She attempts to match Jodie in the aerial obstacle course, this time! And not hit any of the rings. The large and broad soaring wings will hurt her maneuverability, probably, but she tries her best anyway.

Jodie's still better but by noticeably less, and compliments Laura on her quick improvement.

"Ooh, thanks! I've probably flown at least fifteen, twenty hours this week! It's better than jogging in almost every way! I think my wings aren't great for maneuvering though."

"Different kinds do different things well. You gotta specialize if you don't want to remake them all the time."

"There's probably a website for that now that I think of it! I think I like, uh, speed and cruising? And eagles are fast level and way cooler than, oh, a pelican or albatross or something."

"Most people can't tell that much about which kinda bird you got your wings off."

"Huh. Makes sense. I have no clue what kind of bat you got yours from, if it's even a specific kind of bat."

"It's not even a specific kind, nope."

The documentary profiles a bunch of paladins - a couple Coast Paladins and an Island Paladin and a Rockies Paladin and an Alaska Paladin. It has snippets about their home lives, closeups of their combat wear, and gripping kaiju fight footage with glorious music pouring from their helicopter speakers.

Cooooooool.

Wow. There's a lot of ground to cover before she looks even half as hot and awesome as Paladin teams. She's pretty much transfixed by the documentary.

They only watch the first twenty minutes of it. "We're going to watch bits of this for the next few sessions," announces Melissa, "but not enough to crowd out getting our heartrates up."

"But I am so totally going to aim for a Paladin team after I graduate. Calling it now."

"Me too," says Aileen.

"Who doesn't want to be a Paladin?" asks Queenie.

"I don't," says Vera.

"Not everybody's powersets are good for it," says Clarine.

"Powerset, and attitude, yeah. I'm not saying it's for everyone. But it's for me. I bet it'll be really tough, but it wouldn't be worth it, if it weren't hard work."

"Why wouldn't it be worth it if it weren't hard work?" asks Amelia.

"...Because then..." She thinks for a moment. "Some things are nice on their own, but a trophy, or being a Paladin? If it's not real, earned, doesn't count. It'd just feel weird instead of awesome."

"I dunno, I think it'd be better if kaiju were huge pushovers," says Amelia.

"...Good point. It's not like I like kaiju. I wouldn't make kaiju strong so I could be a Paladin, that'd be just. Evil. But if kaiju were huge pushovers, I guess being a Paladin wouldn't be such a big deal to me. And as long as they aren't, Paladins have to be the best and protect everyone else, right?"

"Right on," says Queenie.

"Which means I'm looking forward to target practice!"

"Kaiju are big targets," says Clarine.

"Which you fight with like half a dozen other people," says Queenie, "so you still have to be able to aim."

"And lightning is pretty hard to aim, so I'd better get it right down."

"That might react better to outfit tuneups than practice, depending," says Gwendolyn.

"Or both. Might as well try both. I'll probably find one of those fashion advisers sooner or later, I found a job that can pay for it."

"Yeah, what are you doing?" asks Queenie.

"There's this place that will take, like, horns and bits of coral and things that I grow. I found it on the internet, there's probably lots of them. I get rid of my feather tail and fancy eyes during it, so I'm nowhere near cryptid-ing. It's a little weird, but it's good money."