*Blows dust off, again* OOC: Gentlemen! I would like you welcome you all back to the war against the cat that shall not be named! Return my brethren! Return to the Zoot Wars! IC: When Tex finally called an end to the first day's training, Mitth felt himself barely capable of crawling back to his quarters. Nevertheless, he somehow managed to walk all the way. He was asleep before he even fell into bed. The next day's training proved to be even more grueling. Mitth was now only able to count the days by the short meetings he had w/ Captain Harsh & Colonel JH. Other than that he slept and tried to fix his shuttle. The fleet was in excellent hands. Mitth learned that on what proved to be Day Two, despite the fact that he had already lost track of what day it was. By Day Four Mitth told Harsh & JH that he trusted them enough to make sure everything was ready in time. "Gentlemen, I want to meet with you on Days Twelve and Thirteen. Day Fourteen I want to go over battle plans & strategies. After we finalize those we attack Zoot’s base. Until then you two are in charge of the fleet." That said, Mitth got up and went to his shuttle where repairs were not going smoothly. "That's the last time I lend anything of mine to Tofu." Mitth could not so much as enter the docking bay without wanting to find Tofu and systematically rewire every mechanical component in the cyborg's body. It took Mitth three days to get propulsion and life support running again. They were still a little touchy for the next two days, but again Mitth knew not how long anything was taking. All he knew was that things were taking longer than he wanted. Right as he was at a crucial point in a repair he would have to get up and go back to the training room. Before long Tex had moved on to new and more difficult abilities. Mitth showed up one morning to find that Tex had put away the training remotes. Around the room were welded and bolted bits of what looked like debris & wreckage. Arranged around the center of the room were a bunch of piles. First was a pile of boulders. Beside those were rocks the size of a human head. Next to that pile were fist sized rocks. Then a pile of rocks you could hide in the palm of your hand. Finally there came the piles of gravel. The grades ranged from very course all the way down to fine. Between all these piles was a pedestal, also bolted to the floor. Resting on top of this pedestal was a metallic bowl full of perfectly smooth pebbles. Mitth sat next to the pedestal and began to meditate & center himself in the Force. Shortly thereafter, Tex walked through the door. "Excellent! You're here already. I'm sure you've noticed that we're doing something different today. Think back to when you were young. Back to when you first saw ESB. Today we're going to start on Dagobah, and before this first week is over you'll be taking Vader's place on Bespin. "Now, to do this we're going to use our foundation in Force Sense. For now, limit you're mind's eye to this room. Can you sense the rock piles around you? The pedestal? The bowl with the pebbles? Concentrate on a pebble. Touch that pebble with the Force. Examine every facet of it. Now, imagine that pebble lifting out of the bowl. Touch the Force. Use it to touch the pebble." Tex continued to speak. Mitth was only half paying attention. He made sure that some part of his brain kept track of everything that was being said to him while the rest of his being concentrated on finding, and feeling every object in the room. Mitth found that it was too much. He couldn’t do it. Have to try a smaller scale here, at least for now. Mitth concentrated on the bowl of pebbles. He could feel that one bowl. He felt as if he knew everything there was to know about that one single bowl, and everything inside it. Mitth narrowed his focus yet once more. He had to find a single pebble. One pebble he could lift, he just knew it! Mitth picked his pebble. Slowly, and with a lot of effort on Mitth’s part, that one single pebble rose from the bowl. The pebble wobbled and shook the whole time Mitth was lifting it. When Mitth finally decided he had it high enough he concentrated on steadying it. Slowly the pebble ceased its wobbling. It took Mitth the rest of the day to lift and steady a second and third pebble. As the next couple days progressed, Mitth’s abilities grew steadily. His first attempt at spinning the pebbles after they were in the air failed miserably. The first pebble spun beautifully on its own. When Mitth went to spin the second pebble, the first one started spinning too fast. As that happened it started to orbit Mitth’s head. Mitth, meanwhile, was concentrating on the second pebble, so he didn’t notice what the first was doing, at first. He did, however, notice what was going on when it skipped off the second pebble and buried itself in his forehead. When that happened Mitth released everything he had in the air. The only thing he kept hold of was the pebble buried in his head. He wanted to savor the pain for a short while. Using the Force to keep the pebble spinning, Mitth first accepted the pain. As the pain mounted he felt his anger at, and with, himself growing. As this happened he felt his strength growing exponentially. Control this, Mitth. Feed this. Learn to use this strength. Find a way to tap into it at any given time. While forcing the pebble to continue spinning against his skull, Mitth reached for the Force. Channeling the pain and anger, he emptied the bowl into the air. This display quickly tired him to the point that he couldn’t maintain the anger. The pain still existed, but it was insufficient. He needed more. More pain! More ANGER! Mitth’s thoughts turned to the past. They turned to events not a week old. To the death of his best friend. The betrayal of another close friend. The loss of his home, his workshop, his joy. He reveled in the pain. He sailed on the anger. He surrounded himself with the rage that constantly simmered just below the surface of his consciousness. The strength and energy flowing through him was incredible. He could feel it consuming him, yet he knew it would never be enough. What Mitth didn’t realize, but Tex saw, was the reason the power never seemed to be enough. Without knowing, Mitth had managed to create a small whirlwind around him. All the pebbles, all the dust, most of the small rocks, and a few pieces of heavier debris were flying around him. When the first boulder lifted off the floor, everything started to go awry. The eye of the mini tornado disintegrated, choking Mitth in dust and hammering him with rock. At the same time, all the rock on the outside of the storm blew outward. It took every bit of effort Tex possessed to prevent himself from being crushed in the onslaught. Then Mitth collapsed. When he did, everything in the room became still. When Mitth regained consciousness, with Tex’s help, Tex called an end to the day’s training. “I want you to think about everything that happened today. I’ve made all the writings on the Force that I possess available to you. Do some research between now and tomorrow. Find a way to go through your memories and catch the details you missed living through it the first time. I want you to be able to tell me what happened that caused you to lose control.”