Halo Squad

Chapter 13

His codename was met by various "cool"s and "awesome"s, and he looked over at Baby, who rolled her eyes at him. "Trust you to name yourself after the main source of our angel-ness. Tryna be a cool and badass angel" "You gotta admit though, it is a really cool name though. We'll like appear places, they'll be all 'Who are you?' and I'll just say 'Halo. Agent Halo' it's such a bomb name!". Remiel silenced them all with a booming clap "Okay you lot, I know you're excited and all, but there's something important you need to remember. We don't want any accidental slip-ups in front of the enemy, so from now on we only call each other by code names during training times. I can't stop you using real names in your free time, but whilst we're training I don't want to hear any names apart from the ones on your jackets. You understand me?", all nine of them nodded, then watched as the orbs flew out of the combat room in a perfect line.

"Okay guys, next on the list is..." Remiel checked his halo again "Your ability tests. We're gonna go round multiple different types of fighting and weaponry to see what you guys are good at". From that point on they spent several hours going through these tests. First up was boxing, to check that they were all able to punch properly. Gava, having been a boxer for the past 6 years, beat them all. However, all of them were able to punch sufficiently, apart from Tamsin, Lavinia and Emilia who Gava promised to teach. Next up was wrestling, and being a rugby player everyone was scared to go against Dominic. Apart from Remiel, who beat Dominic in 10 seconds flat "That's not fair, you're a massive, trained, powerful archangel. You would obviously win". The other 8 paired up and wrestled each other, with Gava and Gemma's match descending into a tickle fight, leading to Remiel forcing them to come back and train with him. Then came the third section of bare handed combat, the one Baby had been looking forward to, "Now it's time for some mixed martial arts".

"Okay losers, line up. I'm ready to fight all of you" Baby was ready with trash talk and methods in which to floor an opponent quickly. She defeated each of the team with various throws, jabs and sweeps. That was, until Dominic, who was used to her practicing her techniques on him, sidestepped and tripped her when she charged at him. However, his laughing stopped when she pulled him down to the floor with her. Remiel walked over to a wall and leant his head forward, causing his halo to tap it. The wall then slid open to reveal a selection of melee weapons, which immediately brought grins from the faces of Gemma, Baby and Dominic. "Okay you lot, now is the time we separate. Those who need to practice boxing come with me and Gava to the punching bags. Those who want to try out some ranged weapons go with Michael to the the shooting range,", a handsome looking angel flew into the room and nodded at them, "and for those who want to fight melee, Gabriel is on his way". Dominic's face visibly darkened at the prospect of having to train with the Archangel he hated so much. Anna and Japeth followed Michael out.

Baby saw Dominic's face and decided to change the subject. "Come on you two, grab your weapons so we can get some practice before he arrives" she told Dominic and Gemma. Dominic grumbled "If he decides to come at all" under his breath but walked over to the weapon display. He already knew what weapons he wanted, and picked up a katana. He whispered "hekpelh qedveshh" and the katana doubled, just like the pool ball from before. This time Baby heard him, and whispered to herself "Heck-pell ked-vesh? What?" but decided to save the questioning for later. Gemma walked over to the weapons, and selected a pair of nunchaku. She started swinging them around, and ended up whacking herself a couple times. Baby looked at the weapon wall, and was disappointed by the lack of her desired weapon "Dom, you got any spells I could use?". Dominic walked over to her, a katana in each hand "What's wrong?" "The weapon I want isn't here. Can you make it?" "Well, I can't just create stuff from nothing, do you happen to have a picture of it?" "No, why would I carry about pictures of weapons?" "Wait a sec, lemme see if I can use google images from the halo" "Why would you-", Dominic cut her off by putting a finger to her lips, shushing her.

He pulled his halo from his head and tapped and swiped at an invisible display that only he could see, until he double tapped, causing a holographic image to appear. He then whistled, causing his outfit orb to fly in. The orb scanned the hologram, and Dominic told it "Make them in Baby's size". His orb floated towards Baby, then projected and formed the weapon around her forearms. Gemma's eyes widened as she said "Are those-" "Assassin's creed hidden wrist blades, yes" Dominic replied with a smirk. "But how did you know I wanted those?" asked Baby, but Dominic only laughed. Baby sometimes forgot just how well he knew her. She looked at her wrists and played with the triggers, extending and retracting the knives, "Oh boy! These are gonna be fun".

Gabriel then swooped in through the entrance. "Greetings, young angels. I'm not going to apologise for being late, because what I was doing was more important than this. Let's get started". Dominic slit his eyes, then turned to Baby with an 'i told you so' look. "Okay, you were right. He's a bloody cactus" she whispered, then turned back to Gabriel. "Well, I intended to begin with finding the weapons most suited to you, but it seems that Gemma and Dominic have already done this. What about you, Baby?", Baby simply held up her wrist and pulled her sleeve back, Gabriel raised an eyebrow "What a most...unorthodox choice. Ah well, I guess we move on to the physical shape portion. Time to get fit, kids".

Gabriel closed the doors, then clapped twice. The whole room was then filled with various different equipment Dominic recognised as being used for HIIT. "Okay, time for some high intensity interval training" Gabriel announced, then assigned Baby and Gemma exercises to do. Dominic, however, having already been transformed to perfect fitness, was beckoned over by Gabriel, who now held two long metallic batons. "Dominic, I saw all that training you did on earth. Also, I should think that you've been sufficiently trained by your dreams. So, I'd like to test you. You won't need to start from basics like the others" Gabriel told him. Dominic simply held up his swords in response, challenging Gabriel. Gabriel then proceeded to come at Dominic with a flurry of hits, all of which Dominic only just barely parried. He hadn't expected to Gabriel to hit as hard or fast. But nevertheless, he released his pent-up aggression with a series of stabs and slashes at Gabriel, who easily countered all his attacks. They continued to go back and forth like this, until Gabriel started to become visibly bored, and increased the speed of his hits. This quite quickly overwhelmed Dominic, who soon found himself on the floor with Gabriel's baton pointed at his throat.

"Dammit" he whispered to himself under his breath, then pushed the baton away and stood up. "Well, you're not unskilled, I'll give you that. However, as you've just seen, you could be so much better. Me and you will train privately, while the others do fitness and non-combat training. However, during combat training, you can either stay and help the others, or have free time" Gabriel informed Dominic, who replied "I think I'll mostly spend that time in the library". Gabriel nodded, then snapped his fingers, causing Dominic's swords to disappear. "What the hell?!" "You will not be using those for training. I will give you some training batons, which weigh a lot more than your swords" "Why the hell would you do that?" "If you can fight well using a heavy baton, you should be able to sufficiently fight with any sword, no matter what size or weight. I will be training you in both double handed and single handed sword fighting, although it is apparent that you prefer double handed, which is fine. But you still need to be able to do both". Dominic walked over to the weapon display and picked up two batons. He knew he wouldn't enjoy this.