It's a trap!

[Curious Key]

There was a danger to overcommitment; usually in the ring Kat had found people didn't have the time to attack back, but not many of her blows got through far enough to hit Kris anyway. Kris' blow hit clean and hard, and Kat stepped back, not breaking stance, breathing hard. "Good hit." Breath in, breath out. "I don't think we've met. Introduce me later?" When Kris came in, Kat figured she could let the flurry go. Being stomped and overwhelmed, she remembered, wasn't nice.

But she had no intention of letting herself be hit. Most of Kris' blows went wide as Kat dodged back, to the side, away. The girl was good at keeping away, but Kris got a few hits in. Bruises never hurt anyone sure, but they did sting. Especially without protection. But it was a good sort of pain.

But before she knew it, Kat was in the corner of the square, and could not retreat any further. She caught Kris' last blow with a nice block, pushing her hand to the side, stepped in closer and hit back hard with a nice cross that plowed through Kris' shield and caught her across the cheek. What fun!

[Scuffles]

Kristin reeled back from the punch more in surprise than in pain - she hadn't expected that even a clean shot from the tiny teleporter would be able to punch through her defensive barrier with that much force. She recovered her balance quickly and her feet shifted as she got back into a defensive posture. When Kat didn't press the attack immediately she straightened slightly and grinned at the younger girl. "Nice shot," she said with a grin as the green light of her shielding dimmed just a little. "I knew you could hit pretty hard but that was a bit of a surprise. Glad I brought my mouthguard!"

Her face definitely felt a little tender where the punch had landed, and she was definitely going to have to ice it later to stop it from swelling up too much but the smile on her opponent's face made the discomfort well worthwhile. She knew it must be annoying to have to hold back in sparring, to only use a fraction of your strength, and while she wasn't really on Kat's level she could certainly take the shots well enough to provide an outlet for her power - and perhaps for her frustrations.

"Would you like a turn?" she asked with a glance at Elias. "Or should we go another round? I reckon I'm wearing her down by getting hit here. At least she might leave with sore hands!"

[TheAbsurdist]

Elias slowly stood up, not shrinking from this. Unbeknownst to them, he had been practicing with Mali. Nearly everyday. It wasn't long enough to make a difference, yet. As he was going with her idea of adopting fighting with weapons, but still he had to learn to handle himself without his telepathy. His stance loose, what Kristin and Kat hadn't seen, that a couple other students knew, was that while Elias was not the fastest person here he very, very quick.

So his hands weren't up in a defensive posture, they were at his sides, held up just a little, as his feet kept moving, and he kept shifting his weight and going from left to right facing, his eyes on Kat the whole while as he circled.

[Curious Key]

First, Kat felt triumph as her friend staggered backward; she'd broken through, she'd hit well and won. Then it occured to her that she'd hit her friend in the face with her hands. That sort of thing could actually cause damage, that sort of thing would have gotten her straight up disqualified in an official match.

Kat scratched at the back of her neck, looking at the floor. "Maybe, but I'm pretty sure that hit's against the rules of every martial art, ever. I guess I've been doing too much fighting . . ." Kat bit down on her lip for a second and gestured, looking sheepish, oh, you know what. "Sorry."

When Elias came up Kat raised an eyebrow. She gave Elias space until he could get into the square with her before she took a stance of her own. Now, Kat decided, she was going to hold the center and never give it up. Like the first, Kat gave it a test, a punch jab to test his reflexes, and a quick, scary round kick without much force to push him a little back. He was about as quick as Kris, she reasoned . . . only without the barrier to keep him safe.

[TheAbsurdist]

And then she swung, and he was moving at the first time he felt her weight shift and move. And he reacted before she led with that punch, and he surged close to her, preventing her from getting good swings. She was good enough that unless he kept the distance there he knew she would hit him. And when she connected she'd felt the ripple of his own telekinetic powers, which didn't just absorb her blows like a wall, it deflected and pushed and then the forces was gone.

His retaliation was to cuff at her arm. He wasn't strong enough to do real damage. But that wasn't the point for him, after all. His goal was to weather her storm, and then just connect. That would be difficult enough for him.

[Scuffles]

Kristin waved off Kat's apology. In her opinion being punched in the face in practice was part of the fun. So long as the punch wasn't hard enough to knock her stupid anyway. "Don't worry about it seriously," she assured the younger girl. "There's no incentive to get better if you don't get hit now and then. If you're hitting me hard enough to leave a mark it means I need to be sharp with my barrier-work."

Smoothly she lowered herself to sit cross-legged at the edge of the mat where she could watch Kat and Elias spar. A grin crossed her face as she immediately noticed improvement in the boy's movement, but she said nothing more, and instead reached out ever so softly with her telekinesis. There probably wasn't even enough force in the touch for either combatant to notice, because she wasn't trying to push, merely to sense their movements and the presence of Elias' telekinetic web.

It was an effort, and she grimaced ever so slightly as the beginnings of a headache started to creep up on her. Developing the telekinetic senses she knew she was capable was definitely a tiresome task.

[Curious Key]

Kat's blows were probing, careful. Yes, about as quick as Kristin . . . She'd known boys who were slow as a truck who could kick like a mule, but Elias didn't look like one of them. Her strikes stayed soft, just present enough to be noticed; in Kat's mind this was already a light contact match; sometimes, her father had asked her to play mentor to some of the new kids in sparring, so they'd fight against someone their size. Elias was over half a head taller than she was, but she fell into the same rhythm nonetheless.

With her blow to Kris' face still fresh in memory, Kat had every intention of doing this by the book. She stepped back into the center of the square and waited. She raised a gloved hand and tapped it to her chest, come on, hit me, if you can. Her mouth was a tight line. Breathe in, breathe out.

[TheAbsurdist]

His expression was intent, and then he surged towards her, picking the moment opportune moment he could to do this. It was a reckless attack, and he knew as he was doing it that it had a very small chance of success. But he was going to try. Two quick steps and he launched himself at her, fully committing himself to something that she could very easily dodge. It was silly, it was crazy. It did not seem like something to expect him to do. But he was trying to close a gap, and doing the best he could.

[Curious Key]

Elias held his hand that that and threw his fist like that. It wasn't like Elias had no idea what he was doing; his thumb wasn't inside his fist like she'd been afraid it might be, and he seemed to have an idea of how to move on an intellectual level, but Kat had it down to instinct.

She stepped into it and caught his punch with her wrist and twisted it aside with her whole body, other hand shooting out and hitting him in the chest, then again and again, with both hands, fast, abusing the opening . . . It didn't hurt. She was playing with kid gloves on, clear as day.

"Come on," she eased up and stepped back, clapping her gloves together below the eyes. "You're supposed to be the telepath here, but your eyes are shouting; 'will punch high, please block here.' There was some power there, but if it doesn't hit? Doesn't matter."

[TheAbsurdist]

"I am not going to play that card." Elias said it softly, he still taste her anger, bitter and acrid in his mouth. Aware that she would continue to dislike him, especially since he had inadvertently made her show a flaw to him, in front of someone else. He saw her as baiting him. Whether or not that was true.

His face was set with determination, he was trying, harder and harder. He lacked the amount of training that they did. But that didn't stop him, not in the slightest. At that point it was clear to see that he wouldn't stop. There was anger there, on his face as he scowled in focus, but it was aimed only at himself.

Almost tearing off his shirt long sleeved shirt, pulling down to the white v-neck underneath. His stance more serious, his hands up, and she could see that scuff marks and scabs on his knuckles, from pushing himself with Mali. Harder each time. Eventually he lunged at her, and while he was quick it wasn't really that great of an attack. So her counter attack was expected, and he seemed like a pretty easy target, and then something odd happened as he tried, in the middle of his motion to stop what was happening, and he leaned his upper body to go under her blow.

To someone else it almost looked like his back was double hinged almost, as he almost unnaturally contorted to avoid the blow. Not that he did, as all he succeeded in doing was taking a shot to the chin on his way down. But even he was not expecting this, as he collapsed onto his knees, his shoulders hitting the mat and he just... stayed there, staring up at the ceiling. Folded up like a napkin.

"Huh. That was productive." Which might account for the first joke either of them had heard him say.

[Scuffles]

Kristin winced as Elias went over backwards in a very awkward looking way, and immediately bounded to her feet then headed over to make sure he was alright. She cracked a smile at his off-hand comment, and leaned down to off him a hand back up. "Maybe time to take a little break there before things get too intense," she suggested just a hint of concern in her tone. "Working hard in practice is good and all, but you were getting pretty fired up there."

She flashed a grin over at Kat. "Still, you've improved a lot since I met you," she told Elias. "Kat here's off-the-scale good and she didn't make you look any worse than she made me. You've been working pretty hard with Mali right?"

[Curious Key]

Some people just won't be helped, even if you try. Feeling some vindication in knowing he'd spat her advice down like it was nothing. Taking it easy was one thing, but Dad always said, no one learns unless they're shown . . . She twisted her blow to the side and aimed toward his chest, tried to hit him hard. But that meant that Elias had more time, and he twisted back, but Kat knew he couldn't twist too far without . . . He did it anyway. Kat's fist barely even clipped his chin as he fell to the ground behind her, folded up like a contortionist. She looked back at him for a second, eyebrows wrinkled together. She snorted and shook her head.

She returned Kristin's smile and scratched at her back, self-conscious of the praise. "Yeah, it seemed like he had a lot of the basics down." Kat peered at him sideways, frowning as she took off her borrowed gloves. He was at that point where he thought that throwing everything he had was 'doing his best.' He'd realize how much more important control was, sooner or later. Not that Kat could lecture him, after how excited she'd gotten against Kristin. She peered back at her friend, a guilty shadow falling over her face. "Do you want some ice for that?" Kat was the image of concern. "I don't know how much of my punch got through your barrier."

[TheAbsurdist]

"One sec, yah." And then he rolled to his side, and unfolded his legs out from under him. "Crow tastes bad." And he reached up and used Kristin's help to stand, and he winced when he did. Gritting his teeth, as he pushed down hard and twisted on his left knee, which popped audibly. "Thank you." And he half limped over to his backpack, and pulled out something from his bag, and he made a sharp jerking motion with his hands.

He came back, and held out the gel pack as it started to chill itself. "Hold this on your face." Kat's assessment was right, he was largely having a problem, mainly over thinking the issue. She had inadvertently pushed button a button with him, and his reaction had been kneejerk and stupid. And now he was paying for it. There was a pause, as he glanced them, "What? I..." He paused a moment coming up with an honest sentiment that wasn't him talking about his past... "I train with Mali. I asked the nurse for some extra ice packs."

He glanced to Kat then, "Sorry." He didn't say it begrudging. "I reacted poorly to what you said, I was... am overly sensitive." He didn't expect her to respond to it, he understood where he was cast in her narrative, and he wasn't going to try to place himself in a better light to her. He had other things he needed to do.

As he said that, he reached out and brushed against Kristin's mind then, without scanning, she could differentiate that much,

This wont stop her dislike of me, and I am still going to avoid her. But I don't think she is going to call me a monster anymore.

"Please stop fidgeting Kristin." Said as he eyed her face critically.

[Scuffles]

Kristin was in the process of telling Kat that her face was fine when she ended up with an icepack in her face anyway. "Oh fine, I'll ice it!" she said in exasperated tones as she took the icepack and pressed it against the deepening bruise. "Happy? But really, are you use you don't need one on your knee? That sounded really nasty. Knees aren't supposed to do that!"

She raised an eyebrow as she felt the feather-light touch on her mind and heard the projected thought, but didn't do anything more than roll her eyes in response as she turned towards Kat. "I'm fine, honest! Stop feeling guilty!" she told the younger girl. "I want you to hit me that hard when we spar. I spar with the barrier so you can"

[Curious Key]

Kat's expression was dubious, but she nodded. "Alright." Shifting her weight from one foot to the other, not quite meeting Kristin's eye.

She turned to Elias, glad to have something to distract her. An eyebrow rose. "Apologize to your knee. Stay right there." She jogged over to Elias' pack and rummaged through it until she found another of those weird chemical packs, ran back and held it out to him. "You should really have that checked out later, find the nurse, see if you've sprained anything."

[TheAbsurdist]

He looked chagrined about the whole ordeal. "I can still put weight on it, I will go see the nurse in a little bit." He glanced to Kat for a moment, and then back to Kristin. "It is not the first time something like this has happened." But he turned to Kat, and then took the icepack from her, "Thank you." And he sank down, a little gingerly, and he pulled up his pant leg to press the ice pack against his knee directly. His face didn't show any discomfort, but that didn't mean much of anything really, he was used to pain, and to tending to himself, so he took the icepack from his knee and slowly, and gingerly, inspecting his knee with his fingers.

[Scuffles]

"It doesn't look too swollen at least," Kristin decided as she sat down next to Elias and folded her legs up underneath herself, still dabbing at her face halfheartedly with her own icepack. "Give it a few minutes and if it's still sore to walk on I'll help you to the sick bay. Make sure you actually go there instead of just going back to your room too."

She looked up at Kat and gestured for the younger girl to take a seat. "Guess we're done with the sparring for tonight," she said with a smile. "But we should do this more often - and I definitely need to introduce you to Mali, you'll get along great!"

She grinned at Elias once more. "Us poor amateurs can watch how it's really done," she chuckled. "And maybe sell tickets or something."

[Curious Key]

"Make sure you do," Kat told Elias. "You look fine, but that could be the endorphins talking." Her Dad told her that people mistake confidence for endurance sometimes, and forget they're attached to a body that'll fray and fall regardless of how determined they are. She suspected Elias was one of them; how could someone bend like that and be okay?

 

But she took him at his word and let it slide. Kat let herself fall down next to the others on the mat and mimicked Kris's position. "Yeah." Most of what she'd been doing was combat training in the doom room. And then they were always scenarios; while wet, against armed targets, on ice. "Just one-on-one sparring is nice."

Next to Elias and Kristin Kat looked small. "I'd like that," she said. "Whenever we're not too tied up."

[TheAbsurdist]

He stopped, and his brows furrowed as he looked Kat then.  "I am fairly familiar with pain and what happens after."  And he grasped the hem of his shirt, pulling it up, revealing the scar on his stomach, puckered skin in the shape of a hand print, more or less.  There was another between his shoulder blades.  Encouragements from his mother.  Not that he was scoffing or showing anger towards her then, she didn't really know him beyond their shallow interactions, thus far.  He did make a note about Mali, he could learn fighting from Kat, but she was... they were still at odds, and he needed someone to help him learn and cover his weaknesses.  Letting his hand drop, along with the shirt, he had no urge to share further.  It hadn't helped on the camping trip it wouldn't help, and it wasn't like he had the frame work to convey these things to them.

[Scuffles]

"Yee-ouch!" Kristin commented as she got a look at the hand-shaped scar across the telepath's stomach. "Bet that didn't tickle. Don't think I want to know how that happened."

 

While she was no stranger to battle scars - a high-altitude encounter with a monstrous little gremlin had left her with a set of claw-marks across her lower back - she knew full well that for the most part scars of that sort came with painful memories attached, and from what little she knew of the boy's past it likely wasn't a fun story. A change of subject was definitely in order, but she wasn't about to let Elias be quite so short with Kat - even if it was likely unintentional. "Anyway, she's just trying to help you know," she chided gently. "No need to be snarky about it."

 

She wiped a drop of condensation off her cheek and then pressed the icepack against it again as she looked over at the diminutive martial artist. "So did you like, compete in martial arts before you came here?" she asked curiously. "You know, like tournaments and stuff?"

[Curious Key]

She winced back when Elias revealed his scars; Kat couldn't help it. It took something special to get hands to leave scars like that on skin. "Well yeah, you're a tough guy who's gotten hurt. Half the kids here are." She made a motion as though brushing the thought out of her face. "Unless you've got super-endurance too. I've seen people walk off things like they're nothing that come back to haunt 'em for months in a cast cause they were 'tough' and didn't take it seriously." She gestured at his leg. "I'm pretty sure I just saw it again."

At the mention of martial arts though, Kat's eyes lit up. "Oh yeah," she said, sitting up a little straighter. "I've been doing kung-fu since I was old enough to learn the forms. Went to a lot of tournaments. Dad runs a dojo at home, and he got me started."

[TheAbsurdist]

He sighed, he just sighed softly.  "No.  I am someone who has been hurt, and has hard to learn how to take care of my wounds because I've spent a long time as a fugitive.  I don't have first aid supplies for no reason"  He turned and moved to his bag, grabbing his things, and picking them up.  He glossed over the details, they didn't want to hear them, they all but screamed it, and as much as he wanted to throw it in their faces, he recognized it as a petty, spiteful urge that wouldn't help anyone.  So he dropped that feeling as soon as it started to pop up.  He realized he just needed to stop sharing all together, as it just seemed to be taken wrong every time.

 

"I am not being snarky.  I don't feel a need to make ironic statements while deriding you.  One of you actually likes me, the other I just invested energy into trying to make sure has backed down from unreasoning hatred.  I am not going to throw that away in a fit of pique.  And I am going to go to the nurse."  Putting his arms through the straps he let the weight of the backpack settle.  "There is no reason for me to lie to you just to mollify you."  And with that he walked over to Kristin, and leaned down to brush his fingertips across her forehead.  It was a swift gesture, owing to Elias' quickness.  His expression clinical when it happened.  He turned afterward, as there was a moment of synch, and then the swelling around Kristin's eye started to go away, as the flesh around that eye for him started to puff up.  For Kristin it was like the dull ache of her eye receded abruptly.  

 

"Mm, this where I say take care."  And while keeping the injury he took from Kristin aimed away from her, before he started to walk away.

[Scuffles]

Kristin's first reaction to the unrequested healing touch was a flash of anger, and she grabbed Elias by the arm as he started away. "Hey!" she started sharply, then stopped and let her hand fall to her side as she took a breath and thought about it for a moment. Both her tone and her stance softened a moment later when she realised that she was about to yell at the boy for just trying to help.

 

"That wasn't necessary Elias," she said quietly. "But thank you anyway. You should be careful doing things like that without asking first though, some people will get upset about it. Anyway, let me know if you want to come work out again, I'm in here heaps anyway."

 

She gave a bit of a shrug as she turned back towards Kat. "What do you reckon," she asked the little martial artist. "Are we gonna work out a bit more or should we pack it up for the day?"

[Curious Key]

Unimpressed by Elias' boo-hoo 'I know pain, you have no right to lecture me' routine, Kat resisted the urge to tell him exactly how often injured peole had lied to mollify others before taking everything a step too far and breaking. She huffed and crossed her arms instead and tried to imagine how her father might have handled someone as stubborn as Elias. She shook her head and made a small, frustrated noise in the back of her throat.

"I'm done with sparring for today." Kat said. "But do need to keep up the workout, so if you'd like to stick around . . ." The smaller girl turned up toward Kristin with a wide smile. "You wouldn't hear me complaining."

[Scuffles]

Kristin smiled and nodded at Kat. "No problem, I could do with hitting the gymnastics gear a bit I think," she replied as she got back to her feet. "I feel like I don't get enough chance to practice anymore, what with all the time I spend on sparring and working on the telekinesis. Let me know if you need a spot on any of the weights or something, I'm sort of good at that..."

 

The Australian teen took a couple of steps towards the gymnastics equipment, then stopped and turned back towards her friend. "Kat," she started hesitantly, then shook her head. "I feel kind of bad for setting you up like that," she said. "I'm sorry if this was a little painful, but I couldn't just sit by and let you hang everything that happened with Dorothy on Elias like you were."

 

She shrugged once more. "So yeah, I'm sorry. Are we still cool?"