15617/Knocking the dust off Janet

Knocking the dust off Janet
Date of Scene:	14 August 2023
Location:	Avengers Mansion - Training Facility
Synopsis:	Bucky Barnes teaches Janet some hard lessons about under-estimating Super-Soldiers...
Cast of Characters:	James Barnes, Janet van Dyne

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James Barnes has posed:
    Who knows how long Bucky's been on the treadmill. The steady pounding of his feet against it has been the background music of the Avengers' training facility as he runs, and runs, and runs. It's a no thought head empty kind of day, and there's something about just flat-out running that causes all of his brain power to focus down onto the repetitive motion that propels his feet forward again and again.

    If anyone was curious whether or not super-soldiers can sweat, the light misting of it on his forehead is enough to answer that question, and his hair is pulled back out of his face because of it. It's criminal how much he's not out of breath even though he's maintaining a pace that would put most professional sprinters to shame, but the upgraded equipment seems to be able to handle it, so why stop?

    The why is a simple one: thirst. There's a bottle of water and a towel on a nearby chair, and once Bucky has slowly come to a stop, he steps off the treadmill and over to it so that he can down the entire bottle in maybe, like, four swallows. There was a time in his life where he had to ignore his basic needs, but now he's free to do whatever he wants, so he refills the bottle from the tap (gotta love New York City water) and drains it again, just because he can.

Janet van Dyne has posed:
"Good lord, Bucky, you're gonna burst your stomach open," Janet says. The socialite's slipped into the room while Bucky's hydrating, wearing a black-and-yellow striped athletic ensemble of a racerback top and brief athletic shorts. White trainers with yellow laces complete the look. She tosses her gym bag to the side along with a convenient towel, and walks over to the training mats while stretching her arms overhead to limber up.

"You think you could help me out?" she inquires. "Natasha was supposed to help me with some judo stuff, but she's gone, and for Obvious Reasons I'm not asking Steve." She lifts a foot and grabs her toes, stretching her knee, then lengthening the pull to address her upper quad.

"Unless you're too busy running," she adds, and flashes a teasing grin. "I figured you'd enjoy a little change of pace?"

James Barnes has posed:
    "Pretty sure my insides are about as tough as my outsides, so chances are I'm probably okay," Bucky responds, though he does pause to frown down at his water bottle. And rather than take another drink, he sets it back in its place on the chair before taking up the towel instead, letting it hang loose around his shoulders. He's in sweats and a t-shirt -- guess what, all black -- but not long-sleeves, so the metal arm is pretty well on display at the moment. Which is a thing he only seems to do in the Mansion, if at all.

    He comes over when Janet asks after him, head tilted to the side a little bit, silent otherwise. He doesn't start to stretch, but he does stand on the training mat, apparently ready to participate.

    Eventually Janet gets a, "Sure," along with a pursed-lipped frown, though it's not a particularly surly look, just one that's mildly thoughtful. And a hint of suspicion, but that's just Bucky's RBF. "I'll go easy on you to start with." He gives a rotation of his arm, and the hidden mechanisms inside it whirr faintly. "And I'll adjust based on your capabilities."

    He sounds particularly old-hat about this, and the way he looks Janet up and down is purely to estimate said capabilities, all tactician.

Janet van Dyne has posed:
Janet rolls her eyes at the 'easy on you' statement. "Oh, gosh, THANK you," she tells him with a vastly insincere tone. "Golly, I don't know what I'd do without you big mens around to keep me safe from myself." Janet keeps the banter up while smoothly closing the gap with Bucky, managing to make her approach look more feline than aggressive. Her hands slide out as if to caress him-- but instead it turns into a smooth osoto-gari, her heel hooking his and the petite fashionista's surprising strength giving her leverage enough to knock Bucky backwards off his feet!

Janet vanishes from his grip the second he hits the mat, buzzing out of reach and reappearing a few feet away at her normal height, hands on her hips.

"Caught you sleeping," she chivvies Bucky with a grin.

James Barnes has posed:
    "I have a bad history of breaking people," is all Bucky points out, his voice flat and unexpressive. "Trying to be better."

    He doesn't see the approach for what it is until it's too late, relaxed as he is in the confines of Avengers Mansion. That is a mistake that he would have paid dearly for in the past; now it's just a slight ding to his pride, maybe, but he doesn't show it. Instead he blinks once up at the ceiling before he gets his hands and feet flat on the mat and kips back up fluidly, landing with his arms in front of him, fists up. He doesn't say anything, just immediately throws himself at Janet, closing the gap with speed that probably isn't surprising only because Janet's seen super-soldiers in action before. The bit on the treadmill was just a quick preview.

    He's not putting his full strength behind his punches, as Bucky rarely sees the need for that nowadays. But there is plenty of force still behind the left hook he starts out swinging with, same with the jab that follows. It's purely to try and get past Janet's defenses with alacrity so that she's forced to react, and he wants to see precisely how she does that.

Janet van Dyne has posed:
Janet yelps in surprise and promptly backpedals when Bucky comes off the ropes going at approximately Mach 3. The sheer speed of the super-soldier is not to be underestimated-- nor the power behind even the relatively relaxed posture he's taking.
% She's smart enough not to try to block him directly, instead going all-out on evasion while she looks for an opening. Ducking and weaving with a fluidity that would make a boxer take notice, it's taking all she has to just stay ahead of those sweeping punches. A few glancing blows him, provoking a wince and a sound of discomfort, but Janet never once gives into the pain.

A wide left hook gives her an opportunity; Janet grabs onto his tricep and forearm with both hands, and drives the edge of her shoe at the back of Bucky's knee. The near arm sweeps up and she braces her forearm against his neck, violently twisting her hips in the same rotation to sweep him off of his left foot and onto the floor.

James Barnes has posed:
    If Bucky even registers his knuckles grazing Janet here and there, it doesn't show on his face. In fact there's nothing on his face except a certain blankness, like the lights have all gone out and he's acting purely on instincts. Or maybe a set of pre-programmed instructions. Hard to tell with him.

    Either way, he's not letting up. Boxing is indeed the name of the game it seems, as he confines his attacks to punches and above-the-belt blows rather than unleash the full range of his moves. Some of the flashier stuff that plays into his supersoldier strength or speed are left for another time when they'd be useful, not right now when he's trying to gauge Janet's fighting style in more depth than he could when observing from afar on the field.

    At least until she tries to put him on the floor again. This time he's ready for it, and when Janet's foot digs into his knee it nearly buckles but he shifts his weight off of it, recovering smoothly so that when she starts rotating he counters the movement by twisting himself, both arms trying to wrap around her and flip her back over his shoulder.

Janet van Dyne has posed:
The counter-throw takes Janet by surprise and her feet leave the ground with a twist of Bucky's shoulders. One hand grabs his arm for purchase and the other flails around wildly, trying to grasp at his shirt collar. Over she goes, and hits the ground with a decidedly un-heroic *squeak* and a single bounce off of the sprung mat.

But she's still got a grip on Bucky's flesh-and-blood arm, and scowls up at him indignantly. The socialite twirls on her lower back and starts ensnaring Bucky's legs, twisting herself into a helix and grabbing one of his knees between her thighs and the other, given a twist and a shoulder-shove where it's weakest. With a grunt of effort the petite Avenger contracts all the muscles in her body, trying to topple Bucky with a textbook imanari jiu-jitsu roll-- a very modern grappling technique, indeed!

James Barnes has posed:
    There's no pride or gloating to be seen in Bucky's expression as he begins to turn towards Janet, but then he finds his legs twisted up with Janet's. And that makes him crack a smile, if a small one, even as he falls over. Though he manages to arrest his movement before he's completely laid out by catching himself with his metal arm, which hits the mat with an impressive amount of force. That leaves him half-downed, and he jerks one leg up to pry it free of the grapple, twisting away with a grunt of effort to entirely pull himself away from Janet.

    He rolls back up onto his feet with some space between them, arms up again, this time more defensively as he doesn't immediately move in to start throwing punches. "You're fast. Technical skill is impressive, too," he says. "Combined with your size-changing, it'd make you very difficult to get a bead on." It's a whole lot of words for Bucky to utter in the space of a few breaths. "Let's go again."

    He doesn't question whether or not she's up for it. Just invites her to throw the first punch, this time.

Janet van Dyne has posed:
She's an agile little thing; when Bucky breaks loose Janet rolls away and pushes off the mat to kip to her feet. Though she's pretty lean-muscled, there's a certain gymnastic quality to how readily she moves her own weight around.

Janet flashes a megawatt grin at the praise, unconsciously rolling her shoulders back in a very runway-ready pose. "Bucky, that might be the nicest thing you've ever said to me," Janet informs the super-soldier. "I hope you still feel that way after I knock the stuffin' out of you!"

The Wasp abruptly charges Bucky, taking an uncharacteristic offensive. She leaps into the air as if she's throwing a flying punch. An eyeblink later she vanishes mid-course, buzzing past him at dragonfly-speeds. She reappears on the other side with body flying parallel to the mat and at full momentum. An arm reaches back as she sails past, grabbing at Bucky's chin and yanking him along with her.

James Barnes has posed:
    Bucky doesn't seem to have anything to say to that, neither to the accusation of him being nice or Janet's intent to knock the stuffin' out of him. He just stares at her, hands still held in front of him, and his weight shifting from his front leg to his back as she comes at him.

    He can't fully expect what she's going to do but he can react to it in the space of a heartbeat, feet pushing off the mat so that he moves with her, rather than being tugged along. This allows him to throw himself down onto the mat rather than being thrown, so he can keep his momentum, using it to tuck himself into a roll that has him back on his feet and arms poised in front of him again, as if he didn't so much as move an inch.

    Though this time rather than remaining on the defensive he lashes a hand out to try and grab hold of Janet again, as if he means to pluck her out of the air and tug her down to earth.

Janet van Dyne has posed:
Janet's overconfidence proves her downfall; Bucky gets a grip on the Wasp, and frankly, that's game over. Before she's even started to think about shrinking, Bucky hauls her down to earth and Janet hits with a rib-rattling gasp of exhaled air. Her eyes bulge and she frantically taps Bucky's wrist, mouth working like a beached carp.

She chokes twice and then manages a painful-sounding gulp of air, lifting her hips off the ground to reduce the pressure on her ribcage. It takes a few moments for her body to remember how to breathe again, and it produces a spluttering coughing fit as she recovers from getting the wind knocked out of her.

"Okay, you--" she points blearily in Bucky's general direction. "You win that round," she wheezes, and coughs again.

James Barnes has posed:
    Once she's down, the grip Bucky has on Janet's arm immediately relaxes, slipping away as he takes a step back to give her some space. He's silent as he waits for her to catch her breath, though he does tip his head in mute sympathy when she does, because it sounds a little painful.

    "I've done this before, a few times," he says, as Janet's coughs continue. "I was good at it. I think." His expression transforms into something thoughtful, brow furrowing and eyes glancing upwards as he seems momentarily lost in his memories. But then he's back, with a blink, and he nods once, saying, "Good. Next time I know you won't let me catch you."

    Then he puts on a smile, if a very small one, and offers his (human) hand down to Janet. "Ready for another go?"