"But since it seems that I have to threaten, beat or break you to tell me the truth..I think it was warranted.” Okay, he might be on to something there. “Hunter is too careful about and with you.” Calley gave a surprised snort. “It's obvious he's hiding things. Which in turn makes me think you're hiding things, which you ARE." The urge to stick out his tongue and make a face was overwhelming. In a great act of self-restraint and intelligence, he managed to contain himself. Just.

"Have you heard the term, School of Hard Knocks?" Kaz looked at Calley. Calley looked back at Kaz, deadpan style. "...It toughens you up, probably not physically but mentally."

A “Ha!” escaped from Calley’s mouth before he could clamp his jaw shut. It wasn’t a happy noise. He wasn’t so sure about Kaz’ point, there. Physically speaking, he was in the worst condition of his life. Mentally speaking, he was quite literally insane. And even setting those aside, he was actively plotting murder. Though by all accounts, Kaz would approve of that last one. Calley, personally, couldn’t help but think that his idea of ‘toughened up’ was different than Kaz’. They seemed to be having quite a few of these fundamental differences.

He caught the weights when they were thrown at him. "Put those on. You're way too scrawny for your own good."

Pfft. We’ve got muscle—it’s fat that’s in short supply.

Additional muscle would not harm us.

Ack. Using extra energy to lug these things around might, though. I’m getting tired again. And hungry. When did we eat last?

Before consulting with Kaz.

...Ah. Right. Umm, is he striking a pose?

A neutral pose, I believe.

"Now that I've got a bit of an idea of what you can do. I want you to attack me, without using your powers. I'll be stopping and giving you tips or correcting you from time to time."

So we just, what? Try to punch his lights out?

I would prefer to knee him in the crotch.

Slate!

...It would be satisfying to see our attacks having a pronounced effect.

Can’t argue there, I guess. So. Umm... Well, this is awkward. How, exactly, does one go about planning an attack on...?

Covertly.

...Uh-huh. Maybe we should hold that as ‘Plan B’.

His internal dialogue was complete—as complete as it ever got—and he was done strapping on Kaz’ lovely energy-draining weights. Yep. So. Calley didn’t have any fancy-pants stance. And he felt exceedingly stupid, trying to attack a man who could move faster than his own eyesight could follow, if he wanted to. With a shrug for his own benefit, he started circling Kaz, much the way Slate had done in their tiger form. He yawned.

You know what we need?

A gun.

...Umm, I was going to go with ‘a nap’, but... wow, Slate. You feeling okay?

Slightly aggravated. It is actually quite an intriguing feeling.

...Well all right, then. You... feel that.

Calley’s yawn finished. He was just beginning to get behind Kaz’ left side. A second yawn was trying to follow the first. Cracking his jaw, he casually dropped to the ground, and tried to swipe Kaz’ feet out from under him. Wouldn’t work, but meh.

Calley seemed to take his sweet time putting the weights on while Kaz stood waiting. Beyond wasting Kaz's time, Calley seemed to be inside of his self, <Probably thinking of what to do.> Kaz got the feeling Calley hadn't been in many fights, so it was natural to be uncertain. "Don't think about what you want to do, it takes to long and distracts you."

Calley finally started moving, even though he was yawning, which annoyed Kaz. <At least take this seriously.> Following Calley with his eyes he saw the boy drop and knew from his movements what he was planning. Kaz shifted his weight and adjusted his stance just a bit and took the hit in the foot. Too low to actually work. Kneeling down he grabbed Calley's foot and moved it up until it was at the level of Kaz's Achilles Tendon. "That was too low, especially if the person isn't off balance already. Strike here with a sweep. Your aim should be to hit the Achilles tendon. Hit that hard enough and correctly, it'll be extremely hard for anyone to stay standing." Pulling Calley's leg a bit, he lined up Calley's shin with his tendon. "Don't strike with the foot." Standing, Kaz pivoted and took his original stance once again.

There was surprisingly little pain involved with Kaz’ correction. Calley had held himself still, simply watching the man’s grip on his foot warily. If there was one thing he’d learned from ‘working’ with Hunter, it was that shifting was a very good way to break someone’s grip. Kaz, oddly enough, let him go with just the explanation of what to do better. Well, okay. No complaints: he just gave a little nod of understanding. It would be interesting to see how long it took for the guy to revert back to breaking him, but this was cool for now.

A little bemused, Calley stood back up, and promptly slugged at Kaz’ face. Again, he didn’t expect it to hit. But he’d been wanting to do that for months.

The punch was sloppy, but he could see the slight smile on Calley's face, which was a good thing. He caught Calley's fist. "A few things. One," Kaz tapped on Calley's elbow before putting pressure on it, "Never fully extend your arm. Your opponent could easily break your elbow. Two, never fully clench your fist until you're just about to hit. I can't give you the technicalities of it, but it's just a harder punch if you tense and clench the instant before you impact. Three," Kaz stepped inside Calley's reach and brought his hand up to push Calley's arm out wide. "Dodging is fine if all you want to do is get away. You'll tire out eventually. Instead step inside, open the defense up, and strike."

"Just pushing the arm out is purely defensive. You can instead block as I showed you while striking with your other hand." Kaz placed his fist right next to Calley's throat. "You'd be aiming for the throat. Both the block and strike must be done at the same time. You can also," Kaz grabbed Calley's wrist with his blocking hand, and brought his other hand down on Calley's upper arm before quickly moving it to his head. "Disorient the target, or if you have a knife in your hand, kill them quick."

Kaz stepped back a bit before showing his next tip. "This is difficult to pull off, even for experienced fighters. You have to time it just right as well as step correctly." Kaz held onto Calley's arm, stepped in while pivoting in towards Calley to put his back to the boy, clasping his other hand onto the same arm of Calley's, lifted his back leg between Calley's, bent over slightly while raising his leg more and pulling on Calley's arm, flipped the boy over his back. Kaz guided Calley's fall so he landed with a soft thud. "That requires little strength, but does require speed, positioning and timing." Kaz lifted Calley back to his feet.

"I think I forgot to ask you, are you right or left handed?"

Calley’s back slapped the ground. He blinked upwards at Kaz, and said one word: “Cool.” That arm-swinging-out thing, and don’t-fully-extend thing, and the other things: very cool. He’d never heard any of this before. He was grinning as Kaz got him back on his feet. And the flip thing didn’t really qualify as ‘breaking him’, so Kaz was still playing nice, even.

"I think I forgot to ask you, are you right or left handed?"

He blinked. “Umm, a little of both, actually. Mostly right. Left is getting better, though.”

It’s almost legible.

Hmph.

“Oh: question!” His hand shot into the air like a kindergartener’s after snack time. “What do I do if I’m facing off against someone like you? I mean, someone with super-speed or strength or senses or some alarmingly charming combination of those? I’m just at human levels for all of those, but a lot of mutants are,” he pointed at Kaz, “you-ish. Without the tail, though, I guess. And the elf ears. Not to insult the elf ears. Or the tail. Or the you.”

Kaz nodded as Calley answered a question. Just as he was going to say something, Calley popped a question of his own. "Hmm..well. From what I understand and have noticed myself. Those who are quite speedy, generally don't have much physical strength and don't take a hit as well as others. So either you need to be able to take the hits or be able to predict their movements and attacks. That comes with experience. Conversely, those who are very strong are usually fairly slow but can take and give poundings well. So being evasive and striking when you create an opening by dodging is the best way to go. If someone has enhanced senses, that's..up in the air. Even if they can see or hear you coming, if they don't have the physical ability or training to react in time, it means nothing."

Kaz scratched his head a bit. "If they have a combination or all of those qualities, like I did at one time, in one package...You need to be experienced to predict their attacks, react in time to avoid the attacks before they get to you and most importantly, have an ace up your sleeve. They'll usually be stronger in one area than another or they'll have a weakness or tendencies that you can exploit to your advantage. So you either need to have pre-knowledge of them, or be able to analyze them quickly and proficiently. If you can't or don't have time or the ability to do that, ranged combat is the best way to go." Kaz looked at Calley with a serious look. "Why? You have someone specific in mind?"

The forecast for fighting Hunter: ominous. Calley didn’t have experience, and Hunter knew all his aces. He didn’t know Hunter’s weaknesses, and he hadn’t figured any out through, ah, close observation. And his mutation didn’t exactly lend itself to ranged combat.

A gun is a ranged weapon.

Even if that worked, do you know how anticlimactic shooting Hunter would be? Not to mention messy.

"Why? You have someone specific in mind?"

Calley squiggled under Kaz’ gaze. “Mostly just thinking of all the really violent bully-types I know. They have some pretty not-good-for-me power combos, generally speaking.” He gave an unconcerned shrug, for good measure.

“Mostly just thinking of all the really violent bully-types I know....." Kaz looked at Calley, unconvinced. "You put me into that category as well don't'cha." Kaz didn't ask the question, but made it a statement. Before he let Calley respond, Kaz moved to Calley's side quickly, bringing his arm across aiming for the chest, while his foot came forward from behind Calley's. The movement would make the boy fall on his back, which was exactly what Kaz wanted. He had just remembered something that might help Calley: How to fall properly. He needed to see how he reacted when he fell on his back before he would teach the lesson.

"You put me into that category as well don't'cha." It was a statement. It wasn’t a statement Calley was about to argue. What he was about to do was give a shrug, when quite unexpectedly, he found himself on his back. Again. Following up on that last statement, this sudden random return to unexplained violence wasn’t too, err, non-bully-like. Calley landed like a spindly ball of rigid wire. If, ah, wire could experience flash fears.

He blinked up at Kaz. “Umm, yeah, actually. You’re definitely in that category.” He let the fact he was speaking from the floor explain why.

Kaz smiled at Calley as he knelt down. "Good. So what did you learn from falling like that?" He could easily just say it but this was more fun. See if Calley had the brains to figure things out for himself instead of being told.

Calley let himself relax against the floor, quite easily. “Well, let’s see. What I learned, what I learned.” He crossed his arms over his chest—which was sort of awkward, with the weights and all—and tapped at his chin with one finger. “Well, mostly, that you like to randomly toss me around sometimes. But I sort of knew that one. Also, that you tend to think your actions have a point, and you expect others to agree with this view.” He cracked another yawn, and politely covered his mouth with his hand. Now that he was down here... the floor really was quite comfortable. And the action that had landed him here really hadn’t hurt much at all. Then again, Calley’s idea of pain was a little skewed to extremes.

Kaz sighed and knocked on Calley's forehead. "Idiot. You should have observed that by pushing you backwards, I took you off your center of gravity, making you unstable. Then by taking you foot from under you, along with having little balance at the time, you fell. If you remember when you tried to trip me, I was still fully balanced so it didn't work. The other thing is, you suck at taking a fall." Kaz stood up and offered Calley his hand. "There's more to fighting than how to throw a punch. How to fall and recover is a must."

...That knock to the forehead was alarmingly older-brother like. Calley had to admit to being entirely confused, by this point. If this had been Hunter, those little comments of his would have landed him in immense pain by now. Not to say that he liked immense pain, but at least it was predictable. He understood the logic behind it: make a smartass comment, receive Hunter’s choice method of punishment for the day. Kaz was disorientingly inconsistent. He accepted the man’s hand to get back up, while his brain turned over and over, trying to figure out the pattern here. Back when they’d first met, sitting quietly had gotten him violently picked up, and a smartass comment had gotten him lovely threats. Here and now, smartass comments got him brotherly pseudo-affection and a hand back up, and/or a fancy shove to his back, and/or whatever Kaz felt like doing. Calley really didn’t like that ‘whatever Kaz felt like doing’ clause. He would much prefer some stability to the random shoving and wall-tossing and thrown elbows. The lack of stability was probably going to lead to him doing something stupid, like continuing to try and find the man’s triggers.

“Falling?” He finally said, a little weakly. “Great. Falling. That’s what the Boss Man was trying to teach me, that one time. So, falling. Is that going to involve you and pushing and centers of gravity, or just... me, and the falling?”

"Hmm..." Kaz scratched his head a bit at Calley's question and his tone. "You have a problem with falling? I could make you fall again and again until you don't have a problem with it." He paused for a second, "Oh wait, that IS what I'm going to have you do." Kaz chuckled a bit. "It'll involve both actually. I'll be making you fall and in your free spare time, you'll practice it, and other things on your own. At least you will be if you're going to take this seriously....If you're not, then you'll have wasted my time. And I wont like or appreciate that."

Kaz stood next to Calley and took a neutral stance with hands at his side. "The falling can wait for the moment. I want to show you the basic blocks." Raising his right hand, open palmed, arm bent at the elbow, he raised his arm up, keeping his arm parallel to the floor. "High block." Bringing his arm down, "Low block." Keeping his elbow bent at a 90degree angle, he made his upper arm parallel with the floor; swinging his arm out to the right, "High right," Rotating his arm so his hand pointed down, "Low right." He did the same with his left hand. "Of course you with the other hand it's left instead of right." Kaz pivoted so he could watch Calley. "Now your turn. I want you to do that routine 20 times for each arm."

"You have a problem with falling? I could make you fall again and again until you don't have a problem with it. ...Oh wait, that IS what I'm going to have you do." Kaz chuckled a bit, because he thought he was funny. Yes. Kaz. Funny. Haha. “...At least you will be if you're going to take this seriously....If you're not, then you'll have wasted my time. And I won’t like or appreciate that.”

First off, he can skip the almost-threats. Second, Elfy here has no idea how serious I am.

...Your attention span does tend to lack, in areas of extended devotion.

...Don’t take Elfy’s side, Slate.

He could barely hide his relief when Kaz mentioned they’d be skipping the falls for now. Falls were bad memories, and they seemed a little silly for a healer to be learning, any way.

Calley had been tentatively shadowing Kaz as the man showed of those moves of his; when Kaz turned to watch him, he awkwardly stopped.

"Now your turn. I want you to do that routine 20 times for each arm."

Calley nodded. “Umm, okay.” Twenty times... for each arm. Speaking of attention spans... Slate. I think you’re up.

Kaz got his twenty repetitions of each routine, as requested. He got them each with increasing precision, and total silence from the focused teenager before him. High block, low block, high right, low right, high left, low left. Even if Kaz had spoken during this time, Slate would have been unlikely to heed him. He liked the martial arts; they imposed strict order upon movement. Slate gave his mind over completely to the feel of their muscles contracting and relaxing under his command. It was an elegant feeling. When he had finished the forty movements, as ordered, he let his arms hang loosely at his sides, and asked Kaz simply: “What next?”