2010-10-09: Gimme A Horse Or A Bull

Players:

DrewD_icon.jpg Angelo_icon.jpg

Summary: A conversation turns into a gym workout.

Date: October 9, 2010

Log Title: Gimme A Horse Or A Bull

Rating: PG


Barnes Academy - Staff Foyer

This open space has a holographic sculpture in the middle where the orderly's desks would be for the student wings. Apparently, teachers don't need hall monitors. Nobody seems quite sure who programs the hologram or why it changes day to day but the subject matter ranges from quirky pop art to downright weird. Between each set of green-tinted ports looking out into the bay, there is a passage that leads off to various modular quarters for the teachers, each a bit larger than the student's and built for a single person as well.


Noting the holographic image in the middle of the room. It is a weird looking futuristic horse and cowboy robot. Drew dressed as usual in denim shirt and denim jeans, boots and his white cowboy hat. He just shakes his head disapprovingly, "Who programs this thing? That's never how a true cowboy would be…even in the future…robot cowboy…why I would sooner listen to Lady Fafa…" He shakes his head and looks out the port into the bay

Ange is heading for the gym so just stepping out from his own room when he hears Tex disdainfully dismissing the holographic cowhoot.
"Hey Tex. That's … definitely pretty bad. How's it going?"
Looking over at Angelo, "Howdy, pardner. Good to see ya…dressed at that." He kids. He then turns to the port window, "I'd been all over the academy except in the staff foyer, so I thought I should check it out." He sighs, "Living underwater is definitely different for a man who can control and feel the wind." He grimaces, "But it's going well. You?"

"I hate that part. Better than Cheyenne Mountain maybe. It goes the way it usually does. SHIELD has been rotating people in and out for me to practice on, but more people living here. And, I'm doing my med school too."
Ange sits next to the REAL cowboy. "So what did you used to do on weekends before you got stuck down here?"

Tex reclines a bit in his seat, "Well, I was…or guess still am a part of the Rangers…so when we weren't out fighting villains or anything. I was either horseback riding, hiking, or even worked part-time at the rodeo with Victoria." He sighs again, "But coming back to SHIELD is good too. I was actually a student the first time, SHIELD tried a program like this." He laughs,"Hopes it works out better this time."

"Y'don't say. Me too, it's a good job. So what're you doin' to keep from goin' soft here? I generally go shove heavy sh…stuff around, keeps me sorta sane." Yeah, Angelo already showed that he's way too fond of lifting weights. His eyes and tattoos flicker on for a second as he looks out the window at the fish. "Huh."

Tex hmmmns, "Well, I'm not much of a gym man myself. I prefer to do man's work out in the country…but maybe I should check out the gym here." He shrugs, "How much can you bench?" He attempts to feel Angelo's muscle, "How much of that is you and how much of that is your power?"

"Yeah, there's not much ranch type work here," Angelo says, "And they won't let us do it when there is. Everything is contracted or unioned or whatever."
The fireplug medico flexes an arm for Tex, familiar with that curious look. Almost rock. He's not one of those ultra-dense Hulk-types, but he's solid as a human normally gets. He doesn't answer the question about how much he can bench.
"This is about eighty percent me, twenty percent the power giving me a serious boost. It doesn't really want me to be huge, so I do everything I can to stay flexible and it helps with everything. Kinda weird, negotiating with tattoos about what their canvas is gonna look like, eh?" Ange grins wide at that.

Tex hmmmns and looks Angelo over,"Impressive." He feels his own muscles and grimaces, "So how many tattoos do you have? How exactly does your body work? I know you have some kind of healing effect and whatever it was you did to the Miracle Man?"

"Four," Angelo says, "but the ones on my wrists are matched set. I got these," and he pulls back his sleeve to show the pale, nearly invisible markings of the tattoos of two ankhs on his wrists. "An Eye of Horus on my chest" and he claps a hand over the place that it's been laid down, "And the wings, which take up most of my back."
If one looks closely at the ankhs, they are actually letters and symbols, all interconnecting. But it's hard to see that unless he lights up.
"My body works like anyone else's … I'm just a conduit for this light-energy stuff. The tats are magic, they actually give the healing."

"And so each has a different effect." Drew asks, "The wings let you fly? The eye lets you see things differently? And the ankhs are the healing tattoos?" He continues looking Angelo over, "I haven't completely read your file yet. How did you get these magical tats? and can you get more?"

That latter gets a laugh. "Doubt the guy who gave 'em to me is around, he got pissed because the first thing I did was to cure his heroin and cocaine and meth addictions. He got the patterns off a friend of his, I found out later. Some druid somewhere. That's all I have. Not likely to get more. The ankhs are healing, curse-breaking, repairing broken stuff, the wings are… mobility, flight, health, a bunch of things focused on me. The eye gives insight. Freaky stuff." Angelo grins, "I can see your age, for instance."

Smiling, "Druid and magic. I know a thing or three about the occult. My girlfriend was possessed by a demon once. I had to figure out how to get her unpossessed and ended up getting possessed myself." He ahems, "Not fun." He than asks "So you kinda see like a telepath. What else can you see besides age?" He asks. His curiosity is piqued.

"Telepath? No not at all. I can't hear or see thoughts, I see how your body is working, but mostly what's sick or broken."
Angelo's eyes light up, his hair takes on a more-white-than-usual gleam, the ankhs on his wrists, and through the thin fabric of the shirt he's wearing the Eye can be vaguely seen. "Like, I can see that you've had a few more beers and a few less long horse rides, you're smoking less than you used to, and … hm. Not sure I understand that one. OH! Yeah, demon thing. That'd be it. Hoofprints."

Blinking and standing up, Drew looks up and down his body,"Well then maybe I should hit the gym, since I won't be riding anything in this city for the foreseeable future." He pats his gut,"Yep,need to hit the gym. Glad to see someone has noticed my cutting down on the nicotine. Victoria still gives me crap and I think Nick purposely assigned me since we can't smoke in the academy." He then blinks, "Hoofprints?"

A shrug, "Hoofprints. I can't explain it. The marker for having had a demon attached to you, I guess. They're not kind to bodies, but you've recovered. That was pretty horrible, huh?"
Angelo remembers the recent breakthru of demons in Central Park; how can he not? His power was activated just before it hit. He spent the whole time keeping people safe from the beasts. But he never got the chance to talk to anyone who had one of them inside and wasn't able to help them.

Tex nods, "It was pretty bad. And it kinda was my own fault." He sighs as he takes a seat and removes his hat, "Riglevio…That was its name. It actually came to me when I was pretty down low. I had lost my powers and it was just when I had met Victoria and we had started the Rangers. I didn't think she would love me and I thought my teammates wouldn't want me or the rodeo either. So when I was pretty down low and I mean down low. He came and visited me. He gave me my powers back, but then I reneged on the deal, so he possessed Victoria and placed a spell on me that I couldn't say nothing." He sighs, "I let her be possessed until I could find a way to free her. We fought the Avengers and they kept her for months, wile I tried. Little did I know that something like love really works. I declared my love for Tory, but then the demon possessed me after we kissed." He shakes his head, "Kissing a demon is not fun…" He runs his fingers through his brownish blond locks and puts his hat back on, "But one thing demons want to survive just like us, but if the body is killed then they die, so Tory threatened to kill me and Riglevio just left." He looks around, "I am never sure what happened to it after that."

"Huh. Well, I don't see it attached to you, and I definitely can see that kind of thing."
Well, with the Limbo demons anyway. No guarantee for others, but it IS magical sight, so if they aren't hiding, it's not likely he'd miss one.
"So what did it do, anyway?" Not that Angelo wants to know the gory details; it's already bad enough that sometimes the creatures that sent the tattoo will SEND him to heal something or fix something.

Tex shrugs, "Well not much, thankfully. while it possessed me and Victoria. No one was actually killed but we fought our friends. My girlfriend nearly killed me. The demon was actually sent by Master Pandemonium who thought part of his missing soul was in my Ranger teammate, Firebird." He shrugs, "It wasn't. I think the Avengers put an end to him thankfully, I never actually met the jerk or I'd kill him myself." He thinks a moment, "Well we don't kill, but you know what I mean."

Tex shrugs, "Well not much, thankfully. while it possessed me and Victoria. No one was actually killed but we fought our friends. My girlfriend nearly killed me. The demon was actually sent by Master Pandemonium who thought part of his missing soul was in my Ranger teammate, Firebird." He shrugs, "It wasn't. I think the Avengers put an end to him thankfully, I never actually met the jerk or I'd kill him myself." He thinks a moment, "Well we don't kill, but you know what I mean."

Angelo tilts his head to the side. "Yeah. I do. Killing is awful hard to undo."
He stretches, and says, "I gotta hit the gym … wanna come along?"

"Yeah, I think I do." Drew pats his belly,"Like you said I haven't ridden anything in awhile, so I should start getting some exercise and you'd make just as good a partner as ever." He grins. "So where is the gym anyhow?"
Angelo says, "Out this way," and leads the Ranger agent to the gym.


Barnes Academy - Gym

This module is also fairly large, containing an elevated track that spans the circumference of the room, giving it about an eighth of a mile for a single lap. Below the track and the large ports looking out into the water is a central area that can be configured for anything from basketball to street hockey. Around the central area are areas with hydraulic weight set ups, gymnastics equipment, fitness stations and mats for yoga, sparring or stretching.


Having signed up for it, Angelo has the regular mid-afternoon Saturday slot on the weight equipment, except for SHIELD Agent Jones, a bodybuilding fanatic like Angelo, but not yet as far along. He's taller and might be able to surpass deLucci for sheer size, soon enough, though. Angelo pulls off his casual shirt, flexes a bit (show-off) and pulls on a sleeveless tee-shirt (not a string type; it's for warmth) and then a loose light-weight sweatshirt with a BARNES SHIELD logo on the back. Jones is already in that same attire, waiting.

Looking around the gym, Drew realizes he hasn't brought any clothes to change into. He looks towards Angelo as he flexes, "Show-off." He grins and then makes his way to a counter with some gym clothes but he notices no changing area, "Oh well." He says and starts to remove his boots. "We've all seen our own bodies."

"This is true. Also, there's a changing area thru there," and Ange points at a door near the side of the room.
"It's kinda far, so I usually just strip to skivvies if I forget my stuff." Of course Angelo isn't shy about the cameras. Agent Jones just shrugs, and gets a third clipboard from a cabinet next to the hydraulic machines. It's got a blank 'training record' form on it, and Ange quickly fills it in, including starting settings for the cowboy.

"Well that's easy for you. You're wearing skivvies." He just shrugs and suddenly a whirlwind zips around the cowboy spinning fast and blurring the sight of the cowboy, "Hey I heard this is how Storm does it." and laughing can be heard as cowboy clothes are blown to the floor and as the wind dies down, Drew appears in the standard SHIELD T-Shirt and shorts. He tugs, "Tight aren't they?" Drew asks as he looks in a mirror. He places his hat back on his head and then walks towards one of the machines to start his workout.

"Yeah, but are they tight where you want them to be?" Ange hands the cowboy the clipboard with the form set out on it. "Should start with this. Either Jones or I can show you the form. These hydraulic machines are probably not like anything you've used before. Unless you HAVE used them?"

Shaking his head, "Gimme a horse or a bull….technology…" Drew says as he takes the clipboard and fills it out, "Alright, gentlemen, show me how to use this fancy shmancy technology to get a better body." He flexes a bit, not bad for Texan!

Ange says, "OK, I put down starting weights, machines in same order we're doing them, since you're already in decent shape."
Jones just raises one eyebrow at that. Not that he disbelieves it; Angelo already showed him that he has an uncanny eye for this kind of thing. The dials have a number, but it doesn't directly display poundages, unlike some systems.
Ange wedges himself into the "sit up" device, and turns the dial til it displays "19" then starts doing crunches against weight. After he hits ten, Jones turns it to 15, and he does another ten, then Jones lowers it to 12, another ten reps, down to 8, another six reps, down to 5 and another four reps with Angelo nearly screaming as he burns out that last one. He's unlocked from the thing and staggers out, leaning on Jones.
The SHIELD agent nods to Tex. "Your turn, man. You saw the form he used?"
It's fairly easy. He will help lock Tex in, adjust the settings for height and such, and then set starting resistance at 12.

"Wow." Drew makes a pained expression, "That looks painful…and your screams don't make it that much better." He gets on the contraption and follows the form that both Angelo and Agent Jones used. After ten reps, he pauses, "Dang…" He then goes down to 8, then 6, then 5, and then 4. He then lets out his own pained scream, "Woo Eeeee."

Ange makes Jones go through the same thing, with the setting starting at about 16. He's also not immune to moaning and whimpering at the end. The next thing is the opposing muscle group: a back extensions thing. Ange sets it up, gets in, and mentions, "Don't let it take you further forward than this, and keep your abs tight, if you can. If not we'll get back to it."
The extensions, equally painful. Four descents before Ange is finished and sweating.

Sighing, alright then. Drew is oblivious to what Jones has been playing with the settings, but he follows through and imitates Angelo as much as he can, "Damnnnnn…" He yelps out when he is down and nearly falls over towards Angelo. "I think I am good for now."

That was only two machines. They continue through ten others; each hitting a particular body part or lift combination. Angelo and Jones stop at one point to swig down a bottle of something that would taste really nasty if they weren't dehydrated and in need of electrolytes.
And eventually the torture session comes to an end. Amazing, that it only took an hour altogether.

Wiping the sweat from his brow, Drew breathes out, "Well, we should definitely do this again…" With that, "I'm going to my room, shower, and sleep!" He makes his way out of the gym groaning in pain.

"Suppose we should have told him about the jacuzzi?" Jones asks.
"Nah, he'll find out when he staggers into my office tomorrow looking for pain pills," Angelo answers. And they go off to use the therapy jets.

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