Body and mind; but mind the body (Axe)

[Lucas Blacke]

One of the major perks Lucas had was that his ability could teach him all sorts of stuff. It was due time that Luke thought about doing something in return, like doing something as simple as use it more often. And he'd get more control over the side effects as well. 

He had been signed up for a self defense class for a while now, mainly because.. well.. he figured he'd need it. But he had never attended a class on it, as he could just binge through some martial arts movies and master them without even trying. But unfortunately this had an effect on what he'd already taught himself; he had forgotten how to write and how to count. Luckily these things were only temporary and returned to him in a matter of 2 days full of avoiding every single being in the vicinity. Which gave him more than enough time to think and research.

There had been an issue about him being violent which needed to be fixed. Not only because he promised, but also because he didn't want to be known as the violent guy who beat everyone up. And in all honesty, as good as a repellant beatying people up was it'd get him nowhere with the ladies. He needed a way to dispose, or 'knock out' the people harassing him without the need for violence. Or lots of it.

He was researching the subject and finding lots of martial arts. Capoeira, which used dancing motions as a means to hurt people. The idea was right, dancing was relatively violent-free, but kicking people in the face, not so much. He continued looking. Bojuka, he found, was another step in the right direction as it practiced regulated force for self-defense through combining boxing, jiu-jitsu and karate. Combined they would make a relatively harmless martial art, but individually they did not. On with the search.

Lucas sighed as he gave up and just skimmed through all the styles of martial arts. Then all of a sudden he remembered a movie he had seen earlier. It involved some sort of martial art based on speed, not strength, one that improved with the body the user and not the knowledge of the martial art. Wing chun was the name. And already having seen a few movies with wing chun in it made Luke adept at it without ever trying it once.

He moved through the building and headed to the designated training area where he would be free to train his ability by unleashing wing chun techniques on.. on..

As he reached the training area he was asked what he was going to train, why he was going to train it and how. He said that he was going to train his ability, 'assumed muscle memory' was what doctors called it, he was going to train it because he wanted to understand it, though the how part he hadn't quite figured out yet. He knew he wanted to know martial arts himself without relying on his ability too much.

As soon as he had said that he got a thumbs up, implying that somehow his point had gotten across [did he even make one?] and the boy was lead to a small ring that felt like it was used for boxing or something.

As soon as Luke turned around to open his mouth he noticed that the one that lead him to the ring grabbed a wooden pillar from somewhere and planted it in the middle of the ring. It had the height of a small child and had 3 protruding 'sticks' that looked sturdy enough to hit continuously.

Luke knew what he was supposed to do with it the moment he saw it and thanked the one who grabbed it for him.

Luke took his phone from his pocket and placed it on a table just outside the ring to prevent it from getting hurt and faced the wooden structure. He inhaled as he put his hands in the center and began throwing his arms around like he was a real practitioner of the art, which, he hoped he would be soon enough by repeating the moves often enough to make them actual parts of himself.

Within minutes he felt himself working up a sweat [just enough to not make anyone close to him throw up] and decided to take his shirt off. He wondered why everything involved him taking off his shirt as he neatly folded it up and planted it near his phone.

He grinned, shook his head and went back to practicing his martial art, every move getting more and more speed behind it as the sound of bone hitting wood filled the gym.

[Axelle Flint]

Axelle was having a much better day today. That tended to happen when she didn't break anything. She didn't even feel restricted! It was probably because she'd had a really good training session yesterday. And she was still a bit giddy from making out with Benji a couple nights ago. She was dressed as she usually dressed for training, her shorts and tank too perfect for allowing her unrestricted movement. She had just finished wrapping her hands when the suggestion was made for her to train in a more open space. This made her happy as she usually trained alone so she was more than willing to trot into one of the more public rooms.

She ignored the other person for a moment as the trainer showed her the bag she could use, not surprised to see it hanging there like a lump. She set her hand against it and pushed, satisfied when it swung a little. Once that was finished she checked her shoes and fetched her gloves from her bag. On her way to grab a chair to rest on she passed by the boy training with that strange wood thing martial artists liked to use. She fetched her chair before stopping to watch a little, eyes tracking his movements with confusion. She had no idea what he was doing. She saw a flash of light nearby and looked over to see that it was his phone, a picture of a familiar face flashing on the screen. Was he dating Marnie?? She really needed to keep up better with people's lives.

"Hey, you've got a message or something!" She called to him as she finally moved away, setting her stool down near the bag and pulling her hair back. She checked over her shoulders before putting on her gloves before turning back to her bag and hitting it a few times. The chains clanked and she smiled, looks like she'd make some progress today after all.

[Lucas Blacke]

''Okay! Thanks!'' Luke replied without really paying any attention to who said it. His muscles were going at it like crazy and tired his body out, it was time for a break before he fell down, he supposed as he gave the wooden structure one laast tap andf went for the edge of the ring to check up on his phone.

The screen was still lit and showed that he indeed had some kind of message, but it was one of no importance that could simply be swiped away, it could be read later. But as he did so it revealed his background image of Marnie. Weeks had passed but it was still like the day of yesterday they broke up. It was both a painful reminder as well as motivation to be a different person. His 'no-joke'streak had been lasting a good 4 days now; personal record!

He turned off the screen and leaned over to the side, ready to walk over to the other person he knew was there due to the clanging of chains and things being hit. ''So,'' He began without turning his gaze from the wooden structure in his own little area. ''Thanks for telling me.'' He added as his eyes sprung from the object he used for training to the punching bag and its pendulous motion, to noticing a girl hitting it.

'A girl?' He wondered as he took a closer look and found that he was only partly mistaken.

It was a redheaded girl.

''F- athaa- ph- boo- aaah-''

One of his weaknesses.

[Axelle Flint]

Axelle was happily oblivious to most of what was around her as she continued her methodical punching. She felt good today, her muscles flexed and burned in that pleasant "I'm going to feel gooey after a hot shower later." way and she felt good enough to try and push herself. Maybe she should make out with people more often. Or just not be so god damn afraid of herself, probably both of those but one with less regularity. If she went around making out with people rumors would spread and that wouldn't be okay.

She heard something being said behind her and turned, hand outstretched to stop the bag from it's light swinging. She looked over at the other boy, thinking she recogized him from class and smiled. "I'm sorry what? I didn't hear you, I sorta zone out when I'm training," she explained as her gloves hand rubbed against the back of her neck. She was starting to sweat and the small trails were tickling their way down her back. She took a moment to read his shirt and giggled. "That's cute BUT I like frogs more than bears and my stuffe froggie would be very sad if I replaced him." Especially since she'd had him for a long time and had him re stuffed over the years. In fact she'd have to re stuff him soon...probably with sawdust....

[Lucas Blacke]

Luke tried to force his brain back into place as the girl stopped hitting the bouncy bag in the ring and turned to face the blabbering boy with a smile that would have probably made Lucas incoherent were it not for the fact that he already was. Though it seemed that she had missed his bout of spasming out and failed to catch him staring at her.

'Good, no lasting impression here.' He assumed with a hand scratching the back of his head with a smile.

Then she looked at his shirt he wasn't wearing 'Really? You rather look at some disembodied shirt than a half naked guy?' and giggled before saying something about a pet frog or stuffed frog and teddybears and stuffing and probably more. But Luke was way too occupied with the fact that there was a cute redheaded girl with boxing gloves on training in front of him. Not too often that happened.

''I said thanks.'' Luke began. ''For the whole message thing.''

He took a breath and clenched his fists slightly.
''Thing is, I can use a bit of a break. Mind if I watch you for a while?''

And learn boxing in the process.

[Axelle Flint]

"Oh!" Axelle smiled at being thanked. "You're welcome; I've missed important calls before so I try to help out sometimes. It's kind of nosey but no one's yelled at me yet," she chuckled as she rubbed at her back again, squirming against the sweat that was now cooling on her skin. When he mentioned watching her box she started feeling a little nervous. "Um, I guess so, it's pretty boring though, what you were doing looked pretty interesting though, I've never seen that before. Was it like a karate thing?" she asked as she went back to her bag and pushed lightly against it. Her muscles flexed only the slightest bit. This bag wasn't as heavy as the one she usually trained with.

Her eyes trailed over and rested on the other boy’s chest a moment, automatically comparing it to Benji's and then Salem's because those were the only one's she had seen either recently or on a semi-regular basis. He was definitely broader and he looked good with that nice sheen of sweat...but she had already admitted to herself that sweaty guys tended to attract her these days. She wondered if that was part of growing up, certain things about people that suddenly became irresistible that you could have cared less about before. Was puberty over yet? She could only hope. Except that meant no more growing, which meant that where she had once been the tallest person in her class, she was now among the shortest. The chances of her growing beyond her 5 foot nothing inches was slim to none.

Axelle decided that he would get bored eventually and want to either go back to what he was doing or talk some more, either one would be fine with her. As she took a few deep breaths and focused on her bag again she began her methodical punching, alternating between blocks and hits always keeping her left hand up to guard her face before switching abruptly and hammering into the bag as hard as she could with her left, causing the chains holding the bag to creak in slight protest. She did this a few times before she was forced to stop again and easily stopped the back in it's tracks, squinting up at the chains. They were heavy and made of god-knew-what. She as just paranoid because...well...she was always paranoid about sending her bags crashing through the opposite walls. She turned back to the boy who was watching her and smiled with a shrug. "Thats about it, I just punch the bag aaaaand try not to break it," she grinned, happy to have made a joke that relaxed her.

[Lucas Blacke]

Luke noticed the girl looking at him briefly, which gave him the opportunity to do the same and blatantly stare at the girl. She looked nice, she actually looked like she sounded. Small but able to stand her ground. Luke liked girls like that, but then again, he had no problems beating up people for girls who didn't stand their ground.

Did he just call Marnes unable to stand her ground? He shook his head to quickly dispose of that thought.

Apparently Lucas was doing karate now, according to the girl at least. He was about to make some sort of comment about her being dumb or something as she hit the bag with force and made the boy stumble over his own words and swallow his comment. He supposed she had something like super strength as ability or something. And off went his mind to the first time he saw Marnie.

He paused for a moment as he willed his mind back into reality and chuckled at the comment of trying not to break the bag. ''I'd actually give my left arm to be able to break a bag.'' He said sarcastically and almost instantly threw his arms over his face in a hiding motion in fear of the girl being less than amused.

''But to answer your first question,'' Luke said after apologizing for not answering sooner. ''It's not a karate thing. Or well, it is, but that is not what I use it for. I actually use it for something called wing chun, something used for defensive purposes.''

He felt his body being ready to go at it for a while again and exhaled slightly. ''And for looking interesting, I could show you? Maybe even teach you?''

''You'd need to lose those gloves though.''

[Axelle Flint]

Axelle would not have appreciated being called dumb when asking a serious question about something she knew nothing about, so it was to Lucas' benefit that he hadn't said anything. She did however look properly horrified when he mentioned wanting be to be able to break the bag. "Why would you want to do that?! Someone could get hurt!" she exclaimed, looking at him as if he had grown two heads. Then again, Axelle, more-so than a lot of people was very concious of what her ability could do to someone if she didn't control herself and she never wanted to hurt anyone, ever. She was also hurt that he hid after he said it, as if SHE was going to attack him for having such an opinion. Were people always going to show fear around her? Even Benji had been a little afraid, brave...but afraid. She took an uncertain step back to try and make him feel more comfortable.

Her expression easily slid into curiosity however when he began to talk about whatever it was that he had been doing. "Wing Chun? Oh, well...I guess that sounds interesting, normally I just box so it could be fun to try," she allowed as she reached up to take off her gloves and then easily ripped the bindings from her hands as if she were merely unlatching a velcro strap or something. The ripping sound that accompanied it certainly made it sound that way. She flexed her fingers and stretched out her arms. "Okay, I'll watch first and then you can show me," she smiled, still more than a few feet back...she didn't want him to be afraid of her.

[Lucas Blacke]

Luke exhaled slightly at the reaction of the girl to his comment about wanting super strength. Admittedly though, that was not what he said and what he said could be interpreted in a number of ways. The fact that she reacted the way she did madde Luke about 90% positive that she didn't like breaking stuff. She stepped back a bit and Lucas instantly thought that he said something wrong.

Lucas smiled at the girl and nodded slightly as she agreed to what he offered, but rather watched first. 'Twas time for Luke to break another sweat anyway. ''So let's get to crackin'!'' He stated as he walked over to the mu ren zhuang, as it was traditionally called.

''So basically,'' Lucas said over his shoulder as he placed one hand on the dummy. ''wing chun is basically moving your hands around really fast.'' He showed the girl and moved both his open hands between the three 'arms' as they were called, and soon took a slight pause. ''It's a good way to keep your strength in your own body opposed to letting it all out. Wing chun is about using your opponent's strength against him or herself. Your own strength makes no difference.''

His hand slammed against the wooden arm once more and back again in the blink of an eye, he was really getting the hang of it. His body tired less fast this time around. ''In a battle of strength versus speed, wing chun wins 9 outta 10 times.''

''So, power girl,'' He said as he turned around with a smile. ''wanna come up here and give it a try?''

[Axelle Flint]

She liked his smile, it was friendly without being potentially underhanded, she liked smiles like that. As he explained what I've was doing and demonstrated it to her she began to feel anxious. She was going to break that wooden post thing and have to explain what happened. But...it couldn't be any different from tying to kill a fly, she's smacked a bunch of surfaces without breaking them before, she was certain that the same amount of force applied...though that thought did very little to reassure her.

She felt like he might think little of her if she refused and because she was an insecure teenage girl, the option of strangers, especially cute male strangers mattered a lot. "Um, yeah okay!" She said with more confidence than she actually felt. She came to join him on the platform and lightly ran her finger over the wood. If this was made for students at Hammel there was the possibility that it was stronger than it looked. She gripped it lightly, pressing as hard as she dared in certain places and then a little harder when it didn't immediately splinter. Okay, she just had to pretend she was trying to kill a fly.

She stood like she had seen the other boy stand and opened her palms. "Like this?" She asked as she carefully walked herself through the hand motions he had demonstrated. She didn't want to hit anything just yet, assumingly he had practiced this art for a long time.

[Lucas Blacke]

''Right, right.'' Luke said with a smile as he stepped up behind the girl and looked at her posture. ''But let's start you off with something a bit more.. friendly.'' He continued as he took her left arm and tapped on her forearm. ''Wing chun is not about using your fists, it is about using your body. Your forearms are leagues stronger than your fists will ever be.'' He let go of her arm and stepped back a bit, throwing his arms in front of his face and throwing a few straight punches into the air.

''Like that.'' He said. ''See how your entire body moves with each swing?'' He continued as he threw a left jab and his feet switched positions with it. ''You want to avoid being hit by that. And avoiding hits,'' Luke said with a smile. ''is something we want to do. Right?''

He dropped the stance and moved forward yet again, taking the arm of the girl and placing it on the upper arm of the dummy. He kept his hand on her arm as he drew her arm back, slightly grazing his own chest with it for boy-purposes and slowly propped her forearm against the wooden arm. ''It helps to imagine this dummy as alive and trying to punch you. You'd want to avoid getting hit entirely, but sometimes just not getting hit in the face does the trick. Your forearm will push -not hit- push the attacker out of the way. It opens up possibilities if done properly.''

Luke took the other arm of the girl and placed it on the lowest arm and pointing downwards. ''Assuming that your opponent will not just aim for your face you will need to block lower punches as well. This is also done with your forearm, not your fist.'' He took a hold of her arm and pressed it against the dummies arm. After that he positioned himself behind her and took both of her arms and took the from the dummy, and replanted them in opposite positions. ''So, to begin I want you to block some punches,'' Luke noticed a slight flash of fear from the girl. ''not from me though. From the dummy. I will be hitting on you-'' He paused and coughed. ''I will be testing you in a spar later if you're interested.''

''Show me some blocks, and alternate between the positions of your arms. If you get tired just say so, I'm not some kind of bully that wants you to do the impossible.''

Luke moved back a few feet and crossed his arms over his chest. ''Before you start, what is your name?''

[Axelle Flint]

Axelle didn't think anything about the boy touching her since he was very clearly just repositioning her arms and showing her the moves he had just demonstrated for her. Right, fly swatting strength that was all. She thought she could keep it up for a while and repositioned herself properly as her new "coach" stepped back. The request for her name made her stop for a moment and she turned to look over her shoulder. "Oh sorry! I'm Axelle Flint, nice to meet you!" she chirped happily as she returned her attention to the wooden post, her face falling into one of concentration as her arms very carefully began to move against the beams.

She fell into the rhythm rather easily, in this way it was much like her boxing routine...except she was very much not using her fists or moving her body much, in fact it was rather relaxing. She thought she could speed up a bit and was doing well, until her concentration slipped into what it usually did when she was hitting things. Hitting things was her outlet; it was how she dealt with her stress, which meant she usually got to hit things with her full strength. Not surprisingly, the moment she fell into her comfort zone there was a terrific snap and she was immediately horrified to find that she had snapped off the beams of the post.

"Ah, I'm s-s-sorry!" she gasped as (not quite unexpectedly for her) she started tearing up, her body quivering in embarrassment. She sniffed and rubbed at her eyes to help her stop and took big, gulping breaths. How mortifying! She had been doing so well, and now the post was broken and would need to be replaced, which meant that he wouldn't be able to train (it didn't occur to her that there might be another one) and she couldn't stop from crying and UGH how embarrassing!

[Lucas Blacke]

Lucas watched Axelle Flint from a distance as she seemed to have the movements down, although not quite using her body. But that was for another time.

''Nice to meet you Axe.'' Luke said with a smile. ''I can call you Axe right? Nicknames tend to make me more comfortable around people.'' As if he wasn't already comfortable with a cute redhead doing what he said. Pfft.

Axe found the rythm and moved her arms around the dummy with increasing speed, which caused Luke to move in closer slightly and smile due to being impressed. It wasn't all that often someone was as interested as Axe seemed to be. Then all of a sudden at the same moment Axe fell into a rythm Luke heard a cracking sound.

He flinched slightly as one of the arms of the dummy snapped of and hit the ground in a splintered state. ''Well. Okay. That just happened.'' He whispered under his breath as his mind flew through the panic zone and back again. There had been some hints of Axe having some sort of super strength, but no real confirmation of it thusfar. This counted as confirmation.

Luke walked over to Axe and noticed she began to cry as she time and time again said she was sorry. As if Luke was going to be a dick and tell her to fuck off or something. ''Maybe if I leave out the 'off' part.''

He threw his arm around the girl and looked down at her with a smile. ''No need to apologize. We all have our things, no one is perfect.'' He grabbed her arm and stretched it out to look at it. ''Not hurt or anything?''

Alright, down to business. Lucas purposely kept his arm around Axe mainly for consolation purposes, and maybe a little part being able to say 'hey, I touched this.'

''Wing chun is not about strength.'' He paused a moment and poked Axe's arm. ''If you're up for it, I could help you with toning down your strength.''He laughed silently. ''Though with you breaking my training thingy,'' Which he was sure could be replaced but 'failed' to mention. ''we may need to go and do that, since there is nothing else to do.''

''Aside from, you know, hitting balls all day long.''
Luke realized what he said and put a hand in front of his manly bits in hopes of making Axe less sad.
''Not mine though.''

[Axelle Flint]

The brunet's reassurances that everything was okay helped to calm Axelle down and within a couple minutes she was breathing normally and wiping her damp hands on her top and taking a deep breath. She didn't mind his arm around her because, well, frankly, she was a tactile person and she let him lift her arm for examination because it made her happy when people were worried about her well-being despite really not needing to be. "Oh um, I'm super tough to go with the super strength," she admitted with a watery grin. Which was probably to her benefit otherwise she'd be in a wheelchair by now she was sure of it. If not that, the at least casts and bandages all the time. She pulled her arm away and stepped out from under Lucas' arm when he mentioned being able to help her toning down her strength.

She assessed him for a moment, trying to decide what he meant. If it was exercise it might be worth learning. She got bored with the same things all the time. She chuckled when he mentioned not hitting his balls. "Don't worry, I don't like the idea of hitting people, so your balls are safe," she grinned before bending over to pick up a piece of the wooden post and frowned at it. She supposed if she logged it somewhere it would be replaced in a few days. She wasn't sure how she might explain how it got broken just yet but she was willing to try. "How can you "tone down" my strength?" she asked with an arched eyebrow as she headed back over to her punching bag. "And you never told me your name, I think I deserve to know since you know, I cried all over you," she smiled wryly.

[Lucas Blacke]

Luke felt glad about finally being able to comfort someone, even if it was unneeded since Axe, as she stated, was super tough. It almost made the boy frown due to him worrying about her for no reason. At least this meant that he was able to hit her without her going down in one or two hits. The first thing Luke thought of was actuallly sparring with this girl. Being super tough meant being able to test stuff on actual people, and not dummies. Because, well, let's face it,

how often did dummies attack you?

But that thought quickly faded as Luke was reminded of her super strength. He did not want to risk being poked and dislocating his shoulder.

The girl stepped away from Luke and looked at him as if she'd seen a pig fly as he said he could help tone down her strength. She chuckled soon after Luke mentioned that just hitting balls could get old and explained that she didn't like to hit people. Lucas could totally agree with her were it not for the fact that you needed to hit some people if you wanted to or not. The only choice in the matter was how hard you'd hit them.

That was were martial arts came in. Luke opened his mouth to explain how he could help with the strength toning down but was cut short due to Axe posing another question. About Luke's name, which he apparently hadn't told yet. He nearly facepalmed at the thought and smiled as his hand slid from his face.

''Right, so sorry!'' Luke said to Axe. ''I'm Lucas Blacke, at your service, milady.'' He added a bow to the last portion of that sentence. ''But you may call me Luke.''
''Anything for cute people.'' He added under his breath. And by the time he realized it was out there he seriously hoped Axe didn't pick up on it.

He coughed. ''So! About toning down your strength, right-o. Pay attention!'' He said as he stretched out his arm and began tensing his muscles. ''I am totally not doing this so you can see my muscles or anything.'' He added with a smile directed at Axe. He took his other arm and simply pressed his thumb down on his wrist.

''Now, I haven't quite figured out the force needed, but I know what it can do. It tires the muscles and gives you about.. 5-10 seconds of significantly less muscle strength. Now, with practice and time I'm sure I can find a way to make it last a bit longer. Though, the best part is that with training even you can do it and I don't have to!''

''Or you could, you know, take the short, more negative route and just slap a certain point near your bicep and paralyze your entire arm for a moment. Though I'm not sure that will help in any way.''

''Now,'' Luke said with a smile as he retracted both his arms as he already felt the strain on his muscles, he had to clench his fist for a few seconds to get the feeling back. ''I showed you mine, now you show me yours.''

He added a wink.