Chapter 10: In Which We Discover that being more Dangerous then the Danger Room Is not Necessarily a Good Thing.

Me: (Evil Grin) Sugar.

Jet: Chaotic Dreamer got a cold, and so her Mom gave her some candy to suck on for her throat. One day I am going to take my revenge on that woman.

Me: Suga suga suga suga suga suga suga (you get the idea)

Jet: (Puts her head in her paws.) Someone just shoot me now.

Me: Okay (Takes picture with a camera) Gotcha! Suga suga suga suga.

Jet: That wasn't even funny.

Me: (sticks tongue out.) By the way, the plot does not advance here at all. Not really. But I couldn't think of a way to advance it without giving too much away. Hey, though, it's a loooooooooooooooooooooooooooong chapter. Lo-ong. Suga.

SHOUT OUTS:
triquetaperson: Wow, you're nice. You reviewed! Yeah, I was kinda going for paranoid.

DISCLAIMER: I don't own anything herein but Jennifer. If you have a problem with this fact, then perhaps you should stop reading fan fiction.

I shook my head, then deleted the e-mail. Paranoid was what my Mom did, not me. Someone tapped my shoulder, and I jumped about a foot in the air. Never mind, maybe I did do paranoid.
"What?" I asked, turning around. Ray, the boy with the orange feather-thingies on his head, was behind me.

"DR session."

"Huh?" I asked eloquently.

"Danger room. Just follow Jubilee or someone and they'll explain." He then ran down the hallway. I blinked, then left the computer room and latched myself to a passing Rahne. (Not literally)

"Okay, what are we doing?" I asked her, and she explained that this was some kind of training thing. I got a bit confused by most of the details, but finally understood that we had to run around a room with a bunch of lasers and stuff attacking us until Logan said we could leave. And we could use our powers. Fun.

We went into a locker room, and everyone changed into the uniforms. I put my hair in a ponytail with a tie-dye scrunchie I usually carried around in my pocket, just so I'd have something tie-dye on. And then we entered the danger room. Rahne continued to explain that only the 'new recruits' were doing this session. I didn't quite get that concept; apparently the 'X-men' were the older people and the ones who had unique uniforms. The new recruits get into as many fights, so we had to do more DR sessions. Something like that. Anyway, I looked around the room. It was made out of some kind of blue metal, and it was a round room. Near the ceiling was a window to a room where I could see Professor Xavier with something on his head. This was just strange. Crazy New Yorkers.
Logan was there, as well as all the other 'new recruits.' He started talking when everyone showed up.
"The goal is to get rid of the guns. Any questions?" I raised my hand.
"What?" He growled, annoyed that there actually was a question.
"What on earth does this have to do with anything?" Someone sniggered, but I wanted to know. Logan actually looked kind of confused.
"Well, you're a mutant so there's lots of bullets most of the time and you have to get into lots of fights and... Oh shut up! Just do it!" His claws came out, and I decided it would be smart to shut up now. He stormed out of the room, and all the doors banged shut. I winced, then looked around.
"Oh great." I muttered as several of the metal plates on the walls shifted, and various laser guns came out of the cracks. A computer type voice came over a loudspeaker somewhere:
"Session will begin in Three Two One." And then the guns started shooting.
I really honestly had no idea what I was doing. So I started dodging. One laser beam came towards my feet, I tried to jump over it, tripped, and almost knocked Jubilee over.
"Use your power!" She said angrily, throwing a firework type thing at one of the guns.
I looked down at my hands. I'd gotten gloves with fingers as part of the uniform; and they stuck on annoyingly. Still attempting to dodge, I managed to wrestle one glove off. An Estrellita came out of my hand, and I sent it in the direction of the nearest laser gun. I didn't count on something though; the laser gun was made out of shiny metal. My estrellita got reflected.
"Oops." I said as it proceeded to bounce off all the walls and guns, and my classmates began shouting as they found something new to dodge. All I could do was watch as the estrellita started moving faster and faster until it was like a ray of light rather then a ball, then it came straight at me. On reflex I put up both my hands and caught it, and held on tight so it wouldn't just bounce off me. In my hands it started getting bigger and brighter. I then remembered to roll my eyes and it turned off. I then looked up to see the glares of the others, though I was slightly comforted by the fact that a hole the size of my estrellita was in a piece of not so shiny material on one of the now disabled guns. But then the guns turned off, and went back into the walls, and Logan walked in.
"Nightlight?" He said, and after a moment I realized he was talking to me.
"Um... sorry?" I said.
"Okay everyone." Logan said. "New plan; we're playing dodge ball. Since Nightlight here needs to sharpen her skills, it's everyone against her. Powers allowed; that's where the ball comes in."
"Mercy?" I asked as I saw a room full of evil grins. Not to mention fire, fireworks, ice, electricity, claws, and clones.

Two hours later, I was back in my normal clothes. I was also curled up on a couch, wincing as I applied a bandage to one of my burns.
"Did I really deserve this?" I asked Jamie, who was sitting next to me.
"Yes." He said, watching the game of pool currently in progress between Ray and Roberto.
"Thanks for the vote of support." I muttered, putting on another band-aid and glancing at Amara, who was pointedly ignoring me while talking to Jubilee. I gave a sigh; so much for being accepted at the institute. Well, I'd been in worse positions, and it didn't look like I was totally despised and hated. Not totally anyway. I started watching the game too, from lack of a better idea. Ray was stripes and Roberto was solids. Either that or they were both really bad players and kept knocking in each others balls, but they seemed to both be fairly good.
"Ha!" Roberto shouted as Ray accidentally knocked in the 8 ball. "I remain undefeated! Do any of you dare challenge me, the mighty Roberto?" He said as Ray growled.
Hm. I thought for a second, then answered.
"Sure, I've been hoping for a way to lose my remaining dignity today. Any house rules I should know about?" Roberto blinked and smirked.
"I'm not sure I want to risk putting a hole in the middle of the table, even if that did make the game more interesting."
"Oh, them's fightin words." I said. "You have to play me now." I grabbed Ray's pole and started fishing balls out of the pockets. Before long we had the table set up.
"Ladies first." Roberto said with a mock bow.
"I can wait." I said, and he glared at me. "Hey, you're the one who started it." I then realized that was continuing the ladies first joke and bit my lip to keep from laughing.
"No, I insist that you go first. I'm in need of a good laugh." He said, and I shrugged.
"Sorry to disappoint you." I said, resisting the urge to smirk because I look stupid when I do that. But the thing is, I have a talent for pool. I used to play it every day with my dad until he got tired of loosing. Half of that talent is luck, and the other half is that I try moves that most people think really stupid, but I call it talent anyway and whatever it is, it makes me good. I glanced along the pole and hit the cue ball. The balls scattered with a satisfying clatter, and ball number two fell into the corner pocket.
"Solids." I said, then started to hit the ball again.
"Careful not to trip on your bandages, mummy." Roberto said. I snorted, causing the ball to go the wrong way.
"Your turn. And I'll have you know that the Egyptian look is in this year."
"Maybe out in the middle of nowhere it is, like that one place you come from. What was it again? Idaho?" "Utah." I said. "Don't like potatoes that much."
"There are actually people who live there?(1)"
"Yeah, isn't it amazing?" I said with faked awe. "You'd expect everyone in the US to be stupid and live in places like New York." By now conversation in the rec. room had begun to die down, and people were looking back and forth between Roberto and me as if we were playing tennis or Ping-Pong instead of pool. "Well you do have to wonder with Americans. They're not usually very bright." Several non-American students cheered at this.
"Come to Utah if you want to meet some exceptions." I said cheerfully.
"So far it hasn't given me that good an impression."
"Hey, you owe me. I'm related to the guy who invented television on both sides of my family. And he was from Utah.(2)"
"Both sides of the family? That's disgusting!"
"Want to see disgusting? There's a mirror in the bathroom."
"Considering who gave that insult, it's obviously rooted in jealosy."
"Jealosy of what? The fact that you just got the cue ball in the pocket?"
"Someone's in denial."
"You saying that you didn't hit the cue ball in? Cause that would be denial on your part."
"Guys, break it up." Jean said, entering the room.
"Aw, I was having fun." I said. She gave me a look, then lifted her hands and the cues flew into them.
"I think you've had enough of that game." She said, then left.
"Nice going." Roberto said. I sighed, then sat down on the couch and put on another band-aid.

(1) Someone in California asked me that once, so yes there are people that stupid in the world.
(2)Philo T. Farmsworth. Actually, I'm the one related to him on both sides of the family. (By marraige.) In fact, I'm related to him in three ways. (Complicated story with a lot of marraiges.) I couldn't think of a better comeback, so I had her say that.

Me: Hehehe... That was fun to write.

Jet: I wonder about you sometimes.

Me: Don't we all? Well, please leave a review on your way out!