Johnny And Scott, Monday morning

[x-dangersense.livejournal.com]

So, you want to be an X-Man?



Johnny sat down, hard, the moment the danger room simulation ended. "That was a really good one, Mr Summers," he said between gasps. Every muscle in his body ached and he was exhausted. "Can we, like, do another one?"

Scott looked at Johnny in surprise. "You want to go again?" he asked not quite believing what he was hearing. Nobody ever wanted to go through one of his training scenarios a second time, he wasn't sure if he was slipping or if Johnny was very dedicated but he liked the kid. "Give yourself a chance to recover first," the older man advised as he walked over to the nearby cooler and pulling out two bottle of water, once of which he tossed over to Johnny, "If you still wanna go in 5 minutes I'd be happy to."

"My powers, remember?" Johnny said with a slightly mad grin. "I recover faster. But, okay, if we need to wait five minutes..." He took the water gratefully and gulped down half the bottle. "If we need to wait, then I want to talk to you about joining the X-Men."

This was obviously Scott's day to be surprise, "You do, do you?" he temporized as he sat down and took a sip from his water. "Can I ask why?"

Johnny took a moment to organise his thoughts. "You know how my powers are all ... broken? Well, the only time they're not going off all over the place is when I'm doing this kind of stuff, so let's make it official, eh?" Also, you guys saved me that one time. I want to make it up.

Scott absorbed Johnny's speech silently, "And you know what it entails right?" he queried, "I'd be happy to have you join, but I don't want you coming into this with rose tinted glasses. You've got a lot of hard work, and training scenarios that make these look like a walk in the park." At least he hoped they did, Scott was seriously starting to worry that maybe he was loosing his touch recently.

"What kind of hard work?" Johnny asked. Hell, he could do this but more information never hurt, right?

"Aside from training, with more training on the side and perhaps a sprinkle of training to garnish it?" Scott replied with a small smile, "You'll have to study procedures, equipment manuals and profiles of 'bad guys'. It's basically like going back to school all over again."

"The training sounds kind of fun, actually, in a sort of terrifying way," Johnny said. "But I don't know how well I'll go with the rest of it, you know? I was never that good at school."

"We can help talk things through it with you, but in the end you need to know how the equipment works. And understanding some of the enemies we'll come up against is always going to give you an upper hand," Scott pointed out. "But there is always paperwork, reports on past missions, or new intelligence that's been uncovered. It can all save your life one day, or you know make someone else's life miserable."

The thing anyone who dealt with Johnny for more than a few minutes noticed was that he was always moving. He fidgeted constantly. He stopped, going completely still and looked at Scott. "I can do that kind of work", he said all seriousness. "So, I need to know how all our stuff works? I can do that. Just don't expect me to do nothing but sit there and study. And I can handle learning about your old missions. I can see how that would be useful."

Johnny's sudden stillness surprised Scoot and the X-man checked his pace as he gave Johnny a curious look, "As long as you know the material that's all that's important. Everyone has their own ways to study and learn, that applies up there," he nodded up towards the mansion, "and down here. Exactly the same."

Johnny nodded. "Yeah. I can do that. When do I start?"

"Well I'll need to talk to the Professor," Scott explained, "But I don't see him raising any objections. So early next week I'd say." The older man grinned at Johnny, "And then you get to go through the ritual of having your trainee name chosen."

Johnny grinned. "Awesome!"