Talk Shit, Get Fit

[babylonmechanic]

Who: Wave and Knuckles
What: Knuckles teaches Wave fighting techniques
Where: The gym
When: August 17, early morning
Warnings: E for EXERCISE

Wave was exceptionally confident in her skills and abilities. That fact was undeniable. She knew she was an exceptional rider, an exceptional mechanic, and a genius to boot. She could take on anything on her Gear.

Off her Gear, though...

A fateful trip to the floating island taught Wave that her close quarters combat skills were lacking. Knuckles had offered to train her, although at the time her wounded pride prevented her from accepting. Time and reflection had a way of changing one's mind about things. It may have been against her ego, but she took him up on the offer.

The weight room was sparsely occupied at 6 in the morning. Either the meatheads hadn't arrived, or they were about to. Either way, she felt so out of place there, waiting for Knuckles to arrive.

Comments

[monotreme_101]

"Nope." He replied, turning to face her. "I call doing twice as many push-ups as I figured you'd do good work. And I call being able to throw twenty one punches after doing it good work. They were sloppy punches - your form sucks. But for all your complaints, you did it. Yeah, I gave you the last one, but not because I pity you. I gave it to you because you earned it."

[babylonmechanic]

"Hmph." She simply scoffed, biting into the apple. Although under her breath, she muttered "Thanks." He may have missed it depending on how well he was paying attention.

[machomonotreme]

Even Knuckles knew better than to call her out on her mumbling by telling her she was welcome.

He stood up after a little bit and cracked his knuckles. "Alright - you feel a little better, now? Ready to get back to work?"

[babylonmechanic]

Wave got up, feeling the burn of her muscles, and stretched. She glanced at Knuckles, then down at the bag she brought with her. "Hang on," she said, grabbing it and heading for the locker room. Better put on the workout clothes she brought, if this was any indication. She didn't want to wreck her outfit.

[monotreme_101]

"You got it. I'm hangin'." he replied with a shrug, rolling his shoulders a little and cracking his knuckles.

[babylonmechanic]

She emerged a few moments later dressed in tight white short shorts, and a tight white tank top. Her head scarf and glasses were absent, and now she looked more ready to work out. "I didn't expect you to drive me so hard at the start, or I would've been better prepared."

[monotreme_101]

Huh.

She was actually kind of...

No. Nevermind. For starters, Tails had his eye on her and even a wilderness raised Echidna knew about the bro-code. Secondly, she was a Babylon Rogue. She wasn't supposed to be cute.

"Next time, come prepared from the start! Hey, now that you've had some time to rest up, let's try that punching me thing again. Only this time, you can also kick, or use weapons. I'm going to dodge and block and I'm going to be teaching you how to improve your form while we go! Sound fun?"

[babylonmechanic]

Face it, Knuckles.

Smart athletic girls are hot.

"Really. You sure you wanna do it that way?" Wave asked, cracking her knuckles. "I've got my second wind now. You are toast."

[monotreme_101]

"Oh, I hope so." Knuckles replied. "But remember, this is less about poundin' my face into jam, more about me telling you how to make your punches better."

[babylonmechanic]

"All right then..."

Wave was more about finesse than strength. So even when she was rested, her punches didn't carry a lot of weight to them. But she was quick at delivering them. When they started up again, she tried to trip him up with swift, mixed up blows. She was determined to prove herself.

[monotreme_101]

Knuckles was quick to move backwards, dodging and blocking with comparative ease.

"This is good - you're a little sloppy but not as bad as I thought. Hey, use your whole body when you punch like that! Remember, the best punches start at the soles of your feet and work their way up."

He might have less work to do with her than he thought. She wasn't at his level yet in technique, but then again, he'd had fifteen years alone on an Island to practice this stuff. She'd been corralling a hothead and a dumbass her entire life and providing the brains of their team.

"Most of what I'm gonna work on with you is strength, I think. You need a little more power... but you ain't half bad for this bein' your first day."

[babylonmechanic]

"I've spent most of my life with a pair of jerks," she reminded him, trying to adjust her technique at his prompting. "I know how to throw a punch or two."

She did, but not how to throw a punch WELL. She put her all into it, working up to her ultimate goal of socking him one in the mouth.

[monotreme_101]

"So, you've punched Storm, huh?" Knuckles asked. "Lucky."

Knuckles wanted to punch Storm. Knuckles wanted to punch Storm a whole bunch.

"See, you're gettin' it! I can actually feel those in my hands when I block them." He said with a grin. "Keep goin'! Roll your shoulders a little more and keep those elbows close to the body. Leave them out that far, and it gives your opponent a chance to punch ya in the ribs."

[babylonmechanic]

"Yeah, I've punched him," she said. Whether he felt it or not was another question. He was kinda thick.

She tightened up her stance at his instruction, keeping her arms close. When she needed to change things up, she swept out with her leg to try and catch his. He did say to mix it up a bit...

[monotreme_101]

Yeah, no, he saw that one coming and jumped it easily.

"We're gonna figure out some moves for you to practice over and over again. Get some muscle memory going for you - When you can do the moves without thinking about 'em, that's when you don't telegraph what you're doing too far in advance."

[babylonmechanic]

The thing about him jumping her leg sweep like that was that she was so sure it was going to connect that she threw perhaps a bit too much of herself into it. She ended up twisting when she swiffed the air, stumbling forward to collide with Knuckles. "Oof!"

[monotreme_101]

Aaaand there she was, thumping into his chest. Luckily, her head was turned enough that she didn't impale him on that beak of hers.

"Woah! Careful!" he said, catching her shoulders until she was steady on her feet again. "You OK?"

[babylonmechanic]

She pushed herself up quick. He had a really strong chest, wow... She regained her composure, trying not to draw attention to the warm feeling on her cheeks.

"I-I'm fine. I just lost balance," she said. "Won't happen again."

[machomonotreme]

"Huh. Yeah... let's call it quits for today."

He stepped back a little too.

"....I'll get you another bottle of water. It's important to stay hydrated when you're training. Don't want you getting dizzy or anything."

That was probably the closest they had ever been, physically. (Why did she smell so good. That was weird.) Really, he didn't mind it. But he had to look at it this way: One! Tails was interested in her and he knew enough about friendship to know that he should feel stupid levels of guilt for not minding that she'd all but hugged him. (Even by accident.) Two! She was here to learn how to be a badass fighter, not to have him be OK with physical closeness.

[babylonmechanic]

"Yeah... Fine. Thanks," she said, finally stepping back and trying to regain her composure. It kinda felt nice... What the heck was she even thinking?! Get your head back in the game, girl.

"So how often do we need to meet for this?" she asked him as he went to get water, grabbing a towel and wiping her brow, stretching her arms over her head to feel how stiff she felt.

[monotreme_101]

He was divided.

His answer would have been 'Every day and don't you dare skip even one session because I'm not interested in trying to toughen up a slacker!' five minutes ago. Even two minutes ago. Now he was kind of more like 'Oh, it was just one time. You're done. Come see me for a diploma later.'

But that wasn't fair.

"...every day. Same time. Strength isn't built in one morning, or four days a week. It's something you commit to every single day."

He tossed her a bottle of water.

"You think you can do some shadow boxing every night to keep limber and toughen up your muscles too? Or is that gonna be too much for you."

[babylonmechanic]

"I'll try," she said, draping the towel over her shoulders. She caught the bottle of water, turning to face him. "Guess this means we'll be seeing a lot more of each other," she remarked.

[monotreme_101]

"Sure. I guess." Knuckles replied with a little shrug, glad he had his own bottle of water to keep his hands and face busy. Otherwise he might have felt even more awkward.

".....see if you can drag Tails in with you some times. That kid could use a little training too. Don't want him gettin' soft on me."

[babylonmechanic]

"Right, sure, I'll see if he's interested," Wave replied quickly. Right, Tails! Don't have weird thoughts now, she was already having way too many of those lately. She didn't need to start feeling awkward around KNUCKLES too.

[monotreme_101]

"He'll probably say No, that he's too busy on whatever it is he's working on at the time. Don't listen to him. Remind him you're super smart too and if you have time to train for combat, so does he. He takes a little push sometimes... but he's a good kid."

Even though this Tails was older than the one he was used to, it was hard not to think of him as a kid.