Power Training Co-op: Lionel & Mercutia

Mercutia opened the dojo door. She had just finished her run. The run had become habit after the fight with the Vipers. Obviously she had needed to work on her stamina, speed, and lung capacity, which running tended to improve on. In addition, she had asked Lio to help her work on her combat skills so she could expend more energy before running out of steam. Which is what brought her to the dojo now. Their first training session/sparring match was due to start in a few minutes.

Lionel arrived at the dojo, he looked at Mercutia and spoke, stretching and yawning "Ready to begin? Are you sure about this? What are the rules of engagement? We of course want no fatal injuries, but we are hardly going to thumb wrestle, even then that would cause broken thumbs. The power slant me be slightly drastic, I would be just under a third less powerful from you, at least that is what I can tell from the combat we experienced with the vipers, as I recall, one of us was knocked unconscious, while the other was not. Anyway, straying off topic, what are the rules of engagement?"

Mercutia looked at her guild master skeptically. "Lio, are you half asleep? Somehow I think you are more powerful, not the other way around." Her eyes narrowed at him when she brought up her fainting. "That was not my fault. I wouldn't have fainted if that thug hadn't come behind me and cut off my air." She ignored the fact that if he hadn't she probably could have made it to the guild and then passed out. "Plus, I had been training when you called me over, so I had used up most of my energy already." She knew she was being defensive, but honestly, he needed to know that rubbing salt in the wound wasn't going to help. She was angry enough at herself already. The fact that she had to rely on someone else was humiliating. 
       She sighed. "For rules, I say no breaking bones, no blood, no concussions. Everything else is fair game. For shots that you need to practice on injuring someone-" she eyed the dummies and came up with an idea. "Okay, we'll defend three dummies each. I try to hit or capture yours, you do the same for mine. Fair?"

Lionel stretched, he was half asleep, that was true. He spoke out "Defending dummies? What is the radius? The whole town? If it is just the dojo things will be over quickly, will they not?" He rubbed his eyes and yawned. "You look like you could do with some coffee, the butler will go make some." He dragged himself over to the small kitchen area in the back of the dojo and picked up a jug of coffee, pouring the whole jug into his mouth and down his throat. He stretched and walked back, grinning slightly, that was better.

"Lio, what butler? If we have one, it's news to me." She rolled her eyes at his chugging, but smiled anyway. At least he hadn't dismissed her idea right away.
She shrugged past him, grinning. "You took all the coffee anyway." She rolled her eyes and refilled the top with grounds and water. A few seconds later she winced at the noise. "Ah, I forgot about that obnoxious  sound." she complained, eyeing the pot in distaste. She rummaged through the cupboards. "Lio, we're out of condensed milk. Put it on the shopping list later, please?" She looked thoughtfully back at the brewing coffee before turning her attention back to Lionel. "I thought we'd just limit ourselves to the dojo for now- unless you're afraid I'll beat you that easily?" She stuck her tongue out at him to show him she was joking. "Hah! Coffee's done!" She brought out a cup, filling it with ice before pouring in a little chocolate syrup and the coffee. She made her way over to Lio and handed him the rest, knowing he'd still drink it even after the pot he'd already had. She made her way over to the dummies. "I'm taking Jimmy, Karen, and Terence! Choose yours."She looked at him expectantly, pointing to the ones she had claimed (and apparently named) with the hand free of coffee.

Lionel took the coffee and nodded a thanks before taking a sip of coffee and then proceeding to guzzle down the rest of the jug of coffee, he then drank the last few drops and wiped his mouth, he set the jug down. He stretched and smiled. LIonel pointed out three training dummies in particular, he spoke out "I call them, from left to right, Billy, Billeh, and Billah. As I do not care for them enough to give them unique names at this moment in time. Shall we begin the contest? this may be quite interesting, will it not? More as a game than a training sparring contest."

Mercutia grinned. “Yep, and I love my games!” She grinned at him, amusement shining in her eyes. Then she pouted. “Aw, c'mon! You won't care about the people you're protecting? That doesn't make sense! You have to care about someone to protect them!” She walked over to one of the dummies. “It's okay Karen, he's just being mean.” She patted 'Karen' on the back.
“Alright!” She exclaimed, her expression becoming more determined. “Let the games begin!” With no more warning than that, she fired off a round of Bullet Points towards 'Billeh' and 'Billah.'

Lionel was quick to utilise thunder distortion, he dived in front of the bullet points, and they deflected off of the barrier, two bolts of lightning flew out towards Jimmy and Karen, the distortion dissipated and he fired two more, "You should have gave me more warning! I guess I will have to carry on!"

"If enemies don't give warning, I won't either!" Mercutia pulled up a shield of information, shielding Jimmy, and pulled Karen to the side. She felt the heat from the lightning and hissed. She closed her eyes for a moment, squinting against the light. 'Bad thoughts, not a fire, bad thoughts, not a fire. Lightning does not equate fir- GET BACK IN THE GAME' She snapped herself out of her minor loss of control and darted to the side, aiming a kick at Billy.

Lionel yelled out "Fine!" he clapped his hands together and summoned two lightning snakes, one sprang out and block Mercutia, hissing and baring its fangs, lightning sparked out. The other snake flew towards Jimmy, leaping off of the ground and shooting out sparks of lightning. Lionel dashed towards Jimmy, and swung a punch at him, yelling out.

Mercutia nearly stepped backward at the coiling energy before her. 'Not fire. I've got this. Okay, electricity... what do I know about electricity? To get rid of it, you ground it.' She looked towards the table in the kitchen. 'Knives.... I can work with knives.' She raced towards the kitchen, jumping over the counter. She grinned. Training for Bullet Points would come in handy after all. 'Yay, practice aiming!' She looked at the snake about to attack her dummy, then at the one that was drawing nearer to her. 'No time for dramatic decision making.' She thought and threw the knife through the snake and into the ground. She turned and did the same with the other.

Lionel struck Jimmy in his head with his fist, it cracked off, splinters flying everywhere, he smirked "One down Merry, try and keep up!" He clapped his hands together and summoned another one of his lightning snakes to fight, he sent it towards Mercutia, and it did so obediently, he swung a roundhouse kick at Karen, "Now for you to lose another one of your training dummies, and soon after that this whole training exercise will be over! Hurry up and fight back! I know you can!"

Merry didn't have time to think. She threw her remaining knife through the newest snake and into Billeh. The dummy promptly caught on fire. "Even." She said, jumping over the table once more. She accessed Speed Boost to calculate the angle to catch his foot with the least amount of resist- Well. That hurt. She pushed him away, hissing and shaking her hands which were turning a very alarming shade of red. "What did you do? Stimulate your muscles with electricity? Ow, ow. That hurt. Yep, okay, I'm good. Good." She glared at him and walked over to Billy, yanking a knife out of the floor. She then proceeded to attempt stabbing it to death.

Lionel blasted a wave of lightning at Karen, igniting it on fire "Winning! Of course I charge them with lightning, how do you think I hit so hard?" He dived toward Mercutia who was trying to stab billy, and stopped short, better idea. He raised his hands "Conductor's Control!" He yelled out. The knife was plucked out of Mercutia's hand, it floated up into the air and flew towards Mercutia's last remaining training dummy.

"Bad choice." Mercutia grinned and used Billy as a weapon against Billah. They both fell apart. She turned around triumphantly, only to find the knife sticking out of her last dummy. She paused a moment. "I beat yours first." She claimed, knowing and not really caring how petulant she sounded.

Lionel shook his head "I hit yours first, shall we just call it a tie instead of having a childish argument? Anyway, what do we do now?" he stretched, and made himself another cup of coffee, chugging it down, and strolling back, most people would presume Lionel's blood was about 2% Coffee, now that he thought about it, he was not too sure.

Merry pouted. "Fine." She eyed the flaming dummy warily. "I know that's my fault, but any chance you want to help clean up?" She made her way over to the kitchen and filled the now empty coffee jug with water. A safe distance away from the fire (Five feet was safe right?) she threw the water on the dummy. It didn't stop. "How did I put out the punching bag again?" She wondered aloud, remembering her last training session. She cursed today for being one of the few days she couldn't get close to fire. She fingered her trench coat subconsciously.

Lionel was not... consistent, his common sense and intelligence was based on the amount of sugar he consumed, the more he ate the more rational and intelligent he became. But even with high levels of sugar he could still do things that were stupid. He ran towards the dummy that was on fire, preforming a football tackle and charging with it out the side of the dojo and stopping, flinging it into the pond. He walked back triumphantly to mercutia "That would be our problem solved then."

"Holy crap, your arms!" Merry looked over the limbs, checking them for wounds and 'No, no- Merry. Stop. He isn't burned to death. This looks nothing like your parents.' She eyed him, checking for signs of shock. "How is it possible you aren't howling in pain? These burns aren't too bad- you're lucky you only had it for a moment- but it should still hurt like h*ll." She reached for the arm to examine it further.

Lionel yawned, it did not hurt at all, when he thought about it. He shrugged "It would come down to the fact I have lightning flowing in my bloodstream, at least that is what I have deduced, check over my logic if you will; all of it is mildly electrocuted, when I need to hit hard, I concentrate it all on the point of impact, I use my heart to regulate it when not in use. Lightning rapidly heats the air in its immediate vicinity to about thirty six thousand degrees Fahrenheit, which is about three times the temperature of the surface of the Sun. The sudden heating effect and the expansion of heated air gives rise to a supersonic shock wave in the surrounding clear air. It is this shock wave, once it decays to an acoustic wave, that is heard as thunder. So hence when I use lightning spells, my blood is temporarily heated to around thirty six thousand degrees Fahrenheit, so I have quite the immunity to heat. The burns were superficial, they were not an accurate display of damage, the only reason they are there is due to the factor that most heat does not stay around for long with lightning, and the skin is charred due to ash, and the heat is spread out in the bloodstream, and the heat would just result in the skin that has yet to show being burned, so whenever I have been using lightning magic a lot, and using it with vigour, my skin turns slightly darker for a day or so. Quite an interesting fact, so I have a extreme tolerance to heat, which is very handy and convenient, would you not agree? The voltage involved for both is proportional to the length of the bolt. However, lightning leader development is not just a matter of the electrical breakdown of air, which occurs at a voltage gradient of about one megavolt per metre. The ambient electric fields required for lightning leader propagation can be one or two orders of magnitude less than the electrical breakdown strength, I use magic to keep my skin from turning to ash." He finished explaining his theory in a ramble and stretched, "So anyway, what now?"

Merry blinked, took a deep breath, and smacked Lionel across the head. "I don't care if you can't be killed with a shot to the heart! Don't do reckless sh*t like that! It scares the h*ll out of me! You are the only guild member I have! H*ll, you're the only PERSON I have and if you go and get yourself killed, I will stab your corpse until I'm sure your dead!" She charged to the other end of the dojo. "what's next is that we brawl, to answer your question. I'm pissed and I want to hit something. If that something is your face, so be it, because honestly nothing could make me happier than kicking you to pieces right now."

Lionel sighed apologetically, "Sorry about that, not completely used to thinking about the view of others, not the most social guy, I just did the logic, and did not think, in a way. Sotry." He cracked his fingers, and got into a defensive fighting stance "Come at me when you are ready, with whatever you want." he flourished his left hand as a sign to begin, and also as a taunt.

"Apology accepted." Mercutia replied before firing a bullet point that barely missed his ear. "For the most part." She had aimed to miss, but he didn't need to know that right? With that she aimed a kick at his chest.

Lionel still felt slightly sorry, he had to ensure he did not injure her, so he was staying on the defensive. He rised his arm to block and pushed her leg up, causing mercutia to flip over, while he, without realising it sent out a small harmless yet painful electric shock. He realised he had to make it seem convincing, he shot out a bolt of lightning at Merry, aiming at the base of her left, this was sobif it did hit, it would not do as much damage as the lightning would not have far to go to reach the ground.

"Ow, that had some zip to it." Merry rubbed her leg and leapt to the side as she saw the lightning close in. 'Huh, must be trying to startle me... His aim is usually better than that.' She thought this over for a moment. 'That was my trick first. Copycat.' She shook her head and loosed a punch at his jaw, followed by a kick to the ribs.