The Trainee

The mercenary guild's grounds were busy with people moving back and fourth between delivery trucks and the storage rooms. A few lifter bots helped with the heavy items. Gaige only stopped to watch the work for a moment before continuing on towards the training grounds, a large, heavily reinforced room capable of taking attacks from her strongest members without breaking. She had even tested her railgun in there. The room hadn't faired so well against that, so she told people not to get two wild with their fights.

She carried a long heavy object wrapped in cloth over one shoulder. It weighted roughly 100lbs, a solid, very hard to break metal. She walked into the Arena and dropped it on a table. The table groaned under its weight. Gaige walked into the centre of the arena. The floor of which could be switched out for different Terrain. She chose a solid, sleek metal, slippery at the best of times. Her plans to train Cain started with balance. While she had laura teaching him control of his spiritual pressure. That had been the first priority.

Though he had been under her tutalage for a month, she hadn't gotten to train him to much. Between organising the contruction of a secret underground facility that became the mercenary guild, fighting her mother, then her sister, allot had happened, and she'd kept him out of it. Just as well because she had nearly died more than once, her two new robotic legs a testament to the trials she had faced. Of course, it only made her stronger, since she had absolutely no spiritual energy to draw on now. Not that she cared. To her, it had been as useful as a gun with a broken firing pin.

His hair was still a mess, strands of it standing in every which direction. His face seemed to droop and his eyes dead inside as he walked through the halls trying his best to avoid rushing bots and anyone else. By the time he had gotten even half way down the hall he realized he was still in his pajama bottoms. He just let a groan out and began to trek back to the room Gaige had assigned him too. It was to keep him out of the way of the rest of the people, but still keep him in a relatively safe place for training. He had been excited to go out to Arizona but everything seemed to change. He hadn't heard for Gaige after a long while and once she finally contacted him again she had a change of plans.

A few minutes later walking out of his room once again face seeming more lively after a few splashes of water. Black hair no longer a mess and the two white hereditary stripes resting just above his green eyes he made his way into the training room where he was meant to meet Gaige. "Yo" He waved to Gaige the sleeve of the baseball shirt he was wearing falling from his elbow down towards his bicep. "So what's the plan for today?" He looked around the room, he had gotten relatively use to walking around on metal floors but something about this one seemed off. When he had first stepped into the room he'd nearly eaten shit, then there was whatever was on the table in the center of the room wrapped up.

Gaige nodded to him as Cain walked in. She watched his reaction as he tried to figure out what was going on. She grinned to herself. Oh she lived the slippy floor. It had given her hours of enjoyment, and allot of falling over as she tried to get used to robotic legs. But she was more than capable of keeping her balance now. She pointed to the table. "Well today, we're officially beginning training, since my mother is dead and my sister is no longer terrorizing Sweden. That on the table is for you. For training. Its blunt as fuck, so dont worry about hurting me. Now I'm no swordswoman, but i'm handy with one in a fight.

I'm going to teach you to survive. There wont be much in the way of forms or styles involved here, but as long as you know have to swing a blade with the right edge alignment and stop yourself from getting stabbed by your opponant, we'll call it a success. if you want real training with a sword after that, Liv knows a couple of different masters who might take you on."

She drew a rifle that, at the flick of a button transformed into a sword just a bit shorter than the one she'd made him. Xion was her plasma spitting baby, second only to oblivion driver, the first ever weapon she'd crafted. left her other hand free. "For now, we'll keep pistols out of it, but learning to fight with sword and pistol might suit you more, depending on how you fair with your training. Also you might need two hands to lift that thing. I'm not sure how strong you are... but you'll get used to it i'm sure." She said. She signaled for him to attack when he was ready.

He took his time walking over to the table. He could feel his feet wanting to slide on the floor and knew it wasn't completely natural. "Is the floor part of the training as well?" As soon as he finished walking over to the table he leisurely pushed the cloth off the blade looking at it and taking in its dimensions with just a glance. Nothing special, not taking Gaige's word that he'd need both hands he grabbed the handle and began to turn. CRASH.

He was on his back now looking up at the ceiling. His shoulder hurt like hell from the fall and his head was ringing. "Definitely the floor..." He carefully picked himself up sliding around a bit before walking back over the table. He knew it was heavy but he wasn't sure how heavy he might not even be able to pick it up with both hands without eating it again due to the floor. Wrapping both hands around the hilt he tried to pick it up. Holding his breath to try and get as much strength as he could, teeth clenched, his face like a tomato before he slipped again. Jaw crashing into the table and a small yelp escaping afterwards as he rolled and slid across the floor in pain. "GAIGE! I know you've got robo arms and stuff but normally people shouldn't be able to pick up something more than half their body weight! How heavy is that damn thing!"

Gaige watched him try to pick it up one handed, and slip on the floor and faceplant. She had warned him. However then he tried to lift it two handed, and again slipped and face planted the table and floor. He yelled at Gaige and she looked at him confused. "Its not that heavy Cain." She said, walking over and lifting it with up with her flesh and blood hand. She strained a little, looked at Cain, then dropped it back on the table. "Fuck, right I forgot your just barely advent..." She said. She considered it for a moment, then remembered something she'd been working on.

With a few commands to her Artemis she activated a drone in the workshop and scooped had it pick up the gravity distortion device she'd been working with. The drone arrived in about a minute later, and dropped it off in her hand. Gaige attached a tiny circular device to the hilt of the sword and scaled it down. Or accidentally up. The table buckled and there was a loud crash since she had just doubled the weight of the damn sword. She scaled it the opposite way until it was a reasonable weight then picked it up, tossing the sword in the air and catching it without so much as an ounce of effort. She set it to 15lbs and locked the slider.

She offered it to Cain. "Gravity distortion unit. it changes the weight of anything its attached to. Currently its got no real combat use. I just wanted to see if I could make it. And of course I can. Anyway just don't mess with the slider until you want to up the weight" She said with a grin.

"It's not that heavy Cain. Having gotten over the pain for the most part in his chin he just gave her a blank scowl as he tried to pick himself up off the floor. "Of course I'm not nearly advent, remember the black boogie monster thing that nearly fucked up that entire market? I'm pretty sure if you hadn't arrived I wouldn't be here to bitch about it. He watched her call on a few drones that took away the hunk of metal that was suppose to be his training sword. Rubbing the red spot on his chin he mumbled a bit. For having just woken up smashing his chin into the table wasn't the best way of knocking the sleep aside.

He listened to Gaige not understanding half of what she said about the gravity disco whatever unit and just nodded his head. He'd just watched it destroy the table before she picked it back up, a few bots came in quickly cleaning up the mess and continued on their way. Reaching out for the blade and taking it from Gaige he was surprised to notice it wasn't as heavy anymore, albeit the weight distribution still felt a bit odd. He tried spun the blade around twisting his wrist with it versus trying to actually spin the hilt in his hand. It felt interesting to say the least.

Taking a position he held the blade off to his front right ready for Gaige's command, his back slightly hunched forward and his feet firmly planted close enough to each other that he could rotate his body but not go on a slip and slide ride that'd result in him flat on his ass again. "Whenever you're ready now."

Gaige watched him test out the blade in his hand. He took a steady footing on the slippery horrible floor before he confirmed he was ready. She looked at him and frowned. Mobility was his only strength. He needed to learn that. Fighting on this floor was going to be bad for him but it would help him. People had all sorts of crazy powers, and if he could learn to keep his footing on this he'd be able to handle most situations. Assuming he didn't end up with a sword through him.

"When your fighting someone more skilled with a blade, mobility and balance is key. If they trip you, your dead. If they get behind your guard, your dead. Keep on the defensive, and wait for them to tire. if you see an opening its probably a trick. Dont take the bait until your sure its a flaw in their form, and worse case scenario, fight cheap." She said. She pointed her sword forward and pulled a trigger, sending a blast of plasma past Cain into the wall where it spashed and sizzled.

"Trick weaponry, using a pistol or powers point blank is a good way to catch someone better than you off guard. Unless they are more skilled and use the same tactics." She said. She stepped back a little and took a stance, her plasma sword in her right hand. Then she moved at kain just fast enough for him to keep up and went to slash at his side. If he failed to black she stopped before making contact, and jumped back. She attacked again, and again from different angles until he got used to blocking her and anticipating her attacks. And she left a small visible flaw in her form during every second attack, an opening for him to exploit on her left side.

He watched Gaige intently and was caught off guard when the blast of plasma flew past his head and splashed against the wall behind him. He shuddered, he knew she wouldn't miss but just a miscalculation or glitch in that arm of hers and he could've been the new pile of debris for the bots to push away. The first time she came at him the sudden jerk of moving the blade to the side to catch her strike sent his balance shifting, pushing hard enough against her blade he caught himself but as he came back around to catch her blade from the other side the small disbalance sent his blade low, his body lurched forward and he saw her blade coming towards his chest.

Now he was certain she would stop the blade and pull it away fast enough but instinct kicked in just in case. Less afraid of the pain he'd cause himself he twisted he foot around, rotating his entire body. Slamming his left hand into the ground as he tumbled towards Gaige. Bringing the blade with him he tried his best to keep it away from himself and to keep it away from Gaige at the same time. Letting go of the blade he curled himself into a ball to slide between Gaige's legs across the floor. "Balance.. Not so easy when your swinging around a weight."

Picking himself up off the ground as well as picking the blade back up he shrugged. "Guess that's the real training here." He took his position again. Spinning the blade around in his right hand again and taking three practice swings to feel the shift in balance and weight before nodding to Gaige again. This time he kept up his balance until the sixth time around when he took a step forward twisting the blade to try and stab right into her shoulder holding her plasma sword. His weight slipping with the forward step so his blade went high over her shoulder and his entire body flung forward across the floor to crash into her chest take her out if she lost her balance from him slamming into her.

Cain slammed into her as he tried to stab her with the sword and she lost her balance on the floor. her feet slipped and they both hit the ground like a ton of bricks. Gaige's head snapped back and hit the floor with a thump, stunning her slightly. She huffed a breath as she lay on the floor, Cain on top of her, like one of those awkward anime scenes where the protagonist falls on his crush. Only Gaige didn't find it so amusing, mostly because of the sore head. She looked Cain in the eye, gave him a grin and said, "alright Romeo, get off me before I kick you through the ceiling." She said. As soon as he moved she rolled and sprang to her feet, landing cat like with perfect balance again.

"That was better. Its not something you'll be able to do in a day though, trust me." She said. "We'll do that again everyday till you stop falling over. Now, Laura wanted to be here to begin your training with Reiatsu, but she can't make it today. So.." Another drone appeared, dropping a pair of boots unceremoniously on the floor next to Cain. "These are STP boots. They allow humans to airwalk, using small amounts of your spiritual energy. Normally the boots do it inactively, but I disabled that feature. You'll have to concentrate on feeding them spiritual energy as you walk. Its not much in terms of learning you control, but its the best I can offer since I don't have spiritual energy anymore."

He rolled off her and took a few seconds to stand back up. He watched as she easily jumped back up onto her feet and rose an eyebrow but didn't say anything asking about it. He had come to learn that it was easier to just accept things. When the drone flew into the room and dropped a relatively normal looking pair of shoes he finally opened his mouth to ask the question, but before he could even get a word out Gaige was on it. "STP? Spiritual Tension Points? I'm just throwing out words here that sound like they'll fit." He slid himself as cautiously as he could back to the floor and started taking his shoes off and putting the new pair on.

"So just sorta... focus on my feet and believe that the floor beneath me isn't as slick as ice right?" He took a few moments to adjust himself on the floor again in the new pair of shoes. The floor felt even more difficult in the foreign pair of shoes. He shook his head and just kept trying until his left foot felt solid then his right. Then he spun the sword once, twice, and brought it to a halt. "Alright. FROM THE TOP!" He brought his sword forward to block Gaige's first attack, bringing the blade back for the second, then back again for the third. Repeating the process as they had the time before he kept blocking for a while concentrating on his feet. He grimaced a few times as he missed the blade because he had begun to feel his foot slip out from beneath him and focused on it more than the blade.

When he finally took his chance to attack in between her attacks his foot slipped again. Solidifying the ground beneath himself he rotated his body and went to shoulder check Gaige instead throwing all his forward momentum into his shoulder instead and he brought his blade in. If he didn't collapse or get pulled along with her he'd hop up and try to solidify the ground beneath himself again to hold the blade out at Gaige.

"Yeah, thats the idea. With enough practice you can step up on the air. Which, if your able to manage it today I've got a few training exercises to work on air walking. Unless you want... Robotic legs to super jump? no? hmm.." She said. Gaige was impressed with the speed he was picking up blocking her and his control over the boots. Of course she was going very easy on him but still. He had potential. With Laura and possibly Liv, teaching him, that potential would be molden into something great.

The boy slipped, recovered and tried to slam into Gaige. This time she smiled and launched into the air like a cat or some kind of spring, and flipped over Cain, landing behind him. Her foot snapped out and she tried to kick his leg from under him. When he was done recovering or was perfectly fine, she gestured for him to follow her and walked over to the panel on the wall. When he was off the floor she changed the arena to something a little more friendly. Normal, fresh green grass. A Pedestal extended down from the roof, with a button on it. It stopped 50ft in the air. "I hope you have your pistol handy you'll need it for this." Gaige said with a grin.

She stepped onto the grass. The ground beneath would feel spongy and he'd sink into it slightly. It was designed to soften landing. It was only fresh grass because this particular area of grass it was outside in the gardens, when it wasn't in here being used for aerial combat training. "This excorcise is pretty simple. Touch that button, up there. Don't worry about falling," She said, and demonstated that the ground was very soft. She jumped high and let herself fall, hitting the grass which gave way almost like a trapoline before springing her back up. She landed on her feet. "just get used to using those boots to walk on the air. The ground will break your fall." She said.

She gave him time to get used to it, and even let him try until he was able to touch the button 50ft in the air. She nodded. "Excellent your getting used to it. Now... Do it again." She grinned. 4 drones about the size of a 1ft square cube flew out of the walls. Unlike other drones that were little more than quad copters, these used little booster jets to stay up and move erratically around the air, The front of them had two prongs that sparked like a tazer.... Because it was one. Harmless, of course, but still they hurt enough to make someone lose concentration..

"Hitting or shooting them disables them for 3 seconds, they're not easy to break so don't hold back." Two of the drones circled him, one seemed to be paying more attention to a wall and the last one just waited, watching him. A soon as he stepped onto the air, the one not paying attention turned and tried to ram right into him.

(ooc feel free to take control of the drones here.)

He watched as Gaige dodged his shoulder slam and at the same time completely leaped over him. The next moment he felt himself falling forward his concentration changing from his feet to his hands he solidified the air beneath his right hand momentarily as he rolled himself to instead of landing on his face he slammed his shoulder into the ground and slid across the floor. Smiling at Gaige's attempt at humor, "How about we go find a parts donor and replaced your robotic legs with a cadavers." As he stood up the ground changed beneath him to grass and he was more surprised that he hadn't felt the change but had to see it to know it had happened.

As he watched the pedestal extend down from the roof and stopped in the air he already understood what the training would be this time. "No I don't have my pistol on me right now." As he finished his sentence a drone dropped it into his hand, and he waved it at her, and shrugged his shoulders as if to say 'what can I tell you?'. He listened to her explanation as to how he was suppose to air walk up to the pedestal and hit the button, that didn't seem too difficult. He sheathed the sword and holstered his pistol and walked in a spiral on the ground looking up to make sure he was circling the pedestal before concentrating and imaging a spiral staircase up to the pedestal. He had fallen from the sky a few times already by the time he had accomplished hitting the button once.

His elbows where bright red and his hands had grass burns across them from all the falls and he seemed tired already from just trying to hit the button once, "Excellent your getting used to it. Now... Do it again." He turned and gave her a glare as she grinned, the glare fell to a raised eyebrow as the drones flew in. They seemed like any other one of her drones except they flew better, and had a bit of electricity sparking out of th- those were tasers... she was really going to taser him out of the sky...

He was pissed already. Tired, and hell he wasn't even sure he'd be able to concentrate on his footing and the drones since it had taken him 20 minutes to even reach the button without falling in one go. If hitting the drone only disabled them for 3 seconds that meant he would have to hit each of the drones at the same time 20 times a minute, so that meant he'd have to do it 400 times total, and he wasn't even sure the drones were stupid enough for him to catch all four at once. This was definitely training alright, he'd have to pick up his concentration as well as his time here.

He took a deep breath, ripping the pistol out of it's holster he shot two of the bots out of the sky and took his first two steps up in the air before his third step caught just air, no platform of reishi and he fell flat on his face and slid across the grass from his own momentum. The two drones he's shot picked themselves back up and floated near him watching him again as he picked himself up, a new grass stain on his clothes. This was going to be long, and annoying.

Looking up at the pedestal then the two drones then his hand he thought of something. He spun the pistol in his hand looking at the farthest, closet, then second furthest and second closet bot. He was practicing his aim, not what Gaige had wanted from him probably. He fired off four shots, landing two of the hits, on the furthest and second closest. He wasn't even sure how he had missed the one on his right but the shot had gone wide. As the two bots picked themselves back up and re-positioned he did it again until he had finally taken all four down.

Nodding over to Gaige with a smile, "I won't even need the sword here." As he finished he moved himself over near the far left wall glancing at the distance to the pedestal from there. He spun the pistol and snapped it straight firing off the four shots to disable the bots. The moment the first shot had hit he was already sprinting up the side of the wall, his left hand dragging across it with both his feet. He was keeping his concentration almost completely on his feet and his hand as he ran diagonally up the wall. About six feet up the wall the bots began picking themselves back up and darting at him this was the only part he hadn't been able to train for he kept running as the bots closed the distance on him.

Snapping the pistol into the holster he threw his body at the wall, his right hand clinging to it as he broke the concentration in his feet swinging his entire body around so the his feet were above his head he broke the concentration in his hands, snapping the pistol back of it's holster he felt the momentum begin to stop launching him upward and pull him back down he fired off four shots, landing three of them as the last bot started to close the distance he re-established his concentration. Ripping the sword out of its sheath he changed the weight slider on it to full and dropped it on the bot.

Flipping himself upward, forgetting completely about the three remaining bots he sprinted diagonally across the air. He didn't care how fast the bots were, this was going to be his only chance to reach that pedestal with how tired he was. 26feet into the air his concetration broke, a taser in his back the shock broke him completely out of the void he had put himself in. As he started to fall he saw the bot he had severed still on the ground. Spinning around in the air he fired off four shots still, two of the shots went wide, the other two caught the bots as he slammed his back into the air. He was starting to get the hang of how to use the air. As his breath was ejected from his lungs landing on his back his concentration broke again and he fell the total distance slamming into the ground.

"Hey can we grab lunch or something? I don't think I can actually move my legs right now... or my arms." He was breathing heavily, and he actually couldn't feel his legs or arms at the time. He was completely out of energy for the time.

Gaige watched him, he was doing surprisingly well and even got close to the button, before finally taking a tazer to the back and falling. He tried his best to recover but ended up on his back on the grass, exhausted. She had pushed him hard today, that was true. She waved a hand and the drones flew off to store themselves away for training later, and delivery drones flew in to pick up the pieces of the fourth one that had been squished by the sword. She walked over to Cain and offered him a hand. "Yeah, come on lets go get some food and you can have a rest. We'll do more tomorrow." She pulled him to his feet and steadied him. "Do you want a cup of coffee?" She asked, and called for Jeffrey the coffee bot if he said yes. Then they headed to the lounge and she let him rest while she cooked some sausages for sandwiches.

He had a few flashbacks of Jeffrey in his head and stayed on the ground not grabbing her hand right away. "Does he still end up putting coffee on top of a persons head?"  He shook his head on the ground without saying the bots name again. Reaching up as best as he could for her hand before picking himself up. "I'll just end up grabbing something better for me than that... or maybe just grab tea, both are caffeine." Hobbling alongside her out of the training room and into the lobby he'd collapse into one of the chairs with a sigh of success. "If you had asked me half a year ago what I'd be doing with my life I wouldn't tell you running up walls and shooting drones out of the air." He closed his eyes while smiling waiting for Gaige to finish making or getting the food. He didn't know which and honestly, he had already passed out and started to lightly doze in the chair.

He had a few flashbacks to the time he'd fought that first hollow and how things could have gone extremely different. The shinigami that had been present couldn't have been there, Gaige might not have shown up, and even himself. He could have stayed inside that day and all this might have been avoided. Who knew with all the different variables and branches in choices thousands of different possibilities could pop up just from taking a single step. His dreams started to take his sub-conscious down each of these sub-paths until he jerked up from the seat a bit. Breathing heavily. His eyes open he looked around as best as he could to realize he was back in the lobby.
"Ugh.. my arms are still logs."

Gaige returned with a plate of food for Cain and handed it to him. He looked bleary eyed, like he'd fallen asleep. She smiled. "Oh kid, you are not going to like the next few weeks. But honestly it wont take long to get used to the training. It has to be done though. Even I had to deal with this. And Liv, and Laura and everyone here. You alteast get the benefit of training under some of the best mercenaries in the world. Who knows, some of the others might take an interest. You could turn into a real life Kenichi except mercenaries instead of martial artists." She said grinning. She patted him on the shoulder and sat down, stretching out on a sofa.

She looked over at Cain. "Not to worry. Spiritual training tomorrow. I got a call from Laura she'll be around. So you don't have to deal with me again till the day after. Lucky you." She said, then she got up and went to leave. "I'll be in the workshop if you need me. go get some rest."

Taking a sandwich off the plate and bring it up to his mouth he started talking with some food in his mouth, "Thmanks fo da foood" He listened to everything Gaige had to say as she sprawled out across the sofa across from him. He just kept at eating his food until he had finished the sandwich already. "It's perfectly fine to go harsh on me like today was to my body. Of course I'll still need the proper rest in between so my body doesn't fall apart on me." Before Gaige could answer saying she could just fix him up he held up a hand, "My 100% fleshy body, no robotic parts thank you very much."

Sitting back in the chair again he continued on, "If I got myself into a fight or was attacked the enemy wouldn't care how trained or unprepared I was. So you guys being harsh on me is perfectly fine and it just means I'll learn some neat little tricks along the way. He went to take off his shoes then remembered that he was wearing the boots that Gaige had given him and he sat forward picking them up off the ground and holding them out for Gaige to take back. He was pretty sure she'd tell him to keep them until he gathered how to do everything on his own. "Oh I just thought of something, going off the same principle as the boots I was capable of getting my left hand to do the same thing without any assistance. I know how I was just saying I don't think handicaps are going to help me at all but you think you could develop a glove to do the same thing as the boots?"

After getting his answers and finishing up his plate of food he'd pick up the boots, call a drone to come collect the empty plate and walk back to his room avoiding the miscellaneous bots still building the place. He didn't actually know what time it was outside the base but regardless he was tired, and ready to nap and continue his training afterwards.