Chapter 7: Anger Management
"I want you guys to run those again on each other, ten more times!" Case ordered. No one moved. Reyna, Jade, and Reyce just looked at her with blood-shot eyes and sweat dripping down their faces.
"We've been practicing chokes for two hours! My throat needs a break." Reyce said, rubbing her neck.
"Quit your bellyaching!" Reyna snapped. "We aren't training for matches anymore, this is life or death." Case hated to admit it, but Reyna was right, she needed to somehow teach them in seven days what took Case seven years to master. The fights out there weren't like a tournament; the trainer would be involved too, and of course, Case was put in charge being the only one with actual hand-to-hand combat experience.
"I know I know; we've just been training forever today. I can't even remember all the names at this point." Reyce pulled her hoodie off and Case had to look away when her shirt almost came with it. Reyna gave a sideways glance to Case.
"Blood-choke, trachea choke, guillotine, ten finger guillotine, marcelotine, rear-naked choke, and pretzel grip." Reyna listed.
Jade took a swig from his water. "That's just the chokes, you forgot about all the arm-bars earlier."
"I don't care about the names! This ain't a vocab test dumbass, I need you guys to be able to use them in a real-combat situation." Case snapped. She took a deep breath. "Let's just get on with it."
Case took Jade as a partner again and, as much as she hated it, Reyce had Reyna. The thought of them touching made her blood boil, but Case felt like she was violating Reyce being so close to her crush. It breached the level of platonic.
Case bent down and let Jade take her neck, locking her into a basic guillotine. The move was meant to be a blood-choke where Jade would cut off Case's circulation in her neck so she would pass out. It was a good take-down they could use to incapacitate but avoid actually killing anyone. Case felt her vision swim as he compressed her neck and she couldn't escape his grip, so she tapped, gave him a thumbs up, and checked on the other two.
"No idiot, put your wrist here." Reyna said, pointing to her neck.
Reyce adjusted. "Here?"
"I said my neck, that's behind my ear." Reyna rasped.
"That's where you pointed!"
"Why would I be pointing there? The carotids don't go behind my ears stupid." Reyna gestured wildly from her headlock.
Reyce let go, threw her hands up, and walked away. Reyna looked at Case. "And she runs away again! Tell her to come back and keep training like a real instructor would." She demanded.
Case looked at Reyce who was busy with her phone. "Let her be, everyone learns differently."
"You didn't say that last time I went for a break, I know you're playing favorites. Quit letting your cock get in the way of our work." Reyna rasped between her teeth.
Case sneered. "I don't have a fuckin' cock."
"Easy mistake. Now go do your job."
It took a lot of willpower to keep her hands off Reyna's little neck. She caught on to Case's feelings for Reyce the day they met, and Case hated that about her. "Hey, let's get back to work!" She barked at Reyce. They ran through the different chokes again, each raising Case's blood pressure a little more since she had to keep yelling at them to quit arguing, listen to her, and do their work. Finally, Case let them take an early break before she killed Reyna for talking back again.
Reyce flopped onto her back and Samurott, who was napping beside them on the mat, set his head on her stomach and immediately fell back asleep. She scratched his neck. "No wonder you're tired all the time, training sucks."
Jade wandered over to Reyna and sat next to her against the wall, offering a granola bar.
Case broke the cap off her bottle, chugged it and chucked it in the trash with force. "If I put any of your sorry asses in a ring with me, you'd be on the floor in minutes." Case grumbled. Hours of whining and poor form brought Case's frustration to a boil. She also wanted to be done, but the success of their first mission depended on it.
"You have years of experience on us, you can't expect everyone to perform at that level already." Reyce said. She scratched Samurott's snout absentmindedly.
Reyna put her hands on her hips. "It's not about performing at that level, its about performing it at all, which you haven't accomplished half of the chokes we learned today."
Reyce sat-up and wrung her hands. "Sorry! I'm not a natural like you, ok?"
Case set her jaw. She hated to say it, but Reyce was the worst of the bunch, though she blamed herself for that partially as she knew Reyce responded best to positive reinforcement and a lot of hands-on experience. Words went in one ear and out the other. However, Case sucked at compliments and was terrified of touching Reyce and making everything awkward.
"Quit with the excuses, your lazy. If you want to continue being lazy, you can go play with them." Reyna pointed at her Passimian and Case's Infernape who were playing cards in the corner.
Reyce looked at them. Evidently Infernape lost the hand because he slammed his fist and burned the deck to a crisp. "I'm not lazy, just frustrated." She said quietly.
Reyna looked to Case for help. "You see what I mean, right? Excuses!"
Case bit the inside of her cheek, trying to hold her tongue. "Well, I haven't personally tried more hands-on with her yet…"
Reyna rolled her eyes. "You think hands-on will help? Then let's do hands-on." She grabbed Reyce's arm a jerked it, forcing her to stand before her shoulder dislocated.
Reyce took a timid fighting stance and waited for Reyna with a nervous expression. "Fine, I'm ready."
"No, I think feeling a good guillotine might hammer it home better." Reyna growled. She beckoned Reyce towards her.
"Hey dumbass, I meant hands-on with me, the instructor." Case said. A mixture of unease and nerves boiled in Case's stomach, but she resisted the urge to intervene.
Reyce feigned a charge into Reyna just as they practiced and Reyna caught her quickly in the bend of her arm, then drove Reyce down violently with her shoulder. Reyce's face turned a deep shade of scarlet and she tapped Reyna's arm. Reyna didn't let go.
Case balled her fists and took a deep breath. "Reyna, she tapped, let her go." Case said firmly.
"My point hasn't been made yet." Reyna said with a pointed stare at Case. Reyce slapped her arm this time, but she didn't let go.
"Reyna, drop her now! She'll pass out!" Case yelled.
"That's what a blood choke does, right?" Reyna said.
Case snapped and ripped Reyna's arms away, knocking Reyce to the floor with a heavy thud. She grabbed Reyna's shirt and swung her around and away from Reyce. "What is wrong with you?" She yelled, her spit flying into Reyna's face.
Reyna reached a hand around and forced Case's head close to her's and whispered in her ear. "You're playing favorites and I'm not going to pussyfoot around while you let her skate-by."
A tight knot snapped in her chest and Case threw Reyna on to the floor. Her head smacked the metal on a leg-press. She shrunk against it with wide eyes like a scared rattata. Case looked and realized everyone was staring at her the same way.
Case's heart clenched. She needed to leave. "Take your stupid breaks, I'm done!" Case yelled and stomped away. She kicked the door open and left the gym for some fresh air; her thoughts swirled in her head like a swarm of angry combee. The door rattled a second time and she felt someone take her arm.
Case wrenched it away and whirled around with her fist raised, only to find Reyce putting up her hands and backing off. Case's heart sank. She lowered her fist. "I'm sorry." She said breathlessly.
"It's fine, I caught you at a bad time." Reyce said. "I just wanted you to know I'm f-fine." She stammered while looking at the floor. Her eyes were heavily blood shot and Case could still see the red band around her neck from Reyna's arm. She was hitting Reyce's trachea as well.
"I'll skin that bitch alive with my teeth for that." Case growled.
"Please don't." Reyce said in a small voice. "It's my fault, I shouldn't have slacked, I'm sorry I'm not great at this."
Case balled her fists again. "Quit taking shit from her all the time and playing peacekeeper, she could've made you pass out, or worse, killed you!" Case shouted.
Reyce shrunk and put her hand on her throat. "I just feel bad is all."
Case felt the molten lava in her stomach start to climb her throat and she rubbed her temples. "Look, what happened to you was not ok. Let's talk about this later though, I just need to get out of here."
Reyce opened her mouth, decided against it, and let Case go quietly.
Case turned around one last time. "Tell them I'll be back in 15 min, then we're going back to arm bars, ok? A don't talk to Reyna for now, I'll deal with her later."
"No problem." Reyce gave a weak smile that still softened Case's heart. They left the hall and Case slipped out of the gym exit for a breather.
The cold air, silence, and view were instantly soothing, like ice water on a burn. The scenery at Nimbasa's gym was much better than Castelia's gritty alley ways as Case could see the whole amusement park lighting up the night with neon blues and pinks that lines every ride. She heard people scream as the coaster dropped on the first hill and smelled fried junk food all the way at the gym. She could kill for some fried chicken right then.
Or any of the food trucks. Preferably all the food trucks.
The Ferris wheel was especially beautiful, and Case often daydreamed taking Reyce there and stealing one of those enclosed cars just for them. She heard it had a fantastic view of the desert and horizon, though Case only wanted to see it with Reyce's company. Everything was better with her.
The image of Reyce's face when Case raised her fist in the hall flashed in her mind. Case pulled out her vape cartridge and took a long drag off it. She hadn't smoked or vaped in a while, but the stress of work brought her back for those quick minutes of relief. Case promised herself she would stop if she ended up dating Reyce.
Case felt a familiar weight in her stomach. She just yelled at Reyce after she got hurt, what was she thinking? Reyce would never want her after something like that.
She pressed the cartridge to her lips. It wasn't the end of the world; she could still fix things. Reyce was understanding like that.
Case checked her phone and noticed her time was up. Thankfully most of the heat had drained from her head, but she still didn't trust her fists around Reyna. She stepped back inside to the smell of sweat and rubber, which was an oddly comforting mingling of odors. She made her way back to the gym and took a deep breath before opening the door.
Her throat constricted when she saw Mercy standing in front of it.
"Your finally back." Reyna hissed. Jade elbowed her and Reyna faced away from him.
Mercy turned to Case. "I have some papers for you, your first 'job' is in a couple days. All the information you need should be in these files, you can find my room on the 5th floor of the hotel if you have any questions." She thrust a stack of manilla folders into Case's hands, then disappeared as soon as she came.
Reyna jumped to her feet, snagged the first one off the stack, and zipped through the first page. Her eyebrows knit with concern, sending a cold wave down Case's back.
"Relic Castle? This isn't a cargo mission." She muttered.
"Shut your trap, we're in public." Case said between her teeth.
Jade and Reyce appeared over Reyna's shoulders with the same concerned expression.
"I don't like this." Reyce whispered into Jade's ear.
Jade pursed his lips. "Me neither, this can't be right."
Case flipped open the top folder in her hands and stumbled through the first few lines. The mission was to extract the 'Dark Stone' from the Relic Castle ruins. "Isn't that a historical landmark? Wouldn't that be stealing?"
"And an active dig site; Lenora still has a whole crew out there; this can't be right." Jade said.
Reyna slammed hers shut. "If it's our job, its our job, I'm sure Mercy has a good reason for it. Those quacks probably don't know what that Dark Stone is good for and want to stuff it in a glass case."
"We don't know what the Dark Stone is good for, they only discovered it a couple weeks ago when they excavated the tomb. They lost an archeologist to the cofagrigus in there, so that stone can't be all that good." Jade explained.
"Or this mission all that easy." Case added. She felt the need to train more than ever now, especially since her and Reyna's fighting types were useless against ghosts.
"Wait, how'd you know all that?" Reyce asked.
Jade shrugged. "I keep up to date with digs, they're always discovering new fossils, you know!"
Reyna dropped the file to her side. "Let's just hope that knowledge helps us live through our first." She glanced at Case. "And your teaching."
Case balled her fist, but then Reyce placed her hands on Reyna and Jade's shoulders. "I think we should all turn in now and look over the files in our own time, it's almost nine and we've been going since six in the morning. Plus, I'm hungry."
Reyna brushed it off. "Fine, I'll try to put together a game plan. Until then, I expect all of you to be on time for training since this is much more serious than we thought." She glared at Reyce.
"I'll help; I know where to get intel on the dig site." Jade added. Reyna called Passimian back and they finally left the gym. Case let out a big sigh.
"Hey Casey?" Reyce was still there, and they were alone in the Nimbasa gym. "Did you still wanna talk?"
Case felt the heat return to her face. "No. Not tonight." She muttered while packing her bag.
"Ah, ok, another time then." Reyce said. She was quiet for a moment, then she said, "Do you think you could show me the guillotines, or at least one of them? I'm sorry I just didn't get it earlier, I'm slow with this stuff and-"
"Not a problem." Case said with a reassuring smile. She could feel her heart rate quietly rising. "Show me what you can do right now with the basic guillotine."
Case stepped up to the mat in front of Reyce with barely contained nerves. She bent down and gave Reyce the opening to wrap her neck, and Case immediately detected the issue. Reyce's arm passed under her trachea, which she could easily escape and totally missed the blood-choke. No doubt, she picked that up from Reyna, though Reyna did that deliberately. Case buried the thought and peeled Reyce's arm off. "Ok, so you're missing my carotid arteries, which is what you need for a blood choke."
"Carotid?" Reyce asked. Her face looked stupidly cute when she was confused.
"Yeah, let me show ya." Case said and reached up to Reyce's neck. She felt her pulse on either side of her trachea rapidly beating against her fingertips and put light pressure on it. Reyce placed her own hand on top and squeezed gently. "Whoa, that's terrifying."
"Can you find it on me?" Case said.
Case felt Reyce's fingertips brush her throat until they landed on her carotids (which were probably vibrating at this point) and she put gentle pressure on them. "You can go harder." Case mumbled. She felt her vision start to swim, the pressure build in her head, and her heart almost stop, but that one was for different reasons.
"That doesn't take much at all, your face got so red!" Reyce exclaimed.
Case noticed her cheeks were burning. "Yeah, chokes can do that to ya…" Case lied.
"So how do I pull it off in the guillotine? I'm using my arm, right?"
Case blinked and let herself come back to reality. "Yeah, so you need the blade of your forearm to press into my neck, right at the wrist." She indicated on her own arm. "The base at your elbow is too soft; you won't get the proper choke here. And when you do get my head, sandwich it between your elbow and ribcage and hunch your shoulders so I can't pop my head out." Case bent down and let Reyce take her head.
She tested Reyce's grip and couldn't get her head away.
"Awesome, now drive your forearm into my neck on one side and compress everything."
Reyce squeezed tight and pressure built behind Case's eyes. "That's it, now just stand at your hips, but don't remove your shoulders or anything."
She stood and Case felt everything tighten immensely and her vision immediately went grey at the edges, forcing her tap in less than a second.
Case backed away and coughed.
"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to actually hurt you." Reyce reached for Case's shoulder.
"Don't be sorry, you did it perfectly! The height difference made it ten-times worse too." Case smiled at Reyce. Reyce was about five-eleven to six feet tall and athletic; if she ever put that strength to use, she'd be terrifying.
And pretty damn awesome.
"I kinda feel stupid that I didn't get that earlier, seems so simple in hindsight." Reyce said while readjusting her hat.
"It's ok, everyone learns differently. Took me twice as long to train Incineroar on the same things I taught Infernape." Case said.
Reyce sighed. "You seemed kinda bothered about it earlier though."
Case's heart dropped. "I wasn't mad at you. I'm just worried about our first mission. I don't want anyone hurt because I couldn't teach them self-defense well enough, I'd never be able to escape that guilt. Well, except if Reyna dies."
Reyce snorted to Case's surprise. "Anyways, do you have time to show me more?"
"Definitely."
They went back and forth for a while with Case demonstrating the choke and Reyce performing it perfectly afterwards. She wasn't bad at all; quite the opposite once she had the right instruction. Still, the physical closeness nagged at Case. She felt like a predator for even touching someone she found attractive without them knowing, much less letting them choke her, even if it genuinely was to teach Jiu Jitsu.
Maybe she should just tell Reyce. She had the right to know and the right to ditch Case.
It was time to just rip the band-aid off.
They finally stopped close to ten and took a seat against the wall for a water break. Case felt the weight of training start to settle into her muscles and realized she could fall asleep against that brick wall at this point. Infernape had already done that. She finished her water and looked at Reyce, causing a swarm of butterfree to hatch in her stomach.
"Hey Reyce?" She started.
Reyce looked at her and Case felt her heart race. "Hmm?"
Case swallowed and realized she had no spit left in her mouth. "I heard the view from the Ferris wheel here is amazing. Would you want to go sometime? Just me and you, no Reyna and Jade." She said quickly.
"That sounds fun, what day were you thinking?" Reyce said.
Case's chest felt tight. "I don't mean as just a fun thing, I mean just…like a date."
There it was; the point of no return. Case's fate was up to the universe now.
She saw the realization wash over Reyce. Her eyes widened and then she looked at the floor with a tight expression and Case's heart did a swan dive into her stomach.
"Just forget I asked, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said anything-" Case said, trying to salvage the situation. She had fucked up.
"No." Reyce said firmly. I'm glad you did. It's just…" Reyce faced her with her shoulder against the wall. She fidgeted with her lanyard. Case wished she could be a dwebble and disappear into a rock for the rest of her lifetime.
"I feel the same." Reyce finally said.
Case felt like the floor disappeared. "You do?"
Reyce gave her a soft smile. "You're cute. And handsome. But…"
Ah, there it was, Case was about to get destroyed.
"I just don't know if now is a good time." Reyce said.
It wasn't the worst answer, but Case still felt everything die inside and Reyce could clearly see it behind her eyes.
She continued, "With this new job and all, I don't know that I could handle both a relationship and that at the same time. Not to mention, we'd risk both our careers if anyone found out… I don't know if I could stand lying to my parents and Mercy about you all the time and have to sneak around just to spend time together. If someone caught wind of it, we'd be tossed out in a heartbeat, and I wouldn't even know what to do with my life at that point. What job would take us?" Reyce stammered out.
Case's face hurt. "That's stupid."
Reyce's eyebrows knit. "What?"
"If you spend your whole life being afraid, then you're never going to love anyone!" She yelled.
Reyce shrunk back and Case wanted to sew her mouth shut. She could not have said anything worse. Case just put her head in her hands.
"I'm sorry." Reyce said finally.
"Don't be, that was shitty for me to say." Case pinched her eyes. "I'm just gonna go to bed and stop fucking things up for you."
"Casey, you're not-"
"I'm going to bed." She said firmly. She returned Infernape and swung the door open. It rattled as it shut behind her and didn't open again.
Thankfully no one crossed her path all the way back to the hotel. She opened the door to her room, slammed it shut, then faced the blank wall. The wave of anger she'd barely kept contained broke loose and she ran her fist into the wall. She felt the drywall crumble with a satisfying crunch and left it in there for a few moments. She withdrew it and dropped on to the edge of the bed to stare at the floor and get control of the hurricane in her body. Anklebiter shuffled over and set a head on her lap.
Why couldn't she ever keep her damn mouth shut? Everytime, she got mad, it felt like holding back a rampaging Tyrantrum with dental floss. Once it snaps, everything is ruined.
Then again, she did mean what she said. She felt it was stupid to have to give up a love life out of fear. Case chopped her hair short and wore men's clothes proudly, archaic social rules meant nothing to her, yet they kept fucking her over anyways. She hated them almost as much as she hated herself in that moment.
None of that mattered though, she still snapped at Reyce over something stupid. Case felt hot tears roll down her face. She had every right to refuse Case for whatever reason she wanted, Case knew that.
But that didn't make the pain any better.
She pulled Anklebiter's head to hers. "Why the fuck couldn't I be born straight? Why does it have to be so much harder for me to just love someone than everyone else? It's just not fucking fair, I wish I could change but I can't, I've tried! What's so wrong about it that I can't date anyone my whole life while straight people can? I hate this so much." She sobbed. She brushed the fur out of Anklebiter's covered eyes. "The same pricks also said I could never evolve you. Everyone's fuckin' afraid and they want to control everything. I wish there was a world where you could be Hydreigon and I could date Reyce in peace. That would be ideal." The next wave of sobs was much gentler and Case swallowed them down. She laid down and curled herself around Anklebiter's heads while she opened her phone. She had her time to be dramatic, she needed to stuff it all away and get back to normal as soon as possible. They had more work to do tomorrow.
Her phone showed a group chat message from Jade and five new messages from Reyce. Her finger hovered over Reyce's name, then swiped it away. Case didn't need to hear her apologizing and worrying about her anymore.
Jade had asked if everyone wanted to visit Elesa's nightclub tomorrow, the last night they were there.
Case did, but not with them.
She rolled on to her back and felt acid creep back up into her throat.
Between that and having to raid an archeological dig site in a few days, Case knew she wasn't going to sleep well any time soon.