Alison & Haroun ~ Sparring session

[x-dazzler.livejournal.com]

Sunday, late afternoon. Just a little sparring session in the gym...

"I take two steps forward, I take two steps back..."

Haroun sat in the Gym stretching out his lower back as best he could while he waited for Alison. He was dressed in a simple black wife-beater style T-shirt and black sweatpants, and wore simple tennis shoes on his feet. A few feet away, he had a fresh T-shirt, a full water bottle, and a medkit standing by - just in case.

There was a soft shushing sound of sneakers on the floor in the hallway moments before Alison wandered in, a gym bag slung over her shoulders. "Hey," she called out in greeting, dropping the bag on one of the benches nearby. She'd settled on a lycra pants and tank top combo for the exercise, her favorite for sparring.

Haroun nodded to Alison as he finished up his own stretching. "Want a few minutes to get warmed up?" he asked her pleasantly as he came to his feet in one smooth gesture. "I'm going to go tape my wrists." And he walked over to his pile of things and took a few rolls of tape out of the medkit.

"Definitely," was the firm response, Alison wondering what kind of sparring this would be – the one that was work and only that or the kind she could enjoy and not feel on the spot about. She went through her warm-up steadily, working through each one carefully, particularly the right shoulder. The joint popped once but soon settled as she limbered up, only glancing at the modified sparring gloves peeking from her gym bag once she felt ready.

Haroun spent the time _not_ watching Alison warm up, and instead taping his wrists quite firmly. "Any nagging injuries I need to be aware of?" he asked her once her warmup routine was finished. "And how do you want to set the ground rules for this? I've never fought you before, and I don't know how flat-out you like to run things."

"Right shoulder. Asgard. They have heavy tables there and people like to throw them around. The leg's been fine lately so I don't see any problems there, though hitting it directly," she tapped the visible scar, a reminder of her own power's effect, "I'm not sure would be fun." She retrieved her gloves and started to slip them on, strapping them into place carefully – she wasn't risking her hands, period. No matter what. "I've never really done full out sessions," she said carefully, frowning down at one of the straps before resetting it. "Usually it's touch for point or take down. And what about you, injury wise?" she asked, noting the nearly faded bruise on his jaw only because Scott had told her about it.

Haroun shrugged. "Anything you think you can dish out I can take." he said with a fairly disturbing grin. "But I'll keep an eye on that shoulder. Let's do this - light contact and takedowns only. Tap out if you need to. Sound fair?"

She raised an eyebrow at the grin, but refused to categorize the workout as 'one of those' just yet anyway. "Works for me." The last strap was in place and tested, and Alison nudged her gym bag out of the way before moving towards the center of the practice mat, breathing evenly.

Haroun picked out a mouthguard from the medkit, popped it into his mouth, then walked out onto the practice mat. He stopped at the center of the mat, rolling his shoulders and waiting for Alison. He didn't even bother picking his hands up into any sort of a guard position. "Let's see what you've got." he said around his mouthguard.

Alison preferred by far taking a more defensive stance when sparring and suddenly wasn't entirely sure about this. Still, practice was practice and she'd done enough of that in the last year to last her a lifetime. Dismissing anything else, she settled into a basic stance, one that would allow her range of movement without effort; weight settling mainly in one leg and down to the foot solidly, the other ready to allow movement as needed. And studied for a moment, not at all inclined to rush in just because.

Haroun stayed in his casual stance, keeping his arms firmly at his sides. "That's a very pretty stance, songbird." he said, then lashed out with a low hooking kick, aimed right for Alison's leading leg.

A quick shift of weight from the leading leg to the other, and Alison simply lifted the targeted limb out of the way before resting it down lightly just as quickly, anticipating a combination move rather than assuming that was all there was to it. Not leading into an attack of her own yet, if only because it wasn't necessary.

Haroun pulled the kick back, and then grinned. "Nice. But you didn't counterattack - why not?" he asked her before finally settling into a fighting stance. "Do you prefer one of those defensive-only styles?"

She smiled just a bit, keeping her full attention on the way he moved. "A little bit of this, a little bit of that. Whatever works for me. Mainly defensive whenever I can, yes." But there were aspects to a defensive style which were just as effective as offensive, something he had to know.

"Could make this a real boring session, if we both wait for someone else to go on the offensive." he commented. "There are things to be said for a solid defense and excellent counterattacking skills, but every once in a while you need to go take the fight to the bad guys, rather than waiting for them to come attack you." he said, then pushed off his back foot and committed to a series of attacks - a jab at her face with his leading hand and a strong front kick aimed right at her solar plexus.

She leaned backwards at the first jab, letting it pass overhead harmlessly, straightening just in time to shift to the side just enough to avoid the kick. Both reflexes and training kicked in and Alison shifted, a move more learned in dance than anything else as she caught the heel of his foot and used his momentum to pull him forward while moving in closer. A half body turn to gain momentum and she flowed into a neat elbow strike aimed at his head. 

Haroun was half-expecting her to try to redirect the force of his attacks - he was fairly sure she was a big devotee of judo and its spiritual cousins. He pushed his weight forward, to duck under the elbow strike by rolling under it and back to his feet. Facing away from her, he pivoted perfectly on the ball of his down leg, recoiled his errant kick from earlier, and shot it back at her as a strong side kick, aimed right for her midsection - hoping to catch her before she could redistribute her momentum and avoid the strike.

She didn't even try, really – her balance was all wrong and the strike was coming in fast and tangling herself up in her own legs would be just embarrassing. So instead she blocked solidly with both forearms, bracing herself and grinning sharply for the simple reason that she didn't get to use this move often and it was fun... and then hopped up just enough to clear both feet from the ground as his foot connected solidly with her arm guards, landing solidly a few feet further in an easily redistributed stance.

Haroun recoiled himself and grinned at Alison. "Good!" he said to her with a grin. "Need to work on not tangling yourself like that - your footwork is a little sloppy. But you adjust well." He then swung a fast hooking punch aimed for her jaw that he never expected to land successfully - his real business technique was the grab with his other hand for her arm. He was wondering how well she'd react to being grappled - it could usually be counted on to throw women for a bit of a loop.

She repressed a faint snarl at the sloppy comment but the spark of annoyance faded away before he'd even finished speaking. Now was just not the time to get all competitive. The hooking punch was avoided and neatly redirected with the flat of her hand as she followed through her motion and she took a step back, shifting leading legs solidly – only to realize that he had closed his other hand on her other arm in a very solid way. 

Haroun grinned as he pulled Alison towards him - to break her balance. He twisted the grip he had on her arm, to better apply a firm arm bar and take her to ground while he reached over with the other to complete the hold.

The sudden motion draw a faint huff from her as her breathing pattern was broken and her balance unsettled enough to throw her towards him, eyes widening slightly  as a faint 'uh oh' floated helpfully somewhere in the back of her mind while she was twisted around. She did her best to keep her other arm free at least, even as she felt him pull them down. 

Haroun dropped his weight with a jerk, dragging Alison down to the mat so that he could put some unpleasantness down on her. He kept up the pressure on her arm, isolating and stressing her elbow in ways it was not meant to bend.

Her free arm ended up bracing her as the mat came up to meet her at an alarmingly high speed, a faint grunt escaping her as she arched into the motion Haroun was forcing her arm into. He was bearing down on her fast and she only had one option left - if that didn't work, she was down. With a harsh exhalation of air she pushed braced one knee on the floor, upper body twisted further as she pushed into the lock to give herself a chance, and kicked up with her free leg, hoping she had enough momentum to land a solid hit. 

Haroun whuffed as the kick landed - not that it had much force behind it (it didn't) but that it connected in the first place. He let the arm bar go and stepped back to give her an opportunity to get back to her feet. He didn't say anything, but he did incline his head towards her in respect.

She stretched out her arm carefully as she rose to her feet, the fact that he had let go settling in a moment later only. She nodded back slowly, steadying her breathing automatically, not assuming it was over until it had been clearly stated – a legacy of the dirty tricks fighting sessions Scott had put her through at one point.

Haroun waited for Alison to come to her feet fully before approaching her again - changing his tactics again to try a classic one-two combination, aimed for head and stomach.

Planting her furthermost foot solidly Alison went for a simple throw – catching his arm on the inside with both hands, left hand on the wrist palm down and the other snapping to his elbow, palm upwards. Gliding back she rotated his arm slightly while pulling it towards her hip to unbalance him before finishing the throw.

Haroun went up and over, landing on the mat with a classic breakfall. "Nice throw." he said as he rolled away from her and leapt back to his feet in a kip-up. "Very nice. Guess I should stop playing, huh?"

"I had a feeling you were going to say that," Alison murmured. She wouldn't have minded all if he'd just kept playing a while longer, but not everyone viewed training the same way she did. Actually, very few did in the mansion. She shifted to another stance and changed her guard, one hand low, the other at mid chest height. He was better than she was, and that irked her although there was no good reason for it to do so. Lasting as long as possible would be the challenge here.

Haroun advanced with a little skipping lunge, lashing out his front leg in a strong quick kick aimed right for her midsection - if she couldn't breathe, she couldn't fight. He planned on following it up with a series of backfists and punches if he had to.

Attempting to block one of his leg strikes would be a lunatic's idea of fun, Alison decided between one moment and the next, remembering only too well the strength of the last one. She hated using her hands to strike which he had guessed at already, she had no doubt. So she did just that, having already half considered doing so earlier but finding now was as good a time as any. She shifted her body to avoid the kick, feeling it brush along her back nonetheless and upping her estimate of his speed, before stepping right inside his guard and nearly right up to him to rob his blows of the most of their strength, turning her hand so that the padded knuckles would land in a hit right on his solar plexus.

Haroun grinned - she had played it just the way he thought she was going to. He dropped one hand to deflect her punch to his solar plexus, and with his other he ripped off a shot right for Alison's chin.

There was a blur of motion at the corner of her eyes and it occurred to Alison that he might have been expecting this even if it was counter to her usual style. But even though she threw her head back at the last second, the hit clipped her solidly, throwing her off her form for a moment.

Haroun pressed his advantage, looking to keep the pressure on without doing any real damage to her. He followed his attack to her jaw with another one to the same spot, stepping forward to press his advantage. 

The second strike, hitting as well, actually helped her regain focus – she snapped back into stance on the next backwards step, ready to deflect the next punch if it came and then sought to put more room between them, to give herself a brief moment to regroup. She wasn't doing well in her estimate although she managed to keep herself from feeling anything about that for now, concentrating on the spar instead.

Haroun saw her recover, but pressed his advantage anyway - a short lightning-quick jab to the opposite side of her jaw, a strong straight punch to her gut, then another follow-up back to her head - forcing her to try to spread her defenses wide to block them all.

That she could deal with admirably well, falling into the rhythm of block and dodge, refusing to allow herself to always use the same patterns and so leave herself open to another blow. This wouldn't serve much use in the long run though and her jaw was throbbing faintly – but she refused to tap out. Instead she waited until he took another jab at her head, deflecting that while using her other arm to guard herself and then struck out with her right foot after he had committed to the punch, aiming for his knee.

Haroun took the shot to his knee - the artificial structural elements of his legs absorbing the force without causing damage to the more delicate internals. "OK, I think that's enough for now." he said, dancing back out of Alison's striking range. "I caught that shift of mood - did I catch you too hard on those shots to the jaw?"

She stepped out of her stance immediately, arms falling to her sides although the tenseness was still present despite her attempts at smudging it of her body language. "It wasn't that, exactly," she finally said, sighing a bit as she brushed at her jaw with a fingertip, more annoyed with herself over that than anything else. And at a loss how to word what had been bothering her forever really, since she'd never had to explain before.

Haroun settled down into seiza, grabbing his waterbottle from his pile of things and waiting patiently for her to explain what it was that was bothering her.

She stretched her neck for a moment longer, absently noting to herself she might be a bit stiff there the next day but nothing more, before walking over and folding down to sit into a half-lotus next to him. "I've never really tried to put it in words before. This," and she gestured at the mat, shaking her head. "It's a bit harder for me to reach than most of the others here, if that makes sense. And my sparring hasn't been the best lately depending on who I'm sparring with. I do fine in actual combat though. Out there." She added the last quietly, looking down.

Haroun shrugged. "I'm sorry if I made you uncomfortable." he said with real regret in his voice. "It wasn't my intention. But as X-Men, we have to keep our skills sharp. This is a good way."

"It wasn't you," she looked up, smiling just bit albeit genuinely so. "I can bounce Scott of a wall just fine. Sometimes I just tank, s'all." She didn't want to talk about how she still felt about the X-Men sometimes – or rather, being one. She could forget about the doubts, when she didn't think about them. And kept busy. 

Haroun shrugged as he stood up. "Okay." he said. "If you want to talk about it some more, you know where you can find me." He grabbed a towel and draped it over his shoulders. "I think I'll go hit the showers. Catch up with you for dinner?"

"Sure," she smiled at him, waiting until he'd walked started walking away before looking down at her gloves, the smile slowly fading away. With sharp gestures she started taking them off, the tension returning once more.