Let me drop fifty for you [ota]

[icecoldwit]

While Ethan had turned the courtyard into his own little training camp, Emma had taken one of the training rooms built to withstand the over exertion of powers. The assessments were going a long way to figuring out just how capable the team members were and just how complimentary some of their abilities -both mutant and physical- could be for

Comments

[mutantmercenary]

Acier arrived to this next step in the assessment a little more reluctantly than the first part. She retained the knowledge that her power by itself was barely dangerous and her level of so-called danger was only evoked by the ways in which she managed her gift.

As it stands, she drops the bag off her shoulder once again and takes a moment to plait her hair while waiting for her time to put on a show, as it were. She didn't exactly relish the idea of the next exercise.

[icecoldwit]

"Try and not think of this as a firing squad," Emma offers with a small smile, pulling her own hair back into a ponytail. "It's simply the same as every day use of your powers. Only I'll be watching it."

She's got everything she needs for each individual member of the team, enough to see about each of them and just how controlled and refined their powers can be. For Acier, it's a set of training Sai for both of them.

"Whatever your usual technique, I need you to show me you're ability with your powers. Don't hold back." She held a pair of the Sai for Elisabeth, her own held in one hand by her hip. "Don't worry about me."

[mutantmercenary]

Acier hopes that Emma is sure about not holding back. She takes the Sai from her and proceeds to spin it around a couple times just to get comfortable with it before probing it to check the weight and density, after being happy with it she nods to Emma.

"If you're sure..." She then proceeds to take a few steps away from Emma before coming to a spinning stop, at the same time releasing the Sai from her fingertips and letting her mind take over, the knife itself appears to sing as it goes right above Emma's head only to turn around and aim straight for the soft space between her shoulder blades with Acier's standard level of augmentation.

[icecoldwit]

Emma's telepathy and her diamond construct are enough for her to be confident with her test; Acier is new enough that Emma can catch her thoughts easily, just with a small scan. It gives her the opportunity to anticipate attacks.

But Emma isn't assessing Elizabeth's fighting ability, she's there to see the powers in play. With a spin, Emma twists to dodge the blade, bending avoid it while bringing her own up for defence against the next offence.

[mutantmercenary]

Before the sai can then turn around and penetrate Acier herself in the chest she stops it in mid air while at the same time making a flicking gesture with her foot. If Emma wanted Acier to fight in her natural way then under-handed tactics were a given. Unlike some assassins she didn't believe in honour when it came to fighting, and that would be why the metal chain she kept wrapped three times around her ankle at all times was now sailing through the air to latch around Emma's wrist and pull her floor bound while Acier once again manipulated the Sai to strike Emma, this time the trajectory heading for her abdomen.

The only change this time is that Elizabeth puts more of a driving force behind the blow, fully intent on making at least some degree of a scratch that she hoped might fly true. Not out of anger, but more as a bet with herself. She'd certainly stop the knife before it did any real damage, unless of course Emma did it first.

[icecoldwit]

What impresses Emma is the duel control; Elizabeth's maintaining of the Sai while the chain maintains a due course. Emma's own skill has to come into play, her Sai catching the chain to wrap while her other comes to block the attack on her stomach.

The chain takes one blade out of the equation for then, and Emma isn't about to comment on the additional weapon right then, not until she has to pull out her ace in the hole. Engaging in a series of her own attacks, pushing back towards Acier to see what the woman does, Emma keeps her mind as open as she can with her diamond form ready for slotting over.

The White Queen does not intend on loosing any blood today.

[mutantmercenary]

Elizabeth hadn't exactly thought that Emma would expect both of her attacks at the same time which meant she was about to have to step things up a level. Knowing she was about to do something which would mean that it was the last addition she could handle without letting her hold on the other two weaken she builds a level of momentum to send her second Sai straight at Emma's head, in the same moment she tugged viciously on the chain, pushed further down on the blade aiming for Emma's stomach yet sat the same time revealed her bluff in allowing the third blade drop suddenly before changing trajectory to aim instead for Emma's foot.

Acier knew that Emma would either have to let the blade hit her foot or move, meaning the chain would assuredly pull Emma to the ground and allow the sai at her stomach better purchase.

Her breath does however come out as a huff while she maintains the power to all three of these factors in the same moment.

[icecoldwit]

She opts to move, the chain tugging her down while Emma monitors the choices and control that Elizabeth displays. Emma is never meant to best the mercenary in this scenario, she never expected to either. But lasting out to see just how hard Elizabeth would push her powers, that is the point.

As the blade goes for her stomach, pulled down as she is, Emma calls time by shifting into her diamond form and cutting off her telepathy. She can allow any of the blows to hit now, protected as she is.

But she does notice the strain Elizabeth is feeling before she does.

[mutantmercenary]

Just when Acier had actually thought she'd won, Emma Frost reveals this nifty little facet. Frowning, she pulls both Sai back to her hands and recalls the chain which this time settles around her head like a necklace. After summing up her new opponent she takes a step back and throws both of the Sai at once, she knows that this will never work but the power she throws at them at the same time makes her grunt.

She stumbles slightly, off-balanced by the mental assault she'd just given herself by trying to prove some stupid point about the fact that her powers aren't entirely weak compared to others. Maybe with time she'd get better but for now she's totally wiped and doesn't even bother trying to continue the assault aside from continuing the blow that she hopes these two knives will strike.

[icecoldwit]

Maintaining the diamond form means Emma can't really read Acier's attack until it's in play, but it's not a big deal. In her form, the only thing she needs to protect is her weak spot, her flaw, and that is easily done.

The attack is painfully unrefined, a last ditch attempt and Emma can see that. Acier's control has been pushed; which is the point of this. Emma can see that now, Acier needs to work on pin point accuracy with more than two objects, her power stretched over several points rather than limiting it.

Knocking the Sai aside, using her hand and arm as her own block, Emma lets them fall to the ground before she resumes her natural form and smiles slightly. "Well done."

[mutantmercenary]

Acier stands up, dusting herself off. "Quelle démonstration honteuse." Already beating herself up over the lack of finesse in her final attack, there was nothing more she could do though. No matter how hard she pussed her training Sai they were nowhere near strong enough to cut diamond.

She returns to the flask of iced green tea and takes a long sip. "I had only heard rumours of your power, miss Frost... I find myself surprised, pleasantly so."

[icecoldwit]

"On the contrary," the point of the matter for Emma was to see the limitations, to see where the work was needed. "You held your own, and without my mutation, likely would've take out your enemy. The whole idea of this particular test was to see how pin point your powers were, and so we know where to work on with your training."

Acier's ability, somewhat like Polaris', was one that Emma could already see being a useful weapon for the team -after all, stopping a hail of bullets would undoubtedly be helpful in a pinch.

"I'm a box full of surprises, dear." Her diamond skin wasn't known throughout the mutant circles, although the Inner Circle of the Hellfire Club knew all about it. Emma preferred to mostly rely of her telepathy however.

[mutantmercenary]

Acier nods. "It was.. interesting to see you become a living jewel, very interesting indeed." She smiles though, glad to have her power test over with nothing more than a slightly bruised sense of pride. She waits around for her green slip to be written up while thinking about what she could have done better.

"I hope that my assessments today prove fruitful, both for myself and the Team as a whole."