Chapter 9: Recon Work


July 4: Second Day of Training

Capitol Training Complex for the Tributes


"Did you catch him coming in at all?" Scott asked Clara as the two of them walked down to the training room, with Logan a few paces behind them, escorting them to the entrance as he'd done the day before.

"He was drinking coffee when I got up," Clara said quietly, glancing over her shoulder for just a moment. Victor was a few paces behind Logan and watching the two of them carefully. "Or, he was staring at the cup anyhow."

Scott shook his head, clearly annoyed. "He came in before I was up, but I saw the attempt at cleanup. He looks like crap, Clara," he grumbled, though he too, stole a quick peek at their mentors as they continued on.

"I don't know what to tell you," she said. "It wasn't Victor. He was in the suite all night."

"Then what…" Scott trailed off, let out all his breath, and ran a hand over his face.

"I don't know. They actually talked for a minute. It was too quiet for me to catch, though. Something's up."

"No kidding," he said dryly just before they came to a stop, and the two tributes turned to catch the little nod from both Logan and Creed before they broke off and headed off to do whatever the victors did while the kids went to train.

Clara let out a sigh and shook her head as they crossed the threshold into the already busy training center. "Has he done anything to screw you up?"

"It's not me I'm worried about," Scott pointed out.

"Then who are you worried about?" she asked as their conversation continued at a whisper, their heads together.

"The other kids, the ones he's teaching …"

"Do you think he's screwing them up?" she asked.

"I think he's doing what he always does. He likes to have friends, but he doesn't put in the effort to stay friendly," Scott admitted, looking fairly annoyed about it.

"Uh-huh," she said with a little smirk. "And you've spent a lot of time trying on your end too?"

"Me? No. Whole bunch of disappointed little kids who can't find him when they need him? Yeah," Scott grumbled.

She shook her head and stepped in closer to whisper as quietly as she was able to him. "Okay, let me make this easy for you, because you don't know the whole story. Once you win? You don't get a say in your time management, got that? You don't know what's going on with all that mess. So don't throw stones."

He raised an eyebrow her way and looked more annoyed, if that was possible. "See, that's just it. It'd be one thing if it was just that he's gone — which he is. But the guy gets home and still …." He waved a hand. "He has a tendency to disappear, Clara. Gets too wrapped up in… whatever he thinks is so important. Even when he's not at the Capitol. I get the Capitol part, I do. It tweaks Heather. But…" He just let out a frustrated noise. "Forget it."

"If I could tell you more without you freaking out right now where there are cameras and microphones, I would," Clara promised. "But believe it or not — he has a good reason to be looking and acting the way he is."

"Well, when you feel like sharing the 'good reason' to leave kids in the lurch, let me know. It's not just a victor thing, or Groot would be ditching too."

"You don't think so?" she asked with a raised eyebrow. "Was Logan like this before?"

"I didn't really know him before I found him passed out in the snow after your brother did a number on him," Scott admitted. "So I couldn't tell you."

"Then you can't possibly know if it's a victor thing or not, can you?"

"Clara, you're just proving my point," he countered. "If it's just a Logan thing — then get ready for him to disappear. Again."

"Right. I know the guy's story. It's a miracle he's here at all — victor thing or not, and it is a thing. Try giving him a little bit of a chance. He's helped the kids improve by leaps and bounds. And hey. Guess what? He likes you."

Scott stared at her for a second before he waved her off. "It's too early for jokes, Clara."

"It's not a joke," she said, eyes flashing. "I'm not the Creed to lie for kicks, Scott." With that, she turned away from him and swept off, looking supremely irritated with him.

Scott watched her go for a second before he grumpily made his way over to the knives station, where Falsworth was going over safety rules. He went to the weapons rack to look over the blades they had there and grabbed a few for throwing. It was actually pretty satisfying to hear the thunk every time they hit the wood dummy, though it didn't totally get rid of his bad mood, especially when he spotted Clara not doing any of the stations.

This is what happens when you partner with a Creed, he thought grumpily as he reached for another throwing knife and found the redhead from One at the weapons rack as well.

"Looks like your partner's a little upset. What happened with her?" Jean asked with a dismissive glance Clara's way. "Awfully emotional over nothing."

Scott shrugged as he picked out another two knives. "She just doesn't get what's happening," he grumbled. "Even when I'm trying to warn her so she's prepared for it."

"Yeah? What's the dispute?" she asked, looking genuinely interested. "And why wouldn't she listen to you? You're clearly the brains over there."

For a moment, Scott didn't answer except to throw both of his knives with a loud thunk. When he did turn back her way, he was still annoyed as he said, "Doesn't really matter. If you know anything about Seven, it's that the mentors are stupid and the drama is overplayed. Great place to be stuck for a week."

"It can't be all bad if you're there," she said with a little smile that was lost entirely on him.

He shook his head. "It's been the same old crap for the last year. Nothing to be done about it except to stay clear of the whole mess," he muttered, mostly to himself, before he headed to the target to pry his knives back out.

She frowned as she watched him. He clearly wasn't getting it. But when he came back, she took the more direct route and popped up on her toes to steal a quick kiss. "Lighten up, big guy. We're not in a fight to the death yet."

Scott was totally gobsmacked by the move, eyes wide for a long moment before the very corner of his mouth twitched up. "Yet," he repeated.

"See you later," Jean said with a little blush before she cut out of the knives station and moved on to other things.


July 4

Triskellion


Simmons almost wasn't surprised anymore that when Logan came in, it was always because he had managed to get himself more hurt than he had any right to be on whatever missions he was running for Fury. This time, she was more surprised by the timing than anything else, and she was already shaking her head as he came in. "Really? Don't you have other things you're supposed to be doing besides getting yourself all…" She gestured at the bruising she could already see even with his shirt on.

"I should be sleeping," he pointed out. "But seeing as the last time I crashed, this happened, I figured I better get it checked before I get shot again." He paused and tipped his head a bit. "Probably later tonight."

She dropped her shoulders and tutted at him as she looked him over. "What do you mean this happened while you were asleep?" She almost couldn't help the teasing smile. "You didn't have a violent sleeper anywhere near you."

He chuckled at that and had to smirk. "No, that might have had a more pleasant outcome. This was from a violent sociopath. I was trying to rest up, and Vic got a hold of me."

Simmons fell into a glare at that and started to shake her head. "Ooh, if I was two feet taller…"

"Didn't stop me, and it didn't stop the little girl that creamed him the day before."

"Oh, I like her already. Which one was that?" Simmons asked, brightening considerably.

"Twelve," he said with a little smirk. "She's got a shot. Unless she falls on her sword to save her partner, which she's intending to do."

"That's the darling little star child who volunteered for his sweetheart, right?" Simmons asked with a sort of sigh and a smile.

"Yep. And the one who spotted my little problem — or I probably would have waited until later in the week."

Simmons gave him a disapproving look at that one. "This is not the kind of thing you should wait on, especially if you plan to be shot at later," she pointed out.

"Figured I wouldn't come to you unless I was hacking up blood."

"Honestly!" She sounded scandalized as she shook her head at him. "Do you hate it when I poke you with needles that much?"

He looked up at her a bit sheepishly. "You really want me to answer that?"

"Well, if you're scared of needles — or if you don't like medical — or whatever it is, I'd like to make you more comfortable, for how often you're here," she said.

"Don't worry about it," he said with a little shake of his head. "I can take it."

"Do you want a lollie when I'm done?" she teased. "For being such a good patient?"

"You're not making this any better, doc."

"And you're scared of needles," she countered with a little smile.

"I'm not scared of needles."

"Well, since you seem to be unable to give me a cogent reason for your irrational distaste for Medical, I'm just going to have to assume that's a lie," she said.

"You're right. I have no reason to be anti-medical at all," he said in a dead tone.

She gave him a bit of a look as she finished up, then shook her head. "Right then. Well, I don't have any lollies or stickers for you today, but I'll be sure to stock them," she said. "So you can go back and get some sleep — or if you like, you can steal a couch here. We tend to have fewer surprise attacks here."

"That's probably the smarter bet for the time being," he said. "I needed to see the details on the run for later anyhow. And I have a few hours. Point me."

Simmons smiled as she pointed him toward a couch close by. "Just make sure to put Skye's laptop somewhere it won't be knocked over. That's her favorite couch for curling up — and she keeps stealing the corner spot from the rest of us." Simmons let out a pretended longsuffering sigh. "Some of us like to lay out and read a good book too, and it's the best spot in the house — so to speak."

"Thanks," he said with a half smile before he headed over. He didn't bother to look at what was on the screen before he moved the laptop to a nearby table — careful not to unplug it before he wadded up the flannel that he'd taken off and curled up to try to grab a couple hours of sleep. It wasn't far into the training day, and he had plenty of time to kill, even if Jess was going to give him twenty questions on where he disappeared to later.


Training Center for the Tributes


There were so many stations to get through in only three days, and Kamala really wanted to be sure she got through as many as possible, though she wasn't going to even try on some of the weapons. She did try the knives station for a while, but it sort of made her queasy, because the targets were person-shaped, and while it was all well and good punching Logan's hand on the roof, throwing knives as people-shaped targets… was not something she could really do.

She put the knives back where she'd found them and was backing away from the weapons rack when she ran into someone, and she spun around to find a big wall of muscle inches away from her.

Kamala couldn't help but let out a little squeak as she scrambled back away from the huge Ten boy, who hadn't moved a muscle as she muttered out a quick apology. He didn't step aside for her, either, so she quickly skirted around him, still fairly wide-eyed as she took off for someplace safer …. like the traps station. It looked like the nice boy from Eleven was having a blast with the kid from Three.

Miles was wiping tears from his eyes from laughter when Kamala arrived, and he beamed at her and waved her over. "Hey, Kamala!" he said. "Have you met Trevor yet? He's hilarious!"

Kamala shook her head 'no' and then waved at Trevor, her mouth still a little dry from her encounter with the Ten boy. "Hi."

"Come on, come on — join us," Trevor said with a broad smile. "We're having a great time watching the competition." He said the last bit in a stage whisper, his nose scrunched up as he smiled her way. "They're awfully serious, don't you think, little bird?"

"Yeah," she breathed out, nodding a few times. "That guy back there has all the personality of a brick wall."

"Well, at least that means he matches the outside," Miles pointed out as he patted the chair next to him, and Kamala gratefully took a seat.

"Shouldn't you be actually, I don't know, working on traps here or something?" Kamala asked, but Miles just shook his head.

"We can do that while we people-watch. And people-watching is way more fun. Like… watch the Fours and tell me that's not the strangest relationship ever. He treats her like a goddess, and she treats him like a servant, and I don't even know which is weirder." Miles gestured toward the Fours, where Skurge was, in fact, retrieving arrows for Amora at the archery station.

"That can't possibly last long," Trevor said as he leaned back and crossed his ankles in front of him. "And my district partner's a walking time bomb. Buncha fruitloops this year." He turned toward Kamala. "Not like yours is much better, though. At least they'll be out of the breeding pool."

She glanced between Trevor and Miles for a moment before she gave Trevor a hesitant sort of smile. "Yeah, I'm not really … he's … I'm staying away from him."

"Stay away from the other Ten, too," Miles whispered her way, pointing toward where the girl in question was simply slicing a dummy to bits at the sword station with particular glee.

"Well, not everyone is crazy," Kamala said. "I actually like the kids in Seven."

"Really?" Miles leaned forward, clearly interested. "Even the one with the unfortunate family resemblance? Because I gotta tell you, I've been avoiding her like the plague. I do not want to wind up as cat food."

"She's nice, and so is her partner — and their mentor," Kamala defended.

"I thought they had different mentors," Trevor said with a little frown. "One of 'em is supposed to be dealing with the big violent one, innit he? Or she?"

"Well, technically…" Kamala waved him off. "But nobody wants that guy as a mentor. Like, I certainly don't want mine."

"Ridiculous," Trevor said. "Of course. I've got a lovely one, don't I? Lucky boy that I am. Absolutely no sense of humor on him, but he is a lovely sort of chap, I think."

"Mine's pretty great, too," Miles said with a nod. "Only I've got one with a sense of humor. Sam actually laughs at my jokes."

"Well, I think I'll leave you two kiddies be. My district partner looks like she's getting too confident. Time to bring her down a notch into reality again." He gave them both a little wave with the tips of his fingers. "Until next time, then!" He got up and headed right for the girl from Three and promptly knocked over half of the sword rack when he got close to her, causing a major commotion as he loudly apologized for wrecking her pick up line as she talked to the swordsman. "I'm sure the thirty years or so between you is nothing at all! Like a drop in the ocean, really! Lookit! You've got the same facial hair pattern! It's fate!"

Kamala couldn't help but to laugh at Trevor's antics. "He's nuts, isn't he?"

"Yeah, but I think it's the harmless kind of nuts," Miles said with a little laugh.

"Which is rare, with everyone else around here," Kamala pointed out, grinning.

"Yeah, well, us non-psychos gotta stick together," Miles teased.

"Ooh, that reminds me." Kamala turned toward Miles with a big grin on. "You should come up to the roof sometime. A whole bunch of other kids come up there after training, and you could really learn stuff away from… you know." She gestured at the girl from Two, who was more than keeping up with the Swordsman's training. "The scary-good competition."

"I thought this was all the training we got to do?" Miles said with a tiny frown.

She grinned at him and shook her head, though she raised her finger to her lips when she noticed that her district partner was headed their way. "I'll tell you later!" she promised, zipping off so she wouldn't have to be anywhere near Brock and leaving Miles a bit confused in the process.


At the knots station, Alex was staring at the bit of rope in his hands like it had betrayed him as he slowly shook his head. "Yeah, I'm definitely not getting this," he muttered as he tried to find a way to undo… whatever mess he'd made. It wasn't coming undone easily, either, even though they were supposed to be doing slip knots.

"Are you trying to make a noose?" Kitty asked as she took the spot next to him. "Because I'm not sure how helpful that's going to be."

Alex let out a long sigh and shook his head. "No, I was trying for… you know what, never mind." He tossed aside the length of rope and looked her way. "What station were you just at? Maybe I'll go there, try something else. Clearly, knot-tying is not for me."

"I did climbing, but I was thinking about doing the wave pool," she said. "The more interesting ones are super busy, and the girl from Two is hogging the swords."

"That… I think I could actually do that," Alex said with a little nod. "Mind if I join you?"

"Of course I don't mind," she said with a little smile. "What kind of partner would I be if I did?"

He matched her smile and got to his feet, leading the way to the wave pool with what was more his usual grin instead of the frustrated look he'd been wearing that looked way too much like his older brother all morning. But it was hard not to be frustrated when he was having a hard time getting anything done at any of the stations. The best station he'd had luck with so far was, well, it was just typical for Nine to be good with a sickle.

He and Kitty split ways to change quickly before they met back up to get the rundown of how things were going to go — and Alex was relieved to hear that it was actually pretty straightforward. Just stay above the water. Don't drown. He could do that.

He and Kitty hit the water, and they swam out to the middle of the pool before the waves got started, but they started out small, gauging their strength.

"This is actually fun," Alex called out Kitty's way with a little grin as he tread water. "We should get bigger waves; this is, like, a rocking chair."

"Of course you're a natural in the water," Kitty said with a little laugh. "Makes perfect sense. Being from a place nowhere near water."

"Hey, don't knock it," Alex called her way as he started to float on his back with his hands behind his head. "I think I could live here."

"Then I hope we get a stretch of ocean for you," she said with a little smile.

"That would be great!" Alex agreed before he turned over in the water and started to swim circles around her. "Don't worry; I'd keep you from drowning," he teased.

She had to roll her eyes at him, but at least he was in a better mood now, positively beaming when they got out of the pool and toweled off.

"What next, Alex?" Kitty asked as she tried to wring the water out of her hair.

"I dunno — you said you were going to climb, right? Why don't we do that?"

"Sounds good," she said with a little smile. "Maybe you've got a little Seven in you, surfer boy."

Alex shook his head. "We'll see, but I think you're confusing me for my older, not nearly as cool brother."

"I could never confuse you for someone so uptight," Kitty said quietly, though she was giggling a bit.

He grinned at her and grabbed her by the arm. "Come on, Kitty. I'll race you."


Bucky had no idea what to do with himself anymore. He'd already looked through the stations he thought might do him some good, and there wasn't anything for him to do now but to just … work out.

Lucky for him, no one was at the weight machines and gym area when he got there, and after fiddling with a few machines, he headed over to the heavy bag and started to hit it. He wasn't being particularly involved with it until the creep from Six made his way over to work the other heavy bag. This guy seemed to be overly focused on Bucky as he hit his bag — glancing up at him before almost every hit, smirking to himself when he started hitting the bag harder.

For a moment, Bucky thought the guy was being a jerk, but then he kind of got mad when he realized that this Brock creep was trying to intimidate him. He let out a huff of a laugh and decided to fight fire with fire and began to amp up his hits on the bag he was working.

It wasn't long before the two of them were pounding the bags outright — and both bags were swinging with every hit, though the more that Brock looked over at Bucky, the more irritated Bucky got, and it wasn't too long before Bucky really let loose and simply creamed the bag with a heavy right that split the seams and dumped sand all over the boxing area.

In an instant, there was a whistle blown, and the two boys were ushered from the area for clean up and for the attendants to hang a new bag. But all it really ended up being was an opportunity for the two boys to glare at each other — and Bucky was sure to let the kid know what he thought.

"Let me know when you catch up, ugly." Bucky shot him a little smile before he turned and walked away from the whole scenario, ready to go find his partner — wherever she'd gone off to.

Actually, Jessica hadn't gone all that far, and while she had been thinking about going to the climbing course after the Nines vacated it, she stopped to watch the ridiculous display of machismo going on at the weights station instead, shaking her head to herself as she watched her partner and the guy from Six posturing at each other.

It was dumb, and even though she had to smirk when she saw him take a parting shot at the Six guy, it didn't make the whole display any less caveman-like. Honestly.

She didn't even notice that someone else had been watching the show until she heard the boy from One right behind her as he leaned over her shoulder. "I take it you're not impressed?" he asked, with a look somewhere between mild interest and pure disdain as he watched the crew cleaning up the sand from Bucky's hard hit.

Jessica took a step forward first before she turned to glare at him, her arms over her chest. "With the posturing? No," she said, though she was glaring at him and not looking toward the weight station in the least.

"It's such a shame not everyone realizes you need more than brute force to win these Games," he sighed, though he didn't seem the least bit troubled by it.

"Right. Well. Good luck with your … whatever," Jessica said as she looked him up and down. "Brute force clearly isn't going to be your friend."

He smirked her way. "No, but brains trump brawn every time, I've always found."

"Then it's too bad you don't have either," she shot back.

His eyes flashed for a moment as he glared at her. "That wasn't very nice."

She frowned at him as she walked away from him backwards. "I missed the part where we're supposed to make friends here."

"Clearly." He continued to glare her way before he sneered. "Be careful, my dear. It doesn't do to be alone in the arena."

"Right. Good luck making friends. I'm sure that personality won't get in the way at all."

He stared after her for another long moment before he spun on his heel and stalked off, leaving Jessica shaking her head over the whole thing. A whole bunch of posturing, crazy guys. That's what she had to deal with.