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Nix was only fifteen years old, and that bothered Themisto.

His offer to help train the kid (and despite their small age gap, Themisto still thought of him as a kid) was a very serious one. Themisto didn't want someone young like Nix to go without training, without the means to protect himself. As a base-level senshi, Nix was more vulnerable now than he ever might be in the future, a perfect target for Negaverse agents and Dark Mirrors who had nefarious ideas. That bothered Themisto deeply.

So the call went out to the frog senshi with an offer to help him learn a few more things - practical things, not the esoteric, intellectual things that were the realm of his elder sibling. Themisto was more of a hands-on senshi, focusing on what it took to survive and to protect the people you loved. How to survive a Negaverse attack, how to punch an agent in the face, how to stop them from ripping someone's starseed out. That was important to him, that was vital to this war.

[Text to Nix][hey nix, this is themisto. you busy?]

[Text to Nix][i was thinking we could do some training like i mentioned earlier?]

[Text to Nix][i'm up on the bank building downtown]

After sending the last message, Themisto sat down on the air conditioning unit to await the answer.

Themisto felt Nix before seeing him, and stood to brush himself off. He'd felt guilty that Nix didn't seem to have much in the way of training or guidance, and was left pretty much to his own devices. That was a major problem with the Senshi as far as he could tell, and not everyone had a talking cat breathing down their neck for constant training and exercise.

The fog senshi seemed to be getting better with this whole running and jumping and not breaking your face on concrete thing. Thankfully, Nix wasn't cursed with geta - the worst shoes ever invented. "'Ey, over here! How's it goin'?" Waiting for Nix to get within hearing distance, Themisto bridged the game between the two.

"I was thinkin', about what you said last time. I thought... maybe I could help you get better at this whole senshi thing. Denebola did that for me, I figured... pay it forward, yeah?" Crossing his arms, Themisto looked off into the distance and scanned for anyone nearby. Looks like they were alone, for now. "So uh... d'you have any formal trainin', or are you like the rest of us kinda... figurin' it out as we go?"

Themisto nodded, somewhat relieved Nix was taking this seriously. As a basic senshi, he was incredibly vulnerable, and Themisto wasn't sure the froggy senshi realized that. Hell, Themisto himself didn't realize how vulnerable he was until he was face-to-face with a General could have easily snapped his neck with a flick of the wrist.

"Unpowered or not, that's a good idea." he started, nodding more to himself than to his froggy counterpart. "The Negas, man, they're stronger than we are right out the gate. They got stupid weapons but for some reason, Chaos makes 'em physically stronger and faster than us. Even at Eternal, a General can still outrun me. Effed up, isn't it?" He would have spat, but Nix got the point. "I dunno who Minchir is but it's good to know you're tryin' to make yourself better, ya know? Better to put up a fight when you're faced with those Nega assholes!"

Smacking his closed fit into his other open palm, Themisto smirked. It wasn't in arrogance, but in confidence that Nix would be better off than he himself was all those years ago. "So, I figured, why not practice on somebody like me? We get stronger as we level up. Don't worry 'bout me, let's just see how well you can punch somebody." Bringing up his arms in a guard, Themisto nodded to Nix. "Ready when you are!"

From behind his raised forearms, Themisto gave Nix a nod. "Generals are bad news, my dude. Seriously bad news. They can kill you faster than I can finish a sentence. I'm serious. If you feel a General - and believe me, you'll know it when you feel it - you run. You power down someplace safe and you keep your head down. Generals don't mess around no matter how nice they look or how small they are. That's some'a the best advice I could give you."

The punch was decent thought Themisto didn't shift much from his position. His increased strength over Nix's gave him a bit of an edge in terms of defense and stamina - the perfect punching bag to teach some survival skills. "Not bad! Do it again. You gotta punch like your life depends on it. The better your punch, better you do!"

Once Nix got the hang of punching things, that's when their sparring practice would get interesting. The froggy senshi would get the best street smarts Themisto could provide. If anything, the senshi of the lost didn't want someone else to start off in the same position he did - alone, confused and ignorant. "Keep goin'! Try to get in your offhand too!"

"Nah, man," The strikes kept coming, just as Themisto hoped they would. Nix was getting the hang of this! "It's when you run outta magic that you gotta make sure your punches are up to snuff." Another strike, and another, and...

...Froggo staggered?

No...

The A/C covering was a thin sheet of metal, and the eternal senshi hadn't expected something so... cheeky. With a fwup!, the sheet metal made perfect contact with Themisto's back and bounced off, falling back down on the rooftop and leaning over against another one of the units. Themisto looked up at Nix and smiled.

"....niiiiiice, quick thinkin'!" came the praise, the eternal senshi turning to face Nix where he stood on the roof. If the newbie was going to play like that, then the blonde was further along in his training than Themisto originally thought. Serves him right for underestimating someone.

The frog senshi already knew what Themisto's attacks looked like, and how they operated, based on Toby's previous experience during the rescue. It wasn't that Themisto wished to scare the bajeezus out of poor Nix, but the desire to instill a real appreciation for the dangerous of battle. Using his superior speed, Themisto was able to close the gap between the two in a ridiculously short amount of time, pushing wind around him as he moved. Stopping just before Nix, Themisto held out his palm and blew across it.

"Nebula Fletus!"

It was a rough lesson to teach, and Themisto felt guilty about it. Nix needed to understand that there were others in this war far more powerful than himself, and that many of them weren't so forgiving.

When Nix ran clear of the mist, he would find the voices trailing off, the fear subsiding. Themisto ran around the fog bank to try and catch the frog senshi, fearing he might accidentally run off the side of the roof. "Whoa whoa! You're okay, Nix. You're okay. Just breathe, bud. You're good. You're good." The fog still hung in the air, heavy and thick, white and impenetrable by the naked eye, though no sound seemed to emanate from it.

Keeping his arms around the smaller boy, Themisto patted the frog senshi on the back. "...sorry about that. Glad you're not hurt. You wanna take a breather? Or be done for the night? Wouldn't blame you."

Scaring the bajeezus out of poor Nix made Themisto feel extra guilty, and the emotion wore plainly on his face. Swallowing thickly, the eternal senshi chuckled nervously. He'd only performed the attack twice since his upgrade, and it even spooked him. "...yeah, but... I thought it'd be a good idea, since it... doesn't seem to actually hurt anybody. Just scares 'em real bad." That being said, Nix seemed to have understood the lesson Themisto was trying to teach - the higher the rank, the more potential for danger.

"Everybody's magic's different. Yours might be like... frog rain like Biblical plagues or somethin' for all we know. Some got lasers, which... I'm kinda jealous about." What he wouldn't give to summon turrets or shoot searing-hot beams of light or... sharks with chainguns on their heads. That would show the Negaverse! "Generals are, like, physically stronger, from what I've seen. And they can teleport, like, poof, point A to point B in the blink of an eye. Like I said, you stay the holy hell away from them or they might get some funny ideas about your starseed. You know what I mean?"

The fog was starting to dissipate now, just as it would if it were a more natural phenomenon. With Nix this jittery, Themisto felt guilty about the possibility of continuing to spar in this condition. "You did real great today though... Tell you what, I'll buy you a burger or somethin'. My treat for bein' a good sport?"