Participants:
| Scene Title | Cookies for the Pain |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Ash trains Magnes for his vigilante endeavors, Elaine watches and protects the cookies from the sidelines. |
| Date | May 2 2010 |
Abandoned Gym
It's later in the afternoon, since they don't exactly need the cover of darkness with all this snow. Magnes found a small abandoned gym and agreed to meet Ash there at around this time for training. He brought Elaine with him, which meant telling Ash to keep a lid on the secretive stuff.
He enters the old boxing gym with a dusty ring in the middle, clearly one of those places that closed after the bomb and never re-opened. He's wearing his black snow boots, a pair of black denim jeans, and as he removes his black wool coat he reveals a long-sleeved red shirt with a dark red spiral in the middle.
Elaine was given a backpack full of home made snacks, nachos with cheese and beef dip, cookies, and even some baked goods and a few lidded containers of milk. "Ash, you here?" he calls out, motioning at the chairs for Elaine to put the bag.
The snacks safely in their bag end up on the chairs gestured to as Elaine brings them over, setting them down carefully. It was nice being able to get out of the apartment, and the young woman lingers near the chairs, glancing around for any sign of someone being there. She was more than curious, especially given Magnes' mention of the guy training him. For now, she simply waits, making a mental note that this might not be a bad place to stay if she got stuck out in the snow again.
Ash is indeed here. The man was on his knees rooting around beneath the ring. When he comes out he's got boxing gloves, and kick boxing pads and the like. He peers at some of them, as if not unsure whether or not they're going to be used let alone needed. In the end he dumps several pairso f gloves and pads into a pile on the side of the ring. His eyes go towards the new arrivals, but more importantly, his gaze focuses on the young woman, studying her intently for a long few seconds, then his eyes pull back to Magnes and he arches a brow at him. "Want it easy? Or full contact? I'd recomend against full contact, at least for now…" He flashes the younger man a cold smile as he bends down to figure out which pair of gloves will fit his hands the best.
"As much as I wanna play macho in front of her, I won't be using my ability at all, not even to enhance my blows, so, pads please." Magnes isn't crazy, at least not in the get his head caved in manner, then starts putting red pads on his hands and shins, and one on his head. "Elaine, this is Ash, Ash, this is Elaine, my… friend." He took a pause, as if having to think about that label for a moment.
Friend. Well, that's an interesting way to put it. Elaine, however, if she was offput by that particular label, doesn't show it, instead just smiling cheerfully. "Nice to meet you, Ash." She does sound genuine, Scottish accent and all. She moves, taking a seat in one of the chairs, peering over at the two. "You'd better make sure you earn your bruises, Magnes." She comments, stretching her arms out a bit.
Ash nods his head a little bit at the request for pads. He moves over and picks himself up a set of shin pads that also extend down onto his feet, not for him, but to pad his blows against Magnes. He pulls on the gloves after the pads are secured. The man stretches out a bit, arms going above hsi head and stuff. He's wearing a simple pair of cotton pants and a tank top for this little workout, though the duffle bag sitting on the floor shows he didn't come dressed like that. A brow lifts at the hesitated friend label, and Ash glances twoards Elaine to see her reaction, then back to Magnes withi a knowing grin on his lips. "This isn't going to be gentle, just so you know kid."
"I was trained by a pretty tough woman, and Hiro Nakamura with his sister, I don't expect you to take it easy on me." Magnes states, not to mention the police academy, then climbs into the ring and cracks his knuckles. "They trained me with the idea that I'd supplement my training with my ability, but I need you to train me as if you were training with a regular guy, then when I supplement it with my ability, well… you can do the math there."
Elaine's doing the math. And she definitely seems impressed. But really, he didn't have to do much of anything to top his first impression on her. She leans forward in her seat, watching the two of them carefully. A lot of girls might be a little adverse to watching two people willingly beating each other up, but Elaine seems transfixed, curious, as if her mind was working a mile a minute to figure out all of what was going on.
Ash tilts his head to either side, cracking his spine before he turns and slides up into the ring, bounces up to his feet and hops around a few times before settling and waiting. His eyes go out over towards the young woman Magnes brought with, then back to the gravity kid. "You mentioned police training, well this will be alot different. The police train you to debilitate and restrain. I'll be training you to destroy your opponent, to go for the blow that ends the fight even if you have to take some hard knocks yourself." He stills then, breathing in and out very slowly before his eyes close, then open, his face turning into a neutral mask. He moves forwards towards Magnes, throwing out a quick right kick, shin height.
Magnes offers a thumbs up and a reassuring wink to Elaine, then turns back to Ash and punches his fists together. When the man charges, he reacts in a rather instinctive manner, pulling his leg back and using the same momentum to throw a punch toward Ash's face. All this momentum of course leaves the gravitokinetic wide open with very little options to stop himself without his ability.
It's all happening very fast.
Elaine's fascinated. She's never really had the opportunity to sit and watch two people fight like this. The closest she's ever gotten to fighting was a slap or two throughout her life, and though she's observed a fight or two on the street, there was much more to worry about than admiring the mechanics of the fight. She tenses up, noting a potential open spot, and she shifts in her seat, leaning forward.
Ash is not moving anywhere near as fast as he could, taking it slow despite his earlier statement. Well, slowish. Ash's head tips downwards to take Magne's punch on the thick bone of his skull, his foot impacting on the younger man's shin, but it's the left undercut that Ash was really going for, that fist lifting hard, but not as hard as he could throw. His body is pushing forwards into the blow though, trying to get in under Magne's guard and his ability to block the attack.
"Fffffu—" The second half of Magnes' word is cut off by the fist rocking into his jaw, and he goes stumbling back into the ropes, disoriented. "Alright, this is all really hard when I'm not using my ability. Most of my hand-to-hand training was for take downs, you're right about that, and with Hiro it was mostly weapons… What the hell did I do wrong?" And he glances over at Elaine, sighing. "Sorry I wasn't very impressive there, but I am the student in this."
"You didn't look for where to block." Elaine states, mostly to herself as she muses over the situation. She peers towards Magnes for a moment, then to Ash before settling on Magnes again. "Don't be silly. You don't have to impress me. And anyways, if you're worried about looking impressive, you've already proved you can withstand a pretty tough blow or two." She shifts, pulling her legs up to sit crosslegged in the chair.
Ash watches Mags go stumbling backwards from the blow. Ash chuckles a little bit as the man talks and mentions his past training. "You didn't really do anything wrong persay. You're too timid, too afraid to get hurt. You see how I took the blow? Minimized it's effects as best as I could with the time I had, but I took the blow to deliver the finisher. Had the gloves been off, and you were a normal guy? And I was trying? You'd be on the ground out completely at the moment. You lifted teh leg in a block, instead of doing that, you should have stepped into the hit to minimize the force I would have hit with, and thrown a blow that way, used your momentum and body weight against me. As it was you abandoned any momentum by blocking the blow the way you did." He shifts from foot to foot slowly. "Of course, were you using your ability, I would have dodged to take your blow on my shoulder instead of my skull. YOu hit pretty fucking hard when you want to." His head turns, his eyes glancing out to Elaine. "Nah, it's not about blocking. If you're trying to incapacitate someone? Then it's about block and counter. But this isn't about incapaciation. This is about destroying your opponent so they can't hurt or kill you, or hurt or kill people you care about that might be with you. Someone willing to use destructive force, can only be met with an equal willingness to use destructive force. I'm willing to sacrafice myself to take someone down that's trying to hurt my friends or myself. It's a mind set."
"Kurosaki Ichigo vs. Urahara Kisuke, training session one, killing intent." Magnes states firmly, as if it all makes sense. He takes a deep breath, then goes charging forward himself. He raises his knee this time, his legs noticably faster and stronger than his arms, a point noticed in their cage fight, keeping his arms up to defend his upper body.
Well. Elaine was getting a lesson in more than just understanding fighting mechanics, instead she was getting the opportunity to see a few mindsets and personality traits in both Ash and Magnes. That was exactly the sort of thing that drew her in. "I guess that makes sense. I'd do something like that, if I had to.." She trails off, thoughtful for a moment. Then, of course, they're at it again, and Elaine falls silent, watching intently once more.
Ash sees Magne's advance with his legs and he smirks, a sly little expression stealing across his face as he moves quickly towards the younger guy. He bends down though, taking the kick against his chest, and then pushes himself hard towards Magnes, not in any kind of blow, but rather a full body check, a spear so to speak if one knew wrestling moves, the big man's body attemting to simply hoist Magnes up, and toss him through the air, his chest used to absorb any blows the kid might throw at him.
"Whoa!" Magnes gets chucked hard into the ropes, then bounces off and hits the ground, softening his landing with his arms. "Crap… stomach." He's trying to catch his breath, but then remembers he's in the middle of a fight and quickly pushes himself back up, which causes quite a bit of pain, but he just bears with it. "Alright, I think I get it now. I keep trying to defend, and you keep beating the crap out of me because of it."
He tries to take a few more breaths, momentarily glancing over at Elaine, just to make sure she's alright, then starts running at his trainer. It's hard to see what he's about to do at first, but suddenly he whips a hand around, tries to grab the back of Ash's head, then tries to headbutt him just as the knee raises in an attempt to kick him in the gut again.
It's intense. Elaine's eyes flicker from Magnes' moves to Ash's, nodding a little to herself. She seems to have an idea of what's going on, at least, eagerly waiting to see if Magnes is really taking in everything his trainer said.
Ash flashes Magne's a wide grin when he seems to understand the point Ash is getting at. "If your hands hadn't been in such a defensive position then you'd have been able to pop me right upside the head, or hammer blow me and put me on the ground. Especially if you were using your power. Defending has it's places, but when you're fighting an opponent who will do anything to take you down, you have to be willing to do the same or you will lose unless you are just sickeningly more skilled than they are."
Then Magnes is rushing him. Ash moves forwards as well, not waiting to see what the man is doing. Instead he rushes forwards, launching two quick blows towards Magne's already hurt stomach, just quick ones though, only a bit of power behind them. When Mags grabs Ash's head and brings hsi forhead forwards, Ash meets him full force, his skull cracking into the other man's. He does take the knee to the gut at full force though, but he relaxes his stomach muscles, letting the blow hit, and force the air out, but it stops it from inflicting as much pain as it would have against tensed abs.
He staggers back from the loud crack of skull on skull, though it's only a slight stagger. "Right fucking there." he shouts to Magnes, a grin on his lips as the kid seems to get the idea now.
Magnes stumbles back as well, standing with his brows creased in pain. It's not every day he rattles his own brains, but as long as people like Mu-Qain are around, he at least doesn't have to worry about permanent brain damage. "Every action has an equal and opposite reaction, I get it." He looks over at Elaine, smiling. "Can I get a cookie for getting it?"
While the mechanics of the fighting were interesting, the reality of it was a little alarming to Elaine. Hearing the sound of skull against skull, she cringes, eyes widening a little. Wouldn't this cause permanent damage at this rate? No wonder Magnes had all those bruises. With fighting like this, who could blame him? She looks back to Magnes and smiles to him in response. "I /suppose/ that's worth at least one." She pulls a container from the backpack. "Hey. You've even got literal cookies for a victory prize."
Ash doesn't give Magnes the moment to talk though, sure the kid might talk, but Ash is moving forwards, fast, though still holding himself back, not throwing blows as quick or as powerful as he's capable of doing. Fists jab in a rapid series of punches, aiming at Magne's stomach and face, thankfully his hands are covered in boxing gloves, so if he hits the other guy there won't be any /serious/ damage beyond a split lip or something. As he moves in with the punches he lifts a leg, driving a foot forwards in a straight kick, very similar to a move he pulled on Magnes in the fight cage.
Those punches hurt, and they definitely drive Magnes to protect his head, his arms taking a great deal of blows again. But then that kick is coming, and his gut tells him to dodge, jump away, or do something other than get hit. But he has to ignore that instinct, lowering his arms and taking a blow to the face, then he takes that swift kick to his tensed up stomach. He uses this chance to lock the ankle in one arm, then swing for a swift uppercut with the other. "Definitely need a freakin' cookie!"
Holding the cookie container, Elaine doesn't move much, other than to shift positions so her feet are on the floor if she wants to get up. She'll give him a cookie… but she'll wait until she's sure Ash won't bring another blow around while Magnes is not expecting it.
Ash feels his ankle get caught, and he sees what Magne's is going for, but it's too late tos top the blow. So instead of try to stop it, Ash leans in towards it to take it on his chest rather than his jaw, using his body to absorb the blow. A grunt is heard from him as the first drives up into his ribs and solar plexus. But, the throwing himself forwards had more to do than just the taking the hit. His whole weight is thrown into Magnes, trying to knock the kid over and onto his back so he can bring his larger size and superior body weight to bear on him.
Magnes slams down on his back, and considering he never loosened his grip, Ash's foot is driving right down into his stomach while he's on the ground. He grunts, trying to push the foot off as he catches his breath, asking in the midst of pants. "Alright, what exactly did I do wrong there?" He has no idea, and he's in a bit too much pain to pay attention to Elaine's cookies in his position.
Shit. Elaine's grip on the cookies is tighter, actually feeling a bit of sympathy pain. She notes how badly Ash brought Magnes down, but she still sits on the edge of her seat, not moving, nor speaking a word.
Ash doesn't pound into Magnes, instead he pushes to his feet and backs off, offering the kid a hand up if he'll take it. "You locked up an offensive weapon to lock up one of my offensive weapons. Against most opponents that would be fine. But against a killer? Someone out for your blood? You're dead kid. Now, had you used your grip on my ankle to yank and pull me and put me off balance? that woudul hav ebeen different, but you didn't. YOu went for the lock up.I could have twisted my ankle something fierce there. But, it wouldn't have mattered, because I'd be alive, and you wouldn't." He winks at him, patting him ont he shoudler. "Go get yourself a cookie."
Magnes nods, rubbing his poor beaten stomach, then climbs out of the ring and heads for Elaine. "You enjoy the show?" he asks as he tries to put on a tough face and a smile, opening the cookie container to steal one. Pecan cookies. "I figure we can go for about an hour, then go home and rest. Ash, I brought a lot of stuff, you can get some too if you want. There's home made nachos in that bag."
He's playing Mr. Tough Guy, but Elaine is watching carefully to assess for injuries. Even as she does, she's got that sweet smile, as if everything in the world was just peachy. "Yeah. Definitely learned a lot from just watching. Looks pretty interesting from this side of things."
Ash walks over ot the edge of the ring and plops down onto his rear end, his legs hanging off the edge, his upper body leaned forwards onto the ropes as he watches Magnes head for Elaine intent on food. "I'm good for the moment honestly. Ate up this morning before coming here, knew I'd need the energy to burn." He sits there, watching the pair curiously, the man just letting his aches and pains ease form teh blows he took.
Magnes takes a bite of his cookie, idly pushing a strand of hair away from her face. He does a lot of little suspicious things, and the way they interact suggests something, but not entirely what. "Alright, I'm gonna eat the crap out of this stuff when we get home." he decides, grabbing another cookie and heading for the ring again. "I'm ready. One hour, I don't wanna burn myself out or be useful in an actual fight, so I don't wanna push how long these sessions are. Batman says it's not about how much time you have, it's about how you use it."
Grabbing one of the cookies herself, Elaine sits back down, eating it slowly as her eyes follow Magnes into the ring. Her gaze flicks momentarily towards Ash, but it only lasts for a moment before she's fully making herself comfortable in the chair again to watch, nibbling lightly on the cookie.
Ash shifts a bit, then rolls over backwards before springing to his feet. The man warms up a little again, throwing fast fists and kicks through the air, this time using his full speed at which he can move and throw punches, but once Magnes is in the ring again he moves on him with the same speed he's been using. he doesn't want to injure the kid after all, he wants to teach him how to avoid ending up dead at the hands of a psychopath… like Ash. He flashes him a grin, then moves in after him.