**A/N: Honestly, I'm nervous about how this chapter will be received considering it's just an earlier chapter retold from Lia's POV. Hopefully it will bring enough character development to be enjoyable still.
Legal Stuff:
X-Men, The Xavier Institute, Danger Room, and sentinel robots all remain the property of Marvel Comics. Chayse remains the intellectual property of the player who created him for our X-Future Play-by-post game.**
As the screen clicked into life Lia was surrounded by a post-apocalyptic war-torn city. The one-hundred-eighty-degree screen encased her in the terror of a world that they were trying to avoid, but, if Professor Kinney's childhood in the future was any indication, was closing in on them. A world that they could eventually live in, or their children would live in.
It was intense enough seeing the skeleton of a city draped around her; dust still attempting to settle in the abandoned streets. There wasn't any sunlight; it couldn't cut through the eternal dust cloud that hung in the air. Everything was much too dark and too quiet for this to have been a city. A sound stage for a movie, maybe, forgotten in the back of a studio lot; waiting to be refurbished into a tropical island oasis with a waterfall and monkeys.
The only thing keeping Lia from turning off the screen and blocking out the image was Chayse standing in front of her. He seemed so real. She stroked his shoulder, but only felt the cold, smooth texture of the screen. He cautiously moved through the streets, careful to avoid the scattered remains of the large, purple sentinels.
"Giant Robots of Death…" That's what Chayse had called them as he mumbled in his sleep; the only proof Lia had that he wasn't in a coma. Lia's heart hid deep in her throat just looking at the lifeless bodies of the sentinels. She feared that she'd be worse than useless if she ever had to encounter an active one.
As Chayse rounded a corner he finally came across the first of five victims he was tasked to rescue. The poor thing was cornered by the military. Chayse was able to distract them with some charged toothpicks. He always kept a box in the pocket of his trench coat; much like how his father always had a deck of cards on hand.
"Wow!" Lia said, "That was really resourceful." Her voice sank to meet her heart, and she hung her head. "I wish I could be that resourceful in battle. What could I do that is even close to making anything I see a possible improvised weapon?"
Chayse used more than just the toothpicks. He picked up the batons the soldiers had dropped in their battle, and he wielded them expertly. Once the soldiers were taken care of, and the victim ran off to safety, Chayse phased through a wall. He almost instantly saw the next two victims. They ran down the street in front of him, but as he turned to get their attention the ground shook.
Lumbering around the corner of the building was an intact, and active, sentinel. It towered high above them, and it's hand was easily large enough to grip them like an action figure. The whirring of its motor and joints was deafening, and it's glowing eyes helped Lia understand why deer freeze in headlights. She tried to swallow down the knot that grew in the back of her throat, but it kept getting stuck behind her heart still residing there.
"Pr-Professor Kinney used to deal with these every day?" Lia felt faint, and wobbled backwards until she found one of the captains chairs welded to the floor. "My parents- They fought these almost two decades ago?" It was a little comforting to know that it wasn't impossible to survive coming across these formidable man-made giants, but it was also hard to comprehend being able to do anything besides staring slackjawed at them.
It wasn't as hard for Chayse to figure out how to move his legs. He quickly ran in the way in order to protect the couple from being attacked by the sentinel. With a charged swing of one of the batons he picked up, Chayse was able to divert the energy blast from the massive robot. It was impressive how quickly he was able to react, but unfortunately it wasn't quite fast enough.
Lia gasped and ran back over to the screen as Chayse got tripped up by the sentinel's metal coil tentacles. Chayse didn't seem to attempt to get back out of the tentacle grip as it wrapped fully around him and dragged him back to the robot's hand. She was certain that this was it. This was how he ended up in the infirmary. It was this Giant Robot of Death. It was going to crush him in its massive hand.
She covered her eyes as the sentinel's fingers curled around Chayse, ready to squeeze and pop him like a ripe banana. Instead of Chayse screaming, or the sickening sound of bones breaking, she heard a loud fizzle. She had heard that noise once before. She was nine and forgot to take the fork out of her frozen meal after stirring the mashed potatoes. Jamie was not thrilled with the small microwave fire that followed twenty-seconds later.
Parting her fingers, Lia peeked at the screen. Chayse was gone, but the robot's arm was shooting out electrical sparks like the top of a bumper car. That was when Chayse phased out of the top of the sentinel's wrist. With a sprint, he was on the giant's shoulder, and dove straight for its head. A quick phase through, and he tumbled back out of the other side, rolling across the shoulder, before skidding to a stop on the edge of the shoulder pad.
The whole sentinel jerked and spasmed; starting with the hand Chayse was in, and then racing up its arm, shoulder, and finally the whole body. The automaton seized for a moment before finally shutting down and tumbling backwards. Gripping tightly to the sentinel's armor, Chayse rode the mechanical titan down to the ground. He hopped off just before impact, and somersaulted in the air. It would have been a fantastic landing if the robot's crash to the asphalt didn't cause a mini-earthquake; kicking up all the settled dust on the ground, as well as throwing Chayse off his feet.
Once the shock wore off, Lia jumped and screamed. She rambled off every cheer she remembered her middle school's cheerleaders chanting at the football games. Chayse was way more amazing than she realized. This only begged the question, If Chayse could survive this, what the heck sent him to the infirmary?
Chayse had no problem phasing his fourth victim out of a trapped car. With only one victim left, and not a scratch on the guy, Lia was wondering if maybe she wasn't watching the right footage. Maybe his mom wiped it from the records since he got banged up so bad.
Lia nervously watched as Chayse took out a few more sentinels on his way through the desolate streets. Now that he knew that he could take out the robots simply by phasing through them and disrupting their circuits, Chayse made easy work of each one. Finally, Chayse came across a man strapped to a chair in an abandoned building.
Chayse had detonated a sentinel by throwing charged gravel into its chestplate like baby hand grenades. The resulting shockwave threw him back against a wall, however. Luckily, he managed to phase at the last second, and slid to a stop inside the dusty building. That's when he noticed the poor guy bound and gagged.
Chase removed the ropes from the last victim, freeing him from the chair, and then waited for the session's hologram to shut off. Lia was now all but positive that she had the wrong footage. He had just rescued the last victim: mission over. How on earth could he have injured himself so much on his way out of the session?
Lia's question was instantly answered. The moment the last victim was freed he started to grow. Chayse turned just in time to watch the goal of his mission turn into a sentinel. There was still one true victim left to save, and Lia feared it was Chayse.
Three more sentinels crashed through the ceiling, and surrounded the Cajun. Lia forgot how to breathe or blink. All there was in the world was the screen, the orange streak in her hair that she played with, and her lower lip that she nearly bit through. She had no clue how he would get out of this. The idea of one sentinel sending Chayse to the infirmary was terrifying enough; she couldn't handle watching all four of them giving him a beat down.
He was quick on his feet, though, and managed to dodge their attacks. As Chayse scanned for an exit he caught sight of the real last victim: tied and gagged on the floor in a darkened corner of the room. Chayse flicked a charged needle at the victim's ropes, and they snapped free. With a quick nod of gratitude, the victim raced to safety.
Lia heaved every ounce of air that she had trapped in her lungs. Chayse had accomplished his mission. All that was left was to get away from the sentinels and he would have passed the session. She knew that his injuries were bound to happen, and she wasn't sure if she could watch much more before finding out what messed him up.
Chayse didn't seem intimidated by the situation. Now that he didn't have to worry about the last victim, he easily took one of the sentinels down. Making a quick escape, he phased through the back wall of the building, and waited for the other sentinels to come get him. As he stood on the other side of the wall, he twirled the second baton he had grabbed at the beginning of the session. As it spun faster and faster at his side, it began to glow the same intense neon-lime-green as his eyes.
"He's charging the baton? Does he even realize he's doing it?" Lia stilled. Her hands didn't even play with her hair. She froze completely as she watched Chayse take a Major League swing at one of the sentinels' arms. The kinetic energy that he had stored up in the baton erupted out of the impact, crushing the robot's arm like a soda can.
Lia again jumped and cheered, hooting out her excitement. "OMG! That was like the coolest thing I have ever seen! Go get 'em, Caj!"
As if he could hear her rooting him on, Chayse raced toward the mangled sentinel, lept onto its chest, and pierced it easily.
"Dude! He's totally got this!"
Chayse seemed just as confident; not worried whatsoever about the remaining sentinels. Then his face suddenly changed. Lia couldn't tell what happened, but something distracted him somehow. He wasn't even looking at the sentinels, and that was what did him in.
The transforming sentinel that was used as a victim decoy managed to sneak up on him. Chayse was able to evade it, but in doing so he forgot to keep an eye out for the last remaining robot. It burst through from behind a wall, and caught him completely off guard. He got wrapped up in the coil tentacles again, but before he could phase through anything they shocked him with a blast of electricity. The one-two punch was completed by the transforming sentinel shooting him from point-blank range with its energy beam.
Gasping and struggling to see the last of the footage through tears, Lia pressed herself against the screen. Charred, smoking, and collapsed, Chayse hung limp in the coils. The Danger Room's hologram flickered and disappeared. One of the DR's coil tentacles - the same ones Lia saw her own parents training with - gently lowered Chayse to the floor before returning to the ceiling.
"Oh, god! No! No!" Lia dropped to the floor and started shaking. Her skin steamed as her powers kicked on. Small burn patches formed throughout her clothes as her skin got hotter. She pressed her head against the cool metal floor and attempted to stay flesh.
Her chest burned, and she knew it wasn't because she was morphing into living-lava. She was light headed, and her throat closed up, making it hard to breathe. Her stomach wanted in on the chaos, and did some acrobatics; at least, that's what it felt like to Lia.
It didn't matter that she knew he was alright now. It was terrifying to see the Danger Room hologram shut down, Filipe and the medics race in to check on him, and then watch Chayse still not move a muscle by the time he was taken out of the room. That didn't even include the burns all over his body from the energy blast and electric shock.
"How could they program like that? What were the teachers thinking?" Lia dry heaved for a minute, but managed to keep her powers in check. Choking on her tears and nausea, she lept at the control panel and shut down the screen. She couldn't take any more. No more footage of the Danger Room. No more images of people she cared for getting beaten up in some stupid attempt to train them to be better at survival. It was insane that they even needed to worry about something like those sentinels.
"Giant Robots of Death," Lia whispered. Chayse was more than right. Anyone else would have died against those things. What hope did she have? She couldn't do this anymore. She couldn't believe that Chayse survived something like that.
"I need to see him!" She stumbled to her feet and sprinted to the elevator. The Institute had probably one of the fastest express elevators in existence, and yet it crawled as Lia waited for it to arrive back in the sub-basement. Everything was taking too long. She needed to check on the Cajun. Needed to remind herself that he was alright; he was safe.
Then she needed to smack him for trying something so stupid in the first place.
**A/N: This is also probably one of (if not the) shortest chapters in this story at about 2300 words. It just seemed to have a natural stop, and so I'm saving the rest of "this chapter" for one of its own.**