Her dark eyes traced the scars, and her frown deepened. "Are they dead? The ones who did that to you? Someone must have gotten you away."

She realized she was clenching her jaw and stopped, looking away toward one of her twins instead.

"Of course they feel it. So do I. If I can handle it, they can handle it." Of course the pain was muted to some effect. She shared a look with the clone she was going to practice on, not feeling a single shred of guilt over the obvious fear in her eyes. "What better way is there to beat the insecurities out of me than to literally beat them out?

She dropped into a stance she was still practicing, and gestured for the clone to come at her. Might as well get started sooner rather than later. "I'm Elke."

With a visible gulp, the clone did as she was told. She stepped forward with the intention of socking the original in the face. Elke stepped slightly out of the direct path of the hit, got a grasp on her wrist and twisted her arm awkwardly behind the clones back in another quick step. The twin yelped.

When Zaid turned, he was surprised by the expression on Elke's face. She looked genuinely angry by the scars, and his ears dropped slightly as he looked away. "If I know Jude, they are either dead, or they wish they were." That was his only comfort. He hated that it was a comfort. He never felt like a vindictive person, but what that man had done would haunt him for the rest of his life. He could still feel the knife carving his skin, the sensation of helplessness crippling. If Andrea hadn't been there, he wouldn't have kept fighting. That was just a fact.

He didn't argue when she turned to face the clones, studying closely at the move she executed. It seemed simple enough now that he considered it. By stepping toward the attack it forced redirection of the blow. Meanwhile, you could take hold of the arm and counter. Heck, that would have saved him a black eye if he had tried it. He stepped forward, legs shifting balance from one foot to another. "I think I could do that. It actually makes more sense seeing it demonstrated."

"Good." She dropped it at that. She had neither the resources nor physical strength to try and play hero for a bullied mutant, as much as she'd like to. Whoever Jude was seemed to have taken care of it though, so she forced herself to think of other things.

Maybe Eve could help her some new ideas as revenge, later.

Elke turned to stare at his form. It was good, but not the best. She stepped closer so she could slap him into the correct positions. Once she was satisfied, she took up a spot in front of her and dropped back into her own ready stance. "I'm gonna punch you now, so you need to block me if you don't wanna get hit."

She was smaller than him physically and not all that strong yet. He had reach on her, but if she could get in and land one on him it would still smart a bit. Maybe knock the wind out of him slightly. She gave him a moment to prepare, before lurching forward quickly and trying to duck under his guard with her fist aimed at his gut.

Zaid thought he was ready but she took a stance and prepared to hit him. He was already regretting his decision to have her teach him, even before the punch flew toward his stomach. With a twitch, he jumped sideways, trying to catch her punch like she had with the clone. He, kinda, sorta, failed. For one, her punch still brushed the side of his stomach, even if it wasn't a solid hit. For two, trying to grab her hand mostly turned into him making an awkward shove toward the back of her head. If she redirected, he would risk getting his sternum jabbed, which would feel horribly painful and only prove he lacked experience at this.

"Stars, I really don't want to hurt you," he admitted, trying to get himself to stop holding back. If this were a fight, a real fight, they wouldn't stop just because he asked nicely. He returned to his previous stance and waited for her to attack again. This time, he managed to dodge behind her, proving to be fast on his feet even if he was clumsy with his arms.

He very nearly dodged it. She scraped him a little with her knuckles, but not really enough to do any damage. She ducked away from his hand before he could shove her, and aimed for another attack. The bunny was fast though, and got behind her before she could try to punch at him again.

She dropped into a leg sweep instead, trying to knock him off his stupidly fast feet.

"You're doing alright so far, but you need to get serious about hitting back." Maybe she needed to switch with one of her clones? Would that get him to not pull his punches?

"Don't think of me as a kid. Think of me as an attacker with a knife, who will definitely stab you if you let me get in close enough. I'll add more scars to the pile you already have!" Was it a low blow? Probably. Did she care? Not in the slightest. Maybe pissing him off would get him to actually fight back instead of dancing around.

Elke was small, but she was aggressive. The leg sweep came as a surprise and it knocked him flat onto his fluffy backside. Despite what people thought, having a bunny tail was not a way to soften the landing. Bones were still bones, and that HURT. He bit his lip to stop from cussing and quickly rolled back to his feet. He had his legs bent, feeling momentarily like a kangaroo as he dodged sideways and used an elbow to deflect her next punch.

She was insulting him again, each word more painful than the physical attack of her fists. Emotions twisted in his stomach, rage and pain becoming indistinguishable. With a glare he coiled his legs and made several quick dodges using his thin frame to his advantage. Yes, she was right, he liked to run from his problems. If nothing else, that made him fast, right? Fast enough to get her to shut up.

He dove behind her, using the roll of the momentum to spin his leg out, and kicked her in the butt. Maybe he was a jerk for kicking a kid, but he was feeling pretty sick of her attitude at this point, and it was either cry, or kick back. This time the later won over.

He surprised her. She'd managed to knock him off his feet, but he was back up and dodging her again pretty quick.

A smirk formed, which did nothing to make her any less aggressive.

He caught her off guard again with a speedy dive, and she didn't have time to get herself out of the way before his foot booted her forward. He threw herself into the fall though, tucking and rolling and ending up on her feet again. The kid spun around with a laugh and clapped. "Closer!" She didn't dive headlong into it again though. she moved onto the next thing.

"What if someone grabs you, though?" Her twin joined her, unbidden. Elke threw her arm around the clones neck loosely in a grip. "Make sure you turn so your neck isn't pinched in their arm, or you're a goner before you can even fight back. Then, punch them directly in nuts, or ribs if they don't got any nuts." She had the clone demonstrate, awkwardly, wincing slightly when the clone punched her in the chest a bit to roughly.

"You can also go for the eyes if you have reach, or try and pull their head back to get them to let go."

Again, this was demonstrated somewhat gently for him to see.

Zaid was surprised when he made contact with the kid. She took the hit like a champ though and rolled back to her feet. This made him feel less guilty and more focused on what he was learning. Obviously, speed was his advantage. But if he got stuck in a hold like she was demonstrating, that was another issue entirely.

"I...don't know how you think we're going to test that one. If you tried to put me in a headlock you're either pretending to be a spider monkey or I'm sitting, neither of which are exactly logical fight situations," he watched the exchange of hits, still taking it serious. Heck, kicking someone was the one thing he was good at. The rest, well, that would take some work.

"Okay, so what do you do when the person is a lot bigger than you, and picks you up like this?" He demonstrated by catching the nearest clone by the back of the shirt and lifting them right off their feet. He tried not to admit a larger mutant had done that to him, because it looked as comically ridiculous as he had imagined.

"That one's a watch and learn kinda thing for us right now." She agreed that it would be a bit to hard to work out some of the things with their size difference.

The Native watched as he snagged one of her twins by the back of the shirt. The girl was gave a little indignant squawk as she was lifted off her feet. Almost as soon as she recovered from her surprise, she reached up and back and grabbed the hand that had a hold on her. She was going to attempt to grab and crank his pinky back enough that he was forced to drop her.

If that didn't work plan two was to use her grip on him to pull her legs up and twist, aiming the toe of her shoe at his throat.

"I'd say that one is plating dirty, and so you play dirty back. Do whatever you need to, to cause as much pain as you can. Break a pinky. Put out an eye."

Zaid knew he was asking for trouble by picking up the kid, but he didn’t want to learn this down the road when he was the one being targeted. He watched as the kid made a grab for his hand, prepared to bend fingers and possibly cause injury. Actually, considering this was one of the clones, he was fairly certain she would cause injury.

He quickly tried to catch her wrist before she could get a solid grip on his pinky, but then she was twisting like a spider monkey and legs were coming much too close to things he valued. With a muffled yelp, he half dropped, half threw the clone away. The point was made, even if it got a little close for comfort.

”I guess in your case you just hit them in the face with spray paint if they come after you?” he glanced at the cans again, still disliking how strong the smell was. Heck, spray paint to the eyes would have been a fast move if he needed one. Alternatively, pepper spray. ”They...they have these collars too, and and once they’re on someone, it stops them from using their powers. My...they used one on the other mutant I was with. She had much stronger powers. I don’t know where things like that fit into your self-defense plan. I’m not telling you because I think you can teach me anything just...so you know. If you’re really out there on the streets, it’s getting more dangerous.” he warned.[/i]

The clone didn't catch herself as elegantly as the original did. She stumbled and rolled awkwardly with a yelp and a few colorful cusswords.

Elke smiked a little at the notion that she could use the spray paint on an attacker. She supposed it would work pretty well as a deterrent and made a mental note to try it out some time just to see. Probably wasn’t any better or worse than pepper spray.

Her lips fell into a deep frown, however, when he mentioned collars. Something that could stop a mutant from using their power. Considering some mutants couldn’t turn their powers off the idea wasn’t particularly nice. Seemed pretty monstrous in fact. An idea born from a nightmare.

It was cruel…. And the fact that such a thing apparently existed only for mutants stoked the fire of her anger toward those responsible for it. Humans, she was sure.

”I… didn’t know about that. Thanks for the warning.” She seemed distracted as she mulled that over. She would have to speak to Eve about it if things of that nature were becoming more prevalent on the streets.

For now though, she returned to the subject at hand with a physical shrug to get her mind off of it. ”Wanna hear where best to poke, jab, or stab a person to hurt them the worst? Or, oh, how about what to break and how? Fingers are pretty easy, i’ll show you-”

She jumped into a rant excitedly, using a clone as a demonstration prop… though she thankfully wasn’t actually going to break any fingers. She was very graphic in her descriptions though, and seemed to be really into sharing everything she knew with someone other than herself.

“-and that’s how you can dislocate a shoulder pretty easy. Cool, aint it?” The kid propper her hands on her hips in a pleased manner. She looked pretty happy with herself in that moment.

”Any questions?”

One of her clones shot an arm into the air immediately. ”When are we gonna eat? I’m still huuuunnnngry!”

Zaid watched politely as the kid demonstrated a lot of ways you could hurt someone. Honestly, he felt a little queasy after her demonstration. Was it really that easy to break someone’s bone? He wasted his time biting before, when he could have seriously done damage if that was all it took. He hoped he never needed to test what he was learning but was still pretty confident at least some of this could be used in a bad situation.

Before he could comment, the clones started complaining about food. Zaid felt his own stomach give a little rumble in reply. ”I was looking for something to eat, before this...I can cook extra if you want? As, you know, a thank you?” he was willing to disregard the fact they tried to attack him first. They had formed a civil relationship since then.

He knew the kitchens were extremely well stocked. Heck, if he hadn’t been avoiding people here he may have had fun with it. But it only took one kid making a grab at your tail for you to nope to safety. That wasn’t even counting how it felt if he happened to bump into the adapted in this place, and have his ears go floppy again. At least she kept to herself, for the most part.

As much as she wanted to punch the clone who had mentioned it, it brought food back up and Zaid was even offering them food. She'd threatened to stap him at one point and he was still willing to feed her. He was still too nice. They'd have to work on that more.

But, for now, food was a priority. As much as she wanted to argue about it she hadn't eaten for at least a full day. The kitchen had been packed with students when they had first snuck back in.

"Yeah, I guess food is the next most important thing." She grumbled, patting her rumbling stomach. "Can't get any stronger if the body doesn't have what it needs to keep going."

She nodded at the bunny, "It's a deal, then."

She didn't say thank you. It was a fair trade, after all. She'd taught him stuff, he'd cook for her. Even stevens.

Heading to the door, she and her clones, all peeked out at the same time. Peering around the doorframe in a totem position with one head above the next, above the next. It was obvious they were checking to see if the coast was clear.

Once the check was done, the original made a little hand motion and all three slunk out of the room into the hallway.

They didn't want to run into anymore lingering adults tonight

Zaid let the girl and her clones conduct their check, following behind without as much nervous energy. His ears and nose had already verified they were alone, but he wasn't going to stop them. He was feeling rather tired, and had done his part by offering to cook. She thought he was too nice, he felt like he wasn't being nice enough.

At the kitchen he nosed through the refreshed fridge and considered what there was to make. "Looks like we can do pasta, ravioli, pancakes, waffles...Um, I think there is ingredients for other baked goods but that would take more time. There are some sandwich meats, grilled cheese..." He was an experienced chef by offering plenty of different possibilities and narrowing down based on what his companions seemed to want. Actually, he seemed to be cooking for people a lot lately, but that was one of the few things that made him relax. If he had to cook for everyone in the mansion to keep his heart from racing like a hamster on a wheel, he would at this point.

The three girls plopped themselves in the closest chairs, and all stared at Zaid as he dug about. As he listed off possible options, the two clones got progressively more and more excited. The only one who wasn't drooling at the ideas, and bouncing around on her chair with wide eyes was the original, who was sat with her arms crossed and looking rather nonplussed about the whole ordeal.

They could have just stolen more junk food from the cupboards like they had last time. Home cooked anything just made her feel weird and angry to a degree.

"Everything! Lets have everything!" Shouted one clones, flailing her arms in the air like a lunatic.

The other had everything but her legs on the whole counter top in front of them. "Yeah! Everything! It'll be just like when the family used too-"

Elke grabbed one of the girls ankles and physically yanked hr off of the counter. The clone hit the lip of the counter with her face on the way down, bent awkwardly over her chair backwards, and then landed in a painful looking slump out of site.

Elke re-took her seat without a word, and speared the other clone with a dangerous look, which the girl hunched away from like a physical blow.

She wasn't a fan of talking about family in any capacity. "Just make whatever you want and we'll eat it. We ain't picky."

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