mouthy_merc | The Preserve, Thursday Evening

	Now this was comfortable. Still tied to a ninja and with techno-organics eating patterns into his skin, Cable waited. And waited. Fighting on the inside, but so very, very still on the outside. The usual trade-off.
	Arashi was moody and grumpy both on the inside and out! Go figure! "Nate?" He grunted as he tried to covertly pull at the ropes. "Are you still with me?"
	"Technically speaking," Cable managed to grind out, "You're the one that left."
	"True, but when I went out you seemed to be having trouble," he pointed out and looked around. "Is she still around?"
	"No." Not that that meant much, because... "But she'll be back. Soon, if you're awake."
	"Lets move quickly then," he said pulling at the ropes and knots. "Can you get yourself out?"
	"That might be somewhat problematic." Read: No.
	Well, well. She couldn't have them leaving so soon. Not when things were just starting to get fun. Mary landed down with them in the pit, crouching down for a moment as she retrieved a small syringe from behind her back. "Going somewhere, boys?"
	Arashi growled. "Damn it, not you agian," he scowled as he pulled his hands free from the ropes to be able to fight her. Seeing the strangly formed metal hanging off of Nate might have caught him off guard but only for a moment. "What the hell do you want from us?" He shouted as he went into a fighting stance.
	Yes, go stand and shout at the psychopath with the tranquilizers. "This isn't about us." Cable would have strained his head up to look at Typhoid, but unfortunately, the techno-organics had already made that entirely impossible. "Trip didn't go as you'd like, Typhoid?"
	Mary hissed angrily, darting forward to sink the needle into Arashi's thigh. First things first. She'd deal with Nathan next.
	Arashi reached for his chakra and grinned as he found it there and accessible for him. He quickly preformed the subsitution jutsu and the syringe in Mary's hand went into a log instead and Arashi appeared behind her. "You have to be faster than that."
	Spinning suddenly, Mary jabbed him in the arm. "Don't be stupid. I know all about you, baby."
	Arashi grunted and scowled at her. "How...? I'm not even from your world.."
	"Did you think I wouldn't do my homework on this town?" Mary asked, yanking the needle out once the drugs were delivered. She ran a hand down the side of his face, nails scratching lightly over the skin. "I have to admit, it made me sick to watch you play the little wifey."
	Cable had all the patience of a saint. Really. That's why he wasn't sighing in exasperation in the background. Well, that and the metal pressing into his throat. But really, that was only secondary.
	"Not as sick as my cooking made Wade I'm sure..." He shot back as the drugs took effect again and it was lights out. Again.
	He couldn't quite see it from here, but the noise was a tell-tale sign, if anything. "I can see where--" Cable's words were cut off by a grunt as another spike jutted randomly past his collarbone, "--this is going to get repetitive..."
	She let him fall, picking up the rope again. "Such a naughty boy. Looks like I'll need stronger restraints," Mary muttered under her breath, dragging him back over to Cable to start tying him up again. Once that was finished, she smiled sweetly and lashed out with a kick at what was left of Cable's good side. "Having fun, sweetheart?"
	Like that was going to make things feel any worse than they already were. Cable's body barely even moved against the blow. "I've had better work-outs," he offered, mildly.
	"Really?" Mary rested her heel against his shoulder, pressing slightly so the point just barely pierced flesh. "I'll have to try harder then."
	With most of the T-O still preoccupied with his torso, the smirk on Cable's face was still clearly visible. "How was Wade, Mary?" he asked. Conversationally.
	She put all her weight behind the heel, pushing it through the muscles in his shoulder until it hit bone. "He just needs time. Been a while since he got to be free," Mary replied, twisting the heel in him.
	That was a real groan of pain. Something had gotten through the already overwhelming sensory input, after all. "You should--" He felt rogue metal curling around the wound on the inside, wincing with one side of his face, "--Leave while you still can, Typhoid." Even the pain couldn't obscure the real warning in his words.
	Mary grinned, pulling the heel out and crouching down to eye level with him. "That so?" She whispered, crawling onto his lap and straddling him. "You gonna make me leave, baby?"
	"I've also had better lap dances," Cable remarked idly. Which had probably all ended the same way this one was going to.
	Had the other girls pulled a knife on him while doing so? Mary leaned in closer, trailing the tip of her knife along the side of his face. "Baby, I'm the best you'll ever have."
	Knives, spears, guns... it all blended together after a while. He led a certain kind of life. Before. For what was left of his face, Cable looked most decidedly unimpressed. Or maybe just calm. Very calm. "I doubt that."
	Laughing playfully, Mary pressed closer against him, lips close to his jawline. "Maybe I should put on one his his masks. Would that help you get it up?"
	He didn't move as much as a muscle at the touch, his facial expression remaining as it was. "You need a hobby," Cable informed her, tone cold and steady.
	"Oh, but this is much more fun," Mary replied, licking the skin on his face still untouched by the T.O. She dug a finger into the wound on his shoulder, twisting and wriggling it around. "Don't you think?"
	"I'd say I'm really--" The slightest pull of muscles near his untouched cheek - a wince at the pain, but only the tiniest of one. "--enjoying watching-- you fail, but it's incredibly-- boring."
	Mary amusement faded as she pulled her finger out of his injured shoulder. "I haven't failed at anything," She hissed, stabbing the knife into the earth next to his head.
	A cold smirk. "You failed before you even got here, Typhoid."
	Eye's flashing with a cold rage, Mary smiled and rested the tip of the knife just where the bridge of his nose anded and the eyebrow began. "You're missing a few scars, aren't you? Maybe I should help with that."
	"Last chance." The way he said the words, it sounded as if Mary was the one incapacitated and at knife-point. He made it a point to always be right. In the end.
	But right now he was the one tied up and helpless beneath her knife. And she planned on keeping it that way. "Three, right?" She asked, already slicing into him. Slowly. Had to get the cut straight.
	"If you're not sure--" Cable bit down on the gasp of pain that threatened to escape, "--You should consider glasses--" Blood poured past his eye. He closed it instinctively.
	Arashi groaned as he felt himself come to, but couldn't move his body. This sucked.
	Giggling girlishly, Mary pulled the knife away when she heard the groan. "Welcome back, sleeping beauty," She told Arashi, licking her knife clean. "Ready for some fun?"
	"I think you and I have very different definitions of fun," he grunted as he once again tried to move.
	And this would all be so much easier if the ninja would just keep quiet. Cable really, really missed that telepathy right about now. With no way to tell Arashi to stay silent, he just sat there bleeding. "She needs a hobby," he repeated. For someone who hated being held captive by psychotic women as much as he did, it seemed to happen to him a little bit too often.
	Distracted from her work on Cable's eye, Mary stood up and off his lap. "I think we could have fun." She pushed Arashi over onto his stomach with a push with her foot. "If you gave me the chance," She whispered, sitting down on his back and drawing the tip of the knife over his shoulder blades.
	If the blade was drawing blood, it would just be another scar to join the small but impressive collection of scars already on Arashi's back. "Do I really have a choice?" He said blandly.
	"Does the Kingpin know you're wasting his valuable resources chasing after ghosts, Typhoid?" Yeah, Cable was just going to keep talking. Call it a technique he'd picked up from a friend.
	An annoying one at that. Mary glanced up from the small slices into Arashi's back. "He has other things to deal with, don't you worry your metal little head about it."
	Funny how Arashi had seemed to pick up the same technique. Though he might have also gotten it from his old mentor as well. The two were frightenly similar at times. "Yeah, don't worry Nate, I'm sure Karma will catch up with her sooner or later," he joked blandly and suddenly really hoped there wasn't some mutant in their world named Karma.
	There was, actually. She was one of the 198, at that. Not that that would mean anything to Arashi. Who was still trying to get Mary's attention when he should really be working on the escape plan. Being unable to move made that particular role a little more difficult for Cable. "Must be some paycheck," he said, "To go all this way..."
	Stabbing the knife down into the earth next to Arashi's face, close enough to slice him slightly, Mary glanced over at Cable. "Got some freelance work too." Why was she telling him this? "Shut up little boy, you're ruining the fun," She snapped, leaning down to rub her cheek against Arashi's. "Unless you want me to bring the disease so soon. Would you like that? To see blondie here choke and die?"
	As much as he wanted to know, Arashi wasn't going to ask about the disease. The way that she worded it, it didn't sound good.
	"It wasn't high on my agenda," Cable replied dryly. "I'm bringing a shot."
	"He'd make a pretty corpse." Mary giggled, turning to brush her lips against Arashi's. "Wouldn't you? Prettier than most."
	Arashi tried not to look as repulsed as he felt when Mary kissed him, but that was difficult even for him. “I’ve already been a corpse once, it wasn’t pleasant.”
	"You get used to it." Ah, gallows humor, his old friend. "Feeling-- a little insecure, Mary?"
	Mary hissed, yanking her head back from Arashi. "Don't make me laugh. As if he could want this," She said, grabbing Arashi by the hair and pulling his head up.
	Arashi grunted as Mary pulled his head up by the hair. “Maybe it’s because I can kick his ass in a fight.”
	"It's what he chose," Cable replied, calm and collected as ever. Well, ever... "Not that I'd expect you to follow the logic."
	"Over you, Cable?" Mary asked, smile returning but still dangerous as a coiled snake. "Oh, those rumors about you two were quite entertaining. And your little break up on television?" She laughed, leaning in close to Arashi's face again. "Did you see it?"
	“Like most everything tonight, I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Arashi spat at her.
	"It's not important." And so totally not a nerve, either. Not that you could tell by his voice, anyway.
	"You don't know?" Mary was positively giddy over this, stroking the back of Arashi's head like one would a pet. "When Natey there manipulated him into performing for the cameras. And then was dumped for it." Mary grinned at Cable. "Did it hurt when he left? Don't worry, I won't tell anyone."
	No Arashi didn’t know about it, or if he had Wade had successfully kept him from thinking it was anything important. “That doesn’t matter, those things are in the past where the past should be left.”
	And if that didn't sound familiar... "You're-- wasting a lot of time listening to the rumor mill," Cable observed. "You really do need a hobby." The civil war was a subject he was not ever going to discuss.
	Mary sighed, dropped her hold on Arashi and standing up. "Not my fault he wouldn't stay with you, baby." She certainly felt better about the evening now. "Your loss, my gain."
	Arashi’s head fell back into the dirt with a thud. “Ow..” Yeah, way to much time around Wade.
	"Nothing is lost or gained where human lives are concerned," Cable informed Typhoid, with all due righteousness ~~and ignoring the point~~, "You're useless here. A relic."
	Climbing her way up the side of the pit, Mary got up and fiddled with a small electronic device for a moment. "Have a good night out here boys. Try not to get too cold."
	His face flashed with pain for a single unguarded moment before Cable reeled himself back in; the metal on his back spiked further upwards, crawling into previously unclaimed partso f his body. He said nothing, preserving his strength.