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The Right Tools, Tuesday Period Four

"Kerrigan couldn't be here," River said, not quite managing to hide the worry she felt. "So today I will be your teacher." At least she felt she had a grasp of the subject.

The Danger Room was set up like bar, complete with holographic guests that kept talking in the background. "The subject of today's class is hand-to-hand combat," she continued, taking a few slow steps forward. "Useful in many situations. You might be threatened. Someone" - here she shot a glare at Lee - "might whine until your head hurts. A multitude of reasons, yet you have to chose the timing well. Know your own skills and your limits, as in all dangerous situations. Sometimes it's better to run." She smiled and stretched her arms out, spinning around. "Sometimes better to dance. In fact, it's like a dance. Sometimes you lead, sometimes you follow. That's not the important part. Just need to know which role you play in every moment. I lead. She grabbed one of the illusory guests and flung him across the floor. He stumbled to his feet, shouted something and launched himself at her. River moved close, then spun around and kicked his legs, making him lose his balance and once again sending him sprawling on the floor, gasping for air. "I follow. Elaborating the steps, impressing my partner."

She looked at the class. "I will demonstrate further." Turning around, she dropped her coat on the floor, and advanced towards the remaining bar guests.

When the last holographic victim lay on the floor, River turned again, raising an eyebrow. "You understand?"

[~~wait for~~ OCD is up!]

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Alice smiled, nodding to the other girl. "Shall we play good Alice and bad Alice?"

Turtle grinned a little back. Alice, at least, was a comparable size to Turtle, so, even if she doubted she could do well at this, she figured she'd at least stand a bit of a chance without having to quickly resort to shin kicking. "Oh, I think we shall. It's been a while."

"Lead and follow," Alice said, lifting her hands somewhat defensively. "Are we to dance, to fight, or something inbetween?"

"Something in between, I think," Turtle said, mirroring Alice's move and watching her carefully. Unlike in the courtroom, Turtle's approach to fighting tended to be as defensive as possible. "Although I have to admit, I'm not particular good at either."

"I don't know that I've any skill in dance," Alice said, "but fighting ... is something one improves rather quickly at when one does it repeatedly."

Such as, perhaps, when one discovers one's entire world has gone to Hell, and one must fight one's way out again.

She flashed a high roundhouse kick towards the outside of Turtle's leg, and aimed it wide -- wide enough that it wouldn't hit unless Turtle took it upon herself to run into Alice's leg. She wasn't trying to hit the other girl, only feint, parry, change the tenor of the dance.

Turtle blinked, and realized that, while it was clear that Alice was giving her a good bit of leeway here, it was also clear that Alice probably knew what she was doing. Her heart leaped, her mouth going a little dry, but she moved, taking the wide gap that Alice was giving her, quickly hopping back with her mind racing, trying to remember all those practices that Mister Deadpool used to hold. She tried to remember what few fights she'd witnessed or been involved with, for ideas on how she should move next, but she faltered. She hopped back and extra measure, still settling on watching Alice closely...very closely...urging her with her low gaze to go ahead. It was like chess. With a few exceptions, it was hard to start planning your own moves until you knew what the other player's moves were likely to be.

Her heart was already pounding. He wasn't even here, and wouldn't likely even know about this, but she really didn't want to mess this up. She wanted to put out a performance that might still make Mister Deadpool proud.

Turtle's hesitation reminded Alice to move carefully, leaving plenty of room for error. This was for fun, and for class, and accidentally smashing her fist into the other girl's side would be bad for both. And do a serious discredit to the Alice name.

Her hands were still up. "I do better with a knife myself," she admitted, turning one hand to mimic its reassuring weight in her palm. "Easier to sneak in and --"

She hopped forward, slightly, moving the invisible knife for an upward jab towards Turtle's torso.

The word sneak sent Turtle's awareness up sharply, and when Alice moved in to cover some of the distance Turtle had put between them, she quickly stepped wide to the side. While she didn't know what sort of move Alice planned on doing, she wasn't surprised that it was a stabbing sort, and was just glad that it wasn't a sidesweep.

"Well," Turtle said, "my signature moves has always been--" She stepped in at her new angle, lifting her foot back slowly. She doubted Alice would need the warning, but she figured that fair was fair, and if Alice was taking care to keep in mind Turtle's inexperience, she could offered up the same sort of handicap, needed or not.

"--a kick." And in it went, a strong kick, but nothing like her usual crippling strikes.

Alice braced, but didn't dodge; she didn't mind a few bumps and bruises, as part of class, and it seemed almost rude to move herself out of the way when her fellow Alice was rousing herself nicely.

The sharp sting shot up her leg, and she hopped back, arms still up.

"Very nice," she said. And it was, at that. "Always the shin?"

Turtle staggered a little after the contact of the kick, blinking a little in surprise. She knew Alice was humoring her a little by keeping her own moves light, but she didn't think she would humor her to the point where she'd let herself be hit. She...wasn't really sure what she thought about that and she frowned, settling back with a defensive stance again. She nodded. "It's kind of my MO. When in doubt, go for the shin."

"Knees are also useful," Alice said. "If one hits from the side, one can take the entire joint out. I suppose a good solid shin-kick could make someone limp, as well."

Her hands were still waiting, defensively, as she asked, "Have you any weapons?"

"Knees'll do in a pinch," Turtle allowed, with a stiff little nod, remembering when Mister Deadpool told her about broadening her horizons that way, too. She took a moment, curling her hands into fists and releasing them slightly again, trying to work out her tension. "And, yeah, I do. But I don't like using it if I can help it."

"I suppose that's the real dilemma with fighting, isn't it?" she said, frowning to herself. "So many times you'd much rather not have to at all."

Her own voice, then. Must I fight on? And the Gryphon's last breaths. She shook her head quickly. Not good to dwell on such things. Instead, she would dash forward, and this time the knife sweep was down, and sharp.

Alice was moving; Turtle had to move, too, and she back up as Alice moved forward, feeling the pull of the suggested dancing, the lead and follow. It was clear who the leader was, and Turtle barely had time to wonder how she felt about the fact that it wasn't her before she realized that Alice's move was continuing. Downward. Not at all what she had expected and, with the backing up, Turtle saw only one solution as gravity pulled at her, too. She leaned back as she found herself falling to the ground, just enough that she could avoid the arc of Alice's sharp sweep. She released a small sound as she hit the ground, but she knew better than to just sit there and nurse the bruise on her bottom. She quickly rolled to one side, and then a little further, where she could add the cover of one of the tables in the bar to her defense.

"Sometimes," she belatedly continued the banter from down below, "you can't help it, though."

"No, you can't," Alice said, frowning. "Sorry, I didn't mean to make you fall, there."

No more attacking while distracted, Alice.

Turtle rolled a little again, until she was under the table, and she straightened herself again on the other side, putting it between her and Alice and she blinked, trying to clear her head a little. It was so easy to get into that tense feeling of distress that she felt in a rare fight, and it was almost as if she'd forgotten that Alice didn't really have any weapons. "It's okay," she said. "It happens. It was a good swing you had there..."

"I'm afraid I sometimes ... lose myself in the moment," she admitted. "Too long trying to be on point, remembering that a moment's pause could mean life or death. I didn't mean to ... intimidate you, if I did."

Turtle shook her head a little. "No," she said, "it's good, really. I mean, I can't expect to improve if everything's easy, right? It's good for me. I need to be better with this sort of thing..."

"Do you?" Alice asked, genuinely. "Are you in danger? If you're in need of assistance ..."

"Oh, no!" Turtle suddenly turned red, embarrassed, waving her hands in front of her in an effort to assure Alice that she hadn't said it as a cry for help. "Nothing like that! I'm not."

Not anymore, anyway. She shook her head. "I just, you know, know the importance of being prepared, especially when you're not used to combat. That's why I take classes like this, to get better. Jus..just in case."

"Very wise of you," Alice said, nodding. "I never thought to do the same. I wish I had."

She frowned. "I believe I've derailed our dancing. My apologies."

Turtle gave a faint smile. "It's okay. I'm not very good at it, anyway, so it probably wouldn't have gotten very far. We can continue if you'd like? But, in all honesty, I'm kind of okay with just calling this a stalemate."

Especially since, if they continued, it would probably end up a sure loss for Turtle in the end. Like any smart businesswoman, she knew when to try to cut her losses for the better.

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The Right Tools, Tuesday Period Four

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