A.N. Okay guys, so you know when I said I would have a new chapter up soon? Well what I meant to say, was that I would have a new chapter up soon relative to the age of the sun. So when you say "Hey Someplace, two years isn't soon" you are technically right, but only bercause of a typo...
_

Time Skip! (Bling!)
I glowered at the spandex suit that Scott handed to me and wondered how it would possibly fit. "Okay Martin hurry up and get changed. The session starts in five." he ordered in his macho leader like no-nonsense-or-I'll-eat-you tone. The jerk faced, butt muncher...

I sighed and headed off to get dressed. Man, it was too early, five in the morning should definitely not exist. It should be a crime to wake teenagers up at this time. Seriously, we need it for like, developing our brains and stuff... Speaking of brains, I was racking mine trying to figuring out how to put this darned suit on.

It took awhile, and after no small amount of swearing I managed to find the tiniest little zip that was concealed by a fold of material. After that discovery it was a lot easier to put on and once fitted I reentered the danger room.

"Finally Martin, go stand with the others." Scott commanded and with only a small glare I complied. I wouldn't give him the honor of the ever mature raspberry. I noted with a variety of mixed emotions which I couldn't quite name, that my 'team' consisted of X-23, Kitty, Kurt, Rogue and Evan. I pointedly ignored Kitty as I joined their semicircle formation.

"Now, normally we'd start with something a little more simple for new comers." he continued once I'd stepped in line, the comment directed at me. "But since Martin's ability makes him so tough, we'd figured It would be most beneficial to throw him into the thick of things." Oh damn Scott, you charmer. Don't I just feel so lucky.

Whilst I was contemplating my fortune and trying to think of a way to survive the training session, Scott had somehow managed to leave the room without my notice and had started up the simulation. The rest of the junior x-men settled into fighting positions as a large sentinel robot was let loose into the room. Now, I must admit, I may have had to suppress my inner twelve year old anime and Saturday morning cartoon fed squeal of joy at seeing the thing. True it was a death machine designed to kill mutants like me and was probably going to beet the snot out of me, but damn did evil geniuses know how to design their toys. Maybe this training session wasn't going to be so bad after all...

Using the thrusters on it's hands and back it covered the space between us in a matter of seconds. Kitty grabbed Rogue's shoulder and and phased them both through the death machine's foot as it tried to stomp on them and Kurt teleported himself and Evan out of the way as well. X-23 simply back flipped out of reach whilst I was left to be stomped on. Whilst it didn't hurt per say, my feelings were left a little bit bruised. "Thanks guys..." I called out from under the mechanical foot, pounding uselessly at it's alloy armor. "Thanks for the help, I really appreciate it..." I didn't get to hear if they responded as I was picked up and thrown into the ground. You know, its a strange feeling, having your skull vibrate... Before I could stand up properly, I was hit in the face with a laser beam and sent flying into the wall. This time I managed to stand up, but now being effectively blind, there wasn't much I could do. It was a surreal feeling to be picked up again and thrown around with no idea of what was happening. I heard a war cry from X-23 that was followed by the tearing of metal. I blinked the last few spots out of my eyes and rolled over onto by back, staring up at the the robot.

X-23 was messing up it's face with her claws and it was then that I realized why Kitty was so afraid of her. The girl was a machine! An elegant, graceful demon, capable of causing both people and robots alike horrific damage whilst making it seem as if she were performing a well rehearsed dance. Proving my point, she did a flip over the robots shoulder and onto it's back as it attempted to grab her, slicing of a couple of it's fingers off with the claws on her feet. She slid down it's back, her claws carving out six deep gouges on her way to the ground. It was then that I noticed Evan and Rogue. Rogue had somehow obtained X-23's claws and was attacking the robot's feet whilst Evan was systematically throwing shards of bone into it's joints and vents. Kitty and Kurt were there also, keeping the others out of danger and looking for an opening to attack. I rushed over to help them and only narrowly dodged being hit by another laser beam by throwing myself to the side. Man, those things were really trying to get me... Fortunately with that momentary distraction Kurt was given enough of a reprieve to teleport X-23 back up onto the robot's head. Well, I hoped it was my distraction, maybe I was just trying to make myself feel better about my own relative uselessness... Who knows.

Within the next few seconds I found myself rolling out of the way as the robot's head crashed into the floor where I had just been. I startled at the loud beep that followed which I took as the signal for the end of the session. Slowly I climbed to my feet, hands shaking from the adrenaline.

Scott's voice sounded from the intercom, "Nice work guys, although let's try and do it a bit faster this time. Also Martin, try and get hit more. Protecting your team is probably the most useful thing you can do in this scenario." Wait- what? He wanted me to get hit more? I cursed under my breath, half wishing I was normal again and that everything would stop being so backwards.

After about half a dozen more exercises, Scott decided that we'd had enough and called it quits. I was about to hit the showers when he called out, "X-23, Martin, meet me in the control room. I want a word." Well, this couldn't be good... Like the good, obedient, X-man to be that I was, I followed X-23 up into control room, swallowing nervously.

"Now it has come to my attention, that you aren't really benefitting physically from the morning fitness sessions that the normal students take." he started, directing the comment at X-23 and it irked me that he'd made the distinction between her and the 'normal students'. As if anything was normal in this place. He continued oblivious to my feelings (what a jerk) "Now, I would have you continuing the sessions, if only to build relationships with the other students, however since Martin has the same problem..." Wait... I do? Well, I suppose if I'm indestructible, my muscles wouldn't really be pushed past their breaking point every time I did exercise so... "The other teachers and I have decide that it would be a good experience for you to train up Martin."

"What?!" Both me and X-23 exclaimed at the same time.

A.N. Okay, so I know this chapter has been a long time in coming (two years, jeez) which I'm really sorry about (not that it does much good) and I'm not sure if I actually have any readers left, but I had a bit of pent up creativity that I needed to get out. Hopefully I'll be putting up another chapter 'soon'. Maybe if you try and guilt trip me it might kick my lazy butt into speed. Then again, I could be a sociopath and put them up slower just to be spiteful... Anyways, enough with the rambling. Hope you enjoyed the chapter and maybe leave a review? Feel free to bash me for being god-awfully slow with the updates and being a bad human, I definitely deserve it...

- Someplace Somewhere