[Age of Heroes] A Walk in the Park (semi closed)

[Windwright]

Mauser sighed and took off his costume while Rosetta berated him, letting her work herself up into a fury and wind herself out of it again. They'd had this talk far, FAR more often than she'd thought, actually. He'd set up a loop one day just to try to explain the why of it to her once, but hadn't made any headway finding out how to get his point across before he'd just given up and apologised. Profusely. With cheesecake. He was just making her angrier by not letting her yelling afect him, and he understood that too, but Rosetta wasn't the one he was really worried about this time.

 

When his costume was off, he took off his amulet and handed it to her as he grew into his full, looming height and plopped onto his rump. She stormed off, probably to rant at the trees for a while, before he took a deep breath and said. "I'm sorry you had to see that. Make no mistake though, you did have to, for three reasons. Number one, you won't be able to save everybody. Even if you'd caught me, by the time you'd caught up and with the way you were reaching, the whiplash would've been enough. Honestly, aim for the waist, and if you have the time try to slow the fall rather than stop it. Bungee, maybe. Second, when we train later, really, REALLY train, I need you to know that even if you lose control and hurt me, it won't be permanent. Don't hold back, we need to find your real limits before we work on finding your operational limits. And third, you have a good heart, Mutt. Your first reaction wasn't confusion, or panic. Those came after your instinct to try to save me already carried you over the edge. Don't lose that, but don't let it be a weakness either. Eventually someone is going to try to take advantage of that naivete, someone who means to have you hurt yourself. You can't save anyone if you're dead."

 

He glanced out toward the park, where Rosetta had stormed off to. "As for me, the loops are a failsafe.Rosetta doesn't actually know, because she wouldn't care, but I only figured out I could make these loops when I had an accident that should...well, let's just say that there's a reason I'm so confident in this power that my codename is Stable Loop, and not Second Sight or anything referencing my other powers." He barked out a laugh, gallows humor or no, "Honestly though, I have no idea why so many of us pick such dumb code names. Rosetta might have the right Idea, just going by her name.  Not that some of us don't or didn't have reasons to hide."

[Dubstep]

Rosetta huffed and paced, as best as a floating dog made of energy could, back and forth by a tree. Every time this sort of thing happens, he refuses to listen, refuses to understand why she gets upset. Sure, the death doesn't stick, but there's not been a single time that she's seen this happen that doesn't hurt. That she doesn't feel like even if it's just for a brief moment, she lost her brother. The death may not stick, but the emotion does.
 

Bahamut meanwhile kept quite, and kept his distance from either party. It was hard enough talking with Mauser since the guy seemed to have an invisible grudge against the dragon, and when Rosetta was in this mood, there was no consoling her. She had to burn out that frustration on her own. And Mutt, poor Mutt. He knew just like Mauser, and surely Rosetta, that Mutt needed to go through something like that eventually. And better for it to be in a controlled environ, rather than out in the world where you really can't do anything to stop it.

[Mutt]

Mutt continues to pout a little bit aggressively as Mauser lectures him, stubbornly avoiding eye contact and trying to look like he's not listening at all, although his twitching ears betray him despite being pinned. He gets why Mauser did it, and all of that seems to make sense. The training, the not being fast enough, the life experiences. But it doesn't make him feel better. The dog eventually reaches up and rubs the back of his head with his left hand as he's told that he's going to be in a position where he might have to hurt Mauser, and that honestly makes him pout a little bit more. Mutt finally looks back at the honestly probably unreasonably older doggo, and comments briefly. "I always hated my name..." it's unclear if he means this name or... whatever name he had before, but considering he's going by Mutt, it's probably the latter. He then huffs a little bit and can't hold it in anymore.

The rubbery doggo doesn't really want to continue conversing like this, and looks toward Rosetta, who has wandered off and isn't around to talk to, then over at Bahamut, who looks like he might be... pitying the pup, and that frustrates him a little bit more. The thing making him so upset bubbles its way to the surface. "I... I wanted to jump off Liberty Building!" he exclaims, as though he's been robbed, and gives Mauser the most betrayed puppydog eyes he can muster. That's what has him the most upset. Not Mauser's well being. Not that he got subjected to an arguably traumatizing experience. No, he's upset because he didn't get to jump off the tower first. It is completely ridiculous. There's an odd look from a pony wayyy down the way, as that comment really carried. As it's a kettle of fish that has unpleasant connotations, the pony whistles inconspicuously and trots the other way, full of nope.

[Windwright]

"You let me into your timeline, pup. For the next couple years I probably have a better idea of what you're likely to do than you do. I know your secrets, and I've seen every cloudy height you've stood at the precipice of and how long you stared." Mauser stood up and paced around the rubber dog. He was giving a lot of lectures this couple of days, but there was nothing for it. "Part of the point of this little training exercise is to push you past the point where I'm more or less in your head, but I'm also wanting to help you get that head on right. You have a lot of potential, and it'd be a shame if you turned into another Black Haze. Not that I trained him, thank the Stars."

 

The big dog looked up as he said that, as if actually offering a prayer. He retrieved his staff and bindle, the former of which looked less comically oversized in his massive paws, then stretched to his tippy-toes with his arms out along its length. As much as those little lessons terrified Rosetta and as safe as he knew they were, he still always felt better after a lot of exercise when he pulled that stunt. Which went a lot better with pre-workout stretching. Although one of these days he'd have to bite the bullet and learn what his limits were like without it lately. Never knew when there would be an emergency. Or, well... Most never knew. 

 

The diamond dog grunted and pointed at Bahamut with his staff. "You still hold the impact force record over at the Gilded Rings? They don't let me in the door after I went four rounds against Boulderhoof without getting hit, so I can't check, but given that you knocked the test machine through the concrete retaining wall I'm guessing it stands."

 

[Dubstep]

Black Haze, every time Bahamut had to heard that name, it brought every moment rushing back. The dragon blamed himself really. Well he blamed himself for a lot of things, despite it being a team so many looked at him like a leader and who else's fault could it be for not seeing the signs sooner, not doing something, anything to stop it. He couldn't see the future, but he should have seen something. His ruminating was cut short however by Mauser's questioning. "Hm? A-ah...ahaha...yes I uhm. It actually crashed through the two buildings over before it stopped. No one was hurt thankfully." he replied awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck. "I tried to explain to the owner that hitting it at full force was a bad idea. Soooo I held back. Aaand it still wasn't quite enough. I'm just glad everyone was understanding of things." that could have gone a lot worse, and could have cost a lot more money than it already had.

 

By now Rosetta had mostly cooled off and floated back over to the group. "We have to get stuff custom made for him to not punch things through our basement. And even then I bet if he tried to go all out, he'd bust it." she said with a smirk as Bahamut awkwardly blushed. "I take it your next step has something to do with Bahamut's strength then?"

[Mutt]

Mutt furrows his brow and pins his ears as he gets more lecture. He rubs the back of his head and frowns a little bit, not liking the implication that somebody he just met knows him better than he does. The train of thought is derailed, and he perks his ears again, and gets a little offended at the idea that he'd ever end up like that! flatting down his ears back down yet again almost immediately and thumping his tail aggressively. "Never ever!" he is very certain about that, nothing could ever possibly drive him to be that devious and awful... He's a good boy, he may not be a super big fan of his life the past... years... and years, but he's still a good person. Still, he's not going to pretend that he has more practical experience with this sort of thing than others.

Mutt perks up again at the conversation between the three that does not, thankfully, involve him and making him a good hero and knowing what he's going to do. He says something very unexpected, at least to Bahamut and Rosetta... he likely has yet to exhibit behaviors that will surprise Mauser. "You shouuuuuld have hit it harder." he replies, prodding his fingers together and tilting his head to one side. "General Training and Practice equipment for supers is designed to handle a standardized code of stresses. If you can hit it hard enough to rip the machine off its mounting brace and send it flying, you can hit it hard enough overcome the equipment's structural integrity and put your hand THROUGH the machine instead. Hitting it hard would have been the best option, you punched it too slow." he rattles this off like he knows the forces at play off the top of his head, despite having shown no prior indication of any kind of real education to them prior to this point, although, to be fair, up until recently he's been pretending to have been a dog all along. "Also, presuming you didn't go flying, that means you're probably always hitting things twice as hard as you intend to, as energy equivalent to what you produced isn't being acted back into you, which means you either cancel it out or you redirect it back into your target. You hit so hard you break physics, or you break physics so you hit so hard, which might explain why your equipment still breaks some times. Secondary powers!" the dog wags a little bit, proud of himself, talking like he's had a hero academy level education.

[Windwright]

Mauser only smirked in response to Rosetta's question, a sparkle of mischief in his eyes. He let Mutt's answer to Bahamut stand unchallenged. He'd expected something similar with the rubberdog off-guard, mentally. Good. All was well in this neck of the woods. The big dog stretched to his full height and started to explain the day's plan.
 

 

 

"Well then, let's get started." Mauser said. The four of them had snuck into the hoof-ball arena for the Fillydelphia Griffons, along with some 'equipment', to do another kind of training. The regimen was simple, 10 minutes of warmup were already over, so they'd be testing Mutt's speed, stamina, strength, and sharpness for an hour each by rotating through in 20 minute intervals. Speed was up first, and the big dog had procured a stopwatch and one of the measuring spools officials used for stuff. He was standing in the endzone with one end of the spool spiked into the ground, and the other tied to Mutt's tail. The goal was to get as far as he could in fifteen seconds.

 

After speed would be stamina, which was much more straightforward. Mutt would be running around the arena until he couldn't run anymore or he ran out of time. For strength, various training dummies and weights had been 'borrowed' from around town, including a road roller Smolder had hefted into the area. Mauser was glad they weren't going to have to pay for any of the damage to the field. Finally, sharpness was just going to be Rosetta, Smolder, and Mauser tossing balls for Mutt to catch. Which sounded easy until one accounted for the fact that Mauser would be throwing the midrange ones blindfolded and spinning around, Rosetta would be dropping hers while flying over the field, and the dragon's only instructions were to 'go long and keep tally'.

 

Mauser had also given the other two instructions for surprise tests of other facets of Mutt's physiology and psychology. All of this after another diner test, too, where Mutt had been asked to determine which of the staff were from the farthest away.

[Dubstep]

"THANK YOU!" Rosetta exclaimed and motioned at Mutt, staring at Bahamut the whole time. "I told you it had to be something like that!" she grinned and gave Mutt a hug. "Thanks for validating what I had assumed, buddy." the dragon just blushed and rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. Okay, yeah. Hit harder next time then. With Bahamut properly embarrassed now, Mauser began into the long and short of today's plan...

---

Okay, while the time loop training wasn't always the most interesting thing in the world, sometimes it got to be really fun. It wasn't every the dragon got to go all out in things! He even got to bring in a road roller! He always kinda wanted to drop one of those on a bad guy someday. It took some convincing to the road crew to lend it to him, but anything for a super hero right? At least one that was as well known as he was. He sighed wistfully a bit, maybe someday things could be like the glory days again. Maybe Mutt was a good beginning towards that.

 

When it finally came time for the sharpness test, the first ball Bahamut through he maaaaay have put a bit too much windup on it, as there was just a tiny little sonic boom from how quick he throw it...Where the thing stopped was anyone's guess to be honest, luckily it was AWAY from the city or that would be really REALLY awkward. For Rosetta's part, she was having a blast too. Zipping around in the air dropping the balls got a little dull, but when she decided to drop fake ones made out of her thaumite plating, it became a little more fun and a lot more challenging.

[Mutt]

Mutt whoos! Validation! Though it's not his own he's still happy to see it, he finds things like that very important. The young dog stares a bit blankly as the upcoming training is explained to him. He doesn't get it. He absolutely doesn't get it.Okay, well, the dog sort of gets it. The sprint test is easy, it's not measuring his top speed or anything it's measuring impulse. His acceleration. How quickly he can get from one point to another, which is something super important in this line of work. Back in the day, he'd have aced it, but the others, well, he doesn't understand their difficulties or benefits yet. He... well, honestly he's unfamiliar with hoofball, and when they arrive he's a little awestruck and the expense and engineering that was put into the place. The air of the place, the well manicured lawn, grass INSIDE, how novel. The way the very space itself has a different feel and smell and sound than the place around it enamors him. To be honest he's never really had this kind of room to practice, at least since, he got, well, his power, so this is probably going to be good for him. the pup smiles, stands up straight, and prepares to give it everything he's got!

After the first round of tests, it turns out that what he's got is not a whole lot. Except for the speed test, he doesn't do... great. His sprint speed seems to be WORSE than a normal diamond dog on a terrain like this. His rubbery body makes it difficult for him to get a grip on the ground on soft terrain and it makes it difficult to generate impulse. He's not slow, but he's not fast enough to be considered a sprinter. The second test hast trouble for a similar reason, it takes him a significant amount of effort to adjust his speed and direction. He made it the whole period, but was clearly taxing on him. The third test, strength, went equally poorly. He seemed to be weaker than a dog of his size should be too. The smaller weights he could lift with relative ease, but when it reached things that would be considered challenging his effectiveness dropped of sharply. When he got to a weight he should be all rights have been able to lift if he put enough effort into, his body and limbs stretched instead.

The last test, the sharpness test doesn't go all that well either, despite Bahamut throwing a ball that definitely hits a squirrel three miles away so hard that his parents forget about him and all of the nuts he ever collected vanish. Mutt starts out trying to deal with it just like.. well. One would expect a diamond dog to, ie, chasing after them and trying to catch them without particularly clear direction. The worst part is that at a certain point after about ten minutes, when he finally manages to snag one of the long balls from Smolder, he flips over end and almost plows into the ground, then forgets what he's doing and brings it back like a game of fetch, wagging and grinning like a fool... but in the last five minutes of the rotation, there's a marked change in his behavior and efficacy. Rather than run around the stadium like a goof he takes a post and starts ignoring certain throws, watching, grabbing, getting a rhythm going, and then quickly, finally starting to get a handle on his powers. He gets much better, rather than chasing, he fires his paws like whips, at first, both at once to snag balls to make it easier, and his range and accuracy increase quickly.. then, moving on to throwing each paw individually. He's finally starting to make progress and regularly catch with his stretchy limbs when the round ends. He's finally starting to get a handle on his powers.

The second round continues this pattern. The sprint test goes... better, he stretches his arms and legs in tandem to increase his stride at first, which gives him a better speed, still not, you know, super though, over time, he learns the with enough effort in stretching his limbs, he can produce enough force to get his fingers to dig in despite their sort of softness and his speed increases to levels that are probably pretty top tier for a digdoggy that isn't digging. Stamina goes better as well, rather than trying to skid and corner to turn like he did in the first test, he lets himself actively bump into the boundaries of the field and use that counter force to turn him, and his breathing is deeper and slower, his chest swelling just a little. By the time the test is over, he doesn't look terribly tired and he's not short of breath, though control is still an issue.

Strength goes, well, okay. With some focus, he manages to lift some of the heavier weights and meet appropriate standards for a dog of his size by focusing on maintaining the with of his limbs as he lifts. There's still some compression of his body with heavy weights, and his arms stretch a little, but by the end he finally meets a good standard for a dog of his fitness, and notably it doesn't seem to strain him like you'd expect a lifter to be. The sharpness test goes better as well, and Mutt continues his pattern from the first round, only now that he's got a better grasp on movement he's actively trying to catch as many as possible. Including anything dropping from the sky, so... not great in that respect, still, he does remarkably well for a junior, especially after only forty minutes total he's catching a significant number. He's still having trouble with Bahamut's throws because they're, well, fast.

The third series of tests.... Blow expectations out of the water, honestly, for probably everyone but Mauser, but it's still probably the best it could have gone. He's looking pensive, and in the sprint test, Mutt experiments repeatedly with ways to increase his speed, and, taking everything he's learned and been through, ends the test on a high note. Just a few attempts before the test ends, Mutt whips his paws up and out, then down as hard and as far as he can, getting his fingers dug into the dirt and forcibly stretching them further to slide himself back, while digging his feet into the ground to counter that force, causing his legs to tense and collapse, such as they are... With a little hop, the stored energy in the legs expands, propelling him, at which point the arms take over and snap him forward like a bow as his grip on the ground is weakened. The dog turns into an arrow, or, well, honestly more like a Javelin, He tucks himself in as tight as he can and deforms to the point that he's not really recognizable as a dog.. and THUNKS into the ground near the far end of the stadium before the ten seconds are up. His body immediately snaps back and the rest of the attempt, is, unfortunately, him prying his head out of the ground with a pop. He can move much faster by going the wrong way first.

The stamina test goes incredibly well, as mutt slowly transitions from normal running to what could only be described as... bouncing. It almost looks like he's skipping, but, he started with a little hop forward... each time he lands, he lets a limb collapse and bounce him back upward. He quickly finds this to be effectively effortless and he soon learns it's also an effective way to turn as all he has to do is angle his body mass and he just goes in whatever direction he wants to go. By the end of the test he's been 'running' around the arena nonstop at what would be considered sprinting speeds with no effort or strain for nearly twenty minutes, and he's a bit disappointed when it stops.

Most of the strength test is just Mutt practicing with the shape of his body and for a while it looks like he isn't going to get much better results, then with a deep breath, a slow exhale, and a tense, his right arm expands to three times its normal size, as does his left, and he hefts the heaviest weight he's been able to lift so far like child's play in one hand, though it's awkward and he has to dig his other paw in for balance. His body deforms under the weight still, and, by the end, he's been lifting things well more than ten times the weight he'd been managing in the second test, but the biggest surprise is the roller. He doesn't lift it of course, but no-one ever said it was a lifting test. The dog decides he just needs to get it to move, and he fires himself at it like a missile, and of course bounces off it harmlessly, but he uses that recoil to spring again, and again, and again, and then, once he's almost a blur, he flings his arms forward, making them as big and as hard a he can, plows his palms into one of the rollers, denting it slightly and getting the heavy beast to pop up and back back a few inches with a THUNK... at which point he himself doesn't recoil and sort of topples face first into the dirt.

By the final sharpness test, Mutt... well he's really kinda just great. Combining everything he's learned about his body he skips about the field like a spring, lashing his limbs out and snagging almost everything he can conceivably reach nearly off the bat, which in some instances has him wiping out because of one of Bahamut's throws sending him into the dirt... but by the end, he's countering that by firing his stretchy limbs out to counter that force, and because he's gotten used to moving and changing directions at high speeds, he's able to much better adjust and perceive his surroundings, meaning he stops grabbing the fake balls and no longer gets blindsided by one of Bahamut's throws. He can't get them all, it's easily possible to make the challenge unwinnable, he just doesn't have that kind of ability. He's not a powerful kinetic or anything, but he does manage to efficiently capture as many objectives as he can. There's room for improvement, but it's clear that he's grasped how to use his body in as advantageous a manner as he can, and in only a little over four hours.

The diner test doesn't go quite as well. The dog is not quite as in tune with his senses as he is with his body, and he doesn't have the lifetime of experience necessary to make fine distinctions between species very well, let alone individuals. He gets some of them right, and the rest wrong. He's only sure about one of them and that's only because they're a different species. He seems to be about reaching his limits in this testing, he just doesn't have the skill necessary, but he will slowly get better over time. He's a little bit disappointed in the difficulty he's having with the diner tests... it's not a matter of being in tune with his senses, he's getting quite good at picking out individual details, but he doesn't have the experience necessary to apply them or filter them, attach them to individuals.

[Windwright]

Everything was proceeding according to plan, it would seem. Mauser hadn't expected much more than establishing baselines on the first few trips through the loop, and the baseline was rather clearly and firmly established now. They had found Mutt's starting strength, agility, stamina, and precision levels, and determined how well he knew how to parse his senses. After one or two more loops they could probably start serious training. But while they had the individual pieces in place, there was one last thing they needed to find out.

 

The four of them were still on the field, littered with hoofballs and geegaws from their practice, with mauser leaning heavily on his staff while the other three talked. They probably only had ten minutes left before the loop snapped back now. The big dog checked the position of the sun (and the small crowd who'd gathered to watch the clearly super-powered team train), and nodded to himself, then without warning or outward provocation he used the staff to vault in Mutt's direction in a surprise attack!

[Dubstep]

Now while Mauser could see possible futures, neither Rose or Smolder could, and both were suitably impressed with just how well Mutt managed to adapt to the tests presented for him. Having him in Hopesguard would have been a blessing. But having him around now would probably prove to be a new hope for creatures around Equestria. You could never have too many heroes.

 

It was about time for the loop to snap by now, and Rose and Bahamut were both taking a moment to relax after the exercise which...probably seemed a bit strange. Bahamut was crazy strong so went harder than that most every day, and Rosetta wasn't corporeal. All would make sense in time. And that time was when Mutt spring his surprise assault. At which point Bahamut moved to tackle Mutt as well, while Rosetta aimed to swing her mass of plated towards the unsuspecting dog. Time to check his reaction times!