Ataru-batics (Ferus/Alyssa)

[H3xle]

Alyssa was still amazed at the difference a few feet made. Walking up to the hidden Assassin's headquarters at Malif Cove, faded glories of the past were brought to mind. The ruins of a monastery, still in use despite the degradation of years and weather, were the only thing visible. The monks were polite and deferential, particularly when they saw the bracers she bore. They did look askance at the whip coiled on her right hip, but likely knew the manners of their neighbors and therefore knew better than to ask.

Below the crumbling structure of the monastery, a startling change was evident. Stepping through the hidden portal, Alyssa saw clean hallways, still only decorated spartanly, with clean rooms for meditation and training. There were many levels, and Alyssa hadn't given herself much time to explore. She had upset the Master Assassin once before, she didn't think she'd be allowed to many more chances, and being late was a rookie mistake. She was here to turn her acrobatic fighting style into something more formalized, to learn Ataru from a Master Bladesman. She supposed the next thing was to craft a lightsaber, but she still wanted to use the whip as her primary weapon, if it proved feasible.

Descending to the proper level, Alyssa slipped into the training room like a shadow, though she knew that she was detected long before. She was still uninitiated in the arts of hiding her force presence, something she would rectify in the future. She had many lapses in her training to rectify.

She approached the center of the room. She still had her pistol holstered in the small of her back, whip at her side and pair of hidden blades on her wrists. She wasn't sure of what the Master Assassin preferred. For her training with her own Mistress, Darth Raven, she knew that often disarming was the key. From her she learned force skills and that often took place in the heart of a Sith Temple, safe for the most part, though she never truly let her guard down. For the moment she would remain armed, sure that if Ferus wanted her to be disarmed for saber training he would instruct her so.

At the center of the room, still empty for all she could see and sense, Alyssa knelt down and sat back on her heels. She closed her eyes and reached out into the force, meditating on the swirling emotions she kept pent up within her and trying to sense anything in the force around her.

[member="darth ferus"]

 

[Darth Ferus]

Ferus wouldn't keep [member="Alyssa"] waiting long. Right as she began her meditation, he came literally bursting into the room. With a single powerful kick, he blew the doors open with the assistance of the Force to make a loud bang, but not to blow the doors of the hinges. With both hands slipped into his pockets he strode in, eyeing the girl for a moment or two.

"You must be Dark Thorn aye? Then we are here to train you in the lightsaber form Ataru. Pull out your saber now." He spoke rather calmly, almost lazily as he eyed her form. He already knew she didn't have one, at least not yet, but he was curious on what she would say in response. His hand idly drummed on his mechanical thigh, right where he stored the saber she would be using this day.

 

[H3xle]

Almost as soon as she began her meditation, the doors were blasted open, almost off their hinges, but they maintained integrity somehow. The sound shocked Alyssa straight out of her meditation and she rolled backwards over her shoulder and into a crouched position, her left arm forward slightly while her right reached behind her towards the pistol. When she saw it was the Master Assassin, she rose to her full height, not a far difference honestly, and dropped her hands to her sides. The unabashed assassin in her wanted her to bow, the abused woman in her raged against such, so she mentally compromised with herself and offered a deep nod, her eyes never leaving Ferus's body.

"I am Dark Thorn, Darth Ferus." She responded. She hadn't known that she should bring her own. She knew she could have made a side trip somewhere and taken one, either a training saber or one from someone weaker, but she hadn't thought....not thinking was going to get her killed some day. She resisted the temptation to close her eyes and curse herself. She held herself straight and quickly went through her options. She really only had one, honesty. "I do not have a saber yet, Lord Ferus. I have not yet crafted one." She spoke boldly and truthfully, and kept her spine straight and eyes forward. She didn't meet his gaze, as he would be able to see some of the ingrained defiance she had against men in them, and instead unfocused her gaze, hoping that if he struck out she would be able to use her peripheral vision to see it fast enough to survive it.

[member="Darth Ferus"]

 

[Darth Ferus]

"Well, I suppose we'll have to make you a saber later then." With that, the Zabrak would let his saber pop from his robotic thigh and soar for @Alyssa. It wasn't active at least, but it should be somewhat of a surprise. Ferus while this happened would pull out his own saber, letting he golden blade burn into existence.

"So you wish to learn Ataru. Shall we begin?"

 

[H3xle]

Alyssa had been preparing for a saber attack, or some other physical attack from the Master Assassin, put it down to a jaded outlook brought on by far too much abuse in her childhood. She didn't flinch so much as twitch, to a trained eye it could be seen that she had intended to roll backwards again, possibly something of a fall back trick as it is what she had done before. She arrested the movemnt when she saw something move in an arc towards her from his...thigh.

Focusing her eyes quickly, she saw that it was a saber hilt, iluminated now in the golden light of [member="darth ferus"]'s lightsaber. Had she continued her backward roll, the hilt would have hit the ground. As it was, Alyssa almost couldn't move fast enough to catch it, only her innate speed allowed her to snake her hand out and grab it from the air at waist height. Knowing that his saber was already lit, she wasted no time in lighting off the borrowed one with the typical snap hiss. She brought it around in a two handed grip, setting it behind her right ear and sinking into a ready stance.

"So you wish to learn Ataru. Shall we begin?"

"Yes, please." She said, her eyes unfocused again, allowing her peripheral vision to be in the fore so she can see movement more quickly, her force sense stretched out.

 

[Darth Ferus]

"Good, you handle a saber well. However, don't get too rigid. Ataru is as much about swordplay and hard strikes as it is free movement and acrobatics. For now, I want you to begin leaping around this room. I don't entirely care how you do it, but no matter what I want you to keep your saber still. I don't mind if you shift your stance, but once you hit a point I want it to remain there, no matter what sort of movement you do."

[member="Alyssa"] would have to control her movement as well as her blade to keep herself from impaling upon the red saber. Ferus would cross his arms and watch from the background, being sure to note her every move.

 

[H3xle]

Alyssa half-nodded and looked around the room, examining it for a second. The ceiling was high enough that to reach it just from standing would require use of the force, however, Alyssa was trained in gymnastics and an art called the "Art of Escape" which relied on flexibility and surety of movement to reach places others thought only a force user could reach. While she was a force user, the less you used in a fight, the more you had when things became dire.

Alyssa flipped the saber over so the point was facing down, a refused guard that would allow a wielder to make quick, shallow slashes at opponents or sneaky stabs from parts of the dance of combat that strikes didn't usually come from. It would also allow her more movement around the blade as she was small in stature and not gifted with monkey arms. She paused a moment to take a deep breath and offer a nod to [member="Darth Ferus"], then smiled to herself and rolled backwards to begin.

She came up from the role facing opposite of the way she had been, away from Ferus. She had done a pivot in mid roll on the wrist of her saber holding hand. For a moment, all of her weight had been on the wrist and only her momentum kept her from collapsing onto the live blade. She bounded up from the roll and ran up the wall a few steps before turning and pushing off towards the ceiling. Her blade poised before her torso in he refused guards most obvious defensive position. As she went towards the ceiling, she flipped in the air, the blade remaining still in relation to her body the whole way. She landed with her feet on the ceiling, letting her inertia keep her there for a moment as she pushed towards the floor. In transition, she bowed her head down and rolled in mid air. She allowed her saber to move to the side of her body for a moment as she landed on her feet and immediately turned it into a forward roll to diffuse the momentum. She brought the blade back before her and finally used the force to increase her agility and strength. She kept the blade pointed towards the floor as she twisted up in a no handed cartwheel over it, her grip on the blade shifted as she went over, going from the refused guard to a standard grip as she reached the apex of her cartwheel.

Alyssa then used a little bit of telekinesis as she rounded out of the cartwheel and threw her feet to the wall. She absorbed the push with bent knees and pushed off again. Her blade was held at a forty-five degree angle, hand by her right hip and blade going across toward left shoulder. As she leapt from the wall, she turned around the blade. The blade itself stayed perfectly immobile except for the spin. She came out of the spin after two rotations right in front of Ferus, at a spot only centimeters different from where she had originally stood. The blade of the saber was still at the forty-five across her body. Alyssa took several deep breaths, keeping herself steady, despite the sudden end to her physical activity.

"Was that what you meant?" She asked, becoming slightly more comfortable with him. "It was difficult to not use my arms to help guide my movements..."

 

[Darth Ferus]

"Indeed it was. As you continue with this form, you will be using your blade as a counter balance, slashing in ways to keep yourself level and unharmed by your own techniques, but if you can balance yourself without your arms, you will have the option for far more unique and overwhelming attacks. Now, I want you to continue, this time feel free to use your arms to guide you. But with each move, I want to see you swipe the blade in some way shape or form similar to an attack. Understand?"

Ferus kept quite as she had moved prior, simply watching [member="Alyssa"] for any tell tale sighs of weakness or the inability to preform. Thankfully, she had proven quite the opposite. For now, he would continue to watch, curious on what she would do next.