Water Wings

January 23, 2017:

Melinda May takes Logan for a swim.

The Triskelion -- Pool

Characters

NPCs: None.

Mentions:

Plot:

Mood Music: [*\# None.]


Fade In…

Yesterday, Logan ended up in a river. He wasn't sure how it happened, but it did. One minute, he was in the park, not even using his claws to threaten the Enchantress, and the next, he disappeared in a puff of smoke, only to reappear over a body of water. And with his adamantium laced skeleton, it was tough to deal with. He nearly drowned. He doesn't weighed down that much, but the metal adds a little over a hundred extra pounds to his weight. When it comes to the water, it's like he's an athletic guy wearing a fat suit. It's tough. And he didn't like it.

So naturally, the following morning he found himself in the S.H.I.E.L.D. Training Centre. He certainly wasn't going to do this during the day, when the other agents might be around, or at the School, where the students, or worse, the faculty might see him. Here, he felt safe. He was wearing a pair of simple black swimming trunks with a yellow stripe down the side. He appeared to be the first one to arrive at the S.H.I.E.L.D. swimming pool, and he walked out to dip his toe in the water, seeing how warm it was. He was like a timid child, scared of the water. Thank god nobody was around to see him like this.


Oh, but there is someone around. Luckily, it's someone that won't judge him for having foibles. May noticed Logan arriving, and after letting him get to his intended destination, followed him just in time to see him testing the water in the swimming pool.

"You still have a problem with water, Logan? I'd have thought you'd be over that by now." Her words are mildly teasing even if her facial expression is still rather Vulcan-esque.


Logan frowned when he heard that voice. He'd almost prefer it was someone who would judge him. May, he respected. So, having her see him like this hurt even more. Some random snot-nosed agent or a student wouldn't have bothered him as much. But he respected May. He liked her. He didn't want her to see him like this. "… yeah," he finally said with a sigh as he walked down the stairs into the shallow end of the pool, and kept walking until it was up to his elbows. "You coming in, or just going to enjoy the show?" If she was here, she was probably her for some reason. Might as well join in.


May glances down at her usual exercise gear. "Hadn't really planned on it, but sure. Give me a few minutes." She leaves the pool area again, and returns precisely three minutes later wearing a simple black one-piece swimsuit. And then, possibly to annoy Logan, she dives in from the deep end and treads water there. "Well?"


Logan grinned when she agreed, even if it meant she had to change into the simple one-piece, but she looked good in it, just like she always did. Too bad he wasn't grinning for long. When she dove into the deep end and began treading water, he grunted. Great, she just had to show him up like that. He continues to wade through the water, until he couldn't touch the ground anymore and he began to wade. He was having to kick a lot harder than she was. "Easy fer you to say, Mel. I only weigh about three times what you do." But he was making his way over there.


May seems to be evaluating how Logan's doing as he start wading closer. "Okay, remind me again WHY you weigh more than you look like you should." She knows about his ability to heal, that's been in his S.H.I.E.L.D. file for decades. But this, this she can't remember as readily.


Logan, while treading furiously, raises an arm, not in her direction, but he lets his claws pop out on his right hand, above the water. Apparently there's no issue of the chemicals in the water. It is adamantium after all. "Adamantium-laced skeleton. This stuff is attached to all 212 bones in my body." Notably, he had six extra bones than he was supposed to." It must have been incredibly painful, as they'd have to either inject it under his skin, puncturing it, or cut him open to get it in there. However it was done, they did a great job, but it must have hurt like hell.


Melinda May flinches when Logan reveals his claws, and then after a moment nods faintly. "That'd do it. She then leads the way back to where it's shallow enough for both of them to stand and not tread water. "I think we might have something that'll help." Of course, what she has in mind will only help if Logan can manage to not destroy the thing.


Logan hadn't really thought this through, but when he withdrew his claw, it cut through his skin. That skin healed instantly, but there was a little bit of blood around the claws. And if he retracted them, there would be even more. He really shouldn't slip that into the water, but then again, his blood was about as clean as it could possibly be. With his healing factor, he carried no diseases, and if that weren't enough, there was the chlorine to kill any bacteria.

For someone often thought of as a dense brute, it might surprise them to learn that he did think about such things. Fortunately, he did have a towel near the edge, so as he treaded towards the shallow end, his claw still above the water, he reached with his free hand for the towel, retracted his claws, and wiped it down with the towel, before joining May.

"What'd ya have in mind?" He asked as he finally didn't have to tread so hard.


"R&D developed a new style of rapid-deployment flotation device a couple of years ago," May replies. "I should go get one, see if it's enough to keep you from having to put that much effort into treading water." The worst that can happen is that it doesn't work.


Logan chuckles, softly at first, and then it becomes more boisterous. "You're serious. You want me to wear a high tech water wing?" It was a funny concept. He probably could use it, it might save his life, but it was still hilarious from Wolverine's point of view. "Oh Mel, that's rich. I missed your sense of humour." He thought it was a joke, and he's probably one of the few people who thinks Mel has a sense of humour. Of course, he knew her before she earned the nickname, the Cavalry.


And, as has become the norm for May since before Bahrain, she simply raises an eyebrow at Logan's derision. "If I wanted you to wear water wings, I would have thrown rubber duckies at your head. Now do you want a chance at NOT drowning, or what?" She moves to climb back out of the pool.


Still grinning, Logan nodded, "yeah, all right, I'd like the chance at not drowning," and he moved after her, following her out of the pool. He was curious about whatever it was she had, and thought he'd help out, or maybe there would be instructions to read. Whatever the case, he was intending to follow her.


May doesn't seem perturbed by being followed. She leads the way to the equipment locker in the corner of the pool area and after accessing the locker pulls out what looks like the straps for a shoulder holster — the kind plain-clothes agents typically wear under their suits. "This was designed to integrate with agents' existing holsters. Put it on."


Logan's body was soaking wet, and if it were possible, his hair seemed somehow even less tamed. He gave the device a curious look, and put it on. He didn't wear shoulder holsters often, but he had in the past, and knew how they worked. It was a neat idea, if it worked. "Yeah, right. Okay. So, what's next? I cannonball into the deep end and tug on a string or something?" She had to be videoing this somewhere.


May scoffs. "If you really want to, go for it. I was going to suggest activating it before heading out into the deep end, but if you want chlorine in your lungs, who am I to stop you?" She heads back to the pool and drops into the shallow end instead of bothering with the stairs.


Chlorine doesn't bother Logan. One of the many advantages of being him, and so, if he's going to test out this little dohicky, he's going to give it a real test. "Let's see how this works." He has a quick look to make sure he knows how to activate it, and as she prods into the pool, he aims to land in an area that might splash her. This is going to be fun, and possibly incredibly dangerous for him, but he takes a few steps and leaps up into the air, showing impressive agility and strength.

When he lands, it with a thud, followed by a massive splash. He may not look it, but he weighs a few hundred pounds. And once in the water, he pulls the cord on the thing under his arm, inflating the device, which seems to mould itself around his neck, and over his torso. There's a gap on the opposite side, but the instant inflation works wonders, and he floats up to the top. "Looks like that's a successful test… assuming it doesn't get shot, or cut."


"That's kind of the thing's biggest limitation, but really, there's only so much we can do about damage-proofing things." May is decidedly unimpressed by the splash, but as she'd already gotten her hair completely wet she doesn't really care. "It's small enough, maybe you can carry it in a secure container and put it on when you need it. You can hold your breath, right?"

Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 License