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Tests; Rahne
Topic Started: Oct 16 2014, 02:36 AM (573 Views)
Wolfsbane
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Wolf Form
In the thick of it, there was only so much one could actually observe of another's combat style. Things were a bit frantic usually, a bit chaotic and details could get lost amid the flying limbs - the kicks, the punches - amid the flurry of claws and concussion beams and telekinetic flashes. But on this difficulty setting? On a setting that proved no challenge for a seasoned X-Man, she could see plenty.

Damien had tenacious survival instincts when it came down to it. Yes, it was his decision that led them into the jaguars' domain, but he was fighting pretty well all things considered. The cat was larger than him, perhaps a bit more deadly than him, but for sheer ferocity? Damien was working it out just fine. The cat was dragging him away, yes, but Damien had its paw in his mouth. And that was the worst position for the cat to be in. It was pretty clear that Damien's mouth was his best weapon, and this here could possibly show just how strong his jaws could be.

Wolfsbane stepped backwards, keeping a rough pace with the scrap between Damien and his jaguar as the third one stalked at her, shoulders low, ears pinned back, menacing snarl on its face. This would help her both keep track of that last jaguar and of Damien's own battle, allowing her to jump in and rescue him if he needed it.

And despite how desperate he seemed to be at this point, she could see that he had more than a solid fighting chance against it - he had it more or less right where he needed it to be.
Posted Image

[size0]Say the dog and butterfly,
in the air they like to fly.
Dog and butterfly.
She knew she had to try,
and she float back down to the warm soft ground,
laughing - she don't know why,
but she had to try, she had to try.
Dog and Buttefly.


Avatar by Natalie, signature by Olga. My graphics set is complete again! Thank you so much!
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Chomper
Beast Form
The outcome of the battle between the jaguar and Damien seemed dependent entirely upon leverage. When the jaguar was faring better it was during the times that it was dragging the poor Damien who had his legs tangled underneath him. Once his four hooves found purchase on the ground the tide started turning more in the shrimp's favor. He was low to the ground and solid, There was a lower chance of him getting flipped over, especially since he was able to spread his weight out more upon the four feet. The jaguar continued to scratch at him, even flipping to its side to be able to use the back legs to help eviscerate the teen. Try as it might though, the paw was not coming loose, and it was not getting Damien to fall again. Damien had little clue what he was doing, but he had learned something long ago. If you act as if you knew what you were doing, sometimes, not always, that could be enough to convince people that you had a clue. It was better than just giving up at least.

Surrender was a word that had no place in Damien's vocabulary, not as a beast anyways. A warning growl started up in him, his way of telling the jaguar he had caught that he really was not to be messed with. Like a dog happy to play tug of war with a rope, Damien dug his hooves in and started pulling backwards instead of just letting the jaguar lead him. It was a slow progress, he had never tried dragging anything more than his bony butt in this shape, and the jaguar had the size advantage for sure. Also impeding his movement was his tendency to pause to shake the paw, usually following a blow to his nose. Stupid cat. Quit it! Damien thought. Claws frigging hurt. That was one of those things that people don't tell you because it should be obvious, but that did not address that it was like getting a scratch from a needle, or with how big these claws were, a steel nail. Each blow to his nose was like he had just bailed out on his board, but rather than landing with wrist guards that took the brunt of the impact, he was going head first.

Right now Rahne, and subsequently the other two jaguars were forgotten about. Damien had his hands, (Hooves? Mouth?) filled with the one that had been stupid enough to piss him off. Expecting a teen who's closet combat experience was fights at school or a too rough play session by the family dogs was like expecting a college student to not sleep in late during fall break. There was still much to learn about what he was, and what he was capable of. It was to be expected that he would make mistakes, and would forget some important details. As extraordinary as it was, Damien had the jaguar under control. What he needed to know was what to do with it now that he caught it. When was the last time you saw a dog fight a cat its own size?

Only he wasn't a dog. Damien did not even turn into something similar to one like Rahne did. He was a creature unlike anything that had been known about for eons. Battle tactics would have to be different for him, even if only slightly, than it was for his teacher. Those strange feet of his had been somewhat useless for trying to scratch at the jaguar. His nails were sharp, and they did not pull in to make him have gentle attacks, but there was a more solid mass to his foot. Instead of scratching Damien's proto-hooves were better for trampling and pummeling. At last, unable to tolerate getting his nose scratched at again Damien bit down hard on the paw in his mouth. He wanted that over sized housecat with delusions of being a mighty beast to have to stay still long enough that he could whollop it on its head.
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Wolfsbane
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The structural integrity of the jaguar's paw was no match for Damien's jaw, or at least the simulacrum was no match, and it crunched under the force of the bite, revealing a noticeably metallic taste to it. Holograms or not, the jaguars were still fundamentally robotic at their core, so they could have mass and form and present a threat that mere tricks of light alone could never achieve.

The jaguar, as programmed, reacted with a yowl of pain as it recoiled its paw from Damien, now struggling to get it loose from the vise grip of his jaws more than trying to drag the young beastling away.

"Ye got him on the ropes, Damien!" Rahne called out, taking another step back from the jaguar advancing on her, sparing a glance to the third, the one she had forcefully booted away from them, which was struggling to get up at the moment. If they weren't entirely artificial, she'd be tempted to feel bad for the poor pathetic thing. She had some pretty potent legs and he had gotten that kick full-force to the underbelly. It likely would have killed an actual jaguar, slowly and painfully at that.

Her quarry bounded forward and to the left, looking to take a side-swipe at the werewolf X-Man, but at this lower difficulty level, it wasn't moving fast enough to trouble her, and she was easily able to duck low, and then rise quickly, thrusting her left elbow into its chin and sending it spinning head over tail away. Damien wasn't ready to be double-teamed yet, that much was clear.
Posted Image

[size0]Say the dog and butterfly,
in the air they like to fly.
Dog and butterfly.
She knew she had to try,
and she float back down to the warm soft ground,
laughing - she don't know why,
but she had to try, she had to try.
Dog and Buttefly.


Avatar by Natalie, signature by Olga. My graphics set is complete again! Thank you so much!
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Chomper
Beast Form
Damien ought to have recognized that not everything was as it seemed here. Even with the paw in his mouth Damien should have recognized that the feel wasn't right. Keeping in mind that he was up against a computer was surprisingly difficult when his nose was being clawed at by a very convincing and very angry large cat. When he bit down hard enough to damage the paw, Damien was a little startled by the metal taste. It wasn't like eating a steak and chomping down on the fork. With that at least you got a bit of food in you. The metal startled him and Damien very nearly let go. The last time he had anything close to that taste in his mouth was when he had bitten his brother. Slightly different taste, and more give than the jaguar gave, but still the taste made him jump.

What kept him from letting go though was the shout of encouragement from Rahne. She had honestly slipped his mind for a little bit there, and he had to be reminded that he was not the only one fighting against the jaguars. There as a small measure of pride in him at hearing that he had the jaguar on the ropes. That whole "act like you know what you're doing" thing really did work. Rahne didn't need to know that Damien had absolutely no clue what he was doing with this robot cat. All he could do is what he guessed was a good idea. If he messed up it wouldn't be the first time. So far he had not messed up. Well, other than his attempt to jump onto the wall, and when he got hit the first time, and when he was being dragged. Other than that Damien was flawless right?

Now that Damien was in the dominate position in the fight he was not quite sure that he could keep it up though. He had been improving in small measures each time, but on the whole Damien was still very new to his powers and was limited in his skills. He would learn, but it was going to be a slow process and would feel much slower to the teen who wanted to barrel through things. He was impulsive and not very good at taking his time with things. Damien's nature was telling him that he should just get this jaguar out of his way. One hoofed paw came up and with a mighty, as mighty as he could manage at least, whallup on the head of the jaguar. He let go of his grip on the paw and stamped his hooves again. His message should be made clear.

A shudder traveled through Damien's body. It was hard work being intimidating when in reality you were shorter than your little sister. Damien was hoping that the Jaguar who's paw he had hurt was done for now. A few more stomps were all that he had to offer his injured cat, before he turned his attention back towards his teacher. She was no longer forgotten about, and Damien was convinced that he was going to protect her once more. He choose to ignore his limitations and went back to Rahne's side. He kept his teeth bared, a warning to not try to attack him again unless you wanted to get stuck in the vice grip of his jaws. That was the best defense, or offense depend upon how you looked at it, he had to offer.
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Wolfsbane
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Damien had some force in those legs, that much was sure, as he cracked hit after hit down upon the skull of his opponent, hits that would certainly break skin, if not crack bone. He was tougher than he knew, Rahne was sure of that.

"Alright," Rahne said as he made it back to her side, wiggling her fingers a bit to flex them out, keep them from locking up from tension. "This is the last bit. We take this guy down, an' we're through it."

As if she had given it a cue, the jaguar that she had cracked with a hard elbow to the chin got back to its feet, and with a snarl of vicious fury, charged at the two, dashing towards them with such speed as to be difficult to keep up with. But Rahne was ready, and sidestepped, extending her right leg out as she crouched low, causing the jaguar's forelimbs to collide hard with the side of her leg and send it reeling, its dash now turned into a high-speed tumble upon the stone floor of the temple.

She had given him an opening, a chance to take advantage and follow up. She was curious, she had to admit. She wanted to see what he would do when presented with the opportunity. To see if he could recognize it as an opportunity and act.
Posted Image

[size0]Say the dog and butterfly,
in the air they like to fly.
Dog and butterfly.
She knew she had to try,
and she float back down to the warm soft ground,
laughing - she don't know why,
but she had to try, she had to try.
Dog and Buttefly.


Avatar by Natalie, signature by Olga. My graphics set is complete again! Thank you so much!
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Chomper
Beast Form
Damien had indeed managed to put the fear of shrimp into his jaguar and it left him alone. The teen looked up at Rahne, expecting some sort of praise from his teacher. It wasn't often that he got positive feedback from teachers. The problem with having older siblings that were smart was that teachers came to expect things from you. Isabelle would have it easier once she got to middle school than Damien did. His teachers would always remember him as that fidgeting kid who never bothered to check his spelling. Damien was a slow learner as well, one who was stubborn about what he thought was right. Not an impossible student, but a frustrating one at least. Here there was no other de Chantraine child to compare him to, so Damien could shine on his own without being dimmed by the shadows cast by Lance and Suzanne.

There was a sense of something being off balance in Damien. He was happy doing this, being a beastly thing and showing how he was strong. He liked getting into this scrap with the jaguars. It was so unlike anything that he was normally capable of. The only reason why he didn't get destroyed in fights when he was younger was because he was too stupid to give up. His determination was what helped him. Now he was equipped with jaws that could crush, and hooves that could stomp. In his beast form Damien was powerful, and it was a feeling that he could get hooked on. At the same time Damien knew that he wouldn't be able to do what he just had done. He had gotten a few good shots in on his jaguar, and had done serious damage to its paw. How ever to do so he had gotten beaten up himself and wasted time getting dragged about. As much as he wanted to keep going, there was a part of him that wanted this to just end.

That part was easy to ignore when Rahne helped to make things easier for him with the next jaguar. Seeing it get tripped up just by a leg of hers made him feel that smug sense of superiority again. He might not know what he was, and he might not know quite how he was suppose to operate as whatever he was, but at least he hadn't been tripped by a leg. That long tail of his helped him to turn sharply and make a leap onto the jaguar. This time he had all four of his hooves to strike at the cat. Four hooves and a set of jaws that bit down on the scruff of the jaguar's neck. The cat recovered it's balance, now with a small beasty clamped onto it. For a brief second Damien was suspended in the air, his jaws effortlessly supporting his weight. Gravity took it's effect though, and his feet touched the ground again. Damien tried to wrap his front legs around the jaguar's neck. The mauling technique his jaguar had used against him was good for keeping him off balance, and the teen wasn't against using what worked.

Once more there was a tremor in his body, and Damien hit the wall. It had not been as long as their session in the woods when he had hunted a rabbit, but this time Damien had done so much more. His body was no longer able to keep up with the demands that his beast form put on him, and he reverted. Instantly Damien tried grabbing on tighter to the large cat's neck with his arms, ad his legs, thankfully longer now that he was a human again, scrambled to wrap around the cat's body. His mouth was cleared of the jaguar's fur as a stream of obscenities that would put a sailor to shame started streaming out of him, growing in volume as he realized just what he had gotten himself into. This was no Titan. This was Fluffy the fierce and terrible, and it could destroy him.
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Wolfsbane
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It was going pretty well, as far as Rahne was concerned. She could observe clearly how Damien reacted in threatening situations. He didn't know how to fight, and self-defense was a desperate scramble, but he had some solid instincts to him. He could bite and bite hard, he had some pretty potent limb thrashing potential - and...

"Ah, hell," she muttered as that shudder ran down his spine. He was losing it. And she had act fast or he would very possibly be actually injured. And that was something she simply could not allow.

As Damien clung to the jaguar's back for dear life, Wolfsbane leaped into action. She dove forward, arms outstretched to deftly snag Damien off of the simulated jaguar's back, scooping the small boy up before twisting around, repositioning herself mid-air to be facing the beast feet-first as she swung a hard right kick for its chin, sending the jungle cat reeling. It landed face-first on the stone with an audible crack, and ceased further motion.

"Ye're alright?" Rahne asked after landing in a crouch, loosening her grip on Damien to allow him to get out of her arms. At this point, she figured the exercise was done. He had taxed himself to his limits, he had pushed as hard as he could.

And now he was able to articulate exactly what he felt and experienced.
"How do ye feel? How did ye feel?" she asked, looking to home in on just that.
Posted Image

[size0]Say the dog and butterfly,
in the air they like to fly.
Dog and butterfly.
She knew she had to try,
and she float back down to the warm soft ground,
laughing - she don't know why,
but she had to try, she had to try.
Dog and Buttefly.


Avatar by Natalie, signature by Olga. My graphics set is complete again! Thank you so much!
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Chomper
Beast Form
Understandably there was a little bit of a panic when Rahne plucked Damien from the jaguar like he was just a piece of fruit growing on a tree. At first Damien had thought that it was one of the wild cats that had nabbed him, and he squirmed about, all arms and legs, trying to kick. When it finally hit him about two seconds later that he was not being eaten and was instead was being rescued, the teen went slack in Rahne's arms like an obedient little puppy getting carried by the scruff. His physical size had not increased in years, but Damien still had outgrown the hugging phase, or at least that was how his family looked at it. He couldn't remember the last time that he had been held protectively. Damien didn't do much to change that. He was a teen after all, and while he loved his parents, the thought of anyone knowing it was embarrassing. Right now he was afraid of what his Dad would be like to him. After all Guy had been rather vocal in the past about his feelings towards mutants. His mom had given Damien the impression that it was best if they did not tell his Dad about what he was.

The calm that Damien had exhibited while being carried vanished though once Rahne put him down. Damien rolled his shoulders, he wiggled, he raked his hands through his hair. He was trying, and failing, to find that sensation he got right before he shifted. Being just a normal kid again meant that he had to be rescued, that he was going to be looked down upon literally and figuratively. When he had been a beast he had been doing things right. Not being able to turn back into it was maddening. To Damien he had only started being a mutant when he had first shifted, he didn't know that his x-gene had been active for longer than that. His body had just not been able to do the shift before hand. The sensation of wanting to do what his body was meant for but not being capable of was the single most frustrating thing in his life thus far.

"I feel hungry," Damien complained, his annoyance ringing out clear, "I feel hungry and hot and I can't breath right because there's no freaking air up here and the itchies are gone and I don't want them to be." It was a long ramble from him, that ended up with him coughing. There had been a difference in his respiration during his beasty phase. Whatever he had turned into it was a creature that could operate with lower levels of oxygen. The coughing only served to agitate the teen more. It was just one more reason to want to shift back into his beast form. For now his rant was over, summing up how he was currently feeling without a mention of getting beat up, or almost killed, by the jaguar he had been riding. The memory of it was already fading for Damien. Instead of looking frightened by his brush with danger, Damien looked, well thrilled.

His hanger was still there, and would be until he got his fill of food again, but Damien had a taste of awesome and wanted more. He enjoyed the feeling of strength that his mutation granted him. The only fly in the ointment, other than how he couldn't shift back right now, was that he had no clue what he turned into. If telling Rahne how he felt during the shift gave a cdirection to go, he would gladly tell her. Damien did not pause to think of how to describe it. "I felt... big, and strong. It was like...pshhhew," he said, making a sort of explosion noise with his mouth, "You know how you just want to run sometimes? It was kind of like that. I had to do stuff."
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Wolfsbane
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"Hungry. O' course," Rahne said with a smirk, arms folded across her chest. She'd learned over her time working with Damien that he, especially was driven by his stomach. It seemed, even more than most shape changers, but it made sense. He had a lot to make up for. He was abnormally small, and she figured his appetite was an attempt by body to compensate and jump start some growth.

"Damien, Damien - relax. We're nae high up at all," she said with a light chuckle. He was getting antsy it seemed, anxious. Poor guy. "We're still a few floors below ground, actually. End simulation."

Just like that, the scenery around them began to melt away, the topography generated sliding back into place and into the standard flat floor it was before. It took a few brief moments overall, but once it was done, it was done and the Incan sanctuary of Machu Picchu was gone, replaced by the Danger Room once more.

"Ye're doin ' better," she said, heading towards the doors. "Time was a bit less, but ye were more active and more strained here, so it's likely nae a time issue so much as an energy exertion one. Either way, feel proud of yuir self. Ye did well."

She glanced back to Damien, allowing her own half-wolf form to shift away into her standard human form.
"Go get yuir self somethin' to snack on. Ye full well earned it."'
Posted Image

[size0]Say the dog and butterfly,
in the air they like to fly.
Dog and butterfly.
She knew she had to try,
and she float back down to the warm soft ground,
laughing - she don't know why,
but she had to try, she had to try.
Dog and Buttefly.


Avatar by Natalie, signature by Olga. My graphics set is complete again! Thank you so much!
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Chomper
Beast Form
There it was, the proof that Damien's teacher was in fact a mother. As he was starting to fizzle up, she just said a few words to calm him down. As the Danger Room did its own shift, away from the lush green tropical scenery that he had been so enthralled with went back to the cold emptiness that had bothered Damien before. Watching the room transform into Machu Piichu had been an amazing experience, one that had captivated Damien entirely, the change back was startling and served as a distraction. Damien had problems focusing on things sometimes, especially if he was hungry, or tired, both of which he was right now. He had to take in the change that was happening before his eyes, no longer either fuming or over excited by the memory of his powers. He blinked slowly at the now empty room.

"I liked the other place better," Damien said, shivering at the feeling he got from the empty room, "Looks like a better place to go than Loreze. Too many cows." There hadn't been an obscene number of cattle in France when he was there, not more than you would expect from a rural area. But Damien hadn't been on a farm before, so any number of livestock would be unusual to him. The problem with the amount of cows that he had seen in his time in France was the evidence of them that was left behind. Dodging dog droppings was hard enough if the owners didn't have the decency to clean up after their pets. Nobody really went out and pooper scooped after the cows. Of course he hadn't had to fight jaguars in Loreze, so there was that factor going for it.

It was hard to believe though that he was really did do better this time. Before he had not gotten his face attacked by anything more than a low shrubbery that he was too foolish to avoid. Just when Damien had really been getting a grip of what he could do his body had decided to crap out on him and put him back to his weakest state. This time he needed to be rescued. Damien squirmed some more, trying to find that feeling he got before a shift one more time, just so that he could say he really did do better, but there was nothing. At least nothing that did much good than providing some slight entertainment value as his face scrunched up, contorted, went slack, and in general made silly looks that would draw a laugh out from even the most upset of babies.

"Do you have any idea what I am yet?" Damien asked with a sigh. The whole point of this exercise was to try and gather information that would direct their research. If walking around ruins and fighting jaguars didn't give some sort of indication of what sort of creature Damien turned into then Damien really hadn't done any better. And Rahne was his teacher. She was older than him and smarter. Maybe she had better luck doing research than him because she knew some sort of secret research techniques. He looked at Rahen with hope, wanting so very much for her to give him the answer that he was searching for.
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Wolfsbane
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Wolf Form
"Eh, cows aren't so truly terrible," Rahne said with a chuckle as the door slid open with a hiss, allowing them to exit from the Danger Room. "Granted, they're nae too much fun, either. Now sheep - they're fun. When I was a wee pup, maybe twelve years old or so, I was the bane o' this one shepherd who had a flock back home. I'd chase his sheep around an' tease 'em somethin' fierce."

Those were fun times. Times when she could be young, innocent, relatively carefree. Chasing the sheep around, running through the woods, those were the times when the troubles of her young life weren't wearing heavily down upon her. She'd since grown up, and grown to move past the dark times, into a stronger, more resilient person, but in a way she missed that time, before responsibility and duty diluted her ability to have fun whenever she wanted.

"I've got some ideas," she said with a nod of her head, walking down the hallway towards the elevator. "I rather think 'tis fair t' say we've exhausted known modern carnivores. Ye're no cat, ye're no bear, an' ye're likely nae quite a true canine."

She glanced over to him, eyebrows raised.
"So I'd say we've got t' start lookin' backward. If yuir alternate form is actually an animal that existed on this planet, I'd say then 'tis highly possible ye've been extinct f'r some time now."
Posted Image

[size0]Say the dog and butterfly,
in the air they like to fly.
Dog and butterfly.
She knew she had to try,
and she float back down to the warm soft ground,
laughing - she don't know why,
but she had to try, she had to try.
Dog and Buttefly.


Avatar by Natalie, signature by Olga. My graphics set is complete again! Thank you so much!
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