Shaping Up [Aurora]

The areas where people lived were at least looking presentable now. All the charred remains of any buildings had been cleared, and most of them had been replaced even, the streets were free of the garbage and human waste that was littering them before, there were nice plants and decorations lining the streets and filling the empty areas, and while she still wanted to do more she had other priorities for the moment. It was time to look at the docks themselves again. As much as Aurora'd been dreading examining the extent of the decay from the lack of maintenance in the area, it was important to know so that it could eventually be rebuilt. How soon she'd be pushing for that she wasn't sure, but if she wanted to docks to be back to their former glory this was a crucial step that couldn't be ignored.

The damage was worse than she thought it'd be. There were clear signs of super fights, with large holes in parts of the concrete, some of the areas where ships would actually dock were completely blasted to pieces, among other skid marks and damages. Any wood even near the water, even if it wasn't directly touching it, was almost completely rotted away and even some of the concrete showed signs of damage from water seeping into cracks and freezing. Everything of value had long since been looted, and even some of the driftwood had been too. There were barnacles and algae sticking to just about everything underwater. As it stood, nearly everything was going to have to be replaced and rebuilt. The thought made Aurora a little depressed. She had hoped that at least some of it would have been salvageable.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a motorcycle and a familiar voice calling her name. Aurora sighed. There weren't very many reasons someone would be calling out to her like this, so this must have been yet another person that needed something from her. It was getting hard to manage, but he didn't call her Disco or some other stupid nickname, so she could humor him for now. She'd gotten used to people choking on their words in her presence, so his pausing and stuttering didn't faze her in the slightest. She folded her arms and thought for a moment.

"Train you in what exactly? What are you hoping to learn, what are you hoping to accomplish?" Anyone that asked anything of her were going to start hearing those words more and more, she couldn't be a substitute for their own decision making. "I have a wide variety of skills, but I wouldn't say I'm qualified to teach very many of them. I should at least be able to offer some advice at the very least."

Aurora rubbed her chin and thought for a moment before she started pacing. Each step she took broke the near silence in the area as the metal parts of her boots hit the concrete. She'd long since gotten used to the sound, so it didn't break her concentration any. It would be difficult to train anyone because the only reason she could fight herself was because of experience. She had no training beyond a few google searches to learn what to do and what to avoid, and she relied heavily on her power to fight, something he would not be able to use no matter how hard he tried. Further, she didn't know the specifics of his power, so it would be difficult to give advice to replace it. After pacing for a good minute or two, she stopped and turned to face him again.

"I'm not sure how much I'll be able to help you personally, as I have no training myself and my fighting style only comes from personal experience. If you don't even know where to start, I would suggest sparring with the other members. It shouldn't be too hard to pick a fight with any of them. You'll spend a lot of time injured and sore, but that's a necessary part of learning how to fight anyway. It wouldn't do you much good if you could be taken out with one punch. There will be some things you're good at, some things you're bad at that can be improved, and some things you're bad at that need to be compensated for because they're not possible to improve. Pay attention to these things, learn how people are hitting you, and what you're doing that lets you hit them. For now let's see what you can do."

She considered that enough of a heads up to get started. He presumably wanted her feedback, so it'd be poor form to let him go without a little bit of practice. Aurora figured she was also more willing to go easy on him than a lot of the other members would be, so she'd make for a good starting point. Without further warning, she started winding back for a punch to his gut. It was deliberately slow to see how good his reflexes were, but if it made contact it'd be quite painful and unless he knew how to breathe right, would likely knock the wind right out of him.

"Good, your reflexes aren't complete shit." Once her swing was finished she folded her arms and returned eye contact. "You weren't ready? How could you not be ready? If you're that easy to take by surprise then you'll never last in a real fight, especially given supers' propensity for banter. Because of how explosive super fights tend to be, the first few seconds of the fight tend to determine the outcome. Don't let yourself get caught be surprise."

Even with as long as her speech was, he was still fumbling for a way to attack. Aurora sighed and shook her head. Trying to use objects against her was pointless, and if this was the only tactic he had he wouldn't last long in actual fights. Her own ability to deal with his darts (and the entire lantern for that matter) aside, relying on quickly starting fires wasn't going to work. Having to take time to setup without a clear way to prevent people from stopping him from setting up. Maybe she wasn't giving him enough credit though. She took a few slow steps forward before lunging towards him aiming for a quick chop on one of his elbows, the one going for the dart. This strike was faster and the windup wasn't as obvious. She decided to be kind and avoid breaking any of his gear for now, but she wasn't going to be kind enough to let him regain his footing before moving again. This was meant to see what he could do, there was no reason to try too hard to win.

One moment her strike was on point and she was getting ready for it to connect, and the next moment he wasn't there at all. Aurora's hand chopped harmlessly through the air while she tried to make sense of what happened. It was the sound of his feet hitting the ground combined with what little knowledge she had about his power that made her realize what happened. For a moment she was pleased, but that moment passed quickly when he started shouting while attacking. By the time he started shouting she was already turning, but that and his obvious movements made it clear what he was trying to do. Rather than dodge it, she moved her hands to catch his foot instead, easing them in the same direction as the kick to minimize the impact to her hands.

"Don't telegraph your attacks," she said flatly. "Your body naturally does it already, and it's enough of a weakness like that, there's no need to make it worse. You should avoid using kicks for now for the same reason, unless you're aiming low towards the feet or shins. They're powerful, but slow and easier to block or counter than punches are, and if they're properly dealt with, it'll leave you open for a counterattack. Save it for when you know what you're doing. Further, that was a nice trick with your power, but it'll be dangerous to rely on. You need the lantern right? What happens if someone destroys it? Further, just because I'm not using my power yet doesn't mean you have to hold back on using yours. Is that the extent of what you can do offensively with it? You'll be far behind most supers if your power has no offensive applications; it'll mean you'll have to get creative."

If by some miracle he was still there and listening quietly, she'd test to see how flexible he was by pushing his foot into the air, and if it looked like he might tip over, she'd step on his other foot to stop that. Though, she'd be disappointed if he actually sat through her entire speech rather than preparing another attack while she was talking. Aurora was ready for it of course, her time as a super and the very nature of her power made it so it was easy for her to hold a conversation and fight at the same time.

Sure enough he disappeared like a reasonable person. If he had a power like that, he would be very difficult to hit, which was good news for him if he wanted to practice at least. Once she no longer had a hold of his leg, she let go and finished her explanation while watching what he was doing next. Taking the time to light a fire probably wouldn't work that well in the heat of combat, but that was something he'd realize soon enough. This time was for experimenting, there was no need to fight seriously. She let the darts hit their mark. Everything here was metal and concrete, so it was unlikely anything would catch on fire. It was interesting to see the darts stick despite the hard surfaces they were going into though. Aurora waited to see the follow-up, but he was going straight into melee again. Were the darts escape routes then? Ways to help him maneuver? In that case, why wasn't he using it to close the distance faster or using it to disguise his movements? Like this she could see what was coming, though for the sake of practice she was going to let him hit her. As difficult as it was to let herself be hit by something that looked like fire, it was for the greater good. She managed to not move in order to avoid disrupting his attack, though she did have to look away. It didn't hurt, no more than a simple pinch, but her arm felt weird after and it didn't want to move right. She hopped back a few times, a little clumsily since she couldn't use that arm to stabilize herself like she was used to, and thought for a moment.

Bolide had a few methods he could use in combat. If his power was mostly about maneuverability and disabling, then it seemed like he would favor longer battles if his body could handle such tactics. Aurora smiled and brought her good hand to her chin (as odd as it felt to use her off hand for that). It was time to test those limits. Her aurora rose into the air and spread out so that it covered the whole area. Aurora herself positioned herself so that she wouldn't be too close to any of the darts or their smoke streams, and started dropping stuff directly on top of Bolide. They weren't heavy things, mostly bits of scrap wood or small rocks, but they would still hurt if they actually hit him. That seemed unlikely though because she was aiming so that as long as he kept moving nothing would ever hit him. She'd absorb them again before they hit the ground to avoid making too much noise and so she could use them again. If he tried to approach her, she'd drop something heavy, like one of her large steel beams, right in front of her and would let them hit the ground before absorbing it again to signal that doing that would be dangerous. If he wanted to get close he was going to have to get creative. Otherwise this was a good time to see what his ranged options were.

He looked different after his successful hit. Did he think he actually hit her despite everything? She raised a brow, ultimately she couldn't let that stand (it'd be dishonest), but there wasn't a good way to go about doing that right now. She kept it in the back of her mind. Right now, she had to focus on the task at hand. He charged at her unsurprisingly, but the steel beam seemed to stop that train of thought pretty quickly. The fact that he could only teleport to specific places might end up being a problem. It wasn't hard for her to keep an eye and ear out for whichever one he might pick, and her assault for her aurora continued with only a moment's pause.

It looked like he quickly realized that his initial idea wasn't going to work and kept his distance. Aurora waited for the next assault, and waited, and waited. He was taking his time thinking about what to do next. She could have punished him for that, but felt like it would defeat the purpose. Instead, she opted to just look as impatient and bored as she actually was and folded her arms. She wasn't thinking about it at the time, but her arm moved easily with only some residual tingliness. While he continued running in circles, she tested the feeling and control she had over her arm again. His power didn't last very long in that regard, something worth keeping in mind.

What he came up with didn't impress her. It was the same trick yet again, and while it had plenty of merit if used correctly, something like that wouldn't work against her or anyone that could manipulate matter somehow. She let him get away with it the first time, but she wasn't going to let it work again. She glanced at each of the needles and the darts, turning them into particles that joined the rest of her aurora. The wood however, she let him keep only because she was curious enough to see what he would do with it. That was at least new.

"Tricks like that aren't going to work against me, or anyone capable of manipulating matter in any way. All things considered, between the shockwaves I've seen, the way people can use weapons, the way people can manipulate their surroundings, among other things I'm willing to bet that's most people on some level even if they can't shut it down as thoroughly as I can. You're going to have to do better than that, or find good ways to outsmart them."

Aurora watched his reaction to her words carefully, as difficult as that was to do with someone wearing a full helmet. He seemed deflated, but far from ready to give up. She smiled; that was a good reaction to have. It flattened slightly when he, once again, took some time to think though it didn't disappear completely. That was something he was going to have to work on a lot she was noting, but once again she let him have the time he needed. The only thing she continued to do was drop some of the smaller things from her aurora in order to keep him moving.

The fact that he, once again, announced that he had a plan made her want to drop something on him this time, but he at least acted quickly enough that she didn't have enough time to punish him for it. When she saw him reaching for his backpack she got ready to absorb another object, only for him to move forward and throw it at his feet. A plume of smoke started billowing out of it, and Aurora instinctively covered her mouth with one of the oversized sleeves on her coat. Give his power so far, it was definitely useful to carry around something like that. She clicked her tongue and wondered why his power just had to be about smoke and fire. She could absorb the smoke bomb, but there wasn't much point in doing so. The casing wouldn't stop the reaction, and it'd take her too long to pick up what caused the reaction for it to be useful. Instead, she focused on trying to track his movements before she lost him completely, as useless as that would be in a plume of smoke like this.

The objects from her aurora stopped dropping momentarily while she tried to pinpoint his location. Her eyes were almost useless here, which was also bad given the nature of her power. Normally she would have done something to make herself smaller here, but this was for training. If he could find a way to hit her here then he deserved to succeed, and she wasn't inclined to make that harder on him. This time, she didn't hear anything, she only saw a bit of light rapidly flying towards her. With no time to think, she quickly looked in that direction and absorbed another needle into her aurora, only to be struck in the leg by a second one. The sudden loss of feeling in her left leg was enough to make her fall to her knees. Before she could get her bearings again, one needle flew over her head and the second embedded itself into her shoulder. She moved that arm a little to pull the needle in her other leg out without thinking too hard about it. It was only when she went to pull the needle out of her shoulder that she realized her right arm and shoulder felt perfectly fine. That was interesting. She dropped the needles on the ground, not worrying about the clang they made. He obviously knew where she was already.

Aurora also found it interesting that he didn't like to use this tactic. She could think of a few reasons for that, but she wasn't quite prepared to talk about them yet. It was important to get his thoughts first if she was going to help him properly. At this point, she also accepted that she wasn't going to be able to track his movements in this environment. Before she figured she'd at least hear him, but he even managed to stop that. Rather than worry about that, she had objects fall all over the battlefield. There were enough gaps between them that it'd still be easy to dodge, but she varied where she dropped them enough that something should hit every point of the battlefield eventually. The downside was that as long as this smoke was here she couldn't see most of what she was dropping, so she couldn't pick it back up like before. The battlefield would start to get cluttered with small rocks and bits of wood after awhile. Unlike before, she didn't dare drop anything heavy when she could barely see like this, so he would be able to close on her in melee if he felt like trying.

"What makes you dislike this tactic?"