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Bianca's skin glowed due to the fine sheen of sweat that covered it. It was the good kind of sweat though the weapon girl thought. The kind that meant she was working hard to keep herself in shape, that she was pushing her body hard enough to heat up and perspire. If Bianca wasn't sweating by at least midway through a workout she knew she hadn't pushed hard enough for her standards. It was a thought she shared with her best friend and technician partner; both of them were determined to make the most of the bodies they'd been born with, to see just how much they could do with them.

Cammi was nowhere to be seen at the moment though, the technician girl having left Bianca on her own to go do swimming laps. She'd said she needed more resistance training and wasn't in the mood for the weight machines today. Bianca's amber eyes flicked down to look at her watch which doubled as a heart rate monitor. Given Cammi's usual speed the other girl should be done her lap sets in about fifteen more minutes.

Just as the thought passed through Bianca's mind the treadmill she was running on beeped to signal the end of the run she'd been doing. The rate as which her feet pounded down on the moving platform slowed as the machine wound down. The silver haired girl took some deeper breathes and reached out to grab her towel off the front beam so she could mop her face. Her legs burned but it was more warm ache than any agony.

Keeping her time limit in mind she hooped off the treadmill and headed towards a free rowing machine nearby. Fifteen minutes on that would be plenty before she moved on to whatever she and Cammi decided their partnered workout would be.

Down in the pool Cammi was thinking less about time than about how many laps she had left to do. She worked to cut through the water with as much efficiency as possible. She was no Olympic speed swimmer but she liked to put up a decent time, besides it made her heart pound and her blood thrum the faster and harder she worked.

"I don't think she's going to find more sympathy in the pool" Bianca said conversationally as the unknown male sat down near her, a frown upon his face. It wasn't that the scythe girl had been being nosy but it was kind of hard to ignore the little display that had just gone on. Well for her anyways becuase the rowing machine took only so much focus which meant she was free to turn her head to watch anything of interest that might happen. Had she been doing free weights she'd have been a bit too focused on keeping form to pay any attention.

Regardless her comments were ess meant as any sort of criticism towards the boy or his now absent partner than simple statement of fact. Most people came here to workout and they were fairly serious about it, nobody ate you for asking for help or being new but they weren't likely to tolerate goofing off too much. The gym could be fun but it wasn't a playground.

The pool was used more for laps than for splashing about although the odd water polo game had been held there which did count as fun. Ah well, as long as Cammi wasn't bothered Bianca would probably never know what became of the girl.

Cammi reached the end of the pool, did a flip turn and headed back the way she had come. Mentally the young blonde made note to switch to open turns for the rest of her laps as she as starting to loose form in the flip turns. It'd take her a bit longer to complete the laps but it was better than straining something. As she raised her head for air the technician noticed another person entering the pool area in a bright blue swimsuit, the colour reminded her of the shower curtain at home. Hmm maybe when she was done this set set could grab Bianca quickly and they could race if the dark haired wasn't doing laps of her own then. A little friendly competition never hurt anyone and Cammi hadn't raced anyone outside of Bianca since she'd quit the local swim league.

Bianca smiled a little at the compliment from her new exercise companion, good form was needed so as not to hurt yourself. While that in and of itself was important and worthwhile it pleased the silver haired girl that the boy, hmm maybe she should as his name, had noticed. " It wasn't really a bother just a little bit noticeable." She assured him with another smile as she pulled the cable towards her and extended her legs again.

"Not that it's any of my business,"she began" but what exactly makes you an authority figure over her?" From what Bianca had overheard she gathered that the pair were also attendees of Shibusen and not just locals who were working out here.Certainly that meant that there needed to be give and take in their partnership, a partnership which had apparently gotten them moved up a rank a already, it didn't mean anyone got to be the boss though.


At least not in Bianca's mind anyways, she'd already make that clear to Cammi about their own partnership. They might push each other but neither was allowed to force the other girl into anything by trying to assert dominance like some sort of alpha dog. In battle perhaps one of them might lead tactics wise for the sake the being efficient but that didn't mean there wouldn't be communication or that whoever made up the strategy controlled the other girl outside of missions. Bianca supposed it was possible though that a less independent person might need to be lead, still the idea rubbed the short girl the wrong way. Something in her railed against the idea of being bent to someone else's will for her own good or not.

As her breath came out in shallow pants and sweat beaded above her eyebrows Bianca supposed she might be reading too much into this like the situation the other day with Lucien. She needed to stop defaulting on negative thoughts and try and enjoy the company she was getting, as it was being enrolled in Shibusen gave her less time to socialize inside and outside of class and she was starting to miss just talking to people.


Cammi finished her laps just a few minutes after the other girl entered the water. She hauled herself up onto the side of the pool and watched the other to see just what precisely she was doing. Her short blonde hair still found plenty of chlorinated water to drip out of it and down onto the tiled floor of the pool room. A heavy waterlogged feeling spread over her as she let her body relax, it had something to do with the way her body repositioned her blood from being flat vs sitting up for something like that.

With her feet dang over the side of the pool's edge and dipped partially into the water she waited for the goggle wearing swimmer to surface.

Bianca found she was unable to resist the laughter that bubbled up from inside her at here as of yet unnamed companions comments. He was so awkward and apologetic it was sort of cute. She still didn't he was justified in considering himself an authority over his partner though. A mentor perhaps maybe even a guide or coach who could push you but who lacked full authority that word that niggled in Bianca's mind. Were it not for that she'd think he was probably the most likable person she'd met associated her her school so far. As it was he wasn't all that bad though, definitely worth continuing to talk too at the very least.

"First of all" She began. "I'll let you know if you've rambled too much and I assure you you'll know if you've offended me so you don't have to keep apologizing." Her words were calm but firm, too many of 'I'm sorry' or other apologies would get annoying to hear. Assuming he continued to feel he had made conversational errors. " As for why I'm here," the girl with her tall silver mohawk flashed the blue eyed boy a small smile " I want to be stronger, I want to know how far I can push my body and just that I can get out of it" With the sort of students she and Cammi pulled on a regular basis a fit body that was tested regularly was required. The fact that she could in a way control it, decide where she wanted to build muscle and what parts of her body to strengthen well that was an added bonus as far as Bianca was concerned.

" I imagine from the way you speak and the good form you keep it's the same reason you yourself are here" She pointed out teasingly as if the answer should have been obvious all along . " And if I may ask just who are you?" A name to go with his face might be nice if they were going to keep talking.


Cammi had kicked her legs lightly in the water while she watched the unknown dark haired girl propel herself through the water. Hmm she definitely wouldn't be easy to take in a race, it made the blonde grin, she liked a challenge and found no joy in easy wins. Besides it was nice in general to watch the other girl swim, to be able to admire another athlete pushing themselves and showing off what they'd trained their body to do. Maybe she was a sports snob or something but Cammi had always preferred active energetic people to those who sought out other hobbies or even studies, it was as far as she was concerned, just the way she was made.

The technician girl tilted her head and grinned a bit as she listened to the other speak once she was dun her laps. Ahh she seemed to have an upbeat attitude and way of speech, so far so good in the potentially interesting department. " The pool is pretty kickass" she agreed " though I don't mind if there's people here or not as long as they don't get in my way." Sometimes having other people around gave Cammi people to compete with or just other energized beings to harmonize with. sometimes she liked to be alone and know the only one disturbing the water was her.

"Is there a reason you ran away from him?" Cammi asked curiously and nibbled in her lower lip. If some guy was giving her heck there was no way Cammi'd stand for it, she didn't believe in being a bystander to bullying.

"I'm Bianca." The scythe girl held the rowing cable with one hand , if a bit unsteady and reached out with the other to touch his hand briefly." You know I've never thought of it that way" she admitted. " I mean Cammi pushes herself harder than I do but she's" Bianca shrugged unsure how to explain her partner. " Looking for something else most of the time, though she'd not the vain gym bunny type either." Bianca wasn't ever sure Cammi was aware that her athletic body type was attractive to some people. The blonde lived in her own world so much it wouldn't surprise her to know her friend was oblivious to that fact. Not that Cammi cared what others thought of her body.. so far as Bianca knew anyways, they didn't usually stray onto that subject matter when they talked.

" Zoe sounds like a difficult partner to work with at least from my point of view." Bianca had somewhat varying patience with people and someone who couldn't keep up with her would not be a good match likely even as a friend. " I can see why you were working her harder though." Zoe might not feel the true weight of Jared's weapon form if they had a good connection but her arms could still tire from moving if she wasn't used to bearing any weight over long periods of time or used to using those muscles regularly. The girl's stamina in battle was pretty important now that she thought about it.

"Mm it's nice talking with you perhaps we can workout together on occasion?" There was no flirting here just the simple request for company. Bianca imagined that as a higher ranked team Jared and Zoe would be busy often though.


"You know the word technician isn't taboo around here?" Cammi teased" and if you've already completed a mission he should have better faith in your skills." She really needed to check and see if there was anything her rank available soon. This whole being lower ranked than everyone she knew was not pleasing to Cammi.

"If that was a challenge you're on." Cammi smirked. Great this girl thought somewhat along the same lines as she did and she hadn't had to issue the race challenge.

Bianca nodded slowly " Understandable, I'm sure we'll run into each other from time to time."Eventually schedules would coincide even by accident and Bianca would settle for that. " I'm a weapon, a sort of girly looking scythe" The short silver haired girl wrinkled her nose at that. She'd never been overly fond of her weapon form but there was nothing she could do to change it. " It's a family trait though so I know it's not the end of the world and it won't prevent me from being effective." She swore that if even one enemy laughed at her though they were going to die a heck of a lot more painfully than necessary and she was going to enjoy devouring their soul.

A quirky smiled tugged at the amber eyed girl's lips " If all else failed I'm sure Cammi would find an inventive way to wield me." To be honest Bianca wouldn't be surprised if Cammi improvised things to begin within. She was certainly a follower of the road less traveled if nothing else; maybe they should have a talk about that before they picked up a mission. Pre mission communication was probably just as important as during.

The weapon girl looked thoughtful for a moment. "I'm not sure how the melding stuff works either" she admitted. " But Cammi and i have been best friends since we were children so we've been in a sort of sync for ages now." Bianca doubted it was the sort that would give them extra power just yet but it at least showed they were compatible with each other over long periods of times


"One lap" Cammi agreed and moved to stand, she assumed it was freestyle since the other girl hadn't given any specifics other than the length of the race. She too was eager to talk more afterward though. She wanted to get to know other pairs, learn how they operated and see if their styles were anything like what she imagined things would be like with Bianca.

The silver haired girl suppressed a snort at the I'll show you mine comment. Honestly Jared was becoming more amusing by the minute, he lacked the grace that Lucien had had but was generally someone she felt more at ease with." Accidents can be another word for fate." Bianca wondered if that sounded deep or meaningful in anyway, it was sort of meant to be and yet sort of not. She wasn't too good with philosophy and really as long as there was a connection she wasn't sure it mattered how it had happened. There were possibly benefits of going into this sort of things without preconceived notions about your partner.

"If you've ranked up then clearly your form is effective" Since it didn't yet sound like Zoe was the one pulling her weight in the team." And give me about three more minutes to finish this set of reps and I'll show you, but there is to be no laughing," Bianca warned. She wasn't going to laugh at him being wavy so there'd better not be so much as a snicker about her rather feminine weapon form. Really they had no choice in what they looked like in that respect so a polite dignified reaction wasn't all that much to ask was it? They were matureish individuals they could transform without feeling the need to poke fun at each other for their differences


Cammi nodded "Works for me." For the short haired blonde it was all about the entry. If she could get off to a good start she tended to do well from there but if her alignment was off she wasted precious time and energy reorienting herself into the best position while being mid stroke. It wouldn't make or break things Cammi knew but as she prepared to dive into the once again tranquil waters she still hoped for a clean entry.

In a steady voice she counted up to three then sprung forward.

Once she was done Bianca stood, toweled herself and the machine off to get rid of her sweat and then stretched. "Okay I'm ready." It wasn't the smoothest of transformations as her tired body resisted the effort it took to slide between forms. The weapon girl frowned and concentrated harder for a moment before feeling her body shift properly leaving behind a rather ornate scythe where a young woman had once stood.

The blade itself was gunmetal grey and shape sort of like a flattened fang with a set of yellow painted engraved swirls on each side. An unknown wood like substance made up the long handle that held up the blade and wrapped around it. At the end of the handle were what appeared to be a pair of thick twisted roots and wound around the thing itself a narrow strand of malleable gold that acted as potential hand grips.

Cammi had dove into the water and relished in the instant cool refreshing feel it spread over her body. Even kept at a stable warm temperature it felt cool after her body has been exposed to the warmer air of the pool room for as long as it had. As soon as the initial gliding through the water from her entry wore off the young girl began to kick her legs and move her arms rhythmically to pull herself towards the other side. Her body practically hummed with energy as she gave it all she had, she loved the slight burn of her muscles stretching out as she forced every bit of power she could out of them. She was rewarded with a win, getting to the other end of the pool just slightly ahead of the other girl. Even greater though as the sense of exhilaration that flowed through her.

" Mmhm it was good race" The words were murmured to zoe by the other technician who sat on the edge once again with her eyes closed. She could still feel her heart beating furiously and hear her blood thrumming in her veins. For the adrenaline junkie moments like these were better than anything else in the world could be. It was a free legal high with no side effects that was easy to obtain. Though she had no proof as of yet Cammi was pretty positive that a really good rush was better even than sex would be. Though that was a theory that would have to wait to be tested.