Baiting the Wolf [Drabble]
Ororo looked down from her place in the observation deck overlooking the Danger Room. Over the past few weeks she has been leading the team on daily exercises after a screw up left two of their pedestrian charges injurred. One was in critical condition and he was currently still in the hospital; only recently has he reawoken from the trauma induced coma. Ororo took the injuries as a personal failure in her leadership. Deciding that it would not happen again, she has been pushing the X-Men and stretching their skills to the limits.
“FOCUS! Stop fooling around. You’re trying my patience.”
The initial sessions focused on teamwork, the schedule contained several combinations of groups to improve everyone’s experience in cooperating with each individual on the team. After several small group and full team sessions, Ororo began to schedule individual sessions to work on each X-Man’s particular weaknesses. Kitty’s exercises focused on hand to hand combat skills. Peter’s exercises worked on his accuracy and and delicacy; Bobby’s revolved around his strategy and problem solving.
Daily, she would check on the medical status of both of the injured. Their prognosis weighed heavy on her conscious.
“This is a serious exercise. Please obtain the objective without losing your temper.”
“‘Ro, this is fucking ridiculous. I don’t need to do this poor excuse for training again.”
“AGAIN!”
Of course, when the time came for Logan’s indivdual exercises and he made no effort to hide his frustration with any perceived sign of weakness. He was an excellent assassin and operative when needed. He would be the go-to person if there were a need to eliminate a threat with violence and certainty. Unfortuately, the short man with the mouth of a sailor had a temper larger than his ego. Ororo’s main concern with Wolverine was his inability to tame his beserker rage when the need to neutralize a target without injury arose.
The program ended again; this time with the target’s right shoulder dislocated, the forearm broke, and his head on the ground, 2 feet from the rest of his body. Ororo stormed onto the Danger Room floor.
“LOGAN. What is your issue with just completing the objective? You’re supposed to subdue the target without injury. THAT is a dead target.” She points in the area where the ‘body’ lay before the simulation ended. She seethed, glaring down at the man. Sometimes he could be so damn frustrating. He stood with his arms crossed, smug look on his face. “That time darlin’, I was pretending it was you.”
A beat passed. Ororo removed her jacket and tossed it to the corner of the room. She was starting to get a tension headache. Logan could be so damn infuriating at times. “OK. That’s how you want to play it, fine. Let’s try this one final time tonight. Don’t pretend. Not this time.” She activated the signal for the timer before quickly entering offensive attack mode.
Even with her lack of warning, Logan reacted quickly and avoided a hit. Ororo kept up her attack, keeping her opponent on the defensive. Several jabs and a few kicks landed but not without Logan responding in kind. His face continued to display a smug smirk. He wasn’t really trying. Deciding to remedy that, Ororo does a backflip and suddenly strikes him with a mini lightning bolt.
Admantium skeleton and 1 billion volts of electricity put on a brilliant display of arcing light before the mutant collapsed to the floor. It was only a second before he popped back up, the smirk no longer present. Ororo quirks and eyebrow, a dare if he ever saw one.
“So that’s how you gonna play ‘Ro?”
“I thought you didn’t have any weaknesses….”
“Don’t pretend. Not this time.”
