Like with most of her objections to their training styles so far, Kara found herself with her mouth open, and no good responses on her tongue. Her first instinct was to say “random thieves are Batgirl’s job” but knew doing so would only set her up for failure. (Also, it called out her best friend, and she liked Barbara too much to do that to her.) Still disregarding Artemis’ words, though, she only felt like more time was being wasted here that could be used toning her powers. When Kal-El and Diana agreed on “training” for her, she expected to be practicing accuracy with her laser vision, or measuring her speed from point A to point B. Instead, she was being forced to numb down her powers to the most boring possible level and play fake battles against this vile woman again and again.
“I bet Powergirl never had to take fencing lessons.” Kara grumbled under her breath, before re-equipping the sword she had been asked to work with in the first place. Holding the wooden blade like it were a toothpick, Kara sighed with frustration, and stepped back into her fighter’s stance. Everything about this felt unnatural. Her feet were awkward, there was no good way to hold the damn thing - these inconveniences all being fueled further by the knowledge that one flick could topple her opponent into next week. “Happy thoughts, Kara, happy thoughts…” She muttered to herself, feeling ridiculous with her sword drawn. “They know what’s best… or something.”
Parry. Engage. Dodge. Feint. Kara put every trick she had learned down to practice, light on her feet that she kept anchored to the ground as she watched Artemis with pinpoint precision. That wasn’t enough, though, since keeping her powers dulled down meant holding a massive burden on her shoulders, and practically perpetually being distracted from her mission. She tried not to let this bother her, but one loose slip-up, and the Amazon got the best of her again, disarming the sword from her hand. Kara instinctively raised her arms up for defense, which just left her entire lower body open - another sweep of the leg, and she was down.
Rather than unceremoniously collapse onto the ground this time, Kara stopped herself just before hitting the grass, hovering lightly over the field. Her arms crossed in front of her as her eyelids dropped to half-mast, taking deep breaths to control herself. “Okay.” She huffed, moving a hand up to pinch the end of her nose. After a moment to breathe, she floated back to her feet, sweeping her blonde hair behind her as she sulked. “Okay, okay. I get it, you want me to be protected in case I lose my powers. But seriously, miss, people don’t use swords anywhere but here!” Kara tried to appeal, scooping her test sword from off the ground. “Just let me use my hands once, I promise you’ll see how much more effective that is!”
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