Noelle - Day 312 (Marathon, Continued)

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Ionlyhavelikefiveminutes soooooo FAST POST IN AND OUT RMS!!

The Survivors (Parts 47, 48, & 49)

Jess was punching the air.  Just get it out.  Up, down, up, down.  Get all the anger out, She thought between swings.  Despite the cold air, she was starting to sweat.  Jennie and Raymond were dead.  Elise and Echo were mercs.  Their family was dead as well.  “You should have died!!”  Kept echoing in her ears, reminding her of all the deaths that she was responsible for.

She didn’t realize that she had closed her eyes until Sam stopped her hand mid-punch.  Her eyes flew open and she stared at him.

“You can’t keep doing this to yourself Jess,” Sam said, his puppy-dog eyes sad.  “You can’t just cut yourself off if something goes wrong!”

“That’s what I was trained to do.”

“I thought we were running from that training,” He said, forcing her by the shoulders to sit down on his sleeping bag.  She decided not to fight it and put her head in her hands.

She sighed.  “That’s what I thought we were doing as well but it’s all so complicated now -”

“Why is it complicated?”

“Lake and I have a personal...connection.  When he gave me my powers - I use ‘gave’ in the loosest sense, more like cursed me - he had his scientists set up a biological timer.  I was doomed to die.”

“Oh Jess,” He said, sympathetic.

“I’m all good now.  Stark fixed it, but I was not okay for a long time.  If it hadn’t been for Lake, me and my siblings wouldn’t even have to listen to S.H.I.E.L.D.   We would be free.  We could have had normal lives.  But we didn’t, and that’s one thing that isn’t my fault - I promised myself that Lake would pay for his crimes - but here I am, about to become his leech.  Not his punisher - just a thief.”

“We’re going to steal from him...not work for him.”

“If you say so,” She muttered.

“I do say so,” Sam said earnestly.  “Listen to me - you keep us alive and I make sure you don’t work Lake...deal?”

Jess looked at him.  “Deal,” She said, and they shook hands like they were really sealing an agreement.  

*******

Once they had both cooled off, Red invited Jess to spar before realizing that they had no room to do so.  The blonde grinned - she had been waiting to do something like this since they had moved in.

While Red and Blue watched, their mouths agape, a completely new cave, jutting off to the left, crumbled its way into existence.  Jess made sure that the floor didn’t shake, but that didn’t stop a few stones from rolling up to Sam’s feet.  He jumped and started screaming ‘earthquake!’ before his brain caught up to him.  “Oh,” He muttered, embarrassed.

Red was still dumbfounded.  “How do you even do that?!”

“They said I could become anything, so I became the ruler of the earth...literally,” Jess said with a tiny mocking smile.  Blue rolled her eyes with a small ‘tuh’ and went back to sharpening her knives.  “Anyway, no sparring for me.”

“Why not?  You seemed like a fighter to me.”

“Trust me when I say she is,” Sam said.

“Fine, what about you Sammie?”

“I don’t fight.”

“I can teach you,” She said.

Sam groaned and glared at Jess.  You didn’t say that your friends were so stubborn, He thought.  He knew that she would have snapped right back, with all the stress on her right now, so he didn’t say a word of what was really on his mind.  “Sure thing,” He muttered in Red’s general direction.

*******

“Punch higher,” Elise insisted.

Sam bit his lip, frustrated, and attempted to copy Red’s movements.

“You’re still punching low,” She said again, unhelpfully.

“Look, I’m used to fighting with my helmet, okay?  Punching is not my thing,” He growled.

“That’s your problem.  If I were to take your helmet, what would you do?  You need to be able to be flexible in a fight.  Right now, you’re not flexible...you’re still punching low.”

Nova decided that he would strangle her at some point, after he learned to fight.

“Okay fine, we can work on kicking for now.  But you’re going to learn to punch,” Red snapped, utterly exasperated, and demonstrated how to do a snap kick.  He failed.

“Hey, hate to break up...what ever the two of you are doing...but I have an idea,” Jess said from the doorway.  Sam gladly followed her back into the living area.

“Uh-uh,” She said, shoving him off the stone couch.  “You smell like a warthog that’s been rolling around in sweat.  No bench for you.”

“Fine then,” Sam commented.

“He’s hopeless when it comes to fighting,” Elise added, having followed them up the tunnel.  “I sure hope you can train him, because I certainly can’t.”

Jess glanced at her, eyes narrowed.  “Show me how to punch.”

Red looked surprised, but agreed and threw a punch, just like she had showed Sam.  Jess’s eyes were analytical.  “You punch too high,” she said and returned to her typing.

Sam stuck his tongue out at Red.

§§§

Sorry this is so short guys but I really have to run bye!