New Mutants: Here Comes Tomorrow - Saturday

[x-penance.livejournal.com]

Having survived the night, the girls are given a lesson in bridge-building. Literally.



By all reasonable accounts, it was too early in the morning. Kane's rousing 'good morning' had been punctuated by Marko's rather louder 'get up!' and they had broken camp at dawn to start heading down the trail. After several hours hiking, they had come to a wide, slow flowing stream which emptied into a small lake. Sitting on their side of the stream were stacks of lumber, and pilings, all carefully arranged and lashed under waterproof tarps which still bore evidence of last night's rain.

Garrison dropped his equipment (which suspiciously resembled a lot of fishing gear, similar to Cain's pack) and motioned at the stream. "Alright people, as those maps point out, our next camping ground is about twelve kilometers on the other side of this stream. What we're going to need is a way across. Obviously, we could ford the stream, but that just means the next person who comes along is going to have to do the same. So, in the interests of being neighbourly, we're going to rebuild the old footpath bridges that used to go from bank to bank. You can see out in the water that the old piling footings are still in place for both bridges. We brought up all the raw materials you'll need, and tools are under the tarp with them. Cain's got your construction plans and your teams."

"Remember your safety rules," Cain barked as he began handing out canvas construction portfolios with folded sheafs of paper sticking out of them. "Last I checked, ain't none of you could breathe water, so if one of you what can't swim goes in the drink, stop what you're doing and pull 'em out. And this bridge ain't just got to get you lightweights across, if I come back and walk across it and get myself wet, I ain't gonna be too happy, so find your inner engineer and get to cracking."

He stalked over and picked up a fly fishing rod from where it leaned against a tree. "And the most important rule, any one of you that disturbs my fishing gets punted into the woodline, you got me? Good."

How far was a kilometer? Were they ever going to eat anything? Karolina considered how likely she'd be to get more than a kick in the ribs if she fainted and determined that it was a small percentage. Instead she drew further into her non-uniform sweatshirt and bit her lip, keeping quiet and waiting for someone else take the lead. She didn't have an inner engineer. She didn't want one either.

"Well. Unless someone smuggled Forge here inside their stomachs, I think we're going to have to figure this out," Angel said as she edged closer to the river. Not close enough to fall in because she had a feeling that not only would that look really bad but there might possibly be photographic evidence to mock her later. "First, safety lines and, uh, can anyone here not swim? Just, you know, so we know?"

"I'm fine unless someone drops a tree on me," Inez said, casting a glare after Cain as the big man walked away. "So how deep's this creek? I figure us tall girls can probably do best in the water?"

Angel tossed Inez a safety rope and nodded, squinting at the right now invisible, but soon to be there, bridge. "I'm a strong swimmer but I might be better used from the air. I wonder if there are any fire-proof gloves I can wear to carry stuff..."

Cess raised her hand tentatively. "...I would be good in the water, especially the deep parts. ...I won't wash away if the current is strong," she offered.

Noriko shrugged. "Is can swim. Not bad, not good. But is not can..." She waved a hand at the pillars. "Is not can bridge." She didn't know how to do this and she didn't care. She'd actually still been asleep when Kane woke them earlier, the lack of power sources already starting to be apparent to her, for all that the bitch doctor had told her she'd be fine out here without power for several days.

Wearily and warily, Karolina raised her hand, "Who else here can fly?"

"Catseye does not swim or fly," the catgirl complained. She could swim as a cat, of course- instinct was a wonderful thing- but she hadn't yet learned how to swim as a girl. The human brain and it's propensity towards fear always got in her way.

"And I am sinking in the water," Yvette reminded Angel. "So I can be cutting the pieces, but I cannot be falling in." Not to mention she was too short to cross any other way than on an actual bridge. "The plans, they are not so complicated, yes? Mr. Marko and Mr. Kane would not be giving us the impossible thing?"

"Well, I mean. They're not crazy architectural." Tat was currently crouched by the water's edge, the paper in her hands. "I mean, I don't really get-" She squinted. ".... Okay, I know this isn't written in sanskrit, but that's what it feels like. Anyone else have some sort of clue?" She shrugged. "I'll wade in if somebody needs to. It's just water. ... Right?"

Inez nodded and waded into the water until it came up to her waist. "Okay then, someone start handing me some beams, let's get this moving."

Noriko completely failed to move to help Inez, face blank as she watched the other girl wading into the water.

Angel scrounged around until she found a pair of gloves, deciding that splinters were something she wanted to avoid. "Someone want to give me a hand?" she asked, picking up one end of the beams and giving it a trial tug. It moved and it wasn't that heavy, just pretty awkward to carry.

Cess immediately moved to the other end, maneuvering around to enter the water. The first post wasn't that far out, so it was pretty easy to set the beam atop it. "Now what?"

Karolina gave all this activity and complete lack of organization a very dubious look then went to get a soy protein bar from her bag and sat down next to a tree to eat it. This was ridiculous. To top it all off, she needed iron, she could feel it. God, she'd kill for a nice organic spinach salad right now.

Yvette rolled her eyes slightly at the other girl and pulled her attention back to the plans. "I think we can be using the longer poles to make the bracings," she pointed out on the paper. "To make sure the bridge is strong enough for Mr. Marko."

Cain clapped his hands loudly. "All right! Looks like we've got our bridge crew. You've got until dinner. Make it to the other side, we got hot dogs - and a nice salad for Princess Bunnyfood," he singsonged. "Unless you don't make it across, in which case it's MREs for the rest of you and hot dogs for Rainbow Brat there."

"Gross." As though she was going to eat anything they tried to give her. While everyone else worked, Karolina finished her protein bar then flew to the opposite side of the river and settled on a tree branch.

Noriko glared at the retreating figure of her roommate, then transferred her glare to Cain, who seemed to quite thoroughly not care. Finally she moved over to where the rest of the girls were standing, not quite stomping over, but hardly going with anything resembling good grace, lending a hand with the lifting, but carefully keeping clear of the water.

Inez looked up from where she was shoulder-deep in water, and narrowed her eyes at Karolina. "Oh fuck this," she swore as she walked through the water, swimming for a bit as she crossed the river and looked up at Karolina. "Okay, yo. If no one else is gonna do it, I am. This is a team-building exercise, and it's lame and yeah, Marko and Kane are assholes. But you're screwing us all over here, so come on and get your Gossip Girl wannabe ass out of the tree and come help out, okay?"

Karolina inwardly cringed but didn't let it show on her face. They didn't like her, she knew that going into this, and nothing was going to change their minds. "This is against all my principles. Maybe you don't care that we're intruding on the natural world and destroying it for our own selfish gain but I do. If you want to bond by ruining the forest, be my guest. You don't need my help." Her voice squeaked at the end and she flushed then deliberately lifted her chin, proudly.

"It's not like we're really damaging anything," Angel said as she walked up behind Inez - she was flying actually but was enjoying standing over the river, creating little wisps of steam under her feet. "No bulldozers or electric saw - unless you count Yvette if we went and got her some cappuccino - and I'm thinking we're probably doing maybe just as okay as those who used to do things without power tools. You know, 1950s and earlier, the old days." She shrugged and splashed some water toward Inez. "But no skin off my nose if you just want to sulk in a tree, you know? I'd think it be awesome if you pitched in but I can't make you."

"Catseye can give GrouchyRainbowGirl a laking!" the catgirl offered, baring her teeth at the girl in the tree.

"Forget about her," Inez said as she turned her back on Karolina. "She's only here because her parents are Hollywood actors who can't stand her. Maybe they should have bought her a friend instead of that pony for her sweet sixteen, huh?"

Cain's groan was audible from the other side of the stream. "Jesus H. Christ! What is this, a union coffee break? Stop jaw-jacking and get to work!" He threw up his hands and turned to Garrison. "Screw it, I'm going fishing."

"Sounds like a good plan. We'll be back in a few hours." He called out, as the two men hoisted their rods and tackle boxes, and headed off to the edge of the lake. He and Cain had a clear view of the kids, and with Garrison's speed, if something happened, he could be there in under a minute. However, it put them far enough away that the kids couldn't appeal to the staff for help. It was up to them to try to work out how to reach their goal by themselves. Plus, the guy at the bait shop had spent twenty minutes extolling the smallmouth bass in the lake, and both men had already mentally converted that to a dinner plan.



Elsewhere, Cain and Garrison fish and Garrison recalls the conversation that kicked this whole adventure off.



"Ten bucks says that they go Lord of the Flies and try to cook and eat Karolina by mid-afternoon." Kane said as he cast a long looping arc into the lake. He pulled the line in a bit, and started to wind it slowly, jigging back and forth to make the lure move enticingly.

"The little rainbow glowing kid?" Cain remarked, carefully retying a lure. His giant hands made the already-complicated procedure into an act of utter patience. "Christ's sake, if she doesn't want to be here, she knows where the damn door is. I swear to God, Gary - I ain't seen anyone since her hoity-toityness Miss Saint Croix that I ever wanted to dropkick so much. Kid needs a good smack in the face from real life, and no mistake."

Kane grinned in response. It had only been a few weeks ago when this had all started to develop; after Inez' arrest, Garrison had started pulling up information for the Professor, and typically, the man was already two steps ahead of him. Kane mused, idling his rod as he recalled the day.


"Too many printouts." Kane muttered, juggling the stack of papers, folders, and notes he'd put together into a more controlable pile. There were all manner of sheets sticking out haphazardly, from charts and spread sheets to reports from trainers, long winded psychological assessments, maps with designs drawn on them in red pen, some slick brochure like pages, and even printouts of webpage screenshots. In all, it looked like the Canadian had pilfered the recycling bin at a local Kinko's and was carrying it around in front of him.

It wasn't much of a stretch to assume Xavier would still be in his office. Kane noted that the man often worked late, occasionally even having his meals brought in and the Cerebro was currently in standby mode, removing Xavier's other habitual haunt. He reached the door, looked at it for a moment, and through contorting himself, was able to knock using the side of his elbow in a chicken-wing motion to avoid dropping his pages.

Charles looked up from the papers he'd been reviewing with a mildly surprised look. People didn't generally knock on his door this late unless there was some kind of emergency, which his powers generally warned him of prior to the first knock. "Enter," he called out, setting his pen down and looking at the doorway expectantly.

Garrison looked down at the doorknob, and then his stack of files filling his hands, and back to the doorknob again and sighed. He shuffled the papers on to the chair outside of the door, opened it, and tried to re-assemble the stack before walking in. "Professor."

"Rather a bit late for spring cleaning, isn't it Mr. Kane?" the professor asked, quirking one eyebrow at the load Garrison was carrying. "Please, unburden yourself," he added, reaching across his desk to clear space for the Canadian to set his papers down.

"I could simply be very early." Kane said, as he finally dropped the papers and files into a relatively ordered pile on to the Professor's desk. "However, now I have finally learned the true value of the administrators at the field office. Left to my own devices, I'd likely be found dead six days later under a stack of printouts and photocopies in the mail room." Kane shook his head and dug out a red file folder, obviously key to his little visit. "Actually, what I wanted to talk to you about was the students in general."

The professor smiled slightly, an invitation for Kane to continue. Perhaps I am not the only one who realizes the education here is in need of an adjustment.

"You went from a school of over a hundred kids to a group of less than twenty-five. Of those twenty-five, few of them have any kind of broad social group with the rest of their fellows. Add to that the increased lack of control, the fights, the anti-social attitudes, and you've got a pretty classic case of balkanization in the school. I know that you've seen it, because you wouldn't have been tweaking the classes for next semester or scheduling more group events." Kane laid the file on the table in front of him. "I have an additional suggestion."

Kane motioned to the file as it was opened. "Both Gamma and Beta Flight had similar troubles in our start ups. They focused on individual programs with a group of people. So everyone was in the same space, doing their own thing. All the usual problems you'd expect; people identifying more with their instructors than each other, unhealthy levels of competition, and no peer group to put breaks on each other. Inez in the diner? If these kids thought of each other as their own responsibility, the group as a shared responsibility, maybe one of them gets her calmed down before she trashes the place. These kids don't see themselves as the new mutants of this school, and if they're going to protect each other, they need to."

Charles allowed himself a brief moment to retreat to his memories, of the school's formation and its first pupils. Times had changed. And while change was never easy, Xavier had long known it was necessary. "I had originally hoped such programming would not be needed, but I am not blind. The children at my school are struggling and new steps are needed to ensure they do not stray to darker paths." Steepling his fingers, his brow furrowed slightly as he continued talking. "Yes, using the Gamma or Beta models could aid in implementing such a program quicker than drafting something original. Some simple modifications..." he trailed off, looking up at Garrison apologetically. "As you can see, I agree with your assessment of our current student body and had been considering organizing something similar. New mutants...yes, I think that will do nicely."

"Well, this pile includes most of the basics in terms of the program, and all of the integration reviews done over the last decade to judge performance. I think doing something quickly, as a way to say that 'Yes, here you are a, well, New Mutant now' will go a long way to bringing them together as a group of peers, whether they like it or not." Kane flashed a quick smile at Xavier.

"And I'm willing to bet the 'or not' is going to be vocal, Professor."

And that had been all it had taken to create 'The New Mutants'. Convincing him to use the humiliating bright yellow as the official colour had been a considerably longer effort.



Later in the day, the men return to check on progress.



It was perhaps three hours later when the two returned to find the bridge completed. It even looked vaguely like the plans and all of the girls had crossed over to the other side of the stream. They were, with the exception of Karolina, muddy and a bit damp, but also somewhat triumphant. The real test, of course, would come when Cain actually used the bridge.

Cain passed off his string of fish to a squeeing Angel with an admonition of "No you may not eat them yet" and walked to where one end of the bridge butted up against the shore. Tentatively, he placed one foot on the edge and shook it slightly. With an appreciative grunt, he stepped onto the bridge and took a few steps. The timbers flexed slightly, but held. With a grin, he walked out to the middle of the bridge and extended his arms. "Hot damn!" he hooted, "you gals did it!"

Very carefully, Angel put the line of fish on the nearest stump and grinned at the surrounding girls. "Remember that thing we muttered about to ourselves when we were schlepping and building, getting covered in mud?" she asked calmly, spreading her hands wide. And then she squealed and launched herself at Cain, bellowing, "Last one in gets to gut the fish for dinner!". And with that, dropped the fire and slammed into his head and shoulders to wrap her limbs tightly around him all the while yelling a modified war yell.

Cess only hesitated a moment before she followed Angel. She didn't add much weight, but given enough of them, he WOULD go down. "Come on! Help us!" she called back to her companions.

With only a slight hesitation, Yvette joined in, hugging Cain's knees. She wasn't tall, but she was more solid than she looked, thanks to her mutation and if she kept her head down, she'd hopefully avoid hurting anyone. Sometimes you had to trust people, after all.

Since she knew she could swim in BigCat form, and she knew there were lots of fish for the catching and eating when the hunger pangs came on later, Catseye shifted into a large feline and pounced.

Tat stood where she was, staring at them tackling the rest, her mouth agape. Sure, they'd talked about it, but actually doing it?

After an unexpected yelp of "Big cat! BIG CAT!" Angel managed to cling even harder to Cain as she grinned over his head at the other cat. "Come oooooon, Tat, you know you wanna!" she sang out.

Tat stared at Catseye for a long, long moment, and tried (unsuccessfully) to figure out exactly what were the chances of the girl (cat?) suddenly getting a nosebleed or something. Do cats get nosebleeds? Did Catseye count as an animal when she was an animal? She shook her head once, then realised there really wasn't anything else she could do, not without sitting in a tree like Karo.

Noriko leaned against the tree Karolina was perched in, arms crossed over her chest as she watched the other girls struggle with Cain, face blank. She was in to her second day without an external power source and with all the lifting and maneuvering, she was getting tired. Which meant she was probably less dangerous overall, but also less in control. Nori didn't really care if it looked like she didn't want to participate or be part of the team (because she didn't), but really she was staying out of the water for the same reason she'd avoided it all day, sticking to helping from the river banks. After all, she didn't really want to electrocute anyone.

Cain stepped back to try and not squash any of the girls, then realized that while the bridge was sturdy - it wasn't exactly. wide, and he went toppling backwards into the river with a giant splash.