Chapter 3: When rooms attack
The next morning all of the new students woke up, got dressed then headed down to the danger room after breakfast. They were all gathered around a large sign on the wall next to the doors that led into the room.
"Hey what's everyone looking at?" Sarin asked Bryce, having been the last one of the new students to arrive.
"Take a look" Bryce said, pointing at the notice.
Because of the large number of new students, you have all been assigned into smaller teams and each team will train separately and be mentored by a senior member of the institutes staff unless told differently. All new students have been assigned a codename that reflects their abilities and will find a uniform in their designated locker in the rooms adjacent the Danger room.
The teams are as follows:
The Corsairs: Tai Habu/Taipan
Kendra Nerura/ Taser
Micheal Corros/Rust
Kevin Surge/Fathom
Mentor – Scott Summers/Cyclops
El Ninio: Sarin Solarna/Solaris
Dana Hush/Murmur
Zander Kaze/Stormcaller
Mentor – Storm
The Wildcards: Bryce Naie/Zamiel
Illus Tratan/Illustrati
Holly Mortis/Medium
Mentor – Beast
Strike Force X: Destiny Chatka/Foresight
Ragoul Nortel/Drac
Katie Whisp/Silver Whisp
Mentor – Wolverine.
"O.K, El Ninio, we're up first" Storm called, having just reached the secret level below the mansion where the danger room was located.
'Solaris? What kind of a codename is Solaris' Sarin thought as he, Zander and Dana all followed Storm to the danger room.
They all changed into their uniforms in the two side rooms, one for boys, one for girls then the three of them all lined up near where Storm was standing, at the far end of the danger room, so far it didn't seem very dangerous.
Dana looked at her own uniform, which was the standard X-men uniform and then at the ones her two new teammates were wearing.
Solaris's uniform was bright, shining white and instead of X symbols on the shoulder pads, his were sewn into the shirt of the uniform itself in bright, shining silver, he also had a long shining white cloak and was wearing a small amber pendant shaped like the sun around his neck, she'd seen him wearing it ever since he'd arrived at the mansion.
Stormcallers was also radically different as well. His was light blue, the color of the sky on a cloudless day and the X symbols on his clothes were sewn in shining white and were located on the shoulders, where they would have been on a normal uniform, he didn't have a cloak but had a long sky blue coat instead and his shirt had a Japanese kanji on its chest.
"How come their uniforms are so different from mine" she said, sounding disappointed.
"Their costumes reflect their powers, if we could think of a way to make your costume reflect your powers we would have designed it differently, you're free to alter it as you wish" Storm replied, looking at the danger room, which still didn't look very dangerous.
"O.K, the only objective for this training exercise is to make it from one end of the room to another, you'll need to use teamwork to make it" she told them.
"That's it?" Solaris asked.
"That's it" Storm replied.
"Awesome, this'll be a cakewalk" Stormcaller said, Storm smiled, the new students never discovered why the danger room had gotten its name, until it was too late.
"O.K, now GO!" Storm called out, wondering if any of them would make it to the other side of the room in one piece.
All three students charged forwards, all unaware of what was about to happen next.
"Man this is easy, I wonder why they call this the danger room" Stormcaller said, almost as soon as those words had left his mouth he found out.
Suddenly two laser turrets rose out of the floor a few dozen meters in front of the three X-men and began firing. All three students immediately rolled out of the way of the laser fire only for walls of fire to erupt from the ground on either side of the turret, preventing them from moving around them, the only way forward was through the hail of laser fire and right between the turrets. Solaris instinctively created a wall of his own, using his white fire. He touched the amber pendant around his neck and his fingertips began to glow with the white flames that soon increased in size until they covered both his hands, he pointed them at the floor and they shot towards it then rose up, creating a fiery wall the blocked the laser blasts, they were safe, for the moment.
"What can either of you two do?" Solaris yelled over the roar of the flames and laser blasts.
"I can control wind and clouds" Stormcaller told him
"I'm super fast, and I'm telepathic" Murmur replied. Solaris was silent for a few seconds before replying.
"O.K, I've got an idea…"
Storm looked at the three students, huddled down behind the wall of white fire, wondering if they'd managed to put together a plan to get past the turrets. A few seconds later a portion of the white fire wall vanished and Solaris and Stormcaller both stuck a hand out into the gap while Murmur shot through the missing part of the wall. Solaris's hand glowed with white flames that he'd taken from the wall and he fired the flames at the laser turrets at the same time that Stormcaller sent a blast of wind at the turrets. The air seemed to shimmer as an invisible force intercepted the laser blasts and they dissipated into the air around them, all the while Murmur was getting closer to the turrets, she shot through the space between them and the motion sensors made the turrets turn, still firing, to follow her, as they reached the gap in between them their lines of fire crossed and both turrets blew each other to pieces in a spectacular pyrotechnic display.
Solaris and Stormcaller both ran through the wreckage to reach Murmur and together the three X-men leaped over small pits that opened up, other, smaller laser turrets appeared which Solaris and Stormcaller destroyed with blasts of wind or white fire or Murmur dis-assembled at high speed to cross the finish line where Storm was waiting for them, having flown over the course to wait for them there.
"I'm impressed, you all worked together and made it through, how did you protect Dana from the laser fire?" She said.
"It was easy, I superheated the air as Zander pushed it forwards, the superheated airwave was pushed forwards and upwards at first so it passed over Dana then sank to stay in front of her and dissipated any laser fire that was sent her way" Solaris said.
"Very impressive, and a good way to combine your powers, go change back into your normal clothes then wait here to watch the others, they haven't seen your run so they'll be just as clueless as you were" Storm said. The three X-men all grinned and headed off to change. They couldn't wait to see what would happen when the next team tried to cross the danger room.
They returned just in time to see the members of the Corsairs getting ready to start their run of the danger room. Like the members of El Ninio the uniforms of the Corsairs had been modified to better suit the powers of the mutants wearing them.
Tasers uniform was the standard X-men uniform with the exception of thin metallic wires running down the arm and les and crisscrossing the chest; even running down the black gloves Taser was also wearing. Rust's uniform was also very similar to the standard uniform, except it was rust colored instead of dark blue. Fathoms was similar to the standard one as well except it was an electric blue in color and not dark blue, matching his hair perfectly.
Taipans, however, was radically different. The shirt part was dark brown in color and resembled that worn by Cyclops except the lines crossing the chest were dark yellow, not pale yellow, the fabric extended all the way down his body, stopping about two feet from the tip of his tail. It also lacked the X symbols on the shoulders but had a large one on the back of the dark brown cloak Taipan was also wearing.
"O.K guys, GO!" Cyclops yelled, then leaving the Danger room and re-entering it through the doors near the wall where Storm and her team were standing, watching the progress of the Corsairs across the room.
"How long do you think it'll take before the traps start kicking in?" Dana asked Sarin, who'd been watching the Corsairs as they made their way across the room, trying to see where the traps would appear from.
"Not long" he replied, leaning against the wall to get a better view, he wanted to see what the room would throw at the Corsairs.
He didn't have to wait very long. Suddenly a steel panel shot out of the floor in front of Corsair members Fathom and Taser, they came to a halt and automatically turned to try and find a way around it, only for more panels to shoot out of the floor, every way the two turned to try and move away form the steel wall, more panels shot out of the floor, creating a maze. Fathom looked around at their surroundings and formed hid left hand into a fist.
"Stay back, I'm gonna try and blast us out of here" his hand began to glow blue and he was about o swing at the wall before Taser grabbed it and pulled him backwards, a hail of laser fire blasted the wall which Fathom had been standing on front of moments earlier.
"This is a maze, you aren't meant to blast out, you're meant to go through, besides, for all we know these steel walls could be rigged to explode" Taser said, walking to the end of the steel corridor and motioning for Fathom to follow her. She stuck her head around the corner then pulled it back as another hail of laser fire blasted the wall.
"Hold on, cover me" Taser said, rolling forwards across the opening into the corridor where the laser turret was, as it fired at her it didn't notice Fathom lean forwards and stretch out his left arm, gripping the wall wit his right so he wouldn't fall over. His outstretched left hand began to glow blue like it had before and seconds later a bolt of blue energy shot from it, more followed, creating a barrage of fire equal to that the cannon was firing back at the X-men.
While the laser cannon was distracted once again by Fathoms attack, its motion sensors were so focused on him that they didn't notice Taser come running up the corridor at it, her entire body seemed to crackle with electricity, she reached the cannon just as it began to sense her but just as its turret turned around she placed her right hand, crackling with electricity onto it and there was a loud explosion as the electricity Taser sent into it overloaded its system. When the light from the electrical explosion faded all that was left of the cannon was a burning wreck of melted metal.
"That was awesome, how did you do that?" Fathom asked her.
"It's my mutant power, I can manipulate and amplify the electricity in my body, that's what all of these wires on my uniform are for" she said, raising a gloved hand and looking at the electricity that seemed to be running through the wires just as blood ran through her veins.
"I can draw energy from the air around me, I can convert all the potential energy in my surroundings into raw kinetic energy, watch" Fathom said, raising his arm and firing at stream of blue energy up into the air.
Neither of them noticed that the steel panel directly next to them began to turn from dark metallic grey to rusty brown in color almost as soon as Fathom had fired the stream of raw kinetic energy into the air. After a few seconds the rusty steel collapsed inwards as the sound of something slamming into it echoed out into the corridor. Both Fathom and Taser turned around to see Rust and Taipan looking at them through the hole in the steel panel.
"We sssaw your flare, we've managed to make a path out of thisss maze, come on" Taipan said, motioning behind him, every steel panel behind him had a large hole rusted through it, far off in the distance they could see the outside of the steel maze.
"How'd you do that?" Fathom asked Taipan
"It wasssn't me, it wass Russst" the serpent replied.
"Yea, it's my mutant power, I can corrode any type of metal or metal alloy" Rust said as they neared the edge of the maze.
"That's a pretty useful power" Taser said.
"Not when you find out about it when your parents just bought a brand new thirty thousand dollar car, I think I'm still grounded for rusting it" he told the others, they all laughed about it as they exited the maze and walked the last few meters to the finishing line.
"What's so funny?" Cyclops asked them as they crossed the finishing line, they told him and he started laughing as well.
"Man, and I thought what happened when I discovered my powers was bad, you guys go change back into your normal clothes, the others still have to complete the course" Cyclops said. He looked over at the far door and saw the Wildcards were entering the danger room.
"Why do they call this room the danger room anyway, it doesn't look very dangerous" Medium asked Beast, all of the Wildcards had changed into their uniforms. Zamiels was similar to Stormcallers only it was blood red in color, not sky blue and he had additional bandages wrapped around his hands. Illustrati's seemed to resemble a painters outfit, it was a standard uniform with blotches of pain all over it and he was carrying a large sketchpad under his arm. Mediums was another standard uniform but was black in color and had a large hood, similar to that the Grim Reaper might be seen wearing.
"You'll see why soon, now GO!" Beast called out, the Wildcards sprinted forwards, beginning their first run of the danger room.
Their trap didn't appear until they'd just passed the halfway point. A series of holes opened up in the floor and streams of metallic cables shot out of the holes like the tentacles of an octopus, wrapping around the arms of Zamiel and Medium, Illustrati tried to fend them off but they wrapped around his legs and all three X-men fell to the floor.
Zamiel realised his power was just the thing they needed to get them free of the cables. He unwrapped the bandages on his left hand and the other Widlcard members saw the large open wound on the palm of his left hand. The wound began to bleed immediately as soon as it was exposed to the open air and he moved his hand so it was directly over the cables that bound his right hand, allowing the blood to drip down onto them. Almost as soon as the blood hit the cables it began to hiss and steam rose off the cables as the blood began to slowly corrode and dissolve them. After half a minute the cables were rusted and Zamiel pulled with his right arm and they shattered and fell away. He then unwrapped the bandage on his right hand and corroded the cables on his left arm, which soon rusted away and he was able to shatter them and free his left arm as well.
He then went over and freed Illustrati and helped the mutant to his feet. They turned to help free Medium only to find the cables that had bound her lying on the ground abd to see her floating a few feet off the ground and translucent, like a ghost.
"AAHHH! THE INSTITUTES HAUNTED!" Zamiel yelled as the ghost floated over to him.
"You dummy, I'm not a ghost, this is one of my powers" Medium said as she rematerialized and became corporeal again.
"Oh, right" Zamiel said, not noticing the laser cannon turret that had just rose out of the floor behind him, or notice that it was aimed right at him. He turned around and finally noticed it when it fired, he was so shocked by the oncoming attack that he also failed to notice Illustrati scribbling furiously on his sketchpad. Suddenly a mirror materialised in mi-air inbetween the laser turret and the Wildcards, the laser blasts hit the mirror and were reflected back art the cannon, blowing it to pieces.
"How'd you do that? Was it your power?" Medium asked Illustrati, who began making signs with his hands.
"Err, what's he doing" she asked Zamiel.
"He's saying he can't speak and that his power is that he can draw something, then make it appear in real life, he thinks it's some sort of pyschic power" Zamiel told Medium, translating for his mute teammate.
"That's a really cool power" she said to Illustrati, who began signing again.
"He says that it helped him work on his art, but that it wasn't of much use for anything else in his homecity in Italy and it was more of a curse than a gift, whenever he won an art contest, people would bring up the fact he was a mutant to try and discredit him" Bryce said, translating for Illustrati.
"He also asked you what your powers are?" Bryce added.
"I can turn into a ghost and I can also raise the dead" she replied.
"That must've been awesome at halloween" Zamiel said as the team walked to the finish line.
"Not when you're whole family's catholic, I'm kinda the black sheep of the family" she said
"I bet, my family was the same" Bryce replied as the Wildcards crossed the finish line and completed their run of the danger room.
"Not bad guys, you all worked together and used your powers well, go change back into your normal clothes and wait for the final team to go through the danger room" Beast told the team, who all headed for the two adjacent rooms, returning in time to see Strike Force X getting ready for their run of the danger room. Dracs uniform was one of the most radically different of the new students, the top part was red and the bottom part was black and he had a long black coat, even longer than Stormcallers and Zamiels and the collar was permanently turned up, making it resemble a vampires cloak more than a coat. Silver Whisps was a standard uniform but was shining silver in colour instead of dark blue. Foresights was a standard uniform except it was dark grey, not blue, in colour and two pistols were holstered at her waist and she was carrying a sort of walking stick with a black leather handle.
"O.K Strike Force X, all you gotta do is get from one side of the room to the other, now GO!" Wolverine called out and Strike Force X charged forwards, starting their run of the danger room. Foresight stumbled after only a few steps and fell to the ground, her glasses fell off her face, showing her milky white eyes, as she reached around frantically on the floor trying to find her sunglassess her teammates realised the reason why she'd been wearing them all the time.
"You're...you're blind" Silver Whisp said, Foresight turned her head towards where she'd heard the voice come from.
"Yes, I'm blind, I can see the future and I'm blind" Foresight replied coldly, finding her sunglasses on the floor, she put them back on and rose to her feet. She and her teammates continued onwards until their trap appeared when they were nearly at the end of their run of the danger room. Two large mechanical arms appeared, rising up out of the floor, on the end of each was a very large circular saw and the arms began to swing in every direction, making it almost impossible to imagine a way to get past them.
"O.K, what do we do now then?" Drac asked the other two.
"Hold on, I can take care of these things" Silver Whisp said, walking towards the swinging circular swords, turning into her silver, ghostly like form as she passed within range of the saws. The one on the right swung at her but passed harmlessly through her, she walked towards the mechanical arm, crouched down to avoid the saw then turned corporeal again. She reached up and unscrewed several of the screws holding the mechanical arm together and the part which the saw was attached to fell off with the saw falling harmlessly to the ground.
Drac then walked forward towards the saw on the left and as it swung back around he leapt into the air as the saw cut through the air where he'd been mere seconds before, he landed just behind the mechanical arm and he grabbed and tore the end of it with the saw on clean off, managing to do all of it in less than a second. He let the broken mechanical arm fall to the floor as he looked at his teammates, Silver Whisp noticed the two fangs in his mouth.
"Are you a vampire or something?" she asked him, Drac smiled and shook his head.
"Nope, my powers just resemble vampiric abilities, it's great for halloween but not when you live Romania, back in Bucharest people used to try and drive a stake through my heart every other day" he replied, both Drac and Silver Whisp were so busy talking that they didn't noticed the two laser turrets that had rose out of the floor and were aimed right at them.
As they were preapring to fire Foresight pushed them both out of the way and drew the two pistols that were holstered at her waist and began firing, the pistols shot blasts of laser fire which struck every shot fired by the turrets, canceling them out and destroying the turret on the right. She holstered her pistols and grabbed her blind stick, the walking stick split in half just below the leather grip and the bottom part fell away, both of her teamamtes could see the long thin blade that was attached to the bottom part of the blind stick, realising that is wasn't just a blind stick, but a sword. Foresight hurled the sword at the remaining turret and it pierced the turret, which exploded seconds later, the resulting explosion shot the stick into the air, sending it flying back towards its owner, who caught it by the leather grip.
"That was amazing, how'd you know the turrets were there?" Drac asked Foresight.
"I can see into the future, I knew they were going to shoot and I knew where each shot would be fired so I knew where to shoot to block it" Foresight replied as Strike Force X waked towards, and crossed the finishing line
"Not bad, I'm impressed you were all able to use your powers so effectively, now go change back into your normal clothes, you're all done for the day" Wolverine said, Strike Force X headed off to change back into their normal clothes, returning in time to hear Cyclops address all of the new students.
"That concludes your first run of the danger room, you can take the rest of the day off" Cyclops said, addressing all the new students who left the danger room and headed back up to the Institute.
Up in the danger room control room Professor Xavier watched the students leave the danger room before leaving the control room himself to meet with the squad mentors back up in the Institute, he had no idea how eventful the next few months would be for these new mutants, or how stained with blood they were going to be.
In chapter 4 – The X-men aren't the only ones with new students The Brotherhood boarding house has also get some new tennants
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