X-Men Mission: Roller Derby Queen

[x-dominion.livejournal.com]

The X-Men regroup before the second match to make final preperations.



“Well, this is fucked.” Kane muttered, with his thumbs tucked into his back pockets. First a lucky victory on the track had kept them in the mix with the competition, but the pressure was ratcheting up, and now Jan was hurt. Not too bad, but she wasn’t in any condition to lash on her skates. Maybe they could use her on the floor? "This is the situation. We found out that there's a high level meeting between the gangs over Kick distribution during the final match. Looks like some of the guys have certain territories bet on the winner. Thanks to Marius, there's some interest in his European 'product'. Enough to earn us an invite to meet with some gangs following the meeting. I'm hoping there will be enough time during the match to get some positive IDs and get the hell out. But now Jan can't skate out there."

Garrison turned to Drake. “Bobby, you need another skater for the competition?”

"Now that they've seen my face, I don't think that the wig is an option." He shrugged his shoulders. To be honest, he was just happy no one had been injured worse than Jan had. Still, he felt bad, and was hoping that the rest of his girls would get out of here without a scratch. And he was going to do the best to make that happen. Yes, even if it meant wearing the wig. "But do we have any other options?"

"Not unless..." Kane trailed off. This was going to get him punched in the face at some point, he was sure. "Callisto? You ever put on a pair of skates?"

"Fuck you," was Callisto's instant response. Then, after a moment's consideration. "No. Leastways, not since I was a kid."

"We're one short of a full team, and despite all the jokes, none of us are going to pass for a lady in order to win this thing." Garrison said levelly. "If we can field a full team, we default and we lose the bet with Arcade."

He paused, and shook his head. "Please? I know this sucks, but I'm out of ideas."

Callisto made a face. "I guess I can probably skate and hit people..."

"Cheers," Marius said with genuine relief. "If you'd not said yes, Option 2 was me tryin' to find a suitable shapeshifter and hoping I could sort out the proper anatomy by the time the match started. Which, though not entirely unappealing, is something I would rather not have to learn whilst on rollerskates."

"Well, with that completely horrible image now burned into my brain, we can move on. Jean, during the meeting, we're going to gather as many shots of the individual players as we can, and then get the hell out of there. It's happening during the final match, so whatever happens, we should be ready to run as soon as possible." Kane said. "Duncan's tactical team isn't going to wait long, and we need to get clear in case this turns into a gun fight. The Bureau can't afford to have us turning up hurt or dead."

"Go, fight, win, get out quickly--got it," Jean said.

"If we somehow get separated and our group has to find an exit ourselves, where's the rendezvous point?"

Big crowds and big calamities usually made things chaotic. The general public often resembled a herd of stampeding cattle in the rush to escape when it came to gunfire. The not quite humorous idea of trying to fumble along in skates toward the door popped into her mind and she began contemplating the quickest way of pulling them off.

"The guys are getting the shots, right? I think we'll be more preoccupied with not dying in the match."

"We are doing not so badly now," Yvette piped up optimistically. "Bobby's plays are giving us the advantage and we are all better with the skating than we were at the start."

Still, Angel made a face. "I'm just grateful we're all generally hard to hurt," she said, stretching to relieve some of the stiffness in her limbs from the previous matches. "That gives us an edge. Sometimes. Thankfully, between Bobby and me, we've got Icy Hot covered."

"Bruises do seem to be par for the course on missions", Kurt pointed out. "Let us hope no one gets any worse injury than has already happened."

"What did I miss? Anything important?" Jan asked as she rejoined the group, making her way to them with an odd combination of mixed limping and flying, using her wings to help her keep weight off her injured ankle. It wasn't the most convenient way to move, but without crutches or anyone to lean on, it was all she could do at the moment to get from one place to another.

"Sit down before you fall down," Tabitha said. "Callisto's skating for you. _I_ think she's perfect." It really was a struggle not to laugh. "We ready to go now?"

"Alright, good luck, ladies." Kane said, and waved the other three X-Men to follow him back out of the locker room.