fandomhighdorms | The Gym, close to noon Thursday

As ~~handwavily~~ agreed, Jen arrived at the gym with her gear bag in hand and a fabulous piece of headwear.

"Hi," she said, her workout gear offset absurdly by the crystal-studded, massively-bowed hat on her head. "No, it's not standard issue, I swear."

"I know, I've got one too," Dinah said, pointing at her gym bag. "Although I think Edward wears it better than either of us. He's got the sleeves for it." She grinned. "Maybe you can take it off now?"

"I hadn't even tried," Jen admitted, but she reached up and plucked the hat off her head anyway. "But it's hell on your balance."

It wasn't as if the concept of fighting in cumbersome headgear was foreign to someone who wore a helmet that, one would think, defied all notions of visibility. But there was a difference between a helmet and a Swarovski-encrusted bowed wonder that demanded -- not just required, but demanded -- a certain degree of jauntiness.

Also, speaking of cumbersome, she might be in loose workout pants and a pink (of course) tank top and sneakers, but the ovoid bulk of her Chronomorpher was still fastened very firmly to her left wrist.

She set her bag down near Dinah's and rested the hat on top of it.

"Stay," she told it, just for good measure, and started in on a warmup routine with ridiculous efficiency.

Dinah giggled at that, and continued through her punch-and-kick routine on the bag, noting the big bracelet thing Jen wore and reminding herself to ask about it later. Punch, strike, jab, punch strike jab kick, and she was ready. Dinah stripped off her boxing gloves and turned to face Jen. She had height and reach on her opponent, like she'd had with Lois,t but she was willing to be Jen's experience was higher, and she didn't seem to have slacked on her workouts lately.

"Ready whenever you are."

Jen certainly didn't carry herself like someone who could deliver a reasonably sound butt-kicking, and her build wasn't terribly suggestive of the fact either. Nor was the fact that as she finished her warmups and squared off against Dinah, bouncing lightly on the balls of her feet, all she said was, cooly, simply, "Ready."

And waited to see if Dinah would make the first move.

Dinah waited. Trying not to make the same mistake that she'd made with Lois. Just circling. Circling.

She thought she saw an opening, though, and kicked out toward Jen's knee with her right foot.

Really, if Dinah hadn't kicked just then, Jen would have; patience still wasn't one of her strong traits.

She spun quickly out of the way, launching a roundhouse kick at Dinah's upper body as she did.

Dinah moved with it, taking the hit on her side instead of in the stomach, and knocked low with her left arm, grinning. "So, karate? Or what was the kind you said you studied?"

Chatter, chatter, distraction, yadda chatter, jab!

Jen recoiled the leg quickly then hooked back out with it again, aiming for the back of Dinah's knee. "Mixed styles," she answered, matter of fact; there was a certain intensity in her eyes, but other than that she wasn't smiling, or showing any sign of enjoying this. "Hard to say what was what any more by 3000."

"Right," and whoa, Jen was quick, Dinah realized she did have to work on her speed because she didn't see that coming. Jen got right through her defenses and hit her knee, and she didn't crumble but that stung. Sideways spin, and step it up a notch. Dinah lashed out as fast as she could toward Jen's shoulder, starting to grin without realizing it.

If Dinah thought that was quick, she'd never seen Jen pull off a trickier kick combo in a miniskirt.

Which she was not doing again if she could help it, thank you very much.

She wasn't quick enough to completely regain her balance before Dinah's punch connected, though. She twisted her body with the movement, maybe a little more than strictly necessary ~~but it looked good on camera~~, then torqued back with a wide backhand strike.

Dinah was a long way from flailing any more when someone pulled that kind of move, but it still startled her, making her over-correct and block hard, one arm up then the other to make sure, leaving her guard open. She realized her mistake almost immediately, and tried to push Jen's arm down, twisting sideways for the blow she could almost feel coming.

Jen went with the move at first, but swung her arm in a circle to free it.

"Good catch," she commented -- then moved to sweep Dinah's legs instead.

And Dinah went down, landing on her stomach with an ooooffff.

She rolled over immediately, breathless and sore, and kicked out toward Jen's ankle as she pushed herself to her feet. "Show me that one again!"

Jen could have done a backflip to avoid the kick, but she was more about practical than flashy. Unless she was living out a kung fu movie fantasy, which she was also not doing again thank you very much if she could help it. (It hadn't been the kung fu fantasy itself that had been a hassle. Just the monster trying to kill them through genre flicks.)

She jumped sideways to avoid the kick instead, and then she was standing over Dinah, holding a hand out to help her up . . . and now, actually smiling.

"Show you which one again?"

"The kick combination," Dinah clarified, taking Jen's hand and considering pulling her down, but letting her help her up instead. "I haven't seen it like that before. Pleeeease?"

Jen looked at her for a moment, then laughed. "That's so weird. I'm not used to being on this side of that question."

The last time that question had come up for her at all had been a long time ago, granted. About 992 years. Or five. Depended on how you looked at it, really.

"You're used to learning, and not teaching?" Dinah asked, brushing herself off, then straightening.

Jen nodded and set her feet in the proper stance for the kick combination, indicating that Dinah should emulate it.

"I never really had the patience to teach anyone anything," she said, and demonstrated the moves at quarter speed.

Dinah imitated her, carefully copying the moves, then stopping to readjust her stance and re-doing it more carefully, a little faster. "Good teachers are really hard to find, I think. I've been lucky so far, though. Thanks for this." She grinned sideways at Jen, and sped up again, kicking her leg out before her, then pulling back, then doing it again. "I just ask anyone, really."

"Happy to help," Jen said; a surprised look crossed her face at that, for a moment, before she was distracted by saying, "No, turn a little more this way; you won't have to twist as much for the second kick, and it'll improve your reaction time."

"You're smarter than me, then," she added. "I was so prepared to flunk out of Time Force Academy on my own lack of merits, but Alex came to me and offered to help. I wouldn't have asked, otherwise."

Dinah turned, face a study in concentration, and saw that Jen had been right. "Hunh! Okay, see, I miss details like that. Or maybe everybody does if they can't watch themselves every second." She tilted her head, looking interested. "So, this Alex, he taught you this? He just saw you needed help? That was cool of him."

"Yeah." Jen could smile at that, now; it was unexpected, and it was welcome. She demonstrated the combination again, still slow for Dinah's benefit. "I was engaged to him for a while. That was after, though. He helped me with my shooting, worked with me on hand-to-hand, and then we got to be friends, and after that . . ."

Dinah blinked, and did the actions on automatic. "You were engaged? Wow." She concentrated on the movements, then hesitantly asked, "What's that like?" Because it sounded really cool.

"For a while it was good." Jen watched her and nodded. "Try it a little faster this time. He's gone though, now."

Which was true, still, in a way.

"I'm sorry," Dinah said, subdued. She sped up on the kick, once, twice, and one more time, feeling like it was beginning to sink in.

Gone never had any good connotations in her experience.

"That's it." Jen tried to remember how Alex had talked to her back when he was coaching her through firearms training in her Academy days, and hoped she was doing a good job of emulating his encouraging tone. "It's okay. He's not dead -- well, he was for a while, but he's alive. Just different."

Emotional talks still weren't her forte, though, and she switched subjects abruptly. "Think you're up for another round?"

"Different?" Dinah blinked, then nodded, re-focusing. "Yeah, sure. I think I've got it." She backed off a couple steps, re-assuming her stance. "Thanks for telling me," she added, a little diffident.

"Different," echoed Jen, but she didn't elaborate.

She didn't do much of anything, really, other than come at Dinah with a punch-kick-punch combination devoid of any warning whatsoever.

It was more therapeutic than talking about her feelings.

Dinah could totally respect that.

And yelp and block, then punch out at Jen herself, keeping her thoughts focused on the fight for the next several blows.

True, Jen was going a little bit easy on Dinah for now; no need to go all out in a friendly spar, or against someone who wasn't an insane cyborg bent on revenge. But it didn't stop her from throwing in a few less than kosher (but pulled) elbow strikes, while taking a blow or two in favor of trying to press an advantage (she'd never been the type to try and avoid every attack).

Dinah pushed, and kicked out, and finally started pulling out the dirtier tricks she'd learned from Helena, with head-butting and stomping.

She was still getting her butt kicked, but at least she felt like she was getting a workout.

Head-butting and stomping were moves Jen was all too familiar with, and one particular headbutt connected solidly enough to knock her back several steps.

And now she grinned, and decided to do something that would really throw Dinah off.

"Time for Time Force!" she yelled to the accompaniment of arm gestures that could hardly be mistaken for any kind of fighting move, especially out of arm's reach as she was; the last move was to slap two fingers solidly against the center button of her Chronomorpher.

"What the....?"

Dinah's guard almost dropped, then came back up as her eyes widened.

And then there was a flash of pink light, and a figure in spandex that was just as bright pink as the light had been was standing in front of Dinah. ~~But sans the BFG because no.~~

. . . well. It would have been more impressive, possibly, if not for the fact that the damned hat was perched jauntily atop the helmet.

Dinah see-sawed between total incredulity and stunned amazement, and then chortled at the hat. "Um. That is the most awesome trick ever, and you're wearing a sparkly hat!"

She bounced closer to get a better look, circling Jen with glee. "This, this is-- what is this?!"

Edited 2009-02-06 03:15 (UTC)

Jen sighed and reached up with one gloved hand to knock the hat off her head, but it would have none of that; it was like it was fused to her helmet.

If this lasted, she was going to be so pissed.

"I was going to see if it'd surprise you," Jen groused, her voice surprisingly clear through the helmet. "Which it did, but not the way I had planned."

"It did, it totally did!" Dinah assured her, standing up on tip-toe to tug on the hat, then giving up, to examine the helmet, the gloves, the boots, everything. "This, is this your uniform? Is it in your wrist-thingy? Do you ever take it off?"

Dinah sounded like a four-year-old whose friend just got the best Hot Wheels ever for her birthday.

Jen had rarely been so glad that the helmet hid her face, as her bemused expression was something she'd never live down.

"My Chronomorpher?" she asked, holding her left wrist up. "No, that stays on. Unless someone forcibly removes it and I'm not planning on letting that happen again. And yeah, that's how it works. It's locked to my DNA."

"Ooooooooooooooooo." Barbara would love to see this, and Dinah was taking mental notes as she geeked out and knocked on the faceplate, then tapped the gauntlets. "Portable body armor, and disguise, and-- do you have to be a Time Cop to get one of these? And does it come in anything but pink?"

Jen laughed. She would have powered down by now, but Dinah was having so much fun checking out the Ranger suit, and she didn't have the heart to take that away from her yet.

"There are six of them, in different colors," she explained, leaving out the fact that there were different Ranger teams with different color combinations from different eras and several of them were on the island. "The Chronomorpher technology is Time Force property, so only the six of us have them. Not even the rest of the force does."

"I am so jealous, I have no words for it," Dinah told her, finally stepping back to admire the whole thing. "Does it work in reverse? After you're done kicking butt, does it go back in the egg?"

"It's not nearly as entertaining," Jen said, "but yeah, pretty much."

She didn't preen. She didn't do that. But she kind of wanted to.

. . . nah.

"Awesome." Dinah bounced again, grinning. "So, so, so awesome." She sighed happily. "Thank you for showing it to me!"

She was so going to talk Barbara into portable costumes now. Somehow.

Jen laughed. "Power down," she said -- talking to the voice-activated HUD in the helmet, but who could tell, really? A momentary haze of pink light surrounded her again, and she was back in her workout clothes, looking sheepish.

"It's kind of nice to be able to do that without having to worry about keeping it a secret," she remarked.

"I totally get that," Dinah said before she thought. Then her eyes widened. "Um. Sorta. But it's so cool! And ... why aren't you a secret, any more?"

"Not being hunted by a criminal mastermind any more helps with that," Jen explained.

".... and yeah, I'd guess that would do it," Dinah said, after she stopped blinking.

"Kind of, yeah, just a little." See, Jen could crack a joke. Try not to faint.

The Gym, close to noon Thursday

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