xp_logs | Thirteen Days: Up is Down (Reply)

Scott gets creative with the Danger Room. Marie and Angelo rise to the challenge.

He'd gotten the idea from the specialist Cooper had put him in touch with at NASA, but it had taken a solid six hours of programming and some actual mechanical tweaks to bring it about. The Danger Room was built to do a great many things, but no one had ever foreseen the need to turn it into a giant multi-axis trainer. Scott frowned and repressed the urge to give the console a smack as the feed from a couple of the interior cameras flickered.

What he could see through the windows looked like a giant metal cigar inside a much larger metal cage. The environment being simulated was inside, of course, as were the two X-Men who were about to test it out for the first time.

"You two ready?" he asked quietly. "Remember, the goal for this first run is just to get from one end to the other." There were a few of the little pop-guns mounted on the interior as well, to liven things up. Not that the Brotherhood or these ex-Russian prisoners were likely to stay in one place while attacking his team once they got to the space station. But they did what they could training-wise, in the time that they had. Some practice was better than none.

"You make it sound so easy", Angelo muttered, eyeing his surroundings. "Yeah, I'm ready."

Marie nodded grimly, pushing off the ground to hover slightly in the air. "Me too." Some X-Men may have been excited about a mission in space. For Rogue, the only thought was that she'd have another shot at Magneto. And this time she wouldn't fail. The thought that she might also run across Mystique strangely didn't disturb her nearly as much as the thought of Magneto getting away.

"Wait until I give you the go," Scott said, and started the trainer. The rotation would be slow, at first - and was, he saw. But it would cycle up to the right speed shortly... fifteen seconds, and then the ground would definitely not be staying anywhere near 'put'.

"Go," he said, and turned on the guns as well.

Angelo was already moving, not quite running yet but moving fast, keeping an eye on Marie and as many of the guns as he could easily see. Scott had tried to duplicate the interior of the main station module at least roughly, which included the various handholds here and there along the hull. They were easily accessible to well-placed flaps of skin.

Marie didn't have to worry to much about dodging the bullets, so she started floating forward. "Skin, let me know if you need some blocking." Darting over to one of the guns, she reached down and ripped it from the wall.

"Will do. But I'm okay for now." He was keeping as low as possible, to where a good number of the guns just weren't angled right to hit him.

The trainer started to spin faster, the steady growl of the mechanism rising to a more high-pitched shriek. No way to keep pace easily with its rate of motion at this point, and the guns adapted, tracking the two X-Men unerringly despite the increasing speed.

Marie, however, didn't have to keep pace as she continued to hover above the ground. Flying to the next gun, she bent the barrel back. She continued down the trainer, taking out guns as she went.

...well, then. If they were going to adapt like that, the only place they couldn't hit was behind their barrels. Angelo focused, shot his skin straight up, and proceeded to treat the guns like a swinging frame. This, conveniently, removed the need to stay on the ground and deal with the tunnel's movement at the same time.

Scott was not going to laugh. Even if it would be a happy, semi-delighted sort of laugh, to see what the two of them were managing to pull off. He hit the control panel to end the simulation, and leaned forward to the microphone. "Guys, exactly like that, okay? Seriously. Either of you feeling dizzy at all?"

"Ah'm good," Marie said. "Just had to adjust to watching the world spin around, but Ah stayed steady the whole time. Ah know it'll feel different in zero g, but Ah think Ah'm pretty set."

"I was hoping you'd say that. If you can move that freely in zero-g, Marie-" Her turn on the Blackbird wasn't until tonight. "-you might be our best shot at getting to that console first." Her or Clarice. He needed to set up a simulation, let them both have at it... Scott shook his head slightly and turned to Angelo. "Angelo? Dizzy at all? That might not be such a bad tactic with the Brotherhood, you know. If you can immobilize them and use them to move at the same time..." That would be hellishly difficult to simulate, though. Maybe something with the drones?

"No dizziness", Angelo confirmed. "'specially not now I'm kind of movin' with it. If you can get someone down here for me to practice on, I might just try that. See how it is with somethin' that fights back."

Scott's throat felt very tight suddenly, and it took him a moment to regain his composure. "I'll give that some thought," he said, a bit hoarsely. What he wanted to do was tell the two of them how proud he was, of the way they were just... tackling this, without hesitation. But that could wait. "Um... why don't you two take a few minutes, while I see if I can set up a few flying drones. That might work..."

"Break time it is", Angelo agreed cheerfully, letting go of the gun he was hanging from and dropping easily to the ground.