Sparring (Matthews/Caine/JoNs) [Mild Mature Content]

[C.T. Caine 0]

Owen was standing in front of the gym, waiting for Caine to turn up; they had agreed to meet at 1800 hours. A glance at his watch told him she was 15 seconds late. Instead of going in and getting ready, he leaned against the bulkhead just outside the gym so Caine wouldn't be able to say he'd had an advantage, though it was her problem that she wasn't on time.

 

Caine trotted down the Agincourt corridor heading for the gym, loosening her muscles for the upcoming fight. The challenge from the marine captain had come at a good time; Caine needed a bit of exercise to work off the strain of the last mission, and it was much more fun when you had a partner. Too, notwithstanding the fact that she had every confidence of being able to take on the younger man, she fully expected a challenge, which she appreciated -- Caine was not the sort to turn down such a challenge when it was offered. She turned the corner, seeing Owen leaning easily against the bulkhead, and raised a hand in greeting. "Evening, Captain."

 

Buddha pushed himself off the bulkhead and snapped a sloppy salute. "Lieutenant." He let her lead the way in. "I'll wipe the floor with you, Junior."

 

Caine shot him an amused look before pushing past him into the room and making for the sparring mats in the far corner. "Don't get too cocky, Buddha," she said, tossing it over her shoulder. "You've never seen me work."

 

"Yup, I'm scared," Owen said with a grin as he took in his surroundings. "Do you need some time to prepare or can we start?"

 

"Warmed up before I came," Caine said casually. "But if you need a little time to put off the inevitable...feel free to take it." She found she was enjoying the repartee immensely; the fact was, with herself so new to her own department, there was no one there with whom she could really afford to set up a good competitive spirit. Her efforts there were focused on team-building, getting to know the men under her. With the marines, however, she need have no such qualms, and she and Buddha already knew each other well enough as a result of the Avaros mission that she had no problem with intending to beat the tar out of him.

 

"I'm always ready for a fight. We can start right now." To be honest, Buddha had warmed up thoroughly before coming to the gym. While his attitude didn't reveal it, he never made the mistake of underestimating an opponent. Caine was half-Vulcan which would give her a bit of an advantage if he wasn't careful. "Any particular rules you prefer?"

 

"I dabble in everything. Name your poison," Caine said, quirking an eyebrow at him.

 

Owen grinned. "Ok, then -- there are only two rules: no weapons, no killing. You OK with that?"

 

Caine considered. "Sounds good to me. I'll try to ensure that you can even show up for work on time." She returned his grin and backpedaled into the center of the floor, dropping her center of gravity into a ready stance, her focus closing in on him.

 

"Right -- you gotta hit me first," Owen said, his grin still firmly in place. Starting to circle Caine, he closely observed her every movement, intent on finding a weak spot.

 

Caine smirked slightly. "I don't think that'll be a problem." Telegraphing her movements as little as possible, she darted forward and went for his collar, going for an opening judo attack and twisting her hips in an attempted shoulder throw.

 

Owen only just managed to avoid the attack. He dodged Caine and aimed a roundhouse kick at her legs.

 

Caine rebalanced as her attack missed, turning and ducking her weight to move with the impact of the kick. She grunted as it knocked into the flesh under her ribcage, and then twisted to grab his leg before he could drop it. Shifting her weight, she twisted to throw him sideways onto his front.

 

Damn! Owen thought as he came down hard on his stomach. Within a second, however, he was back up on his feet, trying to find an opening.

 

Caine laughed as he scrambled back to his feet. "Good start, huh?" she quipped, settling back in her stance and watching him, waiting for him to make the next move.

 

"Don't feel too smug, Junior. I always let the newbies make the first move." As he finished he made a quick move forward but pulled back as Caine reacted instantly and blocked him.

 

"Newbies?!" Caine said with mock-indignation. "I've been doing this since you were still going to the bathroom in your pants, Matthews." She knocked the blow aside and took advantage of the opening in his guard to drive her shoulder into his stomach.

 

Seeing her move coming, Owen dodged Caine's shoulder, twisted to the right and used the momentum to knock her to the ground.

 

Caine "oof"-ed, his fist landing in the small of her back and adding to her own momentum, and she hit the ground hard, rolling. Good one, Buddha. Alright then...time to get serious... She flexed her fingers, the grin fading slightly from her face, being replaced with a look of analytical concentration as she focused, then angled her body around, swinging her feet in a sweep at his legs from where she had landed.

 

There was a move Buddha hadn't seen coming. He had expected it'd take Caine a little longer to recover. He winced slightly as her foot made contact with the side of his left knee and forced him to the ground. Panting, he got back up and started to circle her again to buy some time.

 

Caine was already back on her feet and as he turned to being circling she came up alongside him and grabbed for his arm, pulling it behind his back in a lock and trying to get her other arm around his neck and force him back to a floor hold.

 

Owen used his weight and pushed backwards to knock Caine off her feet. This maneuver made him lose his balance and he came down hard on top of her.

 

Caine groaned as his entire weight struck her, knocking her wind from her as she hit the decking; she brought her knee up into his back, trying to push him away long enough to catch her breath.

 

Owen rolled over to face Caine; sweat was running down his face and back but he was grinning widely. "I hope you don't prefer being on top, Junior."

 

Caine grimaced as his weight shifted but didn't let the taunt faze her. She smirked up at him. "Can't say I haven't made it a habit," she grunted between her teeth and knocked her head hard against his ribcage, then rolled sideways to throw his weight off her and pin him to the ground, stomach down, in her own hold. "Yeah...this is more fun..." she hissed in his ear as she pressed her knee down into his back.

 

"Careful, I like it rough but not like this," Owen panted, trying to figure out a way how to get out of her hold. He simply threw his head upward and hoped he'd catch her off guard.

 

"Hey...you made this bed, you're gonna lie in it," Caine said, her balance thrown slightly as he writhed under her.

 

Owen noticed Caine's weight shift a little as she tried to keep her balance. He reached back with his free arm, grabbed her leg, pulled and threw her off backwards. He hurried to scrambled to his feet before Caine could get back on top of him.

 

Caine hit the ground and her head stuck the deck and she winced, her vision sparking for a second. She panted, trying to catch her breath, and staggered back to her feet as well, swaying slightly, before lashing out with a kick. Matthews was quite a sparring partner, but she wasn't about to give up.

 

Being caught off guard by Caines quick recovery, Owen was too slow to avoid her kick. As he tried to duck under her leg, her foot made contact with his face. The blow knocked him to the ground again and he felt a warm trickle of blood run over his chin.

 

Caine grunted as she felt the satisfying jolt of a solid impact and she looked down to realize that her heel had taken him square in the nose. She took no time to revel in the victory, though, but dived for him, throwing all her weight on top of him as he had done a moment before.

 

Now it was Owen's turn to "oof" as Caine landed on top of him. Still trying to recover from the last blow, Owen shifted his weight slightly and brought his knee up to hit her in the stomach.

 

Caine's momentum onto him was checked abruptly as she took the blow full on in her abdomen, and she wheezed, for a moment completely unable to breathe. She fumbled desperately for his arms, trying to pin him down while she caught her breath. "Best you can do, is it?" she panted. Both of them were starting to feel the effects of this battle; his arms and her palms were both slick with sweat.

 

Owen tried his best to look as smug as possible with blood running out of his possibly broken nose and a formidable bruise starting to spread over the left side of his face. "I haven't really started, yet." He lifted his legs so he could cross his ankles in front of her, caught her head between his thighs and rolled to his side.

 

Caine yelped as her neck was abruptly twisted in the grip of his lower body, and she tried to pull back but found herself trapped, every muscle in her body protesting at the sudden uncomfortable bend in her spine. "You and me both..." she grunted. Certainly not going to give in now... Unable to pull himself from his grip, she went with the twist and let her own body curve around his, hooking her own ankles around his neck and bending him painfully backwards, locking both of them in unpleasant contortion. If I have to go down, you're doing down with me...

 

***

 

Commander Kansas "Will" JoNs entered the main gym at that moment, intending to get some general workout time in since she was feeling better. The Avaros mission had taken a bit out of her -- not that she'd flat out admit that, but then again, getting fire blasted by a home-grown saboteur computer program in a warehouse tended to wear on a body.

 

The golden-furred feline was wearing black sweatpants that ended just below her knee, and a matching tee-shirt that sported the mission patch of the Agincourt in the center of the chest area. She spared a disinterested glance in the general direction of the sparring mats, caught a flash of marine and security workout attire and had a quick flash of pride; the Agincourt was one of the few snips in the Fleet that had such a high level of integration and co-operation between the jarhead and barnacle contingents, and it was a natural side effect that the individual members of the two departments would co-ordinate some sparring time together.

 

She placed her dark gunmetal-gray-colored gym bag on one of the vacant benches scattered at intervals across the workout expanse and caught the various 'oofs' drifting across the gym common area as the two sparring partners went at one another. She kept one ear trained on the distant fighting match as she reached into her duffel and withdrew her own equipment.

 

But, the problem was that the level of aggression kept ramping on and on, and her sensitive ears were getting, well, an earful of the blow by blow and play by play audio commentary. JoNs fixed her attention more intently on the sparring match, to see if she could get a visual read on the two people that were determined to kill one another or something. Two of the members of the small crowd that had gathered to watch the match jostled their position, and the feline commander spotted Matthews and Caine … and she also spotted the blood spots smearing the mats.

 

Aw Hell. Two of the senior line officers were going at it like that?

 

Blood was not an unknown factor when it came to workout sparring, because it happened. You moved one way, you zigged, your opponent zagged, and boom: a certain mis-calculated (or intended) hit would connect with flesh and the blood would spurt forth.

 

JoNs had been going through some self defensive steps with Chief of Engineering Kairi a while back, and the then senior engineering officer had gotten a lucky shot in on the Cat's nose. And how in the name of the Great Predator Bird could then-Chief of Security Will forget her own mandatory disciplinary training with the 'Courts marine contingent? The orders on down the line had been for the required training to be hard, and it had been, and the Cait had gotten popped several times and lost blood here and there during the sparring sessions.

 

Yet, the times that Colonel Harper and JoNs had done an after shift sparring workout together? No blood had been spilled. So, either the human commanding officer was losing her touch, and her feline Ex Oh highly, highly doubted that, or the Cait had gotten lucky, and Kansas had a feeling that was part of the equation.

 

The other factor of the equation was that both JoNs and Harper both had the sense to recognize what a sparring session was usually employed for: a mutual work out to showcase and upgrade combat skills, not beat the living hell out of one another.

 

The commander muttered a decisive "Okay, time to go into intervention mode …," under her breath, and then bee-lined for the combatants.

 

When she reached the sparring mats, she didn't have to elbow her way in through the crowd to get a position purchase. The officers and crew that had been watching the pell mell match unfold between Caine and Matthews instinctively knew to disperse and go about their own business with the arrival of the ships Ex Oh …. and the look on her face probably hinted at the matters to come anyway. The two of them weren't even wearing any of the protective gear.

 

What the hell are you two doing? Wait, that sounds like a pretty good opening line, so why go all diplomatic?

 

"Buddha, Junior, what the hell are you two doing? And why are you both in that rather … suspect position? I wasn't aware that we had entered the t'Wister game into the sparring workout curriculum."

 

Oh, do I have that command tone? That thing sneaks up on me when I least expect it.

 

Caine tried to snap her head around in the direction of the new voice entering the conversation but ended up with a faceful of Owen's pants leg instead. She knew who it was anyway, though; Commander JoNs did not sound particularly pleased with the direction in which this fight was tending. The logical side of Caine's brain had to agree, of course -- she and Buddha had both been demonstrating tenacity worthy of bull terriers and she had the distinct feeling that one of them would have been unconscious by the time the fight ended. "Mmmmph..." she spluttered, trying to reply but obstructed by constricted air passages and a mouthful of cloth.

 

Owen was lying with his back to JoNs and every attempt to turn around without loosening his grip on Caine was futile. So he just lay there, panting, making sure not to let go of Caine. "We're just having some fun, Commander."

 

Will dropped to her four paws and lowered her leonine head closer to the two officers, her nose and muzzle wrinkling at the smell of sweat and blood that permeated the air surrounding the would-be humanoid pretzels.

 

"Let me put it this way -- if you don't voluntarily disengage from this … position you both have gotten yourselves in, I will disengage you myself and then ream you both in front of the entire gym instead of moving us out into the corridor. Your choice, make it, right now."

 

Well, that was pretty definite, Caine supposed. Matthews had been right -- there'd been no hard feelings except competition here -- but when your XO used that tone of voice, you didn't ignore it. She let her legs release from his neck and angled her body around to relieve the pressure on her neck as Owen's grip on her relaxed. Scooting backwards a foot or so, she got purchase and popped to her feet, swaying a little as she found her balance but then falling into an attention position and glancing around. She quirked an eyebrow at the rapidly dispersing crowd that had gathered to watch the match, and a slight grin twitched at her lips, but her expression otherwise had gone quiet, and she looked towards Kansas as Owen scrambled up beside her.

 

As he got to his feet, Owen grinned and he gave Caine an amused look. "We sure kick ass, Junior," he said with a smirk as he watched the small crowd dissipate. Then he looked at JoNs and her expression made him snap to attention immediately, painfully aware of the blood still trickling out of his nose and down his chin onto his t-shirt.

 

"If you guys are so intent on competitiveness and beating the ever living snot out of one another, then don't use up the sparring facilities," the feline XO said. "Book a three AM session down in the secondary cargo bay, and then the cargo crews can just hose down the deck from the blood gush."

 

Caine resisted the urge to roll her eyes at Owen's casual comment, but he belatedly had picked up on the XO's expression and fallen into line as well. "Yessir," she said crisply to Kansas, shooting him a look sideways.

 

Owen, completely oblivious to how serious the Ex Oh was about this, only just managed to stifle a grin. "You should have joined us, Commander."

 

Paws on hips, the shorter Commander Will scooted over to stand one inch from the deathwishful MCaptain Buddha. Her ears laid flat, and her chin jutted upward. "Quit bleedin' on my deck plating. Go get cleaned up." Her tone was no nonsense, and baleful green eyes flicked sideways to take in Lieutenant Caine's dilapidated appearance as well, "We've had enough ass kicking for today. Dismissed, both of you."