Logan & Clint | Wednesday Afternoon

[x-hawkeye.livejournal.com]

Clint and Logan meet up in the gym for the first day of Clint's extracurricular training - it's all about the evaluations.


Pushing the gym door open just a little before two, Clint peered inside. He was used to coming here for self defense, but he wasn't entirely sure what to expect from Logan. It wasn't that he was worried, per se, it was just that he didn't quite know what he'd gotten himself into and he kept thinking about Kyle saying he was a little sports car. He had a feeling Logan could squish him. Walking in, he sat his bag down by the wall and leaned back to wait the few minutes until Logan appeared.

Comin' back to the mansion, Logan hadn't been sure what he'd end up doin' since he figured a lot of people would object to him teachin' a class. That hadn't meant he'd been lookin' to pick up individual students either but well he'd ended up with one anyway. Kid said he hadn't been trained in anything and pullin' up his school intake file, Logan hadn't seen anything specific about a mutation just that he was positive for the X-gene. It was why he'd asked Summers if he had any spare spatial visualization testing kits layin' around. When it turned out he did, Logan figured testin' the kid with it couldn't hurt. Mutations came in all weird ways. Logan strode down the hallway with the kit under his arm. He was dressed in loose workout clothes. Nothing fancy since he wasn't expectin' a long session today. They were just goin' over the basics anyway. He pushed the door open and nodded when he saw Clint was already there. "You're punctual. Good. That means we'll always have the full time if we need it."

Clint stood up off the wall and shoved his hands in his pockets, then thought better of that and pulled them back out. "I don't like being late," he said, because he felt like he needed to respond somehow but he didn't really know what else to say. He noticed that Logan was carrying something, though, and the label made him tilt his head a bit. "Spatial Visualization Test?" He asked, knowing the general idea behind that but not entirely sure why the older mutant thought they'd need it.

He hadn't been passin' judgement on the kid. He just hated people who were late when they'd wanted some part of his time. Logan arched an eyebrow at the mention of the kit he was carryin'. "Yup. Kinda just a shot in the dark since your file didn't say what your mutation was. Sometimes they come grouped with things you wouldn't expect. Like Summers has it along with his eye blasts and some freaky geometry stuff." He came to a stop in front of Clint. "You got pretty damn good eyesight if you're able to read that from when I was all the way over there." He waved back the way he'd come. "That part of your mutation?"

"It's kind of the only part of my mutation?" Clint said, shrugging. "I mean, my eyes are my only mutation. I'm colorblind, so I see everything in gray scale, and my eyesight's 20/2. I can do this." He looked to the left with his left eye and the right with his other. "And I've got these extra membrane things so I don't have to blink as much as everybody else." He demonstrated that, too. "I have to get my eyes checked twice a year to make sure everything's normal. Oh, and my eye doctor says I don't have a blind spot. Whatever that means."

He sincerely doubted that. There were always layers to what mutant abilities came outta the X-gene but the kid was young. He'd learn soon enough. "You'd be surprised what can develop as the years go on." He listened as Clint talked and was surprised when Clint's eyes went in opposite directions. "That's gotta come in handy." Logan whistled. "Lotta people would love to have no blind spot. It means there's no point in your field of vision that you can't see. It'd make you a pretty good military asset and with everything else, you'd be hard to ambush in the field."

"I thought mutants weren't allowed in the military," Clint said. "Like they're not allowed in other government stuff - Maddie wanted to be an astronaut, but she can't because of her mutation." He'd also figured his colorblindness would've kept him from any kind of service as well, but since he'd never actually considered going into the military, he might've been wrong. "But yeah, it's pretty hard for people to sneak up on me. Doesn't do me much good for dodging or anything - my roommate keeps dropping potatoes on my head. They sort of show up out of thin air."

He shrugged. "There's ways to get around things. Has Gar told you much about the Flight program in Canada? That's one way to work your way into the military. And of course, there's always the black ops and specialized programs most governments always run. Rogue programs pretendin' to be government. It goes on and on. Not exactly something I'd recommend for you or any of your friends. But yeah, the more public stuff's off limits 'cause everyone's agreed to not use mutants in the military. There was an incident a coupla years ago. Sorta like Genosha but not. Involved an invasion of Pakistan.... But a rundown of political mishaps ain't what you're here for." Logan waved his hand in the air. He was gettin' extremely side tracked. The kid didn't need a politics lesson. He held the spatial visualization kit up in his hands. "Do this now or after we've done everything else?"

"Um..." Clint reached over and took the kit. It wound up being a couple sets of paper, each starting with a different set of instructions. "Let's do this after. It'll give me a chance to cool down." He tucked the papers back into the packet he'd pulled them from and sat it near his bag. "So... how do we do this, then?"

"Works for me." Logan stepped back to give the kid some space. "We'll start with some stretchin' and a couple laps then I'll see how well those self-defense lessons have stuck." He started to go into his usual set of exercises that stretched every muscle group but paused. "Just do what they normally have you do to get warmed up. Gar's probably got you kids doin' some of the same exercises. If needed, I'll teach you more." He resumed his stretches but kept an eye on the kid too.

Clint nodded and started out with the regular stretches they always did in self defense, running through the routine he'd been practicing since he got to the mansion in September. He kept quiet while he stretched, keeping one eye on Logan - literally. His left eye started to hurt a bit, though, so he stopped watching the older mutant and focused on finishing up his pre-warm-up.

Gar and whoever else had been trainin' the kids were trainin' them right. Kid was doin' the right stretches and in proper form too. He had little to no bad habits to deal with. Once Logan felt fully stretched, he rolled his head from side to side once then took a few laps around the gym. He came back to where he'd started and waited for the kid to finish up what he was doin'. "You feel loose enough? We got plenty of time so no need to rush. Just quick stuff today first. I'm gonna have you show me how well you've taken to that self defense trainin' you've had so far. Blocks, safety rolls, grip breaks, all that fun stuff."

"Okay," Clint said. It seemed like the regular sort of stuff, just demonstrating what he could do for now so they could figure out what he wanted to do next. Logical. He could definitely appreciate that. "I think I'm good. Mr. Lexington's sort of in charge of teaching all that stuff. He was in the military, I think." He moved over to the middle of the mats, shifting into a defensive position the way he'd been taught.

Logan turned a critical eye on the kid's stance and nodded his approval as he moved toward him. Reactive more than proactive but that's what they'd be workin' toward later. He wasn't sure how strong the kid was, either way, he'd be usin' less than a quarter of his strength. No need to bruise him on the first day. He aimed a couple blows at his head and at his sides, tryin' to make them unpredictable and testin' out if there was a side he favored.

Clint wasn't entirely sure what to specifically expect from Logan, but the hits he threw weren't too horribly difficult to block. He could see them coming, at least, and didn't have any trouble protecting his head and sides the way he'd been taught in class. Forearm blocks he was pretty good at.

The kid was pretty good at the blocks and had good form too. His eyesight was probably helpin' with that. They'd need to see what other kinds of advantages it'd give him. The hold breakin' definitely needed some work. He wasn't usin' leverage or positionin' to his advantage. He was a bit better at falls but not the same level as he'd been with the blocks. Logan could tell he wasn't 100% comfortable with how to move his body during the falls. He just needed more trainin' and practice. Teenagers were never good with gettin' their bodies to move how they wanted 'em to in the beginnin'. "Alright. That's enough of those. You're good at the blocks but we'll need to work on the grip breaks and falls. Those are just as important as fendin' off anything that comes at you. You know how to punch and kick safely? Or using your knees or forearms and other parts of your body to strike?"

"We've done some of that," Clint said, stretching out his arms a little more. "Not a whole lot. It's mostly been the stuff we were just doing. And Mr. Kane's been doing power's training stuff, obstacle courses and that kind of thing. I don't think that's really what you're talking about, though." He offered the older mutant a hesitant smile - Logan hadn't been high handed while they were running through things. He hadn't treated Clint like he was an idiot or anything, which is what adults sometimes did. Of course, Clint was quickly learning that the adults here at the mansion weren't really like adults everywhere else. "Mr. Lexington mostly showed us how to punch and kick, but more focused on using those to get away from people. I think we're supposed to cover more of that later in the school year. Our whole project is basically surviving the zombie apocalypse, so we've gotta learn some other stuff."

"No, not quite. I'm sure Gar and them know what they're doin' when they put you through that stuff though." Logan returned the kid's smile with one of his own. "Ya got a solid foundation we can work from and considerin' who you learned it from, I don't have issues with your form." He hadn't interacted much with Lexington but if he was part of the group that was teachin' self defense and control then he must be pretty good. "He'll have shown you the right way to do things then. Just show me a punch and kick and we can call it good. Then move onto that mess of things from that kit."

"Okay," Clint said again, doing as Logan said. He didn't have as much practice with the offensive side of things as the defensive and the only fights he'd really been in weren't exactly the kind that called for proper form and technique, but he did his best.

Hmm, the force was lackin' but the kid had decent balance and was also carryin' out the motions to their conclusion. With work and trainin', he'd be able to handle himself without embarrassment. "You're doin' your teachers proud. Very solid foundation, not that I expected anything less." Logan patted Clint on the shoulder. "What I'm thinkin' is we'll start you off with the traditional basics to get you comfortable with the motions and more sure with makin' your body do what you want it to. I'll also mix in the less structured and more all out fightin' stuff. Traditional's good and all but not as useful in a real fight than you'd think. After we get the basics out of the way, we can move into a specific style or styles you like. That's when you'll need to decide if you wanna continue with me or go to a dojo in the city. There you'll get the full experience with colored belts and all the stuff you picture when you say martial arts."

"Not much use for colored belts," Clint said, smiling again. "But that sounds like it'll be fun. I can do that test kit you brought real quick and then I've got some Algebra II homework I need to do. Thanks for, y'know. Helping out and everything. And agreeing to work me with. I really appreciate it."

"Yeah, no, but it might be good to see how you compare to others. Could always do that along with me teachin' you." Logan nodded. "No problem, kid. Kinda pointless havin' all this knowledge in my head if I don't share it." He walked with Clint back over to the where they'd left the test kit and watched as he read through the instructions and did the tests. He was taken by surprise with how well the kid did 'cause he'd essentially blown all the tests out of the water. "Huh, looks like I'll need to talk to Summers more about how to train you or get you some one on one time with him. He's got the spatial visualization thing as part of his mutation too."

"Cool," Clint said, not entirely sure he believed that spatial visualization or whatever could be part of his mutation. It'd always just been his eyes. But if Logan wanted him to talk to Mr. Summers some about it, he didn't see why he shouldn't. It couldn't hurt anything, after all.