"You're landing much too hard on your feet, Andrea!" Emma said into the microphone, her voice echoing around the Danger Room.
Andi ground her teeth. She was doing her best! Most of these other kids had training before, but not her or Nick . . .
"Hey," Claus said. "Don't vorry about the Ice Queen."
"Why's she so serious about this?" Andi asked, wiping some sweat from her brow. "It's only our second day!"
"Because she's a Frost, and that's vhat Frosts do." Claus looked up. "Look out!" He grabbed Andi's hand and teleported them away just in time to miss being toasted by a flame thrower.
Andi sighed. "Thanks," she said, adjusting her visor. "I can't get used to it."
"You vill," Claus said. He teleported away, and Andi took off running.
"Hey!" Evalyn yelled. "Vatch out!" She kicked Jake out of the way.
"Hey, thanks!" Jake grinned.
"Just make sure I don't have to do it again," Evalyn grinned, teleporting away. Jake grinned and saw a hammer swinging at him. "Aw, crud." He turned to metal just as the hammer slammed into him.
Selena flipped and performed complex moves, escaping lasers, until she rammed into Gwen. "Hey!" Selena said as a piece of her hair was shot off. "What's your problem, runt?" She shouldered her way past her, and Gwen sneered at her back.
Don't do it, Gwen, Christian said in her mind.
She thinks she's so much better than the rest of us! Gwen thought as her claws shot out and she attacked a large machine gun. Just because she's had S.H.I.E.L.D. training! I've been training just as long as she has.
Don't let her get to ya, sis, Chris thought. She wants it.
She might get it, she keeps it up, Gwen said with a disdainful looked at the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent.
It's the second day of training. Don't do anything rash. Alright?
She did a mental sigh. Fine. She jumped off the ruined machine gun and attacked the next one.
Ayesha looked up at the lasers shooting from the ceiling. "Hey, Nicolas," she said. "Think you can get me up there?"
"Hmm. I can try." Nick held out his hands, concentrating on Ayesha, and lifted her into the air, until she was nearly at the top.
"Just hold me there for a sec," Ayesha said, opening the panel on the ceiling. "If I can rewire this, I can get all lasers on the ceiling to stop." She typed in a code, and started on the wires.
"Ayesha, I don't think I can hold you much longer!" Nick said.
"I'm almost finished! Hold on, Nick!" She felt herself fall a few feet. "Almost there!"
"I'm trying . . ." He was sweating and shaking. "I can't!" He let go.
Ayesha screamed as she flailed through the air. She felt Claus grab her waist, and he teleported her almost to the ground, where she fell into Nick.
"Hey," Nick grinned from underneath her. "Did you get it?"
Ayesha scowled and blew some hair out of her face. "Yeah, yeah."
Nikita phased through several machines, causing them all to go up in sparks and smoke. She went solid and smiled at her handy work.
"Ouff!" Christian knocked her over. "Sorry," Chris moaned. "I thought you were still phased."
"It's all good," Nikita said, rolling over. She gasped. "Look out!" She grabbed him, and a spray of bullets went right through them.
"Thanks," Chris smiled when they stopped.
"Sure," she said. She was pelted in the back of her head by a snowball, and she turned to see Raquel, fully iced and on sliding on her ice-bridge. Raquel made kissy faces, and, not paying attention, slammed into a wall.
Chris and Nikita looked at each other and grinned.
Temperance was moving parts around inside of a machine using her telekinesis when she got a telepathic message from Chris to duck. She hit the ground as a large piece of machinery flew over her head. She looked at her watch. "Danger Room: Simulation 114, Off Mode."
Everything stopped, and Temperance's team looked around in relief.
"That was pretty good, guys," Jean said into the mic. "That's all for today – go relax."
Instead of going to the kitchen with the others, Temperance went into the meeting room, toweling sweat of her brow.
"Jeeves?" Temperance called as she entered. Several lights flickered on, and the television screen flickered on to show a blue screen.
"Yes, Miss Howlett?" asked the electronic British voice.
"Call Stark Tower, please."
"Ah, the infamous Mr. Tony Stark. My master and creator. My father figure you could say –"
"Thank you Jeeves."
"Oh, you are no fun!" The phone started ringing, and Tony's face appeared on the screen.
"Hey, Temp. What's going on?"
"Not much," she replied, sitting down.
"Not much, indeed!" Jeeves added. "No one has paid any attention to me since these new children showed up."
"Jeeves," Tony said. "Grow up." He leaned back in his chair. "Whatcha need, Temp?"
"I wanted to talk to you about reprogramming Jeeves . . ."
With a gasp, Jeeves logged off, and Tony and Temperance grinned. "Really, I just wanted to let you know that everythings going great. The new equipment for the Danger Room is great."
"Good. Is Kurt's girls Image Inducer holding up?"
"Yeah. She hasn't had it on for longer than an hour, but so far it's working fine."
"Great. So." He leaned back, kicking his feet up. "Why did you really call me?"
Temperance sighed. "I have no idea what I'm doing, Tony. It's harder than I thought, leading this team. I feel like no one thinks I'm any good at this. Everyone is so tense. Jake doesn't like Chris, Chris doesn't like Nick, no one likes Selena." She sighed, setting her head in her hands. "I'm scared."
"Hey," Tony said. "You're doing fine, trust me. Your dad is so proud of you. And that Selena kid, she runs with S.H.I.E.L.D., right?"
"Yeah."
"Then no one is ever going to like her. Trust me, I know." He smiled. "You're going to do great, Temperance, ok? You're a great leader, you're quick, you're smart." He smiled. "You're a real . . . paragon."
"Paragon?"
"Yeah. You know. A treasure, a gem. One of a kind." Tony's eyes lit up. "I just had a great idea. I'll call you later."
"I – ok, I guess. Love you, Tony."
"Love you too, kid. Keep up the good work." He logged off, and Temperance was alone.