Who: Jimmy and Raven What: Breaking stuff Where: Danger Room When: Saturday Night Rating: PG-13 (for violence, language and fake people dying horribly) Status: Incomplete
Some days Jimmy just felt like ripping off his skin, tearing off his ears and gouging out his eyes. Not because he noticed anything particularly upsetting, even during the runs into the city. But everything just piled up and piled higher until he had to just go and smash something until he was exhausted. Which took big things and a long time. A luxury only able to be simulated in the Danger Room.
They had no idea. He would never tell them, couldn't tell them. How loud they were. In every way. How crowded he felt all the time. Everything was so small, so fragile. He grew up in the vast desert, where he could stand atop a cliff and see for miles. Feel the hot sun beat on his bare skin, the wind blowing through his hair. As close to pure freedom as any landbound person could ever hoped to be.
That was all a distant memory now. Now he was crammed into a small compound and a small trailer where he couldn't get away from it even when he went outside the walls. Then he was crammed into a vehicle for longer periods as they had to further into the ruins of the city to search. Crowded and falling apart and if he touched anything wrong he could collapse a building and draw too much attention or hurt one of his teammates.
Sometimes all it took was a simulation of the desert back home to settle his frazzled nerves. He'd worked with the programmer extensively on that one, to make the false paradise as acceptable to his enhanced sense as the illusion could be. Today, however, it did nothing to calm him and he ordered the computer to switch simulations. To one of Raven's many breaking things scenarios. Part of the reason he respected her so much was because she understood things enough to know sometimes, there was nothing else to do but destroy until you could move no more.
As little as Jimmy liked this need, it was present. He spent all of his time being careful. Careful not to break things, careful not to notice things, careful not to miss things, careful not to intrude or get in anyone's way. It was oppressive and there was little relief in sight.
So, sometimes, a person just needed to break things.
Warpath stood in the ruins of wherever Raven had programmed this place to be. He'd never asked. It was all an illusion, so it didn't really matter. Admiring the scenery wasn't part of the exercise. His long hair was loose and he wore only a ragged pair of jeans that the knees were entirely torn out of and they had numerous other tears. He didn't want to wear anything that couldn't be disposed of. Just because he was bulletproof, didn't make his clothing so sturdy.
Rolling his massive shoulders, Jimmy's face screwed up into a vicious snarl and he slammed both huge fists into the brick wall in front of him. It didn't give, thank Usen. He hit it over and over, letting out an angry yell to vent his frustration better.