Total Defense: Solidifying the Forms (open)

[Pierce Tondry]

(ooc) Moooore lightsaber practice! Combatants who aren't Helenias Evenstar are welcome. :)

(ic)

It was coming.

One, two...

What it was, Pierce did not know. But each morning since his telepathy practice with Helenias, he'd woken up to a quiet pressure in the back of his head. It had grown steadily each day, but not by an alarming amount. The entire thing was like a countdown clock, one that had Pierce on edge.

Three, four, five...

The extra stress did have the bonus of making his Force practice sessions more effective. Yesterday, he'd successfully performed the hip-to-hip-cross block for blaster bolts three times in a row, and the day before he'd gone through two of the ten Defense forms without any fault the computer could find.

Six...

At least part of his performance could be attributed to his previous experience in martial arts, being an honorary Master of Honoghrian style in addition to intimate familiarity with Imperial grapple technique and Chandrilan kickboxing. With his background, Pierce had always assumed that learning further combat arts would be easy. So far, he seemed to be proving himself right.

Seven, eight, nine...

"Kyai!" he barked, cleaving an imaginary opponent's head off his neck.

Of course, all his form practice was useless without combat application. He was, however, sparring in a public room. Hopefully, someone would show up to test his skill.

[A Nameless NR Tech]

There was someone on the otherside of the room. Just another ordinary guy, going about his ordinary job. Today, that was fixing a combat droid chassis. Seemed a Jedi had given this one a right beating. A frightful beating if the truth be told. Jedi practice was liek that for soem of them, the Tech thought. Made his job harder, but if it made Jedi better,s o be it.

He was whistling a tune he had heard not long ago, as deft fingers rearranged some of the components. Replaced a plate here, twigged some wiring there. Soon, sweating a bit from the concentration, he clipped shut the chest control box and flicked the droid into diagnostic mode. It shuddered then stood, the eye lights flashing in code to let the tech know things were well. The tech nodded, pleased, He turned his back and walked away, leaving his tool box for the moment so as he could just take a leak.

The sudden movenet behind him gave the warning. The Tech turned, surprised to see the droid was drawing it's sabre, ignitiing it. A quick look at the control assembly told him the droid had some gotten switched on to attack mode, level 12. <smallfont color={hovercolor}>-Censored-</smallfont>. This was bad. running wasn't going to be much use, these droids were built to be as quick as a normal being. Still, there was the droid controller at his belt... which he used all to no effect.

"Okay... now a good time to... AIIEEEE!!"

The droid tried to take his head off. The Tech did the splits in ducking, He gathered himself into a ball, rolling away form the next attack which was a axe like stroke straight down to where his head was. The tech rolled fast as the droid chased, crashing into a wall. In the wall was hooked a few acadmy sabres, used for training. One of them fell off the wall, right to where his hand was. No time to ignite the weapon, he instead swept the droid's feet from out under it.

"Okay.. that's enough fun now"

The blade ignited as the tech took a defensive stance. The droid paused, it's internals adjusting to the new opponent it saw, before attacking once again. Light on his feet, he parried lighting fast, holding his ground and forcing the droid to back away. Watching the droid carefully, he circled until the droid attacked again. This time, he gave way until.......

It was done in a blinding microsecond. One moment he was backign away, the next he ducked and spun in, his sabre now inside the defences of the drid. One sweep cut the armature holding the sabre off. The droid gave an electronic squeak of rage, until he spum like a dancer on his toes, the sabre he held flashing and weaving as he twirled, before plunging into the control box. The droid sparked and then crumpled as the Tech turned his blade off. He stared at the droid

"<smallfont color={hovercolor}>-Censored-</smallfont>! Now I'm going to have to the frelling thing back together!"

Least he was alone. No one had seem the Tech have a sudden burst of sabre skill that no non Jedi should have.

Ummm... no he wasn't. Wincing internally, he hoped his little performance hadn't been seen. So, he decided to act casually, picking up the arm. Just a repairman, repairing Jedi equipment. Yeah.

"Hey there! Mister Jedi person, can ya give me a hand? I need to get this here scrap to my tools. Can ya help me mister?"

Internally, he cringed. No. That person couldnt have been any worse. By the Force, he hoped he hadn't been noticed until now.

[Pierce Tondry]

"Yeah, sure, I'll help," Pierce said. He cut off his lightsaber and strode quickly over to the damaged droid. He stopped, giving the inactive unit a thorough examination with his eyes. "Where do you need it taken?"

[Marcus Telcontar]

"Just over to where my toolboxes are. Ready? Okay!"

Both men dragged the droid to where his toolboxes were. Spare parts were also there, plus another under repair droid. Two other repaired droids were netly put away. The malfunctioning one was dropped with a bit of a thud.

"Hey, thanks there mate. Say, you one of them Jedi?"

Of course he knew the answer to that already. He had gotten the surprise of his life when he had found that one out. On that cruiser before that planet where all hell had broken loose - a hell he had been the cause of. That had been.... not that long ago. Back here in secret because he needed a place to lay up afterwards. He was still not ready to leave once again, still convalecing. So, to walk freely, from figrin's room, he was disguised as a tech, a repairman. Fun work really. Vash was about as the janitor. No one knew he escaped that hell apart from Figrin. Still...

Betcha 10 to 1, Pierce knew something was up.

[Pierce Tondry]

"Of course I am," Pierce said, his eyes again absently running over the broken droid's damaged sections.

The lightsaber was in his hand and on before Pierce even realized it. Whether he'd drawn it from his belt, or whether it had leapt into his hand, he didn't even know- what mattered was that the weapon was pointed at the seemingly defenseless tech. "But then, you use the Force too, so you should know that."

[Marcus Telcontar]

"Maybe I do indeed. Maybe I'm no more than a failed Jedi, who cant really get anything more than repair droids"

Failed Jedi More true than one could imagine.

"You can point that sabre somewhere else you know. It's not like I'm going to harm anyone, least of all you"

[Pierce Tondry]

Pierce stood still, lightsaber extended. "The future's a pretty uncertain thing," he said slowly. "Who may or may not get harmed here hasn't been determined yet."

Slowly and carefully stepping away from the droid, Pierce positioned himself in between the mystery man and the room's nearest exit. "Who are you really, Mr. Failed Jedi?"

[Marcus Telcontar]

"The future is more solid than you think. It's just the way you look at it that changes"

He edged away himself a bit, getting closer to his tool box. He was caught between wanting to stay anonymous and also to reveal himself, drop all pretense. Actually, he wanted to.

"As I said, I'm a failed Jedi, Pierce. And really, if you can't put two and two together to work out whom might want to haunt these halls without being noticed, I'd be disappointed in you and so I suspect would Helenias. I've... been looking for her here, but I can't find her. Is she well? Is she safe?"

[Pierce Tondry]

"Don't be coy," Pierce said. His grip on the lightsaber shifted minutely, and his eyes tightened. "There's a difference between what one observes and what one is told. And I don't assume the truth of anything."

His feet shifted, and Pierce slashed vertically at the intruder with his lightsaber.

[Marcus Telcontar]

What the...?

He leapt out of the way of the decending blade, diving past the tool boxes. His hand made a grab for one of the odd shaped spanners, hanging onto it as he skidded and rolled to a stop. The disguised sabre lit up in his hand, it's blue beam coming alive in the normal manner.

"Really? Then maybe you want to see exactly what kind of failed Jedi I am?"

He didn't move but the intent was clear. Your move Padawan

[Pierce Tondry]

"Quite a fancy reaction," Pierce said. He casually stepped over the tool boxes-

-then abruply dipped his foot and kicked one into the air, sending tools and spare parts towards the intruder.

[Marcus Telcontar]

He turned his face away - and quite unexpectantly let the tools and spare parts hit him. he didnt move, but did have the sabre out in front of him in case Tondry used the distraction to attack. One particular spare part he did catch however. That part was then clipped to his belt.

He didn't speak, but instead refocused back on the Padawan, sabre ready and out in front of him

[Pierce Tondry]

"Clever," said Pierce quietly. "Most people at least flinch."

Immediately upon ending his sentence, Pierce attacked the intruder again. This time, it was a controlled horizontal strike made more against the lightsaber his opponent was wielding rather than his body.

[Marcus Telcontar]

The clash of sabres sung loud in the room as Marcus blue beam moved to intercept Tondry's blade. The blades strobed and crackled with the contending energies.

"I'm not like other people" shot back Marcus. The thought of discovery was on his mind - but above that was the rising expectation of another clash with the former Imp. The last time they had fought, Marcus had been most impressed with Pierce's skill. Well, lets see how much Tondry had learned in the meantime....

The return stroke wasn't much - just a strike to test out how well the Padawan reacted.

[Pierce Tondry]

Pierce blocked his opponent's strike directly. With both arms on the lightsaber, he shoved it away. Abruptly, his body took over, flowing directly to another move: a sidekick at the other man's nearest leg that kept his lightsaber at the ready in case of a surprise attack.

[Marcus Telcontar]

Marcus responded by coming down onto one knee - Strengthening his stance so his front leg could transfer the shock of the kick elsewhere, allowing its energy to flow and disppate.

But the real problem was that Tondry was kicking against an alert opponent with a lit lightsabre that had not been taken out of the fight. He allowed the blade to loop and come down even as he knelt, hands up high sabre swingining down to stop just a fraction from Tondry's calf.

"Stop. What did you do wrong, Padawan?"

[Pierce Tondry]

The sidekick never impacted- it had been a feint designed to trick his opponent into an attack and attack the other did, thinking he had the upper hand. Almost immediately the momentum for the kick collapsed into a different stance, then it reappeared in the form of an upward kick. Lightsaber pommel met foot in a collision that neatly knocked the lightsaber out of the intruder's grip.

The weapon sailed backwards, over the other's head, and clattered to the floor.

Pierce withdrew his foot and stepped back. "Surprise."

[Marcus Telcontar]

He stayed exactly where he was - except one of his fingers moved, summoning the Force and snatching the sabre out of Tondry's hand and into his own.

[Pierce Tondry]

Pierce smirked as he watched the lightsaber fly to the intruder's hand, but the smirk fell fast. As soon the enemy's fingers closed about the weapon, the blade began to flicker. Different colors boiled out of the emitter, shooting from stem to tip and whirling about.

Folding his hands together, Pierce looked the intruder dead in the eye. "Go ahead and use it, if you think it'll do you any good."

"Marcus," he added.

[Marcus Telcontar]

He knew what the sabre really was as soon as it touched his hand. The warmth gave it away. The way it connected with him and the strobing. His thumb reached for the select buttons, feelign the familiar A On and OFF buttons. He selected Off, the blade dying instantly. He glanced at the fins at the front of the emitter, before flickign the sabre back at Tondry. Surprisingly, Marcus turned on his heel and bent down, beginning to pick up the scattered tools

"If there is one thing that pisses me off is being attacked when I am clearly no threat and even trying to be friendly and non hostile.... and even more so when the attack is far below the standard I would have expected! What has your Master been teaching you?!?!"

His hand gripped the end of the toolbox and whitened as the grip became tighter. Suddenly, the tool box was swung around and thrown at the Padawan, his sabre coming back to his hand and lit. But he didn't attack, instead dashing past two of the sparring droids he had been fixing - activating them and getting out of the way.

[Pierce Tondry]

Pierce reached out and caught the lightsaber, his hand not moving. Before Marcus even began speaking, he could feel tension building somewhere. When the toolbox came flying at him, he bent his elbow and swung the lightsaber at it, casually knocking it away with the weapon's pommel. Those tools that flew out of the toolbox Pierce just let hit him- they were no real threat.

The droids activated and oriented on Pierce. He watched them raise their lightsabers and spread themselves out, preparing to attack him from two sides. His lightsaber remained unlit.

[Marcus Telcontar]

Interesting....

While one droid had malfunctioned, these two responded as they should the proceesors simply held them out of lightsabre range, active but waiting. Their blades were ready - It was a safety routine to stop a droid from attacking someone unarmed. That was programming Marcus did. While these things would attack fiercely and could be lethal, attacking unarmed opponents was not on.

While he could get out of here now (desireable), understanding was what he wanted. To understand why he was attacked. This mini standoff was as opportune time as any.

"A Jedi would not have done that. They would have worked out an intruder's intentions first and then worked the best actions from there. I was unarmed even."

Sigh. There was a truth here in this....

"The Jedi do not need another Turbogeek. Times have changed"

Ouch. But.. it was true.

[Pierce Tondry]

"There you go being coy again," Pierce snapped. "If you wanted no suspicion, you should've been open.

Pierce began stepping towards one of the droids, crossing one foot behind the other so as not to give himself a disadvantage. "Now let's put these facts together," he continued. "There's an unknown Jedi who's just miraculously cut down a combat droid. He feigns not being a Jedi, but nonetheless is a Jedi inside the halls of one of the most secure places anywhere. And he appears to have a great deal of information about me and my Master."

Pierce stopped, closer to one droid than the other, but not making any sudden moves. "I'll agree with you that your intentions needed to be worked out. You just may not have been forthcoming with them."

"Speaking of which," he added. "You're looking mighty damn spry for a dead man."

[Marcus Telcontar]

"If I wanted to be known, I would have stepped before the Council.- as for my intentions, you should have reached out in the Force. It would have told you if I was a threat or not"

He was now holding station, some of the parts he had collected fromt he tool box in hand. debating what next. Defusing the situation epacefully was what he wanted.

"It may be the case" He continued, "That I would be open to you, once I was certain of myself. And instead of this situation, I would be sitting here talking about why and how and my mind can be eased about Helenias. Instead, you chose the quick and easy way, the aggressive way, we end up here. That is the path to the Dark Side"

[Pierce Tondry]

"Quick and easy trust ignores potential danger, Marcus." Pierce's eyes narrowed. "Suppose it hadn't been you? Suppose it had been an infiltrating Sith? Worst case, suppose it had been your clone pretending to be you? I'm not so strong in the Force that I would have known."

Pierce whipped the lightsaber in a vertical salute, then closed it down. "The only way to be sure of you was to give you an opportunity to kill me you wouldn't have rejected, if you were an intruder with hostile intent. The lightsaber thing just happened to be a dead giveaway."

[Marcus Telcontar]

"No Pierce, that'as where you are quite wrong. The Force does not work as something like say physical strength. You are already as strong as your going to be. It is knowing what you can do, that is why you are here. You are unlocking your power that already exists. I would expect the merest Padawan..." And here, he probably looked liek a right <smallfont color=#98271E>-Censored-</smallfont>, for he put one hand behind his back, stretched the other forward, closed his eyes and breathed in, then out, relaxing and extending his mind into the Force "... to sense if something is wrong. I understand from a file I read, you are interested in Form III of the sabre, which this helps with. Only the truly most powerful Sith could only hope to hide from a Jedi, reach out with your feelings and simply trust what you feel. Not even a clone can escape ..... clone?"

"How the hell do you know about the new Turbogeek?" he suddenly said, opening his eyes and giving Tondry a stare. "I've never told anyone about him. Frell I dont even know how that pest came about!"

[Pierce Tondry]

Pierce shrugged. "I saw him in a barfight once. He was too inept and too young to be you. Word has it he's gotten better, though."

[Marcus Telcontar]

"Yeah.... I'll say he has. Rotten bugger has gotten a lot more powerful. So.... how good are you with that sbare now, anyway?"

[Pierce Tondry]

Pierce grinned fiercely. "There's only one real way to answer that question."

[Marcus Telcontar]

"Oh?"

Didn't need that invitation twice. Time however to see if the rebuild worked. Theoieces he had gathered up were the various pieces for the sabre he almost never used anymore. It was too much of a giveaway - yet, it was the variant he preferred. First stage, then the two pieces that made the hilt. Collar. That was pushed on, then the whole lot locked to form the unit. It was recognisable as a sabre, but with a sword hilt.

Out in his other hand was the second stage, created before Harrvii, rebuilt from the damage it took. It looked somewhat like the one Pierce had and in fact had been modelled on it. for now, he kept the stages seperate, putting the first stage aside. Both stages could be used seperatly. The second stage's blade sprang to life, it's blade blue.

"Care to dance?"

[Pierce Tondry]

Pierce smirked, still very conscious of the activated droids that Marcus might bring into the fight on his side. He shifted the grip on his lightsaber and planted his left foot behind him on the floor in a solid stance. "If you don't think the rigor mortis has set in too bad," he chuckled. "Then bring it on."

[Marcus Telcontar]

He closed his eyes, lettign the Force visualise the room for him, feeling where everything was and all the conenctions. This was so much easier since the blindness and he had to live this way for nearly a year. Reaching out mentally, he relaxed, feeling the Force wash over him - calmiing his mind, being a peace with himself and the enviroment.

He adoped a Form III style stance, sabre held so the blade was pointing up, weight on the back foot. While he was no believer that the Jedi Forms were the best for sabre fighting, he did know the forms well. The droids themselves suddenly had their power switches moved and they both shut down.

It became apparent Marcus had no intention of attacking first. He was simply waiting, mind open to the Force and danger,

[Pierce Tondry]

Pierce walked over towards Marcus, his lightsaber held at the ready. "You ready for this?"

The grin on his face faded into a look of intense concentration. Everything around him began to slow down..

Pierce stepped forward, placing his blade against Marcus'. Then he struck, lightning fast, drawing his blade back and cutting at Marcus' weapon horizontally.

[Marcus Telcontar]

The reply was a simple but fast block, that was unexpectantly deft and light - just enough to stop the other blade. Again, it was clear the Master was out to defend for now, not attack. He was also deep in the Force, not using his eyes but to the direction the Force was giving, hands moving to repel the Padawans next strike.

[Pierce Tondry]

Pierce's goal was not to defeat or defend Marcus, but simply to disarm him. Fortunately, part of Form III training was aggressive disarmament- the second thing Pierce had taken it upon himself to learn.

After his first strike had been stopped, Pierce drew his weapon back, and set it against Marcus' blade. He angled his blade towards himself and put both arms into a shove, trying to put the other Jedi off-balance.

[Marcus Telcontar]

The other blade met Tondry's for a brief moment, before Marcus slid his own blade along the Padwan's the tip of the sabre aiming to cut fingers off. The rest of this particular move was a spin at the same time, taking one hand off the handle, the other to complete the blade slide, spin 360 degrees to finish en guarde - normally to see what an opponent would do without a hand if they were'nt quick enough, otherwise set for defense for a reply if they were.

[Pierce Tondry]

Pierce pulled his lightsaber back when Marcus' blade had gotten too close for comfort, going defensive. After Marcus had finished his spin, Pierce lifted his hands up and angled his lightsaber's tip horizontally, then brought it against the middle of Marcus' saber, levering it away from its' guard position. His feet simultaneously took a step back, cushioning any immediate reply Marcus might make with some distance.

Pierce reversed his grip and brought his lightsaber down, trying to enter Marcus' defensive zone before the other could re-establish a defense.

[Marcus Telcontar]

So far, nothing fancy, just standard defence. He felt the blade come down, felt himself move backwards - then quite abrupty hold station, his sabre swinging in a blur of light to come down on top of Tondry's blade, forcing it downwards and away.

Now should have been the obvious time to come inwards and attack. But yet again, the Master chose to step away and settle into a defensive attitude. Nor had he yet opened his eyes. Most odd for a Jedi who had once made a reputation for all out attack in a different name.

[Pierce Tondry]

His first two efforts having failed, Pierce decided on a new tactic.

He stepped forward, his lightsaber at the ready. His blade met Marcus', lingering for a moment in a ceremonial crossing of lightsabers.

Then, he stepped forward again, getting in even closer. And again, getting closer.

The question was, how close would Marcus allow him to get?

[Marcus Telcontar]

The answer was not very. Quite abruptly, he pushed hard against Pierce's blade with his own, rocked back onto his heels, drawing his sabre back.

weight just as abruptly flowed forward as he finally attacked, coming in fast and hard. He aimed the swing at the Padawans chest as his feet danced and aimed to slide past, to then swing around and attack again from the side.

It was a dance step he was doing. A waltz.

[Pierce Tondry]

Marcus' initial push was half-expected; as a result Pierce gave ground, but only a step's worth. His lightsaber crossed from one hip to the other, turning Marcus' lightsaber aside. When the Jedi Master swung in for his second strike, Pierce ducked low and made a sharp horizontal slash at Marcus' legs.