Re: X-Mansion: A Phoenix, a Soldier, and a Witch
[The pain had snapped down hard, but it didn't incapacitate, not completely. Wanda's threat clearly indicated a strike. It gave him a moment to move, and he did.
But he'd looked away, and that was enough for him to be caught. The bolt struck his left arm, already hanging loose and halfway-broken, as he twisted his body to avoid the blast.
If the residual pain in his head had been bad, this was a thousand times worse. Physical pain, though, was a wholly different experience for him than the ache in his head. He had been painstakingly taught to treat pain as something of no consequence, something beneath the notice of an effective asset. He had traveled for miles with grave injuries, and successfully completed missions with broken limbs. While his mind recognized that the bolt traveled up his mechanical arm and into his chest, that it seared his flesh and caused pain, he was removed from such things.
He was also still wrapped in the cocoon of confusion caused by the presence digging in his mind and triggering old warning signs, old punishments. It was sensory overload, but it worked to his advantage. As he shut down the physical pain, unthinking, the pain in his head went with it. They were, at once, deadened together, even as the servos in his arm began to malfunction wildly, bending at the elbow and locking into place, the fingers spread and frozen. The arm wasn't responding to him anymore, but he didn't seem to even notice. He staggered back, caught his weight, and then threw it at the woman he'd come to help.
He feinted left to draw one of those bolts again, and struck his head forward, aiming to dash his forehead against hers. He was a skilled hand-to-hand fighter, but now was a moment for strength. There was, after all, no bullet to move underneath, no knife to block, no punch to meet over top. Even if she fired off another blast of energy, there was an even chance he could knock her out cold.]