New Kid In The Gym

Alaina was taken by surprise with Taylor's speed. Indeed right now it looked like she could squirm about and waste energy while Taylor sat back and waited for a moment to really put the hammer down. What Alaina needed was a concerted and decisive move. She hoped Taylor would underestimate her speed...

"Thats an excellent point. Right now I could waste a ton of energy trying to get out, or I could do this! Alaina said as she planted her feet and pivoted to her left, twisting her core. She bent low-left and used both arms to grab Taylor's left leg, intent on jerking it up and making Taylor lose her grip on Alaina's waist, and fall onto her back behind Alaina. If Taylor managed to keep her grip or convert it to a rear-naked choke she had a backup in mind....

Taylor rolled with it and hit her break fall on the way down. As soon as she was on the mat, with quick but easy movements she curled to the side and wrapped both arms around Alaina's upper leg. She reached up with her free leg to plant her foot on the girl's calf and shove her leg out, so she could leverage her into falling over Taylor onto her back. With the hold on her leg, she tried to end the whole thing with a leg-hook pin.

"I meant more how you move on the feet. I'm still learning with this stuff, I'm a lot better standing up."

"My apologies!" Alaina said. She figured now might be a nice way to show off some of her actual strength so she put everything she had into arching her back and kicking both legs up to thrust Taylor off of her as hard as she could. "Footwork eh? I'll keep that in mind for whatever she has in store for me next." Alaina thought to herself as she initiated her kickout.

Taylor was flung off and rolled once before hopping back to her feet with a sharp grin. She kept a safe distance as she began to move more like herself. She looked so light on her feet she might've been floating, and moved effortlessly one way and then the other as she circled and flitted around Alaina, throwing little feints in and staying just outside of the bigger girl's reach.

"You're a pretty strong chick," she said with an approving nod. "And you're big, but you're not too big, and I like that. I think being able to move is way more important than being a fuckin'... dump truck. Case and point, Iron Maiden. If you really went all in with your diet and your training, you could probably do pretty good. Pretty well. You're not undersized like me."

In another burst of speed, Taylor leapt in and swatted Alaina on the forehead with her palm, and then quickly circled to her blind side and backed away from her at an angle, forcing her to physically turn her body just to be able to see her.

"Hrk..."

Taylor grunted as she took Alaina's shin to her midsection on her way out with a broad grin. She immediately latched onto the leg and plowed forward into the bigger girl to drive her back, and then threw a low kick to knock out her other leg and dump her on the mat.

Then while Alaina was still on her way down, she jumped up high and came down to plant one knee on the mat inches from her sparring partner's head. She gave her a grin and a wink and stood up, offering a hand down to help her up.

"There's a lot more to speed than people think," she said. "I mean, like, your body is a factor, but your movements have to be like, direct and efficient and straight lines and shit. And you can't hesitate. No wait-and-see, just go, go, go, know what I mean?" She slapped Alaina on the shoulder.

She always felt so good when she got to help people train and it actually didn't turn into a trainwreck, like it did with Adrian, and the temple games... She could already feel her hip getting angry at her for working it the way she did, and she thumped the flats of her fists against it to get it to loosen up.

"Yeah, you aren't kidding!" Alaina said as she accepted the help up. "I really appreciate you helping me out like this, it.... are you ok?" Alaina asked as she watched Taylor try to loosen up her hip.

"Do you need help stretching something out? I know a couple good therapy stretches that might work from my nursing days." Alaina hoped she would accept, as it would help her repay a bit of a debt she thought she had for the free training. If she declined and everything was all right, she really hoped for a bit more training time.

"Yeah, dude. No problem."

Taylor stopped fussing with her hip as soon as Alaina noticed, and nearly blushed. "Oh, um..." There was no point in denying it. Her pride wasn't that important. "Well, I guess the story is that a big dude in a mask attacked me after a match. There were three of 'em, going after the chick I just beat, and I fucked up the two girls and then the dude fuckin'... wrecked me. Fucked up my leg with a stupid stretch muffler. Big dude, way bigger than Johnny."

She sighed heavily. "So I thought I was fine, but it never got fully better. I had a match, and I was fine in the match but afterward it got all pissed off again. It sucks, because it's affecting my training, and that's actually why I'm here. I started seeing this physical therapist that AFW has. It's going pretty well, but... Like, the first thing he told me was to stay off it, and..." She shook her head and looked down with a rainy day expression. "I can't do that, man. But yeah, totally, do whatever you want with me."

"No problem! You helped me and fair is fair! Just lay down on your back and stick the leg of the affected side up slightly. I'll grab it and slowly work it around. This will help you discover what range of motion bothers it and it is a long, slow stretch. Just do your best to keep your leg straight for me." Alaina said as she walked over to Taylor. "You are in great shape so that helps. When I was just doing nursing and fitness competitions I was right about where you are now. Now I'm all soft and flubbery."

Alaina made sure to go by Taylor's words and to monitor her facial expressions. She didn't want her doing too much. "Charlie is a lot like you are. Telling him to sit still is like talking to a wall. Thankfully in a week or so he can ditch the cane, then maybe 6 months from now he'll be medically cleared." Alaina sighed a bit but tried her best to smile. Thinking of Charlie 6 months away from action as a best case scenario was still hard for him, and for her. "I really hope what we did here today didn't harm you any further, if I did I am sorry..." Alaina added candidly.

"Ha, that's funny," Taylor said as she laid on her back and let Alaina work her leg around. If it hurt, she didn't show it on her face. "You're in worse shape now that you're fighting? How's that work?"

She shook her head. "Nah, I'm fine. Oh, and it's a tear in my hip flexor, did I mention that? It hurts a little bit when it goes all the way up, but it's just stiff in general right now 'cause it's all swollen. If I, like, pull with that muscle or try to bend it back, then it starts getting pissed." She patted the crease of her right hip. "I normally have always healed up really fast from this stuff, I just sleep it all off, but this one's turned into a giant pain in the ass."

She sighed again, and put her hands behind her head to relax. "This is a dangerous place, man. There's a lot of psychos that want to tear you in half just for fun," she mused, but then decided to change the subject. "So what's Charlie's deal? If you two aren't a thing, how'd you end up coming here together and stuff?"