Welcome to Gaia! ::

So the preparations for ‘The Battery’ were ready, that was the news that brought him back to these now familiar reaches. The place where a stronger future for the Negaverse may well be determined. The place where the metal of each officer could be put to the test, the most loyal, the most determined might well be forged here in these walls.

Or at the very least, it might ensure that fewer strayed into paths that lead them beyond reach, it might keep them from wandering so far that they were if nothing else, nearly unreachable. That was one more thing that brought him here today. Three things he wanted to address, three things that he would lay at the feet of the woman who was carving away her rough edges to prove herself a dagger worthy of the Dark Kingdom. A soldier, an assassin, perhaps worthy to rise soon from the Ranks of Captain, today would be one such test. Something for her to consider this, diamond in the rough.

He paused outside the door, quite sure she felt him, he raised his hand to knock softly against the Door, or what of it remained. Cannibalized parts of the ramshackle castle, once great now half rubble that they struggled to reclaim, fought to bring back to a fraction of its former glory.

“Captain.” He said with a small nod as she opened the door to greet him.

“A few things come to mind.” He said with an all to casual gaze about them, he was taking in more than the scenery, he took in props, placement, obstacles, he tried to assess how the sound carried and how it might help him locate her if the vicinity just ‘happened’ to become filled with smoke. “A proving ground you say.” He let the amusement register on his face before his eyes drifted back to lock onto hers. “”Let’s test it shall we?”

It sounded simple enough, a friendly spar, but the difference in rank could mean a great deal. Strength if nothing else increased with each level of power an individual was granted, while true he would remain at a disadvantage to General Queen Tanzanite, both do to stature, build and skill, it would make a world of difference between a Captain and himself.

He took a step away from her, two, and then turned back again. He was waiting, expectant, patient and his eyes intent. No spoken order per say but the message was clear enough. She sought to make it a proving ground, and she had found one.

“As you wish.” He said with a small hint of amusement. He would not cross the circles because she ‘wished’ it, it amused him to no small end to return those words to her, he tucked them away behind his ear for later, savoring them and the way they rolled off the tongue.

He moved, if there was one thing he had learned better than anything else to be good at it was moving aside, dodging, redirecting so that he wouldn’t suffer the result of a strike. It hadn’t made him perfect, but it made him good. He slipped to the ‘outside’ of her, a brush of his arm sliding down hers to push her away, just enough strength in it that were she not careful she would stagger. It was a hint of a challenge, look what I can do without words.

“They say eyes broadcast intent.” He spoke as he moved, a feline grace that had nothing to do with his recent ‘transformations’. Hitting was another matter, he did not hit well even now, it was a risk to his own body as much as it was his target the way he curled his hands. “You’re to lead this…teach me.” The words were succinct, but it was an invitation. It was a reason to get instruction he’d needed for some time without appearing weak. She had skills, if she could teach him she could teach others, it was a simple equation.

“I suppose I’d have to make sure someone learned how to transcribe my short hand. That would be rather inconvenient I imagine.” He said and flexed his fingers to readjust his grip. “Don’t you feel that exhausting the target can be beneficial? Or at the very least informative, tempers rise as battles progress if you aren’t in control of some aspect of it.”

It was a thoughtful statement as much as an experienced one. He watched her considering, hazarding to lean just slightly back to take in the way she moved trying to analyze her muscles the way he watched faces. “I rather think if I stripped even half these layers I’d give away a great deal more about what I intended to do and where I intended to move, am I correct?” Almost mocking his uniform, almost. “Though they hinder me as much as they hide some portion of what I’m doing… correct?” he arched an eyebrow, testing the waters of what he was observing, what he was learning.

“Am I doing anything right captain?” He asked with no small amount of amusement. So much of his time spent dodging fights and here he was putting himself into one. The irony of it wasn’t lost.

Eyes narrowed; even with the mask his displeasure at the idea was all too clear. “As a Civilian or as an Officer?” The fact that he even had to ask where the distinction lay said almost as much as a strait answer might have. Evasive in its own way but ‘answer enough’ if she read between those lines as well as she read the way he stood and moved.

“Well phrased I will say, it would be hard for me to take offence at being called an intellectual. Keep going, be serious, I need to see what you can do, I want to see.”
The word see meant somehow, in that moment more than simply what the eye could register, he was searching for something. Trying to find some scrap to some puzzle that he had seen in her to whatever end that might lead.

“Everyone has Devil’s Howlite, I want to know yours before this ring is open to recruits.” While she might not consider herself an ‘intellectual’ he wanted, no he needed to know that she possessed certain skills before he promoted her, it felt vital in ways that extended far beyond what mastery he held over words to explain.

“I will make the time.” He said solidly, which at once said he didn’t immediately have it but saw the value in making that time. “I want to see you break free of those limits, we are all tools but I want you to be more than a hammer Howlite, I want you to be a rook on the chess board, a Bishop, or more, I believe in you, I would hate to see my faith in you blunted.”

If she wanted an excuse to punch him in the nose it was coming for certain. “What do those goggles of yours protect you from I wonder.” He mused and tossed something towards her, a simple sphere of metal encircled by small holes that proceeded to belch forth-thick smoke.

He adjusted his own goggles quickly and continued, more words to knock her off her guard. If he were to learn to fight he’d at least show a few tricks of his own that might give him an advantage. It was early to play that hand but the point was not her long-term defeat, but for both of them to flourish in the long term.

“I want you to be my ambassador to the Dark Moon court.”

The words said he was sure of his choice that he waited only for her answer, what she would do with this offer; this statement though remained to be seen.

A half stifled curse went up at the bright flash; it blinded him better than the smoke, He was moderately accustomed to trying to find people by sound but it wasn’t a precise science at all. He froze for a moment to hear her, trying to locate a direction. Hedging his bets he threw one more smoke bomb towards where he remembered the door, and one towards where he’d last heard movement. The direction of the projectiles would give him away but he dare not move too far lest he find himself out of the ‘arena’.

The white was still a daze behind his eyelids, so he left them closed and stayed still just to listen trying to make his breathing even and quiet to hear her own.

Her jabs and punches drew displeased sounds from him, more so though the driving shoulder that jammed just to the side of his sternum before shifting slightly to a more solid spot and grinding his boot heels though the dirt towards the edge of the ring, he wasn’t sure how far they were but he didn’t mean to find out.

If she meant to push him, he’d have to take away her leverage that meant using a rather unfair advantage of his own but he –refused- to loose on his first round out. Except they were nearly the same height… this was going to be ridiculous. He grappled for her waist and, bracing his feet did his best to remove her feet from the ground. It wasn’t so much question of the strength to lift her as having the right leverage to actually make sure she was at a disadvantage.