Sparring for fun (Phoebe)

[Tristan Carter]

Tristan had called Phoebe and told her that he needed to talk to her about something important. He made it seem like it involved the tiger shadow, Gin, so as to get her to hurry. What was his real reason to get Phoebe to come to the Shadowlands? He wanted to train with her, of course. He knew the both of them were getting stronger, but he wasn't sure which one was better able to handle themselves.

In other words, he wanted to fight with her for a while. 

This helped build up self-dependance, of course. And on another note, it would help prepare Feebs for if her new friend were to turn on her. With this reasoning, Tristan paced around the meeting place while waiting for his sparring partner to arrive.

[Phoebe Minola]

Phoebe was near panicking when she got to where Tristan asked her to meet him. He sounded very concerned on the phone and had mentioned Gin. Had the Shadow finally snapped and gone rogue for good? If he had, it would all be on her head. She'd have to fight him and this time possibly end him for good if she had to.

She rushed through the desolate wasteland of the Shadowlands, not caring whether she attracted other Shadows. Well, okay, she cared, but she was just more focused on getting to Tristan than anything else.

She finally saw him there at the edge of what was once a wide road.

"Tristan!" she blurted, hurrying over. "Are you alright? What's happened? What was all that about Gin and Shadows? What's going on?"

[Tristan Carter]

Tristan watched as Phoebe ran up to him, then nearly laughed as she started to scream about Gin. He was starting to get too good at lying convincingly. So, as Phoebe freaked out about her pet shadow, Tristan paced around to behind her.

"Absolutely nothing happened concerning Gin," he told her. "Well, nothing except the fact that I have yet to find him. What is happening is that you need to raise your weapon."

He raised his scythe before summoning Ifreet. "I hope you're ready, Phoebe. The training session starts now. Hamaon!" He watched as Ifreet's flame burned brighter, concentrating the light at the woman.

[Phoebe Minola]

Phoebe blinked as Tristan... smiled and chuckled. He looked so ridiculously casual and calm that she felt incensed. Angry. He called her out and lied at her for what? And then... he moved behind her and she heard the sound of metal clinking. Then the woosh of flames as his Persona was summoned.

"Training? TRAINING?" she blurted and whipped around. "You could've just said so, you idiot--"

She summoned Hypatia in a hurry. The armed philosopher appeared in a flash of blue and the fist thing she did was raise her shield just as the light spell hit her. Phoebe grunted as the force of it hit her. She couldn't describe what it felt like but it hurt - a lot.

"Tristan, have you lost your mind?!" she barked. "This is crazy!!"

Crazy or not, she was committed now and she was angry. She was going to beat his stupid ass into the ground for worrying her and being so crazy. She pulled her hammer out of its holster and palmed it in both hands. Fire would be no good. But she had other options. She could certainly outlast him.

"Rakukaja!"

A wash of range light danced around her and fortified her defenses. She glared at Tristan over her glasses and got ready for his next move.

[Tristan Carter]

Tristan watched as Phoebe took the brunt of the blow. He smiled as she strengthened herself. So, offensive attacks won't work as well? That's a shame. He smiled. He doubted she would understand even if he were to tell her.

Why did he lie to her? To get the best reaction out of her, one that would get her to fight him as if he were an actual enemy. In other words, to get her to fight as if with intent to kill. It wouldn't be the same if they were to normally train. This way it would be like it were real.

He summoned Ifreet again. "Sorry about lying, Feebs. I have my reasons, though. Now, Ifreet: Let's give her something to protect herself from, shall we? Mudoon!" He concentrated his energy into a medium sized ball of darkness, then launched it at Phoebe. He hoped she could take the hit, as he didn't want to seriously injure her. At the same time, he knew she could last for a while on her own.

[Phoebe Minola]

Phoebe glared daggers; she was very mad at him now. He was being such a dick. She watched him prep another spell and frowned.

She saw the ball of darkness coming and seemed like she was ready to sit there and take it, but she suddenly moved. She threw herself to the side and rolled on the ground, coming to a stop on her knee quite expertly. She'd practiced this move several times before in fights and with CJ and despite not being the most agile and limber person in the world, she'd learned how to time herself and dodge. It didn't always work, but when it did, she was happy for it. After all, both his attacks were single target, which gave her a slight advantage. Her attacks were more wide-ranged.

"Hypatia!"

She didn't need to spell out her attacks. Tristan likely knew them anyway. Hypatia gracefully took a stance, wound back her arm and threw her spear into the sky. It streaked up into the sky and in an explosion of light, shards of energy came raining down, wave after wave of them. She hated the idea of hurting him but if this was the only way he'd get it into his head, then so be it.

At the same time, Phoebe had gotten up and ran towards Tristan with her hammer primed for an attack.

[Tristan Carter]

Tristan watched as Phoebe dodged his attack. She then attacked using pierce damage, which hurt. A lot. He cringed from the attack, and was seriously injured. However, Tristan had took harder hits from weaker enemies. Of course, he knew he was in trouble when she charged at him.

He simply side-stepped her blind charge. She was getting angry, which meant she was fighting with her all. That was good. It meant that he would be getting the best out of his training today. With that in mind, he summoned Ifreet.

If she was able to dodge his single target spells, then he would try his multitarget. He focused his energy before exploding the area. Let's see her dodge pure energy.

[Phoebe Minola]

She had expected him to dodge her swing; after all, he was the faster one. But she was glad that she remembered that pierce attacks always seemed to affect him more. Myriad Arrows was her best shot right now, until she remembered she wasn't trying to kill his stupid ass.

His counter-attack was very strong. Phoebe barely remembered him using this once and she braced herself. Hypatia rushed over her and knelt with her shield raised. The wave of energy raced towards them and struck with a loud, ugny shriek. Phoebe gasped. It hurt. It hurt very much, in fact, that she dropped to a knee for a moment, trying to catch her breath. Hypatia's shield smoked and she looked rather battered.

Phoebe glared at Tristan. "You're out of your damn mind," she blurted.

She stood up and willed another attack before she could even really think about it. Hypatia threw her spear into the air; wave after wave of piercing attacks came raining down in a wide pattern, again. Myriad Arrows filled the sky. And then Phoebe made a decision.  

[Tristan Carter]

Tristan grimaced; he wasn't used to an enemy spamming a pierce attack. Still, he knew she wouldn't have been happy about his attack. He took an arrow out of his shoulder; luckily, it had been his left one so he wasn't hindered by it. He looked at Phoebe, who seemed to be getting into the fight more now.

He started to smile. "Let me know if I send something your way that you can't handle," he said. "I don't want to cause you any serious harm, you know." He then summoned Ifreet, determined to pay Phoebe back for the pierce attacks. He concentrated his energies again before attacking with Megidola. The area erupted in energy once more, leaving Phoebe very few choices.

[Phoebe Minola]

Phoebe's expression twitched. It twitched badly. In fact, she looked like she was about to have a bit of a seizure. She grit her teeth and weathered the second area attack, grunting painfully when it connected. Tristan hit hard, but she could still stand and she could still go and try to hammer his stupid ass into next week if she wanted to.

"Can't handle? Can't handle!?" she echoed, her voice going shrill from her frustration.

She crossed the distance between them in a few long strides, surprisingly quickly, knocked his scythe out of the way with a brutal swing of her hammer and got in his face.

"I'll tell you what I can't handle, Tristan," she snarled and jabbed him in the chest with her finger savagely. "I can't handle you and whatever's gotten into your head since your Persona changed. This isn't training, just wailing on each other. Don't you see? Exactly what is either of us learning from this?!"

She made a wide gesture at the ground around them, smoldering from the waves of attacks it had endured. "This is all just one big, messed up tantrum, do you understand? I don't know why, but you just want to throw your misery onto others! Do you still have a problem with what I did? If you do, just say it! Don't do this kind of bullshit." 

She sheathed her hammer and turned around to leave. "If you're going to call me again, you better bloody be dying or have a job lined up you want help with - a sane one. Otherwise, Tristan, I'm gonna give you a piece of my mind and all of my fist, do you understand!?"

[Tristan Carter]

Tristan looked on as his scythe went flying. So he had been disarmed. That didn't mean he couldn't fight.  He prepared to summon Ifreet when Phoebe made an unexpected move- she started to yell at him instead of going for the obvious attack. When she started to yell at him for wanting to throw his misery on others, he looked into her eyes with a dead gaze.

It wasn't until Phoebe turned to leave did Tristan speak. "So what? Yeah, I'm casting misery onto others. You want to know why?" He looked at her, a sad smile on his face. His gaze was still dead seeming, though. "I'm doing this so that, if someone else were to experience something as horrible as that again... I want them to be ready for it, instead of being affected by it as harshly as I was. I want them to be indifferent to it." He went and grabbed his weapon. He turned to leave. "Goodbye, Phoebe. I'm done. I guess it was a stupid idea."