It turned out that Alfred did not have Falco’s information, but the Sentinel database did. He offered to place the call.

The communicator on Gabriel’s wrist interfaced with the suit, sending the audio through his helmet. The ringing went on for about 30 seconds, but eventually, a tired-sounding Falco picked up. “Hello? Who is this? How did you get this number?” He asked.

“Falco, it’s Gabe. What’s going on? I’d like to meet up if you aren’t busy.”

“Right now, I’m in the middle of training, but you’re welcome to join me. Training room c-28.”

Gabriel went over the blueprint data in his head. There it was, c-28, on the 14th floor. “Sure thing. I’ll be down shortly.”

“Sounds great! Hey, what did Zero want to talk to you about anyway?”

“That’s exactly why I’m heading down.”

“Oh. Then cool! See you in a sec.” Falco responded.

“Bye.” Gabriel ended the call with a thought and stepped out of the lift.

The training room door said ‘occupied’ in large red letters, but the screen next to it offered an option to chime. Falco answered quickly; he was sweating, which was odd considering the training rooms were just smaller versions of the larger simulation chamber. “Do you exercise before you go into the simulation?”

“Yeah, I always take 15 minutes to warm up before I start, Zero hasn’t been giving us time, so I’ve been doing it before solo practice.” He said, blurring back into a series of rapid push-ups.

“You do know you don’t have to do that, right? It’s not like we can cramp in the sim or anything.”

Falco stood, grinning. “Oh, I know, but you can in real life, so I do my best not to get out of the habit. Wouldn’t want to forget to stretch before a mission.”

Gabriel looked at his friend’s earnest expression and smiled too. “You’re right; imagine tripping from a cramp going Mach 9!” He laughed.

“Now you know why I stretch,” Falco said, serious. “Did you want to talk before we train or after?”

“We can train for a bit and talk during a break if you want. I don’t mean to intrude on your practice.”

“Sounds good. Let’s get on the disks.” Gabriel nodded and followed Falco onto the scanners.

COMMENCE SIMULATION

Falco had chosen a beautiful location. They stood across from each other in the middle of a meadow covered in yellow and blue flowers. Pine trees ringed the clearing, so tight they were like a natural wall - birds and insects filled the air with noise. The sun was high in the sky, and there wasn’t a single cloud to be seen. Listening closer, Gabriel heard a stream flowing somewhere nearby.

A few feet from him, Falco coughed. “Are you ready to start?”

Gabriel turned his attention back to his friend, having lost himself in nature. “Yes, I am. What would you like to do for training? I notice you didn’t add any enemies. Can I assume you want to spar?”

Falco nodded, his expression more serious than Gabriel had come to expect from the man. “I want to go all out against you, we didn’t get to duel yesterday, and I know we can both learn something from it. Let’s go a round, then take a break so you can tell me what you need to. After that, we can try defeating a wave of enemies together. Sound good?”

“Sure. Set a countdown.”

Falco nodded back and said, “Set 10-second countdown.”

A large holographic 10 appeared between them. It flickered and started counting down.

Gabriel readied himself. He felt his flight generator kick in and preemptively drew his AM Scissor. His mind was already racing. He knew that Falco was much faster than anyone he had fought before. He knew more or less what to expect, having seen him in action twice already. Nevertheless, he felt his heart speed up, and nervousness creep its way into his gut. He sent a mental nudge to Alfred.

I am with you. His partner responded.

The timer hit 0.

Falco wasted no time in trying to assassinate Gabriel as best he could. He threw three knives faster than the Mind's eyes could follow. Alfred tracked the projectiles and helped Gabriel move his wings in to block. The knives fell to the grass, and Falco’s expression changed from neutral to surprised. He hadn’t expected Gabriel to be able to avoid getting hit.

Gabriel responded with a Hard blast from all of his lasers. The blue beams sliced the air where Falco had been. The speedster blurred towards Gabriel faster than the knives he’d thrown. Suddenly, Falco stood in front of him, moving out of the way as Gabriel sliced at him. He zipped back to the spot he’d stood before.

A dagger embedded a few inches into Gabriel's armor. Falco, it seems, was taking Zero’s advice of only staying close while he attacked.

Gabriel launched himself into the air, but Falco snatched his ankle and tossed him back to the ground. He kicked his legs in a circle and flipped back to his feet, clipping Falco on the shoulder.

There was barely enough time for Gabriel to catch his breath when Falco launched another assault. He drew his machetes and dashed around the clearing. Alfred relayed his position to Gabriel’s brain, and he had enough time to raise his wings to catch the lightspeed chop meant for his arm.

Falco adjusted his aim when he saw the wings rise, and he struck the joint which connected the pseudo-limb to Gabriel’s super-suit, leaving a deep gouge and rendering the wing immobile.

Gabriel spun in place, whipping his antimatter blade around while Falco was busy dodging the remaining wing to notice the Scissor. He was forced to sacrifice the machete in his left hand.

Dropping his wrecked machete, Falco zoomed away before circling again, aiming for the other wing. Gabriel and Alfred had both expected this, anticipating Falco’s invisibly fast attack. He spun again, faster than before, and managed to swat Falco away.

The speedster bounced across the meadow before rolling to a stop, where he began to stand on shaky legs.

Gabriel didn’t give his opponent any room, blasting through the air with a flying knee. Falco saw him coming but wasn’t balanced enough to get out of the way. The second machete came up to parry, but the force of the blow knocked him back into the trees. He dropped his second machete and drew daggers from his overcoat.

Gabriel followed his movements and was now directly in front of him. He raised his left arm, and AM energy gleamed before a blast was let loose. Falco reacted instantly, slamming both daggers upwards in a cross against Gabriel’s arm and knocking it - and the discharge - to the side.

The line of trees behind Falco suffered an impromptu haircut.

The Speedster wasted no time in counterattacking, slamming one of his daggers into Gabriel’s underarm joint and into his shoulder.

Gabriel clenched his teeth, ignored the urge to yank the blade out, and instead launched a series of frantic slashes. He vaguely heard a voice in his head telling him to focus when he felt a sharp pain in his hand and lost his grip on the Scissor.

Falco had waited for his chance to disarm him.

If you don’t know where you are trying to hit, I cannot help you adjust your aim. Falco is hurt but healing. You have to end this before he’s finished taking out your weapon systems, or worse.

Alfred’s fears came true as Falco launched into his own offensive. He began stabbing wildly at Gabriel’s chest piece, pulling out a new dagger for every one that broke or stuck in the armor.

Gabriel knew this is how Falco almost defeated Rosenquartz, and he combed his brain for a way out. The attack lasted about 2 seconds, but now Gabriel saw five daggers sticking out of his chest piece.

He had been lucky they hadn’t gone through.

Laser system offline.

Gabriel had no time to reach for the Scissor, so he powered an uppercut at Falco’s midsection. The Speedster tried to move away, but Alfred made sure the punch connected. He felt few cracks as Falco was relaunched. Chunks of wood flew everywhere. Gabriel followed with intent to kill.

Gabriel's sword sliced at Falco's head. The man feinted right then blurred to the left, ducking under the blow. Once positioned, Falco grabbed the dagger lodged in Gabriel's armpit and twisted, wrenching it free.

Gabriel screamed in pain and tried to retaliate but was too disoriented to do anything other than fly backward.

This time Falco stayed behind Gabriel until the Super landed and directed a powerful stab between Gabriel's wings. The blow landed slightly off course, destroying the functioning wing’s joint.

Another series of stabs came at Gabriel from his left. Falco had opted to attack his injured arm. Some of these made it through the armor. Gabriel could feel his blood pouring down his arm from multiple wounds but could do nothing to stop the flow.

His mind scrambled; nothing he had done had made up for their difference in speed. He was obviously stronger than Falco, but the man was too swift for him to end the fight quickly. Suddenly Zero’s advice on how to deal with Speedsters came to him. Knowing what he had to do, Gabriel understood if his plan worked, it would still be 50-50.

Damn Speedsters.

Flaring his generator, Gabriel shot away from Falco mid stab. He slowed once he reached the edge of the clearing and stood with his back against the wall of pine.

Good thinking, Gabriel. If he wants to attack you now, he won’t be able to circle around. But how will you catch him?

Not wanting to give away his tactics by talking, Gabriel grunted and sent commands through his link as he had done before Alfred was part of it.

Oh dear, if he aims right, you could die. But I see why you choose this.

Falco stood where he had last been, deciding against chasing Gabriel in case he had something up his sleeve. His expression was curious, as if he knew that Gabriel was being tricky. The fact that Falco wouldn’t be able to circle was glaring.

Neither super moved for a few breaths.

Falco blurred to the opposite end of the meadow and started to jog towards him. The speedster gradually increased his pace until he was barely visible, but Gabriel had already noticed the man’s limp, no doubt caused by the pain in his ribs. He wouldn’t be at his fastest now, not that it mattered with what Gabriel had planned.

Once Gabriel and Alfred were aware of Falco’s exact distance from them, their trap was sprung. Falco moved in with a powerful stab aimed at Gabriel's left arm again. This time once the dagger came close, Gabriel flipped his generator to its reverse setting, turning himself into a gravity well.

The gravitational pull slammed Falco face-first into Gabriel’s chest. Falco struggled against the force and managed to push himself a few inches away when Gabriel ended the fight. Reaching out, he grabbed Falco by the neck, lifted him into the air, and slammed him into the trees behind him.

Gabriel mulched four pine trees with Falco’s face before he went completely limp.

Dropping the body, Gabriel looked around the clearing. It was no longer a beautiful place. The flowers and perfect ring of trees had been savaged.

“Dude, that fucking hurt, you dick!” Said a voice that came from everywhere at once.

“Hilarious, Falco. You probably stabbed me 20 times- and twisting the dagger? Come on!” Gabriel responded loudly.

“You made Falco pine pancakes, so no sympathy here - but anyway, are you just gonna stand there bleeding out?”

END SIMULATION.