1928/Gym Cats

Gym Cats
Date of Scene:	01 June 2020
Location:	Grant's Gym - Amusement Mile
Synopsis:	Catwoman and Wildcat have a little sparring session.
Cast of Characters:	Ted Grant, Selina Kyle

---

Ted Grant has posed:
Gotham's been blanketed in night for a few hours now. Ted Grant, in his Wildcat bodysuit save for his cowl, which is pulled back from over his head, kneels on the floor of his gym, wrapping duct tape tightly around a body bag. A small pile of fabric strips and sand is spread about the floor underneath it.

A cell phone buzzes an alert, and Ted stops to glance at it. He chuckles, shaking his head, and quickly taps out a response. "Sure thing, kitty-cat," he mutters to himself.

Standing, Ted slowly hoists the bag up onto its hook and stretches his back. "Guess I gotta sweep up t' make this place look presentable enough fer when she arrives. Ain't dustin' the window-ledges, though..."

Selina Kyle has posed:
<Are you open? If so, close up. I want to spar.>

That's all that Catwoman sent over via text before making her way to Grant's Gym on her souped-up motorcycle, parking it around the corner from the place. Rather than let herself be seen going in through the main entrance, and simply because she can, she slips in through a side window close to the ceiling, landing in a crouch within the main part of the gym.

Seeing only Wildcat there, cowl up or not, she rises and looks around for a few seconds. "Is it me, or did you tidy up this place for once?"

Must be her way of offering a greeting as she strides toward the heavy bag and the ring nearby. "Been a while, old man." She's in full costume. He's crossed her path with her as Catwoman and as Selina, but she has taken care to keep the secret up. For now.

Ted Grant has posed:
Pivoting about on an ankle as Catwoman drops in, Ted tosses the broom in his hand into the open closet door nearby.

"Me?" he asks, feigning incredulity. "Pshh. Please. It's just that so much sweat pours outta the regulars that they end up washing the place with their workouts."

Ted grins and walks toward Catwoman, hands palm-up out in front of himself. "Good ta see you, it really is. Couldn't believe that you were havin' such a rough night that you thought gettin' tossed around by ol' Teddy would sound fun."

He nods toward the boxing ring. "But, even so, I was never one ta refuse a lady."

Selina Kyle has posed:
Catwoman's eyes, hidden behind the tinted lenses of her goggles, roll upward slightly. "Said the one who just got rid of the broom. And that's not exactly painting an appealing picture of the place, washed with sweat."

She saunters her way around the heavy bag, resting a claw-tipped, gloved hand against it. "Is your memory going after so many years of taking punches to the head? Last I remembered, you barely got a glove on me." Now, he's a far better boxer than she's ever trained to be, but she does have her quickness and reactions on her side. Hard to punch what you can't touch.

"Speaking of...how many lives are you down to now? Should I go easy on you?" she teases, a playful smile shown.

Ted Grant has posed:
Wildcat shrugs, rolling his neck. "Fair enough, although I'm way more turned off by any gym that doesn't straight-up wreck its would-be champs."

"As to our last bout..." Ted offers a toothy grin. "Sure, I'll agree ta that memory of it all. 'Course," he adds, "I've always preferred bare-knuckle boxing, so maybe that's addin' to it, too."

Wildcat launches himself backwards, flipping onto his hands and then launching himself up into the ring. He lands on his feet with a heavy thud, the ropes rocking from the impact.

"You go as easy as you want to, kitten," Ted smirks, and he pulls himself into a ready stance, fists close to his face.

Selina Kyle has posed:
Catwoman holds that grin as she notes him evading the question of lives left, or maybe he simply let it slide. She makes like she's going to bat at a nearby speed bag, naturally like a cat would, then she spends a few seconds on it, seeking to find her rhythm.

"Some us are already set to fight, I see. Some of us still need to warm up a little," she calls over after he's done a little showing off of his own to take up a spot in the ring. "What, I don't get a set of gloves or some headgear? You don't even know if I have a real job. What if I showed up to work tomorrow looking like someone busted up my face?"

There is an audible snort at the 'kitten' part as she waits for his response, letting up on the bag.

Ted Grant has posed:
At Catwoman's questions, Ted relaxes in his stance and sighs, looking down. "Damn," he says quietly. "Yer right. Okay, okay. Hang on."

Wildcat slips through the ropes and then off the mat. He strides to the wall, grabbing two pairs of gloves and a padded helmet. "Normally, we'd need a third to get both pairs nice and tight. But I'll go with loose gloves. Don't worry," he adds quickly, walking back to Catwoman, "I won't complain about 'em."

Selina Kyle has posed:
"..good point. You can tighten mine up, though. And maybe we should stay away from the head, too," Catwoman muses. After all, she's leaving the goggles on. They, along with the cat cowl, do just enough to mask her appearance, keeping who she really is from being obvious. She slides the headgear on first, adjusting it. "Are my ears poking out?" she wonders, turning toward a mirror to have a look at herself, hands pausing at her hips.

Leave it to her, sleek catsuit and all, to try to make boxing gear look good. Then, she wiggles her fingers at him.

Ted Grant has posed:
"Yeah, but somehow it works for you," Ted replies, chuckling as he shakes his head. One glove and then the other slips on and Wildcat makes sure to tighten each appropriately.

"If we were really goin' all out, I'd wrap yer hands, too, but unless I'm /really/ misreadin' you, that won't be necessary. And I'll try to keep from floggin' yer noggin." He works his own gloves on and bats them against one another.

"Now," Ted says, "if yer all done admirin' the look--let's see if you've been keepin' up or lettin' that memory do all the work for ya."

Selina Kyle has posed:
Catwoman informs Ted, "I make everything work, whether it's a costume, an evening gown, or bike leathers." She knows it, too. That's just the way it is.

With him getting her gloves laced up well and good, it puts them in closer proximity to each other but she refrains from doing anything that could be taken as teasing or getting under his skin. She did come to spar, perhaps flirt a little along the way, but that's also just the way it is.

"I was thinking about the tape, but I just want to work up to seeing if I've got any rust to scrape off or not. There hasn't been a lot going on around Gotham lately out of the ordinary." She smirks at him as she climbs in, using the lower ropes to step through, checking her footing as she strides around the mat. Once she's ready, she reaches up to adjust the headgear, then approaches the center and holds out a glove.

Ted Grant has posed:
"Well," Ted says, smiling, "ain't that somethin' to be happy about? Or is it a problem 'cuz of who's doin' the cleanup? 'Course, you seem like the type who wants to be the problem-solver..."

He laughs and, making ready, touches the glove. "I'm the same way. So let's see if we can knock any rust off--either of us."

Ted crouches slightly, limbs tense, as his gloves frame his face. He feints movement, but he's clearly waiting to see what Catwoman will do offense-wise.

Selina Kyle has posed:
Catwoman backs away after the ritual tapping of the gloves. "That all depends. Sometimes I create problems for others. Sometimes I solve them. It all depends on which side of the fence I'm standing on." Of course it's more complicated than that, but as a basic premise it can work. She always has a reason for the things she does, no matter what it is. "But I do have a code. It's not Batman's code, but there's his and everyone else's."

Now she begins to move around the ring, keeping him in the center of her view while he accounts for what she does. The left is up in a position of guarding, the right seeking an opening to strike with. She jabs with the left at his right, literally batting at him like she did with the speed bag. Just the start, as she keeps a nimble balance with her legs.

Ted Grant has posed:
"I hear that," Ted says, rotating in a wide arc to maintain as equal space between Catwoman and himself throughout the rotation as much as possible. "Kinda hard to make a real mark when yer s'pose'ta be makin' someone else's."

The jab makes glancing contact, and Wildcat blinks. "Alright, so yer a bit faster'n I expected." He grins again. "Good."

Ted steps toward Catwoman's left, his right arm beginning to jab out, but he tilts to his own left and swings a left cross at the woman's ribs instead. There's not much power behind it, but the strategy is clear: demonstrate a similar speed.

Selina Kyle has posed:
Catwoman mmhs. "I make my own mark, wherever I go." This is someone who is supremely confident in what she knows she's capable of, someone with the ego to tell about it.

After she's at least tagged his left and he replies to that, she sniffs. "It /has/ been too long if you've forgotten."

Now with him coming in, she ups her defenses with both gloves, though the right is kept a little lower than the left. All that experience learning various forms of combat, boxing included, along with her reaction time and quickness, lead to her deflecting the cross away.

Wildcat at full speed still might not be a match for hers. Anything less, and Catwoman is liable to handle it unless she's fooled. Putting that speed to use, she swipes at the back of his glove with her right as it passes by, just to show off again, then she sticks it closer to his face, pulling it back down toward the shoulder instead.

Ted Grant has posed:
Wildcat steps in to the shot, trying to close the distance between the two with a sliding of his feet as Catwoman (hopefully) returns to a ready position.

As he does, Ted pulls his right elbow in to his side and arcs his forearm down and around for a literal gut-punch, clearly winding up to throw several of these in a row.

"I've forgotten plenty," Wildcat says with a deep exhale. "I'm just really good at improvisin'."

Selina Kyle has posed:
As Catwoman's moving to get back to a neutral place with her stance, he does surprise her with the right, sliding the glove in under hers before she can counter it. The first one lands, causing her to grunt, then before he can get any others in as follow-up, she flips back a couple feet and lands in a crouch, rolling toward one corner to open up some space again.

That's not traditional boxing.

"Yeah..I can improvise, too," she retorts, refusing to give him open credit for scoring one on her. But, it leaves her to think about how to get back into this. He'd know every feint imaginable, surely, but how good is that knowledge if the one feinting is faster than even a typical boxer?

Let's find out.

She steps her way back in, shuffling her feet as she advances now with her right side forward, as if the left was the dominant hand. As she starts to lead with a right jab, she pulls it back and instead goes for a sweep of the legs, attempting more of a 'pounce' that would have her pinning him with her on top. "Oops. I forgot we were supposed to be boxing," she lies, making to tap him on the nose with a glove.

Ted Grant has posed:
"Hey, now--" Wildcat spits out as his efforts at repeated blows are thwarted by Catwoman's backflip. "That ain't part'a the sweet science!"

Then, his opponent kicks his legs out from under him, and Ted lands shoulder-first on the mat, the impact punctuated with a dull BOOM. He manages to roll onto his back just in time for Catwoman to land atop him.

He starts to speak, but then gets booped on the nose. Wildcat stares up for a long moment.

"...ya know," he finally says, his mouth slowly curling into a grin, "the traditional way ta win is by a ten-count. But I suppose this is a technical knockout. After all, technically, yer a knockout."

His grin becomes sheepish, and he clears his throat. "So...you gonna let me up, or did I really get KOed and I'm in some kinda dream sequence right now?"

Selina Kyle has posed:
Catwoman stops short of straddling the man in the other catsuit, though she does lean a knee over his chest to help with the pinning and tapping of the nose. "Like I said, I must have forgotten this was just a boxing match. Oh well. I play to win, even if I have to find creative ways of doing it."

She gets back up to her feet and baps the gloves together a few times. "Are you trying to flatter me, cat?" the other one questions, looking at him with narrowed eyes, still visible past the lenses, the headgear surrounding them.

Ted Grant has posed:
Ted rolls over on his side to push himself back to his feet. "Oof," he exhales exaggeratedly. "Must be easy to beat up on an old man like me..."

Then Wildcat grins again and shakes his head, chuckling. "Don't get me wrong. Everything I say to just about every pretty girl I see is an attempt to flatter. Don't hate a guy fer tryin', though."

He cracks his neck and sighs. "So--you want to do another bout of 'boxing and...' ? Or you gonna take the prize now?"

Selina Kyle has posed:
"I'd give you a hand up, but..." Catwoman waves a glove. Not the easiest thing to use for stuff like that.

Rolling her eyes, she sniffs. "Oh, save it, 'old man.' Whatever happened to you, you don't look like you're much older than I am. I do know you don't look much more than a day older than when I saw you back in the news when I was a kid." Quick correction there, midstream, to avoid screwing up that response.

"Have your lines ever worked on anybody, then? I haven't heard of any little Wildcat kittens running around." She heads over to a neutral corner and relaxes against it, a foot up against the ropes. "Once I have my prize, game's over."

Ted Grant has posed:
"Ahh, you know how it is," Ted replies with a shrug. "Strict diet, lotsa skin cream, magical blessing/curse situation, other inexplicable shenanigans ... it's probably the skin cream, though."

He takes a step back to lean against the ropes behind him. "Well, every now and then I hear I might have a kid, but that trail always seems to go cold. Not sure if it's the same one, movin' around, or if different flames're tryin' to see if I'll pony up for support. Which I would if, you know, I ever heard back."

Ted sighs. "So I guess, to yer question, yeah--but also no. I got that short game in the bag. But I guess I don't come across as much of a long-term sparrin' partner, so to speak."

He nods at Catwoman. "How 'bout you? I can't expect anybody who dresses up like a cat is gonna be the type ta wanna be leashed."

Selina Kyle has posed:
Catwoman holds a conversation in a place Wildcat may not typically do such a thing in. Boxing is a sport where another sort of talking is done, with fists.

"Please tell me you don't go around manscaping when you peel yourself out of that," she says, gesturing toward the suit while she fiddles with the gloves. Although he'd tied them on pretty snugly, she soon has one hand out, then the other, the headgear soon following before all three pieces are tossed off to the side, out of the ring.

A sort of 'mmmm' follows. "So you might have one, but you might not, and you don't really know because you can't get an answer for sure one way or another. That's pretty rotten. You got any idea why it might be like that?" she wonders, seeming genuinely curious, no sarcasm evident. Until, that is, he says what he does about 'partners' and asks of herself.

"/Some/ cats will tolerate a leash, I hear," she scoffs.

Ted Grant has posed:
"First of all," Wildcat says cheerfully, grabbing one glove under his arm to free the hand within, then repeating the process with the other, "I'm not gonna share any trade secrets. You gotta play the game ta win the prize--and that's a different game, and a very different prize," he laughs, hanging his gloves over the ropes behind him.

"Second, I figure that I'm probably not as great a guy as I think I am, least when it comes ta family stuff. This--" he gestures all around, "--this is fine enough fer me. But not everybody. Bein' present, bein' a dad, that's a leash, too."

"I think I want it, I think I'm ready for it," Ted adds, "but I ain't really sure. And it's probably easy fer others to see." He stares at Catwoman. "Story similar enough ta yers?"

Selina Kyle has posed:
"Nobody's as good as they think they are when it comes to that stuff," Catwoman remarks, shifting away from the corner to climb back through the ropes and hop down to the floor. "But some people /are/ worse than they think they are. If you can stay somewhere in the middle, no, that's not so bad. You can't exactly be there for a kid you might not even have, that you haven't even met." She lets that sit for a few seconds, shaking her head. "But you have to be ready for the day that could all change."

She flashes the old man a smirk, afterward. "I'm not really looking for a family like that, and if you're asking, I think I'd know if I had a kid or not. My cats are my babies."

Ted Grant has posed:
Nodding, Ted slips out from between the ropes and off the mat as well. "Just makin' sure I can still read ladies well enough--even if my moves aren't landin'."

He gestures to Catwoman's discarded equipment. "Feels weird, though, right? Now yer free and you can get back t' slinkin' in the night an' what-not. After a bit, the gloves feel like yer declawed, and ..." Ted winks, "... we both know how cats feel about that."

Ted clears his throat. "And don't worry about ol' Ted. Frankly, havin' a charmin' visitor like yerself /not/ wantin' any of that stuff is a real treat. Certainly makes the beatin' you gave me sting less."

Selina Kyle has posed:
Catwoman prides herself on being difficult to read, presenting only what she wants others to see. In that sense, she neither confirms nor denies his talk of that. Instead, she notes, "I remember what it was like to have no claws. Never doing /that/ again. I've got no problem leaving someone a little something if they deserve it." As she walks near him, she lets him see just how sharp some of those claws are at the right hand.

"If we're being honest, we hardly even got started. I'm not on your level in the ring, so if I'm going to seriously fight you..well. I have to use a few tricks of my own." They have been on opposite sides of the fence before, enough that a tussle or two was had. And yet, there have been other times they've aided each other. "I hope I haven't left you with any permanent scars."

Ted Grant has posed:
"Naw," Ted says, inhaling deeply. "Just some wounded pride. But that always heals up easily enough. Might take a few brews to ease the recovery, though..."

He puts his hands on his hips. "Next time you wanna do this, I'll definitely be ready for dirty fightin'. Though ... I figure you'll have some other tricks up yer sleeves to surprise me with, too, that I ain't seen yet." Ted nods, pursing his lips. "Sounds fun."

Selina Kyle has posed:
"I might even fight fair," Catwoman says, but they'd both be fooling themselves if they actually believed that. "How's that old bike of yours holding up, by the way?" She curls an arm around the heavy bag he was sweeping up by earlier, leaning a shoulder against it.

Ted Grant has posed:
With another shrug, Ted offers a feigned grimace. "She's doin' alright, but I've gotta do some more work to get 'er purring again." He tilts his head to one side. "Like you said--my moves ain't landin' so well these days. The gym's a demandin' mistress, and the wheels're payin' for it."

Ted grimaces again. "You ain't gonna take 'er for a joyride, are ya? 'Cuz I only got so much pride to wound, ya know..."

Selina Kyle has posed:
Catwoman tsks. "That's too bad. What do you need to get things back up to speed?" she asks, a brow sliding up behind the goggles. A strange question for someone like her to ask, perhaps. "No, I've got a newer model of my own. I'm just curious." Like a cat.

Ted Grant has posed:
"Elbow grease. Time. A beauty t' inspire me," Wildcat replies, shaking his head as he chuckles. "I can get the first. I might even be able to carve out the second. But the third ... for some reason, it just keeps eludin' me." He folds his arms across his chest. "Guess that's a mystery I'll have to solve myself, huh?"

Selina Kyle has posed:
So, not monetary issues. That about reaches the end of what Catwoman was thinking of. Shouldering herself away from the bag, she says, "I guess you will. Don't stop looking. Sooner or later, the alley cat finds his girl." She flashes him a half-smile before taking the unconventional way out again, leaping and climbing over to the window she'd entered through. "Nite nite."

Ted Grant has posed:
Wildcat raises a hand to wave as Catwoman deftly heads out the window.

"G'night yerself, kitty-cat," he says quietly, and then picks up discarded equipment to clean up the gym.