[Open]

[raptorcanaria]

Characters: Dinah Lance and OPEN
Date: July, all after Clueventure
Location: Wood Sector, and wherever you need her.
Situation: There are ideas and commitments that Dinah started before being distracted by detective work. Now she intends to follow up on them.
Warnings/Rating: Blood, wounds in the Arthur thread.
I started with prose, but will switch to action if you'd like.

General Starter: She found it in the wood sector, a courtyard formed by four trees growing from each corner, growing and intertwining together above, walled by hedges that have been growing out since the last master left. As soon as she had a spare morning and the presence of mind to do so, it is here Dinah returns.

She keeps the name and cleans first the sign painted so neatly in Chinese: “The Jade School of Kung Fu, overseen by Grand Master Shifu.” She doesn't know what happened to the Grand Master, but a dojo cannot be left unused, and she plans to honor this Master she never met by returning his space to the use it was intended.

She sent messages to the people she knew were interested in training with her, to let them know where they could be found, then she set about trimming the hedges, sweeping the building and the courtyard, and transforming it into a usable dojo again.

Comments

[cowled]

Bruce, as a general rule, never shows weakness to begin with, so he tolerates her scrutiny with a sort of wry weariness, and then bows to match her. The truth is, he's never quite at a hundred percent these days. He doesn't have the resiliency of his youth to fall back on any more. Despite the wonders he's seen and the miracles that have saved his life, he's losing - going to lose - the battle against mankind's oldest nemesis.

(No, not Vandal Savage. Time.)

But he ignores that, pushes it back. He doesn't know Korra personally, but of course he knows of her. If for no other reason than because he's Batman, and she's a powerful metahuman. So he makes a slight noise of affirmation, and waits for Dinah to continue that train of thought as he steps forward, wary. She's faster than he is, so he keeps his posture loose and defensible as he circles her.

[raptorcanaria]

Above a certain level it matters less how much faster or stronger one opponent is than the other, and they've both left that level behind. She attacks quickly and accurately, sticking to Northern Shaolin's fast strikes and loose footwork.

"Firebending," she explains without missing a strike. "She links her chi to her body heat and produces fire." Which is nothing special, she knows he knows. Pyrokinetics aren't uncommon. "Except it's Northern Shaolin. Movement for movement, strike to strike."

Talking while sparring is as much part of the exercise as the movements. If you can succeed in splitting your opponent's concentration you can use the opening. Diana does it every time. Shiva does it with insults. Dinah will eventually have to stop and concentrate, but now she's shooting the breeze.

[cowled]

He blocks her with equal efficiency, not concerned at the moment with landing blows of his own. The familiar rhythm of the fight is... cathartic, almost, and Bruce thinks of learning from Lady Shiva after Bane. Canary is just as good, and he finds himself smirking, just slightly. It's not often he comes up against someone who can match him.

"Their bending is genetic. The similarities in style potentially cite at an alternate or divergent universe."

He reverses one of her blows and throws her lightly, not enough to really throw her off balance.

[raptorcanaria]

She's smirking herself when he uses throw, and immediately follows through on that momentum to keep the distance between them close. He's much stronger than her, but the temptation to try some of her old Judo moves is too great right now.

"It's not just genetic. Korra can connect to elements that no one in her family can. There's some sort of religious meaning to it. She said someone compared her to the Dalai Lama. It seems a good comparison."

Her sentences become shorter as they match the rhythm of the match, and she has to choose between words and blows. The more it goes on, the more she smiles. She hasn't really had a good sparring match since switching places with Shiva, and she missed this.

[cowled]

"I've heard about the Avatar," his tone is absolutely dry, a reminder as to who she's talking to, and he steps past her and drives an elbow at her shoulder. It's a blow meant to dislocate, but she won't let it get that far, and he feels absolutely no need to hold back.

[raptorcanaria]

She gives him an indulgent smile and turns his move around on him into a simple throw over her back. Not trying to imply you weren't Batman, Bruce.

"I just found it interesting. I can't think of anyone on our world who links their chi to meta-abilities like that."

It took no time at all for them to move past simple sparring into blows that could actually do serious damage, and that fact amuses her. She blocks another couple of strikes before throwing a sharp jab at a nerve cluster, still waiting for one of them to make a misstep.

"Anyway, I've been working with her on that common ground."

As he knows.

[cowled]

"I can." So maybe that's a little indulgently egotistical of him, but the truth of the matter is Bruce has encountered numerous metahumans who use a form of chi direction - or redirection. It doesn't surprise him to learn that there's a universe out there where it results in pyro, terra, hydro and aero-kinetics.

He drops his elbow to block that shot, but it still makes his arm numb with contact, so he switches his stance to use his left hand as a dominant and to allow for some recovery time in his right. He swipes a scissor kick at her, a simple body-shot.

"What have you learned?" He knows, of course he does. But it's polite to ask.

[raptorcanaria]

Dinah doesn't reply straight away, because his kicks are still Batman kicks and even with her ability to take what is given to her, that still knocks the breath out of her. It gives him distance, and while she tries to follow up and take advantage of his weakened right arm, it doesn't surprise her to not be given that opening.

"That taking on massive responsibilities at a ridiculously young age is apparently a constant across the multiverse."

And that sucks, but no more than their own lives have.

"But that there's enough common ground that I can help her with control and practice, even if I don't have special Avatar bending powers."

[cowled]

Bruce makes a sound of vaguely disinterested agreement, but his mind is on his Robins. Massive responsibility at a ridiculously young age. He's struggled with the burdens he's laid on their shoulders since Dick was a child, and worse after Jason.

Then, "Good. Do that. I'd like to be kept apprised of her progress. She's a danger if she can't control her abilities." It's nothing Dinah hasn't heard before, Bruce's endless tirade against metahumans. She's one of the few he tolerates, let alone likes, and that's been earned. On both sides.

[raptorcanaria]

Dinah wasn't even thinking of Dick and Jason. She was thinking of herself, running out in her mother's old costume at fifteen, and of Bruce, making who-knows-what decision after his parents died. They were both younger than Korra when they took on that responsibility, and they've lived with it since.

"She's not the only one."

Of course she's a danger if she can't control herself. But so is Dinah - and that's not even about the Cry. There are abilities that make someone a danger if uncontrolled, that have nothing to do with metapowers.

Then she has to block a particularly unexpected strike and for another few minutes she can't say anything, because she's reached the point where the distraction of talking could be dangerous.

[cowled]

Bruce lapses into silence. It's always been his default state. Silence unnerves people, it's a weapon as potent as any fist or finishing strike, and Bruce excels at its usage.

But it's not the only weapon he can use. Nor the only one he knows. His year out of time allowed him to hone his skills, practice against opponents unknown to him. Martial arts was hardly as refined then, but he did pick up a few tricks. One of those tricks he uses now, reaching out to drive a sharp blow against her solar plexus. The move has no name, nor is it in any form of martial arts known on Earth. Were he fighting for real, the move would temporarily paralyze her. As it stands, it will simply serve to make her feel briefly weak.

[raptorcanaria]

If Dinah had seen it coming, she would have evaded, or at the very least avoided. If she hadn't already been tired, she probably would have seen it coming, but certainly if she'd ever seen that move before she would at least be prepared.

She's driven back, gasping with the breath knocked out of her, staggering back a couple of steps as her body suddenly ceases to function as she expected. Refusing to fall, she draws herself into a defensive position in case he follows through. Some of her sparring partners would have done.

When she has a second she holds up a hand to stay him, and to end the match. Two breaths to find her center again and she's smiling up at him.

"You held back." It's almost accusatory, but mostly it's just grateful.

"Will you show me that some time?"

[cowled]

Bruce steps off the mat, effectively ending the fight, and goes to grab two waterbottles from a shelf. One, he tosses in an easy underhand at her. "Same time next week." It's not a yes. But it's also not a no. It feels... good, to stretch his muscles again. No one here has the clout Dinah does in a fight. At least no one he can spar so openly with.

[raptorcanaria]

No, that's totally a yes. You see if it isn't.

She catches the waterbottle and pulls the top off, drinking liberally on her way to a towel.

"I'll be here."

To say she enjoyed herself would be an understatement. Dinah needs to be challenged like this, and to get the opportunity to go all out with him like this is leaving an adrenalin smile that she's not even going to try and shake.

[cowled]

He gives her a Look, don't sound so happy about it, and then, in patented Bat fashion, he leaves without a sound. He's not in the mood for small talk, Dinah, sorry.