"Oreo. Oreo and Banana. What is this, a dessert parlor?" Peter said, idly.
"Not when there's a rock in it, it's not." Alex said, his mouth twitching as he fought to not laugh.
"Ha ha, very funny." Peter said, elbowing Alex hard in the ribs.
"I've taken Latin classes since I was five. I could get a doctorate in it if I wanted to." Aery said. "It's useful in medicine, and it's also a beautiful language to speak in."
"I learned Latin because it's the root of almost half of the world's languages." Peter said.
"I learned it just... because. I was bored one summer." Alex mumbled. Kyle and Jon and Adam nodded in agreement. "And we'd miss out on so many good jokes if we didn't speak it. Like Bananas."
Aery rolled her eyes and was saved from answering by the elevator dinging and spitting them out into a pristine white tile hallway. She trotted off down the very long hallway, slowly picking up her pace until she was all-out running, laughing. She bounced into a handspring, giggling, landing on her feet and continuing running, turning down another hall.
With a whoop Peter followed her, the other boys streaming after him. "Come on, Oreo, or you'll get lost!" Peter shouted.
When they stopped running, panting only slightly, Aery opened a bright blue door. "Come on, then. Weapons closets are on the right, organized from long-range nearest the door to pure melee on the far wall. First-aid room is on the left." She motioned inside to where there were bright blue mats laid on the floor and a ring of flexible fencing (like the rope in the boxing rings) set up. She went to the racks of weapons, looking only slightly longingly at the atlatl, only slightly longingly at the throwing knives. A foam practice sword... Maybe. Nah, not against that rope dart. In the end she settled on an unlikely combination of devices: A light bamboo stave, about six feet long, and two coils of thin rope (one maybe ten feet long, the other about five) with a handle on one end and a light weight on the other. Not quite like a rope-dart, rather designed to be the kind of thing to wrap around a person's ankle and yank them off their feet. As a real weapon the stave would probably have a blade on one end. Or at least a steel cap to be hard enough to hit someone with. And the rope would have tiny barbs on it to tear flesh, if need be. But that would only be as a real weapon, and these were just ideas she needed to test.

"Alex, Kyle, Jon, Adam, you need to work on your lying skills. Peter, somewhat believable. Banana, that was good enough to be a prepared alibi and I'm giving serious thought to it being a possibility," Orion chuckled. He jogged after the group lightly, quite impressed at the top speed Aerienna could reach. Orion's training focused on his acceleration and deceleration so he could dart around people, so Aerienna's top speed would be easily faster than Orion's. Reaching the weapons room Orion nodded in acknowledgement. This place was fairly advanced, especially compared to his own headquarters of a tall apartment building he took over. Seeing Aerianna's odd choice of weaponry, Orion took off the real rope dart and put it on the backpack he had on the ground. His collared white shirt and jeans weren't the ideal clothes to wear for movement, having originally intended just to draw out anyone wanting to make a deal, but he figured it shouldn't affect him too much.

Aery blinked, quite impressed that Orion had remembered all of their names. And then again as he used her nickname, without the slightest hesitation. The kid was fabulous. But then, didn't he have to be, to do what he did and still keep his skin intact?
She looped the rope three times around her right wrist, tying it loosely. The handle she left hanging. She coiled the rest of it once around her shoulders and three times around her left arm, so that she was left with a weight and maybe a foot of rope dangling from her left hand.
"I've never used one of these before. After this we should go hand-to-hand, assuming I'm not unconscious. Fair warning, you may have to knock me out if you honestly want to put me out, because I don't quit."
"She absolutely doesn't. When she was eleven, and even tinier than she is now, I broke eight of her ribs, her collarbone, her right humerus in two places, right femur in three, her nose, her jaw. Blacked both eyes. Cut her up pretty bad, since we were using daggers. And she kept getting back onto her feet, hopping on one foot for the pain in the other one, not able to see for the blood pouring into her eyes, and she kept fighting until the blood loss made her too weak to hold her knife." Peter said.
Aery winced as she remembered that. They'd had to take her to the emergency room after that, and she'd had to explain the whole parent-less thing to eight different doctors who thought she had a concussion and had forgotten everyone she knew.
"I'd really prefer hand-to-hand, actually. I'm utterly out of my league here." Aery shifted. "I wish you could use weapons that weren't so... unique. Daggers, that sort of thing. Or just hands. Just not these rope-thingies."

"That's the point, they get around conventional weapons and anything good against them they probably won't have on hand and if they do won't be proficient at it. I don't like going with my opponents' wishes. As for you never giving up, I'm not fighting to win I'm just going to enjoy the spar, so if you start tiring me with endless banter about never giving up I'll just forfeit," Orion said with hint of pride, letting his rope dart drop from his hand, swinging close to the ground. He was somewhat impressed by her ability to keep fighting, Orion on the other hand made a point of avoiding situations where he has to act desperately, bad for his reputation and image, better off to leave with dignity than probably die fighting covered in blood and looking like a fool.

Aery blinked. She'd never fought someone who didn't want to hurt her, except maybe Peter, and that was only after she'd been utterly pounded into the mats a few times, and he'd had nothing left to prove to her.
"Alright then...." She tossed the stick out of the ring. It would just get in her way. Trying to ignore the trembling excitement in her bones, she entered the arena, uncoiling some of the rope around her hand. "Alright then..." She bowed to Orion, standard dueling etiquette, and retreated to a corner of the mats.

Shadow had spent the most of the day in his room getting his weapons cleaned up and finishing a few more potions. when he was don't he stood up and then went to the window. he opened it and slipped out onto the ladder. he closed the window and locked it with a thin metal shard that he carried with him. he climbed down and walk to the forest. he climbed into the trees and looked to the north. he could see that there was a shadow forming over the city of Drakon. he shook his head. this was happening a lot lately. he had no clue where these shadow clouds were coming from but when ever one showed up the city soon started to decay. when the shadow left the city was left destroyed and all the people who stayed in the city were dead or insane. he was still trying to figure this out but then he looked straight up and saw another shadow forming over the village and the tavern. he drew his lance and jumped to the ground. if he was right he would find out just what was going on here. he could here the villagers screaming and running out of the village. everyone had heard about the effects of these shadows and no one wanted to end up dead. Shadow walked to the tavern and then waited for something to happen. if anyone bothered to stay they would come to the tavern for safety.

After bowing, Orion stayed perfectly still, holding the dart end of the rope dart hard out of instinct, as he would with a normal rope dart to draw his own blood and add another of the many scars left on his hand as a scare tactic, something he did every real fight whether the opponent would be put off by blood going in their eyes or not. He stood still, waiting for Aerienna to make a move. "I'm curious to see if you're not just a pretty face," Orion chuckled, figuring even if Aerienna ignores the obvious riling with a hint of compliment, her friends at the sidelines would probably get somewhat effected. He was quite impressed with this group overall, especially Aerienna, the youngest of them all yet either her or Peter seemed to be leading the group and they were the two strongest.

Aery raised her eyebrows at the "pretty" comment, the many scars on her face standing out quite severely in the fluorescent light. "I've never tried one of these before. Speaking purely from physics I know what should happen. But I'm sure it rarely ever does that way." She forced a bit of a laugh, trying to figure out how to whip the device around. Finally she raised it and swung it, albeit a bit clumsily, the slack held in her right hand and the dart controlled in her left. Her first swing was directed straight at Orion's chest, though he'd probably be able to deflect it easily.
Peter nudged Kyle, fury racing through him at Oreo's cockiness at trying to flirt with Aery and challenge her in the same sentence. "The son-of-a-bitch." He whispered. "He better not hurt Aery or I'll flatten him."
Alex elbowed Peter hard. "He'll flatten you, more like. Remember what happened the last time you said that?"
Peter gritted his teeth, because of course he did remember. Absently he fingered the burn scar that ran up his left forearm. "If you guys had helped me I wouldn't have gotten captured either! But you wanted to abandon Aery!"
"Not around the outsider!" Adam pressed his hand up against Peter's mouth. "Not where a potential enemy can hear!"
Peter rolled his eyes, but he was grateful for the rescue. "Alright, let's watch this, then." Alex and Kyle grabbed his shoulders, like they were restraining him from barging in when Aery would get beaten. For she undoubtedly would, faced by a much larger, much more experienced opponent.

Orion quickly sidestepped as the rope nearly hit his chest, the weight immeasurably close to his chest, brushing against the side of his shirt. He used how close he was to the weapon in an attempt to disarm Aery, throwing his rope dart at part of the rope in Aerienna's weapon. If it hit the rope, the wood dart should hypothetically rip at least part of the rope making it much less accurate if the sharp but wooden dart doesn't go through the rope, pin the rope to the mat, or at least push the rope unnaturally taking Aerienna's balance. Of course that was if it hit the rope at the mid-point he aimed for, a small target even for him given his lack of practice lately, which was quite a long shot. Not something he would've done if it was a real fight with his life on the line.

-i keep tending to the cannon as it was for the naval army but soon more come in-

The other rope dart squarely caught Aery's, yanking her temporarily off-balance. She quickly recovered, something that all those lessons with Peter had drilled into her head (Because he never stopped, not even when his opponent was on the ground defenseless!) She quickly rolled to her feet, as she did so lashing out with the dart at Orion's legs, hoping to either tangle him up or at least knock him a bit off-balance. She was clumsy with the dart, sure, but legs were a pretty broad target, and it didn't even have to be the weight that hit him in order to trip him up. Actually, it would probably be better if it wasn't the weight that hit him. She didn't want to hurt him.

-i keep tended to the cannons as i work for the navy-

The rope tangling around one of Orion's legs, he instantly twisted his ankle and hitting the weight with his foot in an attempt to untangle his leg, something he learned from the many times he tangled himself up in his rope dart when he first started learning how to use it. Before seeing if the rope untangled he swung the rope dart in an arc into the air and flicked the rope down, aiming to go in a straight line towards Aerienna.

Aery dodged the rope from hitting her head... barely. But it still coiled around her arm, the weight smacking into her shoulder. She yelped, falling off balance again as she yanked her arm free. As she fell she swung her rope around, a wild blow that had virtually no chance of hitting. She was terribly out of her depth here. Now, if they did something hand-to-hand after this.... A grin broke out on her face even as she hauled herself to her feet for the third time in as many minutes.

-as i am finished work i left the shop and started walking around looking for someone to talk to-

(i'm sorry to say that this is closed. thing have come up so i have to close this.)

alright then tanks for letting me know)