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City Gym


Raveled

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One advantage to living in a former industrial zone was that Miras knew plenty of buildings that no one cared about. Her magic had made it child’s play to get inside, and she had spread around a few pillows and unfolded cardboard boxes; she couldn’t afford to buy any amount of gym mats, so this would have to suffice. The hardest part of everything had actually been getting word out to Kingsnake that she was ready for their session.

 

The man had been infuriating when they were forced together by mercenaries and key witnesses and runaway trains. Kingsnake was skilled at fighting, but his methods had left a lot to be desired. Miras couldn’t just let him walk away, so she decided to give him a talk about how to handle a fight like that. In the meantime, though, she could probably stand to learn a thing or two from Kingsnake. Being able to move faster than an eyeblink handled a lot of problems but eventually she needed to know how to hit someone properly.

 

Miras’s normal robes were hardly suited for a fistfight, so she had reconfigured her usual outfit into something more bare; a hooded green jacket that reached to her waist, loose white trousers and black boots and gloves. She paced around the room, bounding from one foot to the other as she waited for Kingsnake. Part of her was regretting setting this whole situation up. Who was she to lecture this other hero how to fight? Sure, he liked being scary, but so did Raven and Foreshadow and Arrowhawk -- and those were all heroes. On the other hand, she kept coming back to the memory of him letting the plane crash with the paralyzed soldier in it. He had been willing to let that vehicle go down with the mercenary in it, and only Miras’s quick thinking had saved the man.

 

As she tried to use that memory to motivate her, a small voice kept reminding her that the soldier wouldn’t have been paralyzed if it hadn’t been for Miras’s magics...

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Kingsnake hugged the shadows as best he could while approaching the abandoned Greenbank building.  Since he couldn't see precisely where the light did and didn't fall, he needed to rely upon his hypersensitive touch to feel the temperature difference between the lit and unlit areas.  Every time another incandescent light bulb was replaced with an L.E.D., that slight difference became more difficult to notice.  He crept up to the back of the building, climbed up to the roof, then worked his way down, entering by the most discrete means he could find.  His echolocation bathed the area in waves of ultrasound, translating into a three-dimensional line drawing in his mind.  Right where she said she'd be.  Alone, like she said she'd be.  If it's an ambush, it's a lazy one.

 

Once he was satisfied with his reconnaissance, Kingsnake dropped down from the ceiling behind Miras and spoke up, harshly but quietly, somewhere between a growl and a hiss.  "What do you want?"

 

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Miras started when Kingsnake spoke. "You couldn't have used the front door?" she asked. "Like a normal person?" It was a silly question of course -- none of this was normal -- but it made her feel better. "Listen, neither of us liked how that train job went down. I think we could each stand to, you know, learn a little bit from each other." She rolled her shoulders, trying to loosen herself up. "Unless you think dropping a jet on the city was a great idea."

 

She took a deep breath and moved to the middle of the circle of cardboard and sheets. "So, first you can teach me how to throw a punch better. I can move fast, but sometimes that's not enough. And you obviously know how to punch pretty well."

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