Who: Kara and Diana What: Sparring and discovering Kara's invincibility on accident. When: Early April Where: A gym Warnings: Family friendly
Diana always liked making new friends, and she’d liked Kara thus far from the times they’d talked on the network. But knowing that they shared a dream world, or at least they both dreamt of worlds where Superman existed, made it even more special. Plus, Diana always liked working out and teaching people some martial arts. Not that she could really define her hand-to-hand combat skills as martial arts because they were different, but it was better than calling them hand-to-hand combat moves. Others overhearing that might get the wrong impression. So out in public? Martial arts would be used.
Having given Kara the address of a gym they could workout in, Diana had arrived a bit early so she could warm up and get a little weight lifting in. Not too much because she didn’t want to show off or do too much. Though after she finished a couple sets of weights, Diana went over to the open area with mats on the floor where she and Kara could workout easily, and she started to stretch as she waited for her friend to show up. Wearing a tanktop and having her hair in a ponytail did show off her well-defined muscles in her torso.
Kara was looking forward to meeting Diana. Hell she had been looking forward to meeting Diana ever since she’d first talked to her on the Network. Knowing that there was another person out there who had a few similar powers and also dreamt of a world with Superman had piqued her interest immediately. So when Diana had suggested teaching her hand to hand combat, she jumped at the chance.
Following the directions that Diana had given her, Kara reached the gym and headed inside. Not only had she gotten used to her super strength, but she’d begun to gain control over it either through force of will or as a result of the more recent dreams she’d had. Either way, she hoped they didn’t accidently break anything.
It definitely wasn’t easy keeping control of super strength. Diana had some problems with it herself, but her powers seemed to be growing gradually as she dreamed. That was probably a good thing, after all she’d had more time in the dreams to come into her powers, which hadn’t really happened until she’d left Themyscira and began to discover them. Somehow she didn’t think having all her powers be at full strength right away was the best thing, so she was adjusting and being careful about using her super strength.
She’d finished a stretch and stood back up straight when she noticed Kara arrive, recognizing her from the Network. She smiled warmly and moved over to greet her. “You must be Kara. It is a pleasure to meet you.”
Spotting Diana was easy. Even if Kara hadn’t known what she looked like, from the Network, there was no denying that this woman was an Amazon. “Hi. Yeah, I’m Kara. It’s nice to meet you too.” Just looking at Diana, Kara couldn’t imagine that she’d be able to best her at all. Even with super strength. “I hope you weren’t waiting for me for long.” It hadn’t been hard to find the gym, but Kara always worried that she was making people wait. “So, how do we start?”
Diana did stick out, not only was she tall, but she was muscular. But she had an easy smile for Kara. “Not at all, I actually came a little early. I wanted to do some weights first.” She liked keeping herself in shape, and she definitely made time to workout at a gym regularly. And when she couldn’t get to a gym, she did some workouts at her home. “Have you had any hand-to-hand training? Martial arts or anything of the sort?” She was curious on the matter, and she didn’t want to go over the basics if Kara already had a feeling for them.
Kara shook her head, her blond ponytail swaying, “Nope. None. It’s never really been something that I’ve needed.” Alex on the other hand did have hand to hand combat training and had offered to teach Kara in the past, but Kara had never really been interested. Alex needed to know it for her job, but Kara didn’t. “My sister has offered to teach me before, but I always declined.”
“Understandable. It was not something I thought I would need either.” Diana, in this life, had learned archery, something her mother had taught her. But her other fighting skills had all come from her dreams. She’d been taught by the best, and she strove to not disappoint Antiope in such things. “Alright, first, you need a good stance and center of balance. Keep your feet a shoulder width apart and knees slightly bent. Being too rigid in your stance will negate any attempts to be effective while fighting.” Diana demonstrated. “It is important to be fluid.”
“Alright. Fluid, not rigid.” Kara attempted to recreate Diana’s stance, but knew that she didn’t look quite as good as the other woman did. It seemed like it came naturally to Diana, but felt strange to Kara, “Like this?” She raised her fists to complete her attempt at a fighting stance.
Diana looked over Kara’s stance. “You have the idea,” she praised with a smile, reaching out to adjust Kara’s elbows. “I know it probably feels strange, but the more you practice, the easier it shall come. Practice makes perfect, I believe the saying is?” She noted with some amusement. She’d never thought she’d be a teacher like this. Nevertheless, she was excited to help teach Kara some fighting techniques. “You also want to keep your weight on the balls of your feet, it helps with moving.”
Kara let Diana adjust her stance, “It does a little, but yeah, I’ve heard that saying quite a lot.” People seemed to say it about almost anything that required even a little bit of practice, “Have you been doing this long yourself?” She adjusted her stance a little to try and rest her weight on the balls of her feet.
“It can be a tired saying, my mother always said something similar to me when I was growing up.” While she had a slight tone of disliking that, Diana was more amused by it now. “In this life, not overly long. At least with hand-to-hand fighting skills. My mother taught me archery, and several aspects of that can surprisingly translate to learning how to fight.” She smiled a bit, noting Kara’s stance. “Alright, now we’re going to try punching.” Diana explained the best way to make a fist so that one did not break their hand when punching someone or something else. At least not on the first try.
Kara did as Diana instructed, her stance and the fists she made feeling more natural the longer she held them. Remembering that she couldn’t actually hurt Diana, she threw her first punch, “Like that?” She wasn’t sure if she’d followed through correctly, but it had seemed right to her.
It took a lot to hurt Diana, though she could still bruise and bleed. She just healed rather quickly. There could come a point where Kara could hurt her with a punch, but right now she was fine. Nodding, Diana smiled. “Yes, like that. Try it again,” she encouraged.
With Diana’s encouragement, Kara threw another punch then another, moving closer to the other woman as she did so. “Do you fight like this in your dreams or do you just use one punch and take them down?” Kara seemed to do a lot of dodging and punching in her own dreams, but couldn’t imagine actually hitting someone.
Diana kept up the encouragement, watching Kara’s form. She was getting the hang of it, though if she fought in her dreams, perhaps some muscle memory was coming through. “It depends on who I am fighting. Normal people it usually is one punch and they’re out if I’m not careful about how hard I hit them.” Diana’s strength seemed to know no bounds, and she didn’t even really know how strong she actually was. She just knew that she needed to be careful of it. “Though I try to not kill anyone. I prefer to disarm and force someone to submit and surrender. Monsters, however, are a different matter. I will kill those if they are mindless or are solely focused on hurting people and cannot be reasoned with.”
“I’ve mostly only subdued anyone that I’ve fought in my dreams.” Kara didn’t like that idea of killing someone, even if they were attacking her or other people. Besides with the DEO, once they were subdued, they could be safely held in custody if they were metahumans. “What do you usually do with those that you subdue?” Kara asked, getting a little closer to Diana as she threw another punch, completely focused on the conversation and not so much on exactly what she was doing.
“It depends. The German soldiers I fought in World War I I left for the allied forces to deal with. Decades later, I tracked down a man who preyed on women, I subdued him, tied him up and left him for the authorities to find. So I suppose I leave them for those who can best deal with them. Unless I need information from them, then I use my lasso to compel them to answer me truthfully.” Diana could tell that Kara wasn’t as focused on the punching, but that was to be expected. When fighting wasn’t second nature, it was difficult to multi-task. So Diana decided to take the offensive and see how Kara responded.
Now, Diana’s strength was considerable and she needed to be careful with it. She gave Kara a punch, though it was only enough to knock her back, not put her through a wall. But Diana also wasn’t as controlled as her dream self, so it might’ve been a little more powerful than she intended it to be.
Kara’s brows rose slightly at the mention of Diana’s lasso, “How does your lasso compel people to tell the truth?” Kara was now quite distracted so when Diana threw a punch, although it wasn’t meant to, it knocked Kara back more than it probably would have had Kara been focused.
Stumbling back, Kara expected to feel pain where the punch had landed, but oddly enough she felt little to no pain at all. It was more like a flick and it took her a moment to realize what had happened, “Oh my god...my invincibility….it must…” She looked up at Kara, eyes wide behind her glasses, “I’m invincible!”
“It was given to the Amazons as a gift from the gods ages ago. I took it when I left Themyscira. I could give you a demonstration one day, if you wished.” Diana promised not to make Kara confess anything embarrassing.
Though when Kara stumbled back, Diana’s own eyes widened. She realized she might’ve hit her a little too hard. She really tried to not be conspicuous with her abilities when she was in public. But at least Kara hadn’t gone through a wall or something. They could easily pretend that she’d just lost her footing or something. “Wait, your invincibility? Did you feel my punch?” Diana’s eyebrows drew together in some confusion.
Kara was still in shock over the fact that another one of her abilities had apparently crossed over so it took her a moment to realize that Diana had spoken to her, “Like, a little. It felt almost like a tap instead of a punch.” In a weird way, Kara was grateful to Diana for punching her, because otherwise she might have gone weeks or months before she’d found out that she was now invincible, ‘Oh my god, this is so awesome!”
Well, that was a good thing. At least Diana hadn’t hurt Kara or anything. “That tends to be how it feels for me when people without super-strength hit me.” Some people it felt more like a poke, but those who trained and knew what they were doing could go as hard as a tap. Then there were people like Superman and Steppenwolf who could punch her and it felt like an actual punch. She smiled at Kara. “I am very glad that we discovered that. It would seem you are on your way to getting your abilities.” Of course, if Kara wanted to actually put the invincibility to the test, Diana was an excellent candidate for such a thing.