The training was short but fun, and the group got quite a lot out of it. Liam's friends got to experience what it felt like to fight someone extremely powerful—not just theoretically understanding the gap but viscerally experiencing it through repeated, systematic defeat that somehow felt educational rather than humiliating.
The one who benefited most was Matt, who had secured himself a personal space shuttle by enduring almost five minutes of what any reasonable person would classify as a near-death beating. The fact that he was already mentally designing the Titanium Eagle's interior layout during the flight home suggested his priorities remained entirely intact despite the recent unconsciousness.
As the group flew back across the Atlantic, they chatted amongst themselves through the exosuits' communication system, rehashing moments from the training with the kind of fond retrospective that came from surviving shared trauma.
