Lex & Wade | Thursday Morning

[x-deadpool.livejournal.com]

Lex and Wade meet in the weight room and an impromptu sparring match ensues.


Wade had found the weight room empty and decided he should do something other than run, so he set himself to doing pull-ups. He was on two hundred and still going strong when the door opened somewhere behind him and his intense paranoia made him look over his shoulder to see who it was. Guy he didn't know, in good shape, well-built, possible combat training given the way he held himself, the way he walked.

Dropping to the floor, he shook his arms out as he turned, then stretched because no one liked cramps.

Lex hadn't expected to see anyone in the room when he entered, but he didn't give the man more than a cursory glance before dropping his bag and walking over to the mats. His training was going very well and he thought that he would apply for full X-men status within the month, it was about damn time that he committed to being a full member of the team. As he prepared to go through his calisthenic ritual he gave the man a second glance and realized that he might actually make a good sparring partner.

"Yo," he called out, speaking in a relatively friendly tone, "you must be new to the mansion." He didn't really know what to say, as he never really instigated contact, so he just waited to see how the guy would respond. He felt like a right fool for interrupting a stranger's workout, but he didn't have anything better to do.

"Yup," Wade said, nodding. "Got here a couple weeks ago." He walked over to the edge of the mat the other man was on and quirked a brow. "I'm guessing you're not new, huh?"

"One could make the argument," Lex didn't feel like he belonged all that much, but he couldn't tell if that was just a reaction to recent events. In either case it was why he wanted to join the team in a full capacity. Being a part of the team should bring him a measure of belonging that he lacked. He stuck out his hand and gave the man a simple grin, "Lex."

"Wade," he replied, taking the other man's hand in a firm shake. It was a good shake, not a limp noodle and not an iron grip - neither of them were pussies and neither of them were assholes. Awesome. "What're you planning on practicing?" He lifted his chin to indicate the mat.

The idea popped into Lex's head as he opened his mouth to answer Wade. "This." He slid forward, keeping hold of the man's arm, and tried to throw him to the mat with a standard hip throw. Lex hoped it wouldn't work, he wanted a challenge in this new man - maybe even a sparring partner. The guy certainly had the build for it.

Wade wasn't necessarily expecting the move, but his body went with the motion out of habit, muscle memory coming up with the counter easily enough. The follow through for the counter left Wade on the floor. But this new guy Lex was on the floor, too, so Wade didn't feel too bad about it. "Bad idea to go for something like that when you don't know what your opponent's capable of."

"True enough, but I'm the king of bad ideas." His voice was flat as his muscles tensed to continue with another attack. Wade had defended against his throw about as well as he could expect and he was happy that the new guy might actually prove to be a useful training companion. "Plus, there'd be no fun in it without risk."

Wade might have been reevaluating his initial assessment of the guy not being an asshole, but he was reserving judgement until he saw what the guy did. Maybe he was just having a bad day. "Maybe you should work on that, sweetheart - y'know. Learn from your mistakes and shit? Just sayin'." He met the next attack easily, watching style, catching tiny indicators in the way the other man shifted.

"I learn from every mistake I make. Sadly, that does not keep me from making more of them. It's probably what I'm best at in the world, making mistakes and then barely surviving them." Lex stepped back and tilted his head in acknowledgment of his opponent's skill. "You fight pretty damn good. What's your training?"

"A little bit of this and that," Wade answered, obviously still wary. His guard was up now and it was apparent in the way he held himself - very, very still. He was calm, though, more observing now that he'd heard the other man's little speech. "What'd you learn from this mistake?"

"My most recent?" He shrugged as though what he was about to say was just casual conversation. "That the more you love someone the harder it is for you to let them go, even if that's the only way to make them happy." He stretched as he spoke, turning aside from this new man and trying to concentrate on all the mistakes he'd made in the past few years. "Then there was the time I claimed the woods out back as my own, that was just plain ignorant of me, and I tried to save the world once - not good. Honestly, I think it all stems from the time I tried to save the people who were closest to me by taking over the controls of a military helicopter with my powers." He looked at the man and then switched positions to better gauge the response.

"Sorry, I'm apparently in a sharing is caring mood at the moment, must be because you're new."

Wade would generally agree that that was kind of an overshare of monumental proportions, but then he refused to acknowledge that he had emotions, so maybe he was biased. Did normal people go around talking about how they loved someone and it hurt letting them go? Or basically psychoanalyzing themselves? Wade didn't, but Wade knew he wasn't normal, either. So he shrugged to indicate he'd heard the words but wasn't distracted and began to very slowly circle the other man, still on the defensive. If that overflow of information had been meant to catch him off-guard, it had failed, at least. "What're your powers?" That was the only information that might be useful to him.

"Electrokinesis," Lex said, knowing that it could only make things more interesting. He wanted to see the full range of his opponents capabilities, and whether or not he was good enough to overcome them. He matched the man's footwork and drew his fighting stance tight, as though he were preparing to launch a full-out attack. Deception wasn't going to get him very far, but it would be enough to test just how good the other man was at reading intention into actions. "Yours?"

"Healing factor," Wade answered. It wasn't the whole truth, but he wasn't inclined to give the whole truth. Rather than waiting for the attack to come at him, he launched one of his own. He went for moderate speed, so as not to give away the other bits of his abilities, and then focused on making the other man put his guard up as high as it would go.

Lex slid down and to the side as he attempted to dodge the attack, he couldn't get out of the way of them all and had to block one with his left. The strikes were fast, but not to any superhuman degree. Wade's training was much more thorough than he let on as well. "Interesting." He launched a quick jab combo in retaliation, prodding at the man's peripheral defenses.

Block, block - Wade could block all day. "You could say that." He swept downward, though, to see if he could knock the other man off his feet again.

Lex let the sweep hit and then went with the blow to carry him onto his back so he could land a solid kick to his opponent's jaw. Hope he doesn't take this too harshly, he thought, feeling no remorse whatsoever.

Wade turned with the motion of his sweep so Lex's kick went over his shoulder rather than connecting with his jaw, which was good. Healing factor or no, a broken jaw would take time to heal. "I think we're done here," he said, standing and backing away from the other man.

"If you say so," Lex rolled back and stood. "If you ever need someone to spar with let me know. Otherwise, you can stop by if you ever want to grab a beer or need something repaired." He doubted he would ever see the man again, there was something weird about the guy and he couldn't quite place it.

"I'll keep that in mind," Wade said, nodding. And he would. The guy was on his radar, now. He walked backward until he was sure he was out of range of a physical attack, then turned and walked out of the weight room, the doors swishing quietly behind him.