The Shadow of Kaon

Loose ends

Dodging another attack from her opponent, Darkwing jumped back into a safe distance while slightly shifting the weight of the sword in her hand, letting pitch-black oil splash down from the tip of it onto the floor of the training room.

She stopped for only a shard of time, observing her environment, the littered bodies of the other training dummies around, making sure that she wouldn't trip on any of them, then as her gaze returned to the still standing one in front of her, the femme didn't hesitate anymore.

She bolted forward, evading the attack that would have sent her flying across the room if it had reached her, and when her weapon finally pierced through the cold chassis of the robot, the seeker went further with the help of the momentum and reached for its head, ripping it off before the body even fell to the ground.

When she quickly stood up a moment later, her vision blurred fast as darkness crept up on the edge of her sight from her movements, making her stop completely.

The sound of her own thumping Spark and the low ringing became so loud in her audios that it drowned out her own wheezing breathing too, but by sheer willpower, Darkwing forced herself to stay standing. She focused her attention on the scratched patterns all across the floor until her sight slowly cleared out, and as everything returned to normal, she was surprised to hear the quiet clapping and whistling, quickly making her turn her helm toward the other side of the room where a few vehicons were training.

"Good moves, sweetspark!" Yelled one of the bots, earning a few agreeing murmurs from within their group.

"Yeah, it's rare to see someone clearing out the training program at its highest level." Remarked another vehicon while he crossed his servos before himself, his tone still sounding like he wouldn't believe anything that just happened right in front of them. "Especially not by ripping every training bot in half."

The seeker took a deep breath as she looked around the piling bodies and the mix of oil and a small amount of Energon that darkened the ground, and after a moment of silence, she decided to take a break before continuing with the cleanup.

She stepped over a few scattered limbs and walked around the bodies, crossing the light blue energy barrier that separated her side from the shooting range where the group of vehicons practiced on their targets, and plopped herself down next to one of the resting bots beside the wall, letting out a tired sigh.

"Thank you, but the last one almost got me. And it looks like it took me more time to finish too." She glanced up toward the timer on the opposite wall, her face darkening for a second as she shook her helm at the result it showed. "I need to get back to the strength I had before my injuries as soon as possible."

The vehicon beside her lifted his servo, offering an already open cube of Energon toward the femme while his helm tilted to the side.

"Don't push yourself too hard, or Knockout is going to give us a scolding for letting you do it." He muttered in a worried tone, following her movements as Darkwing accepted the cube and took a small sip, giving it back just as quickly a second later.

"It's just so... frustrating." She answered quietly. "And these dummies don't help too much; their program makes their behavior so predictable." Looking around at the still practicing bots for a moment, a small smirk appeared on her face. "I guess there is not too much chance of getting any of you to train with me, am I right?"

At her words, all the others who until now still kept on shooting at their targets stopped too, exchanging a short glance between them.

"Nah, we don't have a death wish." Said one of them suddenly, but he immediately got hit on the shoulder by another vehicon beside him.