Panther: Revamp

Hand-to-Hand

[Author's Note: Posted {3.23.2014}]

Emery woke the next morning to find Marcus watching her sleep.

"That's not creepy at all," she said out loud.

"We're going to start training. Come on," he said and walked out the door.

Emery found that he'd unshackled her in her sleep. He was such a creeper. She rose and followed him out the door and through hallways until they reached a gym. Why he had a gymnasium in his house she had no idea.

"Um. Aren't you going to take this off me?" she asked, pulling at the collar. If he took it off her, maybe she'd have a chance of escaping.

"Not yet. You lack hand-to-hand combat skills."

"I don't need hand-to-hand combat skill. I could kill you with my brain before you even got close enough to me for me to need to know that stuff."

"I got close to you."

Emery's confidence faltered. He was right after all. She hadn't even noticed him until it was too late, and his powers had prevailed.

"And right now," he said in a sultry voice, stepping closer to her, "you're powerless."

Emery was looking up at his face, inches from her own. She blushed, but held her ground.

"And what exactly are your powers?"

"Mental, just like yours. I prefer dealing with computers, but like you I dabble in the dark."

"What are you talking about?" Emery took a step back.

"Your dark purple plasma and such that you use." He took a step forward.

"How do you know I use that?" She took a step back again, trying to keep distance between the two of them.

"I watched you."

"And that's not creepy at all," she said sarcastically.

"You've been hurt. You've seen people die. In fact, you've probably killed yourself and if you haven't you will."

"Plasma isn't dark; you just use it for bad things." She took another step backwards, towards the door they had entered through. She was almost near it, from what she remembered. Marcus followed, closing the distance between them and pushing her softly against the wall. She'd miscalculated the location of the door. Marcus' hands were on either side of her, trapping her there between him and the wall.

"What have I done that's so bad? Hmm little miss?" Marcus cooed into her ear.

Emery shivered. She had to compose herself to respond. "You hurt the x-men. You kidnapped me. Whatever you did before you were sent into that other realm and disembodied, that obviously wasn't a good thing."

"I was sent into that other realm, as you called it, because I was grieving. And no one, no one, understood. They just saw me losing control and took me out of the picture!" His shadowy aura built around him.

"Why were you grieving?"

Marcus took a step back suddenly, his aura crashing to the floor..

"It's not important."

"You lost someone you loved," Emery stated.

Marcus didn't respond, nor would he look at her.

"Why did you kidnap me?"

He looked up. "You have raw talent. I want to use that talent to take my revenge."

"What revenge exactly?"