Silhouette

The group of Hero trainees looked in horror as the metal claw pushed itself out of the hole in the ground, each of its three digits being a complete Legion working with the others, and their hearts sunk even more when they realized there was more than one claw. Three more limbs made their way out of the depths of the pit into the pristine white floor, and as more than just the extremities of whatever creature the robots had formed by combining became visible, the group truly realized the scale of the thing. If the digits of the claws were made by one Legion each, its limbs were formed by three trios of robots each, the machines of each trio hugging each other to form thicker appendages, while the transition between each subgroup acted as the larger entity's joints. As the main body emerged from the darkness, Sarah's face almost became green as the sight of the bulging mass of robots intertwined together reminded her of that video of a cockroach nest a friend had sent her on April Fools. The Legions that made up the core of the massive machine weren't quite as numerous of course, but the way their limbs were interlocked together she couldn't be sure how many of them there were exactly. All that she knew was that there were at least eight of them because that was the number of red lenses aimed the group's way, giving the thing an arachnoid look despite only having four limbs.

Maledicta surprised the others by firing a spell at the metal monstrosity, a translucent red skull with bat wings flying through the air and throwing itself at the mechanical beast's eyes before it hit an invisible wall. A Legion's voice echoed through the room.

"Please wait for the encounter to finish being prepared before engaging in combat."

The drow's eyelids twitched, and she looked ready to insult the voice before Elaimant caught her attention.

"Observation: We are not allowed to engage in combat, but you weren't stopped from casting your spell. Deduction: We might not stop the creature from fully activating, but we can prepare for our fight."

Maledicta scowled but nodded, and she took on a pose similar to the one Sarah got to see her use when she cast her curse to take down all of the Legions previously. Hopefully whatever she was readying would be as effective against the gargantuan combined machine.

Seeing this Glicer took out a few pouches full of glitter from her suit's pockets and began to run near the creature, dropping the small sacks here and there as she sped her way around the still-inactive enemy. Scareowl took to the air while Kopper steeled himself. Sarah exchanged a look with the dark-skinned boy and took on a fighting pose, her light powers already improving her legs with a powerful glow, because it was obvious that even if the combined Legions were slow the sheer size of their creation would require fast movements to handle.

The pit the great machine had escaped from closed seamlessly, and the red glow that inhabited its eight central eyes spread to the lenses of the other robots that made up its form. Metal sang in a cacophonous roar as it tilted its central mass to the side, its four legs adjusting their position on the ground as the mechanical monster searched for its ideal posture for balance. As its bulbous core turned and its limbs stilled, seemingly satisfied with the way things were, the creature let out a mind-breaking screech, the voicebox of each individual Legion pushing the limits of its abilities, and the voice that had echoed before spoke up once more.

"You may now engage."

The great beast's leg moved, and suddenly the awkward machine charged. The room's fake trees fell apart as they met the lumbering metal thing's limbs and head, and glitter from a few abandoned pouches flew and spread over its form with every quaking step of the infernal machine, moving at a speed unbefitting its large frame.

Elaimant and Kopper Kid stepped forward, each going for one of the great robot's front legs as they readied themselves to catch the titanic limbs and stop the combined Legions in their tracks. As the white gloves of the trainees' suits met metal the two Heroes-to-be were pushed back, the ground around them shattering and creating trenches in their wake as the great beast continued on its path, only slowed by the duo fighting off its front limbs while the back legs kept on walking. Sarah was ready to get out of the way but noticed out of the corner of her eye that Maledicta was still charging her curse. The ginger's eyes turned back to meet the eight glowing ones that united to form the visage of the incoming opponent, and the girl with light powers' gaze grew sharper than she could recall it ever being before in her life.

Elaimant and Kopper both kept struggling and holding back the front limbs of the mechanical monstrosity and thus couldn't spare the mental energy to notice the beam of white glowing energy that joined them in their foolish attempt to hold back the gargantuan robotic fusion. Sarah clenched her teeth as she held her open palms together and poured all that she had into the ray of light as wide as her leg was long that she fired into the thing's eyes, hoping that the brightness might distract the creature or that her light's inherent kinetic force might be enough to help the two heavy hitters of the team to put an end to its charge.

Dozens of glitter bags fell from above, dropped by Scareowl's talons, and they landed in sparkly pink bursts on the great machine's central part. Seconds later, Glicer Glitter, standing on the side of the Legions' path, pushed her arms forward.

Torrents of flames flew forward, washing over the metal and growing even wilder as they met the pink glitter stuck to its surface. The fire grew hotter, bigger, higher, and pinker, roaring madly it spread through all of the machine's core and back legs, the small pyrokinetic girl keeping the front legs safe for the sake of her teammates. Scareowl flew over the robot and sent gusts of air down on it with his wings, fueling the sparkly inferno below.

Elaimant's and Kopper's might, Glicer Glitter's flames, Scareowl's wind, and Sarah's strongest light.

The machine ignored them all.

Despite all of the trainees' efforts, the combined Legions kept advancing, getting closer and closer to the still-casting Maledicta. The cloak of fire covering it meant nothing to the many-eyed machine and its many red gazes that were spread throughout its entire body glowed as bright as when it had first emerged. It continued its charge toward the curse weaver, and there was nothing her classmates could do to stop it, their best barely slowing the mechanical monster down.

As the thing was only one giant step away from Maledicta, the drow opened her eyes, glowing a mad red that matched the color of the ghostly vines that coiled above her head to form a scorpion that turned into a rose that turned into a spiral. More of the solidified cursed energies manifested around the violet girl, twisting and slithering as they went directly from her veiny wrists to the metallic beast before her. Like thorny serpents, they strangled the metal, and like leeches, they did their best to drain the combined Legions' energy. Blood began to drip over the white domino mask and down the girl's purple skin from the corner of her eyes, flowing down her cheeks until the two tears-like lines met in the corner of her lips.

The robotic thing lurched forward, and the phantom vines snapped off before fading away.

The drow looked at the incoming metal mass, stunned by a mix of magical recoil and sheer shock and terror at what had just transpired, and Elaimant and Kopper could do nothing as the great combined machine raised itself on its back legs, lifting the front ones the trainees had been desperately trying to hold back into the air, the two humanoid forms still holding onto the fused Legions. From its arachnoid pose, the thing turned more bipedal. The light of the countless red eyes on its form pierced through the unnaturally pink flames covering it from head to toe - only its upper limbs being spared from the inferno - made the thing look like an abominable demon. Sarah could do nothing but watch in despair as the light fueling her beam pewtered out before she collapsed on her knees, out of her energy, just as the thing raised the claw Kopper was holding onto and curled the Legions that made up its digits into an approximation of a fist. It turned to the side as it pivoted its back legs to adjust its footing, mimicking spinning its non-existent waist, before it punched down, the bulky mass of metal descending on the drow.

"That will be enough."

The great combined machine froze on the spot as it heard the womanly voice, its fist close enough to Maledicta that the drow could touch it by just taking one step forward. The Gigantic metal body rumbled and shook before falling apart, for the numerous Legions making up its bulk released their hold onto one another. As the great machine that had almost crushed the trainees' team collapsed into smaller robots Elaimant and Kopper jumped away from the clanking avalanche, Scareowl flying in from behind to give a little push to aid in their flight. Maledicta's gaze was fixed on the immense pile of machines that quickly found themselves falling apart or melting from the weight of their fellows and the flames of Glicer, while the pyromaniac girl herself rushed by Sarah's side and did her best to help the ginger up despite the glitter-enthusiast diminutive stature. The light wielder for her part turned her head to see who had put an end to the test, and her eyes almost jumped out their orbits when she realized who was the woman walking toward them with her arms crossed behind her back.

The perfect rhythm of the steps of her heavy blue leather boots should have been a clue, but none of them expected her to be here today. The leather covering her feet reached up to her knees, hugging close to her light blue pants kept tight by her black belt with a silver buckle into which was tucked her white button-up shirt, giving her something of a swashbuckler look. Her long open pale blue coat fluttered behind her as she walked, giving her entire attire a style that was often compared to that of a corsair or privateer, pirate captains hired by their nation to only attack foreign merchants and military vessels. The woman whose exposed tan skin was covered in scars and small wrinkles had nothing to do with pirates at all, it was simply a result of her odd fashion sense, though none could deny it screamed leadership.

The woman's cold face was marked by the passage of time with small wrinkles here and there, but more importantly, was scarred by an incident that had happened decades ago in the early days of this Union veteran's career. Large crystalline shards were embedded throughout her skull, small sharp edges poking out of her hair and skin, with particularly large ice-like blades the size of a human finger piercing through her flesh and bone on the right side of her visage, framing her green eye, and Sarah couldn't hold herself back from wondering if perhaps moving the visual organ pained her. A splinter in a finger was already painful, the ginger couldn't imagine what it must have felt like when Miss Saline was injured, and how it must have felt like now.

For it was undoubtedly Alberta Saline that had interrupted the class' test against the Legions and was now advancing toward them. No one could mistake the leader of Zalcien's branch of the Hero Union for anyone else, at least not without manipulation and trickery at play. Even mimicking the woman's appearance and mannerisms wouldn't be enough to fool those who had met her, for her very presence radiated a pressure Sarah couldn't liken to anything else she had ever experienced. She wasn't even sure if this came from one of the leader's possible powers or if it was just a subconscious reaction to her natural... Charisma? Force of will?

The pressure on Sarah's shoulders increased when Saline's usual frown furthered.

"I will not mince my words, trainees."

All six of them, even Elaimant who lacked a throat or digestive system, gulped.

"On some aspects, you have done enough. On others, I will admit you exceeded expectations. But you also calamitously failed on others, past the point we can consider this test a success."

Maledicta stepped forward and almost growled as she stared at what was essentially the trainees' future boss with fury etched onto her face.

"AND HOW THE HELL WERE WE SUPPOSED TO BEAT THAT THING, EH?"

"You weren't."

Saline's cold response and unimpressed gaze put off the drow and cooled her rage.

"Uh, what?"

The veteran Hero continued.

"This fight wasn't a test of your ability to take down large monsters or work as a team, though I will pleasantly notice you did well on both fronts, but rather a test of your reaction to unbeatable odds. You were informed you could give up at any moment, and you were supposed to choose to stop the test once you realized you were outmatched. Instead, you chose to fight and struggle until one of you would have been killed or grievously injured had this been a real-life scenario."

Maledicta flinched back at that, fully aware she was the one who would have died. Glicer spoke out when she noticed her classmate's expression.

"But, we're Heroes! We're supposed to fight the bad stuff and protect people, not run away!"

The scarred human nodded.

"Indeed. But you have to be aware of your limits. You are right in saying you are meant to protect people, but throwing yourselves at problems you can't handle doesn't help anyone. If anything, you're increasing the number of people that need to be saved. Much like I would never assign Mecha Man to an enemy who can shut down technology or send Miss Malice to a magic-suppressing area, you need to be able to judge if you can handle a situation or not. You are, in the grand scheme of things, still children with very little experience and actual training regarding Super fights. You should be smart enough to know you can't defeat or hold back the giant monster rampaging around. That way, in a real-life incident of this sort, you could instead focus on aiding civilians or fighting off potential minions or opportunistic Villains while Heroes more suited to this sort of affair engage the monster."

The trainees stayed silent at that, and they lowered their heads as they considered what their senior and superior had just said.

"This wasn't your sole mistake. Scareowl, you did a good job managing the team, but you provided next to nothing in actual actions. I recommend investing in learning magic or training to use a ranged weapon of some kind, to give more to attack than just your talons. Glicer Glitter, remarkable use of your beloved sparkles, and I am impressed with the improvements you've made with your pyrokinesis and efforts to protect your teammates from your attacks, but you need to figure out less lethal methods. The group test was more lenient with the use of deadly force, but your solo fight shouldn't have ended with a molten robot. Keep in mind not all of your future potential opponents will be as resilient to high temperatures as our machines."

The bird boy and the short girl both nodded with determination in their eyes, the serious look on Glicer's face feeling quite out of place for the usually bubbly girl.

"Elaimant, your attachment to your humanoid form is commendable, but you should have ceased using it against such a large opponent. You could have used those pieces to fashion a blade to cut off a limb or a cable to trip it, but instead, you chose the least efficient use. Improve your magnetism in general. Kopper Kid, you need a weapon. You did a good job taking down enemies, but you lost so much time and put yourself in more danger than necessary by limiting yourself to your fists. I also would not recommend fighting alone, strong as you are you lack ranged options and defenses against less physical entities, you must either remedy those issues or find a partner that covers those areas."

The emerald pyramid in a bubble, their body of metal scraps exposed since their suit had been destroyed, bobbed up and down as the dark-skinned boy looked pensive.

"Maledicta. You are lucky your current team was willing to overlook your attitude in favor of your aptitude. I am not yet certain you have proven you could work with others, you simply prepared spells with long casting times while they fought together. You also did a poor job of using non-lethal means in your solo fight, though I am pleased to note you took care not to use curses with backlash or poor targeting abilities for the sake of the others. Still, you rely too much on one successful spell to end the fight. You need more than that."

The drow looked away, though she didn't refute Saline's words.

"Firefly. You chose to train your light powers as a jack of all trades. That is a personal choice I will not comment on, and your performance in both solo and group tests proves you can fight effectively, but if you decide to continue with the strategy you employed previously, then you need to increase your speed to travel between Heroes in need of assistance quicker. You also either need to vastly improve your endurance or cease using those beams of yours. Your light has no heat so far, only force, so there is no reason to sustain a ray for dozens of seconds to push back an opponent when dozens of less taxing blasts serve the same purpose. I understand the dramatic flair, but do not let aesthetic overstep its boundaries and endanger practicality."

Sarah held back a wince. Zalcien's Union leader had a point, and as a veteran Hero, she likely knew what she was talking about.

"Yes miss."

"Good."

The ground beneath the tan woman's blue boots began to slowly rise as a hole opened above her head. Sarah didn't need to be a genius to guess she was preparing her exit. Still, Saline addressed them one last time.

"I will reiterate, trainees. You failed the overall test, but few succeed on the first try. If you push yourselves during training and correct your current outstanding flaws, then I wouldn't be surprised to have you patrol the streets in a few weeks. This wasn't a test to verify you have the potential to be Heroes, the fact you are here today is all the proof you need you passed that stage. This was a test to see if you were ready to face real potential dangers yet or not. You have the time to improve and grow. Make use of it."

Then the floor beneath her feet ascended much faster and before any of them could address her Alberta Saline was gone. The six of them lay there in silence for what felt like an eternity before Kopper spoke out.

"Guys? I just wanted to say... I'm glad I get to do this Hero stuff with you."

Glicer jumped and hugged the boy's neck, her feet dangling in the air from the size difference, while Elaimant shifted their arms to hug the two and Scareowl placed a wing on the crystal's metal waist. Sarah joined him as she got stood back up and placed her hand on the smaller girl's shoulder, opposite the bird boy. They all shared smiles as Maledicta just stood with her arms crossed and scoffed.

Still, the drow stayed with them instead of leaving the room.