Scott and Marie, the Danger Room

[x-cyclops.livejournal.com]

Scott joins Marie for another training scenario. But a program error causes the Danger Room to freeze up on them, making it a very odd run, all in all.


He was really going to have to stop being such a chickenshit. Like Marie's going to mind finding out she's running this scenario with me, Scott told himself, flexing his hands a bit anxiously. The gloves felt stiff. He hadn't been using his leathers for four months, though, what did he expect? He heard the Danger Room doors open and turned, forcing a smile.

Marie turned from her ready stance, a look of surprise on her face as someone walked into the DR. The surprise only grew as she realized who had decided to join her for her run of the day. "Scott?" she said, the name coming out a question. She was about to ask him if he was there to observe her when she took in the leathers he was wearing. Interesting.

"I thought we could make this a partnered obstacle course," Scott said, and his voice came out commendably steady. "If you don't mind? I really ought to be getting back into regular training, I think."

"Yeah, no problem," Marie replied. "The more the merrier, right?" Gesturing, she began floating forward. She'd had the floor drop out from under her too many times to not take advantage of her ability. She watched the floor around begin to shift, a sharp incline suddenly rising in front of her and Scott.

Scott paused for a moment as the Room started to shimmer, the holographic systems kicking in and an honest-to-goodness labyrinth starting to appear. "This is one of those cases where I wish I could fly," he said, and headed towards the incline - which was now a set of stone steps.

Marie grinned at him. "Your wish is my command," was the only warning before she grabbed his wrists and flew up. "The question is, which way do we go?" She saw a sudden movement out of the corner of her eye and she swiftly dodged, pulling Scott with her, as a series of paintballs flew past and splattered on the wall.

"I think I prefer the blanks," Scott said. "I say we go to the left." The directions the paintballs weren't coming from, although knowing the Danger Room there were probably other surprises waiting. "Rogue, is the ceiling lowering?" he asked suddenly, glancing up at the rough stone ceiling that seemed.... a little closer than it should have.

"Of course it would be doing that," Marie replied with an exaggerated sigh. "Guess we'll be hoofing it," she said, matching her descent to that of the ceiling so the pair could get as much forward progress above the maze as possible. She hadn't walked more than a few feet when she paused, gesturing for Scott to stop as well. "Do you hear that?" she asked.

Scott tilted his head and listened. Footsteps? "I didn't realize we'd have opponents," he said slowly, looking behind them. No sign of anyone just yet.

"Maybe keep moving, see if we can keep ahead..." the words were barely out of her mouth when a drone that appeared to be a teenager rounded the corner. A drone that wasn't shooting or looking threatening in any manner. The teen scooted past the pair, than sat down in the entrance to one of the passageways. "Right then...so Cyclops, do we take the unobstructed path or climb over the kid?"

... what precisely was this supposed to be? Scott gazed quizzically at the 'boy'. "Unobstructed path, I think.... as far as I know the only objective in this scenario is to get to the target at the end."

Marie nodded and started forward. This had to be one of the strangest scenarios she'd been in and she was trying to figure out what the point was...why people as obstacles? "So, how's training been going so far?" she asked, blithely assuming that this wasn't his first run since his absence from the team.

"Well, I did a run with Angelo, and... okay, so that's been it thus far. Although I've been working at getting back in shape." That had not been a happy process thus far. The other methods of pain management Amelia had promised had either been unfeasible or only moderately successful, and the increasing physical activity had left him wondering if he actually remembered a time when his muscles weren't sore all the time.

She nodded, pausing as she came to another split in the path. Turning right, she started walking again. "Well, the gettin' back in shape is the big thing...you gotta make sure you feel ready. But you'll get there."

"Stop." Scott tilted his head again, listening. Not footsteps this time... but the sound of something shifting in the walls up ahead. "I think...." He took an instinctive half-step backwards as a wall of flame suddenly appeared, blocking their way. "Okay then."

Marie stuck one hand through the firewall, smiling as her new leathers withstood the heat. "Well, Ah could make it through, but A - Ah just grew my hair our to the length Ah like and B - you can't. So on we go." Turning back around she took a step forward, only to watch as the ground beneath her foot disappeared. "Ah knew this was too easy," she muttered as she floated an inch above where the ground should have been. "Um, maybe stick close in case that happens and Ah need to grab ya?"

Scott started to respond - but before a single word was out of his mouth, the ground beneath his feet vanished, and even Marie's reflexes weren't enough to catch him. Worse, the opening sealed again almost immediately, leaving him in the dark. The cramped dark, and Scott froze for a moment, his heart racing all of a sudden even as his mind stayed mostly clear.

Marie scowled at the floor. "Scott, if you can hear me, don't move." Flying up to the domed ceiling, she assumed a diving position and headed straight for the floor about a foot from where Scott had been swallowed up, both fists out to hit the ground first.

Her voice was clearly audible, and Scott stayed precisely where he was, managing not to quite flinch at the sound of metal warping. There was no visible source of light just yet, so she hadn't broken through on the first punch. Probably holding back because she's not sure quite where you are...

Repeating the same movement, Marie hit the weakened metal and broke through to the other side. Halting her forward momentum just before she hit the bottom, she turned to grin at Scott. "Hey soldier, need a lift?" she teased, extending both her hands towards him.

"Gladly." He waited until they were back above 'ground' to say anything else; it gave him a very useful moment to tell his heart to slow back down to normal. "This is a weird scenario. I think Nathan programmed it."

"Yeah, either that or we've stepped into the Twilight Zone of Danger Room scenarios. Then again, Ah can think of a few our friends who would've shot the "kid" and then been stuck in underground." Marie started moving forward again, waiting to see what the room would toss their way next.

"... oh?" Scott said, following her a bit cautiously.

"Well, we can all use some work on our..." Whatever Marie was going to say was lost as a a wall suddenly rose up between her and Scott. She eyed the wall critically. "Ah can probably break through it, but maybe we should try and find a way around first?" she called out loudly, making sure her voice would carry.

Scott felt around the edges of the wall. "I don't know what to make of the pace of this," he said. "It's leisurely." Nothing. No obvious catches of any sort...

"Maybe it's meant to drive us crazy, slowly but surely, as we wait for the other shoe to drop," Marie said with a shrug. "The whole thing doesn't make sense, it's inane."

"Maybe it's a programming glitch. Something not running right. This is a new system, after all," Scott said, still feeling along the edges of the wall. He heard footsteps behind him and turned to see the 'kid' from earlier walking towards him. "Company."

Marie smacked the wall in frustration. She didn't like it, not when she couldn't tell what was going on. "Ok, Ah'm gonna look for a way around. Call out if things start to go sour and Ah'll bust through."

"This is a definite glitch," Scott muttered, seeing the blank look on the projection's face. "Maybe we should just-"

And everything went black. The lights went down, and Scott froze. "End program," he said automatically - and nothing happened. "Hell..."

"Scott?" Marie allowed a little bit of alarm to enter her voice. She reached out until her hand brushed a wall and she started following it back the way she'd come. "What in the sam hill is going on?"

Scott listened - not to Marie, but to the rest of the Danger Room. Had something frozen up? Some sort of system error, maybe? There were noises, here and there. Different parts of the Danger Room trying to shift, maybe. Scott became aware that his breathing was a bit ragged.

He still did not like the dark.

"System error. Maybe." There was more strain in his voice than he'd intended to let Marie hear. "Why it's not responding to voice commands, I don't know."

"How about providing me with a little light? Maybe if Ah can ring the bell at the end, it'll still shut the scenario down?" Marie floated up a few inches and rapped her knuckles against the wall beside her. "Sound'll let you know where Ah am, but don't fret if you miss an' hit me, Ah'll bounce back."

Scott didn't respond. He heard Marie, but not the words. Just her voice, cheerfully reassuring, in the dark - and then something was touching his arm. He whipped around, blasting in that direction, but didn't hear the crunch of metal as the drone went flying backwards. He slid down the wall behind him, trying to slow his breathing down.

"Great, that helped." In the flash of red light, Marie had fixed on Scott's location and could also make out the point she though signaled the end point. Completely oblivious to his reaction to the combination of her voice and the dark, she took a moment to reorient herself. Taking a deep breath, she clasped her hands together in front of her and started forward. Sometimes it would take her two or three tries to get through a wall, but she always made it through. "One more time?" she called out, hoping he would hear her. She thought she was drawing near, but it was hard to find the bell in the pitch black.

Scott took a deep, unsteady breath, and blasted down the 'hall', lighting up the Danger Room again, for more than a second this time. The drone was lying there, the holographic face gone, showing the metal beneath. In fact, the holographic systems were right down, which shouldn't surprise him.

In the red glow, Marie spotted the bell and reached out a gloved hand to ring it, holding her breath to see if the system would reset. Slowly, the lights in the room begin to blink on as a nasal voice announced "Objective accomplished." Making her way back over to Scott, she ran her fingers through her hair. "Totally weird."

"System glitch," Scott said quietly, still sitting where he had been, even as the wall behind him retracted, the Danger Room moving back into its 'off' position. "We'll have to run a diagnostic or two. New systems are bound to have their kinks and quirks every so often. Maybe it didn't like the obstacle course."

"Or maybe it didn't like something we did," she guessed. "Not the best run for your second time back in the saddle though. We should try again once the glitch is fixed." Marie smiled, holding out a gloved hand to Scott. "Wanna grab a bite before you start fiddling with the system? Strange always makes me work up an appetite."

"Sure," Scott said, and took the hand up. She hadn't seen it. That was good. And he'd handled it, hadn't he? Also good. But I think I still need to talk to Jack... He smiled at her briefly as she pulled him to his feet. "I think I killed a drone, though."

"For some reason, Ah don't think he minded so much," she said looking down at the crumpled drone. "But if it makes you feel better, we can have a moment of silence for 'im before we eat."