Self Defenseless ((Open!))

[Jessie Sullivan]

Jessie tied her hair in a tighter-than-usual ponytail and ascended the gym stairs with determination. While her speed was a great aid during patrol, she still felt that her lack of physical strength was holding her back. She could blast away from the ceiling (and did most of the time) but she couldn’t always retreat when things got a bit too close for comfort. Besides, Jessie knew she was a total weakling which didn’t exactly fit the heroic ideal.

After making sure she wasn't interrupting anyone else's work-out, Jessie made a beeline to the punching bags. She'd heard the advice Bronka gave Eli about this type of thing but hadn't wanted to derail the conversation with her own questions. She could fix a hybrid tech prototype... kinda. She could totally figure out how to punch something. It couldn't be that hard. Right?

Jessie circled the punching bag, occasionally poking at it. She turned and made a quick half-hearted swing. Instead of hitting the bag with her fist, Jessie found herself about to greet the bag with her face while her hand completely missed by at least six inches. She quickly lifted off the ground and used her flying skills to reverse her momentum. Jessie hovered in the air and simply started at the punching bag.

That didn't go quite as well as she'd hoped. Maybe she should've watched some youtube tutorials first...

[Plague of Wasps]

Meanwhile, Gwen was sweating away on the treadmills, running in great lopes with her strange insectoid feet. It had been official - she had tried walking across the biggest bridge on Founder's Falls and her legs got tired far faster than she'd liked. All that time flittering around on insect wings was not good for a bipedal humanoid! And as she neared the ten minute mark on the machine, she cursed in-between gasps of air... for her legs, for her lack of fitness, for the fact that wearing clothes made her sweat more and sweat got under her exoskeleton and it made everything hot and uncomfortable and why couldn't it just dry NORMALLY like other human beings?...

And then out the window, she spotted Jessie heading in. Jessie! Gwen got a grin on her face, and slowly powered down the machine, lowering her sprint to a jog, then to a run, and then finally... to a stop. Harassing students she especially favoured was totally an excuse to take a break from exercise. From a distance she tailed Jessie, following her to the work-out rooms with the heavy bags... and then watched as she almost faceplanted into the bag itself before flying back as if she'd repelled via magnetic force. Well, that was unusual!

So it was that the insect girl found herself coming in, trying not to grin too much - didn't want to embarrass her after all - and waved up at Jessie. "Hey you!" she called to the "alien chick". "Working out on the bags? Need me to hold it down for you?" She was offering to be helpful! And possibly stop her from breaking her face on the thing! And it was a perfectly legitimate excuse to stop doing unpleasant workout things, right?

[Jessie Sullivan]

Jessie pivoted around when she heard Gwen's voice. She dropped back down to the ground and sent a quick glare at the obviously evil punching bag before focusing on Gwen again. With a smile she replied, "Hey! I was just playing around. I guess I'm worse off then I thought when it comes to this sort of stuff."

Taking in Gwen's appearance Jessie added, "I wouldn't want to interrupt your workout."

[Lorne Hazlewood]

Lorne strode in to the gym his ear buds blasting Eye of the Tiger loud enough that those standing near him could pick out the song. He loved working out to this song. Part of it was because he found it pleasantly cliche, but mostly it was just a good song that got him pumped. His gym shorts made a swishing sound as he walked and his sneakers squeaked along the polished gym floor. He climbed the stairs to the second level and found it largely empty.

He popped his ear buds out and nodded at Gwen and Jessie, "Hey guys. Don't mind me. I'm just gonna..." Lorne trailed off thinking about the flips, somersaults and splits he was going to work on for gymnastics and suddenly got a little self conscious, "uh, lift weights." Lorne nodded and added a grunt to the end for emphasis.

[Plague of Wasps]

"Hey, some people are totally worse. You at least hit the thing a few times without breaking anything." She grinned crookedly, trying not to envision Jessie breaking her poor face on the evil heavy bag, before going to work, turning herself to the bag. "You should have proper footwork, though. And you shouldn't, y'know, fling a limp wrist at it or anything, you gotta commit to it. Connect with the two front knuckles on your hand. Like this!"

And with that, Gwen turned towards the bag with her left fist, hitting it with a satisfying *thwump* and making it swing back. It wasn't a spectacular punch by any means, but her form and legwork was pretty solid for someone who spent a good deal of her time in the air. As she stepped way from the bag, she smiled ruefully at Jessie. "I went through a self-defence phase when I was twelve and thought everyone was a child predator or whatever. Did six months of karate classes before I dropped out. I could teach you a couple of the basics?"

It was after this explanation that she turned her head to Lorne and gave him a brief, fleeting smile, before looking back to Jessie. Training her friend to not break bones while practising was important to her!

[Jessie Sullivan]

Jessie nodded and mentally took notes on Gwen's advice. Proper footwork, for anything, was always something Jessie sucked at. One of the few downsides (for her at least) of being able to fly for just about her entire life. She eyed the punching bag again before turning her attention back to Gwen.

"You're pretty good at this, Gwen!" Jessie noted that Gwen was certainly miles ahead of her as she watched the other girl connect with the punching bag. "I don't have any experience at this sort of stuff. Anything you could teach me would be awesome! If you haven't noticed yet, I kinda suck," she said with a grin.

Jessie lifted off the ground slightly before firmly planting her feet on the gym floor. "Are you sure you have the time to help me right now? I really don't want to interrupt what you were doing."