| Basic Combat Training | |||||
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| What: Cir-El wants to learn to be more than a brawler | |||||
Nestled in between much larger structures, the Daily Planet is not known for its size but for its unique look. A large golden globe spins slowly night and day and the building is emblazoned clearly with the historic newspaper's name.
The main entrance is a classic set of revolving doors, the glass etched with the Planet logo, and just inside a large spiral staircase sweeps up around the perimeter of the room. The circular lobby of the Daily Planet building has a news stand to one side and a small café to the other. The elevators are on the far side, and the reception desk and security station are both located in the round island counter in the center of the room. The floor around the information counter is printed with an embossed map of the world with the desk placed in the center of the Atlantic Ocean.
Suspended above everything from the domed ceiling is a large model Daily Planet globe, and along the upper edge of the ceiling is a digital news ticker displaying all the latest AP wire information.
The roof of the Daily Planet Building is a plain, simple space. The squarish rooftop is covered in flat, energy-efficient tile with a high metal railing running around the perimeter. The largest open space, opposite the stairwell, is taken up by a large helipad. The view from here allows one to see much of the city's skyline, particularly the nearby Empire State Building and the monolithic Lexcorp Tower.
One of the city's most prominent landmarks, though, is the Planet itself, or more particularly its large signature globe. Mounted atop a spire above the door leading to the stairwell, the massive silver and gold globe has long stood for the highest journalistic standards in the world.
As many birds as she can get with one stone. That's always been Carol's rule. So it is that she finds herself on a rooftop in NYC, waiting for folks she invited to spend some time there with her. The purpose? Well, purposes. One, to inform Sola of some good news. Two, to get some time working with her. Three, to work with Cir-El. Four, to watch the two of them work together. She sent out messages to each of them and is on the roof... munching on a hot dog while she waits.
Rooftops are easy enough, Cir-el can leap that high without using her red sun burst to propel her. She runs from the house in Westchester county to New York city at subsonic speed and then leaps into the sky to land beside the Daily Planet Globe. She pauses, reflecting on memories, before stepping over beside Carol.
A loud high-pitched whine in the distance and from the southwest marks Sola's approach. She's flying at the absolute fastest she can without actually breaking the sound barrier and causing a sonic boom, and by extension, a lot of unnecessary property damage. She soon lands on the rooftop. "Not often I get a call on /that/ frequency," she says.
Shrugging, Carol finishes the last bite of her snack... washes it down with a gulp or two of water. Then she regards the two of you, "I figured we could handle a few things here. But... first thing... sorry for the delay, there's been... a lot going on of late, but.. official from the Avengers... welcome to the roster." she says towards Sola, handing over an Avengers ID card her way.
"But I thought we could get some combat training up here. And one of the most important parts of combat training is... avoiding property damage. Hence..." she gestures to the globe.
Superlass nods, "That can be a really difficult thing to do sometimes. I have to try hard to restrain myself sometimes...both for that reasons and because many people I could kill with a single blow." She adds, "In my memory, my father used to take me here frequently."
Sola takes the card and nods. "Thanks," she says. At the mention of combat training, she shrugs a little, as if loosening up. <<Armor, release.>>
Instead of disappearing like it does when she uses the normal command to teleport it home, instead its locks disengage and it falls off of her, revealing that she's wearing a tank top and a very short pair of athletic shorts underneath, and otherwise she's showing quite a bit of skin. "Practice is good," she says as she stretches out a little. "The person who claims to have no need to learn is just a poor study in the first place."
"Really?" asks Carol towards Cir. She looks back at the globe and shrugs, "I have done some freelance work for the Planet. So been up here a few times." She glances over at the disappearing armor then and grins a bit, "One should -never- stop learning. So.. what would you consider your -best- weapon in a fight?" she asks... not designating which of you she is asking.
Superlass assures herself she does not envy Sola, she is too young for the Avengers and she knows it. She says, "It is too bad those memories are fake, some of them are so nice..." She adds, "The answer is always going to be your mind to that question. No matter how many tricks you have, it is your mind that decides what to use."
Sola puts her armor off to the side, then pats Cir-El on the shoulder. "The origin of a memory isn't important. It's what you do with the experience it grants you." She nods as Superlass mentions the mind being the best weapon. "The mind, the senses. Can't win if you can't assess the situation or adapt on the fly." She smirks. "But beyond that, I trust my whips."
"Okay then. When deprived of your senses? What then?" Carol inclines her head and says to Cir, "Okay Superlass, come and get me." she states... stepping over -away- from ye olde globe. She does the Neo-come-here handwave too...
"Sight I can generally manage without, hearing is the only super sense I have developed so far," Superlass states. She considers Carol and what she knows of her and decides a strategy. She intentionally moves to just miss Carol, but moves her hand at supersonic speed, creating a miniature sonic boom between the two of them.
"Then you fall back on experience. It helps to have allies also," Sola says as she steps back and lets Superlass and Carol spar. "Short of losing sight and hearing
Carol doesn't really have Kryptonian level superspeed. But she does have many years of training and experience to fall back upon. She is also not as strong -or- tough as Superlass. What she -does- have however.. is that really weird precognative ability that she doesn't really advertise. Because... when you have an ability like that, it only really helps when you don't tell them all about it. She doesn't try to block the blow so much as... lean with it... doing her best to get hold of the wrist the moment the fist comes to a stop. She can handle the sonic boom... but the question is whether or not Superlass can handle a Jiujitsu hip throw that uses the speed of her attack against her... but Carol's not trying to slam her into the rooftop. That'd damage it. Instead it's more of an aerial toss...
Since Superlass stopped short, Carol has less leverage than she might have. Still, Superlass does not have the ability man fliers do to root themselves in place...it comes from the fact that she does not fly reactionlessly...whether by kinetic or gravitational means. Therefore, she gets tossed, but activates her glide cape and swoops around with minimal use of her red star burst..and without hitting anything.
Sola crosses her arms and observes just how Carol and Cir-El are fighting. More of her attention is on Carol, especially at how she parries that blow. It's too fast for /any/ organic, in her view. Hell, /she/ probably couldn't even dodge it even considering that her computer brain processes things way faster than an organic brain. She says nothing so far. Superlass needs to learn how to handle this situation on her own, or with Carol's instruction.
That Seventh Sense ability quite often makes Carol -appear- to be faster than she really is. It's just flashes that she gets, never enough to like.. win the lottery. But quite often enough to avoid a lethal level of attack.
"Excellent reaction." remarks Carol about the whole glider cape response. "Direct attacks are not always the most effective method. Even one intended to catch your opponent off guard... may not work. Sometimes.. the best method is to make your opponent make the first move... and give them the opportunity to make the first mistake."
She glances to Sola and inclines her head a bit. "So, tell me. What was -my- mistake?" Nobody is perfect after all.
Cir-el knows, from previous practice, that Captain Marvel is NOT fast enough for her reaction. Therefore, she is using something other than speed to react. She considers how to deal with what is probably some kind of danger sense. She can see several ways, but some of them are potentially damaging to the environment. She decides the question is for Sola, so she waits.
"A hip throw would have been the perfect counter, except that Superlass here can also fight in the air if need be," Sola points out. "You never want to put a foe who flies in the air, even if only to get them to the ground at the end of the motion. I'd have tried to take out her legs and forced her to the ground that way." It may or may not be the answer Carol's looking for, it's just the one her experience is telling her.
Nodding to Sola, Carol looks back to Cir-El, "And now, -why- did I choose that particular counter?" She grins and then adds. "Did you perhaps think that... I know my own aerial skills are up to the task of an aerial battle?" She shrugs, "But, the truth is, no one person can teach you what you need to know. Combat.. is the best teacher. Every fight I am in, I learn something new. Sometimes it's... damn that hurt.."
Superlass says, "I think you chose the general type of counter because I am stronger than you. I am not sure about the specific counter, but then I do not know what maneuvers you had available yet." She adds, "I obviously chose the specific type of attack because I know you can absorb most directed energy. I also had to limit myself to attacks that were not goingto hurt the environment much."
"I considered that," Sola says. "Also, you're trying to prevent damage to the building. The force required to put Superlass down even after a leg sweep would at best put a hole in the roof, at worst compress a few floors of the building." She does nod as to Carol's second statement. "That's true. With only one or two styles at your disposal, you become predictable. Even if it's wiser to fear the person who's practiced one kick 1,000 times over the one who's practiced 1,000 kicks one time each, it's still handy to have a few different options."
"The best thing.. is to learn who you are up against, and adapt your approaches to your opponent." suggests Carol. "Now..." she suddenly rockets upwards... well rocket is a strong word. Anti-gravitonically propels sounds a lot less dramatic though. So.. upward she goes... and then a blast of photonic energy (well, okay so it's mostly just light, no real force behind it... just bright light.) is fired towards Cir-El... that way, a miss won't hurt the building... and a hit won't hurt Cir-El.
Cir-El reacts in an instant, creating a cone of light of her own...most light attacks are coherent, therefore a light on another frequency can cause it to lose synchronization and lose power. Also, of course, the light flash itself can blind an enemy.
Carol steps back and suggests that Sola and Superlass spar a bit so that she can observe and critique. Superlass has to consider how to defeat her sister without seriously harming her. Actually, that is more her normal mode of operations...only a small percentage of opponents are at her level of power. She comments about the thought, as she aims an attack using great speed but relatively little strength,
"You know, I usually have to fight weaker people, but when it is someone stronger, it tends to be someone I can not directly harm. I need to learn a way to deal with that."
"Strength isn't just about raw power," Sola says as she stretches out a little and then takes up a fighting stance, one that wouldn't even be immediately recognizable to a master of the martial arts. "Come on."
Cir-El thinks about her best option, and runs around Sola with great speed, staying sub-sonic to limit the damage, but probably fast enough to draw away most of the air her jets should need to function.
Sola pivots slightly. Even if she was in her armor, her jets actually don't require air to function. And she doesn't need to breathe. "Smart," she says as she employs the first advantage of having a computer brain - namely, her perception of time is not a single constant, but tied to her brain's clock speed. By altering it, she's able to nullify Superlass's speed advantage somewhat from a perception standpoint. In a quick motion, she delivers a roundhouse kick - not to where Superlass is at the start, but at where she's going to be, based on extrapolating her motion and speed. Should it hit, it'll get her in the head.
Cir-El can react far faster than human, and she was watching for Sola to react. She ducks under Sola's leg, pushing up HARD as she goes by...then has to stop herself from falling off the edge of the building with a wide focus force burst because she spent too much concentration on Sola and not enough on where she was going.
Sola is up-ended, but adapts on the fly, doing a handstand before righting herself. She smirks as Cir-El damn near goes off the side of the building. "Remember your environment," she notes as she begins to rock back and forth, her "inner leg" falling backward as she employs a modified capoeira stance. She's not standing still, but rather, in constant motion. "Try again."
Cir-El considers, then runs around Sola again...but this time releases a slightly widened blast of concussive force...and as she reaches halfway around she jumps OVER Sola, still blasting at her (though not as hard), lands back where she started, and runs the opposite direction to complete the circle.
The beauty of the fighting stance Sola's using is that she's ready for virtually any sort of attack. She's able to dodge the blasts, AND do a cartwheel somersault as Cir-El tries going over her, trying to trip her up with a high kick at the vertex of the cartwheel. She then bends slightly to one side, before cartwheeling again to get out of the circle Cir-El's trying to create. Sola smiles a little - for most, cutting loose is a matter of power. For her, it's being able to fully utilize her acrobatic training.
Cir-El lands beside the globe from the trip attempt, which seems like it might have worked since she lands and immediately falls down...but she releases a wide cone of force whose bottom edge is just higher than the railing and which covers a 120 degree arc in width and 60 degrees upward as she is projecting from both hands.
Sola drops down by twisting to the side, her hands propping her up as her body spins - then her legs come up, forward, and around as she executes a Meia-Lua de Compasso Dupla (look it up) and tries to catch Cir-El in the head with it as she's trying to right herself.
Sola brings up her legs, and finds them hitting the cone of force as they come up...Cir-El has large reserves of energy and had not stopped the force effect. This does not stop Sola entirely, but robs much of the force from her attack.
Continuing the motion, Sola's legs bounce off of the force cone, reversing her kick. However, she rolls through that, dropping down while still spinning and employing a leg sweep, coming forward with her rear leg.
Cir-El is braced against the force of her own blast, if she were an ordinary person (assuming an ordinary person could produce such a torrent of force), the kick would make her lose her footing and fly backwards. As it is, it is hard enough for her to feel, and she drops the force cone to prevent it from going off center and damaging something as she catches her balance. She says, "You probably can not really hurt me that way, but I am not really invulnerable, I CAN be hurt. If you ever need to stop me, try finding my pressure points. I do have them, though they are not always in exactly the normal place for a human."
Sola gets back to a standing position. "If I wanted to hurt you, I could. But that's not the aim of this exercise. The aim is to expose you to different techniques than you're used to in order to get you thinking and developing defenses on the fly. Not every fight is going to be a straightforward brawl. Nice trick with the cone, by the way." She hasn't dropped her guard, though.
"It is something I thought of while working out how to possibly catch Captain Marvel. Given that she has some form of advance warning power, there are two main approaches to an attack. One is a random attack that can not be exactly anticipated...I did not have a good way to do that...the other is an attack so broad it can catch you even if you dodge," Cir-El explains.
"Smart. I noticed that too with her." While Cir is focused on talking, though, the lesson ain't over - as evidenced by her feinting left and bluffing a spinning heel kick, then bending forward and sideways, reaching up and towards Cir with her left leg into a scorpion kick while she's hopefully reacting to the feint.
Cir-El is testing a theory, and does not visibly react to the kick. She wants to see if Sola can actually harm her. She does brace herself just enough to keep from being knocked backwards...she does not weigh as much as Sola and it does take some reaction.
Sola follows through with as much power as she can manage - though a scorpion kick's power is not from the force of the blow. Rather, the reaction to it by the person attacked causes a bit of whiplash. If Cir-El were a normal human, though, even the lack of force would still hurt - with Sola's titanium boots, it'd have a similar effect to getting hit with a cheap shot from a lead pipe. She does reverse her motion on impact, though, swinging through with the same motion and building speed and force as she turns it into a spin kick - that has the force to obliterate brick.
Superlass is testing herself a different way just now, determining if she can withstand such attacks as Sola can so unarmed, without being hurt. She is far tougher than brick, or even steel. She as been experimenting with seeing if it is actually possible to crush coal to diamond for her...her flesh is roughly as tough as diamond, but not as rigid...so thus far the experiments are a failure. That is why she is wondering if Sola can actually hurt her.
Poor way to test, in the end. Sola's not built for strength. Even as she spins through the kick and continues to build momentum into a backhand, it still wouldn't be enough. "Are you just testing your durability? Becuase I'll save you the trouble and just tell you that I can't hurt you with unarmed attacks. I'm built for speed. That and hurting you is not the point here."
Superlass says, "I needed to know. Most especially I do need to know if someone could harm me using my pressure points, if they are at your strength level. Also, I am studying your techniques, you will have to show me how they work. My memory is not quite as good as yours, it may take me a few tries to get it right."
"Is that so? Well..." Using her trailing hand, she punches Cir-El in the back of the neck with maximum force. In humans, there's a large cluster of nerves located roughly at where the spine and the collarbones meet. A human would be dead the moment her fist made contact, with that much force applied. With less force, they might feel weakness all over and a decent bit of pain. Either way, after that shot, Sola stops. "I think we can conclude this here. I can show you how the moves work later, but I'll tell you now, you need to be pretty limber to use a lot of them."
Cir-el does feel the blow, she is still mostly human and, as mentioned, is not quite invulnerable. Still, while it does hurt, it would, she thinks, only slow her down...and perhaps make her own attacks weaker as well until she healed. She says, "Fast I am, limber...not more than average. I think, if you were as good as you are, and did that attack at night when solar energy would not heal me, it might buy you time to get away...and if you were any stronger it might really hurt me. I will have to remember to guard that. We will need to study my other pressure points next time...Carol for example could incapacitate me if I do not learn to guard my weak points."
Sola shrugs a little and walks back over to where she left her armor. "A good stretching regimen will fix that a bit. I'd suggest doing it at night, preferably after expending some of your stored energy, so you can actually stretch your muscles out. I'd give you one, but I don't need to stretch - my muscles are always loose - but it would give me no benefit either, since I can't become any more nimble than I already am without altering my hardware."
Superlass frowns, "Expending enough energy to significantly weaken me takes a lot...like landing an Airliner or charging through a horde of demons. The other day I was weakened, but it only lasted a few hours in the sun." She Hugs Sola, "You are a good sister even if we are not much alike."
Sola squeaks a little bit as she's hugged while putting on her chestplate. "I guess so," she says weakly. She does peek upward - Carol's gone. "Guess she got called away or something while we were sparring. Let's head home."