Noble Phantasm (H,A)

After lunch Ava had been approached by Hazel, who asked if they could go down to the athletic complex together. Ava had wanted to stay for Stella’s cooking since she normally made bigger portions than she intended to, but Hazel had asked to call in the favor from last night. She’d promised that she wouldn’t regret it and so the two most athletic members of the harem descended down to the athletic complex for whatever it was.

“What are we doing down here?” Ava asked.

“I wanted to train with you. Mr.Turner had some suggestions I thought we could try.”

“What kind of training? What I usually run through with him might be a bit too mild for you, but if you needed someone to spot you I could probably do that pretty easily.”

The elevator beeped as they reached sublevel six. “Not that sort of training, I do well enough on my own.”

“Then what kind? I’ve never been down on this floor. Isn’t this where that gun range is?”

“Yes, but I actually brought us down here to spar. After seeing how you were able to mimic me last night I thought we both might enjoy seeing what the other can do. Have you taken any martial arts or self-defense classes before?”

Ava shook her head. “I always thought it’d be cool to do, but the beginner karate classes were always aimed at kids.”

“What about basic self-defense? That’s meant for adults, did you take anything like that?”

“No. I was always too busy in college.” Both women let the lie stand as they walked down the hall, now passing the gun range that had been mentioned a moment ago. “Besides, I don’t really need something like that.”

“Why not?” Hazel had stopped leading them down the hall.

“I mean…” The athlete proudly flexed her arms. As her biceps bulged she grinned, smiling as she tried to show the bodyguard that she could protect herself already. “Who’d want to mess with me?”

The Indian woman raised an eyebrow before making a show of closing her fist. “Pretend I’m holding a knife.”

“Why?”

Hazel’s arm whirled out in a flash, stopping just before reaching Ava’s neck. She gently tapped with her thumb, then lowered her arm back down. “Why didn’t you stop me?”

“I mean, I got surprised! It’s not like it was a real knife.”

“Do you know what you would’ve done if it was real?” The silence satisfied her, and she went back to her march down the hall. “We’re almost there.”

They came into the room, the middle of which was occupied by a circle painted on the wooden floor.

“What- what is this?” Ava asked, stunned.

The walls were lined with weapons, though none the sort that she’d have expected Hazel to train with. Swords and daggers were the most mundane ones she could find as she looked around, finding halberds, scythes, staffs, and all sorts of armaments hanging from the walls.

They were all recognizable weapons too. Immediately across from the door had been Queen Arthur’s sword from the Destiny:Stay Day anime. They were all famous and fictional. At first she thought they’d all been from different anime until she spotted a lion-pommeled sword from Game of Crowns.

“I paid Genet a point for her to remodel the room for me. They’re all magic, they look and act like metal so you can feel the proper weight, but they should feel like foam so we don’t walk away with a dozen bruises each.”

“You spent BP on this? Even one is… a lot.”

“I keep getting more without trying.” Hazel admitted. “Would you like to choose something so we can get started?”

“Uh- sure. One issue though.”

“Yes?”

“How useful do you expect learning a sword or a sniper-scythe would be if I actually needed to defend myself?”

“That’s true, to a point. Pretty much any of these would attract too much attention as a primary weapon. That’s why I normally don’t carry more than my gun and baton outside of specific assignments. But learning any fighting style comes with an awareness of your surroundings and an improvement in one's ability to read people. It’d work just as well if I asked you to wrestle with me or we used wooden staves, but I thought you might enjoy this version better. Go ahead and choose something off the wall while I change clothes, you probably know most of these better than I do.”

Ava looked around to decide what she wanted. There might’ve been a hundred options. She tried finding Wonder Woman’s lasso, but it wasn’t there. The only comic book representation at all was Colonel America’s shield, and that acted more magicky in the comics than even the sniper-scythe she’d pointed out earlier. Swords are usually the starting weapon, right? She plucked Queen Arthur’s sword off the wall and waited.

Hazel was came back and picked a simple wooden staff. The veteran directed her to stand on one part of the circle across from her. “Do you know how to hold that?”

“Yeah, I’ve got that at least.” Ava confidently mimicked Zelda.

“Good. I want you to try taking a swing at me. I’ll be trying to counterattack, so make sure you keep in mind that this is just a workout so Genet’s pacifism magic doesn’t kick in.”

Ava nodded, holding the sword in both hands as she advanced. She could see her opponent adjusting the staff, moving her grip. She made a sideways slash towards Hazel, not sure how much strength was fair to use.

Hazel quickly moved both hands to opposite sides of the staff, twisting to block the blow against the middle of her staff. The shoved the blade back before twisting again and jutting out with the butt of the staff and tapping it against Ava’s abs.

“Would you like to take a couple steps back and try again, Ava?”

She nodded, backing up to the middle of the circle to reorient herself. I had too much windup. She stepped forward again and thrust quickly towards Hazel’s chest.

The bodyguard sidestepped as if she’d been waiting for the blow, knocking her staff against the flat of the blade as if passed her as if punishing it for daring to come near. Then she let it drop low as she lit it thwap gently against Ava’s shin.

“I’ve told you I’ll be trying to counterattack. When you try again, try to figure out how before you go.” Hazel then calmly stepped away from her, letting them trade places across from each other in the circle.

Ava tried to think. She blocked my swing then stabbed, then she dodged my stab then swung. Does that mean anything? She swallowed her breath as she approached again.

The athlete swung sideways like she had before and let Hazel block it. She jumped out of the way as the staff twisted and poked out again.

“Good -unh!” Hazel cut herself off as she suddenly pivoted to block the sword swing that’d come back again harder. “Good job.” Then she twisted again to poke Ava in the shoulder. “You saw me coming that time.”

“Just the first time, and it didn’t help much. You still got me.”

“I was planning ahead.” Hazel pointed out. “Do you dance, Ava?”

“No.”

“Do you play chess?”

“I can, Felicia asks me to play with her sometimes. It’s kind of boring though, since the rules are the same every time.”

That’s another thing to keep Ms.Turner from hearing. Hazel decided, struggling to come up with another thing they could have in common. “You’re familiar with the need to think as many moves ahead as possible when playing chess?”

“Yeah, most strategy games have that.”

“Any fight between people close enough in skill is the same way. You need to predict what your opponents will do in response to your actions, and if possible **** their responses in a direction that benefits you.” Hazel made a wide one-handed swing with her staff that Ava easily blocked, stretching with one arm to meet the lesser weapon with her sword long before it reached her. Then the bodyguard darted forward to poke her opponent in the shoulder with two fingers. “Letting your sword be that far away from you leaves you exposed.” Then she moved again to take the opposite side of the circle.

“So what do I do instead?” Ava asked.

“Keep it closer to you, it’ll be easier to quickly switch between attacking and defending. The smaller movements will also help you keep your stamina up in case you’re not given time to rest. That can be crit-”

“I don’t really need to rest.” Ava interrupted to point out.

“I’m sorry?”

“Energizer, one of the TFs I got in round one? It prevents me from getting tired from exercise.

“Oh.” Hazel was too excited at what that meant to really mind being interrupted, mentally throwing out half of the advice she’d been planning to give. “So you could go at the same speed and intensity for hours?”

“Yeah. It hasn’t really helped though.”

If I’d had that, I might’ve outlasted Ata in the challenge… “Have you experimented with how fast you can move since the transformation?”

“Other than carrying Felicia during the challenge, not really.”

Hazel moved to the center of the circle. “I’m going to give less focus to counterattacking, you should see how hard and fast you can maintain an offensive. Do what you can to break my guard or **** me out of the circle, swing as hard and as fast as you can.” The bodyguard braced, waiting for Ava’s next move.

“You’re sure?”

“Go ahead, Ava. I can take it.”

“If I go as hard as I can I’d probably activate Roid Rage. I don’t think any of Maeve’s TFs would be super useful right now.”

“Maybe, but that’s all the more reason to let it trigger. We’ll have these transformations for the rest of our lives. I would imagine that neither of us are going to become less active, so we should test them as much as we can before we have to worry about being in public.”

Ava nodded. “If you’re sure.” Then she swung experimentally with as much **** as she felt comfortable with.

Hazel moved to block it with the middle of her staff. She grunted with the effort but held firm, pushing up to redirect the momentum. “Good. Try harder.”

Ava tried again, swinging quickly once, twice, then followed it up with another thrust. Hazel managed to deflect the first two, then sidestepped the third blow.

Ava tried battering away, swinging again and again as she shifted her grip to attack from all angles. Each blow managed to be met and nullified, though it was clearly taking some effort now. She tried speeding up, but it still required enough of a windup that Hazel had a chance to reset her stance and read what was coming.

“Swing less, sweep more.” Hazel suggested. “It’ll reduce some of your power, but being able to attack faster should make up for it. You’re almost as strong as I am, so you should be able to recover some of your **** once you Rage.”

“I’m pretty sure I’m stronger.” Ava pointed out as she paused for a moment, then swung with both hands with all her natural might.

“We’ll see.” Hazel grunted again as she blocked. “This is a better workout than I’ve had in a while, I should’ve invited you to this before the challenge.” She dodged and sidestepped more as the sweeps and bounces of Ava’s sword against her staff became harder to predict.

“Anything else I should try to do?”

“Just because you don’t need to play defense doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try to think about your strategy. Either do something that forces me to block in a way I can’t sustain, or if you’re going to let me keep dodging then figure out where you want to drive me.”

Ava nodded as she grit her teeth. She resolved to start leading the veteran backwards and to her own right, trying to follow the strategy game advice she’d been given earlier. Keep taking my easy way out. She thought to herself, as she offered a series of vertical chops and diagonal sweeps that could all be dodged by moving in the same direction.

She reached the edge of the circle with Hazel, and her opponent dove forwards. Ava took several steps away out of surprise. But all the movement she’d managed to accomplish was lost.

“Good job, though you’re still not trying as hard as Ata did when she copied you.”

“You’re sure you can handle it?”

“I suppose a breather could be useful before you try,” Hazel conceded. She sat down on the floor and let the staff rest in her lap. Ava paused before deciding to join her.

“What did you major in?” Hazel asked.

“Kinesiology, with a minor in bio. That’s actually how Felicia and I met, she was a TA for one of my classes.” They’d worked on the story years ago.

“I see.” I wonder why she doesn’t want to tell the truth. “So you went to Georgetown then?”

“Yep. How about you?”

“American and Japanese history at UCLA. The Air **** was paying for it, so I accepted what they wanted.”

“They picked what you studied? Would you have done something else on your own?”

“Honestly, I don’t think I would’ve gone to college if it wasn’t for my CO urging me to.” Hazel waited to see if Ava was going to say something.

The Japanese woman opened her mouth, then closed it without saying anything. They both waited, then she spoke again. “Can we get back to sparring?”

“As you wish, Miss Soto.”

“And you’re sure you want me to try using Rage against you?”

“As I’ve said, there’s no better place to test it than when we’re still here.” Hazel stood, taking a defensive stance again.

Ava tried to feel the weight of the sword. Every other time she’d activated the transformation, intentionally or not, she’d needed to go beyond her limits. Taking a deep breath, she swung it over her head like she was chopping wood. Hazel lifted her weapon up horizontally to block like she’d already done at least a dozen times. The staff made a sickening crack as the steel sheared through it and continued down with all the momentum of a wrecking ball-

-Where it thumped harmlessly against her shoulder.

Ava felt a dull sensation behind her eyes that faded quickly.

"Shit. I'm so sorry!"

“It's alright, I was asking you to give me everything you had. I did ask Genet to make it behave like wood, so this was inevitable.” Hazel assured her. The two pieces had been reduced to splinters in her futile attempt to block the enhanced strike.

“I see that at the very least, you didn’t receive Maeve’s physical transformation. May I ask how you’re feeling?” She moved within reach of her sparring partner.

“I… think I’m fine?” Ava said. “I’m not groping you, right?”

“No, you are not. But there are two others that we should watch for, though we don’t know what they do.” Hazel discarded the two broken pieces of the staff she’d been using. “Can we try something else, where I take a turn on offense this time?”

“Sure.” Ava looked at her sword, then some of the other weapons on the wall. “Oh, if you’re looking for something like the staff, you should go with Partizan’s Spear. It’s from Destiny:Stay Day just like my sword, its user was kind of the rival of Queen Arthur in the anime. Technically she had a lot of rivals, but he was the cool one.”

Hazel found where she was pointing and pulled it down from the wall. It was incredibly long and thin, nearly two feet longer than she was tall. It was ruby red, with vein-like ridges along the polearm to make finding a grip easier. As Hazel tried to acclimate herself to the new weapon, Ava took her place in the middle of the practice ring.

“I want you to do what you can to stop me. If you think you can deflect, go ahead. If you think dodging would be easier, try that. Ready?”

Ava nodded, gripping her sword in both hands again. Four thrusts came. Both of her attempts at dodging failed, though she just barely managed to deflect the two she tried. The next four thrusts that came she tried deflecting them all, but only managed the first.

“If you’re struggling, try to focus on me. Pay attention to where my forearm and wrist are moving, on a straightforward weapon like this it can be better than trying to predict just by watching the spear itself.”

“I’ll try that,” Ava said. Then she thought of something else. Curious, she asked: “Do you deal with spears a lot working for Dick’s sister?”

“No, but they largely work from the same principles as javelins.” Hazel explained.

“Oh. That makes sense. Wait, do you deal with javelins a lot?” Ava’s follow up question came quickly.

“I once did. Is there anything else?”

“What kind of experience- wait, you were telling me to move on, weren’t you?”

“I was. Is there anything else?”

“No.”

Hazel smiled, backing up a step to give Ava more time to prepare. She prepared to strike again, and just before repeated to Ava: “Focus on my hands, they’ll signal my intent.”

Ava took a deep breath as Hazel pulled back her arm to strike. Focus. She tried to tell herself, staring at her new friend’s hands.

She saw those hands tying someone to a bed. She didn't know where they were, but as the scene went on her vision panned down on its own and showed Dick’s sister.

Hazel leaned back to admire her handiwork before-

The vision was interrupted by three pokes to her abs.

“Is everything alright? We can stop if you need.” Hazel offered.

Ava shook her head. “I’m fine, go again.” What was that?

The veteran nodded, taking another step back.

Ava tried to concentrate on Hazel’s hands again.

They were grasping onto Dick’s bare hips as she was sucking on him in the Master bedroom. His hands were on her scalp as her head bobbed on his shaft. His sister Hel was sitting on the bed smirking as she whispered encouragement to the both of them.

Ava’s vision was this time interrupted with cautious words. “Miss Soto, are you sure everything is fine? Your eyes are glowing.”

“I- yeah, at this point something weird’s going on.” The ingenue began to explain everything she’d experienced since cutting the staff in graphic detail. From the feeling she’d first felt in her eyes to everything she could remember of both visions.

By the time she was finished, Hazel had a slight blush. Without speaking, the Turner’s assistant collected both the spear and the sword and hung them back up on the wall of the training room in an attempt to keep busy and provide any sort of distraction. When she’d run out of things to clean she stood there letting Ava speak until every possible detail had been dredged up.

“I see. I suppose that an inability to look at me would certainly make continuing difficult. Perhaps we should stop for now so you can concentrate on trying to learn control over the current transformation. You may try to practice on me further if it would help, though perhaps… you do not need to inform me what you see. Is that acceptable, Miss Soto?” Hazel moved to the doorway, bidding Ava to follow. The athlete did so, and the two went back into the hall and began walking towards the elevators.

“Can I ask you something? It’s kind of about both last night and what I saw a few minutes ago. I’m getting a sense that you might be uncomfortable but I don’t know if I’m misreading things or if it’s the voice in my head telling me to stop that's wrong.”

“I will not stop you from asking.”

“So, devotion is a big thing for you, right?” Ava asked. “It kind of felt like a theme, and when you let me Rage into you last night I was getting the sense of how important it should be.”

Hazel considered the question. “I take pride in it, yes. I enjoy understanding my place in the world.”

“And that’s-” Ava felt a suggestion guiding her to be more careful with her phrasing. “That’s exciting for you? Is that true for most people?”

“Yes and no, I believe. My excitement, if I understand your euphemism, over being of service is decidedly not universal. But a situation in which one feels that they are in their proper place is what most people seek. Does that answer your question?” At the pace that Hazel had been hurrying them both along, they already reached the elevator that she pressed the button to call down.

“Yeah, I think that helps. Thank you for bringing me down here. It’d be cool if we can do something like that again.”

“Maybe we can find more time for it in the future,” Hazel tentatively agreed. “Though for now, I’m looking forward to speaking with Ms.Turner.”

***

Note from the author:
Sorry I missed last week, I was working on a side project and couldn't manage both of them in time.
Hope it was worth the wait!