Author's Notes: I'm terrible. Plain and simple. I'm so sorry to all. Just bare with me please… Hehe.
A New Age. A New Team
Chapter 8: Meeting A Cat Of Stone
The large room known as the Danger Room had the hologram device on to make whoever is training inside see, smell, feel, and taste whatever images were selected. The images in play at the moment was the Danger Room in it's normal setting which was a completely metal room that had different things and machines flying out of the wall at the trainers…
A young man dressed in black sweatpants with no shirt, which showed off his toned muscles and the large scar that went from his upper right shoulder down to his lower left side, who had straight shaggy sandy brown hair, jumped up on one of the boxes that shot out of the walls with a smirk. His grayish blue eyes looked down at a girl white had auburn colored hair that was pulled back into a high ponytail and she was dressed in tight black spandex pants and a white sports bra. The girl's green eyes with flecks of hazel in them glared at the boy as she jumped up along side the walls after him. The boy put up his muscular arms in defense as the girl threw punches at his head and body.
"Oh come on Sam," The boy chuckled as he easily blocked the girl's punches, "you're not even trying."
"I know," The girl, presumably Sam, laughed, "I don't wanna hurt ya Noah."
"Fine." Noah scoffed as he caught Sam's wrists in the middle of one of her punches and threw her over his shoulder so she fell towards the ground.
Sam twisted her body around, landed on the ground on all fours, and stared up at Noah, who had jumped off the box and was heading to jump on Sam. She rolled on her back away from him, as he landed on the ground, and then she spun around, on the ground, and kicked his feet out from underneath him. Noah fell to the ground with a thud as Sam flipped up onto her feet and crouched down to continue fighting. "Oh did I hurt you Noah?" Sam mocked.
Noah slowly got up and looked over at Sam with a smirk. "Of course not."
"Good." Sam said before charging at Noah.
Noah gripped Sam, flipped her over and pinned her to the ground. "I win." He smirked down at Sam who was struggling underneath him.
"You. Do. Not. WIN!" Sam shouted as she managed to curl her legs underneath Noah and then push him off her. She hated losing, but more importantly, she hated losing to Noah of all people.
She and Noah had been rivals in everything since they both knew each other. They were rivals in anything possible and everything became a competition for them with each other. Sam took it a little more seriously then Noah, who always was very light-hearted about the whole competition situation, but they both were very adamant about it with each other. They both were second-in-command over X² and they both had some of the top marks in class.
Sam could feel her anger begin to build inside of her as she felt like Noah was winning, when they really were matched in powers. Take the defense way out. Sam thought as she turned away from Noah and took off running; jumping up on the boxes that shot out of the walls. She bounced off them with precision and ease.
"You running away Sam?" Noah laughed as he ran after her and then once he thought he had caught up to her, he had realized she was nowhere to be found. He paused on one of the boxes and looked around to see where she was.
"No. Just doing this." Sam laughed as she flipped behind Noah and then kicked him from behind to make him fall off the box, but luckily, he landed on one directly below. "You rely on your sight too much. You need to use your other senses." Sam laughed.
"Sorry Sam, some of us aren't Ferals." He smirked.
"Well then it sucked to be the people that aren't." She laughed as she chased after him.
Noah turned around and it was in a flash that he seemed to have the upper hand once again. He flipped Sam over him over and over again. He dodged her punches and kicks like he never had before. He cupped his hands together and hit Sam across the shoulder and sent her flying across the ground. Forgive me mother for hitting a girl. He thought as he ran after her sliding body to attack again.
Sam's anger grew so much that she felt her body tense up and begin to change. She felt the tips of her fingers, her fingernails transform into short claws, and her canine teeth grew in length and became slightly pointier. Her head whipped to the side and she looked over at the charging Noah. Her once green eyes with hazel flecks flashed yellow, then back to green, and then they morphed from green into yellow and her pupils became tiny slits in her eyes just like a cats would. Her ears became slightly more pointed then normal and she crouched up. She casually stood up in front of Noah and smirked. "Alright let's play now." Sam took off charging towards Noah as he charge towards her.
We said no transforming. Noah thought as he shook his head, narrowed his grayish blue eyes at Sam's cat-like eyes and continued to charge.
Sam pushed off the ground and flipped over Noah to land behind him, but Noah had other plans. Noah transformed into his gargoyle state. His California tanned skin, thickened and became rough and grey like stone was. His height grew taller by a good couple of inches and bat-like wings sprouted from his back with a cracking sound like stone breaking apart. He easily raised his arms into the air and caught Sam in midair.
"Ah!" Sam shouted in a hissing voice as she struggled under Noah's grip. Noah's grip didn't loosen on Sam's toned body as he held her tightly. Noah flapped his bat-like wings and slowly him and Sam lifted off the ground and began to soar into the air of the Danger Room. "Put me down!" Sam shouted as she struggled under Noah's grip.
"Only once you admit I win."
"Never." Sam huffed as she was tiring herself out with all the struggling she was doing. Sam did what she could to get out of his grip. In one swiping motion, Sam scratched her claws across Noah's left forearm and his right bicep.
Noah let out a yelp as her claw grazed the top of his stone arms; not puncturing him, but definitely scratching him. Sam put her hands on his shoulders and flipped off him, in between his bat-like wings. She fell towards the ground, twisting around and around, until finally when she landed on the ground she was on her hands and feet, just like a cat would land. She looked up at Noah, who was in the air flapping his wings and rubbing his arms, and she smirked up at him. Should have just let me go when I told you to.
Sean, Grace, and Dawn walked down the long hallway together towards the large metal doors of the Danger Room. "So where are we heading to now?" Dawn asked as she looked up at Grace.
"The Danger Room. It's where we all go to train." Grave replied.
"Cerebro, who runs the school now, creates holograms that are lifelike and that are how we train." Sean smiled down at Dawn, as they grew closer to the metal doors.
"Wait," Dawn stopped, "isn't Cerebro a computer?"
"Yup. Our school's run by a computer." Grace laughed while Sean typed in the code to open the large metal doors.
The large, foot-wide doors opened up with a bright light behind them and once Sean, Grace, and Dawn's eyes came into focus, they found Sam in her half cat-like transformation and Noah in his gargoyle state. Dawn's dark brown eyes went wide at the half cat girl and gargoyle boy.
"They're at it again." Grace laughed as she walked into the Danger Room. "Cut it out! We got a new recruit!" She shouted at the two.
"Don't worry." Sean whispered to Dawn with his sweet Australian accent as he place a soft hand against her back and slowly led her inside of the Danger Room to meet Sam and Noah.
Sam was crouched on the ground and she slowly stood up as Noah flew down from the sky. Cerebro opened up a cabinet with towels that Noah and Sam walked over to and grabbed towels. Noah walked over to Sean, Grace, and Dawn as he patted his face of the sweat on it, and then he laid the towel over his shoulder. As he walked over to Dawn, his body transformed from his gargoyle state back into his human state. His gray skin became soft once again and returned back to it's tanned color. His stone bat-like wings sounded like stone shattering as they slowly slipped back into his back once again.
Dawn watched in awe, as the man who once was a gargoyle was now normal again. When Noah reached Dawn, he stuck out his hand with a friendly smile. "Hi. I'm Noah Grissom."
Dawn shook his hand. "Dawn Kent. Codename Dreamer." She smiled up at Sean and Grace in happiness. "That's a neat power you both have there." She smiled happily that he was nice, even though his gargoyle appearance made him seem mean.
"Codename Clutch." Noah smiled just as Sam came over, who was still in her half cat-form. "And thank you. It is neat to have wings." He laughed.
Sam looked over the younger girl with her cat eyes. Another one to train, which only means another one to look out for… "Sam Wilder." Sam nodded as she stared down at the younger girl, a little coldly.
"Can you transform into more of a cat?" Dawn's dark brown eyes twinkled in delight at the thought of a girl transforming into a cat. Just as that professor did in those wizardry books my mom told me about for generations ago. Those were really popular. "Like grow fur or something?" Dawn asked in excitement that there were other people out there like her, or that had stranger powers then hers.
Sam glanced over at Sean. Are you serious?
Sean nodded his head to Sam with a smirk. Be nice.
Sam slowly transformed back into her human state. Her claws slowly went back into being Sam's fingers and fingernails, her fangs went back to being normal canine teeth, her slightly pointed ears went back to being normal size, and her yellow cat eyes slowly morphed back into her green eyes with the hazel flecks. Dawn watched in awe as Sam transformed back into a normal girl right in front of her dark brown eyes.
"No." Sam said slightly coldly.
Dawn closed her mouth and looked at Sam in slight embarrassment for asking such a "childish" question, or at least it seemed childish to Dawn after Sam reacted to it. "Sorry." Dawn whispered as she looked down at the ground, away from Sam.
Sam patted her face of the sweat the glistened on it and then placed the towel over her shoulder. She walked passed everyone and stopped next to Sean, where she leaned over and whispered. "She's going to be a lot of work."
"And I'll know you'll take care of her." Sean smiled over at Sam and patted her back.
"I'm going to class." Sam did her signature wave, which was a salute, to the group as she walked off.
Noah looked down at Dawn and laughed as he too gathered his things to leave for his next class. "Don't pay any attention to her. She's rough on everyone at first. Just be happy you're not me." He laughed and then left to go to his next class.
"Let's get you to your room." Sean said as he led Dawn out of the Danger Room.
"I got to finish studying, you mind taking her?" Grace asked Sean.
"Nope."
Sean walked Dawn down the long hallway with pictures hanging on the wall that the more artistic students of the institute had drawn. "This is the girl's dorm wing." He noted as he stopped outside of a dorm. "And this is your dorm." He smiled at Dawn as he opened it up just as Tonya came running out.
"Sorry. Can't talk. Got class." Tonya said in her British accent as she waved to Sean.
"That was your roommate, Tonya Sorenson," Sean laughed. "But Tonya this is your new roommate, Dawn Kent. AKA Dreamer."
Tonya turned around and ran backwards. "Hey. I'm Tonya. Sorry I can't stay and talk. See you later." She waved and then took off running towards her class.
Dawn laughed at her new roommate and then looked inside of the dorm and smiled. It was the first place she could actually call home since she found out she was a mutant. The first place she had been accepted… However, more in importantly: the first place she had ever felt safe.