The training of Duke Quells

[Southstar]

The sun shined brightly in the training grounds that day, a good day for some Force training. Southstar leaned against a tree in a semi-meditation state. He asked that the Force be with him as he trained a new member of the Sith Order. Speaking of the new member, he should be arriving soon. However, Southstar did not break from his trance, he would know when the boy arrived.

[Duke Quells]

Duke strode out into the courtyard, fresh after cleaning up. His armour shone, freshly polished, and oiled, with no noise of complaint every time he flexed his muscles. Sighting Southstar over by a tree, Duke strode in that direction in a brisk pace. Arriving at the tree, Duke spoke:

"I am ready to begin training, master."

[Southstar]

Southstar opened his eyes and turned to look at Duke. "Good, to start we're going to go over some simple Force manipulation." He said and reached into his pocket and pulled out a piece of paper. He crumbled it up and tossed it on the ground. "What I want you to do is to lift this ball of paper using the Force. This a very easy task and I will be very disappointed if you cannot do this." He paused and then explained. "The purpose of this exercise is this: the paper is very light and your mind will not see any reason why you shouldn't be able to do this.." He paused and waited for Duke to understand what he was saying. Southstar worded it very difficult. "If you can lift this, you can lift anything."

[Duke Quells]

"Very well then. I briefly read about this when I did my research. Levitation, I believe they called it."

Duke strechted out his arm torwards the paper, his hand outstrechted, palm facing up. He concentrated, really cocentrated, but couldn't even make the paper budge. With his forehead starting to sweat, Duke decided to try a different approach. He had previously been trying to focus on the ground beneath the paper. Now he focused on the paper itself. He envisualized his hand wrapping around the paper, and grabbing it, then picking it up. The paper budged, and Duke leaned into the effort. Then the paper shot into the air, and hovered at a height of about two meters. Duke relaxed, and the paper fell back to the ground.

[Southstar]

Southstar nodded his head in approval. "Good. From here on it's just a matter of practice, of which you have to do. But we'll practice with something else now." Southstar reached out with the Force and gripped a boulder and moved it in front of Duke.

"Now this is considerably larger and has more mass, but that doesn't matter in the Force." He looked at Duke to make sure he understood and continued on. "I want you to lift this boulder. Even an inch above the ground will do."

[Duke Quells]

Duke looked at the boulder, an uneasy feeling coming over him. But Duke shrugged it away as Southstar's earlier comment came back into his mind, 'If you can move this, then you can move anything'. Exhaling deeply, Duke moved to where he was facing the boulder, and extended both hands, palms up, like he had done to the paper. He imagined his hands curling around the boulder, and lifting it. Instead, what happened this time is two small chunks of the boulder broke off from where he imagined his hands gripping it. Duke decided to go on a alternate approach. He thought of it not as a boulder, not as a huge, heavy mass of rock, but as object, one and as same as all of the objects around him, including the paper ball. He imagined his hand, or any part of himself, for that matter, merging into the object through the force. He then lifted, as if the object were a part of himself. He opened his eyes, and sighted the boulder about a foot off the ground. His knees began to buckle with the strain, so he detached himself from the object, and it feel to the ground with a thunderclap.

[Southstar]

Southstar smiled as the two chunks broke off, but he knew the apprentice would be able to life the rock. Just give it a littel more time...

Sure enough the rock was lifted above the ground about a foot, which was pretty standard. Duke was learning at a pace that was just as good as everyone else. But it seemed Duke had a little more than the average Sith... in time it shall be revealed.

"Good. Now, we're going to play a little game. Traditionally this is a Jedi's game but it can still serve a purpose here." Southstar levitated a stone a little bigger than his hands clamped together and brought it to him. "I am going to use the Force to 'throw' the rock. You have to catch the rock and bring it back to you followed by 'throwing it yourself." He looked at Duke's face to make sure he understood, "We'll start small first. Feel the rock in the Force and follow it as it goes out..." He waited for a moment to give his apprentice a chance to hold the rock and then he sent it gliding out about ten yards away from him.

[Duke Quells]

Duke saw the stone hurtling away, and tried to do with the stone the same thing he had done with the boulder, stabbing his hand out, trying to pierce and hold the stone, but to no avail, for he kept missing. So Duke instead took his other hand, used to it create a wall of force energy where the stone was about to fly through. The stone hit the wall, and stopped. This time, Duke was able to pierce it, and brung the stone to where it hovered over him. Duke thought about trying to throw it the way he was holding it, but since it was a smaller object, Duke just took grasp of it like he did with the paper ball, and cocked his arm back, and let loose, letting go of the force grip when his arm had reached the end of the swinging motion arc. The stone went hurtling through the air. Duke smiled in satisfaction.

[Southstar]

Southstar effortlessly held the stone and forced it to turn around without stopping it. It came back to him and completed half an orbit around him before it shot directly up.

[Duke Quells]

Duke saw the stone suddenly reverse course, start to go around Southstar, then shoot straight up into the sky. Duke knew this must have been another test, so tried a different tatic this time, one that Duke thought was good for handling objects in the sky. He strecthed his arms out, and prepared to try to grab it. Then a sudden thought sprainged into his mind. Southstar didn't stretch out his hands to grab, pick up, or throw the stone. Therefore, there must be another way to grip the stone. Duke had an idea. He delved into the energy his body was feeling. It was almost like a aura. Duke changed his perspective of the outside world until he saw everything through the power of the aura, the force. He saw the stone soaring upwards, and with his mind, he willed it to stop, and put some concentration to channeling force energy to complete his will. The stone stopped, and levitated in midair, before Duke channeled some more energy, and launched the stone towards a Palace Keep.

[Southstar]

"Good." Southstar said as he realized Duke was beginning to understand more of the Force and of ways to manipulate it. Southstar followed the rock to the Palace Keep with his mind and brought it back around in a wide turn. The rock increased in speed as it came back to where Southstar and his apprentice were standing. As it moved another lifted from the ground and followed close behind. Both rocks flew between Duke and Southstar and headed in a straight line in the opposite direction of the Palace keep.

[Duke Quells]

Duke watched as the stone he had thrown at the Palace Keep suddenly switched directions, and headed in the opposite direction. It was soon joined by another stone, and in unison the two flew off into the distance. Duke stretched out with the force again, envisioned the two stones, each one flying through the air, and envisioned one, then both of them in the aura of the force. Duke envisioned both of the stones changing direction torwards a tree, then he channeled aura into the effort of making the stones obey his will. They wobbled, then both stones turned around sharply, and headed for the trunk of the small tree off to their left. Duke decided to see if he could make them accelerate. He used the force to disperse air in front of the stones, and increase the weight of the air behind them. The stones increased to near sub-sonic speeds as they approached the tree.

[Southstar]

Southstar wasn't going to try and stop the stones from hitting the tree, instead he watched them shatter it sending splinters in an array of directions. Then he took the stones and circled them around without causing them to loose any speed. They sped past him now followed by two more rocks who were slowly matching speed with them.

He sent the rocks into an upward spiral and then brought them down to barely a foot above the ground. He prepared to let go and let his apprentice take over.

When someone was just getting used to the Force, perception in the Force could be fuzzy. Southstar would soon see how well his apprentice's "vision" was.

[Duke Quells]

Duke saw the stones do the upward spiral, then Southstar let go of them. Duke reached out through the force and levitated the stones back up to three feet in height. He them mimicked Southstar's spiral manuever, sending the stones spiraling upwards. This was a little harder than simply throwing them, and as Duke concentrated, he wasn't quite good enough yet, for two of the stones collided in mid-air, shattering both of them. Duke took two more stones from the ground to replace the two that had been shattered, and completed the manuever, then added in a couple of barrel rolls while looking over at Southstar. Duke then lowered the stones back to the earth.

[Southstar]

"Well done. From here it just a matter of practice for you." He said to his apprentice. "Now for something... less active. So you want to become a Lord of the Sith, who doesn't?" He said and smiled. "So tell me, what is it about you that will make you a great Lord of the Sith?" He finsihed talking and found a seat on the ground leaning against a tree's trunk.

[Duke Quells]

Duke sat down on a rock near the tree. He pulled the release for his armour straps, and the heavy armour fell off, revealing his six pack, chest muscles, powerful biceps, all dressed in a dark purple robe of royalty, all drenched in sweat. Duke listened to Southstar speaking, then replyed in a cautious tone,

"I don't actually want to become a Lord of the Sith, I want to become the first Duke of the Sith. My goals after being trained here is to further my knowledge of the Force, and I have, well, ideas of Force techniques I want to try. For example, I have been thinking about ways that would allow a man of my size wearing a full coat of armour to move a extroadinary speeds. I am also developing a force technique I call a Thunderburst. Shall I show you?" Said Duke Quells.

[Southstar]

Southstar listened as the Duke spoke of his plans. "Duke of the Sith..." He said quietly as his apprentice spoke. When he was done Southstar began to talk. "Yes, I would like to see your Thunderburst technique, but first answer this: The Sith will train you, but you must also repay them, us. I will not allow your training to continue unless it is understood that if you betray us, you will pay with your life. There are no second chances."

"Now this does not mean that you can not leave to further your studies. You have permission to take a leave of absence if you ask. What I am saying is that things are black and white, if you cross to one side then you betray the other. There are not any grey areas." He paused to make sure his apprentice caught it all.

"Now then, lets see how far you have progressed in your Thunderburst technique." Southstar was curious to see what it was his apprentice was conjouring up.


OOC: Perhaps you could clear this up for me, is Duke a title or is it the first name of your character?

[Park Kraken]

Duke understood what Southstar was saying, that once you have started down the dark road, there was no going back, unless you wanted to face certain death at the hands of TSO. Duke then stood up straight, and pointed to a small mammal not one hundred yards away, grazing on the grass. The mammal was about half the size of a gundark, a pretty good sized animal.

"Watch, and observe." said Duke.

Duke gathered a very large group of positive particles in a tight group directly overhead of the animal. The animal looked up, perhaps sensing it's imminent demise. Duke then started to gather up another group of positive particles around the animal. He waited until he had a group the size of the group overhead, then he focused on the positive particles, and with a gasp, and a high expenditure of force energy, turned the particles to a negative charge.
Duke opened his eyes to a world full of light. The light hurt his eyes, so he snapped them shut. An intense CRRRRAAAACCKKKKOOOOMMM greeted his ears, and an intense wave of disturbed air hit him, throwing him off his feet, and landing him on his back. When he got up, nearby windows were shattered. A small fire lay before him, at it's center lay a three foot deep crater. The animals ashes started to fall to earth around him. He quickly ran over and stomped out the small grassfires, then turned to Southstar.

"Not 100% perfected, but a good start, in my opinion. But a good technique, in my opinion. What about yours?"

OOC: I don't really have a first name, Duke is half first name, half title.

[Duke Quells]

Please forgive my last post. My computer loves to mess up my accounts in mid post.

[Southstar]

"Impressive." He said. "But it definitely needs work, I think it took too long to create the explosion. Time you won't have in the midst of a battle."

Southstar stood up and stretched his arms and legs. "Suit up, it's time for more physical training." Southstar expected preforming the technique had drained Duke of a lot of his energy, but the show must go on.

As Duke put his armor on Southstar reached for his lightsaber clipped to his belt as well as another generic saber for those who had yet to build their own. "Have you ever used a lightsaber before? Or even a sword?"

[Duke Quells]

"Ever used a sword? Of course I've used a sword," said Duke in a somewhat mocking tone, "What did you think these things hanging from my armour were."

With that statement Duke draws both of his swords, one long and thick, with serrated edges, and another, not as long as the first, much thinner, not serrated, extremly sharp sword.

"Tell me, does your lightblade have a switch activation, or force energy activation? If the former, you may not want to duel me with the large sword, since it has a fair amount of Cortosis fibers smelted into it. Of the things I learned about the Sith in the Obroa-Skai records, I payed the most attention to swords and sabers, since I used to duel with swords on my world." said Duke

[Southstar]

Southstar looked at both swords and spoke, "Well you can put those away, today you're using a lightsaber." Southstar tossed Duke the generic lightsaber expecting him to catch it, which he did.

"That saber is already powered down, I will power down mine in a moment. Upon skin contact with it you'll feel a burn, but no damage will be done." He said. Duke had experience with a sword so Southstar doubted many of his attacks would get through to skin, not to mention the armor protected most of it.

He pulled a tiny pin from a dial on the side of his saber and turned it to the right nearly all the way. He ignited his lightsaber and a navy blue blade shot from the hilt. Southstar took a stance that could easily change to both defensive or offensive. "Ready when you are. You get first move."

[Duke Quells]

Duke caught the blade, and turned to face Southstar. He sheathed his swords, then set them on the ground, not wanting them to interfere in this upcoming fight. Duke then ignited the lightsword, his blade coming out in a emerald green. Duke watched as Southstar adopted a nuetral stance, so he slowly circled the Master, looking for an opening, or a possible weakness. Duke then dashed in suddenly, faking a lower cut aimed to take out Southstar's legs, then slashing high at the last moment to lob off his head......

[Southstar]

The Force spoke to Southstar and gave away his apprentice's true intentions, in accordance, Southstar raised his his lightsaber and stopped Duke's attack. Taking a step back he then leapt to the offensive with a clear slash at Duke's head, deflected, then his opposite side, also deflected. Quickly he shifted his weight to his back foot and sprung from it bringing his lightsaber in an upwards hack which, if in a real duel, would cut Duke from his hip to his shoulder.

[Duke Quells]

Duke saw the lower to upper cut coming, and instead of blocking it, merely side-stepped to the left, and let Southstar's momentum do the rest for him. He jabbed the saber in at Southstar's chest in a quick jab strike that would have penetrated, and disabled someone's heart and lungs in a real duel.

[Southstar]

Effortlessly, Southstar pushed with the Force on Duke and it sent him stumbling back nearly tripping over himself. Then he finished the off target strike and landed, turning to face Duke, who had recomposed himself and was more than ready to continue; just as Southstar did. He used the Force to amplify his speed and strength and bagan to hack and slash at the apprentice from all sides. Slowly but surely the attacks pushed Duke back as he approached a tree. Southstar's apprentice needed to do something before he had no where to go.

[Duke Quells]

Duke watched as the tree grew ever nearer. He needed to do something to avoid being pinned against it. Southstar was so fast with his force amplified speed, and strength. Duke relied on the force to see where his master's blows were coming from before they cut through to burn him. So far he had been lucky. He gestured with the force, and from a nearby boulder came a horde of smaller stones, each the size of a fist, shooting torwards where Southstar kept darting back and forwards from. With that distraction Duke sidestepped to go around the tree, and use it as a shield.

[Southstar]

In the distance Southstar felt the his apprentice taking control of the rocks off to the side. Instictively, he guided the darting rocks around his body. Meanwhile the distraction gave Duke an oppertunity to escape being pinned to the tree. It didn't take a genius to know he was on the opposite side of the tree, but Southstar wondered what was going on inside his apprentices head.

"What are you thinking?" He thought not to himself but inside Duke's own mind. To Duke, it wouldn't sound like words read out loud, it was a new feeling. Almost like he just discovered a new sense and was using it for the first time.

Duke knew how to fight, clearly he had experience. But Southstar doubted telepathy was something he was used to. Southstar placed his bet that he was at least a little distracted and swung from around the tree and resumed the offensive.

[Duke Quells]

"What are you thinking?" the voice spoke to Duke. Duke was puzzled, for he had never heard the voice, never had the reason for self doubt in the middle of a fight. He had always pushed such doubt aside until after the fight was over, unless his danger sense he had was tingleing, and it was not. Duke pushed that thought aside, and found that he could not. Realising that it was a mind trick, he quickly uses the force to push it aside, and now Duke realises that he has lost any advantage he had by ducking around the tree. It was once again a case of master VS apprentice, with the knight using his speed, and agility enhanced by the force to his advantage. Duke smiled, and he decided it was time to suprise his master. Duke charged forwards, trying to use his blade to bat his master's aside, and bringing his empty hand up in a massive uppercut.

[Southstar]

Southstar rounded the tree and struck with his lightsaber, which was batted away. Immediatly he knew Duke was up to something and found Duke's fist speeding up underneath his chin. Southstar fell backwards and reached out to grab Duke's hand to keep from falling backwards.

Southstar thought his heart might have stopped for a moment, Duke really had surprised him. He began to laugh and he let go of Duke's fist and took his balance. "Brilliant Duke, absolutely brilliant." he said.

Southstar took a step back and spoke. "Going back to speaking inside your mind. Clearly you can fight, but you need to be able to mix the Force in there. It is what seperates Force users from the rest." Now, as we resume the spar try to use the Force." Southstar took a defensive stance. "Again, your move."

[Duke Quells]

Try to use the force.... Duke hears the words that Southstar had just uttered. Okay, Duke thinks to himself, try to use the force. Let's see what a little dab of that energy does to help my speed. Reaching down into the wellspring of Dark energy, Duke grabs a little and feeds it into his leg and arm muscles. Then he feels it flowing there, his muscles are swelling with energy. He pumps his arms a few times to get a feel for the energy, and is suprised by how fast his arm moves. Smiling inwardly to himself, he adopts low stance, then using the force energy leaps high in the air, executes a somersault while flying over Southstar, and lands on just the other side of him, and brings his saber around in a wide roundhouse style swing, all in the space of a few heartbeats with the force enhancement Duke tried out.

[Southstar]

The Force hinted to him what Duke's intentions were and he spun around to parry the attack. Almost as a natural instinct the Force flooded his body and kept his body moving at a pace to match Duke's. Instead of amplifying his ability he let Duke continue the assult in order for him to get used to the idea of using the Force with his body.

[Duke Quells]

Duke continued the assault, seeing Southstar also using the force to keep pace, and not accelerate ahead of him in the duel. They were approaching a castle wall, stretching thirty feet up into the air. Seeing a fun opportunity, Duke gathered the force in his legs, then jumped. He felt himself not going high enough to reach the top of the wall, so he used the force to, well, float himself to the top of the wall. Interesting, so you can levitate yourself with the force eh? Duke thought to himself, though I probaly couldn't do it for more than a little bit at a time, as it is tiring. Southstar probaly can't do it for more than a little at a time..... Duke gestured for Southstar to join him for a continued fight on top of the castle wall.......

[Southstar]

Southstar watched Duke glide up to the wall. Things were indeed getting interesting. With the Force Southstar jumped and landed on top of the wall.

"It's good I don't have to teach you everything. Keep trying new things with the Force." He said and resumed the battle. He hacked down at Duke, who parried the attack and Southstar slashed from left to right, Duke also caught the attack.

Now it was tim eto add another lesson. Southstar increased the pace while attacking until Duke couldn't keep up. He hacked down, slashed from the left and pushed Duke's blade until they both pointed to the sky. Nearly simultaniously Southstar spun on his left foot and kicked Duke on his side causeing him to stumble and ultimatly fall. If Duke could think as fast as Southstar thought he might be able to, Duke could cushion his fall a little. If not, Duke could wind up dead. No matter what Duke was going to be hurt, just how bad had yet to be determined.

[Duke Quells]

Duke felt himself falling off of the walkway, and saw himself hurtling at the ground. He drew deeply into the force, and used it to push on the ground that was rapidly approaching him. He slowed some, but not nearly enough. He hit hard, then his world faded into blackness..........

[Southstar]

Southstar used the force to aid him as he jumped from the wall. This section of Duke's training was over and it was time to move on. Southstar took his apprentice by the armor and lifted him up and slung him over his shoulder. He would set Duke in his bedroom and when he awoke they would further his training elsewhere.