Not the Best First Impression, Part 2

Posted on Sun Mar 27th, 2022 @ 1:41am by Lieutenant Didrea Zade & Ensign Kateyo Fenn

Mission: Character Development
Location: USS Athena, Gym
Timeline: Between missions
2070 words - 4.1 OF Standard Post Measure

Teyo had to admit that the woman was more in shape than he had first given her credit for, not that that was going to stop him now, he was in too deep. He interlocked his fingers and twisted his arms so that his palms faced out towards her, stretching them out as far they would go, there was the sound of tiny cracks along the joints of his fingers and forearms. Feeling loose he too braced himself in a fighting position; slightly crouched, his right leg in front, his left leg stretched out behind him. He held his hands up, his fingers wide open, ready to attack. "Let's rumble, Princess."


Zade narrowed her eyes slightly as she analyzed the situation, since she knew nothing about Teyo's strength and skill. All she could immediately tell was that he was taller than her and possibly stronger, but she'd have to engage him to know for certain. He was about 3 meters away in what looked like a pretty offensive position, and the tension in his legs suggested to her that he might lunge once she was in range. Keeping her knees bent and her hands in place, she took a slow side step to his left. "Aww, letting the girl go first? What a gentleman," she commented.

Her apparent options were to either let him attack, or to attack first and test his reflexes. With his hand positioning, though, his face was somewhat open and she could probably get away with bopping him on the head. Making up her mind, her pace went from slow to fast and she closed the distance between them, and when she got closer she changed direction to approach his right.

Whoa, she's fast, Teyo thought as he managed to shift his weight onto his left leg. His right leg shot out, aiming for a strike on the left side of her abdomen. It was fitting that his first attack was a kick, considering this was how she had started this whole mess.

To Zade, the weight shift screamed at her, almost begging to be noticed. Did he make it that obvious on purpose? Zade slowed her pace enough to let the kick get close to her, then she used her right hand to half-smack, half-push it to enough to his left that it was just out of her way. Being close enough, Zade used her left hand to smack the back of his head with enough force to sting but not enough to do anything else. She used the momentum from the block and smack to face him again, taking a couple steps back to avoid a kick. "Every time you don't protect your head, I'm gonna smack it," she said, returning to her initial defensive stance.

Teyo lost his balanced and he stumbled. His head hurt and his ego was bruised but this was only the first battle, skirmish really, the war was yet to be won. He regained himself and entered his defensive stance, the time for playing was over. With a speed that he hadn't shown yet, he lunged forward, closing the gap between them in a few steps. His arms flew out in front of him and he aimed to punch her anywhere where she had left unprotected, only he wasn't being nice about it.

The change in speed forced Zade to go entirely defensive to either block or dodge his attacks. His attacks became more random and fueled by anger, making them harder to read. She blocked a punch with her arm and had to take a step back from the force. Sheesh, that strength, she mused. That was going to leave a nice bruise on her arm later. The best strategy she could see at the moment was to let him tire himself, but it was key that she conserved her energy. If she grew tired, he would easily gain an advantage. With the way he was maintaining his proximity to her, she guessed that he was trying to find an opening to hit her without giving her the chance to counter.

At this point, Jenkins and Merrick were joined by 6 other people. Jenkins rolled his eyes as he watched Merrick go around to place bets. Why is he bringing others into this? Then, a crewmate came up to Jenkins and whispered something in his ear. Jenkins' eyes widened, and he looked between the fight and the crewmate a couple times. "No way, she's..." The crewmate nodded, and Jenkins thought for a moment. "Merrick, I'm raising my bet. One week of rations and the decision for the next off-duty outfit."

Merrick turned to Jenkins, ignoring the chuckles from those nearby. "I thought you didn't like placing bets. What changed?" Jenkins came over and whispered into his ear, and Merrick looked at him, a simple eyebrow raise reflecting his surprise, before looking at the fight. "Seriously??" This new development dropped Teyo's chance of winning, but it still seemed like an even fight with the way the female Trill was engaging. But could he really win? "Screw it, I'll match your bet, Jenkins!"

Zade knew the match was drawing attention, but she couldn't risk giving them even the slightest amount of attention without giving Teyo an opening. A slight wince crossed her focused expression when one of his punches hit her side, despite her effort to dodge it. Her attempted dodge reduced the impact, but not by much. Even thinking about the attention this fight was drawing was enough to affect her concentration. The Trill kept her eyes locked on Teyo and searched for an opening.

Teyo's arms felt like lead but he wouldn't stop. As adrenaline coursed through his body he tried to lean into the anger, the hurt, the betrayal. This wasn't the Trill woman he was fighting now, this wasn't about some silly misunderstanding. This ran a lot deeper, to his very core, to his heart. He needed those feelings gone and this was the only way to expel them. Jab. Jab. Jab. He knew he would have to change up his style eventually, she was blocking most of his attacks and he had become predictable. It made more sense for him to back off and go on the defensive, let her attack him and then he would be able to find a chink in her armour. But the surge of anger and hate wouldn't let him pull away, not for a moment. He threw in a few shots to her kidneys and then he aimed a kick at the back of her legs, hoping she would lose balance and fall towards him.

At some point, Zade swore she saw a subtle change in Teyo's expression that confirmed her earlier assumption that there was something on his mind, perhaps something emotionally heavy. It definitely reflected in his anger-fueled attacks. While her initial impression pegged him as a jerk, she started to wonder if there was more to it. Did he act that way to hide what he was really feeling?

In the moment it took her to ponder that, she found Teyo suddenly in a position where he could reach her back. Focus! she thought to herself. She turned enough to try and keep him in front of her, letting his punches graze parts of her body because she was too distracted by her own train of thought to try and effectively block them. Zade caught a weight shift, then felt her knees get pushed forward from his kick. Not bad, she thought, stepping closer to Teyo in order to maintain her balance. Zade tensed her body and held her hands ready for whatever attack he was going to throw next. Usually following this type of attack, she anticipated that he would try and knock the wind out of her, perhaps with a punch to her gut, or go with some punch to the face. He could also try to put her in a chokehold, which she'd really like to avoid. It was happening too fast for her to do anything other than defend herself, especially when she was off balance, so she put more of her focus into trying to read what he could do next so she could attempt to block it and counter.

Teyo could see that the woman had fallen for his ploy and was stumbling forward, trying to regain her lost balance. He could also see that she had realised her error, as though her mind wasn't fully in this spar. Maybe she was toying with him like a catjus playing with its prey before making the kill. Either way, she was protecting herself again, putting him on the offensive. Time to switch things up, he thought to himself, before playing the blow he had originally intended to. He took a step to the side, allowing her to stumble past him and exposing her back. He could have attacked now, he wanted to, but he also didn't. "Why won't you hit me?!" The Trill yelled in frustration.

That was... not what Zade expected. Since her body was prepared to be attacked, she took a couple extra steps to avoid falling on her face. Why did he move out of the way? He had the perfect opportunity to attack her and drop her, but instead he let her go. She quickly turned to face him again, her eyebrows raised. "Wow, I've never had someone ask me to hit them," she teased, bending her knees to take a new stance. Her hand position was the same as before, but her legs were positioned a little closer together to give her a strong push toward him.

Obliging with his demand, Zade suddenly lunged forward to counter, throwing a series of punches at his face, chest, and abdomen, at a speed just slower than what he was doing before. Contrary to his emotion-fueled attacks, hers were controlled and intentional, resembling a form of fast-paced boxing. "I was trying to see if you were consistently easy to read, Muscles." It was partly the truth; she really wanted to see how he fought, and while his anger clouded his style a little, she got the idea.

Teyo instinctively put his arms up to block her attack and for the first few he was successful. He blocked without countering, using his training to anticipate where the next blow would come from, but then the third one caught him right in his abdomen. The wind was knocked out of him and he felt a surge of pain ripple across his muscles, a surge of life. He was slower to block the next hit, partly because he was still winded from the one before, partly because... he didn't want to? As her strikes continued he found himself lowering his arms, dropping his defence, waiting for the blow that would knock him unconscious, the blow that would allow him to rest.

The sudden defeat Teyo expressed made Zade stop. It actually... annoyed her? She was within arm's reach of him, so she kept her guard up, but him dropping his defense changed the fairness of the fight. She wasn't about to hit someone who gives up like that, it wasn't worth it. "What's the big deal, Muscles? You ask me to hit you and then you just... give up??" she asked, irritation in her voice. In a way though, she wondered if he was mourning something after expressing all that anger. Maybe he was emotionally hurt? She couldn't tell. All she knew was that he quickly changed. While her physical guard was up, her alertness started to waver. "That's not the man who stepped onto this mat with me. You can't tell me you resolved all the problems you walked in here with, in the few minutes of punching."

Jenkins started to grin, seeing Teyo basically one punch away from defeat, and he turned to Merrick and said in a taunting voice, "I have the perfect outfit in mind for you, by the way."

Merrick was shocked at the turn of events, the only evidence of it being a raised brow and a slight frown. Teyo was doing so well, what was he doing??? "Not if I can help it," he said to Jenkins. Cupping his hands, he shouted to Teyo, "come on, Teyo! You got this!"

To Be Continued...