Log: Blink & Cable - Training

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Clarice and Nathan spend some quality time on hand-to-hand. Points are made.



You're not spending enough time on hand-to-hand, the note from Scott on his locker had read, along with 2pm, gym. Rather disgruntled, perhaps moreso because Scott had something of a point, Nathan had changed into clothes suitable for sparring and headed over. After all, it wasn't like he was cleared for the Danger Room just yet, and so he'd take what he could get, in terms of physical activity.

Although if Scott had matched him up with Logan, the two of them were going to have words.

Clarice was warming up and doing stretches, hands wrapped in black wrappings to protect them. They matched her all-black ensemble down even to her split-soled dance sneakers. Let it not be said that she couldn't match when she wanted to. She had found that split soles shoes offered her more flexibility than standard boots, even though the boots were more protection. "Hey, she said, bending backwards into a backbend, "Sup?" She was going to do hand to hand with Nathan? Oh lord....this was going to be interesting. Any training session with Nathan usually was.

Nathan managed to limit his reaction to a blink. Clarice? Scott wanted him to do hand-to-hand with Clarice? "Your guess is as good as mine,"he said, and cracked a very slight smile. "My guess would be that Scott wants us to Learn Something. Possibly he's also Making A Point."

"Could be that you're getting slow in your old age," she replied cheekily, standing up properly and grinning. Proper repsect was not always her strong point. "Or even that your leaky brain has dulled your reflexes and he wants me to get you back up to speed," she casually buffed her nails on her tank top before sticking her tongue out at him. She wasn't the greatest at hand to hand, she was more adept at either dodging or removing the offending hand completely.

"If you ever weren't ninety percent attitude, I'd think there was something seriously wrong with you," was Nathan's dry reply as he went about stretching. "You," he said as she watched him, "can wait for long enough for me to get my aging bones ready to spar, right? Since I'm so old."

"I can walk the walk and talk the talk," Clarice informed him primly. They'd been on missions together, she might make comments, but she got just as down and dirty as everyone else. The comments were her coping mechanism. After all, not everyone had the privilege of being shoved down giant monsters pants or being attacked by ninjas. Or working in a strip club, all in the same year. "Which y'know, is good."

"Mind the head," Nathan said almost cheerfully as he finally came out to join her on the mats. "Still recovering from the pipe to the skull in Russia." He fell into a defensive position, waiting for her to attack first.

"Is that what they're calling it now?" she asked, circling slowly and bouncing lightly on the balls of her feet. Clarice had more energy than any four people needed, thankfully, she used that energy for good and not for evil. Most of the time. "Any particular rules other that?"

"No powers," Nathan said idly, although Scott hadn't said anything of the sort in his note. "As many interesting complications as that could introduce, with the two of us..."

"Yeah, probably a good idea," her powers did not lend themselves to passive defense very well, but she was creative. Besides, they'd never actually touch each other if they were using powers, which made hand-to-hand training a but moot. Feinting she threw a left hook at Nate's mouth. He was significantly taller than her and she was actually aiming for his kidney's.

"I wouldn't want you to drop me in the lake by accident," Nathan said cheerfully, blocking the punch. "Do you need a moment to savor the mental image?

Oh now there was an idea! He had dropped enough people in there over the years, and had been dropped in a few times himself if memory served. Backing up a couple steps, Clarice grinned goofily. "Oh now, see, that's just asking for trouble."

"Yes, well, I ask for it a lot. It's one of my more questionable personal habits," Nathan said, staying on the defensive. He hadn't sparred with Clarice for... had he, ever? She was small and fierce and energetic. Reminded him rather strongly of Dom.

Clarice moved back into an offensive postiion, "That and your obsession with blows ot the head," when she said 'head' she attacked his kneecaps. She was of fairly average hieght for a girl, but her years of fencing had taught her to go low where people were least expecting it. And oh yeah, he wasn't expecting that.

"I suppose you have to aim for the knees when you're as short as you are," Nathan said, smiling even as he winced and backed away a step.

"I'm not that short," she complained Now it was his turn to attack her. Just to be fair to the old man. First pain to her, turn about was only fair during a sparring match.

But Nathan hung back, still on the defensive. Smiling, as he waited to see what she'd do.

Uh uh, she was not playing his game. She wasn't going to attack until she wanted, and she didn't want to. He was trying to force her hand and she wasn't going to play his game. Clarice smiled at him calmly, staying loose on her feet and waited.

I can wait longer than you can, Nathan thought to himself, privately rather amused. Wondering, too, if she'd figure out why he wasn't going on the offensive. Angelo had figured it out ages ago, but then, they tended to do this regularly.

Clarice had been warned of this possibility from Scott. Smiling enigmatically, she goaded him some more, "What? Relflexes so dull you can't even come at me, old man?" she taunted, refusing to rise to the challenge of attacking. "I don't think you could hit me if you tried, even without powers."

Nathan just grinned back at her. "I think I once heard Shiro call your mouth your most dangerous weapon," he said.

"Fuck Shiro," She replied, he hadn't seen some of her newest tricks. And if her mouth distracted people and prevented hehm from trying ot give her some beatdown, then so much the better. "Like he has any clue?"

Nathan did move, finally, in that moment when she was doing more bristling than watching. When all else fails, throw their ex at them. Literally or not. Despite her jibing, he did still move fast, and not just for a man in his forties.

He could also hit a lot harder than her. And did, even pulling the punch a little because it was just sparring.

Score! She got him to attack! Moving to one side, she took the punch on one shoulder and rotated around to his back, hitting him squarely in the kidney. "Damn that hurts!" she cheered, stepping back into position again.

Only to be met by a solid fist to her jaw. "Don't stop and
admire the hit," Nathan said, sounding disgusted - and like he was trying to catch his breath, just a little. "Unless you've just put the person right down, getting inside their guard means they're inside yours, too."

Instead of backing away to nurse her jaw, she ran a couple steps, tackling him with her shoulder firmly planted in his waist. If he had knocked out a tooth, she was going to be pissed>, thankfully, they all seemed okay. As they fell, she used her traction on the mat to jump slightly and slide so when they landed she was firmly on top of him, arm across his throat, but not pressing. Had this been a real battle, it would have been a sliver of a blink disk and not her arm. "I'll remember that."

She was flipped over as easily as if she'd been a leaf. The arm that came down across her throat was like an iron bar, and Nathan raised an eyebrow at her. He didn't look like being knocked down had thrown him at all. "And when you're fighting without powers, don't wrestle with someone who outweights you by a hundred pounds. There's a reason
wrestlers have weight classes."

He was obviously missing the point here. This wasn't about winning, at least, not for Clarice. She'd gotten the first hit on him and she'd knocked him down. All things that should have been easily prevented given their respective skill levels, "Remember when I first started?" she replied careful of his arm, eyes bright, "And now I've knocked you down and got first hit. Not bad for the glitterbug, old man."

"And you really think I was fighting flat-out," Nathan said. "Not to mention, it's not the first five minutes of a fight that matter - it's the last five."

Okay, so she was still an amatuer in comparison, "Gee, thanks," she scowled at him, "Can I get up now?"

"I don't know. Can you?" It was a challenge, and he didn't say it without making very sure that she couldn't kick him in a certain very sensitive spot; Clarice struck him as the type.

Clarice completely would have, if she could have. "Of course I can, the question is, will you let me or do you risk your arm hairs?" Teleportation was always an option, but she didn't want to in a no-powers training session and with them so close together.

"I think you'd be surprised at how much you could do to me before I actually let you up," Nathan said, a grim look in his gray eyes. "And you don't want to know about pain-threshold training at Mistra." He rose smoothly. Didn't offer her a hand up. "There's going to be a time when you have to work through pain, and see how far you can push
yourself when all you want to do is lie down and pass out."

"I think being set on fire was enough," it was true though, as things went, she really hadn't been hurt as badly as she could have been on missions. Being a teleporter meant she was able to avoid things somewhat easier and she had been lucky on mission selections as well. Explaining bruises to her roommates was an issue nonetheless. Climbing to her feet she nodded to herself, "Ready to go again?"