Aaand, Chapter 9. In this Chapter (and the last one, actually,) I've used some Hindi. I don't actually speak a word of it, so please excuse any mistakes. If there's anyone out there who wants to correct the one or two Hindi words/sentences in the Chapter, please don't hesitate to PM me. :-). I hope y'all enjoy this action-packed chapter! I've got educational commitments coming up from next week onwards so I won't be able to update as frequently, but don't worry; I will update, just maybe not 3 chapters in 3 days, y'know? ;). Thanks for the kind comments!
Note: Cursing and violence in this chapter.
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"Useless bastards wasting my time," Noriko gruffled to herself. "They won't survive two seconds without me. They need me. I'll prove to them that they do."
The girl meandered through the uneven cars, and stomped as she did so, taking the liberty to punch the occasional un-alarmed vehicle that she passed.
"Ben thinks he can lead. Pfft," she hissed again, spitting on the ground as she continued marching through the paths. The sky hadn't changed from its color, and the sun cried tears of crimson clouds as the indignant mutant marched beneath. She could smell the coppery essence of petroleum in the air, as well as waves of burning rubber and wet tarmac. Noriko's feet walloped into the floor as she stomped, and her knees raised with might as she slammed her feet down upon the tar with every step.
"First Mark, then Paras, Victor, Ben and Megan. They're all useless. We were supposed to be a team!" she muttered under her breath, advancing through the hazy paths. "I'm the only one talking any sense around here. Ben couldn't lead a toddler - he's useless. Useless. Utterly useless."
Noriko's rage was almost radiant from her body, and it intensified as the girl's heavy breathing welcomed in wafts of metallurgic air. Even her hair had been tousled by the greasy humidity, and Noriko indignantly swiped her fringe from her face at uneven intervals. The teenager's hair shone an aqua - almost zaffre - chroma, and was enshrouded by the amaranth haze that crept around her. But her hair wasn't always blue; the pigment was altered by her powers, which stored motes of electro-particles inside the pigmentation and permanently dyed her hair a thick and watery indigo. She abhorred it at first, but soon it became a part of her self-definition, and Noriko experienced a gradual shift in her opinion, until her disapproval had dissipated and was replaced by an unforeseen fondness.
But she was far from feeling any kind of fondness for anything in her current state. Her group had separated and she was alone – the only one, as far as she was concerned, ready to cut down the enemies, and prove to McCoy that she was still the most formidable mutant of the student-body. Everything was on her. So she felt.
As Noriko continued on, she began to verge to the left and found herself at the foot of the left bank, which crumbled its contents onto the boarder of the tarmac below. Peering over her shoulder, the mutant could see nothing but the car park that she had already trudged through, and the right bank directly opposite her. If she saw another car, or another bank, Noriko thought she'd go crazy as the monotonous atmosphere began to close in on her. She was unable to see what was over the bank in front of her, but Noriko decided to climb it and escape the eerie host of vehicles behind her.
Her confidence in her formidability was uplifted as she quickly reached the top before peering over the other side.
As her eyes spread across the new environment, Noriko's countenance dropped with dread as her clearance of the bank introduced her to the now un-concealed view of another car park, and another bank at the other side – a replica of the environment she was already trapped in. Her mind traced the view and Nori felt a pang of claustrophobia hit the back of her mind, and with a growl, she shook her fist in the air. "Thanks Beast! You really showed me! These never ending car parks aren't getting old at all."
The teenager cussed to herself. She wasn't going to get out until she had killed all of those mysterious old men, and for some reason, they were nowhere to be seen, and Noriko subdued the agitation that was fueled by her helplessness. Beating the simulation was out of her control and Noriko detested that; she hated that winning was something she couldn't have in the bag right now and at the comfort of her own leisure. She hated not being in control.
The student turned around to scale back down the slope. Her brain automatically began thinking of tactics to find and eliminate her opponents, but when suddenly she felt a crack in her spine, she tumbled down the unfamiliar side of the slope with a roar.
Tumbling, turning and rolling, her eyes met the tarmac of the new car park as her temples walloped into the karst-like gravel beneath her. Momentarily winded, and deprived of her vision, Noriko took a moment to gather herself before she wobbled to her feet despite the muscular cries from her back.
"What the fuck?" she gnarled to herself, as she peered down and picked up a cracked, yet substantial log from her feet. "Someone threw thi — Who the fuck threw this at me?"
She was met with no reply, and the impaired mutant stoically climbed back up the slope and peered over the original car park, seeking out the culprit.
"Victor, was this you?" she shouted, waving the log in front of her face. "Come out and fight me like a man!"
She expected to see her classmate expose himself and attack her with vengeance over her previous remarks, but her words were ripped from her lips as from behind a grouping of cars, rose six cloaked figures, each of them pointing at her with looped sleeves drooping below their whitened wrists and crooked, long fingernails. Noriko gulped; it was them. She wasn't at her strongest and a part of her begged to flee back down the slope. But Noriko remained obdurate, and failed to back-down.
Each figure raised a hand in unison, and from the floor beneath them, rose countless pieces of debris: tyres, pipes, handles, wheels, everything that had been disassembled from any broken down vehicle.
The electric mutant smiled – winning was finally within her grasp again, and this was the moment she needed to win the game and remind everyone that she's a force to be reckoned with. Ben and Victor had treated her with such disrespect and this was exactly what she needed to teach them a lesson: She was Noriko Ashida, and nobody should ever challenge her.
"You want a fight?" she shouted, charging herself in preparation. "Then I'll give you a fight."
In perfect sync, the pieces of debris were catapulted at Noriko and the girl flipped away, as they twirled in the air with a rubbery grumble.
With renewed zeal, the mutant shot a beam, and it burst through the air with a magnificent glow. The hooded men flicked their wrists, and the scattered pieces of catapulted debris suddenly crunched together, and formed one large rubbery mass of utter destruction. Her beam struck the ominous clutter-ball of debris, but died as the rubber of the tires absorbed its power.
"Shit."
Noriko dashed out of the way as the ball crashed into the soil of the bank and knocked her to her feet. The components burst from their unit upon impact, and jagged shards of metallic steel came storming upon Noriko, slicing her skin with an unruly lick of their blades over her arms, body and legs. Refusing to even groan, Noriko wobbled to her feet again, but as another parade of debris came swirling through the air in her direction, the mutant resigned herself to elimination.
She closed her eyes; no dash or leap would save her from the impeding pipes and tires that whistled and groaned through the air. And in her last moment, Noriko could only think of an alternative method to teach Ben and Victor a lesson for disrespecting her; they needed her after all, and she couldn't let them know that she had fallen on her own, after walking away. With a deep breath, and the sour smell of the coppery pipes and marsh mellowed rubber within her olfactory distance, the girl felt a gush of wind dance past her face before an uneasy silence befell her ambience.
Was it over? Was she back in the observation deck? Why couldn't she hear McCoy, Laurie or Paras? With a reluctant opening of her eyes, her sight was met by the back of someone's head; she took a minute to see who it was, and upon a closer inspection, she realized who it was.
Mark Sheppard.
A flat, plasma-like force-field had sustained the impact of the blow and Mark's arms shuddered as he struggled to keep it alive. His ears were covered by his headphones, and Noriko shook away her disbelief.
"A sight for sore eyes," she commented, belying her wish to scream pleasantries at the boy.
"Can't hear you," he replied, tilting his head slightly to view her before turning his attention back to the enemies at hand. "They're distracted. Attack them."
Without a further prompt, Noriko dashed from behind the force-field and shot a generous beam of electricity towards the furthest right of the cloaked men. The figure was launched from the bonnet it stood on, and catapulted away from its comrades without as much as a grunt.
Noriko questioned the credibility of her vision as her target disappeared into a wisp of black smoke and was replaced entirely by the air around it.
The other four figures turned their attention to the girl, and Mark took his cue. The men launched more elevated pieces of debris and Noriko evaded each one with a skillful side-step and roll. As she danced from the path of each jagged chunk of metal, Noriko was snagged in the arm, and the mutant was reminded of the throbbing pain in her spine, as well as the glistening cuts over her body that leeched at her energy; she fell to her knees with a grunt, and was winded by a sudden chunk of metal that collided with her abdomen.
After a subtle click on his I-pod, Mark's hands began to glow with a magnificent yellow shine, and Noriko recalled watching three neon-yellow beams dazzle through the air. Only one was accurate, and the target whistled away into smoke similar to its comrade, and Mark cheered as he realized that there were only three left.
The remaining figures dropped their hands and lowered themselves back behind the cars; Mark knew that they this was their respite and that they would be back soon, but he didn't care. There were three now, and the whopping majority belonged to him and his classmates – for now, and with Noriko on his side, his confidence whispered words of encouragement in his ear. The blue shine in his peripheral vision directed him to Noriko as she writhed on the floor with her arms wrapped around the countless wounds on her body.
Running to her, he knelt down and elevated her head.
"They got you good Nor-Nor," he said with a smile, putting pressure on the simulated wound on her arm. "Where does it hurt the most?"
"Everywhere. And call me Nor-Nor again and I'll break you in two."
Mark chuckled. He rarely crossed Noriko.
"You think you can carry on?" he asked, convincing his hope to fight against the tainted doubt. "Can you stand up?"
"Why did they turn to smoke?" Nori digressed, coughing as she felt the real – yet unreal – pain pump through her body. At least she had experienced it though, unlike Victor. At least she was prepared. At least she was trained for this. Stubborn till the end.
"That means they're gone," Mark replied. "It means the DR recognizes that they've been killed in the simulation. The same thing happens to us, it's why Paras disappeared after the explosion."
Noriko raised an eyebrow. She suddenly questioned how Mark would know of that particular event, and despite the pain that pecked at her nerves, Noriko could still think clearly as she eyed Mark suspiciously before she blessed him with her reply.
"How did you know about the explosion?"
Mark smiled with a devious grin before chuckling to himself and taking a lackadaisical breath of smoky air. "You look like you just caught me out on a murder or something. I watched the explosion myself. How else would I know?"
Noriko's lip curled. "And you didn't come to help us? We could've used you!"
"You all seemed to have it under control, so I just took a step back."
"Mc. Coy is going to cut your balls off for that one – he hates when people breach comradery."
"Oh whatever," Mark yawned. "I haven't been in the DR in ages, I just thought I'd have a little fun with it."
"Great for some of us," she coughed back, feeling the pain envelop her body. Mark assessed the wound on her back from her earlier tumble and he hypothesized that had the simulation been real, Noriko would have had a cracked spine.
"I'm surprised you were able to do all that dodging with a bang like that. Noriko's feistier than I thought," commented Mark with a wink.
"Save it – ugh." The blue haired mutant croaked as the pain suddenly supplanted her words, and Noriko felt a stinging pang of pain waddle up her insides. "Gaah, shit. I forgot how much this – gaah – hurts."
Mark watched helplessly as the girl succumbed to the pain. "Shit. Ugh, if you see Victor, do me a favor and punch him? Paah!"
Mark smiled faintly. "It's gonna be hard to win this without you. I've taken out five on my own now, but it this would be a smoother ride with you here."
"Quit rubbing it in," Noriko panted. "Fuck! Just don't lose this game. We need to – Ah - win."
Mark could relate to her determination, and hummed a laugh. "Couldn't agree more. See ya on the other side.. Nor-Nor."
Her face frowned and Mark could tell that had she had a minute – second – longer, she would have chided him for the usage of the nickname. She had failed her hopes of proving a point, and Noriko grunted with anger as the thought of Megan and Ben winning the simulation jeered her indignation. The angrier she felt, the more the pain intensified and Noriko could feel her strength ebb away; the cuts on her body combined with the unmerciful throbbing in her spine zapped the remnants of her energy and soon enough, Noriko could barely sustain the ability to remain angry. Her eyes flicked away, and similarly to the elimination of the hooded figures, Noriko vanished and Mark was left alone.
"Three of them; Four of us. We have a chance," Mark whispered to himself, before departing in search of the other three.
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Hours had past, so it felt, for Ben and Megan and in that time, much had changed. As Megan was in the sky, she spotted Mark weaving between the paths of the car park. After exchanging pleasantries – and some questions to why Mark left the group at the beginning of the simulation – the trio marched through the car park as per usual, in search of the remaining enemies.
Mark had filled them in on the happenings of when he was alone, and when he rendezvoused briefly with the now-eliminated Noriko. Ben and Megan couldn't help but laugh at the fact the girl had been eliminated after an odious declaration of her independence and dismissal of needing to be in a group setting thereafter. Ben mused that had she remained with them, she'd still be in the game.
The Pixie and the Match too apprised Mark of Paras's early demise; Noriko' exit, and Victor's confliction with Ben himself and Noriko. Mark seemed unfazed that Victor was new to the Danger Room, and reminded the duo that the reptile was a formidable fighter, and that age did not render him incapable; Megan's surprise over Mark's defense of Victor was short-lived, as he soon asked her and Ben to never let Victor know that he had said that.
On lighter terms, the group advanced onwards, feeling safer in the company of each other. Ben and Megan had not seen any of the masked men since the beginning of the simulation and by the time Mark had found them, they almost wanted to see the enemies, just for a change of atmosphere – well, in Ben's case anyway. As they progressed, the group's conversation had whittled to a mere remark here and there, or a nervous question from Megan. Ben's mind, however, was heavy with something else and he spoke aloud, finally breaking the mould.
"Just thoughta somethin'," he said, his gaze directed at the floor.
"Shoot," Mark quipped.
"Megan'nd I were confused t'why those mystery men weren't attackin' us when it was just th'two've us. It makes sense nai that that was because they were preoccupied dealin' with you."
Mark stuck his chest out proudly before speaking. "While you guys were marching around this place like headless chickens, I managed to knock out five of those freaks on my one. Well, four of them on my own and one with Noriko. I really am that great," he said with a grin, "but why? What's up?"
Ben punched his shoulder light-heartedly and continued. "Everyone is together, 'cept fer Victor."
"Aaand?"
"What if th'reason they haven't shown their faces – or not faces, 'chever you want – is somethin' to do with Victor preoccupyin' them."
Megan's giggle was replaced by Mark's words and the mutant spoke with dismissive clarity. "So you're saying that Vicky's replaced me as mercenary rogue?" He chuckled with his hands over this stomach. "That kid cracks me up. His first time in the Danger Room, and he's already playing the lone-wolf."
Megan laughed. "You were the one who said he's not incapable!"
"I neeever said that?" Mark drawled back, with a grin. "No idea what you're talking about."
"Oh riight," Megan replied, tapping her nose. "I'm getting the hang of your jokes now."
"Took you three years," Mark laughed.
"Felt liek three thousand," Ben interjected.
"Hey! I'm just a slow learner!"
"Slow being the stressed word of that sentence."
Megan gently tackled Mark and she and Ben exchanged a humorous look. As Ben listened to Mark's light-hearted jokes at Megan's expense, he realized that it had been weeks since he was last alone with them. Being pre-occupied with school as well as dealing with Laurie-related problems, had pushed him from his group of friends, and Ben sighed as he hoped that they would have moments like this in the future.
Mark and Megan continued to joke back and forward for the next hour and the trio almost forgot that they were even in the Danger Room. It had been the most slow-paced simulation that Ben had ever been part of and he attributed their easiness to this fact.
But as they advanced on, their humor began to shrink as the anticipation dropped toxins of contrary uneasiness into their systems. As they verged to the right bank, a palpable silence hanged over them, and Ben mused that something suddenly wasn't right.
From the other side of the bank, came a shrill shriek and an obvious intake of air that caused Ben and Mark to look at each other before they both leapt for the slope.
However, as their feet met the squishy soil of the bank, both boys were blocked by an intravenous Megan, who threw herself in front of their paths and spread her arms out wide.
"Wait!" she admonished, taking a breath to make herself look larger and more confident. "Let me check it out first. I can fly, remember? Once you two are over there, you could be sitting ducks.. Not that you look like ducks or anyth—"
"We're goin' Megan," Ben chided.
"Please just listen to me. Whatever's over there, it doesn't sound safe. I can check it from above and give you the all-clear."
"Sounds pretty safe," Mark said, glancing at Ben who was having none of it.
"Ah said it to Noriko, 'nd Ah'll say it t'you too. We don't risk teammates over a possibility."
"But you'll risk yourself?" she asked. "Please Ben, let me prove that I can do this."
Mark nodded with assurance, and Ben sighed, reluctantly agreeing the girl's request, although making no efforts to hide his malcontent.
"Be careful, 'nd come right back," he advised with a frown. Megan nodded and her wings fluttered as she ascended into the sky. She glided over the bank and disappeared below its hump, and into the commotion below.
Ben and Mark waited nervously for her return, and to their relief, the pixie came fluttering back to their side of the bank moments later; her ease, however, misrepresented by the paleness of her face.
"Tis'it, Megan?" Ben asked, placing two hands on her shoulders. "What did y'see?"
"It's Victor. He's over there. He.. he took out two of those bad guys," she babbled.
"That's good?" Mark noted, "Why do you look like a phantom sat on your face?"
After receiving a warning glare from Ben, Mark hushed and Megan continued. "His arm. It's.. It's different."
"Whose arm?" Ben asked. "C'mon Megan, help us out."
"Victor's. It's.. It's.. all spiky and lumpy. It's changed.. It's huge."
"She's not making any sense," Mark sighed. "We need to go over."
"Ah told'ye this was a bad idea!" Ben snapped, pinching the bridge of his nose
"Okay, jeez, chill out! How was I supposed to know Victor would go all horny? Let's just go over and help him out and see what's happening," Mark pacified with a smile. "Megan, you wait here."
"I.. I can't go back over there. It's too scary. Victor's too scary," she babbled back, hands shaking.
"I know, that's why you're going to stay here," Mark reiterated, shaking her shoulders slightly. "We'll be right back. Take a pill, ok?"
Ben punched Mark's arm again. "S'no time fer jokes," he stopped and pushed Mark from Megan's view before addressing the girl himself. "We'll be back in no taim Meg. Stay here'nd stay calm."
"Let's stop wasting time then!" Mark groaned, turning towards the bank and leaping for it. "See ya at the top!"
Ben was in close pursuit, but smiled with assurance at Megan before climbing the slope. The pixie remained in her stance, bothered by the deformation of her classmate, and she wrapped her arms around herself with a shiver before soothingly stroaking her arms with her hands.
"Don't leave me for too long," she whispered, "I hate being alone."
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As Ben and Mark popped over the hump of the bank, their eyes fell upon a landscape that mimicked the destruction that the explosion at the beginning of the simulation had created. Black smoke twirled and danced in ringlets over a gathering of vehicles in the new car park, and standing on one of them, was a slouching Victor Borkowski. Opposite him, was the remaining cloaked person and the boys watched as the reptile leapt and evaded each telekinetic strike from the enemy.
"H'needs our help," Ben stated, taking a step forward, only to be halted by his friend.
"Wait," Mark cawed. "There's no point in both of us charging at him. You go to Victor and I'll find a different way down."
"What d'ya have in mind?"
"A way of insuring your ass, just listen to me and go," he insisted. With a nod, Ben charged down the bank and rushed to Victor's aid. And with Ben as his distraction, Mark absconded across the slope and blocked himself behind an array of vehicles that sat at the bottom of the slope, away from the battle.
As Ben neared his teammate, he could see the source of Megan's shock; his right arm had been completely mutilated, and not by injury.
Victor's wrists were dotted with stocky lumps and horns, that became longer and thicker as they traveled up to his shoulder. The boy's arm was now the thickness and width of his own lithe body, and Ben watched in awe as he flipped and twirled around the enemy's attack, utterly unimpaired by the additional weight to his right.
Dragging himself back to his environment, Ben faced Victor, and addressed him.
"Victor, S'Ben. Ah'm here t'help ya," he shouted, as Victor twirled in the air and avoided a catapulted metallic pipe. He looked over his shoulder at Ben, nodded, and continued in his endeavors.
Ben had to continually stop himself from marveling in awe of Victor's smooth corkscrew turns and swan dive-like descents, and the mutant's mouth dropped as the reptilian whistled through the air and landed posture-perfectly on the roof of a different car. The remaining cloaked man appeared to be the strongest of his deceased comrades as he levitated multiple disassembled pieces of the vehicles and fired them at Victor.
The mutant held his own, but when a flaming tire narrowly grazed his shoulder, Victor fell with a husky grunt and Ben jumped to action.
The firey student hopped onto the roof of a car, with a thud. The opponent had finally noticed him, and as Ben placed his hands together amen-style and pointed the tips at the final cloaked figure before him, the enemy raised his arms into the air and suspended an army of jagged rocks and stones that had detached from a minor fissure in the car park.
A stalemate imbued their actions, and both sides waited for the other to move, neither wishing to be the first to attack.
"Do it!" Victor cried out, clutching to the burning skid mark across his arm. "Do it fast!"
Ben readied himself; he felt the churning of the embers in his stomach, and the lion-like roar of the flames surrounding his body. His blood rushed, the flames gushed, and Ben almost threw his chest into his arms as a spiral of fire magnificently growled with power and mass, as it pierced the air with a charred bellow.
From Victor's view, he could see the cloaked enemy smiling and his mind raced through the possible reasons for such a reaction. But his concerns were concluded as reminiscent of the masked figures' counter of Noriko's electricity, the enemy lifted a hand and halted the fire in its path.
Ben froze.
Victor gulped.
And the cloaked man smiled.
The stalemate rose from dormancy and both teenagers glanced at each other, the 'where do we go from here' dangling over them. Ben had one chance, and his timing needed to be impeccable; if he leapt too soon, it would be over, and if he leapt too late: it would be over too. He needed meticulous timing.
As Ben bent his legs, and broadened his shoulders, the masked man released the fire with a push of his arms, and it came spinning back towards its creator.
The teenager could handle fire, he was made of it after all, and a part of Ben hoped that his body could sustain such a plethora of the oxidant that he was made of. But he had never had exposure of this intensity before, and the student launched himself from his stance.
Suddenly, there was a call of Ben's name from above, and Ben's mind categorized it as an audible hallucination. But as the pillar of fire flew past him, and he realized that he had landed safely to the floor, he took a moment to look up and glance at the conundrum above.
"Ben, I've come to help!" declared Megan, fluttering in the sky.
He couldn't even react: Why would she have put herself in the middle of danger? His responsibility over her cried out, and Ben cawed as he helplessly watched the girl hover in the sky, resembling the sitting duck that she had prevented him from becoming.
But he had no time; he couldn't fly, and he could easily save her by eliminating the remaining enemy and ending the simulation. It was a risk, no doubt, and Ben groaned as he asked himself why Megan would be so careless.
The distance behind him boasted the twirling pillar of fire, and he watched it shrink as it advanced into the horizon. But after catching a smile from the antagonistic telepath, Ben's eyes popped open as the fire was wrapped in a telekinetic coat and directed back towards the car park.
A scream from above pinched Ben's attention again and he watched in horror as the pillar of fire engulfed the newly-arrived Megan before twirling down to scoop him up in its wrath also.
With Victor's screams in the background, Ben was whipped from his respite and was tossed and chucked around the mouth of the flames. He was thrown forward and pulled back by the wrath and his body became numb to the pain
At first, he felt a surge of life as the flames rejuvenated him, but as the gassy components filled Ben beyond his necessary capacity, the student felt inflated and overfilled. His legs expanded as a balloon with an excess of air, and his throat roasted its own bones. Painfully, he succumbed to the same oxidants that made up his very being and he vanished into a wisp of smoke, becoming the third victim of the telepath's manipulation.
Victor watched as Megan was instantly obliterated by the flames, and he had to shake himself when he was Ben succumb to a similar fate. Both were knocked out of the simulation before his eyes, and as far as he was concerned, he was the last one left.
The cloaked person turned back to him after marveling over the destruction of two more students, and pointed at him with its long fingernails. Victor growled in response.
"It's only you and I," he stated, preparing for another confrontation. The figure tilted his head up, careful not to reveal the contents under the hood before pointing his finger in a direction beyond Victor's.
"No," he whispered, pointing to a car to Victor's left. "We are not alone."
With a flick of its wrist, a scream was heard and from behind Victor, a commotion ensued; the reptilian flicked his head around, and was shocked at what he saw. Mark was levitated out from behind a car – wrapped under the might of the telepath's power, and he squirmed and yelled as the man abducted the teenager's kinetic right.
"You cannot trick me," he whispered.
Mark squealed and squirmed and kicked his legs viciously. "Let me down! Let me the hell down!"
In lieu of a response, the masked enemy raised Mark further into the air, and Victor cringed as he guessed that his classmate was about forty feet high, towering over the merciless gravel beneath. His headphones began to crack and Mark yelled as they imploded around his neck and rendered his powers useless.
"That better be simulation-exclusive or I'm so suing," Mark bit, his words sliding over the recipient's head.
"Surrender," implored the cloaked enemy. "You will be spared if you surrender."
"I'd rather die," he croaked back, as the psychic bonding around his body focused on his neck.
Victor watched helplessly as his teammate struggled before him. Timing was everything, and one slip up could be the end of both of them, and Victor couldn't go back to Beast with a failure behind his belt, especially if Noriko was there waiting for him. The reptilian's reflection in Mark's eyes quickly vanished into the surface, and Mark laughed roughly as he witnessed his friend's camouflage.
"You know what," Mark said to the figure. "I think I remember why I hate the Danger Room."
The figure said nothing, and instead tightened its grip on the student, emitting a cough from him.
"I always hated – agh - how real this shit felt."
"Surrender," the cloaked enemy reiterated.
Mark laughed. "No, buddy. You surrender."
And with that, Victor dashed from behind the foe, smashing an overgrown arm into his spine and knocking him away from his stance, as well as his advantage. "I warned you," Mark sighed, feigning concern.
The enshrouded enemy fell to the floor with a grunt, and Victor stomped a foot into his cloak as he tried to squirm away.
"You're not going anywhere."
The telekinetic force that restrained Mark was suddenly dropped and the student descended to the floor with a crash. With all of his attention on the enemy, Victor raised his arm one last time and embedded it into the back of the cloaked opponent's head, and with a gasp, it dissipated into smoke and Victor's foot met a flat reminiscent robe.
It was over. They had won, and Victor felt overwhelmed that he had finished an advanced level in the Danger Room on his first try. His arm felt unimpaired, despite its new appearance and Victor allowed his legs to fold as he rested on the floor.
From the corner of his eye, he could see smoke dance from behind the car where Mark had fallen and the mutant realized that his classmate hadn't survived the drop, and thus Victor was now truly, the only one left.
Paras, Noriko, Megan, Ben, Mark.. he watched them all – five experienced students in the Danger Room – fall before he did, and the student took a celebratory gasp of air as he tilted his head back and chuckled to himself.
The smoke from the burnt bonnets swirled around him, and the blood-red sky above wept its final crimson tear, as the boy fell to the floor with a snort.
"I did it," he cheered. "I am able to do this. I am capable."
He felt himself laugh uncontrollably and the mutant couldn't help but chortle at his success. He had risen, when everyone else had fallen, and the student slapped his hand onto the gravel as he uncontrollably guffawed to himself.
Noriko's insults, Ben's doubt: they both slid off Victor's chest as he celebrated his success, and the value of their words diminished to nothing more than mere caws of negativity. He didn't care what they thought; he had proven himself to himself, and he chuckled frenziedly as he realized this.
And as he soaked up the glory, a sudden mechanical moan emitted from around him, but he failed to allow it to interrupt his chuckling. The cars began to flicker and disappear; the sky sank into itself and the sun pixilated before it faded away. The gravel beneath him began to distort and the banks on either side crumbled to the floor. Had he blinked more than once, he would've missed most of the transformation. And after the last piece of debris was absorbed into the newly-exposed grey grids beneath, Victor realized that the simulation had ended, and he was back.
He continued to laugh uncontrollably, slapping his hands onto the floor as his stomach curled with mirth. He sucked in the air at any moment he could, and the convulsions of laughing hindered his ability to breathe freely. He thought of Noriko's face when she realized that he had won, or Ben's feeling of stupidity when he recognized that the person he had doubted had come to be the only one left in the simulation. But most of all, he guffawed at himself: The youngest, most inexperienced student in the group had come to trounce everyone else in their home ground. His reaction too, fueled his amusement as he realized that his self-confidence was the sword to his sheath, and he spat with mirth as he caught himself feeling as if he was in a corny movie where the protagonist begins to believe in him or herself after a cheesy epiphany. Every problem in his life seemed so trivial now, and the gleam in Victor's eyes belied nothing – belief in himself was everything, and this was something he had learned today.
Suddenly, the door from the side of the room swung open, and his five teammates, plus Laurie and came marching out.
"I'd need to see it to believe it," Noriko grunted, turning her head away from the reptile as Mark picked up the pieces.
"Well, well, well, look who won it after all?" Mark chuckled, fondling his headphones with delight after he realized that they were still in intact, "looks like I have some competition in the Danger Room!"
Paras burst from the group with a smile that lit up the room, and he fell to his knees beside Victor with an ecstatic expression on his face.
"Mujhe tum par naaz hai, Victor. I knew you could do it," Paras exclaimed, wrapping his arms around the teenager. "You've proved that just because you're less experienced than us, doesn't mean that you're weaker. You're as durable as any of us are."
"Get a room!" Mark chanted with a chuckle.
"I'm afraid I must interject," interrupted with a frown. "I wish to speak with all of you over your.. methods. I'm afraid I am uneasy about some of your tactics." He beckoned everyone back up to his office, and signaled for them to seat themselves at the same table the gathered at upon arrival; the group assembled around it, and sat themselves down, with Victor's chuckling continuing under his breath.
"Now is the time to tell you that this was a test," Beast started, intertwining his fingers across the table amongst the horrified expressions of the students.
"You're joking, right?" Mark asked.
"No. All of you have been graded based on your performances and they shall affect your average."
"If I knew that," Mark hissed, "I would've played safer! Why didn't you tell us?"
Beast sighed, and looked at Mark from over the small rectangles of his glasses. "Because, Mr. Sheppard," he said straightly, "I wanted to see how you'd perform without an outside factor, such as a grade, influencing your choices."
The students' mouths dropped – with the exception of Victor - and each of them back-tracked in their minds to analyze any possible mistakes they made.
"And I can tell you," Beast said with a sigh, "that all of you failed."
And at once, Paras, Noriko, Megan, Ben and Mark yelped in perfect unison.
"How did we fail?" Noriko asked with a frantic grunt.
"You, Ms. Ashida, failed with a minus – the lowest of everyone. You practiced the exact behavior that we discourage, you defied the teamwork that Xavier's promotes and you tried to end a comrades life for selfish reasons."
"But that wasn't real life!" Noriko claimed. "You think I'd do that if it was real?"
"I cannot ascertain. Would you?"
"Of course not!" she rebuked, slamming a hand on the desk. Beast nodded skeptically.
"And Ben," He continued. "From what I watched, it was youridea to end Victor in his suffering. Does this reflect something you would do in reality? Would you end a friend's life when you could help them instead?"
"Well, no, Ah wouldn't?"
"Your actions do not match your words, Mr. Hammil," said Beast, hiding his guilt as he scolded his students. "And Mr. Sheppard, why did you depart from your teammates at the beginning of the simulation?"
Mark scoffed. "Because I knew I could take out those cloaked freaks faster on my own. And I did, didn't I? I killed.." He counted on his fingers as his mind traced over the events. "Five. I killed five of them by myself – that's over half, and yet you're failing me. Thanks doc."
Beast sighed. "Had you stuck with your team from the beginning and acted as you did, I would be granting you a B+."
"Why not an A+?" Mark asked with a frown.
"Because you still managed to get yourself killed, Mr. Sheppard. The purpose of the Danger Room is to prepare you for combat, not encourage you to run wild."
Before Mark could protest, he was interrupted by Paras, who spoke softly and evenly and in direct contrast to the others.
"And what of me, Mr. McCoy, what did I do to deserve a fail?"
"Paras," he groaned, exasperated with the rashness that he saw on the battlefield. "You managed to get yourself killed barely fifteen minutes into the simulation. Your role in the events were minor, to say the least and because of this, I had nothing to grade."
The violet student sank into his seat with a sigh, and Victor's hand rested on his shoulder.
"And me?" Megan asked. Beast looked up with a lightened frown and wiped a furry brow before speaking. "You were the closest to passing, Ms Gwynn,"
"She almost passed?" Noriko gasped. "Is this a joke? Megan Gwynn preformed better than I did? Are you writing a comedy sketch?"
"No," Beast admonished, his voice raising. "She is the only one who didn't suggest ending her teammate's life or straying from the group." His eyes wandered to Mark before pinning Noriko's countenance. "Ms. Gwynn still failed however, but simply at a more positive margin than the rest of you – call it an F+, if you will."
"Where did I go wrong?" asked the Pixie, frowning at Noriko's reaction. "Megan," Beast sighed. "You rely too much on others to protect you. You were also careless and rash, hence you managed to fly into the center of a tongue of flames."
Resigning herself to her faults, the girl plopped further into the seat with a drained moan.
"And why did Victor fail?" Noriko asked with a huff. "I thought he was the champion of us all."
"Victor failed on the same basis as you and Mr. Sheppard," said Beast matter-of-factly. "He left the group in a huff and failed to return."
"What about your arm?" Megan asked suddenly, her eyes dancing over his skin only to see it back to normal. "Why did your arm look like it had a lump of armor on it? It was huge." She shook as the memory of the scaly limb came flooding back to her.
Victor froze momentarily before smiling awkwardly. "Erm. You see, I."
"Spit it out," Noriko reprimanded.
"After the explosion of that car," he reminisced, "my arm was shattered badly. You wanted to finish me off because you just presumed I was inexperienced." The boy stopped, and his indignant green eyes flicked across from Noriko to Ben. "When I got away from you both, I found a broken piece of metal with a sharp end and I used it to cut off my arm."
Megan shrieked while Noriko, Mark and Laurie's faces dropped. "You did what?"
"I cut it off," he reiterated. "You see, with my powers, I can grow back limbs if I lose them, except, there's a side effect. It'll grow back stronger, and with more protection than it had before. I needed my arms to defend myself since I was on my own, so I just cut it off and it grew back perfectly – but just a little different looking."
Megan blinked at him with her face distorted, and Noriko broke the silence with a chuckle.
"Damn Victor, I'm impressed."
"Same," Mark added.
Megan shook herself. "So that.. that's why your arm looked all weird." She stopped and composed herself. "I mean, not weird! Just different – different is all. That's not bad, you know! It's just different, ooft, I already said that."
Victor smiled and shoved closer to Paras.
"It's okay Megan, thanks. Sorry for frightening you."
The girl smiled awkwardly before leaning backwards and Beast leaned forward again.
"Is there anything else you'd like to discuss or ask?"
The students remembered their grades, and their moods slipped back into the negative, and the teacher stood up.
"No? Then you are all excused. Please remember what you've learned today, as I hope such actions will be omitted next time."
The mutants huffed unenthusiastically before floundering out of the room. Noriko was first to stomp out and a more composed Ben held himself from doing the same as he departed behind her. Laurie, feeling detached from the negativity, slid out of the room without a word and Mark and Megan lackadaisically followed from behind.
Paras and Victor rose from their seats and after exchanging a smile, the two headed for the egress; Paras stepped out first, with Victor in close pursuit. But as the reptilian turned to close the door behind him, he was halted by the voice from inside, and he pressed his face back into the room.
"Mr Borkowski," Beast called, looking up from the table.
"Congratulations on holding your own."
Victor smiled. "Thank you sir, I appreciate it."
††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††
Oh, and any Beta-Readers out there? I'm still devoid.
Mujhe tum par naaz hai - I'm so proud of you.
