2503/Training Evals

Training Evals
Date of Scene:	18 July 2020
Location:	Athletics: Triskelion
Synopsis:	A spar in the SHIELD Gym!
Cast of Characters:	Melinda May, Maria Hill, Cecily Winters

---

Melinda May has posed:
"Again."

Agent May's voice is a command. There's no question of that. It's not sharp, nor even loud -- though it carries. But it's definite and it brooks no argument. Which means the half-dozen agents on the mats are back on their feet, facing each other, and practicing the throws she's been walking them through again.

She moves between the pairs, watching them critically. Her head shakes as she comes to stand before one of them, fixing one of the pair with a hard stare. "I know you like your guns, Martinez," she says dryly, "but trust me. You do *not* want to fail this evaluation."

That probably doesn't help, does it?

Maria Hill has posed:
The Deputy Director's presence probably isn't helping as she observes from the side of the room, a cold, expressionless look on her face. It's that sort of expression that simultaneously is disappointed in you and also not noticing you enough to BE disappointed in you. She taps the tablet she's holding, then scrolls down. She makes a couple of marks. Probably not great for Martinez. Or MacHale next to him.

Melinda May has posed:
May flicks a finger at MacHale, directing him to step aside. She then turns to Martinez and uses the same fingers to beckon him to face her. "Let me show you *again* why you need to know this."

She sinks into a neutral ready stance and again beckons him with a pair of fingers. Around them, the trainees move out of the way. There are likely a couple of jeers given to the poor marksman.

May ignores them. Martinez winces as he mimics her pose and prepares his reluctant strike.

Cecily Winters has posed:
    Less of a latecomer to the party and more of a release from medical. Cecily had recovered from her near-mortal injury in the span of the week or whatnot since the Helicarrier Incident, and shows up to the practice session and evaluation. Proper exercise clothes in the form of a SHIELD tank top and black shorts. "Deputy Director," she greets Maria with a nod, still walking just a touch stiffly. "Field Leader?" she asks Maria, nodding towards Melinda getting in the middle of the skirmish. "I was sent over to see if I need some physical rehab after recovery. Is this a good time?"

Maria Hill has posed:
Hill shrugs. "Doing evals for some of the Probies," she notes. From the look on her face, she isn't impressed. "But if you want, that half of the gym's wide open." A small cluster of other probies and lower-ranking agents are working out around the evaluations, pretending really, really hard that they aren't paying attention to Martinez and MacHale get their asses handed to them by tiny Melinda May.

Melinda May has posed:
As Martinez lunges at May, she steps nimbly aside. What follows, of course, is a decidedly lopsided display of martial prowess. Which isn't to say that May actually wipes the floor with them... Or... oh, okay. Yes, she does. BUT! She does pull punches and slow down enough to make Martinez work without killing him.

She's trying to teach him, after all.

After a fashion.

Eventually, she throws him. He lands on his ass, she stands over him. "That would be the throw, by the way," she notes drily as he tries to catch his breath. "I'm half your size, Martinez, and I dumped you on your ass. Get up. Do better."

Cecily Winters has posed:
    "I don't think it would be fair to the others..." Cecily eyes the other probies doing their best to avoid getting notice, or noticing what's going on. Her tails flick at the trash talk, a small smirk forming on her features as she watches Martinez get dunked. "...the difficulties of being on the super-powered side of things... though some stretches would not be out of place.." she muses aloud. "Though I think I'd hate to tangle with her, enhanced traits or not," she nods towards Melinda.

Maria Hill has posed:
Hill smirks slightly as Martinez gets tossed. Again. "Probie, do we need to toss your ass back to Remedial Hand-to-Hand?"

Martinez bounces to his feet. "No, Deputy Director!" He looks to May. "Yes, Field Leader, I will do better." He returns to a ready position.

"I believe the term, Martinez, is 'get good, scrub'." Hill gives him a bland look over her tablet. "I mean, you were just Chair Force prior, though, so I don't expect too much from you." That's delivered with just enough of a hint of sarcasm mixed with good-natured harassment that it's apparently in good fun.

MacHale snorts on his partner's behalf. "Coming from Muscles Are Required Intelligence Not Essential, Deputy Director..."

Hill gives him a very, incredibly bland stare. He withers for a second.

"Ooh-rah." She states matter-of-factly.

Melinda May has posed:
If May hears Cecily's assessment, she makes no indication of it. Though, Hill's been around long enough to perhaps see the microexpression of a faint tug at one corner of her mouth. She steps back as McHale and Martinez speak with Hill. Again, an other faint tug at the corner of her lips. She's echo Hill's flat battle cry, but... not her outfit.

Instead, she turns to the others ringing them and the gawkers beyond. "What're you lot looking at?" she asks mildly. "You want a turn next?"

Funny how just about everyone looks really, really busy after that.

Cecily Winters has posed:
    "I could give you a go," announces the three-tailed fox. She's no probie, her little tag still proudly proclaiming her as a trainee. "It looks like everyone else around here is too worried about eating mat," Cecily says with a smile. "I put in enough years with the PD to understand clearly that if you don't like the taste of the floor, you learn how to stop chewing on it."

    She steps forward, stretching her legs and favoring one over the other still. "I don't mean to talk big, but improvement comes with effort, yes? I don't expect you to go easy on me, dear, but do please try not to pull on my tails?"

Maria Hill has posed:
Hill makes a slight gesture towards May, indicating 'up to you'. If she wants to let the probies take a breather... Hill won't mind either way. She frowns a little, tapping her earpiece and cocking her head for a moment, then scans her tablet. A few fingerpresses later, the frown has returned to a neutral expression.

Melinda May has posed:
May arches a brow at Cecily's words. "I'm not your 'dear'," she says flatly. Her gaze flits up and down the 'super', and takes note of the Deputy Director's gesture. She gives a faint half-shrug in response to Hill, that really looks like nothing more than a loosening of her shoulders.

She not one who tends to be so proud or foolish as to respond to a public calling out from most people. But, in this instance, she feels it's not smart to let the probies see her flinch.

Thus, she sends them scattering with a couple of brief flicks of her hands, then beckoning to Cecily. "If you want, Tails," she says casually. "Martinez needs time to ice his backside, anyway."

Cecily Winters has posed:
    "I don't mind, I really need the exercise," Cecily responds casually. There's no 'bring it on!' in her voice. She's warm and gentle, surprisingly. "And you look as if you're still up for a fight? I'm happy to offer," the woman steps forward, tails floofing out a little. She pulls her hair back into a taut ponytail, coiling a length of purple ribbon around it.

Melinda May has posed:
May actually gives Cecily a hint of a smile. "I'm not up for a fight," she tells her. "I'm evaluating probies." She eyes them. "Probies who need to see that it's actually possible to *get better*," she says pointedly. Which means she must have at least a passing amount of respect for Cecily's skills. Or, more likely, a respect for her superhuman abilities on top of what rudimentary training the police force had to give.

"Perhaps you can show them, Ms Winters?"

Cecily Winters has posed:
    "That's fair. Also, to be fair, every single person in this room outranks me..." Cecily says with a sideways smile, her ears going flat against the top of her head. "But I would be happy to get these muscles working after a week in bed." She bows her head politely, looking around the room. "Kindly, tell me what you would have me do, Field Leader?"

Maria Hill has posed:
Hill cracks her neck, watching the probies watch the trainee and the field leader discuss what may or may not happen momentarily. For a moment, she considers intervening. But for now, she just waits to see what happens.

Melinda May has posed:
May nods to that. "They do," she agrees. "Fortunately, when you face them on the battlefield, the bad guys won't care." She again returns to the center of the mats and offers Cecily an actual smile. With her lips, at least. Her eyes are curious, perhaps, but not entirely shuttered. Neither warm nor cold.

"Show me what you know."

Cecily Winters has posed:
    "No, they won't care," Cecily shakes her head. "...but I can take a few bullets, they can't. I need them to know they can trust me to keep them as well off as I can..." she looks around, offering gentle smiles to the faces she sweeps with her gaze, then steps closer to Melinda. "Now, I do spend more time behind a gun myself... so everyone will get to see me shaking off the rust.."

    It's a good natured admission, and she takes a few steps forward, getting within arm's reach. Her feet plant down on the mat and she goes for a simple grapple, the kind of maneuver one would use to disarm an opponent and open ended enough to either ground them or cuff them.

Melinda May has posed:
For all that she wants to see what Cecily can do, May rarely lets herself be grabbed or grappled without purpose. Certainly not on the training mats, anyway. She is remarkably flexible, given she's only human -- and a middle-aged human at that. No enhanced dexterity on her, just good old fashioned experience, training, and consistent workouts. She flexes backward in response to the grapple, seeking to take Cecily's arm from the outside and use her momentum against her with a follow through.

Cecily Winters has posed:
    If there's one thing Cecily is lacking in the CQC department, it's a more wide array of offensive abilities. The attempt to grab and disarm is a hearted enough attempt, but it's the counter she has a better time with. Instead of stumbling as she's drawn forward, she half-turns and plants her foot down on the mat, wincing slightly as she's putting extra weight on her recently-recovered hip. Her arm twists around in Melinda's grip and she grasps at the arm holding her own. Her other goes for her other side, clear intent in putting the Field Leader in a position where her hands would be able to be cuffed behind her back.

Melinda May has posed:
Which causes Melinda to twist, using her momentum to swing out of Cecily's reach. She's learned through long years of experience that, as a small woman, her best techniques against opponents bigger and/or stronger than she (which is most of them) is to use her opponent's reach and momentum against them. She knows, when two opponents of equal height and weight face one another -- and Cecily is roughly her weight, if slightly taller -- the one with the greater skill usually wins. Now, Cecily might have a couple of inches on her in height, but that's about it. So, from that perspective, they're fairly evenly matched.

But May has trained hard throughout her life to make sure she's got that skill. Cecily's metahuman reflexes and strength, both of which outmatch May's finely honed human abilities, should give her a greater chance than poor Martinez, however... for all that May's training far excedes a cop's hand-to-hand levels.

(Hell, as a martial artist, she far excedes most of the other agents in SHIELD -- albeit not all of them. There *are* agents who can give her a run for her money. She likes sparring with them.)

In any case, it basically means that May's best hope of not eating mat in this fight will be her experience and training, not her raw physical talents. It also means she can't afford to let Cecily grab her and immobilize her.

She twists the arm Cecily holds so that her weight is forced against weakest part of Cecily's grip, intending to free herself. Whether it does or not, however, she crouches to sweep at Cecily's legs, continuing her body in the same direction as the twist against the grip.

Cecily Winters has posed:
    Cecily's actual skill level is certainly as pale as her tails in comparison to the martial artist. Even if she's stronger and faster, she can still be grabbed in the right places to inhibit her movements and limit her options. The twist works quickly and easily and her arm is released, but it's a double-edged sword. The sweep, though, is what drops her!

    She feels the impact on her feet, her stiff muscles making it easier to bring her down. Her tails add extra weight to the balance (or unbalance) and she seems poised to land flat on her back. The fox twists at the last moment, hands coming under her--and accidentally sweeping her tails right at Melinda.

    Unintentional though the face of floof may end up being, she uses her reflexes and agility with her arm strength to spring herself back up. There's a bit of spin and she seems to be improvising her ascent into the world's weirdest attempt at a clothesline.

Melinda May has posed:
A face full of fluff was not on May's to-do list, today. And as the precursor to a clothesline, it's marginally effective. But, it does mean that Cecily gets smacked on her tails with a couple of quick flathanded strikes meant to clear the space before her. The vulpine reflexes, however, remind May of some of the more augmented agents she's sparred with. If Cecily ever gets her skills up to snuff, she'll be formidable, May knows.

She's not there yet, though.

The arm coming at her to clothesline her smacks her in the chest, eliciting the smallest hint of a grunt, but May uses it to once again try to capture the trainee's momentum, this time spinning towards her to attempt to throw her over her shoulder and back -- much as she did Martinez earlier.

Cecily Winters has posed:
    Thankfully, Cecily's tails are fluffy enough (and silky soft, too!) that the swats don't actually feel like much, else she'd be squealing in pain. But she comes up, as unbalanced as she is, and there's a lot of momentum. The vixen is easily grabbed since her arm is stretched across the Field Leader's chest, and feels herself swinging again.

    Her agility serving her again, she brings her legs down, angling herself to land on her feet instead of on her back. Both hands come together to grasp onto the arm holding her own, trying to redirect the continued momentum into a sideways takedown.

    At the very least it's a dance to be watched, the fox half-improvising based on the conditions while it seems the Field Leader is calculating and evaluating every motion.

Melinda May has posed:
May is impressed with Cecily's agility, it's true. Almost catlike, really. The agent starts speeding up her attacks, now, confident the trainee has at least a modicum of a chance against her. She lets herself be grabbed -- which, as previously mentioned, rarely happens without a point. She tumbles over the back of the kitsune, rather than going down, again forcing momentum to break Cecily's hold.

Then, it's a series of quick strikes and feints, testing the other woman's guard, looking for weaknesses both in technique and in reaction patterns. Find the pattern... find the takedown.

Cecily Winters has posed:
    This is where Cecily's limits become more obvious. Her guard is good, her reflexes on the superhuman scale, but she has no easy counters. No easy hitback potential. She's a defensive fighter with more experience taking down the odd big drunk or the average human who might have been hopped up on narcotics. Or just an angry thug or two! Even then, that was before her powers emerged.

    No, she's only able to respond with blocks and her own movements, light on her feet and not even breaking a sweat. She can take a pounding on those arms, too, as she blocks, but they're just asking to be grabbed again--and she's really not fighting back at this point.

    The way she's moving her legs and feet though? She's getting the exercise she'd wanted, working out that poor hip now that it's in one piece again.

Melinda May has posed:
May watches how Cecily moves. She watches her favour that hip occasionally. May is, in fact, being kind. She's not going for that hip -- something she'd totally do against an opponent in the field. At the same time, however, she's gauging the other woman's defensive posture and so presses her attack in other ways, getting nearly as fast as she can go until she finally abruptly switches tactics to grab Cecily for the takedown.

Cecily Winters has posed:
    Cecily falls into a pattern, staying on the defensive, going as long as she can go. If things stayed the same, she could go for hours but still get nowhere. She's not going to pull out her fire, and she's really not going to just straight up try to sucker punch Melinda in the face or the gut. She has more decorum than that, at least when it comes to sparring with a senior agent. The fox has no such qualms in the field against opponents she doesn't have to share the same building with, however.

    But all good things must come to an end, and she's grabbed, handily, as May's tactics change. "Ah!" she makes a surprised noise, at the mercy of the Field Leader.

Melinda May has posed:
And the match ends as May releases Cecily and steps back. "Not bad," she says. "We need to work on your offense."

There might be murmurs. 'Not bad' almost sounds like praise to eavesdropping ears (and gawking eyes).

"See how that hip feels tomorrow," she advises. "I don't want you to reinjure it." Bumps and bruises are one thing. Unnecessarily aggravating healing bones and muscles are something else again.

She looks around at the probies she'd been evaluating. "Well?" she prompts them. "Back to work!"

Cecily Winters has posed:
    There's a sigh and a laugh, and Cecily nods "...I never went much further in my training... I do better technical work with firearms... and do better with a weapon in hand than just my bare fists..." She smooths out her garments, tugging on her top and wiggling in her shorts a little, tails floofing out behind her again.

    "Ah... and... the hip won't re-injure unless it gets blasted again. It's just getting the kinks out from it..." she purses her lips, looking for the right word. "...re-assembling itself. I've never lost such a big chunk of me before, so it's taking some acclimating to the fresh muscle and bone..." she pushes down on that leg again, looking down at it as the muscles tense. "...having a regenerating body is all well and good but people don't tell you how damned painful it is when you're on the mend."

Melinda May has posed:
The probies begin working once more. May watches them impassively, but nods to Cecily. "I can only imagine," she says, giving her a sidelong glance. Of course, her imagination is pretty good. After all... she knows how painful it is for *her* body to regenerate... the regular old human way. It *hurts*!

Nevertheless, she gestures for Cecily to step off the mats while the others start working again. "We need to sharpen your hand-to-hand skills. With your other talents, you could be a formidable melee combatant, and a wise agent diversifies their combat skills if they want to survive longer than a few months in the field." It's possible she might have raised her voice somewhat for the last half of that statement.

Point made wide.

Returning her voice to a more conversational level, she adds, "I'll set up some sessions for you."

Cecily Winters has posed:
    "Oh absolutely, I do appreciate that. A well-rounded agent is a living agent, yes? Just because I can take hits that could kill someone else doesn't mean I really want to..." she idly rubs her hip once again. "Still, I'd rather put myself in front of things like that to keep others safe," Cecily says as she follows the gesture. "If they're a good team and can back each other up, then I'm sure someone that -can- tank some hits would give them an opportunity to cover the gap. Ah but that's me thinking in terms of overlapping fields of fire..." she tsks softly.

    "I'm eager to learn. And not so eager to get ambushed by something wielding a plasma lance... again."

Melinda May has posed:
May gives a mild shrug. "Even in a melee, there's an aspect of overlapping 'field of fire'. We just call it something different. And it's just shorter range." Nevertheless, she *almost* smiles at Cecily. *Almost*. Wouldn't want the mask to crack.

"Go hit the showers, trainee. We'll talk about it next time." In the meantime... she has evaluations to finish.

Poor probies.

Cecily Winters has posed:
    Cecily nods, "Looking forward to our next meeting," she says, smiling warmly. "I could use lunch, too. Let me know if I can grab you something sometime, mm?" she asks, maybe with a hint of playful in her tone and a wink that she might manage to hide from the rest of the crew working out.

    She heads for the lockers, putting a little extra sway in her movements. She's testing out her hip, sure, but there's definitely a little flirt to the way her tails sway and her arms stretch. "Ah... another day and this should be sorted.." she mumbles to herself. She might've also been trying to be a little bit of a distraction to keep the other juniors on their toes.

    Poor probies.