta."

She couldn't hold back the grin that formed on her lips hearing that. Oh, she was happy that she did so well on the test so far, but she was even happier knowing that jerk of a drow who thought herself better than everyone else was dead last. Though she wasn't there to see what happened, given the rankings, Sarah could easily guess Maledicta had used some kind of mortal curse to get rid of her Legion, and that wasn't a very Hero-like thing to do. Hopefully, the girl would fail her overall test and be kicked out of the Hero Union's trainee program. It wasn't usually like Sarah to want bad things to happen to others, but the drow was so rude and needlessly mean, the ginger still wondered why Maledicta chose to get into the program in the first place. As shy as Kopper was and as overly eager as Glicer was with her slight pyromaniac tendencies, the two still clearly showed a desire to help others, a drive to do the right thing. The drow had none of that.

"As all trainees have finished defeating a single opponent in a neutral environment, you may now choose between continuing solo tests, or begin group combat. Should you be the only one willing to begin group testing now, you will be informed so and continue solo battles instead."

Sarah pondered the offer, endurance management was part of the test, after all, you never know how many times you might be needed on the field every day. On the one hand, it would be more efficient to continue alone until she's exhausted, and then form a group so that her teammates pick up the slack. On the other hand, if the others had a similar strategy, they'd end up all weak and facing multiple opponents in battle-ready conditions and able to coordinate perfectly. Yeah, given Scareowl's and Elaimant's pragmatic nature, they'd likely come up with a similar plan, which would only leave Kopper, Glicer, and Maledicta, and none of those sounded nice to rely on. Kopper and Glicer were nice, but the boy was limited to physical feats and the girl was too chaotic for successful teamwork. As for Maledicta... Yeah, no need to explain that one further.

"I'll be joining the next group test, please."

"Your request has been noted. Please follow the red line to head to your next test."

As the Legion spoke, a red circle formed under Sarah's feet before a line began to emerge from it and turned into the closest wall, where the smooth white surface suddenly split into two triangles where the line touched it. Both of the figures turned clockwise until they stood opposite of their original position, and their absence formed a square hole that acted as a large doorway, open enough to allow for some of the larger members of the Union both in height and width to go through.

Sarah did as she was told and walked forward, following the path traced for her, until she found herself in a slightly larger room than the one she had been fighting in previously. She had expected another one or two of her classmates to be here, but instead, all of them arrived at the same time from similar openings in the walls.

The most eye-catching member of the group had to be Elaimant. Sarah still didn't know what the towering humanoid creature was exactly, perhaps some kind of golem, but they had shared a bit about their powers during their study sessions. In truth, Elaimant wasn't the massive bulky and bulging mass covered by the large white bodysuit and almost twice as tall as her, but instead, only the small green floating hollow crystalline pyramid in a rainbow bubble floating above and acting as their head. They passively emitted what could be best described as white noise as they slowly spun in their protective orb, they had likened the act to breathing. It wasn't easy to guess what they were thinking, given the lack of facial features and that the closest thing to body language they had was in truth them purposefully manipulating the metal scraps they kept in their suit to mimic people, but given their pragmatic personality Sarah wouldn't be surprised if they had already guessed why they were all here.

The second least humanoid member of the team was Scareowl, and as his alias implied the young man was an avian person. Given the fluff of his wings, it was very likely he looked much closer to an animal than a person without tight clothes like the default white trainee body suit, but she had never seen him wearing anything else so far. His exposed feet were the talons of a predatory bird. Most of his feathers were dark brown aside from the fluff on his chest that peeked through his collar and from what she could see that wasn't covered by a white domino mask his face was likely a similar color. His mask had been modified to make space for his large beautiful eyes. His wings were currently hugging his sides, his way of keeping them closed without covering himself, and though they weren't visible now Sarah knew for a fact there were small dexterous claws hidden in the feathers of his wrists, letting him manipulate things with more ease than you'd expect for wings for arms. He also had a short feathery tail, though it was usually hidden behind his legs and wings.

The next most attention-grabbing of the classmates had to be Glicer Glitter. A short Caucasian girl, shorter than Sarah herself, with fire powers and a glitter obsession. With her spiky crimson-red hair and orange eyes, it was hard to miss her, especially not with all of her wide gestures and skipping. It felt like the girl couldn't stay still for more than five seconds otherwise she would explode in a show of fire and glitter. She had so much of the sparkly thing that there was some attached to her freckled face, her hair, and even the suit specifically designed to avoid this kind of situation at all times. The fact she had managed to overcome the capabilities of suits made to avoid spores and explosive dust with arts and crafts materials had to be a record. As always she had a smile on her face and a bounce in her steps, and she seemed overjoyed to see everyone else was there.

In contrast to Glicer, Kopper Kid felt like her exact opposite. The tall black boy with short hair and hazel eyes was shy and much calmer than the fiery girl, where she liked to be the center of attention he preferred to stick to the background. Despite his seemingly scrawny build his power was purely physical, with impressive strength and constitution - though his stamina was still lacking. He looked as confused as Sarah to see everyone else here, but he didn't have the time to let his mind examine the situation much longer before Glicer jumped next to him and dragged him forward to go meet the Legion in the center of the room, speeding up his admittedly slow walk.

The last member of their trainee group, aside from Sarah herself, was sadly the annoying teen drow - or the equivalent of a teen, given the rate at which all eleven races aged tended to be slower than many others, even among long-lived species. Maledicta's annoyingly beautiful long ebony framed her slender purple face, and Sarah wasn't surprised to see that even in a serious test like this the girl was chewing on bubblegum. Her sparkly pink eyes were as dismissive of everyone around her as usual, and she dragged her feet on the ground as she went to meet the central Legion, her tall and incredibly thin body moving in odd ways that accentuated the bones beneath. If Sarah hadn't seen the girl eat a few burgers during class despite food being forbidden, she would have thought the drow had anorexia.

Although Sarah was tempted to chat with the others and check on how they were doing and how they were feeling about the tests, those were still ongoing and they had to keep working. She fastened her pace to reach the Legion in time with everyone else, and they naturally formed a small group, only with Maledicta putting some distance between herself and the others. The robot stared at them with its singular red eye before addressing them.

"Congratulations to you all for successfully completing the first part of the test. You have proven your ability to strike down a single opponent in a neutral environment. Five of you were willing to proceed with group testing, with the last one having mandatory participation."

All five of the classmates turned to look at Maledicta, who just ignored them all.

"You will now fight against a larger group as a unit yourself. Under normal circumstances, you would be fighting larger and larger groups of increasingly stronger opponents in more and more complex environments in a series of battles with breaks in between, but a new 'endless mode' program is currently being tested. You are free to refuse to participate in this new program and proceed with the usual evaluation instead."

Scareowl raised a wing and the robot nodded.

"What does 'endless mode' entail, exactly?"

"Instead of each battle being a single confrontation, you will stay in this room, enemies will keep appearing and the room will change to simulate different environments and situations without pause. The test will continue until your group as a whole is defeated or yields, at which point you will be rated on how you performed and how long you managed to keep going."

Glicer picked up from there.

"So... Instead of doing a bunch of different fights one by one, we do them all at once."

Elaimant chimed in.

"Correction: It appears they do not occur all at once, but rather immediately one after the other. Observation: This would remove the benefit of breaks to recuperate our energies, but also improve our overall speed."

Kopper rubbed at his chin nervously.

"I mean, is it worth it? Just finishing faster doesn't seem that great."

Sarah had to agree with the dark boy on that one, but before she express her thoughts the Legion spoke out.

"This experimental method's increased difficulty will be taken into account for the scoring."

Maledicta huffed.

"Come on, let's do this thing. The faster I don't have to see you guys the better."

As annoyed as they were with her attitude Scareowl, Elaimant, and Glicer were all for going into this "endless mode". Four against two, Sarah could acknowledge that the group's mind had been made. At the very least she cheered Kopper up when she saw how dejected he was at that, placing a hand on his shoulders and mouthing a little "me too" to let him know he wasn't alone. It did appear to make him feel better, given he now had a small smile on his face.

The Legion clapped its hands in a clanking cacophony and gathered the group's attention.

"You have decided to proceed with undergoing our new experimental 'endless mod'. Thank you for your participation, please do remember to provide us with feedback related to this evaluation method. You now have one minute to prepare yourselves for the first wave of opponents. A new wave will be released every five minutes, at which point the room will change and adapt to a new environment or situational hazard. Last as long as possible. Good luck, trainees."

When it finished speaking, the red glow in the Legion's eye disappeared and the machine slumped forward. Sarah exchanged a look with the others, and they quickly joined up, ready to talk about what they could do together to last as long as possible. Even Maledicta, though she rolled her eyes, came closer to at the very least hear what the others had to say.

Together, they would shine!