Another post and another thanks to Cheshire for the review. Logan and Widow are too fun to write together and I got a feeling they'll be bantering and kicking ass together again soon. I won't get too into what will go on with Raven but she's always been one of my favorite characters and fitting her into the X-Men/Marvel universe is full of possibilities.
Rest of you, enjoy the next chapter and should be back to a regular posting schedule for the next couple of weeks. Lemme know what you think!
"It really isn't that big of a deal." Rogue tried as she and Kitty leaned against the wall across from the entrance of the Danger Room.
"Yea we all do it. It's actually kinda fun! You know - unless Professor Logan's detentions involved." Kitty added, the pair sticking to their spot as they carefully watched Kara pace in front of the door.
"This is a bad idea." Raven muttered for what felt like the dozenth time. While Kara hadn't spoken a word since this morning.
She'd been stupid. So stupid. She hadn't meant to be stupid, it just… happened ... and now she was in trouble.
She could have just let it go. She should have just let it go.
She'd finished with art class. Which she still had trouble understanding. She didn't 'draw' ... she could just copy what she saw. No big deal. But Piotr, who ran the art studio, liked what she copied so that was nice. He'd been having her try and draw things outside of just what she saw. It was different but she'd been having a good time and after class she'd gone looking for Raven.
She had tracked Raven walking to another class. There had been a group following her and Kara noted their body language and how they were laughing. It felt wrong. And that's when Kara got it.
They were saying things about Raven.
Calling her Witch. Demon. Freak. Kara watched as Raven just kept walking. Her face was completely still, but her eyes were almost glowing. Kara wondered if this was why Raven always had her headphones with her. Then someone had used their powers and suddenly Raven's things were all over the ground. Kara bristled but didn't move. She expected someone to help like a Kitty or a Rogue ... even Jean. But the group kept saying thing and Raven's shadow had started to grow.
That's when Kara made herself known, coming out of her corner and silently helping Raven pick her books up. The feline felt her ear twitch. The group had paused for a second, clearly not expecting her, but they quickly started again. Except they were now saying mean things about ... her?
Kara narrowed her eyes as a strange rushing sound filled her ears. She had never even met these people but she already felt the growl forming in her throat. They didn't stop. They kept saying what she knew were supposed to be mean things. If she could even talk. If she shed. If she was missing a collar.
If the group had been at all observant they would have noticed how Kara slowly stood up and was eyeing each of them teeth bared. Then the two closest to her had asked if she was Raven's pet.
That's when they found themselves on the ground, their noses bleeding from Kara's elbow. The panthress growled, she was no one's pet, and she would have gotten to the rest but then a sudden flash of red had shot between them and Scott had appeared. Kara frowned, she'd seen Scott around. He was what Raven called "popular" with everyone. Even the teachers. He was tall with a lean frame and a square jaw. She couldn't tell what color his eyes were because he always wore red glasses. Now she knew why.
Raven had called him 'the Ken to Jean's Barbie.' Rogue called him a drill sergeant. Kitty said he was dreamy. Kara wasn't really sure what any of that meant but she knew he led the X-Men and that now he was yelling at - at them?
"You can all shut it. I saw what happened. You alright Raven?" Scott asked above the heads of the group at a now standing Raven who just nodded, her gaze far more focused on Kara who was trying her best to recede to the background.
"But she started it! She - she broke Vincent and Christine's face!" But Scott had just sent the entire group to see Dr. McCoy. Kara had seriously thought of running, down the hall, through the window and out of sight but she knew better. It was ALWAYS worse if you ran. So when Scott had finally turned to face her she'd braced herself for what she knew was coming.
But instead of yelling at her ... Scott was just smiling and looking at her. Kara's ears went from straight up to flat against her head. She recognized that look. That smile. It was worse than yelling or punishment.
"Your new. Kara right?" Scott took the feral's silence as a 'yes.' "Well I'm Scott. Pretty sure you've met Jean before." The red head gave a small wave from further down the hall but Kara ignored it and just kept her amber eyes locked on Scott. She knew it was coming.
"So not sure if anyone's told you yet but we do evaluations for all the new students. I know you're a bit young but ... from what I saw… I think it's past time we got you down in the Danger Room. An hour sound good?"
Kara seemed to deflate for a moment, her shoulders dropping as her tail went still. But it was only for a moment as she took a breath and looked back up at Scott and nodded.
"Great. Just grab a training uniform from the locker room and I'll see you down there." and Kara had waited for Scott and Jean to disappear down the hall before punching a locker which had crumpled from the impact.
"Stupid." Kara growled to herself. She'd gone looking for Logan but then remembered that he'd left.
Last week she'd been up late padding through the school looking for him. It had taken her most of the night and faded scent in his room for her to figure out he was gone. Kitty had assured her that happened sometimes. It hadn't made her feel much better.
"Hey you're not stupid," Rogue interrupted, "those idiots were stupid. Just sorry I wasn't there to see you break Christine's jaw." Rogue actually sounded wistful, earning a chuff from Kara.
"Am stupid." Kara growled as she resumed pacing.
"Why would you say that?" Raven asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Because now they'll know." Kara reply got all three to raise eyebrows now.
"Know what?" Raven tried prompting Kara into telling her something more but knew that with Rogue and Kitty around that was basically impossible but it didn't matter as the Danger Room doors chose that moment to slide open. Kara stopped pacing and squaring up the feline released a slow breath and with a whip of her tail stalked into the space.
"Not good."
All three girls gave each other a look before Rogue and Kitty sprinted for the observation room. Raven kept her eyes on the now closed door before following much slower with a slowly growing pit in her stomach an acidic kind of smell in her nose.
"I know this is a bad idea." Raven muttered as she made her way up the stairs to the observation room. It was normal for some of the X-Men and other students to come watch a new students evaluation. Who didn't want to see something new ... even in a school full of mutants?
There was even a scoreboard that was projected in the Danger Room with different students rankings and scores. Overall. By program. It was the closest the school got to intramural sports.
Kara didn't know any of that or notice anything beyond what was right in front of her. She'd experienced a lot of new things since she'd arrive a few weeks ago. This wasn't new. This she understood.
"OK Kara ... we're gonna start you off nice a easy. Basic obstacle course. Ready?"
"Ready." Kara's growl was piped into the observation room which Raven saw was pretty full. Most of the X-Men were there besides Scott including Jean, Bobby, Piotr, and Amara. Not to mention some other students like Remy, Mako, Lance, and Tabitha mixed in with Rogue, Kitty, and herself.
"Alright on the mark." Scott gave a quick nod to Bradley, and a short, wiry somewhat nerdy Irish teenage technopath training to be on the team placed a hand on the console. Soon a clock counted down from 10, the Danger Room transforming into a multi-tiered obstacle course.
It wasn't long before most of the room was cheering as Kara sped through the course, moving easily from sprinting to all fours, to leaping over barriers, to scaling walls, to avoiding paintballs.
As Kara crossed the finish line Kitty and Rogue bumped fists as the entire group looked to see where Kara's time would be."Top ten! Wait - top four if you don't count speedsters! Way to go Kara!" Scott had to grab the microphone back from an overexcited Kitty, though he was smiling too. The kid was fast. Moved with confidence. He was sure in a few years…. hell less then that she could be an amazing addition to the X-Men.
Scott was 17 and had already been working with the X-Men for over a year. Xavier had put him in charge of scouting younger students for potential X-Men. I mean sure ... Ororo and Logan were in charge of the team but he knew it was only a matter of time before he'd get his chance and he'd prefer that to be soon.
"Very nice Kara. You need a break?" Scott got another growl with a shake of 'no.' "Alright so this next part is a simple combat progression exercise. Pretty simple. Just beat the opponent and the next one will materialize, each one a bit tougher than the next."
Scott gave Bradley another nod as down below Kara cracked her neck and rolled her shoulders.
It started off slow. Generic people you'd see on the street tried attacking the young feral. Next came a security guard, then a police officer, followed by an unarmed MRD soldier. Each one separated by a 30 second break.
These Kara did away with ease. The fact she only had to hit them hard enough in the right places was clearly surprising after the first two.
"I didn't even get past the police officer." Kitty muttered in awe to Rogue who nodded her head in agreement. She had fared better… she had at least gotten stuck at the MRD. Scott meanwhile had a bigger and bigger smile.
"Incredible." Scott said out loud, clearly excited, as he gave Bradley another nod, indicating to move to the next level.
Now mutants appeared, each with one type of power or another. Fire. Ice. Flight. Teleportation. These Kara picked up she had to hit a bit harder and a few more times.
None made it more than a few minutes. Scott could barely hear himself as the entire room had resumed cheering, watching Kara's name slowly make its way up the leaderboard.
"Huh at this rate… I think she can use the main team's configurations." Scott mumbled to himself just loud enough for Bradley to hear, who gave Scott a raised eyebrow but not wanting to bug Cyclops just closed his eyes and put his hands back on the console.
Kara was focused but somewhat relieved to find this evaluation was fairly simple. Harmless really. Maybe she was wrong. Maybe -
Kara let out a hiss of pain as she was hit from behind by a shock of electricity. Quickly rolling out of the line of fire she saw three MRD soldiers approaching, weapons drawn. She recognized those weapons. They had - They had been the same from the cave.
With a roar Kara sprinted towards the group and quickly disarmed one of the soldiers with an audible crack of bone and to everyone's shock turned the weapon on the other three. There were outright gasps from the students above. Most of them were used to seeing their enemies disabled ... maybe knocked unconscious. These ones didn't disappear and Kara had barely skipped a beat, not stopping until she'd snapped the neck of the second and jammed the electric gun under the helmet of the third and final soldier until he fell.
The fact blood was now involved not registering with the feral.
Immediately four members of the Purifiers appeared. Kara didn't hesitate and dove into the next group. The feral wasn't just beating them. She was killing them. And where with the MRD it had been with weapons, now the panthress was breaking them down and - and tearing them apart with tooth and claw. Right up until the final soldier who she shot clear from across the Danger Room. The bang of the shot echoing through the observation room.
Meanwhile any cheers that had been emanating in the crowded room had died until it was complete silence.
Purifiers.
Reavers.
Toad and Pyro.
There was an unspoken kind of horror in the room. Where everyone had silently agreed that this has gone too far. But it was like no one dared to say anything. It was all happening too fast.
"I - I think we should stop." Jean finally managed out, her voice barely a whisper. But it was enough to shake Scott.
"Bradley? BRADLEY!" and Scott started to make his way to the technopath but the teen seemed almost transfixed as he watched what was happening below. Muttering curses Scott started to try and manually override the board himself but it didn't seem to be working. What had Bradley done?
Quicksilver
Lady Deathstrike and a trio of cyborgs.
Kara was now hunched over and shaking from the adrenaline, multiple slashes and burns forcing her healing factor into overdrive. She - she knew she was almost spent. But then a scent hit her and the feline immediately straightened up, hackles on edge, a snarl filling the now empty space as the remaining bodies disappeared.
Kara roared and charged straight at the new opponent.
"Raven are you - you OK?" Rogue had been as struck numb as everyone else but had heard a noise from the corner and saw Raven stumble and brace herself against the wall.
"We - we gotta stop it." Raven muttered.
"What?" Rogue leaned down to try and get a better look at the usually stoic girl from below, before stumbling back, a little freaked out by how Raven's eyes were looking at her and yet past her at the same time. Meanwhile below, Kara roared in pain as she she kicked and clawed helplessly while she was pinned against a wall, her face being cruelly forced into the panels.
By a laughing Sabertooth.
"STOP IT!" Raven screamed, hands gripping the side of her face while her eyes flashed pure white and suddenly it was like the rest of the mutants around her were shocked back to their senses.
"Shut it down! Bolt shut it down now!" Scott now shouted taking advantage of Bradley's sudden confusion, his hands still racing over the console but all it took was Bradley quickly putting his hands on it and quickly the simulation disappeared, just leaving Kara on one knee, her other arm across her stomach where blood was flowing freely.
A stream of growls came from the feral, teeth bared, her hackles on end. Most of her training uniform torn away so that the slowly healing slashes were clearly visible. The observation room silent once again as they just stared as the panthress below snapped and bared her teeth at nothing … as if Creed was still standing there. The fact her blood was dripping steadily onto the floor not seeming to register.
A few minutes passed and slowly the pantheress took a few breaths and gave her head a shake. Kara struggled back to her feet before turning to stare almost defiantly up at the observation room, and without another word, limped out of the Danger Room.