Survival Of The Fittest

This was it, the fight of the century. Jerry and Trav, Fury and Lynch. You could really put that up on a poster if you thought about it; maybe superimpose a couple of angry faces and fists poised. Yeah, that'd work. That'd really put asses in the seats.

Today, of course, they'd have a minimal audience. The gym wasn't packed today which was probably the only reason Jerry was able to get the ring at all, but he only had it reserved for about 20 minutes, so Trav better have been on his way. Jerry was still on the outside, putting on his shoes but the rest of his attire had already been changed out. He did his stretches already. ... Okay, he did half his stretches, got bored with the other half, and decided to do some cool poses before changing.

"The fuck is that guy..." Jerry asked himself, finishing the incomplete question in his head with 'where'. Travis wasn't necessarily late. By all means, if Trav got to the gym within the next five minutes, he'd be completely on time. It's just that Jerry was more than a little impatient and wanted to get this over with. The two had discussed at length who would win in a fight and, of course, Jerry insisted it was him. How could he lose? He mastered three... was it three? One, two, three styles, and combined them. It was an assured victory! His only regret is that this wouldn't be an official sanctioned fight or anything, bringing his record up to 1-4. Damn it, he had that one guy... the judging was bullshit. So what if he took more punches to the face? So what if he got up the wrong way and took a kick to the back? He suplexed the guy once, that had to count for something!

With his shoes finally on, Jerry got up, sighed... and finished his stretches.

((Travis Lynch continued from Relaxa!))

So this was happening...apparently. Jerry was constantly talking about how he was the best fighter in the school. Trav had chuckled about it at first but then Jerry kept asking and talking about it. Eventually Trav had humored him and actually responded to some of his questions, that had been a mistake. The discussion had gone on for a while.

Jerry was of course adamant that he'd win and Trav was sure that in actuality he would win. In essence it was practically every fight in the history of combat sports that had ever happened ever. That made a lot of sense in many ways. The thing that didn't make sense was Jerry's constant badgering for sparring. Trav had agreed because he didn't want to insult the guy but the fact was Jerry just wasn't very good. He was 0-4. The record alone should have been a hint that maybe his talk was the best part of his fight game but the guy was persistent.

They'd agreed to some sparring. Trav saw no problem in doing some friendly sparring with Jerry. He honestly didn't know what to expect as he walked into the gym. He'd jogged down with Noodle, as it meant he could save time actually warming up. Plus he could hang out with Noodle. If there was anyone he never really thought he'd be friends with it was Noodle. They shouldn't have been friends really, she was super driven and focused on anything she did and he was...well he was an idiot. Regardless he'd ended up getting her into MMA and they trained together all the time. It only felt natural to invite her along. She had said that she was going to workout which about right, there was no way Noodle was going to come to the gym just to watch him spar. Not on the weekend when there would be so much free space. The weekend sessions at the gym were always a lot more relaxed, unless it was the lead-up to a show, but if they could have as much ring time before they closed up for the afternoon it'd be better. As he walked past the mats to the changing rooms he saw Jerry stretching in the ring. Awesome. Noodle headed off to do her own thing. They'd meet up later to leave.

Changing didn't take too long, box on,shorts on (the orange Venum pair he had worn for his second fight), rash vest on, anklets. Picking up his bag he strolled back out, raising a hand and smiling in greeting to a few of the guys he knew who were practicing Jiu-Jitsu. He put his bag down to the side of the mats and retrieved the rest of his stuff from it. Gloves, mouth guard, hand wraps. He walked across the mats to the ring and got up on the side, leaning on the ropes as he starting the process of wrapping his hands. He left his gloves and mouth guard lying on the edge.

"Hey dude. How exactly do you want to do this?"

Ah. Right. He needed to wrap his hands. Jerry always thought that sort've thing looked stupid but his older brother Scott insisted he do it, so... whatever, he'd bow to his brother's wishes just this once. Jerry looked tellingly at his bag, letting Trav know that he'd still have to grab his gloves and his mouth guard before they could get shakin'.

"Hey, you're here!" Jerry said, after the fact. "Thought you woulda chickened out or some shit." It was a joke, and he laughed at his own joke, but maybe a tiny part of him was wishing Trav hadn't actually showed. Just... just a tiny part of him.

"I'm only fooling," Jerry quickly backtracked. "Just wanna see what you're made of, have some fun, show you why I put the Fury in Fury... ous. Furious. I meant... yeah. I meant that." Jerry looked off to the side, off towards the cage they'd be rough-cuddling on. "See you.... ah. Brought an entourage. Maybe I shoulda brought my brother t'cheer me on. Oh well, maybe when we meet each other on the BIG stage, eh?" Jerry turned and waved it off, going to fish through his bag.

"As for... egh... how we're doing this? I'unno, maybe start strikes only, maybe another 3-to-5 minutes of... i'unnevenno... grapplin' only, another 5 of freestyle? Keep goin' til we're bloody and shakin' and re-enacting the finale to Rocky IV." Obviously they weren't going to get that far, Jerry was going to stomp Trav into the motherfuggin' floor, but it was nice to make it sound more dramatic.

Trav just grinned and continued wrapping his hands. Jerry certainly talked a lot. There was a song about that called "Talk Shit, Get Shot". Not that he was going to shoot Jerry...not literally anyway. It depended on whether or not you classed his arms and legs as deadly weapons. Trav grinned again at his own joke.

Jerry said something about wanting to see what he was made of. Trav wondered if Jerry even realised that Trav was 3-0 in the same sport he was 0-4 in. He had one more match experience sure but like c'mon man. Stop with the trash talk for sparring. Trav looked up an eyebrow raised in confusion when Jerry mentioned he brought an entourage. He looked over his shoulder and spotted Noodle. Oh, that was what he mean't. He finished off wrapping his hands and waved Jerry off.

"Nah, don't worry about it, Noodle's here to train." Although Trav did think Noodle would probably watch a bit, out of curiosity. Wasn't everyday you got to see a guy who was a black belt in UFC fight.

Ok in Jerry's defence his idea for how they should structure the sparring session was pretty good. Trav nodded in agreement.

"Works for me man, starting with some simple kickboxing." Trav dropped off the apron of the ring and picked up his mouthguard placing it into his mouth and biting down to make sure it was in place. His mouth guard wasn't quite custom yet, there was talk of getting one that said 'Tekken' on it. His current one was just the Jamaican flag, nothing too special. He had bought Noodle a Hello Kitty mouthguard for her birthday one year. He was fairly sure Noodle secretly hated him. Putting his gloves on Trav headed over to the cage and hopped inside, side-stepping around the perimeter.

"What's the call on knees and elbows?"

He was curious if he was allowed to rain Muay Thai based death on a man. (Not that he'd throw proper knees or elbows, he wasn't a psycho).

Jerry.

Jerry.

While Toby had done her best to tune out the... 'debate' that had erupted between Fury and Travis a little while back, it had been just about impossible to ignore, much to her consternation. As a matter of fact, she'd wound up taking off in frustration after the third time Jerry had rocked up to her friend with what was apparently a cross between questions and bragging. Toby loved Trav and all, but it was way too distracting to study with Jerry getting in the way, and this coming from the person who had become extremely efficient at negotiating disruptions in her routine. That Jerry managed to be worse than three preteens said nothing flattering for how annoying he could be.

Okay she didn't hate the guy or anything. It was just that she'd yet to have an encounter with him where he hadn't been incredibly irritating, and Toby really didn't have the patience for people like that. She had limited patience for people at the best of times.

Regardless of all the rest of it though, this was hard-earned weekend time where Toby actually had the luxury of her hobbies. Just for a couple of hours, and she was on call in case her mom needed her, but she'd busted her ass way too damn hard to let a little Jerry Fury stop her from coming to the gym. Hanging out with Trav was of course a plus, even if he was a doofus. She supposed that she'd have to keep an eye on him in case things got heated in the ring, though really, it was just sparring, so it shouldn't be too big a deal. Emphasis on shouldn't. Toby had rolled with Trav a few times when there hadn't been any better partners, and he'd never got carried away; although maybe that had something to do with the fact that he had the better part of a foot and something like 40 lbs on her. Jerry had fought in proper bouts too, so Noodle assumed he knew how to keep a lid on it.

Changing wasn't much of an issue. Unzip her tracksuit top bam done. Already wearing shorts, already wearing a tanktop and sports bra. She'd reek to high heaven after the run home, but hell, that was her cooldown. She'd shower once she got home. When Toby had first started out, the routine had utterly killed her, although the rush of the workout had been awesome. By contrast, she was now a practised hand at it. Of coming home sore and sweating. Yep.

Trav was getting geared up as Toby emerged, strapping on her gloves. She wasn't intending on doing much work on the bags, but no harm being prepared if the mood took her. She moved into her warmup routine, casting glances over at Travis and company as she did so. No harm watching; she might pick up something useful to critique Trav on. Would make this sparring match actually worthwhile, instead of, well... Jerry.

"Noodle's trainin'?" Jerry raised an eyebrow, more out of genuine curiosity than disbelief of any sort. Like, girl power and all that shit. "Like, to fight, like you? Or just working out?"

Ah, screw it, it wasn't important anyway.

"Ah, screw it, it's not important anyway," Jerry said.  He took this time to start wrapping up his hands like Scott told him to, even if it always felt like crap. Maybe he wasn't doing it right, and he totally considered that. All the twists and turns of the bandages could really confuse a guy. When his handiwork seemed to be alright, he settled for putting on his gloves. "So yeah. Elbows and knees are, last time I checked, strikes!" Jerry grinned as he got in a bit more heckling. "Go ahead and give me your best. Actually, save your best. You're gonna need it for the main event, aren't you?"

Today was going to be the main event, so-to-speak, the day that ended the argument, but Jerry had forgotten to put up flyers all around the school to advertise. Turned out that putting the day off could be a blessing in disguise, since this would give him a chance to figure out what Trav was made of and plan accordingly. If fortune decided to yet again shaft Jerry and, instead, favor Trav, the only person who would know about it besides the two of them was Trav.

Oh and all the other people in the gym but fuck 'em.

Jerry picked up his mouth guard and cocked his head towards the cage. "A'right. Let's go."

Trav grinned. Jerry clearly didn't know Noodle very well, she fought and she was excellent at it. He shrugged when Jerry said he was fine with knees and elbows. Not everyone was because getting hit by a well-placed knee or elbow could fuck you up. Trav knew because he'd been on the receiving end of one before, back when he was still the new blood at the sparring sessions. He remembered it connecting with his sternum and that was that. Breathing had been painful for the rest of the session. He'd grown past that though, now he was one of the better people in the whole gym, which was funny in a different way. It was even funnier when one of the old guard came back and tried the same tricks that had worked when he had started.

Trav leaned on the cage as he waited for Jerry to get in. He wasn't sure if Jerry got the whole idea of reach, or height for that matter. Trav was certain he had a good four inches on his opponent...at least. Not that it was really his concern, Jerry would have to figure out how to get inside and into range. Until he did that Trav would just keep him on the end of his jab and kicks. If things started to get boring he'd probably pepper some spin kicks in for variety, maybe try out some new combinations. Typical sparring stuff really: experiment, practice, learn. The whole idea was to get better. He'd learn something from sparring with Jerry, you learned something sparring with anyone, it was just a question of recognising it.

Trav pushed off the cage when Jerry got in and bounced on the spot before moving to the center of the cage opposite Jerry, hand raised for the traditional glove touch.

Somewhere between the edge of the cage and the center of the mat, Jerry got a strange feeling in the pit of his stomach. It was a feeling he had received many times before, despite his best attempts to ignore it. It was that feeling that told him 'hey man, you're getting in over your head. Maybe you should test the waters with one feet instead of two'. Jerry also made a habit of ignoring that feeling. After all, all the all-time greats ignored it, right? Otherwise how would cool shit ever get done?

He had yet to do any of that cool shit that'd make him the famous person he KNEW he'd one day be but damn it, that day was coming! Maybe Trav'd be an important stepping stone. Maybe this was part 1 to becoming Jerry Fury, MMA all-star. Maybe, just maybe, he was overblowing a stupid sparring session that came before the actual match which would probably be watched by 20-30 people tops, maybe 50 if he made promises like offering concessions.

Jerry reached Trav and touched a glove. He was thinking about like... maybe putting his gloves up and slamming them down like a 'AH MUST BREK HYOU' thing, but that sounded tacky. Maybe in the match proper.

"Alright dude," Jerry said, bouncing back a few steps and then hopping from side to side to get that energy a-flowin'. "Hit me with your best shot! Let's go, Pat fuckin' Benatar!"

Jerry didn't try to punch him off the glove touch. That was an unexpected bonus, he did however say 'Hit me with your best shot'. Trav sighed, that was going to be stuck in his head for the rest of the day. Jerry still seemed super up for the sparring session, which was unexpected. Trav had been thinking Jerry was going to back out, that he was all bark and no bite. He had more respect for him for sticking with it. That didn't mean he wasn't going to style it out. No, that option was always on the table when Trav fought.

Stepping back into a southpaw stance Trav got his guard up and moved towards Jerry, weight forward on the balls of his feet, a slight bounce in his step. Head down and chin tucked in, right hand slightly further forward than normal. He felt like trying out his counter right hook. It was just a waiting game to see if Jerry was going to oblige him. If not he was going to the left leg kicks. Jerry always talked about doing karate and karateka as a general rule tended to have trouble with leaving the front leg out. Easy pickings for scything low kicks and Trav did love kicking off his left leg as well as kicking his opponents leg off...or any part of their body really.

As things were though he pawed out with his right hand a couple of times, trying to egg Jerry into lunging forward. Onus was on him anyway, he had less reach.

Awwwww balls. Trav was a lefty, huh?

Come to think of it, Jerry hadn't studied his opponent before, or ever really listened to him. Whenever he heard about or acknowledged Trav's MMA stuff, all he could think about was how he was gonna challenge this guy, beat him and prove that he could hang with the best of him. Jerry regretted that he hadn't listened more, that much was true. Now the challenge was not showing it.

Jerry took an exuberant stance, switching his footing once... twice... ha HA! Was he a righty, or a lefty? Yeah, that's right, gotta shake it up- oh shit, it looked like Trav was getting close - time to switch to righty to fight for real. Jerry dropped his ruse and kept his hands up, careful with his footing in order to try and at least keep center mat. Beads of sweat were already forming on his brow as his eyes swept Trav's guard up and down.

That right hand looked a bit too far forward. A-ha!

Jerry planted his left and threw a swift kick right up at Trav's head with his right foot. It was only sparring but, fuck, if you could end this with one strike, why not take the opportunity?

The jog down to the gym was a decent warmup in its own right, but stretching first never hurt. Besides, Toby liked her routines; without carefully planning out every minute of her day, she never got anything done. Too many responsibilities, too little time management. She did like to hang around with Trav, just not for the sake of hanging out.

Toby kind of envied those that had the luxury of killing time with just socialising. She couldn't imagine just switching off like that, not when she always had so much she needed to do. Studying, the kids... well, actually that compromised most of it. Point was that she was on the go most of the time, and her free time was much too precious to not be doing anything with it.

She cast a glance over to the ring as she dropped into doing a series of lunges. Nice and limber from running. The absolute last thing that Noodle needed was to pull a muscle when she cycled and ran most everywhere. That was actually the main reason that Toby hadn't done what Trav had encouraged her to do and fight in proper MMA bouts. She hadn't even psyched herself up enough to do any amateur fights, and those were ostensibly much safer. Just... what would happen if she got hurt? They were relying on her at home, and even though she did love doing this-

Ugh.

Well she couldn't do a worse job of it than Jerry 'open with a headkick' Fury.

...Alright.

Trav hopped back to avoid the kick. There was no set up so it wasn't like he didn't see it coming but still.

Full speed head kicks in sparring. If that was how Jerry wanted to play it.

Trav reset his stance and moved in, throwing out a one, two; jab, cross combo to force a reaction out of Jerry and disguise his actual attack, which was a scything leg kick. Using the full rotation of his hips and swinging his left leg around as he did so, Trav attacked Jerry's lead leg. He turned his leg over with the kick, the idea being that all the contact would come from the bone of his own shin against the meat of Jerry's thigh. Instant dead leg, super bad time. In a real fight Trav would do it full speed, full power all the time. It was one of his bread and butter combinations. Constant thudding leg kicks until his opponent could no longer put their weight on their lead leg. What that got him was a fighter who was slower and who couldn't put weight behind their own strikes. If they switched legs it meant it was working and only encouraged him to keep going.

Since they were sparring, Trav was only going to send one full force leg kick Jerry's way. But the message behind it was to remind him to calm his ass down, it was only sparring.

Woooooooooosh!

Yeah, that was the sound of his opening kick missing. Welp, 0-1 was better than 0-100. Jerry just had to make sure to make the remaining 99 count. First, he had to follow through with the kick, since he may have put just a little bit too much force into it. Nonetheless, with all the grace of a stunted, squat little ballerina, both feet returned to the floor and Jerry spun through.

Just in time to OH SHIT PUNCHES COMING HIS WAY!

Jerry put up his dukes, caging those motherfuckers like a pro. Seriously, what good was superior reach if you're not even going to use it effectiv-

SLLLLLLLAP!

"Augh!" Jerry high-kneed it backwards, throwing a few wild rights in case Trav was stupid enough to follow up on that. Alas, he wasn't; it looked like he was content to send out the one leg. Well, there's not strategy there either, right? "Hey, Trav, there aren't any organs in my leg!" Jerry jeered.

Another step forward. Oh, that searing pain in his thigh with every step... thaaaaat's why Trav did that. Jerry didn't say anything else to that one - the expression on his countenance read clearly enough.  Fine. No, really, that's cool. Jerry didn't need his leg or anything. He'd just step in all slow n' cautious-like, taking a classic Renoji-Dachi. Fuck the pain, the pain didn't exist. Okay, it totally existed... holy HELL did it exist, but... just fuck it. Fuck it right in its metaphorical, allegorical asshole.

No more fucking around.

The reaction Jerry had to his leg kick was great comedy. His attempt to play it off was also spectacular, if immediately spoiled as soon as he put his leg down.

Now Jerry had an idea of what was going on he seemed much more cautious. Trav couldn't blame him for that, after all leg kicks sucked. Thing was if Jerry wasn't going to actively go after him, and it didn't look like he was in the post-leg kick world, Trav would have to lead.

Leading was always an issue because that offered you benefits and drawbacks.

Benefit: you had a much easier time controlling the pace.

Drawback: you were opening yourself up to counters.

On the other hand Trav very much doubted Jerry had enough footwork to combat the proper use of feints and angles. His karate stance was a key element of Trav coming to that conclusion.

Karate stances tended as a general rule to be mainly side-on so were very narrow, a result of how competition karate had developed, turning was not a strong suit of a karate stance. Stepping forward Trav threw out some feints as well as a couple of long rangy jabs to keep Jerry guessing, none of them were coming at full power, that wasn't their point. The idea was to make sure Jerry never got settled and never knew what was going to be coming his way next. As Trav closed the gap more he threw out a looping right hook, no power or intent to hurt but it was a distraction and helped keep Jerry in place as he sent a left cross straight down the pipe.

Hmph. Alright, dude. Let's see what you got.

Jerry had his hands up and his eyes forward. A couple fake-outs from Trav, but if they didn't come within range of hand smackin', Jerry didn't pay him any mind. It wasn't like this was the first time anybody ever threw a feint his way.

Jab, jab, jab. Now Trav was screwing around with the jabs, controlling the pace of the fight. They were pretty to stop; hell, one of them didn't even make full contact. Did Trav just not know how to throw a punch? If so, that might make this easier than it had to be. All Jerry had to do was get in and-

The right hook practically came out of nowhere, appearing on the left side of Jerry's peripheral vision as he remained focused on Trav's center. It was slow but there was a lot of power behind that. Fortunately, karate had like... the PERFECT block for that. He couldn't remember exactly what it was called, but he did remember how to do it, and Trav's main offense was...

Jerry's right arm swung in to cage the blow coming from Trav's lightning-quick left straight. No thinking, no planning, no time. Stopping that thing was either instinct or luck, and the first one sounded cooler. At any rate, THAT was the real attack, and Trav's left side looked open. Jerry wasn't the best kicker, but it was either Jackie Chan or Bruce Lee who said something like 'I fear the man who practices a kick a million times' or some shit like that. Maybe it was Chuck Norris. Steven Segal? Crying out loud, it was ONE of those guys. Point was, Jerry knew how to do a side-thrust kick.

So Jerry did a side-thrust kick.

With his right foot.

At Trav's left side.