Participants:
| Scene Title | Sparring Company |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Claire talks about her father and the Company, while Bones shows her some pointers in using staves for combat. |
| Date | February 04, 2010 |
Deep in the bowels of EndGames secret layer, is a room that was put together as a weapons range. It was set up before the confrontation with White, though the person currently occupying the room has no memory of that time.
The sound of semi-automatic rifle fire echoes through the halls in the dead of the night. Following the sound would find a young woman still in her red striped sleeping pants and white tank top, her feet bare on the hard packed surface. In her hands is a rifle, which she's working on emptying into a target on the far side. Her eyes squint against the sound, but it almost doesn't seem to bother her.
Bones has become quite adept at picking out all of the various sounds of the library after wandering the various corridors and hallways, sleeping more than a few nights in the place. Become like a real home to him in short order. A fact which is proven by the way he feels comfortable leaping over banisters and jumping down stairwells blindly, catching himself to break his fall and then allowing himself to drop to his feet. And he does this with a couple bamboo staves in his hand. When he gets down to the lowest level, he feels the rifle shots first with his bare feet and makes his way towards them. It is with a mild look of intrigue that he enters in to the shooting range, standing to the side of the doorway as he watches Claire take her shots.
The shots are fired until it clicks… Claire hasn't noticed her watcher, as her back is to the large man, she pulled out a magazine out of the rifle and lets it drop to the hard pack floor, before she pulls another out of the waist band of her sleeping pants and shoving it home. As it's lifted again, Bones can hear a bit of sniffling, the heel of one hand brushing across an eye. Then she's firing again until it clicks empty again.
Feeling it would be rude to stay unannounced any longer, Bones clears his throat and taps lightly on the wall behind him with a the staves he holds in one of his large hands. He does not look at her as he does so, allowing her her dignity to straighten herself up a little should she desire. "Uh, sorry. Hope I am not interrupting anything. I got bored of watching the batteries attached to the generator charge." he explains, blinking a little.
Luck for Bones, the rifle is empty as instinct has her twisting around with the rifle at ready. When Claire realizes who it is she turns h back to him again, clearing her throat and wiping furiously at her face. "Bones… Hey.. I didn't see you there." A bit more sniffing, her cheeks are colored from her embarrassment. "Ah… what are you doing down here?" Finally, she turns back around with another wipe at one of her eyes. "Coming down to do some… shooting?" Her voice trails off as she noticed the staves. A brow arches as she glances up at him, with eyes somewhat red from crying.
"It's okay. When your parents make you walk for hours on end over rice paper, not allowed the damage it in the least for your punishments and time-outs, your footfalls start to get rather soft." Bones explains and tries to lighten the mood all at once. "Actually I prefer not to even use a gun if I can help it. Only carry one as a last resort. I, uh, really came down to ask if you wanted to beat the hell out of me." he says and then after a minute slowly turns to look at her and gives a shrug and a neutral expression, being sure that she feels it is an offer and certainly optional.
That gets a bit of a chuckle, "Isn't that what I'm suppose to ask you… you know.. invincible girl." Claire makes it sound somewhat sarcastic, whether she realizes it or not. The rifle is carefully, set back in it's spot carefully. "There use to be a time when I couldn't shoot anything but a shotgun." She runs a hand over to weapon almost in reverence. "Cured that real quick."
Turning back to Bones, she tugs down the hem of her tank top some, still trying to get back a bit of her dignity, even though she's still sniffing now and then. "And when I was punished growing up.. I was grounded and phone privileges taken away. Course when your dad works for a clandestine group, it's hard to get away with anything really."
"I will have to take your word for it. The only thing clandestine about my family is my brothers' midnight refrigerator raids." He grins as he tosses one of the staves in to his other hand and flicks the other over to Claire. Bones turns his back to her as he steps over the firing line and in to the range. He stretches and leans back until he nearly doubles back over, placing a hand on the floor and kicks his legs over his head, landing in a one-kneed crouch. "There would be days my father would get up to make breakfast and the whole entire refrigerator was empty save for the baking soda left out to suck up refrigerator odors. And even that looked picked at."
"Really?" Claire sounds amused, as she clumsily catches the staff, definitely not her thing. Hands wrap around it and she kind of leans on it as she watches him. "And yeah.. My dad worked for a group called 'The Company.' Not sure if you've heard it mentioned by anyone.. It's a group that captures and tags our kind. They also toss those they feel might be a danger into cells." She leans her head against the staff, hooking one foot behind the other ankle. "In fact, I found out the Company gave me to my mom and dad to raise." In other words, the tiny blonde before him is adopted.
"Oh yeah. Really. Like an Afro-Asian swarm. But only when mom and dad were not looking." Bones gives a shrug, flicking his dreadlocks back over his head as he slowly stands, listening to her tell about her family and this secret organization with great interest. "Well I'll always consider myself a danger to others. One of the reasons I'm not living back in my old apartment. I still don't know everything about myself and I don't want them there when I find something out they might not like." he says tapping the stave on the ground and stands up nice and straight, rolling his shoulders. "Got to admit. Don't like the sound of such a company, but at least they were nice enough to give you to your parents. Now c'mon. I'll buy you one of your favorite candy bars for every time you land a solid hit on me."
Straightening, Claire stares at the stick in her hand. "You realizes I've never done anything like this… like…. ever." The staff is hefted in her hands and gives a little clumsy test move. "And the reason they gave me to my dad, was cause when I ability finally showed he was to hand me bad." She gives a little twirl of the staff with a frown. "Dad got attached so.. he helped me get away. Course, he doesn't work for them anymore.. he now helps our kind."
She suddenly sighs, giving Bones an embarrassed look, lips pulled into a smirk. "I don't even know how to start doing what you want me too."
"You… realize you never shot a gun before you did it for the first time." He grins and steps back, giving an effortless and artistic flurish and twirl of the staff before he quickly steps back in and brakes its progress so that the staff lightly taps her on the head and he ducks back. "Guess we have something in common though. My parents adopted me before they had my brothers and sisters." he says, bringing the staff up over his head and rests it at the back of his neck, hanging his wrists over the two ends of the bamboo pole.
The soft thump on the top of her head, gets an amused look from Claire. "You? Adopted?" Her head tilts to the side some studying. Before hefting that staff again. "This seems so much more different then holding a gun and shooting it." Her hands slide over the length of it as if trying to find the most comfortable way to hold it, brows dropping into a frown. "My mom was an evolved that my dad was sent to 'Bag and Tag', meaning to capture her and tag her for tracking like some kind of animal." She gives it a clumsy swing at him, grimacing some. "Not a literal tag.. it's something they put in the skin." There is a bit of frustration on her face as she tries to swing it around the other way. All of it easily blockable. "My dad.. was some sort of political guy."
"Oh yeah. I'm the lightest kid in the family. They figure I am Polynesian and Caucasian or something. Doesn't mean I love them any less. On the contrary. Makes me love them even more." Bones shrugs, moving his staff to bat the strikes away leisurely with one hand. He turns and steps to stand beside her, showing her to distribute her hands on the staff evenly. "Like this. Keep your hands loose until you are about to strike. Grip hard as you strike and allow it to bounce back in to your palm." he advises, stepping back in front of her and he picks up the conversation again. "I get why they would 'bag' someone, but why 'tag' them? Some sort of tracking device?" he asks, making a guess.
There is a soft hmmm from Claire as she moves her hands as shown, biting the inside of her lip in concentration. When he steps back around, she gives a bit of a nod as she tries to decide what to do, "I'm pretty sure it is for tracking… It also tells them if they already brought down that person before." She tries a few more swings at him, these a touch better, but still not nearly any skill in it.
"Something else to remember… Company agents travel in pairs. One of us.. one of them. One with abilities, one with none." Another harder swing is taken, this one with a small growl behind it.
Hefting his staff up a little more as he takes in her stance, Bones bats those swings away again easily enough though that last one nearly contacts him and he leans a little to the side. "Good but more fluid. You are not playing billiards. You don't have to pocket the eight ball, you just have to hit it." he says as he uses the staff to tap the inside of her knees. "Feet in the footprints of your shoulders. Knees relaxed." smiles and nods, signaling for her to take another set of swings though now he too is getting in to his own stance. "Pairs. Makes sense. Like cops do with partners. And I suppose they want one of them with one of us to monitor us while we take care of them and help them."
He can see the concentration in her face as she tries to do as instructed, Claire's brows are creased. "Something like that… or they watch us while we take on our own." There is something in her eyes as she launches herself at him, a determination, teeth clenched hard. The swings come in rapid movements, moving in to try and drive him back. It's still not the fluid movements, but chances are the hits will rattle him a bit.
Bones does indeed give ground, his eyes bouncing side to side as those blows come, knocking them back just as hard as he receives them. He launches right back at her through he purposely aims at her staff. She can hear him humming and each slap of her staff comes on the beat of some music he does not give voice to. He jams his stick between her legs and hooks the tip planted on the ground behind one of her feet as he gives her a hard shove backwards. "Sounds a little low-down and dirty to me." he says, already stepping towards her, whether it is to continue the sparring or help her back up is up to her.
The small blonde is easily pushed back as it is all she can do to hold on to her staff as he whacks at it, each impact jarring her arms. Of course, next thing she knows she landing on her back with a small yelp of surprised, the staff falling from her hands and clattering away some. Claire is left blinking up at him, a bit owlishly. The offer to help her up is taken, her hand reaching for his, as the other angels herself up. "Very, but that is how the Company works."
Once she's on her feet, Claire works to dust off the dirt from her backside. "Either way.. just be careful. I'd hate to see you tossed in their cells, especially since you've joined us… Wouldn't be the same really." She gives him a small wink and a grin. "I'm sure Richard would have approved another strong arm on the team."
After helping her back up, Bones uses his staff to roll the one laying of the floor in to position and does a quick scoop with the one he has in hand and tosses it up in the air to deftly catch it. "You think so? I'd like to think he and I would have gotten along from all that I hear about him." he says with a sober downturn to his tone as he leans forward to hand Claire her stave back. "Always be mindful of your footing. You can be as determined as you want but if you trade determination for sure footing, you end up on the loosing side of the deal every time."
"Thanks.." Claire murmurs taking the staff back, head tilting back to consider him. "You guys might have." She observes softly, blue eyes studying his features thoughtfully. Then realizing she's practically staring, Claire's eyes drop to the ground. "Never thought himself a good man, but he was.. just like you seem to be a good man." The staff is offered back with a soft smile. "Thanks for the lesson, Bones. I think I can sleep again… hopefully without the nightmares."
Accepting the stave back from her, Bones smiles and places his hands at his side and performs a respectful bow. "Thank you for letting me be a teacher again, if only for half an hour. And thank you for your assessment of me." he steps forward and reaches out to place his arm about her shoulders, intending to walk with her back to her room. "And I am glad that I could serve as a distraction. You ever need to learn a little hand-to-hand or just feel like getting out some bad energy, you come find me. Or come find me… anytime for… whatever." he winks at her.
"I imagine I can't always rely on guns and my ability to heal," Claire says with a chuckle, an arm moving to rest around his waist when he arm settles around her shoulder. "I had some one teaching me before, when I had lost my ability for a time, but never kept up with it." This close she really has to tilt her head back to look the tall man in the eyes, "Maybe I should have you teach me some basic hand to hand."
But then she smacks a hand against his stomach. "And nice try, buddy. That line might on some…." She slips from under his arm as they near her room, ".. but I'm not so easy." She teases.
"I'd be more than happy to teach. I'm falling behind myself, really." Bones admits as he looses his arm from around her shoulders and allows her to go to her doorway. He chuckles at the smack he receives to his rather hard stomach that does not give against the contact and dances away down the hall as if to avoid another slap. "Hey, now. Just you remember this moment. One of these nights you're going to be chattering your teeth something fierce and you're going to come see who can keep you warm. Well don't come knocking on /my/ sleeping bag. That flap is closed." he teases right back, grinning oh-so widely before he turns his back on her and gives a wave over his shoulder. "Night, Claire!" he calls before jumping up on to the banister of the stairs and leaps up to grab the railing of the floor above him, hauling himself up and out of sight.
"Don't worry.. I won't." Claire calls after him in a good-natured tone. "I don't have to worry about frostbite or anything like that. Night, Bones!" She calls back, watching him. Once he's out of sight, she gives a little shake of her head and slips into her room, shutting the door.