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Simple Unicycle
Punished GNOshea Jackson and Allison Andrews
It was a long month. Every day was one of rehabilitation and solo danger room situations; his training regimen consisted of light jogging once he was out of his cast, and then light leg presses, he also focused on maintaining his core strength so his trunk muscles did not entropy while he dedicated much of his workouts to re-gaining and improving his leg strength and the muscle imbalance caused by elongated bedrest during the early parts of his recovery. Chin ups, push ups, sit ups, all sorts of light upper body workouts made sure he kept his upper body toned and in shape. When the aches weren't present or the entire leg wasn't stiff, he made use of the danger room, combatting simulated enemies of varying strength levels and power sets. Most of the time he lost--much of the speed he once had was gone as of right now. To get back in mission shape, it would take a push.
To this end, he utilized the campus grounds. For hours each day and each night he would run. At first, it was speedwalking--quite the strange sight, watching a grown man move with the ferocity of a soccer mom with errands to run on a Sunday afternoon with no end in sight--then more light jogging, until finally his leg had gotten strong enough to sustain running at cross country speeds for a few minutes. All of this was followed by a full body ice bath, R.I.C.E. (rest, ice, compression, elevation) and working on a large painting of an Edo era Japanese farming village. It was the banality of the village and yet the underscored importance of the farmers to the society which resonated with Oshea. To the X-Men, he wasn't of much use in the field right now, but he would find other ways to be useful.
So, he began reading about great war generals, tactics, the use of space, kinetics. Night and day he read and trained until his psyche was cured of the growing sense of inadequacy he had begun to feel; he trained until his body once again matched the speed of his mind. But the aches were still there, and his reflexes were still not quite up to par. The days he was not training or locked in his room painting and reading, he could be found in the common area playing video games and competing with himself in a game of chess.
Allison was trying to remain positive.
Ever the ray of light in the darkest of times, it was harder now more than ever to be her normal, bubbly self. To that end she tried not to think about the impending doom of either the mutant population or the humans. Instead, she tended to practice her powers (especially her new one) as well as talking to Professor Xavier whenever possible. After all, the Professorâs own abilities closely resembled hers and she wanted to learn as much as she could in order to learn how to be helpful should another mission come up.
Still, it was always in her head. So when she was making her rounds, she noticed Oshea playing chess. She felt bad for the man who got extremely hurt during their last mission, but he seemed to be doing all right. She took a breath in and made her way over. Hey Oshea, mind if I play? Iâm not very good, but I am eager to learn!â
Oshea leaned back in the chair as he noted Allisonâs approach. With a genuine smile he welcome her to the seat situated across from him.
âAight, no problem. First thing you gotta learn is how to use ya pawns, the liâl small jointsâ he grabbed a single piece from amidst its brethren and wiggled it around in the clutch of two fingers.
âthey only move two spaces from their original spot and can only move forward or back one space after. You can use âem to capture other pieces by movinâ âem diagonal, thoâ. People think the pawn is the most useless part of the board, right? But nah, nah, see they ainât limited like a Rook or a Bishop, right? You can use âem as lure and bait, you see?â
He displayed the pawnâs freedom of movement and used one of them to capture an erroneously placed Bishop.
âReal easy, yâknow? The pawn always gone first, but witâout sacrificinâ them you canât win the game. You learn that, youâll be a master in no time!â
âThe Knight is prolly one of the most versatile pieces in the game. He can cover a whole petimeter âround himself--he moves two up and one to the side or he moves one to the side and two up. He like me anâ Quicksilver, right? He gets in anâ out fast, and you gotta aim to get him off the board early to take away ya opps movement.â
âBoom. Boom.â He demonstrated again, showcasing the interchangeable horizontal-vertical and vertical-horizontal movement of the Knight in each direction two spaces horizontally and one space vertically and vice versa.
âNow the Bishop, him and the Knight is wild similar. Both of âem sorta kinda move diagonally, but the Bishop can only move diagonally. He canât go forward or backward or side to side, nothinâ. But he comes outta left field though, right? Like Cassandra and Starkette. He jusâ be sittinâ there, waitinâ for you to come in his path and BAM! Gotcho ass. He a real sniper, one hit kill for real and the best distraction you got.â
âNow this jawn,â Oshea swaddled a Rook in his hands, âshe a bad one. She can move forward and backward from one end of the board to another, but she canât go side to side. Her and the Bishop compliment each other, right? But the Rook, she ya bulldozer. She gone come right atchu witâ no fear; sâlike yew witâ the mind-movinâ thing. She can crush anything in her path so long as its right in front of her, itâs what she donât see that is usualy her death.â
âNot sayinâ you gone die or nothinâ but⌠you know what I mean..â Oshea hoped she knew what he meant because he didnât.
He continued on, âNow, the Queen is the second most important part of the game, right? She can move wherever she wants on the board, she the one with all the power, like in a real relationship. She more like Ayita and Damon anâ nem, right? They can shift to fit any moment before em. She can take any piece on the board, she blend in. If you lose her early you done already lost the game."
Oshea had his hands clasped together behind his bald head and rocked the titled char back and forth ever so slightly, and one time he almost fell over.
"Now last and least, the King, the big dog. If you lose him, itâs game over no matter what. This hereâ he picked up the King, âis our Professor X, our Beast, our Marygold. One of them go down, the whole operation dead. Problem witâ the King is he canât do much fa himself. He can only move one space in any direction unless it mean he gone get put in check. Technically he is the most important piece in the game, but he wouldnât survive at all witâout errbody else.â
"That all make sense?â
Allison took it all in and thought it was kind of cute showing how each of the pieces of the game correlated to one of them. She had to admit, it was all a lot of information, but she got through it. âYeah, I think I got it. So when thereâs a check, that means that the king can be captured in the next move right? And a checkmate means thereâs no way and they lose? I remember my grandpa playing and trying to teach me when I was little.â
She studied the board, gathering all the pieces in her mind. It was always a complicated game. You compared me to the rook, but I wonder if Iâm just a pawn. Something without much use other than to be there and be sacrificed. I mean, everyone at the plant seemed to be doing something useful, whereas I just kind of...was there. Other than gaining a new power, I didnât do much.â She hadnât admitted it to the others really, but itâs what she had been feeling since she left the plant.
Still leaning back in the chair, he took in her words. He never imagined someone like Allison having doubt or struggle of any kind, her cheer had seemed so impenetrable until now. Nonetheless, he could relate and he didn't have the pride to tell the others how he felt either. Inadequacy was easy to bury, it was hard to be free from.
"Everybody got a role to play, you know? If somebody think they better than the team, everybody lose. The biggest and strongest nigga can still be beaten by a li'l dude if the li'l dude got a better mind. I mean, tsh, you see what happened to me, right? I'm all types of messed up--it don't even matter, right? Plus now you'll be knockin' errbody out ya way."
