Dismal Angel 2010 - Episode 2
Chapter 4: Danger Room
Remy LeBeau stepped into the danger room control annex at 5.30am, all was quiet, the lights were left on low, he stepped over to the control panel and looked out of the large glass panel windows down into the danger room itself. He glanced down to the control panel, trying to remember how to operate the Danger Room. Most of the computers had changed and he'd never taken much notice when Ororo had tried to teach him when he'd been younger. He reached towards a lever and pushed it upwards, the danger room lit up and seemed to spring to life, the sound of whizzing machinery beginning to drone. The last exercise the X-Men seemed to have been on was still programmed into the computer, a large sentinel seemed to appear as if out of nowhere, a holographic projection almost so convincing it might have been the real thing.
Remy sucked in a breath of anticipation and he set the exercise to medium, he didn't want to push his luck, the computer monitor nearby had flashing text reading 'set session time'. Remy typed in 30.00. He glanced at a clock set in the corner of the monitor and set the session to start totally in two minutes. A good half hour seemed like a decent enough time to practise his fighting skills against the robot.
He adjusted the belt buckle on a very plain black leather uniform he'd found in one of the supply rooms in the basement area, and he zipped the top half up to the neck, swallowing a little at how tight it felt, he realised whoever owned this uniform was probably a size smaller than he himself was. He took the small elevator down, and entered into the danger room, he heard the sentinel starting up, its robotic voice booming through the empty room.
Remy didn't listen to a thing it announced, he watched carefully, the sentinel Robot raised one arm, an impressive assembly of guns beginning to raise out of a panel on its forearm. He ducked and rolled just in time as red lasers shot at him, missing him by barely inches.
The fight had begun.
Rogue yawned as she stepped down into the danger room control annex, it was early, but there was always a Danger Room session starting at six am for someone, and she liked to be early for them, so that she'd be well briefed for whatever situation she might come across. She was surprised to see that beyond the large glass windows, there was a sentinel, shooting lasers from its arm, Remy LeBeau dodging, tucking and rolling, leaping out of the way, every single laser missing him by mere centimetres.
Rogue watched him, it seemed his technique had improved over the years, Remy had always been a remarkable athlete, but in the seven years that had passed, it seemed he'd doubled his skill, she'd never seen him move so fast or accurately, as if he'd trained for this one danger room session all his life.
His long hair trailed behind him in a ponytail as he ran, he somersaulted out of the way of yet another blast. Without even being in the same room as Remy LeBeau, Rogue could tell he was too overconfident. She chewed her lip, watching him.
"Lets see how confident he is when I turn this session on full blast," She smirked a little, she reached for the lever and thrust it upwards to its full potential, she heard a loud whirring sound as the machinery began to process the new commands. In the Danger Room nine more sentinels appeared.
Remy spun around as he found himself surrounded by sentinels, their red eyes beginning to light up one by one, and one by one they extended weaponry on their arms, tentacles sliding from the palms of large robotic hands. "What the…" he found himself asking, he began to panic, he could handle one on his own, but ten?
Blasts headed his way, he jumped, the floor blasted apart with it, the heat of the lasers making the metal floor hot to even run upon.
Remy swallowed, looking around, "Uh…Danger Room!" he called out to the Danger Rooms voice recognition system, he ran through the legs of a sentinel, one of their fists tried to smash him, and barely missed, he ducked out of the way gasping. "Danger Room! Terminate Session!!"
"Request Denied," A robotic voice commented as if out of nowhere.
"Don't fucking deny me! Terminate session!" he yelled, a sentinel foot barely missed him, a laser grazed his arm, burning through the leather as if it were clingfilm on a sandwich, "OVERRIDE SESSION!" he yelled.
"Request Denied."
Remy realised he didn't have any cards, he hadn't expected to need to use projectiles, all he'd wanted to do was work on his acrobatic skills in avoiding assault, he hadn't even brought his bo-staff for this very reason. "Danger Room!" he called out as he was running, the floor was becoming hotter, and the sweat was pouring from him now at the heat that was building up in the danger room, "requesting Authorisation to override session!" he called out, "Designate Gambit, access number two-five-zero-seven-seven-zero!" he found himself absurdly congratulating himself on remembering his pass-number from seven years previous.
"Mutant Gambit Access Denied, Revoked third of November two-thousand-and-three," the Computer responded. Remy despaired, of course he'd be revoked, he wasn't one of the X-Men anymore, why should he still have access to their systems…
Remy felt something slam him from behind and he slammed into a wall nearby, "Computer, TERMINATE THE FUCKING SESSION!" he cried out in pain.
Rogue realised he had enough, she reached towards the lever to pull it down, only it seemed stuck, she tugged at it with all her strength and it wasn't budging, "oh shit…" she whispered, "computer, terminate session!" she said quickly to the voice activated computer.
"Unable to Process Command. Session set for thirty minutes, time now five-forty-eight am – fourteen minutes remaining," the computer responded.
"What?!" Rogue demanded, "don't fuck around, computer, terminate the session," Rogue tried hitting buttons, she began to panic. She'd thought it would be funny watching Remy panic, and now she was becoming more panicked than possibly he was.
"Rogue…what are you doing?" Ororo had entered the room, her long hair tied back behind her head in a tight bun, her face severe with concern.
Rogue spun around, "Ororo…I…I accidentally nudged the Danger Room Level lever all the way up…" she lied quickly, "it won't turn off!"
Ororo pushed Rogue slightly out of the way, she quickly pressed three buttons simultaneously, "Computer, Requesting Authorisation to Terminate Session," she said quickly, "Designate Storm, Authorisation Number six-three-two-two-nine-eight-six."
"Unable to Process command. Session set for thirty minutes, time now five-forty-nine am – thirteen minutes remaining," the Computer replied.
Ororo frowned, "This is a timed session?!" she demanded.
"I don't know! I wasn't the one who set the program!" Rogue cried at her, she thought this was a ridiculous question to ask at a time like this, she glanced into the danger room, Remy was up in the air suspended by a tentacle from a Sentinels hand that had wrapped around his wrist.
Ororo pressed down on another button, "Computer, reboot danger room."
"Password required."
Ororo frowned, "Omega-Beta-four-four-two."
Everything shut down automatically, the lights dimmed, the sound of machinery winding down sounded, and Remy fell down to the floor as the sentinels vanished one by one.
Remy gasped in pain, he tried to get up, twinges of back pain from years before seemed to return as if on cue, he lay there for some moments, trying to figure out what was wrong with him, or what had happened to the danger room session. He didn't understand it at all.
Ororo Munro rushed in to the danger room moments later, she fell to her knees beside Remy, "are you alright?" she asked.
Remy tried to get up, "I think so…dunno…what happened," he put one arm up, wiping the sweat from his brow with his sleeve.
Rogue arrived two seconds later, "I…I nudged the lever accidentally…" she chewed her lip, "I…"
Ororo looked over to Rogue, "that lever cannot be nudged accidentally, Rogue," she said angrily.
Remy remembered this piece of information also, he'd been taught this during his last few weeks as one of the X-men. He looked to Rogue, wondering if it was possible she'd deliberately changed the session commands just to get him hurt. He looked at her suspiciously, and leaned up slowly with Ororo's help.
"It was an accident!" Rogue's eyes were wide, almost tearing up, so that – to Remy – she appeared almost like a child being scolded by a mother or a teacher.
"For now, I don't want to hear any explanations," Ororo pulled Remy to stand, she watched the pain in his face as he moved, "go find Beast, he should be up," Ororo instructed of Rogue, "Tell him we shall be in the hospital wing."
Rogue stood silent for a moment, looking at Remy, he looked exhausted and hurt, and she found herself realising how foolish and precarious her actions had been. He could have been killed, she'd thought it'd be funny to see him squirm and panic in the Danger Room but now she realised it was no laughing matter.
"Look…we don't need to get Hank involved," Remy pulled away from Ororo, holding his arm, "it'll be fine," he suggested to her.
"You need to be checked over by a doctor…you might have sustained some serious injury," Ororo stated calmly.
"I don't want to take this any further," Remy murmured, he pretended his ego had been bruised, truth was, he didn't want to see Rogue going through any disciplinary action with the Professor for having endangered his life, "kind of embarrassing, really," he kept his voice low, "I think the others would find this reason enough to talk about me behind my back, and I've had enough of that to last a life time…can we keep it between ourselves?"
"Remy this needs to officially go on record, Rogue nearly had you killed—" Ororo tried.
"Look, her strength is so much more uncontrollable than either me or you," Remy pointed out, he made sure his laser burn wound was out of Ororo's vision, "she's capable of makin' that kind of mistake accidentally…" Remy said, "I told her to put it up just a little…she probably pushed a bit too hard is all," he explained. "You know as well as I do that she doesn't know her own strength."
Ororo looked at him, "You asked her to increase the session?"
"Well, you know the rules," Remy said, "No one is meant to use the danger room unsupervised," he said, he nodded in Rogue's direction pointedly as if to say she'd been the one supervising him. "Do I look stupid enough to go into the danger room alone? I don't think so."
Ororo looked to them both rather suspiciously, but let it drop, "alright," she finally said, "Rogue…we'll let this drop…but please be careful in future."
Rogue gave a nod, and looked at Remy, Ororo began to walk off, Rogue wasn't sure if she'd report this to the Professor or not despite the agreement to keep it between themselves.
Rogue looked at him, "why did you lie?" she looked around quickly to make sure Ororo was completely gone.
"I lied?" he asked with an expression as if he didn't know what she was talking about, he glanced to his arm where the laser had hit him, Ororo had failed to notice this or she would have had him consult Hank.
"You know what I'm talkin' about," Rogue hugged herself insecurely.
"Do I?" Remy asked, he touched the burn gingerly and winced at the slight pain.
"You're hurt…" Rogue realised, she reached out as if to take his arm to check the wound herself, but Remy recoiled more quickly than she could reach him.
"I've been burned before," Remy responded all too quickly, seeming quite disgruntled, "don't pretend you're worried about me," he mumbled, and headed for the door without saying another word.
Rogue let him go and sighed to herself, he'd certainly done her a favour when he'd lied to Ororo, but she wondered if she was going to be expected to repay the favour later, and if so, what would it be?