Thanks for all the reviews! Heh . . . sorry that the last chapter was kind of boring. This chapter will have action near the end! I've noticed my chapters are getting increasingly longer . . . this chapter's really long . . .heh. Enjoy!
Icegirl-Kat: Since Destiny is not in the movies yet, the only way you would know her was as an adult in X-Men Evolution or in the comics. But the confusing part about her will be cleared up soon, and her role will be explained.
Telepathic thoughts will be displayed 'like this' because ff.net won't let me use the squiggly lines I used before!
...
The next day the four of them daydreamed through class, their feet feeling like led. None of them had slept much last night, between late night homework and thinking about the future, it was hard to fall asleep.
After class had been over, they had once again took up "their" spot on the couch. When John turned the T.V. on, it was already at a news channel. He was about to switch it when Bobby stopped him.
On the screen showed a reporter talking into her microphone. But then the camera zoomed in on the scene, a whole mass of people carrying signs and chanting out loud. Bobby moved closer to the T.V.
"-we've heard of anti-mutant protesting," The reporter was saying in the background, "but this is the first major PRO-mutant protesting. These are mostly family and friends of mutants who demand that the prejudice be stopped."
The reporter moved over to a woman holding up a sign that said, "Mutant Freedom Now!"
"Excuse me, ma'am? Would you mind telling us why you are rallying today?" The reporter asked politely.
The woman's cheeks were red from the brisk cold she was protesting in, but she looked slightly flustered at the thought of being on T.V.
"Well . . . I used to be very anti-mutant. I believed everything the government was saying about how they needed to be eliminated, or controlled. But then one day my son . . ." Her voice was cracked with emotion, "my son showed his powers one day, and I knew that mutants couldn't be evil . . . so now I'm trying to stop the evil being done to my son and other children."
Suddenly, her face glared at the T.V. screen, her eyes accusing, "Don't think we don't know about those 'top secret' government experiments. Several children went missing with no explanation . . . one came back dramatically changed. I demand-"
"Thank you for your time ma'am," The reporter interrupted quickly, cutting the woman's accusation short.
"Couldn't they edit her out if the government didn't want people hearing this?" Rogue asked. Her voice had slight hints of disgust in it.
Blaze answered, "Not if it's live."
Suddenly, Bobby let out a surprised gasp. "Is anybody taping this?"
"What is it, Bobby?" His girlfriend asked, concern in her voice.
"I-I think I saw my dad in the crowd."
...
It turns out Scott was taping the rally, and they were able to watch it again. At Bobby's word, they paused the screen.
Bobby's blue eyes searched the screen hungrily until his finger pointed to a figure. "There."
Rogue squinted at the screen. "That does sort of look like him . . ."
"It is him." Bobby said firmly.
"He could be there to stop the riot," John pointed out.
Blaze glared at her fellow firestarter. "You're so pessimistic."
"I'm just saying . . . you don't want to expect anything!" John stammered out, trying to regain his macho pride.
The ice wielder shook his head. "No. It's definitely him."
"But he was angry at you . . ." Rogue commented.
But suddenly Bobby turned to Blaze, scaring her by grabbing her shoulders roughly. "Why didn't you tell me my dad starts to like mutants? Do we talk in the future?"
Blaze looked uncomfortable, and cast a "help me" look at John. John merely shrugged. Even he knew better than to mess with Bobby when he's riled up about something. "Well . . . you start talking to them soon after, I guess. They support you. Your dad is one of our allies, but nowadays-I mean, in the future-he couldn't really do anything because the government threatened the life of his family if he kept on doing riots like that."
He sat down, and cursed. "My dad had left a message on my cell phone," Bobby explained, "and I thought . . . I-"
"You were afraid it was bad news," Blaze filled in.
"Yeah. So I never opened it. This was about a month ago. So when I thought I recognized him . . . I had to know."
John was about to make a comment when a loud, thundering voice entered their minds.
'REPORT TO THE DANGER ROOM'
...
A crowd of kids were awaiting them outside the door appropriately marked "DANGER". Scott appeared from behind them, followed by Logan bringing up the rear, his face marked with an amused look.
"This is the Danger Room. We use this room to train with technology," Scott began, "We will be setting the Danger Room at its easiest setting, and we will be controlling your 'opponents' from inside a control room. The Professor would have liked to be here to watch you, but a matter of urgency called him out a couple of minutes ago.
"This is normally a practice room, but right now we will be testing and evaluating your skills and to see what you need to work on. Now . . . let's see what you got."
On cue, the metal doors slid open, making a hissing sound in their wake.
"Could Cyclops be any more dramatic?" John murmured.
When they entered the room, all of them gaped at the vastness of the place. Its huge metal ceilings stretched up for what seemed like miles. The walls were made of cold iron. On the top of the room was a large, round room with what looked like a walkway coming in from each side. It was the control room, where Scott and Logan would be overseeing them.
The Danger Room was completely empty, save for the crowd of confused X- Kids. All there was in the room was bare iron surrounding the ground, walls, and ceiling.
"Where's the 'opponent?'" Rogue wondered aloud.
A loud creaking noise answered her question. Rogue jumped and grasped Bobby's hand hard. Several students flinched as they saw the walls open and several machines appear. Guns and metal pillars surfaced, but there were probably more hidden inside the walls.
"Don't worry," Scott's voice boomed from over the loudspeakers, "The guns are stunners."
"'Don't worry' he says," Rogue commented dryly.
"Danger Room Setting One . . . begin!"
Suddenly, there was movement behind Kitty Pryde. Jubilation Lee shouted out a warning to her, and Shadowcat, true to her name, phased right through the large metal block that would have hit her from behind.
"That was, like, really close!" Kitty shrieked.
Suddenly, the stunners swerved towards Illyana Rasputin, Colossus's little sister. She disappeared as the stunners seemed to hit her.
"Illyana!" Piotr Rasputin cried out. But a few seconds later, the blonde Russian reappeared in front of her brother. Piotr scolded her for scaring him, and the powerful six-year-old apologized by warning her brother of another stunner.
Colossus's body transformed into metal that matched the walls of the room they were in. He had been trying to learn to instantly convert his body, but the process was slow. If the stunners hadn't been on setting one, it would have fried him.
But it effectively bounced off his armor and destroyed the stun gun it had come out of.
Meanwhile, Bobby was freezing the walls when they tried to move out of the walls . . . slowly.
Rogue was trying hard to fly, and managed to make it up to one stunner and demolished it with her super-strength before she glided back down.
Jubilee was targeting the stunners, carefully back to back with Dani Moonstar. Jubilee brushed her ebony hair out of her face as sparks flew from her fingertips and contacted with the stunners, giggling as they exploded. Danielle, whose powers weren't really of any use against a bunch of machines, helped Jubilee sense the stunners.
John was using his lighter to shoot fireballs at the stunners, and Blaze was doing the same, making sport of it by trying to hit two stunners at the same time.
"This is boring." John commented.
"I've done the Danger Room on Setting 6. This is child's play." Blaze replied dryly, tossing another fireball.
But then, everything stopped.
The X-Kids stopped their advances as the stunners and walls began to quietly sink back into their original places.
A few seconds passed by before someone commented, "I guess training's over, huh?"
Danielle walked over to the door and pressed the button on the panel that should have opened the door. She frowned, confused.
"It's still locked." But suddenly, the room came to life again. A wall rushed forward right where Danielle was, speeding twenty times faster than Setting One. Danielle screamed as she was catapulted backwards. Rogue quickly flew up and caught Dani. But the force of the push caused Rogue to collide into the wall. Rogue and Dani slid down the wall, a large dent replaced where they were.
"Thanks, Rogue."
"No problem," Rogue groaned, rubbing her shoulder. Thank god for her super strength.
The whole room was going crazy! Now they weren't just dealing with slow stunners and sliding walls. There were metal claws coming out of the wall, grabbing at people. Many of the kids migrated over to the door, panicking, and desperately trying to get out.
John had to dodge to avoid getting chopped in half. He turned to Blaze. "What setting-" But when he saw how pale her face was, he stopped.
Blaze threw a fireball at an extremely fast and accurate stunner before it would hit Jubilee. Then she turned to John, wary of the chaos. "I've done Setting 6. This is not Setting 6. More like Setting 10 . . . the highest level."
"What kind of crap is Scott pulling on us? The highest level? We're going to get killed!" John rambled on, his heart skipping a few beats as his panic rose.
His friend didn't have a chance to answer, since she had to dive to avoid getting stunned.
Bobby was doing his best to freeze all the claws, but nothing seemed to work! They all broke through his ice barriers! Rogue wasn't doing much better. She seemed to be all over the place saving everyone else's butts, occasionally ripping apart the limb of a claw.
Danielle was successfully dodging the claws, but then was knocked out by a huge metal pillar. Blood began to seep from a head wound.
The phaser, Kitty, was busy protecting the X-Kids who didn't have offensive powers by phasing them through any trouble. Suddenly, she took a running sprint to the door, trying to phase through it so she could open it. She skillfully avoided or ran through any obstacle, but then a stunner got her just inches from the door.
Colossus had double duty of making sure his younger sister was okay (but she could really just teleport to safety) and smashing apart the machines.
Illyana tried to teleport herself to the Control Room to see what was going on. Unfortunally, while she was vulnerable and in mid-teleportation, another stunner got her, and she crumpled to the ground. Colossus was somewhere else trying to even the playing field.
The door seemed to the be most guarded. Even mutants who could normally get through couldn't.
John was busy shooting fireballs at the stunners and avoiding claws. He and Jubilee had silently teamed up to take out the stunners.
Blaze directed her palms towards the ground and shot herself up using her fire like a jet pack. She was able to "fly" on top of a claw just when it was beginning to shoot out and lash at people. She surrounded her hand with fire and began to drill into the stem of the claw. The claw tried to lash at her, but it was unsuccessful in reaching her, since she was behind it. After a few good minutes, she succeeded in separating the claw from its stem, letting the claw fall to the ground below.
The firestarter was about to jump down from the stem when a metal pillar wrapped itself around her and pushed her against the wall. She couldn't wriggle out of the machine's grasp. Blaze gasped, and her lungs felt like they were going to be crushed any second. Fear spiked her spine, and her vision slowly began to cloud.
Rogue, seeing her friend in trouble, mustered her strength and was able to soar up into the air to save Blaze. But then, a claw slithered itself into her way, and it distracted her from her rescue mission.
One moment, Blaze felt the last remaining breaths of air leaving her lungs. The next, her entire body was alit with flames, the fire dancing in her angry eyes. The fire increased to a level that almost matched the level that she had in the future with the steroid.
Everyone suddenly looked up to the blinding light and unbearable heat. What they saw was a whole corner lit up with fire like an oversized candle.
Rogue was blown backwards by the heat waves. But when she, Bobby, and John noticed the fire and realized what it was, their comment was the same:
"Oh crap."
After what seemed like forever being embraced by the flames, Blaze fell into a pool of metallic colored liquid . . . what remained of the pillar. Eventually, the fire subsided, and Blaze was on her knees, devastatingly exhausted.
Rogue ran over to her, punching whatever got into her way.
"You okay?" Her southern accent had concern in it.
Blaze nodded, and Rogue helped her get up to her feet. The firestarter kept her eyes down so she wouldn't have to see the questioning glances she no doubt was getting from students in between dodging claws and blasting stunners.
She wouldn't look at John. That . . . losing control again . . . it brought back painful memories of rage and hatred. Things she'd been trying to forget. Blaze had just had another life or death experience, which she'd already had once before. She had not wished to experience it again. But here she is. Even Blaze didn't realize what kind of trouble would come from the remainders of the steroid in her bloodstream. Even if it did save her this time.
After that, the X-Kids had become increasingly irritated with their teachers upstairs. Danielle's head injury wasn't looking good. Jamie Madrox, well, five Jamie's, was taking care of her, but by the look on his face, things weren't going good. Kitty and Illyana were still knocked out, and several other injured students lay together in a circle-Blaze included.
The remaining were standing in a circle around the wounded, and trying to hold their own. But they wouldn't hold out for long . . . everyone was tiring.
So it came as an immense relief when everything stopped again. Some people moved towards the door, but Bobby barked at them to come back. "It could be another setting adjustment," He warned.
But the door hissed as it slid open, and Scott and Logan emerged from the door. Scott looked apologetic and very guilty.
John, not being able to control his anger, advanced forward and had half a mind to punch Scott. "What were you trying to do? KILL US?!"
Scott ignored Pyro. "Where's the wounded?" But he seemed to figure it out. So, Colossus, Logan, and several others helped carry the wounded to the infirmary. Bobby, Rogue, John, and Blaze stayed behind. Blaze had refused help to the infirmary since she wasn't hurt, just tired.
Bobby turned on Scott angrily. "You never answered the question." His usually soft eyes were suddenly icy.
"Everything was fine until I went to the bathroom and left Logan in charge," Scott explained, scowling, "When I came back, the controls were at Setting 10, and when I asked Logan about it, he said that it had suddenly changed on its own. He had no idea how to fix it. The controls were jammed, and I couldn't change the setting or turn it off. It took us a while to figure it out. I'm very sorry . . ."
"We could have lost someone!" John interjected, angry that Scott had brushed him aside before.
Scott's entire body seemed to tense up. His hands were subtly balled into fists, and his pain was clear on his face.
"What . . . What do you know about losing someone?" Scott asked, trying and failing to keep his voice even, "You left on the helicopter . . . you . . . you didn't see her . . ." Realizing what he was doing, Scott turned on his heel and left, leaving the teens in awkward silence.
"I guess we should go to bed," Rogue mumbled.
There were sounds of agreement from the other three. At first they were heading up together, but then Rogue apparently forgot something in the Danger Room, so Bobby joined her to get it.
"Forgot something my foot," John muttered, "I can't believe they're going to do a couple thing now." When he got no answer from his companion, he turned his head to the side. Blaze wasn't there.
Then he turned behind him, and he saw her leaning against a wall for support, her breathing rough and raspy, and sweat dripping down her face. She seemed like she was in a great deal of pain.
John walked over to her, and helped her up. "You okay?" He asked awkwardly.
When Blaze was up, she brushed his hand away. "I'm fine." She said sharply.
Pyro was not convinced. He arched an eyebrow. "You sure?" Worry was evident in his eyes. The last time something like this happened was in the future . . .
"I'm fine." Blaze insisted, now sounding irritated at her friend's concern.
And then the firestarter made her way alone to her dorm room, leaving John standing alone in the dark hallway, Blaze's footsteps echoing distantly.
After the footsteps subsided, John shivered, and he was left with a disturbing feeling of dread.