Mi Hermana y Yo

Suzy was bouncing. Suzy was always bouncing. The girl was full-to-bursting with unbridled energy 24/7, which was one of the reasons she was such a fit student. Carmen never worried about her getting tired or giving up. Suzy just kept on going on, and if she managed to get some skill and intelligence under those dreadlocks, she would turn into a real threat.

It also had the side effect of making her irritating, if not taken in small doses. Carmen had built up an immunity, but Nathan would be a little more vulnerable. And she was counting on it.

"You're a bit under my weight class, Nathan." Carmen gave him a knowing smile as he handed the gear off to Suzy. He was a little smaller than she was, too. Not much, but enough that she could notice it. "At any rate, that's the point. We're practicing for Tension, weight classes don't apply. A lot of girls are going to be smaller than you, but that doesn't mean they can't hurt you."

"And I can hurt you, Weed. Believe that." Suzy slapped the training gloves on. "Hey, can we, like, give it special stipulations? Like a POW match. Always wanted to do one of those. Take him, make him do my dishes, take out my trash..."

"Call me Nathan," he said on reflex, a little irritated. Then her next sentence drew out an unexpected laugh. From what he'd heard of POW matches, the hell that she had conjured up for any prisoners unfortunate enough to go home with her was extremely mild, relatively. "Let's not. Just here to train."

Nathan was fully geared up. He held his gloves out to Carmen for tying. "Please." Nathan could have said more on the weight class thing, but Carmen looked like her mind was made up. And Suzy didn't look like she'd take no for an answer, even if he had somehow managed to convince Carmen. He wasn't happy about it, but Nathan figured he could spar with Suzy for a little while, just until Carmen was satisfied and took over herself. He was here to improve, after all. He just had to get through this segment with Suzy to get back to his actual training. The hangup could be addressed in good time.

Carmen moved to help him get tied up, while Suzy threw a few practice blows into the air, shadow boxing to get a rhythm going. "Pfft. You're no fun."

She made sure Nathan was nice and tight before she stepped back and gave them ample space. Suzy did her best work when she could move around, and Carmen wanted to make sure she had all her tools at hand. Nothing less than the full experience would do, here.

"Simple rules." She looked between them and nodded at Suzy, telling her to take up position in the middle. Go time. "You go until I tell you both to stop. Obviously we're not going the whole three rounds, and the point is just to get Nathan used to hitting women. So, once this looks like an actual boxing match, I'll pull you both in. You've both been in the ring before, you both know how this works. Keep it above the belt, keep it clean. Questions?"

'I got it, real simple." She held out her fist for Nathan to tap. "I'll try to keep your face looking pretty, dude. No worries."

'An actual boxing match.' Nathan wasn't sure how to fake that. "Got it."

He tapped gloves with Suzy. "Thanks." Then he pulled back into a corner to wait for Carmen to give them the go, his mind racing. He didn't know how he would get through this without either actually boxing or letting himself get knocked out. He suddenly felt like he was strapped into a roller coaster that he no longer wanted to ride, and wondered if it was too late to back out. For now, he'd try and keep Suzy at arm's length- he had a reach advantage, and he'd be milking that for all it was worth. He figured that the damage that either of them could do would be limited from out there.

Carmen held up her hand, giving the suspense a moment to properly develop. Suzy looked at Nathan like he was a cornered mouse and she was a cat with bared claws, ready to pounce and claim her prize. Enthusiasm was good, but there could always be too much of a good thing, and Suzy teetered right on the edge. Carmen doubted it would be that simple for her, but it was all up to Nathan from here on in.

"Go."

Suzy burst forward at full speed, sliding towards him without a hint of fear and closing the distance at a breakneck pace. She ducked and moved forward, trying to slide under his guard and tag him with a quick uppercut to the stomach, hoping the sheer alacrity of her attack would throw off his guard.

Nathan ran his tongue over his mouth guard and hit his gloves together once before settling them at the ready out in front. He stepped forward at Carmen's green light, prepared to-

A sudden uppercut plowed itself into his stomach. His arms and shoulders reflexively drew in to shield his body against more shots, and his feet shuttled him automatically along the ropes and out of his corner, seeking an escape, but his mind was still reeling from the blow. The punch didn't have the raw power behind it like the blows he used to take against other men, but the sheer speed of the thing was a total shock to his system. Carmen's prior tip about fighting agility with agility seemed all the more salient now. He wasn't sure if his speed at the top of his game could match hers, but she was making it astonishingly clear that she was faster than him right this moment, when it counted. Nathan's eyes were a little sharper now; he didn't expect for her to let up after one good shot. His arms and back tensed, ready to move.

Suzy couldn't boast the raw power some of Carmen's other students had, and she wasn't the toughest or the tights. But she could hit and she could hit fast. She prided herself on that. And she had no qualms with showing Nathan just why that was.

She tap danced around him after the punch, moving back out of range, even though he didn't make a move to retaliate. That was just reflex. She'd been training to stick and move, tire her opponent down with bug bites and whittle away until she found a good spot to drill it home...but then, most of her opponents were a good deal more offensive than Nathan was turning out to be. She kept expecting him to lash out with his Mr. Fantastic arms, but he stayed on the defensive, instead. "You do know I was joking about the punching bag thing, right?"

She moved left, then made a quick change and swerved right, throwing a hook towards his midsection as she came towards him and trying to see if she could snake it around his guard.

Nathan didn't bother responding to Suzy. He'd never liked talking with a mouth guard in.

Her style reminded Nathan of smaller guys he'd fought in the past. Flying in, hitting him with quick shots wherever they thought they saw an opening, then evaporating to just out of reach. They were annoying, to be sure, but easy enough to deal with, so long as they kept to the same patterns. Suzy was a little faster than they'd been, but the concept was entirely the same, and Nathan knew he could stop her. He wanted to stop her. He just... needed another moment to psych himself up to do it.

When Suzy swept to her left, Nathan thought he had his chance. He was quick to drop his guard down on his right, his left hand twitching to launch into a counter jab. When she swung, though, it was clear that he had prepared for the wrong attack, and his midsection took another hit. He stepped away again, growing frustrated.

Almost there. Almost.

Suzy could have sworn she saw the hint of an incoming blow, and she tensed up in preparation...but nothing came. Nathan had the reach. He had the speed. Maybe she was faster, but the divide wasn't so wide that he wouldn't be able to get a punch in. He could do it, he could hit her, so what was the hold up? It felt like incontinence, like a buildup with no real payoff, and it was starting to eat at her raw nerve. "Come on, man, fucking blue balls!"

Suzy moved back in and started to throw flicker jabs towards his face, lashing out with her gloves and whipping away at his chin. Every blow was almost like a silent dare to hit her back.

"You said you respect me, Nathan." Carmen moved around them as Suzy continued to apply pressure. "Do you respect Suzy? If you, why can't  you hit her like you could hit me?"

Nathan leaned away from Suzy's peppering, annoyed. Her outburst ate away at his patience, too; it was like she wanted a glove in the face. Carmen wasn't helping any, either; her questions were calm, and her questions were reasonable, but did Carmen really expect him to answer in the middle of all this?

He could handle either woman separately; Carmen's assault required quiet contemplation and reasoned debate (and a mouth free of polymer), two things that he would enjoy engaging in under any other circumstance. Suzy's attacks, both verbal and physical, required monk-like patience and bamboo-like flexibility, traits that weren't quite as inherent in Nathan, but ones he had built up over his years of friendship with Amy.

But together, Carmen and Suzy's contrasting methods of persuasion were impossible to deal with. When he tried to come up with answers to Carmen's questions, he'd get a quick tag in the face. Concentrating on Suzy's punches only made Carmen's questions burn impatiently in the back of his mind. They were splitting his concentration, and they were beginning to overwhelm his senses. The building aggravation was coming to a head.

Finally, the dam burst. With an uncharacteristic and guttural roar, Nathan weaved around Suzy's jabs, twisted his whole body, and threw a wild right cross at Suzy's head, fueled in equal parts by pent-up frustration and deep-rooted instinct.