The next day I led the other Young Avengers through the subbasement of the X-Mansion to the danger room. Some of the other X-Men(X-23, Marvel Girl, Iceman) were finishing up. "We coulda used you out there," Iceman told me as he came out of the danger room. Normally I trained with the three.
"I was able to tell," I commented. The Young Avengers and I walked down into the danger room. "Okay Rachel, start us up," I yelled up to Rachel who was setting up the scenario for us. Instantly the danger room transformed into a dessert that appeared to be on an alien planet.
"What now?" Hulkling asked. I didn't have to answer his question because hundreds of small aliens tunneled out of the ground. They looked like mutated hermit crabs. They started jumping on us, trying to bite us. Patriot knocked them away with his shield, Speed started running, Wiccan shot a lightning bolt at a group of them, Stature grew, Hawkeye started shooting the creatures with arrows, Hulkling and I went old fashioned and started beating on them. We continued our fight against the creatures until all the creatures were finally demolished.
"Okay guys, you're doing great. Now instead of fighting a bunch of smaller enemies you'll fight one larger enemy," Rachel directed us.
"Yeah, we've done this stuff before. How'a this supposed to be training?" Patriot asked.
"You guys are inexperienced. This is how you'll get experience," Rachel explained. Then the "larger enemy" stomped down towards us.
"Uh-oh," Wiccan muttered.
"What's the plan?" Stature asked.
"Combine our strengths to attack it," Hawkeye answered in an unsure voice.
"Hawkeye, I know you're the leader here but I think it'd be best if I take control for the moment. Wiccan, get ready to shoot some lightning. Vision, use one of your heat wave things. Hulkling, Patriot, I'm gonna throw you guys at it then I'll follow up. Stature, shrink small enough for me to hold you. You're gonna get inside that thing's head and annoy it so Speed can trip it and Hawkeye can- Crap!" the monster threw a rock at us but missed, luckily.
We started to get the plan. I didn't get a chance to give Hawkeye any instruction but she knew what do, shoot thing damn thing with an arrow. Vision and Wiccan started blasting the monster but it opened its own mouth and blasted back, Wiccan moved out of the way and Vision let the attack phase through him. I threw Hulkling, then Patriot at the monster then I took a running start and jumped onto it. Hulkling and Patriot attempted to find a weak point while I ran up its arm and stuck Stature in its ear. The monster flicked myself, Patriot, and Hulkling off with relative ease. "Ow," I muttered. The monster got ready to stomp the 3 of us. Hawkeye shot an arrow at it and got it in one of its stumbled back without stepping on us.
"You guys owe me," Hawkeye yelled over to us. I shot a load of webbing into the creature's face. Then I noticed Stature emerge from the ear she entered, she jumped off of the creature's shoulder and grew to the height of the monster and punched it hard in the face. It was still stumbling around.
"Let's finish it off now!" Hawkeye yelled. Hulkling had grown wings so I didn't have to throw him. He flew over himself. I threw Patriot then catapulted myself towars it using 2 weblines. Hawkeye shot an arrow and hit in the eye, the arrow exploded on contact, ouch. Wiccan and Vision were blasting the creature from above. Speed and Stature had fallen back. I shot another load of webbing into its eye when I landed on its face. It toppled over, unconcsious we presumed.
"Okay guys. You're done for now," Rachel's voice came over the intercom. We started to head towards the where the stairs was(for some reason the simulation was still on but the stairs were stimulated as stone now). Suddenly lava eruptions and earthquakes started happening all around us. In a matter of seconds we were on small island of land in an ocean of red hot lava.
"Real funny Rachel," I called over. Stature grabbed onto Hulkling who flew her towards the exit, Patriot and Speed grabbed the end of Wiccan's staff. Vision started flying out. "Hold on tight," I told Hawkeye. I started jumping rock to rock towards the exit. One of the rocks I was about to jump toward fell into the lava. I jumped to another and met up with the others on the land near the stairs. Out of nowhere a wave of lava erupted and was heading towards us. On top of that the stairs collapsed, trapping us.
"Wiccan..." Hawkeye started.
"Right. Everyone get close,"Wiccan told us. We huddled together as the lava approached faster and faster. "Iwanttobesomewherelse. Iwanttobesomewhereelse. Iwanttobesomewhereelse. Iwanttobesomewhereelse." Wiccan chanted and right before we were toasted we all teleported out of the danger room and back to the control room.
"That wasn't funny Rachel," I panted to her.
"I thought it was," Rachel chuckled, "Plus, you guys needed to get used to thinking on your feet."
---A few hours later...---
"Cassie looks at you kind of a weird," Kitty pointed out while we were watching tv.
"Oh. Didn't notice," I replied.
"You're not cheating on me, are you?" Kitty asked.
"What? No! No!" I nearly jumped at the suggestion of me cheating. I didn't even think she'd suggest that.
"Then why's she stare at you like there's something between you two? Something like what we had. And yes I mean had," Kitty continued to accuse me.
I sighed, "She has a crush on me or something I think. There's nothing between us. It's no big deal. "
Kitty stared in at me in shock. "'No big deal'? She likes you! And you're taken! That's a big deal. You're leading her on, that is if you're even telling the truth about 'nothing' being between you two," Kitty seemed really mad at me now.
"I'm not lying. She knows I'm with you. I know I'm with you. I'd never cheat on you Kitty," I argued getting frustrated.
"Tell her to stop," Kitty practiclly ordered me.
"I don't wanna hurt her feelings. We're friends, and we're teammates," I felt crazy at this point.
"Well I'm you're girlfriend and teammate," Kitty shot back at me.
"But-" I started.
"Forget it! Forget it!" Kitty got up and stormed upstairs.
"Kitty!" I went after her.
"Asshole!" she yelled at me.
"Come on..."
"Asshole!" She walked through the door of her room and I stupidly tried to follow and hit my face on the door. I sighed.
Kitty and I had never fought before, we've had our fair share of disagreements but no actual fights. Kitty was more understanding before but now she was getting difficult to talk with. I sat on the roof of the mansion, I didn't really feel like talking to anyone, I just wanted to sit and get my thoughts together. "Did she break up with me?" I thought to myself.
---The next morning...---
I knocked on Kitty's door, "Kitty! Kitty, come on. We'll have to talk eventually."
Then I noticed a note on the ground that slipped under the door. It said "No we don't."
"Funny," I muttered. I ran down the hall and grabbed a pencil from my room and wrote "We should. I care about you, more than you could imagine. I just don't wanna hurt Cassie's feelings. We're on the same team and we just got the whole teamwork thing going good. There's NOTHING between us." I slipped the note back under the door and waited.
Kitty wrote, "I know. I just don't want to lose you. You mean everything to me."
I wrote down, "I don't want to lose you either. I love you." Instead of writing back she opened the door.
"I love you too," Kitty wrapped her arms around me and kissed me.
