Kyle and Julian, sparring

[x-wildchild.livejournal.com]

As promised here, Kyle and Julian have a little throw-down. It's ... educational for Julian (he learns the many ways Kyle can kick him in interesting places) and not entirely fun for Kyle (he gets TK'd into the wall)



The smell of sweat and metal filled the air, and if Julian could smell it then his opponent was probably suffocating from the combined stenches. Stripped to the waist, he slowly moved around the circle, waiting for the right moment to strike out with his padded fists at Kyle- who stared back at him from the opposite edge of the ring. "You've got no game, Gibney," he tried to employ some psychological warfare, getting Kyle to make the first move. The whole practice seemed an exercise in futility, he had telekinesis- it wasn't like he'd ever actually stoop to being in a fist fight.

Kyle wasn't entirely a fan of the sparring gloves. Even fingerless MMA-style gloves made his hands feel weird, and taping over his claws meant sticky claws for the rest of the day. "Keller, what planet are you from? Dude, my entire job on the team is to have game." He bounced on the balls of his (also taped) feet a few times, and cracked his neck. "And before you ask, because all ya'll always do, you learn to fight in case some asshat has powers that turn yours off."

"Yeah, like that would ever happen..." Julian stopped mid-step and shook his padded head, "I mean again." This was part of becoming an X-Man though and if he needed to take down Kyle without using his abilities, he figured that he'd be able to- though his previous attempts had been rather spectacular failures. "I don't intend to get flipped again anyway."

"Murphy's Law, man." Kyle said, grinning. "Oh, and don't hit me in the mouth. I'm not wearing a mouthguard, you'll cut up your hand." He waited a beat, and then stepped forward to shove Julian hard in the chest.

"Yeah, I'm re-" his words were cut short with the dart forward. At the last second, Julian ducked left and brought his fist up into Kyle's gut, trying to move his guard up to deflect the elbow that would certainly be thrown in response- the question became one of speed.

Kyle let the fist connect - Julian was certainly fast enough, if still untrained for anyone 'normal' to have gotten hit, and the X-Men training and hand-to-hand training was certainly comprehensive enough. His elbow came up for a throat jab, hit Julian's blocking forearm.

And then Kyle leapt, one foot barely leaving the ground, and the other leg coming up into a strike - and straight into Julian's groin. It clacked against plastic. "Cup check." He said, with an all-too-feral grin.

The younger mutant's eyes went wide as he stumbled back, partially doubled over. "Dude!" he winced for a moment, collecting his breath. Eyes narrowed, Julian moved back into a fighting position- "You, sir. Are a dick."

Kyle laughed. "Yep. Course, not like anybody we'd end up fighting isn't gonna be just as much of a dick." He stepped back, hands up in guard. "You wanna keep going, or figure out what you coulda done to keep me from doing that?" He didn't like Julian much, but he didn't want the guy to get his ass beat either. Not much anyway. Not that it'd prevent him from going a little harder than he should...

Julian didn't move at first, finally he exhaled slowly and brought himself back to a more appropriate posture. "I think," he began as he made his way to his water bottle, "that my first mistake was to try and fight you when I didn't have my powers. The second mistake was getting close enough for you to use your natural advantages. Finally-" Julian spritzed the water at Kyle and took another swig. "I'd say I should have worn a sturdier cup...pretty sure you cracked this one."

"Okay, I deserved that maybe." Kyle said, wiping his face. "Maybe. Okay, so yeah, with a guy like me, I have reach and I've got speed on you. But it's like, instead of being way the hell over there, you wanna get in close. Take all that away from me, cause if you're in my face, all my reach is useless." He stepped in, slow enough to show that he wasn't going to do anything rash.

Still a bit wary of his opponent, Julian allowed him to get in close- which he found to be slightly uncomfortable given their history. "Yeah, but you're at least twice as fast as me- even without your powers. If I get in this close, I better have my affairs in order."

"You're faster than you think, dude, or else my elbow would've been in your wisdom teeth." Kyle said. "This isn't UFC, if you've gotta fight a guy - and I mean, if you've got to, not if I've got to, you're already fucked. You're already gonna get hurt, you might as well go for broke. Eyes, nose, groin, anything that's gonna mean the person can't fight. And for that, you gotta be right up on someone's face."

Julian nodded, pretending to understand and never actually intending to ever be in a situation where he had to be this close to his opponent. "Want to go again?"

"Sure. You last more than thirty seconds, I'll buy you whatever fancy pants rich kids eat that costs less than like, thirty bucks." Kyle refastened the velcro strap on his gloves, and grinned. "And dude, I -just- go up to a full minute against Garrison. You get through thirty seconds with me, you just get to work with him from now on." Kyle would sell video tape of that. It would be glorious.

With a nod Julian slowly shifted into a fighting stance, this time waiting for Kyle to attack. He had no intention of letting the man who had tossed him in the lake more than once win. "Whenever you're ready, Gibney."

Kyle snorted. "Man, I am always ready." He took a second to get the loose sweaty hairs out of his face - time for another haircut - and then popped out a fast kick with the ball of his foot to Julian's chest. He wasn't about to claw the guy up, he'd kick this up a bit, since Keller seemed to want to be a little cocky, but he wasn't gonna actually go at him with claws.

Julian feinted back and dropped to sweep the remaining leg on the ground, readying himself to take two-steps back when Kyle fell.

And this was why Kyle trained a ridiculous amount in hand-to-hand. Because when sparring someone like Julian, clearly in shape and okay at hand to hand, but not at Kyle's level, he got to show off. The sweep came through, and Kyle toppled forward. It was just that midway through the fall he twisted and planted a hand on the ground instead of rolling or falling on his face. His legs came up, one for balance - and one delivering a heelkick to Julian's face.

The blow connected solidly across Julian's right eye, the sudden surge of pain threw the young man off. Lashing out defensively, Keller pushed out in all directions with his TeeKay.

"MotherFUCK!" Kyle toppled over, natural agility doing jack and shit to the telekinetic pressure, and went back-first into the mat, which was compressing into the floor. "Keller, get a fucking grip!" He snarled. It wasn't entirely like dealing with Lense - once the slam hit, it ended, there wasn't any continual pressure holding Kyle down, but it was close enough to trigger his temper.

Julian knelt on the mat pressing his hand over his eye, which he could already feel swelling up. "You kicked me in the god damned eyeball!" Keller attempted to stand, but fell forward and caught himself; disoriented and more than a little surprised that he was still conscious at all after that blow.

"You'll fucking live." Kyle spat. "If you've never been hit in the eye before, you shouldn't be fucking trying to spar me!" He shook himself, more to try to clear the anger than to clear the lingering headache from being slammed into the mat. "For fuck's sake, Keller, what did you think this was, a tea party? You fight, you're gonna get bruised." Hell, he had at least two he could feel just from this.

"Fuck, I think I'm-" he pulled his hand away and squinted out his undamaged eye, "Yep, I'm bleeding." Taking a deep breath, Julian got to his feet and grabbed his shirt off the nearby bench and walked over to a nearby water cooler. Soaking a part of the shirt her pressed the cool and wet mass against the puffy and bloody part of his face before turning around to face Gibney. "What I thought this was, Gibney, was practice. If you wanted me to not hold back you'd be in the next fucking county by now."

Kyle pulled himself up and began pulling the tape off his hands. "Dude, if I was Marius your teek would be useless and you'd be eating your own teeth. When we've got a guy on our own team who can flip powers, you train for having your powers flipped. It's not that fucking hard." He gnawed off a piece of tape that was sticking to a claw. "You fight with fists, you get hit. That's how it is."

Julian really, really hated to admit it, but Kyle had a point. "Fine," he conceeded, pulling the damp cloth off his swollen eye and resisting the urge to dab at it with his hand. "Maybe I need to wear an inhibitor or something during these exercises- I totally didn't mean to hit you like that." He tossed the bloodied shirt to the side and sniffled slightly, "Ready to go again?"

"You totally meant to hit me like that, dude." Kyle said plainly. "I meant to kick you in the eye, you meant to throw me into a wall. And lets get your eye checked out first, huh? If it swells shut I'm not fighting you. No sense in kicking your ass if it's not at least kinda fair." He began unwrapping the other hand, using more teeth this time - removing tape form his right hand was awkward. "Sides, having a shiner should get you sympathy play. Or at least sympathy food, Laurie's a sucker for that kinda thing." And if he kicked Julian's ass any more, Kyle'd probably get himself in trouble. He wasn't entirely selfless here.

After a quick nod, which he instantly regretted as a wave of dizziness hit him, Julian started toward the door of the gym. He really hadn't meant to send the psi-wave out when he got hit, it was simply a knee-jerk reaction, but if Gibney wanted to think that, he was sure he couldn't change his mind.