With the study of their magic out of the way – after its fully anticipated abysmal failure – the girls were directed to the women’s barracks where they found Scarlett waiting. “So I’m guessing the study went about how you were expecting?” she asked.
“The high point was watching Rainbow Dash forced to clean up after the mess she made in the lab,” Sunset whispered to Scarlett with a smirk.
“Hey! I heard that!” Rainbow said indignantly. It was accurate though – after Rainbow Dash had finally gotten her laughter under control, Flint had ordered her to clean up the rainbow slime she’d splattered over the lab.
“Alright, knock it off. Basic training starts in ten; get changed and get ready.” Scarlett ordered.
“Yes ma’am!” the girls all saluted as they walked into the barracks.
“So what kinda trainin’ are we lookin’ forward to here?” Applejack asked as the girls found several open bunks with what looked like athletic clothes stacked on them.
“Nothing too intense.” Scarlett shrugged. “Weapons systems, physical and psych evals, tactical response scenarios, how to best use your powers in the field, things like that.”
“Um… that sounds like kind of a lot…” Fluttershy said in concern.
“Please. That’s standard for newbies, Joe or otherwise.” Scarlett assured. “Plenty of Joes have more experience than that. You’re fresh-faced rookies though, so where you go in this outfit after Basic is up to you.”
“And who will be conducting this ‘Basic’?” Rarity asked, clearly disliking the colors of the military clothes.
“Well, that’s up to Duke. Think I got some theories though. Now get changed; fourteen and counting.” Scarlett smirked.
The girls didn’t have to be told twice; soon enough they were all dressed in tank tops, light tactical vests in black, camo cargo pants, and black combat boots, while Spike wore a tan tactical dog harness. Once dressed, the Rainbooms were led downstairs to the main floor of the Pit, where they found Duke talking to a man in tactical gear and a deep green balaclava.
“Fall in along here,” Scarlett ordered the girls, who lined up on a line painted on the floor as Scarlett walked up to Duke. “Little early for throwing these girls into the deep end, don’t you think Duke?”
“The deep end would be givin’ em to Slaughter.” Duke countered, indicating to the other guy. “This is me being the nice guy.”
“Whatever you say, boss.” Scarlett shrugged as the three walked back to the girls. “Alright ladies, welcome to G.I. Joe Basic. This is your new best friend Staff Sergeant Beach Head.”
“Always great to make a new friend, even if he does look kinda scary.” Pinkie smiled jovially, resulting in Beach Head narrowing his eyes under his mask.
“Uh… heh-heh-heh. You’ll have to forgive her, sir; Pinkie Pie doesn’t have much of a filter.” Rarity said nervously.
“Let’s get one thing straight here, ladies.” Beach Head said simply. “You may have blackmailed your way onto this team, but that doesn’t mean I’ve gotta like it. But I’ve got my orders, and that means I’ve gotta get you mission-ready. Joe-style.”
“Don’t expect him to go easy on you with that. Beach Head used to instruct Ranger School at Ft. Moore.” Duke warned playfully.
That gave Twilight some concerned pause – she knew Army Rangers were among the best of the best, and now they were about to be trained by one of their instructors? “Oh boy.”
“Yeah, ‘oh boy’ is right.” Duke nodded. “Good luck; you’re gonna need it.” With that in mind, he and Scarlett stepped away and let Beach Head take the floor.
“Chuckles has briefed me on your powers, but while you’re under my command, I’m gonna see exactly what they’re capable of.” Beach Head said simply. “Let’s observe some protocol while we’re here. Atten-TION!” The girls all stood at attention on the order. “Left FACE!” The Rainbooms turned 90 degrees left on their heels. “Firing range. Double time, march.”
The Rainbooms jogged through the Pit in time, trying hard not to give Beach Head grief as they moved as he clearly wasn’t one to be messed with. As they walked, Applejack looked around curiously before she glanced at Duke as he, Scarlett, and Beach Head marched with them. “Can Ah ask somethin’?”
“You can ask.” Duke shrugged, making it clear that he probably wasn’t going to answer.
Applejack raised an eyebrow at that but asked her question anyway. “Who pays for all this?”
“Department of Defense. And we answer directly to the President. In case you missed it, we are an anti-terrorism task force.” Duke pointed out, earning an annoyed roll of Applejack’s eyes at his sarcasm.
When the group reached the firing range, they found a brown-haired girl just finishing up as she removed the mag from a rifle. “Here again, Lady Jaye? What, tryin’ to prove something?” Scarlett asked with a smirk.
“Who’s tryin’? I could ace this with my eyes closed.” Lady Jaye smirked.
“Well, we’ll be keepin’ ‘em open while we’re here.” Beach Head shrugged as the girls lined up at the range.
“So what power are we testing first?” asked Sunset.
“Her.” Beach Head said simply, pointing to Rarity. “Chuckles tells me you make shields.”
“Well, if you must be so blah about describing them – they are rather fine diamonds, after all.” Rarity pointed out.
“Well, let’s just see if they’re as strong as they are pretty.” Beach Head ordered, pointing downrange toward the targets. “Put one up down there and hold it up as long as you can.” Rarity easily obeyed the order and summoned one of her shields at the end of the range in front of the target Lady Jaye had clearly just shredded. “Scarlett, care to start us off?”
Scarlett nodded as she stepped forward to stare the shield down… before she immediately pulled a ninja star from her belt and tossed it at the shield, letting it ping harmlessly off to the right. But before it could hit the ground, Scarlett pulled her hand crossbow and fired it at the exact same place at the shield, the bolt bouncing off in just the right way to shoot straight through the hole of the ninja star, embedding it into the side wall. Scarlett couldn’t help but smirk at the stunned expressions of the girls after they saw that happen. “I’d say that signs the shields off on blades and bow-type weapons.” she nodded.
“Agreed.” Beach Head nodded.
“That… was… AWESOME!” Rainbow said in awe. “Please tell me you can teach me how to do that.”
“I can.” Scarlett shrugged tellingly, letting Rainbow know full well that she probably wouldn’t.
“Let’s go for something a little heavier. Lady Jaye?” Duke requested.
“With gusto.” Lady Jaye smirked as she walked to a large shoulder bag of javelins nearby, retrieving one of them before she pressed a button on the pole, which made the weapon beep quietly. “Ears,” she advised, prompting the Rainbooms to cover their ears before she hurled the javelin at the shield, where its tip exploded on impact in a small blast. Rarity showed a small amount of strain from the blast, but Lady Jaye smiled. “That’s clear for frontal explosive protection.”
“Not bad. We’ll see about containing explosives later.” Beach Head nodded. “For now, let’s see how it handles gunfire.” With that in mind, he turned to the girls. “Small arms first; kit up.”
“Come again?” Twilight asked, hoping she’d misheard.
“You heard me.” Beach Head said firmly, pointing to a rack of guns on the back wall. “Pick a sidearm and step up.”
Quite understandably, the girls were all incredibly nervous – none of them had ever even seen a real gun before the Dreadnoks attacked, and now they were each being asked to pick one? They all just eyed the guns nervously… until Sunset finally stepped forward and grabbed a small black pistol, keeping her finger as far off the trigger as she could.
“.45. Nice choice.” Scarlett smiled, grabbing a magazine for the weapon and setting it at the range booth. “Step up; let’s see how you shoot.”
The other girls were more than a bit surprised by Sunset’s willingness to arm herself, but they knew she’d played shooter-type video games on her stream before… though Sunset knew full well as she loaded her pistol that this was no game – this was an actual gun with real live ammo; if she wasn’t careful with it, she could kill someone. She tried her hardest to distance herself from what she was doing as she leveled the pistol at the shield, even though her heart was drumming and her hands were shaking. She tensed hard and tensed on the trigger, the recoil of the pistol kicking hard to knock her back a bit. She let out a shaky breath to try and calm her heart down as she looked back at the shield, a very distinct scratch on one of the facets.
“This your first time shootin’?” Duke asked.
“Does it show?” Sunset asked, trying to sound cool… but presumably failing miserably as she could hear her heartbeat in her ears.
“Kinda does. But you’re good at it.” Scarlett noted. “If that were a real target, you’d have got him in the shoulder. Solid incapacitation.”
“How ya holdin’ up, Rarity?” Lady Jaye asked.
“Fine, Darling. I could do this all day.” Rarity smiled, though she was also more than a bit alarmed by her friend having to handle a gun for this training.
“Glad to hear it. ‘Cause Sunset’s still got eleven rounds in that thing.” Beach Head noted, making her gulp nervously. “And the rest of you need some range time too.”
“Easy, Beach Head. We can worry about real combat training after power evaluation.” Duke insisted.
“Whatever you say, boss.” Beach Head shrugged as he stepped forward and extended his hand to Sunset. “Gun?” Sunset didn’t hesitate to hand over her pistol to the sergeant. Once it was in his hand, Beach Head didn’t hesitate to take her place at the range and started firing at the shield, each bullet bouncing off easily.
Rarity appeared to be flinching a bit with every bullet, but it wasn’t heavily noticeable. He quickly set the pistol aside and grabbed up a rifle, firing small bursts of semi-automatic fire into the shield, making Rarity tense a bit – especially as he moved on to full-auto fire – but her shield stood firm. “Alright, your shield’s clear on small arms.” Beach Head noted as he holstered the rifle. “We’ll test heavier stuff later and get you all some range time.”
“For now, let’s see what Fluttershy’s capable of,” Duke instructed, leading the girls out with Scarlett and Beach Head. Fluttershy was a bit nervous about this – especially after what happened in the lab, she wasn’t sure she wanted to go through anything, even if it was based on her powers, but she changed her mind when she saw a strong-looking Native American man working with what looked like a medicine kit near the barracks with a powerful bald eagle perched on his shoulders. “Spirit. Got a minute?”
The man – Spirit by callsign, apparently – looked up from his work and smiled at Fluttershy. “I think I know what you want that minute for.” he smiled as he stood up, walking straight to Fluttershy. “The wild speaks to you, doesn’t it, young one?”
“Um… yes?” Fluttershy asked nervously.
“I’d be more than willing to help you listen closer.” Spirit smiled as he shook Fluttershy’s hand. “Staff Sergeant Spirit. This is my brother eagle Freedom.” Freedom tilted his head to look at Fluttershy, his eyes showing a strange kindness despite his intimidating profile.
Fluttershy reached forward nervously as she lightly ruffled the eagle’s feathers, which the bird leaned into affectionately. “I think we can leave her with them.” Duke smiled at Beach Head.
The sergeant nodded and looked at Spirit. “I’ll expect a performance report,” he said.
“Yes sir.” Spirit saluted as the rest of the group moved to a vehicle lot… where they saw a group of men working on a large green tank.
“Steeler!” Duke called, prompting one soldier to look up and lift the visor of his helmet. “Falcon givin’ your guys any trouble?”
“I think even a Green Beret knows better than to mess with a guy who drives a 55-ton tank,” Steeler smirked as he pointed at the tank.
“One can only hope.” Beach Head remarked, glancing over at Applejack and Twilight. “You two are up this time.”
Twilight and Applejack looked at each other in surprise at that. “You want us to pick up a tank?” Twilight asked.
“High as you can. Wanna see what your limits are.” Beach Head answered simply.
Applejack rolled her eyes as she stepped forward, tossing her hat over to Scarlett as she walked to the tank and activated her Geode. “Alright, let’s do this.” she shrugged as she crawled under the tank, moving to a low squat as she set the tank on her shoulders. With a deep firm breath, Applejack set her hands on the tank’s undercarriage and tensed as she strained to stand up.
The metal of the tank’s body groaned as Applejack gritted her teeth, straining with an angry groan as she forced herself to stand up, lifting the front end of the tank off the ground a few feet before she lightly tossed the tank into the air and tumbled clear, the vehicle crashing to the ground behind her. “Hey, easy. You scratch the paint; you patch it up.” Steeler advised.
“Settle, Lt; she looks fine,” Duke assured as he looked at the tank as Applejack sat down nearby.
“How ya doin’, cowgirl?” Scarlett smirked as she slapped the hat back on Applejack’s head.
“Tuckered out. Ain’t handled nothin’ quite that heavy before.” Applejack noted as Steeler handed her a canteen.
“Walk it off; you’re done for now.” Beach Head nodded as he turned to Twilight. “You’re up.”
Twilight couldn’t help but feel a bit nervous; she’d never lifted anything this heavy either and wasn’t sure she could handle it. “Here goes nothing, I guess,” she said nervously as she grasped her Geode. Her hands glowed with energy as her magical aura enveloped the tank, and she strained as she slowly raised her hands, the tank lifting slowly from the ground. It didn’t get anywhere near as high as when Applejack lifted it, but it was still quite impressive that Twilight was able to lift the entire tank as she set it down.
“Nice goin’,” Steeler smirked as he walked over, examining the tank. “Didn’t even rattle the ammo.”
Twilight just wiped the sweat from her brow. “Don’t think I’d want to do that again,” she said breathlessly.
“Well, that’s fair. We can handle military canine training later.” Beach Head noted.
“Just be careful; Mutt and Junkyard cut rough.” Steeler pointed out.
“They’re not the only ones.” The group looked and saw a slim guy in a bandana with a firm Brooklyn accent and a rather pungent smell to him.
“Oof… what on Earth is that?” Rarity remarked as she waved in front of her face, clearly trying not to offend.
“That… is Tunnel Rat,” Scarlett smirked. “Don’t worry; you get used to the smell. And don’t let it fool you either – he’s one of G.I. Joe’s best explosives guys.”
“Ah think Ah can make a pretty good guess which one of us he’s here for.” Applejack smiled as she looked over at Pinkie Pie.
“Good instincts, kid.” Tunnel Rat nodded, turning to Pinkie. “C’mon; I wanna see how good you can blow stuff up.”
“Rarity, go with him; time to give your shields a real explosives test.” Beach Head ordered.
“Very well then.” Rarity remarked, clearly finding the thought of hanging out with Tunnel Rat distasteful considering his smell but tried not to be too judgmental about it as she followed him, Pinkie Pie bouncing happily along behind them.
“Guess that just leaves me. Hope you’ve got something befitting my awesomeness.” Rainbow smirked.
“Oh, I think we have something good in mind for you,” Duke smirked.
“We definitely do.” Beach Head affirmed as he led the group onward… all while they heard dull explosions from the other side of the Pit, clearly Pinkie’s training going great.
Eventually, they reached a large running track which made Rainbow smirk. “Oh, this is gonna be too easy,” she said as she walked onto the track. “So what do you want me to do; just run a few laps and show how cool my power is?”
“Little more to it than that.” Beach Head noted, quickly letting out a quick whistle… which drew Roadblock and two other burly men out, all with large guns at the ready. “Ladies, Gung-Ho and Leatherneck; two top Marine Corps Joes.”
Sunset was nervous; General Hawk had warned the group about Gung-Ho not taking kindly to them being here, and from the look on his face, that was clearly confirmed as Beach Head walked over and accepted a mag from him. “Here’s what’s gonna happen, Rainbow; you’re gonna run five laps…” Beach Head loaded the mag into his gun. “And we’re gonna shoot at you with training bullets.”
That alarmed Rainbow a bit, especially as Gung-Ho cocked his rifle. “What? Ya think we’re gonna go easy on ya?” he asked.
Immediately, Rainbow – who was at least somewhat grateful that Roadblock was using a somewhat smaller gun than his 50-cal – activated her Geode and started running around the track as the four soldiers started firing, training bullets whizzing past her as she ran – jumping and weaving in the air to avoid them. “Don’t you think this is a little excessive?” Twilight asked as the others watched their friend’s rainbow-colored contrail racing around the track, dotted with holes from the bullets.
“Honestly? This is kinda par for the course when it comes to Beach Head.” Duke shrugged, glancing over at Sunset. “I think what we really have to worry about is Sunset’s evaluation.”
“Wh- Why?” Sunset asked nervously.
“Because I’m gonna be seeing what you can do.” Sunset looked and saw a blonde man with a silver headset and combat vest walk over with a few scanners. “This is the telepath you told me about, right Duke?”
“That’s her.” Duke nodded. “Sunset, this is Psyche-Out; ex-CIA and chief of Psy-Ops. He’ll be judging how good your powers are at gathering information.”
“How do we do that?” Sunset asked though she was already dreading the answer.
“C’mon, I’ll show you,” Psyche-Out ordered, leading Sunset away from the others… her eyes still glued to how Rainbow was still running laps while getting shot at.
It didn’t take long for Psyche-Out to lead Sunset to the stockade – clearly a much higher-security wing than where she and her friends were held – and let her stop near Law and Order where she looked through a one-way mirror of an interrogation room at a man in prison orange cuffed to the table. “Who’s this guy?” she asked.
“A Cobra Trooper. We captured him and a few others on an op we ran a while ago.” Law answered. “Our orders are that whenever we take prisoners, we extract whatever intel from them we can. But this guy isn’t feeling cooperative. That’s where you come in.”
Sunset was starting to understand what they were getting at; Psyche-Out wanted her to read this soldier’s mind. “What am I supposed to be looking for?”
“Breaker decrypted a Cobra transmission recently referring to something called Project Hurricane,” Psyche-Out answered. “We need to know what it is, where it is, and how to trash it.”
“All right. But…” Sunset noted, fairly nervous as she worried about being recognized.
“You don’t have to worry about him getting out. The Pit is secure, but just to be safe, we’re moving him to the Flagg as soon as you’re done with him.” Law assured.
“Still… I don’t think I want this guy to know who I am.” Sunset remarked.
“Well, lucky for you, Beach Head has a lot of spare masks.” Psyche-Out smiled and handed Sunset another green balaclava.
Sunset sniffed it and recoiled a bit. “Ugh.” The mask kinda stank but she knew it was better than nothing, so she bundled her fiery hair into it before pulling it down over her head, making sure to hide her geode under it as well. Only her eyes were visible, which made her look down at her arms. “Well, I doubt my eyes are too obvious. But what about this?” she asked, gesturing to her skin tone.
“If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you just tan really well.” Law shrugged.
“I do, actually, so I’m gonna take that compliment.” Sunset smiled as she walked to the interrogation room’s door. She cleared her throat, clearly trying to lower her voice a bit to disguise it before she stepped into the room.
The prisoner just smirked as he looked at her. “Huh. Didn’t realize Beach Head had a little sister,” he said, clearly mocking her.
“If you’re going to talk, at least make sure you mention Project Hurricane,” Sunset growled, trying her hardest to do a gravelly voice, but ended up leaning into her old bad girl tone from before the Fall Formal.
“Even if I did know what you’re talking about, what makes you think I’d tell you?” the prisoner asked.
“I only asked as a formality.” Sunset shrugged as she walked behind him, just to make sure he didn’t see her subtly touch the geode at her neck. “In all honesty, you don’t have to say a word.” With that in mind, she set a hand on his shoulder and her eyes glowed white as she peered into his mind. It only lasted a second, but she appeared shaken by what she’d seen so she quickly stepped out of the room as the prisoner watched after her, confused about what had just happened.
“Get anything?” Psyche-Out asked as Sunset pulled the balaclava off, letting her hair free and clearing her throat to resume her typical voice.
“Yeah, that his superiors don’t like to share,” Sunset remarked.
“Tell us something we don’t know,” Law smirked.
“Well, all this guy knows about Project Hurricane is that it’s supposed to be deployed a little over 30 kilometers into the atmosphere,” Sunset answered.
“Doesn’t exactly narrow it down; could be anything.’” Psyche-Out shrugged.
“Better than nothing,” Law remarked.
“I guess. Alright, get this bozo prepped for transfer.” Psyche-Out ordered, pointing back in at the prisoner.
“Yes sir.” Law saluted as Psyche-Out led Sunset back down to the Pit, where the rest of her friends had reassembled. Rarity and Rainbow both looked tired out, but Pinkie looked incredibly happy.
“Does she pass?” Duke asked.
“Flying colors.” Psyche-Out nodded.
Sunset just grinned. “What do I win?”
“Same as the rest. Official training.” Beach Head grinned under his mask, clearly already thinking up ways to make this training very memorable.