Finding Strength (CLOSED)

Calum shook his head. "We talked it out. It just kinda... Escalated.". He blushed a bit, clearing his throat. "But no... I don't think she'd be wanting another beating. Both of use are happy with what happened, and it was definitely more than just that one night.". He smiled, pleased with himself. "So... Yeah. All's fine, Sel."

"That's fantastic" Selena said happily. "You two are good for each other from what I've seen." Selena was also quite happy that she wouldn't have to beat Katherine again; she hated having to hurt her friend. "That's pretty much it."

Calum gave a thumbs uo. "Sounds good then. And I believe so myself - glad ya think the same.". At that, he walked back into the kitchen, quickly downing his near-empty cup and setting it into the sink.

Katherine eventually returned to the kitchen, and poured herself another cup of coffee. She was wearing a pair of tight black pants, decent boots, and a black hoodie with a faux fur lining, her hair tied up neatly.
"I'm ready whenever you are" Katherine said with a chuckle as she pulled on a pair of motocross gloves.

"Gimme a sec," Calum said, as he walked off, the other two following his lead. Eventually, Calum returned, wearing some slightly form-fitting but still warm pants, with a warm jacket on as well. Shortly after, the duo returned, wearing coats and warm pants themselves.

As soon as the guys were ready, Katherine headed outside. She pulled up her hood, and pulled her scarf over her nose in an attempt to ward off the cold.
"There's a large neon orange piece of fabric tied to a tree about a kilometre from here. I was thinking we race to that?"

Calum thought for a bit, before saying, "...sounds good. We're ready to go whenever you are. Just, er - what direction is it?". As he said that, he looked around, trying to see where the piece of fabric was.

"It should be roundabout there. Southeast from here" Katherine explained as she pointed the direction through a heavily wooded area. She lined up with the others, preparing to run.

Calum, Evan, and Kyle lined up all in a line, getting ready to run off. Slightly lighting up, Calum said, "Alright... On your mark, then.". He stretched a bit, waiting for the signal to go.

"GO!" With that, Katherine bolted off, scaling a tree as soon as she one. She seemed quite good at running through the treetops. Katherine darted through the treetops, moving quite quickly, but she still made noise as she ran. If she was to become an Assassin, she would definitely need to work on that.

Calum had a similar strategy as Katherine, climbing a tree as soon as possible. Once in the treetops, Calum managed to move at the same pace - if not faster - than Katherine, yet managed to be quite silent. Evan and Kyle got up in the tree tops managing to at least stay in eyesight of Katherine and Calum, yet were not keeping the pace.

Seeing Calum move faster than her, Katherine decided to push herself to her limit, and maybe even past that. The faster she moved, the more noise she made. Occasionally she'd break a branch in her wake which, obviously made a very loud noise.

Slightly shocked at her sudden burst of movement, accompanied with louder noise. Evan noticed Katherine doing far better, and before he could register how she could go faster, and was more shocked seeing Calum pick up the pace himself, not caring about noise, and keeping back up with Katherine after pushing himself to be essentially next to her. "Push yourself, Kat! I wanna give some pointers after this!"

"Alright, let's see what I can do." Katherine had never actually tested her abilities before, so she really wasn't sure how well she could perform. She pushed herself harder than before, really giving it all she had. Katherine ended up accidentally breaking a branch more frequently than earlier.

Calum was pushing himself, not used to doing so. He was barely keeping hinself kept up with Katherine, as he looked forward and saw the Orange piece of fabric a good distance away. "Amazin', Kat! Didn' expec' this kinda speed outta ye!". He chuckled a bit, taking some breaths as he kept running across, breaking a few branches himself. "Imma have tah push my self hard tah keep up with this!" he yelled, as he began to push himself the hardest he could, managing to slowly surpass Katherine.

"You may have the speed, Cal, but I have the endurance" Katherine said with a chuckle. She had hardly broken a sweat, which was surprising because she was moving so fast, and using so much energy. The old Katherine definitely would not have been able to run that fast, let alone for that long. Upon seeing the orange piece of fabric in the distance, she tried to push herself to move a bit faster, but she didn't really move much faster, maybe just a tiny bit faster, but she seemed to have reached her top speed.

Panting a bit, Calum yelled back, "That... May be so! But that doesn't matter at this point - I'm nearly there!" At that, he took a massive leap, right to the tree with the fabric. Realizing he didn't have anything to grab on to, he frantically tried to shove his hand into the tree in an idiotic last ditch effort, yet grab the fabric at the same time. He succeeded at grabbing the fabric, and managed to firmly plant his hand into the tree. The only problem was that was the only thing supporting him up. "Christ - This must be 'ow Mikey feels."

Katherine leapt forward, and landed on the tree closest to Calum. She studied Calum and the tree for a moment, assessing his current situation. Thinking quickly, she leapt onto the tree Calum was on, landing just beneath him. She moved up a little bit so he could stand on her shoulders for stability. Her main goal was to try prevent him from falling out a tree.

Calum put the cloth in his mouth for maximum use of his arms. Carefully, he pulled his hands out of the tree, barely staying stable. Once rebalancing, he hopped to the nearest and most stable branch, grabbing it with both of his hands. He lifted himself up, sitting on it. He took the fabric out of his mouth, holding it in his right hand. "I don't understnad how Mikey likes shovin' his hands in trees... But then again, I nearly died to grab a piece o' fabric.". He sighed, exhausted. "Thanks for the assist, Kat. Needed that..."

Following Calum's example, Katherine found the nearest strong branch, pulling herself up and sitting on the sturdy branch. She looked up to make sure Calum was alright as she had been worried when he started to fall
"Well, I couldn't exactly let you fall and die. That'd just be..." Katherine looked in the direction that they had come from, watching for Kyle and Evan.  "Are you alight?"

He nodded. "If puah came to shove, I'd probably of been alright... Probably." He looked off to where they came from as well, Evan approaching closely followed by Kyle. "There they are... Probably a bit confused how we just beat them here this quickly. At the very least, shocked."

"We do have an unfair advantage though" Katherine said with a chuckle. She watched the two assassins with a smile, hoping she could be one of them one day. "It's still a bit weird knowing that this is all real, that it always has been real. Assassins and all that..." She paused for a moment, thinking about it all. "I can still join the brotherhood, right? Even with my past and my issues?"

Calum nodded. "As long as you don't do it while actually in the brotherhood, you should be fine. Your past is of little concern to the brotherhood - as far as I'm concerned, the only things that will stop someone from joining is if they're dead, if they were just born, and if they're a Templar. All walks of life are in the brotherhood cause of that.". As Calum wrapped up his explanation, Evan and Kyle finally caught up, sitting on relatively close branches.
"Okay, I'll say this for me and Kyle.
What. The fuck?". Calum laughed, hand on the back of his neck.

"I'm working on it, not being so aggressive, but it's difficult. At least I'm trying." Katherine looked at the two assassins, and laughed a bit at their reaction. "Cybernetics and Mirakuru..." Something clicked inside Katherine, and she started laughing a bit harder. "Part Russian, and I'm only able to perform like this because of a drug... I'm really not helping the stereotype, am I?"

Calum laughed at her realization, saying, "Ya damn youths, what with yer performance enhancing drugs. Y'see, when I was a kid-"
"We get it, grandpa. Gosh.". They both laughed, finding the whole ordeal quite funny.
"Nah, nah... But we should probably head on back. Not exactly the warmest of temperatures out here.". At that, the three assassins began climbing down the tree, not feeling like running the 'course' again.