God's Trumpet
Chapter 5: The Danger Room
For obvious reasons, Raptor had never been a very social person and rarely ever approached new people, preferring to let them come to him. So when he went into the kitchen of Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters that evening, he bypassed the group of students sitting at the counter, heading straight for the refrigerator.
As Raptor pulled the fridge open and grabbed a soda, he felt their gazes on his back, a feeling he had always hated. Before, nearly all the attention he'd gotten was negative. Even some of the workers at the clinic had eyed his reptilian form with slight disgust. But he was more hopeful here. The demonic-looking Nightcrawler seemed happy here. Perhaps…
"Hey," one of the boys at the table said in greeting. Raptor turned to see the blond boy at the counter smiling at him. "I haven't seen you before. You new here?"
"I am," Raptor said warily.
The boy held out his hand, seemingly unafraid of touching Raptor's claws or scaly skin. "Bobby Drake."
Raptor accepted it. "Max Elliot."
"This is Marie D'Ancanto, Theresa Rourke, Piotr Rasputin, Jubilation Lee…"
"Jubilee," the Asian girl cut in.
"Jubilee," Bobby continued, "and Kitty Pryde." He pointed at each one in turn. "Or, if you'd like to be more informal, Rogue, Siryn, Colossus, Jubilee, Shadowcat, and I'm Iceman."
"Call me Raptor."
Jubilee glanced at her watch. "Almost time for Family Guy! Let's go. You like Family Guy, Raptor?" He nodded eagerly.
As the students filed out into the hall, they heard an angry voice say, "Not everyone heals as fast as you, Logan." The students' cheerful chattering faded as a man in red sunglasses walked by with a bag slung over his shoulder. Piotr put a muscular arm in front of Raptor, telling him to stay out of the man's way. "That's Cyclops," he whispered. "He's been like that ever since his girlfriend Jean died."
Raptor looked at Cyclops as he walked out the door and felt a pang of pity for the broken man. Trying to brighten the mood, Bobby said, "C'mon. Family Guy."
After a half hour of watching Peter Griffin make an idiot of himself, the students made their way to their rooms, ready for bed. They shuffled through the hall, rubbing their eyes and yawning.
"Just where do you think you're going?" Raptor and the other students looked up to see the man Logan standing with his arms folded in the middle of the hall, blocking their path.
"Bed," Bobby said in a tone that seemed to add "obviously." But no one spoke to Logan like that.
"No you're not," Logan said. "You're going to the Danger Room." He looked at Raptor. "You too, new guy."
"What?" the students groaned.
"But Wolverine, we're tired!" whined Jubilee. "We wanna sleep. Can't it wait till morning?"
"Did Stryker wait until morning?" asked Wolverine. "Do you think someone like him would wait for you to wake up and grab some coffee?" The answer was a sullen "no."
As the students trooped reluctantly behind Logan, Raptor whispered, "Who's Stryker? And what's the Danger Room?"
"The Danger Room's a training simulation," said Logan, who had apparently heard. "And Stryker's…"
"A fuckin' psycho!" spat Jubilee.
"…a military scientist," Logan continued, ignoring Jubilee's outburst. "His job was to deal with the mutant 'problem.' But he's dead now."
"Training for what?" asked Raptor.
"Defense," said Logan, stopping by an unremarkable blank space on the wall. Hitting a hidden switch, the wall slid open, revealing an elevator with immaculate silver walls. As Logan and the other students piled in without a thought, Raptor peered inside cautiously. What kind of school was this?
The elevator took them into the lower levels of the school. The walls were the same spotless silver, with curious round doors. Logan led them to one marked Danger Room.
"Hold on," said Rogue. "Aren't we gonna suit up?"
"Nope," said Logan. "You'll fight in what you're wearing. That's the point of this exercise. It's a surprise attack."
The door opened to reveal a wide, round room walled with silvery panels. Storm and Nightcrawler were waiting in the middle of the room. Storm was clad only in a flimsy white nightdress while Nightcrawler was shirtless, revealing several strange markings on his blue skin.
"Okay," said Storm. "Tonight we're…"
Before Storm could say any more, Logan hit a switch by the door. Apparently, he'd wanted to start the simulation before Storm could give away anything more about the "surprise attack."
Raptor was instantly whisked away from the others. The Danger Room became a blur of light rushing past him. You're standing still, he reminded himself to keep from falling over.
Eventually, the rushing light faded, forming a coherent image. Raptor found himself alone in a small, sparsely furnished bedroom with a bed and desk. Looking out the window, he could see the road Storm had driven on when she'd first brought him to the school. Apparently, this hologram was meant to mimic the school.
Raptor pressed his hand against the mattress. He could feel it. "One hell of a hologram," he muttered. He grasped the doorknob. It was the perfect duplicate of metallic texture. Cold, smooth, and hard. Raptor pulled open the door and stepped out into the hallway.
The mansion was dark and quiet. Raptor thought of those horror movies when everything was silent and tense right before the villain jumped out at you. In a situation like this, Raptor wondered, would he be able to keep that vow he'd made on the day he'd met Crescendo? It had been easy to swear off killing when he was alone and weak in the alleyway. But what about now, when a man with a gun might be rushing at him at any minute?
A blinding light shone through a window at the end of the hall. Raptor barely had time to notice it before the window exploded into hundreds of little glass shards. Men dressed in black Kevlar and masks began climbing into the hallway, brandishing submachine guns with flashlights attached. "There's one!" the leader shouted. Raptor disappeared down the hall and around a corner before the gunman could get a shot off. The bullets barely missed Raptor's tail.
Raptor ran blindly through the unfamiliar mansion, picking his paths at random. Looking out a window, he saw helicopters landing in the front lawn. Lines of gunmen scurried across the yard like ants.
Raptor saw the glow of a flashlight shining from around the corner and heard the sound of stomping boots getting closer and closer. The moment he saw the first black-clad gunman, Raptor unleashed his deadly acid. The spray of clear droplets arched gracefully through the air, landing squarely on the gun and melting it away. The lead gunman reached for a pistol while the two men behind him brought their weapons to bear.
Suddenly, a pair of hands shot through the men's chests as if they were made of smoke. The hands grasped the submachine guns and pulled them back through their bodies. Then Raptor heard a terrible staccato roar as the gunmen were filled with what were, unfortunately for them, armor piercing bullets. As the bodies dropped, Raptor saw the girl Shadowcat, clutching one of the submachine guns.
"Come on," she said, perfectly calm. "We have to regroup with the others."
Raptor stared at the "dead" bodies in shock, trying to remind himself it was just a hologram. He nodded numbly. Shadowcat held out her hand, helping him to his feet.
Shadowcat led Raptor through the halls. As she rounded a corner, she shouted, "Get back!" and kicked Raptor out of the way. Another group of gunmen were stalking down the hallway. They opened fire the moment they saw her. Seeing that Raptor was safely out of their line of fire, Shadowcat phased, letting the bullets fly through her. Raptor shut his eyes and hid his head under his arms as he heard Shadowcat mow her enemies down mercilessly. The girl tossed her empty weapon onto the ground, picking up a new one.
"It's just a hologram, Raptor!" Shadowcat said. "Let's go!" Slightly embarrassed, Raptor stood and followed her.
"Do you know where the others are?" asked Raptor. As if in answer, lightning flashed through the window. The gunmen outside cried out as roaring winds blew them over. Hailstones the size of musket balls rained down on them with unnatural force. The men, abandoning their weapons, scrambled aboard their helicopters. The helicopters began to lift off, abandoning several of their comrades. As the helicopters made their desperate escape, bright bolts of lightning shot down at them, lighting them and their passengers ablaze. The flaming wrecks crashed onto the ground. Raptor watched the scene without comprehending what he saw. He simply watched the fires spread and the gunmen fall without any thought or feeling. He was numb.
"Raptor!" Shadowcat's voice shook Raptor from his stupor. He looked around, just in time to stare down the barrel of an assault rifle.
"End simulation."
The simulated gun barrel and simulated mansion began to dissolve and once again, Raptor found himself in the circular, silver-walled Danger Room. Charles Xavier entered the room, a neutral expression on his face. "That is all for tonight," he said. "Good night." As Raptor left the Danger Room, he overheard Xavier rebuke Storm for attacking retreating helicopters.
As Raptor walked down the chrome halls, heading for the elevator, he heard Logan say, "Congratulations, Raptor. You were killed." When Raptor did not answer, Logan continued. "You can't just run away, Raptor. You have to fight back."
"I did what I would have done in real life," Raptor said with an edge in his voice. "Isn't that the point of the Danger Room?"
"In real life, would you curl up in a corner and let Kitty fight for you?" asked Logan.
Raptor made a derisive sound. "Were you impressed by Kitty's Rambo act back there? Let me ask you something. Do you honestly think she'd be able to do that in real life? Do you think any of us could actually do the things we do in that fancy video game?"
Logan fell silent, locking his human eyes on Raptor's amber ones. His voice low, he answered, "I sure as hell hope so."