Project Trouble X Three

Recap

Cat had me stirring the peppers, onions, canned chicken and butter. I did as she told me but I watched her out of the corner of my eye. I wanted to learn every part of cooking and she was a better teacher than our mother. I watched as she added oil to the big pot that was boiling. She opened several bags of spaghetti noodles and broke them in half, adding them into the boiling pot. She kept doing this until she went through three boxes of noodles. I made sure to keep stirring my mix as Cat did her part. Cat came over and opened several jars of some kind of white cheese, adding everything into the mix I was stirring. She added a couple jars of milk to the mix as I stirred everything together. It smelled good and my stomach let out a growl in approval.

I watched as Cat fixed garlic bread, putting everything in the oven. She came over to me and we added the spaghetti noodles to the mix I was stirring. We had one of the guys set the pot on the table as we brought baskets of the garlic bread out.

We started eating when I felt as if something was about to happen....

Cats POV

I saw Sophia lean to her left, almost bumping her head into Eagle’s chest. Sophia looked at the door and we saw our mom walk around the corner and smile at us. Sophia looked back to see what went past her and noticed a blade on the ground. She threw it back at our mom and she caught it in the air, surprising the hell out Sophia.

I started laughing at the shocked look on Sophia’s face, grabbing my dads hand before he could come into contact with my shoulder. By the look on his face I had shocked him, too.

“I want to learn how to catch a blade, too,” Sophia stated as I raised an eyebrow. I was shocked she was willing to go through with the pain of catching blades.

I raised my hands and showed her my fingers and palms. “This is what your hands may look like after training. Are you ready for these kinds of scars?” I asked her as she looked over at my hands.

“Yes.” I was shocked. She didn’t hesitate in giving her answer. She didn’t add anything extra after the yes and I was lost in my mind. I knew I was eating but I wasn’t joking around. I needed to make sure Sophia didn’t lose any fingers and I had just the thing to help her.

After we ate, Mom told us she would clean up. I took Sophia with me to the training rooms and grabbed my newest inventions. I had her put the gloves on and showed her how it protected her hands with the blades.

“Ooh, a mini version of our suits, right?” She asked as I nodded and made sure they were on all the way.

“You will need to activate your whole suit for this training. I’m going to have the guys throw a few blades at me to show you how to time it right. It depends on how hard or how fast the blade leaves the person’s hands. Are you ready?” I asked her, making sure she was listening to my every instruction.

“I’m ready.” I had her stand to my side. I could tell she was watching the throws and after a while she would watch me. I knew she understood the mechanics of it, but catching was a whole different animal. I didn’t expect her to catch anything at first and I made sure she knew not to beat herself up.

I put her where I was standing and activated her suit, afraid she would be too excited to remember. Dragon stepped up and threw his blade at her. Sophia missed a few but overall did pretty good. She was getting a feel for everything. Now, her test would begin.

I pulled her over to the side and explained the training she was going to get was going to be intense and she couldn’t let her anger get in the way. I let her know this was as much a test on her emotions as it was her skills. “Use your jaguar, she will help you,” I whispered, not wanting the guys to know I told her. In a slightly louder voice, I said, “You’ve got this. You are a natural.” She nodded and I noticed her eyes sparkle a little, telling me her jaguar was ready. I nodded and she walked back over to her spot.

“Alright, Sophia, if you can’t catch them, bat them down to the ground. You have natural instincts, now it’s time to use them,” Madrid said, a small smile on his face before he plastered on a scowl.

“And, Madrid is back,” Sophia whispered as she chuckled.

Madrid walked off and the first blade came from Sophia’s left. She batted it down, getting in position. She settled down in stance, arms to her sides and knees bent a little.

The blades were coming from all sides, but not as quick as they usually were. About ten minutes in Sophia’s whole demeanor changed. She started catching the blades at a skill level I didn’t expect. She still batted down a lot but she caught a lot more than I did on my first try.

I watched as she started throwing some of them back, settling into a rhythm. But, her rhythm was knocked off when my mom threw a blade at her back. She ducked the blade but didn’t duck the second one. I was happy her suit was on or she would have been dead. I glared at my mom and stopped the exercise.

“Don’t glare, Cat, she needed to get me out of the relaxed pace I was in. Plus, I need to learn to expect anything,” Sophia scolded, causing a wide grin to show on my face. “What?” She asked.

“You didn’t get mad and you handled me,” I told her, pulling her into a hug. “Usually, mom and I would have butted heads for a few minutes and dad would try to intervene. You didn’t even hesitate to tell me like it was.”

Our mom pulled her into a hug. “I’m proud of you, Soph. You’ve always been made for brighter things, but we will have a talk about that boy you had sex with,” she whispered. Sophia’s eyes widened in shock. “Yes, I knew. But, you had to learn who he was on your own.”

“I know,” I heard Sophia whisper sadly.

“Come on, let’s see what you can do,” our mom changed the subject, pulling both of us with her. “You two are going to stand back to back - which means you can’t duck the blades or you kill your partner, well, if we didn’t have the suits on.”

“Uh-” Sophia tried to say.

“-You’’ve got this, Sophia,” I cut in with. She needed to have faith in herself and her jaguar. “Jaguar up, girl.” She knew what I meant, but our mom looked at me with a confused expression.

The guys lined up in twos, one at each of our fronts. “We move together, Sophia. So, I’ll mirror you or you me.”

“I’ll mirror you, okay?” She asked as I nodded and got into position. I knew they were going to try to separate us, but we were going to stick together.

“They are going to try and separate us, so be ready,” I said, turning around and catching the blade in my hand. I saw my dad with an innocent look on his face and I threw it back at him twice as fast as he threw it at me. He looked shocked but he still caught it.

Dang it!

The blades were being thrown at us from left, right, front, and back. I could feel the burn in my legs from moving with Sophia and I was sure she could feel it too. We had been catching, throwing, and batting blades for the last two hours. My stomach was growling more than my jaguar was.

“Enough! You pushed us enough. I’m starving and would like to be able to fight if I need to and I’m sure Sophia would too. You have pushed her further than you ever did me.” I turned to our parents and Madrid, my hands finding my hips. “Why?” I barked out.

“We needed to make sure her emotions didn’t get the best of her. We will be fighting for our lives, Cat. You know this,” my mom explained.

“So.”

“So?” She asked

“Yeah. So, how did she do?” I asked as I pulled Sophia with me to the main cavern and got us something to drink and eat. We sat down at the table and waited for the rest of the group to catch up with us. My jaguar was not happy with them and was pacing in the back of my mind, something she didn’t normally do.

“They pushed you two too far. They knew better! They could have killed both of you from not giving you breaks!” My jaguar roared as she paced some more.

“We won’t get breaks when we are in battle. I have a feeling they were testing both of us to see if we could keep up in battle. But, they don’t get that we will be in both forms, not just one,” I told my jaguar, trying to calm her. I knew her emotions were affecting me and Sophia.

The group finally made it around the corner. I was positive they took the time to talk about how our training went. I didn’t care what they talked about. I would train Sophia myself if they ever tried to hurt us again. I didn’t take too kindly to people being pushy for their own agenda. Yes, I knew it was mine too but they pushed and pushed. We could have gone into a coma.

I looped my arm through Sophia’s and we turned our attention to all of them. I was sure Sophia’s eyes were just as bright as my own. I didn’t see Martim, matter of fact, he wasn’t training with us.

“Where is Martim?” I asked as I looked around.

“Right here.” He walked through the crowd and came to my side instantly as he glared at Martim and my dad. “They wouldn’t let me train or be around you when you trained. And, now I know why.” He growled and walked into the kitchen, pulling out ingredients to make omelets. I started to stand up but he growled. “I’ve got this. You need to sit and relax. In case you didn’t realize it yet, you’ve lost at least twenty pounds.”

I looked down at myself, Sophia doing the same thing. I looked back up and scowled at my family, not looking away from them. I could tell Sophia was doing the same thing as I was doing. Our mom, dad, and uncle Madrid were trying to sneak out of the room, but Marim spoke one word.

“No!”

A/N: Uh-oh, Martim is pissed. What do you think will happen next?