Log: Haroun and Jubilee (Hand to Hand training)

[x-jubilee.livejournal.com]

When Backdated to the Friday 29th June 2005 at 1pm
Who: Haroun, Jubilee
What Happens: Haroun gives Jubilee a lesson in humility. She actually manages to progress a bit also.




Jubilee dropped her gym bag into her trainee locker, quickly putting her hair into a braid and tucking it into the top of her shirt. She'd quickly learnt as a child that a simple ponytail may be fast and easy but it became the 'knot of hell' afterwards when your hair had been flung all over the place and made damp from sweat. She was wearing loose clothing, simple gym pants and a t-shirt, standard Xavier issue; she put on slippers as tradition demanded. Stopping at the beginning of the mat, she placed her feet together and made a simple bow in Haroun's direction before stepping up and walking towards him. "Sifu."

Haroun had always seemed rather abrupt and rude to her, although she'd never really had much personal experience with the guy. She'd show him respect though, as she'd been taught. Privately, she was nervous as all hell about this first training session.

"First lesson. I'm not your Sifu. I don't go in for the Eastern bowing and scraping." Haroun said, looking at the girl. "Do you intend to go out on missions in slippers?" he asked her with an arched eyebrow. "I understand it's traditional and all that, but I doubt the bad guys will stop so you can take your shoes off and strike a pretty stance for them.” he said. "Go back into the lockers and put your shoes on."

Jubilee turned and marched herself back to the lockers, grabbing her shoes out and putting them on as she muttered to herself. This was going to be just a world of joy, she could tell. Having put her shoes on like a good little trainee, she walked back out to the gym and twirled once in front of him. "Better, Haroun?" she asked.

"It's a start." he said noncommittally. ~Yep, this was going to be a lot of fun.~ he thought to himself. "OK. I've watched the tape but I
want to see it for myself. Since you're always loose and always ready, we'll skip the stretching and warm-ups and head straight for the good stuff." he told her. He always took the time to stretch before these sessions. If she didn't want to, well, that was her business. "I want you to hit me as hard as you can." he instructed her. "Use every means at your disposal that does not involve your power. These sessions are strictly no-powers."

Jubilee groaned inwardly at the reminder of her reply to his journal entry. She really needed to learn to keep her mouth shut. Still, no help for it now, she'd just hope Madelyn had a good ice pack for her later on. She stepped back an inch or two, sizing him up. She'd never had a really strong punch, but her kicks? Kicks were what she as good at. Leaning back slightly, she aimed a swift frontal kick at his chest as hard as she could.

Haroun stepped to one side to let the kick go sailing right on by. "Try again." he suggested to her calmly. He floated just inside the range of her reach, and resolved to just use mobility until such point as she forced him to start blocking. "Faster."

That hadn't been fast? Jubilee waited until he got close enough before pivoting slightly on her toes and aiming a low kick to his knee. If she could slow him down, she'd have a better chance at this.

Haroun stepped backwards and to the side to take himself out of the way of her kick. "My legs are artificial. If I had let that kick land, I'd have to carry you to Medical to take care of your broken foot." he pointed out. "I thought you would have known that." he said with a slight frown. Guess Jubilee didn't believe in doing the prep work that she should. Ah well, he could probably break her of that habit.

Jubilee frowned, backing up slightly. She had known that, of course she had. She'd just, forgotten for a moment, although, a pretty big gap in memory to be sure, considering. This wasn't class, least not the type she was used to. She'd have gotten points for good form in class. She studied Haroun, circling for a moment as she tried to remember what she'd read on his file. It had been a month ago now; she'd gone through all the files and hadn't really thought to look back through them recently. She could probably hit him in the head; she remembered that much was natural. Still, breaking someone's neck was usually considered bad form, and even though she could probably get off a high kick fast enough, it'd leave her open for a rather nasty kick or punch in certain areas.

Now that she really thought about it, how the hell were you meant to fight someone with cybernetic enhancements when you were basically a baseline human? Could she even be fast enough to touch him when he had artificial legs? Jubilee's frown deepened as she moved in again, looking for a good place to hit. She wasn't about to give up just because the odds were stacked in his favour. She wasn't a quitter. Maybe if she could get him on the ground, rather then darting around, she'd be able to get somewhere.

Haroun studied Jubilee as she studied him. Her guard was sloppy - she
tended to drop her hands when she struck. But she was thinking - he
could see it behind her almond eyes - and that gave him hope. That
there was more there than just the brainless mall-rat, that the faith
that Scott and the others had chosen to place in her wasn't misguided.
He very deliberately opened up his stance a bit, to give her a bit
more of a chance - an invitation, if she was on the ball enough to see
it.

There it was, an opening. She just had to be fast enough to take advantage of it before he realised. She moved in, going for the point that should unbalance him, given the way he was standing. It wasn't until she'd committed herself to the action fully that she remembered the first rule of opportunity. Easy money rarely was.

Haroun smiled at Jubilee as he moved. He sidestepped her strike, locked onto her arm, and took her to the mat with an arm bar. Basic, elementary, but very effective when properly applied. The girl was _fast_, which brought a smile to his face. He wouldn't have to work on that with her at least. And since he had her on her belly on the mat, he knelt on her shoulder blade and used his leg as a bar to bend her arm - the wrong way! - against. Not enough to tear tendons or cause any real damage, but enough so that she'd feel it. "Good. Aggressive and quick - I like that. We can work on the form, and recognizing a feint when you see one." he told her, then stepped away so she could kip back up to her feet.

Jubilee rubbed at her shoulder where he’d used his leg. She’d have bruises there later. She’d always bruised easily, often made things look worse then they were. Although, the way he’d just twisted her arm had not been pleasant. “Think I made a mistake when I said I was always ready.” Jubilee admitted, noting what he’d said.

It would seem that she did have a hell of a lot to learn. She’d thought the self-defence classes she’d taken were all she needed for this sort of thing. She got back to her feet, dropping into a ready stance again. She would get a hit on him, at least one; she was determined now to do so.

Haroun blinked, and then grinned at Jubilee. Ah, progress. He loved to see it, and this was only her first session! "I think you did too." He said agreeably. "But that's why we train - to make the mistakes in here and not Out There." he said. "Now - less jawing, more attacking! I still haven't been hit, and it's been twenty minutes already."

Jubilee grinned back, moving in again. Haroun didn't seem half the jerk now that he appeared to be on the journals. She wasn't sure if that was a real indication that he was different in person, or just different while training someone. She supposed it would be hard to train someone without their respect, and you didn't get that by treating the trainee like dirt. Still, she'd see. She wasn't about to let her guard down because he'd smiled at her. She wasn't paying enough attention, she realised as she got her mind back on the training session. She needed to do less internal dialoguing and more concentrating on the here and now, or she was going to end up with more then just bruises. Maybe if she could get behind him, she'd have an advantage. She'd need to distract him somehow first though, she just needed to think of how best to do that.

Haroun kept his blocks short and effective. He wasn't even countering, even when she left him beautiful engraved invitations to do so. On her next punch, he swayed out of the way, grabbed her punching arm, and using the principles of rotation and leverage, flipped her onto her back.

Jubilee, looked up from the floor, frowning as she thought about what she'd done wrong that time. Still, she wasn't tired yet, and she refused to give up till she couldn't lift herself off the floor. Jumping back to her feet, she moved in again.

Haroun grinned at Jubilee. She was persistent, he had to give her that. "Keep your guard up." he told her as for the first time he counterattacked, lightly tapping her face with a lightning-fast backfist when she let her guard down again. "Never drop your guard. There are people faster than I out there in the world..."

Jubilee nodded, scowling at how easily he seemed to get through her defences. She wasn't as good as she'd thought she was, and the self defence classes she'd taken for the last two years didn't seem to cover anyone being able to move this damn fast. Faster then he was? Good God, although, okay, maybe Sabertooth, although she'd never seen that guy fight, but still...Gah! Seriously not wanting to meet anyone of that speed, any time soon. And possibly much in the way of speed drills for herself in the near future. Maybe she could get Haroun to help her with that. "What do I need to do to be faster, then?" she asked, grunting slightly as she tried for a kick to the head. She needed to be more aggressive, she wasn't getting anywhere with what she'd been doing so far.

"It's a combination of strength training and technique. I can help you with both, if you're interested." he said offhandedly, scoring another touch against her ribs as she lunged into the headshot. "And headshots look pretty and are very effective, but they leave you _wide open_." He commented. "Save the headshots for your hands. Use your legs to block with, and to move."

"I need the help, ain't got much oomph in my hands, s'why I've been usin' my legs." Jubilee replied as she backed out of his reach, and circled around again. There was always a way to get an advantage in a fight, she was somewhat humbled to realise her knowledge at this point in time simply wasn't up to the challenge. Having realised this, she stopped, looking at him solemnly. "Sifu, I ask permission to end the bout. I do not believe I have the skill to get a hit on you...yet."

He may not accept the honorific but that did not mean she would show him less respect by abandoning all propriety. He'd just have to get over whatever aversion he had, because she wasn't about to stop calling him it. She grinned inwardly, noting the strangeness, considering she wasn't exactly 'traditional' in any sense of the word. Still, there were ways of doing things, and she could be contrary if she felt like it.

Haroun grinned at Jubilee. He had to go through this with Shiro too, and enlightening her was just a matter of time. "Don't call me that, but fine." he said, dropping from his guard position into a more casual relaxed posture. "Couple of things I want you to work on. I know you don't have the upper-body mass to really make those shots count. But there's more to power than just mass. Do you remember Newton's Laws?" he asked her with a grin.

"The three laws of motion?" Jubilee asked, relaxing now that she knew the bout was over. She pulled her leg up behind her, stretching it out. "Force equals mass plus acceleration, right? Or is that mass times acceleration? I was always a little sketchy on formulas."

"Good!" he said, absurdly pleased. "Force equals mass times acceleration. Now, you don't have the mass - sorry, but you don't! – so the way to increase the force of your blows is ..." he said, leaving her to fill in the rest of the sentence.

"By speeding them up!" Jubilee replied, grinning and bouncing slightly on her feet.

She knew this was serious business but there was just something about 'getting somewhere' that had always leant a bounce to her step. She was someone who liked solutions rather then questions. Solutions allowed you actions, whereas questions usually just led to standing around and scratching your head in bewilderment. Not that she was adverse to them, just that she'd never been as into the 'forever searching' philosophy her Grandfather espoused.

"Right. So you now have homework. I want you to go down and talk to Medical about rigging up a speed and force-sensor on one of the heavy bags. Let's get some baseline data so we can measure some sort of progress." he said. "And if you'd like, I can show you how some of your team-mates measure out."

"Will do! And great, the seeing how my teammates measure out thing. That'd help a lot." Jubilee replied, waiting to see if he had anything else to add before she headed off for the showers. "S'okay if I go now? I'm kinda stinky here, could totally use a shower."

"Not quite. See, this isn't just hand-to-hand, but it's conditioning. Give me thirty good knuckle pushups and ten laps around the Room, then you're free to go." he said. As she dropped to start the pushups, he dropped along with her and did them right alongside her.