#combat

[blumineck]

Huge thanks to Richard of the Order of the Blade for throwing me around!

(If you’re in the UK, consider checking them out! The order are a combat school with a really fun and welcoming ethos)

And as always, more bows, swords, and nonesense on Patreon

[kiss-that-knight]

Howard Pyle

[animentality]

[illustratus]

[packpack-killkill]

Mountain Coyote | Wade Payne

[krinkels]

I still want to add some shell chasings, and do some shading touchups or whatever here or there. There's shine left to put on this. Part one of a three part series of drawings that will be made into prints for my etsy store someday. Until then let's just have fun drawing these things on stream.

[tisfunkee]

𝐶𝑂𝑀𝐵𝐴𝑇

𝑟𝑜𝑏𝑒𝑟𝑡 𝑟𝑜𝑏𝑒𝑟𝑡𝑠𝑜𝑛 𝑥 (𝑓𝑒𝑚!)𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑑𝑒𝑟

𝑡𝑎𝑔𝑠/𝑤𝑎𝑟𝑛𝑖𝑛𝑔𝑠: 𝑓𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔, 𝑓𝑙𝑢𝑓𝑓, 𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑡𝑙𝑒 𝑏𝑖𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑠𝑡, 𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑑𝑒𝑟 ℎ𝑎𝑠 𝑛𝑜 𝑝𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟𝑠

𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑑 𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑡: 1.3𝑘

❀˖°⋆˚࿔ 𝜗𝜚˚⋆°˖❀ ❀˖°⋆˚࿔ 𝜗𝜚˚⋆°˖❀ ❀˖°⋆˚࿔ 𝜗𝜚˚⋆°˖❀ ❀˖°⋆˚࿔ 𝜗𝜚˚⋆°˖❀ ❀˖°⋆˚࿔ 𝜗𝜚˚⋆°˖❀

When you got news that you were being put on the Z-Team, you had no idea your fellow teammates would berate you for not having powers. Sure it was inconvenient at times, but you were quick. Strong. Stronger than most of them, really. But, you powered through all the jokes with the help of the team dispatcher.

Robert was nice, almost all of the time. When you needed a second to talk through the channel when you didn’t do so hot on a mission, he was there to listen. When your dog started throwing up and you had no idea what caused it, he told you not to feed it grapes. Well- sure that was random but, it proved a point. Robert was there to help.

And when you and the rest of the team found out he was Mecha-Man, you suddenly felt a lot more comfort in your lack of powers. Hell, Mecha-Man was just a suit. The man underneath was just a normal guy, who stayed fit and up to the task, if fighting as his alter ego ever arose again.

Knowing that he regularly attended SDN’s gym, you decided to go in one day, to find him lifting weights. You closed the door softly and watched as he struggled to lift the bar up. He had two hundred pounds stacked on that thing. You hurry over and grab the bar, and guide it back to the rack. While you do so, Robert stares at you with a smirk.

“What are you doing here, Ms. All Powerful?” He teased, sitting up and wiping his brow with his hoodie sleeve.

You roll your eyes and smile. “It’s embarrassing to admit the truth, so I’ll just say I’m here to workout.”

He squints his eyes and stands up. “Let me guess you want help training?”

“How’d you know?” You ask fidgeting with the hem of your shirt.

“Lucky guess.” He said as he took a drink of his water bottle. You watched as his Adam’s apple bobbed in his throat- woah. Ew. Get it together. “Plus, I heard you talking to Prism about wanting someone to train you.”

“Oh.”

You watch as he crosses the gym and turns on some music over the speakers, he turned down the volume so you could hear him.

“Where do you want to start, Ms. Powerful?” He asks, stepping towards you, his eyes scanning your face.

“Fighting- like, hand to hand combat.” You say, nodding your head. “Please.”

Robert shrugs and nods as he guides you and him closer to the middle of the room. Once you’re away from any equipment or weights, he goes around to fix your stance. His arms gently take your elbows and pull them back. They drag to your shoulders, straightening them, which brings a chill down your spine. Finally he instructs you to pull your feet further apart. Once adjusted, he stands in front of you and spreads his arm.

“Punch me.” He says in his soft monotone voice. At first you thought he was kidding, but as you started at his smirk-less face, you realized he was serious. He wanted you to just punch him.

“Robert I don’t know,” You mutter, barely moving your hands.

“It’s okay,” He drawls your name. “It’s not like I’ll die. I’m a big boy.”

You sigh and swallow any doubt you had, and throw a punch to his gut. He flinches slightly, which causes you to throw a few apologies his way. He tells you it’s alright, and instructs you to punch again. He keeps doing so until you get the form and speed he’s looking for. And apparently that takes nine tries to find. After the ninth punch, he instructs you to stand back and dodge any punches he swings towards your face. So you do. The first one comes at you from the left, so you jump to the right, and duck as his right hands comes swinging at you too. This is was you were good at. Speed. Dodging. Getting out of the danger.

After a few more minutes of practicing your defense, Robert let you take a break.

“I’m gonna head to the water fountains,” You pant.

“That’s far, use my water bottle.” He shrugs, digging through his bag and getting tape for his hands.

You glance over to his water bottle, and slowly pick it up. You thank him quietly as you take a drink, after you wipe some residue off your mouth, he tosses the tape to you.

“Put this on. We’re gonna do more hand to hand.” He murmurs as he watches you roll tape onto your knuckles, which were read from contact with his own palms or abdomen.

After you tape both hands thoroughly, it was off to the races. Punch after punch was thrown as the two of you jump about the room, trying to hit eachother where you could. It was all in good sport too. No hitting each other in the face, or going for the family jewels.

You watch as he smirks when you miss, leading him to kick your feet out from underneath you, making you fall.

“Cmon sweetheart you can do better than that,” he mutters.

Oh that tone irked you. You squint your eyes and furrow your brow as he reaches his hand out for you. You take it and smirk as you pull him down by you, and roll over top of him, pinning him to the ground.

“Oh come on, sweetheart, you can do better than that,” you mock his deep voice with a laugh.

Robert rolls the two of you back so he’s on top of you, and this goes on as you two wrestle across the gym floor, trying to get at least one of them to mutter out submission or at least tap out of the combat.

When you finally tell him to get off so you can get water, he laughs with that smug sarcastic huff and watches as you go over and take a drink of his water, chest heaving from tire.

“You did good.” He said, approaching your side and peeling off his tape. “Don’t know why you’re so worried about training.”

“What do you mean? If I’m powerless I gotta stay ahead of the game.” You shrug.

He shakes his head, “Don’t think you realize how strong you are.”

You look at him confused as he heads towards the locker rooms. Once he enters you’re left alone with your thoughts. Why did he even bother to train you, if he knew you were strong. Or at least strong enough to fight him. Besides, he was one of the world’s most legendary super heroes. That had to mean something.

After catching your breath for a few more minutes, you notice he left his bag on one of the benches. You bunch it on your shoulder and lug it to the locker room doors. You knock a few times, but he doesn’t answer. After waiting for a bit you step inside and set it by the door, before shutting it you glance up to see Robert standing there, towel around his waist, and an eyebrow raised on that stupidly attractive face.

“Didn’t know you used the little boys room now.” He said, crossing his arms, that Robert smirk ghosting his lips.

“Shit-“ You stammer. “I was just dropping off your bag, didn’t know you were right by the door.”

“It’s alright it happens,” He waves you off as he picks up his bag. He turns around to set it on the bench. When he turns to leave, he finds you right in his face. Your cheeks were tinted pink and your breath hitched before quickly kissing him on the cheek.

“Thank you for helping me,” You murmur. “And for putting up with my powerless crap.”

He laughed and watched as you stand there for a moment longer, just before turning around and scrambling out of the locked room.

“Anytime, Ms. Powerful.” He called after you, shaking his head with a laugh.

❀˖°⋆˚࿔ 𝜗𝜚˚⋆°˖❀ ❀˖°⋆˚࿔ 𝜗𝜚˚⋆°˖❀ ❀˖°⋆˚࿔ 𝜗𝜚˚⋆°˖❀ ❀˖°⋆˚࿔ 𝜗𝜚˚⋆°˖❀ ❀˖°⋆˚࿔ 𝜗𝜚˚⋆°˖❀

Yearning for this man.