The girl who cried...(Open)

[Velma R. Sinclair]

It was an hour before dawn, the air was damp with the morning dew and the wind was still, Velma stood alone in the furthest part of the training area she could so she would not disturb anyone with her morning warm-ups. Standing with her eyes blindfolded and breathing steadily as she began her energy cleansing meditation, motioning her hands and arms as if she were holding a ball of energy in her hands and played with it. After completed this exercise she removed the blindfold and tossed it aside. This morning Velma was wearing a black sports bra, a pair of tight biker shorts, and a pair of her trusty black high top sneakers. She carried a plain old black messenger bag with a change of clothes of course, but the chances of getting seen out here right now is not exactly likely. And so what if someone saw her scars and tattoos? It really didn't matter to her, she just didn't want to get gawked at by some stupid boy. Now it was time to do some stretching exercises, but before she could move, she heard distant foot steps, well paws to be exact it sounded just like an almost 200 pound dog running his way towards her. She felt a sudden frozen speechlessness come over her as she turned slowly. The soft thuds the large white wolf hybrid's paws were making as he was galloping happily toward her with his tongue hanging out of his mouth, bouncing up and down with each step, spraying any unsuspecting victims with dog drool as he passed. Velma's eyes only widened slightly.

"GENE!" a surprised cry escaped Velma's lips as her white wolf hybrid tackled her to the ground. Giving Velma's soft clean blemish free face large wet slobbery kisses that covered a good 70% of her face in this clear thin slime like substance. Velma laughed softly as she was bombarded with slimy dog kisses and pushed the large dog aside almost easily, but there was still a sign of strain. "Dammit Gene...you almost killed me there!" she said playfully as she dug out a small towel out of her bag and wiped her face with it, "What are you doing here anyway? I thought I told you to stay home" She said with a forgiving voice as she leaned over to pet him. Gene's ear's and tail dropped dramatically, and he whined in despair. "Oh don't give me that..." Velma replied playfully and poking him gently on the nose, Gene looked down pathetically and plopped himself down at her feet and roll around on his back in a submissive and cute sort of way. Velma smiled and knelled down beside him and scratched his belly a little bit. "Oh alright, you can stay, but you HAVE to go back after my warm-ups are done. Understand?" she said to Gene, and he looked up at her with cheerful eyes and barked in reply. "Good boy" she praised Gene as she scratched him behind the ear, Gene stretched out that area as much as he can so Velma could scratch everywhere, leaning into her hand as she scratched him, wagging his large thick dangerous tail wildly.

As if she weren't disturbed to begin with she sat upon this blanket she laid out for herself, of course Gene invited himself along to lay on the blanket with his beloved master, he lay contently with his full attention on Velma's surroundings. She sat up straight and began with her leg stretches, pulling her leg from where it sat to about an inch away from being right next to her head, she breathed slowly and continued on. Being double jointed, it was harder for her to do stretches, since there was almost nothing that was a stretch to her, she needed to really sit and pull on those limbs of hers to stretch, everything she had to do were always gawked at and commented on, mostly dirty perverted comments, which were the worse, she hated every single person who had something 'clever' to say about this. After completing all but one she sat right back up but this time with her legs folded underneath her. Laying back she arches her self backwards and begins to slowly make a circle shape with her body by bending it backwards, further and further until her head met with her heels. The there was a rather loud CRACK followed by a few more softer snapping sounds, Velma just let her body collapse, she took a couple of deep breaths and sighed contently, her body now lay on the blanket comfortably her back felt better, and she almost felt like falling asleep, but not just yet she will just take a two minute break for now.

[Robert S. Armstrong]

Robert would be walking around Central, when he decided to see if any of his fellow soldiers would be in the training area. Lugging his sword on his back, Robert headed to the training area, but stopped when he saw a woman, doing some very strange flexible stretching.

He took his sword off his back, and leaned it against a nearby wall, then leaned back against the same wall, watching her as she did her exercises. When she was finally finished, ending off with a very straining looking stretch that made her bend her body almost completely backwards, Robert picked his sword back up, slung it over his back and headed over to where she was.

"That looked quite difficult," he observed when he got within earshot of the woman, "I don't suppose one can simply learn to stretch their body like that...you must be double jointed. It would certainly come in handy during a fight."

[Velma R. Sinclair]

Velma had not moved at first, she raised her eyebrows as she sat up and looked up at him from where she sat. Gene had noticed him of course, but did not have the need to really do anything but watch from where he was, his ears perked and eyes focused on Robert as he spoke, and only twitching slightly when Velma began.

"You called it" she began with a friendly smile, "Yes, its quite useful, especially with submissions and such, kinda hard to out stretch the stretchy." she answered with a quiet laugh. Getting up she brushes herself off and clear's her throat, Gene getting up with her standing at her side, ready for anything. "I don't believe we've met..." she began again after a short pause, then walking a couple of steps toward him and offered her hand. "My name is Velma, and this is Gene" she finished as she pats Gene on the head.

[Robert S. Armstrong]

"Robert Armstrong," he said taking her hand and squeezing slightly, "I don't suppose you'd be interested in some training? I can blunt the edge of my sword with Alchemy, or we can do hand-to-hand?"

While he waited for an answer, he would crouch down, and pet the dog on the head smiling the whole time.

[Velma R. Sinclair]

Gene wagged his tail and yipped happily at this. "Well, we could have a little bit of both if you'd like," she began placing a hand on her hip "we could start out hand to hand and then bring in the weapons, but first one to bring out a weapon is a girl!" she teased and laughed slightly to herself. "Would this mean I would have to choose between my weapons?" she asks as she looks away thoughtfully.

[Robert S. Armstrong]

"I don't think it matters how many weapons you use," Robert said as he took the massive sword off the strap on his back and slammed it point down into the ground, "it's just practice after all."

Pulling his arm behind his head, Robert pulled down on it with is other hand until it cracked, then did the same with the other arm, before doing quad stretches for his legs. When he was nice and limber, he brought his fists up in a boxing position, and and bounced up and down on his feet, signaling that he was ready to begin when ever she wanted. She probably had the advantage of speed, but this was not going to be an easy fight for her.

[Velma R. Sinclair]

Since she was already warmed up, all she did was take a deep breath and decided upon a tai chi stance she learned a few years back, after watching Velma take this stance, Gene decided to go lay down close by, watching carefully. "Be careful though, Gene has a tendency to break up fights if they get to serious." she warned Robert as she nodded to him saying that she was ready. Looking him dead in the eyes, with a cheerful smile upon her face. Her different colored eyes, now in full view, were showed off unintentionally, and her blue eye seemed to be getting darker to match the richness of her green eye. But here eyes had different effects on people.

[Robert S. Armstrong]

As soon as she nodded, Robert threw a full punch forward with his left hand, not even taking time to observe her stance fully. As the punch reached its full extension, whether he hit or not, he would pull back, then throw an arced downward punch with his right hand, which if blocked, would probably knock her arms down, allowing him to throw another punch with his left hand, while her defenses were down, which is exactly what he would do.

[Velma R. Sinclair]

She chose well in her picking of stances, this enabled her to step back when needed, and almost as quickly as he threw his punches Velma redirected them almost easily with the backs of her wrists. When it came to his downward punch, Velma was a little to quick to react, and he wound up landing a hit on her right wrist, which caused an eye to tear up for a second before she dropped down to the ground and attempted to sweep him off his feet with a quick kick.

[Robert S. Armstrong]

As his feet were kicked out from under him, Robert, would move his hands to the ground immediately and push himself back to his feet without missing a beat. As he settled onto his feet, he would bounce for a moment, then jump forward, with his left knee extended, attempting to knock Velma back. After this, he would cup his right fist in his left, and slam downward with both hands.

[Velma R. Sinclair]

She jumped back to dodge the knee, then when it came to him slamming downward with both hands Velma jumps forward and slips in between his arms and giggles a little bit "Oh Robbie, I didn't know you cared!" she exclaimed while she was in between his arms, she quickly pokes his sides and then attempts to duck and jump away to safety.

[Robert S. Armstrong]

Robert blinked when Velma got under his arms, then grunted and released his hand to rub at his watering eyes. When he could finally see through the tears, he saw that Velma had jumped back to a 'safer' distance.

"We said no weapons," Robert said ripping one of the metal buttons off his jacket, "didn't say anything about Alchemy."

Using the metal button he had ripped off his jacket, Robert scratched a transmutation circle onto the concrete of the training area's ground, then slammed his hand down onto it. After a flash of blue light, a small pillar of stone came out of the ground in front of Velma, which would aim for her stomach, with almost the exact amount of force that would be behind a punch from his own fist.

[Velma R. Sinclair]

Velma was a bit surprised but quickly recovered and attempted to jump back and dodge the stone pillar that came out of the ground and only partially failed, she was hit, it just didn't hit her as hard as it could have because she was jumping back. She made an 'oof' sound when she was hit, and nearly fell over when she landed. Straightening herself out and reassuming her stance she smiled slightly "I didn't say no weapons, I simply said the first one to bring out a weapon is a girl" she corrected him, with a teasing tone behind it. "And I kinda figured you'd notice." she finished as she signaled Gene to bring her bag.

"But as you can see, I'm half naked, so I couldn't possibly do the same" she said as she quickly grabbed her bullwhip and jumped in closer. "I'm not using this, but I just might need it later!" she teased as she jumped in a little closer and with open palms she attempts to 'ninja' slap him with her right hand, and ready to block with the other or her legs.

[Robert S. Armstrong]

Robert smiled, not speaking this time. His hand still on the transmutation circle he had scratched into the ground, he activated it once more, sending two stone pillars at her this time, with distinctly fist shaped designs in the ends, then made a dash for his sword, yanking it out of the ground as he passed it. As he grabbed it, the transmutation circle on it flashed, and the edges of his blade became considerably duller. He quickly strapped it to his back and got into a ready stance. With the massive blade on his back, his movement was slightly limited, but he also had easier access to his Alchemy now.

[Velma R. Sinclair]

Jumping back to avoid the pillars recovering quickly and without missing a beat she jumped again toward Robert and then lunging herself toward him with great speed and attempting to full on tackle him. Using little effort to just knock him down and if she had succeeded she would land on top of him and attempt to land a punch to his chest to knock the wind out of him but not hurt him. If she failed then she could possibly turn the lunge into a cartwheel and either roll away with out harm or get hit from being to close to the attack.

[Robert S. Armstrong]

Velma did indeed succeed in tackling Robert, but not to the desired effect. She slammed into him knocking him backwards a bit, but his weight and strength would help him in keeping his balance.

Grabbing her by the arms, he would spin her slightly, before releasing her and sending her back a fair distance. When she would land, Roberts would take the sword off his back, and slam it point first into the ground, activating the transmutation circle as he did so. From the point where he stabbed, 4 small pillars of stone would erupt and head toward Velma.

[Velma R. Sinclair]

Velma managed to turn the stumbling into a cartwheel and quickly regained her balance and turned to face him as he slammed his sword into the ground, sending four pillars at her, quickly she runs forward and jumps and uses the pillars as a stepping stone and kicking off the pillars and launching herself toward him, attempting to kick him hard enough to push him back and stun him for a moment to give her enough time to quickly yet lightly punch him playfully in the stomach and depending on his move, she would either jump away or stand and block the hit.

[Robert S. Armstrong]

Robert brought his left arm up to block Velma's kick, and as her foot made contact with his forearm, he shoved forward, knocking her back. When she landed, and aimed a light punch at his stomach, he reflexively jumped back slightly to avoid the movement.

Pulling his sword out of the ground, Robert swung it up and onto his shoulder, supporting the flat part near the edge of the blade between his neck and shoulder. Just a suddenly as he had swung the sword up, he swung it down again, hitting the ground and knocking up a large piece of the ground. As the piece of earth rose into the air, he would spin on his heels, and swing his sword so that the flat of his sword smashed into the rock. As it made contact, there was a flash of light, and a barrage of pencil sized stone rods were projected toward Velma. This was a very toned down version of an attack he had perfected during his service in the East, but it should still be effective.

[Velma R. Sinclair]

As fast, if not, faster than the stone rods hurled toward her she pulled out her bullwhip and quickly lashed at the rods. Knocking them and sending them back at Robert as she made a clearing for her to dodge though. After getting hit by a few of them and landing safely on the other side of the airborne rods of stone, she quickly uses her whip to lash out at his ankles attempting to pull his feet out from under him. Upon successfully tripping him she hoped to use her whip to attempt to disarm him and pull the sword away. If she failed to trip him she jump away to get a better vantage point and try again. If she successfully tripped him but failed to pull his sword to her, she'd probably be pulled toward him instead, which she was ready to defend herself against.

[Robert S. Armstrong]

As the rods of stone came hurling back at him, Robert slashed at them with his sword, shattering them and scattering shards of stone, some of which left thin cuts on his arms and face. When Velma tried to trip him, he fell easily enough, bu stuck his sword into the ground, catching himself, and pulling himself back up. The fact that his sword was in the ground, also thwarted her attempts to disarm him, and as her whip wrapped around the sword, he would pull it out of the ground, then tug back on it, pulling her toward him, as he would throw a left handed punch.