Jason’s mom shrugs, “A girl can dream. Anyway, don’t try to dodge out of my request. Show me why you need the new punching bag. Display your martial prowess!”

Jason sighs and drags the punching bag out of the corner. “You want to see what I can do? Well, here it is.” And he takes a step back. He hadn’t really planned on doing an exhibition of his skills right at this moment, so closes his eyes and takes a few deep breaths. This calms him down and provides a chance to plan his routine.

Jason opens his eyes, “Here I go, going to start slow.” He pulls back his fist and stretches it out, placing his fist against the dummy. Then he pulls back his fist again and lands a solid punch.

The dummy stands tall with no indications of movement. Jason punches out with his other fist and the dummy rings out a little louder. Pattern set, he punches with alternating fists, each time with a little more force behind it.

Within a minute the dummy begins to sway but Jason stops and lets the dummy settle down. He stands in a relaxed pose and waits. Off to the side, his mom frowns and is about to speak up when he blurs into action. One moment his hands are at his side and the next his elbow is sunk into the dummy, a good bit. The dummy itself has even tilted back, not by much but enough to be visible.

Jason pulls back his elbow and looks to be resetting but when he seems to be in an awkward position instead swings out his other elbow. This time, instead of a stab, his elbow slams out into the side of the dummy. Jason doesn’t wait and reverses to bring the first elbow up and across as the dummy rights itself. With the extra force coming in, the dummy rises off of its base. Just a smidge, but when the dummy comes down, it makes a solid thunk.

He backs up as the dummy settles down. Jason had punched it around a little, but even with his strength that wasn’t ever going to do much. Sure, with a good rhythm he could knock the dummy over, but he was sure his mom would consider that cheating. Since that would not do much, it was time to switch to kicking.

While Jason is taking a moment between sets, his mom is standing back and shaking her head. With a sigh, she is stuck in her thoughts. She had originally been humoring him by acquiring the dummy. After watching his display, that idea was knocked out of her head. While for some slightly knocking around and deformation as deep as his index fingers first joint might not seem like much to others, she knows better. This was about as much as those 30-year-old military guys could manage. Then Jason kicks the dummy, and she focuses back on the action.

To start, he decides to go easy again. Instead of the heavy hitter kicks, he goes to smack it some with a few roundhouse kicks. Still, each kick causes a reaction from the dummy. After ten quick kicks, Jason turns his last kick into a jump and kick with his other foot. Then he continues to roundhouse kick the dummy, except with the other foot.

Ten kicks later, Jason brings his leg down and pivots his waist before slamming the dummy with a sidekick. This doesn’t just push the dummy around, the stomp actually causes it to rock back by a little. Jason switches legs and sends another sidekick at the dummy, causing a similar reaction.

Jason steps back and stretches. His mom is about to speak up again as he grabs the dummy but stops when instead of putting it back he lies the dummy down on the ground. He smiles as he takes a step back. Now was the time to really impress.

With a burst of motion, Jason brings his foot up and stomps down. His heel slams into the dummy, causing a major deformation as it slides back a smidge. And again, he stomps the dummy and again. Over and over Jason bashes the dummy without stop as it slowly is pushed back. By the time he has finished, the dummy is a third of the way to the wall.

Jason stands back and stretches before struggling to prop up the dummy and roll it back to the corner. Dummy put away, Jason turns to his mom. “So, I guess I’ve proven myself then?”

His mom rolls her eyes, “Aren’t you going to ask more about all that nonsense I said? It isn’t like saying that people in the military can explain people being able to use a punching bag meant for mechs.”

Jason laughs, “You think I haven’t been handling the thing? Every time I move the dummy out from the corner, I have to struggle and end up basically rolling it over. The material that the outside is made of basically doesn’t give and whatever is used to stuff the thing isn’t much better. I honestly wonder if it would be easier to punch a similar bag but entirely made of lead.”

“Clearly something special has gone on with the materials used in the dummy, despite that, I’m not using it like a mech suit would. The corners clearly have loops to attach the thing to a frame or some such. When the mech suits are training on this thing, the bags must be strung up so they don’t fly all over the place. If I had to guess, the more important thing with this is its damage resistance. Being able to punch it is hard, but not that hard.”

His mom shakes her head, “You’re still monstrous. There is a decade between you and the next youngest person I’ve seen using one of those. But yeah, you’ve proven that you needed it. Now I’ve got to run. Technically, I had to run like a few minutes ago? I’m sure they can wait, though. They need me to finish the meeting anyway, so if anything this will let me skip the boring stuff.”

And she hustles out through the front door. Jason can see around her and notices the self driving taxi already parked out front with red lights showing she was very much late.