She's Sunshine, She's Grace, She'll Punch You in the Face

Chapter 53: Overcoming Darkness

This blindfolded spar probably went on for another hour and a half before she really started to get frustrated. It was over the dozenth time Bruce had knocked her to the floor before she spoke up.

"Why is this so hard?!" She said while lying on the floor.

"Because you aren't trying hard enough." As he spoke, she could feel the mat underneath her body faintly shift as he walked around her. "I don't think you are taking this advice too seriously. You haven't even tried to land a hit even once. This is a spare after all."

"Okay." She took a deep breath as she got back up. "Let's try this again."

Marinette tried to feel the ground under her feet as well as listening this time. It wasn't as easy as it was to feel when she was laying on the ground but she began to have a better sense of where Bruce was at. It was like he was constantly walking around her in circles. She waited for him to step in front of her before she decided to swing. The punch didn't land but she felt his heavy foot fall as he backed out of the way. A second later another punch went flying towards her head and she managed to dodge it to where his fist barley clipped her ear.

"Okay." She whispered out loud but she was mostly talking to herself. Marinette managed to quickly kick her shoes off to the left of her while she felt Bruce to her right. She wanted to make sure the shoes were far enough away so she wouldn't trip on them so she kicked them pretty far. It sounded like one hit the floor while another one managed to collide with a person.

"Ow!" It sounded like Tim. "Hey, watch it!"

"Can't, sorry!" She yelled back as she felt Bruce's weight shift as if he was going for another leg sweep. The bluenette jumped back out of the way just in time. Not having her shoes on made it much easier to feel his movements.

It seemed like everyone else around her went quiet now because she could now hear Bruce's steady breathing around her as well.

Waiting for him to be directly behind her, she spun as quickly as she could to land a punch. It didn't manage to hit him in the face but it felt like she got a good blow onto his right shoulder. She didn't hesitate to follow up with a second punch but this time he ducked out of the way and took a few steps back. She stayed where she was at and waited for him to step forward.

Marinette could barely hear his breathing now because he seemed to be quite a few feet away from her. His foot steps even felt faint on her feet. 'I wish I had something to throw at him.' She though to herself. She knew now that he was waiting on her to make a move towards him.

She made one step towards him and waited. He stopped where he was at but now she could hear his breathing a little better. After three long seconds of waiting she took another large step towards him but this time he made a move. Marinette side stepped out of the way of whatever he was doing and went for her own leg sweep.

She felt him hit the floor but it sounded like he caught himself on all fours instead of landing flat. The bluenette made her way on top of his back and tried to choke him from behind. Bruce used his strength to pry her arms off from around his neck and tossed her over his shoulder.

They both managed to get up quickly. Marinette stepped up closer to him and waited for him to throw another punch. She jumped out of the way of another sweep attack before he threw the punch she was waiting for. Dodging it, she grabbed his arm last second and turned around to yank his arm forward, effectively throwing the large man over her shoulder with all of her might.

Not wanting to waste a second, she follows him to the ground and puts him in one of her lightning fast arm bars. A few seconds later she feels Bruce tap out on her leg. Marinette immediately let's go and hops to her feet.

"I did it." She smiles to herself and jumps up and down with excitement as she takes off her blindfold.

Looking around, she notices everyone looking at her with praise in their eyes.

"Good job, Marinette." Bruce smiled down at her after getting up off the floor.

"Yeah. Way to go, Sunshine!" Jason grinned. "We really need to look out for those arm bars of yours. They are crazy fast."

"Thanks." She smiled as she looked around the room. "By the way, where are my shoes?"

"I put them on the bench over there." Tim spoke up. "And I feel like you tried to hit me with them on purpose."

"No." Marinette giggled. "If I wanted to do that, I would have hit you with both of them."

"Yeah, that sounds about right." Dick agreed. "You should have seen his face though. It was hilarious."

"Sorry, Tim." She smiled at him. "I'll try not to kick my shoes at you again unless you deserve it."

"Taking off your shoes was a great idea though, Marinette." Bruce lightly grabbed her shoulder. "I'm glad you got the hang of it so quickly." He gave her an appraising smile.

"Quickly?! That took me almost two hours to figure out and I'm still not great at it."

"Two hours is very quick, Cupcake." Dick smiled at her. "It took me almost two weeks to do half as well as you just did."

"Grayson is right." Damian smiled at her. "And once you got the hang of it, you even looked graceful."

"Like dancing." Jason nudged Damian playfully. "We know how much you love her dancing."

"Shut it, Todd." Damian smacked his hand away.

"Anyways." Bruce spoke up as he looked the bluenette. "I heard that you wanted to do some training with Dick next time. I think it's a good idea to do one on one training with each of my boys so the next four we will do exactly that. How's that sound?"

"Sounds like a plan." Marinette agreed.

"Oh, can I go first?" Jason asked.

"No, I'm first and then it's Damian." Dick said.

"Well then I'm third." Jason looked over to Tim. "Looks like you're last, Timmy."

"Saving the best for last I see."

Damian scoffed. "In your dreams, Drake."