Chapter 20. Trust is Hard.
"Isn't this kind of like giving them an easy way to kill us?" Todd looked at the other members of the Brotherhood nervously.
"Nah, I've done this before, it's not that bad," Lance replied.
"Yeah, don't worry, I've gone through it before too, and it's like the fights we have at home, only in a bigger room with machine parts flying around instead of Pietro's bad cooking," Tabitha agreed.
"My-cooking-is-perfectly-fine!" Pietro shot Tabitha a look. "Besides, how hard can it be if Daniels can do it?" he added with a dismissive wave of his hand, turning his attention back on Todd.
"I've been here before yo, and that was not a safe room," Todd shuddered. "I almost got fried by a laser, man, and that's to say the least of it."
"We won't let anything happen," Fred assured.
"Yeah we'll protect you, Toddy," Tabitha gave him a grin of reassurance.
"And I'll shut the whole thing down if it gets dangerous," Lance said, pitching his voice slightly lower and quieter, yet no less comforting, as they reached the Danger Room.
"Look who's waiting, how nice," Pietro muttered at the sight of the older X- Men standing outside the Danger Room. "I know, I'll play nice," he added, looking at Lance and Tabitha.
They came to a stop a few feet in front of the X-Men, and Lance noticed that only two of the adults were there- Storm and Xavier.
"Thank you for coming promptly," Xavier looked at them.
"Who's going to be in the control room?" Lance questioned.
"Logan is already there, you can go join him."
Xavier barely caught the flinch passing Lance's features before the teen nodded.
"We don't have to prove anything to them; don't get too obsessive about Daniels, okay?" Lance murmured, his voice lowered so only the Brotherhood could hear him. He looked at Pietro as he said the last part.
"I get it already. You guys don't have to remind me every damn second," arms crossed, Pietro rolled his eyes.
"It'd be way more convincing if you weren't glaring at him right before you said that," Lance replied, then gave Todd a reassuring smile. "I'll be watching out for you, don't worry," he gave Fred and Tabitha a last nod before leaving for the control room.
"So, what're we doing?" Tabitha looked at the X-Men.
"Just one of the basic sims. You will be grouped into two teams. The first team will be Scott, Kurt, Kitty, Tabitha, and Todd. The second will be Jean, Rogue, Evan, Pietro, and Fred."
"Wait, it's going to be mixed?" Pietro turned from Evan to Xavier.
"Of course Pietro. The main point of this exercise is to build trust between each other," Xavier nodded.
"And we're okay with that," Tabitha said, giving Pietro a look.
"Yeah, whatever," Pietro grumbled, shooting Evan a glare.
Evan returned it, though at seeing this, Kurt nudged the skateboarder in the side.
"Well, that's it. Good luck to both teams," Xavier smiled as the doors opened.
"We don't need your luck," Pietro murmured, but on his part, he didn't say it loudly. Fred nudged him lightly as they walked in after Tabitha and Todd.
"I'll watch out for Todd; you guys be careful, okay?" Tabitha said, looking at the two boys.
They nodded and the Brotherhood separated, moving to their own assigned groups.
"Okay, so the objective is to get to that," Scott pointed to a raised platform across the room. "Before they do. You can use your powers all you want, as long as it's not to directly hurt anyone."
"Got it," Tabitha replied, guessing that the explanation was for her and Todd, since Kurt and Kitty seemed well aware of this.
Lance cautiously opened the door, silently hoping that maybe Beast and Wolverine had switched last minute. Then again, he wouldn't be so happy to run into him either. Too bad it couldn't have been Storm. Then again, seeing as how she hadn't tried to talk to him before, if it was Storm, she'd probably try now. So, whoever it was, the circumstances would be similar. Then again, neither Beast nor Storm had adamantium claws and a temper to match.
Logan turned as the door slowly opened, having expected it. He watched as Lance stepped inside, keeping to the wall- both because he needed the extra support, and to keep distance between them, Logan assumed. "Come over here," he nodded towards the chair, and then turned back, returning his attention to the Danger Room.
Lance hesitated, but moved away from the wall and made his way to the chair, careful to go around Logan yet not make it blatantly obvious.
"What level sim is it going to be?" he questioned, testing the waters.
"Not too hard," Logan glanced at the younger mutant. "Give the act a rest, Shakedown. I can tell you right now, it's not working."
Lance scowled, but didn't reply, turning to the windows to watch the Danger Room.
"You're not going to die, did you get that through your head yet?"
Lance didn't move; his eyes glued to the scene as he watched the two teams split up and talk amongst themselves.
"You're not," Logan repeated, his tone indicating that Lance had better respond this time.
"I'm trying to pay attention here, do you mind?" Lance mumbled, still not looking at the man. "Why're they split up," he murmured, to himself this time. "At least Tabby's with Todd..." he continued, surveying the situation. "And Pietro's not going to try to maim Daniels...hopefully..."
"When are you going to get what I'm saying through that thick head of yours?" Logan frowned as Lance attempted to ignore his presence, his voice illustrating his displeasure. "Look at me when I'm talking to ya."
Reluctantly, Lance turned, but not without a scowl. "What?"
"Don't pretend you can't hear me. Things aren't going to go away just because you pretend they don't exist."
"Try listening to yourself. I'm going to die; you can't change that. I don't care, all right? I don't. Lay off; I've got other things to worry about," Lance turned back to the Danger Room.
"Look Rocky, I don't buy any of your indifference act, and you're not dying."
"Fine, whatever. Get off my case, it's not like you want to be talking to me," Lance replied, his voice acidic, his eyes still on the Danger Room, or rather, four people in it.
Logan turned as the door opened, and Charles entered. He shook his head, knowing that the other man would know what he meant. Turning back to the controls, he started the simulation.
"...so that's it. Evan? Pietro?" Jean looked at the two boys.
"We're fine," Pietro said, not looking away from his glare.
"Yeah, let's go," Evan added, his eyes not moving from their target as well.
Jean and Rogue sighed, and Rogue got in between the two. "Ah think Ah'll stand here."
"They're probably going to try to get Nightcrawler to port at least some of their team, so we'll have to keep him busy. Quicksilver, you'll have the most time to spare, why don't you take him. I'll take care of Boom Boom's bombs, and Spyke, you watch Shadowcat. Rogue and Blob, you guys can keep an eye on Cyclops and Toad."
They nodded to Jean's words, and though it truly took a lot to do so, Pietro refrained from commenting.
"Ok Nightcrawler, it'll be easy if you 'port some of us over, but they'll be expecting that, so be careful. Boom Boom, you can cover him. Shadowcat, Toad, and I will run interference while Kurt ports whoever is closest to him over," Scott looked at them.
Before more could be said, the sirens went off, and the simulation began.
Kurt immediately attempted to port Tabitha and himself at least halfway through the room, but was swept off his feet- literally- by a silver streak, ending up in the far right corner of the room. And in front of giant robotic tentacles that shot out from the wall.
"Nice try, Fur-face" Pietro smirked. "But you're too slow! Actually, it wasn't that great a try either, but we'll commend the effort, however unsuccessful it was," he sped back towards the others, delayed only for a minute in dodging an optic blast from Scott.
"Too-slow-Summers!"
Ducking out of the way of an array of spikes Evan threw towards her, Tabitha returned the gifts with her own bombs.
"Boom Boom, you lost Nightcrawler!" Scott shouted while blasting one of the machines behind Kitty.
"Well I can't help it if Pietro's faster than me! He'll 'port back!" she snapped, and spared a glance over towards the boy, who was teleporting around to avoid the attacks of tentacles from the wall. But having faith in him and also not having the leisure of taking her attention away from her situation for long, she turned again. She was running next to Todd, the two effectively blasting and sliming the machines that headed for them.
"See Toddy, it's not that bad!" Tabitha said as she threw a few bombs towards Jean as the red head attempted to telekinetically stop them.
"Yeah, if you don't count all the stuff flying at us, yo!" Todd answered as he dodged a blast, and jumping aside, slimed another laser-firing device.
"I'm going to go help Kurt out!" Kitty shouted over to Scott as she phased through a tentacle, making it crash into the floor after shorting out.
Scott's response was stalled as Pietro started running around him, building up a tornado.
"Quicksilver!" he shouted, and attempted a blast at the ground in front of Pietro as a distraction, but it went wide and headed straight for an unknowing Rogue across the room, who was busy fighting off a metal tentacle after having borrowed a little of Jean's powers.
"Rogue!"
Jean had also seen the misfired shot, and tried to create a shield around the girl, but was knocked to the side by a tentacle herself.
Rogue turned at hearing her name, too late to react. But just before the blast could hit her, a tall figure moved in front of her, blocking it.
Rogue's eyes widened as she realized who it was.
Fred only gave her a shy grin as he turned back to look at her. "Better start than before?"
Rogue's surprised look softened to a smile.
"Thanks Fred."
Evan fired a barrage of spikes at the tentacle going towards Jean, just as he stepped onto the platform, reaching the goal point. Tabitha and Todd had surprisingly been the first ones to reach it, having made it across around the time Pietro was 'strategically distracting' Scott. They had been followed by Pietro, and then Kitty, who had been dropped off, courtesy of Kurt's teleportation. Just after her, Fred, Rogue, and Evan had made it in, followed closely by Jean; the simulation ended as Scott and Kurt ported in just before Jean stepped on.
"Just in time! Ve rule!" Kurt shouted as he high-fived Scott.
"Could you possibly have been any slower," Pietro looked at Jean, but redirected his look to Evan, who was next to her. "Couldn't keep up?" he smirked.
"I'll give you 'keep up'-"
"Calm down, Evan," Scott interrupted.
"This was a good session, and it was a close match," Jean added.
"Well we still beat you," Tabitha smirked, looking at Jean, and more so, Rogue. Her eyes changed, much colder, as she looked at the second girl.
"We'll see who's first tomorrow... or whenever we're supposed to do this again," Pietro put in, not as bothered as he might have been that someone had beat him because they had been Tabitha and Todd. Besides, he had taken his time, deterring the X-Geeks, especially Summers. And it wasn't like he couldn't beat them.
