From Russia with Violence.....{open}

[Zachary LaRousse]

Vincent should never tell Zac about the whole ‘great meta-humans aren’t defined by their abilities alone’ speech. Nope, not even a peek. It would inflate the boy’s ego even more, using it as his basis, or one of his bases, for his perceived greatness. And the last thing he needs right now is an ego boost.

As it was, Zac was never ashamed or shy of his powers. He’s out and proud, to be a meta-human, that is. Growing up in a meta-human family, in a meta-human household, where everyone, from his parents to their servants, were powered (some useful, others just for show, but meta nonetheless), him being ‘normal’ was a curse. He’d seem some of his cousins and older relatives, unfortunate as it would’ve been, be ostracized and looked down upon because they developed no signs of meta-human-ness. Being the future head of the company and the family, unsaid as it may have been, Zac knew the large pressure behind him. It didn’t really help that Zac’s father, a powerful precognitive as he was, didn’t see anything about Zac being a meta-human in his visions. So when his powers emerged a few days after his thirteenth birthday, despite destroying almost half of the Eastern Wing of their California mansion, everyone in his family rejoiced.

Truth be told, Zac’s still shaky when it comes to his future. He knows he’ll inherit his father’s company, but he’s not looking forward to that much. His father’s led the company through their most disastrous times, with the help of his precognition no less, and since Zac isn’t a precog, he fears he might lead it to ruin. Even more, he fears that he’ll forever be under his father’s shadow forever. That he’ll never get the chance to shine. He’s been meaning to take a science-related post-secondary course, in biology or genetics perhaps, but he fears that he might be a dumb businessman should he not take a business-related course. It might not be in Vincent’s realm anymore, but if he could help Zac sort everything out, the boy would forever be indebted with him.

I hope that indeed, Zac is smart enough to learn. He does let his cockiness take over his rationality at times, especially in fights like these where he seems to be winning clearly. While he’s almost honed his power to the maximum, his capability to use his skills properly and strategically is almost lacking. He knows not to rush into battle head on, but he knows not how to create an effective plan that will secure his win. He only taunts and irritates his opponents, hoping they get sloppy, then strike. But to a guy like Vincent, who apparently has everything in the palm of his hands, he’s helpless. Indeed, we all hope he’ll be receptive to what Vincent has to teach him.

A large smile-smirk appeared in Zac’s face when he heard Vincent grunt and tumble back. “If your power is to suddenly invade my mind and make me fuck myself, then I suggest you do that now, seeing that you’ve reached the end of the line, Sir.” Indeed, he doesn’t care much about Vincent’s power anymore. Not when he can taste victory over Mr. Romanov already. Foolishly, Zac took the bait and went closer, towering head high over Vincent. He could get used to this. “You know Sir,” he teased, saying the word ‘sir’ with such a demeaning tone, “There’s no harm in surrendering. Better than being beaten to pulp. Would hate to see such a pretty face get messed up. Don’t worry, I won’t spread the news of your defeat in my hands. Much.” He sent a naughty wink to Vincent to further taunt the guy.

If only he knew.

[Vincent Romanov]

Vincent had played this game countless times before and was a master at baiting. With his ability, he had to learn quickly how to best use it to his advantage in a fight. Sure, he had the upper hand in any physical confrontation, but getting someone to power him up was the key there. He needed kinetic energy to become stronger and so, provoking others to attack him first was the first logical step. The hardest part of this trick was learning how to feign the look of physical pain and move his body as it naturally would when struck. It had took a lot of watching boxing matches and just general sparing in general to get this good enough to fool whomever he was fighting. Luckily though, when someone was getting the upper hand in a fight, they sort of overlooked the small details. Playing on the arrogance of his opponents was key to winning all fights. Zac seemed to be as gullible as everyone else Vincent had fought, and it helped the boy was young. That youthful arrogance was easy to provoke.

Holding his position, Vincent waited for Zac to move closer, just biding his time. How he would react to Zac would determine how Zac approached him. Normally this would be the part where Vincent ended a fight, maybe with a swift uppercut. However, Vincent didn't want to hurt Zac, he was a student after all. This time, Vincent would just toss the boy around some or just pin him to the floor in one move. Vincent did his best to mimic labored breathing and held his side as if his ribs were bruised or possible broke. It took just about every ounce of will power Vincent had to hold back his smile as Zac came into range of his reach. The boy was still running his mouth, thinking he had won this match against the head of Hammel's security. Oh how Vincent loved youthful arrogance.

Lunging forward just slightly, Vincent swung his hand from his side, grabbing Zac by the ankle and jerking his leg out from under him. Still holding the boy's ankle, Vincent stood quickly, giving Zac a wink in the process, showing just how healthy and full of energy he really was. "Oh, my power is bit more physical than mind raping you," he said with a sinister little chuckle as he swung Zac around, releasing his ankle to send the boy tumbling across the mat. "Those punches were quick boy, I'll give you that," he said, smacking his own ribs forcefully, watching Zac tumble and showing Zac he wasn't hurt at all, "but you'll need more than just speed to put this old man down," he added, punching the air several times to set up a rhythm of sorts.

[Zachary LaRousse]

With the flurry of punches the Prince unleashed, unsuccessful as they may, it had given Vincent more than enough to work with. It didn’t really hurt that Vincent power relies on kinetic energy, the energy of a body in motion that relies on the velocity of an object, the thing Zac thought he could use to derail the older man. At the speed he went for Vincent, it wouldn’t be a surprise if Vincent had enough energy in him to flatten a city.

So really, Zac is getting off easy. Should Vincent decide it’s time to unleash the full blow of his power on Zac, he’d be the one feeding off the tube now. (And that is if he gets lucky and gets only the aftershocks of the punch; he’d most probably be dead with all the energy in Vincent right now). Even with the enhanced healing his power may give, it would take him a good three to four weeks to fully recover. But one thing his healing factor could not and would definitely not heal would be his bruised ego. As said earlier, should he be defeated without so much a care, he’d grow vengeful. What could’ve been a constructive fight would’ve turn into a destructive one. Indeed, as it was said a thousand times before, Vincent is indeed wise (possibly beyond his years even).

“Sh*t” was all Zac could say as he felt his feet suddenly swiped from beneath him, fumbling down the ring and seeing Vincent standing tall and proud above him, apparently without so much a scratch, holding his ankle up with a smirk in his face. Thank goodness the mat wasn’t that hard. “Woah old man,” he smirked, taking a few deep breaths, still reeling in from the sudden strike, “That was…amazing.”

As expected, the regret and anger Zac has for being defeated so easily was drowned out by feelings of admiration and awe. Never has he seen such moves as that. “Aww. So unfortunate that you can’t mind rape me. It would’ve been hot,” he laughed, surprisingly in such a good mood despite his situation. He rolled to his side for a bit and tried to stand up, but fell back down again ungracefully. Apparently his body has still to recover from the strike. Undeterred, he willed himself to sit down, in a lotus position, beneath the guy’s feet. No, despite being defeated, he won’t be that submissive to let Vincent talk him down. He was humbled yes, but not humbled enough. “So what’s your power anyway? Super strength?”

Then it hit him. Maybe, just maybe, he could ask the man to train him. Not that he’ll be facing extreme danger within the foreseeable future, but he figures it would be a useful life skill to know such fighting techniques. After all, with a personality such as his, it’s not hard to get into trouble. “Mr. Romanov Sir,” he smiled, gulping slightly before continuing, “I know I’m in no place to make requests, but, err, would you be willing to teach me a few tricks?” Please say yes, he thought.


ooc:
A bit crappy. Sorry Pryce. >.<
- Jam

[Vincent Romanov]

Okay.....things had taken a twist Vincent hadn't quite been expecting. Instead of getting back up and throwing another round of punches or whatever at him, Zac just sat down. There wasn't any swearing or anger....just a bit of wonderment. Did this boy have any anger whatsoever in him or was he just one of those rare breeds who never got mad? Yeah, anger usually led to stupid mistakes and decisions, but it wasn't a totally negative emotion. Anger made you determined and gave you the drive you sometimes needed to win a fight. Whether Zac was the angry sort or not, really didn't matter. The boy had already proved he could fight, even if it it only had been ten minutes or so on the mat. Vincent had been fighting all his life and could tell more about people after fighting them than if he spent a lifetime talking to them. Fighting brought out the real you, the animal within so to speak and when fighting you were more true to that person inside you.

Taking a breath, Vincent dropped his hands from their defensive stance, after all, Zac wasn't a physical threat. He smiled as Zac tried to guess his meta ability. Almost everyone jumped to the obvious conclusion of super strength. Vincent would have guessed the same thing if the shoe was on the other foot, but it always amused him. Invulnerability was usually the other ability people guessed seeing how he never seemed to be harmed after fighting. In a way, both of those guesses were right, but they were just side effects of his real ability. "That's me, the circus strongman," Vincent said in reply to Zac's assumption of his ability. Yeah, sure, it was a lie, but Vincent liked to keep his ability a secret as much as possible. He wasn't ashamed of being a meta-human and certainly wasn't afraid to use his ability by any means. In order to use his ability effectively and with overwhelming success, he required the element of surprise. If everyone thought it just possessed super strength and limited invulnerability, they would just factor in those options into their strategy. Vincent might have been a simple man, but when it came to violence and war, he was a genius. He used feints and misguided information to throw his opponents off guard and to keep him one step ahead.

The sudden respect which came from Zac caught Vincent off guard. Just seconds ago it had been old man this and old man that and now it was sir. The boy had manners after all, he just needed to be knocked around some to remember how to use them. Rubbing the back of his head, Vincent just stood there for a moment, thinking things over. "Look kid, I'm just the guard dog around here. I'm not authorized to teach anything here," he said with a frown and sigh, "and besides, it seems you already have a good grip on you power. When you get older and get some street smarts in you, you'll be great. You might even be better at this than me," he added with a smile. "Come on kid, take that gear off and hit the showers. I'll give you an excuse to be out this late so you can get back to your dorm without any trouble," Vincent said as he crossed his arms. He hated to burst Zac's bubble, but the truth was the truth. Vincent didn't have any teaching degree and certainly wasn't qualified to be on Hammel's teaching staff......However.....One corner of Vincent's mouth lifted in to a crooked smile, "You ever been down to the youth center in town?," Vincent asked Zac. You see, Vincent volunteered down there on the weekends, trained some of the kids how to box and helped out in the self defense classes. "There are plenty of classes there to teach you how to fight....and there I can teach you," he finished, quite pleased with his little loop hole. "What do you say?"

[Zachary LaRousse]

Nope, Zac is definitely not a rare breed. At least with anger issues and all that. As much as Zac wants to project a cool and suave image, his temper does get the better of him at times. And should this have been a normal fight, like him having a fistfight with a fellow student, he would’ve been raging mad with the sudden twist in the story. Then again, this was the Head of Security he’s facing, and somehow, the small, ‘rational’ voice that’s been telling him that he didn’t have a chance in the first place pacified his supposedly explosive anger. Indeed, Zac isn’t a rare breed, it’s just that the match is a rare one instead.
(That and he really didn’t want to go all ‘animal’ on Vincent; his walls are already crushing and he knows it. If he goes berserk right now, he’d just disprove what he told Vincent earlier – that nothing he could give would make Zac lose control of his power. And the last thing he wants Vincent to see him is an egotistic jerk who can’t back his claims up.)

Zac usually has a knack for telling when people lie about stuff, him being quite the liar himself as times, but surprisingly, he bought Vincent’s act fully. After all, why would people lie about their power, seeing that they’re all meta-humans in here anyway? “Awesome. Super strength is indeed the bomb,” he nodded intently. While he claims to believe that overcoming an opponent with your brains than with brawn is more effective, he can’t deny the fact that the gorilla and the elephant, two of the animals whose abilities he taps the most, are mostly animals of immense strength. “You’re strong and invulnerable. Don’t tell me you can fly and shoot lasers out of your eyes too.” And now he’s joking. Maybe he did hit his head badly after all.

“Stop it with the whole sagely act old man,” he laughed, crawling slightly to get on the ring’s reigns and use them to stand beside Vincent. “Dude, you’re the master at this. I doubt I’d ever reach your level.” Unless he can tap into two or three animals without the danger of him overloading his psyche, then he’ll be the same guy five or so years from now. “Guard dog seem so demeaning. You’re more like, errm.” He stopped for a bit, thinking of a decent-sounding image. Unfortunately, he came out blank. “Meh. I’ll get back to you on that,” he chuckled.

He almost gave up when Vincent said he couldn’t train him, at least not in Hammel. And while the youth center was somehow interesting, he doesn’t know if mixing with the crowd is really for him. “You sure you can’t train me in here? We could always meet like this, late night and all,” he whined, “Or maybe I could hire you to teach me or something. I have a place downtown where we can box. Hammel doesn’t say anything about having private sidelines aside from your main job right?” He gave Vincent a bright smile, hoping his plan would work.

And it didn’t. Silly him for asking really. Vincent’s face is enough to tell him. “Fine sir, the youth center it is.” He slowly walked out the ring, taking off his helmet and gloves as he grabbed his bag, and headed to the showers. “I don’t think I can ask you to help give myself a bath, do I?” he chuckled, giving Vincent a playful wink, “Kidding!”


ooc:
Pryce! I do hope you don't mind me assuming Vincent would say no, at least initially. I could always change it if you like. So sorry for that, if ever. ^^.
- Jam