"DON'T COME NEAR ME!" yelled Leon, ready to push Derek away if he tried to get any closer. He yanked a particularly deep spine out of his shoulder, accompanied with another growl of pain, "I'M POISON! WHAT DO I HAVE TO DO TO GET IT THROUGH TO EVERYONE!" Usually Leon was reserved, saying little, but now he was pissed, having been struck in the face and essentially thrown on a bed of barbed nails. Even he had only so much he could take before snapping. "ONE, JUST ONE WILL KILL YOU! DON'T YOU GET IT!" He was tired of people treating him like he was normal, like he wan't some monster, like his spines weren't a big deal.

He tore spine after spine out until he couldn't reach anymore, a sparse circle of spines surrounding him. There were still a few still lodge between his shoulder blades, but enough were out where the pain was less intense. Breathing hard, he sat back, breathing hard and panting, more from emotional stress then physical exertion. A few deep breaths and his heart rate started returning to normal. "You get stuck, and and the venom attacks your nerves and skin cells directly, pure pain. If you don't go into shock immediately, you can't help but scream until you pass out from lack of air. It doesn't stop until your dead." He said, relaying what he knew from experience and what Doc Prof had told him about what his venom did. He could still hear the screams of those he had poisoned when he had first turned.

He wiped the blood from his nose. It was sore from where the disk had hit. "Don't act like I'm someone you can help, I'm a monster, and being around me can kill you." He glared at where the machine had been. What kind of wilderness survival training was this? Last time he checked machines didn't pop out at random in the middle of the woods.

Derek wanted to argue with Leon, but knew that it would be in vain. Leon saw himself as a monster and nothing more than a beast that should be held in a cell for everyone else's own protection. Derek didn't know how that felt, but he could see the pain in those cyan colored eyes. With a sigh, Derek put his hands up and took several steps back. Leon needed his space right now and more importantly, he needed Derek to listen.

"Okay, okay," his voice was quiet, "I'm listenin' to you. I'm not going to stab myself with your quills and I'm not gonna help if you don't want it." What Derek did do was sit down. He wasn't going to move until Leon was ready and if that meant staying there all night and "failing" the challenge.

"Even the sides of the quills are dangerous?"

Leon let his breathing settle as Derek backed off, giving him enough room to begin calming down. His back was bleeding a little, and the remaining quills stung, but he was getting himself under control again. When he felt a bit more composed, he got up and began picking up the quills on the ground, gathering them into a pile.

"Even the sides of the quills are dangerous?"

"They're barbed, so they can stick you if you handle them wrong." he said, "If you want to help, see if we have anything to make a fire with, we need to burn these so none get's hurt by them." He wasn't comfortable with Derek attempting to handle his quills, but they did need to dispose of them, and the best way he had was to burn them, which destroyed the toxins. If Derek needed to help with something, making the fire was probably the safest thing.


Leon walked on all fours as he collected quills, his body design allowed him to walk either way, but being close to the ground allowed him to find the quills more easily. He had managed to scatter them about in his haste, something he was regretting now as he had to make a wide circle around the area to try and find each one. A whirling sound then caught his attention, just as another cylinder popped out of the ground just in front of his face. Remembering what happened last time, and still being rather pissed about it, he had no problem reacting this time, lumping at it and grabbing it, and bending it to one side, letting loose a very angry sounding growl before there was the sound of tearing metal and the cylinder snapped off, exposing wiring before coming completely off. "Damn machine," said Leon, throwing the ruined end to the ground before returning to his task.

Derek watched as Leon got up and started to gather the quills. From where he was sitting, Leon looked like a very large lion man with scary features. This is how Leon saw himself. A large monster who was better off left alone than out with the general public. Derek slowly picked himself up from the ground and took his backpack off.

"Uh, we have a lighter." Derek took it out of the backpack and placed it in his pocket. He then started to gather dry pieces of wood, pinecones, and anything else he could burn. While in the process of doing this, Leon had discovered another machine and ripped it from the ground.

"...Damn. You are strong." Derek smirked a little and started to assemble the fire. Once that was complete, he lit the match and stroked the flame until a small fire was burning. "There." He stood up straight and continued to watch Leon. "...The fire's up and going now, Leon. Do you have me to start putting the tents up or are you okay with sleeping under the stars?"

After gathering as many quills as he could find, Leon threw the pile into the fire, which gave off a sicking hiss. The quills gave off the rancid smell of burnt hair as the fire licked at them, turning a putrid green color as the toxins were drawn out and consumed. Though used to it, Leon hated the smell, which burnt his nose and clouded it. He grabbed his Jacket and sat down next to the fire, picking out any remaining quills and tossing them into the fire one by one.

"You can have the tent," said Leon, his tone voicing the frustration he was still feeling about this incident. He already knew it was out of the question, for the same reasons that he never slept in the bed at the institute. He quills would stick into the materials, not to mention that it would put Derek's life in danger as well. He held up his jacket to check for any more quills before putting it back on, wincing as it slid across the bundle of quills still embedded between his shoulder blades. It was going to be a long trip with those there. He wished Doc Prof was here, he had the right equipment and training to remove quills without poisoning himself. "What else do we have?" he asked, wanting to take note of some of their supplies, if nothing else then to divert his attention off of the discomfort he was in.

Derek didn't want the tent either. Honestly, he was fine with just sleeping out under the stars. It was more beautiful that way anyway. He was about to say thanks when the smell of burning hair and toxins entered his nostrils. He tried to act like it didn't bother him out of respect, but inside, he was dying.

"Um," He tried his best to breathe through his mouth instead of his nose, "well, we know we have the map, a lighter, uh," Derek looked through his bag again. "I think they gave us food and a pot to make frank and beans," Derek pulled out a sauce pan and placed it on top of the folded map, "I have the pan. Can you check for the other thin's please?" He asked politely with a small grin.

Leon hadn't camped since his transformation and had a lot of bad memories in between then and now. He supposed it should have been common sense to check all the supplies. He opened the bag again, pulling out the contents. Canteen, rope, compass, he had seen those before. What else? He pulled out a white box marked with a red x. "First aid kit," he said, opening it to check it's content. Bandages, antiseptic ointment... wait, what's this? There was a metallic glint of something underneath the bandages. "Huh..?" he said aloud, a bit confused, before pulling out the object. It looked like some sort of gloves, but the fibers felt metallic. What was this doing in here, even he could see they were not part of a normal first aid kit.

Unknown to Leon, the emergency first aid kits supplied had been personalized for the teams. Several mutants had medical needs that clashed with the norm, or mutations that made treating them hazardous. In case of emergencies the students would need to be able to help one another in any case, so it would be imperative to include small additions that would offset any 'inconveniences'.

Derek watched as Leon took out the contents of his bag. He really hoped that he had the food since he was starving. Derek's ears perked up when he saw the first aid kit. Hopefully that meant Leon could get his wounds cleaned up so he wouldn't get an infection.

Sitting up a bit, he tried to peek at what Leon was confused about. "What's up? Everythin' okay over there?" He asked. "Is there somethin' in the medical kit that they forgot to put in there?"

Leon lifted the gloves out of the first aid kit so Derek could see them, noting that they were far too small for him. "I guess these are for you?" he said, more questioningly then sure. He put them back and placed the kit to one side, before pulling out some ore of the bag. He set out some rations, water purification tablets, flashlights, and an emergency flare. Standard camp gear.

The spines in his back were still stung. Even though he was immune to his own poison, the barbs still tugged at his skin. He he considered trying to scratch them out with a branch or something, but knew he would more likely just drive them deeper. At least he didn't have to worry about infection, the same immune system that dealt with his own poison prevented it.

Derek knitted his eyebrows and got up from the ground. He walked around the campfire to get a better look at the gloves in his hand. They didn't look like normal gloves, but metallic ones. "Huh, I guess these are used to pluck out your spines?" Derek asked in question. He looked at the other things that Leon had pulled out. Taking the gloves, he slipped them on and wiggled his fingers around. They felt weird, but also like regular gloves.

Looking at Leon, Derek decided to try again, "now will you let me help you? I have gloves now. I don't want my partner wounded."

Leon looked at Derek, wearing the gloves. He was probably right about what they were used for, he couldn't really think of anything other reason they would be there unless it was by mistake.

"now will you let me help you? I have gloves now. I don't want my partner wounded."

Leon was torn, conflicted by his paranoia about his spines, and the painful stinging in his back. It would have been plain to anyone looking at th emotions playing across his face the conflict between fear and a desire for relief. He was afraid of accidentally poisoning Derek, even if he did have the gloves. It was a fear that had been with him since he became a mutants and almost killed everyone on the football field. IT wasn't something easily let go of. On the other had it did hurt like hell, and would only get worse over time . Finally he gave up.

"Ok.... just, be careful..." he said, wary of the prospect of being touched. He removed his jacket again, sitting down the ground to give Derek the best position without having to reach up. A closer inspection of his back would have revealed the spines that were interlaced in his fur, stiff with barbed quills . Between his shoulder blades, a bundle of quills were embedded, stuck tight as the bards clung to the wound. Leon braced himself, it hurt a lot pulling trying to pull them out, the barbs made it difficult, pulling at the flesh around it. It took Leon a few good yanks to get them out, though admittedly he wasn't always in the best position to really get a strong grip on them despite his strength.

"I'll be super careful, I promise." Derek was reliefed that he would finally be able to help his partner with taking the quills out of his back. Getting down on his knees behind Leon, Derek started to get the quills that were simply entangled in his fur first. Those would be way less painful than it would be for him to start at the ones that were really in his back. "As you probably know, this is gonna hurt. If you want, later I can rub coca butter on your wounds to help heal it up." Derek loved cocoa butter. He put it on his skin to keep himself moisturized.

Picking out the loose spines was the easy part, though when it came to actually pulling the embedded ones out, Derek paused. He really didn't want to hurt Leon for obvious reasons. "Okay....ready? One, two, three!" Derek yanked out two barbed spines from his back and winced.

"I'm used to it," said Leon, already aware of how much his quills hurt, as things like this tended to happen often to him, maybe not quite so many at once, but he got stuck with his own quills almost daily because of how he bound them. He didn't know about Cocoa butter, he had never used anything like that, so didn't really know what it was for to begin with. "Don't get too carried away," he added, still not comfortable with Derek being as close as he was to begin with, and not wanting to push his luck. The detangling of the quills in his fur felt little more like getting knots out of his fur, slight tugging and such. He knew from experience the harder part was getting the quills that were stuck in him. The barbs made them hard to pull out, as they tore at the flesh like hooks coming out.

"Okay....ready? One, two, three!"

Leon tried to remain calm so his muscles wouldn't tense up and make it harder for Derek to pull. Still, the feeling the the quills being violently yanked out was enough to make him let out a suppressed pained growl. The spines had expanded slightly from the moisture in his skin after being in for so long, so had come out with minute bits of tissue and blood that clung them. Leon pawed the ground as he grit his teeth, his retractable claws extending in reaction to it as he did his best to keep his cool. If he got too worked up, the rest of his quills would stick up, which would make extracting more dangerous for Derek.

He tossed the handful of spines into the fire, releasing the foul pungent oder that made Derek want to end his life. Breathing through his mouth, he gently caressed his red fur. "I know, I know..."Derek whispered, trying to sooth Leon. He knew that doing this might get on Leon's nerves, but he wanted to make sure that it wasn't all pain. He may be drawing it out, but it was

"Just a few more pulls and that should be it. Then, I wanna disinfect it and make sure you feel comfortable, alright?" He grabbed five more spins with his covered hand and yanked, this time not giving a warning. He tossed the spines in the fire like he did the first set and sighed, "how are ya feelin'?" Derek asked cautiously.

Leon was no stranger to getting quills pulled out of him. He had attempted to rid himself of his spines once and for all by having Doc Prof literally excise them from the root(which ultimately failed when they grew back), which had taken two hours to accomplish. If Derek thought this the worst pain he had felt he was mistaken. With Derek pulling the last of the quills out from his back, he let out a growl before letting out a sigh of relief.

"how are ya feelin'?"

"Like I have holes in my back," said Leon bluntly. He was grateful to Derek for helping him out, but he was still grumpy from the incident. "You don't need to worry about me, I don't get infections," he said. His immune system handled his own poison, and for all he knew he had poison in his blood that killed off bacteria that attempted to infect him, or his immune system was strong enough to fight it off. He wasn't going to stop Derek from putting anything soothing on his wounds while he had those gloves on, but he knew it wasn't necessary and Derek was under no obligations.