Of tape and punching bags
It wasn’t quite curfew yet. Andy had been pacing for a bit. Unable to sleep. Zari hadn’t moved into her room yet and even with her pillow she didn’t trust herself. It was like the old days. When she would stick needles in her hand to keep herself awake. Away from nightmares. But those nightmares had stopped because of the pillow. Now it was just the fear of sleepwalking.
She gave up and went to the gym. She had some time before curfew and she needed to get some energy out. Her whole body felt electric, which knowing her it probably was.
Leah was used to staying up late. She often found she didn’t really need as much sleep as other people. Why, she didn’t really think about it. But it mostly stemmed from how much she just didn’t trust her surroundings to be safe. As usual, she was abusing the almighty shit out of a punching bag laced with adamantium fibers, so it wouldn’t break and tear under the strain of those with super strength.
The dull rhythm of her fists rang across the empty gym, and it was easy to hear her before even walking in.
Andy smiled a little as she entered the room. Unsurprised that Leah was there. She didn’t want to freak her out and considered how to warn Leah that she was there. Andy reached over and flicked one of the light switches off. Leaving it off for a moment before turning it back on.
"Leah, it’s me.” She shouted. Then moved over to the less impossible to break punching bags. Andy was a well trained fighter with enhanced reflexes, she didn’t have super strength.
”…Hey. You can’t sleep either?” She asked.
"No.” Andy laughed.
"I, uh, am afraid to sleepwalk again.” She confessed.
”You do that? That’s a thing? Just lock your door.” "I don’t think that’ll work. Last time I woke up in a different building than I fell asleep in.” With a corpse at her feet. She did not say that part out loud. Opening up could only be taken so far.
Leah put a hand out on the bag to steady it.
”Well… That’s probably a mutant thing. Don’t know how to help with that, but there’s probably someone else who’s had it before.”"You’re a mutant. Though, I assume you’ve never sleepwalked and woken up in a strange place.” ”Yeah… About that. I don’t know what the fuck I am,” Leah admitted.
”Long story short, your girlfriend stabbed me with a sword once, and that’s how I learned there’s this magic box thing stuck to my spine. She broke it and that turned me into something weird, that apparently eats magic. From somewhere. So…”Andy blinked.
"That’s fucking cool. Weird. But cool. I mean I’m the daughter of an immortal vampire who eats souls for fun. So like I don’t have any room to talk on the weirdness scale.” The cat was out of the bag on that since her chat with Dorian. So she was way more comfortable talking about it.
"You know that doll I have, the creepy one. That’s actually my mom.” It
wasn’t cool to her.
”So you don’t just keep that thing around to scare people off? How the fuck do you get from that to a person?”Andy laughed and shook her head.
"Not like that. The doll is a prison. She’s a massive war criminal, and immortal. Can’t kill her. So she gets to live in the doll.” She grinned,
"Funny story actually. Dorian and Danni’s dads were involved in putting her there. I’m gonna have so much fun showing up at their door stop soon.” ”Why not just throw the doll into the sun or something? I’ve been learning magic, I’m pretty damn sure I could just teleport that thing directly into the sun.”"Again immortal. It’d only buy time. She’d come back.” Andy shrugged.
"Anyway I came here to get some energy out. Wanna spar?” Leah shrugged.
”Sure. Let’s do that.” She wasn’t going to get knocked the fuck out again, if she had any say in it.
Andy nodded, she pulled her gloves on a little tighter. They were made for her to fight with, and keep from making skin-to-skin contact on accident. She darted forward, throwing the first punch with little warning. The pair of them were both brawlers and had already agreed. There wasn’t the need for anything else.
Leah caught the punch like it was a foam football. She hadn’t moved the rest of her body yet.
”I wasn’t prepared for you to move that fast last time, I saw it coming now.”She stepped forward and brought her leg up, swinging it outwards in a forward motion for what was basically a mule kick.
Andy dropped, disappeared under the kick. She had a massive grin on her face. She had missed this. She lashed out one of her legs, using a hand for balance and swung it out at Leah’s for a leg sweep.
"Speed isn’t my only quality.” It was like kicking a street lamp. One of Leah’s legs intentionally gave out just in case Andy happened to be made of glass- Not something Leah thought about, more like a knee jerk reaction from fighting people who weren’t as sturdy as her. She teetered back on the other leg and hauled on Andy’s wrist for balance.
Andy pushed up with the hand she had been balancing on. Letting Leah’s weight work against her. Gravity and her own balance pulling her backwards. Andy now standing kicked up aiming for Leah’s chest, pushing Leah into her unbalanced stance.
Leah brought her hands forward and grabbed Andy’s leg to meet the kick. Either she’d go down and take Andy with her, or they’d still stand.
”Rule one of fighting someone with strength like mine head on: Don’t.”Andy let gravity rule. Her body going rigid but not fighting the fall.
"If I wanted to hurt you, I’d take the gloves off. This is just fun.” She now stood on Leah. She didn’t stay long, tucking into a roll.
"You would have loved the Drummonds. The gym. The ring.” Andy’s smile fell a little becoming sad.
Leah rolled backwards, legs going overhead, and pushed herself back up.
”What, a place full of mutants? Ones that can take a punch?” She asked, dropping into a stance that was absolutely not a boxing one.
"Yeah, a whole group of us. It was home. Before.” Andy shifted. Not to match stances, she didn’t know the stance Leah was using.
"Before it burned down.” She said and moved again. Andy was looking for the gaps in Leah’s stance. The weaknesses that every fighter had. Even Andy had them. She hadn’t fought in months. Not like the old days.
It was aggressive, she was bent low and had her legs spread further than shoulders apart. Like a snake daring someone to step closer.
”Must’ve been nice having that. How’d that work out? Sounds hard to run a place like that for mutants.”"It was illegal.” She explained.
"Well no law but the people. They were the ones who burned it.” Andy was stepping lightly around Leah.
"They had a good cover. Day time it was a normal gym for anyone. Night time, in the basement is where the real fights were.” There. She moved, almost like the lightning that lived in her. Andy’s powers don’t include speed, except for a preternatural response to danger. She was not a spider-person. But Andy had trained for two years in the gym she was talking about. Fought hundreds of fights with as many different power sets. In those fights she never used her lightning because she had always been afraid of stopping someone’s heart again. She wasn’t worried about that here, but she still didn’t use it. Why would she? That would break the spirit of the spar. Skill vs. skill. It hadn’t been laid out, but it was right. The punch she drove in at Leah’s face, with her right fist. Her left fist was only a few seconds behind going for Leah’s gut.
Leah moved forward, in a wide lunge. Her back foot quickly became her front, and she swung her left arm inwards to swipe at Andy with her elbow. Her right hand went up to block the punch aimed at her face, and she just took the one to her stomach. Being the aggressor here was only going to result in Leah getting sideswiped, and she had a suspicion that Andy’s extreme reflexes weren’t going to stack up well if she was forced to commit.
Leah was right. Andy was in motion and couldn’t change it. The elbow dove into her, but her gut punch landed. If she was in a real fight she’d shock Leah at this point. She probably still could. Leah was a tough cookie, and their first fight had been a fluke. Andy knew that. But this wasn’t a fight to knock her out. This was a fight to burn energy. Andy wanted to draw it out. Not end it immediately. Before Leah’s elbow had even fully moved from Andy, she was roundhouse kicking Leah. Her movement from the elbow to the gut flowing, pushing her torso down. She used that movement to add to the force of her kick - at Leah’s head.
Damn, this bitch could punch.
Leah ate that like a damn Christmas dinner. She turned into the kick and tilted her head down. Mostly so Andy would still have two legs after this, but also because she didn’t want Andy to keep the momentum. Her back leg that she’d pushed forward with swept upwards, and Leah went
up. It was like an uppercut, only with her knee.
The movement between two well trained fighters can look choreographed. This was one such fight. Andy had only just gained her balance. If it weren’t for her reflexes she would have taken the brunt of the knee to the chin. It was a graze. One that hurt like hell. Andy flipped backwards, hands briefly touching the mat before landing on her feet. Her smile was back.
"Almost cracked some teeth. Next time I’ll wear full gear.” Andy had to wear Leah down. Slow her down. Her punches would never hurt Leah enough to make her tap out. Not unless she laid her out like last time again. Again, that wasn’t what she wanted either.
Andy moved again. This time taking to the air in a jump. The distance, and the fact she had come from a full stop made the flying knee telegraphed. Andy was ready for the response though. Leah’s response would tell her what she needed to do next.
There’s no way she expected that to work, right?
Leah backpedals, so she’d hit the ground before hitting her target. Her hands went up and she got ready for whatever the point of this was.
”Is that it? I’d see that coming from a mile away.”"Always,” Andy flowed like water, wrapping herself around Leah’s head for a headlock with her legs. However, she forgot one very important aspect about Leah. Her hair. It was basically monofilament. The pain didn’t hit right away. Once it did Andy let go. Blood seeped through the shreds of her pants.
”ShitshithshitshitFUCK-” Leah dropped with her, so there’d be less damage. Leah immediately stopped and backed up. Blood and tattered shreds of fabric slicked down her shoulders.
”Don’t fucking move- Fuck- Sit still.”Usually, there wasn’t any sort of risk that hair would get pulled and stuck in the wounds, but they weren’t just scrapes. It was like getting a
huge abrasion that could expose bone. Andy got lucky, she didn’t just fuck herself over
that badly.
"Skin...” Andy gasped.
"Don’t touch. She had been in a lot of pain in her life. This probably didn’t take the cake, but it was certainly trying.
"Eat you.” She whimpered out.
”You’ll be fine, just don’t move…” Leah was about to try using runes for this, but had an idea. That thing inside her, she and Vicky came to the conclusion there was a lot of energy in there. Magic energy, but magic regardless.
”...Give me your hand. Trust me.” She grabbed Andy’s hand and pulled the glove off quickly.
”Trust me.”Andy hated this idea. But the blood loss was going to get to her. She didn’t think she had cut any major arteries. There was so much blood. It was hard to tell. Her fingers shook, cold. She nodded. Letting Leah touch her.
Leah grabbed her hand and gripped it. Andy didn’t just get the energy of an ordinary human person, but the energy of something magical. Something born out of a place far, far from Earth. And there was a
lot of it. Unlike anything usually seen among humanity.
And it made Leah’s bones feel as if she were on
fire. She grit her teeth and shut her eyes. The pain felt familiar. Like she’d felt when Zari had
stabbed her.Her skin started to turn from warm brown to gray.
Life. Delicious. Andy drank. She pulled. It seemed endless. Like back on Genosha. There hadn’t been the unending hunger then like there was now. And she was hungry. Yes, she had had meals with Ardere and the unknown Asgaradian. She hadn’t felt so good though. Leah was like drinking from a cool hose on a hot summer day, a hint of minty flavor for some reason.
God, she wanted to keep drinking and drinking until she was full. Andy saw Leah. Her shape enlarged. Her hand was already so much larger than Andy’s. She blinked. Then yanked her hand back. Her wounds had healed. The bleeding stopped.
The gym was still a mess under her, and the pants would be tossed. Preferably burned.
Leah was heaving with each breath. Her head swam. The floor- It wasn’t that far away a second ago. Moments passed, and by the time Andy was in better condition, fog was starting to fill the air. She looked down at her hands. They were like basalt, not even close to human skin.
”Andy?” She even sounded different. Heavier.
More. "I’m good. You?” Andy panted out. Her heart was still racing. She closed her eyes.
"Uh, Leah. Thank you. I...Uh, don’t take this the wrong way, but you taste really good. I almost...I could feel control slipping. But, thank you.” Andy opened her eyes and sat up, scooting a bit away from the blood on the gym mat. She’d clean that up before going to bed.
”I’m… Gonna pretend you didn’t say that.” Leah stood upright, and she was almost seven feet tall now. Her hands were trembling from a mix of pain and fatigue. She looked like someone had just petrified her, or turned her into a statue. And her eyes had turned from brown to orange. The shirt she was wearing got tighter, her sweatpants barely reaching halfway down her calves. Everything stung.
”...What the fuck.”Andy stood up. Her own body was shaking. Her pants were starting to dry where the blood had soaked through them. She looked up at Leah, taking in all of her changes.
"Do you...uh, wanna talk about that?” She gestured to all of Leah.
"And yeah. I think I’d appreciate it if you didn’t tell anyone I said that.””Andy, I don’t even know what this is,” She rasped. Vapor white as bone trailed out of her lungs.
”The last time this happened, it was in a computer simulation before Usagi got dealt with… I didn’t think this would happen for real.”"Right. Uh, well. Want me to like take a picture and we can research it? Not that I know where to begin. I’m literally a street rat. I got nothing.” ”I- I mean… Sure? I guess? Victoria and I figured this had something to do with magic. I thought you’d just pull the energy out of that thing- Fuck, I didn’t see this coming.”Andy grabbed her backpack and pulled out her phone, quickly snapping a photo and then sent it to Leah.
"If it’s magic...Maybe that witch from the first day. Agatha?” She suggested.
She took in a deep,
deep breath, and let it out. Everything felt wrong.
”She- Yeah. She gave me those runes, Vick said I should come with her to see Agatha. When we leave for the contest.” Her phone felt tiny.
She looked at the picture. It was blurred just ever so slightly, like some pixels just got tossed away here and there.
”That’s not me. Holy fuck. What did he do to me?”"Hey. We can figure this out. Okay. I’ll help. I don’t know how. But I can try.” She came over to stand near Leah. Her head craned back.
"I’d hug you, but I don’t wanna risk it. Even if right now I’m the fullest I’ve been in...ages.” With her gloved hand she reached out to the highest point on Leah’s arm that she could reach and gave her a squeeze.
"Trust me when I say we aren’t what we can do. I don’t know who he is. Or anything. But you’re my friend. Right? And that is who you are, what you do, not what you look like. If you look like this, or like before. I don’t care. I’m sure no one else will either.” Andy considered mentioning Mads’ current appearance. No one she knew was giving her shit, but she was struggling with it.
"If this sticks...maybe chat with Mads. She’ll understand.” ”I don’t-” Think first, dumbass. ”I don’t know much about demons or where they come from, but I really don’t think that’s the same. Is it? I’m- I don’t know what I am, I thought forever I was just a mutant, then this started happening. Yeah… I’ll talk to her, maybe. I don’t know how long this is going to last, it wasn’t even like this last time.”"I meant more the transformation thing. She also studied under Agatha a lot right? She might have some leads. I can...” She paused.
"I can ask my mom. She’s ancient. She might have an idea.” God she did not want to ask her mom, but for Leah she would.
”What, that doll thing? What would it know?”"Untold secrets.” She shrugged.
"She’s literally as old as humankind.” ”Whatever the fuck I am, it’s definitely not human. But…” She’d take just about anyone’s expert opinion, honestly.
”Sure. I won’t say no, but I’m not gonna make you do anything for me.”"Let’s try Agatha first. Deals with mom always come with...caveats.” ”She’s in a whole other state right now. I think Victoria was able to get ahold of her, though…” Leah stared down at her hands, as if they’d suddenly look like hers again.
”I’m not going back to the dorms looking like this. For now, if anyone asks, I healed you with runes instead of this. And then you saw me walk back out. Okay?”"Of course.” Andy nodded, taking a step back so she didn’t have to crane her neck so much.
"I’m gonna clean up here. You go ahead and go.” ”Yeah. I’m-” She looked at the door.
”...Yeah. It’s a draw for now, I’m not convinced I won’t just kill you like this. I’m going. Thanks. Sorry.”"See ya.” Andy said. She let Leah leave and then started cleaning up the drying blood.
Leah turned and stormed out the back exit, into the late evening. She didn’t stop to look if anyone had followed her until she was well into the trees. And then she hung out there, for the rest of the night. Curfew be damned.
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