"You what?" Victor snapped at the runt beside him, with less ferocity than Logan expected.
"She gotta train somehow Victor." Logan argued, not caring if his brother liked it or not. He was gonna train her from now on, better than watching Wade practically molest the kid with every chance he got. "She's on our team, and since there's nothin' we can do about it, might as well make sure she can fight."
Victor's hopelessly broad shoulders eased slightly. He gave his brother a lopsided smirk showing the sharp ends of his canines, "And you think you're the one to teach her?".
Logan shoots a look so cold, it would've made anyone else quiver. "I think I've gotten into enough fights to know a thing or two." He grimaced.
"Only 'cause I taught you everything you know," Victor reminded. Once again they were like kids, Victor the responsible one in charge of his baby brother. "Only 'cause I'm always getting into fights you start." He murmured under his breath and forked a bite of sausage in his mouth.
Victor took another sip of his coffee, not even trying to hide his grin. He had to admit it was the truth, as appalling as it might seem, watching his brother get his ass handed to him on his behalf was a guilty pleasure. Jimmy, of course, didn't see the fun in it.
The mess hall clamored with the buzz of a few dozen soldier, scientist, and some other workers. Logan and Victor roosted in the corner where they could observe every angle in the room. Victor smelled her before she walked into the hall, and suddenly the buzz of soldiers quieted as they watched the mutant with contempt. Almost a dozen good soldiers, friends, had died at her hands and here she was walking around still drawing breath while their mates were in the ground. Rhaella knew what they where thinking too. The smell of anger and fear rolled off of them as she passed by each table men turned their heads to get a good look. She ignored them and continued forward hoping to find a place to sit. Hell, she'd gladly take a seat next to Wilson than endure the stares from the other shoulders. She stopped for a second to scan the room looking for an empty table but there where none. Her stomach jumped when she saw the brothers seated in the corner. Sitting next to Logan would be better than nothing, even if she didn't appreciate Victor's presence, Logan had been pleasant company.
"Do you mind if a sit with you?" She asked, Logan nodded. Trying not to sigh in relief she gracefully took a seat, not knowing what to do if he had said no. Victor didn't seem to object either, but a contempt look remained on his face as if she was interrupting something important.
"Looks like your popular." Logan pointed out to the men behind her. She glanced back to see everyone had turned back to their conversations now that she was sitting with the intimidating ferals no one would say a peep. "I know they hate me for what I did." She said looking back at Logan. The corner of Victor's lip twitched in the briefest of smirks as he remembered himself being in a similar situation that brought the to Striker in the first place. "Their afraid of you" He muttered deeply. She looked up in surprise not expecting him to say anything and her emerald eyes met with his dark ones for a brief moment before he looked back to his plate and took another bite of steak.
She rubbed her palms on her thighs unconsciously, not feeling any less awkward. "Don't worry about what they think" Logan shook his head. "You don't gotta work with them, you work with us." Well that was a relief that she wouldn't be working with the rest of the soldiers and Logan was right it didn't matter what they thought about her. She still couldn't help feeling she deserved their hate for what happened even if it was out of her control. But it wasn't like she'd be making apologies to every single person anytime soon.
Her stomach ached in hunger as she looked down at Logan and Victor's plates. She excused herself to go over to the area where some older women were slapping food onto trays of the men standing in line. She picked up a tin tray and waited in line, earning heated glares from others in front of her. Ignoring them, she looked to see what they were serving.
"eggs?" The older woman in a hair net grunted at her. Although the grey buzz cut and hairs sticking out of her chin made that up for debate. "Yes please." She murmured and the lunch lady slapped a spoon full on her tray and sending her down the assembly line. Eggs and toast would be enough, she decided since her appetite wasn't very large this morning. She stopped in front of a younger man buttering toast and waited for him to look up. A few seconds that felt like hours went by and he wasn't paying her any attention and a few people were waiting behind her. She cleared her throat to get his attention. The young man looked up at her as if she was interrupting something important. His arms where slim but had only a hint of muscles and his hair was cropped close on the sides like the other soldiers. "Could I have some toast?" She asked softly. His eyes widened for just a split second as if not expecting her voice to be so light. The scowl returned to his face "What? Bitch ran out of blood to suck?" Her jaw dropped not expecting to be hit with such a nasty comment, at least not to her face."Excuse me?" Was the only words she could form in her mind at the moment. "You heard me, fuck out of here I ain't serving no fucking freak." He snarled. Rhaella didn't know what to say, instead she looked around to see if anyone else was seeing this happen right now. What had been a few people waiting behind her had turned into a long line of smug faces happy to hear her being told off. "Look I just wanted some toast" she said with more attitude due to the fact that she had a crowd of pissed soldiers waiting for breakfast. The young man picked up a piece of toast, spat on it and tossed it on her tray. "There's your fucking toast."
It was at that moment everything slowed down. Rhaella could feel the anger building in her stomach and she came to a decision to remain calm, give the guy an equally rude retort and walk away. Or she could release all the pent up frustration today, all of the condescension from Wade, the others on her team, and now this weasel in front of her. Within a split second she found herself grabbing the cold tin tray and swinging it with all the force she could muster. The tray met with the kids face sending the plate and its contents flying. The metal warped from colliding with his skull and His head was sent sideways with a trail of blood following out of his mouth.
From across the room Victor grinned from his seat at the scene of the little kitten cracking a metal tray across the kid's face. Him and Jimmy could hear the whole scuffle from where they sat. Victor was thinking about going over there and set the little shit straight but was surprised to see she had it all handled. He reclined back in his seat and chuckled as the boy fell unconsciously to the floor and Rhaella looked back to the men now standing back in fear and amusement. She snatched a tray full of food from one of the men behind her who flinched in response and made her way back to Logan and Victor. "You're right Jimmy, she'll do just fine."
Rhaella didn't like Zero. It wasn't his lack of scent, which she didn't trust, but his enjoyment at her humiliation.
After the little show during breakfast Aleesa came to take her to shooting practice. Rather than heading the usual route to the indoor range Aleesa was heading towards the exit. "Where are we going? I thought the shooting range was that way."
Aleesa was showered and groomed back to her proper state. "We're shooting outdoors today, with moving targets." She said with feigned excitement. "Did I miss something in the mess hall? I don't have those feral senses but damn, you could cut the tension in that room with a knife."
There was no point denying anything happened since the whole base would be talking about the new girl bludgeoning her latest victim with a tray. "Some little shit decided to spit in my food as payback for what happened to their friends." The memory made Rhaella angrier than she realized. Maybe shooting a few rounds could help let out some aggression.
Aleesa stared at her wide eyed not expecting that to be the answer, but also not expecting to here the word 'shit' come out of the little lady's mouth. She soon felt anger boiling in herself thinking about some twat spitting in her food. "What a little fucker." She shouted "What did you do next?". She asked opening the door to the outside of base. Rhaella walked out and Aleesa followed. "I smacked him with my tray." She looked over to see what Aleesa's reaction would be. Aleesa shocked faced disappeared into one of laughter. And here Rhaella thought she might dissaprove of hurting anymore men on base.
"Play time's over girls now move your asses" Zero barked from five yards away, waiting impatiently. "Speaking of which, Rhaella how's yours doing?" He smirked way to pleased at his own jokes. "Nothing I can't heal from" she retorted. At least that was one thing she had that Zero envied.
Rhaella looked around the gold grassy field but saw no targets in sight. For a moment some forgotten memory was clawing in the back of her mind to come to surface. She blinked at the spark of déjà vu.
"What exactly are we shooting at?" She tried to maintain her indifference.
"Well since you seem to shoot paper targets ten feet ahead of you reasonably well, we're moving on to mobile targets." Zero waited for a dumbfounded look to come across her face, but non came. Rhaella nodded, and raised her eyebrows expecting Zero to continue to talk.
"Skylark will be launching the disks," he pulled the gun from his hip practically throwing it into her hands. "You will shoot, and not miss a single one."
Her face scrunched "what if-"
"We don't have all day for questions."
Rhaella sighed to herself weighing the gun in her hand. She turned to Aleesa who had already cocked a disk into the sling. "Ready?" She said excitedly. Sometimes Aleesa's positive presence was enough to make Rhaella forget the irritable atmosphere of the base and all the people in it. "Ready."
With a click the disk whistled through the air, Rhaella aimed and fired, but the disk did not break.
"Miss. Again." Said Zero
Click. Bang.
"Miss"
Rhaella sighed, reworking her stance.
Click. This time she waited a moment longer.
Bang.
"I told you not to miss, good job so far" Zero commented from behind her. She didn't have to see him to know he was smirking.
Five more disks flew and where fully intact before landing on the ground. Rhaella walked over to Zero for another clip. "Aren't you supposed to be teaching me to hit the target?" He narrowed his eyes down at her.
"Your reflexes with a gun are weak" was his reply.
"Thanks that's very helpful." She rolled her eyes and walked back to her spot.
"Pull the trigger before your target comes in front of you."
Rhaella looked at the sky, trying to squint out the sun that was now at noon height. She motioned for Aleesa to shoot another disk.
Click. Bang.
"Aren't you listening to me?" Zero yelled from behind her. His voice held no anger just pure amusement at her misses.
Click. Bang.
"Hopeless" Zero whispered under his breath. But Rhaella could hear it, she could hear everything.
This time she pulled the trigger right after hearing the click of the launcher. The pleasant sound of shattering clay came soon after. Rhaella's shoulders slacked in relief for a moment.
"Nice" Aleesa shouted from the side.
"Don't get to excited, we have a long way to go." Zero sneered.
Who would have thought shooting could be so laborious. Maybe not for most people but hour after hour of shooting projectiles left Rhaella sweaty and hungry. Zero wouldn't let her leave without shooting twenty five in a row.
Aleesa agreed to have dinner in her office. The thought of another stiff meal in a room full of those impudent people made both their stomachs turn. "I think spaghetti's on the menu tonight, but I'm going to see if I can find us some desert. I think we deserve it." She smiled and opened the door to her office. Rhaella gracefully took her seat in the swivel chair in front of the desk.
"I'll be right back" Aleesa called as she was already making her way down the hall. Rhaella slouched back into the chair, disregarding etiquette now that she was alone. With nothing else to do but wait she examined her nails.
Her bright shiny claws where beginning to dull, and dirt had begun to cake under a few. She searched the cup on top of Aleesa's desk for something to use. Scissors would work well enough she decided. Once she pulled them out the rest of the pencils and pens poured over her desk.
She hastily raked the supplies back into the cup when her claws caught a folder. Rhaella didn't give it a second thought until she glanced again at the red ink stamped on the folder "Weapon X". Quite the apocalyptic title, almost to enticing not to open. She flicked the folder open with one claw. Looking around to make sure no one was in the room she scanned over the words hastily. There was a lot of scientific jargon that she couldn't decipher but the words ademantium kept appearing along with notes of trials with previous weapons that somehow where failing to work with this material. Rhaella could hear footsteps coming down the hall and flipped the packet closed and put it back on the pile.
She could tell by the sound it was Striker coming down the hall. Her stomach turned at the thought of him knowing about her violent outburst this morning, he was probably coming to lay hell on her.
"Rhaella" he chimed, his eyes analyzed the room before laying eyes on her like a falcon waiting for an opportune wind. Rhaella stood out of muscle memory when being in the presence of a commander. "Sir" she nodded.
"How have things been so far with you integrating into your new team?" She cringed inwardly but did not let him see it on her face. He knew well that this whole "intergration" was turning into a shit show. The whole base was on edge because of her, she wasn't going to play this game.
"Horribly." She said crossing her arms and taped her claws rhythmically on her arm.
Her blunt answer amused him, he smiled unbothered. "I was afraid of that, I thought it would be a good idea to train you in shooting but I'm afraid I don't have much time for that, from what I've heard your better with your hands than a gun."
Rhaella held her breath, expecting him to say more about the matter, she thought he would be angry at her for hurting more of his soldiers, after all it was punishable if todays military still held the same laws.
"I think it's a good idea that Logan teach you to control your powers." Rhaella didn't argue she nodded in agreement, Logan was a feral too. She was both excited and nervous to train with him. Naturally male ferals had the upper hand in physical power over females. But Logan was the most controlled man let alone feral she had ever met. The fact that he could keep his urges in check gave her a spark of hope that she wasn't completely doomed to be a beastly unstable creature.
"I agree, I hope agent Zero won't take this as a slight against his teaching abilities. He's done a good job." She lied.
"I doubt he will, he has so much on his plate already that it will probably come as a relief to him."
A relief for both of us, she thought. She relaxed back into her seat, was that it was that all he wanted to talk about?
"We will be heading on a mission next friday, I assume a week will be enough time to prepare?"
Rhaella's eyes widened. One week? Is he serious?
Striker didn't wait for an answer, but turned on his heals and marched out of the office leaving Rhaella to sit there thinking about how she could possibly become prepared for combat in one week. 'I hope Logan isn't worried about this' she thought to herself.