| Danger Room Strategies | |||||
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| What: Some of the X-Men go on a training session in preparation for an impending showdown. | |||||
Logan sent out a message to everyone at the last minute over the com channel, "Danger. Ten minutes. Uniforms," his voice was firm. The man was waiting in the danger room in the blue and yellow uniform with the yellow tiger stripes, the blue outer that went up and down the entire uniform. His mask was hanging between his shoulder blades.
He looked over everyone there just assessing who managed to get the call. "Everyone ready? Scott cooked somethin' up. It ain't gonna be kind. It ain't gonna be easy," his gaze stopped at Aerial. While he even suggested Aerial to be the team's secret weapon against Juggernaut, having the young student in the Danger Room was a little surreal. "Y'know what yer getting' yerself into?" he asked making sure all was okay. Then he looked the team, "Questions before this begins?"
To those that looked around the Danger Room was a metallic cubed room that worked with holograms. This was a major upgrade compared to the room with saws and wrecking bots. The only thing that stood out in the room were three to five windows that clearly belonged to a control room in the farthest room near the ceiling.
Once everyone got their questions out Logan slipped out of the room and went into the control room. Initiating the program the students saw themselves on the front grounds. The grass was beneath their feet. Sunshine was cascading over their faces, it was the perfect spring day. People could have fallen to the grass and see the clouds.
As people got comfortable the ground started to shake. "Boom!" "Boom!" If someone had a glass of water they might have been reminded of that one scene from Jurassic Park. Fortunately, the source wasn't a T-Rex. Sadly, it was the Juggernaut. His eyes looked ready. Cyclops did say he wanted the team ready. Speaking in the control room, "Remember yer a team. Fight it like one," Logan said over the speakers.
Living next to the dimension door teleporter means Hope was able to get properly ready and still make it to the Danger Room with 45 seconds to spare. That gave her time to get into uniform and grab a weapon from the safehouse storage. Her dad had taught her with the lessons heavily slanted towards fighting with no powers. She holds up the Cable Special. "Is the gun fine, or would you prefer I use powers?" Hope says in response to Wolverine's request for questions.
As soon as Juggernaut appears, Hope's training kicks in and she moves back to strike at a distance with her hardware. "Watch him up close! If he hits you, it'll hurt!" she cries, channeling her father in a sense.
Aerial is more than a little nervous, and it shows. But she nods affirmative to Wolverine and then as holograms come up she's somewhat awestruck. That's tech she hasn't run across before! She prefers to fly upside-down and a little above eye level. At least until Juggernaut comes into view, and then she's turning herself in the air so her feet point away from him and her eyes towards him. She adjusts her position with jittery motions. Pulling her backpack to one side she draws out some of her most common tools. A spool of thread. A magnet. A red bouncy ball on a string. A roll of duct tape. They float in the air beside her on strings as if they were balloons. "If I can get a grip on him, I can move or throw him. If he gets a grip on me, I'm dead." She wraps a loop of duct tape around her glove, sticky side out.
Rogue just stands quietly near the others wearing a matte-gray-colored bodysuit with matching long gloves and tall boots. She listens to what everyone is saying, but doesn't really add anything to it as she just seems quite calm and poised. Her eyes go to the source of the noise making, but she otherwise stays perfectly motionless, looking out at their target with her emerald eyes... she'd been through this beast before, in the real world... she didn't seem terribly concerned in this fake one.
The Danger Room was nothing new to the Iceman. He'd used the room many times in all its forms, programmed scenarios too. None of it was new to him. He just rolls his eyes a little as Logan goes on, tightening his bandana as he takes on his organic ice form. Standing near Rogue, he snorts a little when Logan comments on them being a team. He gives Rogue a little look and then waits. When the Juggernaut appears, Bobby stretches. "So...Scott's sore he missed the fight so he wants a do-over. Gonna be sad he missed it again," he jokes, waiting to see what the others do first. "We really gotta get you better gear if you're gonna be on an X-team," he remarks idly to Aerial.
"Bring yer guns if ya want," Logan commented to hope before going to the controls. He wanted it to be as real as possible. With Juggernaut beign around, or the threat looming, he figured Hope may have been on edge. If that was the case then he figured it wouldn't have been out of the question for the potentially paranoid mutant to have a gun or two stashed somewhere as a just in case.
The Juggernaut started to push forward. While his heavy footsteps were slow and steady the big man shot out like a bullet heading toward Rogue since she looked the least worried out of everyone. His footsteps continued to make the ground shake. Anyone standing on it without the power of flight may have been rocked to their knees as the motions could have been knocked to the ground. Draped in red armor the big guy started to take hung swings at Rogue. As a fist went into the ground the floor shook again, if anyone was trying to steady a gun there may have been a chance the shot may have been so steady.
With Juggernaut focusing on Rogue this meant everyone else had a chance to talk strategy. Someone was going to have to take point in this matter.
Hope starts firing to cover Aerial. "Keep the package safe!" she shouts in Rogue's direction. To the others, she comments (albeit loudly), "That girl's supposed to be our ace in the hole, our ticket to keeping him off-balance. Protect her at all costs." Then she focuses again on laying down cover fire. "Please," she adds. While Rogue and Iceman definitely have the overall experience edge, Hope probably knows the most about dealing with him from her father's intel. But she doesn't want to come off as trying to immediately take control of the op like he would.
Aerial gulps, glancing to Iceman. "It's cheap. It's expendible. It does what I need. It's what I've practiced with. Not that I'll turn down free stuff... Cover me? I'm going for it." She jerks forwards and releases the bouncy ball at roughly a hundred miles an hour, then comes to a halt. The ball continues forwards with a whistle as the thread spools out behind it, slipping between Aerial's loosely held fingers - the loose grip means the ball has its mass and obeys proper physics for the bounce off the floor near Juggernaut's legs. When she yanks the string to try to reel the ball back, it loses its mass again and instead whips like a bola. And if it can wrap Juggernaut's leg, that will put him in weightless zero-g as well.
Rogue grinned sidelong to her friend Bobby beside her, but she didn't say anything, staying rather calm it would seem... maybe she'd smoked some pot before coming to the danger room, who knows! When the big form of the Juggernaut rushed, Anna-Marie launched up into the air was suddenly airborne! It wasn't hard for her to avoid the Juggernaut's attacks at all as she could nimbly fly and contort her body away from his slow heavy fists. She just seemed to be toying with him like this for now... letting the others focus on their own attacks... She also was openly teasing the Juggernaut, smiling at him and giving him 'winks' here and there.
As soon as Rogue was off, Bobby was off too. The Iceman lifted up on one of his quick ice slides, letting loose a trio of snowballs at Juggernaut's face. "Hey, bucket-head! Up here!" he calls, tossing more snow and ice to pull attention his way and to keep him focused on him.
Shots ran off from Hope's weapon. They collided with Juggernaut. His eyes narrowed. While he didn't go after hope it looked like notes were made to crush her later. He continued on his path toward Rogue. However, Aerial moved into the way and he batted at her. Because of how her powers worked he wasn't trying to hit her with a straight strike, but a sweeping motion. She would have been not effected by the blow itself, the motion would have sent her back like a thrown baseball.
Seconds before Aerial turned into the rope wrapped around Juggernaut's leg, but he moved right before the slack was tightened up. This made the plan not necessarily fail as the ball gained weightlessness, but it didn't take the juggernaut with it as he moved out of the way. So, a rope with a ball tied around it now floated weightlessly giving others a small look at what Aerial could have done.
Seeing that his target went up high Juggernaut then focused his attention in Hope's direction. "Splat! Splat! Splat!" followed and a glare was given to Iceman after Juggernaut wiped away the snow.
The front grounds hand a road that led to the school's garage. Juggernaut walked toward it and tried to clamp at the ground. Pulling out pieces of road he hurled them toward Iceman liked discuses. He was aiming ofr the ice trails that kept Bobby up in an attempt to knock the mutant back down to the ground for a fire.
As Rogue's batted at, Hope copies her abilities almost out of instinct. If any of the others fall, she's the backup, since her powers can work without harming the person she's copying. But as she tries to fly toward Rogue to brace her, nothing happens. She just doesn't feel any different. So she continues firing for now. "Rogue! Where'd you get those powers?" Something feels wrong. And something will definitely be wrong if one of the others touches her flesh-to-flesh, though she doesn't know it yet.
Aerial mutters as the loop goes slack again, and takes the string between her fingers to snap it. Don't want to leave it open to yank her around by surprise with. The string falls to the ground and the ball bounces a few times and rolls away. Plan B is the magnet. She backs away to make room for her merely human reflexes, then rushes forwards straight at him and releases the magnet to fly at nearly a thousand miles an hour. Unlike with the bouncy ball she doesn't have to let it slip through her fingers, it's staying massless. And if it locks on that helmet, she's hauling Juggernaut abruptly into the sky as she passes.
Rogue looked over at Hope when she heard the question from the girl. She gave the girl a small grin. "I don't think I can list'em all, sugah. I like touchin' folk too much, maybe. Don't tell no one..." She says back at the young Summers gal. Marie's eyes looked after Juggernaut as he was going on about his business and she frowned. "Big fella, big anger... tiny brain. Poor thing." She muttered before flying after him and moving toward his shoulders where she kicked him, nice and hard right in his ass! "You're it!" She said then before moving to quickly fly skyward again.
"Whoo! Big boy wants to play frisbee!" Iceman laughs, easily dodging away from the flung chunk of concrete. Even as the trail is broken, Iceman keeps going. He's on the quick fading slides, the trail only lasting for a few moments after he's passed over it before it crumbles away. One hand focusing on the slide, he points another at Juggernaut's feet and lets loose a frigid beam. His intent is to ice the villain's big boots to the ground. It's just meant as a temporary distraction to make him waste time breaking the ice so the others can get in closer for their attacks.
Juggernaut took more shots. He was swayed by them slightly, but Hope's gun was just making the man angry. There was a sudden "clunk." His helmet looked like it was getting pulled upward. Out of desperation he started to unclasp it. Now, hsi head was exposed the helmet was in the air. The man was so distracted everything Rogue was able to kick him in the ass. He fell down to his face and was completely prone to attacked as he growled picking himself up off the ground. Mixed with the sudden layer of ice that encased his hands and feet, everyone know had a free shot at an angry and exposed Juggernaut thanks to the combined tactics of everyone.
Hope stops firing for the moment and simply keeps her gun trained on Juggernaut. Shooting him will disrupt what Bobby is trying to do. "Not what I meant," she says Rogue's way. "Who did you get the flight and strength from? I can't copy it."
Okay, if the helmet's gone, who's going to zap Juggernaut's mind? That's the thought going through Hope's mind. There are no telepaths within range for her to mimic.
Aerial sighs and flings the helmet away, snapping the magnet's string too. Well, Juggernaut's still not gonna be down this easy. Plan C, held in reserve due to the danger, but free shot? Maybe worth trying. She just flies up and slaps the duct-tape-bearing palm of her hand onto the small of his back where she should remain out of reach of his arms, to start hauling him up again. "Can't lift! Break ice from ground!"
Rogue lands on the incapacitated Juggernaut's back and starts to go right for his mind! With her fists... Straddling his big meaty neck the girl with the brown and white hair starts to punch the back of Juggernaut's head, taunting him with mocking words about being frozen to the ground. She was being rather violent about it, not holding anything back as she just kept pummeling the big guy, much like she had before, but this time she seemed completely sane... almost like she was just having a good time playing a game.
Since Juggernaut went down and they have no telepaths, Iceman gets an idea. "Rogue keep on him! Aerial, get ready to pull her off! Hope!" he moves in closer. "Drop Rogue's set and copy me. Freeze him down!" he calls, starting to form up extra thick ice around Juggernaut's arms and legs. "Rogue, get ready to pull back!" he calls, ready to turn up the ice as soon as Rogue's out of the line of fire.
Juggernaught glared daggers at all of them as the ice crackled a little. Then the pummeling started. First it was a piece of tape to the Juggernaut's back followed by Rogue. Her first wailed away at an exposed head eventually knocking him off. Aerial had troubles lifting him up with the two of them being waited down. A second after that Iceman's command came back the ice is cranked now further encasing the big knocked out target. Sadly, Aerial was now anchored down. Apparently, this was one of the many ways Juggernaut could have been taken down.
Hope nods to Iceman as she drops Rogue's set and takes on his. As she does, her body is covered in a sheath of snow, like Iceman used to do when he first started out in the X-Men. Organic ice is something that doesn't come on the first try. But she does help him double down on freezing Juggernaut, once she puts her gun away.
Aerial wriggles her hand free of her glove - there's a string in there connecting the glove to the rest of her suit, too! She retreats upwards in the face of the advancing ice to avoid getting caught inside it, but she can't pull against it. "Well this is a mess. But I got him. I can haul him wherever you want as soon as he's iced over and loose from the ground."
"Hmph. They always fall asleep before I'm done." Rogue said in a pouty voice before she jumped up to her feet and stood on the back of Juggernaut's neck. She glanced around at what the others were doing and then flew off again and came to land on the ground, arms swaying at her sides as she smiled nice and big and lifted her hands up to stroke her white bangs back out of her eyes.
Once Rogue and Aerial are out of the way, Bobby turns up his output. With Hope's help its a little easier and the Iceman focuses on encasing Juggernaut in solid ice so he can't move at all. "It's a simulation, once it ends he disappears."
As the ice continued to pour on Juggernaut he was becoming cacooned. Eventually the imagery around them started to flicker like a television screen that had difficulty reading a signal source. They were now alone in the room. There was a giant ice caccoon where Juggernaut had once been. It was empty. The only objects in the room, besides themselves, were the bits of ice from Bobby and a few singe marks where Hope's weapon had connected.
Chiming in from the control room was Logan, "Good job. We're workin' off the presumption that magnets would work on his armor, ain't sure if they will. STill, good job. There's ways of takin' him down it's findin' the right combo. Other things can help n' hinder ya on the field, learn that if ya don't know it already. Hit the showers gang."
Hope breathes deeply once the scenario ends. Fortunately, the snow form is nice and cool, she'd lost that overheated feeling that way. "Thanks fir the idea," she says to Bobby. She then walks over toward Rogue. "I was serious before, though. I went in thinking that since we're all mutants, I can mimic anyone's powers that we send against him. I can't copy your strength or flight though." She sighs and turns to leave, to grab something to eat. "I'm just glad I figured that out in a practice and not in a real fight. Can anyone give me a lift to Bludhaven later?" she asks as she's about to walk out the door.
Aerial raises a hand. "I've been... avoiding using much force since the bus incident, but... how much punishment can he take exactly? If I cut loose with a kinetic impact? Would it even be useful against him? Should I be doing that instead of trying to tag him out with my power?"
Rogue just watched the ice lump on the ground and she smiled when he vanished inside of it. "Technology." She glaned around the interior of the danger room. "I wonder if this can e used for porn." She idly said to no one in particular before Hope approached her and she shrugged her shoulders lightly. "Don't quite remember where those came from, sorry. They stuck around though, so I guess they liked me Just about all the others fade out after awhile." She told her, skirting the actual answer as she wasn't really into talking about that part of her life. Rogue walked toward Bobby with a grin then. "Did that seem a lot easier than last time to you too?" She asked him.
Landing, Bobby makes sure the students are out of earshot before grinning to Rogue. "Oh yeah, it can be. You should see some of what I found out Kitty programmed in," he says, grinning. He nods to the question though. "Well, we didn't have to worry about defendin' the Professor..and we knew he was comin' this time. And we know what he can do..."