[santa]

What started out as the gentle hum of a helicopter's blades quickly became a deafening roar as the aircraft hovered above the pair casting a massive shadow over the field. Within minutes the passenger side door flew open and a rope ladder gracefully descended.The figure that emerged from the helicopter was dressed in a red tactical suit complete with a military grade bulletproof vest and a fitted red helmet. A pair of black anti fog goggles rested against the brim of his helmet just above the man's bushy eyebrows. His full beard was scruffy and unkempt and there was a hard edge to the man's piercing blue eyes as his combat boots made contact with the ground.



With a decorative envelope tucked into the crook of his arm, the man lifted his head and pushed his broad shoulders back before marching across the field towards the duo.The combination of long legs and wide strides easily allowed the man to close the gap between himself and the pair fairly quickly. As he approached the two women, the man directed his gaze first towards the dark haired woman "Ma'am," he greeted offering her a curt nod as he did so. Allowing his gaze to flit over to the blonde, he added "Young miss."



Clearing his throat authoritively he continued "I have something here for you ma'am. Special delivery." With his gaze fixated on the dark haired woman, the man extended the envelope towards her. As she removed it from his grasp, he withdrew a small notepad from his bulky pocket. Tugging a pen free from behind his earlobe, he drew a line through the woman's name and quickly tucked the notepad back into his pocket. Raising his gaze back up to the recipient he stated "If you'll excuse me, ma'am. Duty calls." Offering the young women a brief salute, the man then turned and strode back across the field towards the helicopter.

Aoi Sato

[Aoi Sato]

Aoi tensed as soon as she heard the sound of a chopper. No one should know where they were besides the Program. Did the Program send someone? They wouldn’t need a helicopter though, would they? She extended her wings and put up her hands, ready for action. ”Stay there. Don’t do anything.” She instructed Sunny.

The man who descended from the helicopter looked quite official, and it put her somewhat at ease. He didn’t seem prepared for combat, but she didn’t lower her stance. Not until he took out the envelope and handed it to her. Slowly, muscles still tensed and ready, she reached out and took it from his grasp. She watched carefully as the man took out the pen, drew a line in his notebook, and gave her a salute. She remained stiff as her eyes followed him back to the helicopter.

Once he was gone, she folded up her wings and turned her eyes back toward the envelope. She inspected it carefully: sniffed it, held it up to the light. There was nothing suspicious about it. Carefully, she opened it and pulled out the contents. It was a voucher for a weekend getaway spa in Malibu, with the flights paid for. It contained a message: 'You need a weekend to relax. I hope you enjoy. XXX From your tippity top secret Santa’

Spa? Relax? Who was this from? Did they even know her? “Relax” wasn’t in her dictionary. Her first instinct was to toss it away. Then she looked at the pink little mess in front of her, back at the voucher, then back at Sunny. Aoi pocketed the voucher. She could deal with it later. She put her hands back by her sides. ”Ignore that. Now, hit me.”

[Sunny Slater]

"Uh like, I totes don't need training."

Ew, this better not ruin my nails!

Sunny wrinkled her nose in disgust as Aoi suggested touching the floor, and that there was no reason why not to. She heard Aoi say that she had to keep exercising to build her 'strength', and groaned in despair. She figured it was okay though, Aoi wouldn't know that she wasn't once this training session was over. Worse, though, she now had to touch the ground. She stopped hovering, putting her arms and legs out to keep herself as little in contact with the ground as possible, but she was too exhausted to stay there for long, and collapsed, sprawled on her back on the grass, protected only by her cape.
"Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!" She shrieked, wriggling a little but not having the energy to move for a moment. You'd have thought she'd run a marathon, not just done five easy push-ups. She dare not use her powers though, in case Aoi made her do more push-ups, so she obediently lay on the floor, a physical wreck from the easy exercise.

Luckily, Santa showed up to deliver a present and that gave Sunny time to recover. Most people would find that odd, but in Sunny's little bubblegum world, of course Santa visited people to drop off presents, so she didn't think anything of it, and just remained there, using the extra time to recover. Aoi came back over, telling her to get on with hitting her. First of all, Sunny had to get up, on shaky, exhausted, weak arms. She groaned as she struggled to her feet. Gawd, was this what it was like for everybody? She'd forgotten what it was like to not be able to float to your feet. Then she walked over, looking at Aoi, then her own tiny fists. She had to punch her?

Sunny didn't know how to punch. She didn't have to. She could just give somebody a light tap and her gravity powers would do the rest. She paused, and then in one, jerky motion, pushed her arm out straight with a closed fist (with her thumb inside). Calling it a punch would be excessively generous. A gentle push wouldn't even be accurate. If there was a Guinness World Record for the world's weakest punch, Sunny would have just broken it by a mile. It was barely even a tap, and her arm was shaking from the effort even at that...

Aoi Sato

"Yuck! Grass!"

ulla

[Aoi Sato]

Aoi watched stoically as Sunny tried desperately to keep herself from touching the ground before falling on her back, exhausted. Anyone else would have found this funny, but Aoi didn’t find anything funny. She just stood, arms crossed, waiting silently for Sunny to get herself together - her resting bitch face unmoving, the sun slowly setting behind her; her massive figure casting a shadow over the pink little Hero.

She was somewhat surprised at Sunny’s nonchalant reaction to the man who came to deliver her a present. Maybe he was part of the Program. Whatever. Aoi decided to put it out of her mind. She had more pressing matters to attend to.

Finally, it seemed, Sunny recovered some of her energy. Not all of it, far from it, but enough that she could stand. Aoi remained still as Sunny approached her and thrust out her fist. With lightning fast reflexes (though reflexes at that caliber weren’t necessarily required), she caught Sunny’s fist with her hand, her massive palm dwarfing Sunny’s balled up little fist. Now she knew where Sunny stood. She couldn’t say she was surprised at the extent of her ineptitude.

”That’s incorrect.” She said simply, releasing Sunny’s hand. ”Watch me.” Aoi curled her hands into fists and put them close to her face, right under her eyes, standing with her left foot forward and her right foot back. ”You’ll want to place your fists in front of your face, thumb on the outside. Put your left foot forward and your right foot back.” Aoi could tell from observing Sunny that she was right-handed - handedness was one of the first things one needed to observe about their opponent - so no need for a southpaw stance. She slowly extended her fist, throwing a slow motion punch. ”Throw with your dominant hand. Turn your wrist and twist your back foot like you’re squishing a bug.” She said as she demonstrated. Finishing her presentation, she stood straight once more.

”Try it again.”

Sunny Slater

[Sunny Slater]

"Uh like, I totes don't need training."

Ew, this better not ruin my nails!

Sunny gasped a little as Aoi caught her fist without the slightest concern, but she wasn't TOO surprised. Sunny knew she was pathetically weak and couldn't fight without her powers. Heck, she thought it was cute! Cute and dainty!<P>
"Ow!" She said reflexively, at her hand being caught. She wasn't ready for the shock, and it ran down her skinny arm causing her to flinch a little.

At first, her following Aoi's instructions went fairly well. She listened, she took up a rough facsimile of the stance offered; Sunny was a model, she was used to posing and following stances, even if in a wildly different context, and it looked like she might have actually listened. She was still too much of a wimp to throw anything resembling a real punch, but at least she was in something resembling the right position. It was going as well as it possibly could be...

...until Aoi told her to act like she was squishing a bug. Sunny seemed to pale, which was fairly impressive given the amount of make-up she was wearing.
"A...bug?" She said, horrified. Sunny didn't squish bugs. She flew away from them and called for somebody else to deal with it. But this was an imaginary bug, right? She could squish an imaginary bug. She looked, a look of fear and disgust on her face, and then she let out a dainty little 'pat' forwards, barely even a slap, as if trying to kill a tiny bug without actually touching it, all the while letting out an ear splitting; "Ewwwwwwwwwwwwww!"

Aoi Sato

"Yuck! Grass!"

ulla

[Aoi Sato]

Aoi furrowed her brow ever so slightly at Sunny’s exclamation of pain. That punch should not have hurt. It was far too weak to have any impact, and Aoi caught it in such a way that the inertia of the punch (what little there was) would be gradually slowed. Still, it seemed the minimal force of her weak little punch was still enough to reverberate down her skinny little arm. More and more, Sunny was looking like a lost cause, but Aoi didn’t give up that easily.

The lost cause notion was challenged, however, when Sunny adopted the stance Aoi demonstrated for her accurately and with relative ease. This surprised Aoi. Up until then Sunny hadn’t been anything but incompetent. There may be some hope for her after all. Aoi showed her approval with a curt nod. Aoi’s emotional range didn’t allow for much more than that.

It was when Aoi mentioned the ‘squishing the bug’ simile (that all of her coaches have used to demonstrate the proper motion when throwing a punch since she was seven) did things go right back to being wrong. The blood drained from Sunny’s face, a look of terror spread across her features. At first Aoi was confused. What was she so terrified about? The answer came relatively quickly as she acted as if she were trying (and failing) to kill an actual bug, followed by a far-too-loud expression of disgust.

“There. Is. No. Bug.” Aoi said as slowly as she could, as if talking to a toddler (in her own harsh, severe way). ”It was simply a visual to improve your form.” Perhaps she should have figured by now that Sunny didn’t squish bugs. She let out a little sigh through her nose and looked to the side, thinking for a second. ”Try that again. Return to the stance. Repeat my instructions, and twist your foot as if you got gum stuck to the front of your shoe.” She figured that would be a situation Sunny was more familiar with.

Sunny Slater

[Sunny Slater]

"Uh like, I totes don't need training."

Ew, this better not ruin my nails!

"Like, I know there's no REAL bug, silly. If there was a real bug, I'd have like, TOTALLY flown away already." Sunny said with a dramatic eye-roll. Ew. Like she'd even risk touching a real bug. "I was jus', like, actin' like there was one, like you told me too." She said chirpily, proud that her acting had obviously fooled Aoi if she had to point out there was no bug! And to think, they said she couldn't voice herself on her show because she couldn't act. As. IF!

She returned to her stance, but wrinkled her nose when Aoi suggested acting as if she got gum stuck on her shoe.<br>
"Ewwwww. I hate gum. I just blast it off with my gravity field." She paused, realising this wasn't quite what Aoi had in mind. "But, like, I guess, if not... Well... Ewwwwww...." She made a bit of a show of being grossed out, because she was still acting, and daintily put one foot forward, trying carefully to scrape imaginary gum off on the ground without damaging her fashionable boot.

It was still nowhere near correct...
Aoi Sato

"Yuck! Grass!"

ulla

[Aoi Sato]

Okay, no more metaphors.

”I am not training you to act,” Aoi said. ”I am training you to fight and improve your abilities as a Hero. That does not include theatrics. I would imagine that would be obvious.” Though it seemed the obvious often eluded Sunny. She was lucky Aoi was as persistent as she was. Patient, not so much. In fact, her patience was wearing very, very thin. So thin, in fact, that a single gust of wind could break it. But Aoi was damned if she wasn’t going to do what she set out to do and train this little mess of a Hero.

”That is not correct,” she said simply. ”Let me demonstrate again. Watch carefully.” Aoi assumed her fighter’s stance. Again, in slow motion, she brought her fist forward as she twisted her foot (as if squishing a bug or scraping gum off the tip of her shoe), moving her whole body with her slow motion punch. Then again, slowly, she brought her fist back to her face and resumed her stance. She repeated the movement at full speed. ”Now, do what I just did.” No metaphors, obviously they only served to confuse Sunny. She would be straightforward and simple.

Sunny Slater

[Sunny Slater]

"Uh like, I totes don't need training."

Ew, this better not ruin my nails!

"Oh." was all Sunny said in response to the comment that she shouldn't be acting, and that it should be obvious. She was clearly disappointed. She had to admit, she had been a little confused as to what acting had to do with self defence, but she'd been enjoying it. She'd always thought she'd make a good actress, despite what the meanie director had said about her acting, and had been looking forward to giving it a go. Still, she supposed if it was just copying a pose, she could do that easily, right?

She moved alongside Aoi and watched carefully. Sunny wasn't bad at copying poses, but she did totally lack any physical strength at all, and was definitely a huge clutz and ditz when not able to use her powers, meaning, yes, of course disaster was inevitable. She watched carefully, and while she mostly adopted the pose, as she extended her arm in what was doubtlessly the slowest, weakest, most pathetic punch in human history, she also twisted her foot as instructed... but given that Sunny had no experience at all of going barefoot or not wearing her ridiculous heels, she was subconsciously expecting her heel to be raised where it wasn't. That meant that she suddenly lost her balance as she twisted her foot. She began to fall backwards, and her arms pinwheeled madly as she tried to keep her balance, but moments later she failed, and with a shriek fell backwards.

Fortunately, she didn't last on her backside, but instead stopped, hovering just about the ground, her powers instinctively taking over. She quickly floated back to her feet, and looked down at the heel of her bare foot in a sulk as she put her feet back on the ground.
"Ewwwwww. Now my foot is all muddy." she pouted.

Aoi Sato

"Yuck! Grass!"

ulla

[Aoi Sato]

“Oh” was right. It seemed something had finally gotten through that thick skull of hers. Clearly, she was disappointed. ”If you want to be an actress, you’re in the wrong field,” Aoi said coldly. Heroes were meant to keep the peace, not entertain people. If she wanted to act, she could just go on her television show (something that Aoi also thought was ridiculous, not to mention highly unprofessional).

Aoi watched carefully as Sunny followed her movement. ”Good,” she said succinctly as Sunny did a surprisingly decent job at copying her form. What Sunny lacked in strength, she made up for, at least in part, in technique. That was the important part. Anyone could be strong with enough exercise. It took skill to throw a proper punch. Perhaps that time on the runway had benefited Sunny after all.

Not everything was correct, however, as Sunny’s heel was raised too far off the ground, and as she twisted, she fell to the ground. Aoi thought about catching her flailing arms as she descended - she certainly had the ability to do so - but she decided Sunny deserved it. Her form was incorrect, and thus she should be punished for erroneous actions. How else was she going to learn?

Aoi crossed her arms. ”You used your powers. Five more push-ups.” Sure, her form was halfway decent, but if she was going to throw any power with that punch, she needed to increase her strength. Aoi figured this served as both a punishment and a decent way for Sunny to get in some much needed exercise.

Sunny Slater

[Sunny Slater]

"Uh like, I totes don't need training."

Ew, this better not ruin my nails!

Sunny thought about commenting that she had tried to be an actress but had been terrible at it, but for once she thought better of it. She had a feeling that it wouldn't impress Aoi. She wondered whether to mention that she thought knowing how to act around people was important for a hero; it was her favourite part, after all, meeting people and seeing how they looked at you, but again thankfully something resembling logic managed to reach her perfume soaked brain and she thought better of that too.

However, when Aoi suggested that she should do push-ups again for using her powers her eyes went wide and she landed back down on the ground.
"N-n-n-no! Please! It doesn't count! It was, like, jus' 'cause I was falling over." she begged desperately. "Please! I can't do more push ups!" She whined pathetically, before quickly taking up the punching stance again (albeit this time slightly incorrect, as she wasn't copying Aoi directly). She threw a couple of utterly pathetic, entirely incorrect punches (complete with her own improvised sound effects). "See! I'm doin' the punches! I am!" She said, like a desperate child trying to get out of trouble.

Aoi Sato

"Yuck! Grass!"

ulla

[Aoi Sato]

Arms crossed, face stern, Aoi watched as Sunny begged not to do anymore push ups as if she were pleading for her life. This made no sense to Aoi. Exercise was important, rewarding, and, at least to Aoi, fun. It perplexed Aoi as to why Sunny would be averse to physical exertion. Aoi loved exercising and she was confused as to why other people didn’t love it as well. The endorphins that flooded one’s brain after a good workout were just one of the many rewards for such an activity. She figured that would be enough for Sunny. Apparently, it wasn’t.

”Punches are not push ups,” she said. At least Sunny was making something of an effort, which was more than she could say for the beginning of the session. How long had it been? She checked her watch and her face almost showed surprise. They’d been there for that long? And Sunny had barely thrown a punch. She looked at the pile of wooden planks on the ground. It seemed they weren’t going to get to those today.

She let out a sharp breath from her nose. As much as she’d like to persist, she had other responsibilities to get to today. She had a briefing in half an hour followed by a patrol around the Bronx. She was not, however, going to give up that easily. She’d teach Sunny something valuable today if it killed her.

"Five push ups, one good punch, and we’ll wrap it up for the day,” she said.

Sunny Slater

[Sunny Slater]

"Uh like, I totes don't need training."

Ew, this better not ruin my nails!

Sunny let out an exaggerated child-like moan as she got back onto the floor to do the push-ups as requested, knowing when to give up. Aoi might have been on the verge of pulling her hair out, but it took a special talent to make Sunny do something she didn't want to do, so in that respect, Aoi should have been proud of her achievements.

Because she certainly wouldn't be proud of Sunny's achievements. She didn't, predictably, manage the five push-ups, even on her knees. She managed two, but on the third only managed to push herself half way up before her skinny arms started shaking unbearably, and she collapsed, rolling over onto her back, panting desperately, utterly defeated by the simple task.

"Pleeeeease can we stop now?" she asked, gasping. She knew she still owed two and a half push-ups and a punch, but it was obvious that Sunny was done at this point. The girl literally didn't have it in her to do even the most basic of exercise. All she could do was lay on her back panting, her cape spanned out behind her like a very pink blanket...

Aoi Sato

"Yuck! Grass!"

ulla

[Aoi Sato]

Rarely had Aoi encountered such resistance in her trainees. It was vexing, to say the least. Most people wanted to better themselves, become a more effective Hero. Sunny seemed to have no such ambitions. As far as Aoi could surmise, she was in it for the image, the title, the glamour. It was insulting. Law enforcement was an incredibly important position, yet Sunny acted so frivolous about the whole ordeal. Any guilt Aoi might have felt about her previous outburst about the incident at the red carpet had long been washed away.

That last precious strand of patience that Aoi had been so desperately trying to keep together snapped as Sunny failed to do more than two push ups. A Hero should never be this out of shape. It should not be allowed. It was an insult, a disgrace. She would not let Sunny’s failure stand.

Despite her patience having completely worn away, Aoi remained stoic, as always. She was not one for showing her emotions. She was fuming. Anyone that knew her (that being her dad and no one else) could see the steam rising off of her, but anyone else would simply see her usual resting bitch face, her arms crossed perhaps a bit tighter than usual, her knuckles white and her well trimmed nails digging into her skin.

She would not, however, directly take her anger out on Sunny. No, that would be against regulation, and going against any kind of regulation was the last thing she wanted to do. She would go by the books. If someone did something wrong - as Sunny had clearly done, being in a position of law enforcement as weak and unprepared as she was - there would be some law that would punish them accordingly.

Aoi checked her watch. “We have just run out of time,” she said. “So yes, we will stop for the day. I will report your lack of abilities to the Program, and if they decide to keep you on, I will see you next week.” She grabbed the planks of wood, put them under her arm, and unfurled her wings. ”If you have any hopes of staying in the Program, I suggest you become better prepared.” She took off into the air, flying far away from the absolute disgrace that she had the misfortune of training (or at least trying).

END

Sunny Slater