Mexican standoff?

Posted on Sat Jan 1st, 2022 @ 5:08pm by Ensign Zack Ravencroft & Lieutenant Commander Shoniara T’ghann-Travis Dr

Mission: Sinister Intentions
Location: Holodeck, U.S.S. Washinton
Timeline: After the away team returned

For half an hour, Zack had warmed up with his holodeck program that was a classical ancient Chinese Dojo. The feel was very warm with wooden walls and pillars, flags with Chinese words of wisdom hung on the walls and the flood was covered entirely by the mat. Several weapons were on display along the walls, everything from Chinese shortswords to Japanese Katanas. A wooden dummy stood in the corner that had recently been used as a warmup and now he stood in the middle of the mat, wearing the traditional black Wing-Chung uniform. In front of him stood five men of various sizes and builds.

He was calm as he assumed his stance, one of the basic ideas of the stance was that each limb was protecting a center line if his front was cut into four squares, left arm dealt with upper left strikes, and so on. This way as one limb was deflecting, through movement, the others could attack at the same time.

Now that he was ready, his opponents got ready and without a word two rushed towards him while the others tried to move to get a better angle. Zack stepped towards the left that came at him, deflected the punch that came at him from the left, and stepped to the left, this opened up the side of the opponent at the same time as the right opponent was now being blocked by the left. As Zacks right limb was deflecting the arm, the left struck at the ribs that were now wide open and stomped on the outside of the right knee. This caused the opponent's knee to collapse under the assault and the strike to the ribs stunned the opponent.

Zack stepped away to give himself room and not to be cornered. One of the circling men came at him, now that he was free of the other two who had been in the way. He was slower but much bulkier, using deflects and footwork Zack had scored three hits on this 'tank' of a man. He didn't look phased however and Zack smiled. A challenge.

Using the other attacker to shift between the targets and prevent himself from being pinned down but having one or more between the others was an excellent way to keep them from ganging up on him. He was working up a nice sweat as these holograms weren't amateurs and they tried different tactics to make Zack adapt to what was being thrown at him.

Zack had been hit a few times over the two minutes the fight had been going on, now only one remained. The large tank of a man was left and he used footwork to stay out of reach as much as possible, striking the man at the same spot over and over. No matter how tanky and strong he was, the body could only take so much and after thirty seconds the man's knee finally buckled from the assault, he went down on the knee with a grunt, and with a stomp, to the side of the head, the man went down.

Zack stood up, breathing heavily from the workout. He even had a split lip and a broken nose from a few of the impacts.

Shon clapped slowly from her place behind one of the bamboo panels. “Excellent Ensign, you are very good, but do you not need medical attention as you seem to be bleeding, and your nose is, ever so slightly out of place.” She patted him on his shoulder and looked around his program. “We had a Kendo class at the Academy. I did not think it would hurt but I learned my lesson the very first day.” She took down one of the katanas and examined the curved blade. “I would love to try one of these against my B’atleth, that is my favorite workout, the blade an extension of the arm, simple and beautiful but deadly."

“I find my favorite type of combat is the type that I win at.”

He arched an eyebrow. "Without pain, I feel the workout not having the best effect," he observed her with the sword. "I don't have much training with the sword, well not the Katana. I do think it's one of the more beautiful weapons. As for my injuries, I'll go and have it looked at later. Most of my workout is done anyway. Just need to unwind, then you can have the holodeck."

She leaned against the wall. “And how do you unwind Zack, can I call you Zack off duty? I am excellent in the art of Vulcan neuropressure if you want to try that one day after I have pummeled you into the ground.” Again she smiled.

"If you like ma'am..." using neuropresure was a Vulcan thing. "Even a loss is a learning experience." Zack said, not phased by her words.

“Then you might be having an awful lot of learning experiences along with neuropressure. And whatever happened to Lieutenant Doctor?”

"I like Doctor Doctor better. But I have de-stressed right now and feel at ease. Not that teasing isn't fun, but there is a time and place for that."

“If you do not mind I would love to spar with you one day?” She said

"Few things beat the challenge of real people. Holograms can only do so much." Zack didn't know the extent of her combat prowace, but he wasn't someone boast.

“Ensign, how about tomorrow at this time. We can spar, get the mean of each other, and so that means we can get you to sickbay to sort your face out?”

"If that is what you want." he shrugged and headed to a small bag in the corner. Once there he drank some water from a bottle. "Computer, end program," he said and the room changed to a standard holodeck.