xp_logs | Forge and Janet, Friday, in the car

As Parents' Day begins, Forge and Janet find a moment to ditch the festivities. Talk is had about science, cars, and nudity.

"Nice car." Jan's wings flicked lightly as she circled the Mazda, examining it. "This the much-talked-about car that got plastered with stickers? Oh, what's this? Decal residue? A piece of missing paint?"

"Missing paint who to the what now?" Forge scrambled around the car, his fingers gently brushing over the flawless black paint, searching briefly for any chips or scratches before glaring over at Jan. "Oh, very ha ha. I am overcome with laughter and hilarity. Yes, Janet, this is in fact the much-lauded car among cars. This is a high-performance automobile, with a finely-tuned rotary engine capable of over three hundred horsepower, integral in-line turbocharger, a Tiptronic shifting system linked to a manually-controlled torque-sensitive limited slip differential mounted on a customized superstrength lightweight carbon-steel frame and four variable-traction puncture-proof tires. Yes, it's my car."

Jan snickered, then broke into laughter. "Oh, man! You should have seen the look on your face! It was priceless!" She grinned at him. "So, do you actually drive this high-performance, rotary engine carbon-steel automobile with puncture-proof tires or is it just for show?"

"Every day that I can," Forge answered with a proud grin. "Last summer, the day I got it road-worthy, Scott and I went out to the old county airfield and had ourselves a race, the car versus his bike. He had me by only a few seconds - he's the better driver, I'll admit. Ironic, since this used to be his car before he wrapped it around a tree."

Walking around the car, Forge paused to buff out the odd fingerprint mark on the black paint, following the subtle gold pinstriping that traced a double helix over the hood. "I might not be able to fly, but this is as close as I can get."

"This thing was wrapped around a tree?" Jan whistled appreciatively. "I would have expected something like that to wind up in a junkyard, not end up being some sort of a super-car. You take passengers or is the interior Forge-only holy ground?"

Forge smiled and reached into his pocket for the keyfob, unlocking the doors with a muted beep. "More than happy to show it off," he said, then cocked his head curiously. "Hm. Does sitting in a chair with your wings out like that get uncomfortable? They look kind of delicate."

"I survived four years of sitting in classroom chair with wings," Jan said dramatically. "Well, I had the wings, not the chairs, you know what I mean. They look really breakable, don't they, but they're actually pretty strong. I mean, I've never actually tried to damage them and I've been really careful, but they can get me up in the air. Not super-high or anything, I've noticed I fly a lot better when I'm small. I think my wings are bigger for my size when I'm small or something."

"Hop in, then," Forge offered, reaching through to open the passenger door for her. "Granted, I'm not about to tempt fate by opening up the engine on a county road. This time of year, traffic cops are out in force and I do not wish to argue the dubious legality of any radar-jamming equipment that I may or may not have installed with the local five-oh."

"Aww..." Jan favored Forge with a sad look as she sat down in the car. "No racing supercar stunts? So sad. Oh well!" She grinned. "Let's see what we can do without getting the cops to come after us!"

Minutes later, the black RX-8 steered off the county road, and out on a long stretch of highway to the north. Forge's fingers were almost itching to move toward the stereo, but he kept reminding himself that blasting out a passenger's eardrums on the first ride wasn't considered polite. "So," he asked as he flicked the shifter lever with his finger, hearing the engine respond with a low bass roar, "it looks like this summer's just packed with excitement, what with the X-Men trainee roster going from zero to five in the span of a week."

"Five?" Jan pondered this for a minute. "What five? Kyle told me he was joining, but five?"

Forge held up one hand, counting on his fingers. "Kyle. Marius. Jennie. Your name came up in a staff meeting. And once I can actually pass a physical, I'll be joining you all."

He paused, flicking the shifter lever and easing the car around another turn. "Feel free to be all 'ohmigosh' now."

"OK," Jan agreed obligingly. "Ohmigosh!" Her duty fulfilled, she grinned at Forge. "So, just what did I 'ohmigosh'?"

"The fact that we'll possibly be able to make our own little field team, if we can all pull this off. I mean, in theory. I'm not exactly a go-out-in-the-field type. This is mostly so if I have to, I'm not a total wuss hiding behind someone," Forge explained. He thought for a moment, then looked over at Janet. "You're going to totally need a little tiny custom uniform, too."

"Yeah, I don't recommend hiding behind me when I'm tiny. It's not like I can turn into a giant or anything. I could always hide behind you, though," she offered. "And custom uniform? Definitely. How many do we get? How does that work? And hey, I need something for everyday, too. I did pretty well during the whole Vegas thing by regaining size once but the rest of the time it was just better to stay tiny, but I need to practice more and I'm sure I'll need to shrink and then grow at times and, well, I think a few people might have objections if I ended up getting naked all of the time because I didn't have the proper size of clothes to wear."

Forge paused for a moment, trying to figure out how exactly to voice a total lack of objections to that situation before just chuckling and shaking his head. "I think I could rig up something with a compression fabric that'd change size with you. We had the same problem with an earlier student who would turn into a cat - I kid you not, an actual purple housecat - and it took a few weeks to get her accustomed to the concept of clothing. Although there may be something to the concept of a two-inch-tall naked girl as a tactical distraction..." he trailed off with a smile.

"Dude, if I had a roll of paper towels I'd smack you over the head with them!" Jan threatened lightly. "Go run that idea by the team leaders, I dare you! Really, who would notice unless I I stood right in front of them? Hell, I was naked practically the entire time I was in Vegas. I sat on people' shoulders and even flew right in front of Kyle's face and zapped him on the nose, too."

"Oh, Kyle conveniently left out that part..." Forge said with a teasing grin, and deftly dodged the opportunity to comment on 'noticing'. "If you want to stop by the lab later, I can take some readings of when you change - if your body gives off any kind of hormone or bioelectrical change, I can adapt the cloth to compress or expand from that. And if I can design the cloth, Clarice can definitely adapt it into a uniform that'll provide protection when you're large and freedom of movement when you're small. Since at an inch tall, I doubt body armor's really a concern, am I right?"

"Large?" Jan gave Forge a mock-glare. "I have mini-size and regular-size, but there is no 'large.' Didn't we just go over the no-giant-Jan thing? But yeah, size-changing cloth... I mean, wow! I don't know how that works and I'm not even gonna ask because then you'd probably launch into some twenty-minute discussion and as fascinating as I'm sure that would be, I'd probably understand maybe ten words so no questions from me. Body armor... well, I can still be hit by something, I just don't make much of a target when I'm mini-size, plus it's easier to avoid things. More maneuverability, speed, and strength at tiny-size, go me!"

"Large comparatively!" Forge hastily corrected himself, checking the rear view mirror and discreetly shifting into fifth gear as the engine smoothly accelerated beyond the posted speed limit. "And yes, science can do wonderful things - you'd be amazed what I've learned from people's powers here and been able to adapt. What started out as self-repairing fabric for Paige ended up becoming clothes for Yvette and I've sold the process for developing it to a firm that designs uniforms for EMTs and firefighters. I mean, I'm a genius and my mind gets blown every day by the things I see here. Three years ago? I couldn't even fathom the idea of a girl who goes from five-foot-four to zero-foot-one and shoots lightning from her fingertips. Yet," he gestured over to Jan, "here we are."

"Lightning?" Jan glanced at the palm of her hand, wiggling her fingers slightly. "I never thought about it that way, but yeah, it kind of is. I don't really have any range on it, though, but with practice, who knows? Maybe I won't always have to get up close and personal to zap someone, I'd be a lot more useful on the field if I didn't have to be right next to a person to zap them, although your tiny naked girl tactical distraction idea might need to be tried out in the field." She grinned mischievously. "I am so blaming you for that one, though. I do that and get into trouble, I'm taking you down with me."

"Plenty of time to train and figure all that out," Forge said, sliding his sunglasses on as the road seemed to just open up before them. "So, where to next?"