snikting | Appointments Post

"Yeah, that's what 'Ro said too."

Rogue went very still, instantly uncomfortable and wary, "You talked about this already, huh."

"She had to put me down with lightning bolts."

They'd talked. But not about the same thing.

"Kind of flattering, to think about it."

Rogue eyed him warily for a moment, her back tense. "You know it takes a hell of a lot to put you down."

The mission notice had been sudden, but if she was honest with herself, Ororo almost welcomed the action after months of inactivity and the recent emotional stress of the portal business. It would be good to work out some of her frustrations in a good fight, she thought. Of course, she was forced to retract that opinion almost immediately. Storm and Wolverine had been assigned to the jungle area with a small group of other fighters, but the Elites they'd encountered had been prepared for them. They'd scattered in the ambush, and though the two mutants had managed to stay together, they had also been separated from their group for quite a while now.

They were more than capable fighters in their own right, but the Shifter in the enemy party was making things particularly difficult to hold their own. For Ororo, it meant having to stay close to the ground and relying less and less on her mutation.

She cursed in Arabic under her breath when she felt her powers being dampened again, so soon after she thought they'd lost them.

"... Well, this is proving to be a challenge."

It was becoming a habit for Logan to keep his claws constantly free. It made some things difficult for him, as having six deadly sharp claws protruding from your arm meant being careful around your allies. One wrong move could mean the death of Ororo. So when the Shifter was on top of them, he'd become a little slower, stop healing, and have to ignore the pain that came with the claws piercing his flesh.

Annoying, but he was savoring it. The challenge. The thrill. Life or death.

Even with his senses deadened, he could still spot a good spot to hide. He called her over to join him.

"Wouldn't be worth it if it were easy, darling. Keep your head low."

It was times like these that she questioned the wisdom of choosing to wear heeled boots with her uniform. Yes, she was in flight most of the time and so it did not really matter. But jungle terrain was uneven, and made moving around in a pinch a little challenging.

She was quick to draw close to Logan's side at his call, however. Careful and cautious, since she could no longer rely on the wind to tell her where their enemies were coming from.

"Of course." She looked at him, concerned, once she was next to him. "Are you holding up all right? Your healing..." She knew its dampening made things difficult for him.

His claws were rigged in place. It was an uncanny situation that even nearly a year of Luceti hadn't made more easy to deal with. But he'd been through so much more pain, that metal bones in his body seemed a mite low on that list.

"I'll be fine, 'Ro. I'm still plenty durable as it is. We just gotta kill that damn Shifter and I'll be back to my jolly old self."

That gave her pause. Fighting was easy, especially when it meant survival. And protecting the people important to her. Killing...

Ororo shook her head. It was necessary, she knew. That didn't make it any less difficult, even after all these months of fighting in Luceti.

"... Yes." She glanced away, and at the trees around them instead, alert for any kind of movement. "It should be easier, once we have him out of the way."

Logan pushed himself up against a tree, making himself comfortable. He dug his claws into the dirt. Not because he was worried of cutting anything, but because a single reflection of light on them could expose them. He continued to speak in a quiet manner.

"We just need to stay low. They're moving in a group to track us. Before long, they'll split up to find us faster. Once they do, we'll have a shot at picking 'em off."

Edited 2013-03-19 03:06 (UTC)

Too antsy to sit, Ororo chose to remain standing, ready to leap into action at a moment's notice. She held her hands at her sides, watching the trees carefully.

"They're very good," she said, after a moment. "At what they do, I mean. I hope the rest of our group are doing well." She would hate to find out if the mission ends less than favorably for them because they'd been separated.

"The Mallies are pros at this. Now sit down. You need the energy. Besides, you stick out like a sore thumb."

Her hair, though beautiful, wasn't exactly a common color in a thick jungle like this. Especially if she was standing.

She raised a brow in his direction.

"I've plenty of energy, thank you. And I do not... stick out."

She could blend in if she wanted to! But she sat down next to him anyway, with as much dignity as she could muster at a time like this.

He was able to relax, as much as a dying man could, once she was sitting next to him. For a moment, he glanced at her heels.

"Says the woman in heels. The minute we're back in camp, you're finally ditching those for some combat boots."

"I'll have you know that these boots have served me well for years." But. As much as she loved these boots, she couldn't argue with him on that in good conscience, not with the situation they were in now. She huffed, anyway.

"Though I suppose a pair of combat boots might be useful every now and then."

"I'd say. If we have to break out into a run across the bog ahead, you ain't gonna be a whole lot of use." But he went deliberately quiet for a moment, straining his lessened hearing for sound. Nothing so far. "So I'll about trying to avoid it."

She bristled at the implication of being useless, sending him a glare that was half-hearted at best.

"Don't worry about that, Logan. I can take care of myself." She lowered her own voice, focusing her attention on their surroundings once more. "If anything, I am quite prepared to run barefoot, if need be."

"That'd be a sight." In the distance, he heard the cultists yell some unintelligible things back and forth. This was going to take awhile.

Which meant a lot of waiting. Uneasy silence they'd thus far avoided.

Ororo merely shrugged, finally settling down and trying to get comfortable. Logan was right, after all, she needed her energy for this.

And while she'd never had a problem with silence, there was something she wanted to talk about. "... Well. Since it looks like we will be waiting quite a while, can I ask you a question, Logan?"

At the very least, he had a little food. Just some jerky. So while they sat in for the long haul, he unwrapped some and began to chew. At least until she spoke up.

"... yeah?" He didn't need multiple guesses to know what this was about.

"You mentioned something curious, when we were waiting for that portal at Tony Stark's house." She didn't want to think much about what eventually transpired after, but what he said, then... "I'd hoped that we were past the point where we kept things from each other, about what was happening at home."

There it was. He groaned and shuffled a bit. There was no easy way of going into this. But he could, at least, offer an out. Maybe she'd take it. "You won't like what's got to be said, 'Ro."

She wouldn't. He knew she wouldn't.

"Maybe not, but you would not have offered to tell me then, if it was not something that I needed to hear." And she trusted his judgement. But hearing that kind of warning from Logan made her steel herself a little. Instinctively she knew it wasn't going to be pretty.

He sighed. There was no getting around it. So he crossed his arms and stared ahead at the empty forest.

"After that sting with Gambit an' Rogue, things were mostly quiet. Had a few incidents, but nothin' important. But we finally tracked down his goon from before, Mesmero. Xavier got a glimpse at Apocalypse's plan. Turn the whole world into mutants. At least, the ones that'd survive. Most wouldn't. Only problem is, taking 'em head on wasn't gonna work. Magneto already got toasted for his efforts. So...

You'n him. You went to go talk to him. Try'n make him listen."

Ororo listened in silence, nodding in turn at what he said. It was good to hear that they'd had some progress on that front - there were times that even she wasn't sure how they were going to deal with Apocalypse. They'd never had an enemy of his scale, before.

But...

"... You mentioned this, before. When I first arrived. You said Charles had tried to negotiate with him, and that it had... not ended favorably."

She paused, thinking over his words now, and his words then. "But you hadn't mentioned that I was with him." And suddenly, she was starting to see why he hadn't wanted to tell her anything.

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