Disclaimer: The X-Men are the property of Marvel, which is the property of Disney. I don't own Disney…if I did then I'd probably have found my way to Disney World by now.
Nervously Cheyenne shifted from foot to foot, uncomfortable in her pair of low top sneakers with the backs pared down to accommodate the spikes emerging from her heels, as she stood in the middle of the large room. She was clad in a matching pair of grey sweatshirt and pants, both bearing the insignia of Xavier's School for the Gifted - an 'X' in a circle. Rogue had provided the school sweat suit from a storage bin outside of the locker rooms located near the Danger Room.
Logan had helpfully sliced off the sleeves and cut out a hole in the back of the top, showing Cheyenne the sharp metal reasons why he was called Wolverine. Her shoes had been similarly 'adjusted' by honed adamantium.
"Alright kid, here's how it's gonna work." Logan's gruff voice came over the speakers from the control room. "There are eight levels - eight bein' the hardest. We're gonna start you on level one. I want you to take down your enemies in whatever way feels natural; we'll see what you've got. As you start to get the hang of it, I'm gonna crank up the level."
"Okay." Cheyenne swallowed, throat dry. 'Take down? The only thing I've ever taken down are notes. And cockroaches with flyswatters, or the available shoe.' She thought, panicking.
"Remember, hun, none of this is real but it will feel real. If you get hit, it'll hurt." Rogue cautioned, leaning forward from her seat next to Logan in the control room to speak into the intercom. "Don't worry though," she hastened to add, catching the expression on Cheyenne's now very pale face, "the sim will shut down automatically if you get overwhelmed or we can shut it off if need be."
Cheyenne managed a nod, feeling only marginally better at this disclaimer.
"Startin' it up." Logan stated, flicking a switch.
The room shifted into a large well-lit warehouse, impossibly larger than the room she had previously been standing in. 'Now this is cool.' Cheyenne thought, looking around her in awe. 'They could set this thing up to do historical re-enactments! Interactive ones! Oh, maybe when I start teaching they'll let me -' Her temporary excitement was broken by a clattering noise.
"Eeeek!" She shrieked in surprise as a metal spider about one and a half feet long and a foot high clambered out of a box in front of her.
The spider's legs clicked in a swift staccato on the floor as it crawled determinedly towards her. Acting on instinct, she raised her right foot and swiftly brought her heel down in the middle of the spider's back. There was a crunching noise as the spider was impaled by the spike of bone protruding from her foot.
"Hah." She remarked in satisfaction, pulling her talon free and turning towards the sound of more clattering.
Cheyenne had just dispatched her seventh spider when there was a knock on the control room door.
"Hey guys!" Kitty greeted cheerfully. "How's she doing?"
"Hey Kitty." Rogue replied. "She's on level one."
"Not anymore." Logan upped the difficulty setting as Cheyenne impaled her eighth mechanical spider.
Cheyenne turned towards the tell-tale skittering noise to find not one, but two metal spiders coming at her, faster than before. "Eeep!" She jumped, impaling one with either foot. "Oh dagnabit." She turned her head to see two more spiders coming up behind her as she struggled to free her feet. After a few more vain wiggles she finally lifted herself airborne with a flap of her wings to let gravity help her as she shook her feet and the spiders slid off of her talons.
Kitty giggled. "It looks like she's playing hopscotch." She remarked, watching Cheyenne repeat her maneuver of pounce and fly.
"Hey, you're right." Rogue agreed, giggling a bit.
"You finish workin' on that data Kitty?" Logan inquired, changing the subject as the corners of his mouth turned up in amusement. 'It really does look like the kid's playin' hopscotch.' He resolved to let her take down five more waves before moving the difficulty to level three.
"Yeah, finally! The professor's looking at it with Hank and Storm now. We're probably going to have a meeting after lunch." She shivered a bit as Cheyenne pounced on another set of spiders. "Those guys are way messed up."
"They want ta get rid of a whole section of society. Messed up doesn't even begin ta cover it." Rogue said dryly.
Logan grunted in agreement, changing the difficulty to level three.
"Yuck, Ah hate those things!" Rogue grimaced as beetles flew from each corner of the room to join the spiders coming in pairs of twos and threes from multiple directions, more rapidly than before.
"Ewww! Me too! Especially when they start dive-bombing."
Cheyenne raised her elbows as a mechanical beetle flew at her face and she slashed at it, sighing with relief as it fell. 'Maybe this would be easier if I just stayed in the air.' She decided, catching sight of another beetle out of the corner of her eyes and hearing the determined skittering of more spiders headed for her. A rush of exhilaration filled her as her wings began beating and she rose into the air. The clicking of metallic wings alerted her to two beetles converging on her, while two spiders were moving in the opposite direction, towards the wall. 'Hmm…I wonder…' Quickly Cheyenne flew above the beetles and with all her strength flapped her wings downwards. The beetles careened towards the floor, smashing into the spiders and taking all four out of commission.
"Yahoo!" Cheyenne cheered, feeling a surge of adrenaline as she began flying about the room.
"Clever." Logan commented, pleased at his newest trainee.
"Yep." Rogue agreed, watching in amusement as the winged girl dived and flitted.
"And here I thought you could only have fun in the Danger Room if you were using it to play movies in 3D." Kitty watched as Cheyenne flew about, slicing with elbows and heels, and cheering whenever she managed to knock beetles into spiders, other beetles, the walls or the floor with a well-timed flap of her mighty wings.
"Or if you're Logan." Rogue teased her odd combination of father and older brother figure.
"True." Kitty giggled.
Logan merely smirked, neither confirming nor denying. "Let's crank up the fun then." He flicked the level up to four. "Gumbo." He greeted the quietly opening door, without turning around.
"Bonjour mes amis!" Gambit replied cheerfully, nonplussed. "For you, chere." He said, handing over a cardboard cup to Rogue.
"Ooooo, coffee!" Rogue accepted the cup and took a sip. The caffeinated beverage was liberally doctored with sugar and chocolate. Rogue sighed happily. "Just the way Ah like it. Thanks Remy!"
"Anytime, Rogue." Remy said, leaning over to wrap his arms around the back of Rogue's chair with his hands resting on her shoulders.
"Where's Piotr?" Kitty inquired.
"He was headed up to de computer lab, looking fo' yo'. You've got yo' own chocolate-y surprise waitin'."
"Oooo!" Kitty squealed happily, knowing just what her boyfriend would bring back for her. "Donuts! See you guys at lunch!"
"Dat femme loves her chocolate." Remy commented as Kitty Pryde bounded excitedly from the room.
"What insane person doesn't like chocolate?" Rogue paused in her contented sipping to reply.
"If dey're crazy den they might not know what dey're eating."
"Those poor, deprived crazy people." Rogue shot back smoothly, continuing to sip her chocolate-laced treat.
Gambit chuckled. "What level is she on?"
"Four." Wolverine replied, glancing from the sight of Cheyenne fighting off waves of beetles and spiders towards his assistant and the Cajun. "Watch it there, bub."
"Desole Logan, but the mos' belle femme I've ever seen gets shoulder massage privileges over yo'." Gambit responded, unperturbed as he continued to rub Rogue's shoulders.
Logan 'hmphed'.
"Don't worry, Logan." Rogue teased, leaning forward in her swivel chair to let Remy get a better angle on her shoulders. "You can defend mah shoulders' honor if necessary."
"Looks like Puff's starting to slow down."
"She's still hangin' in there though." Rogue raised her head a bit to look through the glass. "Should we call it?"
"Let's put her on five for a bit then we'll stop; she's proven she can handle four."
Cheyenne wiped a heavy line of sweat from her forehead with one hand, yelping in surprise as a spider dropped from the ceiling at her - luckily hitting her raised arm. Desperately she flapped her wings to knock back a swarm of beetles closing in on her. A loud buzzing noise filled her ears, over the crash of the beetles as she finally mustered the strength to beat her wings hard enough to drive them into the wall.
She could only let out a breathless scream as a huge metal wasp plunged towards her with its stinger glinting menacingly. Panting, she attempted to outmaneuver it. The wasp, however, was faster than the beetles and Cheyenne was tired. There was a quick prick in her abdomen and the warehouse faded from view, leaving her blinking at the blank walls of the Danger Room.
"Not bad for your first go-round kid. You made it to level five."
"Ready to hit the showers?" Rogue added over the intercom.
"Yes, please!" Cheyenne called. 'I feel like a humongous sweat ball.' She landed carefully, her exhausted body reminding her that she hadn't moved around that much since her mandatory high school gym class. 'And possibly not even then.' She thought, grimacing at the smell and very obvious stains under her mutilated sleeves.
"Good, cause I can almos' smell those pit stains from here, Puff." Rogue swatted Gambit's hand off the intercom button.
Cheyenne stuck her tongue out at the control room and wrapped her wings around her, hiding said stains from view.
"Better?" Rogue inquired, leaning against the wall outside of the locker room finishing off the last of her coffee.
"Much." Cheyenne finished pulling her damp hair back into an untidy bun. "Thanks for waiting for me."
Rogue dismissed this with a wave of her hand. "No problem." The sound of a straw sucking up air identified the Mississippi girl's treat as all gone. "Awww! Well, it was good while it lasted."
"Where'd Remy run off to?"
"The kitchen. He's gettin' started on lunch."
"He's rather particular about his food isn't he?" There was a roster distributing chores among staff and students alike; cooking was a task taken in turns by the staff during the summer months. Today was Gambit's day in the kitchen.
Rogue snorted. "He's a kitchen diva. That's why he's almost officially on shoppin' duty. Ah wish Ah had him dressin' down Logan for buying the wrong seasoning salt on video."
It was Cheyenne's turn to snort. "Over seasoning salt? Now that I wish I could have seen."
"It was priceless." A smile tugged up the corners of Rogue's lips as she savored the memory of an adorably irate Remy haranguing a taken-aback Logan. "He is a good cook though."
"Breakfast was delicious." The shorter woman agreed, leaning against the wall.
"Would you like to go up to the rec room and sit on the nice comfy couch until lunch?" Rogue asked in amused sympathy, a veteran of Logan's Danger Room sessions watching a first-timer lean against the wall as if it was necessary to remain upright.
"I would love to. Just as soon as I gather the energy to walk."
"I recommend soaking in Epsom salts to prevent your muscles from being overly sore tomorrow." Hank McCoy advised. "I have some in the med lab if you'd like to pick them up after the meeting."
"That'd be great." Cheyenne gingerly walked to the sink. Her lower legs and upper arms were aching resentfully at being forced into physical activity. 'At least my wings aren't sore.'
"Luring the innocent down t' your lair, Hank?"
"You have a very strong dislike of medical facilities, don't you Remy?" Storm observed.
"Scared of needles Gumbo?" Logan interjected.
"I don' like to be poked and prodded." Gambit gallantly picked up Rogue's dishes in addition to his own, winking at the southern belle as he did so. "Unless, o' course, yo' want to give me my physical, chere."
"Not a chance, swamp rat." The reply came swiftly. "Although," she considered, "I could always knock you unconscious then let Hank give you a physical."
"And how would yo' get me down dere after you knocked me out?"
"I'd drag you down there." Logan deadpanned.
"Kurt could always port him down there." Bobby put in thoughtfully, from his seat near Jubilee and Tabby. All three had been worn down from their clubbing adventures of the previous night and none of them had made an appearance till well after breakfast.
"Before of after Rogue knocks him unconscious?" The blue German asked good-naturedly, loading the dish washer as Cheyenne helpfully rinsed the dishes and handed them to him.
"After." Jubilee put in decisively.
"Yeah." Tabby nodded. "Easier for Rogue to seduce him first."
"Seduce?" Rogue asked.
"So you can knock him out without him expecting it." Tabby explained.
"Yo' can seduce me without knocking me out if yo' want, cherie." Gambit put in helpfully, laughing as Rogue made a face at him.
Hank chuckled. "I think we had better quit discussing hypothetically turning Rogue into Mata Hari and adjourn to the meeting least Charles thinks something's amiss." Indeed, the Professor had already left for the conference room along with Kitty, who was setting up her presentation, and Piotr, who was assisting Kitty.
"Y'know," Tabby mused as they exited the room - Kurt opting to instead disappear in a puff of smoke, "I've heard of Mata Hari, but I have no clue who she was. Was she even a real person?"
"Very much so." Storm stated in her soft, dignified voice. "She was a femme-fatale shot for passing information to the Germans."
"Actually," Cheyenne corrected thoughtfully, "she was shot more or less on hearsay. There was no concrete evidence that she passed information to the Germans and several French officers testified at her trial that she had, in fact, attempted to give information on the Germans several times. It seems she faced the firing squad for…err…sleeping with the Germans."
"Which isn't all that unexpected." Hank added. "Working as an…uh…exotic performer, I suppose she couldn't really be picky about her clientele."
"She was an exotic performer? Cool!" Tabby exclaimed. "Why didn't we ever learn about her in history class?"
"Exotic performers are hardly school appropriate." Storm answered dryly, glad to be handing over the reins of history teacher so that she could focus on what she really enjoyed teaching - her ethics class and the younger children.
"It would have made the class more interesting though." Jubilee decided.
"History is plenty interesting without talking about exotic performers." Cheyenne defended her pet subject.
"Ah never thought when Ah woke up this morning that Ah would be involved in a debate on exotic performers." Rogue remarked, amused.
Gambit grinned. "Ain't life great, chere?"