LOG: Haroun and Jennie - Cratering

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Haroun's practicing with his power in the back yard. He offers Jennie the view from a few hundred feet up, then proceeds to make a damned fool of himself smack-dab into the lake.



Haroun stepped out onto the black porch, clad in his X-Men leathers, and eyed the sky. Clear but cold, with only a few wispy clouds to obscure the brilliant blue of a winter sky. Perfect. He ran for a few steps before kicking his power in and rocketing across the back lawn, only about a foot above the ground. He had to pull up to avoid impaling himself on Meggan's Big Wheel.

Jennie was snuggled securely in the fold of her peacoat with her scarf wrapped around her face, and wooly hat pulled low. Kyle neve missed an oppostunity to tell her how ridiculous she looked when she was all bundled up like, but Jennie always ignored him. She grew up in a desert, damnit, she wasn't built for this kind of weather. However, it was a bitch for perifial vision, she mused as she trudged along the path up to the main house. Somehow through all the layers wrapped around her head she became aware of a low droning sound.

Haroun was doing a circuit around the grounds by the lake - keeping his altitude at precisely twelve inches - or as close to it as he could manage. Just for the challenge of it, he went up and over the kids' swingset and down the slide before continuing his lap. So far, everything was checking out five-by-five.

The droning was getting louder, so Jennie tentatively undid some of her scarf so she could see better. The cold air made her eyes water, but she rubbed them and looked around. Suddenly she spotted a black shape zooming along near the lake. It was quite low off the gground, and indisputively in leather. A teacher?

Haroun was busy concentrating on keeping himself from becoming a greasy smear across the lawn, so he didn't react to the bundled figure out back. Instead, he stepped up the speed a tad and then risked a glance behind him to see ... nothing much. Apparently with the way the new hardware worked he didn't quite have the same aerial trail that he used to. Useful, that. But now it was time to catch some sky. Pulling himself into a wide skyward arc, he rocketed up into the clear blue sky.

The wind kicked up as Mr al-Rashid, (for it had to be Mr. al-Rashid, none of the other teachers were half-machine) blew past. Jennie's face stung and a draft when down her collar where her scarf was unwrapped. She shrieked indignantly and rubbed her arms. "Brrr." She shivered, and then shook a fist at the retreating back of Mr. al-Rashid. "Darn you."

Haroun, on the other hand, was berating himself. Having to put body-English on his turns made them way, way too wide and sloppy. He hit the top of his arc and hovered in place, thinking hard. But he did spot the bundled figure and waved to it cheerfully. Giving himself a mental shrug, he let himself half-fall, half-descend down to where it stood. As he got closer, he realized that it was A) female and B) Jennie. Not a girl he knew well - she had none of his courses. "Good afternoon." he said pleasantly.

"Er, hi.." Jennie said quickly, hoping he hadn't seen and or heard the fist shaking. She colored under her scarf. "Nice, um, flying?" She said lamely. Mentally she slapped herself and thanked the gods that he wasn't telepathic....or was he? She couldn't remember.

"Thanks." he said with a grin, the steam rising off of him as his body-temperature started to normalize to the colder outside air. "Have you ever seen the school from the air?" he asked her suddenly.

"No..." She said slowly. What was he getting at? "Can't say that I have."

"There's no time like the present." he said, offering her his hand. "Just a quick pop up for a look-around then I'll bring you right back down. Do you some good. Everything looks better from up in the air."

Jennie eyed the hand aprehensively. "You, uh, sure?" She wondered how strong he was, he didn't look particularly buff, but looks could be decieving. "I might be kinda hard to lift." She waved her swaddled arms for emphasis.

Haroun merely grinned at Jenny. "Relax. I've taken Nate up for trips before. I don't think it will be a problem." he said, extending his hands out for her. "Grab my forearms." he instructed her, then he grabbed hers to prepare to hoist her aloft.

Jennie shut her eyes and swallowed hard. She shut her eyes and felt him lift her up by her forearms. She waited several seconds to feel her stomach drop, like it did when she flrw on an airplane, but nothing happened. She heard Mr. al-Rashid chuckle, and she opened her eyes. "Why aren't we.....Oh. My God."

Haroun laughed as he let Jennie take in the view from on high. He wasn't having a problem keeping her steady - she didn't weight much, and he'd been doing a great deal of weight training since his injury. Even the slickness of her coat was no real obstacle, but he would not want to keep her aloft for too long. "I told you. Everything looks different from up here."

"Holy sh-- er...um. Wow." It was much colder up here, so much so that breathing almost hurt. The New York lanscape stretched out below them, in differing shades of brown and gray and yellow. Jennie definitely envied the flyers.

"Get a good look." he advised her, then gave her a few more moments before he started to lower her back to the ground. "There ya go." he said as her feet were planted firmly back on terra firma. "Need to get back to my training." he said, then rocketed back up in the air - fast enough and close enough to give her a nice lungfull of very warm, very sulfurous air.

Jennie coughed as the stench hit her nose, burning the insides of her nostrils. She hacked a couple of times and waved. "Thanks!" For the ride and the coughing fit. She added, mentally.

Haroun waved back, then went up for some altitude and to position himself right over the lake. He had an Idea, and he wanted to see if he could pull it off. Once he reached a height of roughly two hundred feet, he kicked up some velocity and pointed his head straight at the center of the lake.

Jennie wrapped her arms around herself and cocked her head to one side. What was he doing now?

If he didn't get this exactly right he was going to look like the biggest idiot since that one time the trainees all got their unforms scrambled up and came out half-dressed. The water was coming up _awfully fast_, and Haroun strained to pull himself into a sharp turn that should have sent him rocketing across the surface of the lake.

Jennie cringed, he looked like he was out of control.

Haroun started his turn, arms extended to cover his head, but he'd misjudged his distance by only a matter of a few inches. But a few inches was more than enough. Instead of skimming across the frozen lake, he broke the ice with his forearms and plunged _into_ it. At high speed.

There was a deafening crack as he hit the ice at full speed, Jennie flinched and covered her eyes. A bunch of crows took to the sky, cawing wildly as they flew away. There were several smaller cracks as the ice settled, and then there was silence. Jennie stared at the spot where Mr al-Rashid crashed, stunned.

The water of the lake, what could be seen of it through the break, roiled as if it was being heated rapidly from below.

Jennie looked wildly to her left and to her right. No one else in sight? "Professor?" She called tentatively with her mind. She felt him nudge her mind inquisitively (and she would so never get used to that) and then felt him give a mental chuckle. What...?

Ice erupted upwards as Haroun kicked through the crust and pulled himself to shore. He pulled himself out of the lake, dripping wet and _steaming_, and rolled onto his back to stare at the sky.

Jennie started jogging towards the lake. "Are you okay?" She called.

Haroun didn't sit up, but he did wave a hand at her. Right now, he _hurt_. His arms weren't broken, but he'd bruised them something fierce. He needed to do something about his leathers - they just weren't giving him the crash protection he really needed.

Jennie huffed her way to the edge of the lake, and mentally thanked herself for quitting smoking a couple of weeks earlier. "The professor says he'll send someone if you need help, and that I'm....not going to set foot on the lake?" She appeared confused and then shook her head. "Whatever he says."

"Not a good idea. I broke the ice, it wouldn't hold your weight." he said roughly, his face taut with pain. "And I'll be fine. Give me a second to pull myself together and I'll walk back inside." he said. He _stank_ right now, of wet leather, sulfur and other, less-savory, chemicals. He felt about his torso and then cursed as his entire right forearm slowly turned green. "Coolant leak. Dammit. Jennie, help me get the coat off." he said, attempting to sit up to remove the garment before he poisoned himself.

Jennie duitfully ran over and peeled the wet leather off of him, careful not to touch any of the green slime. "The professor says he's sending for Forge."

Haroun sighed. "No need, but what's done is done." Under his uniform jacket Haroun wore a simple wifebeater, which was now alternately soaked clean through and stained green from the coolant in his jacket. Slowly, he climbed to his feet and picked up his discarded jacket - wincing as the abused muscles and tendons in his forearms let him know that they were Very Unhappy with him.

Jennie backed away, feeling useless. "Um, can I do anything else?" Like leave if you suddenly get angry...

Haroun dropped his jacket. "Take that to Forge?" he asked, grateful that the girl had stepped up to help. "Man, I feel stupid. I thought I had that turn." he said with a wincing shrug. "Well, that's why you train above water, so if you spill out you can walk away."

Jennie carefully picked up the jacket, and made a mental note to toss out her mittens later. "Though, maybe you should wait for the ice to melt next time." She said, noting the ice burns on his face.

Haroun shrugged. "Maybe, kid." he said as he trudged back into the Mansion. He was _so_ never going to hear the end of this one.

Jennie bit her lip. He was trying to limp so dignified, laughing would be wrong. Especially since he freaked her out when he hit the ice like that. She smothered one giggle and trotted off to find Forge, who was probably in his lab.

Great. Now _Jennie_ was mocking him. A pity she wasn't a trainee, he could at least get his own back that way. Ah well, this would have to be borne with good grace. "Jennie, wait!" he said, kicking himself for having forgotten something very, very important. He reached into an inside pocket of his uniform jacket and pulled out a tightly-wrapped lump. He then slowly unwrapped the lump to reveal the black-and-gold engagement ring. Grimacing at the effort it took, he slipped the ring back onto the appropriate finger then waved for Jennie to continue to take the jacket down to Forge.

Jennie stared at the ring in shock. She watched the limping figure of Mr. al-Rashid retreat towards the mansion before breaking into a run towards the labs. Wait till the others hear this!