Licking her wounds

Posted on Sun Dec 3rd, 2023 @ 8:29 by Claire Cavendish & Kaylee Ashton BSc

Chapter: All Hallow's Eve
Location: The shore of the Loch
Timeline: November 9th, 1992
1255 words - 2.5 OF Standard Post Measure

Standing next to the lake near the school, Kaylee was just finishing up her Tai chi she used to focus her mind before starting her own, self designed, physical training regiment.

During the fight, she felt the potential of her powers and consciously she figured that a physical stronger body would be able to handle that level of strain more easily. Subconsciously however, she was doing these old exercises to keep herself busy and keep her mind off of training her powers.

After the fight, Kaylee had taken things easy for a while, choosing to only leave her room to teach her classes, while spending the rest of her time doing as little is possible to hopefully help her cracked sternum heal a little faster. While the pain was bearable enough for her to be able to teach for a few hours, this would often leave her unavailable for the rest pf the day.

However, now that a little time has passed, she wanted to slowly get back into her work out regiment.

‘Are you serious? This is what you’re working on?’ Kaylee’s inner voice said with a disappointed tone, ‘That bitch laid you out with a single move and you’re playing around with an old, outdated, martial art?’

Choosing not to respond, Kaylee simply laid down on her back, took in a couple of breaths before starting some sit-ups.

Claire had been walking around the Loch for a bit now and had seen several people come and go from the small island. There was some sense of normalcy returning to the proceedings and it filled her with a sense of comfort. Perhaps they could get to the end of the year without too much additional upheaval. Though with her father back in London, there was little chance of that. Perhaps there was just hope for a Christmas miracle that kept her going.

Slowly making her way back towards the institute she saw that the figure slowly going through different poses by the water was Kaylee. She knew she'd been hurt pretty badly by the woman identified by the media as 'Little Joan', it was one of the reasons why the head teacher was so insistent on bringing in additional help in regards to training and fighting. They couldn't hope to face these people without at least some sort of understanding of how to fight. Dirty if need be.

"Good afternoon." She spoke in soft tones and kept a polite distance as she tried to draw the woman's attention.

half way through a crunch, Kaylee wrapped her arms around her knees to hold herself up as she took a quick breather, "Afternoon Claire, Lovely day for some exercise."

"It's a bit nippy." Claire looked at the fog rolling over the Loch. Not that it meant anything, the Loch seemed perpetually foggy. "I was just taking a stroll, really, not much of an exercise, just a stretching of the legs." She looked slightly worried though, "How are you holding up?"

Taking a moment to pause before her temper got the better of her, Kaylee stood up and looked out over the loch, "I should've started training earlier. I was completely unprepared for facing these extremists." she said as she balled up her fist in anger, "you were right. I wasn't ready. I was next to bloody useless!"

"We were all unprepared." Claire pulled her scarf aside to show the bruises, though they weren't very obvious it was still clear that a hand had been pressed against her neck. "If it weren't for Miss Hunter I'm not sure I would've still been here." There was some advantages to having a pre-cog around. "I heard you stood your ground just fine, though, so no need to be down on yourself."

Kaylee gave a sigh at Claire’s words, “I wouldn’t exactly call it holding my ground. I was incapacitated by one strike. I don’t know who that woman was, but she was not only able to withstand Jon’s fire but she didn’t even phased by it. I should’ve done…. something. The ice sword was a stupid idea” she said, before taking another deep breath in to try and recenter herself. After a moment, she turned to Claire, “so what do we do now? The school has been shown to not be as safe as we all thought. In a matter of months we’ve had a giant robot attack the train station and now a band of rogue Mutants not only attack us, but completely wipe the floor with us”

"We held back the robot, destroyed it before it could finish what it came to do. We saved Oliver from whatever they had planned." Claire objected to the notion that they weren't safe based on the Sentinel attack. If anything the people there were far more safe than the individuals still out and about. That was one of the parts she'd have to concede to the Sherwood Rangers, there was definitely something to sticking together and looking out for each other in the face of persecution. "As for the rogue Mutants, I don't know what happened that affected all of us, it also affected them and they had the element of surprise on us. All and all, they didn't take anything, nobody died," A moment flashed before her mind's eye, knowing how close she'd come. "Sure we're attracting more attention than was initially the intention, however I feel like we have an obligation towards those outside these walls to show them we're willing to live and let live."

Giving a moment of silence, Kaylee nodded, "I guess you're right. With those rogue Mutants out there causing gods know what havoc, we need to stand as an example of what Mutants can be" she said as something Claire has said earlier suddenly clicked in her mind, "wait, did you say you hired people to train us?"

"We were ill prepared, I felt like we could use some help in developing our prowess in a crisis situation, so there's some people with a particular background that are joining us." Claire explained nothing more than she needed to. Military people in her house seemed like she was abandoning everything she believed in. "Si vis pacem, para bellum." The old philosophers had much more eloquent ways to renounce their ideals.

"did you invite people from MI-13 or are these trainers from somewhere else?" Kaylee asked

"Unaffiliated." Claire had done an antecedent check on them. They had been found more for their non-mutant skills than their abilities. "Would there be an issue if they were MI-13?"

Kaylee shook her head, “not for me, but maybe for Phoebe. She was the field agent, I was just one of the lab techs.” She said, still wondering what Phoebe could’ve gone through. “So, when do we start? Do I have some time to try a few things on my own first?”

"It's never mandatory, I don't believe in that, and if you want to stick to your own routines, that's fine too." Claire hoped to reassure Kaylee that they weren't building a paramilitary group. "Take all the time you need to try out all the things you want."

Giving a sigh of relief, Kaylee nodded, "that's good to know. Well, I look forward to meeting these trainers. Now if you will excuse me Head Mistress, I have a large body of water to freeze" she said with a cheeky smile on her face.