The More Things Change
Chapter 10: Changes
Author: RoguesKnight
Disclaimer: Despite finally graduating from college, the characters associated with Buffy of X-Men are still not mine. Still the property of Marvel and Mutant Enemy. Though if anyone with those esteemed companies would like to make them a grad present, I wouldn't complain.
Author's note: Graduated! No job yet! What's this mean? Stress in need of relief which means time to write when not job searching. As always this is dedicated to my beautiful fiancée, only a couple months from being my beautiful wife; and to my reviewers.
And with no further ado….
Looking down through the reinforced glass of the Danger Room's control center, Xander couldn't figure out just where the name came from. The room below was the same cobalt blue of the hanger, but that was about it's only distinguishing feature. The walls, ceiling, and doors were lacked any adornment, let alone menace or danger. I've got to be missing something he thought, his eye once again passing over the room. " Ok," he said casually to the control room's only other occupant, an African-American woman with startling white hair, who'd introduced herself as Ororo Monroe. She was dressed comfortably in a light green cotton t-shirt, blue jeans and black sandals. " You win, I give up. What exactly is the danger of the danger room? Do you just throw people in until the lack of …anything to do drives them nuts?"
Ororo smiled; though Xander was only perhaps four or five years younger than she was, he still seemed to have all of the patience of some of her restless freshmen. It was refreshing to know that someone who'd obviously been through a lot in life could still retain some of the innocence of youth. Resisting the urge to fall into the comfortable role of a teacher, she pushed back from the control console at which she was seated and regarded him silently for a moment, deciding how best to answer his question. Finally she spoke, " Alexander, while we didn't get the full story on you like we do on any new student to come in here," she paused, the silence more than clearly implying that she would like to know more, " we did get a briefing. Can you honestly tell me that with all you've lived through you believe that just because you can't see the danger that it isn't there?"
Xander pushed away from the window he was leaning against and turned to face her fully, crossing his arms over his chest. " For the last time Ms. Monroe, please just call me Xander, or if you can't do that, then at least Alex. Nobody calls me Alexander, unless I'm in trouble, and I really hope that I haven't gotten into enough trouble for that in the…" He checked his watch, " three hours I've been here". His obvious discomfort with his full name brought another smile to Ororo's face but she seemed to take pity on the younger man, nodding.
" Alex, then" She said, motioning for him to take the seat beside hers, " Xander just sounds so odd. But that's beside the point. You've avoided the question. If you can't see the danger, does it mean it doesn't exist? And," she added as an after thought, " It's just Ororo, of if you prefer you can call me by my code name Storm. You're not that much younger than me, and you're not one of my students. There's no need for the formality of Ms. Monroe"
Xander smiled, if he hadn't liked her almost immediately her no nonsense attitude and the warmth which she spoke would have been earning points in her favor. " Deal," he said, settling into the seat beside her and stealing a glance back into the empty room below them. " No, just because the danger isn't visible doesn't mean it's not there. In my experience it's been the times when you couldn't see the danger that have been the most dangerous as a matter of fact." From the corner of his eye, he could see nodding in agreement. " Still," he continued, " I'm not the only one avoiding a question here. What's the danger of the Danger room?"
The sudden flashing of a button on the control console drew Ororo's attention from her young companion. " You'll see," she said enigmatically, reaching out and pressing the flashing button. In response, below them the door leading into the danger room opened and Logan walked out, followed by Kitty, Rogue, and finally Jubilee, looking much differently than they had when Xander had last seen them. Logan was wearing a simple tank top and sweat pants, and a disturbingly chipper smile, while each of the girls was dressed in an identical black jumpsuit with golden a golden X emblazoned on each shoulder. Both Rogue and Kitty had tied their longer hair back in French braids to keep their vision clear when things finally got started. Logan led the girls into the center of the room before turning to look at the occupants of the control booth.
" For the benefit of the uninformed," he said gruffly, his voice being transmitted via hidden intercoms into the booth as clearly as if he were standing within it's confines, " this is the Danger room. It provides the students with a safe place to learn to control their abilities, as well as the opportunity to learn how to operate as a team in combat situations." Logan gestured expansively to take in the entire room, " Though the room may appear to be empty at the moment, it is equipped with state of the art robotics and holographic technology, allowing nearly any opponent or battlefield to be realistically recreated for training that encompasses virtually any situation that can be imagined."
"Impressive," Xander whispered, excitement creeping into his voice. He turned to Ororo, interest showing clearly in his eyes. " Was this the Professor's idea? And secondly, if they're fighting robots in there how do they keep from getting hurt?" He shuddered remembering the threat that Adam had posed, and glanced nervously into the danger room. Experienced or not, he didn't want to see any one hurt when he could have kept them out of there by doing more to have stopped the fight in his room a short while ago.
" I can answer that Jr." Logan said, clearly hoping the nickname would irritate the younger man. " And if you're wondering how I can hear you, the intercoms work both ways. Yes, this baby was the Professor's brain child, though following the attack on the Mansion, I've had a hand in modifying the programs, along with one of our most recent additions to the staff, Dr. Henry McCoy, to make them more applicable to real life situations. As to how no one gets seriously hurt, there are sensors all over this room focused on the well being of the combatants. The second any unacceptable level of harm is detected to anyone in the room, emergency shut offs kick in and end the program.. In the unlikely event that the automatic shut offs fail, there is a back up in the control booth with you and Storm." Xander released a breath he didn't realize he'd been holding and leaned back into his chair, satisfied that the girls weren't in any real danger as Logan continued, " But enough chit chat. These ladies seem to have energy to burn, so let's see if we can help them burn it." If he was aware of the nasty glares the three young women were giving him, he didn't show it. " Storm, activate the sentinel attack program sequence number five. Difficulty level….8.5. Enjoy your workout ladies" He grinned and trotted back through the door he'd lead the girls through as they settled into attack stances.
In the control booth, Ororo typed the command into the computer, a concerned frown crossing her attractive features, " I hope he knows what he's doing" she muttered. Xander was about to ask what she meant by that comment when a flash in the room below drew his attention back to the window. What had once been an empty room now appeared to be an open field on the edge of a forest. Even the ceiling appeared to have vanished, replaced by an amazingly lifelike sky. A sky from which quickly dropped three purple hued robots, each only slightly taller than Rogue, who was the tallest of the three girls, but something about the way their eyes glowed an unfriendly yellow and their ominous command of " Surrender mutant", spoken in unison made them seem more than a match for any of the young women.
" Here's where the fun begins" Rogue muttered, her voice being carried as easily as Logan's had, into the control booth. " Divide and conquer," she ordered advancing on the robot directly in front of her, " If and when you manage to take your opponent out, provide assistance to whoever needs it"
"Copy that" Kitty said, all hints of youth and innocence gone from her voice as she phased through the floor of the danger room only to come back up moments later some fifteen feet to the left of her starting position, drawing off the leftmost sentinel in the process.
" You've got it boss lady" Jubilee quipped, firing a burst of energy at the photoreceptors of the android nearest to her and darting away while it was blinded and leaving it to follow.
Maybe they'll do better than I thought Xander mused, impressed by the way that Rogue stepped naturally into a leadership role and how easily the other two girls responded to it. A second, more sinister, thought worked its way into his mind as he watched the girls face off against their metallic opponents Maybe I could talk the Professor into sending Logan back to L.A. for a while to train the Slayers to work as a team like this. He chuckled darkly. Groups of teenage girls with nearly no discipline and super strength would be enough revenge for the Jr. comment. Making a mental note to ask Xavier about it later, he turned back to Ororo. " What do you mean you hope he knows what he's doing?" he asked. Over the intercom, the sounds of battle were picking up and the sound of a particularly loud crash made him wince.
Ororo considered him silently for a moment before answering, " It's not that I don't think the girls are capable of handling the training program," she said evenly, " It just seems a little excessive in comparison to their "offense". A blast of energy splattered against the shatterproof windows of the control booth causing its occupants to jump. " Watch your aim Jubilee," Ororo said calmly, activating the intercom so the girls could hear, " We're not you enemies up here".
" How else am I supposed to hit a flying target?" came the terse reply, punctuated by another blast of colorful energy splashing against the windows.
Flying? Xander wondered, Those things can fly? Ororo may be right about the punishment being excessive . Glancing out the window, he saw that the purple hued robots had taken to the air, via rocket boosters in their feet, and were in hot pursuit of the girls, firing what appeared to be some sort of energy beams from their hands. Fortunately they seemed to be horrible shots.
" There's more than one way to handle a flying target," Rogue replied, leaping from a branch in one of the trees at the edge of the field and driving her booted feet into the head of a passing sentinel, riding it until it was close to the floor and pushing off at the last minute; the extra force slamming its head into the ground. The booster rockets died and the robot lay motionless. " You just need to be willing to think on your feet, and sometimes with them" She added inspecting her handiwork as the other two girls groaned at the horrible attempt at humor.
From the control booth, Xander smiled. Her sense of humor sure hasn't improved much since Tennessee he thought, watching as Rogue darted off to assist Kitty with the sentinel that was plaguing her. " So, you mean to tell me you guys have actually had to fight things like that?" He asked Ororo, sliding back into the seat beside her.
"Fortunately no," she replied, tapping a button on the console and keying for the removal of the downed sentinel. " These, "sentinels" as they're called haven't been deployed in combat situations against us…yet." She frowned The computer's taking it's sweet time to remove that sentinel " They are based on rumors of mutant hunting machines in development by rogue elements of the military. Fortunately for us, the Professor has some highly placed friends who've been able to smuggle out early blueprints and readouts of their proposed abilities. Hopefully we won't ever have to face them in a real combat situation, but with the way things are going in the senate with the Mutant Registration Act, it's better to be prepared for something we don't have to face than to be caught off guard". Aggravated, she turned her attention back to the computer, keying for a complete power up of the downed robot with instructions to leave the field of combat. A small smile crossing her face as a schematic of the robot appeared, showing the powering up of each of its systems. Finally.
A cry of triumph sounded over the intercom, suggesting strongly that Jubilee had managed to take out her pursuer. " That's two down," Xander observed, watching her rush off to join Rogue and Kitty in combating the remaining sentinel. " You mean to tell me that the government is so afraid of mutants that they're willing to spend valuable taxpayer money just to wipe them out?" he asked disgustedly.
Ororo reached over and placed a hand on Xander's shoulder, touched that the Professor's faith in humanity wasn't entirely misplaced. " It's not all of the government," she said softly, looking into his eye " But yes, there are parts of it that figure if they can't control something, oh let's say mutants for example, then it's better to "deal" with the "problem" sooner rather than later. They're just afraid of what they don't understand"
Xander couldn't help it, a slow mischievous grin spread across his face, " Fear. Fear is the path to the dark side, fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering" he said, doing his best Yoda impersonation
Ororo's hand dropped from Xander's shoulder and she hid her face in her hands, muttering, " First Scott, then Hank, now another one….I can see it now…the TV in the lounge is going to have nothing but Star Trek…."
Xander stiffened suddenly as if he'd been struck physically, to have someone confuse the glory that was Star Wars, yes, even with that god awful Jar Jar Binks, to the canned crap that was Star Trek was a near mortal offense. He was preparing to really lay into her, no matter how nice she seemed, for that remark when warning klaxons began sounding throughout the control booth and danger room below. The sentinel Ororo had commanded to reactivate had come to full power, but instead of following the programmed directive to leave the field of battle, it seemed intent on joining the remaining sentinel in combating the young women. The sentinel's boot rockets flared and it took off at a dangerously fast speed towards the fighting which had moved to the middle of the clearing, far from the edge of the forest.
Ororo quickly swiveled back to the control board bringing up the schematics for the robot again and blanched. The read out showed the sentinel operating at near maximum power, far beyond the skill level of any of the three girls in the room. Slapping the intercom, she shouted " Logan, get back into the danger room immediately. One of the sentinels is out of control and not responding to commands from up here. You're the best shot of shutting it down before someone gets hurt." Hearing the announcement, the three young combatants disengaged from the sentinel they were facing and spread out, hoping to make themselves harder targets for the approaching uncontrolled robot.
The door to the danger room opened and through the window Xander could see Logan's form, claws already extended, racing to intercept the sentinel's flight path. Unfortunately his approach did not go unnoticed by his target. " Halt mutant" the robot commanded, hovering in place and swiveling to face the more immediate threat, both arms extended towards its target in preparation for attack. The attack posture of the sentinel only spurred Logan to move more quickly, and watching from above, Xander became even more convinced that he never wanted to piss off the short burly mutant. With a grace Xander hadn't seen even in veteran Slayers like Faith and Buffy, Logan easily dodged the energy beams that had begun firing from the sentinel's palms. When he was within striking distance Logan let go a primal scream that even through the intercom sent shivers down Xander's spine and leapt into the air, clearly intent on disarming the sentinel in the most literal of senses. Unfortunately the sentinel had anticipated the attack and fired energy beams from both hands simultaneously, catching Logan in mid-jump and slamming him into the wall of the danger room with enough force to short out the holographic projection of the field and forest. Logan seemed to hang on the wall for a moment before slumping to the ground unconscious, claws retracting into his hands automatically. The sentinel considered the prone form of its assailant for a moment before turning back to its original task. "Target neutralized" it intoned darkly, heading once again for the girls.
"Shit, "Ororo exclaimed violently. She spared a glance at Xander "Whatever happens next, stay here." The tone of her voice clearly said there was no room for argument as she quickly rose from her seat and ran out of the control booth, triggering a general alarm throughout the institute on her way.
A computer screen flashed to life beside Xander moments after she left, revealing the troubled face of Professor Xavier, " Xander," he said without preamble, " What's wrong?" Xander quickly filled the Professor in on what had happened. " Storm is right Xander, stay where you are. I'm sending Beast and Cyclops down for to back Storm up. You should be safe in the control room." Just as quickly as the screen had cut on it flicked back off. Xander punched Ororo's now empty chair in helpless frustration. He hated being kept out of danger for his own good but he hated even more the fact that in this case he was even more out of his league than usual in terms of being able to do anything to help. All he could do was watch and hope the much needed back up got there before anyone else got hurt.
" Jubilee, see what you can do to keep him busy without getting hurt" Rogue ordered on the danger room floor, knowing that without the benefits of holograms to use as cover the chances of that weren't good. The younger Asian girl nodded in acknowledgement and fired a stream of energy directly into the hovering sentinel's face.
" Yo, you're pretty tough when it comes to taking down big scary men with nasty claws coming out of their hands," she taunted, firing another blast of energy into the robot, " let's see how well you do against poor defenseless girls". While not programmed to be irritated by taunting, the near constant attacks had the desired effect of drawing the sentinel's attention away from the room's other occupants as it began to follow jubilee's bobbing and weaving form, waiting for an opening to counter attack. With the distraction working, Rogue quickly raced to the unconscious Logan's side and began dragging him towards the door for quick and easy rescue when the back up would eventually arrive.
Despite the seriousness of the situation, Rogue smirked He's so going to hate this when he wakes up. Maybe Ah can get some pictures of him still unconscious…might come in handy sometime as blackmail. Turning her attention back to the present problems she could see that Jubilee was still holding her own against the psychotic sentinel, keeping up a continuous attack that held it on the defensive while pursuing her. Rogue knew her friend couldn't keep it up forever though, and could recognize the first hints of fatigue beginning to work their way into Jubilee's body. She stole a glance at the door to the danger room, silently willing the back up to hurry before scanning the room again, this time in search of Kitty. It didn't take her long to find the other girl, as the second sentinel had taken advantage of their distraction to press its attack against her, forcing her to keep phasing through its energy beams and steadily back up across the room towards Jubilee. A sudden realization dawned on Rogue They're being set up to be caught in a cross fire She was about to shout a warning to her friends when a second realization occurred to her Ah can't risk breaking either of their concentration. Damn it! Not for the first time she wished her powers would allow her a ranged attack of some sort, or that she had a weapon she could use. As it was, she was limited to watching and waiting for help.
The fact that she was being pushed back into a trap had occurred to Kitty as well, and still she let it happen. She had to if her plan was going to work, and the scary thing was, she was almost certain; and not in the being a genius kind of way, that it would. Few more steps She thought, listening to the sounds of Jubilee's assault coming closer from behind while keeping her eyes locked onto the robot in front of her. " Come on," she muttered, " Just a little farther". Another energy beam passed harmlessly through her, but she couldn't keep it up forever. Only going to have one shot at this, better make it good she thought, stopping dead in her tracks and striking the most defenseless pose she could manage. The sentinel, sensing an easy victory moved in for the kill; only to be stopped by Kitty's hand phasing through its chest and pulling out it's power core. " Out of power?" She asked the robot with a wicked smile as the yellow of its eyes dimmed and finally went out, " I'm not." Moving almost too quickly for the eye to follow she grasped the dead robot and hefted it easily over her head, turning in a quick circle to face Jubilee and her attacker. "Jubes, drop!" She shouted. Without a word Jubilee followed the shouted order, landing flat on her back just in time to see a lifeless sentinel pierce the chest of the one that had been attacking her, before the before the whole mess was embedded in the wall from the force of the throw.
" Damn girl," She said slowly pushing herself to her feet and looking from the sentinels and back to Kitty in awe, " Have you been eating your wheaties or something recently?" Before Kitty could answer, the door to the danger room opened and in rushed Storm, Cyclops and Beast, only to come to a dead stop as they realized that they'd arrived too late to be of any use.
" Looks like the cavalry's finally arrived" came Xander's voice over the intercom, his tone conveying a mixture of relief, awe and amusement. " You know what they say, better late than never"
" Indeed," Beast agreed, sounding somewhat amused himself as he knelt to pick up Logan's still unconscious form, " It seems that our services are no longer needed. At least in a combative capacity. Still, I'd like everyone to head down to the infirmary so we can make sure that no one has sustained any lasting or serious injury. Scott, if you would be so good as to escort our young guest down, I'd like to hear his account of events considering that there are two robots stuck to each other and one of our walls, and none of the young women here should have the strength to accomplish such a feat."
Without a word, but his expression suggesting he didn't like the idea, Scott nodded and headed back out the door to collect Xander. Beast watched him go before turning to Storm and Rogue " Ororo, Rogue, would you two mind helping Jubilee and Kitty down as well?" He tilted his head in the direction of the two young women who were leaning on each other heavily for support as they slowly made their way towards the group near the door. Shifting his grip on Logan's unconscious form, Beast headed out the door himself to prepare the infirmary for more activity than it'd seen in a long while, a thousand questions about just what had gone on in the danger room burning through his mind.
" Amazing," Beast said, a blue hand rubbing at his furred chin thoughtfully as Xander finished explaining what he'd seen from the control room to the assembled group, with the occasional input from the three young mutants who'd survived the ordeal. Almost equally amazing was the fact that other than fatigue, and some minor bumps and bruises none of the girls had suffered any serious injury. " Professor," he said pushing a button for the intercom on a nearby console, " Is there anything in Ms. Pryde's genetic profile to suggest that enhanced strength or speed such as has been reported would be a result of further development of her natural mutant abilities"
" Not that I'm aware of Hank," came the somewhat troubled sounding reply. At this all the eyes fell on Kitty, who squirmed uncomfortably under the scrutiny, sitting on the table that held the still unconscious Logan. Rogue and Jubilee, standing on either side of her, each put an arm around their nervous looking friend for support, and even Xander tried to reassure her with a smile. None of it seemed to be working. " We could perhaps run some tests on a current DNA against our files on record, but I've never heard of this kind of change to a person, human or mutant, without outside genetic tampering."
It was Xander's turn to squirm as he got what felt like a decidedly unfriendly glare from Scott. The visored man had seemed to have a problem with him from the moment they'd met, and it was obvious that the older man still didn't trust him. " Hey, hey, hey now." He said backing up towards Beast and Storm, " I didn't do anything to her. I just had two gorgeous women wrestling on my bed" Rogue and Kitty both blushed a deep crimson at the remark, while Jubilee pouted obviously put out at not being included in the gorgeous category, " and another gorgeous woman trying to keep out of the wrestling match," he continued with a quick wink to Jubilee, who immediately brightened. " How on earth could I do any kind of genetic modification, even if I knew how, in such a short time when my brain was doing all it could to keep me from passing out at a fantasy come to life?" Out of the corner of his eye, Xander could see Storm doing her best to hide a smile, and he could almost swear he heard Beast snickering behind him. Well, at least the Doc likes me he thought, meeting Scott's gaze as calmly as he could Between Cyclops here and Logan, I'm sure I'm going to have to rely on the Doc to patch me up at least once before I go back to L.A. A pang of guilt suddenly washed through him, he hadn't even tried contacting anyone back there to let them know he'd arrived safely. Not even Dawn he thought kicking himself mentally. After the way she'd said goodbye, letting her know he'd arrived safely should have been one of his top priorities.
" Ummm" Kitty said uncertainly, drawing the attention thankfully away from Xander, " I know there are various methods of testing DNA, but I just want to be absolutely sure that this wouldn't involve needles in any way". She shuddered and her friends tightened their grips on her protectively.
" Of course not." Beast said calmly, with his most reassuring smile, " I could use hair, or a skin sample, both of which could be obtained quite painlessly. You've got nothing to worry about" Kitty visibly relaxed and offered up the most genuine smile she had since the events in the danger room.
"Before we go that route," Xander spoke up, " There's been something bothering me since the fight and I think I may have just put a finger on it. Does anybody mind if I ask Kitty a few quick questions?" Once again all the eyes in the room were on him, though the atmosphere was one more of curiosity than hostility. " Ok, seeing no objections," he took a deep breath, " How've you been sleeping lately Kitty? Any strange dreams….maybe that you've been different people in different times?"
" Ok," Scott cut in before she could answer, " That has to be the most pointless question I've ever heard. Who here hasn't had a dream like that?"
" How did you know," Kitty asked wide eyed, ignoring Scott's interruption. " For the past few weeks, yea…they've been coming off and on. Never the same one twice….but they seem so real…..and…."
" They never end with a happily ever after," Xander finished, his voice and body posture suggesting that a great weight had just landed on him. Kitty nodded, confirming the statement and he sighed. Wonderful, bloody wonderful He thought. " Second question…when you've been fighting, or training, whatever the case may be has that changed any in the past few weeks?"
Kitty paled, not liking where this line of questioning was going but nodded. " It's not a consistent thing, but sometimes, like tonight, I'll just get into the rhythm of the fight and …just know what I need to do and how I need to do it and then I do." She shrugged, trying to ignore the startled glances from her friends, " I just thought it was that I was getting better due to all the training." She paused, and took a deep breath before looking into Xander's eye, " But it's not that, is it?"
Xander shook his head sadly, finally realizing the kind of pressure Giles must have felt in working with a young Buffy, and wishing he could spare Kitty the kind of pain he suspected lay ahead of her. " I can't be positive yet," he started, " but I have every reason to believe from what you said that you might be a Slayer". Kitty nodded in resignation, as if she'd known what he was going to say and before anyone could stop her, she jumped down from the table and ran out of the infirmary. " Well, that went about as well as I thought it would," Xander exclaimed to the assembled group before running out after her as fast as he could.
The infirmary was silent with shock at the recent revelations for a few moments after Xander's departure. It was then that Logan's miraculous healing ability seemed to have completed its job and he sat up, rubbing his head and grimacing painfully. " Hank, I know you hate it when I smoke, but seeing as cancer's the least of my problems right now, how about bending the rules and letting me light up in here for a change?" When he didn't get a reply from Beast he looked around the room, taking in the small assemblage of people there, all of whom were staring at him. " What?" he asked, " Did I miss something important?