xp_logs | Amanda, Wanda - Tuesday afternoon

Wanda and Amanda train, as agreed on earlier. There's a surprise in store for both of them.

Pulling herself up off the floor after finishing her stretching, Wanda cracked her neck as she waited for Amanda to finish her own stretching. She itched to work off some energy after resting from finding Jennie; all the frustration from the dead ends had bled out and just nervous energy was left. And besides, Amanda needed this just as much as she did right now.

Amanda grunted as she reached towards her foot, one leg stretched in front of her and the other tucked under her. Who would have thought her foot would be so far away? Wasn't like she was that tall or anything... "Pete might have a point with that ballet stuff," she admitted, shamefacedly to Wanda as she caught the older woman watching her.

Wanda's lips twitched slightly. "It would certainly help with flexibility," she said simply. "Especially since a great deal of the time you cannot stretch out before a fight. Ballet would help with that…" Oh, she was amused even if it was an idea that had merit.

"You tell Pete I said that and I'll switch all the labels on your filing cabinet," Amanda threatened with a grin as she decided she'd had enough of stretching and climbed to her feet. She was wearing a pair of black sweat pants and a baggy t-shirt, the ever-present Docs on her feet since Wanda had told her going barefoot for hand to hand was stupid since she wouldn't have time to take off her shoes in a fight, and her hair tied back out of her face. Bouncing a little on her toes as she shook out her hands and arms, she tilted her head enquiringly at Wanda. "So, what's on the cards for today? Another game of 'keep out of the really tall boss lady's reach'?"

"Not quite," Wanda replied, walking to the other side of the room where a burlap sack had been placed. "No, today I think we will be trying something new. Do you know what the most vital defense move can be sometimes?" When Amanda shook her head, her smile grew. "It is simple: don't be there. Constant motion and dodging will make you harder to hit. We all cannot have Remy's grace but we can work with what we have. So today's objective is to learn not to be hit."

Amanda watched as Wanda pulled a hard rubber ball, smaller than a basketball, out of the bag and her expression grew incredulous. "You're what, gunna throw that at me?" she asked, trying to get her head around the concept. And internally cringing - that ball looked like it would hurt if it hit you.

Spinning it on her finger, Wanda attempted to look innocent and failed completely. "Maybe just a little throwing. They'll sting but considering how much it hurts to get hit on the street, it won't be that bad. Just…remember that you will not be able to dodge everything, do not let that discourage you. First lesson, plain old dodge."

Waiting until Amanda was ready, Wanda tossed it at her. Not a hard throw, that would come in later, this was just to test first.

The throw was an easy one to avoid, and Amanda smirked a little as the ball sailed past her and bounced off the far wall. "This isn't so hard..." she began, but stopped when Wanda threw another ball at her, this time a bit faster so she actually had to jump aside . "Hey!"

"What? Now…try dipping a little bit, shall we?" Snickering a little bit, she put a bit of a twist in her next throw, having the ball bounce off the floor and towards Amanda's side. This was shaping up to be quite entertaining.

Amanda squeaked as she twisted away from the veering ball, only barely managing to avoid it. The next one caught her on the butt, and she glared at Wanda. "That was on purpose!" she protested, rubbing the offended portion of her anatomy.

"You did leave it exposed," she teased, moving around a little bit to get a new angle. Oh, perfect. "Next lesson…hrm …I think it's going to have to be ducking…" Shifting slightly, Wanda threw the ball faster but it sailed over Amanda's head.

Amanda stuck out her tongue at Wanda and ducked obligingly. "Missed me!" she crowed gleefully.

Wanda simply settled back and watched the ball bounce off the wall and sail back towards Amanda's exposed head. "Did I really?" she asked simply.

The ball made a hollow 'boing' sound as it bounced off the back of Amanda's head rather smartly. "Ow!" the girl exclaimed, rubbing her head. "No fair! You cheated and used powers!"

At that, Wanda put a hand on her hip. "Amanda, my dear, I never said this was no powers," she reminded cheerfully. "You just assumed it was because I'm throwing things at you. Now, what's next? Oh yes…< i>diving."

"Ack!" This one came in low and fast, too fast to dodge away from. Amanda dropped flat, and then rolled as another ball bounced off the floor towards her. She avoided that one, but was hit again as she was getting back to her feet, this time in the shoulder. "Remy put you up to this, didn't he?" she asked, ducking and weaving as the balls started coming faster and more often. Wanda must have had an endless supply of the damn things.

"Maybe," Wanda admitted cheerfully, "we might have had some fun discussions over what to run you through today. There was talk about if you can dodge a wrench, you can certainly dodge a fist to the face but that got vetoed. And oh yes, dodging again!"

"Wrench?!" Amanda was horrorstruck, not sure after all this that Wanda was entirely joking. The distraction almost proved to be a painful one - she didn't notice the ball that Wanda had flung hard at her head until almost too late. Unable to avoid it, she flung her arms up, forearms protecting her face and closed her eyes waiting for the impact.

It never came.

Cautiously opening one eye, and then the other, Amanda lowered her arms and blinked at the crackling bubble of light that surrounded her. It was the harsh blue-white of a welder's torch, she realized, vaguely.

"Well." Wanda blinked, tucking the ball she'd been about to throw at the girl under her arm, clearly surprised. "I did not expect that but I cannot say that I'm displeased by it." She paused and tilted her head slightly. "Was that on purpose or not quite so on purpose?"

"Um," Amanda replied intelligently, poking cautiously at the... well, forceshield. Shield, shielding spell, of course. "A bit of both? All I was thinking of was protecting myself - I guess the magic picked up on that." She grinned suddenly. "Try and hit me now - I want to test this thing out."

"All right then." Wanda eyed the shield slightly and then shrugged, throwing the ball as hard as she could.

Despite herself, Amanda flinched ever-so-slightly as the ball impacted with the shield, ricocetting off wildly. "Wicked," she breathed, her grin growing. Then a thought struck her. "What if I can't turn it off? Like George? I can't very well go about my daily business like this, can I?"

"You will be able to turn it off," Wanda said firmly. Doubt would only reinforce the fear that she couldn't turn it off and would be stuck like that. "George was just a fluke, a reaction to your power coming back. Concentrate and see what happens." An eyebrow rose. "And I do promise not to throw anything at you while you try."

Amanda nodded, screwing up her face a little as she tried to concentrate. Need to find the switch, she thought, and then inspiration struck. Turning George on and off involved snapping her fingers. The shield wasn't unlike a giant werelight, so...

Clapping her hands loudly together once, Amanda grinned as the shield flickered and went out. Another clap brought it back. "I'll have to remember to watch it next time I go to a gig," she said, snickering as she turned it off again. "Could wind up giving some poor bastard a fit, like that Japanese cartoon with the flashing lights."

Snorting as she looked on, amused, Wanda shook her head. "Well, at least you can turn it off. We'll have to keep the possibility of giving someone a fit with your shield in mind…it might come in handy. I think with the power development, though, we can call this sparring match over, yes?"

"Once you put that ball down, yeah," Amanda replied, giving Wanda an innocent look. The one that said 'you're sneaky and I know you're planning something'

"What, this ball?" she teased but placed it in the bag despite her words. "You did well, though this is something we'll revisit later on, I think."

Amanda giggled, unable to resist skipping a little on the spot before coming over to join Wanda. New spell! That she could do! Whee! "I like the idea of springing that one on Remy next time he takes me for sparring," she said with a wicked grin. "Be nice to get one over on him for a change. Only that'd mean I'd have to actually, you know, keep it a secret until then. Which is boring."

Oh, secrets were fun, especially in a situation like this. Leaning over, Wanda grinned at her assistant. "Tell you what, if you can manage to keep that a secret long enough to spar Remy, dinner is on me afterwards. Your place of choice and I will happen to not notice the fake I.D. if you wish to have a drink to accompany dinner."

Amanda grinned. Not that Wanda tended to enforce drinking ages any way, but it was a gesture, after all. "You're on," she said.