xp_logs | Angel and Marius (Backdated)

Angel and Marius rescue fake people from a fake burning building while discussing Kyle's recent pregnancy scare and upcoming nuptials. Backdated to September 28, 2025.

A condition of Angel returning to the X-Men was, of course, getting caught up on training. Which meant Danger Room runs. At least she got to choose her partners. And the scenarios.

This one was a burning building. They had to evacuate at least five people to pass.

Angel rolled her shoulders - the leathers still fit like a second skin - and looked at Marius, nodding to the burning building. "Shall we?"

"We shall." Outlined in the glow of simulated flames, her once and future teammate sketched a bow. Marius flashed her a grin as he straightened. "So, strategy. You work your way down, I work my way up, we meet in the middle?"

"Let's go!" Angel took off into the air, finding a window on the top floor to fly through. She didn't hear anyone yelling, so she started searching rooms to make sure there were no unconscious people.

"The more things change, eh?" Marius mused as he kicked open a locked door. There was an intense backwash of heat which his borrowed fire-resistance allowed him to ignore entirely. "I recall thinking these simulations were quite impressive when I was starting out. Now search and rescue exercises feel positively quaint."

"I dunno, I'm still pretty impressed by how real it all feels." Angel opened another door and found an unconscious child on the floor. She reached down to rest a hand on the child, and they disappeared in digital sparks. "Ding, one point. I might just be easy to impress, though."

"And that, dear Angelica, is why we get on so well. What is my target demographic if not the easily impressed?" He systematically cleared each room in the small apartment, including closets and cupboards where pets or children might have taken refuge. No one. He moved to the next apartment. "Perhaps I've merely become jaded in my old age. Kyle and I made contact with literal aliens earlier this year, and do you know what I found myself thinking? 'Outstanding, ichor will be a bugger to clean from these uniforms.' Well, that, and the fact I would have an opportunity to inform Terry I was forced to perform an emergency cesarean section on her Intended."

Angel paused for a moment, blinking a few times, absolutely baffled. "It's proof of how weird our lives are that I truly can't tell if you're joking."

"Oh, did he neglect to tell you that tale? Funny, that." Marius' grin managed to transcend a mere comms connection. "On the upshot, I can forever hold it over Kyle that between himself and Terry, he was the first to fall pregnant."

Angel laughed, breaking through her shock and continuing to look. She found another person before she hit the stairs and flew out the window to move down to the next floor. "More importantly, though - was the ichor a bugger to clean from the uniforms?"

"Happily, the alien ship had a rather effective steriliser -- aha, finally." The Australian had found a simulated survivor cowering in a bathroom. He tagged the figure, and the man disappeared.

"See what grand adventures you've missed?" Marius asked, moving towards a bedroom. "I expect you're overcome with envy."

"Absolutely." Angel went into the next floor and found two people, tapping on them to save them. "I can't believe I ever left and missed the chance to both meet aliens and seeing Kyle pregnant. I'll never recover from that."

"No worries, I'm sure the world has any number of as yet unseen horrors to encounter. The opportunity shall arise before you know it. Perhaps you can experience an extraterrestrial pregnancy of your very own." The bedroom yielded yet another survivor: the facsimile of an elderly man collapsed by the side of the bed. A hand on the shoulder, and the target disappeared. Marius straightened. "Two for me, but how many for you, four? As ever, you are half the size yet twice as effective."

"No extraterrestrial pregnancies for me, thanks," Angel said dryly, finding and tagging another survivor. "Five now. But I've got an advantage considering I can fly and you have to leg it."

"Yes, I really should work on that. Never did quite get the feel for it without wings. Three," Marius added as the stairwell yielded an unconscious figure slumped across the landing. "I suppose I could jump from the roof. Typically that will jumpstart me, although there is a chance I will merely end up with a spinal injury. You see my dilemma."

"You'd probably have to tap someone with a healing factor if you did that," Angel agreed with a nod. "And they might all be too busy laughing their asses off at you for hurting yourself in such a dumb way."

"And, once again, all roads lead us back to Kyle. How's your progress?"

"I'm just about done on this floor. No one else that I can see."

She finished scouting the floor and flew out to scan the building. It was six floors of burning inferno. "I'm about to head to the third floor. You?"

"Also on the third. The peak of efficiency, me." Marius swiped a hand across the back of his forehead. The external heat was nothing, but his skin prickled with sweat at the pleasant burn of physical exertion. Breaking down doors wasn't the most complex exercise, but there was something fulfilling about the basics. "Meet you in the middle, then?"

"Right-o." Angel flew into the first window she saw and began looking around. "And since we've circled back to dear Kyle... man he's getting married."

Marius, noting the sound of cracking glass, reoriented himself in the direction of her entrance. "I admit, I've not asked if he intends to retire to matrimonial bliss. Bit afraid of the answer, if I'm honest . . . suppose I just assumed that if he ever settled he'd immediately begin work on the family, the white picket fence, the two point five dogs, et cetera. Most domestic feral I've ever met. All right for some, eh? Clear here," he added.

"I can't see him retiring," Angel said, tapping a crying person to clear them. "I could be wrong, but I can't see him taking a backseat when there's still a fight going on. You know?"

"I do. But then, I took Clarice to be a lifer, too." The last row of doors. Marius found one person more, collapsed against the partially-ajar door of their apartment, and that seemed to be that. "Ah, well. Cross that bridge when we come to it, and other similarly reassuring platitudes. We've the wedding to get through yet, after all. Any stragglers on your end?"

"Nope! I think we're good." Angel re-checked the last couple doors on her end just to be absolutely sure. "Go team! Also, wedding. Man, Kyle in a suit."

"Ah, the suit is nothing. Now, tolerating dress shoes? That is an event . . ."

The Danger Room chimed, signaling the completion of the exercise, and the simulated environs resettled into the familiar blankness of the facility on standby. Marius swept the damp hair from his eyes and spun to face Angel.

"Not that anyone would be so foolish as to give me the responsibility of formal assessor," he said, "but to me that seemed a more than sufficient performance. Well done for keeping yourself in fighting form."

Angel stooped into a low, show-offy bow. "Super-heroing wasn't nearly as prevalent in Seattle, but it happened sometimes. Now for the fun part - lunch?"

"Lunch. Lady's choice -- my treat." Once again, Marius shot her a quick grin. "Risky as that may be to offer an energy projector. First one to make the chef cry a winner?"

"You're on," Angel said. "Let me get my phone and look up all you can eat buffets."