08-05-2008, 02:11 PM
Rivals - The New Girl (part 2 of 2) written by Jeri
Amber told Crissy to stand against the wall with her hands above her head and her eyes closed, so she would not be expecting the blows. Amber unleashed a punch directly into Crissy's navel. Crissy doubled up a little and then straightened up again. Amber then sent another punch into her solar plexus, which Crissy shrugged off almost completely. She then punched Crissy in the lower abdomen, which had even less effect, since this was one of Crissy's strongest areas. She finally unleashed a series of three straight punches directly into Crissy's stomach at the navel again. The force of the blows and the rapidity of the succession of strikes caused Crissy to double over in pain and fall to her knees.
Crissy took a little time getting up from the floor. She had been severely winded by the blows. The center of her stomach was actually her weakest point, as Amber knew. When she had recovered, she told Amber to lie down with her hands over her head. Crissy then did an elbow drop to the middle of Amber's stomach, followed in rapid succession by two kicks to her lower stomach and three punches directly down into her solar plexus. Amber jumped at the elbow to her middle, and was quite winded by the kicks to her lower stomach. So when Crissy punched her solar plexus, her stomach muscles were already weakened, and all three of the punches got through. She was gasping for breath at the end of the last blow, so Crissy let her recover.
Tori had been watching the contest so far, and was fascinated. She had never seen anything like it. Being the martial artist she was, she immediately saw that this could actually help improve her skills, as she could always use a new kind of training. She found that she was analyzing the blows for their effectiveness, and was thinking of ways to make them more effective, such as by changing the placement or angle of the blow slightly or by picking a different target that her opponent was favoring, indicating a weakness there. She was actually starting to plan her own blows on the other two, and was intensely yearning to find out what this actually felt like.
Tori had been punched in the stomach many times during her training and in contests, and a few other times. But here was the chance to have someone punch her deep into her stomach without the limits usually imposed during a contest. She found that this excited her at a base, primal level. She wanted to participate instead of just passively watching the action.
Amber took a long time to recover from the blows to her solar plexus. When she was finally able to get up, she told Crissy to go to the wall. She unleashed a series of six spinning back kicks, with her heel landing in the same spot every time, low in Crissy's lower stomach, just above her crotch. Even Crissy's strong lower abdominal muscles were not able to take this punishment. She collapsed on the floor, moaning in pain and clutching her lower stomach. Amber asked her if she was all right, and she nodded through the pain. Both knew that she had taken worse blows than this in previous contests, and still continued. In fact, Crissy seemed to be already recovering.
Tori had seen enough. She really wanted into this club of theirs. She wanted to find out what it felt like to be punched this way. While Crissy was on the floor and starting to get up, she asked Amber about joining them in this contest. Amber looked at Crissy, and they both nodded. They had both seen Tori take powerful blows to her stomach, so they knew she was fit enough for them. However, they told her that she should first practice giving blows before she tried taking them. Tori agreed.
Tori confirmed that the rules were the same, with six blows each, and told Amber to go to the wall. Tori extended her left arm toward Amber's stomach with her shoulders rotated in the direction of that arm. She then shot a hard right punch to the middle of Amber's upper stomach, rotating her shoulders and leaning forward with her body as she did to get the force of both her shoulders and her upper body into the blow. Amber crumpled to the floor from the blow. Even though this part of her stomach was the strongest part, she had not really been expecting the force of the blow, and had not flexed her stomach muscles as hard as she should have. She stayed on the floor trying to get her breath.
Tori looked shocked. She started apologizing in a stuttering voice, but Crissy told her it was all right. Crissy started to massage Amber's muscles where she had been hit. Amber suddenly took in an implosion of breath, and then started to breathe normally after a short time. Tori still looked shocked, but because Crissy didn't seemed too concerned, she started to relax.
Crissy had been impressed as much by Tori's technique as by her strength. Tori had put all her strength and skill into the blow. But, Crissy saw that there was still room for improvement. Tori had used a standard kickboxing technique in the blow. She had thrown the punch, and then rapidly withdrawn her fist to prevent it from being grabbed by her opponent. Crissy told her this, and said her punches would be more effective if she expended all the energy in the blow by leaving the punch in the stomach a fraction of a second before withdrawing it. Crissy told Tori to try the same blow on her, but with that change to her style.
Tori looked at Amber on the floor and then hit Crissy in the stomach the same place as she had hit Amber, in the middle of her upper stomach. Crissy grunted a little and leaned forward, but didn't do much else. She looked at Tori a little, and said, "You pulled your punch a little, didn't you?" Tori nodded. "You didn't really hit me as hard as you punched Amber. Go ahead and punch me with all your might."
Tori looked concerned for a couple seconds, but decided that Crissy knew her limits. She drew back her right arm and shoulder, and came forward with her fist to Crissy's stomach. Crissy let out a loud grunt and bent over sharply, but didn't fall. Tori had punched Crissy in the stomach during kickboxing matches, so she knew that Crissy had a strong stomach. However, she was still amazed that Crissy could take this much of a blow without more of an effect, as Tori had used all of her strength in the punch.
Crissy had been expecting the punch to the upper stomach, so she had focused all her energy on flexing this part of the stomach as hard as she could. She was still surprised by the force of the blow. This was the hardest she had ever been punched, in this part of her stomach. But fortunately, this was also the strongest part of her stomach. She straightened up almost immediately. Tori was turning to go away, when Crissy said, "Wait, you still have four more punches to throw."
Tori had not expected that they were still operating under those rules. She turned back to Crissy, who by this time, had her hands behind her head and her eyes closed, ready to receive the next blow. More confident now that she could do no serious injury to Crissy, she threw two punches to the middle of Crissy's stomach, directly at the navel. Crissy fell over holding her middle and groaning, but got back up quickly after only a couple seconds. Tori then turned away from her and executed two back kicks, with her heel landing hard, first in Crissy's middle and then in her lower stomach, just above the crotch. Crissy crumpled to the floor again. Amber, who had recovered by this time, went to her and started to massage her stomach. Tori joined in.
Crissy recovered rapidly. When she was able to stand, Tori told her that she was ready to try taking punches herself. Amber told her to go to the wall as it was her turn, but Crissy grabbed Amber's arm to stop her. Crissy told Tori that she should be the one to give her the punches, as Amber sometimes got carried away. She told Tori to flex the stomach muscles in her upper abdomen hard, and she punched her at somewhat less than full strength into her upper abdomen, halfway between her navel and solar plexus. Tori hardly flinched at the blow. Crissy then told her she was going to punch her with all her strength in her solar plexus, and to prepare for the blow. Crissy hit her precisely where she wanted to, but Tori only grunted a little and bent over slightly for a second or two. Crissy was amazed that Tori could take her strongest straight punch like that. She doubted that she could have taken the same punch herself with as little reaction.
Crissy told Tori to close her eyes so she would not be expecting the rest of the blows. She punched Tori in her middle at the navel and off-center in both sides of her stomach. She got a little grunt from Tori, but not much more of a reaction than that to any of the three punches, though she had thrown them with all her strength. She then punched Tori in the middle of her lower stomach ... and Tori collapsed to the floor, gasping and whimpering and clutching her stomach.
Crissy was so surprised by this unexpected response from Tori after seeing how she took the other blows, that she just stood there looking at her for a couple seconds. She then bent down to Tori and told her that she must straighten out her body and lay flat on the floor. Crissy said, "This might hurt, but it's the best way to speed your recovery," as she started to massage Tori's lower stomach. Tori jumped at the pain that Crissy's kneading her inflamed muscles caused. But, she stoically laid back down, gasping and clenching her fists tightly from the pain.
Tori had been expecting there would be some pain from the stomach punches. The first blow to her stomach had been very mild, and had bounced off her hard muscles completely. Crissy's second blow to the strong muscles in her solar plexus area had hurt quite a bit, but she didn't want the other two to see this. It was one thing to be punched in a contest where the force of the blow was dissipated by the natural unconstrained movement of your body. It was quite another thing to be punched against an unyielding concrete wall, with the whole force of the blow being expended deep in your stomach. The third blow to her middle had hurt a lot, since she had her eyes closed and wasn't expecting it. The blows to both of the sides of her stomach brought excruciating pain. But again, she acted like all these blows had no effect, a trick she learned during kickboxing. If your opponent thinks that his best blows had no effect, he is less apt to follow up on those blows, leaving you with an advantage.
It was the blow to Tori's lower stomach that finally broke her charade. She had almost never been hit in her lower stomach, so she was not at all prepared for the punch. The punch caused a spasm of pain that swept throughout her whole body, before it came rebounding back to its origin with a shocking jolt. The whole of her lower stomach was a gigantic knot of pain from the blow. She was not able to think about anything but the pain, until she heard a voice in her mind telling her that if she laid out flat, she would feel better. The voice lied. She was overwhelmed by wave after wave of pain originating in her stomach, but causing all the other parts of her body to echo the pain in sympathy.
Slowly, Tori could feel the pain receding from a sharp stabbing to a dull fire. She realized that Crissy was kneading her stomach, and that this was actually helping. When Crissy finally stopped massaging her, she tried to sit up. But she quickly found out this was the wrong thing to do. She was finally able to stand up with Crissy and Amber's help and walk around, though she was still bent over quite a bit. She finally straightened up and started to massage her stomach herself. When this new wave of self-induced pain finally died out, she sat down on the edge of the bed. Amber and Crissy sat down on either side of her, though all three were looking down at the floor.
Crissy, always the strategist said, "Well, I guess we found your weak point, didn't we."
Tori tried to laugh a little, but instead, winced from the pain this caused. She responded that she had almost always been punched in her upper and middle stomach in contests, where the rules forbade punches "below the belt." Because of this, she had not really developed her lower stomach muscles as much as she had the other, upper parts of her stomach. These parts she had developed so she could absorb most blows during contests, so as not to be incapacitated by these blows. She said she had never been punched in the lower stomach before, except for in a street fight. Both Crissy and Amber snapped their heads around to look at her and said, "What!" in unison. Tori giggled a little at this reaction, and said she would tell them about it later.
While the three of them were sitting on the edge of bed recuperating, out of the blue Tori asked Amber, "When the guard in the prison scene in 'Black Cat' was hitting Jade in the stomach with her riot baton, you said you knew how that felt. Why did you say that?"
Amber said, "Because I was hit in the stomach with a similar baton." Amber then told Tori about the attack on her in the Arboretum, in detail.
"And," Amber concluded, "we are now using them too."
When Tori asked what she meant, Crissy went over to her closet and dragged out a long gym bag, their "toy" bag. Inside was the long police baton that Amber had bought the week after the attack. Crissy told Amber to go to the wall and she grabbed the baton. She held the baton like a spear with both her hands wrapped around the long part and stabbed Amber in the middle of her stomach with the weighted end of it. Amber immediately doubled up and fell to the floor from the blow, which penetrated deep into her stomach due to the concentration of force in such a small area.
Crissy heard Tori mutter something about improving her technique.
As Crissy was massaging Amber's stomach, she told Tori about how they had tried other "toys," but they had found the baton to be the best for "stomach beatings," as Crissy put it. Crissy told her that they had tried other weapons and even some tools. Crissy said, "You know, you can check tools out of the machine and woodworking shops on campus over the weekend. All you need is an excuse, and they'll let you take them. I think we really stumped the shop people, because every weekend for a while there, we would check out a couple different tools and return them the next Monday. I heard they were taking bets as to what we were doing with them. I told them we were using them to fix up some run-down houses for charity, and they actually believed it!
"In any case, we didn't find anything better than the baton."
Tori then exclaimed, "Oh! Oh! Oh!" Crissy thought maybe Tori was having a delayed reaction to the stomach beating she had taken, but she was smiling and deep in thought. When Crissy asked her what the matter was, Tori only said they would find out later. Tori quickly got dressed, and hurried out the door, saying she would meet with them again the next Saturday.
She left a very puzzled Crissy and Amber looking after her.
Amber told Crissy to stand against the wall with her hands above her head and her eyes closed, so she would not be expecting the blows. Amber unleashed a punch directly into Crissy's navel. Crissy doubled up a little and then straightened up again. Amber then sent another punch into her solar plexus, which Crissy shrugged off almost completely. She then punched Crissy in the lower abdomen, which had even less effect, since this was one of Crissy's strongest areas. She finally unleashed a series of three straight punches directly into Crissy's stomach at the navel again. The force of the blows and the rapidity of the succession of strikes caused Crissy to double over in pain and fall to her knees.
Crissy took a little time getting up from the floor. She had been severely winded by the blows. The center of her stomach was actually her weakest point, as Amber knew. When she had recovered, she told Amber to lie down with her hands over her head. Crissy then did an elbow drop to the middle of Amber's stomach, followed in rapid succession by two kicks to her lower stomach and three punches directly down into her solar plexus. Amber jumped at the elbow to her middle, and was quite winded by the kicks to her lower stomach. So when Crissy punched her solar plexus, her stomach muscles were already weakened, and all three of the punches got through. She was gasping for breath at the end of the last blow, so Crissy let her recover.
Tori had been watching the contest so far, and was fascinated. She had never seen anything like it. Being the martial artist she was, she immediately saw that this could actually help improve her skills, as she could always use a new kind of training. She found that she was analyzing the blows for their effectiveness, and was thinking of ways to make them more effective, such as by changing the placement or angle of the blow slightly or by picking a different target that her opponent was favoring, indicating a weakness there. She was actually starting to plan her own blows on the other two, and was intensely yearning to find out what this actually felt like.
Tori had been punched in the stomach many times during her training and in contests, and a few other times. But here was the chance to have someone punch her deep into her stomach without the limits usually imposed during a contest. She found that this excited her at a base, primal level. She wanted to participate instead of just passively watching the action.
Amber took a long time to recover from the blows to her solar plexus. When she was finally able to get up, she told Crissy to go to the wall. She unleashed a series of six spinning back kicks, with her heel landing in the same spot every time, low in Crissy's lower stomach, just above her crotch. Even Crissy's strong lower abdominal muscles were not able to take this punishment. She collapsed on the floor, moaning in pain and clutching her lower stomach. Amber asked her if she was all right, and she nodded through the pain. Both knew that she had taken worse blows than this in previous contests, and still continued. In fact, Crissy seemed to be already recovering.
Tori had seen enough. She really wanted into this club of theirs. She wanted to find out what it felt like to be punched this way. While Crissy was on the floor and starting to get up, she asked Amber about joining them in this contest. Amber looked at Crissy, and they both nodded. They had both seen Tori take powerful blows to her stomach, so they knew she was fit enough for them. However, they told her that she should first practice giving blows before she tried taking them. Tori agreed.
Tori confirmed that the rules were the same, with six blows each, and told Amber to go to the wall. Tori extended her left arm toward Amber's stomach with her shoulders rotated in the direction of that arm. She then shot a hard right punch to the middle of Amber's upper stomach, rotating her shoulders and leaning forward with her body as she did to get the force of both her shoulders and her upper body into the blow. Amber crumpled to the floor from the blow. Even though this part of her stomach was the strongest part, she had not really been expecting the force of the blow, and had not flexed her stomach muscles as hard as she should have. She stayed on the floor trying to get her breath.
Tori looked shocked. She started apologizing in a stuttering voice, but Crissy told her it was all right. Crissy started to massage Amber's muscles where she had been hit. Amber suddenly took in an implosion of breath, and then started to breathe normally after a short time. Tori still looked shocked, but because Crissy didn't seemed too concerned, she started to relax.
Crissy had been impressed as much by Tori's technique as by her strength. Tori had put all her strength and skill into the blow. But, Crissy saw that there was still room for improvement. Tori had used a standard kickboxing technique in the blow. She had thrown the punch, and then rapidly withdrawn her fist to prevent it from being grabbed by her opponent. Crissy told her this, and said her punches would be more effective if she expended all the energy in the blow by leaving the punch in the stomach a fraction of a second before withdrawing it. Crissy told Tori to try the same blow on her, but with that change to her style.
Tori looked at Amber on the floor and then hit Crissy in the stomach the same place as she had hit Amber, in the middle of her upper stomach. Crissy grunted a little and leaned forward, but didn't do much else. She looked at Tori a little, and said, "You pulled your punch a little, didn't you?" Tori nodded. "You didn't really hit me as hard as you punched Amber. Go ahead and punch me with all your might."
Tori looked concerned for a couple seconds, but decided that Crissy knew her limits. She drew back her right arm and shoulder, and came forward with her fist to Crissy's stomach. Crissy let out a loud grunt and bent over sharply, but didn't fall. Tori had punched Crissy in the stomach during kickboxing matches, so she knew that Crissy had a strong stomach. However, she was still amazed that Crissy could take this much of a blow without more of an effect, as Tori had used all of her strength in the punch.
Crissy had been expecting the punch to the upper stomach, so she had focused all her energy on flexing this part of the stomach as hard as she could. She was still surprised by the force of the blow. This was the hardest she had ever been punched, in this part of her stomach. But fortunately, this was also the strongest part of her stomach. She straightened up almost immediately. Tori was turning to go away, when Crissy said, "Wait, you still have four more punches to throw."
Tori had not expected that they were still operating under those rules. She turned back to Crissy, who by this time, had her hands behind her head and her eyes closed, ready to receive the next blow. More confident now that she could do no serious injury to Crissy, she threw two punches to the middle of Crissy's stomach, directly at the navel. Crissy fell over holding her middle and groaning, but got back up quickly after only a couple seconds. Tori then turned away from her and executed two back kicks, with her heel landing hard, first in Crissy's middle and then in her lower stomach, just above the crotch. Crissy crumpled to the floor again. Amber, who had recovered by this time, went to her and started to massage her stomach. Tori joined in.
Crissy recovered rapidly. When she was able to stand, Tori told her that she was ready to try taking punches herself. Amber told her to go to the wall as it was her turn, but Crissy grabbed Amber's arm to stop her. Crissy told Tori that she should be the one to give her the punches, as Amber sometimes got carried away. She told Tori to flex the stomach muscles in her upper abdomen hard, and she punched her at somewhat less than full strength into her upper abdomen, halfway between her navel and solar plexus. Tori hardly flinched at the blow. Crissy then told her she was going to punch her with all her strength in her solar plexus, and to prepare for the blow. Crissy hit her precisely where she wanted to, but Tori only grunted a little and bent over slightly for a second or two. Crissy was amazed that Tori could take her strongest straight punch like that. She doubted that she could have taken the same punch herself with as little reaction.
Crissy told Tori to close her eyes so she would not be expecting the rest of the blows. She punched Tori in her middle at the navel and off-center in both sides of her stomach. She got a little grunt from Tori, but not much more of a reaction than that to any of the three punches, though she had thrown them with all her strength. She then punched Tori in the middle of her lower stomach ... and Tori collapsed to the floor, gasping and whimpering and clutching her stomach.
Crissy was so surprised by this unexpected response from Tori after seeing how she took the other blows, that she just stood there looking at her for a couple seconds. She then bent down to Tori and told her that she must straighten out her body and lay flat on the floor. Crissy said, "This might hurt, but it's the best way to speed your recovery," as she started to massage Tori's lower stomach. Tori jumped at the pain that Crissy's kneading her inflamed muscles caused. But, she stoically laid back down, gasping and clenching her fists tightly from the pain.
Tori had been expecting there would be some pain from the stomach punches. The first blow to her stomach had been very mild, and had bounced off her hard muscles completely. Crissy's second blow to the strong muscles in her solar plexus area had hurt quite a bit, but she didn't want the other two to see this. It was one thing to be punched in a contest where the force of the blow was dissipated by the natural unconstrained movement of your body. It was quite another thing to be punched against an unyielding concrete wall, with the whole force of the blow being expended deep in your stomach. The third blow to her middle had hurt a lot, since she had her eyes closed and wasn't expecting it. The blows to both of the sides of her stomach brought excruciating pain. But again, she acted like all these blows had no effect, a trick she learned during kickboxing. If your opponent thinks that his best blows had no effect, he is less apt to follow up on those blows, leaving you with an advantage.
It was the blow to Tori's lower stomach that finally broke her charade. She had almost never been hit in her lower stomach, so she was not at all prepared for the punch. The punch caused a spasm of pain that swept throughout her whole body, before it came rebounding back to its origin with a shocking jolt. The whole of her lower stomach was a gigantic knot of pain from the blow. She was not able to think about anything but the pain, until she heard a voice in her mind telling her that if she laid out flat, she would feel better. The voice lied. She was overwhelmed by wave after wave of pain originating in her stomach, but causing all the other parts of her body to echo the pain in sympathy.
Slowly, Tori could feel the pain receding from a sharp stabbing to a dull fire. She realized that Crissy was kneading her stomach, and that this was actually helping. When Crissy finally stopped massaging her, she tried to sit up. But she quickly found out this was the wrong thing to do. She was finally able to stand up with Crissy and Amber's help and walk around, though she was still bent over quite a bit. She finally straightened up and started to massage her stomach herself. When this new wave of self-induced pain finally died out, she sat down on the edge of the bed. Amber and Crissy sat down on either side of her, though all three were looking down at the floor.
Crissy, always the strategist said, "Well, I guess we found your weak point, didn't we."
Tori tried to laugh a little, but instead, winced from the pain this caused. She responded that she had almost always been punched in her upper and middle stomach in contests, where the rules forbade punches "below the belt." Because of this, she had not really developed her lower stomach muscles as much as she had the other, upper parts of her stomach. These parts she had developed so she could absorb most blows during contests, so as not to be incapacitated by these blows. She said she had never been punched in the lower stomach before, except for in a street fight. Both Crissy and Amber snapped their heads around to look at her and said, "What!" in unison. Tori giggled a little at this reaction, and said she would tell them about it later.
While the three of them were sitting on the edge of bed recuperating, out of the blue Tori asked Amber, "When the guard in the prison scene in 'Black Cat' was hitting Jade in the stomach with her riot baton, you said you knew how that felt. Why did you say that?"
Amber said, "Because I was hit in the stomach with a similar baton." Amber then told Tori about the attack on her in the Arboretum, in detail.
"And," Amber concluded, "we are now using them too."
When Tori asked what she meant, Crissy went over to her closet and dragged out a long gym bag, their "toy" bag. Inside was the long police baton that Amber had bought the week after the attack. Crissy told Amber to go to the wall and she grabbed the baton. She held the baton like a spear with both her hands wrapped around the long part and stabbed Amber in the middle of her stomach with the weighted end of it. Amber immediately doubled up and fell to the floor from the blow, which penetrated deep into her stomach due to the concentration of force in such a small area.
Crissy heard Tori mutter something about improving her technique.
As Crissy was massaging Amber's stomach, she told Tori about how they had tried other "toys," but they had found the baton to be the best for "stomach beatings," as Crissy put it. Crissy told her that they had tried other weapons and even some tools. Crissy said, "You know, you can check tools out of the machine and woodworking shops on campus over the weekend. All you need is an excuse, and they'll let you take them. I think we really stumped the shop people, because every weekend for a while there, we would check out a couple different tools and return them the next Monday. I heard they were taking bets as to what we were doing with them. I told them we were using them to fix up some run-down houses for charity, and they actually believed it!
"In any case, we didn't find anything better than the baton."
Tori then exclaimed, "Oh! Oh! Oh!" Crissy thought maybe Tori was having a delayed reaction to the stomach beating she had taken, but she was smiling and deep in thought. When Crissy asked her what the matter was, Tori only said they would find out later. Tori quickly got dressed, and hurried out the door, saying she would meet with them again the next Saturday.
She left a very puzzled Crissy and Amber looking after her.