2013.06.20 - YXM: Showtime!

It wasn't going to be a typical training session. As the Young X-Men proceeded little by little, Doug waited for the X-23 bombshell to drop on the other Young X-Men. But Laura showed little signs of taking the group immediately. Perhaps because she was waiting for something... and Doug had a feeling he knew what it was. And so, after a little talk with Logan, maybe a slight impetus might get Laura to open up just a bit more...
"To me, X-Men," Doug greets the young team, saying those words with just a touch of irony and teasing, consciously echoing the Professor. "Today's session is going to be a holo practice. Here, you're about to enter a simple scenario, a world where people barely remember things even past forty years ago, a world where people are striving to survive the best they can... and a world where giant robots of intense power are tipping the balance towards the unscrupulous. Sooo..."
Motioning to the Young X-Men to enter the simulation, Doug grins. "It's showtime."
The Young X-Men will discover that the city simulation they're in is like a retro-noir city, one full of bright skies, but heavy with ... a sense of longing, like something missing. People scurry around in the streets with an air of quiet desperation, as though trying to find a routine in a world that suddenly lacked any. Not quite a desolation, it was a sterile environment. Although dirt and the poor loitered everywhere, there were signs of devastation, not the sort that had been done by lasers and missiles and bombs, but as though they had simply been pushed over like so many lego pieces...
The question, of course, was what the goal of the scenario was going to be. Jocelyn just wasn't quite sure what it was going to be here. She listens to Doug's explanation, having arrived in her X-Suit as normal. Pouches filled with the usual helpful gear that she carried (in large part due to Shift's survival courses), she waited and watched as the simulation started up. That was always just a weird occurance for Jocelyn. With her energy sight, it was always just a touch disorienting for her.
The tall teenager looks around, trying to get a sense of her surroundings and checking the area for immediate threats. The Danger Room didn't usually put them in immediate danger upon starting up, but you never knew. Plus Doug had talked about giant robots and people not remembering things from forty years ago. Well, the giant robots, if they're around, should be easy enough to spot, energy sight or no energy sight.
There are reasons why Laura is holding back on talking to the other Young X-Men regarding that. Several.
But this is not the time or place to discuss them. After all, this is /training/.
Hence why as Laura Kinney a.k.a. X-23 is here. In The Danger Room. In her old black Weapon X uniform. In the shadows, and hopefully out of sight, while still trying to stay close to Jocelyn and her other teammates.
Why? because Laura probably does better operating out of the shadows. At least at first.
Josie, too, looks around as she takes in the city she finds herself in. "Ok... it's a city. What are we supposed to do?" She, too, is wearing her uniform, though in her case she has no extra gear. "Do we try to find some giant robots?" After taking in her surroundings, she looks back up to Jocelyn.
Stretches of the worn cityscape's buildings don't even seem to have power; the vast subway system that once rumbled beneath their feet? Dead and disconnected, its tunnels a criss-crossing mesh of derelict passages and unexpected obstructions through which few things passed. The young team stands out even as they enter free and aware into the haze: there's a tickle of telepathic scouts somewhere beyond vision, lost in the rooftops.. as if looking down from the sky.
There's little time to ponder the proactive surveillance, however, as a low rumble reverberates underground, the sound of ample tons of rock shifting somewhere deep below the surface sending tremors all the way to the surrounding buildings-- it only increases in volume during an apparently alarmingly swift ascent towards their section of street.
It's a rumbling that only grows, as people scream. The old and the young are left behind, grappling for -something-, as people who might or might not be related simply abandon the old and the youngest, fending for -themselves-. Those who were too slow to move stumble, fall, and are left behind in the city, as people stream out of the buildings, and run, lemming-like, in different directions, away from the increasingly thunderous tremors origins.
For those who can detect such things, the vibrations aren't those of earthquakes, a low and steadily increasing tremor, but the sort that feel very much like footsteps, only -heavier-. Tremendously heavier...
Glancing downwards even as she floats just an inch or so above the surface, Jocelyn frowns. Normally, she'd explain that she'd suggest they do some surveillance, get the lay of the land, and maybe even talk to some people. But that wasn't going to be an option here. "Well. No need for surveillance here. Get stealthy," the teenager suggests. By whatever means was best for the individual. "Different locations. It could be something else, but likely as nothing else we've got the giant robots. If they are, I'll try and lure them away of the city, and we can deal with them without trashing this place". Yeah, the city wasn't much, but it was the only home these people had. Jocelyn didn't want to let it get trashed.
Jocelyn then slips into the shadows herself and starts heading towards the sound of the bad things. She's watching for any weird signs of energy use that would give away whatever these things were.
As she feels the earth shake, Laura frowns. Sure she hears Jocelyn, but well...
The 'former' Weapon X-23 just slinks along in the shadows. Trying to use her enhanced senses as much as possible to hopefully go in the right direction. Sure she can't exactly go by smell, but her enhanced sense of hearing may be able to help her a bit.
And yet even as she does that, she tries to remain as silent and unseen as possible.
Stealthy? Josie looks around a moment, biting her lip. Then she grins and she transforms into water, droppping to the ground with a slight splash. Soon she's just a puddle at the edge of the street, indistinguishable from any normal puddle.
One outer Wall buckles and heave inwards in the tenement nearest the street as asphalt splits and admits a giant, sleekly robotic fist. The rest of the towering behemoth is just as reminiscent of the deadly Sentinels, its portals onto the world cold and unfeeling sensors and lenses. It's clearly visible for its power core even before it breaches through the ground, if one's eyes are so attuned. There's even a familiar hint of a scent, somewhere under those projected by the simulation, that might tickle Laura's instincts...
... for the moment before one giant fist hisses as a piston charges and discharges kinetic energy into a downward, crushing slam that seems to pinpoint Jocelyn's nearby cover despite the darkness-- and impacts that region with foundation-shattering, sidewalk-splitting force. It's likely safe to say this is not the robot ambassador.
Running around in the streets, left to fend for themselves, a few young children scream as they are trapped beneath crumbling bricks. Ignored by the adults around them, the elderly, some felled by concrete, other too slow to get away, simply sit on the ground, resigned to their fates...
Really, Jocelyn hates Sentinels. The whole ability to detect mutants that they had was rather frustrating. The teen charges herself up and takes flight, dodging away from the nasty bad Sentinel trying to smash her. She flies back over the wall to attempt to draw the Sentinel away and speaks into her X-Com.
"Sentinel. In case anyone missed that".
Then Jocelyn kicks up her flight speed and starts circling around the head of the Sentinel, trying to distract it attacks her instead of the others and avoids doing any damage to the people on the ground. She'd have to leave their rescue to the others - she was already pinpointed and was the primary target for the moment.
There's a glance at the robot that did that to the building from X-23. Especially as that debris falls. She flat out snarls at it. For a moment or two she even looks /almost/ like she's going to charge at it.
And yet, as the cries from the children reach the young clones ears, she frowns.
As much as she'd love to try and charge it. To carve it to pieces. She knows what Channel can do. She knows that if she and Josie play their cards right, the robot could be taken down by the two of them.
The kids on the other hand...
Well, Laura can't forget about them. Hence why she turns and tries to charge towards them, her claws popping with a *SNIKT!* so that she can move anything she needs out of her way, even if it has to be cut up first. After all, she knows what it's like to be young and trapped. There's no way she'd let others be forced into anything like that if she can avoid it.
Josie can't really do anything about kids trapped in the debris, so as soon as she sees Laura's on that, she starts to flow quickly towards the Sentinel. She does squirt some water at any of the kids who aren't trapped but just giving up, on her way by, but she's mainly trying to get to the Sentinel and start flowing up its leg.
Cessily (Mercury) has requested to meet you.
To bring them here: Type 닩ꚢ Cessily
To go where they are: Type 躈 Cessily
To decline: Type 痧▊ Cessily
This offer will expire in 250 seconds.
The lumbering behemoth shows surprising alacrity and foresight in swatting at the swiftly speeding mutant who circles around its skull in a feint. It does indeed buy Laura time to reach the debris field unmolested, and begin her perilous firefight rescue. It also means that Jocelyn gets to deal with several pulses of superheated crimson lasers that carve sizzling swaths through the air between the towering mecha and its mutant target.
Anyone who's paid attention to the records Xavier has on these things knows what those beams can do in the real world; even in simulation, the impact feedback is designed to swiftly-- and harshly-- disable. Warnings within the Sentinel chassis are too slow to keep Josie off, but the towering foe does respond moments later... even if the noxious gas deploying around its legs is unlikely to do much to stop the watergirl.
The screaming from the children continue, making it all the easier for X-23 to unearth them from the buried rubble. Tears and blood flow as they reach desperately for the assistance that comes in form of Laura Kinney.
And as the elderly remain resigned to their fates, more tremors come, this coming from the opposite directions. Very much like the Sentinels', but this one seems just a bit... sprightier. A bit quicker to move, a bit -smoother-.
And when the giant robot appear, it's not built at all like a Sentinel, but more like ... a rook-like figure given form as a robot, more steam-punk than anything...
It rumbles into view, hesitating as the elderly in the street bar the way...
Oh, Jocelyn had studied up on Sentinels. She'd run into them in the field on her first mission. She knew what they could do, and she wasn't really all that keen on getting hit by one of those lasers, though she knew she could probably take one or two hits if she had to. More than that and she'd probably be in trouble, though she wasn't honestly sure if she could just plain take the hit without engaging her absorption powers. Now wasn't the time to test it though.
Instead, Jocelyn focuses on varying her speed to throw the Sentinel off, and so far, she's able to react quickly enough, thanks to her enhanced reflexes, to avoid getting hit. As she 'sees' Laura deal with the debris and Josie go water-form, Jocelyn decides to try a little bit of brute force on the Sentinel. She flies around to the back of it's head and slams her fist into the back of it's head as hard as she can, letting her 100,000 pounds of force loose. If she manages to bust through, the girl is going to attempt to grab hold and rip the Sentinel's head off it's body. If it didn't have a head, it couldn't shoot anybody or do much of anything, right?
The second robot is noticed, but Jocelyn isn't sure what to do about it, as it does stop for the elderly. Well, that and she's busy trying to destroy the Sentinel right now.
It's been suggested to her that she work on her stealth. Cessily laughed at that suggestion originally. Her? Stealthy? What, if she throws a bag of her head? No, if she's sneakier, and Cessily's been work on that very much so, having lurked in the sewers and conduits underneath the street. As the new robot shudders to a stop in its consideration, its foot lands near a grate. From tht grade a silver slick flows, wrapping around its leg and travelling up its body...
Even as that other, different robot arrives, Laura leaves it up to the others to do what they can. She after all has a focus. Search and rescue. Slice and dice debris. Use the sounds of the screams to figure out which way to dig. Get the kids free.
And if the others need help, she'll give it. But considering what Jocelyn can usually do on her own, let alone with Josie and Cessily helping...
Gas? Josie'd probably be laughing if she, you know, had lungs at the moment. (Of course, then it wouldn't be funny.) She continues flowing up the Sentinel, avoiding anything that look like weapon ports but otherwise searching for a way past the armour.
The Sentinel's external armor is, at least thus far, all but seamless: a sealed system. Which, given the machines' typical mission parameters, is to be expected, really. The back of the robot's skull proves pregnable indeed, but its neck joint? Pretty solid. It's difficult to even lift the robot by that handhold, dense and heavily armored (and armed) as it is: made all the harder when said titan seeks to pulverize one like one might respond to an insect sting, palm against armored skull, heavy metal sandwich style.
If that fails, well... the mutants' heat signatures are locked in, excepting Josie (for reasons that should be obvious), and a micromissile launches with a rocket's burst from the tip of each large finger. Two seek out Jocelyn, two seek out Laura... and threaten the civilians she focuses on, and the last? It immediately answers the new threat, whirring inexorably down at Cessily's ill-equipped bunker with high explosive ferocity.
SCENE: Wolverine has set the pose order.
As Laura reaches the trapped children, and begin to extract them (and quite likely, having to deal with being clung to), the newcomer robot is already trying to avoid the elderly, moving delicately around, when it finds itself being entangled by ... living mercury.
The giant robot seemingly can't say anything, but there's a certain frantic gesture to its movement. Roughly "Hey, hey, get off!"
And then the tracking rocket that was aimed at Cessily is fired, and the robot is too -big- to move. As it hits, it staggers backwards, starting to topple onto a building...
Doug Jocelyn Cessily Laura Josie Logan
Well, now there were two missiles coming at her, and Jocelyn had managed to put a hole in the back of the head of the Sentinel. Little tough to rip it's head off here, and she wasn't going to try and absorb the energy that would be required blow through the neck. But maybe the missles could do the job for her. Jocelyn speaks into her X-Com as she darts around that giant hand slap from the Sentinel. Yikes, that was close!
"Josie, if these missles don't trash it, fry it's circuits". She figured the liquid girl could keep safe from the explosion. The redhead then waits for the last minute and then launches up and over the head of the Sentinel she's fighting, hoping to lure the missiles into the back of the Sentinel's head and finish the job.
Regardless, she sees the other robot start to head towards a building, and Jocelyn hurtles towards it at full speed, attempting to slam into the robot and push it just enough so that it doesn't destroy the building and instead drop it onto the street or some other harmless location. She didn't know if she could get the raw force up, but her strength multipled by her flight speed, she hoped, would be enough to at least push it away from the building.
That was....convenient! Good work, Cess! Feel good! You totally planned this! Sort of. Mercury's flowing up the side of the second robot - Rookbot, as she liks to think of it - and is up to its 'hips' when the missile starts streaking in. "Mutant seeking missiles? No fair!" she protests. Maybe it'll work out okay, since the robot's already wobbling and.....no, no, that's bad. Cessily shifts herself around to the back of the robot, as it starts to fall backwards and she reforms her body, trying to stretch her legs and arms to stop the fall. It's....really a stretch.
"Go! Get out!" is all but shouted as Laura finally speaks up. She even tries to push one of the kids off of her as she works to get them all free and clear.
And then of course she turns her head right as she hears something...
Yeah. She gets an eye full of missiles. All she really can do is to try and shove the kids who may be near her away, possibly even grabbing one as she tries to jump clear herself...
And then well...
*BOOM!*
Or whatever these missiles do. Which probably at least kicks up a large cloud of dust if they don't explode.
But after a few moments... Well... A shape comes charging out of the cloud. A shape that heads right towards the Sentinel. A shape with adamantium claws. A shape that people may have to worry about.
After all, Laura was trying to help the kids. Because of what this thing did. Then it still did what it did. Thus well...
X-23 is /PISSED/.
Josie waits for those missiles that Channel sends back at the Sentinel, and then flows up the last of the distance to the Sentinel's head. If it's not dead already, she flows inside and starts doing as much damage as she can without getting electrocuted herself.
Don't ask questions about where Blindfold has been all this time. It's none of your business. The point is she's NOW in the street urging elderly folks to move out of harms way. Not that many people are encouraged to follow a seemingly blind girl anywhere, much less out of danger. Wearing a blindfold over the place where one's eyes SHOULD be does not exactly scream competence in being able to lead anyone anywhere.
"You should come with me. Because you will die otherwise. Yes. Pardon? No. Yes."
Okay, maybe talking like a crazybird isn't going to help the situation, either. But the yellow-and-black-clad teenager has to try SOMETHING, or else she knows what's going to happen to these people who aren't really there. Not that it really mattered, since what was going to happen was already going to happen regardless of how much she tried to make or not make it happen. And while that never stopped the sight-impaired pre-cog from trying, it was enough to make her head hurt if she tried to think about it too much.
Point was: It was a game and they were supposed to try to win.
She can't use flight, energy beams, super-claws, feats of strength, or liquid-metal-body powers. When it comes to 'the action', there seems to be very little the telepath is actually capable of doing. But she does have a single combat-capable power, if a little on the weak side for fighting. So if gentler persuasion fails, the brunette mutant begins to use her powers to subtly 'help' the elderly along. Via telekinesis, much like herding cattle, in the direction she wishes them to go: namely into a nearby building.
The pulverizing shockwaves from the micromissiles are intense, but hardly designed to penetrate a colossal target: the real trick is avoiding being stunned in the same breath, as the Sentinel, which apparently knows kung-fu, whips around to drop a leading elbow harshly into a frankly rather large section of space, seeking to force the mutant all up in its grill to back off... or be splattered. Regardless, that intuitive movement gives the systems a moment to come online; then abruptly back off. Josie's intercession into the rift in the Sentinel's armor yields lots of conduits to sensors and weapons in the head-- but no central processor to conveniently disable.
While somewhat fortuitous, this does leave the behemoth fighting blind: fierce metal fists piston outwards, reaving two floors out of an adjacent high-rise in a single pass. Stonework and bits of what used to be fire escapes and balconies crash broken towards the ground as the building lurches, and the injured Sentinel tries to triangulate positions based on the sensors still functioning. In the end, the other massive fist slams downwards, the roadway crumbling with spidery veins of cracking concrete in all directions as it begins to sag and give way around the titan itself, debris toppling down into the seemingly endless black of the subway caverns below...
Slowly, inexorciably, the Rookbot starts to steady, standing up, thanks to Cessily's efforts. And as Blindfold calmly leads the elderly away, somehow managing to convince them to abandon their quiet desperation, it finds itself the empty path... and starts tromping towards the Sentinel, moving quickly to try and deliver a big blow with a humongous steel fist.
The children, at least some of them, don't seem to be moving, left scattered where X-23, breathing heavily, blood trickling slowly...
With the Rookbot going for the Sentinel, Jocelyn finally opens up with an energy blast, drawing in some electrical energy from the Sentinel itself before launching a blast directly at the knees of the Sentinel. However, Channel sees that lots of people appear to be on that Sentinel, and she doesn't think it's long for this world. So she flies down towards the children and checks them to see which ones are still alive and sets about healing those who are badly injured. She will send them into the nearest safe building (as safe as it can get) while keeping an eye on the events around her, just in case the Sentinel doesn't go down quickly.
Saving the Rookbot? It feels a little odd, although it's certainly for the good. As Channel woops in to help balance it, Mercury flows down and reforms herself to get back to her feet. "So we should just let them go at it?" she asks, running after Jocelyn, and directing a few remaining bystanders towards Blindfold for direction.
Giant fists crash into a building overhead, resulting in oversized debris crashing earthwards. This just happens to be where a certain blind mutant is trying to lead certain elderly citizens to safety. Or drag them with her mind-powers in the case of the more ornery ones. The horrible sound of crumbling concrete and the clang of tumbling metal reach Ruth's ears at about the same time as she realizes that the murderous rain of crushdeath was something she should have avoided. Too bad her precognitive abilities didn't work that way. They only told her what would happen, not how to avoid it.
There was never any avoiding it.
The debris crashes, breaking against the roadway... or at least a few feet above it, as Ruth Aldine manages to interpose an invisible telekinetic shield over herself and her new charges. The impact smashes her down to her knees, causing her brain to hurt so badly it feels like it's going to rupture, the tell-tale nosebleed of a psionic trying too hard beginning to trickle down.
"Hnnngh, get to safety now, please. Yes. Thank you."
Unfortunately as long as this robot is active, the kids are in danger. Or will be. And this robot... This Sentinel...
It needs to be stopped.
It's probably a good thing that Laura has a 'super sized' set of can openers.
Gone for the moment is her efforts to get the kids out of here. Especially now that Blindfold and Mercury have revealed themselves. If need be they can do it.
Instead, the angry clone just tries to rush right up to the Sentinel, and tries to do as much damage as she can to one of its legs with her claws. Each swipe and kick though is not wild, but instead precise, or as precise as she can make it, given the limited knowledge she has of these machines.
Josie, of course, is clueless about what's going on outside the Sentinel. She can tell it's still alive, however, so she continues flowing down, following cables and wires and searching deeper for that CPU.
Giant fists crash into a building overhead, resulting in oversized debris crashing earthwards. This just happens to be where a certain blind mutant is trying to lead certain elderly citizens to safety. Or drag them with her mind-powers in the case of the more ornery ones. The horrible sound of crumbling concrete and the clang of tumbling metal reach Ruth's ears at about the same time as she realizes that the murderous rain of crushdeath was something she should have avoided. Too bad her precognitive abilities didn't work that way. They only told her what would happen, not how to avoid it.
There was never any avoiding it.
The debris crashes, breaking against the roadway... or at least a few feet above it, as Ruth Aldine manages to interpose an invisible telekinetic shield over herself and her new charges. The impact smashes her down to her knees, causing her brain to hurt so badly it feels like it's going to rupture, the tell-tale nosebleed of a psionic trying too hard beginning to trickle down.
"Hnnngh, get to safety now, please. Yes. Thank you."
Shorn, slammed, and sabotaged, the Sentinel is in sorry shape. Its torso ruptures with the impact of that metal fist, overbalanced by the near-loss of one leg, as the knee joint ruptures with Laura's shearing ascent. The Rookbot launches its counterpart forward, crashing face down into the street clear of its potential escape hole, arcing energy bolting from broken conduits and shorting circuits as ruptured armor, limb, and senses conspire to negate pursuit of the unit's primary function: which, to all appearances, is the demise of the small strike team of mutants.
From within the smouldering core of the half-active unit, the least likely thing emerges; a clawed fist much like Laura's, if notably meatier. It's soon joined by the rest of the figure of a stout, short man in a crisply pressed tuxedo, though he's gotten just a bit mussed in the proceedings. Leaping off the chest of the fallen robot to the crumbling street, he shaves a cigar with extended claws and lights it smoothly, eyeing those assembled with an all but unreadably wary eye. "An' now what?" Wolverine inquires tersely, somewhere between curious and incredulous.
The Rookbot comes to a stop as the Sentinel is taken down. There's only the briefest of rumbling, before a recorded rumbling voice declares, "Cast in the name of God, Ye Not Guilty", before starting to turn away, and rumble off, apparently leaving Wolverine to the Young X-Men...
Letting the Rookbot go, Jocelyn straightens to look at Wolverine, trying to get some read on the guy. "You trapped in that thing?" Jocelyn asks. Though this was the Danger Room. This could be some weird setup where Wolverine was supposed to be their real foe instead of the Sentinels. Things weren't always that straight-forward. In fact, they rarely were. Regardless, she was going to adaopt a wait-and-see approach here. She generally trusted Wolverine, after all. But the fact that the simulation hadn't ended with the Rookbot walking off and the Sentinel trashed meant there must still be something to do, right? Unless it was just delayed.
"Everyone still in one piece?" she says, speaking into her X-Com. Just in case anyone was injured and needed fixing up, though given the group, that was unlikely.
"All of me's here," Cessily reports, swinging her arms. "So...." she tilts her head at the departing Rookbot. "What was /that/? Crazy steampunk sentinel?" she wonders aloud.
Is everyone still in one piece?
Is Laura ever not in one piece physically?
Yeah. Rhetorical question.
Still, as Logan gets free of those Sentinel remains, she starts to move over towards him, her claws at the ready. After all, this sim isn't over yet. Thus in turn for all she knows he could be someone they have to fight.
Heck, because it is Logan, she even charges right at him and tries to take a swipe at him with her claws while she lets out a loud snarl!?!
Yeah. It might not be something to ask about right this moment. Or even a good idea. but the female clone still tries to do that.
The Sentinel seems to be down, so Josie flows out the now numerous openings in its armour and takes a humanoid form, and then she's herself again, saying cheerfully, "I'm fine." Then she blinks as X-23 attacks Logan, quickly jumping to make sure she's out of claw range of either.
"No. Nnngh, yes. Maybe." Blindfold answers Jocelyn's question with rapid-fire reversals and a noncommittal, the debris still hanging over her head, and that of her group as they amble their slow-moving walkers into whats left of the doors. With aching mental muscles that are quivering under the strain, she manages to angle her field enough to allow most of the life-threatening masonry and soon-to-be-recycled metalloids to clatter from directly overhead and onto the sidewalk, putting a few new dents and cracks in the mortar.
She doesn't stand afterward, not when her knees feel like jello and her legs like limp noodles. Her 'vision' is all wavy and out of whack, which makes it hard for her to 'see' her surroundings very well. It was all she could do to keep her overtaxed sense turned into 'consciousness' at all! For a girl whose telekinesis normally is only good for throwing a large mental punch, shielding old people from an avalanche of building materials was an ordeal.
So she does not try to claw the dreaded Wolverine.
"Gut 'em, eh?" Logan interprets Laura's actions, even as he weaves out and around the slashing stroke, seeking to catch X-23's wrist on the far extension, just as she loses momentum... and abruptly kick her legs out from under her. There's nothing really pulled from the swing of that adamantium-reinforced appendage: Wolverine knows just how resilient Laura is. "Fair answer." At least, in the books of some.
Wolverine doesn't pursue an assault on Laura, instead stepping back himself, "Battlefields are chaos. Friends can be enemies, and vice-versa. Pays to be on your toes." Probably the payoff for the Canucklehead, as opposed to Doug's scifi fandom fulfillment. ".. And have solutions ready beyond 'kill him fast before he takes us all out.'" Cue pointed look at Laura, and a recovery of (and puff on) his dropped cigar. "End simulation."
The city fades out, as does the people, the rubble, everything, like ghosts, whispers in the wind, until all that remains are the walls of the Danger Room, leaving only Wolverine standing there along with the Young X-Men.
"Not bad, guys. Trying to figure out who's friends and foes... well, that was part of it. The rest..." Doug calls out over the speakers from the control room. "Well, we wanted to see how you would do on your own, who'd end up taking leadership, and so on. What do you think, guys?"
"Laura!" Mercury says with surprise, as the clone raises her arm and starts to go at Logan. Logan, probably best equipped to handle it, but still...it'd be like fighting her father or brother, or something like that. The simulation fades away, and Wolverine catches X 23 easily enough. Cessily looks molified, if still on edge. "I think...." she trails off, shrugging.
As her arm is grabbed by Logan, and then her legs are swept out from under her, Laura does something strange. She sort of leans into it, letting the momentum carry her, as her foot claws extend with a *SNIKT!* giving him just a little extra to worry about.
Then though, as she's let go, she ends up landing on her back with a bit of a *Thud* as the sim ends and the city vanishes.
Still, she doesn't get up for a moment or two after that. not until after her claws retract, and then she does a kipup, glancing once at her fellow students, before finally her gaze returns to Logan who she silently glares at.
"Reasonable to try and figure out," Jocelyn responds to Doug. A look is given to Laura as she charges Logan, but with him handling her and explaining things, the woman simply nods. The simulation spoke for itself, in her mind, along with how they responded. "The biggest clue to the second robot was that it didn't go stomping on the civilians," the woman offers. Most crazy robots would do something like that, and that wasn't any good.
Josie blinks, but looks up towards Doug, "I thought it was great!" She looks back to Laura and adds, "I didn't even think it might still be going, at the end." She looks up to Logan then and asks, "That mean we should think about ways to fight our friends, too?" She doesn't sound too sure of that idea.
"Ruth?" Cessily asks, as the others chatter and Blindfold, distinctly doesn't. "Ohmygosh," Cessily says, rushing over to Ruth, crouching down next to her. "Come on, let's get you back to your room," she advises.
"Or alternatives to it." Is Logan's suggestion to Josie's uncertainty. He doesn't seem inclined to spell it all out for them, eyeing the nasty gash Laura's kick-clawing leaves on his arm as it closes, no particular hostility mirrored in his own gaze, which trends more towards neutral and analytical than glaring, just now; if no less intense. "Hit some cardio, then the showers." Or don't-- it's a reasonable suggestion, but Logan's already stalking towards the Danger Room's exit, leaving the young team to their own conclusions.
Category:Log