Empyrean Iris Story Collection Vol. 3

Pulling Punches

Sunny hated waiting. She hated waiting, and most of all she hated the nervousness that waiting caused, a sort of buzzing in her bones, and a tingling in her stomach that made it difficult to sit or stand in one place for too long. When Sunny was nervous she was prone to pacing, but her pacing habit was something that tended to concern others, so she did her best to curb that particular habit, and now leaned against the wall as she watched the other Drev spar.

She liked to watch in case there was some instruction that she could give. Only recently had she developed the new fighting styles as she observed the right of creation, and most of the Drev were still learning trying to reprogram what they had practiced for years. Most of them were great warriors, so they would manage.

And that was, of course, not the only reason why she was here.

Mostly she was here to watch him.

Adam stood in the circle holding a spear lightly in one hand, circling around his opponent with his knees slightly bent. With a growl the Drev launched at him and they clashed spears, batting at each other for a long moment before detaching. Despite being at least two feet shorter than his opponent, and at a massive strength disadvantage, Adam was more than holding his own.

It made sense.

He had been trained by her.

Not only that, but despite his connection to the Drev, he didn't completely fight like one. He couldn't have detached himself from his very huma instinct to improvise and adapt. His fighting style was a patchwork of all the training he had ever had, military, spartan, Drev, and in that way it made him difficult to beat. He thought of things that Drev just didn't, used things in ways he just shouldn't and propelled his body in ways that seemed impractical or unnatural .

That was the reason he was so hard to beat.

That was the reason that he was her battle partner.

She lifted her head a bit glowing with pride as she thought of it. Sunny was one of the only people she knew who could beat him, and anyone else who could either had a height or weight advantage that was more than statistically unreasonable. Kanan could beat him in a bout occasionally, but it was generally when brute force or a lack of cleverness in Adam caused some sort of lapse.

That's what she found attractive about him.

That, and the Delicate UV stripes on his skin, trailing in delicate patterns over the muscles of his arms, the muscles of his neck, the muscles of his back, onto his face.... Down onto his lips

She hummed, but was cut off almost immediately cut off as she saw a figure enter the room, tall, and slim with pouting rosebud lips, and long dark hair.

Sunny felt herself immediately stiffen as Agent Amelia stepped into the room, her stride as easy and lithe as the predator was, and Sunny had to choke down the hatred she felt for the woman, irrational and fiery hatred that she honestly tried to choke down, but was unable to do so. She didn't even really understand why, but for whatever reason, she loathed the woman. She had sort of hoped that her credentials would come back fake, but that had proven to be real, and the woman was invited aboard the ship to join them in their quest to find out what had happened to Lord Celex of the Celzex.

Sunny hated every moment of it.

She might have detested the woman even if it weren't for her seemingly singular desire to seduce adam with every moment that they had together.

There was a loud thud, and everyone around the circle cringed visibly calling Sunny's attention to Adam standing over the prone body of a Drev holding his spear to their throat, "Dead." He announced with a smile, before helping the Drev crawl to their feet raising a spear to him and thanking him for the good fight.