| YXM: Dangers of Piracy! | |||||
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| What: The Young X-Men, a couple of new faces around The Xavier Institute, and a couple of X-Men run a training sim | |||||
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As people enter The Danger room they will find themselves in a room. It's not a big room. Maybe fifteen by fifteen feet. The walls, ceiling, and floor all look like they're made of metal. There's just one regular sized door leading into the room, and at its far end there is a wide window.
And on top of that, regardless of how soon or late people arrive, there's one person who's been here before anyone else. An odd green woman. Said woman is wearing what looks almost like armor that could be considered either insectoid like, or like it's somehow made up of leaves and flower petals. And in her hand is a giant gun.
But for the moment, she is just standing there, silent as people arrive.
Also, in the background, outside that window there is what appears to be a flying gray ship. It looks almost like an old fashioned triple mast sailing ship with a skull on its front. And it's getting closer.
No reason to linger. Cessily enters the danger room, swinging her arms and loosening up. Redundant for the elastic teen, but old habit die hard. She's in her usual red and white costume, silver skin reflecting the many strange lights. She huhs at the woman, walking closer and tilting her head a bit. A hand gets waved in fronto f her. "Interesting," she mutters.
*bamf*
Kurt arrives in his own inimitable fashion, that is, in a cloud of infernal aether, that is.. brimstone. Only, as the cloud begins to dissipate, it becomes obvious that there was more than one blue traveler to arrive in the single teleport.. and the moment the pair arrive- Kurt and.. a young woman that looks very, very, very much like Nightcrawler, they're on the wall, Kurt in a crouch, his tail free and waving slowly.
Kurt is dressed in pirate fare this evening; from the tricorne hat, the blousy shirt, breeches.. and boots. Black, almost shiny but mostly scuffed boots. Hanging comfortably at his side are three swords.. two rapiers and an epee.. all looking less like a prop and more.. very utilitarian.
Amanda arrives in a less spectacular fashion than the bamfer, walking in. She's dressed in fighting leathers, for this evening's entertainment -- albeit stylish ones, and ones suited to the milieu. They have a gypsy flare (i.e. a bit of lace at the cuffs and a jacket that has the feel of a doublet crossed with a corset), but are actually extremely practical. Across her chest is slung her rune-tooled bag of tricks, her hair tied back in a tail. Consider her 'back-up'. The kids are on point.
Appearing there on the wall next to Kurt? That would be TJ, or Nocturne, or Talia, or one of Kurt's dimensionally displaced daughters. Take your pick. She's hanging by three limbs as well, the fourth one already free to wave at the others assembled within the room, complete with a toothy grin that might also happen to show four small fangs.
"Gutentag!"
That same hand then lightly bats at the feather sticking out of Kurt's pirate-themed hat. "Nice to know you still appreciate your work."
A quick hop and she lands onto the floor with barely a sound, straightening up while approaching the others. "Hi there, looks like I get to tag along with you kids today."
What the heck's up with the green lady, though?
Training exercises. Common practice no matter what decade you are in if you are an X-Man. Having been invited to join in on this one Merle -- Kurt's other dimensionally displaced daughter -- shows up wearing her uniform with the hood thrown back loosely behind her and mostly covered by her dark blue hair. "Thanks for inviting me along," she says to Amanda as she steps into the Danger Room from sub-basement hub with her 'mother'. In her hand she holds a half-foot long cylinder that those familiar with martial arts weapons would recognize as being able to function as a yawara. Seeing TJ located near their 'father' Merle nods and smiles in their direction.
Just like her first visit to the Danger Room, Josie has a grin on her face as she enters, dressed in her uniform, and an excited bounce to her step. That dims for a moment as she finds herself in a very simple room, but just for a moment as she very quickly spots that approaching ship. "Awesome..."
Bobby's been in MUCH higher spirits lately. Ever since getting dragged to the Infirmary by Jean the other day, he's been a lot more cheerful and energetic. His classes have certainly been enjoying it considering how today changed from pop quiz day to 'the quiz is now being conducted during a game of mutant ball day'. He steps into the Danger Room in uniform and in full ice form rather than ice armor. He nods to all the students, shoots Amanda a wink and a finger-gun and pauses at the sight of TJ and Merle. He blinks a few times before looking to Kurt with a quiet 'another one?' look.
"Okay, everyone," Doug Ramsey calls down from the room. "If you're all ready, we'll be beginning any minute. Just remember, it's only a training session, so have fun with it. And do remember to keep an eye out for each other. Teamwork. Okay, boys and girls, listen to the green lady, and... you best start believing in ghost stories..."
One of the X-Men has seen more hours of training than possibly any three others combined; it doesn't stop him from keeping his certifications up to date, either. Wolverine continues to clock more solo hours in this room than just about anyone, but when it comes to team fundamentals? Well, he skips his fair share too. Skips, and lurks through...
Tonight, he's on the Observation Deck with Doug, lighting a cigarette and lurking towards the far end of the elevated window bank, unobtrusive as a runty feral gets. Looking past the smoke, Wolverine turns deceptively alert attention on the displays and chatter, stepping forward just slightly to get a direct view of the team's operation. Even if it does mean passing up on carving pirates.
Among the last people to arrive, if not the very last one is a certain clawed female clone. Yes, that's right, it's Laura Kinney a.k.a. X-23. Only unlike certain others, the feral girl isn't in a fancy costume. Or at least not anything fancier than what she normally wears as a uniform, in that she's wearing her old black Weapon X uniform. All though as she enters she can't help but blink at certain others, especially Kurt, Amanda, TJ, and Merle.
But she doesn't say anything.
And once everyone is there, and once Doug has said his thing, the odd green woman... Smiles?
"Here is your briefing. We are flying over The 'Ship of The Dead'. You will deploy. You will retrieve the artifact only known as 'The Eye' for The Prince..."
As she talks a second flying ship, this one looks like a single mast sailing ship that is all red and has a unique skull and crossbones on its sail literally flies right past the window of this room, before going down towards the other, /MUCH/ larger gray ship that by now fills the entire window.
"You are free to destroy anything you encounter. Including the Red Pirate and his gang should they appear, but we have had no sign of them."
Yeah, it's probably a good thing that the green woman's back is to that window, even as she starts to walk towards, and then finally out the door to this room. If anyone tries to get in her way, she just shoves them to the side.
But before she can close the door, she says, "Good luck."
Then with a *Clink!* that door is closed.
And a moment or too later another door opens so to speak, in the the floor of the room that everyone is in up and vanishes with no warning as the giant gray pirate ship passes by below!
"I....didn't realize thiw as a costume party," Cessily says, looking at her admittedly practical but not overly spectacular costume. "Swords? Too slick, Mister Wagner," Cessily says. "Um, well, hi everybody," the silver girl says with a friendly wave. "Oh. Laura," she says, eyeing the odd uniform she's wearing. The room adjusts and everything whips about, as the door closes and the illusion becomes complete. "Ready!" Mercury declares. "Who's on transport?"
Kurt truly is happiest on the wall, and his tail swishes as he listens to the introduction, glowing yellow eyes taking in each and every person as they arrive. And how they arrive. Amanda and Blue are given a smile, and shifting his position, a flourished bow, complete with hat removal. As he does so, he makes sure he tries to get a swat in to the dropping TJ.
"Bobby.. you remember her, ja?" Not many others in the room had been around last summer when his daughter had made her first appearance.. but this one.. this one is a different iteration.. and he's already warned Bobby about it.
The ships regain his attention as Kurt settles back upon his little bit of a wall, his hat replaced on his head.. and he smiles, showing all his fangs. "Mercury.. this is supposed to be fun, so.."
The moment the floor drops out from under them, Kurt is gone off the wall in a rapid *bamf* to the floor, near the portal down..
Any who have no ability to fly or in some way handle the .. plummet down?
Welcome to the bamf express!
"All aboard.. tell me who is going with me.."
"Anytime," Amanda replies to Merle, with a smile on her face. It'll be interesting just to see how the girl performs. And, really, it can't hurt her to get integrated with the others.
Actually... and here she eyes Kurt for a moment... it will be interesting to see both girls in action. This is one hell of a family.
The green skinned woman gives her briefing. The floor disappears as the grey ship passes beneath. Instead of landing adeck, however, the sorceress spreads her hands and floats in place, a set of magical armour appearing over her otherwise serviceable leathers. She'll save the big shields for the others.
Again... Her job? Back-up. It's the kids' call. She's just along for the ride.
"Find the eye, gotcha," TJ says with perhaps way too much enthusiasm. Her eyes may lack the typical amount of detail, just like with Kurt, but there's still an obvious look of merriment within them. She hasn't been able to do a Danger Room run in what seems like forever, let alone one where her real father isn't pushing her to the point of insanity.
This one's just for fun. The crew may have changed but the energy in the air remains the same. Case in point, there's Iceman. These two have never met, even though they technically did meet at some point or another. It's weird, but that's kind of the story of her life. "Hey, how's it going?"
Vanishing floors she can't do anything about, though once more she lands with no more sound than the brush of braids falling across the brown leather surrounding her shoulders and back. Darned flight-capable people... "This doesn't sound too bad. Am I right? Organize the scrappers and blasters for crowd control and the scouts for recon and retrieval."
She has no idea whether to play as support here or to be part of the main force. The latter sounds like it would be more fun though, so that's where she gravitates.
Laura/emits, Cessily, Kurt, Amanda, TJ, Merle, Josie, Bobby, Doug, Logan
Although she would normally volunteer to teleport the group over herself, Merle isn't sure how well that would work for her in this unfamiliar Danger Room. Instead she falls back on a quick incantation in Latin, practically mumbled to the point of not being intelligable, to extend her strength to her 'father' so as to boost his ability to carry a group and reaches out to grab hold of Kurt -- aiming for his shoulder -- so as to be carried along with anyone else taking advantage of the offer and extends her other hand to anyone else who might want to come along.
Josie waves to the others and smiles, then looks to the green woman and grins, "Cool." She blinks, though, looking confused at first as the woman just walks out. She yelps then as the floor vanishes, but then grins again as she quickly adapts to the falling. She calls to Kurt as she falls, "I'm fine," and then, in a blink, she's a girl-shaped blob of water, ready to splash down on the big grey ship below.
"You know me, Kurt. I never forget pretty lady," Iceman replies, flashes a smile TJ's way. "Goin' a lot better thanks to our resident Marvel Girl," he remarks, meaning Jean. When the floor vanishes, he yelps and quickly starts making an ice slide as he falls. "Anyone need a lift?" he calls to anyone that can't fly or BAMF.
"Sometimes, Logan, I think we'd be better off just running this strictly for the Young X-Men, but learning off how the older X-Men do things is good. I just wonder if they rely too much on the experienced hands to get them out of trouble," Doug notes as he watches everything run. "Or am I just worrying too much?"
There's an internalized half grunt from the window as Logan watches the team assemble, his suit's cowl hanging at his back, leaving the Canuck's head uncovered; unkempt hair and all. He's working on about half of a lumberjack beard in muttonchops and stubble, conveniently present to scratch at as he considers-- and frowns in thought. "All just a game." He mutters to himself, somewhere between observantly irritated and impressed. The smoke is plucked from his mouth as he twists to plant one shoulder in the windows' border, leaning back to get a better vantage on the sprawling holographic space below; and the operatives making use of it.
"Surprised they don't have to collect 37 pirate hats along the way." The dry snark speaks volumes of the dreadful impact of letting Jubilee ramble on in one's ear. Still, he falls quiet, even unhearable on the Observation Deck, as the team focuses in on their mission. Doug's answer comes in deep rumbling murmur, "Both ways're good. Gotta mix it up. Adapt or die an' shit."
Wolverine takes a lingering drag, eyeing the operation over the cherry, "The chaos is a damn chunk thicker outside o' that room."
And as the floor drops out, and Laura herself drops (apparently showing no concern at the fall) she actually glances at Mercury and all but shouts, "You are!"
All though at those offers of 'help' the clawed girl doesn't speak up. Maybe she doesn't feel she needs it? heck, then again considering how well she heals...
*THUD!*
Maybe she doesn't need one. not even as she slams into the deck of the ship like a cannonball.
On the ship, as people arrive.... Either via teleportation, flying, or falling in a way that they can survive, they will find things. A /LOT/ of things. Some look like ghosts. Only these ghosts that are a cross between classic movie pirates and bad sci-fi aliens. Others look a lot like cheap rubber suited human sized monsters. Only said monsters have rotting flush, exposed bones, and smell in ways that are best left undescribed. Still others are skeletons, human looking ones at that, that are wearing some stereotypical pirate like gear like hats, bandannas, and eye patches. But these skeletons are also armed with laser swords and ray guns.
And on top of that, these things are everywhere. They're on the deck. Climbing the ropes and masts. There's at least a hundred of them, or more. And they all charge towards the 'newcomers', focusing mainly on the 'Young X-Men' as well as Nocturne and Merle. Why? Maybe it has something to do with the sim being meant to test and train 'unknown' X-Men?
"Some of us aren't x-men already and might just possibly have something to prove," Cessily says to Kurt. She looks down again, then reaches for Kurt. "I'm in. I can't flow over anything and I don't want to try dropping that far." She looks over at TJ, having not really met her before. Some confusing news about time travel again, and once again Cessily is appreciative how simple (if still sucky) her life is. "
Josie, the /kid/ goes over the edge with admirable kamikazie skill. "BANZAI!" Cessily cries, detaching from Kurt and going plunging after Josie. Cessily tries to form her arms into wings to glide, finding only the barest of success. Mercury lands hard on the deck, bubbling and flowing as she pulls herself back into the proper shape. "Smash away!" she declares, growing her arms out into long clubs that she swings with respectable force into a pair of skeletons right near her.
"I know you don't, Bobby.." Kurt grins. "I think you still dream about your grammar school crushes. Remember, I've been camping with you."
Looking up and around, Kurt catches sight of the blue, non-fuzzy face of Blue, and his smile remains easy. "Hold on.." and for anyone else who'd like the ride, he's gone in the blink of an eye, only to land on the deck of the ship virtually instantaneously. Such is his ability.
Once on deck, Kurt touches down in his three-pointed crouch, yellow eyes searching to be sure that everyone gets down and safetly.
He spares a smile for the others.. keeping an eye on Amanda, though it's more to coordinate than out of any real concern. He, too, is here to run support- but there's a great deal here to learn for him. How do the children use their skills? To best advantage? To support, or do they all work as if they were the only person in the room? If he, or the other Xers ever hope to work with the 'younger generation', there has to be an understanding.
"Have fun, mein Herz.." is murmured, and in the next second, Nightcrawler is no longer where he was when he landed. Instead, he's up and onto the mainmast, climbing up, flipping onto one of the spars in order to perch like a gymnast on the uneven bars, dodging the crazy monsters in rubber suits. Experience has taught him.. many things.
First?
Observation. And that sometimes his bamf isn't the nastiest smell in life.
Amanda stays high, for the moment, assessing the situation, acting as eyes and ears, should they wish. Its what she's best at, really. Magic user, not front-line fighter. And Kurt's thought-process is her own. They need to see how the kids work together and become accustomed to that as much as the kids need to learn to work with them on occasion.
She begins moving, however, as the monsters and other unmentionables begin to swarm, using magic bolts to keep the high rigging clear... for now.
It's a long way down. Longer than TJ thought, admittedly. Fortunately, there's Iceman. Landing on an ice slide is easy enough, if chilly on bare hands and feet, but in no time she's following in Bobby's wake on their way down to the other ship. His power seems familiar to her, she's going to trust in his abilities. "Hey, flattery comes second to not getting turned into a paste!"
Intermediate landing, easier than advanced landing.
"Did we just jump onto the set of Mystery Science Theater? You guys be sure to point out Tom Servo of you see him!"
So..! Everything here seems ..dead. That means possession is not in her best interest (who would want to possess a zombie, anyway? Yeck!) That leaves Hex Bolts. "Gonna clear our landing Iceman, try to wall 'em off!"
Alternate timeline or not, TJ's worked as a team before. Now she's leaping clear over Bobby, tossing out concussive blasts of energy served nice and hot from the Brimstone dimension before dropping low in another three-point landing. This time her free hand isn't waving, it's glowing with pale yellow energy. Now all she has to do is help hold back the masses and figure out what the other teammates can do. Simple! In theory.
Saying a quick "Thanks" to Kurt as she steps away from him once they are on deck, Merle extends her protean staff to its full, nearly six foot-length with a quick flick of her wrist. A quick sweep of the staff clears the area in front of her of tangigle pirates and as she twirls it though the back swing in her left hand she begins to channel the energy for an eldritch blast as she looks about for a target.
And there one is!
Merle's eyes flare yellow as the enerrgy builds for a moment and then she releasts it in the form of a bolt of bright violet energy casting flourescent glows across skeletal forms and all the white and yellows around its path. Impacting the ectoplasmic form of a ghostly pirate that was sneaking up on Josie's back this blast of pure magical energy causes it to explode in a spray of suddenly materialized ectoplasm.
Laura/emits, Cessily, Kurt, Amanda, TJ, Merle, Josie, Bobby, Doug, Logan
On landing, Josie, aka Undine, is spread all over the place. It takes her a moment to come back together, so by the time she's back in one piece again the battle is already on! Waving an 'arm' of water to Merle in thanks for the help, she then starts lashing out with other arms of water. They lack the solidity of human arms, but they should serve to push any undead pirates back from her.
"Jealous?" Bobby teases his friend. "Well don't worry, you'll always have a special place in my heart," he adds, giving Kurt a little smile and wink. He smiles back at TJ as she lands on the slide. "Say the word if you need something to hang onto," he says, not wanting her to fall off the slide. He takes them down low enough to let TJ off as she jumps over him and smirks. "As you wish," he sing-songs, firing off a frigid beam to make a chest-high ice wall to push the monsters back slightly from the landing zone. He holds back on doing anything else, just moving up and out of the way to let the kids take point. He'll rejoin the fun if he's called for or there's some kind of serious danger but otherwise he's observing along with Kurt and Amanda.
Nodding in agreement with Logan, Doug rubs his chin. "I'll have to come up with something." He glances towards Undine. "I'm still a bit nervous about her," he comments. "She's really young. I'm not sure how to approach her... I keep wanting to pat her on the head and give her a lollipop, but I remember being that age and -hating- that kind of treatment."
Doug pauses, looking back at Logan. "Uh... sorry, sir."
The projected stench of the scenario running below is one good reason to be glad to be back in mission control; the vantage point is the other biggie. It's easy to analyze the team without actually being analyzed analyzing the team. That is to say, people tend to put on certain airs for their audience, in Logan's experience. His being here might not -prevent- that, but it gives him that important moment of observational perspective without tipping the scale or drawing attention, himself; apart from Ramsey's, of course.
"Yup." Real young. "Not too many safe places to learn an' grow and adapt to being half puddle." The Canuck observes, albeit brusquely. "Sometimes we gotta take what we got; and make sure no one with less scruples crosses the line." Into exploitation. It fades off in a wisp of cigarette smoke, much unspoken about the unfolding challenge.
"Good thing I ain't down there." Logan appends in sardonic afterthought, "Ninja's the ancient enemy of the pirate in the same way the rifle's the ancient enemy of the can." Snikt snikt, bub.
Please page 157 if interested. [Wed Jun 05 20:41:47 2013]
And as those club like appendages from Cessily slam into those skeletons, they... Fall apart. Literally. Oh sure a bone or two are broken. But the rest clatter to the ground.
And they lie there. For a moment or two. That is before they start to pull themselves together. Sort of. Because instead of forming the exact same skeletons wearing the exact same things, it's as if the bones and acessories have been mixed up a bit. heck, even which bones are where are mixed up, as what look like broken ribs (rather sharp looking broken ribs) take the place of fingers on one hand, while the fingers themselves somehow are not part of extra long looking toes.
And while Kurt might not be attacking anything just yet, he's not exactly being left alone either. Not as that red pirate ship from earlier shows up again. heck it starts to fly over head, and then... Five... No, /SIX/ forms leap from it. And while they all have similar looking helmets and black leggings, each one is colored almost all one unique color. There's a red pirate guy in spandex. A blue one. A pink one (which looks like a skirt is part of her outfit). A yellow one (who likewise has a skirt). A green one. And a /silver/ one (who is carrying a trident).
But what does that mean for poor Kurt? Well, the red one raises a gun and says, "Let's make this showy!' before he fires right in Kurts direction!
On the other hand Amanda may be having some interesting luck. because each of the ghost like creatures she hits up above vanishes. And they don't come back. On the other hand, the zombie like ones are knocked down, but then they start to get up and try to slowly lumber towards the mystical woman.
As for TJ, no... It's not Mystery Science Theater. But it may as well be a Super Sentai, Right? Then again, as a robotic looking parrot flies off of that red pirate ship, he does look around and says, "I think I've seen this movie before..."
But anyways, as TJ hexes some of the figures, the ghosts get it the worst as they vanish. The skeletons by comparison shrug it off. And the Zombies...? They turn and start to lumber away from the alternate universe body snatcher. All though as they try to get away, the Blue and Yellow 'Pirate Rangers' start to charge towards TJ swinging their swords!
Of course Merles blasts do a /TON/ of good. The ghosts that she hit not only vanish, but if her spell hits the zombies, they explode as well! The skeletons on the other hand aren't effected by that spell. At least not for the moment. of course while she deals with them she might want to keep her eyes peeled for that guy in silver with the trident.
Then there's Udine. She can hit the zombies and hurt them a little. Josie can also hit the skeletons and maybe hurt them a lot. But at the same time they can try to hit her, and may not be able to hurt her at all. That is if she's fully liquid. Right?
All though as Laura fights, she tries to move closer to Josie. Her claws coming out with a *SNIKT!* as she tries to attack the same things that Josie does. but for some reason, her claws aren't even slicing into these guys?!?
"You think you can go get the Eye while we distract?" is muttered by the clone.
Meanwhile up in the control room/observation area, a red light starts to blink.
Mercury twirls and reforms her arms into long, curved scmintars, which she slices through a zombie with. They're only simulations, and zombies at that, so she doesn't show much hesitation. "Nice work!" she encourages Josie, as she water-smashes things. That girl's got promise, and isn't so different than Cessily herself. Maybe she can help offer some pointers later on. "Any idea where this thing actually is?" she asks. She turns back around and finds the bones re-assembling themselves, into something...different. More off, certainly, as if they can't remember how they go together. "Nope, nope, you're not going to do that!" she declares, slashing at them vigorously. "Anybody else's staying up?"
"Sing out if you want a lift, or a throw," Kurt offers from the mainspar. He's got his sword grasped in his tail now, but he's on the sidelines for the moment until requested.
Moving out of the way of Amanda's mast clearing techniques, Kurt's grinning from ear to ear, revelling in the fact that they're on the--
Red ship. Wasn't there a red ship behind the green woman as she departed? Yellow eyes rise to the 'skies', searchingly.
His attention does get grabbed, however- he wants to see how his daughters work. He has the most basic of ideas of Talia, having seen the concussive ability of the hex bolt, but Merle? Only descriptions.. and he's interested in seeing how that's gotten translated out as well. "Well done, Blue.."
A low, slow whistle sounds, and with everyone.. well, Josie's liquidification.. huh.
Now, however, movement catches Nightcrawler's eye again- the movement of a ship across the sky, and he rises from his crouch, his tail beginning a slow, sweeping motion as another sword is pulled from scabbard.
"You didn't even dress for the occasion!" and the fuzzy blue elf almost sounds.. insulted.. even as he suddenly disappears in a BAMF even as the blast comes at him. Kurt isn't gone long, however, before he makes to land on top of the one that's fired, the red one.. boots on both sides of the shoulders, ideally.. sword pommel ready to pummel the helm. "Not even a plume?"
Unless those zombie things start leaping from the masts to get at her, Amanda's not really too concerned, from her vantage up near the crow's nest, at getting entangled too quickly -- which isn't to say she doesn't fire out a bolt or two to keep the nearest of them out of reach.
The red ship and the pirates it disgorges is noted, but it's not the primary objective. That 'Eye', whatever it is, is the goal. Soaring out of the reach of another putrid monstrosity -- At least they're not Lovecraftian horrors. Yet. -- she arches her back and does a remarkably fluid backwards dive. Her hands sweep before her, body piked in an admirable imitation of a diver's form (though she's a trapeze artist by training, herself). She continues down in that fashion until she passes what would be the 'waterline' of the vessel, were it waterbound. At that point, her body curls into a somersault and she arrests her 'dive', righting herself and floating lower still. She wants a look at the underside of this thing, to assess what weaknesses may be there.
Nocturne's grin quickly loses some of its edge. The ghosts she can take care of, apparently. The zombies..just don't seem to care at all. Then there's the colorful group from the other ship coming in to play...
"Now we've got Night of the Living Dead meets Power Rangers!"
Trying to pin TJ down with swords is going to take some effort. Back in her world she learned all sorts of swordplay, there are some things about Nightcrawler which never seem to change. Add in his acrobatics and everyone involved is in for a whole world of frustration.
"Now see--" Swish! "--that's just not fair--" Swing! "--that you guys get weapons--" Woosh! "--and I don't!" It's followed by her flipping into a single handstand, blasting at one of their faces with a Bolt while her tail snaps out to try and wrestle the sword away from the other.
The group's got two effective blasters and two liquid forms that appear to be very difficult to injure. That's kind of handy! Laura sounds like she's going to run distraction for the others, which means they need to get a move on. "We're not going to hold this point forever, people! Mercury and Water..um..Girl, one in front and one in back, Blue and I can take center!"
Once she sees how well her eldritch blasts are against the zombies as well Merle stops trying to fight them with her staff saving it for the skeletons and -- having decided to down play it -- reduces its to half its maximum size and using it as a hanbo. "Alright girls, we'll carve a path for you!" she cries out seconding her "sister's" plan and starts to try to leave a clear -- if slime ridden -- path behind her. When one especially energetic skeletal warrior approaches her she swings her staff at it like a bat and knocks its skull clean off its neck causing it to fly across the deck and crash into the chest of the silver colored warrior's chest.
Indeed, nothing can hurt Undine unless the undead pirates are suddenly electric. So, while she's water, she lets them attack her to give her the position to strike back. At Laura's question, knocks back enough that she can change back to human to answer, "Sounds good, but any idea which way it is?" Nodding quickly to Nocturne she says, "Got it! And it's Undine," she adds quickly. She changes back to water before she can get stabbed by one of the undead pirate, so the weapon goes through water instead, moving to take up a position on the opposite side of the group from Mercury... whether front or back depends on which direction they're going.
Perched on an ice-slide, Bobby arches both brows as the color-coded pirates show up. He blinks a few times before whistling. "Well that's a blast from the past..." he trails off, humming a little tune now. "Go go..." he mumbles before fading back into humming. He occasionally ice-blasts a monster that gets a little too close but he's otherwise letting the kids run the show. He smiles as TJ takes charge, pleased to see that. "This eye must be pretty important if so many people want it," he sing-songs, curious about what the eye might be. He glances over as Amanda goes diving, sliding a little closer his way. "What's up?" he calls her way.
"They're moving along pretty well," Doug comments as he watches everything proceed. "Pairing Undine up with an experienced X-Man might be the best thing to do if we're bringing her in specific missions, but everyone else's looking good."
The red blinking light causes Doug to grin. "It's showtime."
And a thumb goes down on the red button.
"I think I've seen this movie." Logan mutters to himself, decidedly more bemused than irritable about it; though to a stranger, it's easy to mistake one for the other with the Canucklehead. Ghost zombies versus scifi ninja.. pirate.. spacemen? One sure bet is that whatever he's remembering or mis-remembering, it was a shitty, shitty flick. "Mix o' folks." Wolverine observes simply, scanning the battlefield with experienced intuition. "I'd keep 'em for reserve and relief response until they've all got more field hours."
Everyone's got to learn through fire, but.. "Solid temperin' never hurt." Book of Logan. There's no being prepared; but there's being ready. Paradox at its finest. One dark brow arches at that blinking button, as Logan stumps out his smoke. Looks like it's time for some of that aforementioned heat treatment, from where he's standing.
"You want a change?" is said as the 'Red Pirate' brings his sword up to block night crawlers blow, before her tries to fall backwards and roll. Only as he does that, something like an action figure is yanked out of his belt buckle, and is stuck into something that looks almost like a cell phone. Before he... Changes?!?
Yeah. By the time the red pirate is back on his feet, he looks a lot different. Oh sure, his coloring is the same, but the cut is all different, and even looks a bit oriental. heck, even his helmet has changed so that it looks almost like there's a chinese or japaese character for a 'face' on it. Then though he charges at Kurt as his sword bursts into flames?!?
As Amanda dives, some of the undead try to grab her, or slash at her as she falls. Some even try to shoot her. But by the time she reaches the underside she's well out of range.
Speaking of that under side though, there are plenty of things that look high tech, like cables and conduits. But nothing stands out as well as those glowing rings on each side of the ship. Heck, there's three on each side in an almost triangle, with one all but pointed straight down.
That sword that TJ tries to steal comes free without much effort. But then again all of those face bolts do have an interesting effect. For some reason, as the built hits the yellow and blue 'Rangers' in the face, they both make a pained noise and bring their heads up to their faces, thus making the swords easier to grab.
And yet the pain doesn't last for long. Not before yellow and blue pull out what looks like action figures and cell phones as well. only this time one could almost hear 'Go Go Power Rangers' because these two up and change into certain old school TV heroes. One yellow with white diamonds on her chest, and the other blue with white diamonds.
When it comes to path clearing, Merle is making quick work of things. At least that's until the silver guy gets in her way so to speak. Because that skeleton head hits him in the chest and knocks him over. but as he falls, his trident up and folds, becoming something that sort of looks like a rifle. One that he uses to shoot in Merles direction even as he crashes to the deck!
To respond to Udines question as she tries to slice a zombie (which her claws for some reason can't effect) Laura says, "Below decks?" before she lashes out with a kick, knocking that zombie over.
And Bobby better not be letting too much slide. Otherwise he may be in trouble. because as Doug presses that 'Big Red Button' a section of the main deck up and /explodes/, possibly sending debris right at him. Heck, what jumps out of that explosion may even try to take a swing at him with a sword if he stays too close.
But what is that thing? A nine foot tall skeleton. A nine foot tall heavily armored skeleton with a sword that's glowing with what looks like blue flames.
"WHO DARES ATTACK THE GHOST SHIP, AND CALLS DOWN THE TERROR OF CAPTAIN /DARK/!"
Of course once the dust settles, if someone were to look down the hole the captain just created, they might see a giant skull down below decks, with a strange red, yellow, and blue thing in an eye socket that sort of looks like an /eye/.
Meanwhile, if Logan and Doug are watching certain screens they'll be getting all sorts of readouts. Like how hard some people are hitting. How much force they're hitting with (or energy in the cases of blasts). How often they're hitting. Bio readings regarding to stress, body temperature, heart rate, stress levels and the like.
"Got it, good plan!" Mercury agrees. She jump sforward, swinging around towards the front and beginning to push through. "Give me some room, I don't want to knick anybody by accident!" she warns. That happened once in training years ago and, truth be told, Cess still feels a bit guilty over it. "Anything that's called an eye is powerful," Mercury tells Bobby. "When did you ever see an 'Eye of Kittens' or something?"
"Ohmygosh!" Cessily sputters, as the Red Pirate grows and changes and gains an actual flaming sword. Ow! Mercury doesn't want to be anywhere near that. Cessily slices into a zomie, rather effectively cutting its arm off, startling even herself as a result. She watches the zombie fall over, and down into the hole left by the Captain. He's....not very bright, is he? Cessily looks down into it and catches a glint of...something? Eye-like? "Um...Laura!" she calls. "Watch my back," and with that Cessily melts, flowing down the structure of the ship, the broken beams that lead down into the chasm.
Kurt manages to keep something of an eye on others; it's what he does... and as Amanda takes a dive, followed pretty much by Bobby (Thank you, mein Freund!), he's able to continue to keep most of his concentration on the dropping .. group from the Red Ship. Is he the only one not acquainted with Power Rangers?
Talia's swordplay is obvious, and he particularly notes the use of tail. Atta girl! And when she calls out to work with her half-sister?
Blue's response brings another smile to his face, but this time, it's a touch more feral as he turns back to attend to the matter at hand.
It's just in time, then, to watch the Red guy turn.. and that feral smile has fangs added. The appearance of a fiery blade brings Nightcrawler's tail-sword around as he flips backwards up and off the creature's shoulders, the blade searching for the Red Ranger's back. One sword is in hand, but now, the second- no such thing as an off-hand, or even off-tail, is wielded with ease.
As the Red Ranger charges, Kurt leaps into the air; a pretty simple sommersault, though he allows that tail sword to drag and parries carefully with it upon his own landing.
Even Kurt has to hold on briefly as the deck begins to shatter, and instinctually, he finds a spot on the spar, away from his opponent for a heartbeat to look for any that might truly be in harm's way.
"Mein Gott.. do I sound like that? I hope not.." But all should fear Captain Bluetail!
"Checking for 'leaks'," Amanda quips to Bobby as she dives past. As she goes, she chants a soft spell. Her blue eyes glow with power until their details disappear in cyan pools of light... et voila! Mystical x-ray vision. (Who needs Superman?) As she glides on her back beneath the ships, her eyes scan their holds. Time to figure out where the goal is... and the obstacles waiting in store between the top deck and the prize.
Of course, debris rains down from above -- probably including dismembered zombie parts, and the witch kicks herself into high gear to avoid the worst of it. The next spell she utters is the foundation of a teleport spell. She can't combat bamf like Kurt, but she can still 'port pretty damned quick, when she needs to. The question is: Where's the best place to end up?
Perhaps in the hold, near the Eye, to give Cessily some backup? Yeah. That sounds like a good idea. For those that are sensitive to it, there's a 'shring' of magic as she disappears, followed by a soft whoosh of air filling up the space she left... and she emerges behind the Dread Pirate Dark, staying back in the shadow of overhanging debris.
There's one sword, and there's two swords! Nocturne is now slightly more pleased. When the two (now unarmed) sword dudes decide to change themselves, she ups the ante a little bit in turn.
"Gang way!"
With a flash of magenta TJ simply disappears, 'falling' into the yellow outfitted one's chest. In another instant she is now the Yellow Ranger. It slices, it dices, it dresses like Wolverine, go her! The Blue Ranger's likely to get himself tripped up and/or knocked out, she doesn't have time for pretenders to that throne.
"That's horrible, who would ever take the eye of a kitten?!" Parry-parry-thrust-STAB-chop!
Now there's a big hole in the deck.
"Hoboy. Stay on target, team!" The Eye is close. If time spent playing games has taught TJ anything, the boss always guards the quest item. They've found the boss, which means... "Blue, how's your teleporting? Eyes on the prize, we'll hold 'em off!"
Please page Kent Nelson if interested. [Wed Jun 05 22:03:18 2013]
As the silvery warrior's weapon turns into a rifle Merle instantly goes on the defensive. Using her staff, she bats away skeletons and zombies as she swiftly describes a circle in the air with her free hand and loudly shouts "Scuto!" (Latin for "Shield!") as a circular shield of glowing purple energy a yard in diameter rotates into existance around her casting unseen blacklight causing flourescence effects around her out more than a dozen yards from her position. The shield takes up a position between her and the silvery warrior to block anything he might fire in her direction while she continues to bat away oncoming assultants.
"I'd need to fall back and also be sure that I don't accidentally take me and anyone I teleport out into the hallway," Merle calls out to answer TJ's question, "I'm figuring I shouldn't experiment in the middle of a group exercise!"
Josie pauses a moment, perhaps looking up at the huge pirate captain. So, with Mercury going after the Eye, and others dealing with power rangers, she seems to decide it's her job to distract the Captain. She turns into human form, and runs at the 9-foot skeleton, "We dare! You're not going to scare us with a stupid name like 'Captain Dark'!" She waits until he's swinging at her, or someone else is, before changing to water again.
"Want an umbrealla?" Bobby jokes. He's about to say something else when the explosion hits. He yelps, holding up an arm to defend himself. He gets pelted with some debris and bits of his slide are chipped away but he doesn't seem all that bothered by the impacts. Of course the giant sword weilding skeleton is another story. Bobby's eyes widen and he forms up an ice shield but it still gets shattered. With a small chunk taken out of his chest by the blade, he gets knocked clear off the slide. Oddly enough...no blood. Just more ice in the 'wound'...and it's 'healing' much the same way certain SNIKTers would. He could probably use a little help with the falling problem though.
Laura/emits, Cessily, Kurt, Amanda, TJ, Merle, Josie, Bobby, Doug, Logan
As the call to watch Cessily's back is made, Laura tries to move over to do just that. Even if her claws are useless for some reason. After all, she can still punch. And kick. And try to knock things away!
As the flaming sword of the 'Red Ranger' is perried, he gets slashed in the back. But then again he does have team mates. After all, remember the green and pink guys? They're still around. Thus as Red falls to his knees and changes back to his 'default' pirate look, Green and Pink start to open fire at Kurt with their guns!
Strangely enough, as Amanda teleports into the hold that Mercury entered, there's no enemies. At least not at first. But if they wait too long, some of the things up on deck, including the Captain' might come on back down!
The Blue Ranger is caught by surprise as TJ enters right into the Yellow Ranger. heck, he doesn't even get a chance to defend himself as that happens before he's quickly KOed. But for some reason, as Yellow is possessed, she changes back into her 'default' pirate look as well, even as a group of the remaining skeletons on the bridge start to charge at her!
The 'Silver Warrior' fights his way back up onto his feet, and all but glares at Merle, even as she deals with that barrier and the undead. That is before he pulls out his own cell phone and a black action figure thing, and changes...
Into a black warrior with wings. Who starts to fly up, and around. As if he's trying to shoot Merle from above!
Oh, you just had to taunt Captain Dark, didn't you Josie? You better not have trouble with the cold, or better dodge quick. Because as he hears that taunt, the giant skeleton tries to slash at the water girl with his flaming blue sword. A sword that actually absorbs the heat from anything and everything it touches!
"THEN ALL OF YOU WILL JOIN THE CREW OF MY SHIP!"
Strangely enough, as Bobby falls, something does move to catch him.
But what?
Why it's that red and bronze robotic parrot from earlier that not only tries to catch him, but it also tries to haul him back up to the Ghost Ship?!?
"Hey you! Need a lift?"
Yeah. it's probably best not to ask why it's doing this.
Cessily flows and bubbles down deeper into the ship, while the right goes up higher up. As she gets down to the deck the silver slick reforms into a real live X-person. "Got it!" she declares, snatching it in a way that might be similar to Doug's cell phone. "Oh, Miss Sefton," she says, startled by the arrival teleport. "Can you get us back up quick? It's hard to flow while carrying things."
Kurt keeps an eye on the Red pirate, even though the thing is down for the count. It's the other two, then, that advance upon him that takes up Nightcrawler's attention. Of course, it's hard to concentrate with the giant Captain Dark offering up his cheesy, Pirates of the Caribbean dialog. Still, he likes that movie, so.. the Captain will get the benefit of the doubt from the elf. For the moment.
It's the Green and Pink, then-- when they open fire, Kurt's up and in the air, bouncing from spar to spar, drawing fire, trying to aggrevate the two of them to the point that when he leaps, tumbles and vaults up and past the Black warrior.. please.. please.. shoot!!
Amanda gives Cess a quick smile. "I'm no Bamf Express," she tells the girl, "but I can get the job done. Just prep for free-fall, and trust me. I won't let us go splat." She places her hand on the metal girl's shoulder and swiftly chants her teleport spell. Together, the two disappear in a flash of golden light. The reappear high above both ships, out of reach of most everything but the occasional ranged weapon. It's then they begin the free fall she warned about. First, she sings out a shield spell, wrapping both of them together in a sphere of violet energy. Then, she chants a levitation spell, so the shield becomes as maneuverable as her usual flight. "Consider this the Magic Express, instead," she grins, standing, now, on the 'floor' of the sphere.
Well, that's weird... TJ's 'ride' is reverting back to its original appearance. Too bad she can't just hop from one Ranger to the next and make them all revert back (and pass out from her passing through.) Everything has limits, including her powers. She's weighing the odds of being able to push Captain Dark's psyche aside for a few moments when a bunch of skeletons come charging at her.
Possession allows her to have the mind, memories, skills, and powers of whomever she takes over. Unfortunately, her current shell on loan can't climb like she can. She abandons the former Yellow Ranger's body by back-flipping out of her (its?) shoulders, tossing one sword up into the air to snag it with her tail once more. Then she's sticking herself to the ceiling. Skeletons can't climb, can they?
Undine's helping with cover. Blue can't make the teleport. Mercury's on point for the Eye. Nocturne's got a herd of skeletons after her. Now what could she do with a mob-sized distraction..?
Boss fight.
TJ comes running along the ceiling back out into the open, dives for the nearest mast, runs up that, then dive-bombs the good (huge) old Captain with swords held pointy-ends first. "Avast, I say!" Come forth, minions, and pile on top of the big baddie!
Letting off a couple of rapid fire eldritch blasts at zombies near her, Merle's glowing yellow eyes flare brightly with anger as her opponent changes color and takes flight. She allows her shield to collapse to conserve energy as she thrusts her staff arm into the air and snap the staff extends to its full length and extends a blade which pierces the now black and winged warrior who she brings down to the deck of the ship -- hard -- with a swing of her arm. Pulling her spear free from the one fallen foe -- its blade snappign back into the housing at the same moment -- she sprints though the crowd of undead to join TJ in assaulting the pirate 'captain', felling skeletons with her staff and zombies with well timed eldritch blasts.
"Lets take this guy down, Sis," she yells out as a rallying cry.
Luckily, Undine isn't hurt by cold. Unluckily, she can be frozen by it. She doesn't think to dodge, having fully expected to put out the flaming sword, and instead she's turned into one big solid mass of ice. And, unlike Bobby, she can't move or change back until she melts.
Laura/emits, Cessily, Kurt, Amanda, TJ, Merle, Josie, Bobby, Doug, Logan
Iceman's about to call out to see if anyone can swing by and try to help him while he scrambles to make an ice slide...and then he's grabbed. "Tha-" he pauses when he sees just what's caught him. "Thanks," he finishes. "Uh...not that I'm not thankful but aren't you with those pirate dudes attacking us?" he asks, starting up an ice slide once he's close enough to the ship.
"They're coordinate pretty well," Doug notes, checking over the readings. "Power levels spiking, they're demonstrating a lot of flexibility... Cessily's doing a good job there. Now... let's see what they do for the finish, eh, Logan?"
Logan spends more of the conflict watching the battling heroes than the myriad displays that host data on their powers and energy or strength output, speed and reaction times. That's not to say the numbers are ignored: just that Wolverine values his own senses as much as, if not more completely than, any sensor. There's a furrow of concerned, consternated brow with the danger attracted by the youngest member of the team, but one thing Wolverine's learned is these folks are tougher than they look; that, and the Danger Room has pretty solid safety parameters, name notwithstanding. "Bad guy's already in trouble." Logan notes, nodding assent, or indicating the cooperative strike about to go down. "They got this one."
As Kurt jumps about, and Pink And Green try to fire at him, only to have some of their blast go towards the now Black Winged Warrior...
As Yellow ends up being buried alive under a mob of skeletons as TJ abandons it, only to go after Captain Dark...
As Merle stabs the Black Winged Warrior right after he's shot, and he's slammed into the deck, right before Merle rushes off to help fight Captain Dark...
As Udine is frozen and awaits a chance to melt...
As Iceman is caught, the robotic parrot just says, "We don't kill! We just want the treasure!" before he tries to drop Bobby back off on the Ghost Ship before flying off to rejoin his crew...
As Laura is knocked by a Zombie into that hole...
As all of that happen, the Zombies, Skeletons, and Ghosts fade away as the eye is removed by Cessily, and then teleported (with Cess) by Amanda.
Heck, the sky above is replaces by the normal appearance of The Danger Room. Heck, Pink and Green try to grab Yellow, Black, and Red if they can, shoving away anyone that's too close to them, before they try to /jump/ back towards the Red Pirate Ship.
But the Ghost Ship itself doesn't vanish. Not yet.
Nor Does Captain Dark as he all but howls as his crew vanishes, not yet noticing just what is coming his way. Thus when he does, it will be too late.
Whee teleporting! It doesn't even make Cess entirely, 100% nauseuous anymore! "I know, right," she says, moving in closer towards Amanda, holding her with one arm and the eye tightly in the other. "Ohmygosh," she gasps, seeing the expanse below them...which turns back into the danger room, a considerably less vertiginous sight.
As the room around him begins to take that oh-so-familiar shape once again, Kurt leaps from his landing spot on a spar, and pushes off to take hold of the ceiling, his swords put back into the scabbards quickly and easily. Yellow eyes watch the final taking down of the Captain, and he can't help but smile.
His daughters.
Well, not technically his daughters, but.. they're blue. They're both Wagners.. and somewhere along the line, he (okay, and their mothers!) did something right.
Of course, not to detract, but it's only the Danger Room. But still.. Kurt is more than willing to give credit where it's due.
All said and done, however?
The kids did well.. all of them.
Amanda flashes Cessily another grin. The lack of nausea might also be explained by the fact that her spell works a little differently than Kurt's natural ability. But, there's no point mentioning that now. "Nice snag, by the way," she tells the girl.
Slowly, she begins allowing the shield sphere to descend to the deck of the room -- as opposed to the deck of the ship. It's up to the others to bring down the pirate captain... but, they look like they've got that well in hand. She smiles. Pleased. "Nicely done..."
Two swords, one point-blank Hex Bolt, and a giant blue gecko posing as Talia Wagner all drive into the back of Captain Dark as one. "Hi! Come here often?"
The room is starting to de-rez. Mercury must have found the Eye! Either that or something went critically wrong, but TJ's feeling pretty good about this run.
Everything seems to have turned out alright, aside from Undine being flash-frozen. That... Huh. Lots of ideas come to mind on how to 'fix' that, but would they cause more harm than do good?
With her last strike having landed she kicks free of the big boss guy and backflips through the air, dropping back to the floor in a low crouch not far from Merle. The swords can stay wedged behind, or fall as they will. Skeletons can be tricky to impale.
"Good hustle! Your kung-fu is strong, fellow dimensionally-challenged Wagnerette."
Merle leaps at Captain Dark and swings her staff at Captain Dark's head only to have it pass though the fading image as the simulation shuts down around her. Recovering from the unexpected lack of physical contact by flipping down to a couch on the floor of the room. She grins up at Nocturne and Kurt, breathing heavily from the workout and announces: "That was fun!"
With the simulation ending, the Danger Room safeties trigger to apply enough heat to quickly melt Undine. She lashes out one last time at the pretty much defeated Captain Dark, then changes back. She's shivering a little but otherwise in one piece. "Never heard of cold fire before."
"Uhh, alright. See ya later robo-bird," Iceman calls. Stretching, he moves to stand near Kurt. "This went well," he replies, honest. Then he sees Josie and winces. "We need a heater down here!" he calls. When the Danger Room kicks in, he keeps his distance so as not to re-chill Undine or get caught in the heat. "You alright, kid?" he calls.
"It's kind of what I do," Cessily tells Amanda. She relaxes as she gets cloated down to the floor, holding up the 'eye' in a sigh of triumph. She tucks it under her arm and looks about. "Everybody okay? Josie?" she asks, edging up behind Iceman. Far be it from her to jump ahead of a senior X-man.
"Hey guys. Good job. TJ, Merle... you coordinated well. Cess, you did a great -job- ignoring the boss, and going right for the true objective. Josie, you were kind of left out to dry a bit... you could have used a bit more. Laura... don't feel bad. The sim was set up to make you more on par with someone without powers without handicapping the others... but overall, eerything went well. Great job, everyone," Doug calls out, leaning back with satisfication to look at Logan.
"Decent work coordinatin' the offense and finding a quick way to secure the objective." Logan agrees with Doug's transmitted praise, before tapping into the comm to add his own brief amendment. "Josie goin' down could have made the whole thing go south in another scenario, though: gotta watch each other's backs, keep everyone on the ball. Priority one." Even if some of his past employers would disagree, Wolverine has long since stopped giving two flips.
"Well, they can handle B-movies." Wolverine offers to Doug, neither full endorsement or dismissal, but tacitly somewhere in between. The Canuck does crack a rather wry, wolfish smirk, however, sauntering towards the command deck's door. "Keep at 'em."
And while some people stop and watch, the 'Blue Sisters' finish off Captain Dark. He's stabbed. And other things...
And he falls...
Before bursting into a giant pillar of blue flame.
But no one has to worry about that, Since there' no heat, or cold. Instead it's just sort of there for a few moment, before The Danger Room fully reverts to its default state.
All though as it reverts, and Laura hears what Doug and Logan have to say, she scowls before she starts to slink off towards the exit from the Danger Room.