xp_logs | Julian, Jean & Haller: Dangers of the Danger Room

Jean recruits David to help train her young ward and madness ensues in the Danger Room. And Introducing The Dori Drone!

Their boots scuffed debris as they entered the Danger Room. It had been programmed to mimic a decimated urban environment: overturned cars, half-collapsed buildings, uneven ground. Almost every object in the scenario could be used for cover -- or as a weapon.

Jim glanced at the other two. He had to remind himself it wasn't really three; the holograms used by the drones could be very convincing, and even knowing that he couldn't say he'd ever expected to see one sporting a bushy tail.

The telepath glanced at Jean. "You've warned him about picking up my bad TK habits, right?"

Jean studied the landscape. The scenario was the result of a hybrid program, having been originally written by Logan but tweaked over time by Scott and herself to adapt to various needs. As a nickname they liked to call it 'Thunderdome.' To those who finished the program, they called it ''The Seventh Circle of Hell."

She looked back to Haller with a smile. "Yep," she said.. Her smile widened at a previous memory.

"Whether or not he heeds my warnings will remain to be seen, however."

But he'd learn quickly. Despite being stubborn as hell, Jean knew Julian had quite a bit of potential.

"Gentlemen, shall we?"

Julian bounced on his heels slightly, loosening up his now thoroughly stretched out muscles. "Ready when you are, Doctor Grey-Summers," he cracked his neck and took a deep breath, grounding himself as Nathan had always done. Then, his eyes opened and his stance became more casual, "Okay, um...so, what's the mission?"

Jean pulled out a ponytail holder, putting her hair up into tight ponytail. "A simple enough task....get Dori from point A..." she said as she motioned to where they were.

"To point B," she said, lifting her chin toward the burnt out shell of the tallest building in the distance, easily over a mile away.

"But the catch is...."

Haller had been standing to one side, eyes closed. Slowly, he raised his head to meet Julian's gaze. When the older psi opened his eyes they had gone from blue and brown to grey.

Haller's mouth thinned in a smile and he said, "Me."

The ground in front of Julian and the drone exploded.

Julian's adrenal glands injected his bloodstream with the greasy-green chemical that spiked his heart rate at the unexpected attack. Within a half-a-second, a green shield with the integrity of a light tank was erected in front of the drone and he, deflecting the urban decay with little effort. A moment passed and Julian dropped the shield, "Not much of a challenge," he smirked with smarmy over-confidence- his heart still beating into his throat.

And the Dori-shaped drone did what some people did in the face of being fear: she suddenly tried to run like hell for cover after Julian dropped the shield. The drones were programmed to also be a wildcard as well. While Dori was capable of handling herself, the drone was a representative of the status quo, who usually went against good judgment and let their emotions guide them. It just had Dori's face.

Jean's eyes flickered toward Haller as she trailed behind Julian, giving Haller a simple nod to up the ante.

Jack registered the signal. He trusted Jean's superior control to prevent any real harm to come to the boy, but was pleased his shielding seemed in good order. It meant he might actually get to enjoy himself.

"Glad to hear it," the alter grinned at Julian, and sliced his hand sharply through the air. The nearest wall of a building, already held up only by a vague sense of nostalgia, suddenly cracked along its foundations to collapse onto the fleeing drone -- just as Jack pulled back with his other arm to tear a chunk of cement from the debris and send it rocketing straight for Julian's head.

Another wave of adrenaline kicked in as Julian held out a hand to hold back the falling debris, opting for a broad shield across its path instead of trying to pick out each piece of crumbling rock. He didn't notice the chunk of debris flying at his head until it was almost too late, "Whoa!" he exclaimed, ducking out of the way and letting the broken wall fall into the street, just as the Dori-drone passed it. The chunk skimmed his head and clattered the ground behind him, leaving a bit of raw skin as its only lasting impression. Julian looked to Jean and shook his head before taking off down the street after Dori.

Dust was starting to obscure the scene, but as long as Julian and the drone were moving he could feel them well enough. Ammunition was another matter. Jack mounted a pile of rubble and scouted around, then narrowed his eyes on a tangle of wire, rebar, and concrete. He clenched one hand, then raised his arm.

The debris lashed out like a whip, landing only yards in front of the fleeing drone. It shrieked and swerved to the side as the construct coiled, winding through the air and back in an instinctive mirror of physics. It cracked the earth again, this time closer to the faux-Dori's feet.

"Watch your friend, kid, or you'll be carrying her to the finish line!" the alter called, voice hoarsened by the dust. The debris snaked back again. Red, Jack thought at the telepath, you planning on giving the kid any hints?

Jean followed closely behind Julian, side-stepping a few chunks of concrete that had been deflected off of him. She smiled.

#There are some times when he needs to make mistakes. He'll be angry at me for not catching that rock, but he'll remember to work harder next time so it won't happen again. If we guard his every step, he'll never learn what to do on his own, always thinking someone'll be there to catch him. He'll get help when he needs it, I promise.#

"You are still thinking of this as an exercise, Julian. Arrogance gets you kicked in the ass. This is not a drone. If this were real life, if this were your best friend, what would you do?" she said.

"We don't do this for fun, or to show off how powerful we are. We do this because some day we will need it to save our lives and the lives of others."

Finally catching up to the Dori-drone, Julian took its hand and pulled it down and alleyway, "If this were real, Dori would have more sense than to run like that!" He tried to direct his voice behind him as he made his way through the ruined city, guiding the drone along behind him in a labyrinth of ally-ways and destroyed coffee shops. He tried to put distance between himself and Haller- who, he reckoned, would be expecting him to loop around the long way toward the tower. Instead, he planned to take a direct route, into the city center, along the subway rails he'd spotted when trying to catch up to the drone.

“Would she? Maybe she’s been affected psionically. Maybe she’s just scared. Who knows? Life is completely unpredictable. People are unpredictable. And arguing about it isn’t going to change that fact. It’s only going to slow you down. So stop making excuses and focus on the mission like her life depended on it, because it does,” Jean said.

Jack grunted at Jean's speech. Christ, she shouldn't have to be reminding him about tough love; his softer fourth must be having more influence on him than he thought. He really needed to stop coddling trainees because of their age, Jack thought as he flung the debris that comprised the makeshift whip at Julian and took up two halves of a split car instead.

Julian emerged into the alley, ducking out of the way and throwing the drone to the ground to avoid the whip as it smashed into the pavement with the rear half of a slug-bug. "Fuck!" He didn't have much time to dodge again as he scrambled to his feet and pushed out with a wave of TK toward the whip, which was descending on him again with the other half of the car to finish the job. His concentration faltered as the drone screamed- sounding too much like Dori to not have been programmed for the task- and scrambled into the nearest building. He returned his attention to the whip, barely avoiding the flying debris and taking a deft hit against his shields. As it rewound itself Julian slowly got up and made his way into the structure after the drone.

The drone fell off Jack's radar once it entered the building; it must have found cover. He could still follow Julian, but he was harder to track now that the boy had slowed -- the movement of the debris falling from the damaged buildings was reading more clearly, and consequently becoming a distraction. Jack decided this was a good chance for a break, such as it was.

Jack slid down the pile of rubble and started towards the direction Julian and the drone had fled, abandoning his mental hold on the makeshift whip. He continued to batter the building with the two increasingly deformed pieces of automobile. The strikes were blind, but he had a good enough idea of the young man's location that Julian wasn't likely to think he'd been forgotten. Poorly contained telekinetic eddies rolled gravel and urban detritus around his feet as he passed.

Jean waited with Julian in the building, their breathing overshadowed by the vibrations that shook the walls with every impact. The Dori drone shuddered with every tremble of the walls, occasionally casting wary glances around.

“We're trapped. We can't stay where we are. What do you want to do?" Jean asked Julian quietly.

"What do you notice about the situation? What is unusual about it?"

"Aside from being in post apocalypse Detroit you mean? Or maybe you're talking about the retarded Dori drone." Julian shook his head and took his simulated friend's hand, helping her from the shadows. He was not having a fun time, the combination of adrenaline coursing through his veins and the metallic taste of blood in his mouth were lowering his spirits. The building shook as telekinetic outside smashed it again and again, the drone panicked again and scampered back to the shadows in very Dori like movements.

With a sigh, and another shake of his head, Julian looked up at the ceiling and muttered below his breath, "Fuck this." He turned to Jean momentarily, "I'll be right back." Raising a hand, palm flat to toward the roof, he sent a controlled telekinetic pulse skyward, blowing a hole in the ceiling before jumping through it- propelling his body with his telekinesis. Running, he blasted a third floor wall apart and leapt through, pushing downward with his TK to slow his fall in a very inefficient manor.

The landing was rough, but it wasn't anything his shields couldn't handle as he rolled to a stop and quickly got to his feet- only to have to dodge the front of a city bus as it slowly lolled toward him, leaving a shallow ditch in the pavement. Squaring himself off, Julian narrowed his eyes, "Okay, Legion, let's finish this."

The moment Julian had hit the ground the alter's arms had begun to move. His hands came together on "this".

The walls from the buildings on either side of Julian exploded from their foundations in a shower of bricks, mortar and rebar. What had once been architecture hurtled to meet one another at the halfway point: that is to say, Julian.

Palms still pressed together, Jack lowered his arms. He didn't relent his hold on the walls; on the contrary, he increased the pressure."Well," he said, feeling the opposing force of the boy's shield beneath the masonry like blood pounding in his head, "certainly is a possibility."

Jean lifted herself onto of the roof, perching on the edge to watch the skirmish. She shook her head.

"When you are in battle you need to be able to mind your surroundings and control your emotions. Which was more important: getting Dori to the safehouse, or proving to Haller that you can beat him in a fight? You chose the former, not knowing if you'll win," Jean said.

"There is a difference between being valiant and being over-confident. Don't automatically assume you'll win if the odds before you weren't that great. Sometimes not engaging a more powerful enemy is the best option. But....too late now. He's got you pinned, pressure around all sides. What do you do? Tell me aloud."

Julian's mind buzzed, the pressure inside his shell was overwhelming, but he wasn't ready to give up. This was, to him, the obvious choice- engage the only threat facing him directly- beat him, then get to the safe house. Jean chiding, treating him like a child, was certainly not helping. Keller knew he couldn't win by pushing back against the enormous strength his opponent was producing...but there was always another option. His eyes rolled back, beginning to glow green as his powers flared.

Suddenly, the training exercise turned from tactical movement to multitasking as Julian zeroed in on the lines of force that were rolling around him- lapping against his shields like waves. He'd never tried using his shields and doing something else, but there was no time like the present to attempt something, and the fact a doctor was literally fifty feet away certainly helped. Looking up at Jean he smiled and gave her a slight nod, before closing his eyes and focusing. He searched along the ground, but most all the debris had been swept up in the telekinetic hurricane hitting the now visible green shields.

Finally he found what he was looking for, just behind Haller, a manhole cover rose to the older mutant's knee level- or what Julian estimated it to be. At the same time, he could feel himself starting to falter, even with his eyes closed, darkness was starting to creep in. With one last exertion of force, Julian launched the metal disk toward himself, hoping Haller hadn't noticed it, or what he'd been doing.

It was, in part, successful. On the one hand, the impending projectile triggered an instinctive diversion of Jack's resources to his shields. His hold on the walls broke, and Julian was free.

On the other hand, when the manhole cover struck Jack's shield the path of its ricochet carried it directly into Julian's head.

The sudden impact was enough to send the younger man over the edge of darkness, the world closing in before his head hit the pavement.

Jean had seen the impending collision, but since it was so quick she was unable to use her own abilities to deflect the blow but instead tried to slow down the force. The more force, the more damage would be done to the brain.

"Damn it." She shot through the air towards the two.

"Computer, end simulation, code signature Phoenix!" she said as she landed a few yards away and took off into a sprint before crouching down beside Julian to examine him.

A panel slid back by the real Danger Room door to reveal bright orange first aid kit. It propelled toward Jean as if it were magnetized and landed beside her, unzipping and opening. A flashlight slipped into her hand. Opening one of Julian's eyes, she turned the flashlight on and began to check his pupils for any abnormalities in dilation.

It was her fault. She should've seen this coming. She shouldn't have lectured him and should've guided him. She thought she was guiding him. Was this the end result?

"We need to get him to the medlab," she said quietly to Haller.

The alter had pounded over to Julian the moment he'd realized what happened, though he'd avoided touching the boy until Jean got there. "Shit," he hissed, genuinely angry with himself. While he thought the boy needed to get his head straightened out, he hadn't wanted it split open. He was disgusted by his own carelessness.

The telekinetic dragged a hand down his face, and when his eyes opened again they'd returned to blue and brown. "Okay," Jim said, voice slightly slurred from the switch, "Do you want to levitate him, or should I grab a stretcher and neckbrace?"

It was at that moment, Julian's eyes opened and he groaned. "Fuck," he slowly propped himself up and cocked a half-smile at Haller, "That wasn't really what I had in mind."

Jim almost collapsed with relief. "Oh, thank god -- Julian, I am so sorry."

Julian shook his head, which he paused to hold still for a moment before continuing, "Not your fault. My bad." Ignoring his mentor's protestations, the young mutant shambled to his feet.

"We should get you to the medlab to check you over," Jean said quietly, a somber and apologetic look in her eyes. She had them closed briefly when he opened his eyes and spoke, a soft whisper of a breath hidden by Haller's comment, but the guilt was broadcasting clearly throughout her mind.

She should've been softer toward him but she felt like a push was what he needed sometimes. Maybe she was wrong. It was a way she hadn't really done as much with the others, but she had not really taught someone like Julian before, both in power and personality.

"Do you have any nausea, dizziness, or ringing in your ears?"

Julian shook his head, "Just a bit of double vision, but that's already fading- my shields took most of the blow..." turning to Haller he cocked his head, "Are you okay?"

The older man snorted. "Now that it doesn't look like I fractured your skull, yes. But you should still get checked out in the Medlab." Now that the flush of panic was fading, Jim replayed the moments before Julian had nearly reenacted a Greek myth. "On the positive side, that was a good call. Going with distraction, I mean." He traded a glance with Jean and sent, #Go easy on yourself -- he took your advice on expedience-over-power, and it worked. You said he usually gets by on brute force? Even with an accidental ricochet, I'd still call prompting that bit of strategy a success.#

Jean turned off the flashlight, tucking it back into the kit before closing it up. Now that he was okay the reflexive guilt had started to dissipate and she was able to think a bit more clearly.

# It still concerns me. He was given a goal, failed his goal, and nearly got his brains bashed in because he decided it was a better idea to say 'screw it' and take his chances in rushing the enemy when he knew he'd been losing before, which got him in the situation in the first place. I try to get him to think about his actions, he ignores me for the most part, only taking what he wants from it, not what he needs. I think pushing him too hard was probably a bad idea since he probably gets a lot of the same approach from his father, but I don't know how to guide him. If I'm too soft, he'd probably still not listen and lose respect. I need to rethink my strategy.#

"Come on Slugger," Jean said with a faint smile to Julian as she tried to help him out of the Danger Room.

"It'll make me feel better if we try what's called an ImPACT test that tests to see if you have a concussion and at what severity. I think you do have one given you had a brief period of unconsciousness as well as blurred vision, but its probably mild. I'd like to keep you overnight for observation, though, followed by a check in once a day for the next week as there can be some delay in symptoms."

She glanced back to Haller, the hint of the smile still there. #I can only imagine what Charles felt like when he and Erik were trying to teach me at his age.#

She knew she was a terror.

Jim raised an eyebrow and returned the faint smile. #In that case, I'd say this is less a failure to teach and more karma in action.#

Jean shot him a look before smirking. #Touche.#

She didn't really blame Julian that much. He frustrated her at times but she recognized parts of herself in him: her anger, her rashness. Perhaps she was hard on him because of that.

The lulled periods of silence tipped him off to their psychic conversations, but Julian chose to ignore it- it wasn't the first time he'd been left out. When finally included again, "Yeah, alright. Lead the way, Doctor Grey-Summers."

"I'm sorry again," Jim said to Julian as they started for the door. "We'll try again some other time. I usually only KO teammates once apiece, and hopefully that was it." He thought for a moment, then added, "Before then, you may want to watch the tape with Dr. Grey-Summers. And not only for your performance." He gave the boy a half-smile. "Let's just say we share some problem areas."

Julian cracked a slight smile and nodded as he limped out of the room, "Will do. I'll get you next time, Haller- count on it."