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It was a sunny afternoon at the SaFeL headquarters, where the HEPs lived. Well, it was as sunny as it could get with the current state of the world. “Sunny” meant that the sky was extra bright red from the scorching sun and the countless particles of dust and debris that littered the atmosphere from decades of wars and relentless pollution. Thankfully, no missions had been planned for this day. Ideally, a day like this would be spent relaxing, engaging with often-neglected hobbies, or catching up on much-needed sleep. However, Diablo had other plans, specifically ones involving his coworker, maybe his friend even, Mari-Anna.
He sat in the shared training room, waiting for his alien coworker. The training room was where he, along with the other HEPs, would often train individually or together. Diablo noted that Mari-Anna made much less use of this room than his other coworkers often did, which is what led him to offering to help her train and improve her performance on the battlefield. In return, she agreed to later help critique his current painting that he was in the process of making, which he was greatly appreciative of. Mari-Anna actually gave useful advice to improve his paintings, much more useful than what any of the other HEPs could give. He had tried to ask Boggles for advice, but she never gave anything actually constructive, and instead gave silly joke advice such as “add boogers coming out of his nose!” or “give the baby a giant sword!” Mari had an artistic eye that most of the other HEPs lacked, Diablo thought.
Diablo tapped his foot in rhythmic patterns on the cracked concrete floor. Raggedy dummies were lined up around the room, each one showing at least a little bit of injury in the form of dented metal or bulging stuffing leaking from the fabric. Each dummy had wheels built into the bottom to move around with, explained by SaFeL manufacturers as existing for more “immersive” training. The wait was getting longer, and he began to consider the possibility that she, like multiple times before, had ditched training to go to the library. Despite being pretty new to SaFeL at the time, she had already earned herself a reputation. He huffed and began making his way to the door to go out and search for her, but right as his hand hovered over the doorknob, it was engulfed in a pink aura. He stepped back and the door opened, revealing a panting Mari-Anna.
“My apologies, Diablo. I hadn't timed my ice bath properly, and took much longer in it than I thought I had.” Diablo crossed his arms and shook his head. [It's fine, just try not to do that again,] he signed. Mari nodded remorsefully and came into the room with him, leaving the door slightly ajar.
[It seems that you don't need a warm up, given that you look like you just ran a marathon to get here.] Mari-Anna looked away in embarrassment while Diablo let out an amused snort. He took one of the dummies and placed it directly in front of her. [Show me what you've got.] Mari eyed the dummy before kicking it with her metal boot, as she already knew that she was probably too weak to do much with her spaghetti-like arms. The dummy fell back a slight bit before quickly springing back up. Diablo eyed her. [Is that really all you've got? Try punching it.] She punched it with her tentacles, but it yielded the same results. Diablo shook his head and pinched the bridge of his snout. [Let's try something different.]
He found a skateboard resting by the wall and handed it to her. He stood in front of her and spread out his arms. [Hit me as hard as you can.] She looked nervous as she firmly grasped the brightly-colored skateboard as best as she could. “Are you sure?” He nodded in response. “Okay…” She swung it at his sides repeatedly, but Diablo didn't budge, standing as still as a scarecrow. He shook his head again and grabbed the skateboard. [Listen, you need to have more strategy, instead of just flailing around and hoping to get a good hit in.] He placed a dummy in front of her and handed the skateboard back. [Look at this dummy. What do you think its weakest points are?]
Mari eyed the dummy carefully. “Likely its stand that it uses to sit upright and move around with.” Diablo nodded. [Good. Now target that.] The dummy began moving towards her, and she began hitting the stand with the skateboard. Eventually, it fell down, now in a position where it couldn't get itself up from. Mari-Anna beamed and Diablo clapped. [Excellent. Now, try multiple.] He set 10 or so dummies around her, and they began circling in on her. She panicked, unsure of which to hit first, so she spun around in fast circles. “Get away!” She screamed as she knocked down a couple of them, but multiple still pushed into her. Diablo got the dummies away from her as he thought of what to do next. [Say, don't you have telepathic abilities?] She nodded, and Diablo smiled (as evident through his eyes, as no mouth was easily visible.)
He placed a hand on her shoulder and looked down at the alien. [You have something that nobody else here at SaFeL has. You need to learn to use your abilities as much as you can, even if the gear SaFeL forces onto you restricts them.] She nodded confidently. He surrounded her with dummies once again, now sure that there would be different results this time. [Focus, now,] he enthusiastically signed. The dummies got closer each second, perhaps too quickly for Mari. She began to panic again, but then focused her powers to let out a wave of energy, knocking each dummy onto the ground with a loud clank. Diablo even lost his balance a bit from the wave of energy, but quickly reoriented himself and began to clap.
[Good, but you can do more. You need to be able to injure, even *destroy*, not just knock down.] Mari-Anna looked at him worriedly, but nodded nonetheless. He placed one single dummy standing still in front of her. [Now, make it explode.] Mari eyed the dummy, not completely sure if she was even capable of doing that with the restrictions that her gear put onto her powers. She clenched her tentacles and squinted her eyes, trying to control her energy as best as she could. Diablo watched as the metal bucket acting as the dummy's head began to bulge and bend a bit, but it quickly returned to its original shape as Mari collapsed onto the ground while panting. “I don't know if I can do this,” Mari shook her head and stared at the ground as she was too ashamed to look Diablo in the eye. “You're so strong, Diablo. How do you do it?”
Diablo thought for a second, before placing a hand on Mari's shoulder that prompted her to look up at him. [...I think of why I'm doing this. I think of why I endure these treacherous missions day after day, of why I let myself get torn into pieces over and over.] He then helped Mari get back on her feet. [I think of the suffering we endured at the hands of SaFeL, and the hands of humans as a whole. I think of my people, the ones that have fallen at the hands of humanity, and who deserve justice.] Mari clenched her tentacles at this. Humans. She felt rage begin to bubble up inside of her. Ever since that fateful day where she first came into contact with humans, she has felt nothing but unbearable pain. They locked her up, they mutilated her body, and they had succeeded in making her entire existence feel like a punishment for a crime she never committed. They trapped her hundreds of thousands of miles away from her people; the ones that need her, and whom she also needs. Tears began to stream from her eyes as she felt more engulfed by rage. She clenched her tentacles tight before hurling herself towards one of the training dummies, sending it crashing across the room with a single hit. Upon impact with the wall, a loud bang was heard as stuffing exploded everywhere.
Diablo marveled at this, seeing an opportunity. [Remember each time they dragged you to the research department, putting more strain on your already pained body.] At this, Mari-Anna punched another dummy, this time sending it flying into the ceiling with another loud bang. [Think of each time the humans around here have ripped you apart without a shred of remorse.] This time, she used her telepathic powers, exploding a training dummy and sending bits of it flying all across the room. [Think of your family back home, whom they might never let you see again.] Tears flooded from the shaking alien's eyes as she let out a ginormous wave of energy that rippled throughout the room like a large boulder falling off of a cliff and into a lake. Every single one of the training dummies immediately combusted, leaving scraps of metal and fabric in every corner of the room. Diablo looked down at himself and at the scraps of paper and metal that were shedding off of his surface, as well as the gaping hole that was now in his abdomen from the impact.
Mari collapsed onto the floor, heavily panting as she took off her goggles to empty the water out from the stream of tears that had flooded them. She looked up and saw Diablo, who was nodding in approval, and saw the damage she had done to him. Immediately, with tears still running down her face, she got up and ran to him as best as she could with her body being so exhausted. “Diablo! I'm-” she let out a choked sob. “I'm s-so sor-” He put a dented hand over her mouth. [I'll be fine, the doctor will fix me right up.] Mari-Anna put her tentacles onto his shoulders. “Are- are you sure?” He nodded. [You did so well, but you need a break. How about we go to Stocky to see if he's got any ice bags for an ice bath in stock? I can tell that you need one.” Mari smiled behind her translator and nodded before the two made their way to the door.
“Wait, but shouldn't we clean up the mess?” She looked behind her at the bits of training dummies that piled around the room, as well as the holes in the wall and the cracks in the concrete floor that had grown significantly larger than before. Diablo snorted. “I'm sure Garbo can clean it up.”