[M e w]

"Don't thank me just yet," Lily said with a wary underlying tone. She was planning on using the same training regime that was given to her when she first came here, and it wasn't easy.
But even though it was tough, Linear may not have as much trouble with it since she had been taking on hunting jobs for a little while now.

"Meet me down in the weapons arsenal in an hour or so. Oh, and don't bother eating anything, you'll just lose it later..." she said with a frown. She nodded again to both of them and left the room.

[Juneberry]

Linear nodded eagerly as she watched Lily leave. A frown met her face soon after, however, mostly from the thought of not eating. "You have a strong stomach and you've seen plenty of horrid things after a meal. Knowing you, you might be better actually if you do eat first." Lisa's words relieved her as she had a snack in the room. An hour later, she left to the weapons arsenal, dressed properly for training and excited to work harder.

[M e w]

Lily had been waiting in the arsenol for a little while, waiting for Linear to appear. She probably should have started the training with basic stamina exercises such as running and conditioning, but she wanted to see what this girl had in her swing.

When Linear came in through the large door to the room, looking ready and eager, she tossed her one of the large, deadly knifes she had been holding.
"First thing, I want to see how good you are with a knife. You and me are going to be sparring," she said to her with a grin.

[Juneberry]

Linear managed to catch the knife by the handle, a sigh of relief escaping her. "Did you mean you were going to cut my stomach open when you said I'd lose anything I eat?" It wasn't fully a joke, but it wasn't fully serious- she wanted to break any tension, as well as simply understand why a knife was thrown at her. "Alright. Knife spar sounds fine to me."

[M e w]

Lily smiled at Linear without any real amusement and crooked her finger at her to signal her to follow.
Lily walked out of the weapons room and into the wide training area where many Hunters were already practicing their skills in spite of the early hour.
The room took up almost the entire floor of the builing, the only closed in areas being the large weapons arsenol and the smaller room used for resting after a hard exercise. The vast training floor held a small indoor track, rock-climbing wall, targets, a small indoor gun range, numerous sparring courts, and even more specialized areas used for training. Most Hunters spent a good deal of their free time here, as the competitive spirit among them never seemed to cease. Lily herself spent a lot of time practicing her knife skills. The majority of the Hunters here preferred to use their various firearms but Lily had always been attracted to the sleek look and feel of a good knife.

She walked across the floor to the sparring courts and stopped at the first empty one she came to. She turned to face Linear and stretched her knife-arm out wide from her side.
"Alright, this is basically just going to be used for me to determine your fighting skill. I would like to see what you've got in a fight before I send you out running or practicing by yourself," she explained to the younger girl.
She slowly brought her knife back in front of her face.
"Just come at me with all you've got. Don't hold back, go for the kill," she told her, her face completely serious and concentrated.

[Juneberry]

Linear studied the knife in her hands carefully while walking- she'd never used a knife besides to cut ingredients in the past to cook, so she wasn't sure how to use it as a weapon. "I've never used one of these for a fight before...This might be interesting..."

Once it was time for the spar, she gave a crooked smile, holding the knife out the way she would a gun before pulling it back much like a punch. "Got it! I won't hold back!" She likely wouldn't be useful anyway, but she went in to thrust the knife forward anyway, concentrated on solely one area to hit.

[M e w]

Lily easily dodged Linear's strike with a side-step and twisted her left arm, the one without a knife, down towards Linear's back. The girl's initial thrust wasn't incredible, she didn't seem to have much experience with the weapon, but at least she was coming at Lily with determination. She liked that. Someone who lacked skill but was flowing with determination was much more useful than someone who had skill but lacked the determination to use that skill and gain even more.

[Juneberry]

((Sorry I took so long to reply. I keep getting writer's block so far D; ))

She panted over time, still trying to attack when she could. Her skill level lacked incredibly, especially in terms of the speed of the hits as well as accuracy. However, she kept trying, eventually managing to hit her- though only grazing her arm, if she'd even done much. She only felt some sort of impact.

[M e w]

When she was hit, Lily just grinned. She was getting into a groove now, dodging the strikes and countering with ease. She had spun around Linear, twisted the knife around in her hand, and was about to hit her in the spot between her shoulders with the flat hilt when she heard her name being called.
Her arm stopped immediately and she turned around to see who was calling her name.

Jack was running towards them, a serious look on his face. Lily was pretty sure he wasn't coming to check up on how the lesson was going. He was breathing a bit fast when he reached them and when he was about five yards away he motioned for Lily to come to him.
She smiled apologetically at Linear and quickly walked over to Jack.
"Lily, I have pretty urgent news. The Salamander's been spotted. A group of Hunters are being gathered and I requested that you be part of that group. You are to dismiss your current duties and report to the fifth floor immediately. When you arrive you will await further orders," he told her quietly, in complete commander mode.
She nodded and left as she was told, only stopping to put her knife in its proper place in the weapons room.

Jack walked over to Linear after Lily had left.
"Sorry about that, official orders, don't worry about it," he said with an apologetic smile.
"How did you feel the err... short lesson went?"

[Juneberry]

"I don't know. I learned I'm still horribly clumsy with knives... But If I keep working hard, I'm sure I can improve more! I'll keep improving and improving!" Her confidence was overpowered by sheer will to keep working hard. She smiled to him simply when she recognized the apology, however. "No need to apologize, you know. Official orders are...Well, official. And important. I'll train later with Lisa if I can- that should work." She smiled easily to him before heading to put the knife she had used back in the weapons room. She turned to look at him easily, smiling still as she did so. "Please stay safe on your next mission, by the by. I'll be rooting for you." She then left, heading to her room to see Lisa once more.

[M e w]

After Linear had left the room Jack sighed. He wasn't necessarily looking forward to that night's chase. The Salamander was never easy to catch. He always managed to slip out of the Hunters' grasp.
It had been a while since he'd hunted beside Lily though, and he was looking forward to that. They had been through a lot together and she had grown to be a great Hunter and comrade.
He steadily made his way back to the fifth floor so that he could help in briefing the handful of Hunters who would be out that night.

When he got there it looked as though all of the Hunters had assembled, along with the other Commander who was standing across from them with his arms crossed.
He was a middle-aged man with a withered face and muscular arms.
"Took you long enough Royal," he growled at Jack.
Jack rolled his eyes internally and walked over next to him. Quite a few of the other high-ranking Hunters never warmed up to him, which probably had to deal with the fact that Jack was so much younger than them. Their pride couldn't take the fact that Jack was at least ten years younger than every one of them and was a lot better at his job than them as well. He smiled to himself before turning to the Hunters in front of him.
"Good morning. You should all know why you've been called on a new hunt. The Salamander has been spotted and the chase has been called immediately. You were all selected to be a part of tonight's mission."
He drew his gaze over each of their faces before continuing.
"Even though the Controller is notorious and has slipped out of Hunter hands numerous times, you shall treat this as any other hunt. Don't let pressure or fear cloud your mind."
"Commander Roland will continue from here and give you all the details on how you are to move tonight," he finished as he nodded to the Commander.
As Jack walked away he glanced at Lily, standing perfectly still and her attention completely on the nights' mission.
She's always so god damned focused he thought with a smile.

He walked out of the meeting room and walked back down to the training floor. He hadn't practiced in a long time and he needed to get a good training exercise in. The nights' hunt would be a tough one.

[Juneberry]

"What do you mean you have to go our tonight? Darn... I was hoping we could train..." Linear sighed, looking at the girl who was her 'sister'.

"Sorry, Linear. I have a hunt to do. It's important. Don't worry, you'll be okay."

"Anything special?"

"Nah..." Of course Lisa would lie about it- she had been ordered to help with the fight against Salamander, and she knew the way Linear reacted when it involved the pest. So, she tended to hide that type of information for safety. "You should go to the training area. I know you always seem to get relaxation from shooting practice."

"I suppose so... Yeah, see you." She smiled weakly before going to the shooting range. Even she could tell when Lisa was lying- but she knew Lisa only lied when it was important. Clumsy as she was due to being lost in thought, she tripped near a familiar figure. When she stood, she bowed politely to Jack. "Sorry..." Smiling soon after, she ran ahead once more.

[M e w]

Linear tripped and apologized in front of him, but before he could say anything back to her she was off again. A small smile lifted his lips up but he quickly went to his own business, needing to focus on the battle formations he would soon be leading.
His exercise wasn't anything special, he just practiced a few hand-to-hand maneuvers, target practice, and some conditioning to get his blood pumping. He didn't need any special sort of training, it would just be counteractive to that night. He should be as calm and relaxed as possible, so a routine workout was best.

Several hours later Jack was back in his room, preparing for the night's mission. He had his gear laid out on his wide bed, checking to make sure everything was there. He nodded when felt that he hadn't forgotten anything, and then began putting all of the gear on.
His outfit consisted of lightweight black cargo pants, a black fitted shirt, a lightweight black jacket, and black combat boots. He had a holster belt around his hips and in the holder the butt of his large silver pistol stuck out, ready to be drawn. He also had extra magazines stuck in holders around the belt, surely he would need the ammunition. A hidden sheath on his thigh held a long, deadly knife, and another, smaller knife was hidden inside of his boot. He combed his long fingers through his dark, wild hair and then stretched out his eager muscles.
He was always excited for a hunt, and one with a Controller who had managed to evade them so many time was all the more exciting.

Jack would make sure that tonight the Salamander didn't get away, not while he was in charge. He would finally meet his match, and perish.

[Juneberry]

Since Linear had no special mission that night, she had trained less routinely and more rigorously, using it as a way of stress relief as well as just to try to keep pushing forward past her lacking skills- which, admittedly, was mostly all of them. Even Linear knew she made better bait to catch a controller than she did the hunter of them. Yet she still wanted to try- a trait both understandable and deadly in the case of Linear.

When she'd gone back to her room after doing a multitude of warm ups, conditioning, shooting practice and the like, she went back to the room she shared with Lisa. She took the one thing more precious to her than any other item in the world could be off a nearby side table- her ocarina. Lisa was getting ready to go out for a mission, which Linear paid little heed to, as she let the instrument hit her lips. Lisa never minded when Linear played ocarina. In fact, she rather relied on it, since it was the one thing that never failed to relax her enough to not tense up in combat.

"Stay safe, Lisa."

"Don't worry about me. You rest well." Lisa waved before going to the start of the mission. She sighed softly. "Sorry, Lin... But if you come he'll just try to kill you like when we were younger. I won't let him hurt you again..."

[M e w]

[Hey so are you gonna introduce your other character soon? :O]

The plans for the night's hunt were simple on the surface, but the maneuvers and strategy were quite complex. Lily had been stuck in the small, cramped briefing room for hours learning how each team was going to move and how she was expected to move when it was her turn. There were going to be three small groups, each having three or four skilled hunters in them. Lily was placed in the team Jack was in charge of, of course he felt more confident with her guarding his back since they knew each other so well. Two more hunters were in her group; Desmond and Lisa. Desmond was very close to Jack and another hunter he trusted enough to always put on his team. Lily liked him enough, but he was always really paranoid and quite, so she could never really get close to him. Lisa, on the other hand, was very kind and seemed open to others. Lily didn't know her all that well, but she knew she was a hunter she could trust to watch her back during a hunt.

As she descended the floors of the HQ building, the battle strategy ran through her head again. Her team was the main one, the other two were going to be used more for herding the target around to them. As she closed the door to the ground floor she spotted Desmond, already waiting. His eyes darted up to her and then back away. His fingers were tapping against the machete he had sheathed at his hip, and his left foot was tapping a frantic rhythm against the dirty, cracked tiles on the floor.
She walked down to him and stood about five yards away, her arms crossed and her stance wide.
"Hi Lily..." he said in a deep mumbled voice. She just nodded to him in a greeting of her own, knowing if she tried to be friendly with him it would just have a negative effect. She knew the kid had been through a lot, though Jack had never told her the complete story.
They waited, not speaking, for the remaining two hunters to show up.

[Juneberry]

((Yeah, when they get to the actual hunt. Though I can do a very mild introduction of him I suppose...In a forest?))

Lisa fled from the room and headed down to the other two, hopping off the last few steps of a flight of stairs in order to get there just a tiny bit faster. A sigh escaped her when she did reach Desmond and Lily. "Just waiting for Jack now, right?" A curious glance turned her face to Lily, whom she thought to be a bit easier to talk to then Desmond, though she gave that male a glance as well afterward.

She stretched her arms upward toward the sky, preparing herself by reaching behind her slightly to touch the sheath of a long sword, her other hand touching the small handgun at her hip, encased on a holster she always wore fore simplicity. Her wheat hair was slightly illuminated thanks to the moonlight. It was one of the many things that kept most people from knowing the one truth about Lisa that tended to make people question her reason for becoming a hunter- the man they were going to hunt that night, Mark.

After all, that man was in the woods in wait for a game. Though it wasn't new, Mark Lamari had a tendency to know when he'd been discovered by the hunters- and instead of fighting back, most of the time the young man used his beasts that he controlled to just get them off his trail. His black hair was hard to find in the dim light of the forest he hid in at that point. The only really visible creature was a large creature, black as the night but with red eyes almost illuminated naturally. "I wonder...Will I get to have a little fun with Linny during today's games? Or will sis keep me from her like usual?" A smirk was on his face, but only the beast knew of it. However, his sister did know that she was being spoken of, as she sneezed.

"That jerk...He better not be planning on fooling around with us again..." Lisa's voice was only a murmur. She wouldn't let him get to Linear or any of the other hunters if she could stop it.