Sept 21: All You Need is (Not) Kill

[Chase Delacroix]

Chase kicked her behind a knee and tightened his grip, resisting the impulse to twist.

[Laura Kinney]

X-23 goes down but as she does she wrenches her arm free and rolls away form Chase, coming back up with her arm dangling at an awkward angle.

"Good. What other lethal moves are in your repertoire?"

[Chase Delacroix]

The question made him visibly uneasy.

"Barehanded? Only a palm strike to the nasal septum."

[Laura Kinney]

"And you don't want to use weapons."

[Chase Delacroix]

"Would you trust me with a sword or a bow?" he asked.

[Laura Kinney]

"For this? Yes."

[Chase Delacroix]

"How about the bow first? I'm better with it and it feels easier to use non-lethally."

He was also less disgusted by touching one again.

[Laura Kinney]

"Go right ahead."

[Chase Delacroix]

He asked the computer for the kind of bow he knew and tested the string.

"This'll work."

[Laura Kinney]

"You're stalling." she points out. It's not that she wants to make him uncomfortable, but if no one's going to push his boundaries he doesn't seem like he'll do it himself anytime soon.

[Chase Delacroix]

He sighed mentally and moved away, taking three arrows between his fingers. He looked down, emptying his mind just enough to calm his nerves and stop his hands from shaking. As if a switch had been flipped, he turned on his heels and fired all three arrows in rapid succession. He was using his assassin's knowledge of anatomy to aim for tendons instead of arteries.

[Laura Kinney]

While that might have worked on a stationary target, Laura doesn't do him the favor of standing still. She jumps and cartwheels through the air without bothering to put her hands on the ground, dodging the salvo of arrows. "Good. Try again." She honestly has no clue where precisely the arrows would have hit, but the expression on Chase's face doesn't look like he was going for the kill, probably.

[Chase Delacroix]

He ran for her, launching an arrow to get her moving and again at where she'll be if she did.

[Laura Kinney]

And move she does, twisting to avoid the second arrow but getting her shoulder clipped by the arrow.

[Chase Delacroix]

He wasted no time before shooting more arrows, trying to continue predicting her evasions. He was closing in fast as well.

[Laura Kinney]

Laura does a pretty good job juking and dodging around the arrows, but her usual strategy doesn't involve this much defense and eventually an arrow catches her right in the thigh. Somehow she manages to keep standing but she does hold up a hand to indicate Chase to stop.

"I think that's about enough. How's your killer instinct doing?" she asks with a wince as she pulls the arrow from her leg.

[Chase Delacroix]

He lowered the bow.

"Controlled as best I can tell."

[Laura Kinney]

"Good. I want you to keep doing this, set up the room to provide you with an opponent, find the point where you snap so you know where it is. Then you can work on pushing it back."

[Chase Delacroix]

"Won't knowing I can't get hurt interfere with that?"

[Laura Kinney]

"How? You're working on taking people down without snapping their necks. You don't challenge your opponent to fair duels, especially not when you're trying to assassinate them."

[Chase Delacroix]

"It's just... if I was in a real fight in the real world... would I remember to stop myself? This machine can't tell me that.""

[Laura Kinney]

"The only one who can tell you that is yourself. The room's just a tool."

[Chase Delacroix]

"Right," he sighed, but nodded. He was unsure of what else to say.

[Laura Kinney]

"You did fine. Just keep at it."

[Chase Delacroix]

"I will. And... thanks for this..." he said with some awkwardness.

[Laura Kinney]

"I've been where you are now." is all she says.

[Chase Delacroix]

"And it gets easier?"

[Laura Kinney]

"Yes. No. Kind of. If you're really good at something it never leaves you. It gives you purpose and that's hard to give up. If I'm not a finely honed killing-machine then what am I? You've got a family, a real one, even if you don't remember them. Don't forget that. You weren't born this way." she says, bit of an edge creeping back into her voice that's reminiscent of how she talked to him the first time they'd met.

[Chase Delacroix]

He could only guess how he was aggravating her.

"I'm... lucky, aren't I? Getting out like I did."

[Laura Kinney]

"You were lucky getting in the way you did. You got something to go back to."

[Chase Delacroix]

"I don't know that I do."

[Laura Kinney]

"Even if you don't remember it you still have something to reclaim." she growls at him and turns to leave.

[Chase Delacroix]

Shit...

"You... don't... do you?" he asked, sounding sympathetic but not pitying.

[Laura Kinney]

The only answer is the door of the Danger Room slamming shut. It seems like Laura doesn't want to talk about it.