Lex and Tabitha | Post Bad Times Destruction

[x-lexington.livejournal.com]

After making a fool of himself, Lex goes on a destructive rampage in the quarry inadvertently preempting someone else's destructive intent.



The cold biting wind whipped through the quarry, howling amongst the battered stones. Several were smashed amidst the snow, while others were worn smooth. It was a place for the residents of the mansion to train, to use their powers outside of the Danger Room. It was also a place that few people visited in the winter. For all of those reasons Lex had chosen to visit it after his debacle with Vee. There was too much pressure built up inside of him, especially considering that he should have been happily lounging with her in his bed.

"What the fuck is happening," he said, raising his arms into a natural combat stance. "How could she fucking attack me for not having an answer to that kind of question. It's not like I fantasy about her having sex with other women every day, and to question whether or not I trust her. Fucking Ridiculous." As he felt his rage rising he decided to unleash it upon the stone. He sent bolt after bolt of lightning hurling through the sky, melting the snow and burning the stone. After several minutes he crouched, out of breath. He wanted to test the limits of his new found control and the only way to do that would be to build up a massive charge.

High on the desire to do some violence, Tabitha stomped toward the quarry in her practice leathers. She paused when her hair started to stand on end. There was an electric boogaloo about. She made a wild guess when she called out a name. "Lex?"

Lex was too caught up in controlling his powers to notice his name being called. He was staring at a stone thirty feet in front of him, focusing on the thought of sending 120 amps towards it in a concentrated bolt. His brow began to sweat, despite being stripped to his waist and standing in a foot deep hole in the snow. The white powder was melting around him as he built up the charge, the excess energy bleeding off him causing strange anomalies in his immediate vicinity.

Tabs moved as close as she dared, not willing to call out again. She had a feeling distracting him at this stage might be bad. She'd just wait until he was done, or it seemed like she could interrupt without causing another medical emergency. There may have been residual trauma from the last time they'd trained together, but she would never admit that out loud.

The energy rippled across his exposed flesh, creating a haze of sparks and flashing light. He aimed at the stone and discharged the strike with a howl of rage. The beam coiled through the air, and created a beam of purple lightning that scared the stone in several places. The resulting thunderclap had enough force to send him flying through the air in the other direction. Holy fuck, he thought, he had release as much energy as he had on the ship in India but he felt revitalized more than drained. He started laughing as he lifted himself off the floor of stone, "I can't believe it. I'm back in action!"

She watched him soar through the air with wide eyes. She stopped holding her breath when he crowed.

"That's great," she shouted. "Is anything broken?"

Lex looked around to see who had spoken, wondering if he had actually heard someone call his name. When he spotted Tabitha he smiled and raised his hands triumphantly. He hurt all over, but the exhilaration overwhelmed the bodily pain. "Not that I can tell, though my entire body is tingling at the moment. I feel like I just grabbed hold of a transformer and rode the energy through the cables, if that is possible..." He took a step forward and swayed slightly. "I might be a little light headed though, that was a lot of energy to discharge at once."

Tabs just shook her head. "Crazy man," she murmured, ignoring the fact that she'd come out to do some damage herself. She picked her way through the rocks toward him. "Need a hand?"

"I'd appreciate that. There seems to be a great deal of things that I have to explore with my powers, now. However, right now I'm content to lay waste to this place. I need to vent a great deal of frustration." There weren't too many things that could calm him and he thought that maybe draining himself of all his built up energy might serve as a good substitute. "How long have you been watching on me?"

The corner of her mouth twitched. "Not very long. Came out for the same reasons as you. Just beat me to it."

"Ah, well I don't want to deny you the chance to blow shit to smithereens." He wanted to tell her why he was out there, raging like Godzilla, but he couldn't figure out how to broach the subject. There was no good place to begin. "Any reason you want to blow up the world?"

She huffed in a humorless laugh. "Probably not the best time to deal with my drama. Let's get you back to the mansion and make sure you haven't rattled your brain around in your skull."

“I’m perfectly content to sit here, actually.” Lex laughed as he spoke, “I actually feel better now that I’ve released some of this pent up energy. I just don’t think I expected to be quite this powerful.” He looked around and wondered just how much damage he could inflict if he were to go all out. He thought about it and knew that something he’d been told over a year ago rang true. He’d barely tapped his potential. “Besides, if you came out here for the same reasons I did then we have a problem.” He was trying to be light-hearted, but he was fairly certain the tone was anything but pleasant.

She gave a one-shoulder shrug. "Just a little hung up about a man I didn't kill." She said softly.

“Interesting,” Lex said, honest enthusiasm in his voice, “care to elaborate or do you need to work out some of that frustration first?”

Tabitha sat down on a rock, staring off toward the quarry rather than at Lex. "I shouldn't want to kill somebody. We did pretty good at ruining all the things that matter to him, that should be enough, right?"

“That depends on his actions towards you. In my opinion there are many reasons to kill someone, however, if you’ve ruined everything that matters to him then I would say that you’ve done a fair job of killing him without stopping his heartbeat. Plus, you won’t go to jail for it this way.” He wanted to ask her who she was talking about but he knew that it would be better to let it surface on its own, if it ever would.

She crammed the anger back down into her gut for a little while longer. There would be other times. She ghosted a smile at Lex. "It'll keep. Let's get you back. If you're fine we can grab some food. If you're not, your girlfriend won't kill me for keeping you out here until you die."

He sighed when she mentioned girlfriend, how much longer would he get to call Vee that. Their meeting earlier was a disaster and it didn’t look like it was going to get better without a miracle. “Right, though she might buy you a drink after what happened earlier.” He stood up quickly and stretched himself out. He looked at Tabitha and shook his head, he couldn’t tell if she had guessed the source of his distress or if she was merely trying to cover her ass by diverting him with the promise of food.

“I’ve got to figure out how to fix this before I lose her completely.” He didn’t speak to her, directly, but as she was the only one there he might as well have.

Tabitha gladly grabbed the opportunity to forget all about her own drama. She turned wide eyes to Lex. "Something bad? Would this have anything to do with her-" She cut herself off with a blush. She really didn't want to think about the flirting on the journals

“With what,” he asked, he thought it might have to do with the orgy discussion but he wanted to make sure there weren’t other things going on that he didn’t know about. Hell, he could barely comprehend what was happening in his immediate personal life, let alone everyone else’s. “Am I missing something else?”

"I think she was flirting. On the journals. I'm not sure." The blush intensified. "I'm not very good at that sort of thing. I know that Wilson guy was, but that's because he told me."

“That might be why she acted so strangely,” Lex said with a sigh. Could she honestly have thought that he would get upset with her over some flirting. It didn’t seem like she would misconstrue it that much, but it did give him pause. “No, it’s not with that. Though it makes me wonder.”

He looked off into the distance for a long time before looking back at the woman who was with him. “I’m not good with women. I think I might have irrevocably damaged my relationship with Vee.”

She chanced a sideways look at him. Definitely sad and broody. What did one do with a sad and broody man? "Big fight? Had a chance to talk about it since?" She really wasn't sure what to say.

“She misunderstood something I said, then walked out on me. I came straight here. I think…” He sighed, “I think she might want to break up with me.” He hated to admit it, but that’s how he felt. He was going to have to pull out all of the stops, and move up his plans for Valentine’s Day if he was going to be able to keep their relationship afloat. “I’m a terrible boyfriend.”

Tabitha was rather uncertain about giving advice, but she would try her best. "Ask her? Both things. If she wants to break up and how she thinks you could be a better boyfriend? I mean, her ideas and your ideas may not be the same."

Lex thought about it for a moment. It made sense, but with the way she reacted when he tried to apologize Lex didn’t know if Vee would be receptive to the questions. “I think I can manage that. I will have to find some way to make her understand that I’m not trying to provoke her though. What if I were to prepare a nice dinner for her?”

"Would there be food poisoning involved?" Heaven knew there would be if she tried anything more complicated than spaghetti. "It's probably a good idea to make sure you're speaking the same language first. I've read a lot about language barriers being worse inside the English Language."

"No poisoning, I love her too much for that," he ignored the part about speaking the same language. The only way that would happen would be if they got together and talked about everything. "I'll keep that in mind though."

She stood up and dusted off her hands before she offered one to Lex. "There could always be alcohol therapy? Or we could stick to sandwiches."

"At this moment alcohol sounds infinitely better." He laughed a hard and bitter laugh and then took her hand. "This way I won't remember feeling like a total fool in the morning, or rather I'll not have to realize I'm a fool till the morning."