Participants:
| Scene Title | Insult and Injury |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Curt tries to teach Vee sometimes you have to hurt yourself in order to take out the bad guy — which in this lesson is him. |
| Date | June 13, 2009 |
The gym
Curt is enjoying the gym, or rather, a pair of not-so-rookies who are sparring. "You guys are fucking jokes. I said move quick, no hessitation, no pause! You fight like thugs, like human beings. You no longer are, you're Agents, men of purpose, of drive. I see this sloppy shit one more time and you spar with me. Again!" he bellows. The men circle each other with fake wooden knives. They're not very good.
Veronica enters the gym. She's taken to spending a lot of time here, running before or after work. She doesn't give the sparring pair a glance, nor does she notice her partner giving them advice. Her neon green iPod is on, the white earbuds snaking into her ears, and she heads for the treadmill. She tosses her water bottle into the cup holder, and begins to program her five-mile run without so much as a look to the three men over on the mats.
Curt shakes his head, "Dammit!" He walks into the middle of the move one of them is attempt and with a flick of one wrist and a jab of the other hand disarms one man and sends the other to the floor. "Move! Don't just stand there and swing like this was baseball. It's a fluid exchange. Like snakes playing in water, not like lumbering elephants on a floor covered in marbles." he glares at the two men that glare back and he takes the wooden knife and flicks it at the man who dropped it, the 'blade' thudding against his chest bruisingly. "Again."
Starting her run, Veronica looks up, and the men fall into her line of vision. She frowns a little as she watches Curt ordering them around. She pulls one ear bud out so she can actually hear the exchanges, and she gives a shake of her head. "I don't think 'sensei' is in your job description, Lu. Let them do their thing and quit acting like you're in charge of anyone who happens to be younger than you. If that was the case, you'd be the CEO."
Curt glares at her, "They asked." he says simply, "Little boys playing with weapons they can't use." he eyes her, "Not my fault they're not up to the training. You don't want to get beat, don't ask a Ranger to school you."
"Rangers? Really? They're all whack-and-crack. Hardly artistic, brute force. Good for kill squad, but not for bag and tag. Most of the time we're supposed to bring our targets in in one piece. Don't listen to him, Harry, Jeff," the last is directed to the two sparring men.
Curt snorts, "Most of the time." he smiles at her warmly, "But not always." which might make one wonder exactly where he's been for the Company and what sort of work he's done. "And if you might have to kill, you'd better be damned good enough to do it. If you're a cop, you learn to shoot for the one time you have too, not for the fifty million times you don't. Same principle applies Princess."
"Which is why I know how to shoot," she says, pushing a button that makes the incline increase on her treadmill. "But thanks for explaining to me how to do my job, yet again." Harry and Jeff look amused at the little battle ensuing between Curt and Veronica.
Curt nods his head, "Which is great for you, I'll make sure you have your gun when next you're accosted by a teleporter in your bathtub."
"Curt, do you really think I don't know how to seriously injure, if not kill, someone, if I have to?" she demands. Somehow, her feet keep that steady rhythm while running, despite the exasperated look she throws him. "I can most definitely assure you that I do."
Curt nods his head, "So hurt me. You're the big bad Agent, you come home, go take a shower, I come in. Show me how you stop me." he points out. "Be better then an invincible Ranger." his turn to smile. He led her into that argument, like a lamb. She prolly shoulda seen it coming.
"Right. That's a great plan, Lu. How am I supposed to hurt you when it's me that will end up taking the damage I inflict on you as well as any you might manage to inflict on me? I get double the bruises and none of the fun. Even if I kick your ass, I'm the one who feels it tomorrow. Doesn't sound like a win-win situation to me."
Curt shrugs at her, "I don't know. But you're the big bad agent that can handle yourself. You tell me Princess. It's the one time you pull the trigger you train for, not the fifty million you don't."
"Yeah, you said that. Repeating yourself is the first sign of Alzheimer's, old man," she says with a shake of her head. "If it were for real and I was trying to hurt you, I wouldn't be within ten feet of you, and I'd shoot you, wouldn't I?" She hits the stop button and hops off the treadmill. "But if it were us, I'd go for non-lethal hits to take you down, get you tranqued and handcuffed." She approaches the mat.
Curt shrugs, "Don't worry, if I'm starting to get it it'll just slough off on you in a second." he smiles warmly, "Ah, but you're not trying to hurt me. I'm trying to hurt you." he points out. "Tranq's don't work on me, neither do tazers. Tranqs last seven tenths of a second, tazers about one point five. Try again, and think this time." he tosses her one of the wooden practice blades, "How would you take me down?"
She catches the blade and frowns. "I don't know. And that's one of the reasons I'm not keen on being your partner. I could pin you and restrain you, but that's about it," she answers honestly.
Curt shakes his head, "You can't pin me. Most pins rely on the opponant not being willing to let you dislocate their arm or something." he points out, "But that doesn't bother me, because if it happens to me, you'll let go real fast." because her arm will rip itself to shreds. "You can't choke me out, because you'll pass out too." he takes a stance against her, low with a reverse grip on the knife he holds. "But I'll wake up first. Try again." he's trying to teach her something.
Veronica frowns. "Sometimes it's just physics," she says. "Balance, that kind of thing." She thrusts forward to bring her wooden sword against his with a clack, but it's a diversion for the kick that comes around to take him out by contacting the side of his knee. The goal is to knock him off balance, not cause pain or damage.
Curt twists down and away with the knife she wields, which turns his knee into her kick, not away. It's a solid hit, but doesn't so much as budge him. "Physics won't help you against me. I'm better. Faught more, longer, harder, and better then you are. You need a new tactic." he darts in, his blade weaveing a disceitful path before her eyes before striking low, trying to brush it's 'bladed' side against the inside of her thigh, low on her stromach, and then again at the inside of her biscep. It's military style fighting, any one of those lands it severs an artery, tendons, kills and cripples instantly. He fights the way all Spec Ops do. For keeps.
Veronica turns quickly, spinning away from that "blade" — if it had been real, she might have come away with some ripped clothing, but nothing worse. She drops down to sweep at his feet, rolling into a somersault that brings her out of his reach, whether he falls or not.
Curt hops lightly over the sweeping leg and never gives her a chance to get to far away, he's already moving in as she moves away, not letting her set up, get her feet to firmly under her. "Stop me!" he commands at her with the authoritative tone, "I'm going to kill you, you have no gun. Fucking stop me!" his empty hand darts in twice at her eyes, blocking her vision as the knife hand dives low towards her gut once and then up high towards her collarbone, the angle of attack changing with every attempt.
She pulls her own blade up and smashes the handle end of it up into the space between his eyebrows, her knee swinging up to make contact with his groin. She rolls away, pushing him away as she scrambles backward, trying to get the ten or more feet of distance between them as quickly as possible, even as her hand goes up to her head.
The hit to his head isn't great enough for it to have even a second's delay, the transfer is instant. She feels the exact same blow hit her in the forehead even as he grins. "I said fucking stop me!" he's already coming after her in a quick step walk, his blade weaving before her in a deadly dance even as his foot lances out towards her ankle in a downward stomping motion. It's a blow that would break her ankle if it hit. He's not holding back that much, making her really start to worry.
She grabs his leg and throws her weight against it, pushing it against the direction it's supposed to go. At the very least, it would result in hyperextension; at the worst, it will pop his leg from the hip socket. "I'm not your fucking enemy!" she yells back. Harry and Jeff no longer find it amusing and share concerned glances — should they intervene?
Curt could let that happen, but he can't go with an injured partner for a week, so instead he buckles the leg and rolls with her weight, letting himself tumble up and over her shoulder. He's grinning as he goes by. He takes the roll on the shoulder and is up lightly on the balls of his feet in a single motion. He stands then and offers her an empty hand up with a grin, "Better." he says with a smile. "Now you're starting to understand… And there might come a day when I am your enemy. We live in a world of puppetmasters and mind controllers. It might happen, you need to think about these things."
She ignores the hand — after all, if she's learning from this lesson, she can't trust him, right? — and moves back onto her feet with a little hop as she backs away from him. Her jaw is set, her eyes narrowed and angry. "Great. I thought we're supposed to build trust and shit, and now you're telling me at any moment you could be my enemy. How the hell am I supposed to trust you?"
Curt just keeps smiling, "Because I told you." he points out, "If I were you I'd worry more about the Evo's you work with that don't ever mention how they've all thought about how they'd flee from you if you had to come after them. Because they're liars. Think it through Princess. I havn't lied to you yet, not once. Name one other person you know who can say the same." he tosses her his knife, "Boys, learn from that. Next time you spar, I don't see some heart, I'll beat you both like you stole something from my momma's grave." he starts to head for the door, considering the lesson over.
Veronica rubs her head. Yes, she's going to have a brutal headache in the morning. "Don't ask him for help in the future," she hisses to the two agents watching. "He's a sadist. He'd be a masochist, but apparently he can only hurt other people."