First Rule: No Talking

[Nico Martell]

Nico heard the noise and looked around, his face not really showing any surprise despite the locale. Of course a place that drew as many mutants had developed an underground fighting ring. Nico wouldn't have been surprised to find one underneath the school, and it wasn't that much more surprising to find one in Downtown Kalispell.

Someone had given Nico the address, because he apparently looked like someone who went to underground fighting places. It did sound mildly entertaining, and he'd been mildly bored on the night in question, and so he found himself entering the relatively noisy fight, threading his way through people.

That proved almost too easy. Years of dodging crowds (and sometimes picking pockets) and going unnoticed would have been enough even without Nico's ability to quite literally walk through people if it came to that. Fish swam through water with more effort than Nico Martell through a crowd of people.

The noise drew him: a visceral sound that could only be one thing. Sure enough, there they were: a pair of fighters. Nico stepped aside as a bit of blood flew, arched his brows and looked out into the ring.

that's odd he thought, mild interest making his brows raise ever so slightly, she looks about my age...

Cara Blanchard

[Cara Blanchard]

It was the feeling of being in control that had first tempted Cara into the world of kickboxing. The power she had over herself and over others was incredibly exciting. At the time she started practicing, she was a nobody, and it had felt good to be a somebody. For that she would always be grateful. However, as things had taken a turn for the worse, Cara had found a different kind of outlet through her kickboxing. A sort of rage that had built up in her was starting to emerge through her fighting. There was something therapeutic in the way she delivered and received blows, and there was something boiling under her skin that needed to come out.

Cara dodged swiftly, light on her feet. The crowd was tight around her, cheering, roaring, thumping to the sound of her heart. Her blood pumped in her veins as she tried to judge whether her opponent would dodge back or take a swing. Cara circled her opponent and came with a right hook and left uppercut. She protected her head as a swing from her opponents kick came at her. It rung in her ears and she tried to make the world stop spinning. Sweat was crawling over her skin, heat radiating from her. They were almost at the end of the match now, and she was tried. In her daze her opponent came at her, fast, too fast for her too see. Cara feel to the ground. She was bleeding somewhere above her left eye, probably cut in her eyebrow, and she was heaving on the ground. The crowd gasped. Cara inhaled sharply. It probably looked like she had been knocked out, but unfortunately for her opponent, Cara had managed to take in some of the kinetic energy between the punches. The energy was surging through her, preventing her from passing out. Cara jumped to her feet, hunched over and focused. The crowd gasped again, looking at Cara to the other opponent. Her opponent showed surprise on her face as Cara lunged at her and hit her square in the jaw, followed by a quick roundhouse kick.

Silence followed for a brief second as the other girl fell to the ground. It was a knockout. The crowd exploded and Cara, heaving for breath, was announced the winner. Cara wiped the sweat off with a towel, and grabbed a large grey hoodie. She knew she couldn’t stay long. She made her way through the crowd and suddenly found herself face to face with a tall, brown eyed guy. She was just about to pass him her mind reacted and she stood dead in her tracks, staring at him. Shit! She had seen his face before. He was a student! “Fuck!” she muttered under her breath, frantically wondering how to make him forget he ever saw her.

Tagged: Nico Martell

[Nico Martell]

Girl could fight. Nico didn't have training or anything, so it wasn't like he could stand there and analyze moves and figure out what style she used or make any real clear judgment in that regard. But he could recognize when someone knew how and where to hit someone. He'd seen enough fights to realize that. Besides, most of fighting was less about knowing fancy moves and knowing when to stand up and take more punishment. Someone had definitely taught this one how to take some hits.

However, he also suspected that she was using something to keep her upright. He didn't particularly care. Sure, the place wasn't advertised for mutant fighting, but most of the populace had at least some idea of it. They probably put up some kind of rule about not using powers, but hell, if she could get away with it. There was a moment there that almost looked like some kind of power thing, but Nico might have been looking for it. Again: it could have just come to down to her being really damn good at this, which any idiot, including the tall, lanky Hispanic watching her, could pick up on.

Shame that he couldn't have bet on her though; he would've. He watched her seeming to finish and get ready and... look at him. he froze for a moment, keeping his face still but lowering his gaze, hoping that she didn't notice. Somehow he didn't think being noticed here would work to his advantage...

[Cara Blanchard]

So, there she stood, still warm and sweaty from the match, with a friggin’ student standing there. She absolutely knew he was a student. For some reason his face was stuck in her mind mind, although she doubted it was mutual. She didn’t know anyone. Therefore, Cara had no idea what kind of student he was, dutiful, a snitch, judgemental, kind, whatever. Although the fact that he was there, watching the match, should indicate some sort of sketchiness, Cara couldn’t be sure whether he had walked in there intentionally or not. She bit her lip for a split second, thoughts racing in her mind. What should she do? What should she do?!

Cara looked at him sharply as he looked away. She frowned, feeling distressed. Fuck, fuck, fuck! What if he told anyone?! She could get kicked out for this, she was sure of it. Cara was still getting into the whole Academy thing, but she was pretty sure they didn’t allow kids to fight. Oh, and boy was he tall, and kind of good looking. No, fuck, he could turn her in, right? She reacted instinctively. “Come, quick!” she hissed quietly, although loud enough for him to hear, and grabbed the taller boys hand. He sure was a lot taller than her. She clasped his hand tightly and tugged him along, quickly, towards a back-door exit. She was stronger than she looked, although seeing as the boy had seen her fight, he might be one of the few people who actually saw the actual strength she possessed.

The backdoor closed behind them, muting the sounds and commotions from inside. The soft night breeze hit Cara in the face. It felt nice. She let go of the boy’s hand. His hand was so much bigger than hers, but she didn’t feel threatened by him. “Ok, what did you see?” she asked him, trying to remain calm through the internal anguish of the thought of being kicked out. She didn’t want to go back home to the crazy, fucked up family that she had. She didn’t want to go back to trying to be analysed by doctors, talking with her family about her “feelings” or trying to go back to “normal”. Fuck! The school was the only place she had. “Or, what do you think you saw in there?” she asked again, rephrasing her question quickly.

NOTE: I hope it's ok that Cara took him out of there. Let me know of anything needs changing.

[Nico Martell]

Rule one: don't blab if you caught someone. If you were going to blab, make certain whoever you blabbed to had the ability to protect you, or that you got something out of it, or at the very least that whomever you were blabbing on couldn't kick your ass without really breaking a sweat. All that ran through Nico's mind in a hurry, especially as the rough girl shepherded him out of the building. He could probably put up a fight: he loomed over her and probably outweighed her by a fair amount. No formal training on his part. Plus, he had no idea what her power was. Something told him that his barely controlled phasing wasn't going to be all that helpful.

Now, if it were much more controlled they'd have a different story altogether.

Outside: the air feeling especially cool after the sweltering of the body heat they'd left behind. Nico was then aware that the girl had kept her hand in his. He looked down at it for a while, wondering why she'd opted for that when he clearly couldn't resist. The question drew his eyes back up at her.

Nico shrugged. "Saw a fight," he said nonchalantly. "Couldn't make out the fighters though," he raised his hand to gesture at his own face, "horrible at picking out faces."

[Cara Blanchard]

Cara took a moment to carefully study the face the tall boy in front of her. Although she was fairly tall for being a girl, this guy towered over her. She had to arch her head a little in order to look him in the eye. However, she was a very, very skilled fighter. She’d been practicing kickboxing since she was nine, and she was in excellent physical condition. She worked out and used it as a sort of therapy. She knew it was stupid, at least in her opinion, but it was, pathetically, also the only thing that made her close to some sort of happiness? Despite how much trouble she would be in if she ever were caught, the pain from that wouldn’t be half as bad as quitting kickboxing.

She narrowed her eyes a little as he shrugged, but his reply reassured her a little, although she didn’t let it show. She was a tough nut to crack. The kid was not daft at all, thankfully. He had his wits about him, and it did not seem as if he would blab. His reply was satisfactory. She didn’t completely ease up though; she didn’t know him after all. She wasn’t about to let up on her tough-girl act just yet. “Good,” she said with an impassive expression on her face. “I on the other hand,” she took a small step towards him, even though they were still pretty close to each other. From this distance she could make out the exact eye colour of his eyes, despite the dimmed light, “I’m brilliant at remembering faces,” she said softly, ending her stoic charade with a slight smirk. It was a thinly veiled threat. It might’ve been excessive as he didn’t seem to have a blabber mouth, but she needed to make sure this was serious.

Cara exhaled a little and took a few steps back. She ran a hand through her still damp, short hair and ruffled it slightly. She looked up at the boy and smiled, for the first time since she won the match. “So,” she said. Kickboxing usually put her in a good enough mood. Winning made in her a particularly good mood, good enough to perhaps seek out company. She smirked. “What did you think of this fight where you couldn't make out the fighters?” she asked, her rare smile still playing on her lips. When she wasn’t all brooding and stoic, angry or fighting, she was actually kind of pretty.

[Nico Martell]

Good, that was... wait, was she following that up with a threat? Nico almost felt like laughing at that. Yeah, she was tough and again: he was pretty sure she could kick his ass, but the whole thought of this girl threatening him, especially after he'd just essentially promised to stay silent on the whole thing, kind of ticked him off. He could feel the heat traveling up, as though ready to shoot to his head and make this go badly for him very quickly. It also occurred to him in that moment that he really should learn how to better control his power, if only to make it more fun to deal with people like this. Lot easier to avoid fights if you could literally phase through them.

Damn, now he was thinking good thoughts about his powers; he definitely did not like where this conversation was going.

What did he... well, at least she was consistent in being crazy. Nico had to give her that much. He shrugged. "Not bad?" he offered, not sure what else he could really say. He'd mostly just been looking for something to watch. ah, right, a catch word, that should help: "Exciting," said with all the enthusiasm of announcing an answer on a math quiz.