Private A Couple of Loose Cannons

Yojo had been a good noodle by any standard since arriving at Starlight Academy. He'd been working hard during the fall semester to get good grades, taken studious notes during his extra Junior Cadet courses, and been working to stay in good shape throughout it all. Truth be told, it was all a 180 from where he'd been roughly a year prior: alone, paranoid, and secluded in a self-destructive quest for revenge disguised as justice. Things on the island felt more relaxed somehow, it put him at ease subconsciously.

That wasn't to say it'd all been easy so far. He'd not made any real friends since arriving, and he'd managed to snag one of the last ensuite rooms to avoid getting a roommate. He didn't have much free time to be social anyways, not when he was trying to put his studies to practical use by taking a beat downtown while undercover. He just.... Had things going on, or something. Maybe things were easier this way with no mob of a social group around him like back in California, he's be a solo rider- just like Bruce Willis was as John McClane in Die Hard.

Yojo had been stretching out when the PT instructor walked out onto the field to meet them all and begin the lesson. He didn't seem too strange looking, at least compared to the more exotic creatures he'd met in the month or so he'd been living at Starlight. That last name seemed to get a rise out of some of the more savy students but, alas, there was no such reaction from Joe. Instead, the teen simply paid attention to his new teacher. They were all here to train to become cadets, after all. There was lots to learn from an experienced officer!

Roldan handed out some power-nullifying bracelets for each of the students to take. Looked like they were going to be doing some combat training of sorts. Yojo slipped his bracelet on and felt a strange feeling of weariness come over him, he felt weird with this thing on him.

He paired up with a girl, a red head roughly his age but with a smaller build. "Hey, want to pair up?" She asked simply as she put her own bracelet on. Yojo nodded with a hum, adjusting his workout clothes slightly since they were spares. Joining the class a month in had its downsides it seemed, including clothes too big for him.

The rest of the students began drilling each other as Yojo stood in front of his partner. "You go first." She nodded with a small smile, "Try to disarm me" she said, picking up a foam baton meant to replicate a weapon. Yojo nodded a few times, "Okay..." he said before falling silent again, staring at his partner for a few moments as an awkward pause fell over them both.

"You want like a countdown or somethi-" she started to say only to be cut off by a hasty, "321GO" yelled by Yojo before the boy stepped in, grabbed the girl's free arm as he spun around, and bent over to throw her over his head and onto the grass for a full judo flip. "FUCK I WASN'T READY!" the girl shouted, her grip on the weapon freed as it fell aside.

Yojo gave a nod of approve to himself. He learned that one form Die Hard 2.

"Now you do me." He said, helping the girl back up to her feet as the drills continued. Well, there went the one easy win he was going to get.

@Kada

Oh no, this was about to be a repeat of the dodgeball fight of 2012, wasn't it?

Yojo remembered that hallowed day well. It was PE class, they were playing dodgeball and, like, holy heck, he was having the best game of his freakin' life. He managed to get out nearly half the other team by himself, he pegged that asshole Tommy in the face and got away with making it look like an accident, and he even caught a ball that had been aimed at Dorothy, his childhood crush. It was, in many ways, one of his finest hours in his short and angst-filled life. Alack, when it had become apparent that he was destroying the other team singlehandedly, the gym teacher, Mr Carson, pulled a reverse Uno Card and joined the other team. Nary a moment later and Yojo had been tagged out, his pride shattered, his glory broken, his middle-school rep back at level 1.

Just like Icarus, his antics had caused him to fly too close to the sun, and now it was time for him to be stricken down by the man once again.

The girl looked between Mr. Drakenhardt and Yojo, slowly stepping back to give them room for the exercise. The teen could see the larger adult sprout scales along his cheeks and neck. Was he going to use his powers whilst forcing Yojo to remain powerless? "Alright, okay." He said, bracing himself. There was likely nothing he'd be able to do against a season cop, let alone without his powers or physical abilities.

Still, he wouldn't be deterred. He'd come to Manta Carlos to be a cop. He was determined to keep growing and pushing forward.

Once Roldan was ready, Yojo would step forward his hand closes to the adult's dummy-gun moving to push it out and away from him. The teen thought back to the previous lessons he'd been taught so far, to paying attention in class. Normally, the armed individual would usually step back before shooting when a victim was making a grab for a gun. Yojo had to stay close to his opponent and not give them the chance to turn the firearm back at him!

Aha! So the teacher was going to use powers then? Yojo should have expected as much when he saw those scales start to appear. No one ever said anything about being fair in an exercise like this mean to simulate the real world. Maybe with this power nullifier off he could have been able to put up more of a fight, but as a base-level human, a contest of strength was never going to go his way.

In that case, what other way could he win?

Yojo didn't have much time to think, if any. He could see a red blur whipping out from behind the teacher aimed to try and strike him from the side. There was no way that he could dodge that! Sure enough, he felt a heavy blunt feeling slap at the back of his shins. His legs whipped out from under him as he fell onto his back with a heavy thud.

The teen grunted as the wind returned to his lungs, the sun overhead making his teacher stand over him with a silhouette. "Yeah. That's about right." Yojo groaned as he got back up to his feet.

Yojo accepted the hand offered to pull him up, listening intently as his teacher explained the true wisdom behind today's lesson. Getting thrashed, shot at, and thrown around was right in Yojo's wheelhouse normally- but without some superhuman durability to help him with it, there was remarkably little he'd have been able to do to buy time while help came. He kept replaying the short exercise in his head. He swore he'd gotten in close enough to try and make it hard for a pocket of space to be maintained between the two, but as evidenced by his sudden fall, he had sworn wrong.

Still, there was one thing that did catch his eye. "Hey, you all right?" Yojo asked after the man gave his second demonstration to another student. The other cadets seemed content to go back to practicing after seeing the display, but there was something still troubling Yojo's mind. Besides, his partner was likely still getting her second wind to hit her before she and him started some more training.