2014.02.10 - Shootout at the Danger Room Corral

It's afternoon, which means it's not time for the morning tortue routine that Jocelyn puts Rachel through. However, the two redheads had scheduled themselves some Danger Room time to go over some testing of their powers, interactions, and that sort of thing. Jocelyn was dressed in the standard x-suit that she wore for Danger Room sessions, mostly because she didn't know exactly how this would go. She doubted any serious harm would come to either of them, but just in case, she figured she could leave her actual day-to-day clothing safely tucked inside a locker. Even if she can actually afford a new outfit or two these days, the habits of the poor linger.
She had set up the Danger Room to something fairly simple. It was an abandoned town in an old west setting. Doing this sort of thing in a dry, stale room was boring, and while there hadn't been any creatures or people or whatever put into this program, it at least gave the room a little bit of life to practice in. That was more than worth the time Jocelyn had to spend figuring out how to program the room. She probably couldn't program an actual person into the Danger Room if she tried.
Jocelyn is leaning against the wall of a saloon at the moment, waiting for Rachel to arrive, chewing on a long piece of holographic straw, thinking through the plan for this day, along with a few other things that were rattling around in her head.
 
A large metal door shimmers into view, spoiling the perfection of the illusion, and slides open to reveal a metal-walled corridor beyond - and a familiar redhead, who takes exactly three steps inside the Danger Room before stopping and looking around at the simulation that's running. As the door slides shut behind her and vanishes, she's wondering if she's walked into someone else's program by accident.
Her red-and-yellow X-Men uniform doesn't exactly blend in, after all, even with her spike-studded jacket pulled on over it.
Rachel's confusion only lasts as long as it takes her to catch sight of Jocelyn where she idles, and Rachel starts walking again, stopping at the hitching rail outside the saloon and leaning forward to rest her elbows on it, trying to hide a grin. "Howdy, partner." She drawls, completely unable to resist.
"Ma'am," Jocelyn says, reaching up to tip an imaginary hat at Rachel with a slight grin. "Thought we could use a bit of scenery instead of a cold, metal room," she explains. "Plus if we have to unload, we can blow up some holographic buildings. If I absorb that much power, I'm going to have to let it out on something". Jocelyn straightens up. "So. I think the plan was what, you throw some of your power at me full strength, in whatever configuration you want it to be?" the teen says, even as she draws in some energy to boost her physical capababilities. Just in case something went wrong, she'd be able to absorb most of it. "Or did you have something a little more scientific in mind? I did set up the Danger Room to monitor the amount of power we use". That seemed like a good idea to her, because if they were going to test it, having useful data would be a positive.
Jocelyn's approach to this was fairly casual, but in a lot of ways, she was the one receiving the attacks, so there is less finesse involved for her, unless she starts messing around a bit with some of the finer points of her power, but that wasn't, from her understanding, the initial plan.
 
Rachel's grin widens when Jocelyn picks up on her opening. Straightening up, she comes around the hitching rail to join the (much) taller redhead on the saloon's deck. "Suits me." Rachel agrees easily, looking around at the illusory town again, before switching her attention back to Jocelyn as she mentions property damage. "And I'm sure you won't enjoy blowing stuff up for its own sake /at all/, right?" She asks cheerfully. Despite the morning's workout, she's clearly in a good mood this afternoon.
As Jocelyn lays out the plan, Rachel has to privately concede that she'd probably not given it as much thought as she should have, since 'throw her power at Jocelyn and see what happens' pretty much sums it up. She nods, about to speak, and then just laughs as Jocelyn says the word 'scientific'. "Seriously? ...no." Rachel confesses, still sounding cheerful. "This was more about figuring out what my limits are - because if they're anywhere near Jean's... well, I think I need to be prepared for that." Jean's done some scarily impressive things in front of Rachel, after all. "And what you can do with it, too." Rachel adds for good measure.
Turning around, she steps down from the saloon and walks out into the dusty street for a couple of steps, before swinging around to face Jocelyn again. "Start slow, you said?" She suggests, and reaches out for her telekinesis, directing a flow that's not much more than a trickle toward Jocelyn to begin with.
The girl laughs a little. "Fair enough. Makes sense to see where in terms of closeness to Jean you are power-wise," Jocelyn says. She walks out int othe street as well as she waits to see what Rachel does. Ahh, some telekinesis, and not much of it, is being directed at Jocelyn. The woman reaches out with her power and converts that telekinesis. Rachel will experience the odd feeling of the telekinesis changing into solar energy, which Jocelyn just lets disperse all around them. There wasn't much there, so Jocelyn figured she'd let Rachel get a sense for the newest angle of her powers that Jocelyn had discovered.
Jocelyn glances over at one of the buildings and smiles. "I might have put some buildings in for the express purpose of breaking them when we get up to some of the higher levels of power," Jocelyn admits with a smile. "I'll admit that blowing things up once in awhile can be fun". Not always, but sometimes is okay!
 
Rachel doesn't mind that Jocelyn's laughing at her. That she's not one for elaborate plans is not news to her. Besides, Rachel's hoping that this'll be fun, as well as enlightening. She keeps her eyes locked on Jocelyn as she takes up a position facing her, a slight smile still playing around her lips, even as the serious part of the endeavour gets underway.
The feeling /is/ odd, as Jocelyn converts her power to something else. It feels, to her, almost as if the powers being drawn out of her, and for a moment she feels oddly tempted to cut off the flow - but the contrary part of herself would never allow that. Rachel narrows her eyes as the Danger Room gets brighter - no, that's Jocelyn, she realises. "Neat trick." Rachel offers, before laughing again when Jocelyn makes her own confession. "I knew it!" Rachel declares. "But you're not going to blow anything up with /that/." Rachel judges. "Let's crank things up a bit." She says, almost gleefully, and in the depths of her green eyes, fire kindles, the air around her body starting to shimmer, just faintly, like a heat haze, as she draws deeper on her powers, and the flow of telekinesis goes from a trickle to a powerful, fast-flowing stream.
Oh, Jocelyn isn't laughing at Rachel. Laughing in amusement, yes, but not at Rachel. "Hey, you hang around Doug and his video games and movies long enough and some of it rubs off," Jocelyn responds. "And that's the conversion technique. Useful, so long as what I want to create is already around me," Jocelyn explains as she watches that stream ramp up. Jocelyn stops with the conversion for now, as she can't handle nearly as much juice at one time, and concentrates more on absorbing the stream of telekinesis. It's a form of psionic energy from how Jocelyn can see things, but that's not especially relevant.
Rachel will feel the energy strike Jocelyn directly, but instead of having an effect, it's just pouring into a hole. From what Jocelyn can tell, neither one is going at full power yet, but they have to ramp up to that a little bit. "I might get to blow up a shack with this," Jocelyn comments with a little grin, maybe a little bit of the trainer in her coming out to challenge Rachel a little bit. To emphasis the point, Jocelyn releases a burst of energy, and about twenty feet above them there's a psionic bang, as though a grenade went off, and it reverberates around them for a few seconds as Jocelyn empties herself of the absorbed energy. Though no building is targeted with that bang yet. It was just a shot into the air to blow off a little energy.
 
Doug. Hmm. That gives Rachel a pause for thought, but she just shakes her head a bit. "Did you tell him we were doing this? If you did, you /know/ we'll turn up as characters in his next game." And knowing Doug, her depiction might not be that flattering! But she's getting distracted, and gives Jocelyn her attention as she explains. Rachel nods, and would probably talk more, but she catches Jocelyn's sudden increase in concentration and wonders if she's straining the other woman already. She assumes not - but she'd rather be careful.
The sensation of the power pouring out of her into -nothing- is still a bit disconcerting for Rachel, who has the irrational thought that the other woman could drain her dry if she wanted to - not that she's ever shown such an ability or an intention, but with 'Isaac' in the basement, Rachel's very conscious of anything that even resembles her powers slipping away from her.
"A shack?!" Rachel asks, trying to sound offended and really failing. The bang, though, that makes Rachel grin. "I knew you'd enjoy yourself." She says, mostly to herself, but loud enough for Jocelyn to hear. "OK." Rachel says, starting to get into this, starting to let go her control a bit. "If that's too easy for you, let's try something else!" The flow of telekinesis from Rachel abruptly shuts off, but the aura around her doesn't. In fact, it intensifies, flames becoming visible, red and orange as they twine around her body, flickering in and out of visibility, while the green of her eyes is almost totally obscured by the same fire. "How's this?" She asks, flicking out a hand - and a couple of nearby windows shatter as a strong telekinetic bolt spears toward Jocelyn.
"Nah," Jocelyn says. "I know better than to tell Doug something like that. I didn't even know he made games". Though it makes sense, given the crazy internet experiments he's done. Jocelyn can't really afford to be too distracted either, but some friendly banter made this way more interesting. Jocelyn can't actually drain a person dry. A robot, sure. But a human? It didn't work that way. But she could sure cause some problems, like when she focused her energy absorption all around someone, like she did to Sinister. That's almost like that same thing.
The woman notices the increase in energy output fairly quickly, and she blinks briefly. She'd never actually seen Rachel go full on Fire Mode. It was impressive, to be certain. At first she's expecting a firebolt from the woman, but then she catches sight of the telekinetic bolt coming at her. Jocelyn reaches out her hand and focuses on the bolt, and it starts draining into her from a distance. Her reaction time is far faster than that of a normal human, as she relies on her augmented physical abilities to pull the manuever up. The bolt ends up absorbed directly into Jocelyn, though there isn't any physical manifestation of the energy. From a psychic perspective, she positively glows with psionic energy. She glances at the building Rachel launched the bolt from and smiles.
"Here. Let me finish that for you". She holds her hand out and releases a six foot tall beam of psionic energy that rushes towards the building. Using her energy conversion power, she makes some of that energy super-hot thermal energy, so the beam seems to catch fire. It strikes the building and obliterates the first floor, dropping the rest of it to the ground in a flaming heap in the distance.
"There we go. That's a little better," Jocelyn responds to Rachel with a grin. "Got any other tricks for me to try and defend against?" she asks.
 
Rachel smiles in satisfaction, pleased that someone else appreciates the danger of telling Doug too much. She likes him, really she does, but... Rachel pushes the distracting thought away. It's her own fault for telling him a secret he really didn't want to know, just because she thought she owed him the truth. "Good." She says, with feeling, and leaves it at that.
The moment Rachel lets fly, she has an instant of unease. She knows Jocelyn's an Omega-class mutant - she told her as much herself - but the last thing that Rachel /really/ wants to do is flatten the other woman. The morning workout wasn't THAT painful! Rachel's relieved - not to mention impressed - when her fears prove groundless. The speed that Jocelyn reacts is impressive enough, but the way that she simply plucks Rachel's telekinetic bolt out of the air and into herself, that's something else. Rachel's surprise registers on her face, as well as keen curiosity: She wants to know what Jocelyn will do with that power.
She is not, in any way, disappointed. Watching the destruction of the building with slightly widened eyes, Rachel glances back over her shoulder at Jocelyn with a grin. "Stylish." She compliments the other woman. "So as long as you've got me - or someone - to power you, you're the Swiss army knife of energy manipulation?" Rachel's teasing a bit, but is mostly genuine in her curiosity.
It's notable, though, that the aura of fire around her hasn't died down to any great degree. And as Rachel just smiles in response to Jocelyn's challenge, it flares brighter, the psionic flames becoming more defined, less translucent, the colour shifting toward a hotter red-gold hue. Turning back to face Jocelyn again, Rachel's eyes are now blank windows of white heat. "One or two." Rachel says, her voice a little strange, almost with a built-in echo, and the dust around her shifts, forming a small whirlwind around her legs and feet.
The strike comes without further warning, a pair of telekinetic bolts that smash through the buildings at either side of the street, leaving them standing but punching torso-sized holes in the walls and trailing devastation in their wake, before pulling a pair of perfect right-angle turns and converging on Jocelyn from both sides. But that's just for effect, because a telepathic psi-bolt is striking at her mind, simultaneously.
Rachel /might/ have gotten carried away.
Normally, Jocelyn would explain some of the details, such as how a certain type of energy had to be present for her to make use of it. Since Rachel couldn't use magic, Jocelyn couldn't convert one type of energy into magic, as one example. But lengthy explanations would wait, so she could sum it up. "If it's present, yes". There was more to it, but it would serve as a bit of the basics for Rachel to chew on. "And thanks".
That's about as much as Jocelyn has time to get out before Rachel unloads with a lot more firepower. Okay then. A pincher technique and a mind blast. Jocelyn wasn't sure if Rachel knew she could see the mind blast coming. She suspected so, but had also anticipated Rachel making such an attack. Maybe not with the pinchers, but the woman would have to work around those. The woman dives to the right, towards the first telekinetic bolt, her reaction time kicking in one again. As she does so, she opens up her absorption and absorbs that blast, immediately launching it behind her to slam into the second bolt as a means of stopping them both. Jocelyn is going to take a slight hit as she can't absorb the entire telekinetic bolt quickly enough since she's moving towards it, but the amount that is left doesn't seem to phase her, at least openly.
As she does this crazy manuever, Jocelyn reaches out to grab the mind blast that's coming at her, since she can't exactly dodge that, and absorbs that one as well. She launches back in Rachel's direction, except she blasts it into two kinetic energy streams around the woman, cutting what is effectively an eight foot deep circle around the woman. She strikes a holographic water main, and the hole fills up, giving the impression of Rachel being on an island.
"I think that was actually three," Jocelyn says in her easy voice. However she recognizes the echoing voice thing. It was familiar, and while she suspected Rachel was still in control, her instincts had her ready, just in case something went bad. She wasn't going to call things yet, but she was ready to if Rachel looked like she was going to lose it.
 
Having Jocelyn around, Rachel decides a bit absently, is sounding more and more useful. If she came across a bad guy who happened to be immune to her psi-powers, wouldn't HE get a shock if she dumped her power through Jocelyn, to come up with something more to his taste... These thoughts are in the back of her mind while the greater portion of Rachel's attention is focused on battering the tall red-head with that very power! It's fun, it's a game... it's a thrill. But the thrill doesn't feel like it quite belongs to Rachel, and neither does the fierce interest with which she watches her attack strike home...
...only to see Jocelyn throw herself right /into/ one of the telekinetic bolts. Rachel's a bit startled by the other woman's daring, but as she channels the bolt through her and uses it to take out the other pincer... Rachel feels some honest admiration for the move. Even as the shockwave from the two telekinetic bolts annihilating eachother head-on shakes the buildings on either side.
There's still the mind-blast though - except an instant later, there isn't, and Rachel's eyes go almost comically wide as she sees the telekinetic bolts lance toward her. Surprise doesn't trump training and hard lessons in survival, though, and at the speed of thought a telekinetic shield is raised around her...
...only to prove unnecessary as the bolts impact not her, but the ground around her. 
A little telekinetic support prevents her staggering as the hole is dug, and she seems to be walking on the surface of the water as she strides forward, still burning, a smile on her face that's a little wild. "Very clever, but..."
Rachel half-stumbles, fortunately on dry land again, and raises a hand to her head. "Woo, head rush!" She says, raking a hand back through her hair to make it that bit more spiky. "That." She says with a broad grin, looking squarely at Jocelyn while jerking a thumb behind her. "Was just showing off, and you know it." She tells the other woman, and resumes walking toward her, the fire dying away and her eyes turning back to the usual colour. "So how did I do?" She asks, amused but also curious.
Good, no crazy unleashed Phoenix today. Jocelyn approved of that. "Oh, it was, but I didn't know if you had the ability to make telekinetic shields or not, so I figured I'd see if I could spook you a bit. Besides, you'd been shooting at me the whole time, seemed only fair that I get to take a shot at you once," the taller redhead responds with a small grin.
"You did well, I think. Right at about my limit for absorption, when I take on everything you throw at me. The mix is a little tricky, so I figured I'd play it safe and play your power against your power there," Jocelyn adds. Once she left the Danger Room, Jocelyn would use her powers to heal what injuries she had taken, which wasn't anything major. Maybe a cracked rib or two, which wasn't bad in her book. "Though I think you'll have to watch the replay of the look on your face a couple times there at the end," Jocelyn adds. "How about you? Feel alright? I don't think I've ever seen you go all out before". It was certainly different from most telepaths she'd dealt with before, that was for certain.
 
Well, Rachel /isn't/ the Phoenix. But for some reason that she doesn't pretend to understand, she is linked to the cosmic force in some small way. It's the reason she doesn't usually push her powers this hard. She touches something that makes it easy to find the power, and hard to let go. It makes her not /want/ to let go. But she did, and that's enough for today. "Hey, I come with the full set!" Rachel protests good-naturedly. "Psi-shields, TK shields, the lot!" She laughs as Jocelyn makes her point, and nods in swift agreement. "Definitely fair." Rachel decides, and looks over at Jocelyn with an impish look. "Want to shoot me a few more times, just to make sure we're even?" Rachel's serious enough that she'd do it if asked, but doesn't make any move back to her old position.
When Jocelyn becomes more serious, Rachel quiets down, but can't quite manage the serious mien she's going for. She might have let go of her powers, but there's still an energy about her, causing her to nod sharply at each of Jocelyn's points, and bounce a bit in place from time to time. She seems more than pleased with her report card. "Maybe we should make this part of our workout routine as well." She suggests, oblivious to the cracked ribs that might argue against that, then shakes her head wryly. "I forget you were recording this. OK, I admit it, I didn't expect the suicidal leap, or getting my own powers thrown back at me. I'll work on that." Whether she means countermeasures or her poker face is left open to question. She looks a bit startled by Jocelyn's final question. "Me? I feel great. Not tired at all. I could go another round." If she /did/, she might crash afterwards, but right now she feels as good as she's saying. She smirks a bit at the end. "And who says that was all out?" She asks, then shakes her head and laughs. It was pretty close, she's fooling no-one, and not trying to. "Come on. Even I know that's enough for one day. Let's get out of here, grab some food or something."
"Just checking, making sure you're alright. And the full set, huh? Well, next time I think I'll pull out the trick I used on the last person who felt that shields would save them from me," Jocelyn offers with a grin. "I am a medic, and we both pushed ourselves pretty hard". Jocelyn isn't actually all that worried about the injury. Healing powers and she'd taken enough similar damage in her MMA days. Granted they were from punches and kicks, not telekinetic bolts, but you scale down the durability and the damage is about the same. "We can do that, working it in". Jocelyn would go another round, but she knows how to build up to such things, so she's patient. "We'll add it in after the morning run. Powers training and combat, danger room sessions, whatever makes the most sense". And so it has been decided. And Jocelyn would always point out it was Rachel's idea!
"Sure, getting some food is a good idea, and I can change out of this". Jocelyn powers down her enhanced physical capabilities and quickly uses a bit of energy to heal her injuries, fulling intending on not mentioning them to Rachel. Mostly because she would suspect Rachel would worry about it or feel bad, and Jocelyn doesn't think she should. "It does feel like lunch was forever ago, but that's my normal state too," Jocelyn points out as she starts to leave the room, shutting the program off in the process as the Old West fades away.
Category:Log