Kaz smiled as he watched Calley dodge the balls as they came at him, well most of them at least. "Nice. I see you're getting the hang of it." Calley was indeed doing well, even deflecting a few with others that he had caught. "Watching my hands, good tactic. Just one problem with that...." Kaz kicked a few of the balls that had came towards them, aiming them directly at the boy. Unlike the ones he had thrown, the kicked balls weren't meant to be nice or slow. Two, three, five, six in total were kicked towards Calley. "If you focus too much on one area, you can miss what's going on other places."

Beyond the kicked balls, Kaz had also caught and thrown a few more of the bouncing balls. These, like the kicked ones, were much faster, and while they weren't aimed directly at Calley, how they would bounce off of the surroundings would put them in line with the boy. Kaz had also moved in closer, redirecting balls back towards Calley, decreasing the time he would have to react to the objects.

"You've got speed and agility, after this we'll see how strong you are."

"If you focus too much on one area, you can miss what's going on other places."

Pfft! Focusing? Slate was focus. Calley was the anti-focus. He wasn’t watching Kaz’ hands: he was just watching. The kicked balls didn’t escape his notice. They were, err, a bit faster than he was used to, though. Two, three, four he dodged—five sent him sprawling, and six flew over him by default that he was down.

He was back up in a second though, tucking his feet to his chest then kicking forward, harvesting the momentum to get back on his feet without his involving his hands. The speed was definitely picking up now. Calley was still grinning, but with Kaz moving in closer, his dodging rate was going down fast. Ack. His human form was so sluggish, and unbalanced. Why was its center of gravity so far from the ground? This would be so much easier if he was a cat, but that was obviously out. Quick check: did he like the clothes he was currently wearing? Nope—just an oversized set he’d nabbed from the guards.

Calley shifted easily into tiger form, and immediately sprang backwards out of the path of an oncoming ball. These little suckers hurt. Not that they could really touch him, now. He was bigger than he’d like, but he was still in his feline element. Every movement flowed naturally; he tucked low to the ground to dodge once, leapt up to doge twice, landed and pivoted and curled and bolted to dodge three, four, five. This just felt so much more right; every movement seemed to take half the energy it did as a human, and his paws were working nearly as fast as his mind. Kaz could go faster, of course, and he could move in closer—but at this pace and this distance, Calley was now untouchable. A very slight purr started in his chest.

Kaz watched as Calley dodged nearly effortlessly...almost. He got hit by one of the kicked balls, though he sprang back up right away. As Kaz closed the distance he saw the smile on Calley's face, <He might be a fighter after all...> Quite suddenly the boy shifted into a tiger and Kaz nearly sighed. At least until he saw that Calley was quicker and much more agile despite his larger form. The purr was an interesting touch. "I suppose I should have said this earlier, but I didn't think you'd resort to this so quickly: Use your ability and I'll break you."

Kaz rushed the cat, easily dodging each of the bouncing balls as he did. Cutting to Calley's side quickly he lined up for a shot to the boy's side. While doing so he shifted his arm completely, making a very large fist in the process. "Let's see how much pain you can take!"

“...Use your ability and I'll break you.”

What?

...I believe you heard the man.

And then, quite suddenly, Kaz was rushing them. It wasn’t as fast as he could go; they could still see him. But it was still pretty darn fast. Calley tried getting out of his path, but he was a little too startled and a little too slow. “Let's see how much pain you can take!” And now there was a fist—a very large fist, mind you—driving into his ribcage.

Calley had never experienced having the wind knocked out of himself in tiger form. Not really in human, form, either—he tried to avoid situations like that. In any case, combined with getting knocked of his feet and sprawling a bit across the floor, it was pretty interesting.

Tag, Slate. You’re it.

I am on it.

The large tiger easily rolled back to its feet, circling around Kaz warily, and silently. Its purr was gone. Its blue eyes were focused with a concentrated clarity that could only see one thing at a time, but it could see it well. They were not as fast as Kaz, no. Their teeth were of a comparable size, however. And they were in possession of claws that they knew how to use quite well. Not in fights, no—but they were quite familiar with hunting prey. One paw fall at a time, they continued their steady circle. Slate was looking, merely, for an opening. If he had the capability, he may have wondered: could the man before them heal, as well?

It was not very socially acceptable to sucker-punch a Bengal tiger during a dodge ball game. Really, someone must show the silver-haired man the proper order of things.[/color]

Calley seemed to take the hit quite well, considering how he seemed to go short on breath for a few moments afterwards and skidding across the floor. Though as he got back up Kaz noticed a marked difference in the boy. He didn't seem as..childish, it seemed like he was taking this seriously. <Finally.> Kaz's ears twitched and turned slightly as he followed Calley by sound alone. Which was quite the chore in fact. True he could still hear the boy's heartbeat, but his footfalls were damned near silent. <I'm being stalked...like some lowly prey.>

What to do, what to do...He had three options: 1) Shift back to normal, 2) Fully half shift, or 3) Full shift. Not knowing if the tiger form was enhanced in any way or just your typical tiger with the brain of a mutant, Kaz chose the third option. His legs and foot elongated, along with his upper arms, hair and maw. Kaz crouched as he turned his head to watch the cat, though it was at this time he felt an odd sensation in his lower back. Turning his head to look behind him, a rather thick tail burst from his body, ripping through his suit. In a much more feral voice, "Well...that's new." Again he saw the image in his mind of throwing Calley through a wall by bashing him with his tail.

Twitching ears: the man could track by sound. He took no particular haste in turning his head to watch them: he was confident in his hearing. As Slate knew full well how quiet their movements were, his conclusion was the obvious one: their heartbeat, the loudest noise on their person, was the target of those ears. Such a small sound, really: enhanced senses, clearly. They would have to be certain their heartbeat did not betray their attack. Easily done. Calley could tell truth and lies without raising their heart rate, because they were one and the same to his perception: Slate, in his turn, could launch their strike without initially affecting their heart rate. It would have to increase, eventually, to compensate for their increase in movement. The initial strike, though—that was something that needed no tell-tale tick of foreshadowing. It was merely the logical conclusion of their stalking steps.

The man changed his appearance. This was discarded as trivial: he was dangerous before, and he remained dangerous now. Additionally, though it was unclear what the purpose of the man’s surprise strike had been, it seemed unlikely that things had escalated to a true fight. It this shape, the man made a distinct point to watch them. Decreased sense of hearing? Irrelevant: he had already determined that the man’s hearing would have no bearing on this outcome. The man’s perfect crouch was ruined as he turned his head, surprise telling itself on his scent.

The moment the man’s head turned, Slate struck. The jugular was tempting, but their aim was not to kill. Their aim was, in fact, entirely unclear. Slate’s aim was simple: a—to put it in Calley’s terminology—‘friendly mauling’ to the man’s left shoulder. If the pounce ended as it was intended when executed, his forepaws would push against the man’s chest—claws retraced—and his teeth would bury themselves lightly into flesh.

He did not anticipate that the strike would succeed. That hardly seemed the point, however.

Stupid. That's what it was. Stupid. You never turn away from your opponent during a fight. But that's exactly what Kaz did. Calley wasted no time in literally pouncing on Kaz when he did. He was quick with the strike to boot. Calley's heartbeat was just a slight bit louder when Kaz noticed it, though by the time he turned his head to look at Calley, he was already to close to move away. Gripping the ground, Kaz readied himself for the impact.

Front paws pushed against his upper chest, though there were no signs of claws. Even so Kaz's body reflexively tensed against the pressure. Teeth, sharp. Kaz's eyes darted to look at his shoulder as he felt the pressure of Calley's teeth try to penetrate his skin. Like his chest, his shoulder muscles tensed and flexed, the skin tightened on instinct. The bite was strong, though the teeth did little more than push his skin a bit.

"Hehe, My turn." One of Kaz's smaller arms reached out to grab the hair of Calley's underbelly. As he did, Kaz lifted his arm quickly, Calley along with it. His smaller hand retracted while Kaz kicked off the ground and used his free large hand to twist and spin himself into a crooked cartwheel, which would give his tail a large boost of momentum to smash into the tiger.

Their teeth did not penetrate. Against the pads of their paws and between the grip of their jaw, Slate could feel the man’s muscles contracting to make himself a less edible target. An interesting trick. Slate believed he had a way around it.

"Hehe, My turn."

He had no time to implement his theory, unfortunately. It was a curious idea: he would have to create another opportunity to test it. In any case, Kaz lifted them away from his body, and Slate choose to relinquish his grip upon the man’s shoulder. It was of no advantage, at present moment. Kaz was finally bringing his speed into play; later than expected, to be honest, and he was still moving within a rate their eyes were capable of following. A cartwheel. How novel. The moment before the man’s newly acquired tail lashed them across the room, Slate made an assessment of it which allowed him to accept the hit with comfort: That will not be instantaneously lethal. If it was not instantaneously lethal, then it was of no great concern.

The tail struck them broad across their chest. Their ribs dampened some of the momentum by buckling and cracking: the rest was transferred into changing their own trajectory from that of a gentle parabola towards the ground to a sudden horizontal line.

The tiger hit the wall with a crack, and slid down. It did not move.

Laughing in an extremely gruff and deep voice, Kaz slowly walked, on all fours, towards Calley. The crack that the tiger made as he hit the wall was pleasure to Kaz's ears. <Perhaps I over did it?> He thought to himself as he heard Calley's erratic heartbeat and extremely shallow breathing. Taking another look behind him at his tail, that was slowly and gently swaying back and forth in time with Kaz's movements.

The feeling was similar to when he gained his second set of arms, putting him slightly off. Figuring out how to use the second set of arms was difficult. He had to find the motor functions and link them to his conscious mind, just to be able to control them like his other limbs. Before he had, they had moved on instinct? Was that the correct word? Or they kept themselves close to his chest, unmoving. The tail had a similar feeling of attached-detachment. He could feel it but moving it how he wanted it to wasn't possible at the moment. Though, it seemed to be doing fine on it's own, doing what came natural. <I'll worry about it later.>

"Did the kitty get hurt? Do you need medical attention?" Kaz sat in front of Calley, which was odd as his tail was kinda in the way. "I didn't think you'd be so squishy Calley. Just to let you know, unless you're in danger of dying, and let me know if you are, you're not going to the infirmary." Kaz put on of his smaller hands on the tiger's head between the ears and petted him a bit. "That wasn't bad. You waited, watched, and struck when I let my guard down."

The man’s skin had proved exceptionally difficult to penetrate, but had felt like no more than particularly dense flesh. Slate had a theory as to how to render this defense a moot point: he had no time to implement his theory, unfortunately. It was, however, a curious idea. He had needed to create another opportunity to test it.

Kaz had been very obliging, in that regard.

The man’s laughter was irrelevant taken alone, but combined with his words and his inappropriately gloating scent, it was enough to inspire caution in anyone who was not entirely focused on making a point. Several points, actually. A hand began petting his head. The tiger had not moved so much as a whisker since hitting the wall, and this new sensory input did not prompt Slate to make an exception. Not yet.

"That wasn't bad. You waited, watched, and struck when I let my guard down."

One shift to heal, and to break. Healing: all damage done by the man’s tail was repaired, so fast that even Hunter’s eyes would have missed the greater part of it. Breaking: his teeth, quite suddenly, ceased to be whole. It looked very much as if they had been filed neatly in half. He was moving even as he did this, clamping his jaws down on that foolish arm. He flexed their jaw muscles to provide the maximum of clamping force. Their dulled teeth settled into a harmless grip.

One shift to heal, and to gather evidence for his theory. Healing: Slate shifted their teeth back to their whole and complete selves. His theory: the absurd amount of acceleration on the reforming teeth would be enough to shoot their sharp points into the man’s flesh.

Would this test succeed as hypothesized, or would his jaws prove too weak for their clamping role, and the man’s skin repel even the force of their healing teeth? Slate was quite curious.

((ooc: Tell me if there's a problem with having that hit land!))

All at once Calley seemed to come back to life. A sickening sound of body tissue knitting itself back together in an instant, as well as the cat's teeth seeming to shatter, was something Kaz truly did not expect. While Calley was healing himself he had come forward fast and bit down on Kaz's arm. Seeing the movement Kaz began to pull his arm back, though he wasn't quick enough to get it out of the way. Calley's maw was clamped onto the middle of his forearm. <Damned cat.> Returning from the near dead wasn't his only trick it seemed. Somehow as he bit down on Kaz's arm, he managed to get his fangs to pierce his skin, which he hadn't been able to do before.

It wasn't a deep bite, but enough that Kaz felt it and made him bleed, though that ended quickly as his body contracted the blood vessels, stopping the blood flow. Making a few quick fists, making sure he was alright, Kaz pulled his arm back using pure brute strength. This of course had the effect of Calley's teeth slicing down his arm, creating new wounds and more blood. With a small twist, his arm was in line with Calley's throat. If the cat didn't doesn't do something fast, he'll be swallowing Kaz's fist.

The welcome cooper taste of blood washed over their tongue. Slate considered his experiment a success. The actual bleeding was short-lived, but the damage did not seem to be healing in the rapid manner which Slate was accustomed to, and which he has seen at least one other healer do. As Kaz foolishly withdrew his arm, and Slate absentmindedly held his grip, he curiously observed how quickly the man stopped his blood flow. There was nothing he would like better than to examine how the trick was done. As Kaz aimed a punch towards their jaw, however, he decided it was not the most important thing to think about at the moment. The arm was moving too fast for their tiger form, still lying on the ground as it was, to dodge.

Calley.

On it![/i]

They shifted back to human. It was just about the only thing they could do, really, if they liked their throat unmolested. And they did. Like it. Umm, unmolested.

The punch missed, by default that Calley was distinctly smaller than he had been a moment ago, and his head was occupying a space about a foot from where it had been. He watched that fist miss him, and decided that now might be the time to ask a question he’d been wondering:

“Umm, excuse me, but is this a serious fight, now? I mean, are you actually trying to kill me?” It was not one of the more intelligent questions he’d ever asked, but it seemed important. If Kaz actually was trying to kill him, Calley would rather like the people watching at the other end of his necklace camera to know about it. Then it would just be his job to stay alive until Hunter’s troops stormed in here. If this actually was just training... Well, no one ever said that Kaz wasn’t freaking insane. And Slate probably hadn’t helped matters.

Hmph.

Don’t get me wrong. You looked damn cool doing it.

...I know.

Kaz watched as Calley quickly shifted back to his normal self, with what Kaz thought, was a confused look on his face. “Umm, excuse me, but is this a serious fight, now? I mean, are you actually trying to kill me?” Kaz just chuckled at the naked boy in front of him. "It's hard to have a real fight with someone you can kill before they'll ever know they were hit." Kaz's smaller arm began to shrink as it retracted back into Kaz.

"I wanted to know what you could do. You can't do that just by asking. I told you to tell me what you could do...And you lied to me." Kaz leaned in close to the boy, his fanged maw inches from Calley's face. "I really don't appreciate being lied to boy. Especially from someone who asked ME for HELP." Taking one large hand, he brought it up to Calley as he extended one clawed finger and put it under his chin, "I'd really love it if you'd tell me all of your tricks..."

"BUT!" Kaz removed his hand from Calley and turned away from him, flicking his tail at Calley until it went behind the boy and lifted him to his feet. Kaz began to walk away towards the changing rooms, "Right now, you and I both need a change of clothes, more you than I."

"It's hard to have a real fight with someone you can kill before they'll ever know they were hit."

Says the guy who keeps dropping his guard. I bet the Boss Man kicked his ass.

I would agree.

"I wanted to know what you could do. You can't do that just by asking. I told you to tell me what you could do...And you lied to me." Yep. Calley had figured they’d get around to that point. He made a nice show of cowering away from the maw only a mother could love, but he just wasn’t feeling it. It was very hard to place his finger on why he felt such little respect for this guy. The words ‘pompous’ and ‘ass’ came to mind, though. "I really don't appreciate being lied to boy.” Had he mentioned ‘ass’? “Especially from someone who asked ME for HELP." There was ‘pompous’. And now here was a claw under his chin. Great. Just great.

Slate, he’s blowing his hot air in my face.

It was in desperate need of venting.

"I'd really love it if you'd tell me all of your tricks... BUT!"

Claw removed, but tail behind him. Calley had never been lifted to his feet in a more disconcerting manner. Mental note: avoid the tail.

"Right now, you and I both need a change of clothes, more you than I."

“Fair enough,” Calley said simply, noting Kaz’ lovely tattered shreds. He followed after the man, feeling an urge to stick his hands in pockets that he’d, umm, tigered to death. He wasn’t actually all that uncomfortable with being nude. He spent a good deal of any day running around without clothes, really. But it was different in human form. Witness his lack of fur, feathers, or scales. Humans looked a lot like they had a bad case of mange, actually. Bald and ugly. And in his case: clearly far more scrawny than was healthy.

He knew his way around the changing room. This wasn’t the first set of clothes he’d trashed. He grabbed out another spare set, not really bothering to check the size—every size was too big on him. Hunter didn’t stock ‘Anorexic Petite’ clothing.

“Just for the record,” he said as he dressed, “there’s a good reason I didn’t tell you I could heal, and you pretty much just demonstrated it. Without knowing I could heal, you tried to throw me through a wall. That could have been fatal, or at the least, it would have had me in the infirmary for a very long time. And since we’ve established—” however doubtfully “—that you weren’t actually trying to kill me, then either—” you’re a complete moron “—well, obviously, your idea of ‘not killing me’ is different than my idea of ‘not killing me’. If that was your idea of a quick powers check without knowing I could heal, then you probably would have killed me if you had known. I mean, fatal is fatal. Could we be avoiding the fatal?” He wasn’t actually sure how much sense that made, but he was trying to defend a principle here: breaking multiple ribs and causing internal organ damage was not ‘training’. He didn’t have much experience defending principles. It just didn’t come up often.

Kaz finished his shift back to normal as they reached the changing room. Picking out something bland but usable, he got dressed and listened to Calley speak. It was clear his and Calley's thoughts were different which just made Kaz laugh to his self. "You may be right kiddo. In certain areas at least. But since it seems that I have to threaten, beat or break you to tell me the truth..I think it was warranted. Hunter is too careful about and with you. It's obvious he's hiding things. Which in turn makes me think you're hiding things, which you ARE." He made it clear he still believed Calley was holding out on him.

"Have you heard the term, School of Hard Knocks?" He looked at Calley, <Only a moron hasn't.> "Then you'll understand what you've just gotten yourself into. You may not think being beaten up or nearly having to be hospitalized is training but it is. I can't count how many times I was put in the hospital, many times near death, when I was younger. After so many times of having to endure that punishment just for being different. I slaughtered those ten bastards. It toughens you up, probably not physically but mentally."

Walking out of the room he went to the supply closet again and grabbed a few 15lb. wrist and 20lb.ankle weights. Tossing them to Calley, "Put those on. You're way too scrawny for your own good." Kaz took a neutral stance, which he could switch to defense or offense easily. "Now that I've got a bit of an idea of what you can do. I want you to attack me, without using your powers. I'll be stopping and giving you tips or correcting you from time to time."