When I arrive, I bring the fire.

Usually Serenity made it a point not to train in the battle arena, thanks to the fact that most students enjoyed bothering her there for information on what would be coming up in her next class. Today was an acception though, partly because classes had been cancelled for some holiday and partly because it was late afternoon bordering into the evening. The woman in question was already one hour into her exercise, or as she liked to call it training. It seemed ridiculous since she was a teacher now and not an assassin anymore. Old habits died hard though and today Serenity had taken it upon herself to practice some close combat.

The memory of being caught by a man that she had been trying to help Cade with still made Serenity feel irritated. It was either that she was getting rusty or old, or both. The idea was enough to motivate the woman to work particularly harder today. With every hit that she swung at the dummies, the manner in which they were set up allowed them to retaliate making it so the woman could practice being offensive and defensive all at once.

Of course, it was no where near the real thing and Serenity was well aware of that. Despite the fact that Serenity was blind, her expression as she moved might have suggested other wise. She found herself using her senses a lot more than she typically did in a day by day basis, after all changing careers had caused her to relax just a tiny bit. Today was different and Serenity couldn't help but smile as she moved through the dummies. Every little sound she felt as if she were hearing it louder than before. Yes, it had been awhile since she had really worked herself like this.

Deciding to take a momentary break, Serenity took a seat on the ground turning her head up toward the sky. Briefly smelling the air a frown etched across her features, it was going to rain later this evening. She'd have to finish up soon if she didn't want to get soaked.

Even on holidays Cade still came into class. Frankly, he felt like he could never get work done at home, especially since he still hadn’t cleared the clutter from his search for his biological parents. One thing at a time and currently he had a stack of assignments to grade. Some of which contained student he was less proud of than others, including the ones who didn’t know the answer and instead put a snarky comment because they didn’t care what grade they got. Though, he did give part marks to the ones that actually made him laugh whether or not that was a good teaching method was uncertain to him, but sometimes it was good to promote cleverness.

Though, as he was just about halfway through his pile, Cade noticed something out of the corner of his eye and out the window next to his desk. Serenity was going toe to toe with some testing dummies. While it was hardly an impressive sight compared to the quick smack down she gave the thugs from the other night, it peaked his interest more so than his students’ lack luster performance on their assignments. His vision quickly switched back to a bag that he had sitting in the corner of his room, maybe he’d take a break and give his co-worker another visit. He quickly snatched up the bag and began to take a leisure stroll down toward the battle arena.

Luckily, unlike the last time he tried to meet up with another staff member at the arena, Serenity was still there albeit a bit more tired from her work out than when he spotted her earlier. He would question her training at the arena considering how she expressed her distaste for the place before, but it was a day off so they both didn’t quite expect to see any students wandering around the school.

Cade dropped the bag off at the entrance, leaving what was inside of it for later as he began to approach the teacher. Hopefully she was a bit cooled off from their last encounter, but he’d be lying if he said he wouldn’t miss having hot tempered Seren around. “You know, they say that repetition is the best way to learn, although I don’t quite see how beating up an unmoving target would teach you anything” he spoke smoothly as he stopped not too far from the teacher’s sitting quarters. His arms were held behind his back as though he was prepping his appearance for the woman despite the fact she couldn't appreciate the view.

Serenity took a deep breath before standing up and just as she did, a familiar voice came to her ears. In fact, she had heard him when he had dropped his bag at the entrance of the arena. For the time being the woman in question was clad in a black tank top with what looked like bandages underneath. It seemed as though she had wrapped her whole entire upper body, but only bit of it could be seen through her tank top. In addition she wore simple shorts, having left most of her things in her classroom that she never used.

"Are you offering yourself up to me then?" Serenity snapped back at his smooth way of speaking, she didn't have to even see him to know that the man must have walked into the arena with a cocky attitude. It was all in the way that he spoke and the thought made her grit her teeth just for a moment.

It didn’t take long for the woman to assume the reason behind his appearance, she always was a straight to the point type of person. As much as Cade loved to fluff his speech with words that weren’t entirely necessary, he did enjoy some straight forward conversations as well. “Sure, why not. I’ll call up that street lamp to be my tag team partner and we can both have our long awaited round two. Although, I think we’d still be at a disadvantage despite the fact that the street lamp was able to get a good hit on you” he joked with a bit of an airy chuckle hidden underneath.

Cade began to take off his vest and as he did he noticed that Serenity’s attire was much more fitting for such a sparring. His dress shirt and khakis were hardly the type for brawling, but he had many versions of the same outfit back at home anyways and if he lost a pair he could easily just clone another. After a roll of his sleeves and a toss of his vibrant red vest, he was as ready to fight as he ever was going to be. Though, he was unsure whether or not he should allow himself to fight dirty, it was just a friendly competition after all. A display of his full strength would be to use everything he could with no hold guard, but something with lasting effects was out of the question. Whether or not the woman felt the same way was unclear.

“Alright, let’s see it then” he announced as he readied his body, reinforcing his footing and cementing his eyes on the woman. He began to wonder if this was going to turn out to be one of those rare kind of bad ideas, you know the kind that might get him hospitalized. Well, at least he’d get a few more days off work.

Serenity let out a small sigh at Cade, briefly catching the sound of his breath as he finished his teasing. "You'll need more than a street lamp to help you when I'm done with you." She said to Cade with a smirk, listening to the removal of some of the clothing that Cade was wearing. It was obvious to her that he wasn't as nearly prepared for this type of sparring as she was. As he announced that he was ready, Serenity popped her fingers for a moment before stretching her arms. "Very well then." she then said to him, stepping toward him - careful not to make the same mistake that she had with the man from before. Dipping low, Serenity swung her leg out aiming a kick with intention of hitting the back of Cade's legs.

Cade watched tentatively as the woman dropped to the ground, in the second that she did he locked his feet into the ground in preparation. He already had the advantage in terms of height, but with Serenity so near to the ground and preparing a low sweep of his feet he knew that she’d be horribly off balanced by swinging one of her limbs at him. Since he had an eye on her from the get go, he already had a better chance at fending off the attack. The advantage he was given at this angle was too great for him to give up, so he braved his co-worker’s sweep which sent a jolt of pain straight up his left leg, but he stood his ground and soldiered on so that the kick didn’t pass through to get to his other leg.

Cade then tightened his palm and targeted the woman quickly so that she was given less recovery time after her attempt at him. He wound his arm quickly and released like a piston straight to Serenity’s chest to knock her off balance and hopefully push her to the ground. After the recoil, he hopped to the right slightly so that he wasn’t directly in front of the woman anymore. “Ooh, that was a good one. I gotta jot that one down” he remarked sarcastically.

Serenity heard him move before his hand connected with her chest, dodging just in time to stand back up and swing a punch at the man. She wasn't too familiar with how he fought, since this was the first time the two of them were actually sparring in the first place. There wasn't a dramatic enough height difference between them either, but she knew she had to figure out how to use something to her advantage. In the mean time, Serenity threw a few more punches in hopes of hitting him in his sides. As she did so though, the sudden sound of thunder ripped through the sky - causing one of her punches to completely go the opposite of where Cade was.

As he should have expected, a short hop and a skip away from Serenity did not get Cade out of the fray just yet. A serious swing preluded a flurry of punches that were rapidly heading toward his position, the woman liked to play heavy it seemed, looking for a chance for a quick KO as soon as possible. That hardly gave him time to strategize, he preferred something that was long winded to allow creative thought, but the Power Training teacher wasn’t having any of it. The man sucked in his gut and leaned his torso as far back as he could to avoid the body shots that she was firing off. Although the roar of thunder seemed to sidetrack them both, it made the teacher’s final shot wonky which opened a new realm of possibilities for Cade.

“The Gods demand more” he offhandedly commented. It was high time he made his strike back, so he rushed at the woman within seconds of her fury fists being over with and swiftly yet powerfully jabbed his knee toward her gut or lower region, whichever came first it didn’t matter. As he did, Cade clasped his hands together and wound them up in the advent that Serenity caught him by his leg.

Thanks to the thunder that had caught her off guard, Serenity was not prepared for the knee to the gut. Losing her breath momentarily, the woman let out a small laugh and then reached forward with open palms to smack both of Cade's ears to throw off his equilibrium. It was a cheap move, but she knew now that she needed to end this fast if she wanted to win. In the distance another bout of thunder ripped through the sky, any time now it would start raining and the woman would find herself useless.

Unfortunately for Cade, his attempt at charging his next attack was in vain as the woman’s strike to his ears off set him too much. After the impact Cade could’ve sworn his ears were ringing, but that could’ve been a combination of the thunder storm going on around him in addition to the blow to his auditory nerves. He stumbled back a bit and his disorientation only lasted for a couple seconds before he was able to bring himself back into the fight.

Rushing at the woman was doing just as much damage to him as it was to her because every time he got close that left an opening for his opponent. Perhaps he could enact the same strategy against Serenity, disorienting her senses that is. No doubt her vision was mostly based on sound and the shock that passed through the ground whenever he moved, so maybe he could use that more to his advantage. Was it unfair? Maybe, but this exercise was meant for training purposes. In a real rumble an opponent would use whatever tactic they could and this being one of her major flaws she had to learn how to combat against it. Repetition was the one of the better methods of learning.

Cade shook his head to dislodge any disorientation he had left and began to rapidly stomp his feet in different places around himself. He slid his feet against the ground as though he was prepared to run in a certain direction several different times and then leapt at the woman with his arm straighten out in order to clothesline her.

The realization that she had thrown Cade off balance brought a slight smile to the woman's face, the smile last only a couple of seconds though as she realized that he had caught on to how she was predicting his moves. The woman couldn't have predicted his next attack even if he tried, before she knew it she was getting hit in the windpipe and a flash of frustration went through her body. If she was going to go down, she sure as hell was going to bring him with her.

Just as she was thrown off balance the woman grabbed Cade with both of her arms by the arm that he was using, maneuvering one of her legs in the mean time to wrap around his. Her intentions were for both of them to become tangled and to fall on their sides together. It was all the while during this that the rain had finally started, a slow sprinkle at first that sped up as more time went by.

Cade probably should have figured that Serenity would have a mode of retaliation no matter how he tried to approach her. Saying that she was very combat capable would be a harsh understatement toward her exceled fighting skills. As he felt the woman’s limbs wrap around his own he knew that it’d be all over if she took him down. So, since his others limbs were still ready and available, he wrapped one leg around the woman’s back and ground his heel into her stomach while they were still in freefall. Like a frustrated teenage girl’s hair in the morning they were tangled with one another, although it might take more than a hair brush to separate the two now.

The light droplets of water were hardly noticeable to Cade at first since his focus was strongly toward his opponent, but after they were laid on the ground for a certain amount of time it became a bit clearer that the thunder from earlier wasn’t only for dramatic effect. His face was met with hers, while at first his was flustered with the situation he quickly grew into a very sly humorous one. In simpler terms, his frown turned upside down. He briefly gave out a wheeze of a chuckle as he panted for the purposes of regaining his breath while he still could.

He wriggled his arm that was within Serenity’s grasp, but like an obsessive fan her grip rivaled that of a crab’s pincer. “Well, I suppose a stalemate is in order… unless you want to wait for the ground under us to turn to mud. Might turn the tides” he spoke airily as he tried to stop his eyes from honing in on hers despite the fact he knew very well that she was blind.

Satisfied that she had taken Cade down with her, Serenity let go of the man and turned onto her back and let out a small laugh. "If I didn't know any better you'd like rolling around in the mud with me." She said to him, attempting to catch her breath at the same time. The presence of the rain as it picked up caused Serenity to frown then, realistically with rain the woman should be able to see more than she ever could before - but since the sound echoed off of so many places it was only cause to confuse her.

It was more like she didn't know where everything was, since she had been in the battle arena so many times before it wasn't like anything had really changed. It was like having your vision blurred to the point that the things you thought you knew looked like something else completely. "How come you've never asked me how I move around? Most people are curious about that."

Cade followed in suit with Serenity by flipping himself onto his back, though not intentionally. The rain began to pelt his face like he was under a large scale shower set to cold. It wasn’t to the point of annoyance just yet, it was more so like a soothing massage of his face muscles though it was quickly overstaying its welcome the longer he laid there. “Me? You continue with your innuendos and I’ll start believing you’re the one who’d be wanting to roll in the mud with me. I’m flattered to say the least” he spoke with a sly inflection on his tone.

As the Power Training teacher mentioned why her way of seeing didn’t strike his curiosity, he quickly realized that she was probably blind now more than ever. If his radical foot movements were enough to disguise himself from her during the fight, he couldn’t even imagine how much the pounding of rain was throwing her off. He raised his back as he positioned himself in more of a sitting formation as he looked back at the woman with a bit of a cautiously concerned countenance. If she hollered for it, he’d get her out. “I wouldn’t want to pander you with such questions. People probably ask you that all the time. I might seem like an annoyance to you, but I at least like to be original when coming up with ways of getting on people’s nerves” he jested as he folded his legs. His clothes might be getting dirtier with every second he waited, but his khakis were already brown, so it wasn’t like it was going to be hard to wash out.

Even when Cade moved to sit up, Serenity continued to lay on her back closing her eye lids despite the fact that even if water got into her eyes she wouldn't notice anyways. "It wouldn't be boring, I know at least that much." Serenity then said quietly with a strange sort of tone. She had been able to at least find out more of his appearance through their brief fighting, although only through bits and pieces. "You think I find those sort of questions annoying?" She said to him then, briefly hoisting herself up on her elbows as the rain started to pick up more. "I don't have any sort of power when it comes to hearing, I'm just able to hear a lot better than your average person. I move around by listening." She said to him then, not even bothering to wait for him to ask her even questions (she figured he wouldn't anyway).

A thought occurred to her then that caused the woman suddenly to sit up with a flash of irritation through her face. "Why am I even telling you this? You just said you didn't want to ask me." Serenity chewed her lower lip then, a habit that wasn't too common for the normally tough woman. "What would it take for you to just stop bothering me?" she finally said to him then, tensing her hands into fists. It was uncomfortable for her to tell anyone anything about herself and yet she found herself speaking easily to Cade as if he had known her all his life.