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Primal sat in the break room next to Hazard and Ballista, sipping on a black coffee.
Ballista was chattering away while Hazard listened intently.
"Man, sometimes I wish I were bigger so I could win the thing," Ballista sighed wistfully. He was speaking about some buff strength competition that had surfaced in the area.
Taking a look at Hazard, Ballista wondered aloud, "You're probably buff enough to get a good score. You're bigger than Agent, me and..." Ballista glanced at Primal for a moment for comparison.
She met Ballista's eyes with a raised eyebrow, not fully understanding the discussion.
"...Primal," Ballista finished. He looked back at Hazard and affirmed his statement. "Yeah! You are the biggest in our squad! Ever thought about trying for the competition?"
Hazard shrugged, making an indifferent hum.
Feeling mildly offended, Primal leaned over the table and set her mug down with a clank.
Ballista took notice of the change in Primal's demeanor and looked back at her.
Suddenly, Primal swelled up in size, gaining both stature and a muscled build.
Ballista's eyes looked like they were going to pop out of his head. Primal relished the reaction, unable to avoid grinning at his flabbergasted expression.
"Woah! Stick, Primal! Why didn't you tell us you could do that?!" He was suddenly at Primal's side, having jumped over the table in a flash of speed.
"Wowww!" he continued, holding up her arm and squeezing it excitedly.
Primal easily plucked the small-statured mercenary off the ground, leaned over the table again, and set Ballista back in his seat. She would rather not have her arm become a monkey bar.
Undeterred by his placement back in his seat, he continued rambling.
"You could totally win the contest, Primal! You have probably the biggest build of a stick I've ever witnessed ever!"
Primal shrunk back to her preferred state of being, and gave a mild shrug of the shoulders.
"I guess so. I'm not particularly interested in the competition, however."
"Awwww," Ballista mumbled, his voice finally quieting down to a normal volume.
"Would have bought a cake with the prize money if I had a chance at winning," he sighed.
The mercenaries had only just met last week and had been teamed together for even less than that, so that fact she was feeling such a sympathetic urge toward Ballista right now surprised Primal.
Then again, she loved cake, so this would be a win-win.
"Alright, I'll enter the thing. Let's get a cake."
Ballista's attitude immediately swung around 180° and he was instantly on top of the meeting table, bouncing up and down.
"Yeahhh! Cake! Cake! Cake!"
Hazard had also perked up and emitted a happy hum despite his quiet and reserved nature.
Ballista stopped bouncing, although he was still standing on the tabletop.
"We should save some for Agent since he's not here right now."
"Save what for me?" a voice in the doorway spoke up.
"Gah!" Ballista lept backward and fell off the table, barely landing on his feet.
Agent gave a faint trace of a smile to Ballista, amused. It was rare moment, since he was more often than not, serious and detached from the team.
Ballista recovered quickly and began happily explaining Primal's recently revealed ability to him, interspersed with ecstatic descriptions of the strength contest.
Agent looked at Primal with interest.
"May I see?" He inquired in his usual polite tone.
Primal complied, again swelling up in size and easily measuring at least a four times difference.
"It does take me some energy, but it's easy to pull off," she explained to Agent.
"That's good! We can make use of this for future missions," Agent praised. Turning to Ballista he continued, "Now, what's this about a strength competition?"
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Practically needless to say, the team enjoyed a lemon cake that afternoon.