For Scott, the day was getting off to a fairly shitty start. Logan was someone no one wanted to see first thing in the morning. And he could not help but cringe at the thought of his dream, as disgustingly graphic as it had been. It wasn't helping that the object of said dream was wearing a particularly low-cut top, was on the opposite side of the table, and ironically kept leaning over to talk to Nicole whenever he tried to steal a glance at her... oh, why should something so utterly wrong turn him on?
Nicole, meanwhile was blushing and arguing with Katie from what Scott could hear. "No... no, I don't want to talk about it. It was horrible..." she mumbled, spooning unnecessary amounts of sugar into her Rice Crispies.
Katie watched with her nose wrinkled, and she infuriatingly leaned over more to grab a sausage from a plate that was in front of her. "C'mon Colie, you can tell me... I told you about the one with Zeus in it with all the lightning bolts..." she prodded.
Nicole visibly flinched, " Yes, you did and you scarred me for life... how could anyone do-" she began.
Katie blushed and cut her off, "Exactly! Your dream couldn't have been half as bad." she said, nibbling at the corner of a piece of cinnamon toast.
Nicole blanched. "Believe me, it was bad."
Logan, sitting (irritatingly) near Scott and so able to hear everything as well, leered and leaned across the table. "That dream wouldn't have been about me, would it?" He asked suggestively, with a theatrical eyebrow-wiggle.
Nicole blanched, dropping her fork. Dropping to her knees, she scurried under the table to find where someone had kicked it, and bumped her head against the inside of Logan's calf. Taking in a deep, ragged breath, Nicole had a panic attack. Katie, realizing, threw herself on the floor to Nicole, affording a rather confused Scott a nice shot of some lacy underwear.
After several minutes of frantic panic and Katie trying to calm her down, Nicole came to sit between a pair of legs, breathing heavily. Oh god. What a nightmare. "Where'd my fork go..." she mumbled, remembering what she had come down here to get. Katie shrugged. Someone cleared their throat from up above, and a hand grabbed her by the hair. "Ow owowowowowow!" she squealed as she was wrenched out from underneath the table, through a pair of legs and face to face with Logan. She was now sitting in his lap. Oh god, why?
He grinned. "As much as I like having you between my legs I think what you're looking for is one of these." he held up his own fork and shoved it into her hand.
Katie, still under the table, suddenly realized that Nicole was gone. Forgetting she was still under the table she tried to stand, hitting herself rather hard off the head. "Fuck!" She gasp/shouted, dizzy.
Nicole was meanwhile scrambling to get away from Logan as fast as possible, nearly falling over on to someone else's lap in her haste. In the scramble, she dropped this new fork, but like she'd ever eat off something that he had! Disgusting! By now, obviously, everyone's attention was far from his or her breakfast. Blushing, Nicole stood up, snatched up the fork, and walked around the table back to her seat. As she slammed back down into her seat, Nicole plunged it prongs-first into Logan's muffin, where is stood stalk straight. "Thanks, but no thanks. I'd die before I ate off of something that's already been in your mouth." she snarled. Then she promptly turned to face Katie and asked politely, "Are you using your fork?"
Katie shrugged, handing over her fork. "Nope. Cereal and a muffin, so I don't need it." Problem solved, and oh, how much easier it would have been to just do this from the beginning? But they never seemed to choose the 'easy' way of doing anything...
Logan took this moment to become extremely furious. So furious, that he merely speared one of the muffins that hadn't been contaminated with a fork that had been on the floor with a claw and took a huge bite out of it.
Scott was promptly taking a deep swig of coffee from his mug, trying to hide his grin. It was fun to watch Nicole and Logan go at it. The simulation today would be particularly interesting...
- - -
The fighting started before he'd even opened his mouth to begin the class. "Where's Storm?" Nicole demanded, looking at Logan warily. "Absolutely none of your business." Logan had replied. "Alright everyone!" Scott yelled to be heard. "We're splitting into teams today! I want everyone to line up and I want... Pyro... and... Nicole to be captains."
"Oh but, I want to be on Nicole's team!" Pyro exclaimed, wiggling his eyebrows as Nicole smacked her face with her hand. She hated being a captain for anything.
Scott sighed, "That's nice, but you can attempt to get into Nicole's pants some other time." he stated. For a while the comment went unnoticed.
Until Pyro pouted, Logan burst out laughing, and Nicole blushed like mad. " Like he could!" she snapped, eyeing Pyro with annoyance. He gave her the puppy dog eyes.
"Yes, because of course Nicole keeps her panties under lock and key." Logan burst between fits of tear jerking laughter. He was doubled over with hilarity.
Katie sighed to herself, rolling her eyes at Arc. Oh, the sexual tension around here was thick enough to cut with a knife.
Nicole was glaring murderously at Logan. He did not notice, being too busy laughing at his own jokes. He did notice, however, when rather suddenly a giant 'gust' of wind knocking him over rather violently into Scott, who crashed into the wall rather painfully.
"Uggh..."Scott grunted in pain, " Nicole!" Squeaking, Nicole righted Scott and Logan went zooming in an opposite direction.
"God DAMMIT! Put me DOWN!" Logan bellowed from all the way across the simulation field.
Nicole shrugged, " ok" she mumbled. A faint THWACK could be heard from Logan's side of the field.
"Anyway," Scott commented, trying to keep at least a marginal hold on things. If anything could be said about his job, it was that it was never boring. "Alright! I want you to all line up! We're picking teams. Now. Nicole, get over here and stop terrorizing Logan."
"Fine..." Nicole mumbled, sounding very much like a disappointed child at Christmas.
Once all of the students had assembled into a line, Scott looked to Nicole. "Ladies first." he prodded, motioning for Nicole to pick her first teammate.
Nodding, Nicole searched out Katie and found her all the way on her right. "Katie." she claimed, pointing in her direction. Grinning, Katie jogged over to Nicole's side.
Pyro paused for a moment, trying to decide whom to pick next. He would have picked Katie, if only to spite Nicole...
"Bobby, you're mine." He called at last. It had been a close contest between Arc and Bobby, but Bobby was the most useful in a firefight. Bobby looked a bit disappointed though... oh well.
The sorting of people into the two teams commenced, landing both sides with equally good odds and a hard decision. "Each team gets one teacher. So pick. Logan, or me. Nicole, it's your pick..." Narrowing her eyes, Nicole circled her two teachers. Hmm. Logan is an asshole... she thought as she did another loop around her specimens. Logan frowned, obviously she didn't care if that thought were private or not, given that she conveyed it so they could both hear. But he's fast... invincible claws... bad attitude... and Scott... a bit smaller in build, but strong all the same, laser vision... level head... At last she came to a decision. "I…pick... Scott." He'll be better in the long run... I need someone with a cool head and can make good decisions under fire... not someone who will screw up because he lets his limited emotions get in the way of his common sense. This thought was let slip as well. Everyone heard it. They all laughed. Smirking, Scott went and stood in Nicole's group while Logan and Nicole shared one last riveting death glare match.
Nodding at Logan, who entirely ignored him, Scott held up a hand, counting down fingers. "and... START." With something of a melodramatic bang, they found themselves in the middle of a moderately busy street in London. The other team was nowhere to be found, and there were loads of 'sim-people' everywhere. It was going to be intense.
Breathing deeply, Nicole braced herself, this was going to be a toughie. Katie grinned, "I've been waiting for this all day..." she growled, her fingers bent and tensed, allowing a small electric spark to be visible jumping from finger to finger.
"Stand your ground for now..." Scott murmured, holding back some of the more excited students (a.k.a Katie). "It's not just team on team, or just us against the simulation people... the sims are going to replicate members of our team and their team... we have to tell the difference between the two... Logan knows the rules... the other team is not supposed to critically hurt us... but the sims have no boundaries this time... they will attempt to kill you if you don't watch out..." he muttered to them all, his head turning this way and that, listening.
The group remained nearly motionless, besides for shallow breathing and nervous blinking when with an unearthly loud screech, a cat leapt from behind a trashcan. Nicole let out a piercing screech, at the same moment that Katie let loose an overly large bolt at it. The scream, coupled with the bright flash broke the tension, and the peace, with a vengeance.
In the blink of an eye, millions of things happened at once. Dozens of people ran from different hiding places, all shouting numbers of different battle cries. Annoyance flashed over Katie's face, "Why did you go and scream like that!" she grunted as something bashed her head from above. Pure white feathers rained down in Katie's face. "ARCH!" she screamed, "It's me!" Franticly trying to get him to recognize her.
"No Katie! It might not be him!" Nicole's voice sounded from far off, above her head she levitated a large boulder that had crumbled off of a building. With a lurch she tossed it at what she knew wasn't Bobby, as he had practically turned her to a Nicolecicle... "Take THAT!" The boulder smashed down on Bobby's face and an arid smoke rose from underneath the rock.
As this happened, a cool, mechanical, female voice recited "One simulation replica, terminated."
"One down, how many to go?" Katie commented, rolling out of the way of another non-arch attack. It was obviously the sim... Glaring, she zapped it as hard as she could, crisping the feathers.
"Second simulation replica, terminated."
As the simulation continued, Nicole found that if she tried to tap into the minds of sims, she could hear nothing but a dull static buzzing and perhaps the words 'must kill' since sims had no original thoughts other than what the computer puts there. "KATE! They have no thoughts! If you just tap into their heads-" she shouted but she was cut off as Katie bumped back to back with her.
"Problem is, Colie... we can't ALL read minds!" she growled, zapping a particularly nasty looking Pyro into the air with a lightning bolt. "But I don't need to read minds to know..." Katie panted, as she whirled around, her eyes sparkling with fury. "That my name isn't Kate, and YOU aren't Nicole!"
The Simulation hissed, laughing. "But you lose!" It then hurled her against the opposite wall with its nasty psychic powers.
Taking it with a roll the way she'd been taught, Katie landed nicely on her side. Much to her displeasure, the bolt struck a rather real Nicole instead. "What the fuck?"
"Ow Katie! That hurt!" she yelled , slumping against the pillar of a rather official looking courthouse that had been practically blown to bits.
"Sorry!" Katie squealed, running over to make sure if it she was all right.
"No you're NOT!" Nicole shrieked, she lifted her hands and swung them down forcefully. With a great CRACK and a low rumble the pillar behind her detached itself from the courthouse and tumbled over the simulation Katie like a fallen tree. "Timber!" Nicole called , laughing at the wreckage, as she heard the voice say " Simulation replica number 4 terminated". Panting, Nicole ran along a split street. Sweet Jesus , this is getting a bit out of hand! she thought
In the middle of a rather violent and entirely over the top battle with one of the sims, Logan mistimed and (having just vanquished a sim) entirely accidentally cut a rather large gash into the top of Nicole's back. In fact, he hadn't even noticed she was there until he'd hit her. Nicole was in the middle of taking a quick, needed break, wiping sweat off her forehead, when there was a searing pain across her shoulder. "Ah!" she yelled out, whirling around to glare at Logan. "What the hell?...Ohh" she groaned, groping her shoulder to feel along the three jagged rips that ran through the back of her leather suit and into the delicate flesh of her upper back and shoulders. "Fuck! Ah.." she hissed, whipping around to face whoever had savagely slashed her poor back.
Frozen to the spot, Logan tried to determine whether this was the sim-Nicole... or the real one. Delicately, with his sharp sense of smell, he sniffed the air. Gunpowder, hot leather..., and blood. The smell of blood was tangible, he could taste it on the air. "Nicole.." he began to explain, but something in her eyes told him that no matter what he said to her, she was aiming to kill.
"You... ASSHOLE!" She snarled, probably the angriest she'd been in her entire life. "What the FUCK was that for!"
He backed up a step, feeling an emotion he hadn't felt in such a very long time... actual fear. He was afraid of her, a student, a girl, the way he wasn't of much else. "Nicole..." he cajoled. "It was an accident! I swear! I wasn't trying to-"
She cut him off, sending him backwards into a broken pillar. There was a great snap, and for (not the first time) he felt very relieved that his broken spines repaired themselves... "I'm going to KILL you for this!" As if he hadn't noticed...
After a great jolt of pain while having his back crack back into place, Logan was back on his feet and trying to evade Nicole's furious attempts to kill him. Blocks of concrete flew in every direction, and burning telephone poles and wires fell like rain upon Logan. The concrete was simple, adamantium(the metal in his claws & bones) could slice through that easily. But the burning telephone wires were another thing completely. They lashed and whipped through the air like a bullwhip, licking his sides and face viciously. Grunting and clutching a stitch in his side, Logan dodged behind a tipped mini-van. "God dammit! This woman is crazy!" he growled.
So he was most relieved when, halfway through hacking apart another concrete block, the sim-world vanished and he found himself slashing at the air. Everyone else looked just as sweaty, dirty and scared, as the overwhelming paranoia of never knowing who you were talking to had set in. Katie was hanging onto Arch and looking traumatized (having watched Nicole kill the non-Katie), as did most students after having to hurt, or having been hurt by friends. Only Nicole still looked homicidal, and he was happy that there were lots of people standing in her way.
Nicole's face fell slightly as the scenery melted away and Logan still remained. Damn, if he were a sim that would have been some great stress therapy... she thought bitterly. Her hands were still stretched out in front of her as though she had just heaved something extremely heavy away from her. She promptly dropped her arms, and stooped to catch her breath. "Damn it!" she hissed, as she wheezed. Her lungs weren't exactly adept to vigorous exercise...
"... Nicole?" Katie's voice sounded weakly from somewhere behind her, "Are you alright? Your suit... you're bleeding pretty badly.."
Nicole had been about to reply when there was a poke at the wound, and a searing pain. "Arrrggg..." she moaned.
Scott had appeared at Katie's elbow, looking concerned (or at least what they could see of his face did). "Katie, why don't you take Nicole to the Infirmary to get that looked at..." He commented, sending Logan (whose distinctive claw marks were easy to identify) a very dirty look. Katie nodded, looking paler than usual (which was saying something) as she took Nicole by the arm.
The first thing Nicole did that did nothing but make matters worse was when they were not-quite yet out of ear shot, she bellowed, "THAT GOD DAMNED ASSHOLE RIPPED RIGHT THROUGH MY BRA STRAP!" as she lifted a hand to knead gently at her throbbing flesh. Rolling her eyes, Katie smiled weakly. Yup, even when she was injured... Nicole was still the same old Nicole. "I don't think he meant to Colie..." she said soothingly, patting her companion's shoulder gingerly. " OW!"
Nicole gave Katie an injured glare. "OF COURSE HE MEANT TO! YOU CAN'T JUST SLASH SOMEONE AND CALL IT AN ACCIDENT!" Katie sighed again. There would be no talking to Nicole (other than agreeing with her, of course).
Meanwhile, Logan was attempting to defend himself. "I didn't mean to!" He protested for the millionth time. "It was an ACCIDENT!"
Scott shook his head in annoyance. "I hope that you know, that even if she does by a slim chance in hell believe that it was an accident... she is going to hold it over your head for years to come..." he stated off handedly, motioning for the remaining students to retreat to the locker rooms.
Logan scowled, "She should know perfectly well that I'm not allowed to harm students unless it's some sort of misunderstanding, Xavier would have my ass mentally kicked from here like that." he snapped his fingers.
"I don't think she knows that. You spend too much of your time trying to make her utterly furious that she probably thinks he doesn't care what you do." Scott of course, was rather hoping that this wasn't a gross misunderstanding and that Logan really would get kicked out.
: " Should I go and apologize...?" Logan inquired, scratching the back of his head, looking, if not slightly embarrassed.
Scott raised an eyebrow and shrugged, "It's worth a shot, but I wouldn't say no to the buddy system... perhaps go when there are a lot of people... safety in numbers and all that jazz... oh, and I would perhaps consider... a shower." he added the last bit with a smirk, then decided to leave before he was sent to the infirmary as well...