Dakota was in the training grounds. He was preparing for his fight against Zaphyr, the Wind Elemental. He began walking around and touching trees. The training grounds were outside in a park-like enclosure. He was touching the trees and draining a little of their energy. Just storin up for the spar. He then stood up and was prepared to fight.

Zephyr proceeded calmly through the mass of hallways that was Mondragon labs, he'd intended to go out into the city and maybe test out the gifts he'd gotten from Hunter. However Dakota had been adamant that they had some kind of quarrel to settle and had challenged to a "spar" in the grounds surrounding the labs.

Normally the elemental would have refused such a challenge stating it is a waste of time that could be spent exploring New York or practicing his origami. Unfortunately though Dakota's mutation was annoyingly powerful and was a natural enemy to Simon's own abilities, so he'd decided to accept this invitation in order to test Dakota's and his own limits and try and gain a deeper understanding of his "teammates" abilities.

As he finally emerged from the labs and into the clouded sunlight Simon took a moment to scan his surroundings and swiftly located his "sparring" partner near a cluster of trees, 'Must be recharging himself'' Zephyr noted as he took to the air and closed in on Dakota's position, stopping ten feet away, plenty of space to react any cheap shots the young crime lord tried to pull."

"So when do you want to start this nonsense?"

"Now." Dakota simply said. He then manipulated the Gravatonic Energy around him slightly so he was hovering in the air a few feet above the ground. He then went back down to the ground. "I'm in good shape." was all he said. He then shot an invisible laser of energy at Zephyr's forehead. That should slow his concentration, Dakota said to himself.

"Now"[/color]

As soon as the words left Dakota's lips the elemental shot towards the young crime lord with the force of a rocket. Normally such a tactic would be suicide for Zephyr considering that his physique was less impressive. There was however a method behind the apparent madness to this move, Simon wanted to discover how well Dakota performed when under pressure and the elemental couldn't think of a better way to stress the young man than getting right in his face.

Unfortunately this plan was swiftly ripped to shreds as Simon felt a blinding pain between his eyes which forced him to veer off course. The pain vanished almost as soon as it had appeared though and Zephyr was quickly back in control as he manipulated the air streams that carried him and swerved around to Dakota's right.

The elemental then moved his arm in a slashing motion and sent an invisible blade of wind not at Dakota, Simon had learned better after his little stunt in the lab, but at the ground beneath his feet. The blade impacted the dry dirt and a wall of earth rose up covered the parasitic mutant, momentarily blinding him and hopefully getting into his eyes.

With his distraction in place Simon shot off once again, not towards his opponent but into the open sky, ensuring that the sun remained behind him as he did, so that if Dakota did somehow happen to maintain his vision he would be blinded if he discovered Simon's new position.

'Is capable of performing attacks outside the normal visible spectrum, possibly a high frequency laser' Zephyr mentally noted his observation and waited to see how Dakota would react.

Dakota was happy. His Energy Laser had put Zephyr off course but he was soon back on track. He was then suddenly covered in earth. "Hmm." Dakota said as he took the energy from the earth. That gave him strength to break the dirt wall around him and he pulled out a gel-pack. With a little bit of extra energy he manipulated the Gravatonic Energy around him and made himself fly into the air. He was now almost as high as Zephyr. But he couldn't get any higher. "Hello, I have a few tricks up my sleeve also." Dakota said as he floated back down to earth. His purpose in flying up there was to prove a point. If need be, he could get up there too, although it takes lots of energy.

Dakota then used his energy manipulation to his advantage. He manipulated the Gravatonic energy around Zephyr this time and increased gravity. Making Zephyr plummet back down to earth.

Zephyr observed silently as he watched Dakota break free from the earth, he hadn't truly expected that to stop his opponent, in fact the elemental would have been disappointed if it did. He was somewhat shocked though when the parasite demonstrated his own levitation abilities and flew until he was almost level with the British mercenary. Zephyr then allowed Dakota to proceed with his trivial taunt and was hard pressed to keep a smirk from his face; for as the crime lord was talking he was slowly losing altitude which suggested that flight was far more difficult for him then it was the elemental who could easily the soar the open sky's for hours if not days.

Allowing Dakota to return to the earth Simon waited for the young man to demonstrate one of the "tricks" he had boasted about only seconds earlier. The next thing the elemental knew his body seemed to have gained 200 hundred pounds in weight and he was plummeting towards the ground at a frightening rate. Acting swiftly he closed his eyes and summoned a hurricane force wind beneath him, the ploy worked and Zephyr's descent was halted, but the amount of energy he was using to remain aloft would not last forever. 'The question is how long can he continue to manipulate gravity?' for that was surely what the parasite was doing.

Glancing back down at Dakota he noted the mans smug grin and promptly decided cancel their little battle of tug of war and wipe the smirk from his opponents face. Discarding the hurricane force winds that had kept him aloft the elemental allowed himself to plummet back down to the earth and at the last few seconds before impact summoned a vicious air current to alter his trajectory so that Dakota was placed underneath him. Before the young crime lord had a chance to move Simon performed a devastating drop kick to the mans chest, delivering all the momentum he had gained into his opponent and causing him to land on his rear on the parched earth.

As soon as the blow connected Simon felt his body shed the excess weight it had suddenly gained and he once more took off to the air, 'Now let us discover the range of your abilities' Zephyr thought to himself as he climbed high and higher into the atmosphere and Dakota was little more than a speck a on the earth, but an easily seen speck none the less. Simon would not allow himself to lose sight of his opponent after all.

Dakota fell on his butt hard when he was dropkicked in the chest. He landed with a loud thud. He then saw Zephyr climbing high into the sky. Crap, I can't leech his energy when he's that high. Dakota thought. He then had an idea. He decided to try something new. He stared at the sun and felt it's summer heat. He then focused on the heat and absorbed it. As he was absorbing the energy he felt his watch vibrated. He then used his energy to manipulate the gravity around him and he rose into the sky. He was as close to Zephyr as he could get and was loosing energy fast. "Come down! The fights over" he called to Zephyr. He used the last of the energy he had from the sun to slowly lower himself to the ground. He pressed a button to hear the message.

As Simon's own watch began to vibrate the elemental nodded at Dakota's words, their little skirmish was over for the time being, Hunter required their services.

Releasing his grip upon the winds Zephyr descended in a gentle spiral as he headed back towards the labs. It was time to earn his pay.

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((OOC: I'm guessing that we're abandoning this thread for now? If not PM me and I can edit my post.))