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08. Fight Night

Summary: Logan handles the ‘screwies’. Then they go for...well for the ‘Fight Night’

Her eyes wide as saucers, Jean stared at Logan. The feral mutant was holding his sides, leaning against a support beam. His deep unfettered laugh was both confusing and unnerving for the couple standing before him.

“Why are you laughing?”

They had never seen him laugh like this, let alone for so long, and it wasn’t something they were too sure they wanted to hear or see on a regular basis. They were afraid that once he stopped laughing they were going to get their sorry asses handed to them, and sure enough his demeanor sobered at Scott’s next words.

“Do you think its funny, hurting Ororo like this?”

“I ain’t the one that hurt ‘Ro,” Logan answered, his tone instant gone cold. “Ya did that all by yerselves.” He added, rubbing salt into their fresh ‘shameful’ wounds.
“Logan. We are sorry,” Jean apologized. “We didn’t think it would go so far. We just….”
“I know Jeannie,” Logan cut her off. “Ya just wanted what was best fer her.”
“No,” Jean lowered her head. “What I wanted to say was that, it was just meant to be a joke.”
“A JOKE!” Logan’s eyes widened. “You enter her mind and invade her privacy. Nice joke Jean. Couldn’t have thought a better one myself. Way ta go? What are ya going ta do fer an encore?. Rig Chuck’s chair so that it runs him off the stairs, cause that will be a nice follow up for what ya did ta Ororo.”
“Logan.” Scott spoke tightly.

“Scott, please,” Jean silenced him and turned to Logan. “We…I just wanted to surprise her. Its just that the time I linked with her, was the time she was started to you about your children.”
“And ya just couldn’t do yer trick and get out or just leave her alone until later. Could ya?” Logan shot back.
“We said we are sorry,” Scott shot angrily.
“No you didn’t,” Logan’s voice was cold. “Jean did. Not you. You didn’t do jack shit. And if you want to say sorry, you should be sayin’ it to ‘Ro and not me. I don’t have anything to do with it.”

“How can you say that?” Jean cried out. “They are as much yours as they are hers.”
“Na, they are all hers,” Logan started towards the couple. “Come with me,” he said as he passed them.

---

Five minutes later,


“Th-those…” Jean looked up at Logan with surprised eyes, shame trickling into them.
“Those are the ‘kids’,” Logan completed dryly.

Scott just stood; slack jawed at the sight before him.

In front of them, stood two young plants, planted in the tropical section of Ororo’s greenhouse.
“Bu…but…” Jean still couldn’t form the words. “…she said that they are as much yours as they are hers.”
“Yeah,” Logan answered. Walking to the plants, he gently caressed their leaves. “I paid fer getting them and Ororo takes care of them.”
“So, that was the deal you were talking about?” Jean stated rather than questioned.
“Yeah.” Logan sighed as he turned towards them. “Till this afternoon. Now she wants me to help with them. She’s got this one up on me.”
“Got one up? How?”
“She got you an’ one-eye here to agree to come to one of my fights,” Logan smirked at the stupefied look on Cyclops’s face. “So I’ve gotta help me now.”

“We really screwed up?” Jean whispered to Scott.
“Big time,” Logan was the one to answer.
“We have to go to Ororo and explain it to her,” Scott finally spoke. “We should go now.”

“You ain’t going anywhere,” Logan was in front of him in a flash. “Ya have done enough screwing up fer one day.”
“So who is going to explain it to her?” Behind his ruby colored glasses, Scott narrowed his eyes. “You?”
“Who else?” That infernal smirk on Logan’s face was playing havoc with Scott’s patience. He knew that Logan was at an advantage and was wringing it for all its worth. “She ain’t gonna let you or Jeannie get within ten feet of her.”
“Scott…he’s correct,” Jean held her husband back.
“Jean?!” Scott gave Jean a look that was somewhere between pleading and anger, with a smattering of ‘are you out of your mind’ thrown in for good measure. But the look on her face, silenced him. “Okay.”

Logan turned to Jean before leaving the greenhouse.

“Both of ya go get ready and meet us in the garage in an hour. I’ll get ‘Ro to get ready and come,” with that he started walking away. “An’ one-eye, yer goin’ to a cage-fight, not a dinner-n’-movie place. So don’t wear any of yer pansy ass suits.”

“Son of a….” Scott started, forgetting that Logan could still hear him.

“Back at ya,” came a voice from the other side of the door.

---

About an hour later,

Both Jean and Scott were sitting on a workbench in the garage, waiting for Ororo and Logan.
“Do you think he managed to convince her?” Scott asked, unsure of the abilities and intents of the rough beer-guzzling Canadian.
“I think…” Jean started, stopping as the sounds of approaching feet reached her ears. Seconds later Ororo came through the far side door, Logan just behind her.

Whatever Logan had said, seemed to have worked. Ororo was looking….well, she was looking absolutely ‘WOW’ in her navy blue hip-hugger jeans and plain white shirt, tied at the bottom and buttoned all the way except for the top two buttons, revealing more than a hint of cleavage, her ample bosom clearly lined out under the tightly tied shirt. Her long white hair, tightly tied in a thick ponytail, accentuated her perfectly formed cheekbones. Even casually dressed with the only minimal make-up, she looked HOT.

Even Scott gulped at the sight before him. The only thing marring her perfect beauty was the slight redness in her eyes, an indication of the tears she had shed due to Scott and Jean’s telepathic screw up. Jean lowered her face, unable to meet her friend’s gaze.

Besides her was Logan and he looked…he looked just like he did an hour ago. The only new thing about him was the almost empty duffle bag he held in one hand, a fresh unlit cigar grasped in the first two fingers of the other.
“Ororo…” Scott started as she came closer.
“Can it One-Eye,” Logan spoke for her. “We are goin’ to go out to have a nice time. Ya can do all yer psycho-babble an’ grovellin’ t’morrow.”

Frowning at the ‘groveling’ comment, Scott turned his gaze to Ororo, only to have her give him a small, slightly indifferent smile and hand him a note.

“What’s this?” He asked as he glanced at the note.
“This is directions to get ta where we are going?” Logan spoke again.
“Aren’t you coming with us?” Jean asked worriedly.
“Logan and me, we are going on his…Scott’s bike,” this time around, the smile on Ororo’s lips was a genuine one. “You and Scott, you will have to follow us in one of the cars.”
“Why?” Scott asked.
“Because she don’t want to travel with ya right now. Yer sendin’ weirdo waves, strong enough fer me ta detect,” Logan clarified.

“Logan…” Ororo laid a gentle hand on his forearm, smiled up at him and gave a gentle shake of the head for him to stop giving Scott the third degree. “Scott…I just want to get some air. I hope you understand.”
“Yes,” Scott nodded and hung his head, letting out a dejected sigh.
“Good,” Logan commented, flinging his duffle bag over the side of the bike, a muffled clink from inside it drawing Jean’s attention.

“What’s in that?” The redhead asked curiously.
“Energy drink.” Logan answered with a grin, a glint in his eyes.
“Energy drink?” Jean looked confused. “Since when do you need an energy drink?”
“Its my kinda drink,” Logan threw back at her as he flipped open the cover of the bag and pulled out the ‘energy’ drink, a brand new sealed bottle of whisky.

“You are going to drink while you fight?” Scott exclaimed.
“No. I am going to shove the bottle up your ass,” Logan’s scoff was equally heated. “Of course I am going ta drink. How else do you expect me to fight? Give myself a long winded pep-talk? Now stop wasting my time. I don’t wanta be late fer the fight.” With that, he slung a leg over he bike, handing Ororo the black full-face helmet as she climbed on behind him.
“What about you?” Jean voiced her concern. “Don’t you need a helmet?”
“Already got one,” Logan tapped the side of his head. “A twenty-four seven indestructible metal one, or did ya ferget it?”

Jean merely nodded her head and followed Scott to the car they were going to take, another one of the un-marked ones from the Xavier vehicle stable.

----

It was nearly ten when Scott pulled into the dirt parking lot of what have been mistaken for a rundown barn at any time, except for the more than hundred bikes and dozens of cars and trucks parked around it. There we even quite a few of those huge truck-trailers parked a short distance away.
“This must be the place,” Jean murmured, her gaze roving to catch sight of her teammates, neither of them visible in the dark poorly negligibly lit lot.
“Do you have any doubt,” Scott gritted as he looked for a parking space.

Suddenly a teenager came running towards them, causing Scott to slam on the brakes, jerking both him and Jean forward in their seats.
“Hey man.” The boy piped up. “You looking for the Wolverine?”
“Yes.” Scott nodded warily. The unfamiliar surroundings and the setting were making the hair on the back of his neck stand up.
“He and his lady, they went inside,” the young man flashed a toothy grin, causing the freckles on his cheeks to bunch up. “He told me to wait for you and help you park once you came and then take you to him.”
“Oh, Ok.” Scott relaxed a little…but not completely.
“Follow me,” throwing that over his shoulder, the teen jogged down the dirt path.

Within minutes, he had them parked and standing in front of a door, which Scott took be a side entrance meant for the fighters.
Unlocking the door, he directed them inside, locking the door behind him. “This place isn’t exactly on the up and up,” he gave a slightly shy explanation.
“What if the police come?” Jean asked; her mental shields completely up.
“Nah,” the boy flipped his hand and gave them a conspiratory wink. “They are very cooperative.”
“The organizers make sure of that,” Scott completed his line of thought.
“Exactly.” another toothy grin.

“Here,” they stopped a front of a closed door. “This is his room. He must be getting ready. We start in fifteen minutes.” Opening the door, he called out. “Hey man, your guests are her.”
“Thanks kid,” a gruff voice came from somewhere inside the room. “Let them in. Their places ready?”
“Yup,” the boy answered. “Three ringside seats ready and waiting.”
“’k. Come in Jeannie,” Logan first called out to Jean. “…ya too Cyke.”

“Hey,” Scott called out the boy who had started walking away. “This…this is for helping us,” he offered him a twenty dollar note.
“Keep it man,” came the good-natured answer. “Tonight everything’s on the house. Tonight is pay-night for me, all thanks to Wolverine.”

At Scott’s confused face he continued. “I have a five hundred bet going. If the night goes fine, I should be more than set for the next month, or at least he comes again,” he gestured towards the closed door. “You see I only come when he comes and I only bet on him.”
“Oh,” Scott nodded in understanding. “What do you do in the day?”
“Me? I go to college.” That set the two X-Men a little back. “Second year Arts. All thanks to the big guy inside. He found him running from some guys and helped me get settled. Someone known as FOH, at least that’s what he said.”
“Oh.” Jean’s voiced her surprise. “So you are…”
“Yup,” the youngster answered before she could complete her sentence. “Low level empathy; that’s what I do.”
“And you know…”

“About him and you,” he made it clear that he realized about Scott and Jean’s relationship with the Wolverine. “Yup. Now I gotta go and get everything ready for him. I’ll meet you when you come out. If I am not there, just ask for Wolverine’s boy.”

With that, he sped away along the dark corridor.

----

Fifteen minutes later, Scott, Jean found themselves sitting next to a large metal cage in the center of the room. Next to them was Ororo and all around them were women of all ages and sizes.

“I can’t believe he made me sit in the female section,” Scott growled as he looked all around him.
“No,” Ororo spoke over Jean’s shoulder. “He made us sit it the female section. You are just sitting along with us.”
“Exactly.” Scott pointed out.
“Scott, it was for our ‘safety’,” Jean laid a hand on his thigh and smiled at him.
Instead of saying anything, Scott just grumbled under his breath.

Soon the fights began. The first two fighters being completely unknown to the trio, but the cheering crowd told them that they were regulars. The fight ended when one of the men picked up the stool lying in his corner and smashed it against the competitor’s back. Instead of putting off, that particular action drove the crowd wild, their adrenaline jumping a couple of notches at the raw brutality of the fight.
“Where is Logan?” Jean asked Ororo.
“Wolverine.” Ororo clarified. “Here he is Wolverine. No one knows ‘Logan’ here…and he likes to keep it that way.”
“Okay,” Jean nodded, realizing that this wasn’t the first time Ororo had been here, and wondering, how long had this been going on…and how in the world, had she missed noticing it until now. “Where is Wolverine?”
“He’ll be here soon,” answered Ororo, her eyes stuck at the door they had come through and from which the other fighters were stepping through. “There,” her eyes lit up as she jerked her head to indicate Jean and Scott to follow her line of sight.

Just as instantly, a hush seemed to come over the crowd, but only for a moment. The as soon as the silence had risen, there rose a chanting of a name…his name, getting louder by the second as more people realized that the champion had entered the arena.


The next fight got over quickly. The new challenger was a huge mountain of a man, over seven feet tall and with more than three hundred and fifty pounds of rippling trucker muscle. He quickly dealt with the first fighter, a massive fist to the face knocking him unconscious, along with healthy amount of blood and two of his front teeth.

The MC came in to announce the winner and hold up his arm. The giant in turn snubbed him and walked around the cage, both of his arms pointing upwards as he flipped the bird to the gathering. The cheering that had risen for him, at this action instantly changed to a booing. Coming to the ladies section he leered down at the women, his salacious gaze finally settling at the cleaned and most beautiful looking women in the crowd. Jean and Ororo.

Staring at them, he puckered his lips and made kissing noises at them.

“Big guy. You don’t wanna do that.” Wolverine’s gopher appeared all a sudden, his thin form coming in between them. “It isn’t good for your health.”
“Fuck off,” was the grunted answer.
“Your funeral,” the boy shrugged. “But don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

----

Just then, the MC announced the next competitor.

“Ladies and their brothers, now coming to the ring, your reigning undisputed champion, the one and only….WOLVERINE.”

The crowd went raving wild at his announcement, more than half to them rising to their feet in honor of their champion and star entertainer, but most importantly THE money machine.

“Here we go,” Scott rolled his eyes as the cage door opened and the Wolverine stepped inside, a smoldering cigar clenched between his teeth and a half filled glass of whisky in his right hand. Except for the worn out black jean that he had changed into for the fight, he was complete naked. No shirt, no shoes, nothing. And from the hoots and screams of appreciation from the women, it was clear that they liked him that.

Stepping up to his corner, nearest to where his teammates were sitting, he rested his glass on the stool that had been set there for him, placing the smoldering cigar into the ashtray resting on it.

Cracking his neck, a gesture that his teammates knew well, he swaggered back to the center, waiting for the MC to get the pleasantries and introductions out of the way. According to the rules, both fighters had to wait till the MC was out of the cage and the door was locked behind him.

----

*WHAMMM!!*

All three X-Men winced as a heavy blow connected with their teammate’s mutton chopped face. For a normal person, a blow like that would have knocked him/her off their feet, but for the Wolverine it just caused his face to turn to the other side.

Almost immediately, capitalizing on the headway he ‘thought’ he had, the current defender landed three strong punches, one after the other, the last one finally succeeding in knocking down the Wolverine, flat on his stomach.

Getting on all fours, Logan started to crawl to his corner, only to have a solid heavy boot connect with this mid section and bodily lift him off the ground.

“What is he doing?” Jean winced from behind the hand covering her face, peering out just in time to witness another kick to the gut, this one causing Logan to slip and eat dirt…literally. “Why is he not fighting?”
Sitting beside her, Ororo didn’t answer, her own attention fixed at the man she loved, all while trying her level best to not lose control and step in for herself, bringing the power of the elements to aid him…avenge him. She had her fingers tightly wrapped around the side of her chair, her teeth firmly embedded in her lower lip.

“He-He’s showing off,” Scott answered as the reality dawned on him. Even he had flinched at the first couple of knocks. “He is playing the crowd…. entertaining them.”

----

Sure enough, the next time a leg came towards his midsection, Wolverine caught it mid swing and pulled at it, causing its owner to come along with it and land with a thud on this behind.

Pushing himself up, he staggered to his corner and lifted his glass, which he then raised towards the three ‘guests’.
“That one was fer you, Cyke,” he grinned at Scott, blood from healed wounds spattered across his lower jaw.

Throwing his head back, he emptied the glass’s contents, washing away the coppery taste of blood from his mouth. Setting it down he wiped the back of his hand across his lips and turned his gaze to a worried Ororo.

Giving her a smirk, he mischievously winked his at her and whispered under his breath, knowing that Ororo would be able to read his lips.

“An’ this is fer you ‘Ro.”

Note: Got nothing to say here….except, I feel sorry for the other guy.

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