2014-02-26 - Sparring Partners

 First Floor Sparring Ring - Grant's Gym - Gotham City



 Polly had dragged her friend 'Adam' along again with her to the gym only to get down to work. Ted had kept her on the bags for a good part of her training which was beginning already to help build up some more muscle in her arms and some callouses on her knuckles--she didn't always wrap her hands. But it wasn't her that was training right now. Taking a break with a bottle of water she leans against the wall watching how



 Damian would do against Ted... It was a toss-up. The conversation had been about the whole 'no more heroes' rally as well. "They did a good job of undermining things. Should have thought to check that they'd sabotage themselves."



 Wildcat is getting into the sparring. 'Adam' is fast as lightning and slippery as a greased eel. Mind you even Ted's grazes are going to hurt and if he lands a solid shot ... Bat-Ouch! After several rounds of Wildcat feeling out the young man's style and making a little heat now and then the old cat is sporting a thin trickle of blood in the corner of his mouth. He grins at Adam and then just show how serious this is, he pulls his cowl back and down and gets into a little lower stance that is obviously from ... not quite any style you could name. Yep. The Wildcat is going for his infamous back alley takedown style.



 Adam is regretting taking Wildcat as just another old man. He definitely had strength and he had skill in great amounts. Though aching from a dozen little 'grazes' he is grinning as he watches Wildcat go into that crouch even as he answers Carrie. "Yes, should have seen that coming as well, it was obvious. Also, from what Kara said about the devices they replicated Batman's technology perfectly."



 Even as the words leave his mouth he jumps up legs swinging around in a hook kick aimed for the old champion's jaw.



 "Not hard to. It's not as if the Boss has us recover those smoke bombs after we use them. They probably could have just gotten a bunch from Police evidence lockup and recharge them," Polly points out as she watches the sudden crouch with interest. A swig is taken of her bottle as she watches with a smile of her own. 'Adam' was certainly getting into this and it seemed that Ted was too. "Really not sure which of you to cheer for."



 Wildcat does a move he actually mastered playing limbo on vacation, bending almost double as the foot sails over his head. He has to turn his head a bit it's that close. Yup. He is slowing down. Or kids are getting faster. He snaps upright and makes a 'c'mere' motion with one hand. "Getting tired, princess?"



<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;font-size:12px;line-height:normal;font-family:Helvetica;"> Adam is surprised when Wildcat bends back under his kick. He lands, rolls, and gets to his feet. "True," he says over his shoulder to Carrie. "Seemed pretty simple though, given that Savage is supposed to be un-killable I'd have used a bomb if I was him."

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<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;font-size:12px;line-height:normal;font-family:Helvetica;"> He closes with Wildcat "Not even a little, old man, but if you need a rest-" he throws a flurry of kicks and punches but he's dangerously close to the stronger opponent.

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<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;font-size:12px;line-height:normal;font-family:Helvetica;"> Wildcat throws several punches back while absorbing a couple of hits to the ribs with little more than a hiss and tightlipped grin. Finally he decides it is time for a grand gesture. As Damian throws a punch Ted counters with a punch of his own. The two fists collide with an audible thwack! "I need a rest from yer mouth, rookie."

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<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;font-size:12px;line-height:normal;font-family:Helvetica;"> "And tip his hand to those not in the know that he's not a regular guy like the populace they're trying to stir up against us? No, that wouldn't have worked," Carrie explains with a shake of her head. "And it would have been overkill. No need to." The fight and smack talk from the two cause Polly to grin as she watches.

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<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;font-size:12px;line-height:normal;font-family:Helvetica;"> THWACK their fists collide and pain shoots up Adam's arm, but he keeps going. He reaches over with his other hand to grab Wildcat's wrist and yanks it as he throws a kick at Wildcat's stomach. "I've been doing this for years, I'm no rookie," he counters with a grimace. His right hand though is useless for the moment. "True," he says over his shoulder to Carrie. "So what do we do about this?"

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;font-size:12px;line-height:normal;font-family:Helvetica;"> Wildcat bends into the kick. Adam feels his foot hit rock hard abs. From Ted's perspective it hurts. Hell yes, but every bang he's taken from his opponent has led to this. He grabs the ankle of Adam's kicking leg. At the same time he reverses the wrist lock. He aims a kick for Adam's stomach as he throws himself backward hoping to fling Adam over him and slam him onto the mat. Hard.

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<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;font-size:12px;line-height:normal;font-family:Helvetica;"> This will look great if it works.

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<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;font-size:12px;line-height:normal;font-family:Helvetica;"> If it doesn't work it'll look great for Adam.

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<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;font-size:12px;line-height:normal;font-family:Helvetica;"> Carrie winces as the impact occurs, and moreso when Wildcat swings Adam around like that. She shifts against the wall lifting a leg to plant her foot against it with knee bent. There's no sigh though she's certainly tempted to do so. Instead she takes another sip of her water with a gaze shifting to the side. "You want me to be her, then?" She asks, quietly, with a hint of amusement. "If I'm going to be playing decisive leader you two finish up first. I could go for a coffee and I don't know how to work that machine of Stretch's."

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<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;font-size:12px;line-height:normal;font-family:Helvetica;"> Adam falls for the trap, his leg is grabbed and the kick is landed in his gut. He grunts with pain before his eyes widen and he's slammed hard into the mats. He groans again and rolls away rubbing his stomach. "You're good," he mutters ruefully as he gets back to his feet. He glances across the gym to Carrie to watch her reaction. "We're done here I think. So, what do we do?" he asks responding to her comment.

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<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;font-size:12px;line-height:normal;font-family:Helvetica;"> Wildcat extends a hand to Damian, "Hey! We aren't done till we shake. No hard feelings I hope. You give me a good workout kid. I hope you learned a few tricks."

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<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;font-size:12px;line-height:normal;font-family:Helvetica;"> Damian looks at the hand for a monent and it looks like he's not going to shake it, but he does, eventually, a quick shake, almost grudging. "No hard feelings," he confirms after a second. "And I've learned not to underestimate you at the very least. Who were your teachers?"

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<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;font-size:12px;line-height:normal;font-family:Helvetica;"> Carrie pushes off from the wall grinning at the pair. "Right. Plans. You have any ideas, Ted?" She asks simply though it's clear she's already thinking on things. "Saw you were in the crowd, too. You're not so great at disguising your voice," she points out with an amused grin.

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<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;font-size:12px;line-height:normal;font-family:Helvetica;"> Wildcat regards Damian a moment and then goes behind the bar. He punches a couple buttons on the coffee machine. Then he walks over to the secret door and enters his little 'Cat Post.' He comes out a moment later with a scrapbook and several framed pictures.

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<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;font-size:12px;line-height:normal;font-family:Helvetica;">  Wildcat says, "You know, Adam, no one ever asks me who my teachers were. You're a respectful young man. But you don't give your respect easily and I appreciate that. You can call me Ted. My first teacher was Socker Smith. He died in a bout with me when our crooked manager planted a drugged needle in my gloves. He was a good teacher and a good friend. After that it was Jake Moran, he groomed me for Heavy Weight Champion. He was great too but ... that was a sad story too. here are some of my other teachers, all gone. Except the O-Sensei. I didn't study with him long ..."

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<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;font-size:12px;line-height:normal;font-family:Helvetica;"> Damian blinks slightly when he's called respectful he shoots a look over at Carrie for her reaction to that then, he moves over to the bar to take a look at the pictures, the faces mean nothing to him, they're well before his time, but, the last one, the living one does earn a look of curiosity from the young man. "Oh, and who is O-Sensei?" he asks, knowing that is a title of respect and not a true name. Though Carrie's comments register and he looks at Ted with a frown "Wait, you were the man who was chanting." He glances back to Carrie. "Was that planned?"

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<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;font-size:12px;line-height:normal;font-family:Helvetica;"> Carrie throws her hands up in a 'don't look at me' gesture though she grins broadly as it seems that Ted has caught some of the bits of Damian that she knew well enough. He was respectful in his own way... When he wasn't snarking. The grin remains as she moves over to the counter to slide onto a stool watching as he dips into the catpost to bring out...

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<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;font-size:12px;line-height:normal;font-family:Helvetica;"> An Album. Carrie knew well this particular horror and her eyes widen minutely before she makes herself relax. It wouldn't be vacation photos or old rally pictures of protests long past. She hoped.

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<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;font-size:12px;line-height:normal;font-family:Helvetica;"> "You didn't realize?" She asks of Damian with a bemused grin. "Nope. Just by chance."

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<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;font-size:12px;line-height:normal;font-family:Helvetica;"> Carrie throws her hands up in a 'don't look at me' gesture though she grins broadly as it seems that Ted has caught some of the bits of Damian that she knew well enough. He was respectful in his own way... When he wasn't snarking. The grin remains as she moves over to the counter to slide onto a stool watching as he dips into the Cat Post to bring out...

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<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;font-size:12px;line-height:normal;font-family:Helvetica;"> An Album. Carrie knew well this particular horror and her eyes widen minutely before she makes herself relax. It wouldn't be vacation photos or old rally pictures of protests long past. She hoped.

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<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;font-size:12px;line-height:normal;font-family:Helvetica;"> "You didn't realize?" She asks of Damian with a bemused grin. "Nope. Just by chance."

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<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;font-size:12px;line-height:normal;font-family:Helvetica;"> Wildcat chuckles. "The O-Sensei? Ask Batman. I'm pretty sure that's where he got the five point exploding claw punch from. You don't just google that. Adam ... if you want to keep studying here, I'd like to add your picture to my wall, inside the Cat Post of course. Same for you Polly. "

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<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;font-size:12px;line-height:normal;font-family:Helvetica;"> Ted takes a sip of coffee and says, "So can either of you junior detectives tell me one thing? If Savage has undisputable video proof of Batman murdering someone, why haven't the police charged him? Haven't they given this video proof to the cops?"

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<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;font-size:12px;line-height:normal;font-family:Helvetica;"> "I rather suspect that Batman won't be in a sharing mood if I ask him, he rarely is," Damian laments as he leans on the bar and looks over the pictures in the album. "And five point exploding claw punch? That sounds like something you just made up."

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<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;font-size:12px;line-height:normal;font-family:Helvetica;"> The question about pictures earns a frown and he considers his disguise in the reflection in the coffee machine. "I suppose a picture would not hurt," he says and he looks to Carrie, ahem, Polly, for confirmation on that.

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<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;font-size:12px;line-height:normal;font-family:Helvetica;"> The other question though, that earns a hmm, so very much like Batman's. "Well first of all I am sure it's is not the Batman we know in the video. There was a period where Batman's mantle was worn by someone else, and given the timing of the video, it seems to fit. I believe Vandal Savage knows this, and he also knows that the police, or at least the Comissioner know there was another Batman at that time or he would have given them the video and let them deal with it."

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<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;font-size:12px;line-height:normal;font-family:Helvetica;"> "Boss doesn't kill," Polly states, blunt and without hesitation. There was no doubt in her at all on this fact--It had been grilled into her for years. Even if her own Batman may have it was still his policy NOT to. The discussion of it has her usually cheerful demeanor gone to be replaced by a quietly serious look. "Mm. Sure, a picture will be fine," she agrees only to laugh. "In costume or out though?" It never hurt to make sure on that. Even as she asks it's habit for her to make a quick look over her shoulder to ensure no one not in-the-know might have wandered in. It's safe enough though and she looks back.

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<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;font-size:12px;line-height:normal;font-family:Helvetica;"> "Adam's right. There was another Batman for awhile after the Boss was injured badly. Just while he recouped. If the guy got killed at all--It doesn't show him hitting anything and we do have grapple hooks. Not the first time someone might have been left dangling upside down from a pole."

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<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;font-size:12px;line-height:normal;font-family:Helvetica;"> "Other than that? Try /catching/ the Boss to arrest him," She adds with a smirk.

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<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;font-size:12px;line-height:normal;font-family:Helvetica;"> Wildcat sets his cup down. "Ah the rooftop dangle. I started that. Green Lantern flew people up in the sky and dangled them but ... they knew he could catch them."

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<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;font-size:12px;line-height:normal;font-family:Helvetica;"> "Someone else wore the mantle ... I had a few suspicions but you never know with your boss. I'm still not sure which of my students he was. Sneaky bastard borrowed moves from everyone in my gym at the time," Ted muses. Then he looks at Adam and Polly and says, "Young people, there are rules in this profession. We don't take human life except to preserve other life from immediate lethal threat. We are not judge, jury, and executioner. If we go that way then all those people out there are right to fear and hate us. Restraint is why the police let us do what we do. No one is uncatchable. No one. You never had them turn on you like the JSA did ..."

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<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;font-size:12px;line-height:normal;font-family:Helvetica;"> The talk about not taking human life earns another "Hm," from Damian it doesn't sound committed to the idea but he says "At least you have a good reason for it, if not killing keeps the police off our backs then it makes sense, otherwise it is just prolonging things."

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<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;font-size:12px;line-height:normal;font-family:Helvetica;"> When Ted begins his lecture about responsibility, rules, and finally ends with how it was like to be turned on, Polly grows somber. Shifting her gaze toward Adam she watches him a moment. Only a moment. Absently her posture shifts as she straightens recalling the words of another in the back of her mind to sit up straight. "I know that more than you can imagine. I know what it's like to be hunted and have to hide in the shadows." By the tone of her voice she wasn't being melodramatic--it was sincere. Honest. Haunted. There was a quiet anger there at a perceived injustice, but in her way she moves on instead of letting it fester. "We don't kill. We don't use guns. Those are the tools of cowards and the frightened." The litany is repeated like some odd, old mantra, and as she speaks it sounds as if she was older than she appears. Perhaps she was in some ways. When she finishes she relaxes again allowing her smile to emerge once more. Was it an act? Or was this a facade? "Even so he's ... difficult to catch. Not that there's any reason to need to be."

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<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;font-size:12px;line-height:normal;font-family:Helvetica;"> Damian reaches over wordlessly to put his hand on Carrie's in quiet support. It's a brief gesture however, and he soon sets it back on the desk. "So for now, we leave Savage and Luthor alone?" he asks them.

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<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;font-size:12px;line-height:normal;font-family:Helvetica;"> Carrie glances over at Damian offering him a small smile showing she was alright. "I need to think on it. It's going to be dangerous if they do manage to get more people on their side, but for now... Just keep doing what we do. Do it well. Do it right. And don't give them anything to throw back at us."

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