Starring:
Summary: What starts off as a walk in the park to cure insomnia ends up rather violent. Max vs Claudine!
Date It Happened: March 16, 2007
Lesson Learned
Central Park, New York City
It's so late that evening has given over to morning. The air is cold and crisp, and Central Park is devoid of its usual daytime hustle-and-bustle. Tonight, as he frequently does, Max is have difficult sleeping. Fists thrust into his coat pockets, head bowed low in quiet contemplation, his constitutional is a feeble attempt to trick his mind into powering down.
She cant sleep, and what does she do when she cant sleep? She heads out towards the park to clear her air. There's so many things on her mind, and so she just needs to clear her head. As such, Claudine's out and about wearing a pair of snuggle jeans, a tight fitting sweater and her navy peacoat. Her hands are stuffed in her pockets andshe's just walking around the park for now..
Though Max's gaze is cast down, he can still make out a woman's sillhouette as she passes through his peripheral vision. She's still too far away to make out, so Max slinks silently from cover to cover, closing the distance between the two. It isn't until he's almost on top of her that Max makes out Claudine's familiar features. "Ahh, damn!" he swears, surprised.
And as he gets closer, the ground around her starts to shake just a little and it rumbles for sure once she turns around, ready to have to fight back if she needs to. Then, she lets her guard down upon seeing who it is while she wipes her brows. "Oh geeez..Max..you scared the shit out of me!" Claudine cries out as she calms herself down and the ground stops shaking.
Frowning, Max holds one palm-out hand toward Claudine. "Tell me about it," he agrees. "I.. Didn't expect to be bumping into you," he improvises. 'Bumping into' might be French for 'Considering killing,' but he'll never tell.
"What are you doing out here?" Claudine asks curiously as she looks him over. Yes, she knows who he is now, and she was told to run, but considering he doesnt know she's Company, well, it might be safer to stay for now..
"Oh. A little walk. Some quiet contemplation." Max gives a brief stretch, working the last aches from his rapidly-healing body. His blue eyes are wide and predatory, and the smiles playing about his lips is mischevious. "You?"
"Insomnia. Midterm tomorrow, couldnt sleep so I thought I'd walk it off so I can.." Claudine admits ruefully while idly tucking some of her hair behind her ears while shrugging her shoulders once more.
Max paces a slow circle around Claudine and one eyebrow quirks up curiously. "Really?" he queries. "Don't you know it's dangerous out here?" The word 'dangerous' is drawn out to a long, languid purr.
"I..uh..well..I can take care of myself.." Claudine says with a slightly nervous chuckle as she starts to take a few steps back while chewing on her bottom lip. He seemed so nice before, and now he's just gone all freaky..
Ain't that the truth? Sadly, Max isn't nice. Though he's promised not to draw any of his exploits, he'd never agreed to stop them entirely. And so Max's tongue trails a line around his upper lip. "Mmmm. So you tell me. I can't help but wonder how you'd face against a real challenge."
Claudine swallows ever slowly as she continues to take a few more steps back as she quickly looks back wanting to see if she'll have a clear run for it. "I..well..um..I.." and she isnt sure what to say to that. "I thought you were one of the good guys.." she admits in the end. Maybe she wanted him to be one..
Matching Claudine step for step, Max clacks his teeth together sharply. "Just because a man's sweet to your face in the daylight doesn't mean he won't treat you bad when the lights go out." Waggling a finger experimentally, he tugs playfully at the metal rivets, buttons, zippers, and fasteners that are a part of every outfit. "Consider this a valuable lesson."
As she continues to step back, she notices that every piece of metal is going towards him and she chews on her bottom lip a little. She's nervous, and while she's been in a dangerous situation, she's no where near battle ready, so it looks like she'll just have to improvise. "I..okay..lesson learned. You..you can leaveme alone now, right?" Claudine says in the end while slowly but surely extending her hand out towards the grass. She'll do something if he does something..big..
"I could. But you're such a pretty thing." Max grins maliciously and produces a narrow, triangular shard of steel with a vicious point from up his sleeve. Carefully, he begins to clean and trim his fingernails. "Have you ever watched someone die, little bird?"
"N-no.." she says with a slight little meep. Claudine then coughs a little as she continue to carefully step back, not wanting to turn her back towards the man now, cause well he has something sharp and metallic. "I dont plan on it either.." she says, mustering up the courage to stand up to him. She's a secret agent damnit! Not a scared little girl! Now, if she can believe that fully, she'll be in business.
A stand-up attitude isn't enough to dissuade Max, though. He moves closer, precariously near to invading personal space at this point. "Mmm. Little bird has fire in her belly. How delicious."
Claudine swallows once more as she takes several more steps, definitely liking her personal space when around creepy psychopaths. She can handle funny psychopaths like those at work, but creepy ones..well, they're just not fun. "Back off!" she says firmly and resolutely, blinking a little afterwards, surprised that she said it. Hopefully her bravado continues like this.
"I think not." Grasping one hand into a tight fist, he lifts Claudine an easy six feet off of the ground. "I got the information you were holding back from me, you know," he snarls. "Not all of it, but enough. I don't need you any longer, and you know my secret. That makes you a liability." Gee. Posture much?
Maybe it's the adrenaline, or maybe it's because this might actually be a life or death situation for the girl, but she clenches her hand into a fist once she's lifted up. "How'd you find out?!?" Claudine cries out as her eyes widen, hoping to keep him occupied as a giant fist of earth starts to form from the mounds of grass, rock and dirt. She then punches the air towards him, and soon the rocky earth fist from the side starts heading towards him. Maybe it'll hit..that's what she's hoping for anyway.
Unfortunately, that's not to be the case. Max dances to the side, allowing the mass of earth to pass by him. "Big mistake," he purrs. Then he drags his fingertips downward in a rough, clawing gesture. In response, Claudine plummets roughly back to ground.
Ooomph! That..hurt. Especially since she doesnt know how to brace herself at all, and so it sort of knocks the wind out of her. After she recovers though, she just glares at him. "Go to hell.." Claudine replies angrily as she reforms the rocky fist once more to try to grab him once more. She just needs to get away and call the police..that's all she needs todo, but she needs time..
The earthy fingers wrap crushingly around Max's chest and one arm, eliciting a loud, feral growl from the older man. Narrowing his eyes dangerously, he flicks a hand toward his opponent. In response, the length of heavy chain tucked inside his coat shatters and hot, twisted splinters of metal shotgun at Claudine hungrily.
She needs to concentrate and keep still to keep the hand around him. Upon feeling the hot, twisted splinters of metal rip through her coat, she cries out in pain as a few slash at her face, legs and arms as well. Claudine's eyes widen as she's bleeding now, but the adrenaline in her system is well, making it not so bad.
It's then that she reaches into her coat and pulls out her cellphone, pressing the buttons that would definitely signal an emergency to the Company. Her hands are shaking the entire time as she's not sure what the hell she's doing, and she's bleeding. Gah. This is not a good night. Maybe she should've slept in.
Max mentally retraces his steps to the street. Fixed clearly in his mind's eye is the position of the beat-up, late model sedan he'd passed on his way in. Grinning wider, he raises both hands with a great show of effort, as if weightlifting. There's a faint whistling sound as the sedan is lifted high into the air and Max brings it to bear as a weapon. However, before he can use it, his face purples and blood spurts freely from his nose and the corners of his mouth. Groaning, he sags against the earthen hand, allowing it to support his weight. He's not unconcious, but he's not a happy boy, either.
Reeling from her now ruined clothing, Claudine winces as she starts to feel woozy, overexerting herself as well, and she just falls onto the ground. At the same time, the earthy fist that held and supported Max's weight just dissolved and he'll probably fall onto the mound of dirt. At least he has something to cushion him? "Fuck.." she whimpers.
Max coughs, and a fresh gout of blood pours out onto the grass. He collapses, muscles spasming wildly for a long moment. Then, carefully, he reorganizes his limbs and pulls himself together. "Shit.." he mutters.
It's hard to stay conscious, considering she has a throbbing headache as the adrenaline rush is dying down now. She's also dehydrated herself considerably using her powers like that, but it was either that or get killed by a crazy. And with that she slowly tries to go for her cellphone. This was a bad day..but at least it looks like she doesnt have to take her midterm tomorrow.
Almost as fast as he went down, Max is back up and standing over Claudine. He nudges her with a toe, then winces at the pain even that small effort causes. "I'm proud of you, little bird," he murmurs. "I didn't think you had what it took." Is that admiration? It just might be. His piece said, Max drags his bruised, leaking body from the field of battle. "Next time I'll be nice again," he promises.
Claudine looks up towards him, and furrows her brows, definitely confused now. She definitely has a WTF look on her face as she grabs the phone and quickly dials 911 before he changes his mind. "Help.." is all she can say before slowly passing out. Zonk..