The next day, Lauren finds her schedule completely changed on her pager. The classes go from simple things like "Intro to Combat" to the slightly more intimidating "Advanced Melee and Weapon Control". Sure, that makes her a little nervous, but Ally promises she'll be fine.
Lauren wakes up to the sound of Camila in the shower. The younger girl wakes up a full half hour before she does so she can avoid any contact, which bothers Lauren just the slightest. But as long as she's not shooting fireballs at Lauren's head, then Lauren considers that a small victory.
"It's so cold all the damn time," Camila hisses quietly, stepping out of the bathroom with a rush of steam emerging behind her. Her body is shaking like a little Chihuahua despite her thick jacket, trying to create some source of energy or friction to try and warm herself up. Lauren watches the vapor come off her hair curiously as she does the entire supernatural hair-drying thing.
"That's funny considering you're pretty much a giant space heater," Lauren chuckles, sitting up with a yawn in her bed and leaning her head up on the wall behind her. "Just like, use your white blood cells to warm yourself up or whatever."
"Easier said than done," Camila replies, rolling her eyes as she heads over to the small kitchen area by their door. She finds a bowl and a new box of cereal and plucks the milk from their mini fridge. "Don't you think I've tried that before? Apparently, I like to be very warm, because some of my clothes haven't been able to handle it."
Lauren fights desperately to avoid the thought of Camila's clothes spontaneously combusting and tries to make light of the conversation immediately.
"That's hot," she jokes, wiggling her eyebrows at her roommate.
Camila turns to search for a spoon, and Lauren swears she can see the faintest hint of a smile tugging at her lips as she does so. She takes it as the second small victory of the day, which in turn makes her very satisfied. Camila searches for the utensil in one of the mini-kitchen drawers, turning her back on Lauren. "Shut up."
Lauren throws her legs over the side of the bed and wills herself up, her stiff muscles angrily protesting as the stretches them out. "So Buttercup, I think we should establish some ground rules. You know, just to avoid any episodes like yesterday's."
Camila pulls a banana off of the counter and uses the spoon to scoop slices into her cereal. A small flush of redness stains her neck and cheeks, much to Lauren's entertainment, as she gets the hint of what the older girl is referring to. "I think knocking is crucial. Either when you're coming into the room or going out of the bathroom. Knock and wait for a response."
"Anything in the kitchen is fair game unless labelled otherwise. Speaking of which, how do we get more food in here? The amount of food I can actually eat is getting concerningly low," Lauren asks, heading over to her dresser to pull out her clothes for the day. She steps into the bathroom but keeps the door wide open as she changes to hear Camila.
"There's the student store, or we can go on the weekend to the main city and find a real grocery store," the younger girl explains, the shivers returning violently.
Lauren wants to just leave the girl in her misery, but something inside her makes her just incapable of leaving her to suffer like that. As she begins to brush her teeth, she focuses on the moisture in the air left from Camila's shower and slowly wills it to warm up around the smaller girl. "We're allowed to leave campus?"
"Only the older kids, AKA the Epsilon and Delta dorms," Camila replies with a mouthful of cereal, before her voice softens a bit. She lets out a content sigh and cranes her neck up, basking in the enjoyable newfound warmth surrounding her. "Everyone else is required to stay on school grounds 24/7."
"Aren't they afraid the students will never come back?" Lauren questions.
"They can track you with your pager," her roommate shrugs, shoveling another spoonful into her mouth. "And plus, where else is there to go?"
Lauren spits in the sink and rinses her mouth off. "Where exactly are we?"
"In the middle of the woods, a 25 minute drive out of Seattle," Camila answers, the facts coming easily to her. "The campus is completely off the grid and not visible to other passerby's. The security system recognizes mutated genes and reveals itself to those who have them."
Lauren chuckles. "How Harry Potter of you guys."
Camila doesn't seem to get the reference (or at least understand it), so she continues the rules, returning to the slightly hostile aggressive tone. "I will probably be spending most of my time after practice in the library, so we won't have to worry about bothering each other during study time."
"Visitors are allowed, just leave my half of the room alone please," Lauren answers, stepping out of the bathroom and sitting on her bed as she runs her fingers through her thick hair to rid it of knots. "I'll extend you the same courtesy should I decide to bring anyone special here."
The younger girl lets out a snort. "You say that as if there's only one."
"What are you implying?" Lauren replies, with a challenging quirk of the eyebrow and her arms crossed over her chest.
"You hardly take anything seriously, everything's a joke to you. You don't strike me as a stable relationship kind of girl," Camila shrugs, bringing the bowl to her lips as she drinks the remaining milk.
"I am excellent girlfriend material, excuse you. No guy, or girl-" she adds with emphasis, to which Camila quirks an eyebrow curiously, "-I've ever been with says otherwise."
Camila lets out a laugh and heads to the sink, not bothering to turn around to face her roommate. "And how many of them lasted more than six weeks?"
Lauren glares at her roommate's back. "You harbor a lot of aggression for such a small human being."
"Even at 14 I was mature enough to be in a relationship with someone significantly older," Camila replies, shrugging her shoulders as she gets to washing her plate. "I'm just saying that I'm, comparatively, a bit better when it comes to relationships. Maturity has a lot to do with that. Just saying. "
"Ooh, you dated a 15 year old. How impressive," Lauren deadpans, flicking her fingers to instantly dry the bowl for her roommate.
Camila takes a moment to process the small action, possibly even to thank Lauren, as she tucks it away in the cupboard. But nope, no kindness would ever be allowed for Lauren Jauregui.
The shorter brunette clears her throat, but the way she replies is almost playful. "Ariana was 18, excuse you."
Lauren (who misses this playful undertone miserably) grimaces and knits her eyebrows together as she stares at her roommate. "Ew dude, talk about jailbait. Is that even legal? You couldn't even drive yet and she was a legal adult."
Camila's disposition changes entirely, going from an attempt at being friendly to completely guarded. Her face falls, nearly showing how hurt she is, but she plasters on the confident facade and grabs her pager off of her bed as she heads towards the door. She doesn't even bother to turn back to face her roommate. "I will see you in class. Don't feel free to sit with me."
Lauren groans and presses her forehead to the wall as the door slams shut. She gets up and rummages through the cupboards in search of a satisfactory breakfast. "Insensitive much, Lolo?"
After her breakfast, Ally and Normani are waiting for her downstairs in front of the dorms, munching on an apple and a donut from the cafeteria respectively.
Lauren greets them with a nod of the head and a grin. "Morning Sunshine, Chameleon."
"Hey girly," Ally chirps as Normani gives their friend a quick hug. "How was your morning?"
"Good enough," Lauren chuckles, rubbing at the back of her head. "Your's?"
Ally lets out an exaggerated sigh as Normani replies with a squeal of excitement. The blue-haired girl claps her hands together excitedly, nearly dropping her sugary breakfast. "Wait until you hear the story."
Lauren raises an eyebrow at the oldest girl, who is smiling shyly down at the ground. She brushes some chestnut-gold locks out of her face and looks back up to meet the green-eyed girl's gaze.
"Well, I went out in the middle of the night because I have sleepwalking problems," Ally starts, letting out a chuckle of entertainment as she leads them to their first class
"I'd ask Tori about that," Lauren replies, immediately concerned for the safety of her friend.
The shorter girl nods. "It's been a problem since I was little, but I definitely will bring it up.
Normani groans and shakes Ally's arm. "Tell her what happened!"
Ally swats her hand away, hushing the girl. "Fine! Okay, so I managed to leave the room, get down the stairs, out the building, and start walking."
"Outside at night?" Lauren practically yells, her eyes bugging out of her head. "It was raining and fucking freezing, I could feel it! How did you not die of hypothermia?"
Ally rubs at her face in embarrassment, and Normani's grin makes Lauren's own cheeks hurt as she finally answers the question.
"Dinah."
"I woke up to drink some water and I realized Ally wasn't there," the blue-haired girl continues. "So I started calling her, but her pager was still on her nightstand. So I was about to call the dorm manager until I looked outside."
Lauren glares at her friend as she takes a pause for dramatic effect. The blue-haired girl smiles impossibly wide and lets out a squeal of excitement.
"Dinah Jane was walking in the pouring rain, holding her hand, taking her back to the dorm."
Lauren's eyes go wide as she clasps her hands together, her jaw dropping as she grins at the oldest girl. "That's adorable."
"Oh, but that's not all of it!" Normani interjects, bubbling over with excitement as the shortest girl of the group simply hides her face and lets her roommate tell the story. "Ally fell back into deep sleep and toppled over on the grass. So guess what Dinah does?"
"No way," Lauren replies in shock, already predicting excitedly where this is going.
Normani nods furiously, unable to contain herself as she starts bouncing up and down. "She carries her all the way back to the dorm!"
"I finally woke up when she was handing me off to Normani at the door. I didn't get to thank her, she was gone way too fast," Ally explains, shrugging as a shy smile graces her features. She looks over concernedly at her roommate. "Sorry again for making you that nervous, Mani."
The taller girl gives her a reassuring hug and a nonchalant wave of the hand, blowing it off with a crooked grin. "Don't worry about it."
"At least we know this big bad wolf isn't going to eat us," Lauren chimes in. She hesitates for a beat, then vocalizes the question each girl is thinking to herself. "What was she doing out so late though?"
Ally takes a moment as they enter the classroom, shaking her head as she leads them to some seats near the front. "I don't know, but I'm glad she was."
Normani spots someone over Lauren's shoulder as they approach the seats. She smiles kindly and waves. "Hey Camila."
"Good morning ladies," she greets cheerfully. She completely disregards Lauren's existence (as usual) and furrows her eyebrows. "Where's Dinah Jane?"
When Lauren notices a small group of people surrounding a window, she lets out a chuckle of relief. "Found her."
The group approaches the window (Ally manages to squeeze past and under to get an up close view) to see what all the commotion is about. Outside, their final teammate is effortlessly lifting an entire dumpster over her head as a group of much younger students rush to retrieve a metallic ball from under the space.
"Shouldn't they be in class?" Normani asks, watching as the kids say something excitedly to her teammate and run off. One smaller girl takes a moment to hug Dinah's legs tightly, then scramble away as soon as she lets go.
"Youngest students start class at 9," Camila replies easily, watching as Dinah sets the giant container down and dusts off her hands, heading around the building to enter it. "The middle ones start at 8:30. It helps keep the traffic in the quad to a minimum."
Dinah comes in a few moments later, seeking out the familiar faces of her teammates and walking over promptly as soon as she spots them.
"What was that all about?" Lauren asks, grinning at their tallest teammate as Ally searches furiously in her bag for something.
Dinah watches as the shortest girl finds a small bottle of hand sanitizer and proceeds to dump half of the bottle's contents into her hands. Lauren notices the way Dinah watches Ally, her gaze gentle and soft as she focuses on the eldest girl and the motions she is making with her hands. Dinah rubs the hand sanitizer into her skin, her eyes widening as she feels the instant cooling effect as it dries.
The way she talks is calm, with a serious monotone that holds a soft, informative, and mature quality to her voice. "They asked me nicely to help. So I helped."
"That was sweet of you, Dinah Jane," Camila compliments, smiling kindly at the tallest girl.
As the teacher enters the room, the girls all opt to take their seats. Camila goes first, pulling Normani along with her to ensure that Lauren would not be seated next to her. Ally follows the blue-haired girl, with Dinah taking up the seat next to the shortest girl. Lauren doesn't mind being placed at the end, because this gives her the perfect view of the interesting dynamic shared by Dinah and Ally.
The teacher steps up to the front of the room, a tall woman with gorgeous brown cat-eyes and rich dark skin. She claps her hands together as she writes her name up on the whiteboard.
"Welcome to your first day of Advanced Mutant Studies. My name is Professor Shannon A. Mitchell, I'm looking forward to getting to know all of you and your individual abilities. On a normal class day, I'd start with a lecture and then move on to the practical. Unfortunately, I don't get your in-depth analyses from your team physicians until tomorrow. So today, each team will be going one by one to get their uniforms designed."
She checks a list on a sheet of paper and looks around. "First up on the list is Team 5."
The girls all get up from their seats and walk outside, following Camila who seems to know exactly where to go.
Lauren thinks for a moment about all the superhero comics and TV shows she's ever seen. After it processes for a few moments, she lets out a snort. "We have to wear costumes?"
Camila is, by nature, the first to reply. She lets out a huff of disbelief at her teammate's ignorance. "They're not costumes, and it's only for formal days and presentations. All other days we can wear warmups."
"Did you keep your OC warmups from last year, Mila?" Ally asks, a cheerful tone that instantly soothes the passive aggressive little beast.
"I didn't take Offensive Control last year, so I never got any. I wasn't old enough yet, I still had to do all my years of hand to hand," she explains, smiling kindly at her shorter teammate.
Ally bumps her forehead with her palm. "Gosh, why do I always think you're my age?"
"I think it's the height similarities," Normani grins.
"And the girlfriend that's your age," Camila adds happily.
"No, I think Chameleon's right. It's mostly the height," Lauren replies, which leads Ally to laugh and Normani to muffle her giggle.
Camila is less than entertained as she clenches her hands into fists and goes on a mini-rant, storming ahead of them. "That nickname doesn't even make sense. First of all, chameleons don't shape shift, they change color according to their mood. Second, even if they did, she doesn't even shape shift herself."
"I think you're just bitter because Chameleon is fucking awesome and there's nothing badass about being Cupcake," Lauren defends, narrowing her eyes at the aggressive shorter girl while tucking her hands into the pockets of her hoodie. She smirks. "Or Buttercup."
"But there is definitely something cute about it," Normani chimes in nervously, trying to keep the two complete opposites from going at it right then and there.
They enter the room, where a young man in tight maroon pants is sitting at a sewing machine. He looks up at the group and removes the glasses from the bridge of his nose. "Hi there, Team 5?"
"Affirmative, Sir," Dinah nods, standing tall with her arms pressed to her sides. If it were anyone else, Lauren would have done a spot-on imitation for a laugh. But seeing as it's Dinah Jane, she knows the awkward mannerisms are the norm for her.
He nods and motions to the floor in front of them as he finishes with the sewing machine. "Okay, I need you each to line up and stand on a black tile."
"Do the black tiles read our dimensions?" Camila asks excitedly, taking a step forward onto one of them. "Do they measure us and gauge our abilities and figure out how to perfectly design our suits?"
"It's just so we have enough space to stretch out without bumping, Mila," Ally laughs, shaking her head as the younger girl flushes red. Each girl takes a tile while the man gets up and hangs up the project he was working on.
"It is a pleasure to meet the first Rank 1 team in a very long time," the man greets, shaking each of the girl's hands happily as he grabs a measuring tape off of a table. "Name's Louis, designer and engineer of the uniforms here at the Academy."
Something shatters in the background, and the distinct giggles of two younger girls can be heard following it.
"You guys!" A third one shrieks.
"Girls!" Louis chastises, yelling from his spot as he grabs a clipboard (Lauren is beginning to wonder when she'll get her own, since everyone seems to have one). "Get over here and help!"
The three girls appear, two brunettes and a peroxide blonde. Lauren guesses that they're a few years younger than she is. The two brunettes go over towards Louis immediately, bubbling and giddy, while the blonde shyly retreats over to where they keep the fabrics and takes a seat at the table, getting to work on what Lauren assumes to be a formal uniform.
The man hands something to the shorter brunette, and removes the tape measure from around his neck. He hands it to the other girl and motions for the older team to take the same stance he is. "Stand with your arms out please. Legs shoulder-width apart."
Each girl does so, and Lauren immediately wonders if they should be wearing as much clothing as they are. Enough people have seen her body by this point for her to feel impartial towards it, therefore, not at all concerned if it were to be required again.
"Diamond, get measurements on the short one and then the tall one," Louis delegates, pointing the girl in the direction of an excited Camila and a very focused Dinah Jane. He walks over to Lauren. "Carly Rose, what're the details for this one's ability?"
The girl sits up on his table and swings her legs, reading over the small packets the tailor handed her. "Tori says she needs to have full access to the moisture around her without letting any escape her suit. She also needs it to be water soluble should the need arise. Something about water molecules."
He nods and makes quick work of grabbing another tape measure and examining her, moving on down the line afterwards to the next two as he replies to his young assistant. "Go get that worked out with Beatrice."
She nods and scribbles something onto the paper. She glances down at the file before looking back up at the next two team members. "With Ally and Normani, I'd suggest the standard defensive flex."
"And you're sure of that?" Louis questions, looking over his shoulder at her with a curious smirk. The girl nods vigorously and reads off the physician's notes to him. After the explanation, Louis finishes up Ally's measurements with a nod of approval. "Good girl, Carly Rose. Look who's learning!"
Carly smiles down at her lap, a small movement that makes Lauren grin to herself seeing the girl's confidence building. The younger girl clears her throat, her eyes widening in awe as she reads the next description. "This is the hybrid."
Louis glances up to look at her, his other assistant coming up to measure her legs and writing down each number. He smirks and quirks an eyebrow. "Wolf girl, eh? Little army brat. Do you remember what material they used for your uniforms?"
Dinah points directly at a shiny black material with reflective ridges.
"It'll have to expand and strain and regenerate with you. Makes sense. Carly, write down the nanotech stretch for her, please."
"Do you really regenerate?" Diamond asks curiously, taking down measurements from the girl's arms. Dinah nods and focuses on the wall in front of her, keeping perfectly still. The younger girl goes behind her, taking the stool with her to measure out the width of her shoulders.
Carly makes a face as she reads the last description, the one pertaining to Camila. "All Brad wrote is 'must withstand high temperatures'."
"Fucking Brad..." Louis laughs, shaking his head as he looks over Lauren's figure and jots down a few details on his sheet. "Always so detailed. So eloquent. You can tell when Tori writes and then when this moron does. Honey, how to you feel about black?"
Once Lauren realizes that the question was directed at her, she lets out a snort. "I'd marry it if I could."
"Good answer," he nods, turning to pick up something off of the fabric table. He glances at her face and purses his lips, running his thumb gently against her cheek, just below her eye. "Ooh, those eyes are something special. Let's get you a mask that'll do those gorgeous little things justice."
Lauren chuckles and watches as he lays a sheet of white material over her face. After a few moments, it seizes up and molds to every contour on her face, coming off easily to reveal a perfect cast. Before she can awe at it or say anything, Dinah lets out a bone-chilling roar.
The girls turn to find her clutching at her neck, Diamond looking terrified behind her as she topples off of the step stool. Dinah removes a sewing needle from her neck, Normani letting out an audible gasp at how deep inside her flesh it was, and clutches at the bleeding point for a few moments before wiping it clean as it heals over.
Within seconds, Dinah grabs the young assistant by the collar and has her hoisted several feet into the air, staring up at her menacingly as she lets out another roar. "You impaled me!"
"Dinah, put her down!" Lauren commands, staggering back in shock as the younger girl begins to cry.
"I don't have to listen to you, you're not my alpha," Dinah snaps, baring her teeth as she growls at the younger girl in her grip. Lauren can see distinctly sharp pearly whites that were definitely not there before, including a set of canines that are nearly an inch long. Her eyes have gone from their dark color to a frighteningly intense yellow, glowing with an immense rage as she only hoists the girl higher.
"I think the only fair retribution would be to do the same to her that she did to me," Dinah hisses, narrowing her eyes at the crying girl in her grip.
Lauren glances around, to see Camila standing frozen and Normani gasping for air in shock. Ally is stuck in her spot, processing, thinking, just like Lauren herself is.
"Use your power, child. If you're going to attack me, attack me for real," Dinah demands, before barking aggressively at her, snapping her teeth just inches from her face. "Do it!"
"I c-can't," Diamond cries, the sobs coming out to the point that they choke her words and make them stutter. "I c-can't do it when I'm sc-cared."
Lauren's brain finally starts processing again.
She reaches out to grab Ally by the shoulder, sending her a silent command as she motions for the others to take a step back. The moment they do, Ally nods at the green-eyed girl and rests her hand gently on Dinah's arm.
The younger girl hisses at the contact, turning to face her, but Lauren steps forward and gives Ally a reassuring nod. The girl simply continues and looks up into the beast's glowing yellow eyes, watching as they slowly soften and dissipate into a bright amber. Dinah looks up at the young girl in her grip, then back at Ally.
Everyone lets out a gasp of relief as Dinah drops her.
"You, Miss White, will be suffering from severe consequences," Louis hisses, giving her a massive hug as she runs into his arms. The other two girls rush towards her, crushing her from behind as she continues to sob. "Now, other than being a little shaken up, are you okay?"
Dinah turns to face the team, her amber eyes fading back into the familiar brown as she pulls herself away from Ally's grip. She brushes off her sleeves, not bothering to look up at the group as she shakes her head.
"I'm not sorry."
"You don't have to be," Lauren answers immediately, knowing exactly what tactic to take. "She attacked you. You defended yourself. It's all over now."
"I am so sorry about that," Louis apologizes, after Diamond runs to the back room. "They warmups will be ready for pickup by this afternoon. Come by after 6th period and I'll have the training gear ready. Formal uniforms will be delivered to your dorms personally by the other two minions."
"Thank you for your time. We'll be heading out now," Ally smiles at him, waving at the girls before promptly leading Dinah out of the room. The other two follow behind, leaving Lauren in the doorway as the man calls her attention.
"Hey, Lauren?"
She turns and quirks an eyebrow at him in response.
Louis messes with the hair on the back of his neck, rubbing at it gently before letting out a sigh. "Nice thinking back there. Thanks for saving my girl."
"That was all Ally," Lauren quickly replies, smiling brightly at him. "But I'm glad we could help."
"Well, thanks again to Ally and whoever gave her the idea. And you're right, by the way," he answers, grinning up at the girl as he sits at the sewing machine and sets his glasses onto his nose. "They're pretty much just glorified costumes."
Advanced Mutant Studies is followed by Negotiation Tactics. Normani splits from the group to take a normal hand-to-hand self defense class third period while the other four have Advanced Melee and Weapon Control. Lunch follows promptly, with Case Studies next and Strategic Behavior afterwards. The last class of the day is Resistance and Evasion Tactics, which is a joint course taught by two teachers, one of which is the super-fast "Demi" from a few days ago that Camila seemed to know quite well.
Camila and Normani separate from the group to pick up the uniforms, returning to the team waiting in front of the Colosseum. They take their individual suits and change in the locker room, studying their appearances in the mirror as they come out one by one.
Each bodysuit is a skin tight material, a smooth black with reflective dull gray ridges running in intricate patterns. Each suit is accented in a different color, the only thing really setting them apart from each other. Lauren's are in the form of cuffs and the waistband area, which are a dark indigo-purple color.
"He says we can adjust some settings with our pagers," Camila explains, obviously with red accents on her suit, pulling out her device and pursing her lips as she taps on the screen. "The mechanics are specially designed by Bea herself. You have to go to the app that days 'Suit Control'."
"I would only assume," Lauren deadpans, getting a snort from Ally and a giggle out of Normani.
Camila rolls her eyes at the older brunette and fiddles with the settings, gasping slightly as the suit goes from a full-coverage body-suit to a much less restrictive singlet. She checks herself out happily, grinning as she stares at her newly exposed arms. "Well team, let's have some fun."
The girls step out and head into the arena, where a few other teams are training on the far side of the field. It's essentially a giant indoor track with a grassy field in the middle and lots of training dummies and other various training supplies surrounding them. Tori is chatting with their trainer excitedly, but as soon as she spots the team, she teleports over to them.
"Good afternoon ladies!" She greets eagerly, adjusting her glasses as she smiles warmly at the group.
"Hey Tori," Lauren quickly replies, instead of the friendly waves or nods the others would give.
Lauren can practically hear Camila roll her eyes as the physician locks gazes with emerald green for longer than necessary. She clears her throat and approaches the eldest girl, pulling something out of her pocket and applying it to the girl's temple. "Ally, I'm gonna monitor you through your suit. This pad is just to measure some of the activity in your brain."
"Have a good first day of school, kids?" Jojo asks sarcastically, smirking at the group as she saunters over to the team.
Camila seems to not detect the blatantly rhetorical undertones as she begins to gush hurriedly. She claps her hands together and starts to wiggle around excitedly and down in her spot. "We have a class with both Miss Mitchell and Miss Benson. I understand you did a mission with them and Miss Bellisario, I read the entire case study in two days. It's so impressive how your team managed to invade foreign bases without any detection whatsoever!"
Jojo rubs her temple and lets out a sigh. "Are you still talking?"
The girls all struggle to contain their laughter, biting their lips and clamping their jaws shut as Camila flushes red. The trainer shares a knowing look with her physician and looks back over at her team.
"Okay girls, 25 jumping jacks."
Dinah starts almost as soon as the words leave the woman's mouth. The other girls watch her perfect form and take that as inspiration to get going.
Jojo seems less than impressed as she lazily strolls away. "Great, now do 4 rounds of those."
"100 jumping jacks," Lauren announces. "Shouldn't be too hard."
Seconds later, a bright green blur strikes her directly in the stomach. She lets out a grunt as she stumbles, clutching at her stomach in shock. "What the fuck was that?"
"You girls didn't think I'd be letting you off that easy, did you?" The trainer asks, chuckling as she lugs a giant bucket of tennis balls behind her.
Normani's eyes go wide as she realizes the trouble this means for her. "How the hell do we dodge something thrown by someone who can't miss?"
The woman laughs and tosses one at her, watching in entertainment as it collides with her thigh. Mani lets out a muffled groan but keeps jumping, glaring at the trainer maliciously. Jojo's grin turns into an almost sadistic smirk. "By using your powers, that's how."
Dinah shows no signs of struggle and easily smacks each ball away, her arm moving at a blinding speed, looking like nothing more than a giant blur. Jojo grins in approval and simply gives up on hitting her, focusing on the other four and leaving the youngest to do her jumping jacks in peace.
Ally essentially has it easy with this one, since all she has to do is set up a forcefield up in front of herself. Their physician watches intensely at this point, studying closely to try and determine the final consensus as to how Ally was exactly able to do that. Jojo approves of her efficiency but would continue to throw tennis balls at her, testing to see if Ally lets her guard down in her attempt to catch her breath. It's only once that she forgets, and she puts the shield back up promptly with a muffled groan of pain when the tennis ball collides smack dab with her left boob.
Camila, indignified as ever, feels like she has to show off to gain the approval of their trainer. The girl doesn't even blink as she flicks her wrists and watches as each approaching ball simply ignites and falls at her feet in a pile of ashes, as if it approached the sun.
Lauren has to make a little more effort due to her slow reflexes and the fucking fast tennis balls, but she feels right at home using her ability, focusing on each lime green orb until the crystals of frost turn into shards. The weight drops the ball almost immediately, shattering at her feet in a hundred different little pieces.
"You four, start running. Hamilton doesn't get to go anywhere until she dodges these," Jojo orders, flicking her wrist in dismissal at the others as she continues to pelt the blue-haired girl.
Lauren herself winces each time the ball aggressively makes contact with her teammate. She watches as Dinah leads the group, keeping Ally in her view at all times, with Camila trying to race ahead of Dinah. She herself grabs her gallon of water and proceeds to down a solid ¼th of its contents, pouring some over her head for good measure in anticipation of the run.
"Normani, find inspiration," Lauren finally calls out as she heads off to catch up with the rest of the team, hoping her friend will soon get the hint.
The blue-haired girl looks around desperately before her eyes land on her trainer. Something finally clicks for her, and she takes the few seconds of Jojo bending down to pick up more balls to her advantage. It's a mere brush of contact, running up to her with a quick bump of the shoulders and then returning to her normal spot, but it does the trick.
As the trainer attempts to toss another ball, it screws messily and bounces pitifully past the girl. Normani grins proudly as she even catches the next one, holding it up for her teacher to see.
"My older sister has no hand-eye coordination whatsoever."
"I forgot what it's like to be normal," Jojo chuckles, wrinkling a nose that is not her own. "But congrats, kid. Quick thinking on your teammate's part. I was wondering when you'd pick that up."
She gives Normani a pat on the back, which allows the girl to change her back to normal. The blue haired girl runs off happily, catching up to Lauren as the pair work to join the other three. Jojo claps her hands together and gets to picking up the stray projectiles, tossing them easily into the container even as she increases in distance. She yells out to the girls, who are already halfway down the track. "Alright ladies, I want to see a good solid mile out of you guys."
Okay, no big deal, Lauren thinks happily to herself, taking long strides to match Normani's pace. Four loops, easy enough. You can do it.
The trainer then adds something that definitely hinders her confidence.
"And then I want to see several more."
After school trainings usually look a lot like that. Lauren played softball as a kid, and nothing she could have ever done could prepare her for how sore and exhausted this damn trainer would leave them. She has fallen asleep in the middle of homework several times that week, collapsing right into bed as soon as she gets home. Tori even offers to develop a natural hydrating system for Lauren's suit that is compact and more tidy than just dumping water from her gallon bottle messily all over herself.
Although, judging by the looks Lauren catches her sneaking, Tori doesn't seem to mind the other way too.
Over the course of the next few days, Lauren really solidifies the friendships she has built with her new teammates. Ally and Normani are some of the quickest friends she's ever made, but they're great people and even better company, so she accepts it happily. One thing that genuinely intrigues her is the entire dynamic Dinah shares with the only team member she actually talks to. In all honesty, Dinah doesn't talk much. When she does, everyone is sure to listen. And that's the one thing Dinah Jane is definitely good at: listening. The observant girl notices little details nobody else does, and manages to do so as if it's the easiest thing in the world. When she quietly asks Normani about her new perfume at the first real team breakfast on Wednesday, she seems to be incredibly confused as to why nobody else had noticed the change.
Lauren can clearly tell that Dinah genuinely enjoys Ally's presence, which is every possible level of sweet. The way she looks at the shorter girl is something people write novels about, a gentle expression of focus and tenderness all at once. The girls have seen both sides of their military experiment of a teammate, and knowing that Ally keeps her calm and under control means that no questions would be asked as to why exactly that is.
Lauren and Camila remain on difficult terms, usually not much more than small talk about homework or a class in the mornings at team breakfast. She comes home exceptionally later than the library is open, so Lauren sort of gets the hint that Camila's doing as much as possible to avoid contact. Not that Lauren particularly cares. The less time she spends with Camila, the less chance of being spontaneously barbecued, and Lauren definitely likes those odds.
(She also keeps warming up the room just for Camila every morning, and even though Lauren pretends to be asleep while she does it, she's pretty sure the brown-eyed girl is catching on.)
That Friday is their first time using the simulator.
It's a large empty room on the upper level of the Colosseum. The walls are padded and a bleak white color, making Lauren just the slightest bit uncomfortable as she's reminded of a mental institution. Noticing that all the others seem to be sharing a similar feeling, Lauren reaches out and rubs Normani's shoulder soothingly. She gives Camila a gentle pat on the back of encouragement, which the girl surprisingly does not resist. Lauren nods at their shortest teammate, who easily takes the hand of the incredibly tense tallest girl and intertwines their fingers, smiling up at her as Dinah gives her a quick soft glance. It's a movement they're doing frequently now, and every other time they're together and Lauren turns to talk to one of them, their hands are usually laced. It's curious, considering that Dinah otherwise hates contact. She yanked her hand away when Camila accidentally brushed it while she was reaching for a pencil the other day in class, and made an effort to walk faster to avoid contact when Lauren had accidentally brushed shoulders with her on their way here. But when Ally, who is a naturally cuddly person, reaches out for Dinah's hand, the much taller girl takes it instinctively, like a child reaching out obediently for their mother.
For some inexplicable reason, Ally is Dinah's soft spot.
And nobody questions it.
"For your first run in the simulator, I'll start you girls off early. Tate Stevens was a mechanical engineer in the early 80's. He terrorized cities with his massive robot, which he used for transportation, and the thousands of small minions he had developed for use against his enemies. Seeing as the technology was not the strongest back then, he used a beacon of sorts to keep the robotics in check and within range for him to use them to his advantage. The beacon was the brain of these robotic minions."
"It's in the Kelly Hall museum," Camila chimes in.
"I played with it as a kid," Tori chuckles, waiting patiently besides Jojo. Despite it being nearly a week, she insists that she has to be completely sure of Ally's abilities and and must study them just a little longer (although Ally assures Lauren that she's not the member of Team 5 that Tori's really focusing on.)
"Now, nobody remembers this because we had a memory eraser swipe the entire city. But back then, it was my dad's old team that stopped him," Jojo explains, heading over to the control center by the door and taking a seat at one of the benches. She plays with the controls for a few moments, "Today, it will be you."
Suddenly, Lauren and the team find themselves in a city, buildings towering above their heads. She feels like the star in an action movie, set in glamorous New York City and ready to save the world. Jojo's voice echoes out above them.
"Destroy the beacon, capture Stevens. Don't die, don't kill civilians."
Lauren feels the hairs on the back of her neck stand on edge as the atmosphere shifts. Dinah seems to notice this as well, seeing as she shoots a questioning glance at Lauren and takes a protective step closer to Ally. Lauren nods at the tallest girl reassuringly, crouching down slightly to prepare for whatever's coming towards them.
"Go."
A horrifying crunch can be heard immediately, and the girls all turn to find the source of the sound. Off in the distance, a giant mechanical creature towers among the skyscrapers, using four long, tentacle-like limbs to crush anything in it's way. It's in that moment that Lauren instantly realizes what the inspiration for The Incredibles was. Beneath it, an ocean of small, child-sized robots march, swarming the area and destroying everything in their path.
Camila finally gets a chance to show off.
"Okay okay guys, here's the plan," she tells them, assessing the situation. "We're gonna split up. Normani, you're gonna be in charge of finding where the minions are coming from and stopping them. Ally-"
"Camila," Lauren warns, glancing over at the rest of their teammates. "I don't know how I feel about sending Chameleon out there on her own."
The glare Camila gives her could destroy a person. "Are you doubting her abilities?"
"It's not that I don't have faith in her, it's that I want to keep her safe," Lauren hisses, glaring right back at the scowling brunette.
Camila ignores the hesitancy and presses on, leading the team that is currently awaiting instruction. "Normani, go on your own try to find the production and stop. Dinah Jane and Ally, sweep around the buildings, hold off the minions. I'll destroy the robot. Lauren, go get that beacon."
It's not that Lauren wants to be difficult. She can see why Camila would pair Dinah and Ally, and her plan could make sense in some aspects, but Lauren is definitely seeing the bigger picture. "Camila, I am nowhere near fast or strong enough to scale that robot while it's moving to get this big bad. Think about your strengths and how to play to them! Normani has no way to defend herself as of now, she'll get killed in a heartbeat. Dinah has military training, she doesn't need to be partnered up with Ally. She'll only spend the entire time protecting her instead of-"
"I don't need to take instructions from a pickup," Camila snaps, obviously fed up with the argument. "Now shut up and go get that damn beacon!"
The girls all share nervous glances of concern as they split up. Dinah leads Ally, running at blinding pace as Ally seems to walk on air. Lauren realizes that it's simply her using her forcefields to keep up with her teammate, an incredible means of transportation she had learned a few days ago in first period thanks to Professor Mitchell. Normani lets out a nervous breath and heads in the opposite direction, wincing as she hears the screams of a civilian who has been grabbed by a mass of minions. She keeps running, but Lauren can't seem to do the same.
"Don't you dare," Camila hisses, watching as Lauren seems visibly torn. The shorter girl seems indifferent to the simulated woman's screams as the small robots begin to tug at her body and prepare to rip her apart. "Stick to the plan."
Lauren wants to make sure Camila understands just how sorry she is. She takes the girl's hands in her own and locks their eyes, feeling herself melt into her gaze even though Camila's eyes are hard and angry. What surprises Lauren is that Camila makes no attempt to sear her hands off, or to burn her at all. She lets Lauren hold her hands. She lets Lauren look into her eyes.
"I'm so sorry Camila. But I have to."
And to her greatest surprise, she lets Lauren go.
The pyrokinetic disappears and heads towards the giant robot, which leaves Lauren to rescue the hologram. She tries to freeze the metal minions in their place, but there isn't enough humidity in the air to do so. Instead, she solidifies the water molecules in her hands into ice and gets straight to smashing some robots.
They snap at her feet with metallic jaws and beady red lights for eyes, so she simply does the same freezing thing for her boots and drop kicks them away. Within seconds, the woman is freed from the minions's grip. Lauren isn't expecting much, a smile or nod of appreciation at most, but what happens really strikes her right in the heart.
The woman looks at her and simply screams in terror before running away to safety.
Lauren turns and punches her way through the flimsy minions, searching for the main robot so she can go up and obtain the beacon. Unfortunately, the robot finds her first.
Just before the metal tentacle collides with her side, the holograms disappear and they're all standing back in the Colloseum.
"Lauren's dead, Normani's dead, Camila's next. Congrats girls, you've managed to kill off almost 60% of your team in one go. Run it again. You're not leaving until that beacon is in your possession."
Lauren can feel the blood pumping through her veins, her neck throbbing as they pop up again at their first starting point. Feeling her senses heighten, she turns to the team and immediately starts talking before anyone else can say a word.
"New plan. Ally, Normani, you two are officially one person. I don't want to see you separate for any reason. I want a forcefield around Mani at all times, okay Ally? Keep a barrier up to keep civilians out of the way. Mani, if someone's in the way, you turn them into Dinah, you hear me? She regenerates and while it's gonna hurt, they'll heal up. Turn them back and get them to safety ASAP. Go, now."
The two roommates glance at each other and go off, Ally taking Normani along on the forcefield to help pick up speed. The tallest girl of the team instantly grows tense, so Lauren handles her immediately afterwards.
"Dinah Jane, I need you to destroy those fucking tentacles."
The girl finds that funny for some reason, smiling down at the shorter girl for the first time since they've met. She starts bouncing up and down, shaking her hands out as she prepares to go. She looks back at the girl with a more focused, intense expression. "On my own?"
Lauren shakes her head, watching as Dinah's fingernails grow into claws as her eyes gradually lighten into a light amber color. "No, Camila and I will blast a way through the minions and get you in. This is your chance to show us what you've got."
Dinah nods and continues to warm herself up, bouncing on the balls of her feet.
Lauren spins around to face Camila, who is simply staring at her with an unreadable expression. The green eyed girl grabs her by the shoulders and stares her straight in the eyes, locking gazes once again for the second time that day. "Listen, I know you hate my guts right now, but I'm running on full adrenaline and I don't plan on stopping now. You can cooperate or you can get the hell out of here, because I'm not about to watch you get hurt."
Camila doesn't resist, so Lauren continues. "Now I've got a plan, and you have to trust me."
After she explains the procedure, she two girls run side by side, following Dinah as the taller girl halts to a stop. The swarm of minions don't notice them until Lauren starts swinging her arms around, checking to make sure that her plan would work. Once the small robots find her in their line of sight, they rapidly rush towards her. Dinah takes a few steps back, nodding at Lauren as she crouches over. The oldest of the three takes in a deep breath and glances at Camila, who gives her a look of reassurance.
"Go!"
Lauren shoves her entire weight forward, feeling the satisfying pop as the fire hydrant gets demolished and the stream of water heads directly towards Camila. The younger girl lets out a deep breath and throws her hands over her head, a massive wall of fire materializing and roaring towards Lauren. The two walls meet in the middle with a hiss, steam pouring out and surrounding the robot and its minion army in its entirety. Dinah bolts forward, using her momentum to do a backflip onto a car and launch herself at a blinding speed towards the metal tentacled monster.
Lauren keeps going as long as Camila does, and when the two stop in perfect sync, she can barely see her hand in front of her face due to all the steam. She grins to herself, proud of how well her plan has worked out to this point. Her quick thinking was right.
She's blind, which means the robots are as well.
For a few long minutes it's eerily quiet.
And then Dinah drops down on the hood of the machine, punching her clawed fist through and yanking the villain out before prying the beacon out of his hands. She crushes it with one hand, hearing the clinks of thousands of robots minions simply shutting down. She holds Tate Stevens with both hands now, kicking the crushed scrap down to Camila and Lauren.
Dinah stares at the hologram, feeling the very real fabric of his clothes in her hands as she stares into two very real eyes. Her amber eyes glow yellow as she narrows her gaze at the man, lifting up a fully-clawed hand to prepare to finish the job. "Objective complete."
The girls all are suddenly transported back into the simulator room, their trainer standing with a shocked smile next to a bug-eyed team physician.
"Tell them. Tell them the stats," Tori hisses, nudging the brunette woman in the ribs as she simply stares at the team in front of them. The girls are huffing and puffing, but even Dinah is smiling at their accomplishment.
"You guys okay?" Lauren whispers, tapping Normani and Ally on the backs as they get into their lined formation. The two girls share a glance before looking back at their exhausted teammate.
"We're great. You?" Normani asks after a beat of deep inhales, grinning at her friend's labored breaths.
Lauren smirks at her and winks, standing up straight with an extreme amount of effort. She stretches out her arm, the muscle screaming aggressively back at her. Lauren has never gotten a chance to use her powers to such an extreme (much less need to use her powers like that), so her body was definitely not expecting the level of exertion she just made it go through.
"Just peachy, Chameleon. Just peachy."
She gives Camila a soft pat on the back and simply smiles at Dinah, knowing the girl's thing against being touched. "You guys were great."
Dinah nods appreciatively, and Camila gives the faintest hint of a smile before turning back to focus on the trainer, who is getting up from behind the control panel and coming towards them.
Jojo runs a hand through her dark hair, letting out a laugh of pure disbelief. "Every single civilian that died the first round was saved this round. No team has ever managed to accomplish this mission with no casualties. The record is 4 human deaths."
"That was all Sunshine and Chameleon over here," Lauren announces, motioning to the pair in between heaving breaths. She realizes what is happening, why her body is starting to struggle like this, and instantly goes over to grab her water bottle.
Jojo nods approvingly at the pair, who are glancing between themselves with looks of pure pride and elation. "I saw."
"Your group also broke the time record, shaving a solid 2 minutes off of the last team to complete this simulator," she continues, informing them. "Most struggle with distracting the minions, and then getting to the beacon."
"That would be Camila and Dinah Jane," Lauren replies, bobbing her head proudly over at her other two teammates before taking a long gulp from the container. She dumps some over her head for good measure, making sure to absorb all of the droplets into her skin before they fall onto the floor.
"You guys will be ready for fieldwork before you know it. Smoothest first week I've ever had with a Rank 1 team. I'm impressed, ladies."
Jojo glances back at Tori, who gives her a reassuring nod and motions for her to continue. The trainer turns back to her team and clears her throat, being sure to have all their attentions.
"I usually wait to assign captain status until the third week, but watching this girl has been exceptional."
Everyone instantly looks over at Camila, who gulps in a giant breath of air and stands up even straighter than she was doing so before. Lauren and Normani share a glance of entertainment before focusing on their trainer, who is speaking slowly and taking massive pauses for dramatic effect.
(Honestly, Lauren wishes the trainer would just cut the crap, because everyone knows Camila's been working towards earning the captain position since she was a fetus.)
"She's brave, a brilliant strategist, and knows how to work in a team. I put you guys in a difficult situation, and she came up with something immediately." The trainer takes a pause. "But most of all, she really does care. I've been watching how she interacts with her teammates, and I can already tell that they mean the world to her and she will lead them perfectly."
She smiles knowingly and claps her hands together once.
"So guys, congrats to Captain Lauren Jauregui, new leader of Team 5."
The world freezes over, and two thoughts run through Lauren's mind.
Oh shit.
Camila's gonna kill her.
YOU ARE READING
Glory And Gore (5H AU)
FanfictionAll credits go to the original author! Copied from 5hfanfiction on tumblr.
