One Bounty

One: Lucky Seven

            He slammed his palm against the wall and hung his head as he took shallow breaths to combat the pain. He stayed like that for a few minutes. The pressure was excruciating. He felt like a fault line had formed at the space that connected his right eye socket to his nose.

When the pain finally started to ebb he pushed away from the wall and stared at the indentations his palms had left behind.

Just off to the side he saw One walk into the room.

"Hmm," she said cocking her head to the side. "You look like you could use a little Brain Matter."

He was on her in seconds. Practically snarling in her face as he held her against the wall by her neck.

"What...did...you...do?" As each word was uttered the pressure around her neck got tighter and tighter.

One grabbed onto his wrist and applied a steady pressure with her thumb until he released her.

Her freedom was short-lived.

Spinning her around, he clamped his arm around her chest, effectively locking her arms to her sides and clamped his other hand around her throat from behind.

"Don't play with me One. What the fuck did you do?"

When he was met with silence he squeezed the arm that was around her chest even more.

'The idiot,' One thought angrily. 'How was she supposed to answer when she couldn't take in enough air to form sound?'

She let her body charge and fired a volt that forced him to release her with a curse.

She spun around to face him with narrowed eyes.

"Don't manhandle me Seven. You haven't earned that level of foreplay."

His own eyes narrowed in response as he heaved in breaths. "You did something to me," he accused. "You infected me with something."

One scoffed. "Don't falter yourself. I wouldn't waste the energy."

"Don't push me One." His hands balled into fists. "I'm not stable enough to handle it. Now, tell me what you did so I can fix it."

One looked at him closely. He really wasn't like the Seven she had come to know. She was the one in their partnership who was the most volatile and reactive. He was the one who took things in stride and would calmly whoop ass when needed. Right now he looked like an active volcano. She needed to tread carefully or he'd explode.

"First," she said softly. "You need to calm down."

"I'm calm," he said through clenched teeth.

"I did you a favor..."

He growled. One blinked as she heard the sound. She continued, eyeing him cautiously. "There are repercussions but I didn't think they'd be this severe."

Without warning Seven dropped to his knees and groaned. His body was wound so tightly as he fought against the pain, that he seemed to vibrate. One took an instinctive step forward before she stopped herself. She somehow knew if she touched him now it would shatter what little self-control he seemed to be holding on to. After a few seconds he slumped forward catching himself on his hands.

"Seven?"

"I'm fine," he said answering the question in her voice without looking up. "Explain."

"You had a tracker," she started. "A lot more advance then the one I had. They must have improved the technology. Did you know it was there?"

"No," he said. He still didn't look up at her.