Logan walked into the dim, smoky bar. It looked like tonight’s fights were about ready to start. Making his way to the bar he found himself a seat, and waited for the bartender to make his way over. A bottle was set down in front of him in short order before Logan nodded toward the cage, receiving a nod in return, then the bartender moved away again. A short while later a short, fat, balding guy, with a limp, and carrying a notebook, wandered over.
"You here for the cage?" he asked.
Logan nodded. "Name's Wolverine."
"Well, well, well, we got ourselves the legend himself or are you just taking advantage of the reputation?" The little guy asked, clearly sizing him up to see how he compared with whatever he'd heard about him.
"There's only one Wolverine, bub," Logan replied, downing the rest of his bottle before asking, "When am I up?"
"You'll be up third, about an hour," was the response, before the guy turned and walked away.
Before long Logan noticed a gradual shift in the temperament of the bar patrons, word was getting around that he was here. He ignored the stares, some sizing him up as a potential challenger, some admiring him as a potential conquest.
He was onto his fifth beer by the time his name was called, almost an hour and a half later. He took his time getting ready, feeling the anticipation in the room grow as he stalked towards the cage after shucking his jacket and shirts. He heard a group of men further back in the crowd discussing bets, one guy was hung up on the amount of alcohol Wolverine had consumed, insisting he was going to go down quick, if he even managed to make it to the cage.
He dispatched four opponents over the next hour before the MC called for a change of challenger to give him a rest. This pattern continued for the remainder of the night and into the early hours of the morning, he would spend an hour in the cage, knocking down two to four opponents - he had to make it at least look like he was challenged by some of the contenders - then he would sit out for an hour nursing a beer or two.
At around 3am he stalked out of the cage and re-dressed for the last time, calling for a final beer while he waited for his winnings to be handed over. A needy looking blonde eyed him up from the other end of the bar, trying desperately to catch his eye. Just as she was about to make her move toward him, despite the fact he had ignored her all night, the MC walked over and dumped a roll of bills in front of him.
"Nice doing business with you, you hanging around for a while?" he asked, clearly looking to cash in on the income boost that came with a decent champion.
Flicking quickly through the bills Logan noted there must be at least five thousand in his cut alone, not bad for a crowd the size they'd had that night.
"Nope,” he answered, stuffing the roll of bills into a pocket as he rose to his feet, and walked out into the pre-dawn night, ignoring the indignant huff from the blonde as he passed her without a second look.
He was halfway across the now nearly deserted parking lot before he noticed, he was being followed. Coming to a stop abruptly he scented out the intruders - two challengers from earlier in the night, and at least three other men standing further back just in the shadows.
"You get one chance and one chance only boys, walk away," he spoke, in a dangerously calm tone.
The only response was the quick movement of footsteps towards him, he felt the shifting air current as a bat was swung towards him. In a flash, he caught the bat in mid-air as he spun around and slammed a fist into the face of the man behind him. A twist of his wrist and the bat was flying through the air to connect with the head of the second guy, dropping him too.
He could scent the immediate spike of fear from the three men standing back in the shadows, though not one of them backed down any further, maybe they thought he hadn't seen them. He ignored them and turned back towards his vehicle, when he picked up a muffled scream from inside. The next second the door of the camper was kicked open and another man emerged, dragging a sleep tousled Marie out with him, a wicked looking hunting knife in his other hand.
"Not so tough now are you 'Wolverine'," the bald fighter, he recognised as his last challenger of the night, taunted.
Logan began to advance as he glanced at Marie to check on her. Noting her increased state of awareness after her initial rude awakening, he spied the flash of fury in her eyes. He stopped, a predatory grin crossing his face. "Bub, I'm plenty tough, but so is she."
It took only a split second before the bastard gasped and dropped to the ground, where he started flopping around like a fish out of water. Marie turned towards her now incapacitated would-be captor. "Nice knife," she stated, picking it up from where he had dropped it, before delivering a swift kick to the fuckers’ ribs, at least one of which snapped on impact.
"Nice touch darlin," Logan commented, reaching around her to slam and lock the camper door. "Not the wakeup call I had planned but we should get out of here quickly, no time for a do over," he added, moving around to the cab of the truck, pulling Marie along with him.
He opened the driver’s door and picked her up, sliding her across the seat and following her in. He started the truck and peeled out of the lot, as quickly as the still cold engine would allow. He noted the cowards in the shadows had still not moved, hopefully none of them would try and follow them.
After a few minutes he chanced a look at Marie, he noted her shoulders shaking slightly as she appeared to be staring out the window.
"You okay kid?" he asked worriedly.
She turned to him with a big grin on her face, trying to hold in her laughter. "Does it always end like that?" she asked, clearly still buzzing from her adrenaline burst.
"Occasionally," he admitted, shooting her a relieved grin, "Sore losers are few and far between usually, we hit the jackpot tonight, he didn't hurt you?"
"Just pulled my hair a bit," Marie stated with a dismissive shrug, "It was more just the fright of being woken up by flying out of bed. Any idea how he got in?"
"He busted the lock, probably with the knife, it'll hold enough to keep the door shut but it won't stop anyone else from getting in, if you're going to stick with me you'll either be coming in with me next time or I'll leave you in a motel while I'm gone, not safe to leave you in here alone again. Sorry."
"Not your fault," she shrugged, stretching sleepily in her seat before she yawned widely. "How long until we stop next?"
"We'll stop at about seven for breakfast, want to get a bit further from those guys before we stop for longer than a meal, just in case they get 'brave' and come looking for us."
"Cool," she leaned into the door, resting her head against the window and pulling her feet, still clad in his socks, up onto the seat beside her. "Wake me when we get there."
She was asleep in minutes. Logan smiled to himself, listening to the soft, steady rhythm of her heart, and turned his attention back to the dark icy road.
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