Tricks

[xander]

When Gabriel started to walk away Xander frowned. A rant about toothbrush, a handstand and that’s it? He was starting to think he was crazier than he first thought when Legend flipped. The shock wore off quickly and Xander found himself smiling. Of course there was more, it was stupid of him to believe otherwise.

So it was a challenge. He could roll with that, the only challenges he had before were from the yeerks. Having one for sport would be a nice change of pace. At first he considered doing a flip on the spot without the causal walk Gabe had. Then the last sentence echoed in his head. Looking up a wicked smile crossed his face.

“Alright,” he said stepping backward carefully.

He stood still for a moment, probably looking bored as he figured out where he would need to land. In the city he usually had every step of the way planned out and practiced long before he even thought about jumping off rooftops. Now he didn’t have time to do all that and he liked the spontaneity of it.

Xander took two quick steps before jumping at the left wall. He pushed off with his right leg and flipped backward landing inches away from the opposite side in front of Gabe. The movie was actually more Broadway than parkour but he didn’t care. Standing he looked back at the other man.

“That okay?”

[gabriel]

"That was tight Xe," Gabe said, honestly impressed. He wasn't sure if he would have tried that in these narrow hallways and he wasn't sure how he was going to beat it but of course he had to. He tried to think of something that wasn't too dance related. Xander could obviously perform acrobatics but he said he wasn't a dancer to Gabe didn't want to take the challenge in that direction.

"Alright," Gabe said before performing another back flip but he didn't stop when he landed. In fact his feet hardly looked like they had touched the ground at all as he easily went into a back handspring. He went into another but instead of landing on his hands he landed on the back of his right shoulder, popped up, and landed on his feet facing Xander.

"Look mom, no hands."

[xander]

“Blood-dy Hell,” Xander mused placing emphasis on each syllable.

“Well at least the Angel bit makes sense,” he said scratching under his chin before stopping suddenly, “Wait what did you call me?” The nicknames, even ones in passing, he had received before weren’t of the nicest connotation. Yankee, Wanker and Daftie didn’t scream endearment.

“Never mind,” he waved it off before the conversation could start. What he need right now was to figure out how to best feather brain. Obliviously he had no problem going no handed. Sighing he ran his hand up the back of his head and over his faux hawk. So if he could beat him at no hands maybe he could with hands.

Jumping he pushed off the left wall with his left leg and jumped to the other side. He did the same with his right and repeated once more with his left. When it came time to bounce back he instead reached out with his arms and braced himself between the walls below the ceiling. Once up there he quickly realized he had no clue what he was going to do next. Not wanting to take too long he decided on something that would at least look cool, but he wasn’t sure if Gabe would consider it difficult enough.

He released the wall slightly pushing off in the direction of the corridor. Landing on feet he rolled over his shoulder to distribute the energy and instead of standing continued the roll some and used the momentum to carry up into a handstand. Xander spun on one hand to face Gabe, “Full circle, eh?”

[gabriel]

"Yeah, but only one," Gabe said. He looked at his hands and then mimed spitting on each one before rubbing them together. He did a back flip and landed in a hand stand. He slowly pushed up off the floor until his arm was mostly straight. As acrobatic as break dancing was it was still dancing and it was still all about performing for an audience. Sometimes, in order to make something look good you had to make it look easy. Just fly through the air or float across the floor and leave people wondering how the hell you did it. But sometimes you had to show how much effort you were putting into something, maybe even fake a little effort so that people looked at you and thought, "I can't believe he's doing that." This was one of those times.

He carefully balanced on one hand, shaking a little as if it was difficult. He raised his other arm off the ground until it was level with his shoulder and then it went above his shoulder. He held the pose for a moment, becoming as still as possible as if he was hanging in the air. It made it all look like a picture, a moment captured in time that would soon be shattered, and he shattered it in the most explosive way he could.

He dropped down to the ground suddenly, dropping to land on his shoulders and spinning on them. He pushed off to spin in a one handed handstand and then dropped back to his shoulders again, spinning like a top throughout the whole thing. He pushed back into the one handed handstand and slowly brought the spinning to a stop by flaring his legs before easily flipping back up into a standing position. He didn't even say anything to Xander, just smiled smugly.

[xander]

Dropping down out of the handstand Xander sat cross legged on the ground as Gabe started. It was hard to believe he was having difficulty with his own handstand given how easily he did it before. Without saying a word Xander leaned back on, content on letting the performer entertain. He didn’t let the stillness Gabriel achieved lull him into some false sense of calmness, and while he didn’t know what to expect he knew he was going to be surprised.

Xander let out a low whistle as Gabe stood. Guy was good, no doubt about it. He leaned forward and clapped a few times before standing himself. Sadly this battle was driving him to wits end. This was bad for two reasons. First was obviously losing, but that only hurt his ego. More importantly the challenge would be over and boredom’s return all that faster.

“What would you say to going somewhere with a bit more,” he hit the nearest wall for effect, “room?”

Stretching he looked around the hall, “Maybe with some stuff to jump off tables, chairs…second story balconies, the like”.

[gabriel]

"Sounds good to me," Gabriel said shrugging. "But I didn't get the grand tour or anything when I got here so I have no idea where we could go except maybe back to the hangar bay," he said, referring to the large open space that they'd arrived in. There were some bug fighters and some other cargo carrying type ships in there but no one really knew how to fly them except for the two guys who had flown them all down here and they were busy flying around recruiting people. It also had a tier around it which kind of counted as a balcony and also things like stairs and walls.

The space was open enough and he was pretty sure he could figure out his way to get back to it but maybe Xander had somewhere else in mind.

[xander]

Xander tilted his head back and forth, “Don’t see why the hanger wouldn’t work.” It was a lot more room. Nothing to flip off of like in a cafeteria but finding a random room on this ship seemed impossible and a time suck. If nothing the time walking to the hanger gave him time to think about how to one up Gabriel.

“You know how to get there? Lead the way if you do,” he said stuffing his hands in his trouser pockets. “All these halls look the same to me.”

“How long have you been dancing?” He asked casually. From his limited understanding of break dancing, calling Gabe a good dancer sounded like an insult. As he waited for a response Xander thought about the hanger and where he had first seen Seiya. He put his hand up to his mouth to hide the small smile, failing but not caring. Yeah, he figured the hanger worked out perfectly.

[gabriel]

"Yep. Follow the leader," Gabriel said before taking off down the hallway towards the hangar. When he had gotten far enough away from Xander he jumped up and pushed off the right hand wall and did a flip and landed inches from the left wall. There wasn't really a lot of room in the hallway for such tricks but that is what made it dangerous and fun.

"Try to keep up," Gabriel said jokingly as he ran down the hall, performing any tricks he could think of as he went. They eventually reached the hangar bay, coming out on the tier that surrounded the large bay. Gabriel ran right to the railing and jumped into a handstand. He was a little afraid of not balancing, he had a shaky moment, but then he stabilized and looked down at the floor almost two stories below.

[xander]

Follow the leader, Xander couldn’t remember the last time he’d heard that phrase. Laughing readily followed Gabe. After a he performed flip Xander laughed again. The last time he had that much fun in longer than he cared to mention.

“Always the show off Legend?” He smirked, “I’m keeping up just fine, keeping my distance for safety purposes.”

He slowed to a walk as they approached the hanger. Place looked completely different looking down, still just as big but shorter in a weird kinda way. Taking a moment to look around he didn’t notice what Gabriel was doing at first. Carefully he walked to the edge and stepped over the bar without shaking it. The adrenalin rush that came with being up in the air never grew old and it had been to long since he had his last one.

“I’ll meet you the bottom,” he said before jumping off. The arc wasn’t as long as it probably should have been but it wasn’t a straight drop thankfully. He landed in a crouch and rolled. Looking up he yelled at Gabe, “What’s taking you?”

Then a gunshot rang through the hanger. On instinct Xander dropped to a knee and began searching for the source.

“What the bloody hell was that?” He asked reverting back to his British accent.

[Kovu]

((OCC: For visual puposes: This is a SIG-Sauer P226. This is Kovu's gun, here is another photo, and here is the un-modified gun))

"Ugh" Kovu grunted to himself. He looked down at his gun in frustration. He wasn't fast enough. He grabbed the disk off of the floor, a bullet hole was just to the right of the center. Less then a second too slow, still, he wasn't satisfied. He put the SIG-Sauer P226 down on the bench and picked up his own gun. His mind flashed back to how he got the gun, street lights and alleyways flashed before his eyes.

The invasion had just become full out war, and all the free humans lefft rushed to arm themselves. Modern weapons were too hard to get, so they turned to older weapons. Street vendors caught in on the trend, and began upgrading old rifles, shotguns and pistols to make them more useful for the modern shooter. Kovu had narrowly avoided capture twice, and he knew he needed a weapon, his knife wasn't cutting it. So, while the vendor was in an argument, Kovu slipped a pistol into his pocket.

He had always felt more comfortable with this weapon. He had tried to adjust to modern pistols, but they just wouldn't work for him. Before he took his next shot, he looked around the training room. The yeerks had no use for a training room, so they had to make one. They had sectioned off a section of the hangar, welded walls, and cut out a door. The rest had just been recently added. A punching bag, a few targets, and a disk laucher that Kovu was very fond of.

Kovu added another plastic disk to the launcher, stepped back into position and stepped down on the lever. "FLIT!" The disk flew across the room. Kovu focused, and his finger tightened aroung the trigger. "BAM!" The disk fell to the floor as the bullet disrupted its flight. Kovu walked up to it and held it gingerly in his hands. He looked at it and smiled. A round hole had peirced its center.

[gabriel]

Gabriel saw Xander go leaping off the balcony out of the corner of his eye and he was about to be impressed when a gun shot broke his concentration and his balance. He tucked and rolled forward instinctively to get out of the handstand. Only problem was there was nothing behind him but a two story fall.

He remembered just a moment too late as he felt his weight tip past the point he could have called it back and his hands let go of the bar. He felt himself falling and he could only do what he'd seen Xander do and try to land with his legs bent.

He hit the ground hard but his feet were beneath him and his body was bent into a position that Gabriel associated with monkeys. Still, when he hit pain shot through his shins and he was thrown to the side, unprepared for the bounce. He landed sprawling a few feet away from where Xander was crouched and he quickly scrambled up and looked around, looking for the danger and the shooter.

He had no idea how someone had gotten in here and he wasn't used to be hit at home but he would fight for all he was worth. "Do you see 'em," he asked, his voice a little strained as he eyes darted around the hangar.

[Jullian]

"Nice shot," Jullian said from his position across the room. He had taken the time out of his exercise routine to watch Kovu shoot. He was a little depressed to see that he had talent. Kovu reminded him a bit too much of his family that he hadn't seen in a long time now.

He went back to stretching, reaching out over his right leg and bending until his forehead touched his knee. He held that position for about thirty seconds, counting out each one slowly and breathing as he did so, trying to relax into the stretch, before he sat up and switched legs and repeated the process.

They had arrived here a couple of weeks ago to help Seiya set up the ship to start training new recruits. They'd been two of the four sent with the original team and Jullian had felt a bit out of place at first. Adamo and Zachery obviously had a lot of technical knowledge about how these ships worked and they had mostly been directing the building of the training rooms and the cleaning of the quarters. Jullian and Kovu had just kind of followed along and followed orders.

But now that there were actually some recruits around they would both get a chance to show why they had been sent here and he hoped it was more than just an act of pity on Cassie's part. After Ember had died, Jullian had been nearly inconsolable. He'd needed a change of pace, a change of location, and this teaching assignment had seemed like a godsend. But he was wondering if it was a little too perfect.

"Kovu," Jullian said, sitting up and shaking out his leg, "do you think Cassie sent us here because we'd really make good teachers or just because she felt sorry for us...well, for me, because what happened with Ember?"

[Kovu]

Kovu listened closely, he could see where Jullian was coming from, and what he said did have some backing, but looking at the other side of things, Jullian was an excellent morpher, the best Kovu had ever seen. Kovu had requested to go with him, but there was no denying he had talent in combat. He slipped his gun in his jacket, and moved over to and sat in front of Jullian. He pondered each of his words before he spoke.

"You know Jules, there is no denying that stepping back for awhile would help you with Ember, but I'm not sure Cassie saw that, she was looking for a morphing teacher, and she found one. Jules, you are the best morpher I have ever met, you are the only person I know who can control your morphs like you do. Cassie couldn't have found a better teacher, that's why you got put here, just consider the time away from battle a bonus." Kovu smiled and pulled Jullian to his feet "I heard your mom was a cop, did you inherit any gun talent?" Kovu pushed his gun into Jullian's hand. "This is a very different kind of gun, lets see how you handle it." Kovu smiled and loaded the disk launcher, "You ready? Let's see what you got." Kovu stomped down on the switch and let the disks fly.

[Jullian]

Jullian nodded at Kovu's words. He still had a lingering doubts that he'd only been sent here to get him out of Izzi's and Cassie's way but he could recognize when he was being stupid. He should have more faith in his own abilities. He'd been sent here because he could help and that was what he'd do. If Cassie had also sent him here to get him away from Boston, well, that just made her clever. It didn't mean she hadn't thought he'd be a good teacher.

He stood up when Kovu pulled him to his feet but he wasn't expecting to have the gun shoved into his hand. His fingers closed around the handle and he found the trigger out of a habit drilled in so deep it was almost instinct but the gun still felt heavy and clumsy to him.

As Kovu hit the disk launcher he didn't even pay it any attention, letting the little piece of plastic fly through the air unharmed while he tried to familiarize himself with the odd gun. He ran the pad of his thumb over the inlays in the handle and he felt the cold, smooth metal of the barrel with his other hand.

"Where did you get this," he said, aiming at the far corner and looking down the barrel, finding the gun surprisingly heavy as he extended his arm, holding it with two hands to steady it as he'd been taught.

[Kovu]

Kovu smiled. He grabbed the disk off of the floor a reset it. "It is my only gun. The ony guns you could've bought were old ones that have been re-vamped. The newer ones were too expensive because they had to be stolen. This one used to be a flintlock gun, you know, the ones pirates use in old movies? I took it from a street vendor for protection, and yeah it is a bit weird.

Kovu walked up behind Jullian, and gingerly lifted his arm "Hold the gun at eye level. The barrel is very long which makes it very accurate. Move you hand up here, and relax your shoulder." He moved away and back over to the stomp switch. "Don't relax, tense up, let your heart rate build, it'll help you focus. Focus your attention on the disk, let your eyes follow it, until you have it in front of you, then shoot." Kovu stomped down on the lever, and let the disks fly.