The Training of Rast

[Videl]

Videl walked out onto the training grounds with her pets at her heels. She scanned the area briefly before she sat down on a rock to wait. Shiji and Kuroi sat down beside her then stood like statues while their master waited.

[Rast]

Rast is out in the training grounds with his headphones on, sitting under one of the trees listening to his music. The CD player dies and he opens one eye. Out of power...He stands and stretches, spotting Videl.

"Hey there! What's going on?"

[Videl]

Videl glared for a moment before she answered.

"Waiting on you, you were supposed to be ready when I got here."

She said before she stood and waited for him to come over.

[Rast]

Rast raised a brow. He was? Oh, that's right...that's why he'd gotten here when he had. Rast approached and looked up at her from where she stood on her rock.

"What am I learning today? Use the Force? Kill Jedi?"

[Videl]

Videl rolled her eyes before sighing.

"The force comes first then killing...tell me what do you know of the force and have you ever been able to use it?"

As always, Videl wanted to know what her apprentices may or not know so she knew where to begin.

[Rast]

"Of course I can use it. It's helpful for dodging traffic and winning bar brawls."

Rast put his headphones down around his neck, he was sick of trying to coax the power cell into giving his music player life again.

"I can sense crap, but not much else beyond that."

[Videl]

Videl grimaced, so he could use the force but technically couldn't either, starting from square one again was annoying.

"Controlling the force is one of the most important things to a Sith, we use our emotions to cause damage and destroy but to do so, we must learn to control it."

Videl lifted the large rock she had been sitting on earlier and set it down to the side of them.

"Your first task is to tap into the force and lift this rock..."

[Rast]

Rast's eyes travel slowly between the boulder in question and Videl several times, then he settles them on Videl.

"You're kidding, right?"

Rast's past experience with the Force has always been when something happened to piss him off. Someone cuts him off onthe road, or he gets jumped in a bar. He isn't feeling particularly pissed off, just annoyed at his CD player. But maybe that'll do. He turns his annoyance on the rock, focusing his attention from the CD player hanging on his hip to the boulder. Nothing so far.

[Videl]

Videl watched quietly, he had to at least be able to do that or she wouldn't continue his training. Her pets watched and waited too, they had seen this many times though.

[Rast]

The rock rose, a barely perceptible movement. Now to pull it together...it wobbled and floated sideways as he struggled with it, but managed to gain another few inches of height. He released his breath in an angered sigh and concentrated harder.

[Videl]

Not the best attempt but at least he could, she had watched some others master's apprentices who couldn't lift it on their first try let alone at all. She pushed the rock back down with the force.

"Good, now try breaking it with the force because until you learn to control the force well, you will make mistakes and mistakes are not liked by your master."

She said quietly, a slight bit of force lightning surging on her right hand as a warning.

[Rast]

"No mistakes? Very well."

He's now angry at his pathetic attempt at lifting the rock, and he's still got plenty of Force focused in him from before. He makes a gesture like a backfist and the rock splits its center in a spiderweb of fractures.

[Videl]

"Hmmm, well let's see if you can use another useful skill as a Sith, next try to tap into the force and manifest your power into force lightning."

She smirked, most apprentices could use the force to break things but many couldn't use force lightning.

[Rast]

Lightning?

"I thought only masters could do it."

Still, he'll try. He tries to think of how he should do it. He channels his anger, thinks of it like a projectile, tries to translate it into electricity. Nothing, yet.

[Videl]

"Technically thought as such but it's really more of a skill that can be done by some earlier than others."

Videl then watched and waited, he might be one of the few like she had been.

[Rast]

Electricity. He's trying to create electricity. The absurdity of it is overwhelming. But he's seen it done. And he thinks it'd rock the house to do it himself. Electric. Static. Thunder. All things he's ever associated with electricity come to mind. He's tingling. Is it working? He doesn't dare break his concentration to see. He keeps his eyes shut, and keeps at it.

[Videl]

Videl watched with her usual quiet, far away look in her eyes. She wondered if he could but would be annoyed if he couldn't,she didn't like weakness in her apprentices. The ones she had trained had to be able to stand up to her in battle. Her fingers tapped lightly on her folded arms as she waited while her eyes watched for a even the smallest spark.

[Rast]

Rast clenches his fists and jerks them open, drawing a hissing breath through gritted teeth.

"Ow!"

He shakes his hands out and squeezes them together, he's just shocked himself.

[Videl]

Videl raised an eyebrow, wondering what had happened until she saw a small spark. She stayed quiet though, a larger jolt would have to be done. The panther yawned from his place on the rock while the wolf scratched behind his ear, her pets were never interested until a fight started and blood was shed.

[Rast]

Rast massages his hands with a series of small presses along his palms and wrings them. That hurt like hell.

"So now what..." he asks grimly.

[Videl]

Videl scowled to avoid chuckling at her apprentice's expression.

"Well do you have any weapons on your person?"

She asked, might as well test his skills with those.

[Rast]

"I got a blaster."

[Videl]

"So in other words you don't, I don't consider that even a weapon, it doesn't take skill to point and shoot..."

Videl reached behind her back for the katana hidden there and her sais and took them out. She threw the katana at the dirt in front of Rast and its point sunk into the ground.

"These on the other hand take some time to use correctly besides blasters are useless in some conditions."

[Rast]

Rast eyes the katana.

"This is useless in some conditions too. How do you expect this to block a lightsaber?"

[Videl]

"These aren't your ordinary weapons, ones can be found that won't be cut by sabers, besides anyone can block with the force as well."

Videl looked down at the katana for him to pick it up, she had never liked sabers in battle, she could fight just as well hand to hand and with certain weapons. For one, most relied too much on that one weapon and were weakened when it was lost. Videl had been taught long ago too be skilled in all weapons as she had taught to her apprentices as well.

[Rast]

Rast grasps the katana and pulls it from the ground, testing its weight, then looks to Videl.

"Now what?"

[Videl]

Videl sighed inwardly, apprentices these days, she thought to herself. Still she forced herself not to yell for the time being, Rast was still new to all of this she had to remind herself.

"Well next comes seeing if you can even get near me with that blade or rather I want to see if you know how to handle one."

She said quietly, not taking a stance, she could block quickly enough not to have to be ready. Her pets now were wide awake and attentive on the sidelines, battle was their favorite thing, both pairs of eyes and ears perked forward.

[Rast]

Rast shifts, holding the sword's tip out at eye level, in both hands, with his feet apart. Here's hoping he doesn't cut off one of his extremeties...

"Ok, let's try this."

He steps forward between the gap and strikes at his master's eyes.

[Videl]

Videl stops the blade and hold it with two fingers of one hand.

"There's more to fighting than just swinging a sword around, you'll lose a limb if you don't know what you're doing. Try again."

[Rast]

"I'd know what to do if you'd show me!" he counters. "What the hell am I SUPPOSED to do? Take a stance and speak at you like I'm a poorly dubbed martial arts flick?"

[Videl]

"As you wish..."

Videl smiled wryly before attacking him with her sais, Rast was forced to try and block her blows. She chuckled a little at the expression on his face as he blocked.

"You can't have never touched a sword or have you?"

Videl forgot sometimes that others didn't have the life she had, she had been forced to take up a sword at 5 to avenge her parents only to be forced to work for their employer for the next 7 years. To Videl, the blocks and parries came naturally now so she forgot that it wasn't the same for others.

[Rast]

He blocks--lucky him--and grits his teeth at her next question.

"Do I LOOK like some Sith-ultimate, wildcat-petting warrior babe? No, I've never held a sword in my life!"

She just keeps pissing him off. But in the end, that may be exactly the point, since anger is what draws the darkside from beings.

[Videl]

Videl raised an eyebrow, no one had ever refered to her as that before then she chuckled again, her trying to get him angry was working, she knew only at peak anger would he show his true potential.

"Odd to see such in this day and age, how do you expect to wield a saber when you've never touched a sword?"

She said in a mock tone as she continued to attack him, she wanted to see him attack back not just block.

[Rast]

She's holding back, toying with him. That's good. He sweeps her weaponry aside, and delivers a punch.

[Videl]

Videl dodges and responds with a knee hit to his stomach and moving it up to knock the air out of his lungs.

"Was wondering when you would attack back but you need to be quicker to connect."

She smirked wryly before attacking him again with a swift series of moves, not allowing him to attack back, just block but her intent was still to get him angry.

[Rast]

"Quicker!?"

He keeps defending, not a chance to attack back. She's so gonna get her sorry butt handed to her when he gets his next opening.

[Videl]

Videl smirks reading Rast's thoughts, he wasn't powered up enough to hurt her yet besides she had the highest pain tolerance around so it wouldn't phase her much. She flipped over him and kicked him in the back, knocking him forward.

"Are you trying or just bad?"

She laughed, trying once again to piss him off.

[Rast]

This is nearly more than he can stand. He gets up and brings the tip of the sword to eye level, then makes a swift, controlled strike at her side.

[Videl]

Videl jumps up to avoid it and lands a few feet away from before, she wasn't surprised in the least, she used to do this same game with her old trainer Namu who also had a temper.

"A little better but you still have yet to hit me."

[Rast]

The sound of a solid punch rings in the still air.

"You were sayin' something?"

His rage has translated itself to dark power. He just fed himself an accidental Force boost. She hadn't been counting on that.

[Videl]

Videl wipes away a bit of blood from the side of her mouth with the back of her hand.

"Well finally!"

[Rast]

"Yeah, 'bout frikkin time, wouldn't you say?" Rast growls.

[Videl]

Videl nods.

"I should say so, had to annoy you forever to get that result. Care to try that some more or learn something else?"

[Rast]

"Let's just stick to what I've been learning. Trying to figure out too much at once sucks."