Post by Calico Nerdani on Mar 8, 2010 23:32:54 GMT -5
Calico's steady breaths were the only noise he made as he exercised the peaceful art of Tai Chi. Garbed only in his training boxers that roughly matched his coat pattern, Claico repeated over and over the Warrior's Mantra all warriors from his village repreated. Peace. Honor. Virtue. Strength. Peace of the heart, so that no doubt weakens the will. Honor in oneself and one's clan, so that the Warrior never forgets his duty. Virtue in the face of sin, so that the Warrior may never stray off the righteous path blessed by the Gods. Strength of the body as well as the mind, so that the Warrior may defeat the unvirtuous, the heartless, the honorless. The Mantra in combo with Tai Chi always steadied his mind. It was troubled before about Sally's capture, but focused now on training. Calico fluidly shifted position from balancing from one foot to the other and slowly raised his knee. Keeping his knee bent, he brought his upper leg down and leaned forward, placing his hands on the ground and hoisting his lower body off so that he was standing on his hands. The next part of the position had him rais hid palms off of the ground so that he was supported by only his fingers, which was to represent the Pillars of Strength his village's training was based on. Both of his knees were bent now, an unconscious movement on his part due to muscle memory. He slowly unbent both legs and did a split to finish the next part of the exercise and move onto rotating himself around using only his fingers. This part stressed Patience, one of the Pillars, that went under the Strength category, Strength of the Mind. It was important to pace oneself and never rush, for then mistakes can be made. His blunders against Stripe had also plagued him earlier, but were gone too, now that he was focused on training. After completing one rotation, Calico relaxed back down onto his palms and repeated the process ninety-nine more times. Then, he relaxed back into a standing position and stretched his muscles to their limits for around fifteen minutes.
"Alright. Warm-up's done."
Now it got intense. Flexing his sinewy muscles into his fighting stance, Calico pressed the floor switch that Brokel had shown him, and the almost cavernous training room in the hidden bunker filled with training dummies.They were set up into a shifting infinite loop so that the trainer could count laps, but each lap was different. The dummies themselves were also unique, falling into three types. There were the usual spoked dummies, with the spinning spokes to hit and dodge, and then dummies that simulated Ki blasts being shot at the trainer, and finally there were the cliche punching-bag dummies. Calico closed the gap between him and the first dummy, a spoked one, in a few strides. He exercised complicated melee combos with it, to exercise bypassing enemy attacks and countering. Next up in the room full of dummies was a Ki Thrower; it shot electric balls similar to what that girl had thrown at them in the lab. Calico stood in place for a few moments, dodging randomly thrown electro balls before rushing in a zigzag up to it and pressing the button on its chest to stop it until the next round. Thirdly in the line was another spoked dummy, one that he practiced mainly avoiding attacks on. Then came the punching-bag dummy. He unloaded on it like he would usually, but met with a dark surprise. Apparently, they were a kind of combo dummy. A part would light up, and you had to hit that part. If you didn't you'd get tasered. And tasered did he get! Calico took that lesson to heart and thanked his lucky stars for having nine lives. The next dummy in line was another punching-bag dummy, but this one didn't light up and taser him. He guessed that they mixed that up, to keep him on his toes. As he progressed through the rest of the lap, he couldn't help but start to get fatigued. It was a big room, and there were alot of dummies in it. After what seemed like a giant war, Calico finally made back to base. A buzzer sounded, and a grimy scoreboard lit up with a glowing orange one while the dummies were rearranged.
Time for lap two.
Surprisingly to Calico, he made it another three laps after the first one before he was taken down by a Ki Thrower. The robotic bastard had shot him while he was busy with a spoked dummy. He had managed to avoid it in those situations before, but he was just to exhausted. The buzzer sounded again when he hit the floor, and all the dummies disappeared around him. The scoreboard blinked the four at him in a way that said 'hey, four, good job. now go get some food and rest.' The digital clock on the scoreboard had timed his total workout to three hours, ten minutes, and forty-two seconds.
Heh. Forty-two. Calico's tummy growled as he held it, trying to shut it up with his hand. He was famished, and sweat rolled off his soaked fur in beads. He figured ti was time for that shower and real food. Then he'd only need to call his mom........
He had it set in his head that he'd train like this every other day until a few days before the tournament. That ever-changing room was sure to hold a bunch of thrilling surprisies.
There were also other training rooms, each one with a different purpose.
Calico, glistening from the recent shower, sat down at the lunch table next to Brokel and set his tray down to eat.
"Alright. Warm-up's done."
Now it got intense. Flexing his sinewy muscles into his fighting stance, Calico pressed the floor switch that Brokel had shown him, and the almost cavernous training room in the hidden bunker filled with training dummies.They were set up into a shifting infinite loop so that the trainer could count laps, but each lap was different. The dummies themselves were also unique, falling into three types. There were the usual spoked dummies, with the spinning spokes to hit and dodge, and then dummies that simulated Ki blasts being shot at the trainer, and finally there were the cliche punching-bag dummies. Calico closed the gap between him and the first dummy, a spoked one, in a few strides. He exercised complicated melee combos with it, to exercise bypassing enemy attacks and countering. Next up in the room full of dummies was a Ki Thrower; it shot electric balls similar to what that girl had thrown at them in the lab. Calico stood in place for a few moments, dodging randomly thrown electro balls before rushing in a zigzag up to it and pressing the button on its chest to stop it until the next round. Thirdly in the line was another spoked dummy, one that he practiced mainly avoiding attacks on. Then came the punching-bag dummy. He unloaded on it like he would usually, but met with a dark surprise. Apparently, they were a kind of combo dummy. A part would light up, and you had to hit that part. If you didn't you'd get tasered. And tasered did he get! Calico took that lesson to heart and thanked his lucky stars for having nine lives. The next dummy in line was another punching-bag dummy, but this one didn't light up and taser him. He guessed that they mixed that up, to keep him on his toes. As he progressed through the rest of the lap, he couldn't help but start to get fatigued. It was a big room, and there were alot of dummies in it. After what seemed like a giant war, Calico finally made back to base. A buzzer sounded, and a grimy scoreboard lit up with a glowing orange one while the dummies were rearranged.
Time for lap two.
Surprisingly to Calico, he made it another three laps after the first one before he was taken down by a Ki Thrower. The robotic bastard had shot him while he was busy with a spoked dummy. He had managed to avoid it in those situations before, but he was just to exhausted. The buzzer sounded again when he hit the floor, and all the dummies disappeared around him. The scoreboard blinked the four at him in a way that said 'hey, four, good job. now go get some food and rest.' The digital clock on the scoreboard had timed his total workout to three hours, ten minutes, and forty-two seconds.
Heh. Forty-two. Calico's tummy growled as he held it, trying to shut it up with his hand. He was famished, and sweat rolled off his soaked fur in beads. He figured ti was time for that shower and real food. Then he'd only need to call his mom........
He had it set in his head that he'd train like this every other day until a few days before the tournament. That ever-changing room was sure to hold a bunch of thrilling surprisies.
There were also other training rooms, each one with a different purpose.
Calico, glistening from the recent shower, sat down at the lunch table next to Brokel and set his tray down to eat.
