This particular Danger Room session was fraught with tensions. There was tension between the two groups of visitors from the future. There was tension between the rival groups of teenage mutants. There was tension between the future people and the present people. It was all these tensions that this session was supposed to ease them out of. Instead it just sent the people inside into higher and higher states of anxiety until someone or some people finally broke it.
Rogue, in particular, was aware of this tension. She was acutely aware of the proposal she'd heard less than an hour ago hanging over her head. It was so big, but such a simple matter. If she said yes, she'd have to give up so much, but she'd be getting so much back. She'd be getting the power to touch.
In front of her a robot suddenly loomed, startling her so much that she stopped her running and fell backwards. The robot, in the guise of the same faceless men they'd all seen in the memories, drew it's weapon and aimed at her. Though it wouldn't kill her it would hurt like hell and force her to remain frozen for ten minutes…an extremely uncomfortable position.
From out of nowhere a sonic wave crimpled the robot and sent it flying into the wall. Rogue watched it's visage fade and suddenly without warning felt the urge to cry. The same boy who had sat upstairs with her and heard the same proposition she had, ran over to help her up.
"Are you alright?" Sean asked, steadying her with a hand on her arm.
"Yeah, sugah." Rogue dusted herself off. For the moment all the robots were preoccupied with the other twenty or so mutants in the room. It was a good thing that when they'd rebuilt the mansion they'd made the Danger Room three sizes larger. "Ah'm just feelin' stupid for not paying attention like Ah shoulda. It was a rookie mistake."
Sean grinned at her, and it was a beautiful grin. It lit up his face, and crinkled the side of his eyes. For just a second Rogue forgot about everyone else in the room, and she felt what it must have been like for her in the future, to love and lose this man.
A mutant flying through the air and slamming into the wall not inches away from their faces broke the moment. Jamie rebounded and split into ten more of him. All together they charged the robot that had thrown him and together took it down. The last thing Rogue and Sean saw of the robot beneath the pile of Jamie was an arm flying into the air followed by a lot of mechanical parts.
Together Rogue and Sean burst out laughing. Across the room, Remy noticed. Hearing his girlfriend laughing so freely in the midst of this chaos was something the Cajun would notice. Using his bo-staff he slammed the robot he and Colossus had been facing against the wall and pinned it there. He let Colossus take care of the rest as he began to seek out Rogue. At the sight of her standing with Sean laughing, and Sean with his hand on her, Remy let out a hard groan. He hadn't realized that making the girl fall in love with him was the easy part (though Lord knows I hadn't been). Now he had to make sure she never left him. Not that Remy didn't trust Rogue. No he trusted her. He loved her. It was the others he didn't trust. Sean, the boy with the watchful eyes. Remy didn't doubt that if Sean was told about him and Rogue being together in the future that he would use that information to bring Rogue to him. Scott, the jealous boy. He may say that he has a girlfriend and that his caring is as a friend, but Remy also knows that the jealousy in his eyes when he sees Rogue with Remy is not friendly, not at all. Then there's Logan. Now that was one hard cookie. Remy wasn't sure what his feelings were for Rogue or even if they were real. It was for sure though that Logan had not liked it when he'd found Remy in Rogue's bed. The look in Logan's eyes had screamed murder. What would happen when Remy finally convinced Rogue to leave with him? Would Logan use that as an excuse to finally take Remy out? (And I don't mean on a date.)
Rogue and Sean separated as a robot began to attack them. Rogue ran to the left, hoping to give Sean a chance to take out the robot with a sonic blast, but to no avail. The robot went after Sean. Before she could intervene another robot attacked her. Remy saw his chance and took it, hoping for just a second that the robot injured Sean and he had to stay far away from Rogue for a while…or at least until Remy could cement their feelings for each other.
Swinging into action, Remy quickly took care of the robot attacking Rogue. "Need help chère?"
"Ah nevah object to help but Ah coulda handled it." Rogue said as she panted for air after the intense hand-to-hand combat she'd just had with the robot.
"Never said you couldn' bébé, mayb' Remy want to see you." Remy pulled Rogue close and rubbed her back. "Y' tense chère. Y' should ge' some sleep."
Rogue leaned back and smiled at him. "Well, maybe if a certain Swamp Rat would stop wakin' me up in the middle of the night Ah could get some."
"Ohhhh! Y' woun' me chère." Remy slapped a hand to his chest in mock pain. Just then Rogue caught a glimpse of something heading their way and pushed herself against Remy so they'd both fall.
From where they'd landed on the floor they looked at Berserker, who had slammed into the wall right where they'd been standing. He stood up, wobbling, before rushing back into the thick of battle. Where he hit there was a two feet deep crater.
"Damn, dat was close. Hey, chère, nev' knew y' likes to be on top."
"Gawddamnit." Rogue said as she stood and waded into the fighting figures around them. Remy heard her call back before she moved out of sight. "Grow up!"
From above their heads Magneto and Professor Xavier watched the melee. Both were not amused. Though many worked together, a number still got involved in arguments. These arguments had already caused Lance (who had been yelling at Kitty and got knocked out by Piotr who was defending her honor), Amara (who attacked Wanda after John told Amara that he'd decided to date her instead of Amara…always a bad idea to attack the Scarlet Witch), and surprisingly Scott (did I mention that Scott cheated on Jean…tut-tut-tut…Bam! He got hit by a robot Jean was levitating) to be injured in what the others would later claim were accidents.
On the other hand, the mutants from the future seemed to be getting along fine, if you ignored the whole circling the gauntlet feeling surrounding them all. Xavier knew it was only a matter of time before a fight broke out between some of them. Looking down, Xavier prayed there would be at least some of the Danger Room left when this session was over. He didn't have unlimited funds you know.
Below the spectators, that fight they were both thinking about was brewing. Bishop, seemingly accidentally, was sending blasts towards several of the other mutants from the future, and he was coming pretty damn close. It sounds like someone isn't happy about our little truce, Wanda thought as she hexed a robot to shut down so her husband could destroy it with Excalibur, his weapon.
Just then, one of those accidental blasts shot by. Looking down Wanda saw that her thigh had been singed. Did this idiot not realize how hard it was to mend the unstable materials that made up her bodysuit? Especially now in this time?
Turning Wanda could see Bishop looking smug about what he'd done. Now that just wouldn't do. Wanda felt her powers begin to stretch and pull. They wanted to be released. They wanted to attack!
She tried to control it, she really did. Sometimes when her emotions get the better of her, things get out of control. Which they did…very quickly. Playing off her emotions, the probabilities in the room began to fall. In her hand Wanda began to create her specialty, a hex-sphere. Different from her hex-bolts, which are easier to create and affect the probabilities of what they hit, a hex-sphere is a restricted pocket of reality-disrupting quasi-psionic force, which causes disruptions on the molecular level of whatever it envelops. This one in her hand was intended for Bishop. Throwing it at him she felt the urge to laugh. She knew exactly what was going to happen.
Bishop saw it coming, but was unable to move. It seemed everyone around him could move though. They were all still fighting, oblivious to his problem. As the sphere engulfed him, the world around him began to change. The floor rolled and bucked beneath him. Holding his hands up to where he could see them he saw his fingers twist and knot. His body began to burn with a fever as Bishop began to sweat profusely under the duress of such molecular manipulation. Then the world was right again. It had happened in a few seconds and no one else had seemingly noticed.
Bishop rose from where he'd fallen to his knees and drew his weapon from the holster. During the Danger Room session it had been asked of him to use just his mutant abilities, but he'd still kept his weapon, just in case. As in this case.
Turning towards Wanda he began to fire a volley of shots, all aimed to taking her out. She retaliated by throwing hex-bolts at him. All action around them stalled as the professor disconnected the robots and everyone turned to their fight. It was entirely possible that one of them might have been hurt had not Rogue intervened.
Summoning up a violent storm, Rogue washed out all mutants from the Danger Room. Sopping wet they all slammed down the halls, riding the large crest of water. Rogue followed behind until they finally reached the sublevel for aircraft. There she sent them all tumbling out the tunnel and into the Atlantic Ocean outside.
"When ya children learn to behave ya can come back inside." She shouted before levitating herself back to the mansion. For the most part the teenage mutants took it well.
"That was awesome! Think she'd do it again?" Bobby asked as he, Roberto, and St. John started a water splashing fight.
"It'd be knarly if she would. I'd love to ride that wave on my board man!" Alex said from where he was swimming towards shore. His brother Scott was busy trying to help Jean to shore, which of course she didn't need.
Kitty, on the other hand, was furious. "I spent, like, thirty minutes on my hair! And look! It's, like, totally ruined!"
"Kit, get ovah it!" Rogue told her when they both finally made it to shore. "Remy! Are ya comin'?"
"Non, chère! Remy wan' to have a lit' fun!" He shouted to her from where he and almost every other male mutant in the mansion were having a water fight. Rogue shook her head at their antics and started to rise from where she was slumped on the sand. A hand reached down to help her up and she gratefully took it.
As she got to her feet she smiled and started to thank whoever it was, but when she looked up it got stuck in her throat. It was Mystique, the older one, not the present one who so far was no where to be found.
"Your welcome." Mystique said, seeing as Rogue still hadn't spoke.
"Yeah, thanks." Rogue started to walk away, but Mystique grabbed her arm.
"I know what you're thinking, and you're wrong. I am not the horrible person you think I am." Mystique started to pull Rogue along as she started towards the trail leading up to the mansion. "I know I have done bad things, many things. I know you believe I don't deserve a second chance." Mystique looked around to make sure no one could hear her. "I am dying Rogue. Not just in the future, now."
Rogue was shocked. "But how?"
"A virus I'm infected with in about two weeks. I know you and Kurt hate me, but if you both could just find it in your hearts to give me a second chance, I can prove that everything I've done, I've have done for my children. Please, consider it?"
Rogue nodded. What was with everybody givin' her things to think about? Doesn't Rogue already have enough on her mind? Alone now, Rogue walked toward the mansion. She had thought enough on the subject, she had an answer for herself, but Lord knows she hoped she wouldn't regret this.