Shadowy Figures [X-Tryout: Kaz, Circe, & Jewel]

Taking in the surroundings Kaz let out a long yawn. Oh no, low light conditions....how dull and normal. While he couldn't see in the dark, as long as there was some light or some kind, he would be able to see quite clearly with his enhanced vision. Beyond that, he often trained and practiced in low-light and, at times, zero light conditions. Is this the best they can come up with? He thought to himself already bored.

While Luke spoke, Kaz continued to look around and make a mental sketch of the area, major formations, clearings he could see major obstacles, which was a short endeavor since his current spot didn't have the best view. Until Luke decided to leave him and the two young women, Kaz had begun stretching. Once Luke made his way away from the group Kaz stood and pulled two collapsible steel batons from the inside of his pant's waistline. With a flick the two batons snapped to their full length.

He had made a decision earlier before stepping into the Danger Room, to not shift unless he had to. Mostly the decision was made just because, but now he had a reason, so he wouldn't be bored out of his mind. Though it was probably a good thing since whoever or whatever these assailants were, they weren't suppose to be killed. Maimed, injured, broken, on their way to death's door without help, that all seemed fair game. Kaz knew that even though he could control himself while shifted, it was still very easy to break things or kill people if he slipped up even a little.

He regarded the two woman a moment before he moved to stand behind them, his back to them, as he covered their backs. If Luke decided to start it up as soon as he got to his position, then he'd rather not be caught off guard. Without turning to look at either, "Well this should be," He stifled another yawn, "Fun. Name's Kaz by the way."

Alexandra stood unmoving and silent as Luke spoke. This was it. She had prepared so much for these tryouts and if there was something in her mind then it was the simple phrase ‘failure is not an option’. If she did fail these, she simply knew that she wouldn’t have the necessary patience to wait for other tryouts and that provided the much needed motivation.

Blue eyes moved slightly form side to side to see her team mates. Funny thing, although they were supposed to be a team, they didn’t know each other. At least she didn’t know any of them. No idea what they could do, not even what name they had. Funny, indeed. Her eyes moved from her teammates to her surroundings, taking in the details of the location, then back to Luke.

Alexandra sighed, her hand tightening on the metal staff she held. Her fingers moved slightly against the cold metal as Luke left the room. Long before she had entered she had left the emotions out, she had pushed away the importance of these tryouts, her face now bearing an unreadable expression.

As her companions talked, introducing themselves, Alexandra positioned her body so she could cover the other’s two. Teamwork, right? Her eyes were focused on the shadows, waiting for assailants to appear. “I’m Alex.” she replied, after Jewel had finished speaking. “I manipulate molecules.”

Kaz took a good look at the two women, who had moved so their backs formed a triangle between them. Kaz kept his eyes and especially his ears open. "Jewel was it. A bit of advice for the future; Ditch all the jewelry. Specifically here, you're the best target since the light reflects off of all that easily. The one in your hair is like a big target sign, when it catches the light, your opponent will know exactly where your head is. I'd ditch'em or move'em so they won't be catching the light, since I'm going to assume you'll be using them."

Kaz began to move away from the light and toward the deeper shadows, as he did he tapped both girls on the shoulder and spoke softly. "This way, out of the light. Let your eyes adjust to the shade since that's what most of this place is cloaked in. Once you're set, it should be a bit harder to be surprised....visually at least."

Kaz held one of the batons parallel to his ulna with his arm up just slight off center of his body, while the other was held semi-relaxed to the side of his body. With either one he'd be able to block or attack. He didn't want to get up against or even too close to the wall, since that was the most obvious thing to do when in the dark, he tried to move them in between the patches of light with enough shade to give them some concealment. If something came at them, hopefully they'd be forced to pass through one of the lights and give their position away.

Alexandra was only half aware of her two teammates, her ears and eyes mostly focused on her surroundings. She half caught the advice Kaz gave to the girl named Jewel. She glanced at the woman for a second and mentally approved Kaz. Her eyes slid to her own staff, and congratulated herself for choosing a non-reflective surface for it. She hated shiny things anyways.

Her head did not turn when she felt the tap on her shoulder, but the man’s words were heard. She began to move, and enjoyed the feeling of concealment the shadows were giving her. Perhaps fighting in poorly lit conditions weren’t her specialty but in her latest trainings she had tried to cover any kind of conditions. Her eyes didn’t accommodate with the darkness immediately. A few blinks later, contours were more easily distinguished and the first thing that caught her eyes was the dark silhouette of a man moving fast as it passed a patch of light.

The molecule manipulator moved quickly, her hands slightly extended so she could lightly touch her teammates, slightly pushing them behind a miniature tower made from three crates. “Shhh.” Her hands moved back to an on-guard stance as the shadow appeared again, this time, approaching them. The molecule manipulator kept her hand tight on her staff, while eyes were focused on the growing shadow casted by one of their assailants.

A distant click announced them that a light bulb had gone out.

"Calm down, if your heart beats any faster, it might burst."

Did he honestly think saying that would make things any better?! Jewel felt her face flush and she bit back a retort that no doubt would have been very witty. Too bad bantering did not fit the current situation. Her heart did not slow down one bit, but now it definitely pumped more adrenaline.
What a pain in the...
Alex pushed them into cover; she followed her without questioning, she looked every bit as confident as Kaz. Much less annoying though.
She saw the shadows shift again, and heard footsteps. Apparently her teammates could hear them too. Whoever was hunting them was either careless or not really afraid. She voted for the latter, and frowned.
She could hear the first light bulb go out. Lighting changed in their surroundings. She never thought one source of light would make such a noticeable difference. Not to mention two minutes passed without anything happ...

The metal she'd been shifting unconsciously over her arms and hands suddenly came to life as some invisible power yanked it with a force that sent Jewel flying into the darkness. Not too far though. A mere second later her back hit the side of a crate, so did the back of her head, and her electrum-covered arms that slammed onto the wooden surface with an echoing sound as if they were magnetized.
Wait, wood isn't...
The light of a lamp above her glittered on her belt, but made it difficult for her to see anything past the circle of light. She could barely make out the silhouette of a person standing with his arms stretched, as if holding her in place. Her feet didn't touch the ground; all that was holding her was the metal on her neck and arms, and the belt on her waist.
The opponent used her weapons against her.
That's so not fair.
She struggled silently to pry herself off the side of the crate; however tempting swearing seemed, she thought it better to save her breath. All her efforts were in vain - getting off the crate while keeping her metal gear was clearly impossible. She gritted her teeth and focused her powers; for a while nothing happened, then her hairpin, collar, belt and gloves opened up with a series of metallic 'clink's, and she fell to the ground. Fortunately, not on her face, but that was really all she could hope for. She landed on her feet and right knee, and looked up, searching to see her opponent...

Kaz let himself smile at the situation...well, mostly at Jewel, he was having fun getting under her skin with slight little jibes here and there. Alex was seeing like the overly serious type, the rather boring kind at that. He was about to let out a yawn when Jewel was jerked from her spot and slammed, rather hard it sounded like, against a crate not too far away. He turned and looked at her and who he could only assume was the culprit before dropping to his batons he reached inside his jacket into one of the reinforced pockets lining the inside and pulled out four throwing knives roughly eight inches long.

He double checked himself in less than a millisecond and sent two of the knives flying at Jewel's assailant, aimed for the upper right chest and the lower abdomen. In the same moment Kaz began to pivot and rotate as he dropped into a near crouch. Is free hand moved up to Alex's back in an attempt to guide her away from their current position. Kaz timed his throw as best he could. The body moving towards them, and had apparently gotten Alex's staff from her, was just about to place it's weight on it's leading leg when one knife penetrated the flesh nearly all of it's eight inches. A quiver went through it's leg as it began to buckle and put the weight on the rear leg as the other knife copied it's predecessor to near perfection.

"Move!" Kaz said to Alex as he moved away from the crate. Their backs were exposed and a gut instinct told him that it was a bad idea to stay in the same place. The first assailant wouldn't have taken Jewel as it had unless it had a good reason: To create an opening to exploit. He wasn't more than a few steps away when the crate he had been near seemed to implode. Wood splinters and some dust flew up into the air around the crate where Jewel had been. Kaz looked back at the crate and saw...nothing. He focused on the spot and heard the same thing. It took a moment, something he instinctively thought had taken too long, for him to realize there was someone, some-thing, semi-crouched in the debris. The small bits of wood and dust in the air was moving around and collecting on something for just a moment before seeming to disappear. He heard the crack of wood, the sound of weight crushing it, but beyond those two giveaways, this thing was seemingly completely invisible and eerily and utterly silent. Kaz took a guess about one other thing, this thing was fairly strong with how it broke the crate apart as efficiently as it had.

A hand reached her back in an attempt to guide her away. Alexandra let herself to be moved, while her eyes remained on her assailant. Two knives embedded themselves in the attacker's legs, apparently coming out of nowhere. She didn't even bother to look at Kaz to prove herself that this was his move. She gave a mental shrug at this, the fact that the guy wanted to prove that he was better or he was actually doing this to help them it didn't matter to her.

The body of her assailant began to descend a few moments after Kaz's knives hit him. His body, however didn't reach the ground as her staff was quickly used for support. Alexandra blinked, molecular manipulation now focused on the silver metal. The molecular bond of the lower part of it was quickly severed and before her opponent could realize what was happening, he was falling again, this time, without enough time to react.

"Move!

Alexandra listened, as she moved away, following Kaz. She was standing next to him when the crate imploded, sending a rain of wood and dust toward them. Out of instinct she turned to her side as small splinters of wood touched her body. When she turned back, she expected to see a hrid opponent there. Instead, she saw nothing. That one, she supposed, it was Kaz's toy. And speaking of toys, blue eyes searched for her own. She found him, forcing himself to get back up on his feet, his eyes focused on her and Kaz. Strangely, it looked just like her when she was-

Her hands moved upward as her powers picked up the two knives sailing trough the air, invisible to human eyes. She couldn't see them, only feel the metal molecules speeding trough the air, one aimed toward her, the other toward Kaz. When they materialized, their tip was touching her palms, and under her molecular manipulation they were floating trough the air. She closed her hands to form a fist and in the same time the knives disappeared, only to appear in her hands.

A low growl left her lips. This guy was annoying.

Click.

Another light went out, and the soft blue glow in her eyes was more noticeable now. The molecules of her former staff moved under her command, forming two invisible blades, near her assailants position. They sped trough the air and just as they were about to reach for their targets, she increased their molecular cohesion, making them visible. With their density highly increased, the two blades went trough her opponent's knees, their tips coming out on the other side. Her eyes only caught a glimpse of the falling before her eyes turned to the side, in search of Kaz's opponent. She frowned slightly when she saw nothing.

Alexandra closed her eyes and focused on a few molecules of oxygen in the air. She dirrected them toward the place where the crate had been, made them swirl around the air in a crazy dance. If he was invisible, her molecules would eventually hit something and give away his location. Blue eyes snapped open when the motion of her molecules was suddenly stopped. Her eyes searched for anything that could have stopped them but found nothing. Found you.

The two knives in her hands disappeared again, this time going for the new toy.