Scene #9320: Power Up! Training with the Ginyu Force

Owner	Pose
Kukuru	The purpose of today's meeting is different from the usual: Rather than going off and sending everyone out to get all sorts of grubby fingers into variably lucrative pies, the goal instead is centered around refocusing and reinventing. That might not be so obvious, though, when people start arriving at the designated meeting location: The middle of a verdant plain, with lush grass as far as the eye can see, grand streams and rivers with massive animals passing through to drink their fill, and high hills in the distance dwarfed by even higher mountains. It's certainly a pretty place to take pictures of if one might be so inclined, especially with those giant animals grazing while similarly oversized bugs flit about in the jungles even further outside of where anything's actually happening today. Kukuru's already here, hair bunched up into a messy ponytail and dressed in track pants and one of those overpriced sweat-wicking t-shirts marketed towards people wanting to work out and doomed to only be worn once for actually working out. She's seated on a cooler that's undoubtedly filled with all sorts of stuff to refill herself and her new friends on, although she seems to be the only one here so far. Predictably, her face lights up as everyone starts showing up, offering the usual tight hugs if permitted along with cold soda bottles. "Thanks for coming! Aah, I 'm so excited to see what we'll be doing for training today. I just hope I didn't get the day wrong..." Thankfully, she didn't! The arrival of today's special guests for the joint training session is heralded by shadows sweeping across the sky, then the noise of five consecutive impacts nearby that sound more like explosions as five spherical pods crash into the ground in front of everyone. They land in a straight line from where most of the group is standing, too, one behind the other and even opening one after the other as though the occupants have done this hundreds of times before. The music coming out of the pods as they open up confirms this, as do the occupants themselves when they come out in ascending size order. The first, a four-eyed squat thing with green skin. The second, a white-haired man with red skin. The third, a horned man with purple skin and a veiny head. The fourth, a red-haired white man. The fifth, a blue skinned reptile man. Stepping out in formation side to side with the largest on the sides, they all stand like professional soldiers in their black leotards with matching armor and massive shoulder pads. They all stare right at the group of Elites before them for several long seconds, likely sizing everyone up before the horned man nods and they start to move, each of them shouting kiais, cackling, and shrieking before striking somewhat bizarre poses with outstretched arms, legs, and/or staring from between their own legs upside-down. "Recoome!" "Burter!" "Jeice!" "Guldo!" "Ginyu!" "To-ge-ther! We are the Ginyu Force!" Kukuru's smiling and clapping rapidly following their introduction, and then she looks over at everyone else. "Oh, isn't this great, everyooone? This might be just what I needed..."
Rufus Shinra	Oh, hugs! Are hugs allowed? Rufus wasn't sure. He returns the hug. "What day did you schedule it? Rufus gets out his day planner. "Because, Petra ended up sending everyone to the wrong era during her thing. So if I'm gonna be honest, the bar's pretty low, so even if we have to scrub and reschedule it's-" Oh, they're arriving. "See, it's all fine," Rufus starts to say, but then the music starts. And then the entrances. And the posing. And the introductions. Rufus watches at first in anticipation, but then in awkward silence. "Ah." "Would you gentlemen excuse us for just one moment." He takes Kukuru by the arm and gently but insistently leads her away from the new arrivals. "(So, uh, Kukuru. I'm not saying I'm not digging it a little and I can still make it work, but, uh.)" He glances over his shoulder at the Ginyu, who are presumably still holding their group pose in the background during this aside. "(Are you sure you hired combat trainers and not... circus trainers?)"
Sarracenia	Refocusing and reinventing. Sarra feels like she might need some of that. Maybe a lot of that. She's been through a war, aged a couple decades more than her actual age, is still blind in one eye, has silver-grey hair instead of her formerly signature copper, and has lost her signature weapon as well. Still, Sarra can't really dress down. She's not allowed to as a matter of honor. So, she shows up in one of her typical black royal gowns, though this one at least looks designed to be lighter weight and more breathable than her typical outfits. The dress's material is sheer enough that the barest outlines of her form might be noticeable through it, but they are still covered completely by a black body suit of similarly breathable materials. She accepts the hug from Kukuru with a slight smile. "Of course I came. It is you, Miss Kukuru." she says. She waves to Rufus when she sees him. "Greetings, Rufus! How are you?" she asks, then looks up as those pods enter the area. She watches them crash down. Sarracenia stares right back at them with her one visible eye, and visibly cringes ever so slightly at the bizarre poses and ridiculous noises. She follows after when he pulls Kukuru away, peering suspiciously over her shoulder at the 'combat' team. "...or perhaps an all male spirit squad?" she adds in hushed tones to Rufus's questions.
White	White isn't, exactly, enthusiastic to be here. Finally giving in to the repeatedly insisted necessity of actual training had to happen eventually, especially since White's repeated bodily switch-ups over the years would've probably left someone of a different mental constitution in need of physical rehabilitative therapy, not just a workout. But it isn't all bad! It's not a televised event with numerous viewers that demands she pry up pieces of herself to show off for applause, and it's not an unpredictable cognitohazard that makes her switch between sub-minds to avoid getting a migraine or worse. Kukuru is inoffensive, and White doesn't mind showing up a little early and just looking around, analyzing the animals and the bugs in the same way normal people would watch clouds. If she's really bored, she can just get some mental picture-in-picture going and have one of her minions play something on her computer at home. In the meantime, it's fine to just sit down beside Kukuru, survive the hug and pat her on the shoulder back, and wait. She shows up in maybe the largest change in outfit of any event or outing thus far (barring the temporary magical show-off ballroom-wizard getup that one time), and tragically... It's 'highschool gym-punk' at best. Black, snug sweatpants tied extra tight, a white tanktop that's probably a lot warmer than it should be if she made it out of her silk like it looks, and her body-length hair braid wrapped several times around her waist like a reverse-haramaki. Her boots are still her go-to for footwear, and they slightly bulge out from under the legs of her pants, making her calves look kind of thick compared to the rest of her. She knows. She knows it's kind of a travesty on her. Wearing black at all is weird, but somehow it just feels strange not to downgrade the look when she's planning on exercising! Is this what it's like to be brainwashed? Has the Japanese education system damaged her in some way? Probably, but she's going to act like nothing's wrong anyway. If she does that, maybe nobody will notice. But, time does pass and soon their training partners show up in a certain kind of style. The initial landing impacts make her jump where she sits, but a quickly aimed gaze through the dust and even the walls of their landing pods at least gives her a hunch... Yeah, these look exactly like the kinds of people the Concord would have on their B-list roster. For what it's worth, when Kukuru starts to clap White quietly and politely follows her lead. She is, admittedly, a little fond of the organized posing and such. She doesn't see any transformation greebles, belts or magic wands though, so the Ginyu Force falls just a little short of the automatic reputation bonus with White that some other folks would get from all this. She can probably get a quick hunch on what to expect from these guys by looking them over, as usual, especially having briefly met a Saiyan semi-recently. On the other hand, she probably won't notice if they can size her up at a glance in return, since she's never had to deal with any kind of power-level measurements outside of the Appraisal skill in the past! She's not exactly using Ki, but technically she's using the divine power of creation to do things as petty as make plushies, so...
Natsuki Nuki	There's a particular sound to the slap of sandals. Ss-thok ss-thok ss-thok, it goes, with very subtle variations that are still detectable in the stick and unstick and motion, the rock of footmotion as distinct as heels but with a totally different character. The sandals, and the totally different character, are attached to Natsuki Nuki, Concord Partner and currently workout enthusiast. Wearing her 5'9" Osakan woman (with an evil snake tail, eyemask, tiger ears) form and clothed in dark grey tank top, stirrup leggings, white beach flipflops with pink cherry blossoms on them, and a white hoodie with pink zippers and draws worn half-off one shoulder, she is as ready-looking for the activity as White is, perhaps not including the black ball cap with gold-orange bill featuring a stylized golden H with a vertical middle bar and a silver top-bar presenting the idea of a T. It's not pulled down over her ears - they'd have to smush and she'd simply not - so instead it's tilted far back and slightly at an angle to let her ears out and be backboarded by the high gold bill. She joins Kukuru in clapping excitedly for the arrival of the pods, red slid-eyes wide and birdsong-giggly as the pods all open in sequence. After a whole flock of cheering and laughter, especially at the Ginyu Force's fully choreographed opening, she calms while her hands clasp before her, considering fangily. "Wonderful! Hyoo-hyoo-hyoo, what a show! I thought this was going to be some new Concord Corporate fitness program, but no no, this is so much better. Kukuru, where did you find these fine, powerful gentlemen? What are we doing today?" Natsuki asks, intentful and very interested, rubbing her palms against the other with unhindered excitement. "What does the Ginyu Force do?"
Kukuru	White gets plenty of local fauna to peep at! There's giant bugs filled with paralytic poisons, large animals filled with delicious meat, and all sorts of tinier dinosaur-like animals with their own array of sharp claws, teeth, and assorted venoms to hunt their prey (the big semi-dinosaurs). White's scans might even show her drop rates for various parts that could be broken or carved off of them, too, along with a few of them even containing something called 'Monster Fluid' and assorted 'Poison Sacs'. The rates suck, but at least there's a lot of them roaming around. "Should've been today..." Kukuru answers Rufus with a quietly questioning mumur as she lets go of him finally, glancing around a few times before letting out a relieved sigh at the arrival of those pods. The actual impact is startling to her, of course, but only for a moment. She's really into that music. Thankfully, the five soldiers of the self-named Ginyu Force have returned to normal standing posture by the time Rufus leads Kukuru off to speak with her. She nods quickly at his question, too, taking out her phone and clumsily scrolling to an email chain scheduling this whole 'Reinvention, Refocus, and Reinvigoration' session. "Mhm, mhm. Oh, but circus training would be good for balance, too... Spirit squad?" Kukuru purses her lips lightly as she considers Sarracenia's theory. "Oh, maybe they did that as part of their own training... Morale's reeeeally important to maintain even for small squads in big armies, I hear." She replies with a slow nod, then taps her chin softly. "Maybe that's what I'm missing...? Posing to cheer everyone up looks..." She pauses to look back at the Ginyu Force briefly. "... Hard to balance." She promptly takes a note about looking for circus trainers sometime, too. She hasn't quite figured out what Rufus and Sarracenia are implying yet. Natsuki and Kukuru both being so enthused about the Ginyu Force's arrival, meanwhile, have already put the five soldiers in high spirits. The white-haired man cracks a wide smirk while looking up and over at the horned man who nods in approval at their approval. "Looks like we got a good group today, Captain. Potentially." "Potentially. We'll see how they handle the trek first. Ginyu answers Jeice with a light nod, then steps up to address the Elites directly. "Greetings. I am Captain Ginyu, leader of the Ginyu Force, and I would like to thank you all for agreeing to train with us today. As for your question, Lady Nue-" They might've actually done their homework. "We are elite mercenaries, employed by the great Lord Frieza! No job is too tough for us to take, and no target will ever stand before the might of our Special Fighting Poses!" That last bit gets them all to pose at length again, of course. It's different from the first set! "... Admittedly, we've realized that even we are not as invincible as we once believed, and we're going to fix that today. That's why we're going to be testing our limits today, to push beyond them and reach greater heights in both our power and posing." "I found them while asking around about Elites in our other sectors, mhm. Aren't they lovely?" Kukuru answers Natsuki with an excited little giggle, then claps her cheeks lightly while turning back to face the five. "Sooo... How do you want us to start, dears?"
Kukuru	The reptile man speaks up next, pointing towards the largest hill in the far distance. "First things first, a little warmup. Let's see how fast all of you are, hmm? No amount of power will make a difference if you don't have speed and surprise on your side!" He announces, disappearing briefly and leaving a dust cloud in his wake as he sprints around the group in a wide circle before stopping right where he was even before the dust has settled. To keep it fair, I'll only run. You can get there however you want." Cracking a overly confident grin, Burter adopts a sprinter's pose, then jerks his head upwards. "Ready, set, go!" And then the blue man is off like a massive blur, sprinting ahead rapidly and ready to leave everyone in the dust. "What're ya waitin' for? Go on!" Jeice calls out to the Elites, indicating that the training(?) has already started! Spurred on by direct orders, Kukuru starts running, and she's not anywhere close to matching Burter's speed. She's not teleporting, either, as though she's taking this as a challenge to actually run there properly! It might take a while, and she might need some encouragement to keep it up instead of just teleporting over.
Rufus Shinra	"Oh, Sarracenia. You look nice today," says Rufus. "The battle damage look suits you." He sounds sincere? To Kukuru's explanations, Rufus looks skeptical. "The actual circus trainers might be preferable," he says. Rufus continues to be skeptical. Especially when the first training exercise is: running! And Rufus has: Normal human levels of physique! He's panting before he's halfway there, and is lagging in the back of the group - likely behind Kukuru, given that she's got a motivation advantage over him right now. "The circus... trainers would be a lot better..." he pants out, trying to keep going. He more or less limps over the finish line, and chugs the first drink he sees in Kukuru's fridge, regardless of what it is.
Sarracenia	'Oh, Sarracenia. You look nice today, The battle damage look suits you.' Sarra blinks in surprise and blushes quite a bit. "O-oh? W-well...thank you?" she says with an uncertain smile. She sounds slightly skeptical, but she's more bewildered than anything. Someone complimented her look? Now? When she feels like she looks the worst she's ever looked? And not only that, but it is the second time someone has! And the last person was Madeleine, someone who doesn't even like her. Maybe there is something to it? White is here, in a decidedly unflattering outfit compared to her other looks. Not that workout attire naturally looks terrible, but White's choice of outfit draws Sarra's attention. "Oh dear. Commander White...if you needed proper workout attire I would have been happy to help!" Her tone certainly doesn't sound like she means it as an insult, but it might be insulting anyway. Natsuki receives a friendly wave when Sarra gets a chance. "Hello Natsuki! It is good to see you!" she says, even as she mentally questions someone who thinks this was a wonderful display. Is Natsuki more like Kukuru than Sarra thought? As for the Ginyu Force...it is not that Sarra is dismissing the idea that they are strong, it just seems unlikely that warrior is their primary occupation with those antics and poses. Burter proves they must have some level of competence with his speed display. She ends up with an flat, unamused expression that they are racing him, though. Still, he said they could get there however they wanted. And Sarra doesn't consider using her powers and power-ups to be cheating. So, when Jeice urges them on, Sarra pulls out a Bullet Bill power-up. She steps away from the group, then thrusts it forward. An explosion engulfs her, and from it rockets out a car-sized bullet with a shark face. It is nowhere near Bunter's speed, but it is certainly faster than a typical humans' running speed! The Bullet Bill explodes after it has traveled a good distance and Sarracenia comes gracefully spiraling out. She travels in an arc, pulling out another power-up as she goes. Another explosion, another Bullet Bill. She repeats this until she has crossed the finish line in Bullet Bill form which explodes one last time a couple dozen feet after. She spirals backward this time to gracefully land right on the finish line, still twirling, before coming to a stop in a pose of her own. A fairly typical ballerina pose, hands together above her head, balancing on one toe, the other lifted with the flat resting against her knee. She holds it for a moment before slowly lowering to a curtsey. "I forgot to introduce myself. I am Princess Sarracenia Sundew, Crown Princess of the Sundew Kingdom. Charmed, I am sure." She then turns to look back at Kukuru and Rufus (assuming they have not yet crossed) and cheers them on.
Natsuki Nuki	"Oh, totally." Natsuki gabs quietly with Kukuru, fluttering and twittering in the periphery of her tone. "Getting the fighting insights from other sectors sounds great, something no-one's ever seen. This is a great opportunity!" She continues, not quiet in her praise of Kukuru which is softly praise of the Ginyu Force, and also her expectations from them at the same time. And then they-- pose again! Natsuki is a tiny, but perceptible amount, less interested. She's still smiling but there's no clapping, seeing as she took no damage nor felt any dread from the special pose where five aliens work together to. . . be a boyband? Natsuki had those already. Ginyu saves the situation by addressing her personally by title, which gets her placing a hand on her collar and smiling thinly. "Captain. It's nice you're familiar. Testing our limits?" She came looking for power, to power up, and what Burter explains while running around in a big circle and then stopping is that actually what they will be doing is cardio. Dropping her chin and grinning, such that her high hat might be reasonable because she's doing her best to not crack in the face of the appreciable speed of Burter. Sarracenia saves her, which is a pleasant surprise due to the circumstance at really trying not to corpse for the Super Fighting Pose Squad. "Good to see you too, Princess. Glad you're keeping up with your jogging," The chimera woman lifts a faint smirk the royal's way. Behind, her tail gives Sarracenia an 'I can't stand this' dull set of deeply bored eyes at a sinister simmer of a gaze, drooping as if sleepy and low to the ground. "But you're actually pretty personally powerful, aren't you? Tall, real strong, big hammer. No surprise finding you here. It's Mr. Shinra I'm really surprised here to see. Do you do distance speed? Or are you here for 'special purposes'?" She inquires, before rolling her shoulders and drawing off her jacket with a slow roll of one shoulder to let it fall the rest of the way off one arm and looping it from 'on' to 'in hand' with a single motion before tossing the white-pink hoodie at Jeice for telling her to get going. "If you're not running you can hold that. I wouldn't want to get my stuff scuffed by cross country in it." She chuffs, and then starts running with Kukuru. It gets really obvious really fast by how casually she's taking it to keep up with Kukuru that Natsuki's footspeed even while wrapped like a Totally Normal Human Woman she is at a light jog for Kukuru's full tilt. This also keeps her at pace with Rufus, who she also does not stress at all to comfortably stick with him but who would expect that? What's more, and more particular: She runs with her fellow Partners. "Talking about surprise and then demanding a mountain run, that's the surprise, I have totally good mountains to run to at home!" She complains, pepping up the gang by particularly negative gab about the situation. Meanwhile, on the farthest mountain, a storm brews. Sarracenia is totally fine, but a terribly sour weather pattern sets in entirely to rain on Burter for running off ahead. As they arrive, with Sarracenia completely dry and Burter having had a good long while to cool off (wet) despite his incredible speed, all the undodged raindrops begin to finally have a chance to fully air dry with everyone collected. "You should have run with us, Burter! Then we could've really surprised you." She sighs, shrugging. "Ah well."
White	White spends a short time pondering drop rates; while she's seen them come up back home, typically they came with the frustrating caveat of getting lower the stronger she got. You know, on account of her average attack leaving less and less behind... It was still tempting to complain about desire sensors and RNGods, though. They were mostly only ever a rough estimate anyway, like most stats, averaged across possible outcomes and effort levels. It's important to learn how to interpret your data! Thinking about that nonsense only takes a small portion of her attention though. Ginyu's introduction earns him a light wave back while he's speaking to the group, and the declaration of intent and motivation gets a little nod. Maybe she wouldn't put her own motivations so humbly- she's pretty damn close to invincible!- but there are plenty of mundane things she doesn't think she could do as well as would be helpful. Hence, here she is. She's not going to judge posing as one of the things they want to improve either; if they can get away with doing that in a fight then maybe it works like training weights? Like, if you can manage to waste movement on purpose it's a sign you're that good? Sarracenia's concern is met with a placid look upward from where she's sat, and to her credit she doesn't immediately refuse. Her best attempt at answering is to briefly explain, "It's for... The right mindset." Being pretty and wearing nice clothes by default, is, of course, her right. She's a weaver-god for crying out loud. But she seems to think there's some kind of value in presenting differently for days like this where she's rebuilding her assumptions. White doesn't have much trouble tracking Burter when he does a lap around the group, and... She takes his confidence seriously. He's pretty fast! And surely he wouldn't show off his full speed all at once, so he must be even faster right? So... She teleports there to the hill, out of sheer habit. Fortunately, she has the grace to reconsider this approach when she watches Kukuru, who arranged this whole event, running normally from afar. She soon teleports back to where she started and stands up while carefully stretching, not especially hurried by the insistent commands. Before long she goes about things the more normal way with everyone else, pretending she never made the little faux pas at all. Similarly fortunately, she's pretty fast herself. Not in the 'speedster' way or the 'good at running' way, but in the way that simply having a lot of physical power to throw into every step allows her to lunge ahead with consecutive leaps, making up the time deficit her little delay caused her. It's not the kind of thing that works great on, say, a smoothly rounded running track where you have to turn slowly, but in a straight line dash she's more than capable without trickery. Unfortunately for Sarra, White just chose the high road, and that means everybody else is taking it with her. After she's arrived via bullet-time transit, she manages to get herself through her smug introduction before sensing a sort of gentle warping of the air around her. The distance means there's a delay, but if White can see her, she can teleport her, and on a huge open plain and looking up to a hilltop there's no way Sarra isn't in view to be hauled right back into the pack of runners for the rest of the way. If it helps, though, she's not fully leaving the others in the dust on purpose; her leap-running kind of means she struggles to fully keep pace without bobbing ahead or behind fairly regularly, but it's a group activity... And one she doesn't have to talk much during, which is even better!
Kukuru	"No need to rush... Well, maybe a little rushing's good. Ah, I'll ask around about those another time. Maybe Razz would be able to help with that..." Kukuru answers Rufus with a thoughtful nod, somehow still completely oblivious to his skepticism about the squad of silly soldiers. Seeing Sarracenia's reaction to Rufus' compliment, meanwhile, gets a soft giggle out of Kukuru that's equal parts affectionate and bittersweet. She knows (roughly) how Sarracenia came to look like this, after all, and it takes a moment for Kukuru to push down that guilt enough to speak up after that. "It's rugged, mhm. Liiike... A heroic veteran, you know?" Whilst gabbing with Natsuki, Kukuru actually punches a few more notes into her phone that will definitely be understandable later and not just confuse herself in the process. "Learning how to fight better would reaaally help, mhm. I wonder if their Special Fighting stuff includes techniqures and stuff, too..." Although Kukuru's still amused, Ginyu can easily see that Natsuki isn't, and his eyes flit towards the other members of the squad for the briefest of moments before he nods. "Victory isn't only about throwing the hardest punch, or sprinting to the finish line the fastest." He purposely avoids looking at where Burter was. "Warriors need to be able to keep it up for as long as it takes, too. Even simple cardio can mean the difference between life and death, and keeping up the morale of your troops can be the difference between defeating an insurmountable foe or falling before even the weakest of babies." This time, he does actually look straight at Guldo. "Now let's go, and run like your lives depend on it!" "Pace yourselves, boy and girls! We know you've got more in you than that!" "That's right! One leg at a time, and push it until you got no more left in the tank, then push it again!" Apparently, Sarracenia wasn't too far off with her own prediction about these guys. Jeice and Recoome are both jogging backwards as they keep shouting encouragement at the Elites, the former having caught Natsuki's jacket earlier and slinging it over his shoulder to look at least 20% more cool than he did before. At least Rufus and Kukuru won't be the only ones lagging behind, even if the latter is huffing and puffing and struggling to even look like she's jogging. Ginyu, Recoome, and Jeice clearly aren't concerned with pulling ahead while they're doing their spirit squad thing, but Guldo is having trouble even keeping up with the slowest of the visiting Elites here! "Maybe the... THey've got some thing pla... Planned?" Kukuru gurgles out in between gasping breaths, laughing despite herself as Natsuki helps keeps her spirits going with the power of complaining. "Even though I... hills.. Home, yeah. And... And Grand Dorado? Uhuh..." She grumbles lightly, glancing back at Guldo while he continues to lag behind. "Do you have a... Any hints, dear?" "Bah... Bageb... Mrgnh!" He's not even getting real words out.
Kukuru	With the mountains up ahead, Burter's on pace to get there before anyone else! Before he does, though, he sees something that visibly shocks him to his core: White just appearing way ahead of him, and she skids to a stop while trying to comprehend what just happened. "Ah...? Wha... But how?!" He blurts out to himself more than to White, going bug-eyed again when she promptly disappears. He looks around several times, mouth hanging agape when he sees White aaaall the way back there with everyone else that's running normally. Seeing Sarracenia letting loose with the Bullet Bill transformation and White transforming has Kukuru sorely tempted to teleport to get ahead, too. She doesn't, though, because she's the one that needs to train badly today. She knows it, too, and seeing White and Natsuki both maintaining pace instead of jumping ahead gives her plenty of encouragement to just keep pushing it! It's just going to take a long, LONG while to perservere that way. Guldo isn't above using everything at his disposal to go ahead, though, and when he sees Sarracenia's first Bullet Bill transformation... He holds his breath, and time freezes. A brief sprint later, and suddenly, he's no longer trailing behind everyone. Instead, he's holding onto that first Bullet Bill! And then he gets sent sprawling back when that first one explodes, curled up in a smoking pile after the fact. Luckily for him, Kukuru scoops him right up, passively funneling some healing nanites into the green thing while trudging along. By the time Sarracenia comes up with those Bullet Bill-based explosions, he's already pretty darn soaked by Natsuki's rain while sitting on a fallen tree. He only looks up when he hears her approaching, inhaling deeply in order to get his game face back on. "N... Nice moves there, Princess. You might even give Recoome a run for his money with all that." He encourages, stepping up besides her and squatting in place before shouting encouragement towards the runners as well. He's clearly not as into it as the other members were while encouraging everyone in their running, though, audibly shaken about something. When everyone catches up, he also replies to Natsuki: "Is that so? I've been surprised plenty already today, but you'll have plenty more chances to do that again during the rest of our training. That won't be the first time we do that run, and I'll make sure to come first next time!" Kukuru looks like she's ready to pass out when she hears that, but she has a solution: Drinks! She still remembers where the cooler was from earlier, and teleporting that to where everyone else is at the foot of this mountain is as quick as her just grasping blindly in front of her and pulling it out of a dark cloud. "Convenient...! That's one way to get a passing grade in surprise, I'd say. Drop outta one of those, bust some heads... Eh? What's with you, Burter?" Jeice raises an eyebrow as he looks over at the reptile man who looks a good two feet shorter than he normally does despite not moving an inch after seeing that.
Kukuru	"Alright, now that everyone's good and limbered up... Let's see your power-" Recoome bellows as he steps up for the next stage of the training, standing at his full height on the toes of his boots to rapidly inch forward while barely moving his legs at all. His micro-steps take him towards a pile of rocks and boulders aggressively increasing in size, with some even being the size of small trucks. "-and poise!" Dipping forward to form a T with his torso and one leg, he scoops up two of the larger stones (roughly torso-sized) and extends his arms all the way out before turning back to the Elites with a quick twist on that single foot. "We hear you've got some real powerhouses, but how good are you at pulling thatpower out when you need it? When your back's to the wall, your head's on the ground, and your hands are way to full, can you still pull out all that power when you need it the most?" Still holding himself in that T-shape with his arms outstretched and weighed down by those rocks, he turns one more time to face one of the largest boulders while barely wavering in his stance at all. His mouth opens, and he shouts "Eraser Gun!" before firing a concentrated beam of energy at the rock to blow it up with little regard for all the stony shrapnel it sends out in the process. "Now, show me what you've got! Grab the biggest rocks you can, do some squats, and let's see how hard you can still hit with that weighing you down!" Kukuru claps, of course, albeit haggardly since she's still worn out from the run. Setting Guldo's mostly unconscious body aside, she wipes the sweat off her face with the bottom of her shirt before moving towards one of the other largest boulders. "Power and poise, power aaand poise..." She repeats to herself, furrowing her brow while visibly struggling to figure out how to even show those things off. Maybe taking things one step at a time will help her figure this out. Kukuru hoists the boulder up over her head with a hand, then looks back at her fellow Concord members with a questioning eye. "How do I.. Um. Show poise? I don't have any neat mouth beams like that one befoooore..." She murmurs while seemingly having more trouble doing squats and coming up with ideas than actually holding up that boulder. Ginyu, for his part, mostly seems content to be overseeing things at the moment, although he's also deliberating with Jeice (who's still sipping one of those sodas from the fridge and definitely not trying to look like a magazine model with Natsuki's jacket over his shoulder).
Rufus Shinra	> "Talking about surprise and then demanding a mountain run, that's the surprise, I have totally good mountains to run to at home!" The shared negativity from Natsuki does help a bit. \|Rufus rep +1!\| Rufus's Enemy Skill materia shines brightly as Sarracenia blasts past as a literal bullet, but he's too busy to notice right now. ____________________________________________________________ \| ENEMY SKILL GAINED: BULLET BILL DASH \| \|__________________________________________________________\| Recoome's up next! And it's a strength challenge! This is once again not something Rufus is good at! "Power and poise..." repeats Rufus, who is determined to see this through, even if he's not having a good time with it. > "Eraser Gun!" ____________________________________________________________ \| ENEMY SKILL GAINED: RECOOME ERASER GUN \| \|__________________________________________________________\| "Oh, there! Lead with that! The flashy techniques, not all this... 'foundational' stuff." Now he's more invested. A little bit. Rufus goes and selects two rocks that, being strictly honest, are not the biggest rocks he can carry, and goes to mimic Recoome's T-pose, and then focuses on a third rock on the ground. "Right... poise... and..." ____________________________________________________________ \| RUFUS CAST ICE 1 \| \| \| \| BUT IT FAILED! \| \|__________________________________________________________\| The magic fizzles out at his fingertips. "How are you supposed to do this with your hands full!"
Sarracenia	'Good to see you too, Princess. Glad you're keeping up with your jogging,' Sarra giggles a bit. "A princess does not jog for exercise. Especially not this princess. I use dance and combat training to keep myself in such good shape." One of those is princessly. One is not. 'But you're actually pretty personally powerful, aren't you? Tall, real strong, big hammer. No surprise finding you here.' Sarra blinks in surprise. "...powerful? Me? Do you really think so?" It is clear that Sarra is not so sure she is powerful. She thought so once, but that was years ago now. These days she considers herself more in the range of 'maybe has some power'. 'N... Nice moves there, Princess. You might even give Recoome a run for his money with all that.' Sarra holds out a hand to catch a few raindrops as rain seems to only fall on Burter. Sarra giggles. "That would be silly. I am a princess. I do not need his--" Sarra starts to say, clearly meaning to make a joke, but then... Yank! Sarra blinks. "...money..." she murmurs in quiet disbelief as she finds herself now at the back of the group watching the others run. She has been yanked through a few portals now thanks to Xion, but usually that is to help her. A slight growl escapes her before she starts running. Kukuru doesn't say anything about teleporting Sarra, so...Sarra's eyes shift to White. "Feeling lonely, were we?" she asks, her attitude more annoyed than actually mad. "Or is this more about the right mindset." Sarra blinks as she notices Kukuru carrying Guldo. "...what happened to him?" she asks. Even if she considers herself to have already won, Sarra refuses to run at the back. So, she catches up to and tries to stay just ahead of Kukuru and Rufus. The princess does not usually run, much less run in a group. So, it is a rare chance to see her well-toned form. Despite her decadent lifestyle, the princess keeps herself in very good shape. Her dress and her long and shimmering silver hair flowing in the breeze created by their running, adding elegance to her movements. When she (once again) reaches the mountain and Burter, the princess is only somewhat out of breath. She slows to a stop, panting softly, then watches Recoome. After seeing the point of the exercise, Sarra can't help a light smirk and a haughty 'hmph'. "You challenge Princess Sarracenia to a battle of power and poise?" she says, then peers at White. "Am I allowed to use my power-ups this time?" She doesn't really wait for an answer, her tone much more of the 'you so better not do that again' variety. 'How are you supposed to do this with your hands full!' Sarra takes up a ballet pose. Not unlike Recoome really, except she leans forward at the waist and sticks a leg out behind her. "Like this, Mister Rufus~" Holding the pose, she starts to spin slowly. She spins her way over to one of those torso-sized boulders and picks it up with both hands before shifting her balance so that she can keep spinning with the rock held in one hand. With her other hand, she reaches into her purse...and throws three Bullet Bills the size of that boulder into the air with seemingly no effort. They fly up high in a very steep arc. As they fly, Sarra continues her graceful spinning. Her free hand moves to touch the metal lotus in her hair, and liquid metal flows down over her arm and then her entire body until she is a twirling statue of silver. At the same time, a hammer as tall as she is with a head that must weigh more than she does forms in her free hand. Still twirling, Sarra gains speed as the Bullet Bills start to come down. And with deadly precision she hammers each on the flat of the bullet, firing them off with the sounds of artillery shots. They scream toward one of the largest boulders, each hitting and exploding in sequence to pulverize the rock much as Recoome had done.
Sarracenia	Sarra slowly twirls to a stop, then holds her stance just to show off a bit. The Silver slowly flows back to the flower, but she keeps the boulder in one hand and the hammer in the other...then looks at Recoome in an obvious challenge. Who can hold their pose the longest? The princess does look a tiny bit tired after that display. 'How do I.. Um. Show poise?' "Poise is all about being able to maintain your grace while under stress, Miss Kukuru! But, no one can tell you how to show poise. You have to show your own style, and maintain that style even when fighting!" This is actually a philosophy that Sarra herself follows! Whether she always succeeds at it is up for debate, though!
White	White, with her Roshi-style rocky burden secured to her back now... Seems unsure what to do from there. They said to... Attack something while weighed down? But the burden doesn't really get in the way of her spellcasting at all... Is she just supposed to start throwing punches and kicks at the air? It's her best guess, so it's what she ends up doing. She's definitely no martial artist, and the odd new center of balance has her wobbling and staggering between swings, especially when she throws a kick, but those kicks do still sometimes manage to make the air snap from their velocity, when she manages to keep her balance for the whole motion. Of course, putting all that weight on one foot makes her boot sink back into the ground... This is purgatory!! Of course, none of that likely constituted poise except her persistence in playing by the imaginary rules in her head (no teleporting as a crutch, no directly shaping the stone with earth magic or the like). Sarracenia being pouty about getting to use her powerups or not only wins her a shrug; White only cared when it seemed like Sarracenia was missing the point of the exercise, if they're being asked to use their powers under particular restraints then it makes plenty of sense she wouldn't mess with the princess again! ... Yet!
White	White doesn't have to think long before nodding at Sarracenia's supposition, the second one anyway. "I came back too." she says, almost inaudible over the sound of pounding feet on the ground... Though Sarra may very well have not even noticed White cheating ahead in the first place, since it was such a brief thing. She isn't breathing hard, she doesn't seem to sweat... It might feel a little unfair really. Not to say there's nothing going on in her body, it's just that every physical process is being backed with one or more magical ones automatically. Something like this is liable to make her trip up from eventual distraction before it would from physical fatigue, though she does seem to experiment somewhat with her stride, trying to make use of the time effectively anyway. She also might be able to narrow the sudden-onset rainclouds' cause down to Natsuki along the way after some cross-analysis between the people present and the clouds themselves. Burter getting rained on while he waits is a harmless sort of prank, and White looks in Natsuki's direction without any criticism or commentary, seeming thoughtful if anything. She's a little jealous, actually. 'Controlling the weather' is one of those kinds of abilities that thrives with creativity and really caters to the devious spirit. You can use it to be helpful, or just get payback without consequences sometimes. The closest thing White has to the latter is... Tying people up, or maybe teleporting them into really inconvenient places (which she definitely didn't just do to Sarra!)? It's fun to think about the petty things she'd use instant rainclouds for, and she probably ends up absently staring at Natsuki for a few more seconds in doing so. She'll understand, surely! Surely! Praise for teleportation is something she obviously stands behind though, and at the end of the run she walks over to Kukuru to pat her on the shoulder again like 'there there' as Kukuru catches her breath and gets into the cooler. She's still there when Recoome elaborates on the next exercise and demonstrates his signature move, so if any stony shrapnel flies at herself or Kukuru it's the least she can do to shield the both of them with a gentle push from her Earth magic to drop the fragments to the ground faster. Once again, the principle is sound; attacks that take forever to charge or need special conditions to activate might be cool, but they're pretty useless once someone knows you have them... The particular scenario he describes makes it sound like fighting while doing a punishment-headstand though. Now, White has no problem with heavy lifting, but once again she's lacking in the... Dexterity aspect, of how to apply her strength. She searches around for a rather large stone, something embedded in the ground initially, and realizes she doesn't really have big enough hands to get a grip around the sides of it to rip it out. She ends up making a Terrain Spear push it out of its cavity in the dirt like the launching pin in a pinball machine, and tries to catch it from its low-arc launch against her chest. She makes a muffled "Grf." noise as her chest is compressed supporting the weight, her feet sink into the newly destabilized soil under the added weight of a boulder nearly as large as her body, and she can't quite get her feet loose without dropping the stone again... No, she just has to improvise a little! Webs extend out from her fingers and wrists, completing the circuit around the other side of the boulder where her arms couldn't quite reach, and allowing her to carefully adjust until the rock was strapped behind her back like a backpack. Now she can actually lift her knees enough to get her boots out of the ground again, without teleporting, yipee!
Natsuki Nuki	The long time it takes Kukuru to get to the top of the mountain, with everyone else, to find the speedster smugly waiting there is... expected, of a strong sort. White going and getting Sarracenia and reeling her back to run with the gang is better. Natsuki is all there for that, giving Sarra a shoulder-bumping side hug mid jog when the tall princess shows up and not giving the Bill-flying royal a hard time. Too hard of a time. "Beat 'em, and where did that land you? Back with us." Natsuki jokes at an amused rumble-roll of throaty amusement that keeps threatening to spill over into birdsong, but she keeps it together when Jeice (fashionable, now) and Ginyu jog past. "See, Ginyu, your Burter should do the lapping us routine and then should be here, hustling with Kukuru, giving her tips on speed - from someone who really knows. This speedy guy act, sure, good in a fight - how's this helping Kukuru? Cardio ain't going to surprise some goon with a haircut and a popped collar, the claws will. So if there's no little segment where he doesn't double back after this - and don't tell him, I'll know -" Natsuki 'lies'. She'll know in the sense that she will cold read the fear off of someone sweating about screwing up and lean in and ASMR whisper 'busted' into their ear and kill them instantly via neck torsion if they shiver, not that she can read minds. Currently. "Hey, and you hear that, Jeice? Princesses don't cross-fit!" Natsuki calls forward, before sighing and keeping up her gab. It's going to be a while, and, she's got nowhere else to be for the afternoon. It had been circled and underlined 'FIGHT' on her calendar so her disappointment is on simmer. "Well maybe you're a technique type, hammer girl, but I'm pretty sure those big ones take at least a little arm." She continues, genuine by logic if nothing else. "And think about it - what if after blasting off alone over there, Burter surprises you?" At the end Burter so doesn't do a cool peptalk. He almost does. No tips, but, he at least pulls up on the hard attitude and general chuffery. Which is good! Natsuki as still considering the ASMR necksnap treatment for being forced to crossfit for a good cause, so Burter needs all the points he can get. Which brings them to: "You want me to... Okay. Look," Natsuki begins. "I get it. You want to see me show off. That's fine. I can do that," She drops a hand on Ginyu's shoulder, off to the side. "Since you're familiar, I bet you even want to see some. I get it! I live it, so I to~tally get it. So let's just clear something up." Natsuki takes a firm grip of one of Ginyu's shoulder spikes, hand closed firmly around it and gently manipulating the whole alien based on that rotational and vertical leverage. "Everyone's being really cool right now, because the Concord is really, really cool. But you better be into this, or something, because this is be-neath me." "And not in any of the good ways." Natsuki adds in conclusion, lifting up hands to resettle her hat tighter down on her head, eventually settling it mostly over one ear and side and askew because of it. She just didn't fit the cap! But she loved it anyway. Strength exercises aren't flashy out of Natsuki, but she also doesn't go into the chimerism for her transformations and scaling. Wearing a tank top and leggings, she's ready to work out and shifts down with proper form to get an arm under a big stone and shifts weight with shoulder and bicep and thigh muscles, holding one just awkwardly weighing down her side -- and it's her right side, because, her hat's skewed left, and, there's no way she's ruining her hatbrim for a rock.
Natsuki Nuki	So she doesn't. Loading a second in the other hand, this one is merely palm balanced, then, with a bit of awkwardness at the sheer unweildiness of her weight, heaves up a stone on her left side, aims with a following fingergun of thumb and forefinger. . . The stone is smote to powder by a tremendous sky-clearing bolt of electricity that unnaturally cracks solid stone via sheer energetic transfer and thermal shock. It, and a halo of ground beneath the impact point mid-air, seem properly devastated. Natsuki shoulders off the other rock with a great dusty thunk.
Kukuru	"I think he blew up somehow... Poor dear." Kukuru answers Sarracenia with a somber little nod, patting the green chunklet once on the head and making sure his head isn't twisted at a weird angle while setting him down. "Must've tired himself out doing... Whatever he did to try catching up." Apparently, Kukuru didn't actually see him hanging off of anyone. White's shoulder patting gets a gentle hand-over-hand pat from Kukuru in return, then an offered bottle of mostly cold soda! "Aw, thanks, dear. And for coming back." She giggles softly, feeling some of that fatigue melting away while leaving it up in the air just how much she actually noticed. She doesn't seem too worried about all that rocky shrapnel, either, partially because she knows White's right there with her, and partially because she knows her nanites well enough to have them spread out and ready to mend whatever nicks and cuts White might unknowingly receive from all that junk flying around. "Fan of the flashy stuff, huh? You've got the footwork down, even if your size isn't all there." Recoome comments on the size of Rufus' rocks with a wide grin, tilting sideways at a nearly 90 degree angle to get a better look at what he's doing. A few seconds later, and he's even holding a hand out to do that right-angled thumb-forefinger thing. "Do you need hands to chew, too? Your fighting spirit doesn't just exist in your hands, boy! Scream it out, kick it out, blow it out your nose if you have to! Just get it out already!" Despite his crude wording, Sarracenia might recognize Recoome's stances as that of a seasoned ballerina's. He watches her closely as she brings out the explosives, but it's the transformation into that silver form that really has him watching closely. He never puts his raised leg down nor does he stand back up straight, of course, since he's still committing to the bit of holding that forward-leaning pose while still balancing those stones on his arms, but he does let out an impressed noise at the explosives being launched. Raising an eyebrow as Natsuki comes by, Ginyu actually listens to her in earnest while bringing a hand up to his chin and absorbing what she's laying down. "You've done this before, haven't you, Lady Nue? That was supposed to be the plan with Burter going around the whole hill and looping back to get her Guldo fired up, but..." He notes Burter's still-subdued and still-distracted expression, then continues. "Something happened after he pulled ahead. I can't even remember the last time I saw him looking like that,." He lets out a complicated noise while still trying to parse that look on the reptile-man's face, then lets out a more confused-yet-quiet noise when his center of gravity is disturbed by Natsuki's applied preassure. It takes a few seconds for understanding to actually hit Ginyu's face, and then he eventually settles into a partially-intimidated nod. "Of course, Lady Nue. This is just as much for my men as it is for your Lady Kukuru, so rest assured that we'll all be going through this wringer as a team and coming out the other end better for it. Even the so-called strongest and fastest in the universe need to know there's always someone bigger..." He glances over at the barely-stirring Guldo, then sighs. "... Or that even surprising trump cards can only go so far without anything else behind it."
Kukuru	Sarracenia's challenge can't go unanswered, of course, and he responds to her stance holding with a new pose of his own: the raised leg goes even higher until it's nearly pointed straight up, but his torso remains bent forward and kept parallel to the ground. With all of his limbs accounted for and only one leg to stand on, he starts tip-shuffling forward and rotating all the while. He's straining a bit to keep this power-ballet(???) contest going, but he's certainly not going to back down easily! At least, not until his legs give out. As strong and graceful as he is, Recoome is still the second tallest and first beefiest member of the Ginyu Force! It's cerainly a shock to him when his legs give out, but he does at least take it a little better than the reptile man does by not freaking out over it. And then Natsuki obliterates the absolute crap out of the stone with her sky-rending display of power. That's certainly enough to leave Recoome looking just as dead inside as Burter does. That leaves Ginyu and Jeice to weeigh in on White's demonstration instead, even if they might be interepeting it all from a different angle entirely. "A counterbalance, hmm? Not a bad idea, if you can put it together quickly in a fight." "Or maybe she's preppin' to fight out in space. Could be spinning all about out there, so being able to aim right even when you've gone all lopsided could save you one of these days." "That, it could, and has! Hmm.. Alright, Kukuru. Hold that on your back, and see how much power you can put forward. We'll finish the assessment there!" Kukuru still hasn't quite figured out her own style of poise and style even with Sararcenia's encouragement, but not for a lack of trying. She's still holding that truck-sized boulder up over her head while slowly teetering forward to do that right angle thing (minus lifting a leg). Even that's giving her trouble, but with new directions from Ginyu rather than just vague 'do it' like she had earlier, she's finally gotten some guidance! With Natsuki's lightning-smiting stunt also fresh in her mind, Kukuru even has an iae on how to proceed with both those pieces of advice. "Ooh.. Okaaay. I think I see what I can do now..." She calls out with a quick nod, hopping forward with her boulder braced on her back while she approaches a formation of giant stones that definitely weren't there a few minutes ago. "Okaaaay... Power! And poise!" She shouts out with almost as much energy as she had starting today's training session, and she opens up two portals: One in front of her in the ground, and another above the pile of stones. With an arm pulled back behind her, she drops through the ground-cloud to drop over those stones, using her own and the boulder's weight to crash down on that stone formation to ram her fist through them. Somehow, Kukuru manages not to lose her balance even after crunching through so many of those stones. As she wobbles back up with a little arm waving behind herself to try and regain her balance, Ginyu and Jeice step forward, with the former nodding at the latter while the latter pulls Kukuru back up into a proper-ish standing posture. "That'll do for today, folks. Now we've got an action plan going forward! Once we get... Everyone up and ready-" Jeice uses his eyes to gesture at Burter and Recoome, flicking his hair around once to hide that a bit from the two dejected-looking members of the force. "-we'll need to get some real strategy sessions in again. Not just pep talks and posing practice like we've been doing, but really workin' out what we need to shore up those weaknesses and close up the gaps we've uncovered today."
Kukuru	"Our pride's been getting in the way of our own progress as of late. Knowing that even the fastest or the strongest among us aren't isn't enough without showing it, so. We'll be starting bright and early to get your Partner into shape." Kukuru looks far too tired to protest or seem excited about hearing any of that. If anything, she just really wants to take a nap, although she still manages to force a determined little nod out of herself. "Mhm, mhm... I'll be here. And if anyone else wants to join in for more, we've got pleeenty of space to do it." The ground screams where the stones Kukuru smashed were. It seems the ground itself is... Protesting? Surely that won't be something to worry about later.
Sarracenia	'Beat 'em, and where did that land you? Back with us.' Sarra is caught off guard by Natsuki's affectionate side hug, causing the princess to blush a bit and get a look like a deer in the headlights for a few moments. "W-well...no one said this was a group event. I thought it was a competition." she says in meager self-defense, though it is with a small smile thanks to Natsuki. 'I think he blew up somehow...Poor Dear.' Sarra looks slightly concerned at that. She's the only one using explosives around here, after all. "W-well, he should really watch where he is going. I cannot always see what is going on very well in a Bullet Bill." 'Hey, and you hear that, Jeice? Princesses don't cross-fit!' 'Well maybe you're a technique type, hammer girl, but I'm pretty sure those big ones take at least a little arm.' "Cross-fit? What does that mean?" Sarra asks, confused. The mention of arms though makes her smirk lightly. "Technique can only take you so far. Without the strength to back it up, technique is wasted. I only said I do not run, after all. I do train quite a bit." 'And think about it - what if after blasting off alone over there, Burter surprises you?' Sarra's smile fades at that question. "Why would I not go alone? A heroine should be able to handle things herself if needed. And besides...the number of people who would assist me in such a circumstance is virtually zero, anyway." she says, with her voice growing solemn and quiet at that last part. When Recoome lets out an impressed noise Sarra can't help a bit of a self-gratified sound. When Recoome shift pose, Sarra shifts right with him. Her free leg raises almost in sync with his. They might be putting on a team performance of some kind in other circumstances! But, this is not a pose that Sarra does often...or really ever. She holds it as long as she can, her legs and arms starting to shake. If she wins, it is by only a few moments and only because she is not nearly as heavy as Recoome. She collapses close enough in time to him that only someone like White or Burter might really be able to tell who won, then she lies there as the boulder rolls away and her Silver hammer flows back into her metal lotus hairpin. "V-very impressive." she says to Recoome, panting a bit. And then she lets out a very princess-like squeak when startled by the massive lightning strike. Eye wide, teeth clenched, fingers gripping the mountain beneath her for dear life, and now panting for an entirely different reason. "...r-right. More. S-sure." Sarra says, giggling nervously and forcing a smile over her still clenched teeth.