Fic: Kung-Fu, Dude! (Highlander/Mag7:ATF Crossover, PG-13)
Title: Kung-Fu, Dude!
Series: Tire Tracks
Author: Sparrow
Fandom: Magnificent Seven: ATF and Highlander
Characters: JD Dunne and Richie Ryan (AKA Zack)
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: I do not own Magnificent Seven or Highlander. They belong to their respective owners.
Author Note: Thanks to strangevisitor7 for the beta!
Spoilers: Please read the first four stories for anything to make sense.
Summary: JD starts his lessons with Richie.
JD showed up at the bike shop on one of his rare days off. They were finally starting the self defence lessons that Zack had promised him. He had called to let Zack know he was coming and the bike shop owner had said to let himself in. In where, JD had no idea. The shop or did Zack have a house attached to the garage?
Sighing, JD looked around the building, eyeing the ‘CLOSED’ sign in the front. Noticing a fence that came up just a bit above his head, with a door, gym bag in hand, he headed over there and let himself in.
Taking in his surrounds, JD noticed the medium sized house with a double-door garage attached to it. The lawn was taken care of and the bushes in front of the house looked neatly trimmed. With as large as the front building was, you couldn’t even tell there was a house behind it. Going up to the front door and standing on the porch, JD knocked loudly.
He heard a muffled yell and took a step back.
The inside door was drawn open. There stood Zack, dressed in sweats and a ratty t-shirt.
“Hey, JD!” Richie grinned at the younger man. “Ready to get pummelled?”
“You’re a laugh a minute, Zack,” JD grinned and opened the outside screen door.
Richie let the younger man into his house.
“Nice place,” JD commented as he took in his surroundings.
“I make do,” Richie grinned. “Workout room is down in the basement.”
Tightening the grip on his gym bag, JD followed Richie down into the basement and noticed the various workout equipment, mats on the floor and a weapons cabinet that was filled with various swords.
“Wow,” JD said in awe as he looked around.
Richie kept his grin up as he watched JD look around the room.
JD touched the glass of the weapon’s case and then turned to face Richie. “So, what exactly will I be learning?” He mimed punching motions in the air. “Kung-fu? How to disarm a man with my pinky?”
Laughing, Richie moved over and grabbed JD’s duffle bag from the younger man’s hands and tossed it near a pile of weights. “All right, JD. What do you want out of all of this? What do you want me to teach you?”
“Um, I guess how to defend myself so I’m not a liability to my team,” JD explained. “I mean I’m the youngest agent, and sometimes it feels like…”
“They wrap you in bubble wrap to protect you?” Richie ventured a guess.
“Yeah! Exactly that!” JD pointed at Richie. “Most busts I spend sitting in the van doing surveillance. I guess I just don’t want to let them down; show them I can take care of myself.”
“All right, we can work with that,” Richie smiled. “But first we're going to work on is stamina.”
“What?” JD asked confused.
“Stamina,” Richie stated. “We’re going to start with a little bit of running to build up your stamina, stretching when we come back to cool down and then I’ll start showing you how to block.”
“How is this all going to help?”
“Well, you want to be able to dodge any kind of hits the bad guys throw at you, right?” Richie asked.
“Well, yeah,” JD agreed.
“Then the stamina and blocking will help,” Richie explained. “And then we’ll add other moves. Punching, throwing, grappling, joint-locking and some street-fighting.” He smiled. “JD, you won’t be moving like Jackie Chan anytime soon, but I’ll teach you to survive.”
JD looked confused when Richie mentioned he’d ‘teach him to survive’. Survive what, exactly? My job? Shaking his head, he turned his attentions back to Richie.
“Soooo, how long are we going for a run?” JD asked.
“Well, I do ten miles daily,” Richie chuckled. “But let’s start with a couple of miles and work your way up.”
Sighing, JD shook his head from side to side. “Right, let’s do this.”
~~~
A couple of hours later, JD wheezed his way back into Richie’s house.
“All right there, JD?” Richie asked, laughing. He was jogging in place.
“I am plotting your death right now,” JD gasped out.
“Well, I think it would take a bit to kill me,” Richie chuckled. “You head to the basement and start stretching, I’ll get us some water.”
JD waved a hand at Richie and slowly made his way down the stairs. Flopping down on the exercise mats, eyes to the ceiling, JD sighed, stretched on the ground before sitting back up to find a water bottle being waved in his face.
“Thanks,” JD replied tiredly, unscrewed the cap to the bottle and took a long drink.
Finishing his own water, Richie aimed the empty bottle into a nearby trashcan, JD following suit.
Sitting down on the ground, they both started to stretch the muscle in their legs. Getting up to their feet, they stretched out the muscles in their arms and their necks. Richie shook out his arms and jumped in spot for a couple of seconds. JD just watched.
“So, now what?” JD asked.
“Now, we start you on blocking,” Richie grinned. “Have to learn how to block before you can throw a punch.” He then settled into a stance. “Now, I want you to mimic the way I’m standing.”
JD did so.
“This is your stance and this is how we’ll start when we work on punching and blocking,” Richie explained. “Now, obviously when you’re in a fight, most of the time your opponent won’t wait for you to get into your stance. So you have to be quick on your feet.”
Richie then started to show JD various blocking techniques.
Moving his arms into the different positions, JD started a pattern of learning the different blocking moves.
It felt too soon as Richie finally ended the lesson.
Excited by what he learned, JD made a weekly appointment with Richie and promised to keep up the running daily.
Leaving Richie’s place, JD was sore, but all smiles as he got on his motorcycle, donned his helmet and headed home.
THE END.