Marie and Scott, Danger Room

[x-traction.livejournal.com]

Scott runs into Rogue after she completes a successful Danger Room run. They talk about bringing her back to active status and Marie suggests trying something new. Surprisingly, Scott readily agrees to let her try it...immediately and on him.

Launching herself into the air, Rogue back flipped out of the way of a plasma blast. Launching upwards, she twisted and turned, dodging blast after blast. This was the last target to take down and she wanted a perfect run. Seeing her opening, she darted in and struck the bot, sending it crashing into the wall. She smiled in satisfaction as its "eyes" closed and the simulation faded away.

Wiping the sweat of her brow as the doors wooshed open, she walked out of the room. Marie found herself frequenting the Danger Room lately, pushing herself as hard as she could. This last run had been particularly challenging, but she was very pleased with her performance.

Scott was walking by in the hall outside, on his way to the Situation Room, as she emerged from the Danger Room. "Went well?" he asked.

Holding out her arms, she nodded. “No scratches on me, lots of dent in them.” Smoothing back her hair, she looked him up and down. “You still haven’t told me when to come help out.” And you still look like you need a break.

"Been a kind of a hectic weekend," Scott said, making a face. "I blink and suddenly another week's gone by." He had been cutting back - a little - but then Kyle had gone missing, and that plan had gone off the rails.

“Yeah, Ah read the report. Sounded like that mission got…” Pausing, Marie searched for the right word and settled on “messy.” Keeping her voice neutral, she continued, “Any luck finding out if Toad was here alone or with friends?”

"No one saw any signs that this was more than just Toad out having some fun," Scott said, rubbing lightly at his side as he continued in the direction of the Situation Room, letting Marie follow if she chose.

Falling into step behind him, Marie was quiet until they reached the Situation Room. “Ah guess that’s a good thing,” she finally said to break the silence.

"Yeah, especially given what a sloppy approach we took," Scott said acerbically. He was still not happy about that. "Magneto would have had us all for breakfast."

Marie almost took a step back when hearing the acid in Scott’s tone. “But you got Kyle home safely, and that’s the important thing,” she pointed out.

"Mmm." There was no one else in the Situation Room, and Scott sat down at the table, scowling at the blank screen in front of him for a moment as he tried to remember where he'd been planning to start. "Are you about ready to go back on active status?" he asked abruptly, calling up the mission reports.

Without hesitation, Marie nodded. “Ah think so.” Looking at his face to gauge his immediate reaction she queried, “What do you think?”
"I think, I'd say your performance makes me think that you never left, except that you're actually doing better than you were two years ago. I'm guessing that's due to the work you've been doing while you were away," Scott said, the harshness gone from his tone. Which only succeeded in making him sound tired. "I'll be honest, Marie - we need you, badly, and if you're not feeling rushed, I'd like to have you available for missions ASAP."

“Aye aye, Captain,” she said with a mock salute. Giving him a concerned look, her tone became more serious. “Ah know Ah’m needed and Ah’m actually kinda anxious to get back on active status. Ah am better than when Ah left…more in control and stronger.” Physically and emotionally.

Scott managed a smile. "Then we'll consider it all-but-done. I'll check with Ororo - although I know she feels the same way - and the Professor will probably invite you to tea at some point this week for a chat. But everything else, your evaluation results... there's no reason to wait."

Her cheeks flushed at the compliment from Scott. After the state she had left the mansion in, being put back on the team felt like praise. Then again, with the state of the team, maybe they just needed anyone with a pulse. “Ah haven’t had some good Earl Grey in awhile anyways,” she said with a smile.

"That's the spirit." Scott took a too-deep breath and winced as his bruised ribs protested. "It'll be good to have you back. Really good. The strategist in me is already plotting how to incorporate you into various deployment plans."

The concerned look on her face was quickly replaced by curiosity. Levitating, she sat cross-legged in the air. “Care to elaborate?”

"You're fast, you're strong, and you're durable. A perfect point person." Scott gave her a long, serious look. "That also means that you'd be taking more fire, if we were looking at a combat situation."

“Makes sense. Ah can handle it. Ah may not have Logan’s healing factor, but Ah can take more punches than most. Plus flight gives me a little more maneuverability than most. And…” she paused, unsure if this was the right time to bring up another thought.

Scott raised an eyebrow. "Out with it."

“Ah wanna know what you think of trying out my other power offensively.” Holding up a hand to stop Scott before he could protest, she continued. “It’s something Ah’ve been thinking about for a while now. And yes, Ah discussed it with Dr. Youngmen before Ah came back.”

Scott looked uncertain. "... huh." He rested his chin in his hand for a moment. "If you're going to experiment with that... I'll volunteer to be the guinea pig."
Marie raised an eyebrow. “Are you sure? You already have a ton on your plate, an’ Ah don’t want Jean hunting me down.” Looking at her hands, she continued, “Ah guess my overall thought is that Ah want to figure out how long Ah can touch someone to just borrow their abilities versus dropping them.”

Scott gazed at her for a long moment, then mentally reviewed the Danger Room schedule. "Come on," he said briskly, getting up. "We're going to go test this out. The Danger Room's free for the next half-hour."

Marie was so surprised that she dropped and hit the floor. Luckily, Scott was already headed to the Danger Room and hadn’t seen her fall. Standing quickly, she ran after him to catch up. “Are you sure? You don’t want to get someone else’s opinion?” She had half-expected Scott to tell her absolutely not and this converse reaction had thrown her.

"I'll let Amelia in the infirmary know, just in case." Scott snorted at the look she gave him as she caught up. "Kidding, Marie. Seriously."

She continued giving him the look. “It might not be a bad idea.” Shaking her head, she entered the Danger Room. “How are we gonna do this? Ah have to admit, Ah never figured out how to practically test this out.” Partially because Ah thought you’d put up more of a fight and there’d be more time.

"Hold on," Scott said, heading over to the control panel. A quick command or two, and the Danger Room was shifting into the heavily-armored configuration that they used whenever powers-testing with volatile powers was going on. Scott then opened a com to the infirmary. "Amelia, it's Scott," he said without preamble. "Marie and I are trying a powers experiment in the Danger Room. We'll signal you if there's any problem."

Amelia's response was thoroughly disgruntled-sounding, and Scott smiled humorlessly. "We'll be careful," he said, closing the link and then turning back to Marie. "I want you to think back," he said briskly, "to how long it took you to absorb John's powers, back at Bobby's house."

She closed her eyes, thinking back to that moment on the porch. Opening her eyes, she looked at him, nodding. “Maybe five seconds ‘till Ah was able to use his power. But Ah held on longer, maybe twenty seconds, and he just got spacey. Ah’d prefer to start with something smaller…things were a little hectic and time almost seemed to slow down, so Ah may not be all that accurate.”

"Computer, on my mark, give us a five second alarm," Scott said aloud, and then extended a hand to Marie, raising an eyebrow at her almost challengingly. This was possibly more than a little reckless, but he didn't want to set a later time for a test like this and then have her stew about it.

Marie took off one glove and dropped it on the floor. Keeping her eyes on Scott’s, she decided she would let go before the alarm if it looked like Scott was faring poorly. Reaching out, she clasped his hand.

"Mark," Scott said as her skin came into contact with his. It was a strange feeling, he thought, keeping his eyes on hers. Dizziness, almost instantly.

Holding her breath, she concentrated on pushing the memories that came through the contact to her subconscious. She’d have time to process them later, now she needed to focus on keeping her mind in control. Releasing his hand and her breath at the sound of the alarm, her eyes briefly glowed red as she accessed the memories for how to control his power. Turning her head, she released a brief optic blast, decimating an inactive bot. “Whoa…cool.”

"Now," Scott said, his voice a little strained. He had bent over a little as Marie had released him and given the optic blast a try, his hands resting on his thighs in a posture that really wasn't him trying to hold himself up. "How long do the powers stay?"

Her initial excitement over experiencing Scott’s power turned to concern. Bending down, she picked up her glove and slipped it back on. “Ah…Ah don’t know. Ah’ll keep testing it until they fade.” She released another brief blast, then reached out to support Scott. “What about you…do we need Amelia? How are you doing?” Her words came out in a rush, conveying her distress.

"I'm fine. That just... takes it out of you." He mustered a crooked smile. "Literally, I suppose." He straightened, taking a deep breath. "Keep blasting. Tell me when you don't get the tickling feeling behind your eye."

“An’ you tell me when you start feeling right again too.” Every ten seconds, Rogue released a blast. “Huh…the world goes red when Ah blast.” After four minutes, she rubbed her eyes. “The tickles startin’ to fade.” After about another minute, the steady sound of blasts ceased and she turned to Scott.

"You were controlling them awfully well," Scott said. He'd been a little surprised by that. "You pick up more than the powers, clearly." He still felt light-headed. Shouldn't that have stopped by now? "Any impact on your spatial awareness, or just the blasts?"

She hesitated before responding, “It’s like getting an instruction manual with powers.” Shuffling her feet, she finished explaining, “Ah get some memories too…Ah thought you knew that.” Quickly continuing before he could ask her anything further, she said, “Ah didn’t really notice anything with spatial awareness, but Ah honestly wasn’t much focused on that.”

"I knew about the memories," Scott said a bit wryly, taking as deep a breath as he could manage with his bruised ribs. "What did you see?" he asked, half on a whim.

Marie turned crimson. “Nothing really important.” This was not the time or place to get into that.

"Mm-hmm." Scott gave her a faint smile, then extended a hand again. "Let's try that again. Ten seconds, this time," he said firmly, and went on before she could protest. "I want you to find out if the spatial awareness... translates. It would be key when it comes to using my powers effectively, if you had to borrow them in a crisis situation."

She protested weakly, but Scott was very persuasive. Removing her glove again, she slung it over her shoulder to keep it close in case she needed use of both hands quickly. After Scott set the alarm, she reached out for his hand again. “Just say stop if you need me to separate ‘fore the alarm.”

"Mark," Scott said, keeping eye contact with her as the seconds ticked by. The dizziness hit a lot faster and harder this time - were the side effects cumulative? He kept his eyes on Marie's, breathing in and out steadily. "You should... be able to tell," he said, his voice definitely strained. "When you look... the angles, it's like they pop right out at you..."

All at once, and with absolutely no warning, his knees buckled.

What have Ah done?

“Scott!” she cried out while diving to support him. Her movement forced her to realize that she was experiencing some spatial distortion, but she didn’t let it hinder her actions. Holding him up with one arm, she used her teeth to pull her other glove back on. A million thoughts were rushing through her mind. Torn about what to do next, she hoisted Scott over shoulder and bounded over to the control panel. “Ah’m sorry,” she said apologetically before turning on the com and calling out to Amelia.

"... no, Marie, I'm fine," was the somewhat feeble-sounding reply from Scott. "Seriously... put me down, I'm okay."

Gently setting Scott down, Marie’s face oscillated between horror, panic and alarm. “You need to see the doctor,” she said. She had meant for her voice to sound firm and authoritative, but it came out wavering and weak.

"Listen." He reached out, his hand closing around her gloved wrist, gently but firmly. "Look at me," Scott said, making eye contact with her. "I'm fine. I'll go have Amelia check me out once we're done, but I'm fine. How's your vision?"

He’s fine. He’s still talking and moving. Pull yourself together, what if this happened in battle? Looking around, Marie noticed that the temporary issue with her vision was gone. Turning to the side, she released an optic blast, assuring her that she still had Scott’s power. Pursing her lips, she wondered out loud. “Ah only noticed a problem when you started falling…an’ that when my hold on your memories weakened. So maybe its more that the you-in-me sees the world that way, but not me in control of your powers.”

He nodded, then wished he hadn't - his head didn't feel quite right. "Interesting," he said, then mustered up a smile for her. "It's a... what's that term Hank used to use, a complementary mutation. The spatial awareness, I mean. Can't be considered separate from the optic blasts, but it is a pretty significant component."

Taking a deep breath, she forced herself to gain control of her emotions. “That’s it, we’re getting you to the infirmary. Ah don’t like the look of you. We can talk and analyze all this later,” Marie said in a no-nonsense tone. She picked Scott up before he could say anything. “An’ if you protest, Ah’ll get pictures of this an’ post them all over the student floor.”

"Aren't you glad you got this done, so that you didn't have to spend days psyching yourself up to try it?" Scott asked, a little meekly. "The second time will be easier."