driftfleet | ★ 2 | video, action ★

Entry tags:

★ 2 | video, action ★

Who: Bucky!Cap Barnes
Broadcast: Private to Natasha Romanoff
Action: Bishop, planetside on Lyndia
When: Shortly after the last shuffle (for video & Bishop), anytime during their stopover in the Bix system

[Video: Private to Natasha Romanoff]
Hey, so when's a good time for a fight and a drink?

[Action: Bishop]
[Bucky's new on the Bishop, but it's not like he's never been here before. Anyone who's been here for a week or two might have seen him coming and going from Steve Rogers' room. In fact, now that he's on board, that appears to be where he's headed now, with an armful of clothes and a strange, circular red, white, and blue shield tucked under one arm.

Actually, since his hands are full, he very politely(?) kicks at the hatch to Steve's cabin once he gets there.

Later, he can be found walking the ship, familiarizing himself with the bridge, bathroom, and kitchen - where he's also digging for the coffee grounds and means to make it into actual coffee, because that's really important. Seriously. Coffee is magic.]

[Action: Planetside]
[Bucky also takes the opportunity to stretch his legs on Lyndia. In fact, he takes the opportunity to spend some time outside, because no matter how much the natives of this world warn him, it seems fine to him. Not even a sniffle. So he ends up earning some extra cash, running errands and ferrying supplies from the surface, including hacking away at vines, gutting old wooden buildings, and maybe even seeing if he can't track down said reptilian beast.

Bucky spends his significant earnings largely on food and clothing, because a) he wants to eat things that are not gel and b) he wants to wear things that are not jumpsuits. He is also willing to share the riches with friends, should they run into him.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Bucky appreciates the courtesy.

His plan, at least at first, is more defensive than offensive. He can't learn what she'll do without seeing what it is she'll do, right? So he dodges and blocks as best he can, but it's only so long that he'll let her press him before he aims a punch or kick or few her way. He knows she's likely to go for weak points, wait for him to slow down or leave himself vulnerable, but at least the serum means he'll be able to get back up from most of what she can do to him, at least the first several times.

His ultimate goal is going to be to pin her, rather than stop her by hurting her too badly.]

[His goal is to pin her; hers is to make the match as short as possible. Natasha knows her odds on this, and they aren't good. If it were a real fight, she'd approach it differently. Traps. Environmental advantages. Surprise. Anything she could do to level the field. In a spar though, it's less about actually winning and more about testing, about seeing what she can do and finding out what he can.

He's stronger than her, and he has more stamina. He's also durable. Even knowing his version of the formula isn't the one she's known. In some ways, that's a disadvantage but in others—well, she doesn't have to worry about holding back the way she would with most people.

At least at first, her strategy seems to rely on going hard and fast, moving in close where her smaller size can be an advantage, and mostly looking for any opening.]

[She's fast, like his Natasha - faster than most opponents he deals with, and that's definitely an advantage. He guards his weak points better than Steve does, but of course he can't guard them all, all of the time. He lets her press him around the mat, giving when he has to, but pressing back here and there. In a way, he's showing her what he can do, how fighting him is different, because having an ace up your sleeve is great against a real enemy - but not against an ally.

And, once they've moved in a few circles, he finally starts going on the offensive, aiming punches at her ribs and kicks at her legs, trying to sweep them out from under her.]

[It is interesting. Different from fighting Steve, and different from sparring with Barnes or fighting the Winter Soldier. It's related, though. She can sort of trace the genealogy of it—Barnes if he'd come through the ice and into SHIELD instead of the Soviet training.

It's not just the fighting style, though. It's also the mind behind them.

She could fight along side him. Not that it's a surprise, but it's good to confirm, starting to get an idea how they'd fit together on a team.

When he moves onto the offensive, Natasha's tactics change, saving her energy more, focusing on evasion, on drawing him out and trying to get him to overcommit to those attacks and expose vulnerabilities.]

[They're both new and old opponents to each other, in different ways, and it's a challenge he actually kind of appreciates. Fighting with Steve - even this Steve, the one who's not from his world (well, he hasn't fought the one from his world at all, doubts it'll ever happen here) - is familiar, fun, but challenging only in determining who can get and keep the upper hand between two guys equally matched but not equally experienced and creative in different ways. Natasha is... well, she always found ways to surprise him back home, and he figures she's going to do the same, here and now, which is why he's trying to be wary of overcommitting unless he has to.

But sometimes you have to, when you go on the offensive. He sees what she's doing, but makes the conscious decision to play into it. You can't learn without taking a little risk, or without getting knocked on your ass, after all; though he certainly hasn't thrown the match by a long shot, because he's still aiming to give them both a good, honest fight.]

[They have similar thinking that way. This isn't a life and death fight, and winning isn't the most important goal whatever the bet riding on the match might say.

When he presents an opening, Natasha goes for it with her whole body. If he lets her get away with it, he might end up with her legs around his neck.

Signature move, after all.]

[It's a signature move that he simply hasn't had to deal with enough times to really figure out how to evade just yet; which means that it works, and he ends up planting his feet before tensing and throwing his body - and hers - back against the mat, trying to jar her enough to give him the out that he needs.]

[Like most of Natasha's moves, it's meant for someone fighting bigger opponents, stronger opponents. Not really a surprise that he hasn't run into it too often. That's part of the point, isn't it?

The impact is a shock, even hitting the mat, but Natasha doesn't loosen.]

[Damn, she's tenacious; not that it's a bad thing, and Bucky ends up grinning a little, even as his air definitely seems to be running thin. Not ideal, but if that didn't work - he'll have to resort to grabbing at her legs and trying to pry them off the old-fashioned way.]

[She is tenacious, and she's tough, but she's also human. He'll have luck prying her legs away from his neck.

As soon as he start getting the upperhand, she lets go, rolling away in a hasty retreat.]

Edited 2019-05-13 03:28 (UTC)

[Thank God; Bucky sucks in a harsh breath or two, scrabbling for her ankle as she retreats, but his fingers close around thin air.

He chuckles a little - then coughs - then laughs a little more and gets back to his feet.] You are fast.

Have to be if I'm going to keep up with my teammates.

[She rolls to her feet, shaking a bit of hair back from her face. There's a little smile hiding behind her expression.]

Want to keep going?

[Bucky laughs a little.] Would you believe me if I say that I know how you feel?

[He's a super soldier - but a second-rate one, at best. He's not Steve, and even if he can apparently keep up with the guy... he's got to be smarter. Faster. Trickier. And he might have felt intimidated, once or twice, dealing with people like Thor and Stark. Even Natasha, who's been trained in this shit a lot longer than he has. He just got drafted and had a rifle shoved into his hands.]

I'm good for it. Nobody's down for the count yet.

[Natasha flashes him a smile. She would believe him. Even her Steve struggles to keep up with people like Thor and the Hulk. And the fact is, she's seen Thor tired and hurt too.

They're all pushing themselves. All of them. All the time.

It's part of the job.]

All right. Looks like we're on for round two.

[She rolls her shoulders, taking full advantage of the moment's reprieve to catch her breath.]

Gotta make those drinks worth it somehow, huh?

[Bucky's doing the same - although this time, he does jump right into motion, going for her middle.]

[That would hurt if it made contact. Natasha does her best to make sure that doesn't happen, sidestepping and circling, attempting to get inside and behind his reach.

There's a smirk on her lips as she does it though, confident.]

[She's good at that particular move, he'll give her that. He's not quite as big as Steve, but he's still big, and slower than she is, even if he's fast for a boxer. She's not boxing, though, and his head twists to try and follow her motion, and the smirk on his lips is more appreciative than anything, but it's there, too.

He swipes an arm around behind him, and at the same time, sweeps out with the opposite foot, giving her two things to dodge at once.]

[In a way, Natasha's size is an advantage. Not just her speed, but experience. She has plenty of experience fighting opponents Barnes' size, plenty of guys who boxed. Most of the guys she fought didn't have the same exposure to someone her size, who fought like she did. It was a little like being left handed—another advantage Natasha often had. She was used to fighting people who were right handed. The reverse wasn't true.

Of course, all that only went so far when you were outgunned on just about every other measure.

She takes the arm over the sweep, glancing off the back of his elbow as she slips away.]

Edited 2019-05-25 04:47 (UTC)

[It's true - Bucky doesn't have as much experience fighting people with Natasha's stature as she's likely got fighting people with his.

He feels himself get one of the two hits - but then she's gone again, and his head whips around, trying to follow where she's gone, pulling back into himself to regroup before pushing again. She's going to keep playing that move, he figures, if he lets her. So he just won't let up, spinning toward her with another arm sweep, this time aiming to grab her rather than just hit her. If that doesn't work... he'll just regroup and try it again. And again.]

[This time she's not quite fast enough to avoid him. He makes contact, and if he's quick he'll be able to capitalize on it...]

[When he feels the grab connect, he simply just throws all his weight into it, and sends them both to the mat again. He has a feeling that whoever wins this next scuffle will be the winner, so he's aiming to end it sooner rather than later, and give her as little chance to flip things around on him as possible, trying to pin her and force her into a defeat.]

[It's not subtle. Not what she would have expected from her Barnes—subtle wasn't exactly the word for James in a fight either, but his training was Russian, and his strategy more like Natasha's own.

The surprise doesn't last long though. He pulls her down, and Natasha throws herself into motion like a snake, leveraging her whole body to make up for her disadvantage in strength as she attempts to reverse his hold. If she can get her legs around him, she has a chance.]

[She does stand a chance if she can get that far, which is why he going to try to keep it from happening. It means getting one arm down by his side to try and grab her knee and push out, rolling to the other side so that he's got better leverage to pin her other leg using his body weight.] Figured you were gonna try that.

[Natasha finds herself pinned. Her mind spirals over her options from her, ways to break the hold, last ditch efforts, but she tamps down on the reflex and taps his arm instead.

For all her trash talk, she doesn't hesitate to tap out in a sparring match when the odds turn against her.]

Good guess. Looks like I owe you that drink.

[Bucky grins a little, but he lets up and moves off her immediately at the tap.

He has a feeling that the only reason she did tap out was because she was out of options that weren't going to do lasting damage. Which he very much appreciates and respects. It is just a sparring match, after all. In a real emergency? Things are different.]

Only the first round, though.

[He starts pushing himself to his feet, then he'll offer her a hand if she's not already on her way, too.] Wanna get it now?

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