[center][b]Summary:[/b] STILL MORE CONVERSING. Crash, Kathy and Carmen successfully defeat the fabric army, but not before Crash has a run-in with the wrong side of the skirt of Carmen's dress.[/center]

[i][u] - Kathy - [/u][/i]
Kathy felt Crash's fingertips reach out to her but before they could discuss any plans or get ready for the attack, the dummies literally surrounded and rushed at them like a swarm. [i]'Thank goodness they're just fabric,'[/i] she thought, kicking one away as it tried to coil itself around her legs. Taking a deep breath, she ducked down and focused more on making contact with her feet rather than taking full swings at them. The minute her foot touched a dummy's head, she activated her ability, recoiling her foot back in the next split second as it was pushed back by her entire weight and the force of re-directed gravity. The same attack didn't do much for the fluttering bodies of fabric, unfortunately, but kicking at the head or soft arms seemed to force them back quite nicely. The real issue was the fact none of them were permanently put out of commission and they kept coming back at the three of them, consistently outnumbering their much smaller group.

Listening to Crash and Carmen's shouts she replied, "We need a way to decrease the numbers, even if by just a little bit!" Pushing another dummy away from her face, she located where the two of them were and re-grouped with them. The idea to burn them came to mind, but there had to be another solution. First, it was probably dangerous to start a fire in a wooden dojo while they were surrounded by flammable items. And also, this was the 'physical training' dojo. There had to be a way to defeat them without resorting to specialized magic abilities.

[i][u] - Yutaka - [/u][/i]
Yutaka watched with amusement as the students battled against his manipulated dummies. "Keep thinking!" He encouraged them, quickly moving to a different location so they couldn't locate him by voice. Now one way to defeat the dummies for certain would have been to defeat the manipulator but... In all honestly they would probably have better luck facing double the number of dummies he was sending out right now. He briefly glanced over at Tora, feeling a little bad for stealing someone that was training under him, but he couldn't help but feel amused as he watched them try to communicate together. [i]'Good. Seems like they don't need any lessons on getting along with each other.'[/i] He thought, [i]'But just playing friends won't count as teamwork itself. What will the 3 of you do?'[/i] He took one of the dummies by the soft head and hardened its body into the shape of an umbrella. For now he would let them try to do something about the fabric army, but soon he would be joining in on the fun as well. 

[i][u] - Crash - [/i][/u]
Crash fox's ears twitched as he heard Carmen yell back to him, he ripped his head back tearing an arm off of one of the dummies before he reverted back to his human form in a billow of purple smoke, looping his fingers in the string around the creatures neck he swung it around and flung it away from him, just in time to see Carmen's spectacular aerial assault on a dummy headed straight towards him, his eyebrows hitched up in surprise as she smashed down on top of it. Lifting his eyes he noticed another come up behind her, diving forward into a roll he narrowly avoided the flailing limbs of one of the creatures, pinging back onto his feet next to Carmen he slammed his hand into the neck area of the creature, using his previous momentum he aimed to slam the creature into the ground he was aware that the move wouldn't hurt it, but it prevented it from wrapping around the musician. "Good plan" He flashed Carmen a grin, his eyes shifting past her to rest on Kathy as she fought her way towards them. "Finding a weakness?" He asked Kathy, jamming his foot into the creatures neck he stood back up ending up grappling with a second creature. "I can shapeshift into sharp things" He contributed in a rather unhelpful manner, lifting a foot and propelling the second creature away from him, he stumbled to Kathy's left side to block any creatures coming at her that way, watching Carmen's flank closely as well. 

[i][u] - Carmen - [/i][/u]
Disappointed that her attack hadn't done so much as get the dummy's attention, Carmen whipped her head around to see Crash save her from being caught by a dummy coming up from behind. "Thanks," she said quickly, returning the grin as she stuck close to Crash watching his flank as he did hers. The duo was doing well to keep the fabric army off of them, but not much else. Carmen was using all manners of physical strikes, both with her trumpet and without, on all areas of the dummies, to no avail. "They don't seem to have any," she responded to Crash's question to Kathy. "Surely there has to be something we can do? He wouldn't send these at us if we couldn't defeat them with physical means...I think," she said, unsure of her reasoning. "Blunt physical attacks are about all I have," she pointed out, though she was sure there was more she could do. Hoping Crash or Kathy would have an idea more quickly than her, she continued to fight the onslaught.

[i][u] - Kathy - [/u][/i]
Kathy moved to cover Crash and Carmen's free side, which naturally just put the 3 of them into a rough triangle covering each other's backs. "Same here," She answered, referring to the fact she also only had blunt physical attacks. "I wouldn't really call it a weakness but..." Lifting a foot high above her head, she stepped down onto a dummy that tried to grab onto Carmen's arm. It wiggled around in a rather creepy manner with its head pinned against the floor, but didn't seem capable of much else. "They're light enough you can just keep them pinned to the floor with one foot." Now if they had about 10 more people on their side they could've just stepped on all of them to keep them from moving, but that wasn't possible with just their team of three. In the end, she had to release the dummy under her foot to attack other dummies that tried to grab hold of her other limbs.

[i][u] - Yutaka - [/u][/i]
"Hmm..." Yutaka began to wonder if maybe he should have let them start off with a smaller crowd. Well, it was too late to consider such matters now and if they succeeded defeating these then they were well on their way to gaining actual experience to be used in more serious battles to come in the future. Bending down, he placed one hand on the ground as he got into a runner's starting position with the other hand holding onto the 'hardened' dummy acting as a sort of shield in front of him. Using the surrounding dummies as a visual cover, he sprang into a full charge as he aimed to slam the shield into Carmen.

[i][u] - Crash - [/i][/u]
Crash found it easier to keep the dummies at bay when the 3 of them worked together in a triangle formation, he kept the annoying sheets from getting to either of the other students though he was beginning to get frustrated with this yo-yo like battle. "Agreed" He assured Carmen, he didn't know the teacher but this was physical training dojo...and he was teaching them that subject, so it made sense. "Its still something, perhaps there is a way to keep them down" He He growled in frustration jumping onto one of the sheets, he pinned its arms down with his knees and grabbed at the string around its neck, attempting to rip the material away from the sheet to see if it did anything, regardless of whether or not it worked Crash was forced to dodge off to the side to avoid another creature, placing himself back into the triangle he caught a glimmer of color amongst the white dummies, it probably took him half a second to realize it was Yutaka charging straight at Carmen. "Car-" With little consideration to any of the repercussions, he shot sideways aiming to slam his shoulder into the teacher just before he reached the fiery blonde as he hadn't the time to get in front of him, perhaps if he could knock him off of his current course it'd be enough and give Carmen just that little bit of extra time to react. 

[i][u] - Yutaka - [/i][/u]
The dummy, having lost the string keeping the stuffing inside its head, limply flopped down onto the ground as a large white sheet with stuffed arms sewn into the surface. Though it continued to move around, it lost its central weight and could not actually keep anyone really tied down anymore. It could still cover them like a blanket, but that was probably just more annoying than anything else.

Meanwhile, Yutaka turned the 'hardened' dummy in his hand towards Crash instead of Carmen to meet his blow. He first let the shapeshifter make contact with the hardened surface, before he quickly released it (turning the fabric soft again) and jumped up and out of the way. "Excuse me ladies." Landing behind the girls, he pushed them in opposite directions into the crowd of dummies in an attempt to separate them.

[i][u]Carmen[/i][/u]
As Carmen was basically swatting one of the dummies away from Kathy's back, she didn't notice Yutaka charging for her, whipping her head around just in time to see something that wasn't like the others make contact with Crash, quickly deducing that it was Yutaka. Suddenly via an impressive leap he was behind her, and also suddenly he pushed her away from Kathy. She was quickly completely surrounded with dummies, so to give herself a little breathing room she took her trumpet and held it out, rapidly spinning around almost like a ballerina, hitting each dummy on the head as she went around. She stopped her spin and was given a few milliseconds to calculate her next move. She had seen Crash go for a dummy's string but hadn't seen the result, as she went to swat dummies away from Kathy, but she figured it was worth a shot. She just needed to isolate the dummies. As they recovered from her spin attack, she bunted one back with the leadpipe of her trumpet, chasing it down with another dramatic aerial assault, only to separate it further. As soon as it was separated enough, she rolled behind it and grabbed its string, forcefully yanking it off. Its effectiveness seemed to be significantly impaired, so she figured that would be her next plan to deal with the rest of them. "Kathy, go for the strings!" she yelled, assuming Crash would since he came up with the idea in the first place.

[u][i] - Kathy - [/i][/u]
"Carmen!" Kathy called out, noticing the teacher charging at them as Carmen took a dummy off of her back. Luckily, it seemed that Crash had noticed too and decided to take matters into his own hands. But Yutaka had nimbly evaded the shapeshifter and landed behind them, giving them a firm push into the crowd of dummies. "Woah!" Trying to retain her balance as she was forced to step forward, the dummies instantly swarmed around her. [i]'He managed to separate all of us with just a few steps.'[/i] She realized, kicking the dummies away again as they continued to try to tangle themselves around her limbs. Hearing Carmen calling out from the crowd Kathy nodded (out of reflex, not really taking into consideration that the trumpet player could not see her) and decided to try it out. Stepping on one of the fluttering bodies of the dummy, she pinned it in place as she yanked at the string on its neck, snapping it after some effort. "It's working! Let's keep tearing away the strings for now!"

[i][u] - Crash - [/i][/u] 
Crash hadn't expected Yutaka to react quite as quickly as he had, though he knew he really should have done he thumped against the hard surface barely moving it as he did. He pulled back as it became soft and restrictive arms wrapped themselves around his torso, he stumbled backwards his eyes watching Yutaka as he struggled to loop his fingers into the string around the creatures neck, trying to move back towards the girls he felt his stomach sink as in one simple movement the teacher managed to separate the 3 of them again. In his logical brain he knew this was a training exercise but he wasn't able to suppress the panic he felt once both of his companions were out of his sight. the claws that slid out of the tips of his fingers cut through the string with ease, though as the creature lost its central weight and became a wriggly blanket it fell forward onto his head, obscuring everything from view which just made it worse as the creatures tried to entangle him in their plush arms. "Ah ya, nug munching noodle snatchers" He hissed, kicking out at the buggers as he waved his arms around wildly. To the outside viewer he looked as if his mother had decided to dress him up as a ghost for Halloween. Luckily enough his flailing limbs proved to be quite effective at battering the plush creatures away from him, his ears pricked as he heard Carmen's voice to his right he'd almost wriggled free of the blanket when he heard Kathy call back to his left, encouraging them to go for the strings. "Suggestion taken, feel free to move back over here if you can" He announced finally freeing himself from the blanket. "I can talk-" He continued on, launching forward to grab another creature. "-for England so-" after being batted over the head and seized by another he looped his claws into the string around its neck, tugging back hard enough it snapped with ease. "-that way you'll know where-" He shouted waving his claws at the creature currently twisting around his arm shredding it as he tried to claw the string from its neck. "-I am all the time" Success! but it was swiftly replaced by another. "How about-" He dodged out of the way of some of the creatures having to slam his foot into anothers torso to give himself some breathing room before he could think about going for their strings. "-I recite poetry or-" He continued on. 
 
 [i][u] - Carmen - [/i][/u]
 Hearing the affirmative calls from Kathy and Crash was a good sign - the string theory [s](sorry...)[/s] was definitely proving itself. Carmen began moving over towards Crash in response to his quite polite and diplomatic request for help, focusing more on covering distance and clearing a path towards Crash than pulling every string. As she neared him with a group of dummies in tow (it was fortunate that they weren't particularly quick) and heard his amusing attempt to keep everyone informed of his location, she responded as she began brutally trumpet hammering the dummies closest to him (strings could come off later): "Oh [i]relax[/i], you're fine!", she said in a way more suited to casual conversation over fine wine than intense combat. "See, the cavalry is here to save you," she said as she clubbed another dummy. "The unwieldy, very un-graceful cavalry - OH!" she remarked and then exclaimed as the group of dummies following her caught up. Rolling to the side to avoid the solid line of them, she began knocking them back with her trumpet. At this point, lots of strings had been pulled [s](can't stop won't stop)[/s], and the number of dangerous (i.e. stringed) dummies was noticeably dwindling. It seemed that the trio would be able to pull out the fight after all - without Yutaka's "assistance", of course.

[i][u] - Alistair - [/i][/u]
Alistair nodded "thank you" he took a deep drink of the water bottle and set it down. he took a deep breath and his form changed slightly, it was a little bit painful but he shifted back into a ball of light. He settled down to the ground, with little noises coming from him.

[i][u] - Andromeda - [/i][/u]
Andromeda stood up and cleared her throat. she swatted at the snakes and said "leave him alone, you're scaring him" she looked at him "you're name's Zi..von? that's a nice name do you want a hand?" she put out a hand towards him "are you alright? i didn't hurt you did i?" then another boy approached, he appeared to know Zivon so she quietly cleared her throat, let him notice her if he wished but she wasn't going to push herself into the conversation.

[u][i] - Kathy - [/i][/u]
[i]'How much stamina does he have?'[/i] Kathy wondered as she listened to Crash continue to talk as he battled the dummies. It [i]did[/i] make it very easy to find him and re-group once more though. She was quite certain she would've felt tired and breathless by now if she talked that much while moving around, but perhaps there was a reason why Crash always seemed to energetic on a normal basis. Kick away a few, pull off the string from another. Kick away some more, and move closer to the other two. She repeated this process until the 3 of them were back together again. "May want to get these out of the way completely!" She told the other two, grabbing a handful of the wiggling dummies on the floor and tossing them aside completely. The last thing the needed was for one of them to slip on the fabric and injure themselves. "One... Three... Just seven left!" She happily announced, counting the number of dummies still able to move around.

[i][u] - Yutaka - [/u][/i]
Yutaka smiled. Though they had started off rather clueless, they made quick progress and would be able to complete the training with no problems at all at this rate. There was no point separating them any more since there weren't enough dummies to cover them from view and he couldn't make a sneak attack anymore either. He had planned on interfering a couple more times, but since they were so quick on the uptake he decided to let him finish and have their victory. Leaning against a wall a small distance away from them, he watched them go at the last handful of dummies still left.

[i][u] - Crash - [/i][/u]
Crash had just knocked back another creature when Carmen appeared in his peripheral vision, he turned his head blinking in awe as she practically charged into the group surrounding him. "Perfect timing fair knight" He commented as she clubbed another of the dummies with her trumpet. It presented him with the opportunity to lunge forward and grab the string of another, attempting to loop his claws up and through it. However Carmen's appearance had resettled him and they'd shrunk back, he fumbled for a moment before getting enough of a grip to yank it away. "Un-graceful? Not possible" Crash flashed Carmen a grin hearing her exclaim he glanced over his shoulder, instead of dodging he dropped his shoulder and rammed into central dummy knocking it back as the others turned to swarm, yet again Carmen jumped to his rescue trumpet in hand. Pulling the string of the dummy trapped beneath him he hopped back onto his feet, adrenaline was a beautiful thing as soon as it hit his system he was an unstoppable ball of energy...that would probably eventually expire in a dramatic fashion. For now he jumped to help Carmen out, crimson eyes falling on Kathy as she made it back to them. "Probably best before-" Crash agreed with her, aiming a front kick at a dummy coming up on her left just as she grabbed a fistful of the blankets, one of which was under his supporting foot. The dummy still flew backwards but Crash's balance was terrible so even though the fabric simply ripped beneath his foot the jolt threw his centre of balance, causing him to fall backwards onto his butt. "-I fall over" He finished pinging back to his feet before he could be bundled by sheets. "Alright then" He grinned at Kathy, "In that case we've got this, all for one and one for all" He encouraged turning his back to Kathy and Carmen lunging forward to grab another of dummies to wrestle the string from its neck. 

[u][i] - Ara - [/i][/u]
“Ah, the first best hat belongs to a rather fashionable alien from outer space.” Ara chuckled, technically answering them but probably still confusing them. Nodding, she followed them all to the dojo, eager to get her first chance at dealing with firearms. Answering Little Feather’s question she nodded, “Yup, I’m a student here. I registered rather late so I haven’t even gotten a chance to look at the campus yet.” Smiling she added, “So it makes sense if you haven’t seen me around, since it’s my first day joining everyone.” Hearing the first rounds of gunfire coming from inside, she let out a low whistle. "Wow, I wonder if students are even allowed to keep their own personal firearms on campus?"

[i][u] - Leroy - [/u][/i]
Leroy smiled blissfully at Zivon's reaction. Even without receiving a proper reply, it was easy to see that he had been remembered. “Nice to see you again too.” He laughed. Then noticing the book decompose in the boy’s hand he commented, “That seemed like a waste. Guess you’re not a fan of studying either?”
 
Hearing the girl (Andromeda) clear her throat, he turned his attention to her as well. “Oh, excuse me. I didn’t mean to make you feel ignored miss.” Normally he greeted people by looking directly into their eyes, but in her case he felt rather distracted and watched the snakes on her head move this way and that. It was oddly fascinating to watch. “Not sure if you heard, but my name’s Leroy. Care to tell me your name as well?”

[i][u] - Andromeda - [/i][/u]
Andromeda blinked when the guy turned his attention to her "oh, uh Yes i heard" she tried flattening the snakes on her head but they were being unruly today and ignored her. she put out a hand to shake his "I'm Andromeda, it's nice to meet you" she saw his eyes were on her snakes and she blushed and tried flattening them again, when that didn't work she sent a sudden stern command to the snakes to settle and they reluctantly stopped moving "how do you do, Leroy?"

[u][i] - Zivon - [/u][/i]
Zivon kept quiet, even though he wanted to say something nothing came out of his mouth. He was scared, nervous, panicking…all those things he felt during the auditorium but worst. He dropped the decomposed book from his hands and covered his face. Zivon was so close to crying just looking at Leroy’s…smile. There was something wrong with that smile that made him cringe…something that isn’t right. He bit his bottom lip and stood up, he then picked another book and started to read it, trying to remove the fear and anxiety filling his whole body. Somehow he was able to mutter out something… “I-I …I l-li-li…k…e s-stud-d…..yi…n-ng” Zivon stuttered out while reading a book about…mythological places while trying to have eye contact with Leroy. 
 
[u][i] - Garden - [/u][/i]
Garden looked at Lady Ara and was curious of…firearms…. “Excuse me for asking Lady Ara but what is…firearms? I never heard such a thing…is it the loud thingy that made that Bam sound?” Garden asked, where she lived…they had no guns or firearms of such. She looked again at the dojo and petted Sunflower who oddly enough was still a sleep.

[u][i] - Leroy - [/i][/u]
"It's a beautiful name." Leroy commented, smiling at Andromeda. He wondered if the snakes were just a part of her, or if they also had minds of their own. "Say, if you don't think it's rude, can I try touching your hair? Snakes? Whichever term you prefer." He asked, laughing slightly. "I'm doing good, what about you?"

Leroy's smile grew about another inch at Zivon's stuttered reply. "Really? Wouldn't have guessed with how you destroyed that book just now." Leaning against the bookshelf as he faced the two other students, he studied Zivon's reaction (having caught his name from Andromeda moments before). "Hey now, don't act so cold. You seemed to be really enjoying yourself last time." He chuckled, remembering how strongly his ability had worked on the boy.
 
[u][i] - Zivon - [/u][/i]
Zivon listened to what Leroy said and immediately shivered in fear and blush with embarrassment…he did not want to remember what happen at that auditorium and how pathetic he was… He used the book to cover his face a bit more but felt like his legs were about to give up, as he tried to move away he tripped… but there was nothing to trip on… He tipped and landed on his face. Zivon stood up and started to cry a bit more, believing that it was all a big mistake to be here and it was his choice to be there. He rubbed his face and started to breath heavily. He wanted his dad…. He then looked back at the two and tried to cover his embarrassed face. “S-S-..o-o..r-r-..y-y..” Zivon said without a reason, he felt like saying sorry for the pathetic show he just did. 

[i][u] - Carmen - [/i][/u]
"I understood that reference," Carmen stated simply and proudly as she began to go for the strings of the remaining dummies within their reformed triangle formation. For her to understand a human reference was a big deal to her, since she had learned everything from books and other media. There were only seven functional dummies left, and soon to be zero as the trio aggressively went after the remaining strings. She began pulling off strings, stopping to bat eager dummies away with her trumpet briefly before grabbing for the strings again. Out of the corners of her eyes she could see Crash and Kathy doing the same on either side of her, and knew that victory was imminent.

[i][u] - Kathy - [/u][/i]
"Oops, sorry." Closing one eye in a slight wincing motion, Kathy apologized as she saw Crash fall down. It was ironic how she ended up being the exact cause of the very incident she had been trying to prevent. She grabbed one of the dummies Carmen batted away and pulled at the string again. With just 2 left, she immediately stepped on the fluttering hem of one of them and hooked her fingers to tug it away. She kept an eye out on the last one as it scurried low across the floor and... "Ah." Let out a small sound of surprise as it decided to run up into Carmen's dress, trying to wrap itself around her lower thighs. Not about to to try flip Carmen's skirt up in an attempt to catch that, she asked, "Er, you alright with the last one Carmen..?"

[i][u] - Crash - [/i][/u]
Crash grinned at Carmen’s statement, he was glad she had understood that. He dispatched the dummy he had been wrestling with noticing they were down to the last two, he watched Kathy slam her foot down on the hem of one of them pinning in place but the last one scurried low to the ground. “I got it!” He exclaimed pouncing towards it, he was paying no attention as to where it was going however, he landed short his fingers missing it by a hairs breadth as it continued its journey straight up Carmen’s dress. 

Now, most people would have instantly realized that following the dummy was NOT a good idea...However this thought did not even cross Crash’s mind as he followed the sheet his head disappearing under her skirt, he gripped at the last creature yanking it backwards as it tried to wrap around Carmen’s thighs, he detangled it from her legs quickly. It was probably at this moment that Crash realized he was somewhere he [i]really[/i] shouldn’t have been...

[i][u] - Carmen - [/i][/u]
Carmen had been too caught up in de-stringing the penultimate dummy to notice the last one going for her thighs. By the time she had finished relieving the other dummy of its string and turned around, not only was the dummy up her dress but so was Crash. As she didn't seem to be in immediate danger for the very reason she was surprised, she just turned her head to look at Kathy with her eyes like dinner plates.

Crash had, indeed, dealt with the dummy, but in a most undignified (for Carmen, at any rate) way. Being the bipolarly understated or overexaggerated person that she was, she merely looked down after she was quite finished expressing her view in the situation to Kathy and said, "Enjoying the view?" with her one eyebrow raised. Indignantly stepping out of the way of Crash's "view" to both save her dignity and Crash's embarrassing attempt to get out, she even more indignantly yanked the string off of the last dummy and stepped on it, holding almost a Captain Morgan pose while looking down at Crash. Her face was a mixture of confusion (one eyebrow raised), "disappointed-but-not-actually-disappointed-and-you-can-totally-tell...hopefully", and a light sprinkling of violation. However, she took the time to momentarily look up from Crash, who was still on the ground next to her, to look at Yutaka. "So, other than [i]that[/i]," she said to him, "How did we do?"

[i][u] - Kathy - [/u][/i]
Catching Carmen's glance, Kathy tugged the string from the dummy she had pinned under her foot earlier as she helplessly watched the embarrassing scene close by. Her eyes seemed almost as wide as Carmen's as they exchanged looks, almost simultaneously looking down at the large lump formed under the musician's dress. She noted, with a hint of admiration, that Carmen took the situation far better than she would have. For some reason, a slight flush of colour came up on Kathy's cheeks, almost as though she felt embarrassed for Crash herself. Clearing her throat with a cough, she looked away and also turned her attention to the teacher watching them from the sidelines.

[i][u] - Yutaka - [/u][/i]
Yutaka was busy laughing to the point his haori (the article of clothing draped over his shoulders; think of it like a Japanese jacket) had fallen off onto the floor. Seeing that they had only 1 dummy left to deal with, he had purposely manipulated it a rather interesting manner to see how they react but... They had certainly put on a better show than he would have expected.

"G-Good job..!" He laughed, trying to speak through his incessant laughter. "That was... Hahahaha, that was a very good job well done. Haha. Uh, well done you three." Yutaka had to momentarily lift his gas mask from his face, the steam from his own laughter having fogged up the clear area he was supposed to look through.