| To the Tallest Tower | |||||
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| What: A training session in the Danger Room has been set up and all members of the team are welcome. The objective is just to reach the top of a tower. But with Bobby Drake running the show, will it be that simple? | |||||
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Bobby Drake had offered to run a Danger Room training session earlier in the week and now it's time for that. It was listed as open to anyone that wanted to join in and that it wouldn't be one of those 'scary difficult' ones. Waiting up in the control room, the Iceman smiles as he watches those that showed up assemble down in the Danger Room below. When everyone that signed up is there, he hits the button to close the door and flicks on the intercom. "Hey down there!" he greets cheerfully. "I hope you're all ready," he adds before starting the simulation up.
The silver walls all melt away as the simulation begins soon the assembled X-men are standing in ankle-deep snow at the edge of a forest. It's night and a huge snowy field extends ahead of them. Over a frozen stream there's a hill and atop it is an ice castle with one tower rising above the others. There appears to be a pretty isolated and nasty storm around that tower preventing people from just flying up there. When the simulation is finished forming, Bobby's voice can be heard again. "All you have to do to clear the sim is reach the top of that tower and the prisoner inside it."
It has been ages since Roberto da Costa last had an appointment as a costumed hero, and as a consequence, he hasn't yet updated his wardrobe: he shows up for Bobby's training session in his old New Mutants togs. The standard blue and gold outfit never quite goes out of style, but it doesn't have the personality Berto might like it to, either. Also, it's a little bit uncomfortably snug in places. Best not to think about it. Still, he reasons as he steps through the reinforced Danger Room portal: as long as the entire group doesn't show up wearing the same thing, this little homecoming dance won't be ruined.
He tosses a casual salute toward the control room when he hears Bobby's voice over the intercom, and favors the rest of the assembled group with a broad smile. As the simulated snow starts to pile up around him, Berto shifts into his mini-balrog Sunspot form, exuding enough solar heat to take the edge off the chill in his very near vicinity. "Is there a starting bell or do we just go?" he asks the others, dropping halfway into a runner's starting crouch.
The Nightcrawler is present. Having gathered with the others Kurt is dressed in his X-Regalia complete with the pair of crossed sabres at his back. In his perpetually squatted position the sudden drop in temperature and the chill of frozen vapor causes him to unconsciously stand a bit taller so-as to keep the chill away from his groin.
"Ahh.." Nightcrawler says aloud the utterance thickly accented tilting his head back a bit to try and peer through the storm. If he debated teleporting through it he doesn't even voice it as an option. They wrote programming around that trick a long time ago, "Then it is a race?" He asks when Roberto speaks, "Nein, the goal is to make it to the top. Not to remain trapped at the bottom."
"Let's move with care and aid one another."
Channel missed out on the scary difficult session. The woman is dressed in her X-Suit. She listens to Bobby's words. Right. Like it would be that easy. The woman nods to the others. "Makes sense to me. If you want me to look from above and see if I can spot any threats, I can do that," the woman suggests to the group. She's probably the youngest, but she's still a full member of the team and is past the newbie stage, at least in her mind, when it comes to making suggestions.
"Go whenever you want," Bobby replies over the intercom. For the moment things look quiet and unthreatening. A little white rabbit bounds through the snow but not much else. It's not until after the team starts to move that things start happening. A light breeze blows down from the castle, scattering some flurries almost like a warning.
It's easy to read Sunspot's disappointed expression when Kurt chides against making the session a competition, even through the Brazilian's fiery corona and the shadow pure light absorption creates over his skin. But whatever his personal preferences, he doesn't oppose the suggestion of a cooperative effort. "Be careful up there," he tells Channel. "If it's a tower-climbing challenge, the one thing we know for sure is that he'll have something ready to bother fliers." He gives Kurt an evaluating look. "I can run pretty fast on a flat field like this, if you want to ride... ah... sobre os ombros. On my shoulders -- what's the phrase Americans use? Or we could each do our own thing." He shrugs. "Your call."
Nightcrawler laughs good naturedly, "Nein. Your thoughtfulness is appreciated but I do not need a ride."
In the next instant he explodes in a 'bamf' of acrid smelling smoke immediately appearing ahead.
"Come.." He gestures and begins a steady march for the castle.
Channel nods. "I'll be careful". The woman boosts her physical abilities by drawing in some gravimetric energy, and then flies upward, moving a little bit ahead to scan the area ahead of them, looking for lifesigns to communicate through her X-Communicator. This would be a relatively simple portion of the exercise. They had to get to the exciting part first, and honestly, if Channel ended up being a distraction for the other two to make it in, that would be alright by her books, too.
Going up might not have been the best of ideas. Once Channel gets about 20 feet up, a storm kicks up. Winds strong enough to knock her clear out of the air team up with hail and wet snow to force her back to the ground. Meanwhile down below, Nightcrawler will be in for a shock too. A hand shooting up out of the snow and grabbing his tail. And not just a normal hand, no it's one made of a branch. And if he looks down, Kurt will find a snowman sporting a sinister grin rising from the snow around him. And it's not the only one. A lot more are lifting out of the snow, some sporting winter gear and top hats. A couple carry swords that look like they were carved from giant candy canes and they're all advancing on Nightcrawler and Sunspot. Some are starting to throw iceballs their way too.
To hell with steady marches. Berto may not be the Flash, but he's a great runner even without the boost provided by his solar energy powers, and as he takes off, it's clear he's using those powers in earnest. He cuts across the snowy field fast enough to raise a half-melted wake, headed straight for Nightcrawler. Spotting the aggressor digging its way out of the snow, he leaps into the air, aiming to drop a fiery boot right through the animate snowman's head. After landing, he looks up at Kurt with a grin. "Piggyback! That's the word!" he shouts before turning to square off against any nearby attackers. He also scans the skies for Channel, in case she's in need of help.
A branch-like hand ensnares Nightcrawler by his tail but when it yanks it winds up with only smoke between its fingers.
Kurt reappears somewhere in the middle of the rising figures and with a quick movement the curved swords are in his hands. Slashing an 'X' into the air Nightcrawler grins with bravado and points the tip of the weapon at the nearest candy-cane bearing aggressor, "Ah-Ha!" He taunts and steps forward swinging playfully at his opponents weapon before guarding again.
A twenty foot fall wasn't even going to bruise Channel, not with her augmented toughness and some of the training she's had. She lands in a roll near the others, raising her hands up to absorb the kinetic energy around the iceballs, which should cause them to drop harmlessly to the ground.
"Right. Figures there'd be something to nullify flight". Channel opens up with a pair of wide blasts at the snowmen, intent on blasting them apart and trying to cut a path through them. It was simple move, but things were just getting started. It was good to start with a nice, simple move. She, too, had her sword with her, but she wasn't really intending on engaging in melee if she could avoid it.
The snowman Kurt attacks blocks the blow and lets out a dull laugh before swinging back at him. These snowmen don't have much in the way of sword skills but they're not completely untrained. They're counting on numbers it seems. Sunspot's kick makes the snowman's head go up in a flurry cloud and the rest of the body slumps to the ground before falling apart. Strong enough blows break those snowy bodies as they keep trying to punch, tackle, and pummel the mutants. Channel's blast clears a path but there are still more snowmen coming.
"Not to say 'I told you so,' but I totally did," Berto tells Channel, a gentle smile taking any bite out of the comment. He plants a fist in one snowman's midsection, charging the punch with enough solar energy to knock the middle sphere of its body halfway across the field. Its head topples to the ground and rolls over so that it can glare at the mutants with its coal eyes. "Sun powers versus snowmen?" Berto laughs. "These guys don't stand a chance. Here." Using his speed and strength to their best advantage, he starts flattening the snowmen between the group and the ice castle. "These guys aren't going to do me any damage, so I can clear a path if you guys cover my flanks."
Nightcrawler grins from ear-to-ear at the semi-skilled swordplay from the snowman. Ducking the swing he counters with a downward-slash to its branch-like arm which snaps causing it to fumble the candy cane to fumble to the ground. Spinning lazily around spears the hat off of its head and then with a flick of his wrist he sends it end-over-end into the face of another snowman who seems little affected by this attack.
Pacing backwards he lets them grow closer, and closer, and closer...
Then, when they are close enough, he ducks low and rises upward crossing his swords and taking the head off of one. Blocking one strike over his back he punches the blade through the face of another before sweeping around and slashing through the torso if the foe he just blocked.
That one falls in half. The one that got skewered in the face -- not so much. Y'know, cause they're made of packed snow.
There's a roll of the eyes. "Just because you assume they planned for the obvious doesn't mean you shouldn't check it," Channel comments easily. "These guys aren't going to do any of us any damage. Lets move," Channel responds. She focuses a bunch of vertical channel bursts that come up from the ground under the snowmen, blasting them apart as they continue to move forward towards the castle. She does make sure to keep the angles so that they avoid getting buried in Snowman...Snow Bits? Snow Guts? She's not going to think too hard about that one.
The snowmen keep coming as the team moves, doing their best to prevent them from reaching that frozen over stream and the bridge across it. Oddly enough, no snowmen on the other side of the bridge and they seem unable to cross the stream.
And Oh Roberto. You really shouldn't have said that. Why? Well the huge icy fist that rises quickly out of the snow and uppercuts the solar mutant. It'd be enough to hurt even with his powers. At least the safeties are still on. And what's that fist attached to? Well that would be the fifteen foot tall ice golem pulling itself out of the snow and into view. Glowing red eyes focus on Kurt and Channel and the beast lets out a Godzilla roar before launching mini-van sized snowballs at them both.
Still merrily scattering bits of snowman across the simulated field, Berto bursts into improvised song. "Frosty the snowman! Tried to fight a guy with 'sun' in his name! And got melted blown up and punched across the room because doing that was dOWWWWWW!" Being strong enough to hurt means the golem's surprise punch is strong enough to lift Berto a foot or two off the ground. He falls backward onto Channel, trying his best to steady himself. "Merda. I think I just ran into an author self-insert character," the Brazilian mutters. The one good thing about falling on Channel is that Berto's available as a handy human shield, unless she decides to intercept the massive, onrushing snowball some other way.
Nightcrawler pirouettes with swords gleaming in the light...
...but Channel blows up his foe and then the next one too.
A torrent of snow falls down upon him and he shakes himself free of much of it.
He gives the young woman a fanged smile and then a half-bow to show that there are no hard feelings. The godzilla-like roar immediately has his attention and yellow eyes widen as the mini-van size ball hurtles towards him.
In the next breath he is smoke and in the one after he appears atop the golem's head. His wall-crawling seems to give him an edge on the icy structure because he sprints forward two steps and vaults out into the open air. Twisting around the swords spin in his grasp and he hurls them...
ONE. TWO. Both blades lodge themselves into one of the giant's eyes.
His arms go wide as gravity takes him, pulling him to the Earth, and then he's smoke again. Landing softly behind the golem he cups his hands around his mouth, "Now!" He calls to his companions.
There's a guy falling into her. Channel catches Roberto easily and steps around and in front of him. "Careful there, Sunny Boy," the woman quips as she steps neatly around and in front of him, drawing the Asgardian blade at her side. The weapon shines as she rushes forward, jumping up and slashing at the snowball as she hurtles towards it. She intends to slash it right down the middle and then to blast it apart as she passes through it with a kinetic blast from each side as she moves forward. If it doesn't work, well, she'll at least absorb the hit for Sunspot, and that was something!
Once she reaches the golem, Channel will grab Kurt's sword, give it a little twist if it's still in the golem, and then draw it out to bring it back to Kurt. Might as well make sure the thing is dead!
The golem looks confused when Kurt disappears but then there's another Godzilla-roar as the sword lodges in it's eye. The creature clutches at it's face with one hand and swipes the air with the other. Meanwhile the massive snowball proves too thick and dense to slice through even with Asgardian steel. The kinetic blast helps slow it down though to keep Channel unflattened. The golem then sets about working to stomp on the assembled mutants with those huge feet.
"Well. That was cool," Berto observes his teammates, wryly conscious of his own weak performance against the ice giant. He concentrates, firing up molten solar engines in each fist, and darts forward to deliver the hottest double punch he can to the thing's right leg. At the moment of contact, something gives, and he unexpectedly releases a segment of his energy reserve as a directed heat blast. Shocked, he backpedals, swinging wide to the left to escape any ragey golem stomps. "Hey, did you see that?" he asks loudly. "I didn't know I could do that. Did I actually do that or am I just punch-drunk?"
"Seriously? That snowball made out of adamantium or something?" Channel comments as her sword is surprisingly repelled by the thickness of the snowball. She sheathes her sword as she hits the ground. The woman reaches out to grab hold of the snowball, lifts it up, and attempts to swing it into the golem with all her strength. "Doesn't surprise me you can do heat blasts. You absorb solar energy, don't you? Makes sense. Never tried it before?" Channel questions even as she's trying to beat the golem into submission with a giant snowball. She never thought she'd use a snowball as a melee weapon.
"No, it's a hologram. Did you forget what room you're in?" Bobby's voice sing-songs over the intercom. The snowballs don't even break when they hit the ground. They just THUD into the snow as new snowbanks. Roberto's super-hot punches cause clouds of steam where they land, his fists melting into the thick ice. And then there's a blast. Enjoy the sudden sauna. Losing a leg combined with a snowball based melee assault? Well the golem is godzilla-roaring again...but it's also going down. TIMBUR!
Berto darts out of the way of the falling golem. "Never thought of it. I punch pretty hard, so I mostly stick to that," Berto admits. "It never seemed like making the punches hotter would make much difference. Um, until I was fighting ice people." He stares at his right hand, flexes it into a fist, and points it at the fallen ice golem. Nothing. He make a few mock punch movements, focusing more heat into the fist each time. Then a snowman sneaks up behind him and growls a frosty challenge, raising its sword. Shocked, Berto whirls and looses a blast that seems to surprise him as much as the snowman. Well, less, as the snowman is now missing most of its body from the shoulders down. "Porra. Gotta work on that." He turns toward the bridge over the stream and points. "But first? Let's get out of here."
Channel takes another swing at the golem, trying to knock him away from the fight as well as in an attempt to knock him out. "Good to have some extra options available then. You should probably try exploring some of that sometime," the woman suggests. She continues carrying the snowball. It might come in handy. "Yeah, lets keep moving". And she'll keep moving towards the tower, if no other threats pop up.
To Bobby's response, she smirks. "I am able to see energy. I'm quite aware they're holograms," Channel points out. Though she usually filters that particular brand of energy out in the Danger Room. It ruined the illusion if she kept it up.
The golem gets pounded deeper into the snow by that snowball. The glow fades from it's eyes and soon it's just an interesting art piece in the field. There are no more threats between the team and the castle but the snowball won't fit through the doors. Once the huge double doors are pushed open...a massive hall is revealed. One thing can be said for this holo-ice-castle. It is very well designed. This is where one last obstacle remains. About half a dozen suits of ice armor that look vaguely like Medival Iron Man all with swords and shields stomping towards the mutants.
Berto nods. "I wouldn't bet my life on that ability at the moment, but I'll work on it," he agrees as he charges over the bridge, whirling to watch for pursuers. The snowmen didn't seem keen on crossing earlier, but he'll watch his back all the same, thanks. There's no opposition as they enter into the tower itself, which only makes him nervous, frankly. "What are you planning, Bobby?" he mutters to himself. Then there are icy robot suits coming at them. "Oh. That. That I can manage." He punches the nearest ice knight right on its shield, full force, just to see the effect.
Icemen. Well, this was a Bobby simulation. Of course there would be icemen. Channel draws in some thermal energy and blasts at one of the ice men, intending on weakening it and hopefully blowing it apart with her thermal energy blast. She found that cold things didn't like it when you used heat energy on them. She was keeping a little bit back from them for the moment, assessing them even as she hit them with her attack.
The punch shatters the shield into little ice shards. For a moment the ice-armor stands there glaring at Sunspot. Then it's slashing at him with a sword. He may want to move unless he wants a really close haircut. The one hit by the heat blast starts melting, sagging and drooping as it continues to approach. What do you know, they're all hollow.
Sunspot expected a counterattack, so he backpedals out of the sword's range pretty easily. Unlike most bruisers, Berto has a lot more speed than durability, so he uses a hit-and-run fighting style that engages the same parts of his brain as a soccer tackle: slide in, do some fancy footwork, then slip away again. Darting forward again to take advantage of the ice knight's guard-breaking swipe, the Brazilian delivers three lightning-fast solar punches to the armor's faceplate, belly, and (appropriately enough) whatever it has that passes for a solar plexus.
Channel backs up a little more, focusing her thermal channel blasts on the feet and legs of the icemen. Her intent is to melt their legs to reduce or remove their mobility. Then they'd be easy pickings for Sunspot to heat-punch in the face to finish them off. The hit and run tactics aren't what she usually sees out of most fighters these days, and the woman takes a few mental notes while she continues to work on melting the icemen.
Hit and run works well with these clunky opponents. Solar punches crack them right open, leaving melting holes. And in the case of broken faceplates...icy knights wandering blindly. Other get knocked to the floor by Channel's blasts, dragging themselves along with their arms once there.
Once the knights are dealt with, it's a clear path to...a lot of stairs. Have fun running up those stairs to the top of the tower since there's more flight-countering wind in there. And at the very top, a set of ornate double doors just waiting to be pushed open...
Gritting his teeth, Sunspot stomps apart the last ice knight that looks like a credible threat. "Okay, then. Let's go," he says, beckoning Channel after him as he heads into the stairwell. "Ugh. Steps. At least years of running up the bleachers at futebol practice will finally pay off." He mounts the stairs, his speed powers at least making the climb a bit faster, if no less a chore.
Channel is quite used to running. Up and down stairs. It was part of her MMA training, back in the day. Lots and lots of stairs. Conditioning, they called it. So she works her way up the stairs and pauses at the door. "We got somebody on the other side. Be ready, just in case," the woman says. A hologram, of course, but that was a given, since it was the Danger Room. The woman then moves to push the doors open, ready to defend against whatever else Bobby has programmed for them to deal with past these doors.
Those doors seem to be the last obstacle. They creak and groan when pulled open, frost and icicles falling off them and shattering on the floor. What's inside? Well an ornate ice bedroom/prison cell. And someone.
"My heroes!"
The relieved cry comes from what might be a shock. Yes...that appears to be a hologram of Beast. Big, blue, and fuzzy. In the dress worn by Elsa from Frozen. And he's grabbing Sunspot and planting a great big wet Bugs Bunny-style kiss on the heroic mutant.
One can almost hear Bobby laughing up in the control room.
Berto is briefly ready in a combat stance when the doors swing open. The sight that greets him makes short work of those defenses, as he doesn't know whether to laugh or cry. He finally settles for covering his eyes, which is exactly the wrong move. Holo-Beast grabs him unopposed, and before he knows what's happening, Berto has a faceful of blue fur. And is ... is that TONGUE? Berto wriggles frantically, trying to escape.
"Well played, Iceman," Channel responds. There isn't much else for her to do, so she'll wait for the sim to complete before she makes her way out of the Danger Room, keeping quiet in the meantime.
Luckily for Sunspot, he only gets one big smooch before 'SIMULATION OVER' rings out. Slowly the Danger Room powers down and the holograms all fade away. The doors open and now Bobby actually can be heard laughing in the control room. Just the look on Roberto's face was worth it.
Berto coughs and gasps for breath as his furry damsel in distress dissolves back into unreality. "You're evil, Drake. Evil, evil, evil."
Bobby flicks on the intercom, still laughing. "Expect the unexpected, Sunspot!" he teases before collasing into more laughter.
Berto tries to think of a clever retort, but settles for just storming into the control booth, waving a fist at the frosty gamemaster. "I ought to punch you through a wall. Better yet, I ought to tell Hank how much time you spent programming a hologram of him in a dress."
Bobby just grins as Roberto storms into the control room. "Aw, c'mon, Berto. It was just a joke...and wasn't that bad," he says. "Weirdly, I didn't have to program much. Just switched the wardrobe option on the holo-Hank already in the system and the computer did the rest..." he trails off. "But hey...how about I get you a beer? A reward for winning then sim?"
Berto can't really hold his angry expression for long, and drops the fist, leaning down into a crouch to laugh. "Fine. Fine. Anything to get the fur taste off my lips," he answers when he has regained control of his voice.
A few keystrokes and Bobby sets the Danger Room to shut down and then hops out of his chair. "Let's get going then," he chimes, leading the way out.