Time for some "whupping" {Anime Zoe Immortalington}

“What did that dummy ever do to you?” A voice asked before a girl with bright green eyes came into view.  Emery’s face was framed by shoulder length dark auburn color; across her back were two twin blades, their handles wrapped in wire and leather making for a comfortable grip.

She studied the boy intently in front of her; he seemed to be new as his stance was all wrong but the daughter of Hecate had been incorrect before. Her state of appearance was a orange camp t-shirt, a light jacket, jeans, and a pair of battered converse. The gymnast yawned, appearing bored before investigating the damage wrought on the training dummy.

Emery poked it with a finger before turning back to the boy; he was obviously wound to tight, way to tight. From the way he whirled around earlier she assumed that he was waiting for someone to take advantage of him.


“Your fighting stance is to narrow,” She stated finally, drawing her swords and flipping them around in her fingers.

Emery sighed and sheathed her sword again, adopting a fighting stance with the lower half of her body, demonstrating for the newbie.

“When you wield your sword, you’re like this. If I were to hit you, you would fall over because your balance is off center.” Emery shifted her stance so she was in proper fighting position, “Were as here, you are centered and won’t fall over.”


Then the gymnast noticed the hawk and she tilted her head back to view its progress. She assumed it was the kid’s as it seemed to be heading toward them. Emery moved away, eyeing the pull-up bar and hauling herself up into a vertical push up position, the muscle standing out rigid on her arm.

His eyes moving over the contortion of her legs, and the way they were too close together, James realized she was right. It was not a problem he had encountered before, for the only beings he had ever fought were not capable of using weapons such as these, or if they did they kept that ability to themselves. As such, he hand never had to defend himself  by parrying or using direct contact, preferring to dodge and roll. His fighting style relied mainly on thrusting, slashing and stabbing, and while it worked well on most, if he encountered another demigod or like-skilled person, then he would fall quickly. That was a predicament that needed addressing, and fast.


He glanced at her as she gazed skywards, and watched as she performed a vertical push up. After a few moments, he caught himself staring, and blushed fiercely. Turning his head so he couldn’t see her, he mumbled under his breath, “Thanks,”.

Turning his torso ever so slightly, but still avoiding looking directly at her, as his cheeks had not stopped their burning, he addressed the wall. “Sorry, not used to going up against others with a weapon. Is this better?”

Emerson dropped off the bar to get a proper better look, studying his position.
“Yes,” She stated, her dark auburn hair had a few wild strands falling into her face.
 “Much better, However…” Emerson hooked her foot around his ankle, testing him. He would either fall flat on his face or use her misbalance for his own good. Emery back hand sprigged away from him, eyes glinting in amusement.



“Come on, do your worst.”

James swayed slightly when the girl's ankle pulled on his, but upright he began and upright he remained. Gazing apprehensively at the slightly intimidating, really agile female, he took a half step back, waiting for her to make the first move. It was an overused strategy, but for good reason; if it ain't broke, why fix it?


His eyes shifting downwards to compensate for the foot difference in height, he took another, smaller step back, readying himself for the sparring. He tensed up, ready to spring at any moment. 


With a straight face, he looked into her eyes and said, "The name's House. James, House. I don't believe I know yours."

Emery looked smug. The boy’s footing was well planted… maybe he could best her in a fight eventually. Pulling back she dropped into a half crouch, bringing her fists up.

“Well Mr. Bond, I am Emerson Tyler… or Emery depending on who you are.” She tilted her head to the side. This would be a very brief sparring session since Ani has difficulties writing fight scenes, which is strongly ironic considering how violent she is.  


She struck, thrusting her elbow forward to meet the side of his head. A very obvious attack but it was a bluff, last second she stopped and her left hand had formed a fist aiming for his stomach to knock the wind out of him. Her hair had turned a funny color, like it had a slight silvery sheen for concentration.

James nodded slightly. "Emerson it is. A pretty name, that. Anyways, well met Emerson. "

He blinked slightly when she struck, his instincts taking over. A flash of sillver glinted in his peripheral vision, distracting him momentarily. That slight lapse in concentration slowed him down, and as such Emerson' s fist hit him in the solar plexus with a glancing blow. Nothing severe, but enough to make him stagger back, winded for the time being. 


James stayed back for a few moments, allowing his slow, deep breaths to undo the knot in his chest and stomach. After a dozen or so seconds, it subsided, leaving a wariness in its place. This girl worried him slightly, as most do, but this time for good reason; he knew not whether the change in her hair's color was a power, or simply a byproduct of one.


Eyes darting around, he decided it was time to try the offensive. Feinting a blow to her solar plexus, as if to even the score, he shot his left leg out to sweep hers out from underneath her.

Emery would have landed flat on her back, except she was a gymnast. So instead she landed of the top half of her back and bounced back up, grinning slightly.

“Gotta try better than that newbie,” She stated, dropping back into a low crouch. She was on the offensive again, attack after attack, after attack. Emery’s green eyes seemed to glitter in amusement or something different… more like an attacking predator.

 The silver sheen in her hair seemed to ripple as well making her seem very, very unnatural.

“Give up?”

James was slightly disappointed, though not surprised that his attack had failed. At least now he was back in his element, ducking and dodging to avoid the seemingly relentless barrage of attacks known as Emerson Tyler. He wondered which would occur first, her defeating him or him passing out. Already his movements were slowing, his reactions and mental acuity dulling.


Each strike from Emery came closer than its predecessor, until he could feel them lightly touching his skin. A few moments later and she was achieving glancing blows, and within a matter of seconds he found himself on the floor, a knee to his throat. 


His eyes moving up from her knee to meet hers, he slowly raised both hands over his head. "Alright, I believe you have won. Now if you could please, erm, get off of me?"

Aero landed lightly onto one of the intact training dummies, held tilted slightly to the left, watching the proceedings with an air of slight amusement, though one can never truly tell with a bird, even an anthropomorphic one such as this.

Emery removed her knee from his throat and shrugged, stuffing her hands in her pockets. Then her hair slowly faded back to the auburn color. He looked slightly battered from the beating Emerson had given him, a dark eyebrow arched in his general direction.


“You did well for a beginner, you offence needs to be worked on as well as your defense.” Emery stated, glancing at the bird. It looked like it was laughing at the boy. She walked away a few paces to the drinking fountain, drinking her fill and  sighing, her hair flickering several different colors before she turned back to James.

Watching as she strode away, James slowly sat up, rubbing his wrist as he did so; it was a habit he had picked up a few years ago.


He gazed at her hair, more bemused now than worried. Raising an eyebrow, he nodded towards it whilst stating "That is the most random hair dye I have ever seen. Only you could pull off the indecisive rainbow thing"

He stood up and stretched, smiling gently as he did so. Aero flew down from above and landed on his left shoulder with a yawn. 


James sheathed his sword and looked at Emerson. "Seriously though, why the hair change?"

The girl stiffened, the hair, people always asking about the hair. Emery couldn’t control the fact her hair changed color, making her a human mood ring. Taking a moment to close her eyes and open them again, before turning around.

“OK, not hair dye.” Emery self consciously ran her fingers through her hair as it turned a dark red brown for embarrassment. “My mom is Hecate and basically my head reflects my emotions and I can’t control it. “


The hawk had sleek feathering and it watched her rather intently, in a slightly unnerving manner as if trying to determine if she was lying.

James frowned deeply; he had not meant to displease her, yet it seemed he had. Hades, why couldn't he interact with another human without putting his metaphorical foot in his mouth.

"Emery, if I have offended you in anyway, I am deeply and truly sorry. "

Smiling somewhat sheepishly, he looked at her hair then back into her eyes, this time his gaze unwavering, albeit slightly jovial.  

"I think the hair is really cool, and really helpful; I am hopeless when it comes to figuring out other's emotions, "


Sobering slightly, he added in a more serious, hopefully sympathetic tone, "Though I guess I cannot truly judge whether it is "cool" or not until I have lived with it. Most powers seem attractive to those who do not wield them. And with demigods, a blessing can also be a curse, and vice versa,"


He blushed slightly, realizing he had talked for too long. "Alas, I am rambling again. It is a bad habit of mine,"

Aero, in what may have been a way of saving James some embarrassement, cocked his head at Emerson and inquired, "Are you really a daughter of Hecate?"

She cracked a small smile, “Don’t be… it’s just as soon as people figure out what colors mean what… well... I’m an open book. I don’t like people knowing what I think.”


The poor boy rambled until  the bird asked her if she truly was a daughter of Hecate. Emerson sighed, always this question.  Closing her eyes she focused before murmuring, “What do you think?”
She did not seem surprised that the bird could talk, she had met several creatures like that before.

The loose belongings had risen into the air, swords sliding out of sheaths and other items floating in mid air before they spun wildly and clattered to the floor. Emery opened her eyes and watched James, trying to figure out what he thought. The hair had faded back to its normal color and Emery picked up her bag, pulling her jacket on to protect herself from the elements outside.

James quickly went from being impressed by the girl to terrified of her. Impressed because of the nonchalance she displayed at Aero speaking;  terrified because she killed gravity. James was jumpy enough as it was without long, sharp metal objects floating around. 

"Please, don't do that again. Just....yeah....please,  no."

Aero chuckled at James' stricken expression before informing Emery that her parentage made her his aunt.

Emery chuckled slightly at James’ reaction to her telekinesis. “Don’t worry, I won’t.”  
As for the bird, she fixed him with a shrewd look, not sure what to believe. “Your aunt?”
Her face screwed up, trying to figure this out. “You know what, never mind, it makes my brain hurt just thinking about it.”
Sheesh, what was the world coming to these days.  Being a bird’s aunt…. How weird does it get.

“You alright?” Emery asked the new kid.

James glanced between the two, more than a little irritated at being the source of their amusement. Giving himself a quick one-over, he replied "I believe you just shaved a few years off of my life, but for the time being I am in no worse condition than after you kicked my butt,"

Referring to the brief dialogue between Emery and Aero, he stated "I try to not think about relationships when it comes to the world unknown to mortals---the headache it causes is not one I can heal."

Nodding towards her recently donned jacket, he inquired "Are you going anywhere in particular?"

Emery looked at James for a few moments, trying to make up her mind before laughing, “Yes. I do scare people. That isn’t even all of my powers. The other one is much more frightening, but I believe I will save that for another day.” 

The bird was just weird so she didn’t respond to him and so she turned her green eyes back onto James. “I was just going to go drop my workout stuff before I go outside and go for a run. Nothing to exciting.” Emery gathered her long auburn hair into a ponytail and tied it off before slinging her bag over her shoulder once more.

Emery’s dark eyebrow arched and a few streaks of blonde flickered through her hair, symbolizing a faint feeling of curiosity of why this guy would want to tag along. But the gymnast shrugged, “Fine by me. Just, don’t expect me to go easy on you.”


The walk to the cabin was quick in the cool air, Hectate children waved and called to Emerson as she entered in to change into her shorts and proper running shoes. The cool air was soft on her legs and arms, exposing the well muscled features in a tank top and running shorts. She waited for James to finish changing or whatever he was doing before setting off around the perimeter of camp before venturing outside the border in order to gain more distance.

James smirked at Emery "This may be the one time you don't have to worry about 'going easy on me',". He had been the track captain at his school before finding out about his Godly ancestry, and had played as a starting RB on his football team. Unbeknownst to him, his record for fastest mile at his school still held. While Emery may be able to crush him whilst sparring, he was fairly certain he could hold his own, if not best her, on the track.


He approached Emery  outside of her cabin after he himself had changed into proper running attire, and by silent consensus they took off at a mild pace, quickening their step as they went beyond the Camp's perimeter. James was in absolute bliss; if any feeling existed that could make one experience more joy than that of the leg muscles contracting and expanding, the wind cutting sharply against your chest and the cool winter air drying the ever so slowly forming beads of sweat on the skin, then it was one James had never experienced. 


He stayed silent, save for the slow intake and exhaling of breath; if Emery wished to initiate conversation, then she would do so. Until then, the serene air would stay just that: calm and therapeutic. 

Emery smirked, “Keep up then,” She stated before pulling ahead with ease. The two ran far beyond the borders, they grew smaller and farther away with each step. But the feeling of running was exhilarating and Emerson did not even care.  No matter the speed she managed to keep up and then suddenly she came to a screeching halt.

“James!” She hissed, panting as her eyes roved around and her hair turned a deep red and black shade. “Don’t move.”

Quickly and quietly she creeped over to him, looking around.

“Shoot, I didn’t think we had run out this far.”

James almost tripped over himself when he glanced over at Emery,  her hair a dangerous-looking black and red color. Stopping abruptly, he stiffened, eyes slowly sweeping around. His hand instinctively reached down for his sword, but he had left it back at the cabin.  

"Dammit" he whispered under his breath, unsheathing the dagger in his belt, as something could be heard creeping around them in the brush. 

Aero dove down out of the sky, taking his place on James' shoulder,  his Celestial Bronze talons gleaming in the fading sunlight.