Miles & Sue, backdated to June 6

[x-otoxic.livejournal.com]

Miles gets some lessons in stealth from the queen of invisibility herself, Sue Storm.


Julian's text to Miles simply said that for today's training session, he'd have a guest tutor who was waiting for him outside near the forest. Given the rapidly warming weather, Miles decided to forego either his standard Generation X uniform and opted instead for basketball shorts, a compression shirt, and his well-used running shoes. And a healthy dose of bug spray, the irony of which he silently acknowledged.

No one was there when he reached the treeline so he checked his phone again, shrugged, and started a game of Puzzles and Dragons while he waited.

Though not a leaf stirred a breeze came, as if from out of nowhere blowing gently against the back of Mile's neck, "You know," a voice piped up from directly behind him, "if you hit that blue one there you'll get a chain reaction that'll get you enough points to get a new high score."

Miles's spider-sense didn't go off, which typically meant that he wasn't in any danger, but he was still startled and half-way to discharging a venom blast when he saw the blonde woman seemingly materialize out of thin air. "Oh come on, that was not necessary," he said when his brain finally caught up.

Sue grinned at the young man as she came around to stand in front of him, "It kinda was," she disagreed, "have to establish my credentials, besides it was too tempting. You should have seen yourself jump," she teased gently.

"I can jump higher. I don't think I've met you. Um, who are you?" He quickly checked his texts again to see if Julian had sent him anything else, then frowned and put it in his pocket when he didn't see anything.

"Sorry, I was going to introduce myself but it was too tempting," Sue admitted with an easy smile as she held out her hand, "I'm Sue, a friend of Julian's. I'm here to help you practice the stealth thing."

That made everything click into place and Miles blushed for having thought this was just some trick instead. "Miles. Um, obviously. You knew that," he said, returning her handshake. "Um, so, stealth thing. You mean like my camo?"

"Mmhmm," Sue nodded, "I've got experience using my powers to stay hidden and your mentors, while awesome, aren't exactly the stealthiest people in the world. So figured you'd like some expert tutelage."

"How can I say no to that?" As if he were ever one to decline an offer for more powers training. "Do you also turn invisible? Or you teleport? I'd guess either because you just appeared out of nowhere there. Although I don't really turn invisible. I just kinda blend. That's why I just call it camouflage and not invisibility," he babbled.

"Julian mentioned that it was an offer you couldn't say no to. and I didn't even have to pull out the horse's head either," she grinned at him. "I don't suppose you have any use for a champion racehorse's severed head do you?" The blonde smiled and raised her hand letting a localised forcefield spring up around it, "I actually turn invisible," she admitted, "but not being seen is the easy part."

Miles blinked. "I don't understand that reference. But . . . oh, sweet! You can make only parts of you be invisible? Can you, like, make your skin invisible so you can see inside yourself?"

"Seriously? The Godfather? You've never seen it? Looks like I got to you just in time," Sue told Miles in disbelief, "After this a movie marathon, think of it as homework...I can set homework right?" She asked with a grin as she dropped the forcefield around her hand. "Well I can turn myself invisible, or someone else, but just the object, trying to mess with someone's skin might hurt a little. And your powers are mainly skin based camo?"

"Oh, that's an old white people movie, isn't it?" That was way outside his scope of interest. Probably right up Warren's, though, he thought wryly. "My power is like some sort of light manipulation but that's kind of all I've figured out. Like." Miles faded from sight, blending into the trees behind him. "Clothes go, too," the disembodied voice said, "so it's more than just skin."

"Old white person movie?" Sue held her hands over her breast as if stricken through the heart, "It looks like I got to you just in time. It's perhaps the best mob movies ever made." She cocked her head and reached out towards Miles. "Interesting, I've yet to find a case of true invisibility, it seems our bodies prefer the ability to manipulate light," she muttered to herself. "Can you manipulate other forms of energy?" she ask curiously.

Times like this, Miles wish he had a flashier power. Sue probably wouldn't appreciate being on the receiving end of a venom blast just for the sake of demonstration. "Sort of, I guess? I can zap people. I can touch someone and in a few seconds, they get shocked. I think it's like a bio-electricity sort of thing."

"How powerful is the shock?" Sue asked gently taking hold of Miles's hand and twisting it around to get a good look at it. "It doesn't look like you have any visible means of transmitting a higher charge, so that probably means a reinforced nervous system to handle the increase in bio-electricity. Have you noticed any increased sensitivity in your hands?"

Miles looked at Sue like she was a New York City vagrant. Not that he had any problem with beautiful women grabbing him, but he didn't like feeling like a science experiment. "Um, sometimes I get really staticky and socks stick to me. But, I mean, I can't tell if my fingers are sensitive than other people's because I can't really compare that, you know?"

"That would be hard," she allowed letting go of his hand and giving him an apologetic smile, "Sorry you didn't really come out here to have me poke and prod at your powers. I tend to let myself get carried away sometimes," she apologized before taking a step back and giving Miles a nod before reaching into the bag at her feet. "Did you ever play touch football at school?"

"My last school before M-Day didn't really do the whole sports thing." Too many nerds to do much more than basic fitness to fulfill state-mandated requirements. "I'd have an unfair advantage, anyway. Why?"

The blonde stood up and waved a small touch football flag in the air like a cheerleader. "I thought we'd play a game of tag, see how stealthy you really are by seeing if you can sneak up on me and lift the flag without my noticing."

Miles knew better than to remark on how simple that sounded. It didn't take a genius to quickly learn that such a judgment here was never correct. "Okay. Out in the field or in the trees?" he asked, indicating the open grass space in front of them and the wooded area behind them.

Sue cocked her head to one side as she considered the question, "I'll stick to the forest," she decided, "some cover and opportunities for you to try to use them to sneak up on me and even the opportunity to come down from above, if you think you can do it without letting me know."

Even though the sun was shining, the dense canopy blocked out the light, which made it easier for Miles to disappear into the trees when he ran into the woods. He considered he options. He was confident that he could sneak up on foot without being spotted, but the tall trees called to him. He climbed up the nearest one and leaped to another, where he waited in silence to see what Sue did next.

Slipping off her jacket the young woman stretched before slipping into the harness and checking the flags were still accessible. With a sly glance up at the treetops, the Blonde set off wandering along the edges of the woods picking flowers as she made her way along the forest floor.

What was she, a Disney princess? Miles was ready for her to break out in song any minute. Was that a deer he spied out the corner of his eye?

He leaped from one tree to the next, slowly tracking her as she played Snow White, when he found an opportunity. He scuttled down the trunk and reached out a hand to pluck the flag from her pocket . . .

With a confident smile, Sue slipped backwards, flipping the half-finished garland of flowers she'd been making in Miles's direction. Although she couldn't see him to accurately judge the distance between them, the chain still ended up draped over Miles's arm and shoulder. "You didn't think it'd be that easy did you?"

"How'd you see me?" Miles asked incredulously, reappearing with both feet on the ground. "No way you saw me. You cheated somehow. You can see invisible things, can't you? That's gotta be it. You got, like, heat vision or something?"

"I wish," came the reply as Sue shook her head, "That would be really useful if I could. It's nothing that complex really. You forgot that invisible isn't exactly teh same as stealthy. I couldn't tell where you were, and you were pretty quiet too," she allowed, "but not silent and there are other noises you can't control. The sound of leaves rustling as you move by them. Even the bugs change their path around you. They're all small things, but someone who's alert can put them together at hte back of their head. They can't see you but they know roughly were you are," that's why she had tossed out a daisy line, she knew part of it would drape over Miles. "Trust me on that, when you come across someone on their toes it's a lesson that can hurt, a lot."

Complete awareness of his surroundings? That was a lot to ask for to just not be terrible at this. An extraordinary challenge but wasn't that his deal? How many games did he play on nightmare mode, after all? This was the same. "Fine, let me try again. I'm not going back until I beat you."