Fall Lane [Sci]

Luminas, itself, was a grand and holy city, fitted with splendor and glorious decorations.

The building that Holly found herself at, however, was anything but. Meandering through the back streets, she'd find 3 Fall Lane soon enough, its rustic number hidden deep in the shadows of a purposefully overgrown tree. To the right and the left were nothing but the back doors of some of the lower end apartments - was this really the place? Iris, at least, would not give her any words suggesting that it wasn't. As the Meicoomon pushed the door open, she'd find herself alone, in a dark, dingy, wooden room.

That 'office counter' she spotted, at second glance, was actually an old bar stand with rusted taps. But this letter told her to be here, after all. Surely there was something else to it?

Well. Actually, there was. The door behind her would soon open again, the appearance of a Peckmon curiously looking down to her shadow.

"First time?" The bird tilted his head - then looked over towards the right, towards an unoccupied chair. "Just take a seat, and check under the table."

And if Holly did? Well, after a moment of feeling around, she'd find a small switch...

Click.

As soon as the Meicoomon pressed that button - one that Holly would find had a surprising amount of weight to it - the table itself would lift upward, standing on its side as if it was bolted to the floor with a hinge. In that same moment, a trap door would open in the wooden floor below, a loud, cavernous echo heard as Holly would fall inside - wait, fall? Well, yes: in that same motion, the base of the chair gave out to a slope.

One moment, she would simply be sitting and pressing a button - but the next, she'd be whipping right down a steep slide, down into the depths of the island! She'd eventually hit the bottom, to a well-cushioned landing...

... And a surprisingly well-lit room. Now this might have been what the Meicoomon expected to see up front, but just how expansive was it? Even in her direct view, she'd see four guild members, each wearing a black armband over their left arm. These four - an Impmon, a Coronamon, a Shurimon, and a Lobomon - all surrounded a table, overlooking a detailed map of some building.

"No, no, see," the Impmon shook his head, "That window won't work as a point of entry, not at that time of year."

"Right, the cross-wind will be noticeable. Tch, why did this one have to be a fan of chimes?" The Coronamon muttered, the Shurimon pondering over that blueprint just a few moments longer. But the Meicoomon wouldn't be ignored for too long, the Lobomon giving a glance over - motioning for the Impmon to talk to her.

"Mm? Oh, right!" The Imp gave a grin, stepping over to that landing, offering a hand to help the cat up. "Welcome back, Iris. And I hope the landing wasn't too bad for ya... ah, 'Holly'." The Impmon gave a chuckle, leading the Meicoomon on in. "Sorry its not a big ol group to meet you. Last minute job came up, so we're pegging through that..."

So Iris was going to continue to keep an eye on the newbie? It made sense, though the Impmon did raise a slight eyebrow at that motion. Well, it wasn't he'd done this, so the rookie didn't hold onto that point for long.

"Well, usually, we'd be better handled to have someone show you around, but sometimes, it gets like this. And yeah," the Impmon gave a shrug, "last minute job. Somewhat rough, but its more the timing than anything else."

Unsurprisingly, the Impmon was light on the details, simply leading the Shademon and Meicoomon further into the back. "Right now, its just the four of us in right now. Our Head'll be in this weekend and that'll probably be the first time you see him - other than that, it might take you a while to see all of us. Ah, I'm 'Dark'. There, you have 'Flame', 'Star', and 'Wolf', respectively." These were effectively code names: including Iris, not a single one of them had a given name before the guild, so they were kept dreadfully simple.

"Now let's see..." Clicking on a light to the back hall, he gave a nod, moving to list off the rooms, starting with the first door on the left: "Here's our current records of Terminus, Whitewater, and Luminas. City plans, major building structures, upcoming calendar events, star charts, all here. Past that's a planning room, and in the far back, a practice room. And on the right..."

He opened a door, revealing a few hammocks, each with a locked box underneath. "Sleeping quarters. Sometimes our work goes late into the night, or we have to prepare ourselves for a midnight shift. One of the things we'll be doing is making you comfortable being up at any hour of the day... so don't blame Iris too hard if he starts messing with your sleep schedule."

Well, there was no point dragging down the 'newbie' with details of a mission that was well underway, as it was. As the Meicoomon graced Dark's introductions with a response, she was returned a smile and a wave from Flame, a half-hearted nod from Wolf, and a complete non-response from Star, who was already mumbling something else about their mission plans.

But, that was just how they were, especially when under the stress of a new job. The Impmon returned a nod to her first comment, tilting his head at the second. Huh, even Iris agreed? "... In that case, you'd just be learning our sleep schedule from the ground up. Honestly, I don't know if that would be easier or harder than the normal case... hm." Interesting, the Meicoomon was already drawn to the records?

"They're open at all times, but simply knowing what's in there now may not be too useful. Before a job, we thoroughly check and revise our records as needed. And as with the rest of our coding, our head's name is just 'Boss', to us. As for what you should know..."

The Impmon circled around once, kneeling down towards Iris' shadow. "Well, what do you think? Clearly, she has potential if you've stuck around with her for this long. At this point, you should know what weak spots she needs to shore up better than the rest of us."

Blunt naming aside, Dark was more interested at Holly's potential - potential that Iris  summed up quite nicely. "Unrefined talent, then? Honestly, that might serve her for the best - she won't have too many bad fighting habits that we'll need to weed out." Her data structure and fundamentals seemed solid enough, at least. She already had a handle on using MeiCrackmon at a mere month old?

Honestly, the Impmon could only blink in surprise. Of course, she did have her shortcomings - that of a bookworm nerd? "So you say she hits the books too hard, then? Well, knowledge is important, but knowing what to do in practice is much more important. Honestly, its too bad we can't tag her along on this next job..." Unfortunately, even her basics wouldn't be quite up to speed yet.

So, where to go from here? "Let's get to the training room. You've had stealth practice, but there's a few tricks you need to learn from here: balance and silent movement." The Impmon gave a nod, gesturing towards the back room. "Both things, ironically, that the Shademon there never had to practice." He gave a chuckle, and opened the door for the cat to follow. What she would find, of course, was something different than a normal 'power' training room.

For one, most of the floor was cushioned with soft padding - and there was only one beaten up sandbag in sight. The Impmon pointed towards the right - showing a slack line, positioned just above the floor, and a tight-rope next to it.

"We need to be able to use unconventional routes in our work. Whether that's climbing walls or using hooks and rope, we need to be confident in every sort of movement. This one, well... it might take a while to get a handle on."

"Actually, this is more set up to 'easy' and 'hard'." The Impmon nodded, first towards the slack line, then to the tightrope. "The less rigid rope will work with your movement, the latter wouldn't. And silence is a part of it, but more to the point..."

The Impmon pulled himself up to the starting platform of the tightrope - and, without so much as taking more than a single glance downwards, the Impmon managed to give a fairly swift jog, the line only slightly swaying underneath. There was, of course, no unnecessary noise, but there also wasn't a moment wasted as he crossed over.

As he'd reach the opposite platform, the Impmon would turn and give a nod towards the Meicoomon.

"The concept of it is simple. So long as your center of gravity is exactly over the rope, you won't fall." Executing that, however, would be quite a different challenge. "You'll start this out in rookie. Once you get a good handle on it, it shouldn't be hard for your 'taller' forms. If anything, your increased arm length will make the task easier. Oh, and don't expect Iris to be of too much help for you, at least in practice."

Well, this was set to be his afternoon. He was more-or-less an advisor to the three up front for their job, so Dark able to keep a careful eye on the Meicoomon's movements.

They were inefficient, they were unpracticed... but there was a definite sense about her, that Holly knew what she was doing. Heck, managing to make it more than a few steps on her first try was impressive enough, and of course, she would be allowed to practice as much as she wanted, the Impmon soon taking a seat on a nearby bench. Further and further, faster and faster... it would be after Holly took a moment to think, before she'd be able to make her first crossing.

"Mm, something like that." The Impmon gave a nod: "But a rope like that should take you only five or ten seconds to cross, not the good minute that took you." Still, his tone suggested that he was impressed at her progress.

At Iris' words, though, the Impmon almost parsed a response - before something 'clicked' in his head. A cat?

"Holly? Try going on all fours."