I Work Out (Allison)

Allison didn’t belong to the gym she was currently at. She hadn’t belonged to any gym in a few months, in fact, and before that she’d used her school’s gym, so whether she’d ‘belonged’ to it or not was a bit debatable. Nonetheless, she had discovered a paper advertising a self defense class and joined. Despite the higher price, despite the fact that she shouldn’t really pay even the lower price members got, despite the chances that a one-day class wouldn’t really teach anything more helpful than ‘carry pepper spray, and if you need to run, you can buy a new pair of high heels later.’ If that was all the class covered, well, Allison already knew more than that. Wasp spray worked just as well as pepper spray, was easier to find, and had a better range. Even if it did infuriate certain mutants.

Still, though. Living at Sanctuary was fun, the people were great, their mutations were often absolutely fascinating, but... it still felt kind of like a tiny kick in the brain every time Allison heard about a new mutation that was more useful than hers. Which was often. In high school, surrounded by humans, making tattoos had seemed pretty cool. In Sanctuary, surrounded by people who could create lightning or steal the blood from an enemy’s veins, it mostly made Allison feel helpless. Allison loathed feeling helpless.

Fortunately, the class turned out not only to be more useful than ‘high heels are not good for running in,’ it turned out to be a bit over Allison’s level. Significantly over, in fact, so that Allison quickly resorted to putting her focus on memorizing the instructions and tips so she could try and learn them later, when she had more time. She still attempted the moves when told to, but wasn’t particularly surprised when she failed to get them right.

Still, just from basic tips like ‘don’t put your thumb inside your fist when punching someone if you don’t want to break it,’ she’d probably effectively doubled her fighting ability already. Actually figuring out how to successfully pull off the attacks without slowed down step by step directions and an instructor correcting her throughout would be far more useful. Likely a long way in the future, but useful.

So while Allison was as worn out as the other women in the class, she stayed behind anyway, too full of elation and adrenaline to be feeling the extent of her exhaustion yet and determined to figure out as much as she could before the smaller details of the instructions got lost in her memory. She paused long enough to nod to the one other woman who’d stayed before returning to attempting to balance for a kick.

Allison paused again, letting her balance shift back to something more normal, and wiped her hair out of her eyes. “Sure.” She was pretty sure her legs were shaking. Good sign in general, if not for the moment. Hadn’t happened since high school, either, if she remembered right. “Though, I can’t necessarily guarantee I’ll be worth anything for it. Haven’t really had any training before today.”

Well. There was that one time she’d been kidnapped, and the other where she’d gotten into a fight with another girl to protect some sort of bird boy who couldn’t control his shifting and was being picked on. Those weren’t exactly training, though; more like flail in controlled panic and if you live, good. Allison would prefer not to have to resort to that particular strategy again.

It took a second for Allison to figure out the stance the other woman took was for attack, but she still managed to shift into something resembling a defensive stance before the woman attacked. At least, it was better than standing with her hands at her sides. “Sounds useful.” Also a bit potentially disappointing, in some ways, but useful first. “Why the training, then? If you can’t be hurt.”

Anything else Allison might have though to say as she found herself immediately in over her head in the fight. The woman started out attacking, and was able to continue doing so, as Allison never got the chance to attack herself. She was able to keep defending for a while, though, if partly because she knew she’d already have enough bruises and aches that any new ones wouldn’t be noticeable, so her regular limits were ignored. They’d been passed halfway through the class, and Allison had deemed them not worth paying attention to any longer.