I had reach she had flexibility

Posted on 20 Nov 2018 @ 4:10pm by Ensign Mimi & Petty Officer 1st Class Gabriel Stark
Edited on on 22 Nov 2018 @ 2:59am

2,377 words; about a 12 minute read

Mission: Episode 17 - Crystal of Life
Location: USS Galileo-A - Holodeck 1
Timeline: MD -164, 1530hrs

[ON]

Panting as she got her breath back Mimi gradually slowed down to a stop her relatively short but extremely fast run now over, stepping off the treadmill in the holographic gymnasium she started a series of stretches stretching out all the different muscles and multiple joints that gave her species their speed and flexibility.

She looked over at a section of the floor, it was padded and clearly meant for fighting of some kind, it was an area she'd not used before, while her usual exercise was extremely gynmastic in nature it had been some time since she had practised the specific moves of the Nekomi self defense style. "Computer can you program me a hand to hand combat opponent for training?"

"Affirmative, specify skill level." The computer responded.

"The standard for a Starfleet hand to hand course?" Mimi replied.

The computer beeped and a moment later a human male dressed in a sports outfit materialised in the middle of the padded floor. "Program will begin on your instruction." The computer said.

Finishing her stretches and taking a few moments to have a drink Mimi stepped onto the padded floor and switching to her digitgrade stance she got herself ready. "Begin program." She called out. In a flash the opponent burst into life adopting a boxing style stance and advancing on her.

A few moments later, Gabriel Stark strolled into the gym, the action on the mat immediately drawing his attention. Well, really it was the flash of a tail that caught his attention. He drifted over, watching the fight between an athletic feline featured woman and what he knew to be a hologram, as he'd already fought him. He'd seen the young lady around but hadn't stopped to talk to her. Frankly, he was used to being all action upfront and only getting names afterwards.

Gabriel came to a standstill, folding his arms as he watched her holding her own in the simulation. Having just gotten back into ship life after several months of specialist security training, he was tuned into this kind of thing. "Watch the weight on your back foot!"

Mimi's ears twitched when she heard a voice, while he hadn't set the program to private she hadn't expected anyone to come in. She turned her head in the direction of the voice that she found belonged to a young human man, the hologram took advantage of the momentary distraction and grabbing her by the arm he threw her down to the ground.

Gabriel winced before laughing softly, letting out a long whistle as he shook his head. "Sorry....I can't help but think that was my fault...." he cast an innocent grin her way, bracing his hands on his knees as he bent down to be more on eye level with her.

The hologram took a few paces back waiting for Mimi to stand back up so they could resume fighting. "Computer pause program." Mimi called out.

"I think it was." Mimi said, rolling onto her front she clambered back to her feet.

"Sorry," he relented again, offering a crooked smile as he moved to give her a hand. "I was trying to be helpful, believe it or not. You have good form, and you're quick as lightning..." he shook his head with an appreciative chuckle.

"Thank you, all of my species are very quick." Mimi said. "We learn a method of self defense at an early age."

"Must be an interesting way to grow up," Gabriel arched an eyebrow with a soft laugh at the idea. "Especially when the teenage years hit..."

"How do you mean, when the teenage years hit?" Mimi said unsure of quite what Gabriel had said.

Gabriel shook his head with a half smile, briefly thinking back to his own teenage years. He pushed the thought away quickly; it wasn't a time of his life he liked to revisit. "You know...all those hormones racing around? Quick tempers? Would make it even more...intense if we knew how to fight too."

"Ah, I see what you mean." Mimi said. "Most Nekomi are very..... controlled, it is very hard to get one to attack you."

"Oh, I don't know, I've been told I'm easy to hit when I let my mouth get too smart for its own good," he said wryly with a chuckle, shaking his head. Indeed, when his temper got the better of him, it wasn't unusual for him to end up with a smack or two.

"Some humans do like to talk a lot but more seem to act first and think about it later." Mimi remarked.

"Oh, isn't that just true," Gabriel shook his head with a wry, almost pained smile at that, sighing softly as he glanced away. "Anyway, holo partners aren't always the best. They can lead to a false sense of security. If you want to spar against a real partner, I'd oblige," he looked back to her with a small smile.

"I agree, after some time it becomes easier to know what they are going to do. Do you think you can keep up with me Mr?" She asked partially to ask if he would spar with her partially to find out his name as she didn't recognise him especially without a uniform.

"Stark," he provided with a small smile of amusement, rolling his shoulders as if to get lithe and loose. "Mr Gabriel Stark. And I'm fast enough for you need to watch your tail," he teased, taking a playful swipe in her direction, but not making contact.

Mimi quickly stepped out of range of Gabriel's swipe, he had a little bit of a height and weight advantage over her but she was naturally more flexible and quicker than a typical human so she had a feeling it was certainly going to be interesting. Keeping her tail tucked in close she adopted the Nekomi fighting stance, her left leg slightly in front leaning down and forwards a little her body primed to move at a moments notice.

Gabriel chuckled at the movement, taking a few steps to be closer into the middle of the mat, stretching his arms almost lazily over his head. He let out a soft breath as he watched her, settling before moving forward quickly, punching lightly at head level, but the real effort was put into the kick at her thigh that followed up.

Swinging her arm up clockwise she deflected Gabriel's arm away to the side before trying to deflect his kick with her own leg but misjudged the angle and took almost the full brunt to the back of her leg. She quickly danced away gaining some distance and flexed her leg a little. "You have a strong kick Gabriel."

"I've been a fencer for years, it gives you good legs," Gabriel chuckled, twisting to send another high kick her way. "The key is to know your own strengths and weaknesses. If you have a stronger part of your body, keep pushing with it..." another punch swung lightly out at her side, but the following kick at her lower leg to try and throw her balance was sharp and fast.

Now knowing that Gabriel's legs were his strong point Mimi acted a little differently focusing on avoiding his legs rather than deflecting them. She ducked under the high kick moving far enough to avoid the punch that came a moment after it, turning back to face him she saw the next kick coming and quickly changing her stance she lept forward and dived smoothly over Gabriel's leg. Deliberately landing low down she swung her own leg out attempting to sweep Gabriel's other leg.

Gabriel laughed even as fell down, hitting the mat on his back. "Great adjustment..." he grinned, lurching up to grab her arm, yanking down hard to pull her down with him. He grabbed her tight, using his whole body weight to shove sideways, sending them rolling over so he could clamber on top of her, moving quickly to try and pin her back and disable her.

Pinned down on the ground was not where Mimi wanted to be, it was the one place she couldn't use her speed and all of her flexibility, growling and gathering her strength she tried to push Gabriel back a little to create a gap but he was much stronger than her.

Gabriel leant down fully with his weight to press his arm across her throat, but he gave a small smile, nodding. "Aha, we've found your Achilles Heel..." he quickly climbed back to his feet, not wanting to keep her trapped, offering his hand down to help her up. "So with that fantastic speed of yours, you need to fight to keep yourself on your feet," he nodded, almost thoughtfully.

"Being on the floor is not where you want to be." Mimi replied, grabbing Gabriel's hand she got to her feet, "A big thing in the Nekomi style is always keeping on your feet, though the main thing is not getting into a fight if you can avoid it."

"I can respect that," Gabriel said honestly, nodding quickly as he swiped lightly at her ear with a grin. "It's a smarter way to live. Shame some of us other races haven't caught up with that yet, huh?"

"We.... grew out of settling problems with fighting long ago." Mimi said easily ducking below the strike, grabbing Gabriel's wrist she twisted his arm behind his back and tried to lock her leg around his to drop him flat on his face.

Gabriel laughed breathlessly at the surprise attack, pleased that she was taking the offensive. He strengthened his leg and core to resist being tripped, but he let his upper body push forward, moving sharply to flip her over his head.

Going with the throw and swinging her body around Mimi managed to land on her feet then quickly rolled forward to get separation. "There are a few times where we do fight."

"When have you fought?" Gabriel asked with interest, grinning with the energy starting to tingle through him. He turned sharply, his right arm swinging out with it, aiming the blow straight for her head, but he reached with the other arm to try and catch a hold of her tail, almost playfully.

"At the academy." She replied dancing out of range of the strike. "A cadet managed to do what you jut tried, I do not like having my tail pulled, I put him in sickbay for two days."

"Don't like a little friendly tug, hm?" he grinned, shaking his head before throwing a few punches her way, a quick sequence to force her to back up. "Glad I missed you..."

"There was nothing friendly about what he did." Mimi said as she dodged the punches, realising she was being slowly directed into the wall behind her she lept forward and rolled past Gabriel so he was closer to the wall now. "He grabbed my tail and...... swung? me around."

He watched her with shock at that, shaking his head, his hand reaching back to test out how much space he had between him and the wall. "Yeah, I'd have probably broken him pretty good for that..." he admitted with a frown.

"He did not try it again." Mimi said with a slight smile. "And the other cadets were more.. nice to me."

"I should hope so," Gabriel frowned as he pushed forward with a snapping series of punches at her. "It's the one thing I really hate....bullies...people who take advantage or hurt other people just for sport," he started to lose his cool at talking about it, his movements taking on an edge as his words got him worked up.

With small but swift movements Mimi avoided the first few punches and deft flicks of her arms deflected the rest, each strike felt just a little stronger than what he'd thrown before. "I was still learning about different species when I went to the academy. I was given traditional greetings that seemed very..... unlikely to be real ones."

He shook his head firmly, breathing harder with his anger at the thought of it. "It's no excuse for being an arsehole. We're supposed to have each other's back, be a family. Maybe that's why it's so messed up," he said through gritted teeth with his anger, his arm snapping out in a firm punch.

As Mimi moved to avoid the punch she caught her foot in a small gap between the mats that had formed during their sparring, it threw her out of balance just enough that she had to stop and regain her step. As she stopped Gabriel fist caught her straight on the side of the jaw sending her sprawling to the ground.

Gabriel watched with wide eyes, his throat tightening as she went crashing down. He crouched to her quickly, breathing harder as he reached to touch her face. "Bloody hell! Are you okay? I'm so sorry...."

Mimi sat up and rubbed her jaw a little, it hurt but not as bad as when the Klingons on Kreanus broke it. "I am ok, it is not bad."

Gabriel watched with worry as he reached out to touch close to the red area, shaking his head. "Should I get you to Sickbay? Hell, I'm an idiot, I'm so sorry, Mimi..."

"I am ok, this is not the first time I have been hit in the face." Mimi said, slowly she started to get to her feet.

"Doesn't make it okay," he grimaced, shaking his head as stood up to watch her, sighing heavily. "I'll find someway to make it up to you," he assured her, firmly, his eyes dark.

"You do not need to." Mimi told him, trying to reassure Gabriel he'd done nothing wrong "We were sparring, sometimes being hit is part of the activity."

"Hm," Gabriel frowned, clearly not convinced on the matter, but he let his hands rest on his hips all the same. "Still, I owe you a drink sometime at least."

"That I will agree on." Mimi replied with a smile.

[OFF]

--

Ensign Mimi
Operations Officer
USS Galileo-A

PO1 Gabriel Stark
Security Officer
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC Blake]

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