Worldheart (A Justice League fanfic)

Chapter 21

The next week marked the start of Jaz's training, and a whole month passed while she suffered. Every evening Brin kept them to a gruelling regimen of cardio, strength training and balance training through some weird merger of Yoga and Tai-chi. On the weekend he'd lead her in the basement where they'd spar. She hated sparring the most. She was constantly being flipped on her back, sent flying or 'lightly' punched in his words. Jaz was suffering with sore limbs and new bruises after every match.

Meanwhile, Clara already got her job at the Blue Hue with Brin's blessing and recommendation. It was tough working out the logistics since the League was so reluctant to leave her 'unprotected' but ultimately Timber Wolf called in several favours from other league members who vouched that he was capable of protecting her. In return though, he had to finally join the Justice League and he had to be nearby every shift Clara worked.

"Why was it you never joined before anyways? Seems like everyone already knows you, of you, and Arrow said you'd already rejected several offers to join. Why go it alone?" Jaz asked between rounds in the basement. They managed to convince Jason to let them fill the floor with blue mats that cushioned Jaz's falls, and they had brought down chairs for the frequent drink breaks Jaz would call.

"Beat me in the next match and I'll tell you."

"You might as well be saying you're not going to tell me, Timber Wolf." For their fights Brin always donned his Timber Wolf suit, so Jaz changed how she referred to him when he was suited up.

He smiled, "Then at the very least, actually try to land a proper hit on me." He responded to her glare, "Don't think I can't tell you're hearts not into it. You're going through the motions but there's no intention there. You need to want to actually win and improve if you hope to see any changes."

"That's because I don't want to fight. I've said so already." She took another long draw from her water bottle, dreading when he'd call the break and force her back into the 'ring'.

"No hero wants to fight Jaz, but we must if we're going to protect others." He crossed his arms.

"Stop saying 'we'. There is no 'we'. I'm not a Hero Wolf. I'm just Jaz. Now, can you please tell me why you haven't joined the Justice League? Or for that matter, why you're even in this timeline to begin with. You're like, from wayy into the future, right?"

"Hit me and I'll tell you." Brin walked to the center of their sparring ring. She grumbled as she joined him, taking up her ready stance. Feet apart, her left foot forward, arms raised with her hands relaxed, just as he'd shown her. A second later she dropped her shoulders and widened her stance before he had a chance to correct her.

"How bout this, you tell me while we spar. Promise I'll give it my all... Just not confident I can hit you yet." Every time Timber Wolf readied himself against her, a spike of anxiety shot through her body. There was something terrifying and thrilling about facing a hero of his caliber, the power in which he moved and the way his eyes grew serious the moment the fight began.

"No." He spoke as he struck. Despite him purposefully slowing down his movements and weakening his strikes for Jaz, she still struggled to react in time. She initially moved to the left before realizing it would leave him to close to her right, changing course mid step to backpedal instead. His punch connected with the bottom of Jaz's rib cage hard enough to make her flinch, but she managed to stay on her feet, backstepping out of the brunt of it. "Don't fight your instinct. You went to sidestep then decided to back pedal instead. Trust your first instinct, it was right." Timber Wolf closed the gap Jaz had created in a single stride making a second attack, this time from the right. Jaz moved to block it but decided to sidestep this time. The blow to her shoulder wasn't any harder than the first, but she had lost her footing and toppled over. "Side stepping would've allowed you to strike back in the first attack. Backing up like that just gave me more room to take space and the opportunity to attack again. You could've blocked that second blow, but you side stepped instead, giving up your balance and allowing me to knock you down." He offered his hand, pulling her too her feet.