Day Three: Training continues.

Even though he wasn't in the ring, Razor's pulse had quickened with excitement towards the fight. Both recruits were putting their strengths to good use and trying their best to play off the other weaknesses. It was quite the match!

The speed with which the tigress had retrieved her lance had been extraordinary to watch, just as watching Keir control over his lance. Seeing them actually spar, Razor was beginning to think that wolf boy might have a chance....if he could continue to keep up that is. The guy was looking a little winded.

"Ooooh, I knew this was gonna be good...MAN, they dun got me restless for a another spar mahself!".

Keir was surprised at how limber the feline was. He knew that cats were flexible but this was incredible. Keir's expression turned to surprise as he felt Tamara's leg press up against his belly.

Keir flew over her and hit the ground hard on his back, his shock lance bouncing from his grip. The force of the impact knocked the wind from him and he gasped for a few breaths before rolling over to see if Tamara was heading at him. If she was or not, Keir couldn't tell through the bleariness and sand in his eyes. He began to scramble backwards to tey and get to his lance hoping she wouldn't beat him to it.

Seeing that her maneuver had worked, as Keir was indeed flying in the air, Tamara rolled on her right side and ended up on all fours, lance in her right hand, as Keir landed heavily on the ground. With a strong push of her legs, she propelled herself up and forward, running toward her opponent, hoping to reach him before he had a chance to get his lance back. Fortunately, the flight and landing seemed to have knocked the wind out of him and made him a bit dizzy, which gave her and advantage.

The tigress aimed to reach the lance first, knock it away or step on it so that Keir couldn't use it, while her own lance would make contact with him, shocking him and thus ending the fight. It all relied on how fast either of them could get to Keir's lance, and she allowed herself a slight grin as speed was usually on her side.

Seeing that he was now on the defensive, Keir continued to crawl back towards his lance; however, Tamara was now up and running at him to attempt to block his lance from reach. While he knew that the tigress would probably get there before him, Keir still had to try. He grunted with the effort and rolled onto his frontside, crawling faster.

Keir could hear the swift feline approaching fast and he lunged out forwards, stretching his arm out to its full extent to grab his lance. Landing on his side, he realised he had made a major mistake: he had miscalculated the distance and dove too early. After a brief flight Keir landed hard on his side, only furthering his condition, his claws mere centimeters away from the hilt of his weapon.

Zev looked down at his bag full of an assortment of fruits before reaching into his own bag and pulling out a few random mechanical parts. He looked at them for a bit before starting to fiddle with them, seeing what he could make with this random bunch.

Shard was waiting patiently in line with the rest of the Base Ops recruits. His clam posture said very little of the Train of thought that was running through his mind. His thoughts were on what state he would be finding the floors of the Lair once he arrived, how well supplied and other would be to keep the lair as clean as it could be...then he started thinking about how shifts were handled. Did Minions Clock in and out?...then he started wandering where the name Clock came from.

Tamara was quickly in front of Keir, kicked his lance away with her footpaw and placed the end of hers on his head. The prongs were up so that she would not shock him, as his defeat was obvious and the shock looked like it hurt, based on what she saw when General Steele activated his.

"You loose," she said to Keir with a slight smile. Her tail flicked happily from side to side as she said so.

Then she moved her lance away, turning it off, and knelt, offering her handpaw to Keir to help him up. "Good fight though. You are quite a strong opponent, and skilled."

Keir grunted and grimaced as Tamara kicked his lance away from his handpaw. As the butt of her lance touched down on the back of his head, Keir's ears folded flat and visibly winced awaiting the shock.

However, the shock never came. He rolled over after the tigress pulled off the lance and spoke to her fallen "enemy". He saw her handpaw outstretched to help him up and smiled, yet was still wary that she may just hit him with the lance. Yes it was off, but caution before action.

Once Tamara had finished speaking, Keir grinned at her. "Thank you Recruit Tamara. You aren't too bad of an opponent yourself. You are quite fast and manuevaerable. And that move you used on me to throw me. Impressive. Very impressive," Keir replied as he brushed the dirt off himself waiting for Commander Tigermark's next orders. He retrieved his shock lance and switched the power to off before looking over for damage. It wasn't broken, but was certainly dirty. "I am looking forward our service together," Keir smiled down at the tigress as he held his lance on his shoulder.

"I only put in practice what I was taught: use the strength of your enemy against them, which I did. Though it was quite a gamble, as I wasn't sure if I would really be able to send you flying," she explained quickly as she helped him brush some of the dirt off of his uniform. "i'm looking forward to serving with you too," she replied with a smile, before looking at Tigermark. She stood more or less at attention, with the deactivated lance in one handpaw, waiting for instructions or orders from the Commander.

HOLD! Excellent round, both of you. Both of you were down at one point, but stayed in the fight. Recruit Tamara, well played when you were disarmed. As a word of advice, the enemies you will likely face on Aukate' are also quite strong, and quite fast. Losing your lance in a fight with them could prove quite deadly. Recruit Mahlonne, strike and move, strike and move, don't always try to duke it out toe to toe. Again very well fought, the both of you. You may both stand down, but hold on to your lance, we'll need to clean them in a few."

"Now, the rest of you, it's time for the certification. The clips in the lances will do. R&D on Aukate' sent out a notice about possible problems with the lance's chip programming, and all certifications are to be done with training loads rather than normal full clips. Recruits O'Brown and Triakis, front and center to receive your clip."

"Thank you Commander," Keir said in response to Tigermark's compliments on the sparring match. "It will definitely be noted down so as to deal with them." Smiling, Keir lowered his lance so that he could check the battery latch and examine the dirtiness. After landing on the ground, both of their lances were quite filthy, Tamara's especially on the prongs.

When the Commander mentioned having to qualify to use to the lance, Keir wasn't surprised yet he was slightly worried about being shocked for a second time. Although, he was sure he would be hit with much more dangerous stuff in due time. He watched Angus and Razor approach from the other side of the sparring ring at the white tiger's orders.

"yes Sir" Angus called and stepped in front of the Tiger. He gave Tamara and Keir a slightly nod to show that he was indeed impressed with their fight.
He needs to train his speed a bit or he wouldn´t stand a chance in such a fight, only his strength will keep him from losing to fast.
" Ready for whatever comes " he grinned at the commander.

Razor was pretty giddy after watching such an AWESOME fight! Both Tamara and Keir had shown some real skill...buuuuut, old Keir had come up a little short. The slightest of smirks appears on his snout at the irony of his thought as the wolf was FAR from short. He'd be sure to give the guy a bit of a tease later.

Hearing the Commander, the shark took his place next to Angus and in front of the male white tiger, looking at him expectantly. He was ready for this...well, at least he hoped.

Tigermark looked over the recruits in front of him. They appeared ready for what came next, but some of the expressions showed . . . concern. he put on a reassuring smile.

"I sense a bit of concern. relax, it isn't as bad as all that. To show you that we don't expect you to do anything we wouldn't or haven't done, I'll demonstrate."

With that, Tigermark pulled a clip from the bandoleer and with practices ease loaded it and turned on the lance. Then, with out hesitation or preamble, he stuck his left arm in between the prongs. There was a pronounced "Bzzzzzppp!" and a brief electrical flash. The tiger's arm jerked and fell to his side. Outwardly, he showed no reaction or emotion other than to look down at the arm. He gave a half shrug, as his left shoulder wouldn't move. Inwardly he was thinking, "Rotten Cat Chow that stung a lot more than I remembered!"

As he managed to slide his right hand up the grip and twist the ring to turn the lance off, he arched his eyebrow at the recruits.

"See? Not so bad. Now, one at a time, starting with Recruit Mahlonne, your turn. Oh, and in case one of you can't bring yourself to do it, The clip is good for five charges. I'll be more than happy to help you out."

Hearing his name, Keir nodded and began preparations for the qualifying. He pulled his battery pack out and then re-inserted it, switching the shock lance on with an audible little crackle from the electric pulses. Keeping his posture upright and his ears forward, he tried to keep his proud stance through the concern creeping into his thoughts

"Well, Tigermark put his confidence in me this morning, during the rounds with General Steele; now it's time to put that confidence in myself," Keir thought to himself as he looked over his lance one last time, noticing the dirt and grit. Hoping that this wouldn't knock him on his tail, Keir readied the lance and pointed it at his right leg. "Figure I'll test it here to teach myself recovery from a hit there," he thought as dropped the prong-tips to his thigh.

The crack was enough to make him jump, and it was about three milliseconds before the pain was felt. "Gah!" Keir choked out, gritting his teeth as his leg went numb. He lost his balance and dropped to one knee, landing with his fist supremely gripping the lance. He got back to his feet with a huff, but remained standing. "Gods that smarts something serious," was the only thought running through his mind as made eye contact with the officer before him, looking for the next command.

"Very Good, Keir. You can fall out and start cleaning your lance. After everyone is done and the lances are cleaned and inspected, we'll go over formal lance carry until it's time for the Overlord to return."

With and encouraging nod to the wolf he moved on to the next in line.

"Recruit Tamara, you're next."

"Thank you Commander," Keir replies as he shuts off the lance's power switch, then slowly limps over to the lance rack, grabbing the proper equipment to clean his lance. He grins as he stumbles past Razor, knowing that the electrical pulses will have an interesting effect on the leopard shark.

Keir sits upon the bench to the right of the weapons rack. He pulls the cloth out he brought and begins to dust off what loose dirt he can. Once that is complete, he uses a small water bottle to spritz a mist onto the lance's haft and prongs. he took the rag over the weapon again removing the grime.

"Yes Sir, thank you Sir," she said to Tigermark when he called the practice to end. While she had quite a lot of confidence in her abilities, thinking that her speed and agility would allow her to get out of most situations where she'd find her lance knocked out of her paws, she wasn't foolish enough to completely ignore his advice. After all, he'd been serving into the Overlord's Forces for quite some time now, and his advices came from experience.

She inwardly pondered what kind of ennemies would both possess the strength to take the lance off her handpaws as Keir did, and the speed and agility to match hers. Usually, beings had either strength or speed and agility, rarely both. But the 'rarely' would certainly prove a formidable foe...

The tigress gave a nod back to Angus, accompanying it with a slight grin that vanished in the blink of an eye, before taking place with her comrades and waiting for what was coming next. She winced visibly when Tigermark hit himself with the lance, and couldn't help but admire his composure, as he did not even flinched when the shock rendered his arm numb and temporarily unusable.

She winced again when Keir did it to his leg, hesitating between helping him or not. But, he was quickly back up, albeit with the sue of the lance as a makeshift crutch, and Tamara admired his strength of will. Her tail stopped flicking when she heard her name being spoken by the white tiger, and she slowly turned her head to look at him.

Her round ears dropped some when she saw how serious he was. She hadn't used the prongs on Keir on purpose, but it looked like experiencing the shock was in fact part of the whole exercise... With a resigned sigh, she grabbed her lance and placed the prongs in contact with her left arm, wincing even before it made contact.

The high-pitched yelp that followed the electric contact, coupled with the way her fur bristled down to the tip of her tail and the snarl that briefly decorated her features proved, without doubt, that she didn't liked this at all. Her arm felt like a non-extension of her body now, something that was physically attached to it, but not part of it anymore, and it felt supremely bizarre.

She did her bets to compose herself quickly and stand like a true soldier despite her useless arm, but her gaze and the way her tail flicked told of all the good she thought of that exercise.

Tigermark could tell that Tamara did not care for the certification procedure at all. As she had put the lance to her arm, he had begun moving his left arm around, easing the pins-and-needles sensation that indicated feeling was returning to the arm he'd shocked. He was impressed when, after a resigned sigh, she put the lance to her arm with no hesitation.

It was all he could do not to grin or snicker at the result. Not the yelp of surprise, or the snarl from the quick flash of pain before the limb went numb. It was how adorably fluffy she now was from head to toe. Even her tail was fully bottle-brush fluffed. Knowing it would embarrass her and ruin the great stoic dignity she was doing her best to maintain, the tiger would NOT allow himself to ever do that. He focused on her eyes and stepped up a bit closer to her, speaking in a fatherly, warm tone.

"Well done, Tamara, very, well done. The numbness goes and the limb becomes usable again in a few minutes. Fall out and let Keir show you how to clean your lance."

He then dropped his voice to a very low, quiet tone, that was for her ears only.

"Also, you'll probably want to step somewhere private and groom your fur back into place. You fit the ideal of the Overlord's nuclear cute right now, but I don't think you want to be the super-fluffy minion."

He then stepped back, "Okay, off you....RECRUIT MAHLONNE! Take the clip out of your lance before you start cleaning it! Do you want another charge?!!"

Keir snapped his head up as he heard his named called. Swivelling his head in the direction of the call, he noticed a very fluffy Tamara and a stern expression on the Commander's face. Processing  what the commotion was about, Keir hastily stood from the bench on his awake leg and then slid something underneath him. When he lifted it up, it turned out to be the battery pack from his lance.

"Don't worry sir! I made sure it was out before even dusting off this here weapon sir," Keir said in a reassuring tone at the officer. He set the battery back down next to his seat on the bench, then slowly lowered himself again. He was beginning to get the feeling back in his leg, but it still felt more like a club with a cinderblock stuck to it than a leg.

"I'll have to apologize to Tigermark later for the scare," Keir thought as his ears fell out to the sides, angry at himself. "Well, there goes all of that confidence in me. There will always be more chances. I just need to pay more attention to what I'm doing." Keir looked back up with a smile to try and ease the tension, although he doubted it would help....

Tigermark gave a curt nod when he saw the clip. He noticed he couldn't see it on the bench in front of the wolf, and it had concerned him. He turned his attention back to the task at hand.

"Carry on, Recruit Mahlonne. Recruit Tamara, head on over and let him show you how to clean your lance. He's the best at it so far, so he's a good one to learn from."

He now stepped back a pace.

"Recruit O'Brown, you're next!"

Angus stepped in front of the Commander "Yes Sir" he saw how Keir limped and how Tamara got fluffed after they shocked themself so he thought he knew what was coming .
He activated his lance and with a audible fizzle the pole came to life.
Without missing a beat he touched the pole with his forearm only to get a static shock.
He gasped in pain and then his arm went numb and sacked to his side.
" Holy Mother of San Bernaise " he craddled his limp arm with his other hand holding still the activated lance. "Jeez that hurt" he got himself up switching the pole to out and is waiting for the commander to say something about his sudden outburst.
The shock really hurt. At least he didn´t curse to much or to bad in front of the commander.

It wasn't that Tamara didn't cared for the certification, on the contrary, since that was required to join the Overlord's forces and become a 'fully certified minion', or whatever the correct expression was. It was just that she deemed this as unnecessary pain, in her personal opinion, and strongly disliked unnecessary pain. Plus, she knew all too well the effects of such an electric shock on her fur... And being turned into big puffy ball of tigress fluff wasn't really something she liked either, especially since it took a long time to get rid of the static electricity and groom her fur properly back in place. It was a good thing that she had the uniform covering parts of her body, so she wouldn't have to groom the whole of herself.

She nodded as Tigermark spoke to her, and couldn't help but have a tiny bit of a blush come to her cheeks when he said that she fitted the 'nuclear cute' ideal, her tail giving a slow happy flick.

"Thank you, Commander," she replied simply as he stepped back.

Her ears perked up as he yelled to Keir, and she turned to glance quickly at him, before looking back at Tigermark.

"Yes Sir," replied the tigress before making her way toward Keir.

She placed her lance against the wall, behind Keir, and lowered her head to speak to him, her voice low so that only he would here.

"Do you mind to wait for me a moment? The Commander has allowed me to go get my fur groomed, as it needs it. I can't appear like this in front of the Overlord..."

Tigermark smiled ruefully.

"As you were, Recruit. Well done, Angus. I know it smarts a bit, but there is a reason behind it. In the outside world, law enforcement officers who carry a tazer, the equivalent, sort of, of our shock lances, have to experience its effects before they can carry one. It's felt that one is much less likely to overuse it or abuse its use if one knows what the receiving end feels like. When you can, head on over and get the lance cleaned up and ready for inspection. Off you go."

He now turned to the final recruit.

"Recruit Triakis, you're up."

Keir leaned back and watched Tamara approach. He smiled up at her, but restrained himself from laughing knowing all too well the effects of electric energy on felines. Ask she requested a minute to herself, Keir nodded back at her.

"Of course. Go right ahead," Keir replied as he nodded and returned to drying some left over water on the haft of his weapon. After that, he watched as Angus stuck himself with his lance, then yelled out. Keir just smiled and watched him, proud of the bear's will. "Only one left now," Keir thought. "Let's see how Razor will handle the shock to his systems."