Training Day (Open)

[Matrim Gallagher]

Matrim's arms were out of their casts, he had to get in shape again, he had to train. This didn't mean punching or fighting as much as it meant conditioning. Sure he could to lift weights, but that wasn't what he was worried about. Bench pressing was good exercise, but he wasn't some jock. He was an athlete, he was somewhat concerned with his fighting ability, and more then that his ability to move his arms around. So he was doing some stretching exercises.

It was inside the gym area, where there were courts that were covered. He was wearing gym pants, a light rain proof material that allowed him to move easy, but it made sort of a 'swoosh' noise whenever he walked. He was wearing a white tank top. It was probably one of the strangest things to see him wearing if you knew him. It wasn't exactly what he wore often, but he wore it today. The button up t-shirt wasn't meant for exercise or working, it was meant for comfort. Same as the jeans, he needed to be able to stretch out.

Matrim was doing something he had been taught during his travels when he was brought up. Usually he'd just hit the punching bag and call it today, but it was too high impact for jumping the horse. He extended his right palm slowly, stretching his arm out, as he started doing several different yoga exercises, and eventually he worked in some conditioning. Going to the front leaning rest, he brought his feet up slowly. Bringing his knees to his chest he rested all his way solely on his hands, leaning forward so that his face was towards the ground he extended his feet upward, legs together as he stretched them upward completely.

He brought his right leg down to the ground slowly, and then transferred his weight to it, standing up as he brought his left leg down. He was now standing up, and he was feeling a bit reckless. He didn't want to do too much though, so no matter how tempted he was to do a cartwheel, he didn't. Instead he grabbed a towel and dried himself off, realizing he wasn't alone...

[Nicolas Constantine]

Nick hadn't got a lot of sleep lately, so he could do one of two things: stay home and sleep, or go to school and sleep. Apparently he chose the latter as he had found a nice spot on the bleachers outside near the gym and had lay down to rest, during class.

His hood was up, his headphones were playing music and he was enjoying a nice nap. That was until someone decided to do their daily exercise routine right next to where he had crashed.

Now Nick didn't mind that someone else was there; he knew it wasn't an area for him, let alone an area for sleeping versus exercising.

He opened an eye, music still blaring in his head and peeped towards the person who had joined him. The student had longish brown hair and was quite tall, but what really stood out was what he was wearing. To Nick it looked like it was from straight out of an 80's workout video.

Nick sat up and turned off his music to begin to watch this guy attempt to exercise. It was quite amusing that he couldn't do a cartwheel, but Nick didn't want to laugh and potentially piss him off. So he just waited for the guy to notice that he was there.

[Matrim Gallagher]

Matrim had just finished the handstand, he looked over at the kid listening to music. He had seemed to not pay much attention to Matrim, so Matrim didn't really get too aggressive or assume things. After all, he was a perfectly level headed open minded guy who didn't mind people wa- "What are you looking at?" - OK so scratch that. Matrim stared at the kid, who was relatively small, he looked a little peckish, as if he wasn't one to eat a lot. But that didn't stop Matrim for wanting to knock some manners to the kid.

Matrim wasn't going to do the big macho crack your knuckles and challenge someone to a fight thing, not on school grounds anyway. He may be a pillar, but that didn't exempt him from the rules. He was only to fight when it was absolutely necessary to end confrontation or save someone. He wasn't able to go around just randomly fighting, no matter how many times he had broken that rule. But to be fair, at least he didn't jump kids or anything. He just challenged Kate to that one fight, and then he started a huge free for all in the gym.

But that was to create a feeling of teamwork, of knowing each other. See who is tough, get to know each other on a physical level. In a totally non-innuendo meaning of the phrase.

"Got a problem or something? Why are you sleeping in here. There are more comfortable places on Campus that don't have a view of me working out." He wasn't insinuating something, simply pointing out a fact. Matrim had found several good napping spots himself.

[Nicolas Constantine]

The guy who was working out seemed to have a problem with Nick being there.

"Heh, of course there are more comfortable places to sleep, I just happened to choose this area because its close to the gym; just in case I want to work out after my nap. And its covered, what if it started to rain?" Nick's accent added a strange tone to what he said.

Nick had said this with knowing that it was a perfectly good day outside, no chance of rain. He just thought it was a good idea and it made sense somehow. Apparently this guy didn't enjoy the idea of him watching his rather pathetic workout of sorts. Nick lay back down and looked up.

"And what are you, my mum? I just happened to be sleeping here and you just happened to be working out, excuse me if I intruded on your physical activity."

Nick usually didn't have an attitude when talking to people, especially strangers, but this kid was being a tad bossy and Nick was sleeping there first.

[Matrim Gallagher]

Matrim could hug him.....

"Heh, of course there are more comfortable places to sleep, I just happened to choose this area because its close to the gym; just in case I want to work out after my nap. And its covered, what if it started to rain?"

"Bloody hell......" He said, not mocking the accent, but breathing it in. It wasn't everyday he came across another person with a British accent. His own faded from time to time because of how long it had actually been since he was home. Most of these past years were spent in Japan at 650 or in Alaska at PH. Coming across someone with an accent like this just sort of made his day.

"And what are you, my mum? I just happened to be sleeping here and you just happened to be working out, excuse me if I intruded on your physical activity."

"I just don't like being watched is all, makes me a bit paranoid," He said, his accent was flooding back for some reason. Maybe picking up on Nick's own brought it out more. It was almost like speaking a foreign language, but it was true what they said about certain things being like riding a bike, you just didn't forget them no matter how long it had been, "Besides I can't imagine what sort of exercise you would do after your naps done. Bench pressing a closet broom doesn't necessarily constitute the term 'work out'."

[Nicolas Constantine]

"Bloody hell......"

Ah, so he was British as well. At first he didn't notice it, but he could faintly hear it within that particular phrase. Nick smiled, he hadn't met someone who was English in Moral Crest yet.

"I just don't like being watched is all, makes me a bit paranoid, Besides I can't imagine what sort of exercise you would do after your naps done. Bench pressing a closet broom doesn't necessarily constitute the term 'work out'."

The guy's accent came out a lot more than at first. Nick felt more of a cultural connection with this guy just due to the accent.

"Oh, well I'm sorry then. I'm Nicolas by the way. Didn't mean to sully your work out. But what were you doing exactly?" he said with a questioning look on his face.

[Matrim Gallagher]

"Oh, well I'm sorry then. I'm Nicolas by the way. Didn't mean to sully your work out. But what were you doing exactly?" The boy asked, and Matrim was alright with letting him know since it wasn't a weakness really. After all, he could beat Kate with two broken arms, what was the harm in letting this kid know he was recovering.

"You see I had this sparring match with Mathew, the Student Body President. We got a little too into the fight and he broke both of my arms. Still managed to get the last hit but in the end it's hard to beat a man like that when two of your limbs aren't working as good as they should be," He explained, "Well not too long ago I got out of the casts and I've been working on arm strength. I can manage to do a pretty decent handstand so far, so I can support my own weight. I'm just not sure how I will be when it comes to punching and other high impact exercises."

The sudden need to punch a bag hanging from a chain came to Matrim. He wanted to get back to practicing boxing, and that shocked him. He figured he'd want to get back to wrestling. He loved the WWE style wrestling, no matter how fake the show was, some of the moves were no laughing matter.

[Nicolas Constantine]

"Well that's the kind of work out I do. Punching bags and other arm exercises. And that's why I slept near the gym. Saves me some walking time, and the benches aren't that uncomfortable."

Nick thought it was good that the guy wasn't discouraged enough about both arms breaking to never want to try physical activity with them again.

"And sparring with the Student Body President? He's a Pillar, isn't he? You'd have to be either really strong or bloody mad to spar with someone like that."

Nick now was thinking that there was more to this kid then meets the eye.

[Matrim Gallagher]

"Not that I'm making great strides in the subject of Sanity, but I'm strong," Matrim said, once again going to do a handstand. As he did he made sure his body was completely stiffened and straight, and then he did a push up from this position before somersaulting forward till he was back on his feet. Or rather, on one foot and one knee, "After all I'm a pillar too you know..."

Geez this guy is pretty oblivious.... then again I did sort of blow off telling him my name.

"I'm Matrim Gallagher, the Varisty Captain," He said, standing up from his kneeling position. He turned around and wondered what else he should do for arm strength. Before long he'd have to do high impact stuff like punching and grappling and even cartwheels. Ok so maybe cartwheels weren't exactly a priority but it was important for him to be agile. "Mind you the Student Body President is a tough nut to crack even for me, hence the two previously broken arms, but I am pretty strong. I did earn my position by beating the V.C. from 259 after all."

He wasn't trying to brag or come off as some sort of show off, it was just that somebody thinking he was insane but weak didn't suit him. Sure he was a little insane, but to think he wasn't strong was just complete rubbish.

[Nicolas Constantine]

"After all I'm a pillar too you know..."[/b]

Nick almost choked on nothing. He sputtered and cleared his throat a little. He was talking to one of the four Pillars this whole time? Out of all the students in the school, it had to be a Pillar. If he had told Nick his name, he would have placed it immediately, but he hadn't heard it until just now. Matrim Gallagher. Now he had met two Pillars, the first being the illustrious Damien Kross.

"Sorry, I didn't know you were a Pillar." Nick sounded really apologetic.

"Ha ha, listen to me, acting like you're the Prime Minister of England. I'm sure you're just a normal kid, or something..." Nick drifted off a bit.

[Matrim Gallagher]

"Normal? Far from it....." Matrim said. Thinking about all he had been through, "There are normal people in this world with normal lives, or something relatively close to it. Trust me when I say I'm far from all of them."

Matrim's life was the definition of abnormal. Even for a school like this, with it's strong fighters and people who had brought out their Qi abilities, Matrim was an exceptionally abnormal person. He had fought in a war, he had organized a successful (or nearly successful) prison break, and had so many things happen to him that seemed right out of science fiction. All of that was in his past, but it defined his present. Fighting every chump who challenged him, Qi abilities, hell even Winklewood became the definition of normal to Matrim.

Ok so maybe not that freak who showed up during that naked run, but normal was a nice change. "But yeah, I'm not the Prime Minister, so no need to be all surreal or anything weird like that. Besides, somebody could beat me up and Linda might decide they're the better bloke for the job. After all it's not like I'm great with sports in general, just football really."

And he meant football. Where you use your foot and didn't wear protective gear. Not the American football.

[Nicolas Constantine]

"Eh, I'm not much of a football fan. Boxing's my sport; I use my fists, not my feet. I was almost the youth Boxing champ in England, did ya know? There doesn't happen to be a boxing team in a school like this, is there?"

He was obviously talking to the correct person if there was such a thing. The Varsity Captain, of all people, would know how to get in to the team if there was one to begin with. Nick doubted it, though; he didn't think that Boxing was as popular in America then England, but then again, he didn't know at all.

[Matrim Gallagher]

"Eh, I'm not much of a football fan. Boxing's my sport; I use my fists, not my feet. I was almost the youth Boxing champ in England, did ya know? There doesn't happen to be a boxing team in a school like this, is there?" He asked and Matrim thought about it. He didn't know, but then again, he was Varsity Captain. He made the rules, and he had the money to contribute to make a team. So why not?

"There can be one," Matrim said with a smirk crossing his face, "See I'm a bit into the boxing style. Never did the sport, but if you can get some people interested, and if you really want to start a boxing team, I'll allow it and even sponsor it. The gear, the ring, everything. But you have to promise me one thing."

Matrim would pause for dramatic effect and say, "When we get everything set up, me and you are going to have a boxing match. I'll read up on the rules for the actual sport and such. Don't worry, you won't have to win or anything ridiculous like that. I just want to fight you is all, and the only way would be off campus, or in a situation like boxing where violence is condoned."

[Nicolas Constantine]

Nick sputtered and coughed again.

"M-me? Versus a Pillar? I don't really think that's much fair... unless..."

Nick smirked.

"Unless you plan to be boxing by the rules. In that case I would think it a more balanced challenge."

Nick sized up his soon-to-be opponent while he thought about it. It seemed fair, even though it would be against the strength of a Pillar and Nick also remembered that Matrim's arms weren't at their peak either.

"You've got yourself a deal. Just tell me exactly what I have to do, I've never really created a team before. And promise me that there wouldn't be any harsh feelings towards me if I were to beat you, I don't like to have enemies and its just a show of good sport, eh?" Nick said sternly.

Yes, he knew he was going up against a Pillar, but in this case the only thing that meant to him was that Matrim was stronger; no status or title would get in the way.

[Matrim Gallagher]

"You've got yourself a deal. Just tell me exactly what I have to do, I've never really created a team before. And promise me that there wouldn't be any harsh feelings towards me if I were to beat you, I don't like to have enemies and its just a show of good sport, eh?"

Again there it was, somebody who didn't understand Matrim. Of course, Matrim was in a bit of a nice mood, which was why he gave the kid this offer. So he would explain, "If you beat me that'll just make me respect you and like you more. That's the sort of man I am. The only reason I would ever come to have harsh feelings against you is if you cheated or did something dishonorable in the fight. But if we're following a set of rules, I don't suppose that'll happen will it?"

Matrim was telling the truth. He didn't hold losses against people, he just saw it as another challenge to overcome. And he was definitely ready for this. He'd read up on all the rules, get a few practices in maybe, and before too awful long this kid and Matrim would have their challenge, "Just go around school getting people to sign up or at least get them interested. Let's make this match next Wednesday after school is out. I'll have a ring and everything needed set up in the gym. As long as five or so kids show up it should be enough to get the team started. You'll compete against other schools, and if you start winning more people will start joining. I can say that our Football team is going to be the best, and I have high hopes for the American Football team, so hopefully our match will let me know what type of boxing team we can expect. And who knows, if I have enough fun I might join the team myself."

Matrim thought that covered just about everything, "So, see you Wednesday then?" He asked. If he got a yes, he would leave, unless of course the kid had another question.