closed to blindstrike

[cloneororiginal]

"...So you're the new recruit..." Sarah stated in a bored, unimpressed tone, watching the man as he stood in the center of the training room. HYDRA was known for selecting the best of the best to join their forces, but they really had done a number on this one. A lawyer who was blind as a bat. Shit, was the man who recruited him that off his rocker? Or did he truly see something special with this Matt? Maybe Matt joined so HYDRA could fix his eye sight.

The organization was known for playing God; creating life when there was nothing. Sarah and her sisters were proof of that. Project Leda, creating girl clones to see if biology would win over nurture. That aspect of the program was quickly shut down once the girls were in their early twenties, forced to join Project Castor. The other half of Leda was Castor, experimenting in developing male clones to form the perfect, super soldiers. Clones were useful in spy missions or creating armies. One person seemingly doing the work of five or more.

Now Sarah was given the lovely task to train this 'Matt' from being his current state to becoming an operative for HYDRA. She was circling him like a vulture, trying to figure him out. If he could fight, or if he could even land a decent punch.

"Do you even know how t'defend yourself?" That was Sarah, blunt and to the point. Not giving a shit if she hurt someone's feelings and greatly preferring if she didn't have to do much of anything.

Comments

[blindstrike]

Matt Murdock stands there gripping the cane he never really needed: between a well-used suit, the glasses, the hair that's combed to the side enough to be professional but could use a trim, and he cuts the kind of unassuming figure that's part of his appeal. The lawyer part's another. The main sell, though, are his senses: off-the-charts for someone even if they had full sight, the fact that Matt's technically still blind is what puts him higher up on HYDRA's wish list. Nothing like a blind lawyer to look after their interests - a blind lawyer who can tell if someone’s lying by listening, who can feel someone’s arms flex before they strike? Even better.

It's that potential which has Matt here, his head canted slightly to the side as he tracks Sarah. He’s heard that Ms. Manning was going to be his trainer – excuse him, “handler” since he’s apparently an asset – and she couldn’t make it more obvious she isn’t impressed if she tried. He could tell her that he knows she has her hair pulled up in a sensible ponytail he can’t see but he can sense; he could also tell her that he’s blind, not defenseless. Stick saw to that. He admits he wondered what Stick would think of him years down the line, about to commit to HYDRA instead of whatever agenda he had.

“I can manage my way around. Haven’t wandered down any elevator shafts, so I think I’m onto something,” Matt smiles. If she wants to offend him, she’s going to have to try harder. “I wouldn’t ask you to go easy on me just because of these.”

Matt gestures at his glasses and his brown eyes underneath, the cane. The cane could be used as a weapon if she makes the mistake of letting him keep it. If not, he’s used to going in close range – more than used to it.

[cloneororiginal]

Sarah wasn't trying to insult her, that was part of her lovely personality. She had a habit of being blunt, using her sharp tongue to get her point across or telling her Superiors to fuck off when she didn't like what her assignments were. Her mouth landed her in more trouble than anything else, along with her attitude. Her spirit wasn't broken. She wouldn't become a soldier that would nod their head and do what they were told. No, she would put up a fight, otherwise what other fun could she have?

Apparently she pissed off someone to the point of being assigned as Matt's 'handler'. Someone to train him and make sure he stayed alive for...whatever purpose HYDRA wanted him for. Sure, they could always use more lawyers, more people in HYDRA's pocket always made things easier. However, someone like Matt? Some boyish looking man who seemingly wouldn't harm a fly. But there was the danger; some of the most danger people seemed so weak and vulnerable. Either way, he was in her capable hands, so she better do something other than circle him.

"If you couldn't walk down a hallway, HYDRA wouldn't have accepted you," she deadpanned, bridging the gap between them. Might as well see what he could do...

And what better way than to try to take a swing at his face with her right hand. If he could avoid her hit, good. If he could block it, even better. If he could manage to hit her back....she might be impressed. There was no such thing as going 'easy' on someone. Either you rose up to the challenge, or you were killed.

[blindstrike]

Matt doesn't drop the cane: his head jerks back as if he can see the right hook coming, his other arm coming up to block. He catches her blow before she gets him right in the glasses, feeling the shock of it traveling up his forearm with enough force that he'll bruise tomorrow. Where Stick would've immediately retaliated, Matt shows that he hasn't got to that point yet. Not against someone he just met. He stands there with his arm raised and the cane in the meanwhile has somehow tangled itself neatly between Sarah's legs, ready to twist between her knees and send her pitching to the floor if she takes another swing at him with her other hand.

“I'm guessing that's your way of saying 'hi',” Matt replies and he offers up a mild smile bordering more on professional than friendly. Most of it's to hide the way his heart is still hammering in his chest. “Should I change?”

It occurs to him he would've been better off showing up for his first day officially in HYDRA in something that wasn't a business suit: there's professionalism and then there's mobility and suddenly that second one seems very important. The tie around his neck is suddenly a possible weapon, same with the glasses he never actually needed. If Sarah is willing to take a pot-shot at him like that, he figures the smartest thing to do is make sure he isn't covered in weapons she can use against him. The hand on the cane tightens as if he's bracing himself.

[cloneororiginal]

Not a sound of was uttered from Sarah's punch blocked by a man who had no sight. If this were a real fight, she would not have stopped herself from bringing her knee up to his stomach, or continue their dance by trying to land another blow. Instead she stopped in her tracks, very much aware of the cane now between her legs, ready to trip her. So the cane acted as an extension of himself....useful, but not impressive. If he leaned too heavily on it, and if the cane was taken away, what then? Sure he could block a punch, but that wouldn't matter if their enemies were coming at them with more people and gun fire.

No, he still had a lot more to learn, but his quip caught Sarah off guard. What a cheeky bastard, but then again, she was known for her own smart ass remarks. Maybe they would get along, or she might end up killing him. The future was uncertain, but for now she had to forge ahead. Sarah let out a scoff, drawing her hand back and pulled back from him, mindful of the cane right between her legs.

"Usually I say 'hi' by shootin' at your arse. My Superior saw fit t'remove my weapon before meetin' you."

A change of clothing would do Matt well, at least then no one could blame his clothing for any failure. Sure, coming to HYDRA in a business suit wouldn't cause suspicion out on the streets, but inside their grounds, it was best to wear something comfortable and not restrictive.

"C'mon, don't need t'strangle you with your tie. There's a room for you t'change in and clothes already laid out." Along with shoes and a belt. He was in HYDRA and now he was going to dress the part. She began to walk away from him, expecting him to follow her down the hall, calling out to make a left to the empty locker room.

"There's a bench to your right, your clothes are laid out already. Leave your old ones here, they'll be collected and returned later. Any questions?"

[blindstrike]

Sounds like he should be thankful: even with his skills, he doesn't think he can dodge a gun forever.

He only gives a shrug, a smile that isn't apologetic but isn't gloating, either, and lets Sarah say her piece. She doesn't need to point out where the training clothes are or that there was a door to the left but he keeps his mouth shut, sensing now was a time not to get too smartass. She knows he's trained, he has gifts most people – read, almost zero, as far as he can tell – have. The less he says off the bat, the better. She'll find out soon enough but if she's planning to wipe the floor with him on his first day, he figures he needs to use whatever advantage he still has before she gets full run of him.

He folds up the cane with the unconscious, practiced gesture of someone who does it purely out of muscle memory. “Have you trained anyone else with these...” Matt pauses, searching for the word that seems most appropriate. “Abilities? How'd that go?”

Since Sarah hasn't made a move to leave, Matt assumes this is the part where he starts stripping down to show he isn't a shy wallflower about it. She's probably doing it to make a point, maybe try to unnerve him into asking for privacy, showing that as a character flaw of his. There's a brief second where he debates faking it. It probably would've worked before Sarah took that swing at him. He starts to undress, folding his jacket and his tie, unbuttoning his dress shirt on by one. While he doesn't ask Sarah to leave, he does shift his body away from her while he slithers the shirt off. He exposes some scarring, ridges of flesh from where he'd been busy playing at vigilante before HYDRA approached him, scars he probably wouldn't have had if his training was completed instead of filled in like patchwork.

Sarah will find those holes soon enough.

[cloneororiginal]

Now wasn't the time to be a smartass, not given Sarah's current sour mood. She would rather go out to the range to fire her weapon, or train with someone else. Hell, anything or anyone would be better than Matt right now. Then again, most of her annoyance was coming from being told what to do. A trait that was so stupid considering her entire life was about HYDRA. Yet, there was a spirit about her that refused to break. A desire to find something outside of HYDRA's grasp. To be something other than a soldier or an experiment.

Which was why it was puzzling to have someone like Matt join their organization. Not that she would ask right off the bat. No, she had to determine his skill first, then see how she could go about training him.

"No, normally I'm sent out into the field t'do the grunt work, undercover or recon. Seems like someone loves you or hates me t'pair us together," she told him, expecting Matt to go into the locker room to change. Really, she was doing him a favor, letting him get changed in private yet he wanted to strip and leave himself naked. Not that she minded. Under any other circumstances, she would have found him attractive, but what caught her interest were the scars there on his skin. Silently she was asking herself if the scars came from fights or accidents. Though given where some of those scars were, they weren't there by accident.

"When we're sparring, no holding back. I need t'see how you'd do in the field. If we should keep you around or shoot you now." Less of an empty threat, but a mantra to always keep in his head. However HYDRA could see him as an asset one day and then a weak link in the chain the next. They would not hesitate to put a man down, if it meant the advancement of their plans. Sarah wasn't trying to be mean, on the contrary, she had yet to kick the shit out of him or torture him. By fair she was being nice to him.

Matt would find Sarah was still watching him. Not gazing at his form or leering at it like he was a piece of meat. No, her gaze had more to do with observation. To see how Matt handled himself even in his everyday tasks...the cane was more for show. He knew how to use it and to work without it, his posture and his walk told her as much. However, how long he could go without that cane was another question, and that question would be answered on the floor.

"If you're curious about how many people I've trained, it's none. Zero. You'd be the first, usually they let another clone handle it--Rachel. Though, she's bound to make an appearance sooner or later, cold hearted bitch." Clearly Sarah and not all of her clones got along, but they were 'sisters' or some crap like that. And she gave Matt insight to one of HYDRA's valuable possessions: clones. An army of them, both female and male, designed to carry out missions while giving the illusion it was carried out by a single person.

[blindstrike]

Matt wonders if she’s literal about the shooting him part if he doesn’t cut it. Could be. They were pretty upfront about how dead serious they were about results here. Hearing it from his own handler only drives it home and he had to admit, there’s a split second where he wonders if he made a mistake and he should’ve committed to the standard defense attorney route instead of Hydra.

“Well, I’d prefer if you didn’t shoot me in the first few days, if that means anything. I’d hope it takes a little longer than that to come to a decision if I’m Hydra material,” Matt says, aware that it doesn’t and maybe he could hear her coming with a gun but there’s a limit to his reaction time, how many weapons he can keep track of by smell and hearing. He manages to bite back the next questions – clones, really? - and instead aims for keeping it professional, distanced, “Since I’m your first, it looks like we’re both testing things out. If you can whip blind guy into shape, anyone else should be easy.”

He hopes. Mostly he hopes he makes it through the week.

Matt can tell generally when someone – ie Sarah – is checking him out. It usually doesn’t happen at close range like this because out in civilian life people avoid looking at him; usually it’s a quick glance and then the oh, he’s blind, I better not make a scene as if he can see it and that’s it. Sarah, though. She’s studying him, the rustling of fingers against her shirt telling him she’s got her hand on her waist, hip to the side. So she’s a clone. Matt can say he’s never met a clone that he knows of – if she hadn’t mentioned it, he wouldn’t have known she was a clone. That clone thing is a whole new can of worms there he’d love to dig deeper into if the circumstances were different. For now Matt files it away and finishes stripping.

By now he’s down to his underwear, the rest of his suit and shoes neatly folded and set off to the side. The training clothes are loose and functional, the material a course cotton that his heightened tactile sense doesn’t care for. He gets dressed with almost no fumbling around unfamiliar clothes a normal blind man would have. It doesn’t escape his notice that they didn’t give him boots – Sarah, on the other hand, definitely has a pair from the sound of her stride. He assumes that’s on purpose, to leave the trainee off balance, a warning not to get cocky. He figures she’ll be going for his bare feet with her boots when they spar.

[cloneororiginal]

"No, it'll come in a matter of hours." To determine if he was even worth moving onto the next phase of training. That was how HYDRA was, one had to keep pushing forward if they wanted to survive. Then, if they wanted to succeed, they had to sweat blood and have bruises covering them to have a chance of moving up in the ranks. Matt wouldn't be special, not because of his blindness or his profession. Nope, he was maggot like the rest of the world. Until he proved himself, he would be considered worthless.

"Doesn't matter if I train you or not. They want to see how well we work with each other. If I'll push you to your breaking point, or kill you." Or if he would rise to the occasion and prove her wrong. He was a civilian, one who was being brought into the fold...and for the love of God, she couldn't figure out why the hell they picked him. Whatever, she wasn't there to make judgement calls on the recruits.

Once he was dressed, she looked him over and noticed his lack of footwear. Grumbling, she ordered him to stay where he was. A quick glance at his shoes told her his size. No, he was not going to go onto the mat barefoot and have him work out like that. She had to go up to where the recruitment clothes were. After a few minutes away, she came back with socks and combat boots for him to wear. Standard issue for any recruit. She placed them next to his clothes, pretty sure he heard her setting the items down.

"Put those on, fucking idiots, the lot of them." No, give the man clothes, but nothing else. Really, they wanted to make him fail from the get go, but then they wanted everyone to fail. This was HYDRA, not a summer camp where everyone got a long. She waited for him to put on his shoes before addressing him again.

"C'mon..." she began to lead him back to the training room where they met up. At least now she would be able to get him prepped for what he was about to face.

[blindstrike]

Sarah giving him shoes after all says plenty. He figures that’s oddly fair of her considering this is Hydra and from what little he knows about how they work, their operatives, Hydra doesn’t exactly play fair to get results. He had been expecting her to just beckon him after her with that disadvantage. Now that she didn’t, he wonders if he needs to reevaluate his initial impression.

He tails after Sarah, making sure she’s facing forward before he reaches up and adjusts the outfit with a uncomfortable grimace. His sensitivity means it isn’t just itching, it chafes like he’s wearing sandpaper. Socks are about the same, the shoes heavy duty. Matt’s sure he can still fight in these clothes, no problem, but he’s worried they’ll ramp up to testing his senses, find out what does what, how far he can take certain stimulus before he’s in a fetal position on the floor. At this point he’d rather take Sarah kicking the crap out of him and call it a day...assuming she wasn’t being serious about killing him on the mat. (He admit he’s still wondering about that). Matt steps into the training room and the smell of sweat underneath sanitizer and rubber, the shampoo Sarah favored trailing to a stop as she faces him.

Matt tilts his head as he hears the door hiss shut behind him. Hard to miss the sound of the deadbolt sliding into place.

“Does Hydra have a lot of new recruits who change their mind?” Matt’s a little nervous, trying to hide how on edge he feels. Nothing like being locked in to bring that out.

He isn’t sure when Sarah will actually attack. Sure, her heart will spike, her breath rate will do the same but that’s about a second or two warning. But until then he’s left feeling on the wrong foot and thinking about that deadbolt and he can’t lie and say he isn’t wondering if this was a bad idea. He knows nothing about her aside from her favorite soap and the clone bit and that she rather be somewhere else. She’s hard to impress. But other than his initial impression, he knows nothing about her. With that in mind, Matt’s shoulders square like he’s bracing himself, his hands balling slowly as he assumes she’ll start this off hard and fast and she won’t make the same mistake as last time thinking one punch would do it.

[cloneororiginal]

Matt would have to learn how to fight in conditions where his body would be pushed to the limit. Where his senses had the possibility of overwhelming him. How he would have to deal with loud sounds, sharp scents, and unbearable weather. If he was able to survive a training session with Sarah, his body would be subjected to more endurance training and there was a high possibility he would come to hate his decision. But once he was part of HYDRA, the only way to escape them was death. Though in Sarah's case, death would not grant her peace.

When the door closed, Sarah turned to face her trainee, looking him over again. As calm and annoyed as she was about this, she kept her physical tells to herself. Though, considering he wouldn't be able to see them, he might pick up on her biological ticks. How her heart rate could go up, or how her breathing could change. She would have to be careful in the future, but right now? Now she got to see what he could do. The scars on his back showed her he was used to fighting, well, she wanted to see that spirit to come out. Really, he should be happy she was giving him more room to fight in and not trapped in a box.

God, she loathed that stupid glass box that was used to fight in close quarters.

"Not many who change their minds. Though when they do, they're never let out. You either survive or you die. There's no room for anything in between," she told him mindful he could 'see' where she was by the sound of her voice. There was no point in trying to stall anymore. They had eyes watching them from the surveillance cameras, tracking every move they made and every word said. This was as much of an assessment of him as it was for her.

If she held back, if she showed restraint, that would be a mark against her. A mark that could write her own death certificate.

Matt is right to assume what she'll do next. Sarah lunges at him, not going to a punch this time, but a combination. A kick to the stomach, if he blocks that, a punch, or try to sweep him off his feet. He couldn't see, that shouldn't hold him back. She was in close quarters to him, and her hair was falling out of its loose bun. He could play dirty and HYDRA was expecting him to. Their enemies had rules to govern them, rules that made them weak whereas HYDRA, their rules in combat were more flexible. If Matt wanted to survive, he would have to fight back.

feel free to godmode - was thinking we could keep the fight shortish? :3a

[blindstrike]

That's what he'd been afraid of. The locked door said plenty: Sarah just confirmed of a gut feeling he wishes he was wrong about.

Matt manages to make it through the first salvo of hits, the blind man doing a hell of a lot better than the last trainee who went down with a shattered orbital socket as soon as the deadbolts locked. He swivels from the kick, his arm comes up to block the punch. The leg sweep nicks him, though, and he can’t quite hide the stumble before he recovers his balance. They said nothing about using anything in the room to help him out. The problem is aside from his boots, he’s got no weapons, no projectiles. Taking out the lights means he’d have the advantage (he thinks) but he doubts Sarah’s going to let him call a time-out so he can untie his shoes. From the way she comes at him, this won’t stop until one of them is face down on the floor.

The still breathing part’s optional.

Matt swings to the side and now he isn’t talking anymore, he’s cut the crap and stopped being cute about this. He comes at Sarah with his body angled to give him better balance, the shades of a boxer’s stance mixed in with whatever training he picked up pre-Hydra. He hasn’t shown yet that he’s a big fan of the acrobatics, aware that he can’t hide that forever. She’ll drag it out of him just like she found out right off the bat that the cane’s purely cosmetic. He darts toward Sarah, throwing a punch he expects to miss since he’s already turning his body for a full aimed kick toward her chest. If he can get her on the floor, he can use his weight against her, get her in a lock. Unlike Sarah, Matt isn’t comfortable with the idea of taking that extra step into cold blooded murder. Not yet, not without Hydra to correct that weakness of his. His plan is basically get her to fold, if he can get her on the floor, he’s about eighty percent sure he can take her out without snapping her neck.

Granted, that’s just assuming she’s like the biggest guy he ever took down. Maybe he better round up on her skill level just to be safe and assume it won’t be that easy.

Of course! :) Let me know if this is okay or if I need to rewrite it.

[cloneororiginal]

HYDRA never out right say he couldn't have weapons with him. All Sarah stated was that her gun was taken away to avoid shooting him on sight. She wasn't always trigger happy, but she fell into that mood when she was pissed off. The woman's temper was easy to trigger, but she didn't let it control her. No, she kept an additional weapon tucked in her boot, a knife, just in case she has to go for hand to hand combat--like now. However, she wasn't going to resort to that. No, Matt needed to learn to come prepared. At least he was managing to stay up on his two feet...

For now.

If he managed to survive this training exercise, he might have the luxury to live another day. At least he was smart enough to stop talking, no more teasing or quirky quips. He needs to fight like his life depends on it. He needs to fight to kill, and that instinct hasn't been drilled into him like it had been with her. The nature vs nurture argument and founding question that started the Leda project, went out the window when the girls were in their young teens. The truth was revealed to them and that started them on their path to becoming monsters. Living weapons who could carry out missions and make it seem like the work of an individual person. Matt needs to learn that lesson quick, unless he wants to be dragged out in a body bag.

He trained to be a boxer at one point in his life, judging by how he's setting himself up, keeping his arms close to his side at times. The punch he tried to throw at her was missed, but his knee came into contact with her chest. The wind is momentarily knocked out of her as pain floods her mind for a brief second. Then, it's locked out. Though her body is on the floor, she doesn't leave herself an open target. She doesn't roll over onto her stomach to give Matt the chance to put in her a headlock.

Instead, she delivers a strong kick to his knee, forcing him to get down to her level. If she broke or popped his knee out of place, it wasn't her concern. He needed to learn his place.

"You're not pushing yourself," she told him in a serious tone, moving to get the upper hand and pin him down by straddling him and drawing out her blade and pressing it to his neck, right at his artery. The slightest move and the blade would cut into his neck. he would be a bloody mess on the floor. Unless he wanted to risk it and try to break free of her hold.

"This is a fight for your life every day. Doesn't matter who gets killed in the process. Only the strong survive, the weak will die--burn that into your mind if you want to live the night."