fandomhighdorms | The Gym, Monday morning

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The Gym, Monday morning

Sure, his first workshop was first period, but that wasn't until 9:00. That gave Bruce plenty of time to start his day with a run around the island while still leaving time for a trip to the gym. After stretching out and warming up, Bruce actually skipped the punching bag, choosing a lower intensity workout before the first day of class he'd had in a while. And it would still be there later for him to beat up using the new moves he'd learned while he was on his vacation.

But for now, he was sticking to an exercise bike. Because a few laps around the island on foot apparently wasn't enough of that kind of thing for Bruce.

[OOC: I've been up for way too long already this morning. I blame technology for this. Open gym is, naturally, open.]

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Given that Cara stalked in and immediately began slugging the bag with far more force than was necessary, it was entirely possible that it wouldn't actually be there later.

She'd probably ~~notice~~ acknowledge Bruce when she wasn't quite so focused on bag-related violence.

"If you destroy that bag, I'm sure the school can afford a new one," Bruce mentioned.

Cara paused mid-swing. "Then they should have bought a better one to begin with."

As greetings went, it was more than most people would have gotten.

"Taking out anger over something in particular, or is this just the way you always train?" Bruce asked. If it was, he was surprised the school didn't go through more gym equipment.

Cara slammed her fist hard against the bag in what would have been a solid gut-shot in a person. "Yes." Sometimes a non-specific truth was more effective than a lie.

"I'm going to ask a stupid question here," Bruce said, hoping to save Cara time so she wouldn't have to call it a stupid question. "But do you want to talk about it?"

"You're right, that is a stupid question." So much for time-saving. Then, softer. "And no."

"If you ever change your mind, I'm a decent listener," Bruce said in a fairly comforting tone. He rarely used his listening prowess to comfort people, though. Mostly to spy on them.

"I'm not a decent talker." Which was clearly working out great for her. Yep.

"But you're pretty good at assaulting inanimate objects," Bruce offered.

Cara gave him a smile without much warmth behind it. "Animate ones tend to complain."

"Maybe you need to take on a better class of animate object," Bruce said, showing a smirk. "Or at least a less whiny class."

[OOC: And I'm taking off for festivities. SP?]

"Are you volunteering?" All things considered, that mightn't be the brightest idea. For either of them.

[ooc: Sure. Have fun!]

"Sure. I haven't had a good spar with anyone around here in a long time," Bruce said as he stopped pedaling and slid off the bike. It would be a nice test of what he'd learned in Nanda Parbat.

"What do you know, neither have I?" It's what happened when you went out of your way to avoid human contact. That and sparring involved pulling your punches.

"If only we still had the Fight Club at Atlas Gym," Bruce mused as he walked over. Once he was a few steps away from Cara, he settled into a defensive stance. "Whenever you're ready."

Instead of replying, Cara immediately stepped in and threw a punch, aiming for his solar plexus. It was as good a way as any to test his defences.

Bruce turned to the side to dodge the punch, a little surprised at how quick it came. From this position, he aimed a snap kick at Cara's side, looking to knock her off balance a little.

Rather than dodge, exactly, Cara kept her feet firmly planted as Bruce's foot connected, turning from the hip to help deflect the force of the kick. While his leg as still extended, she aimed a fist at his knee.

Bruce tried to turn so that his knee wasn't hit head on, but it wasn't much and the punch still hurt. He winced slightly as he brought the leg back, but he wasn't going to let it waste any time. He pushed forward from his fresh leg, throwing a punch to her shoulder.

Cara grunted as pain flared along her shoulder, she was rusty with things that hit back. Not that that stopped her from bringing her knee up sharply towards Bruce's gut.

That was probably the advantage Bruce had here: he'd just spent months with monks hitting him constantly. So when her knee connected, he was prepared to deal with the pain and attempt to grab the knee as he kicked at her planted leg, intending to knock her down.

Rather than waste the effort to try and stay upright, Cara focused on trying to pull Bruce down with her, reaching to grab at his shoulders and lifting her planted foot to kick at the knee she'd hit earlier.

Bruce bent down so that the kick would hit his thigh instead of his knee. This ruined his standing base, though, so it was that much easier for Cara to pull him down. But if he was going down anyway, he was going to try to sneak in a quick elbow to her stomach.

Gasping, Cara ignored the bright stab of pain as his elbow connected, kicking, grappling, and twisting in an attempt flip him and end up on top.

As Cara started to flip him, Bruce planted his hands on the ground and pushed off to give himself enough extra momentum to carry himself away from her. He wasn't about to let himself get pinned to the ground by a fighter like that this quickly.

Cara rolled to her feet, catching her breath before launching herself at Bruce again in an attempt to tackle him before he regained solid footing.

Seeing her coming, Bruce rolled backward while grabbing for her shoulders this time for an attempted throw.

Despite preparing herself for the fall, Cara's momentum meant she hit the floor hard, knocking the breath out of her.

Realizing that advantages like that would be rare in a match against Cara, he scrambled over to try to pin Cara's arms to the ground. "Do you give?" he asked as he pounced.

Cara's response was to try and headbutt him.

Given she had very few compunctions about aiming below the belt, that was a much more gracious 'no' than he might have gotten.

At least it was a pretty definitive answer. Not a lot of gray area there. Bruce's grip loosened as he tried to shake off a successful headbutt, but he tried to use his size and weight advantage to stay on top of her.

This was not a position Cara wanted to be in overly long. As soon as she felt Bruce's grip slacken, she twisted and pushed, trying to get enough leverage to roll him onto his back or at least off her.

The pushing and the aftereffects of the headbutt were enough to throw Bruce onto his back, leaving him vulnerable.

[OOC: And off to work I go!]

Cara wasted very little time moving to take advantage of that vulnerability. Bruce had the advantage in size and strength, but she had more than enough experience in pinning people taller and stronger than her.

"You were saying something about giving up?" she gasped.

[ooc: Bye!]

Bruce was convinced that he could have worked his way out of this given a couple minutes. But he did have class coming up shortly and somehow he didn't think missing Social Activism because he was too busy trading punches with a girl was going to be a satisfactory reason for skipping.

"I'll submit. But you won't have this easy a time next time," Bruce said.

He probably could have, and a reasonable person might have given up the first they got pinned, Cara.

As it was, she looked incredibly pleased with herself for all of a spilt-second, before seeming to realise she was all but lying on Bruce and scrambling off him. "Keep telling yourself that, it might come true," she said, offering him a hand up.

Bruce took the hand and pulled himself up with it. "I intend to," Bruce said. "And I intend to follow through on that."

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The Gym, Monday morning

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