Achilles Gym is an Training and Roleplay Area.It is open to all.
Training[]
- Scarlet Weston
- August O'Mahony
- Yuudai
- Marvin Lancing (2:42AM/4/4)
- Jet Stream (11:00 6/18)
- Sharpshooter (5:11AM 6/21)
- Crystal X (2:39AM 7/24)
- Training Slot 8
- Training Slot 9
- Training Slot 10
RP Area[]
Elias, a dirty, scared, disheveled looking man, in street clothes, layed on a weight bench struggling to rack the bar. His elbows faltered, dropping the bar onto his chest. His eyes widened, as he thrashed around, eventually managing to roll out from under it. Falling onto the floor gasping for air. His forehead dripping with sweat. "Are you finished?" a monotone voice asked from behind Elias.
Standing on the opposite side of the bench from Elias was a dark looking young man. His wild black hair partially obstructed his eyes, which seemed unusually dark. The slender young man was slightly taller than average, wearing black sweat pants and a navy blue tank top that left his lean arms exposed. The young man looked at Elias, no emotion registering on his face as he did.
"Are you finished?" the young man repeated.
Elias continued to gasp for air, staring at the floor. His fingers currled against the mat.
"Wha-" He began to say, before he started violently coughing.
"What? Yeah... Yeah... I'm done." He said falling to his side, and curling up on the ground.
Ignoring the fallen man, Ian proceeded to remove a weight plate from either side of the bar before sitting down on the bench. Making not noise besides his enduring breaths, Ian held the bar up over his body, lifting his torso in a shallow sit-up motion. Ian help this position for a moment before again lying flat on the bench, then repeating the same motion several more times while Elias remained on the floor. 20 barbell crunches was Ian's goal, part of his usual warm up for his core muscles.
After catching his breath, which took unhealthily long, Elias crawled to the side of the bench to grab his jacket, a tattered blue winter coat, with a dirty red scarf hanging from the pocket, before standing up and putting it on. He leaned against a pillar, and pulled out a cigarette, then he looked around finding a 'No Smoking' sign, and stuffing the unlit cigarette back in to his pocket.
"So..." He said glancing around "What do you do? I mean... Umm... Working?"
Ian finished his 20 reps as Elias asked him the question, gently lowering the bar back back down onto the rack and sitting back up. Hearing the word "working" had registered in Ian's head, though he did not believe it was used in the context he wanted it to be.
"Working?" Ian asked, expressing he was unsure of the older gentleman's question. "Depends what you mean."
"Like for cash. How do you get your cash?" Elias reiterates.
"I do what people with money are willing to pay for." Ian stated, standing up from the bench to add more plates. "As long as the work is clean."
"Oh yeah? Same here. I'm broke... Spent all my money on a pi-" Elias stopped, as if sharply interupted. His eyes widened, as he paused for a few seconds, then mumbled an affirmation. "W- Well, if you happen to come into any work, that you need an extra hand with you should look me up... Oh, uhh... I'm- My name's Elias." He held out his hand.
Ian, now sitting on the bench once again, looked at Elias' hand for a moment, quickly weighing the pros and cons of even a simple unbinding relationship with the stranger. His natural skepticism made him wary of any sort of quick alliances.
"Ian." he replied, not quite ready to shake Elias' hand. "What is it exactly you can do?"
"What ever I can get paid for. I mean... As long as it's not... Y'know. Too bad." The way Elias said this made it clear that what he considered 'too bad' was a relativly short list. The fingers of his outstretched hand began to sag, as he waited for Ian to shake it.
"And ability wise?" Ian asked, still not shaking Elias' hand. He didn't feel such a formality was necessary. Besides, if Elias knew of Ian's power, he almost certainly would almost certainly not want to shake his hand and risk the loss of any of his extremities.
Elias's hand slowly fell to his side. "Abillities? Uhh... Well... I'm- I'm just a normal, average guy..." He blurtted out awkwardly. After a brief pause he spoke again, with a sudden frantic realization. "Oh! Oh! Oh... He meant... I'm... Very resourceful... I... Can use a gun. All sorts of stuff like that."
Ian was skeptical about a possible alliance. Elias didn't appear to offer very much to the table. A simple being, and judging by his work on the bench and the cigarette in his pocket, not even a healthy one. He seemed like he could even be a liability. But there were obvious cons to an alliance between them. Clients were more likely to hire a team rather than an individual, as it theoretically increases the chance the job is carried out successfully. Of course that means splitting the money, but since Ian was having trouble finding work, the smaller pay day seemed much better than no pay day at all. After careful (though brief to avoid a long and awkward silence) Ian decided he could use a temporary partner.
"So do you know of any work?" Ian finally asked Elias, lying back on the bench and beginning his bench presses.
"Ehh...." He groans nervously "No... Not at the moment... But! But if I find anything, I'll come here. You seem to come here regularly. I'll come here and I'll tell you. So, then if you come into some work, you'll come here, and tell me. I come here every morning, get some coffee, in the lobby, read the paper, maybe lift some weights." Elias explained.
Good. Ian thought. Any ally easy to keep track of is a good ally.
"I guess I'll know where to find you then." Ian said, again racking the barbell. "I have an apartment close by, so I won't be to hard to reach if-"
"Creep!" Elias and Ian heard from further down the row of workout equipment.
The yell had gotten both their attentions, as they turned to see two men cornering a young woman. The men were both shorter muscular men, Ian recognized them as regulars at the gym. He mentally refereed to the first, the taller of the two with a pointed bald head and barbwire tattoo on his arm, as Conehead, and his shorter flowing blond haired acquaintance as Goldilocks. They two had harassed Ian once, but quickly ceased when he gave no reaction. They were harmless for the most part, but their movements seemed less coordinated than usual, indicating they were either high or drunk. Conehead was leaning up against the wall below a pull up bar, while Goldilocks stud at his flank effectively trapping the poor girl against a triceps extension machine. Ian leaned back on the bench, trying to get a better glimpse of the girl. She way probably a few years older than him, 5' 7", black hair, dark skin, athletic curves. Ian didn't recognize her as a regular, knowing he would remember seeing an attractive girl like that around here.
With the only other people in the gym either minding the own business or simply ignoring the girl to stay off of the meat wagon's bad side, it didn't seen anyone was jumping to the girl's rescue. Deciding the young girl was in need of some of his "heroics" Ian got up from the bench and looked at Elias, his expression remaining exactly the same as it had throughout their entire conversation.
"I'm gonna take care of something real quick." Ian informed Elias. "Your welcome to show me how you handle yourself if you like, or just get a good view of what I can do. With that, Ian began making his way over to confront Conehead and Goldilocks.
"I'm sure you've got this covered... And if not I'll be here." Elias said pulling out his cigarette, sticking it in the corner of his mouth and lighting it. Gym management would soon have bigger problems to deal with, than smoking indoors.
Ian approached the two men casually, placing himself between Goldilocks and the woman. Goldilocks stepped back, surprised by Ian's sudden appearance. The woman immediately slipped out of her corner and stepped behind Ian, placing him between the two meat heads.
"What's your problem?" Conehead slurred at Ian, confirming the suspicion the two muscle bound baboons were intoxicated. At noon no less.
"We were just talkin'" Goldilocks added.
Ian stud motionless as the two men waited for an answer. The confrontation had gained the attention of a majority of the gym's population, though the young man that worked the front counter was nowhere in site.
"I'm talking to you." Conehead informed Ian.
After another silent treatment, Conehead leaned forward, giving the younger man a hard push on the shoulder. Ian simply turned his body, allowing the man's hand to glance off his shoulder, a common martial arts tactic. Though Conehead was apparently much more intoxicated than Ian had thought, she he followed his arm and bumped chests with Ian. Conehead, taking Ian's defense and an offensive maneuver, leaned back and attempted to throw a drunken hook at Ian's head. Ian easily ducked under the relatively slow strike, leaving Conehead's fist free to connect with the top of the triceps machine, cracking the plastic casing over the metal. While having ducked under the hook, Ian delivered a quick chop to the larger man's groin. Ian then came back up, delivering a elbow to Conehead's jaw that certainly would have shattered the bone had Ian not held back. Conehead staggered back, falling against a rack of weight plates that gave a loud clang when the large man slammed against them. Goldilocks, slow to react, attempted to avenge his fallen friend with a jab at Ian. Again, intoxication and fighting proved to be a poor combination as Ian easily dodged the jab. Not pulling his arm back in time, Goldilocks made it fairly easy for Ian to grab his arm. Having taken hold of his enemy, Ian proceeded to stun the man with a hard kick to the sternum and then step into the wounded man's guard. Maintaining his grip on the arm of Goldilocks, Ian bowed forward, sending the drunken man over back and to a hard landing on the floor. Not giving his impaired adversary time to recover. Ian delivered a swift kick to Goldilocks' head.
Having successfully subdued both men, Ian glanced at the young woman, who had her mouth dropped open looking at the downed men. Ian's face remained the same, as if taking down the two drunk men was not in the least out of the ordinary.
"That was... kinda cool." the woman uttered. Ian could only think one thing. Score!
The sound of metal on metal interrupted Ian's moment of pleasure. Ian whipped around to see Conehead had risen, now with a 25 pound weight plate cocked back in his hands. The man's speed was still impaired, but he had taken Ian by surprise. Instinctively, Ian trusted his hands outwards in defense as the man swung the plate. In mid swing, Ian's hands passed under the metal plate, and the plate instantaneously separated into two pieces. Conehead, already working with poor balance, was completely taken off guard as the swing struck open air, sending him face firsts into a racked barbell. The top half of the weight plate flew past the opposite side of Ian's head, brushing his hair as it passed. The severed section of the plate soared through the air, connecting with the glass panel door towards the front of the gym and smashing through the window. The young employee, just now having reappeared, stud on the other side of the desk, not far from the shattered door. Ian again glanced at the young woman, who's expression had intensified to one of utter shock.
Shoot. Ian thought. She just saw the plate get sliced in half. I can still get this one, I just need an excuse. Let's see, why would the plate suddenly separate like that? Ummm. Damn.
After an extremely awkward moment of silence, with all available eyes on him, Ian could only think of one possible excuse.
"Probably made in China." Ian stated aloud.
Elias started off quickly towards Ian, with his head down. When he reached him, he put his arm around his shoulder in such a way, that it covered his face, and continued walking.
"Let's go. I- I think you've worked out enough for to day." He said quietly to him.
Once out side, he inhaled the rest of his cigarette, breathing out the smoke in a blurt of wheezy laughter. "I knew you were going to do something... But-" He interupted himself with another fit of weak giggling.
"Bastard got the jump on me." Ian stated, a hint of irritation showing through his tone, the only emotion he had displayed all day. "So I guess you've seen my power now. Energy blades."
"Oh. So. That's what that was." Elias said, with a hint of ssurprisein his voice. After a couple of seconds of silence, and a concentrated, allbeit at nothing, gaze, he mumbled to himself a little aaggressively"I wasn't going to." as if answering a question no one had asked. "So... You're one of those, umm... Mutants, right?" Elias asked, in the most casual way the strange, nervous man was capable of.
"Metahuman." Ian replied. "I believe that's the term those who aren't afraid of us use."
"I always heard there was some scientific difference between the two. Wait, us? What do you mean by us?" Elias inquired, checking his watch, that, if Ian was not mistaken, was a watch that would have come in a mid-90s McDonald's Happy Meal.
"Oh! I've got to get going. I'll see you around." He said starting to walk off in the opposite direction.
Ian watched curiously as Elias began walking away, quickly turning around the corner of the nearest building and disappearing form view. Ian had merely used the word "us" to refer to himself and other Metahumans, but it seemed to strike a cord with Elias. Ian made a mental note of this, perhaps being an important hint about his apparent ally. Though Ian had indeed aligned himself with Elias, but the man's nervous disposition seemed to be hiding something more, which made Ian hesitant to trust Elias just yet.
Ian turned and began heading towards his apartment. Just as he rounded the first corner, he nearly collided with someone rushing down the sidewalk.
"Sorr-" Ian started as the tried to continued on his way, but was quickly cut off by a sudden exclamation.
"You!" a female voice shouted.
Ian looked down at the pedestrian's face, seeing that it was the same girl from Achilles Gym. Looks like my luck hasn't run out yet after all. Ian thought.
Second Encounter[]
Elias was sitting in a chair, against the wall, at a table in the lobby of the gym, in a light sleep. The cold cup of coffee indicated he had been there for a couple of hours at least. He muttered a few things in what sounded like an alien language, then leaned up gasping for air. Now awake, he checked his watch, and stared towards the door.
"What are you looking for?" a voiced asked from behind Elias. Quickly turning around, Elias saw none other then Ian standing behind him. Ian was once again in his sweat pants and navy blue tank top.
"There you are!" Elias shouted excitedly "I found something! Look! Look!" He pulled a tattered newspaper article from his pocket, handing it to Ian. The title of the article read "Newhaven Mayor Hiring Vigilantes To Save Kidnapped Daughter". "It's like a help wanted add! It's perfect! It says hiring! That means money!" He nearly shrieked, his voice giddy at the prospect of making a profit.
Ian took the paper form Elias and began reading. His face maintained its usual neutral expression as his eyes skimmed over the article. After a brief moment, Ian handed the newspaper back to Elias.
"Alright, I guess we're heading to Newhaven." Ian stated. "Before we head out, we should go over our gear. Meet me at my apartment in an hour. We can do it there."
"Hey! Hey, don't you want to know how I plan to get us there?" Elias goads.
"How?" Ian asked, his monotone voice making it difficult to determine whether or not he truly cared about this information.
Elias was to ecstatic with the genius of his plan to notice Ian's apathy. He reached into his jacket, and triumphically whipped out two public bus tickets, and screamed shrilly, overcome with excitement, "We'll take the bus!!!" holding the tickets high above his head.
Ian stud motionless, looking at Elias, as was the few people in the gym that had decided to wake up this morning. Ian momentarily contemplated informing Elias of the sheer mediocrity of his plan, but decided it wouldn't achieve anything. As long as Elias had already paid for his ticket, it truly didn't matter.
"Alright. When do we leave?"