"20 minutes and 34 seconds," Logan rubbed the stubble under his chin. "I just… don't understand. I stood here - watching you - run the whole mile…"
Anna slumped, more than stood, next to him on the treadmill. Her arms were braced on the machine's long plastic rods which were the only things keeping her upright. Her face and body were a running river of sweat, and her heart beat so fast she felt as if it might crack a rib from the inside out. "I'm…" she panted, "… gonna die."
"With that sort of time-" Logan rested an elbow on the console of the treadmill, and without sparing her even a glance, he consulted the tablet in his hand. " - it would just seem like you had to have stopped and walked for at least a minute. But I was here, watching you run." He scratched his beard some more. "That just doesn't seem possible - you know - on a mathematical level."
Anna dropped onto the turning vinyl of the treadmill and curled into the fetal position. Her lungs burning for air, she looked up at the bright florescent lights above and, in that moment, they looked like little angels coming down to harvest her dying soul.
"Whelp." Logan typed something into the tablet and looked down at her. "Guess that's as good of a warm-up as any."
"Warm-up?" Anna's stinging eyes rolled in the mean man's direction. "You mean, that wasn't it?"
"What? A couple of minutes on the treadmill got you down?" He smiled a long toothy grin. "Oh boy, just wait till I introduce you to 'bear crawls.'"
"Bear what?"
Logan reached down, grabbed her by her gloved hand, and pulled her up to her trembling legs with ease. "But first, push-ups!"
The remaining post-school torture session with the school's resident sadist, Logan, went just as well as it had started. After every odd 'exercise' Logan put her through, she typically ended up either bent end-over-end on the floor in a puddle of her own sweat pleading for death, or on one of the gym's many workout devices wondering how she was still alive. Every time, though, he'd just pick her back up and set her up for another round like she were a wind-up toy.
It took about a year for the torment to be over, and when it finally was done, Logan lead her through a series of stretches that were so arduous, she wondered if the 'training' was really over or if he was just leading her into the 12th circle of hell. Her favorite stretch was the one where they laid out their backs on the floor facing the ceiling. She didn't see it was a coincidence when she found out the stretch was called the 'stretching corpse pose.' A moment later Logan dropped a cool bottle of water and a funky-looking bottled drink in her hand. When she finally was able to will herself to sit up, she looked the weird bottle over and read the label.
"'Flavor-Town?'"
"Yeah." He sat down on the other side of the mat from her with his legs crossed. He cracked open the lid of his own 'Flavor-Town' brand drink and sucked down a quarter of the bottle. "It's got electrolytes and no sugar." He wiped his lip with the back of his hand and pointed at her bottle with his other. "Got you cranberry."
She looked the bottle over and found only the title was in English. The rest was in some sort Asian looking language. She popped the top and gave it a sip.
"Ugh! This tastes like-" She sniffed it. "Like dirt that a cranberry once farted on."
"It's an acquired taste." He sucked down another quarter of his drink. "And you're going to acquire it. It's good for you. Drink that whole bottle of water too. You've run through your fluids and need to replenish."
Anna sipped her water next, thankful to get the taste of that disgusting beverage out of her mouth. She looked around the room of her torture dungeon. At all the long blue mats on the floor that were now stained with her sweat, and the small bank of treadmills and stair-climbers in the corner.
"The others come down here too? Or is it only my ass you get off on kicking, Logan?"
"It's Wolverine," Logan grunted and wiped at his nose. "When we're downstairs and on missions, it's all code names, kid. You need to start getting used to it."
"Really? Cus you and Ororo seemed just fine going by first names back when y'all picked me up."
"Do as I say, not as I do, kiddo." He pointed at her drink. "Now I want to see at least half the bottle gone before we leave this room."
Anna swirled around her Flavor-Town. She gave it a sniff, felt her face crinkle, then pinched her nose and chugged.
"To answer your question, the others come in here on occasion, yeah. Most of them are running drills right now, though."
"Yeah." Anna chased down her Flavor-Town with a gulp of water. "Yeah, I keep hearing about these 'drills.' What's that all about?"
A conspiratorial smile played across Wolverine's lips. "Oh, you'll see when you graduate here and go to the Danger-Room."
"I take it the 'Danger-Room,'" Anna air quoted "Isn't the place where we get to drink Capri-sun's and play with Legos, is it?"
Wolverine snorted. "Yeah, no not quite. It's where you go to work on your powers and practice together as a team. It's sorta like an obstacle course and a gym all put together. Well, with a lot of special effects."
"Right, I was thinking about that." Anna dared another swig of her terrible drink. It was possibly even worse than the last. "So, my powers kinda involve stealing other people's powers…" She narrowed her eyes.
"Wondering how exactly you're going to be able to work on 'em, eh?"
"I mean- unless you want me to practice on you again."
She watched his shoulders shiver. "Yeah, Charles and I are working that out. We'll piece it together when the time comes." He made to sip more of his drink, then paused. "Oh right. That reminds me, we aren't done training yet." He struggled to his feet, his many joints popping.
"Oh god." Anna watched him rise. "Please god, just kill me. Don't put me back on that fucking treadmill."
"Stop whingeing, it's not that kind of training." He helped her to her feet. It was annoying how easy it was for him to hoist her around like he did. She followed him out of the BO parlor, through the pair of metallic sliding doors, into a wide corridor. Unlike the comfort of the mansion above ground, the training room, and everything else that followed the elevator down, was all cold metal and steel. The heels of their feet clicked on the floor as Anna followed Wolverine closely. She read the inscriptions of the many doors they passed - Infirmary, Armory, Archives. Eventually, they passed a great wide set of doors that reached for the ceiling with a sign lit in red reading 'DANGER ROOM' in all capital letters across their front. Below the sign was several adversaries screaming at those about to enter to wear proper padding and equipment, and another to never enter without a member of staff in something called 'the observatory.' The whole thing gave Anna the chills.
She just narrowly missed bumping into Wolverine as he stopped just short of a door on the left. He stood before it and held his wrist strapped with the same black watch they all wore towards it. The watch and an indicator light near the door both went green and the doors slid open. The room beyond looked like a typical firing range with five posts for shooting and a long-range to hang silhouettes. She followed him inside till he told her to 'Wait here.' He held his wrist to some heavily armored locker till it snapped open and he dug around inside. Less than a moment later, he returned holding the most ludicrous-looking thing Anna had ever seen.
"I almost forgot. Part of my job is teaching you how to use a toy." He proudly hoisted in his hand, what looked like a cross between a toy squirt gun, and some bad 50's sci-fi dream of a laser gun. The body and handle were bright yellow, the tip and trigger a fire hydrant red, and on its top was a semi-translucent tank filled with… what looked like plastic multicolored miniature stars.
Anna stared at it. "Is this… some sort of joke?"
Wolverine pointed the gun at his head, pulled the trigger, and the little thing lit up like Christmas and jingled around its little stars in its canister all while making a high-pitched little whine. He let go of the trigger and held it back in his hand as normal. "Would seem that way, wouldn't it?" He then slipped his hand in the narrow space between the plastic yellow body and the tank, and then there was a very different sort of whine that bordered on a growl. He approached one of the shooting booths, took aim with the gun, then fired a dazzling bright red bolt that punched a hole right through the center of the furthest silhouette on the range.
"What. The. Fuck!" Anna ran over to the joining booth. "Oh my god! There is barely anything left of that thing!"
She heard the whine settle in the stall next to hers and Wolverine appear around the corner. He gently tossed it into her unready hands where she nearly dropped it.
"Concussive blast. It's a laser, but nothing that would shred through metal or tear a person in half. It's kinda like… if you punch someone really hard from really far away."
Anna cradled the thing between her palms like the smoking gun it was. "But how… but why even…"
"You're abilities leave you lacking in the range department. So if you're going to be a part of the squad, you need something to help close that gap for ya." He crossed his arms. "Go ahead, give it a try."
"Um." Anna wrapped a trembling hand around the hollow feeling grip of the gun and aimed it down the shooting range. Taking aim the best she could, she pulled the flimsy trigger, and the little capsule on top glowed a bright red and hummed as the little toy stars inside kicked up and whirled around. No matter how long she held the trigger, not a single bolt of energy flew out its barrel. She peeled open the eye she didn't know she had closed and looked the thing over. She could hear snickering behind her.
"That's the thing about it, it's supposed to look like a toy. We designed it so you could take it with you everywhere you went without it looking dangerous. To use it, you need to arm it."
She looked it over some more, especially in the spot where Wolverine had run his hand earlier. Before she knew it, the gun was plucked from her hand and held in front of her. "There is no obvious switch. Like I said, it's supposed to be subtle." He slowly ran his fingers in the narrow space between the capsule and the gun barrel. "You know you got it when hear the little whine." He swept his hands through again and the electric whine stopped. He handed it back to her.
Anna repeated his process and heard the whine kick up.
"Good, now take aim at the target down the range."
She did as instructed and fired. The bolt flew straight and true and just grazed the corner of one of the silhouettes, rocking it back and forth on its mount.
"Oh my god." Anna breathed. "That's insane!"
"At least you hit it." Wolverine took the gun out of her hand, disarmed it, and handed it back to her with the handle facing her. "All yours kid." When she was about to grab it he held it just out of her reach. "Don't go blasting off unless you are about to die. Got it? While this thing doesn't do any real damage, I don't want to hear you shot some kid in the face with it at school. You do that, I'll do twice as bad to you. Hear me?"
Anna thought of Taryn back in her history class and her eyes tightened. "Yeah, I hear yeah." She took the gun out of his hand.
"Good. Now I want you to practice with that a while. Not that there is much to practice. It's not like it's a real gun with kickback or anything." He walked passed her and back towards the closet where he had gotten the plastic gun. She thought he was going to close it, but instead, he took out something smaller and more metallic-looking. He turned to face her, and resting in his palm was a small revolver.
"What's that for?"
"It's our little secret." Kicking out its rotating barrel he thumbed in a few rounds. "Ever fire one of these before?"
"No."
He glanced up at her. "Really? All that time down in the South and never even used a scattergun?"
She watched him load the pistol. "I don't know man, I guess we weren't that kind of family."
When the pistol was loaded, he handed her a huge pair of earmuffs and headed for a different range slot. He launched a fresh paper silhouette, took aim, and fired. She watched as the silhouette filled with holes in the head and in the chest. A moment later he returned to her and offered her the gun by the handle.
".32 special. Small caliber so you don't bust your hand on the recoil."
She took it out of his hand. The gun was far heavier than she ever imagined. "Why are you showing me this?"
"Because toy guns and lasers are all well and good, and I wished the world ran on em.'" He took the gun out of her hand and emptied out the spent casings. "But it don't. I don't know what you're going to encounter out there, but your powers may not always be enough to protect you or the others. Sometimes you need to go a little more conventional." He stowed the gun away, locked the closet, and looked back at her. "You understand what I mean?"
She stared at the closet. "I think so."
"Good. Now, I'd appreciate you kept this particular part of your training between us. This isn't something I've gotten around to teaching the others yet, but I'd like to and maybe you can help me when the time comes."
"Right."
Wolverine clapped her on the shoulder before walking out the sliding doors. She didn't watch him leave. Instead, she looked down at her new toy pistol, then back at the cold metal closet doors.