For Treason, Act II, scene v
May. 9th, 2026 10:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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xp_logsKyle starts training the other abductees. And what he’s training them in isn’t very nice.
TW: Indoctrination, Violence
The mats were thick and had to be new, because they were stiff and didn't have that stink of old sweat and blood yet. Kyle bounced a little on his bare feet on them, checked give, texture - they'd do acceptably well. He adjusted one - made a mental note to ask for tape for his hands and feet.
It'd be fuckin' stupid to cut up the kids while he was trying to get them in fighting shape.
"Right. Laura's been through it already, so - just go hit the weights for a couple for me, kiddo. You don't need the basics. Get some reps in, head back in..." Kyle tilted his head, thinking. He'd already gotten them to run some laps, stretch, warm up, despite some pointed complaining. "Twenty minutes. I'll need a fourth person by then." he waved her off with an approving nod. "Okay, the rest of you. I know you've all had basic hand to hand. This ain't that. This is basic fuck people up. We're gonna cover claws, hitting people in the soft places, and how to make someone stop breathing for a while."
Jessie bounced her knee nervously, looking around. Hitting in soft places she could do. Making someone stop breathing for a while? That sounded a little more intense and like it involved muscles. Something she definitely didn't have. She also didn't have claws. But nails were like human claws, right? A lot of self defense training had centered around "if you can't run, use your nails and go for the eyes."
Liam popped his claws, looking dubious. They were each about 2" and certainly sharp, he knew they could do real damage. But he'd already learned much more subtle ways to fuck up a person. Ways that wouldn't be obvious. Ways his claws shouldn't ever be used. Ways he didn't want to use them. But this wasn't about what he wanted. Bouncing on the balls of his feet, he mimed finger banging, claws out.
Celeste watched it all from her spot leaning against the nearby wall. "This is a waste of time," she scoffed. "I don't need combat training."
Kyle's head whipped around. "The fuck you don't." His voice was that calm, deep tone he'd had for - what felt like exhausting weeks of this bullshit. He knew the Frost girls were arrogant - over confident - a little bitchy. But the defiance was getting to him. "Get your ass in here. We're going to prove you wrong in under a minute." He watched one take a step forward, glance at the other, and then the one who had spoken continued moving. "I don't care which one of you. Just get one of your snob-ass bodies in here."
The Thing watches the moments that follow with blank eyes as she turns from the wall. Watches how Celeste steps onto the mats and takes a stance she knows she's seen herself take a hundred times, yet somehow seems ill-fitting, like a glove two sizes two large. She can see the moves in her mind's eye, but her body is too slow, too lacking the brutality she knows she is capable of. Very quickly, she finds herself flat on her back with a hand around her throat, and staring down at herself and up at herself and at herself in betrayal. She doesn't understand what just happened, or what has happened to her.
The Thing is smiling, and she doesn't understand how or why.
A tick. The sharp heat of a claw in her - artery - carotid artery. The term took too long to come to her. Because of the hypoxia. More heat behind her ear, hot breath in her face and then -
And then Kyle stood, wiped both hands off on his cargo pants. Cleaned the trace of blood on his claw with the hem of his t-shirt. "You're five inches too short for that shit, and the guy who invented it is almost too short for it." He looked down at - whichever Frost body this was - fuck they were confusing. "Get up, do it again slow. I'll show you why you die faster than you can go diamond if you try to fight like that guy."
He glanced at Jessie - "Don't you try this shit either. You're too skinny."
"Fine," Celeste said, attention split effortlessly between Kyle and The Thing. "Show me your basic bitch nonsense." She swiped a drop of blood from the small mark behind her ear, tacking the blood between her fingertips. "That will not happen again."
"Yeah, I wish that was true." Kyle tucked his claws away neatly. "Okay, see how when you step inside I'm already in range? You gotta either be faster than me and get all the way in before I can move." She did, slow and he pulled... whichever Frost in by the front of her shirt - hard, so she went off balance - and then trapped her with an arm around her neck. "Which isn't gonna happen with someone as fast as me. So you'd need to know how to redirect once I've got you. You tried the secret third thing. Don't do that." Until she was faster going diamond, at least. They'd have to work on that. Fuck people with non-organic arms sharing their combat shit -he'd helped them develop. Rude.
"Okay, now that we're through the stop fucking around portion, Liam, pair off with Jessie, I want you guys on chokeholds for a bit. Gotta breathe to fight, and if your opponent can't draw breath, they die fast." Kyle let the Frost sister loose, and patted her shoulder. "You go get some water, and trot right back here, we're gonna rework that into something you can legit use."
"I won't kill you," Liam promised, but that left a lot of room for terrible things. He didn't rang to kill her. He didn't want to hurt her. But he wanted her to stay alive with him and that meant making this real. It was all way too real. He easily had six inches and fifty pounds on Jessie, it wasn't a fair fight regardless of skill level.
Jessie had watched the exchange between Kyle and Celeste with a blank expression. She definitely looked nervous as she turned back to look at Liam, though. He was taller than her and heavier than her. She definitely couldn't take him.
"Thanks," she said softly.
==
An hour later, which felt like an eternity, Kyle had four-and-a-half sweaty 20-somethings, and a stress headache. It didn't matter which Frost sibling stepped into the ring, they were difficult and arrogant about it, or worse, infuriated at the other body for 'doing it wrong', Jessie and Liam both had to be coaxed into aggression and Laura had to be reminded to take it down a notch.
The invasive thought of 'if you keep doing this you're making them better predators' kept drifting through his mind, sweet and heavy and thick.
He whistled a sharp two-tone note, and grimaced as they all turned towards him. Fuck, so that -was- working, shit, fuck, dammit. "Okay, time out. Group training's not gonna cut it. We're gonna go do some solo assessments, and some individual work." He ruffled Liam's ears a little. "You are gonna go hit the weights, because we gotta get you stronger. You're flexible as fuck, time to get some muscle on. Lets see if we can drop one of those billion hours of yoga for some time with our friend the weight bench" and then pointed, claws out, at Jessie. "And I know you can make a set of these, so we're gonna work on that, and get you on weapons. Knives and shit, and in the meantime, it's cardio for Miss Jessie Drake, because your lung capacity is shit."
Jessie looked at her nails, then back at Kyle. Sure, she could make her nails a little sharp, but actual claws? That might take awhile.
"Knives and running," she said, rolling her shoulders and twisting a few times to limber up a bit. "I can do that."
Sighing, Liam rolled his eyes as he turned to the weight benches. He'd liked weight training at Xavier's, but here it felt more like they were trying to bulk him up or something, not just be healthier. "Body weight exercises aren't evil," he muttered, grabbing a kettle bell.
"They're lawful neutral you nerd!" Kyle called over his shoulder. "Okay, Laura, I think hand to hand is gonna have to be just you and me for you because you're full of kitchen knives. But you also don't need the same basics, so we'll talk about it after." He turned to look at the Frost twins. "You two - we gotta talk because you are all over the fucking place, and we need to assess both of your bodies separately because one of you thinks they can jump me and the other one can't even run a fucking mile."
Laura perked up at the mention of her name. Her eyes glossed over at the sound of Kyle's voice as she stepped forward, it was obvious they did something to her -- she was too docile. Immediately she went into a fighting posture, just like she was trained to do.
"After, kiddo. You and I are gonna do this after." Kyle patted her fists. "We'll throw down and they can watch you be badass and awesome, just go sit for a bit, okay?"
Unseen by the rest of the room, Fourteen gave Laura a hard mental poke, strong enough to snap her out of whatever it was she was feeling going on in the woman's brain. She watched some of the fogginess in her eyes clear up.
A telepath's work was never done, it seemed.
Now, for the next issues. Whatever the hell was going on with her coordination.
Laura winced slightly at a sharp pain where the constant itching was coming from, and felt some of the artificial docility slide off as her shoulders tensed once more.
"Actually, lets show them what this should look like." Kyle grinned at Laura as she rolled her shoulders and stepped into a more ready stance. It actually might be good to get some energy out, get his fight on a little with someone who got why a throw-down was fun.
~"And show them how it's done, they should be able to fight for their lives"~ That same syrupy thought came in, coating his decisions with verdant gravity
"Actually, don't even worry about pads, I'll heal from anything you've got. Lets show the rest of them what the end goal is." He stood up fully and shook out his arms, and let his claws slide out. "Change of plans, kids. Me and Laura are gonna throw down a little and you guys watch for a bit. I don't expect anybody to be able to fight like her, or me, but I do want you to get how this goes when you really do know how to hurt people."
TW: Indoctrination, Violence
The mats were thick and had to be new, because they were stiff and didn't have that stink of old sweat and blood yet. Kyle bounced a little on his bare feet on them, checked give, texture - they'd do acceptably well. He adjusted one - made a mental note to ask for tape for his hands and feet.
It'd be fuckin' stupid to cut up the kids while he was trying to get them in fighting shape.
"Right. Laura's been through it already, so - just go hit the weights for a couple for me, kiddo. You don't need the basics. Get some reps in, head back in..." Kyle tilted his head, thinking. He'd already gotten them to run some laps, stretch, warm up, despite some pointed complaining. "Twenty minutes. I'll need a fourth person by then." he waved her off with an approving nod. "Okay, the rest of you. I know you've all had basic hand to hand. This ain't that. This is basic fuck people up. We're gonna cover claws, hitting people in the soft places, and how to make someone stop breathing for a while."
Jessie bounced her knee nervously, looking around. Hitting in soft places she could do. Making someone stop breathing for a while? That sounded a little more intense and like it involved muscles. Something she definitely didn't have. She also didn't have claws. But nails were like human claws, right? A lot of self defense training had centered around "if you can't run, use your nails and go for the eyes."
Liam popped his claws, looking dubious. They were each about 2" and certainly sharp, he knew they could do real damage. But he'd already learned much more subtle ways to fuck up a person. Ways that wouldn't be obvious. Ways his claws shouldn't ever be used. Ways he didn't want to use them. But this wasn't about what he wanted. Bouncing on the balls of his feet, he mimed finger banging, claws out.
Celeste watched it all from her spot leaning against the nearby wall. "This is a waste of time," she scoffed. "I don't need combat training."
Kyle's head whipped around. "The fuck you don't." His voice was that calm, deep tone he'd had for - what felt like exhausting weeks of this bullshit. He knew the Frost girls were arrogant - over confident - a little bitchy. But the defiance was getting to him. "Get your ass in here. We're going to prove you wrong in under a minute." He watched one take a step forward, glance at the other, and then the one who had spoken continued moving. "I don't care which one of you. Just get one of your snob-ass bodies in here."
The Thing watches the moments that follow with blank eyes as she turns from the wall. Watches how Celeste steps onto the mats and takes a stance she knows she's seen herself take a hundred times, yet somehow seems ill-fitting, like a glove two sizes two large. She can see the moves in her mind's eye, but her body is too slow, too lacking the brutality she knows she is capable of. Very quickly, she finds herself flat on her back with a hand around her throat, and staring down at herself and up at herself and at herself in betrayal. She doesn't understand what just happened, or what has happened to her.
The Thing is smiling, and she doesn't understand how or why.
A tick. The sharp heat of a claw in her - artery - carotid artery. The term took too long to come to her. Because of the hypoxia. More heat behind her ear, hot breath in her face and then -
And then Kyle stood, wiped both hands off on his cargo pants. Cleaned the trace of blood on his claw with the hem of his t-shirt. "You're five inches too short for that shit, and the guy who invented it is almost too short for it." He looked down at - whichever Frost body this was - fuck they were confusing. "Get up, do it again slow. I'll show you why you die faster than you can go diamond if you try to fight like that guy."
He glanced at Jessie - "Don't you try this shit either. You're too skinny."
"Fine," Celeste said, attention split effortlessly between Kyle and The Thing. "Show me your basic bitch nonsense." She swiped a drop of blood from the small mark behind her ear, tacking the blood between her fingertips. "That will not happen again."
"Yeah, I wish that was true." Kyle tucked his claws away neatly. "Okay, see how when you step inside I'm already in range? You gotta either be faster than me and get all the way in before I can move." She did, slow and he pulled... whichever Frost in by the front of her shirt - hard, so she went off balance - and then trapped her with an arm around her neck. "Which isn't gonna happen with someone as fast as me. So you'd need to know how to redirect once I've got you. You tried the secret third thing. Don't do that." Until she was faster going diamond, at least. They'd have to work on that. Fuck people with non-organic arms sharing their combat shit -he'd helped them develop. Rude.
"Okay, now that we're through the stop fucking around portion, Liam, pair off with Jessie, I want you guys on chokeholds for a bit. Gotta breathe to fight, and if your opponent can't draw breath, they die fast." Kyle let the Frost sister loose, and patted her shoulder. "You go get some water, and trot right back here, we're gonna rework that into something you can legit use."
"I won't kill you," Liam promised, but that left a lot of room for terrible things. He didn't rang to kill her. He didn't want to hurt her. But he wanted her to stay alive with him and that meant making this real. It was all way too real. He easily had six inches and fifty pounds on Jessie, it wasn't a fair fight regardless of skill level.
Jessie had watched the exchange between Kyle and Celeste with a blank expression. She definitely looked nervous as she turned back to look at Liam, though. He was taller than her and heavier than her. She definitely couldn't take him.
"Thanks," she said softly.
==
An hour later, which felt like an eternity, Kyle had four-and-a-half sweaty 20-somethings, and a stress headache. It didn't matter which Frost sibling stepped into the ring, they were difficult and arrogant about it, or worse, infuriated at the other body for 'doing it wrong', Jessie and Liam both had to be coaxed into aggression and Laura had to be reminded to take it down a notch.
The invasive thought of 'if you keep doing this you're making them better predators' kept drifting through his mind, sweet and heavy and thick.
He whistled a sharp two-tone note, and grimaced as they all turned towards him. Fuck, so that -was- working, shit, fuck, dammit. "Okay, time out. Group training's not gonna cut it. We're gonna go do some solo assessments, and some individual work." He ruffled Liam's ears a little. "You are gonna go hit the weights, because we gotta get you stronger. You're flexible as fuck, time to get some muscle on. Lets see if we can drop one of those billion hours of yoga for some time with our friend the weight bench" and then pointed, claws out, at Jessie. "And I know you can make a set of these, so we're gonna work on that, and get you on weapons. Knives and shit, and in the meantime, it's cardio for Miss Jessie Drake, because your lung capacity is shit."
Jessie looked at her nails, then back at Kyle. Sure, she could make her nails a little sharp, but actual claws? That might take awhile.
"Knives and running," she said, rolling her shoulders and twisting a few times to limber up a bit. "I can do that."
Sighing, Liam rolled his eyes as he turned to the weight benches. He'd liked weight training at Xavier's, but here it felt more like they were trying to bulk him up or something, not just be healthier. "Body weight exercises aren't evil," he muttered, grabbing a kettle bell.
"They're lawful neutral you nerd!" Kyle called over his shoulder. "Okay, Laura, I think hand to hand is gonna have to be just you and me for you because you're full of kitchen knives. But you also don't need the same basics, so we'll talk about it after." He turned to look at the Frost twins. "You two - we gotta talk because you are all over the fucking place, and we need to assess both of your bodies separately because one of you thinks they can jump me and the other one can't even run a fucking mile."
Laura perked up at the mention of her name. Her eyes glossed over at the sound of Kyle's voice as she stepped forward, it was obvious they did something to her -- she was too docile. Immediately she went into a fighting posture, just like she was trained to do.
"After, kiddo. You and I are gonna do this after." Kyle patted her fists. "We'll throw down and they can watch you be badass and awesome, just go sit for a bit, okay?"
Unseen by the rest of the room, Fourteen gave Laura a hard mental poke, strong enough to snap her out of whatever it was she was feeling going on in the woman's brain. She watched some of the fogginess in her eyes clear up.
A telepath's work was never done, it seemed.
Now, for the next issues. Whatever the hell was going on with her coordination.
Laura winced slightly at a sharp pain where the constant itching was coming from, and felt some of the artificial docility slide off as her shoulders tensed once more.
"Actually, lets show them what this should look like." Kyle grinned at Laura as she rolled her shoulders and stepped into a more ready stance. It actually might be good to get some energy out, get his fight on a little with someone who got why a throw-down was fun.
~"And show them how it's done, they should be able to fight for their lives"~ That same syrupy thought came in, coating his decisions with verdant gravity
"Actually, don't even worry about pads, I'll heal from anything you've got. Lets show the rest of them what the end goal is." He stood up fully and shook out his arms, and let his claws slide out. "Change of plans, kids. Me and Laura are gonna throw down a little and you guys watch for a bit. I don't expect anybody to be able to fight like her, or me, but I do want you to get how this goes when you really do know how to hurt people."
