Not to be Underestimated

(ooc: July 26th, middle of the morning. Only open to animal heroes for training. Anyone could be sparring with Patches)

Patches stood at the ready with his tail whipping back and forth and a smug grin on his face. It had been a long while since he had gone out into the thick of battle, but he felt confident in his ability to handle himself in a training session. He lowered himself to the ground and wiggled his bottom in the air like he was getting ready to leap at the animal in front of him. Patches was ready to prove himself a capable fighter. "One, two, three GO!" Patches exclaimed. With only that exclamation acting as a sort of warning, he leaped at his opponent in an attempt to make a sort of attack on who he was training with.

It had been while since Strike had done any sparring, not to say all training session he did on his own weren't well good but they could not quit match the experience made when sparring. Strike stay motionless keeping his eyes fixed on Patches waiting for him to attack, a task that was made pretty easy as Patches movement mode obvious when he would make his move, and that was why Strike able to roll out of the his opponent's attack with eases. "Not bad but, some friendly advice you should try to stay calm and not make it to obvious other wise the enemy is going to every move you make before you make them."

"Rrrrrrr!" Crescent didn't dodge the attack; doofus ran head first into it, being bowled over by Patches' attack. She shook her head and lifted her ears up, sleepy look still on her maw. She grinned as if it was a game. Sparring, as the big fox guy had called it, wasn't for fun and games and Crescent had to remember that. But as she had trouble remember what species of dog she was let alone remembering what wasn't supposed to be for fun and games. Because to her, it was like she was playing with Patches.

She padded over to Patches and gave him a slight push to the side with her plushy paws. "There!" She said triumphantly, "Psst, Patches, this is the part where you lay down and play dead! Why aren't you playing the game right?"

Fox facepalmed, standing there with his bow and arrow. This wasn't going at all as planned.

Having missed Strike entirely, which was what Patches had intended on doing, he tackled Crescent and got to his paws quickly after doing so. Now this was how it was supposed to be. They were supposed to be having fun, even if they were taking things seriously to some degree. When Crescent tried to push him over, Patches just kind of stood there for a moment as if he was wondering what he was supposed to do. "Oh, right!" he said at length. He flopped over after a moment and tried to appear as dead as possible. However, Patches couldn't stop himself from bursting out into laughter after a few moments. Not the most refined way of going about the training session, and probably not what Robin had intended at all, but Patches was having fun.

Cadpig walked on to the training grounds as always she was a little late. "I am so sorry Mr. Robin.....I mean Mr.Hood..........I mean Mr. Robin Hood" Cadpig said having no idea how to even address Robin Hood. "I see we are sparring today who would you like me to spar with"? Cadpig asked hoping to find an opponent that she could face.

Standing at the side of the training field, Penelope gulped nervously. She was a little reluctant to go sparring with the others, since she wasn't exactly the fighter of the group.
Come on now, go there and train, she thought and trotted swiftly towards other training animals.
"Good morning", she greeted and stretched her legs a bit. "Sir, would it be okay if I sparred with my sister?", the dal asked from the fox named Robin Hood, and then flashed a nervous and almost apologetic smile to Cadpig. Penelope wished that Cadpig would accept her as a sparring partner, even though Penelope wasn't so good when it came to fighting. The puppy then raised her gaze politely towards Robin, to seek for his acceptance as well.

"Ugh. Training."

Partner didn't look particularly amused by the idea. It was just a lot of effort, as far as he was concerned, but seeing how pathetically his 'rescue' of Crescent on the battlefield earlier that month had gone, and how he'd practically got his tail handed to him by Little Brother before that, he figured he must need to get some sort of practice in. And since the training session seemed to be comprised of all Dalmatians so far, it seemed a fairly safe one to join. Not like the one time he'd tangled with that alligator during training, at any rate.

Besides, Patches would be sure to notice if he wasn't there, and Partner didn't really want his brother calling him out on the fact. Looking around, however, he noticed that everyone else so far seemed to have an opponent...

Except Strike.

Oh boy... Partner grimaced. He didn't know much about the strange burnt puppy, and didn't think that he wanted to, either. Still, his choice of sparring partner was very limited otherwise, unless he wanted to wait and see if someone (like perhaps one of those pretty cockers?) was going to show up and pair with him instead, and Partner really just wanted to get started training as soon as possible so that he could also finish with it as soon as possible. So, reluctantly, the older male padded towards Strike.

"Looks like, ah, we've got to be partners," he stated unenthusiastically.

Strike turned his head way from the explosion of goofiness that was Patches and Crescent, to see Partner. Strike could not help but feel sorry the poor guy ever since the Dalmatian seemed to have become the universe favorite punching bag, something Strike knew about all to well. So if they was anyone who need training it was this guy, beside Strike felt like he owed Partner for failing to be any help to him and Crescent during that fight in the jungle.

The burnt puppy shifted his eyes pretending not to notice the unenthusiastic tone in Partner's voice. "Very well then lets get started" Strike said as he moved away from the older male and lowered himself waiting for Partner to make the first move.

Oh, okay. Strike wanted him to go first. Partner lowered himself down into a crouch, as though ready to pounce. He may have been a bad fighter in general, but he did have a little experience from the occasional scuffle with other pups (and even a cat or two) on his nightly explorations of the streets, so he wasn't entirely clueless. He knew a few tricks - he just hadn't really had chance to put them into practice on the battlefield so far. With as little warning as he could manage, Partner lunged forward, aiming for Strike's right foreleg - and just before he reached it, revealling that move to have been a feint and going for the other pup's left shoulder instead, intending to just grip onto it, but not hard enough to hurt as they were only training.

Strike like all ways focused his eye sit on like laze beam on his opponent. He was not sure what to expect from Partner but given from he had seen Strike was not exactly expecting anything great but still older Dalmatian might surprise him.

Partner lunged forward all his movements indicating that was he going to aim for Strike's right foreleg, the attack was no different any of the other typical lunges he had dodged so this would be pretty easy to avoided. Strike quickly steeped to one side to doge the attack.... Only have his left shoulder run straight into Partner's jaw. So it seemed Partner had pulled of pretty convincing feint move, nice. "Well done Partner I'm impressed" the burnt puppy said with a encouraging smile on his face, Strike proceed to force the older male off him with a light shove of his paw.

"Of...course..." Robin said distracted by Patches laughing, "Spar with your sister. Young man please start training instead of laughing! That goes for you too Crescent!"

"Okie dokie pokie!" She said stifling a giggle, "C'mon Patches, let's go!" She lept at the puppy, trying to knock him over. It was weak attempt. She would barely push him over.

(short post is short, sorry )

"Whoops... sorry!" Patches called. He'd gotten so occupied with having fun that he'd forgotten to try and take things seriously. But they could worry about that later. Now he had to get back to business. Patches had only just gotten to his paws again before Crescent tried to barrel into him. This time, though, he seemed to be a bit more prepared. It at least appeared that way, as he stepped to the side just in time to avoid the leap. This did give him an idea, though. He'd try his tactic he had used before, but this time not give any warning. That way, he could surprise her!

Patches crouched down for a moment, contemplating his move, before finally springing into action again. He leaped at Crescent in an attempt to try and pin her. It did look a bit unrefined, but it was an attempt at taking the training session seriously. That was what counted.

"Come on Penelope, you and me can spar together since Robin Hood said it was OK. I could even teach you some things about training so that you'll be ready when some stupid ugly out lander tries to attack you" She said with a playful growl to her sister ready to spar with her. Since this was Penelope's first time she'd go easier on Penelope.

"Thank you, sir", the dal said gratefully and turned towards Cadpig. Penelope couldn't help but smile enthusiastically before lowering herself to the ground, ready to bounce on her sister anytime. "Thank you so much, Cadpig! Haha, I'm sure with your advice, I'll be as skilled as any outlander", she chuckled happily and waved her rear ready to jump, and then leaped towards the other puppy in order to tackle her.

Cadpig bounced about daring Penelope to tackle her and take her down. Cadpig playfully growls at Penelope. Just then Penelope tackles Cadpig. "That's awesome Penelope. Now, you gotta pin point the villains weakness. There's always one thing that your opponent has as a disadvantage. No opponent is perfect. "She said playfully nipping at Penelope. "Once you find out that weakness never let go. Any villain against you show them no mercy because most wouldn't show you mercy" Cadpig said.