cloneororiginal: (Conflicted)
Sarah Manning ([personal profile] cloneororiginal) wrote2016-03-09 08:38 pm

closed to [personal profile] blindstrike

"...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.
blindstrike: do not take (304)

[personal profile] blindstrike 2016-04-14 08:36 am (UTC)(link)
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.
blindstrike: do not take - no glasses (318)

[personal profile] blindstrike 2016-05-03 08:44 am (UTC)(link)

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.
blindstrike: do not take - no glasses (251)

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

[personal profile] blindstrike 2016-05-08 08:09 am (UTC)(link)
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.