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 Posted: Thu Sep 16, 2010 10:56 pm
Rather pointedly, the Elite repeated something she had said before. "You still have much training to do to be remotely useful to me." Yet, she wasn't even looking at the girl. Her eyes were staring straight ahead at her knife in the wall. Had Kunai been the sort for small talk, she might have mentioned how she had been getting plenty of target practice lately, thanks to her current restrictions on training. She might have mentioned the fact that Aila should have been grateful that Kunai couldn't exactly return the injury she had received as a result of the Trainee's careless planning at the Museum. She might have even mentioned the fact that one of the guards was now dead as a direct result of Aila's actions.
No, the Elite wasn't one for small talk. Instead, she walked forward, not even seeming to care about that thing called personal space. She reached out and with one strong yanking motion, pulled her knife out of the wall. The girl took three steps back so she was in front of the other girl.
"...get back up there..."
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Posted: Fri Sep 17, 2010 5:49 am
Aila was mildly offended that the elite refused eye contact, never mind the fact that she had just brandished a weapon against her for little if any discernible reason. Her eyes remained locked on the girl as she approached, withdrew her knife, and stepped back, and they narrowed only slightly at the command. She was being tested, it seemed. She turned half a step to size up the wall, as if she had not been suspended from it moments earlier. There was a burning soreness in her legs, and she wondered if she would be able to return to her previous position with the same use of momentum as always. She would attempt a different method, she resolved.
Aila crouched, pressing her palms against the floor with a slight bend to her elbows, head turned up at the corner that was her target. A draw of breath, and she sprang upwards, catching her heels on the wall. She slid down an inch, projecting herself foward and upwards to reestablish the counter-support of her arms on the ceiling. She was a bit less stable than she had been previously, but it would do for a few minutes.
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Posted: Fri Sep 17, 2010 7:45 am
"You are already tired." That was Kunai's assessment of the Trainee's display. It was merely a fact, and the Elite had mentioned it without a hint towards her own opinions.
That would be the last thing said for an awfully long while. The Elite just stood there, arms crossed behind her back, posture stiff and straight, and her kunai knife hanging off of a single finger. There was no change to her expression as she watched intently, her mouth an absolute straight line. Her eyes stared dead into Aila's pink eyes. It was as if she was asking How long until you crack, Trainee?, but no words escaped her.
All the short elite did was wait.
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Posted: Fri Sep 17, 2010 8:08 am
Of course I am tired. How long would you have me maintain this form? What do you hope to gain from forcing me to my limits? She would keep her thoughts to herself, but she was beginning to feel quite annoyed. She might be researching something, training her pokemon, or doing any other number of productive things. Instead she was clinging to a corner, several feet from the floor, while an elite scrutinized her.
One of Aila's feet slipped a distance, as if to mirror the slip in her concentration, and a breath escaped her sharply. She only barely managed to recover from her fumble. Small feet cautiously shuffled upwards, the girl tucking her legs in closer to her body. She found the position much more comfortably, thankfully, but the silent heaving of her chest betrayed her labored breathing.
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Posted: Fri Sep 17, 2010 8:54 pm
"Let me set up a scenario up for you." There was a thirty second pause, as was almost expected by this point in time. It was somewhat strange that she paused in such exact increments of time. Apparently the Elite was not sympathetic to the Trainee's current situation. "Let us say you managed to join the ranks of my department. I send you on a mission where you must infiltrate unnoticed. It is during the evening in an outdoors area. There are rangers scattered about the area. For some reason or another, you are hiding in a tree and a ranger for one reason or another..."
Her voice paused again with another lengthy amount of time between.
"He shoots into the tree randomly." As if to get her point across, her knife once more was rather suddenly whipped out from behind her and thrown in the girl's direction. This time her knife veered to the left side of the body, digging itself into the wall immediately next to the girl's hand that was assisting her in staying up against the wall. Again, it would seem she missed, or was ridiculously accurate, considering how close her weapon was to the Trainee's hand.
Straightening up, the pink-haired Elite offered two questions. "What would you do? And. What should you do?"
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Posted: Fri Sep 17, 2010 9:10 pm
When she saw the knife once again hurled in her direction, Aila decided to take her chances and did not budge. As she had expected (or hoped?), the blade missed her flesh. Whether the elite was toying with her or legitimately testing her, the girl was unable to decide.
The mental image of a man standing nonchalantly in an open area only to suddenly whip around and fire into a tree was almost laughable, but Aila restrained herself and considered the hypothetical situation as seriously as she could.
"Assuming the shot was a miss or struck a non-vital area, I would remain still and proceed with the mission as the opportunity to do so arose. If injured in a manner which required immediate attention, I would use all means at my disposal to escape unnoticed, if at all possible." She had her doubts that the latter half of her response would be received as correct, but it was an honest reply. If it was incorrect, her priorities could be reevaluated during her training to enter the department.
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Posted: Fri Sep 17, 2010 10:41 pm
Better was a note the Elite made silently without the slightest change in her expression. One thing she had learned early was to not praise any ranking member of Team Rocket prematurely. Praise had a way of distracting a Rocket from the task they were working on. It made a Rocket lazy, thinking they had made it to the top of their potential before they were even close to such.
Kunai then pointed out something wrong with the Trainee's response.
"You only answered one of my two questions, Trainee." There were an awful lot of woulds and not exactly any shoulds in the girl's response. Kunai's fingers had already started to make their way to her side pouch, and soon enough another knife was flicking about her fingers, as if waiting to see if the next response would be satisfactory or not.
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Posted: Sat Sep 18, 2010 8:15 am
The 'should' took a bit more consideration before Aila was able to pinpoint the ideal course of action, "As long as I am still alive and able to move and think in a manner that will not jeopardize my objective, I should proceed with the mission." It crossed her mind that the missions she would be assigned were infinitely more important than the jewel heists she had performed in the past, where if she received an injury, she would simply retreat, deeming it took risky to continue. Such flippant dismissals would not be an option in the future, regardless of potential hazards and regardless of her physical health.
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Posted: Sat Sep 18, 2010 8:47 pm
There was one response which Aila would get. The second knife was thrown and landed its proper target towards the right side, near the Trainee's hand again. One would assume it was the incorrect response based off such a negative response from the Elite.
Regardless of the reaction, she finally gave the Trainee permission to abandon her current post.
"You may return to standing on the floor, Trainee."
There was still no confirmation as to what the Elite's mindset was, but she stood there expectantly, as if waiting for something.
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Posted: Sun Sep 19, 2010 7:15 pm
Again came the knife, and again did it only barely fall short of grazing her hand. The elite was either a very poor shot or a very good one, and, given her rank, Aila was much more willing to bet on the latter. She felt no need to feel fear towards the blade or its wielder, though - no more fear than a student might feel at seeing a red X marked on his assignment, at least. She could not help but wonder, however, what the pink-haired girl below her would have accepted as a correct response.
Aila descended slowly and carefully when given permission to do so, resisting the urge to stretch her sore limbs. She stood straight and attentive before her superior as she awaited her next words, drawing in deep and level breaths to restore a normal pattern to her breathing.
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Posted: Sun Sep 19, 2010 10:15 pm
"Trainee!" The girl's tone was sharp, demanding authority. Fortunately, the other short girl had already been standing at attention, so no change in position was required.
"My department is perhaps one of the most demanding of the facility. We do not merely specialize in one area. We are expected to be the best." There were many requirements to become a top ranked undercover agent. So many entered the program expecting it to merely be a "dress up game" when it was far from such. An undercover agent had to be at the top of their game at all times. There was no room for errors.
This Trainee, Aila, had potential. Her responses were well thought out, where as many Trainees and Grunts seemed to lose all control of their tongue and babbled out nonsense when replying to Kunai's demands.
It was rare for Kunai to ask such a question, but after another 30 second pause, she belted out "Do you think you have what it takes to be the best, Trainee?!"
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Posted: Mon Sep 20, 2010 8:09 am
She raised her chin slightly to better project her response, "I have neither the desire nor the intent to be anything less!" If she didn't have what it would take, she would gain it. Her life thus far had been one challenge after another. She had risen to each, and she would continue to rise as much as was expected of her.
The Elite, though perhaps excessive in her bids to intimidate, seemed a valuable source of information from which Aila had all will to learn. Had she been of a religious sort, the former thief might have thought it a divine guidance that had led her to Team Rocket. If she had any doubts before, truly she was confident now that she could become the best.
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Posted: Mon Sep 20, 2010 10:33 pm
For a good 3 minutes, Kunai stared into the girl's pink eyes. The pink haired elite's eyes had an uncanny coldness to them. Many who ranked below her could not stand 3 minutes of such treatment. 3 minutes of staring. 3 minutes of eye-to-eye contact with one of the most cruel Elites.
Yet, this Trainee seemed to have her act together. After three minutes of silence and straight eye contact, she spoke.
"In my professional opinion, I suggest you begin preparing by reading any psychology books you can find..."
There was a pause long enough for a single heartbeat to pulse through someone's ears.
"You are dismissed!" She stood there, seeming to wait yet again. With two knives sticking out of the wall, who could blame her? Kunai wanted her property back.
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Posted: Tue Sep 21, 2010 10:58 am
Three minutes was an awfully long time to make eye contact, especially when one was sore, tired, and rather thirsty. But she endured it, able to think of it only as another of the elite's tests. Certainly she had been in more uncomfortable positions in the past, and she could only be grateful that this cold glare was not coupled with cold steel, though one might have likened the gaze to daggers in its own right.
She nodded curtly at the given advice. She was ahead of the game in that regard; Aila had been studying psychology for some time, starting as a desire to reform her excessively formal manner of speech and evolving into a genuine interest for the subject. Much of it was dense beyond her comprehension, but on the elite's words, she would put forth as much effort as was required to understand it.
Aila nearly bowed as she prepared to leave but caught herself, saluting instead, "Thank you, ma'am." She made a mental note to ask the other trainees about the elite's name as she departed, pausing briefly in the hallway to stretch her arms and legs before proceeding back to her room to resume her studies.
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Posted: Tue Sep 21, 2010 8:50 pm
Kunai stood there attentively, facing the wall she had decorated with her weapons. She didn't even turn to watch Aila leave. All she did was stand at almost attention herself and stare at her knives. Instead of really focusing with her eyes on Aila, she listened as best as she could with her ears. Her steps softened as she widened the gap between herself and the Elite. When she had abandoned the training facility altogether, the pink-haired girl finally stepped forward to claim her property. Considering how far up against the wall the Trainee had been, one might have thought Kunai wouldn't have been able to get her knives back.
The girl stopped immediately in front of the wall, then rather easily seemed to repeat the exercise which the Trainee had just completed. With a sudden jump into the air, her own heels dug into the walls. Where as the Trainee had slid down slightly, Kunai caught it so precisely with her heels that she was stuck in place. However, she had no intentions to remain in place long. Each of her hands whipped out swiftly, yanking out the knives at the same time before skillfully releasing her hold of the wall with her feet so she could land once more on her feet.
With both of her possessions at hand, the Elite turned away from the wall and began to make her way back to her office. The Trainees, Grunts, and Agents she met in the hallways all steered away from her, eying the pair of weapons she had at hand as she walked.
Nobody wanted to risk upsetting her while she was wielding one more weapon than usual.
Nobody.
[FIN]
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