LOG: Marie and Logan - Old Friends, Old Enemies

[x-wolverine.livejournal.com]

Marie's trying to work out a little aggression down in the Gym. Logan wanders in, looking for a workout. Which he gets, but not the way he was expecting.



Marie hit the punching bag. Again…again…again. The only sound in her ears was the thwap of her fists hitting the bag. Any thought that arose was quickly quashed as she forced herself to focus on the bag in front of her. Jab, jab, cross, hook. Repeat. Throw in an uppercut. Don't think about Doug. Or Terry. Or Bobby. Or Kevin. Just let instinct take over and hit the bag harder. Focus on the task at hand and let the rest of the world slip away.

Logan, for once without his trademark cigar, walked into the Gym without any real specific plan. Maybe he'd work strength, maybe he'd run forms again, maybe he'd do agility. Maybe he'd do all of them for a really good workout . But all of that changed when he saw Marie in her workout clothes trying to murder the bag. And doing a good job of it, too - the seams definitely looked stressed. Curious, he walked over to see what had got her panties in the bunch they were clearly in.

Marie stiffened as she heard the footsteps behind…the footfall reminded her of - well it was on the tip of her tongue, but she couldn't name it, she just knew it made her angry and suspicious. She whirled around and aimed a kick at the intruder who was making the hair on the back of her neck stand up.

Logan blocked the kick, as unexpected as it was, by the simple expedient of raising a forearm and letting Marie kick _that_ instead of his head. Hurt like all hell, but she undoubtedly felt it as well. He just quirked an eyebrow at Marie and let her explain herself at her own pace. She usually did, sooner or later.

Logan? That doesn't make any sense. Shaking her head to clear it, a confused look spread across her face. "Ah'm sorry…Ah don't know what came over me. It's been a…its just been one of those weeks." She bent down to rub her foot, then offered a rueful smile. "Ouch."

Logan chuckled at her "Ouch". "Rough day?" he asked, eyeing the bag. It looked even worse from up front - another couple of rounds and she would have split it. He remembered more than a few days like that from the old days, days where she (and on the really bad days, him) were both more than a little nuts.

"Yeah…" she said hesitantly and pursed her lips. "But that's still not an excuse…Ah've had plenty of bad days before and Ah can't seem to ever remember striking out at ya without, well, intending ta."

"Think the bag's had enough." he said, gesturing towards the mat. "You're still cranked. Come on." he said, grabbing for her (gloved!) hand and dragging her towards the mat.

Marie was very willing to be dragged to the mat. She was wound overly tight and there was still some inner part of her that just wanted to strike out at Wolverine specifically…and here he was volunteering. As soon as they reached the mat, she extricated her hand from his grasp and launched herself at him.

Logan switched up his usual style on her, just to keep things interesting. Instead of moving out of the way or counter-striking, he ducked her swing and grabbed a handful of her shirt and her waistband and threw her to the ground. Hard. Face-first. "Come on, kid, you're getting sloppy on me." he taunted.

She had been able to lessen the impact slightly by trying to levitate in the reverse direction in which she'd been thrown. But that still hurt. "Who are you callin' kid?" she growled, pushing off the ground and landing facing Logan. This time when she attacked, she dove to grab his feet and pull them out from under him.

That growl sounded familiar but Logan didn't have time to follow the thought - she was trying to take his feet. He jumped to avoid her grab and then dropped the heel of his right foot square on her spine with everything he could put into it, aided by gravity. Maybe now he'd have her attention. "Kinda like the grovelling, Em." he joked.

She threw her hands out to hit the mat before the rest of her and pushed back, refusing to land on her face again. Sometimes superstrength and near-invulnerability come in handy she thought fleetingly as she forced herself into a standing position, gravity be damned. She turned to see how the laws of physics were treating Logan as she felt his foot leave her back.

They were treating him just fine as he introduced his fists to her face. The foot on her back he withdrew and put back on the ground where it belonged before throwing the punches. A good thing he was a flexible cuss, even in jeans.

Baring her teeth at him, she caught both his wrists in her hands before his fists could reach her. She quickly spun around and released him once she had a bit of momentum.

Logan, having to obey the laws of physics that Marie could only wink at, went flying. But he recovered by rolling with the impact and back to his feet. He didn't say anything this time, just moved back up and into the fray. She was stronger, but he was _faster_. He put that speed to work by aiming a flurry of punches to her face, neck, and solar plexus. If one of them connected, he'd have a momentary advantage.

She bobbed and weaved, ducking blow after blow until Logan finally landed one to her jaw. Wiping the blood from her jaw, something _clicked_ in her head and she snarled at him. "Looks like you finally learned to fight."

Logan blinked at that. Where the hell did that come from? Still, something about the way she said it set him off, and he charged in, as close to a killing frenzy as he was prepared to let himself go. Now the gloves were truly off and nothing was sacred. But the claws stayed in - for now. He wasn't _that_ far gone. Let's see how she'd like swallowing her teeth.

Marie didn't know how she knew to use the moves she was, she just did. It wasn't that she unused to fighting Wolverine - they had been sparring partners more often than just about anybody she could think of…but the style of this fighting was different. It was more primitive, more like…Oh my G-d But she barely had time have that realization before Logan was after her again and she continued fighting.

Marie was pulling moves out that he knew damned well she'd never used before. Either she'd been doing some seriously training while his back was turned - and he was an observant guy - or ... He didn't have to follow up on that thought as Marie snuck one through his guard and damned near ripped his head off.

"Always a hair too slow," she said mockingly. "Never there in the nick of time, are you runt?" What the hell am Ah saying? "And never much of a match for me."

All right, something was definitely wrong here. Very, very wrong. Whoever this was who almost just ripped his head off, it wasn't Marie. This had to be psychic debris of some kind. Best thing to do would be to work through it, let her get it out of her system in her own way. In a flash he flipped from almost pure offense to total defense. He didn't attack, but he'd block or sidestep anything she threw his way. Give her time.

She threw blow after blow at him and Logan successfully countered each one, stepping out of the way or blocking each punch and kick she sent his way. Then, very suddenly, she just stopped and stared at him with a bewildered look on her face.

Logan just looked at her, leaving her to herself to work out. He'd learned the hard way that that was the best way to handle these episodes. Well, all right, _second-best_ way. First was right out.

Rubbing her head with her hand, she stared off into the distance until all the pieces finally came together. "Ah thought Ah had already processed him," she finally offered in explanation.

"Who?" he asked as the damage she'd done to him finished up healing. There was a surprising amount of it - that headshot rattled his brain against the unbreakable walls of its skull fairly hard.

She tilted her head when she looked at him. "Ah thought…Scott said there was a report in the database." She gestured to a couple folding chairs someone had set up a few feet from the mats. "You may want to sit down for this."

Logan shook his head. "Just spit it out, Em." he said.

"Sabretooth. In Egypt," she said simply, knowing that he could fill in the blanks.

"Creed." he echoed with disgust. "You touched that ape?" he asked, not really a question at all. "Hope it was worth it." he said, and then looked to put himself somewhere else - ANYWHERE else - before he did something embarrassingly fatal. He had to fight - _really_ fight - to keep himself together.

He wanted to hurt something, to make it bleed. He wanted someone to take the ol' dirt nap, and he wanted it so badly he got aroused just thinking about it. The worst thing of all is that he had no idea why. Just that he hated Creed - it was stupid, he barely knew the man. But from the first moment he caught a smell of him he knew that there was something between them.

"Ah had to," she said defensively. Wrapping her arms around herself, she watched Logan apprehensively. "Ah talked with Charles…thought Ah'd gotten him under control…but something about the way you move brought him back out."

Logan looked at Em and then spun on his heel to walk out. He had to, or else she was going to go down. He was so blindingly pissed that he had to get out - right _now_ - before anybody got hurt.

Today just keeps getting better and better doesn't it? Are you doing anything right anymore? "Don't tell Scott about this..." she called out after him. "Please…" All the things she wanted to add died before they reached her lips as the look on Logan's face was burned in her mind's eyes. With a defeated look on her face, she cast her eyes downward.

Logan paused for just a moment, then nodded. That much he could do. But for right now, he had to get out. Preferably at high speed. There was something hazy floating in the back of his head - something important. Maybe he could tease it out, maybe he couldn't. But he couldn't do it here.