New Kid In The Gym

Taylor dutifully walked behind Alaina, and again shoved her off of Mercy with her foot, and then quickly yanked Mercy up. "Keep your head together," she said, making sure Mercy looked her in the eye. "After your kick landed, you stood there in front of her and practically begged her to fuck you up. Hit, then move. If she's facing you, move around her if you can, or get out. She's stronger and and better at fighting, but you're smarter. Don't give her any chances to use that. Stay calm, and keep your head together. Now, it doesn't hurt, right? Good. If you're still standing, you're still in it. Now go get her."

Taylor knew that Mercy didn't really have any chance of coming out on top in today's training session, but that was even better. One of the most important things for a wrestler to learn was to keep fighting even when things were hopeless. Great fighters gave every fight their all, and never ever quit.

For Mercy, Taylor would be happy if she made it through the day without trying to skip town.

Mercy flopped to the ground when Alaina was forced up. She squealed when Taylor hefted her up but she nodded along, her head lolling on her neck while she tried to focus on Taylor's words, panting heavily in front of Taylor.

When Taylor released her, Taylor scanned for Alaina. "Rawr!" She growled cutely and flung herself at Alaina, Maybe she could catch the girl off guard with a dropick!

Alaina listened as Taylor spoke to Mercy. As the pep talk ended she saw Mercy glare at her and make some sort of noise. Alaina knew something was coming..... but she didn't expect a dropkick at all.

"Oomph!" Alaina blurted out as she hit the mat. She thought Mercy was going to do something else dumb, like that shin kick. She kept her eyes on Mercy as she got to her feet. Mercy was smart and nimble, so Alaina wanted to floor her. As soon as Alaina was vertical she rushed forward looking to clothesline Mercy.

Mercy's dropkick was awkward and sloppy but it seemed to connect and knock Alaina aside. Most likely just out of sheer surprise that she would attempt the move. Mercy hit the mat and instead of bouncing up, she dropped like a stone. She slammed her hip into the mat and collapsed into a pile. Mercy rolled onto her side and grabbed her hip.

"Owwwwww!" She whined. "That HURT!" She said. "It's not supposed to HURT!" She said. "I... I was supposed to hop up and be awesome and... owww!" She said, making a puppy dog face at Taylor.

Alaina was stunned by Mercy's reaction to landing the dropkick. She hit Alaina, but didn't land on the mat correctly it seemed. Alaina shook her head in disbelief as she moved forward.

Alaina knelt down to pull Mercy up and hold her in a bearhug, giving a hardy squeeze before slamming her back down with a spinebuster!

Mercy was in pain when Alaina came at her. Mercy wasn't even thinking about Alaina when she was easily hoisted up into the bear hug. "Aaaack! Ughguyh!" She groaned, nearly barfing from the tight squeeze. She started kicking rapidly. 'Aghhu, My guts! She wailed before she was slammed down hard with the spinebuster. Her eyes went wide and she spasmed against the mat. After twitching a few times, Mercy lay plastered on the ground, panting hard and heaving deep breaths. Suddenly as she panted, tears began to roll down the sides of her face.

"I.. can't... I'm so screwed." She muttered. "She's going to murder me and then she's going to do terrible things to me and Clyde..."

Alaina stayed on top of Mercy, grabbing her leg with her right arm and shifting her weight to her left side pinning Mercy.

Alaina saw the tears on Mercy's face and lowered her head down, talking quietly and in as soothing a voice as she could while she pinned the girl. "Its ok hun, if I can help you train I will and you'll make it through just fine."

Taylor cringed at Mercy's flop of a dropkick, and then again at Alaina's ridiculous followup. That was more than enough.

"Alright, rookie..." Taylor seized Alaina by the scalp with both hands and dragged her stumbling to the corner where she wagged a finger in her face. "STAY."

She went back to Mercy and squatted down next to the poor, defeated neophyte. She tried to keep her voice firm, but spoke more quietly. "Mercy," she sighed. "You can. If you want to get better, you'll get better. If you decide right now that it's over, and Lilly's gonna kill you... You better hope that's all she does. If you want to win... win. I'll help you. If you give me a month, I'll kick your ass every day, and by the end you won't believe the changes. But no one can help you if you've already decided to lose. And no one can help you if you don't get up."

She rose up to her full height. "Rule number one: no quitting. Rule number two: always, always, always get up."

Mercy sniffled as she sat up. She nodded and scrubbed her eyes as she nodded along with Taylor. "I'm not a quitter." She said. She wasn't. She had to eat a lot of shit sandwiches in her day to get where she was but she'd swallowed every bit of it knowing she could get to a good position. And she was. This was just a set back.

Mercy popped up and nodded to Taylor. "I'll do it!" She said, pumping her fist. "I have to win." Mercy turned her head. Even though she wasn't really sure WHY she was fighting anymore.

Taylor gave Mercy a lopsided grin. She couldn't say that she had high hopes for the girlie little desk jockey, but she definitely wasn't going to let her opinions hold the girl back.

"Awesome. I want to see you three times a week in Hamamatsu, at my place, maybe again on Saturdays, but I want you training six days a week. I'll have Morgan send you a training schedule and talk to you about coming to Hamamatsu. I want you to eat what I tell you to and do what I tell you to, and I don't want you to complain and you're not allowed to quit. Everything that sucks about training will pay off so much when you win."

Then she paused, and for a moment she thoughtfully stared off into space. "When the hell did I turn into such a hardass?" She mused with a tickle of a smile. "Maybe I'm compensating for Johnny being so chill. Anyway, how long do we have?"