Cecilia Reyes (mutanteboricua) wrote in artofwar_rpg, @ 2011-05-08 02:40:00 |
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Entry tags: | †dr. cecilia reyes, †haylie collins; spitfire, ♦alison blaire; dazzler, ♦bobby drake; iceman, ♦scott summers; cyclops, ♦wade wilson; deadpool |
“First Meeting” (Part 1)
Who: Scott, Cecilia, Alison, Haylie, Wade, Bobby
What: It’s time to announce the group’s next mission.
When: Sunday, May 1
Where: The Danger Room
Rating/Warnings: presumably, there will be danger.
Status: Complete
“Okay then, Jean. You get there when you can. I’m,” and he actually gulped, nervous for the first time since he had gotten his red glasses, “going in. Wish me luck.”
She squeezed his hand, and he opened the door to the Danger Room, where he had asked everybody to assemble. Earlier, he had set up folding chairs in a circle, each with a notepad and pens, in case anybody wanted to take notes.
Some of them were there, already. Scott saw them all looking at him, curious. He was not in civvies, not anymore. He was in the first ‘suit’ he had contracted for, from friends of mutants at Van Dyne Enterprises, out of Poughkeepsie, New York. Deep blue, form fitting, specially jointed, that new cloth that was too expensive to want to talk about, a product of the first manufacturing line from the micromachines of the famed scientist Henry Pym.
On the center of his chest was a big X symbol in deep crimson, repeated across his back, and he wore a wide black belt, with some small items of equipment in it, and a square belt buckle with a deep crimson X on a yellow field. The suit had pockets on the arms and legs, heavy boots, and a pair of light blue gauntlets hung from a pocket on his right side. He also has a hood, which was turned down, now, a sort of armored cowl. He was wearing the Mark IV visor, the one he had asked Hank to make that exchanged the electromechanical verniers for simply mechanical ones. Nobody could see the difference, but the comm system Hank had designed has speakers at both Scott’s ears, built into his visor.
Silence. He smiled. “Welcome to the first meeting in whole of the X-Men. Charles is not attending today, and Jean will be a bit late. Charles has asked me to take leadership of the team, at least for present, and given us a mission. We’re going down to British Honduras to keep Erik and his Brotherhood from kidnapping two teenagers and frightening mutants there into joining his cause. But before we do, we need to work out some things. And we need to start working out together. We’ll also need to separate out those who are willing to fight Erik from those who aren’t.”
He grinned at all of them. “And I know, I look like something out of a comic book. But this should stop a normal military round, even if it still knocks you over.” He patted the X over his chest. “Jean is taking the delivery on the first main order of these, two suits each. They may need some retailoring and she volunteered to learn how to use the tailoring machine. Thank God! I took a look at the instructions and decided I’d stick to rocket science!”
She would never tell this to him, but Cecilia thought Scott looked good in blue. Or maybe it was just the way the material conformed to his muscular thighs that made her think that. Perhaps she’d have to ask him for some workout secrets some time, or maybe she’d take him up on music and a drink in Harlem.
Aware that she had been inappropriately scanning Scott while he spoke (she cautioned herself that she’d have to be more careful about that sort of thing; now that she was turning 30, Cecilia felt that she couldn’t ogle anyone under 25 without feeling slightly lecherous—and besides, she doubted he was the interracial couple type), she lifted her eyes to his face for a moment and concentrated on what it was he was saying. Perhaps she could play off her curiosity as uniform-related rather than merely physical. Cecilia had to admit, she didn’t find British Honduras as exciting as the prospect of Honduras proper, which Jean had raised earlier. But either way, she worried about her hair in the humidity and hoped that any tailoring would distract from the inevitable mess on top of her head by accentuating her very Puerto Rican curves.
“Are there a lot of mutants,” she cleared her throat, “in British Honduras?” It was a stupid-sounding question, but she had been slightly surprised by that mission.
Scott turned to Cecilia, glad he had a poker face on, because he tended to stare every time he saw her. He wondered if Jean had tagged how fascinated he was by her. It would be something to talk to her about, for sure. “Well, there are now. The Mutant Underground has been setting up towns, four of them, across the world, with the help of a... financial and organizational backer. One of them is in the north coastal area of Belize, set aside partly for unusual looking mutants and for others whose X-gene led to long term or permanent health problems. The figure I’ve heard is close to 400 mutants and over 100 humans. A lot of family members of the mutants. Um, we also had a request for any medical help we can find to send their way. Apparently there are more health-affected mutants than I thought there were.”
Alison stole a glance over at Cecilia and nodded her head, tapping her pen annoyingly against her notebook, listening to her talk, musing in her head about the uniforms and how much she hated the idea of it. Still, whatever, she wasn’t going to complain out loud, not right now. That would come in due course. She turned her attention back to Scott since he was the one who seemed to have all of the answers and information. “I’ve never heard of British Honduras.”
Ali had fit in well when he introduced her to the people here. Bright, engaging in a sometimes in your face way. Scott had been proud to find her and introduce her to the Institute. “Well, not too many people have. I only learned it existed about ten days ago. It’s called Belize by the locals. It was a colonial development, eventually owned by the British. They still control it, but an influential mutant brokered a deal; for it to become self-ruling, and with representation from a new mutant community moved there over the past year. It’s a secret deal, so we only know about it from the mutant who set it up. Apparently the country is a pretty backward place, almost all agricultural, some mining, some rich British expatriates. Less than half a million people.”
Alison listened intently to the explanation, slowly taking the information in and digesting it as best she could until Scott had finished his explanation. It was nice being here and being part of a team and she genuinely liked most of the people she lived with, but this super hero stuff was going to take some getting used to. “I guess I don’t understand. It appears to me that they seem to have things well taken care of on their own. What’s so special about these two teenagers that the community can’t deal with it themselves?”
Overall, they’d been left in the dark the past couple of weeks. She knew there was tension and something boiling under the surface, but to date, they’d gotten no information and it was time to find out the truth.
Scott thought it was a really good question. “The community has about three mutants with any serious defensive and offensive abilities. They are not backed by a local police force, and are independent of the other villages and towns nearby. For security and secrecy reasons, the national police and British military are not allowed in the area near the village. Even if they were, the guy who set this up wants to avoid letting the cat out of the bag. Some of the mutants there have physical mutations that would likely cause problems, if local forces saw them. Officially, it’s a colony for tribal peoples displaced in nuclear bomb tests. So, nobody wants to be close to them, because of rumors that they’re radioactive.”
The next part was harder. “These kids have been in hiding since they were born, seventeen years ago, with their mother, in some country called Transia in the Balkans in Europe. Somehow they were separated from their mother, and the father found out about her, and then about them. Traced them to Belize. They’re apparently content to stay in Paradisio Village. And their father probably wants them to join his group. The Brotherhood. These are Erik’s kids, the ones he’s mentioned as dead, before. Their mother named them Pietro and Wanda, and they are apparently very powerful mutants.”
While Cecilia had been ogling Scott and Alison tapped her pen incessantly against her notebook, Haylie sat back and just observed everyone. She’d admit that she appreciated the way he looked in the form-fitting suit, but it wasn’t something that Haylie allowed herself to get distracted by. Maybe if was Wade, because he was built something fierce, but... well, damn. Now she really was getting distracted. In fact, she was beginning to wonder where exactly Wade had been hiding lately.
Speak of the devil, Wade was doing what he did best, and forgot about meetings and anything else of importance. Or just didn’t bother to keep him filled in. It was by chance that he was reminded of the little meeting to be had today, and he figured that well...it was probably important. As the others continued with their questions the former mercenary inexpertly crept his way on in and to the back of the ranks. There was that one person who he’d actually made contact with, and he’d take advantage of that for the moment.
Folding his arms behind his back, Wade cleared his throat lightly and whispered to Haylie. “What’d I miss? ...Is he modeling for a futuristic swimsuit edition?” He couldn’t help but stare at the ridiculous suit, thing that Scott was wearing. It was much longer than he would have preferred to stare at it, much less any man at all.
If there was one thing that Haylie learned about Wade, it was to expect him to show up out of nowhere. However, it didn’t stop her from jumping slightly in her seat and resisting the urge to smack him for surprising her like that. Instead, she just chuckled at Wade’s comment and shook her head. “Unfortunately not.”
Noticing when Wade walked in, Alison turned to him and gave him a look. “Shhh...!” She indicated Scott who was still talking. “If you’re going to come in late, the least you can do is be quiet.”
Scott had learned to really listen when he had been, for all practical purposes, blind. He missed what Haylie had said, but not Wade, because he could also read lips pretty well. “Thanks, Ali. Wade, I want to demonstrate why I’m willing to wear this thing. So, make sure you don’t use an explosive or armor piercing shell, and aim somewhere below my neck and not at my hands. And shoot me once.”
It was hard not to burst out laughing to Haylie’s reaction to his ninja-like reflexes, as he’d call them. But when Alison shushed him, contorted his face into some inappropriate face at her, before rolling his eyes. Everyone was so touchy.
Oh wait, Scott was talking to him? Right, he was the only Wade. He fidgeted with his fingers at his side a moment while trying to put together what Scott had instructed him to do. It was a simple request, sure, but it was really hard to put it all together and not shoot back all of the ridiculous responses he’d wanted. No special shells, no neck shots, and no hands. This guy was no fun.
Reaching behind him to where he’d kept the one gun on his person--of which he’d have to question Scott about looking at him too closely to notice--he pulled it from its spot, aimed, and shot the ‘Cyclops’ dead in the chest. A lazy shot for the merc, but hey, he was curious about this swimsuit.
“Sorry I’m late, I got lost ag.... What the?!?!” came from the door as it opened and closed again, letting Bobby Drake enter the room.
Haylie was about to object to Scott getting shot at but it was too late because Wade already fired the gun, and all she could seem to do was stare and resist the urge to call him a moron for volunteering this.
She knew it was bound to happen when Scott asked Wade to shoot him, but it was still quite the shock when it happened. When the gun went off, Ali dropped her pen and notepad, and covered her head, fighting the urge not to scream too loud and crawl under her chair. “Seriously, there are better places for you to have done that!”
Scott jerked backward with the high-caliber, high speed impact, and ended up splayed out across the wall, gasping for breath, and feeling like he’d been kicked in the chest by a mule. What had Wade been carrying? He groaned and shook his head. It was the first time his vision had ever doubled in his life, and the rest saw the twin circles of his eye beams flash brightly and randomly under the Visor. Now Scott saw spots, white spots in his vision, for the first time since the optical blasts had started. Finally, he tried to speak, coughed, and smiled thinly. “Shit!” he said.
“Madre de Dios,” she muttered as she watched Scott get thrown against the wall. Thank God she had her force field, because apparently the suit wasn’t a cure-all. Scott’s smile had done little to diffuse the tension in the room (that much was apparent), and she glanced from Scott to Wade, waiting to see what might happen.
Scott continued to breathe hard, listening to it all, “Good shooting, Wade.” His voice was trembling, and he could not take a step to peel himself off the wall. “As you can see... see... the armor does... does NOT absorb much... of the impact. It... spreads it out, but Wade’s... elephant pistol... is just leaving... a hell... of a bruise. Could... somebody help me get to a chair?”
Here we go again. Haylie thought to herself as she got out of her seat in the back and weaved around the others to go help Scott. Slinging his arm around her shoulder, she pulled him off of the wall and steadied him as she helped him to a seat. Once he was safely in his chair, Haylie leaned in closely, half-glaring at him as she cupped his face in her bare hand -- marking the first time she touched him without gloves. “Next time we decide to shoot someone? It’s gonna be me. My mutation protects me from the kickback. You feelin’ alright? Any difficulty breathing?”
Oh, right. It’s Dr. Reyes, not Mrs. Summers. Cecilia jumped to her feet and quickly moved beside Haylie. “Here, let me--” she felt around the area where she assumed a wound would be.
Scott finally felt better. Something had eased his impact with the wall, Cecilia, he decided. Haylie was right there, chastising him, touching him, for the first time in the 20 months he had known her and worked with her. “I’m feeling better now. The armor worked, but I sure am glad you caught me Cecilia. Wade’s bullet had a kick like a mule.” His voice was still shaky, and his chest ached terribly. “Thanks, Wade. Good choice, center of mass. And Haylie, glad to see you dispense with that ‘no touch’ rule.”
He’d been out to Poughkeepsie to see the armor respond to heavy shots, but he had never been hit by a bullet before. It told a whole new story in pain, surprise and shock. But he had to keep his head clear. Haylie held him still and Cecilia pulled down the zipper from his neck almost to his belt. He felt a wave of nausea that had nothing to do with being injured. Scott guessed he was one of a few living targets Wade had ever left alive. It made him feel sick, and at the same time oddly elated. His heart started to hammer in his chest. His two angels continued to check him out, using some kind of communication system that only emergency trained personnel seemed to know. “I should be okay. Can somebody get me a glass of water?”
“I left the gloves in my room. Don’t flatter yourself too much, Scott.” Haylie quipped with a thinly-veiled smirk, allowing Cecilia to attend to the area where he was shot while she herself kept close watch on his vital signs and his state of mind. “No more product testin’, I mean it. I can’t keep savin’ your ass like this.”
“Seriously,” Cecilia flashed a grin at Haylie. “Your machismo not withstanding, I haven’t entirely figured out this whole force-field thing yet, so consider yourself lucky.” She stood up. “Put some ice on it. You’ll be fine.”
Scott shrugged, and even that was a bit painful. “I’m always lucky. Lucky to have friends like you.” He wished he could wink at them both.
“We don’t all have to be shot, do we?” Bobby asked, eyes still wide. “It’s not a hazing thing, is it?”
Ali looked at Bobby. She’d managed to remain in her seat despite the continuing urge to either get under it or get behind it. Whatever worked best. “I don’t think so. I think that was just a demonstration. Anything other than that, and I’m outta here. Maybe even out of the building altogether.”
She gave Wade one of her dagger looks to prove a point, then reached down and picked up her dropped pen and paper and sat back to wait and see what happened next. Scott was clearly okay and being taken care of by good hands so there was no point in getting in the way.
He was of course satisfied with his shot, even after Scott continuously thanked and praised him for it. But Wade did get that uneasy feeling in his gut when the mutant got back up. Not that Wade was counting on Scott to die, but he wouldn’t really care if he did. And as Scott had presumed, the merc never let anyone live after his attacks, should they be lucky enough to get up from his shot.
Wade gave the gun a small twirl in his fingers before resetting it and returning it to its previous location. “If you do have to keep testing, I’m all for shooting you again, and anyone else who wants to try. But let’s waste someone else’s bullets, hmm?”
Scott let the ladies continue to minister to him, but he did twist around in the chair so he could see the others in the circle. They were all talking, looking at each other, or gaping at Scott, and that was fine. He’d known this would be outside the comfort zone of all of them. It certainly had been, for him! The worst of it was Ali, who looked like she had been betrayed, and Wade, who seemed to have truly enjoyed the experience. But he had counted on Wade to be cool about it. Even if he did not like it.
He sounded better, now, too. “Okay. Wade, we’ll pay for your bullets, so stop being an accountant. Listen. I know that was a pretty harsh demonstration, and it was worse on me than on you. I’ve never been shot before, and the Air Force drills don’t come even close to this. But this is called the Danger Room, and there’s a reason for that. Anybody who saw that demo and can’t hack the idea that you’re going to be shot at, needs to let me know, and I can take you off the Prime team we’re assembling. Because the Prime team is going to have to go in to places where that gunshot will seem like the tip of an iceberg.”
He quickly scanned all their faces, and then went on, ignoring the queries for now. “I need to talk about that. Charles and Erik always knew they would need people to put their lives on the line. Erik set up a new organization, and I am sure he tried to recruit other people than just me.” Scott wondered why Wade was not with him. Wade was an unlikely candidate for spy, though, and he was glad to have him here. “Erik’s Brotherhood is about going in your face with humanity, an organization that will pursue terror tactics to demonstrate that we are better than humans, should be feared, and will be appeased. I don’t know his final goals, but they look like he wants mutants, the thousands of us in the world, in charge of everybody else. I’m sure you heard him use the term ‘homo superior’ more than once. Well, the ‘superior’ humans seem to have flown the coop with him, leaving the rest of us to deal with it.”
He looked at Bobby, and shrugged. “Bobby, at least the rest of them had a moment to prepare for the shot. Sorry. Look, folks, Erik has let me know that we are now his opposition, and even if we just do what we’ve always done, he wants us to fall in line with him soon. That means some of us will be forced to be his storm troopers, and we’ll have to sit back and watch him do the kinds of things the Nazis did to him. So, I want all of you to decide: are you with him, or with us? Or do you have to go somewhere else? Next, I’ll be talking about us, what the Institute is, and what this X I’m displaying is about. None of it is written in gold, or red, yet, so there’s room to talk about it. If some of you want to leave, Charles has asked to make room for you in the four existing mutant towns scattered across the world, though, since Paradisio is targeted by Erik, it is not a really safe choice. Also, the Underground would be glad to have any of you with them. Most of you can live like regular people, for the most part, and the Mutant Underground needs more people who can do that. Charles has agreed to set up any of you for a start in any of these capacities.
“Finally, we need to decide on who is in the Primary group. That group is about pushing forward to defend mutants and humans from Erik and others who are going to target people like us, globally. To do that, against the Brotherhood, and even governments, we need to learn to fight, because a lot of these folks are going to fight us. So, at the end of this meeting, I’ll need to know who is on Primary, and who is Base, that is, the people who will commit to keeping the Institute running, probably with a few changes. One of you will need to step up to be in charge of that. Charles is stepping back out of the leadership role to consider other options.
“So, that’s it. We can discuss this in any order. And at the end, anybody who wants to learn to work in defense and offense as a team will stay here, in the Danger Room. I’ve rigged some exercises. Wade, I want you to take command of those exercises, and try to help everybody to learn to defend themselves and to fight. I’m a leader, but I have ZERO practical combat experience. So, anybody want to start?” Scott sat back and thanked his ministering angels.
Cecilia wondered momentarily if Scott had meant to imply that the Brotherhood were superior humans to the X-Men, but she was fairly sure it was inadvertent. So instead, she’d goad him about something else. “Wait, you were in the Air Force, but they don’t give you some practical combat training?” Cecilia grinned. “If we’re sparring, Scott’s my partner.” She had grown up in a rough neighborhood, after all, and her father had taught her how to defend herself. Not that she’d ever used it before, but she certainly wasn’t going to square off against Wade and Hank. And besides, she wanted to prove to the group that she was more than just a healer.
Scott stuck his tongue out at her. “I got Basic, and rules for engagement for a fighter-bomber pilot are duck, run away, and try not to eat any lead. I also took combat judo and kill-quick. And I learned how to box and brawl in high school. I know a lot about ground team combat, tactics, and strategy. That’s it. Bet I can take you two out of three rounds.” He couldn’t help breaking out in a laugh. “Well. Maybe tomorrow.” He zipped up his uniform.
“Seriously, though, I’d like to go to British Honduras,” she said, glancing at Scott. “To the mutant village. To Paradisio.” It had dawned on her earlier. Paradiso. Paraiso was the translation that he had been looking for, but he never asked. So off to Paradise. The rest of the team might have been going to save two teenagers. But Cecilia had a hunch she’d find someone else along the way.
“You’re in. Their benefactor says they need a doctor or two down there, and there may be a lot of injuries. You also demonstrated you can handle surprises, just now. Fast responses. There will be opportunities in the Danger Room scenarios to demonstrate that.” He had not really expected the Doc to volunteer, but he was fine with it. She seemed to be made of the same class of mettle as Haylie.
Once Scott was okay, Haylie gave his shoulder a squeeze and returned to her spot beside Wade. “Dibs on Wade.” She grinned, nudging the merc with a grin and a chuckle before her face returned to a more neutral expression. “It’d be a waste of my...” Talents seemed like such a pretentious way to describe her powers, “...abilities to be sitting on Base. I’m on Primary. You’re gonna need me out there, and I’m okay with gettin’ shot at.”
It was for certain that Wade either had a mental coma, or wandered off into ‘lala land’ during most if not all of Scott’s long-winded explanation. And he thought he could talk. Not to mention the extent of important information. It did draw his attention at the mention of them paying for his bullets, picking teams, and him playing teacher. There was that bit about the Brotherhood that was interesting, but the mercenary did in fact have his own reasons for picking the X Men. Of which Scott, or anyone else would have to continue to contemplate on his own.
Raising his hand, Wade bounced lightly on his feet. “Oooh! Me! Me! Primary for me! You don’t want me sitting in your house all day cooked up and nothing to kil--shoot. Trust me.” As Haylie nudged him, he gave a shake of his head before he’d realized that he’d been put in charge of something. In. Charge. “So...I get to turn everyone into super ninjas?”
Scott felt like yelling at him, but he’d done that before, and to no real effect. So, he would resort to straight talk. “Yes, Wade, you get to teach Primary School. If you can turn us into super-Ninjas, I’m all for it. Stealth and rapid movement. Carefully measured attack appropriate to our objectives. We’re going to work very hard at minimizing severe injuries, damages, and death, though. I suspect you’re going to need instruction about that, so... Haylie, you get to coach Wade in being gentle and circumspect.” He’d seen her ogle at Wade, but he also knew she was a responsible adult. “But save a day for me before we head out. You and I are going to the Adirondacks to figure out how to be the team ranged offensive artillery.”
“Well, I’m harder to hurt than the rest of you, so it makes sense.” That and the fact that she and Wade already had a bit of rapport helped matters. If the matter of her checking the merc out was brought up in conversation, she had no problem pointing out that Scott had been ogled by just about every woman on the team, whether he was aware of it or not. “Why the Adirondacks?”
“Not like we can go shooting in Brooklyn,” she grabbed a rubber band off her wrist and tied her hair back. “Bronx, maybe,” she snorted before realizing how close to the truth that was.
Alison, now sufficiently sure that every thing had settled down and there wasn’t going to be anymore shooting, at least for now, listened to the exchange between the various members of her team before piping up. “I’ll help where I’m needed and I’ll learn what I need to know if I need to know it, but I’m not a fighter.” And that was the plain truth. She’d spent most of the last several years, living in Hippie communes, playing music, traveling when she wanted and where she wanted if the mood struck.
“Defending myself... fine, but actively fighting... “ Ali let her sentence trail off. “What are the other options?”
Bobby tried to speak up a few times, but kept getting cut off by the others, finally in a short pause he got out, “I’d like to be Primary. Seems like the right thing to do.”
As everyone else spoke, Wade watched with amusement as poor Bobby tried to get a word in amongst the girls. That’s right Scott, the girls. He did narrow his eyes at the man for telling him he’d need to know how to be ‘gentle’. There was a difference in knowing, and not giving a shit.
He turned to look at Alison, raising a brow questioningly. “Other options? There are no other options. If you’re put into a situation where you have to defend yourself, you have to fight back. What are you going to do? Block his/her attacks until they magically decide they don’t want to fight anymore? That’s like saying you want to make cupcakes but you don’t want to eat them.”
“Well, if I decide to make cupcakes I’ll make sure that I don’t share them with you!” It usually took about three seconds for Wade to get on her nerves when they happened to be in the same room together. She tried to avoid that at all costs. She looked back at Scott. “Put in a situation, yes, but going in with guns blazing, no. You can’t tell me that Cecilia gets to go in and be a doctor and there is no other option for the rest of us but to follow Wade’s lead and start shooting people?”
Cecilia rolled her eyes at Ali, muttering under her breath to Scott. “I’m good for other things too, thank you.”
Brow quirked at Alison, Haylie sighed and ran a hand over her face. She was truly the last person that wished to hurt anyone, but she also understood that sometimes? It was a necessary evil. “You make it sound like we’re gonna run in there and slaughter everyone who gets in our way. Which might be how the Brotherhood does it, but that’s not how it is here.”
Crossing her legs, Haylie shifted in her seat and cast a look at Alison. “If you’re not comfortable fightin’...” Note that she said fighting, not killing. “...maybe you should stay with the Base Team then.”
“Point taken, Haylie.” Alison sat back and crossed her arms over her chest. “And that’s one option. And that’s what I was referring to, options. What are all the options we have before we have to make a choice.”
Scott kept hoping they would positively address the issues, but he saw that this ‘combat’ thing was hanging them up. “Ali, I’m not interested in having us kill anybody. But I doubt that Erik feels the same way. He has much as told me that, said it was with regrets that he would not see me again many more times. You know, that way he has with words? Everybody, listen. Erik had made it clear. He is a terrorist waiting for his first big terror event to happen. Public, cold, and bodies behind for the press to photograph. If we respond with killing, we’re going to be considered to be another terror group, regardless our good intentions. Now, believe me, I think people are going to die in this. Hopefully none of us, and I want to try to keep civilians completely out of the line of fire.
“BUT... Erik wants civilian targets. So, maybe, Ali, your job is to find ways to keep them out of the Brotherhood’s sight. We know you can do some pretty amazing things with light. So far, I’m the only one you haven’t managed to blind while flaring. And I bet you could come up with a way to block my visor if you wanted to get creative. So, I’m going to ask you to be creative. Work with all of us to help you to find ways to fight in a way that works for you. Because Wade IS right, you have to fight if you are on the Primary team.”
He paused, looking around. “Haylie and I are almost human weapons systems. Ali, you have an incredibly diverse kit of possible things you can do. Cecilia, you have incredible instincts and a fine touch, as a surgeon and as a lifesaver, with your own blunt trauma mutant whammy. Bobby, I haven’t seen your gifts in action yet, you I bet you can come up with a lot of non-lethal ways to direct your abilities. Wade, you are our super-soldier, you can probably tie up half a company of regular troops, and force the mutants to keep their heads down, keep them off balance, and yes, kill them if it is either them or us. I’m not ruling out killing. But I’m not a killer, despite being a bomber pilot. Combat is either FOR something, or AGAINST something. But it’s not the same thing as what Erik plans. And Erik won’t be the only enemy. So... give this a try. Do the Danger Room routine when we’re done with talk, today, and think about what you can and are able to contribute. Nobody in this room is a mental slouch, and we, among us, have tools nobody else alive has ever had, so nobody has been able to learn to apply them. The next week or so is a school in how to fight, survive, and NOT be what Erik and his gang are. Share ideas, strategies, work with each other to stretch your limits.”
Scott had gotten up and moved around the circle, touching each person, emphasizing what he was saying with touch. Except for Wade. You never knew what Wade might do. “Light, Ice, our healing hand and our shield, the ultimate combat specialist, Haylie the human bomb -- but way more than that. Charles tells me that a recent visitor thinks of me as a living howitzer. Well, each of you has skills and ideas and dreams, and all those things are useful. Ali, if you spend a week at this, and we look like mad dog killers, you stop us. If we don’t and you still can’t deal with it, defend the Institute, our home. Yeah, I know you wear boogie shoes, and may want to hit the road sometime. Nobody here will ever stop you from following your own heart. Least of all me.”
Scott sat back down, and said. “Table talk about combat til you’ve all been in the Danger Room session. Let’s talk through the rest of the agenda for this meeting.”
“Wait, so who is going to stay here?” Cecilia asked. “We can’t--someone has to stay here, right?”
Annoying by nature or not, Wade couldn’t fathom how someone could join a unit specifically for fighting for or against a cause...and not fighting. The contradiction was enough to give him an aneurysm. But he merely rolled his eyes at Ali and tried to keep his attention to Scott as he spoke. He did make a face when he stared to touch everyone on the shoulder as they spoke. He dared the other man to touch him, narrowing his eyes as Scott got close, and then relaxing again when he moved on. “So are we table talking or are we danger rooming? I’m ready for some danger.”
Haylie’s fingers curled into loose fists at being called a ‘human bomb’, because that’s not what she was. She was a person who happened to have the ability to create explosions from thin air. But she swallowed that bit of disdain in hopes of keeping things in check because without her gloves, everyone was in danger if she got emotional. Cecilia’s question caught Haylie’s attention and she frowned, giving it a moment before responding. “I think Hank, Jean, and Kitty. And Logan if he’s not comin’ with.”
“And Charles will be here, right?” Bobby asked. He eyed up Wade’s weapons, and added, “Are we ‘dangering’ each other?”
Scott had worried about how this was going to affect most of them. And he saw he had been right. “Let’s address some things. Whoever is not feeling up to taking on all the roles the Primary Team will have to face, is staying at the Institute. Because Erik may choose to strike here, they’ll still be trained for fighting, but if it comes down to it, getting people safe and out of the way will be more important than saving the buildings. I know Charles is working on duplicating records and finding safe houses for us, in the event the Institute is attacked.”
He looked at Bobby now. “Charles has opted out of directly leading the Primary team, and in the wake of Erik leaving, he’s re-evaluating his own role. He’s still with us, and providing support, but he can’t exactly roll along with the team everywhere we might go.”
He waved around the room they were sitting in. “As far as the Danger Room, I set the exercises, and will run them from the control booth today. We’ll rotate the exercise controller among those of us who have good ideas on how to build scenarios. So, today I’ll be in the booth. I need volunteers to organize and build sessions, and run them, every day. If somebody misses a session here, and is not posted to some important duty, then they are off the Primary team -- because we need to learn to work as a team. Oh, and we are getting a lot of interesting stuff to use down here, stored in the various storage buildings and at the old Farm complex. So, anybody wanting to run a session, go exploring. But don’t play with the munitions without expert help. So that would be Wade, Logan, and to a lesser extent, Hank and me. We’ll be teaching.”
He stood up and put up his hands. “I just remembered a rule of leadership. Don’t try to do too much at once. Let’s start the Danger Room session. I’ll be in the booth. Wade, you organize the team here. If something goes wrong, and I don’t catch it, call for a halt to the exercise.”
“If something goes wrong...that’s reassuring, Smiles.” Wade said with a raise of his brow before shaking his head. “Alright kids. Whoever is feeling up to it, let’s go. If you have any doubts at all just stay behind. Not to ‘hurt your feelings’ but you’ll just get in the way.”