War and Peace, --Rommy

[Silver Wolf19]

He hadn't been here for a while, but the place was familiar.

Marcus had come here when he'd first moved to the city, making friends with several of the masters. He'd even taken lessons, giving himself something to do, to keep him out of trouble.

After speaking with the master, he'd been allowed to use the training facility to teach Jane more hand to hand skills. Sure she knew how to shoot a gun, but he'd yet to see her take a man down without the aid of a weapon. She had some skills, he felt, but he wanted to know how well she could really fight.

He settled against one of the pillars, closing his eyes for a moment. He was in control, his hunger had been stated by a helpless man on the street. He was alive, again he'd left someone alive. Unusual as it was, the rougher part of him didn't care, and the part that was prevalent now was rather pleased with himself.

He'd told her to meet him at one, this way they would have time undisturbed. But there was still five minutes, so he could be patient.

[Romax]

JJ wiped sweat from her face, breathing heavily, as she hooked the bar back on the frame and sat up. She couldn't quite bench press her own weight yet, but that was her goal. For a little over a year now, JJ had been following a demanding, four times a week strength and conditioning regimen that featuring weight training and lots of running and swimming. She'd always been athletic, but now she was adding muscle as well. On top of that, she was taking hand to hand lessons with an ex-US Army instructor with training on both armed and unarmed close quarters fighting.

So, yeah, she was a little irked by Marc's seeming assumption that the only thing she knew how to handle was a gun. JJ liked using the gun because it was the only thing that gave her assured equal footing, but it wasn't like she'd grabbed the Ruger and hopped on her merry way. She was putting, literally, blood, sweat, and tears into this.

JJ knew how to handle herself, but the reality was that despite the twenty odd pounds of pure muscle she'd put on the last year and despite the bruising close combat lessons she was still a one-hundred and forty pound girl and she was going after men who had an easy hundred pounds on her.

She dropped the towel into one of the gym's hampers as she hit the showers, ran the water ice-cold to cool her down both physically and mentally. Marc wanted to "see what she could do" and she'd been chewing on that throughout the workout. It bothered her, both that he thought she was some mewling damsel in distress and that, in all likelihood, he probably would kick her ass if they sparred. She watched the cold water slick over her skin, where some bruises from the other night still lingered. Then she stepped out to towel off as she put on some fresh workout clothes, dragged a light jacket on top. It was a short walk to the Dojo and it would keep her muscles warmed up.

[Silver Wolf19]

He heard her steps outside of the door a few yards away. Smiling slightly he stood and moved to the door.

"Good morning little one." He said with a smirk.

He knew the girl didn't care too much for this. But if she wasn't confident enough of her hand-to-hand skills to use them... Well she might as well haven't had any. And even if she had formated combat skills, she didn't know how to adjust them for street fighting. And that was what she really needed. What he wanted to make sure she could do. Knowing how to fight was just as important as, if not more so than, having the physical abilities.

But there were also some other things he wanted to teach her. Stealth was always handy, and though he didn't have to try to be silent, maybe she would be able to learn how.

"I hope you didn't wear yourself out before coming here. You're going to need your energy here too you know."

[Romax]

JJ lifted an eyebrow at Marc. He appeared to have been waiting for her. Though the nickname he used irritated her, she was perhaps three inches shorter than he was, she had decided that was precisely why he used it. She dropped her bag beside the door. "I'll be fine," she replied as he questioned her endurance.

She held herself loosely as she watched him, unsure of where exactly he was going with this. Also, she imagined he would be trying to catch her off guard and surprise her. Jonas, her hand to hand instructor, had a penchant for doing just that. It was a remarkably effective technique, making the point that without constant alertness (and sometimes even with) one could be dead in a second. JJ would be lying if she said she enjoyed being caught in a chokehold when she least expected it, but she had to admit it kept her on her toes.

[Silver Wolf19]

"You say that now, but we'll see about in a couple of hours, won't we?" He grinned.

"But anyway, you say you've had hand-to-hand training, and that you know how to fight. But after that first night I saw you... I have a feeling you don't really know how to fight, even if you have the skills. So that's really what I want to teach you." He said.

"But street fighting is more... Just knowing what to do in certain situations." He gave a little shrug as he moved towards a matted floor in a small room. "How you can either hurt or escape from someone depends on how they've got you and you have to simply find the weak points." He looked back at her.

"But that is harder than it sounds."

[Romax]

JJ followed lightly, still not entirely sure what he had in mind. Who knew? From what she'd seen, what was in his mind was prone to changing. "I said that I am taking close quarters combat lessons," she corrected, "not that I know how to fight. I'm learning." She frowned as he spoke about street-fighting as being different. "I'm not taking self-defense classes, Marc, or those watered down karate classes that are meant to keep you in shape, not to actually show you how to fight."

Most classes she'd found had been just that--aimed at young children or paunchy adults looking to get into shape. Those "martial arts" were meant to look pretty. JJ had had to search for some time before finding an instructor who taught the gritty kind of personal combat, the kind where your aim was to neutralize a threat by any means possible, not to be graceful and hit the flying swan pose or whatever. She lifted one shoulder, dropped it again. "I'm not particularly good yet, but that doesn't mean I'm not working at it."

[Silver Wolf19]

"Well good. Because I don't want someone to teach you how to fight only to forget to teach you how to survive, which is what you really need." Grinning he turned on her, much as he had the night before. But this time he slammed her face first against the padded wall, one arm twisted behind her back.

He wasn't rough, but nor was he gentle. He had to get her to work here after all. As much as he might want play time, this was not the moment.

"So..." He shifted a little, leaving his left side weaker ever so slightly, so if she tried she could twist out. Thought it would take some effort. "How would you get away from me... Well if you really really wanted to anyway." The grin on his face almost visible in his voice.

[Romax]

He moved faster than she had ever seen anyone move and had her pinned face-first to the wall before she could even try to block his lunge. She slammed into the padded wall hard enough to knock the breath out of her and pain shot through her shoulder as he twisted her right arm behind her back. JJ ignored it.

Rather than respond as he began to speak, she jabbed her left elbow straight back into where the sensitive bundle of nerves in his solar plexus should have been. At the same time she twisted. Unable to get any leverage against the wall, she brought her right foot back instead. JJ didn't aim for his crotch, which was too awkward of a move in her current position and the target in question harder to hit than movies made it out to be, but for his knee. The strike with her elbow on the opposite side helped her shift her balance to the left, giving her greater force behind the kick.

[Silver Wolf19]

The blow didn't stun him or hurt him, but he knew what would have been expected so he relaxed slightly. She twisted out, using her footing for leverage and as she stood, now facing him.

"Good." He nodded. "That'll do to get you away certainly, and enough to know for now, but there are other things you could do." He said.

"How you moved your foot, you could always try to hook it around your captors. Since you have the wall, you won't have to worry about looking your balance as you move your foot." He instructed. "Try again." And again she was against the wall, though he hadn't been as hard as before.

[Romax]

JJ her breath puffed out as she was jammed against the wall again, though more from the pain that seared through her shoulder than the actual impact. Gritting her teeth, she tried what he had said, hooking her foot around his ankle and drawing it forward. Reaching back again with her good arm, she grabbed his hair, yanking his head down just as she brought her shoulder up. It twisted her right shoulder even more, but with his balance interrupted, it was effective.

She let go. "Kicking at you instead of trying to catch your ankle would knock you away, while the other brings you closer to me." JJ didn't have the size to spend much time grappling with an opponent. Keeping them at arm's length if possible would be better.

[Silver Wolf19]

As he ended on the floor he nodded smiling ever so slightly up at her. "Good, a little jerky, but not bad." He said as he sat up, leaning an elbow on his knee.

He nodded again though as she talked about the distance. "True. But here, the goal isn't to test your endurance against the other person's. It's to disable them or kill them, your choice of course, as quick as possible. No one's judging you on technique or style on the street. No one's going to disqualify you for 'illegal blows'. However, I will be royally pissed if you try a nut shot with me here while training. Understood?" He said as he got back to his feet.

"If you can get your opponent to he ground, this would be a time to go for the kill if you are able. That's why I recommended tripping rather than kicking. But if you've lost your weapon, or need time to set it up or get it from wherever, kicking would be fine too."

[Romax]

JJ frowned again as he told her not to worry about illegal blows or technique or style. "I know that," she said mildly, rocking back a little on the balls of her feet when he got to his. "I told you before, I'm not trying to learn those types of martial arts. The kick before was meant to break your knee, or at least wrench it bad enough to knock you down," she said briskly, though she didn't mean she had actually wanted to break his knee.

"If it had worked, I would have accomplished both what I wanted and what you want. Disable and keep at a slight distance. Effective and efficient," a ghost of a smile appeared for a moment before sliding away as she quoted one of Jonas' favored lines. Be efficient and be effective, if you can accomplish in one move what might take you two moves, then use the one. It kept you on the edge, instead of simply reacting.

JJ shrugged a little. "Whatever works." That was another one of Jonas' sayings. Go with whatever worked and fuck everything else.

[Silver Wolf19]

"Good, I'm just making sure." He said casually. "I'm hoping if I say it enough you'll come to use it. Just not against me of course." He gave her a little wink.

"But just remember, there are people out there who aren't going to be stopped by bullets, aren't going to be hampered by broken limbs or anything like that." He warned. "In that case... You have two options really. And knowing you, you'll probably like neither of them." He grimaced.

He pushed her against the wall again, one arm over her chest and upper arms, the other holding her chin up, exposing her neck. "See if you can get away..." He growled. But this time there was no give in his body, no slack anywhere. His muscles were tense and hard.

[Romax]

JJ grunted as she was, once again, pinned against the wall. "I'm chasing bionic people now?" she asked as he warned that there would be people who were pretty much unstoppable. Even addicts flying on PCP were stopped by a large-caliber to the chest. Or knee.

In her current position, there really wasn't that much that she could do. She could only move her arms from the elbow down and his knee was blocking what he had so eloquently termed a nut shot. Considering for a moment, she brought her head forward, stopping a hairsbreadth from letting her forehead connect with his nose.

"It would hurt me and wouldn't kill you, but it might give me a little room," she said conversationally as she leaned her head back again.

[Silver Wolf19]

He shrugged and let her go as she gave him the imaginary headbutt.

"Fair enough." He said with a bit of a grin.

"But that won't stop them for long either. I'm just warning you because I don't want you to piss them off too much. If you find yourself facing a foe like that, either run, which might not help keep you alive. Or just give them what they want, but again, that might not leave you alive."

She probably wouldn't believe him... She was too sensible to believe in vampires, ghosts and spooks...

"Just a warning."

But he decided to move on. "What else do you think you need work on? What do yo think your weak points are?"