Trying to Break the Tension

"So Dazzler's gone off to join X-Force?" Warren asked as he walked down the corridor with Ororo and Logan. It was three days after Evan's trial ended deliberations.

"Yeah, well Charles thought that sending the Songbird off to them would be good for us," Logan said. "Not to mention a break from Hank. He's been moping about it nonstop since she left three nights ago."

"Well I hate to say it but it's Hank's own fault," Ororo said.

"I gotta agree with you on that," Logan shook his head. "The girl's tougher than she looks. Had to be considering what she went through."

"So what kind of Danger Room session are we running today?" Warren asked.

"Well Cyclops decided with all the drama going on the kids would have an easy session," Logan said. "Something to take their minds off."

"Knowing Cyclops it would be a level 5 simulation," Warren scoffed.

"Not this time," Ororo said. "Jean told me that he and Forge cooked up a little scenario of something different."

"This I gotta see," Logan scoffed as they walked into the control room. "What the…?"

Scott and Forge were running the simulation in the control room. Down below in the Danger Room there was a huge pirate ship. However it was not in the water, it was in outer space. The kids were having a blast blowing up alien pirates, as they themselves were dressed as pirates. "Okay Slim…" Warren blinked. "Out of all the simulations you could have run or created…I never would have thought you'd create something like this!"

"Care to tell me why the Danger Room looks like a reject of Disneyland?" Logan asked Scott and Forge.

"The kids really do need a break," Scott admitted. "They've had it kind of rough these past few months. Hey, even I can lighten up once in a while."

"Since when?" Logan looked at him. "Space Pirates? This is what the two of you came up with?"

"Well it's innovative you gotta admit," Forge said.

"Just as long as Groucho doesn't reappear," Ororo rolled her eyes.

"Groucho?" Warren asked her.

"It's a long story of a Danger Room session gone wrong and I really don't want to talk about it," Ororo groaned. "I'm still trying to repress the memory."

"This looks kind of fun," Warren watched the kids. "The perfect thing to blow off steam."

"Yeah I mean with all the horrors of what we've seen and the fighting…" Scott sighed. "I mean most of them are still kids. The Professor thought we should do something to remind them of that so…"

"Well it was very commendable of you two to do this," Ororo told him. "We have been fighting hard lately. We deserve some kind of break."

"Yeah I gotta admit this does look kind of fun," Logan stroked his cheek. "I could get into this."

"HAHAHAHAHA!" Kurt swung around. "Avast ye me hearties and walk the plank! The damsels are all mine! Mine I tell ye!"

"You will fail!" Hank waved a sword around as he wore a pirate hat and an eyepatch. "So says Bluefur the Pirate King! HAHAHAHAHA!"

"Some people are getting a little too into it," Ororo noticed.

"I think we've all been hanging around Shipwreck just a little too long," Forge noticed. "Hey now check this out!"

Forge pressed a button and some kind of vortex appeared in the middle of the Danger Room. "Okay that's new…" Forge blinked.

"What is that?" Logan asked.

"It's supposed to be a power booster for the room to create more realistic holograms," Forge said. "That was supposed to be a sea serpent."

"Instead we have a rock stuck in the middle of the Danger Room," Scott blinked. He turned off the images and everything except the rock disappeared. "Everyone hold on a second. We want to check this out."

They went downstairs to check it out. "It's got a lot of weird writing on it," Kitty noticed. "Maybe we should study it?"

"How…" Roberto shoved it. "It feels like it weighs a ton!"

"Let me have a go at it," Rogue tried to pick it up with her strength. "Man that thing is too heavy for me! And it's stuck in the floor!"

"Maybe it's just a glitch in the programming?" Scott looked at it. "Multiple go back to the control room and see if the scanners can pick it up."

"Okay," Jamie went up.

"Hey Scott how about you just blow it up?" Bobby asked. "If it's just a hologram nothing will happen. And if it isn't at least it will be unstuck from the floor."

"Why is it a guy's answer to everything strange is to blow it up?" Danielle asked.

"I dunno, sounds reasonable to me," Tabitha shrugged.

"Yeah what's so bad about blowing stuff up?" Jubilee asked.

"Let me rephrase that…" Danielle sighed.

"I can't figure out anything on the scanner," Jamie asked. "Maybe it really is a hologram?"

"Oh why not?" Scott casually slid his visor and let his optic blasts hit it. It shattered to pieces. "Okay…That wasn't a hologram was it?"

"I just remembered something," Forge gulped as a strange red mist floated out of the shattered rock. "I used some of the parts from my old interdimensioal warp machine into the new hologram projectors."

"NOW YOU TELL US!" Logan shouted as a huge red demon with one huge eye, two horns, four arms, four legs, a tail, a pair of wings and a lot of teeth appeared.

"FREE!" It screamed.

"Uh, what is that thing?" Sam asked.

"I am Kierrok the Damned!" The creature howled. "Shatterer of souls, slayer of men!"

"Way to go Cyke," Bobby said sarcastically. "That was really mature of you to sic an evil demon on us."

"Why is it whenever I have fun it's wrong?" Scott moaned. "WAIT A MINUTE! YOU TOLD ME TO BLOW UP THE ROCK IN THE FIRST PLACE!"

"Actually Scott I think Forge is once again responsible for this," Rogue folded her arms.

"Mostly anyway," Kitty glared at Forge. "Like this is starting to really tick us off."

"HEY!" Forge snapped from the control room. "Not all of my stuff backfires on me!"

"No but you gotta admit quite a large percentage does," Roberto told him as he dodged a blast from Kierrok.

"Oh come on," Forge defended. "Like what?"

"Does the word 'Middleverse' mean anything to you?" Kurt asked. "Or the time you tried to enhance my powers and ended up creating a rift between dimensions that let monsters out?"

"Gee that sounds familiar!" Tabitha glared at Forge.

"Yeah, but besides that," Forge asked.

"Okay how about the time you tried to fix the doorbell and ended up creating an electric charge to anyone who touched it?" Kurt looked at him. "And then it exploded."

"Oh yeah that…" Forge laughed nervously.

"The gum machine, the improvements on the toaster," Ray ticked them off with his fingers. "The improvements to our mansion's security when we got locked out, the mousetraps you made, the paintball drones from hell, the shrink ray…"

"Oh man, how could you forget the shrink ray?" Kurt groaned. "What on earth possessed you into making a shrink ray?"

"I thought it was a good idea at the time okay?" Forge snapped.

"HEY WE COULD USE A LITTLE HELP HERE!" Logan shouted as he fought the demon with Ororo. They weren't slowing it down even with lightning and claws.

"I am a child of the N'Garai, lords of the Elder Gods!" Kierrok screamed. "It took the ancients seven years of fighting and chants to imprison me! You mortals cannot defeat me!"

"We can try!" Tabitha created a huge energy bomb and threw it at it. The X-Men used their powers to fight the monster fiercely.

"What is going on down there?" Xavier shouted as he rolled into the control room.

"Cyclops and Forge let a demon from another dimension into the Danger Room while they were playing pirates," Jamie said. "Mostly Forge though."

"Jamie please go and get me some aspirin please?" Xavier groaned.

"Okay," Jamie trudged reluctantly away. "I never get in on the good stuff."

"Is he kidding?" Forge asked.

"AGGHHH! YOU HURT ME HUMANS! NOTHING HAS HURT ME IN EAONS!" Kierrok screamed as Logan and Rina slashed at them with their claws.

"I'll try to use my mind to defeat it…" Xavier focused. "AGGGHHH! DARKNESS! PAIN…"

"Fool! You cannot control Kierrok with your puny mind powers!" The monster tore a hole in the wall. "Soon I will walk this earth again and subjugate it!"

"If this thing gets out we are really gonna be in trouble with the law!" Jubilee shouted.

"Yeah that's all we need right now!" Rogue tried to punch it but Kierrok knocked her back with her tail.

"I've got it!" Forge shouted. "Kurt! Get me to my lab!"

"I'm on it!" Kurt grabbed him and they teleported to his lab. They came back with Forge's dimensional device he had from the Middleverse fiasco. "EVERYBODY OUT OF THE WAY!" He shot it at Kierrok and it disappeared with a loud scream.

"Why the hell didn't do think of that in the first place?" Logan snapped at Forge.

"Oh man the Danger Room is trashed," Sam panted. "Is everybody okay?"

"Aside from losing a few years of our lives out of fear…Yeah," Jesse groaned.

"What was that thing?" Scott asked.

"From what I glimpsed of it's mind…An ancient evil from a long dead race of monsters," Xavier panted. "It and its kind once ruled the earth and they very much want to rule it again. Fortunately Forge was able to send it back to the dimension from which it was imprisoned."

"See my inventions are useful," Forge told them.

"When they work!" Kurt snapped at him.

"Remember when Valerie Cooper wanted you to recommend some mutants for her new team?" Logan asked Xavier.

"Yes?" Xavier asked.

"You think it's too late to 'recommend' Forge?" Logan indicated his next Danger Room target.

"It's…tempting," Xavier sighed. He saw Jamie run up to him. "Jamie what is it?"

"There was a call from Mr. White! The judge wants everyone back in the court!" Jamie said. "I think the verdict's in!"