Summary:The X-Men run through a simulation in the Danger Room. Log Info:Storyteller: None |
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It's fall and school is back in session at Xavier's. Students fill the halls, and along with that comes the usual chaos of teeenage drama and powers out of control. That doesn't mean that the X-Men can skimp on their training, though. Bad guys never seem to sleep, after all.
A session was scheduled for the weekend, after the members with teaching responsibilities had their chance to handle them. Jean doesn't have any such excuse herself, which is why she's already suited up and waiting in the danger room.
As for Caden Pryde he'd been hovering somewhat, keeping himself busy and trying to help some of the students around as well as some of the team members. This mainly had been technology-based though. Computer security, data retrieval, all things he could do in his room in front of his bank of systems.
But that left him feeling a bit sluggish, his personal work outs just hadn't been cutting it. So when the chance for a group session came about he actually signed up…
And then showed up at the entrance to the Danger Room, wearing his old uniform. "Man, this brings back memories." It was the black one with a white stripe down the side, a hood and a mask though the hood was pushed back. "Still fits, a bit snug." Since the last time he had worn it was a year and some ago.
"Hey, Jean." He waves.
Rogue saunters on down to the lower levels on auto-pilot. Now that she's not living in the mansion, she's rarely in the building for long (Who knew Remy could cook like a dream?). Auburn hair is back in a thick french braid, her face bare and lacking any of her usual accessories like earrings. The suit up is black and green, hands gloved up despite the fact she hasn't needed gloves for months now.
"Jean. Caden. Who else is on the dance card?" Hands curl and clench, trying to ignore the way the gloves feel like a mini-prison.
Scott had just finished teaching math class (Geometry AND Algebra) before he took the first chance he had to make his way to the Danger Room. He needed to get his practice in. So, when he walks into the ready room, Scott is in his full uniform, his hands adjusting his Visor to make sure its sitting right. It was like they were back in business.
"Alright team, no time to slack off."
Scott says with a smile on his face, his brown hair visible despite his black and red outfit.
"Caden, Rogue. Good to see you two back in outfit." It brings back the memories…it really does. "Jean." Scott says noticeably affectionately. After finishing fine-tuning his visor, Scott rolls his shoulders. "Alright, what should be the difficulty?"
Jean pushes off the wall as the others arrive, her white and blue uniform definitely failing the stealth test. "Man, you can tell we've all been around the block, can't you?" she laughs as she looks over the mix of uniforms. "Heya Rogue, Caden. Glad you guys could make it out."
She flashes a smile toward Scott as he comes in, pushing her hair back away from her face and settling her mind. "Maybe start it up at medium?" she suggests. "Give us a chance to remember what we're doing."
"Hey, Rogue." Caden lifts a hand to her as well. His smile is warm, a little pleased at seeing everyone again. Then Scott makes his entrance, "Scott, looking good." He offers as he straightens up and turns to look at the others.
For a moment he tightens his gloves and scrunches his nose. "Might need to get new gloves. Weird, everything fits normally, but not the gloves. Maybe I suddenly got fat hands."
That said he peers sidelong at Jean, "That's probably wise. I feel like maybe something along the level of say us versus the Smurfs. That might be fair." His lip twists a little. "Or if we're feeling our oats we can beat up some lawn gnomes?"
Green eyes will shift to Scott, a faint nod in his direction. "I can keep up with whatever y'all are comfortable with." Those hands keeps flexing and curling in those gloves, as if they don't fit.
"Gloves suck when you're fightin', Caden." Rogue can say that with authority. "Unless you really need them for something. I'm just wearing them so none of y'all get nervous. I haven't needed 'em in months."
Scott chuckles just a little bit to Jean. "Yeah, we've all really been through a lot, haven't we? Feels like yesterday we suited up for the first time." Scott then agrees. "Medium. Be happy I'm not Logan, he'd choose X-treme any day of the week." a hidden pun in there, certainly. But then his eyes shift over to Caden. "Or a weakened Sentinel." Yes, Scott was going to tease Caden, not letting him have any kind of reprieve where action is involved. He does smirk in good-natured fashion though.
As for Rogue, Scott looks almost surprised. "You've started to control your powers? Nice." Scott says to Rogue in a tone that properly befits admiration.
"Hey, that's great, Rogue!" Jean smiles warmly over at the other woman, coming closer. "What finally did it?" Asking is certainly more polite than going digging for the reason. And of course, it's a good thing to keep in mind before getting into combat. Just in case things go…poorly.
"I like how gloves look," Caden comments to Rogue, "But yah, these… don't feel the best." Then his attention slips back towards Scott.
"Hey, Medium is good, I like Medium." Caden's tone of voice is wry and amused as he adjusts the mask he's wearing, "It's unpretentious, it speaks to the common man. Nothing wrong with being Medium." That said he starts to walk towards the room proper.
Turning around, the young X-Man smiles across the way at Rogue, "And hey that's good to hear, Rogue. I'm very glad for you." Even as he experimentally hops up into the air and floats there briefly as he phases, then lets himself slowly drift back down to the ground.
Rogue rolls one shoulder in a shrug. "I don't know what did it. I started going without gloves at all at work and in the garage. Maybe it was that I stopped thinkin' about it all the time. I don't know. I mean, I'm not pushin' my luck with it or anything, I'm still takin' everything slow."
She will move to file into the Danger room. "Hey now, without my powers, I /am/ the common man, Pryde." She will snark with plenty of sass.
Scott starts making his way into the Danger Room proper with the team of four, His neck cracking just a tad as he prepares himself mentally for what they were about to go through. But it was a familiar danger, one that they could all be prepared to handle. He does look at Rogue though. "So, can you touch one of us and not have us go into a coma?" Yes, it was a -very- pointed question, but perhaps one that needed asking.
Could be a serious tactical disadvantage if so. But hey.
He then looks up. "Okay, ready to get started everyone?" He puts two fingers to the control dial on his visor in preparation to do some optic sharp-shooting.
"Well I'm glad you're making progress," Jean grins to Rogue, cracking her knuckles and half closing her eyes to focus. "All right, everybody ready for the link?" Once everyone confirms, she'll link their minds together in a familiar lattice, setting up the relay for orders and information.
"Good when you are, Scott," she nods to Cyclops.
"Well, I'd say more like 'Whoa-Man' not so much common man." Her sass is granted such a rejoinder as Caden finishes the stroll into the room proper, the doors opening before him as they wander into the the silver-sided training chamber. He tilts his head back and looks up up up to the heights of the place, ever deceptive.
Then he looks back to the others, "Oh hey, also Laura came back yesterday. Set her up with her own room on the second floor. So." He knows peoples' opinions of Laura and her savage ways had… somewhat split the student body, so he then just adds a little. "So there's that."
At Scott's warning he nods once, settling into a ready stance. "Roger that." He offers in reply.
There's a snort. "Yes, I can do that. I can probably borrow a spurt of power without hurting you at all. But I don't look for guinea pigs, people have to volunteer." Rogue tips her head side to side to pop her neck as she prepares.
There's a faint flinch at the mental touch, just like always, a deep breath in and out as Rogue tries to let the link in, without too much mental 'noise' crossing oer it like static."
"Whoa-man?" Rogue looks at Caden a little curiously, not getting the intent. She doesn't comment at all about Laura, settling onto the balls of her feet.
Scott looks to Caden when he speaks about Laura returning to the school. "Laura's back? Fantastic to hear. I'll have to put her through her paces again to make sure she's still got it." But Scott knows Laura still has it. They are very good friends after all. "Thank you for doing that, Caden."
Then people are giving their ready-checks, and Scott takes a breath before looking up. "Begin Danger Room Program at Medium Difficulty."
The sound of a computer goes off, and it seems that the danger room shifts to look like they are in an actual combat environment. Namely, the streets of New York City. The enemies in question?
Purifiers. They have machine guns and other melee weapons. "MUTANTS!"
Scott immediately gives out orders through the telepathic link that Jean creates. «Rogue, flank them! Try and take them out quietly. Caden, use your powers to try and trip them up.—» Phasing is fun like that. «I'll give you some cover. Jean, use your telekinesis to give us something cover us from gunfire, then work on their weapons.»
Yes, he talks fast. Yes, he's not wasting time as he immediately fires off an optic blast from his visor, immediately knocking one of the twenty purifiers into a back wall.
"I hate Purifiers," Jean groans as the program comes up, though she doesn't hesitate to help deal with the bullets. The danger of this program is finding a way to stop them without killing the Purifiers, losing civilians, or damaging too much property. All of those things tend to reflect poorly on the X-Men. And are bad.
Looking around the field, she fixes on a fire hydrant. « There we go. One water hazard, coming up, » she says through the link, using her mind to tear the hydrant from the ground and shape a field to push the sudden fountain of water at the Purifiers.
The young X-Man tilts hsi head to the side quickly, eyes falling heavily on the Purifiers as targets. Scott's orders come in like rapid-fire, snapping them to attention and giving them their orders and just like that it all comes back together.
« On it. » Caden's 'voice' comes across on the shared telepathy and even as the words are given he /dives/ forward under the ground before him going 'das boot' and out of the line of fire as he rushes underground toward the position he knows they're likely to take cover at.
It's just a few moments, out of view. Then as the Purifiers start to lay down some fire, Caden will phase back into view behind a pair of them. One gets a gloved hand pushed through his skull, shorting out the electrical processes of his mind… while the other is grabbed from behind in almost the same instant and pulled back into the shadows. No mark of conflict, no sounds coming from it, just the sudden stopping of their fire though the rest of the weapons assuredly cover for that loss.
Rogue doesn't respond so much verbally through the link, there's just that sort of bland acceptance that can be felt. She'll stick to the side of the street, blending through the civvies to come around the side of them, head slightly ducked as she hurries along like she's afraid.
She will angle closer to the street, across the sidewalk, as she comes up on the Purifiers. She's about to rush past, when instead she will pause, one foot coming up and away to kick in the Purifier closest to her in the side of the knee joint.
Scott Summers keeps laying down some heat as he fires off Optic Blasts, one after the other. He takes out two more of the Purifiers before ducking behind a wall so he's not shot. Sure, this was a simulation, but that shit hurts! Thus, Scott looks at Jean as she rockets forth a fountain from the fire hydrant, the high pressure-stream knocks back several purifiers and buys Jean some time to do another action, while also allowing Scott to come out of cover and start gaining ground. He immediately punches a Purifier in the throat, then fires an optic beam right at his chest to take him down.
As for Caden…his constant phasing in and out leaves him to be an enigma among the enemy forces. One of them does seem to notice Caden and tries to fire at the mutant, clearly unknowing that Shadowcat can always just phase through the bullets. Pretty easily, actually.
Rogue kicks out and she'll find that she broke the guy's knee right at the joint, causing him to howl in pain and fall to his side. One gunman notices Rogue, and charges at her with what looks like an electrically-charged baton.
As the water blows the purifiers back, Jean takes a moment to try something she's been working on. Using her telekinesis, she rips a gun out of the hands of one of the Purifiers, then promptly and suddenly disassembles it in the air above him, letting the parts rain down. Explosive disassembly!
It might be surprising to see Caden so at ease up close and personal with the bad guys. Historically he was always ducking, bobbing, weaving. Distractions helped, and occasionally he would make a clutch play to take a target of opportunity down. But something has changed about the young X-Man as he phases straight through that barrage of incoming fire quick enough to grab the weapon's barrel and yank it out of the Purifier's hand… then kick up and hard under the man's head taking him out and knocking him around with a clean strike that sends him sprawling.
« Rogue, gloves are also good for holding onto hot rifle barrels. Ow! » He drops the weapon and then /leaps/ to the side as more weapons fire in his direction, dropping out of view once again into the shadows to reposition and get back to it.
Rogue is busy right now, please leave a message after the southern tinged cussing. Which is exactly what she's doing as she's being charged, even as she's charging in the baton wielder's direction… only to drop and slide along pavement with a foot aiming for one ankle before she will lean up in a momentum assisted situp to punch right for the groin.
Scott seems to watch as Jean rips a gun out of a purifiers hands and disassembles it on top of him, the parts falling on him as he covers his head with his arms. A few sharper parts of the gun dissassembly pierces his skin However, this gives an opening for Scott to unload some Optic firepower on the man's chest, knocking him backwards so he seems to skid along the ground like how one would skip a rock across a lake. It does not look comfortable.
Now that Scott and Jean have definitely apparently worked on their teamwork incognito, Caden is actually getting some good work in. The man Caden strikes it out like a light, and before anyone can attack Caden again, he's gone. Its clear though that this time Caden has two men 'looking' for him, weapons at the ready.
Meanwhile, Rogue finds she has a penchant for for sly maneuvers as she punched the fellow right in the groin, he crumples over and does NOT look like he's going to get up again anytime soon. Unlike the others, however, Rogue currently doesn't have anybody shooting at her. She is free to act at the moment and can plan accordingly.
In terms of hostiles, there are eight left. A man with a rocket-launcher seems to be aiming down-sights at Jean! <Jean, look out!>
It's training time, and that means it's the time for trying things that are new. At Scott's cry, she follows his mind to the man with the rocket launcher. Rocket launchers are really bad for collateral damage. Luckily, she has a few tricks for that. She doesn't stop him from firing, instead throwing out a hand and grasping the rocket itself with her mind to fling it up into the air where it can explode harmlessly.
"Time to test out the psychic settings on this place," she murmurs, mostly to herself, as she aims a mental blast at the Purifier's mind.
Shadowcat is gone from view just long enough for the men to start to think they might be wasting their time looking for him. The scanning and seeking their target is fruitless until one gets grabbed from below… and is dropped straight through the ground to disappear entirely from view…
His compatriot rushes over, looking around quickly, as if trying to find where the hell his partner in crime just went, slamming the stock of his weapon into the ground where the pair disappeared…
Only for Caden to appear once again some distance back and timing his charge to tackle the rifleman from behind and taking him down hard, slamming the man's head into the ground with one hand, then rising up.
There's that alarm called out on the comm frequency as he rises. Rocket launcher! No time to close the distance, Caden at the least has the wherewithal to grab the fallen rifle and send it spinning end over end toward the man with the missile, at least trying to crack him upside the head and foul his aim.
Rogue has come to realize without using her powers, she has need to find other ways to fight and be useful. Lucky her, Remy is more than happy to teach her fighting skills, and she indulges in practice with him as often as they can manage (or when she's not wiped out from work).
The call to look out isn't addressed to her, so the belle barely glances that way before she's moving to swipe the taser baton out of the fallen Purifier's hand. She will give on last kick, before she's twirling the baton like Remy sometimes does his staff, moving to follow in the wake of Caden's throw to take out the guy by hand.
Okay, so…
The man with the bazooka fired off the rocket, but just immediately after that, the rocket is directed by Jean as it explodes harmlessly in the air. Civilian casualties and collateral damage successfully averted! But then The rocketman (eat your heart out, Elton John) is immediately assaulted by three X-Men at the same time. The gun snaps into the man's temple, causing his body to go limp in the 'asleep on his feet' kind of way, then his mind is assaulted by the mind blast from Jean, to which he seems to literally go stiff and his head jerks back, just in time for Rogue to deal with him via electric baton and takedown.
Scott kinda raises his eyes a bit at the serious overkill that just happened, but he's also pretty proud of the teamwork that he just witnessed.
Behind Caden, a rifleman lifts up his gun and goes for the headshot…!
Though Caden may see a brilliant beam of red-colored energy fly just over his shoulder and strike the gunman in the face, causing his head to jerk back from the concussive force and essentially fall unconscious from the hit.
Then there were none.
Scott moves out of his cover and walks a moment, perhaps investigating.
"Everybody good?" Jean asks, even though she can still feel them all in her mind. The link is a careful one - it sends and receives actual thoughts and emergency status, but she keeps it limited to that in the interest of everyone's privacy.
While Scott steps out of cover, she stays where she is, searching the scene for any hidden Purifiers.
Straightening up, Caden gives another look around, a quick once-over of the engagement area. He quirks an eyebrow behind that mask and makes a small 'hnh' of sound that comes across more clear on the telepathic link they share. Then he shoots a look toward Scott and gives a thumbs up for the assist.
Stepping out into the open he gives a nod and murmurs, "That was alright. Not amazing, but alright." He scritches the bridge of his nose thoughtfully and perhaps stepping on Cyclops' toes he says, "We should probably spin the variables and go again."
And as easy as that, Caden might well be condemning them to a full afternoon of PT.
After that downed purifier is tased, the baton is twirled again, unconscious mimicking of her teacher, perhaps? She will look around, trying to make sure everything is clear, and all are safe.
Then her head turns to look at Caden, a laugh. "I've got dinner to make tonight, sugar. It's my turn, and my pork requires low and slow in the oven. But we should again, sometime. Soon."
With all being very well and Scott not noticing anything out of the ordinary, he pats Jean on the shoulder. "Looks like your telepathic training came in handy." He smirks at her for a solid moment before he looks at Caden. "I'd put that at decent, more like. Teamwork was excellent, but we gotta keep it up. For now, take a quick break then we'll be right back to it."
He looks over at Rogue. "Pork? Save some for me, yeah?" he teases her, then the simulation is officially over.
Well done, X-Men!