[GP] training day

[st_oryinsilence]

There was a trope that in prison there wasn't much to do except work out or read. As colorful as Madonna Inn might be, it was still a prison. And look, somebody had put together a library.

Put fifty some people, many of them military, adventurers, vigilantes, or superheroes of one stripe or another, in a prison with none of the urgent missions or near-death experiences they were used to, the fitness center was going to be a popular place. Maybe almost as popular as the bar.

... Probably not quite that popular.

There were free weights and weight machines, treadmills and ellipticals, yoga mats and exercise balls. A room set aside for classes, if someone decided to lead. A large square had been taped over an area of the floor off to one side as a make-shift sparring space. Sports equipment had been brought back from Bonesville for those who preferred more organized games. And those who had been stuck here longest remembered there hadn't always been a salmon ladder.

In other words, something for just about everybody. And you could usually find someone in there if you were looking for a spotter, workout buddy, sparring partner, friendly competition too.

Comments

[st_oryinsilence]

Maya spent a lot of time in the gym, just as she had for years. Between training for the Olympics, the revenge that hadn't gone the way she expected, coming Echo and Ronin and Echo again, going up against the Hand, and fighting as one of the Avengers, she had to stay in shape. No super-strength or invulnerability or chi of Shou-Lao or adamantium claws and mutant healing for her.

Today she was working on the heavy bag, circuit training basics and moves she'd picked up from people she had fought or fought alongside. Punches were fine, and hits with the knees, but the bag needed more support if she was going to get real kicks in. "Hey," she called, when she caught someone walking by in her peripheral vision. "Could you hold the bag for me?"

[st_arkintern]

"Sure."

Peter presses his hands against the sides of the bag -- not close enough where Maya might inadvertently strike his fingers, but close enough to the front where he's not going to have any problems holding it steady.

"I know it probably looks like I can't do this stuff," Peter tells her, "but I'm actually stronger than I look."

Peter & Maya

[st_oryinsilence]

As the kid moved into position to hold the bag, Maya moved so she could still see his mouth and what he was saying. There was something about his walk and his stance that was familiar. And the shape of his mouth confirmed what she'd subconsciously recognized.

"Peter?" Maya stopped herself before calling him Spidey, since he wasn't in uniform. He moved like him, and looked like him only a lot younger. This guy didn't have a wife back home he wanted to protect. "Peter Parker?"

[st_x5_494]

His inside voice said Hell yeah I will! but Alec managed a smile and a nod as he walked up to hold onto the bag for her. "Don't send me flying half way across the room now."

Or maybe, by her, he'd be okay with that.

Alec & Maya

[st_oryinsilence]

"You keep saying that, I'm going to start thinking you're the one who can send me flying halfway across the room." Maya took up a stance to work her right leg and still be able to see Alec if he talked. Two high kicks, two low, four working their way up the bag, and then again. Each repetition was an exact match, down to the slightest shift in weight and point of contact.

[st_alksthroughwalls]

"Sure." Flashing Maya a smile of greeting, Kitty quickly finished wrapping her hands and then moved into position behind the bag. Strength to strength, she and Maya were probably about evenly matched, so she wasn't worried about getting flung, but she did make sure to set her feet carefully, the way Scott had taught her a thousand years ago.

She popped her head around the side of the bag to make sure Maya could read her lips and offered, "When you're done, you want to go a few rounds?"

Kitty & Maya

[st_oryinsilence]

"Love to." Maya needed to find good sparring partners here, or she would get out of practice. And new fighters meant new additions to her vocabulary. Kitty was one of the X-Men; it should be a good workout, not that Maya could judge how well they were matched without knowing what Kitty's mutation was.

Working through her leg and combo drills took about five minutes, and left Maya loosened up and ready for the spontaneity of a good spar. "Anything I should know," she asked in the pause for some water, "before we try to kick each other's asses?"

ota

[st_unaligned]

Whenever the space was free, Bo liked to take the opportunity to practice with her sword. Unlike a lot of the other Fae in her world, she only discovered who she was recently which meant a lot of catching up in the fighting sense.

Clad in her usual leather, Bo moved around the sparring area practicing various sword swings and blocks. She definitely looked like she was enjoying herself.

Re: ota

[st_arknaked]

Dyson had been at the heavy bag, which was why he was in a pair of pink sweatpants and a black tank top both of which were emblazoned with the Madonna Inn name and had his knuckles taped.

But he was working hard at NOT avoiding Bo, she he walked over to where she was practicing with her sword as he peel the tape away.

"You have another one of those?" And did she want a real sparring partner.

Re: ota

[st_unaligned]

"Yeah, I do actually." Bo smiled when he approached, happy to see him. She walked over to a long bag on the ground and found the other. She tossed it to Dyson with a wry expression. "Don't go easy on me just cause you can't heal me now."

Re: ota

[st_ealthless]

“Lookin’ good, hot stuff,” Pike laughed, twirling her mace in her hands. Her armor clanked merrily as she made her way over to Bo. “Wanna learn some new stances? Those look pretty stale.”

Re: ota

[st_unaligned]

Her smile went wide. "If you're my teacher, then sign me up."

OTA

[st_x5_494]

Ale spent a lot of time in the gym and when he wasn't in the gym, he was outside and when he wasn't doing that, he was probably drinking. He'd like there to be more sex, but since Bo decided to end their benefit plan, that only left Pike and he liked her enough not to initiate that kind of thing himself. He didn't want her to feel cheap.

Shirtless at the moment, Alec was on the salmon ladder. He was moving with a speed that was half his ability, but still fast for a 'normal human' and he wasn't missing any of the rungs. After a few rounds of that he jumped off, sweaty, and reached for his towel. Alec glanced around the room. He was really itching for a fight.

Re: OTA

[st_accato]

Buffy's blond hair was pulled back into a ponytail and she looked like the cheerleader she had been. She might be with Carlos but that didn't mean she didn't notice hottie guys and the guy at the salmon ladder was definitely hot. A lot like Dean actually but she'd heard that Sam's brother was a lot older than he'd been last time that he was here. She'd also noticed the quickness, and that intrigued her so she moved closer. Buffy also wondered if it was a Doppelganger like Vampire Willow.

"Hi." She greeted when she was close enough to talk. No, Slayer Tingles so no Alternate/Wishverse Vampire Dean. Whew!

Re: OTA

[st_eelremains]

Someone had suggested he take a look at this place, the so-called gym (another odd word that didn't quite seem to translate). Geralt was genuinely unsure what one did with the equipment it contained, even when he took a closer look at it all. They looked vaguely like torture devices, some of them.

Re: OTA

[st_makemeastone]

At a barre near one corner was a girl with bare feet, flyaway hair and one foot in the air. Then without any warning other than a barely detectable tightening of muscles she whipped around doing what he probably wouldn't know was called a Fouetté. Then she did another and bent to touch the floor all without putting her second foot down.

It would probably have been more graceful if she hadn't been wearing a Madonna Inn sweatshirt that was big enough to be a dress on her. Better too if she had proper footwear.

Not that River noticed or cared.

Re: OTA

[st_andingtall]

Sam eyed the salmon ladder as Alec jumped off. No, he hadn't bothered to spray and wipe it down. Why would he? Dean wouldn't, and Dean thought Alec was the next best thing to pie or something.

He grabbed a spray bottle and stray towel, wiped down the rungs he could easily reach, and flipped the towel over his shoulder. He'd catch the others on his first pass. That turned out to be harder than it seemed, but Sam managed, then tossed the towel down -- and in Alec's general direction (mostly unintentionally).

Re: OTA

[st_alksthroughwalls]

"Looking for someone to kick your ass?" Kitty called out to him good-naturedly.

She knew how she looked. Slender, willowy, built like the prima ballerina she'd trained to be and not the demon-ninja trained fighter she'd become. Then there were the powers he didn't know she had. Still, he wasn't the type to turn down that challenge. Even if he was sure he'd be doing the ass-kicking.

Besides, she'd seen him on the salmon ladder. She'd lay decent odds on him being enhanced somehow.

[st_ackeddeck]

It had been easy in the castle. She and Dani met regularly for powers training, and even when Nina was off doing whatever it was she did better than anyone else, there was almost always someone around who could spar with Emma if she wanted. Since she'd been brought here, she'd let herself get out of the habit of training regularly. The gym here wasn't as good as the one in the castle, which – to be fair – had been designed with mutants in mind and Excalibur training in particular. This was a hotel gym, with a few additions by the long-term, involuntary residents.

The scene in the sparring area looked completely out of place. Five people, looking like they stepped out of a steampunk novel, armed with canes and clubs surrounded an unarmed redhead with eyes of solid white, dressed in shorts and a Madonna Inn tank top. One or two attacked at a time as she blocked and dodged, defense to their offense, spinning here, dropping low to the ground there. When three attacked at once, she moved too slowly, although the attacks hadn't seemed as smooth or quick either, and Emma growled in frustration as all five stepped back, waiting silently.

That had hurt. She rubbed at her side where one of the clubs had found her ribs. It would probably leave a bruise. Not as bad as some she'd had, though. Good news, she hadn't dropped her projection. Not so good, she'd basically called a time-out instead of continuing. She took a deep breath and readied to start again, when she noticed someone lingering nearby. "Did you want the space?" she asked, gesturing to 'ring'. "I can be done, if you do."

[st_alksthroughwalls]

"Projections?" Kitty eyed the party of five and then looked back to Emma. "Neat trick."

She was dressed similarly to Emma, hands taped for bag work or sparring, whatever the occasion offered her. With a smile for Emma, she stepped into the knot of Victorian street fighters.

"Let's try this a different way. You and them against me." It had been awhile since Kitty took on this many armed opponents. She expected a few bruises out of it, and a good solid workout. Plus, it would teach Emma to use her abilities against other mutants. "I'll go easy on you guys at first. No powers until you've knocked me down a couple of times."

Molly

[st_eampunk]

Normally Molly was all about training with spear or a staff, she wasn't a boxer. She wouldn't know how to throw a punch without hurting her thumb or a high kick without hurting herself. When she exercised, it was usually at the pool with the weightless water. It helped her thigh after it had healed. She also knew that she was babying it despite the magical metabolism that had healed the deep bullet wound in a year.

Rather than test the limits of her leg muscles, Molly opted for a yoga mat. She'd let the others spar and fight. She began her workout with Bharadvaja’s Twist and moved on to the Bakasana that allowed her to look around the room briefly. After a minute, Molly decided to add in a toe tap before a handstand. When she'd finished a couple of reps, Molly stretched into a Cobra pose to relax her abdomen muscles and people watch around the gym.

Re: Molly

[st_artingpoint]

Jane watched her friend stretch, not sure what she was doing. "What's that?" She asked curiously since it seemed to have a purpose but not like stretching before a workout.

OTA

[st_eelyourself]

Piotr didn’t often find himself in the gym. He usually opted for lifting farm equiptment rather than relying on the equiptment. There was always this fear that he would break something that the other residents needed.

But today, he wasn’t as interested in strength training as he was in blowing off some steam. He made his way over to the bench and loaded the bar with as much weight as it could stand. Easy as if he were lifting a broom, he settled into an easy rhythm and ran through some reps for a warm up.

Feeling unsatisfied, he looked to the sparing ring and a little smile spread across his face. A glance led his eyes to fall on a potential challenger, “Want to go round or two? I can be armored or unarmored, whatever is needed.”

Re: OTA

[st_x5_494]

Okay, Alec had to give it to Piotr. The guy was ripped. Alec wasn't exactly lanky, but Piotr still had him beat - not that Alec would admit that out loud.

"Armoured? What's that supposed to me?"

Re: OTA

[st_accato]

Buffy wasn't sure what he meant by armored but she had seen him around Kitty a few times so she assumed he was like her since he was from her world. "Uh probably armored just to be safe."