[PRP] Training Cats and Dogs

[TawnyAngel]

Juno chuckled and passed on a translation of Nioshii's words to Aulus, who nodded and suppressed the impulse to smile. He had a feeling he was going to like Nioshii. "Up to you on your team's involvement," he said with a nod to Luxury, closely followed by; "Off we go then."

With that he set the main section of the training floor moving, though he and his team were still standing on solid ground. The conveyor belt type arrangement started of at a snail's pace but fairly quickly moved up to what would be a comfortable loping speed for an Arcanine at a touch of the controls from Aulus. A couple of seconds later he activated the obstacle protocols which caused a random pattern of floor sections to rise up in front of Nioshii at varying heights; some he could easily step over, others he would have to jump.  

[wasluxy]

Well this was new.

Nioshii hadn't been sure exactly what would happen, but a moving floor he wasn't expecting. The first couple of steps were a bit uncertain, but it only took a second to catch his stride. The raising floor caught him off guard as well, and the first section he skimmed the tips of his front toes on. "Nioshii, focus." He heard the low command and flicked his ears back toward Luxury in acknowledgment, and the rising floor parts after that gave him little trouble.

Since Luxury couldn't quite see directly in front of them, as an Arcanine's head makes a better wall than a window, she trusted her Pokemon and kept an eye on the others. For the most part, her fingers remained solid but relaxed, simply holding on to the long fur, but as soon as someone came at them from the left or right she'd use her grip to signal Nioshii. It wasn't something they'd tried before, but she was confident he'd pick it up pretty quick.  

[TawnyAngel]

Once the pair seemed to have their rhythm Aulus tensed his left hand slightly, a gesture that would go unnoticed unless you were looking for it.

At the small signal the patched Absol growled and sprang forward, charging past Nioshii and aiming a light Night Slash at his lower legs. A moment later another small gesture from Aulus - a rub of his right ear - promoted the Gengar to whoosh past in the opposite direction, unleashing a Shadow Ball that was far more colour than substance but if it connected it would still give whoever it touched an unpleasant chill.  

[wasluxy]

Luxury, of course, didn't notice the signals that were given to either of their opponents, but she gave her own to Nioshii when they charged at him. When the Absol came up on their left, Luxury tightened the grip of her left hand. At the Gengar on the right, she did the same with her right hand.

Nioshii heard the Absol's growl, and his attention flicked to it. The Night Slash came at him at the same time a medium size raise did, and Nioshii managed to clear both in one bound. When the Gengar attacked, however, he didn't hear anything to signal it's presence but felt a tug on his fur and that pulled his attention. Pulling almost a Furret-like move, he jumped over another raise and ducked and dodged the Shadow Ball, earning him a small rub from his rider.

<>  

[TawnyAngel]

Good so far, time to step it up a little bit. Aulus increased the speed of the conveyor-floor slightly - or whatever its proper name was - and put the obstacles onto the next setting, making them more frequent and putting in some higher ones. Nioshii would probably still be able to clear those by his reckoning but many smaller or less agile pokemon would have to go around them... or through them in some cases, such as Ella for example.

With the obstacles doing their thing Aulus made small gestures to Red, Char, and Juno who all took to the air and them swooped at Nioshii and his rider one after the other, all trying to take light swipes at Luxury as they passed over.  

[wasluxy]

As bits of risen flooring grew higher and more frequent, Luxury could feel Nioshii's muscles tighten up a little as his focus grew. Multi-task, boy... If he focused too much on his feet he'd miss the attacks, but if he focused too much on the attacks he'd trip. This was exactly what they came here to get good at...

With Nioshii having to jump higher and dodge more, Chora was having a little problem staying attached. A couple times she felt herself be flung to the side a little, before she started to really notice the way the Arcanine's muscles moved. It took a minute, but she was able to time it so she could let go, hunker lower, and get a better grip between jumps. After that, she was a lot better... and being able to watch around her, she noticed the Pidgeot before Luxury did. "Purr!"

Luxury had her attention on Chora more than she should have, making sure the cat didn't fall as she readjusted, and almost missed the sudden line of attacks. She didn't have time to signal Nioshii at the Pidgeot, but Chora did, and her meow perked both human and Arcanine ears. Nioshii skittered to the side at the last second, realizing too late the bird was after Luxury and not him, and the girl took a slight scratch on her arm. Multi-task, Grunt... Nioshii jumped over a large floor-rise, and this time all three saw the Charizard after them. Luxury bent low over Chora and leaned a bit to the other side, and Nioshii flicked his giant fluff of tail up and over them both right as the Charizard took a swipe. <> Nioshii wanted to grin at his altered basketball chime, but with Juno launching at them now was certainly not the time. Planting his paws on top of the next rise, the Arcanine took a giant leap over the bug -putting himself between her and his girl- and shot a flame so weak it couldn't toast a marshmallow at her.  

[TawnyAngel]

So far so good enough; he thought the grunt might have taken a small hit from Red but it was pretty hard to tell from where he was standing, and even if she had it was hardly the end of the world.

When the almost not there fireball touched her Juno buzzed theatrically and spiralled away to crashland on the floor clear of the belt. <> she announced, lying on her back and flailing her legs in the air.

Aulus snorted and gave her a prod with his boot; funny, but not right now. With the bug lightly admonished Aulus turned back to the 'battlefield' and made another small gesture. He actually didn't know where Foxtrot was at this point but it was her job to put herself somewhere she could see him and respond.

Indeed the Zoroark had done so and a moment later something that looked very much like her sprang from invisibility and launched itself at Nioshii with its jaws wide and claws flashing. With her illusion set to do this Foxtrot herself sprang forward - still wrapped in invisibility - and tried to give the Arcanine's tail a yank.  

[wasluxy]

((ooc: Juno omg XDDD -laughed so hard at that I made the dogs bark... oops! XD))

As Nioshii kept his body focused on the floor, he allowed himself to chuckle at the drama queen. <>

Luxury snickered herself at the antics, but only loud enough for Nioshii to hear as well. No way was she openly laughing at an Agent's Pokemon even when she was acting silly, as that was a good way to get barked at. Instead she gave a "Good job, boy" to her own bark-y butt, who gave a 'wuff' in response.

Of course, the training wasn't over yet, and quite quickly something else sprang at them. Ah, there's where his Zoroark's been hiding... Luxury was wondering when she was going to jump into the mix, and it looked like her time was now. Wait... SH*T! The Grunt's thought flashed in a split second and she opened her mouth to warn Nioshii, right as two things happened: Nioshii jumped over another rise and took a clawless swipe to gently knock the 'Zoroark' away from them, and the /real/ Zoroark grabbed the big dog's tail. Giving a shocked and confused yelp, Nioshii tried to pull his tail in to him but gave too much focus on it, and in a flash all three of them were tumbling over a floor rise and onto the ground. Luxury hit first, her arms wrapped around Chora, and Nioshii came next in a massive hulk of fur and muscle. Acting in a heartbeat, Chora realized the Arcanine was about to skid right over the top of them, and she sprang from Luxury's arms and used Assurance to counter the momentum.

Nioshii let out another surprised yelp as an attack came from behind and his entire body came to an abrupt halt. Slowly moving his head, he looked over his shoulder to see... Nothing. His heart skipped a beat before Luxury stood up a bit shakily, coming into the Arcanine's view just a foot from where his back was. "Holy crap, Chora. A+." "Purr purr!~"  

[TawnyAngel]

lux_rayne13

Sorry for the HUGE delay!

As the Arcanine, Purrloin, and girl went tumbling over Aulus smacked the stop button for the room's obstacles, which slowed to a halt and gently tucked themselves away into the walls and floor. As it was clear that nobody was badly hurt he stayed where he was and let them pick themselves up, he wasn't in the habit of kissing boo-boos and doubted it would be appreciated in any case.

"It's hard to defend against what you can't see," he began as Luxury started to pick herself up. "Zoroark have the potential to be even trickier than ghosts in that regard because - as you just saw - they can throw you off with their Illusion ability and then come from a different angle while you're distracted. The best you can do is react quickly to the attack when it comes - which Chora did. The other thing is to remember that taking a hit will throw off Illusion so if you suspect there's a Zoroark lurking around it's worth throwing off an AOE attack if you can, though circumstances don't always allow of course."  

[wasluxy]

TawnyAngel

We're so bad at this... XD

The Grunt listened to Aulus, while Nioshii picked himself up, and she nodded. "An old Rocket friend of mine used to have a Zorua, and when she was transferred he was given to me, and I passed him on to my sister. Unfortunately, I realized too late that that was most likely a false attack..." Luxury looked up at Nioshii, feeling like she'd let him down, and gave him an apologetic pat. "Trae would have been useful to have out, though, as she's got... Swift... Uh, Chora?"

A slight glow from below her caused her to trail off her sentence, and as she looked down, she saw the glow -coming from Chora- grow brighter. Eyes wide, Luxury first looked up at Nioshii, who's eyes were the size of the moon and fixed on the little cat, and then she looked over at the Agent. She'd seen a Pokemon evolve before, but it was due to a Fire Stone and not seemingly random like this. She wanted to ask Aulus how this was even possible as the training wasn't focused on Chora at all, but she didn't want to seem too much like an idiot so she just looked back to Chora, taking a step back to give her room.

A few moments later, the glow died down... and in it's place stood a Liepard. Chora looked around at everyone, who all seemed smaller now that she was bigger, and let out a happy "LIE LIE!"  

[TawnyAngel]

lux_rayne13

XD So so bad.

When the Purrlion started to grow Aulus folded his arms over his chest and watched with interest. "Hu." It was always hard to predict when pokemon that evolved spontaneously were going to go, you might have an idea that they were getting there but you'd only know for sure when it actually happened.

After only a few moments the light faded away leaving a Liepard standing where the Purrlion had been before, a smooth transformation and one that seemed to please Chora.

"Well I think we can call that a successful output from today's session," Aulus observed with the slightest hint of a smile tugging at one corner of his mouth. "I suppose protecting you from getting pancaked by Nioshii triggered it, great achievements or great need sometimes seem to kickstart evolution." That was what had happened with Char; he still remembered falling from the platform by The Machine's controls sometimes, usually at about 3am but in the dream a newly evolved Charizard failed to swoop down and save him. Ugh, enough thinking about that one.