Nitro-Fueled Training Montage (TAG)

[Alice]

True to his word, Colonel had set up extra training sessions for Nitro. He appreciated the desire to better protect one’s self and the people around them. It was an essential skill, in his opinion, and the better trained every member of Aegis was, the better off they’d be. 

It was a few weeks after the attack that had sparked all of this when he was able to get everything arranged for the first session. He was mostly healed from his injuries, but still felt it would probably be better if he stayed on the sidelines and gave advice from there, for now. However, since the decontamination and repair of the ALISE had been completed, he knew the perfect person to help get Nitro started.

Colonel led Nitro into the paneled, stark white room that was the Amplified Light Integrated Simulated Environment, or ALISE for a lot shorter and easier. “I’ll be overseeing your additional training, but I don’t think I’m the best person to give it. You probably saw her at the meeting and heard the big revelation about her there, but regardless of what you might think about all that, Alice is still very capable and knows exactly what needs to be done to help you become the best combatant you can be.”

Alice took a deep breath, so to speak, and then manifested her avatar in the room. It was dressed in simple training leggings and a sports bra, with her hair pulled back into a ponytail. She was intensely nervous. Ever since that meeting, where her nature as an artificial intelligence that was sentient, that could think and had free will, was outed to all of Aegis, she’d been nervous interacting with anyone for the first time. She wasn’t a mind reader. She didn’t know what they were thinking, what they thought of her. Some of them didn’t like the idea of an AI that was alive. Others still treated her as a machine or a tool. Still others were accepting and just started talking to her like she was a person. Those were the interactions that she cherished. However, she never knew which one she was going to get when she talked to someone new.

”Hello, Nitro. I’m Alice. It’s nice to meet you.” 

She extended her hand for a shake.

”Colonel told me you wanted to do more combat training?”

Avonlea Nym

[Avonlea Nym]

She rubbed her eyes.

Some days were worse then others. Her glasses were replaced by the strongest contact prescription she could have and blinked several times before looking herself over in the mirror. The bodysuit was not finished without the matching cloak, but for this particular day, she found that it was just too much and opted to leave it behind hanging near the door to her room.

She was like a ghost gliding down the hallway with her white hair flowing against her shoulders as she neared the office where Colonel had told her to meet him. There was no wasting time as he was prompt in directing her to the ALISE. She followed quietly beside of him, observing for the most part, when he lead her into a room that was destined to be hers. "That's alright, Colonel. I wouldn't see Alice any other way." She would have hoped everyone else would brush it off, but that didn't seem to be the case.

The room she was in made her flinch. It was bright; white like everything about her own self. Nitro smirked before she had been left alone and he was sitting on the sidelines to observe her and evaluate where she needed more training.

"Ready -"

She began to wring her hands in front of her, a nervous habit when the room seemingly came to live in an instant. A girl appeared with red hair and a wonderful complexion Nitro seemed to be in awe of. Of course, she's seen Alice before, but for a one on one with her, she gave a court nod in her direction.

"I'm happy that Colonel has trusted you to train me. I'm afraid that I might be lacking and," Nitro paused wondering just how solid she was supposed to be and what to do at this point. Looking at the outstretched hand, she reached out herself to unite the two hands and her nerves were put to rest a moment later. "Yes. Although, I'm not really sure what you want me to do exactly or where to start. Did Colonel set up any specific setting for this?"

Nitro was curious and ready to darken the bright walls around her making it harder to see. "Weapons or no? Because I'd love to see about learning the bo staff if at all possible." She began to laugh lightly and glanced to Colonel to gauge his interest. "I'm ready to start when you are Alice."

Alice

[Alice]

"That's alright, Colonel. I wouldn't see Alice any other way."

Alice had heard that. Alice heard pretty much everything that went on in Aegis, and now everyone knew about it, and knew she wasn't just a computer program listening for a trigger word like "Alexa" or "Okay Google." And now Alice was overthinking everything.

Wouldn't see me any other way? Does that mean she still sees me as a computer program? Just a tool? Or does she mean that she sees me as a person? An equal? Why do people have to be so damn difficult to understand?

Alice didn't let it show, though. She smiled, and noticed when Nitro winced walking into the ALISE. In response, she shifted color of the room from the stark white material it was made out of, to a bit more muted gray, so it wasn't as blinding.

"Colonel has asked that I get a basic assessment of your capabilities currently, and then advise where to go from there. Figure out where you could use some improvement, and find your strengths and weaknesses."

Colonel smiled reassuringly at Nitro when she looked over at him. "Don't worry. You're in good hands, and I'll go over everything Alice finds out personally. We'll spar soon enough, I just want my leg to heal up a bit more first."

Alice took notes, manifesting a tablet so that it actually looked like she was doing so for Avonlea's sake, when she mentioned that she wanted to learn the bo staff. "We can definitely implement a bo staff into your training later. Colonel didn't specify a setting, but I was thinking something like this."

The entire room changed, pixel by pixel, constructing a martial arts dojo, complete with padded floors and walls for safety. Alice kept the lights dimmed down a bit, and noted that light sensitivity would be something to work on with Nitro.

"If you want, I can change it to something else. If you're ready though, I want you to do your best to take me to the ground and subdue me as if you were going to cuff me and bring me in. I'll resist, but I won't be trying to hurt you badly at all. I've got your powers on file as well, and I'll do my best to simulate their effects. So unless there's something else you need or want to change the setting..."

Alice shifted into a combat stance, the tablet she had been holding vanishing into pixels.

"Come at me!"

Avonlea Nym

[Avonlea Nym]

Alice was already suiting the room to her needs it seemed. Something that Nitro didn't expect and was pleasantly pleased about. The bright color faded off into something more manageable for her eyes and she was able to look around more comfortably. "Thank you." It was a mere mention as Alice spoke in front of her. Judging her abilities or lack thereof and she'd already gathered a lot of information about her powers and skills but Nitro assumed most of that was from the assessment to be accepted into Aegis, which she had passed with flying colors except for one thing that she had held back.

"That sounds exactly what I was hoping would happen." She remarked as Colonel had pretty much let her know that this session would be the first step to not needing the self defense classes anymore for a hobby. This would hopefully be more of a real life session that would be far more useful for the future. Avonlea turned around looking around the room slowly as the pixels began to rearrange themselves bringing it further to life aside from the eye pleasing grey it was just moments ago. A dojo, of sorts, with all the authentic sites of a real one seemed to draw happiness to her lips.

"This is so cool." She began to shake her head as if Alice had thought she wasn't okay with it. "No! Don't... this is great actually. Really muse inspiring and lifelike. It's incredible." Her eyes didn't deceive her a bit when Alice's voice broke her attention to the setting and back to the task at hand.

"Come at you - just like that?" Nitro felt silly, to say the least. It didn't seem to matter if this girl in front of her was real or not, but she was supposed to be part of Aegis and fighting against her instead of a simulation character that she didn't know meant that she needed to put that aside, for Colonel whose eyes were peeled to her.

"Okay." Drawing in a breath and knowledge from the S.D classes she'd taken, she stepped in front of Alice, reaching for a hand to twist it and sweeping her leg around to catch Alice. Her lessons were starting to kick in.

"You're not going to win." She teased with a stern voice.

Alice

[Alice]

Alice smiled when Nitro moved. She had confidence, that was good. Alice let the hand grab happen, and then moved with it, adjusting her positioning as she did so to avoid the leg sweep. In the same movement, she shifted to trap the arm that had reached to grab hers, reversing the intended effect and trapping Nitro in a hold, Alice having Nitro's armed pinned behind her back.

"Not bad. You're telegraphing a little bit. You're going to want to get to the point where you can make your moves on instinct alone, without thinking about them, because right now I can watch your eyes flick to where you're going to try to strike. Try to get out from this position and pin me now."

Really it wasn't a bad first move, and many lesser criminals would be down by now. But Nitro wanted to improve, so Alice was going to look for those places where improvement could happen.

Still, she smirked as she said "If you win, it's probably because I let you."

A little psychological combat training never hurt either.

Avonlea Nym

[Avonlea Nym]

Nitro's movements were seen the moment she had decided on what to do. It was only the first movement against Alice and due to the company of eyes, she felt a bit awkward. The sweep of the legs didn't work as Alice had already anticipated it and kept herself from falling for the movements but what Nitro had already noticed is the movement against her arm was being bent backward and causing her shoulder to jar a bit as she held her elbow out from her body. She held it against Alice's push for a moment listening to her and the instructions to get out of the predicament. A shallow though processed within her mind. If this was just a simulation, curiosity got the better of her, and twisting her fingers to touch Alice's hand, she focused hard.

Nitro couldn't detect human bones or nervous system or muscle. Withholding the powers that she could potentially do had no effect on this computer animated scene. She huffed.

With a gentle nod now, she jerked her arm in closer to her body and with all of the power she could, twisted her arm downward while elongating her arm freeing herself from the hold.

Nitro went in toward Alice with her left arm covering her face, but her right bent at the elbow as she brought her elbow inward, jabbing for her face. In the same fluid motion, Nitro twisted her body to wrap her left arm around Alice's stomach to push forward in order to knock her off balance.

"I'll remember that if I win, it was because Colonel didn't program this room to be a challenge."

Alice

[Alice]

Alice noticed when she twisted her hand around to touch Alice's. Her head turned curiously. She was picking up something, brainwaves and signals similar to when Nitro used her healing ability, but it was different. Alice hadn't ever seen Nitro use whatever ability she was trying to, so she couldn't simulate it's effects.

It was enough to throw Alice off balance mentally enough for Nitro's move to take full effect. The elbow connected with her face, and the force of that combined with the pushing on her stomach was enough to topple her to the floor.

Alice had to smirk at the comment. Wisecracking was good. It showed confidence, and so long as you weren't getting distracted by your own snarks, could serve to distract the enemy.

"Or," Alice said against the ground, "You're winning because there was something that you're holding back that you tried to use."

Alice swept her legs around, attempting to pull Nitro's out from under her, but using the momentum to pull herself back up to her feet.

Alice looked over at Colonel, a message for him appearing on the terminal in front of him. He nodded to her.

"So it's up to you now. We can keep sparring like we are and get a grasp of what you can do right now, as is, or we can sit down and have a conversation about what you've been keeping back, we run a few tests, and then I integrate it into the system and we do this again, but you'll be at full power. Up to you."

Avonlea Nym

[Avonlea Nym]

Avonlea took note of how everything she put into hurting the computer simulated training Alice, it did nothing. That was good but it was also bad because she noticed immediately the confusion on her face and in a moment's notice, it was over. Alice recuperated immediately, gaining leverage to ascend to a standing position while using Nitro's vertical stance as such. In a staggering hobble, she fell forward, catching herself against her fingertips, never touching concrete with anything more than that.

"Or, you're winning because there was something you're holding back that you tried to use. So it's up to you now. We can keep sparring..."

Avonlea shook her head, knowing that unless she revealed the darker part of her powers to this entity and in front of Colonel, she would face the hardships she fought so hard to keep silent that remained of her past.

"I am at full power but I think I'm done for now." She glanced to Colonel who seemed unmoved by Alice's accusations. "Alice - how could I improve? Colonel?" She looked at her left hand, the one she had landed on to keep herself balanced and focused on the muscles within, repairing the fibers that she had overused.

Alice

[Alice]

Alice looked at Nitro, knowing that she was holding back something from them. However, she had personal experience recently of having something revealed that she wanted to keep secret longer.

"If you're sure you're not holding back, that's fine."

Colonel stood up from the safe area he had been staying in, walked up and put a hand on Avonlea's shoulder. "You did well. Alice sent me notes on what she noticed. You signal your strikes too much, but learning to not give that away is something that takes time and practice. We'll set up a combat training regimen to work on that. You can talk with the health department yourself if you want to set up an exercise plan to build more muscle, but that's optional. We'll tailor the combat training to work with what you have."

Alice's avatar moved up to her as well. "And... hey. I... know it's... weird... that I'm... you know. Alive. A person. But if you ever want to talk about anything, I'm available. And I'm good at keeping secrets. You can talk to me."

Colonel nodded. "I trust Alice. She's taken good care of us ever since Tim brought her to us years ago. Do you have any other questions?"

Avonlea Nym

[Avonlea Nym]

Avonlea felt frustrated but didn't let it show. She wanted to tell them about the powers, but there was just something that she couldn't quite live with if they did somehow find out, especially Colonel. What if they had dug into her past? Would they find out what happened to the boy? Would she still be a trusted member to Aegis?

"...but if you ever want to talk about anything, I'm available. And I'm good at keeping secrets. You can talk to me." Nitro's face relaxed suddenly, curiosity and intrigue showing directly to Alice and she nodded with a hint of a smile. Tim, on the other hand confirmed with her that Alice was as much as an asset no matter her status of living versus non.

It was hard keeping secrets and so far she'd managed to keep it a secret for this long, but there was something about Alice being considered human, enough for her, that gave her a sense of security. Instead of a computer who'd glitch or be broken down with commands to expose her, she had the ability to keep a secret and hold it as someone with a conscious.

"That's all Colonel. Thank you very much." She nodded and turned away from Alice and started to walk away to the door. Before placing her hand on the knob to exit, she turned to Alice. "Can we talk sometime soon? I'd like to have a confidant about something. If you are willing?"

Alice