Good to be back

Brady slumped down on a bench in the arena, His bag stuffed full of all the homework he'd missed and would now have to catch up on. Sighing loudly, He slides down to the dusty floor, spreads a small blanket and starts field stripping his gun, meticulously cleaning each component

Rachael approached the arena, grumbling something unpleasant to herself as she placed a hand on the door. It wouldn't be a surprise if she found someone in here to spar with, as that seemed to be how fate liked to introduce her to people. She closed her eyes, letting her semblance activate as she scanned the arena for anyone familiar. There was, in fact, someone she knew very well in there. Someone she hadn't seen in a while.

"Brady...?" she mumbled to herself as she entered the arena and looked towards the direction she felt his aura come from. She opened her eyes, turning off her semblance so her eyes appeared yellow once more as she looked at him. Sure enough, there he was. Her team leader whom she hadn't seen in weeks. She quickly walked over to him, looking at him as he cleaned his gun.

"And just where the hell have you been?" she said, crossing her arms and impatiently tapping a foot on the floor. Her eyes bored into him as she glared at him, waiting for his response. "Hmm?"

"Been out sick" Brady replies, His eyes never leaving his work. "Woulda sent you guy's a message or something, but I was pretty much out cold for most of it. My Dad was supposed to have sent an update on my recovery to the school, but he probably forgot" He says with a shrug

"How've you been?"

Rachael sighed as she closed her eyes and shook her head. "Whatever." she said as she turned towards the arena, surveying the familiar landscape despite her knowing there'd be absolutely nothing new to see. "Well..." she began, looking off to the side towards Brady.

"Me and Fei are now in a relationship." she would say before looking back at the arena, attempting to avoid eye contact. Her eyes turned crimson, and she realized she had never explained to Brady as to why they did that. She'd fill him in on that later.

"Cebrail is missing for some reason so it's just been us. Nothing much else I can recall off the top of my head." she said as she turned her head to look at Brady, her red eyes boring a hole into his very soul in an almost literal way. She was eager to know how he felt about this, and she would make sure she knew what he actually felt.

"Ceb's missing?" Brady asked, finally looking away from his work, now twirling his rifle's firing pin between his fingers. "Any Idea what happened to him? has there been any kind of search for him or anything?"

He actually seemed slightly agitated by this news. As he started reassembling his weapon, the thought that he'd somehow failed his team so early in their time together weighing surprisingly heavily on his mind, causing the romantic revelation to seemingly pass right over his head.

"He resigned." she said, her eyes squinting just a little bit as she turned away from him, her eyes turning back to their natural yellow. "We already signed up for replacements, and supposedly they've found one. The issue is that the people doing all the paperwork still have yet to officially remove Cebrail from the team, and replace them with this new person." she said as she leaned against the wall. She pulled out her scroll for a moment, checking it for messages and the time. It was late in the day, almost night time, and no one was trying to get ahold of her. Big surprise there.

"So what are you doing here?" she asked as she continued flipping through all the news and such on her scroll. "Do you plan on practicing, or are you gonna go back to the dorm and get started on that homework? If I were you, I'd do the homework." she suggested, partially because she wanted to be alone while she practiced for once instead of sparring someone, AGAIN. She wasn't particularly attached to Brady, but he was her leader so she felt some sort of connection to him. Not really though. It was just enough for her to recognize his aura and that was it.

Brady sighed once again, looking back to the heavy bag behind the bench.

"I really should get to all that... but first I need to finish my maintenance, and make sure my gun's sighted properly"

was that an excuse? absolutely. was it true? well He hadn't done his maintenance in weeks, so if it was a lie, It was a convincing one. He finished reassembling his gun, and held it up, eyeing down the sights towards some targets. He blinked a few times as his brain caught up to the situation

"hang on, what was that about you and Fei? you're both in relationships now?"

Rachael sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose in irritation. "We're going out. As in, we are in a relationship together." she said impatiently. "I've already said this, were you not listening?"

Rachael's tone of voice was getting bitter and impatient as she waited for Brady to finally catch up to what was happening. They were going out together. They were one couple. Of course she didn't say this out loud, as she didn't want to waste her breath after already making her point.

Looking at him, she eyed him up and down and squinted her eyes a bit as she thought about him for a moment. The conclusion of those thoughts made her shake her head and load her sword and gauntlet with dust, preparing her weapons for use.

"Oh! you two are dating?" He said as He fired a single round into a distant target and adjusted a small dial next to the rear sight. "I didn't have you pegged as the type" Nothing in his voice gave away the slightest hint of judgement one way or the other as he fired a few more rounds and fiddled a little bit more with the dials.
"You've been keeping on top of practice and stuff, eh?"

"Of course we've been keeping on top of our work." she said as she watched Brady fire his gun at the targets. She thought over what he had just said a few times before something seemingly hit her.

"Wait, what do you mean you didn't have us 'pegged' as the type?" she said, not understanding what he was saying but feeling she needed to take offense to this, like with everything else most people said about her.

Brady shrugged as he lowered the rifle, content that it was working properly. "Just didn't figure you were into girls is all. Don't get me wrong, I'm cool with it and all. Just try to be careful. If you two break up, you'll still be on a team for the next four years. try to keep that in mind."

"What does gender matter anyways?" she said as she glared at Brady from the corner of her eye. "And Fei is the loyal type. She would only want to be with one person, forever. It's one of the main reasons I'm with her. Means she shouldn't be cheating on me any time soon." she said as she lightly swung her weapons around in front of her, getting a feel for the weight and shape.

"Relax, Rach. seriously, I'm happy for you. I only said anything because I've gotta be a leader and look out for us as a team, but what you two do in your spare time is your business." Brady explained as he withstood Rachael's withering glare.

He placed the but of his gun on the ground and leaned on it. He noticed her swinging her blade around and surreptitiously glanced back at the bag of work he had to do.

"Anyway, If you're planning on doing some practice, d'ya think you'd like a punching bag? I've got other things i'd rather not be doing right about now"

"As much as I'd like to say no, since you have to do so much work, it'd be nice to practice on a human target for once." she said as she walked out into the center of the arena, not bothering to see if Brady was following her. Not like I haven't met half the people I know in this place anyways. she thought as she turned around and watched Brady get ready.

"Have I explained my semblance to you yet? I feel like I should just to give a fair warning." she said as she crossed her arms, her sword in hand.

"naw, lemme go a round without knowing. see if I can figure it out for myself" Brady wrapped his gun's sling once around his right wrist before bracing the stock in his shoulder.

"Alrighty." she said as her eyes turned crimson once more. "Have fun trying to do that. I'll give you a hint." Rachael pointed her sword at Brady as she looking into what might as well have been his soul. "I'll see and feel it if you get cocky." And with that, she didn't hesitate to charge him, sword held back as she readied to swing. While she was ready to attack, she was putting more thought and energy into reading his movements than actually attacking

Even without his semblance, Brady had time to analyze Rachael's position.
-sword held back. going for a stab or a slice from that side. can't forget that gauntlet though... alright let's do this -

Brady held his rifle at ease, across his chest. His only action was to flick his fire selector to the Ice dust chamber. He waited until Rach was practically on top of his before activating his semblance. His eyes dilated slightly and the world around him slowed to a crawl.

Rachael saw Brady's aura twist and expand across his body and then seemingly flow straight to his head. 'He's got some ability revolving around his brain or sight? she thought as she took as quick a diagonal swing at Brady's chest as she could, her sword held in a reverse hold. When the tip came around to point at him, she would pull the trigger and a bullet made completely of fire dust would fire from the tip and at his chest.

-Alright... What do we have? So she's going for a cross slash. but at this distance, It'd be a pretty shallow hit. Is she trying not to hurt me? Well that's nice of her. i'll have to remember to thank her lat... Oh... wait. nope. finger's on the trigger. I'm about to get blasted. -

As he thought this all through, Brady was slowly shifting his position. He moved his right hand slightly so as to press against the bottom of the grip, while his left hand moved to brace against the top of the stock. As Rachael's sword made its way down, Brady pushed upwards with is right hand, rapidly spinning the butt of the gun over to deflect the blade. Using his left hand to guide the spin. Brady caught hold of the rifle as He took a single step backwards. Using the momentum of the gun, He aimed down and fired a single Ice Dust round into the ground, forming a small barrier between them. He blinked a few times as his perceptions returned to realtime.

Rachael blinked as she noted what had just happened. She didn't know what he did, but it was strange and... possible allowed him to predict what she did, like her semblance let her do? Then again, it might be something else like extra reaction time or something. She'd have to ask him later. For now, all she could do was feel where his aura was on the other side of the ice wall and punch the wall in that direction with her gauntlet. A fist sized spherical projectile made of fire launched itself towards Brady, melting a hole right through the shield.

Brady took a moment to change his rifle to the shotgun configuration just as a small fireball rocketed into his shoulder.
"Ah! what the?"
He looked towards the small hole melted into his ice wall.

-lucky shot? or is that the thing with her eyes? can she see me through the wall?-

He decided to test it by moving close to the rightmost edge of the wall and switching his semblance back on, waiting for the next blast

Rachael watched as Brady moved to rightmost edge, and then watched as his aura began to flare back to where his head should be. 'He's using his semblance again... meaning he'll probably be able to react to my next attack. Is he testing my abilities? I guess I'll just mess with him then.' she thought to herself before purposefully firing another flaming bullet a little to the left of where he was originally, rather than where he was now. 'Hopefully now it just looks like I don't know where I'm aiming.' she thought to herself as she waited and watched for Brady to move again.

hmm. maybe it was just luck Brady thought as He flicked the selector back to standard shots and rounded the side of his ice wall, only to find Rachael looking straight at him.
Nope. guess not.
He was still half hidden behind his wall, only his right side around the side, but he didn't have many options without the element of surprise on his side. He took a single shot, sending rubber practice rounds flying while he readied himself to move again.

Rachael attempted to predict his movements, dodging to the left and just narrowly missing his attack. With two quick steps, she was in his face, her arm behind her back but not for any particular reason. When she was in Brady's face, she stabbed at him and prepared to use her gauntlet to release and explosion of aura, but not yet.

Rachael felt him feel a bit confused at how her semblance was working. It wasn't very simple, if he couldn't figure it out... well, then she would deem him stupid.

Brady was reeling on his heels, pressed backwards as Rach moved in. He could see her attacks coming from miles away, but the fact of the matter was that she was faster than him, and at this range there was little he could do to hold her off. His only saving grace against the stab was the time it took for her to close in on him. He had time to bring the stock of his shotgun to bear, narrowly deflecting the point of the blade, but this left him completely out of position for any sort of counter.