strangetrip | Let's measure our.... Egos (closed to Peter)

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Let's measure our.... Egos (closed to Peter)

Peter was the one who wanted this fight. Alec would totally use this as his excuse even though, yes, he was technically the adult and sure, he could say no to the whole thing. But the kid needed to learn he didn't know everything and that there were plenty of people here who could help him get better. The kid needed to learn to stop hiding behind the 'I'm a superhero so therefore I can do everything' and learn help is... Helpful.

And, okay, yes. Alec wanted to win, too.

So Alec stood in the parking lot at the allotted time demanded by the 15 year-old Spiderman and waited casually with his hands in his pockets, though he was keenly aware of his surroundings in case the kid wanted to start off with a big surprise.

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There are no surprises, because Peter would think that was cheating. Sure, in combat, there's no guarantees that your opponent will "play fair" or feel the need to subscribe to a particular code of conduct. But that didn't mean that Peter had to stoop to their level.

Peter walks out to the parking lot, garbed in his Spider-Man costume. He stops a few yards away and greets Alec with a friendly wave.

"Hey," he says.

Alec was trying so hard not to judge Peter right now, but man did that kid look dorky. He was very glad Manticore was not big on costumes.

"Hey." He offered up a nod in greeting. "So, any ground rules you want?"

"If someone calls Uncle, the match is over. It's also over if the other person can't say Uncle, 'cause they're down."

Peter shifts where he stands, the mechanical eyes of the Spidey suit narrowed slightly on Alec.

"Do you want any ground rules?"

A slight smirk tugged on the corners of his lips. "Just promise me that spider fluid of yours is synthetic and we're all good."

Peter's eyes narrow even more in frustration. Why does Alec always have to say stuff like that? He seemed to take such great joy out of being disgusting.

"It's synthetic," Peter assures him, annoyed. "I made myself in science lab."

"Of course you did."

Alec took a few steps forward and took his hands out of his pockets. He brought his hands up in a defensive stance. "Okay, let's get this over with."

Peter unconsciously takes the same stance as Alec, mentally deliberating as to whether or not he should make the first move, or wait for Alec to go first. One of his major problems was overthinking things, and the more he thought about it, the less of an answer he had.

But not having an answer meant that he didn't do anything at all, which meant that he defaulted to the latter, waiting for Alec to throw the first punch.

He had to give it to the kid. Waiting for the first move was usually the best option in a fight like this. Closing the gap gave the other person time to read moves, usually.

Alec closed the gap, walking with intent, but nothing more. If this were a real fight, he'd have weapons on him, but he didn't want to hurt Peter. At least not in any long-lasting way.

Once he was close enough, Alec threw a series of punches and kicks in his direction. They were a little more pointed than they were last time they fought when Alec was holding back. Now, Alec was only holding back his speed.

Peter, on the other hand, doesn't hold back at all. He's in this to win it, to prove to Alec that despite all his doubts, he does know what he's doing, and that he's not just some inexperienced kid running around in a leotard spraying fluid everywhere.

Peter manages to block a few of the punches and kicks, but not every one, and he's having a hard time getting a hit in edgewise. Then he finally spots an opening.

As Alec pulls back his arm to strike him, Peter shoots a web down at one of his feet, hoping that since he's not about to kick him, it might actually find its target.

What does find its target is Alec's fist -- and since Peter wasn't braced for the attack, he's pushed back a few feet from the impact.

"That actually hurt," Peter says, moving back into a defensive position.

He felt the webbing hit his foot, only managing to move so his foot wasn't completely covered, and he swore internally to himself. "Punches will do that." He remembered the kid enjoyed banter, right.

Alec was at a bit of a disadvantage, having never dealt with the web substance before. He tested it with his foot. He pushed forward, then pulled backwards. There was little give. There was a weakness to it, though, and without a lot of deliberation, Alec rolled his ankle, spraining it instantly, though because he had done it himself he didn't react to it except for a bit of a tight verbal exhale between tight lips. The webbing broke enough from the angle and he was free.

Manticore taught you to fight through the pain. Besides, he was already healing.

Alright, speed it was, then. Even with the sprained ankle, he's quick, but there aren't any kicks this time. Not until his ankle heals a little more as they fight. It's all upper body movements and trying to get around to Peter's back.

"Whoa!"

There's no mistaking Peter's look of bewilderment when Alec suddenly rolls his ankle and pulls out. He's going to have to work harder to try and get him really pinned down, especially if he can just pull himself out of it like that.

Before he knows it, Alec's trying to get behind him, and Peter has to circle to try and keep the other man in front of him.

Boxers manage to make this look surprisingly easy, but when you're trying to block a flurry of blows while also dispensing them, it's not nearly as easy as the circle-and-occasional-jab method he saw them use on TV.

"If you're trying to teach me a lesson," Peter begins, "shouldn't you explain what you're trying to do?"

If Alec could read minds - and what a scary thought that would be - he'd have told Peter that spraining your own ankle wasn't easy. And then he'd tell Peter he did a stint as a professional cage fighter.

Alec tilted his head just a little and then jumped up into the air. His lips pressed tightly together, ignoring the pain. In the air he came back down quickly with two punches.

Lesson number 1 kid, not everyone monologues their plans.

Peter manages to block the first one, but the second comes down on his face, and for a second there, he doesn't see anything at all.

But somehow, his eyes snap back into focus before he can fall to the ground, and he does a couple of backflips to position himself further away from Alec so he can have a second to recover.

Karen's voice chimes in from within his mask. "You appear to be having a hard time. Would you like my assistance, Peter?"

Annoyance floods Peter's body. "No, Karen. I got this!"

Then suddenly, Peter launches himself towards Alec, propelling himself into a forward flip with the hopes that his feet will manage to knock him down to the ground. All he needs to win this fight is to knock Alec prone long enough to hit him with the webshooters, right?

Right?

"Who the hell is Karen?" Alec had to wonder if he was so used to banter that maybe the kid made up an imaginary friend to talk to if his opponent was quiet one. It's enough a distraction that Peter his feet make contact and send him flying to the ground. Only grabbed hold of Peter's feet in an attempt to fling the kid over his head, using the momentum of his fall to do it.

"The AI --" Peter manages to get out as he struggles against Alec's grip around his feet, but the struggle proves futile; he manages to flip Peter over almost effortlessly. "--in my suit!"

Peter hits the ground, then quickly starts kicking with his feet to get Alec to relinquish his hold on him.

Alec let go of Peter's feet and did a kick up to be back on his feet, then turned around to face the kid. He should have attacked again, being prone made for an easier target in combat, but Alec, for some reason, couldn't quite bring himself to attack him prone.

"So you have someone helping you, huh?" But it didn't stop Alec from making what he said sound belittling to goad Peter.

Peter jumps backwards and onto his feet; he's back on the defensive.

"No, I don't!" Peter counters defensively. "I already told Karen to stay out of it!"

"I can confirm. All helper applications have been turned off at this time."

"Tell him that," Peter snips, as he closes in on Alec.

"Without special modifications, it is impossible for me to communicate with anyone who is not wearing your suit"

Peter lets out a long-suffering sigh, and throws a series of punches and kicks at Alec.

"You feeling winded yet?"

It was that kind of reaction that Alec was expecting from Peter. He really needed to get over this whole 'I don't need help' thing. All good soldiers knew you were stronger in a unit.

Some of the hits connected, but Alec fended them off. Peter also needed to stop letting his feelings dictate his fighting strategy.

"You really need to work on your anger, kid."

Alec went for a kick to Peter's inner knee, hoping to ground the kid again while bringing an elbow up to the side of his face.

The kick hits, and Peter falls to a single knee --

-- just in time for his Alec to strike the side of his face with his elbow.

Peter can taste blood in his mouth, but he can't bring himself to call Uncle. Not yet. Not when he's still capable of fighting.

"You can lecture me when you work on that yourself!"

He sends a line of webslinging fluid at Alec's chest -- and if he can manage it, he'll pull him closer towards him, then throw both of his feet at him before using the force of that impact to do a backflip.

Edited 2018-03-14 18:50 (UTC)

Alec had never seen the webbing be used this way and so had no way of anticipating. He felt his body lurch forward - a reminder of how strong the kid really was - and the feet made contact too.

Alec went flying into the side of the large, green garbage can meant for a garbage truck. He felt the pain run through his body like a flash. Ow.

He pushed off slowly from the sight indent on the can. "You think I have anger issues?" Interesting.

And damn, Alec was buying into Peter's banter.

"Nice trick."

"I never rammed my fist through a vending machine," Peter points out. "Or picked fights with 15-year olds."

Peter's waiting before he attacks again. He's not going to hit Alec when he's already down.

Alec straightened. "Dude. You're the one who asked for this." And he hadn't been mad at the machine, just reckless.

Still, Alec moved towards Peter. This time he slid towards Peter like Alec was a baseball player sliding to home plate. He was expecting Peter to jump. If he did, Alec would use his strength to pop off the ground and round house kick the kid in the stomach. If Peter didn't jump, he'd try to catch the kid as he fell and roll on top of him.

"Yeah, I asked for it," Peter says, defensively. "But I didn't ask for you to punch me that day in the hallway."

Alec's intuition was correct; Peter jumped nimbly to avoid him and was rewarded with a kick in the stomach; he's slammed back to the ground, the back of his head hitting hard against the gravel of the parking lot.

Peter peels himself off the parking lot. He's feeling worn down at this point (his healing ability doesn't work as quickly as Alec's does), but he can't bring himself to give up. Not yet. He can't let Alec win. Not when he said all that stuff about being competent, about being better than Alec thought.

But right now, it was getting hard to think tactics; his head was spinning. Peter shoots webbing at Alec's hands, hoping to temporarily bind them together like handcuffs. If he can just disable him, he could just win that way. Right?

Alec made a face when the kid hit the ground and had expected him to stay down. when he didn't, he inwardly sighed.

"You okay to keep going?" Alec had bruises, but hadn't taken a hit as hard as a few of Peter's.

His hands were bound, but Alec took this as an opportunity. He pulled hard, hoping to bring Peter to him. Normally he'd do a heatbutt, but he was worried about giving the kid a concussion so he moved to kick the kid in the stomach if he managed to get Peter flying in his direction.

"Yeah, I'm okay," Peter warbles defensively, even as he knows he is Very Much Not Okay. It

And earlier in the fight before he sustained a few injuries, Peter might have been able to held his own against Alec when he pulled at him, but now, he wasn't; despite his best efforts, he's pulled towards Alec, and knocked back to the ground when Alec kicks him in the stomach.

This time, Peter does not get up.

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