| Unconventional Warfare |
| Summary: | In which a latter-day duel is subverted. |
| Date: | PHD 175 |
| Related Logs: | Just after Culture Clash |
| Players: |
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A tight ball of tension comes into the gym in the shape of the Marine called Panda. Wearing his boots and utes, he tosses his gym bag aside and strips quickly from his camo blouse. It's angrily jammed into the duffel, followed by his zipper boots being torn off and set beside it. The man looks around the wall, trying to find the time. "Frakker better show, it's almost nineteen-hundred," he growls, stalking over to the sparring mat and the pads and gloves stored nearby. The man just looks pissed, no other word for it.
Martin makes his way down to the hatch of the gym, empty handed. Pushing open the door quietly, he's neglected to bring a bag or any fighting gear of any sort. In fact, he hasn't even brought a mouthguard. Dressed simply in his off duty tanks, he walks quietly to stop about fifteen feet away from Panda. Folding his arms across his chest, he glances back at the door and then to the enraged Marine.
Not much later, a blond mech arrives practically on the heels of Pandora, her expression a concerned one in stark contrast to his angered visage, the ying to his yang so to speak. She has heard whisperings about the fight and then happened upon Dorian, his anger having been enough to cause her to follow him around doggedly, trying to get answers from Nip-Man. With no success in that, she has followed him to the gym, the mighty superhero's perky sidekick quick to find a seat where her dilligent observation begins.
Great. Just what the green Private frakkin' needed. Not even a week on duty, and already, these knuckleheads come storming into the gym looking for a fight. While they storm in, Cinder's just about finished her workout. Hearing the huffing, grunting, posturing of the two men, she drops her weights and makes her way over to the men. "Whoa boys, what's this all about?" As she thumps over in her boots, and sweat-stained off-duty wear, she's pulling her hair back into a tighter ponytail. The skin glistens from the exertion of her workout, still a little on the soft side, not having had the chance to get in here too often.
Pandorian finds some headgear in his size, knowing it from having used it before. Cinder's voice draws his attention as he's selecting gloves; he turns around, his lips curling into a thin smile at the sight of the pilot as well. "Good, you showed," the man says in a low tone full of relish. Snatching up the pair of gloves he walks on tiptoes in his stockingclad feet across the mat. "It's about family," he seethes, glancing askance at Cinder. His eyes shift to Callie, all small and off to the side, then come back to Martin. "Man wants to date my sister. Looks like he's serious, too."
"This isn't happening." Martin says flatly, shaking his head from left to right. It's a negative. It's a no. It's a stance he's clearly decided to stand on. Opening his mouth, he presses his tongue to the side of one of his molars as if he's got something stuck between his teeth. Still standing there with his arms folded, he glances to Callie and Cinder, giving them each a quiet look. The rest of his words follow as he turns his gaze back to Pandorian. "I've given this a lot of thought, Ajtai. I'm not going to fight you for your sister. If your sister wants to date me, she'll date me. If you have a problem with it, that's not my problem. I'm not going to insult my wing and my self respect by doing this. I'm not going to jump through firey hoops for her time, and I'm not going to jump through firey hoops for your respect. You either respect me or you don't." Martin says, starting to turn to leave. "This is more about you and her than me. You two deal with it and get back to me."
Callie manages to catch that fleeting look from Panda and she bobs her head once, still silent. Nothing's said in regard to Cinder's query, not that it'd be proper for her to say anything, nor is anything said when Martin speaks. She's just a cute little shadow that is as silent as death.
"Look boys, I don't know much…but I do know that if you" she says, pointing at Panda, "feel so strongly about your sister that you have to fight. And that you" she says, pointing at Martin, "want to be with said sister, you can either work it out here, where I'll make sure you don't beat each other frakkin' senseless, or you two can have the must awkward family ties ever. Personally, I'd go with beating the hell out of each other here, then being closer for it after. What's it gonna be?" She's next to Panda at the supplies locker, pulling out a padded head wrap and some gloves for Martin. Of course, it goes without saying that she's siding with her marine bud.
"I don't want your respect, I want your blood!" The last word is barked, a bit of froth flying from Panda's mouth. He bounces on his toes, restraining the urge to leap. He grinds his teeth while Cinder makes the case for the fight far more eloquently than he's able to, his face flushed scarlet. "Get back here, Black. If you walk away you'd best hide behind your frakking rank," he calls out, "you Hear ME?!"
Martin slows, but he doesn't stop. Looking over his shoulder, he glances to Cinder and the gear in her hands. Shaking his head, he sighs and keeps moving for the door at a slow, casual pace. "A few days ago I was all for this. I know what this is, Dorian. I get it, I really do. I'm going to walk away and I'm not going to hide behind my rank. I'm going to find your sister and tell her the same thing that I just told you. If neither of you are okay with that, then let's just let this be what it is." He starts walking again, about twenty feet from Dorian on his way to the door. "We're done here. There's not going to be a fight."
There's a start and Callie looks from the two Marines over to the pilot, her brow creasing deeply. "Wow…" Clearing her throat, she looks up and away, trying to make it seem lie that single word exclimation was over something else entirely, perhaps a spot on the metal that makes up the ceiling.
Panda turns toward Cinder, his head tilting and a positively Cheshire-cat grin overtaking his face when Martin speaks up. "Brand, you heard the man," he says more softly - which means it's still spoken louder than a conversational tone. With that he's loping toward Martin, the gloves and helmet dropped on the mat. "He just said rank is suspended over this!" The pace of his words and heavy footsteps picks up quickly as he barrels down at pilot from behind.
"I hear…rank isn't an issue, but there ain't anyway, you're jumping a man who's not ready to fight!" Maybe there's something to be said about that Marine training. Just a few months ago, Cinder wouldn't care that Martin's being jumped, from behind, let alone be able to stop it from happening. But when Panda barrels off after Martin, she turns and sprints after him. Her career as a dancer and her time spent swimming has left her faster and more nimble than most credit her with, and her Marine training has given her the knowledge of how to take a man down. So when Panda stomps off she drops what's in her hands and bolts after. In a few hard steps, she's on him, leaping onto his back, getting an arm around his neck and her legs about his waist. "Stop it now Marine, and either let him walk, or let him get himself ready to fight you! You're not gonna pop him in the back of the head when I'm around!"
Glancing behind him to the pile of Marines, Martin raises his head to find Callie's face. Expressionless, he looks back down to Cinder and Pandorian. Nodding his head quietly in a sign of respect to the MP, he doesn't quicken his pace towards the door. He simply continues walking. He's not retreating, he's clearly decided his role in all of this. "I'll see you guys around." Martin says, stopping at the hatch. He reaches out for the handle to spin it open.
Callie gets spurs put to her ass so to speak upon seeing the lunge for Martin and she sprints as well although not quite as quickly as Cinder - a mechanic doesn't have to run quite as quickly as a ground pounder, after all - trying to make her way to Panda to try and calm him. "No…" she ignores the fact that the MP is trying to wrestle with Panda in an attempt to slow his persuit of the pilot, if not stop him entirely, as she's too busy trying to get herself seen by the irate man. "Hey, come here…" she says after giving the proverbial monkey on his back a slight nod hello, "Don't do this, please. Give me a hug." Maybe this will buy Martin the last bit of time he needs to get the frak out of Dodge.
The sudden weight on his back has Pandorian staggering and unbalanced. He spins around, his energies focused on his 'attacker' the way Martin might have been had he had his way. "Gawds… dammit!" the man growls, grabbing at Cinder's shirt as he drops to a knee. "Gitcher… frakkin boobs offa me!" It's a whine and a growl mated to produce a shriek, the Marines looking like some sort of nature special on lions and their prey. "No! Get back here!!" One hand reaches out for the door, clutching at the yards still between he and Dash. "Stay away from her! BLAAAACK!" His eyes are wide and rolling looking at Callie only by virtue of her being between him and the hatch, spittle frothing up at the edges of his mouth like a frightened horse.
Looking back over his shoulder at Pandorian, the look on Martin's face says it all. Expressionless, he's suddenly informed that he's made the right choice. His eyes travel to the two women piling over the man. Blinking, he lets out a quiet sigh and turns back towards the door. Stepping over the raised doorframe, he exits into the hallway and closes the hatch behind him.
Cinder growls with the effort of taking a fully grown vet Marine down to the ground. All she has to go on is her combat training, and the practic take-downs from instructors. Of course, they're about as big as Panda, so she somehow manages it. On his back, she manages to wrestle him down onto his knees, then taking him down from there onto his stomach. She somehow manages to get ahold of his flailing arms, groaning and grunting with the effort to hold them at the small of his back, one knee driven into his spine, the other thigh on the floor for support. She's left panting heavily from the effort, glistening with sweat, loose blonde strands clinging to her forehead and kneck. "You drop it right now, Marine. Rank isn't an issue, but he sure as shit doesn't want to fight you now!"
Callie gets down onto one knee as Cinder takes Panda down, trying to keep herself in his line of sight at all times. "Hey. Shhh. It's alright. Tassel Lass is here, Nip-Man. Gonna make sure you're alright." Her hands slide towards either side of his face while she looks over her shuolder, making sure the pilot's safely exited. "Could you please put him into a seated position," she requests of the MP, her voice quivering. "I think I can help you calm Panda down but I can't do it with him belly-down on the floor like that."
Panda is too upset to really fight the lady cop. His plan subverted, ego bruised and satisfaction denied, once the hatch closes the man just collapses. "Your frakkin-A right he doesn't," he grumbles, the knee keeping him from taking full breaths. Instead of resisting, the man shifts his head up to look at Callie, cheek squeaking on the floor. "I'd better not see that coward so much as look at her, or…" he huffs, but the feel of comforting hands on his cheek and that soft voice in his ear eases some of the tension Cinder can feel beneath her body.
"You think you can act civil, I'll let you up" she huffs out. She doesn't really wait for a response though, before she rolls off his back. And not only does she do that…she reaches back down to his arms and helps pull him up, first rolling and hauling him up onto his butt, then from there, up onto his feet, just like they teach you in MP AIT. "We're just here to keep you from doing something stupid you might regret later, got it?"
Callie smiles. "See? It's alright, Panda. It's alright. Let's get you up onto your feet and we can walk it off, sweetie. Come on…" Her hands slip away from his face when she gets up, rising from her knee easily. "Thank you for keeping Panda from making a big mistake," she murmurs over to the MP now, smiling gratefully. "He could have very easily frakked himself career wise if he were to get into a fight."
Tiera slips into the GYm, perhaps to do some excersizes, however she is not dressed for such. Making her way around the equipment she moves across the room.
Panda is in his camo pants, nip-man shirt, and socks, and being helped up by Cinder. He doesn't respond to the first; the second thing she says gets a glare. Be that as it may, he has enough good sense to leave the talking to Callie and, in fact, leans against the snipe's shoulder with a hand clutching the back of her top white-knuckled tight. She can feel his pulse hammering, but discordant to that is a fit of tight shakes that grips him from head to toe.
With Panda up and about, in the hands of Callie (who seems to now have things firmly under control), Cinder backs off. The only sign that gives is a curt nod to Callie. It's a sort of 'if you need me, you call me' nod. The blonde woman, wiry and quite a bit stronger than she looks, takes a deep breath, and rounds up the hair that has fallen loose to stick to her forehead and neck. "You two take it easy now. I'm about to hit the showers, and call my solo PT done for the day."
Tiera glances over as she hears voices, two of the three she recognises and lifts a slim hand to wave. Moving to look over some of the equipment she seems to be pondering something.
"Thank you," Callie says to Cinder, kind of having to look over Panda a bit as he's standing so close to her. "If we have any problems I'll be sure to…uh…whatever SOP is." In otherwords, she has no frakking clue what she'll do but she'll try to do it regardless of her lack of know-how. The wave from Tiera is noticed out of the corner of her eye and she nods, a bit too distracted by Panda's need for comfort which earns the burly Marine soft whispers as well as a gentle hug.
Panda's other arm goes round Callie's waist, his fingers hooking into her belt loop. The man's breath comes out in a rush, less shaky each time as he works to calm himself. "(I wanna kill that motherfrakker,)" he mumbles, the words reaching her ear more from his throat. "(I gotta get outta here.)" Shoulders rise as he takes a deep breath, holding it in and then pushing up off of her carefully.
Tiera frowns a bit as she really notices the others, giving Callie and Panda a concerned look. She starts to say something then stops, tilting her head a bit as if trying to figure out what is going on, without interupting.
With the other Marine saying her goodbyes, Callie's now left to be the controlling force here, the pillar for Padorian to lean against, figuratively and seemingly litereally as well although the latter's made difficult thanks to height and weight difference. "(frakkitall, you're heavy.)" Turning aroud as much as she can, she looks to Tiera and shrugs, not sure what to say except, "It looks like I need to get Panda somewhere else, Tiera. I'll get caught up with you soon, okay," all that said at the same time she tries to get Panda to the hatch.
From his view, the world is a clouded in a red haze around a very narrow point of focus in which all colours and details are immediately apparent. But his head… He can feel the rush of blood expanding the skin around his skull and hear it running through his ears like a basin of water poured into the sink each time his pulse pounds. He disengages from Callie, shakily stalking over to a discarded duffel and boots next to the hatch, entirely unable to place just who it is saying, "Gotta get my shit, frakdammit."
Tiera nods and waves "I'll see you later then Callie and you as well Panda" She includes him as well, even though he might not hear it.
Callie lets Panda go although she gives him a look, one that says 'you better not run off on me and pull something stupid'. You know, the kind of look a parent gives a child when they let them go off on their own a store while expecting them to yank down an entire rack of women's plus-sized delicates.
The zipper on Panda's boots rattles every moment that they're in his hands, right up until he zips each one. The duffel is snatched up, literally thrown over his shoulder so that the strap tugs him back somewhat. It barely slows the Marine as he lopes for the hatch, looking like he expects his glare to open it.
Callie follows obediently without being told to do so, the meekness seeping from her pores as she takes to dogging after him. All she needs is floppy ears, a tail and a collar and she'd look exactly like a puppy.
