Jorge knew better than the underestimate Sam, even after the man had a few morning drinks. As concerning as that was on a personal health level, it was not as if Sam was defenseless. He was one of the strongest mutants that Jorge had ever come across and he knew his abilities could cancel his own out if he wanted them to. Thankfully they weren’t really using abilities right now, except for that passive ones that couldn’t be turned off. Sam had one or two of those, if he remembered correctly, but Jorge had some of his own. The most useful was his “water sense”, in that he could sense wherever there was a body of water, even when he wasn’t looking; this also applied to human beings, who are mostly made of water. Yes, for as quick and devastating as the man was, Jorge knew where he was at all times.

His punch landing hard against Sam’s shoulder, Jorge watched the man slip away before turning back around, smirking and joking about how easy it was that he would be able to slip away from a woman whom he doesn’t want to see. The man snorted, even as Sam snapped his fingers and shook his head. ”Maybe for other women, Sam. But trust me, if Gemma wants to find you, she’ll find you.”

He knew Gemma well enough. She was an experienced school counselor who had dealt with Sam for a bit now, and most of the staff on campus. If she wanted to find someone, she knew them well enough after a brief meeting to figure it out. Sam may have been a trained soldier but, in Jorge’s opinion, a determined guidance counselor could easily trump that.

Slipping back into his fighting position, Jorge kept his fists up and at the ready. Sam was trying to justify the amount of paperwork that he dealt with, but when he had attempted to throw a dig back at the detective for his “cross-eye” comment, it was quickly apparent that he was coming up short. Jorge could only shake his head at the pitiful attempts as he started to strengthen his core for any oncoming attack – and attack Sam did.

The man charged, telegraphing a very obvious hook. He was trying to lead him into something but Jorge wasn’t falling for that bait. Instead he did stupidest thing and just walked into it. He took the hook, hard, knocking the wind out of him for half-second. Thankfully, with his close proximity, he didn’t need more than a half-second to recover. Grinding his teeth, he wrapped his arm around Sam’s neck and proceeded to slip behind him, hopefully putting him into an effective sleeper hold and keeping his arms pinned.

”Dehydrated? Older?” Jorge parroted Sam’s earlier comments. ”Jeez, if that’s the best you have maybe you should just throw in the towel now.”

With Jorge now behind him he smirked. The man was going for a choke. Tucking his chin down to prevent loss of too much blood or air to his brain Sam added, ”Been a long week.” he dropped his weight and landed in horse stance shooting his rear out trying to force Jorge to break his hold. Reaching down Sam grabbed Jorge’s foot and brought the man’s leg up into a knee bar.

”I’m sorry, didn’t bring a towel.” Sam started to apply some pressure on Jorge’s knee. ”you forget that I was on the run when I was a kid. I had mercenaries and hitmen looking for me for three years before I came to the mansion.” Sam willed some mist to erupt from the ground. Sam wasn’t going to use it for anything but just wanted to prove a point. ”I’m really good at running from my problems.” Sam half joked.

”I don’t know enough about you it seems to make an effective insult… water boy.”

Jorge, thought, he finally had Sam. If there was anything that Jorge was good at it was being able to grapple with opponents. He was a big guy but there were still people bigger out there and it paid to be able to know how to subdue them. Sam was the perfect example of this. He had more mass on Jorge, was younger, harder, but Jorge was more experienced and he knew what he was doing. When he had wrapped his arms around Sam’s body, putting him into a sleeper hold, he soon found that Sam was just as skillful as he remembered him being.

He wasn’t expecting the man to buck downward, effectively knocking Jorge off-balance. The action loosened the detective’s grip around Sam’s neck as he struggled to maintain his hold. However, it would all soon go out the window when he felt his foot being dragged out from under him, and his leg was put into a painful knee hold. On his back as Sam applied pressure, Jorge ground his teeth as he struggled to get out of the hold but he seemed to be fairly trapped – for the most part.

Sam, with his usual quips and his explanations about his tough childhood, reiterated that he could hide from anyone. Jorge knew only a little about Sam’s past but was aware of his years on the run. How many of those types of stories had he heard in these mansion walls? He remembered Agnes Nicholas, the young insect girl who had spent most of her childhood living homeless, on the run from her sadistic parents who had a belief that she was some demon brought to life. It seemed that, if anything, the mansion provided these types of people with a place they could finally rest and call home. But did Sam believe that? Did Sam ever feel safe?

These were questions for another time as Jorge had a hold to get out of. As he felt the mist right around him, the detective figured that maybe it was time he dipped into his own bag of tricks. After all, they really didn’t say powers weren’t accepted in this spar and it was a natural maneuver that the man would turn to in such a case.

>>”…water boy.”

His leg gripped tighter, Jorge ground his teeth before suddenly his legs collapsed under Sam’s strength and reduced into nothing but water. However in the split second it took for this to happen, the water pulled away from the icemancer and reconstituted outside of Sam’s grip. Tucking his reformed leg under him, Jorge hopped up and took a few steps back. There was still pain there from the pressure but it was slowly started to ease off as the detective took a face paces around before stopping and placing his hands on his hips.

”Don’t you follow the rules, Sam?” he asked, a smirk on his lips. ”Don’t panic…and always carry a towel.” It was more a summation of the quote from the book “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”, but the point was still made.

The icemancer smirked when the leg he was holding turned to water in his grasp. His hand gripped the water until it drained out from his grip. Sure he could have froze Jorge but the guy just did come back from the dead.

”You’re a towel.” Sam chided back thinking he was using the right reference. ”and why would I panic?”” Sam lowered the temperature of the air around them. Sam took a few steps closer to Jorge and the ice mancer smirked, ”would have thought you could have gotten out of that one without your powers.” Sam knew at least two surefire ways to have gotten out of the knee bar without his mutation.

”Shouldn’t you cool it on the water thing?” Sam charged Jorge trying to tackle the man to the ground. ”You did just come back from the dead.”

Needless to say, age and his recent recuperation didn’t allow for the detective to be in the top most shape. While he was certain that there were ways to get out of the hold that Sam had put him in, thinking on his feet, Jorge reverted to the one thing that he knew how to utilized – his abilities. Maybe it was dangerous but the detective knew that he couldn’t take things safe forever. Besides, he had been slowly easing into his abilities for the last year and a little liquidating leg wasn’t much for him to worry about.

The air in the room grew colder. Sam was making it hard for him to shift into his water form with every step that he took forward. Smart man and good move. Jorge knew better than to risk his powers in such a scenario and instead just shifted into defensive stance, arms up, legs coiled and ready to move.

He tossed what he assumed to be a rather witty quip at his friend but the man managed to toss his own back. He voiced Jorge’s earlier thoughts, about being able to get out of the move without relying on his powers. The detective shrugged his shoulders a bit and smirked.

”Would have thought you wouldn’t be afraid of an old watermancer like me,” Jorge added with a wink. ”Unless you make it a habit of lowering the temperature wherever you walk?”

Sam was fast, already on the offensive. He charged at him, like a bull in a china shop, readying to tackle him to the ground. Jorge should have side-stepped, should have moved out of the way, but he knew Sam well enough to know that the man was probably anticipating something like that. So instead he would give him exactly what he wanted – he met him head on. Jorge tightened his core, braced his legs, and leaded forward as he took Sam’s charge into his mid-section.

”Trust me, that doesn’t take as much concentration as you’d think,” he muttered. ”So no worrries there.”

Jorge growled, feeling the wind leave his lungs, but he took the second he needed to deliver a hard elbow into the back of the icemancer’s shoulder before wrapped his arms around Sam’s midsection. His legs already braced, Jorge ground his teeth as he suddenly lifted. With enough leverage and surprise, Jorge could pull Sam into a suplex – and it should hurt.

Sam laughed when Jorge hit his shoulder then lifted the ice-mancer off of the ground, ”Gonna break a hip taking me to suplex city.” exhaling as he hit the ground he whimpered slightly then started to laugh, lying on the ground he looked over to see how Jorge was doing. Sam didn’t move till the water-mancer did instead Sam took the time to breathe and talk a little more smack.

”A lot of people I’m afraid of. You aren’t on the list, Gemma sure… you not so much. How often do you actually suplex someone in an actual fight?” Sam asked mockingly as he kicked his legs up and rolled backwards and out of reach from Jorge. Sam then kicked his feet off the ground and threw a knee at the water-mancer.

”and I can control my powers just fine, I only have it on now so you can’t blindside me like you tried to earlier.” Sam said pointing to his blind eye as he threw a roundhouse kick at Jorge.

The suplex was probably a stupid move but Jorge had to admit that it came in handy when used as a bit of Hail Mary. The suspects that the man has had to use it on in the past usually never expected it. That was a good thing as it allowed the man to get the drop on them when it was necessary. More often than not, the element of surprise was that deciding factor between life and death. That wasn’t the case here but it was nice to throw a wrench in Sam’s wheelhouse whenever possible.

After the two had landed, Sam groaned, obviously shaken by the move. Jorge chuckled but winced as well as he rolled onto his side. Sam was taking his time getting up and Jorge allowed him that breathing room – totally not because he needed it too. Once a few seconds had passed, the older detective moved onto his feet, breathing a sigh and smoothing out his clothing. Of course Sam couldn’t let that go without a jab at him.

”Oh go screw yourself, Sam,” Jorge said with a chuckle. ”I’m not that old yet.”

Sam only continued to add to his banter, informing the detective that he wasn’t one of the individuals he was afraid of. Gemma made the list, that Jorge could definitely understand. He loved Gemma fiercely but she could be downright scary when she wanted to be. Sam had every right to fear her, especially if he pushed her the wrong way.

Hands on his hips, Jorge pondered Sam’s question about how often suplexes are used on the field. The man snorted. ”Not a standard practice, but, it’s come in handy before.”

The knee came at him fast. It was a good thing that the man had already caught his breath. Dropping his hands down he blocked the knee but had to be on his guard when a roundhouse kick came at him fast. Once the knee was deflected, Jorge lifted his arm and block the roundhouse kick. Once that had been successfully done, he wrapped his arm around Sam’s leg and held it in place.

”Hey, when you have an advantage, use it,” he retored with a smirk. Having a firm hold on Sam’s leg, he lashed out with his palm, aiming directly for his chest to knock the icemancer off balance and back onto the ground.

”Fair enough.” Sam said as he smirked iced over his leg that was in Jorge’s possession. Making sure not to freeze the watermancer along with it Sam kicked his other foot off the ground and leaned into the push making sure the full force of Jorge’s strike didn’t completely knock the wind out of him.

As soon as the icemancer hit the ground Sam reached out to one of Jorge’s feet and tried to pull it out from under the officer. Sam smirked and then used his iced over leg to pull Jorge closer to the ground making sure he was in a somewhat defendable guard. Sam then shot his hands up and grabbed Jorge’s shirt trying to feed it into a choke. A quick jab to the gut might have also been thrown.

”If I used my advantages I’d be talking to a popsicle, but then I’d have to deal with Gemma and I don’t want to do that. I’m trying to avoid her. Remember?” Sam said trying his best to protect his ribs and face because that was the moneymaker.

Jorge grunted as he felt his leg pulled out from under him. He wasn’t quite sure what got him to this point. He had the man in a rather firm grip and the shove should have been able to completely knock the wind out of him. However, clearly it didn’t go as planned as the man leaned into his palm and took the brunt of the force, causing him to stumble backwards but regain most of his momentum. Snapping to his feet, Jorge was surprised and that, of course, was how he got sloppy. His leg was pulled out from underneath him and Jorge went for a firm tumble.

That wouldn’t be the end of Sam’s maneuver. The tripping had only knocked Jorge off balance but that was clearly what the man was expected. As Jorge regained his footing, two hands caught him by his shirt and suddenly he found himself in a chokehold (after another distracting punch to his stomach). Jorge growled, struggling to clear his throat but the arms of the combat instructor were well defined and hard to move.

Sam began to monologue (he really should know better) commenting that if he had used his powers, Jorge would essentially be frozen and he would get Hell from Gemma. Frankly, that was true and he didn’t wish anyone to be on Gemma’s bad side. Though he had never been the recipient of it himself, he knew others who had suffered her wrath. Sam would have been in a world of pain because, for as much as he liked to say he could disappear, Gemma would have found him.

But enough was enough. Calling back to his police academy training for this type of situation, Jorge tightened the muscles on his neck as he started to lean forward, dipping Sam over his back a little. As he did so, Jorge started to move himself, wriggling his head out of the tight, vice-like grip as his hands took a firm hold of the instructor’s arm. When Jorge had managed to free his head, he popped up, hair disheveled, but didn’t pause as he tightened his grip on Sam’s arm and began to pushed it firmly against his back. Free from the danger, Jorge kicked his knee into the back to Sam’s to knock him down to know knee before he aimed a hard punch for the side of Sam’s face.

”Right,” Jorge said. ”That’s the last thing you need, a fight you can’t win.”

The technique was good and the follow up was better, Sam felt the knee coming but didn’t block it then when he was forced to the ground with the knee in his back he waited until the he felt the fist connect on the side of his face and embraced the pain. Sam’s cheek instantly became red and he could feel it starting to swell. Sam laughed as the pain started to throb in his face along with his leg. Sam had almost forgot that ice was covering the wound from earlier.

Could he have prevented getting into this position maybe the entrance but he wasn’t as concerned with evading as he normally was. If this was a fight Jorge would have won the moment he was hit in the face but Sam was more focused on feeling something than winning. Right now he felt pain. ”Heh, “ Sam spat a little blood on the danger room floor which quickly vanished into the floor.

”It seems I’ve been picking a lot of those lately. More ways than one.” Sam said tightening his wrist and trying to force Jorge’s grip to loosen. Muscle versus muscle was very rarely Sam’s style but lately things were a bit different for the ice mutant. Feeling the strain on his shoulder and elbow he flexed and started to grunt trying to force himself out of the hold. ”Hit me again!”

Jorge kept Sam’s arm pinned as he had delivered that punch. He wasn’t looking to seriously hurt the man but he needed to get out of his grip and keep him from lashing out in defense. Keeping pressure on the combat instructor’s arm, Jorge waited for the man to make a move to get out of it. It was pain the position that Jorge had him in, but the man was skilled enough to get out of it if he wanted to. Which led Jorge to wonder, why was it he wasn’t trying to remove himself? The detective found it odd. Maybe Sam was finally running out of steam?

Oh Jorge had seen the man fight before. He seemed to draw from a near limitless strength. Every time the man fell, he picked himself right back up and charged again into the fray. He was someone who didn’t know the meaning of quitting and yet…here he was…kinda just letting Jorge keep him in this rather simplistic (for him) hold. It made the man question the other but as he tossed out a quip about not picking fights he can’t finished, Sam just…grunted.

>> ”It seems I’ve been picking a lot of those lately. More ways than one.”

Jorge tilted his head, just in case, keeping a firm hold on Sam’s arm as the man mused about picking such fights a lot. He wondered if the man was okay but, finally, it seemed like he was trying to get out of the hold. Jorge could feel the man twisting his arm about, struggling to free it or make Jorge lose his grip. However it didn’t really seem to have all the heart that Sam would have normally put into such an attempt. He was…barely fighting back.

Another grunt and Sam just shouted.

>> ”Hit me again!”

Jorge blinked. His face filled with confusion. Sam was actually telling him to hit him again. For a second Jorge was paused, unsure of what was happening before he finally had realized that this had gone on a bit too far. Sam was not just sparring, he was wanting to feel the pain? The thought didn’t make sense to the older man, but it was a sign that maybe things weren’t as good as Sam wanted them to appear. He had to put a stop to it.

Loosening his grip he finally released Sam’s arm before he pushed away from him. Taking a few steps back, Jorge walked in a small circle, his hands at his hips. He was catching his breath as he turned and eyed the one-eye icemancer. He allowed a second for them to breathe before he straightened up, crossed his arms over his chest, and just eyed him.

”Sam, whatever masochistic fantasy you’ve been having? Maybe save those for your woman to perform.” It was just a joke, but it did help him to segue into his concerns. He nodded to them man, crossing his arms over his chest. ”What’s wrong with you? And don’t give me any of that ‘I-Don’t-Talk-About-Feelings’ bull. As a concerned friend, I’m asking, what’s up?”

When Jorge pushed away Sam realized he had pushed the man too far. Jorge was clearly worried about what the friendly spar had turned into. The icemancer pushed himself up from the ground and then punched the surface of the danger room floor. His knuckles felt it first and if he had punched any harder he might have caused one of them to break. Sam punched with his other hand again and this skin broke.

”Pain keeps me focused.” Sam said stubbornly not wanting to say anymore than he already had. With Jorge folding his arms he felt he was being scolded and ashamed of what he had done Sam looked down to his knuckles. His right hand hurt and he focused on the pain. He was here, and the world he was in was real.

”Been having a hard time determining what is real.” Sam said simply pushing himself up from the ground his knuckles red and a few bloody. ”Seeing you, it messed with me.” the cyclopean team leader said without much thought for how Jorge would take it. He was being honest, that was what Juliette wanted him to be.

”Now be a concerned friend who keeps pushing me.” Sam said as he opened his hands and got back into a fighting stance. ”I need this.” Sam lunged towards Jorge and threw a palm strike to Jorge’s chest.

The vibe was unmistakable, Sam was working through some pretty harsh stuff. Jorge wasn’t sure what it could be as the man was also quite closed off. He didn’t like to see his friend like this, confused and hurting, demanding for more pain on top of it all. Hell, Jorge had been sent to investigate these types of cases and, normally, they ended up with a call to the nearest psychiatric hospital for a 72-hour psych eval. However that was a call that Jorge didn’t want to make concerning Sam. All he wanted from the other man was for him to be well. At most, clearly, he needed therapy, preferably the kind that wasn’t found at the bottom of a bottle of alcohol.

Jorge was done with the fight and he demanded to know what was wrong with his friend. However, as stubborn as ever, Sam refused. He pounded his fists into the ground, making them bloody and causing a flash of concern over Jorge’s face. The officer took a step towards him .. that is until Sam paused, stood, and gave him a short rundown on what was bothering him; he needed reminders on what was real. Jorge looked at him, confused. Maybe Sam was far more in trouble than he figured…

>> ”Been having a hard time determining what is real…Seeing you, it messed with me.”

He sighed. That one kind of stung. For a second it made the watermancer feel bad for having kept everyone in the dark for so long. Again he attest it wasn’t out of some cruelty that he did it, he did it because he didn’t want people to mourn him twice if he couldn’t cut it. Maybe he would have succeeded even more by returning to the mansion, but hindsight is often 20/20. Jorge made his decision and he was going to have to live with that – including dealing with the repercussions his return would have upon the living.

”Sam…” he started to say. ”…I’m sor--…”

>> ”Now be a concerned friend who keeps pushing me…I need this.”

Jorge was almost caught unguarded. Sam, even injured, was fast. Moving onto his feet, he seemingly ignored Jorge’s almost-apology as he shifted into a fighting position. Demanding that he needed this to judge his reality, Sam lashed out at the detective, his palm looking to concave his chest and sending him sprawling back. It would hurt if it had fight but there were ways around it. Still, a fight was what Sam wanted and if Jorge hit back, it would only be adding to his troubles. No, he was going to have to subdue without actually hurting him.

Great. Just make his job easy.

A grunt flew from his lips as he turned, catching the man’s palm on his shoulder. He felt his arm go numb for a second but he pushed through it, swinging his good arm over the combat instructor’s, taking a firm hold and seeking to pull his arm tight around and pushed up on his back. His other arm would wrapped around the man’s shoulders, holding his back tight to Jorge’s chest and keeping the pressure on his other arm.

”Dammit, Sam! That’s enough!” he growled. ”You’re not some existential punching bag questioning his reality! You need help!”

Say what you will about Jorge having a few years one the other team members but one thing was for sure. The man excelled at joint locks and holds. Sam thought of two ways to get out of the hold right away. One would dislocate his shoulder and the other would have Jorge more discomfort than he wanted to give the man, he was still his friend even if this friendly sparring match had shifted into something a little more serious.

>>>You’re not some existential punching bag questioning his reality! You need help!”

”….” he knew but the words stung a little more than he would like to admit. His body lost the fight for a moment and he slouched slightly. His nostrils flared as he thought of a response. ”I know…” he said softly before shooting his hips backwards into Jorge’s causing a momentary distraction so he could slip out of the hold.

”It helps me focus.” Sam said simply as he started to walk towards the bottle. It was how he was raised. ”Fight. Till you can’t think and fight some more.” he hadn’t said those words in a while but he remembered his youth where that was his daily mantra. If you couldn’t think you couldn’t question orders. You couldn’t question yourself. ”I haven’t need help my entire life. This is just something else I need to deal with on my own.” lifting the bottle and taking a swig, he added, ”I’m getting better at it.” Sam mumbled more to himself.

Jorge struggled against the man. Sam was a good friend of his but the icemancer was seriously having some problems right now, problems that Jorge knew couldn’t be solved by punching him in the face over and over again, even if that was what Sam wanted. Jorge didn’t want to hurt his friend, he wanted to figure out what was wrong with him, or at least get him to start talking about some of what was bothering him.

Holding him tight, Jorge practically shouted in the man’s ear that he wasn’t going to find the answers to his problems by being a punching bag; this seemed to strike a chord. Jorge could feel Sam begrudgingly begin to un-tense, his body melting in his hold as he admitted that this was a fact he was well aware of. With a push of his hips, Sam broken free of Jorge’s hold, however he didn’t turn to attack. Instead he stumbled forward, heading to the bottle of booze that he had walked in here with.

>> ”It helps me focus… Fight. Till you can’t think and fight some more…I haven’t need help my entire life. This is just something else I need to deal with on my own.”

A deep sigh fell from his lips. His hands on his hips, Jorge chewed on his lip in thought as he stared at the man in front of him. He knew that Sam had a rather messy past, he also knew that the man was a closed book on the subject except for a select few. From what he was saying it seemed to play right into his standard answer for everything: alone; he would handle the matter alone. Jorge shook his head as he eyed his friend.

”Yeah, and how is dealing with it ‘alone’ going for you?” he asked bluntly.

>> ”I’m getting better at it.”

Jorge advanced, slowly, his hands crossing over his chest to show he was not going to attack. ”You sure about that, pal?” he asked. ”I mean, call me crazy, but begging your friends to punch you over and over in the face doesn’t really sound like ‘getting better’.” He sighed. ”Listen, I get it – to a degree. But this? Being self-destructive, it’s not going to lead down a good road. I’ve seen it happen to a lot of cops. You need an outlet…other than this.”