Murder/Suicide

"Don't PIVOT. STEP. You're wrestling, not boxing, and she'll grab your shit if you're standing there no matter where your head is!"

A sweaty-faced Cassie gave a nod, standing in the ring in front of her much larger gym-mate Alaina. She was breathing through her mouth, and her face showed that she was somewhat cowed by Taylor's intensity at ringside. Those deep blue eyes had born holes through Cassie from the moment she set foot in the ring, and she wasn't giving her an inch today. Even the slightest mistake brought another harsh volley from the punk.

She understood that Taylor was under a lot of pressure, and they were all things she needed to work on, but... She checked the clock to see how much longer she had to go.

"Don't worry about the clock, Cass. It's time to work. I'll tell you when-" Taylor was cut short as Alaina advanced on Cassie again, and Cassie executed the step out of the way but the amazon was still able to get a hold of her. "Jesus CHRIST, Cassie! No baby steps! Fuckin' MOVE! Shit, you want her to fuckin' do what she did the last time? This is life and fucking death, so maybe put some effort into it, okay?"

Taylor threw her hands in the air and snorted in exasperation. "Fuuuck!"

Cassie's face barely held steady, and she nodded again. "Okay." She kept her hands down near her waist and bent her knees to prepare for Alaina's next advance.

Gabbie watched carefully from a spot near Taylor. The same intensity burned in her eyes but her body language was much more cool. She seemed relaxed, even if she was trying to help her hated enemy get better. She turned and looked at Taylor. The girl was way more off her rocker than when they met. She only gleamed a bit of the reason why, but she understood the sentiment, even if she didn't show it quite as outwardly.

"Go where she has to over extend to grab!" Gabbie said, looking at Taylor. "So she's a big girl, footwork can help with that." Gabbie turned and looked at Cassie and Alaina. "Chop her damn legs out from under her! Use your feet to get her where you want to be! Or at least where she DOESN'T!"

Gabbie snapped her head back to Taylor. "Giving an Elliot advice... I hope you can appreciate what I'm doing." Gabbie growled. She then sighed and used a lighter tone. "But if she's tired give her a break. No one's going to do anything when their brain is fried." She poked Taylor's arm. "You included."

Taylor looked at Gabbie and wished she would disappear. She didn't know her very well, and she didn't dislike her, but she was already getting on Taylor's nerves.

"I appreciate it, yeah. But I got this, okay?" She said. "No breaks. Do I look tired to you? Do you think Cassie's opponent will give her a break if she gets tired in the ring? Fuck that, this isn't golf."

She directed her attention back to Cassie, who was now worse with the technique than before. "MOVE, MOVE, MOVE, MOVE, MOVE! You're killing me, Cassie!"

Cassie's face remained strong enough, but tears welled up in her eyes, and she looked helplessly at Alaina.

Gabbie squeezed her fists tightly and loped at Taylor. "Yes! You look like shit! Maybe you need to rest because right now, you're going to make sure Elliot loses. She'll be too ground down from training!"

Gabbie turned and looked back at Cassie. "If circumstances won't allow a break," Gabbie glanced at Taylor, "then create your own breathing room! If you're a wrestler, roll out of the stupid ring!"

"And I thought I was the one who didn't like her." Gabbie muttered. She looked at Taylor. "You said you were intense, but I thought you were a pro, too."

Alaina was covered in sweat to the point her exposed skin glistened. Clad in a simple black one piece swimsuit with matching kneepads and boots the bigger Alaina was nearly as worn out as Cassie looked. Alaina looked into Cassie's eyes and gave her a slight nod and smile.

The constant yelling stirred some sympathy, however the thought of helping train someone to beat the living hell out of Gwendolyn DuPont Bettencourt prevent Alaina from taking it easy on Cassie.

Alaina heard the others calling for Cassie to go low on her, so Alaina thought she would be clever and when she moved at Cassie she would lunge low herself! This was either going to lead to Alaina taking Cassie down and putting her in prime position to wrap up her legs for a hold... or she'd play right into a nasty submission of Cassies. Alaina learned the hard way that she could make something out of nothing. While she had gotten better, Cassie had as well even if Alaina was the one enjoying some measure of success in the training so far today.

Once Gabbie saw Alaina shoot, her jaw dropped. Everyone in this room had just gone insane or something. She threw her arms up and took a step forward. "What the Hell is wrong with you!?" Gabbie barked.

"You're twice as big as her and you've been kicking her ass the whole session! Are you tired too? Because if you need to rest, then say something! Otherwise, I don't understand why you would try and end the fight! You know she's tired and frustrated! So why shoot right into where she's comfortable? You might as well just lay on your back and hold out your arm for her! Hey, Elliot, please just snap my arm off!"

Gabbie wiggled her arm at Alaina and let them both drop to her sides. She then ran her fingers through her short hair. "Throw her around! Use your weight! Isn't that why you're here!?" She huffed. She then looked back at Taylor. "See... everyone needs a break."

"Roll out of the ring? Seriously?" Taylor barked at Gabbie. "We're talking about Gwendolyn. She's got a whole goddamn crew at ringside with her, all the time. I don't think that'd be much of a break."

Taylor grit her teeth and bristled at Gabbie's comments. "Keep talkin' shit."

Cassie was almost relieved when Alaina tried to shoot for her legs. Finally, something that came naturally to her. She swiftly defended, sprawling her legs back out of Alaina's reach while she caught Alaina's shoulders. She spun toward Alaina's side, so as not to be directly in front of her.

She slapped a palm over Alaina's face and gave it a rough, uncomfortable shove to bend Alaina's neck back and knock her off. She had had enough, though she didn't mean to take it out on Alaina. She got up and without looking at Taylor, stomped off to the ropes and slipped out of the ring.

"Whatever, man..." Taylor threw her hands up. She glared at Gabbie. The anger on her face stalled as she watched Cassie walk off, feeling a pang of guilt with seeing how she had upset her friend. She tried not to let it show.

"A'right, we need someone to sub in with Alaina. Fuckin..." She looked around. Julia wasn't there, Cassie had left. Taylor could get in there herself, but... That seemed like a bad idea. "Kashi," she called out to the sumo, who had been inconspicuously working out at the far end of the room. Taylor's tone when talking to Akashi was markedly less offensive. "How 'bout it, huh?"

Gabbie narrowed her eyes back at Taylor and clenched her fists. The two had only known each other a short time and Gabbie liked Taylor, but she wasn't going to back away from anyone's bitchiness, especially not Taylor's. She was considerign going in there herself when Taylor suddenly turned and spoke to the big sumo that Gabbie had, surprisingly, forgotten about.

Akashi had been doing her sumo exercises off to the side while she watched the spar. They had been going at it for a long time and Akashi had frowned when she saw Cassie nearly burst into tears. The atmosphere had gotten so tense that she had become engrossed in it and hadn't stepped in. She was almost startled when Taylor called her name. "Oro?" She said and tilted her head. She then looked at Alaina and then back at Taylor. She lifted her head to say something about how very badly that would go for Alaina when there was a sharp, ear piercing whistle coming from the entrance.

"Training is over for the day." Junko called sharply as she stepped into the gym. "Everyone here's been putting in a lot of work. I'm really proud of all of you, but there's only so much you can cram into a session. Let's ease it down and then we can have a nice break. Tomorrow we'll hit the class room and work out your brains. Then the day after, we can get back to the heavy stuff."

Junko's voice was light, but her eyes were fierce. She had been watching from the back for long enough to assess the situation pretty easy. Her eyes settled on her daughter-in-law. She doubted anyone else would object. Hopefully Taylor wouldn't either.

Alaina felt the hard slap and shove to her face as she stumbled back.  She knew Cassie was being ridden hard but couldn't help but take a little offense to the shot.  "The hell was that?" Alaina was tired herself, and not in the greatest of moods. Truthfully she really hadn't been quite as cheery ever since the breakup.

She couldn't elaborate any further as Junko came in and spoke.  Alaina nodded, looking her in the eye as she gave out instructions.  "Yes sensei."  After the breakup Alaina had a hard time seeing Junko as anything other than sensei or Mrs. Higurashi. She really liked Junko a lot, but there was always going to be some degree of awkwardness. Alaina respected her, and Taylor, enough not to badmouth Mamouru. As much as she tried to forget about him it was hard when the people training him were his family.

As soon as Junko finished Alaina glanced over at Akashi.  She knew Akashi was stronger... even though her stubborn pride hated to admit it.  Alaina wanted to, no, needed to train with her.  She needed to know how well she could adjust when she wasn't simple able to power out of problems. It seemed as though that would wait for another day.

"What?"

Taylor turned to face Junko and indignantly lifted her hands. She made a sour face, but said nothing, and only spared a glance back at Akashi and Alaina before striding quickly out of the gym herself.

She went to the kitchen and got water from the fridge, closed the fridge harder than she meant to, and went to stand at the window. She couldn't bring herself to sit down, though she was exhausted and well behind on her sleep. She needed a break, but there was too much to do.

She stared vacantly out the window while she held her water bottle against her shoulder. She focused on taking long breaths in, letting them out slowly, and trying to relax her rigid body, like she'd been doing all day.

"Fuck."