Everybody needs a montage

Posted on Sun Oct 20th, 2024 @ 10:14 by Alastair Temple & Andrew Hallows & Penny Gardner & Rebecca McMillen

Chapter: Besieged
Location: Avalon Institute, Gymasium
Timeline: Tuesday, 26th of January, 1993
2564 words - 5.1 OF Standard Post Measure

Having gone through the first bit of training to see where everyone was at, Andrew was able to set up three groups of varying skill levels, with a mixture of teachers and staff, as well as keeping the Knights mixed into the grouping as well. This would be interesting as what he would primarily be focusing on at least initially is the need for training in Self-Defense. The tactics side would come in the very near future, the tactics side was going to be tricking because as far as he knew he was the only at the school with actual tactics training. The gymnasium had been transformed into a tiny dojo, with mats on the floor and on one wall.

He had also modified one set of mats into a pair of striking mats. The training would be a mixture of cardio, calisthenics and martial arts. If something went down, he wanted those he worked with to at least in theory be prepared to protect themselves and the students.

Penny looked around and then glanced at Alastair, glad she had been put into a group with someone she was at least familiar with. She rubbed the back of her neck and winced as she tilted it and felt something pop back into place. “Getting old.” She mumbled to herself. Then she looked to Andrew and clapped her hands, forcing an eager smile onto her face to hide her nerves.

“Okay! Where do we start?” She waggled her eyebrow comically.

Rebecca didn't know Penny, but she knew Al. Well, no time like now for introductions as she gave Penny a little wave. "Hi." she started, "I'm Rebecca." simple enough, lingering for a moment for the exchange before she looked over at the mats, and the coach. "If we're doing contact sports, I'm pretty sure I have a note from my doctor somewhere..."

Penny gave the other woman a smile and a wave in return. "Pleasure to meet you Rebecca, I'm Penny." She then laughed at the woman's quip, although she would have been glad herself not to have to actually fight anyone this early on. The best she could probably do right now was glow at them, and not in a glamourous ladies of wrestling kind of way.

Al considered the old 'I'm a lover, not a fighter' line, but considering the size disparity and gender distribution he decided against it. Instead he simply remained silent, moving to sit on a bench, quietly observing and waiting for Andrew to give them tasks that would undoubtedly be uncomfortable and tiring.

Andrew looked around at this first group of trainees. "There will a mixture of what we will be doing today. First, there will be 5 laps around the edges of the gymnasium. Next will be a set of 25 push-ups and 25 sit-ups, once that is completed I will begin instructing you on basic strikes and kicks." He looked around at them. "There will be no contact today yet. Before you fight, you must be taught how to strike successfully and correctly."

He walked over to the edge of the gymnasium. "Now begins the training."

"Wait what?!" Rebecca exclaimed, but began the run at a light jog. No need to run yet, right? "I mean, yay for no contact, mind you..." but the rest sounded tiring. This coming from the person who navigated most cities at a fraction of her current scale.

"I'm not sure I can manage one lap of the gym let alone 5 and then some push-ups." Penny said with a grin, but she none the less took off after the smaller woman. She set a slow pace, aware that her fitness was somewhat undermined by the fact she spent most of her time in the back of theaters watching other people move around. It wouldn't be pretty by the time she had begun to work up a sweat, but no one would ever accuse Penny of not trying her best.

Alastair quietly fell in line, setting out on a light jog. The tall and lanky man was actually in decent shape, which came from his years as a touring musician. Turns out to perform a long show took being in shape, and although he hadn't worked out in two years, he had spent a lot of time in bird form, and flying was also exercise. As such he also knew the importance of breath control, which helped him in this situation too. No, the laps were fine. It was the push-ups he wasn't looking forward to.

This wasn't a competitive event, this was a training thing, if he was going to teach the faculty how to fight, he was going to do it right. "This is simply to get the blood pumping and to loosen everyone up, no competition, simply training." He jogged lightly alongside the mousey one. "Things will get tougher the further we get into the training." He wasn't going to push anyone, maybe some light prodding though, if it was needed.

He dropped back to run beside Penny after the first three laps. He wasn't even breathing heavily as he was used to a daily five kilometer jog. "Don't worry once the jog is done, we will take a 10 minute break to drink some water and catch our breaths. Keep pushing yourself, Penny."

Andrew looked over to where Al was, and simply nodded seeing that he wasn't unaccustomed to the many facets of running, specifically breathing.

Unlike Andrew, Penny was already breathing hard. She wasn’t weak, she could lift heavy lighting cans and set pieces all day if need be, but it was a different kind of endurance. In response to Andrew’s encouragement she shoots him a slight side eye, disbelief and irritation mixing over the fact he was barely out of breath when she was already puffing hard and couldn’t speak to respond. But she squashed it down and gave him an open mouth smile and a thumbs up, before focusing once more on her breathing. In and out and soon it would be over. The sound now more laboured than when they started.

Oddly enough, despite her complaints, Rebecca wasn't doing that bad of a job of keeping a steady pace. She was used to scampering more than running, bounding and bounding here and there. Smaller distances, same exertion. The promise of a break at the end was nice. This wasn't a competition, so why did it feel like 'last to drop wins'. Pace yourself. Don't run, jog. Just take it easy. His ease in this task was mildly infuriating.

"C'mon Becca, you got this..." she encouraged herself.

"Just a little more and then he'll inflict the rest of his sadistic torture upon us, hapless, innocent victims," Al joked, as the pace of the jogging started to show on him as well. Breathing more ragged, as he maintained his rhythm of long strides.

Penny wanted to laugh at that but it came out a little wheezy. Her face was red and by this point she was sweating profusely. Some people looked elegant when they exercised, for Penny it looked like a painful torture. "Oh for... the ability... to fly." She said between huffs.

He kept pace with Penny, as he was beginning to worry about how she was looking. "Just two more laps to go." He watched the others as well, seeing that neither were struggling as much as Penny was. "You can blame Miss Cavendish for this torture, she wanted me to train everyone." He chuckled, if they had seen how his sifu and drill instructors had tortured him, their hair might turn white from shock.

"Penny, if you need to walk, that is fine, I just want you to finish the 5 laps."

Al remained silent. He knew that speaking took quite a lot of breath, and if you were using your breath to support your job, the two would compete and you would tire out more easily. He did chuckle softly though, at Penny's expressed desire. Flying was pretty damn cool, after all. If only shifting to (or back from) bird form didn't take so much energy, Al would do it a lot more often. As it stood now, he only did it when he planned to remained in the other form for at least a few hours, or when he was certain there was nothing more to do for the day and he had some spare energy to burn.

Penny managed to summon a small smile for Andrew, however in her mind she was cussing him out like a sailor. She slowed her pace a little, but didn’t fully drop into a walk. As she hit the final lap her pacing finally clicked into place and although laboured her breathing found a steady rhythm in time with her feet slapping on the ground.

Rebecca took the same pace Penny did, coming up on the other woman's left, steps in sync, stride by stride. She wanted to cross the finish line, as it were, with her. To encourage her. "Almost there." Rebecca said quickly, not wanting to let on how long it had been since she had to run laps herself. "Just one more." It was a statement to encourage Penny as much as it was a statement to remind herself that in just a short time, this grueling test of endurance would be over.

Penny flashed Rebecca a grateful smile. This close to the end she couldn’t breath and run and talk but she did manage to send the smaller woman a thumbs up. When they finally did cross the finish line Penny stumbled a few extra steps then collapsed on the floor. Her chest rose and fell as she sucked in precious air. She wiped the sweat from her eyes before it could drip down and make them sting.

Alastair finished his five laps as well. He simply rested against a wall, catching his breath. More like controlling it, since it never really got away from him as they jogged.

Rebecca finished her laps, taking those few extra steps to slow down, then hunkered over and caught her breath. "You... you okay?" she asked. "Phew, I haven't ran like that since I had to catch a bus."

As the running part of training came to an end, Andrew who was breathing slightly raggedly and had a sheen of sweat over his body walked over to a bench where four water bottles had sat waiting. Picking three of them up he walked over to each of the three faculty and handed them one.

Andrew walked back to the bench and grabbed the remaining water bottle. "Sip the water do not gulp it, we will rest for a few minutes before we begin the push-ups. after the push-ups we will rest for another two minutes, before beginning the sit-ups."

Penny groaned from her starfish pose on the floor. "I am sorry Mr Hallows, we haven't really met yet, but have I done something to offend you?" The tone sounds almost pleading, however by the time she wiggled into a sitting position there is a broad grin on her face, she pushed to her feet and went to sip at her water bottle as instructed. She cocked an eyebrow at the small Rebecca. "Oh I'm fine, don't worry about me. Every protagonist needs their tyrant to fight, and we might just have found ours." However she was still grinning away, even though she was now soaked in sweat and bright pink.

"Call me when it's time for a team up. The Adventures of Becca and Penny. Two vigilantes in the run from... running, or whatever." Rebecca smiled, amused. It got her mind off the hike they were just hit with. Sipping the water, she was reminded this was but the first of their three labours.

Penny chuckled, and took her own sip from her water bottle. “Sounds good, maybe we can hide as well as run.”

"You're talking to the Hide and Seek champion." Rebecca replied with a smile. "Gonna be honest, not looking forward to these push-ups. Which.... is probably evidence that I could use them." she shook her head at that. Admission, one of the first stages of getting through a problem.

He could tell that Penny was at least somewhat joking about viewing him as a villainous tyrant. Well, if he was going to be viewed as a tyrant, for his training methods, then so be it. He would be the tyrant, he was the trainer, it wasn't his job to be liked, either jokingly or in truth, it was his job to train. During his time in service, he had been seen as a hard ass, an officer with a "grunt" mentality, if there was a job to do it would be done. His job here was to teach his fellow faculty how to survive and how to protect both themselves and the students.

Having taken his break, Andrew walked over to a hard wood area next to where the mats were set up. Dropping to the ground he began to push out the push-ups, this training was second nature to him.

Rebecca pushed off from the wall and made her way over to the same mats, presuming that it was time. She moved to do her first pushup, then shifted a bit to get a little more comfortable. Then moved to start again before shifting again. "Sorry, just a little weird. I.." she paused, "I have different feet than you." she expressed quickly, before shifting her feet posture a bit to almost look like she was going to push off to run a race, but managed to actually start the push up engine once her posture was a little more comfortable. "That's better." she expressed, at least that was out of the way.

"Time to get back to work," Alastair rumbled. He always disliked pushups. He felt so self conscious doing them, plus being tall didn't help either, just meant he had to work harder. Unlike jogging where his long strides were a benefit instead of a drawback. Plus, he had been working on stamina all his adult life as touring musician, not physical strength - one didn't need to be strong to play guitar.

Penny bit back a grumble and then moved to the mats to drop into her own push up stance, she managed three before her arms began to shake and she had to adjust her stance and widen it a little.

In many ways Andrew was multi-tasking, he was both going through the motions of the exercises and ensuring those he was instructing were not pushing themselves towards injuries. Granted teaching a group of three or even a class of students was easy compared teaching courses in the military.

He did 40 push-ups, before switching over to sit-ups. Andrew wasn't trying to show anyone up, it was simply that once he got into the groove of exercise it was just natural for him.

As (relatively) easily as Alastair had kept up with Andrew during the job, the pushups and then sit-ups put him back in his place. "I'm getting old," the tall teacher protested as he worked. "I know I don't look it, but I'm beginning to feel it in my heart of hearts," he quietly added under his breath, wondering if anyone would get the reference.