ANOTHER BIG ROUND ROOM
The Danger Room was a large, round and sterile gymnasium. It reminded Rogue of the racquetball gym in her old school – the one that nobody used unless it was for storage. When she was a young girl the teacher had let the class run around in the room; when they discovered the high ceiling made their shouts echo dramatically they screamed incessantly until the teacher announced that gym class had been abruptly cancelled.
The first time Rogue walked into the forbidden Danger Room, she held back the urge to shriek. Wisely so, for although the Danger Room had an impressively high ceiling it was constructed to muffle any sounds made inside of its confines.
It was a plain and dimly lit grey room. It was a fairly boring thing to be quite honest, yet foreboding. Rogue crossed her arms across her chest although she was not cold. But the room had a chilly feel to it and even though a program had yet to be initiated, Rogue could feel the hostility emanating from the bare walls.
She glanced quickly at her two teammates that were pitted with her – Iceman and Nightcrawler. Bobby was smiling but she could see the underlying nervousness in him. Her boyfriend could never hide it that easily, despite his best efforts. Nightcrawler had that eternally good-natured smile on his face. She couldn't help but compare the blue elfin mutant to a dog at times; one that is completely and blissfully unaware that it could be blown off the face of the earth in mere seconds. At the same time, if there was one among them that was in the least amount of danger it would have to be Nightcrawler. The mutant had only to give teleportation the slightest thought and poof…he was gone. It was so cool.
Rogue, on the other hand, only had one real power that she knew of. And if you asked her, it royally sucked. She could steal mutant powers. She couldn't fly, fight or even run fast. She just sat there and leached the life out of other mutants. Bobby kept trying to convince her that she was too hard on herself, that time and training would reveal her full capacity. But that's easy to say when you can form walls out of ice.
It also meant that she couldn't touch those that she cared most about. Bobby had already paid for his attempt at a kiss. She never felt more like a freak than when his eyes had bugged out in panic and his veins popped to his skin's surface as his energy drained from him and into her. He swore that his feelings never changed since then; that he would stick by her until the Professor could find a way around it. But ever since Jean…well, those plans at finding a way to bypass her power had officially been put on the backburner.
"Hey," Bobby whispered. "You awake?"
"Mmm-hmm." Rogue nodded her head vigorously.
"Good." Bobby tugged at his uniform's collar. He hated the leather outfit. How on earth did the other team members deal with this stupid thing? And not only that, it made a ridiculous swishing noise every time he walked – how the hell was he supposed to sneak up on anybody when he sounded like a garbage bag blowing in the wind every step he took?
"Because you'll have frozen your enemy long before they'll get a chance to attack you, Iceman." Charles Xavier's refined voice cut through the overwhelming silence on a p.a. system.
Rogue couldn't help but giggle at the redness that traveled swiftly up Bobby's neck and into his cheeks, and then even onto his ears.
Bobby searched the darkened windows that were located high up on the Danger Room's west wall, but it was no use. He couldn't see through the one-way window to Professor Xavier's face, but he had no doubt that the older man was smirking at him.
"Lets get to work, shall we?"
Nightcrawler crouched like a cat on the ground – so much like a cat that even his tail wiggled in anticipation. Bobby took on some sort of karate-like fighting stance. Rogue maintained her stock-still form.
The room seemed to ripple, and the once visible door and windows looking into the room disappeared altogether. To Rogue, it was rather unsettling. She told herself that they were still there, but she couldn't help but feel that she was trapped in a dream, the one where you know you're dreaming but still can't wake up from.
A metallic clanking alerted her attention. She squinted into the unending blackness in front of her to locate its source but it was pointless; it was coming from every direction around her. The nervous butterflies in her stomach were affecting the rest of her body; her hands trembled slightly and perspiration formed on her brow.
"Here they come!" Bobby yelled.
The clanking drew in volume as Rogue saw crude humanoid drones approaching from every angle. The droids looked like something out of a really old and badly done sci-fi movie, but thankfully Rogue could see that they were not armed.
Bobby was the first to strike; with both hands outstretched in front of him and a look of sheer concentration, huge icy blocks flew at the drones' heads, knocking them to the ground. Nightcrawler disappeared and reappeared atop a machine head, ripping it off before bounding to the next one and performing the same decapitation. Rogue readied herself for her first kick to the closest droid.
Bobby was on fire. It felt good to release his powers and he did so in quick succession. He attempted some new maneuvers and smiled inwardly when they worked out exactly as he'd pictured them. Nightcrawler was bouncing from head to head like a Gummi Bear on speed. After taking out every drone on his side he landed beside Bobby with a giddy grin on his face.
"Not too bad, nein?"
Bobby was still concentrating on pelting the rest that were in front of him. "Nope." He shook his head. A sailing head that flew too close to his nose grabbed Bobby's attention. Both he and Nightcrawler stopped and stared in amazement as Rogue kicked a roundhouse and took out another drone's head. Bobby's jaw fell. Rogue grunted as she grabbed a robotic arm and slung the body over her head, already moving to work on the next one and too busy to notice that Bobby and Nightcrawler had been forced to duck to avoid the hurtling robot.
"She is ass kissing." Nightcrawler commented.
"Ass kicking, you mean." Bobby retorted.
"That too."
They were so involved at watching Rogue go Buffy on the droids that they failed to remember the drones that were still approaching them. Kurt and Bobby both yelped in surprise when metal arms hugged them from behind and lifted them off their feet. Kurt managed the attack quite easily; he simply teleported himself to be on the other side of the drone. The drone searched its empty arms with confusion while Nightcrawler kicked it with both legs, sending the robot flying across the room and smashing into the opposite wall.
Bobby was having a drastically more difficult time. His arms were pinned to his sides and the robot possessed much more strength than he had first thought. He grimaced as the arms around his chest tightened, squeezing the air from his lungs. He wiggled his hands until his fingertips were grazing the surface of the droid. Focusing his energy, he frosted the drone with layer after layer, until the joints were frozen. Bobby used as much physical strength as he could to topple the drone backwards and onto the floor where the arms snapped off like breaking icicles.
The newest members of the X-Men stood, surveying the junkyard mess of littered robotic body parts. Rogue wore an accomplished smile, which made Bobby grin. Nightcrawler wore the same smile he always did.
"Very good X-Men."
The three looked up to where Professor Xavier sat in his hidden viewing suite. The Danger Room rippled again as all body parts disappeared. But the door and the window were still missing.
"The next round will all be armed." Charles did not have to be telepathic to hear the collective swears.
"Xavier, we need to talk."
Charles pivoted his wheelchair to face Wolverine. "Of course Logan. Ororo, if you would be so kind."
Ororo nodded graciously while taking the Professor's place at the controls. Xavier motioned for Logan to speak outside the door. The door swished closed behind them and the two began a slow stroll down the corridor. "I never had the chance to thank you for taking the children out yesterday. Sometimes a boarding school can make them feel a little cooped up at times."
"Yeah, it's about yesterday."
Charles stopped his wheelchair. "Besides the incident with Bobby?"
The memory of Bobby accidentally freezing a magazine in a bookstore, and then letting it shatter to the ground popped up in Logan's mind. "How'd you know about that?" Wolverine didn't give him the chance to use his 'I am psychic you know' routine, as he quickly shook his head. "No, forget it. It's about the drive home."
Charles nodded his head gravely. "Lets take a trip down to Cerebro."
Logan had never been crazy about Cerebro. It was sort of like walking into oblivion. That, and there always seemed to be something wrong with it. Aside from nearly killing Xavier himself, Cerebro (or a form of it) had nearly taken out all the mutants of the world and then adversely, all the humans of the world. He was not comfortable with any power that he couldn't skewer with his own claws.
"It won't bite, Logan."
"Would you quit doing that?" Wolverine shot a quick glare at Charles who looked at him innocently.
Charles placed the helmet on his head and touched a button that dimmed the lights in the room. "I had been tracking a specific mutant through Cerebro for some time now. It would appear as though that same mutant is the one that was attacked."
"What was he doing up here?"
"I contacted him."
Wolverine looked at Charles in surprise. "He was coming here?"
Charles hummed solemnly. "Before he was apprehended. The manner in which he was taken disturbs me the most."
"Government?" Wolverine asked.
"No." The room seemed to close in on Logan, but then exploded in shades of human and mutant figures. "They were mutants also."
Wolverine growled under his breath. "Magneto's crew." He stated.
"Again, no." Several figures began to appear more vividly than the rest. "I almost wish it were. At least we would have some idea of who we were up against. I have never encountered mutants like these before. They seem to be quite formidable."
"Can you see where they've taken him?"
Charles shook his head. "Most troubling. He seems to have disappeared altogether. But the others have decided to remain close."
Logan squinted at a pinpoint that appeared in the space before him. "Rochester." He looked up at the shadowy figures. One remained in the background making it difficult to tell if it was a mutant or figment of the program. "What's that?"
"That, Logan, is what disturbs me the most. That is a mutant, but one which has the ability to mask himself from me. And although I suspect he has the ability to conceal himself just as Magneto is able to, he chooses not to. It's almost as though he's taunting me."
Logan snorted. "Stupid and cocky."
Charles took the helmet off his head and replaced it on the control board. "I don't know about stupid. He has eluded me thus far." He tapped his index finger on his chin in deep thought. "I don't know what he's planning, but instincts tell me that we must move quickly to prevent it."
Logan jammed his thumbs in his pockets. "I'll take a trip to Rochester." He turned to walk out but Charles stopped him by closing the door.
"Surveillance only, Logan. Do not engage them until we know who they are and what their motives are. Otherwise we could be walking into a perfectly executed trap."
Wolverine grunted. "We?"
A small smile tugged at the corners of Xavier's mouth. "Take the new members with you."
Logan held up his hand to protest. "Hey, I'm not a baby-"
"Good-bye, Logan." And the door swished shut in front of Wolverine.