Xaviers!

Bear had taken over the soccer field, converting it into a practice range of sorts. At one end of the field stood several hay bales from the farm, mounted with target circles.

Bear stood at the other end with a large bucket of baseballs at her feet, whipping them lackadaisically at the various targets. Despite not focusing too much on the task, they still mostly hit on target, littering the ground in front of each.

She seemed a bit distracted.

Nika is on her way to the Rec Center, small duffel-bag slung over her shoulder, when she spots Bear in the soccer field. She watches from a distance for a moment, then decides to make her way over.

"You don't really do the whole 'missing' thing, do you?"

“It’s what I do, I suppose...”

One more ball, one more bullseye.

“Not that it helped too much in sitcom Hell.”

"Looked to me like it did. You helped the blonde girl and held off that shark monstrosity." she says, letting her duffel bag slide off her shoulder and fall to the ground with the muffled clinking of metal on metal.

“Yeah, the giant monsters, I’m good at. It’s the follow up I seem to have a problem with. I just wish I could be more useful then the girl who throws stuff sometimes.”

She smiled at the telltale metal sounds in Nika’s Pack.

“Those sound like things I’d love to examine further, based on the toys you showed me from the dorm!” She said, curious.

"Not sure how useful they'd be to you. Might be though. I had to get a little creative considering how lethal my power can be if I'm not careful." she says, kneeling down to open up the bag and pulling out two longer metal rods. It has a grip on one end that she holds on to, the other end having bit of a flexible brace that fastens just above her elbow so the metal rod sits parallel to her forearm. The rod, and consequently her arm seem to snap into a fixed position as Nika's power flows into the rod, snapping back and forth a couple times, resulting in Nika basically punching the air in a couple precise jabs.

“That’s very nice machining- do you do the work yourself?” She asked, looking at the details.

"Oh, no. These were made for me when i took this assignment. Haven't gotten to test them much yet."

“Well, I’ve got the targets set up! Although they are just hay- can you regulate? Or did I need to find some steel backing?”

"Oh these aren't really for sniping. More hand to hand combat, giving me enhanced mobility, that kinda thing. I can move the things I imbue on rails. I got another set for my legs so in theory that should let me pull off things regular people can't." she says, holding her arm straight up before letting her power flow into the arm-brace again, this time letting it pull her several feet in the air before letting herself fall back down to the ground.

“Ah, I thought they were spring loaded or something. I didn’t realize you could throw yourself like that! That’s really cool. My TK is nowhere near the same class of power!”

Bear is easily impressed, but impressed nonetheless.

"Just a matter of finding the right applications, yeah? And rough on the joints. I give it the slightest of nudges and things go rocketing off." she says, which either illustrates her level of control or her recklessness, considering she threatened Bear by stopping a projectile right in front of her face the first time they met. Probably both.

"How does yours work? You keep control over it after you throw? Or is the trajectory fixed once it leaves your hand?"

“Oh yeah, I can curve it pretty well.”

Bear demonstrated, throwing a baseball at the far right of the target, before it appeared to gain a glow, and arc sharply back, hitting the target once again perfectly dead center.

“I can’t quite make it curve all the way back to myself yet. And I’m not sure I’d want to catch it if I could!”
She said, chuckling a bit.

"Does it work on other things? Like a boomerang maybe?"

“It should, at least as long as it isn’t too big an object, I guess. I’m kinda limited in the size of stuff I can work with.”

"You should really know these things. Especially when you have the honor and responsibility of being Katarina's roommate." she says, her voice overly critical.

“Really, we are going there? Ok.”

Bear chuckled to herself.

“I’m done pushing my limits. I’ve already reached them, thanks.”

"No offense, but that seems pretty unlikely. You can't be much older than me..."

“Look, no offense to your Eastern European work ethic, but you know nothing about me, or how my powers work. I don’t owe you or Kat a training montage.”

"That's why I'm asking." Nika responds maybe a bit harshly. "It's my job to ensure her safety and that means checking into the person she'll be spending a significant amount of time around. If you're incapable or unwilling to go all out if something were to happen then I need to know that so I can take it into account." Apparently she's done being friendly and is just all business now.

“Ooo. So serious!” Bear replied, giggling softly.

“I’m not one of your batons. I don’t belong to you. Take that into account.”

"Well I'm glad the national security of Symkaria is a laughing matter to you. At least I'll know not to rely on you in a pinch."

“Hey, whatever floats your boat. There are plenty of people around who I’m sure would love to join your royal guard.”

"I'm not looking to recruit." she snaps, the idea that all people would have to do to join a group she fought hard to qualify for is to decide they want to kind of insulting to her.

“Look, you seem to think I have some potential that can still be wringed out of me. Im somewhat flattered, but I’m telling you it’s not that simple with me. I’ve got issues!”

"Everybody has potential. I don't know what issues you're talking about, but giving up on something is the only thing that's guaranteed to stop somebody."

“I haven’t ‘given up’ on anything. Stop assuming you know everything about me, because you think your position in life allows it!”

"What does my position have to do with that? You said you've decided you reached your limit." she says with a shrug.

“No, I’ve tested myself and worked out how much time I’ve got left doing what I can do. I haven’t decided I’ve reached my limits. My body did that for me. And thank you for reminding me of that so condescendingly.”

"You're... sick?" she asks, her tone suddenly changing.

Bear flopped down in cross legged fashion, with a deep sigh.

“How many abilities did you get when your mutation manifested?” She asked, quietly.

"Just the one. I understand that's the case for most of us?"

“I ended up with three. Super strength, telekinesis, and optical powers. A total of at least five different measurable abilities. And they’re breaking my body down.”

"I'm not sure I follow... Your projectiles happen because of three different powers?"

Bea4 nodded.

“When you said you felt the shock when you projected your batons and held on? I know how it feels.”

She stood up, flexing her throwing arm gingerly.

“Enhanced strength and reinforced joints to get the ball up to speed, telescopic and x-ray vision to make sure it’s on target, and telekinesis to hit it home.”

She took another ball, lackadaisically hitting the target once more.

“The only problem is, all of my abilities are minuscule and unstable compared to everyone else. They don’t play well together. My arms are strong, my shoulders and hands, not so much. My TK is limited in scope, I can’t affect things much bigger than a softball- Trust me, I’ve tried. And I give myself headaches when I stare at what I’m aiming at for too long... And I don’t know why.”

"Maybe you're using them wrong somehow? I mean... the application does seem obvious, but maybe that's not their intended use?"

Bear seemed a bit resigned.

“Maybe.”

"Well, as I understand it this place exists in part to help people with their powers, so you're int he right place at least?" Nika's not particularly great at being comforting or encouraging.

“I’ve had to piece together something from nothing all my life. I’ll deal with it. And I have nothing to prove to you. You want to see if I’m good enough to help my roommate, check the X-team reports.”

Nika blows some air through her nose in a slight harumph and reaches down to shoulder her bag again.

"Arrogant Americans..." she mutters under her breath as she stalks off.