Tricks

[gabriel]

"It is very nice to meet you Stevie," Gabriel said, trying to imitate the slight French accent with which she'd said her own name. "I'm sure we'll get along," he said shaking her hand. He didn't hold on to it too long, he didn't want her thinking he was some sort of weirdo, just maybe a very friendly and interested.

He wondered if there were rules about dating fellow recruits at the Academy. He hoped not. That would make the next 8 weeks very unenjoyable. He wasn't used to at least being in pursuit, if not actually being with someone. He hadn't relished the thought of coming to a training camp with no girls and had been glad to learn they'd be getting females too. Life just wasn't worth living if there weren't pretty girls around to beautify the world.

"So, where's this obstacle course Teach," Gabriel said, turning back to the kid who'd sent told them they'd be running one. He had to wonder why all these "teachers" were so young. He was pretty sure they were all younger than him and the only thing that kept him mouthing off was that he'd heard of Matt before and heard of some of the things he'd done. Still, they all looked liked babies to him.

[xander]

Xander simply rolled his eyes at Gabriel. He may have been joking but then Gabe had only seen him taking his time. The thought of an obstacle course made him smile inwardly. Maybe now he’d get to practice more instead of feeling like his skills were rotting away. As for the girl not getting invited he didn’t notice, didn’t care either as long as her time didn’t drag him down.

“Told ya not to do that,” he punched Gabe as played with the French, “Sounds like you’re about to sneeze”.

He looked up at the teacher who told them about the course. Bouncing on the balls of his feet he made a “come on” gesture after Gabe asked where the course was. Xander wanted to be off and going. The sooner the better for everyone involved. That and he’d like to see him he could get Legend to recant his earlier statement.

[Kovu]

Kovu turned and heard the commotion. As soon as he saw STevie it hit him. He smacked his forehead. He approached he and said in a polite manner. "Forgive me madame, I have no idea how I forgot someone like you." Kovu had switched on that theif's charm, that made scam artists so notorius. 'I hope you do not take insult to it."

Kovu bowed a gentlemen, but cam up, a hardened trainer. He said in a much breifer tone. "Go on, you can run the course, but none of you are leaving until your combined time is one minute twenty seconds." Kovu paced, pulled out a stop watch and smiled. "Ready? No? Too bad! Go!" Kovu Yelled.

[stevie]

Stevie gave a polite nod to Gabriel's response. He seemed nice enough. His attempt at copying her accent had been... less than perfect, but not terrible. Definately not as bad as the other boy made it seem when he interjected. She feigned a convincing laugh as if the comment had ammused her, but made a mental note to keep an eye on Xander. In fact, she wanted to keep an eye on everyone. She knew little about the people she was living with... very little, which was more than a bit disconcerting.

"Cela va devenir ennuyeux...", she muttered under her breath when the teacher seemed to take on the same overly gentlemanly tone as Gabriel had. She smiled at him anyway as he diped into a bow. He surprised her, however, by suddenly switching his tone into a more demanding one and sending her to the course. "Oui, Monsieur," she answered, her brain moving to fast to translate it into english. She had barely gotten to what she assumed was the starting line when Kovu yelled go. Immediately, she darted forward, hurtling toward the first obstacle: low, wooden bars. Over, under, over, under, she moved as fast as she could. Stevie couldn't even place the other recruits on the course. Her eyes were completely focused forward, thinking of nothing but getting to the next obstacle.

[[some course options can be seen HERE]]

[xander]

Xander raised an eyebrow at Kovu’s switch in tones. Dude must have been bipolar or desperate for a date. Seriously, him and Gabe both, Stevie wasn’t the only pretty French girl on the planet or the only girl for that matter. There was no need to fall flat on their faces trying to be polite. Cute or not Xander didn’t think the pomp and circumstance was needed.

After Kovu yelled go he took a few seconds to examine the course or the parts he could see. It may have seemed like wasted time he knew it was necessary. Running in full force could result in a burn out before the hardest obstacles. Normally he would have liked to walk the course before hand but seeing as that wasn't happening he'd have to just go with it.

Once done he took off toward the first obstacle. He vaulted over the first bar and jumped up onto the next one. From there he ran/jumped across the remaining bars. At the next obstacle he skipped the first few rungs and started pulling himself over the top. With his luck they’d give him crap for not doing the course properly. Xander had given up on doing things the right way long ago, now he just did them effectively. Dropping down he didn’t break his pace as he approached the barbed wire.

“Bloody tedious,” he breathed before continuing. After this was done he’d probably practice on it later, better than the barren hallways. Then it would be fun, now it was just work.

[gabriel]

Gabriel took off after Stevie, only sparing a moment to wonder why Xander wasn't following. He leaped over the first bar and then vaulted the second, his right hand gripping it firmly as he used his left for balance. It was only when he saw Stevie duck under every other bar up ahead of him that he realized he was doing the obstacle course wrong. He quickly dropped and scrambled under the next bar and started alternating his jumps and his crawls which meant he vaulting different bars from Stevie.

When Xander ran over him, his foot lightly tapping the bar Gabriel was currently sliding under, he felt a flash of jealousy and competitiveness flare inside of him. He jumped over the remaining bars, disregarding proper form, and rushed to the next obstacle on Xander's heels.

He didn't bother trying to go over this one since it would have wasted his time and he didn't want to risk turning an ankle. He just took the monkey bars two at a time, making it to the end of the obstacle not far behind Xander. As they ran towards the barbed wire he dove head first under it, laughingly calling to Xander has he sailed past, "can't go over this one!" He landed easily, used to jumping around and landing on his hands or head or shoulder, and began scrambling under the barbed wire. It was so low that he couldn't really get any proper leverage and was reduced to an undignified shuffle that included his knees, elbows and tips of his toes more than anything else. He felt his shirt catch again and again on the wire above him and cursed under his breath. He hadn't thought to change before doing this and now his shirt was going to get ruined. At worst it would get torn but at best it would still get frayed and picked at.

He finally made it to the end of the barbed wire and he pushed himself up and ran toward the next obstacle. It was just a balance beam of some sort. At first he thought he had to run around it or jump over it or something but that would have made no sense since it was running parallel to the hallway. This time they must be meant to run over it so he ran up and made his way across the bar as quickly as possible, having only a little trouble trying to balance. This was gonna be a piece of cake.

[Kovu]

Kovu paed as he wathed his new students race along the course. It was a fairly simple millitary training course, at least from the beggining. Kovu was actually impressed by what Xander did, after all, in combat, it wasn't how you got around, but rather, how fast you did it. Xander certainly moved fast. Kovu wtched Xanders graceful movements, Maybe he canteach me a thing of two, Kovu thought. Combat wise, Kovu was master, but he wasn't very good with parkour movements.

The cadets moved switly through the militarry part of the course, and Gabreil looked like the course was plain easy, even though his shirt was ripped in places. Kovu smirked, it was true the main course wasn't much of a challenge, but Kovu had helped put some extra obstacles at the end, ones that some would find cruel. Kovu watched in anticipation.

[Jullian]

Jules watched the recruits race off as if they had been told gold was on the other side of the obstacle course. He looked over to Matt and Tess and then watched Kovu stalk, his eyes hard as he watched the progress of the recruits. They only lit up when he saw one of them do well but even then it was a harsh and not wholly pleasant expression of pleasure.

Jullian didn't want to admit it to anyone especially to Kovu himself, but the changes he'd seen in the other boy scared him. Where was the Kovu who had dressed up as Elvis for a surprise party or who had gotten lost in the happiness of a sea lion? Was that person even there anymore? He thought so. He saw him sometimes like when Kovu had showed him how to hold the gun or when he'd silently comforted Jullian when he'd had to talk about Ember. Kovu was still there, he still cared about people. But there was an edge to him now, a hardness that was hard to define but very real. And Jullian wasn't sure how he felt about it.

"They seem like they're enjoying themselves," he said carefully, walking up to stand at one end of Kovu's short pacing path so that he was standing next to him every few seconds. "Do you think they'll do well with the training?"

[beachbeagle]

Matt silently waited until the recruits started going through the course. As he stood there he watched for signs of who would make a good leader. Every move these recruits made, from the moment he'd met them today, had been analyzed with a very critical eye by the former leader of Los Angeles faction. You could never know when one would present a sign of traits that would make a good faction leader, and often times the recruits themselves wouldn't recognize the signs. That was why he was starting to analyze them now, without them even realizing he was doing it.

He and Tess moved to stand over by Jullian at the end of Kovu's pacing path. "I like Xander's method. Being technical isn't as important as being fast when you're in battle. Best thing is to find the easiest way out of any situation. However he's not as mature about this as I'd like him to be, especially when you consider he's older than us. However, half of the maturity issue may be Gabriel. The two seem to egg each other on, the usual male ego competitiveness."

He watched Stevie now. "The one thing I've noticed is, even if the boys are only watching because of being competitive they're at least trying to track the other two recruits on the course. Stevie seems sort of self absorbed at the moment." This was a reference of course to a leader keeping track of his members, something that wasn't easy in battle but necessary.

"Still, I'm not sure about Stevie, but I think the boys are failing to grasp that the group effort matters more than being the first to the end right now. It's their combined times, not individual times, that Kovu is looking for."

He paused now and glanced toward Jullian, "Think I'm being too critical of them?" The question was an honest one, looking for an honest response from a trusted friend. Matt was sure he himself hadn't shown a knack for being a leader right away, so maybe he was expecting a bit too much of these recruits.

[Jullian]

Jullian looked over at Matt in surprise. "Um, no I don't think you're being too hard on them. Wow," he said, turning to watch the recruits go over the course, "I would never think to look for all of those things. But I guess that's why I'm the morphing instructor," he said with a small laugh.

"So do you think Seiya is going to make any of them faction leaders? I some how thought some old animorphs would be faction leaders but, now that I think about it, we're all teachers. Has anyone heard what Cassie or Seiya was thinking of doing for leaders?" He asked realizing he'd never heard a plan and it seemed like something awfully important. He couldn't imagine they'd forgotten.

[beachbeagle]

Matt nodded as Jullian said he wasn't being too hard. He was probably right, especially when you considered that there would be leaders coming out of the recruits that passed through this academy. Matt had to find the people who had what it took fast.

"Some leaders will be coming out of the recruits here. Other old Animorphs, from the other factions like Vegas and such, will probably be getting promotions and be moved around to places we need new faction, but majorly it will be recruits from here who pass the requirements of myself and Seiya and get into my class."

He smiled a little. "None of them even realize that from the moment I met them I was watching to see who might have the potential." Nor did anyone know that Matt would dread the day he sent a new faction leader into the war. I can only hope they will survive, that what I teach them will be enough.

[xander]

Gabe had been right, he couldn’t jump over the barbed wire not without a few more feet. Continuing to run he pulled his jacket off and tossed it off to the side. Part of him didn’t want it to end up like Gabe’s shirt, mostly it was because it did get caught the think material wouldn’t rip easily and cost him time. Dropping down under the barbed wire and pull himself under the wires in a leopard crawl. Soon as he was out he sprang up and continued running forward

The balance beam was painfully simple. He’d ran across fence much more narrow. As Gabe wobbled slightly, Xander rushed passed him retaking the lead. He grabbed a hold of the ladder and climbed up two rungs at a time. At the top he swung a leg over the bar and Xander looked back at his fellow recruits.

In the streets, when you and yours were on the run, you had two things you were supposed to do with stragglers. Help them or pray for them. If they were close, you helped. If helping them meant you got caught you sent a message to your preferred deity. It was an unwritten rule that could get you in serious trouble if ignored. From his spot, Xander couldn’t figure out how to assist either of Gabriel or Stevie. He briefly took in the course ahead before deciding what to do.

Shaking his head Xander jumped off the edge and landed with a roll. Maybe if he cut down his time enough it would give the other some lei way. He leaned forward as he ran up the ledge and kept his momentum up. Just had to get to the end, then he’d worry about the others.

[stevie]

[[no promises on quality... sorry guys...]]

Stevie's pace was good as she finished the first and second obstacles with a significant amount of ease. The boys had, of course, easily passed her up and she could see them moving on much faster than her. They were mounting the balances as she dove under the barbed wire. Quickly, she crawled on her elbows, kind of regretting her enthusiasm about 'keeping up with the guys' and all that jazz. Luckily for her, though, she was well stretched from practicing gymnastics just before.

She was almost out of the barbed wire when it caught hold of her shirt, tearing roughly into her skin. Without thinking, she let out a muffled scream of pain. A voice in the deepest depth of her brain was hoping that they kept this barbed wire rust free, as she doubted that Antarctica had tetanus meds. The bigger part of her was trying to unstick her shirt from the sharp metal so she could keep going. Now the finish line was more than that. It mean getting something for the gash in her side that she couldn't even see.

As her hands fought with the wire, she could do nothing but thank Kovu for not using razor wire. Then again, at least it would have cut THROUGH the shirt and not grabbed hold. Finally, she grew tired of the time wasting and yanked hard on the shirt. It ripped significantly, but let her go and she darted quickly for the balances. They were the easiest of the obstacles by far, thanks in most part to her gymnastics training. The boys were still WELL ahead of her though...

[gabriel]

Gabriel rushed after Xander and leaped up to grab a rung 3 feet above his head. He pulled himself up the ladder quickly, only sparring a moment to look at Xander as he descended the net on the other side. Xander glanced briefly at him and Gabriel stuck his tongue out him and then concentrated on the course.

His hands grabbed the metal bar at the top of the net and he swung his weight up and over without bothering to balance on the top. He looked down the net and then pushed off from it, just dropping and falling past Xander whose feet were caught up in the spaces of the net.

Gabriel had already learned his lesson from earlier that day and when he landed he rolled the way he'd seen Xander do. He still hit a little too hard because he hadn't pushed off enough and, instead, had dropped almost straight down. But the impact didn't hurt enough to stop him, especially when he had the lead.

The hallway ahead of them took a turn back toward the hangar bay and Gabriel guessed that the course must be coming to and end sometime soon. He willed his legs to push him down the hallway faster, knowing he just had to make it to the end to win.

Gabriel turned the corner and, sure enough, they were back in the hangar bay now though they were in a different corner of it. Across the room he could see the corner and the hallway they'd run down but his hope that the course was over proved to be mistaken. Ahead of him he saw a steep ramp and he was coming up on it fast.

Gabriel attacked the ramp with the energy of his frustration. He wanted this course to be over already. His toe hit the wooden ramp and slipped a bit before the rubber of his sneakers gripped it enough to give him a foothold. His hands slammed against the wood next and he scrambled up the ramp with no thought to dignity. The ramp was steep enough that it would have been impossible to do it any other way.

Coming to the top the ramp leveled out and then just ended. Gabriel didn't even think about it, he just jumped, jumping out this time instead of down. He landed and stumbled, a hand touching the ground to steady him, before he pushed himself up and faced the next obstacle.

It was a hole in a wooden wall and he quickly jumped through it, curling his body into a monkey like ball and clearing all sides of it easily. But on the other side was another wall and he slammed into it chest first as his feet hit the ground.

He pushed away from the wall, his pride and his body slightly bruised, and stumbled to the side and got around it. Ahead of him he saw a pit and beyond that some classical tires. Beyond that...the teachers. Finally, he was almost done.

[xander]

He vaulted through the hole gave Xander a sense of déjà vu. A week ago he’d done something like that with Conner, but that had been a window. Xander pushed the memories to the back of his mind and spun around the wall. Flashbacking like a sitcom wasn’t going to help the situation.

He tried to gain some extra speed before jumping over the pit. Xander waited until he was near the edge and landed on the opposite side leaning forward. As a result he dropped to a knee and caught himself with his hands. Pushing off from the ground he looked at the tires. He was so looking forward to this being over with.