The Messengers of Sanctuary

17 - River

River sighed as he looked at the various stopwatches and measuring equipment, more sure with each passing moment that he wouldn't like this evaluation much.

Ace stood at the edge of the field with a thoughtful look, Diane at his side. The more River thought about it, the more he was sure that the two of them were a couple or something, the way they stood suggested it, plus they always seemed to be near each other.

"So, how do we want to do this?" Ace asked, also glancing at the equipment.

River frowned, "well, any activity where I'm fighting someone is a terrible idea. I could end up attacking them and that would be an enormous hassle."

"Yes, that's just unsafe for everyone. Is there any sort of weird limitations you have?" Diane put in, picking up some padding with an odd expression.

River contemplated not telling them anything, but he ruled the idea out almost immediately. "My eyes are really sensitive to light. I'm a nightstalker, we're nocturnal. If my sunglasses fall off, don't approach me. Anyone who does so will get slashed. Also if someone starts bleeding for any reason, get them away from me, that makes the bloodlust skyrocket and it's really annoying."

The two trainers nodded, unfazed by the idea. "Perfect," Ace said, taking out a stopwatch from the pile. "First test, speed."

Diane caught it as Ace tossed it to her.

"Run at your top speed from that red mark over there to this white mark right here. We use this to see how people are developing their heartfire, making sure everything's going right. It'll give us a good sense of where you fall." Ace explained needlessly. River had already figured that, but he supposed it was good to know.

River strolled over to the red mark, falling into a ready position.

"GO!" Diane shouted, holding up the stopwatch.

River was off, he went as fast as his legs could carry him, sacrificing the silent steps of a nightstalker for his top speeds. He hadn't used them much, he was an ambush predator, and he didn't rely on drawn-out speed much, just short bursts of it during an initial attack.

He made it to the other side and heard the click as Diane ended the timer, whistling lowly at the results. She grinned over at Ace, "he has you beat."

Ace blinked, glancing at the stopwatch, "Wow, impressive." he looked back at River, who was just sort of standing there, "How's your endurance."

River scowled, remembering his journey there, "worse than Chicory's, I'm built for short bursts of speed during ambushes, not drawn-out chases."

Diane nodded, as if expecting that. "How about strength now?"

Ace nodded and Diane put away the stopwatch, the two of them dug into the pile of equipment for a moment, coming out with a grip strength tester and a dubious amount of weights.

Ace handed River the grip strength tester, and he frowned at it, wrapping his hand around the mechanism. I feel like I'm back in gym class...River pulled the thing down, the resistance was annoying, and it was clearly modified for heartfire strength, but he still pulled it down with moderate ease.

After that they handed him various weights, making note of his limits. In the end, they concluded that he was stronger than fired people, but not by much.

"Mmmm what next..." Ace asked idly, watching with fascination as River picked up a particularly tricky weight with enough ease that it would probably look hilarious out of context.

---

River watched curiously as Chicory stood at the head of the huge group. She'd called the meeting with all her messengers early because it seemed like everyone who was going to be arriving was already in the area.