The Drums of War-- Day 5 (February 6, 2317)

[Zinna]

Mandi

"The young gentleman has arrived, madame." the maid announced.

Thank you, thought Mandi, I hope he likes potatoes.

"Welcome," Mrs. Jras said cordially, "Dinner is in the dinning hall to your right. Bramanda, help him with his coat and hat." She slips away to the hallway behind the main staircase where she hides behind a heavy cranberry color velvet drapery. 

"Hello Shawlin," Mandi said as she approached him. "I can take your hat for you." Just then the dinner bell rang.

[Cytherea]

Shawlin

"Thank you." he was quick to say to Mrs. Jras before she slipped into a different room. He started to take his coat and scarf off, and then Bramanda was there.

"Hello Shawlin. I can take your hat for you."

Shawlin smiled down at her in greeting.

"Good evening Mandi." he said softly. "How are you?"

A light dinner bell rang clearly throughout the house and Shawlin quickly finished taking his scarf off.

[Zinna]

Mandi

"How are you?" Dinner bell rings.

"I am well thank you. Dinner is this way," said Mandi cordially but a little stiffly. She had a feeling she was being watched, so she quickly glanced around the room but no one was in sight.

When they entered the dining hall Mandi stood in front of her usual place and an old butler came and pushed her chair to the table. "Old Peter doesn't have the health of the youthful maids, so he helps everyone to their seats," Mandi explained. 

The dining hall was dazzling. It was a long hall with large windows and a dining table that could seat twenty. The chairs were recently covered in flower patterned brocade and silver colored tassels. New red velvet draperies had arrived that week along with silver candleholders which took the light and made it twinkle. The food hid under covers on silver serving trays. The dishes were basic glass, crystal, and silver. Along the wall stood serving maids in crisp white dresses and black aprons with their hair pulled back in tight buns.

"Please take a seat Mr. Hynour," said the recently arrived Mrs. Jras.

[Anwen]

Matthias and Chris came down laughing together. Chris called out, "Aren't you guys in a hurry! You really want to get beaten that badly?" Grinning he came over to where Johnathan was waiting and began placing the pieces on the board. "You don't mind doing it down here do you? I want to see how the boxing match goes. Neither of them have much of a height advantage, so it will be down to skill and strength. While for us," He smiled as he placed his second bishop, "we need skill and strategy."

When Matthias came down, he went directly to the changing room and came out in a muscle shirt and shorts. These look really good on him because of his body build. "You can change out of your jeans if you want to Ben." he called as he began wrapping the tape around his hands. "You probably don't want to wear sweaty clothes when you talk to my sister."

[Brock]

"I will take your advise and be back in a minute." Ben said as he was walking toward the dressing room. "Do you have anything in my size? I don't want to be beaten because of a loose pair of shorts."

Jon started to set out his chess pieces to but instead starting with the pawns rather then the royal pieces. "I must warn you," Jon said as he placed three pawns at a time on the chess board in their respected places, "I haven't played chess in a long time so don't go too hard on me this round." Looking over at Matthias he said to Chris, "Do you think Ben will stand a chance? He hasn't had much practice lately and he's a little out of shape. And how often does your brother box?" By now Ben came out of the dressing room with the same dress as Matthias but not as impressive. The muscle shirt wasn't as tight as Matthias's but the shorts looked like they fit fine.

"Ready to be beaten?" Ben asked Chris as he got up into the ring. He crouched a little bit and got his hands into a fighting/defending position ready to start the match. Then he realized something, he forgot the boxing tape for his hands. He looked around and spotted it on a chair next to the ring. Reaching over the ropes he grabbed the tape and put it on. "Almost forgot this. You would be in worse shape then me at the end of this round." Then he got into the boxing position that he was just in and waited for Chris to get ready and make the first move.

[Anwen]

"Oh, he must have a chance." Chris replied. "there's no doubt about that. Double A would never have given this challenge if she didn't think you two would have a chance. And," he continued as he placed his final piece. "Matthias is really good at reading people. He would never have gone along with it unless Ben was at about the same level as him or higher." Smiling, he added, "I can tell from his eyes that he already knows what your first two moves will be, and from Ben's stance how he'll react to this first uppercut with a weave and a body blow, which Matthias will block with his left arm."

"So, are you happy I'm playing you instead of him? I don't think he's ever lost a game of chess except to the computer."

[Brock]

Ben weaved away from the uppercut that Matthias just sent at him and went in for a body blow to nock him off balance, but rather he was thrown off balance with a left arm block from Matthias. He regained his balance just in time to avoid a right sider (a punch to the right side of the face) which gave Ben an opportunity to get him a couple of times on the right side of the gut. But then Matthias tripped Ben sending him tumbling to the ground and then he gave him a good body slam. Ben was able to push Matthias off of him as he rolled away and got back into his defensive stance. By now he had his back against the ropes an nowhere to retreat to. Matthias was slowly inching his way toward Ben getting ready to take him out. Ben's mind was racing, "I could make a run at him and stop just before I get into arms reach but he would be expecting that and would counter that." But then he knew exactly what he would do. He to moved toward Matthias and started to crouch as if he was going to body ram him but as he was starting to run he jumped with his legs out to the left of Matthias's body and grabbed his torso with both arms and brought him banging to the ground. As Matthias was falling he twisted around to try and catch himself which gave Ben the opportunity to put Matthias into a full nelson.

As this was going on Jon and Chris were having a very long and strategic game of chess. But eventually Chris got Jon into checkmate which Jon was somewhat puzzled about. He had never lost a game to the computer so how could he loose a game to Chris. "Good job, Chris. I haven't been beaten in a game of chess for years. Good job." By now he heard the thumping of Matthias's hand against the ring floor and after he and Chris put away the chess pieces they went over to where Ben and Matthias were shaking hands. "So, how did the match go, Matthias?"

[Anwen]

Matthias turned and grinned at Johnathan. "It went really well!" He replied, before returning his attention to Ben. "You thought outside of the box (or ring as as the case may be) and surprised me with your strength." Smiling wryly, he looked up at the ceiling. "I really need to stop doing that don't I?"

"Yeah, you do." came a voice from the high, high, high beam. A figure in a green gymnastics suit leaped from the beam and grabbed the high gymnastics bar, spinning around a few times before landing on the boxing mat not in a usual gymnast form, but in a crouch, one hand with fingers on the ground, the other behind her as if flinging back a cape.

Smiling Angie stood, her bright blue and yellow cat-suit recovering from her movement as the colors began to separate again. Chris started explaining things again. "Matthias is always underestimating Angie's strength." He smiled ruefully. "She can beat both of us in the same fight, and not break out into a sweat."

Chris turned back to Johnathan then. "Let me ask you something then, 'cause this would explain it. Did you play those games on the computer?"

[Cytherea]

Shawlin

"Thank you, Mrs. Jras." Shawlin said to her politely. He took a seat and sat with perfect posture. "You have a beautiful house, ma'am." he complimented her. A strand of his soft black hair fell playfully over his eyes, but he brushed it away quickly.

[Brock]

Ben was somewhat stunned at Angie's 'Drop in' and stood there staring at her in amazement. He recovered but still couldn't find any words to say.

Jon replied to Chris, "I've played some chess games on the computer and have always won, and I've also played with some really good chess players which most of them I beat." He couldn't help saying this with a small grin on his face remembering how easily he beat some of them. Then his grin faded away as he remembered how easily some of them beat him, mainly Chris.

[Anwen]

"There are two main reasons that you failed I think." Chris declared. "First, you were slightly unbalanced by my remark at the beginning of the game. You were concentrating so much on trying to make yourself unreadable, that you didn't fully think things through. Also, I've been playing Matthias most times when I play, so your face was... fairly simple to read anyway." He finished, tilting his head on each syllable.

Leaning over, Chris whispered conspiratorially, "Between the two of us, there is a secret to it. Keeping your face unreadable, I mean. I could tell you if you like."

Meanwhile...

After Angie got over her mock anger at Chris's statement, she turned back to Ben. "Don't listen to them, I'm not that good."

Matthias, behind her remarked, "Oh no, not that good. You could probably beat the Black Widow, that's all."

Angie glared at him then turned back to Ben, ignoring Matthias behind her. "Would you boys like to go a round with me? All three of you?"

Signing 'NO!' behind her very vigorously, Matthias silently pled with Ben to refuse this offer.

[Brock]

"I would appreciate that very much," Jon said to Chris. "It would help me to become a better and less readable competitor. Although if you teach me your trick of not being readable then I may beat you the next time we challenge each other." He said this with a slight grin imagining himself beating Chris in a later competition which he was sure would come up.

Taking this request of Angie's and putting it to use to cause more pain and suffering toward Matthias Ben answered her saying, "Of course. We would Love your company to change things up a bit. I believe our conversations were beginning to get somewhat dull. What do you say, Matthias, about going for a quick walk to restore you energy after that intense competition that we had? And besides, I think I could use some fresh air, after all, the odor is starting to become quite thick and it is making the air very stuffy."

[Anwen]

Chris smiled at Jon's imaginings, "Jonathan, all it will really do is level out the playing field a bit. At least for a while." Glancing over a Matthias a moment he grinned wryly as he remembered when Matt told him the secret. "See it takes a little practice to do it correctly. The idea is to make your face unreadable, right? So give your opponent nothing to read. The secret is this, always keep your mind open. Always be looking at all your options, and don't ever fully choose one until your turn. always keep your mind focused on at least two things, even when you've already decided."

Back to the others...

Angie smiled, "I suppose you could take a walk first if you really want to. Or I could turn on climate control and we could get started right now. I'll warn you though," she declared as she backed away. "I always," she performed a backflip, "use," landed on the highbeam, "the whole gym." Her cheeky smile returned, "but if you guys would prefer that I stay in the box, let me know after I fix the climate."

[Brock]

"I appreciate your advise and I will put it to good use." Jon said as he ran through everything in his mind that Chris told him.

Benjamin was truly impressed with Angie's perfect backflip and couldn't make up his mind. "Whatever you would rather do is fine by me."
By now, Johnathan and Chris had slowly worked their way to the three others and Johnathan wanted in on this conversation, "What are we talking about here, and Angie, why are you up on that highbeam?"

[Anwen]

"I'm off to cool the room down." Angie replied, with a mischievous glint in her eye. "I think the boys will explain what's happening to you."

Chris was already holding his face in his hands as she ran lightly off. "Matt, how did this happen?"

"Don't worry about it, because we need a-"

"Strategy before she comes back, but first-"

"We need to fill in-"

"Ben and Jonathan." They ended together. Turning toward the newcomers Matt began,

"Angie is going to fight all of us. She is very good. I wouldn't suggest-"

"Pulling your punches because her gym outfit is-"

"completely shock absorbent. Don't interrupt, Chris, it's rude. Anyway, her suit is shock absorbent so that she can fight boys without being injured, but the suit borrows her energy directly corresponding to the shock it receives."

"Also, if you don't want to fight, or if you surrender, lie down. So,"

"Do you want to split up or stay together?" they asked in unison.

[Brock]

As Chris and Matthias were talking Ben and Johnathan's eyes were switching back and forth between them. After they considered the question Ben said, "Splitting up would allow us to come at her from all angles and cut off her escape for a respite, but-"

"She would anticipate us choosing that way of attack and be prepared for us surrounding her." Jon interrupted. "But then again, she would probably anticipate us not choosing that option and she would be prepared for a full on assault."

"I suggest that we make two groups and make ourselves as unpredictable as possible. What do you guys think?"

[Anwen]

Matthias's POV

"OK boys, here's what we'll do." I grinned as I began warming up to this idea. "Jonathan, you come with me, Ben, you're with Chris; And Angie!" I raised my voice a bit. "Give us a 10 minute count!"

"Alright!" came the reply. "I'll give you boys a head start!"

"10"

I rushed the other group off into hiding among the ball equipment, then turned to my partner

"9"

"Jonathan, come with me." I called softly as I headed off the boxing "ring." "We need to find a good place to ambush her from."

"8"

[Brock]

Johnathan answered him with a nod of his head and started after him. "What about behind the boxing ring? No, we'll be easily seen and not to mention really cramped."

"7" came the shout from Angie.

'She'll be expecting us to be relatively close to the others and most likely across or diagonal to them.' Johnathan thought as he helped Matthias look for a good place to ambush Angie. "What about behind the weight rack? It would provide us with the cover we need to go unnoticed but would allow us to see her." He whispered to his partner.

[Anwen]

"6"

Matthias grinned, "I must say, well done."

"5"

They hurried over and hid so that they had a great view and were nearly completely hidden.

"4"

"Yes! 4 points for the Logic Team!" Matt whispered.

"3"

"2"

"1"


Everything went deadly silent, as Angie moved through the various equipment.

[Brock]

Ben and Jon were both straining their ears to at least hear the pat of Angie's bare feet on the concrete floor and the spaced out padding but there was nothing but their slow, quiet breathing. Then Jon heard a slight pad of her feet when she stepped on a leather mat and he pointed in that general direction for Matthias to know and Matthias nodded his head in acknowledgment. They both peered through the cracks in the weight rack but she wasn't there. Jon slowly looked up and saw Angie up on the climbing rope looking down on them. Luckily the weight rack went up and back covering and shielding them from her sight. He tapped Matthias' shoulder and pointed up through a space in the 45 lb. weights. He mouthed the words, "What do we do now?" and waited for Matthias' reply.

Ben and Chris

Ben didn't have a view like Jon but he had more sensitive ears then Jon and he heard the swinging of the climbing rope overhead. Chris tapped his shoulder and pointed up where Angie was surveying the room looking for a clue of their positions. Luckily they were hiding behind the half circle of the ball rack that had a slight backwards slant to it and they pressed closer to the side of it almost making some of the medicine balls fall off the rack. Ben mouthed the words, "How do we get her now."?

[Anwen]

Angie had subconsciously gotten herself to nearly the highest point of the gym. Her mind was working quickly, piecing together the clues. Aloud she mused. "I know where Ben and Matt are, their footprints show up in the chalk." to herself she was thinking, the other boys are with them, I can hear their breathing. How should I...

Suddenly, it came to her.

Silently as a cat she crept quickly down the rope and tied a kettle bell to it, straightening it out. Climbing back up the rope, she ran across the rafters until she stood a few feet over and next to the medicine balls. Soundlessly, she landed on the stand on her hands, kicked one of the medicine balls, and stood behind Ben and Chris.

Simultaneously, two things happened. One: the medicine ball hit the kettle-bell which hit the weight rack which knocked down about half the weights. And Two: She braced her back against the wall and kicked Ben and Chris as they turned around, sending them into the other medicine balls, which went flying.

[Brock]

Both groups were in a daze. Jon and Matthias were struggling with the weights, they each had at least a dozen new bruises thanks to the ten and fifteen pound dumbbells. Once they got out of the mess of weights they took up defensive positions on one side of Angie and soon the other two were out of the medicine balls and on the other side of her. As soon as Ben was up and ready to fight Angie went after him and with a series of kicks and punches he was out for the count. While she was going after Ben Matthias got one punch in before he too was out. Jon and Chris were the only two left and they slowly worked their way around Angie. Before Chris had time to react his Angie did a low trip kick and sent him sprawling to the ground. Jumping over Angie's leg on the sweep back he did a punch kick combo and once he got her once he jumped back to regroup with Chris.

[Anwen]

Angie smiled (in quite a sinister way) since she was enjoying herself so immensely. I didn't really expect this team to be the one that lasts longer. I wonder how long Jon would last on his own. She mused as she caught her breath (and Chris) with a well timed high kick to the head. "Congratulations. You're the last one standing. Enjoy the moment, as it will probably not happen again."

[Brock]

Jon felt the fear and anger swelling up inside of him and did his best to keep it in check so as not to blind him. Then, with a quick lunge he threw himself at Angie's feet catching one of her legs with his right foot. Using his momentum he pushed himself up into a front-flip barely missing Angie's dropkick. Now he no longer had his back to the ball equipment but was free to move around. Sweat now thickly covered his brow and he was breathing heavily, waiting for her next move.

[Zinna]

Mandi

"You have a beautiful house, ma'am."

Mrs. Jras smiled, "Thank you." Mr. Jras enters, sits, and says grace before eating.

After a few bites of food in complete silence Mandi asked, "How was your day, Father?"

"It was long and full of complex life problems and stupid irrelevant questions. How was your day, Bramanda?"

Mandi blushed knowing that her father wasn't a fan of small talk...or females, "It was educational."

Mrs. Jras, not being daunted by her husband's bluntness, asked, "Have you met our guest, dear?"

Mr. Jras looked at Shawlin and said cordially. "Good evening, young man. My name is Michael Jras."