Lost in Hollywood

No Place Like Eagle Fang

"What's up? You seemed... kinda destructive today. Even more than usual," Miguel said, taking a seat next to Sky on the concrete floor of the abandoned warehouse, where Sky was stretching her muscles after today's training session.

Sky let go of her foot and sat up, giving up on trying to make her right hamstring stretch. No matter how much she trained, how much she stretched, that leg was still pretty useless. After the brain injury, she'd been appointed with a strict physiotherapy routine to strengthen the muscles and improve the mobility of her right side, but with all the death and destruction that had been going on, Sky hadn't followed it as well as she should have. Now she was paying the price for ignoring it. She didn't want to give up hope, but the progress was infuriatingly slow and frustrating.

"I've just had a shitty day, that's all," she shrugged, turning her attention to her left leg. That, at least, felt relatively normal. Sore, obviously, after training with Johnny every day for the past week. But sore was what she wanted to be. The pain and exhaustion kept her mind away from things she didn't want to think about. Like Cody's brain and blood coating her hands. Or Kyler's fingers gripping her throat, squeezing the air out of her lungs.

"Okay," Miggy said, and the frown on his face told Sky, that he was concerned. Which was fair, kinda, considering the fury with Sky had kicked everyone - except for Miggy because sensei wasn't letting him train hard - in the nuts during today's workout. "Shitty, like the worst shitty days you've had in your life, or shitty like, I dunno, I lost my shoe kinda shitty?"

"Can't it be both?" Sky muttered. She grabbed her pink sneaker tighter and pressed her belly against her thigh, breathing through the pain and soreness in her muscles. 

She had come into today's practice to kick ass and to forget, not to talk. For the past week or so, she had been increasingly angry. It had started on the days following the attack at the tattoo parlor, and she could feel the anger growing inside of her like a beast that was getting out of control. It was almost like some hidden cup of emotion inside of her chest had finally filled up, like sorrow and sadness and grief and misery had overflowed it, and everything that was now pouring over the edges, turned to anger.

She was mad when she woke up, and when she got to bed. She was mad during the school day, on her way there, and on her way home. She was angry at everyone and everything, at the whole fucking world, at Eli, at Dad, at her friends, at Kyler. Most of all at Kyler. And herself.

The only thing that seemed to help with that burning, suffocating anger, was smashing her fist into things, preferably so that it hurt. And for that, there was no place like Eagle Fang.

"At least sensei is letting you train hard," Miguel said, starting his own stretching routine next to her. "That's something."

Sky glanced at Miguel and sighed, trying to let go of the smoldering anger in her gut. She had spent most of this day being mad at Miggy too, which was hardly fair because Miggy had done absolutely nothing to deserve that. She knew Miguel was struggling in Eagle Fang, that he hated how overprotective Sensei was, not letting him spar with anyone or attend any exercises where he could get hurt, and Sky felt a pang of guilt in her chest, realizing she'd been so wrapped up in her own issues that she hadn't taken any time to help Miguel with his.

"He's not letting me spar with anyone either," Sky said with a shrug, let go of her foot and sat up. Sensei had only let her kick the guys in the balls because they weren't allowed to hit her back. "But it's okay since I'm not gonna compete in the tournament. It's different with you. He should let you train harder. And I think you need to talk to him about it."

"I don't know," Miggy sighed, looking defeated. "Lately I feel like he isn't really listening to anything I say."

"That doesn't mean you should just give up," Sky said, trying to sound encouraging. "He wants the best for you. He's just— he has a lot going on right now."