Title: Unbridled Essence
Author: BarbaraB
Pairing: Movieverse Lo/Ro eventually
Rating: PG-13 for now
Notes: This first chapter has been done for a while, but I wasn't sure if anyone would like it. Let me know if I should continue. If anyone comes up with a better name let me know.
Unbridled Essence
The danger room status light was red indicating that it was occupied. Not wanting to intrude on someone else's session Ororo went into the observation room wondering who was using the room when the schedule clearly blocked out an hour for her solitary training. She figured Wolverine's kung-fu class was just finishing up.
High above the danger room, Ororo could see that Wolverine's class was indeed occupying the room, but they were not finishing up, in fact they were all spread out on the floor doing their warm-up stretches. She spotted Wolverine among them. He sat spread eagle with his back toward her, across from Jon who mocked his sitting position. Wolverine's bare feet met Jon's sweat pant clad ankles.
"He probably delayed the class for an hour so that he could watch some sports event."
She said to herself, before pressing the speak button on the microphone, "Wolverine, are you aware of the time?"
"Yeah."
"Then I am sure you know that I am scheduled for a session-"
"Look, I'm a little busy right now," He said dismissively.
Pressing the button that lowered the room's shatterproof plexiglass windows, she flew into the open space of the danger room, and slowly descended to the floor glaring at the back of Wolverine's head.
He ignored her and reached across to grip Jon's hands ignoring the boy's obvious apprehension.
Wolverine slowly leaned back still holding tightly onto Jon's smaller hands. Jon gritted his teeth against the pain, but couldn't hold back a groan. His groan intensified into a pain filled scream as Logan's back hit the floor forcing the boy's legs into a full straddle.
The other kid's seemed to share the pain, writhing, and whimpering at the scene. Storm watched on in horror until finally she could no longer bear the sound of Jon's agony.
"Wolverine!"
"He'll live." He replied simply, holding the position.
"Release Jon this instant!"
Wolverine slowly sat up, and finally let go of Jon's hands.
Closing his long legs, and awkwardly getting to his feet Jon began to explain, "He's helping me get more flexible, Ms. Munroe."
Storm remained unconvinced. She turned to Wolverine, "May I speak with you in private, Wolverine?" It was a demand thinly disguised as a request.
He jumped to his feet, and turned to the students who watched, storing every last detail to recount immediately after class to their friends, "Pair off, and go over what we did last class."
Ororo led him to the far corner of the room, "Don't you know any less sadistic methods."
"No pain, no gain, but I don't expect you to understand that."
"What is that supposed to mean?"
He reached into his sweat pant pocket and removed a cigar before answering. "This ain't no pansy history class. If you 'X-men' are going to run around playing super hero you should at least no how to throw a punch. These kids are mutants, Storm. If they aren't going to fight they still need to defend themselves. A little pain now can prevent a tragedy later."
Though she hated to admit it, he had a point about the kids, but she didn't like his implication that the X-Men, namely her, were ill-equipped to fight the old fashioned way.
She quirked an eyebrow, "Wolverine, I can assure you that I can hold my own in a battle, even without my powers."
He was laughing loudly before she could even finish her sentence, "I'm sure all these years of living in a mansion on an estate the size of Rhode Island has turned you into a real femme fatale." As much as Wolverine enjoyed pissing her off he was ready to get back to his students, "Look I don't tell you how to teach your classes. Don't tell me how to teach mine." He removed the cigar from his mouth and put it back in his pocket, and started to walk away.
Ororo became indignant at his words, "I have lived here for slightly less than a third of my life, but you, Wolverine, have only been here for a few months. You have a lot to learn about this school and the people in it."
Chuckling he faced the woman who stood stiff behind him. She was pissed. He could feel the heat wafting off of her, "Everything I needed to know, I found out in the first two days. Me, I enjoy a good ol' fashioned brawl." He popped his claws and the sound of metal on metal set Ororo's teeth on edge, "but you X-Men? you don't fight, you zap anything in your way."
"That," Ororo said through clenched teeth, "is not true."
He smiled congenially, closing the space between them so that they were almost touching, "Prove it," He whispered, provoking her.
She was silent, and his small friendly smile turned wolfish. He retracted his claws, and whirled around. "Change of plans, kids," He declared as if announcing a class trip. Ororo watched Wolverine cross the room to where the students stood, "Yer gonna watch a demo today."
"Ms. Munroe, the very same Ms. Munroe who teaches your history class, has volunteered."
"Wolverine, I-" Ororo came to stand behind him.
He faced her, sneering smugly "I knew it."
Ororo took a deep breath, "Fine."
She was surprisingly easy to manipulate when she was angry. He smiled and once again faced the students, "Take a seat beside the mat, kids, and take notes."
Ororo did a short series of stretches while Wolverine addressed the children. She watched through angry slitted eyes sizing up her opponent.
She and Wolverine had been at each others throats ever since he'd come back with an even larger chip on his shoulder. Even Scott seemed to let him slide a little too often for Ororo's liking. She attributed that to Jean. The red-haired doctor probably begged Scott to cut Wolverine some slack. The Professor, on the other hand, was often off at some meeting, or conference, and did not have the time to deal with Wolverine. In order to keep him around he convinced him to teach a self-defense class for anyone who was interested.
Ororo found him insufferable, and thought he was a bad influence on everyone in the mansion including herself. Just look at what she was about to do.
After doing a quick stretch routine she pulled off her, black and yellow, button down, Xavier Institute track pants, to reveal a pair of matching shorts. She then wrapped her hair into a tight pony tail and removed her long-sleeved tee shirt. They now both wore black wife beaters with the yellow "Xavier School Staff" logo.
Finally she stood in front of her students and Wolverine, legs shoulder width apart, hands fisted at her sides. Wolverine stood across from her and bowed. Ororo waited for him to finish bowing, but did not make a motion to do the same. Immediately after he came up, the heel of Ororo's sneaker connected with his chin, she followed up with another kick in his gut, and an elbow to his nose. She jumped back as a spurt of blood shot from his nose, and the pain of adamantium striking her funny bone kicked in. The stupidity of what she was doing finally struck her as she took a chop from the 400 pound Wolverine. A regular street fight this was not. He wasn't going to tire before her, and three seconds later the only sign of his busted nose was a splatter on the mat beside them. He was, of course, not using all of his strength against her. She knew that because her jaw was not shattered although her vision had gone white for a second. So now her objective was to not get hit while simultaneously finding his weak spots. He used the heel of his hand to smash her face and this time her nose sprayed, but hers didn't stop. She stumbled backwards, and Wolverine was right on her. He dropped to a crouch and swept his leg under her feet. She lost her balance and fell to her hands and knees. He bounced up and gave her a swift shin to the ribs.
The students excited cheers, and boos melted into silence as they realized that their mentors were serious. They were really fighting, that was obvious as Ms. Munroe struggled to get to her feet.
Wolverine stood back, in fighting stance, waiting for her to get her bearings, "Ready to stop?"
Storm didn't answer when she was finally standing again she wiped her nose on the hem of her shirt, and sniffed.
He took that as a "no," and lunged at her leading with his right fist, Ororo sidestepped him. She jumped into the air, spinning around to kick him in the back of his head. He doubled over, and she used all of her strength to drop her heel onto his back, following up with an elbow to the fleshy area beside his spine. Trying not to give him an opening, she kneed him twice in the stomach, careful not to hit him in the groin. She wasn't ready to fight dirty yet.
Wolverine dropped to his knees. When he had busted her nose in the beginning he thought that maybe he was being to rough with but that compassion was lost now, for she was hitting him harder than ever. He guessed that she realized that she couldn't win, and so she was resorting to not giving him a chance to hit her. He was right. The sole of her shoe smashed into the side of his face turning his face toward the students. If his eyes were open he would have seen their terrified expressions.
A younger student covered in shiny black fur, lept out of the danger room, and into the open windows of the observation room to get help.
Ororo flipped away from Wolverine as he stood up. He caught up to her already recovered, and the two began to throw blows. Wolverine used his martial arts expertise to block Ororo's street style attacks, often returning them with damaging chops, and kicks. They were no longer on the mat, and had traveled far from the students who now had to turn around to watch them. When Ororo felt she couldn't take one more hit to the torso she grabbed one of his wrists. She dropped to her knees and used Wolverine's own momentum to flip him over her back. When he tried to get up she used a wicked kick combo to knock him back down, but he was too fast. Wolverine snatched her foot, moved it away from his face, and twisted. She lost her balance and fell to the floor on her belly, her hands smacking the metal floor with a loud clap.
He held onto her foot as she tried to push herself up. She kicked back and missed. He had her at a big disadvantage. Wolverine bent her leg down grasping her ankle in one hand so that he could straddle her back. He snatched one of her arms out from under her by her wrist, and twisted it behind her, pressing it tightly between her shoulder blades letting her foot drop to the floor.
Ororo writhed, but knew she would not be able to get out of the position she was in.
"Say uncle." Wolverine snickered in her ear.
His laughter was cut short by a high pitched whistling that could only be the sound of an optic blast. Suddenly Ororo was free, and Wolverine was no longer astride her back.
She turned over, one leg straight the other bent up, leaning on her palms. The kids were had disappeared from the room, and Cyclops was running toward her.
He looked pissed.
"What the hell is going on here?!" Scott yelled in disbelief, he offered a hand to Ororo. She took it, and he snatched her up. Looking past Scott she could see the danger room doors sliding closed behind Jean, shutting out the young faces that peered in from the hallway.
An outraged growl made the three look to where Wolverine lay sprawled on his back not far from where he had Ororo pinned. He rocked his legs straight back over his head, and then kicked them forward, arching his back. He landed on his feet and came over to where the other X-Men stood.
Both Scott and Jean stared at Ororo and Wolverine slack jawed.
"What?" Ororo asked.
"What the hell were you two doing?"
"What does it look like?" Wolverine asked.
"It looks like you were fighting in front of the students." Jean answered.
"There ya' go." Wolverine responded gesturing with his hands.
"No, it looked like you were putting some kind of Stone Cold Steve Austin move on the
history teacher."
Wolverine smiled, "Hey to be fair she got a few good licks in herself."
Jean and Scott looked Ororo up and down, "Then how come she looks like she got hit by a train and you don't look any worse than usual?" Scott asked.
"Not everyone has a healing factor."
"What were you thinking, Ororo?"
Ororo silently fumed, arms crossed over her chest.
"Scott, I think this is out of your hands. Let the Professor handle this on Monday when he gets back." Jean started to put her arm around Ororo, but didn't want to bruise her friend's ego. She hooked their arms together, and pulled her to the exit, "I'm taking Ororo to the med lab."
"Fine."
After the doors closed behind the women, Scott turned to Wolverine.
"If I didn't know better, I'd reprimand you for fighting a woman," He said stiffly, "but if there's one thing I know about Ororo, it's that she looks like a woman, but fights like a man."
Scott pivoted on his heels leaving the other man alone.
"Computer?"
"Yes, Wolverine?"
"Begin sequence number 7, opponent: Storm."
"You let him get to you, Ro."
"I detest him." She said as the doctor tilted her head back to stop her nose bleed. Ororo was sitting on the examination table as Jean buzzed around her tending to her wounds.
"I can't believe you." Jean chuckled as she handed Ororo two ice packs, one for her jaw, and the other for her ribs.
"It's not funny," Ororo pouted.
"It is too! What were you thinking fighting a man with a metal skeleton, and a superhuman healing factor?" She tilted Ororo's head back for the fourth time.
"My judgment was clouded; I hadn't considered the odds until it was too late."
"Now he knows what the rest of us have known for a long time."
"What is that?"
"He knows that you, Ororo, have a red hot temper, and I won't be the least bit surprised if he tries to use that against you."
Next: What will the Professor say?
R/R