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Sasha regained his footing quickly but was clearly confused by how quickly the navi had given way. His first instinct was to look around, thinking it another trick, but a whistle from Trent and a few words of conformation from Pantheon man assured the dog that the clone was deleted. Sasha was still overall confused by how easily they folded but how painful they were. Trent looked down at his blades at the same time thinking about the lack of feedback he had experienced. It was a small but important detail he was rather used to feeling. Sasha moved back over to Trent's side as they watched PantheonMan.

Mark began to scold Trent on his inability to use the proper attacks, his own favorite and most basic attacks, against he ninja. Before he could start though PantheonMan man rushed after the Ninja and fished her off in a spectacular manner. This display silenced Mark and Trent as they watched. In on time the large navi was finished and back near to Trent, congratulating him. Trent lowered his head in a small but obvious bow, and raised back up. He didn't know what Mark would want him to say, so there was a moment of awkward silence before Mark filled the gaps.

"Thank you PantheonMan. I am glad that you have found us worthy, I guess the invite was well extended." Mark was beaming at this point. "That clone technology is a very nice training machine indeed. Would any bloodhounds be able to use it in the future for training purposes?"

"I want to watch the next fight. To gather information on the Neo-Shoguns." Trent said in the brief space where Mark wasn't talking or preparing more words for him. Trent was already very low on health, and there were only two ways to give that health back, neither of which was an acceptable option. Trent placed his knives in his holsters and watched a reaction from PantheonMan. Sasha sat happily on the ground next to Trent's side and seemed to be smiling himself.

Mark was slightly disappointed in his navi, but understood why. No need to bring about embarrassment now, after he impressed so well.
"Excellent," PantheonMan responded, grinning wider than usual and pressing his fist to his chin. "Yes, this technology is perfectly suited for training. Perhaps in the future it could also be weaponized...? It's something that CloneMan is working on," he replied. "You're wise to want to study these girls. Discovering their weaknesses will be critical to taking down that army."

The olive-skinned navi bent on one knee and activated the cloning machine. "I've been waiting for this all morning... This will be a good dessert," he smirked as four navis appeared, surrounding him. Two of them were dressed similar to the samurai from earlier, one in green and one in gold. The gold one was blonde with an athletic body and a bow as a weapon. The green was brunette with a downright intense, muscular-yet-shapely body and a katana (as well as an eyepatch). The third girl wore a silver eye-mask with a single protruding horn. Her entire body was shrouded by black robes. Judging by her stature, it would be easy to imagine she was a man if PantheonMan hadn't already said it was a woman.

The fourth... was the sorceress again? "Strange... must be some kind of glitch." PantheonMan laughed. "Even the best technology has its flaws, I suppose." The sorceress smiled back at him in a challenging way that seemed to increase his vigor. "I don't mind, though, if she wants to step in again. Now, it's time to begin!"

No sooner had the navi spoken than the katana back scowled and dashed in on him. He dodged that well enough, then barely avoided a barrage of arrows. Just as he was gathering electricity, the third summoned a long, black luxury limousine beneath herself and ran at him. Hitting, he got out of the way, only to be hit by a katana flourish. He blasted another arrow out of the sky and rubbed his wounded spot. "This is a little intense even for me... Haha..." he rasped, grabbing the katana navi as he spoke. He rammed his fist into her gut and sent her flying, then rolled to dodge the limo again.

Meanwhile, the sorceress was staying away from the fight. She just stood smirking near the clone machine where she'd been produced.
Mark leaned back in his chair, "Good good. I would like to keep training Trent on this some in the future. This will work great for our plans."

Trent bit his tongue, as he was about to correct Mark on his use of "our" plans. Instead he focused in harder on the new arrivals of clones and pulled Sasha in to his side. The dog was overall carefree right now, having relaxed a good bit around PantheonMan and the ever mysterious CloneMan. PantheonMan did provide good fights for the dog and kind words as well. Trent's eyes narrowed as the Sorceress appeared again. The three new ones that appeared however were all physically impressive, the green armored girl with the eye patch and katana stood out to Trent. Once he had gained more experience in the bloodhounds, she would be a fun fight for him. Blade vs blade.

As the battle waged on Trent held his location in the back of the temple, merely watching the tactics used. The limo was by far the most odd, both to Trent and Mark. Sasha also turned his head sideways, but more out of curiosity and less from confusion. What was the long black box?

PantheonMan was fast as well as powerful. He made a lot of dodge rolls and dashed around the battlefield better than Trent had imagined. I guess that's what a high ranking officer of the bloodhounds can do. Trent remembered the face of the limo lady as well. Her tactics were rather outstandingly odd. He watched more.
PantheonMan kept up his high stakes game of Frogger, prioritizing dodging the limousines over all else. One big hit from either of those could put any navi in a world of hurt. His other threats were great as well, however. Golden beams followed the archer's arrows through the air, whizzing both past and occasionally into him. As the katana navi approached again, he grabbed her with both hands and thew her to the ground, then brought his elbow down on the girl's gut without hesitation. It seemed that he couldn't afford to ignore her either, but could only manage to fight one at a time. Punctuating the point, she threw a rock from the ground, which collided off of his head and drew blood. "That's good!" he replied, grinning from ear to ear as he brought his sandle down onto her face.

The sorceress had vanished again. Perhaps preparing for more of her tricky magic?
The blood running from the side of PantheonMan's head was a bit of a worry to Trent. The various damages he had taken, combined with the potential damage from the limo was enough to put both Trent and Sasha on guard. PantheonMan was staying on his feet well enough but he wasn't able to deal enough damage to remove any of them. Trent had a hard enough time against the lower ranked members, he wouldn't have lasted long here. Trent thought about jumping in, but the thought was quickly removed from his mind. It would be remarkably rude to intervene when he had already turned down the chance, and he wouldn't much much more than a fly on the windshield of the limo either way. Mark kept a close eye on the limo fighter, she worried him the most. The bladed warrior nearly seemed like a fun challenge, but PantheonMan was probably making he look a lot easier than she was.

Mark took a few minor notes on the warriors on a pad of paper, where as Trent kept all the data like that in his head. He kept watching, cheering for his superior silently with each passing punch and dodge.
PantheonMan's fight continued in much the same manner; there want a whole lot of incentive for the NS nor him to change up their game plan because they were both making headway. The only one losing any great deal of strength was the samurai,who PantheonMan continued to single out and beat mercilessly. He was bleeding more, and yet still seemed better off than she.

With a mighty roar, the mafioso tensed his muscles and began to throw lightning from every pore of his body. He clinched his teeth, but sparks continued to shoot out from the small openings. His body began to glow a brilliant white as he focused his electric gaze on the girl in green again. He spoke, but his voice was obscured by the lightning literally bursting out of his mouth in huge arcs. He held one hand out and made a fist, causing the NS first general to zoom towards him as though through telekinesis...

.. and then she vanished. More accurately, all of the girls flickered and then disappeared. PantheonMan looked at first enraged, then bewildered, as he released his power and returned to normal. "CloneMan, what's wrong with your... machine!"

The sorceress had reappeared, holding the machine in one hand. She leaned forward in a bawdy gesture, showing off the ample cleavage tucked in at the top of her shoulderless dress. "Playtime is over, boys! You have to learn to share," she laughed briefly, before exporting away, carrying the machine with her. The Mafia Rank 1 was merely a second too late activating the jackout barrier.

"Damn her... What a pesky..." he laughed, clutching one hand to his forehead. He strutted over to the pillar where CloneMan had been hiding, then raised both arms in an expression of defeat. He leaned over, then brought out a familiar yellow kunai. "Two of those girls were really here, the blue and the yellow. They hid, one of them in plain sight, took out CloneMan, and then stole his device! What I'll do when I get my hands on those naughty girls..." The expression on his face was a grin, but his eyes certainly weren't smiling.

"Well, here's the situation: that device is easy enough to replicate and it wasn't the only one to begin with. The problem is that it was loaded with the profiles of several mafia members and their combat data... now, including yours. They have access to that now, not to mention the technology itself. But it's small headway for a small sorority of girls," he spat. Slowly, be managed to turn the anger back into good cheer. "Well, we'll just have to punish them extra hard when we see them again. How about it, Trent? What do you think those girls deserve...?" His eyes flashed. "I'm not one for slow torture, that's not me. But I am vengeful. When I take vengeance, I take it quickly, but fully to my own satisfaction. There are multiple ways those girls might satisfy that lust of mine... All of them painful..."
Trent watched just as impressed as before from the display being given off by his rank 1 leader. The absence of the sorceress from the fight didn't strike him oddly, She wasn't present much during his bout with her either. As the large display of lightning arched from PantheonMan Trent had to nearly shield his eyes from the light. When he was able to see clearly again the clones were all gone. Trent was nearly dumbfounded by the raw display until he noticed the Body language of PantheonMan. Mark hadn't taken notice yet and was about to speak to praise PantheonMan, but the voice of the sorceress cut him off.

Trent and Sasha both jumped quickly up, Trent grabbing for a knife and moving in, Sasha on his heels. Before he could even manage a few steps the sorceress had jumped ship and jacked out of the homepage, leaving nothing but an awkward silence between the present bodies of the page. CloneMan had been jacked out from the kunai of the ninja, sounds that Trent was nearly disappointed in himself from not hearing. The silence was broken as PantheonMan began to speak. His face was a mixture of emotions, making it hard for Trent to figure out which emotion he should display. Rage? Anger? Guilt? He stuck with silence and a stoic stare while he listened.

The thought of the enemy having his data had a strange effect on Trent. He nearly enjoyed the fact that they knew more about his fighting. Mark was the complete opposite though, "Trent! You have lost a major advantage over them! They didn't know who you were, or how you fought!" Mark pushed away from his desk, throwing his hands into the air. Sasha huddled closer and Trent turned his full attention back to PantheonMan. "They deserve to be taught a lesson for stealing from the bloodhounds." Trent turned to address his other question, trying to add a bit of flair to his words for Mark. "I am not one for slow fights. Leaving room for greed or personal pleasure in a fight leaves room for disaster. Quick deletion is best." Still mostly sweet and too the point.

"How much help did it give to them?" Mark asked. "I mean, just because they know what they are against doesn't mean they can stop it."
"... An admirable view! You may be even better suited than me for the Bloodhound business!" PantheonMan answered with a laugh in his voice, although something about his movements made him look just as exasperated as Trent's operator. "That attitude is not unlike our faction leader, Azrael, or that monster, HydraMan. Some folks just want to get the job done. Nothing wrong with that! I, on the other hand, would take a great deal of personal pleasure from that vengeance," he continued, pressing one hand to his chest and grinning unrepentantly. "They'll be taught their lesson, I can assure you of that."

"As for how much they've gained, we should take everything with a dose of caution, but it's not like our battle tactics are much of a secret. After all, we're the Bloodhounds! Anyone who wants to see me fight needs only turn their head!" he scoffed. "We're not cowards who fight in the shadows nor are we secret weapons. We're the great fighters of the Mafia and everyone knows to fear us already. Perhaps this will only teach them to fear us more? I'd love to see the face of whoever tries to pick my battle data out of there to analyze it." He placed his hands on his hips, smiling confidently; that mental image seemed to have helped calm him down a bit. "Your operator's got the right idea. Underhanded tactics like those girls resorted to are the refuge of the desperate and weak. All they will do is increase their own despair."

"Well, you've served the Bloodhounds well today, Trent. You should run along now, unless you want to test another great challenge once Bull makes her appearance. One that's more likely to kill you than our last one, I'd wager!" the Bloodhound snickered. "Bull and I had an engagement set up, and if you don't leave right away, you may get pulled into it. She'll be eager to test the fresh meat in her own way, and sometimes she doesn't have the gentle touch that I do." As if pitting Trent against the best officers of the Neo-Shogun Army had been a gentle touch.
Mark as admittedly a bit proud of his navi at this point. He stepped up to the plate, impressed PantheonMan, trained hard against high ranking officials of other factions, and kept his mind about him. Mark was always, in the back of his mind, worried about Trent's head. But that small inconvenience that haunted Mark was no where in his forward thoughts today, nor would it be for a while. Trent was a bloodhound now. A top fighter with the status and rank to prove it. The very inclusion of him in a fight would set him apart, and any thing else he ever needed would be handled by this status alone. Mark was proud.

Trent was blank however. The experience had left what little of a personality he had built up in his time away from the rings was now repressed once more, with just a few shreds of anything but 'Survival above all costs' in his head. He was once again, a warrior. Trent was also thinking of what it would be like when his battle data was stripped from the stolen machine. He could only hope it would impress enough to send all three of them against him for real, for the battle data clearly showed, it would take that many. Trent bowed as PantheonMan explained more. He didn't fully agree with PantheonMan about stealth fighting, sometimes it had its place. Relying on it however was very weak. Trent hid this minor disagreement in view behind a blank expression.

The threat of doing more initiation at the hands of a different ranked bloodhound was enough to make Trent bow and leave. He was very much done after fighting some of the best officers of the Shogun army. He jacked out of the network in a flash with Sasha tagging along. Before the connection was fully lost Mark added, "Keep in touch about when the vengeance on the girls will be executed for their theft."

JACK OUT
((Trent gets 18 PantheonMan FXP))