Chapter 14 =) I will make some future edits to 13 - add some more diolauge - as soon as I get the chance. but for now, enjoy!
Chapter 14 : Offline
Ava stumbled and fought briefly to regain the breath that had been forced from her lungs.
"Are you okay?" A familiar voice asked. Ava looked up into a pair of worried blue eyes. "Ava?" the voice asked.
Ava shook her head in a mildly canine manner "mhmm." She mumbled. A pair of hands clasped her shoulders, steadying her. "Thanks Bobby." She gave him a weak smile.
"No problem." He returned the smile. "Where are you heading?"
The doors pinged softly and slid open as Ava began, "I'm –"
"Late" Logan's familiar growl resonated from the hall just beyond the open doors.
Ava gulped and finished her sentence. "Screwed." Bobby chuckled.
"My fault Logan." Bobby covered coolly. "I asked Ava to help me with some homework."
"What subject?" Logan seemed determined to catch the pair in a lie.
"History." It was Ava who responded, picking her favourite subject.
"I'm behind." Bobby added.
"It's the first day of classes." Logan's eyes narrowed.
"From last year." Ava tried. Bobby hot her a 'gee, thanks' look, and she shrugged apologetically.
"No dice." Logan growled. "Popsicle, you get a bonus session now too. Thundercat, I'm tacking an extra week on to your sessions. DON'T BE LATE. You have five minutes" Logan snarled, stalking off. Bobby gulped while Ava sighed reluctantly.
"What did you –" Bobby trailed off as he looked at the stormy eyed girl in awe. She'd been there Two Days and already she had extended training sessions with Logan.
Even he hadn't managed that.
His record was a stunning 2.5 days.
"Don't ask." Ava sighed, grabbing one of her spare uniforms from the stock outside the Danger Room and ducked into an alcove to change. "Peek." She threatened playfully, "and I'll fry you."
"Wouldn't dream of it!" Bobby called back, pulling on his own suit hastily.
To say Lynx was pissed would be an understatement. The masochistic mutant paced angrily in the Danger room as he waited for Avalon to get her empty head in the door.
It wasn't fair.
All he'd done was say he wasn't 'Defence' material.
They had no right to stick him in detention sessions on his first day of school.
Damn Teachers.
Not only did he have to run a two-hour session with Xander, whose powers, Lynx though, were pretty useless, but he ALSO had to put up with the brainless bimbo of a weather witch. Sorry, 'Storm Siren' he mockingly air quoted the silent term, remembering how the pink haired beach bunny had insisted she was better than Storm.
Yes
The Storm.
Xavier's #1 lieutenant since who knows when.
The woman who taught them control.
The witch who could make snow fall from the sun in a July heat wave.
And little miss Avalon thought she was better.
Idiot.
A pair of heels clicked meaningfully closer. Speak of the Devil, and he shall appear, wearing a stripper's costume. Lynx sniggered to himself, watching the girl sashay closer in the midriff-baring, butt hugging number she had the gall to call a uniform.
She wouldn't last on a corner in that get up, let alone on the battlefield.
But it didn't matter what she wore. Everyone's eyes always followed Ava. It didn't matter if they were straight, gay or bi, male or female. When Ava walked into a room, people paid attention.
Lynx hated it.
He couldn't stand people who sailed by on their looks, who got everything they wanted.
And since she'd come to the mansion, it had seemed that Ava could do no wrong. She'd even pulled powers against a senior X-Man and gotten off scot-free, in both the literal and figurative sense of the term.
It really made Lynx wonder just what she'd had to do to get a detention session with himself and Xander.
Maybe they'd caught her sleeping with a teacher... or something. Lynx's brain wasn't functioning clearly, but he figured it must have been something pretty destroying for little miss perfect to land in the Danger Room with Logan.
Bobby dashed into the Danger Room with seconds to spare, surprised to find Ava already there. "Took you long enough." She teased him playfully. Bobby didn't have time to reply before Logan cut him off.
"Icecube, as the most senior X-Man here, you can lead the rookies through a standard run session. Initiate, Training – X2." Logan commanded, his voice filling the room.
"Okay." Bobby knew he only had seconds before the room came alive, so he snapped directly into 'leader' mode. "What can you all do?"
"Tempest." Ava stated her codename, "Storm manipulation."
"Smoke, Toxic Sumblimination." Xander said boredly from his place against the wall.
Rather than speak, Lynx drew a sharp blade down his arm, pulling a heavy chain from the wound. "They call me Chain." He smirked, swinging the one in his hands for good measure.
Bobby processed everything quickly, "Smoke, you're going to be our decoy. Draw the lasers, stay solid enough for the sensors to catch you, but DONT get hit. Chain, you're taking out the ground-level arsenal. Tempest, you're on the high stuff. I'll go where you need me." Bobby added when Chain tried to protests. The grey haired boy turned his comment into a gag, purposefully taking the comment the wrong way. "Now MOVE!" Bobby commanded, diving one way as the floor beneath their feet slid away to be replaced by a giant spinning saw.
All four of the companions leapt wide, and Ava shrieked. Her heel had caught on the lip of the opening and she was falling backwards into the rotating blade. Bobby and Lynx both reacted, Bobby firing a beam of ice, building a wall between Ava and the deadly weapon, while Lynx lassoed her with his chain, pulling her to safety.
He may not like the girl, but he wouldn't be responsible for her death.
"That, was, way, to, close." Ava huffed.
"Makes you want to rethink those shoes, eh?" Lynx asked easily.
"Not a chance." Ava defended her preferred footwear, firing a heavy amaranth bolt at a nearby laser, frying the contraption.
Together, the quartet made short work of the room. Ava shorted the upper lasers and Lynx ripped the lower arsenal from the walls. Bobby froze saws protruding from the floor and walls, and Xander even managed to jam a few devices and blast some of the saws by manipulating the lasers.
Through teamwork, the quartet managed to progress through a number of Logan's training simulations, each one more difficult than the last. For two hours, they ducked, dodged and dove away from lasers, saw blades, tentacles and robots, until Logan mercifully announced, "All right kiddies, now for your last simulation. Your mission: rescue the mutant and bring 'em out alive."
With that, he switched off the comms unit and flipped a switch so the holo projectors sprang to life.
The four teens were in a New York back alley, with much of the landscape aflame about them. People were running in every direction, fleeing giant robots on the hunt for mutants. The air was heavy with smoke and sulphur, making it hard to see and even harder to breath. The heat was overwhelming, intensifying with each passing minute. Ava shuddered oddly as a cold drop of sweat rolled down her back, her eyes flicking around nervously.
Bobby instructed the teens to split into two teams and search. If they found anything, either he or Ava would send up a flare.
Slowly, silently, Xander crept through the street, in his full gas form. Yes , it was dangerous – one spark awry and he's be in the burn unit for months – but he couldn't be captured without a corporal body, so Bobby had sent him to scout.
Xander rounded one corner, then another.
And came face to well, foot, with a giant metal robot.
"Mutant signature detected. Searching Database... No records found. Initiate capture." The thing said mechanically.
"Damn..." Xander hissed, hurrying away from where he knew Bobby was hiding.
Lynx and Ava had their backs against a wall. One of the giant robots had them cornered. Its hand was splayed open and it was quickly locking on four missiles. Lynx stepped in front of Ava, a maniacal look in his eye. He'd never tried it before, but he figured a missile wound would result in a rather impressive chain.
I'm NOT protecting her he thought bitterly, I'm doing my job. And right now, that's getting rid of this monstrosity.
"Move you idiot!" Ava tackled him from behind, flattening both their bodies to the ground a millisecond before the robot fired.
"What the hell!" Lynx demanded.
"They're MISSILES you moron! YOU. ARE. MORTAL." She punctuated each word for good measure, smacking him across the back of the head in an attempt to smarten him up.
"You get one free hit Cheerleader" he sneered, "Then I hit back." He warned darkly.
"I play FOOTBALL. I'm not some pom girl." Ava's eyes narrowed.
"Whatever." Lynx spat bitterly, making another long gash in his lag. From the injury, he drew an inexplicably long chain. Handing one end of the chain to Ava, he gave a cocky smile. "Let's wrap this up." He snarked, indicating that they should wrap the thing's legs in the chain to trip it.
Wordlessly, Ava nodded and the pair wove the chain around the robot's legs. Safely behind the monstrosity, Ava fired a bolt at the back of its head. Trying unsuccessfully to swivel, the metal creature teetered precariously forwards, before it came crashing to the ground, shaking the block with the force of it's fall, it's eyes still blazing a murderous red.
Locating a panel on the creature's back, Ava drew on a huge amount of energy and sent an amaranth bolt blasting through the control panel, watching with satisfaction as its eyes flickered and faded to black.
"Don't celebrate yet." Lynx warned, catching sight of another robot drawing closer and closer.
"RUN!" Ava commanded, bolting.
Lynx was half a step behind her and the pair sprinted through the smoky back streets of New York. Ava was send bolts flying over her shoulder, aiming haphazardly at the monstrosity that was hot on her heels.
Lynx made a deep gash in his arm, pulling another chain free to string across an intersection like a tripwire. He was just securing the second half of the wire when the ground began to rattle.
The beast was almost on top of them.
"Tempest! Fry it!" He called to the girl.
"I-I can't!" Ava's voice was shaky. Frightened.
"What do you mean?" Lynx roared. Useless idiot. She's probably too scared... he silently cursed her.
"My powers don't work!" Something caught her eye. "Hades... My hair!" She used the archaic curse, practically screeching. "Chain, GET ICEMAN!"
Lynx didn't need to be told twice. He might rag on the girl, but she wasn't SO airheaded that she would start to stress about her hair when she was facing down a giant robot. Something major must be wrong.
And something was.
Silent tears ran tracks down Ava`s sun-kissed cheeks as she stared open-mouthed at the fistful of hair in her hand.
It was brown. All plain, ordinary, nondescript brown.
No Amaranth, no rich mocha.
Just brown.
Logan was snarling as he watched the scene play out before him.
This was NOT supposed to be happening. He had run the infiltration session that all the older teams had done.
Night guards, air ducts, hostage in the middle of an empty room.
No New York, no fire, no alleys.
Nothing to negate the Storm user's powers.
He had lost control.
"Iceman!" Lynx careened around a corner.
"Chain! What are you doing here? You and Tempest were supposed to go right."
"We did! And we took on one of those robot things – "
"Sentinels."
"And then another robot – "
"SENTINAL."
"Whatever – started chasing us. Now Ava's all freaked out and hiding and her powers don't work and she won't stop complaining about her damn hair and –"
Bobby wasn't listening any more. "We'll get Smoke and help - He went this way." Bobby pointed down a narrow alley and the pair dove down it, hunting for their teammate.
"I'm sorry." Ava practically jumped. She hadn't heard anyone come up behind her, until the young voice had spoken.
Turning slowly, Ava saw a boy who couldn't have been more than ten or eleven. He had big eyes, mousey brown hair, and skin tinted an unnatural shade of green.
"I'm sorry." He said again.
"Why are you sorry?" Ava asked in her best baby-sitter voice.
"Because... you're sad and scared and it's all my fault."
"How is it your fault?" She asked, deciding the child had no idea what he was talking about.
"My power – it means your powers don't work." He stated.
"You're a mutant?" Ava mentally smacked herself. Of course he was a mutant. The tone of his skin should have given it away.
"My name is Dorian." The boy smiled brightly, "but everyone calls me Leech." He beamed, proud to have what would pass for a code-name.
Ava's eyes widened as the pieces clicked rapidly into place. A few feet away, out of sight of the alcove Ava had buried herself in, the metal monster began to move, recovering from the tripwire.
"Tempest!" Bobby's voice broke through the frightened silence as the creature righted itself in one, fluid motion.
"No! Iceman, don't come too close – it's Leech!" Ava hugged the child close to her body in a motherly gesture.
Bobby seemed to acknowledge her, stopping and freezing the Sentinel's feet.
"Chain, Smoke, hold it steady!" He demanded. "It's about to get sub-zero!." Hammering his fists together, Bobby fired a silver-white blast at the Sentinel's core, cooling it until the mechanism itself froze and the metal monster toppled over, offline.
"Incoming!" Ava screeched as the final sentinel drew closer.
"MINE!" Xander claimed, turning to gas and slipping between the plates of metal.
The seconds stretched by agonizingly slowly. The Sentinel's eyes would flicker, but continued to burn as it advanced.
The monster was on top of Lynx and Bobby when its eyes finally died and it crumpled, Xander materializing from the wreckage.
Instantly, the simulation flickered and died, leaving the five mutants standing in the empty danger room, openly staring at the one thing which seemed out of place.
"Leech?" Logan's voice cracked over the intercom, "what are you doing here?"
"Rogue brought me to visit!" Dorian said brightly, "Everyone thought it would be fun for me to help out with your training."
Logan harrumphed. "Next time, a little warning, kay kid?"
"Sure Mr. Logan, Sir." Dorian beamed.
"Good work delinquents." Logan gave an uncomfortable sigh, "Now scram See you all, same time tomorrow - you too Icecube." Logan flicked off the PA, smiling as he imagined Bobby's groan.
Lol, it was FUN ragging on Ava... I should do it more often.
The whole scene with Lynx's internal monologue was add-libbed when this piece hit print, and I quite enjoyed it.
The fact that they later work as a team in a battle is because, well, Lynx realizes you don't have to like somebody to pair up on a mission, and not all circumstances are desirable, so he's just got to make do.
More to come.
X3 Emmy