2007-03-12: On Significance - The Start

Starring:

Claudine_icon.gif Orion_icon.gif

Summary: Claudine and Orion try to work out their frustrations in the gym. Somehow they end up on a date.

Date It Happened: March 12, 2007

On Significance - The Start


Location: CLASSIFIED

What a long day it has been. With meeting a pair of twins who are looking for Suresh, to running into that Rochelle woman, and then there was that bit with the masked vigilante..all Claudine wants to do is relax. But she cant, there's too much stress in her life at the moment, so she's come to the Primatech Gymnasium once more to work some of it out.

She's clad in a pair of tight fitting grey bootie shorts with Columbia written on her ass in navy blue letters. Then, there's her grey spaghetti strap shirt that clings as she works up a sweat. Her hands are wrapped up as she starts punching away at the punching bag. One, two, three..uppercut!

Granger has been in the gym for hours now. Today is his work-out day, unofficially of course, and he certainly has found himself with a lot to work out for himself. Before Claudine can spot him, Orion's slunk back into a shadowy corner of the gym where he has been doing an endless series of benchpresses with naught but the standard 45 lb. bar.

He's in a baggy, somewhat ratty pair of sweat pants and his tight black muscle shirt as per the last time Claudine saw him in the gym. Granger seems happy enough to keep doing those reps on the bench press though, letting sweat pour down his arms and shoulders while it stains the chest of his shirt.

Phew. That was a good warmup, and so it's time to move to the treadmill! Huzzah! She quickly grabs her towel and wipes her brow as she makes her way towards the treadmill, while passing by Orion. Waittaminute. He…is he trying to hide from her? Claudine pouts a little, deciding to not say anything yet, as well..yesterday was well..unexpected. It all started out as a school girl joke and ended up to maybe be something else? Who knows?

She sighs once she gets on the treadmill, and starts at a slow and steady pace toget her heart rate up. She glances towards him every now and then, her cheeks flushing a little before she goes back to the task at hand. Working out! Yes, this stress must be relieved.

Orion seems to be a hard person to track around the gym. It's not normal work out hours, but there are still several Company agents working out in the gym anyhow. By the time Claudine has set herself up on the treadmill, Orion has disappeared from the bench press and is now gearing up for a sparring session with someone Claudine might recognize as having done an awful lot of paperwork around the various Company locales.

Let's just call this hypothetical person 'Jim'. Orion and Jim are both putting on the proper boxing equipment; gloves, head-padding, mouth guards, etc. When that's done, both climb into the ring and start out with a few investigatory punches before dancing back and away from one another. They circle for a while, one darting in for a breath and launching a hook or a jab before ducking back away.

Stealing furtive glances every now and then, Claudine looks over to Orion and 'Jim' as she purses her lips. She grins a little as Orion starts winning, but then pouts and wrinkles her nose whenever he messes up. Well, it's pretty darned obvious who she's cheering for in this little fight.

Once she remembers that there's other agents around though, she coughs a little and nods as she looks straight ahead, increasing the pace as the walk has now turned into a brisk jog. Concentrate and get that sweat going indeed! Hopefully no one noticed that she was looking in his direction a bunch. Ha! That would be embarassing.

Jim and Orion keep up with their boxing. Neither one makes very many mistakes, just enough to keep the match in a constant state of flux. Neither one seems terribly able to get the upper hand for more than a minute and even then, most of that upper hand is the fortune of dodging or deflecting blows successfully.

By this point, Orion is definitely sweating bullets. He's juking and jiving around the ring, probably keeping a half-step ahead of Jim only because, presumably, Jim is not Evolved. Jim, however, is doing his best to keep dogging Granger and it's definitely showing in the way Orion keeps on his toes, shifting about the ring without resting. Surely he can't keep this up for forever.

If anything, do not disturb people fighting, especially if they are concentrating on trying to beat the other one to a pulp. Claudine looks over in their direction once more, wrinkling her nose every time Orion gets hit and letting out a slight squeal of glee when he hits Jim. So there..she's rooting for him. Everyone knows it now. Ha!

Now though, she's pumped her speed to a full run as she starts breathing a bit more heavily. Orion isnt the only one sweating bullets at this time ya know..

We stand corrected. Orion can, apparently, keep this up for forever. Possibly forever and a day if he paces himself. The tall man jukes and spins away from Jim, punching him in the gut as he whirls past. Orion takes a step or two away as Jim struggles to absorb the blow and keep up with the apparently younger and significantly tougher Granger.

Jim is sweating like a boiling pig by this point and breathing very heavily. If he were three years younger, Jim might stand a better chance against Orion's seemingly bottomless well of energy. Jim is quickly getting the impression that this match is one he won't win… At least not without employing that old adage 'age and trickery beat youth and skill everytime.'

The only question is whether Orion will let Jim go long enough to get led into a trap.

And that's when things get interesting. Having been running for a while, which she finds boring, the boxing match seems to be a lot more interesting. And she does want to talk to him afterall, so as she slows back down to a slow walk, she sighs, while making mental notes on the little sparring match.

In time, Claudine hops off the treadmill with her towel wrapped around her shoulders as she heads towards the boxing ring. It seems like the match has gathered a crowd, with various people cheering on for Orion and others for Jim. She looks around and chuckles, polishing off her bottle of water to see how it'll end.
Jim is clearly trying to set up Orion for his trap in a rush. At least, it's clear to the naked eye from the side. He leads in, feints right, jukes left, and then suddenly opens with a series of right hooks at Granger's face. It is a solid plan, considering Orion's size and speed, plus considering how they've been fighting thus far, it is out of left field.

It's unfortunate then that Orion follows Jim's original feint, though whether it is by design or by chance is hard to tell, and steps clear of the hooks at the last second. Orion keeps going another step or two before whirling around. For a half-second it looks like he's just going to end the match with a metal-encased fist. The metal never shows itself, but Orion does land a solid haymaker dead center of Jim's face.

The older man staggers back a step and falls over backward, swinging punches left and right straight up into the air before he hits the mat.

Granger looks almost bewildered.

"GEEEEZ!" Claudine cries out as she hops up onto the boxing ring to look over to Jim, sighing a little to make sure he's all right. She chews on her bottom lip and makes sure he's all right as she helps the poor man up.

"That..was impressive.." she admits ruefully as she runs her fingers through her hair while chewing on her bottom lip. She looks like she doesnt really know what to say for a few moments before she starts to help Jim off the ring.

Okay..calm yourself girl. It was your little joke that made this wierdness afterall, and so she peers up towards Granger. "Hey..got a minute to talk?" as she motions towards the tables near the vending machines.

Granger has been following Claudine and Jim the whole way. He looks quite concerned for Jim, absently nodding to Claudine when she starts moving toward the vending machines. He quickly checks Jim out before helping him over to one of the medical niches where there are some actual medics standing by this time.

"Sorry, Jim. I… I really didn't expect you to be so close. Feel better man."

Orion backtracks a little bit, peeling his boxing stuff off as he moves toward the vending machines. Oddly he doesn't seem to be headed in Claudine's actual direction. Instead, he's headed for another vending machine; it's like he didn't pay any attention to her request.

Claudine grumbles a little under her breath as okay, she'll go to him instead. "Hey..about yesterday..I was totally out of line.." she admits ruefully as her cheeks flush a bright tinge of red. "I..I just wanted to apologize.."

And she chews on her bottom lip again while glancing around towards the other agents every now and then. "So um..yeah.."

Orion turns to look at Claudine curiously, head tilting to one side. He looks confused again, like maybe Claudine just snapped him out of his own little world. The tall man reaches up and scratches the back of his sweaty head as he stares at Claudine.

"… Apologize for what?"

"Well..you know, the cover I gave you..and whatnot.." Claudine says softly while shuffing her foot around as she looks at the floor for a few moments. She continues chewing on her bottom lip before taking a deep breath to look up towards him once more. "And all the smooches, and the teasing about making out..and all that stuff.."

Orion claps Claudine on the back and shakes his head. He doesn't say much of anything to explain what that's supposed to mean; he just turns around and feeds a sweaty dollar bill into one of the drink machines before jamming his thumb against the upper most lemon-lime button.

Bwah? "What..what's that suppose to mean?" Claudine asks, terribly confused now as she looks over to him once more, her brows furrowed as she waits for a response. Something verbal at least..

The tall man turns back around, offering a bottle of the lemon-lime drink to Claudine. Mysteriously, he has a second bottle in his other hand. Well, not mysteriously. He did double tap the button. Guess he put in a five-spot or something.

"It means don't worry about it."

"Oh.." she says softly before accepting the drink and popping off the cap to take a quick swig of it. "Well um..there's still business about bringing those two in. And that woman who can negate our powers..there's her too.." Claudine says, definitely wanting to get some sense of normalcy once more. "What do we do about them?" she asks, considering he's the more senior one of the two.

"I think the size manipulator and the negater are our top priorities for obvious reasons. Sakura and her adoptive muscle mimicry can remain under observation for the time being, but we will need to bring her in if and when an opportunity presents itself."

Orion shakes up his lemon-lime drink for a few moments before he pops the top and takes a chug of it. Granger sighs contently as he brings the half-empty bottle away from his lips. He briefly rubs his forehead, probably due to a brain freeze, and looks to Claudine.

She takes it all in and hrmms for a few moments while wrinkling her nose once more. "Well, I know where Sean lives..and I have his number, but what should we say? I mean, we dont have the excuse of getting him drunk again..do we?" Claudine asks with her brows raised, cause if they go out again, then they should continue their ruse as a couple, right?

"We could certainly get him drunk again. Or we could bring him in to see Heather, I'm sure we could work up an excellent ruse there."

Orion considers his drink thoughtfully for a moment or two. He seems to be falling back into deep thinking again.

"And what ruse do you suggest?" Claudine asks as she crosses her arms across her chest while taking a sip every now and then. "Penny for your thoughts?" she asks.

"We could tell him that she went to the hospital after he left and that now she would like to talk to him. While he is in with her, we allow her to begin explaining the situation to him. When it reaches the point where he does not believe her, we step in to prove it."

Orion smiles slightly, sipping his lemon-lime drink quietly.

No violence! Yes, she is very impressed and a wry grin curls onto her lips as she raises her drink to his for a toast..or something like that. "I'm impressed, I like it.." Claudine says enthusiastically before an impish giggle escapes from her lips.

"All right..then what about the power negator? Ms. Rochelle Knight?" she asks while canting her head to the side.

"I thought we had agreed on a plan for her?"

Orion takes another sip.

"Oh..yeah.." Claudine says, giggling once more. All this nervousness has sort of made her forget and whatnot. "Well, I like your plan with making Sean go see Heather..lemme give him a call to see where he's is and I'll bring him down? Or do you want to come with?" she asks curiously while flipping her cell phone out.

"I think the first step in this plan would be finding out where Heather is and whether she's up for an operation right now."

Sip.

"Right. Good plan.." and with that she texts Heather's spiffy new iPhone to see if the girl's up for something.

As she's doing that, she chews on her bottom lip while scratching the back of her head. "So um..other than the whole mission thing..did you at least have some fun yesterday?" she asks curiously.

"Of course. It's not often that someone forces me to dance… Well."

Orion sips his lemon-lime drink again, watching Claudine quietly.

So the text message has been sent, and now she's just waiting for a reply.

"Um..you think..maybe well um..you might wanna go again? Ya know..cept..without having a mission to observe people?" Did..did she just ask him out?

A lesser man might have choked on his generic Gatorade.

A lesser man might have shrieked and run off, screaming.

Orion loses his grip on the bottle for a half-second, the drink slipping in his grasp. He quickly regains his grip on it, moving it down by his side in almost the same action. It almost looks like he planned that. Almost. Granger smiles and shrugs though, he seems very noncommittal until he finally speaks.

"I don't see why not. So long as you don't keep calling me baby."

Well, she was taking a sip of her drink right then and there until she hears the answers, her eyes widening as she almost spits out her drink. Fortunately, she doesnt and only ends up coughing a little after she swallows. "Well..I can see why you wouldnt.." and then she just realized he said yes.

That was a surprise. A pleasant one even. "Well..um, I can do that!" Claudine chirps, definitely making a mental note to not call him baby. "So um..when do you want to go?" she asks, sighing as she still hasnt gotten a reply from Heather.

"Whenever you want that we aren't working," replies Orion. My but he's accomodating, isn't he?

Heh. Accomodating. Heh heh. Romance pun.

"Well..technically we arent working now.." Claudine says impishly, especially since she hasnt gotten anything back yet from the other agent. "If you want..we could always go to the horribly named sandwich shop and find ourselves some more evolved.." she says jokingly, especially considering everytime she goes there's always people with powers there.

"And then maybe head to Club DNA's again?" she offers once more, as she did enjoy herself.

Orion smiles and nods, "If you like. Sure. Let's go get changed and head over to Noodle Heaven," he replies quietly. The tall man starts making his way toward the men's locker room, sipping his lemon-lime drink along the way.

Squee! Claudine bounces off to the women's locker room to take a shower and get changed. "Okay..see you in a lil!" she chirps brightly.

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