Angel and Kyle

[x-firestar.livejournal.com]

Kyle, back on his feet, leads Angel through a Danger Room session. It doesn't go quite as planned.



The Danger Room simulation gave Angel just enough light to see a space roughly a foot around her but nothing more. And as it was a strictly no powers training session, she had to make due with no fire or heat vision to guide her. Not for the first, or probably last time, she was grateful that Kyle wasn't a telepath because her thoughts were not kind ones, especially not when she ran into another wall.

He'd simply grinned and had stated, when Angel had stared at him, that she totally knew that she relied on her sense of sight far too much. It was a simple exercise, really. All she had to do was make her way through the room but with the knowledge that Kyle was somewhere out in the dark, waiting to do something and that, blind, she would have to react to it.

At the moment, Kyle was about five feet behind Angel, creeping on all fours. He'd considered hiding and waiting for just the right moment but that had gotten really boring about a minute in. And he had no reason to be patient. Patience was for stalking deer and ducks and rabbits and things he could eat, not for assisting with one of Angel's Danger Room sessions.

This was much more entertaining and it meant he could keep an eye on her to make sure she didn't knock herself silly walking into yet another wall.

Not knowing where she was exactly and knowing that Kyle was out there somewhere had kicked Angel's nerves into high gear. It was a good thing she wasn't trying to hide from him, she thought, managing to avoid walking face first into another wall. She would have been completely useless at that point! But that wasn't the real point of the exercise so she didn't worry too much about her heart rate or the sweat on her palms...

Well, not much anyway. Also, sweaty palms were totally gross and she was so wiping them against Kyle's head when they ended the program.

Kyle's downfall was that he just couldn't -not- snicker at Angel when she flailed around trying to find the walls. Even with his hand covering his mouth, it came out, and he saw Angel's head whip around. Unlike Angel, he had free reign to do whatever the hell he wanted, since he couldn't not use his powers. He wasn't going to be mean about it, but despite that, he also wasn't going to make it easy on her.

Well, not super-easy. There was no way she could possibly miss the sound of Kyle jumping up on top of one of the walls of the maze, his claws scraping against the metal slightly.

Angel's head had whipped around so fast that something popped and she stared into the murky darkness with a frown. He was much closer to her than she'd originally thought - she snorted around a growing smile. Kyle must have gotten bored. But it wasn't like she could actually use that againstanyway. "But what would I do if I was up against someone like you for real in this situation? Obviously, now I could use my powers but sometimes things happen..."

"That's why we're practicing now. You learn to figure out where somebody is when you can't see 'em." Kyle sat down on the wall, one leg over each side. Angel could hear the rustling of his uniform jacket as he dug in a pocket for something, and then the entire Danger Room was briefly full of sounds. Metal on metal, metal on plastic, all clanking and banging and the sounds echoing against the maze walls. "When's the next time you're gonna be in a big empty room with nothing but metal walls? Listen for me, find me and hit me over the head with something before I nail you with a beanbag again."

Angel looked down at the bean bag in her hand and stuffed it into her shirt. It left her hands free and at least she'd know where it was. For the next ten minutes, Kyle led her on a merry (in his case, anyway) chase around the Danger Room. She'd started to lower the number of times she managed to avoid running into walls or boxes and had almost found him a time or two but it was clear to her that there was no way she'd win the scenario by the time it finished. Of course, knowing Kyle, there was Scenario Part A of Series A-Z...

She stopped for a moment and resisted the urge to stomp her foot. It wasn't very adult or X-Men like but she was getting frustrated and Kyle had stopped giving her advice a few minutes ago. She had no idea where he was or what he was up to.

Kyle had gotten beyond bored. He'd hit bored, found a good hiding spot and checked his voicemail, and email, and sent Jan a text, and that had eaten up a whole 45 seconds in which Angel had only come sort of close. Which on one hand was a nice change from her having nearly landed on him climbing over a stacked set of boxes, but on the other hand was boring.

And he was down to one last piece of helpful advice. "Okay, so if all else fails, -then- you totally use your powers. That's kinda the point." He called out - and then darted between two crates, waving a hand-drawn (badly) flag with a Mr. Yuck face on it.

"You could have told me that before!" Angel snapped, half aggravated and half gleeful that she was finally going to stop running around like a demented person in the Danger Room. She was going to have to bribe Kyle into hiding the last hour or so of video footage from anyone else. Ever. In history.

She didn't even bother with her main powers, just flickered her thermal sight on and then off once she'd gotten a good fix on Kyle's heat signature. Amongst the cold boxes, the blaze of light stood out like a beacon as Angel dove through the opening after him and skidded around a corner.

"Yeah, but you were supposed to holy shit!" Kyle stumbled against the sudden weight on his back and whatever had had planned to say went the way of the dodo, along with his dignity. He reached back to try to remove the -thing- that was clinging to him like a limpet or a barnacle or an octopus and then snatched his hand away as though it was on fire.

Which it was not, and he was pretty sure it was only because he was just that fast. "Uh. Did I totally just, uh..."

Angel, still clinging like the front of her uniform had been made entirely of glue, had yelped in a most undignified manner when his hand had grabbed something that it certainly shouldn't have. "Bad touch!" she half-yelped, half-laughed because she knew it had been an accident but it didn't make it any better. "...I think that means I win by default and embarrassment!"

"Being an octopus monkey was not in the goals of this scenario!" Kyle protested, praying this would -not- result in him being on fire. "I'm getting Paige or Gar to make the next one for you. I'll sit and watch." He stopped moving, and looked up to see Angel's grinning face above him, and gave her a clear Bronx cheer. "So, what did you learn?"

Crossing her eyes at him, Angel quickly replied with, "Being an octopus monkey will totally win things for you - but, no, seriously, use everything I've got to my advantage. Not only my powers but my senses. And not just my vision, either. I might not have super sensing powers but they'll do in a pinch." She thumped him on the shoulder and pointed forward. "Also, that accidental groping will totally get me a free ride to the locker rooms!"

"Yeah, well, being a spider monkey and totally taking forever to get the Knowing Is Half The Battle lesson for today means you get to buy me tacos." Kyle straightened to let Angel get a more firm, less clingy grip on his shoulders and then headed for the Danger Room doors. "To tacos!"

"And beyond!"