> "Great. Let's get started then" Phoebe said, vines forming across her body so that she could use them quickly. She always figured that she had a disadvantage with Mimic, as surely throughout the years he had encounter her mother, and therefore knew her powers. > > But Phoebe just wasn't her mother. She had her own abilities, and her own ways. She turned to Mimic, who appeared ready. "We all ready?" "I am if you all are." Makoto said to her team, trying to get into a ready type position off on her side of the group. Really, the only experience she had was a combative class she was in at school the year before. They had spent a week on various fighting styles and techniques. She liked wrestling and a martial art style called Iron Palm. Iron Palm is Chinese martial art if she remembered correctly. Anyway, she put her open hands up in what she tried to recall as a ready position.

Mimic stood waiting for the team to start, or anyone on the team to start. The moment someone attacked him, he would counter quickly

Devika was near the back, and waiting like the others. She realized that no one was moving, no one was going to go for it. With a mild sigh, she stripped off her gloves with her teeth, and strode forward at a quick walk. "Hello, Mimic. Care to have a repeat of our first meeting?" She took a fighting stance with solid footing, and wiggled her bare fingers at him. Slowly, she started to build up fear within herself. All it would take is one solid strike- Mimic knew that, and hopefully he wouldn't be bold enough to leave himself open for her. The rest of the team could use that, she hoped. "I hope you brought your tissues, sir."

Mimic watched Devika stepped up. He was wary, and felt that that was alright, given the fact that the Empath could damage him and easily. It was also one of the few powers he couldn't combat effectively. For if h e returned back with an emotional attack, that would just make Devika's abilities more potent. So Mimic went on the offensive, mimicing Phoebe's powers and with vines, attacked Devika, to break her concentration.

Griffin watched Devika puzzled. Should they be working together? He had been expecting a plan of some sort. But it se,pmed they were going to take turns didn't that defeat the purpose of the challenge? The al, knew what they were capable of against Mimic separately. What was the point of doing again?

Makoto watched, her own focus being broken. She thought Mimic would reflect the ability he was being attacked with, not the entirety of what he was faced with. Time turned to feel like it was slow. She was afraid, how could she do this? She had no idea where to even start? How could she help her teammates? It hurt her to know that her hesitancy was crippling her ability to try and think to use her powers. Acknowledging her feelings of inferiority, anxiety, and fear she fumbled trying to figure out how to stop them from overwhelming her. She looked to her teammates for help, to the one that had begun the fight and so Makoto figured, would lead them.

She stood back a moment, watching how the first few steps would be taken. Fights like this were always stilted to begin with, but as soon as the blows were landing it began to come alive. But the new girl, Makoto, seemed frozen in thought. She sidled over to her, and spoke in a quiet voice. "Relax. You're new, untrained, no-one is expecting the earth of you. But a battle is in the arms and the legs and the heart, not in the mind." The circumstances didn't really allow for much else, so she quickly ran a few paces forward and countered Mimics offensive stance. She sent a flare of magical energy just above his heard, bright and beautiful but most-of-all distracting, and then sent three sharp dark blasts immediately after.

Devika stood her ground, bringing her forearm up to catch the vines and wind them around her arm. She started to pull forward, as if trying to draw Mimic in with his own attack. No one was moving, though, and she was starting to panic. But then, Kat stepped up and started to loose some flashy magic spells. Leave it to a goddess to catch on first. "Thanks, Kat. It seems that you're the only one with the sense to understand how a *team* works." She ground her heels in and took a hard tug on the vines. Mimic was either going to have to let them go, or let her pull him in. Either way, that plan of attack wouldn't be working long. "So are you all just going to leave this battle to the least of us- and the best?" That was clearly directed at everyone who hadn't moved.

Phoebe was already moving when Mimic used the vines, and when they hit Devika, she countered, using the vines. to free Devika, and using them to attack Mimic. She knew that Mimic could stop the attack easily, and he did. But she continued with the attack, to give the others a cahnce to attack, using her abilities to distract Mimic

Griffin glared Devika. "Well excuse me! I don't remember there being a discussion on who would do what. I stated my abilities. You didnt tell me what to use or when. No one said if we were attacking together or apart." he pointed out gruffily. How was he suppose to know she wanted their help. They werent mind readers.

"Griffin-" Devika gave Katherine a nod of thanks, and continued to press forward toward Mimic. "This is an exercise in teamwork. If we were meant to attack one at a time, then that would hardly be a team! We can't win the fight if we're too scared to actually start it!" She inhaled and kept moving, taking darting punches toward Mimic. Although she knew good and well that he could outfight her one on one, she was hoping that there would be just enough of a distraction to give her an opening. "Besides, plans tend to fall apart. If this was a real fight, we'd have to think on our feet." She flashed him a quick smile, her eyes gone strange with building emotions. "If you know your capabilities, why should you wait for someone else to tell you what to do with them?"

Makoto took a deep breath. She tried to take Kat's advice; the fight comes from the heart and limbs. Now was as good a time as ever to learn about her powers. Struggling to quiet her mind, Makoto concentrated on what it felt like to activate her powers. She felt pressure to help as everyone rushed in with precision. There was nothing. Makoto wanted to help so badly, she didn't want to let anyone get hurt. There was nothing. There must be something she could do! There was nothing. Frustrated, she looked at her teammates go. There was such ease, such acceptance, such trust in themselves. There, a tingle. Makoto's heart jumped and mind relaxed a little. They had done nothing to show that she couldn't trust them, rather that this was a safe environment. There, her arm was full of needles and pins in a way that tickled. She had to resist the urge to itch it. She encouraged the feeling, it spreading across her body. To onlookers they could begin to see wisps of her hair stand on end, out of the braid. It felt exhilarating! She felt so light! With as much strength and speed she could muster Makoto ran as fast as she could to her teammates. Setting her fear off to the side in her mind she tried to really grab a hold of this feeling that filled her. She may not be able to do much damage but she could have a chance at doing something. With her lack of experience, she ran around Mimic and aimed for his shoulder blade area. She just ran for it, almost like she was going t punch it while her teammates tried to distract him.

Pheobe had to wonder if Mimic Chose the teams with those they wouldnt work well together, or if it was just a happy coincidence for him. Annoyed enough she turned to her team and said, "What, are you all stupid? Seriously, we have a chance to kick Mimic's butt, and you just argue?" She was going to say more, but Makoto running towards Mimic distracted her. Wanting to help, Phoebe increased her vine attacks, using them easily like Whips. Mimic just chuckled lightly, and went to push the vines away, but Phoebe planted her feet, and with a determined expression, kept control of her vines, and created a chlorofiend, directing it towards Mimic. Mimic destroyed the Chlorofiend quickly, but it gave Phoebe the chance to capture his wrists in her vines. She pulled tight, preventing any further movement, as Makoto's punch landed.

All of the tingles concentrated to her hand and wrist slowly dissipating up her arm just before she hit him. Makoto's open palm made contact with Mimic. A jolt of ... something happened right during the strike, pushing her back away from her teacher. It hurt a bit but what was the biggest shock to her was the audible crack of ... lightning? Her ears must have fooled her in the heat of the moment, regardless she let out a cry of surprise. In all reality though, she gave Mimic one hell of a static shock. It would have caused some major nerve jumbling and burns from being that close. Makoto quickly tried to survey hr arm, thinking she broke a part of it on him, only to look up and see that she had burned through his shirt and into his skin where she hit him. Dread flooded her. She hurt her teacher? She hurt her teacher! She wanted to rush to his aid an apologize. If the circumstances were different she would have, her teammates continuing to fight was what kept her from doing so. She tried to move around Mimic, not staying in the same place too long. She was all the more unsure of her powers but tried to hold onto that trust and acceptance of herself, to those tingles in her arm.

Devika halted her attack as she saw one of the new students dart forward. With the opening provided by the others, the girl made a well placed attack. It sure looked painful, but Mimic would be fine. "Nice hit!" She said as she rushed by. With his wrists bound neatly by Pheobe, Devika closed the gap and wrapped a hand around Mimic's neck, making sure to get as much bare skin as she could against her fingers. She loosed the fear she'd been building in one sharp jolt. It tore out of her so quick that she felt immediately lightheaded, and lost her footing, landing heavily on her backside with a grunt of surprise.

Griffin grumbled under his breath. He didn't know what team Devika had been on but it couldn't have been a good on. He moved away from the empathy trying to clear hus mind. That girl just rubbed him the wrong way. He decided he had enough. This nonsense. He did something he And Zack talked bout be hadn't actually tried. He directed a beam.of light right into Mimic's eyes while wrapping beams of light around the teacher. It was the must they had ever used their powers at once.

Mimic stood still, seeming to absorb the attacks. as Devika went to touch him, he quickly erected a barrier to prevent the over flow of emotions swamping him. Using plant life, mainly vines, he retrived a knife and sliced through the vines holding him. He slammed his eyes shut just in time to not be blinding by Griffin and sacks attack, and stood, appearing to brush off some imaginary speck of dust. "Good, but not exceptionally so. Too easy" he said, briefly examining the burn from Makoto, "is that really the best you can do?"

Makoto paused, mildly confused. Was Mimic _taunting_ her? It made her feel small in comparison to his skill. She tried to shake the insecurity off, even if it hurt her feelings a bit. She had been proud that she was even able to activate let alone use her powers. The tingling held fast in her dominant hand. The comment from Devika really helped her keep at least some sort of a hold on her emotions, ironically. She tried to quickly leaf through all that she remembered from her old school about electricity. It occurred to her that she was wearing rubber soled shoes. weather it would be an aid or a hindrance she wasn't quite sure but she kicked them off about as fast as she could. In the meantime she tried to increase the... voltage? that was in her arm. It spiked, shooting across her body and into the air from all over her skin then it was back to a low buzz in her hand. Makoto noticed that the air felt dryer as she moved, and that her classmates' was standing on end. Was she radiating a charge? Makoto couldn't be sure but it didn't seem as if anyone else had similar powers to her... Makoto ended up somewhat close to Phoebe, breathing heavily from both the adrenalin and exertion of the fight.

Griffin growled. So much for their 'advanced' attack. He needed to inflict more damage. Actually maybe not. He grinned. He silently began building a box out of the light in the room. He started at the floor and quickly worked his way up. He made it as strong as he could. Within minutes Mimic would find himself surrounded, floor to ceiling, by walls made of light.

Phoebe looked to Makoto when she came over and smiled, "just warning up" she said brightly, "got more up my sleeve, if you need a distraction" that being said, Phoebe took advantage of the lack of activity, creating vines, stronger, thicker then the other ones, although now, they had what appeared to be large rose thorns on them, even as Mimic made a move towards Griffin Mimic wasn't a fool, he knew what Griffin was doing, and had quickly gotten away from the box, gathering the light to him, and turning it around, as if to trap Griffin in the box instead. He reached out to copy Makoto'z static abilities, and was pleasantly surprised to discover the girl had self healing abilities. He healed The wound expertly on his shoulder, gathering electricty, he let it dance around him, always in control, the Sparks moving quickly and with a crack or pop. When Phoebe saw that, she didn't risk attacking with her vines. There were a few others rings she could do, but that led to risk of her team mates. If she wanted to do it successfully, without effecting the others, she needed to get in close. She bit her lip, "I need to get in close" she said softly