An After-School Session (Tiao, Open)

[Darren Blayne]

(I request to let Tiao post first, otherwise, this will be a spar/training thread that's quite open to spectators.)

All eyes fell upon Darren as he strode into the gym. The football players were hitting the weights around the edges of the room, and the basketball team were having a friendly game of three-on-three on the adjacent courts. The football players, of course, being in the nearest vicinity of the School Captain, kept an eye on them as they powered through their sets. It wasn't a sense of fear that kept him in vigil, but more of a readiness. Darren Blayne did not simply walk into a place for no reason but to take a stroll. If the School Captain was ever anywhere, it meant he was there for a reason. Thus, the team kept themselves ready, just in case that reason was to recruit them for something or another.

"A Varronite Purge, maybe?" one of the lineman said to his linebacker friend nearby, to which both broke into snickers and knocked fists in a typical meatheaded way. Darren's ears caught this, and he only sneered slightly.

It was no secret that the Captain thought little of the football team, as he tended to hold brainpower over all other aspects of a person. He was not openly hostile to them, not anymore. Sure, he had to break a few of them, including their team captain, during his rise to power, and this was likely an act they have not soon forgotten, but despite the violence, the team had reached a peace with their captain, understanding that what he did, he did for the betterment of the school. It was the next season, after all, that the Timber Wolves went on to win their first State victory. It was quite amazing what unity could do in a system where it's so hard to find.

Darren sneered slightly at the anti-Varron jokes abounding. If they were being told for his merit; as some sad way of impressing him, it wasn't working. He shook his head, openly addressing the entire team as one.

"There will be no 'Varronite Purge', not today, not likely ever. The transfer students, despite our feelings for them, will be here to stay."

This response was met with grumbles and shrugs of a clearly disappointed football team. Darren was not so happy with it himself, but he knew better than they did, as long as the Varronites didn't cause trouble in his school, things would be just fine.

If they didn't cause trouble.

"The reason for my visit here has little to do with you, in fact. In a few moments, Tiao Lei Shen should be here as well. I request that you leave the wrestling mats open for us once he gets here."

"Aww man, I thought we were gonna wrassle after th-" a receiver spoke out suddenly, only to be silenced by a quick punch to the arm from his quarterback. It was clear the captain wanted the mats, and what the captain wanted, the captain would receive, with no qualms.

"Sure thing, Darren. We'll just go out to the track and run a few laps instead."

Darren nodded, vaguely, not really caring one way or another what the team decided to do. Feeling a verbal response unnecessary, Darren made his way to the mats and took a few steps on them, testing their springiness and give. He continued to get a feel for the difference in the traction of the mat and the traction of the floor until he was comfortable with it.

Tiao would be here soon enough.

[Tiao Lei Shen]

"Out of the way girls!" Tiao Lei Shen yelled to the men in the room, finding himself a little disappointed with his choice of insult when he spotted a few girls of the volleyball team working out.

He kicked open the door, wheeling the stereo into the gym that was often played during team workouts. He shouted over the intro of the song Prayer of the Refugee on his own personal favorite CD. Rise Against always pumped him up, and this personal song was one that he often relate to his own thoughts that his father had literally drilled into him.

"So what is going on? Is this going to be like a training montage from the 80's?" A baseball player asked Tiao as he slid off the mit from his left hand.

"Sure. It's whatever the hell you want it to be." Tiao brushed off, not feeling like explaining himself to the lessers of the school. "But for me, its just to get me pumped. But feel free to get all inspired. I promise I won't mind." Tiao grinned, slapping the confused player on the arm before walking away from the wall and heading over to Darren, sporting a smartass smirk.

"Do the mats have the proper PH level? It looks like you're conducting a study there." Tiao nodded towards the captain's feet, where he was focused and bouncing up and down on the mat. Tiao looked back up and threw his shoulders back in a quick stretch of his back and shoulder blades.

"I'm glad you didn't wear pads either. That would of just made you look like a pussy." Tiao smiled, only half joking on the concept. He was about to ask Darren if he was ready to begin when he noticed the students begin to make their way over, curiosity obviously sparked by the two figureheads of the school. The couple of volleyball girls made there way to the front of the group, and as they did so Tiao's eyes drifted to the bottom of them, grinning wildly as he looked back to Darren.

Tiao jumped up, twisting his torso to left as hard as he could, torquing his body into a hard 720 kick as he spun in the air. He landed just a few feet from his intial spot, glancing back to the volleyball girls with a wink as they whispered amongst themselves. Content that his showing off had already guaranteed him to get some after this, Tiao looked back at Darren.

"Ok, I'm ready. Just don't blame me if I beat you this time." Tiao grinned, actually contemplating the fact that maybe he could beat the captain at this point. "Hey, if I do, does that make me the leader?" he half joked again, grinning to his friend.

[Darren Blayne]

Tiao made his grand entrance, showing off as usual by pushing the gym's boombox into the vicinity, blasting off his usual Hardcore Rock. Darren listened for a moment, raising an eyebrow at the choice of band and song.

Rise Against, again? Clearly, Tiao, you're in dire need of some diversity there.

The Pillar jawed the guys and wooed the girls, and even managed to try and get a shot in on Darren. It would seem that the adrenaline rush of the people already gathering to see the two do whatever it was they were going to do was getting to his head, and quick.

With a smirk, unseen by Tiao due to positioning, Darren casually craned his neck to look over his shoulder at Tiao.

"Did you ever consider that in those moments before you came, perhaps I'd already determined not only every way I could utilize the traction of the mat against you, but every way you could possibly attempt to utilize against me, and at least three separate counters for each occasion?"

Turning on his toe, feet already used to the different surface of the wrestling mat, Darren faced his opponent-to-be with a small smile on his face, simultaneously asserting and belying that usually cold nature he tended to carry with him at all times. "You know as well as I do you lack the qualities necessary in a good leader, anyway, Tiao," he spoke. Tiao was a friend of Darren's, and the words were somewhat of a paradox. While presented in Darren's usual cold manner, Tiao would know that they were a joke. Even so, the fact still lingered amidst them that, despite his current status, Tiao was still nowhere near Darren's level in terms of his intellect and brainpower.

Two things it took to effectively be School Captain, in Darren's eyes.

Taking two steps back to further distance himself from his pillar, Darren loosened up his arms and took a few high-kneed steps in place, loosening his joints up as Tiao did. The spar was soon to begin.

As random as it might have seemed, this entire session was all done in a very calculated manner by Darren. While the two did train together occasionally, this was something that was unheard of before now. The pillars, Darren especially, tended to never engage in anything physical unless it was needed of them, opting rather to simply patrol the school, letting their influence serve more than their actions. Even their training was done out of school eyes, either much after-hours or somewhere away from prying eyes. Today, however, Darren had Tiao meet up with him right after school in the gymnasium for a spar. This public display of the abilities of the Student Hierarchy's finest would not only be easily accessible by any student who wished to watch, but it would be good for morale, a way to show the Hircinian students the true mettle of those who kept them safe.

Settling into his stance, Darren turned his body to face left, leaving only his head and his right leg to face Tiao. His right heel lifted off the ground, settling on the balls of his foot, as most of his weight was placed on his trailing left leg. Both hands were down at each side, and all limbs were bent slightly, legs more so than the arms, ready and willing to strike as necessary.

Darren began taking precise steps toward his opponent, without crossing his legs. He led with his right foot, and brought the left forward afterward, each time. He mentally counted as he stepped, one, two, three, four steps, and he was within range. To open the bout, he sent a sudden right-legged roundhouse kick, heading toward Tiao's left side. It was sudden, though nowhere near the fastest kick Darren had ever thrown. It seemed as though it would do very little damage even if it were allowed to hit completely.

[Tiao Lei Shen]

"Well...no. What kind of sane person would wonder out of nowhere, 'I wonder if Darren has been utilizing the mat'? Either way, I don't doubt it. Its not like you have anything better to do." Tiao smirked again, content that Darren decided to humor him by offering any type of response at all.

As Darren turned around and replied to Tiao again, the chinese pillar's smirk quickly dissapeared from his face as he frowned. "Hey," Tiao said feeling defensive as he pointed out his index finger towards the captain, giving him a glare beneath his cap. "Yeah? Well..."

Alright, got to get back at him this time. Make sure it isn't something completely untrue like "you aren't either" or "dumbhead." It has to be a way of twisting it back against him. Think Tiao!

After a few lengthy pauses and painful facial expressions from Tiao, he finally lifted his head and thrust his finger outwards for emphasis. "Well you are a dumbhead!" Tiao paused, holding his finger out towards Darren another moment before dropping it to his side and sighing. "Yeah, I got nothing."

Darren and Tiao sparring wasn't a rare thing. They often did so in empty places, occasionaly Tiao's home when his father was off on business trips. The last thing either of them would need is the blatant criticism of their techniques from Mr. Shen. Darren had come up with the idea to do so in the gym this time, Tiao making the assumption that this was some sort of reaction to the riot. He didn't fully understand the why, but he didn't need to know everything.

Darren came forward, starting with a simple enough move. From Tiao's relaxed position, he slid his left leg forward in an outwards diagnol, stretching into a lunging stance. Tiao's left thigh would meet Darren's kick early, the muscle being striked by the shin. It wasn't as powerful as if he let the whole extension strike, but majority of the power remained. However, Tiao's thighs were likely the most dense muscle on his body, and that was saying something. The kick would strike with most force, but Tiao would barely feel a thing.

As the lunge slid forward, Tiaos right arm would come straight out in a tiger claw, the edge of his hand aiming for Darren's sternum. Tiao's left hand was kept chambered with his elbow resting on his hips as his right leg straigtened behind him from the lunge.

[Odin Reeves]

“What’s going on?”

“Darren and Tiao are here.”

“Why?”

“Sparring, I think. Can’t tell, to many people blocking my vision.”

Odin’s ears snapped to attention when he heard the name of the school captain and a pillar. His relaxed expression was unusual considering he was inches away from performing a face plant, his left hand bent underneath his structure as it held his weight for a slow three count. Pushing back up he preformed his fifteenth push-up with the use of just his left arm, five more needing to be done in order to end his regiment, but from what he heard there was something more interesting accumulating on the wrestling mats.

Raising himself to his feet while rolling his shoulders Odin made no attempts to get a better vision by jumping up and down, climbing atop a weight bench, or asking questions. He obtained a clearer image by moving forward, guiding spectators to the side with the use of gentle pushes until he reached the front row. His sturdy build and above average height made him a door to those behind him, but he gave no concern to their ability to see. He was researching styles and techniques, he’d need to in order to shake the foundation of the school and case the walls to crumble.

Despite his current role as enforcer under the pillar known as Kurtz, Odin had no true thought of helping out maintain the peace this school had obtained. He still did his job in order to enter underground tournaments whenever held, but it was a bare minimum with follow-ups that rarely got back to Kurtz. Perhaps he was driven by Varron pride, something he felt unbreakable despite Tiao’s attempt on the first day, and perhaps he was simply stubborn to the point of wanting his life to remain the same, even across country. Whatever the reason was, even if it was miniscule as not wanting to follow societies stream of properness, Odin felt compelled to obey it, and so he contemplated what to do in order to fulfill his desires.

The first step, research.

[jellar]

'Man, what the hell is up with the large number of people going to the gym...?' Jellar thought, simply, on his way home, lugging his light backpack on the way. His ears picked up many words, and through inference and simply observing, it seemed that a bout was going between two large figureheads, one of whom Jellar knew personally. Darren Blayne versus Tiao Lei Shen. Struggling with the option to ignore or investigate the situation, it came obvious to Jellar that he should investigate. He had never seen much of Darren Blayne, nor had he seen him fight. Heck, he had not been able to watch Tiao fight with focused observation, though Jellar knew he had fought with Leon during the huge school fight.

So with that in mind, Jellar treaded to the school slightly forcefully, beating most of the people around him to the area of the fight. Not bothering to look for familiar faces, Jellar forced his way as far to the front as he could, in a good position behind two smaller heads than what Jellar's height was at. He had a good view of the fight, and he could observe properly and well. 'Show me what you guys are made of,' Jellar thought, barely coming in time to see the roundhouse kick that Darren had thrown to Tiao.

'Aggressive,' Jellar thought, seeing Tiao forcing his way into Darren's body, using a tiger strike. Definitely a Chinese martial art, with the form and the obvious clothing. At least he had some pride of his ancestors. However, if Jellar were to compare, he would have wanted to see Darren's fighting much more than Tiao's. Apparently, his intelligence and the application of it in fighting exceeded the entire bulk of Hircine High. It was definitely intriguing.

[Darren Blayne]

Even as Tiao powered himself into Darren's attack, rather than shrink back as most are wont to do, closing the gap instead of attempting to find some distance from which to strike, Darren was formulating plans, and constantly changing and replacing them at will from each moment in time. The battle had only just began, and even so, a million ideas crossed his head, yet never interfered with the actual battle outside his mind. Darren Blayne, as most would find out, was quite capable of keeping both the mental and the physical realm very separate.

Tiao lunged forth, meeting Darren's kick with his shin. The feint was taken, though not in the way Darren had assumed. Regardless, it made no difference, as the young captain had already come up with a followup. He simply rode down the kick, straightening his leg so that, while he kept contact, forcing Tiao into a close-range battle, both fighter's feet would touch down at the exact same time, with Darren using Tiao's energy to lower his own foot.

The fighters' feet landed, and Tiao struck out with a tiger-claw attack. Darren's own hands flew into play, his left one first swinging up underneath Tiao's striking hand, making a quarter-circle counter-clockwise to not only knock Tiao's hand far off target, but to open it up and expose it for the followup.

Darren's block was not a hard one, but a relatively slow movement. Instead of knocking the arm away forcefully, it simply guided Tiao's arm to not only strike somewhere over Darren's left shoulder, but to turn Tiao's own arm in a quarter-circle as well, so that the under-side of his forearm was facing to the fighters' inside. It was here that Darren struck.

Suddenly, quickly, effectively, in stark contrast to the slow, elegant block, Darren's right hand shot across the gap, fingers curled around first and second knuckles rather than the usual second and third of a fist to form a smaller, and thus, more painful, point of impact, aiming for a spot just below Tiao's wrist. In the wrist and nearby areas, muscle mass was low, and nerves were a lot more exposed. Should an attack of this nature hit, it would cause a lasting stinging sensation.

During the battle, Darren's eyes darted around the room, taking in the gathering crowd about him. Resisting the urge to form a smirk about his lips, Darren followed up his attack without hesitation, lunging his upper body forward quickly. His forearm was already in a strong position, striking across Tiao's chest with mostly just enough force to push him back and cause separation rather than do any particular damage. Strategically, Darren aimed his head so that it would pass just to the right of Tiao's own head, or Tiao's left, just barely grazing past the other fighter's cranium.

[Tiao Lei Shen]

Initial defenses typically tended to be evade and counter, or block and probe. For Tiao, it was rush in and decimate. It was a common style of large fighters but typically unheard of with men the same size as Tiao. What he lacked in mass he made up with speed and density.

Darren had once explained to Tiao the extent of his manual dexterity. The captain could fight a full battle and write a book in his mind at the same moment. Darren was a master of multi-tasking no matter what those tasks would be. Tiao on the otherhand was quite different. He had a healthy mind and body, but opposed to using each seperately the pillar merged them together, entering a state of awareness. Where one of them acted on rational thought and speculation, the other relied on instinct and reflex.

Which always got Tiao's blood pumping when they put the two together at the same time.

Darren knocked Tiao's arm off to the side, following up a quick attack to the inside of Tiao's wrist. The knuckles struck its target, sending a sharp sting through his hand. It hurt initially, but past that it wouldn't be anything more than an annoyance later on. Tiao began to move his left elbow forward, but was cut off from a forearm push across his chest. Darren's head went just to Tiao's right as the push occured. Where his captain was successfully able to suppress a smirk, Tiao had failed.

Grinning wildly now, Tiao didn't fight the backwards momentum of his upper torso, though keeping his feet as planted as he could. As Tiao's body pushed back first his feet jumped off the ground. Tiao's body went spun backwards in a dolphin backflip, his legs mostly extended as they whipped up with kicks. The left foot would strike up towards Darren's jaw milliseconds before his right foot followed.

Darren would find the momentum of the flip he help start difficult to stop, or evade from his current position. From the moment Darren pushed Tiao back the pillar wasted no time for his movements. He wasn't about to give Darren, or the crowd, time to think things through.

[Darren Blayne]

There was no break in the action. Darren's forearm strike struck true; however, Tiao's acrobatic ability proved a quick match. Darren would see to it that his methods would not go unopposed.

As his right arm was striking Tiao, Darren's left arm had formed a similar, yet mirrored, position, crossed across his body. Thus, when Tiao leapt up and backward in a high arcing backflip, Darren simply threw his upper body backwards quickly while stepping back with his advanced right foot, which, by itself, would not be enough to dodge Tiao's dual footed attack, however, as he did so, he swung his left forearm up, catching Tiao's attack from underneath, about halfway up his calves, and serving to push it up past his face. In some cases, throwing off the planned momentum of a backflip as such would be enough to stumble the jumping opponent; however, Darren relied upon Tiao's peak athletic condition to keep him from doing so.

Because as soon as the dodge had ended, Darren burst forth again to attack the landing Tiao.

Using his backwards lean almost like a springboard, Darren lunged forward, again stepping forward with his right foot, only this time striking out with a hard, straight right hand, one whose fist opened at the last moment to become a sudden hard palm strike, the heel of his hand heading for Tiao's sternum, just as the Pillar was trying to land from his backflip.

[Tiao Lei Shen]

From his current position, Tiao had been unable to see what exactly Darren had done. What he did know, was that his legs had been pushed up, accelerating his momentum. Tiao could easily of planned to land normally, albeit a bit sooner, if he still chose to. However, the pillar knew he would be most vulnerable upon landing. And if he knew it, then there was no doubt in Tiao's mind that Darren knew it as well.

Tiao bent his torso backwards, firmly planting his hands into the wrestling mats. He pushed off with his hands, turning his backflip into an unorthodox back handspring. Tiao's feet would land a couple of steps farther than he would of initially, causing Darren's palm strike to pass just in front of Tiao's face as his body made itself upright.

The second Tiao's feet touched down they pushed off, sending Tiao straight at Darren once more without a moment's hesitation. Tiao pushed across his chest with his left hand, knocking Darren's extended right arm away from him as his own right arm shot straight out in a cobra snake formation, the middle and index finger aiming directly for the area between Darren's eyes. the strike would deliver a focused blow to a sensitive area, shaking Darren for a moment if connected.

[Darren Blayne]

(OOC: *cough cough* I'm here.)

A small half-smirk played upon the corner of Darren's lip as Tiao expertly turned his tumble into a completely different evasion, giving him just the range he needed to avoid Darren's own attack. This was one of the many reasons that Darren had sought the boy out to be one of his Pillars. While Tiao may not have looked or acted like it, he was far smarter than he could be given credit for, especially when it came to martial arts. He was well=versed in his craft, and knew just how to change on the fly to suit his needs. Darren, however, was no slouch either in the same field.

Darren's attack was batted away, but instead of resisting the attempt, Darren flowed with it, turning his hips in the same direction, as well as stepping with his left foot in the direction as well. As he was stepping, however, his eyes never left Tiao's attacking limb. Gracefully and dexterously, he caught Tiao's attacking arm by the wrist with his left hand as he twisted to the right, holding it over his shoulder as he quickly turned away from Tiao, simultaneously bending over and jutting back, forcing his backside into Tiao's legs whilst throwing his upper body forward, kicking his right leg back for added forward thrust, intending to trip up his Pillar and toss him over his shoulder in a very Judo-esque throw.